WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.810 --> 00:00:09.310 Town of Plainfield: She's a green light rounder? Yeah. Okay. 2 00:00:11.390 --> 00:00:24.699 Town of Plainfield: So we may as well start. Yeah, we're live. We're live. We are at the Select Board meeting of the 22nd of December. It's 6 o'clock, and we're calling the meeting to order. 3 00:00:28.770 --> 00:00:35.479 Town of Plainfield: Any changes to the agenda? You had a mention about a procurement. Yeah, just want to have a quick item. 4 00:01:48.230 --> 00:01:58.210 Town of Plainfield: Alright. We got muted. We got muted somehow. We should be back online with sound. Let us know if we're still intermittent. 5 00:02:00.870 --> 00:02:06.690 Town of Plainfield: Hello! Hello! Hey! Greetings. 6 00:02:06.940 --> 00:02:14.109 Town of Plainfield: Alright, adding the auditor… And… Right. Yep, okay. 7 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:17.280 Town of Plainfield: Okay, any other changes to agenda? 8 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:29.029 Town of Plainfield: Any… comments or announcements that we want to make? I have one announcement. You have an announcement? Yep. Why do all the rain… why do all Sanche's reindeer not like Comet and Cupid? 9 00:02:29.850 --> 00:02:32.800 Town of Plainfield: Why is that? Because, see, it's a Starbucks! 10 00:02:32.970 --> 00:02:35.200 Town of Plainfield: Oh, God. Okay. 11 00:02:35.200 --> 00:02:59.700 Town of Plainfield: Peter's like, what? Starbucks, okay. Starbucks! Do you have a joke? I do have… no, I have an announcement. Oh, you have an announcement? Please. This is a jokes-only announcement, is that something? Yeah, fine, fine. No, I'll come. I can bring jokes. No, I… we got a response to the letter that we sent to our congressional delegation. 12 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:04.950 Town of Plainfield: From Senator Welch's office, 13 00:03:04.950 --> 00:03:25.419 Town of Plainfield: Rebecca Ellis, gave me a call Friday after… late afternoon. We probably spoke for about a half an hour. She had been in touch with the, other congressional delegation offices, so it looks like Senator Welsh's office is going to be coordinating the three staffs. 14 00:03:25.660 --> 00:03:38.020 Town of Plainfield: And then earlier today, she sent an email, reserving a time for a conference call. I believe it is on the… 15 00:03:42.110 --> 00:03:54.340 Town of Plainfield: January. I'd have to, I have to go, I'll check, I'll check it again. And this would be, with the, Federal Highways, 16 00:03:54.730 --> 00:04:09.799 Town of Plainfield: the regional director now, who she said stated that he believes that, stay, that we have to stay in the right-of-way. According to the requirements under 17 00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:12.329 Town of Plainfield: Let me see if I can get this right. 18 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:30.589 Town of Plainfield: Federal Highways Emergency Relief. Not Emergency Repairs, they have yet another category that has the initials ER, right? So Emergency Relief. However, I did spend about, 15 minutes reading 19 00:04:30.590 --> 00:04:33.950 Town of Plainfield: Through the first section of the document, 20 00:04:33.950 --> 00:04:39.120 Town of Plainfield: And they have… I read a lot of flexibility into it. 21 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:53.140 Town of Plainfield: You know, particularly under a section called Slides, where we have, the sandbanks, you know, basically sliding down, and they look for alternatives. So, anyway, what Rebecca Ellis said to me was that, 22 00:04:53.470 --> 00:05:04.499 Town of Plainfield: The, he would be willing to, you know, express why he thinks we have to stay there, which we have not had enunciated in any… 23 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:19.620 Town of Plainfield: fashion yet. And that she also, will include Keith Coven from Central Vermont Regional Planning, who helps us with all of these, things, as well as, 24 00:05:19.640 --> 00:05:33.100 Town of Plainfield: Patrick Travers, who is the new project manager for the next three sections, and that includes the Grand… the so-called Grand Canyon, so that's the most important one. So, 25 00:05:33.290 --> 00:05:40.430 Town of Plainfield: So, I know he responded, and said the date and time. It's 2 o'clock in the afternoon on… I forget what date. 26 00:05:40.430 --> 00:05:56.800 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, it was supposed to be a week from Tuesday, I think, is when that meeting's gonna be, to pick, or at least talk about how to pick the vendors. He contacted me also. Yeah, that's this coming Tuesday. That's you and me and Josh, and him. 27 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:02.420 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, I thought it was this coming Tuesday, and he said it was the week after that. It's the 30th. 28 00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:27.370 Town of Plainfield: Okay, yes, okay. Which is this coming Tuesday. Yeah, actually. Tomorrow's Tuesday, great. So, okay, next week. That is correct. Yeah. So, anyway, so, that was, very, very good, and they're following right up on it, and the staff… somebody from the staff of both Sanders and Balance offices will also be part of the call. Oh, that's great. Yeah, thanks for that. Yeah. So, I think, you know, the fact that we addressed it 29 00:06:27.370 --> 00:06:43.879 Town of Plainfield: all three sent the right message, that they talked to each other. Yep. And I think I mentioned that Mary had sent out a note to Senator Welsh's office and got response from Rebecca, also more focused on housing. So we may have yet another 30 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:48.359 Town of Plainfield: Zoom or something with… with him on-house later on. 31 00:06:49.760 --> 00:06:59.210 Town of Plainfield: Regarding that. He was gonna do, like, a town meeting type thing? Not necessarily, but he wanted to hear people's problems with FEMA. 32 00:06:59.210 --> 00:07:12.300 Town of Plainfield: He was mostly focused on FEMA, and how they're… you know, what the… because the gist of it was how people are affected by this, and not… not having answers, and it's really frustrating. Yeah. So… 33 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:24.710 Town of Plainfield: We have not yet heard from the governor's office. Okay. Nor VTRANS. That's too bad, but… And Rebecca Ellis thought that, we were more likely to hear from VTRANS on behalf of the governor. 34 00:07:24.710 --> 00:07:36.920 Town of Plainfield: That's how she thought that might play out. I would say that would be fine. It doesn't matter, yeah. It doesn't matter. I mean, the governor will know what's going on, so… Yep, yep. But we haven't heard anything yet from that front. Okay. 35 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:41.630 Town of Plainfield: Good. I did have to sign a, 36 00:07:42.550 --> 00:07:59.180 Town of Plainfield: document relating to the dam project, which, we did on Sunday morning, Karen and I, and we got it sent out so that it's a… it's to solidify the grant and the… to begin the process of dam removal. So there's going to be a meeting coming up 37 00:07:59.280 --> 00:08:03.290 Town of Plainfield: on that. That's, that's the, 38 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:20.369 Town of Plainfield: thing through the Friends of the Winooski? Yeah, yeah. When we had the meeting here the other night, and we're going around looking at the maps afterwards, Steve Libby said something that caught my eye, caught my ear, which was that… Steve Libby. 39 00:08:20.370 --> 00:08:37.000 Town of Plainfield: He is with Vermont Emergency Management. Anyway, and we were looking at the Brook Roadmap and stuff, and we were talking about the Batch Elder Dam, and we said, well, we heard the grant had been approved for that, and he says, well, it was approved to be on the list for the request. 40 00:08:37.470 --> 00:08:46.630 Town of Plainfield: So that was news to me, and I don't know… I would like some clarification on the actual status of that. Yeah, what I sensed was that it was… 41 00:08:46.720 --> 00:09:08.190 Town of Plainfield: that this document we sent in was kind of resolving that question, and that it was going to set it up. He may have had all the information. But that's… we'll find out. Why not? We're in the announcements phase, which is a slipboard-only phase of the agenda, so maybe in public comment, if we move… move along. Yeah, yeah. 42 00:09:08.190 --> 00:09:10.239 Michael Billingsley: Yes? Can you hear me? 43 00:09:10.700 --> 00:09:12.100 Town of Plainfield: Public comment? Yep. 44 00:09:12.100 --> 00:09:13.140 Michael Billingsley: Can you hear me? 45 00:09:13.450 --> 00:09:14.730 Michael Billingsley: It's Michael. 46 00:09:14.910 --> 00:09:16.649 Michael Billingsley: Can you hear me? 47 00:09:16.650 --> 00:09:17.500 Town of Plainfield: Yes. 48 00:09:17.500 --> 00:09:22.110 Michael Billingsley: Alright, thank you. Michael Billingsley, I should say two things. 49 00:09:22.120 --> 00:09:23.230 Town of Plainfield: First. 50 00:09:23.230 --> 00:09:39.459 Michael Billingsley: First of all, the, grant for the second portion of the dam removal is to the Town of Plainfield, not to the Friends of the Winosky. We are the subcontractor, and the state is the contractor that will be given the grant when it comes through. 51 00:09:39.460 --> 00:09:57.610 Michael Billingsley: I believe it's obligated, but, it has not been paid out yet. So, I think they're acting as if the money is on the way, and SLR is the, contracted engineer for that portion of the grant. And, the second thing, I would add is that, 52 00:09:57.640 --> 00:09:58.670 Michael Billingsley: We have… 53 00:09:59.090 --> 00:10:10.159 Michael Billingsley: a timeline coming up pretty quickly, where, in January, as you mentioned, there will be a meeting where we actually start talking about the strategy for how to work with landowners and that sort of thing. 54 00:10:10.160 --> 00:10:27.369 Town of Plainfield: Yep, thank you for that clarification. That's, that's good. Any other public comment? Okay. Town clerk's report. Yes, first, I'd like to just, clear the air a little bit. I think I… 55 00:10:27.390 --> 00:10:31.859 Town of Plainfield: I spoke rashly at the last minute and gave the impression that, 56 00:10:32.010 --> 00:10:48.339 Town of Plainfield: you know, I have sort of qualms about the office and everybody, the way they're working, and I just want to state very clearly that I think I work with an outstanding group of people who are really trying their best, and I apologize if any of my comments, 57 00:10:48.410 --> 00:11:01.329 Town of Plainfield: seemed, to give a different impression, so I just wanted to say that to start off. Thank you. I also want to say that, 58 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:13.600 Town of Plainfield: We are… with Josh's, medical condition, we're working, to try to compensate for that. It's not easy, and 59 00:11:13.610 --> 00:11:26.940 Town of Plainfield: I want to set people's expectations that the turnaround time on some items might not be, what you're expecting. On that note. 60 00:11:27.090 --> 00:11:29.239 Town of Plainfield: I got a very late 61 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:53.170 Town of Plainfield: Evening, right when I was coming over here, request from Bob Atchison, did he email you? I saw an email come in, but it was literally while I was already here. Okay, well, I… I haven't looked at it. I just want to say that… This is probably Bob. Is Bob on? Well, he's… Well, so, we have this rule about first and last names, and names like Salty Dog often result in Zoom bombing. 62 00:11:53.170 --> 00:12:05.159 Town of Plainfield: And that's why we've not yet let him in. I've messaged the waiting room twice… Okay. And this could be actually time-sensitive. I just did skim that message. 63 00:12:05.290 --> 00:12:22.299 Town of Plainfield: Matt, should I let him in? Well, I mean, I just would, as Joss is incapacitated, if you could give me a little bit of guidance on that. You know, I have my opinions, we don't have to talk about the specifics of that right now, but it's, it's really, 64 00:12:22.300 --> 00:12:27.179 Town of Plainfield: you know, just an example of the kinds of things that come up, and I might be… 65 00:12:27.180 --> 00:12:30.740 Town of Plainfield: Calling you to see, you know, 66 00:12:30.760 --> 00:12:43.720 Town of Plainfield: if, if it works or not, just to make sure. The other thing is, we're in the midst of putting together the, town report, 67 00:12:43.890 --> 00:12:46.929 Town of Plainfield: Just a couple of things. One, I'd note that we… 68 00:12:46.950 --> 00:13:02.620 Town of Plainfield: We still have not received, any petitions for people running to the elected offices. Oh, really? So, yeah. So, the deadline is, what, January? The deadline is definitely… it's like January 26th, so it's a ways away. 69 00:13:02.620 --> 00:13:26.740 Town of Plainfield: I, I, and there are people who've expressed interest, just wanna, you know, put that out there and remind people, the, bars are not onerous. You need 10 signatures, on the petition, and you also need, a permission, thing. They're on the website. Consent form. Consent form. Consent form is correct. 70 00:13:26.770 --> 00:13:32.069 Town of Plainfield: And on the consent form, please don't put your political party. 71 00:13:32.270 --> 00:13:51.580 Town of Plainfield: And we, we also, on, on the, that, town report, I'm soliciting, if people have photographs, from the past year of plain field events or anything like that, that they wish to share for the town report, email me, put, town report pictures and, 72 00:13:51.580 --> 00:14:00.400 Town of Plainfield: who you want the photo credit to, and it'll be considered, you know. I'd like to have this be sort of a collaborative, effort. 73 00:14:00.420 --> 00:14:03.129 Town of Plainfield: And, 74 00:14:03.350 --> 00:14:20.290 Town of Plainfield: I think, I'm sure there's something that's gonna jump out at me right when I pause, but I think that's it, and then later on, we can do these appointments, which I'll talk about. Yep. Michael has his hand up again. Michael, is your hand up again, or is it left over? 75 00:14:22.090 --> 00:14:37.779 Town of Plainfield: Okay. Yeah, we're concerned about Josh for his health, but also, we're at a bad time of year to lose him. He did send out some information, which I haven't gone through fully, but, 76 00:14:38.150 --> 00:14:48.199 Town of Plainfield: we're gonna do the best we can to support him, so if there's things we can… we can do, we'll do that. Yeah, and just… I think, there's a sense of… 77 00:14:48.330 --> 00:14:53.760 Town of Plainfield: a lot of pressure on the office and so forth. Yeah. I just… I want people… 78 00:14:53.880 --> 00:15:05.300 Town of Plainfield: you know, we've had more instances of people being, disrespectful, and tone is not good. And just understand we're trying the best we can. 79 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:20.310 Town of Plainfield: You know, I understand, you know, sometimes, you know, you're dealing with a contractor or a builder, and you need some permit or something like that. It's not that we're trying to 80 00:15:20.420 --> 00:15:29.800 Town of Plainfield: push people away or anything. We're just trying to prioritize the work so that we can get things done for everybody. Good. 81 00:15:30.370 --> 00:15:51.020 Town of Plainfield: Any questions from the board? I'm sorry you had to deal with stuff. Okay, yeah, thank you. Carl? Carl, I'm wondering whether or not we might backtrack the public comments to allow Bob Atchinson the chance to speak? Oh, yeah, we… Bob, you want to say a few words about what you need, and… 82 00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:55.260 Town of Plainfield: Related to the emails today. 83 00:15:55.260 --> 00:16:00.890 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Sure. I did get the email out, but I didn't have time to drive down there, so I've been… 84 00:16:01.490 --> 00:16:07.460 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Trying to get through the techniques of Zoom here for the past… Whatever. 