Good evening.

I'm gonna call the Brattleboro Select Board meeting for Tuesday, October 6.

Oh, it's Thursday, October 16th, 2025, to order.

We had an executive session at 5 o'clock.

And no decisions were made.

And we're beginning our regular meeting.

And I believe at 5 o'clock, Oscar probably asked John if the meeting was properly warned.

And John said The meeting was properly warned.

Great.

And does anyone know of any adjustments that are needed to the agenda?

All right.

So first order of business is to approve the minutes from September 24th and October 1st.

Do I have a motion?

Yes, Isaac.

I'd like to move that we approve the minutes from September 24th and October 1st of 2025.

Great.

Isaac has made a motion to approve the minutes from October September 24th and October 1st.

All select board members who agree, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

And there we are, 5-0.

Thank you very much.

I don't have any significant remarks to make other than the fact that it gets dark early now, and every year I remind people that if you're walking your dog in the dark with your black jacket on, you can't be seen.

John, do you have any comments?

You'd like to write?

Yeah, I have a few.

So let's see.

Um first of all, I wanted to remind everyone that there will be no town leaf collection this fall due to budget cuts.

But communications coordinator Seth Thomas has been working with staff to put together a brief video with options for dealing with your leaves this year.

And that will be going out soon.

We're going to hear later on in this meeting from the Human Services Committee, but I wanted to just remind everyone that applications for the FY26 human services funding can be found on the town's website, Brattleboro.gov.

All applications are due on Wednesday, October 22nd by 5 p.m.

and should not include protected files that cannot be merged into a packet for the committee members.

Interested applicants can send their applications to Jessica Stickler at J Stickler at Brattleboro.gov or they can be bring people can bring them in uh right to the town manager's office here at 230 Main Street and please email Jessica if you have any questions.

And then finally, I think there was a question at your last meeting about the Amtrak project, and town staff attended the uh Amtrak's train station project management meeting last week and inquired about the schedule and we learned that the surplus soils down there will be removed by late October or early November.

We learned that the parking lot will be available for public parking again by late December as as they finish up some final site work, do the paving and striping.

And then the overall project is still expected to be completed by the end of February.

That's all I have.

Great, John, thank you very much.

Are there select board members who have yes?

Oscar, why don't you begin?

Thank you.

Hi everyone.

I just wanted to give a brief update on the bridges situation.

We had a meeting in person for the second time with New Hampshire Department of Transportation and Hinsdale probably yesterday, if I had to guess.

And if anyone would like more info on details, please reach out.

I'm happy to discuss it any time.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Sure.

Yes.

Um I want to express gratitude for the smooth payment pavement on Western Avenue from Exit 2 downtown.

Um an amazing collaboration between VTrans, our very own Brattleboro Department of Public Works, our planning department, John Potter.

It's looking really good, and all the subcontractors that assisted with a variety of tasks.

Sidewalks, extra, I mean, manual, everything.

It's looking really good, and I think we should.

That bike lane is phenomenal.

The parking is very clear.

And uh it's just great.

Um I also want to thank Chill Stall Tyler and the community house for donating the mums if anyone uses exit two on a regular basis, the purple and white mums we planted together a couple weeks ago.

Um I also wanted to take this moment just to say uh um appreciation for Bratleboro Police Department, and also just remind the public that you can call the Brattleboro Police Department, you can call the TIP line, you can call dispatch.

If you feel if you see something, say something.

We are a community that is working together to get drugs off our streets to keep our children safe and um and just maintain a community where we all feel safe.

So that tip line is 802-251-811 or 8188 and dispatches 802-257-7946.

Thank you.

Thanks, Amanda.

How about this side?

Gentlemen, all right, great.

Let us proceed with the public participation.

Uh this is anyone who has a comment that they would like to make that is not part of tonight's agenda.

So anyone who would like to, I see a hand chat right up.

Hi, Elisa Arroyo, RTM.

Um I wanted to go along with Amanda's comments, and I realized that last time I addressed um the select board, I was hyper focused on that green street turn.

Um, and I failed to thank the workers, the crew, everybody involved in that this massive project.

The roads look great, everything is um bright, and I I was just totally spaced in.

I just want to thank all parties involved.

The crews are phenomenal, they're super nice.

I wade to them, I see the same people all the time, and just thank you for everything, and I really want to thank the crew.

Thanks, Let.

Anyone online?

Yes, Star.

Hi, Star Latronica, library director from the Berks Memorial Library right next door.

And I just want to remind everybody that the Brattleboro Literary Festival, the 24th year of this amazing gift to the community, starts tomorrow night at uh 7 o'clock at 118 Elliott, and we'll carry on all day, Saturday and Sunday.

And we have over 44 authors coming.

It's completely free.

There is something for everyone here.

So I do have programs that I'll leave outside if you want to start planning your days right now.

But I hope to see you at some of the events.

Thank you, Star.

Uh Dick, did you have your hand up?

Uh thank you.

Dick De Gray.

Uh John, I the last time we met, I can't remember when that was, it was so long ago.

You gave us good news about the light synchronization uh from VTrans.

My next question is how are we doing with the railroad for the piece of property that we need an easement for to put that sidewalk in that we've been talking about for seven months and the status on that.

The other issue that uh I have noticed with this nice line striping on Canal Street by the co-op.

Uh when you are heading south and the upper crosswalk by the the co-op, they finally got the lines striped where there's supposed to be no parking.

And there are vehicles parking there.

And when there are vehicles there, you have to slide over the yellow lines, and you're heading towards the traffic that's heading north.

And I think it's a very dangerous situation.

I would hope that the police are uh paroving that area and ticketing cars that are parked in that spot because it's very dangerous.

I actually talked to public works about it, and uh I suggested that they make sure that they print no parking where they just have those white lines.

But today when I was driving down Canal Street, whoever provides a uh cleaning service for the co-op had their big rig there, and you have tractor trailers coming up, and they really have to swing over into the other lane.

And I think it's a really big safety hazard.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Do you want me to address?

If you would like to, yeah.

Um, so uh Dick had a question on the railroad easement.

My understanding is that we do we have made contact with the right people at the railroad now and have exchanged uh drawings basically, and they are currently reviewing them to see if they would grant an easement over their property to the town.

So the traffic lines, we will um certainly take a look at that and uh see if there's something that could be improved on that uh that marking there.

You're welcome.

All right.

That was noisy.

Um, John, would you like to give a is there anyone else from the public who would like to speak at this time?

Okay.

John, would you give us a thumbnail sketch of the consent agenda items?

Sure.

Uh yes, there's uh seven items on your consent agenda tonight, board.

If you approve this agenda, you'll be approving a 48,300 change order for the William Street retaining wall project to set the anchor rods deeper in the bedrock.

You'll be committing up to twelve thousand dollars from the Global Warming Solutions Fund to be used for solar street lighting on Elliott Street.

You'll be approving a parade permit for the annual horribles parade up Main Street on Halloween.

You will be ratifying the low bid for FY26 fuel oil from discount oil and keen for 2.495 per gallon.

You'll be approving a parade and open air permit for the No Kings Day event on Saturday, October 18th in downtown Brattleboro.

You'll be renewing a third-class liquor license for Echo Restaurant and Lounge at 69 Main Street, and you will be renewing a first and second class liquor license for Hools Wine at 972 Putney Road.

Great.

So uh is there anyone who would like to on the select board who needs to pull an item from the consent agenda?

I'm good.

All right.

Um I will accept a motion to accept the I'll motion that we accept the consent agenda as presented.

Great.

All select board members in favor of approving the consent agenda as amended.

Please raise your hand.

I 5-0.

Thank you very much.

Okay, regular business.

Oh, the first one is a very delightful topic.

John, do you want to uh is there anything you want to say to introduce uh sure um we have uh uh uh your first item is the Brattleboro Festival of Miniatures, and I would invite uh Melanie Kahn and Kate Traskes to come up to the table here and tell us a little bit about your event nothing happens in this town without Eric Skags in the middle of the table.

I've heard that here here.

True that's well.

Um thank you for coming, and I can't wait to hear this presentation.

Melanie, do you want to begin?

Sure, I'll start.

Um so I'm Melanie Kahn.

For those of you who um I'm making your first acquaintance, I spell it with a Y.

For the people at home.

People at home.

Uh I am a uh Brattleboro uh resident since 1968 when my parents bought a farm in West Brattleboro, which I still to this day own.

Um, and we've been deeply involved in this community for many, many decades.

Um I am also um randomly um, in addition to being a motion forager, a miniature enthusiast.

And uh came up with a rather hair-brained, but it turns out popular idea of having a miniature festival in our town at Christmas.

And one might ask why would we bother to do such a thing?

Um at the core of it is that it is an economic development program for Brattleboro.

So destination Brattleboro, all of the stores, all of the storefronts, all of the nonprofits, galleries, restaurants, schools, are going to be involved in presenting the main street, our wonderful, beautiful main street, which has the most magnificent windows in any town in Vermont with small and tiny scenes of their choosing, and it's all being sponsored and supported and presented by the downtown Brattleboro Alliance.

And it's all being sponsored and supported and presented by the downtown Brattleboro Alliance.

So I'm going to pass it over to them and then wrap up with a little bit about what you might expect come December and why we're presenting this to the select board.

Sure.

So downtown Brattleboro, the DBA, we have had a long-standing working with the holiday decorations and the lights downtown.

Last year we did a holiday pop-up market in the SAM space.

And so Melanie approached us with this idea, and we thought, how brilliant.

Let's add this to kind of the repertoire.

We've been doing a holiday window contest the last couple of years.

The stores have participated and they get a prize.

And so this really ups that tradition.

It's really going to, we think enhance our visitors' experience.

And it also provides something novel and unique and all and nostalgic, I think, for a lot of folks to think about, you know, coming and peering into the windows and that being an invitation for folks to come inside and see the stores.

So as Melanie was saying, our businesses have overwhelmingly jumped on the mini train and are being very creative in how they're interpreting this concept and really making it true and authentic to their unique stores.

So that's just a teaser.

You're gonna have to come down and see it.

But we I I you know we really want to thank Melanie for um for gifting us this idea.

