Thomaston board debates economic coordinator role, approves Verizon lease

[0:09] Speaker A (unidentified): Hey, we've got the camera on. We're live. [0:23] Speaker B (unidentified): Okay, welcome everybody. Hey, Kim. So sorry. No, you're fine. I just walked back in, so you're fine. As we all know, we're here for this workshop to get together a job description. So, I guess how I'd like to just kind of stop this is, we all know what the JavaScript was. They don't only get a copy or something to look at. Has anyone made notes and or, as far as like, to begin with the nature of work? And if that paragraph fulfills what we think it should fulfill or if we should add to that. [1:16] Speaker C (unidentified): I had a comment. Okay. Just a comment when I read that. We need somebody who's like about 60 years old, maybe widowed, and can have all the time in the world to do all the things that are listed. Okay, well I don't think we can put some [1:42] Speaker B (unidentified): of those stipulations on. No they aren't, but on that, thank you, but thank you. I'm [1:47] Speaker C (unidentified): thinking oh there's a lot of gutters and babies and so let's start with we [1:59] Speaker D (unidentified): We budgeted $23,000 for the position in this year's budget. [2:05] Speaker E (unidentified): So it's part-time? How many hours? [2:07] Speaker D (unidentified): Previously it was 15 hours a week at $25 an hour contracting. And we upped the budget to $23,000 this year. So depending, yeah, increase the $3,500, so whether we pay a little more per hour or they work more hours, but I guess that's something to think about too as we're wondering what is it that we want this person to accomplish, so what they can do with what we have. So if it's still the $25 an [2:49] Speaker F (unidentified): hour it's like 17 hours a week, so like I kind of haven't given this a great deal of thought and the more I think about it the more I realize that maybe looking at the current job description should be rethought, the entire position should be rethought. I know that looking at it line by line there was of the many conversations I've had in my head about this, the idea that a business and community component is co-joint I think is the first thing that we should be looking at to determine where the town's dollars are best spent and where the impact can be best felt and which tasks that currently are or were assigned to that employee are maybe best suited being reassigned or terminated from the job description. I don't think that this person's time is best suited, for example, taking minutes in meetings. I think that is probably ours that could be best suited, best used elsewhere. I also don't know if grant writing is necessarily in the bailiwick of the skill set that we would need for this position. I just had a conversation with Kim Stevens at the picnic basket before I came here, and I just wanted to get her feedback on things that she would like. And she said, I'm glad you did because I have thoughts. And she said, I think communication is the most important thing that this person needs to do with Main Street businesses. I would like more communication from this position. And I said, well, I kind of envisioned it as maybe an ombudsman for the business community that would be present and talking to Main Street businesses and hear their concerns more actively. Effectively so that was the feedback I got from the one business owner that I talked to on my way. [5:07] Speaker B (unidentified): Here this evening I got that from her yesterday and station 118 because she happened to be in there so I get the same type of feedback I do agree on the minute taking I think if you have it's just like any other committee you assign somebody as secretary to take notes just like the budget committee last year and I'm all taking notes because I couldn't find somebody but I do agree that the minute taking should not be part of this person's you know, if she decides or he or she decides that they. Want to do that because that's one thing but it should not count against these hours that's not, you know what, where. [5:57] Speaker F (unidentified): I remember the last time we met I remember Pete's observation was you know when I said that are we even budgeting enough hours for this person's actual task and so that was one bit of feedback that I remember from the last time that we met but I don't think we know that yet because we haven't determined what the job. [6:21] Speaker B (unidentified): Description is yet you know yeah and I don't think that we honestly know that because I don't know that we really know exactly what was happening before so I feel like you know we're you know trying to figure this out freshly and you know don't really know all the details from the past enough to know what the hours really did it him But, I mean, looking at this, you know, pre-K program, that could definitely come out. We know that. And, you know, I do think that it does need to be something that, you know, she is a, he, she, I shouldn't say she. [7:14] Speaker F (unidentified): They need a date. [7:15] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, is coming to the meetings for ECDC. That's very important because that person does need to make sure that they're coming back and saying, okay, I've been to this business and this business and this business, and here's what they're feeling. But I also think it's very important, and I know a lot of the businesses would like to try to get together again and try to establish a business after hours or whatever, and you know, I thought we were headed in that direction a year ago and we got derailed very quickly on [7:59] Speaker F (unidentified): that. So we discussed it this morning in ECDC as a as a part of the agenda, which I apologize for getting out late, by the way. However, part of the conversation ranged from what is the benefit of having this position in the first place to this person should be able to enhance the brand of Thomaston as a business-friendly place, that we're open for business, and be conversant in the ways in which that brand is expressed to the broader community, not only the business community, but to help establish, Thomaston establish a brand as a business-friendly place. And clearly, given what's happening with East End Tip, what's happening with development in that part of the world, and what's happening here on Main Street, there is a palpable energy which speaks to that. And so leveraging that and having the individual that would have the ability to broadcast that to the world in general, I think it's very hard to quantify what the results of that are in a dollars-and-cents way. We'll never be able to figure that out. But having somebody that will help the town build its brand as a business-friendly place was kind of like maybe a takeaway from this morning's meeting from my perspective. And then the other side of the equation was, is this worth the expenditure? And so all voices were heard in that regard. [9:41] Speaker D (unidentified): Go ahead. [9:42] Speaker A (unidentified): You know, I've thought a lot about this position and I think that we need someone that's really an ambassador for the town and working on the Thompson 250 with Kim, we have no one to talk to, we have to go out and go to every business now and make the connection. And this person should be out there, like I said, as an ambassador to the town, knowing who's coming in, who's going out, what's happening. To me, that's much more important than even having any social media stuff. And music behind the block is lovely, but this position, the way I look at it, is someone to really be involved with the people that are in the town and not so much social media. And I almost think, I know Justin's going to kill me, but I think that person could also work with the rec department on certain events that are going on. And then the hours that this person, they are putting in, would work. But to have all these other social media things on top of it, you can't really do the job that needs to be done, I think. [10:49] Speaker F (unidentified): I think the content creation, the visual representation of what's happening in town is also an important component of that. And broadcasting that as an important element of what this would be. [11:02] Speaker D (unidentified): I just wanted to add to what was discussed a few moments ago about the businesses because that is something that not just Kendra, but people previous to her in this position have struggled with. And there needs to be some accountability and want of gathering of the businesses themselves. And we can only be there to support them, but we're not the ones steering the ship, if you know what I mean. I think those businesses need to be the ones steering the ship. And we're just there to be the connector between the businesses and the town and help with communication and events and how we can help support that. But it has been an ongoing issue, and I will say, not just for Kendra, but, like I said, people previous to her, and how if the businesses want to have a downtown group, I think they need to be the one to get that going. [12:01] Speaker F (unidentified): So your perspective is it's not the town's job to form a de facto chamber of commerce and promote that. My feeling would be that the investment in, okay, so, you know, putting on my CDC hat, this is typically the kind of thing that a CDC would be responsible for, right? But we're not that size entity. Why not? Right, but, you know, in our meeting this morning, Alan quite rightly pointed out that there is, you know, you hear about Thomaston now, outside of Thomaston, oh, things are happening there, right? There's a reason, and we think that Kendra's work is largely responsible for that. Regardless of execution, there was a value to that part of the equation. So I think we need to weigh that when we talk about the value of this position. I think these dollars that we dedicate to that position perform for the town, because the town does have a brand issue, right? And I think that there's a value in putting dollars towards that. From an ECDC perspective, we've got nothing but great feelings coming out of that committee. I had a really good experience today in my first meeting, and there seems to be an energy here that I think we need to leverage. So I think of this position as the person that leverages that energy, and I think it's, while it, I think it would do more damage to the town to lose the position, then I think we would gain in saving the actual dollars. And [13:56] Speaker D (unidentified): so I think the question is, if we want to keep the position, what is it we want them [14:01] Speaker G (unidentified): to accomplish for us? [14:03] Speaker H (unidentified): So I think that the word coordinator is important here. We're not looking for an economic director. We're not looking actually even for an economic driver. We're looking for an economic coordinator. And I would put, next to coordinator, I would put communicator, because I think that those are the elements that are most important about the job. And I'd take Cathy's point, but I think I'll take issue with it as well, in so much as I think the social media aspect, the online communications and so on, are really important. And someone has to do that and they have to do it really well, they have to do it even better than Kendra did, and I think she set the bar reasonably high with what she was doing. I think there are always ways of sharpening things up, and I think that's a really vital role, and I think that being an ambassador for the town involves letting people in the surrounding area also know what's going on in town. what businesses are doing what, which businesses you pick is vitally important, that you're fair to everybody, that you get their input and how it should be done, you get their input into what the site is called, which didn't ever happen, you get, you know, various improvements we can make, but that to me is the most important thing, the communication. I think that to ignore that in today's world would just be a fatal mistake. I mean, it's like saying, let's send out letters instead of, you know, having a newspaper ask them or something. You've got to acknowledge the importance of social media in all of this. So I would put that as job one for that person is to be great at social media and a good ambassador in that sense. The next part, that's the communication part. The coordination part means getting the ideas that Main Street has and other businesses around town and communicating those ideas back this way, back to the ECDC. What can you do to help these people who have had this idea? Do you play a role? And if ideas come up from ECDC, to take those back to the business community and say, look, the people on the committee were thinking this, how do you feel about that, so on and so forth. And then the other coordination role is, to my way of thinking, would be to follow up on the great initiative to help form a business after hours kind of association, but to coordinate it in a way to help it work. And if they want weekly meetings or monthly meetings, make that happen. And be the communicator for that group. It failed last time for a couple of different reasons. It's always hard for people to find the time for these things. It's hard for businesses. You've got to be very careful about the hours you pick and nothing's going to suit everybody. But there's a knack to that and we need a person that has that knack to coordinate the arrangements between the businesses themselves. And yes, it's their thing, but let's be real. We want it to happen. It's good for the town. There is no change of commerce. Thomson needs to look after its own interests and its business' interests. That coordination can help make that happen. So that's what I'm saying. [17:41] Speaker F (unidentified): And by contrast, I'd like to mention that, you know, there have been experiences where people have, there has to be someone, a voice on the phone that gets it and that can sew the pieces together and represent the town in a way that we would be proud that they represent the town when people try to interact in a commercial sense, right? There have been things that have slipped through