questions so you don't have to rely on my questions because i'd rather hear your questions and the way in which we will run this is i will call on folks and you can ask a question of a particular candidate but then after that candidate has answered the question i'm going to give the other candidates a chance to answer the very same question i would ask that you refrain from attacking candidates this is a forum so you have a chance to ask questions of the get a date and also i would ask that you it is a candidate's forum so i'd rather that you in the audience do not  make statements that your chance to ask questions so we'll start by giving each candidate a chance to introduce themselves and state a little bit about who they are and why they are seeking the office that they're seeking so let's start with ellen hi my name's allen cain and i've been a resident of frenchmen for over nine years and i'm very excited to be here today three years my work background my work experience has been in philanthropy and giving away funds and fund raising and education and health care and social service and i have a lot of experience i'm working on different boards in a governance position so this is a time in my life or my boys are getting a little older don't need me maybe as much and i really want to get back to town and i'm really enjoying the community engagement i've for moderating and i really love the town of richmond except for college and my entire life and even then i come back and work here in the summers and it's really a wonderful place to grow up really care about the town i want to serve the town i think i'm pretty well informed about a lot of the issues and i look forward to becoming even more so if i get elected i'm a good listener and i will use common sense to  come to this is in this without allowing my personal bias to get in the way of what's best for the town recently i was speaking to my girlfriend's mother about she just moved here she lives in new ski and she was saying she goes talk to a lot of people people and i came to the realization it's a natural beauty of the town that it is to have a sense of business independence we don't see hardly any chain stores outside of the gas stations it's the beauty of the town itself you know it's really got a small town feel and it's our community and i hope to use these principles to guide my decisions on the board  you know i am young and people may have concerns about that but i urge people look no further than telling eight year younger than i am he does a wonderful job being the chair of the select board and running wrestling with a lot of complicated issues really impressed and i trust them to fill me in on anything that i don't know about that may be protocol issues or minor details and and you know i don't think that will in any way get in the way of me being an effective candidate and i was part of student government in high school and in college and i started my own business here in richmond it's just a part time business that sucker when i was sixteen years old and i've been running the last eight years right in the middle of town and i really think this is like board should represent multiple generations here in richmond so i hope to be a part of that and i'm really looking forward to this because it allows me the opportunity to connect more with the community and have a say in what's going on in the town and the decisions that the town is making and  that when i graduate college e year and a half ago i struggled and i i thought for a long time about whether where to move and i finally decided on richmond but it was not an easy decision for someone my age moving to richmond can be seen as a bit of a sacrifice career wise and and you know i i do i do want to live here for a long time that being said and i want to raise my kids here and i want my kids to feel like they can move back here without having the same worries that i did and still feeling the pull of the natural beauty the beauty of the town the sense of community in the sense of business class but being the first class of my mansfield was pretty monumental that building has a lot of memories the building that we have is the town center i can name you all the teachers that we had probably gary can too  but my reason for choosing to come back to offer my services on the select board are mirrored in a lot of what my folks ahead of me said i hope the current folks on the select board don't feel that i didn't meet with them individually but i've attended select board meetings i think i've missed two in the last ten years so i pretty much know what's going on as it relates to the select board issues those items that are in the public purview i'm pretty well appointed on and although i didn't spend all of my life in richmond so far i've moved to jericho and then underhill and when my folks were ill i moved back to richmond and found that it was  in need of something else and it wasn't that i had all the solutions but i committed quite early to assisting with the process i was one the save the all round church was the start club when richmond was looking to restore the round church i was my father built me a rocking chair and i didn't even get so i'm not unfamiliar to community service marie thomas and linda parents serve as board members of the community care scam now when i was on  select board the our community care scam was very close to being dissolved but i wanted to make sure that during that timeframe we had an opportunity to speak with thomas about the dissolution of it and love me or hate me marie  it has continued because i waited until you came back because the voice that you had looking out for these students who needed that extra boost over the summertime the extra dollars put into a food program so that they could eat  balanced meals throughout the summer that was a necessary component and i couldn't be happier i know it's a lot of work for you folks but i couldn't be happier that it continues and of course it's to your credit that this grain that you planted this continued to grow and outreach and i'm thankful for that but i want to continue to give to the community of richmond i don't think that i've given everything that i can i've given a lot i've given time to various  committees and i don't take any of my service to this town lightly and i don't have a hidden agenda i think most of you perhaps all of you or maybe one doesn't know that what you see is pretty much what you get and if i come across harsh i apologize for that i certainly don't mean to but i'm open honest and direct and i would expect that if anybody anybody that's serving the town in any capacity so i ask for your vote thank you thank you now that we've heard from candidates i would open this to the audience for questions there's a microphone over on that side i would ask that you step up to the microphone introduce yourself or say your name and ask your question so who would like to be first nobody we also have a series of questions that were given us and i if we don't come up with and i have them mary i think you know questions from the audience ok then i'll pose the first question oh i'm sorry mary thomas so i would ask a question of all of the candidates since mary brought it up i run our community cares camp which is a summer food service program for children and is supported by the generosity of not only this town but some other towns and businesses and performs a vital service so in the last six years of doing that i've learned a lot about the difference is in the lives that people have in richmond and the surrounding area and i don't know i guess would like to hear from all the candidates if they feel that the  select board has any way of taking into account that we have a wide range of incomes in the town and how can you balance  balance that i mean sometimes that sometimes people who come to meetings are the people who don't have to worry about you know getting the next meal on the table so how can you do you think that this looked more to represent all of the people in richmond area that might be underserved i know that i live in a mobile home right now and the mobile home park i believe represents a low income population and i think that some of those youngsters attend the our community cares camp but that this does aren't you know just everybody's basis basically almost twenty five twenty four point something percent of the children in richmond elementary school  free and reduced lunch so that's one out of four that's a lot i think that's one of the statistics that would be available and you certainly were able to look at that through the u s d a figures perhaps school district but that's something that traditionally is not available i mean we would have to seek it out but that's a pretty big number that's a pretty big number and identifying perhaps the ability of the select board to further fund the camp with extra dollars to have fund raisers i don't know how to specifically address an individual families need but my parents were overseer of the poor and to be an overseer of the poor in the day when i was a little kid you had to be a recipient of the system so that you understood what that was like and we got government commodities so i'm very very familiar with what it's like to be on the receiving end but we didn't get we didn't get welfare dollars or a card we got the actual commodities and my parents actually were the well i guess they were the warehouse for richmond for those commodities and i had i would guess perhaps that there's no one in this room that may have