85 00:16:07.590 --> 00:16:10.980 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: minutes. Anyway, We 86 00:16:11.300 --> 00:16:24.839 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: have been waiting to get some geothermal estimates in so that we could see how much money we had to spend on the solar for the town garage. So I've been talking with Sam Lash of CBRPC. 87 00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:25.650 Town of Plainfield: Who's the… 88 00:16:25.650 --> 00:16:29.290 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: The energy coordinator there, and… and has been helpful. 89 00:16:29.920 --> 00:16:35.559 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: working with Josh and I to, get the grant landed and everything else. 90 00:16:35.740 --> 00:16:40.069 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: And what it's come down to is that we decided that the 91 00:16:40.580 --> 00:16:46.269 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: the choices from Catamount Solar, who had the best quotes of anybody else. 92 00:16:46.760 --> 00:16:50.600 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: And that happened way back in the… in the summertime. 93 00:16:50.980 --> 00:16:52.230 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: But the… 94 00:16:52.970 --> 00:17:03.559 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: it makes more sense to do the 22kW array, because MERP folks will probably not identify increasing solar as 95 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:12.869 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: As a, as much of a resiliency measure for the town as they will weatherizing buildings and change of… 96 00:17:13.099 --> 00:17:16.290 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Fuel, for heating, etc. 97 00:17:16.290 --> 00:17:17.099 Town of Plainfield: So… 98 00:17:17.780 --> 00:17:23.460 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: What we need to do in order to not lose our 30% federal grant. 99 00:17:24.040 --> 00:17:35.899 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: federal incentive, which is… amounts to $17,640 that we would lose off the project. We need to get a check to Catamount Solar 100 00:17:36.180 --> 00:17:44.109 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: before December 31st, and the sooner the better, in the amount of $17,500. 101 00:17:44.560 --> 00:17:50.900 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: there has been an advance of money on the MERP grant to Plainfield because we were 102 00:17:51.560 --> 00:17:55.790 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Listed as a financially burdened town because of the flooding, etc. 103 00:17:56.100 --> 00:17:59.380 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: So, there is somewhere in an account 104 00:17:59.610 --> 00:18:03.300 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: I believe it was $75,000. 105 00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:06.049 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: That was transferred to the town. 106 00:18:06.450 --> 00:18:12.339 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: So, I don't know how to find the amount. I can… tomorrow, I can call MERP. 107 00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:19.969 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: folks at BGS, and see when they issued the check, and then I can… maybe we can backtrack it that way. 108 00:18:20.130 --> 00:18:20.940 Town of Plainfield: But… 109 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:21.490 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: It's… 110 00:18:21.490 --> 00:18:35.090 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, I feel confident we know where it is, Bob, but it's, it may have been placed in an entrance-bearing account or something like that, and it takes a few days to get it freed up, so that's… that's why the… that's why we need time. 111 00:18:35.130 --> 00:18:36.120 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Okay. 112 00:18:36.120 --> 00:18:48.050 Town of Plainfield: But yeah, I hear you, it's the 31st is the absolute deadline, you'd like it earlier. Graham, you have a comment? Yes, will you be sending us an actual invoice for these funds? 113 00:18:49.170 --> 00:18:54.680 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: There's a… there's a contract, and I will get that from… 114 00:18:55.240 --> 00:19:04.419 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Kevin McAllister, who's the principal at Catamount Solar, and just to be sure, it's a more formal invoice than the attachment to the email. 115 00:19:04.890 --> 00:19:05.570 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Was that true? 116 00:19:05.570 --> 00:19:11.459 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, a formal invoice would really help, I'm sure. Yeah, we would need to have a real formal invoice in order to process this. 117 00:19:11.830 --> 00:19:15.150 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Yes, indeed. Okay. So I'll get that to you tomorrow. 118 00:19:15.750 --> 00:19:18.299 Town of Plainfield: Great. Do we have all this money? 119 00:19:18.550 --> 00:19:25.870 Town of Plainfield: I believe you just said $75,000. $75,000. Oh, $75,000. Yeah. Not $7,500, correct. Yes. Yeah. And we've already… 120 00:19:25.870 --> 00:19:31.480 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: No, no, the amount we need for the deposit 17,500. 121 00:19:32.450 --> 00:19:33.120 Town of Plainfield: Okay. 122 00:19:33.120 --> 00:19:41.860 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: That's the deposit amount, and I don't know that we've spent anything else on that. This is out of the whole $310,000 total grant. 123 00:19:42.120 --> 00:19:57.049 Town of Plainfield: Right, right. Okay, Dan? And Bram, you know, you were just talking about the situation with Josh and things, so this gives us a week and a half to get this check done? Yeah. It's not due tomorrow, so… I, I, I will… 124 00:19:57.200 --> 00:20:12.890 Town of Plainfield: try as best I can in terms of tracking down to make sure that we have the 75 and it's drawn from the right account. I'll do all that. And I think, I don't have check signing ability anymore. 125 00:20:12.890 --> 00:20:33.860 Town of Plainfield: So it would either go to Carol or Josh, and I'll… Carol is, leaving, I think, starting tomorrow afternoon, but she'll be back, and I'll, you know, if I have to walk it over to Josh, I'll do that. So, let me, let me just see where everything is. I have to find it on Nemerick, where… 126 00:20:34.430 --> 00:20:39.310 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Yeah, I'm also, Kevin McAllister lives in East Montpelier. 127 00:20:39.510 --> 00:20:50.000 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: And so, whenever I got the check, I'd be glad to schlep it over there. And I checked with Sam last Friday, and she said that I should be empowered 128 00:20:50.120 --> 00:20:54.500 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: sign the contract. If that's not good with you folks, that's fine too. 129 00:20:55.640 --> 00:20:58.020 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: As long as we've got somebody to sign the contract. 130 00:20:58.310 --> 00:21:02.570 Town of Plainfield: Well, that's a… that's a select board decision, I think. I mean, I don't know… 131 00:21:02.570 --> 00:21:06.850 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Well, the language of the grant award says that I'm the… 132 00:21:07.180 --> 00:21:12.070 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: you know, the point person who can do that, so it's… it's up to you. You know, I'm not… 133 00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:13.060 Town of Plainfield: Okay. 134 00:21:13.130 --> 00:21:13.870 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: I can clear. 135 00:21:13.870 --> 00:21:37.609 Town of Plainfield: Well, let's worry about the check first. Yeah. Well, I think we gotta get the contract signed by the end of the year, too. Yeah. I mean, I do remember when we did this grant paperwork, I think we gave… we put Bob down as the person, so I think he can do this. I believe we did, we'd have to go back in our records to find that. Yeah. Well, I think Sam has copies of it. Okay. I have that memory also. Yeah. So, can I make a motion to approve a check in the amount of $17,500? 136 00:21:37.610 --> 00:21:41.069 Town of Plainfield: to Catamount Solar for Merck work. 137 00:21:41.270 --> 00:21:42.660 Town of Plainfield: I seconded it. 138 00:21:43.120 --> 00:21:50.029 Town of Plainfield: And any other discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? 139 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:53.420 Town of Plainfield: Okay, so we'll get that working. 140 00:21:53.420 --> 00:21:54.270 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Alright, thank you. 141 00:21:54.770 --> 00:21:55.320 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Thank you so much. 142 00:21:55.320 --> 00:22:02.479 Town of Plainfield: Thanks for your, it sounds like it's possible it might not happen till Monday. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's possible. 143 00:22:02.930 --> 00:22:05.200 Town of Plainfield: Well, that's the 49er. 144 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:06.110 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: I'm ready when you are. 145 00:22:06.110 --> 00:22:10.800 Town of Plainfield: Till before the 31st. Thank you. Yep. Okay, 146 00:22:10.840 --> 00:22:17.680 Town of Plainfield: Anything else on the town report? One other thing. On the, 147 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:23.819 Town of Plainfield: we hopefully will have the ticket writing capability, the timing of that was… it would begin 148 00:22:23.820 --> 00:22:41.100 Town of Plainfield: due to statutory reasons of waiting and all that, it would begin in February, but, Dan Caddy, is authorized under the… our local ordinance to be the animal control officer, so there's no extra… so he could actually write the ticket, so… 149 00:22:41.270 --> 00:22:44.290 Town of Plainfield: And we really appreciate Dan's effort. 150 00:22:44.290 --> 00:23:03.060 Town of Plainfield: dealing with a dog. Yeah, yeah. It sounds like he's… he can get a lot done by being reasonable and cooperative with people. Do you want to talk about the bi-weekly payroll, or is that something you want to wait on? Well, just a couple of things, notes on that. 151 00:23:03.060 --> 00:23:12.390 Town of Plainfield: I didn't have a chance… the person I needed to talk to at Nemerick was away, but, I just… I get the sense that it might be best to start this 152 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:16.690 Town of Plainfield: next quarter. And the reason is, is that… Okay. 153 00:23:16.830 --> 00:23:29.019 Town of Plainfield: water sewer is not, anywhere near where they should be in terms of… nobody's fault, I'm just saying, in order to translate everything. And I think, 154 00:23:29.150 --> 00:23:45.450 Town of Plainfield: especially with Josh being out, we need to sort of focus our energies just on maintaining status quo, so if we could just delay that, we do obviously want that, and… Yup. It will happen, it's just gonna be a little later. It's just a matter of time. And by next quarter, you mean April 1st? 155 00:23:45.450 --> 00:23:49.499 Town of Plainfield: I would say, let's shoot for April 1st and just see how things are playing out. 156 00:23:49.500 --> 00:23:51.580 Town of Plainfield: Yep. 157 00:23:51.980 --> 00:24:03.730 Town of Plainfield: Okay, the issue… we wanted to start it before, and we were pushed back from the office by saying, because of all the other 158 00:24:03.840 --> 00:24:22.459 Town of Plainfield: payroll-related benefits and stuff which take effect on January 1, that we would wait until then. Now, I understand that we have issues with Josh and stuff like that, but I'm a little reluctant to postpone something that we could have done earlier. 159 00:24:22.530 --> 00:24:35.579 Town of Plainfield: And now we want to wait till… It ain't gonna happen, or… I mean, you can say whatever you want, but it's just like, if water and sewers pay scales and everything aren't matched up, and they haven't made… 160 00:24:35.790 --> 00:24:52.969 Town of Plainfield: the changes necessary. I mean, it's not… it's not feasible to… So, they're doing their regular payroll, right? Yeah, they're going to be being paid, you know, every week as they do, but in other words, they get paid differently than the town. 161 00:24:53.170 --> 00:24:56.389 Town of Plainfield: There are different understanding rules. Yeah. 162 00:24:58.470 --> 00:25:03.070 Town of Plainfield: I, I, I, this is not rocket science changing from 163 00:25:03.280 --> 00:25:10.790 Town of Plainfield: weekly to bi-weekly. And I'm just a little frustrated that, we could have done this 6 months ago. 164 00:25:11.080 --> 00:25:14.410 Town of Plainfield: And we didn't, and now we're gonna wait again. 165 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:26.340 Town of Plainfield: Several more months. And we were pushed back to say it… because of all the other things that happened on that time, it was… it was harder to do it. 166 00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:39.149 Town of Plainfield: Well, I mean, I'm not… I don't run payroll, okay? And, from what I'm gathering from people who are running payroll, that's not… 167 00:25:39.390 --> 00:25:48.619 Town of Plainfield: gonna work, so… Yep, no, I hear it. You can shoot for April 1st. I mean, I don't… you know, I'd much prefer it be sooner as well. 168 00:25:48.840 --> 00:25:50.890 Town of Plainfield: It sounds like we need to press… 169 00:25:51.040 --> 00:25:56.840 Town of Plainfield: water sewer to get their reports done. Yeah, and I think… I think that, 170 00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:03.480 Town of Plainfield: And they haven't done their budget yet, so… Yeah, I think that they haven't done their budget, and I think that, 171 00:26:04.090 --> 00:26:17.160 Town of Plainfield: I don't know what the legalese of this is, but I think that it might be helpful to have a member of the Select Board be a liaison to water sewer, because I think there's a sort of disconnect about what's going on. 172 00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:25.940 Town of Plainfield: There is. The other thing, just getting back to town meeting and so forth. 173 00:26:25.940 --> 00:26:43.310 Town of Plainfield: We're gonna have probably two bond-related matters, one from Water Sewer, and I've been pressing them to get me the information, because I want things as early as possible, and there's also a potential, road, a smaller road bond 174 00:26:43.320 --> 00:27:03.030 Town of Plainfield: Once again, I don't know exactly what the status of that is or if it will happen. But if the Select Board has any other articles or measures or anything that they want to include in the warning, I'd love to see things sort of earlier rather than later. And that also includes, 175 00:27:03.760 --> 00:27:11.380 Town of Plainfield: you know, consideration of… I mean, I don't know if you want to think in terms of structural changes in this and that, like, for example. 176 00:27:11.380 --> 00:27:25.700 Town of Plainfield: would it be better to have… I'm not weighing in either way, but the cemetery commission should… should… would that be better? Being appointed positions versus elected? That kind of thing. If you're considering any sort of changes. 177 00:27:25.700 --> 00:27:42.460 Town of Plainfield: in terms of town government structure and this and that, if I could get the language and so forth earlier rather than later, that would be great, just throwing it out there. Okay, yep. Well, and obviously, citizens can also petition for things to be on the, and so I think if there are people out there 178 00:27:42.690 --> 00:27:47.590 Town of Plainfield: wanting to change things in town, they can go through those processes, and it's probably better 179 00:27:47.590 --> 00:28:06.900 Town of Plainfield: From a success perspective, if you do that work to get more people involved than to go through the select board. Right, and just a note on that, the petition requirements for that are a little higher, so it's 5%, not 1%, so it's roughly 50-something signatures of Plainfield voters. 