Speakers labeled via automated voice-based diarization + AI name-matching against the city's official roster. Automated transcription can still mis-hear a name during fast speech (e.g. a rapid roll-call vote) -- clear near-misses are auto-corrected, but this is not manually verified line-by-line. Treat names as a strong best guess, not an official record.
[2:47] Chair (Select Board Chair): What is this? What are we talking about in the back? Somebody wanted to come in the last meeting and I asked Mike to be in the
[9:51] Speaker B (unidentified): mood to hit this gavel there. Well give us some. This stream hasn't started yet. I'm gonna push the button eight seconds now. It's sketching for 5 30. Oh push the button eight seconds now. It's sketching for 5 30. Oh the all the streaming not the air still
[10:22] Speaker C (unidentified): just displaying tone of Elliot stream will not work to me. No stream tonight. That's
[10:29] Speaker B (unidentified): what I was told by Kim. Oh okay so you'll upload so we're gonna just okay oh wait no it's it's working it's great it's been amazing it's a September miracle
[10:49] Chair (Select Board Chair): All right let's get rocking and rolling because Mike said that we got to be wrapped up by 6 15 so all right it's September 24th it's 5 30. I'm going to call the order this meeting at Elliott Select Board the records show that all members of the Select Board are present. All right. Pledge of Allegiance.
[11:09] Speaker B (unidentified): Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance.
[11:22] Chair (Select Board Chair): Any public comment? It's your chance, if something's not on our agenda, to speak now. Hearing none, I'm just going to mention LA Festival Day may or may not happen on Saturday, day but no it's all well it's more than visible so as of right now as of right now let's worry
[11:40] Speaker D (unidentified): about drizzle than the 45 mile an hour winds the winds don't stay out of the bouncy raincoat
[11:47] Chair (Select Board Chair): bring a raincoat snark up on the raincoat there's no bad weather only bad clothing all right we're gonna move on no other public comment approval of minutes September 10th
[12:00] Speaker B (unidentified): we have any amendments changes I made a I submitted a change earlier in the week
[12:07] Speaker E (unidentified): I don't know if I got through I didn't get it I didn't get it okay so it was just I'm sorry
[12:15] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): I sent it back that which I definitely have to make in where it says dot house or it should
[12:21] Speaker E (unidentified): thing about it oh crying hearing in the role of this
[12:29] Speaker D (unidentified): stepping in I just played it on an old template that's what I did in the email
[12:34] Speaker B (unidentified): yep sorry Christy thanks for having me oh does this mean you're going to read the invoices Okay.
[12:45] Chair (Select Board Chair): So I move the Elliott's like board, except, amended minutes for September 10th, 2026 as presented Alex for the second notice.
[12:57] Speaker B (unidentified): discussion yes Lauren yes still yeah that's the flag all right do a public hearing
[13:09] Chair (Select Board Chair): I hear if I open this public hearing for the annual general assistance ordinance acceptance if anyone from the public wishes to speak now is the time this is kind of a standard codification that we do annually
[13:25] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): Mr. Chair, the A through H that represents the different allowances under the general assistance from the state and what they'll actually allow us to recover, what the limits are, they're set by the state. And as you suggested, there's an annual acceptance of those. We have them on file and if anyone wants to look those over and we continue to work with Mainspring on administering our general assistance.
[14:04] Chair (Select Board Chair): Great. I will see no questions. I will pay a motion.
[14:11] Select Board member (motion maker): I will adopt the general assistant's ordinance of A through H pursuant to 22 MRS subsection 43051 dated September 1.6 to take effect about the 1st of 1.26 through September 30th of 27. Second.
[14:36] Speaker E (unidentified): Christine. Yes. Alex. Yes. Abbott. Yes. Warren. Yes. Bill. Yep.
[14:42] Chair (Select Board Chair): Passes 5-0. All right. Next up is the town manager's report. Mike?
[14:49] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): As you had mentioned earlier this weekend is Eldon Festival Days. And as it stands now, everything is active. However, I wanted to make sure that the public knows as you know, the emergency management director, who is also the fire chief, will continue to monitor the situation. And if he feels, based on his information and cooperating with York Regional Emergency Management and with the state, if there's a danger to the public or the community, he may decide to close it down. But as it stands right now, we're full steam ahead, and hopefully the weather holds off. The biggest concern, at least yesterday and earlier today, was the wind speeds and what that could cause if things weren't properly secured. And so we'll be working and advising on that and working with the Elliott Festival Committee. And last, I'd like to thank the Elliott Festival Committee, the American Legion, the Board of Selectmen, and all the participants in this that play a role. It's a great weekend for the town of Elliott, it and I hope everybody enjoys the weekend any questions just
[16:25] Chair (Select Board Chair): I drive by the froth tufts a couple times a day it's looking great river road ball field the baseball field's looking great softball field is in progress that's looking that's going to be pretty sharp too so
[16:38] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): I'm glad you mentioned it the only thing that we really ask particularly ask is that people stay off the playscape, they are really inviting. If you've gone by Frost Tufts, the new playscape, I can't wait to try it.