And I am, you know, Vermont Tourism is very excited about it.

Vermont magazine just spent uh a whole day with Melanie at the farm.

Um we are underwriting on VPR, so I think there's a lot of positive press also and far-reaching that will attract visitors to the region and to downtown.

All I really have to add is that really at the core of most of what DBA does is um inviting people to come downtown and fall in love with it.

And I think that this initiative, while it's certainly an economic development initiative, I think it's also really about inviting people down to the space to feel connected and to feel welcomed and nostalgic, like Kate said.

Um that's the part I'm most excited about is locals and visitors and all of the merchants.

Everybody is so thrilled and excited to see how this plays out.

And I'm gonna wrap up because I know we have a little sliver of this meeting, and you have much more boring things to discuss.

Um but the um if I was gonna ask you how many merchants and nonprofits and restaurants you thought signed up to be involved in this, throw some numbers out.

How many do you think storefronts are involved?

Oh, it's okay, you can participate.

Fifteen.

How many seven?

Thirty?

Come on, guys, you don't trust your downtown.

We went through a list today.

We have over a hundred.

Wow.

Wow.

We went through the list today.

We have 100 participating nonprofits, restaurants, bars, uh, galleries, merchants, everybody has signed on to this project.

Libraries, that's a nonprofit, libraries.

And not only with their windows, but also with events.

So every single weekend of the walk, we have events.

We have Sand Glass Theater, we have the museum putting on, of course, a Madhat or Tea Party with model trains in the train station.

We have all 12 schools in the district working on their dollhouses that were delivered to them this week so that they can create spirit houses and then come back and show them off in the Boys and Girls Club and Chesterfield, because I live in Chesterfield and Aaron's kids go to school.

So we are so beyond excited to see the enthusiasm for this project.

Um we hope that well, we already got a lot of buy-in regarding parking, which we super appreciate.

Um I do want to do a shout out to Matt Moran's window at Boomerang.

He um he's been like my we're not gonna get there, you're not gonna get there.

Oh, you're getting there, oh no, I'm gonna be the one that has to stand up and say I was wrong.

So um his uh his display is going to have a whole miniature boomerang with a window inside where you can see the window up above, and all of his cars in front that he's doing all have little orange yellow parking tickets on them.

But if you want to sneak peek, um one of the windows in the Sam space has a sprinkling of um ideas around what businesses are doing and some pieces that we have already placed around.

I should mention we were at the welcome center in Guildford for a full month as well.

So the buzz is out there.

We welcome all of you to come and participate, and uh we're excited.

Any questions before we jump off?

I think we'll start with with the board, and and again, we all want to thank you.

This is a gift you're giving to the town of Brattleboro.

We all appreciate it very much.

Uh I must say it's very much occupied my household.

Yeah, I'm sorry about that.

Mary, her daughter built every single spirit house at Hatch Space.

I think I well, no, it's wonderful.

And someone at the Hatch Space said um these are the miniature doll houses that are going to all the schools.

And someone said to her to my daughter, you know, people might these kids might not remember what they learned in school this year, but they're gonna remember that they got to you know decorate the interiors and extra of this doll house, and that's gonna stick with them.

And and that's that's your gift, Mellin.

I appreciate that very much.

Thank you.

I really wanted to involve school kids, as you know, um miniatures mean a lot to children, right?

And one of the the I'm gonna just end on this because I know we're out of time, but one of the unless there's more questions, one of the houses that I'm putting up in the Sam's window, which is gonna be absolutely beautiful.

It's gonna have a running train that Chad Farnum did, and uh Liz Richards is putting up her carrolers, and next to Liz Richards Carrollers is gonna be Annie Richards courtroom.

And we lost Annie last year.

And Annie used miniatures to teach children how to navigate the court system in Brattleboro.

So we're gonna do an homage to Annie next to her mom's carrolers in the Sam's window, and it's gonna have the Lego museum and the trains in the train station and the courtroom and the Carolers from the Richards, and it's gonna tell the story of Brattleboro and what we're about.

So it's very meaningful.

There's a really wonderful project, and and I hope that you all will tell your friends to come see.

We can be both and we can be creative, we can be artistic, we can be whimsical, we can be family friendly, and we can also have struggles and challenges, and we can be both things, and we can lean into both just as heavily.

One side doesn't have to outweigh the other.

We're all those things.

That's great.

Other comments.

Thank you.

Oh, sorry.

Go ahead, Peter.

Um, I I can tell you that uh when the idea was first presented to me, um, I immediately went way back in my childhood, growing up a city rat in the boroughs of New York, and every year uh doing the sojourn to 59th Street, which if you're not familiar with New York is where Bloomingdale's is, and they used to do this amazing, and it felt like it when I was four and five, like this magical thing that they would just completely dedicate their windows to that sort of spirit.

Um and the thousands and throngs of people that would show up.

So this is sort of the spirit that got me excited about this.

And I think we're you're really on to something here, and I thank you for for bringing it to us.

By the way, Peter's not doing his own window, it's getting done for him.

He's getting a full ski slope in his window, courtesy of the DBA, and it's I talked to the maker today, it's amazing.

He's gonna have a beautiful window, but he's not lifting a finger.

Nothing.

Well, except that he said yes.

Amanda, you were about to say something.

I just said thank you.

It's great.

Thank you for inviting me, Amanda.

Amanda encouraged us to come and share with the board what we're doing, because sometimes the news in here isn't always great.

And so if we can raise our level of everything from visitors to hotel visits to restaurants, we're gonna have a lot of volunteer greeters on the streets talking to folks.

We're gonna have data collection, uh, we're gonna have a mini museum pop up at the latches theater.

There's gonna be so much going on, you're not gonna be able to miss it.

But if you want to get involved, just jump on the DBA website.

There's lots of ways to become involved as a volunteer or in any other way.

Somebody might draw you in to make a mini if you're not careful.

Great.

I do have some records, and I'll I'll leave them with you guys just to a handful up here if anybody wants to learn that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming.

And uh we'll have a happy holiday.

Yeah.

All right.

Uh what's next?

I got two new papers here.

Human services.

Human services.

Thank you very much.

David, you want to join us at the table?

All right.

Uh the next item is.

John, you want to introduce it?

Sure.

Um we take it.

We have uh we have uh representatives from the human services committee uh here tonight to update the board on the work that they've been doing.

Great.

Okay.

So we have David Minor.

And is it uh in Star Sarah Turbo?

Sarah Turbo.

Great.

Um welcome, and um please tell us what you want to tell us.

So this is um we were beginning the process uh for the coming year.

We started uh actually uh a couple months ago uh in taking an opportunity to review uh our documentation, make changes, and so forth.

We have a uh a great committee.

Um I appreciate the opportunity to work to work with each of them.

Umysar Arroyo, Robin Morgan, Tara O'Brien, Tom Oxholm, Avery Thompson, Zach Wiggum, Sarah Turbo.

Um, you know, I think that that uh in the few meetings that we've had, uh it's a great mixture of folks.

Um and people have uh we'll speak up and we have a uh you know a positive outlook as to and what we're looking to uh to accomplish.

Great.

So um again, I'm Sarah Turbo.

I'm the vice chair of this committee, and actually our whole committee is actually here in this room, um, which is pretty awesome, actually, um, and really demonstrates the enthusiasm I think we all have for the great services that we're able to provide through this funding for the town.

Whoever was, I don't know the names of the folks were just presenting, but there was this nice like we can have joy and we can also provide for people and lean in for the difficult moments, and I really think that the human services budget and the human services committee is sort of an expansion on that theme.

Um so I'm actually I'm excited to talk about the last two years of funding, and then I'll turn to David to speak about this coming year's process.

So next slide, please.

Whoop, boop, okay.

Um so the last two years, the numbers for the last two years are up here on this slide.

Um I just I want to note a couple of things.

So the first thing is that the last two years, uh two percent of the overall budget, the overall town budget has been um approved by RTM for this funding, and that number has gone up as the budget has gone up, obviously.

Um the second the second uh thing is that um to note that in fiscal year 25, we got far lower than the amount that was the amount that was um allocated by RTM, the requests were far lower than that.

Last year, the requests were far higher than that.

And so that was a really interesting change to notice how many more organizations were requesting uh more funds from the committee and from the town.

The third thing is that in fiscal year 25, we took a look at the amount that was requested and the amount that was approved by RTM, and we made some really frugal and thoughtful decisions about making sure that our money was being spent well, and we actually didn't propose that we spend all of the funds that RTM had allocated to us.

So as you can see, that amount was 367,810 to 38 organizations.

And that was really due to the rigor of our process, what we're which we're gonna talk a little bit more about.

We really thought about actually we don't just look at the organizations and say, ah, this person's this organization's looking for this much money.

Okay, great.

And we have enough funds to give to everybody, and so we're just gonna give everybody what what they're asking for.

We really think about you know, do we actually think that this is this funding to this organization is warranted?

This past year, because there was such a large amount that was requested to really worthy causes and really were the organizations and really were the efforts in the town, we did uh present to RTM and it was approved to spend the full amount that RTM had proposed uh that year, or to prove that year.

Um last year we only have the numbers on this from last year specifically.

What that actually went down came down to was about $69 for the median household here in the town in terms of what taxpayers are paying towards this amount of money that's going to all of these 42 organizations that we were able to fund last year.

And the return on that is really pretty amazing.

We tallied up the number of users of all of the different services that we are funding.

And it was 25,000 um number, 25,000 service users, which is twice the number of people in Brattleboro, which means that on average, two people, uh sorry, two each resident was using two services that we were funding.

So we're really proud, we're really, really proud of this um of this funding and how it's being how it's serving the community.

Next slide, please.

So last year we did a bit of a breakdown into the sectors that our money, the money was going towards.

The largest chunk, 51%, was addressing some of the major issues that I think we all agree are facing the town.

So substance use, mental and physical health challenges, housing, victim support, and safety services.

19 percent was going to food access, and I'll remind everybody that last year there was a huge increase in the cost of living and a huge increase in the cost of food, and so that that number was really significant, and then 30 percent to youth, elder and disabled services.

