Selectboard - Regular Meeting

Please hold comments until I open the agenda items for public comment. When addressing the board, state your full name both in person and on Zoom. It is suggested that you enter your full name as your ID on Zoom as well. Approval of minutes from June 15, 2026. Move them.

Second.

All in favor? Rule of minutes from June 29, 2026. 2nd favor.

You don't vote that our special meeting. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. No, 1 of 3. yeah, I know. That's what I heard. It's newsworthy appointments and record resignations. Appointment of during lunch to the housing authority, July 6, 2026 through March, 2031. Appointment with, thanks.

Second.

Second. All in favor? Thank you, Darlene. Consider appointment of Jesse Hartson to fill one of the vacant seats on the MDIHS Board of Trustees until May 3rd, 2027 town meeting.

Move appointment.

Second. All in favor? Thank you, Jesse. Consent agenda, nothing presented. Select board reports. Anything? Unfinished business. Nothing. New business, liquor license renewal, Michael Boland, Choco Latte, doing business as Copita, 102 Main Street, Northeast Harbor.

Move to approve.

Second.

All in favor. Liquor license renewal, Catherine Conley, doing business as Lighthouse Inn and Restaurant, 12 Main Street, Seal Harbor. We'll be cool for that. A liquor license renewal, 14 C street doing doing business as the dock cider. 14 C street Northeast.

Second, I have 1 yes, 1 comment.

Okay, go ahead.

I just is this like, the menu looked like it was. I had the same comment that so I wasn't sure if they were the same entity. Yeah, because the menu is like.

From the keyboard, they submitted with their application.

I think I recall hearing something to the effect that they might be working at both places actually.

So they have the same kind of entity.

Yes.

And they might be sharing the same menu?

Possibly. I haven't put two and two together until you just mentioned it.

Are they here? Answer their questions.

When they go for liquor licenses, why does it matter what menu it is?

It's just part of the application.

Yeah, it's part of it.

Well, say, for example, the menu is something to the effect of party all night and we're going to raise the roof and we're going to break six ordinances, right? Like something to the effect that causes all of everyone in the community to cope.

Yeah.

This clearly isn't that. Yeah. But you're guarding against that kind of You know, what kind of it's, it's an indicator of what kind of a place this is going to be now for us. Yeah, the dock sider is probably going to be the dock sider. So it's not a case of that would be an example.

Obviously, I don't have a concern.

I think it's odd and I would be disappointed if their menu is the menu of the Kibo links pub. Yeah, but just. I'll walk across the street and ask them after the meeting, but I wouldn't hold up the license or anything like that, but I didn't send the agenda out to everybody on this.

So. That they would know they were on the agenda for tonight.

Yeah, I don't I don't have a concern, but it's not to say that particularly as a new business, it wouldn't get. A little bit more scrutiny that that's certainly if somebody were to be opening a place that. hasn't typically had this that those would be the moments where this would get a lot more attention okay well anything else all in favor

Authorized payment to Omega Security Group in the amount of $5,915 for the addition of a security camera system at the Seal Harbor Pier out of a security camera CIP 6410100-24687, which has a balance of $11,169.37. Yes, authorize it twice.

We do have John on it. Does anyone's got any questions? I think that was just somebody randomly talking.

Well, yeah, you just get an echo. All right.

Okay. Anything? No. All in favor?

Thanks, John.

Thank you.

Review of audit engagement letter for FY2027.

I can jump in for Nancy on those questions.

This is the 1st, 1 I've seen, I'm assuming this is sort of a standard standard fair and we've opted to stick with the same firm.

We're not doing an RFP. This was something we talked about a little bit. 1 of the key discussions was them with them was. the possibility that we may have to go out for a federal audit in the near future if we get any larger grants and we needed some reassurances they could ramp up to that and they were able to talk Nancy and I actually as well through how they'll be able to manage it so we're comfortable with

And they've kind of changed ownership a little bit, right?

Yeah. They've sort of, the original owner has sold out or sold to staff members who bought into it. And I was very pleased with their plan of attack. Timeliness has obviously been a concern for us in the past. And they had a pretty good setup for that.

But he's still working there, isn't he?

I believe so, but phasing out.

Yeah.

We haven't, yeah. I'm primarily dealing with the other more junior members coming on board.

