Selectboard Meeting

JOHNSON SELECTBOARD MEETING MINUTES JOHNSON MUNICIPAL BUILDING MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2026 Present: Selectboard members: Peter Hammond, Adrienne Parker, Eben Patch, Paul Warden Others: John Sutherland, Rosemary Audibert, Carl Rogers (remote), Lois Frey, Howard Romero, Doug Molde, Diana Osborn, Pat Persico, Isabelle Sullivan, Charles Flaum, Morna Flaum, Kathy Black, 2 other people Absent: Mike Dunham Note: All votes taken are unanimous unless otherwise noted. 1. Call Meeting to Order Eben called the meeting to order at 6:30. 2. Consider Additions or Adjustments to the Agenda No changes to the agenda were needed. 3. Public Comment Howard Romero said he would like to throw his hat in the ring to be contractor for the Legion Field project. He is not sure what is necessary to make that happen. He wants time with John over the next week or so to have John explain that to him. John said he and Howard have talked about the project. John told Howard that because the grant money is running through the town, we need to do an RFP and go out to bid. Howard asked John about working on the RFP with him. Howard said he wants to get going on the project as soon as possible. Tuesday Night Live will be on Legion Field for six concerts this summer. This skating rink area needs to be leveled and reseeded before that, so the faster we can get going the better. Adrienne asked Howard if he wants to bid on the project but also work on the RFP. John said that would be a conflict. He can talk to Howard about it. He thinks Howard would be qualified to be project manager for Legion Field. Howard said we have $23,500 for the project. Peter asked what he thinks we can accomplish with that. Howard said we can do the electrical work and move the bandstand and he believes we will be able to flatten out the spot for the rink. Anything else probably ought to be in phase 2. Peter asked when grass is needed by. Howard said July 7. Time is tight. If he were running the project, he might get the rink area flattened and seeded first and then do the rest. Peter asked if we have to have the RFP out for a certain length of time. Eben said it is good to have it out as long as possible. Adrienne asked if we have enough money to have a contractor. Howard asked if there is another way to do this. John said we have to take a look at the work involved. He doesn’t think flattening the area for the rink will be a big project. Once we have the plans back from DuBois & King, he can look at them and then he and Howard can discuss the order of work and see how much work will be involved. Eben said the skate rink area could be done after the TNL series is done. Howard agreed that could be done. The last concert is August 11. However, the tractor parade will be there in the fall. Peter said he Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 2 March 2, 2026 thinks it would be great to do the leveling and seeding in the spring. We have already put the project off from last fall. Paul said Howard is proposing to be the project manager, but the RFP is for someone else to actually do the work, right? Howard said he guesses so. If we didn't have to do an RFP he thinks he could just use the rest of the grant money and make the work happen. That would be the simplest and easiest for him and would mean the work could get started as soon as the snow melts. That would be his preference. Eben mentioned that the Conservation Commission’s project summary form needs to be filled out first. And we need to see the design first and then do an RFP. John said we need to look at the grant requirements as well. Pat Persico said there is a 200-page Facilities Master Plan for Vermont State University and Johnson is mentioned in it. That plan is just a guideline. He also read that the town and village of Johnson would be moving into Martinetti Hall on the Johnson campus when the money came. Has the college system reached out? Is there an open line of communication from the college into the town and village? Paul said we haven't signed anything. Eben said we have not signed any lease agreement. There have been conversations between the college and the town. No formal decisions have been made. Pat asked if the town should open up lines of communication into the chancellor's office. Paul said they are open. We were in conversations about that possibility up to the time when VTSU submitted an application for a CDBG grant. That application wasn't approved. They are planning to submit an application again for the next round of funding. Pat said their view seems to be that the town is moving there. Does the public want that? What happens to the municipal building in that case? Eben said something of that magnitude would need public comment. If we were to sell any property we would at the very least have to warn the sale in the newspaper. We would put out information online and talk about it in meetings. We own 50% of the municipal building property. A big reason for the conversation about moving the town office was the potential for the sewer treatment plant to move to this lot. To his knowledge, the village still doesn't have an offer from FEMA on funding. With a limited number of customers, spending millions of dollars to move the plant would be difficult financially. He thinks the village is looking for state or federal money to fund the move. 4. Selectboard Updates and/or Concerns Paul said LCPC sent updated FEMA flood maps that we can put on our website. Adrienne said she signed up for a webinar that she thinks will explain the maps. Paul said, regarding the capital assets plan we will be working on with Morristown, the RFP is finalized and is being put out so we can hire a contractor to start work on the plan. 5. Consent Agenda The consent agenda consisted of the minutes of February 19, accepting the resignation of Jo Marsan from the Beautification Committee, and authorization for the town administrator to apply for Congressionally Directed Spending in the amount of $500,000 for the library. Peter moved and Paul seconded to approve the consent agenda with the addition of thanks to Jo Marsan. