oh yes that was crazy they were I love the uh student section aka the football team son five o' four o' good afternoon and welcome to the uh Monday March 10th meeting of the Oro Town Council we are starting uh the meeting at 4:00 today with hopes to be done by sunset in observance of Ramadan uh roll call shows that we have councel larway councel Hardison Council dearit councelor Kenny councelor Powers and councilor Baker and I am expecting Council marks I'll check my text to see if uh anything's changed from from her perspective item two on our agenda is agenda review uh this is a spot where we post don't always read word for word um what has been referred to committee the various Committees of the council um does anyone have any questions about what's in front of that or posted there any members of the council okay and we'll do committee updates later in the meeting um we have several tabled items that we'll get to today and under agenda review and clarifications I had um does anyone I have something did anybody else have anything before I take mine on okay under um we have several items that on the table for uh consideration of the 360 survey actions so I'm going to propose that as we take this on today that I propose that we discuss the 360 review memo we got from HR consultant Lori buard at the top of the discussion once we uh once we take up order 2537 and then I'm going to suggest that we move order 2542 the decision as to whether or not we hire a survey consultant or do the con do the survey work ourselves ahead of the two survey draft questions 2539 and 2540 I also for our consideration if we choose to go ahead with the surveys as drafted um I have a couple amendments that you know I could raise when we get to that point anybody have any concerns or questions about that so that's how we'll did you get that okay so that's how we'll proceed thank you Amanda um also I was in touch with on the um mini Grant proposal I was in touch with the uh applicant Isabelle C celnik and she's going to be with us after five and she'll give me a if she's not Belinda or in a fire First Responders uniform we'll know who she is when she gets here so uh we'll give her a chance to talk with us about what we've requ what she's requested um and if for any reason we're wrapping up before five I'll try and push that back to the very end to give her time to get here join us okay item three on our agenda is approval of minutes of February 24th 2025 could we get a motion for that so moved seconded moved and seconded any discussion all those in favor that is six to zero all all present voting in favor um oh Council marks we just approved the minutes okay uh IEM know four is public comment this is an opportunity for any member of the public either here or virtually to uh share their thoughts with the Council on any item that's not on our agenda are there any public comments anything Cody online no one with their hand raised online then we'll move on to item number five which is a presentation item on the comprehensive Plan update with Isabelle Oxley Our Town planner there she is hi there I do have a brief good I do have a brief presentation to share um so let me just get that started up here okay and hopefully you're seeing that on your side um so today's uh meeting is really just an update on the status of the comprehensive plan um we are sort of at a good point for this update that I'll get into in just a second um because we're transitioning from essentially phase two of the comprehensive Plan update into phase three so what I'm planning to cover this evening is some general feedback that I'm hoping to get from the council uh a little bit of context setting what is a comprehensive plan what's included and why do we plan uh an overview of the planning process and then really the meat of this conversation is going to be some common themes from public engagement thus far um some issues and opportunities that have been identified and I do want to note that uh I'm going to be looking for some feedback from Council on a draft vision statement this is something that the uh comprehensive plan committee is currently working on pulling together they had uh reviewed a uh sort of starter draft at their previous meeting and had some feedback and we're hoping to get some feedback from the council as well so that being said as we're going through this presentation I am hoping that you will consider the following questions specifically so do the priorities that have been expressed here match what you are hearing as you're out having conversations with community members and then if there's anything that Council would specifically like to see included within the vision statement that would be helpful for me to have as well and I do want to note that I know that this format and this meeting doesn't give us a ton of opportunity to have sort of in-depth conversation about that but if you'd like to um have this you know as a conversation topic and get back to me that's totally fine as well I'm just sort of setting the stage this evening so a comprehensive plan is in general a long range 10 to 12 year look at various topics that end up impacting a community's character its growth and its fiscal position it's also a datadriven guide to policy and programming decisions and public investment and perhaps most importantly it's a shared vision for the community's future and what you're seeing on the screen is sort of a diag that demonstrates how the comprehensive plan ends up impacting other facets of the town so you see that the comprehensive plan is sort of the starting piece um you might think of it if any of you are involved with nonprofits as sort of the Strategic plan for the town but that plan might also recommend other planning documents and studies that the uh Community should undertake uh also those plans and studies might in turn recommend uh amendments or Chang to town ordinances and finally uh might also recommend some changes to other policies and programming decisions so they all sort of impact impact the other uh this is sort of the framework pyramid of how we set up the comprehensive plan so you can see at the bottom that there's uh we're really basing this on Community Values or the core principles that are embraced by the community that inform the Community Vision and I'm going to spend a lot of time tonight talking about those Community Values as we've heard them throughout the planning process thus far and then the Community Vision which is sort of the highlevel statement describing the kind of community that Orno wants to be in the future and then we get a little bit more specific as we're going through this process so goals again some broad aspirational statements that help make that Vision a reality a little bit more specific objectives uh for how the goals will be carried out and then really specifically action steps and sometimes in comprehensive planning we think that the action steps are the most important part but really it really builds upon each other so we're trying to get a a great understanding of Community Values uh to inter turn inform this vision statement which is really where we are now and then if you've heard me talk about this before these are all of the um topic areas that are addressed within the comprehensive plan so you can see that it sort of touches on a lot of different facets of the community um again why do plan most importantly creating that community-driven vision