the cracks in the past that shouldn't, that make the town look bad. And we need to put as positive a face forward and interact with the general public and the community in a way which makes us look like we understand, certainly a way in which a town should communicate with businesses. For instance, if somebody makes a donation to an event, that should be followed through on and honored. Right, there should be a level of professionalism that is represented in this position, and the level of I get it and I understand how to communicate with business that tells people that Thomaston is not the sales prevention department and we're here to help. And that goes a long way, even if it's just one thing that happens that helps add to the quality of life in Thomaston, which it wouldn't be. It would be much more than that. But that's an important consideration, the idea that we get it, we're here to help, and we're professional in our demeanor. Chris, you. [19:19] Speaker I (unidentified): I couple of things just as I listen to the conversation. I want to echo what Kara said about the businesses. I do think there would be great without a Chamber of Commerce any longer to have the businesses be able to have some coordinated opportunity to meet and together, but I think it has to originate with the businesses. I think we can provide a facility, we can provide someone probably in this role to help facilitate that reading, but the origination of that and the planning of that has to come from the business community. Will not succeed without that, and I am speaking from many years of experience in the retail world in particular. I think an ambassador for the town in a sense is an important component of this, of this rule. We talk about communications and that the businesses would like better communications. Three things I'll say. One, communications, that's co-communications, that's two-way, that's a two-way street. So my question would be, what do you want to be communicated, what do you want communicated to you, what do you feel you're not aware of, that you're not getting? How can we improve communications, what do you need to know, and how would you like that delivered to you? How do you want that to you? Do you expect somebody to come to your store and take a few minutes of your time and talk to you? Do you expect to get something that gets emailed to you once a week, once a month? Are you going to read the Facebook page or the or the Instagram post or whatever else it is in the Social media, I think that's, that's an important something that needs some definition, I think. I mean, we've had meetings here where people complain about communications, but they never articulate what it is they want to know, what they're, they're not getting, and how they would best like to receive it. And I think that's really important. Brand development, I think, I giving Kendra credit for first work she's done and others, I think a combination of the work that has come out of the Economic Community Development Coordinator position and Watts Hall. The two of them are a one-two punch that I think have partly established that Thomaston's an active place. There have been things going on. Now that the construction is done at Watts Hall and it's going to be open through the winter and so on, I was at an event today. I was at an event last Sunday. I was at an event last Saturday. Three events in five days and they all had reasonably good attendance. There are things happening in town and I think what we need to be doing is publicizing them well in advance and touting the success of those events after the fact and celebrating those successes. I don't know, sir, so just to be clear, is [22:32] Speaker F (unidentified): Is your perspective that the position should not exist? [22:36] Speaker I (unidentified): No, I didn't say that. [22:37] Speaker F (unidentified): I'm just asking, how would you... I'm mindful of the fact that every chamber of commerce that I've interacted with has gone through really desperate times trying to sustain themselves. This has been true of Ken May. This has been true of Belfast. It is a... Chamber director is a famously difficult job to do successfully. And we're too small to have our own chamber, right? So that degree of expense I don't think is a sustainable conversation for us. But I'd like to, you know, we're talking about a job description. I don't think it's reasonable to think that the businesses in town are going to coalesce into a group and sustain themselves. It just, they were competing interests, and they are hard-pressed enough to function financially on their own, let alone contributing money to an organization or time to an organization. It needs to be done by a municipality in order for there to be coordination. [23:49] Speaker I (unidentified): I would respectfully partly disagree with you, Seth. I think you're incorrect. I think unless they want to coalesce and they come forward and say that and take those initial steps, you will not be successful in trying to hammer them into a slot that is, you know, operated by the, that's coordinated by the town. And I think the, but I think that person can be ready to assist, to plan, to facilitate, but I think it has to come from the business community first. I think you will not succeed otherwise. And I'm not suggesting that it be a Chamber of Commerce. I didn't say anything about money. They've, we've got a position that we are funding currently, and that we could continue to fund, that can help coordinate this, and even probably supply the refreshments, I mean, whatever it takes. But it, those positions, those organizations have to be organic. The Main Street program in Rockland was organically developed. The downtown business group in Camden was organically developed, and it grew out of a smaller organization of just baby street merchants, organically. Yet those things have to grow that way, and it has to, people have to be willing to dedicate the time and energy to do it, even though they're extraordinarily busy with their small businesses. It takes their effort as well. And I think, I mean, I'm gonna [25:23] Speaker B (unidentified): kind of totally twist this, because I think that yes, the business have to come forward and do this, but I think in this position, this position has to kind of be the ambassador to get them going, and hopefully try to keep them going, because from what I've seen in the past is the communication again wasn't there until a week before a meeting, and no business, small business can sustain. And just talking to both Emily yesterday and Kim yesterday, you know, they're more than willing to even host the meeting in their establishment, but they do need somebody that's going to kind of help them get the word out. And I feel as though once they get going, then maybe they'll be fine, but I do think as Thomas and in this position, we need to kind of to hold their hands a little bit, because they are all very small businesses that we have, and you know, they, you know, kim just started, she's, you know, you know, times and groceries got all new ownership, but i think if you know lead them to water, i think they will drink it. 's just you need to help them lead, get them to that water fountain, so i just cheerlead a little bit here. [26:49] Speaker F (unidentified): Here for respectful disagreement, I think it's great that we can come together and respectfully debate and come together as a community and have a difference of opinion about the role of government in commerce. So I think it's, especially now, but I'm just taking a moment to be kind of super proud of us that we can engage in this conversation respectfully. I understand Chris's position, and I think that it's interesting just organically our difference in opinion about the way that government should work. I think that government should support businesses with this expenditure. Chris thinks that it needs to be bootstrap bottom-up. A fundamental difference, but respectfully. [27:34] Speaker B (unidentified): So let me go back to, let me just say, do we want to continue with this position? Let's go back to the beginning of this. Do we think this position is necessary in the town of Thomaston? So I feel like if we I want that answer first because then that tells us we need to continue with coming up with a job [28:03] Speaker J (unidentified): description for this position. [28:05] Speaker H (unidentified): And Kim I think you actually had a good point there that when we shouldn't forget that when this thing started we all sat in a room with like 30 odd people, businesses coming together really enthusiastically and we everybody left that first meeting quite optimistic that this was going places and it was it was the fault of the communications that followed and the lack of communications more to the point yeah but that was the standard decline when people had when it was agreed that there would be a meeting you know a month later and it didn't happen for three months that was the kind of thing that destroyed it. Would it have survived perfectly well? I don't know, but I can tell you that there was an awful lot from our side, if you like, that was at fault in not coordinating that thing. So we had a great beginning from an initiative that I think was partly town and partly businesses. But I do agree with Chris that they don't really want to do it. [29:13] Speaker B (unidentified): But let me have Cindy talk on both aspects, running a town official but also as a small business in town. [29:20] Speaker K (unidentified): We all gather and talk about how great it would be to get together, but we really do need somebody to take the leadership aspect of it because we're all thinking, oh, you're going to start it and you're going to send me an email and you're going to tell me when to show up. And you're thinking, oh, well, this person's going to start it and they're going to send me an email and then we'll all show up. And then when something gets posted on Facebook and I'm not on Facebook and there's a meeting, then I miss it. You know, there has to be consistency and I do think that there has to be leadership. My biggest concern is I don't think it can be done in 15 hours a week, to be honest with you. I don't know how you can physically go to businesses and communicate with people and be personable and get people's ideas and then go home and sit behind a computer and do the things you need to do there on social media, which I do think is really important, in 15 hours a week. That, I think, is an obstacle. But I don't know what that budget looks like and if we can manipulate that at all. [30:27] Speaker D (unidentified): And I think that affected communication too because if you're only working 15 hours a week, you are not available 40 hours a week to call people back and to check email where you aren't there like someone in an office is every day. Exactly. [30:45] Speaker K (unidentified): If your 15 hours are done, then you're done. Things fall through the cracks. [30:51] Speaker H (unidentified): And that's if the 15 hours a week were devoted entirely to economic development. And not having to do grant writing, rec activities, whatever. I mean, someone has to do that. I know Justice. But, yeah. Justice? [31:09] Speaker L (unidentified): Two things. I do have a whiteboard. If we're at an important one, we want to list out if we were to build a new job description of what is important. But it's also the first point of the agenda workshop that we got of what are the five goals. And it seems like everyone, whether you agree or disagree, is on the same page of the importance of being an ambassador for the town, supporting assisting with town events, creating a system or database of business information and contacts for 250th or external things like that, social media brand development, advertising and just generally being a liaison kind of alongside what you said, where is the contract position, is there the room to say that is the payment for it, let but it's more of a salary payment than an actual like I have to submit this time card saying that I did this for this many hours, just knowing that I did my job and I gave my best, I'm getting that paycheck this week, especially looking for skills, you know, social media itself is, you know, a skill that could be, in my opinion, be justified divide of just social media alone is that contract position of making sure that everything is properly communicated and pushing out if you're making that generated content. If everyone is okay with AI being all the content, which is kind of a scale discussion right now, the high school does it regularly and Troy's defense for that is just, I don't have extra time to sit down and make graphics and posts are more engaging when they have a pretty visual, then you have to complete the opposite side of that coin, where if it's an AI-generated flyer, I want nothing to do with it. So I think with all those things, if it could be strategized as something that was a, the job was done, the stipend was earned, or the amount was earned, versus I had to prove that I did work the hours for that this week. [33:09] Speaker D (unidentified): And I would say, in this past position, she invoiced us once a month. So we don't actually see a timesheet it was kind of like that and that you have a set contract amount that you get paid per month and so it's kind of like what you're talking yeah [33:27] Speaker L (unidentified): it's a restructure our amount would be because I don't think yeah it is too [33:35] Speaker H (unidentified): much to do in 15 hours if you think of it if you did a five-day week and you spent three hours a day working on social media which is really easy to do that's it job done no grant writing no events no an ambassadorship anywhere else I mean it's so can we have more hours for this person that I mean there's the big question I think Cindy's I don't think [34:00] Speaker B (unidentified): grant writing should be part of this job description along with minute-taking so [34:08] Speaker E (unidentified): so it's almost like you have to define the job description based on the number hours that we're going to give them or we're going to come up with the number hours and define a job description that can that