Durham board backs brush truck repair, traffic signals, new committees

[3:38] Speaker A (unidentified): Just let us know when we're live, did [3:43] Select Board Chair: I do? Okay, what is that, we are live? Then all right, we'll get this thing started here. I'll order 630 Select Board meeting, begin with a pledge of allegiance to [4:14] Select Board member: the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [4:25] Select Board Chair: All righty, amendments to the agenda, I'd like to move the CIP request to the start of the agenda before new business so we can get folks who are here for that out of here rather than making them sit through what's probably going to be a longer discussion on goals and objectives, so [4:46] Select Board member: agreed, can we add there if we would have any questions on their reports, I assume you're [4:50] Select Board Chair: about fire and yeah, let's so let's just move on, I'll make a motion to move fire department CIP and public works CIP as well as reports to be before we begin discussing Select Board goals and next steps, Calvin's going to be a little late so you can make a suggestion, sure, how about we move next steps to the end and sure works for me, I'll move old business to the end of new business, that's my motion, second, all righty, any discussion or questions, all in favor, any opposition, say none, unanimous, all righty, so that means public works we'll just pause till Calvin can get here, did he say when he's going to be here, 20 minutes, okay, we'll just put a pin in that until he gets here, fire department capital fund request forestry truck engine and parts repair, chief you get the floor, oh sorry, yeah Dan are you here for public comment separate on this, if you had any questions, okay cool, no public comment, thank you though, do you want to just approve last week's last I'm all over the place sorry chief, I'll have a motion to approve last week's meeting minutes, our last meetings minutes, yeah, so I Rebecca has made a motion, we have a second John, any questions, any discussion, all in favor, any opposition, seeing none that passes unanimously, all right, we had no public comment, now we're gonna pause table Calvin until he gets here [6:37] Fire Chief / presenter: chief here in the hot seat, lieutenant, if you don't know lieutenant Dan Tebow, he's an assistant 36-year member of Durham Fire, he's also the proprietor of Midcoast Truck Repair and Towing, and he's not only specked the brush truck 15 years ago, worked on it for 15 years, and has done work continuous including preventative maintenance and light work on. [Select Board member: As my] Report said we had a catastrophic engine failure of the brush truck, so the diesel engine itself, it's currently at Casco Bay Ford. That's who diagnosed it needed to be towed from a medical scene previous month. It needed to be towed from the scene. We invested already this year 13,000 into the truck, so that was for repairs, a def injector, the whole exhaust system. So we're 13,000 previous into investing in this truck. A little history of it is the forestry truck, it's a 2011 Ford F-550, so it's 15 years old. It has 16,000 miles on it, so a thousand miles a year in town. Original cost all in 15 years ago was 95,000. So that's chassis, body, all the work, the hose, the reel, the lightings, emergency lightings, 95,000. Today that truck brand new, same truck, same everything, goes for more than a quarter of a million, and that's not an inflated number, I pulled it right off, or you can go as high as 300,000 for a brush truck, same F-550, not nothing fancy. So just be cognitive. So we're 13,000 invested already. We have been planning on rehabbing, refurbing this truck anyways. It was in my capital improvement plan, there was $25,000 set aside, and I figured about 2030, so in a few more years it would need to be referred plugging the front bumper, sort of rusted, upgrades to the hose reel, that type of stuff. So we've been planning on rehabbing, refurbing it anyways. The truck itself responds to half of all our calls, so even though it's a brush truck, it responds to half of them, all outside fires, most of our MVAs, traffic details, public education opportunities, and medical responses. So if somebody can't drive a pumper truck, which is very limited to who can drive the big trucks, they'll take the brush truck. It's extra staffing on, you know, for the ambulance, and that happens frequently. When you get certified you drive the ambulance, you almost get certified you drive the brush truck, it's the same chassis. It is an important vehicle. I know it's a brush truck if you will, but it's very important to Durham's mission. So the estimate came back in front of you as you saw for roughly 40,000 for a new engine and everything that goes with that and the labor for. So I thought we had three choices of that. You can rehab it, we can invest in a new end in the engine and rehab it, and the lieutenant will talk about there's no rust under it. Is a 15 year old truck, but it's not a public works truck, it is wrenched, it is housed, it's clean, and $13,000 invested into it already. You can re-chassis it, meaning buy a brand new F-550 Ford chassis that's $54,000 to $58,000 just for the chassis. That doesn't include the labor to take the other one off, put it back on, do the lighting, the wiring, the bumper, all of it. Or you can purchase new for more than a quarter million. After speaking with our mechanic, organic our officers Casco Bay Ford they all came up with the same conclusion that's me having it and investing in a new motor it is the cost efficient with a warranty for Durham they [11:01] Speaker A (unidentified): had troubles with that motor to begin with because it's new to the market because you put a new motor in it and all that stuff's been fixed so it should be a bullet through motor when they're done. [11:13] Select Board member: This still leaves though the rusting front bumper correct we still need to replace the [11:20] Speaker A (unidentified): rusting front bumper it's got holes all through it so it doesn't need to be [11:23] Select Board member: replaced does it make sense to do this at the same time yes yeah they're going to take it [11:28] Speaker A (unidentified): off anyways right so to buy the bumper they'll put a back on it cost free oh they don't have [11:34] Select Board member: to remove it anyways oh okay so you're just paying for the bumper oh is that's not included [11:40] Fire Chief / presenter: it in the 40 000. No the labor the labor is right but not a new bumper which it is a custom [11:48] Speaker A (unidentified): front bumper it's not so how much additional is that I don't know yet I was going to ask him tonight which way he wanted to go do you know it like around I have no idea yeah no all right. [12:01] Fire Chief / presenter: Yeah I don't want to guess and then people can just google something right but it's an expensive an expensive aftermarket bumper it's steel it has lighting it has a receiver hitch for our winch it has protection for the grill because it's a brush truck so it is multi-thousand dollars but so you [12:20] Select Board Chair: said 13 000 into it that's 13 000 this year what's the other 13 investments do you know off the top [12:27] Fire Chief / presenter: of your head since we've had it all just pms and updates so recently tires last year yeah they were almost the original 13th it was 11 and a half thousand just in the exhaust and the depth [12:42] Speaker A (unidentified): all that I think it's also plug solid that's why you don't get put on the exhaust previous all [12:49] Fire Chief / presenter: the aftermarket exhaust laws and whatnot diesel so are there 21 seconds yeah can you [13:00] Select Board Chair: Continue what I'm trying to get at is how much outside of, you know, the oil changes and gas and kind of your wear and tear, what's our maintenance line been on this over the last 15 years? And then I want to add that to the 95,000 initial purchase price so we kind of figure out how much we're fully in on this. Yeah, sure, it averages, I pulled it about 500 a year for normal [13:28] Fire Chief / presenter: upkeep, right? So a commercial sticker, commercial oil change, the tire rotation, of course recently we put six tires on it, or 11,500 into the exhaust system. That's why we're at 13 this year alone, minor dings and dents and whatnot. But no, it's been a good truck, but whether it's tires [13:51] Select Board Chair: the oil changes, that's just if you was to buy it you'd have that anyways. Yeah, but what I'm hearing is more or less, you know, $95,000 purchase price. And there's probably been about another $30,000 in maintenance that is not normal, like changing the oil, those sorts of things, some of those upgrades. And so, I mean, to me, that means we're, you know, $125,000 into this, and this would bring us up to another $40,000 or bring us up to about $165,000 into a truck that if we don't do this we would be buying a three hundred thousand dollar and so to me this forty thousand dollar expense is saving us a hundred and sixty five thousand dollars which is the difference between this and what would be to fix the next truck which we don't have budgeted either so yeah that's just my thought process but John you had questions. What I was going to [14:44] Select Board member: asked was so 40,000 for the give or take for the engine, the 25,000. I guess the question, should we go ahead and just do that so you got it, the bumper's part of the engine replacement? Yeah, so whatever that may be, and then there's some part of that 25,000 still to be done. So instead of in three years doing the rehab that you had in the CIP, should we just do it now and be done with it rather than three years from now have to do something, you know, more? Right, that I second that. [15:21] Select Board Chair: John, I think that's a great, just bring it to showroom ready and be done. We talked about that. [15:28] Fire Chief / presenter: too yeah so that was our hope because a it's a good time to do it 's not brush fire season right we're getting into the winter season it's already at casco bay they already have to take the bumper off so and replace it all of the truck has been straight so before it went it was towed here at a cost right but towed here and stripped so there's not a liquor hose it's all in the bay everything would be rehabbed repainted resharpened all yeah so i estimated rehabbing it in 2030 so we rehab it in 2026 right but it still prolongs it another 15 years. I mean and it is an important truck it's important to the mission so that's what I was going to [16:16] Select Board Chair: ask is how long will yeah this work actually take us to before we have to go quite a while [16:23] Speaker A (unidentified): 15 because there's no rust on it. Yeah as long as it's maintained you know washed it should last the same time another 15 at least give or take at least. Yeah in part of rehab is [16:38] Fire Chief / presenter: a radio right now whether we do it now or not depending on how far we get into it radios on those eight thousand dollars for a mobile radio. Clearly that can be the last purchase if we don't have it then we make do right with one that's not programmable one that can't really talk to mutual aid recently. You know don't forget we don't cater to other towns but we all work together. It was just called before it broke down the freeboard it was over there for two days. New Gloucester called us last week for it so it's important it's one of the only ones for brush trucks this side in Auburn we help out [17:17] Select Board Chair: Lisbon free football not including the $40,000 in the sick plan right now or is the 25 for the [17:26] Fire Chief / presenter: refurb that wouldn't include a brand new motor. That's a great question. The 25 was planned for a refurb and that is in this in our CIP. Yeah our CIP bank account for fire is 540 000 right now because we've been planning on purchasing a rescue an ambulance [17:47] Select Board member: right 540. Yeah 567. Yeah 567. That's what it says okay I don't know the date as of 5 13. Okay [17:55] Fire Chief / presenter: yeah 567. So we have 567 000 put aside and again that's the year planning that we all do. Yeah so $25,000 was going to be for rehab. $40,000 is the cost of an engine, all in on that. The estimate that's in front of you also. Yeah, [18:18] Select Board Chair: I mean, but what I'm looking at here, that purchase for the ambulance is until 2030. Correct. We estimate that at 7-10. So we've got three more years of contributing, you know, roughly $180,000 a year. [18:36] Fire Chief / presenter: We've moved it once already a year further, but that can be done. [18:41] Select Board Chair: What I'm getting at is on the schedule we're on right now, we could make this expenditure of $40,000 and still maintain the same CIP contributions without much of an impact on some of these scheduled expenses that you have in your CIP over the next several years. because there's nothing scheduled for 27 there's nothing scheduled for 28 29 is a pumper rehab and then 30 is the ambulance so i 'm not concerned about liquidity in that account between now and 2030 if we were to expend an extra 40k out of it to deal with this expense [19:22] Select Board member: So it's not an issue for me. What, 40,000 for the engine? How much for the radio? Is 8,000 plus? [19:33] Fire Chief / presenter: How much for the other? Up to 25. So it would, we planned on 25 to rehab it. The 40 is for an engine. So 65. I'm asking tonight to use from 567, 65, right? 40 for the engine, 25 to rehab. [19:51] Select Board member: Have will come under, and that includes the 8,000 for the radio. Yes. Always did. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And. [19:58] Select Board Chair: That would drop that CIP to 502. Yep. And then we add another 180 to it next year, so that go back up to 682, and our next purchase is in 2029 at the at 150,000. And so we're not going to be shooting ourselves in the foot now and short then, and it's not like we're gonna have to hit this for 40k now and then this year be like, oh, we need another 40k back in that. So this just seems like a no-brainer to me. I'm ready to make a motion. Yeah, I'll let you know. I will make. [20:35] Select Board member: A motion that we approve, authorize, whatever the correct term is, 65,000 for the repair and rehab of whatever the truck, the brush truck. [20:49] Select Board Chair: John's made a motion to authorize $65,000 out of the CAP account to rehab and repair the brush truck. Does, or $65,000, does anyone have second that? I'll second that. Becca, any other questions or discussion? [21:01] Select Board member: I guess I'm still confused. Does this cover the new bumper or not? Is that a rule? Yeah. Yeah. [21:09] Select Board Chair: Well, I appreciate that the fact that we, through your leadership in the department, have this stuff laid out, ready to go, and we're prepared to handle these sorts of emergencies. There's a lot of other municipalities that if their number, if they had a truck that's used at 50% of the calls go down, they're scrambling because they don't know how to get that. They're calling a special time meeting, all these sorts of things. I think this goes to show really good leadership on your part, and I appreciate it, and appreciate it from both of you, too. So all right, 65 covers it. Yes sir, all right. Seeing no other questions or discussion, all in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none, passes unanimously. What's the time frame? I think [21:55] Speaker A (unidentified): they're just gonna get the okay to order the product. I don't think I'd say a month, but you [22:01] Fire Chief / presenter: know he said after four weeks across board it is sort of a not a crate motor but a common and motor to get so it's not like waiting for tariffs and shipping right yeah that's good okay thank you for the kind words by the way but that's town leadership also planning ahead and supporting cip and voters that 's a team effort joe but thank you for the kind [22:27] Select Board member: of, I appreciate that. No problem. Well, people's here, I'll say one more kind of thing. Your report, the report says you're running 98% on EMTs. [22:35] Fire Chief / presenter: Yes, sir. We just had the last shift in September, all of it. And again, it goes back to your vision also. [22:42] Select Board Chair: Your solution works. Yeah. I have to say I've been here a couple of times and I've just heard people chatting in the side about like, oh, yeah, I'm excited to sign up for some more shifts. And I always swing and I look at the calendar. And I remember before we made the changes around compensation and that I'd see like open shifts every week. And the other day when I came in the 911 memorial, I was like, for the entire month I could count at that point in time two open shifts, and they were like three weeks out, and someone's like, oh yeah, those will get picked up. So it's like I'm really happy to see it and see a lot of the same faces coming around more and more often. It's nice, you know, I am too. Two more of our people take [23:21] Fire Chief / presenter: EMT in the next month or two. We've already gone through class and we're sponsoring one 18 year old that lives in town already in EMT class, and two guys want to sign up for a firefighter in January. So and I think I told you our guy was class valedictorian for firefighter and our female was right behind him at class saladatorian. Yeah, can't even say it, but she was [23:43] Select Board member: right up right next to him, so out of 50. Since we're on tv, we pay for that, right? Those classes [23:49] Fire Chief / presenter: or we should if we would. Let me split that EMT, we've been getting grants, so EMT class is free to spawn you sponsor, we buy a book under our training, so it's a 200 book, but everything else firefighter is now up to fifteen hundred dollars, but so we do pay for the fifteen hundred dollars. [24:08] Select Board Chair: Yes, it does, when the people attend, that they're not getting paid a wage while they're driving. [24:14] Fire Chief / presenter: Having the coursework, either one, yeah, so we'll get a grant for EMT, they go on their own, that's the deal, same thing with firefighter, that's a six month also program, we'll pay the 1500 tuition, we'll sponsor you, we'll train you here, they don't get paid an hourly wage, I would say that. [24:31] Select Board Chair: I appreciate our volunteers because not only are they not going to pay the wage during that, they're incurring the expense of driving themselves to these classes and the opportunity costs and stuff like that. So, like, we're covering registration, but they're covering everything else out of their own pocket in hopes to get a chance to then volunteer with us later, which I think says a lot about the type of folks we have coming around in this firehouse. [24:54] Fire Chief / presenter: I appreciate that. And those members, as you saw, I think everyone saw, Mr. Sprague's house, 222 Auburn Pond, they saved his house. So, on a Wednesday morning at 1030, there was, like, two guys, and of course Kevin on duty and a guy training, they saved his house, so his words were [25:12] Select Board Chair: so kind, you know, I posted them, I was so kind, there many more questions for Chief while we got him here, all right, well thank you both for coming in, thank you, I appreciate it, I appreciate it, thanks guys, get you out of here, all righty, so we'll hold off for Calvin until he gets in here, but so next thing on our agenda is select board straw poll for November 3rd election, and so I put this here because Jessica, what's the day we would need language to you by [25:49] Town Clerk: Like yesterday, yeah, really soon, because early voting is October 5, right, correct, but on October 5th I have to have it, I'm gonna guess about 200, a little over 200 absentee ballots that are going to go out on Monday, so like I have to stuff those before, yeah, and so yeah, one thing we had [26:12] Select Board Chair: talked about was maybe putting a poll question to ask people's interest on moving to a referendum budget, so our town budget would model how the school budget is done, you have a meeting, you know, there's a number enacted, and then that goes to a ballot vote for folks that, but I don't want us to feel limited as that's the only thing we can discuss, this is a good opportunity to just put any topic that we want to get a really good census on the community from and put it on that ballot in November we Anticipate really high turnout. I mean, the last presidential we had like 65% turnout or something, or it might have been even more than that. I think I thought 1,800 people voted, right? Yeah, which is this, which is, you know, we have 4,200 people in town that includes children. If you get 2,000 people voting, that's a good percentage of the adult voting body. And so it's kind of the most, the easiest way we have to get a question in front of the most people, far more than we get on comments online or, you know, a response for requests for emails or a town meeting. So I don't, I want to open it up. Does anyone have anything that, and I know we want to put the moving to it away from the town meeting form of government on there. But does anyone have anything else before we discuss that topic that they would like to see put as a potential question about question? Or not ballot question, a straw poll question. [27:53] Select Board member: Do we want to revisit, and this is, feel free to knock it down, do we want to revisit having police presence? Can I, while we're pondering that, can I make a general statement? And nobody is, I guess I am, I don't think we should put any straw poles off this time. And the reason I say that is there's only a week, 10 days, whatever, until the election. Yeah. So things, whether it be police or it be shifting the date of the voting, I just think there's no opportunity for people to, for the word to get out, for people to make a studied decision, if you will. [28:38] Select Board Chair: Well, part of the reason I bring it up is I know there's a budget committee member circling a petition to get us to move away from this form of government. And so if they're going to circle a petition to their select individuals and then present that to us because they're not asking the general public, they're asking people who agree with their petition currently. I think we are missing the opportunity if we don't then say, well, you're going to ask your people who are agreeing with you to sign a petition. Maybe we should do a more broad approach that takes in the entire community voice. I don't want to be missing this opportunity and then right after the election say, hey, look, I have this petition that says you should all move, you know, and so I think it's just a missed opportunity. [29:17] Select Board member: So I just think it's, it's people don't have a clue, other than maybe people who've seen the petition. Well, we hear a lot about people wanting to make this change. So I don't know. I want it as much as anybody, but I just think people have, and same with police, or same with whatever. We just haven't had an opportunity to present both sides, if you will. It's not our job to present both sides on [29:42] Select Board Chair: this, because I don't want to say we're taking a side, but we've received a ton of feedback that people wanted to give us an opinion on this. And so I'm saying this is a good opportunity to present them with that. I don't think that we, our job is to present something as a straw poll and then say, all right, we're going to have a meeting where we talk about the pros and the cons, much like we didn't with the police. We got info from the police and we said, all right, we have a number, if anyone wants to take a look at it, vote for it. So I'd just rather hear from people personally so that [30:10] Select Board member: so the way if it were up to me and we're going to do this and i don't disagree with john but if i think they need to be phrased as do you support the select board looking at alternative me ways to have a vote on the budget the final vote on the budget or do you select do you support the select board i was thinking would do you support the select board [30:43] Select Board Chair: exploring, and I 'm trying to wordsmith it, but do you support the select board starting a exploratory process to move away from a town meeting vote on municipal budget or something [31:02] Select Board member: I mean, I guess that's not the exact word, town meeting form of government. Yeah, well, in that way [31:09] Select Board Chair: what I hear every year is we want to vote on, we want to vote by ballot on, people are saying they want to vote by ballot on the budget. And so that's a town referendum form format. You still have. And so if people say, yes, we want you to explore that, then it's like, OK, here's what that process looks like. Would you have a town meeting, much like there's a school board meeting where you all vote and set the budget? And then that's the number that's presented to the community. Would you just have direct to town ballot? Ballot, like, those are things that can be figured out in the end. If the straw poll comes back and says, hey, no, I like it the way it is now, then we don't have to invest our time discerning that feedback from the public. But I wouldn't say that this is a poll that's intended to get feedback and then say, okay, we've now made a decision, we're going to do this next year, because what we would just be, do we need to explore this more, make a presentation on the future, gather more information, not let's make a change right now, right? So how about, do you support the select board exploring [32:10] Select Board member: an alternative to the town meeting, just plain and simple. [32:14] Select Board Chair: Sure. I think that's something I'm thinking more like. Because I'm thinking about the policing thing. We weren't saying, do you support the town hiring police? We were saying, do you support the town exploring the select board, exploring, expanding policing services in the town of Durham? Right. So we were saying, do you want us to even spend time bringing this to you? And the people just said, no. And it saved us hours of work because we knew the general person said do not bring this proposal, we don't want it, whereas we're just saying now, is this something you want us to spend time on? And if the answer is yes, we can get public hearings set up, we can get input, we can bring in examples from other towns. If the answer is no, we save ourselves the headache, you know, and I'm okay [33:02] Select Board member: with language like that because that gives us the opportunity oh yeah this I 'm sorry if I came [33:07] Select Board Chair: off as saying that this is saying, do you guys want to make the change, yes, no, okay, cool, we're good to go. It's more or less, do you want us to spend time on this? Because you're saying people are saying that they do, but we only hear from, you know, the 25 most active on social media and then the, this, the six or 12 people a year that come to the, our select board meetings, I think it would be good to ask the question of whether we should explore it, because there are pros and cons to both scenarios. Oh yeah, sure. And yeah, without it really needs to be thought through pretty heavily. Yeah, and we have the ability to develop, with, as long as we're staying within, you know, title 38, we have the ability to develop something that works best for Durham too. [33:48] Select Board member: Yeah, so by saying exploring an alternative to the town meeting format, you're not necessarily saying we're getting rid of it all together and just like what is an alternative to it, whether it is a rep vote on a referendum, a meeting for a referendum, whatever it may be, so I think it's [34:08] Select Board Chair: Very, I mean, do we want to say do