We work with them at the school, too, and we're really pleased with the new timelines and stuff.

Yeah. And actually, a lot of the audit prep for the coming year, they've already started a lot of the work on the audit, even though the year ended literally a couple of days ago. That's great. So that's Nancy's doing there, too, to really build that.

They had difficulty in the past getting all the materials they needed from the school, so that would hold them up.

They did not have that problem this last year. I was very sort of on point for that, and that was not the issue. Primary issue is you have a new town manager and a new finance director. But we still got it in time.

All in favor?

Do we have to? This is just, do we just vote for approval of the review? No, we did not. Do we need to?

I believe this is 1, if I recall correctly, where ultimately it'll be me signing off on it. So we just wanted to see a few folks had any. Concerns or anything, right?

A item G, authorize the town manager on behalf of the town to contract with VGSI, provide the town of Mount Desert with all necessary revaluation services and support as outlined in the attached proposal with a total cost of $227,800 to be paid from the town's revaluation reserve account 4020100-24209, which has a current balance of $259,394 as of June 3rd, 2026. We missed that. Yes. They're the same.

Sorry.

They might have taken both.

Okay.

Okay. And with regard to FQI, if I jump in just real fast. Go ahead. I just want to make a comment before Kyle gets going. I think everyone who's been around for a while should pat themselves on the back for is that we added this into the CIP plan a bunch of years ago, gradually building up the money for the day that this would arrive. And then thanks to Kyle's work and to them, this is coming in on budget. So there's no additional taxes that needs to get raised for us to be able to do this. So this isn't going to have any impact on there because we've already raised money for it. That's off past versions of yourselves at the end of this, but it's really nice with that. I'll pass it over to Kyle.

So, for any folks that don't know who I am, Kyle, your, my primary role for the town is the tax assessment. um and so uh i came on board in 2007 and at that time the town had just completed the last full measure and list revaluation um and so it's been almost 20 years since we did that um i've done statistical updates since then a handful of times just pricing. What we're proposing here is a larger project, which requires a large amount of manpower, which I can't do by myself. This is the full measuring with where we send people out to every property, take a new picture, measure the dimensions on the house. And if somebody is there willing to let them in, we go in and And this is something that is typically done every 10 to 15 years. I've been pretty proactive as an assessor doing those statistical updates to kind of hold it back as long as I could. But we're at the point where the underlying assessing data is getting stale. There's two real classes of property that are sort of falling through the cracks that we need to capture. It's the really less valuable homes that aren't maintained that I don't know about. They're not pulling permits or anything, and those homes are beginning to depreciate. And so we need to capture that and recognize that those valuations may be high and adjust them accordingly. The other end of that spectrum are the really nice properties where they've been doing renovations, maintenance that don't require permits. And so I'm not aware of those either. So there are houses that have been almost completely renovated So those are the real big reasons to do the reval. It's another chance for us to also, similar to what I did this year, equalize where you have disparities amongst villages or between property class. This is a really more robust approach to equalizing everybody. So they're more or less This is a RFP proposal that I received. Two responses. One was Vision Government Solutions, who I've worked with for over 20 years. I have a great rapport with those folks. We use their software in the assessing office. There was another respondent, but they kindly sent us a letter just saying, we're not going to bid on this project. So, sole source, which I'm comfortable with the company that responded. In the proposal, they do have a timeline, which I spelled out in my memo a little bit. It'll take a long time to do this project. So we hope to send out data collectors next year, starting in 2027. So there will be some publicity. We'll be promoting it, letting folks know these cars will be on the street. There may be somebody in your driveway taking a picture. It's OK. They're identified. Don't worry. um at the same time we'll be collecting sales data and building new pricing tables over the winter between 2027 and 2028 come up with the new values i'll review those we'll send out letters similar to what happened this year send out letters with the new value giving folks a chance to contest it or you know bring information that we haven't um seen and and finalize them in 2028. So it will be a long project, but that's what we want. We want to think of your tax base as a resource, right? That's the town's ability to raise money. And you don't want to go on the cheap on that. You don't want to rush it. So I want a good product. So I want to take a long time to babysit vision, number one, to make sure they're heading in the right direction. but also to make sure that I have time to review the values and make sure it looks good before we commit those values. So as Alex mentioned, this has been known that this is coming and we have saved the money in the capital improvement project. So we'll leave it to you to decide if we should sign this contract. Any questions?