can meet those number hours a [34:23] Speaker F (unidentified): week which is I think the best way to approach it which one so it's almost [34:31] Speaker E (unidentified): like we wanted to find what do we want what does it what does the town need what are the businesses need was it was there any feedback from the businesses what they what their expectations were of that because they [34:44] Speaker H (unidentified): wanted to have a voice in the businesses wanted a voice in the creative decisions around based around them around any website any Facebook pages and so on they didn't want to be dictated to as to the what the name of the entity would be what the and what the nature of the community they wanted an input an artistic input they had opinions about the use of certain fonts the use of certain kinds of video, the fact that people in some of the things looked like they didn't come from anywhere in Maine. You know, a million things. But they wanted input into that. And that's, you know, that does require constant back and forth communication. [35:26] Speaker B (unidentified): Sometimes when the posts were made and things happening in town, you saw a repeat businesses and didn't see other businesses. [Speaker H (unidentified): There was suspicion] And I don't think that was because those businesses were saying, hey, this is all we're doing. You know, I think that would be when the businesses would have to come in too, like, hey, you want to, you have a special event this week, you need to email me so I can make sure I get it on social media this week. If you don't, then you don't go on. You don't, you don't, because, I mean, when I would read down through what was going on, you know, there would be two or three businesses listed three times, and I'd like, well, what about this one, or this one, or this one, and I know it wasn't because information was being emailed, it was just because we were picking what we wanted to put on there, and that's what I don't want to, that's what I would not want to see us doing it, you know, and that's where, you know, Chris is right, that's when the businesses would have to make sure that they're emailing to this position. Hey, I have, we're doing a special couples massage this week. You want to put it on the Facebook [36:39] Speaker I (unidentified): page along with other stuff. If you think about this from a municipal point of view, from town's point of view, there are only a limited number of things that the town can do to help the businesses, and that's set up that way on purpose. But we can't do anything if we don't know what the situation is. So having somebody who would actually be able to bring back to ECDC or to the select board ideas of what would help the situation in this town, I think would be worthwhile, trying to coordinate efforts with the businesses to all get together. We tried this back several years, many years ago, when we were working out back at the business block rebuilding, that we tried to get people together to set up some kind of a group that would sort of give us some guidance in and how to handle the trash, how to handle the parking. We got nowhere. We held meetings in one person or no people would show up. So I'm dubious about the idea of trying to, the town trying to push into the businesses. I think if the town knew what the business's concerns were, what the business's problems were, what's happening in the businesses, that would help the town more [37:53] Speaker D (unidentified): Than anything else, and I would say, yeah, we contracted with Community Concepts to, before Kendra, and that person had a lot of communication, that he was knocking on everyone's door trying to get coordinating meetings, and people still didn't show up. So it's not something that it's just the previous person, it's been, it's been an ongoing pattern. So I said lucky in that, in the [38:19] Speaker H (unidentified): intervening time though there's been a lot of developments people getting used to meeting virtually for instance that happens all the time and it may be that 's going to be an answer that you don't have to drag everybody to a run i mean i have to say both those [38:33] Speaker B (unidentified): two meetings we had, we had like 30 people the first one, we had 20 something on the second one, that you know we have a lot of newer businesses in the area, and not just newer because they're new here, but you know a lot of, a lot of changes, and I feel, so you know, that maybe it work, maybe it won't, I mean, but we can't say we can't try it again, [38:57] Speaker I (unidentified): somebody for a reset, right? And I think Justice sort of outline what that reset [39:03] Speaker F (unidentified): could be focused. We had the new residence night the other night, the other night, a couple of weeks ago. God help me. And I was so encouraged to meet a woman that came by the Thomason CDC table. She is exactly the kind of person, she just moved to town, lives on [street], is a remote worker, writes software. And I was just encouraged to hear that person chose Thomaston as a place to land, just from a kind of feedback on demographics perspective, in terms of the economics of the town, things are changing, people are working remotely, and the way people find out about businesses as well is on their phone or on their computer, and that interaction speeds commerce, for instance, just to give you an example. Part of what we did at the Thomaston Grocery today was talk to a point-of-sale sales rep for the register. But now the register also interacts with e-commerce components where the Thomaston Grocery could have an Instacart on your phone where people can order remotely. Now, how do we communicate that to the broader community and expand our identity and where we do that? So can being conversant in at least representing, I know it's our responsibility to do that, but speaking on behalf of the time of the grocery, if there was a, you know, if there was a person that could advocate for that, at least potential on behalf of us, we would appreciate that, you know, I mean, you [40:55] Speaker B (unidentified): would put it on yourself, but then this person would also put it out, so that means you've got it out there twice versus just once, which hopefully that hits somebody's page quicker. [41:08] Speaker F (unidentified): Well, it's easier to live in Thomaston as a result of this, we would hope, in service to our community. But that's news for the town as well, and that should be cheer-led by the town. Maybe. That's my perspective. [41:20] Speaker B (unidentified): But, I mean, that's also why two weeks ago I talked about some Watts Hall events because they hadn't even posted yet, and they were happening within 10 days. and this is where stuff like that, this position needs to make sure what's going on around town and not just in businesses. I feel as though it's also, you know, if there's something going on here or Justice has got, you know, another event going on, which she's pretty good about, but it also would go on that website that we have for this person and hopefully creates for the town that it's also going on that to make sure that we're promoting everything and especially when we've got a huge 250th coming up. I mean, this position to me is a very important position because, you know, Kathy and I right now, like she said earlier, we're gonna have to go knock on each door of businesses. We would hope this person would already have, you know, a list of all the businesses, a list of all the e-mails, that, you know, we could start with e-mails and then start knocking on doors and we don't get responses. But none of that's really done in this, and that would be something that, you know, this position should really already have established this and have, like the person that now is working from home, she's still kind of a business here working here. You know, that type of stuff. So I guess we're going to run out of time if we don't get back to where we need to be on this. I mean, I think if you look at the nature of work, I'm going to go back to where I began in this. It says, this position is responsible for providing services for the community development, business attractions, retention, and community engagement. Has the ability to work collaboratively with employees, officials and the public to identify community needs, develop plans to address those needs, and input programs that will make the community a better place to live? Okay. [43:35] Speaker H (unidentified): I mean, I just think we should own up that we, you know, if people agree that this is primarily an economic development position. it's not it's not really that 's the if you're gonna you're gonna leave make it lean somewhere that's the way it should lean that's where we're that's where we're most needing going forward I think if we split it too much in a social services direction we're lost and the other thing I just throw this in whether it's worth considering is that we talk a lot about pooling resources getting regional solutions I wonder if this is a position that if we spoke with other close by towns and their leaders, whether actually you could get somebody doing a very full-time job with the budget shared between more than one town, because a lot of this stuff, I mean, although the business is competitive, we're not really doing this against the business, and we're not saying, you know, we're not in direct competition with the businesses in Rockland or the businesses in Rockport. We could maybe, I don't know, just throw it in there, we should be perhaps open to thinking about, you know, for, you know, three times that salary and a total time commitment, and say to our friends in Rockland and so on, hey, you want to come in on this? Could you use somebody more of a facilitator in your economic development department? I don't know, I'll just throw that in there, so I mean maybe question [45:16] Speaker L (unidentified): being if it's more of a economic or community position, or if it needs to be a balance of both, in a scenario where, you know, I think it's weighing the value, and it really sounds like it's very person-based, because a person, one, you know, accepts a position no matter what the job description is, but sees, you know, their time best suited to, you know, not all businesses have a website, and you know, whether they have the experience to make sure that every business has a website, because that in turn does help their business, or is that just somebody that turns around and says, hey, we have a website guy, this is who you're going to talk to, kind of what the skill level of the individual is and the amount of time needed for every other thing. I really don't see, I mean, it's more of a workshop discussion, but it doesn't sound like even categorizing what that job description should look like. It is individual-based. It kind of sounds like it's whoever is going to take it and run it, and obviously these are the expectations that we need somebody for the businesses to reach out to and are going to hear a response with the appropriate expectation of within three business days, within whatever that may be. I don't know that we're kind of telling to cookie cutter it where our time is specific and each person that would take on this role could achieve you know success in a very different manner. You know where somebody could be like no i know every event that's going on i don't know anything about the business you know websites but i know that you know this business has a special going on at three o'clock you know on saturday and we could advertise that for them. So i think it would really be best suited to say what the true baseline expectations are and then kind of build off of that because is it mandatory to host a new residence night? Is it requirement that it's in there right now for a pre-K program but that obviously hasn't been a priority. So what truly are the things that we do need to see annually and then the rest is hopefully a result of a solid hire. [47:26] Speaker K (unidentified): My only hesitation with combining towns is that then how do you differentiate how much time this person spends you know Rockland is so much bigger so if they get the majority of the time you would have to be clear on definition it's possible though I mean it might be complicated but it's wrong but certainly possible right who [47:46] Speaker L (unidentified): does I'm sorry they do but maybe with a smaller town right now yeah [47:52] Speaker K (unidentified): Yeah, I would agree with the small one. [47:53] Speaker H (unidentified): I don't know, not necessarily. I mean, they also may be, maybe their coordinator's totally overworked and they could do with some extra hours from, I don't know, you know, but maybe we shouldn't rule anything out. And if the person's the right caliber, we're not going to get stung because they spent, you know, more hours on another town than they should have. I don't know. [48:20] Speaker F (unidentified): Maybe the answer is reaching out to communities that are underrepresented in terms of this role de facto where he's your St. George maybe Warren would be interested in sharing [48:34] Speaker K (unidentified): Well and I know Waldenboro has had some great success with just growth in general I'd be interested to see if they had somebody that was working on some kind of but again we go back to is this community or economic you know what are we i think it needs like alan said it needs to be more defined as one well i think we've said to research [49:01] Speaker B (unidentified): development social service program i think we've kind of cut that out cut that out right [49:05] Speaker H (unidentified): i mean i think that's been i've heard that more than once but where events can be justifiably said to be you know highly likely to be beneficial to the town's economic [49:20] Speaker F (unidentified): Well-being then, the events are part of the economic life of a town. You know, when you bring eyeballs and feet to a town, you fill coffers, and that's kind of a critical portion of the equation. Let's think about what the July life work celebration means to Thomas and good [49:43] Speaker M (unidentified): stuff local businesses rely on. [49:49] Speaker K (unidentified): That