now we'll call this meeting of the slick board in session at seven well over eight and we'll start with public to be heard is there anything that is not on the agenda that anybody wishes to speak about put the large containers in place or we've we've seen increased recycling people when they fill up the twelve gallon containers start throwing everything back into their trash  and that means one big change in trash collection between now and two twenty you'll have to start separating out your food ways and they will be collected solid customers who would no longer have a choice it would be just one dollar maybe two hours so mourners would like to see the drop off centers where people now do their own recycling their own track hauling down to richmond and essex south burlington the haulers would probably like to see us drop that servers that's a big question in the future to do not service commercial costumers might lose the ability to grow or to sell their contracts or sell their business where they do look to tire and then there's this question of just government being the owner of municipal organization should not should not interfere with private enterprise operate these are basically the concerns and then on page pages two and three and i won't go through them from  discussions in committees with the haulers the staff went out and had a series of different meetings there are basically seventeen different types of questions this type of collection system which staffers address about halfway and still are trying to find some answers some of it is a case that we have to make a decision on what we're going to do and then the board  process and that's basically where we're at this point staffers formulating those recommendations and looking to get that on the remaining questions a study committee will be put together between the district some callers involved and some public involved that look to study these questions and try to make recommendations and then the boarder comes back to consider those recommendations and the timeline at the moment is basically we feel the questions as you can see basically between now and spring of two fifteen would be where we get the answers and get a direction and what we're going to do and at that point or so along those steps the board would make decisions and then them from potations might be during the color and has a system where they collect all the trash and recycling a similar situation could be done in jericho the question still is what we do have i think to those questions it's also a case of underage girl has a had a program where they sold stickers that you had a place out of and then they had one dollar of it th for seniors they actually drive up a long driveway they actually have the number system to open the garage door and they take the trash right out of the hall or that the system is happening but there are several points along the way for input of the public municipalities interested stakeholders and decision points for the board where they would have to vote whether to continue on the most recent one the first cited december nineteenth was simply staff and then consulting with counsel determined that there was no legal way we could literally say we're  houses and everything else is a commercial operation where you were who were there were again no other variations to the type of program but i think for the residential point of view you're able to get density of customer bases you get a much more efficient system that's per mention we're also looking at had to state wide mandates for collection of organics pay as you throw  pricing is a one also going to be mandated statewide and those things will be more cost effective in addition if you already have a consolidated system so these are some of the considerations  this area is in the vast minority countrywide because it is such an inefficient system which in and of itself is not a reason to change but it's indicative of the way the rest of the country has and i don't know i know that there are spend some coordination on some smaller projects but if there's anything any part that highfields can play in sh you know we have a pretty successful room in the northeast kingdom from businesses not so much residential but do your business the business going to grow one presidential to read it right ye some of them you know that's the intent by the state with this legislation to make some kind of level playing field and standardization they've already started with symbology that's been distributed hoping to matter whether you're the northeast kingdom or bennington or jericho you're going to have an expectation that this is recyclable here and this is the standard operating procedures here there may be some  pairing what we do engine and carry versus what the states requesting we're pretty well better than ninety percent there and we don't we don't have money to do things we have to implement but there are as you say up in the northeast kingdom and earth and other waste districts that are way way behind everything is still going into one plastic bag and it all goes into the land the number of people you see of the region so with regard to consolidate collection i think you know i just as the town thinks about this and considers and i'm happy to be a resource  that we're currently considering his staff is going to be making a recommendation to the board but it has been other municipalities it's ranged anywhere from three to seven years notice and i think we're probably somewhere in the five years  be something that might take a straw vote out of town meeting can't even see how it cost effective unless it's like a megawatt system i don't either that which is why i think there's there's i believe there's legislation you know this year that may they may increase the exemption because you're right i mean a thirty two gigawatts system at four dollars a it seems a safe route would be to allow the select board if the voters approve it to enter in a taxi it was a sure contracts for alternate energy plants that would be subject to or still the minister is still in the process of coming up with a value for the system that's over ten kilowatts so this point we don't know for sure exactly what that and say well there's not much going on here we think we should