WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.930 --> 00:00:13.880 Town of Plainfield: Alright, good evening. It's 6.02, we'll call this meeting of the Plainfield Select Board to order on Monday, April 13th. 2 00:00:14.250 --> 00:00:28.410 Town of Plainfield: Are there any changes to the agenda? We have one. I have one, it's another appointment. Okay. What is that? Appointment, Assistant Grants Administrator, Walter Hope. 3 00:00:28.900 --> 00:00:30.449 Town of Plainfield: Walter Hope. 4 00:00:31.450 --> 00:00:41.670 Town of Plainfield: as Assistant Grants Administrator, I saw that email. Okay, so we'll do that after Kaylee. Okay, 5 00:00:42.010 --> 00:00:49.269 Town of Plainfield: And are we appointing, Tim Phillips as unofficial town crier. 6 00:00:49.930 --> 00:01:03.559 Town of Plainfield: Anybody see that? He's self-appointed that, okay. And did you have another? No, no, that was the one. The one I would have is an, 7 00:01:04.470 --> 00:01:06.340 Town of Plainfield: Oh, you took off the grant. 8 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:19.510 Town of Plainfield: thing, that's… Next meeting. The bond, yeah, okay, so that is off here already, okay. Any other adjustments to the agenda? All right, thank you. Any announcements? 9 00:01:20.220 --> 00:01:44.380 Town of Plainfield: from the Select Board. I'd have one, and then I'll call on Michael. I did complete, emails out to all of our boards and commissions and committees with the open meeting law, and, ethics, requirements. I did learn in that process that, one of the people we appointed to the Planning Commission is no longer there, that's Jesse Cooper. 10 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:50.849 Town of Plainfield: When we appointed him to the DRB, he went off the Planning Commission, so we had a vacancy on the Planning Commission. 11 00:01:51.410 --> 00:01:57.450 Town of Plainfield: So we have 4 out of 5 right now, so just for news there. Michael, you had an announcement? Yes, thank you. 12 00:01:59.810 --> 00:02:11.730 Town of Plainfield: Both of them, are out this week. First of all, those of you who have not seen it, there is a, study that we've been doing on… 13 00:02:11.730 --> 00:02:35.989 Town of Plainfield: meadow at the bottom of East Hill, and we're going to be talking just about one aspect of that study, which is water management, on the surface, and that's Thursday night at 7. And the other announcement is that, in conjunction with another study that's being done by SLR Consulting, we may have helicopter overflight starting this weekend to do 14 00:02:35.990 --> 00:02:43.059 Town of Plainfield: LiDAR, so don't be alarmed if you see a small upgraded helicopter flying overhead. And it's 7 o'clock where? 15 00:02:44.600 --> 00:03:02.840 Town of Plainfield: This is coming from the base of Facebook all the way to the top, so it's going right up to Gora Road all the meeting where the meeting, 7 o'clock where? Oh, I'm sorry, what was the question? Here, I think. Where is the meeting on this? Oh, the meeting on Thursday night is here in the downstairs meeting room of the town hall. At what time? At 7 p.m. 16 00:03:06.320 --> 00:03:09.789 Town of Plainfield: And there also will be a Zoom stream and recording of that. 17 00:03:10.140 --> 00:03:11.680 Town of Plainfield: Okie do. 18 00:03:13.160 --> 00:03:17.759 Town of Plainfield: Okay. Any public comment? 19 00:03:20.540 --> 00:03:25.529 Town of Plainfield: I'm looking, Francis Rose, for you to keep an eye out on the screen if I am… 20 00:03:25.820 --> 00:03:34.639 Town of Plainfield: Watching other things, but I don't see anything, so… Okay, anybody else who sees a hand, give me a wave. All right, town clerk's report? 21 00:03:35.290 --> 00:03:46.649 Town of Plainfield: Jamie isn't behind. Jamie isn't well, okay. There was an email that just came in a little while ago. Okay. Any message from her, from them? 22 00:03:47.580 --> 00:04:01.180 Town of Plainfield: Shall I read her? Fems. Fems, thank you. Shall I read their email? Hi all, I'm not feeling well after my workday, so I'm sharing this via email instead of giving a report in person tonight. Sorry to miss y'all. 23 00:04:01.550 --> 00:04:07.940 Town of Plainfield: I've been reviewing the proposed spectrum service upgrades across all town locations that have been in progress. 24 00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:25.239 Town of Plainfield: And I'm comparing them to the FY2627 budget, just to make sure everything lines up before finalizing the service order. What I'm seeing so far is that most locations, fire, town garage, water, wastewater treatment plant, and the town hall opera house either fit within their exist… 25 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:30.330 Town of Plainfield: either fit within their… either fit within their existing budget lines, that doesn't… 26 00:04:30.430 --> 00:04:44.520 Town of Plainfield: Okay. The one place where it doesn't line up cleanly is the town office. The proposed fiber connection and related network service would come in higher than what's currently budgeted for that building, about $3,000 for the year. 27 00:04:44.520 --> 00:04:54.439 Town of Plainfield: I don't think a decision is needed right away, but I want to flag this and check in about how you'd like me to proceed, whether to move forward with fiber at that location, with that in mind. 28 00:04:54.440 --> 00:05:03.700 Town of Plainfield: or opt for an upgraded coax connection that aligns with the proposed budget. I'm happy to follow up with more detail or a recommendation if that would be useful. 29 00:05:04.770 --> 00:05:06.110 Town of Plainfield: Thanks, Jamie. 30 00:05:06.970 --> 00:05:10.439 Town of Plainfield: Any comments or feedback on that? 31 00:05:11.070 --> 00:05:19.290 Town of Plainfield: That sounds like an agenda item to discuss next meeting. Possibly, yeah. Okay. Cool. Okay. Okay. 32 00:05:19.400 --> 00:05:20.440 Town of Plainfield: Alright. 33 00:05:20.590 --> 00:05:24.930 Town of Plainfield: Moving on, there's Cynthia. 34 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:41.919 Town of Plainfield: Cynthia, just for introduction, Cynthia Stoddard is with, the New England Municipal Resource System and is under a bulk service agreement with us to do a lot of the systemic repairs to our financial system. 35 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:53.279 Town of Plainfield: And, is here tonight to give us a little bit of overview. I should also point out that we also are working with, 36 00:05:54.010 --> 00:06:04.579 Town of Plainfield: Becky Batchelder, Bonnie Batchelder Associates, who has other tasks that they're doing, and then we also are preparing 37 00:06:04.580 --> 00:06:19.770 Town of Plainfield: for a audit by Sullivan and Powers. We have engaged them, and that is a lot of what Bonnie is doing, is preparing for both that audit and the federal audits we know are coming due to the Federal Highway and FEMA, things, so… 38 00:06:19.840 --> 00:06:24.420 Town of Plainfield: Cynthia, with that context, The floor is yours. 39 00:06:24.630 --> 00:06:26.110 Cynthia Stoddard: Okay. Hi, everybody. 40 00:06:26.860 --> 00:06:28.020 Cynthia Stoddard: Nope. 41 00:06:28.890 --> 00:06:43.509 Cynthia Stoddard: So, I just… I'll try to be as brief as I can with the amount of information that I have, but, I'll just give you a little bit of background of NIMRIC, just for those of you that are not familiar with 42 00:06:43.640 --> 00:06:54.669 Cynthia Stoddard: the company that I work for and what we really do. So, we are an… so Nimrick has software that is designed for Vermont municipalities. 43 00:06:54.700 --> 00:07:06.370 Cynthia Stoddard: And I specifically work mostly with the financial side of the software. We do have town clerk modules, like the dog program, dog licensing, and land records and such, but… 44 00:07:06.370 --> 00:07:14.919 Cynthia Stoddard: I work mostly with the financials. So, our system is a fund accounting system that will track individual 45 00:07:14.950 --> 00:07:20.549 Cynthia Stoddard: funds, for clean accounting for Vermont municipal government. 46 00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:33.050 Cynthia Stoddard: So you guys have been with us for a very long time, but we are a software company, but we're more than that. We are more of a consulting company. We're a resource center for… 47 00:07:33.050 --> 00:07:41.860 Cynthia Stoddard: Vermont municipalities. We do have clients in other states, but we primarily are a Vermont-based company. We're out of Fairfax, 48 00:07:41.970 --> 00:07:57.349 Cynthia Stoddard: Vermont started in Putney, Vermont, back in, I think, 1987. I can't remember how many years ago, it was a long time ago. We have software in every, town in the state of Vermont, which is our Grand List program, which is the program that you all get tax bills from. 49 00:07:57.580 --> 00:08:16.540 Cynthia Stoddard: It holds the values of properties, we create tax billing. That all integrates with the accounting system. So, we have been working with the Town of Plainfield for years, but up until about a couple years ago, I really personally had not had a lot of interaction with Plainfield. 50 00:08:17.190 --> 00:08:35.589 Cynthia Stoddard: I've been working for Nimrick for 20… I don't know, it's hard to tell… 20-something-plus years, but I left for 5 years to be the town manager in the town of Putney, and their finance director, and I also, before I worked for Nimrick, was a elected treasurer in the town of Westminster, so… 51 00:08:35.590 --> 00:08:45.639 Cynthia Stoddard: I've been involved with municipal government for 30-plus years, so that's how I met Ernie, who owns Nimrick, and that's how I ended up working here for as many years as I have. So… 52 00:08:45.770 --> 00:08:49.500 Town of Plainfield: became familiar with Plainfield a couple years ago. 53 00:08:49.500 --> 00:08:59.319 Cynthia Stoddard: Worked a little bit with the current… the treasurer that was there at the time, didn't get really deeply involved, saw some things that we thought we could recommend to streamline your… your system. 54 00:08:59.790 --> 00:09:06.070 Cynthia Stoddard: Never really got too far with it, so, we kind of dropped off at that point. 55 00:09:06.350 --> 00:09:15.680 Cynthia Stoddard: Recently, it was brought to our attention that you might need some help, so I've been, what is it, 3 weeks now? 4 weeks? We've been kind of delving into everything. 56 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:22.700 Cynthia Stoddard: So, as Peter said, the audit status, Bonnie Bachelor is working on your FY25, 57 00:09:22.840 --> 00:09:41.929 Cynthia Stoddard: financials so that they will be able to be audited by Sullivan and Powers. Her and I work very closely together. Her and I have been in contact on… I didn't want to do anything that she was doing. I didn't want to duplicate work, which… so that you guys weren't paying for both of us to do the same thing. 58 00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:52.079 Cynthia Stoddard: So her and I have been working closely together so that I'm not overlapping what she's doing, but I'm giving you a continuing from July 1st on. 59 00:09:52.210 --> 00:09:57.519 Cynthia Stoddard: So that when she finishes her work, what I'm doing will complement what she has just finished up. 60 00:09:57.850 --> 00:10:01.420 Cynthia Stoddard: And then at that point, Sullivan Powers will come in and start their audit. 61 00:10:02.410 --> 00:10:08.340 Cynthia Stoddard: I'm really concerned that it will not be done by the fiscal year end in June. 62 00:10:08.540 --> 00:10:14.300 Cynthia Stoddard: Because that makes it a little bit more complicated, we won't be able to close your books completely. 63 00:10:15.270 --> 00:10:29.639 Cynthia Stoddard: On June 30th, so there's a little bit of work that would have to be done if that couldn't… couldn't happen. I don't know that… I can't speak for Sullivan Powers, but two and a half months before the end of the year seems a little tight for them to get that done. 64 00:10:30.420 --> 00:10:38.899 Cynthia Stoddard: So just know that I… we're all kind of working together, as a group, so that we're not overlapping what the other one's doing. 65 00:10:40.750 --> 00:10:48.049 Cynthia Stoddard: At any point, if you guys have questions, just stop me, because I can talk for hours. So just jump in. 66 00:10:50.020 --> 00:10:56.220 Cynthia Stoddard: at the end of last week, I sent a budget report, and I just wanted to kind of update 67 00:10:56.610 --> 00:11:00.760 Cynthia Stoddard: The board, what has happened since that budget report went out. 68 00:11:00.970 --> 00:11:08.329 Cynthia Stoddard: That budget report was the first stab at, like, look at it, tell me what you guys think, here's some questions that I have. 69 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:19.670 Cynthia Stoddard: I had several questions, I've reviewed some of them with Peter. I've had feedback from Karen. Based on the information that I received. 70 00:11:19.780 --> 00:11:25.139 Cynthia Stoddard: through that feedback, I'll be making some journal entries to reclassify some things. 71 00:11:25.170 --> 00:11:30.839 Cynthia Stoddard: And I'm hoping, Karen, you and I can work together on some FEMA stuff, just so that we can be clear. 72 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:46.890 Cynthia Stoddard: So, I don't know how much you guys want to talk about that report that I sent. Like I said, it was kind of the first stab. I kind of got caught up with some revenue posting and wanted to make sure that you guys had something in your hand that you guys could look at, and we can start to clean some things up for 73 00:11:47.660 --> 00:11:52.150 Cynthia Stoddard: July 1st until now, because those are the numbers that I'm working on. 74 00:11:52.450 --> 00:11:56.229 Cynthia Stoddard: So, did anybody want to ask anything about that right now, or do you want me to keep going? 75 00:11:58.570 --> 00:12:01.179 Town of Plainfield: I'll keep going. Okay. 76 00:12:01.180 --> 00:12:05.160 Cynthia Stoddard: And just know, I'll probably keep sending some. 77 00:12:05.380 --> 00:12:07.710 Cynthia Stoddard: And really what I'm looking for is… 78 00:12:07.910 --> 00:12:26.310 Cynthia Stoddard: You know, if I send a report of your reserve funds, of what I see the balance is, like, in the financial system, and I send it, and somebody looks at it and says, whoa, that looks way off. I just need to know that. I don't know what I don't know. I'm not as, you know, in tune with what you guys are doing as you guys are on the ground. 79 00:12:27.480 --> 00:12:37.760 Cynthia Stoddard: So when I first was approached, about what we could do for the town of Plainfield and trying to get some things cleaned up, streamlined. 80 00:12:38.110 --> 00:12:44.050 Cynthia Stoddard: I did, like, a thorough review of where you were at, and I created some action items, 81 00:12:44.650 --> 00:12:53.479 Cynthia Stoddard: the number one item that I had on my list was, the town has been operating 82 00:12:53.790 --> 00:13:09.300 Cynthia Stoddard: in our system, in where the financial reports come from, under… so… so we create entities. One of them is the town of Plainfield, one of them is the water department, and one of them was the sewer, or what wastewater fund. 83 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:16.400 Cynthia Stoddard: They were really being treated as three separate companies, per se, instead of funds, which is what they are. 84 00:13:17.570 --> 00:13:29.099 Cynthia Stoddard: So my number one end, you were processing… if you were processing payroll, there was a payroll coming out of each entity, so if you worked for all three, water, sewer, and town, you had 3 paychecks. 85 00:13:30.270 --> 00:13:30.780 Town of Plainfield: So… 86 00:13:30.780 --> 00:13:41.940 Cynthia Stoddard: So, that was my number one goal, was to combine all that so that water and sewer were in the one entity where all of the financial statements come out of, but they're kept… 87 00:13:42.410 --> 00:13:50.440 Cynthia Stoddard: Accounting was kept separately, for that fund, so you never lose the integrity of the fund being its own 88 00:13:51.040 --> 00:13:58.250 Cynthia Stoddard: its own animal, but it is in the same company. It's all the same federal tax ID number and everything, so it didn't really… 89 00:13:58.370 --> 00:14:06.949 Cynthia Stoddard: makes sense to have that that way. That has been completed. We processed… I think we've processed 2 payrolls out of 90 00:14:07.080 --> 00:14:15.100 Cynthia Stoddard: the town of Plainfield at this point. What that will do is it'll make it easier to reconcile your quarterly reports, 91 00:14:16.020 --> 00:14:22.169 Cynthia Stoddard: your, W-2s, just filing in general will just be easier. 92 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:28.699 Cynthia Stoddard: So that's been done. That was a huge project to do, but that got done. 93 00:14:29.100 --> 00:14:37.570 Cynthia Stoddard: The second thing on my list was making sure that all of your payroll quarterly reports and your annual reports were filed for 2025. 94 00:14:39.530 --> 00:14:47.440 Cynthia Stoddard: Nimerick processed the W-2s for you guys, balanced them, but we had to combine all three entities in order to do that. 95 00:14:49.050 --> 00:14:53.230 Cynthia Stoddard: But we couldn't find proof of the 941s being filed for 2025. 96 00:14:53.890 --> 00:14:59.360 Cynthia Stoddard: So, at this point, your 941s have been done. 97 00:15:00.340 --> 00:15:02.230 Cynthia Stoddard: for 2025. 98 00:15:03.460 --> 00:15:17.609 Cynthia Stoddard: The W-2s have been sent out. I can't confirm whether the W-2 has been filed, the annual W-2 has been filed with the IRS yet. I've requested access to their portal in order for me to confirm that. 99 00:15:20.250 --> 00:15:27.390 Town of Plainfield: Cynthia, I have a question? Yeah? Yeah, on the 941s, since we're filing late, is there any penalty? 100 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:28.430 Cynthia Stoddard: Will be, yes. 101 00:15:28.820 --> 00:15:29.570 Town of Plainfield: Okay. 102 00:15:29.880 --> 00:15:31.890 Cynthia Stoddard: I mean, I would be surprised if there's not. 103 00:15:32.470 --> 00:15:37.109 Cynthia Stoddard: I would encourage you, if there is. 104 00:15:37.760 --> 00:15:42.670 Cynthia Stoddard: To help… let me help you write a… Please forgive me, ladder. 105 00:15:42.980 --> 00:15:44.290 Town of Plainfield: Okay. 106 00:15:44.290 --> 00:15:49.909 Cynthia Stoddard: I've done it before, and… but I don't know how… I don't know how… that was years ago. 107 00:15:50.640 --> 00:15:58.720 Cynthia Stoddard: The things that I'm concerned about, about the 941 is, did I… did we file the 941s that I did for you? 108 00:15:59.890 --> 00:16:01.930 Cynthia Stoddard: Did we file twice? 109 00:16:02.070 --> 00:16:05.660 Cynthia Stoddard: Because I couldn't find confirmation that they had been sent at all. 110 00:16:07.800 --> 00:16:16.830 Cynthia Stoddard: And, obviously, the late filing, and then have all the taxes been paid properly and accredited to the right quarter. 111 00:16:17.970 --> 00:16:27.859 Cynthia Stoddard: Those are things that we will get a result on once those forms are mailed in and sent and filed, and I think maybe those got done today or tomorrow. Carol needed to sign them. 112 00:16:30.180 --> 00:16:34.979 Cynthia Stoddard: Same process with the state of Vermont. 113 00:16:35.540 --> 00:16:41.020 Cynthia Stoddard: I needed to find out if the W-2s had been filed, that the W-2s were filed with the state. 114 00:16:41.020 --> 00:16:43.449 Town of Plainfield: So the annual return was done. 115 00:16:43.560 --> 00:16:46.980 Cynthia Stoddard: The quarterly returns were not done. 116 00:16:47.170 --> 00:16:52.210 Cynthia Stoddard: 2025 first quarter was done, but the amount was wrong, so I had to amend that. 117 00:16:52.850 --> 00:17:03.129 Cynthia Stoddard: I talked to someone at the state of Vermont, she told me, you know, what I needed to do. She also informed me that the water and sewer and the town had been filing with the state of Vermont separately. 118 00:17:04.109 --> 00:17:15.549 Cynthia Stoddard: Two different tax ID numbers at the state of Vermont, but same federal ID number. So we've sent them a letter to have those combined and get rid of the water and sewer tax ID number. There's no need for that. 119 00:17:15.910 --> 00:17:25.809 Cynthia Stoddard: They were very helpful at the state. I don't know… it seems like they got some letters today. It didn't seem like there's been a penalty associated with that, so I don't know if that will happen with the state. 120 00:17:27.329 --> 00:17:31.759 Cynthia Stoddard: Retirement has been filed, so that's all good. 121 00:17:31.760 --> 00:17:49.920 Town of Plainfield: Could I just jump in on the state there? Sure. I did have a conversation with them a couple of weeks ago. I was helping Carol out one day, and they were very friendly, and said they will make notes that, you know, we're aware and working on it, so I got a good vibe from them. 122 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:53.209 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, they were super helpful. At first, she told me. 123 00:17:53.810 --> 00:18:03.380 Cynthia Stoddard: She said, you're going to have to amend all those quarterlies you just did, and do the water and wastewater separate. And I said, that makes no sense to me. And then she goes, well, no, wait. 124 00:18:03.610 --> 00:18:09.730 Cynthia Stoddard: Maybe you can tell us that 2025, you want to 125 00:18:10.650 --> 00:18:18.420 Cynthia Stoddard: only file under the town of Plainfield, and then we can make the adjustment on our side, and it looks like that's what they did, because I checked it on Friday. 126 00:18:18.420 --> 00:18:18.800 Town of Plainfield: Yep. 127 00:18:19.420 --> 00:18:21.090 Cynthia Stoddard: So that was good. 128 00:18:21.090 --> 00:18:30.789 Town of Plainfield: Cynthia, your work here with the state and with the IRS was facilitated by us granting you power of attorney to go into that, so… 129 00:18:30.790 --> 00:18:40.089 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, the state of Vermont, they were very simple. I could just email it to them. The IRS, I filed electronically. I actually haven't tried to talk to the IRS on the phone yet. 130 00:18:40.170 --> 00:18:53.719 Cynthia Stoddard: So whether they've associated my power of attorney with that account yet, I don't know, but I just went ahead and had those guys file those 941s so we could at least get them in there. And then when I talk to them, they'll at least have some documentation to work off of. 131 00:18:53.930 --> 00:19:06.320 Cynthia Stoddard: And then the request to log on to the portal for Social Security is different than that. That's to check the annual filing. And you guys should be receiving something in the office saying that I did that. 132 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:11.299 Cynthia Stoddard: And then, let's see… 133 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:18.959 Cynthia Stoddard: Quarter… for the first quarter of 2026, 941 state and VEMERS have all been filed, so your first quarter is done. 134 00:19:21.870 --> 00:19:40.859 Cynthia Stoddard: The state unemployment reports, which are done quarterly, which is called the C101s, those still need to be completed for 2025. I talked to somebody at the unemployment office, she sent them all to us, I have them here. She also sent me C101s that hadn't been filed for 24? 135 00:19:41.390 --> 00:19:48.769 Cynthia Stoddard: and a couple in 23. So she said, fill those out, and then I need to get access to the portal to do the first quarter. 136 00:19:49.620 --> 00:19:58.380 Cynthia Stoddard: She was very good about, like, yeah, sure, we'll log you on. She didn't really seem too concerned with getting me on there, so I need to do that. 137 00:19:59.080 --> 00:20:17.750 Cynthia Stoddard: So that's kind of the payroll thing. Those were the two big things that were really weighing on me, because payroll, you can get some pretty hefty penalties. So I knew we needed to get that, like, in there, know that it was filed, have the documentation, so we could at least argue the point of why this might have happened. 138 00:20:17.750 --> 00:20:24.489 Cynthia Stoddard: And hopefully, if you get penalties, we can get them abated. I don't… I can't… I won't promise anything. 139 00:20:25.150 --> 00:20:33.950 Cynthia Stoddard: The other bigger project that I worked on was your budget presentation in the town report, your chart of accounts. 140 00:20:34.130 --> 00:20:50.680 Cynthia Stoddard: is different than what's in your NIMRIC system. They're similar names, and there's just been some rearranging. So your previous treasurer started that process of restructuring your chart of accounts to make it a little bit more user-friendly, and put some categories in some different places. 141 00:20:50.760 --> 00:21:10.449 Cynthia Stoddard: Well, the budget hadn't been input because it was very difficult in some instances to line up the budget in the town report with what I needed to put into the system. So I had to do a whole spreadsheet doing a comparison of, like, here's your Nimrick stuff, here's your town report, and where do we have to… where are these numbers falling? So… 142 00:21:10.800 --> 00:21:24.330 Cynthia Stoddard: The budget… on your budget status report that I gave you is a little different than what you'll find in the town report. That's because there's some numbers that need to be added, and I need to do that chart of account change, and I haven't done that yet. 143 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:41.699 Cynthia Stoddard: So, we'll be working on that to refine that even further. My goal, obviously, is to get the number at the bottom of your expenditure report and your revenue report to match exactly what you presented in the town report. Because your financial should be exactly what you presented the town. 144 00:21:42.100 --> 00:21:44.930 Cynthia Stoddard: So we're working on that. 145 00:21:46.360 --> 00:21:50.540 Cynthia Stoddard: Then, your bank accounts, your, 146 00:21:51.590 --> 00:22:05.320 Cynthia Stoddard: Somewhere I wrote down, and I think I told you this, Peter, there were, like, 30 bank accounts. I don't know where I got that number. I think it includes some CDs that you have, because your bank accounts at, like, Community National, there's, like, 17 of them. 147 00:22:05.580 --> 00:22:09.870 Cynthia Stoddard: So, the big ones, the general fund, the water, 148 00:22:10.250 --> 00:22:17.529 Cynthia Stoddard: The general checking, the water checking, and the wastewater checking, those are, like, your big ones that have the most activity. 149 00:22:17.750 --> 00:22:30.240 Cynthia Stoddard: I started with your general bank statement because it has not been reconciled, since July. Bonnie was finishing up June of 25. I'm picking it up in July. 150 00:22:30.580 --> 00:22:44.430 Cynthia Stoddard: And I had one of… one of my assistants go through everything and mark anything she couldn't get to match. Most of the things we couldn't get to match were state, revenue, grants, FEMA money. 