That's not even We're gonna forget we're going to get like $10,000. What was it? or something. You do what you either way. We figured out a way to spend the money. It's going to be on most of them. costume that like I I was talking well this morning already last Thursday supposed to be two weeks ago. snatched my black and white or was that really? Yeah, I printed in black and white. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we don't need more ice. a good terrible signal can actually expens was pretty big. I heard that crunch. I know. still I don't She makes up for me. Right. Five minutes will be five minutes. I hate to university rules. Thumbs up. There he comes. Let's get the move. We're giving you five minutes and then we university. Yeah. No, not you mean just not gonna be with us and Sarah's not with us and Ross was so we have sobody want to just stand really fine [Music] early. Sorry. Is Rob with us? Hey Rob, can you hear us? Yep, I can hear you. Okay, great. So, thank you and welcome to the Monday, April 14th uh meeting of the Orno Town Council. Um, at the top of our agenda, we always list our goals for the municipal year. And, um, roll call shows we have councelor Rob Lway with us remotely. We have councelor Andrea Hardison, councelor Dan Demerit, councelor Matt Powers, and councelor Jacob Baker. Um, agenda review. The council marks and councelor Kenny are not going to be joining us this evening. Agenda review. Uh, we have this where we list the items that we're working with through our committee structure. Um, we're here for reminders to the council and for the public of the uh topics we're working on in those settings. Those agenda meetings are are noticed along with the council agendas. Um, and the public are always available and welcome to join those meetings. Um, we have no tabled items and are there any questions or clarifications or under agenda review by any members of the council? Okay. Um, item number three on our agenda is approval of the minutes for March 24th, 2025. Could I have a motion and a second? Second. Okay. And we're going to have to do this by roll call. So, Rob, we're going to come to you first when we do roll call. Okay. So, Council Lay, this is approval of the minutes from March 24, 2025. Favor. Councelor Hardison in favor. Council Demeritis in favor. Council Powers in favor. Councelor Baker in favor. Excellent. Um those are uh approved unanimously 5 to zero. Uh item number four on our agenda is uh public comments. We invite uh members of the public to speak with us about items that not on our agenda. We'd ask that you come and introduce yourself and um welcome your comments on any on any topic again that's not on our agenda. Please come forward and introduce yourself. Make sure the microphone is on. Is there a light or green light? Oh, it's green. Good. I'm just short. Okay. Let me pull up my notes. Hi everyone. while I'm pulling this up. Um, my name is Meredith Waters. I've been an Orino resident for, uh, like four years now. Um, I'm a university student and I'm graduating. Um, but, um, I'm here to talk about, um, what recently happened in Wells, Maine. Um, Wells recently, um, their police department entered a 287g agreement with immigration enforcement officials. Um, and that means that immigration enforcement officials can utilize their town's resources and police force to um, carry out um, immigration enforcement business and deportations. Um, I am very worried about the precedent that would set for other towns in Maine to enter similar agreements with um, external agencies. um partially because um we are many oro residents, we are taxpayers, we are citizens and in doing that we when we fund our law enforcement we don't um we want those resources to be reserved for um in town business and keeping oro safe. Um, and second that we have a really high number of international students and people in this town relative to the rest of the state by nature of being a college town. And I feel like that puts us at a spotlight, puts Orino at a little bit of a higher risk. And I wanted to just testify today to make sure that this doesn't that what Wells did does not happen in Orino. That we a keep our police and immigration enforcement officials separate entities. One that is funded by the taxpayers of Orno to keep us safe and one that is um of the federal government and um enforces immigration laws separate. Keeping them separate. making sure that they the town of Orono and the Orno police department does not enter any agreement deals with ICE and making sure that in keeping those separate we protect our international student community here as a student. I know that they add so much to my experience as an Orno resident. I've lived with international students. I have classes with international students. They are a value and an asset to this community that deserves to be protected by this board. Um your ordinances and uh your power. Thank you. Could you um Meredith, is that right? Could you repeat the name of that agreement that you said it was? Oh, yeah. Hold on. Let me look at my notes. Thanks. Um, so they entered a into a what's listed as a task force style 287g agreement. Um, and it was in the news to what? 287g. It was in the news like a week ago, so kind of old news by now, but Okay. Yep. Thank you for that. Yeah. Do we have any other public comment this evening? There's also a public comment at the end of our meeting. So, if anyone um is inspired to speak with us about something that's not on the agenda, and there are always opportunities in our agenda items to speak with us as well. Okay. No public comment online. Okay. All right. Uh we'll go to next five acknowledgement by council members. Council Lway, would you like to acknowledge anything this afternoon? Nothing at this time. Okay. Council Hardway. Adria Hardison. Sorry. Uh, we had some promotions in the fire department this past couple weeks and I just wanted to congratulate Captain Sam Wisman, Lieutenant Chad Lucas, Lieutenant Matt Neto, and Lieutenant Robert Melo for uh their promotion and hard work. Um, I would like to uh acknowledge the work that's been done at Webster Park to in the in the town owned property across the street um from Webster Park. um in the Webster neighborhood to to clean that space up. It's been fun. I saw some people fishing. I was down there with my dog over the weekend and saw some people fishing off the banks and what was um what would not have been possible a few weeks ago. So, thank you to everybody for that work that went into that. Council Powers. Um, I just want to say thank you to the Orno Land Trust who will be sponsoring the