exempt them but it just seems like too far to leave at this point and you know some of these things it may end up with legislation this year that the installation that the  this their property was already tax exempt somehow the panels themselves are being this is for the panel strictly yeah not for the land right that's a totally different tax i mean that's what's really kind of odd about this is this it's a new one just for generation of electricity yeah and so my take is trying to figure out it's right now it's just solar but they're looking at trying to tax all forms of alternate energies or are other forms of energy already taxed and solar right now is exempt so we're going to tell you cool arts is always right but right there are other for like go you know on income that is the income approached evaluation based on what sort of revenue those are generating the state has given some guidance on how to value the  ar facilities which is what sander is is working on it's kind of one step here and it's because what they're doing i mean there's this really for generating for the farm you know i mean they're really not making you know excess be on what they're yeah i agree we need to get information that makes sense to put it on the thing because you need to make people need to move forward with solar rather than get penalize you know another hit because they're already so expensive to create a solar farm even though they're using it for the farm that you notice and get it valued at one hundred thousand dollars i mean that's asking people why should i do it then you know then you know pay but it is a well if you know let's something that they're doing something in the legislature last year i make is that with this you know when i when i went with another member of the energy task force think we should just leave it i don't think i don't think we need to take action really not this year maybe i mean i think in the future if if if nothing is done if the legislative level for the small  farms then for any kind of alternative small you know then then we have to think about something like that because i know some towns already are taxing him and that you know there is the safest approach is left you with options so we're not saying so but you're just saying we're going to you know consider this in the future rather than do anything right but it's similar to you know the if you find that there's a need to do it you know instinctively i want to do it but i'm also trying to figure out how much education we're going to have to do between now and town meeting because we also have to educate people on why we're that's going to have to be the one talking about it anyway i'm as well as the energy task force and if i get enough to talk well i mean really if this it's unfortunate we don't have a value yet for the system it at this point is to my knowledge it's an issue that applies to this current will be a special election it's possible it could be addressed at that time you know i figure if there's not necessarily going to be a special but if there is a special election i figure we should just right from what i understand so far it's likely that the value that could be placed on such a system is probably narrow question that i need to ask you at this point to provide direction and in drafting we've been given a model by the league of cities and them and it's you know there's a lot of required but still it's the only area where the town really has each choice three strikes you're out sort of policy where one has a positive test then you get referred to treatment then they come back they have to have a return to the employment test out of it and they're back in the pool again where the bar is said if you will move the bar you can still get in trouble as long as you have a bar the says you know we have to say i was playing all kinds of different scenarios you know the you know but if you just say did you really want somebody to do it if they have an issue and but they've been doing their job there's been no problem with the job and then one of these random drug testing they you know there's a problem this isn't about level you know and then you they get their test and then you ok this is your you know you need to clean your correcting you're out and i honestly mean most people have that same policy for office workers you don't even have to be a c  i agree with you and i even thing you know upon the discovery of that and that there should be like a a man that's really clear you go ahead with it ok you're going to give me a chance i mean it's really very strict i mean if they screw up the next year their coach because there's a lot of testing i mean i think that the liability question really comes into play if you have seen as a test to come back they're fine they're under the influence at work cause an accident and then you know the lawyers on the other side are you know what you have this person come back you know that if they're on call well i went through a serial case you know these are the guys who come in for snow plowing and things like that and it says if if you're on call and you say oh he's we're headed drink you know i mean is there a penalty for that because and he's relieved of you know coming in for their own car responsibilities because what if you know it was only twenty percent chance of snow when all of a sudden  yeah i mean but i was questioning is there a penalty then to them if they can't come in it's just they don't get the overtime hours or whatever now that's what i was worried about because i that will you know if they if they want to be we're recommending is that we get rid of the specific reference to a specific amount a just say that according to an about established by state borders that's necessary so that you don't have to go through the ticket and there's no there's no fine you just have to pay the fee for having your car towed so it's kind of such a wreck spectating that you can appeal the actual towing charge when you can many can't and  doesn't think there's any reason to have it in there reviewed other ordinances or there's no such thing you know appeals usually have to me you know criminal type do you do that do we have a lot of  car that that's part of the notice and at least usually twenty four hours and if it's still there