151 00:22:44.470 --> 00:22:55.309 Cynthia Stoddard: They just hadn't been recorded yet, so I recorded all of that the other day. I just requested bank statements for all of the other things, and I want to get those caught up through March. So that's a big… 152 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:59.299 Cynthia Stoddard: That's one of the next big projects that we're working on. 153 00:22:59.360 --> 00:23:05.019 Town of Plainfield: Cynthia? Yes? Karen, I have a question. So those other bank accounts, are those reserve funds? 154 00:23:05.180 --> 00:23:07.520 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, some of them are reserve funds, yep. 155 00:23:07.760 --> 00:23:08.710 Town of Plainfield: Okay. 156 00:23:08.710 --> 00:23:21.909 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, I mean, our recommendation when we get caught up, the recommendation is going to be to close those bank accounts and pool the money together, so that all the money is sitting in one bank account. 157 00:23:22.340 --> 00:23:27.990 Cynthia Stoddard: And, then you let the system track your cash in that bank account. 158 00:23:28.570 --> 00:23:29.820 Town of Plainfield: Thanks. Okay. 159 00:23:29.950 --> 00:23:30.540 Town of Plainfield: Thank you. 160 00:23:30.540 --> 00:23:33.889 Cynthia Stoddard: But we don't want to do that until we know the balances are right. 161 00:23:37.010 --> 00:23:38.510 Cynthia Stoddard: So… 162 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:50.180 Cynthia Stoddard: Couple other action items. Well, I talked about the budget. The 1099s, we issued 1099s in January. We had to do a couple corrections. Those have not been filed with the IRS. They need to be. 163 00:23:50.500 --> 00:23:53.510 Cynthia Stoddard: Closing some bank accounts and pulling cash. 164 00:23:54.340 --> 00:24:01.610 Cynthia Stoddard: And then creating a procedure for delinquent tax collection, because right now there's a little bit of… 165 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:19.279 Cynthia Stoddard: You have a separate elected delinquent tax collector, they bring the money in. The system has not added any penalty… we haven't added any penalty or interest in the actual system yet, so I haven't been able to post those payments, so we've got to do some stuff with that. Those are kind of the next things on my… 166 00:24:19.300 --> 00:24:20.940 Town of Plainfield: To-do list. 167 00:24:23.420 --> 00:24:24.820 Cynthia Stoddard: We're making progress. 168 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:30.889 Cynthia Stoddard: So that's kind of my… my big picture overview, so I'm ready for questions. 169 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:43.529 Town of Plainfield: Okay, Cynthia, we pretty much have used up the appointed time, but I do want to see if there are questions from the Select Board, and I know we do have a couple of hands up on the screen, and one here in the room. 170 00:24:43.700 --> 00:24:45.930 Town of Plainfield: Anyone on the Select Board first? 171 00:24:47.460 --> 00:24:48.819 Town of Plainfield: Okay, George. 172 00:24:49.260 --> 00:24:54.189 Town of Plainfield: As a collector of liquid taxes. George, use the mic. Come on up and use the mic. 173 00:25:03.640 --> 00:25:13.760 Town of Plainfield: As a collector of delinquent taxes, going on my 18th year, why all of a sudden are we having problems with penalty and interest? 174 00:25:14.550 --> 00:25:17.820 Town of Plainfield: This has never been a problem in all the years I've done this. 175 00:25:17.820 --> 00:25:21.010 Cynthia Stoddard: Having… you mean having problems having it calculated? 176 00:25:21.300 --> 00:25:22.400 Town of Plainfield: Yes. 177 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:24.849 Cynthia Stoddard: I think somebody just didn't push the button yet. 178 00:25:26.330 --> 00:25:30.249 Cynthia Stoddard: So, I don't know, when did your… when did your last installment go delinquent? 179 00:25:32.030 --> 00:25:33.610 Town of Plainfield: February 11th? 180 00:25:33.860 --> 00:25:38.890 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, so February 11th would have been around the time frame, then, you… where things kind of started to… 181 00:25:41.520 --> 00:25:46.219 Cynthia Stoddard: So, it would have been after that date that they should have at least calculated the penalty. 182 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:48.479 Cynthia Stoddard: It just didn't get done. 183 00:25:50.080 --> 00:25:52.580 Town of Plainfield: So what do you mean somebody didn't push the button? 184 00:25:52.980 --> 00:26:01.600 Cynthia Stoddard: Well, you have to… you have to tell the system when you want the interest and penalty to calculate, so there's a button that says calculate interest, and there's one that says calculate penalty. 185 00:26:01.600 --> 00:26:03.579 Town of Plainfield: And whose job was that? 186 00:26:03.950 --> 00:26:10.850 Cynthia Stoddard: Well, it's typically the treasurer collector of taxes, that's the one that usually does it. 187 00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:17.289 Town of Plainfield: So… It's not on me. 188 00:26:17.580 --> 00:26:17.910 Cynthia Stoddard: No. 189 00:26:17.910 --> 00:26:19.460 Town of Plainfield: Nope. 190 00:26:19.460 --> 00:26:22.130 Cynthia Stoddard: Not you at all. You don't even get into that system. 191 00:26:23.360 --> 00:26:30.630 Town of Plainfield: Okay? So… My other question is, and I talked to you in the office probably a month ago. 192 00:26:32.170 --> 00:26:38.450 Town of Plainfield: Trying to get a corrected Award for those actions? 193 00:26:39.360 --> 00:26:49.159 Town of Plainfield: And, the more I have, I went ahead and sent out bills to collect money. 194 00:26:49.540 --> 00:26:51.230 Town of Plainfield: was designed. 195 00:26:52.960 --> 00:27:03.340 Town of Plainfield: So, on your end, is that a big deal? I talked to the fleet of Citizen Towns, and they told me that it should have been signed by someone. 196 00:27:06.260 --> 00:27:06.870 Town of Plainfield: Internet. 197 00:27:06.870 --> 00:27:11.779 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, you mean… so the warrant that gets recorded is what you're talking about, wasn't signed? 198 00:27:12.460 --> 00:27:13.650 Town of Plainfield: Right. Yeah. 199 00:27:13.650 --> 00:27:18.380 Cynthia Stoddard: Who, who usually, who usually, who signed it before? Was it the… 200 00:27:19.750 --> 00:27:22.710 Town of Plainfield: Well, back in the day, it was a town clerk. 201 00:27:22.820 --> 00:27:29.440 Town of Plainfield: Yeah. And then, once we get a treasure, down treasures, that's their job. 202 00:27:29.590 --> 00:27:30.260 Town of Plainfield: Yeah. 203 00:27:30.260 --> 00:27:33.950 Cynthia Stoddard: No, I think it should be signed. I agree that, I mean, we have to… 204 00:27:33.950 --> 00:27:40.390 Town of Plainfield: And there were mistakes, so I just wondered… 205 00:27:40.790 --> 00:27:43.590 Town of Plainfield: How do we get an updated thing to make sure that 206 00:27:44.660 --> 00:27:48.819 Town of Plainfield: we collect everything that is due, because I know… Yeah, so… 207 00:27:48.850 --> 00:28:04.869 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, so this is where we… and that's why I said that's one of the things on my list, is the delinquent tax, list and that whole process, and how to post and everything, is that when you brought to my attention that there were a couple of people that had said they had paid. 208 00:28:04.870 --> 00:28:13.139 Cynthia Stoddard: But they were showing on the list. We had to do some research on those, and I don't know where those ended up, and before I… 209 00:28:13.140 --> 00:28:24.150 Cynthia Stoddard: before I told them how to calculate penalty and interest, I wanted to make sure we don't have people on that list that shouldn't be, because then we just have to back off that penalty and interest. So, yeah, it's kind of… 210 00:28:24.180 --> 00:28:34.039 Cynthia Stoddard: sat off to the side a little bit while we've been doing this other stuff, but it is not something that is being forgotten, so I don't want you to think that we're forgetting about doing it. It has to be done. 211 00:28:34.670 --> 00:28:36.140 Cynthia Stoddard: It's just with the. 212 00:28:36.350 --> 00:28:52.790 Town of Plainfield: What about an updated warrant? Right now, I brought to your attention that one gentleman called me and said that he just under… that he found out that he didn't pay, and that his name never written on the warrant. So that makes me a little… 213 00:28:53.020 --> 00:28:54.250 Town of Plainfield: unnerved that they. 214 00:28:54.600 --> 00:28:59.830 Town of Plainfield: How many people that didn't pay, and, you know, they're not gonna be forthcoming. 215 00:29:00.230 --> 00:29:08.120 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, I think part of it is, is, like, some of the things… I can't remember the exact one you're talking about, but we figured out what had happened. 216 00:29:08.850 --> 00:29:20.260 Cynthia Stoddard: And those are the kinds of things that would get caught if the bank account was being reconciled, because the posting and the deposit that was posted wouldn't have matched what was put in the bank. 217 00:29:20.440 --> 00:29:37.999 Cynthia Stoddard: So, that's part of, you know, this is a side effect to… so I don't blame you for being nervous about it, and that's kind of why I've been nervous about calculating penalty or interest until we get a really good list that… that we know is accurate. You guys do things… 218 00:29:38.260 --> 00:29:49.960 Cynthia Stoddard: pretty different in Plainfield compared to the rest of the state. You have 3 installments, one of them's a town installment, and the second half of the year is the school, right? School 1 and 2? 219 00:29:49.960 --> 00:29:51.550 Town of Plainfield: Don't divided into two. 220 00:29:51.870 --> 00:30:00.159 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, and… and I think after the first installment goes delinquent, the town, that's when you get… do you get penalty charged on that, at that point? 221 00:30:00.620 --> 00:30:02.500 Town of Plainfield: Municipal, yes. 222 00:30:02.500 --> 00:30:13.920 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, so… so your… your actual process is very different than what I'm used to, so part of it is just trying to make sure I understand that process. That's not how most Vermont towns do their billing. 223 00:30:15.410 --> 00:30:30.919 Cynthia Stoddard: So, I had to become familiar with that whole process and wrap my brain around, like, who should be getting things charged at what time, and I was really even perplexed about your spreadsheet because I didn't know what S1 and S2 were, so I had to learn all that, so… 224 00:30:32.420 --> 00:30:41.459 Cynthia Stoddard: I guess the… the very long answer to your question is, was we're not there yet. We just don't have that delinquent warrant to give you, because I don't know if it's accurate. 225 00:30:41.690 --> 00:30:46.950 Town of Plainfield: The other question is, with what you… 226 00:30:47.080 --> 00:30:51.539 Town of Plainfield: Previously told about, and things not being filed and stuff. 227 00:30:52.310 --> 00:30:54.940 Town of Plainfield: Who should have been responsible for all these things? 228 00:30:56.250 --> 00:31:00.079 Cynthia Stoddard: the… In 2025, the payroll stuff? 229 00:31:00.590 --> 00:31:01.589 Town of Plainfield: Everything that you've. 230 00:31:01.590 --> 00:31:02.790 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, it would have been the treasurer. 231 00:31:02.790 --> 00:31:05.150 Town of Plainfield: important seeds, and all those things. 232 00:31:05.450 --> 00:31:06.950 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, it would have been the treasurer. 233 00:31:08.110 --> 00:31:12.519 Town of Plainfield: Thank you. Yeah. Bill has his hand up. 234 00:31:13.360 --> 00:31:15.539 Will Colgan: Well, it's actually Sandy, but… Sandy? 235 00:31:15.540 --> 00:31:16.000 Town of Plainfield: Okay. 236 00:31:17.620 --> 00:31:35.339 Will Colgan: Cynthia, I love the idea of consolidating bank accounts and making things simpler, but I just want to remind everybody that, by law, we are required to keep certain funds in separate, distinct accounts. 237 00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:42.529 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, I would never… I would never say, go ahead and close everything until we have that conversation. 238 00:31:42.680 --> 00:31:52.219 Cynthia Stoddard: So, I am aware that there are… although I would have to be… like, you'd have to tell me which ones you think they are, because 239 00:31:52.220 --> 00:32:03.090 Cynthia Stoddard: There is very little that can't be combined. It typically comes from a grant that has a grant restriction, if it is something that needs a separate bank account. 240 00:32:03.170 --> 00:32:07.250 Cynthia Stoddard: But, if you guys know that, obviously, and, and… 241 00:32:07.580 --> 00:32:16.409 Will Colgan: Well, it may not actually need a separate bank account, but it needs to be a distinct fund. Oh, yeah, yeah. 242 00:32:16.410 --> 00:32:21.510 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, of course. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. 243 00:32:21.700 --> 00:32:22.530 Town of Plainfield: Alright. 244 00:32:23.420 --> 00:32:40.430 Town of Plainfield: Cynthia, thank you so much for all the work. We know, we still have hours coming, with you and with Bonnie, and this is a journey that we're on together, and will be for a little while yet, so… Thank you. Thanks for all your good work. 245 00:32:40.430 --> 00:32:41.909 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, if anybody… Karen. 246 00:32:41.910 --> 00:32:48.379 Town of Plainfield: Cynthia does know we're recruiting for a treasure. 247 00:32:48.940 --> 00:32:56.560 Cynthia Stoddard: Yeah, it's un… I mean, unfortunately, you guys are not the only ones in the state of Vermont that are kind of going through this same… 248 00:32:57.150 --> 00:33:01.380 Cynthia Stoddard: It's a very specialized Accounting? 249 00:33:01.980 --> 00:33:11.560 Cynthia Stoddard: And it… when I was a treasurer back in, you know, whenever… 1997 or 90… whatever it was, it was very different than it is now. 250 00:33:13.560 --> 00:33:13.910 Cynthia Stoddard: So… 251 00:33:14.220 --> 00:33:17.660 Town of Plainfield: Alright, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Cynthia. 252 00:33:17.660 --> 00:33:20.360 Cynthia Stoddard: Okay, you guys know how to get in touch with me. 253 00:33:20.550 --> 00:33:37.870 Town of Plainfield: We'll be talking. Alright, next up is the town constable's report. I don't see Dan here. Has anyone heard from Dan? There was an email that Dan sent. There was an update on… Yeah. There's a couple emails. 254 00:33:41.460 --> 00:33:55.149 Town of Plainfield: I saw something maybe a week or so ago. It came today. I prompted him, I asked for an update today, and he sent back an update. I have… I have Dan's email here. You want to read it? I can do that. Alright. 255 00:33:55.230 --> 00:34:02.509 Town of Plainfield: This was in response to Andy asking Dan if there was anything new to report in advance of the meeting tonight, so… 256 00:34:04.230 --> 00:34:19.089 Town of Plainfield: He said, I have not heard anything further from VSP after Michael spoke with the trooper, and this is on, excuse me, sorry. It's on Edwin Farnham Escalation. This is the subject. 257 00:34:19.420 --> 00:34:29.669 Town of Plainfield: I've not heard anything further from VSP after Michael spoke with the trooper and sent him a spreadsheet of the cost breakdown to repair what was done to the road. So that's Michael Bingham. 258 00:34:30.010 --> 00:34:47.239 Town of Plainfield: A few updates on the overall situation. I have been in regular contact with Jason, who owns land Farnham is leasing, regarding the issues. He informed Farnham that he is not renewing his lease, and Farnham became upset and said he would have to evict him. 259 00:34:47.710 --> 00:34:54.769 Town of Plainfield: I would follow up with Jason… I will follow up with Jason this week. As of late last week, there is another dead cow. 260 00:34:54.929 --> 00:35:03.470 Town of Plainfield: I have held off on towing Farnham's truck because that would leave him unable to get feed and water to the animals, but the situation is out of control. 261 00:35:04.040 --> 00:35:13.459 Town of Plainfield: Barnum is living in an unpermitted shack on the property that has no sewer, septic, or power, and runs a generator consistently. 262 00:35:13.460 --> 00:35:26.820 Town of Plainfield: While any zoning enforcement would be pursued with the landowner and not the lessee, I think that the Select Board should get the town health officer and state health officials involved as the sewage issue needs to be addressed. 263 00:35:27.200 --> 00:35:43.500 Town of Plainfield: On a different but somewhat related manner, the property at 1735 Brook Road continues to have multiple campers, with no septic connection, and requires further zoning health officer intervention, as well as involving state authorities. 264 00:35:43.560 --> 00:35:57.049 Town of Plainfield: It is continually a point of consternation on social media, as people do not understand that we, as the town, have no mechanism to intervene in a civil matter between the tenants and the property owner, Tanya. 265 00:35:57.300 --> 00:36:03.639 Town of Plainfield: I plan to connect via Zoom tonight and can answer any questions you have on these two items or others, so… 266 00:36:04.190 --> 00:36:06.550 Town of Plainfield: That was 2.30 today. 267 00:36:08.720 --> 00:36:12.949 Town of Plainfield: Well, we thank Dan for that update, and… 268 00:36:13.300 --> 00:36:20.699 Town of Plainfield: I know I've spoken with Jason and his mom there, and that's true, that they're not planning to renew that lease. 269 00:36:20.840 --> 00:36:21.800 Town of Plainfield: Bye. 270 00:36:22.250 --> 00:36:28.940 Town of Plainfield: Yes, George? Both ends of that, the, 271 00:36:29.670 --> 00:36:39.650 Town of Plainfield: especially 1735 Brook Road. The tax bill, the municipal bill, was like… 52 bucks. 272 00:36:40.940 --> 00:36:49.970 Town of Plainfield: And nobody's paid that, and I have no place to send the bill to. And considering the situation, that's a little ridiculous. 273 00:36:50.360 --> 00:37:04.000 Town of Plainfield: I think the listeners should have taken a look at this, and you've got 4 or 5 campers there, and the gentleman that's living in the house that's supposed to be a FEMA buyout is collecting $400 a month for rent. 274 00:37:04.120 --> 00:37:05.220 Town of Plainfield: And… 275 00:37:05.670 --> 00:37:20.330 Town of Plainfield: Seems to me that, you know, you should be all over the state natural resources, and they should have done something long before now. You know, it's just crazy. And the other, the other end, if you've got a non-permitted building. 276 00:37:20.670 --> 00:37:29.539 Town of Plainfield: Historically, like, there was a big, big building that was built in Southern Jamaica, I can't tell you exactly how. They made him tear it down. 277 00:37:30.250 --> 00:37:39.449 Town of Plainfield: So that would… if that was done, then end the story. You had no place to live, no tech, no building, came up, came over. 278 00:37:40.640 --> 00:37:41.750 Town of Plainfield: Michael? 279 00:37:44.030 --> 00:37:48.270 Town of Plainfield: Just for clarification, the person who's living at the building is not the owner. 280 00:37:48.360 --> 00:37:58.020 Town of Plainfield: The owner is living in Montpelier, and the taxes were paid by someone who is deceased, and so I don't know 281 00:37:58.020 --> 00:38:14.320 Town of Plainfield: what current arrangements could be made to fix that. Michael, is this the Brook Road? I'm sorry, is this the Brook Road? 1735 Brook Road, yeah. Thank you. But we could locate the person who is the property owner. That's not unknown. I know her name. 282 00:38:14.790 --> 00:38:17.089 Town of Plainfield: If you want help with that, I can give that to you. 283 00:38:17.630 --> 00:38:22.210 Town of Plainfield: Well, no, I want to know that… I think that they should be charged much more 284 00:38:22.560 --> 00:38:25.549 Town of Plainfield: Because, even though it's a FEMA buyout. 285 00:38:25.710 --> 00:38:28.560 Town of Plainfield: People are making money off that property. 286 00:38:28.600 --> 00:38:45.970 Town of Plainfield: and still living there, and so they shouldn't be getting any kind of break in their taxes. That's my point. Oh, okay, so I just… there is a general clarification, then, is that all buyout properties, which are 27, 31, excuse me, it would include 2023, all of them 287 00:38:45.970 --> 00:39:03.440 Town of Plainfield: as a result of being in the buyer program are considered of no market value, meaning they cannot be resold, and as a consequence, they don't have market value. Now, some of them still do, some of them actually have been appraised at higher values in terms of the current taxation grandness. 288 00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:16.979 Town of Plainfield: But, in actual fact, they cannot be sold, and most of the taxes are based on the market value of the property, or the appraised market value of the property. It's not on whether or not somebody collects rent, or somebody earns income, or somebody has a business there. 289 00:39:17.550 --> 00:39:24.660 Town of Plainfield: I would just say this, to bring it back to the, constable's report and the enforcement actions. 290 00:39:24.670 --> 00:39:40.960 Town of Plainfield: several months ago, I did call the state natural resources about the issues there, the septic, having been down there many times and looked at the situation, and I know that Karen's story has been out there, too. I think perhaps a reminder that this is still going on. 291 00:39:41.050 --> 00:39:48.940 Town of Plainfield: Would be helpful. So, as far as the, situation up on, Maxfield Road, 292 00:39:49.070 --> 00:39:58.780 Town of Plainfield: asking the town health officer to get involved there with zoning would be good. Those are the only levers that we have as the town, otherwise it's state police. 293 00:39:59.330 --> 00:40:01.149 Town of Plainfield: Another quick point? 294 00:40:01.870 --> 00:40:05.079 Town of Plainfield: I would say that it has to be pointed out that the, 295 00:40:05.840 --> 00:40:21.870 Town of Plainfield: Vermont State Police have an alert on that property that there may be firearms on the property, so that anyone approaching that building should make sure that they're either accompanied by a police officer, or there has been a clear notification that there's a living there, so there's no incident. 296 00:40:22.220 --> 00:40:36.269 Town of Plainfield: Thank you for that. Michael, is this Brook Road or Maxfield? Maxfield. It's Brook Road. Brook Road, yeah. I have a question. Yeah. What is the status of our half officer's ability to ticket right now? 297 00:40:36.830 --> 00:40:44.849 Town of Plainfield: They can only… we have not brought the health ordinances into the municipal ticket system yet. 298 00:40:45.400 --> 00:40:55.029 Town of Plainfield: That needs to be done, as well as our zoning ordinances. So we have the animal control and the parking. Those are the two that have been done so far. Shall I add that to the next meeting? 299 00:40:55.360 --> 00:41:09.480 Town of Plainfield: I don't know if that's ready yet. That… that will take… So it's more of the sub-working group, rather than… it's more the… The ordinance adoption process is a lengthier process. Understood. No, I do understand that, but I guess the… 300 00:41:09.560 --> 00:41:28.869 Town of Plainfield: who's working on the ordinance? Who's working on the ordinances? I'm not aware of anyone at the moment. I'm working on an emergency management side of those ordinances so that we can also have ticketing during a disaster, or people rocking those people getting in the way of recovery crews. And so, I had, promised Jamie that I would write a draft 301 00:41:28.940 --> 00:41:41.249 Town of Plainfield: or at least the emergency management side of that, which could also look at properties in the buyout program, could be included in that. But that's not going to help the health officers. Not for health officers. Peter's right, that there need to be separate… 302 00:41:41.620 --> 00:41:42.980 Town of Plainfield: Empowerment. 303 00:41:42.980 --> 00:42:06.390 Town of Plainfield: give it to the health officer, so that she can, take it in. Yeah, and I did talk to Jody the other day, because, you know, we… we, recommended their appointment, again, as the town health officer, which is actually not done by us, but done by the state, so I filled out that form and sent it in. And, also had a discussion with her about 304 00:42:06.480 --> 00:42:28.190 Town of Plainfield: building code enforcement, because a lot of that was moved from the health department to fire and safety at the state level. So, you know, what the specific offense is may or may not fall under town health, but may fall under fire and safety at the moment. Do you have a question? I do, I do. There's a question… 305 00:42:28.250 --> 00:42:32.080 Town of Plainfield: Louis Scott. Louis has your hand up? Louis Scott? 306 00:42:32.840 --> 00:42:52.710 Town of Plainfield: So, I just, I just want to, before we go to that, I just want to say that in our conversation later about, liaisons and roles, perhaps we can add the ordinances into that mix to look at who's going to take that up. Sure. And then, and then secondly, just a question about who's going to respond to Dan. 307 00:42:52.710 --> 00:42:57.960 Town of Plainfield: About our discussion tonight in terms of what next steps might be possible. 308 00:42:59.910 --> 00:43:07.090 Town of Plainfield: I just wonder, instead of… we're having this conversation, but I just… how is it gonna get back to Dan? Let's think about that. Okay. 309 00:43:08.990 --> 00:43:13.910 Town of Plainfield: We can also bring that up under the liaison. Okay. Scotts, you had your hand up. 310 00:43:14.070 --> 00:43:25.759 Cindy Scott: Yeah, in regard to the Brook Road property, I have been to Dan Caddy. Dan Caddy told me to go to State Police. I went to State Police. State Police told me that it was a town issue. 311 00:43:26.640 --> 00:43:29.489 Cindy Scott: And that… We had to deal with the town. 312 00:43:29.600 --> 00:43:49.489 Cindy Scott: So, in one of the meetings, I was told to get ahold of the health officer for Plainfield. I got ahold of her, she was gonna do something, get back to me, and so far, after 4 or 5 calls, she has not gotten back to me on any of it. Not only do they not have septic hooked up. 313 00:43:49.510 --> 00:43:54.679 Cindy Scott: They have a 6-inch discharge pipe going down into the brook bed on one of the campers. 