next uh town potluck which will be on the 4th of May at 6:00 or sorry at 4:30 at the Keith Anderson uh community house and um Art and Harvey who if you haven't heard them play are really fun. They're going to be playing live music and leading the kids hopefully in a harmonica band. Council Baker. Nothing at this time. Okay. Um, now we'll move on to uh the consent agenda. The consent agenda is our opportunity to move and vote on items in a single as a single action with no discussion by council members or members of the public. Um, any member of the public or any councelor can ask for anything to be moved off the um off the consent agenda. Um, before we do, I know we don't have discussion, but before we do move to move these items by consent, I'd like to thank the Oro residents who are stepping up to serve on the various boards that are on the consent agenda um for us today. So, thank you for that. And there any questions or concerns with the consent agenda before we move it as a block? Could I have a motion to move the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Did you get which one? Yeah. You've got a very quick ear. You should have been It's like the Jeopardy button or the um All right. Uh Council Laray in favor. Council Hardison in favor. Council Demeritis in favor. Council Powers in favor. Council Baker in favor. Uh it's approved. Five to nothing. 5-0. I will share also for those um I probably should have brought this up in the agenda item, but uh assistant town manager Mick Stone is with us this evening. Um, in the manager's chair, Clint Dashan is uh taking some time away from the office and not because it's not my place to tell people where he is, but we're glad he's taking some time away from work because um as everybody should from time to time. Um, action items. Order 2567 is an order accepting the capital improvement plan and concept as presented by staff for the FY26 budget and with changes in the adding appendices appendices. This will take a one-year plan and put it into the budget for further consideration. Could I have a motion? So moved. Okay. A second. One of those are second. Okay. Second. Yep. Okay. Now, is Mitch, do you have anything from staff for us on this? So, I would just add um you were provided an appendex F that um answers uh 22 questions that were brought up during during the uh conversation about the um the capital improvement plan. Um with that, there was also attached to it a uh summary about a two-page summary. There were a couple of questions that uh councelor Markx had raised early on that I just wanted to clarify. Um and it was around the bond recommendation piece of that. Um in that under bond recommendation in the summary it talks about both bond things that we would look to bond for and tiff dollars. Um the public works route two is funding through tiff and that's how we're what we're looking to recommend staff is um and uh but just wanted to clear that up because wanted to make sure that that wasn't confused. The other piece to that was right below it the bonding options talks about uh 45 million over 20 years 26 million over 30 years. Those numbers are what what you would be looking at for a total. You have the 20 uh 2.6 6 million for the library. Um 2 million for the ladder truck. Uh 2.5 million for police and fire buildings. Those were items that we felt would be bonded. Um obviously the 2.6 is something that you've already committed to. So we need to look at how to fund that. There may be some other ways. U but that's where those numbers come from. The 4.5 being the ladder truck and the police and fire building and uh the 2.6 for the library and then the WPCF numbers. So, I wanted to clarify that and that reiterate this is a plan. You're accepting a plan. Um, and this would move the FY26 capital budget that was put together in this plan to the budget process for consideration. Excellent. Any direct questions for Mitch before we open up the public comment and then council discussion? Are there any members of the public who'd like to speak with us about this? Please join us. I'm Frederria Smith and I live in Orno and I strongly urge you to accept the concepts of this capital plan. Um, I've been particularly watching the work or that's needed at the WPCF and it seems to me a very logical way to approach pipes that are over a hundred years old and equipment that's 40 years old and going to fail. It's much better to do it proactively instead of catastrophically. Deal with it when it's a catastrophe. I'm also pleased to see that there is a proposal to start dealing with some of the major structural issues at the public safety building and hope that that can be tackled fairly quickly. And finally, I'm delighted that you're still supporting the expansion of the library. We have our fingers crossed that that can start in the spring of 26. So, excellent. Thank you. Any other public comments on this item? Any council discussion? only to say that last year we would had 40 questions. So the fact that uh it was so thorough and we only had 20 some odd that's good in my book. Efficiency. That's right. Yeah. Um yeah, I I think the staff did a great job on this. I think it really is a a nice framework for us moving forward. a lot of information in one place and I'm excited about um it being the basis for our our planning for the future and it's a big step towards one of our goals which is um long-term financial infrastructure planning is one of our top council is our number one well it's at the top of the list I don't know if it necessarily is number one but um flashy lights what's that flashy lights with flashy lights all over the place um at intersections but that is um it's our it's our top goal on the list and this is a big step forward and staff put a lot of work into doing it. We'll have more to do on that this summer, but um this is a big step. So, all right. Any other discussion? Okay. All those in favor of accepting the capital improvement plan in concept as presented by staff. Council Lway in favor. Council Hardison. Council Demarz in favor. Council Powers in favor. Council Baker. In favor? That passes unanimously, 5 to zero. Um, next up is order 2568, an order authorizing the town manager to issue a request for qualifications for bond advisory services with responses reviewed by the finance and operations committee before a recommendation to the council. Could you have a motion for that? So moved. And a second. Second. Okay. Uh, Mitch, do you want to give us something on this before we Sure. Um so obviously with with the um uh capital improvement plan the discussion about bonds um were brought up and the