City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Kendall.

Have you been riding your bike a lot?

Yeah, we're jibbing around all the time. Nice.

It's that kind of weather.

Mm-hmm.

I was going to see if you had bent down towers or not, because we finished cleaning up that ditch finally. Reset the culvert this weekend. Looks like a mess right now. Ready?

Good evening and welcome to the Essex Select Board meeting on September 14th, 2026. It is 630 and I'm going to hereby call this meeting to order. With that, I please ask everyone in the room, please silence your cell phones. For those online, your microphones will be muted until you're called upon. Once recognized by the chair, we will unmute you. This is due to some bad actors in prior meetings and an attempt to make sure that does not reoccur. Also, please note that the chat feature has been disabled.

With that, I will bring it to

Us here. Staff, are there any additions or changes to the agenda?

None from staff.

Board members, any additions or changes to the agenda? Kendall, I see your screen is muted. Can we unmute him so he has access? But I'm not seeing your hands. There's no need to approve the agenda because there's no changes. We'll move right into public to be heard. I don't have any sound. I can hear you now, Kendall. Can you hear us?

No.

No.

Are we muted?

Kendall, can you hear us now?

No. I wonder if our microphone... I think I need to unmute. Can we do TV? Here we go. Hi, Kendall.

Can you hear us now, Kendall? Yes, that's better. Okay, great. I've seen that before.

You're good.

Well, welcome, Kendall. We basically just missed that there's no staff additions to the agenda. There was no agenda changes from the board members here. Do you have any changes to the agenda or additions?

No, all set.

Great. Then we will jump right into public comment. As a reminder, before we jump into public comment, please be civil with your comments. Please be brief. As a general rule, any comments longer than a few minutes represent a need to have a deeper conversation, either by email, meeting, or being added to a future agenda. Please refrain from side conversations here in the room. Please be respectful, first and foremost. And when you are up front, please direct your comments to the chair. When called upon by the chair, either in person or online, please state your name as well as where you reside. So with that, I'll open up to public comments in the room first. If anyone has public comments, please come forward. Not seeing any hands in the room, we will jump online. This is where if you want to speak, please raise your hand. Not seeing any hands online. We will jump into the agenda. Ethan.

Move approval of the consent agenda.

Thank you, Ethan, for the motion. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Andy. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please say aye.

Aye.

Kendall, I just want to make sure I heard something from you. All those opposed? Kendall, please state your vote.

Hello?

I can hear you. Can we turn him up back there, Andrew?

That was an aye.

Thank you.

Motion passes 5-0.

Moving on to business item 6A. presentation and discussion about Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission's annual report. Welcome.

Good evening. Thank you very much for time on your agenda. For the record, I'm Charlie Baker, Executive Director of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. This is my annual customer service call. So you got our report in your packet, I believe. Yes, I always, yes, trust but verify. And I'll just kind of do some summary here, and then please, I'm looking for any feedback, positive or negative, that will help us improve our services to our member towns. The first page of the report is kind of background on the RPC membership. Kind of how we use local funding to leverage state and federal funding into the region. And then your representatives on our various committees down at the bottom. Thank you to all of them. But Andy serves on the board and is a constant participant, so I appreciate that. And all your other reps, Erin and Catherine and Annie, are also very active in their committees, so I appreciate that. The second and half of the third page are all specific projects that we did in Essex last year. And happy to take any feedback on any of these, but they included transportation impact fee, transportation plan update, grant administration for the water system that NBRC funded, stormwater pipe inspection, active transportation plan, truck traffic study, And more, any feedback on any of those issues or projects, efforts? Board members, any feedback? I'm going to take silence as a good thing. They've been helpful. All right, thank you. Then in this year's work program, you have one project where we're providing municipal project management services on the shared use path on Upper Main Street. And then we list out a few projects that you have in our transportation improvement program. So those kind of mirror the state's capital program. And I assume you probably have heard the state's capital program. And, you know, V-Trans, there's some financial stress going on there. So they're not looking at a lot of new projects. They're also stretching things out and, you know, bumping some things back. So hopefully these things stay on track. But just a heads up. We never know until we see the governor's proposal in January if things are moving a bit. But you have a lot of projects on that list, so kudos. The next section is a new section. I'm not sure it's quite located properly, but these technical assistance services, I think we're just trying to kind of remind select boards and staff about services that we have. This is only a subset of kind of more technical assistance services, but just so you know, transportation, land use, and GIS services. And then there's a few pages of regional work. Some things I know you're well aware of, like our regional plan, which is probably the last time I was here in the spring, maybe. I can't remember when that was. But the regional plan got done and approved by the Lanius Review Board. And then there's a lot of other things. I don't even know where to pause, but happy to take questions, comments on any of these items.

I just had a question. It was interesting to read about the 802 homes catalog.

Okay.

And I was curious when that would be available for use.

That is a good question. DHCD, Department of Housing and Community Development, is running that program. I think they're testing it out right now. I think Essex Junction is one of the test communities.

Okay.

But I don't have in my head a deadline as to when they'll be done. I have the impression that some things are out there now.

Okay.

You know, where they're trying to come up with some models that are pre-approved type of things. So, yeah, there may be some things out there now. I haven't checked their website lately.

Okay. Thanks.

Andy. Okay.

I just wanted to comment that I remember participating in a survey about that. There was a bunch of model homes and they said, what do you think about this? Is this something that you would want to live in? And that was a couple months ago, I think I participated in that. So there's definitely work going on on that. It was kind of cool to go through and look at all the different options.

definitely moving along i think they're trying to come up with uh 10 or 12 or oh sorry this says 10 pre-permission uh but yeah that was eight or nine months ago i think they did that survey trying to get input on it so still moving along for sure

Yeah, I was just going to thank you for all of this. I've been following your guys' meeting minutes. But my curiosity for you is, have you heard anything from the legislative anybody about what next year looks like when session opens up on land use? Are you guys going to be bombarded with that again, or they haven't really said anything? You know, I don't know. Who do you listen to? That's why I was wondering. Yeah.

Individuals. you had a big scale. It's, I expect some things are going to come forward. You know, it's always a question of what individual legislators bring forward and, and what gets traction in a committee, uh, to, uh, you know, I don't even who's, who's leading which committee yet.

I don't think that there's no foresight on that.

They got to, they got to get elected first. Right. Um, but, um, I think, I don't know, I don't know how that process works. Um, so yeah, there goes, yeah. And I think that's a good question. Um, Yeah, I think there would be probably some conversation on some things. Wetlands, there's been some work between environmental organizations and Let's Build Homes to bring some portion of wetland buffers into possibility for development. But hard to know about any other kind of land use. Are you asking specifically?

Well, I was just curious if maybe they give you guys a heads up at all. Like Vermont runs, I'm not surprised.

No, no, not as much as you get a heads up.

Thanks for your work on that, and I think it's an interesting thing that we're going to see. I don't think it's going away for the next five years unless everybody decides to agree. Yeah.

Yeah, well, they get to some level of compromise. Yeah, and for those of you who haven't been following the conversation, there's definitely some, the regional plans are going through that state review process at the Language Review Board. Definitely been some controversy in the White River Junction area that has bubbled up. They have a lot more mandatory language in their regional plan than we do. We have zero. mandatory statements in our plan in large part driven because our municipalities are all you know pretty professional and have their own manage they have enough regulations of their own so you know our board has never wanted to like second guess or double up on what towns are doing but it is different in the rest of the state there are most of the RPCs have some sort of mandatory language but I think to the Two Rivers Regional Commission is you know kind of in the process of editing and responding and Last I heard, they were proposing to take out a lot of shell statements or mandatory statements. But how that plays out is going to play out over the next few months. And then I'm sure there will be some legislative reactions. Thanks.

Andy? I'll give you a heads up. I was going to ask this question. I was trying to find it in here, and I realized we've already gone past it. the older adults and persons with disabilities transportation program with the likelihood that our bus number four is gonna go away and we're gonna lose access to SSTA through that. I think this is an option that we really should consider and I do understand that some conversations have already started around this. Is there anything we as a board can do to be, I don't know, more informed or Should we wait until our staff tells us what to support?

Yeah, that's on an annual cycle. And it just went through a pretty significant change at the beginning of the fiscal year because GMT was really running that service and paying SSTA to implement most of it. that service when um when the gmt was kind of split up between urban and rural that service kind of went with the rural uh service provider so you'll see a mention um you know this is on page eight of my report um rural community transportation is rct and they're the transit provider kind of in the northern part of the state so more much more rural They've taken over not just the rural services like in Franklin County and Lamoille, but also the O&D service in Chittenden County. So they're overseeing that. SSTA is, of course, the provider. They're more involved. And yeah, every spring there's kind of a negotiation, I'll say, with the state and with RCT, I guess, about how much funding is available, who needs it, for what. Chittenden County has been a little... I keep bringing back things that Chittenden County is a little different than the rest of the state. But in the rest of the state, it's pretty much like one provider. And I don't even know how much towns contribute to the service. But in Chittenden County, the service got a lot of parties were involved with it. So some towns were paying the local match. Other towns, and Essex is always, you're a little different too, because you have that

Senior van, thank you.