180 00:28:07.040 --> 00:28:13.760 Town of Plainfield: Please remember that just because somebody says they live in Plainfield does not mean they're a registered Plainfield voter. 181 00:28:14.060 --> 00:28:37.680 Town of Plainfield: Okay, you would check those names. Yeah, you have to have at least the 50, whatever. I would just say, speaking personally, but I haven't heard anything from anybody else up here, I don't think we have any intent to do anything else for warned articles. The plate is more than full as it is, and we're not accomplishing everything we're supposed to be doing now, so why would we add something new? Okay, I just… 182 00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:43.780 Town of Plainfield: But you just would like some… you'd like some notice, yes. We had previously discussed 183 00:28:43.820 --> 00:28:57.320 Town of Plainfield: the option to discuss the cemetery commission. What is the future of the cemetery commission? If there was want to shift from elected to appointed, that would be something for the 184 00:28:58.030 --> 00:29:20.790 Town of Plainfield: the articles for the town report, yes? That would be if we wanted to change it. I don't know that we've talked about it, and I don't know if we're going to have enough time… I mean… We're not gonna have time. I don't know if shifting it from… Fair enough. …from the voters picking someone to do it versus the select board trying to find it. If there's no candidates, there's no candidates. I don't know that it makes our lives any different. Okay. Yeah. And if there's any other things, we could just go to… 185 00:29:20.790 --> 00:29:30.859 Town of Plainfield: Bram, if there's other issues, but… Yeah, we have time. I'm just trying to, you know, make sure you don't have the last… You want time to get this report. Yep. 186 00:29:30.940 --> 00:29:33.650 Town of Plainfield: Okay, 187 00:29:33.900 --> 00:29:45.500 Town of Plainfield: Thank you. Development review board appointments. Yeah, I, I, I just, the, there's been a little bit of, chaotic stuff with the, 188 00:29:45.500 --> 00:29:55.850 Town of Plainfield: records and minutes and so forth, and I would just feel, safe if we could just appoint, the current members of the Development Review Board to serve through 189 00:29:55.850 --> 00:29:58.849 Town of Plainfield: March 17th, and I picked 17th because 190 00:29:58.870 --> 00:30:12.310 Town of Plainfield: It gives us time for the reappointments afterward, rather than having it expire, March 3rd, and you just want to make sure it's legally… that they're legally appointed. 191 00:30:12.330 --> 00:30:22.959 Town of Plainfield: Correct. In the time between now and the… Yes. And this is, you know, those are the things. And one of the challenges we're facing 192 00:30:23.670 --> 00:30:36.999 Town of Plainfield: and I'm working on doing this, is that the minutes that we have right now are not easily searchable, going back. Some of them are non-existent. 193 00:30:37.220 --> 00:30:55.830 Town of Plainfield: Some of the minutes are non-existent, we had some problems and so forth, but what I'm doing is I'm taking these massive piles of paper and running them through image recognition software, and so that we can literally scan them and answer questions promptly. 194 00:30:56.220 --> 00:31:06.010 Town of Plainfield: regarding things like appointments, and also we're going to keep much better track of when people are appointed for how long, and so forth. So, this is really just… 195 00:31:06.150 --> 00:31:24.110 Town of Plainfield: the people who are on the board are Janice Walrafin, Self Mullinder, Mary Niebling, and Jesse Cooper. So that's four people you would like to have appointed to? I think just to have a motion to have them appointed through the town meeting, and then, 196 00:31:24.480 --> 00:31:33.449 Town of Plainfield: we'll get the definitive timeline for their appointments and so forth after that. Okay. You had a question first. Well, 197 00:31:34.330 --> 00:31:37.509 Town of Plainfield: I mean, he can make the motion, and then we'll discuss, but… Okay. 198 00:31:37.730 --> 00:31:47.409 Town of Plainfield: Motion to appoint Janice Walraithin, Seth Mullendor, Mary Niebling, and Jesse Cooper to the Development Review Board until March 17, 2026. A second. 199 00:31:47.510 --> 00:32:01.170 Town of Plainfield: All right, I… Discussion. Comment on that. I would say a couple of things. First off, Mary Niebling's term runs through 2026 anyway, so that kind of… I don't know what Jesse Cooper's done. 200 00:32:01.360 --> 00:32:15.130 Town of Plainfield: Janice Walrizen and Seth Mullendor apparently expired in 2025, so it would be good to appoint them. Well, the only thing about Mary Nieblings is I'm looking for the paperwork and the motions and so forth, and I need to have a phone. 201 00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:24.360 Town of Plainfield: Right, I understand, but in last year's town report, it had a list, and so it goes to her… she went through 2026, because they are staggering. 202 00:32:24.850 --> 00:32:28.040 Town of Plainfield: Okay. No, it might, my… okay. 203 00:32:28.180 --> 00:32:40.020 Town of Plainfield: That's… we're gonna get these people done through town meeting. I am hesitant to put in a date, March 17th. I believe the League of Cities and Towns and the state statutes say for appointments, it's 204 00:32:40.020 --> 00:32:57.290 Town of Plainfield: through town meeting, and then it says, to a… until successor is appointed, which gives the… and the state doesn't set a date, because every town select board meets on a different day of the week, so they don't set a specific date. 205 00:32:57.290 --> 00:33:09.750 Town of Plainfield: And I don't think we should either. I think our expectation should be that at the organizational meeting of the select board following town meeting, that there's an agenda item where all the annual appointments are redone. 206 00:33:09.750 --> 00:33:26.880 Town of Plainfield: And we should have, and I'm glad you're digging into this. I mean, someone has needed to do this for a while, because we keep appointing people, and it's like, we don't know how long the term is. I think one of the structural changes that we really need to enforce 207 00:33:27.470 --> 00:33:43.770 Town of Plainfield: is really when people are appointed to heads of committees, they need to, A, understand open meeting law, and I have a video I can give them on that, but B, they really have to be the sort of driver in terms of 208 00:33:43.770 --> 00:34:08.000 Town of Plainfield: where the appointments are, and that, and so forth. One of your purposes, stated purposes, of doing this now is to make sure that they have the legal authority for decisions that are made, and it doesn't have to go back. That's another reason why you don't want to put a date on this motion, which is that they are in office until their successor is appointed, so if that committee needs to make a decision following town meeting. 209 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:21.330 Town of Plainfield: It's legitimate, so… Great. Well, I would support, Peter's, you know, amendment to whatever… Do you want to… happy to take that, date? That friendly amendment? 210 00:34:21.330 --> 00:34:41.069 Town of Plainfield: Okay. And we should… until town meeting, we're successful. I know Michael's got his hand up, but technically, when we're in the discussion phase of a vote, it's only for the people who are here, so it's up to you whether you want to call. Let's, let's have a vote. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. And opposed? 211 00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:43.480 Town of Plainfield: Okay, Michael, did you have a question? 212 00:34:43.489 --> 00:35:00.309 Michael Billingsley: I just… because you're talking about appointments, I wanted to correct an error that occurred in an earlier Select Board meeting. I should, I just want to remind the Select Board that when I was appointed by this Select Board, it wasn't until the 1st of May, because that was when I announced my resignation date. 213 00:35:00.309 --> 00:35:09.939 Michael Billingsley: And it is… it was announced that it was until, town meeting day, which is actually, in my case, not correct. It was, 214 00:35:09.939 --> 00:35:19.669 Michael Billingsley: for less than a year, because the date that I was reappointed was, less than a year from May 1st. But that was the intention, and that is what is in the record. 215 00:35:19.950 --> 00:35:28.420 Town of Plainfield: Okay. Yeah, and I'll just say, I think, other than ones that specifically have terms like the Development Review Board, technically, because 216 00:35:28.420 --> 00:35:52.369 Town of Plainfield: there's gonna be a new select board after town meeting, like, just, like, that's just reality, even if it's the same 5 people or it's different people, and so I think that you can't actually supersede the term limit, unless there's term limits in the statute. We can just reappoint him till May 1st. Sure. It's not a big deal, but the reality is, is you can only appoint people, like, that's why we have the reorganization meeting every year. Right. And we can't… yeah. 217 00:35:52.370 --> 00:36:16.960 Town of Plainfield: And according to Peter, they would… the person who's in place would stay in place until somebody new is appointed. Yes, that's correct. So the legal status of that committee and the actions of that committee still have the effect of law. I mean, Michael's correct. The minutes do state that we appointed him, you know, to that later date. That was our mistake. But all… yeah, like the new select board, if 5 new people were up 218 00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:28.910 Town of Plainfield: They could appoint whoever they wanted to, whatever they wanted, and there'd be no… nothing stopping them. Okay. Other than the terms that would be argued. We'll take that as a note, thank you. 219 00:36:29.070 --> 00:36:50.899 Town of Plainfield: One more, request for an appointment. Yeah, that's our next agenda item, right? Auditor? It is, yeah, auditors, yeah. So, Thomas Kelly has stepped forward. Oh, great. You may know him. Great, I do. It's on Dean Road. Yeah. We're partnered with, Judy Sipion, a wonderful person, and he stepped on to… 220 00:36:50.900 --> 00:36:53.300 Town of Plainfield: Assume the role of his auditor. 221 00:36:53.300 --> 00:36:56.019 Town of Plainfield: Through, Tony. 222 00:36:56.150 --> 00:37:11.139 Town of Plainfield: Great. That's great. Yeah, we'll have… We'll have three. Fantastic. Yeah, I think that's a good thing. Well, thank you, Tom. Get a motion to appoint Tom? So moved. 223 00:37:11.350 --> 00:37:17.620 Town of Plainfield: Second. Second. And all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? 224 00:37:17.760 --> 00:37:20.170 Town of Plainfield: Great. I'm glad to hear that. 225 00:37:20.620 --> 00:37:45.539 Town of Plainfield: He's a good friend of Bob Rosenfeld, who did it last year. Graham, if you would like assistance scouring through minutes on some of these terms and stuff like that, I'm more than willing to give you some food. We heard it! This is on record. Okay, no, no, I love you too. I mean, I loved you. I find it… He can't garden this time of year, he's gotta do something. Okay, I mean, no, no, it'd be great. 226 00:37:45.540 --> 00:37:59.340 Town of Plainfield: Until taxi. I've been digging, and I have not had luck. Piles of paperwork are not fun. Thank you so much, Peter. Yeah, that's great. 227 00:37:59.340 --> 00:38:14.189 Town of Plainfield: Did you say what… did you want to talk about our policy for town office harassment? Well, I know this came up at the last meeting, and, I think, you know, I'm perfectly okay with, 228 00:38:14.190 --> 00:38:23.949 Town of Plainfield: making the decision, you know, automatic, it's okay. I mean, I think if you'd like to make that policy, we can also hang it in the… 229 00:38:23.950 --> 00:38:47.000 Town of Plainfield: in the foyer, maybe that'll dial our temperature down a bit, you know. And I should point out, this is harassment from people that are coming in, not within. Yeah, yeah, no, it's generally… I mean, I've had a couple on the phone, but it's a lot of people who are… Well, they're generally upset because something's gone wrong, and they're trying to get resolution, and if somebody doesn't act instantly, it's a problem. I understand, you know, if you're… 230 00:38:47.000 --> 00:39:00.029 Town of Plainfield: I get it, and especially if people feel, you know, taken advantage of or something, you know, I get it. So, sure, yeah, if you want to move forward on that, it'd be fine. 231 00:39:00.030 --> 00:39:00.820 Town of Plainfield: Okay. 232 00:39:00.900 --> 00:39:25.330 Town of Plainfield: Well, thank you, Theater. Dan? Yeah, and I'll just say, I know this last thing was a gentleman who called several people, but called saying they were gonna hurt members of the staff and other things, and I think there's always a want to understand where the person's coming from, and try to work through it, and allow it to happen, like, and we, you know, not call the state police or not do something, but I think because we don't know what that person will do. 233 00:39:25.330 --> 00:39:48.580 Town of Plainfield: and to what extent, it's better, and I think it's better for staff if they don't have the choice that it's a directive, so that way they just say, like, I have to… like, I can't not do it, and that way it just takes away… it puts the onus on us, rather than putting it on staff members. I will make a sign and have it in the foyer also for people, you know, to see, and… 234 00:39:48.580 --> 00:39:57.300 Town of Plainfield: Be nice. You know, I think it's… look, I understand everybody's under a lot of pressure, and you know, town government, 235 00:39:57.520 --> 00:40:10.730 Town of Plainfield: you know, falls in this weird spot where we have agency over things that really, you know, matter to people, and I understand we do the best we can. Sometimes it's just not… 236 00:40:11.080 --> 00:40:23.480 Town of Plainfield: possible to, you know, get the results right away, so… Well, we want to be friendly and helpful, but people have to understand it takes time to get things done, so… it's a trade-off. 237 00:40:23.490 --> 00:40:39.100 Town of Plainfield: Okay. I don't think we need to take an action on that. Is that agreeable? You don't want to… Well, I think we should… the whole idea is to take an action so that way the staff doesn't… So, so we can… it can be a board of directors? Yeah, so we can do it two ways. We can make a motion now, and then… 238 00:40:39.110 --> 00:40:46.859 Town of Plainfield: And then just use those words, or we could write something for the personnel policy and just add it as a personnel policy piece. 239 00:40:46.860 --> 00:41:02.179 Town of Plainfield: I'm fine with either way. We could also take this action now, so it happens, and then write something in the postnel policy that we adopt at the next meeting or something, just so it's, like, officially enshrined in the postnel policy. I don't know where it goes, but… Yeah. So, I'll do… I'll start here and make some friendly amendments here. 240 00:41:02.180 --> 00:41:10.619 Town of Plainfield: Motion to add a requirement for staff to report any harassment or threatening words or acts to the State Police and the chair of the Select Board. 241 00:41:10.970 --> 00:41:27.539 Town of Plainfield: The state police first? And? At the same time, both of them at the same time. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because then the chair will let the rest of the Select Board know, but then, you know… Yeah. Second. Second? Okay. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. 