Selectboard Meeting

JOHNSON SELECTBOARD MEETING MINUTES JOHNSON MUNICIPAL BUILDING MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2025 Present: Selectboard members: Mike Dunham, Peter Hammond, Duncan Hastings, Adrienne Parker, Eben Patch Others: Tom Galinat, Rosemary Audibert, Sheldon “Buzz” Osgood, Howard Romero, Casey Romero, Doug Molde, Charles Flaum, Paul Warden, Lois Frey, Kathy Black, Joseph Salerno, Jasmine Yuris, Tom Moog Note: All votes taken are unanimous unless otherwise noted. 1. Call Meeting to Order Eben called the meeting to order at 6:32. 2. Consider Additions or Adjustments to the Agenda Eben added a clerk/treasurer report and scheduling a special meeting. 3. Public Comment Buzz Osgood asked if there are any plans for a sidewalk between here and Jolley. Eben said sidewalks are owned by the village, not the town. He believes the village got a grant for a scoping study. Rosemary agreed they did. Buzz said the guard rails have been moved out 5 feet into the road, leaving less space to walk. People can’t get behind the guard rails because of the way the end one is bent. He feels it should at least be straightened so people can walk behind the guard rails. Eben said we can let the trustees know. Buzz said where the sidewalk goes over the Gihon on Main Street, the bridge is 3 inches higher than the sidewalk. He thinks that should be addressed. 4. Selectboard Updates and/or Concerns Adrienne asked for an update on the status of the municipal building work. Tom said the contractor is balancing work on the library and at the municipal building. It isn’t known how long the library foundation will take. The air conditioning units have been delivered. The frames have been installed for the exchangers. He thinks they are waiting on duct work. He heard that the work should be done with 2 weeks. Duncan said he was contacted by Mike Mignone regarding VTrans alignment in front of his store. Apparently VTrans has told him he needs to do various things with regard to right of way access. The right of way access was all approved as part of the Main Street improvement project. In his opinion VTrans can’t now come back and say Mike has to do more. Tom said he did some research and found out that a permit was issued to the village to do work in the state right of way but it was not indefinite. The right of way is controlled by the state but in conjunction with the town. We have a voice. Duncan said this is an issue between a private landowner and VTrans. He recommended that Mike get a copy of what was approved for the Main Street project and push back with VTrans. Adrienne said Mike Stanley just installed a flower sculpture at Old Mill Park. She suggested the board members go look at it. 5. Planned Purchases There were no planned purchases to be approved. 6. Tuesday Night Live Committee Eben asked if the Tuesday Night Live Committee is thinking Tuesday Night Live would move. Howard said the committee doesn’t want it to move. It will be in Old Mill Park this year, but they Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 2 June 16, 2025 would like it to stay where it is in the long run. If has to go somewhere it should probably go to one of the buyout properties, certainly not the ballfields at Old Mill Park. TNL has 150 feet of signage that has to be up all season. It will be harder to sell sponsorships if the signs are out of the public view. And TNL would have to come up with a portable stage to use Old Mill Park. They can’t take over the ballfields with a permanent bandstand. And there is no power there. A few years ago Nate Brigham gave him a rough estimate of $35K for 200 amp power to the field at Old Mill Park. Legion Field is the right size. All TNL shows should feel well attended. Peter said in Howard’s report to the board he had mentioned that with FEMA buyouts there may be an opportunity for a riverside park and that TNL could move there. Is that an option the committee is considering? Howard said they haven’t discussed it. He would not bet that FEMA will have any money to buy anything a year or two from now. The elementary school loves the bandstand in Legion Field. Teachers may bring classes out to use it. It is well used. There have been a couple of weddings there. Howard said it will cost about $5K to move the bandstand. The grant can cover that. Adrienne asked if the curb cut at Legion Field has happened. Howard said he doesn’t know. Tom said he will have the contractors who are donating the sidewalk in front of the library do the curb cut at the same time they do the sidewalk. Howard said tomorrow morning he and some others will go to Waterville to get the beams that will go under the bandstand when it is moved. It will just be moved about 50 ft. for now to get it out of the way. Its final location is not yet known. Paul Warden said last week he and Seth Jensen talked to Ernie Pomerleau about the Sterling Market property. He has confirmation that he is in the buyout program