Selectboard Meeting

JOHNSON SELECTBOARD MEETING MINUTES JOHNSON MUNICIPAL BUILDING MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2025 Present: Selectboard members: Mike Dunham, Peter Hammond, Adrienne Parker, Eben Patch, Paul Warden Others: Tom Galinat, Hope Sullivan, Jeff Clarke, Dick Simays, Lois Frey, Eric Schultz, Charles Flaum, Mary Jean Smith, Kelly Vandorn, Howard Romero, Casey Romero, Heather Thomas, Carl Rogers, Darrell Wescom (remote), one other person Note: All votes taken are unanimous unless otherwise noted. 1. Call Meeting to Order Eben called the meeting to order at 6:00. 2. Consider Additions or Adjustments to the Agenda Eben added signature authorization for the Percy contract and signature reauthorization for FEMA buyout documents. Paul added an item about electric power coming into Johnson. Mike added an item about adversarial attorneys. 3. Public Comment Lois Frey said several people have mentioned to her the lack of roadside mowing on the sides of the road. There are places where yield signs or speed limit signs are covered by vegetation. Eben said mowing was a bit delayed this year. The town will be renting a mower and the crew plans to do mowing 6 weeks from now. Charles Flaum asked what is going on with the Lowe Lecture Hall. Is the town trying to buy it? Eben said the town is in real estate negotiations. Before any property is accepted it will need to be made public. Charles said several months ago it was stated that $1.9 million worth of work had to go into the foundation to get it to the point where it would meet the Vermont Studio Center’s standards for use. The town is losing tax base and he is concerned about what it will cost if the town takes this building on. Eben said at the last meeting a resident expressed concerns and encouraged a public meeting or special town meeting before any decisions are made. The board said they would take those comments into consideration. Maybe after tonight there will be more information. Charles said he is expressing concern because of the loss of tax base. He does not want us to take something on that could hurt us in terms of cost. 4. Selectboard Updates and/or Concerns Adrienne said she has been having a hard time finding more members for the Beautification Committee. It currently only has 4 members. She wants to put out a call for more members. The committee meets the third Tuesday of each month. Peter said the second and last Tuesday Night Live of the season was fantastic. It took a lot of hard work by a very small group of people. It seems to be putting Johnson on the map. 5. Planned Purchases Eben brought up the welder Jason had mentioned wanting to buy. We budgeted about $5K for it. Tom said the price is about $4100. Mike said he thinks that price is high. He would rather take this up in two weeks when we have a lower price. The board agreed to that. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 2 August 18, 2025 6. Committee Update – Historical Society Eben asked if Dick Simays had anything he wanted to add to the committee’s written report, which had previously been sent to the board. Dick said no. Tom said we got two estimates for electrical work. They are within $3K of each other. We need to find out what portion of the cost the insurance company will cover. They will likely approve all of it. Both contractors provided time and material estimates. The insurance company will probably approve up to certain amount and if there is more cost we will have to go back for additional approval. The village has not pressured us on the timeline. He thinks they are aware that we are doing what we can. Our deductible is $1K. Any cost above that will come up for approval at the next meeting. Eben suggested maybe it can come out of the buildings and grounds fund. Eben noted that one of the bidding contractors is his brother-in-law, so he will recuse himself from the selection. Eben said we probably should put together an RFP for work on the Holcomb House structural issues. He doesn’t know if there is time this summer to get the work done, but it would be helpful to get an idea how much the work will cost and budget appropriately for next year. Tom said we intended to do some of the work this year but we couldn’t get a contractor. Maybe we should put out a formal RFP to get a commitment from a contractor. Mike said Holcomb House is a town building. The town has a contract with a company to provide fire extinguishers in town buildings. For some reason, Holcomb House has been neglected. He thinks it should be added onto the contract so the building has the proper number of fire extinguishers and they are upgraded in a timely manner. Mike moved and Adrienne seconded to add the Holcomb House to the town contract for fire extinguishers. Dick said there are currently 2 fire extinguishers there. One has a date of 1974 on the tag. Mike said the contractor will know how many are needed and will put the proper amount there. The motion was passed. Mary Jean Smith said the Historical Society is having a railing put in. Gilles Lehouiller is donating his time to do it. Dick and Mary Jean said they are working on addressing items on the fire marshals’ list and that was one of them. 7. Future Committee It was agreed that the Skatepark Committee should be the next one to meet with the board. Peter asked if we ever hear from the Johnson representatives to the school board. Eben said no. They are not directly affiliated with the town. Adrienne said she thinks it would be great to invite them. She was also going to ask if we want to invite the new Johnson Elementary School principal some time. Peter said the school is a town asset. Eben said its rating directly affects property values. Tom suggested we could look at whether there is an opportunity to share services with the school district to save money. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 3 August 18, 2025 8. Executive Session for the Negotiating or Securing of Real Estate Purchase or Lease Options Paul moved to enter executive session for the negotiating or securing of real estate purchase or lease options under 1 V.S.A. § 313(a)(2), inviting Tom, Hope Sullivan and Jeff Clarke to remain, Peter seconded and the motion was passed at 6:54. The board came out of executive session at 7:25. Peter said the selectboard has been in conversation with the Vermont Studio Center about the future of Lowe Lecture Hall, which is no longer is needed by the Studio Center. Thirty years ago when the town sold the building to VSC, the town was given right of first refusal. VSC is allowing the town to exercise that right. The board will schedule a special town meeting. The timeline is yet to be determined, but it will be soon. Eben said this is so the voters can weigh in on acquiring the building. Before the vote there will be an informational meeting. 9. LCPC Flood Modeling/Initial Design RFP Town Selection Tom said the Lamoille County Planning Commission is looking for two town representatives to review the RFPs and be on the consultant selection committee for two projects – preliminary design for Wescom Road floodplain restoration and preliminary design for Gihon/Lamoille River confluence floodplain restoration. Eben moved to appoint Paul Warden and Adrienne Parker as town representatives for RFP review and consultant selection for the Wescom Road and Gihon/Lamoille floodplain restoration preliminary design projects, Peter seconded and the motion was passed. 10. Town of Johnson Committee and Commission Chair Communication Guide A guide developed by Adrienne was included in the packet. Adrienne said she included one sentence saying selectboard approval is needed for any purchases over a certain amount, but she left the amount blank and that needs to be filled in. Tom said for anything over $1000 they need to reach out to Tom or Rosemary. Paul pointed out that the guide says agendas must be posted in at least one public place other than the town bulletin board but he thinks the number should be two. Adrienne agreed; that was a mistake. Adrienne will add the information about purchases over $1000 and correct the number of places agendas must be posted. Mike moved and Peter seconded to approve the Town of Johnson Committee and Commission Chair Communication Guide with the edits agreed to on August 18. It was agreed that the guide should be posted on the website and emailed to chairs whenever there is a change. The motion was passed. 11. Signature Authority for Percy Contract Tom said a contractor has been selected for the Lendway Lane project. He is asking for authority to sign the contract with Dale Percy. Peter moved to authorize Tom to sign the contract with Dale Percy for the Lendway Lane armoring project, Mike seconded and the motion was passed. 12. Signature Authority for FEMA Buyout Documents Eben said Tom was granted authority by a previous board to sign FEMA buyout documents. There are 5 offer letters right now that need signatures. Adrienne moved to authorize Tom to sign all documents related to FEMA buyouts that do not have additional cost to the town, Paul seconded and the motion was passed. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 4 August 18, 2025 13. Electric Power Coming to Johnson Paul asked what happened last Thursday and what redundancies we have in place. Mike said there was a tree on the B22 line. Adrienne said there was an electrical fire in Morrisville that affected village electric service. Mike said a couple of glass insulators near the college were compromised and had to be replaced. Eben said he can ask the electric utility if they know what happened, understanding that we don’t own or control it. He believes this building and the town garage have generator backup. Paul said he heard that there is supposed to be a redundant line that hasn’t been activated. Eben said that is a village decision. If they choose to pursue that in the future, he would be happy to write a letter of support. Paul said he would like to find out from the village why there is no redundancy. Tom said he asked a similar question after the last outage and was told that there would be a high annual cost for a redundant connection. Adrienne said during the power outage she and BJ Putvain agreed that Lydia should post information about it on the town website. Peter said it was helpful to have that. 14. Adversarial Attorneys Mike said he thinks we need a policy saying that if, for instance, something happens on a town road and an attorney gets involved, none of our employees should talk to an adversarial attorney unless the town’s attorney is involved. He clarified that an adversarial attorney means one representing someone who is trying to sue the town. The board agreed that that should be our policy. Tom will let employees know. 15. Lamoille Regional Solid Waste District Presentation Heather Thomas, manager for the Lamoille Regional Solid Waste Management District, said she wanted to introduce herself. She is relatively new to the district. The Johnson transfer station is an asset to the community. She wants to keep an open relationship with the town. LRSWMD has an agreement with the town for the transfer station and one with the village for the compost facility. The compost facility agreement will be coming up for renewal soon. She wants to see if the board has any questions or concerns. Eben said the compost facility agreement will not really be a renewal. The agreement will be with the town in the future. Heather