And I think you may get some funding through this program for that service. But there's others that have been contracting or basically paying for the SSTA service. So yeah, there's probably some opportunity to exchange a little bit of an email with Greg in the last couple days. We're actually sitting down internally tomorrow to talk about the situation here and any ideas we have. So I guess I'll say heads up. Greg, we're going to come back and see if there's anything we can move along prior to that springtime

renegotiation of because there could be a gap if we lose they're talking about February for dropping to the number four I think right February or March and so if we can't get in until the next fiscal year then there's going to be a gap gap in there the other thing is I understand that that there are also some situations where there's volunteer drivers who use their own vehicles

And that has worked really well in the rest of the state. It has not worked very well in Chittenden County. We've been, and probably, geez, I don't know, maybe eight years ago now. Time flies when we're having fun. We made a pretty hard push on SSTA to try to get more volunteer drivers to reduce the cost per trip. Right, right. And what played out from that was just that our trips tend to be shorter than the rest of the state where maybe they're driving, you know, 40 miles one way and it's an 80 mile trip and the driver gets reimbursed. I'm like, oh, that was that was worth it when it's like 20 mile trips that are shorter here. it seems like volunteer drivers have not felt that it was worth it. And so they've, if they started it, they've stopped it. Uh, but it is still something I hope that we can explore because it would be a less expensive way to provide those services.

Yeah. Is there someone we can talk to, to learn, you know, get lessons learned around that or is that through you?

Yeah, probably SSTA is the one who's been running that. They're the ones who actually like, um, interview, hire, and screen the volunteer drivers, because as you can imagine, there's liability issues and insurance issues that they get screened for.

I remember when that first came out, and I remember getting kind of excited about it, and then, yeah, it seems it failed.

We have a sign on our door saying, you know, if you want to volunteer, sign up here, but it just doesn't seem like it's been a significant part of the service here. It would be nice if that changed, but I'm not sure. I have a lot of hope for that at the moment. I want something else to change it.

Yeah, okay. I spent a lot of time driving my mother to her appointments. I kept wondering if I could get reimbursed.

Yeah, maybe. I don't know.

All right. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. No, this is a tough issue. Karen, I saw you raise your hand. Did you want to jump in and talk about that?

Oh, I was just going to offer that the contribution... from GMT is a capital match when we buy the vans. So we lease them from them and they provide 90% or in the past have 90% of the budget. And we operate the program through the operating budget.

Gotcha. Yeah, so let me give you guys some more flexibility.

Yeah, I've been in. Adam Lawrence, the director of SSTA, has been very generous with his time in trying to help us understand what their changes are, what the opportunities are. And I think we're challenged to remember that the paratransit and these types of services are almost half of our dues. So finding replacements for them is expensive. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm meeting with GMT Wednesday to catch Clayton up, who's been out for a bit, and connect with them about anything we might need to know from them. It's been a month or so since we met.

Okay. Yeah. So we'll circle back around and see. I think we got contacted by a resident also asking if there was anything we could do to help the town. So we're kind of digging into that right now this week, Andy.

Thank you.

Yeah. No, thank you. Yeah. Anything else? I don't have anything else unless you folks do.

Kendall, I just want to make sure the system's working. Do you have anything to ask of Mr. Baker? The deafening silence is going to make me think no.

There he is.

Kendall, can you hear us?

Yes, I can hear. Something happened here, though. you hear me we can hear you do you have any questions for mr baker no i'm all set the only question i've ever got was if um in the region if they're ever going to start going up versus out and i'm not really sure that's germane to this conversation do you mean in terms of like building housing yes yeah no i think that is uh a lot of what is happening in a lot of towns where where they have the infrastructure and the ability right i think essex junction you know up zone and for taller buildings so that is definitely happening okay yeah I just wonder because I have had a few folks ask me why don't we go up versus out so thank you yep great not seeing other hands from the board members we'll jump into public comment uh yes Lois why don't you come forward please

Lois Whitmore, 178 Old Stage Road, Essex.

Thank you.

I have a question relating to the home book, the supposedly affordable housing that's in the models that are... That 802 homes project?

Yes.

Okay. What I noticed was that if you compare the cost of those homes to the amount of income from many people within Essex. They're totally unaffordable. And I'm curious about whether it's possible to create a replacement model that fits more in line with the kinds of salaries that people in Essex earn.

I do not know the answer to that question, but I will say getting any homes that are affordable, new home construction, has been very challenging in Vermont. So I'm not running that program, but I'll double-check with them.

And also, are you comparing stick-built with modular housing?

I think they are working on some modular things, too. It may not be part of that program. It may be another program within that. Yeah, because they're talking about construction-ready things. So I think they are looking at both modular opportunities.

I understand there's a big savings there.

Yeah, I don't know how big it will be, but yes.

But significant enough to make it worthwhile to explore, because I would like to see that. And one of the things that I learned this week was that for many of the state grants and for the land trust, in order to get affordable housing, we have to have a fixed route transit system. And it means fixed in two directions, which I did not realize, one being its geography, what loop it occupies, and the fact that the stops are regular. And I know there's been some talk about extending one of the buses from another city into Essex, but without stops along the way, I wonder whether that qualifies for an SSTA route. And maybe you could check on that.

Yeah, SSDA doesn't have specific routes because they're on demand.

Well, for the housing grants, you have to be within three-quarters of a mile of a fixed route.

Yeah, do you know which housing grant you're referring to?

Anything through Champlain Housing Trust.

For CHC?

And some of the housing grants with Vermont Housing Finance that we talked to.

VHFA? Yeah, and... Yeah, to my knowledge, those are programmatic, I guess, goals. I'm not sure they're requirements of the funding. But CHT has a policy that if we're going to locate these, we want these to be on transit routes so people have access to other transportation options. But I'm not sure it's a requirement. I'll check with CHT folks and VHFA to see.

When we met with them, we seemed to qualify for eligibility in lots of ways except for that. And so that's a very important question for us. Thank you.

Good question.

Thank you, Lois. Further public comment? Not seeing any other hands in the room. We'll go online. I believe, Lorraine, your hand is up first.

Can you hear me, Chair?

Yes, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Lorraine Zaloom, 74 Center Road. Charlie, thank you for your presentation today. Always appreciated. One suggestion, as I read through the presentation, was that the air table, your Chittenden County Engagement Tracker Public. I clicked on, I'm on the Housing Commission, so I was looking at some of the relevant links for some of our work, and two of them were dead, they didn't go anywhere. And two of them were out of date, like they were studies from 2021. And so those programs that were relevant are no longer available under the new federal administration. So I'm just wondering if people comb through that before you present that, because to find a dead link wasn't out of five that I clicked on, two dead links. So I'm not sure how you guys check some of these things before you present them, but just a suggestion to go through all the links. The other question that I had that was fascinating to me, like the transportation portion, because not only is an issue for us for the fixed routes with potential funding, but also our town plan has a few shells in it that require public transportation. And also looking at the Katmiss study, it was interesting to see what the suggestions were, and it was to increase public transportation, not decrease it. So it was interesting that we voted voted it down to retain that bus. I was just wondering if some of it has to do with just coordination between the different entities that work on these items because in that CAVMA model it was pretty actually it was pretty comprehensive in that it was it covered 85 percent of the employees in the RPI area and there was about 650 employees they had over 40% engagement, which is unheard of in the surveys, which is fantastic. So it's really good data in terms of spreading that out across the town. But what was interesting to me was when you looked at how someone locally and under 10 miles got to the RPDI area that has all those businesses in it. There were three businesses that were following the cap month. And those three employed around 200, 200, and 250. And one of the examples that they had was coming from Winooski, and that person coming from Winooski, because they started at 6.30, had to leave their house at 5.30, had to go to Essex Junction to transfer, and where they transferred to was a stop that then they had to walk 20 minutes up to their job, which of course in winter you're not going to do. And the other thing that was interesting about it was that the people that surveyed said that the other reason they drive is because it's convenient for them to stop along the way home. So there were stops that were kind of potential businesses for us in RPDI. So that if someone would be stopping at a grocery store, if you had a grocery store in RPDI, there's their stop right there so they could still use the bus. So it was just wondering what kind of coordination we do with GMT why GMT hadn't had a stop that went all the way to RPDI, given there were 650 people surveyed, and that was only 85%. Revisionware wasn't even surveyed. So I imagine there was other potential, because that would have been potential business for GMT itself. So I'm just, I'm wondering how all this is coordinated. And then the other portion which was interesting to me was I didn't see that we presented the CATMA study to the Planning Commission. And that, to me, seemed like where we should be certainly coordinating some of this work between GMT, our staff, housing, our Econ Commission, and Planning Commission. So how is the CCRPC involved in helping coordinate all these stakeholders? It's a long question. Sorry about that, Charlie. It's an important one.

You also used some acronyms that I'm not familiar with, so I'm not sure I'm completely grounded.

That was in your presentation. That's why I said it. Yeah, it's including your presentation. I just read your presentation.

Yeah, so there is a lot of coordination. That doesn't always mean that there's money available to implement. And so, sorry, a really quick answer is going to be You know, and I can't tell you, you know, we provide a lot of funding to GMT for transit route planning and to CAPMA. to work with employers on transportation options. I think between the two of those, we're probably over $850,000. We provide those two organizations to do that work. So we don't micromanage what they're doing, however. So there may be some opportunities there, but I don't know that it's a lack of coordination as much as it is just a lack of resources to provide a service. Um, and the other thing I'll say, sorry, this is a little cynical, I'm getting older, so this happens more and more to me, but, um, is that, you know, people filling out surveys about what they want don't always follow through. Uh, so, you know, it doesn't mean that they would absolutely ride the bus or, you know, pay that fare. So, um, so anyway, I think there is interest. This is still a challenge for sure. You know, we're, um, it's, we're, We're not, the density isn't that great. We're not that big for robust transit. So we've had a lot of transit for what the size we are. Sorry, that's not an excuse, but just more of it's what we are. And I think we'll just have to keep working on it. I don't know what the answers are in terms of this current situation, but we'll keep working at it.