but no more. Adrienne asked how adjusting to 2 shows is going. Howard said fund raising is slower than it should be. The committee is about where they usually are with fund raising but this is a very expensive year for them. If TNL were in Old Mill Park every year it probably would at least double the amount of money they needed to raise. Adrienne asked if they will still have vendors. Howard said yes. They usually have about 10 and he thinks they may have about 8. Duncan said he believes the state is already in possession of the funds that would pay for the buyouts. Tom said that is the case at least for all 16 in the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. He can’t say with confidence whether the same is true for the Swift Current program. Duncan said he thinks it is. Duncan said he hopes the TNL Committee will entertain the possibility of using the Sterling Market property in the future. Eben and Duncan pointed out that it provides better exposure for sponsor signs. Howard said the committee would be good with using that site. Duncan said he wanted to recognize the great work the TNL Committee has done and the great asset TNL has been for the community. 7. Future Committee It was agreed that the Planning Commission will be the next group to meet with the board Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 3 June 16, 2025 8. Website Adrienne said she wants to know who should sign the DNS waiver for the new website. The website could potentially be launched tomorrow. She has requested some changes and the developers have done about half of them. One is a fake job opportunity she has asked them to take down multiple times. We have everything in place to launch. We need to sign the waiver but they said it would be fine to launch it without the waiver. Duncan asked, Adrienne is not able to remove content from the website? Adrienne said we can’t update anything until it launches. Tom said once it launches we will have access to the back end. Peter moved and Mike seconded to authorize Adrienne to sign the DNS waiver for the new website. Duncan asked if there are any downsides to signing it. Adrienne said no. It is basically saying that if the site goes down they are not liable. The motion was passed. 9. Legion Field Hearing, Date and Time to Be Held Paul Warden said the Vermont Council on Rural Development can facilitate the public input process if we want them to, for free, but they can’t do it until September or later. Duncan said he is not opposed to having them facilitate, but do we set some parameters? Eben said he feels we should. Adrienne asked if we could still do grading on the field if we wait until September for the hearing. Tom said he thinks we need to have the meeting first because we won’t know where to grade until we know where the ice rink will be. Grading before we know where everything will be located may not be a good idea. But the work could be done later than September. Peter said he likes the idea of VCRD doing the meeting. Paul said he would prefer to have them do it, but he was disappointed to hear they couldn’t do it until September. Joe Salerno said he thinks it would be fine to wait until September. He thinks an outside facilitator and public input is what has been missing so far. It has been handled by vested interests, not opened up to the community or coordinated by an unbiased outside facilitator. Duncan moved and Adrienne seconded to request facilitation services from the Vermont Council on Rural Development for a public meeting on Legion Field, with the town providing some parameters and guidelines to the process. It was agreed to have Paul or Tom contact VCRD to get on their schedule and to put developing parameters for VCRD on the agenda for the next work session meeting. The motion was passed. 10. Schedule Special Meeting It was agreed to schedule a special meeting to set the tax rate for July 2 at 6:00 p.m. 11. Bread Oven Committee Duncan said the Bread Oven Committee has done a great job. The oven is a great community asset. Peter asked if there is anything the Bread Oven Committee would like from the selectboard. Jasmine said she appreciates Rosemary rolling over their minimal funds every year because the fiscal year starts in the middle of their season. The committee is a well-oiled machine. They apply for grants Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 4 June 16, 2025 when needed. Donations have been coming in strong. They want to put some pavers or plantings around the oven because the bare earth is slippery and dangerous when it rains. Peter asked when the first pizza bake of the season will be. Jasmine said July 10. Adrienne said the committee has talked about how nice it would be to have water at the oven for washing hands, filling water jugs, etc. Tom said a water line could be run across from where the hydrant for the ice rink used to be. The hydrant has been taken out. Adrienne moved and Mike seconded to run water