242 00:41:27.540 --> 00:41:34.430 Town of Plainfield: Opposed? Thank you, and so you can make a sign, yep. 243 00:41:34.910 --> 00:41:46.279 Town of Plainfield: And I think we decided to call the state police because they just want to have a record. They may not act on it, but they… there's a record in the file that documents it. 244 00:41:46.360 --> 00:42:05.599 Town of Plainfield: Especially if a threat comes in, let's take you one day, Carol the next day, Jamie the next day, Josh the next day, you know, state police will know that that's four incidents, whereas each of them is one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's important for them to have their backup, too. Yeah. 245 00:42:05.600 --> 00:42:10.280 Town of Plainfield: Re-own report check-in, 246 00:42:10.800 --> 00:42:24.909 Town of Plainfield: That was about… it said unknown articles, inclusion of delinquent taxes? Yeah, how about… well, right. The… I think, technically speaking, the inclusion of the delinquent tax stuff is something that you could… 247 00:42:25.260 --> 00:42:32.929 Town of Plainfield: you know, authorized, and then the… but the auditors sort of, I think, make that call. Yeah. I… you know, I… I don't think… 248 00:42:33.010 --> 00:42:48.979 Town of Plainfield: Some people were very pro this thing, and I don't… I don't know, shaming people, it seems, this has to do with listing the people that owe taxes for… So, in other words, the… 249 00:42:48.980 --> 00:42:55.349 Town of Plainfield: There was, for many years, a tradition of listing people who were delinquent in their taxes. Right. 250 00:42:55.360 --> 00:42:58.759 Town of Plainfield: And this was something that, 251 00:42:59.290 --> 00:43:09.229 Town of Plainfield: one of the auditors years ago, who was very seasoned, and I respect their opinion, thought it was important, and 252 00:43:09.410 --> 00:43:11.580 Town of Plainfield: It was changed, and… 253 00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:33.929 Town of Plainfield: I got a phone call from a resident who thought it would be a good idea to restore it. I don't think that that would be a good idea, but, you know, you guys… Bring it out. You all are the boss. For what it's worth, I spoke today with George Cushing, who's our delinquent tax collector, who is not in favor of including 254 00:43:34.070 --> 00:43:39.440 Town of Plainfield: the… those delinquent in the TAM report as such. So just adding his… 255 00:43:39.490 --> 00:44:00.420 Town of Plainfield: opinion to the consideration, yeah. That's a great thing to know, and I don't think anybody would ever recuse George of being a bleeding whore. Yeah, and I think also just the nature of the town report, which is, like, finalized the first week of February, goes out late February, people all have it on March. Like, people could have paid their taxes. 256 00:44:00.640 --> 00:44:25.280 Town of Plainfield: 10 minutes after the first… that we decide to hit, we're done with it, but then their name's gonna be in there for weeks for people to ask about and things. Be there all year. It doesn't seem right, especially in this time when the economy is so poor and people are struggling so much. Like, I don't think shaming the… potentially the poorest among us is… Absolutely. And generally, people who don't pay the taxes are doing it because of some event that they have no control over, so… 257 00:44:25.280 --> 00:44:50.219 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, so we're not, we're not gonna, act on that, I think. I would just point out that this is, I think, the third meeting in a row we've discussed this and decided it wasn't a good idea. Oh, thank you. It's a good thing you have a good memory. I mean, it had come up, I believe, only once before, and it had come up as something to be discussed. Yeah. And yes, it was 258 00:44:50.220 --> 00:45:03.030 Town of Plainfield: It's been on the agenda once before, but it's come up otherwise. I don't believe it's been on the agenda before. Yeah, yeah, it has. Okay, so we'll just leave that where it is. 259 00:45:04.120 --> 00:45:12.710 Town of Plainfield: Next item is, Ledgeworks. We, we have been asked to have a little time to have, 260 00:45:12.950 --> 00:45:18.729 Town of Plainfield: Well, it's shown as Liam, but I think it's Tim. 261 00:45:18.730 --> 00:45:19.890 Liam Murphy: No, that's the lamb. 262 00:45:19.890 --> 00:45:34.690 Town of Plainfield: Okay, great. The Creative Campus has proven to be very communicative, I think, with the town, and are looking for ideas for the town, and willing to listen to 263 00:45:34.770 --> 00:45:42.850 Town of Plainfield: town's feelings. So, we are here to let you, talk about what you'd like to talk about, Liam. 264 00:45:43.950 --> 00:45:45.480 Liam Murphy: Good evening, 265 00:45:46.020 --> 00:45:53.890 Liam Murphy: My name is Liam Murphy. I've been… I'm counsel to Ledgeworks in regard to Goddard College, land use issues. 266 00:45:53.890 --> 00:46:06.059 Liam Murphy: So, the issue, what we'd like to do is, as you know, Goddard Camp… Goddard Campus is no longer operational, and there's been some… 267 00:46:06.080 --> 00:46:11.080 Liam Murphy: Question about the continuing uses of the campus for… 268 00:46:11.190 --> 00:46:22.489 Liam Murphy: Uses that the campus already had, but now not being part of campus, such as, you know, housing, or offices, or entertainment facilities, or whatever, and 269 00:46:22.570 --> 00:46:34.770 Liam Murphy: In order to remove any questions about what is permitted, what is not permitted, what needs a new 270 00:46:35.090 --> 00:46:46.999 Liam Murphy: a permit and what doesn't need a new permit. What we would like to do, and is suggest to the Select Board that the Select Board adopt an interim zoning 271 00:46:47.060 --> 00:46:56.699 Liam Murphy: I've sent a draft, and I think Tim may have provided it to you. It's really quite a simple approach. 272 00:46:56.700 --> 00:47:09.660 Liam Murphy: First, the Select Board has the authority to adopt interim zoning. You do have to warn it as a hearing, that it is on your agenda, and then at that hearing, 273 00:47:09.660 --> 00:47:26.600 Liam Murphy: You can hear it, and then it is effectively a temporary measure. It can… it stays in effect for 2 years. It can be extended for a year, while then, during that period, the development review board, Planning Commission, may decide to, 274 00:47:26.600 --> 00:47:30.920 Liam Murphy: Make it a part of the regular zoning, or refine it. 275 00:47:30.920 --> 00:47:40.990 Liam Murphy: But it gives a short-term security to the uses that, the campus have… has been, 276 00:47:42.130 --> 00:47:48.290 Liam Murphy: operating, traditionally and, and now. So, I've proposed, 277 00:47:48.450 --> 00:47:51.560 Liam Murphy: A simple interim zoning that basically says. 278 00:47:51.850 --> 00:47:57.239 Liam Murphy: You don't need a permit for any building that's existing already. 279 00:47:58.010 --> 00:48:05.959 Liam Murphy: And you don't need a permit for traditional uses that have gone on on the campus, 280 00:48:07.030 --> 00:48:20.320 Liam Murphy: for the last, you know, 100 years, educational facilities, housing, community facilities, theaters, offices. 281 00:48:20.440 --> 00:48:32.640 Liam Murphy: And, commercial recreational uses, religious institutions. So it would just, parking, for example, and then. 282 00:48:32.970 --> 00:48:47.800 Liam Murphy: It would allow these to continue as long as the building, the uses were occurring inside the current building, then there would not be a permit for… required for those uses. 283 00:48:47.950 --> 00:49:00.589 Liam Murphy: The interim zoning then provides, if there are an expansion of a building, or if there are new buildings, or if there are new uses, then, of course, you would have to… we'd have to come back 284 00:49:00.650 --> 00:49:11.670 Liam Murphy: for, the development review board, or, well, first the zoning officer, and then Development Review Board to obtain, conditional use permits. 285 00:49:11.910 --> 00:49:22.890 Liam Murphy: That's the proposal. It's really quite simple. I, have… I was counsel to the City of Winooski when it went under 286 00:49:23.310 --> 00:49:38.899 Liam Murphy: It's, downtown renovation starting in 2004, and we use this approach of having an interim zoning to help facilitate the redevelopment of the downtown 287 00:49:39.090 --> 00:49:48.750 Liam Murphy: Winooski, and as, you know, you… I'm not sure if you've gotten over there lately, but over the last 20 years, a development 288 00:49:49.370 --> 00:50:00.690 Liam Murphy: bond was, floated that's gone… over the 20 years, has gotten paid off. The city has redeveloped that downtown into a multi-use, 289 00:50:01.120 --> 00:50:09.890 Liam Murphy: Area with, housing and offices and restaurants, and now, the final building is going up as a hotel. 290 00:50:10.440 --> 00:50:23.230 Liam Murphy: In that case, the town adopted the interim zoning, and ultimately, the Planning Commission incorporated the provisions in interim zoning into the permanent zoning, so it is still there. 291 00:50:23.300 --> 00:50:25.990 Liam Murphy: That's the border picture. 292 00:50:25.990 --> 00:50:37.299 Liam Murphy: Obviously, if you wanted to proceed with this, you would have to warrant a hearing, and then hear public comment on it, and then decide if you want to go forward. 293 00:50:37.300 --> 00:50:47.070 Liam Murphy: I'd be glad to answer any questions on the general concept of the interim zoning or the specifics of, the draft that I 294 00:50:47.140 --> 00:50:48.280 Liam Murphy: Provided. 295 00:50:48.640 --> 00:51:02.349 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, I have a question about, the motivation, it sounds like, is to allow you to move quickly on a project, or does it just seem less cumbersome? 296 00:51:02.350 --> 00:51:20.700 Liam Murphy: Well, there's a… there's a… yeah, thank you. Why to do it? I think there are three reasons. One, there's a little, misunderstanding right now, I think, as to what is permitted to be used, or… or not used on campus. For example. 297 00:51:20.700 --> 00:51:35.110 Liam Murphy: housing. There were previous housing and dorms on there, but when one of the existing buildings is converted or renovated into housing is a permit requirement. 298 00:51:35.180 --> 00:51:47.609 Liam Murphy: I would argue that those were pre-existing uses. Others may say that, no, you're not a campus anymore, you're doing housing separate, and this would just allow the housing to occur. 299 00:51:47.610 --> 00:51:57.329 Liam Murphy: The second, frankly, is that because of that conflict, if a permit is required, then obviously that 300 00:51:57.370 --> 00:52:04.179 Liam Murphy: provides an opportunity for an appeal. And, an appeal, would… 301 00:52:04.420 --> 00:52:11.600 Liam Murphy: whether it's right or wrong, can hold, projects up for… for years. 302 00:52:11.730 --> 00:52:16.199 Liam Murphy: We're trying to basically be able to say to everybody, look. 303 00:52:16.210 --> 00:52:35.710 Liam Murphy: all these buildings are there. They're existing. We're not… we're just talking about the uses with inside those buildings, and being able to use those buildings for the uses that were part of a campus, but now may be individual, such as there might be offices, there might be a religious 304 00:52:35.780 --> 00:52:50.640 Liam Murphy: use. There might be a community use, there might be, housing use, and they all may be by different parties, but, they should all be, the uses that have been used in the past. 305 00:52:50.800 --> 00:52:55.399 Liam Murphy: And just allowing the campus as it is. But of course. 306 00:52:56.090 --> 00:53:14.599 Liam Murphy: Part of it is that if something new is required, then you would have to expand it. But the purpose is to remove the insecurity of the current situation as to zoning, and if permits are required to hopefully limit the 307 00:53:14.880 --> 00:53:18.160 Liam Murphy: The number of appeals, or the possibilities of appeals. 308 00:53:18.630 --> 00:53:23.030 Town of Plainfield: Okay. Did you have a question? Yeah. Yeah, Peter? 309 00:53:23.390 --> 00:53:28.070 Town of Plainfield: Liam, thank you, for being here with us tonight. 310 00:53:28.340 --> 00:53:35.009 Town of Plainfield: I'm presuming that you've read Plainfield's new zoning, rules. 311 00:53:35.260 --> 00:53:41.719 Town of Plainfield: That were, changed in part to include the Goddard campus, within the village. 312 00:53:41.840 --> 00:53:48.899 Town of Plainfield: But also, specifically, there was language borrowed from, I believe, Rattleboro. 313 00:53:49.240 --> 00:53:53.870 Town of Plainfield: Where, yes. 314 00:53:54.400 --> 00:54:10.529 Town of Plainfield: recognized that there were, historical buildings, I don't necessarily mean on the historic register, but some, some are, where if, if a, 315 00:54:11.350 --> 00:54:34.070 Town of Plainfield: program activity wanted to be, take place in there, it would be against current zoning. However, the language borrowed from, I believe, Grattleboro, again, basically said that, even though it's a non-traditional use, it is permitted, within those buildings. I thought that we cleared that up. 316 00:54:34.070 --> 00:54:38.989 Town of Plainfield: specifically for Goddard, in those regulations. 317 00:54:39.930 --> 00:54:52.359 Liam Murphy: No, unfortunately, there are still a lot of inconsistencies in what was, adopted, for the, 318 00:54:53.270 --> 00:55:01.740 Liam Murphy: I believe it's a… they made it part of the Village District, and that, 319 00:55:01.900 --> 00:55:05.920 Liam Murphy: Let me… I apologize, I'm just trying to find it in the ordinance. 320 00:55:06.350 --> 00:55:11.960 Liam Murphy: There… but many or most of the uses required a… 321 00:55:12.110 --> 00:55:18.270 Liam Murphy: A conditional use permit, that, Okay. 322 00:55:19.990 --> 00:55:23.170 Liam Murphy: Almost there, I apologize, I should have had this open. 323 00:55:25.310 --> 00:55:36.820 Liam Murphy: So, you know, for conditional uses, a community facility, a dormitory, an educational use, a multifamily dwelling with more than 4 units. 324 00:55:37.320 --> 00:55:52.529 Liam Murphy: recreational use, a religious institution. All of those require conditional use approval under your new ordinance. Conditional use approval means you have to go apply for a permit, you have to show that you're 325 00:55:52.940 --> 00:56:09.980 Liam Murphy: meet the various conditional use criteria, and you would… for all of those uses that I just mentioned, the uses that were permitted that you just go in to ask for a zoning permit are really quite… are really quite limited. 326 00:56:09.980 --> 00:56:19.519 Liam Murphy: One-family dwellings, two-family dwellings, four multi-family dwellings to four units, 327 00:56:19.520 --> 00:56:35.269 Liam Murphy: home occupations. So, it's just that… that this would avoid the requirement that, you know, certain of those uses, like, like we just talked about, educational use, 328 00:56:35.600 --> 00:56:45.519 Liam Murphy: a religious institution or an event facility. Those all would have to go through conditional use approval under your current brand new ordinance. 329 00:56:45.650 --> 00:56:49.119 Town of Plainfield: Okay, so… That's good to know. 330 00:56:49.480 --> 00:57:02.450 Town of Plainfield: that could be something we would discuss in a public hearing, I assume. Graham, you had a question? Well, I just wanted to say that, a very similar issue, cropped up this morning. 331 00:57:02.910 --> 00:57:08.369 Town of Plainfield: In a very tense way, where, we have 332 00:57:08.650 --> 00:57:12.960 Town of Plainfield: Someone who, has a new business. 333 00:57:13.110 --> 00:57:20.329 Town of Plainfield: garage business. The building was used as a garage for many, many, many years. 334 00:57:20.620 --> 00:57:27.219 Town of Plainfield: And, they're being forced to do a lot of paperwork. 335 00:57:27.440 --> 00:57:42.109 Town of Plainfield: re-establishing that this is a garage, to the point where, thanks to Carol, we pushed the paperwork through to a degree, because it's… it was costing this new starting-up business 336 00:57:42.150 --> 00:57:56.490 Town of Plainfield: real money. And it's a similar… I think that Karen can talk and speak to all the issues, but you would think that if something was a garage for 20 years. 337 00:57:56.490 --> 00:58:15.620 Town of Plainfield: I wanted to reopen as a garage, that that wouldn't be a big deal, oh boy. And, it caused a lot of rancor. Karen is actually going over there tomorrow to personally help in the paperwork flow, but it's not as, did you get the sense that the… that this… 338 00:58:16.530 --> 00:58:23.710 Town of Plainfield: extra work was created because of the way the zoning laws were rewritten? Yes, I think that it seemed to me 339 00:58:23.990 --> 00:58:28.580 Town of Plainfield: I mean, this was a layup, in my view, of… I'm not a zoning expert. 340 00:58:28.900 --> 00:58:33.709 Town of Plainfield: And I said to Karen, I mean, and she goes, well, this is what's required. 