Thank you. Patty Davis, I believe your hand is up next.

Hold on. Hello. Thank you for taking my call. I just have one good thing to say about the CCRPC. I want to thank you very much for the Stantec traffic truck study for Lower Sand Hill Road. I know you work very closely with the town. And just to make my question quick, a little bit of background is just on November 20th, 2023, 16 lower Sandhill residents came before the select board with concerns about the significant increase in industrial truck traffic on a road. The town has since adopted the lower Sand Hill truck traffic study, your Stantec study, and is working on potential solutions. So that money that you helped, you know, the $85,000 grant, you know, that you helped our town, which was wonderful. My question is, while those solutions are being worked on, Where in the town's process are the additional impacts on Lower Sand Hill from continued development in the Saxon Hill Industrial Park being evaluated and addressed? Because I'm following the public record here only, and I'm concerned that while the town is working toward a solution for Lower Sand Hill, additional development continues to be approved that may add significant traffic impacts to the road. I'm simply asking where those additional impacts are being evaluated in the meantime. And I'm asking you because you work so closely with our town. And again, I thank you for everything you've done for us. Thanks.

And I was going to start with I don't know. But I think the more professional answer is probably we're not involved in the permitting process. So that would have to be through your local land development regulations. And I'm sure there's thresholds there, which I'm not familiar, about which things you require traffic impact studies or which don't. So, yeah, I'm sorry I don't have a better answer than that. I appreciate that. Greg or Karen, do you want to respond at all?

I was just going to say, you know, I appreciated the studies on both of the studies that were done there. But, you know, if you read and understand the study, the solution that was proposed from the study was to complete, sorry if I don't know the name of the road, but the road that is, I think it had a different name. Chemo Drive. so the so if you read the study in the study it says that to solve the traffic crisis you would complete chemo drive and i think that i don't know exactly i haven't had that much time to follow every single detail of the step of the problem but i've seen that i believe that's the ruling that the land use review board from the state of vermont made was on the slope of the road or just the subdivision

One or the other up there. You're talking about the Act 250 permit?

Yeah, but until anything happens over there and that road's completed, there is no solution, right? The solution is that the traffic is going to be there until that road's completed. From the way I read the study, that's exactly how the study reads.

Thank you. Anything further?

No, not for me.

Okay, I'll bring it back to the board then. Not seeing any other...

Lorraine, before we do, is that hand still up or is that just a new comment?

Sorry, I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to follow up. I wanted to address the funding. Charlie, if you know, is that because a lot of the federal funds dried up? Which dried up the We shared up the state level because the other thing I was disappointed to see was that the area that we struggle with the flooding from North Williston Road onto the highway of 117, the River Road connection, which is part of the Wilson Essex Nest Network transportation corridor. which you can see part of that corridor now is getting built out with a number of residencies on Mountain View Road as part of that corridor, and that's residential, and then there's residential also on North Wilson Road, which is supposedly a truck route, but they also restrict their truck route because they have a weight limit on that road. So one of my concerns, too, with the RPDI being built out in terms of truck traffic is that we don't... we're going to run into more and more flooding as the climate change events, not that we're getting more wet per year, we're not getting more rainfall per year, it's just we're getting more rainfall per event, and that was a critical piece to be able to improve the trucking if we were going to build those areas out, and I'm afraid that we're going to continue developing And it's going to turn into disaster because now when I look at the plan, there's not even a date on that part. There's a date on a portion of it for building, I think, out the curves and stuff, but not for the resiliency of the floodplain. There's a floodplain all along there. And there's also a floodplain, heavy floodplain area right above RPDI. And we're also cutting trees down in the area. And there was a proposed huge swale at the bottom of the RPDI. And I could just see that undergirding. So I was concerned to see that there was no date on that anymore. So if you could just address the funding portion and why that had a date on it before and it no longer has a date. And also the other date it was promised for 2027 is now 2028.

So just I'm concerned about funding. And are you referencing a specific project that's in the TIP?

Yeah, there was a project that was in your presentation. There was two parts of the North Wilson Road to connection to 117, right?

Yeah, 117 North Wilson Road. Yeah, $2 million with construction in 28 or 29.

Yeah, and there was two portions there, so it split.

And then a hazard mitigation for $400,000.

Yeah, that one doesn't, one of them didn't have a date on it anymore.

Yeah.

It said to be determined.

And I do not know the story there. I will check on that, but I don't know if that had a date and got bumped out because of their financing issues or what. Good question. I don't know. I will check in on that also.

Thank you, Lorraine. Thank you, Mr. Baker. Not seeing any other hands. Oh, we have a hand in the room. Yes, Cheryl.

Hi, I'm Cheryl Van Epps. I'm a new member of the Housing Commission and I heard you talk about the technical assistance. I'd be very interested in learning more of how to run the GIS services. I was wondering because I've been to Planning Commission meetings and DRB meetings where it sounded like some of the staff may have. it would have benefited them to be able to use these services also. So I was wondering, are you getting the word out to the town and the boards and staff what is out there for us to look at with technical assistance?

Yeah, this is one of the ways I try to do that. I mentioned that earlier. Around Thanksgiving time, we kind of set out an application package to all the towns. And, you know, that's one of the services that towns can ask for, for sure.

Okay. Great. I'll look for it then.

Yeah, and those applications are due typically, like, third week in January.

So we need to apply to be trained or something?

Yeah, and depending on what it is, you know, if it's something small that we can do, and so we provide 12 hours of free GIS services every town. So, you know, I don't know where Essex is in that, One of my staff tracks that somewhere. If it's something that we can turn around quickly, we'll just try to do it.

Thank you.

Thank you. With that, we'll close public comment and bring it back to the board. Any further comments?

Thank you, Charlie.

See you Wednesday.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you and your staff's work. We really appreciate it.

Have a good night. Thank you.

You as well. That'll bring us to business item 6B. Harlan, I believe you're in the room. Come on forward. Consider approval of conservation and trails committee request to use conservation reserve funds to support land acquisition and trail easement. I don't know what your title is anymore, but a member of the conservation trails committee with you. Uh, do you want to give a brief explanation of what this is and present it?

Yeah. Good evening, everybody. Um, we're bringing forward two pieces of property. Um, first being a 2.04 acre, um, that has been graciously donated to us, which borders Pinewood park. Um, and also has one of our, um, official town trails. Um, it's one of the trails that was voted in originally, uh, officially. TO BE A TOWN TRAIL. THERE WAS A LITTLE BIT OF A DISCREPANCY WITH THE EASEMENT THAT WENT THROUGH THAT PROPERTY, AND THROUGH DISCUSSIONS, THE LANDOWNER HAS OFFERED TO DONATE THE ENTIRE PARCEL, WHICH WE ARE EXCITED ABOUT. THERE IS SOME STORM WATER AND WET AREAS THAT RUN OFF IN THERE, AND THERE'S SOME NICE FORESTED AREA IN THERE THAT WE BELIEVE THAT WE CAN DEVELOP TO FURTHER ENHANCE recreation to that neighborhood. Um, and the agreement with the landowner was that we would cover all expenses to make that, um, that transfer, uh, if they were willing to donate it to us, which they graciously have. Um, so we're looking approval for that. And then the second one is a new Essex town resident who purchased a house on 15 Kimberly drive. Um, who realized that people were walking through their yard and reached out to us and asked us to look into it. And as you can see, the dotted lines are the water line easement, which also has a pedestrian easement to it as well. And what you really can't tell from the picture is that it goes extremely close to the backyard of that home. So in working with the people on 15 Kimberly Drive to remove the blue trail that you can see in that map, they've graciously allowed us to move it out to the outer corner. And to make it permanent, they have agreed to sell us an easement, which would be that triangle. And they have been fabulous through this whole process working with us. And we have already developed the trail with their permission. So the trails in place, the amenities have been moved. People are using it. We've received positive comments from some of the people that use it on a regular basis that they love the new trail layout and the way that it's been moved. So we're asking the board tonight to approve to use conservation or reserve funds to secure that easement. to keep that connection into Pearl Street Park for that neighborhood.

I'm glad to hear that the trail's already been developed and created and it's been accepted by the public. Has the blue old trail been cut off and blocked?

We did. We moved a bunch of the woody debris that was already on the property into that location. We've put signs redirecting people to the other area. Great. That particular resident has been extremely easy to work with, and we have been extremely helpful in trying to make sure that we solve the issues that they were having with that property.

Wonderful. Well, thank you for bringing this to us. Board members, do you have any questions for Harlan or the committee? Meg? Meg?

No question, just that I think this is well within the scope and purpose to use these funds, and I think it fits in really well with the town plan, and I appreciate you guys working closely with these landowners to do this. I'm excited that the landowner is graciously just donating that entire parcel. That's really exciting, and I'm glad you were able to kind of fix and reroute already out of that person's yard.

comment thank you meg kendall i see your hand yes um this is related but mostly it's more of a question for staff both of those easements are very clearly waterline and one's a pedestrian easement it points out to me that the town doesn't necessarily maintain their easements that they have i'm just curious how the trails got developed Outside of those accepted easements to begin with.