And the just a smattering of the services that this funding was able to help these organizations provide.

Um it really gets down to the nitty-gritty of what do people need to be using every single day.

So dental care for the uninsured, space for 12-step meetings, overnight shelter, meal delivery for homeboys, tons and tons and tons of food to our um food pantries that had an enormous increase in demand in the last year, and we expect that to increase.

Um and again, I think as a town, we should be incredibly proud that we help provide these services to the people who live here.

Um I think they're really meaningful, and they really provide together a social safety net for the town.

Um this coming year, and we'll turn to David uh to talk about the process that we undergo, which is lengthy and rigorous.

Um, you know, we're we're we're expecting the need to increase.

Um and the reason for that is both because of the increased cost of living, it's also because of the current federal situation.

We know a lot of organizations have lost funding or lost possible funding.

Um even last year, the Putney food shelf, for example, um, had a doubling of the use by Brattleboro residents specifically.

So they had a double the amount of the year prior using the Putney food shelf.

Which is pretty incredible.

Um and so we're we're going into this year recognizing that we think there's tremendous need in the community, and we're excited to think about how to best meet that need.

So I'll turn it to you, David.

Okay.

Thank you.

So looking at the uh process and procedures.

Um as I said at the outset, we've uh we we met uh we've met a couple times in order to uh uh get everyone uh taking a look at the application and the process and so forth as to what we want to do, uh make some changes as necessary.

Um our first formal uh program was the question and answer session, which we had um last week, I believe.

Um we had um 17 representatives representing 20 different organizations come.

And that is the largest that uh participation that I can recall coming to coming to uh to one of our QA programs.

What we talked about was um as John pointed out at the outset.

We talked about the importance of making sure that they come in on a timely basis.

What will happen is while the applications will come in.

So that we are then able to access, we the committee are able then to access them.

We'll create a list of the application applicants and the amount of requests that they're made and provide that list to each of the eight committee members.

Each member will then take a look and recuse themselves or identify organizations that they are somewhat they're either affiliated with receive pay pay from.

They have family members who are associated with it and so forth.

And they will not having identified those organizations, they will not participate in the in the in the final decision regarding those organizations.

We'll then assign the applications to each member, giving them up so that they are handled separately.

And then we spend the next four or five weeks, three hours or more a week, reviewing each application.

The committee members will present an application, talk about it, talk about what they do, how they do it, the services they provide, their financials, because we want to make sure about financial strength and so forth.

We are making no decisions at that point in time.

We are not talking about the merits of the organization.

All we're talking about is what is presented.

We then get through all of that, and then what we do is we meet, uh we go into deliberative session, or actually, I'm sorry.

Each member then goes through, we have a rubric uh score system, and each member goes through and then scores each application.

Um the totals then are sent to me and uh put the totals out for each organization.

Now, with eight people, uh there'll be organizations where there may be one or two people have recuse themselves from making any decisions.

And so what we'll then do is take each organization and divide their total score by the number of committee members who are voting on them.

So if there are two recusals, uh those the gross will be divided by six.

If there's one recusal, the vote will be divided by seven.

We then take the average and list all the average so that we're then able to see the uh weighted score for each organization.

At that point, we then go into deliberative session.

At the deliberative session, anybody who is recused will be excused from the meeting as we go through and discuss those individual uh applications.

And at that point we begin to make the decision as to how the scores look.

Once we get through all that, we then will make the decisions about allocating the funds.

Now, as Sarah pointed out a couple of years ago, um we had fewer applications or fewer amount requested than grant requested than than what had been allocated.

Um we did though is we went through each one, we weighed them, uh, we weighed the merits, uh we turned down some.

What we did is and we did not grant full applic full request uh to everybody.

This last one, where we had $770,000 requested, almost 300,000 more than what was allocated, uh we had to make some some serious decisions.

And so we went through and and you know, application by application, weighted and and made uh made some decisions and we came up with our list.

We sent out then notifications to the organizations that we had denied and uh provided them an opportunity if they wished to come and meet before the committee and you know talk about what they were, you know, what they provided, who they were and so forth.

Uh we listed listened to uh those that did come back.

We listened, listened to those that did come back we went back into another deliberate session and in some cases we did grant uh grant some money and so we had then to make an adjustment once we got through all that we then provided the uh the list to be published by the town one change that will take place this year is that we will post on the human services uh page on the town uh website um what the score what average score was for each application um we will not put up the individual uh member scores uh but you'll see you'll see the average score of uh uh of the total total application and then we spend the next um couple few weeks putting together all the work and documentation necessary to give to the town to be able to uh to publish it uh it takes uh 40 hours or so 50 hours or so between um you know the last you know middle middle of October you know through the end of December to uh to get everything completed uh and hence the importance of getting your applications in on time uh you know we have to hit the ground running and once again I thank all the members of the committee because there is a lot of work to be done a lot of consideration to be done um and you know we treat this uh with enthusiasm and uh and we recognize the importance of uh of what we're doing so thank you well David Sarah and all the committee members thank you very much um I'm I'm sure we have a lot of questions but before we begin I I just again want to thank you not only for the uh the work that you do but the the time you put into it um what do we want to start?

Isaac do you have comments or questions?

Just want to express my gratitude for all of your time and energy and the rigor of the process that you have to evaluate these applications and help support these important initiatives in our community.

Thanks Isaac Peter anyone else do you have any comments?

I do but I didn't know if somebody else did go right ahead.

Okay.

Thank you for your explanation of your process um I am wondering does the general public have access to see the applications prior to your approval in terms is that is that something that is part of the process the applications aren't aren't posted that um what we do is that is that our meetings of where we discuss the applications are open to the public and and certainly they are they are welcome to welcome to come.

I think one thing that we probably need to do this year is is we will try to uh post the applications that we will be reviewing so that so that you know you can you can you can see the app you can see the list of the organizations of the organizations that that were going be going through that day.

And we do have a a three hour time limit uh more than three hours we our heads begin to hit the table.

So you know if we if we don't get to a particular organization we'll pick we'll pick it up uh the following week but um uh you know we'll we'll put that out there for everybody to see so just uh so the applications are not the general public is not eligible to see the applications but they are eligible to see the list of organizations applying prior to and what we'll do is that we will um you know have the application available in and to be reviewed as as we are discussing it.

Gotcha.

Awesome thank you.

I have a couple other questions right ahead.

Are there any caps for what a dollar amount can be requested through through the process?

We have uh not established any caps.

It means certainly uh we had to uh put some in force uh last year um and uh we have asked the organizations I think we may made the point uh at the Q ⁇ A session you know particularly last year uh you know with the the total amount of the request there was no way possibly to meet you know the needs that were defined and so you know we certainly asked the and would ask the the organizations respect uh not only their needs but the needs of of the other organizations in town um and and as they're making the request um thank you um one other thought is in your evaluation process have you considered prioritizing projects based on need if our town has a budget shortfall and we have to adjust the amount of money that we are able to contribute I I think in in across the board um you know I think we're looking at the and you know the need of the organization and the need of the community.

Um one other thought is in your evaluation process have you considered prioritizing projects based on need if our town has a budget shortfall and we have to adjust the amount of money that we are able to contribute I I think in in across the board um you know I think we're looking at the and you know the need of the organization and the need of the community.

I think you know we've identified I think in the in in the uh pie chart, you know, identifying the percentage of um you know where our dollars were going.

I think uh, you know, is is a you know fairly meets the needs, the needs of the community.

Um I think that I mean I think that we try to certainly be aware of of you know of what of what's happening.

And not only, you know, from our budget uh shortfall, but I think as Sarah pointed out, I think we're expecting that's part of part of the application process too, is where are they finding um short shortfalls in in money that they've received in the past, you know, because of pressures what's happening with the federal government, the state government, and so forth.

I mean, you know, it's it's uh uh you know that is something we've asked for and certainly will analyze.

The other thing I'll say is that we do we I mean I think I would say that our entire process is about what do we think that there's these needs exist in the community and do we think that these services meet those needs.

I think that that's the the question that we're pretty much considering.

And we also think about the um the bang for the buck that we're getting, right?

So one of the things that we do do is we ask for the unique number of Brattleboro residents that are served by that particular organization or by the particular program that's requesting funding.

And we actually in this this past year, we oftentimes um divided the amount that was being requested by the number of people who they're serving to kind of get a sense of whether or not the per person cost felt reasonable and a good bang for the buck.

And so we do really take into consideration not just what is the need, but do we think that this funding is actually going to go a long way in serving as many people as possible, if that makes sense.

It does, yeah.

That's really great.

Yeah.

Can I just add one thing to that?

Yeah.

Do you want to address me?

Want to come to the microphone, Robin?

Robin Morgan, Brattleboro, and I am a member of the committee.

I wasn't sure, Amanda, if your question was talking about prioritizing by the need of the people served or the financial need of the organization.

But I just wanted to add that that also is something that we consider.

So sometimes there's been um orgs that asked for money that we didn't fund because they had they're a part of like a national network, like for instance Red Cross, that you know, is really needed when something happens here that they serve, but they're gonna be fine if they don't get their $3,000 from Brattleboro or whatever.

So that element of like how dire is the financial need from us to give money is also something that we consider.

Great.

And and part of the reason that I actually think this funding is so valuable is because there are a number of organizations in this town for which this amount of funding actually is really essential.

It's not just sort of an an a small percentage of their budget, but actually really really supports the whole organization, right?

And so we think about that as well.

Avery, did you want to add something?

Avery Thompson, I'm also a member of the committee.

And uh as you can see, we all think about this question all the time.

But uh uh one of the things that we've brought up in the past is thinking about need in terms of which issues kind of like prominent, like housing or something like that.

And what we've come to is that we don't actually um adjust there.

Not for me.

Um we don't want to take away from an organization like for example, there's uh services for um blind Brattleboro residents, and that might not be on the radar every year, but the money that they get every year is really important to their budget.

So for them, that's really important.

For you know, single parents, it's really important that we're funding the child care services.

So even if people aren't kind of debating about it, we realize we need to make sure we look at all the services needed.

That's why we don't do that specifically.

All right.