341 00:58:33.710 --> 00:58:55.369 Town of Plainfield: Oh, okay. So I'm not going to argue… I mean, and Karen can weigh in on that. Yeah, I guess one of the things I'd wonder is, is it required by us, or is it required by the state? Obviously, there's, like, different levels of zoning and different things, and so we can't obviously change what the state wants to do. And it would potentially be helpful, Liam, especially as we have a hearing, is just, like. 342 00:58:55.780 --> 00:59:19.119 Town of Plainfield: like, I'm thinking of some of the buildings. I've been on 2 or 3 tours of the campus since y'all took over. Like, for example, the big mansion, which I think is gonna be a retreat center, right? So, like, okay, maybe not. That's what I heard, at least I'm one of these tourists. And so, like, that's a commercial activity, that obviously that building has not seen before, as far as I know, because it was offices, and it was… 343 00:59:19.120 --> 00:59:39.779 Town of Plainfield: somebody may have lived there, but it wasn't, like, a commercial retreat venue. So, like, would that be something that would still go through, because it's a different use of that building, even if you're not changing the physical building? Because part of it is, like, how we assess taxes is based on some occupancy stuff, some commercial… like, there's all these different pieces that go into stuff. 344 00:59:40.580 --> 00:59:58.780 Liam Murphy: Well, the way I wrote it, was that you treat the campus as what the uses of the entire campus were in the past, and there were, you know, I mean, there were retreats held on this campus for at least the last half century. I mean, I… 345 00:59:58.780 --> 01:00:00.780 Liam Murphy: I… one of the ways I 346 01:00:00.780 --> 01:00:04.900 Liam Murphy: did my research is there's something called newspapers.com, where you can 347 01:00:04.900 --> 01:00:22.920 Liam Murphy: search articles about Goddard, and for years and years, Goddard has had event facilities and events and conferences there with people staying in the dorms and being in different buildings. Maybe they're not in that particular building, but 348 01:00:23.120 --> 01:00:39.000 Liam Murphy: My approach and my suggested approach is, does that matter that a prior event facility was in one building and now is in a different building? It's exactly the problem we're trying to, 349 01:00:39.590 --> 01:00:44.230 Liam Murphy: avoid is, you know, because something in the past was used as a dormitory. 350 01:00:44.460 --> 01:00:47.880 Liam Murphy: Can we now use it as an office? 351 01:00:48.080 --> 01:01:02.970 Liam Murphy: You know, that… you know, depending on how strict you want to interpret that, that's a change of use of that building, but it's certainly not a change of use of what's occurred on the campus. We're trying to look at the… 352 01:01:02.970 --> 01:01:08.240 Liam Murphy: The campus holistically and say, you know, we're trying to create a vibrant 353 01:01:08.240 --> 01:01:18.910 Liam Murphy: Regenerated a campus with multiple uses, and not necessarily where they might have been in the past. 354 01:01:19.140 --> 01:01:34.430 Town of Plainfield: Okay, I think, for me, I think it's… you've presented what you're looking for. There's gonna have to be a public hearing, and perhaps more questions and discussions, if we could reach out to you if we have specific questions. 355 01:01:34.430 --> 01:01:35.290 Liam Murphy: Absolutely. 356 01:01:35.290 --> 01:01:58.840 Town of Plainfield: We obviously should look at his version. We can warn whichever interim policy we want. So, like, if there's a sentence in his that we don't want, we can remove it, or if we wanted to… for example, I see Mary has posted that part of the reason we go for permits is it alerts the listers to changes in use so that, for tax assessment purposes, maybe even if they don't need to go for a permit, maybe some sort of notification, which wouldn't slow them down at all, but would 357 01:01:58.840 --> 01:02:14.920 Town of Plainfield: still allow the town to have the information that we need to make those decisions, could be a part of this interim policy. That's a good point. And did you all receive from Tim this document? I did not. I did not. I don't know who he thought. I did not… I did not see it, but I haven't checked the email… 358 01:02:16.510 --> 01:02:25.260 Liam Murphy: I apologize, I thought, Tim or Mike had distributed, I apologize. We'll certainly 359 01:02:25.490 --> 01:02:35.579 Liam Murphy: I get this to you. And of course, one of the things I've learned, in the, gosh, the 45 years I've been doing this is that 360 01:02:36.050 --> 01:02:41.250 Liam Murphy: I'm never… I'm not perfect. I have ideas, and they're… they're not, 361 01:02:41.250 --> 01:03:01.600 Liam Murphy: they're… they're thrown out there for discussion, and they can be adjusted. That's why I'm still practicing law, because I haven't, gotten it right yet, but I will eventually. So, glad, glad, we'll certainly share it with you, and then, glad to come over and, and, and meet with, 362 01:03:01.600 --> 01:03:08.110 Liam Murphy: the staff, meet with the DRB, meet with yourselves, to discuss this, and then, 363 01:03:09.130 --> 01:03:13.080 Liam Murphy: Adjusted as, as you choose, and then, hopefully. 364 01:03:13.200 --> 01:03:19.110 Liam Murphy: After you've looked at it and changed it, that you could then warn it for a public hearing. 365 01:03:19.440 --> 01:03:23.099 Town of Plainfield: Okay, we have a question from the board, Peter? Yeah, well, 366 01:03:23.270 --> 01:03:33.820 Town of Plainfield: Liam, I wanted… I found a specific language I was looking for. It's in the definition section of the zoning regulations. It's under A, adaptive reuse. 367 01:03:34.110 --> 01:03:41.710 Town of Plainfield: Which reads, the development of suitable new uses for a building existing at adoption on March 2025. 368 01:03:41.740 --> 01:03:47.330 Town of Plainfield: Or for a building originally designed for a specific or special or specific purpose. 369 01:03:47.330 --> 01:04:11.830 Town of Plainfield: And again, this was another campus, I believe in Brattleboro, that there were buildings that existed, and the new owners wanted to reuse them, and so the zoning was done. And so we adopted this language. It says, by the nature of its size, type, construction method, or original purpose, the building does not readily adapt to the requirements of the zoning district in which it's located. The conditional and permissive uses must conform 370 01:04:11.830 --> 01:04:21.839 Town of Plainfield: to the district. But basically, it is in a broad sense, which it sounds like what you're looking for, permits adaptive reuse of those buildings. 371 01:04:22.560 --> 01:04:25.489 Liam Murphy: The only problem is the last sentence. 372 01:04:27.150 --> 01:04:28.459 Town of Plainfield: Which was what again? 373 01:04:29.040 --> 01:04:32.159 Liam Murphy: The conditional and… the conditional and permitted. 374 01:04:32.160 --> 01:04:33.280 Town of Plainfield: You just couldn't. 375 01:04:33.280 --> 01:04:36.280 Liam Murphy: form to the district, and as we… a lot of the… 376 01:04:36.280 --> 01:04:40.300 Town of Plainfield: Why wouldn't… why wouldn't we… Why would we… 377 01:04:40.590 --> 01:04:56.190 Town of Plainfield: I could phrase this as positive or negative. Why would we want to give Goddard Campus, a creative campus, something that we're not giving anyone else within the entire village district under adaptive use? 378 01:04:56.190 --> 01:05:01.700 Town of Plainfield: or flip it around. Why wouldn't we want to do that for everyone? 379 01:05:05.240 --> 01:05:17.509 Liam Murphy: The beginning of that is correct, that the development of suitable new use is originally designed for purposes, but the problem is the devil's in the details. As I mentioned earlier. 380 01:05:17.510 --> 01:05:26.789 Liam Murphy: A fair number of the uses that are permitted in that district are conditional uses, and it just creates a… 381 01:05:26.790 --> 01:05:31.050 Liam Murphy: an enormous hurdle to go through a conditional use. You have to come in. 382 01:05:31.050 --> 01:05:54.249 Liam Murphy: with site-specific plans, you have to show water, sewer, you have to do stormwater analysis for each building, each conditional use. If that… if it just said that those uses shall be permitted uses, fair enough, then you can go get a permit from the zoning administrator. Any conditional use. 383 01:05:54.250 --> 01:05:56.440 Liam Murphy: is a major… 384 01:05:56.520 --> 01:06:10.240 Liam Murphy: complex undertaking that is subject to a lot of cost and a lot of time and potential appeals. So that's really what we've tried to focus on, in the interim zoning. 385 01:06:10.490 --> 01:06:35.289 Town of Plainfield: I think this is resolvable, but do you have another… Well, I would just, I would just say my, our Planning Commission spent, many, many months working on the full years, on, on these revisions, and, I would certainly want them to review any document and make recommendations before going forward. Yeah, and that's, that would be done… 386 01:06:35.290 --> 01:07:00.010 Town of Plainfield: maybe before the public hearing. Yeah. And, so we have the public hearing to discuss this and other questions, yes. In that group of town officials to consult, it seems like the listers are also a group that… And the zoning administrator. And the zoning administrator. Let's just run this language by and just get their thoughts before. And again, what language we decide to put up for an interim zoning would be language we create. 387 01:07:00.300 --> 01:07:03.739 Town of Plainfield: we could just take all of Liam's language. 388 01:07:03.740 --> 01:07:20.530 Liam Murphy: Or we could, you know, like… I would be glad to visit… I would be glad to visit with the DRB, the zoning administrator, the listers, anybody who wants to chat about it. I can come over, or certainly do a Zoom call at any hearing, to assist. 389 01:07:20.980 --> 01:07:25.959 Town of Plainfield: I have a question. Yes. At the end of the two years. 390 01:07:26.190 --> 01:07:44.330 Town of Plainfield: what happens if the campus has kind of continued on morphing its, like, uses of the spaces on the campus? And, yeah, it's a two-year interim period. If the town chooses to not renew. 391 01:07:44.530 --> 01:07:50.320 Town of Plainfield: It seems like there's a bit of a cliff moment of the campus needing to apply for many permits. 392 01:07:50.700 --> 01:07:55.330 Liam Murphy: No, any, anything that was developed, 393 01:07:55.330 --> 01:08:07.820 Liam Murphy: During the period, and if it was consistent with the ordinance, would be then become a pre-existing, you know, a non-conforming use, or if it's… 394 01:08:07.820 --> 01:08:25.029 Liam Murphy: not changed, but you would… you have the right to continue. Vermont is very strong on this. If you get a permit to do something, even if the zoning changes, you can continue to use that use. But what normally happens is, in that two years, the Development Review Board 395 01:08:25.029 --> 01:08:31.989 Liam Murphy: And the Planning Commission sit and determine what… what they want… what they want to do is take 396 01:08:32.410 --> 01:08:36.719 Liam Murphy: All or a portion of the interim zoning and make it part of the permanent zoning. 397 01:08:37.920 --> 01:09:01.219 Town of Plainfield: I think… I think there are… there's motivation to work with you on recognizing the hassles with doing it the old way. We did try to correct that, and maybe it's not quite where it could be, but we need to talk to the Planning Commission to modify it if… if they choose, and I think… I think that's all we need for now. Any other. 398 01:09:01.220 --> 01:09:01.620 Liam Murphy: I… 399 01:09:01.620 --> 01:09:02.060 Town of Plainfield: Lead. 400 01:09:02.069 --> 01:09:05.339 Liam Murphy: Thank you so much, and may you all have a happy holiday. 401 01:09:05.729 --> 01:09:11.100 Town of Plainfield: Oh, thank you, you too. Hey guys, Mike Davidson's here, thank you. Yes, Mike, good to see ya. 402 01:09:11.109 --> 01:09:12.629 mike: Appreciate your time and efforts. 403 01:09:12.750 --> 01:09:13.540 Tim Sidore: Thank you. 404 01:09:13.750 --> 01:09:23.999 Town of Plainfield: Okay. Who's getting us the copy of this document? If I get it, I'll send it around. I… that would be fine if, 405 01:09:24.000 --> 01:09:46.530 Town of Plainfield: Carl, when you get it, could you also ensure you share it with Will Kogan, Karen Story, Janice, Walt, and yep. Caley and the other listeners? I will make sure it gets around. Just for their comment before we, you know, settle in any language. Yeah, because we don't want to set a meeting until we've had them have a chance to be… Yeah, well, we can't… yeah. We have to have language before we can set a hearing. Right. 406 01:09:46.529 --> 01:09:50.640 Town of Plainfield: Okay, that sounds good. 407 01:09:50.890 --> 01:09:58.489 Town of Plainfield: Okay, Plainfield Housing Advisory Committee Appointments. 408 01:09:59.130 --> 01:10:07.310 Town of Plainfield: This, of course, is the committee that's been developed to search out new housing ideas, and… 409 01:10:10.440 --> 01:10:19.779 Town of Plainfield: Mike Davidson, of course, has the… has some impact on that with the… with the campus and the hotel. 410 01:10:20.530 --> 01:10:33.800 Town of Plainfield: But we want to have people look at other things, so, yes. I'll just, you know, say overall from the process, appreciate folks that applied. Yes. I think we had 19 applications or candidates who stepped forward, 411 01:10:34.230 --> 01:10:52.720 Town of Plainfield: a number of them have kind of said they'd be more comfortable being on a working group. I think one person has taken themselves out of contention completely, and so I believe there are 13 names that we're considering for these 9 appointments. Now, last time we did this for the… 412 01:10:52.760 --> 01:11:00.700 Town of Plainfield: EVASV group. What was the process we used there? We, we… 413 01:11:01.030 --> 01:11:05.509 Town of Plainfield: Did we appoint them one by one, or did we appoint the group 414 01:11:06.360 --> 01:11:24.119 Town of Plainfield: Or did we… yeah, how do you want to handle it? So, what we did last time is we had some discussion about what we were looking for just generally, we had some high-level stuff, and then I believe it was… it was Peter, just because I think he was the first person that was willing. I think he put out his 7 or 8 that he felt like really should be on. 415 01:11:24.120 --> 01:11:49.060 Town of Plainfield: And we… there was agreement. We kind of talked through, and I think we got to agreement, and then we just talked through the last couple people, and then we voted them on as just all 11. This is obviously 9 people, but I think we should have the discussion, but unless we have some big disagreement, we should try to vote… have one vote, rather than having 9 votes. Yeah. Brian? Sorry, just getting back to our early discussion, when these people are appointed, is there 416 01:11:49.060 --> 01:11:51.720 Town of Plainfield: Have the terms been worked out, or… 417 01:11:52.070 --> 01:12:16.510 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, okay. So, would you want to… when you make the motion… I think there's a… well, there is a term in the document, I think. In the document, it said 1 to 3, staggered, and I don't… I think at our last meeting, we decided not to go that route, rather than just to make them annual appointments at this point. Yeah, because it may only be a year's worth of work. 418 01:12:16.510 --> 01:12:19.070 Town of Plainfield: Fantastic, yes. 419 01:12:19.160 --> 01:12:33.650 Town of Plainfield: I mean, I would certainly hope that anybody we're appointing would stay for another year past town meeting, and whatnot, so I think we're going to need a housing committee for a while. Yeah. 420 01:12:34.390 --> 01:12:46.639 Town of Plainfield: I know the public probably doesn't know this, but we've had a tracking document where, those of us who contacted, candidates, we put, kind of. 421 01:12:46.760 --> 01:12:58.089 Town of Plainfield: you know, comments in, or, you know, yes, I'd like this person, or whatnot, and I'm just wondering, Dan, if you have that, if you could tell us where, 422 01:12:58.540 --> 01:13:00.350 Town of Plainfield: All of us have said. 423 01:13:00.790 --> 01:13:14.009 Town of Plainfield: Well, or most of us have said, like, 3 of the 5 of us have used this document. Carl and Patty have not, which is fine. I mean, they're allowed to use whatever system they want. I, 424 01:13:14.460 --> 01:13:35.630 Town of Plainfield: Yes, I… I can say where three of the… we can start with where 3 of the 5 of us agree. And again, just like with, I think, the EVAC committee, we're trying to get diversity of opinion. There were some people who all came from a similar background, from actually a similar part of town, so we were trying to, you know, think of these things. So I think… I don't know how many this is, maybe somebody can count while I do this. 425 01:13:35.760 --> 01:13:43.649 Town of Plainfield: So the names of people that three of us are all… think might be great for the committee are Lydia Vitali. 