start. Oh, okay. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. I'm going to It is 10:01. Welcome to town meeting 2026. Uh, is this my Is this Can somebody turn the mic up in that case? Are we better now? Hold it really close. Hold it close. Really close. Okay. Let's not get personal. Welcome to town meeting 2026, ladies and gentlemen. Um, it has been our tradition to start this meeting with a poem for decades read by our unofficial poet laurate Charlie Barish. Charlie has, I'm sorry to say, declined to read this year for understandable reasons, but I want to keep the tradition of a poem. And with even though it was extremely cold last night, there is hope of spring and baseball season on the way. Therefore, I give you Casey at the back for your entertainment pleasure. The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day. The score stood four to two with but one inning left to play. And then when Cooney died at first and Barrows did the same, a Paullike silence fell upon the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast. They thought, "If only Casey could get a whack at that, we'd put up even money now with Casey at the bat." But Flynn preceded Casey, as also did Jimmy Blake, and the former was a hoodoo, and the latter was a cake. So upon that stricken multitude, grim melancholy sat, for there seemed to be no chance of getting Casey to the bat. But Flynn, let drive a single to the wonderment of all. And Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball. And when the dust had lifted and men saw what had occurred, there was Jimmy safe at second, and Flynn a hug in third. Then from 5,000 throats and more, there rose a lusty yell. It rumbled through the valleys. It rattled in the dell. It pounded on the mountains and recoiled on the flat. For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat. There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place. There was pride in Casey's bearings and a smile at Casey's face. And when responding to the cheers, he lightly duffed his hat. No stranger in the crowd could doubt was Casey at the bat. 10,000 eyes were on him as he rubbed his hand with dirt. 5,000 tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt. Then wild arriving pitcher ground the ball into his hip. Defiance flashed in Casey's eyes and a sneer curled Casey's lip. And now the leathercovered sphere came hurling through the air and Casey stood watching it in horty grandeur there close by the sturdy batsman ball unsped. That ain't my style. Casey said strike one. the umpire said. From the benches black with people, there went up a muffled roar like the beating of the storm waves on a small, stern, and distant shore. "Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted somebody in this stand. And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand with a smile of Christian charity. Great. Casey's vision shown and he stilled the rustling come out and he bade the game go on. He signaled to the pitcher and once more the dun sphere flew. But Casey still ignored it and the umpire said, "Strike to fraud. Fraud!" cried the madden thousands. And an echo answered, "Fraud!" But one scornful look at Casey and the audience was awed. They saw his face grew stern and cold. They saw his muscles strain. They knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again. The sneer is gone from Casey's lips. His teeth are clenched in hate. He pounds with cruel violence his back upon the plate. And now the pitcher holds the ball. And now he lets it go. And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow. Oh, somewhere in this favored land, the sun is shining bright. The band is playing somewhere. And somewhere hearts are light. And somewhere men are laughing. And somewhere children shout. But there is no joy in Mudville. The mighty Casey has struck out. The meeting's over now. Um before I begin, uh I just want to just really briefly u I'm I'm indebted I I'm sorry. Uh, I'm indebted to Rebecca Ellis, who's the town uh moderator in Waterberry. I I put this in front porch forum, uh, posted some really nice information about Robert's rules, and I'll just go over a few of these before we start. So, the discussion can only begin after an article is moved and seconded. Each person may speak once until everybody else who wants to speak has spoken. Motions can be amended but only once. So, excuse me. Motions can be amended and the amendment can be amended only once. Meaning you cannot amend to the third degree. U if you want a motion to call the question, meaning ending debate. In order to do that, you cannot shout that out from the floor. You must be recognized. And when you are recognized and you say, "I I wish to call the question or call the previous question." Either one is acceptable. That stops debate. That is won by a 2/3 majority. Um, you'll notice when I call for a voice vote, I'll ask for the yays and nays. I will say the yays appear to have it or the nays appear to have it. I will wait after I say that I am waiting for somebody to say division of the house which means you're not unsure of how I called the vote either yay or nay anybody who wants a division of the house you don't have to be recognized say division of the house and then we will count the votes by hand we can also on any um on any motion have a paper ballot I would ask you to please remember oh it takes seven votes to sustain a paper ballot. So the person who calls for it six others I would remind you that a paper ballot takes forever. So that's that. Um I also want to just acknowledge very quickly that Paula Emory is here to help me. Um Paula has been um she's been helping. I If you have an amendment, uh if you if you have an amendment and you can possibly write it down, that would be most helpful. If you need help formulating an amendment, I will do my very best to help you do that. Uh, and so and Paula is also has also um kept a cue and helps me because I don't hear very well and she can speak into my right ear. So with that said, before we take up article one, our representative, Representative Mark Mahali and Senator Andy Perlick are here with no objection by by unanimous consent or let me put it this way. Is there unanimous consent to allow our elected representatives to speak before the meeting? Yes. Okay. Yes, there is the unanimous consent. I wanted silence, but I'm going to take that as humanist consent. Ladies and gentlemen, Representative Mahali, Senator Pley. Uh, I didn't need to hear Casey at the bat after being in the legislature. I kept hoping that he'd hit the ball, but oh well. I kept hoping that Casey would hit the ball. It just reminded me too much of the legislature. Uh, so um, just first of all, where we are really quickly, we're about to be half over. that is not this Friday, next Friday, we have to have all of our bills out of our committees and over to the Senate. And same thing for them. So, they go like this. So, it's kind of hard to know what's going to happen, but just a few observations really quickly. One is um the the craziness in Washington is unfortunately affecting us. It it really uh the federal government's efforts at the state level are kind of collapsing. You know, there's just a lot of money that we used to get about a third of our budget, more I guess came from the federal government and it's going to be less. And Andy's going to tell you, he's head of appropriations in the Senate struggling with this. But I just tell my committee all the time, there's no money. You know, it's it's a real problem. Uh, also although I'm head of the housing committee, I care a lot about flooding. Guess why? And so I had a bill last session which created a study. And this session, uh, I think that bill has a real another bill to do disaster relief planning and set up a real system that works fast. I mean, fast. in the event of a problem at the dam. Uh so I just keep pushing that issue because I really believe Planefield and Marshfield and really East Montpelier all would be in terrible trouble if there's a problem at that dam. So we're working on it. Uh everybody knows that there's not enough housing and what we've got is too expensive. And so I'm just going to say I'm spending my time trying to make housing easier to permit less bureaucracy, trying to make it easier to finance and trying to make it a little harder to challenge. Not impossible but a little harder so that we get you know people who want to build can build. Um, I'm spending a lot of time this session on rural towns and helping small towns and like this one uh build if they want. Um, healthc care is a total mess as you know. I don't have to tell you, but we did pass legislation that makes it allows better negotiation over drug prices and that saved 230 million. That sound like a lot of money. It ain't. Compared to the total cost of health care, 230 million is a drop in the bucket, but it's something and we're continuing to work on it. Education. I think I'll let Andy talk about education. For me, just in a word, I think the most important thing is to figure out how to change the financing. I mean, we're spending more and more money and we're not getting the quality we want and everybody knows that. Um, the last thing I'll say is there are a number of bills in the House that would increase the tax rate for the most wealthy verters. I have to say, although generally I don't think there's much room for a lot more taxes in Vermont, the most wealthy Vermonters have received huge tax benefits from the federal government. They're just paying a lot less. And the federal government wants the states to take over everything. So, I think some of that savings has to come back to the state and I support that. Thanks, Mark. Yeah, and I and I agree. And there's work happening in the Senate. Your other one your your other two senators, Annne Watson and Cummings. Anne Cummings is on the chair of the finance committee, and they're working through a couple different ways of of taxing the the highest income brackets, moving a bracket like to those that are making over $500,000, having a new marginal tax above that. So, yeah, definitely support that. Hope hopefully we can find a way to get it past the governor cuz the governor has been very clear that he would veto anything like that. But maybe as part of the whole package on education, we would have something that the governor can support. On education, I wanted to just say that we're we're working on trying to, you know, maintain local schools. Some of us are m trying to maintain local control and and good schools, but at the same time, we hear that we and we know that we need to do something about property taxes and the and the whole education system as how complicated it is and how there isn't as direct connection to your vote on your local budget and what your taxes are. So, we're trying to fix that. So, I think we are there's agreement between the governor and the majority of the legislators that we should do something. will likely move to a foundation formula, but how the new districts get formed is really the sticking point. I'm supporting the the Senate Education Committee is trying to do a more bottom up or organic kind of decisions on how the new districts are created where the governor's proposal is more just top down. It's like Melier has to do it. We will decide. But I think that usually just doesn't work because they're going to make mistakes all different towns throughout the throughout the state. But I wanted to do a quick poll. I did this on Sunday in Marshfield. And also I want to say Jim, you guys are all packed in here. I feel guilty in Marshfield that we have the the the school. We're all spread out very comfortably when we're there. We probably don't have that many more people than you do here in Pipfield. Yeah. But it it's much cozier here. Um so if Twinfield was to merge with another district, I just a quick poll to see whether you would support which you would rather you have three choices. move towards U32, move west towards the Montielar area or the U32 district to kind of stay where we are or have our attention focused east to the Danville and the Calonia district or the third op option is you either don't care need more information or want something else. So if you just a show of hands who would would rather have Twinfield merge east to the U32 district. Okay, thank you. And who would rather stay with the Calonia or kind of east of the Danville area? St. J. Okay. And then who's who's the third option? Like don't care, don't know. Another option. Okay, that's helpful. That's similar to what the the vote was in in Marshfield. And uh I'm on I'm on the transportation committee and appropriations committee. I just wanted to say something about transportation. We're having trouble in the transportation fund as of the as the as we are with the general fund. The general fund is, as Mark talked about, the federal government, not that the government's not just pulling back, but they're also completely chaotic and erratic. They'll say, "You have 65 million, you don't have 65 million. Oh, there's 80 million coming, but we don't know when it's coming." So, it's very hard for the state to budget when there's they're drawing back. There's lawsuits. They're doing drawing back funds saying that they're just holding it, but they may give it to us later. So, it's making it very difficult to have the federal government as as a partner. and a lot of things. The one exception is on transportation. The federal government