said the outreach coordinator could come in and offer education to town staff about recycling. She said composting is going well. There is more available to sell than ever. Adrienne asked if there are any plans for accepting compost from customers. Heather said LRSWMD doesn’t do any hauling. There is one commercial organization, Black Dirt, that picks up compostable materials in some places. She is hopeful that the state will support more opportunities for people to have pick-up service. Food scraps can be dropped off at the LRSWMD facility now. They have buckets for sale or people can bring their own. Heather said she thinks LRSWMD will be looking at replacing aging compactors at the Johnson facility in FY27. One thing everyone complains about at Johnson is the puddle. Fixing that is not as simple as just filling in with gravel. In the long term she would like to work with the town on doing some work there. She can discuss that in the future. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 5 August 18, 2025 Adrienne asked if there is anything the town can do to help educate residents. Heather said the district can educate town employees and that information will filter down to others. Eben asked if there is any plan to put scales at the Johnson facility. Heather said they are very expensive. If money were not an issue, she would say yes. But there are no plans to add scales soon. Howard Romero said he is the town representative to LRSWMD. He asked if there is an opportunity to have a reuse area like the one that used to be at the Stowe facility. He feels that would be really popular. Heather said the Johnson facility does have the space. Her understanding was that it was taking a lot of staff time to sort through the items at Stowe. Maybe LRSWMD would partner with someone on a reuse room or maybe an organization in town would be interested in overseeing it. She would worry about liability if electronics were accepted for reuse but there are opportunities for reuse of other things. If LRSWMD could figure out a way to do it, and the town thought it was a good idea, Johnson would be a good place for a reuse room. Adrienne said she would support it. Mike said the book boxes bother him. The books are all destroyed. There are many good books. Heather said the ones that cannot be sold or donated are shredded. The others go back on the market. Eben asked if LRSWMD could work with the town on making arrangements so the town could get boxes quickly after another flood event. Heather said she would be happy to sit down with the emergency management person to come up with a plan. Eben said the town is not asking for LRSWMD to finance it. We would pay. We would just like to get the town on a priority list so we can get services quickly. LRSWMD has agreements with haulers. Maybe we could leverage that. Heather said we can discuss it. Their hauler is Casella. Tom said one suggestion was to contract with a hauler for a number of boxes to be dropped off at a predetermined location. The town could use help with that. Heather said she can help. Adrienne said she is the town Green Up Day organizer. She would love to collaborate with LRSWMD. She was thinking about the Beautification Committee doing an Orange Up Day in the fall. Heather mentioned that LRSWMD can donate compost to towns for beautification work. 16. Appointment of LCPC Liaison Mike suggested appointing Paul as LCPC liaison. Tom and Eben explained that this person will be on the LCPC board and will also be a liaison for communication between the town and LCPC. Paul agreed to do it. Mike moved to appoint Paul as representative to the Lamoille County Planning Commission board, Adrienne seconded and the motion was passed. 17. Truck Financing Tom said historically we would order a truck with a body, plow and sander and it would come to us after it was all built. Now there is a two year build time for the body. It costs the dealer about $40/day to have the cab and chassis on their lot. They require us to purchase the cab and chassis before the body is put on it. The dealer has found that Bank of America is willing to finance a 1-year note with a single payment at the end of the year. They are trying to see if they can negotiate a 2-year note with a payment in the middle. They can only change the start of their warranty period for up to a year after the chassis is delivered to them, so with a 2-year build Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 6 August 18, 2025 time we are losing a year of warranty. The truck will be ready by the end of the second quarter next year. We could do a 1-year note and then Rosemary could finance it. He will come to the next meeting with more options and the board will have to make a decision. We will probably have to pay interest on a truck we can’t use, but he doesn’t see other options. We are in the process of possibly ordering another replacement truck. Tom is trying to negotiate with the dealer to put us on the build list for a body now but not order the truck until 18 months from now. That has never been done but he is trying to see if the company will allow it. His biggest concern is the reduction of warranty time. He is going to see if they would extend the 5-year warranty to 6 years to accommodate the one year we lost. The dealer, Allegiance, is going to look at the possibility of using other body companies in other parts of the country. Eben said he wanted a guarantee from them on the trade-in amount. Without a guarantee, they could reduce the amount they give us for our trade-in. His understanding is that we can’t take out more than a 60-month note without going to the voters. If we take out a 1-year note and then a 5-year note, that is 72 months. Do we need to go to