to the bread oven and install a hydrant there. Tom said he would probably have Dale Tatro do it because he is there working on the library already. He will get a price estimate. The motion was passed. Adrienne said the Bread Oven Committee hopes for better trash and recycling facilities. The recycling bin is very small. It overflows by the end of the night and may already be full by the time they get there. The garbage is sometimes full too and it is in an awkward spot. Tom said he knows the rec coordinator reached out to a local contractor for pricing on trash cans and covers for the skatepark. He will follow up. The village handles trash and recycling pickup at Legion Field. It is probably worth following up with Nate Brigham on moving it. 12. Committee Restructuring Next Steps and Presentation Adrienne said she reached out to all the town committees and commissions and the Reimagine Johnson task forces and they had a meeting 2-3 weeks ago. She thinks there were over 30 attendees. She put out a call on Front Porch Forum for interested residents and she tried to reach out to previous chairs and vice chairs. Before the meeting she had gathered a list of tasks, responsibilities and projects from the chairs. When everyone came in they double checked the list and made a few additions or subtractions. Attendees were divided into 3 groups. Two of the groups worked separately on restructuring committees and commissions. They looked at the tasks and responsibilities without any grouping and then started to organize them into groups. The third group started thinking about how to prioritize all the projects. They decided to do an affinity map. It had 4 different quadrants: high impact/low effort, high impact/high effort, low impact/low effort, and low impact/high effort. The ideal project is high impact and low effort. Projects with low impact and high effort are the least ideal. After the first round, the groups switched places and each built on a previous group’s work. In the third round, they added finishing touches and some labeling. The first group recommended that the town have a chamber of commerce, a natural resources committee, a planning commission, a rec board, a library board and a culture and arts committee. Other committees would fall under those. The second group recommended a rec board, a conservation commission, a planning commission, a historical society and a library board, with subcommittees under those. Adrienne took ideas from both and suggests a chamber of commerce, a conservation commission (with a tree/arboretum subcommittee), a planning commission, a rec board (with subcommittees for economic growth, youth and adult team sports, and green spaces), a library board of trustees, a culture and arts committee (with public art and food access subcommittees), and a historical society. She is Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 5 June 16, 2025 not sure whether the food access subcommittee would be big enough to be its own committee and she is not sure whether the green spaces subcommittee should be under the conservation commission rather than the rec board. It makes sense under both. Eben suggested that board members send feedback to Adrienne about the recommendations. Peter said it was a fantastic event. It was great to see all the energy and investment in the room. He had to leave before the end. Can there be an opportunity for the same participants to come back and see Adrienne’s combination recommendation, give comments and ask questions? Did that happen that night? Adrienne said no. She came up with her suggested plan after the fact. Tom said he thinks the selectboard should come up with something it wants and then go back to the public. Doug Molde said he doesn’t understand how the subcommittees relate to the top-level committees. Do the subcommittees have separate members? Adrienne said subcommittees would report to the committee above them. Doug said it seems to him this would be even slower and less effective than what we have now. Currently we have the issue that committees don’t know what other committees are doing, especially what the task forces are doing. He thinks this is backwards. Where the problem lies is with administrative supervision. He thinks we need more administration. We need a community and economic development specialist working to develop a vision and strategic plans. He doesn’t think we need a second layer of committees. We will lose the volunteers. Charles Flaum said if a subcommittee has to report to a committee, it seems that might be a bottleneck. It might cut off access to the selectboard. Tom said if there a Tuesday Night Live subcommittee of the culture and arts committee, they can meet freely to come up with ideas and then tell their ideas to the culture and arts committee in an open meeting. The subcommittee meetings don’t have to be warned. The culture and arts committee could tell the subcommittee that they should go directly to