Utilities Committee - Regular Meeting

calling the London Utility Committee to order at 7:02. And um first, let's do the pledge of allegiance. [clears throat] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And we have no public here tonight. Um, so, um, first I guess I'll ask for, um, a motion to approve the minutes of our last meeting. [clears throat] So, before we get to that, do we need to assign alternates to vote? We do need to assign alternates to vote. Uh, Ann is not here tonight and Jeff is not here tonight. So, I'm going to appoint you, Lynn, and Joy. Okay, that that's correct, right? That those are the alternates. Okay,

thank you. All right, so let's um go to the uh may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting? [clears throat] So moved. Second. Second. Okay, we have a motion by Lynn and second by Mike. Uh all favor of approving the minutes. I I I Any opposed? I'd like to make a note that many people were very critical and I like that because it's the most [laughter and clears throat] comments I ever got. So, thank you. [cough]

Okay. Um and moving on, I'll move to town staff. I know, um James, you sent a memo out this afternoon. I haven't had a chance to fully digest it, but you guys can have the floor.

Yeah. And I just resent that a few minutes ago. I titled it the wrong person um up at the top. So [laughter] please uh forgive that mistake, but it was resent about half an hour or so ago. Um so the general gist of that memo is I had gone through about as far as we can go uh and came to a logical stopping point with respect to uh solar out back here on the FAA fields. Um, as it relates to we're basically at a point where a a decision of of of actually moving forward um would kind of like at that point uh whether this committee re recommends it goes to the uh town staff and then ultimately to uh town council for um you know for action. That's kind of where we're at right now. Um in short form um there is no uh opportunity for the town to sublet if so if the town were to you know grab that property as an as an opportunity for solar. We could not sublet that to a third party. Um FAA made that abundantly clear. So the third party kar uh in this case was uh the the opportunity that presented itself where they would then um have to um lease from the FAA directly and it has its own process. Whether they have the the appetite to do so, my suspicion is it would involve a commitment from the town to purchase those credits, you know, generated by that facility. um and and they were kind of looking at that on their end. I think at this point they also were kind of looking for some level of commitment from the town that yeah this is definitely something we want to entertain. um let's let's see how far you kerize can can push that and

whether it's Ker or another carrier at all um you know is a is is is up for up for discussion and then beyond that um I asked you know in the event of a failure of obtaining that at all um they have other credits elsewhere that the town could conceivably buy into. The most important thing here to note is that the um the aggregation program that we just got ourselves involved with this can overlap. It does not conflict with that at all. So it provides potentially another benefit to the town.

And that's that's it [clears throat] in a nutshell. When you talk about credits, do you mean uh offtaking electrons or do you mean renewable energy credits? I'm not super versed in that element of it. Um but in essence, whatever the um um whatever the the facility generates is is kind of how that credit is is developed. Um so I would say probably the the first rather than the latter as far as you know uh what the actual power generation is going to be. Right. Right. Right. [clears throat] James.

Yes. So when I read this, my first read was that there was still a possibility of the town leasing the land and then having ker am I saying that right? Um do do the work with a long-term commitment from the town? No. No. So that's that's what I started with. There's no opportunity for us to sublet in a to a third party. Okay. It would have to be Kier directly to uh FAA in this case. So there the town would not be involved in leasing land or anything of that sort at all. Okay.

So where the town actually owns the property and it becomes a little bit more attractive to the town if like the town actually owned that property and there was a facility on it. There's uh there's rental rates that Ker would be paying the town in addition to benefiting from the power generation and that commitment. Okay. So then the other thing that I think I understood was that um the the credits would be dollars against the town's electric rate. Yes. Okay. And not to exceed the town's annual electric cost 100%. I don't have enough detail on it to give you a comprehensive answer on that. [clears throat and cough] That was in the

It was. But I I' I'd like to before I open my mouth, I' let me re-review the the memo. Kajj do a an estimate on what the credits to the town under that arrangement might be.

I had asked them that question and they were kind of leaning towards all right let's let's have a more defined refined uh conversation and you know if it becomes a real thing. So, you know, as I mentioned, I'm kind of at a logical stopping point. Um, you know, whatever that financial commitment might be, I don't know, but the duration, um, appears to be somewhat long term. Um, and to that end, I'm not entirely sure that the duration itself is not up for negotiation, whether a shorter 10-year or a longer 20-year. And FAA does not want to sell the land. They want to keep the land.

I didn't pursue that as an avenue. I just made the [clears throat] I just made the reasonable assumption the FAA is going to hold on to any any land they have. They're not going to want to get rid of it. Okay.

So, I I might be able to explain a little bit if it if it if this works the same way that a a homeowner's system does um or similar. When you um produce electricity, [clears throat] it it it's net metered, meaning every month there's a calculation. You produce this much and you use this much and either you owe them some money because you've used it or you bank it. And if you bank it, then like normally in the winter, January, February, you'll use some of that that's in the bank because you're not generating as much. So that's just the concept of the net metering. In group net metering, um, you can have entities that work work together. So, um, you and I get together and we put up an array in my house, but we're going to net meter with you. For whatever reason, you're going to, you know, help me finance it or whatever that might be. But in other words, you can have uh power generated in one place but but the the net metering benefit can go to other places like town hall, police station, you know, whatever. That's that's the group part of group net metering. The reason they say that you can't go beyond your your use. You can, but you they won't they won't give you credit. They won't buy you those electron from you. So, you know, if you we were if we were using a megawatt hour a year and you produced 1.1, you would it wouldn't come it would, you know, come off of your bill. You wouldn't that extra 100,000 wouldn't wouldn't help you at all. So, that's why and it works even with the residential, you want to try to get as close to 100% as possible, but not exceed 100% because

the the and and the the law has changed a little bit now. It used to be watt for watt and now [cough] they [clears throat] reimburse they if we if you go over they reimburse you at the wholesale rate but for for a entity like this it would be the the rate the reimbursement rate would be zero. So you know that's why you want to just get close to it. So that leads to the question well how much do we need? How much do we how much does the town use?

You know, each each building we made an attempt to do that in the [clears throat] the previous committee and you know that that number was fuzzy at best. So I think you know that and that's a question that I think Kerarge and anybody else we deal with is going to ask is well you know how much can you offtake? How much how many electrons that you generate there that we generate for you can you and you use up.

So, you know, that's that's one task that we should we should probably do is try to get a a good number on what the the town's consumption is. And it it's a little bit complicated, I think, because I the the there's different accounts. It's not one account. There's not we don't get one bill. You know, the town hall gets a bill, schools get a bill, the police station gets a bill, stop lights, it's a lot. Yeah, it's I would say 20 or 30 maybe. Yeah, probably in that. Do you know if the town Do you know if the town does aggregated billing? Um, so in terms of when we pay Ever Source? No.

Okay. Um, we have different accounts. Some of them are on depending on the location whether they're on our competitively purchase rate the seven cents and change that we have through constellation I believe or if it's on the aggregation plan. So any of our accounts that were not on um constellation went onto the community aggregation plan but individually build indivi they're each individually build as um finance will tell you when they get the stack every month. Right. So they know they know they know. Yeah. All right. Oh, yeah. I guess have to add up some numbers. Right. So, that's a Justin Campo question then.

That is a Justin Campo or Sarah. Um, and if you're going to reach out, you would want to reach out to Justin and Sarah, and one of them will get back to you. Sarah Jardium Lee, our controller, or Justin. And and Mike, the the necessary thing to note is the dollars that we spend or the amount of electricity that it's it's the kilowatt hours. and and that's which it makes it's more complicated, right? [clears throat] Because Justin's going to be able to give you a good dollar number and we're going to have to figure out how do you convert that I mean it's on the bill but I don't know if he's tracking it, you know, in the in the payment system the same way that he that he tracks the dollars.

Probably not in the same it's probably not in New World. [clears throat] There's not really a mechanism in our ERP for tracking that right now. Um not to say I don't know if there is a separate tracking. I don't think DPW does anything with it for facilities. Ricky doesn't track that. [sighs] Yeah, tracking is Yeah, brand new to me here. Might I have a totally different Yeah. So, wouldn't that be available from the utility [cough] company? Yeah, it might Everource might be the easiest source for that. We can certainly um look at that or we can quite simply question before from when the prior committee to this committee being formed. Remember we got those notebooks that were like this. Right. Right.

Yeah. They they were Yeah. We we literally hard to decipher went on each account got 12 months worth of statements [cough] added up the kilowatt hours. It is enormous task and it you know I think there was data that slipped through the crack and got double entered and you know it wasn't it wasn't [clears throat] it was very difficult but it was it was as mother says it was a stack yeah weeks yeah obtaining the data you know if if if we end up needing to go through Justin it's not going to be super easy would probably be a year average because obviously with the season your your consumption goes up and down you know that kind of thing you know So, it would probably be 12 months um through the year.

It would be likely getting the raw data, the billing data and getting the actual bills. And if uh I I recently was in Justin's office for another reason and um he was able to pull up a um some invoice that he had paid and attached to it was the actual invoice and that kind of stuff. So, it may or may not be a relatively easy process, but at the same time, it's also time consuming. The question is who can actually do that on Justin's behalf because it's it's not going to be a a super uh I'm sorry. Yeah, Paul, would not the utility have that those figures throughout the year from every The answer is yes. [laughter]

But will they give it? No, they won't give it to you and I if the town requests and they're the owner of the account. Yes. you can go through the um I assume the town has some sort of liaison with [clears throat] whatever source community representative or whatever um and you can make the inquiry that way um and oftentimes what you do the reason I was asking for aggregated billing for example if you're like a Walmart a Walmart may ask for aggregated billing so when they get build they're build for many locations of Walmart alto together

so so that makes it really easy to find out what Walmart uses for electricity. Um, so [clears throat] that probably might be the best way to inquire source. Um, and see what they say. [clears throat] So, what about the contract we have with Constellation Energy? I would think they would have some idea on what our usage is in order to execute a contract. I I'd have to see what the contract Yeah. And I'm just taking a look a quick look right now to see if uh I can find that. But I [clears throat] I think it's something that in my opinion we'd want to pursue. You know,

it would not surprise me. I don't know how widespread constellation is for the energy supplier for all the accounts in town. Is it 100% 50%? I don't know what it is. It's not 100%. No, it's the majority, but it's not 100%. Okay. So, yeah. Um constellation would probably have that information. Um particularly if we have used constellation for a number of years. We have and we're Yes, we are four years I believe we're four years into our contract. So they would they would capture that information so when they go out and bid for power they know how much power to bid for. Yeah.