[16:56] Chair (Select Board Chair): Which of the slides are you going down?
[17:00] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): But just to be serious for a second, that everything isn't in place. We don't have the wood chips. We're going to use the high-grade wood chips that have no processed materials in them. It's approved for playgrounds. We've notified our insurance company. The fencing isn't put up. There's still some coatings that need to be put up. A dedicated pickleball court. We are moving as fast as we possibly can. This has been a great project. I have to thank Norm Elbert for acting as the general contractor among his other duties in this project. It's going to come in. And I could say it's going to come in on time because we really didn't expect to be doing this until next year for us tough. It just happened that we had that opportunity. If you recall that the contractor was working in Dover, we were able to get them over to do the courts here. So even though it seems like a long time, it's going to be before we expected it and it's going to be on budget. Budget and Murray Rowe is not going to be on time and probably a little bit over budget but it's still going to be very reasonable for adding the softball field new dugouts new baseball field we ask people please stay off of that too because it's just not ready and I thank you to Shabby Construction and particularly Eric Fernandez, who worked on that like it was his own. So we thank him for that. But very excited to get those two projects and projects back online. And we appreciate the public's patience on it. Great.
[18:55] Chair (Select Board Chair): I'll entertain a motion.
[18:57] Speaker E (unidentified): I move the I select board to accept the town manager's report and ask that the report be posted on the time of second. Second. Yes. Yes. Yeah. All right,
[19:12] Chair (Select Board Chair): next up. Nate, this is your time to shine my friend, come on up. So, thank you for coming in so generally we like to just kind of put a name with a face. Introduce ourselves in addition to getting to know who you are and so we just sometimes ask a few questions so I guess my question today is you're obviously a younger guy how do we get more younger people how do we get more younger people involved in the stuff we're doing here
[19:43] Public commenter / new resident: make you think of you yeah wow I mean I just turned 41 yesterday so I don't feel that you we get more younger people involved i think that it has a lot to do with time it has a lot to do with incentivizing and for me i grew up going to rivers for vacations and wanting to enjoy the environment at its most pristine and i think that 's what the york river provides. So I think that there's more to talk about with that. I think the programs that the Stewardship Committee does and the capacity that they have to do really good things, if that can be communicated really broadly, and if that can reach people who have the time and the passion to get involved, then you could hopefully pull more people in. I mean, from my perspective, I'm doing this from a sort of a specialized background in doing grant management and environmental monitoring work for my entire career. And so this is what I want to do as an extracurricular activity. So it's tough to know where other people stand on that. But I imagine that if they see where see the value of the river for their family and for the future of the town, then that's really where you can get people hooked. Okay, it's a good answer.
[21:07] Select Board member (motion maker): You're all set. I'm all set until you ask how we get then again. We have older people standing here in front of us that are retired, have more time taking on the job. I appreciate you coming in. Even at 40 years old, you're not quite to the old guy yet, but we do appreciate the involvement of younger people in the town. How long have you been in town here? It'll be a month. Okay. And you grew up in the area?
[21:38] Public commenter / new resident: No, I grew up in Pennsylvania. Where were you? I went to grad school in Boston, and then I did my postdoc and my early career in Texas, and then I moved to Massachusetts, where I was working for the federal government, and then I chose to leave that position, and I wound up at a research nonprofit in Portland. and so given all of that i 'll say this i've moved every year for the past year and a half i'm sorry moved every year and a half for the past five or six now years and i'm finally in a place where i feel like this is going to be home and i would like to stay and so this is all part of like wanting to wanting to anchor myself here well it sounds like i mean with all the places you've been
[22:20] Select Board member (motion maker): And it could have given you exposure to a lot of different things. Yeah, exactly. And all depending on where you grew up in Pennsylvania.
[22:29] Public commenter / new resident: Well, get this, I grew up in York County. Oh, you did? Yeah.
[22:34] Select Board member (motion maker): Yeah, thanks. Yes, welcome to town, and thank you for stepping up and being a part. Sure, yeah.
[22:40] Chair (Select Board Chair): Pleasure. Anybody have any statements or questions?
[22:43] Speaker C (unidentified): I want to know, just a teeny bit,
[22:45] Speaker E (unidentified): can you tell us anything about your bat research? Just a little overview. What did you do?