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 3 March 2, 2026 Donna Griffiths said Susan Tinker had asked to have a statement Adrienne had made at the February 19 meeting added to the minutes because she felt it was important. Adrienne had suggested that town employees work at town meeting so they can learn the process for when Rosemary will not be here anymore. Peter and Paul agreed to amend their motion to include the addition to the minutes requested by Susan Tinker. The motion was passed. 6. Clerk and Treasurer’s Report: Warrants, Licenses and Any Action Items Rosemary said to date income is 92% of budget and general department and highway expenses are at 55.86% of budget. Eben noted that we overspent on consulting. Rosemary said some of that will be grant reimbursable. Rosemary said she submitted reimbursement requests for the Lendway Lane, Holmes Meadow and VEC stormwater projects. We should receive those reimbursements soon. Going forward, she thinks LCPC is going to do submittals every month for the Holmes Meadow project. The board agreed Rosemary can issue the requested second class liquor, tobacco and tobacco substitute licenses for DG Retail and RL Vallee Inc. 7. Community and Economic Development Specialist Items Carl said it is still up in the air whether the tree clearing and removal at the industrial park will be able to happen in early spring. He would appreciate it if the board could pick a day and time for a special meeting during the week of March 23 so that in case we have the necessary permits, we can award a contract for the work, which hopefully would start around April 1. The board agreed to schedule a meeting if needed on March 26 at 6:00 p.m. Carl said he is trying to get permits so the work can proceed, but it is not looking good right now. Carl said LCPC is acting as project manager for the Holmes Meadow project. There is a second grant for that project, a Clean Water Service Provider grant in the amount of $113,856.31. The share of that grant going to LCPC for administrative services is $3,856.31. There is $110,000 for the contract with Boulder for restoration and planning work to be done in the spring. The board needs to approve an Agreement for Administrative Services between the town and LCPC. The primary purpose of the agreement is to lay out how invoices will be handled. Paul said he spoke to LCPC today. A couple of things about the agreement seem peculiar to him. It states that ownership of all data and materials collected under the agreement shall remain with LCPC. He doesn't think it is a big deal in this case, but in general if we hire someone we should own the work product. Seth Jensen of LCPC thought the board could approve the agreement subject to LCPC changing that language. The agreement also says that if the town fails to fulfill its obligations, LCPC can terminate the agreement with 30 days written notice. That should be mutual. We should also be able to terminate the agreement if LCPC fails to fulfill its obligations. Seth Jensen agreed to that as well. Paul moved and Peter seconded to approve the Agreement for Administrative Services with LCPC in regards to the Holmes Meadow Clean Water Service Provider grant, with mutually agreed upon changes to II(C) and II(H), and to authorize the town administrator to sign the agreement. The motion was passed. Carl said the Northwestern Regional Planning Commission is the Clean Water Service Provider for our section of the Lamoille River basin. The state gave them grant money to administer. It comes from the state to LCPC and then to us to pay Boulder. The board needs to approve a Site Access License with Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 4 March 2, 2026 Operations and Maintenance Plan. The Site Access License grants permission for staff from the state, Northwestern RPC and LCPC to go onto the property to do inspections or review how the work is holding up. For the first 3 years, the state will fund maintenance work, which includes planting vegetation and establishing a footpath around the meadow. The town's obligations under the Operations and Maintenance Plan are:  Annually, visit (inspect) the property to review condition of the natural landscaping installed by Boulder and maintained by the state during the first 3 years.  As needed, (Town’s discretion) perform vegetation maintenance including re- seeding, re-planting trees or shrubs, pruning, watering, mowing designated footpath.  Following large floods, visit the site to review conditions and evaluate the need to stabilize erosion, re-seed, or re-plant and/or remove debris This is a 10-year agreement starting July 1st. 2026. After the first 10 years it would renew for another 10 years unless either side informs the other of a desire to end it. Peter moved to approve the Site Access License with Operations and Maintenance Plan for the Holmes Meadow project and property and to authorize the town administrator to sign the license, Paul seconded and the motion was passed. Carl said late last week we learned that the state has approved the grant agreement amendment to increase the amount of grant money for the Holmes Meadow project and the documents are in the process of being completed. LCPC agreed it would be best to ask the selectboard to approve change order #4 at its next meeting, after the revised grant agreement has come through. 