Exactly. Absolutely. It it might be interesting to um talk to somebody in Derry. Yes. Because that array that they put up in Derry does cover their I think all their municipal buildings. Did you go on that tour? Yeah. So we definitely should. The problem is they they have that t sewage t plant wastewater treatment plant. They're, you know, so they're they're not comp for us. Oh, right, right, right. But they could tell you how they got their numbers.

Yeah. Perhaps. I don't know. We see. I mean, we've got a quite Lyn and I have an open invitation to rely on them and talk to them and ask questions. [clears throat] Absolutely. Yep. So, we could that might be that we can learn from start. We should take advantage of that. Absolutely. I I think that it just might be something that could uh head us in the right direction because I remember that project and somebody was doing it and then you agreed to take it on and it was massive.

But going back to I going back to the question, I I I think we want to invite Kier Sarge in and have a conversation on this. I think it's worthwhile pursuing. It sounds like it's might be a little more complicated than we thought it might be. But by the same token, I haven't heard anything saying that uh this is impossible to do. Let's go look at something else. And I think if nothing else, we'd learn a lot from talking with them directly.

When we're talking to Justin, I think we need to ask too about how this plays with our purchasing powers, purchy purchasing policy. So in in theory, if we do what we're talking about here, we would just be a facilitator or there would be no financial, you know, exchange involving the town. And yet I don't I think there's my you my I just have this hunch that we shouldn't um limit oursel to one potential partner on this. Uh maybe we do put out a request for information and then you know allow anybody that's interested to [clears throat] come in and

yeah if we have to do that I fine with that I I'm not up to speed with the latest and greatest policies on purchasing right but I think yeah [clears throat] but the pre-existing purchasing policy is in effect at this moment but I I with that said I still think we're going to be talking to these companies individually I can't see Yes, definitely in a group meeting, you know, and saying like, you know, you guys are competing against each other. Do go off and do your best. So, I I'd say, you know, step one, let's we we know Karge has an interest. Let's bring them in. And I don't think we're going to advertise that they have the job. Do they? I would never do that. Renewal energy, you mean?

Yeah, revision. Yeah. Um, yeah, they can. I mean, Reision is pretty good because they have a bunch of different approaches that that but I'm sure that this would be something but it's a similar business. Similar business. Yeah. Right. Okay. And then there's another company out of Vermont that does the same thing and the name escapes me at this point in time. There's like three primary players in New England that do this. Okay. And I would assume we would talk to all three, but uh you know, you got to start somewhere, right? Yeah. And they did come in and talk to our prior committee. We had a couple come in and talk to us when we were thinking about Auburn Road, but then um that fizzled.

So, I think another key question here, James, is what does your gut tell you about FAA's willingness to enter into something like this with a third party or it wouldn't be a third party, but a commercial entity?

Yeah. Commercial entity, not the town. Well, I I discussed with them the the time that I was able to speak with them on the phone, they had a an appetite for the type of facility. Yes. But I think their their assumption is that we would own the facility and we would, you know, then we wouldn't be subleting to a third party. I don't know what their appetite is to lease to a non-governmental entity. I have no idea. But [clears throat] subleting subleting is different than letting a third party manage the program too, right? Yeah. Government to government's one thing, but

you know. Yeah. Yeah. So I I I mean I don't know the details, but I I I look at those as two different things. Yeah. So I I mean at this point I I don't I can touch base with Kier Sarge one more time and and kind of get their appetite um as far as how much further they're willing to probe this. My suspicion is they're not willing to approach FAA until they have some level of a solid interest from the town of Londereerry. So at this point it's just me talking to a guy who's trying to get a sales pitch put it put put forward. So yeah, it's it's

there hasn't been any uh there hasn't been any highlevel um you know discussions at this point

and then even beyond that it may not be appropriate at this time to invite a individual entity to present at the board because um as as we're discussing the purchasing policy would would dictate that we put out an RFP for services um and the winner of that RFP would be ultimately the person who comes forward before this panel [clears throat] and then it just becomes a function in advance of that identifying where our solid commitment is. Um and then you know as I mentioned who whoever that winner is would be the person to really come and speak to this panel. Yeah.

Yeah. I see there's a lot of work that has to be done even to get an RFP put together. Yeah. There's a lot of loose uh loose items out there that we need to get answers to before we can even pursue that. Yeah, I let me let me probe it a little bit more. See what I can see what I can come up. But I I don't know how much further really we can get until maybe we present to the town council, town manager, and and get a sense of um you know what realistic approach this program will offer the town. Y

can I can I ask a question and that is that if the FAA is not using that property, if they're not using that spaceship out there, they're not using the property, what need do they have for it? And so consequently, I would be discussing with uh oh, I don't know, our federal senators [clears throat] uh about transferring that property to the town of London. Oh boy. If if the FAA does not have a use for it,

what do you think, John? We tried that when we put the soccer field up there and they actually let us have the um army uh come in and make the soccer field that's on a slope. We offered to try to buy it all that stuff and it was like hello hello. [laughter] So I think I think they're very protective of the land in case they need for future use and that's the way they feel. So that's my opinion. Yeah. So okay there was my god 35 years ago but yeah well things change. Yes, things changed. Yeah, I got older. The the DPW garage area at one point was part of the airport, too. Um and they they gave that up. Yeah.

So, did [clears throat] did the idea of a transfer come up at all when you were talking to the FAA? No. No, I did not bring a the concept of of the town taking ownership of the land in any capacity, whether purchase or a transfer. And do we know that that beacon is not used? Yes, it's not used. It's confirmed, but it's not in use. Yes, it's it uh the the original intent of the spaceship, it's been taken offline. It still is a functioning repeater um but it's not um it's not the the high level that it used to be. [clears throat]

So just thinking out loud as a spare, they probably it provides some level of redundancy. So I doubt they are that up. They are in fact using it. Is that correct? Yeah, but they're not nearly as protective of it as they used to be. Again, it's just a it's a simple repeater. It's not the the original What's that? Not the main beacon. Sorry. It's more of a passive It's more of a passive use than an active beacon. It's more of a passive repeater. So, instead of serving as an active station to one of the primary beacons, it's now a repeater to extend range. Right. Did I get that right? Yeah. I Yeah, I think that's the best way doing it. It's no longer a

I think it'd be worthwhile having further discussion. [clears throat] Yeah, more than likely. Um yeah, I I let me see what I can do about touching base with uh with somebody over there. Question. Would it be possible just to ask the u whoever handles the accounts in the town just to get a list of accounts? Not usage or anything like just give me the account numbers. the accounts. Oh, from Eversource. Yeah, that's possible. Yeah, that there's a spreadsheet. I know. I actually know that there is a spreadsheet for that. Usually there is. There's a spreadsheet that lists all the Ever Source account numbers on it. I've seen it. So, [laughter] okay, that would be good.

If I were to get that, I could make some calls. Could they not have discussion? Excellent. [clears throat] See the sometimes the biggest issue is they don't like to give you the account numbers because there are mistakes made and all that but if you give them the account numbers no we can certainly ask for that and start that conversation. Okay. Would that be part of the data dump that uh we got for the aggregation program the data dump we got from Eversource? It might be. I don't because I know there were a lot of third party contract information or third party accounts on that data dump. I'll [clears throat] ask Fel tomorrow. Let's ask. Yeah,

I will say there is there is a very nice spreadsheet that our finance assistant maintains of to track all the different accounts we have to ensure that they get paid on a regular basis and to know how to code each one [clears throat] because they don't all get coded the same. So, I know that she maintains that. So, that is something that Yeah, there are different rates and all that kind of thing, right? Yeah, it's even just more making sure that we get code it gets coded into the system to get attributed to the proper account on our end. So, I do know that that spreadsheet exists. So that's certainly one that I can Well, let's ask FEL if they can support it before we ask the staff to do it. If they can't do it, then we'll ask F. I mean, try to save somebody. This that's a light that one the getting the uh individual invoices. Yeah, that's major lift. That's major

getting this light lift. Just so you know, just so we're if we're talking lift to say it that way. To be a light lift. You're not supposed to say it that way. I'm honest. Major tasks. You're honest. That's very good. So, anything else on that? John, um the this part I I think from your memo, James, uh even if we said go go go today was 2028 or beyond before you'd have anything a longer term project. [clears throat]

But the second part of your uh uh your memo looked like it was something maybe more immediately we could get involved with in terms of metering groups. That's what Mike was talking about um about um uh group rates and whether there's a facility already online elsewhere that we can buy into that group. So, how how would that work? What what's involved with that? I need to find that out as well. Mike had a pretty good understanding of it. Um but that's, you know, that's about the limit of what I understood as well. So, I I would have to get some better details on how that uh group rate would uh group me would work.

Um because that looked like something that would be much shorter term, more immediate impact potentially than than a long-term construction project. It'd be a long-term commitment, though. We we were approached by the people that are developing the large array over in I think it's Kensington Kingston. Kingston, right? I knew it was one of those [laughter] towns.

Um and and they are they were looking for offtakers. And so they uh asked us if we were interested in a a 20-year commitment to to take their power and basically under a net metering arrangement. it wasn't attractive you know financially [clears throat] we was a very long commitment I think it was 20 years um with no assurance that that was going to be the the best solution for us so you know that there's another task here which I think is to as a matter of our due diligence compare these various ownerships you know just straight town owned um just straight lease what we're talking about here just is taking off in somebody else's large array and you know that the see with anything in business more risk you assume the the more payoff there is for you and that's you know that's a a trade-off that we'll have to consider as a policy matter

by that way that one in Kingston I think that is Unatil I think you're right. Okay. So, so now the power companies who supposedly have got out of power production um are looking at getting back into a bit of power production. Yeah. Interesting.