426 01:13:43.990 --> 01:13:46.070 Town of Plainfield: David Sheckman? 427 01:13:46.900 --> 01:13:52.880 Town of Plainfield: Liz? Nope. Betsy Fiegler? 428 01:13:53.180 --> 01:14:02.719 Town of Plainfield: Victoria McDonald's, He… I'm sorry, I'm having a… a view issue. Graham Keegan. 429 01:14:03.050 --> 01:14:14.029 Town of Plainfield: Those are the ones that all three of us, somehow have question marks or, like, more intense conversation, but those folks were, were folks that the three of us all agreed to. 430 01:14:15.250 --> 01:14:34.659 Town of Plainfield: So I guess, you know, to narrow this, that list of five, to Carl and Patty, Lydia, David, Betsy, Vicki, and Graham, are you all… are you… specifically, again, Patty and Carl. Yeah, yeah. I would… I've talked to them, and… 431 01:14:35.420 --> 01:14:40.690 Town of Plainfield: I would be very well be really good. Okay, so that's 5. 432 01:14:47.520 --> 01:14:53.689 Town of Plainfield: So we were looking for 9. Yep, so we need to have 4 more. Okay. We… let's… if we can address Goddard… 433 01:14:53.700 --> 01:15:10.100 Town of Plainfield: So Chris is who… Chris Gruen is who applied through the form Interest. Since that moment, Chris has suggested that should Chris be appointed to the committee, that he and John Broderick 434 01:15:10.100 --> 01:15:20.710 Town of Plainfield: could share, basically, a slot on the committee for Goddard, and participate interchangeably as per… The needs… 435 01:15:21.050 --> 01:15:23.850 Town of Plainfield: of the Creative Campus. Yeah. 436 01:15:24.090 --> 01:15:44.049 Town of Plainfield: I think it makes sense to have the Creative Campus involved in this. I agree. I want to have Creative Campus involved. I would rather that we have one voting member from Goddard, and that that be Chris. John had also filled out the form and said he would be glad to be a consultant, and I would welcome that. 437 01:15:44.050 --> 01:15:46.140 Town of Plainfield: You know, so I think as… 438 01:15:46.210 --> 01:16:04.359 Town of Plainfield: individual task forces come up, people we're not appointing said I serve on a task force, too, so I think there's plenty of room for that. But I think we want to not treat Goddard any differently than anybody else, that… but, we… I do want that viewpoint on the committee, but I want one voting member, not two. 439 01:16:04.950 --> 01:16:07.120 Town of Plainfield: Peter, Peter, my game's forget… 440 01:16:07.120 --> 01:16:23.419 mike: That makes sense, but I also want the select board to understand, we're also interested in the rest of the town. This is what we do. Now, anything we lend to the town is completely separate from us financially, economically, geographically. We look at this holistically, so anything we get out to the town, we're glad to do. 441 01:16:23.420 --> 01:16:28.669 mike: We've done this a long time, and it's, you know, it's, we enjoy this, actually. So if we can help, we will. 442 01:16:29.730 --> 01:16:42.679 Town of Plainfield: Thank you. I guess I'd like to clarify that if we stipulate that only one, Chris, would be a voting member, that John could still attend these meetings in Chris's absence. 443 01:16:43.000 --> 01:16:46.009 Town of Plainfield: Or even their open meetings. 444 01:16:46.840 --> 01:17:06.439 Town of Plainfield: I guess they are open meetings. I mean, yeah, it's an open meeting, and John, it's a resident of the town. It's just that we need somebody on record for voting, basically. Yeah, I mean, if Chris says, you know, John is our expert in this, you know, so I've asked him here tonight, you know, yeah, sure, absolutely. I would hope everybody does that. And again, I mean, for, you know… 445 01:17:06.640 --> 01:17:15.999 Town of Plainfield: a key… a key piece of this is this is an advisory committee to the select board. And so let's say, for example, Chris has to miss a meeting, John's there, John can't vote. 446 01:17:16.370 --> 01:17:31.680 Town of Plainfield: part of that could be Chris or John communicating to the Select Board, we missed this, but we would have voted M's way, or something like that. It's not like they're passing or doing things, like, that are binding, right? They're gonna make suggestions and advice. 447 01:17:31.680 --> 01:17:46.369 Town of Plainfield: that then the Select Board will take action on, and so I think it's less crucial to have a backup. Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. Okay. Is there agreement across the five for Chris Gruen on the committee? Yeah. 448 01:17:46.410 --> 01:17:47.970 Town of Plainfield: Bring this to 6. 449 01:17:49.650 --> 01:17:57.560 Town of Plainfield: I mean, I'll just… may I name my three to speed it up? Yeah. Sam Clark? 450 01:17:57.850 --> 01:17:59.690 Town of Plainfield: Hazel O'Brien. 451 01:18:00.440 --> 01:18:02.640 Town of Plainfield: And… Liz Bickner. 452 01:18:03.630 --> 01:18:06.519 Town of Plainfield: Wait, say this? Oh, Hazen, or Hazel? Yeah. 453 01:18:12.390 --> 01:18:19.459 Town of Plainfield: Yeah? I'll just say, I, also had, Hazel O'Brien, 454 01:18:19.660 --> 01:18:38.590 Town of Plainfield: as somebody who's a voice of youth and somebody who's younger in town that might bring a different perspective. I also had Liz Bicknell, and Liz is somebody who, you know, stepped up after the floods and has done some different roles in town, and, you know, would love to have her on. 455 01:18:38.660 --> 01:18:39.959 Town of Plainfield: as well. 456 01:18:41.050 --> 01:18:57.499 Town of Plainfield: For those two, I feel… personally feel very comfortable. Yeah. I know Liz well, and I agree. She stepped up and takes the town to heart, and I know Sam Clark, I have known him for 45 years, and he's… he would be a valuable 457 01:18:57.770 --> 01:18:59.279 Town of Plainfield: person, 458 01:18:59.700 --> 01:19:14.449 Town of Plainfield: I wasn't sure he was ready to step in for a full role. He was an advisory role? No, so I spoke with him on the telephone… Okay. At length. The qualification he shared was about his… 459 01:19:14.450 --> 01:19:20.309 Town of Plainfield: His enthusiasm for committee service would be dependent upon the spirit of the committee. 460 01:19:20.310 --> 01:19:36.759 Town of Plainfield: that if it felt like refereeing, he'd be way less interested. However, if there was a spirit of cooperation, cooperation, and production, he sounded actually very excited. I think he'd be a valuable addition. He knows… 461 01:19:36.760 --> 01:19:42.520 Town of Plainfield: Construction, and, he's been a long-time resident, and… 462 01:19:43.200 --> 01:19:59.429 Town of Plainfield: So I would certainly support Sam. I had, a couple people on my list, Paula Emery and Alana Norway, who have basically pulled out. I think Paula actually also had 3 yes votes before she pulled out. Yes. 463 01:19:59.430 --> 01:20:07.099 Town of Plainfield: That was a… that was a timing thing. I should say it was a time thing. Yeah. I have, 464 01:20:08.130 --> 01:20:16.289 Town of Plainfield: the additional people I had, a person I had was, Will Colgan, as our planning commissioner, 465 01:20:16.290 --> 01:20:29.169 Town of Plainfield: And I say that because, I know he has a role there, and I know he's out west, you know, for the winter, but he's Zoom meetings all the time, so that's not an issue for him. And he had lots of, 466 01:20:29.170 --> 01:20:34.350 Town of Plainfield: input, particularly around some of the charge… specific charges that the committee has. 467 01:20:34.350 --> 01:20:42.679 Town of Plainfield: Looking at, zoning ordinances, educating the public as to, you know, accessory dwelling units. 468 01:20:42.680 --> 01:20:55.929 Town of Plainfield: PUDs, things that are currently permitted under the zoning, but also some changes that we might make to the zoning, that might encourage development more than we have now. 469 01:20:56.150 --> 01:21:08.919 Town of Plainfield: And, you know, he was an active participant in the Plainfield Forward meetings, and the housing functions there. And so I… I really would like to see him, 470 01:21:08.920 --> 01:21:20.829 Town of Plainfield: On there. I had as Hazel O'Brien and Liz, Bicknell as, my next choices. 471 01:21:20.830 --> 01:21:25.000 Town of Plainfield: on there. So… That's my proof. 472 01:21:25.190 --> 01:21:26.300 Town of Plainfield: my comments. 473 01:21:26.750 --> 01:21:42.649 Town of Plainfield: To summarize? Maybe? It sounds like… I mean, I was… I'm glad that those people are interested in going full-time on the committee. May I clarify something? Yes. 474 01:21:42.650 --> 01:21:59.779 Michael Billingsley: I want to remind everyone that, Liz Bicknell was our Individual Assistance Coordinator, and as a consequence, she had personal contact, as well as myself, with almost every family that was displaced up to the present, and there are several people that… 475 01:21:59.780 --> 01:22:13.459 Michael Billingsley: are still very much in her radar, and I've always admired the fact that she's been terrifically responsive and keeps good track of the people in need. So, I'm sort of throwing in my Emergency Management Director recommendation for her. 476 01:22:13.980 --> 01:22:38.980 Town of Plainfield: Yep, I agree. And, she can recognize firsthand the need for housing. Yes, Dan, I'm probably gonna do the same thing you were gonna do, but… So, I'm hearing nominal agreement on Liz Beck Nell and Hazel O'Brien. Well, I was gonna say, kind of, but then we're also hearing Sam Clark possibility, and then… and then he wants… I think we're at 10. Well, so I think… I think… so I… what I guess what I thought I heard was that the question was between Sam 477 01:22:38.980 --> 01:22:44.420 Town of Plainfield: and Will, and that there was nominal agreement with Liz and Hazel. Yeah. 478 01:22:45.520 --> 01:23:03.200 Town of Plainfield: I, had a long talk with Sam. I spoke with everyone, was lucky, lucky to have great conversations with, with everybody. I made a note on the tracking sheet that David Sheckman, 479 01:23:03.620 --> 01:23:09.680 Town of Plainfield: Sam Clark, and I'm forgetting the… are all builders who all live at New Hamburger. 480 01:23:10.370 --> 01:23:24.109 Town of Plainfield: And I think… Jacob Rogan. Jay and Jacob Rogan. I think we should have one of those, and the one who sounded like they had the most time to put into this was David Sheckman. That's why I chose him over the others. 481 01:23:24.430 --> 01:23:26.730 Town of Plainfield: Wasn't he in our original 9? 482 01:23:27.110 --> 01:23:39.240 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, we had talked about him at the original. Yeah, he's the first one who stepped up, actually. Right, yeah. So, I mean, I think to respond to that less about, Sam and more about Will, 483 01:23:40.150 --> 01:23:45.859 Town of Plainfield: will… Will's presence and influence on the Housing Committee. 484 01:23:45.860 --> 01:24:03.270 Town of Plainfield: is a foregone conclusion. Will wants to be involved, Will wants to be, feeding them his expertise. And with the structure of the working groups, that remains possible. He also said that he didn't want to take the, 485 01:24:03.650 --> 01:24:18.100 Town of Plainfield: Take the feather… if someone was wearing a cap with no feathers, he didn't want to take that feather and put it in his cap to have a number of feathers, and in favor of, like, allowing someone who wasn't yet doing anything for the town. 486 01:24:18.170 --> 01:24:30.450 Town of Plainfield: in a formal capacity to do something, so that… there is my… that was where I was going. I appreciate that. However, I also am looking for… 487 01:24:30.710 --> 01:24:40.320 Town of Plainfield: A committee that doesn't take too long bringing actionable items to us. 488 01:24:40.510 --> 01:24:55.119 Town of Plainfield: And I thought Will, particularly, would accelerate some of those things. One of the questions I asked everybody was, what did they think the low-hanging fruit was here? Okay? And almost to a person. 489 01:24:55.370 --> 01:24:57.650 Town of Plainfield: Looking at, 490 01:24:57.650 --> 01:25:22.320 Town of Plainfield: Educating to the public as to what is currently available under zoning, ADUs, PUDs, etc, looking at ordinances for derelict houses, etc. Those were named by almost everyone as low-hanging fruit. And where's our expertise there? That's Will, okay? So I think he could quickly help guide that committee. And I hear you, he could do that in an outside role or an inside role. 491 01:25:22.320 --> 01:25:24.049 Town of Plainfield: role. 492 01:25:24.100 --> 01:25:34.350 Town of Plainfield: But that's… that's why I wanted him on the committee. And I didn't want duplicate people from the same place. 493 01:25:37.210 --> 01:25:52.849 Town of Plainfield: Okay, good. Dan? Alright. I did… I mean, I… so it sounds like Liz Mc… Liz McNow, folks seem good with. Hazel O'Brien, at least… seems good with. I think if we get… we are down to Sam and Will, I… 494 01:25:53.130 --> 01:26:13.009 Town of Plainfield: I think, generally, I was thinking, you know, Will's already got a pretty big role in town, but I actually do see, and actually, talking to some folks in other towns and seeing how people kind of cross-pollinate committees sometimes, this does feel like a place where it might make sense and help us, and he is only going to be one of nine votes, so it's not like, you know. 495 01:26:13.010 --> 01:26:20.979 Town of Plainfield: there's some sort of… not that there's any power in any of the volunteer roles in this town, that, like, there's some sort of power thing. I, 496 01:26:21.010 --> 01:26:40.219 Town of Plainfield: So I do kind of see, and I did not speak to Sam Clark, I've spoken to a number of these people, but Sam Clark was not one of them, so I can't speak to that. I will say, just from… especially if he's interested in it, and, he wants to put time and energy into it, it could be really valuable. So, that's where I land right now. 497 01:26:41.100 --> 01:26:44.090 Town of Plainfield: I think there's an advantage to Will, also, because… 498 01:26:44.770 --> 01:26:49.790 Town of Plainfield: If there's things that are discovered in this committee that can influence zoning. 499 01:26:50.050 --> 01:26:58.000 Town of Plainfield: Or, you know, there's that cross-pollination, I think, could be valuable. Not only him bringing knowledge to the committee, but… 500 01:26:58.310 --> 01:27:16.099 Town of Plainfield: hearing from outside resources, experts, et cetera, that might come and address this committee and say, oh, how can we turn that into local ordinance? Or how can we take advantage of this rule, or this grant, or whatever, because of some simple change? So, he could affect that much quicker. 501 01:27:17.130 --> 01:27:18.170 Town of Plainfield: That ain't… 502 01:27:21.990 --> 01:27:32.130 Town of Plainfield: Any other thoughts for you? I think this is a moment for the board to speak, and so I was just asking Platty. Yeah, I spoke… I think they both have a lot of talent, 503 01:27:32.990 --> 01:27:34.719 Town of Plainfield: I would go with either of them. 504 01:27:36.590 --> 01:27:37.270 Town of Plainfield: Okay. 505 01:27:37.660 --> 01:27:40.289 Town of Plainfield: I mean, I think I'm hearing a majority for Will. 506 01:27:41.320 --> 01:27:49.030 Town of Plainfield: That was, you know, Peter, Dan, and Carl leaning toward Will. Is that right? Yeah. Is that accurate? Yeah. Okay. 507 01:27:49.550 --> 01:27:55.549 Town of Plainfield: I can live with the majority? Is that… If… with that being said, can I make a motion? 508 01:27:55.800 --> 01:28:08.750 Town of Plainfield: Yes. No, that's why I was asking before. Well, before we make the motion, just like a reminder and a thank you in advance to those who have not made the formal committee. 509 01:28:08.780 --> 01:28:21.030 Town of Plainfield: your presence and your participation is most heartily appreciated. And it's always auxiliary, you know, work to be done. We hope to see and feel your voices, minds, and hearts. 