availed themselves of those services but in the day i certainly do understand in the day you have to be o the service to provide the services so i can't specifically identify it but i do know that there is more need and supporting a community garden to the point where there are valuable things that we can grow and donate d you were asking about how we can reach more of the lower income have i mean i think that's it's really difficult when you can't come out to meetings but you know thanks to the services of the and the t v and the people are able to have access to this on the internet i know not everyone has access to computers either but you know i think i think it's like board member you can make yourself be more available to setting up maybe an open session meeting with people in the in the in the lower income communities i mean right now the talk of the west main street extension you know i think it's really important that the people out in the interview comments have a big say in that and know i don't know the exact best way to get everyone's viewpoint but i think maybe you know making sure the meetings are really well warned and just making yourself available to talk to anyone who  s i've had the opportunity and my work experience to advocate at times for different populations that don't have access to certain things and had the opportunity before becoming coming out of the  support the our community cares camp my son also was in the leadership program there are wonderful camp i think the select board really needs to be conscious it's a consciousness that every time you're making a decision you consider all populations it's not an easy thing to do but it's something that should be on the forefront when you're making a decision about say water and sewer or opportunities such as transportation jobs education that that is always something that you bring up and are conscious of and so i think with my experience it's something that i have been engaged with and it is a perspective that i would bring to the select board to always ask that question how is it going to impact everyone in our town and how is going to impact those that don't have a voice right now another opportunity coming up is the town planning process and what i like about that is there are going to be community forums and many different ways to do just that to capture the voices of people that may not feel comfortable coming to one of these meetings may not want to identify themselves as someone that is in a certain socio economic position and so we need to really i'm glad you brought it up we need to make an effort to do it in a way that doesn't make anyone feel uncomfortable and i think that's something i can bring to the  you suggest that we deal with  so i get the hard question person well it just so happens we have two major challenges that have been coming up i came out on october twenty fourth teen and i had been on the economic development committee we currently have about one point seven percent of our total developed develop a property from saying that correctly dedicated commercial type zoning and not all of that's being utilized and one of the  issues i see coming up is how do we develop and a way that ensures the character of our town is not jeopardized yet it will contribute additional tax dollars jobs all the other things that would benefit our town and i think that's where we're at right now we have a town planning process we've got a grant for that which is great it'll be publicly two to three year planning process in the meantime we also have some other opportunities on the table and some decisions to make prior to that planning process and that's where i see a lot of community engagement people coming out with different opinions about what we should do and i see this is a real opportunity no matter what we decide is a town that we're going to discuss this we're going to make some decisions and we can decide where we want to go from there so the town planning process is one of i would say the good things on the horizon it will be challenging to get everyone's opinion but we also have some decisions to make now that well calm before the full planning process and how do we get consensus and do that i know way where we can take advantage of some opportunities one of the issues is the water line and looking towards the future to ensure that those rates don't go up by bringing that water line down the gateway we also need to look at are there development opportunities in town and outside of town that will benefit us in the long run and can we can we support that development in a way that doesn't take away from our town we heard about some of the beauty that attracted all of us here and some of the things we love about it so how can we do that together in a way where we get consensus and we feel good about it thank you figuring out what we want our town to look like going forward and i think you know i think i hope we get a lot of community input and that town plan steering committee does a really good job taking that and putting it in the something that represents you know all the input they received and look forward to looking at that if i'm elected on the select board and reviewing is another challenge i believe is the  high water and sewer rates you know it makes it makes it hard to sometimes to attract businesses here with the highest water and sewer rates and it makes it hard for middle class people to and meet with high high water and sewer prices you know i look down the line seeing the potential development down in the gateway and the lines running out to the review comments and the no we've had an increase in restaurants here we have the brewery coming in and you know those are high water users and i see the moon property as a chance to develop as well and to lower the rates and i hope you know in five years this is a  problem of diminishing importance and i look forward to working on that issue i'm very can you top this i think the challenges the infrastructure a lot of the  infrastructure needs to be updated and it's always the budget you can rest assured that the budget is never going to reduce your property taxes or if it does it's going to be just incrementally so to support the town plan and our town planner claire rock was successful in getting her planning grant and she's formulated a committee that's going to assist the planning commission work on the town plan and it probably will be a two year process but there again the town gets to vote on it once it's completed and i think that  to a point that ellen brought up the developable land in our community i think burlington was trying to do something related to their parcels that are underutilized and i think it's pretty prohibitive if you don't want to develop your land should a town entity or the town say well you know what i think i know what's best for your property you've got some commercial land and i want to see you develop it i'm afraid of that i think that you shouldn't force development i think that development has to happen on its own when i was on the planning commission one of my least favorite cases in the world went to the supreme court and it was i believe it was new london connecticut where land was seized private  seized by eminent domain for commercial development and it never was developed people were ripped from their homes and they were fairly compensated but they ruined the lifestyle that they were used to because this development was coming and i don't want to see us get into that and when i was on the planning commission the municipal planning folks at the c c r p c regional planning commission and eunice will planning offered that richmond could support fourteen knew how to use  ten new house permits a year and they were looking at a i think a ten year plan so that meant over that course of ten years that's one hundred new houses so where are you going to put one hundred new houses i think that the town plan has to make that  address that they look at but it also has to look at the entire community to the point where low income is concerned what does anyone consider low income anymore if i can afford a mortgage that's an affordability that i can afford it may not be the same affordability that everyone else has but i think that the folks that might currently be underserved by the town and what we have going on right now perhaps are the rivers you comments and what efforts can we make to bring them into the process these meetings are pretty well publicized and then proper notice is always given the town events are on the website and although everyone might not have a computer there's certainly access available through the schools i'd like to see the schools deliver more information because the schools part of the community thank you thank you very j warning for for town meeting is a tax stabilization proposal for the creamery parcel i haven't heard very much discussion about that i really don't know much about that issue myself i'm curious  important issue it's it's right in the middle of our town and i think we could really do something special there that would add to the character of richmond and right now you know there's no really getting around it really looks bad and  months ago we acted the interim zoning and development development is a slow process you know it takes time to put together a proposal to go to the bank to do you know it's eight months is not adequate time for us to you know change course and add a attacks a tax incentive you know the i think the interim zoning is really attractive in i can't