complexity of bonds require um specific services from somebody that's an expert in this. Um so what we're asking for is a request to to be able to put about a request for qualifications. I believe that was um attached to the agenda. Um and in doing so be able to um get some some responses to that and um allow uh town manager and staff with the uh finance committee to um review those and look to how we could move forward to get some answers to what the best way to do this is what and answer some of these questions that were on the on the list before. So, um, okay. Any comments from the public on this item? Any discussion by council? Council speaker? Um, so we're sending an RFP out for uh bond council. Um, but then at the end, uh, are we also going to be able to compare that to working through the process ourselves through the uh, bond bank? So, what what this would be able to do is get us this information um from qualified individuals. We'll be able to review it, then make a decision at each stage. You're going to be able to make a decision. Do we move forward with this? Is there another way we'd go? Um and and that's part of that process. So, you'll get responses back from the RF for the RFQ. It'll come to the finance committee and um you will bring it back to the council for what your recommendations are and Yep. Good. Um, okay. Any other discussion? Okay. We'll vote to approve the uh order 2568, the request for qualifications for bond advisor. Um, councelor Laray in favor. Okay. Council Hardison. Council Demarit in favor. Council Powers in favor. Council Baker in favor. Okay. That that's adopted. Five approved five to zero. All right. Next up is order 2569. an order setting the date of April 28th, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. for a public hearing to consider amendments to the town of Oro Code of Ordinances, chapter 16, general assistance. Um, Mitch, do you want to run this or Rob, do you want to as chair of the ordinance committee want to give us a breakdown on this? Person a motion obviously. Yeah. So moved. Moved and seconded. What' you say, Rob? Uh, sorry. I'm not sure how uh how well I can be heard. it it might make more sense for uh somebody else to present, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Okay, Mitch, do you have kick off? Um, so basically this uh we our um general assistance program and ordinance um while researching things through the our ordinance review committee. Um this has been last updated in the '9s in our ordinance. Um, we are following the rules because we annually update um and adopt updated MMA guidelines on this stuff, but realistically we need to change the ordinance to reflect new uh law and also put us in a position where we can be updating it with a lot of challenges. This is simply just setting the date for the public hearing um for uh the 28th. um all the material I think is listed and on the website but also will be brought back and we can have a longer conversation about um it at that point. I might also add Go ahead. Thank you. I might also add that um a previous version of this uh that I think was available to the council uh was that we repealing uh significant portion of the the chapter in the ordinance and replacing it with a paragraph that then the plan now according to uh recommendations from our attorney uh is to make that main paragraph of information explaining this something that is on the website uh instead of being an ordinance because that instead of having to renew our approval of that every year, it'll simplify the process even a little bit more. That makes sense. Yeah, it does. From the um from the recommended approach that um Shelley provides in her memo, she says, you know, we'd repeal chapter 16 in its entirety, adopt the September 2024 version of the MMA model ordinance, and insert and update as needed um to reflect legislative changes. So, it's a it's a good process going forward and it's it's some of the work that it's an example of the work we're doing in the ordinance review committee um with the guidance of staff to go through um go through all of Orno's ordinances to to update them to reflect the times um and other other things. They get a little dated if you don't do it on a regular basis. So, any other questions about this? This just sets the public hearing. So, we'll have a public hearing um on April 28th with presentation by by staff, a chance for the public to comment um more discussion with the ordinance committee. Okay. Council Baker, procedural questions. So, if um there are substantial substantive um questions, concerns that come up either during the hearing from public or council and the ordinance and changes are made. Would that would we have to have another public hearing to discuss the new language? I seem to recall we had this discussion about some of the uh HR changes about whether we needed to actually bring it back for a hearing or not. You want I mean yes it's a judgment call a little bit, right? I mean substantial change, you know, you got to hear it again. But if it's some word smithing and some minor things, we, you know, we don't have to have a public hearing, another public hearing. It's kind of what the public hearing is for. So, okay. So, then one follow-up question then. Um, so in reading this, it seems that we are putting the I guess control of our general assistance. We are changing that to the main municipal association and their um procedure so that they can make changes to No, you're shaking your head. No, Mitch. Okay. No. Um basically, we take the recommendations from MMA um to and how to update things. So, we would still it would still be in our ordinance stating how we were going to process this, but the law is pretty much the law. We have to follow it. It's not like we have a lot of leeway in this. So at the end of the day once we get this all packaged um we would just if there was a law change usually MMA would give us recommendations on a how we should proceed. So we would still maintain control. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Any other comments to before we move ahead and set the public hearing? I'd say just in response to Jacob and sort of uh bolstering part of what Mitch was saying is that each year I think that we uh accept the changes that MMA has approved pretty much I mean at least for as long as um I'm aware council's been doing this and the current ordinances I don't think have been updated since the '9s. So, this really is mostly in keeping with our current practice and it doesn't uh uh really, as you've said, Jacob, it doesn't really change sort of who's making decisions about this. No problem. Okay. Um well, why don't we vote on this then? Order 2569 setting the date of April 28th, 2025 at 5:00 PM for a public hearing. Um so, we're going to do a roll call vote. Councelor Hardway in favor. Councelor Larway. Council Hardison. I'm in favor bringing names together in a way that's kind of sorry. I apologize. Council Demerit is in favor. Councelor Powers in favor. Councelor Baker in favor. Okay, that passes five to zero. Thank you. Could I have a motion for order 2570? Order authorizing the town manager to enter into a mutual aid agreement in fire and emergency services. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. And we have here's Tom. Good evening. Tom Higgins, fire chief. This in essence is a standard uh mutual aid mutual aid agreement that's used with the um the airport out the national guard base at Bangor International Airport. By having the agreement, it allows for them to respond off from the base to support us and allows us to go on the base and support them. It's uh I know they've been working to update these in the area because all their leadership on the last page if you were to look at the agreement has all changed. So if we look at what the whole the last page is all changed. Oh the commanders have all changed. Yeah. Okay. Any questions for the chief? Great. Thank you. Okay. Any comments from the public? Okay. Any discussion by councel? Okay. All those in favor of order sorry 70 order 2570 authorizing the town manager to enter into a mutual aid agreement in fire and emergency services. Uh councilway favor. Council Hardison in favor. Council in favor. Council Powers in favor. Council Baker in favor. Excellent. That's five to zero. Another unanimous uh vote this evening. We're on a roll. Uh next, that completes our work on action items. And now we're on to council committee reports. And we'll start with the community development committee update from committee chair councelor Powers. All right. Um so um we have nothing new to say about the SAM but we are currently working on um how to evaluate um pedestrian safety in Orno which would include effectively using the speed check signs that we have. I think we have two or three. We have two I know of on for one on Forest and one on Main Street. and they actually capture the speed of cars. And so we'll be able to um kind of evaluate the data and and take a look at at um as we um as the police department may um increase enforcement at certain times, see if that has an effect, right? Um so we're also trying to think of other ideas of how um we can capture um effective strategies for increasing uh pedestrian sta safety. Um, we're also interested in um feedback from the community on issues um that issue spots in town related to pedestrian safety. Um, and so our intent is to compile a list that we can begin to address one or two items on a yearly basis. And I'm going to turn this over to um to Dan to um elaborate on on what he has put together for this, which I'm excited about. Sure. Thank you. Uh so as part of our work, you know, we have this orno stops service promise that's been a part of our work in the council since the last August and as part of that work as we gear up for the budget. Um we wanted to identify some work with the community to identify some some opportunities for projects that are within our means in you know our annual budget cycle uh to address. And we came up with the committee came up with a list of six or seven items that um you know we've heard about before um that have been hotspots isn't the right term but areas of concern. Um, so we developed a ornal stops infrastructure survey which we thought about doing as like a Google form and and we talk about the work we've done um over the past year or two to address some safety concerns like the speed tables and race crosswalks on forced to have the Westwood um main street flashing crosswalk lights that are going to be installed this spring. Um we approved signal improvement investments in the signal improvements here on Main Street at Pine and Benick. Um, you know, I think we could add other things to this list, too, like the money we've invested in the the painter, the sidewalk painter, the crosswalk painting equipment, things like that. Um, but the thought was, let's get some let's get some info from people on um some of these areas where we think we've heard from people um and how we prioritize these. Like for instance, there's the blind hill at Forest Avenue at the landfill entrance. We hear about that a lot when people are coming down Forest Avenue heading out of town and people are trying to turn back into town. Um and the the hills blind, you can't see who's coming. Um the main street crossing at Stillwater Trail and Oak Street that Marsh Island, that crosswalk there is just tremendously difficult, particularly in the evening for people crossing trying to get back towards the Still Water trail side where people are coming down off the intersection. We've heard a lot about or some about vehicle speeds on our rural state roads including including Still Water and Forest Webster traffic calming um kind of the North Main to Pierce to Crosby Street throughway that I think people some they create for themselves when they get want to get around the u the traffic light at College A and Main Street. tough end traffic calming main street crossing at Island A to Sailor neighborhood that by the lead betterers there um we don't have a crossing anywhere after um anywhere after Westwood right or yeah so um and college avenue vehicle speeds and road sharing and other so we're interested in getting ideas so we shared this with staff and then staff ended up doing one better I think um as you know we'd hope they would um and thank you for doing on I don't know if Cody you you and Megan put it together. I don't know if you wanted to share anything with us or um but we have a an orno stops survey where you use mapping right to go ahead and pinrop locations where people might have concerns they want to get addressed and they want to put on our radar for um for addressing. So, do you have any thing to share about how that'll work? The functionality of that? Yeah, that's a similar survey. It just should simplify for people. Can you just introduce yourself, Cody? I'm sorry. Yeah, Cody, uh, community engagement director, Cody Vigu. And um so someone could take um an exact pinpoint of an intersection. They could put it on a crosswalk, sidewalk, anywhere and it would um yeah would just let them drop the pin on there and then record the address and then add their comments below explaining what their concern is about that address. So it's