I have a couple of questions. First, they said, in the report that they were going to do PR and kind of let people know what's going on. Have you given thought to having some kind of a public forum to invite people to come in and ask questions, you know, in a public way?

On the table.

Yeah, I think it would be a good idea. And then they don't want to come. They don't have to come, but they had their chance. Yeah, I think that's important. My other question is, they mentioned this. I didn't understand all of a certain software and hardware and it's. As I read, it looked to me as if we have most of this software, so we're not going to have a big expense there. Okay. thank you and one other question if they said if they come to the person's house and they want to go inside and the person let's and they go inside the person isn't there they're going to come back with a let them find a time when they can come back how about if somebody won't let him in how do they assess the property thoroughly without entering the property there's a couple options owners the data collector will ask

floors do you have how many bathrooms do you have how many bedrooms those sorts of things if they're totally unwilling to answer any of that the only recourse we have as an assessor is to estimate and in my practice I don't estimate low I'm going to estimate high and if they come to appeal first thing I'm going to say is well I need to do an inspection so they can kind of get in one way or the other maybe the long road, but that's typically the procedure to have.

Is that generally a problem, getting people to let you in their house?

I haven't been here for a full measure of this readout.

I haven't. I let them in.

So I can't guess into what kind of percentage. I think most folks are, once they understand what we're doing, they understand, you know, You want the assessor to look at it and see the leaky roof and the wet basement and that kind of stuff. There are going to be those that don't refuse and that's fine. We can just deal with it as they come. I don't really have any idea what the entrance rate is.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

And I'll jump in on your 1st comment and this comes from at the county because we had sort of that regional program. It meant that we were doing a reval, a full measure and list reval for every town every year because we were just rotating it, which meant we got the hang of it. you can't publicize this enough you you have to the more you talk about this the better it goes it's sort of this universal straight tail line the towns that put in more time had an easier time towns that tried to talk about it less always had ways of people getting upset it's it's so absolutely i really like the public for i feel like yeah again several right yeah communication really If we have the public saying we're sick of hearing about this, yes, we've done it.

Somebody still hasn't heard. Yeah.

Just a couple more questions. So you just answered one of them. You have not been here for one of these? Not among dessert. Which is, you know, pretty remarkable because I think we've done a great job on values overall and that's your close attention to what's going on and doing these. So are there situations where towns get this outsourced full measure and tape back and say, whoa, this is off base. This is, you know, we spend a quarter of a million dollars on it and we say,

this is a shock you know is that conceivable I mean I I fully trust you you know this yeah I sort of trust these guys but I'm wondering to get to that point okay I'm going to work with this okay we're going to do a project startup I'm going to explain you know the neighborhoods and the things to look for and the pricing approaches at the start and then we have periodic meetings um as they're collecting they give me summaries I think it's So to have the values arrive and be totally shocked, I don't see that happening. And I also have built in into the time to I've asked them for I wanted numbers delivered to me and I had in my mind, they were going to do everything and then deliver the numbers. And then I would review and then commit. Well, that's not what they built into this. They're going to give me a chance to look at the numbers, then send out the letters and then finalize everything. And then give me another chance to review. So there will be plenty of time for me to step in. If I need, if once they deliver it, it's ours, I can see.

that happening great so the second question had to do with the nature of we're contracting with them so will a taxpayer get a letter from you or from vision appraisal it'll be from vision okay but i they send me the letter first yeah and i look at the form letter yeah before anything goes out and and they had a lot on pr and whatnot again will that pr be under their banner or will be under the town banner it'll be coordinated

We're going to want that coming with our letterhead, but with vision verbiage.

Okay. Can I come back to your first comment there? Because this is the part that Kyle wouldn't necessarily say, but I'll say it on his behalf. It does happen all the time with communities where the results come back and everyone's got sticker shock because things have changed drastically. More often than not, those are communities that have changed assessors three times in the interim, went six months without one, tried to go to some private company, then changed mind again, and they fell behind on it. That hasn't occurred here.

We don't need any of those descriptions. None of those things.