in rewriting the position, do we send our ideas, do we take what we have [50:06] Speaker M (unidentified): and modify, how do we go forward? I'd like to see, I'd like to see inter entity [50:14] Speaker F (unidentified): coordination. I'd love to see maybe a three-person reporting structure, one from the town office in the form of Kara, one from the select board in the form of a select person that interacts with ECDC, and that would be either Cindy or Alan, and the chair of ECDC, whoever that may be. It happens to be me, but those three entities, I think, should be invested in the work product here and at least coordinate what the expectation and keeping our hands on the pulse of what this person is doing. I don't think it's not a free-for-all, it should be guided by the three entities [51:02] Speaker B (unidentified): because of its importance. So should we be putting this out and as far as this is, this position is something that we want to be a liaison with these three enemies, liaison with businesses to make sure that we're marketing Thomas and as best we can. This is what we have budgeted for this position, what can you do, what do you think you can do for us, and have people give us apply for the position on what they feel like they can do in the time constraints that we have at this point in time on the basis of the statement that they're for liaison between these three organizations along with the businesses and getting marketing out [51:58] Speaker D (unidentified): there for our town to keep our town so striving. Send out a bid and see what we get back for [52:04] Speaker F (unidentified): proposals and ideas from, and can we have that, as long as we're doing that, Cara, do you think it's appropriate to ask for the responses and the bids to ask of that person how many hours do you feel would be necessary to contribute to this task in your experience, or do we determine an amount certain within which that person has to work, because we've debated whether it's enough hours that's available, what the budgetary line item should be. I can't do that. That's [52:34] Speaker M (unidentified): outside our budget. I know. I'm going to have to [52:37] Speaker N (unidentified): hear about this. I'm going to have to hear about this. [52:40] Speaker B (unidentified): What we have right now is we have an approved budget. So we can't [52:45] Speaker D (unidentified): we have to keep [52:46] Speaker B (unidentified): it to that approved budget. So, Justin? [52:50] Speaker L (unidentified): I hope I'm speaking appropriately with saying that without having the time to get to the economic relation to recreation. I don't think it's a secret of why I'm a part of this conversation. There is a lot of overlap between the two. And, you know, with further discussion, of course, with Kara, I'm also the physician and current budget allowed to have 15 hours taken off my plate of recreation. And so, you know, assuming in a perfect world I have a part-time hire that I wouldn't feel like I'm inundated with recreation tasks, I do think any of the hopes and dreams addressed could be included within my scope of work. Personally, I know that you guys have an ultimate goal of that, but I also know with 250th, my hesitation is I have enough on my plate and it's not officially on my plate or really my responsibility, but whether that be interim or a, you know, hey, let's make this work and actually have it be a thing. I do think that help is valuable now and I do possess some of the already established relationships with these businesses because I turn around pretty frequently and ask them for money to throw on the back of the soccer shirt. So I do, in case that hasn't been spoken loud enough, then I do want it to be known. I'm grateful for the suggestion. [54:19] Speaker K (unidentified): It's really smart. In that discussion, that when we're developing the more developing the position, oh, justice, I'm sorry. No, justice. Yeah, maybe we include justice in that conversation. Okay. [55:10] Speaker I (unidentified): I don't know. Do you want to have Carol draw up a request for proposals [55:21] Speaker E (unidentified): from these people and bring it back [55:23] Speaker I (unidentified): to the next board meeting for you people to consider? [55:27] Speaker H (unidentified): Carol, would it be helpful for you to get some input, some versions of that, suggested versions for that, what that should look like, or do you prefer just to do it? [55:45] Speaker D (unidentified): I'm happy to take a stab at it and then you guys edit away. All right. Yes, so we have a starting point. All right. [55:54] Speaker K (unidentified): Okay. And I think I did send you something. [55:59] Speaker B (unidentified): I'm just going to throw it there that I think Kara maybe take a stab at it with justice. I think she's been, every time that she's been taking notes, I can tell. And she's been following along quite well and or been kind of hitting some of the nails on the head that we're talking about that we really want. And, you know, and then you also have a part-time position that you've not really been able to fill, correct? [56:35] Speaker L (unidentified): I haven't attempted properly. It's not posted. Right. [56:39] Speaker B (unidentified): But it might be something that, like you just said, that this position and that position might be able to be more of a combined position so that way really we're giving more hours and part of what you probably need is getting information out to people that you don't have time for because you're coaching a soccer team or a reference soccer team or whatever that maybe it is something that we can coordinate a little bit more because I mean as we know she's done a bang-up job with the Fourth of July and one of those lists on here is 4th of July. So maybe it is something that we've got to think about, that part-time position and this position being more of a position. [57:27] Speaker L (unidentified): I think even less so than that. [57:28] Speaker H (unidentified): So 30 or 40 hours for some of them. That would be 30. [57:32] Speaker L (unidentified): Less than that, I think the position has been, it has room for that 15 to 20. I myself, I still have to make my 40. So it's really the delegation of I'm going to take care of all of this and I really, you know, unless I'm handing someone the grunt work I don't want to do, haven't found out what that true fit is. But, you know, allowing myself to relinquish more of what would take, you know, that time would allow for, you know, all things to be accomplished. So yes, of what you were saying, but a little different on the actual delegation of it. I don't think necessarily these tasks would be given to that part-time person. It would just allow me more time for these tasks. [58:08] Speaker D (unidentified): And that's another struggle. Finding a part-time. [58:13] Speaker L (unidentified): Person for rec I will say I think in my mind I've wanted to be at a softball game and stumble across the person saying I'm looking for a part-time job and he's like I got the I got the spot but in general you know transparency is I haven't you know advertised it 's not something that's posted online because I've got it 's not something that I absolutely need help with it's something that I could benefit yet it's okay to ask for help and so learning that one not fully but it would allow the Space on the time to go very [58:53] Speaker B (unidentified): Good information be ready to make a stab at it or I'll attempt and then it gives us I guess we'll adjourn on this discussion. Thanks, guys. Yeah, it should have started. Maybe so. But the camera is on. We're going to keep going. Welcome to Wednesday, October 14th, Slickboard meeting. Sorry, we just had the workshop. Call the meeting to order. We have one public hearing tonight. Can I have a motion to go into public hearing? So moved. Pete Allen, second. All those in favor? Moral. Just to make a motion. Will is also to remain. So, Letter A. Review the Renewal of Maine Medical Cannabis Program Dispensary License Renewal Application of Cannabis Cure Dispensary LLC Located at 151 New County Road, Thomas, Maine Suited to Thomas and Ordinances Chapter 7, Land Use Section 716.16.7. Is there any discussion on this public hearing? [1:00:49] Speaker H (unidentified): Just a renewal, right? Yes. [1:00:51] Speaker O (unidentified): Hearing none, can we go back out of the public comment? [1:00:54] Speaker B (unidentified): Unless you have anything to say? [1:00:56] Speaker H (unidentified): No, I move we go back out of the public comment. Okay, Alan? [1:00:59] Speaker B (unidentified): Second. Pete, second. All in favour? [1:01:03] Speaker H (unidentified): And I would move to accept this, to approve it. [1:01:10] Sean Moore: Alan, motioned it. Pete said second. [1:01:12] Speaker B (unidentified): All those in favour? Thank you everybody. Open public comments. Does anyone have an open public comment? Please at the podium and pull the podium forward so everybody can. Our justice will pull it. Thank you, justice. And please identify yourself when you start speaking. Thank you. [1:01:41] Mike Flanagan: Mike Flanagan and we're with the Thomas and Historical Society and we just wanted to let you know we have been busy and this is Susan. Go ahead, curator. [1:01:55] Speaker G (unidentified): President emeritus. So it's a project for our. Just give you an overview on. Great, I'm working with Mike on it. [1:02:05] Mike Flanagan: I tell you what, people are coming out of the woodwork to give us people that have, I've served in the military from Thomaston. I mean, it's just incredible. And the number of people that have been killed in combat from here, it's just pretty amazing. And we have November for the 250th celebration, and we're gearing up. And we're gearing up to let the town know a bit about its history and especially the children. So Susan, you want to do some details? I'm into brevity as a syllable. [1:02:43] Speaker G (unidentified): What we're trying to do is to start by making a list if we can of all the people, all the veterans, not veterans, all the people who served the Revolutionary War, 1812, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Middle East who were born here, lived here or died here. So there's a connection to Thomaston, and there's a connection to these wars. Just so you know, so far we have 378 names that fit that category covering those wars. Most are in the Civil War. That's been the easiest access item. First of all, we just felt it would be good for us to have that list. And you'd think it might be easy, but it's not. It's multiple sources you have to go to. And then the other thing we want to do is to choose a couple of people from each of those wars that are not just the most outstanding people that everyone will hear of, but that have an interesting story to tell to make them come alive. So, far, we're going to be doing the sales with help from Joanne Richards. And we're going to be doing two of the Brooks who died, one of which died in World War II with help from Julie Brooks. [1:04:05] Mike Flanagan: Korean War. Korean. Now, he flew through World War II, got called back up and killed on his third mission. I said Korean. I'm getting my- Korea. [1:04:12] Speaker G (unidentified): Yeah, that's right. John O. Brooks. John O. Brooks died in Korea after having served in World War II. And then we're looking for people to work with us to have a connection to people that we're identifying in the other wars. But my goal is to do one or two people from each war. And then my hope is that we will then put these little articles we're writing, short articles, in the town newsletter. But also in other sources. And we're also going to try to get a display of some of them for November, but it's going to go through next year. It's one of our 2027 issues. Okay, so, oh, and then David Salins helping. I mentioned Brooks. I haven't contact in the school. It's on again, off again. So I would really love to be working with some folks from the school on that if anyone has contacts that they're likely to work with it that way. [1:05:13] Mike Flanagan: I'm subbing it Oceanside on Friday. I'm going to push it. [1:05:16] Speaker G (unidentified): But it's actually pretty exciting. We're getting some details. [1:05:22] Mike Flanagan: It's kind of unbelievable. You had Sergeant Major of the 20th Maine at Little Round Top from here who was wounded at Round Top and then further wounded at the Wilderness as part of the 20th Maine. I mean, that's just one guy. [1:05:40] Speaker G (unidentified): Well, the first person from the Civil War that I identify was in seminary. He dropped out. We think he's the first person to enlist. First person killed when his legs were shot off. So, you know, it's just that some of these stories are like, people need to know about the kind of things to make it human. [1:06:00] Speaker K (unidentified): How are people coming to you? Are they contacting you by phone or email? They're just contacting you? That's one of the reasons we're here. [1:06:09] Speaker G (unidentified): Okay. Okay, what we did, we've gone through sources. For example, I could do the Civil War because there's a GAR book that identified the people in Thomaston that were in the Civil War. We're using a variety of sources to generate the list, and then from that we're trying to make context to get these folks that might work with us to tell some of their family member stories. American Legion I haven't finished with, but there's others. You'd be surprised how hard it is to do. We have cemetery records, these yellow cards, that were produced for veterans that are buried in our cemetery and have used those. [1:06:46] Speaker H (unidentified): And the stories will be told primarily via newsletter? [1:06:51] Speaker G (unidentified): I want to do newsletters. The display that we have here, I was thinking of putting some things out in the newspapers. Once we have these roughly one-page stories of a sample of people. And any other suggestions that people would make, especially if they're willing to help? [1:07:09] Speaker H (unidentified): And November 27 is when this project should be together by and will essentially launch [1:07:15] Speaker M (unidentified): in terms of [1:07:17] Speaker G (unidentified): where it started. And I'm hoping that we will have a display in the town office on our board by that time. But this will go on, doing writing some of these folks will go on through next year and we'll just keep putting them out. Right. Beautiful. [1:07:34] Speaker M (unidentified): Yeah, excellent. I could get off on [1:07:39] Mike Flanagan: the stories just a small town like this and I mean Knox is nothing we there's all sorts of [1:07:47] Speaker M (unidentified): revolutionary war guys thanks to joanne richards yeah fails enlisted 14 [1:07:57] Speaker G (unidentified): fails in the civil war how many were killed and there's five in the revolutionary war that's just to give you an example of one family. Just the Fales family. And there's some other families like that. Mostly Cushing. [1:08:10] Mike Flanagan: No. And Thompson, sorry. Thompson too, yeah. [1:08:15] Speaker H (unidentified): And it's only full and that's your interest? No. No,. Oh, okay. It's served. It's served. [1:08:25] Speaker G (unidentified): Okay, that was it. That's it. I just wanted you guys to know and get some enthusiasm. Yeah. [1:08:31] Mike Flanagan: Exciting. It's one of our... Seth, I know you've got plenty of free time, so... Oh, yeah. Chris, now that you've left the select board, have we got a job for you? I'm just kidding. I know the feeling. Thank you, guys. [1:08:51] Speaker C (unidentified): No, are you kidding me? This is like dry paint. [1:08:57] Speaker F (unidentified): We thank you for your support. Say good morning. [1:09:04] Speaker C (unidentified): Fifty-three years ago, Ann found a little house on Elm Street on the corner. And the reason we came to Thomason was my father always said, don't live in the same town as your boss. Get a couple towns away. And the reason I came to Thomaston was land surveying. Ann's father was land surveying and when you graduated as a forester from University of Maine you have a lot of land surveying done under your belt. When I saw this picture in the obituaries, it really kind of jerked me around because we go, surveyors quite often are in a lawyer's office trying to understand the meets and bounds on a deed and where the problems come and how you take care of them. And I was quite surprised when I got into town business that Paul Gibbons was the town lawyer and it was quite interesting. I think it's back as far as Kathy that she was using him, I know Val used him quite often. We would go over there to his office and have a round table with people and deal with it. I'm just sorry that he has passed. The other thing that has come up is for some reason I've gotten into this cemetery in Thomaston and I was sitting there down the other day and went through the people in our neighborhood and I have buried more than half of my neighbors. And that's a weird, thing when you think about it. It is. One of them who just passed, I don't think he's in the obits yet, was Andy Anderson. He was the man who picked up the trash from Crick Hill all the way to the transfer station. And he had to stop when the state stopped mowing the lawn all the crap is still in the bushes but I'm so sorry that Andy has passed too. Thank you. [1:11:56] Sean Moore: Hi, I'm Sean Moore [1:11:58] Speaker R (unidentified): A recent moved here to Doniston and I'm with the Friends of the Library and I wanted to mention that the Friends of the Library is doing something that's called a Scary Story Contest and it's for kids ages 6 to 12. And you write a one-page story and there's going to be a reading on Halloween morning at the library. All the information's at the library. There's great flyers there and they're winning brand new books. And then kids 5 and under, they can draw a picture. We'll post them up for Saturday morning on Halloween. So there's two weeks to enter. The information's not on the website yet, but hopefully really soon. But you can get the flyers and all the information at the library. [1:12:47] Speaker B (unidentified): The one other thing that I want to say is I've had two people reach out to me. I will say that the select board here has not had a chance to really talk about this, but we will. People are asking about the community conversations group starting back up. We did say that summertime was too busy for all of us concerned to do it. I did get another note and I'll reach out to this person a lot I know in case she's not watching that we will talk amongst the board to figure out how we'll get that started back up. We have, I think we all did discuss at one point in time that warnings for all of us is not feasible, so we will have to figure out a date and time that, you know, is an evening and if it's going to be that each one of us will take a month then that might be it, but we have not had a chance to actually discuss this, but it's not something that we haven't forgotten about and or haven't thought about doing. We just haven't had a chance. We've had a lot of stuff going on and a lot of balls up in the air, so stay tuned. We haven't gone about it, we just haven't figured out the best way to keep it going and or how to get it, when we should be doing it. So I just wanted to throw that out there that we're not ignoring anybody, we're not trying to stop this sit you this conversation group, we just need to get it figured out. [1:14:32] Speaker M (unidentified): So Chris set the ball too high when we do that. Kim, is that advertised on the [1:14:41] Speaker B (unidentified): website, on the calendar? Yes. I hope you can find out about it. Yes, yeah. [1:14:45] Speaker O (unidentified): I think there's one listed on the calendar already for this month. Has it been taken off? [1:14:52] Speaker B (unidentified): I don't know, but I will check today. [1:14:57] Speaker A (unidentified): And I just need to think for this month and next month. Okay. Because somebody had called to ask. Okay, all right. [1:15:02] Speaker B (unidentified): Joanne. So it has been taken off. All right, it has been, yeah. So Joanne did take a look at that. Is there any other open or public comments? We have four minutes. September 14th, which I believe I'll let them, so does anyone have any corrections, concerns about the minute from September 14th? Not [1:15:45] Sean Moore: can I have a motion to approve? So moved. Feet first, [1:15:51] Speaker B (unidentified): second. All those in favor, 4-0. I'm moving on to September play eight minutes again, we were all here. I'll make a motion to approve. Makes any made a motion to approve and second it. All those in [1:16:19] Sean Moore: favor or a motion to approve the warrants. So move first. Could I make just [1:16:31] Speaker C (unidentified): A comment before the treasurer sends out any money, she has to get three signatures on the warrants that go out. I signed a warrant tonight and the monthly check to what is it, SAD 13 RSU, I'm crossing them, it was comma 000, it's half a million dollars plus 6,000. It's just, it just boggles my mind. I'm sorry, that's, that's trivia for you. I'll [1:17:23] Speaker B (unidentified): Second. Okay, I'll second all the paper. I'm sorry, we have no adjustments to the gender, correct, right, tour town boards committee's update, justice. Oh, all right, go ahead. No, I have been a couple of the [1:17:49] Speaker L (unidentified): local open houses for the schools and so technically it has launched before today but officially in the to the town subscribers for our updates and on social media basketball for youth pre-k through six is now open and so through pre-K through second grade, are skills-only clinics. We work with them on fundamentals over at Thomaston Grammar School. And then third through sixth are assigned to teams. And we are combined, again, this season with Rockland Recreation and Cushing Recreation, which has continued to be a nice third of what my spend would be without that collaboration. So when it comes to more kids it's we're all you know still buying our own kids shirts and then really through soccer season the Thomaston businesses that stepped up and said yes if not came forward before I even asked covered that cost so it was nice to write that warrant knowing Peter would look at it extra close and then know that it would be reimbursed so I was very grateful for that and hopefully the same for basketball. Alongside with that we've got the fall festival that is October 24th. As part of that we have our stone cleaning with the cemetery and I still have kits available so I'm looking at an announcement for what it is. It is cleaning 20 of the stones chosen by the cemetery committee and they are currently working on little history cards to go with those stones so that way when somebody is doing that service, which the trend is that it's a relaxing day where cleaning that algae off of a stone has a satisfaction to it but it is also really giving back to the town in a way that after attending that meeting, it's definitely necessary and not spoken enough. So that is one of the events. We've got live music. We have EP Rock, which is an Elvis music or tribute artist impersonator is not the name anymore, and he is performing from 11 to 1, and then is going to be followed by a couple of local artists, Mary Ellen Johnson and Aiden Kaczynski. They both play locally at Park Street and Trackside, so I was able to secure them for that day. So with live music, we'll also have a craft fair. We still have available spaces for that, and a couple of food trucks as well. While that all happens, I'll be also two locations at once for a softball game, adult softball game, so if there's any entertainment for that for anybody. We have 11 teams, which is awesome, because last year I tried to cap it at 10 and I think I got 8, and for like softball tournaments they are a fantastic fundraiser. They raise, it's $250 per team, so just in team registrations alone it is a profit, and then we are proceed after proceeds the donation is going to the camera for zone cancer foundation. They are continuing it, did the band showcase for anyone who made that, but they are their mission is to help the local families battling childhood cancer and just kind of the hardships that go with that, so a very cool way to play softball and actually do some really good for a family in need. So that is Fall Festival. [1:21:28] Speaker J (unidentified): What's the location of the Fall Festival? [1:21:30] Speaker L (unidentified): Right up here on the stage. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And the softball game, we have the field right over here. So we'll also have dance classes. I didn't say the most fun part of that. And so after that we have the trunk retreat, which is on Friday the 30th of October. That does take place right out here along the walkway, so usually cars are parked out front, some park over here, but the trail tends to be kind of a walk through. There always room for more cars on that, we have ample space to always accept more. I think I've reached my goal of ten cars but need to reconfirm, so very cool to know. Last year we had plenty of candy, not a ton of cars. That did not stop kids from coming. That did not stop them from leaving with full candy pails. But this year I hope to make that experience better for them. So I think those are big ones. I'm definitely missing one. [1:22:25] Speaker B (unidentified): I think 250 is going to be represented at the Trump retreat. Yes. [1:22:30] Speaker L (unidentified): And if I think of it, I will make the announcement again. But there's definitely another event that I'm missing. [1:22:38] Speaker O (unidentified): I kind of feel like I wish that you were doing something else before me, because I want to welcome someone, but I can't do that. So anyways, Noreen from the Tom Stang Commission, I just wanted to give you an update on our workshop that we had last week. It was extremely successful. We had great conversation, and Craig Freshly was, he was great. He got us all talking, and we came up, he came up with a, you know, an outline of what we all wanted to do, and that is what we're going to be working on going forward. And I'm feeling very hopeful that we're now all on the same page and looking towards doing, you know, something to accomplish for our ecosystem here in Thomaston. And, yeah, you have the report. It's right here, so I'm not going to go into it anymore. But it was great, and we are looking forward to working together. And we're looking forward in working together with all the different committees in this town and select board, so that we can do the best we can for [1:24:08] Speaker B (unidentified): our ecosystem here. Thank you. Thank you. [1:24:16] Speaker F (unidentified): Seth, do you want to do an update on that? I would, yeah. Do I have to be on the agenda to do an update, or [1:24:20] Speaker N (unidentified): or can I do a committee update? Well, I'll do a committee update. [1:24:23] Speaker F (unidentified): I didn't know if anybody else was here. Hi, I'm Seth Silverton. I'm the new chair of the Economic and Community Development Committee. We met this morning. Just a kind of brief update on the stuff that we did. We started the meeting by thanking former chair John Eaton for his spectacular work in forwarding the mission of ECDC. I'd like to mention that here. We voted on sending him a note of appreciation, which I did this afternoon. We also talked about the TIF workshop. Just a reminder that on October the 21st, we're having a workshop on the East End TIF. John came this morning. Thank you for joining us. Greatly appreciated. Shares some of his wisdom and knowledge on the TIF process, which is greatly appreciated by all of us. He's got years and years of experience in the area and has tremendous specialty in TIF rules and regs. And we talked about the East End TIF, and John provided us with a preliminary or fairly softly thought out map of the properties that would be used. For that purpose. So on the 21st, we're meeting again, and I guess we'll have more feedback on that after that. We talked about the fact that ECDC has three available positions. So once again, I'd like to call out for anybody that's interested in joining Economic and Community Development Committee, we need to fill three seats. We also talked about a potential rules change that I'd