I think the simple answer to that is just the way that the people utilize trails. And obviously, as you know, the trails coordinator was just brought on. Not even sure if he's been here. He's been here just a little over a full year. there are a lot of trails throughout the towns so i think in the process of early spring when you get muddy situations and so on and so forth that some of these particular trails move just by natural people um trying to avoid particular objects that may have gotten gotten away um i i think the easements as far as waterline easements and and definitely the pedestrian easements have been Maintained to the best of the ability there's not actually fencing on each side of it to know exactly where it is when we're out there And we're doing the work and so in With the trails coordinator being out there as often as he is we're starting to identify some areas where the trails have wandered and some easements that maybe should have been marked as pedestrian and never or recreational easements that never were they never got captured in the deeds and So as part of our process, we're working on them one at a time. I would love to say these are going to be the only two, but I don't know. But it's our mission to make those corrections and to make sure that they're maintained moving forward.

Okay. I mean, I know this sounds pretty critical, but I know a number of towns that have done this, what appears Essex has done, and especially with water and sewer easements, those should be maintained so that you can get equipment on them. Because if you don't maintain them, the worst thing you can do is all of a sudden show up with a backhoe or something in somebody's yard and cut down trees and dig up everything. And there have been a number of towns, too, where there have been structures and other things that have actually been put in easements right over water and sewer lines. So I don't oppose either of these easements. I think it's good. But I do think that the town should be put on notice that it's very important that you know where your easements are. and that you maintain them and that you let the landowners know where those actual easements are. So that's my two cents. Thank you. Greg, do you want to add something?

Yeah, Kendall, good thoughts. I'll check with Public Works to confirm, but my understanding is that we do mow the water sewer easements periodically to make sure they're there.

I think what you're touching on is something that we've given some thought to about can we use those water sewer easements for more than just water sewer easements. Is there a way to use them for trails? Can we maintain them as trails versus just mowing them to be able to access them when need be? So I think that's what... Harlan and Hans have been doing here, the Conservation and Trails Committee, so I think there is potential to do more of that. I think these are just two good examples of how easy that can be and how it can be beneficial for water, sewer, and for the trails.

Okay, thank you. Yeah, I was just going to solidify what Greg said, but I've spent a lot of time looking for water in Essex with a lot of cows and drilling a lot of wells. But if you go on the town map and you can actually specifically click, there's the town easements, it's public land easements, it's water easements, it's sewer easements. But I do know for a fact because I'm neighbors to where the water line comes in on the backside of towers right there in Cloverfield. And, um, can confirm they do brush hog all of their waterline easements, but I think it's only water. I don't, I don't think there's any sewer that's running wild. I think it's only water that runs wild and it basically comes out of, um, the backside of, I forget the name of your neighborhood, but it goes up old stage and then it turns and goes down and over. But it's kind of goofy and it runs in a couple of wild spots, but they do mow it once a year. So I just wanted to say that they do take care of the water lines, but all town public easements, as you know, if you look at the map, there's a corner on every single corner of every single road and a little sliver here and there. And town owns quite a few hundred acres of easements. Thank you, Ethan.

Do you mind if I? Yes, Karen.

Kendall, I had the same question, actually, when I started reviewing this with staff. And after looking at infrastructure maps, there is no infrastructure under the ground. It's just an easement here. So we took it for the purposes of having infrastructure there, but there's nothing there to maintain. That was my understanding. Yeah.

Okay. I just noticed that the town is very, very fortunate that they have a good landowner to work with because it could have just as well gone the other way where Somebody came in and said, you're not an easement, you don't have one, so you're out of luck. So I just thought it's important that those easements are really important. Maybe not today, maybe not 10 years, but at some point they'll be very important.

Great. I'm just going to jump in. I just want to make an observation that It's rare that we actually see a number stated publicly what is in conservation reserve fund. I remember years ago, I was on the committee, we had this number that we were told was 70,000. I'm glad to see it has grown so. I'm glad to see that we're having proposals to use it appropriately. We'll move on to public comment now. Any hands in the room? Not seeing any hands in the room. I see Lorraine's hand in line. Lorraine, once you're unmuted, go ahead.

Thank you. I just want to say thank you. This is great. I love to see stuff like that. And, yes, it is great to see $100,000 in the Conservation Fund, and hopefully I assume it's invested in a way that continues to grow, which is fabulous. And also from understanding, which is exciting to me too in a modern era, that I think Ethan said that it's mapped and that this is – You can access it with a map with a click in terms of people being curious about whether there's water lines or whatever the easements are for. And if that's true, that's fantastic too. Love it. Just want to thank you all.

That's a great job.

Thank you. I don't I'm sorry we're in I don't know if I'm remembering from the town website or the 25 times I've sat in the public work office and looked at the map but the town does know where all that is if that's helpful I just don't know if I found I don't I can tell you honestly I did not find it somebody showed it to me not seeing any other hands online or in the room for public comment we'll bring it back to the board

I move this select board authorizes the town manager to finalize and execute agreements related to the donation of land to the town on Windridge Road and the acquisition of an easement on Kimberly Drive with associated expenses to be paid by the Conservation Reserve Fund.

Thank you, Meg. Is there a second? Second. Second. Thank you, Ethan, for the second.

Further discussion? Andy. So I just want to be clear that this isn't something that was intended to be discussed in executive session?

It has the option, as any land thing can be. Is there a recommendation, though?

No, this one we're comfortable having a discussion in public like we just did. Shannon said the option's there.

We do have another item.

If you would like to. No, no, no. I just wanted to make sure that we didn't jump a gun.

Of course not, but I appreciate that.

I'm happy with it. Excellent.

Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of the motion as stated by Meg, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion is unanimous. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Congratulations.

That will bring us to item C, 6C, discussion of potential action about public transit offerings and grant opportunities. Greg and Karen, I know you have both been working on this. Why don't you tag team it?

Sure.

So a few different things going on with this agenda item. One is partially just an update. One of your high priority work plan items for fiscal year 27 was to take a look at transit offerings in light of the Green Mountain Transit changes that are happening. Specifically, the action item said to look at including senior van usage and future GMT membership, present options and costs, and decide whether to renew, rejoin, withdraw from, or contract with Green Mountain Transit. That, as we've heard earlier tonight, Green Mountain Transit is reducing the number of times the number four route runs through Essex. That service is set to come to an end in March of 2027, barring some sort of financial windfall. Federal funding, state funding, that might keep it running for GMT, but we're not anticipating that. Instead, staff has been exploring other ways to try to fill some of those gaps that are going to be left by Green Mountain Transit. The senior van we talked about earlier is one of our successful programs, hugely successful. I think we're, as far as I've heard, one of the only, if not the only community in the state that offers something like that. that provides seniors access to doctor's appointments, other appointments, grocery shopping, pretty much within Essex. There's a few exceptions, but it's really restricted to Essex. But we've talked about how we can expand that service, promote that service more. Our lease is coming to an end fairly soon, so we've been talking, well, Karen and Adrian have been talking with SSTA, Green Mountain Transit, Rural Transit Authority, about how we keep that program up and running. As part of those discussions, we're also looking at Special Services Transportation Authority. That's SSTA. That's what provides that older persons and disabled services. It supplements the senior band. It can do a little bit more, both as far as where it goes and as far as the support that it can provide for people who have less mobility. It seems like there might be the possibility of partnering with, contracting with SSTA to provide additional SSTA services even when there's not a fixed route, to be honest here, Karen. So that's happening early this year. We also talked a little bit earlier tonight about the CAPMA study. That was a transportation study looking at a few of the employers in the Saxon Hill District. There's a number of recommendations that came out of that program, including promoting van pools, car sharing, Stuff like that, even offering, we heard it earlier tonight, whether it's some sort of food service, whether that's grocery stores or at this point we're looking more at food trucks is probably an easier thing to support in the RPDI so that employees can stay in the area for lunch versus having to get in the vehicle and go off-site if they wanted to buy lunch. So that's something that we're looking at some of the recommendations there that we could try to support. I think the last big one is that community development staff is working on a transportation master plan that's not specific to transit, but transit is a part of it. It's also looking at where do people walk, where do they bike, where do they drive, trying to get us a clear picture of how people move about Essex. That's going to set a vision and priorities for future investments in transportation, safety, connectivity, and will help guide us in the direction of some steps we can take along those lines. More recently, one of the Economic Development Commissioners, Ann Miller, brought to my attention that there's a grant available through VTRAND. It's the Mobility and Transportation Innovations grant, MTI grant. Thank you, Ann, for bringing it up. Ann was kind enough to even draft an application for us to consider tonight. Staff has taken a look at it. Karen and I spent a lot of time taking a look at it, meeting with some of the staff who might be able to support it. As Ms. Miller has drafted it, it's more than we can do right now, especially with those other things that have going on. Ann had drafted something that would look at a full-blown needs assessment and I'm sure you'll have a chance to speak, so please correct me if I'm misspeaking at all, in taking a look at what is happening in Essex. We do think it's worth going after a grant. What we think we can support from the staff perspective at this point is a small grant, $10,000 or so, to support and promote the offerings that we do have. bring more attention to the senior van program, maybe supporting some of the employers in the Saxon Hill area to help them promote what the options might be. If we can get SSTA expanded, can we promote some of that stuff? I forgot to mention earlier that Green Mountain Transit, there's still potentially the the opportunity to contract with them for some level of service whether or not that's the full-blown route number four or maybe some spurs that that branch out from five corners is another option if something like that happens we could try to support and promote that as well So that is where staff stands. The memo talks about the recommendations that staff thinks the select board should do, which is continue having these conversations with Green Mountain Transit, SSDA, continuing the work that we're doing, and supporting a grant to do some of the marketing around the options that are out there. I think with that, we will have a better sense, hopefully a year from now, about what is working, where we're going, Potentially then would be a better time to go for a broader grant about what the needs are and how we can support them. The other recommendation in the memo is asking the Economic Development and or Housing Commission to help us identify what are some of those successful options we can look at, what are some of the opportunities that might be out there. But at this point, that's kind of where we're at with transit and what we think we can support and pursue going ahead. Anything to add to that, Karen?