for the future but also in Maine only communities with a State Certified plan can create certain policies like impact fee or zoning ordinances you have to have a comprehensive plan that recommends those items you also get preference with I think it's now up to 32 different state Grant programs um and comprehensive plan recommendations in general can give you some aake up with other Grant programs as well and then it also guides State investment in infrastructure towards certain areas so the state is really looking to invest uh specifically in designated growth areas they want to prioritize uh roadway improvements or other kind of investments in the designated growth areas that we designate as part of our comprehensive plan process um not to get into too much detail on this I think a lot of you have been participating in the process so far but just so you know we're sort of at the beginning of phase three at this point we've heard a lot of uh information from the public engagement we have a good idea of Community Values in my opinion which I'll talk about a little bit in just a second and we're at the point where we're actually creating some uh draft goals objectives and actions for the plan so just to get into a little bit more detail of what we've heard and what we've done so far um we had an online survey as you're aware that ran um it ran for about five weeks and we ended up getting about 200 we ended up getting 244 responses we also in October of 24 um had a public kickoff meeting where we had 26 attendees over two days really getting um some additional information about comprehensive planning and providing some initial feedback on the um project and then we really Dove down deep in November and December where we went into topic exploration meetings so the topic exploration meetings will end up really uh feeding into the work that we're doing now in phase three as we hear from folks or as we heard from folks about frankly fairly specific uh issues and opportunities that they want to see addressed around the four uh sort of priority topic areas that were identified through the online survey and that was housing economy down and downtown active transportation and outdoor recreation and natural resources and then in January uh Clint really facilitated uh a your voice matters visioning event um where we had about 40 attendees uh in person giving some feedback and a lot of what you you'll hear tonight is based on that event as well and then just to let you know we do have one more major uh public engagement Workshop so once we go through and create some draft goals objectives and actions and actually create that future land use plan that designates growth areas uh once we have a draft of that to share we'll be having a future land use Workshop to get feedback on those things specifically related to land use and Zoning work that the plan recommends um so back to the priority Focus areas uh what you're seeing here housing active Transportation the economy downtown Outdoor Rec Recreation and natural resources were and I don't think this necessarily surprises anybody but this were the priority topics that came out of our online survey tabling events that we had at the farmers market um and at Orno brewing a and at um trun or treat in October we had these sort of highlevel conversations with community members really trying to understand where their priorities were and that's the topic areas that came out of those discussions and then the Community Values was based a little bit more specifically on both the online survey but especially the community visioning event that we had back in January and out of that conversation we heard a lot of uh reaction and feedback and what I tried to do was in some cases people had very specific um things that they wanted to see addressed and so I went through and attempted to assign a sentiment to each of those things so that we could uh Zoom back out a little bit and create some Community Values out of that although we still have the sort of background data that fed into these values so that we can use those to address um the recommendations as well as we drill back down so in terms of Community Values we heard a lot about Community cohesion in general diversity of businesses and creating economic Vitality uh providing a variety of housing options for all income levels and all age groups increasing and maintaining Public Service capacity and then reducing vehicular traffic and or increasing alternative modes of transportation so to get into those values a little bit more Community cohesion we sort of defined broadly as the ability of a community to function together harmoniously tackle common problems provide Mutual support respect one another's diversity and work together towards a shared Vision uh at that January 8th event we got 113 responses to a question just generally asking what folks um vision is for the future uh essentially for the next 10 to 12 years and this specifically was mentioned by 29 um of those 113 responses or about 25% of the responses and this was generally things like you know knowing your neighbors having some events um having just general uh Community Support and then we heard a lot around diversity of businesses and economic Vitality so this was also a really big um topic area in the online survey that we also ran and this was mentioned by 21 of 113 responses at the January 8th event or about 19% of the responses and then on the online survey just so you know this was again also a pretty big priority so attracting more retail and service businesses was voted number the number three highest strategy that would most improve quality of life out of 13 and on question 10 on the online survey we asked just broadly what do you wish was within a 10-minute walk from your house and um 60 about 60% of responses answered a Neighborhood Grocery Store or general store and 41% said a restaurant coffee shop or bar and really what the response is here uh from our January 8th event focused on was attracting a wide variety of businesses so specifically uh there was mention of job creators of like 10 or more employees and then also increasing our general economic Vitality by filling vacant business uh filling vacant bus buildings increasing feet on the street in and around downtown by having more people living there and playing there so doing some again festivals downtown events things like that there was also uh a lot of mention of providing housing options so this was mentioned by about 18% of the responses and then also on the online survey we were hearing things about uh expanding housing options for all income and ages that was actually voted the number one strategy that would most improve quality of life in Orno over the next 10 to 12 years on the online survey and then on question seven uh 54% indicated that in their View there has not been enough single family home development in Orno over the last 5 years in general the desire to increase housing options was uh specifically centered around sort of uh what we refer to as missing middle or starting or starter home construction um but what I I understand that Council has sort of been referring to as that attainable housing goal and then also family housing as well um and that was based on some data that was provided around the decline in family housing in Orno over the past uh 10 to 20 years and then uh we also heard a lot around enhancing or maintaining our Public Service