a little bit of a simplification, but we also included those remarks in the meeting about initiatives in the in place already and then future plans. So and how will we um what will the data look like that comes back from this? I mean, if what if like nine people want to say, you know, the Marsh Island flashy lights at the Marsh Island, you know, how does that going to instead of voting like in a survey format, it's a vote, right? So, if nine people vote on it, nine people vote, we'll just be able to will we have to go in and manually identify themes or No, the analytics should be quite similar to what Google Forms do. Yep. It would I would um compile those like addresses in a similar fashion and then I guess the comments would be what would be free flowing but similar to what the Google form would have been as well. Okay, any questions on the the different approaches or I definitely prefer what staff developed in terms of functionality and you know it's not to say that the two hours I spent at Starbucks working on my survey wasn't wasted but you know I had I had to get my car tires changed over anyway. So, um, all right. And then we did have a question about, um, just the frequency of surveys and how often we we do surveys. I I'm not concerned that we're over, you know, we're we're oversaturating the community with survey type instruments. I mean, I don't think we've done one from the council since was it related to this manager search? I don't remember when the last time we did a survey. It's been a bit. So yeah, I don't feel like we're inundating people to the point where they're worried they're going to tune us out. Um I think we we're on the opposite end of the spectrum, frankly. So um if unless people have that concern, I guess we'd ask staff. We're not looking for a council decision tonight, but we just a a sense of the council that we we're comfortable going ahead with this and um we're going to find out stuff. It's it's one a chance to communicate again to the to the people of Orno that we're serious about um building a culture of roadway sharing and safety in Orno and it's a chance for us to learn where people's priorities are for in terms of items or areas to address and then it's going to be something we're going to bring back into our budget discussions and we'll talk about you know for another $20,000 we can check this off the list or we can add something at the I saw something really cool on the way to Sugarloaf last week on the um like like blind a blind intersection that had like cars coming this way, cars coming that way, and I thought that would be really cool for for that. I didn't get a picture of it, but um I know there's stuff out there that we can do. So, thank you, Dan. And um finally, we're also developing a handout page in conjunction with uh Graceland. Is it Gable or Gable? Graceland Gable. She's the uh college student over there. and um other college students too. Um um on renters's rights and as part of that too, we'll also have renters responsibilities and we're planning on occupying a table at the university clubs and interest day. I'm not exactly what sure what that's called, but it's the club fair at the club fair. So that'll be fun. And um and also we are con continuing to work on um resurrecting the Orino Days Festival and we've had a meeting with both um community members and also with um um with leaders at the university about timing and and possible events. And we'll be having another meeting is that tomorrow? Tomorrow. Tomorrow at 6 right here. 6 o00 right here tomorrow. if you're interested in having your input into what you would like to see oro days and this will be a first oro days and we can continue to take these ideas and build on it. All right, that's all I have to say. Is there anything else you guys wanted to say? Got anything? All right, thank you. All right. Um, next up, next committee report is the finance committee. Yeah, Clint is working with the attorney. um to uh on the deed language for the uh fire station. Um that once that's to something we could share um it'll go to the Boy Scouts and the historical society, but it's in line with everything we've talked about thus far. Um the Boy Scout or the Cub Scout troop has been meeting with contractors, etc. because KCI wanted um an actual budget before they decided to take on this uh project. So, um that's plotting along. Okay. Thank you. Um is anyone positioned to give an update from the nominations, evaluations, and council policies committee or should we table that until just pass over that till the next meeting when Sarah's here? Dan. Yeah. I attended the last meeting. Go ahead, Rob. Feel free to say say it. That's your fine. Okay. All I was going to say is that I know at the last meeting they worked on um looking at all of the different committees and um filling open vacancies and working we do still have vacancies. So, if people are interested in committees, then don't hesitate to reach out. But um I know that was a big part of what they did in their last meeting was some of the things that we actually voted on today. Okay, thank you. And the DEIB committee, Matt, um I can't see if this Okay, it's on. Um there we're doing a number of things. Um but just to let the committee know um we will be sending the town council um updates to the DEIB um mandate that we've taken out some language that is now um because it was a mandate for the first DEIB committee that's no longer um necessary and we've updated some of um the ideas and language around it and we will be sending it to the committee to the council to um approve in theuture. future. [Music] Okay. Thank you, Matt. Um, council chair update. Um, we had some engagement with the council around the planning board meeting regarding the lights at the athletic fields at the school and heard back from some residents who uh, you know, had some concerns and it was in public meeting and you know, tanamount to can the council do anything about a planning board decision and the long and the short of it is is no. Um our process is not set up for that. Um the planning board is a quasi judicial process that um that looks at projects based on you know how they fit are they a fit for the ordinances that are in place when the project when the application process started and it's not a political decision. Uh the political decision comes before that when the ordinances are are determined and and the people of Orallo come together to decide what you know what our comprehensive plan is going to be and what our ordinances are going to how our ordinances are going to read. That's the time when when it's political. Once those