Um other other board members want to speak?

Um you know, maybe just some comments, and and I know that this came up in in town meeting um last year, and I I remember asking the question um precisely I and I think the answer was no, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

I I made the assumption, I think, that all organizations that you award money to are actually functioning 501c3s within the Brattleboro community.

I think last year that wasn't necessarily true.

Correct?

That's correct.

All right.

And then there's a few organizations that spring to mind that that got that got no help from from this from this fund.

One of which was the mover.

All right.

And we saw kind of what is what the impact that may have had on services and the and the micro-mover and things like that.

And I don't know that that little bit of money would have helped, but I just I'm curious as to like why and I an organization that is not a registered 501c3 was awarded money when something like again the mover was not.

So I'll ask David to maybe David, you can respond to the 501c3 question and then I can talk about the mover.

So if you could bring up the application.

So on the application, we are we are asking for in EIN number.

Um we are asking if they have a 990.

We are looking looking for uh nonprofit status.

There are some nonprofits that may be affiliated with an organization.

Um so Peter, we we are we are identifying trying to identify, you know, the nonprofit status and non non nonprofit functionality of of each each organization.

So with regards to the mover, the mover was a pretty special example, actually.

Um when the mover came to us the year prior and asked for funding, um, we were really, really clear that we didn't believe that that transport public transportation was under the guise of human services.

We didn't think that that was actually necessarily an appropriate use of those funds moving forward, but we thought it was such a valuable program that we said we will fund this as a pilot program in the hopes that the town or that the mover finds other funding sources elsewhere from the towns that it's serving, from the state itself, from downtown businesses whose employees make use of that or of that service, things like that.

And we were really, really, really clear.

This is a one-time offer only.

We were clear in our cover letter to the to RTM, to the select board, et cetera.

And then um the mover requested funding anyway.

And so we couldn't say, no what, you know what, you're right.

We're we were we're gonna actually do not do what we said we were gonna do.

So that's that's why we decided to not fund the mover.

Um we you know there's a lot, a lot, a lot of things that fit under human services.

We think public transportation is a different public good that ought to be provided in part by government, but um different budget.

Yeah, and again, I'm I'm I'm not just singling out the mover, it's just the first thing that came out.

There were some faith-based charities, I think that didn't get any funding as well that provide food and and meals uh to people who are food insecure that also didn't get funded.

Yeah.

So I mean I I just use the mover as an example.

But um, so each organization that you're gonna bring up, we will have a good reason for why it is that we didn't fund them, right?

It's not there's no um and I we can go through each one if that's helpful.

Um but again, like we're really thoughtful why this organization, why not this organization?

And the the organizations that have been funded in the past that are not formal nonprofit organizations also provided really vital services, we felt, right?

And a lot of them are fiscally sponsored by other organizations, and so we're adding this additional piece of rigor around financial uh transparency, financial viability to ensure that piece of it.

Um but we want to make sure this is a this is a town that is often served by small and scrappy efforts, and we want to make sure that those small and scrappy efforts, if we think that they're warranting funding based on our analysis of it, should get those funds.

Okay, thank you.

Oscar, do you have comments?

No, I don't think so.

Not right now.

But thank you both.

I would love to follow up with one more comment.

If that's all right.

Um Chairman The reality of our budget situation for the town of Brattleboro is it's difficult.

And we're gonna go into another difficult budgeting situation for our municipality facing the exact same challenges that all of our nonprofits are facing currently.

So I will ask from my seat at the select board table to if we question if we have concerns.

It's not because we mean to do harm.

It's because we share the exact same financial stress.

Don't I wish that the town of Brattleboro could say yes to 100% of everything.

Be exceptionally generous.

But the fact is we can not.

We will try to the best of our ability.

But please do not villainize us for saying, I'm sorry, we can only do this much.

We wish we could do more.

Anyway.

That's that.

I'll just say one thing in response to that, which absolutely I think we're all looking at a pretty dismal uh financial future across the board.

Um, every member of this committee is also a taxpayer in this town, and so we are thoughtful about the tax burden as well, and we know that there's a lot of different considerations that you all are making in terms of the budget as a whole.

Um also my argument has always been that there are services that these organizations provide that in a town of a slightly larger size would be provided by the town itself as a budget item.

And instead, we are we are really, really lucky that we have these nonprofits that are providing these services, and the bang for the buck that we're getting from this amount of money is far and away more cost effective than it would be if these organizations weren't filling those particular needs.

And so thinking about the sort of cost benefit of that is something that I would ask um y'all to consider as well.

Okay.

My turn.

Uh again, thank you for coming and thank you for the work that you do.

I wanted to go back to the statement that you made, David, about um all of the people who are are asking for funding have risk the respect of the process and all and the totality of everyone's ask.

And because I've seen in my time, not just on the select board, but as an RTM member, um this number really jump.

Not it and I'm talking not just the number as a whole, which is approximately half a million dollars, but each individual ask in some cases have really ballooned.

And um I think that it's getting away from the intent of our mission, our human service mission, which was to um indicate municipal support, but not to take on such a large role in an individual uh nonprofits finances.

So we're saying, you know, like there were several big jumps.

Like when I first joined the select board, the the amount was probably a hundred thousand dollars in total, and nobody really asked for or got more than five thousand dollars.

And now it's it moved and some places get twenty thousand dollars and last year somebody asked for a hundred.

So I want to really know I I think you need to have some sort of a threshold to to talk about that with the all the nonprofits, because I I think you know, you use the word respect.

I'm concerned that there's a disparity there, and that respect is being lost.

And the reason that I'm asking is that the select board has a responsibility within the budget process to the taxpayers.

And I just I'm I'm worried that the mission and the original spirit of this program is getting lost unless unless you demand that respect of everyone respecting the process.

Sure.

So what did you think the mission or the original spirit of the program was?

You said it's getting lost.

What what is it?

That we would be demonstrating municipal support for all the various nonprofit services, but not so much as to be a major contributor of their financial picture.

And I think that that spirit has gotten lost.

Would you like to comment on that, David?

Yeah, I I think um I I I certainly appreciate what you're saying.

And I think that that the tenor of what was happening changed last year.

As organizations were encouraged to to apply for whatever they thought they needed.

And $770,000 spoke to that.

I mean I was flabbergasted at at the amount of the request.

Well maybe they could be disencouraged.

Well and and so and we we did um we did talk about that at the at at the QA and and you know you know as we will get through the process and I think that we will as we were reviewing it we really had to actually go through and uh and that was part of the decision process.

You know this this is too much.

And and so uh you know people had to be you know organization requests had had to be had to be cut to uh so we could get get to down to down to the number um so uh you know I think we'll see we'll see what comes through uh and if it repeats itself maybe we as a as a committee um you know will look you know to you know put together a cap.

I know that we've had some discussion about that but you know we'll we'll see how it plays out.

But you know we recognize the importance that we've been allocated up to a certain amount it's not a guaranteed to give out um and uh yeah so we we we take we take that responsibility seriously.

Well thank you David I'm very glad to hear that and you know and I don't know as as Amanda said you know this work is appreciated um but it is part you know our municipal finances are are um being very closely watched by every taxpayer including the five of us and your committee members as well and we're in this together and so um you know municipal services are being looked at very carefully and I think you know your your program needs to be part of that very close scrutiny and so I thank you all again and um let's hear from the public about uh committee members recusing themselves for conflict of interest and not getting to vote on organizations they are affiliated with can you tell me how many of those organizations have been denied funding that a committee member belongs to off the top of my head I I I can't tell you Dick I don't know have any?

Not that I'm aware of no interesting you know and the committee knows that I have a real craw and I'm not here you speak to me Okay thank you.

I would like to speak to the committee but I'll speak to you I have a real craw that an organization has applied for funding and has been I been denied the last two years.

They feed more people in Brattleboro than probably several restaurants in town and the word that is used is precedent and I really get tired and I said this last year so it's not anything new that the committee members haven't heard and I'm not speaking for that organization.

The board does many things and many organizations that when they do it for a first time, it's a precedent.

But doesn't mean the next time another organization comes through that you're going to make the same decision or give funding to.

So it's very frustrating to me as a taxpayer that I see an organization doing such good for the community and surrounding towns that they can't get a dime from the town.

And I'm paying a significant amount in my taxes to go to this, where there might be organizations that are getting money that if I had to fund on an individual basis, I might not write them a check.

And this is a tad amount that's been going on for quite a few years, and people have said it's forced giving.

And I think that there really needs to be a big discussion about that process.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dick.

David, do you wish to comment on on the talk about St.

Bridges?

So excuse me.

I know that the organization that Dick is talking about did speak to uh town council and they uh provided guidance as to uh you know what uh would probably need need to uh to take place.

Um we as a committee also talked with them specifically about um uh what would have to take you know take place uh to in order to uh to be able to uh you know you know meet meet the needs and and I think that uh you know I thought that conversation went well.

Um so uh you know if they've been able to do what we talked about and what we outlined, um I know that they were talking about uh changes in presentation and formatting and accounting and so forth, which they knew that needed to be done, uh then certainly they're welcome to apply again.

Thank you, David.

Are there any more comments from the public?

Great.

Um can I just say one more thing, Elizabeth?

I I just I just to get to the the point, Dick, that you made about um about funding things that we don't wouldn't necessarily personally believe in or make use of.

I don't have any children in this town, and I my tax pay my tax dollars go towards paying for the public schools here, right?

I think that's part of what it means to be a taxpayer in a community is we don't we vote, we get to be a part of the decision-making process, but ultimately our tax dollars go to what those votes make decisions about.

And so RTM has approved this funding.

I hope that it's continued.

Um I understand the frustration that there may be some efforts that people wish they weren't being funded, but I think that that's across the board as being a citizen uh in a public society.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you for this discussion.

I appreciate it, and I appreciate your work.

Thank you for the opportunity.

All right.

John, you want to tell us about that?

Do we have representatives from Sir Sasimo Lumber here?

Yeah.

So I'm John Goodell from SPE Associates and uh Michael Sur Soswell from Sir Sosmo Industries.

Yep.

Gentlemen, welcome.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay.