8. Discussion with Johnson Recreation Committees Adrienne said she put this on the agenda because currently we have a lot of recreation and park related groups – the Recreation Economy Task Force, the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail Committee, the Skatepark Committee, the Conservation Commission, the Tree Board, and the Beautification Committee. In her opinion we have some issues that she thinks could come from having a large number of groups, but no general recreation group. Volunteer numbers are down. Committees are a way for people to learn about town government and then run for selectboard. All of the current selectboard members were on committees first. There will be new green spaces from the FEMA buyouts, but no group is in charge of making plans and recommendations for those spaces, which leaves a lot of work for the selectboard. There is no group in charge of Legion Field planning. A previous grant writer for the town went to a lot of committee meetings and helped them with grants. Adrienne wants that to happen, but it is harder if there are too many meetings to attend. Our rec coordinator doesn't have an active recreation committee for volunteers and advice. Previously, the recreation committee was more focused around team sports and members left once their kid was older. She doesn't think that means a future recreation committee needs that same focus and mission. She wants to hear from current members of recreation-related groups about whether they think the issues she is naming are off base or if there is anything else she is not thinking about. One of her goals is to consolidate some of these groups. Kathy Black said there are definitely issues. One of them is that we have an expanding set of parks and no real town park maintenance plan or people assigned to that. That is not about the committees, but about how the town staffs. Whether the town wants to and can afford to staff is another question. Regarding consolidating groups, a lot of the recreation groups are driven by people's passion and she is not sure some of those people want to work on other things. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 5 March 2, 2026 Kathy said the Recreation Economy Task Force is not meant to last very long. It took off from the Reimagine Johnson effort. We have amazing recreational assets that the town needs to take advantage of. Not all of the work of developing those assets or figuring out how to manage them is on the town's shoulders. A lot of the things the task force has talked about involve multiple overlapping groups. For example, Isabelle Sullivan has worked with Kate at the college, which allowed re-establishment of the swim program at the college. There are other opportunities for the town if we can find a way to have them managed at the college. Both the college and the town have good assets and are often open to seeing them developed, but neither have the manpower to run them. Doug Molde and Eric Nuse have worked on the Lamoille River Paddlers’ Trail. They helped set up an organization and create the Lamoille River Paddlers’ map. There was a pedal-paddle event last year and there will be another this year and they are collaborating on developing sites along the rail trail with access to fishing. That involves state organizations and the rail trail, which is state property. The task force is all over the map in the kinds of things they are looking at. They are aware that for anything they imagine, they have to find community support, funding sources, etc. Morna said the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program might end up solving some of these problems. Kathy said she thinks there are great opportunities coming up through that program. It gives us access to experts at the state and national level and it is an opportunity for planning. She thinks it is important for the town to figure out how to make sure the selectboard is included in what is pushed forward. At the heart of the RERC program is a community convening. We want know what the opportunities are that people are interested in and will support and will volunteer to run. She feels the task force should not ask the town for money, just agreement if what they have in mind involves town land or programs. Prioritization could be really helpful. A couple of the people involved in the RERC process are brownfields experts who could help us get access to funding and solve questions around Old Mill Park. The fields there have problems and limits. If we are thinking about having a great park there, we need to make sure there are facilities like water fountains and bathrooms. As they go through the planning process, they come across interesting ideas but hearing from the selectboard will be useful too. Isabelle Sullivan said, regarding existing committees, she thinks there is value in having them all independent from each other. There is institutional knowledge from those running them now. There are people who have an interest in being on those specific committees. However, she thinks there is a lack of communication across all committees. She can't necessarily be involved with all of them. It could be helpful to have a general steering committee with one person from each committee that would meet once every month or two. That could prevent overlapping events, for example. That could be a group that could communicate directly with the selectboard. Charles Flaum said he agrees with that idea. The current community structure seems disparate and overlapping to the selectboard. Maybe it would seem less disparate if there was a steering community that could report to the board. Diana Osborn said John came to the last Recreation Economy Task Force meeting and they talked about this topic. They realized they had a lot of great ideas and no consensus. Some felt a steering committee would be helpful and others felt it would not be, that it would just be another layer of organization. The one thing that rose to the top was communication rather than organizational structure. Improved communication could go a long way. Some of these groups are standing groups doing ongoing