capacity so generally Public Service capacity is the ability of a municipality to provide services you know Public Works roadway maintenance Water and Sewer Recreation programs and fire and uh police protection around about 15% of responses from that January 8th meeting referenced um either calling this out directly as a need or many responses would effectively end up requiring an increase in service capacity to accommodate What Might Have Been a more specific suggestion like um you know enhancing Landscaping at town-owned properties or proactive code enforcement or things like that and then we also heard and again I don't think this is necessarily going to surprise you but we also heard a lot of conversations around reducing vehicular traffic or uh increasing alternative modes of transportation again this was mentioned by about 15% of the responses from our January 8th meeting uh where some offered some specific improvements that they'd like to see and others were a little bit more broad or they generally encourage the construction of sidewalks or Trails or advocate for the expansion of public transit again going back to our online survey improving bicycle infrastructure was voted the number two out of 13 strategy that would most improve quality of life over the next 10 to 12 years and then we also asked um how important are the following attributes to making Oro a place where you'll want to live during the next 10 to 20 years and about 74% of responses rated walkability and pedestrian infrastructure as as very important to them Isabelle is that 17 is that 73% of the 17 or 73% of the 113 uh that's actually 73% of the total 244 responses to the online survey all right great thanks so just in terms of next steps um I'm working again working with the comprehensive plan committee to sort of create and refine the vision statement uh that's a highlevel statement that describes the kind of community that Oro wants to be by the year 2035 which is sort of the lifespan of this plan if we adopt it on schedule later this fall uh we'll be talking about that more at our April 2nd meeting um and then we will dive into the development of goals objectives and actions and I want to note that I talked about the priority Focus areas because a lot of the work on the development of goals and objectives will be around prioritizing implementation we obviously have fairly limited resources and we have to prioritize what is the most important to the community so those priority Focus areas will be sort of the higher priority for implementation over the next 10 years then we also need to develop a few future land use plan designate growth and rural areas and uh after we work with the committee on that we'll have a draft available for folks to uh review and react to and we'll have a future land use specific Workshop to get some public feedback on that and I do just want to note on that last point that that is a little bit of a deviation from the scope that Council had originally approved or or had originally looked at rather um we had anticipated that we would have sort of a future land use Workshop and then utilize that feedback to inform a draft um and we thought after talking with staff and the committee that it would work better if people had something to actually rev review and react to rather than just coming with sort of broad uh feedback and conversation especially around land use where that's a plan so that's all I have from you I think we have a little bit of time for questions um so happy to answer those or if you have any initial feedback that you'd like to give that would be great as well heyy does anyone have any members of the council have any questions or feedback at this point gu yes um I definitely want to acknowledge uh all of the hard work that this committee has done and I attended maybe one or two of the meetings um but I know they've worked really hard at getting public input and getting the public out to to give their input um I think one of the biggest obviously one of the biggest challenges is still that even at 20 how many people did a survey 240 244 yeah I mean it's still less than 3% of our population that's the and it's I'm sure it's a challenge in every community so we're not unique that way but I I do I guess have some concerns about suggesting you know when we have you know 25 out of out of some group that said one thing or another that's that's three % of the population so it's unfortunately and and again there's no I don't know what there's I don't think there's a solution but weighing it weighing those that feedback which is critically important but having it change the direction of our community I think is is a little challenging also so I don't I don't know if you have any if this you've probably done this maybe at other places Isabelle and uh it's probably typical but that that's my concern with it doesn't take many you know 25 people to come and say one thing and that's okay we're going to we have to turn the whole direction of the community because of that which I think is a little bit challenging okay any other um questions or feedback I have one item but anybody okay well I wanted to thank Isabelle you and the and the committee that been working really hard I was at your meeting last week and I thought you're doing I think you're doing a phenomenal job of trying to synthesize the comments sometimes different comments um that come together in these discussions and and and trying to chase it down to a point where there's a you know something that can be articulated in terms of consensus so uh tip of the cap to you and your good work with this um I did want to ask you in the discussion last week there was talk about the schools and what we have to do to with enrollment challenges and some of the feeder communities that send their students to Oro High School or I don't know if they come to the um middle school or elementary schools as well but some of the conversation was you know we're having a a challenge with our schools be the oral schools because the surrounding communities the enrollments are declining so there smaller pool of of students to send here and of course they have other choices other than Orno as well does it make sense when we talk about attainable housing and and more affordable housing to maybe link that metric to some something we more tangible I don't know what enough housing is but I I do know that it's a problem if we're losing if we don't have the enrollment we need to maintain what is clearly an extremely successful school system here in Oro so I wonder and I guess I would i' put it to you and and others is that something we want to be thinking about in terms of something tangible to link the housing piece to uh so we're we're thinking in terms of if we need to have this many houses that appeal to families of schoolage children so that the oral School has the the student population it needs to be we pride ourselves on being an education leader in Maine the country and probably the world so what is that number going to be and I'd like us to think about that as uh as we move forward so just a comment thank you could have been an email but you know you're here so I decided to do it today all right thanks anybody else all right that completes this presentation is Belle thank you so much for joining us and we'll see you again soon item six is acknowledgements by council members and we'll start with councelor Baker's side of the table