So John, do you want to introduce the topic?

So we've had a request from uh Sir Sosamo Industries uh to uh have the board reconsider the decision about Bittersweet Lane, which is uh 500 foot uh dead end road uh off of I think it's off uh Meadowbrook.

Sorry, I think.

East Orchard.

East Orchard, South East Orchard.

Um and uh a number of years ago uh that they've done a uh development there uh on this property of I think seven lots or so.

And uh the road has been private as part of that development.

It came before the board in 2016, and the board uh did a site visit and considered whether to turn that into a public road and have the town take over uh maintenance uh of the road.

And at the time the board uh denied that request, but they said why don't you come back when uh more of the development has been built out.

And I think our recent request from uh from Sir Samo Industries is uh letting you know that that the development has been built out now and requesting whether it's time to consider converting it from a private road to a public road.

And I guess I would invite you guys to um expand on that and or if I got anything wrong there, please correct me.

Uh just I guess the one thing that I would add is that it was a 2007 development that had a development agreement with the town that specifically from the very beginning of that project contemplated building the town the road to town specifications and ultimately um that the town would take it over um as a street.

And um the condition 10 of that um development agreement between the developer and uh the town read that the developer shall not submit a petition to the town to accept ownership of the road until such time as there are a minimum of three occupied new homes accessing the road.

So it was very much discussed and part of approvals through.

And now uh all seven lots have been sold, and um there are five houses currently there.

Appreciate that.

That sounds great.

Yeah, so um the the board uh but what uh staff are bringing to you is uh proposal or recommendation if you wanted to consider that uh the possibility of of uh accepting this as a public road.

The process by which you would do that is to uh schedule a site visit and a public hearing, uh notice the neighbors notice uh um the public in general, and uh then do the site visit, hold a public hearing and determine whether the road meets uh the your standard to consider is uh whether the action is in the public good, public convenience, and public necessity.

And so we could do that uh sometime in the next month or so if you wish to to do that, or if if not, you uh you there's no nothing compelling you to do it, but uh I would think at least taking a look at the site and um and holding a public hearing could be a good faith uh measure uh towards this request.

Great.

Um there members of the board who would like to comment?

Yes, Esther?

Having looked this over, I think we should do it.

We should set up a site visit.

Anyone else?

Okay.

Let's um well, let's hear from the public and then we'll we'll take a vote.

Would someone like to make a motion?

Oh Dick is.

Oh.

Just let us make the motion first.

All right.

And then Dick.

So I'll I'll make the motion to adopt the resolution authorizing submission.

Oh, let me read the right one.

Yep.

Okay, I'll go.

I'll do that one now.

Uh spoiler alert on that one.

Apologize.

Um, the glasses are on the top of your head.

Well, these are for seeing far.

Um, I'll make the motion to lay out uh bitter uh suite lane uh from the intersection of East Orchard Street to its terminus as a Class 3 town highway, and to conduct a site visit on that matter on November 18th, 2025, beginning at 4 p.m.

with the public hearing to be conducted afterward uh that evening at the select board meeting room.

Well, that's very specific.

Thank you.

All right.

Did you want to discuss it?

Uh I strongly support this.

I was on the board in 2016 when this came before us.

They did have a development uh agreement and do still have that development agreement.

I believe the discussion was more based on the number of houses that were built.

Uh, but I still felt that uh uh with that development agreement, this should have been adopted by the town.

So I hope that this process goes through, and I hope all five of you uh fulfill the town's part of the bargain uh to adopt us as a town road.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um else in the public wish to speak.

All right.

I'll just have a few comments.

I I what I know from these words is that we're likely to spend about $7,000 a year, but the taxes that are paid are probably four times that.

And that the most important or significant part was that the roads were built to town standards at the time.

And so those are the salient points to me.

I think we should have uh go through with this process.

Um is there anything else you'd like to say before we take a vote?

Michael, no, I think it's uh fairly cut and dry, and it's just time to go look at the road again.

Great.

Okay.

Um can I just ask a couple of clarifying questions here?

I mean um having uh the last time we went on a field trip uh was Detman Drive.

Um I don't think there was uh any uh a um any question as to us taking ownership of that bridge so we could rebuild it and do that.

Um this does seem pretty cut and dry.

Is my motion actually indeed necessary?

Or is this something that we all feel comfortable just pulling the trigger on tonight and being done?

Um I haven't seen this road.

I don't want to vote without having seen it.

Go ahead.

And you do need to hold a public hearing, which has not been noticed, so I I would suggest you just do that.

Well, as I said, then we should just do my motion.

Go ahead, folks.

Okay.

Peter has moved to lay out Bittersweet Lane from the intersection of East Orchard Street to its terminus as a class three town highway, and to conduct a site visit on that matter on November 18th, 2025, beginning at 4 p.m.

with a public hearing to be conducted afterward that evening at the select board meeting room.

All select board members in favor of this motion.

Please raise your hand and say aye.

All right.

And there we are, five zero.

Gentlemen, thank you very much.

I look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Absolutely.

All right.

Uh Wyndham Windsor Housing Trust Scattered Site Grant.

It's always nice to see you, Mr.

Whitney.

Nice to see you, Elizabeth.

Okay.

We will be opening a public hearing to um hear the presentation by Bruce Whitney of the Wyndham Windsor Housing Trust, who is the director of home ownership.

And is there a title to this?

Yes, this is for uh Vermont Community Development Program Scattered Site Grant uh in the amount of $540,000.

And Mr.

Whitney will explain this program and uh the uh benefits of it.

Great.

Mr.

Whitney.

Great, thank you everybody.

Bruce Whitney, director of homeownership with um Wyndham and Windsor Housing Trust.

Thank you so much to the town of Brattleboro for supporting us on this grant request and supporting us since 2013.

Um this is a community development block grant um funding request, uh dollars come down from the federal government to the state.

Um we apply through a municipality.

We've been applying through the town of Brattleboro since 2013 for these funds.

These funds um support our home repair program where we provide um health and safety loan uh loans to income eligible people to prov to make health and safety repairs to their homes.

It supports our housing counseling program where we provide education and counseling to people wanting to buy homes.

Um and it supports both of those um programs throughout the two county area we serve Wyndham and Windsor Counties.

Over the years, around um 25 percent of um of the people we serve um are Brattleboro residents.

So um we are we are off main offices are located in Bratenboro and and we certainly serve um Brattleboro to that extent.

Um this is gonna fund our program for the next calendar year.

Um and then um we go through an enhancement process and it we fund it two more years, and then you'll come you'll I'll come back and we'll close that grant and I'll ask for we'll be back to ask for uh the grant again in in about three years.

Um this this program our our goals for this coming year are to serve 352 households.

27 of those will be um completed home repair projects.

Um and then we'll educate about 325 households and around 30 people buy homes through our program every year.

Um as I said, we started the program in 2000 and we've completed 652 home repair projects over that time, um lending out uh about $7 million, $6.9 million.

We revolve these these um loan funds and lend them out.

Um we do get new capital um every once and again from these grant funds.

We're asking for 123,000 of new capital.

Right now our capital portfolio is um 2.6 million dollars and 250 loans.

So 123,000 is gonna go into that pool.

Um about 375,000 dollars supports the um staff for the home repair program.

Um the special sauce on that program is the um construction oversight we provide.

It's a loan program, and then our repair specialists go out and um look at the home.

Um we have to um uh remediate all health all major health and safety items we find in the home.

People come to us and say my roof is leaking, and we're like, great, okay.

And we go out and we look at the roof, and yep, it's leaking, and you know, there is a GFCI needed there, you know, some safety things here and there, and we develop a scope of work and a budget and then help the homeowners identify contractors, we sign a two-party contract and and make um progress payments as the work is completed.

So it it's it's very much um a lot of oversight is going into it.

Um that is the program.

Wonderful.

Um I just want to say that it's a really valuable service you provide, and you're not only keeping people in their homes, but you're keeping the integrity of the home.

Yeah.

And um I Bratterborough is pleased to be the conduit for your work, and it is such a valuable, not only to 25% of your people live in Vattaboro, but the other 75 as well.

So it's a great program.

And um do my colleagues wish to comment.

I'm just I'll echo what Liz just said.

You know, it's a great conduit for us.

And they I mean any program that helps with our aging infrastructure of our homes in the entire state of Vermont is just so helpful.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

So a couple comments there is the state actually increased the um amount of money going into this program because of because of the aging house stock uh housing stock.

And a big thank you to the staff.

Um you know there's a fair amount of work that goes into this relatively complex program.

John had to uh submit the the um the grant application remotely yesterday and I and so thank you for for doing all that work.

Yes, you're more than welcome, I'm sure.

Uh are there members of the public who wish to comment?

Dick.

With all the background noise, uh how how much of the five hundred and forty thousand goes to Wyndham Housing Staffing?

That I that I hear you say three hundred and something thousand?

Um 375,000 is going to Windham and Windsor staffing for the home repair program.

Um about 50,000 is going to staffing for the counseling program.

So that doesn't really leave a whole lot of money going to the housing repair program.

I think I think that Mr.

Whitney said there would there was substantial amount of money.

Well, that that's funding the staff that runs the program, and then $123,000 is going into the loan capital pool from this $540.

So there's revolving money and then there's new capital, correct?

New capital.

And then there's the staff um licensed lending staff and repair specialists overseeing the repairs and and making sure that um the contractors doing the repairs.

Well, m my my point is we're talking about the 540,000, not any other money.

And so when you tell me that you're taking 300 and something thousand and then another 50,000, that doesn't leave a whole lot of other money that goes into the criteria of what you're trying to provide.

I think it's a great service, don't get me wrong.

But when 65, 70 percent of the money is going for administrative costs.

No, those aren't administrative costs.

18,000 is going to administrative costs.

375 is staffing the staff doing the work.

18,000.

Thank you.

Sorry, yes, 18,000 is is funding the administration.

Sandy Garland paying the checks.

Thank you.

Better clarification.

Yeah.

Okay.

Is there anyone else?

Is there anyone online?

I then are the tenants of our public hearing been administered.

Yes, you could close.

All right.

I hereby close the public hearing.