speak to you know the names of the people but i have heard of three different now parcel everybody knows where it is it's like that the kid in your family that doesn't get the most attention and now it seems to be crying for attention i think that tax stabilization is a favorable idea i think that rezoning changes and it sounded like he had something ready to go but nothing ever materialise we made some minor adjustments so that it might be a little more attractive for the owner to sell the property to a developer to have something happen there that didn't materialize but i think that when a proposal comes forward and i do believe something is going to be coming before us as a town it has to be something that fits with the community it has to be something that fits with the neighborhood  and i can think of one specific place in willesden that got a lot of tax credits for it and it was a place that made the masks for the sars epidemic those sudden acute respiratory disease and that place closed they had tax benefits in that place closed unceremoniously patrick leahy was there for the opening but when it closed and ran out of town it's not like sars went away it's just minimized but i think that if we offer a tax stabilisation this does have to be done by a town vote  that we need to have some sort of a take back if we offer a tax stabilisation and nothing happens we need to have some leverage i don't want to give away everything but i would like the opportunity to be to be presented and again it has to be something that the community wants and remember this is all going to be generating traffic that is in and out of the center of the town the heart of the town but it also has to be something that fits with the neighborhood th stabilization came up is because that person's been sitting for fifteen years it is a bit of an eyesore in its current condition there are brown fields there and there's a bit of a risk for a developer to come in so the idea is to incentiv development there that fits with the character of our town and to do so when someone has a choice of anywhere to develop choosing a browns field location might not be top of the list so we're really trying to encourage the right type of development in our town on a property that's been sitting for very long time and as a town sometimes we do have to do certain things to move forward and i believe that there may be something coming forward hopefully fingers crossed and i think that it's because of the things that we have been doing such as the interim zoning and now considering this so i think it's important on a property that hasn't been the most attractive to find a way to encourage the kind of l we want and this may be one tool to use so you know i don't mean to harp on this issue i just actually curious about process so is it any of your understanding that once we do vote on this would we could come back and vote on it again when the deal is struck  right now there isn't a there isn't a deal on the table it's just it's a vote to authorize negotiating as i understand the article would would we vote i will try to answer that i mean my understanding and let me be clear it's my understanding always on having worked in the listers office the we do have another program it's called pilot it's a payment in lieu of taxes so absent the direct payment of taxes into the tax stream that generated a payment in lieu of taxes might be a reasonable alternative and i can see it being decreasing or increasing excuse me start with a low range and then payment in lieu of taxes increases i'm guessing that it's going to be low on the residential development that might happen back here but it's going to be a little bit higher on the industrial commercial side and the brownfields are eligible for some federal funding and it has to do well regional planning i believe has a copy and perhaps we have a copy in the our office dealing with what some of the surprise brownfields reveal but it's not that the developer is going to be exclusively funding the cleanup there will be some money to help mitigate the process but i'd like to see a payment in lieu of taxes program and again decreasing so that they pay smaller approach and then you know incrementally over time we want to do with the gateway area so i have a two part question for each candidate the first would be what is your opinion on the gateway zoning as proposed and second do you want to see the well i've been involved in the process of it and just to give it some background over six months ago the planning commission was asked to consider some changes to the gateway which is if i get it correctly from the mobile home park all the way  development and in the gateway they're ours it's zone for some commercial development so those barriers were brought to the attention of the planning commission they spent six months looking at the different zoning and recommendations and going through them all and had public hearings and brought to the board amendments to consider so the select board did adopt some of those amendments for a public hearing on march ninth and in discussions there were a lot of there was a lot of community engagement in those discussions what came out of there some of the proposals i think some of the the biggest zoning problems or issues would be the size of the building which is going to go from ten thousand square feet to seventeen thousand square feet and and some of the roof pitch and other things that came out of some of the concerns of the proposed zoning when we looked at the area that actually is proposed to be zone there's only two properties that could fit the type of building size we're talking about and we do have a developer that's part of the town that wants to work with the town to develop it in a way that fits with the character of the town so a lot of consider separation has been made up to listen the few areas that can be developed and doing it in a way which which does capture as many voices as possible in a responsible way so i'm i'm for the proposed changes and they've been listed but the biggest one is the seven from the ten thousand square feet to the seventeen thousand square feet some of it had to do with parking in front which isn't going to be allowed unless there's a building in front and then if you in another building you could park in front of napping but if it wasn't on the road and i want to get too down into the weeds but if you were going to have a seventeen thousand square foot building on your property it has to be two hundred feet from route two and everything requires landscaping shrubbery so there are some of the same kind of characteristics and requirements there were in the previously and it also does not permit the kind of chain strip mall development that the box store development that many of us are concerned about so i'm for it i think a lot of work has been done and i think there's some misinformation because there are a lot of details that went into what the planning commission did and i do appreciate everything that they did to kind of really think through how the changes might impact our town and really how they fit with the current t plan and are we utilizing the commercial space in a way that we had intended so i'm for that and what the second part of my question was so they so they initially were two separate issues and i know now they're not two separate issues and i understand why people feel like they're not separate but the water rate issue one of the questions i came up with is what if we do nothing what happens to the water rates and the answer was well utilities tend to go up so if we do not have additional users for a system that's i think a thirty five percent of capacity since the creamery closed what will happen down the road what will happen in three years and five years those rates will go up there unfortunately we have to pass the baton before we can apply for the grants so i bet a lot of the feedback i've been getting in town is why we doing this if we don't know if we got the grants well that's the way the process works unfortunately so we have to have the approved two point five million dollar bond based on our i guess our poverty level currently that we did a survey survey a while ago just in the village we looked like we might qualify for forty five percent of that in grants possibly so  it's looking good a lot of work has been done with the water commission to really go through this we hired an engineering company to come in and do a full report to very conservative numbers we've talked to for it through each phase there's community members  haven't talked about whether they want to come on and a high percentage want to come on and the last last group to talk to is a mobile home park and there's a negotiation going on so i just want to take this time to also say that if the  voted for the two point zero point five million dollars there's a resolution that it will not be used in the project will not move forward if water rates go up for current users if the mobile home park doesn't come on and if we don't get the grants so you're voting for the two point five million dollars bond which will not be used and last it's not on the back i mean it is a benefit to current users and so i i do feel like the risks have been weighed there's been a lot of discussion about it and really important area for us to potentially create a lot of jobs in the future and you know i think it's good they were moved the five hundred square foot restriction on single use because we can attract bigger employers and you know i see it as a bit