Okay. Anything else on that? So separate from this um we have been asked to look at individual facilities um and and how solar looks on on an individual facility. So as an example the the SAU building getting ready to be built right here right behind this wall. Um [clears throat] um I was asked to to look at the potential for solar for the overall town hall and just look and see what that looks like, what what the cost implication is, what the long-term payback is. Um you know, in this case, we're looking at um doing a tandem entire roof replacement for the entire building. Okay. And that's by the by the suppliers the ideal time uh to pop a solar panel array onto into onto a roof is is when you have a new [clears throat] stable strong roof to to put it on.

Um so that's something I'm looking at um as far as is that attractive. It's something that uh you know that that will pay off in the long term. Um so on and so forth. So that's another opportunity to consider. Yeah. Are you suggesting that this roof is due to be replaced? Yes, it is. Absolutely. How old is it? Don't know. Um I did a project. We need to know that. I did a project very similar to what you're suggesting. Yeah. Yes. Remember, we discussed third party to finance it.

Metal roof on this building. Third party finance. Have we discussed about putting it over the parking lot? We just gave them lease space on solar. We didn't discuss that yet. Small steps, Ray. No, we did. Sometimes you got to take small step that cost a lot less. No, we did we did discuss that and I I can later on report on what little I found. So that there was discussion about putting solo on the extended parking lot. Yeah. I mean I I mentioned it at one of our meetings. There was no nothing formal. It's Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think we discussed it with the school too. Yeah. Yeah.

Although that's a decision they would have to make. Okay. Let's let's move on. Um I want to know from you Kirsten. Do you have any updates on any of the um strategic plan that has been I think fully presented at this point?

Yes. So it was fully presented on to the council with the help of Thank you many of you in this room who helped present to the counselors. I appreciate your willingness to show up particularly when I called Mike and was like hey Mike you want to come you want to come tonight and present [clears throat] please and he did. So, I appreciate the uh camaraderie and teamwork that everybody put into this and I um hope you can kind of see you see the efforts that you put in there in putting it together in the draft that was presented. The the timeline for the public hearing has shifted a bit later so that the council has an opportunity to have several working sessions on this. So, they had their first one this past meeting on [clears throat] May 4th. They're going to hold two more working sessions on May uh 18th and July 1st. And currently we're looking at a tenative public hearing on June 15th. Um if that date changes at all, I'll let you know in the beginning of June if that has to get moved again. But that's what we're looking at now. So anybody who was planning on coming to the May 18th council meeting exclusively for the public hearing on that, um hopefully it's good weather for you to go someplace else.

Yes, John. Question for you and Ron. Oh. So, [clears throat] the Senate is also looking at a 10-year master plan at the same time. Is that a coincidence or or the House? I'm not sure which one, but there's something going on. It's one of the bills. When you say coincidence, what you mean like Well, it just happens. It just happens at the same time. I don't think you're completely unrelated. Yeah. Unrelated. Could not be less related. Yes. Okay. Yes. Not not and and it's identical to ours, right? Well, I don't know if it's identical, but [laughter] I'm not I'm just I'm just kind of curious.

Yeah, completely unrelated. No, no relationship whatsoever. I I can tell you because I this is the first I'm hearing of that and I I made I put the things in the other thing and so yeah, no, completely unrelated. Um so that's the update on the utilities committee one. I'll let you know if there's any other movement or questions or anything. IDE they um utilities component was not discussed at length at this past council meeting but if there is anything I will certainly let you know um I see there's two other things on here that you'd like some report on and then I have something else to update you on so would you like me to keep going my miss bad madam chair or yes no awesome go ahead

so progress on stain construction so the high range road water man the change order has been signed the council approved as part of the consent agenda yesterday the expenditure on the phase two of high range code. Currently, the plan is for American Excavating to get back out and do pavement remediation starting the end of this month, beginning of June. They're finishing up another project now. They like to do their smaller projects earlier in the season, so once they come on site, they stay on site and don't go any place else. They did it last year, and it was extremely effective in terms of timing. So, that's what they're looking at doing again this year. So once they got on site, you'll notice they are out there doing some pre-work um doing some measuring so they can order the supplies and then once they the plan is to do the pavement remediation south and completely finish everything that needs to be done that way and then start at Royal and work their way north on phase two. Currently everything is running on schedule, on plan, nothing weird to report. I can report that we have gotten the escrow deposit from St. Cobain as per the agreement. So the money is in escrow for us the 40% their 40% contribution to that moving forward. Um once that water line is complete Penachuk and St. and Cobain will be working together to design, do the engineering on and build out both the water manes and the individual home services to the west to the the neighborhoods that were designated to get water line extensions. Those are those three or four depending on how you look at it neighborhoods and I know the preliminary conversations between St. Cobain and Penachuk Water have happened. Currently they're working out the details of you know there this we're in the very beginnings of those conversations but they are planning out that construction schedule determining what Penachuk's needs might be for additional staff to support this

project. Um and it's looking like it will be built out the for the neighborhoods will be built out neighborhoods and services over a period of about four years.

Um again the final dates have not been determined nor has the order of construction but they do have to build out. is an enormous lift for them to you know build out the water manes and then each individual service. So that's Penachuk is going to be working with them on that. Good news is Penachuk has done this in Lichfield and Marramac, right? They are old pros at this. They know what they're doing on this. So they have started that conversation. Um once the high range road line is complete, they will likely start on the high range roadwater line connections because once the that one is done, those services can go in as soon as the line is charged. the ones that they are connecting to the water line. Um the we have a cop the most recent term sheet is term sheet 30. Um it's in the onetop. It lists every single property and whether it's slated to get a waterline or a poet or no remediation at this point in time. Um it's available on the dees website. If anybody wants I can send it out to you too. Um I just have you have to um the one the NHDES onetop website for St. Cobain is by far the most updated source of documents for that.

So that's where we're at on High Range Road and the St. Cobain. Okay. I have a question on that. Sure. Um I have heard for from some residents that were in the first phase of that that along High Range who and I think what you just said was that they're going to start the end of this month. Yes. And they're going to start back at that southern point. Yeah. I'm not sure whether they're going south to north or north to south, but they are the pavement that was put in. Is that what you're talking about?

Well, the pavement and and just like their cleanup that that they left a lot of stuff behind that's on people's lawns and different things and that they I've heard complaints about that and that they're expecting and they've called American Excavation and they haven't gotten any results yet. So, yeah. So the the because the project is still ongoing. The project is not closed out. Um the expectation and you've worked on many capital projects so you can

Yeah, they're actually on site right now. Um they're um they have an excavator on site uh cleaning up road edges uh spreading lom and just kind of um fixing all of those sideline issues that you've identified. Okay. They they have a fairly regimented process. They start at one point. I think they work your way down one end of the street and then they come back up the other side of the street. Um just addressing all of those uh all those incomplete items. So, um that's kind of the next step and then they'll get into the pavement remediation, whatever it is they need to do as the final piece to uh put the final wearing course on the road.

Okay. So, to to be really clear, this was always the plan. This is not this was not a run out of time last year. The plan was always to come back after the spring and see if I get this right. Part of that is to fix any issues with the trenches if there were any. Right. You let it sit for the winter. Did I get that right? You did. All right. See, there you go. I'm listening to them. [laughter] Um to make sure that the trenches weather the winter. Okay. And they that way they can do any of that repair before they do the final pavement so they wouldn't have to remove the pavement again. So all of this was deliberate. This was all part of the plan from the from the get-go. So as that pavement is finished, that's when the things will start coming out. You know, it is a significant project and I definitely respect and understand people's concerns and with that, but Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So, is this Excuse me. Is is this part of the original contract with them? Yes. This the original contract is original contract, original schedule, everything. Yep. Thank you. Yep. We knew this going in. Are we at a point in time yet where Penachuk understands how many customers are going to be signing up?

No, they are not doing that in advance. Um, and so they until the line is operational, it does not behoove them to go go to people and ask them to sign up because again, if you remember correctly, they thought they would be able to charge the line maybe last year [clears throat] based on the Old Nasha road connection, but because that ran into the issue um with the extreme amounts of ledge by the power lines on Old Nasha, that went into an, you know, that project went into this So Penachuk will, you know, they're having informal conversations. People are reaching out to them, but this is not something that they're tracking or maintaining until it gets to a point where they can actually look to set up customers.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Do either of you have any update on the uh Woodmont sewer project? Just go.

Yeah, they're they're plugging along. Um the station is um actively being um actively being installed. I I I don't know what level of excavation they're at, what level of ledge has been removed. Um I know the focus of the effort right now is down on Bankraftoft and laying the the gravity mean uh gravity main up to the top of the hill and then they'll start laying the force main uh down uh down and around the corner to the station. So at least in the moment um the real focus is is getting the pipe in the ground starting on Bankrooft. Okay. [snorts] So [clears throat] starts on Bra and what does it head to?

Yeah. So the low point in Bankrooft just beyond the uh power lines there's a there's a sewer connection there um or just at the power lines. Um and then it just from there it goes up the hill all the way to Hardy. So that's gravity down to that start point and then from that apex or the top of the cur top of the hill at that point it's goes down the hill and around the corner to the pump station location and that's all that's all force main so that's like by Pillsbury and so so forth correct so that front door of um um what is it 44 Pillsbury the new housing development's going in that's where the physical station is going.

Okay. Um and then um it'll pump from that point down Pillsbury up Hardy to the top of the hill and then gravity down to the down to the gravity connection at the power lines. Is is there a timeline on that on on completing the project?