[22:48] Public commenter / new resident: What is, well, so I worked on, I don't know if you've heard about white nose syndrome, I've worked on that for my entire career since the beginning. I was one of like the original researchers that was in the caves with the bats in Vermont, and since then we have, so that's what I did my PhD on, that's what I did my postdoc work on, and then I was the state bat biologist for the state of Texas for four years, which was all of white nose syndrome management work and also a lot of grant management work and now that, and then that was my federal job too, more or less, and now I'm, we're kind of transitioning away from that toward migratory bat work and the impacts of wind energy on migratory bats, and so one of the projects we have right now is to train state and state agency staff how to put long-term attachment coloring devices on bats so that the transmitters that the batteries can last for a year or more now, but the attachment techniques that we've had up to this point don't last more than two weeks or so. With this new advanced technique of attaching collars, then you can track bats year-round, so we just, I was just in Pennsylvania doing a workshop for all the regional staff. I was just in Massachusetts capturing bats down there to show the DCR staff how to do the technique. We should be doing some more of that in like Plum Island, the Park River Refuge, and another state park, Massachusetts, within the next two weeks, so that's really cool. I really like that study. I mean, the white no stuff is cool, but I feel like my career is moving past that, and now we're getting into more like advanced technology driven stuff. Really cool, should be fun. It's awesome. Yeah, thanks for sharing. I've already told the stewardship committee yes to doing a bat program for some capacity. Yeah, it's great.
[24:32] Speaker B (unidentified): Thanks, that's great. Yeah, a little bit, me too. I was a little bit, good, really good to hear. I heard
[24:37] Select Board member (motion maker): you're a batman. They usually, all right, maybe you did mention time as a premium, but you know
[24:48] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): David Marshall, who's on the committee, also is on the conservation commission, and I believe there is an opening on the conservation commission. You can't have to ever address it, you could have to
[24:59] Public commenter / new resident: Yeah, the, yeah, I will consider that. Yeah, just try this out first. Yeah, we'll go from there, but
[25:06] Chair (Select Board Chair): just keep them in mind. Very good, thank you, thank you. Yeah, great, all right, I will end the discussion and we'll entertain a motion. Move the latest report, Dr. Nate Fuller, how to present
[25:18] Speaker D (unidentified): the town of L.A. My Stewardship Committee, and there's no subject for this.
[25:24] Speaker E (unidentified): Get it with a second. Christine, yes. Alex, yes. Lauren, yes. Bill, yes. All right, five to zero.
[25:36] Chair (Select Board Chair): HAB-Jacques Juilland- You are not Dr thanks yeah well welcome aboard we're lucky to have you 're welcome to stay, but you're we're not going to be.
[25:44] Public commenter / new resident: HAB-Jacques Juilland- Upset if you run out, if you run out the door, and that after an office when you do conservation minded stuff around here, let me know. HAB-Jacques Juilland- Appreciate it. Thank you very much, thank you, thank you.
[25:56] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): HAB-Michael Leccese, He does not. All of the select board doesn't mean anything and there was no weapon to the term, so okay
[26:12] Speaker B (unidentified): you're on frame. All right, appreciate it very much. All right, thank you, thank you.
[26:21] Chair (Select Board Chair): So next up is a draft of a select board correspondence policy. We had some disagreement agreement about getting correspondence and as far as dealing with opening it up so that someone could respond to it. I made the decision that if something's here and it's red, then it's open for discussion at that point. So I drafted a written correspondence policy and kind of walking through it. I broke it into two different categories really. One is for public comment and if an author is not in attendance then they have to have a proxy read it so they can have someone from the public read it or if a select board member wishes to read it they can do so down there while stating the name and address of the person. Just so very clear that it's, it's coming from the public and then I have a slightly different when it comes to a specific agenda item where legally we're not required to take comment during agenda items. We have, I think we have probably long as you've been for a long time, yeah, we always have, but it's, it's not required. I mean if the board wanted to not take a comment so I left it where if the chair says no we're not taking that comment just like it with anything the remainder of the board with a simple majority vote can say we'd like to have it read again. You need a proxy if you are the author and again so if a like board member wants to read it they can do it from the podium. So I'm just threw it out there.
[28:23] Speaker B (unidentified): i'm leaving it up to your thoughts is there anything different between the two between the
[28:28] Chair (Select Board Chair): public comment correspondence and the just to come to an or like the chair can make a decision to say no for the specific agenda items however the remainder of the board can say yeah we want to hear it and it's just a draft so if you want to kick it to another meeting i'm fine with that but i think it's it you have a ton of 7 000 people and i'm not saying we're going to see 7 000 letters but if we see say something and we're doing a data center ban so we're not going to data center but let's just say somebody hypothetically puts says they want to put in a data center and then we get flooded with 300 letters we're gonna read 300 letters you know it's just we have to put some kind of limit on if someone's willing to stand there and they want to read the letter that's fine but if you just want to send a letter in but you can't come in and actually read it yourself or have somebody read it then or do it via zoom then i don't i don't think it should be read at that one i don't think we should just read you know every pen pal that we
[29:37] Speaker C (unidentified): have okay a question about that so the record the official record for all of our meetings is just the recording these minutes are just kind of a little overview you know a little flavor a little of loose fuchsia of what the actual record is. So if someone just wanted to submit a comment or make a comment and just have it submitted as part of record, are you suggesting that they must be present in order to debate that comment with the seller? They don't have to be present.