the selectboard. Open Meeting Law only applies when there is a quorum of committee members. Eben said the Historical Society already follows this model. They have a buildings and grounds subcommittee that is not a quorum of the board. Doug said he thinks the idea of educating other people and bringing them into decisions will be very discouraging to committees like the Rail Trail Committee. Tom said the committee should trust its subcommittees. Duncan said he thinks the Rail Trail Committee might be the exception because it was established by the selectboard with specific tasks and goals. He thinks the committee will work itself out of a job. Charles said chambers of commerce are not set up under municipalities in Vermont. Lois Frey said no one who was not at the meeting knows about this. She suggested sharing it with all the committees. Tom said this is in its infant state. The goal now is to get selectboard feedback. If the selectboard doesn’t think committee reorganization is a good idea it probably won’t go further. Adrienne said we currently have 14 groups. We have Reimagine Johnson task forces that are disappearing. Maybe adding more structure would be nice and would give the task force members places to go. Some people are on multiple committees that are similar. Maybe they would not get burnt out as much if the structure were simpler. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 6 June 16, 2025 Duncan said he would love to see other people’s feedback on these ideas. That can be done if people send out their feedback but no one replies. Tom suggested that if all the feedback is in one email thread that makes it clean for FOIA. 13. Clerk/Treasurer Report and Action Items Peter moved to approve first and third class liquor licenses, including outside consumption, for Breadbox, LLC (Moog’s), Duncan seconded and the motion was passed. Duncan moved to have SP&F Attorneys commence the process for a tax sale in 2025. Mike asked what the cost is. Tom said it is covered by the tax sale. Rosemary said not entirely. Peter seconded. Mike asked what the attorney’s rate is. Rosemary explained it. The motion was passed with Mike opposed. Rosemary said she will be sending out a budget status report soon. Duncan asked Rosemary and Tom to think about how to make the transition away from estimating year end surplus. 14. CEDS Interim Contractor Duncan said we got 3 proposals. Two are for a person to be considered a temporary part-time employee with no benefits. Both propose a rate of $60/hr. The third proposal is for a contract rate of $70/hr. We would not do any withholding for that person. He handed out a cost comparison spreadsheet. If we went with a part-time employee, the effective hourly rate including FICA, workers’ comp and unemployment would be $66.05 and could pay for up to about 20 hours of service. With the contract rate of $70/hr we could afford a few less hours. He thinks all three of the proposals are really good. Any of the three people would be very capable of performing the work. Duncan said Carrie Johnson is one of the people who proposed working part-time for $60/hr. She could start in mid-July. Carl Rogers is the other. He worked for the town before in an interim position. He could start right away. Rod Rodjenski is the one who proposed the $70/hr contract rate. He could also start right away. All 3 are excellent candidates. Adrienne asked if they said how long they could work for us. Duncan said all were aware that we may be involved in a longer term process. Ron’s proposed contract had a not to exceed amount of $5K. We would probably hit that soon and have to renegotiate. Carl and Carrie were open-ended. Ron was basically open-ended too. He said he recognizes this will take as long as it takes. Mike said he thinks the wording in Ron’s contract means he will do whatever is needed and not charge more than $5K. Duncan questioned that interpretation. Peter said there is something attractive to him about having someone here in person. He knows Ron is really good at what he does, but he would rather have someone who is nearby. Duncan said Ron is living in Florida. Carrie is in St. Albans and Carl is in Barre. All of them would have a limited presence in the office. He thinks the expectation is that they would do most of their work remotely. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 7 June 16, 2025 Adrienne asked if we have anything urgent that needs to be addressed before Carrie can start. Duncan said this afternoon we submitted what we hope will be the final draft of the NEPA affected area report. If it is approved that will allow us to proceed with other activities. He doesn’t know how soon that will happen but if it happens soon he would like to get started with filing for Act 250, etc. He would rather have someone who can start now. Mike moved to contract with Ron Rodjenski for interim community and economic development services, Eben seconded and the motion failed with Mike and Eben in favor, Adrienne and Peter opposed and Duncan voting “present.” Mike moved to employ Carl Rogers to provide interim community and economic development services, Duncan seconded and the motion was passed with Adrienne opposed. Duncan moved to authorize the town administrator to sign a letter of engagement for Carl Rogers based on the terms in Carl Rogers’ email, Mike seconded and the motion was passed. 