There is. Um I don't have a solid schedule in my head right now. I'm a little bit removed from that project. uh John Grerier [clears throat] is the really the one managing that. Um the uh sewer line as I understand it is about 12 months um all total and then the station will be um I want to say 16 I I think it's a year and a half project and there's overlapping the station and the and the line but the uh the station is a separate project and cost is that right? No, no, it's all it's all factored together as one project. The station and the line is a single project. Thank you.

The pump [clears throat] station is powered electric and then diesel backup. Is that correct? That's generally the case. Yes, it it's it's powered by um powered by electric. It taps off the grid and then and then the um generator would kick on when we have a power loss. And that and does the town own that pump station? Yes, that'll be a town station. So, we should [clears throat] factor that in when we compute our usage. [laughter] And who pays the electric bill? Well, it's a brand new station, so you know, it's really efficient. [laughter]

Um, the electric bills, that's actually where I mentioned where things get coded, right? How those remember I mentioned the electric bills, they have all the account numbers and they get coded differently. That one would get coded to the sewer fund, paid for by user by sewer fees. Yeah. So that's paid for by the people who use the sewer, which is Woodmont. Yeah. The people who pay their sewer bill. Yes. Like the the whoever owns that property and is using it, their fees go to pay the cost of maintaining the sewer, which is Woodmont. Woodmont and anybody else whose sewer connects to that. Yes. Yeah. It's more than just it's more it's more than just Woodmont. That's that's going to be served by the Y. So, it's not just

I believe uh Woodmont's the only one that can hook into it except on what's the name of the road they're now working on? Bankraftoft. Bankraftoft. Yep. Because it's a gravity main gravity potentially those people could potentially hook in. Right. So the development so it's not that pump station will serve the home center on that side of the road but it's also connected to existing development over there. So, and again, Bob Kerry can give a much more better description of this, but all the expenses from to maintain our sewer system are paid out of funds paid by the they're by user fees

by user fees by those quarterly sewer bills that go out by connection fees. That's what pays it. It's not paid by other taxpayers. Does that make sense? So, the people who use it pay for the maintenance, the bills, everything. And you know, it does except we're using those fees now to finance the 3.5 million to complete that upfront. The project is 7.7 million. There's 4 million at 7 point and there's 4 million of that in federal funds and then the rest is paid for through there's a portion that's paid for through user fees

user fees and then there's a portion that's paid for by by the developer through both sewer use by access fees that they have paid and any overrun is the responsibility of the developer. So any overrun to these to this will come from the user fees. But again it is all from money that has come from the sewer user fees or that federal grant. None of it is comes from the general fund or anything else like that. Does that make sense? So it's all sewer it's all sewer fund money. One thing that I don't understand about that project and maybe I have to go to Bob Kerry for this, but once you say it comes down bankroft and goes into a gravity feed and then it goes around the corner and goes like to Manchester,

correct? So h how does how does that produce how is enough gravity produced by that hill on Bankro, which I mean I do ride that road all the time. It doesn't seem that big that will you push it all the way to Manchester. I don't know what the sewer infrastructure map looks like. I've never seen it. Um it's highly unlikely that it's gravity all the way to Manchester. Um more than likely there are intermediary stations in between um getting it from point to point to point. Um this particular station I I think Ry you're looking for the answer that only Woodmont is using that station. That's not the case. Uh the use map is larger than just Woodmont. I can get that map. I don't have it right now.

No, no, that's that's okay. That's okay. [clears throat] But uh and Bob did explain Martha when when he came to the meeting a couple of like a month and a half ago, he did explain um a little bit that it does I I think it's near where the Exxon um station is on the corner of Mammoth and 28. There is another. So it feeds into that pump and then that yes there's a much larger service area. I just didn't see how it would go all that distance either. I I And the gravity man feeds into a force man and the engineering mechanics of it is like I could explain it a little bit. Okay. Well, that'll save it for another day. Okay. Okay.

Um Madam Chair Oh, sorry. John has something. Um, Bankroth is one road and and I've seen the uh the closures on there and there's been somebody manning it. Once you turn the corner on to Hardy going up or down and down to Pillsbury, those are kind of main cutthroughs. Are we shutting those roads down during construction? Will we have single lane access? Do you know what the program's going to be?

Single It's going to be single lane access. um any um the vast majority of the time, in fact, I don't know if there's any time that it's not single lane access. Um I would strongly suggest anybody who has strong concerns about it, if you go to the engineering and environmental services page on the website. There is a you can there's a news flash right here that gives constant updates on any of the construction status. Um, they're also cross- shared to the homepage. So, you will see them on the homepage in our news section. In fact, you can see the Ashley Drive will share one for paving in there right now. And they also appear on Facebook as well. So, anybody who wants to see those updates about where the status is. We're working on trying to build out a dedicated construction page in our free time. Um, so we're getting there. [laughter] We're getting there, but it's there's a scaffolding for it. But we're hoping to eventually have a construction updates page that people can just subscribe to for just that. But for right now, the homepage of the website, Facebook, and engineering and environmental services are the three places you can go to get the most up-to-date information.

So, we have a defined detour route right now, at least for the bankrooft piece. Uh, once we get on to Hardy, I think the detour route will remain the same. I think um and in essence the single lane travel is for the residents that live on those roads, not necessarily for cutthrough. So that's where the detour comes in play. [clears throat] Okay. Uh now I'll get into our um anything else, Kirsten? Um I did want to do an update on water special assessment districts, but I'm happy to do that during the water section if you'd prefer.

Okay, that would be good. Um I'll wait till the water section. Um so we'll start with subcommittees and we'll start with energy and um whoever would like to take the floor. [clears throat] So I'll just uh get uh I presented a quick update to the town council last month about where we're at with the program. Yes. I [clears throat] we sent out the slides. I think you sent them out to everybody. But uh [clears throat] Kirsten, I don't know if you've gotten any feedback. I've gotten zero feedback, positive or negative, since the program went live.

I've had a couple people call and ask said that they came off their old um energy company and wanted to make sure they knew how to get on the new one, but honestly, it seems to be running itself at this juncture. I I I think it is. I think uh you know, so far we have about 92% participation rate, which is what they see with other towns. So, so I think uh we're on our way. Awesome. Uh the next big thing will be uh every source will set their next rates in August, August 1st, effect of August 1st, but there'll be hearings before that. And uh our contract is good through the end of October or the 1 of October. Good through October. October.

And so that gives us a little bit of time to really start uh trying to understand what the market rates will be for our contract. And if we, you know, who knows where we're going to go with with the the world the way it is today, we don't know where where power is going to be, but right, it'll give us an opportunity to see if it makes sense to do something longer term, shorter term, say the short-term contract. But the timing, I think, really works in our favor as to what our next steps will be. Okay, that sounds good. Anything else, Paul, that I'm missing? Um, we'll be seeing MSG hydro on Friday [clears throat] if that's relevant or not. Uh, we got an invitation. So, we'll we'll do that. Where are you going? What?

So, Paul and I got a an invitation from Freedom Energy to go look at the hydro dam up at Emma the Miscape. Oh, hydro dam. Oh, good. So, we're getting a tour of that Monday after or Friday afternoon. Right. Is anyone else invited? No. [laughter] It was limited invitation. I I apologize for that. Freedom Energy is inviting participants from all of the their partners across the state participate.

So, and I'm in the middle of other other power contracts um for power brokers in the Houston area. So, I'm going to see if they see the world the same way it's happening over here as well. So um I'll get their perspective on what's happening overseas and all that type of stuff and the projections going forward. So u it's all more information [clears throat] to see invalidate or invalidate what we're hearing from from our partners. Y okay very good. I just think the market is such right now just it's just crazy. It is price of gas. You look at the price of gas today. Yeah. Exactly. Any any discussion of smallcale nuclear?

So I'm putting in a a [clears throat] reactor in my backyard. [laughter] No. So I'm trying to be serious. Yeah. So I I'll I'll tell you the serious answer. So Kelly A talked about smallcale nuclear in her state of the state speech this year. I sent a note up to uh DEES and said, "What are you guys looking at?" The ES came back and said, "We're not involved. Kelly staff is doing that." I sent a note to Kelly staff. They said, "Well, we're talking about it. We're not anywhere." I think I think the power companies are talking about it also.

But there's there's nothing to as of I as far as I know as of today, there's very little to talk about or probably a lot of talk and no action. It's probably the better way to say it. Madam Chair, there's been some very interesting articles written recently about nuclear the the the revisiting the whole nuclear plant idea on both sides of the aisle. The uh the more conservative side, you know, see this as as a source of energy for the future and uh the more liberal side sees this as avoiding uh some of the uh uh problems we have with uh fossil fuels and everything else. Um and there's there's a lot of very positive press right now. Uh no action quite yet, but a lot of positive press for moving forward with nuclear u facilities beyond the things that Kelly Aayat had dis discussed in her meeting. So um we could see something like that I think in the next couple of years, but somebody has to break ground somewhere. Somebody has to be the go-ahad person. [clears throat] We haven't found that yet.

Is that why you're digging in the backyard? Ron, I think there's been some talk about this in the legislature, too, has been. Yeah, cuz Doug Thomas, who's on the science and uh technology. He he said that they're they were talking about it at one point. They were talking about like tractor trailer size too to come in and you know, like you you and I talked about it too. So, there is discussion. And I just don't know how far it's gotten. Doug would definitely be more of an expert on that than I would be. But Right. I did hear about tractor trailer size units. Yep. So in the world of competitive power supply, one of the big discussions is obviously these AI data centers. Yes.

One in New York, one data center in New York will use as much electricity of all of New Hampshire and Vermont combined. Used in a year. Mhm. So there's discussion now basically say right now the laws require utilities to hook up these data centers to the grid. There's discussion proposed changing the law that says data centers you're on your own. Yeah. You're not going to connect to the grid and pass the cost on to the rest of the customers. And that's gaining some traction over time. So that they are now going to be looking at options. Yeah. nuclear might be an option for them

but it is now being factored into the whole AI capitalization scheme that have been playing out with industries. [snorts] So this is competing with except right now the utilities have a no when it comes to the charging stations they can say no but they can't say no for AI centers. Well, the the issue is not only the where the power comes from, but transmitting the power, right? So, if you put a if you put a data center in, you're not talking about a little line on the street like we have here outside the building here. It's more of a transmission level and and that that's a very expensive cost um to do all of that. So, if you source the power at the location where the power is used, that is at the data center.