like to bring to your attention as a select board. I know that in order to get on the agenda, I would have to write a note, which I plan on doing, but Chris and John had a very good idea. My idea was to change the rules for ECDC to allow businesses, business owners, who have a business in Thomaston, be they residents of Thomaston or not, to be able to join the committee and Chris and John both noted that business owners can join ECDC as associate members without voting rights and participate in our meetings that way and so the idea was floated, I don't think we came to any conclusions, but that every business owner in the town of Thomaston be notified that they are honorary associate members and that they can participate in our meetings. Our meetings, by the way, which have been moved to the first Thursday of every month at 6 p.m. after a momentous back and forth with my friend Joanne, who has been extremely, and Maureen, who have been extremely cooperative and patient with the new chair of ECDC. And for that, I thank you, my friends. And then finally, we talked about, I was at Walmart the other day, and there's really no better way to start a chairmanship of any committee than to start talking about public restrooms. But I was at Walmart the other day, and I noticed that there were dozens of people flooding into the public restroom there, and they were all wearing little name tags with fall displays on them. And I realized, oh, these are leaf peepers and there's probably a tour bus here and I got whatever stuff I was getting and went to the register and sure enough, there were dozens of people paying for snacks at Walmart and I thought, well, that's outrageous. They should be paying for snacks at the Thomaston Grocery or the Picnic Basket or Pickwick and so I went to the tour driver and I said, hey, do you stop here because there's a public restroom? He said, yes, I do. I said, well, you know, there's plenty of parking right behind the block in Thomaston, and you could stop this bus here, and they could get their sandwiches at the Thomaston Grocery or the Picnic Basket or wherever. And he said, yes, well, thank you. Here's my business card. Stop bothering me, and so I stopped bothering him. But the idea occurred to me that the reason that they went to Walmart was that there was public facilities for the people on the tour. And so I raised as an issue this morning, if we had a centrally located public restroom here in Thomaston, that would make Thomaston more of a destination for those types of tourists. And so I raised that as an issue, not that we came to any conclusions about that, but I just wanted to get it on your radar as a select board. I know, shocking. Peter? [1:29:35] Speaker C (unidentified): I've recently heard a just a blurb in the paper about a property to the east of Tractor Supply, yeah, was sold for 4.1 million. Any idea who, what, where that? [1:29:54] Speaker F (unidentified): John had information on that. I, we, I noted that when we were talking about the properties that were going to be included in the East End tip, that was an out-of-state developer. Tractor Supply does have a lease there, which I'm happy to hear because I found my heating pellets from them, and I wouldn't want them to go away. But apparently that is a good thing for Thomaston, and it's possible that they'll be developing further. I don't have any further information on that. John, do you know anything more about that? [1:30:29] Speaker I (unidentified): That lot just on the east side of the Tractor Supply Building already has sewer and water right to it, and the parking lot is already there. And I understand that the current owner of the lot is looking for someone to develop in there. So that may be another building in there soon. I don't know who. We don't know who. [1:30:50] Speaker L (unidentified): I don't think anybody does. [1:30:52] Speaker F (unidentified): Look at that. More positive economic news for Thomas. [1:31:04] Speaker K (unidentified): I'll add that the Transfer Station Committee is still looking for members to join the bulk waste committee, which is a sub committee of the Transfer Station Committee, and desperately seeking [1:31:20] Speaker H (unidentified): volunteers to join that committee. It's really not an onerous thing, it's a simple thing, but it's very important because the town of Cushing is interested in joining forces, coming into the cooperative transfer station arrangement, which would result in us as a town paying less, which is never a bad thing. But we can't move forward that Cushing has a particular bulk waste issue that needs that subcommittee to help solve, and until that's done there is no Thomaston representative on that subcommittee and that subcommittee can't make decisions about the pushing bulk waste until someone from Thomaston is on the budget. So it's pretty important. [1:32:10] Speaker C (unidentified): May I ask what the definition of bulk waste is? You may ask. [1:32:20] Sean Moore: Touché. Touché. That's what I thought. Big stuff. [1:32:27] Speaker M (unidentified): Like Manchester. [1:32:28] Speaker B (unidentified): No, I'm sorry. [1:32:31] Speaker C (unidentified): Falky waste is something that can be compacted. That's why they give it the term falky. [1:32:39] Speaker H (unidentified): You know, Pete, I wish I knew the answer. The multitude of sins seem to be covered under falky waste. [1:32:47] Sean Moore: All right. All right, [1:32:51] Speaker B (unidentified): new business. Consider the following board and committee appointments. Sean Moore, Library Board of Trustees. I think we already heard from Sean just a minute ago. All right, from all of the library. Come on in. Do you have any comments, suggestions, motions? [1:33:14] Speaker H (unidentified): Sean, anything you want to say about that? [1:33:17] Speaker R (unidentified): No, I'm just excited to be part of the library. I joined the Friends of the Library at the event they did with the Maine Authors Association, and I was told that they desperately needed a secretary for the board, [1:33:31] Speaker B (unidentified): and so I said, yeah. Oh, look, somebody that wants to be secretary. [1:33:37] Speaker M (unidentified): I do need a motion [1:33:38] Speaker H (unidentified): to approve that point [1:33:42] Speaker B (unidentified): seconded vote for everybody thank you for stepping up because I will say that most boards have a real hard problem finding a secretary so if you're already willing to do it and you weren't even on the board yet we appreciate that we now have the application says Tonio Batona and Antonia Foster okay Tonya is not to wine with Bologna or begonia okay for the Conservation Commission do you want to tell us a little bit [1:34:29] Speaker J (unidentified): moral size what we see in here sure I served as the do you want to go up there [1:34:37] Speaker B (unidentified): please I'm a judge on but that's true no problem here people are sorry we was one [1:34:42] Speaker M (unidentified): so okay yes [1:34:50] Speaker J (unidentified): I served as the conservation chairman for the comp of the Conservation Advisory Committee in the town of Armenia in upstate New York for seven years. And I also was the watershed manager for the Housatonic Valley Association for 13 years. So I have a particular interest in streams and rivers. And so we did assess all of the streams, all of the rivers, with volunteers. And we also put in a rain garden near the polluted runoff from a gas station that was going to run into the river, and that was done as an exemplary rain garden for developers who could be required or suggested that they put in rain gardens near vulnerable small wetlands that could be affected by runoff near developments. So that's sort of my background, if you have any questions. [1:36:00] Speaker H (unidentified): have you already spotted some opportunities for around here [1:36:04] Speaker J (unidentified): I did, and Noreen and I have talked, and Brenda responded as well. I had a thought that the Lynn Snow, who's a teacher at the middle school, who does an outdoor classroom, and she's an avid gardener, might be interested, or approach to be interested, in putting in a small demonstration rain garden that could have sort of volunteers and people from the school and whoever from the town was interested to have a group effort to do this. So, and I need to educate myself about the state environmental review process in Maine. We had the state environmental secret process in New York, so I'm not familiar with what the requirements are, or what the requirements are of the town board for development, developers. And I also thought and recommended at that meeting the, that I think it's really important to assign a conservation Commission member to attend all the planning board meetings to be able to know what's going on, because those affect the environment [1:37:18] Speaker M (unidentified): as well. Right, thank you. I've [1:37:24] Speaker H (unidentified): moved that we point the summit second. [1:37:28] Speaker M (unidentified): Tonya, sorry, Antonia, yes, I grew, I went to school in England. All those in [1:37:41] Sean Moore: favor, well, welcome, thank you. And [1:37:52] Speaker B (unidentified): now we have Peter James for the Budget Committee. You know, I can say a couple words. I know a lot of people know [1:38:01] Sean Moore: who you are, but yeah, I appreciate [1:38:11] Speaker C (unidentified): Peter volunteering to serve, because he's been here a while. He knows the town and has helped it grow. [1:38:25] Speaker F (unidentified): I hope he doesn't come to be sent here for asking him to do this. [1:38:30] Speaker B (unidentified): That's to be determined. [1:38:36] Speaker C (unidentified): I'll make a motion. [1:38:39] Speaker B (unidentified): People make the motion. I'll second. Cindy will second it. All those in favor? Let us know if you regret something later on. But welcome, Peter, we appreciate it, and Sam appreciates it right now. [1:38:56] Speaker M (unidentified): Alternatively, Peter, would you like the chair? Don't [1:39:02] Speaker O (unidentified): push it lately, don't push it, we just voted him in. [1:39:10] Speaker B (unidentified): I don't want to see a resignation letter next month. So B, approve the municipal resolution authorizing the town manager to serve as an authorized official for the Northern Border Regional Commission NBRC grant for the LTE Circle Sewer and Water Utility Lines project. [1:39:39] Speaker D (unidentified): This is part of the pre-application that is due this week. And then we would find out whether we've been picked to actually apply. [1:39:52] Speaker B (unidentified): So is it just the Lyman Laws and the school that are not... [1:40:01] Speaker I (unidentified): They are the major beneficiaries of this, and they are basically the ones putting up the money to pay for the share that is not provided by Northern Orders. So the town is not putting any money into this project. I know that. [1:40:16] Speaker B (unidentified): Basically, my question was, because I know East Coast Rover has a building there, and somebody else with their area have public water and sewage just behind that? [1:40:28] Speaker I (unidentified): The Walmart building is served by public water and sewer, but there is no public water and sewer on LT Circle. All the buildings that are there now are on wells and septic tanks, and one of the wells ran dry this summer and caused considerable problems in the area. [1:40:47] Speaker D (unidentified): I do believe there is room for expansion in that area as well, is there not? [1:40:51] Speaker I (unidentified): There is a brand new building being built by Lyman Morse, a 150 by 100 foot building, where they will be constructing composite hulls for boats in an innovative way. They're some of the leaders in first class ship building and innovation as far as materials they're using. So we're trying to encourage that. In order to get this 150 by 50 foot building, 100 by 150 foot building running satisfactorily, they needed a sprinkler system in it, and there is no adequate water supply for the sprinkler. So we're putting an 8-inch line up this LTE circle, and that will hook into their sprinkler system. [1:41:38] Speaker C (unidentified): And that's in ledge, too? [1:41:41] Speaker I (unidentified): There is a lot of ledge on that road. That's what I thought. We've done probings up and down the road, so we know that there's going to be problems. Yes? [1:41:49] Speaker B (unidentified): So to get back to my original question, there's four buildings on that LT circle. None of them have water and sewer? [1:41:57] Speaker I (unidentified): No, they all have water and sewer, but it's off wells and it's septic systems, so they're all limited. There are, Lyman Morris owns three buildings and the school owns two buildings. [1:42:10] Speaker B (unidentified): And that on the upper end of that, but there's also a building back that's owned by East Coast Rover that's right, and I don't remember if they're on public water, so it also everybody [1:42:26] Speaker I (unidentified): Who can reach down to next the street extension is on public water and sewer, it's only those buildings in the upper end of the street, okay, can [1:42:41] Speaker O (unidentified): I just ask what buildings, where are you talking about, I'm just curious [1:42:45] Speaker I (unidentified): I got on Dexter Street before you get to the left-hand turn to go around the backboard into Walmart, yeah, there's another road that turns off to the left, oh that's the upper end of that, it's actually right behind Walmart [1:43:01] Speaker B (unidentified): Mark, I'll make a motion to approve, second to approve, all those in [1:43:20] Sean Moore: Favor, thank you [1:43:27] Speaker M (unidentified): Let [1:43:34] Speaker B (unidentified): Us see, authorize the channel, I'm going to sign the amended of land lease agreement with Verizon Wireless as reviewed by the town a little [1:43:57] Speaker D (unidentified): Brief background because I know not all the time I started this conversation, so I, and that's coming your way, I think, if we can't pass it down. But basically, we've had a lease with Verizon since 2006, [1:44:16] Speaker A (unidentified): and it's for the water tower. [1:44:22] Speaker