of a compromise a seventeen thousand square foot building it's very i think it's a large and it seems prohibitive to a lot of a lot of people but you something that would not compete with businesses in the village i think out of the gateway that that's one of the most important things we can focus on out there it's not competing with anything in the village and you only have to look over to the heinsberg to see where  can be a real issue in hannaford wanted to move in i wanted to move into heinsberg and they started going through the process and there was a big fight trying to save because people supported lands but eventually land and sort of saw the handwriting on the wall and they sold and they'll be closed so you know i don't want to see that here having the market here is so important to us and having a hardware store and having all these business in all the restaurants you can walk to in town i think that's so important for a vibrant downtown community so i think we really have to be careful about that but i see this zoning here as a propose owning changes as a bridge to the town plan i see them as an improvement on what we have now and a bridge in till that town plan comes on line in two and a half years and the town planning process will be when we can really decide what it is exactly we want to sit down and spend a lot of time what we want there in the long term in terms of the water and sewer proposals you know i agree with with al and i think you know i'm a user on the system i know it's  expensive and i think it's really hard i think people are suffering from a lack of information a lack of concrete information and feel like they can't vote responsibly because of it you know we don't know what kind of grant money we're going to get into we passed that bond but we can't you know we can't figure it out until we pass them on so you know if i'm elected i would like to push for another vote on this other town wide vote once we have all the information and well you know while the grant is going through the application and review process i think we should go about the stablish in all the facts so that people can know exactly what they're voting on and i understand you know this should be a difficult process and and once the bond is passed it becomes the responsibility of the water and sewer commission who report you know who are responsible only to the current users on the system but you know if it could be possible i would push for a town wide vote you know i think we should vote only when we know you know who exactly is hooking on that gateway what it what the t erms of the deal with the review comments what are the exact savings and i think we should vote once people know what the changes are on the gateways i want excuse me on the gateway zoning you know some people may want to concern way their concerns with the potential for increased development on the gateway with the financial gains that would come with the new users coming on line and i just think that's that's  a fair solution to that water and great opportunity for some folks who grew up in richmond to stay in richmond and perhaps cultivate their job careers in that area david knows from processing real estate transactions that the highest and best use is what brings you your best return on investment when you do a real estate development you really can't force that either i don't and i don't want this issue with the gateway district or the water and sewer to become  tell you what's in it once we pass what's in it i would like all the details to be laid out for everyone to see it needs to be in black and white it gets to be in plain english and i don't want any surprises i do as as you are seeing tonight and perhaps you know of me in the past i don't like anything that's a secret you need to put it out there if there is any negotiation that has to be public it will be public but typically negotiations whether it's to buy real estate or any legal transaction those are not open to the public only the outcomes are available to the public but i'd also don't want to have what is named jonathan gruber i don't want anybody pulling the wool over our eyes because environmental lift to areas that perhaps are under served think of the septic tanks and i think cesspools are long gone but those kinds of issues that will be brought to  the plant which has more than enough capacity that plant was built over twelve years ago and it was built at a great enough capacity to support the entire cheese plant but they never came back so we have the excess capacity the water and sewer can extend out to the riverview commons very easily it's always finances though it always comes down to finances who's going to pay but if it turns out that the water and sewer extension does not benefit meaning it should not increase the rates it should at least equalize i don't know if it's possible for rates to reduce but that's one of the aspects that really has to be looked at that has to be spelled out in black and white that can't be left to any the notion it has to be if the engineer is going to come back i want exact details well i think that the term plan is probably going to be what reflects what we do and if the if those two issues do not prevail if we come up empty handed then we're going to have to put a little bit of pressure on that town plan zoning as it is as we all know is a fluid document and the town plan and the zoning are always a little bit out of sync they're not always lockstep but you need to address these issues and make it a little more complimentary for folks to develop you don't want to put somebody out of business if they if there's if there's folks that come in and i'll use the brewery for example i don't drink but i'm glad that the brewery has an opportunity to utilize the town for water and and that the taxes are going to be paid by the the owner of the building the folks that work there are going to gain employment they pay taxes so i think if those two issues fail the water and sewer extension and the gateway fail i think we have to take a look at just like over here we offered in terms owning and see how fast something develops we really have to take a look at how serious we are because if we do nothing every  time the price of gasoline goes up for the vehicles that are driven in town every time it cost more to get a vehicle inspected every time someone gets a pay raise or the insurance goes up it's going to be on those of us who are currently paying for everything so i think we really have to take a look at how we can compliment bring someone in and if interim zoning hasn't worked yet i still have faith that it well we may need to take a look at that thank you lincoln well if the  week i believe and this was last week earlier this week i mean they have you know they have control they can they can make the changes that they can make changes that people will want down there that it can still they can still promote development down there and people have a a long time to put their input in and to say this is what we want there and this is how we wanted to be developed and i think so i don't see that as being sort of any sort of crisis mode however the water and sewer extension fails you know i think we have to take a long look at how can we go about trying to stabilize rates here in the long term and you know the riverview common sense that's one way to do it but you know we do have a lot of excess capacity here and it's sort of a commodity shared by everyone who's on the system that can be used to lower our rates and we have to take a long hard look at how can we use that effectively and in a way that doesn't trigger point well of course i want to know the reasons why i didn't pass i think i know some of them but i just to clarify my bit of time for so far and there is a timing reason for some of this to save money  u is going to be redone and they're going to be coming down through richman and so if you align with the water line with the timing of that then you would save some money in ripping up the road and then having to redo that again  with the next process there's also i believe the west main there's another part of the line that needs to be redone so there's a reason why this is all bubbled up right around now because of the timing and it just seemed right if we were going to do it to do it when the  to be ripped up anyway and so and i developer was either going to put in a small waterline for themselves or be part of a larger one so it is a timing issue where a bunch of things came together at the same time is the right time to consider it if if it's not voted on because people feel like they don't have enough information and then after the vote we find out what the negotiated rate is with the mobile home park we still won't know what grants we're going to get until we approve it i would want to see if we could bring it back up the reason why we want to vote it town meeting is because more people come out to vote so you get a true sense of what the whole town really wants so when you do these separate votes you get a smaller group of people to come out and vote so it is always best to try to do it when you're going to get more people weighing in and that's another reason to understand some of the reasoning behind why we want to do it now i think could help i wouldn't give up on it because a lot of work has gone into it and we do have a town planning process going on as well so would be something that the water commission and the software would need to consider does it does it go up for another vote separately or is