you support the town of Durham exploring an alternative to the town meeting format including town meeting form of government? What I don't want is that people to read this and think we're asking to move to a town council and say right no right. What I'm trying to say is like how do we say do you want us do you want the town of Durham to explore moving to something other than a town? I think just say an alternative in relation to the budget planning process like What this pretty much boils down to is we're asking do you want to continue to vote have the municipal budget be voted on at town meeting right or do you want us to do something different look into other options? I don't want people to read this and think we're asking to move to a town council slash mayor form of government which is not the case and even if we had six months to communicate that 's not the case someone would still think that when they sit there it has to be I think that's still It's still too general, too gray, Rebecca. [35:19] Select Board member: Right, so do you support the select board in town of Durham to explore a review of the annual budget in, wait, sorry, hold on. Do you, [35:41] Town Clerk: Right, that's how it's supposed to go in the open town meeting, though? Yeah, it could be. [35:44] Select Board Chair: Do you explore the, do you want the town of Durham program to explore alternative how about an alternative review of the annual budget in a town meeting form of government? Yeah, essentially saying do you want us to re-evaluate how we approve the [36:04] Select Board member: Budget really not the worst maybe I would just say town budget land use ordinance and other ordinances yeah it would you know would be town budget comma land use and other ordinances what [36:18] Select Board Chair: We're trying to say is instead of sitting in a room and raising your hand do you want to fill out a bubble to vote so in some towns they do that and they still have a town meeting for an informational component sometimes they don't and other towns they still have a town meeting and that town meeting picks one of the numbers to then go to the ballot like so it's like the town meeting says we pick the select boards here the budget committee here that number goes to a full like there's a there's a thousand ways to skin a cat here, and so I don't want us to spend time on it if people are saying I like the way we're at. We hear from a lot, a very large loud group of small group of people saying they do want to see it change, but let me, let me just [37:01] Select Board member: repeat it back to everybody. So do you support the select board in the town of Durham to explore an alternative review of the annual budget and use and other ordinances in a town meeting form of [37:12] Select Board Chair: government other than a town meeting, other than a town meeting form? It could still be a town meeting. [37:17] Town Clerk: Yeah, I think we're still a town meeting form of it, we're just referendum style through a ballot. [37:24] Select Board Chair: Referendum articles, yeah, and I, that I, what I want to make sure is that also if [37:41] Town Clerk: we do, if it does go to referendum style, we do have to do a mandatory public [37:46] Select Board Chair: hearing, yeah, and again we, I don't want us to start trying to get into all those details before we even learn that people want us to go that direction, and so just if we weren't having a big election in November we'd have to figure out how to get this public feedback elsewhere, but since we're having that big election this is the easiest way to get that public feedback, and I thought it worked for sure, I thought it worked really well with the police because I had no idea which way the community wanted to go, and so when we get those results in it was like all right, no matter how we feel on this board, we heard that voice, we know not to pursue. Wait, so what do you, so like cost-wise, the cost-wise, because yes they [38:31] Select Board member: support it, 's supported by a majority of the people, then we're going to have the lawyer involved, we're going to have town staff involved, and it's going to be expensive, and that's I think, and I think something that should be on there too, which is why I'm not necessarily [38:47] Select Board Chair: that's where in my mind if the people come back and say yes, we sit down and figure out what's this process going to look like. If it doesn't meet this year's fiscal, no, we have to wait till next year and budget for it, and so this isn't something that we're just going to do overnight, like if this is like hey our legal line would be doubled if we did this or all that sort of stuff, but we don't, we, I don't want us to like presume what people are feeling and then track that down. [39:12] Select Board member: So this is just the exploring. I understand all that, but it would certainly help sway my decision if I knew what it was going to be before I said, yes, I support this. And if it's going to be an extra $100,000 for me to do this or $5,000, where is it going to fall? I guess my question would be why, because the question is, and I came in late, but for the police question, Chief McGee came, the sheriff came. Did that, what did it cost? Anything? That doesn't, but the other question about changing from the town meeting to get into that, you're going to have to have the lawyer involved with new warrant language, make sure we follow the process, we're going to have an extra, an extra meeting and those sorts of things. And so that's just a question that, but well, I think that could be part of our discussion, which is, you know, even if they say yes, well, and again, I support this, but if they say yes and during our research investigation it's going to be 200,000 when it goes to the June meeting with the vote with, you know, just like it was 500 or 375 for police, it's going to be 100, 150, 20 bucks, whatever it's going to be to do this. Yeah, that would be to be part of, I didn't report back. Yeah, we don't have to pay for those just to talk about doing it. Correct. Yeah, my thing though is I'd like to know before I vote on that, because if I vote yes and it's a hundred thousand dollars, does that, is that going to change before you vote yes at [40:52] Town Clerk: the election next year? So if it was gonna, if you voted this vote, if you say yes to this vote, it is [40:58] Select Board Chair: just authorizing the select board in the town to investigate and report back what are the ramifications of doing it. And so at that time you'll know, that at that time you'll know, and then we could to the June meeting bring a proposal to say the community said yes, we want to explore this option, just to prepare the documents and do all this, it's going to cost an extra sixty thousand dollars, which we've included in this budget, and people could say, and we could have it as a separate warrant, and people can say, you know what, I would, I like that idea but not if it's going to cost 60 grand. Boom. So this is just asking, do you want us to spend time gathering the information for you on this if the answer is yes the answer is well unless i had a fiscal note i'm just going to say no because i'm fine with what it is that 's a fine answer too [Town Clerk: Personally.] But I hear your thoughts on that. Could you read what you have for draft language there? [41:58] Select Board member: Yeah, it kind of got a little muddled. Do you support the select board in the town of Durham to explore an alternative review of the annual budget, land use, and other ordinances through a ballot referendum in warrant articles? [42:11] Select Board Chair: I think that sounds good to me. Why are you looking at that? Shouldn't it say versus a town meeting, something about the town meeting? Because the people who have this concern, will they connect with that? In lieu of town meeting. Well, it's not though. Well, it's not, that's the problem with the town meeting. But yeah, the voting at the town meeting or the, well, that's, that could be part of our exploratory [42:38] Select Board member: thing. But yeah, the town meeting starts with day one with the appointment of the, you know, Bill Schneider. Yeah, the general election. So the town meetings more than just [42:50] Select Board Chair: Saturday morning. Yeah, town meetings technically starts the morning of the general election and [42:56] Select Board member: it runs for five days. Do you want to say and limit voting at a town meeting forum? [43:01] Select Board Chair: So I want us to keep it open to just say, do you want us to explore doing this differently and potentially including a referendum poll? Okay, because we already have that authority to do so. Like during COVID when it was a, it was a ballot vote, like you could, we could already do a ballot instead of an in-person town meeting, but no one's ever had that discussion with the community. We don't have to change anything to do that. We would just have to do a lot of outreach and make sure that there's buy-in there. [43:33] Select Board member: So why don't we just say, do you support this left board in the town of Durham exploring an alternative method to voting on the budget? And the land ordinances. [Select Board Chair: And ordinances. Yeah.] Isn't that just simpler and- Yeah. Sounds similar. [43:47] Select Board Chair: Yeah. Fewer words, the better in my mind. If our high-speed computer guru there and then there will be an element of outreach that we should still do. I mean, if I hope we can get outreach turnaround quick enough for the five October 5 distribution of ballots, but I'll, you know, we can use our mechanism. I'll do a video and we can do some stuff on the town website to just say what the intent of this is, to just gather feedback based off of comments that we've heard, you know. So do you support the [44:23] Select Board member: select board in the town of Durham exploring an alternative method of voting for the annual budget, land use, and other ordinances through a ballot referendum and warrant articles? I would just leave it. Put a period after and other ordinances. Sure. Well, I think it would be a question mark. [44:40] Select Board Chair: After that, right, yes. And if you do a video post on the town page first, yes, if [44:55] Select Board member: we need a vote, I'm ready to make a motion. This is, let Rebecca get the blame. I got it, all of us and Jerry and Jessica on an email so that we all have [45:04] Select Board Chair: the language. Yeah, so could you make the motion so you can read it off? [45:10] Select Board member: So I make the motion to add for a straw poll of this upcoming election the sentence, Do you support the select board in the town of Durham exploring an alternative method of voting for the annual budget, land use, and other ordinances? [45:25] Select Board Chair: A second. We have a second from them. Josh, does that assuage your... [45:31] Select Board member: Yeah, my only question is, before we go on this, do we want to see if there are other questions? Did we want to do... [45:39] Select Board Chair: for the let's we ended up just doing this and then let's talk about because the next one's we have the motion so let's just close this off and then okay all right so any other questions or discussion all in favor any opposition seeing none that's unanimous good all right we did it backwards do we want does anyone want to add another question for a straw poll is this is probably not appropriate i don't know if it is not too detailed but the issue that we have on the agenda for town office hours and getting public no that's that no just public input [46:13] Select Board member: i will jump in early no i think that is that's just operation the town manager yeah to do that [46:19] Select Board Chair: yeah then next if we say yes to that next thing we're putting a straw folder to approve vacation requests in my mind okay sorry no i appreciate that question though all right anything else for straw poll questions this is our literally able to speak now forever hold your peace alrighty we will end that discussion and we're going to go back which is c we're going to go back to a it's calvin now when we moved you ahead of the discussion on goals and objectives so you don't have to stay till nine o'clock [47:00] Speaker A (unidentified): tonight so appreciate that alrighty so [47:04] Select Board Chair: So Public Works has asked to authorize the traffic signals to be expended for out of their CIP funds. Anything for us, Calvin, you want us to know? Yeah. [47:18] Speaker J (unidentified): So the preferred bids, I don't know if you have all the pages. I think I just printed it. I didn't get them all. So I'm thinking. [47:29] Select Board Chair: We have five bids here. You do? [47:31] Speaker J (unidentified): Yeah. Well, I just printed it. [47:33] Select Board Chair: i only got one side and they were two sides yeah we've got a bid from work safe traffic control industries we've got a bid from a devin moody we've got a sqt2 system i got them all but i [47:51] Speaker J (unidentified): didn't get them and i turned it off online so i'm a little puzzled but whatever okay so i guess i guess i'll have to figure out maybe it's my setting that didn't do the double-sided and we'll figure that out but you do have the same one twice here a 51 570 so the 44 290 the preferred bit is the identical machine to the 49 293 [48:25] Select Board Chair: The SQT2 systems, I mean, make sure you get that right, it's there, the two are identical. This is the normal two three one two. Let's just recap for the public what we're talking about here, the quest for public works purchased by what could go on traffic light, yeah. [48:48] Speaker J (unidentified): Yeah, so, it's clearly the 44 and it's the same as the, it's the same as the one from 50 51 570, they're identical, and one for 40 48 960. So what is it you're, you're asking, well, you know [49:06] Select Board Chair: just quick explanation, so we're looking