D (unidentified): They leased airspace, essentially, from us for their cell towers off of that. They approached us back in 2024 to amend the lease. They offered us a potential buyout, a $10,000 one-time payment, and we said, no thanks. We're good. We'll keep the lease the way it is. So then they come back, and we reviewed the lease again back in November of 2025. We asked them to revise the lease. We also thought 70 years was too long of an extension. We didn't like the non-compete provision. There was a few concerns we had with the lease, and so at that point the board had asked me to work with our attorney on a counter offer back, and so now we land at a 30-year extension, a rent escalator to 3% annually, which actually is better for us because in the current lease it's five percent, it's 15% every five years. We're going to get 3% annually now, so that compounds and it's better for us, and they've upped the one-time payment to $25,000 and had the attorney look at it again. Just I want to make sure the final version is good to go, and he said it was, and so here we fast forward to October 2026, two years later, and if the board is comfortable with this and our attorney has reviewed it and he said that it looks good to him and I have as well, I'm looking to see if the tap, if you would authorize me to sign [1:46:24] Speaker B (unidentified): I do remember when they came to us to begin with, basically they wanted to give us less than what we were already getting. So we were all like, yeah, I think you better go back to the drawing board on that one because, I mean, it was decreasing and not increasing whatsoever. So I do like that the numbers have gone up, personally. [1:46:51] Speaker H (unidentified): And they have the option to renew up to 2066. Is that yes, I [1:47:03] Speaker D (unidentified): do think it will bring in more revenue for the town and what we have previously had, and the [1:47:11] Speaker H (unidentified): options to renew are based on whatever terms we lay down the renewal point. [1:47:15] Speaker D (unidentified): Right. It will automatically, let's see, the lease is in here too. Yes, on the first page of the last paragraph, it talks about the renewal of lease terms. It automatically renews unless the tenant notifies the landlord that they elect not to renew the lease at least 60 days prior to the commencement of the next renewal term. Okay. [1:47:56] Speaker H (unidentified): All right, good job. Move that we accept this. [1:48:04] Speaker J (unidentified): I'll second that. [1:48:08] Sean Moore: All those in favor. [1:48:13] Speaker H (unidentified): Good job, that took a while, didn't it? Yeah, I was a good keeper in this case. [1:48:23] Speaker B (unidentified): It was brutal, I have to say, it was. Yeah, they thought we were gonna give him pennies on the doll already. Land was free. Letter D, authorize the town manager to sign plan maintenance program contracts with WH Demons for HVAC controls and equipment at the Watts block as recommended by the Watts block trustees. [1:48:53] Speaker A (unidentified): WH Demons is the company. [1:48:57] Speaker D (unidentified): That installed the HVAC system on the roof as part of this renovation project. I've been told by the Watts Block trustees that there are not very many companies, certainly locally, that do that kind of rooftop system. I do think it would be a benefit to the town to at least do, to try this with them, especially since they installed it. There's any issues in the first year, they would be able to fix those. [1:49:41] Speaker K (unidentified): Has this been done previously or since the first time that they're doing this? [1:49:46] Speaker D (unidentified): Is the first time because first time you've had an HVAC rooftop system on. [1:49:53] Speaker B (unidentified): Building, I will say that we'll set, you know, thank you for wondering if this is the best. Thank you that, yes, there isn't many people that do a track systems but. [1:50:15] Speaker K (unidentified): Was they, you know, but they should, has the trustees shop around or they kind of just go with the, this is the installer who's installed it, correct? Right, and it. [1:50:28] Speaker D (unidentified): Looks like there's two different ones. There's one, the maintenance, and then there's one for the equipment. So one of these good fellows, this one is just for. [1:50:42] Speaker I (unidentified): The watch block building. We've had a roof maintenance program on this. [1:50:46] Speaker M (unidentified): Building for some time, so this is not, I'm not, something change. Yeah, roof. [1:50:51] Speaker D (unidentified): Separate from each other. Yeah, so. [1:51:06] Speaker B (unidentified): It's 30 56 plus is a difference. [Speaker D (unidentified): Based.] On. [1:51:32] Speaker K (unidentified): A two-year contract here, is that 's right. So one's for the controls, right, once controls the. [1:51:39] Speaker D (unidentified): Ones and it would be, they would, they do this, they derive visit us twice a year for the inspection, yes. And it says this is based on a two-year contract and the annual contract price will. We'll escalate to 3% annually unless the written notification we cancel within 30 days. I think two years would be sufficient to see how this works out. And at that point, we can look at and reevaluate. And maybe it's great and we love it, or maybe it's not and we keep looking. But at least we'll have a plan in place for this next two years where it's a brand new system. [1:52:50] Speaker B (unidentified): I guess my thing is, I mean, we need the controls to run the system. I guess why is it just one contract for the whole thing? Like, why is it you can't have one without the other? So I would think that it would just be one, you know. [1:53:10] Speaker D (unidentified): I don't know. But no one from Wattsville is here to answer those questions. [1:53:17] Speaker F (unidentified): So does it cover parks replacement as well under the warranty? [1:53:23] Speaker C (unidentified): I have a sentence on page 3, bottom paragraph. This agreement does not include repair or replacement necessitated by freezing weather. [1:53:42] Speaker D (unidentified): I would say, though, where it's just been installed, that there should be some general warranty in place for it. [1:53:50] Speaker B (unidentified): I guess it would be nice to have somebody from the block here to tell us what the general warranty on this whole system is to begin with before we enter. Because, I mean, we know we might have freezing weather. [1:54:02] Sean Moore: I mean, it's exciting. Yeah. [1:54:08] Speaker I (unidentified): There is a warranty, which we have already used once. How [1:54:16] Speaker K (unidentified): long ago was it installed? How long ago was it installed? [Speaker D (unidentified): like this summer] and we've had to have somebody come out [1:54:26] Speaker I (unidentified): starting it up and they ran into a problem they had to get more equipment so it didn't get started as quickly as anticipated [1:54:34] Sean Moore: and this [1:54:38] Speaker F (unidentified): is a pure heat pump system is that correct? they have a relatively limited lifespan compared to heat and oil solutions there you're it's like a any other electronic appliance in the early years it'll run relatively dependably I think you probably see it seems pricey and my only observation would be is there a local alternative to that but there is none so it's specialized though it [1:55:11] Speaker B (unidentified): No, we have a heat pump cleaning person on the next agenda item, so. [1:55:17] Speaker I (unidentified): This is a very large heat pump. It is. It's not the kind you get on the ties. [1:55:24] Speaker B (unidentified): I'm not doubting that, and I know that, but I'm just saying. [1:55:28] Speaker H (unidentified): You assume that there's, when they installed it, that there's something in place to deal with the local climate, right? I mean, you would think that there would be something on it, some protection or... [1:55:40] Speaker F (unidentified): heat pumps run less efficiently the closer to water that they are because of ambient humidity clogging up the ability of the trends to be able to work professionally i would say the [1:55:54] Speaker D (unidentified): wasp block trustees reviewed this and recommended it right they oversee the building and i have to put some trust into what they're yeah recommending good enough for me yeah [1:56:07] Speaker J (unidentified): protect the investment that's that's a good thing [1:56:13] Speaker K (unidentified): so I would make a motion to approve seconded [1:56:18] Sean Moore: seconded any other discussion [1:56:22] Speaker B (unidentified): all those in favor [1:56:26] Speaker O (unidentified): those opposed [1:56:30] Speaker C (unidentified): I spent one February keeping Watts Block warm with propane and kerosene and don't want to do it again, so [1:56:50] Sean Moore: he considered for approval the proposals from Goodfellow heat [1:56:53] Speaker B (unidentified): pump cleaning for by annual cleaning and maintenance of the heat comes located at the county building and municipal building. From my understanding they have not been clean for [1:57:04] Speaker D (unidentified): a while. Is that correct? And we want to again protect our investment and take care of our investment. I would say Bill Hahn helped Dean Kamber, our building supervisor. They were trying to reach out to multiple companies and this one is local and [1:57:27] Speaker A (unidentified): could do both buildings. [1:57:31] Speaker D (unidentified): And you can see on the way we've got quite a few heat between the Academy building in this building there's quite a few. It is reassuring I think to have them looked at again if we can try this company and see. I know I feel good with having Dean having a building supervisor now that can manage these relationships for all these contractors, because it's a lot managing all these buildings. [1:58:12] Speaker I (unidentified): We lost one of the heat pumps at the academy building a year and a half ago, and that was not a cheap deal. So, I mean, maintenance on it was worth it. Well, [1:58:25] Speaker B (unidentified): I'm amazed that he's willing to say that the station is good for three years for the cleanings. That's quite a [1:58:36] Speaker I (unidentified): I clean mine every year [1:58:38] Speaker B (unidentified): yeah but no but he's willing to keep his price for the next three years at the price it is in this proposal which I don't know any company that does that anymore [Speaker N (unidentified): so is] there any other discussion [1:59:00] Speaker C (unidentified): I'll make a motion [1:59:01] Speaker B (unidentified): Pete will make a motion for both the Minister Willing and he's had to go into use. Awesome. Okay. [1:59:09] Speaker C (unidentified): He's only about 2,000 feet that way. [1:59:13] Speaker I (unidentified): Right. I'll try to buy one of your homes today. I'll second. [1:59:18] Speaker B (unidentified): I'll send you a second. Any other discussions? All those in favor? Four. Accept $937 Edward Bryan Memorial Justice Assistant Grant, JAG, on behalf of the Tons of Police Power for the purchase of a new computer and external CD-slash-DVD right term. Eric, where is this computer going to [1:59:52] Speaker M (unidentified): live? Do you want me to stand up? Yes, please. [1:59:58] Speaker H (unidentified): Several, well, not several, [2:00:00] Speaker N (unidentified): but a couple of our computer are old and don't work very well. So Angela's set up at her desk. She's going to be getting the newest one long and then Walmart actually still gives us CDs for videos for through their camera system so when taps and things like that and things that they had a CD is that we need a way that's why we need the other two partners to be able to actually watch because most new computers don't actually have the CD on things in them anymore so we actually need those external ones so we can continue to do the video but and scooters hit at least ten years old so I Just, she can't even open Excel anymore. It just needs to be upgraded. So this is, quote, unquote, free money, basically. So it's not going to cost a penny for any of this stuff. So she applied for it and got the grant. [2:00:54] Speaker D (unidentified): I was going to promise to her, right? [2:00:57] Speaker N (unidentified): Yeah, she secured a whole bunch of money for the police department. [2:01:02] Speaker H (unidentified): So it's been good. Well, there's that grant right there. [2:01:08] Speaker N (unidentified): Yeah so hopefully one of many is kind of the start of the process that a few more [2:01:12] Speaker M (unidentified): They need to go but this is going to get a start I'll make a motion to approve that thank you [2:01:27] Speaker H (unidentified): Cindy made the motion and I say thank you [2:01:31] Speaker B (unidentified): Of it. So we'll move in a second to accept the grant. Any other [2:01:34] Sean Moore: Discussion? All those in favor? All in favor? [2:01:39] Speaker B (unidentified): Angela, thank you. [2:01:40] Speaker K (unidentified): Keep it up. Yeah, that's awesome. [2:01:45] Sean Moore: Now manager's report. Yay. [2:01:50] Speaker D (unidentified): And it was left on your desk. I was typing this up today. And attached [2:01:57] Speaker A (unidentified): Is the Conservation Commission [2:01:58] Speaker D (unidentified): Notes from Craig Freshley that facilitated the strategic planning workshop, so you can see what they're planning. I thought it was a good workshop. I was there the first hour, and it was good to get them all on the same page because I think they've had a lot of turnover in recent years and the new membership, so I attended that. We've been working on the Northern Borders grants for the requisition for Watts Block, the second one, plus the pre-application for this LT Circle project. JoDell and I have been having general assistance applications for rental assistance. I think there's going to be a huge uptick in GA applicants for fuel this winter. We were also told that CMP will be sending out notices soon because they said in November that they can no longer shut off electricity, November through April. So I think we'll be seeing some more people come in. And I just