work that is always necessary. Others rise and decline as needs, interests and funding come Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 6 March 2, 2026 and go. The task force is not really either of those because it is not a town group. For planning structure going forward, she thinks the task force can be left out of the plans. It is not a town committee and does not report to the selectboard. The task force is 100% supportive of the town and the town recreation department, but what they do is something different from what an ongoing recreation committee might do. There is a good reason they formed a task force and did not just join the recreation committee. The networking they are doing extends far beyond what a local town committee would do. Doug Molde said if you look at the skatepark committee, for example, he doesn't know why we would take their expertise and move it or bring in other people. The tree board is similar. It is made up of people who are passionate about what they do. He thinks there have been no complaints about how groups run. The Conservation Commission has a statutory role. The Rail Trail Committee has a committee purpose statement. It is a limited term committee to evaluate the benefits and impacts of opening all segments of the rail trail and give advice to the selectboard. He would like to report to the Community and Economic Development Specialist and have guidance at a level above the committee. He doesn't view any of the committees as part of a group of people who would want to work on the programs Isabelle runs. He talked to Lisa Crews and she said people who have been on the recreation committee have tended to be young people with children. They are different from the people staffing the other committees. They are there for their kids. The primary ones who were in that group have moved their children out. He thinks the Recreation Economy Task Force is going to transition into being a steering committee for the RERC. If Carl doesn't continue, someone on the selectboard will need to be involved in the RERC program. That would be a great place for the college to have a representative. He feels our committees should not be changed. He doesn't want to hold meetings with other groups every month and hear what they are doing. He would like to talk to John or Carl and tell them what his committee is doing. Communication should be up the ladder. And he feels the selectboard should be advertising committee successes. There is a need for publicity for people to understand what the committees are doing. Charles Flaum said he doesn’t think consolidation of committees will necessarily happen, but the selectboard needs to decide what it wants. Paul said he thinks the selectboard is still trying to figure that out. We have disagreements about the CEDS role. He thinks this is an evolutionary thing. He appreciates all the comments and thinks all the groups are doing great work. Charles said maybe this could be a topic of discussion with candidates for the CEDS position. Morna Flaum said Johnson is on the cusp of tremendous change. There is tremendous opportunity. There are a lot of conversations Discover Johnson needs to have to make sure any of their projects will be good for the town, but it is not necessarily a town responsibility to make them happen. Isabelle said she is hearing that everyone wants more access to the next CEDS person. Eben said the selectboard is consistently hearing that committees would like more town employee time. Isabelle said she thinks that would be streamlined with having people from all the committees in a room together instead of them individually talking to the CEDS. Charles said it might impact what the board decides about the CEDS position. Morna said she thinks the town will probably need a parks department in the future. But creating parks with FEMA buyout Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 7 March 2, 2026 properties will bring more money and visitors into Johnson, which will solve a lot of problems. Charles said it can provide the money need to support paying someone for more hours. Isabelle said if we are not able to hire a full-time CEDS, an alternative could be different meeting structures – less frequent, etc. Diana Osborn said the town recently evaluated office and road crew positions. That effort might expand to other types of employees. Maybe there could be an employee for forests, parks and recreation. Maybe that area has gone beyond the capacity of volunteers. Duncan said he read the minutes of the last selectboard meeting. He was intrigued by Eben's comment that maybe an alternative to hiring a CEDS would be to hire a part-time administrative assistant. He has heard a lot of people tonight saying there is a need for bringing disparate pieces together and avoiding duplication of effort. There is no question there is a need for additional staff. But as a taxpayer, he is concerned because we have the smallest grand list in the county on a per capita basis. The only place staff comes from is taxes. Unless we can figure out another way to bring in money, we will bump up against that. He clearly hears a need for coordination and communication. A lot of what we have talked about tonight is related to economic development or community development. The title is Community and Economic Development Specialist. He is not sure the committee structure itself needs adjustment so much as a means of coordinating the pieces. Kathy suggested there could be a recreation committee that was not designed to support recreation for kids, but was more innovative and connected to adult recreation. Isabelle agreed. She said she gets a lot of help from parents for youth recreation. She doesn't see a need for a youth recreation committee. She has made multiple attempts to reach out about what people would like for adult recreation, but she has been striking