for the lowest, no, just so people know, what are you asking to buy tonight and for what, for, yeah. So these are traffic lights, you'll see, they were [49:17] Speaker J (unidentified): just using them on Route Nine while they were ditching traffic stops, and it's red and it rotates traffic to single lanes so that we don't lose half of our crew. So I used to carry a 10 to 15,000 a year line item for flaggers, but then we couldn't get them, so I just took it out because you couldn't get a flagger if you wanted to, they just were not enough of them that would take the job, and then the price became so exorbitant, they're having to pay the guys standing there 20 something dollars an hour, and they just, their price went to 60 something an hour, and it was so costly that my 10 grand didn't amount to much anymore, so we just took it off. This would replace that flying item and would allow me to, instead of getting there, me losing immediately two [50:08] Select Board Chair: people, half the crew, to flagging, I could, we could all be working. So these are automated lights, you said, on either end, yeah, and they automatically let traffic go, yeah. This is a countdown so you can [50:20] Speaker J (unidentified): tell how many seconds is left before it changes again so you know people if they got an appointment they'll swear up and down they were there for 15 minutes but yeah this is going to tell them exactly how many seconds they have left and i'm gonna eat yeah they it kind of takes that away takes that anxiety out of the picture so these are north yarmouth has a free boy have i mean everybody is getting them they're just the you know we didn't trust them in the old days [50:47] Select Board Chair: but now they've been tried, true, tested. So Calvin, the quote includes two of these, yeah, like [50:55] Speaker J (unidentified): I said yeah, and they're on a trailer, they're all mounted to see the picture on page two, that are all mounted for a trailer, and we can actually haul two at a time. One trailer hooks to the other trailer, so you can drop one, easy chain, and then they go drop the other. The ones that dot were using water bro, all right, they have to go around the big box truck after and the tailgate lift and pick them up and push them in. So this is a better unit than what they have, but and the preferred bit of 44 290. That's all you need for this. Well, yes and no. So since then, since I given you this, they made us made us aware that we would need a sign package of 1300, and that's all the signage that has to be put up before these, and it'll say be prepared to stop, a picture of. [51:49] Select Board Chair: A traffic signal, that's 1300 bucks. Yeah, all right, so 45 590. Yeah, I was going to say the cap had 50 set aside for this, and this is because we're getting into the fall price. I if you went. [52:05] Speaker J (unidentified): To spring, you'd be back in the 50. Yeah, 49, this is 51. This one here, he's like, look, it's fall, we're time to move and time to move product, I'm willing to make a motion. Yeah, I think a motion that we. [52:21] Select Board member: We approve 46 000 out of the public works cip for the purchase of an automated traffic signal signals whatever the right term is. All right, do we have a second? A second from. [52:35] Select Board Chair: Josh. Yeah, I mean, this saves time, same increases efficiency, we've budgeted for it, this is under budget by a few thousand, it gets a flagger out of traffic, you know, so yeah, I like that it has the timer. The timer was, I like that it has the timer because when they were doing the bridge over before you turn on the elizabeth, people would, you know, the people who lived right there would get upset because people would lay on the horn at two o'clock in the morning because they thought the horn would make. The light turn green and they thought it was stuck, so this takes. [53:12] Speaker J (unidentified): There's a lot of anxiety out of pedestrian, you know, people driving. [53:18] Select Board Chair: Now, not that this is the intent, but, like, these could be left overnight if something had to be one lane overnight, which right now we don't have that opportunity, right? That's correct. Yeah. Cool. And could these ever just be left on red? Like, if there was a big storm outage or something like that, and you just want to park one at the end, either in a swamp road or something to say, close the road. use it for extra lighting or something okay cool awesome all right any other questions or discussion from calvin all in favor any opposition seeing none that passes unanimously thanks calvin i appreciate five bids to look at that's it's nice to that's nice when it's the preferred bids [54:02] Select Board member: The low one, yeah, I feel like you've been, is it just me or you've been asking for something like this for years. Year. Okay. [54:14] Speaker J (unidentified): So if I was to put that lagging line back in the budget now, it would be like 30 grand a year. Yeah. Equal what the old 10 was. [54:22] Select Board member: And so it pays for itself. And we are. [54:26] Speaker J (unidentified): So do you want me to stay from that report? [54:29] Select Board Chair: Does anyone have any questions for Calvin about his report? Nope. [54:33] Speaker A (unidentified): All right, Calvin, excuse me. [54:36] Select Board member: When are you going to pay, you think you're going to pay Stackfold this year or is it going to [54:40] Speaker J (unidentified): oil too high, all right, he's still up, I'm waiting for the paving company to give me what they think they can do and compare that to what they think they can do it for next year, Jerry and I, and then we'll have to make a decision and okay, bring it back, but we don't have a concrete answer right yet. [54:59] Select Board member: Okay, thank you. Okay. [55:02] Select Board Chair: All righty, thanks, Calvin. All right. Election clerk applications, we have 2 applications for election, but we need to, right? Just. Yes, all right. I moved to approve both election clerk. So that have applied for the role, 2nd from Deb. Do we have any questions or discussion? All right, on favor, any opposition, seeing none, approved. Thank you to both of these. Yes, this is a literally a thankless job. And so I appreciate being a very people doing a very important job. [55:38] Select Board member: Can I ask an election question at this point, or if we're going to close the office on October 7th, that's yeah, the MMA conference. Yes. Yeah. Is that, I guess it's the middle of the election or the beginning of the election, is it okay to close a polling place or do you have plans to keep the polling place open that day, the outside jack box, oh you mean for early [56:05] Town Clerk: in person, it's early voting, yeah, I mean I'll look into it, we did it last year and I think the [56:11] Select Board Chair: year before, so but okay, let me double, I don't think it violates any law if that's what you're asking, yeah, if it's just because it's like you're still open the rest because we close on Fridays. [56:21] Select Board member: You know, so I don't think it violates a law, but that's what I think, we definitely need to get the word out as soon as soon as possible that you're going to be closed. That day for licenses and for voting. [56:37] Select Board Chair: Please, all righty. I realized I skipped the consideration of moving late night hours Tuesday to Thursday to Tuesday. Did everyone had a chance to read the request? west Yeah, I was actually looking at this and I think it's a great idea for a couple reasons. So I pulled up the schedule and in the state of Maine there are 13 recognized state holidays and so one, two, three, four, five, six of them are on Mondays and so that leaves the remainder to be on every other one is a floater for a remainder as in like it can change yearly except for Thanksgiving which is always on Thursday and so by putting our long day on Thursday right now we're guaranteeing that we're closing one of the 52 long days a year every year. If we were to move our long day to Tuesday there's no guaranteed closure of a long day at all yearly so it helps increase the amount of guaranteed long days throughout the year and when I look at the schedule for 2027 there's at least two holidays so Thanksgiving and an additional holiday that fall on a Thursday and so if we were to move for 2027 to Tuesday being our long day it helps us maintain two additional long days that year and those are the days that we hear people are most concerned about in terms of like the hours being necessary. So to me just from in terms of increasing access to the town office this literally increases the amount of hours guaranteed to be open every year. Secondly to me the increased efficiency of having a long day coincide with the select board meeting when staff like our clerk already have to stay late for this meeting and then you know they sit there for an hour and a half after hours before the meeting opens sitting in the office presumably able to handle some sort of front desk volume if given the opportunity. So for that I have no problem with this, it kind of just seems like a an operations change and so I'd be open to any other questions or discussions before we make a motion. All right, I will make a motion to beginning January 2027 move our long day from Thursdays to Tuesdays. Do I have a second from Rebecca? Any questions or discussions? All right, all in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none that Is approved. All righty, we are back to old business, so discussion on board goals. So what I was hoping to accomplish tonight with this meeting is to take our goals and objectives in that workshop, and I found that workshop to be really helpful, to take our goals and objectives and figure out the what's next for each one of these. And so are folks okay with us just starting with the goals and objectives that receive the most dots, I guess, are the highest that were ranked the highest priority out of that event for us [1:00:19] Town Clerk: and then those are highlighted in blue on this form. Then yes, they're the ones highlighted [1:00:24] Select Board Chair: in blue. Well, not the ones in blue are ones that were combined. They're not necessarily the ones that get the most dots. Let me rephrase that. If we look through the dots, our ranking brought it [1:00:44] Select Board member: doesn't say the dots. Yeah, seven, eight, nine, one, fifteen, two through six [1:00:49] Select Board Chair: were both had four. Yeah, so one, two through six had four. Goal eight only had two. Seven, eight, and nine had five. Goal ten had zero. Eleven, twelve, thirteen had zero. Fifteen had four. 16, 17, and 18 all had zero. 19 through 21 had three. 22 had zero. And then it doesn't say how many dots 24, 20, 23, 24, and 14 had. Hold on, I have a photo of that. But what I'm asking is, are we okay with just start starting at the one that had the most dot and working our way down for how what we want to do? So like my thought process is we can identify is this already being captured by our current work plan, yes, what's the next check-in point for that, or we can say we feel like we can make progress on this, or we need to take an action to make progress on it. I'm just [1:01:56] Select Board member: going to say 23, 24, and 23 had three dots and 24 and 14 had two dots, but I think we combined that [1:02:06] Select Board Chair: out. So yeah, that was fine. Okay, so starting rate is anyone or is everyone all right if we start at the top fives and then work our way down? All right, no, so the first page, gold seven, eight, and nine all fall under explore ways to increase revenue to lower property taxes, and that includes increasing revenue, developing a plan for real property inventory management, pursuing economic Development to Lower Property Taxes. Currently, we have an Economic Development Committee that has begun that has a focus area. So there is some work being done on that as we speak. But does anyone want to have a discussion here about what we think needs to happen next to increase revenue and lower property taxes? [1:03:04] Select Board member: The committee is working. We had our first meeting last week. Rebecca and I attended as well. I think everybody was there and everybody seems enthusiastic. I'm also giving my statewide report. So I think that's going. And so the plan, the final plan is 2028 with an expectation it'll be done before that and hopefully. So I think whatever that number nine is, I think going, although it is relatively limited to the Cushing Road area and agriculture and energy at this point. I think that's a good bite-sized piece [1:03:45] Select Board Chair: before trying to jump to the whole thing personally. Okay, so if we feel like nine we have, we are working on nine, economic development committee. That leaves us with seven. So ink, so let me just say here, exploring ways to increase revenue and lower property taxes. Lowering property taxes can always be accomplished by decreasing spending, too. And so that's always going to fall on us every year to find ways to increase efficiencies, decrease spending and find savings. Being mindful of the fact that 90% of our budget or 85% of our budget is kind of out of our control through the school in the county. So we can focus on our municipal. So we should, we should highlight that these are focusing on our municipal expenses. One thing I want to talk about with increased revenue, and I don't know the answer to this fully. So we don't have a lot of business in town, but business generally provide revenue to a municipality through paying their property tax on the land. Land in the building that they're running their business out of. And then there's like a personal property tax line for the equipment that they utilize to do their business. And I went through that sheet the other day and was really blown away by how little is being evaluated as tax there. So there's like large companies who list $2,500 of total assets for their business. So they're paying, you know, 30 a year in tax. There's companies that have a lot of equipment that are saying that they have less than five thousand dollars worth of assets, and so they're paying virtually nothing in tax. And so I would like to figure out a way to, I want to talk, maybe we'd have our assessor Donna come in and say, is this normal? Is this because we haven't had a reeval? And does a reeval say, hey, you can't say your business which clearly has more than $2,500 of equipment only has $2,500? Of equipment, that, how do we address that? And that, in my mind, shifts some of the tax payment from individual property owners to businesses, which I know might be something that people aren't always a fan of. But I started thinking about this in conjunction too with like heavy trucking that occurs out of businesses, and then looking at that business and realizing there's almost no equipment claims, so very little tax paid, and wondering if there's a way to shift the way we're collecting to more equitably capture the business tax side of things while using that to provide a little bit of relief for the individual. So I would like for us to explore that more. [1:06:38] Select Board member: How do we even start with that? [1:06:41] Fire Chief / presenter: Just with Donna? I think it's going to be, [1:06:43] Select Board Chair: we need to invite Donna, our assessor, in to explain how that is, because there's exemptions and stuff like that, you know. And I'm not saying you go out there and you count every tractor that a farmer owns and tell them they owe the town a thousand dollars. I just don't, I'm looking at this and also like we talk about the amount of businesses that are in town and there's like a two dozen total businesses that list and there's businesses that I know are businesses but aren't listing anything on that tax there. And so I'm wondering if we're not capturing something appropriately because it hasn't been addressed in 16 years. And I also want to know for some of like the transmission companies, the radio tower companies, if the reaval is going to bring theirs up right now too, because some of our biggest taxpayers are like the radio telecommunications companies, but are they only paying at that 54% rate because of our reavail? And so what I want to know is, does that reavail address the business side of things? I asked Donna that. I know she said about that, but what I'm then getting at is like, those are big international corporations that are giving us a very honest line. I think that there are some people who are severely under-reporting their business assets. I mean, because I'm just, I'm not going to say names, but you can all go look at the sheet. Like I'm looking at things. It's like, there's no way there's only $2,500 of equipment associated with that business. And my understanding is, generally, the line we should be expecting to see from them is equivalent to what they have their business insured for. So if they're insured for a quarter million dollars, but they're telling us they only have $2,500 worth of equipment that they're worried about, something's not adding up to me. And so that seems to be a option in my mind for us to explore non-individual property tax revenue, if that makes sense. I know I just like pontificated there, but does that make sense to folks? Yeah, and so for me a next step was I would like to ask Jerry to have Donna come in, knowing that this is the kind of questions we're going to ask, being mindful that we're not going to try to call out any individual business or anything like that, but just better understand how that is calculated and figure out if there's something we can do as a municipality to better address that. I agree. [1:09:04] Select Board member: I 'm I agree with that, but I would like to sort of direct her ahead of time to the point of questions so that she can be prepared. Yeah, so I don't know if that means drafting a list of questions or one or two of us sitting down with her to say this is the stuff we would like to talk about, can you know hear our questions and maybe going through the presentation first so that we can follow up so she's prepared with everything. I like that. I don't want to, I just don't want her to come in right. Because she's going to come in with this expectation and we're going to go off on these tangents and I'd like her to. [1:09:47] Select Board Chair: Yeah, so what I would like to do is I would like, I was planning, I want to reach out to Donna and set up a meeting one-on-one, or if another board member wants to join me, two of us sitting down with Donna and saying here's some things that are coming up, educate us so we know what, so you can come to a meeting, and so myself and maybe one other board member can get some of that information from her and then have her come to, know that she's going to come to a meeting and I can solicit questions from. Everyone to give to her in advance, and then when she comes she can explain how this is calculated. I like that. Does that work for folks? Yeah, so I'll email Donna to and Jerry tonight or tomorrow to set up a meeting with them. Does anyone on the board want to join me. [1:10:28] Select Board member: In that meeting? I'd be happy to. And just depending on when, can we find the list of. [1:10:36] Select Board Chair: Businesses in town on the website? You can go to the commitment book, the personal property. [1:10:40] Town Clerk: commitment book those are the people who campaign personal property there's also a program called Betty which is exemption for businesses with so you want to ask her about that too yeah do you get that check from the state it's like homestead but yeah and I [1:10:58] Select Board Chair: think it's timely if we're reevaluating all the homes like that's gonna have an impact so like if a business is a home operated business and the reevaluation occurs it's gonna make that more accurate but I'm getting at that personal property the business's personal property tax so I would encourage everyone to go on the tax commitment and just take a look at it and so you can see what 's listed there and if you if that sparks any ideas [1:11:24] Town Clerk: on the website, go to the assessor page, yeah, scroll down and it'll say personal property commitment book 2027, yeah, real estate, click on personal property is the business [1:11:36] Select Board Chair: business, real estate is the individual property, yeah. So I'm going to tentatively see if we can meet, I can meet with her on the 28th, and then and then I can communicate to the group whether that meaning happens. Josh, you've read it first refusal there to attend, and if you can't attend, I'd happily have anyone else, if anyone else is interested, I'll send you questions. I think the [1:12:02] Select Board member: the whole discussion about the reval impact on business property, you know, what are they gonna do, they go in and count tractors or I don't know, yeah, no, that's a question for not you know [1:12:14] Select Board Chair: is that what we paid for to do that? So because like my question too is like I know with re-evaluation they got to come to your house and they get a knock on the door and say hey can I take a look, so I understand the condition of the home, do you get marble staircases or you get you know two by fours, right, I think it's the same, I'm assuming it's the same with business, so she [1:12:35] Town Clerk: sends out a taxpayer declaration and they fill it out and they have to get it back to her by April [1:12:40] Select Board Chair: 15th okay so the day she asked the business how much equipment do you own and they just give us a number okay there's no is there no auditing there yeah well i think that 's i think that 's a question and all i'll say is take a look at the sheet at the personal property tax commitment i'd encourage you all to look through there and do your own back and neck and math on some of this stuff so i'll reach out to donna to see if we can have a i can meet with her on the 28th with a plan of getting her maybe in at an October meeting to October meeting to give us an update as to what this might look like. The next thing on that line item is develop a plan for real property inventory and management. I think I would like for a couple years ago we had tasked Jerry with getting an inventory of what we actually owned for property, and because that was not well known, I believe that is now complete. I've seen it, yeah, 100, if it's been updated, but yes. And I would like to have Jerry give us a presentation on what we own, where it's located, and things like that, because some of the stuff I think our hands might be tied because some of it is like we might own as a town the open space component of a subdivision, and so we can't necessarily just put that up for sale or go in and clear cut it to get the timber value, but what we at least know what we have there. Other things are small parcels that it's like, is there an opportunity to put those up for sale? Is there an opportunity to utilize them for public safety or public recreation or anything like that? I know we own a pretty large parcel along the power line. Is there an opportunity to put out a request for a proposal for an energy development facility that taps right into the grid to provide income for the town, or to sell that to somebody else, or donate it, or transfer it to a conservation organization? I'm not picking yes or no on any of these, but we haven't ever had a discussion in the five years and six years that are seven years that I've been involved in the town on this, and so I think that it's time to just say we have some real assets, what are we going to do with them? So that's not listed on the website or no? [1:15:01] Select Board member: because just giving those properties to the neighbors will increase tax. Well, I mean even [1:15:06] Select Board Chair: literally if you just hand it to the neighbor they now have to pay the tax bill on it annually well right now it's a zero dollar tax bill well i think i 'm in favor of having jerry or and calvin and come and give us a package of what we own and talk about a little bit, but then maybe even having a workshop where we can look at each property, put it in a category of what its potential may be, leave alone, you know, and then go from there, and we can maybe hand it off to the committee Because some of those real property, well, it wouldn't go to the economic development committee unless it was in that search focus area. Well, unless, yeah. And so like some of the property, it's like, you know, we're not selling the town office in the ground that this sits on or the public works. So that could be a category of like, right, is it, this is real estate that already houses a building, we're not focusing on it. This is, you know, real estate that's undevelopable land, like we own, like essentially a small wetland i know that's one thing we own it's undevelopable maybe there isn't any income generating thing potential this one is developable do we need to put out RFP do we need to hire a forester do we whatever so I think that 's a good idea is like just getting inventory breaking it up into what this category is and then once we get to those like this is something we think that there is an option for revenue recreation or public safety move forward We could actually have Calvin and George do their first kind of categorizing it to when they bring it to us. Yeah, I'm not sure that's would be Kelvin's. That would be probably more of a George thing. Yeah, I mean, if it's accessible, it's [1:16:42] Select Board member: not accessible, that sort of thing. Well, and there is a realtor on the economic development committee who is interested in taxes. Yeah, and so an option is to just go to him and after we've sifted it down and say, you know, is this four acre or five acres on this area, you know, what's, what do you think the lot value of that is, you know, as a next step down the road. Yeah, so I think the [1:17:04] Select Board Chair: next step for us would be then to just get Jerry, Calvin, and George on the calendar to give us, to present in a public setting, here's what we have for real estate, here's what we would, we maybe ask them ahead of time, give us your professional opinion on classifying this as something that we can do something with, there's something that we're constrained on. You know, it's like we own the 10 acres on Swamp Road that we, that was cleared for the baseball field that never went in, so it's like we've got 10 acres of forest land there actually 11 yeah so it's like it's like what it could be done there I don't know and so from there once we figure out is this something that is already encumbered to the point of no yeah no return all right now we have a sub list and that's where we can John maybe say do we want to ask some realtors what the values are these sorts of potentials so that's what I would like to do and I'll take the charge on both the talking with Donna and then talking with Jerry thing if that works for you all in [1:18:08] Town Clerk: the in the commitment book all of our properties are in there under town yeah I was just gonna say that [1:18:14] Select Board Chair: yeah if you look under the commitment book you can see all the properties under town and Durham and then you can look at the lot and map number and you can see where they are you can see all [1:18:22] Select Board member: the parcel views yeah all [1:18:26] Select Board Chair: righty so I think we have a plan do we think we have a plan for next steps here or does anyone want to add anything to my to-do list on this because I'll take the charge on this one the next thing for number five that has five is on the final page 23 24 and 14 which was combined to say priority is to strengthen the board strategic leadership and so translate community priorities into long-term planning lead a community conversation on Durham's future strengthen the board's