And I will ask for a motion.

Osper.

I move to adopt the resolution authorizing submission of a grant application for a Vermont community development program VCDP scattered site grant in the amount of $540,000 to support Wyndham and Windsor Housing Trust to deliver a home repair program, counseling advocacy, and first-time home buyer services.

Great.

Oscar has made a motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the submission of the grant application for a Vermont Community Development Program, VCDP scattered site grant in the amount of $540,000 to support Windem and Windsor Housing Trust to deliver a home repair program, counseling advocacy, and first-time home buyer services.

All select board members in favor of this motion, please raise your hand and say aye.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

That was five zero.

I would let's uh take our break now, and then we'll go into the Black Mountain Road discontinuance project.

I'll call the meeting back to order, please.

And welcome Dan and Brian to the table.

Would you like to tell us about the Black Mountain Road discontinuance project?

Sure.

Um we got a transportation alternatives program grant uh to do sculping study to discontinue a portion of Black Mountain Road that has a history of washing out.

Um it will also look at a culvert at the top side of that segment and another one next to Black Mountain Home, Black Mountain Home Park.

Um both of those are undersized.

The one at Black Mountain has caused flooding in the in the park.

Um and the one at the top is undersized, and if it were to fail, it would wipe out access to both Kipling and to Black Mountain Road.

So during very large flood event, you know, we could have another road washout and also lose those two culverts and cause additional flooding to the mobile home parks.

So what we're looking at is narrowing the road so that the floodplain, which has been filled to create the road, will be open again.

There'll be enough room to convey floodwaters.

Um the road that would remain would be on top of the sewer line.

It could be designed to protect it against further erosion.

Um we'd be looking to get properly sized culverts at both the top and bottom.

And the stream rut is impaired for sediment, and of course, having the road erode into that or collapse into it is a major source of sediment.

Um at some point there will have to be a cleanup effort to bring the stream into compliance.

This is a cost-effective way of dealing with that by getting rid of a major source of sediment, which of course is what's impairing the stream.

Um it's a high priority project on the part of the state for clean water.

It's in the TETCO Basin Plan.

So uh our state partners are very very enthusiastic about finding funds in the clean water funds to help us execute this project if it foves to be feasible.

Great.

Dan, is there anything you'd like to add?

Yeah, I think you know, like Brian said, we're looking at that gravel section of Black Mountain Road.

Um it's in the last 10 years, there's at least four major flood events where the brook overtopped the road, and we've done some significant repairs.

Um then on top of that, it's just like it's so channeled, it's constant that the edges of the road wash out, we're up there armoring it, trying to put it back together.

And you know, looking at options for improving it are definitely worthwhile.

And you can do this because there's an alternative.

There's a there's kind of a circular loop there that people can use instead of Kipling Road to Dickinson to get you, which really isn't too far out of the way.

Right.

Does everyone know where we're talking about?

Okay, good.

Um it's interesting because I have a I know people who live and use that road all the time, and they're and they're like, oh, you're closing your road, and then they said came back to me and they said, Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, that's that's a good idea.

Yeah.

Um but this proposal is to study it.

And you got two bids.

You want to talk about that?

Yeah, so both bids came under budget.

Um both of them were excellent.

Um really they scored pretty much identically.

Both firms have a lot of experience in this type of project.

So we just went with the low bidder, and it's about $9,000 less than them than we were anticipating.

So great.

Yeah.

And there's a real environmental benefit associated with this that we really need to highlight because this this is a water quality issue.

Yeah, you know, eventually it's going to have to be addressed, and the state would be the ones to come up with the maximum daily load, and they'd have to apportion the cost of the mitigation.

But again, this is an action that could probably take care of the pro problem entirely and prevent that burden from going on to private property owners.

Can we get the state to pay for this?

I suspect we can get the state to pay for most of it.

I'm not sure if we can get them to pay for all of it.

And and um do you know the process by which you could ask the state to pay for this?

We've had consultations with the folks who have analyzed the Brook before, and they are extremely enthusiastic about finding funding for this.

But we'd have to do the study first.

We have to do the study and get the cost of doing the project, um, get a little bit of preliminary engineering so we can get the permitting done.

And the the study is this engineers uh like water quality engineers or roadway engineers or combination thereof?

Yeah, it's a team.

So there's civil engineers, there's people who do hydraulic modeling, and some landscape architects, and then also some folks with multi-use pathway experience in other communities in Vermont.

One of the happy benefits of this is we'd have to maintain some access to maintain the shore line, and that could be used as a multi-use pathway, which uh would be a nice connection to SIT in particular because there's uh you'd be kind of taking your life in your hand to walk or bike on those roads.

True.

All right.

Are there select board members who'd like to comment?

Yes.

Oscar, you go on first.

Thank you.

Um if this study goes well, is there any sense how long are we talking possibly until this is all done if things go smoothly?

Um depends how fast there are different grant funding streams go.

I think the clean water ones probably go a little bit faster than the federal hazard mitigation grants.

Um I think it would require an environmental assessment, so that would add some time.

I I would say two years probably would be conservative.

Okay.

And when it actually I assume there will come a point where public hearing or something like that, communication with the people who live there, but that would happen at the step after the study.

So the study will open with some preliminaries with town staff and the consultants, then there'll be a public hearing so people can get preliminary feedback, they'll go back and develop concepts, and then they'll come back to the public and do a kind of final concept presentation before we adopt a final plan.

Great.

Thanks.

That's all I had.

Manda?

I got a question.

So on the one, two, three, four, the fifth line where it says state grant award amount was 44,000 with uh 11 million um is that is that just a little like an extra zero there?

11 so it's the eleven thousand forty-four is the match.

Okay.

I was like, Yeah, sorry, I didn't know.

The scope of work is a okay.

Oh yeah.

Um and is there a chance that will there be a potential opportunity to uh like post-completion to capture a grant for a portion of the town match?

Once the study is complete?

Um I think as far as this grant, you know, it's already in budget.

We won't spend the full amount that we had set aside for the match.

Um but I don't anticipate that we'd be able to get any additional funding for that.

Okay.

But it would make us more competitive for a better grant for the completion of the work.

Yes, definitely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great.

Just one question.

Yes.

Just to clarify, are we talking about permanent closure of the section of Black Mountain Road?

That's the idea.

Yeah.

The roadway is actually built in the floodplain.

And the floodplain wasn't mapped previously, but our updated map showed clearly that the flood fringe extends entirely across the roadway.

And it will at its final stage, there will be public access.

Yes.

It will not be a road.

There's a sewer line and overhead power utilities that run up there.

So there would still need to be access.

So it could be some sort of mountain bike trail or something like that.

Great.

It makes for some pretty nifty cycling.

There you go.

Um would someone like to make a motion.

I can uh great.

I think I can handle that.

Uh I want to make the motion to authorize the town manager to accept the bid from MSK engineers for the scoping study for the discontinuance of the segment of Black Mountain Road and the replacement of two culverts, 80% funded by municipal highway and stormwater mitigation grant program with a 20% town match.

Great.

Um is there any public discussion?

Hearing none.

Uh there are any more uh select board comments.

All right, let's vote.

Peter has made a motion to authorize the town manager to accept the bid from MSK engineers for a scoping study for the discontinuance of a segment of Black Mountain Road and the replacement of two culverts, 80% funded by the municipal highway and stormwater mitigation grant program with a 20% town match.

All select board members in favor of this motion, please raise your hand and say aye.

And there we are, 5-0.

Gentlemen, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Parking ordinance revision.

Yeah.

So that's exciting.

Our next item is uh second reading on parking ordinance changes, and uh assistant chief Evans and uh highway superintendent pachico are here to uh to run us through the second reading and see if we're ready to move forward on this ordinance.

And Melanie Kahn said this rest of the meeting was gonna be boring.

You save the best part for last right now.

Um Good evening, Jeremy Evans on the assistant police chief.

Um Darren Pachico, a highway superintendent.

Uh so we have the second reading for you uh here for you that you all got in your packets for the uh proposed changes of the ordinance the parking ordinances so these amendments were developed based on your recommendations from the June 3rd 2025 meeting and were first introduced at the September 24th meeting.

At that time, no additional changes were recommended.

So if no new recommendations are made here, the select board may with the motion move to approve this as the final reading.

All righty.

Um well, shall we go over the main tenants of it and then see if there's any comments or questions?

Sure.

Yeah, if you want to, fine.

Uh so the three main ordinances that we're looking at that there was no recommended changes at our prior meeting uh would be adding the Bratt team member to the definition of police officer within chapter 16.

Um changing the appeals process um to incorporate a online appeals process and also adding additional steps uh with the uh new oversight of the police department, um that there is now a three-step appeals process instead of a originally two-step.

Um and lastly, um the uh addition of free days of parking during the holiday season, um, which would be the day after Thanksgiving, um, the first two weekends in December and seven days preceding Christmas.

Great.

Select board members, do you have any comments?

Are there comments from members of the public?

Uh I have a question, John.

This motion is longer than this.

It has this final reading, blah blah blah.

Should I be read that one?

All right.

Oscar, would you would you like to make this a motion?

Sure.

Do I include the stuff about the case?

Yes.

Okay.

I move that the select board approve the ordinance amendments to Chapter 16 traffic as presented and adopt them as the final reading with the amendments to be incorporated into the town's ordinances as directed by the select board.

Thank you, Oscar.

Thank you.

All right.

Oscar's made a motion to move that the select board approve the ordinance amendments to Chapter 16 traffic as presented and adopt them as the final reading with the amendments to be incorporated into the town's ordinances as directed by the select board.

Most select board members in favor of this motion, please raise your hand and say aye.

There we go.

5-0.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Nice work.

Thank you so much.

It's a touchdown.

Finally.

It means like our process.

That's hard work.

That was so much.

This is indicate that we think any less of your work.

All right.

Dick is yawning.

We better hurry up.

The last item is regional.

Oh, there's two more.

Regional assessing districts.

Jennifer?

Yes.

Jennifer Burnell is here to join us to uh fill us in on the uh regional assessing districts concept.

Good evening, everybody.

I hope to be brief.