15. RFP for Employment Consultant The board discussed the lists of suggested deliverables each had come up with. Eben said he likes Adrienne’s but he is not sure we can afford something that in depth. He would be more comfortable with an RFP heavily centered around Duncan’s suggestions. Adrienne said she thinks we could include a suggested format for the deliverables. Peter said he is interested in looking at our paid staff and how they function as a unit. Duncan said he would like to know about that too, but one issue he sees is the interconnection we have with the village with regard to office staff. Without buy-in from the trustees it would be pointless to study that because we will get 50% of the picture. Tom said he thinks it is important to look at only the town work and FTEs. Can the two town FTEs do the work we want? Duncan said he doesn’t believe any of the job descriptions are strictly town or village. Peter said he is interested in everyone who is doing work on behalf of the town. How well do they work together? Are there ways in which they could work together better? Duncan asked, would we need to separate the town and village functions? Tom said he thinks we have to. Adrienne said she thinks we should look at both together. If we want to think about separating the town and village clerk and treasurer positions we need to know if that would even work. Duncan said he thinks it is already clearly delineated what the clerk and treasurer do for the town and for the village. Tom said he thinks the number of employees is good but the town/village overlap creates inefficiencies, confusion and gray areas. It is difficult working with people who have two supervisors and he thinks that needs to be studied. Duncan said he would like the report to have an executive summary There was general agreement to base the RFP on Duncan’s suggestions. It was agreed that Eben and Duncan will work on the RFP. Doug Molde said he thinks work with committees should be included. Tom suggested maybe consulting with committee chairs and selectboard members could be one of the deliverables. 16. Industrial Park Next Steps Tom said comments from Duncan and Melissa Manka of LCPC were received and put into the draft NEPA report that was sent. It made the deadline. We should hear back shortly. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 8 June 16, 2025 Duncan said there will be a meeting on the industrial park this Wednesday. 17. Highway Department New Truck Ordering and Purchase of Existing Order Tom said we purchased a package – cab, chassis and plow. It will be 2 years before Viking can put the body on it. Allegiance wants us to purchase the cab and chassis before it has the body on it. Eben said they are asking us either to purchase it or to pay the $40/day floor plan cost they have to pay International. Eben said his question is about the effect on the warranty. Tom said that is his biggest concern. Are we paying for the warranty on a vehicle we can’t use or does the warranty period start when we get it? Mike said that needs to be figured out. Eben said the effect on the trade-in is also a concern. If we trade in truck that is a year older, will we get the same amount? Tom said we have a formal proposal that they signed and we signed. Duncan asked if we can try to find out if we have any other options for getting the body built. At one point people were sending trucks to Canada to get bodies built. Eben agreed we need to find out if there are other options. If we cannot find an alternative to Viking, he would be interested in making payments on the truck. Making payments at zero percent interest would be better than borrowing from a bank. Tom said he will ask Allegiance about the town paying the $40/day and having the total amount paid taken off the price, with our money back if the truck is not delivered. Eben said according to Tom’s report, if we wait to order the next truck, the prices will go up $25,000 because of new emissions standards. Tom said an RFP is ready to go out. We currently have 5 trucks and 4 employees. Do we want to continue with that or reduce the number of trucks? The board discussed the number and type of trucks the town had in the past when we only had 4 highway employees. Tom said he thinks the RFP should include a specific question about whether dealers are putting the price hike for new emissions standards into effect. Tom asked if the board wants to put out an RFP to buy a truck right now or just to get information. Duncan said it is not in the capital plan to buy it now. Eben said if it takes 2 years to get it, ordering it now is probably in line with the capital plan. Duncan said Tom raises a good point about equipment being equal to employees. We don’t know yet if we are going to have 4 or 5 employees. Eben suggested coming back to this next month. 