strategic leadership [1:19:03] Select Board member: any thoughts on this I have thoughts that I talk a lot so [1:19:17] Select Board Chair: for me I think the biggest thing that we can kind of pull out of this is so we're already doing in terms of like lead a community conversation on the future I think that the economic development committee is playing a role there I think having a discussion on real assets is playing a role there I think that what we just did about the downtown envisioning process is having a real conversation there this is all tying into a comprehensive plan which we'll be having to address in 2028 so I think we're on track just with that process but I see that this is an opportunity and especially because we've received public feedback from a couple different people now is to maybe try to figure out a way to better engage the town of the residents of Durham in the town of Durham not just in the governance of Durham but also just in community building and so I think this is where that community events committee or community or it could be like a community outreach committee could play a role you Know when I look at the things that go on in town, the fire department's got flyers behind us, they're putting on events, the girl scouts are putting on events, and vets is regularly putting on events, the historic society is doing things. I think it would be great to try to build community. I mean, I know the Seneces have an annual public cookout, there's a car shows in town. I think it'd be great to have a resident-led committee that tries to figure out ways to better engage the community in participating in activities, building kind of a sense of place and a sense of shared purpose and a local culture. The Community Engagement Committee. Community Engagement Committee. And so I think we could address part of that. And I think that starts from the top. We have to say that this is something we want to see done. And so I think we could address part of that through a Community Engagement Committee, numbers 23, 24, and 14. And so I would like for us to establish that committee. I know we talked about it a little bit last meeting and we haven't particularly called out this meeting. I want to know [1:21:36] Select Board member: folks thoughts on that before I make a motion. Is 14 covered by the comp plan? I mean that's what I [1:21:43] Select Board Chair: hadn't mentioned. Yeah, I think that I think that it is, especially because we've already supplemented sections of that comp plan between like the economic development, the open space plan, the land use, the downtown envisioning thing, and so I think that 's that's all part of it. We just need to make sure we're not losing the thread on each one of these, right? And I agree [1:22:04] Select Board member: because I mean the comp plan would put money on having, I did one many years ago with a town that was growing differently faster, but it's all about we want to keep the past. And so you got to kind overcome that because the past, you know, it's not 1870 anymore. So that's kind of where that discussion starts with the comp plan is, you know, for instance rural characters getting harder to [1:22:29] Select Board Chair: maintain and frankly rural character comes at an expense at today's day and age, you know. And so [1:22:37] Select Board member: is that a good, I guess what I'm asking is that the vehicle almost two years out to do that, or is there [1:22:43] Select Board Chair: I want to start it sooner. Do you think there might be an opportunity to begin? I don't know, it's like, this is crazy. Sound like a real government worker, like a pre-committee, like a, like get start being like who's going to want to be on the comprehensive planning committee and why don't you all sit together and start now? I mean, because it is 2026 and this needs to be done in 2028. At this point, start gathering what do we already have that will help influence a comp plan? We have an open space plan. We have all this. Is it time to start that and [1:23:16] Select Board member: that might be a good George question because I would assume he's gonna, he's gonna be the staff person who like he's doing with the economic development, he's just gonna guide that or do whatever. But I don't think it'll hurt because I think a lot of coordinating open houses and doing that stuff is one type of committee. The future of Durham is a different kind of committee. Maybe the same people, but it's a different process. So maybe they can also, I do, I agree with you, John. I think it can also work in tandem. So I think that there's a way that you can have community engagement and then looking to the future how that is seen. So it's not necessarily an either or, but they can maybe starting off with community engagement with a specific view with other people, with George overseeing possibly with how things are going to be for our comprehensive plan. Yeah, that kind of stuff is good and coordinating that is good. And George doesn't necessarily need to overwatch. I mean, they're taking into that. I mean because all of this stuff is doing well on its own, it doesn't need micromanagement. So I think that having a committee that maybe is aware and can get the word out maybe or like if they instead all of these organizations go to somebody on this committee and then this plain person the committee can go to Jessica but at the same time this committee is in charge of the future. [1:25:00] Select Board Chair: I don't know. I'm not sure that 's the same. I'm not sure that 's. The same people want to work on that. I think that there's people who want to work on. Community engagement. How do we get people to come out and do Durham things. I think that might be a different group of people. Than folks who are like. I want to plan the future of. You know. The future of the town's development. And operations. And so. So what I'm hearing, I mean, part of that, it's like, you know, I'm like, do we have a planning committee, a comprehensive planning committee that's separate from like, because the planning board has plenty of other things to already do. But do we get a comprehensive, do we start a, and I don't want to say we start a comprehensive planning committee now and say, all right, we're setting that committee come 2028, that's who's doing the comprehensive plan. But if we have a committee that's at least saying, let's start thinking about long-term planning and prep. And maybe what we need to do is we need to get some input from George on this before we take any action to say. [1:26:02] Select Board member: I think we definitely have to because I think we're going to get to the point sometimes where he's right. [1:26:07] Select Board Chair: And he might have guidance on what could be done without him to say, let's move this forward. He might say no, that's going to have to fall on the select board to an inventory of those sorts of things, and so I think the action item on this is connect with George to ask at what point did we start that comprehensive planning process, because the comp plan we got to do it in 2028. I don't think you start that in June of 28 and you're done in December 31 of 28, you know, that's That's a long process. And so at what point do we need to start that? Do we need to prop that up? So starting in twenty seven, those people interested in the in the comprehensive plan are beginning to gather to start. Because like one thing I know right now is we're going to have to pay for some facilitation for a comprehensive plan. But we have already done things that I look at and that can replace sections of our current comprehensive plan. plan so we don't have to rebuild the wheel here but someone needs to go through and get that organized and figure out what our needs are and is there is there a way for us to without paying bite another chunk of that comprehensive planning process off in 2027 so come 2028 when we start the comp plan we're now only paying to have four elements facilitated instead of seven [1:27:29] Select Board member: elements facilitated, you know, and I think without a lot of effort, I say that easily, but George could tell us what that pre-committee or what that should be, how to break it up, what they can work on, what we can work on, yeah, what's got a physical note, what, who should be involved. I mean, that town where I was involved, they divided the town in a, I don't know, four or five, six areas, kind of like the fire map, there is southwest, and because that one part was very rural and very interesting maintaining a cultural one had the downturn, so he could probably say, hey, this is how I would break that up, and the kind of, you know, you've got to have business people and you've got to have agriculture and you've got to have these folks that are part of that. So I would just ask, yes, George. [1:28:19] Select Board Chair: Yeah, so my action item here is I'm going to email George to start this discussion with him. What do we need to do to prep for a comp plan, knowing that we want to start leading a community conversation on our future? And that also captures in my mind translating community priorities into long-term planning because we've got a couple of facilitated products already, open space, downtown plan, now working on economic development plan. So I'm going to combine those two when I talk to George. This leads, you know, the strategic leadership item number 23, and I would like to make motion now to create a community engagement committee to help increase engagement within the community. I'm using that to help us address 23. Okay. I'll second that. Second. Rebecca, thank you. You so I think this could be, we've had multiple public members of the public reach out with interest to this, and so I think it'd be a good opportunity to embrace the volunteers who've come forward with this interest while addressing something that's important, you know, I don't know where this could go, could we end up with an old Durham old home days, could we end up with, you know, a farmer's market, could we end up with, you know, the fire department versus the town softball game every year, I don't know what this looks like, so I'd love to hear from people who are more tapped in on this, so any other thoughts or questions, Rebecca, I know you were interested in this at one point or at least brought it up, yeah, I just, I think it's a really [1:30:03] Select Board member: good opportunity, I also, I'm while we're going wild, I kind of feel especially with the last meeting [1:30:12] Select Board Chair: should we even consider a parks and rec committee, yeah, I didn't include that in my community, no [1:30:24] Select Board member: I know that's a separate conversation, yeah, but I just, it's front of mind with this because in [1:30:29] Select Board Chair: the past the Conservation Commission functioned a little bit as that, but like, because when I was first on the Conservation Commission, like we would, we would submit like budget requests to plan for bridge building and things like that, yeah, but maybe that Community Engagement Committee could be also kind of a Recreation Committee. What Catherine was saying about how [1:30:50] Select Board member: it needs to be mowed over by the boat launch and or the landing or wherever, and you know it's a good opportunity to walk dogs over there and that, so it's like that is community engagement [1:31:03] Select Board Chair: engagement as well, but it's also, what if I did it to a Community Engagement and Recreation, no, [1:31:08] Select Board member: I think I, you know, I think stick with Community Engagement and they can take it upon themselves, it's, yeah, and we can, we can cross the Parks and Rec bridge when we want to later down the road. So this conversation makes me go back to the, before I vote to start setting up more committees, I'd like to know, like I'd like to see like a draft bylaw, like this is what the expectation is, just because, don't we have that in our things also here, you don't want it to go rogue or you don't want them to wander down a road that you don't necessarily want them to go, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not opposed to this, but I'd like, before I support it, I would like to know in writing [1:31:55] Select Board Chair: what the intent is. I think that's a wonderful, yeah, that's one of our next, that's our next discussion item. Yeah, I mean, so the way we've done, I mean, again, one of our next items is going to be discussing how we develop a committee process, but like the way we've always done in the past is we draft a committee, we give them a charge, they come back and tell us, here's what we're going to adopt for our bylaws, and we can then tell them, all right, we'd like monthly reports, which we've never done before. So I would like, I know it might be putting the horse before the cart before the horse here, I would like to make this committee and then we can address that concern when we send out the call to action there in my mind, so, but I hear that and I see where, I understand where you're coming from, because I think that we experimented with the Solid Waste Committee and there was definitely a little bit of, you know, took a little bit to get their feet underneath them. It took a little bit of strategic leadership on our part, particularly Deb stepping in to help to help, you know, get that ship back on course. And so I think we can avoid, we can learn from that lesson and avoid that with our, with our future committees here. [1:33:15] Select Board member: I just want to state for the record that on in 2039, we will be celebrating our 250th anniversary for Durham. That's something to look forward to for community engagement in the future. 