wanted to put a shout-out. They had a dedication to Greg and Shirley Hamlin at the library for the conference room on September 30th, and Greg and Shirley wrote to everyone thanking them. They were deeply touched, and they did not expect it at all. And they said they will always treasure it, but they did many, years volunteering at the library. And the room looks beautiful. It's one of the best rooms on the second floor of the Academy building now. All the work they put into it. And Legislative Policy Committee I'm still working on union negotiations. A few of us attended the MMA convention last week. Fired EMS building committee we had a meeting last week. We're meeting every two weeks. This meeting was focused on mechanical systems of the building, the engineering and the utility infrastructure, we've been chatting back and forth because they're trying to make plans for what they'll need for a generator for the building. I have a follow-up meeting with usda tomorrow on zoom. They're the rural development that are helping us with the bond for the match and the grant money for congressional funds and John scooted out but him and Courtney have been helping me a lot too with this project because we realized as we needed to get a CMP account [2:04:46] Speaker A (unidentified): meter set up for [2:04:48] Speaker D (unidentified): this new building that we needed an address and we needed an address but it's all still one town owned property so it needed to be divided into the three parcels so that we could do all of that. So everyone knows the new address is going to be 400 Main Street for the fire station and John's also been helping me. He's been coordinating with Gartley and Dorsky because they had done boundary surveys for the town back in 2005 and 2013 so it wasn't a huge lift for them to update the survey in order for us to do these three lots and we'll have to do updated deeds and they're also doing including the property contours that the topography mapping that the architects will need for the project to. I had a meeting with Whitney files from she's the executive director of the Y. We've partnered with the Y on our community navigator program here in town and we're desperately looking for additional funding sources for this coming year. So what funded it this year is a community development block grant Which is only good for one year. The city of Rockland applied and their recipients for next year, and the original intent with piloting this program was that we would throw it with our neighboring communities and in hopes that eventually the county could take it over as a regional program. Lincoln County has done this very successfully. So Whitney and I have a meeting tomorrow with Ed Glazer, who's an Ox County Commissioner, to start that conversation. And meanwhile, we're still looking for grants to keep this program going beyond January. So I'm hopeful we can find some funding. Paul, I was going to say Paul Pete already mentioned about Paul, but I had also put that in my report that we extend our deepest condolences. I also was told today that we lost one of our employees from the library, Blake Donaldson. He had cancer and had been unwell for a while, and so I the library will be closed this Saturday for the employees to go to his celebration of life at the Broad Bay Congregational Church in Waldeboro, and he served as the cataloging librarian since 1998 for the town and we will miss him. And then I noted Paul Gibbons also as Pete had, he was an attorney for the town for many years and very highly respected in this community, and I only knew him for a short time, but in the short time I knew him he did so much for this town. He really helped us with our first major tax appeal with Walmart. I just very knowledgeable man and he will be greatly missed as well. And his service is Saturday, November 14th at the Church of Our Lady of Good Hope in Camden. And so this morning I called Bridal Bouquet to have flowers sent to both of these services for the town. [2:08:31] Speaker K (unidentified): Thank you for doing that. [2:08:34] Speaker D (unidentified): So not to end on a sad note, [2:08:38] Speaker B (unidentified): but I would just like to add here to your report the MMA convention. The first speaker that we saw, he was in a hunting accident truck because I missed that I was late. And went blind from this hunting accident. And was really down on himself, really bad on himself. Decided to just walk off his porch one day and try to figure out how to get to his shed. And his daughter came out, and as he's walking out, he could feel the grass was getting longer on him and everything, and he realized that he wouldn't be able to do this anymore. Walk and how would his lawn actually get mowed now and his daughter came out and you know realized he was standing there crying and really feeling down on himself and his daughter said well daddy I can help you beat your eyes and so they got the lawnmower out and she he controlled it but she steered it, and they mowed the lawn together. This guy has gone on to climbing mountains that I wouldn't climb with my eyes. Mount Everest. Yeah. Yeah. Going down rapids that, again, I wouldn't go down with my eyes, which he showed us pictures of this, and now is trying to get to the North Pole, but there's never been anyone with any handicap gone there to be able to do the climb or North Pole so he's going through a lot of red tape but when he was doing one of these river rapids he actually got pinned against a wall thinking that he wasn't going to be able to flip back over and finally realized I can do this flip back over his guide had gone Farther ahead of him the other guy that was there on this thing who came up on him had no legs. He'd been in the service and got no legs. It now became his eyes to get him down the rest of the river. They got down the river, decided they had so much fun, they did it again. But this was also a place that, a country that didn't really let handicapped do stuff like that because they didn't think they were capable of it and now since him and this other guy have done it they now have they treat their handicap in a different perspective and actually allow the handicap to do more of this type of stuff that they didn't do before so and this guy goes around and you know does these conversations it's mostly to show that you know when you're feeling down on yourself there Is a way to overcome it and do some of this stuff and you know and he went up on the stage just by having his hand on somebody's back feeling as she was going up steps he could feel it going up and that's how he got up onto the stage he didn't have you know he was just his hand on that bat. And, you know, he had quite a few jokes about people saying, did you see that? Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, sure, you know. But he had quite a few jokes. And, I mean, the stuff that he did and they were showing videos of what he did was just like, yeah, like I said, I can see that and I'm not thinking I want to do that. And he's doing this stuff blindly. And those rapids were wild. Wow, in a kayak. [2:12:28] Speaker F (unidentified): This was for the MMA workplace safety training, wasn't it? [2:12:31] Speaker D (unidentified): MMA convention. No, he was the keynote speaker. [2:12:35] Speaker B (unidentified): He was one of the keynote speakers just to show that there is, you can overcome things and teamwork and how you can, I mean, I have to say it's been one of the best because I think they just showed what you can do, what you can accomplish with very little at some points in times and you can accomplish this in a team in on your own and stuff like that so it was quite like I said watching the videos was like oh yeah I'm done so just kind of wanted to add that out there very impressive I have to say this is my second year going to the MMA conference and there's some very knowledgeable speakers and they're from other towns in some cases when they do their workshops and very knowledgeable on their own town and you know it's it's great to listen to them and how one of the things I also took back from it was an epic one I went to. And one of the things that this town does that they never used to do is allow people to speak during it. And they said they find that the public really enjoys that so much more when you do allow them to speak instead of shutting them down. And how much more respect the select board and other townspeople have gotten because they don't try to shut them down on select board meeting. And that really resonated with me, and they're 28,000. But I will say the one that one of them, when we were sitting at the table, said they had 28,000, it was Auburn, 28,000, and when they had that psych board meeting, anyone want to take a guess how many people showed up for that psych board meetings? In Auburn? In Auburn. 28,000 population. [2:14:38] Speaker N (unidentified): Less than 10, I'd say. [2:14:42] Speaker F (unidentified): 2,000 people? Two. Two. 2,000 people? Two Kim, 2,000 people that's less than 10% of the population two [2:14:54] Speaker B (unidentified): So it did make me feel a little different about not having an audience I've got three in a night so I'm already being on time so hey, we're moving up in the world [2:15:07] Speaker F (unidentified): This is a really special place and you know I was talking earlier about our respect for each other. And that's an important thing. And in this room, there's a quote from Anita Knowlton about engaging respectfully. And I think that is a real accomplishment, especially in these times. And another accomplishment, I think, is the fact that you guys go and learn muscle memory at places like these MMA conferences, and that's why governance in the town is effective, because you go and you take the time to improve your professional skills. So it doesn't fall on deaf ears. We appreciate the fact that you guys make that effort. Well, I feel [2:15:48] Speaker B (unidentified): like by going to these, the town employees, by going to these, learn about what other towns are facing, what other towns are doing, how they're dealing with some of this stuff, so that they don't feel like they're the only town that's getting good, bad, evil phone calls, that listen to other towns have, like the table we were sitting at, we listened to another town that's a smaller town, we had a smaller town, and some of the stuff they were saying, I think made some of my people at our town was like, oh, okay, some of our questions a lot, you know, so it really, it really does help to hear what other, and I mean, you know, Alan and I walked around and met with some vendors, that was very interesting, some of the programs that are out there that are available for towns that we don't know about, or have, you know, as much representative to see some of this stuff, so it's, it is really, it is a very intriguing, and we had a bunch of Sam's, but it wasn't very intriguing, and it has been for two years that I've been joining with the group to go and see some of these and listen to what other towns are facing besides our own. [2:17:16] Speaker H (unidentified): It's very educational. Yeah. And Joanne got a record amount of swag this year. Oh, we did? [2:17:25] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, there's lots of giveaways. They're willing to give a lot of things away to try to promote their company. Is there any closing public comment? [2:17:40] Speaker F (unidentified): I would actually like to make a closing public comment. I know I've taken my fair share of time tonight. But this weekend marks my last weekend as chairman of the Best Dog Park in Maine, the Thomaston Dog Park Association. I believe that organizations need to have fresh blood. Volunteer organizations need to have fresh blood. During my time at the dog park, we have expanded our parking lot. We have installed cameras. We have come up with new rules posted. We have improved the grounds itself. We have put up a kiosk. We have put up a new shelter and generally improved the quality of the dog park. I'm extremely proud of that. I'm extremely proud of our volunteers in support of that. This weekend end is the dog parks annual yard sale, which is our largest fundraiser of the year. The town was kind enough to share that information. I sent it to Maureen. She put it up, so thank you. Times drop off times from 1 to 6 o'clock today and then from 1 to 6 o'clock tomorrow and I believe 1 to 6 o'clock on Friday as well. I hammered in the little road sign that has the instructions on. You'd think I'd read the road sign to find out exactly when it was, but it's already covered in the road sign up by the Academy Building. So thanks to the Academy Building. The Academy Building, who I believe may have recently rented out the last available office space. [2:19:13] Speaker A (unidentified): Why, yes, they did. Upstairs. [2:19:16] Speaker F (unidentified): Today. That is an accomplishment. So good job, Academy Building, and thank you all. [2:19:22] Speaker H (unidentified): And good job, UCF, over the last few years running that. [2:19:26] Speaker F (unidentified): It was great. Best dog park in Maine. It is. [2:19:30] Speaker B (unidentified): Does anyone else want to make a closing public comment? [2:19:35] Speaker R (unidentified): I guess the cameras at the dog park, they're pack cameras, not flock cameras, right? They are not flock cameras. [2:19:41] Speaker F (unidentified): They are cloud-based webcams that you can go, and if there's an incident, you can rewind. In theory, they're not really that great, but they are. At least we can at least we can, you know, when the when the people with the password don't sit on there and watch who's going back and forth to the dog park all day and they don't soak up all our data, we can theoretically go back and see what happened, but we never have any data left, so [2:20:12] Speaker R (unidentified): I will entertain [2:20:22] Speaker B (unidentified): a motion to adjourn this meeting so we can go into executive session [2:20:28] Speaker H (unidentified): motion to adjourn second [2:20:32] Sean Moore: all those in favor [2:20:35] Speaker B (unidentified): thank you everybody for joining us we'll do this again in two weeks only on a Monday Okay, see ya.