510 01:28:21.150 --> 01:28:37.939 Town of Plainfield: In the proceedings. Yep. Yeah. Thank you. And yeah, wherever… whichever work groups, or just being at the meetings and commenting… Yeah, yeah. It's a community… it's a real community effort, and so this is… but we… we don't want to make it too big, so this is good. Yeah. So, motion? 511 01:28:38.210 --> 01:28:52.269 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, motion to appoint Lydia Vitale, David Sheckman, Betsy Ziegler, Victoria McDonald, Graham Keegan, Chris Gruen, Liz Bicknell, Hazel O'Brien, and Will Kogan to the Plainfield Housing Advisory Committee. 512 01:28:52.660 --> 01:28:55.489 Town of Plainfield: Do you want to put for one year, or a second? 513 01:28:56.250 --> 01:29:02.729 Town of Plainfield: For a one-year term. Yeah. 514 01:29:03.610 --> 01:29:11.910 Town of Plainfield: Did I hear a second? Yeah. Okay. And, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? 515 01:29:11.970 --> 01:29:30.940 Town of Plainfield: Great. So is that 11? Because I was hearing, I was hearing… 9. It's 9, yeah. Do we need 11? No. No, 9. We set this as a… 11 was the East Village Committee, was 11 people. Okay, yeah, we said this one was 9 people. Yeah, but with lots of room for help. Yes, lots of work groups. Absolutely. Lots of work groups, yeah. Great. 516 01:29:31.170 --> 01:29:48.909 Town of Plainfield: Yes. So what happened last time is Francis Rose, and for EVAC, and it doesn't have to be the same people, but Francis Rose and I communicated with the appointees, and set a date and time for a first meeting, and then I think I, opened and led the first meeting until they, 517 01:29:48.910 --> 01:30:03.080 Town of Plainfield: elected their… their chairs, and then the chairs took over the meeting from there. Yep, and they'd set up their meeting dates and so on. Well, yeah, then they said, yeah, then they were self-contained once we did that. Yep. Is that what we want to do again, or… 518 01:30:03.080 --> 01:30:28.020 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, there's also, I know Christy Farnham had proposed, a group of, experts to come in, and the original suggestion was to address the select board, and I'm wondering if, since this would be a special select board meeting… Well, it didn't… well, it was only two of us, so it wasn't a special select board. Right, but we might do it as a special select board meeting, and launch… launch the committee, and maybe invite those folks. 519 01:30:28.020 --> 01:30:33.360 Town of Plainfield: I don't know if we can get them all, get everybody in the same place, but I think that would be a great… 520 01:30:33.360 --> 01:30:42.699 Town of Plainfield: background for all kind of context for the new Housing Committee members, but also for the Select Board to hear all the same stuff. 521 01:30:42.800 --> 01:31:07.409 Town of Plainfield: Yep, go ahead. So, I definitely think Christy and the rest should definitely present to the Housing Committee. I think, given that we already have plans to have a Select Board meeting a week in January, and I know there's a bunch of stuff in February at the elections, I personally don't want to tie the schedule to the Select Board schedule. I think if Select Board members can make it, I just think that with all the things that we have to do with the budget, which is the biggest thing that we do. 522 01:31:07.410 --> 01:31:12.890 Town of Plainfield: as a… as a… that this isn't a good time of year to do that, and I would rather us launch 523 01:31:12.890 --> 01:31:15.069 Town of Plainfield: The committee, and then the committee… 524 01:31:15.220 --> 01:31:19.419 Town of Plainfield: meet with… or work with Christy to figure out, like, presentations and stuff. 525 01:31:19.450 --> 01:31:38.509 Town of Plainfield: And they do it based on their schedule, which will probably be much faster than we might be able to do it. I support Dan here. That means that we don't hear that. You can go. It's an open meeting. Just a technical question, so this committee would have to follow open meeting rules? Yes, correct? Yes, correct. Okay. That's in the charge. 526 01:31:38.510 --> 01:32:01.809 Town of Plainfield: Do they… and they would have to take an oath, or is that… I'll call the lead, maybe? No, it's an advisory, so there's no oath, there's no oath, okay. But they do have, in their charging document, which we will send them, does require them to take some training on Open Meetings right now. I have a video put up of the lead on Open Meeting, which I can send, if it's possible to… I think that's the link that's in the charge. Yeah, if you can, yeah. 527 01:32:01.810 --> 01:32:07.299 Town of Plainfield: If you… also, if you could send me everybody's email so I can put it on the list, that'd be great. Yep. 528 01:32:07.960 --> 01:32:09.870 Town of Plainfield: We'll definitely do that. 529 01:32:10.260 --> 01:32:24.819 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, I… as much as I'd be interested in it, I think not having… taking another full meeting, full select board meeting, makes some sense if, if we're… we have people willing to… 530 01:32:24.820 --> 01:32:36.299 Town of Plainfield: And given that these are public meetings, I'm guessing they will be recorded like we do these, and so if you're not at the physical meeting, you could always watch the video after and get the same information. 531 01:32:36.720 --> 01:32:40.539 Town of Plainfield: And it'll be a resource to everyone in town, not just the select board. 532 01:32:40.890 --> 01:32:58.750 Town of Plainfield: And there is some seed money available to this committee from… left over from the Council on Rural Development, I believe. Sure, yes. And we'll talk to the committee and get the specifics from Laura Kevin Bailey, but I believe some of it has to be spent by March? 533 01:32:59.160 --> 01:33:05.230 Town of Plainfield: Just because of the nature of the grant, so… but they could do it, for example, to, 534 01:33:05.290 --> 01:33:21.500 Town of Plainfield: put a contract for someone to be, like, an administrative assistant for the committee. They could pay someone to do that kind of work, they could use it for notifications. Direct mailing. Direct mailing, but, they can use it for a number of uses. It's $5,000. Yeah. Nice. 535 01:33:22.500 --> 01:33:29.859 Town of Plainfield: That's actually a good idea, because we don't want to burden the office with more stuff. Not that they'd necessarily need a lot, but… 536 01:33:30.170 --> 01:33:41.039 Town of Plainfield: So, who's gonna do this? I was gonna say, Peter, since you're very interested in the presentation piece anyway, would you… would you want to be one of the people that launches the committee? 537 01:33:41.150 --> 01:33:59.150 Town of Plainfield: depends on the day of the week during tax season. If it's in January, then much more flexible. Yeah, I think we would probably try to do this in the… I would love to see it done in January. Yeah, I think January, like, feels like definitely, hopefully in the first half of January, if possible. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So that… it's just figuring out, like, which night of the week works best for… 538 01:33:59.350 --> 01:34:12.700 Town of Plainfield: for the committee itself, to make sure you have… and this room. Well, yeah, the room, yeah. Well, could we use the office building and not try to heat this, which is not easy to heat, obviously. Would that make sense, or not? 539 01:34:12.700 --> 01:34:37.679 Town of Plainfield: I bet, or I bet if it's not here or there, I don't know what the capabilities of Goddard are, but as long as we can do Zoom at Goddard, Goddard may have a space that they would welcome as well, since… Yeah, and we'll apply for the conditional permit. Great. Francis, do you want to work with Peter on that? Sounds good. We've got a two-person team. Good, excellent, and you guys have had some experience with it, so… 540 01:34:39.030 --> 01:34:47.479 Town of Plainfield: Great. Well, congratulations to all, and to us, too. I think some good things can come out of this. Thank you, too. 541 01:34:48.870 --> 01:34:58.600 Town of Plainfield: Okay, town budgeting. We have, because Josh has been tied up, 542 01:34:59.010 --> 01:35:06.760 Town of Plainfield: We do have some limitations there. We did get the, we got an email about the… 543 01:35:06.760 --> 01:35:20.289 Town of Plainfield: report, social concerns. Social concerns, thank you. Who the… that committee has done their work and have a recommendation for all the social concerns. I thought they… 544 01:35:20.590 --> 01:35:27.170 Town of Plainfield: They kept a lot of things the same, but they reduced some other things to try to keep down the budget. 545 01:35:27.320 --> 01:35:31.680 Town of Plainfield: So, that's, 546 01:35:31.720 --> 01:35:51.610 Town of Plainfield: I don't know how we want to proceed. I don't… I didn't bring a copy of it. Oh, there were copies in the yellow folder for everyone. Oh, okay. So… Oh, I thought there was only one copy. Oh. Oh, there's only one copy? There's only one copy. Oh, okay. That's right, I read it over online. Yeah, I read it online, too. 547 01:35:51.660 --> 01:35:56.370 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, so obviously, as always, the Social Concerns Committee took in all the… 548 01:35:56.380 --> 01:36:12.659 Town of Plainfield: Asks, organizational requests, and they actually have a chart that has how much we've given from 2021 all the way to 2025, the numbers in the community, if we know how many numbers they're serving, and then the number, they're recommending, and then they have 549 01:36:12.660 --> 01:36:20.990 Town of Plainfield: a little narrative about each one, and why they're recommending what they're recommending. A lot of them are, 550 01:36:21.160 --> 01:36:25.260 Town of Plainfield: recommend… you're giving exactly what they asked for. I think there's a few that are smaller. 551 01:36:25.400 --> 01:36:30.149 Town of Plainfield: Tough note, Twin Valley Senior Center, like, requested $7,500. 552 01:36:30.240 --> 01:36:53.860 Town of Plainfield: we're… this says $4,500, and this says 4650, so we'll have to figure out which number is right, but in the $4,500, rather, range is what they're recommending, and I think that's just because $7,500 may be way, way over what we normally give. It's just the biggest… it's the biggest we give, and we've never given them more than $4,000. They also told what we did in the past. Yeah. Well, we've done in the past years. But anyway, 553 01:36:54.480 --> 01:36:56.170 Town of Plainfield: I… I mean, what… 554 01:36:56.170 --> 01:37:16.440 Town of Plainfield: I think what typically happens is we just… we just pass this along into the… I don't know that the Select Board spends a lot of time trying to re-litigate. We have a committee that… that does this work and has spent a lot of time trying to figure this out, unless there's a specific question, it's just good to get this, you know, it'll be in the town report, and it's discussed. 555 01:37:16.550 --> 01:37:18.550 Town of Plainfield: I mean, obviously there's… 556 01:37:19.300 --> 01:37:29.200 Town of Plainfield: a thousand good causes, and there's… we wish we could give them all as much money as possible, but we don't have… We also should point out that only… the only people that… 557 01:37:29.200 --> 01:37:53.819 Town of Plainfield: are awarded money, or people ask for it. Yes. And just because they had money last year doesn't mean they get it this year. You missed last year is back on this year. Yes, yeah. So the committee does a good job in doing that. I think it's… it's solving the problem we had trying to do each one of these as an article. I appreciated their narrative report, because it shared their thought process behind some of 558 01:37:53.820 --> 01:38:13.190 Town of Plainfield: And, so I appreciate it. I did, too. I did, too. I mean, I'm fine with accepting it as is. With that one modification, clarifying the amount? Yeah. Yeah. Because the narrative has one number, you know. The spreadsheet has another one that's $150 per month. With the caveat that, you know, as we've gone along so far, you know. 559 01:38:14.150 --> 01:38:36.030 Town of Plainfield: we haven't seen a final budget yet. We're a ways from… a ways from that. I don't know what the bottom line is. I know Josh sent out a whole bunch of spreadsheets, and I looked through one where he's got a bunch of revenue on, and he ends up with a municipal tax of 2.99%, and I said, great, we can get there. Yeah. But there are so many assumptions in there that, you know, we don't have 560 01:38:36.220 --> 01:38:39.540 Town of Plainfield: finite information on yet. Yep, 561 01:38:40.720 --> 01:38:52.420 Town of Plainfield: Well, I think we can still approve this report and have it ready to go into the report, unless we find something dramatic in the next few meetings. 562 01:38:56.950 --> 01:39:07.610 Town of Plainfield: Do you want a motion? Do we have to… I mean, I guess I don't, like, fully… is it its own article? Yeah. Yes. It is an article. Do we want to… 563 01:39:07.680 --> 01:39:19.760 Town of Plainfield: It's up to everybody. Do we want to just note that this is going to be an article, and that… do we… is there a meeting where we just go… I think… because there's, like, a form… there's, like, a piece of paper that has all the articles on it that we vote for. 564 01:39:20.330 --> 01:39:35.960 Town of Plainfield: at… in January, before they're due, right? So I don't know that we need to vote for it. It's the approval of the warning, which lists all the articles. Yes, that's what we did last year. So I wonder if we just, like, note that it'll be on there and approve it then? I don't know. I don't know how we… 565 01:39:35.960 --> 01:39:41.359 Town of Plainfield: I don't remember us voting on a specific article separately, I remember us voting on them all. 566 01:39:41.360 --> 01:39:56.380 Town of Plainfield: That's part of the final document. I think given you don't have the exact dollar amount, it's probably… Maybe we should wait. Well, because I think these numbers were included in the budget, and so when we adopted the budget, we didn't have to amend it unless we changed something. 567 01:39:56.920 --> 01:40:01.349 Town of Plainfield: Or the floor changes. Good observation, yeah, that's true. 568 01:40:01.520 --> 01:40:16.159 Town of Plainfield: So, let's wait. Yeah. And I will say, just overall, last year we gave about $15,000 out. This year, $16,500, so that's an increase, but not a huge increase over previous year's spending. 569 01:40:17.550 --> 01:40:18.920 Town of Plainfield: Yep. 570 01:40:19.380 --> 01:40:42.770 Town of Plainfield: Okay, I don't know of anything else, budget-wise, that we can deal with, and I… yes. Well, question, and Bram, you may know, I thought you had sent us, a couple of months, like, maybe 2 months ago, one of the requests from, I forget whether it was, the Rural Transportation, RTC, or Green Mountain. One of them, I thought, sent us a letter that you forwarded. 571 01:40:42.770 --> 01:40:54.539 Town of Plainfield: I can dig it up again. I don't have it offhand. Because they're a separate article as well, both of them. There's one Green Mountain Transit one that's a separate article, and I can't remember if that figure… 572 01:40:54.660 --> 01:41:00.989 Town of Plainfield: Is there… I know, like, for example, the per capita, I got today. 573 01:41:01.030 --> 01:41:17.429 Town of Plainfield: I didn't include it at this meeting. Sorry. Oh, this is just for… got it, I'm sorry, this is the old one. Well, the… basically, I'll… I'll, I'll forward you that, and I'll also forward you… I have the per capita, Vermont Solid Waste Management Number. 574 01:41:17.690 --> 01:41:38.300 Town of Plainfield: came in today, also, which I can… I can send that with the, I don't know if it's Rural Transport or which one. It's Rural Transport. Article 4 was… was rural community transportation. Why… why isn't that in the social concerns? Is it bigger than others? I think that there are two different… 575 01:41:38.320 --> 01:42:02.209 Town of Plainfield: It's regional… it's regional transportation. So this isn't like a… this isn't like a non-profit we're donating to. Oh, okay. This is a part of being part of a regional transportation system. And the same thing for Green Mountain Transit. One was Article 4, one was Article 5. Yeah, so there's a split, I know it's… I understand, okay, that's… that makes sense. Yep. One is for the bus service, and one is for, like, micro transit stuff, I think. Yep, just to be supportive, yep. Oh. 576 01:42:02.590 --> 01:42:19.439 Town of Plainfield: So we are having… we are having a special meeting, I think, on January 5th, which is not our normal meeting to do budget stuff, so maybe we can get those numbers in that day and discuss them. Yeah, I'll try to find… I'll try to dig it up. And the per capitol solid waste, I think that just goes into our town budget, it's not a separate article. 