it something we wait for two years and do so i would i wouldn't really have an answer right now but it be something that i would consider continue to pursue the zoning i just want to be clear when we did interim zoning for the creamery parcel there wasn't a developer so we now have a situation we have someone interested in developing a gateway and they're asking us to remove some barriers so it is different than what we did with a creamy creamery parcel and the reason we did that with the creamery parcel because many of us do want that developed and we like the walkability in the downtown vitality i did have the opportunity to stop at some businesses in town and ask them how they felt about business is out on the gateway in several of them that i was able to get in touch with prior to today said that they didn't have an issue with that so i do think there are more work needs to be done with the other businesses in town to see do they find that that competition on the gateway would be an issue for them because i would want to ensure that it's not but so far the responses i've gotten was that it isn't  in fact it may bring people to stop there and then come back into town further but so again i would i think we're at a point in time now where these things have all come together at a certain time and that's why we are considering and spending a lot time on this and i'm hopeful that people will really get the facts and i understand that we're not moving forward with anything if it if it's going to be a threat at all to the water users and i want to clarify that the the water users are the ones that pay back the bond the town votes because the bond is being issued to the town so it's the town but the water users are the ones responsible for paying back so you know when the other candidates as a follow up to that whether the and water extension passes or does not pass do you have ideas for how we could at least stabilize or lower the water and sewer rates the votes users themselves  coming out i don't think it'll make up the gap but that's a step in the right direction and i've heard that there may be some development in the creamery parcel on the horizon which will be a few years down the road so i think we need to continue to support the in town development as well and it may provide a little bit of relief to some people as far as how much that's something that i really can't answer but continue to support additional users coming on that really fit with our town and and one thing i have heard being on the economic development committee is richmond isn't always considered the most friendly town to business and i do think we do a good job and it's important to let people know that we expect certain things when you're a business that comes into town but maybe there's other things we could do to also make it easier for people to develop in our town on hopefully to new users by the end of the beginning of next year so you know just it doesn't necessarily help lower rates but just to have more users to stabilize the rates and we have to keep looking at ways to add people without incurring costs to ourselves here's the hard questions for me  think we need a model for the town to start with i think richmond needs to bring what we do what we have to the forefront to present the attractiveness that those of us here  appreciate there was there's a town out west and it's got a modern live learn work play and that's promoting development it's not promoting outlandish development it's promoting reasonable development but people come here for the round church people come here for people come here for the restaurants i'm glad they do but we need to be a little more attractive being able to i don't know if it would be subsidized but i think that you know and i haven't looked at a water and sewer bill since i was on the water and sewer commission on my last term on the select board but taking a look at what it is and investigating the percentage of increases what has caused it i know it's too easy just to say well use less water i don't know maybe there's a base rate that everybody has to pay but you also have to pay for what you use that it has to be processed so conservation is always something that's thrown out well maybe it needs to be seriously addressed and that would certainly reduce the use but we need to clearly stop increasing the rates for the folks who find it difficult i don't think anybody finds it easy to pay for anything taxes food water and sewer but seriously take a look at what is driving the cost increase i knew twelve years ago when that new water and sewer system came or the sewer system came on line that was supposed to be the answer to all of our questions as it relates to water and sewer and then the creamery never returned so i don't want to get into a situation where we have somebody that's going to be short term and then walk away and there we are and i know for a period of a few years we were still receiving money in the town for the allotment that was dedicated to the creamery parcel so that essentially reserved that amount of water all the users get to come in they set their rates needs to be seen at that time what has been driving the rates i think kendall's been in that position a number of years and he can certainly the us know what's been driving the rates increase have we been subsidizing the rates all these years and are we finally coming on line with what normal costs would be now i'm on a private water system in private septic system and i have costs that are associated with it and you know jeff had sent out on front page form let your water run a little bit because you don't want to freeze well you know there's an impact on that too and for me the short term answer for that is and rather have it taken care of as not having frozen pipes and burst pipes because i've been there too but i think at the next full water and sewer co meeting where the rates are set we really have to get the blackboard out the positive negatives see what's driving the rate increases and have the rates been subsidized and is it fair to ask for an increase or is it fair to stabilise i and if we have to stabilize then the true cost of the water and sewer plant must be met they must be covered and do we do that by a subsidy and that would be a town wide subsidy not the users subsidizing themselves and i think it's and i think it's a fair question to ask but  it's something that is yet to be developed and if i'm on a select board although i'm not a water and sewer user for the town anyone that was on the board that was i would expect them to step up for the  of the water and sewer commission first and then the community members also i would love to have folks on that are their users and i would like them to be from all over the town not a specific area maybe we need to expand the number of folks on the water and sewer commission to invite everyone to participate there's no easy answers thank you yes mercy just like to have a little clarification and sewer line extensions so i know there's been a lot of discussion about the sewer line extension through the gateway and we're voting on the two and a half million dollar bond and there are a lot of unanswered sense to do it all at once right so am i right in thinking that we also have an issue with sewer on east main street that may need a bond yes and if that's the case we are voting on that bond it town meeting right there's no bond issue for east main street on the town meeting that we're voting on right now so i don't well well i'm glad me also just say i think whatever needs to be done on east main street is fixing problems that currently exist as opposed to building something new so right is because we're not expanding users in the infrastructure is now needing to be fixed and so these costs continue to rise for the current users because we built a system for i believe the creamery had one hundred employees it was a large operation and those costs have been looked at as we've had to do the water tank and all sorts of things so now we're coming to a point in time where a lot of work needs to be done and the consideration of extension is to really look towards the future well how do we promised at least stabilize and if not reduce cost down the road so that's why the last six months has been exploring other options so that we don't have to raise them again in the meantime there is an east main issue that has come up and i do want to encourage people to come to the march second meeting i think some of the water commission will present more details on all of these issues in depth and so i don't want to try to answer all these types of questions but this is the whole reason we are exploring expansion because these issues will continue to come up and  that is one of the reasons and again the order of events the grants you can't you do not know how many how much money you're getting grants until after you approve the bond and that's just the way it is we won't have any answer even if we wait they want the one we're waiting on is the river commons and if they're going to come on that's the one thing we don't know so i hope i answered what i could well i understand what you're saying what i'm kind of in the dark about is if part of if the idea was to do this work when ruutu was going to be torn up why the work that needs to be done on east main street isn't being considered at the same time the extension is being so i do believe it is going to be it but it's not going to be combined with the current extension because that would get really confusing for