out. She doesn't need support for youth recreation beyond what she is already getting from parents. It would be awesome to have ideas for other recreation and uses of green spaces. . Doug said he and Eric Nuse have been interested in adult recreation. The problem with that is that we have private infrastructure. We need to create access. We need to encourage people to go to these places and we need to create access. He has spent time with Tori Hellwig of LCPC getting local attractions like the suspension bridge or arboretum onto maps. We should publicize these things. It has been difficult to grow adult recreation. Morna said she thinks what a lot of committees are doing is making places bigger and more accessible. An adult recreation committee would figure out how people can use those places. She agrees that it would be helpful to have some sort of adult recreation committee. Diana said what would help the task force would be mutual support – knowing that when the task force establishes a relationship with an organization bigger than Johnson, they are doing it with the support of the selectboard. Good communication is the way that will happen. If they are talking to a mountain bike organization about trails, they will go through the appropriate Conservation Commission channels and go to the selectboard if it involves town land. There is the potential for a non-profit to collaborate with private landowners for the benefit of the town. She thinks the task force working on things like this would take work away from the selectboard rather than adding work. Doug said what committees need is someone the selectboard can delegate to work with committees. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 8 March 2, 2026 Adrienne said she agrees. She worries that she won't be able to convince the rest of the selectboard to hire a full-time CEDS to go to all of the committee meetings. That is the thought on consolidating. The recreation committee doesn't have to be a youth sports committee. She heard a lot of people talk about institutional knowledge. She is curious if committees have newer members coming to meetings to pass on the knowledge. Diana said one of the things she has been most glad to have happened is networking with different clubs and groups. They have tried to reach out to every aspect of recreation. Isabelle said she thinks what Adrienne is asking is whether there are new members joining committees. It is a great question. Lois Frey said in the case of the Conservation Commission there has been turnover. They have a good mix of younger and older people. There is less of a mix in the Historical Society. She doesn't see it as a huge problem. People come and go on committees. The people who are there want to be there. Duncan Hastings said it is an unreasonable expectation to have an employee attend all the committee meetings. Committees have to meet at night. Expecting an employee to attend all those night meetings won't work. What is more important is attendance at key meetings and communication between committees. Maybe committee chairs can communicate with the CEDS or whoever the point person is. That is more important than physical attendance at a meeting. Paul said the energy that came out of Reimagine Johnson has been astounding and successful. There is room for all of us to figure out something that works and tweak it as we go. Eben said he heard a lot of people talking about communication. It seems like communication issues could be solved with a short email each month to the selectboard. The proposed solution is continually to have more town employee hours. We have to deal with the cost hurdle. Johnson is in the top 20% in the state already for tax rate. We have a low grand list value. He is not averse to adding hours, but he sees the other side. Charles said the selectboard needs to ask for a report from every committee once a month and decide who should get it. Eben said he agrees with Adrienne that we have too many committees. He sees volunteer fatigue. But it sounds like people don't want to change. This might not be the right time for a change. It seems like we keep adding committees and more committees want reserve funds. Every committee wants more and there is never a long-term plan for maintenance other than the town paying for it. Isabelle asked if there is an ideal number of committees. Eben said the board hasn't discussed it. Morna said she would like to have the next CEDS be able to help develop projects to the point where they are an economic boon to the town. She thinks it is very important for that person to be an access point for all this to move forward. Doug said he doesn't think it is necessary for a person at the administrative level to attend the meetings. What committees have never had is someone who is responsible for taking phone calls from Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 9 March 2, 2026 committees, say a 10-minute phone call once a month. They need a designated person they can pass information on to. Peter said he thinks tonight's conversation has been valuable. We have to encourage and support all the good things going on. Charles said if the selectboard wants to save money and hours they will have to make a directive that a certain person gets an email once a month from each committee. John asked, what if committees sent updates to him and he include them in his reports to the board? Adrienne suggested that maybe monthly is too often for that. Isabelle said it may be, depending on the committee. John said if a committee had no updates they could email that there were no updates that month. Diana asked about the alternative of setting more committees free so they are not town committees with the constraints of town committees and are more on a club level. Do we really need formalized policies around open meeting law for clubs with no budget? Adrienne said she thinks most of our committees need some financial aid. Most have a budget or are applying for grants and need the town to handle the money. Kathy said some are operating on town land. Eben said having them as town committees unlocks a lot of state and federal funds. Adrienne said if a committee didn't need a budget it could ask to be demoted to a task force. Charles said he thinks it is important for the selectboard to know what is going on. He doesn't know if he agrees with having fewer town committees. 