Yeah. You were on this figure for the price.

is that an estimate or is it that's a contract price so i mean there's no hey with the other fifty thousand dollars why is it more that's it what's fifty thousand more they won't come in they couldn't come in yeah yeah there is a per diem uh clause um and that deals with appeals where they deliver the final yeah yeah if there are appeals formal appeals uh that go to like we have a representative to because they're going to defend those values for that first period yeah and there's a per diem cost to that i think it's 1400 a day yeah um again it's probably 50 50 if that were to happen at this point i'm usually pretty good about being responsive if somebody comes in and have good justification for changing it i'm going to change it yeah

but they just think it's overvalued and want to exercise their right to appeal we'll have to go down that road right and i really feel like with this company like with about half of their team i mean they've done this so they've probably met every person slamming the you know they've figured things out so i think that's a really good selling point that you know they know what they're doing if you're going to brief them on how our community works what they're i mean it and i think communication ben it's going to benefit the homeowner in the long run there will be some angry taxpayers out there of course

But like Alex said, I've been a hands-on assessor. I've kept our values in close range of markets, those towns where they haven't done anything and their values are 50% of market. That's when you get the torches and pitchforks.

Didn't you say that there's areas that are almost right on and other areas like Otter Creek and Seal Harbor might be lacking, you know, and would be maybe going up more than

somewhere else this is a measureless rebound where there will be wide disparities of how much people's values change yeah um that's the nature of doing that kind of revaluation we just need to be consistent you know in neighborhoods um similar type properties should have similar type values and as long as we're able to

And even a dramatic increase in one person's value of their home doesn't translate necessarily to an enormous increase in their tax.

Correct. And that should be evidenced from the tax bills that just went out. There's a lot of variables that go into that tax bill. Valuation is just one piece. What do we do with the budget in that year? Where are the real changes in neighborhood values? Thank you for that.

Anything else? Okay, we had a motion and a 2nd, I don't think so.

Move authorization for the town manager.

2nd, great. Hey, consider accepting a conditional monetary gift from Mary Morgan to the Mount desert fire department in the amount of. 1,500 dollars in support of the towns ambulance service. of acceptance but thanks second second and all in favor and thank you very much uh review and approve contract with the with on the line inc for annual road striping in an amount not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars we didn't i didn't sue it

we might have gotten the actual um documents for you on the late side um but it should have come to you later on actually what happened was brian submitted a couple of items and he told me he did not have supportive application but that he's bringing it out oh he's stuck in traffic but i've got it and i'll bring it to you yes he's I'm there right now, probably somewhere on Route 3 at the moment. But I can grab it for you. It was pretty straightforward. I was prepared to talk about it. Here's the cool thing I learned, which is that they do the yellow line every year, and they do the white lines every other year. So this is a little higher than other years because they're doing the white lines this year.

I didn't know that.

I learned something new.

But my apologies. I'll get that added in. So, should we can we do we want to approve that unless you'd rather I grab it 1st, but it's it's pretty standard contract.

Yeah, I would move approval with the contract on on the line.

2nd, all in favor.

I'm going to abstain since I haven't read it.

Okay. Review and approve contract with Clark Construction for the installation of a stormwater catch basin on a time and materials basis with funds coming from Public Works Road Reserve account 4050100-24573 with an approximate unencumbered balance of $336,930.45.

I'll comment on this 1 as well. This has been an interesting 1 where we shifted to time and materials on this. Some of the original estimates came in. Little higher than we were comfortable. So we're doing this 1 on the time and materials. This is a. Project being done right at the corner of. Seal Harbor and Steamboat Wharf for the catch basin there, which has had some troubles in the past. So we're getting that fixed. But in order to get this, the pricing on this down, that's why we're recommending time and materials. And I do have the memo for that. I don't know if it's in the packet or not as well, but I can certainly pass that around. That's what's going on with this one.

But the time and material, doesn't that just give them open, like...

If we didn't also have daily supervision built into this, which we're also adding in.

Oh, I get you. Okay.

Yeah, we're, we're, we're on that.

Okay. We got that. Like a change out in the shipyard. Yeah.

But no, we're covered. Good. Thank you.

So, similar question as. As the last 1, this is a contract we're approving. I didn't see a contract in here.

Yes, I can. And again, that was added late. So we can get that over to you. Sorry. It's sitting in the backseat of Brian's car at the moment. Okay. But you've seen it.