people so they don't want to have a vote on the extension me coupled with anything that has to happen in west maine and it's two years i believe down the road for that road to be fixed so we will come up and it has been brought up but it's true i try to separate the two because they're not the same thing because that makes sense if he says well it makes sense as long as everybody who is voting on the two and a half million dollar bond issue for new lines understands that there's another bond issue out there for repairing what currently exists that also needs to be considered that's coming on the heels of the of this two and a half million dollar  suggesting that was going to be done on the jonesville end of the gateway then perhaps we'd be looking at a bond issue going that way if there was a mobile home park or and under served community in that area we might be doing both at the same time but as it presents itself currently my guest right now is that the extension proposal for the gateway and review comments is because there was interest expressed in that area i'm not suggesting that perhaps the folks on the  of main street aren't going to start saying look we need water and sewer out here too so don't be surprised if that might not be presenting itself there's a little hamlet in jonesville that used to be on a community water system i don't know what became of that but i do think that used to be part of a system that was the town responsibility so you don't have all the history on that but it's not unlikely that each main street would come up with a request the folks on the east made speak came in with a petition saying look you know you've done all that over needs and the infrastructure is one of the things that i listed as a challenge and i just it breaks my heart when i see somebody out there with a backhoe ripping things up because you know something is happening to the water so whether it's frozen whether it's crushed pipes i remember when the just say no more and her husband sold their property and for the life of us we couldn't find where their exit pipes and their sewage went there was some suggestion that maybe straight pipe to the river they did the dye test and it wasn't but you know those things are left too much in the dark somebody has to have a plan somewhere written down and once all of this is on earth and he did make a map you know and  the town is happy with in will come on so it's not as though you just bring it down to the repairs for four hundred eighty two thousand dollars discount and then you don't want to keep going and leave it so  you know you have to view it as we go and it's going to the reaps and then continuing on so i don't view it as a subsidy i view it as you know it's the town it's the sew department's job to run lines where you know the town decides it should and so you know it's running a line down there and then the reaps are working on you know if there was oh i know there are already we wouldn't even you know you wouldn't be talking about that so no i don't see it as a subsidy but obviously the whole thing would have to go in for it to be financially feasible  a cost of doing business and if a development comes in the development is responsible for the infrastructure the if the water and sewer line currently was at the curb root to then the business with only have the obligation of paying what the hook ups would be it does seem that if this were to go as far as the reach said no farther then that would be an expense that's almost untenable i also believe that when a developer does their infrastructure there are certain expectation within that development that they provide for their community that they're developing for and part of that is water and sewer so initially eighteen thousand dollars does sound or excuse me of the number but at that does sound like it's a very late number and if it's going to serve their development going to serve one hundred or two hundred folks out there it does seem like a light cost and perhaps taking a look at how a developer and if the reefs exclusively want to that say look you know we want this project to go forward i would expect them to come up with a healthier share and if it turns out that the water and sewer both get defeated and they get we expansion doesn't get all the way out to riverview common with water and sewer that perhaps the reaps would spend more money and you know and again it's a cost of development and they would have to make their recruits on the property in charge rates according to how they need to resell their investment but  initially if the water and sewer i gree if the water and sewer are already there at the curb stop then they're hooked up these would be that number minus the four hundred eighty seven thousand four hundred ninety seven thousand  i don't have an exact number in front of me but it's a free three phase project that doesn't work unless all three phases occur and so everyone pays a hook up fee and contributes and those numbers were developed by an engineer and there's a full report with with all the numbers that were conservative and i did go to those water commission meetings and so the amount that each business might give or each individual i don't know offhand but i do know that those numbers are all available i believe on the town website for people to look at the report and that a lot of work has been done to ensure you know that the numbers work in a three phase so that's really you're  voting for the full two point five million again there is based on other grants that have been given for similar projects and our current poverty levels conservative conservative estimate that will get forty five percent or more of the total cost of construction paid for by grants and then it has to work with the users in the mobile home park but no one wants to increase their rates to an on bearable amount to help with everyone else's so that's why that's occurring so hopefully that makes sense and again the process is we vote for it we don't necessarily need to use the bind of the other pieces don't fall into place and so that's you know that's where we're at now about voting for you on the other questions yes the the challenge of of the question of how best to whether to and how best to develop the gateway district is important but frankly to me what's most important is how the town and our government handles it and do are we able to accommodate disagreement and discussion without being disagreeable and i have attacks and things like that i'd just like to ask all three candidates about the what importance do you put on the the the style and tenor of the discussions like this and what will you do to to try and elevate that level discussion so that it can be most productive very want to st thank you well all voices in that community are important not just the folks that come to the meetings and i remember one meeting i was tagged as one of the people that has nothing better to do than to attend select board meetings tend to think that's pretty important the attendance oddly enough the only time i was ever late for a select board meeting was the first one i thought it started at seven which started at six thirty but  think that every voice that presents itself should be listened to and i think that it's a perfect opportunity for to to have folks represent their interests to the board to whether it's the select board whether it's the planning commission whether it's any other board that they are wrong to feel free to bring that and just invite that opportunity i have seen opportunity i have seen where the current select board and this isn't a personal attack this is just taking the temperature of the select board where other folks in the audience have not been as well received and i think i think that as i said every voice is important people need to be given the proper amount of time to speak i think that everybody should be allowed to have at least one bite at the apple and if there's time that's allowed you should be able to ask a follow up question and i think that you know every voice is important so to foster communication when i use into boards as an example i would like to see communication between the various boards the committee members the chair i know currently  the staff meets once a month to discuss issues related to staff at the town center i'd like to see the various boards at least get their chairman together in a group with the town manager sorry jeff at least quarterly to discuss what's going on maybe they're going to see some things that reflect a different part of the community i would warrant that people who use the recreation trail system are not the same group that use other services in the town and those voices are important whether you use the community services what do you use community trails community whether you overhear skating on the lovely skating rink that rod west has worked so beautifully on so everyone is important i think bringing all the boards together and perhaps representing maybe we need to have representation on the board saying i represent riverview comet exclusively or i'll get that or to include districts in the town saying ok this is the district that i represent that's kind of like what burlington has with councils but that what you're sure that your responsibility is this neighborhood or these neighborhoods and every voice is at least attempted to be heard to to give them the voice to give them the opportunity and i think that you do control they say on top and you get a lot more done if you're not you know and this is true and