577 01:42:19.740 --> 01:42:38.839 Town of Plainfield: Oh, okay, I didn't, I didn't realize. That's just something that's a budget item. It just needs to go into Josh's spreadsheet. I sent it to him, actually, I didn't send it to you guys, okay. No, I went through all the articles, and like, you know, we had all the reserve funds that we established last year, so we don't have to do those again. It's basically our budget. 578 01:42:38.840 --> 01:42:42.430 Town of Plainfield: Those two transportation, the social concerns. 579 01:42:42.430 --> 01:42:44.150 Town of Plainfield: And then the tax dates. 580 01:42:44.310 --> 01:42:50.489 Town of Plainfield: You know, you have to give us tax dates for articles. Yes. By you, you mean, Josh. 581 01:42:51.230 --> 01:42:58.219 Town of Plainfield: The office, yeah. He represents the office. Bob, is your hand up… Is your hand up, Bob? 582 01:42:58.760 --> 01:42:59.999 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Yes, it is. 583 01:43:00.420 --> 01:43:00.840 Town of Plainfield: Go ahead. 584 01:43:00.840 --> 01:43:06.139 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Just an update, I've been multitasking during the meeting here, and… 585 01:43:06.450 --> 01:43:12.859 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Kevin McCulloch, sir, will have the invoice and the contract in my email inbox in the morning. 586 01:43:13.060 --> 01:43:14.929 Town of Plainfield: Good, thank you, thank you. 587 01:43:14.930 --> 01:43:17.400 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: I'll get that over to you, and you can find the… 588 01:43:17.970 --> 01:43:20.779 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: The way to cut the check, that'll be great. 589 01:43:21.210 --> 01:43:22.410 Town of Plainfield: Yep, so… 590 01:43:22.410 --> 01:43:23.510 Bob Atchinson (he, him) Plainfield Energy Coordinator: Thanks a lot. 591 01:43:23.510 --> 01:43:24.469 Town of Plainfield: Thank you. 592 01:43:27.470 --> 01:43:33.630 Town of Plainfield: Question of budget, special budget meeting prior to town meeting. 593 01:43:34.450 --> 01:43:51.120 Town of Plainfield: That's one of the items here. Is there anything Josh put in the inboxes? The auditors and the treasurer present, I think it's 25 days before the meeting. Okay. I think it's a statutory thing, it has to be at least 25 days. And that's a public hearing? 594 01:43:51.120 --> 01:44:03.260 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, it's a public meeting. I think it's called the Auditor's meeting? Yeah, and it's to explain the budget, basically, as far as… Yeah, if anybody has objections or something to numbers or something, they can kind of… 595 01:44:03.260 --> 01:44:08.269 Town of Plainfield: Yep. It comes out of a, I think a time when 596 01:44:08.590 --> 01:44:18.769 Town of Plainfield: you know, it was a little more casual, and people would sort of get up and go, what's… you know, that kind of thing. 597 01:44:19.250 --> 01:44:37.699 Town of Plainfield: You know, I think in years past, we didn't have these meetings, and now we're… everything's by… we're trying to comply with statute as… And hopefully it'll streamline a little bit. If people have questions, they can bring them to that meeting instead of town meeting. 20-something days prior to meeting? I thought there was something, like, just before town meeting. 598 01:44:37.700 --> 01:44:54.259 Town of Plainfield: That, like, Donnie, you know, ran. I'm gonna pull up the calendar right now. The VLCT calendar has all this on there. Yeah, it should be on the, what is it, 20… I'm trying to pull it up, but you have to sign in to do anything, and it's giving me a heart. Oh, it's having… 599 01:44:55.100 --> 01:45:12.159 Town of Plainfield: I will get in. I will try to figure it out. Okay, well, thank you. We'll, if we're required to do it, we'll do it. Okay. It's something that we hadn't been doing, but the statute requires it, so… Yeah, we'll do it. We'll do it. 600 01:45:12.160 --> 01:45:30.240 Town of Plainfield: So what's the next step on that? Is it… We're gonna have to set a date. Yeah, we'll have to set a date, and it… it… is it 25 days, or up to 25 days? I can't remember all. Yeah, okay, that's what we'd have to answer. Do you want to circle around with us about that? Yeah. 601 01:45:30.240 --> 01:45:40.039 Town of Plainfield: When do the reports go out? Because people would have to have them in hand to… Well, they're required to be mailed and received, I think, 10 days before. 602 01:45:40.120 --> 01:45:49.070 Town of Plainfield: So, the 10 days before the meeting, I think, is the… is supposed to be received. So, we're basing our… everything else off. 603 01:45:49.070 --> 01:46:02.919 Town of Plainfield: Is that what drives your ship date, or your final date? Yeah, we want to have a little wiggle room, also, to make sure that we deliver stuff, you know, we don't have a thing left, because mail is so bad, we'd like to have things… 604 01:46:03.470 --> 01:46:13.059 Town of Plainfield: sooner than possible, so… Right, right. Okay, well, I'm not sure how we act on this, if we can, without a date. 605 01:46:13.440 --> 01:46:20.959 Town of Plainfield: I think we'll have… Isn't this on the big poster that hangs on the wall? Yeah. It is. Oh, here it is. I'm getting there, just… we just need some patience. 606 01:46:21.300 --> 01:46:32.739 Town of Plainfield: I'm trying to get out by 8. Just so I don't get harassed, you know. 607 01:46:40.030 --> 01:46:50.139 Town of Plainfield: So it would be in, like, working early February. That sounds kind of not quite right. Maybe I'm wrong, and it's not 20 days, so I guess we could… 608 01:46:50.290 --> 01:46:52.540 Town of Plainfield: I think I thought it was. 609 01:46:55.290 --> 01:46:57.230 Town of Plainfield: More than 3 days for calm. 610 01:47:15.200 --> 01:47:21.840 Town of Plainfield: So the last day is the day before. Trying to find the first day. 611 01:47:21.920 --> 01:47:38.980 Town of Plainfield: So we could have it as late as the day before 10 meeting. Correct. That would be a very bad idea. It's a terrible idea. Yeah, I agree. 612 01:47:39.860 --> 01:47:43.919 Town of Plainfield: I'm just trying to find the first day that we can do it. Yeah. 613 01:47:44.590 --> 01:47:57.320 Town of Plainfield: We have a… we would have a scheduled meeting, I think, on the 23rd. I don't know if we'd want to combine them, because it could get to be a lengthy meeting. 614 01:48:01.660 --> 01:48:04.890 Town of Plainfield: We'll also be having public hearings for the bond vote. 615 01:48:05.760 --> 01:48:06.580 Town of Plainfield: Hmm. 616 01:48:08.830 --> 01:48:32.789 Town of Plainfield: So, according to AI, you know how good that is, right? The town auditors meeting, when they review town accounts for the annual budget, must happen at least 25 days before the March town meeting. Well, that's when they get together. That's the public meeting that they… that the auditors host. That is… that's not… that's like when they go over and then sign off on the town report. 617 01:48:32.790 --> 01:48:41.840 Town of Plainfield: That's different than… I'm sorry, I thought that's what I thought you were talking about. What are you talking about? We're talking about, like, an informational meeting for the public about the budget and everything. 618 01:48:41.950 --> 01:48:49.900 Town of Plainfield: Oh, okay. What you're talking about is, like, the meeting where you literally go page by page to the town report, and then the auditors sign off on it. Right. 619 01:48:50.420 --> 01:49:02.329 Town of Plainfield: Okay, so… That makes more sense, to have that way before… Yeah, that's an auditor's meeting, that's not a select board meeting. Okay, I'm sorry, I misunderstood. No, and I got a little confused, too, because, like, I know, like. 620 01:49:02.710 --> 01:49:11.480 Town of Plainfield: We are required to have informational meetings on items that are voted by Australian ballot. 621 01:49:11.700 --> 01:49:26.050 Town of Plainfield: But we don't do our budget by Australian ballot, and so we don't have to have an informational meeting. The purpose of the informational meeting is to allow the public debate that you can't have while you're having an Australian ballot vote. Listen. 622 01:49:26.050 --> 01:49:34.609 Town of Plainfield: So, since we don't do that, I don't think we're required to have an informational meeting on the budget. No, I think… so, yeah. So, I think Josh was… 623 01:49:34.680 --> 01:49:41.590 Town of Plainfield: Wanted us to have an informational meeting on the budget to help the town understand what was on it. And, that's different. 624 01:49:41.760 --> 01:49:50.139 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, well, no, that's why it's a different item. That's what this item is. This was based on something that Josh said at a few meetings ago. 625 01:49:50.190 --> 01:50:06.420 Town of Plainfield: And my suggestion would be, once we figure out when we have to do the Australian ballot informational meeting, which is all of the other articles, including whoever's running for election, that we do these on the same day, that we just have one informational meeting. That we figure out, Donnie, Donnie could run it, or whoever. 626 01:50:06.420 --> 01:50:23.330 Town of Plainfield: And that we run through what's going to be on the ballot, including the budget, and rather than trying to have an informal meeting. Well, and specifically if they're going to be bond votes, because those will be Australian ballot. Yeah. Yep. And so, therefore, you do have to have an informational meeting on them. So I think that will drive the calendar and the date. 627 01:50:23.530 --> 01:50:25.720 Town of Plainfield: Right there. Yep. 628 01:50:25.920 --> 01:50:46.660 Town of Plainfield: I think it makes sense with all the changes that he's been making to the books, and… and having an audit, having an actual, real audit done, hopefully by then. I don't know if that's gonna happen, but… I don't know, he… I know that he's working with the people, but I don't know… Yeah, yeah. But there'd be more information than we usually would be able to have, so… 629 01:50:46.660 --> 01:50:49.280 Town of Plainfield: I haven't heard anything move. 630 01:50:49.280 --> 01:50:50.960 Town of Plainfield: Firm about the audit, because… 631 01:50:50.980 --> 01:51:08.259 Town of Plainfield: They'll be coming in, and it'll be all hands on deck. You'll be, you'll be having to give them lots of information, I'm sure. Tell them where things are. So it's, if I'm reading this right, reading this state statute right, the hearing shall be held with… so this is for the Australian ballot stuff. 632 01:51:08.260 --> 01:51:14.599 Town of Plainfield: The hearing shall be held within 30 days preceding the meeting at which the Australian ballot system is to be used. So the final day would be 633 01:51:14.600 --> 01:51:34.049 Town of Plainfield: March 2nd, which is the day before, and any of the 30 days previous to that, we could hold this. So basically, any time in the month of February, we could have this meeting. Usually, we wait until after the 25-day mark to make sure time reports are done, so that everything is, like, buttoned up. I think last year we did 634 01:51:34.050 --> 01:51:39.619 Town of Plainfield: did it, like, mid… it was, like, in the teens of February, because some people can start boating 635 01:51:39.770 --> 01:52:03.430 Town of Plainfield: earlier than that, because of absentee ballot. But I think that's… we did it, like, mid-February last year, and Donnie… Did people have their… yeah, Donnie did. Did people have their… did we have our printed reports then? Some people did, and some people didn't because of the mail. Because of the mail. I don't think I ever ended up getting one, even though I get most of town mail. So, I think we should, you know, make sure that if we're doing this, maybe we can have printed copies. 636 01:52:03.430 --> 01:52:10.369 Town of Plainfield: available at the meeting. We are, you know, obviously, dependent on the whims of the Postal Service. 637 01:52:10.730 --> 01:52:27.499 Town of Plainfield: But we have to get it out, like, the mailing date is before… before mid-February, I believe. Yeah, we'd like to… I mean, I'll work with… Have we considered not mailing it anymore? Like, a lot of towns do, and just have pickup points? We did talk about that, and we decided, based on the cost, the cost is only… 638 01:52:28.370 --> 01:52:52.010 Town of Plainfield: Of the cost of the town meeting, which… the books, which I think is $6,000 or $7,000… we expect $3,800 to print. $3,800 to print, and then, like… $600 or $700 to mail it. Yeah. I just thought they'd be more guaranteed to get it at the pickup. Well, they're welcome. I mean, we can… we can have pickup as well. I mean, we can talk about it. We decided not to move it, just because we do get pushback any time we talk about not mailing things, and I'm sure you hear about it more 639 01:52:52.010 --> 01:53:00.350 Town of Plainfield: than we do. Yeah. Which, for folks who might not be able to see, Carol is here and in the audience, and… Yeah, Carol, I've been here since a few years. 640 01:53:00.850 --> 01:53:06.280 Town of Plainfield: But it's something that we did say we should talk about for future years with more notice. Yep, yep. 641 01:53:06.780 --> 01:53:16.200 Town of Plainfield: Okay, I think, so we'll do something with that. 642 01:53:16.310 --> 01:53:19.990 Town of Plainfield: So I guess we approve draft minutes. 643 01:53:24.040 --> 01:53:34.780 Town of Plainfield: Yes. Motion? For 1250. Motion to approve the minutes from, December 15th, 2025. 644 01:53:35.680 --> 01:53:40.650 Town of Plainfield: Second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. 645 01:53:40.750 --> 01:53:42.040 Town of Plainfield: Opposed? 646 01:53:42.190 --> 01:53:47.130 Town of Plainfield: Approval of warrants… yeah, so just, 647 01:53:47.130 --> 01:54:06.559 Town of Plainfield: And Carol's here, so she can hear this. So last week during our special meeting, we approved, accounts payable from the 15th and payroll from the 11th, so those are already done, so we just need to approve, and I will make a motion to approve accounts payable for December 17th, 2025, and payroll for December 18th, 2025. 648 01:54:06.760 --> 01:54:12.380 Town of Plainfield: Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? 649 01:54:12.860 --> 01:54:18.659 Town of Plainfield: Okay, our next meeting's gonna be January 5th. Wow. 650 01:54:19.430 --> 01:54:22.490 Town of Plainfield: 9th? Fifth. 651 01:54:23.270 --> 01:54:24.970 Town of Plainfield: Mine says fifth. 652 01:54:25.570 --> 01:54:27.160 Town of Plainfield: Is it meant to the death? 653 01:54:28.290 --> 01:54:30.069 Town of Plainfield: Is it the 5th is the Monday? 654 01:54:30.290 --> 01:54:46.229 Town of Plainfield: It's a Monday. It is a special meeting. It's a special meeting. Okay. Yeah. I think we agreed a few meetings ago that we're gonna, at least, unless we don't need it, we're gonna meet every Monday of January to get the budget done, and get the other articles on the, 655 01:54:46.230 --> 01:55:02.089 Town of Plainfield: For the, for the election. So that should be… that should be specifically a budget meeting. Yeah, as opposed to other regular business. What are we gonna… what are we gonna do if Josh is not well enough? We gotta have a budget, so we're gonna have to deal with whatever we have to deal with. 656 01:55:02.090 --> 01:55:08.800 Town of Plainfield: Okay. Yeah. Do you have the orange folder? The yellow folder is in Bram's hand. Yep. 657 01:55:09.160 --> 01:55:14.010 Town of Plainfield: Oh, yes, sir. Charles, can I make a motion that we adjourn at 7.55 PM? 658 01:55:15.420 --> 01:55:36.640 Town of Plainfield: Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? I offered it. I offered it, too. Francis Rose, can you stop the recording?