rules are set in place, it's like $200 for pass and go. You know, it's it's automatic. Um so we had some some feedback and responded back to those constituents. But in response, we asked um the planning department and Isabelle Oxley put together is this from Isabelle? The the guide gives a guide to participation in the planning board hearing process. Kind of a a memo on the planning process. And um this is going to be developed, I think, into one of those um another one of our our goals is having these, you know, simple one pages on how to engage in government oro. And this will be this will become one of those where we have this available to people who when they have concerns um will be able to come you know come and talk come they'll understand what the rules are for participating in the planning board process and what the what the scope of what they can ask for and and hope to influence as part of that process. So it's not, you know, is Starbucks good, is Starbucks bad. That's not the question. Is this project a fit for this parcel in this zone as our planning is our land use ordinance allows for? Is that I would just add that um both the documents that are attached um and and lots of other uh about the process are on the planning um on the town website under planning under planning board. Um those are all there on how to interact with a planning board. Um the process for each type um I think that's a site plan review but if there are other ones there and tell you how to do it. So all that is already currently on the website. Um so you can just that's a good resource to start and obviously we're always well welcome any questions. Yeah. And I think I think the planning board, particularly the chair, Phil Rock, does an a really good job of giving people a chance to be heard and working with the proponents and and interested parties to to arrive at um an approval that works and and make sure that makes sure that people are heard. Um so we just wanted to address that, share that, have this as a resource available to people when it when it comes up again. And I would say that I think as as one counselor, I think if you listen carefully to what comes up in planning board hearings, you you can hear and learn things that are important to think about in the future in terms of how to, you know, we are in in the case of Horno, you know, we're an education town. That's our business. You know, we we prioritize it. We take a lot of pride in it. Um, a lot of people work in that in that space and uh, but there's an impact that comes with being an education leader and providing resources in town and things like that and you know, how do we manage the impact to the best that we can is something we should be mindful of, but it's not something that you can really do in a planning board hearing. So, any questions or thoughts on those items? This is really helpful and it'll be a good guide for us moving forward as we as we talk to people about about projects. Um and I also give an update about the ordinance review committee. Sure. Thanks. Uh not much to report. Obviously we are we set the public hearing date for the as a council for the uh general assistance uh which uh our committee worked on mostly Shelly did a lot of work on. Um but uh we are going to be digging into a more narrow uh section of the solid waste chapter talking about business licensing um at our next meeting. A couple other items as well as trying to get a our sort of minds around how to form a a schedule for an interview into the future. So was a four year five year cycle and the rest lots of those questions. So, we next meet as a committee this coming Thursday. Um, and I believe it's 10:30 a.m. Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, Dan, on that one. I'll look it up. Let's say it's in the morning on Thursday, but it's posted to the website for anybody who's curious or not as good a planner on the website as I am. It's in my calendar, too. I just need to call it up. But yeah, it's Thursday morning. Okay. Was that it, Rob? Yes. Thank you. Sorry. No problem. So, um, we had added to to my, um, update was, uh, acknowledgement of the passing of Annie Brown. I understand Annie worked for, uh, the town of Orno in the finance department. I, I think she predated my time on the council or in town. I don't know if others have anything they'd like to say, but Mitch, do you have Sure. on that? Uh, so I I had the pleasure of working with Annie and she was here probably the first couple years I was here and there was a couple of other um staff members that are still here that worked with her. She worked for a long time for the town, did just about everything um as as people did um in her career. Uh but a wonderful person and just obviously uh cared a lot about the town and and continuing to move it forward. So saddened by the loss and and certainly condolences out to her family and her friends. Thank you, Mitch. Uh, town manager report. Okay, so there's a few things here. I feel like uh Clinton decided to leave and leave a whole bunch of stuff for the longest report he's ever had from town manager, but okay, we'll we'll start right from the beginning and uh go through and if anybody has any questions, certainly uh don't hesitate to stop uh stop me. First thing is um spring uh orno stops program and letter. Um I believe this was attached and was sent out to the the community. Um it really talks about um some kind of areas of focus um in the spring and things to think about. Um one is enhanced neighborhood patrols especially around uh university is um main days of service um and with unique activity that happens around that time. um noise control ordinances um looking at neighborhood noise reductions um in our ordinance talking about 6 pm and 10 pm as uh different places where you should be quieter as as those times go on. Um also railroad track safety um outdoor fire awareness um and oro stops at crosswalks uh just educating people on um what people need to do when they get to a crosswalk and somebody is in it. Um, so, um, as always, uh, emergencies, call 911, uh, has the police department dispatch and report a concern. Um, and also town council, um, contacting town council or staff. Um, if you have any concerns about this, certainly reach out uh to to staff. Um, the second thing is the uh, interpretive plan meeting, the Wabernaci interpretive plan meeting that was on April 4th. both Clinton and I uh met with um a group of folks from that are uh kind of helping us through this process. Um and it was a great meeting. Um we just kind of laid some ground rules. We talked a lot about um you know kind of where