No.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Board members, what questions do you have for the staff?

I just want to confirm. It sounds like the way the grant application is kind of written, it also overlaps with the transportation master plan that's being worked on right now by a consultant.

I think so. I don't want to speak for Ms. Miller and exactly what she had in mind, but from what I can tell, there'd be some overlap there. Okay.

On the master plan, I know that we just kind of got hit with this from GMT and the date that's been said about that master plan being presented to us or being completed is November. Does an extension need to be given so they can actually take this new curveball of not having the number four and different things into consideration and write up a full master plan? I know when we referenced recently in this meeting alone about CAPMA and the fact that they had talked about that being a fixed route and different things, and now that study is not necessarily as accurate as it could be. I'm just wondering that out loud.

MR. I will check the sense we got, at least that I got when talking to the ComDev staff last week, was that they're well aware of GMT and that we're still – they're still targeting November. But I will pass on the message and confirm with them that – take the extra time if they need it, which is what I think I'm hearing from you.

MR. I'm not sure I individually have that power to grant, but it's just something I would bring up if we need to have a formal process to extend that. Other board member questions? Ethan.

Not really a question, but more of a comment. But, you know, something that I've been doing a lot talking about is, GMT and I've been talking about our senior bus for quite a few years and proposed a couple years ago that we bought another bus. I think two and a half years ago I made the recommendation that we buy a third bus and add another driver, but my point of bringing this up right now is I understand the researching and the needs behind this, but I'VE HAD A LOT OF LENGTHY CONVERSATIONS ABOUT TRANSPORTATION LATELY AND THE BIGGEST EGG SHELL IN THE ROOM, RIGHT, IS THAT ESSEX ISN'T GOING TO FIX THIS PROBLEM AND THEY'RE NOT GOING TO DO IT BY THEMSELVES AND IT'S IMPOSSIBLE UNLESS YOU THINK THAT THE TOWN OF ESSEX CAN ABSORB, YOU KNOW, A COUPLE MILLION DOLLARS TO CREATE A TRANSPORTATION. The drive behind this, I support fully. But I think that throwing money, and I'm okay with the $10,000 and the $2,500 of the money just to see if there's anything that we're missing. But in my mind, to continue to throw anything substantially over $10,000, I would say, at this problem i think we would have better luck saving our money and going to our legislators the governor's office the the state transportation committee um you know we cannot solve this problem by ourselves and um in the five years i've been on the select board i think i've seen three now different studies for BIKE MOBILITIES, TRAFFIC STUDIES, AND THEN WE'RE WAITING ON THE FINAL OF THE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. AND NOT TO BE FRANK ABOUT THIS, BUT NOTHING HAS COME FROM ANY OF THOSE STUDIES. Okay, so if you added up the amount of dollars that we've spent on those studies, it's over, I forget exactly, I was just doing a quick brief look on the last three years of the ones that I could cite and look back in my mind. And the town of Essex spends a lot of money on studies. So I think we just need to be careful about what we're trying to achieve and how we're going to achieve it by ourselves without the state of Vermont who failed us. Because I think we really need to go back to the drawing board of who pulled the funding out from underneath us. Why did GMT spend $5 million on buses that they can't even drive? Because it was a federal grant of federal monies that were obnoxiously used across the whole state of Vermont. And all of these different transportation... plans, and these green energies, and cost sharing, and ride sharing. Every year it's a new term, and they've got a solution, they've got a solution, they've got a solution. And the transportation budget goes farther in the hole, farther in the hole, farther in the hole. And every community comes to the table and says, let's throw more money at it and see if we can find a way, and see if we can find a way. And I'm just really getting to the point where I'm feeling a little insane. continuing to say that we're going to study it and figure something out without actually doing anything. So I think we need to find out what we're trying to solve, how we're going to solve it and like pick a direction. And I think that this is a great start and I would, I would support personally the, the $10,000, but I just can't see the town spending any more money without a solid plan. Thank you, Ethan.

Before we continue, I'll just remind people in the room, side conversations need to be taken outside the room, please.

Any other comments, or not comments yet, but questions from board members?

Then let's jump into public comment. Kendall, sorry. Let's unmute him. Kendall, the floor is yours.

Okay, I did share a lot of stuff with staff today, and I'm not going to rehash that, but I will just point out that the whole Transportation is changing right now. There is so much autonomous stuff coming and AI changes and new technologies that at this point in time, as much as I liked Ms. Miller's proposal, I thought that the big proposal was awesome. I think we should wait. So thank you.

Thank you, Kendall. With that, we'll jump into public comment. Ms. Miller.

Apologies for the headphones. You know, I have acquired...

I thought it was very stylish.

Disorder, so I have dysfunction, so I am unable to hear anything in public without headphones. Hopefully you can hear me okay speaking. I wanted to say thank you, first of all, for accepting my proposal and listening to it. I appreciate it. It was all happened quite by accident, honestly. I was at a housing commission meeting. And I heard that they couldn't get funding because they didn't have fixed transit routes. And I was at the Economic Development Commission meeting. And in that, we were discussing, actually, to Kendall's point, an autonomous program that is being run as a pilot in Grand Rapids, Wisconsin. And that didn't seem feasible either. And so it was like, how do we solve the problem? And I drove here. My family owns three cars. I have four adults in my family. But fundamentally I'm a problem solver and I really appreciated Ethan's comment because I do think that studies only get us so far and that we need the data to make good decisions. And that's why I wrote the proposal the way I did, which was to say let's understand because the master plan that you mentioned, Meg, is a master connectivity plan. It's at a much more general level. I'm talking about understanding out of point-to-point basis where people need transit and then trying to solve that and i actually think to kendall's point that it isn't going to be like a conventional solution anymore just as we look at how work is changing and how people aren't necessarily working in the same company for 30 years there's people i i'm one of the 20 of essex residents who works from home so there's a lot of things that have changed and i think that we need to be looking forward for that And so the only other thing that I would suggest to you all is that I really appreciate resource constraints, right? Like I work for a company and we're resource constrained, right? And it's how do we get the job done? How do we get the ball over the line? How do we accomplish this objective? And I understand that the town has limited resources. but you have a bunch of people in your community who really care to help and even though I'm not paid staff and other people are not paid staff we are really willing to help out and it doesn't mean doing it our way it means like coming together on a common goal. And if that goal is to try to survey more people who are over the age of 65 about their housing needs, I think we could pull together a committee of people who could do that. I mean, all the time we develop collaborative programs and implement them. I care a heck of a lot more about getting something done than studying it. I'm just very disappointed that we won't have any data to get something done. This grant for $10,000, Ethan, allows the town to market its existing services, which is great. And I think the more people that know, the better. But we won't have any more information gathered through that process unless in the course of doing that marketing, we also collect some information. So thank you all, and I really appreciate the opportunity to be a member of this community and to come to the Select Board and share some ideas. Thanks.

Thank you, Ann, and thank you for being an active member. We really appreciate all you do. Lois, please come forward.

I was thinking about connecting dots.

Could you just state your name? Lois Whitmore. Thank you.

And following up on what Ann said, I kind of thought of some of the ways we maybe could get some of that data It occurred to me that for all of the people who are advertising for vacancies in jobs, we don't know how much they're willing to pay and how long the jobs have been vacant or where the people who do work for them come from. So we have a ready source within the town of gathering some data about that particular information that would be very easy to acquire i think and in that data we would have a different kind of profile not of people who bike and not people who walk but people who are trying to get to jobs are trying to get you know their kids from daycare or get to the grocery store at a late hour and i think that that's the kind of thing that this community could organize very, very easily and at no expense. One of the things that I'm interested in are the invisible ridership. The people who might ride buses or jitney cabs or vans, whatever it was, were we able to serve those populations? They're not the people that you surveyed before. For example, if somebody is on SSI, they're penalized if they work more than a certain number of hours because then it cuts into their earnings. If you're a senior waiting cataract surgery, you can't drive. If you're a felon, you have a record and you've lost your driver's license for DUI, you might be able to have work. but it isn't reliable and so it's hard to hold a job if you can't get there on a regular basis. So there are members of our community who form part of a workforce or potential workforce or potential ridership who we aren't necessarily aware of and would be very, very difficult to quantify. Along with those are people who have skills for companies that might be coming in. We don't know what vacancies are being advertised or what level they're being advertised at, but those are potential riders or people who could carpool or people who could travel together that we haven't even thought about. So we're thinking about the expense of transportation, and we're thinking about it as a drain on the local economy. We're not thinking about the fact that if businesses can have full employment, we're circulating more money in the town. And by bringing in more businesses and more employees, we're really upgrading the entire economy. So in a sense, it's an investment. I mean, any business is going to have expenses. The companies that have daycare centers for their employees are able to retain their employees a great deal longer than the places that do not. And so it is with transportation as well. So I think that there may be some angles that we haven't really considered about ways to approach the potential for ridership as an investment in the town's economic growth. And I would like to see us explore those. And I would like to see all of our resources being utilized to do that. Because I think the community has a vested interest in making this project successful. And that we need to make the ask to the larger community to join us in that effort.