and move our way across uh nothing at this time okay Council Powers Yeah I'd like to just acknowledge that um we wrapped up a fantastic season of unified basketball at um our high school which is affiliated with the Special Olympics and the Oro High School team had a lot of participation including our exchange student U from Belgium who had a very fantastic time being involved in that organization and if you're not familiar with unified basketball or Sports just uh go ahead and Google it it's pretty cool okay councelor Kenny uh nothing at this time councilor marks nothing at this time Council harderson just want to thank all of the members who are part of the Orno neighbor to neighbor Facebook page um it's a if you're not on it it's a great place to get advice suggestions um and ask for help and which it takes a lot of courage to ask for help so to see the amount of responses that have been on the page of what can we do has been great and thanks to the fire department for being here tonight Council lway nothing new okay well not because the fire department is here but um I swear I was in my notes Council marks you'll best verify I just I really enjoyed seeing the Facebook post about uh Dennis Bean's retirement party and wanted to thank Dennis for his 34 years of service I also wanted to thank the community for coming together to help celebrate that was one of the more enjoyable Facebook posts i' I've seen so that was great um and it just I'm just lucky like that that there are people in the room I can Pander to when I have something to say so um that concludes acknowledgements and we'll move on to item number seven we split our consent agenda into two two buckets tonight um so a me one member of the council with a conflict on one item could recuse herself from that vote um as is always the case with a consent agenda any member of the council or any member of the public could ask us to pull one of the items off the consent agenda uh and move it to an action item where we could have a discussion so that I would entertain a motion on consent agenda a so moved second moved and seconded any discussion well no discussion all those in favor okay that passes unanimously the same on consent agenda B anybody want to take this off and make an action item being none could we have a motion so moved seconded moved and seconded all those in favor of consent I was just going to say I'm abstaining from this vote um all those in favor of consent agenda Item B okay no opposed and one abstained so congratulations um to Brian harison thank you we don't usually talk about it but thank you yes sir I just wanted to add that we're having a swearing in ceremony for Brian tomorrow at 9: just make sure everybody knows that all right it's going to be next door in the fire station yes okay great thank you Council harison I don't think you don't have to um you know recuse yourself from that if you don't want you can go if you want all right now we're on to action items um and I would take first a uh a motion to put order 2551 on the table moved second moved and seconded um does either the town manager or the chair of the ordinance committee have something to share with us on this we're doing order 21 2551 the order approving ordinance amendments to the town of Oro ordinances chapter 2 Administration okay I I would say for the benefit of the public this has been a process that we've been undergoing for um well does any member of the public have something to say on this matter before we have Council discussion if I don't ask the public for something you got public first then count Staff first then public then Council discussion and then we move on um so now that we've asked the public if they had any to say and they did not I would say that uh this is a process that um started with the ordinance Review Committee um with staff came in and talked to us about transitioning to a Personnel handbook as opposed to having all of our different uh Personnel policies uh placed in ordinance and how cumbersome that is on a you to update find and be aware of so this is all part of that process we've had sever a couple different committee meetings we've had a public hearing several lots of discussion um and we're ready to move this so if there's no more discussion okay all those in favor of order 2551 and that's unanimous 7 to zero could we have an order um a motion on order 2552 in order approving the ordinances amendments to the town of Oro ordinances chapter 28 Personnel moved second moved and seconded any comments from staff any comments from the public okay and any discussion from Council this is again a part of that we got three or three action items for the same general area okay all those in favor of order 2552 and that's unanimous and finally order 2553 um in order establishing the oral Personnel policy handbook so moved second then seconded anything from staff anything from the public who does CL you have have something no okay and uh again this is the final piece and we'll revisit this every year is that correct so and all those in favor and that passes unanimously excellent so we now have a handbook and really pleased with that work I take a motion to put um for order 2554 order removing orders 25 37 38 39 40 and 42 from the table moved second moved and seconded any discussion all those in favor okay this was a procedural item from our last meeting um Okay order could we have a motion to put order 20 to begin discussions on order 2537 in order accepting the nominations evaluations and Council policies committees propose schedule and process for Town manager and Town Council 360 degree performance survey and town manager evaluation so second moved and seconded okay Council marks do you have anything as the chair of the committee that you'd like to share um not really anything new from the last meeting but just to call folks attention that this vote is to um approve the basic schedule and the basic process for how we would do these not any specific survey or a consultant thank you Sarah um I did want to as part of this discussion I did I did want to bring up um first I think that we had a long discussion about this at our last meeting uh two weeks ago and in the inter room um as part of that meeting we approved asking our HR consultant to provide a memo on the 360 review process as it was uh put forward as as part of this recommendation from our our nominations evaluations and Council policies committee that memo is in our binder in our material that available to us and and the public under um order 2540 it's a 360 review memo pardon me I I thought that was really valuable kind of a high level in terms of what we were what we were proposing to do and I would call our attention to as we discuss other parts of what's before us today um a recommendation from Lori bushard that um we have an outside party administered the 360 and publish the report so I just wanted to call people's attention to that and she also made the point um that having someone outside the town you know apart from the council would be important for trust in the process for anonymity and confidentiality and when we come back to the talking about if and who we want to choose as a consultant I think I'm going to raise that as a as an issue for us to talk about as well um because we one of the proposals we have in front of us is someone who's very well known to us and was very recently on the council herself so that's something I think we