18. Roadside Mowing Tom said the road crew did not rent the excavator with the boom mower. Jason will try to get prices on contracting out roadside mowing. We could hire a part timer to do that but it has to be someone extremely experienced because of the liability of boom mowing. He recommends seeing if Alex Nadeau is interested, then comparing the cost of hiring him to the cost of using a contractor. The board agreed to that. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 9 June 16, 2025 Duncan said he supports the idea of having a part time employee do mowing, but he also thinks a fair amount of mowing could be done with the equipment we own. Tom said the ditch bank mower we have is broken and we can’t get parts for it anymore. We could consider renting an excavator with a boom mower or we could look into the cost of buying a boom that would fit the tractor. Duncan questioned why we have the size tractor we have if not for roadside mowing. Tom said the crew clears ditches with it and it has a discer. We have discussed getting a boom mower and getting a brush hog. There are several areas we need to brush hog. We have been contracting that out but our crew could do it if we bought a brush hog. But he doesn’t know if they have time for these tasks if we have only 4 people. Another issue is that contractors are getting out of roadside mowing. It is getting harder to find someone. Tom said he will reach out to Alex Nadeau and see if it he is interested and he will try to find contractors. Duncan said he thinks we should do more than just reach out to Alex. He thinks we should put an ad on the town website or Front Porch Forum. We can screen applicants for the necessary qualifications. Eben asked if other towns might be able to do it if we compensated them. Mike asked how much a boom mower costs. Tom said last time he checked it was about $28K for a new one that is the flail mower style, which is much safer than the brush hog style. The board agreed Tom can talk to other towns about using their highway departments. Duncan said Tom had mentioned in his report the issue of brush needing to be trimmed at Evergreen Ledge Cemetery. He doesn’t want to lose track of that. 19. Noise Ordinance Waivers Mike moved to approve noise ordinance waivers for Moog’s Joint on June 28, July 12 and July 19, 2025 and for Field Days on July 18, Peter seconded and the motion was passed. 20. Grants with Zero Match and Below $3000 Tom said he is seeking authorization to approve small grants under $3000 with zero match, with notification to the selectboard. The board discussed wording of a motion. Casey Romero suggested $5K would be a more realistic cap. Green Mountain Fund grants are up to $5K. Mike moved and Adrienne seconded to authorize Tom to approve small grants under $5000 with zero match for authorized town entities, with notification to the selectboard. The motion was passed. 21. Library Relocation Tom said the moving company is coming tomorrow to lower the building. It is expected to take 2-3 days. Once that is done there will be a survey to take a final reading of the structure’s elevation. Then the plans for construction can be finalized. 22. Appointment Policy Mike moved to approve the Appointment of New Members to Municipal Volunteer Groups policy with the amendment presented in the packet, Duncan seconded and the motion was passed. 23. TA and CEDS Priority List Lists of suggested priorities provided by board members for the town administrator and community and economic development specialist were included in the packet. Eben said a projects tracking list and a grants tracking list should be added. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 10 June 16, 2025 Adrienne asked if there is anything about flooding. Tom said he currently administers the FEMA process, which is close to wrapping up. He works with LCPC and community members to help make sure there is awareness of community interests with regard to the buyout properties. Duncan suggested flooding could be added to item about working on and overseeing projects. Adrienne asked if Tom could go through the list and say which items are just for him, which are for the CEDS and which both would collaborate on. Tom said yes. He has a list he would like to combine with this. Eben asked how the project tracking software is coming. Adrienne said when she signed up, it said it had unlimited seats, but you actually have to pay for each person who uses it, so she canceled it. Duncan suggested that board members each try to come up with a priority ranking for the items on the lists. Eben suggested giving each a score from 1 to 10 so he can average them. Eben asked