Select Board Notes from Feb 2, 2021

Public Comment
Mary Holan expressed concern about the cost of broadband and moving employees to Jacobs Road and then back after the pandemic.
 
FinCom Portion of the Meeting

• Town departments have turned in budgets. Select Board to schedule meetings with police, fire, highway, and MLP regarding their budgets.  Board would like explanations of significant increases or decreases.
• FinCom wants to understand increases in technology expenses.
• Select Board has received emails regarding broadband cost and will seek further information on expenses to date.
• The Building Facilities Committee may have capital requests.
• Ned Wolf wants to understand the implications of CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) on the budget.

Building Maintenance
Community Hall: Brian reported that two insulation bids have been rec,eived— $27,000 and $13,900. The Select Board voted to accept $13,900 which was close to what was expected.
 
COVID-19 Municipal Protocol, Concerns, Updates

• Robyn sent out COVID Use Guidelines for review, will update with any feedback and vote on them next week.

• Phone issue at Jacobs Road delays move by employees. Town phones use internet for phones, which is not set up at Jacobs Road. A technician from Crocker Communications is scheduled.
• Indoor hotspot
  • Select Board approved the go-ahead for the MBI hotspot. Brian to write up a Use Policy for the Select Board to approve prior to allowing requests for adult use. The issue of unauthorized persons entering the building will be addressed in the use guidelines. Jacobs Road has an intercom and safety door to facilitate this.
  • In answer to an email regarding at hotspot at Community Hall, Hilma responded that the hotspot requires an MBI connection which only Sawyer Hall and Jacobs Road have.

 
Mail & Email Protocol – Robyn to try to get policy out for review
 
Hawlemont Regionalization — Not much on this except Hawley is eager to move forward on regionalization.
 
Other Business — The Select Board approved $120 from the Jacobs Road Revolving Account for an online calendar for scheduling use of Community Hall and Jacobs Road. Hilma verified that there was a minimum of $1500 in the account from the Tri-Wire rental.
 
MLP Portion of the Meeting
[Note: This was somewhat difficult to follow as the Select Board had information that was either not on the MLP or the Select Board web pages or not easily found. I will try to put the audio portion of the meeting on the web page.]
 
Anticipated borrowing on a $450,000 loan was under consideration. There was a discussion about  whether to borrow the full amount at once, or to borrow smaller amounts over time. MLP manager, Sheila Litchfield, reported that bills for approximately $100,000 are coming in almost every week.  She noted that Broadband is a $4 million project.

Since it takes 3 to 4 weeks to get money Sheila wants to proceed with borrowing.  Costs mentioned:

• Tri-Wire invoice to be paid for $89,000. Noted that the total estimate for Tri-Wire cost is $750,000.
• Western Gas & Electric (WG&E) bills for engineering and design have not been paid in full yet with more coming in.
• Police invoices for traffic details, some are still outstanding.
• Drop Service contract costs of $695,000 will be coming in.

State grant money – We have received all the grant money expected for now.  Once the State knows how many drops we have more money will be available but this won’t happen until Phase 4 is complete.  Could be up to $180,000 then and there may be $20,000 coming in sooner from grant reserve.

• Subscriber money goes through Wired West and is then distributed to towns.  Revenue may start in April when Phase 1 is done and more when Phase 2 goes live later this year.
• Art Schwenger said that Wired West works on a July 1 to June 30 year, so we should get a payment by mid to end of July.
• Per Ned Wolf the estimated interest for the full amount is $15,000 with a $550 fee.
  •  The Select Board voted to authorize borrowing the full amount of $450,000 as the best choice at this time with so many bills coming I.
  • There is also a $1,000,000 note maturing in September.

[Note: Interest from the proposed ATM 8/1/20 budget for Broadband Note 1 is listed at $14,340 and for Broadband Note 2 is $7,385 for a total of $21,725.]
 
Small Bridge on Route 8A – Jeff Johnson has been working for some time on proposals coming into the highway department. Progress is being made.
 
Green Communities — No updates.
 
Email Received
BoH (Board of Health)  – Brian addressed an email from the Board of Health which opined that Sawyer Hall was COVID safe. Brian stated that the email had little basis in fact. He disagreed with a number of the assertions in the email, reiterating that he had already enumerated the benefits of Jacobs Road as a safer environment that follows existing safety guidelines.  Brian indicated that the email, while purporting to represent an official position of the Board of Health, contained biased opinions that in actuality furthered  “Save the Center” agenda.   Gloria said that the Select Board welcomed opinions.  Robyn and Brian agreed, but both indicated that town boards and committees should not represent personal opinions as official positions.  The Select Board decided that this email required further discussion.
 
BoH- There were emails with a common theme of concern or complaint that the Select Board should be reaching out to the BoH,  Select Board to generalize the nature of the emails and send a response to the BoH.

Broadband - Questions about broadband money will be addressed at next Select Board meeting.

Resident - Jesse Weigand sent an email on his constitutional rights about the fact that no vote was taken on temporarily moving employees to Jacobs Road during the pandemic. Select Board will respond in writing.
 
Town Coord Report

• Most items already discussed.
• Had a telephone conference with Northeast IT regarding town email addresses for individual Select Board members and what email addresses may be obsolete. No outcome mentioned at time of the meeting.