Thank you very much. I see Lorraine's hand on line.

Thank you, chair. I just like to echo those two, Ann and both Lois. I believe the $30,000 ask is a grant and not a cost. Am I correct in that? Was there a cost associated aside from staff time?

There is. $7,500.

Okay.

But I'm saying the other, which is under 10.

Yeah, so.

And also in terms of feeling too stretched with staff, there are a lot of volunteers who are basically free that could probably certainly ease some of the staff concerns. Some of the work that we're just really digging in, I think I support the full grant because we really need the data in terms of understanding. And I agree with Kendall. Things are going to change, but we still need the data points of the needs. It's a needs assessment, not the transportation assessment. We need to understand who needs what. And what was fascinating about the Cadmus study was, and I agree, Ethan, it's tiring, and to me, part of the issue in trying to resolve and create solutions, it seemed in that cabinet study it was a small slice of solutions offering. And it felt like some of it, to me, is because maybe we're a little bit too siloed in our work. and that maybe we need to summit a little bit more between econ planning and housing and whoever has to cover transportation because when I look through our town plan again housing and econ community development cover a lot of the transportation needs and the work and what was fascinating about that cabin study was it feels to me like a really missed opportunity to develop our resilient economy locally because It kind of said in that formula, the people who were surveyed that were under 10 miles, there were a lot of people that were over 10 miles that wouldn't change for, but the people that were under 10 miles, it seemed to me that if those, the list that was provided from Cadmus of what we should change the RPDI uses to would increase ridership. It seemed like there were pieces of the puzzle that weren't put together, and we just didn't coordinate it, and we missed opportunity, and we just, in the planning commission, just moved some of the RPI uses forward. I don't remember if we included daycare in there, but daycare was one of the things that certainly would build the businesses in there. Food, which they said... food trucks, which of course is the short answer, but grocery store, because if someone could just walk from their work and grocery shop, that would increase ridership. It just seems like we missed an opportunity to build a more resilient economy. And also for the developers who have some of those parcels that may not have anyone signed up yet for some of those parcels. That could help our developers as well who are leasing those businesses and something that would probably stay there for quite some time if we have that level of employment in that area. I would hate to see this as a missed opportunity because the staff is feeling stretched. There's a number of us serving on the different commissions and committees now that I think could certainly help out and my thought also in terms of that grant was some of the overlap would unburden the staff as well in terms of providing a more complete picture. So I hope that you'll reconsider and support the full grant as opposed to just the $10,000 grant. And reading through the town plan again today, I'm concerned that we're not fulfilling our obligation, our legal obligation to the town plan as our section of transportation and our segment of housing, there were a number of shalls in there. And I am deeply concerned about not meeting the requirements of the town's plan because it's not just aspirational. It is also regulatory. And we often miss that. That is an actual regulatory doc. Thank you for listening. Thank you for the work that you all do. And I feel like we're getting closer. So thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. I'm not seeing any other hands. Cheryl, please.

Hi, Cheryl Van Eps, I'm from the Housing Commission and it's an honor for me to be serving alongside of Lois and Lorraine. They seem to have a lot of experience and I'm just learning so much being with them. I want to speak on behalf of folks like myself who suffered a medical event that rendered me unable to drive and how much I needed transportation. We are a one-car family out of choice, but if that was my financial situation, I wouldn't be able to go to the farmer's market on Sand Hill Road. I live in Pinewood, which is southwest of 289. So it's so far away from me. It would take several hours to walk there. Going to vote. I did actually try taking the bus to... Essex Middle School, walked to there, and I was in so much pain, a friend had to drive me home because the 45-minute walk to my bus stop was going to be painful for me. But I want you to think of these folks. I didn't take the bus nearly as often as I could have because it didn't come in a hours to catch to one walk to the bus stop two to take it and then perhaps make a connection to another bus and then to go to the appointment and then so forth and so on for the way back so that might occupy my entire day just going to one appointment and all that transportation so this is really a You do what you can to avoid that kind of thing. So when Lois mentioned invisible ridership, that's what she's talking about. Folks who would take the buses if they were frequent enough. I was lucky enough to tour, to visit Europe and to tell you the convenience of the buses, the trams, the subways, the trains every 10 minutes. You miss one, no pressure on you, no stress. You could take the next one. It was incredible. So I'm so... frustrated with what we're stuck here with in America. And, you know, the situation we're in where there are some people out here who are desperate. I just want you all to keep those folks in mind. I know we're limited with what we can do. But please, if we can do something, please, let's give it a shot. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate the work.

Thank you for sharing your story.

Back to the board.

Ethan.

I just got a couple comments I want to make. Just point out, obviously, the CAPMA study again. I can get dates for all of this stuff and links for anybody that wants to see the information. But GMT did do a ridership study, and they shared the data with the select board for the last two years. I think three times, and they provided us the final update when they decided to cut the route with a breakdown between student and all other ridership. I want to talk about hiring agencies that most all the large corporations in the RPDI use. I see them on Facebook all the time. They're a paid marketing firm that goes out and searches for employees. They List the job description, benefits, pay, hours, location of the job, yada, yada, yada. I see them frequently. I know Budget uses it, and the food company uses it, and I forget the name of the military-grade equipment in there, but I just met somebody that worked from there the other day. Revision? Yeah. Revision.

Revision, thank you.

I also want to talk about Rideshare Vermont. Rideshare Vermont's a great program. I think it's based out of Mont... I see them in Chittenden County all the time, especially in Essex on Towers Road when I'm over there. And then I just wanted to make a quick comment about population in relationship to transportation. And if anybody has, I think it was Greg's ask in part of this, and I think it's Charlie's ask and a lot of people's ask and the high levels of transportation is if you have similar examples with towns of 11,000 people that have better transportation than we offer, we can definitely look at what they're doing and how they're doing it. I don't think anybody's running a tram with 10,000 of us, but those are just a couple notes I wanted to share information on stuff that I've read over the years and studies that we've been presented as a select board. Not that it changes anything for what we're voting on, but it's all good information to look forward to possibilities. And the only other correction I wanted to make was that the proposal from Greg and the memo for the $10,000 grant only requires a $2,500 matching fund from the town of Essex.

Thank you, Ethan. Further board comments or I'd love to entertain a motion. Andy.

I make the motion that the select board authorize the town manager to submit a an mti grant application to support marketing of public transit options in essex and approve committing up to 2500 and matching funds thank you andy is there a second second thank you ethan final discussion on the motion not hearing any we'll take it to a vote all those in favor please say aye aye aye all those opposed

Kendo, I'd love to know your vote. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes 5-0. That will bring us to business item 60, discussion of pencil action about fire chief's retirement and next steps. Greg.

So Fire Chief Cole recently announced that he will be retiring about a year from now, on or about September 1st, 2027. I first just want to take a moment to thank him for all the work that he's done for the town. It'll be almost 20 years, about 20 years by the time he retires. He's been in the fire service for well before that, but good long leadership in Essex in his role. He's dedicated a lot of his life to Essex and to the fire community in general. So Certainly a transition and a change to see him go. I just wanted to take the moment first to thank him for all he's done for the community.

Before you continue, let's just give him a round of applause.

I asked him if he wanted to be here tonight. He has training. He wanted to be training tonight. He said there'd be plenty of other times that he'll be in front of the select board, so you'll have a chance to see him for sure.

Budget season's coming up.

We're going to see a lot of him. So with that in mind, and Chief Cole in his retirement letter recommended going to a full-time chief. I wholeheartedly recommend that. Something I've been thinking about even before the chief announced his resignation about when we get to that point. The chief mentioned in his letter that the call volume has more than doubled since he started. I'm seeing it from my end just as far as the amount of admin work that needs to go into the fire department. We now have the paid-on-call volunteers. We have the per diem program. We have different levels of all these things. There's a new org structure that has chiefs, captains, lieutenants to help with the organization and reporting structure. That takes a lot to manage just in terms of there's roughly 40 firefighters between the paid-on-call and the per diem, if not more than that. It's a lot to keep track of. It's a lot to manage. It's over 2,000 calls a year between fire and EMS. It's a big job, and we've paid Chief Cole largely as a volunteer to do that. So I think it's time to start thinking pretty seriously about how do we get a more full-time or a full-time position there just to be a regular presence in the department, provide leadership, also to provide some strategic planning, admin oversight. Not that Chief Cole hasn't done any of that, but I think the job has changed quite a bit from when he has started. heads up that's something I'm going to be presenting in my budget proposal to the select board so I hope it's something that you consider pretty strongly and seriously and we obviously can get some more details and answer questions as we get closer in but just wanted to give a heads up on that the other thing you might want to consider is whether or not you want to talk with Essex Junction anymore whether that's through me going to my counterpart city manager if it's some of you who want to be part of that conversation or to reach out to the city council members there. The Essex Junction Fire Chief is retiring also in about a year. They're also primarily a paid on call volunteer department, so there could be an opportunity to share some resources as we both go through a transition. I'm not sure what their plans are yet or what their future will bring, but now would be a great time, I think, to at least approach that topic and have that conversation and see if there's any interest in sharing some resources and working together to try to find solutions. That's it for me.