I just wanted to give you a little update on what the legislature has.

Jennifer, I think you need to speak directly into the microphone.

Okay.

I'm Jennifer, town assessor.

Um and I'm here to uh give you just a brief update on the um regional assessing districts, the legislature in 23 passed Act 68, which um it was a long conversation about um the the state taking over reappraisals and that was uh what came out of the uh conversation uh was for towns to be reappraised town wide every six years.

Um there is um an ability for towns to do a statistical update in between those six years if necessary.

Um and for the common level of appraisal to be removed as the trigger for reappraisals for the state to uh mandate a reappraisal.

Um in 2025, Act 73 um passed, and um out of four that was a a uh big bill um but included in it uh which were some things that affect the assessor's office.

I won't go through that entire bill.

Um just focus on um what might affect the assessor's office.

So there um is an introduction of three classifications, um property classifications.

Uh so currently we have homestead and non-homestead, and there is an um uh in addition to that would be uh it would be non-homestead residential and non-homestead non-residential.

And um I would ask that you refer uh look into the bill to um have a more of an understanding on breakdown because that's that is uh there's a lot that goes into that.

The um uh the commissioner, tax commissioner is um tasked with um different tax rates that are associated with these.

So this is all very very statewide, um, but it will filter into our office and um it's just something to look to be aware of.

Um within the bill, I just have to say that at the end um school districts that are um being um shaped.

If they're not if they don't pass the new districts, school districts, then this stuff doesn't happen.

Regional assessing districts is a big conversation within our office, and the intent of those having uh assessing done on a regional level is to uh reappraise more often.

That's now been taken care of with the six year cycle.

Uh there was no timeline other than the triggers of the CLA and the COD originally.

Um so now we have the six-year cycle.

The other intent is for um property uh data collection to be standardized.

Um of that is coming from standardizing computer mass appraisal systems.

Um there are I think five currently used in the state of Vermont.

Um that conversation is um right now a talk of one CAMA system, but the vendors are have been asked to um they've been asked by the state to have their system work with the VT Pi system.

Um and the third is uh for um training within assessing assessor and lister offices.

Um the regional assessing districts of the RADs right now uh it's mapped out countywide.

Um they they're taking two different uh four different towns and uh combining two uh two I think it's I can't remember the names of the towns, but anyway, they're they're combining, so it's twelve uh regional assessing districts.

Um the director of PBNR was asked to um put together a working group on that uh stakeholder group.

Um we've met three times and given the director recommendations as to how a regional assessing district would um how it would look, how we would like it to look if it were to come together what uh it would look like for appeals on an on a regional level, and um the um I think it was a request to change the assessing date from April 1st to January 1st.

That's been um positively received, so uh there's a lot to look at in how that would um affect other your homestead declarations, just other pieces of state um programs.

Um we've made other recommendations as well, and um we have one more meeting.

I guess we're going to look at um the report that will be presented in January to the legislature.

Um the other important piece for Bratterboro to be aware of is the training they're trying to professionalize lister and assessor offices.

Um is required for listers to have a level one Vermont we already have a Vermont property assessor certification program that was established a number of years ago.

Um so using that program listers are to have a list of training to to qualify for the VPA one level, and assessors uh must require must establish the VP two level.

A lot of these courses are either funded through a state grant that we need to apply for, or the state has free classes, but there will be an additional amount that the town will have to cover for training.

So it's mandatory and it it will be a slight increase to my budget, but not a lot.

And I welcome any questions you might have.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Sure.

And so this is interesting.

And I just want to clarify for everyone that what you're talking about is changes to state law.

And in the appraisal and reappraisal process, it really has nothing to do with the reappraisal that's currently being conducted and of much interest to our taxpayers.

Right.

It won't uh take effect until January 2029.

And there's a lot of information that still needs to go to the legislature.

But it's interesting that there is a committee and you're on it.

It's a statewide committee, and it's nice that you have a voice on that on our behalf.

Yeah, I'm privileged, I feel.

Great.

All right.

Comments?

Anyone?

I had a question, Jennifer.

Um you mentioned extra cost for staff trainings.

Um compensated by the state or um, but not a hundred percent of the training cost to the for the town.

Yeah.

And then is there additional software that's also going to be required?

And will the state is the state going to commit to compensating municipalities if that's the case?

No.

So the we have a new CAMA software coming for the reappra you know, during the reappraisal, we'll be t switching from an old camera system to a new CAMA system.

Um, but the training requirements there understanding the ethics of assessment, there's bias training, there um is there are levels of understanding assessment, you know, how to um data collect and how to um value properties.

So that's that's professionalizing, but not um an additional piece of software that is coming into our office.

So not a large anticipated budget.

Correct.

And also, do you have concerns that during the um retraining process that there will be a scarcity of listers that are actually fully qualified to do their job or I'm not concerned about Bratterboro.

Okay.

But I think there is a concern statewide.

Yeah.

Gentlemen, any comments?

No.

Jennifer, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh wait, wait, wait.

Are there members of the public who would like to comment?

Dick.

Um the state's going through, obviously, we're all aware of the reorganization of the uh school districts.

And I believe the number is five that there will be five districts, what they're looking at.

Or is it a larger number than that?

I haven't a guess.

Do you think they are working on that now?

So there are task force, there's I mean I'm following.

I watched the I watched the news.

Yeah.

So do you have anything on like what are I thought I saw one drawing that showed us going to Wilmington and then north up into Bellows Falls.

As far as school districts, I couldn't say.

And I know that we're so the conversations that we're having for this regional assessing district how that would look is it's we're looking at um recommending it to be in line, or some are anyway, uh in line with this the way the school districts.

How that would look is it's we're looking at um recommending it to be in line or some are anyway uh in line with this the way the school districts so a lot of it will depend on um how that shapes it it might not well will every every district that's within the larger district every town have to have been reappraised by the time this all starts no interesting no any other members of the public is there anyone online okay you stumped us just Jennifer thank you uh let's see monthly budget update for August Um so the finance department has provided you with an August 2025 finance report um the has line item details of activities in the town's general fund as well as utilities and parking funds with 16.7 percent of the fiscal year completed we are uh pretty much on track with revenues and general fund uh annualized we are at 15.7 percent of budget and expenditures are uh slightly below uh the uh the um expected amounts when it's prorated at 15 percent of the annual budget total revenues in the general fund are 20 million one hundred and seventy seven thousand one hundred and nineteen dollars and total expenses are running at four million four hundred and fifteen thousand three hundred and eighty-eight dollars uh with a surplus of fifteen million seven hundred and sixty one thousand seven hundred and thirty one dollars and uh currently as of August 31st cash balances in the general fund totaled uh 17.1 million uh in the total revenues of 20 million uh approximately 14.8 of those are receivables which include general receivables, EMS receivables, uh current and delinquent taxes, uh net of school taxes and interest and penalties, as well as uh solid wastebag revenue.

A few things worth that the finance department um called out worth noting are that utility costs are rising and we are likely to exceed on budget for utilities uh in in um fiscal twenty six they're projecting that we're also projecting over uh that overtime budgets especially with the fire police and dispatch are also running over um current spending and so we'll be keeping an eye on that utilities fund with 16.7 percent of the year completed revenues are running at 15.5 percent and expenditures at 10 percent of annual budget so total revenues and utilities for the fiscal year are running at 1.1 million and expenses are at 72074 thousand with a surplus of 376 thousand in the parking funds revenues are running higher than expected at 18.6 percent of the annual budget and expenditures slightly below at 13.2 percent so there in the parking fund we have total revenues of 190,000 total expenses of 135,000 and a surplus of about 55,000 it's also a loan report a grant report and a transfer uh report uh included in in the uh financial report and happy to try to answer any questions if you have any and if I don't know the answer I will get you the answer.

Great.

Go ahead Isaac thank you for sharing these areas worth notation that's very helpful.

The overtime budgets for police and fire and dispatch we saw significantly significant increases in the staffing and um for both police and fire this past spring when we uh worked on this fiscal year's budget and with the creation of new positions and in the case of fire the idea was this is going to um reduce the overtime costs that we were seeing from last year that were not expected.

Can you speak to why we're seeing these increases despite those decisions that we made?

A little bit.

I do know that we have not filled all those positions, and even when we do, there will be a period of training to get them up to speed and able to not have to fill uh the minimum manning uh with uh overtime staff.

That's I think the pretty much the main reason.

The uh you know that that would be a great question for the fire chief at his next quarterly report, but um basically that's my understanding of what's driving that.

So with the dispatch?

Um I remember we we actually cut that um that was one of the the one area I think for police, fire, and fire where we were looking at making a reduction and it was like a half of a position.

Um do you know if it's related to that decision that we made that we're seeing this increase?

I don't know.

Okay.

Okay.

Um Peter, do you have any comments?

Um question about uh it says our parking revenues are up.

Um is that does that have anything to do with any of the rental that we're seeing as of yet, or is that just straight?

Um that might there might be a slight impact from that.

Okay, but it's good.

I just was curious.

Yep.

But I also think that uh we projected revenues conservatively in that budget, and I think the uh some of the changes that you have made are starting to to uh manifest.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Yep.

How about this side of the aisle?

Amanda, do you have any comments?

No questions at this time.

Oscar?

I have a broad assortment of questions.

Okay.

And I was out of town, so John and I didn't have our weekly meeting, so some of these probably would have been answered there.

Um let's see, a couple general ones.

I was wondering where we are at in the audit for the last fiscal year if we are having any luck there.

Um so we our initial RFP, we did not get adequate responses, so we've redone the scope of work and uh have just put out this week a second RFP.

Uh we are doing some more targeted outreach to firms that we're aware of, and we hope to have somebody on um by November and uh uh the audit completed by the end of the year.

Great.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um yeah, I did want to thank you and Sponnie and anyone else who did this.

The areas worth notation is great, and the annualizing the property taxes for the revenue side also great.

Um that I did have a question, and I'm positive I've asked this before, so apologies.

But there are line items for expenses that are also annualized, but that we haven't paid yet, and I'm wondering if those are annualized when we do that calculation.

So for the big example, it is like bonds and notes.