[30:13] Chair (Select Board Chair): They could have a proxy come in and read it. Oh, what a loss. Or if, when you feel strongly, then you guys can read it, state their name, their address. And, but as soon as it's read, I mean, it's highly unfair to just say, I'm going to write a letter and then no, there's no rebuttal. You can just, I can write whatever I want, send it in as a comment and not have some sort of rebuttal. I mean, that's just a one-sided argument. And I don't think that's great.
[30:42] Speaker C (unidentified): Comments are supposed to be an argument. I just know with a lot of other state and federal organizations, when they're having, they solicit, they open up a public hearing, they allow the public to make comments, either in person, orally, or submit in writing. And there's no debate about those comments that takes place during that public hearing. It's just part of just registering someone's thoughts, feelings about it. So I'm a little concerned about that portion of the proposed.
[31:25] Chair (Select Board Chair): proposed I disagree it's never been easier to attend a select board meeting you can come here you can do it online
[31:34] Select Board member (motion maker): you can be on zoom you can call in on zoom [Speaker B (unidentified): I mean to] not be in the select board meeting is really hard I mean I guess if you're in a hospital being treated for something yeah you're not going to get online
[31:51] Speaker D (unidentified): but in that case sorry to cut you off
[31:53] Select Board member (motion maker): Yes, I would. I would read that on someone's back. I would do that. But I'm not saying in reading it into the record, but to think that if you're going to read it in case where I made a correction to a statement that was said about me, I have that right by Robert's rules to go ahead and rebut his comments.
[32:14] Speaker C (unidentified): So this policy suggests that we will, we will, we will have rebuttal to all public comments.
[32:18] Select Board member (motion maker): If there's a rebuttal, this should be allowed.
[32:20] Speaker C (unidentified): Well, I feel like with that silencing people's voice, I feel like with and that is on a personal level. I see that allowance for that. But in public hearing, you open the hearing to allow the public to make comments. Then you close the public hearing and bring the conversation back to the board for discussion. So, and that's just how every public hearing I've been involved with or run is how it has been conducted. So I'm concerned about changing that for the select board, that it's going to be a debate. So it's a good-
[33:05] Select Board member (motion maker): You're talking two different things. One of these is for the general comments. The other one is for agenda items, which is exactly what you're talking about. They make their comments, then it comes back to the select board and talks. Right.
[33:22] Speaker C (unidentified): So I think it may have a chilling effect on people being willing to write to the select board about a certain topic. That they must, one, be present or on Zoom. and that at the conclusion there's going to be opportunity for the select board to then rebut whatever that person is saying i feel like that i think it so the general public can't rebut
[33:55] Speaker B (unidentified): but the select board can well that's this is saying the select board will rebut
[34:00] Chair (Select Board Chair): But the public may rebut, but if it's a something everyone agreed for, there will be a rebuttal. But if one of you disagrees, say I agree with the person, but you disagree with the person, why shouldn't you be able to say I disagree with you? I think it just stems from there was a
[34:15] Speaker D (unidentified): comment during a letter that was being read where I can't remember if it was one of us or someone said that person's not here, they can't defend themselves. So I think that was the, it was one of us where that, where that came from. And now it's saying well no, we're going to put a document saying hey, they have the right to rebut in situations, which I think is fair, something blatantly which we would do anyway. So I don't know that it's necessarily changing the way that we've done things, it's just documenting a process in place. And as far as like a proxy goes, it would be pretty, I mean, I, my email is always open whether I agree with the statement or not. I'd be happy to read stuff on behalf of folks in the tab. So I don't, I just don't know that if it's that big of a
[34:58] Chair (Select Board Chair): a hindrance. Yeah, and do you remember years ago when we had a budget committee chair that wrote a letter pretty much attacking a couple members of the select board, and Richard at the time just said I'm not reading that. Okay, well that was, that was the chair had that authority to say I'm not reading it. What I'm saying is it just takes the power away from the chair to have a policy where it's like no, we want it read, we want to vote to have it read. But in that instance, I mean, I, to be honest with you, I think it's a certain amount of cowardice to not come in and state your case. I mean, you're, this is the public arena of ideas. If you're not willing to state and stand up for your ideas, then why are you writing a letter? Because I'm, I'm upset about something. I mean, come in here and feel strongly about it, or we're not going to attack you. I mean, how often that we really get attacked? We get attacked more than anybody. We don't do much attacking. If someone
[35:55] Speaker D (unidentified): submits a letter like previous to the packet going out about a certain topic on the agenda, it's going
[36:00] Chair (Select Board Chair): to go in the packet, depends on when it comes in. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. To be honest with you, a lot of them come in day up. I know. Yeah, exactly. No, I hear them, but I'm just saying that's another
[36:10] Speaker D (unidentified): opportunity for it to get on the record is to know when the packet goes out and get the information in beforehand as well, and that way it's on in the public record in the agenda in the packet forever. So I mean there's multiple, what I'm saying, there's multiple opportunities for someone to get their information out to us, and I just don't know that it's a hindrance. It's, I don't think it's going to stop anyone from writing it, personally I don't, because I mean in all
[36:34] Chair (Select Board Chair): the time we've been here, how many letters have we had, really, five? Yeah, but I think there was
[36:41] Speaker D (unidentified): debate amongst the board about a policy issue, which I think you're working to resolve. Well,
[36:45] Chair (Select Board Chair): Well, I was literally driving through Nottingham a week ago, or maybe two weeks ago, and I drove right by the site of the proposed data center, and I'm like, just wrapping my head around, like, what if these guys flooded with hundreds and hundreds of letters? We're going to sit here and read them all?