in almost anything if you're not letting your emotions rule you if you're not you know sayin personal attacks what anything and you know anyone who who knows me will attest to the fact that i'm i'm a very level headed even keeled person very cooperative and i think i think oh really bring a lot to this elect board and that front keeping the tenor agreeable and keeping the meeting productive in pleasantly surprised by the respectful disagreement that's been occurring at our earth select board meetings i feel like people are able to voice their opinion and feel comfortable about it and it's important for a select board member to listen and to try to understand why someone where someone's coming from and that's something that i'll bring to the table because i don't have all the answers no one person has all the answers and i think i've been very excited about the energy around these issues we're at a point in time now where some exciting things can happen for our town and everyone wants to make sure it's done in the right way so we don't lose what we value most and that's why people are coming out and that's where people are coming from and that's a good thing to have that kind of engagement in a town that means that people really care and so for me i want to hear different sides pros and cons of whatever issue we're discussing and it really is hard to get everyone's voice in because i know that people coming to the meetings don't represent everyone and it's important for us like board members then to go out and talk to people as well and so those are what some of the ways in which i would ensure that i'd be there able to bring back some other voices or listen and understand where other people are coming from and  that's something i'll bring continue to bring to the flash forward i think this could have happened at a better time where i'm getting ready for the town planning process and people are engaged right now so this is great and i hope we continue to have that respectful there is talk about if the sewer and water goes in and the gate with cetera and the tearing up of route two in currently i sometimes have to go into burlington to work for a date or time and i like to take the commuter bus but the only way to get there safely is by car and i'm wondering about what you see the slick boards role in facilitating some sort of pathway getting from the village to the park and ride as a way for people to alternative alternatively get there by bike or by to you know the bus station in the park and ride you know where you can be a bike but you know you have to be pretty expert biker and even so you know it's not it's not friendly to  bike on that road during any kind of heavy traffic hour and you know if i'm if i get on the select board i hope to push for trying to get grants and financing to go ahead with trying to put in a bike path down there at least widening the shoulder significantly on both sides so people can get down there and and trying to continue that and looking on to continue that over to the move you comments trailer park because i think those people the people who live there should have access to getting indicate in a safe in a safe way and also i would like to look into getting some sort of enclosed bike racks over at the park and ride so that people don't have to the people don't have to leave their bikes exposed all day long if they do bike over there but i really think that's where important and if we do go ahead with increased development in the gateway i think it's really important that people are able to get over to if they're working over there get over there safely walking or riding about their bikes i think that's a really important she right now thank you i think that's a really good point i think any project i know any project like we're talking about if we do expect the waterway water line down there that you will have to have a plan a transportation plan for people but it's something that should be at the forefront when we're considering and all of those things that's why it takes several years to even implement the project because all of those things need to to be figured out prior but i do like the idea too as we're thinking about this if we did want to put some kind of bike trail paths along there would that be a good time to do that as well so it's good to really consider all modes of transportation when we're doing a project like this so thanks for bringing  that there was a presentation that was done for the select board you can have my bike and it will be on my tractor thank you there was a proposal that was brought to the select board related to the expansion of route two to include a bike path and it was you know two million dollars to take and it was it was not cheap by any means but it was five hundred thousand short of the bond issue that's being proposed but being able to assess it and install it during the reconstruction of route two is a perfect opportunity i do know that you can't extend on the side which has federal domain which is the railroad track you cannot do that it's federal property you can just forget about it it's like trying to go sheet with thema oh sorry  but how many people are actually going to use it i think more you know it be interesting to have a town survey one of those doctor doyle's surveys from johnson have one of those surveys done how many people would actually use the bypass or if it wasn't a  bypass just a walking path i think i think to be a surprise i think folks would really relish the idea of having a room where you could get out all the way out all the way back to the folks at riverview com and currently come into the village for much anyway do they have their own postal system i think there's a postal delivery unit that goes out and serves the board because i did do some postings on their community board that's down by their mailboxes but i think it would be great but the perfect opportunity to do this is when route two is torn up but but again you can just forget about the federal side you can't do anything where it relates to the railroad but a perfect opportunity for it has to be wide enough i think it has to be over five feet wide because of the a t m rules and if you're going to make project or a project through would be interested in knowing i didn't hear all of your bias because i was five minutes late if you know anything about me you know i'm saying i would like you to give your elevator speech of what makes you the most qualified candidate for this position how big is the elevator wasn't that good at math having grown up in this community having history with this community where i have done a lot to assist the community i've been on various boards i've donated trees i planted things i've done things that kind of like rod west over here at the park he's put in things for free and i've done that longstanding i also have a ten year look for the future which i think we might be asked about we might not be but in ten years i think we need to have plans on the table for public safety facility which would be police fire and safety i think that that's the next big thing that's going to be facing us and we're going to look back on the water and we're not going to say it was a breeze but we're going to look at the extension and that's going to be comfortable we're going to live with that but i think we need to look ten years down the road and i think that's very important for each and every one of us here and for the future of all the folks that come here and that's my elevator speech do the board also i was a math mathematics major in college and i think oh will bring a lot to being able to dive into the budget work i'm not afraid of that and spend a lot of time i think of doing a lot in that sense also  my job as a as a house builder and the developer of sorts and with all the new development potentially coming in here i think i will really bring a lot to to the slippery term but i'm raising my family here they go to the schools i care about the community i've been on economic development committee for almost three years i've also am a successful fundraiser for over seventeen years and i've been on three boards and a governance role in a chair of several big boards so i bring all of that with me to this town and i really like to give what i have to offer to this time it's a great town and i have a balanced approach smart growth where we preserve what we value most and i moved here because i do value the town so thank  you jeff so forward again so as much as i would love to talk about the gay ways some more we can do that probably later maybe with the pub opens we could have a good discussion about that down there i have something completely different to ask you about it it's   school office would you consider then and these are there are older buildings or historic buildings you know i live in a two hundred year old house i know that they were you know an older house requires constant  well i absolutely love the idea of developing some kind of fund seeking fund contingency fund it's really important to preserve our historic our history here and from what i understand a lot of great effort has gone into the town owning these buildings from many  people that have lived here a long time many smart people that have ensured that we keep the character of these historic buildings so i want to preserve that in the future i don't want to answer exactly how to do it we have also have a conservation fund that's been used to redo windows in this in the town center so when i look and learn more and look at our budget