314 00:43:54.680 --> 00:43:55.450 Town of Plainfield: Jeez. 315 00:43:55.810 --> 00:44:12.349 Cindy Scott: So, all of this is very publicized. I've said it many times, and still, we've done nothing about it. So, I find it almost comical that here we are wasting time talking about it again, when we don't… we don't do anything anyhow, when it's reported. 316 00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:17.070 Town of Plainfield: Point taken, Louis. 317 00:44:17.310 --> 00:44:25.600 Town of Plainfield: I think the next steps for us is probably two of us are going to be reaching out to Jody to… 318 00:44:26.130 --> 00:44:31.149 Town of Plainfield: Find out what she can do and has learned. 319 00:44:31.330 --> 00:44:36.259 Town of Plainfield: You know, you're witnessing us in a process of, 320 00:44:36.800 --> 00:44:46.859 Town of Plainfield: Maybe repeat discovery that we don't yet have the ordinances online to do something about this municipally. 321 00:44:46.950 --> 00:45:01.850 Town of Plainfield: And I don't actually know what's going on on the SP side, why they can't see discharge into the river and file charges. I don't understand that. Do you understand that? 322 00:45:02.970 --> 00:45:04.709 Cindy Scott: No. No, not at all. 323 00:45:06.010 --> 00:45:12.400 Town of Plainfield: Maybe that's a follow-up question also for VSP. I'm willing to write to VSP to ask about that. 324 00:45:12.400 --> 00:45:18.489 Cindy Scott: PSP told me that it's nothing to do with them. They said that the town select board 325 00:45:18.630 --> 00:45:32.230 Cindy Scott: are the ones that you have to talk to. When I told them that you guys were the ones that informed me to go to VSB, they just kind of laughed at me. They said, for what? You know, what are they going to do about it? 326 00:45:32.230 --> 00:45:40.270 Town of Plainfield: Is there a state natural resources law enforcement agency that would have that in their jurisdiction? 327 00:45:40.810 --> 00:45:52.990 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, that would be… yeah, like, two people in the whole state. Yeah, so I know that when we were dealing… State your name? Whoops, Tammy Farnham. I know that when I was on the Select Board and we were dealing with the property across from, 328 00:45:53.250 --> 00:46:13.630 Town of Plainfield: Ryan Christensen. Yeah, Bean Road. I reached out to the state, so if there is something going into the river, they will come out and inspect, and then the state will take over from there, so… Do you know which agency? I would have to check. It's been a while, but I can check. It's environmental enforcement. That's who I called and spoke to. 329 00:46:13.630 --> 00:46:38.209 Town of Plainfield: That's who I spoke, that's who I spoke to months ago. But that's what I was told. If there was stuff going in the river, then that's a whole different story, and that property, there was nothing going in the river, so it was harder for them to do anything, and their septic wasn't. But my understanding is the septic, or going into the river, the state gets involved. And it will involve the zoning administrator who has 330 00:46:38.210 --> 00:46:54.979 Town of Plainfield: our local, ordinances to enforce and pass that along to the state. The state pushed back and said, there's too few people, and, you know… There's too few people on their crew to come enforce? Yeah, yeah. 331 00:46:55.330 --> 00:46:59.740 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, so it's a… it's a prioritization issue. 332 00:46:59.740 --> 00:47:11.949 Cindy Scott: the septic system, there is a brand new septic system in the house, for the house, because he got a grant, something to do with him being part Indian, I don't know what it was, but he got a grant 333 00:47:12.860 --> 00:47:15.560 Cindy Scott: A new system was put in, but that's for that. 334 00:47:15.560 --> 00:47:21.020 Town of Plainfield: All that's going… the stuff that's going in is going from one of the trailers that's parked there, directly into the brook. 335 00:47:22.290 --> 00:47:24.260 Town of Plainfield: Not the house, it's one of the trailers. 336 00:47:24.530 --> 00:47:26.949 Cindy Scott: Right, and I… and it's the furthest one up. 337 00:47:27.320 --> 00:47:29.040 Town of Plainfield: I'll walk in and see what I have. 338 00:47:29.860 --> 00:47:34.509 Town of Plainfield: Elena. My name's Elena, Norway. Do you think it would help if more people called? 339 00:47:34.770 --> 00:47:52.900 Town of Plainfield: the enforcement agency? Dan Caddy thinks so. Okay. Yes. And the Vermont State Police? Oh, no, that's, dan Caddy says, if VSP does not receive calls from a multiplicity of parties. 340 00:47:52.900 --> 00:47:53.790 Town of Plainfield: That's… 341 00:47:53.790 --> 00:48:18.560 Town of Plainfield: low, low, low on their radar. What, like, elevates that signal is more signals coming in from different points on the map. And, well, yes, and I mean, we've had this discussion at the Select Board meeting many times about this situation, and people are not calling the state police with their complaints. They're only hearing secondhand. Dan has told us this numerous times, that people complain to him. 342 00:48:18.560 --> 00:48:31.090 Town of Plainfield: But they don't call the state police. And maybe they're, you know, afraid of backlash or whatever, there are good reasons why they may not. But until the state police get a first-hand call. 343 00:48:31.200 --> 00:48:43.470 Town of Plainfield: from someone who is witnessing something, they're, not going to respond. And anyone may report anonymously. There is an anonymous TIFT report line on their website. 344 00:48:43.680 --> 00:48:52.709 Town of Plainfield: I mean, there's all kinds of rumors about what's going on there, but until someone sees witnesses and reports directly, they will not do anything. 345 00:48:52.890 --> 00:49:06.859 Town of Plainfield: Thank you. Alright. So, a question here, as a relatively new person on this board, what leverage do we have through our ordinances to get the landowner to evict the tenants? 346 00:49:09.850 --> 00:49:24.209 Town of Plainfield: I mean, I have to read the ordinance again to see. I mean, I think my response would be, you would need willingness of the landlord, but the landlord is in relationship with the people on the property, and so… 347 00:49:24.370 --> 00:49:31.340 Town of Plainfield: to me, that doesn't seem like a fruitful line of inquiry, but what do I… you know, acknowledging I don't actually know. 348 00:49:31.510 --> 00:49:35.029 Town of Plainfield: I think it's a question for the zoning administrator. 349 00:49:35.030 --> 00:49:51.589 Town of Plainfield: Frankly, to ask and say, you know, where in the ordinances do you have it? And, you know, there may be a recommendation for changing the ordinance, but we have to work with what's there now. If something that is polluting is happening on somebody's property, or somebody that's unsafe is happening on somebody's property. 350 00:49:51.710 --> 00:49:59.370 Town of Plainfield: then do we have leverage to change that behavior through the landlord, is my question, and I don't know, but the zoning administrator would be a good place to start. 351 00:49:59.640 --> 00:50:03.360 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, yeah, alright. 352 00:50:03.500 --> 00:50:04.960 Town of Plainfield: Wanda, real quick. 353 00:50:04.960 --> 00:50:24.840 Town of Plainfield: The state police are not going to do anything unless somebody sees drug involvement or something like that. Dan's already said that several times. So the people who need to call the Natural Resources, State Vermontal Resources Board, and whoever regulates the wastewater program. Those are the people that need to be called, not VSB. 354 00:50:24.870 --> 00:50:28.570 Town of Plainfield: Is that… you're not gonna go anywhere. Dan's already 10. Okay. 355 00:50:29.050 --> 00:50:47.119 Town of Plainfield: Alright, we need to move on soon. I'll just quickly add that the state police have been to the property. There was a medical issue there about, a month and a half ago, and somebody had to be pulled out, and they did that, and, they coordinated that. They also have been… 356 00:50:47.170 --> 00:50:50.179 Town of Plainfield: Brought in for calls that have to do with, 357 00:50:50.690 --> 00:51:05.600 Town of Plainfield: potential, wellness checks. In other words, I've asked for wellness checks, and they've gone and done them. I mean, in terms of, is somebody still alive? They will go and do that. So, there are ways to connect with them. If anybody wants to talk to me about that, I am Dan Caddy with another place. 358 00:51:07.870 --> 00:51:10.239 Town of Plainfield: Alright, thank you. 359 00:51:10.380 --> 00:51:22.109 Town of Plainfield: So please, yeah, call State Natural Resources and talk to our zoning administrator as well. Road commissioner's report. I see our road commissioner. 360 00:51:22.680 --> 00:51:26.289 Town of Plainfield: How are the roads doing? How did East Hill go today? 361 00:51:27.440 --> 00:51:29.109 Town of Plainfield: You're muted, Carl. You're muted. 362 00:51:31.380 --> 00:51:34.700 Town of Plainfield: Yep. He's there. 363 00:51:36.240 --> 00:51:39.209 Town of Plainfield: You're still muted. Yeah, he knows. 364 00:51:44.800 --> 00:51:46.819 Karl: New computer, sorry. 365 00:51:49.170 --> 00:51:57.930 Karl: Yeah, so, I sent you a little report of my first connections with Michael Bingham and review of the 366 00:51:58.180 --> 00:52:17.330 Karl: pretty extensive software program that he's working with, that he and Josh developed. It's pretty… pretty thorough. It sizes every culvert in town, for example, and lengths and diameters and age, and so there's a plan to 367 00:52:17.400 --> 00:52:26.700 Karl: replace them over time. And that's part of what goes into their budget when he Works on the budget. 368 00:52:28.450 --> 00:52:43.440 Karl: We are, yeah, the issue with East Hill Road, unfortunately, we had two closures, not… one was not fully closed, it was down to one lane because of a water break, probably a freeze, and they repaired that. 369 00:52:43.690 --> 00:52:44.870 Karl: last week. 370 00:52:45.130 --> 00:53:03.079 Karl: But they found that one of the houses there did not have water. So they had to go back into the road, and when they had to go across the road to replace the line, which had to shut the whole road down. I put a notice out, the water department put several notices out. 371 00:53:03.200 --> 00:53:05.370 Karl: and… 372 00:53:05.550 --> 00:53:12.349 Karl: So hopefully people were notified. I did learn something, though, and that was that there was a 373 00:53:12.500 --> 00:53:15.410 Karl: resident of East Hill Road. 374 00:53:15.600 --> 00:53:30.140 Karl: who is not online, and did not know about it, and had to get to a doctor's appointment, and found the road closed. So, their request was that they get emailed 375 00:53:30.860 --> 00:53:36.369 Karl: I'm gonna talk… this just happened today, so I'm gonna talk to Michael Bingham about that, and see… 376 00:53:36.580 --> 00:53:43.190 Karl: See if we either get a list of people, or… Or, 377 00:53:43.330 --> 00:53:54.359 Karl: do a broadcast with everybody's email. I don't know how we do this, but there are people, just like the folks who aren't online at all, who need mailings, who need to get notice. 378 00:53:54.480 --> 00:54:00.880 Karl: Michael was good about letting the Elm Hill School up on East Hill Road know about it. 379 00:54:01.650 --> 00:54:04.629 Karl: Because they have a fair amount of traffic. 380 00:54:05.390 --> 00:54:12.120 Karl: the, the break was down near… down near the village on East Hill Road. 381 00:54:12.500 --> 00:54:30.930 Karl: And while it was… since it was shut down, Michael and his team replaced two culverts farther up the hill. So, they were planned to be replaced, and they decided, since the road was closed anyway, it would be an opportune time, and they did it, and they got it done, and 382 00:54:31.610 --> 00:54:34.420 Karl: So, we get ahead of that one. 383 00:54:34.550 --> 00:54:36.159 Town of Plainfield: Oh, that's great. 384 00:54:36.160 --> 00:54:41.720 Karl: But we want to do a little better job in the future of advising residents 385 00:54:41.940 --> 00:54:44.910 Karl: Who may come home and find out the road's closed. 386 00:54:45.150 --> 00:54:52.789 Karl: They were able to get it done quick… more quickly than they thought. By about 2.30, I think it was fully open. 387 00:54:52.940 --> 00:54:57.789 Karl: And so they work pretty hard on it, and I… hats off to them for that. 388 00:54:58.210 --> 00:55:01.980 Karl: Both the water department and the road crew. 389 00:55:03.450 --> 00:55:07.229 Karl: Beyond that, I'm… 390 00:55:07.580 --> 00:55:13.800 Karl: Not… don't have much more to say other than the, and in addition to the report I sent out. 391 00:55:15.520 --> 00:55:22.960 Karl: So, we'll be meeting… I'm meeting Michael every two weeks, and we're discussing what's coming up, so I can keep you informed. 392 00:55:23.940 --> 00:55:29.440 Town of Plainfield: Any updates, Carl, on the safety fencing, safety netting on the Mill Street Bridge? 393 00:55:29.440 --> 00:55:37.670 Karl: I sent that note to Michael, and I still am not clear who put it up. Do you know who did it last year? 394 00:55:38.330 --> 00:55:40.640 Town of Plainfield: I mean, I think it was the road crew. 395 00:55:40.870 --> 00:55:43.489 Karl: Okay, alright. I'll talk to them again. 396 00:55:43.880 --> 00:55:48.230 Karl: Yeah, I thought that was… I thought that was done. I don't get through there anymore, so I don't see it. 397 00:55:48.230 --> 00:55:48.560 Town of Plainfield: Give me. 398 00:55:48.660 --> 00:55:50.319 Karl: But thanks for reminding me. 399 00:55:50.770 --> 00:56:00.219 Town of Plainfield: Yep. Carl, what's the, what's the timeframe looking like on the, speed zone, feedback signs going up? 400 00:56:01.570 --> 00:56:15.010 Karl: They've been, they've been submitted, the, the quote that we signed, that we talked about last time, they've been submitted, there was a, there was about a 6-week lead time. So, I think that'll… 401 00:56:15.190 --> 00:56:23.099 Karl: be the time frame we're in. It'll be May before we get those in. And, they should be fairly straightforward to put up. 402 00:56:23.440 --> 00:56:31.040 Karl: There's no power to them, because they're solar, and they bolt right onto the same post that the sign is on. 403 00:56:31.230 --> 00:56:36.429 Karl: So, we'll… Get after that when they come. 404 00:56:37.270 --> 00:56:40.010 Town of Plainfield: Just for anyone who's not aware, this is, 405 00:56:40.620 --> 00:56:59.670 Town of Plainfield: part of looking at the Route 2 intersection here, the state came out and did a safety study a year ago, and they, changed a bunch of the signage that was down here, made it less busy, and also two of the new signs that say the speed limit, that's where the, radar, response 406 00:56:59.670 --> 00:57:07.080 Town of Plainfield: Signs are going up, so it's actually fairly close to the intersection from either side, so that should be, help. 407 00:57:07.080 --> 00:57:13.089 Town of Plainfield: The longer discussion is still going on, but that's the short-term stuff. 408 00:57:15.070 --> 00:57:16.580 Town of Plainfield: Alright. Anything else, bro? 409 00:57:16.580 --> 00:57:17.610 Karl: Oh, I have, yep. 410 00:57:18.180 --> 00:57:19.160 Town of Plainfield: Okay. 411 00:57:19.380 --> 00:57:21.769 Town of Plainfield: Alright, thank you, thank you so much. 412 00:57:22.700 --> 00:57:42.290 Town of Plainfield: Next is the contract review with VHB on the Brook Road study. Select Board, I'm sure you all read the 87-some-odd pages. Most of it was actually the bid document, so there was very little new on that, but, this is, 413 00:57:42.440 --> 00:57:50.990 Town of Plainfield: the beginning of the engineering and design for the stretch between Cameron Road and, 414 00:57:52.350 --> 00:58:02.310 Town of Plainfield: I guess Fowler Road, Gray Road would come in down there. About a 2-mile stretch. And, we met with, 415 00:58:02.310 --> 00:58:18.770 Town of Plainfield: the state and federal highways folks, the VTRANS folks, and, they gave us permission to do what they were supposed to do all along, which was under the Federal Highways, long-term repairs. 416 00:58:18.770 --> 00:58:27.279 Town of Plainfield: is look at three options. Rebuilding in the current right-of-way, relocating that stretch of road, or no build. 417 00:58:27.280 --> 00:58:42.189 Town of Plainfield: And so, this is a contract with the firm that we selected, VHB, who will be doing the design and engineering. There'll be a lot of drilling around the bridge areas. 418 00:58:42.190 --> 00:58:57.359 Town of Plainfield: Because it is unknown how deep the bedrock is and what the quality is, and a lot of the bridge destruction that took place was because of what they call scouring, which means the water came and basically undercut 419 00:58:57.360 --> 00:59:04.809 Town of Plainfield: what was there, because what was put in before was not adequate, clearly. And, 420 00:59:04.830 --> 00:59:23.070 Town of Plainfield: So, they will… there will be any number of, opportunities for public input. I know they're planning a summer meeting when they will have a lot of the preliminary information done, and we'll look at the relocation option as well, and so there'll be a big public 421 00:59:23.200 --> 00:59:41.920 Town of Plainfield: meeting at that particular point. This is only for the design and engineering, at this point, unlike the two village bridges, which is about a year ahead, in the… in the overall timeline. Anyway. 422 00:59:44.580 --> 00:59:47.260 Karl: Yeah, that's a good description, Peter. 423 00:59:47.260 --> 00:59:48.340 Town of Plainfield: I think, the. 424 00:59:48.340 --> 01:00:03.639 Karl: The important thing is that we hope to have something to present to the town in the summer, so that we can have a town meeting and… or, you know, a public hearing, and talk about the options that we are facing, and the money, and the plan. 425 01:00:04.270 --> 01:00:05.050 Town of Plainfield: So that's important. 426 01:00:05.580 --> 01:00:30.349 Town of Plainfield: And I would thank you for mentioning the money, because that's going to be a big item here. The two bridges in the village right now each came in at estimated, I think, $3.6 or $3.8 million apiece. Even though it's 90% federal match on that, our 10% match is significant, and we do have to lay out the money 427 01:00:30.350 --> 01:00:38.349 Town of Plainfield: money before getting reimbursed, so cash flow will be an issue. We may need to look at current expense note borrowing. 428 01:00:38.350 --> 01:00:41.619 Town of Plainfield: And then if you go up further, the… 429 01:00:41.620 --> 01:00:47.810 Town of Plainfield: magnitude of what is along the Brook Road is far bigger than those two projects in the village. 430 01:00:47.810 --> 01:00:57.939 Town of Plainfield: And, you know, we are likely, if we do anything other than abandon it, and no one is talking about that, although we have to explore that by law. 431 01:00:57.940 --> 01:01:08.520 Town of Plainfield: That is going to be significant, and no doubt, involve bonding at some point. So, the timing of that, we don't know yet. That will all come as we… 432 01:01:08.540 --> 01:01:11.850 Town of Plainfield: Get to get, more refined numbers from 433 01:01:11.880 --> 01:01:19.880 Town of Plainfield: the contractors. But we do expect that the realignment option may well be much cheaper than 434 01:01:19.880 --> 01:01:31.549 Town of Plainfield: rebuilding bridges where they were. It's possible. We're hoping. It's possible. So that would be good. Yeah. I mean, there's other natural resources permits involved there, and whatnot, but… and at least one 435 01:01:31.550 --> 01:01:46.909 Town of Plainfield: one crossing that will involve a large culvert, if not a small bridge, so, anyway. So I am looking for a motion to approve the contract. I will make a motion to approve the contract with BHB for the Brook Road study. 436 01:01:46.960 --> 01:01:54.049 Town of Plainfield: That's listed. Okay. Karen moves, and Patty seconds. Oh, there's a question. Cindy Scott? 437 01:01:55.370 --> 01:01:56.320 Town of Plainfield: Yeah. 438 01:01:57.310 --> 01:02:00.169 Town of Plainfield: We're in the middle of a… we're in the middle of a motion. 439 01:02:00.170 --> 01:02:01.059 Cindy Scott: I'm sorry? 440 01:02:01.280 --> 01:02:02.669 Cindy Scott: I was called on. 441 01:02:03.000 --> 01:02:10.600 Town of Plainfield: Oh, see, I was letting Peter know, but I think we are at the discussion moment, right? Yes. Yes, it's a dis… yeah. Go ahead. 442 01:02:11.880 --> 01:02:13.470 Town of Plainfield: Question, yes. 443 01:02:14.260 --> 01:02:21.910 Cindy Scott: There's not going to be a meeting until this summer on the three proposals, is that what we're saying? 444 01:02:23.100 --> 01:02:24.070 Town of Plainfield: Yes. 445 01:02:25.380 --> 01:02:43.529 Town of Plainfield: I mean, there is likely to be a lot of individual contact with adjoining landowners as they go out to begin to develop that, but in terms of compiling a proposal and a comparison proposal, that's the plan for this summer. 446 01:02:43.910 --> 01:02:44.880 Cindy Scott: Plan for the summer. 447 01:02:45.340 --> 01:02:48.299 Cindy Scott: Okay, so then we don't really have a timeline on 448 01:02:49.630 --> 01:02:53.989 Cindy Scott: Until we know which way we're going, we don't have a timeline on how long this is gonna take. 449 01:02:55.080 --> 01:03:07.809 Town of Plainfield: That's right. Well, I can assume years. I can tell you that the bids that we looked at, all of them had construction going out to, 2031, and 32. 450 01:03:08.390 --> 01:03:10.670 Town of Plainfield: So, this is a long process. 451 01:03:11.620 --> 01:03:14.140 Cindy Scott: No, if the road is abandoned. 452 01:03:14.440 --> 01:03:14.920 Town of Plainfield: Which. 453 01:03:15.400 --> 01:03:19.049 Cindy Scott: I said you had to explore. If the road is abandoned. 454 01:03:20.420 --> 01:03:23.449 Cindy Scott: What of the people who live here? What happens then? 455 01:03:23.740 --> 01:03:26.109 Town of Plainfield: That's the discussion for the summer. That's the discussion. 456 01:03:28.070 --> 01:03:30.050 Town of Plainfield: That's the conversation we need to have. 457 01:03:31.160 --> 01:03:31.890 Cindy Scott: Hmm. 458 01:03:34.380 --> 01:03:49.239 Town of Plainfield: Okay. They're in the research mode right now. They are doing the research so that the presentation they offer in the summer has that much more detail behind it, so that we can have an intelligent conversation as a town together about it. 459 01:03:50.090 --> 01:04:02.840 Town of Plainfield: Because we will have to make a choice before they pursue any of those options, and that will involve deep public input. And certainly, if there's expenditure, it will involve voting. 460 01:04:06.360 --> 01:04:21.149 Town of Plainfield: Yes, Tammy? So, Tammy Farnham, so I guess in reference to looking at the Brook Road, are we also looking at, any projects that could help, or part of that road, 461 01:04:21.220 --> 01:04:34.909 Town of Plainfield: working with the brook and trying to mediate water coming or debris coming into the village to avoid additional damage to the village. I know in the past. 462 01:04:34.990 --> 01:04:41.990 Town of Plainfield: the Brook Road is what… I mean, that road is what causes the issue, and we just have not done anything, and… 463 01:04:42.000 --> 01:04:59.880 Town of Plainfield: I think that… Well, there's a major study ongoing by SLR, which is much bigger than just the two miles that's talked about here, and they are connected with the contractors here, so there's a flow of information back and forth. 464 01:04:59.880 --> 01:05:10.160 Town of Plainfield: On that, so we're hoping that that river study, will definitely inform, whatever's going on. Right. I was speaking to that, too. 465 01:05:10.340 --> 01:05:25.470 Town of Plainfield: And, and also to say that, Brook Road is one area for projects, but that also, outside of the Brook Road, are a number of FEMA projects that will also happen that connect to Brook Road, so, 466 01:05:25.690 --> 01:05:29.650 Town of Plainfield: And those will be… Coming online as well, so… 467 01:05:29.760 --> 01:05:32.829 Town of Plainfield: There's a lot more, it's… it's years, it's… but it's… 468 01:05:33.400 --> 01:05:40.009 Town of Plainfield: It's a puzzle that we're trying to work through the numbers, and the timing, and the contracts, and… 469 01:05:40.010 --> 01:05:57.010 Town of Plainfield: all the pieces. So, in reference to that, the river study, do we have any sense of when we might have any results from that? I'll speak to that. And the only reason I ask, because that might… I know, for example, Hardwick came to speak with the town. 470 01:05:57.010 --> 01:06:09.699 Town of Plainfield: And they were actually trying to… try to identify whether the town was accepting property buyouts, if they could mediate projects to help save to, save homes. 471 01:06:09.700 --> 01:06:17.470 Town of Plainfield: So, I don't know if we've considered anything or tried to, you know, structure that, into our thoughts. 472 01:06:17.900 --> 01:06:23.660 Town of Plainfield: Well, I mean, there is interface with the buyout process in FEMA, 473 01:06:23.660 --> 01:06:44.499 Town of Plainfield: on the two bridges in the village, which have their own issues, and right now, FEMA is absent without leave, so there's no… No, they were there today. You're talking about the state people, but there's no federal folks to talk to at the moment. And we will run into that at the aforementioned Brook Road property, which is a buyout, and 474 01:06:44.500 --> 01:06:55.300 Town of Plainfield: in… within the scope of the distance of the project that we're debating at the moment. I just will… if I could just add that, all the conversations include 475 01:06:55.350 --> 01:07:06.119 Town of Plainfield: someone from the public assistance side of FEMA, someone from Federal Highway, someone from the buyout side, you know, it's like all working together, because these things, the physical 476 01:07:06.510 --> 01:07:08.410 Town of Plainfield: land touches. 477 01:07:08.420 --> 01:07:22.120 Town of Plainfield: You know, all the programs, you can't just separate them out, obviously, because you've got people's homes and the land that abuts the road and the bridges and the rest, so it's all a coordination that, 478 01:07:22.120 --> 01:07:44.570 Town of Plainfield: these are ongoing conversations that we're having, so… So I'm just wondering, is any of those conversations going to be shared with the community so that we can identify, like, what… Of course. Yeah, of course. And for example, there already was a big public forum here with the SLR folks. They presented the river study. 479 01:07:44.570 --> 01:07:50.199 Town of Plainfield: And so we expect more of that to go on as well, so… and that's, you know, 480 01:07:50.270 --> 01:08:06.069 Town of Plainfield: you know, Vermont Emergency Management in particular wants us to make sure that that's coordinated with the highway stuff. And every project has a requirement for public meeting. They all have that built in, you know, at different stages of their process, so… Yep. Anyway. 