Okay.

Yes. Approval.

I think we should wait. I think we should table this.

I think we should. Is that an issue to table it?

We can certainly move it to the next one. I can also probably run to the printer and try to find it. I wasn't aware of that piece of it. So I would just like to have some figures.

This is a bigger one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe pass the memo around.

Yes. I'll make a copy of that and we'll move on from that one. Yeah. And I'll check my email on the other one. Go through the rest of it and I'll be right back.

Okay. Informational, we can just move through these. Let's select board meeting schedule FY2027. Town of Mount Desert holiday schedule FY2027. Annual agreement leases, Allen associates, ticket sales, change of commerce and neighborhood house. And update regarding refuse containers to the town garage, which. Would love to hear from Brian about preferred it.

Maybe I would, I would like to make a comment on the board selection meeting schedule in the last few years. We've switched the February meeting from the day after president's day to the 3rd week of the 4th. whatever third week i think fourth for the next week because um because of the vacation and it just makes it easier for people and um so i'm going to suggest that we do that again yeah i had put a note in there so i'm glad you're talking about it so you want to go ahead and yes thank you yeah they're pointing to the 23rd is your note yeah oh thank you

Definitely.

And I would also say if you want to keep those dates on the holidays and your meeting schedule, you can pull them from your packet and put them somewhere else in your notebook.

Or in my home.

Or in your home. Because Evan will It's your guts. Sounds awful. He's not going to keep that for you.

I know.

Hi, this is Brian. So I am available. And if you want to have a conversation about the refuse containers at the town garage.

Well, can we do this? We're on the Steamboat Wharf Stormwater Catch Basin, Brian.

Oh, I thought we moved on to some of the informational ones.

Just skipping around. Keep you on your toes.

We do not have a copy of that contract, so we'll have to table that until 7-20. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. Would... Yeah, okay. And that will be the appropriate time to delve into the memo.

Okay, that sounds good.

All right. So I have a question about moving it, that thing on your select board meeting schedule. Did you guys want to make that like a going forward thing or do we want to visit it every year?

I think we should make it a going forward date. If that makes sense. Yeah, I agree.

And imagine, so we're going to be acceptable to. No, I think it makes it.

I was looking at that. I can't find it now unless they changed it.

It's at the end. Are you looking for the dates? The dates? Yeah, it's at the end of the.

After the information.

Yeah. Information and contract stuff.

So can we go back to the refuse containers at the town garage under informational briefings if Brian you're still able to do that? Yes.

You want to catch us up on what's going on? So we had our main municipal risk assessment for that site. And one of the concerns that they had and they brought into their report was the fact that those refuse containers are sitting there unmonitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that there's no constraint on access at that location whatsoever. And they felt that that was a significant liability for the town. And it was a pretty stern warning about those. one suggestion within the report was to have some sort of monitoring or closing it in some manner and having someone that is there while the space is open which while we don't technically qualify as a transfer station at that location, we are making a step towards being more like a transfer station there should we staff that and have particular hours of access. And I don't feel it would be appropriate to start moving in that direction with those. I know it's an amenity that many people are accustomed to, but given the risks that we're taking on and that we don't have any staff that could be there, we'd be talking about a separate position and I think changing it's a pretty significant link. I don't feel it's appropriate to move in that direction. The direction I would prefer to move in is to not have those dumpsters there at all and to have that facility be gated and locked outside of ours and that the access to it is just simply for municipal vehicles only so that there'd be a key code access and an automatic exit the buses our vehicles could get in and out because the other issue that I see in that area besides the dumpsters is just general public traffic coming through particularly they're coming for the dumpsters and the recycling but they pass through immediately in front of our garage bays where we often have trucks, front end loaders, a variety of equipment that's trying to move about and do their jobs. And there's an inherent conflict with those kinds of vehicles being in proximity to all of the town's equipment. And I'm surprised that there hasn't been more issues with that kind of inherent conflict. And we haven't seen more issues go on, more accidents. And I think it's just the crew doing a very good job of paying attention to what they're doing and making sure that those sorts of things don't happen or they happen extremely infrequently and are very small scale. It just... i feel would be better to have that campus so that it is restricted for public works personnel and uses only and just to not have those dumpsters there uh going forward but in order to do that i think that's going to take a pretty concerted effort of communications on our part to try and let people know that this is if the choice is made to go that direction that this is an upcoming change i i think that uh thank you brian i think that uh

those of us with a long memory recall that it was a no-go for a transfer station there, period, hard stop. Whether that was because there was absolutely not enough space to pass the requirements of the state, I don't know, but I do recall that it was a no-go. Space is a significant issue there.