we've been very good about trying to stay in the black and i'd like to see exactly where we can do that and how we can do that i think it's very important and it's something that we as part of planning for the future  i would agree with them i think it's a good idea to set some money aside for we can find some money in the budget because some point we're going to have a major issue when you know that the money set aside for that isn't going to cover it but also i agree that the conservation fund is a great resource to help keep up historic buildings and you know on that note i really want to say i really support the renewal of the conservation fund i think it does a lot of good work in town it's got a good breadth of projects the listening glass window over here windows over mary yours i think your idea was fantastic jeff i think a percentage of the income should be set aside for the preservation when the two windows that go half way up the to the were replaced those windows were thirty five hundred dollars each and that was the woman that did the restoration for those windows seven grand she said that it was much more expensive than that and that's just startling to me that three thousand five hundred dollars per window is what that cost so if that's any sampling of what it cost to restore a building such as that i think that it's about time we started setting aside and i have no idea what the remaining debt on the original restoration of building is but there's no reason that we couldn't start saying ok just like the conservation fund has set aside money or taken money from our tax how much is that person pennies on the dollar or two point one but to be able to say ok ten percent of the income from that building will be in a fun for maintenance for historic restoration for whatever needs to be we had to pony up for the new heating system and that wasn't inexpensive but over the long range there's a lot of cost savings in that and when we went to school in that building i don't remember that it was that cold but there was a coal fired boiler and mr dupont just kept shoveling stuff into the old boiler so every room seemed to you know had steam and it was warm but i think you know  if that building is going to be preserved and conserved so many of the bricks are failing as you enter the building and you just trickle it all the way out and see it's because of water water as you know pretty bad when it comes to ruining a building or pretty good at it i should say but it's after after the debt is retired it's not like we're going to have extra income but that money doesn't need to be put into a fund where it's dedicated to that just like you know the same for this building this building need to have a fund where it's not constantly rick wired that infrastructure and i think that that's an important issue that we have to face is that not only what you heard about the buildings but about our water and sewer pipes in the village and mary brought up the fact that sooner or later we may have to replace various of our public buildings or bring them together so my question to the candidates are what major infrastructure concerns do you have for richmond in the next ten years let's say and what  since you're all dislocated i mean be obvious one is the water infrastructure we talked a little bit about west east maine that i didn't intend to bring up but these are all that's number one i think for me that's right up and in front right now i do think our older buildings we do need to plan now for older buildings and just talk about how much each window cost to replace and be smart about it and looking at our different funds and how they can replenish themselves and how we can  look at the library as well which is come up at our meetings meeting bigger amounts of funding for replacement of heater and other things and so we need to prepare for that now as we look to the  next budget and get creative on how we do that and so that the biggest infrastructure areas that are the water in the buildings and when we look at also our roads and the wear and tear on that just making sure that we're able to keep up with our sidewalks as well in the town and things that need to be done all of that with our harsh long cold winters we need to continually be planning for that you know i would i would agree with that i think we we really need to be planning and figuring out how we're going to set aside money to deal with our buildings and you know i was talking to taylor the other day and he said there was an effort to panels on the fire department roof but part of the you know i think he said the grant didn't come through but at the same time they needed fifteen thousand dollars worth of stabilization on the roof and you know that speaks to a real need for upgrade and soon and you know we have to i think we need to be coming up with creative ways to budget for that and  figuring out how that's not going to cause some kind of major spike in property taxes down the  line i don't think we can do it with a big sale but i think that we must be cognizant of ongoing fund raising i don't think that should always be on the folks who pay all the taxes in town i think that we have a responsibility to look at how their funding mechanisms i don't know that it can all be done with grants but i think that if we start reading some economic life back into the community by allowing some development to happen a little bit more development to happen i think the tax coffers are going to be they differ going to be so high that our taxes go down i think that's foolish for anybody to assume but it might lessen the amount of increase on us and it may help us provide an outlet or an avenue for funding in the future the economic life of the buildings if you don't keep them up they continue to diminish but to have a set aside make maybe we need to have a set aside for replacing the well the conservation fund and have a set aside fund exclusively for some of these future projects it would be nice to be able to call someone up and say we're we're ordering a fire truck and we're in a position to pay cash for it i don't know many communities that can do that but i do know that it would be great and i'm not sure what the i think the interest rates are are pretty negligible right now but it would be fantastic to be able to pay for something in cash once in a while i think that having the ability to look you know i'll use my example of the fire and safety building the public safety building we do have to start planning now for that future you're not going to be able to stabilize costs for the building ten years out but you can at least start perhaps forming a committee to say ok this is what we need to look at i think essex just completed that lovely facility right across her in the front yard if i b m so we really need to take a look at those and i think we have to be open for funding ideas i don't think that the select board's going to come up with every answer on that and that's where the resources of the community commend you have the ideas to bring to us as well none of the five on the select board in the town manager are going to have all the answers i think ellen said that earlier but we do need the community involvement for it you know have you thought about this why have you thought about that because that's very important for any of the decisions that are made by the board thank you the since synthesizing all the information from different sides of the issue and coming up with a solution in a decision that's best for the town you know now and in the future i think we need to keep an eye towards the future in keeping what is so great about richmond alive for a long time i mean i think that will be crucial to attracting residents and businesses desirable businesses in the future and do want to thank you all for coming out and you probably all had your mind's made up before you got here i don't challenge any of your decisions that's perfectly fine and i think your opportunity was to hear you know our ideas fleshed out fleshed out whatever you want to flushed fleshed out into the material side of things but i think that i'm going to bring a lot to the table i have the experience i've been on multiple boards through all but two of the classes that i took either on the select part of planning commission  funded two of the years that i served on the board i did not take the salary but pointed out to be that that was foolish and that you know all those hours turned out to be some ridiculous amount per hour but i don't think any of us are going to do it for the big again thank you for coming out it's been an honor and a privilege to serve the few months i've been on and i look forward to continuing the term that i've i've taken the vacancy and filled this is a very exciting time for our town and i want to be part of it i think it's a great opportunity we have in front of us we could support some smart growth while preserving what we love like the historic buildings in town and i think right now is is a great time for us all to come together i will listen to both sides i don't have all the answers and i'm here really to serve and i'm excited to do so thank you i want to thank you all for coming out and i urge everyone to come to town meeting and if you go with you come to town meeting or not definitely come out and vote obviously have some very important issues facing our town and we are somewhat at a crossroads on where we want to go and i think your vote on this election will pave the way in which direction we're going to handle thank you very much