9. Review and Approval of Job Description for Community and Economic Development Specialist A revised job description had been sent out in the packet. The board discussed it. It said that the position is expected to be 10 to 20 hours per week. Peter said he doesn't see how we can think this position could be any less than 20 hours per week. John said he put in 10 to 20 after a conversation with Carl about his hours per week. The board could change it. Adrienne said Carl's role has been mostly maintaining grants, not going after new grants, so she feels we should double it to 40. Eben said Carl took on some projects in the absence of the town administrator. Carl said he believes the title of the position should be Community and Economic Development Specialist, not Community Economic Development Specialist. He suggested rewriting the first paragraph to change the order of the major aspects of the job to reflect the order in which they would be done and to make it clear that projects would be initiated only after getting authorization. He suggested adding language to indicate that in some situations others (such as an engineer or construction management person or the town administrator) may manage projects. He suggested changing “hired by the Town of Johnson” to “hired by the Town of Johnson selectboard.” In the essential functions section, he suggests adding language to indicate that the person will be working on community and/or economic development. Carl said he has usually been working 10 to 20 hours per week. There have been a couple weeks when he has slightly exceeded 20 hours and sometimes he has worked a little less than 10 hours. He thinks the first job description envisioned 20 to 24 hours. Adrienne asked if it is common for this type of position to have the employee get a bonus of a certain percentage of grant money they bring in. Carl said he would say that would be very unusual in a municipal setting. Perhaps it would happen in a community-based organization. Paul said the only thing he thought was missing was that the description doesn't talk about reporting regularly to the selectboard. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 10 March 2, 2026 Adrienne said the job description states that the person must be able to work in-person and virtually. She would like the position to be just in-person and if we offer a virtual option she thinks we should assign a certain number of hours that could be virtual vs. in-person. John said he was thinking that sometimes the person will need to attend meetings remotely and needs to be comfortable doing that. Paul said he thinks there should be some level of expectation that the person will be in Johnson sometimes. Adrienne said maybe we should say that the job is in person for the majority of the time. Carl said he could see why we would want to keep the option open for some virtual work. The town might hire someone who doesn't live in Johnson. With the part-time nature of the work, it might not be worth the time to drive to Johnson each day the person is working. That is not always necessary. However, he has found that it has been very helpful to be in the office. There is more value to the town in having him here. Maybe the board should say that there should be some in-office hours each week, but he thinks we want to have both options available. Morna said if there is greater flexibility we could get a better quality pool. She agrees that a physical presence is good, but it doesn't have to be all the time. Paul asked, we budgeted for 24 hours, right? Eben said yes, at a certain hourly rate. Paul asked, an employee gets benefits at 30 hours? Eben said no, they get prorated benefits at 24 hours. They get full healthcare and retirement benefits at 30 hours and 80% at 24 hours. Paul asked, if 24 hours costs us the same as 30 hours, why not just have 30 hours? He is thinking we do not have enough money for a full-time position. Adrienne asked, the budget doesn't have a fifth highway employee? Eben said no. It has four full-time employees and some contract work. Charles asked how many hours Randall worked. Eben said 24. Peter asked why 24 hours costs the same as 30 hours. Eben saying it doesn't cost the same as 30 hours. At 30 hours we pay 100% of benefits. At 24 hours, we start paying for some benefits. Diana asked, can you give the employee the option? Some might prefer fewer hours and some might prefer more benefits. Or some might prefer to work 30 hours and get paid more with no benefits. Eben said he thinks we have to apply the personnel policy to all employees equally to prevent discrimination. Charles suggested we could offer 20 or 24 hours. Paul said we could advertise 20 to 30 hours a week, to be determined by the applicant and the board. Adrienne said the more hours we have for the position, the more money the person will hopefully bring in. She feels more hours would pay off. Eben talked about the cost of grant-funded projects. There are costs for things like maintenance. At a certain point it will not be sustainable. Adrienne said we are not just asking the person to go after community driven things. We can direct them to go after projects that will bring in revenue. Charles said they should not only be going after Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 11 March 2, 2026 grants. They should be trying to find people who