That would be a major concern.

Yeah. So, I mean, the time to say absolutely no and stop the conversation is approaching. I think.

What do you think about the recyclables? You know, the bottles and cans and all that. Are you going to have that eliminated there?

Well, we're going to have to spend some time communicating to the public to let them know that this isn't going to be there, but there's going to have to be some target date where it moves. That amount of time, whatever it may be, I'm thinking potentially in the fall when we shut down the campus, that would be the time that I've got until I figure out where I can put that returnable shed or what we can do for returnables. We'd have to figure out somewhere for that to go.

Well, is the money still going to the school?

It is, yes. It's going to the PTO.

Could there be something at the school?

I can certainly look at that as an option.

There used to be one at the school. used to be one of the other yeah the benefit of it yeah i would think that would make sense and what about the marina brian is that going to change at all at this point i had started down the road of getting some uh fencing put together for

that dumpster at the Marina and I ran into some relatively expensive fencing quotes. So I've been trying to think of a better creative solution for that to try and save some money, but I haven't come up with exactly what I want to do, but I do still want to fence that Marina dumpster with a code access that's managed by the Harbor master.

I'm afraid if we close one without limiting access, that it that's just going to become the,

free for all yes agreed i think that the one of the realities is if if history's any judge is that if we close the gates there people are going to start leaving their trash outside along with mattresses and refrigerators so you know it's a you need to get the enforcement piece involved here yes and i do have some time for that because i have time to figure out

before we get to the point of actually shutting it down. We've got to put a gate system in. We've got to let the public know. We have to give them enough time to understand the changes that are coming. And as the gate system goes in, we are going to have to run some electrical and figure some things out. With that, I would expect that we want to put in some kind of a camera system and do a certain amount of enforcement in order to make sure that people aren't just continuously leaving stuff there.

Brian, when we had that meeting at the school, whenever it was, last winter, I think, talking about the future of trash and MDI and one bin all in. And that talked about having some kind of a place for people who had more trash than could fit in their own private dumpsters where they could put it. But now that's off the table. Have you considered possibly...

doing two collections per week during the winter uh we could look at volumes of what we have currently and then what our volumes we think with an estimate of what we think is going through at the town garage right now and see if it's warranted to do such a thing or if we could extend that season we have tried to extend that season already where we have twice a week trash because um we've tried to retain some of those summer seasonals for a little bit longer into the year because we know that the volumes are still high. People are expanding around into the fall much more so. And so we've tried to keep those sort of a little longer.

And also now that it's all in one bin all in you, You're putting your newspapers and your boxes and everything else in your trash. You got more trash. I used to take it up there, you know, recycling and now I'm stuck with it. And it's, I got more. It's not bad this time of year. Cause we twice, twice a week, they're going to pick up the trash, but it didn't. In the winter night, somebody, somebody. I think a raccoon get into my stuff recently, throwing it all over the yard.

I mean, again, I think it's communication, communication, why we have to do this that. Yeah, well, we, we got it. We've got to make it.

I mean. People really appreciate having their trash collected. And now they've got an exit overflow Avenue. I'm not saying it's good. I think it's a mess up there, but they've had it now. But we can also take something.

You've got to give something, but we can also take stuff to Southwest harbor. We get free. Tonnage over there, we do the April vacation clean up. That doesn't cost us anything.

Like, we're very, but a lot of people won't bother like, up on the hill over the seal. However, they're being paid to lug stuff to Southwest and they lug it down. Grass clip and leave throw it in the dumpster right now today. I saw a whole bunch of pails or old oil and change your collected then driven through the town garage several times just to keep an eye on things in it.

Yes.

Yeah. First thing on a Monday morning, especially this time of year, it's not a pretty size. This has been a wonderful luxury for us to have it as long as we have. The day has arrived. I'm prepping for it.

It's a liability issue, right? Yeah.

I agree it's a mess up there, but I think we've got to soften the blow.