if Tom wants to look at more project tracking software. Tom said he has a running list on paper. He crosses items out and reshuffles as needed. Duncan said he wouldn’t discount using Ron Rodjenski’s Excel spreadsheet. Tom said he sent that out to Randall and Isabelle and they didn’t get back to him. Board members agreed to score each item on the priority lists from 1 to 10. Peter asked when Tom’s list will be merged in. Tom said he will send it out. 24. Road Reclassification In his report, Tom had presented a list of roads that could potentially be reclassified and asked the board to select 3. Mike asked, why only 3? Why not reclassify all 7? Eben said the process is not short. The board has to have to have a meeting at each of these roads. It would take about 6 hours to visit all the roads. Duncan said he thinks we should at least look at potentially reclassifying the Class 4 part of Sinclair Road (which was not included in Tom’s list) to Class 3 because of the number of houses there. We have been talking about reclassifying Class 4 roads to legal trails, but maybe some should be reclassified upwards. Mike said then we have to do work to bring them up to standard. Duncan said yes, but we also get state funds for Class 3 roads. He thinks we would not take over maintenance of a road unless it met our Class 3 standards. The landowners would bring it up to standard, then we would accept it. Mike said he would be more agreeable to that than to the town doing the work. Mike suggested reclassifying TH-47, TH-12, and Class 3 and Class 4 sections of TH-21, TH-22 and TH-23. Eben described the road reclassification process. Adrienne asked, if it is that lengthy a process, why not do all of them? Eben said we would have to visit all the roads. Adrienne asked, together? Eben said he has always assumed it would be together in a specially warned meeting. He noted that he would interpret the statute as saying any abutter of any part of the road to be reclassified gets a notice but Tom interprets it as meaning just abutters of the section to be reclassified. Adrienne asked if at the end of the process we can decide not to reclassify some of the roads. Tom said yes. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 11 June 16, 2025 The board agreed to start the reclassification process for the roads suggested by Mike. 25. Old Business Duncan said in past years Johnson Farm and Garden has donated use of a walk-behind brush hog and he has brush hogged along cemetery fence lines. He would be willing to do that again. If the board authorizes renting a walk-behind brush hog from Johnson Farm and Garden, his guess is that they will donate it. Board members agreed that is okay as long as the rental amount is under the procurement policy limit. Adrienne asked for an update on the Lowe Lecture Hall. Tom said he met with people from the Studio Center to touch base. Randall had been working on it. He had a tour of the Lecture Hall, which used to be the town meeting house. It is a cool building with a lot of potential. They are willing to sell it back to the town for the amount they paid when they bought it from the town. But the question is what we would do with the space. It has a lot of potential, but there is no parking. It is an old building with some deferred maintenance. His recommendation would be to have a budget and a plan if considering acquiring the building. Mike asked how much the Studio Center paid the town for the building. Tom said he doesn’ t know. It might have been $75K. Mike said the building needs a new foundation. Tom said it really only needs a curtain drain in the back. The foundation has been replaced on 3 sides. Not a whole lot needs to be done to the foundation. Peter said he was at a meeting about the Lecture Hall. He will try to find the notes and send them out. There was a lot of good information. Tom suggested it could house the town offices and elections could be held elsewhere. Duncan said the lack of parking is a big problem. Board members discussed other potential uses. Duncan said it would be great to think about owning it, but he would want a plan of what it was to be used for before we put money into it. Eben said the problem with the selectboard making a plan is that some members of the community will suggest that special interests were involved. He would advocate for a community discussion involving the Planning Commission and LCPC, with VCRD facilitating discussion. The community could come up with 10 ideas and the selectboard could choose one and make a plan. Adrienne said her suggested committee reorganization plan included a buyout properties planning task force. Maybe it could be more of a development task force and they could give us suggestions for the Lecture Hall. Peter said we won’t get any historic preservation money for work to the building if we significantly alter it. 26. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 9:56. Minutes submitted by Donna Griffiths