ought to talk about when it comes to that is there anything um any member of the public wish to be heard on order 2537 okay any further discussion all those in favor it's unanimous thank you then next up is order 2538 order amending the town manager's contract to reflect the new schedule and process for 360 Degree performance surveys and town manager evaluation could I have a motion moved seconded moved and seconded it's a little unsettling when six people leave your meeting at the same time um anything Sarah from you on this as a as a projector yeah just just to highlight again that this contract change is simply to reflect the schedule that we just voted on because originally in um our town manager's contract there was a slightly different schedule proposed for this so we're not doing anything here except trying to match things up to the schedule and the process we've just voted on and I guess I should say that we went through the process in the contract which is that the town manager and the council both have to agree on those changes Our Town manager has indicated his agreement to the proposed changes this is our chance to indicate our agreement okay are there any comments from the public on this matter okay Clint do you you all set yep thank you for your uh collaboration on this any discussion from Council okay all those in favor of order 2538 amending the town manager's contract thank you excellent passes unanimously now we're going to move I got it right um can I take a motion for order 2542 moved second okay order 2542 is an order authorizing the Town Council chair to execute an agreement with a consult to conduct data analysis and collection of surveys for the town manager and Town Council 360 degree performance surveys Council Marx would you present um I I walked us through this last time but just a quick highlight that if you look at the recommendations document and you go to page six um the committee laid out three possible options we already have not done option one which would have involved not hiring any consultant including our HR consultant so we've already worked with the HR consultant um so the options left are whether we stop there and run the rest of the survey process ourselves or whether we also hire a data analyst um to uh input the DAT survey that's created into Survey Monkey create the Survey Monkey be the resource person to answer questions for the community should any problems arrive um enter any paper survey into that document and then at the end provide a short analysis pasting the kind of graphs and things out for us uh for us to look at um there are two different um options of consultant um so as you continue to scroll and you end up on page seven the cost for each of those different Consultants is there we have Gary Friedman and Associates giving us two different pricing options one is to create the two surveys and do the analysis uh that's for $2,000 the second option is to do that plus come and present in person to the council that would be $2500 um the other Quotes come from Dr Sonia berel there are three options there one is simply an hourly fee of $75 an hour the other is a $600 flat fee to do the same thing that Gary Friedman and Associates is quoting us at 2,000 and then $1,000 fee uh to do the same thing that Gary Friedman Associates is quoting us at 2500 um I don't think I have anything further to say if folks have questions though on uh I also provided a list of what was seen as advantages and disadvantages by the committee to each of these Consultants they both came highly recommended extremely good references no problems there okay any members of the public would like to hear be heard on this before we have a council discussion okay the is there any councilor have any thoughts for us as we I mean there two questions one question first we need to decide if we want to if we want to hire a consultant or if we want to do it ourselves and then if we decide yes we want a consultant we need to um pick an option and give me some direction on who to who to negotiate with and I I assume that would involve a um amending the uh if it's a will of the account we could either amend the order or we could just do it based on um you know the intent of the council we express I assume I would prefer for cleanliness sake I'd prefer to amend the order and have it as part of the minutes if we decide to hire a consultant Jacob so I again you know going back to my statements I me last meeting that I I I don't like the I I don't like the idea of um paying a consultant for what we can do ourselves and I say that knowing full well that uh a no vote means that I'm volunteering to do it myself um so I'm I'm weighing that but I also you know have said multiple times that uh I generally trust the people who we pay to tell us things um so I think that yeah I guess I'm I'm torn between you know spending the money and listening to The Experts that we pay to tell us um what we should do so I I guess you know that being said if Lori says that you know we really should hire a consultant then I think that we should um I I have stronger opinions about who that should be but um I think unfortunately if the you know Consultants tell us we should do something I think we should listen to them okay and yes Council Kenny I'm not so much of that opinion that if a consultant tells us that we should do something that that we automatically do it um and you know we had a long conversation about this at the last meeting um and I've heard back from the high from the high school from the school School Board um I think we all agreed that this is sort of um it's a data point it's not something that one I don't it's not a pay raise kind of thing or anything like that this is a data point that we have to take with a grain of salt basically because it's going to be a small number of people that respond and we know that it's going to be they're probably likely to be extremes of people that will will respond um and knowing that the the the school and I think the school went through this you know a lot of iterations on how we should do it and everything now I think they've been doing doing it themselves for five years or however however long now um and I think I think that's what we should be doing just because of the because of what this is again it's it's a data point this isn't a this isn't a be all end all um um what else what else was my thought oh well yeah and I think you know depending it it doesn't I don't we I have no no idea how many we would get but I think it's incumbent on us to read them and and understand them this you know I I I think passing that Duty off to somebody to tell us what this means is a little bit of shering our duties so that's that's uh I'm not I'm I'm still not like I I think we all I felt like we all were last I'm still not in support of uh Outsourcing our this this job okay CC marks um thanks to both of you and I I just wanted to clarify that no matter whether we hire a consultant or not the recommendations from this committee are clear that as a council we read every uh response that comes in that the raw data will come to the council and I would expect that we would all read that anybody else yeah I guess I would also add just in response to a portion of way you you raised Leo is um I'm not totally opposed to the idea of us doing it ourselves either I I do take very seriously as Jacob said the uh um the recommendations of rhr consultant who so far