481 01:08:06.070 --> 01:08:10.719 Town of Plainfield: Okay. Alright, any further discussion from the Select Board on the motion? 482 01:08:10.730 --> 01:08:15.720 Town of Plainfield: If not, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? 483 01:08:16.390 --> 01:08:35.389 Town of Plainfield: All right, unanimous. With that, I don't know if we need a separate motion, or we should make it inclusive that, I can be given the authority to sign any of the documents necessary. That sounds good from the amendment, so moved. Second. Anybody? Okay. All right, in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? 484 01:08:35.880 --> 01:08:36.990 Town of Plainfield: Thank you. 485 01:08:37.090 --> 01:08:41.729 Town of Plainfield: Alright, Emergency Management Director Report. Michael, you're on. 486 01:08:42.050 --> 01:08:49.349 Town of Plainfield: So, we are… pretty much on schedule, so yeah, I will be too. Great. I intend to… 487 01:08:49.590 --> 01:08:52.850 Town of Plainfield: So take 10 to 15 minutes just to wrap up. 488 01:08:53.100 --> 01:08:57.549 Town of Plainfield: what I need to do in terms of the transition, talking about the transition. 489 01:08:57.800 --> 01:09:06.329 Town of Plainfield: In the coming 4 months or so. But, I also have a few things to say that, are in addition to that report, that 490 01:09:06.859 --> 01:09:09.019 Town of Plainfield: As you asked 10. 491 01:09:09.689 --> 01:09:22.919 Town of Plainfield: VHB is in very close contact, intentional close contact, with SLR Consulting, which are the river scientists who are studying the book, how it has behaved in the past, and how it's likely to behave in the future. 492 01:09:22.920 --> 01:09:34.210 Town of Plainfield: As you say, we don't want to do anything with our road infrastructure that would just be re-destroyed and re-destroyed and re-destroyed. And yet, at the same time, we do want to give as much access as possible 493 01:09:34.210 --> 01:09:45.989 Town of Plainfield: for people who already live in the Valley, so that they can get to their homes, and so emergency vehicles can get to that. So there, as Karen says, it's a big interlocking issue with some of those properties, 494 01:09:45.990 --> 01:09:51.759 Town of Plainfield: in buyout, or not, depending on how the FEMA situation kind of shakes down. 495 01:09:52.069 --> 01:10:10.540 Town of Plainfield: We have FEMA by us that are just at the edge of being accomplished within the next week or two, for School Street. That's a 2023 close, so that's how long it's been to get that far, and it's going to take quite a bit longer to do 2024 because of delays in Washington. 496 01:10:10.680 --> 01:10:26.530 Town of Plainfield: That said, I mean, just, do understand that our river engineers are very conscientious, and they are giving reports on a quarterly basis, and their study will be over at the end of October. So their next report to the public is going to be the third Thursday in June. 497 01:10:26.590 --> 01:10:33.880 Town of Plainfield: And as we did before, we invite everybody to come, interact with them, bring questions, and be as, 498 01:10:34.210 --> 01:10:40.929 Town of Plainfield: as, dogged as you can be about things that concern you, to bring that to them. And they'll get answered, they're good people. 499 01:10:41.460 --> 01:10:48.760 Town of Plainfield: Okay, so as far as my report is concerned, the first thing I want to say is that back in 2017, 500 01:10:48.770 --> 01:11:03.399 Town of Plainfield: Emergency Management and the Hazard Mitigation Committee together collaborated to create a household guide to how to deal with disasters. We are not done having disasters, and so having people prepared has been a big, 501 01:11:03.460 --> 01:11:20.370 Town of Plainfield: issue, and what we did is we sent a mailing to every single household in town. We have finished another similar guide for household evacuation and household emergency preparedness. It's going to be mailed in the next 3 weeks. We had the goal to get it done out before April, and it looks like we're going to be on track with that. 502 01:11:20.560 --> 01:11:36.930 Town of Plainfield: It's, we've already made our arrangements with the printer, and it will go directly into the mail and arrive at everybody that has a Plainfield post office box, or, excuse me, a Plainfield Postal address. But you put some families in Marshfield and East Monfield here in Calitis, but most importantly. 503 01:11:36.940 --> 01:11:52.239 Town of Plainfield: If you don't get one, and you want one, we're going to have an extra supply so that people can pick one up at the town clerk's office. Could I just suggest, go to the voter checklist, because there's a number of people who have Barry, quite a few have Barry addresses. 504 01:11:52.240 --> 01:12:00.919 Town of Plainfield: Or in Plainfield, and should get that. Good point. I'll ask about that. We have paid the post office for what's called an every household direction, and that one does 505 01:12:01.080 --> 01:12:05.170 Town of Plainfield: relate only to the 05667 address. So, thank you for that. 506 01:12:07.020 --> 01:12:16.209 Town of Plainfield: The other thing is that, we're rearranging on all of our emergency management webpages, with the town webpage manager. We already have one 507 01:12:16.340 --> 01:12:31.880 Town of Plainfield: Meeting together, and what we'll do is make it a lot easier and more intuitive to go there and find out information about these studies that are underway. You'll be able to see copies of reports, you'll be able to see lots of maps, and also, we're going to make it possible for people to, 508 01:12:32.620 --> 01:12:47.920 Town of Plainfield: get updates a lot more easily under the heading of public safety. So, our, constable, our, animal control officer, and all the associated law enforcement agencies are all going to be listed in one place so that when you do have an emergency. 509 01:12:48.040 --> 01:12:57.440 Town of Plainfield: You wouldn't just call 911 about, that we'll be able to find individual phone numbers and contact for everybody that might help in an emergency or a personal crisis. 510 01:12:58.000 --> 01:13:00.320 Town of Plainfield: We can elect the suicide hotline in effect. 511 01:13:00.540 --> 01:13:04.870 Town of Plainfield: So we're doing our best to make people feel a little bit more connected and safe. 512 01:13:06.810 --> 01:13:19.980 Town of Plainfield: The next thing I want to say, and this is sort of the preface for what I'm about to read, is that I did announce that I was retiring as Emergency Management Director in the middle of, what will be May. 513 01:13:20.370 --> 01:13:24.849 Town of Plainfield: However, at the same time, the person who's coming in doesn't… 514 01:13:25.220 --> 01:13:43.300 Town of Plainfield: hang out in town. He doesn't have a house here, lives in North Montpelier. The person I, recommended is the one who steps forward and is interviewed, and appointed by the board. So, I made an arrangement with both the candidates that I would be available to help them in this transition time. 515 01:13:43.510 --> 01:13:58.699 Town of Plainfield: by doing backup, by being available to do trainings, and also to help people through, who are going to be brand new. Not just the emergency management director will be brand new, but we are a four-person team, and that includes 516 01:13:58.700 --> 01:14:16.859 Town of Plainfield: The emergency management coordinator, Denise Wheeler, who you may know through the Twin Valley Senior Center, and also, an Emergency Management Assistant who has been so rounded, whose last day is this coming Thursday, and then our tech worker is going to come in and cover for her, what she would have done if she hadn't taken… 517 01:14:17.090 --> 01:14:19.180 Town of Plainfield: So, 518 01:14:19.810 --> 01:14:42.780 Town of Plainfield: We'll have a crew of four, except for one time frame, because the next person coming in as assistant is from AmeriCorps. They're starting August 10th. So for the period of time from June 1st to August 10th, we'll only be a 3-person crew. So it'll be me and the emergency management… the new emergency management director and the emergency management coordinator, and then the new assistant will come on board on August 10th. 519 01:14:42.780 --> 01:14:44.420 Town of Plainfield: This is not so good. 520 01:14:44.420 --> 01:14:46.289 Town of Plainfield: Because historically. 521 01:14:46.530 --> 01:15:03.600 Town of Plainfield: Our worst floods are in July, if we do have another flood. I don't know if we ever talk about that, but I started with the emergency management in July of 2015, when we had a major flood here. It was July 15th, the same week, basically, as the July 10th ones, and so… 522 01:15:03.700 --> 01:15:14.360 Town of Plainfield: That led to our Emergency Management Director at that time to ask me to take over for him because he wasn't in town, and that's what led me to become Emergency Management Director. 523 01:15:14.710 --> 01:15:16.579 Town of Plainfield: So let me just read this. 524 01:15:16.740 --> 01:15:29.389 Town of Plainfield: sort of like, here's how things are going to go, and hopefully the Select Board and I and the Town Clerk's office will be able to smoothly do this transition, and everything will be taken care of. 525 01:15:29.820 --> 01:15:31.139 Town of Plainfield: So, 526 01:15:31.250 --> 01:15:44.150 Town of Plainfield: first of all, by saying, basically, emergency management is a year-round responsibility. It's at its peak, and turns into, like, a time-and-a-half job when there's an actual disaster happening, you know, the first 3, 4, 5… 527 01:15:44.380 --> 01:15:55.480 Town of Plainfield: 6 days, and maybe even 3 weeks. It's just intense as hell. And then it starts to calm down. But when there are no recent disasters, we are always preparing for the next one. 528 01:15:55.700 --> 01:16:09.189 Town of Plainfield: We're the only ones who sometimes have the stomach to think about the next one, and so we do that. We study hazards and climate trends, we get training and attend workshops. 529 01:16:09.190 --> 01:16:20.909 Town of Plainfield: We study and do research in fields like geology, meteorology, oceanography, and astronomy, and meet regularly with the stakeholders who have property in areas that are damaged repeatedly. 530 01:16:21.170 --> 01:16:40.819 Town of Plainfield: And that also includes the school system staff, and, folks at Goddard, and folks who are government officials, volunteers, and subcontractors who are our emergency management partners. We have a whole team, we all know each other, we instantly get in touch with each other when there is a disaster threatened. 531 01:16:41.390 --> 01:16:52.800 Town of Plainfield: Because so much of our work is public education and preparation, our office has also added GIS mapping to our capacity so we can illustrate and explain ongoing projects. 532 01:16:52.870 --> 01:17:05.450 Town of Plainfield: and point out possible solutions. And, you'll see some of those maps if you're interested on Thursday night when we do this discussion about the meadow. We'll be talking about some of the capacity that offers. 533 01:17:05.790 --> 01:17:13.470 Town of Plainfield: We may have a new… with the AmeriCorps, hire that's coming in. By the way, the town is not paying for it. That, that, 534 01:17:13.590 --> 01:17:24.399 Town of Plainfield: individual will be payrolled directly out of, AmeriCorps, so we don't even write the checks. I mean, they basically get paid as an AmeriCorps volunteer. 535 01:17:24.520 --> 01:17:41.660 Town of Plainfield: We're hoping they will have GIS mapping, and one of the candidates I've already spoken to about that job is going to take a GIS boot camp as a way of picking up some of those skills, so hopefully we will be able to do good maps when people need good maps, or visualizations. 536 01:17:42.060 --> 01:17:45.220 Town of Plainfield: Over the past year, we've mapped floodplain households 537 01:17:45.360 --> 01:17:57.330 Town of Plainfield: and likely evacuation routes along the Winoski and Greenbrook in both Twinfield and Marshfield, also including new evacuation routes from Twinfield School. That was a major project to get the Twinfield students 538 01:17:57.510 --> 01:18:00.020 Town of Plainfield: To a destination that wouldn't itself be flooded. 539 01:18:00.020 --> 01:18:18.179 Town of Plainfield: And, so rather than go to the old schoolhouse common in Marshfield, they're now going to a building that we've arranged on the Gotta campus. And, their parents will be able to get to them for reunification after an evacuation. And there are other parts of that which we, like traffic control, that we're also working on with our constable. 540 01:18:18.260 --> 01:18:32.250 Town of Plainfield: We've also, mapped and done visualizations about what the lower village will look like before and after the buyout process, and people probably have run into those. We are working on 541 01:18:32.250 --> 01:18:47.809 Town of Plainfield: properties that are adjacent to the Batchelder Dam, and doing quite a bit of research there, because they will be affected by any dam removal. And then, by the way, there's another study going on with SLR about the dam removal that is still waiting for the final 542 01:18:47.920 --> 01:18:50.270 Town of Plainfield: Packed with federal money. 543 01:18:50.870 --> 01:18:54.479 Town of Plainfield: It may still come through this year. We're kind of optimistic about that one. 544 01:18:54.670 --> 01:19:05.850 Town of Plainfield: And then lastly, looking at connecting routes between Route 2 and Route 302, and what would be the safest way across between them if we have to change percode in any way? 545 01:19:06.140 --> 01:19:14.149 Town of Plainfield: Brook Road was that connector, so we're looking for ways to have alternative connectors that will work for the feds. And also, 546 01:19:14.600 --> 01:19:31.039 Town of Plainfield: We are looking at how our first responders evacuate people, so we're creating, on the internet this week, actually, a map that the first responders can go to that is just for them and fire and rescue teams and the emergency management personnel. 547 01:19:31.040 --> 01:19:45.930 Town of Plainfield: Where they can actually get household addresses and names, so they can quickly notify people, anyone who's in the floodplain, they can see that. And, there's a public version of that that won't have as much detail, that also will be online, and that will be live, hopefully sometime in the next two weeks. 548 01:19:47.360 --> 01:19:56.449 Town of Plainfield: We're also, involved with the two big studies that I mentioned, the one at Bachelor Dan, and whether it is removed or not, and when, in fact, it's intended to be. 549 01:19:56.570 --> 01:20:09.830 Town of Plainfield: removed. And the next part of that is to determine how to stabilize the banks upstream of the dam after the contained water is released, and it no longer is a high ponded lung surface, but more like a gorge. 550 01:20:09.960 --> 01:20:22.109 Town of Plainfield: And the other part of that is, what it would take to actually remove the dam safely, because it's going to remove itself. It's already fragile, it has damage, and it's going to be, 551 01:20:22.220 --> 01:20:36.529 Town of Plainfield: impacted by very heavy storms, and particularly if there's an emergency release of a Marshfield power dam, that will destroy that dam. It's already been… our engineers have already told us that. If there's an emergency release in Marshfield, it will destroy our dam. And we don't want that to happen 552 01:20:36.550 --> 01:20:43.769 Town of Plainfield: by itself, we would like it to be controlled, and we would like to be able to make sure that people are safe and that nothing happens that's violent, so… 553 01:20:43.800 --> 01:20:46.099 Town of Plainfield: That's why we're planning the removal. 554 01:20:47.250 --> 01:21:11.330 Town of Plainfield: So, and then, we also, we worked on a, this still recap stuff, we finished a study, which Carl participated in with me, with, UVM Civil Engineering capstone students, and that was directed at, designing a more permanent culvert on Gore Road, where the Great Brook crosses it. It's one of those areas that will eventually be FEMA-funded or not. 555 01:21:11.330 --> 01:21:12.950 Town of Plainfield: But it is one of those… 556 01:21:12.950 --> 01:21:15.370 Town of Plainfield: Harris that, is in trouble. 557 01:21:15.430 --> 01:21:21.899 Town of Plainfield: And, they gave their final project on that, in, June… January. 558 01:21:21.940 --> 01:21:27.139 Town of Plainfield: And also, we're working as our conservation commission is. 559 01:21:27.170 --> 01:21:29.919 Town of Plainfield: With the, National Park Service. 560 01:21:29.920 --> 01:21:47.380 Town of Plainfield: and also with, Carl and Mary, and we are looking at, even though we don't know they're going to get bought out for sure, we're looking at all the places that might be bought out, so that we can provide the, townspeople with some options, and along with the Recreation Committee. 561 01:21:47.800 --> 01:21:58.030 Town of Plainfield: beautiful options, things that would be nice to visit. If we're not going to have houses there, what will we do? And so, that's basically what National Park Service is helping us with. 562 01:21:58.110 --> 01:22:11.890 Town of Plainfield: And then one piece of this, that we've been working on now for a year and a half with the Vermont Disaster Animal Resource Team is, animal pests, anyone who has a household cat or dog. 563 01:22:12.200 --> 01:22:24.470 Town of Plainfield: is terrified about the idea of a disaster if they have to leave their pet behind. They often won't leave home. That's been shown over and over, and the Red Cross is very aware of that. So the Red Cross 564 01:22:24.550 --> 01:22:39.940 Town of Plainfield: and us have been very insistent that somehow we have a way to shelter pets. And so, we've, just across the road, is a garage that belongs to Glenfield Arts, the nonprofit organization that runs this building, programs here. 565 01:22:39.940 --> 01:22:47.900 Town of Plainfield: And they have leased that with the soil board's help. They've leased it for 5 years to us, to Emergency Management. 566 01:22:47.940 --> 01:22:51.249 Town of Plainfield: And so, we started the conversion just last week. 567 01:22:51.420 --> 01:23:09.780 Town of Plainfield: converting it into a pet shelter. So we've removed one of the garage doors, and you'll see that instead of garage door, there is a regular opening door and a SAS window there. And ultimately, when we get more funding, which Karen has asked for through our congressional earmark, we are going to potentially 568 01:23:09.780 --> 01:23:21.179 Town of Plainfield: have all, cages, benches, separated areas for cats and dogs, and ways that the owners can visit them if they're here in shelter. So, when people are evacuated, they can come 569 01:23:21.180 --> 01:23:35.629 Town of Plainfield: with their pet, and we can put their pet safely over there, and the person will feel that their pet is safe, and they can visit them. And there will also be volunteers from the VDAR team who will be helping with the shelter and doing things like feeding and veterinary when necessary. 570 01:23:36.800 --> 01:23:46.729 Town of Plainfield: And that also means getting heat there, and electricity in the building, and those are some big-ticket numbers, costs that we are tracking back right now. 571 01:23:47.140 --> 01:23:54.910 Town of Plainfield: Then, looking ahead, and this is the part that, has been the most, stressful, I would say, for me, and… 572 01:23:54.940 --> 01:24:07.369 Town of Plainfield: is, how do we make sure if a… because we don't know two weeks ahead of time if there's going to be a major funding gap. We just don't know. We don't want there to be, but also we have to be prepared for it. 573 01:24:07.480 --> 01:24:13.100 Town of Plainfield: And for me to step back, and somebody who does not know the town very well to come in in my place. 574 01:24:13.310 --> 01:24:17.979 Town of Plainfield: Creates a, not necessarily a vacuum, but a lack of, of, of, 575 01:24:18.420 --> 01:24:26.169 Town of Plainfield: Perhaps continuity. So, a lot of my intention, talking with the candidates… we had 5 candidates for emergency management director. 576 01:24:26.330 --> 01:24:44.929 Town of Plainfield: So, talking with the candidates is to make sure that they got what they wanted in terms of support and, training for me. So I've offered all of them 4 months of support and training. And that's, about to begin. And what would it mean would be that I would be working 577 01:24:45.240 --> 01:24:52.810 Town of Plainfield: at the office part, even though I want to get out of the office, it's more I want to get out of the responsibility. So, I will be at the office part-time. 578 01:24:52.850 --> 01:25:05.340 Town of Plainfield: There will be any assistance helping, that I will be still doing, my other stuff for hazard mitigation, which I've been doing all along with the committee, and I, anticipate that by September 1st. 579 01:25:05.340 --> 01:25:14.320 Town of Plainfield: that person would have their feet on the ground and be able to handle something independently. In which case, I will just step back and be the hazard mitigation specialist that I've been. 580 01:25:14.320 --> 01:25:22.070 Town of Plainfield: And that will be, for me, always a joyful thing, because I can bear to look at the future and see what it might bring for us. 581 01:25:22.130 --> 01:25:29.750 Town of Plainfield: We also, I can say about the two final candidates that we've narrowed it down to, we're both really experienced. 582 01:25:30.520 --> 01:25:32.490 Town of Plainfield: A woman and a man, 583 01:25:32.640 --> 01:25:39.010 Town of Plainfield: Both have worked in emergency management before. The one that was likely to be The one who remains is… 584 01:25:39.230 --> 01:25:57.850 Town of Plainfield: was 10 years in her as the management director, and, has a desire to do that on a volunteer basis now. They are also working another job full-time, so they will need my support and an assistant's support well into the future. But the… but the way I'm sort of putting it out is that 585 01:25:58.340 --> 01:26:02.879 Town of Plainfield: I have offered to be the eyes and ears on the ground with our fire chief. 586 01:26:02.960 --> 01:26:11.759 Town of Plainfield: So, we are the ones who watch the river come up, or a forest fire working its way towards town, or whatever else it is, and you get at the Marshfield Dam. 587 01:26:11.780 --> 01:26:23.199 Town of Plainfield: that needs eyes on it. And we will be reporting back, and getting people ready to evacuate, and our emergency management director will show up on a… 588 01:26:23.710 --> 01:26:26.989 Town of Plainfield: as fast as they could, even if they're working in Rutland. 589 01:26:27.340 --> 01:26:38.820 Town of Plainfield: And show up as fast as they could, and then hunker down and do all the, moment-to-moment support work with our shelter staff, and with our, office staff, and all the other people who… 590 01:26:39.080 --> 01:26:49.780 Town of Plainfield: step forward and volunteer. And, our emergency management coordinator, Denise, would move to the, downstairs where our emergency operations center is. 591 01:26:49.810 --> 01:27:01.980 Town of Plainfield: And she would be coordinating all calls in and out of the Emergency Operations Center, so if people show up and they need somebody to deal with their flooded basement, we can do that. So, basically, I'm reassuring everybody 592 01:27:02.500 --> 01:27:05.389 Town of Plainfield: We care, very deeply, that no one… 593 01:27:05.970 --> 01:27:10.779 Town of Plainfield: Gets hurt unnecessarily, then we get people prepared so they can get out of the way of harm. 594 01:27:10.950 --> 01:27:21.059 Town of Plainfield: And if they do, in fact, get impacted, that we can care for them, and provide them with shelter, and provide them with a place where they can not only be safe, but their animals are safe. 595 01:27:21.290 --> 01:27:29.930 Town of Plainfield: And then following that up by, walking through all the multiple steps supporting all the volunteers who show up when we have an actual disaster. 596 01:27:30.090 --> 01:27:31.840 Town of Plainfield: They don't coordinate themselves. 597 01:27:32.070 --> 01:27:46.960 Town of Plainfield: And so, last year, Dan and, not last year, now, 2024, Dan, Figus and Mo Lynch, Mo Lynch were, right there working on my behalf as, and, and meeting and… 598 01:27:47.150 --> 01:27:53.020 Town of Plainfield: being with me regularly to coordinate all the volunteers. We had hundreds of volunteers, if you remember. 599 01:27:53.450 --> 01:28:02.730 Town of Plainfield: And… Meanwhile, I was coordinating with the churches, and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, and the Mennonites, and the, 600 01:28:02.850 --> 01:28:08.930 Town of Plainfield: Red Cross and the Burlington City Angels, all the people that are offering to help, making sure that 601 01:28:09.430 --> 01:28:20.669 Town of Plainfield: goods and, tools were flowing back and forth, and volunteers' times were being accounted for. Carl Bissex and Mary Therese tracked all our volunteers for us, and at the same time. 602 01:28:21.080 --> 01:28:36.399 Town of Plainfield: We had the very real people who needed to be fed, so we had community kitchens, we had, our food drives, we had Jody Milardi, our health officer, and the Medical Reserve Corps, set up a first aid tent. So we need to know where all those people are, and then we can call on them again. 603 01:28:36.490 --> 01:28:45.259 Town of Plainfield: And that's also being coordinated and made better every time we look at it. And the other point I want to make… 604 01:28:46.340 --> 01:28:51.079 Town of Plainfield: Is that, because we have an AmeriCorps, 605 01:28:51.640 --> 01:29:03.679 Town of Plainfield: volunteer coming in, that person I'm gonna be choosing from candidates that come from all over the country. AmeriCorps has volunteers who look at the fact that there is a position in Vermont. 606 01:29:03.810 --> 01:29:13.900 Town of Plainfield: and say, oh, that sounds great, I want to do that. So, last time we had an AmeriCorps position open, I had candidates from North Carolina, from Louisiana, from Illinois. 607 01:29:14.270 --> 01:29:31.289 Town of Plainfield: calling, and I was interviewing them over the phone, and ultimately selected someone. And so, what that will mean, again, is that we will be looking for a set of skills we're likely to find them. That's the great thing about AmeriCorps, is that you have enough talented people who are operating their time for a year. 608 01:29:31.290 --> 01:29:41.699 Town of Plainfield: They're not doing it for free, they get paid, but not very much, minimum wage. And, we can help them every way we can, and they can help us every way they can, and I'm… 609 01:29:41.830 --> 01:29:48.099 Town of Plainfield: Hoping for someone who could basically be on tap, close to full-time. 610 01:29:48.270 --> 01:30:04.319 Town of Plainfield: To field any questions, to get stuff to me, to get stuff to our other new Emergency Management Director, and to our shelter people, and basically act as the hub, and keep that whole system working smoothly, and connecting all the parts. 