Oro is um kind of ideas of what they would need to to help us through this process and this is really a beginning beginning spot. Um, but it was a good conversation and excited about um, more things to come in the future. Um, fire department promotions. Uh, councelor Hardison took care of that for me. Thank you so much. Um, Westwood RRFB update. Um, so just got some information today. There there has been some challenges with it, but um, just found out that they will be installed on Thursday. um once they're installed. I'm not positive that they will be up and running day one, but um we're trying to get those out as quick as possible as the weather gets nice and and that sort of thing. So, that's exciting um movement on that. If you don't know what RFB are, those are the flashy lights that you poke and they go Yes, the flashy lights that ones that I get excited about. Um summer intern project summary. Uh if you have questions about this, you can certainly circle back with Clint, but uh the main town and city managers, um they actually have a uh internship program that you can apply for that they will actually pay for interns if they come work in a in a town and you give them a project. So, um Clint has kind of put that forth and looking at um you know, projects that they could help with and also get some experience um with the town. So, there's probably more to come on that in the future. um budget uh clarification schedule clarification. So I believe that um and I don't know I don't know how much this has been shared so this may be new but um we had uh a conversation and Clint has looked at changing the budget a little bit to on the 28th the manager is going to introduce a big budget and with that is going to get a summary document to council. A big picture budget. Yes. Big picture budget. So, it's the budget. You're going to get the big picture, but not all the little pieces behind it. So, it's going to be a summary, really easy easy to digest piece of that. Um, and discuss that because that's what was set to happen the next day. Um, after that, and if council has comments or suggestions, uh, with based on that information, the next day, meeting with, uh, town the senior staff to go through, make sure that everything is there, and by the 30th, the whole budget will be out to council. Um and at that time we'll have all the wonderful documents, all the backup, all the extras. Um so that's that was just an updated version of that. Um and and my understanding is the beginning of the budget will start with that summary document and then follow with um the additional uh minutia of of the wonderful um town budget. So um NEOGV and TRIO online payments. This is something that both Zach and Shelley have been working on for a long long time and Trio has uh has been working with us to try to get it up and go going. But basically, this is will allow people to have their own account uh in real time, see their tax payments, that sort of thing, and also be able to pay with a check online, which is big because paying with credit card, there are fees associated with that and that can be pretty big. So, um we're hoping that um get this up and going um for a May 1st launch. Um and hopefully we can work through any any challenges that come up with that. But that's exciting. Uh I know for a lot of folks um there uh is it going to Yep. Does it say the sewer bills be paid there too? I I believe that all the bills can be paid online with that account, but not not water, right? So, not water because that's not a town um department. So, sewer and and taxes and would be able to be paid there. Okay. Um just an update that um Clint uh signed a support letter for C CDS application for university uh around a new Cutler Health um building uh that they're proposing that would offer um basically some clinical uh space but also um some working uh space for folks to actually go and and get treated and um have you know a healthcare provider there and and that sort of thing. So pretty good combination of the the town and um also uh deals with some EMS with um the UVAC program up there having some space there and working with educating um folks in EMS. Uh so Clint did sign that. Um the last piece is a main state budget update and there has been some um movement around um LD 609 which contains uh some expect well there has been a let me just make sure I get this right. Um March 25th, a group of current and former main lawmakers submitted an application for people's veto referendum challenging the enactment of PL2025 C2 printed as LD 609. This bill contains the baseline appropriation expenditures necessary to close out FY25 and enable the state to continue its operation as of July 1 of this year. Among the FY20 2026 and FY2027 appropriations are 1 billion uh for K through2 education, 2.65 million each year for uh by annual for revenue sharing program and two uh 20.3 million in both FY26 and 27 to support county jail operations. Due to the submission of the application, the implementation of the budget is on hold. So basically there's a process that goes through if they get enough signatures that could put the budget on hold. Not sure where this is going. Um all this information is attached to the thing. So if you want to read further um you know just want people to be aware that that could um you know challenge us if if it does be put on hold. Now, there's no role for us as a count. I mean, there's not like there's a body that we could share an opinion with on this, right? Because it's out to people's veto and it's just Yep. So, um so we'll see where it goes, but just know that we're tracking that and um it would affect every community, not just us. Question on that. From a timing standpoint, it sounds like the budget is on hold. Um assuming they collect uh enough signatures, a budget is on hold until the November election. If they collect Yes. If they collect enough, that's my understanding. Okay. So then assuming they collect enough, that would impact us because our fiscal year starts on July 1. So, we wouldn't receive revenue sharing until at least after November, assuming this gets ironed out. Is that Yes, that's that's what this is suggesting. I mean, I think there's a lot of steps in the way. Yeah, I don't want to start uh some, you know, panic, but it this this is something that MMA has sent to us to make sure that we're aware of um and um figuring out ways to as we get closer and as this progresses, how we would deal with um a hesitation in funding. Yeah. So, I'm assuming we're also in the back of your mind to add to your growing list is contingency planning in case. Yep. Okay. I think