then it's causing a problem to have it oh well it's nice you're going through all our old ordinances and cleaning and well year that we're still complain to the best of our abilities with those standards so that's rescued you tonight you know you meet them for the most part it's really areas that we yes i think it's just yeah but it's really kind of weird yes it looks like we wrote and it's only in the in the last year that we great so it's kind of weird because it's written like a proclamation you know kind of thing and definitely right fiscal policy it's just a vote by australian ballot as to whether or not the voters will increase the number of select persons from three to five so that question is on here the actual end of the article i thought we to have a situation or we could if it passes have a situation in which we legally have an absolute order five but we don't have any five members right which means all three of us have to show up and vote the same way on any meeting until that election where we don't have to vote the same way we just have to vote the same way if you want to do anything when it's been quite technical yes well we don't have to break i got that opinion from the league and i also had i had greg to review that opinion and he concurred with it so we actually had two opinions on it i see that you actually worded it so that they are staggered i thought it would be kind of cool if we just left a did the one year which is which it is by statute since it wasn't in the petition but then of course when you have three people who will be up in a year and you're one of the door to the board turning over in i why i thought about that i thought well that really gives people a lot of feeling that a real power but then but then if you actually made a decision that is in the long term best interest of the town the very controversial i mean it was just one of th a question about the useless board members you know since we were talking about the time warning should we start putting together information sheets on these topics less because people are going to wonder why we're talking about  public burial grounds i mean there is some specific reasons because you know we first started with a petition and you know it's been voted on and then not voted on over the past years right ye yes according to jessica the thing you probably want to start of the first is the slick boards position increasing if assuming you have one on increasing the numbers like board members because absentee balloting will start february twelfth well i think if nothing else we need to have some general guidelines from frequently asked questions of why you're doing it because rather than say because in the end it is going to be up to the voters but pros and cons or just came to be involved in some of that yes because because remember a decision setter right because initially people may have thought it was a town initiative because of how it started so we think a petitioner brought it and then things to consider are if you're really wanting to have a five member board then people really need to step up to the plate  and run for office as opposed to having all these slots that aren't filled already because it's not going to help us mean different things like that will have to work through that you know so i was going to ask does that need to be on the next agenda or do we just well bonheur we want to make sure that it stays as effective as possible because we don't you know have the same opinions and right so really there's just facts and i really should i mean people need to be informed of why and what it means where the potential pitfalls are and things like that ok so that's that's it and so tell me thing is march fourth two thousand and fourteen at nine a m polls for are open from seven a m seven p m the same day five weeks five weeks from now you want to make a motion that we adopt the official warning for  town meeting day with a couple of changes one in article six we want to change the wording includes is and  legislation and state level that's going to tax large solar farms and we as a town have been asked we've received a letter saying that we have the ability to and would we make it tax exempt and we don't really know what's going to happen because the state is still mucking around so we were trying to trying to help us preempt by giving us by asking the voters for authority to  grant tax stabilisation contracts to alternative energy facilities to work right it's kind of complex and it's really not urgent right and there's enough stuff on there already that we have received that it will be on the ballot and if you want to hear the psych wards discussion on it you know come to the meeting next week thursday so you can have people there and it needs to be within the ten days preceding the meeting so do it ok i don't think gives your publisher anything more about our meeting next week ok that's fine let that be the public hearing ok days before the hearing which is within the ten days preceding town meeting ok plus we also want to have you know the information sheets for those who come to the really right so looking at your calendars that's likely to be the last it will have to be during the want you guys both to know that i know where you both stand on this but i don't know where i stand then and so i just don't assume that there is an opinion that the board shares about ok i just i just wanted to let you know very be clear about that just because i don't want anything going out you know in front porch form or whatever that because i am not i do you know i feel strongly about it the way you do and i'm very much you know and i think that there are sprays and cons and am inclined to ninety even be involved in trying to persuade people to vote one way or the other that's what we need to talk about next week because otherwise you want to know why and then lying to the seventy two it's really picky but it says  said his wife is a health care representative no she's not a health care representative but she worked through vermont health connect for their company and she's like that right and was knowledgeable about these the warning went to letters and then we can sign for there's a whole pile of money there and then and then todd can talk about other business well