611 01:30:04.570 --> 01:30:10.380 Town of Plainfield: And in the last piece, Is just that we are now… 612 01:30:10.450 --> 01:30:27.259 Town of Plainfield: approaching flood season, and once again, I will do what I always do when I do one of these talks, is just say we always can use more help. So, if anyone's interested in being on the Hudson Mitigation Committee, which is my partner, has been my partner, now I'm the chair of that committee as I'm stepping back, I'm emergency management. 613 01:30:27.570 --> 01:30:45.589 Town of Plainfield: But anyone who wants to be on that committee, anyone who wants to volunteer in a shelter, we're happy to help you get training, and also anyone who wants to just basically say, keep my phone number and let me know if you need me, you know, that kind of thing. And in which case, absolutely, please, give me your phone number so I can call you when we need you. 614 01:30:45.590 --> 01:30:49.300 Town of Plainfield: I think that's about all, and do we have any questions? 615 01:30:49.660 --> 01:30:51.990 Town of Plainfield: Yes. Yeah, 616 01:30:53.120 --> 01:31:10.620 Town of Plainfield: My question… I guess I have a comment and a question. I think I saw in your report that, your attention to… about the LEMP filing is May 11th? Yes. Great, thank you. Yeah, yes, we're… what we're looking at is… I found it to you from a… 617 01:31:10.960 --> 01:31:14.070 Town of Plainfield: candidate himself who's open for an interview that, 618 01:31:14.500 --> 01:31:31.140 Town of Plainfield: They can meet with Select Board representatives on Monday, this coming week, and if, in fact, the Select Board, representatives feel that they're a good fit, then, they would be, put forward for, appointment on, the, 11th of May, yeah. 619 01:31:31.540 --> 01:31:44.120 Town of Plainfield: So my question, has to do with the, I guess, remote nature of the candidates' home and work. Yes. You know, North Montpelier is not close. 620 01:31:44.280 --> 01:32:04.210 Town of Plainfield: It's not far, but it's not close. Rutland is definitely not close. Box is best, because in fact, 215, 214, as opposed to Route 2, is one of the only ways you can be sure you can get into town. Questions like, okay, so if we have a disaster, and they need to be here for weeks. 621 01:32:04.730 --> 01:32:17.170 Town of Plainfield: Is there a place for them to stay in town? I guess I just have concern about, you know, the distance that their life is from town, and their lack of familiarity with the town. 622 01:32:17.350 --> 01:32:33.550 Town of Plainfield: Right now, not that that can't grow. Well, I guess that was what we did for everybody. I mean, that's… that has to happen, and it will happen, hopefully, organically. It's only 4 miles, so I think of them as local. The biggest issue is… 623 01:32:34.020 --> 01:32:49.150 Town of Plainfield: from their place of work, getting to town. Once they're here, they're here, and may be able to stay at home every night, or may do as I do, sometimes sleep at the shelter. I don't know. We will cobble that together in the context of the real world. 624 01:32:49.150 --> 01:33:02.009 Town of Plainfield: When the time comes. I'm not worried about that, actually, for instance, but I think it will be… it will work out. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, and I have to say that of the two candidates that I ended up with, they're really good-hearted people. 625 01:33:02.070 --> 01:33:11.210 Town of Plainfield: Besides being very skilled, and having lots of work experience that's related to this, they're good-hearted people. They're people that you would like to know. I mean, these are people who are… 626 01:33:12.300 --> 01:33:21.440 Town of Plainfield: committed to public safety in a very deep and fundamental way. And you said that our opportunity to interview and meet them is going to be at the end of this month? 627 01:33:21.510 --> 01:33:36.330 Town of Plainfield: Yes. Yeah, I mean, for the Select Board, it's next Monday is then the awkward time to meet them, and to… one of them is still in Mexico, so… and it's basically withdrawn. Wow. So, we're left with one. 628 01:33:36.840 --> 01:33:39.170 Town of Plainfield: And that person has made themselves available. 629 01:33:39.660 --> 01:33:55.270 Town of Plainfield: to meet with you, and then they'll be introduced to the public from that point, once they're appointed. I've been hesitant to talk about actual identities of people in public, because, first of all, they're not appointed, and secondly, they have other jobs, so I want to be somewhat 630 01:33:55.270 --> 01:34:00.470 Town of Plainfield: Check above them until they are appointed, and then after that, there will be lots of opportunities. 631 01:34:01.160 --> 01:34:02.090 Town of Plainfield: Thank you. 632 01:34:02.240 --> 01:34:17.769 Town of Plainfield: Any other questions? Yes. My name's Elena Norway. I was just wondering what… did they do a study on what would happen if the bad shelter van was to go in an emergency situation? Yeah. They did, okay. And is that information somewhere that I… 633 01:34:17.770 --> 01:34:27.010 Town of Plainfield: Well, it was considered when they were… they were looking at three choices. This is an engineering study that has been done, so you can consult it. 634 01:34:27.040 --> 01:34:32.960 Town of Plainfield: The… Idea of leaving it in place unrepaired. In other words, do nothing. 635 01:34:33.310 --> 01:34:35.689 Town of Plainfield: Was risky, and they looked at that risk. 636 01:34:35.920 --> 01:34:44.170 Town of Plainfield: They do not see any likelihood that downstream properties, Are in harm's way. 637 01:34:44.360 --> 01:34:59.790 Town of Plainfield: It's more the fact that it's a lot of doors. Part of that release is that it would remove all the sludge that's presently backed up behind the dam for a mile and a half up into Marshfield. That sludge is full of pollution. It's pollutants. 638 01:34:59.790 --> 01:35:06.739 Town of Plainfield: It's got phosphates in it, it's got human sewage in it, it's got petroleum products in it. They want to remove all that sludge by hand. 639 01:35:06.810 --> 01:35:15.679 Town of Plainfield: In other words, they want to drop the dam, they want to keep that sludge controlled, and they've already estimated how many dump boats of stuff would come out. So the worst… 640 01:35:16.290 --> 01:35:27.300 Town of Plainfield: That's, like, 300 truckloads or something, it's huge. But the worst impact of the dam failing is that all that material would be released downstream to contaminate fields and riverbanks. 641 01:35:27.620 --> 01:35:40.569 Town of Plainfield: Not so much impact on… That's sort of why I asked the question. Yeah, it wouldn't be great. And did they have a date when it might be, removed? I mean, I know. That's up to feel. 642 01:35:40.930 --> 01:35:43.070 Town of Plainfield: And FEMA is often nothing. 643 01:35:43.770 --> 01:36:03.659 Town of Plainfield: At the moment. Right now. Yes? So, I guess, I guess back to her question, is that available to the public? It is on… supposedly on the website, but as I said, we're reorganizing it so it's easy, easier to find. The final report from SLR, skip it, it isn't really the final report. 644 01:36:03.660 --> 01:36:10.199 Town of Plainfield: But there are three stages. The first was pre-engineering, looking at the three choices. That's been done, and there is a report. 645 01:36:10.440 --> 01:36:29.280 Town of Plainfield: Then the second is the engineering study of how to actually pull it off, and who does what, when, and in what order. And the last is to actually do it, to pay the contractor, to take it down, and to do all the things described in the second stage. So, we have not begun the second stage, which is to, 646 01:36:29.310 --> 01:36:38.280 Town of Plainfield: Begin a study about exactly how it will be removed, and how all the materials will be safely taken out, and the riverbanks stabilize upstream. 647 01:36:38.420 --> 01:36:42.360 Town of Plainfield: So that, we're waiting for the money. We think we're gonna get it. 648 01:36:42.480 --> 01:36:43.500 Town of Plainfield: before… 649 01:36:44.390 --> 01:37:01.150 Town of Plainfield: So, can we start putting things on the website? I guess that's across the board, because I… Oh, yeah, we're definitely going to do it. Okay. Yeah, no, we got a list. I went over the list with Bob Pantry just, 4 days. Speaking of which, and I thought you were going to go there when you mentioned the limp. 650 01:37:01.190 --> 01:37:09.159 Town of Plainfield: the Local Emergency Management Plan, which is our next statutory responsibility to the state. We have to complete that in the month of May, by June 1st. 651 01:37:09.230 --> 01:37:27.110 Town of Plainfield: And that is a prerequisite to receiving various federal fundings. And I went to look at that on the website the other day, and it's still the 2-year-old one that's there, so… I don't… I could not read our current 652 01:37:27.240 --> 01:37:34.699 Town of Plainfield: Lemp in order to compare it to one that, we're going to get to review and approve next month. 653 01:37:34.760 --> 01:37:51.549 Town of Plainfield: And so I'm wondering if you could make the current one available to us. We're redoing all that. Can you email me the current length immediately? Sure, absolutely. Thank you. So we can share it for review. From last year, as I point out in our… before, is we actually 654 01:37:51.550 --> 01:37:56.350 Town of Plainfield: Three months before it was due, we requested with, Vermont Emergency Management. 655 01:37:56.350 --> 01:38:15.900 Town of Plainfield: that, we, be given an extension, and they gave us a 6-month extension to do that so that we could get all the reports from the various, vulnerable populations attached to it. And so… and also that included a promissory letter that none of our funding would be affected by the delay. And so that one is… 656 01:38:15.990 --> 01:38:19.089 Town of Plainfield: hypothetically, the one that's up. I mean, we gave it to, 657 01:38:19.240 --> 01:38:43.690 Town of Plainfield: Bob to put on the website. It's either with the hazard mitigation pages or the emergency management… No, it was… it was not on the emergency management page last week. It was the 2-year-old one that was there, and I know because if you look at the names and the contacts in there, they're all out of date. We have been talking with Bob for a while, and trying to, set our priorities in such a… So we can get a copy of that. That's great, thank you. 658 01:38:43.690 --> 01:38:58.130 Town of Plainfield: I have it right on my computer anyway. Yeah, if you could just send it to us. It would be very good. The question… I have another question on the Lent, which is, what is the process of involving the various parties who are in that LENP? 659 01:38:58.130 --> 01:39:02.729 Town of Plainfield: In the development of the new version. That's all our responsibility. 660 01:39:03.150 --> 01:39:09.360 Town of Plainfield: That's not… I understand, as you respond. What is the process? How are you involving those people? Well… 661 01:39:09.910 --> 01:39:12.719 Town of Plainfield: We, meaning myself and my staff. 662 01:39:13.020 --> 01:39:18.699 Town of Plainfield: call every number and check every contact, which right now are… several of them are outdated, we know they're wrong. 663 01:39:18.890 --> 01:39:25.349 Town of Plainfield: And we also get, and we've been contacted, personally, we've been in touch with both Twinfield and Naples School in the last. 664 01:39:25.690 --> 01:39:36.669 Town of Plainfield: two weeks to determine that the plans that are attached to that are… haven't been updated, in which case we'd want the updated plan if there was an update. So we're just doing that, that's our job. 665 01:39:37.370 --> 01:39:50.829 Town of Plainfield: In terms of if there is an emergency, by law, is our fire chief the incident commander? Absolutely. Thank you. For the first, I should clarify that. 666 01:39:51.180 --> 01:40:06.339 Town of Plainfield: The fire chief is the incident commander while the fire department is involved, which usually is with the evacuations, in which case I'm part of his team, I do what he says to do, because he's my incident commander as well. Then after he stands down. 667 01:40:06.430 --> 01:40:12.559 Town of Plainfield: Then I become the instrument commander, which was the case, as Carl will remember, and help, and 668 01:40:13.230 --> 01:40:25.250 Town of Plainfield: Jelly meetings with people to coordinate the various town staff until we go through the post-incident phase, which is usually somewhere from 2 to 3 weeks, and involves a lot of emergency management on the state level. 669 01:40:25.280 --> 01:40:38.580 Town of Plainfield: And they are, insisting that the town contact to the State Emergency Management and myself, or the Emergency Management Director, so all people basically report to me and keep me up to date so I can keep the state up to date. 670 01:40:38.580 --> 01:40:46.719 Town of Plainfield: And then, after that point, then we go back to, non-disaster situation and in a recovery setup, in which case all of the 671 01:40:46.960 --> 01:40:52.960 Town of Plainfield: Everybody knows what their job is. It doesn't change what your job is, it just has to do with how the information flows. 672 01:40:56.110 --> 01:41:06.429 Town of Plainfield: I just would like to say thank you, Michael, for all of that, and for all of your good work, and for your thoughtfulness in putting a plan for transition together. Appreciate it very much. Thank you, Michael. Thank you. 673 01:41:08.130 --> 01:41:17.940 Town of Plainfield: Thank you very much. Let's go on to, I think this is a handout that we have, yeah. One-time balance correcting payment to the town clerk. 674 01:41:21.560 --> 01:41:40.279 Town of Plainfield: Oh, quick question, the Emergency Management Report has attachments, including the Emergency Action Plan for the Marshall Dam, which is a huge document. Do you just want the core document, and then if you need attachments, you can ask for it? Yeah, I'm just looking for the core document at this point. Okay. Because that's what we're going to be looking at. Yeah. 675 01:41:42.550 --> 01:42:07.019 Town of Plainfield: Anyone have any comments on this? Just by way of explanation for the public, this is dealing with the transition period from when Graham left and to the permanent appointment of Jamie as town clerk. During that time, we were very short-staffed in the office, and they were working a lot of overtime, and our appointment was as an interim 676 01:42:07.020 --> 01:42:17.089 Town of Plainfield: town clerk initially, and then we made a permanent appointment. And the salary for the town clerk is less than she would… they were earning as 677 01:42:17.160 --> 01:42:29.740 Town of Plainfield: an administrative assistant with overtime, and so this is making up that gap for that period. And can you go over those numbers? Yeah, it's a total of about $1,800, but… 678 01:42:36.650 --> 01:42:37.980 Town of Plainfield: This is the warehouse? 679 01:42:38.790 --> 01:42:42.849 Town of Plainfield: I handed them all out. I don't think there's an extra one. 680 01:42:43.300 --> 01:42:50.170 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, here, Patty. I have one up here, too. You can have that one. 681 01:42:54.280 --> 01:43:05.379 Town of Plainfield: I would, while you're looking at that, in a lengthy conversation with Cynthia this morning, we were talking about communication between the board and the staff about 682 01:43:05.380 --> 01:43:21.900 Town of Plainfield: Particularly some of the payroll things, that we've gone in the transition, and so we want to make sure that, not only Jamie gets this, but Carol gets this, so that there's no confusion when they do the next payroll. Yes, this particular document. 683 01:43:22.450 --> 01:43:24.799 Town of Plainfield: So I would entertain a motion. 684 01:43:26.610 --> 01:43:30.130 Town of Plainfield: Albert, can we ask questions about this? Sir? 685 01:43:31.520 --> 01:43:33.780 Town of Plainfield: You may, I mean, go ahead. 686 01:43:41.070 --> 01:43:44.329 Town of Plainfield: Probably should have brought this up, public comment, but… 687 01:43:48.500 --> 01:43:53.540 Town of Plainfield: The whole idea of appointing people is… 688 01:43:55.000 --> 01:44:08.680 Town of Plainfield: the town… the select board is responsible for monitoring the work of people in the office. That was the whole idea of pointing people. Correct. That has definitely not happened. 689 01:44:09.050 --> 01:44:12.240 Town of Plainfield: Okay? And that's why we're in a fix, and we're ready. 690 01:44:13.820 --> 01:44:16.600 Town of Plainfield: Started with Graham stepping in. 691 01:44:16.930 --> 01:44:22.609 Town of Plainfield: And there was… it was just gonna be a fill-in, and it should have been advertised for a town clerk. 692 01:44:22.740 --> 01:44:29.549 Town of Plainfield: Ben. Didn't have… Then you appointed the town clerk. You didn't monitor… 693 01:44:30.310 --> 01:44:36.629 Town of Plainfield: What was going on there, his behavior, social media, the way he treated 694 01:44:36.990 --> 01:44:40.760 Town of Plainfield: People in the office, and people that came into the office. 695 01:44:43.200 --> 01:44:50.009 Town of Plainfield: And then, you didn't advertise for town clerk, you disappointed me out of the blue. 696 01:44:50.190 --> 01:44:56.469 Town of Plainfield: Someone that's a clerk, and now you want to reward them more. And $60,000 a year? 697 01:44:57.570 --> 01:44:59.359 Town of Plainfield: For no qualifications? 698 01:44:59.860 --> 01:45:01.549 Town of Plainfield: I have a hard time. 699 01:45:02.340 --> 01:45:04.380 Town of Plainfield: Yo. Alright. 700 01:45:05.030 --> 01:45:06.670 Town of Plainfield: Thank you for your comments. 701 01:45:06.860 --> 01:45:08.680 Town of Plainfield: I will entertain a motion. 702 01:45:10.280 --> 01:45:18.800 Town of Plainfield: Andy moves that we make this payment, one-time payment. Is there a second? Second. Seconded. Any further discussion on the Select Board? 703 01:45:19.670 --> 01:45:24.439 Town of Plainfield: All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye. 704 01:45:24.890 --> 01:45:35.790 Town of Plainfield: Patty opposes? Let the record show the… we have to spell the names out on a roll call vote, so… Patty Gemelli voted no, rest of us voted yes. 705 01:45:37.770 --> 01:45:42.400 Town of Plainfield: Thank you. Authorization for temporary office support. 706 01:45:43.210 --> 01:45:46.639 Town of Plainfield: Is there a specific motion here? 707 01:45:46.960 --> 01:45:56.119 Town of Plainfield: I think it's for us to create on the fly. We did just hear that, Kristen Broski has cleared her schedule such that she can continue. 708 01:45:56.130 --> 01:46:12.580 Town of Plainfield: At her pace in the office, helping, through the month of May. So she has been there 2 days a week, Monday and Friday. I guess I would propose that the motion states something like, we're authorizing 709 01:46:12.650 --> 01:46:24.790 Town of Plainfield: the, to pay Kristen for this labor for an average of 2 days per week through the month of May. Okay. Is there a second? 710 01:46:24.880 --> 01:46:28.259 Town of Plainfield: Didn't it also say to change if he did? 711 01:46:28.990 --> 01:46:33.049 Town of Plainfield: I thought someone said that. If we need to have her stay there longer. 712 01:46:33.280 --> 01:46:38.380 Town of Plainfield: Well, let me back up a second here. Do we have a second so we can discuss? 713 01:46:39.780 --> 01:46:58.160 Town of Plainfield: friendly amendment? I'm not sure what I said was a full-formed motion. Okay. I was, I was like… All right, I'll accept, I'll accept that, I'll accept that. So let me, let me back up here. We had approved a motion several meetings ago of a temporary office help of up to two people, and there was 714 01:46:58.160 --> 01:47:07.130 Town of Plainfield: 30 days and a dollar amount, and I forget the dollar amount, 5,000 off the top of my head. We're nowhere near spending that money. However, the 30 days is almost up. 715 01:47:07.160 --> 01:47:30.210 Town of Plainfield: therein was my confusion, because I thought we were authorizing 30 office days rather than 30 calendar days. And so, I'd like to correct that this time around also. Yeah, in the context here, in talking with Cynthia and in looking at, realistically, our recruitment efforts for the treasurer, we have extended the application deadline twice now. 716 01:47:30.210 --> 01:47:32.840 Town of Plainfield: The next deadline is now, I think, the… 717 01:47:32.960 --> 01:47:48.350 Town of Plainfield: the Friday before our next scheduled meeting. We've only had 3 applicants so far. In talking to Cynthia, part of what we have engaged them with is training and onboarding the next person, and 718 01:47:48.350 --> 01:47:53.280 Town of Plainfield: Those systems are not yet ready, so she candidly told me that 719 01:47:53.540 --> 01:48:11.460 Town of Plainfield: you know, we're not ready to hire, the systems aren't ready to receive, and that a couple of other towns that she's worked with in Vermont made a mistake of hiring too early before the systems were ready for that person. So, I think we need to keep that in mind as we're, trying to make this 720 01:48:11.750 --> 01:48:20.189 Town of Plainfield: the responsive government that George talks about, where we are indeed responsible. I would say that we have… 721 01:48:20.190 --> 01:48:35.530 Town of Plainfield: Thanks to some good legal counsel, we have thorough job descriptions for a town clerk and treasurer now that we did not have before, and we have a person under contract to that at this point, and that is something that had not previously existed. 722 01:48:35.650 --> 01:48:39.000 Town of Plainfield: We will do the same when the treasurer comes on board. 723 01:48:40.130 --> 01:49:01.379 Town of Plainfield: So, I would say that, I would like to have whatever motion allow us to hire up to two people again, because if Kristen is only working Monday and Friday, and somebody wants to come in on Wednesday, that would be great, so… And perhaps it's confusing to list days at all, perhaps we simply list a figure. 724 01:49:01.750 --> 01:49:09.149 Town of Plainfield: That is the mass fee. I mean, they are working under the auspices and supervision of the town clerk, so… 725 01:49:10.640 --> 01:49:18.180 Town of Plainfield: That's the way that's delegated. We authorized $5,000? We did. Correct? Up to, yeah. We know how much of that has been spent there. 726 01:49:18.440 --> 01:49:19.430 Town of Plainfield: I don't. 727 01:49:20.020 --> 01:49:24.299 Town of Plainfield: But we still have some money in the pipeline to pay for additional hours. Yeah. 728 01:49:24.730 --> 01:49:28.900 Town of Plainfield: Pretty sure. Because we don't bring up an additional amount without putting any dates in. 729 01:49:29.030 --> 01:49:32.350 Town of Plainfield: It's true. That's… yeah, that would be the simplest way to do this. 730 01:49:33.490 --> 01:49:45.460 Town of Plainfield: I think that's what I just said. You and I got there. So that's what I would do, is that we authorize additional, I don't know what the amount is, as needed for additional temporary office. 731 01:49:46.480 --> 01:49:49.489 Town of Plainfield: I would say that, 732 01:49:49.990 --> 01:50:03.440 Town of Plainfield: The work that Kristen is doing is in accounts payable, primarily, and that's a really important function right now. So funding that work to make sure that the bills continue to get paid, is critical, so… 733 01:50:03.660 --> 01:50:12.230 Town of Plainfield: I would like to see whatever we do just extend what authorization we've given until such time as we have hired 734 01:50:12.230 --> 01:50:26.729 Town of Plainfield: a permanent person into that position, because we're going to need that help. I mean, you're absolutely right. I mean, I talked at length with Cynthia about, you know, are there other projects to delegate? And, you know, for example, she… 735 01:50:26.730 --> 01:50:41.980 Town of Plainfield: went at length about the 941 forms and all the different payroll stuff, there are not folders in the office for those specifically, so there are things like that that can be created so that those can be put in place. So there's definitely a lot of work on that end. 736 01:50:42.920 --> 01:50:57.860 Town of Plainfield: In a weird way, we're saving money, because we have a position to fill that we haven't filled, so we're not actually paying money to a salaried person. Yeah, that's correct. Which means there should be some slack in the budget to pay for what we're talking about. Agreed. 737 01:50:58.290 --> 01:51:01.989 Town of Plainfield: Correct. Yeah. And my name's Elena. 738 01:51:02.600 --> 01:51:05.990 Town of Plainfield: It doesn't sound like it makes sense, though, to just… 739 01:51:06.360 --> 01:51:11.629 Town of Plainfield: get another person in there on Wednesday that doesn't necessarily know 740 01:51:12.280 --> 01:51:14.759 Town of Plainfield: You know, how it works there, when… 741 01:51:16.050 --> 01:51:23.370 Town of Plainfield: But to put it in a way that you're covering, like you said, to cover what needs to be done until the treasurer's hired. 742 01:51:23.780 --> 01:51:48.219 Town of Plainfield: And that Kristen's doing, right? I mean, it doesn't make… you don't necessarily need somebody Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you need somebody to be able to do the work that needs to be done each week, right? Right, what we gave Jamie was authority to hire a second person. Up to two people. It doesn't say hire two people, it says up to two people. Right. And then we put a dollar amount on it, but we limited it to 30 days. We thought we'd be further along. 743 01:51:48.220 --> 01:51:49.520 Town of Plainfield: You're not, so… 744 01:51:49.520 --> 01:52:03.280 Town of Plainfield: So, is it going well with her just working two days so far? Seems, yeah. That's good. I mean, more hours would be good, but that's what we can do, yeah. So, I have to ask Jamie Farnham, I volunteer 745 01:52:03.460 --> 01:52:07.420 Town of Plainfield: I think the first of… And then… 746 01:52:08.110 --> 01:52:10.559 Town of Plainfield: When did we come into the select board meeting? 747 01:52:11.360 --> 01:52:30.819 Town of Plainfield: I don't know, before town meeting, I volunteered my time to go in and help. I do this for a living. I… so, I do bookkeeping for a living. I can come in and help some, and I volunteered my time. I know I was… a couple of weeks ago, they reached out to me, and I have heard nothing. 748 01:52:30.940 --> 01:52:37.609 Town of Plainfield: So, I don't know how I can help the town, but it seems like we're pretty behind, and I… 749 01:52:38.120 --> 01:52:41.019 Town of Plainfield: offered in 1st of March. 