20 what 39, I'm looking [1:33:34] Select Board Chair: forward to tomorrow, 13 years down the road, just saying. All righty, all right, so we have a motion to establish a community engagement committee. Any other questions or discussions? [1:33:47] Select Board member: i'm not going to support it but it's not because i don't support it 's because i would like to see the bylaws so would you rather i move a set of bylaws first and that's how i think it should [1:33:56] Select Board Chair: be done. Okay, so that's definitely a market change from how we've done things. And so well, it's [1:34:02] Select Board member: something that has been brought up in the past. Yeah, and I think it's important because we've appointed a couple of committees in the last year, so agriculture, sanitation, solid waste. Thank you, ma'am. So I think giving them, these are these are the rules, the guidelines that you should follow, is important. I'm not saying those, none of those did badly, but here's the things we want you to work on, here's the structure, here's, you know, here's how you report. I basically [1:34:31] Select Board Chair: I think though if we up our game on the next goal of being having more insight to what the committees are doing and asking people to respond, you know, to give us reports, keep an eye on things, I'm in favor of having, you know, a call out for community members who would want to be part of a committee like this and get them in a room and say you got, we need more community engagement, you tell us what you think this group should do and bring that back to us. I agree, versus us establishing all that in advance of getting a list of people to be affected. [1:35:12] Select Board member: I agree with you, Deb, and I understand your point, but I do also think that why not vote for it now just to get it out there, because it does take time to get things off the ground and moving. And in the meantime, we do work on what we're going to be talking about next, which is guidance to the committees and the boards and ordinances for how what they should follow and reporting that because you know with the stipulation that you are going to have to be reporting to us and you are going to have to be giving minutes yes you know in the chair yeah you don't necessarily have to be videotaped or you know live streamed but it's you know we need to know what you're doing and i think it takes it 's a process it takes time for committee to get off the ground why not just be done with it and then let's move forward with [1:36:13] Select Board Chair: guidance for them that's my would it would people feel better if my emotion included a committee charge and purpose because my intent here is to create a committee and then we give of them the charge to identify existing community events in durham and provide recommendations on how to improve community engagement so that's the charge we need we need a census on what's going on and a recommendation on how to encourage community involvement and then from there i think rather than a top-down approach of like here's your exact steps and all these things you need to do it's a bottom-up approach and i think that when you have that bottom-up approach you build more buy-in because people feel more ownership over what they've developed so like agriculture committee is an example you know people said with like an agriculture committee the comprehensive plan said with like an agriculture committee we said all right we're crafting an agriculture committee whose job is to make the select board aware of the needs of the agriculture community in town they brought in they identified an outside facilitator who for free came in helped them set up the committee they gave us bylaws they have said here's issues that agriculture producers have with the ordinance here's things that we would think could be changed here's challenges we're running into you know for example you know the hoop house versus stuff like and that came from the committee after we gave them a kind of pointed them north and said tell us how to get there and i feel that if we get too in the weeds of telling a committee this is exactly what you need to do we might lose involvement from people who feel like the committee's constrained or already set on a path that they might not buy into and so would you feel better about the motion josh if i included the charge not [1:38:06] Select Board member: Particularly, okay, all right, well, [1:38:08] Select Board Chair: then I won't, I won't modify my motion then. Well, I'll just say though, my intent was to get people in here who have already asked to come in and help with community engagement and provide some seats for other people to help tell us what we need to know about what's going on in our community and how to get people involved. So we have a motion to begin a community engagement committee. My idea would be that it would be, you know, five members, two alternates, and seeing no more discussion of the motion, all in favor? Any opposition? That passes three two, I'll talk to Jerry about putting out a call. Are we good with five members? [Select Board member: Two alternates.] If you know of anyone who's interested, once we put out that call, please try to solicit feedback or engagement from them. I don't feel the need to address parks and rec at this time. That's fair. All righty, next one that we have on is starting with things that have received four votes there. That is items two through six, more or less summarized as review committees and their structure and create rules and regulations for committees. All right, what are people's [1:39:42] Select Board member: thoughts here? You need to do this? Yeah, I think it's, is this something that Jerry would [1:39:52] Select Board Chair: be doing, or who? So it would be us, but for example, I asked Jerry to give me any materials he had for examples, and he sent me like an example format for committee bylaws. I don't want to go into great detail here. I think this is something that we need a workshop on where we just come in here sometime in October or November and all we do is just say how do we, how do we address this? [1:40:17] Select Board member: I would like a starting place so we're not, we're not beginning from nothing, so if Jerry has a starter that we can work off of, maybe we share that and then we can workshop it from there. [1:40:34] Select Board Chair: Let me see here. I can see exactly what Jerry sent. So he has a draft Durham, town of Durham, boards and committee and commission guide that he had sent along that he pulled together as an example of what this could look like. Did he send that to all of us? No, he just sent it to me knowing that we're going to have this discussion, so I will forward that to everybody. Well, I have to think about how this goes in the public, so I will put this on an agenda. I can forward it to everyone and then it'll be part of an agenda packet and we can have a discussion on this with Jerry when he's here and then figure out what step we need to take, maybe a workshop on it because I'm just trying to think if I'm, I'm allowed to forward this. I guess I can forward it if we don't have discussion on it and not have to be concerned about illegal meeting. What are people's thoughts? I don't know what the rules are. I'm happy to take a look at it. Yeah, well how about this, maybe Rebecca you and I can sit down and crack, come up with an idea and then at one of our next meetings we can, we can present to the board. [1:42:23] Select Board member: I think that's probably a more culture way to go about it. [1:42:29] Select Board Chair: Let me just send this to you. So for this item, Rebecca and I will meet within the next two weeks. Does that work for you? [1:42:37] Select Board member: Yeah. I'm not here for the media. [1:42:40] Select Board Chair: All right. We'll meet within the next two weeks to gather what information we have and bring to the board next month or the month or early November member some guidance on committees and how we think we need to workshop addressing that because right off the bat you know we have committees commissions boards some of them are quasi-judicial like the planning board and board of appeals some of them are voluntary commissions like the conservation commission other committees in town like the budget committee are elected and so I think there's a different way you engage all these different facets because there's different constraints within all of it and so Rebecca and I can start on this bring a presentation to the to the rest of the board and then figure out what the next, what the next step will be which is going to be a workshop but we can do some pre-work before that to make sure everyone has some time to review it before we begin a workshop. Does that work for [1:43:38] Town Clerk: folks? Yes. [1:43:41] Fire Chief / presenter: Okay did [1:43:44] Select Board member: we even find the cemetery and the historic committee maybe you and I can figure [1:43:51] Select Board Chair: that out. Okay sorry, all right I can tell the group's losing steam so I want to make sure we push through this so the last thing we have that has four is focus on facilities expansion. And then number 3 falls in the public safety review facilities expansion report and determine next steps and how to proceed. [1:44:21] Select Board member: Yeah, that's the fourth one we thought was a priority for 2,027. [1:44:25] Select Board Chair: Yeah, and so what I can do on this is just ask a member of the facilities expansion report. Where did that come out of? I thought was that the downtown envisioning report I [1:44:39] Select Board member: think so too. Yeah, I was thinking it was the town hall for sure. Yeah, so like [1:44:43] Select Board Chair: there's there's a draft, you know, architectural plan for what an expanded town hall would look like, and I think that was 20 years old at this point, so that conversation was brought up. Yeah, there's like there's already some, an architect already designed how to expand basically a [1:45:03] Select Board member: sketch. I and I've got that, I mean, yeah, it's actually in the 2006 Tom report, so yeah, if I mean I can make a copy of that and send it to everybody. Yeah, and I know Jerry has an electronic [1:45:14] Select Board Chair: copy of it, so I think what needs to happen on this item is just we need to have a meeting where we have, I think Jerry should circulate that to everyone, but also then we just need to check in with Jerry as to what we have for facilities expansion work already done, and then we can determine what needs to be done next from there, right? That report of the, what was that called, downtown envisioning, so we could get that, we could get a, that report and whomever that was facilitated by GP Cock, I don't know if they had a chair, but they might have had a spokesperson, the downtown visioning committee. Yeah, and maybe we could ask that chair to come in and report back on that, so they did a report too, right? Yeah, they have a, they have a written report for the downtown envisioning, but it didn't this necessarily pertain to the facilities like how to change this facility or that facility, and then it didn't have anything with public works, but I can sit down and find out from Jerry what we have for this downtown or this facilities report and then i can put that on a future agenda for us to address okay and so i think that 's going to probably wrap up what we're going to discuss here tonight on this [1:46:33] Select Board member: this goal planning, but to do you've taken on a lot, which I appreciate. Yeah, if you would, if you wanted to hand off any of that stuff, I would love to hand off some of this stuff. I would take num, I'd be happy to take number eight, the plan for real property, that's a personal pet project as a [1:46:50] Select Board Chair: as a land manager that i 'm really interested in but i'd team up with you on that one i mean [1:46:55] Select Board member: I just think I'm happy to do it, and when we start putting together a report on, you know, work with Jerry, put together that stuff, and so on. [1:47:06] Select Board Chair: Yeah, and I put together, based on what you sent us here, just some verbiage of what is the objective of these. So I have that I would like to just forward out. That would be great. Put on the list because I feel like when we go to our website we should see what are the objectives of the select board. Yeah, you're coming. So I put some stuff together and I can. Yeah, that'd be awesome. I appreciate that rather than me and Rebecca working on committees. Would you have any interest, Deb, in taking my spot on that committee thing and working with? Sure. Oh yeah, no, yes, she's. He's happy to do it. Yeah, John says you'd be great for it. All right, so Deb and Rebecca. So Deb and Rebecca are going to handle two through six. Joe and John are going to work on seven, eight, and nine. Joe will just ask Jerry about four. Four, and then we are going to get this 23, 24, and 14. I can take a stab. Is there anything speaking to your fancy, Josh? I know you're slammed right now, so don't feel the need to. I mean, I'm happy to step up and help whenever. Wait, didn't Joe, didn't Josh say that he would be involved in the discussion about the business tax business? Yeah, so maybe that should be you and Josh, and then John going to the strategic leadership with Joe or something. [1:48:43] Select Board member: No, that's not what I agreed to sign up for. [1:48:46] Select Board Chair: So this is why it's important to have buy-in. [1:48:48] Select Board member: That's what I had touched your shoulder and said you would be happy to take it. [1:48:54] Select Board Chair: Would you like to have a larger role in that then? In what? The strategic leadership within the community engagement and things like that. Yeah, I can do that with you. You sound so excited. John, that was a really good bounce back. Uno reverse card you had. [1:49:18] Select Board member: I'm happy to help with the comp plan down the road. [1:49:23] Select Board Chair: Cool. So I will follow up tomorrow with Jerry on these items. This is going to be a busy schedule for the next couple months. Some of these things are going to be brief updates