is meeting our kind of current needs for federal funding for transportation, but the state pays somewhere around 30% of all the transportation costs and our revenue through gas tax and other things is not keeping up. So, we're having trouble keeping up with the paving and the bridges and things like that. So, we're trying to figure that out. what's the best way to make that gap because we want to be able to pull down all the federal funds, but right now we have about a $30 million gap to we would leave kind of money on the table if we didn't find that find that money. And the one other thing that we're working on that I one thing that I've heard from constituents the whole eight years, seven and a half years that I've been there is about the our vehicle inspection system. And we've tried to amend it and work on it before because I've a lot of Vermonters have had a lot of trouble with getting their vehicles inspected, not feeling that it was a safety issue, but being told that it they had to get, you know, repairs done, $1,200 rotor jobs and things like that when they weren't really sure that the car only had 4,000 miles on it. So, I had a bill to get rid of safety inspections entirely. There's no evidence that it really makes your the straight the streets or the the populace more Yeah. Thanks. more safe. There's we're a one of only nine states that do annual inspections. You go to other states that don't have inspections, there's no there's not more accidents than there's not the crashes aren't worse. So, but the the DMV, the Scots administration doesn't support just getting rid of it. So, we're trying to work with DMV to just basically completely redo the inspection manual so that rust if your high beam light isn't on, you don't pass inspection. Right now, if you just have a small crack in a side window, you don't pass inspection. So, just get rid of all those. And so, it's really only some kind of very drastic like your brake lines are broken or something. And then everything else will just be a basically a warning. So, I'm I'm hopeful that we can make that major change to our vehicle inspection system so that Vermonters can drive their cars because it's a major expense. It's basically a just a an unvoted on tax for Vermonters to do all these repairs on their cars. And uh yeah, I think that's that's the update. The moderator has made it clear that I would strike out if if we took any more time. So, if you have questions or you want to talk to us, talk to us. You know how to reach me. And uh I'll just tell you right now, my personal email is mark my name. It's just markaholi.org. And send me an email. Reach out. Thank you, Mark. Okay, we're we're just about to Is this microphone on? Can you hear me well enough? Yes. Okay. Before we get into article one, I neglected to say at the beginning when you are recognized, each time you speak, please state your name. Um, and also uh today, um, when you are recognized, the microphone will be brought to you. I would ask you to stand unless you unless if mobility is a problem and you can't, of course, but it'd be it helpful if you stand please state your name every single time you speak. Absolutely. Call it. Um, I'm keeping stack, which means I'm going to take your name and and just cross you off when you've spoken and go to the next person. I may or may not know your name. And so I may ask you for your name, but I might I'll point to you when it's your turn. Okay? So, just you don't have to keep your hand up. Just when I do this, it means I saw you and I got you. All right? If you have a mask on, I might not recognize you. Thank you. Article one. Shall the general obligation bonds or notes in an amount not to exceed $700,000 subject to reduction by the application of federal and state grants and aid and reserve funds be issued for the purpose of constructing water system improvements namely replacement of the water line on school street. the estimated cost of such improvements being $700,000. May I have a motion on article one, please? It's been moved. Is there a second? Do we know who moved and seconded? I see Tim Phillips move. Discussion on article one. Peter, articles one, two, and three. Articles one, two, and three are the subject of the Australian ballot, not floor action. I thank you for the correction. Yeah, those are the things that are voting. I thought it was only uh article three that was that. So, never mind. Article four to hear reports on the town officers of hear reports of the town officers and act on the same. May I have a motion on article four? Been moved. Is there a second? Second. Second. We need names of this first and second uh and Phillips. Discussion. Discussion on Article four, Dan. Thank you. As much as I love Robert's rules, I we're about to hear about 15 different reports. And I wonder if since it's one article on the ballot, if we could just have one vote at the end of the 15 reports rather than having 15 different votes. Um, and so I guess I would make that uh an amendment to the motion. It it Okay. that we do one article vote rather than individual committee votes. Okay. It's been moved that we vote on all the town reports in one vote. Is there a second? Jeremy, discussion. Seeing none. It am I missing discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of voting on all the town reports and one say I. I. Opposed say no. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it and we will vote all in one. Is there any further discussion on the town reports? Any further discussion or questions on the town reports? Yeah, Charlie. Charlie, the mic is gonna come. Charlie, am I uh correct in that there is no treasures report in the town reports? Um, I'm not going to answer that. Peter, yes, there is no narrative report from the treasurer in the report. There are four normal financial reports. Two of them are printed and there is a note that the other two were not ready when this went to press and they will be posted on the town website when they are completed. Any other discussion on article 4, the town reports or questions on the town reports? Seeing none. Oh, in the back. Yep. Please go ahead. The mic is coming your way. I know we are in an electronic age, but I find the idea of publishing on the website essential reports that are late completely unacceptable. That's not I mean I I just I'm dumbfounded that anybody would think that was acceptable. Not everybody has access partially because some of us don't have really great internet access but other people just may not be internet savvy and it just seems like if that's the case then what the board should be doing is delaying town meeting until there can be complete reports available to people ahead of time to peruse. I know another time we had an insert in the town report at the town meeting and I think there needs to be a lot of thought about the process and what it means in terms of accessibility and transparency to follow that kind of process that was followed this time and previous times. Any other discussion on article 4? Seeing none, Carl. Yeah, I just have a comment to respond. By all means, uh, we do, Before you do, folks, I I I have a tendency not to look up sometimes. If you're up in the balcony, please make a noise so that you get recognized in case I don't look up there. Thank you. um we have a list of people that do not have access to electronic um reports and so they would have a report sent to them by mail. Um I don't know if that answers your concern but we do we do recognize people not everybody's online. Rose Paul. Yeah, Rose Paul. Um, I just would like a clarification. Uh, on the select board report, are we voting to accept the financial report as well as the narrative report? Yes, I believe we are. Well, I um Okay. Uh, somebody tell me if I'm wrong, please. Do you mean the budget? Well, there's the budget. Sorry, I'm gonna All I know is baby talk. There's the budget that is for the coming year. Yes. But then there's the finances that review the past year and the past year has no actuals in it. It just represents the budget for that year, but we don't know how the numbers worked out. So I guess with that clarification I I would like to have a separate vote on the select boards the ent the entire select board report. I I don't Rose I I I don't I don't think we I don't think we can reconsider the vote at this time since we already voted to accept them all at once. I I think it might be possible to reconsider the vote if somebody who voted on the winning side which would you can ask I think you can ask for reconsideration if did you vote I Rose? Yes. Then I believe you can ask I believe you can ask for reconsideration. I I'm not. Is that what you want to do? Yes, please. Okay. So, is there a second? So, it's been moved and Okay. It's been moved and seconded to reconsider the vote at Let me see if I can help. If If I say this, Rose, would your motion be I move that we reconsider the vote to take all the reports at once and discuss the select person's report? Is that a fair I I well I I would simply like to have the select board report separated out so if the that I like your wording but it's the rest of them can be lumped but the select it would only involve the select board report the what what I'm saying. So if you would if you would say I move that we reconsider the vote to take all the reports at once and have a discussion about the select board report. I didn't hear the discussion. It's not the discussion. I'm asking Rose to state her amendment. the vote. Well, what she said is she didn't want the select board report voted on with all the other reports. So, it's not a question of discussion. It's a question of being voted on separately if I'm understanding correctly. But that's not what you how you phrased it for I see Rose shaking her head. Yes. So, I'm thinking that what rather than saying to have the discussion separately, what you wanted to say is to have the vote separately for the select board report. Yes. I I I'm not sure I heard that. I think it was initially stated. Rose, are you asking for a discussion or a vote? I would like a separate vote, please. Okay. It's been moved and seconded that there be a separate vote, not discussion, as I understand. Thank you for the correction. All those in favor of having a separate vote. Peter. Yeah. Peter Young Bear, could I ask um a question of clarification what you're looking for here? You talked about um budget numbers. There is a vote a later article when we vote on the select board proposed budget, but it sounded like you were talking about something else. Other than the select board's proposed budget, the only other select board report is the narrative. I think you're asking, it sounded to me like you were asking something about the treasurer's reports. Well, I may not understand properly, but the whole financial report of the prior year there w there are normally actuals. How did that year end up? Were you under, over, what was the variance? I didn't see that in this year's report. Right. And that is there that is a notification. And it actually appears twice in the report that says those those two financial reports were not available and are not available. The we have been without a basically an acting treasurer since the middle of December and we have a contract with uh uh an accounting firm a CPA firm who is completing that work and that work is not yet done which is why it is not appearing. Okay. So maybe I misunderstood and I thought all those financials were part of the select board report. If they're part of the treasurer report and we're not voting on it because we don't have a complete treasures report then I'll withdraw my motion. Okay. Thank you Rose. Okay. Any further discussion on article 4? In that case, all those in favor of accepting the reports of the town Oh, article four reads to hear the reports on the town offices and act on the same. All those in favor of accepting the town reports, please say I. I. All opposed, no. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you have accepted the town officer's reports, the town town reports. Article five. Shall the town vote to raise appropriate and expend. Are you making a point of order, sir? Yeah, I am actually. What is your point of order? Philip Philip Paresi. Philip Paresi, you're not asking for abstensions. No. And aren't you is that isn't that part of Robert's rules? I don't believe it is. Huh. Okay. Well, then I'm glad you're not at the faculty assembly at London. Okay. Article five. Shall the town vote to raise, appropriate, and expend the sum of 600 $6,8336 for the support of rural community transportation incorporated to provide services to the residents of Planefield. May I have a motion on article 5, please? Moved and seconded. Scott. Okay. So, we got Scott moved and Tim seconded. Uhhuh. Discussion on article five. Yep. Dad. Can we record this too? I I'll just say obviously this is an important um infrastructure in our town, the rural community transportation and the actual sum they've asked for is totally flat. So they weren't asking for any more than we we gave last year. So um I think for both this and the um the next article, they're both flat uh requests from these transportation providers. So I hopefully we can all vote yes. Okay. Any further discussion? over here. Rebecca, um I just Oh, thank you. Um I just wanted to let people know and I am in support of this article, but I just wanted to let people know that they um just cancelled the mid afternoon route uh route to commuter route. So if anyone is relying on that there had they didn't I knew because a family member got a flyer on the bus but even calling to check if it was running this week um there was not a lot of information. It took a it was hard to get confirmation that yes indeed they canled that route. So, just want people to know that and um I would I would hope that there's an opportunity to try to get that back because I think that there are people that were relying on that. That was the um run that picked up in Planefield at like 3:25 or something like that on weekdays. So, just wanted to let people know that don't don't count on riding that wood anymore. Okay. Are you ready for the question on article five? Seeing none, the question is, shall the town vote to raise, appropriate, and expend the sum of $6,8336 for the support of Rural Community Transportation Incorporated to provide services to residents of the town of Planefield. All those in favor, please say I. I. Oppose. No. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you've accepted article five. Article six point of order. Yes. What is your point of order? I I missed something and it's uh regarding article 4 and I apologize that I couldn't speak about this earlier but I thought that the change in motion was to accept all the reports in one vote but we haven't actually heard the reports. For instance, we haven't heard from the energy coordinator. we have and when when do we actually hear the reports? Michael, I'm going to have to rule you out of order because we are we are beyond that and and it's just it is it is out of order because we've already accepted it. It would have been your argument is perfectly acceptable if it had been raised during that discussion, Michael. Okay. So, by the way, my ruling can be overruled by a majority if anybody wants to. So, so maybe I'll put it differently as a point of information. When will we hear the reports of the town officers? They're there. They they're they're in the there there usually is a verbal report. I mean, I'm just saying that in custom that's been the case. Yeah. I mean, I think during that point when when um Donnie asked if there was discussion 12 different times, that was the time if anybody wanted to speak to their report, they could have done so. Maybe that could have been clearer, but that is we've moved past that. So, I think there are there is the other other uh whatever the last article is, if folks really need to speak, they could always do it then. Yeah. I mean, I I frankly, and I don't want to take more any more time on it than you do, but I I thought we were voting after the reports, we would only vote once. In other words, we hear all the votes and only vote once. We would hear the reports and only vote once. And that's that's why I that's why I didn't discuss anything because I thought I was just voting about how many times we'd vote. That I can see where that is a confusion and I don't um that that that might have been confusing and I I'm not sure what to do. Yes, please state your name when you state your name. Carla Seagull and it's just it's I'm Carla Seagull and it was just our experience that people stand up and talk about their you know their reports and so we just expected that. I also thought that we were just saying that at the end we'd vote unless it seems like a other people thought that there's a hand in back. Yeah, you don't need to bring Mike all the way back here, but just affirming I also thought we were going to all Okay, thank you. Peter, do you okay Donnie I I I think the the what I would say at this point is I think those points are well taken. It was misunderstood. I don't know how to go back on the order at this point because we have gone beyond the article. So it would be wrong to go back. There was a chance to reconsider if it was misunderstood forever for whatever reason. I'm sorry. I didn't understand it. There was clearly confusion. But we don't I don't believe that it would be an order to go back after we have passed the article. Dan. Yeah. So article 14 which is the last article is to transact any other non-binding business that may properly become before the meeting. I think if there are folks who want to verbally report that don't get a chance to, they could stand and be recognized during that period. Say that again. Article 14, which is the non-binding. If let's say the uh emergency manager, emergency management director wanted to speak to his report, he could do it during that time. Um you could recognize him then and we could hear from the board. Come up under other business. Yeah, it's not called that, but yeah. Okay, we're going to move on. Article six. Shall the town of Planefield appropriate the sum of $1,49 Shall the town of Planefield appropriate the sum of $1,499 as its share of the 2024 year cost of commuter bus service along Route 2 with service into Montpillar. This appropriation funds a portion of the total cost of the service which will be supported by appropriations from other towns, state, federal funds, and passenger fairs. May I hear a motion on article six? It's been moved. Is there a second? We have 10 discussion. Peter I would move to amend. I think there's a typo there. That should read 2026, not 2024. Second. Excuse me. It should read 2020. It should read So, Peter, would you make that? I think it needs an amendment. Yes. Amen to read 2027 fiscal year. So, it's been moved. Is there a second? Jeremy M. Yes. So, it's it's been moved and seconded to amend article six to read. Shall the town of Planefield appropriate the sum of $1,499 as its share of the 2026year cost? to 27. The year of 27 cost the commuter bus service along route 2 with service into Montpillar. This appropriation funds a portion of the total cost of the service which will also be supported by appropriations of other towns, state and federal and passenger affairs. We are voting on the amendment. So your name please. This discussion on the amendment uh Timothy Buckston. So, so you are doing it correct now. You are voting on the amendment correct with the previous article. Dan made an amendment to act upon all the reports at once and what we should have voted on was voted on the amendment. If the amendment was accepted, then we would have voted that way. But anyways, the decision has made been moved forward. This is the correct way to do it. We're voting on the amendment and then we will vote on the are correct and it is my apologies. No, but it's okay. You are correct. We're good. Thank you. Again, Yep. I have a point of information on the on the article, not the amendment. So, I think we can do that in the other business when we get there. No, it's on the article. On the Okay. So, any further discussion on the amendment which basically changes the year 2024 to 2027. I won't read it again. Any further discussion on that amendment? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose. No. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you have amended article six. Any further discussion on article six as amended? We have Ren who's going to come down the stairs. I just have a point of information on uh article six which is how is it different than article 5? My understanding is that RCT rural community transit is the the agency that runs the route 2 commuter and then article six is about the route 2 commuter. I just don't understand the difference between the two line items. Yeah, folks are saying up here two different entities. Green Mountain Transit and Rural Community Transit. Do they both run? They're separate. Okay. Any further discussion on article six? Are you ready for the question? Yes. Right. Yep. Please say your name. And there's a microphone coming to you. Both of these rural transit companies have been cutting John Hosford uh have been cutting their routes regularly. Green Mountain Transit a lot last year. Is there anything in our contracts with them that we get money back when they stop servicing us? Any further discussion on article six as amended? Seeing none, all those in favor of accepting I I'll read the I'll read it again since it's amended. Article six as amended reads, "Shall the town of Planefield appropriate the sum of $1,499 as its share of the 2027year cost of commuter bus service along Route 2 with service into Montpillar. This appropriation funds a portion of the total cost of the service, which will be supported by appropriations from other towns, state, and federal funds and passenger fairs. All those in favor of accepting article 6, please say I. All those opposed, no. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you have accepted article 6. Article 7. Shall the town voters authorize the expenditures for the following nonprofit service agencies as recommended by the appointed social concerns committee. Capstone Community Action, $500. Central Vermont Basic Education, $400. Central Vermont Council on Aging, $1,450. Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice, $3,100. Circle, $525. Elevate Youth Services, $550. The Family Center of Washington County, $500. Good Beginnings, $400. Good Samaritan Haven, $1,250. Neighbors in Action, $250. Onion River Food Shelf, $1,000. Our House, $100. People's Health and Wellness Center, $1,000. Twin Valley Senior Center, $4,650. Twin Valley Together Mentoring Program, $250. Vermont Center for Independent Living, $175. Washington County diversion $400 for a total of $16,500. May I have a motion on article 7? Janna Osman. Who who? Janna. Okay. So, wow. Okay. This is really throwing me off. Janna moved. Second. Jeremy. Okay. The article. Thank you. discussion on article 7. Steve, state your name. Steven Farnum. Um, I'm not um proposing to change any of these because that's a very painstaking process. It'll take all day. Um, but what I would like to know is a little more information about the numbers. Um, I broke up my calculator last night and discovered that in some of these situations we're paying as little as a $166 per person served and on a couple of the others it was as much as almost $70 per person served. Some instances it was a family served as a as opposed to a person. And I guess I'd like a little more context about what this means. Um, you know, maybe some of these organizations have significant funding from elsewhere and they're just looking for a matching grant and maybe others. This is the only money they get. I think a little more information about that would be helpful to understand how these numbers are arrived at further discussion. Judy Judy Judy Cypri and I'm a member of the social concerns committee. Uh, can you hear me now? Okay. Judy Cyprien, I'm a member of the social concerns committee. Would it be helpful if I explained the process? So, towns put in a request for funding every year and then we consider that requests. We h I have to say we think all the um organizations that put in requests are totally worthy of our support but we have to consider the budget and you know what the town can afford. So, we look at the um requests and we have uh some criteria that we use to make our decisions about um how much funding. And some of that criteria is what are they asking for? How much of an increase is it? Um how uh how unique are their services to Planefield? Are they local, which we support more than a statewide organization? how many people do they serve? So, there's a lot of things that we consider and so we really base it on what was their request, have they been uh somebody that we funded in the past, which isn't I mean we also fund new things and we just try and make a decision. We don't break it down into how much per person is also a member. Look, you have to be recognized now. you are. Okay. Hi, I'm Marcy Holly and I'm also on the social concerns committee. And the other thing about the numbers is that the groups asking for money tell us sometimes how much they're spending. So, it's not equal for groupto. So, one group might say it costs $100 per family and another group might say it costs $25 per person. It just varies. And some of them are just asking for um a show of support so that they could get other major funding and they're not really asking for us to give significant support. So it varies so much from group to group. And some I I really think they should ask for more. Not that we can give more, but it really is based on what they ask for. We can't give them more than they ask for. One group actually asked for less. I don't know if that was on purpose or not, but that's what they did. Um, yeah, it just varies so much. Does that help? Are you ready for the question or are there more? Is there more discussion? Seeing none, if you are ready for the question, the question is, shall the town voters authorize the expenditures for the following nonprofit services as recommended by the appointed socials concerns committee for a total of 16,500. But I won't read them all. All those in favor, please say I. I. Oppose. No. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you have passed article 7. Article 8. Shall the town voters authorize an appropriation of $56,000 to the Cutler Memorial Library to pay for the librarian, a library assistant, and the purchase of materials and services, including those to make the library accessible to the community. So moved. It's been moved. Is there a second? Second Carla. See move. It's been moved and seconded to accept article 8. Discussion. Seeing none. All those in favor of article 8, please say I. I. All those opposed, no. Eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you've passed article 8. Article nine. Shall the town approve $311,874 for the operation of the water department for the period of July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027 to be paid for by the rateayers of the system. May I have a motion on article 9? been moved by moved. Second, second moved and seconded. Discussion on article 9, please. Steve, uh, I would say say your name again. Steven Farnum. I would like to amend that to state the users of the system, not the rateayers, because the rateayers doesn't tell you who they are. Okay. So, Steve, you you want to amend this? Exactly the same just substitute users for rate payers. So the mo is is there a second to this amendment? Second. What's your name? Okay. So now we are on the amendment. It has been moved and seconded that article 10 shall read, "Shall the town approve $392,55 for the operation of wastewater department for the period of July 1st, 2026 to July 3027 to be paid for by the users of the system. Article nine, I'm sorry. Article nine by the users of the system. Any further discussion on the amendment? Dan, so just for clarification, the rateayers in the system are the users of the system. The reason we use rateayers is the Vermont League of Cities and Towns attorneys have told us that's the best way for us to word this. We should be using rateayers because we wouldn't want a situation where there was some sort of weird definition of user that if you're gone for 6 months, you're only half a user or something like that. So, I would say we should reject this amendment because it makes it unclear who's paying the bill. Whereas rateayers is a clear distinction in law and with the water and wastewater department. So, please vote no on this amendment. Further discussion on the amendment up in the balcony. Just to say, we need your name, please. User could be a renter, but they're not the paying it. They're paying rent. So, it should be the property owners. Further discussion on the amendment. Seeing none. Yep. I I can yell Jeremy Matt. Um, we should follow the advice or follow the advice of the lawyers is what I think. Then then you would vote apparently for according to Dan then you would vote no on this amendment. Correct. So any further discussion on the amendment? The amendment as put forward would read, "Shall the town approve $392,55 for the operation of the weight wastewater department for the Oh, I'm I'm sorry. I They all look the same. I'm going to take a vacation when this is over. We're on nine." Yeah. Shall the town approve $311,874 for the operation of the water department for the period of July 1st, 2026 to June 30, 2027 to be paid by the users of the system. That's the amendment. That's what we're voting on. No, we're voting on the amendment now. Am I We're voting on the amendment now. This is That's the amendment. Every now and again I'm correct. The amendment basically changes rateayers to users. Is is everybody clear? And are we ready for the question? All those in favor of the amendment which basically changes rateayers to users say I. I. All opposed say no. No. The naysay appear to have it and the naysay do have it. And we are back to the original article 9. Any further discussion on article 9. Seeing none. If you are ready for the question. The question now is, shall the town approve $311,847 for the operation? We're here, right? Article 9. Shall the town approve $311,874 for the operation of the water department for the period of July 1st, 2026 to June 30, 2027 to be paid for by the rateayers of the system. All those in favor, please say I. I. All opposed, no. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. Point of order. What is your point of order? Amen. I think now we're finally on article 10. Article 10. Shall the town approve $392,55 for the operation Oh, that for the operation of the wastewater department for the period of July 1st, 2026 to June 30, 2027 to be paid for by the rateayers of the system. Can I have second further discussion on article 10? That's hard to accept that as discussion. In that case, if you are ready for the question, the question is, shall the town approve $392,55 for the operation of weight wastewater system for the period of July 1st, 2026 to June 30, 2027 to be paid by the rate payers of the system. All those in favor of article 10 say I. I. Oppose. No. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you've passed article 10. Article 11. Shall the town approve total fund expenditures of I had to rehearse this number. Shall the town approve the total fund expenditures of1,842,4744 to pay for administrative operations, fire and rescue department and highway department of the town of Planefield for the period of July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, of which 1,326,786 $747 sh 44 cents. It's just three cents for God's sake. Shall be raised and I'll start from the beginning. Article article 11. Shall the town approve a total fund expenditure of1,842,44744 cents to pay for the admin pay for administrative operations fire and rescue department and highway department of the town for the period of July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 of which 1,326,00 78744 shall be raised by taxes and $515,260 by nonrevenue by non- tax revenue. May I have a motion? I move that this article be postponed to a date set by the select board after full financial reports have been received. I don't see how we can possibly do a vote on this without having complete financial reports. My motion is that this be postponed and not voted on at this meeting. That's not a point of order. That's a motion. It's a motion on the article to not vote on it during this meeting. It's not out of order. You weren't you weren't called. You don't have to. Everybody else goes so moved. And so I don't go so moved. I move that we do not vote on it at this town meeting and it be it will be be voted on at a date certain after all the financial reports have been received. You got me confused that you have not been recognized right now. You are out of order. You need to be recognized to speak. Can you recognize me, please? There is also no second so far. Did you have a point of order? I have moved. Scott moved. I will second. Second. I'm sorry. I don't know what I Scott moved. Tim seconded. Now we're at discussion. Okay. So now we're at discussion of the motion. Do you wish to make an amendment, Sasha? Do you wish to make an amendment? You may make an amendment. discussing. I'm I'm moving that we not vote on this, not to make an amendment to the content. I am moving that the that the vote on this article 11 be delayed to a time after which all the financial reports have been received. I'm not asking to delay the entire town meeting, but I'm asking and moving that this article not be voted on at this town meeting and be voted on at a subsequent town meeting at a date set by the select board after all financial reports have been received, including Are are you moving to postpone to a definite time? I'm not moving to postpone to a definite time because so far nobody has any idea when the audit when the you know finan formal financial audit will be done. So I am moving to postpone vote on this article to a date set by the select board after all financial reports rel have been received including the financial report for the previous year. Can you put it in writing please? It would be very helpful if you could put your most I think what you're trying to do is postpone indefinitely. That that that that's what I see on as I understand by Robert's rules of orders that you it would be very helpful Sasha if you would put your amendment in writing please. Well, I don't know what the effect of postponing indefinitely is. And I do want to I do want to relate it to a time to be set by the select board after all the financial reports have been received, including the one for the done by the auditors. I'll try and write it out, but you probably have a recording somewhere. Dan, I I I won't weigh in on on this postponing, though. I do believe in Robert's rules, you either have to postpone to a date or postpone indefinitely. Those are your two choices. You you can't postpone to other action. But what I wanted to say is so, you know, we haven't had a town treasurer who's been uh physically able to do the job since early December. And so I just wanted to explain how the select board came to a budget that we have today. So when we knew Josh was out, um the board selected two of us, Peter Young Bear and myself, to work independently on the budget. We contracted with Sarah Macy who is the director of finance for the city of St. Albins's. And so we worked through um our um our budget. We worked with all the different departments within the town for how much they've spent re you know in the last years and this year. Um, we did also speak with the Balchelder and Associates who were the auditors who we've been working with and using their financial acumen along with a lot of input from all of the different departments and volunteers and folks in town, we created this budget that is a little uh a little under 2% under last year's taxed amount. So, it's actually not even a flat budget. It's a it's a negative budget partly because we have um some funding we're able to pull across from this budget into next year's budget and those numbers were verified by Sarah Macy the the uh financial director of the city of St. Albins's along with the folks at the batch elders and associates. So we worked very dig diligently for about 2 months to come up with those numbers. Um and um it is not an issue of us not knowing what the budget should be, what we spend or any anything else. There are some official reports, some official auditing reports that just take time that we don't have because we didn't have a treasurer for those times. Um it is not a situation where we are um we don't know what's going on in the town finances. So I think that's probably fair and I don't know if Peter has anything to add but um I I am reading the two choices um it seems to me uh parliamentary are either to postpone to a definite time or postpone indefinitely. I have been handed this in Vermont town. This is from Robert's rules of order. In Vermont town meetings which are governed by Robert's rules of order as modified by state as modified by state statute. The motion to postpone indefinitely acts as a procedural tool to kill a main motion a warrant article without having to take a direct vote on the issue itself. Here are the specific effects and rules for this action in Vermont. final disposition for the session. If a motion to postpone indefinitely is adopted, it effectively defeats the original main motion article for the duration of that specific town meeting. It avoids avoids direct vote. It is used when the assembly does not wish to vote yes or no on a sensitive, embarrassing or badly worded motion, allowing them to avoid talking a direct position. No automatic reconsideration. Once an article is postponed indefinitely, it cannot be brought back in the same meeting. Limits on reconsideration. While it kills the motion for the current meeting, it does not prevent the issue from being warned and brought up at a future or annual or special meeting. Procedural requirements debatable. The motion to postpone indefinitely is debatable and debate can include the merits of the main motion. It requires a majority vote rank. It is the lowest ranking subsidiary motion, meaning it cannot be made while other motions like amendments or to postpone to a specific time are pending. Distinction from table. It is often misused for the motion to lay on the table. In Vermont, Robert's rules for postponing indefinitely is attended for the final disposal, not a temporary delay. The context of Vermont town meeting articles except for the election of candidates generally cannot be passed over but it can be postponed indefinitely. Those are the rules as I was just understanding. So there is a motion on the floor. Do we have it there? Steven's hand is up. It was just a point of order that we had a motion that hasn't been seconded that I've heard. So, this is Jeremy, by the way. Right. It's been seconded. Oh, it has? Yes, it's been seconded. So, we have Steve with Carla, but are you He hasn't called discussion yet. Sasha made a motion that hasn't been seconded that I But we need to hear Sasha's motion. You don't have to be recognized for a point of order. You can just stand up and say it and we'll hear the point of order. Um, I just felt confused if we were in discussion or not or We are not in discussion yet. Okay. Um, but we're going to be, right? Hopefully. Hope springs eternal. Okay. Is this Sasha's amend? Well, this is right. Sasha, are you moving to postpone to in are you moving to postpone indefinitely which in effect as we just read kills the motion? Well, it doesn't it kills it at at this town meeting as you mentioned in two separate times in that account and I appreciate that account. So, I am I I I think my motion would have worked, but my motion would be I moved to postpone the vote on article 11 to an indefinite date um after all financial reports have been received, including those for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. Hey, thank you. Will you hand that up, please, Steve? Okay, it's been moved and it is now that this is an official motion. Is there a second? Because we really didn't have an official motion until this. Now there's an official. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. Now there's discussion on the amendment. Let me as soon as Paula gets this, I shall I'll do my best. Sasha, you're going to need to fill in some blanks probably or send it up. Sasha, can you send your your your up here so I can read it correctly? Thank you. Sasha has moved. Sasha says, "I move to postpone the vote on article 11 to an indefinite to to an indefinite date a t sorry postpone on article 11 to an okayite to I I move to postpone article 11 uh to an indefinite date after all financial reports have been received including those for 2025 and 2026 fiscal year. Sasha, do I have your amendment correct? I think so. Okay, it's been moved discussion. We are now on the on Sasha's amendment, Steve. So, it appears to me, say your name every time, Stephen Farnum. It appears to me that um we have the option of indefinite postponement or a date certain that we don't have, excuse me, a date certain or indefinitely. It doesn't seem like we have any other option, but we could have a date certain if the select board could say we might have this information ready by a certain time and then we could uh set that date. And the reason I raised this point is I assume if we're going to postpone this vote, we'll have to convene a second meeting to vote on it. Am I correct, Steve? I think that what you can do if you want to is amend Sasha's amendment from indefinite to a certain time. Well, I'm asking for a recommendation because I not from me. You're not going to get one. Well, there's a select board up there. Can they give a date that we can use that we can set? Are you making I I'm sorry, Steve. I I don't I'm confused. I need to know what your I would make a motion if I had a date to move it to is my point. That is out of order at this point. Okay. So, we have we have a few people. Okay. We're on the amendment. Janna, Charlie, Carl, Jana, Michael. Okay. Folks got that. I have the mic in my hand. You have wives. That doesn't matter. Janet, no. No dispensation for wives. Uh, thank you, Charlie Cogbell. Uh, actually, I have been pondering this exact problem for the past since I received my annual report. I think there's a confusion between the financial report and the budget. The financial report is for the treasurer and assistants and the auditors to present what has happened in the past. The um budget proposal is a proposal of the select board. Now we're snookered because the select board could not take into account what the auditors haven't gone over. But the select board budget can stand alone without having those. In fact, I would predict that if we postponed it, we might end up with financial reports, but we would end up with basically the same budget, which is what should be on the table here. So, what I suggest is that we have a discussion. we defeat the amendment to pass over or excuse me the motion to pass over and then consider the budget. Yes, we have all heard that the financial reports are coming. Who knows when the town has an audit that's ongoing. The town has consultants. The town has two select board members that have gone in great detail over what this budget should be. I think we should get on and discuss the budget and not worry about what is missing that will not change things. Carlos Seagull again. I don't mean to cause trouble, but um information is everything and some of us have it and some of us don't. And I do trust our elected officials, but we audit for a reason. Um I don't think we should put the cart before the horse. I think we should mind our P's and Q's. And I think it's the end of democracy when we start saying, "Oh, trust us. It's fine. We're supposed to be here to look at the information. We're supposed to have time to consider the information. And I just don't think we should rush past that. Will you pause one sec? You need to pause. Just one moment. The moment to recess. Um I only got No, I mean Charlie, we I don't we need we don't need to record it word for word. So then Janice, okay, Jan. Yes, you have a point of information, too. Oh, okay. Thank you, Janice. I wanted to support I wanted to say exactly what Charlie said. Okay. Is there any further discussion on the amendment? Michael and J. Michael Billingsley. Uh I just wanted to say I think this is appropriate that in our uh ongoing fiscal year which ends in the at the end of June um our present fiscal year is the one that has already been budgeted and the budget was approved in last year's town meeting that we're living by. I just speaking for emergency management um have not expended all my budget and to report on it in part of the year. In other words, if somebody wants what's going on with emergency management, how long how much of your budget that we allocated for you have you spent so far? We often spent somewhere close to 40% of our budget in the last three months of the fiscal year. And it wouldn't be helpful you for you necessarily to know that unless we're vastly off track. So at any point that a report is made about the current year, it's always going to be a shifting landscape because each of the departments is spending money as it goes along as the need arises. So I personally don't feel we're going to gain much by changing the date at which we examine the financial data. Further discussion on the amendment. Uh Jeremy Jeremy amendment. That's a lot. Okay. Which is it? Yeah, Jeremy first, I believe. Uh Jeremy, Matt, um I also think that we have enough information to vote. We know what the costs are. I'd also be concerned about, you know, these important uh things that we're trying to fund here being left without a budget indefinitely until we get some financial reports that we don't know when they're going to arrive. Um I don't know. I I just I I think that Charlie said it really well. So yeah, vote no. Allison Joyo Saria, uh my question is if we don't pass this today, uh how does this affect for example salaries of our road crew, etc. Dan, you want to respond to that? So the budget year starts July 1st and so as long as a budget is passed by July 1st it wouldn't have any effect. I mean even beyond that there's provisions if we didn't somehow pass a budget for what our budget would be. So it's not going to affect anybody's salaries. Folks are getting paid regularly. Okay. Any other further discussions? Betsy it's coming. Hi Betsy Zigler. Um, I'm just disappointed. I feel like this is no way to run a business. Um, this is our town business and we should know what we've spent. Even if it's threequarters of the money spent, I have beyond a regional plan, regional solid waste district, and I sit through long meetings of looking at spread sheets and looking at quarterly reports. I mean, this is how you should be running an organization. And I'm sorry this person who was our treasurer is was unavailable, but it seems like we're late in getting fixing that problem. Karen, you Karen Hatcher. Um, I just want to say that I appreciate all the work that the board did to try and figure out this budget. And I also want to just acknowledge that Josh Pittz put in a lot of time and energy and effort into creating the beginning of this budget. And um yeah, it it is unfortunate that he took ill, but I think life's not perfect. You know, we've been dealing with a lot of things and this board has taken on a lot. And I uh I think that the kind of expertise that you went and got in Sarah Macy and the Bachelder Group um consulting with the League of Cities and Towns and doing your best work to create a budget that we um you know that all of us who worked on it um feel pretty good about. I think uh you know I would just say for me it's a we should go ahead Any any further discussion on the amend on on the on the on the motion? It's not an amendment. It's a motion. Any further discussion? Steve, can you just clarify? If we're voting no on this motion, that means it's going to be defeated and we get a second chance to vote yes on the budget or the amendment. If you vote no, the amendment will be defeated and we will go back to the original uh article. Is that is that what you're asking? Yes. Any further discussion on the amendment? Glenda, is your hand up? I'm sorry. Okay. Seeing none, I shall read um Sasha's amendment. Sasha, please again correct me if I if I get this wrong because um which are Sasha moves to postpone the vote on article 2 to an indefinite date after all financial reports have been received. Article 11 I didn't Oh, article 11. Yeah. I thank you. I move to postpone the vote on article 11 to an indefinite date after all financial reports have been received including those for 2526 fiscal year. All those in favor of the amendment say I. All those opposed say no. No. The nos appear to have it and the nays do have it. And we are back to the original article. Further discussion on article 11 if you are ready for the question. Yep. Betsy. Okay. I'm looking at the I think I'm looking at the budget. Um where in the budget is there money allocated for the Central Vermont Solid Waste Planning District? I don't see it. What? What p? What under what area? Aren't we talking about the budget? Am I? Sorry. Am I at the wrong No, I I think that we're on article 11, which which does not I'm Yes. I Okay, maybe I'm in the wrong spot, but I'm looking I'm asking the select board where in the select board's budget did they allocate money for the Central Vermont Solid Waste Planning District? Thank you. Okay, Dan. Yeah. So, we have a a section of the budget called Public Safety. Um, oh, I'm looking at the Let me see if I can find it on the pages because I'm looking at the spreadsheet. Page 46. Number 75. Number 75, apparently. Um, you guys are there faster than me because I was looking at the spreadsheet. There you go. It should be $1,900 for solid waste. Okay. Page 46, line 75. Thank you. That wasn't clear to me. Okay, Bob Atinson, energy coordinator. On page, I talked with Carl about this yesterday, but on page 45, line 64, the energy conservation budget was put into the conservation commission budget. So, I just like that to be weeded out. It's not going to change the amount at all in the overall budget figure, but I just like that to be What's up, Johnny? So, uh, in in an effort to make our computer system work better, Josh has been was implementing some changes. It's really hard for our system if if if like literally one thing is its own department. So, like energy. So, we've been grouping things into departments. So, your $500 budget is still your budget. It's just the way that it comes out on here. And the Conservation Commission has their own written. We just have to group things. So like for example, solid waste being part of the public safety um grouping. It's just the way that our online system works. And so we're trying to have this budget match what we use in the online system so there's less confusion as we actually try to track things. I know there's been a regular problem of folks not knowing exactly how much might be in certain accounts or which committees have which budgets left. And so we're try as in a way to do that and we may be able to turn change the title of it in the future from conservation commission to environmental commissions or something. But that's the reason they're together. Okay. It's not that they're in control of the budget. Well, in trying to avoid confusion, you created confusion. Confusion for you, less confusion for office staff. All right. Okay. Further discussion. Article 11. Charlie. Yeah. Charlie Cogville. Um, I've always been confused whether we can line item change the budget. That's uh just a qu an open question. We certainly can change the bottom line, but I'm not going to address that right now. The only thing in the budget that this body has control over are the salaries paid town officers. That's by statute and by our charter. That's a point of information. I want to jump on to the budget itself. The budget itself, it proposes about 15% more expenditures, but that is balanced by revenues, two lines of revenues. One hold harmless $180,000 and another um priyear surplus. I hate to say who determined prior year's surplus after all the discussion, but there's $200,000 in in the budget. That brings the budget below levelfunded um uh tax uh needs uh from the town. I would hope that the the various items such as the flood received as revenues for reimbursement that would come in in this fiscal year. I would assume that there are many other things that are totally unable to estimate. But as it sits now, we have a better than level budget and we have an opportunity to vote that which is our taxes. I would say with all the uncertainties, this is about the best we're ever going to get. Yeah. So, I I support voting that as the budget and let it play out as it plays out. And we might hope to have $200,000 more in previous year because it was wrong. Any further discussion? Yeah, just I'll just explain the the uh previous year surplus. So, um, a big part of our flood work is actually like our road crew spending time and energy on flood recovery, flood repair stuff. And so, we're paying them in this year, we're paying their salaries and things like that in this year. And so, when when we get reimbursed, a lot of the reimbursement money comes right to the town. And so, not all of it, but some of it is what we're push we're putting forward. And I'll say Josh um Josh Pittz had a whole spreadsheet of of I mean I think he feels we could have a bigger number there. Um but in working with Sarah Macy who's the director of finance from St. Albinstown and working with our auditor we felt the most conservative and comfortable number that we could put as prior year surplus was the 200,000. I will say Peter and I spent a frantic four or five days getting ourselves to a budget that was even or at 2% without that 200,000 and then we reinstated funding once we found out for sure that that 200,000 was there. But we did have a plan A, plan B scenario in case we decided we couldn't um do the surplus. But so three different folks, our treasurer, um the director of finance from St. Albins, and our auditor all felt that that 200,000 was a justifiable and pretty conservative number. Further discussion article 11 if you are ready for the question. The question is, shall the town approve total fund expenditures of 1,842,4744 cents to pay for administrative operations, fire and rescue department and highway department of the town of Planefield for the period of July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, of which 1,326,000 78744 shall be raised by taxes and $515,260 by non re by non- tax revenue. All those in favor of article 11, please say I. I oppose. No. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you've passed article 11. Article 12. Article 12 reads. Shall the town of Planefield authorized the select board to apply any surplus from the current fiscal year to reduce taxes in the next fiscal year. May I have a motion on article 12, please? Second, Jeremy. been moved and seconded to pass article 12. Discussion. Seeing none, all those in favor of article 12 say I. There. Yep. Go ahead. Sorry. There was Garfield Barn. I was just Garfield Barn. your name, please. Garfield Barnes. And I was just wondering if anything that was left over could be reserved as a contingency for, you know, like a rainy day, rather than going through and having to have everybody get back 57 cents or $2 and whatever, whatever it might be. Is that possible? Well, it is it is our choice. So, what typically happens is if there's un unattributed surplus at in June at the end of June before anybody gets a tax bill, that surplus would then be um put towards the next year and then the tax bills would be decided on. So, the idea is is it would buy down tax bills before the tax bills happen. And so this taxable amount that we just set of um to raise of 1,326,000 etc could become smaller if we have extra money. So that that's the idea. Um we definitely don't have to do that. It's I think what we've done at least as long as I've been in town, but it is a way for us to ensure the lowest tax rate possible for the residents of of Planefield. Further discussion on article 12. If you're ready for the question. The question is, shall the town of Planefield authorized the select board to apply any surplus from the current fiscal year to reduce taxes in the next fiscal year? All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. No. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you've passed article 12. Article 13. Shall the town vote to accept the provisions of public statutes relating to the collection of taxes by the town treasurer? VSA section 30 VSA 32 section 4791 and vote to collect municipal taxes 30 days from mailing and not prior and not prior to August 19, 2026. and collect school taxes on November 18, 2026 and February 10, 2027, collecting half the total school taxes on each of those dates. May I have a motion on article 13? Been moved. Is there a second? Second. Discussion on article 13. Seeing none. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. No. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you've passed article 13. Article 14 to transact any other business that may properly come before the meeting. Michael Uh thank you, Michael Billingsley. Um I wanted to take this opportunity because um it's going to be um pretty clearly to me my last um report as emergency management director. Um I announced uh to the select board in uh November uh I think that I was planning to step down in the spring. It was pretty it was a soft date initially. Um although I did have uh May 1st as my assistant is leaving her job and I felt it would be hard to continue after that uh in full capacity. But um I fell down a flight of stairs in December and and uh tripped at the top and and and uh permanently pulled a tenant away from my shoulder and and uh had a concussion and stuff. And so I pretty much saw that as a sign that I better be definite. I knew that exhaustion and distraction played into that and I don't think at this point I didn't want to celebrate my 80th birthday in June and still be in this capacity. So I'm pulling away from it. But in the context of doing that I also wanted to say that what lies ahead on some level I can be very optimistic about. Um we have uh and on on another level I'm I'm feeling a little bit glum. Um but uh first of all we do have and and probably I should say for the first time in a long time we have a very solid public safety presence and I'm using public safety in this context not the way it's written in the budget but the way it's defined at the state level there is a department of public safety underneath of it are the police are the which would be equivalent to our constable there's also emergency management there's also hazard mitigation there's also um all of the attendant things to keep people safe. That's what public safety is. And here in uh town, we have um a really wonderful team right now with a constable, a public health um uh officer, a uh emergency management coordinator, um um animal control officer, an emer and an emergency management assistant and GIS mapper. And in order to go forward to have those services continued to be present for the town, I'm laying and have been laying that groundwork for the last 6 months. So I can announce that I have two very strong candidates to take my place and that they will be stepping into position when I retire on the 1st of May. Um I'm also working on finding the funding to have another emergency management assistant paid for in this case by Americanore starting in the summer. Um working under the new person who would take my place. So we can look forward to that. And then in the past of course we've had an enormously uh grueling year actually as Karen Hatcher certainly can speak to and Josh. But our funding group started out with all of the multiple ways in which we've lost money in which we've been hurt as a town by a constant procession of floods and and um financial disasters in a sense because there's a lot of costs going out and we still don't know that all of those costs and monies are going to come back. Um and so with our volunteers, people um who have put in tremendous amount of time, we've pulled through that particular rough patch. We're now waiting to see what the federal government would do. I mean, I'm familiar and as most of you are that floods and um we're about our biggest issue all along in history. I mean, I grew up in Northfield and went to elementary school there and I saw floods in Northfield and there are floods in any valley town and we're going to see those again in the future. What we've always counted on is having the federal government assist us. We've always counted on the fact that when we and it's through the state a lot of that funding comes. The state receives a big chunk of money from FEMA. And what I now know is that this war that has just gotten engaged in in the last three days is costing a billion dollar a day. That money is coming from the quote savings accomplished by Doge as they gutted federal department after federal department and took away many of the skilled people that have helped our country navigate through enormous disasters. We've lost a skilled team or part of a skilled team and we're lost the money. just got the notification on Thursday that FEMA, which has taken a lot of its budget under the decision of the director of Homeland Security under which FEMA is, they're almost out of money. They haven't been putting new money in and they have not been basically squirreling away money for an increasingly uh damaging future from the point of view of climate. So, we're all going to have to pull together a whole lot more than we have and our state will be greatly stressed because the 30% or so of what our disaster recovery costs and it come in some instances up to close to 75% has been coming from the feds may not come anymore. So, I'm just kind of warning you in a in a in an encouraging way to to to to believe that yes, Vermont is probably in a better position to weather all of the likely disasters that are still heading down the pike toward us because climate is not getting any cooler. The num amount of moisture in the environment is not reducing, it's increasing. Which means the storms that we have will continue to both both pound us and perhaps pound us more water than even we experienced last year, which is unbelievable and hard to take in. So I want all of you to pull together, please, to put aside the bickering, to put aside all the ways in which you might not comfortably work together because we're going to need to work together. We need to be a team no matter what our backgrounds are, our education, whether we voted for or against Trump, whether or not we uh support any particular kind of political party. This is a Vermont town with a long history and a lot of that history has included disasters where people have pulled together in the past. I'm encouraging you to continue to do that again in the future. And I hope from the town's point of view that we can have a skilled emergency management team working to uh see our way through each disaster as it occurs. But I thank you for all your support, for the select board support, and for everyone else's support. And let us go forward hopefully with optimism and collaboration. Thank you, Michael. I know I speak for this entire town when I say to say you have gone above and beyond is the understatement of the year. Michael has been phenomenal. Thank you so much for all you've given. Other business, Becky? Yes, pies. We still have some pie slices here. And um if you've already had a piece and would like to put your used fork in this container, we will give it back to you next year. But but it'll it'll be it'll be clean other. So please please bring um your forks back and come and get another piece of pie. We've got about I don't know how many but they look wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Bob, are you per usual? Michael is a extremely hard act to follow, but I just wanted to give you a quick little summary from energy coordinator. Um, we've started to spend down the municipal energy resilience program grant money, MERP, and the town garage has benefited from two brand new overhead doors that guess what? You don't have to climb down out of the grater to get the door open by pulling the chain valve. push a little button and it goes open for you. So, there's a big improvement there that I'm hoping is much appreciated. And we've also contracted for solar array for the roof of the town garage. And I was able to get the group net metering thing in place so that that power can be shared throughout the other buildings owned by the town. That's going on. I'll be we're going to have a few meetings with the quote building managers coming up and seeing what we can best do for each facility as we go down through that. It's been really difficult. Everybody knows by having budget cuts that Michael was referring to, we've lost the 30% incentive as of the end of last year. There are still opportunities through efficiency Vermont because by rateayers as a demand side utility. So would you please read the my report and the um town report and if you got any questions please see me and we will see if we can work out the best way together. Solar still remains a very good value and a way to make power that is not involved with the fossil fuels of the world. Take care. Thank you. Okay. It's it's going to be uh next up Paula Karen and then Jeremy. I have a question. I'm Paula Emory. Can you hear me? Are your hands up? Okay, you're on stack. I have a question about page 21, statement of delinquent taxes. Um, the amount the balance owed for 2024 seems so high, 55,000. And I was wondering if anybody on the select board could speak to that. Is is does this have to do with the flood? Um, is this are these taxes are people who lost their homes still responsible for paying taxes? And I I just would love to hear a little bit of information about how that works. Peter, Sasha, here's your notebook. U Peter Young Bear. Um Paul, I heard two different questions there. The uh I'll take the second one first. Do people who lost their homes um are they still paying taxes? The answer is yes. But in most cases, the listers, if not all cases, and the listers can correct me here if I'm wrong, but the land values and house values were um much reduced. Um there was a major um I I can't remember how many some 30 32 36 properties where we abaded taxes um in the the year immediately following the flood and then the reappraisals um took those reduced values uh into account. Um, so that's that. The first part of your question had to do with the delinquent tax collectors report and I was just um trying to look back to the year before um from last year's report. It is not unusual to see the high number in the most recent year. Um what it doesn't show this was this is also for the year that ended June 30th. So it's not what's