750 01:52:41.250 --> 01:52:52.679 Town of Plainfield: Well, we know that, and I can tell you, I've talked to Cynthia about your offer, specifically. And she's… I mean, you heard the… 751 01:52:52.800 --> 01:53:17.690 Town of Plainfield: high level. I mean, if you're a CPA, there might be some things to delegate to you, but to create systems within the NEMRIC is not something she thought she could hand off to you. However, there are things with the accounts payable and other things that are discrete tasks, but the office staff can tell you what that is, and, you know, so if you want to do that, and pick up a… pick up a few… 752 01:53:17.690 --> 01:53:41.810 Town of Plainfield: I volunteered my time and haven't been taking up on it, so I guess I'm gonna throw that out there. Yeah, well, I think the issue is, what do we ask you to do? And that is difficult in the office to define, and we're trying to get more definition around that. It's a big task, you know? And, you know, we've had, you know, cries from the office staff. 753 01:53:41.810 --> 01:53:44.159 Town of Plainfield: for help, but… 754 01:53:44.160 --> 01:53:58.640 Town of Plainfield: when we ask the question, with what specifically, we don't always get an answer, because they don't even know, you know? So, I think that's why the guidance has to come from Cynthia, as to when and where. So, I think we'd welcome that. 755 01:53:58.640 --> 01:54:09.260 Town of Plainfield: I will say, too, that, Tammy, I… that I spent 4 hours doing accounts payable entry, right? Which I've heard, and I will tell you, there is a fine line between 756 01:54:09.260 --> 01:54:24.650 Town of Plainfield: that is a concern. A select board, and I know things… as a volunteer, I came in to help. I get it, but there's a fine line between Select Board and there's the inner control… the… I was not writing or signing checks, I was entering data. 757 01:54:24.770 --> 01:54:35.689 Town of Plainfield: So… So, we just have to be careful about… This wasn't… I wasn't getting into this with you about that. What I'm saying is that there are… there are jobs to be done 758 01:54:36.090 --> 01:54:43.619 Town of Plainfield: There are other jobs beyond the bookkeeping and the payroll and the rest that are… there's… 759 01:54:43.710 --> 01:55:01.960 Town of Plainfield: file archives that need to be cleaned out. There are… there's all kinds of stuff to be done in the office. So I think it's just a matter of maybe just following up. And do you have availability on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the office day? Because that's when your arrival at the office will be met with people who are actively 760 01:55:01.980 --> 01:55:11.869 Town of Plainfield: doing whatever it is they're doing, scoping whatever kind of work that you could potentially help us. Because, like, I don't know what to delegate to you. 761 01:55:12.130 --> 01:55:21.390 Town of Plainfield: And so your presence in the office at the time that the work is happening is, I think, the best ticket to, 762 01:55:21.690 --> 01:55:40.600 Town of Plainfield: finding out and plugging in. I mean, you're saying you want to volunteer, thank you, that's wonderful. You don't need our permission to do that. You can just go. If you want to be hired, like, in this, part-time, temporary role, that's another conversation that is… 763 01:55:40.820 --> 01:56:00.670 Town of Plainfield: you know, ultimately, Jamie is going to be the one to authorize that hire, if that is your interest. And that also is, like, not for us. We're simply authorizing the funds to pay someone or someone's to help out of the office. You can help in whatever capacity you want. 764 01:56:01.110 --> 01:56:11.129 Town of Plainfield: under the auspices of, here's what's needed as spoken, and as felt by the talent office staff. Can I ask about that, Francis Rose? 765 01:56:11.770 --> 01:56:29.689 Town of Plainfield: if I understand you correctly, is Jamie, who runs that office and has ultimate responsibility of thought for everything, would she also determine how a volunteer would fit in? I mean, I… Not necessarily just. I mean, Carol would have a lot to say. 766 01:56:29.690 --> 01:56:41.769 Town of Plainfield: about what kind of help is needed. Carol's holding a lot of institutional memory. Carol knows which of these, like, distant books in the vaults needs to be, like, worked through. 767 01:56:41.770 --> 01:56:47.329 Town of Plainfield: And so it's not… Just Janie from whom the deleg's work delegation would come. 768 01:56:47.530 --> 01:56:52.540 Town of Plainfield: But, you know, I mean, right now, the… the… 769 01:56:52.780 --> 01:56:59.229 Town of Plainfield: I think Jamie would be checking in with Kara and us about their intentions. 770 01:56:59.460 --> 01:57:08.009 Town of Plainfield: And so I think there is any kind of, feedback loop happening, so it's not existing in a vacuum. 771 01:57:08.250 --> 01:57:14.760 Town of Plainfield: And nevertheless, it's like the work of the office is known by the office. 772 01:57:15.830 --> 01:57:19.060 Town of Plainfield: I would add another layer to this, which is… 773 01:57:20.050 --> 01:57:30.189 Town of Plainfield: It's one thing to say I want to volunteer. Bless you, thank you, I hope we can figure this out. I would also say the people on the receiving end need to know how to use volunteers effectively. 774 01:57:30.470 --> 01:57:46.579 Town of Plainfield: And those are not the same thing. And I think the office probably needs a little more support. Maybe this is a task for me, because I do this professionally, is to sit down with them and think about, how do you want to structure this place so a volunteer can come in and do a discrete task? 775 01:57:46.580 --> 01:57:51.009 Town of Plainfield: And have a productive experience, and leave feeling good about it. 776 01:57:51.010 --> 01:58:06.739 Town of Plainfield: Which is very different from showing up and like, how can I be helpful? And they're like, I'll do this, I'm gonna do this. And I haven't been in the office, and I can't speak to the culture of how that plays, but I wouldn't want you to go in there to volunteer until there was a system set up to manage you effectively. 777 01:58:07.360 --> 01:58:09.379 Town of Plainfield: And I don't know how much of that exists. 778 01:58:09.790 --> 01:58:12.820 Town of Plainfield: But I think we can create that if it doesn't exist. 779 01:58:12.850 --> 01:58:30.980 Town of Plainfield: We are… we are trying to get there. We also have, you know, another… we heard from the different financial consultants that we've engaged. We also have engaged some folks that Andy has worked with in the past about roles and responsibilities within the office to help, you know, whoever our crew 780 01:58:30.980 --> 01:58:48.439 Town of Plainfield: team going forward ultimately is. And, you know, it's a little difficult to put in a system with a key player still missing when that's the treasure. So, you know, that… that… those systems are still being developed. 781 01:58:49.030 --> 01:58:55.199 Town of Plainfield: And, I mean, you heard from Cindy, Cynthia, how much more there is to do there. 782 01:58:55.620 --> 01:59:00.659 Town of Plainfield: So for those positions, the extra positions, are they just until… 783 01:59:00.760 --> 01:59:08.480 Town of Plainfield: the treasurer is hired? Basically. So, the filing and the back things that you're talking about, that somebody might come… 784 01:59:08.550 --> 01:59:21.929 Town of Plainfield: in to do for extra help now doesn't seem like something that the treasurer is going to do anyway, so I don't understand. Let me… I'm speaking personally here, right, because the board hasn't had a full discussion. 785 01:59:22.730 --> 01:59:25.350 Town of Plainfield: We had a… 786 01:59:25.990 --> 01:59:36.710 Town of Plainfield: Full-time treasurer, full-time, town clerk, and by full-time, 32 hours a week, which is what our personnel policy defines as full-time. 787 01:59:37.120 --> 01:59:54.310 Town of Plainfield: Our assistant town clerk and Treasurer, who was doing 40 hours a week, they did 32 hours as a town… assistant town clerk, and 8 hours a week as for the water, wastewater Commission. And we had a roughly half-time person, I forget how many hours, maybe 20 hours a week, as administrative assistant. 788 01:59:55.210 --> 02:00:07.810 Town of Plainfield: I personally feel that that is probably more than the town of our size needs if we have the proper systems in place, which we don't. 789 02:00:07.850 --> 02:00:22.429 Town of Plainfield: Okay? So, we're operating on a temporary situation where the people who are there are trying to manage the day's business, but also straighten out yesterday's at the same time. 790 02:00:22.630 --> 02:00:32.730 Town of Plainfield: And so, that's a challenge. It's a challenge, and it's a stressful challenge. It's a stress daily for the people in the office, and for everyone else in town. 791 02:00:33.050 --> 02:00:40.799 Town of Plainfield: But we have to get there. We can't just stop and, you know, not go forward. And so, what we… 792 02:00:41.000 --> 02:01:00.759 Town of Plainfield: said with the temporary person before, and the motion here is to extend that temporary person, is to say, look, we know that there's some administrative stuff that needs that is going to take the burden off of Jamie and Carol for the time being. We know that there is, eventually, a new person coming in as treasurer. 793 02:01:00.760 --> 02:01:11.230 Town of Plainfield: Once that person comes in and sees those systems, we will have a clearer picture of how to properly staff that office. We don't have that yet. 794 02:01:11.240 --> 02:01:13.479 Town of Plainfield: Okay? We're trying to get there. 795 02:01:13.570 --> 02:01:18.329 Town of Plainfield: Right, so the Cynthia and Bonnie are the people that are helping. 796 02:01:18.440 --> 02:01:42.789 Town of Plainfield: to get back on track. Cynthia and Bonnie and then Sullivan and Powers as the auditors. And then the structural integrity, which is the consultants about the office dynamics and roles and responsibilities. I'm not talking about internal controls, roles and responsibilities, I'm talking about, okay, you know, who's the person 797 02:01:42.790 --> 02:01:45.059 Town of Plainfield: Who answers the phone first. 798 02:01:45.060 --> 02:01:48.690 Town of Plainfield: Who's the person who goes to the window first? 799 02:01:48.740 --> 02:02:12.139 Town of Plainfield: Okay? And it may be that in the morning, it's this person, in the afternoon, it's this person, because in the morning, that person is focused on another major project. But in the afternoon, that frees up so this person can go do their major project. That's stuff you don't have right now. It's been… it's been… You've been asking for it. We've been asking for it, and it's been, you know. 800 02:02:12.140 --> 02:02:15.800 Town of Plainfield: It's been on the fly for too long. 801 02:02:16.080 --> 02:02:30.269 Town of Plainfield: So, and we need to move past that. Thank you. Just quickly, for the structural dynamics group that's coming in, for the roles and responsibility, just quickly, kind of, like, what's the time frame, and what are the deliverables going to be for you? 802 02:02:31.000 --> 02:02:44.809 Town of Plainfield: Let's see, does anyone remember the contract? The time frame is approximately 6 months. 6 months? It's two different organizations. Under one contract. What's that? Under one contract. That's true, yes. They are working together. 803 02:02:45.010 --> 02:02:47.220 Town of Plainfield: So we are simply… 804 02:02:47.410 --> 02:02:55.739 Town of Plainfield: addressing them together, and they are doing their own organization internally. Yeah, right now, they're just begun. 805 02:02:55.740 --> 02:03:17.680 Town of Plainfield: they just this past week sent us an email for a discovery phase. Hey, can you send us documents? Send us your personnel policy, send us this policy, you know, what are those foundation things? And with the instructions, don't create a new document if one doesn't exist, you know, so they're just kind of, like, discovering at this point. If you send me an email reminder, I can send you the contract. 806 02:03:17.730 --> 02:03:35.800 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, I'm really kind of interested in what they're going to be giving you through deliverables, that's what I really focused in on. Well, and I would say, just so we're clear, there's two levels of this. There's a level of workflow, who's doing which piece of work, and then there's a level of organizational culture. Right. So how does it feel to work there? 807 02:03:35.870 --> 02:03:39.850 Town of Plainfield: Right. And they're addressing both of those. Yeah, that's good. 808 02:03:39.970 --> 02:03:44.889 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, I think the chemistry in an intimate workspace is critical. 809 02:03:44.890 --> 02:04:09.020 Town of Plainfield: Speaking of which, and we haven't made decisions, but there's conversations about what do we do with the physical spaces in the building, and do we need to reorganize them, or do people need to be located in different places? And that's part of this conversation. We do not yet have a motion framed, and we do have a long meeting. We have a lot to do here yet tonight. I'll make it simple, Peter. I will move that we authorize another $2,500 810 02:04:09.020 --> 02:04:11.049 Town of Plainfield: for additional staffing. 811 02:04:11.130 --> 02:04:15.300 Town of Plainfield: Until such time as the money is expended, or the need no longer exists. 812 02:04:15.770 --> 02:04:17.430 Town of Plainfield: Second. 813 02:04:17.780 --> 02:04:19.660 Town of Plainfield: Is there any further discussion? 814 02:04:21.980 --> 02:04:26.119 Town of Plainfield: All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? 815 02:04:26.460 --> 02:04:34.930 Town of Plainfield: Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Andy. Village… Village Beautification Initiative. And I'm sorry, but… 816 02:04:35.000 --> 02:04:49.569 Town of Plainfield: I need to run down the stairs again. I'm having a difficult night, so… We'll keep going. I'll keep going. Yeah, go ahead. This is your initiative. Oh, it is. Yeah. So, the village. 817 02:04:50.890 --> 02:05:04.249 Town of Plainfield: The village is in a poor way. People are complaining. People's emotional states are adversely impacted. Because of the piles of debris? Because of the piles of debris and hulking, empty… 818 02:05:04.760 --> 02:05:14.200 Town of Plainfield: partial hums. Yeah. That is, you can almost… It's hard to see… 819 02:05:14.350 --> 02:05:17.140 Town of Plainfield: It's hard to get a view of the village without that. 820 02:05:17.290 --> 02:05:27.359 Town of Plainfield: And so, meanwhile… because of restrictions, FEMA, Nothing's going anywhere fast. 821 02:05:27.790 --> 02:05:29.579 Town of Plainfield: And so, how can we help? 822 02:05:30.460 --> 02:05:45.840 Town of Plainfield: There are… there is any private initiative to move forward the beautification of the village. This is really just removing the garbage, removing the silt, wherever possible, without jeopardizing people's personal buyouts. 823 02:05:46.540 --> 02:05:57.840 Town of Plainfield: So people have been focused on removal, and that is what FEMA is most sensitive to. And so, this initiative speaks to, what can we add. 824 02:05:59.140 --> 02:06:07.259 Town of Plainfield: For me, it's like flowers. I don't know if y'all are familiar with seed ball, seed ball technology? 825 02:06:07.610 --> 02:06:13.300 Town of Plainfield: This is basically mixing compost and clay and seeds together. 826 02:06:13.640 --> 02:06:20.519 Town of Plainfield: And clay holds the moisture, the compost feeds the seed. Wherever these seed balls land. 827 02:06:21.200 --> 02:06:40.430 Town of Plainfield: flower sprout, depending on what seeds are put in. So this initiative is… I'm asking for the Select Board to support and fund, to the tune of $150, a workshop hosted by a local plainfielder, to put on a public workshop on how to make seed balls. 828 02:06:40.430 --> 02:06:47.739 Town of Plainfield: And in this… Afternoon together, we make a lot of seed vaults, and distribute them around the village. 829 02:06:47.830 --> 02:06:51.530 Town of Plainfield: And these grow, this is the perfect time, this is spring. 830 02:06:51.640 --> 02:06:56.829 Town of Plainfield: And in so doing… You know, we have… 831 02:06:56.840 --> 02:07:16.869 Town of Plainfield: We learn, we have the good time together, we produce that which is plainly valuable to the village, and something that needs no follow-up care. It can receive follow-up care. If anybody feels so moved to weed around the flowers that are clearly growing on the silt piles, they may. 832 02:07:17.780 --> 02:07:24.640 Town of Plainfield: I also want to seep this off of the context of this with the Resilience Hub. 833 02:07:25.360 --> 02:07:41.519 Town of Plainfield: You know, the Select Board had voted to support, broadly, the Resilience Hub, and I think I'm offering this in… in that light of… this is an example of what the Resilience Hub 834 02:07:41.720 --> 02:07:43.130 Town of Plainfield: can deer. 835 02:07:44.540 --> 02:07:55.810 Town of Plainfield: The idea is that the town has a good time, grows community, adds that which is plainly valuable to the village and the town. 836 02:07:56.970 --> 02:07:58.749 Town of Plainfield: This is a modest sum. 837 02:07:59.120 --> 02:08:15.300 Town of Plainfield: That is going to… is staying local, is going to a plainfielder who's offered to host this workshop, who then calls for help, whatever help they need to run the workshop, asking for donations. That happens. 838 02:08:15.460 --> 02:08:24.269 Town of Plainfield: Because we set a thing in motion. And this is one of the ways that the Select Board, as a partner. 839 02:08:24.410 --> 02:08:25.959 Town of Plainfield: of the Resilience Hub. 840 02:08:26.070 --> 02:08:39.379 Town of Plainfield: can help feed that collective effort. And in so doing, grow community, grow beauty, and Move the needle. 841 02:08:39.540 --> 02:08:44.270 Town of Plainfield: On that, which is only getting harder and harder to look at. 842 02:08:47.010 --> 02:08:48.000 Town of Plainfield: Quick thing. 843 02:08:48.210 --> 02:09:02.079 Town of Plainfield: of Daisy McDonald, just going back, I think, did I hear you say that we're getting some FEMA money in for the school street? So, did I hear that? Those are buyouts. Yeah, for the buyouts, so does that mean that that property… 844 02:09:02.330 --> 02:09:21.440 Town of Plainfield: might be an area of priority to do anything with flowers and things like that, once the buyouts come through. It won't be this year. The timescale here is weeks, not years. Actually, let me jump in on that and just say it's actually… 845 02:09:21.750 --> 02:09:23.520 Town of Plainfield: Under review right now. 846 02:09:23.730 --> 02:09:40.190 Town of Plainfield: But the timing to take the buildings down, Michael. Yeah, but the buildings can come down fairly quickly, because the state will do that. They have the money to do that. It's… what is happening right now is that the properties are closing, meaning that the property is being transferred to the town. 847 02:09:40.190 --> 02:10:01.070 Town of Plainfield: And when the properties are, closed, then FEMA removes the houses pretty quickly. They have a contractor to do that, and they remove the debris, and then the town is committed to grade the property and to seed it. So, it is the last step. Okay, well, good. My understanding is that the state contractors will grade it. 848 02:10:01.070 --> 02:10:15.019 Town of Plainfield: That's correct, but we seed it. Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay, yeah. But it depends. In the Marshfield, the state contractors did it, but we are under a different program, and it may be up to the town. We don't know that for sure. 849 02:10:15.130 --> 02:10:27.359 Town of Plainfield: So, $150, yeah. So, I guess my thought is, is I appreciate, because I've heard the same thing, that our town doesn't look great. I… 850 02:10:27.360 --> 02:10:39.609 Town of Plainfield: I think there's things that we can do. I love flowers, and I'm not against the flower idea, but I do feel like there's other things that we could potentially focus on that might have a longer 851 02:10:40.040 --> 02:10:43.450 Town of Plainfield: I guess, lifespan. I mean, just… 852 02:10:43.650 --> 02:10:53.940 Town of Plainfield: I look at… we drive through our bridge that we spent lots of money on, and yet we have graffiti all over it, so can we pressure wash that? You know, take time to pressure wash? 853 02:10:53.950 --> 02:11:08.849 Town of Plainfield: our bridge, can we paint our dugouts, use that $150 to paint our dugouts for… I… I just think there's other things, and I love the flower idea, I do, but I think randomly just putting flowers 854 02:11:09.230 --> 02:11:33.480 Town of Plainfield: let's be organized about what we're doing, and try to figure out how we can move our village ahead. And that's… maybe we start at the entrance and, pressure wash our bridge, and start working on fixing up that, the entranceway to our village. I mean, I… I don't know. I just feel like that's a great idea. Do we have a beautification? 855 02:11:33.480 --> 02:11:35.350 Town of Plainfield: Committee. No. No. 856 02:11:35.350 --> 02:11:42.429 Town of Plainfield: Is that something you want to do, Tammy? Randomly volunteering. And I think I would say, too, that, 857 02:11:43.080 --> 02:11:45.420 Town of Plainfield: I think the Select Board has been… 858 02:11:45.630 --> 02:11:56.089 Town of Plainfield: Pretty vocal that we love ideas brought to us that are actually in the form of proposals. And so, like, make a proposal. 859 02:11:56.140 --> 02:12:01.940 Town of Plainfield: That this pressure washing is done by this person for this fee. 860 02:12:01.940 --> 02:12:21.229 Town of Plainfield: That might be an easy yes, I don't know. But find out, find out. I mean, that's… I think the road crew should just… I don't know if they have a pressure washer, but… So you, you can… okay, here's the thing… The website has a road report form. You could… I don't know, have you put that yet on the road report form on the town website? 861 02:12:21.470 --> 02:12:46.270 Town of Plainfield: Because that… I'm just saying, you're talking about beautifying, I'm telling you, these are simple things in that maybe we want to evaluate what we have for structures, whether it be painting our dugouts, whether it be pressure washing our structures that the town has, versus doing flowers, or even digging out the green grass that's growing in our sidewalks that we've been, you know, again, we put these things in. These are simple things 862 02:12:46.270 --> 02:12:56.720 Town of Plainfield: to maintain what we have that takes time and cost. And I'm just saying, the flowers are nice, I'm not against flowers, I just look at our town and think that there's… 863 02:12:56.720 --> 02:12:59.360 Town of Plainfield: Things that we need to focus on first. 864 02:12:59.550 --> 02:13:07.250 Town of Plainfield: I don't think it's an either-or. I don't think it's an either-or. But I do think that there's an opportunity with what you're doing here to… 865 02:13:07.320 --> 02:13:19.800 Town of Plainfield: Like, if 10 people came and donated 15 bucks to pay for the presenter, I would do that. Like, I just think, can we underwrite it as a community? Is it something we could, 866 02:13:20.300 --> 02:13:31.819 Town of Plainfield: you know, make a commitment to each of us. Like, I come in and make a donation to fund the work of this fun thing we're doing together, yeah? The answer is yes and. It's also… 867 02:13:32.060 --> 02:13:33.170 Town of Plainfield: It's, 868 02:13:33.760 --> 02:13:53.260 Town of Plainfield: I think there's a… there's a donation jar out anyway, that, like, brings it up to the… something of a living wage, if you're paying for materials, out of the $150. It's a lot to depend upon. I get it. It's like the select board seating, the confidence that this is both supported municipally. 869 02:13:54.370 --> 02:13:57.440 Town of Plainfield: And also, Will cover costs. 870 02:13:57.440 --> 02:13:58.600 Karl: the thing, though. 871 02:13:59.270 --> 02:14:01.300 Town of Plainfield: We've got a… we've got a coral. 872 02:14:01.410 --> 02:14:02.230 Town of Plainfield: Yeah. 873 02:14:02.400 --> 02:14:05.469 Town of Plainfield: I'm back. 874 02:14:05.470 --> 02:14:15.250 Karl: I just wanted to mention that Mary and I and Michael Billingsley are working with the National Park Service, who are offering us a free consulting 875 02:14:15.410 --> 02:14:20.220 Karl: Process that will help us develop ideas that are long-lasting and 876 02:14:20.540 --> 02:14:24.300 Karl: And nice, you know, for trails, for gazebos. 877 02:14:24.300 --> 02:14:24.850 Town of Plainfield: Cool. 878 02:14:24.850 --> 02:14:43.749 Karl: plantings that make sense and hold the river together, and it's, they've done some wonderful things in Montpelier already, at least the planning. So, there's going to be some meetings coming up. They're planning to have a public hearing and meeting to talk about their ideas, so I just… 879 02:14:44.230 --> 02:14:56.309 Karl: I agree with Tammy on that, that we want to do some things that are long-lasting, but this is a way to plan for that. And we're kind of getting out of the emergency phase and into the planning phase, I think. 880 02:14:56.310 --> 02:14:59.550 Town of Plainfield: I would also, I mean, to pick up on Tammy, I mean. 881 02:14:59.550 --> 02:15:16.660 Town of Plainfield: something that bothers me as a citizen of this country is that we build things and then we don't maintain them. You know, we always have to build something new, but we haven't taken care of the old. And so, you know, when you're talking about the grass coming up through the cracks in the sidewalks. 882 02:15:16.840 --> 02:15:24.139 Town of Plainfield: I would take that to our road group and say, what are you doing about this for next year's budget? 883 02:15:24.720 --> 02:15:27.950 Town of Plainfield: You know, because that's something that needs to happen. 884 02:15:28.460 --> 02:15:48.299 Town of Plainfield: you know, periodically, right? If it's not gonna come around. And yeah, maybe there's some one-time grant money that could, like, do the quick fix, and then we maintain after that or something, but it's like, ask the people who are responsible for the maintenance what they're gonna do about it in their budget next year, okay? Same thing, you know, the rec committee, right? 885 02:15:48.300 --> 02:15:54.870 Town of Plainfield: When I was on the rec committee, we painted the dugouts, we painted the blocks, we did the lights, we did all that stuff, okay? 886 02:15:54.870 --> 02:16:10.570 Town of Plainfield: You did some of that. You know, it's like, ask them what they're doing. I know they have a… we approved them doing lighting system stuff down there. They were about to go to the treasurer and try to understand the town's procurement process. 