We budget for 1.3 million, and we haven't spent any of that yet.

So is that part of that annualized calculation, or is that shoe all going to drop at one point and does that sort of throw our projections off?

Uh I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to answer this correctly.

It doesn't have to be right now.

Yeah, okay.

I mean, generally I would say that so in your warrant for this week was that payment.

So that will now get calculated into the annualized uh estimate for like your next but it won't be until we see um October October's uh numbers.

So I guess a good ongoing reminder that we have to you know we do our best to annualize these, but we have to take them with a bit of a grain of salt as we go.

Yep.

Um I'm probably just blanking on this here, but revenues include the full 19.5 million property taxes.

Yep.

And then at the bottom of the first page of the memo, it says revenues include 14.7 million of receivables, including in that list is current and delinquent taxes.

Yep.

But 19.5 million alone is more than 14.7.

So I'm what I'm saying?

So 19.

I guess maybe five is um that's the full amount we expect to collect for the year.

Yep.

No, it's yeah, for the property tax.

Right.

Yep.

But then revenues include 14.7 million of receivables.

Yep.

Is that using the two months of property taxes number as part of that?

Okay.

Yep.

No, it's using the so the uh the total revenues of 20 point two million include 14.7 million of receivables, some of which are the property taxes which have not come in yet.

So I I don't think we need to sort this out right now, but I guess I'm wondering why there aren't 19.5 million of receivable taxes.

Like why that second number is relatively low?

Because we've seen payments have come in.

Okay, so benefits actually look okay on the expenses side.

And I mean I know we've put those numbers up a bunch in this budget, so maybe an indication that we are budgeting in the vicinity of those, even though they've been a problem.

Does that sound like I think that's true?

Okay.

And I had a question about risk management.

We've used this.

So this is page nine of 17 of the report.

We're about 25 percent through our budget.

And does that literally just mean you know, we have had more workers' comp cases, we have had more there's just been more use of these costs, or is it that costs themselves are higher?

Um that I don't know.

Uh I don't know exactly.

I mean, I think on the liability, for example, we probably have uh quarterly payments and we've made a quarter of payments, something like that.

Um in terms of the workers' comp, I'm not sure how that is invoiced to us.

And then last two things, we talked about the overtime.

It's uh it's gonna be rough, and I feel like we're gonna have sort of a bumpy budget where we're ahead again in EMS revenue way way ahead in receivables on EMS revenue, way behind in overtime, relatively ahead in trash.

So if we happen to come out even, it will be a little bit by I I guess we're about to enter a new budget process, and we should probably try to like we need to put all those overtime numbers up a lot higher for next year, I think, unless our expectations really change.

I mean, it's so tricky because if you look at like our staff salaries, we're running at 12.5 percent.

So we're we we're covering a lot of that overtime in like in I'm looking at fire in particular.

So we're covering most of that overtime with staff salaries at the moment, and that's the three positions that Isaac was referring to.

They're just not filled yet, so that's going to the overtime line.

Um I I hate to over budget on overtime and raise property taxes higher than we need to.

Um that that would just be the challenge there with that one.

But I hear what you're saying.

We'll have to balance that.

Yeah.

And then last question, and maybe this has come up before, and then just blanking.

But what are the Bratt startup expenses in police?

40K last month, 60K this month, without a this so this is 12 of 17.

And it doesn't look like there was a budget line item for that, so I was curious about that.

Um it's the last one in the police total.

Yes.

Uh I don't know.

I can't remember what that is.

Okay.

Could we yep?

I can get get you an answer on that.

Great.

Okay.

Okay.

That is all I have.

And I would just ask one question.

Sorry.

So for the the meals and rooms and the sales tax, is that our local one option, like local option tax percentage completely ours that's in the budget, or do we owe some of that to the state?

Those are revenues to us.

It's the just the one that's so that those are the actual.

They're actuals, yeah.

It's not what's collected by people by businesses in town, it's what we received.

All right.

So my comment is really about the parking fund.

And I'm just very pleased to see these numbers because we've been through the mill on the parking budget.

And we used to have to borrow from Peter to pay Paul to make the parking budget whole.

And now here we are, with our revenues exceeding our expenses to the tune of $55,000.

So great.

And I just want to just note that this is a product of the work on the on the parking rates.

The work on the parking garage.

Yep.

And we're working on the substation.

Yep.

And then also renting the remainder of the ground floor.

Yep.

And we have interested parties in all the space there now.

I just wanted to congratulate you and all of us for all of those pieces coming together to make this budget a success.

Thank you.

And I think it's really been the board and uh DPW who have done the heavy lifting on this, and I really appreciate all the work that uh Pete Lynch in particular has done to make that happen.

So let's open it up to the public.

It's you, Dick.

You don't have to live behind.

Oh, first question.

Uh actually it has to do with uh the HR director has finance director attached to her title.

Is she being compensated for that?

Yes, we're we are paying a small stipend to uh help uh cover that uh need in the finance department for people management.

Well, I certainly would like to know how small that is uh if you can have that for the next meeting.

Uh when I look at revenue on the first page, I'm uh for EMS reimbursement.

Uh for July and August, it says we've been reimbursed 311,000.

Is this a rollover number from 2025 where we build?

I you know, last year when we tried to get numbers for the first couple of months, we were told we we don't get reimbursed for 90 days, up to 90 days.

So how do we come up with 311,000 uh here for the first two months, unless it's possibly a rollover from where we had billed in 2025 and it has come in and it's part of this?

Can you do you know the answer to that?

That's that's correct, that's what it is.

That's what it is.

Yep.

Wait.

And y and then again, I guess my follow-up would be why isn't that revenue applied to 2025 where it would allow the town possibly to have a uh uh a surplus because it's billed in 2025?

There's a cutoff at which point we can't do that anymore.

Uh I forget when it is now, but this is all revenue that's come in since that cutoff when where like from an accounting standpoint we can no longer apply it to the previous year.

Okay, and then my questions are are pretty much primarily for uh fire overtime and police overtime, and I have a huge concern about both.

But I look at the staffing on the police department, and they're fully staffed.

And they're and they're there, is there something in the contract where they're getting all this overtime now?

I I mean I am really baffled, and you should be too, why this number is so high.

Two months, two months, this is only July and August, and it's at 21,000.

And then when I look at the fire department, again, July and August, and it's 91 or 92,000 dollars.

And so there's we're probably over budget right now as we s sit here in the fire department overtime.

And I believe my own personal feeling is that the board bought a bad bill of goods in terms of hiring three new uh officers, fire officers, to mitigate this overtime by at least 100,000.

I believe that was the number that was thrown out.

And that's not going to ever happen because you're never going to be fully staffed.

You're always going to have you're gonna you have a retiree.

We just had a captain retire.

And uh I believe there's an uh uh firemen leaving to go to another town, and we're always gonna have somebody out sick or on vacation.

And so we hired three new staff members.

I think you really have to re-look at how we handle these callbacks, and I think that this board and the administration needs to get together with rescue, re-establish uh a relationship so they might and get a contract with them where they would be part of there's a third ambulance call out, they would respond to the call versus us sending people out and having to call people in.

I believe that that I believe that that's gonna be a better way for us to save money.

And so we need to uh you can shake your head, John.

I don't agree.

But that's okay.

But uh the reality is this isn't gonna work.

And it shows right now that it's not gonna work.

And it's really bothersome to me with the police department, and nobody says a word about why is this so high when you're fully staffed two months in.

That really should be concerning all of you.

I know dispatch, you cut dispatch, and I think you have some staffing issues there, and I get that.

But the police department and the fire department, this is a no-go.

This is a this is gonna be a real budget buster.

Dick, this is five minutes.

Thank you very much for your comments.

It's okay.

I was looking at the number, I thought it was going down.

All right.

Thank you for your comments.

Um can I clarify something with John?

Sure.

So I may have the 311 in EMS revenue in this report.

My understanding is that that is just from claims billed in July and August.

Or yeah, July and August.

And that that's not so that includes you'll you will have revenues coming in from fiscal twenty-five probably for months still.

Um and we have to log, we have to account for that somewhere.

Right.

Beyond, I think it's July 30th or something like that.

Sure.

But in our, you know, in the June financial report, we looked at EMS totals for basically for the year and said, look at all this money we have coming in, and that included receivables for claims that were billed during FY25.

And then we said, okay, the budget's balanced, give or take.

And now some of that is going to get reclassified into 26 because it's gonna come in later.

And those numbers based on receivables will look a lot less rosy.

Yep.

And and that will all be apparent in the audit.

So we'll see what uh uh uh the final outcome was for the close of the fiscal year.

I just think based on that, especially as we get near the end of fiscal years, we need to be a little more careful about the conclusions we're drawing about the state of the fiscal year, because we probably knew in June, or could have known that hey, a bunch of these claims are not all going to come back in June.

So this number is going to be lower, let's say, in the audit or in the final accounting, and the balance for this year is not as good as this table makes it look.

And I just want to be really careful about that, especially on this line item where people have so many questions.

So absolutely.

Um and I'm not an accountant, so I can't I can't talk to you too much about modified accrual, but that is what we're you know, tasked with doing our books in that in that format, and I think that's what the finance department has been doing.

Um I don't not sure there's options for us to do it a different way, but we could certainly ask about that.

I I think it's probably accounting is what it is.

I think our responsibility falls a little more on the side of the the narrative conclusions we draw.

So I just want us to be really careful there.

And well, it'll it'll we'll have another opportunity in eight or nine months.

Yeah, and we're not going to double count them in the end, but it does lead to a July first moment of look how good our revenue was in FY25, and then later predictably it's not quite as good.

So that's the thing I want to be really sensitive to.

So did uh anyone else in the public wish to speak?

No?

Anyone on the fly?

Uh let's um make a motion and approve uh to approve this report.

Does someone like to do that?

I'll motion that we accept the financial uh report as presented.

Great.

Peter has moved to accept the financial report as present as presented.

Uh select board members in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

There's five-zero.

One more motion.

Peter has moved to adjourn.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All right.

Thank you, Seth.

Thank you, BCTV.

Thank you, members of the public.

Thank you, John.