Yeah. Then all that extra cost is not passed on to the rest of the customers which is everybody in this room and there's no infrastructure to dig up and power lines and go they can then they can sell whatever they have left over. So there's now [clears throat] another potential revision to the whole you know monopoly model for electric utilities. It's rather fascinating. I can't even get three phase 200 amps in my house. Jeez. It's interesting. I need it. That's where smallcale nuclear comes in. They want if they want to use that much power, they need to have their own plant on site.

Yeah, that would be a good way to go. Um anyway, Mike, do you want to add anything more about solar?

Uh yeah, a couple things. So, uh, before I even get to that, um, on the on the topic of garage or parking lot solar, um, I I mistakenly, uh, said that, um, Stonyfield had installed a parking lot array. Fact is they tried to and it didn't work out. But uh there is one um up at Comcast facility on Industrial Drive in in east side of Manchester that I haven't had a chance to connect with. In fact, if anybody has a good contact at Comcast, um let me know.

Yeah, John. He's not paying attention. [laughter] I used to He doesn't have good contacts there. there. [laughter] Yeah, I we won't mention that name. No, don't. Um, but I I'll I'll try to find somebody that Well, maybe will give us a tour of what they've got up there just so we you know add to the knowledge base. Um, I missed that. The map that's sitting on the the guest area there is the solar site analysis that we've been working on. Um, welcome to I don't think we need to walk through now because it's not done, but I wanted to show you the progress that we've made.

So, [snorts] right now, what that map shows is number one, the where the three-phase power lines are, and we had to kind of hokey it in, but it's, you know, within probably 10 20 feet in accurate.

Yeah. All of the solid colored parcels are parcels that are not steep slope, not wet, and the remaining upland is at least 10 acres. The and those solid colored ones are all within 1500 ft of a three-phase power line. The ones that are outlined in color are the ones that are have all those same characteristics, but they're between 15,000 or 1500 and 3,000 feet from a bar line. So there's there there now there are uh 231 no 331 um total parcels and there are 279 that are within the 1500 ft. So [clears throat] we got to you know it's that's like lots of parcels but a lot of but that includes privately owned um you know town every everything. It's just there just those parameters that I mentioned. So now the trick will be to figure out how to uh whittle that down and not throw the baby out with the bath water. So that's that's what we're working on.

And it's all thanks to the heroic work of Mike Bazian who's trying to get that done in addition to all the other stuff that he's supposed to be doing. Yeah. Have Have we looked at uh warehouse roofs? um or or whether or not any businesses would even consider that. Well, we certainly haven't talked to anybody about it. Um and I I think we got a lot a lot of area. Yes, we do. Uh if those warehouses are on larger lots, which they almost all are

threephase. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, they're they're definitely candidates. That's part of the next step is to try to isolate um this particular layer doesn't have most of the buildings on it. So that was a kind of a mistake between Mike and me, but we'll get the buildings on it. So that'll that will help. And then um also parking lots, but that's going to be a little trickier on the GIS side of how to figure out how to identify parking lots, but it can be done. I know it can be done because they did it in grad school. So, you know, we'll we'll keep at it.

What is [laughter] doing advantage of like a warehouse like some of those ones over by the airport? I know one building does have solar on top of it. Bellivance does. Um, yeah, Bellivance. Um, but the other buildings, if they put solar on, it would be basically for them, wouldn't it? Well, it's like anything they could do group net metering this, as we were talking about earlier, if if they, you know, could make it pay. I mean, generally speaking, you know, they're going to take care of themselves. So, but I I guess so somehow they would benefit the town, though.

I mean, that would be our involvement, right? Um, [clears throat] yeah, potentially. I mean, again, we could we could, you know, group net metering with the say the Coca-Cola guys, you know. Yeah. One of the things I learned at Stonyfield, they do have a rays at Stonyfield. It's just not over the parking lot. They put it on their highest building thinking they'd catch the most sun and a big windstorm came along and messed them up. Oh. So then they had to move it down to a lower level. So, one thing about flat roofs is you have to elevate the panels and that catches the wind. Yeah. So, there's there's all kinds of pros and cons to this stuff. Yes, absolutely. Okay.

Um, not to mention hail, sorry, Texas. Okay. So, do we have anything else to add to energy or we all set there? Just real quick, you guys mentioned the small power units, nuclear facilities, stuff like that. Um, there are three colleges in the states that actually already have them. um MIT, Purdue and Texas A&M. And believe it or not, Wentworth College in Boston used to have one and we had the big power outage. I have a picture of from credential where I went to the campus was glowing because we it was all DC. So eventually they decommissioned it. Yeah. But so there are small units being tested, used

actually this past week, for the first time since the 1990s, a new large nuclear uh plant went into operation and started feeding the grid down. And I think South Carolina, the I don't know how to pronounce it, Vogle. that particular grossly over schedule and over budget, but it's pooping out electrons. [laughter] Good thing.

Um, okay. So, next we have water. Um Jeff is the chair of our water subcommittee and he is not here tonight because he's um away on business, but he did um send me a short report um about what our committee is working on and um uh we're working on collecting um data. I think Ann was assigned to this to collect data on uh various lawsuits uh that may be uh impacting the state of New Hampshire uh and bringing money into uh into the state to use on uh various water projects. Um we're also um looking to Penach to give us um some uh information on the water quality um coming out of their treatment system which I believe some of that data is online for them too. So um we'll we'll be discussing that. Um John and I are looking at uh connecting to neighboring towns and find out what they're doing with water issues and um uh whether or not there's any kind of possibility there for uh forming some kind of regional alliance uh with those towns. Um we're um hopefully going to coordinate with you Kirsten soon about the water assessment districts and be working um uh directly on helping you uh with that uh project which is a big project. Um and he wanted me to tell all of our water subcommittee members that we have our next meeting May 16th at 10:00 a.m. in the Sunny Crest room. And that's what Jeff had to offer.

Awesome. So, I'm gonna let you add to that.

I'm going to go through this a little faster. This is the presentation that I used last night at the council meeting, which was a modified pre version of the presentation that we used to navigate our kickoff meeting internally with staff. So, you all already know what the special assessment districts are and the basic process for formation. So, I'll be able to skip over that. I want to review the geography and the slight changes that have happened to that based on some new information and the timeline with all of you so we know where we're at there. So again, the special assessment district is designed to isolate the costs for peculiar and specially beneficial improvements to those getting that improvement. [clears throat] As we've worked on building out the program, we just want to make it clear that it's going to cover construction costs. So, it will help cover the construction costs to connect a home to the service, the curb stop, after the resident applies for all other available funding. Right now, that's the NHDES rebate, but we made it clear that it would be any other funding that might appear as well. Um, the property owner would need to have a written estimate before they apply. They would pay an administrative fee that's dependent on the length of the assessment and no interest. So, they'd pay that administrative fee upfront that's based on a one-time like basically a lump sum for the administration of the program and then a fee per year that they choose to spread the assessment over and that pays for the staff administrative cost so that burden doesn't get dispersed onto the other taxpayers. Um, they would choose a fixed period of time to pay it back. And I want to be clear that it doesn't cover the cost of water company charges or fees. So for connection or inspection doesn't cover the cost of permitting. They would still need to pay permit fees. Um it only is the construction costs of the line. Um with limited remediation, uh you know,

we're kind of trying to figure out the exact extent of like what it would cover for fixing like pavement of the driveway and lom and that type of thing. So, that's the nitty-gritty to let you know that the um improvement plan, so the when we get people signing the petition to send to council, it needs to have a map. It needs to have an improvement plan with a budget and fee structure. And it needs to be signed by owners of at least 50% of the lots representing 65% of the valuation of the district. And this is where me and spreadsheets are besties right now. Um Denise Manella in public works is also working really heavily on this and she has been an absolute rock star with this. So really thrilled about that. Um the improvement plan has lost my place. Um the improvement plan is currently with our legal council as is the draft application for review. So again because this does have indemnification language, it has very very legally it has some legally technical language in it. So they I they got the agreement with some very specific questions on what we'd like them to look at just to make sure that we're operating within the bounds of RSA 52A and in a way that protects the town and the people participating it. So what'll happen next? Well, once we get the signatures on the petition, the town council would receive the petition. Notice of the hearing goes out to all the properties in the district. Town council holds a hearing and hopefully approves the district. So this is a map of what the district looked like, but [clears throat] the one thing that's different is in the top right hand corner.

You see that little one off by itself? That's Old Dair Road. Old Dair Road will not be ready for connections for services until after the completion of the pump station and the the Auburn Road, which is going to be next year. So, we're removing Old Dairy Road from this first round of applications because um they won't be ready for the end of this construction season, but they will go in the next round. So, that red line represents all the places that will have new curb stops

that are likely to be that we anticipate will be operational by the end of the 2026 construction season. So the number of properties there you can see old dairy road is still on here. It's approximately with the removal of old dairy road about 179 properties. What I'm working on right now now that we have the overall big picture is I'm going through the fine tooth comb each property. I'm cross I'm cross referencing the PAS numbers the uh penachuk's curb stop list the term sheet from St. Cobain stating which property for high range road

uh which properties are getting poets water lines nothing. So all of that's being cross referenced and then also the assessing records as well to make sure that we have the record of who is actually there what the valuation is and when the last sale is so we can compare the last testing date to the last sale date. So when we communicate with these folks, we know if somebody is a brand new resident, they're like, "What are you talking about?" Or if they've been there and they've been there through all of this and they've seen the results. So that's an important thing to know when we're approaching people about this.