887 02:16:10.590 --> 02:16:27.779 Town of Plainfield: But then he went away, so, you know, they're stuck, but I told the chair the other day I would work with him on that. You know, I think there are places where if those… put those ideas there. You know, they're… those are great, you know? And that's like the bridge, that's the road crew, you know? 888 02:16:27.860 --> 02:16:48.469 Town of Plainfield: Do they have that in their budget? Have they thought about it? I don't know. Carl, do you know? Sorry. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but… I don't think it's a budget, I think it's just time, and that's what I'm saying, is that some of this is just… so, if we could just start with, I guess, the basics, and I appreciate the flower idea, but to spend money on 889 02:16:48.469 --> 02:16:55.899 Town of Plainfield: On some… you know, Something that's not going to be long-lasting, or… 890 02:16:55.900 --> 02:17:10.670 Town of Plainfield: I do have one comment on the flower specifically, and it goes back to the silt and FEMA. You know, we got… all got copies of the new draft state regulations. 891 02:17:10.670 --> 02:17:24.459 Town of Plainfield: about what you can do on buyout properties and what you can't do. And a number of people in the village have been asking about that, why can't we clean up this? We're not allowed to touch it, okay? And the new rules from FEMA are going to be… 892 02:17:25.660 --> 02:17:29.609 Town of Plainfield: That you must get prior approval 893 02:17:29.610 --> 02:17:53.280 Town of Plainfield: for basically anything. If you want to put in a park, if you want to put in the open picnic shelter, if you want… If you want to, yeah, if you want to put in a public restroom, if you want to put in a trail, if you want to plant something, you must have prior FEMA approval, according to the new draft regulations. 894 02:17:53.690 --> 02:18:18.540 Town of Plainfield: They've often cited the Dog River project in Northfield as a place, you know, the poster child for what you do. That project actually did not get FEMA approval. They didn't get FEMA disapproval, but not getting disapproval is no longer going to be the case. Approval is going to be the case, so… 895 02:18:18.680 --> 02:18:33.930 Town of Plainfield: You know, I think we just have to watch that as we go forward, and I don't know where you were planting flowers, but that might have been… There is no planting of flowers. You're throwing… you're throwing the seed balls. There is no planting of flowers. 896 02:18:34.129 --> 02:18:50.480 Town of Plainfield: I have a question for you, and first a comment. The comment is, for doing this kind of thing, there's 3 ways to pay for it. You can pay for it with public funding, you can pay for it with fees for people who participate, or you can pay for it with gifts and philantha, right? It could be any of those things, it could be all 3 of those things. 897 02:18:50.809 --> 02:18:58.000 Town of Plainfield: Is it important to you that the town put some money into this to have municipal skin in the game? 898 02:18:58.650 --> 02:19:11.279 Town of Plainfield: Can you still say a little more about why that's important? Sure. I mean, it relates to the resilience side, that we voted here to support the resilience side, and we're putting forward a model of a kind of event 899 02:19:11.290 --> 02:19:20.770 Town of Plainfield: that any one of the Resilience Hub partners, the Senior Center, the library, anyone, any one of these partners, can have an idea 900 02:19:20.940 --> 02:19:27.859 Town of Plainfield: That leads to something plainly valuable, either goods or services, for the town, happening. 901 02:19:28.000 --> 02:19:39.070 Town of Plainfield: And then they find someone or some ones to make it so, to bring it to life. And then the genetics of that event 902 02:19:39.070 --> 02:19:51.829 Town of Plainfield: are inherently community building, and then, like, leader… leadership developing, and also connecting across the town, across… 903 02:19:52.230 --> 02:19:58.839 Town of Plainfield: all the many, I guess, groups and demographics that that idea could appeal to. So it's… 904 02:19:58.890 --> 02:20:20.109 Town of Plainfield: that, and then those monies that are… I mean, there are monies to do useful things in this town, and I'm putting this forward as an example of a useful thing that is on a 60-day timescale, rather than a 2-year timescale about beautifying the village. This is not to replace 905 02:20:20.110 --> 02:20:27.450 Town of Plainfield: designing… redesigning the new village. This is about putting some color before our eyes. 906 02:20:27.870 --> 02:20:32.029 Town of Plainfield: In the village that is not weeds. 907 02:20:34.090 --> 02:20:43.769 Town of Plainfield: Does that answer your question? It does. I'm still sitting with the… I think it's easy to find $150 elsewhere to do this, and I would make that happen. 908 02:20:44.040 --> 02:21:03.129 Town of Plainfield: So I'm sitting with it, should this be public funding or not public funding? Because I think it's an excellent idea, and I think it would be easy to pay for. And I'm just wondering if… and I'm making an excellent reason why, and I'm also sitting with the people looking at this and saying, is this something that the municipal government should be paying for? 909 02:21:03.310 --> 02:21:26.690 Town of Plainfield: And, you know, that would be… We get complaints about it. No, I'm good with that. If no one's complaining, we're not doing our jobs. No, I guess what I mean is, like, people are bringing the problems to us as if they are ours, and they are. Point taken. They are. Point taken. And, here's an effort that stacks a lot of functions in the process. 910 02:21:26.690 --> 02:21:40.999 Town of Plainfield: And I can see that this is an expiring comment. I just want to call timeout. We are running behind schedule, and this is a select board meeting, it's for us, it's not a public hearing. And… Patty, what did you want to say? 911 02:21:41.270 --> 02:21:47.549 Town of Plainfield: I just wanted to say about Francis Rose's ideas that I think it's a completely lovely way to start. 912 02:21:48.140 --> 02:21:56.709 Town of Plainfield: reifying our town. I could see families really getting involved. I think it'd be easy for all of us to do it. What a great thing that is. 913 02:21:57.150 --> 02:22:01.080 Town of Plainfield: It would be hard for us to get together, like, I can see people thinking about it years from now. 914 02:22:02.040 --> 02:22:05.359 Town of Plainfield: This little seed bottle made out of, you know, what seed in the morning. 915 02:22:05.540 --> 02:22:08.610 Town of Plainfield: To make our check, to just… we could all do it. 916 02:22:09.220 --> 02:22:13.720 Town of Plainfield: Nobody needs to be a rocket scientist to do it, you just need to be where our tags look pretty. 917 02:22:14.180 --> 02:22:15.980 Town of Plainfield: I guess you do it with kids. 918 02:22:20.580 --> 02:22:29.260 Town of Plainfield: Excuse me? I'm sorry, I really want to move us along here. 919 02:22:29.600 --> 02:22:31.499 Betsy Ziegler: I've had my hand up for a while. 920 02:22:31.810 --> 02:22:47.290 Town of Plainfield: I know, I know, Betsy, but this is a select board meeting, it is not a public hearing, and we are way behind schedule. We have hours to go yet tonight, and so, yeah, we do. Yes, we do. Unfortunately. Can I quickly, for one thing? 921 02:22:47.410 --> 02:22:52.839 Town of Plainfield: Michael, if I'm going to recognize anybody, it's Betsy, because you've already spoken. Well, I don't… 922 02:22:52.840 --> 02:23:10.860 Town of Plainfield: I'm sorry. It's either that, I'm shutting it down. Okay, I was just gonna say, Conservation Commission is involved. It's not just Carl and I. Can we… somebody repeat the motion, please? I'd like to make a motion that we fund $150 for the seed ball initiative to beautify our village. I see. 923 02:23:11.430 --> 02:23:28.909 Town of Plainfield: It's been moved and seconded, moved by Karen, seconded by Patty. Is there further discussion amongst the Select Board? Do I need to recuse myself from the vote? Why? This is my idea. Are you gonna benefit that? It's public good. It is public good. Okay, great. 924 02:23:28.950 --> 02:23:37.850 Town of Plainfield: All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? 5 to nothing. Thank you. We have appointments. 925 02:23:38.240 --> 02:24:03.220 Town of Plainfield: We have Elena Norway to the Water and Wastewater Commission. Thank you so much for stepping up. Arian Taboomeri as the FEMA buyout coordinator. Thank you, Arian, for allowing me to continue. I don't know why we forgot to do you on our organizational meeting. And Kaylee Hope as Zoning Administrator. Kaylee, you're still here? 926 02:24:03.220 --> 02:24:28.209 Town of Plainfield: Thank you. We know you spoke to us, several months ago about this, and we did get the recommendation to appoint you from the Planning Commission. So, thank you. And we have a fourth one. Thank you. And we have Walter Hope, to be appointed as Assistant Grants Administrator. And I know he's been interested in serving in a number of different ways, so this is great. 927 02:24:28.210 --> 02:24:30.790 Town of Plainfield: So we thank Walter as well. 928 02:24:31.690 --> 02:24:38.320 Town of Plainfield: Does anyone want… Peter, of the whole slate? I would entertain a motion of the whole slate. Yes. 929 02:24:39.850 --> 02:24:41.640 Town of Plainfield: So I'll make that motion. 930 02:24:41.920 --> 02:24:48.609 Town of Plainfield: Do I have to read them? Ariane has his hand up. Arian? Do you have something to say about this, Arian? 931 02:24:49.160 --> 02:24:50.320 Arion Thiboumery: I, I, I do… 932 02:24:50.320 --> 02:24:51.070 Town of Plainfield: I… 933 02:24:51.070 --> 02:24:52.470 Arion Thiboumery: Can you guys hear me? 934 02:24:52.750 --> 02:24:53.550 Town of Plainfield: Yes. Okay. 935 02:24:53.550 --> 02:25:16.300 Arion Thiboumery: I do need one additional authorization, and that would be to sign on behalf of the town for the 2023 buyouts, and those are the ones that are pending. Michael Billingsley was involved in those initially, and I stepped in in 2024, but I was never authorized to sign on behalf of the town for those, so I do need that authorization. 936 02:25:17.340 --> 02:25:23.980 Town of Plainfield: Two separate motions. Yeah, and I would want some discussion about that, because I'm not sure what that means. 937 02:25:24.950 --> 02:25:28.800 Town of Plainfield: Let's do the slate for later. Let's make the appointments. 938 02:25:29.720 --> 02:25:34.020 Town of Plainfield: Okay, so… Who made… Karen made the motion, who seconded? 939 02:25:34.180 --> 02:25:44.950 Town of Plainfield: Patty spoke first. Okay, you went. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. 940 02:25:46.260 --> 02:26:06.779 Town of Plainfield: Alright, 5 to nothing, etc. Thank you, everyone. Yes, we thank you all. Everyone. Yeah, this town does not function without people doing these jobs. No, and frankly, people have been stepping up, and we still have some vacancies, but not as many as we did. Thank you all. Arian, on what timeline do you need that authorization? 941 02:26:07.470 --> 02:26:23.399 Arion Thiboumery: It probably… it could… it doesn't need to happen at this Select Board meeting. Happy to come in and talk about it more at another time. It will be something that does need to get done probably in the next 30 days or so, so… 942 02:26:23.400 --> 02:26:32.989 Town of Plainfield: I'm just curious, Arian, about what it means for us to authorize you to sign on behalf of the town. My understanding is that the… 943 02:26:33.180 --> 02:26:53.949 Town of Plainfield: the… once the homeowner, the buy… the buyout, the buye, what's… what the right word is, agrees, right, and it is closed, it then has to come to the town for the town to decide whether to accept to manage the property going forward. Am I correct about that? 944 02:26:54.300 --> 02:27:09.249 Arion Thiboumery: No, that's not correct. The town has already signed that authorization when the applications were submitted, that the town would agree to do that. The closing of the property when the buyout occurs is the town, is 945 02:27:09.280 --> 02:27:23.170 Arion Thiboumery: Actually closing on the ownership of the property, because what happens at the closing is that the state pays for it, the person receives their check, and then the land is deeded to the town. 946 02:27:25.330 --> 02:27:35.040 Town of Plainfield: So, I mean, I haven't seen any document. It was just a week or so ago that I saw in Michael's comment that we were close to… to this, so… 947 02:27:35.230 --> 02:27:40.600 Town of Plainfield: You're saying that the Select Board has nothing to do with the closing of a real estate deal at this point? 948 02:27:41.220 --> 02:27:57.230 Arion Thiboumery: So how it works is that the Select Board and the person, selling their building through the buyout, they can opt out at any time, but the initial authorizations from the Select Board to permit people to apply 949 02:27:57.230 --> 02:28:21.940 Arion Thiboumery: for the buyouts did require that the town signed a form. Michael Billingsley would have signed them for the 2023 buyouts, and I signed them for the 2024 buyouts, and those went with every application. There was one master document, I think, that was signed by Carl in 2023, and then there was… there were individual documents that the town acknowledged that it would respect the covenants that 950 02:28:21.940 --> 02:28:32.520 Arion Thiboumery: would be the deed restrictions that would be placed on the individual properties. So those were authorized and signed. That doesn't mean that the Select Board couldn't change their mind at any time. 951 02:28:32.520 --> 02:28:42.769 Arion Thiboumery: Just like the homeowner could stop the buyout process at any time. But in order to even apply for the buyout, the town had to sign those documents, saying that it would agree. 952 02:28:42.770 --> 02:28:50.949 Town of Plainfield: Right. That was my understanding, that we had to sign an agreement to allow the process to go forward. 953 02:28:51.290 --> 02:29:05.840 Town of Plainfield: It was not my understanding, and I, you know, could stand corrected. I'm fine with that, that we don't have a say-so that we agree with the final 954 02:29:06.280 --> 02:29:08.229 Town of Plainfield: You know, take over here. 955 02:29:08.470 --> 02:29:25.280 Arion Thiboumery: We could certainly, you know, we could have a longer discussion where I could present the specific properties. There are 3 of them from 2023. One of them is probably going to close in June, and the other will be… others will be subsequent to that. 956 02:29:25.280 --> 02:29:31.629 Arion Thiboumery: Basically, the one that is, these are all on School Street, the one that's gonna close in June, the state… 957 02:29:31.630 --> 02:29:33.559 Town of Plainfield: Put it on the next meeting agenda. 958 02:29:33.560 --> 02:29:34.340 Arion Thiboumery: Yeah. 959 02:29:34.340 --> 02:29:38.510 Town of Plainfield: So we put that on… let's put this on the next meeting agenda. Yep. 960 02:29:38.510 --> 02:29:40.479 Arion Thiboumery: We can walk through the mechanics, then. Thank you. 961 02:29:41.000 --> 02:29:49.520 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, thank you. Thank you. All right. No, it was just my understanding that the town had a sign on it. It's a bigger discussion. It is. Yeah. Okay. 962 02:29:52.080 --> 02:30:01.900 Town of Plainfield: Let me just make a note of that. Okay, so yeah. We're gonna finish that motion and vote, but we'll come back to the next one. Okay. Okay, so we're gonna come back to… 963 02:30:03.110 --> 02:30:05.449 Town of Plainfield: the buyout authority. Right. 964 02:30:08.960 --> 02:30:20.639 Town of Plainfield: And just… just so I understand, Michael, is that you're understanding that what he's… what he's asking for is basically to transfer authority that you currently have to him for the 2023? 965 02:30:21.130 --> 02:30:30.489 Town of Plainfield: That is correct. Okay. Yeah, that, I… I did not sign all of the documents, I only signed those that required our, 966 02:30:30.720 --> 02:30:45.480 Town of Plainfield: The slipboard had, you know, basically gave me permission, and so, in that sense, he's asking the slipboard to get in. Right, right, okay. Alright, thank you. All right, we have the sheriff's contract renewal as the next item. 967 02:30:45.800 --> 02:30:52.159 Town of Plainfield: And that is in here. Did we get that at all? Yes, we did. And, 968 02:30:53.210 --> 02:31:04.840 Town of Plainfield: This is… we currently have a contract with them, for… let me get the number right here… for $10,000. 969 02:31:05.030 --> 02:31:28.010 Town of Plainfield: And they had a line in here for X hours per week, and at the request of our constable, that's not the way we do it. It's more targeted. So in response to feedback from the community, we can get more intensive sheriff's patrols at a particular trouble spot, etc. So that's the way it's being managed, and it's proposed to get being managed. In our 970 02:31:28.010 --> 02:31:49.819 Town of Plainfield: budget… this is for the contract that would go into place beginning July 1, and it's… other than changing… raising the amount from $10,000 to $10,300, which is what we approved in our budget, the contract is the same. They do talk about the fact that their, overtime rate goes up and their mileage 971 02:31:49.820 --> 02:31:57.600 Town of Plainfield: which is tied to the federal mileage rate, goes up, but I think that's the intent of us giving them the extra 300 bucks. 972 02:31:57.880 --> 02:32:09.229 Town of Plainfield: So… Do we get any sort of report from them in terms of how they're spending their time? In the town report, there's an annual report that goes in there. Yes. Yeah. 973 02:32:09.230 --> 02:32:32.920 Town of Plainfield: And I'm sure we could get… Is this for speeding, or traffic, or is it much broader? It's mostly for traffic control speeding, yeah. No. No, they don't touch it. No, no, that is not. Okay. So, 974 02:32:32.920 --> 02:32:51.419 Town of Plainfield: So… I would entertain a motion, or… Make a motion that we accept the sheriff's contract renewal. Okay, and this requires all five of us to sign, so I will pass it around. Good. Do we need to vote? Yeah, we do need to vote. Is that a second, Patty? Yeah. Okay, so it was Karen and Patty. 975 02:32:52.140 --> 02:32:58.500 Town of Plainfield: Keep them on the sheriff's. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed? 976 02:32:58.810 --> 02:33:00.350 Town of Plainfield: Okay, it passes. 977 02:33:00.550 --> 02:33:08.309 Town of Plainfield: Patty already signed, so she was prescient here, so… 978 02:33:08.310 --> 02:33:21.279 Town of Plainfield: She doesn't like speeders. There you go. She was speedy. Alright, the next item we have is Select Board Internal Discussion Liaison and Reports. 979 02:33:21.990 --> 02:33:26.660 Town of Plainfield: Is there someone who wants to lead off on that? 980 02:33:27.040 --> 02:33:32.339 Town of Plainfield: And you added a third thing here. I did. Just this… this evening. 981 02:33:32.550 --> 02:33:47.110 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, alright, so this is a continuation of the conversation we began two meetings ago, and then had last meeting, where we're looking at our roles on the board, and the places where we feel like we would like to spend our time, and… 982 02:33:49.540 --> 02:33:54.750 Town of Plainfield: can be helpful. Liaisoning to various areas. So, 983 02:33:55.270 --> 02:34:13.759 Town of Plainfield: Let me go back to where… initially, what was identified, in the draft document, which can be edited at any point, the following areas. There was housing, there were recovery issues and grants, there's town staffing, there's finance. 984 02:34:13.890 --> 02:34:20.570 Town of Plainfield: Public safety, social concerns, emergency management, and then what was the other thing we added tonight was… 985 02:34:21.010 --> 02:34:34.839 Town of Plainfield: Oh my gosh. It was early on. I do have a note, maybe. What did you… was it, it was ordinances. Ordinances. Public health ordinances. Ordinances. 986 02:34:35.370 --> 02:34:40.499 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, I guess ordinances more broadly. Yeah, so these are, these are… 987 02:34:40.780 --> 02:34:46.030 Town of Plainfield: Karen, can you read me the list again? Yeah, sure. Housing? Slow down, housing, yep. 988 02:34:46.230 --> 02:34:48.869 Town of Plainfield: Recovery issues slash grants. 989 02:34:49.120 --> 02:34:51.999 Town of Plainfield: Recovery, yeah, keep going. Town staffing? 990 02:34:52.210 --> 02:34:54.779 Town of Plainfield: Staffing? Yep. Finance? 991 02:34:57.320 --> 02:35:02.650 Town of Plainfield: Public safety? Yep. Social concerns? Hold on. Sorry? 992 02:35:05.310 --> 02:35:17.180 Town of Plainfield: These aren't all the committees, are they? No, it's just areas, and we can, you know, smoosh them together, whatever, it doesn't matter. Social concerns? Social concerns, emergency management, and ordinances was the last thing. 993 02:35:17.350 --> 02:35:30.499 Town of Plainfield: So just, these are big pieces, but just to start conversation. Well, I would like to start. Yes, please. And, a lot of this has to do with discussions I've been having with Cynthia here. 994 02:35:31.640 --> 02:35:38.140 Town of Plainfield: I would like to propose that the chair, and the vice chair 995 02:35:38.150 --> 02:35:51.930 Town of Plainfield: be the official liaisons between the Select Board and the staff. And part of that is to be specific about communications. There's been a lot of miscommunication. There was, 996 02:35:52.430 --> 02:35:54.790 Town of Plainfield: mess with payroll, that… 997 02:35:54.800 --> 02:36:11.999 Town of Plainfield: had to do with, basically, too many cooks. Gotcha. Too many what? Too many cooks. Too many cooks. And, questions would get asked, and whoever walked in the room gave an answer, and it was different than the next person who walked in, and that is particularly, annoying. 998 02:36:12.000 --> 02:36:22.839 Town of Plainfield: And inefficient. And I think, having that clear, it is our responsibility as a board to oversee the staff, etc. 999 02:36:22.840 --> 02:36:32.900 Town of Plainfield: So I have a particular, sounds good. …thing there. I also personally, have… 1000 02:36:32.900 --> 02:36:57.419 Town of Plainfield: Given the involvement with Carl on the, road construction projects, there, and reviewing those contracts so far, and the bids on that, and working with Cynthia on the reporting systems that we're going to need, and the financing we're going to need going forward, want to be a person there. Okay. 1001 02:36:57.420 --> 02:37:09.720 Town of Plainfield: on the littler side, I did tell the rec committee that I would help them get through the procurement process for their stuff, and so I have a… I'm being… 1002 02:37:09.790 --> 02:37:20.139 Town of Plainfield: Great. The former rec committee director, I have a soft place in my heart for that. Excellent. You added recreation, and you also added the road crew. 1003 02:37:20.350 --> 02:37:38.589 Town of Plainfield: Well, is it, is it roads? It's really, like, projects. It's the flood project. It's recovery projects. It's the recovery project, yeah. Yeah, so instead of recovery issues, it's recovery projects. Why don't you make that. Yeah, that's a… that's narrower. Okay. I like it. But finance… 1004 02:37:38.900 --> 02:37:57.569 Town of Plainfield: Is finance also? Yeah. Okay. And recovery projects. Okay. Yeah. Well, I mean, hopefully, time will go by and some of that stuff will end, and we can move on to other things. So, I'm gonna claim a couple things unless other people want to go. Go ahead. 1005 02:37:57.670 --> 02:37:59.990 Town of Plainfield: Michael, I am willing to be your liaison. 1006 02:38:00.350 --> 02:38:03.549 Town of Plainfield: For emergency management, you and whoever succeeds you. 1007 02:38:03.750 --> 02:38:05.749 Town of Plainfield: However, we need to negotiate. 1008 02:38:06.000 --> 02:38:19.200 Town of Plainfield: Because what you're expecting from that person, based on your memo, is probably more than I'm willing to do, okay? So you and I need to make sure what I'm being asked to do fits into my time availability, my skill set. 1009 02:38:19.240 --> 02:38:34.240 Town of Plainfield: And how much information I need to observe. I get that. Okay. I will be happy to do that. Yeah, so you and I need to sit down and sort of sort that out, but I'm willing to be that person if we can sort that out. Okay, thank you. The other piece that… 1010 02:38:34.310 --> 02:38:45.289 Town of Plainfield: I want to claim that's not on this, is I would like to work with the Accessibility Committee, and my specific piece is how do we make town meeting more accessible? 1011 02:38:45.400 --> 02:38:58.430 Town of Plainfield: Okay. They're having conversations about that, and there are people who feel excluded because of their ability-slash-disability limitations. Yeah. And I know people in other parts of the state that are trying to figure this out. 1012 02:38:58.530 --> 02:39:17.099 Town of Plainfield: And it strikes me as a basic justice issue, and I think there's ways we could do it. So I would like to, like, go to the next Accessibility Committee meeting and listen and have some conversations about how we do that. And it may bleed over into other accessibility issues, like you're talking about the parking space outside here. 1013 02:39:17.100 --> 02:39:28.450 Town of Plainfield: how that can work better, and so I want a piece of that, if I can be helpful. And I may end up with other assignments before we're done, but those are the two I'm starting. Alright, great. Thank you. 1014 02:39:29.520 --> 02:39:37.690 Town of Plainfield: Yeah. I mean, yes, town staffing, yes, housing. At the moment, I'm like… 1015 02:39:38.170 --> 02:39:44.090 Town of Plainfield: I'm hesitant, but, like, willing and curious about ordinances. 1016 02:39:44.440 --> 02:40:09.209 Town of Plainfield: Are you ordinance curious? I'm ordinance curious. Ordnance curious. I'm ordinance curious. If I might, have a conversation with Trevor Whipple at the League of Cities and Towns. He came and consulted with all of us. Bram and I worked with the four officers who we gave ticketing authority to, which is 1017 02:40:09.210 --> 02:40:15.389 Town of Plainfield: animal control, constable, zoning, And… I'm leaving out this study. 1018 02:40:15.510 --> 02:40:33.539 Town of Plainfield: And the health officer, yeah. And we did two of the ordinances, but the others are not there, yet. So… Just to put it on our radar, I know the Housing Advisory Committee is working on zoning ordinances. 1019 02:40:33.540 --> 02:40:38.449 Town of Plainfield: That could be before our table in two to four weeks. Nice. 1020 02:40:38.450 --> 02:40:51.720 Town of Plainfield: Do they relate to abandoned buildings, or what are they? They do? Yeah, they do. Excellent. I think you have any, I do. I also actually have one of those town staffing also, which is pretty heavy. 