has been very helpful and quite professional and you know knows what she's doing um but I also don't think it would be a shering of our our duties uh necessarily to have somebody who has experience in these matters U be able to look at the data and give us some analysis of it even as we will also as Sarah just pointed out um do our own initial um as individuals analysis of it and then come to discuss our opinions with uh some information from the the analysis that we would get from the outside consultant if we went that direction okay anyone else I would um share that I I would prefer I I also take um the advice that we hire someone to do it um seriously I I'm pleased that there are funds have already been identified as part of you know how we' pay for this for existing resources um and I would say I have worked with uh Sonia berel uh professionally outside of our role as counselor as you know the council and the the community of Orno um on a project she and I she partnered with me on on a project and I would recommend her to any perspective um and except perhaps the Oro Town Council so I'm concerned it's just because if if the consultant tells us we want to maintain give every assurance that there's confidentiality and um for those reasons why the council should not do it Sonia's known and um I think a a very friendly to you know we have a very good relationship with Sonia from our service on the council and I just um I hate for that to cost her a work opportunity but I think she'd also understand given the advice that um it maybe makes sense to have to work with someone who's got more indep clear independence from from this body um so I'm going to suggest if there's no other comment on that I'm going to suggest um an amendment to order um 2539 or no wait order 2542 um authorizing the Town Council chair to execute an agreement with and fill in the blank is it readed what's the Freedman and Associates Freedman and Associates thank you to conduct data analysis and collection of surveys for the town manager and Town Council 360 degree performance surveys um so I'll make that motion can we clarify which level though Dan I would just like to say that um the one thing I I do feel strongly about I have I agree with everything everyone has said it's a there's advantages and disadvantages to any way we do it what I would not like us to do is pay the high fee to have a formal presentation to Council on this data I do not think we need that I think we just need to get a report back so um I agree okay I would accept a I would offer a friendly Amendment then to say that to ex execute you you thank you um the executing agreement she's just yeah Dan I got it um executing agreement with the consultant to conduct data analysis and collection of surveys uh and and not at the $2,000 at the $2,000 quoted fee for the town manager and the Town Council 360 degree performance surveys so that's a motion is there a second second okay any discussion on the motion okay I just wanted to point out just um just a quick look back at our budget sheet that Jacob has presented to us last year but it it gave us this idea about every time we spend a certain amount as a council what that really means to homeowners so so I just want to put that in perspective that you know for a $22,000 fee based on that calculation that comes out to be a dollar for someone who owns a $300,000 house and about 35 cents if you own a $100,000 one so I think that's just there for us I'm trying to encourage us to do that every time we vote so I'm putting it out there okay um if there's no discussion then um all those in favor of the uh amendment to order 2542 that's six in favor all those opposed one opposed the council Kenny is opposed and is there any discussion now on the um underlying order as amended okay all those in favor of order 2542 as amended that is six in favor and anybody opposed councilor Kenny's opposed order 2542 passes 6 to1 okay thank you now that takes us back to um order 2539 could someone throw that on the table for us so moved moved and seconded there an order accepting the Draft Town Council 360 degree performant survey proposed by the nominations evaluations and Council policies committee Council marks do you have anything for us on that as the chair of the committee um I'm just going to highlight here that the committee brought this forward because we really want to hear from Council if you feel good about the direction of this survey we spent a lot of time on it so you'd have something concrete to look at um I just my goal here as much as anything is to hear from counselors if this isn't the basic kind of survey you would like to see going out so in addition to any vote we do or don't take please let us know if you have opinions is this looking basically like how you'd like to go or not okay any comments from members of the public or the member of the public okay any other comments I have a suggestion to move us forward um in terms of I'd like to propose an amendment um that reads 2539 order directing the nominations evaluations and Council policies committee to work with the uh survey consultant to finalize the Draft Town Council survey based on the input from the town's HR consultant and Council discussions love it move it sry so moved so moved is there a second second okay any discussion on the amendment all those in favor um can I just I I'm totally in favor and I do need the council to actually have a discussion so let I I mean when you say to do that in cons consultation with the consultant and any Council feedback right so can we just have a council discussion do people feel basically fine about this we developed this based on it's a committee based on the same style that the schools use um it's been looked at by our HR consultant Lori Bard at this point saying you know there were specific areas she recommended we flip a lyer scale um possibly add some more categories to the demographic question so we would certainly bring those points already into discussions with the consultant who's been hired to tweak those details but if there's any other detail or any other comment from Council now's your time what I don't want to do is spend consultant paid hours and more committee hours perfecting something if in fact Council in July is going to say no we don't like this format at all so please speak up now and just say we hate it we love it or it's good enough something this looks good to me until we until we get the data back and find the stuff that we should have put on there that we didn't think about until afterwards and then we'll just amend it next year but for now I mean you got to start with something that's my feeling Leo's got a thumbs up I see Council Baker seems satisfied I was gonna say I'm on the committee so I like the questions that we came up with Andrea and Dan who are not on the committee feeling okay yeah the one one thought I had for you is and it's not a necessarily it's not it's softer than a request um a little harder than a suggestion um that you consider putting our goals up at the top you know our most recently uh iterated or articulated goals up at the top other than that I think you did really well um and I appreciate the chance to all the thought that went into this and that's from the council survey you're talking about not manager correct okay thank you I put a note on that Leo were you saying something else down there you're good okay thank you all good so the uh