So I'm working on those spreadsheets now. Like I I wasn't joking about being up to my eyebrows in spreadsheets. That's literally what I was doing upstairs. um high range road obviously because of the number of different situations whether you're on the east or west side whether you're south high range north high range whether you tested over 12 or not ever on the west side high range is the most complicated to figure out the logistics of the other ones are fairly simple if it's a house there it's it's eligible and so here's the timeline so we had our internal kickoff meeting on April 13th that was supposed to be earlier but I as you all know I spent most of the beginning of April out sick So, we've been working on writing the improvement plan, writing the mailings and the application materials, and we're just about done with that. We have a couple of things that we need to draft still. Uh, we updated the town council last night and we're updating you tonight. That's in May. And so, the goal is to send out the mailing next week and to start gathering signatures and hold regular information sessions. As you know, space is at a premium around here right now with the library operating out of here and the number of public hearings training. So, what I'm trying to find out is trying to work on a schedule that lets people stop by during the day or in the evenings to just chat about it. And once I get that schedule, I would love to be able to send that out to you folks and see if one or two of you would be able to hang out here with who whichever of us is staffing that that day, just have a little bit more conversation. These are again going to be drop-in sessions, very informal, no formal presentation where we can sit down and talk one-on-one with residents who have questions. Um the idea is to have it completely ready to go for the June 15th town council meeting so the council can vote to accept the petition and set a public hearing for July 20th. And the reason I put the dates in here so kind of formally is that there is a requirement that the letters have to be mailed 30 days before the public hearing. So, it has to kind of work like it can't we

couldn't have the public hearing at the first meeting in July or we couldn't accept the petition at the first meeting in July and then have the public hearing on the 20th. It has to be at least 30 days between them. So, that's why we're shooting for June 15th to accept it, which would then let us we'll have the letters of notice all ready to go send them out. Um, and then the public hearing we're hoping to have on July 20th and then opening up the applications for the initial $400,000 from August 1st to September 30th. Now, like I told the council last night, we have no idea what our response is going to be. Not only have we never done this before, nobody in the state has really administered a program quite like this before. So, this is new. This is exciting. It that's the kind of giant nerd in me. But also it's very unpredictable. We could get six applications. We could get

187. We could exactly like we could get every single person doing it. We could get six. So we don't know. The good news is after this initial round we will be able to have much better predictive data to show what people are interested in and how many people are going to come in. The reason we are suggesting an application period for the first 60 for 60 days for the first round and then first come first serve after is because we anticipate a significant initial interest. But once it's been open for a while, if people don't apply during that first one, then when they apply, they just go on the list for the next available slot of funding. When you say next available, excuse me, [cough and clears throat] how much money do we have?

There's $400,000 in the initial funding. It's currently set up so that the administrative fee would go into the general fund to support the administrative costs of the program. Again, that's so that the cost of administering the program do not go to the taxpayers because there will cost some extra staff hours to do this. 400,000. That's 400 homes. No, it's 40. That's Well, it depends on how much they ask for, right? So, some of the And that's that's a great question. 10,000 as a mean average.

So, some of these homes are really close to the road. You know, I've talked to somebody on high range who they have like 50. They're 15. They're basically like the setback from the house. I keep saying this like I know what the setback is. I don't. But they're like they're really close, right? So, and they have no ledge. It's nice soft lawn. That's going to be like they they they likely, you know, the rebate and they've never applied for the rebate. They're likely going to be taken care of. Their numbers are super high. They're in they were in the 30s or something, but like the rebate will take care of them no problem and they won't need to. Um there's other houses though. They're on the east side of High Range. They're on the east side of High Range. Yeah. Nice. Because we're not doing anything on the west side.

Well, it depends. And that's the kind of question. So, we're trying to and that's the we're trying to determine that's why the west side of High Range is so complicated. It involves us determining exactly what Senco's going to do for which homes on that side. Um do they are they going to want like what are they going to do? So some houses have gotten poets right in the southern part of high range. More recently, the houses on the southern part of high range that have tested above 12, they have said, "Okay, we're going to connect you to the water line now." So if you have house A and House C, they got poets. House B just tested above 12, now they're getting a waterline.

So is and that's some those are conversations that Penachuk's having with St. Cobain. to what extent are they going to connect to these homes that either already have poets, don't have poets, don't have testing. So that's up to Sobain to determine beyond that if they're going to do anything beyond the terms of the consent decree, what they're legally responsible for. Um they have to do what they're legally responsible for, but they they can exceed it because the advantage of that is if they put in a waterline, they're all done. Correct.

So it's up to St. Cobain on that. We have no say in that. But then we need to look at okay so what if they're between four and 12 and St. Oane says they don't have a responsibility. You know, how does that fall? Right. So, there's the west side of High Range Road is very complicated, which is why we're developing these house by house docas for it with all the information that we have, including notes when we talk to folks. So, this is that that side's complicated. East side's pretty uncomplicated. You're eligible because, well, you know, you're outside the consent agree. And same thing with all the other streets. But that west side of High Range Road is what's giving me a headache right now. Yeah.

So the that's why we're trying to leave it open for an application period to see how much interest we get and see how much. Now, a lot of people might be like, "This isn't in my budget this year. I'll just apply for it next year."

Great. And that's why I said we could get only like six to 10 people wanting to do it this fall. Other people wanting to do it in the spring. Um, but if we get requests from more than the $400,000 during that period, the good news is that you helped create the criteria for how to prioritize areas to get funding and then the council approved at TC 104. We have established criteria for evaluating those applications and placing them in in an priority order if it comes to more than 400,000. Now, will the line from where they stopped at Royal

to where they're going to connect in Alexander, will that be done this summer? Yes, that is that is scheduled to be completed by the end of 20 construction season 2026. So, not summer, likely fall, but So, so then that line at that point in time that line would go live. Yes. It would be charged. That's when those people would be wanting to connect. Yes. That is when people would start being able to do it. So again, in all of these instances, it's subject to the water lines being completed, right? South Road and Nashville Road, right?

Um the good news is it looks like all of those things, you know, South Jamco on South Road got through the area by South School during vacation, right? They blew through it really quickly. So they managed to do the construction in front of South School while everybody was on school vacation. So nice.

You know, for those of us who still have to navigate that area, it's a uh it's a relief. So it it seems likely that all of these lines, barring significantly unforeseen circumstances, all three of these lines are scheduled to be online by the end of this year. So that's why we're opening it to them first. Um and then so the idea is then by October 15th, the notification of funding for the initial round of applicants to divide that up. Remaining funds would go first come first serve. And if there are any weight listed properties, then we know what we need to look at in the future for funding either through grant funding, matching funding, undesated fund balance. We'll have an idea of how fast we're going to get the fund filled back up based on the um

payback based on the repayment because it'll be repaid by annually with their taxes. So, we'll have a lot more information after this first round. But the thing that you know we're hoping to get the vast majority of these signatures through the process of these information sessions.

Um but like when you you know when I'm looking at the list I'm like oh I know that person. I used to work with their son. I can call them you know I was like I can message him on Facebook and say hey what's your dad's phone number you know. Um and there's like for example there's a former member of the conservation commission on who lives there who you know would be a great signatory because of property values. So there's a lot of people that we can actually connect with in this

um that we can and again remember if you sign the petition you're not obligated to participate doesn't cost you a cent to sign the petition and if you don't connect if you don't use it if you connect and don't use it cost you $0. It only costs the money it only will cost anybody money if they take advantage of it and take the special assessment. Otherwise, a signature just means my neighbor can do it if they want to. So, that's really what we what we want to drive home to people is that this is not and in the agreement for the district. It has specific lang language stating that no cost will ever be aortioned across the whole district. No costs will be distributed. It's it's in the agreement for the petition of the district. And it says even in there that it can't be amended in the future. So, the council has to amend it every 3 years or review it every 3 years. It actually says in the agreement that it cannot be amended in the future to aortion costs over the whole district to in order to protect those people who sign the petition but don't want to participate.

We're really careful about that. So that is the comprehensive [clears throat] special assessment district update. Nice job. Take a nap. [laughter] It's a good start. Kirsten, you said that the the individual homeowners will get to select their payback period. Did I

Yes. from two we're we're suggesting a period of 2 to 15 years and the reason I keep saying we're suggesting is that the council when it comes to council council will have the opportunity to adjust the improvement plan if they want to um but we're suggesting and and a range of funding from with a minimum threshold to be assessed of $2,000. So, if the difference between the rebate and the cost the isn't $2,000, we're suggesting it's not worth it. Um because that's a type of funding, you know, that basically could be obtained for much less money.

I mean, at that point, it would be like a, you know, huge the administrative fee makes it not worth it. But we'd be looking at a minimum of 2,000 up to $30,000 or the cost of the project. whatever is less and a period for the assessment of two to 15 years. And that would be selected when they did the financing when they did the initial when they initial did the initial assessment agreement and I guess you you or someone on the staff will negotiate those agreements.

Yes, that's going to live with public works. This is why this is why James looks at me with with weariness every time we talk. He's like, "What are you giving me now?" Um, but yes, so um Denise Manella in public works, she's going to be kind of the primary administrator of this program. She'll track and manage the applications as they come in, then they'll be reviewed. Um and as the and then from there that information will go to the um to go to the uh tax collector to do the by annual warrant for it which will come to council as a warrant for the assessment each time just like everything else with taxes.

What I'm thinking about is why I mean it's zero it's a zero interest loan basically. So, why would anybody take a term that's, you know, anything less than 15 years? Because it's $50. Right now, the proposed fee is $50. The administrative fee, the one that we have in there right now is $300 plus $50 for each year of assessment. Oh, okay.