1021 02:40:51.840 --> 02:41:00.629 Town of Plainfield: Because you guys both want to be careful thinking about that, but I think that might be a good place for me to have staffing. Great. And also public concerns. 1022 02:41:01.350 --> 02:41:16.099 Town of Plainfield: Social concerns. Social concerns? Yeah. Okay. And staffing. Alright. Cool. Alright, so I… Recovery projects? Yeah. 1023 02:41:19.710 --> 02:41:30.300 Town of Plainfield: And, and finance, because they go together. They're gonna be together for several years. Yeah, okay. 1024 02:41:30.540 --> 02:41:37.650 Town of Plainfield: What's… 1025 02:41:37.650 --> 02:41:54.830 Town of Plainfield: And Peter, you claimed recreation, you're already helping them in a small way? Yeah, yeah. We had to prove some money for them, and they got stuck because they thought they were just gonna go into Josh, and he was gonna help through the process, but then he lost. They haven't moved, and, you know, we're at… 1026 02:41:54.850 --> 02:42:05.460 Town of Plainfield: We're at the point where they can start doing some work over there, so… So, Karen, my notes say public safety is unclaimed. What are your notes today? That would be… correct. 1027 02:42:05.630 --> 02:42:12.610 Town of Plainfield: Oh, does that mean being a liaison to Dan? Yeah, there's actually a fixed public safety people. 1028 02:42:13.420 --> 02:42:22.729 Town of Plainfield: Public Safety is your, constable, your forest fire warden, your health officer, your animal control officer, and, 1029 02:42:23.200 --> 02:42:40.600 Town of Plainfield: and emergency management in a… Oh, and the fire department. And the fire department, absolutely, but they, they are their own bosses, but you're right. I mean, obviously. It's a liaison, so it's just staying in touch. 1030 02:42:43.250 --> 02:42:44.570 Town of Plainfield: You want that, Andy? 1031 02:42:44.990 --> 02:43:08.559 Town of Plainfield: Am I being voluntold? Voluntold? A new verb? That's a good word. Oh, I like that. I think so. So I'll do it if someone will do it with me. Who would like to… do you want to do it, Mr. Trying? Alright. Oh, so good. You're in. And then I'm also already involved with the Resilience Hub, so I think I… I should, like… What? 1032 02:43:08.560 --> 02:43:12.249 Town of Plainfield: I'm also already, already involved with the Resilience Hub. 1033 02:43:12.550 --> 02:43:16.590 Town of Plainfield: So I can be a liaison to Resilience Hub. Nice. Okay. 1034 02:43:18.080 --> 02:43:19.770 Town of Plainfield: Okay. And I'm… 1035 02:43:19.920 --> 02:43:37.080 Town of Plainfield: I did volunteer to do something with, with Ray, reviewing some documents for Resilience Hub, so… Thank you. I'm willing to help out there as well. Sounds like we have different specialties. Different specialties. I'll review the documents. Okay, so, Princess Rose and Karen, okay. 1036 02:43:37.430 --> 02:43:40.049 Town of Plainfield: Are there any other areas that we have… 1037 02:43:40.550 --> 02:43:53.760 Town of Plainfield: I'm sure there's places, but big ones, you know, things will come up, and, you know, when the intersection came up, Patty and I went and did a series of meetings, and then, you know… Yeah, and some of this is just… 1038 02:43:54.190 --> 02:44:01.839 Town of Plainfield: You do informal work groups, and then they disband, because the work is done. Yeah. Okay. Peter, are you still doing, ordinances? 1039 02:44:04.330 --> 02:44:21.650 Town of Plainfield: No. Francis Rose is doing ordinances. Francis Rose, if you need backup on that, let me know. It could be a brain… Andy back, that'd be great, great. Yeah, I just… I'm worried to write my name down, because it's not here anymore. Okay, yeah. 1040 02:44:21.650 --> 02:44:30.700 Town of Plainfield: This is good, this is good. This is good. Can I say something about ordinances? Yes. This was in reading through Plainfield's charter. 1041 02:44:31.050 --> 02:44:32.579 Town of Plainfield: it says… 1042 02:44:32.700 --> 02:44:57.669 Town of Plainfield: that any ordinance adopted by the Town of Plainfield shall begin with the following phrase, and it's this poetic, it is hereby ordained, because it is an ordinance, okay? Let me tell you, we haven't done that in a while, but according to our charter, we should. Let it be known throughout the lab. 1043 02:44:57.670 --> 02:45:13.150 Town of Plainfield: It has been ordained. There you go. I have to tell you, living in a 200-year-old Vermont Cape, I read through that draft, and I said, I'm in violation. 1044 02:45:13.210 --> 02:45:33.399 Town of Plainfield: As are many places in town. And I passed that feedback on to Will that that seemed a little broad. Yes, it has to be a carrot with a potential stick, I agree with you. Yes. Just the first impression. This section of the work that we were doing as organizational work. 1045 02:45:33.400 --> 02:45:34.900 Town of Plainfield: We can… 1046 02:45:34.960 --> 02:45:48.549 Town of Plainfield: We can have this be enough for tonight, and then next time we meet, what we wanted to talk about was, some more organization around, reports we get from various folks in the… 1047 02:45:48.800 --> 02:46:05.609 Town of Plainfield: In various positions, how often we would like those, what format, and then also talking about updates to web pages, and having, every group look at their page newly and update so that the website actually, 1048 02:46:05.990 --> 02:46:09.240 Town of Plainfield: says what's current. I would say, 1049 02:46:09.240 --> 02:46:26.690 Town of Plainfield: I got very positive feedback from all the committees, from the message that I sent out about the open meeting law and ethics and stuff, and feedback about meetings and stuff, and I think there's an open channel there for another letter to go from us that says. 1050 02:46:26.690 --> 02:46:29.999 Town of Plainfield: You know, we're looking at those items, and so… 1051 02:46:30.080 --> 02:46:54.999 Town of Plainfield: That might be an end goal for that discussion. Yeah, one of the things that's on this list, Peter, is that we were going to reach out to all of those folks and ask them how often they thought they would want to report, and what would be the, kind of, the bullet, the main topic areas that they would want to report to us, so that we'd get that kind of feedback from them initially, and then we could kind of work that into what our 1052 02:46:55.000 --> 02:47:04.719 Town of Plainfield: expectations would be as well. I… well, we're getting into this a little bit, but… Yeah, okay. One of the things I would ask all of them is, what are the legal 1053 02:47:04.730 --> 02:47:06.090 Town of Plainfield: requirements. 1054 02:47:06.220 --> 02:47:13.940 Town of Plainfield: That they must bring to us. Not how often they would like to come and talk to us about their dreams and hopes, but… 1055 02:47:13.970 --> 02:47:36.660 Town of Plainfield: what are they legally… you know, we have a legal requirement for the local emergency management plan. We have… there are… we have elections that need to run, you know, and so we have a budget, you know, period that we spent on. And so, you know, I think that's a two-way street. Says it right here. Yeah. Look at your calendar for the coming fiscal year and estimate months and dates when action may be needed to be taken. 1056 02:47:36.660 --> 02:47:38.160 Town of Plainfield: By the board on your behalf. 1057 02:47:38.350 --> 02:47:48.729 Town of Plainfield: provide a schedule to the board no later than June 1st. Right, a zoning ordinance, you know, which the Planning Commission is gonna, you know, what does that… the Recreation Committee, it's probably, like, once a year. 1058 02:47:48.940 --> 02:47:52.019 Town of Plainfield: Because there's no legal requirement. Correct. 1059 02:47:52.770 --> 02:48:06.640 Town of Plainfield: If they can help us figure that out. But that's… yeah, ask them, and then they can tell us. And I would ask, by the way, if, Karen, you're sending this, to make sure that you can click on it. I didn't get the invitation for… 1060 02:48:06.640 --> 02:48:17.129 Town of Plainfield: public meeting and ethics training, and I think it's because Maggie might have gotten it? Who's the chair? No, because it wasn't a committee. It was probably sent to the EMC. 1061 02:48:17.670 --> 02:48:36.410 Town of Plainfield: Oh, okay. I will go back and look. Yeah, yeah, well… And maybe they may… you might not have gotten that. I have 2 or 3 more. Okay, but looking forward… Yeah, looking forward to that, you, you could include me in that, please. Absolutely. Okay, that's that. 1062 02:48:37.060 --> 02:48:43.459 Town of Plainfield: Thank you for leaning that, Karen. You're welcome. Thanks, everybody. Sure. 1063 02:48:43.910 --> 02:48:51.330 Town of Plainfield: Alrighty. So, we are now on to approval of the draft minutes of 1064 02:48:51.470 --> 02:49:00.209 Town of Plainfield: March 23rd. I'll make a motion that we, accept the minutes of 323-26 as written. 1065 02:49:00.440 --> 02:49:09.440 Town of Plainfield: I want to make an amendment to them, so is this the time to do it? Yeah, it is the time to do it. Okay. Jamie left out the other guests. 1066 02:49:09.650 --> 02:49:16.240 Town of Plainfield: If you look at the minutes, it says select board members listed, but it doesn't list who else was at the meeting. Do we need to include that? 1067 02:49:18.170 --> 02:49:35.350 Town of Plainfield: I don't know if that… I think you're supposed to list… I'm not sure how it's been handled with, like, all the people on Zoom. Certainly, anyone who speaks gets mentioned in the minutes. Right. Yeah, do we need to… do we need to, like, list who's here if they don't speak? 1068 02:49:35.520 --> 02:49:43.470 Town of Plainfield: I don't think so. Charlie, do you… That's a good question. Do you have an answer for this question, Charlie? Is Charlie asleep? 1069 02:49:43.470 --> 02:50:02.970 Town of Plainfield: You could also ask the member of the press who's here what his understanding is. I'd err on the side of, yeah, include everybody. Err on the side. Somehow I knew you'd say that. Well, anyway, the point is… Charlie's on. Charlie? 1070 02:50:03.000 --> 02:50:04.300 Town of Plainfield: Go ahead. 1071 02:50:04.300 --> 02:50:05.190 Charles Cogbill: Yes! 1072 02:50:06.180 --> 02:50:08.060 Town of Plainfield: Did you hear the question? 1073 02:50:08.650 --> 02:50:09.839 Charles Cogbill: Could you repeat it, please? 1074 02:50:09.840 --> 02:50:18.820 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, the question is, when we do the minutes, Charlie, do we need to include the guests that are present, even if they don't speak? 1075 02:50:20.630 --> 02:50:29.200 Charles Cogbill: My understanding, and this is a layman, that the minutes will include who officially is present. 1076 02:50:30.190 --> 02:50:40.209 Charles Cogbill: And what actions are taken, and the votes on those actions. That's the bare minimum. I would expect, in addition to that. 1077 02:50:41.030 --> 02:50:46.380 Charles Cogbill: The topics covered, and some sort of brief synopsis 1078 02:50:46.480 --> 02:50:52.640 Charles Cogbill: Especially of the Select Board's opinion toward that issue. 1079 02:50:53.240 --> 02:51:02.380 Charles Cogbill: The minutes do not include every comment, every topic. It is not a transcription. It's a minute. 1080 02:51:03.470 --> 02:51:04.700 Charles Cogbill: future reference. 1081 02:51:04.810 --> 02:51:09.150 Charles Cogbill: And minutes take, official meaning. 1082 02:51:09.880 --> 02:51:10.610 Town of Plainfield: Yep. 1083 02:51:11.190 --> 02:51:19.160 Charles Cogbill: The transcript and the video are not reviewed necessarily in the future. 1084 02:51:19.870 --> 02:51:35.769 Town of Plainfield: Can I make a suggestion? The suggestion is? The suggestion is, make an inquiry of the League of Cities and Towns. I will do so. I take that as an action step. In the meantime, we can approve the minutes, because we don't know the answer. So we need a second. Yeah, we do need a second. 1085 02:51:35.770 --> 02:51:43.700 Charles Cogbill: Yeah, and may I, may I add, the minutes can be amended after acceptance. 1086 02:51:43.700 --> 02:52:03.249 Town of Plainfield: Oh, yes, we know. Yeah, that's great, thank you for that. We've done that. Thanks, Charlie. Alright, so who made the initial motion? I did. It was Karen and Francis Rose, seconded. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. We have an action step there, thank you. 1087 02:52:03.250 --> 02:52:05.550 Town of Plainfield: Approval of warrants. 1088 02:52:05.560 --> 02:52:24.910 Town of Plainfield: There are a bunch of warrants in here. We have another meeting to approve. We have minutes for the… one of the special… we have to approve the minutes for the special meeting? Oh, I don't have this on the agenda. I don't have it on my agenda. Where do you have… I don't have it on my agenda either. I just realized it's not on the agenda. Well, then we should put it on for the next meeting, because we don't have them for the review. 1089 02:52:26.930 --> 02:52:42.700 Town of Plainfield: Can I make a motion that we approve the warrants, accounts payable 327-26, 4326, 4926, 4926, and the payroll for 324-26, 331-26, 46-26. 1090 02:52:43.770 --> 02:52:45.730 Town of Plainfield: Second. Second. 1091 02:52:47.390 --> 02:52:54.910 Town of Plainfield: Patty has moved, and it's been… and who's seconded? Francis Rest. Patty and Francis Rose. 1092 02:52:56.280 --> 02:53:01.749 Town of Plainfield: Have all of you had a chance to go through and look at these? 1093 02:53:03.740 --> 02:53:10.459 Town of Plainfield: There's, I don't believe I've signed them, sorry. Three payrolls in here, and… 1094 02:53:15.630 --> 02:53:25.410 Town of Plainfield: There is also… May I? A warrant. You've never asked us to look at payroll. 1095 02:53:27.780 --> 02:53:32.270 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, they should. So you have 3 payrolls there, right? 1096 02:53:33.420 --> 02:53:38.309 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, 324, 331, and 4-6. And then we have 4 accounts payable. 1097 02:53:40.670 --> 02:53:53.310 Town of Plainfield: This is the quarterly taxes that we heard about earlier. I need 3 signatures on this one. Okay. This is Pet Shelter Garage Work, $1,000. Is that Grant? 1098 02:53:53.610 --> 02:53:57.259 Town of Plainfield: Grant money? And which grant? 1099 02:53:57.260 --> 02:54:02.069 Town of Plainfield: The Emergency Shelter, excuse me, Shelter Reserve Fund. 1100 02:54:02.070 --> 02:54:26.019 Town of Plainfield: Had, 30, almost $40,000 in it, we're spending it down, so it's from the, Community Foundation. The question… the reason I'm asking is, again, conversations with Cynthia. There's a lot of stuff that hasn't been posted properly, and emergency management and energy efficiency stuff are areas where the expenditure is there, but we think it's been misapplied. 1101 02:54:26.020 --> 02:54:42.599 Town of Plainfield: I think you're right, and I wanted to write you an email, but I can ask you in person. I'd like to actually, because I had extensive conversations with Josh about trying to straighten this out, that I would like to talk with Cynthia. In other words, give her a quick 1102 02:54:42.600 --> 02:54:51.559 Town of Plainfield: overview of the funds that were there. You can talk to Cynthia, but I think the issue is going into the office 1103 02:54:51.670 --> 02:54:55.520 Town of Plainfield: And finding the actual invoice. 1104 02:54:55.820 --> 02:55:00.639 Town of Plainfield: There's a lot of, like, digging work. I know what they are. 1105 02:55:01.030 --> 02:55:06.379 Town of Plainfield: In other words, I asked each contractor to send me copies. So I've been keeping my own running log. 1106 02:55:06.570 --> 02:55:26.270 Town of Plainfield: Right. And this goes to maybe some of the liaison issue, and some of the stuff that Cynthia's talking about is, like, right now, and this goes to internal controls, is that, like, for example, you order something that is going to pay for by the grant. When the invoice comes in, it goes to the town. 1107 02:55:26.490 --> 02:55:50.450 Town of Plainfield: It doesn't go to you to get signed off on. It has notation saying which account's supposed to come out, that's it. Right. But, the person in the office does not have your signature that says, yes, this is what I ordered. Or, yeah, I ordered that, but it didn't come, so don't pay it. That doesn't exist anywhere in the town right now. So, the highway department, the fire department, they order stuff. 1108 02:55:50.450 --> 02:55:55.029 Town of Plainfield: They can't tell you where their budget stands because they don't know. 1109 02:55:55.030 --> 02:56:15.640 Town of Plainfield: And they're not getting a report from the treasurer, and that's the treasurer's duty to get that back out. I knew I wasn't getting the reports because Josh couldn't give me those reports, so I was, as I was saying, I was trying to do my own booking. Yeah, yeah. And so, right now we're trying to do that so we can close out 2025. So, anyway. 1110 02:56:16.850 --> 02:56:27.650 Town of Plainfield: There are a couple of big things in here, and I don't know why. This is an agreement for red letter carpentry. Yes, that's also the… that's the garage. Is that… that's the garage? 1111 02:56:28.400 --> 02:56:35.280 Town of Plainfield: Okay. So this isn't an invoice, this is a contract? There was… it doesn't need to be there. 1112 02:56:35.530 --> 02:56:46.830 Town of Plainfield: But there wasn't… there were 3 invoices. I got copies of them today. Okay, I mean, this contract's not filled out. Blank. Oh, wait a minute, it's typed. Sorry. 1113 02:56:47.590 --> 02:56:51.560 Town of Plainfield: So here, the construction has entered into this… there's no dates here. 1114 02:56:52.050 --> 02:56:54.079 Town of Plainfield: There's no signature. 1115 02:56:54.410 --> 02:57:00.919 Town of Plainfield: I think, it went to Jamie, and I thought she signed off on it. 1116 02:57:02.590 --> 02:57:23.230 Town of Plainfield: I mean, here's a… it's for the town of Plainfield, it's for the garage, it has your phone number and your name, has a job number. I know he didn't start the work till he got a signed copy, so whether you have a copy without signature… with signatures, I think there is a copy somewhere with signatures. Right, but there's no schedule, there's no dates filled in. 1117 02:57:23.270 --> 02:57:29.870 Town of Plainfield: There's numbered contract price, but it doesn't say when. The work's already done. Okay. 1118 02:57:30.150 --> 02:57:33.199 Town of Plainfield: Alright. Well… Okay, we'll get better. 1119 02:57:33.420 --> 02:57:36.779 Town of Plainfield: Alright, so it's not there. We will get there. 1120 02:57:41.860 --> 02:57:44.280 Town of Plainfield: May the universe send us a treasure of sin. 1121 02:57:44.500 --> 02:58:04.459 Town of Plainfield: Oops, sorry. Yeah, there are, there's $117,220 here for Du Bois and King. Right. So that is, pre-engineering on… Pre-engineering on Milk Street. Pre-engineering Mill Street and Bridge 21. Okay. So this is cash we have to outlay. We outlay, and then we submit for reimbursement, and we get it back from… 1122 02:58:04.460 --> 02:58:09.600 Town of Plainfield: Right. And the question is, do we have the cashed outlet? That is the question. 1123 02:58:10.860 --> 02:58:19.740 Town of Plainfield: But the turnaround on the reimbursement is pretty quick, so we'll process it at the end of the month. Okay. So I have a process question for you. Yeah. 1124 02:58:20.010 --> 02:58:34.579 Town of Plainfield: Would it make sense to make all the warrants available in the office for the Select Board to inspect, I don't know, the Friday before the board meeting or something? They are. They are? Okay. Yeah, that's when I went in and read them. Okay. 1125 02:58:34.680 --> 02:58:44.430 Town of Plainfield: Yes, and yes, we should. And when are they available, usually? Is it the… Friday. Okay, so it's 3 days before? Correct. When we do them on Monday as well? 1126 02:58:45.280 --> 02:58:54.650 Town of Plainfield: You could review them on Monday as well, yeah, but certainly you should approve… review them prior to voting on them. Okay. 1127 02:58:58.380 --> 02:59:15.509 Town of Plainfield: So anyway, I saw those things in there and raised questions about… oh, there was one other that, we got a bill, and I think it's in here, for ambulance service from East Montpelier for a large amount, $36,000 or something, and… 1128 02:59:15.510 --> 02:59:26.020 Town of Plainfield: We're already at budget for the year. And the invoice, it's a one-pager, and it says, here's your bill, it's $36,000, or whatever the number was. 1129 02:59:26.220 --> 02:59:29.920 Town of Plainfield: Didn't say for what period of time, didn't say anything. 1130 02:59:30.170 --> 02:59:42.349 Town of Plainfield: And so, I'm talking to Cynthia today. She has the spreadsheet, and you saw on that… on the expense sheet, the budget sheet. We're basically at budget for the year. 1131 02:59:42.700 --> 02:59:55.029 Town of Plainfield: She went back. There's 3 payments that are in that number. One was a smaller payment in August, and then there was, there's, like, every 3 months. So this looks like it's the periodic third month, but why there's 4… 1132 02:59:55.030 --> 03:00:12.260 Town of Plainfield: payments in the current fiscal year, we don't know the answer to. And so that, you know, raised a question to my mind. First off, we should get more detail from the ambulance service as to what period this is covering for, etc. So, 1133 03:00:12.740 --> 03:00:13.630 Town of Plainfield: Yep. 1134 03:00:14.090 --> 03:00:23.999 Town of Plainfield: again, a note to make. Well, I think that it has to do with the contract price, but then also how many services they provide the town. 1135 03:00:24.100 --> 03:00:27.869 Town of Plainfield: So that might be the littler, because I think it breaks it up in that context. 1136 03:00:28.540 --> 03:00:36.149 Town of Plainfield: It's the same way as it was when I was… Yeah, but that would… Right. Then the contract should have been bigger. You know, it's not… it's not… 1137 03:00:37.100 --> 03:00:59.860 Town of Plainfield: It's over budget. Right. You know, and so the question is, was that August payment actually a 2025 that was made in 2026, or what? But also, if the invoice… the invoice should spell that out, that say, this is for this, and this is how many trips, and so when we're not getting that from them. Remind me, our fiscal year's July 1? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. 1138 03:01:00.200 --> 03:01:10.429 Town of Plainfield: Alright, with those comments, thank you for bearing with me, folks, but, you know, we're trying to get this cleaned up. Yeah. And, you know, when I see stuff in here. 1139 03:01:10.550 --> 03:01:23.689 Town of Plainfield: I gotta ask. We appreciate that. Amen. We have motion and second on the invoices, yep, on the warrants? Alright, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? 1140 03:01:23.870 --> 03:01:32.059 Town of Plainfield: And that's 5-0, thank you. Yes, you need to sign them all, there's… 1141 03:01:33.840 --> 03:01:38.659 Town of Plainfield: I think there should be 6, if my math is correct. 1142 03:01:38.890 --> 03:01:47.300 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, the payrolls are here. There's 3 payrolls, but there are… 1143 03:01:47.560 --> 03:02:03.449 Town of Plainfield: 5 accounts payable. 1, 2, 3, 4, 327. This is accounts payable, this is, oh, yeah, there's 2 on 49. Of 43 and 4-6. 1144 03:02:04.540 --> 03:02:14.929 Town of Plainfield: I don't see a 4-6. It says 43246. Yeah, typo, or there's a double set of ones? 1145 03:02:15.490 --> 03:02:16.540 Town of Plainfield: What could it be? 1146 03:02:16.760 --> 03:02:25.650 Town of Plainfield: This is 49 to 49 for the Vermont Department of Taxes. Is there another 49? 1147 03:02:26.430 --> 03:02:33.800 Town of Plainfield: This is 49 to 49, also Department of Taxes, different number. Not a typo. 1148 03:02:34.860 --> 03:02:41.529 Town of Plainfield: This is 327 to 327, and that's the pet shelter contract. 1149 03:02:42.500 --> 03:02:57.969 Town of Plainfield: And then we have 4-2 to 4-2. I have a 4-3. I have a 4-2. The 4-2 is in addition to 4-3? I don't know. I don't have a 4-3. That's a 4-2. That's the title. And this is, 1150 03:02:59.270 --> 03:03:06.139 Town of Plainfield: This is a whole bunch of stuff. Highway uniforms, this is the Du Bois and King. That's 4-2? Yeah. 1151 03:03:06.540 --> 03:03:14.069 Town of Plainfield: Hay float… highway plow truck… I think there was a typo on the agenda, the 4-3 should be a 4.2. Okay. 1152 03:03:16.600 --> 03:03:20.160 Town of Plainfield: Do we need to read a motion about it? Yeah, amend the motion. 1153 03:03:20.310 --> 03:03:24.319 Town of Plainfield: Friendly, friendly amendment. Friendly amendment. Yep. 1154 03:03:24.470 --> 03:03:27.249 Town of Plainfield: Changed from 4-3 to 4-2. Yeah. 1155 03:03:27.350 --> 03:03:28.450 Town of Plainfield: Okay. 1156 03:03:28.930 --> 03:03:39.970 Town of Plainfield: All right, and take this down to Francis Rose, and everybody can sign it coming up. Okay. Alright, so we approve that 5-0, right? Yep. Okay. Thank you. 1157 03:03:44.670 --> 03:03:53.360 Town of Plainfield: Announce date for the next Select Board meeting. It's been proposed that it be the 27th of April, which is 2 weeks from tonight. 1158 03:03:53.900 --> 03:04:01.899 Town of Plainfield: Alright, we will meet then. Again. Very good. And… 1159 03:04:02.340 --> 03:04:26.220 Town of Plainfield: Thank you both for coming very much. Thank you. We thank our Zoom guests. We're going to go into executive session, and I'll make a motion that we go into executive session. Thank you, Eric. For personnel 1VSA, Section 313. Second. 1160 03:04:26.220 --> 03:04:40.780 Town of Plainfield: It's been moved and seconded to go into executive session to discuss personnel matters pursuant to that statute that you just cited. And I would propose a… 1161 03:04:40.910 --> 03:04:46.749 Town of Plainfield: Two-minute nature break. Is the recording off? I don't know yet. 1162 03:04:50.330 --> 03:04:54.959 Town of Plainfield: We have a waiting room. I will entertain a motion. 1163 03:04:55.260 --> 03:05:14.159 Town of Plainfield: Alright, hang on. I will move to exit executive session. Oh, Betsy is still here. Personnel, pursuant to 1VSA Section 313. I'll second that motion. Moved by Andy, seconded by Karen. 1164 03:05:14.180 --> 03:05:22.240 Town of Plainfield: to come out of executive session. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, it's 5-0. 1165 03:05:22.400 --> 03:05:34.500 Town of Plainfield: Are there any motions coming out of Executive Session? No, no. Seeing none, hearing none, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Moved by Karen. 1166 03:05:34.950 --> 03:05:45.909 Town of Plainfield: Seconded by me. All those in favor? Aye. 5-0. Meeting is closed at 10-10 p.m. 1167 03:05:46.310 --> 03:05:52.000 Town of Plainfield: Yeah, nice, Maple. I know. Good night. Oh, my gosh. There's more stuff here, Dad.