pending question is the amendment to order 2539 that was loved and moved and seconded all those in favor of order 2539 she said love I was sitting right here let the record reflect that pass unanimously okay I would take a motion on order 25 oh now we're going to go back but thank you um now the question before us is the underlying order itself that has been amended any discussion on acting on order 2430 2539 as amended okay all those in favor and that passes unanimously all right I think we're going to rinse and repeat hopefully on order 2540 could I get a motion to put order 2540 on the table moved second moved and seconded Order 2540 an order accepting the Draft Town manager 360 degree survey degree performance survey proposed by the nominations evaluations and Council policies committee Council marks you have anything for us say the chair of that committee I do not it pretty much a repeat of the last what I would say yes any comments from the public if there's no discussion I'm going to propose an amendment that order I would amend order 2540 to read order directing the nominations evaluations and Council policy committee to work with the survey consultant to finalize the Draft Town manager survey based on the input from the town's HR consultant and C Council discussions could I have a motion on that Amendment so moved second moved and seconded any discussion and now would be a good time for that Council discussion that Council marks asked for in the last one another thumbs up another up looks positive how's it looking at this end Andrea Dan I see no objections okay no objections we're g to be pleased with what comes back in July when based on the timing okay all those in favor of the amendment okay all right that passed unanimously and now we need to act on order 2540 any discussion on the final order okay all those in favor of order 2540 as amended okay that is unanimous excellent excellent work we dispense with a lot of important work on this and this is a process that we've been talking about for some of us for a couple years some of us for longer than a couple years so congratulations to those and thank you next up can I do the next one now Okay order 2555 an order authorizing the town manager to enter into an agreement with three-point cleaning of Bangor main for janitorial services for $1,120 per week due to an upcoming temporary staff shortage with funds drawn from operating budget as an overage to wages could I have a motion so moved second mov in secondly staff have something for us on this other than what's been presented um I would just add again Public Works director wasn't here but I said I would share more um this was the 11 120 is per week it could be less hours than 40 a week they're going to kind of see what it takes as they go um but again there are some areas that they can't go in that our staff could because of certifications and going into secured police areas um they're not going to go through the riggers to do that for a temporary deal and it could be anywhere from 16 to I would not expect more than 24 weeks okay any discussion or questions from members of the public hey Darren good to see you sorry yeah Ramadan start Sunset so we started early today I texted everybody out I well sorry um any discussion sorry you threw me off any discussion from members of the council yep all those in favor of order 2555 that's unanimous and appreciate staff bringing us a a solution um order 2556 an order dedicating a bench in Webster Park in Memorial to Kathy field can I have a motion moved seconded moved and seconded and it looks like we're going to hear from Megan Masala our Parks and Recreation director or manager or director director yeah thank you thank you um hi everybody uh we had a request from the fields family uh looking to make a memorial bench in Webster Park as outlined in the memo um I requested from the family a formal proposal so their words and their wishes were clearly communicated um to those which are again included in the uh Council agenda tonight um I'm happy to answer uh specific questions as how the process would proceed um the family is here tonight so if there are specifics or anything like that I'm sure they'd be happy to to share about their loved one as well I just add kind of the process there's no formal procedures so we're using kind of the structure that is long as it's uh agreeable within the staff's review of the sites that these types of donations are not only appreciated but welcomed um but again not being able to foresee every possible person would come forward we wouldn't want to accept a donation that could be hard for our staff to maintain or oversee so that's the way we're handling them for now okay any other questions from about this is the staff presentation and we'll open it up to members of the public and then we'll have Council discussion any questions for staff okay thank you any comments from members of the public we'd love to hear from you come on up you want to make sure the light is on on the I think it's um my name is Jesse field My Father John Field um thank you Megan I just want to say Megan's been really really great with the correspondence through this and um I don't have a whole lot to say just besides it would mean a lot to the family to have a memorial so before I get choked up yeah not there thank you thank you any questions yeah if you have any questions have no but just want to say thank you and and sorry for your loss and we appreciate than this this offering so thank you is this a would your dog swim here my dog likes to swim here the most and so does Sarah by the way Sarah swims here all the time Sarah's dog or Sarah Sarah swims in the river yeah yeah I swam as as a kid there a little bit but yeah the dogs definitely would swim there too y that's excellent thank you for your kind words about Megan as well y thank any comments comment discussion from Council Council marks yeah I also just want to say thank you so much to the family and as Dan says I do swim there and um I I was many times there where I saw Kathy and John there in the park with the dogs at this spot and it's a lovely gesture on your part to make such a kind donation to The Community um that I know fits so well with things Parks and Rec has been wanting to increase in the park anyway so thank you for that kindness and um huge loving memories to your family well said Thank You Council Baker yeah I used to live right down the street from John and Kathy and my wife knew their dogs names before we actually knew their names so um they were staple of the neighborhood and um it was phenomenal I didn't realize you know Kathy had done everything you know she had done um until I read through so quite an amazing woman and um thank you for bringing this okay all those in favor of seeing no further discussion all those in favor of order 2556 dedicating a bench in Webster Park in memory to Kathy field great that's unanimous thank you thank you for being here tonight okay order 2557 is an order approving the minig grant request for $750 plus $500 con concert sponsorship from Jeff Gordon Jeffrey Gordon for public social events focused upon Argentine Tango could I have a motion so moved second second seconded okay does anyone have anything other than uh staff or anyone have anything from the proponent that they'd like to share Council Powers so I although I have never Tangoed in my life and probably never will and that's fine I have watched other