[37:09] Speaker D (unidentified): I mean... But in that case, let me ask you a question. to that point, if someone is a proxy decided to read all 100 letters or 300 letters, what would
[37:20] Chair (Select Board Chair): the policy be that at some point here, no right here, if it's repetitive then I'll just, I'll shut it down, be like do you have anything new dad, okay, it's repetitive to what's already
[37:30] Speaker C (unidentified): been said, so we'll move on. I just asked, I wonder if it would be possible just to have that rep, that letter come in and be part of the official record. It can be, I mean we want to put
[37:50] Chair (Select Board Chair): it with minutes, if I've been the minutes of the following, yeah, you can accept correspondence,
Consent Agenda
[37:55] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): just simply have that. Oftentimes board put a particular select board one section called correspondence, and everything comes in under correspondence, and you accept like you're accepting the AP and payroll warrants as a consent agenda, and then they become part of the record. They're established on the video or audio tape, but the person who might use that, let's say there was an attorney who wanted to use one of those correspondence as a point of order in a lawsuit, which is often, unfortunately, the case of public records requests, they would have to, we'd have to keep their co-responses as we did paid to the minutes, stapled to the minutes in the file with the minutes, and that attorney would have to go and call those out that they wanted to use, it's still part of The record, but Member Bennett is correct that it's kind of evolved where the minutes are kind of a captured, but if you have a correspondence section, you are welcome to do, you can list them. Two things I would point out, that when the comment, the in writing ones you can, if you had a policy you would accept them if the person wasn't here as a correspondence. You don't necessarily have to read them unless the person asked to be read into the record, and then it would be up to the body to decide whether they're read into the record. The more dangerous one is the one which I've run into not so much here in Elliott but other places where people will come in and bring up a subject out of the clear blue sky and they'll talk about things that may or may not be accurate or true and it can damage people's, you know, reputation, persona, however you want to classify it, and that's why MMA and other organizations that I've worked with always say in that case the chair has to be very careful to keep the narrow on those, which I think the chair does a good job in this case, but also saying that we'll take it under advisement and not to, not to, it's not a debate, it's not a back and forth, you certainly want to defend yourself, but you more or less want to take, get it under advisement. I mean, so I do think that policy is a real good idea. Can I, can I raise an
[40:30] Chair (Select Board Chair): issue here? Okay, so say Joe Schmo has correspondence delivered to us the day before the meeting, so no one else in town knows anything about this correspondence, we none of us really even know about a lot of, a lot of us honestly check our email a couple hours before you're going to be here and go on the next agenda, so it goes on the next agenda, and of course, and you
[41:00] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): should make that part of your policy, right, that all correspondence must be in one week prior to
[41:06] Chair (Select Board Chair): the date of the meeting if you want to credit that. Well, I also don't like being handed stuff, and I'm going to be a lot more stern about that, just walk in and just hand out whatever. I mean, we had a developer walk in, hand us some paper, shove cameras in our face, and say that the documents he handed us that we didn't have time to read because we were trying to listen to him
[41:29] Select Board member (motion maker): said something that it didn't say. We did have another one recently, I can't remember what it was, oh, but we all kind of agreed that we didn't have answers because we didn't know what was coming up, and I don't remember what that subject was, but that was one of, do you remember? Yeah.
[41:46] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, it was the mass gathering. Mass gathering. Oh, I'm sorry.
[41:50] Select Board member (motion maker): Don't bring that up again. But we, you know, didn't have a black skin. It's not like when you sit here and memorize it, Christine probably has it more than most of us. No, I have a memory. You do.
[42:02] Speaker B (unidentified): But you had to go in and say,
[42:04] Chair (Select Board Chair): Who's the one with the quoted voice? It was recently, sorry. You know, that's...