going on in the current year that is this is the report for the year that ended already. So Karen Steve got Steve. Thank you. Uh, I just wanted to take a moment to thank and acknowledge Carl Bix. Um, You are well loved, Carl, and you will be missed on this board, but I'm sure you will be everywhere the way you have been. I just have been honored to work with you these last two years. There is no one with a bigger heart for this town than you. And I don't know what I would have done without you as a partner. And I just want to say how much I love you. and I I appreciate all that you've done and all the ways that you have le led during these really really difficult times. So, thank you for being my friend and for being our friend. Appreciate it. Karen, I would just like to take the a moment to say amen. Um Jeremy Jeremy, you're up. Hi everyone. Well, that was a tough act to follow. Um just wanted to give a quick update on uh CV Fiber. I don't really have anything uh prepared. Um but some uh really good news. We got a rather large grant from the federal government that will allow us to continue building and we'll build out the rest of our network. Uh we are going to all addresses that are on grid is kind of the a little bit of the line. There's some detail there. If you want to talk to me, I'm over here. Um the other good news is that Planefield is kind of front of the line. Um Planefield, Marshfield, Orange, that area is where our first phase of build is going to be once the bead funding arrives. However, that is a little bit of a uncertainty because there's so much federal red tape that needs to be completed. There's, you know, this review and that review and environmental reviews. Um, I don't have a firm date still, which is frustrating. you know, I've been at this for, you know, close to a decade now trying to push this forward and uh we're still working on it and we still don't have a date of like we're going to be served by this and such a date, but we're getting close and uh yeah, if you have any questions, come by and uh have a chat with me. Thanks all. Alicia. Oh, I'm sorry. I got it out of order, but Betsy is next after you're out of order. Uh, Alicia Weiss, I am a member I'm the chair, current chair of the Planefield Accessibility Advisory Group. And I want to rec Sorry. Okay, better. I'm a New Yorker. I always think I'm too loud. Thanks. Um, I want to recognize that I want us all to think about the fact that although some people chose not to come today, there are people who are not represented in this room because they couldn't be here for accessibility reasons. Uh, accessibility means more than having a lift. Uh, which I'm glad we have. Vermont is one of, uh, unique the unique states in the, uh, in our union, if you will. that has voting laws that fly in the face of the Americans with Disability Act and its own disability laws, which in fact are more expansive than the ADA. The ADA needs to be the floor. It doesn't need to be the ceiling. And we have made our disability protections for inclusion stronger in Vermont. But the uh Vermont voting laws which you know began hundreds of years ago uh and uh more recently the Secretary of State's interpretation of them have really amounted whether intentionally or not to voter suppression for many many people with disabilities. And that's not all. people who are not able to be in the room. Maybe people with children with special, you know, with needs that can't be uh accommodated at the daycare, which we thoughtfully provide. People w who are elderly, people with transportation issues of variet people, it's a class issue. People who can't don't get this day off can't afford to take a day off unpaid and don't have personal days. Um why am I telling you though this other Vince say what a bummer. I mean we really think of ourselves as being a very caring inclusive uh state and and town. Uh the accessibility advisory committee is going to be launching a public education and outreach program this year which we our intention is to bring an article for the um somewhat revision of how we do town meeting. uh some alterations, modifications to uh this group next year, okay? as an article. What I'm asking you is to dis, you know, we all have really busy lives and we all get way too many notifications. But it really, we really need everyone to when we put out calls for input or we have public meetings because we want to educate people and we want to hear what you say have to say. We want to come to a solution together, not by us showing up and suggesting one or trying to impose one. Please take time out of your schedules to think about the people who may want to be here and aren't. You know, we pride ourselves a lot on participatory democracy uh in Vermont, but it's not participatory democracy if people can't attend. Um, floor votes are usually maybe only 2% as they're currently conducted of people in a town. There are ways to make that better. We can do better. Vermont actually ranked 49th in terms of disability voting access, which I think is pretty appalling. So again, um, thank you all for being here and thank you all for being the people I know we are as a town who care. And I'd like to echo Michael's uh request, his ask or maybe even plea for us to come together. You know, social media, I often feel that we as a species have not evolved as quickly as our technology is. And social media for all its good, evils, and um in between seems to have unleashed uh a tendency for us to put things out there without thinking about the effect things we might not say to people or might not say to people if we didn't h or might not say if we didn't have access to public media. Uh and this goes for everyone. Let's not just be critical, let's think critically. Um, if there, you know, I see on all ends of the spectrum, all political sides, all sides of issues in in this town that have been divisive, I see people making assumptions and attributions about people they don't know. What is their motivation for doing this? What is their motivation for not wanting to do this? Ask someone or at least put the question out there. But please, let's stop assuming that we know why people are taking positions they're taking. As Michael says, we're going to need each other a lot more. Um, you know, I just, it's not just in terms of envir environment. Right now, states are scrambling to uh ensure voting rights because federally there's a good chance they're going to be decimated. We really need each other for the good people we are. Fi finally, I want to say thank you to Michael. Uh you are unbelievable. You know, you you're sort of in many ways, not all but many ways who I want to be when I grow up as an ethical, conscious, and you know, someone with mindful uh service. So, thanks everyone. Thank you. Um I just want to say a couple of things. Betsy Ziggler is my name. Um I'm requesting that in the next report we say it's the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District that's receiving the money from um so that it's not confused with the Northeast Kingdom. You know, there's other solid waste management districts. Okay. Thank you. And the solid waste management district has now opened the eco depot which is up on Granger Road and it will take all kinds of hazardous waste. It will also take um a dis um specially recyclable um items such as um batteries, light bulbs, other devices like computers. um anything anything that has mercury, propane tanks, etc., etc. If you're not sure what to do with something that needs to be disposed, check their website or call them or email them, but you can make an appointment uh Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So, they're open now and a lot of the alternative recycling items are free. So, thank you. And uh the other thing is as a representative I could use an alternative alternate I could use an alternative too but anyway I could use we could use an alternate. So if anybody interested they're a really well-run organization and and um it's a worthwhile spending it's usually worthwhile spending their time at the meeting. I want to say one more thing. Thank you to the people who are leaving us and who have put in so much over the last years. Um, Dan Fingers, Carl Bis and I want to I also I also want to say thank you to our town clerk Fran Tobin who is leaving as well. Um they all of you and many others have served us very with with with unbelievable amount of time and energy over the last few years. Not much. Thank you. I believe you have something make a statement and then hand it up to us please. Uh Ray Carter, uh two things. One is uh there's an update on the Planefield Resilience Hub uh info sheet floating around. That's an update from what's in the town report if you are interested. It's on a few different tables. And I'm also here to make a motion um for a non-binding advisory resolution to petition the Vermont State Legislature to adopt the right to grow food and restore the regulation of farming and far and farming and farm businesses to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets. I've never done this before, so I don't know if I say something else. He said I make a motion that and so I am making a motion for the non-binding advisory resolution. Jeremy, okay. If you hand it up, I'll I'll Thank you very much. Oh, that's my Yeah, sure. Yeah. Can I have my copy? Okay. So, it's been moved and seconded. This is the right to grow food. This is how uh Ry Ray's um resolution reads. A non-binding resolution to petition the state legislature to adopt the right to grow food and restore the regulation of farming and farm business to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and Food Markets. This non-binding resolution is intended to encourage the state legislature to restore the long-standing exemption for farms and municipal zonings and to cottify the right to grow food that clearly includes the right to raise livestock and to sell agricultural products. The Vermont Supreme Court ruled on May 30th, 2025 rea DRB and NOV appeals 2025 Vermont that farming is not exempt from all municipal regulation. Instead, the court interpreted exemption in 24VSA section 4413D 1A, the multiple zoning statute, as a reference only to the policies and standards intended to reduce agricultural and water pollution. The court concluded that municipalities may regulate all aspects of farming that do not relate to water quality, thereby setting a new precedent in stark contrast to the previous statewide understanding that farming is exempt from municipal regulations. Granting municipalities this new authority allows them to determine where farming may or may not occur and potentially require new permitting for the events for events, farm structures and other farming activities. All of which would add regulatory hurdles, operational costs and additional burdens to farms. Many of which already struggle with financial vulnerability and viability. as all qualifying farms are subject to wraps required agricultural practices overseen by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and Food Markets regardless of their relationship to a water body. This ruling and newly granted authority creates where a farm is located. It it could I'm sorry a confusing and complex regardless of their relationship to this ruling and newly granted authority creates a confusing and complex mosaic of regulatory oversight that farms now face which depend on where a farm is located. It could be subject to different levels of local regulations and oversight that others are not exposed to. Town by town farm regulation variances create a patchwork of regulatory framework across the state which will be difficult to navigate and administer. This ruling also raises questions for farmers whose operations cross town lines potentially requiring different regulations for different parts of their farm properties. All subject to change over time. Allowing municipalities to regulate private and commercial food production threatens the agricultural economy with inconsistent and destabilizing regulations for farmers across the state as well as for institutions that help keep farming alive in Vermont. Farmers are already grappling with many emerging challenges, including flooding and other impacts of a changing climate. Changing to f changes to federal funds and widespread inflation. Opening the door for municipal regulation of farms contradicts the long-standing policies, culture, and precedent that has protected Verers's rights to farm the land and that farm the land they have access to, hindering Vermont's ability to produce its own food and by extension comprising compromising the state's food security. The long-standing interpretation of the legislative intent has been that agriculture is not subject to municipal regulations including practices defined by the jurisdiction of the state of ag of state agency of agriculture, food and markets. Almost there folks. The new ruling diverges from this interpretation intent and now draws a distinction between regulation of agricultural practices broadly and the regulation of agricultural practices as they apply specifically to water quality impacts. This resolution proposes to resolve this divergence and return the A exemption of 24VSA section 4413D1A back to its original intent as well as to codify right to grow food for anyone engaging in substance or cultivating practices that are beneath the criteria of the RA rule in order to protect the rights of the public to engage in food growing practices. on any land they have access to. Has there been a second? Been moved and seconded. Discussion. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. There's this there's a back page. Okay. There. Okay. I'm going to skip this part. Um, be it resolved. Here's here here's I think this is the meat of it. Rey, please correct me if I have this wrong, please. Therefore, be it resolved that the town of Planefield petitions the legislature of the state of Vermont to restore the municipal zoning exemption for farming and ensure statewide consistency in the regulation of farming and agriculture under the authority and expertise of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets. Cottify the right to grow food that explicitly includes livestock. Protect the right of verters to grow, raise, produce, donate, and sell the food they have produced. Relieve municipalities of unintended regulatory burdens resulting from judicial interpretation. This resolution is in solidarity with ongoing organizing and advoc and advocacy of rural Vermont, the Vermont Farm Bureau, Agra, Kabat, Vermont Dairy Producers Alliance, NOA for Vermont, NOA Vermont, Vermont Association of Conservation Districts, and the Connecticut River Watershed Farmers Alliance, Farmtoplate, American Farmland Trust, the Land Access an opportunity board, more organizations and farmers and communities and more across our state discussion. We've got to this I'm not calling on you. He's calling on you. I'm I'm just pointing it out. Okay. Yeah. Toby Buckston, could you read uh sentence number eight in paragraph 64? No, I'm just kid. So, that was way too much. So, could you just read what the resolution is? Not not the whole. Okay. I thought I just did that. I fell asleep in the preamble, but because I agree with it, but I'm happy to do it again. Thank you. it. So, the resolution, therefore, be it resolved that the town of Planefield petitions the legislature of the state of Vermont to restore the municipal zoning exemption for farming and ensure statewide consistency in the regulation of farming and agriculture under the authority and expertise of the Ront Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets. That's one bullet point. The second bullet point, cottify a right to grow food that explicitly includes livestock. The next bullet point, protect the right of verers to grow, raise, produce, donate, and sell the food they have produced. And the final bullet point, relieve municipalities of unintended regulatory burdens resulting from judicial interpretation. Ray, I just want to make sure we have it exactly right wherever you are. Yeah, I I did not write this. Yes, this is Yes, that is what is proposed by all of those organizations. Okay, further discussion in that case. Ellen, I'm sorry. Where where are we? Janice. Janice first and then and then Ellen. I think um I just want to speak from a town perspective and the a member of the DRB adding more municipal rules by volunteer boards in towns that we don't have any expertise over controlling farms and far people growing food is not a wise idea. So, as a town representative, if somebody has to enforce rules, I do not support what happened in the law and I support us wholeheartedly allowing people to grow food and to care for animals. And there are other ways if we find issues with people care for livestock. We can deal with that through animal control and through the state humane situation. So we don't need more laws in towns to regulate things that we already have laws for. And we need people to be able to grow food and share food without municipal rules. So that's what I want to say. Ellen, um I I don't know about your name again, Ellen. Sorry. What's that? Your name? Oh, Ellen Sulkowitz, thank you. Um, I didn't have a chance of being able to process all that. Um, I can't imagine that I wouldn't want to support this, um, just based on what I could understand. But, um, I I I find it really difficult when we have nonbinding proposals at the end of long meetings, um, to really be informed about voting on them. And this is more of a a question about that process. I know we can't um warn these proposals ahead of time if they're non-binding, but can we at least get information ahead of time from anybody who is um planning to propose something new? Okay. In the balcony. Yeah. Um I support what proposed. I know she didn't name Barnwell. I used to work at the college. Um, from everything I've been reading online, there is a tremendous amount of pressure from the billionaires to greatly suppress our freedom of sovereignty with seed saving, food growing, and keeping it within our freedom to be able to do. They have a large intention, Bill Gates specifically, who owns a great percentage of every seed seed bank on the planet to interfere with our freedom as far as seed saving food sovereignty globally. It's not just here that they're trying to do this to and I feel like this is an extremely important thing that we need to be researching. I'm very upset the fact that that legislation has already inhibited our ability to do some of this and they have every intention of pushing that envelope as far as they can. We're still on Ray's proposal. Anybody any further discussion? Ray, Ray Carter. Um, this information has been circulating through the different organizations that were um, mentioned, being asked to be on town meeting um, agendas. And it wasn't until 6:00 last night that I was asked to do this. Um, and so I did the best that I could. Um, I know that there it would be push push back around the non-binding um, uh, resolution. Um, and I took a risk to bring this forward because I think it's important for this community as a farmer, as the manager, volunteer manager of the farmers market. Um, I printed out on my own printer a couple of copies to hand it and did the best that I could to bring this forward. Um this is something that is going to impact us us all and this is something that Marshfield already passed and other towns are passing and rather than it being called on individuals to contact slate state legislators over and over which we are already doing for so many reasons this is something that the whole town can communicate about and I will take the responsibility of if it does pass go and make sure that that's reported back so that it gets back to the legislature. Thank you so much. Are you ready for the question or is there more discussion? I is the resolution. Yeah, let I think we're I think we're there if if I may. Um, so the question is there's no more. The question is, therefore, be it resolved that the town of Planefield petitions the legislature of the state of Vermont to restore the municipal zoning exemption for farming and ensure statewide consistency in the regulation of farming and agriculture under the authority and expertise of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets. Next bullet point, codify the right to grow food that is explicit that that explicitly includes livestock. Bullet point, protect the right of verers to grow, raise, produce, donate, and sell food they have produced. And the last bullet point, relieve municipalities of the unintended regulatory burdens resulting from judicial interpretation. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. No. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. And you have passed the resolution. Okay. I got four people on stack. Janice, Deborah, Pauler, and Michael. I was going to do the same. Okay. Deborah. All right. So, another um non-binding resolution that I would like to bring to the town is that um I would like to the town of Planefield to um urge for to to make a statement. We know this is non-binding, but to make a statement that we urge the abolishment of ICE to keep all of our citizens safe. Okay. Can you hand it up, Deborah? Do you have it written? I just scribbled it. We'll do our best to interpret scribble. Okay. Is there a second? Okay. It's discussion. immigration and customs enforcement is what ICE is. All right, let's see if I can read the scribble here. If are you ready for the question? If you'll write to the question, there is a nonb statement that the town of Planefield recognize. Oh, recognize that the town of Planefield demands the abolishment of ICE and to keep to keep all of our citizens and to keep all our citizens safe. So the statement that we abolish ICE and keep all the citizens safe, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Yes. Go ahead. We need your name, please. Michael Morland, I would like to amend that to uh uh all of our citizens and residents safe. Deborah, if that's a friendly amendment, we can just accept it. Yes. Yes. And I I want to say that even though this is just a non-binding resolution, what's important about it is that this would go into the papers, right? So others around the state of Vermont would see that there are towns that want to ensure that all their citizens and residents are safe. Okay, I'm just waiting a minute while Paula puts this in a form. I can read sort of any further discussion while we're waiting in that case. Oh, wait wait wait wait wait wait to to keep what did you say? All of our residents Okay. So, it has been moved and seconded that the town of Planefield demands the abolishment of ICE to keep all of our citizens and residents safe. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed, no. The eyes appear to have it. The eyes do have it. and you passed the resolution. Paula, you're up next. And Michael, you're up after me. Um, I am the plank representative to the Central Mont Regional. Oh, sorry. My name is Paula Emmery. I am your playing field representative to the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission. That means uh you know I want you to think about region as as a watershed as a a bio region right we are one little speck in a much bigger place um so when we talk about responsible development and all that I I really want to encourage people to join me when I go to these meetings we meet they're really excellent conversations most of the time um you can go by Zoom or you can ride in a car with me to Montpillar and and a lot of times there's pizza. So, it's a the second Tuesday of every month and and it's fascinating and it just will help it can help to sort of build understanding for people who want to really focus on responsible development. Okay. Um Michael, I think you're next. Michael Billingsley. Um before we all disband, I wanted to quickly also add that uh in addition to the people we know have been working out front helping the town and particularly people like um Dan and Peter and Karen who uh sort of officially are uh visible as helping us recover from our disaster. There are also two people whose efforts are also heroic and involve not just hours but weeks and weeks and weeks of solid effort who on whose coattails I now um and others are getting the benefit particularly in terms of grants that were written or programs that are coming to fruit or repairs to our highways and that is Gary Smith who has uh just retired as uh from the funding group and whose work was incredibly important in breaking down the great road, Great Brook, excuse me, the Brook Road and and um other assorted infrastructure projects and also Michael Zoner who although a Marshfield resident devoted incredible amount of time to help us get through uh a state and federal process to bring into the town hundreds of thousands of dollars which we are in the process of putting to work. So, I'd like to just add my thanks. Peter Peter Young Bear is up. Yeah. I would like to sort of make an announcement and to uh extend an invitation. Um several folks Betsy Paula stand up and say they are our representative to such and such a a committee or commission uh etc. Most of those are annual appointments and those come up those will all come up a week from now when the new select board has what is known in the statute as its organizational meeting. Um, I can tell you in the approximately year, year and a quarter that I've been on the select board that we often get a request to appoint someone to a committee uh or a commission to fill a vacancy and we don't know for how long that term is because we really haven't paid close attention to that for a while. I have been comparing the list that appears in the beginning of this year's annual report with last year's and there are innumerable inconsistencies in the terms and we've been trying to get that straightened out. But in the meantime, um if you are one of those appointees and would like to be reappointed, please contact Jamie at the town clerk's office and let them know. They've been keeping a list. Uh and let's certainly let the select board know. Um and if you know the term uh of your office, we need to know that as well. Um this is something we've been trying to clean up along with a number of other things and your help is appreciated. On the town website has been a list of vacancies. Um those continue. Um we need and and it's in the in the back of the report. Um, we do need you uh all to chip in and help out. We cannot do it without the volunteer work. So, uh, please step up. Please let us know if you'd like to continue. Please let us know if you'd like to serve. Thank you. Is there anything else to come up under other business? Wow. I seeing none, I would be more than delighted to entertain a motion to adjourn. Is there a second? All those in favor of adjournment, say I. I. All those opposed, keep it quiet.