I appreciate that. I just want to again publicly thank the Chief as well as thank his family. That's an incredible career and I appreciate him, the dedication he's given and the sacrifice he's made to keep our community safe. Kendall has his hand up.

Thank you.

I would just say that it is fortuitous and very interesting that the two communities happen to be in the same position at the same time. I'm strongly in favor of hoping that we can work out something with the city.

Thank you, Kendall. Other board members? Questions for staff about this? Let's go to public comment then. No hands in the room. Any hands on line? No hands on line.

Back to the board. Andy. I did have a question. The recommendation suggests one or two select board members join the manager. Is that something that we would resolve this evening or does it depend on how the discussion goes with how many council members they want to, you probably want to have equal numbers. why is one or two?

I was more just trying to keep it under quorum.

Yeah, it's going to be under quorum for sure. Yeah, I think you can, if two of you are interested, I think that's fine. And if they have one person who's interested, I think we can work it out. I don't think we're at the table where we need to have equal sides at this point. I think we're just trying to kick around ideas.

Yeah, I understood that obviously with hiring a fire chief, correct me if I'm incorrect, staff, but there'd be a Pretty extensive search. There would be a committee that came forth and different things. It would be a pretty public process. So that's why I understood the initial start was to leave it open-ended.

Explore.

So, sorry, just for clarification. So with regard to do we, are we expecting to name those one or two people this evening? Or are we, like you said, just said open-ended?

I did not anticipate coming out of this if this motion were to pass with the names on there, unless he wanted to really gung-ho go for it.

No, I don't want to do it. I've had enough negotiating with the city. I'm sorry. No, no.

I mean, conversation-wise, if we want to talk as a board about who wants to take that role.

I'm actually sitting on my hands, so I don't.

I would be more than glad if this goes forth. I think talking to the junction is important, and as Kendall just mentioned, It is fortuitous. I don't think there was any reason this happened. It just, you know, sometimes you get lucky. I would love to be a part of this hiring committee and this exploration. I think it's a great opportunity for our communities to both save money and also really better utilize our resources. My hands are not being set on.

I don't want to imply that I don't support this. I don't want to be there. Of course.

Kendall, I see your hand.

Yeah, I just wanted to. I was hoping Andy was going to want to do it because he's got a whole bunch of the experience. But actually, my question is more directed towards Greg. Is it realistic to expect that we could have all the hiring process and the budget and everything done? Is it realistic to expect that we could work out a deal with the city before that time period? I mean, that's a pretty short time frame, right?

Yes and no as far as the time frame. I, you know...

The way I look at it, Kendall, right now, we have about a little less than six months until the town meeting, so a little bit less than four months before the budget is going to be presented to the voters and seeing where the select board is at as far as a full-time chief and what the cost might be. I think certainly by March, I forget the date this year, but early March, we'll have an answer from the voters as to whether or not they support the budget. At that point, I would be looking to start the process for hiring a new fire chief, with or without Essex Junction.

Sorry, just collecting my thoughts here.

Shannon alluded to this. I do envision a pretty broad search and a big process to bring in a new fire chief. It'd be the first time we have a full-time fire chief, assuming we go that way, which is a big assumption. But I think we have enough time now to start planning for that. And then if it's a July 1st, September 1st type timeframe, depending if there's overlap or not with Chief Cole, we have a good three to six months to do that process, to do that search. That also builds enough time to what does it look like? So I think if conversations start with Essex Junction and interest is there, we can... make it a fairly high priority. Many years ago, I was loosely part of conversations, mostly a fly on the wall, but I was part of conversations about what does it look like to consolidate and align the fire departments. This was back when we were talking more about consolidation, potentially leading towards merger. So it wouldn't be a totally foreign concept to me as far as how do we align the departments, how do we set the needs up so that we're talking the same language as far as an overarching chief if we get to that point. Of course the devil's always in the details, so yeah, I might take up some time about, Who actually employs this person? Again, I'm making a lot of assumptions right now, so just bear with me. Is it a town employee, a city employee, 50-50? Are we sharing equipment, vehicles? How is it two battalions that operate more or less separately, or is it one department that kind of has one umbrella with two stations? Upper Main Street? factors in a little bit as well as far as a proposed new fire station up there. Is it another opportunity potentially to share resources or to align? Is there a central hub with outlets? So a lot of questions to be answered, but I do think that we can start now, and I'm confident that if there's a desire to work together, we can have a pretty good conversation and have a good framework in place by late winter, early spring. If the town's going to go it alone, I think in some ways that's more freedom and flexibility to move ahead. Of course, the cost would probably be higher in that case.

Does that answer your question, Ken? I kind of just rambled for a while.

Yeah, no, I was just concerned that, you know, to work out the details of a potential 10-year agreement, it could take some time, but it sounds like you've got a really good plan, so... I really think that the new fire station will factor heavily into what happens going forward.

Andy, I saw your hand.

Yeah, so it's a very good point and I think I want to say it distinctly is that we really can't start trying to hire somebody until we have approval of a budget that would support it, right? really can't start the hiring process until after town meeting day next year. So that's a, thank you for making that clear. And I think in that situation, we would likely budget for, unless an agreement came together, I don't know that we could have an agreement before knowing that we have an approved budget. So I would assume that we would budget a full cost. of a new hire unless you I'm not I'm not telling you what to do at all. I'm sorry that that's that wasn't my implication there but I'm just trying to you know walk through what this is might look like to to us or to people and the other the other point I wanted to make is it says here in the memo to is that the charter says that the fire chief is appointed by the town manager with select board approval There, at some point, needs to be discussion about how that works, because sometimes we have, it's a little uncomfortable making an offer without knowing that the select board supports, and so it's, thinking back to when we hired a shared manager, I honestly don't remember how we managed that. I know there was a public process and we had committees that interviewed candidates and those kind of things. I'm not expecting that to happen here at all. I'm not suggesting that that needs to happen because it explicitly says it's your choice who you hire. But I don't remember how we got it to an agreement point with the city. But I guess that's what the... all y'all will figure out. And maybe I'm just talking too much.

Don't overthink it.

Yeah, right. I support this fully. I think this is great.

My understanding of this is the spark to ignite a process. I don't think we need to work all the details out tonight, but I think these are really good flags and things we'll be talking about a lot come this fall, if something were to go forth with this.

I just wanted to mention, so does the city manager have the same authority as the town manager when it comes to hiring a fire chief?

I'm not sure if your charter specifies one way or the other.

Okay, I would only mention that because if that is the case, then really this needs to start with the managers in a room before it goes anywhere, even really to the boards.

Fair enough, Kendall. Ethan?

I just wanted to point out, Kendall, that the select board is the deciding board for the town of Essex. So, no, this is not a knock to Greg, but Greg will do as the select board wishes. We give him purview to have certain authorities, but this change would be something that would need to be spearheaded by the two municipal boards and then followed up on by their acting governance in May. saying that wrong or do you believe that that's the case I mean we essentially we approve the budget if the select board doesn't allow to approve to moving the fire department to a full-time chief it doesn't happen right so there's nothing for us to work on because you can propose all the ideas you want with about anything right that the select board ultimately has to decide so I don't think that I just think don't overthink this and think of this as the town of Essex is in a need for public safety. I'm not going to say enhancement. I'm going to say the word growth because we're growing as a community. We've realized a need. We have new fire station in the works. Um, you know, I'll be, I'll be up most, um, honest about this. This has been one of my ideas for a long time to, you know, look at putting the fire chief in a full-time position where, um, the town can make, um, different growth changes that it may not have been able to make with people volunteering their time, right? Like volunteering is a hard thing. People do it for a long time. You know, chief Cole has donated, donated, um, volunteered sorry same thing right donation volunteer a large portion of his life so I think if you look at it in the grand scheme of things you know the town of Essex has a huge growth opportunity here and the real question on the table is do the five of us select board members support funding a full-time fire chief and if the answer is yes then that is the direction that we wish to go And I would put it as a secondary question of this is what we want. This is how we're planning on doing it. And if somebody wants to join us in that adventure, then we're here with open tables to sit down at and talk with. But also, if somebody doesn't want to join us, the five of us select board members are going to, at one point in time, likely budget season, make a decision of do we want this for Essex? with or without anybody you know that's kind of the main question here that's helpful or more confusing i'm sorry thank you i'd love to entertain a motion if we're up to that point unless there's other thoughts people want to forgive just a question do we want to just leave it at one or two and then figure out who that is later i'm fine with that do you want to be appointed now i'm

Whoever wants to make the motion can lead how they see fit.

Yeah.

I think he's... Motion. No, I just saw your lips are still moving. I don't want to cut you off. Greg, yes.

I just assume if two of you are ready to step up, I just assume, hear that now, to Kendall's point, I think there's time, but it's tight, and if we have to wait another two weeks to figure out who's going to be repertorying for the town of Essex, I may as well just know that now, and if you're ready to do that.

I was thinking the same thing Greg was, but I was going to make it a little bit easier for us because if you don't agree with this, please tell me. That's our job as select board members together. But I was just going to say that we do town manager, chair, and vice chair. And the reason why I would say chair and vice chair is because if you did choose me, my term is up on March 30th. So I would want this to continue in my mind. I'm just one member, but I would want that to be the leadership of the select board because I feel like the leadership of the select board should be representing the whole select board. But if anybody feels different, I'm more than happy. I do have some connects. That's a great way to go about it.