New Business
[42:08] Speaker C (unidentified): And that makes a very good face for pausing. You know, someone comes up, hands you a piece of paper and you're like, great, it's going to be part of the next agenda under correspondence because we do want to be able to have the opportunity to read to think and then as members we could say there was something there I'd like to bring that up in new business or it just stays as part of the record, right, or then they can show up in person
[42:38] Speaker D (unidentified): Instead of the letter, right, in this minute in many instances, in many instances, we can direct that individual to the proper department within the town hall and say this isn't, we have no authority over this thing, it has to go to the seat coding force, you know, something like that, so
[42:54] Chair (Select Board Chair): Okay, so I'll rework, so I'll rework something, I'll rework something, but if someone comes and they try to hand something to us, I'm just letting you know, I'm just gonna say don't hand us anything, hand it to the town manager, we're not even gonna read it or look at it and no one's gonna read it or look at or comment about the about the content of that individual thing until the next meeting, so don't, don't hand it to us, yeah, if there's a reason to it just goes to the town manager, we'll
[43:24] Speaker D (unidentified): Deal with it later and I think we can direct them to say yeah, any course written correspondence or papers needs to be submitted a week before the scheduled meeting, so here's, here, well here's
[43:34] Chair (Select Board Chair): Another problem, here's another problem, you get, you get someone that, you know, competing people for one position on a board or whatever and somebody writes that email in and we had this happen, somebody writes that email in the day before but you're making that, you're making that decision at the next meeting, so we're going to say well thanks, we'll address it at the next meeting, oh by the way the meeting prior we're already addressing the content of the thing that you're actually writing about, okay There you go, just put up the trash can anyway, I think in that instance
[44:07] Speaker C (unidentified): If we've all received a correspondence the day before our meeting about something that's on the agenda, we could ask each other whether we want to consider it or not. Because it's the, there's a time piece, you know, there's what happens that fits you. But how is that fair
[44:26] Chair (Select Board Chair): for the general public? Okay, so we all receive it, we agree, we deem that, oh, it's okay that, and maybe it's just something innocent, right? But maybe, like Mike said, some stuff can come in and it can be factually inaccurate, it could be slandering an individual or whatever, and we'll just say, oh, we agree, we will include it. Well, nobody in the public knew, nobody knew, and a lot of times people say, well, I didn't know that. In that case, those people would be right. I don't know, you know
[44:55] Speaker C (unidentified): If it just doesn't come in before the time that the agenda is published and that correspondence goes off to the next
[45:04] Speaker D (unidentified): or they come in and speak to it at the time. You know what I mean? That's the other thing. That's like, yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean
[45:12] Chair (Select Board Chair): We'll debate, but I don't think the conversations of this board that I've seen have really ever devolved into name calling, stuff like that. I mean, maybe there's, maybe like Kevin and I, our voices can go up because we have like a deeper voice, but or your, you know, yeah, I'm going to write that and then you can't rebut. If I write it down, you can't rebut
[45:45] Select Board member (motion maker): We already have a policy in place now with how soon things have to get to us before we put it on, so I mean, maybe looking at that and incorporating it all into one policy
[45:59] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, we don't keep making, I think the idea of someone walking in and making a comment, I really think we should just listen and not respond in that time, just listen, file it away, and then if we want to bring up that topic at another date, we put it on the agenda and move that question or move that topic forward. It's risky. I think it's very risky for us to have that sort of dialogue.
[46:33] Select Board member (motion maker): On the other hand, that letter brought up a point that was unfactual, trying to sell that subject. And if I didn't put anything out there at that time, too late, it's going out to the polls, people without having the subject met a corrective. So you can't go ahead and stifle
[46:52] Speaker B (unidentified): me and allow other
[46:54] Speaker C (unidentified): as a general rule
[46:57] Select Board member (motion maker): when you make a policy you can't do it has to go across the board
[47:00] Speaker C (unidentified): It's more just how we conduct our business. I think that we should be very cautious about how we interact in public comment with the public. I think we should just be listening to that
[47:16] Select Board member (motion maker): listening to make a false statement
[47:19] Speaker C (unidentified): If you feel like there's a false statement, I don't feel, and I'm not saying this to offend you, I'm just saying that I think that it's, it's judicious for us not to get into a debate with the public. We receive that information. If the chair or you or another member feels like that there has been a misstatement or mischaracterization, I think that's fine to, as you said, through Robert's Rules, to call that out. But to debate the merits or the points that someone is bringing forward to us, either in public comment or in writing, I think that it's, I don't think that
[48:00] Chair (Select Board Chair): that's a prudent course of action. And Mike is, since he's been here, has been said things consistently what you're saying about, I'll take another advisement. Yeah, I slightly disagree. I disagree, but I point state no points taken. Points taken.