they have until mid June to collect enough signatures. Is it Yeah, it's a lot of signatures, but if they have people behind them that are paying signature gatherers that can Yeah, it's um when do we is our state revenue sharing come in in like is it a lump sum type situation, Zach, or is it come in monthly? Okay, then um I wanted to thank I don't know if anyone has any other questions. I got a couple. I wanted to thank the the team for the work that went into the um the spring safety letter. I know that um Did you knock on any doors? Andre and I are planning to knock on some doors and share it with some people, but I was out of commission yesterday. So, I talked to a few of the tenants in and around Hillside Road and um they were pretty they were receptive to it and so Yep. I think it's going to I think it's going to benefit a lot of the neighbors and residents. Yeah. And it's I think it's a good a good way for us to remind folks, start the slow but steady work of kind of building a a culture of understanding around around what our neighborhood expectations are and um and those types of things. So, I appreciate the work that's gone into that and uh we'll continue to get the word out. Um I also wanted to um on the support letter uh the U main CDS application we we talked about that in our agenda planning meetings and I felt that um you know we use those meetings sometimes is and I just wanted to share this with council. We use those meetings as kind of a just a check-in opportunity for Clint with um with Sarah and I about things and things that are well within his his authority as a you know we don't need to bring these types of things. We didn't feel like we need to bring these types of things to council to get approval. It's going out under his signature and the town manager and his responsibility. So those types of things seem pretty reasonable for him to just go ahead and do and we just just wanted to share that we do Clint does work with us in that capacity to ask questions about those kinds of things from time to time and just letting you know. Okay. Um we do not have the town manager report was um lengthy but well delivered so thank you for that efficient um public petitions number 10. We don't have any public petitions. There any future agenda items and council requests for supporting items? I have a question about um the Webster Park. I don't know if this is the time to ask it. With the clearing that's gone on, are there any um plans for safety barriers or signs swim, you know, swim at your own risk or anything like that that's going to be going up? So, I will I can address the swim at your own risk. We don't typically put those because we're not telling you to swim at all. Um, so, you know, putting them out or kind of saying, "Hey, go do this." Um, you know, that's a tough place to be in the water that close to the dam anyways. So, I don't think we would put those signs out, but I'll let Bill follow that. Bill Cody, public works director. Andrea, what was the exact question? point. Just wondering where it's it's so cleared out now and especially with spring runoff, the water's moving pretty swiftly. There any safety barriers that are planned or any type of safety? No. Right now, no. What? Right now, if you were down there today, they were actually planting. Uh it's a new style of No, I shouldn't say it's a new style, but they're starting to plant some things to retain the soil, uh which will take about a year or so. Uh, we're going to put some stakes up, but that's more for the mowing crew to kind of where they can come and go. But yeah, I don't think there's any plans, like Mitch said, to put any kind of signage up around that. I think we could probably put something out um on social media just saying beware and be careful as as the river rises and and those sorts of things. But certainly we can do that. It's not illegal to swim in the river there, is it? Uh, no. Okay. Good. All right. I fall out of my kayak sometimes and it looks a lot like swimming by the time I get back on. Um All right. Um thank you. Um next up is public comment. Do we have any additional public comment this evening? Okay. And we're going to move into executive session. Um we may have a vote coming out of executive session. Right. for those that want to stick around. So, the first one we'll have a vote coming out of and then the second one we will not we will need to go into the other room because because we have a um remote counselor. Okay. Um for both. So, I would entertain a motion. So, for the members of the public um who would like to see any discussion or action taken by the council when we come back from executive session, we will be back. Um but I first we need a motion to to leave. Um, so I'd take a motion order 2571 going into executive session pursuant to one MRSA MRSA section 40560 regarding labor negotiations. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. And we need to do a roll call vote. Um, council Lway. Rob, you still with us? Okay. Council Hardison in favor. Council Dearis in favor. Council Powers in favor. Council Baker favor. All right, that's unanimous. We'll go into executive session. Zach, watch my stuff. We back on, Cody. We're back on. Okay. Thank you. The Orno Town Council is uh back in regular session from our executive session and we'll take a motion on order 2571. An order authorizing the town manager to execute a side agreement with appsme council 93 motion second. Okay. We had this presentation executive session. I don't know that we need a public just all this is is um is the memorandum understanding is around the uh full-time wage for the staff accountant that was not executed when we started. It was all agreed upon but we just uh hadn't had it executed. So this is just an execution of that memorandum of an agreement between um ask me and the town. Okay. I would say that our bargaining unit is brand new, right? We just started that a year ago or not even a year ago with our under our interim town manager. So um we have uh continue to to work to address any issues we have with that that bargaining unit. All right. Uh we'll do a roll call vote. Council Laray is not with us any longer, so I think we can just do this. Um, all those in favor of order 2570. We moved and seconded it, right? Y. Okay. All those in favor and that's unanimous. Four to zero. Now we'll go back into executive session. This time without any action um after the executive session for um pursuant to 1 MRSA 405 section 6C regarding acquisition of real property or economic development. Can I have a motion? Moved. Second. Somebody moved and seconded. And all those in favor?