But I think chair or vice chair would be good at language. Step up at the same point if there was Kendall or Meg or Andy's hands around his lap, if there was passion from you to be a part of this. Also, Ethan just brought up a good point. If this did go forth with that language instead of one or two select board members, but it said chair or vice chair, then we could think about that when we elect new officers come April with that new select board with this in mind as well.

I mean, I'm sorry, I'm happy to be a part of this as well if we need to. So do you, I guess bringing up this point, do you feel like this would be a thing that would be done by the time your term is ended if you wanted to, you know,

We'll make a lot of progress. Yeah. Right. But it won't be done. With or without Essex Junction. Just sorry. I didn't mean to. No, no. Right. This is.

Reaching out. Yeah. I mean. I'm fine with leaving it kind of open-ended. I'm happy to volunteer if we want to also just make a selection and be done with it and kind of move on. Knowing that. I'll kind of serve on at least reaching out to the junction on this. I think it is the right move. I agree. It's kind of a fortuitous situation that we should take advantage of. So, yeah.

Ethan.

So I'm hearing Meg and Shannon for a motion.

That's what I've also heard Ethan's interest as well. I'm good.

I do my best work in the dark. I make a motion the select board authorize the town manager and Shannon Jackson and Megan Zimmerman to reach out to their counterparts in Essex Junction about sharing fire department resources, including a chief.

Thank you, Ethan. Oh, wow. Dropping the gun. Second by Andy. Final discussion. All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Beautiful, Kendall. Motion passes 5-0. Greg will be in touch. Let's jump into 6E. Consider approval to designate voting delegate for Vermont League of Cities and Towns annual meeting. Craig.

So each year, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns holds its annual meeting. It's happening on October 6th this year. That's a Tuesday. It'll be a meeting happening at 1.30 p.m. completely remotely. VLCT describes the annual meeting as the official annual business meeting where members will vote on directors, review the past year's work, and take action on items that affect every Vermont municipality. Each VLC team member organization can designate one voting delegate to cast votes on behalf of their municipality. There's a draft agenda in your packet to see what you would be voting on. This is the opportunity to nominate a select board member to represent the town of Essex at that annual meeting.

Thank you, Greg. Board members, anybody that's very interested in doing this?

I just thought this was automatically Andy's job. Are you busy?

Tuesday afternoon I can do.

Sorry, I had to. I appreciate that. Andy, it sounds like there's a volunteering nomination for you.

Is that something you'd be interested in doing?

Kendall, I don't know. block anybody else from doing this, but I always have thought Andy's done a great job when he's down to some of those things.

The most important part on this is the next to last business item that says adoption of VLCT municipal policy, because that defines what the VLCT goes for the following two years of the legislative session, what they focus on for their lobbying efforts. Yes, I'm I'm willing to do this and I may be asking for input with regard to that municipal policy if there are any specific items that you'd like to see included in there or changed or I Know highlight things about um transit routes and so forth but uh yeah so yes i'm happy to do it well thank you andy is there any further discussion on this topic would anyone like to make a motion

I move the select board designate Andy Watts as the voting delegate for the annual business meeting of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns on Tuesday, October 6th at 1.30. Thank you, Ethan. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Meg. Founder discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

Congratulations, Andy. Thank you very much. That's awesome.

Let's jump into letter F. Discussion and potential action about select board members attending the Chittenden County. Ask Andy.

So this is a three times a year meeting that's held by the, it's at the CCRPC offices in Winooski. They serve pizza. It's a great, you have a, open discussion with other municipal managers and select border city council members. It's a great way to share ideas, to learn ideas, to see what's going on in other communities. I wholeheartedly encourage the town of Essex to have representation there. I think it's a good thing. They specifically ask for the chair and one additional member. They don't want to have quorum issues, so maximum of two.

Thank you, Andy. I had seen this. I had marked my calendar for this. I would be honored to go with another member of the committee. I think you've talked about this very positively in the past, and it's something that I thought would be well worth Essex having representation at, and I'd be glad to be one of those people.

I cannot go.

Okay.

Oh, good. Just FYI.

I'm not saying good as, like, you can't go. I'm saying as good as, like, I've been wanting to do this, but I've not done it the last five years, so I was hoping I could do it this year, but I'm not going to push anybody from not going.

No, I really can't.

When you said, I saw your hand, I was like, come on, I want to go.

I have to be. My husband's out of town. I'm still child care. That's fine. Yeah.

So if that's okay, I'd like to go, but if Kendall, if you want to really go, I could, I could be busy right now for YouTube.

I don't think there needs to be a motion. They do want you to register.

So I'm going to do this now.

All right, cool. Great.

That will bring us further down the agenda. The next three items have been noted that they can be potential action and executive action. Obviously, the first is to talk about the Housing Commission volunteer who came forth. We had waited the 30 days to make sure that position had been open. It has now been open for a full 30 days. Greg, there have been no other applicants. Is that correct? Correct. Great. We're glad to take motions now if you feel comfortable, or we can move on to the other things and go into executive session and talk about that further. What is the wish of the board? Andy?

I move that the select board appoint Stephanie Mack to the Housing Commission.

Second. Thank you, thank you. Any final discussion about the appointment of Stephanie Mack to the Housing Commission?

Do we need to specify the term? It's the only open seat.

I think it's the memo to scroll up.

If you'd like to, that's a great add to the 28.

The term that ends June 30th, 2028. So to your turn, is that correct?

It's the remainder.

The remainder of the existing open seat. Great.

Let's make sure. Minutes, lady, please include the date in the memo or the motion. All those in favor of appointing Stephanie Mack to the remainder of the two-year term ending June 28th, please say aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously, 5-0. Greg, do you want to talk to us about H?

Just briefly, my contract, I have a three-year contract to be the town manager for the town of Essex, which has been an honor and a pleasure. My contract expires on June 30th of 2027. So I wanted to start the conversation now. The select board needs to make a decision by March 1st as to whether or not you'd like to extend my contract. So I recommend we start talking about it tonight. I would also recommend we do that in executive session. Thank you.

With that, there's two other items on here that will be in executive session. We'll get to those in a second. Let's move on to board member comments. I have one comment. I just want to say that the next Coffee with Committees will be in October, the second Saturday in October, October 10th. I will send out an email to all new boards and new vice chairs, and one of my board members will be joining me. Any other board member comments?

Andy. Yeah, don't we have a fall festival or something coming up? Yes, on the 19th, starting at 11 a.m. to 11 to 4. I'm going to be there all day popping popcorn, come get some. Looking forward to it. Pray for a sunny day. I almost said pray for rain. I was worried about that. It's going to be a beautiful day.

Ethan?

That's the 19th, right? Is that what you said? That's the 19th. This coming Saturday. Yeah, that's right. I've got to bring my tractor. And make sure you buy a Calcutta ticket to the Essex Chargers Calcutta the same night at 6 o'clock. You can roll right out of Community Day and come on down to the Calcutta and support your Exit Chargers.

Excellent.

Not hearing anything else. I would love to entertain some motion.

Oh, sorry. I really wanted to say something. Fantastic work on the fiscal year 2026 work plans, the update there. There's a lot of work that's been done in the past year. I'd like to see us highlight that as part of our maybe an annual meeting or... These are the great things, some of the great things we did in the past year. I don't know, another slide or something. I don't know that we always do that. I just want to thank and congratulate staff for the great work.

Thank you. Thank you. Also, we'd love to get some ideas on how do we present that better, make it a bit more easy to digest versus a bunch of spreadsheets that are small. So kick in some ideas around there, and hopefully in the future it'll be easier for you and the public to see what we're doing and the progress that we're making towards the goals that you set each year. So thank you for the support.

Thank you.

Ethan. I move the select board make the specific finding that general public knowledge of contracts would place the town at a substantial disadvantage.

Thank you, Ethan. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Meg. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Ethan.

I move that the select board enter into executive session to discuss contracts in the appointment or employment or evaluation of a public officer or employee pursuant to 1VSA 313A1A and 1VSA 313A3 to include the town manager.

Thank you, Ethan. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Andy. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes 5-0.

Andy. I move that the select board enter into executive session to discuss the negotiating or securing of real estate purchase or lease options in accordance with 1VSA Section 313A2 to include the town manager and deputy town manager.

Thank you, Andy. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Meg. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0.

Ethan. I move that the select board make the specific finding that general public knowledge of pending or probable civil litigation or prosecution to which the public body is or may be a party would place the town at a substantial disadvantage.

Thank you, Ethan. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Meg. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries 5-0.

I move that the select board enter into executive session to discuss pending or probable civil litigation or a prosecution to which the public body is or may be a party pursuant to 1 VSA subsection 313A1E to include the town manager and deputy town manager.

Thank you, Meg. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Andy. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. I believe we're in executive session. And we will not be coming back, likely. You might.

You could. You might be. You might.

Stick around. Stay tuned.

Sorry, Andrew. Kendall, I'll give you a call on your cell phone once we get upstairs.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

man welcome back out of executive is there a motion yeah andy i make the motion that the select board authorized the chair and vice chair to negotiate a new employment contract with the town manager second thank you andy thank you mike for the second discussion all those in favor please say aye aye motion passes 5-0 thank you all ethan i make the motion we adjourn no way Excellent. Thank you for the motion. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Andy. Motions to adjourn are non-negotiable. All those in favor of adjourning at 9.23 tonight, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We're adjourned.