So, it is $50 a year. So, you know, it's that's to cover the cost of the tax collector's time and public works time administering that program that year, including the year when it gets closed out and the process of updating the fund balances and everything. So, that does not I've said this over and over the past few days, so I feel like a broken record, but this is the first time you guys are hearing it. It's really important when you set fees in a mun municipal fees, they have to be linked directly to the costs of doing something. You can't set a fee and have it be too high

um just to create extra revenue. That's not legal and it's not okay. So, we had to kind of try and figure out about how many hours it would take to do this and over the life of the loan and try and do it in the most fair way possible. And it can this is probably a little less than the total administrative cost when we look at this administrative fee, but it's not it doesn't exceed the cost that it will do to administer this program over the life of the assessment. And that was important. So that's how we figured it out. So some people um you know some people might want to do it shorter. They might be like, "Yeah, no, no worries. I know I can pay this off in three years, so I'll do that." Um, we also have a clause in there that says it's between the buyer and the seller if the property is transferred. Whether it gets paid off as part of the sale or whether it stays with the house, that's negot that's up to the buyer and seller to negotiate. We have no there's no requirement there. So again, trying to keep as much of it in the homeowner's control as humanly possible. We don't have anything to do with contractor selection. It's strictly a reimbursement for those costs. The other thing I'm thinking about is the 50 and 65% constraints.

The the the district is displayed as a linear, right? For this purposes, yes, for the purposes of the improvement plan, it's a map with boundaries. It's got to be a polygon of some kind. It is. It will it'll include the lots in there. Y So, can you uh can you play with that map? In other words, can you drop out lots that you know aren't gonna, you know, be part of the 50% or the 65%. What What about a wood lot, you know?

Yeah. So, the properties that are ineligible. So, right now we're focusing on one and two family residential are the ones who can apply for this. It's not businesses and it's not multif family or condos. Part of that is because condo HOAs have the ability to work with NHDES directly to get funding and you've seen that happen across all around London.

Part of the that's part of the 50 million that we've gotten for one water funding. Um and multifamilies are considered commercial and so we at this point for this first round are not opening it to commercial but to commercial um lots. It's residential one and two family only. So, we're trying to work on do we exempt those lots from the map that we know aren't eligible like for example the musk squashes on high range road right musquash isn't getting the curbs technically it's not even it doesn't even abut high range road but it's addresses on high range road right but do we sign it as the town of londere and leave that in there so that is currently the nitty-gritty of that spreadsheet that I'm working on right now I'm finalizing um the council when it comes before the council the council can make it smaller. They cannot make it bigger. So, the council can has the decision during the hearing to make the district smaller if they want to. But I'm choosing to be really optimistic that we can get if there's 180 properties, residential properties there, I'm really optimistic we can get 91 pe 91 property owners to sign this. I really am. I think there's enough people in our community who would step up for their neighbors. I really do believe that.

Thank you. Okay, I got two items for water. You You have two things. Go ahead, [clears throat] Ricky. As we've been going through the process, we've had people bring up Q& [clears throat] A's and things like that. Um before when I could talk, I got a call from this lady asking about this and just explanation. I pointed to the web page and he goes, "Oh, I intend to hook up, but I intend to keep my well water to water the front lawn and my garden. what do you suggest? And I said, I'm not gonna suggest anything. And I wish he was here

because that makes me nervous. And I don't know um if we can get an authority or somebody can find an article um where it says you should not use that because it does get transmitted through plants. That same thing came [clears throat] up at Tinkum with with that site and at that meeting when the people came in really when the EPA came in and a lot of those people wanted to do the same thing. They wanted to be able to still use their well water. I know Penny Truck will put a one-way valve and separate all that kind of stuff and that's that's I'm worried about telling people that's not a good idea and I don't know where we can get, you know, an informative source to

so NHGES actually has some really good pre-existing materials on that that we can choose to include in in in anformational packet. Thank you. I I couldn't find it. So if Yeah. All right. Thank you. That was number one. Yeah. Um at this point we're not addressing decommissioning of wells in this that is between people and them. The Tinkham site that is a different thing because the ground the the current research suggests that the ground that the wells can pull the contamination through the groundwater down closer to the wershed. Right. The St. Gobain plant is closed and what we're dealing with right now again it's not you know this contamination was airborne.

Yeah. And so that's a different thing and we're not getting into the decommissioning wells. The relationship between St. Cobain and the properties that they deal with, that's an entirely different thing. But as part of the special assessment district, we aren't addressing decommissioning of wells. But I think your point to include education materials about probably don't want to eat this water anymore. Yeah. Is is a good thing is a good idea.

Signify. Thank you. Second item is for Ron. House Bill 1389, which you're a co-sponsor on, and I like it because you guys went through facilities [snorts] that could contaminate the water. You updated it, repealed some, reenacted it, and everything. And everything was cool until I got to the sentence. The bill specifies any person who owns operated a PAS facility where PAS concentration and groundwater or surface water exceeds 500 pots per trillion. Why so high? So dees pushed back on us and they said that if we went any lower than that places like Market Basket and other places would have would have would have u issues with the bill. So that they they have some good data on that. So if I can get you to that data if you'd like. They had some good they had some good resources for us to pull that number back. Why would we let anybody, I don't care if it's market fast, everybody do 500 parts per trillion? [clears throat]

Because even if you force them to do a cleanup and the way you've got it written, if it's 490 parts per trillion, they could pack up and leave and we got to clean it up for them. So, I agree with you. Okay. Um I dees pushed back on us, said that they wouldn't support if it was any any lower than that. Why do they have to logic? I will get that for you. Yeah. Why do they have to support it or not? It's up to you guys in the House to pass those bills, not dees. Correct. But DES's support or non-support of a bill goes very far, especially with the Senate. Okay. You like to have them on board. I know, but this one, unfortunately, as you guys can tell, I do an awful lot of reading. Yeah.

Um, that one kind of bothers me big time. I know it bothers you, too, but it does. But the rest of the bill looks good to you. The whole concept of it, the concept of getting the laws up to date, getting rid of the old laws, redefining them. That's that's a good practice. Okay. Okay. Why Why are you smiling? No, I'm just saying sometimes you you know, you can't have the whole apple, but you take You're talking You're talking to an engineer. There's ones and zeros with me. [laughter] You guys realize I I'll support one thing and not support. The approval of this is not an engineering [clears throat] process. No, it isn't. Unfortunately, I think I think the overall bill is still good.

I think the overall bill is still good, but I've been around this town long enough to find out that we've had to spend a lot of money for the I wish he was here. Six um super fund sites. This one here gives them an out. I'm measuring. I'm measuring 490. We're out of here. That's not good. 490 is heavy. I know. I It's very heavy. That's It's a leeching effect that scares me. That's it. I I concur. Thank you. Do I

um one thing really quick that I I just want to mention here, um I don't know if anyone has heard, but um New Hampshire Public Radio, they do a um conference every year on environmental issues and this one takes place on May 8th. So it would be a good place to have conversations like that with people. it is focused on water issues in particular. Um I think you all know that they did that podcast that was based on it was on the PAS issue and so they're going to be focusing on it. So it's um this Friday it's this Friday um May 8th. It starts at noon and it takes place at Manchester Community College.

Manchester Community College starts at noon. Yeah. If anybody can attend that. Unfortunately, I can't go. But, um, yeah, thought I'd bring it up. I don't want to get in trouble over Ron, [laughter] but I think I go. Okay. [clears throat] Okay. Anything else on water? [cough]

Okay. We'll move on then to sewer and solid waste. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Um, sewer and solid waste met twice in April. Um, uh, just to catch up or refresh everybody, uh, there is a, uh, a new development going in on the north end of town off of Wentworth A. Um, it basically is two companies that are moving in. One is called Purpose Energy and they will have an anorobic digtor and, uh, the second is Recycle Works. So the basic concept um is that uh recycle works will intake um liquids primarily uh expired case goods um some other kinds of things but basically products and cases split it recycle the cardboard or any of the case materials take the liquids turn it into a slurry and send it over to purpose energy the anorobic digtor uh they'll do their thing on it and convert that to gas uh which will be used for um for for power. Okay. [snorts and clears throat] So that that's concept from a um solid waste recycling point of view. Sounds great. Um I I think there have been I think there's been presentations at town council. I know presentations at planning board. Um and I think there have been some citizen concerns about uh related materials. Uh will there be odor? Will there be vermin? will there be excess traffic etc etc. Um, so it was suggested I think initially by Lynn uh that uh sewer and solid way should take a look at this and maybe take a position on on this particular development. Um if if not a position because I think now it's been through planning um to at least uh make a public statement of what we know and what we feel and what we've seen. And in the spirit of of talking

about what we've seen, uh several members of the of uh uh sewer and solid waste suggested we should go to and tour one of these facilities. So our chair has been uh very good and diligent in pursuing um uh purpose energy to put together a tour of their facility and we're actually going to have a mini meeting at the conclusion of this meeting to ideally come up with one or two dates. As I understand it, Martha, right now, uh, the balls in our court and Purpose Energy said, "Come on, come see us. We want you to see our facility and see what's clear." So, um, we can look at that from the point of view of a committee that's interested in recycling, but we're also all citizens of this community and we can also look at it, um, critically in terms of, uh, giving some feedback to the general community and maybe to our government bodies on on, uh, what what we what we eyeball when we went to this facility. Okay. Um so we talked about that to a large extent and we'll be moving forward and actually uh we'll decide whether that tour will um supplant our our planned May meeting uh or be in addition to so again there'll be a mini meeting for we have all five members here tonight so we can figure out when we can go. The second primary conversations we had this month uh had to do with uh the town's strategic plan. Uh sewer and solid waste has um a number of things that have made it at least into I would call it a late draft right now of the strategic plan and uh so we spent a considerable amount of time talking about that at our particularly at our last meeting. Um the uh convers the things the topic areas that that we got into the strategic plan uh first of all had to do

with um sewer systems in our town. And uh one of the uh deliverables uh we're being asked for and not solely us. We're there's an opportunity to partner with other parts of both the town staff and and other boards. Uh, but one of the deliverables is to to look at the survey that was done. I'm sorry, Joy, how long ago was that survey about five years ago? [clears throat] It was 2022, is it? The septic system survey. Yeah, I believe it was done in 2022 and presented in 2020.