[48:18] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): I want to clarify two things that someone comes in and makes comments from the podium on soliciting. I do think if people are really getting off and making factual statements or crazy statements, that the chair needs to shut that down, needs to shut it down right away. And there's two things that you can do where I've seen done is, we'd like to have you put your comments in writing so we can review them for the appropriateness to bring them before this board. You can say that anytime somebody makes a comment from the podium. You can say we're going to take it under advisement. Are you seeking to have it put on the future agenda to clarify that? When you accept it as a correspondence, a person isn't at the podium, but you're accepting it that evening, they should include in their statement or their correspondence whether they need or want to have it in a future agenda. And you should, I would suggest you treat it the same way we're, you know, taking it under advisement and we're voting to put it on a future agenda when all the facts and evidence can be assembled and comments from other people. The other thing that I think the chair makes a good point is if they're assailing someone that is not, you know, You know, we ran into a little bit of an issue the last couple of days where, and I think I've copied you on some of it, that a legal situation where a law firm thought that they should be notified about a public meeting of the select board. And I said, well, every two weeks you can sign up and, you know, it's not, we can't know, we don't know who out there might be interested in this subject and notified. I mean, I didn't search the web today to find who wanted to comment on Dr. Nate Fuller's appointment to the York River Stewardship Committee. I mean, it's just not the way it works. So you want to have guardrails, and I think it's really smart to have a policy, and I think you're making good progress to it, but everything you get, whether it's correspondence or from that podium, should really be taken under advisement. We'll put it on a future agenda if you'd like, or, you know.
[50:49] Chair (Select Board Chair): Okay, so my personal preference is we push when something comes in and it starts getting wonky. Key shut it down. Can you give it to us in writing, please? That's smart, and just shut it down, and let's not get into these long public comments, to your point and to Mike's point, and I think it addresses Cabot's point as well. Give it to us in writing, then it's on an agenda item, then if it's an agenda item or it's listed as correspondence, and then it can be rebutted in at the next meeting by anyone from the general public, by a select board member, by who knows, and we just, we just kick it into and Also, to be quite honest with you, sometimes people like stream of consciousness. I'm complaining about something. When you put the onus back on them, put it in writing, exactly what you want, exactly what you want, what do you think is going to happen half the time? Here's the Twitter
[51:48] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): version. Yeah, exactly. The other is the transcript version, right? You know, so okay, that's good. I
[51:55] Chair (Select Board Chair): think, you know, see, look at this, we disagreed agreeably, we stated our different point opinions, just like I would propose. Look at that, if everyone could act like it's, like, yeah, they'd be a lot more charming and funny,
[52:15] Speaker D (unidentified): but we're all right.
[52:24] Chair (Select Board Chair): So we will rework that and bring a future draft at a future agenda. I know you're not going to be at the next meeting, so I'll wait and we'll push it into October. Okay. Yeah, next, year to round it up. Yeah. So, okay. So, I'm going to table that
[52:45] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): that right now. You're moving the table is to a future agenda.
[52:49] Chair (Select Board Chair): To a future agenda. And we'll stick it on a slow meeting. Okay. So next up is a special amusement permit. Dancing and entertainments, because we still have to give friends for the team and dancing. Financing. For 28 Levesque Drive, do we have any...
[53:18] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): Mr. Chair, I just want to point out to you that your next motion, and I apologize that I didn't craft that motion, but it's pretty standard. The same operator is asking for an extension of premises that would include outdoor seating, and as I mentioned in the past, you've had another establishment ask for outdoor seating, but we did have complaints from neighbors. We haven't had any complaints from neighbors in this case. We certainly want Mr. Harding to be a success. He's working really hard over there, but I did want to make sure that if you approve this entertainment license, you might want to consider putting restriction on the outdoor in
[54:06] Chair (Select Board Chair): particular, but maybe even in the indoor. All right, you're allowed to do noise ordinance seven, I think, believe seven o'clock is the cutoff. Yeah, for drops, the decibels drop the to decibels at seven o'clock, correct? Okay, so that's what I would say. I would say amplified music done at seven, acoustic can be done at nine. How do you guys feel about that? It'll be a little bit those early, too early for you? I'm just, I was just trying to make it consistent with
[54:38] Speaker D (unidentified): no, which I think is the right move with other orders to be that feels early, but yeah, I mean, if that's, that's the ordinance, then that's, we should stick with that. I mean, I will say
[54:47] Chair (Select Board Chair): just because you're, this is a popular misconception too, just because you're making noise doesn't mean you're over x amount of decibels, and I gotta tell you, I have a decibel meter, the things that make a lot of noise and things that don't make a lot of noise would surprise the hell out of you, so a lot of people don't, yeah, we gotta sound good, so we got a lot of people that may make noise complaints about stuff on 236 or whatever, and they're well under the decibels. It's just they can hear something.
[55:20] Select Board member (motion maker): I would just leave it as if they follow the kernel. Yeah. Because to say acoustic, well, acoustics plug in. Yeah.
[55:29] Chair (Select Board Chair): All right. So are we going to set a cutoff time?
[55:35] Speaker D (unidentified): I think as per the ordinance, what we should do. I don't know that we should specifically mandate one. I think it should be as to the ordinance.