want to come to the industrial park. Adrienne said she feels as many hours as we can afford will give us benefits. Charles said they need to bring in businesses to grow the tax base to justify their salary. Paul said he prefers 24 hours. Adrienne said she prefers 30. Peter said he would be more inclined to go with 24 to start. Eben suggested starting at 24 hours with potential to grow. It was agreed that John will revise the job description to include Carl's suggested changes and what the board agreed on for hours. The board is fine with the changes John had made previously that were shown in red 10. Review and Consider Mumley Engineering Proposal for Clerk of the Works John said we had talked about having a clerk of the works for the library project. He reached out to Mumley and they said they were interested. They said they signed a contract for $45,000 and we have about $11,000 left. And they sent us their rates. At $110 to $140 per hour, we will go through the $11,000 quickly. Eben said we could also claw back the $11,000 and make the deficit smaller. Paul said they asked if they would be overseeing just the site work or also building construction and noted that building construction was a little out of their realm of expertise. But that is really what we need. Eben said he thinks the building is more important. Paul said he thinks a clerk of the works is a good idea, but is it still a need based on where we are with the project? John said there are still a lot of milestones. Eben said he still thinks it is a good idea. He just doesn't think we can afford it. He doesn't think in the time frame we have we will get a clerk of the works. He would rather see the $11,000 come back. He doesn't care much about having a clerk of the works review the site work. Peter said Mumley’s expertise is not in building construction. If we use someone else, then the $11,000 is out of the picture and we would have to pay new money. He thinks in retrospect it would have been good to have a clerk of the works, but we are too far along. It seems like there must be a different way to get some of the benefits of a clerk of the works without spending so much money. John asked if there might be a retired construction person in the community who could do it. A community member said we would want someone licensed and insured. Eben asked if the architect could do it. The community member recommended against that. The board agreed not to use Mumley as clerk of the works. Peter said he thinks we really need someone for the builder to be in communication with and someone that the builder can go to with questions and problems. Eben said the builder is sending weekly reports to the town administrator. If there are questions on design they need to go to the design team. Questions on change orders need to come to the board. Eben asked if we know where we are with the grant amendment and the contract amendment. John said he thinks Catherine Delneo of the Department of Libraries is still confident that if the library is open by December 31 that will satisfy the grant requirements, but she was hesitant to put something like that in writing because it would be a red flag that the project is not 100% complete. Adrienne said Catherine overall seemed very amenable and open to helping us figure anything out if we aren’t able to reach the goal but she did not want to put that in writing to flag the federal government. Peter said the four grant requirements are that the library be open by December 31 and that it have space for telehealth, handicapped access, and 24-hour internet. Selectboard Meeting Minutes p. 12 March 2, 2026 11. Discuss Final Preparations for Town Meeting Eben said Mike will not be at town meeting. A community member said there is a structural engineer he used to check on his building when he built his home, Northeast Structural Engineering. The town could perhaps hire them to do a walk-through. He can email John the contact information. Rosemary said the library used them through the architect. The board talked about who will be ready to discuss certain things if questions come up at town meeting. Lois asked when the doors will be open for setup at the school. John said 7:30 a.m. John said he had reached out to some people about presenting the colors and leading the pledge but was not able to find anyone. Eben said when it comes to the pledge we can start it or maybe he can ask someone there. Eben said the order of articles can't be changed, can it? Article 9 would reduce the amount we need to budget for the town report. Rosemary said we would probably only save $1000. Paul said the two childcare providers did take the Red Cross certification course when they were younger. 12. Municipal Road Postings Eben moved to have the road supervisor post all town highways when he feels it is necessary and to work with town administrator John Sutherland to post the information online as required, and to authorize either Jason Whitehill or John Sutherland to sign the posting signs and to decide when to take them down. Adrienne seconded and the motion was passed. 13. Review and Accept the Communities Caring for Canopy Grant Application Adrienne said the grant will cover the cost of planting 10 trees at the community garden, installing educational signage, replacing 3 trees on Main Street, 2 trees on School Street, and 1 on Pearl Street, removing 2 honeysuckle bushes in the cemetery and replacing them with 2 trees, mulching all public trees in the village, and hiring an arborist to assess cabling and pruning needs of the village public trees. Adrienne moved and Peter seconded to accept and expend the $7,500 Communities Caring for Canopy grant. Eben asked if the Tree Board got permission from the village. Lois said she expects so. The motion was passed. 14. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 9:09. Minutes submitted by Donna Griffiths