Um, to look at that and and and to review that work and maybe uh look to do an update on that. So that's that's uh particularly with an emphasis on uh at risk septic systems in our town and and there were a considerable number of them um and and with an idea of giving some guidance to those uh residents uh as to what they should consider doing with their atrisisk uh septic system. And then secondly uh as a deliverable uh we will be getting into the wonderful world of video. And I know Ray and I are on the same boat on that. Ray, I'm not going to hold the camera and you're not going to be in front of it. So [laughter]

So is this going to be like a voice over an empty chair? I uh it's all [clears throat] AI. [laughter] And I I think the consensus of of the group was uh we we'll script something out and I think Joy has got first cut on on a script and I think I'm supposed to input on that which will make it very verbal. Um but but uh uh and then we were talking about enlisting u some younger generation folks perhaps from the high school etc because we can include uh I believe school uh school boards and schools were involved in as potential partners on the achievement of the strategic plan goal here.

You can partner with whoever you want on that. That's 100% fine. We can Okay. Well, Kirsten, thank you for volunteering and I didn't [laughter] whoever you want with their consent. Let's be crystal clear. You want some motion graphics? I'm your girl. You want somebody on camera? The fact that I'm on this one is quite enough. Thank you. Okay. [laughter]

Um so, so we we have a deliverable with a date septic tank. Uh what what what do you do with your septic tank type of thing? So, we'll come up with something for that. Um the other big area that uh that I'm particularly interested in that I think the bulk of our uh committee is interested in is uh food waste. And uh we have an advocate uh for reducing food waste in the town manager. And uh so we have several food waste related topics that made it into the strategic plan. Um including uh a uh a program for do-it-yourselfers. Um, I I very off-the- cuff conversation with just recently with the with the town manager and uh he talked a little bit about how he's waiting for a proposal from us um on how we're going to do this. And one of the things that's a little different in our town than when he was up in Lebanon was he had storage space up there. And and um he did a negotiated a mass buy from I believe Home Depot of 50 backyard recycling containers uh uh bins. Uh we don't have any storage here in London area. Okay. It's it's an amazing problem, but we we have no place to put stuff. So we we have to find a way to do this in an inventory free fashion. Uh which is uh is it might be possible could be a credits thing. Uh maybe put together a list of you know equipment that's available and let let up to a certain dollar amount uh residential user pick it and we'll have some other requirements to it. I think still we have some time on that but um you know and we have to do a little bit more reading and research on what we can put together but um so but that's that's kind of interesting. Um, we also talked um a little bit about

um composting alternatives for folks that can't put backyard programs in their facilities and and we have to uh maybe because they're in a condo complex or they're in a 55 plus uh community that has um HOA rules about uh what you can do there. And so right now we've only identified really one way uh one contractor that come and do pickup [snorts] and we want to see you know what else is out there in the world. So we'll make that part of our deliverable on this. So um and and then I guess the final thing we talked about James is uh dog waste.

Okay. Has been thrown back on my lap. [laughter] And what I'd like to do is, no pun intended, please. Um, is just you and I just get together. What do you see you want to do? What do you want us to do on this? And what I I know that there's a rabies um session being held over the next couple of weeks, I believe. Saturday.

Saturday. So, we not going to make that, but um unless we're going to hand out what we currently have, but just sit with you, go through it, and then put a nail in what I think I had referred to once as lowhanging fruit. Uh but it's been hanging around for way too long. So, I I'd like to see if we can finalize what our program is going to be. And maybe you've done all this work already and we can finalize. You can share with me. Yeah, I think since the last time we chatted, I had a chance to discuss um uh with the town clerk and that uh they have somebody else in the office actually had a couple of pretty decent ideas. So, if you want to shoot me an email, I'll check my calendar and uh maybe you can uh take a spin on over to DPW and check out our awesome facility and we can have a chat about uh pet waste. Sir, and that's unless there's something from anybody else on the committee that I've skipped.

Nope. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. You Yeah, you covered it. That was sarcasm on the awesome facility, by the way. [laughter] Make sure you show them the dangling containers. I I have to tell you, I was just there in the past week, okay? And compared to what it was four or five years ago, which was the last time I was there after there had been a big rainstorm. Okay. And I think I left both my shoes in the mud there. We just found those last week. Yeah. [laughter] I I was pretty impressed. [snorts] Okay. Very good. So, now we come to cable and internet.

Yeah. I got a couple of things. So, Actually, I'm on good relationship with Comcast happy with me. All right. So, some of you, and I'm not sure because I haven't got an answer yet, might have had limited or no service for 24 hours about 3 or 4 days ago. And basically finally figured out what was wrong. Um, it ranged from um when they do the updates after midnight, people were getting no service. You put the TV on and you'd be stuck on a channel for 10, 15 minutes. Or if you and this problem's still there, go to fast forward on a recording. It jumps back to the beginning and you can't do anything about it. Amen. So, so what's that? Amen.

Yeah, I know. So, you know, it takes a little while. They do give me a network engineer. I do demonstrate it to them and they did take a whole bunch of things down and it's sort of fixed. So, now instead of this two, three minute delay, you're sitting watching TV and the screen freezes up to two minutes. Believe it or not, two minutes is a long time. Um, and not just skips. All of a sudden, it goes flip flip back back on. Well, that's better. It's not great, but it's better. So, we're making progress. Um, point number two, and I need some answers. I'm going to call the initial cable committee meeting. Um, I got the members correct. You defector. Um, we need to update the distribution list on the cable committee thing. Thank you.

Yep. Um, good question. Can I have a remote or do you guys not want to have a remote meeting? So, I did respond to you on that one. Oh, I didn't get it yet. I'm sorry. Um, remote meetings are technically for emergencies only, fully remote meetings. Yep. Um, you can do a hybrid one. Fully remote ones are extraordinarily difficult because even if you do have an emergency fully remote meeting, then you need to set up a place in town hall where somebody can go to attend if they don't and then you have to staff that. So hybrid um in order for it to be a successful an actual meeting though you do need a quorum physically present right now the first meeting um even though I've been nominated we still have to have a chairman vice chairman secretary

you really for a subcommittee there's no requirement to have a vice chair and a but you do want to have somebody designated to take your minutes. Okay I can do that. Um if nobody objects um the contract I have the current one um but I lost where the after the web was redone where it actually resides um in the document section. I think it's listed on your utilities page. Is it? I believe so. It's either on the utilities page or the cable page. One of the two. Okay. I'm trying to compare it to what we currently have for contract. any changes in FTC regulations that would either help us or hinder us on the update for the next contract. So, I'm reviewing that.

And um last but not least, the reason why I wanted to do it was I'm been reaching out contacting these other companies. So, remember um it's on cable, John. What's that? Franchise agreement. It's on cable. It's there. Okay. I just you know cable and Yeah, I know. Good idea. Um so, I'll grab that. um reaching out and um and in contrast with the request that you had put together a help document and I've done like four or five revisions if I was going to bring it out the first meeting which we may or may not have. Can I distribute a document for review? Yes. Aha, [snorts] I will do that.

BCC is your friend. BCC Oh, BCC is my friend.

BCC is your friend. Reply all is your enemy. I know. I just want to [laughter] make sure's got me in trouble before other committees, but um all right. So, I will take care of all that and do that. One of the things in the document I realized that people understand getting an internet service is not the same as getting cable TV services, whether it's streaming or satellite or whatever. You can buy one without the other now. So, and of course you can buy package deals. Then there's a truth of advertising. Oh, we offer fully 100% fiber optics. Yeah. From my house to the pole and for the pole to your head in sight, it's copper. I don't want. So that's, you know, that's the whole thing. And then I have to explain things like um different speeds. Well, actually the internet operates at one speed. You get to pay for a full gas pedal and they they downtune you to get access. That's how cable works. So I will work on all that because time is uh getting um yes FiOS is getting more and more prevalent. Um um Direct TV is getting better with the satellites and they offer it through Comcast. You can get Direct TV as a service now through your cable provider.

So whether it rains or thunders or lightning, you don't care. So, um, the other thing I'm going to put in there is, oh, so if you want to know of all the cable providers, not cable providers, here's the web page you go to because believe it or not, there's about 20 in this town we we're going to have access to. Huh. So, what's my satellite? A lot of satellites out there. 3,242. Not all of them for TV though, but okay. So, that's what I will do and I will try to catch up to you guys. Awesome. Very good. Okay. Anybody else want to add anything to that? Nope. Okay. Let's do round table. John, no. I'm done,

Ron. Good. Ready. I'm all set. Pass. I pass. I'm all set. 500. Nothing. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm good. Just a quick announcement from Green. Green Council. I know. I have to make a plug. Um, Green Council is having a thrift sale at the high school um on Saturday, this coming Saturday. So, a plug reducing waste thrifting. Very good. Yeah. Awesome. Very good. Yeah. I'm sorry. What is What is thrift sale? What's thrift I mean thrift?

Oh, clothes. So, they're So, they're selling Yes. So, it's you know they're taking donations fundraising for their um you know LHS green council. high schoolers. Yeah. I thought maybe you wanted to be bring my recycled paint to sell or something. No. Yeah. Did they advertise that they were taking any donations? They have advertised. Um I just put it up on our sewer and solid waste. I screenshot their little flyer. I couldn't get an actual PDF. Um I screenshot it, put it on our Facebook page. There's in um just over there in the town hall there's a collection bin. So they just picked it. Did they put it back out? They just picked Oh, did they? Okay. They there was a massive p there was like

it was enormous. They picked it up today. So I don't think they put a box back. I think they're good. Yeah. Okay. Very good. That's a great idea. Okay. Next meeting. So our next meeting Hang on. Let me look at my calendar. I should have this. I put it wrong on here.

I always did that. So the next meeting would be June 2nd. Tuesday, June 2nd, right here in this room. Um, and now I'd like a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Thank you. Lynn moves to adjurnn. Seconded. [clears throat] Who's done? Thank you. Okay, we're journed. [clears throat]