and then more work to be done outside of session, and then others are gonna have to be workshops and stuff like that. So I'm gonna start right away with trying to set up a meeting with Donna Hayes on the 28th to talk about revenue, and then ask Terry for the full real property management, and then John maybe you and I can, even if you, we just go grab a cup of coffee or something and just say hey, these are off the table. And so then we can just say, here's the four parcels that we really need to be talking about. So, works for me. Cool. I wish we had some sort of swanky dashboard that we could put up so people could see like, this is what's being talked about. This is the next, like that spreadsheet that you created a couple of years ago. And maybe we could get something like that where like, this is what's open-ended. This is what needs to be addressed. [1:50:31] Town Clerk: Address, I think I can kind of put this together strategically. Yeah, that would be great. [1:50:38] Select Board Chair: All righty, so I think that this is kind of culminates the select board discussions. I'll do some follow-up work, and then we'll get on board here. We've already handled all new business ahead of old business. We have now going into manager report. I have a written manager report from Jerry. He sent it to the group, but I want to read it aloud for folks at home. So transportation and safety, he's reached out twice now to Maine DOT regional planner regarding safety initiatives and programs, and he's waiting for a response. He will continue to pursue this matter and will provide an update when additional information becomes available. I've not heard, he has not heard back from Maine DOT traffic engineers regarding the potential installation would always stop at the intersection of route 9 run around pond in rabbit road, but he's going to update us when he hears something back. I know he's staying right on [1:51:35] Select Board member: top of that. You know, he's working very hard, but can we just say if we don't hear from them by a certain day, we have a, we have two state legislators who, you know, we could go to and say, and I'm happy to do it because I don't have, you know, I don't care about the bridge, but and say hey, we need your help. Could you get them off the dime? Yeah, let's say by the, I don't know, end of October. [1:51:59] Select Board Chair: So I was thinking about this because, as you all saw, I responded to the email chain that we've received. That went out first week of September. I think waiting a full month is more than fair. So if we don't hear something the first week of October, that could go out. And then you could also include our current rep, Kilton Webb, who lives right here in town, and then our Senate rep as well. And just say like, hey, we're not getting, can you get them off the dime? Yeah, because like, I don't want to sound reactive, but like, there has now been two additional accidents there, and I don't think it has to test this. They're not related to heavy truck traffic, but the last couple weeks I've gone out to just look around there a lot more, and there, I have some, I think that there can be a discussion even around just like sight lines if you're coming off of Runaround Pond trying to turn left. I had one community member tell me in this in a one-on-one email chain that he thinks people think it's a four-way stop because he has been turning on to Runaround Pond Road and people who are at the stop sign are cussing him out for what they believe is running that stop sign. And so, and I was over at Runaround Pond this afternoon for a work function, and the amount of traffic that goes by there and then on to over to Route Nine is incredible. Like it was like, because we were trying to video some outreach material and we were pausing all the time waiting for cars to go by. And so I know that people are really stressed about this. We can, if we don't hear anything back in the next week, you know, to put a lot of, put that pressure and [1:53:40] Select Board member: pull additional levers if we need. And this started back in February. Yeah, that gentleman came, said he's going to do this and this, get back to us, and he never has. And so I think we've been more than patient. Yeah, and I'm not criticizing Jerry, I mean he's working it, but it may be that [1:53:56] Select Board Chair: as a select board we can put a little, yeah, you had something? No, I was actually almost hit there today going to Cumberland, so yeah, it seems like a no-brainer to put a four-way there for me, considering that everything else has one. But at the same time, when we put up, when they put a four-way in at Rabbit in the Quaker Meeting House in 125. The bully pulpit was very vocal on how they didn't think there should be a four-way there and there's no problem. People should just learn how to drive. So there will be a whole other round of complainers for that. And it's just, you know, we just got to go with the data. All right. The other thing Jerry said, public works staffing. They recently had a public works employee resign from the position. physician and that's going to be advertised and work to fill as soon as possible. Tablets, the tablets have been ordered. He's going to keep the board updated regarding expected delivery date and availability. Jerry did tell me if there's any individual board member who doesn't want to have the tablet be their only source of written material, they can still have it printed out. He just needs to know so we can save on the time and effort of printing. Their town office, the main municipal association's annual conference is scheduled for October 7th and 8th at the Augusta Civic Center. The town office will be closed Wednesday, October 7th to allow office staff to attend one day of the two-day conference. And thank you, John, for your questions earlier about the voting location. I'd say any questions for Jerry, but he's not here, so I can't answer him, so shoot him an email if you got him. All right, board member report. I have to pull up the date here. There's a GP COG event coming up, I believe it's the 28th. It's the northern semi-annual convening, it's kind of in person in a remote, September 28th, 6 to 8 p.m. I plan, it's at Pineland Farms, I plan to attend in person. John, I believe you said you were planning to attend in person. Is anyone else planning? Wait, when was it? Is the GP COG northern semi-annual convening, let me know, what's the date again? September 28th, I have [1:56:15] Select Board member: soccer practice so I can't go. Yeah, it's not for me, but I don't know, I thought [1:56:22] Town Clerk: I had it like calendars. Oh, it's on this calendar, they're tuning calendars. Anyway, it's open to all board [1:56:29] Select Board Chair: members and so I just plan to be there. I know John plans to be there. If more than two of us are there, it's okay, we just don't make any sort of anything we have to put on a public. Yeah, if people are going to go, we would, Jerry might put out something public that the board members are attending something, but it's not a meeting, just so there's no thoughts that people might say oh they're trying to attend a meeting together or anything like that. So Deb, do you know if you would be going in person? I Will not be, no, I think I'm going to decline this time. All right, cool stuff. Well then, John and I can do whatever the heck we want thing, because there's only two of us. So maybe that's John when we can actually touch bases on some of this stuff. Go grab, there's a, there's a pretty good restaurant over there at Pinelands that we could hit before. You already know restaurants, I take food very seriously, so it's not the spots. Other than that, I've got nothing. Our next meeting I'll get that agenda pulled together, but that's not going to be until the 13th of October, and you said you weren't going to make it. Everyone else is on board. Cool, I'm getting nose surgery the week before, so I might have like a weird nose thing going on, but I should be here on the 13th, but I should be upright and breathing by then. What's that? I said sad to miss that. Yeah, good, but there'll be a live recording, so you can call in where we are and see my, you know. Other than that, I've got nothing. Josh, no, Deb, we did get the material list that we need for the bandstand. It's, it's under five, it's under five thousand dollars. Actually, it's not even hitting three thousand for the material part, so I plan to meet with Jerry hopefully tomorrow, if not Thursday, and going over the next steps. We want to get a detailed description of, you know, describing what the work will, what work will be done, and how the plan is to solicit input from the residents to do the work. So I'll be reporting back to you guys probably the next meeting. Awesome, thanks to Tia and Mr Daly for their work on that. 's [1:58:50] Select Board member: nice to them becca just that there was another early childhood task force meeting last week there is one next week again that unfortunately i'm not going to be able to go to but it's most likely going to be extended because there's so many moving parts and factors to it and i 'm a little nervous that it is going to increase the school budget before next year so it's just a warning but we'll see and monitor across that yeah it's just it's an fyi just with what's happening and also with all of the things, the changes that are going to occur in Augusta, we don't know what funding will be available for education in the state. Yeah, so yeah, it's a very open-ended question, but every school [1:59:51] Select Board Chair: district is dealing with the same thing, right? Everybody has to take on the, yeah, because the state's not going to cover, and the question is this, if the state's not going to cover it [2:00:02] Select Board member: Are they going to cover expenses for it? Well, okay, so let me be clear with, because we entered into cohort three, the state has signed a contract with RSU5, so we have that. We haven't been paid all of the money that they've been contracted to give us, but we are under contract with them. So at least in 2026, we will receive the funding that they have granted us. For what happens in 2027 and beyond? Beyond, that's so, yeah, two things. One is the Solid Waste Committee did reject me, so I will not be attending their meetings. I can take a hint. And the other thing is, I got, I didn't realize this, I thought everybody got it, and I was going to talk about it, but the Agricultural Committee is looking for a member, and they sent me what they would like to write for the Durham Blast to publish for this new member. And I thought we'd all gotten it, but I guess I'm the only one. And it's pretty open. They're just looking for somebody who's interested in open space. I forwarded on to you. Yeah. You know, I guess I would like to get back to them and, you know, somebody's interested in open space, rural character, working lands, local food, systems, gardening, conservation, defining agriculture. [2:01:29] Select Board Chair: I'm going to send it to Jerry and Jessica right now. [2:01:31] Select Board member: And I'm fine with it. I mean, but if, you know, we can't respond on email. So if we're happy with it, Joe, it sounds like you just asked them to print it or put it in the blog. And I'll send Jonah a note saying, I'm sorry, I misunderstood this. [2:01:50] Speaker A (unidentified): Let me just put this in. [2:01:52] Select Board Chair: I'm just forwarding it on to Jerry and Jessica and just saying, FYI, Ag Committee accidentally sent this to John only. [2:01:59] Select Board member: Yeah, I just looked at it. And that's it. Awesome. [2:02:04] Select Board Chair: Only one more thing I wanted to note, and I think it's important to bring up every year. So it's an election year. People get asked to campaign. People get asked to film videos. People get asked to make statements about candidates. And so just a reminder, we're all free to do whatever we want in that regard. What none of us can do, and I'm not saying this because anyone has done it, but I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. none of us can speak on behalf of the town of Durham and so if we're endorsing a candidate if we're helping a candidate if we're campaigning we're going to events it's important if people ask you know are you do you live in Durham are you do you say yes you can certainly say you're a member of the select board we don't ever say that the town of Durham is endorsing or not anyone giving candidate and again I'm not bringing this up because anyone has violated any of this but i do think it's important that we bring it up, particularly, you know, we have, you know, our district is up, it's a big election year. And so I just want to remind everyone if there's any questions there. So all righty, seeing nothing else, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So Josh, do I have a second? I'll second, Rebecca. All right, any questions? Discussion? All in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none. So, unanimously, all right, upcoming meeting. Town office is going to be closed October 7th, 2026 for the Maine Municipal Association Convention. As long as we're doing everything we can to advertise that, I think that would be great. Ag Committee, October 7th at the Recreation Center at 6. Planning Board, October 7th, Fire Station at 6.30. Select Board, October 13th at 6.30. We've discussed that link things to put on the upcoming Select Board. I gotta distill what I have here and we'll get something on the next agenda. Executive session, I don't believe we need one. All right, seeing none, do I have a motion to adjourn? Josh, John, any discussions, questions? All in favor? Any opposition? See none, unanimous. Adjourn at 6 30, about 8 30. Keep this long enough to sign. Yes, you can keep it. Well, I ended up with two pens. I should, don't know how, so I could have handed you over one. [2:04:27] Select Board member: Sorry about that.