[55:42] Chair (Select Board Chair): Well, I cut off time for when the entertainment ends. So you can do the entertainment until 1am midnight
[55:50] Speaker D (unidentified): we would not have anything
[55:54] Speaker C (unidentified): in our ordinance already about that
[55:55] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): and the other point I would make is you're giving license, so the ordinance may, if you're in court, they may not apply because you're giving license
[56:09] Speaker E (unidentified): that's a good point, so we're making the qualifications
[56:13] Speaker C (unidentified): of the license right now
[56:15] Speaker E (unidentified): Right. Exactly.
[56:17] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): I mean, and I think if in the next order, they're looking for this outdoor from September 18th, 1920, pretty much gone by, 25, 26, 27, October 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 16, a bunch of dates in October and some in November. You'll have the opportunity to revisit this in the spring, and if there's complaints, you still have the right to close it down. So I just think that if you put a restriction in there, I thought that the chair suggested acoustic till 7 or acoustic till 9, and for outdoor and entertainment inside until midnight is consistent with past allowances and amplified music till eight outdoors. Well, should be your decision, okay?
[57:25] Select Board member (motion maker): I just, when you say the acoustic versus amplified, acoustic, if they're playing at a pub, they're gonna be amplified
[57:37] Chair (Select Board Chair): fight because nobody will hear the music. I know, I did it. All right, point taken. So why don't I, why don't I make the motion that I'll just, we'll leave off the acoustic or whatever, outdoor until nine, indoor until midnight. Does that sound fair to everybody? Like, and then we can revisit, and then we can re-examine. I do happen to know that there is another establishment that's going to be going in Elliott Commons soon, and I think this may blend into some of that. So that's the only reason I was just diving into the particulars of it is because we might get another one
[58:17] Speaker B (unidentified): for another establishment outside. That would do similar things.
[58:20] Speaker C (unidentified): Would do something similar. So should we make a condition? I like the times, but the condition on our note, inside our noise ordinance? Yes. Section 45, 407. Oh
[58:39] Select Board member (motion maker): boy, you're going to do this motion and you're going to make me do this.
[58:45] Chair (Select Board Chair): So just outdoors until nine, indoor until midnight. Consistent with blah,, blah.
[58:54] Speaker C (unidentified): Indoor until midnight, correct? Yes. Okay. Okay. I move the Elliott Select Board accept the first reading. Wait,, wait,. Wrong one. Rewind. Wrong day. I move the Elliott Select Board approve a special amusement license for A&B Diner 28, the back drive, Stephen Harding, with the following restrictions. Outdoor until 9, indoor until midnight, subject to compliance with Section 45407. second
[59:33] Speaker B (unidentified): Christine yes Alan yes Kevin yes Lauren yes Bill yeah passes by zero all right we're stretching
[59:42] Chair (Select Board Chair): a little bit beyond the time here so let's take it up a little bit next up is the extension of premises A&B diner so they want to do some outdoor dining
[59:52] Speaker E (unidentified): get them serving alcohol get the outdoor is that just an amendment to their
[59:58] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): on it is yeah that low is waiting for your approval yeah and then if you so choose
[1:00:06] Chair (Select Board Chair): To then we've got a whole list, whole list of specific dates here. You can see it's between
[1:00:10] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): 6 and 8 p.m. So we're actually giving an extra hour for the, if you finish the last beer.
[1:00:18] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, got it. Wait, why then, why did we say they could be until midnight inside?
[1:00:31] Select Board member (motion maker): So it wouldn't be a motion just to extend their license.
[1:00:36] Town official/staff (General Assistance presenter): It's a motion to accept their application.
[1:00:39] Chair (Select Board Chair): All right, I'll make a motion. We accept the application of extension of premises, A&B Diner, 28 Levesque Drive.
[1:00:45] Speaker D (unidentified): As presented. Alex with a second. Christine, yes.
[1:00:50] Speaker C (unidentified): Alex, yes. David, yes. All right. Yeah. Bill. Yeah. Passes by Sarah. Old business.
[1:00:57] Chair (Select Board Chair): I'm not accepting any select board reports. I'm not accepting any. Approval of warrants.
[1:01:01] Public commenter / new resident: I move the Elliott Select Board approve the payroll and account payable warrants as a
[1:01:05] Speaker D (unidentified): consent agenda at the end of the presentation.
[1:01:07] Select Board member (motion maker): Second. I can't speak. Christine. Yes. Alice. Yes. Cabot. Yes.
[1:01:13] Chair (Select Board Chair): Bill. Yeah. Passes. I move the Elliott Select Board go into executive session to discuss personnel issues under the provisions set by law. The select board will adjourn from executive session and not return to open session. This is
[1:01:25] Speaker B (unidentified): Mrs. A 405 six day personnel. Thank you. Christine, yes. Alex, yes. Have it. Yeah. Lauren, yes. Bill, c.
[1:01:36] Speaker E (unidentified): See? Math and find the arrow.
[1:01:38] Public commenter / new resident: So it's a pair of Spanish people, as I said.