Well, I think along the lines of liability issues, we have foreknowledge. This isn't a surprise.

Right. I also suspect, I don't know, that the town of Mount Desert is absorbing a lot of trash from outside of the town of Mount Desert, those dumpsters. So I look at it with a fiscal head on because I think liability, sure I get it, but people are mad at insurance companies for telling us what to do. And so if we stress public safety and fiscal responsibility along with liability, we have to keep working on the message because this is a popular service that we provided to the town and it's been abused and it's not sustainable going forward but um i think it's going to be a while before folks get it so when we got rid of those dumpsters down at the harbor that caused a stir is there anywhere else in town other than the marina where there would be a dumpster that is a town dumpster no oh well

still you know not in not in northeast harbor at least but in skillers anywhere else in the town of mount dessert no just just just the piers and on the marina barclay seal harbor and that's i think that's a federal law if there's a if there's a dog you have to have a place for the boat to get rid of trash okay

But the boat, yeah, the brother certainly have a lot of unintended consequences will be that. The marinas will suddenly start seeing a great deal more than the considerable amounts they're already getting. And I think there will be other unintended consequences that we wouldn't even necessarily. They're going to trash is going to start appearing and creative places. We never even thought of probably John said, like, yeah, the gates there then.

Leave the trash at the gate.

That's what I'm wondering is going to end up.

We had a fence down here at 1 point around 1 at the dumpster in the corner and people just left the trash outside the gate.

Well, and I'm seeing that at the town garage too. Are there already cameras up there?

We're working on upgrading them.

There are some cameras, but they're a little out of date.

Could have that and like, well, I mean, I'm sure, do the marina cameras point at the dumpster down here, Brian?

I'm sorry, say that again, please.

The cameras at the marina, do they point at the dumpster? I mean, is there one looking at the dumpster too?

I don't think so.

That would, I mean, it'd be good to add one there because you're going to have to keep an eye on stuff. You're going to find over the seal hub. I mean, I know they're putting cameras in, but I've seen refrigerators down there. You probably.

So, procedurally, is this something that staff implements and we just help with messaging or is this doesn't take an act at any point in the future by the board?

Probably going to hear Brian and I talk about this a great deal over the next few months, over and over and over again. Same basic idea. We recognize this is going to be a major shift for residents because it's definitely, this is a creature comfort going away. And so it's going to hit. And so this is really just us talking, talking, talking, talking about this. Yeah, it kills me as much. Hey, I'm a night owl who forgets to put out his garbage all the time. I love being able to just head down Sergeant Garvin Road in there, but we can't keep doing it.

Thank you, Brian. Thanks, Brian. Thank you.

Okay. Any public comment?

Oh, are we going to get a presentation from the school with their new plan, which I read about in the news?

They have not reached out to the town to do so as of yet, but I can inquire and request that they come and give a presentation if you like.

Seems like they're holding public forums versus at this point versus going.

Yeah. I think right now they're educating the staff.

Yep. That was my understanding is the last forum was for staff, but it wasn't to them.

Yes, you're correct. Sorry. I didn't think they'd want to get out ahead of the news in the paper.

Yes. Certainly, I can make the request if it is the will of the board to have them come, or we can wait for them to do it themselves.

i'd like to hear what they got up their sleeve and what their plan is are we is there going to be a vote in november i mean i the the vote in november is still very much on but nothing has changed there i think it's worth it to ask them to come and have the public think that they should with the changes i can reach out thank you you could actually also ask them please to supply an equation okay for the funding formula there's some stuff in the paper it's kind of scary

Okay, no more public comment. Treasurer's warrants, approval and signature, town invoice AP-2701 and DD-2701 in the amount of $496,927.37. Move approval and signature. Second. All in favor? approval and signature, estate fees and payroll benefits, AP 2676, AP 2677, AP 2677. 79. So, mine says 77. And 79. Oh, okay. All right, and 2679. Town payroll PR2629 and PR2701 in the amount of $586,910.10. Signature. Second. All in favor? One abstention. Acknowledgements, school invoice, MDES AP 18, school payroll, MDES PR 26, and MDES PR 01, and voided disbursements, none, in the amount of $375,306.73. Acknowledgement. Second. All in favor? All right, motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second. All in favor?