the voters? Tom said leasing is another option. That avoids needing to go to the voters for every purchase. Mike asked what our penalty is if we cancel the order. Tom said he needs to ask about that. Eben asked if it is possible to reuse our existing body, dump, plow, etc. Tom said he and Jason have talked about purchasing stainless steel bodies with really long lifespans and trying to get through 3 cycles with them. 18. CEDS Update Carl said the NEPA report for the industrial park was submitted in late June. In early July we got word that it was accepted and we got a Notice of Availability. We published it and there were no public comments. Mumley is contacting the Clark Group about the FONSI, a post- NEPA comment period sign-off. There is also a final environmental assessment they are getting. That sets the stage for the town getting the Full Notice to Proceed by September 30. Carl said Form 1022 regarding Johnson’s local match needs to be submitted before that. Rosemary has provided Carl documentation of the bond vote from last fall. The bond will provide over half the local match. The board has to decide where the rest of the money is coming from. Eben said the board decided not take a loan from the town revolving loan fund. A previous board designated $539,016 in ARPA funds for the project. We also allocated some cash on hand from a previous year. Eben will send Carl some documentation of what the board had agreed to. Carl said in September he will come to the board with a proposed Form 1022 and have it documented in the minutes so it can be submitted to NBRC. Carl said 14 members of the public attended the meeting on the rail trail connector study last Thursday. The consultant said it was a very good meeting. It seems that those present preferred the Railroad Street option with the minimal amount of treatment. Carl has learned more about the Community Foundation Grant for Legion Field since he wrote his report. He will meet with Howard Romero this week to get an idea of the scope of work. He understands there is interest in electrical service there, maybe improving the ice skating rink, deciding where the bandstand will be located and meeting the various users’ needs for storage. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 7 August 18, 2025 Paul said we committed to having a public hearing to discuss all that, hopefully in early September. Eben said regarding the Welcome Center steps, Duncan had brought up the question of whether it would be easier to amend the Act 250 permit than to get a new one. Carl said he understands that there was a jurisdictional opinion that this project needs its own Act 250 permit. Adrienne said she got an email from Carl that she missed about being on the steering committee for the RERC grant. She is happy to participate. Carl said we are still waiting for official word on that grant. 19. Industrial Park Next Steps Carl said one minor question about the industrial park is about road pavement markings. He saw plans that showed pavement markings with pedestrian lanes. Mumley said that is their standard starting point but they were not planning to include those paving markings. He wanted to clarify what, if anything, the selectboard wants for pavement markings. He suggests asking the engineer not to show any markings on the plans until we learn they are needed. The board aged to that. It was also agreed that to instruct the team to have stop signs installed on Road A at Route 15 and on Road B at Road A. Carl said the plans currently show a 10-inch sewer main on Road A and 6-inch service line stubs. There are bigger lots off Road A. Road B has an 8-inch main and 4-inch stubs, which is more typical for sewer line service. Eben said the village signed an agreement that will take over the sewer and water infrastructure. Are they aware of the plans? Carl said once the board agrees on the plans they go to the village for final sign-off. Mike said labor always costs much more than material. It is always good to go a little bigger with the lines. He asked whether they will be using plastic for the water lines. Tom said he thinks they are. Mike said we have enough plastic contamination in our system as it is. He thinks we should use ductile iron. He would like to see 10-inch mains for water and sewer. The board agreed to that. Carl said an existing snowmobile trail runs down what will be road A. It provides some access to residents of the area and also access to the VAST trail that goes to Jolley. The local snowmobile club president would like to see the trail along the west side of the plots on Road A. Paul asked about a different route for the trail but Carl said engineers thought that location would not be feasible because of the piping inlets and the steep slopes around the water retention area. Carl said his understanding is that they groom the trail 8 ft wide. Carl said Pat Ripley of LEDC feels having a snowmobile trail on any of the lots will deter people from buying because they won’t be able to do exactly what they want with their property. He suggests not showing the trail on the drawings and letting the club go to property owners and ask permission to have the trail go through their property. Peter asked, those property owners could be occupants of industrial park lots? Carl said yes. The board agreed not to show snowmobile trail easements on the drawings. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 8 August 18, 2025 Casey Romero thanked Carl for being in touch with the snowmobile club. She knows there is a lot of vested interest in access from snowmobilers. Mike said he supports the snowmobile club but doesn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize sale of the lots. Carl asked if the board is interested in having any covenants on the lots. That might be important because we don’t have zoning. Someone could buy a lot saying they want to put in a small office building and then sell to someone who puts in housing. Does the board care? Peter said he would like to look at the example covenants from Barre Carl provided. His personal feeling is that he would like the lots to be as unencumbered as possible, but maybe we want to think of some things that could happen that would not fit our expectations. Carl said Pat Ripley’s opinion is that we should keep the lots as unencumbered as possible to maximize interest. But there is the question of the town’s goal for the industrial park. Is it just to increase the tax base or also to create employment opportunities? To keep things moving along, we should work on any covenants immediately. They should be approved by the town’s attorney. Casey said she wonders if there would be helpful information in the minutes of the public meeting last winter at the elementary school. Questions of use were discussed. Eben said there was strong support for not mixing housing with commercial use. He can look up the minutes and get them to Carl. Eben said Act 250 probably covers most of what we would be concerned about, like hazardous waste, light pollution, or environmental protection. Peter said he thinks maybe we should look at some examples of covenants that are not overly restrictive but are in keeping with our goals. Eben asked if our attorney needs to draft them. Carl said he would think so. The board agreed a list of potential covenants should be put together for the next meeting. Tom asked if the board has any direction for Carl on the Lowe Lecture Hall. Adrienne brought up the question of whether there is funding for it. Peter said next week he has a phone call with the Preservation Trust of Vermont to get ideas about what kind of funding is available for historical preservation. Carl could be on that call with him. Carl agreed to that. Adrienne said it would be helpful if Carl could help us find out what other funding that building could be eligible for. Eben suggested the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission would be a good source of information. 20. TA and CEDS Priority List – New Order and Discussion The board reviewed the new lists prepared by Eben, showing scores from all 5 board members. Peter said he would like the town administrator list to include some recognition of current conversations around housing, replacing town assets lost in the flood (e.g. the post office) and recent opportunities that have come up in conversation with VSC and other entities in town. The CEDS can be involved in those things, but he would like it indicated that our town administrator has an important role to play. Eben said it can be on both people’s lists, but there needs to be Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 9 August 18, 2025 clear direction about who is taking the lead. Peter said he doesn’t think it makes sense for an interim CEDS to get involved in the conversations about the Lowe Lecture Hall or about creating more housing in town. Once we have a permanent CEDS we may shift things around. Adrienne said what was discussed in executive session is time critical, so it makes sense to assign housing to the town administrator for now, even though in the future it will be assigned to the CEDS. It was agreed to move housing and the Lowe Lecture Hall to the town administrator’s list. Carl mentioned that nothing has been done yet for recruitment of a new CEDS. If his interim position is going to turn into something more like 8 months, he might want to talk to Eben and Tom about scheduling so he has time for other commitments. The board reviewed the priority lists and added dates for some of the items. Peter suggested that before the next meeting board members think about whether there is anything on the list that board members could take on – for instance, a cemetery maintenance plan. 21. Highway Labor and Resident Expectations Tom said the road crew is little concerned. Their on-call schedule is designed around having 5 people with no part-timer. With 4 people, no one will have weekends off call. It will increase costs and overtime. If we could get a seasonal employee, that would free up on-call pay. We would have someone to help us a little who would get no benefits. That would give employees some weekends off. Would the board like to hire a fifth person, hire a seasonal employee, or develop a winter maintenance policy saying that if snowfall is less than a certain amount it won’t be plowed until the next workday? We will have to let residents know there is a change. Eben asked if the board is comfortable with advertising for a part-time employee. Mike said he has no problem with that. He just doesn’t want to hire a fifth full-time employee. Tom said we planned for projects for the year assuming we would have 5 employees. We have no plan to hire a fifth employee. The crew feels like they are behind and committees feel like they are behind on work they had hoped to have help with. But this may be the new normal. If we are only going to have 4 people we need to either tell people the roads won’t be maintained as well or hire a part-time person. Mike said he thinks one big problem was that we went from road crew to public works crew. A fifth employee was hired due to safety problems in the gravel pit but we no longer do that. It seems like with a public works crew every committee felt like the crew was at their beck and call. He doesn’t believe we need another year round employee given what the cost including benefits would be. He thinks we can get by with a seasonal employee. Eben said “public works” can be interpreted in different ways. A traditional public works crew works on water, sewer and sidewalks. Peter said if we do the staffing study, we could hear back from the consultant that we should have 5 employees. In the meantime, we have this situation. Adrienne said we could have results of the staffing study soon. She thinks we should wait until then. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 10 August 18, 2025 The board agreed that Tom should find the part-time employee job description for the board to review but not post it yet. 22. Paving RFP Review and Award Eben said we received only one bid. The amount is $14,465.50 for cold planing and $269,139.75 for paving with an estimated 3,333 tons of asphalt. Eben described the project, which involves cold planing and paving on Wilson Road and Spitzer Hill. Paul said that is more than the RFP says. But the RFP also includes Hogback Road. Eben said Hogback Road was removed due to a potential legal matter. The proposal was to pave more of Wilson Road and Spitzer Hill. Tom said it will reduce the amount of time spent on grading. Peter moved and Paul seconded to award the paving contract to Pike Industries for an amount not to exceed $28,605.25. Paul asked if this is a reasonable price. Eben said he talked to someone in the paving industry and it seems these prices are fair. Jason did try to solicit more bids but didn’t get them. Mike said getting only one bid is in violation of the purchase policy and he can never support it. Eben said it was a sealed bid process. Tom said paving season will end soon. A certain temperature is needed for paving. If the board does not accept this bid we should plan on paving in spring. Eben said we do have the funds. Tom said if the money is not spent it goes into reserve and will still be available. Mike said just because we have the money, we don’t have to spend it. He thinks we should wait until spring. Darrell Wescom said the “not to exceed” amount in the motion should provide some leeway. If that amount is spent and the town is two truckloads away from paving everything we wanted to pave there should be some contingency for getting it all done. The motion failed with Peter in favor and Adrienne, Paul and Mike opposed. Eben said he didn’t hear that the board is opposed to Jason’s paving plan. It sounds like the board wants to go out to bid again in the spring. 23. Joint Properties MOU Review Tom said he included the current MOU in the packet. He would like to add a paragraph clarifying which entity handles maintenance on which properties. The board agreed to discuss this at the joint meeting with the trustees. Mike said he didn’t hear what the village decided about the clock tower. Donna Griffiths said they decided to wait until after January when they find out more about FEMA funding because they don’t want to do work on the building if there is still some possibility that we will move out of it to relocate the wastewater treatment facility. 24. Road Naming – Historical Society Approved Names Eben said Justin Mason is asking the board to approve two new road names, which have been approved by the Historical Society – Woodsmen Lane off Codding Hollow Road and Hidden Bear Hollow Drive off Upper French Hill Road. Peter moved to approve the road names Woodsmen Lane and Hidden Bear Hollow Drive, Mike seconded and the motion was passed. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 11 August 18, 2025 25. Staffing Study RFP Two responses to the RFP were received. One is from Maple Hollow Consulting (Carrie Johnson.) She proposes spending 12 hours at selectboard meetings, 12 hours interviewing staff and 16 hours on research, analysis and a final report. Her total price is $4,000. The other proposal is from Rethink Local. Their cost would be $12,000 total – a $3000/month flat fee for 4 months. Peter moved and Adrienne seconded to award the staffing study contract to Maple Hollow Consulting (Carrie Johnson.) Peter said the reason to choose her is because of her extensive experience in municipal government in Vermont. Eben said she is highly regarded. The board agreed to send Carrie the VLCT pay and benefits report. The motion was passed. 26. Opioid Settlement Adrienne said Tom had previously sent out information about the opioid settlement. We have to let them know by October 8 if we would like to opt in. The packet includes a summary she put together of information about the settlement and the actions required to receive funds. She recommends that we opt in and that Tom follow up on his suggestion that he contact the state to see if there will be state-level support such as guidance on paperwork, legal review or pooled distribution plans. Peter asked, if we opt in do we have to decide at that point where any potential funding will go? There is the option of it going to the state or coming to the town so the town could award it to a group. Tom asked, it has to be used for prevention and rehabilitation, correct? Peter said yes. Paul asked if opting in commits us to anything. Tom and Adrienne said they don’t think so. Tom said he thinks there are two settlements and we should opt in to both. The board agreed that we should opt in and Tom should contact the state as he suggested. 27. Executive Session for Confidential Attorney-Client Communications Mike moved to enter executive session for confidential attorney-client communications made for the purpose of providing professional legal services to the body under 1 V.S.A. § 313(a)(1)(F), inviting Tom to remain, Paul seconded and the motion was passed at 10:16. The board came out of executive session at 10:42. No action was taken. 28. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 10:42. Minutes submitted by Donna Griffiths