people Tango and I have watched this particular group demonstrate some of their tango and I also know how it can bring a crowd around and I think I I personally um think this is a great program and I'd like to do our little part to help support it and and have it here in Oro okay any other qu I had a question about the sponsorship piece and is that different than is that above and beyond the minig grant piece Cil marks is is that your question as well yeah a little bit I I mean I think beyond that for me I looked at I there's a budget here that's attached and I guess I understand the request to help sponsor the concert and I feel good about that part but I'm not at all clear what the 750 would be going to in terms of the entire Tango program and I guess I I haven't perceived these minig grants myself to be something that we're giving to support an ongoing program in town so my inclination is I'm in favor of 500 toward the concert and the 750 toward General support for Tango Club doesn't make sense to me unless there's some more details I'm not understanding so if there are some details anyone else has talk to Jeff or staff has to provide to understand that 750 I would be comfortable with the 500 toward the concert but not the other part I agree so anyone have any more insights into I we have the application material which I read through um I've been a really big fan of the use of the Keith Anderson um Community House for this purpose and um bringing people together and it seems to align with kind of the the idea behind the community grant minig grant to me um if we feel like we can't if we need more information from the proponent I'd rather table it and ask him to get back to us with more than than turn down or we could act on the 500 and hold the 750 for next time if that's where Council Council Baker I guess I I kind of agree with Sarah but I guess my biggest point is that we put a 750 limit on these so um in the aggregate that would be more than 750 which is why I'm inclined to do exactly what Sarah suggested I guess I and I'm not sure what that budget all of that was to be honest but I would guess I would lean towards graning the 750 and not the 500 but maybe that's okay that was what I was going to say like I'm perfectly comfortable if we want to put 750 and they toward the concert and that's the same I mean it's 750 then which is the max but I'm not comfortable going over 750 for sure and and I don't even know plus 500 concert sponsorship from Jeff Gordon so I don't even know if that's meant to be from the Grant I I don't really know how what the hell that's meant but I'm I'm comfortable with a 750 leave it when I read the the budget the only thing I would say is is that he was showing and the way I was reading this is that Tango main was asking for 750 although there's no amount that matches that exactly he also showed his expense budgets in the same there was a separate request for 500 as a sponsor so he is asking for a total of 12250 which I have understood you said 750 but again the way I see this is that um and maybe Tango main is making that 750 themselves but I did see a 500 line for cont contributions from contributors so you see you go across the top you have four different sources of revenue but as you go down the left it's showing the expenses they those things would fund um there is no breakdown for the full 1250 of where the money would go that I could see is there based on the discussion and the preferences um expressed is there a motion to amendment to order 25 57 I would make an amendment that we Grant 750 to the Tango Club to spend on said concert and does other expenses is that fine does that work for you Mana okay there a second second second okay any discussion on the amendment okay all those in favor the of council Mar is amendment to 2557 okay that's for so it'll be $750 and any discussion on the underlying order okay all those in favor of order 2557 as amended okay that passes unanimously um going to hold on order 2558 if Council will indulge to give uh Isabelle uh perhaps a little more time to get here it's just after 5:00 and she said she join us after 5: so we got a little bit more stuff so I'll put this aside for a few minutes minutes okay we're going to move to order 2559 an order authorizing the town manager to enter into an agreement with Fraser signal Technologies at Vis main of Bey main for Signal improvements on Main Street at Pine Street and benck road for a cost of $58,900 can we get a motion on that moved second okay moved and and seconded uh staff presentation guess I'm up so we received an email this all relates back we've had a lot of meetings with the main Department of Transportation about the issues that are going on here and we had a great opportunity to meet with uh division which is at of Bangor they came here we shared some of our concerns and some of the projects they were doing from route two to Still Water to Crossing flash rfbs um in that conversation um we started discussing the troubles that this intersection in the lights have been causing the town for quite some time he had some of his engineering staff with him they started reviewing it and said let us go do some looking he said well email us when you know what you may have and he said nothing official but they look into it they've looked into it and they'd like to upgrade the the control components the brains if you will from a lay person's terms of that traffic signal intersection that would be a full update so that any improvements as we go forward but it would show immediate Improvement for Crossing signals lights Etc this would not be upgrades to the lights themselves is my understanding so the red white red yellow green that you see would stay but everything that runs them and operates them and how they could be timed how they could be controlled would be done this is a 5050 split state pays half we pay half this is what backx does this is a traditional funding format um since it's a 6 to8 month timeline we know that we're ending the year with we're going to be under budget because we're not able to complete all project s and then we're also building in some some extra into next year's budget process that you will see as we bring it forward so um we're suggesting it it's an it's a project that's funded through this year and next year's operating costs for infrastructure on roads okay any uh questions for staff before we open it up for public comment yeah if you have a question for Clint based on what he just told us if you want to yeah no it's not the opposite for someone who's never Tango you know Matt you've never seen Tango before me me and Leo Tango I was waiting I knew someone was gonna say that all right you have any any any clarification questions for Clint but what he just said otherwise I'm gonna clarification questions only okay clarification question um when this says the intersection the streets didn't make sense to me so I think think it said that it was Pine Street and benck which don't actually intersect so are we talking about the controls that do both of those intersections both benck and Mill Street intersection and the Pine Street intersection it controls both of those it does and I can tell you with 99% certainty when you cross the intersection by the convenience store to Pine Street the corner of Pine and Maine there is a big metal box there that's what controls those intersections that's what they're going to be replacing ING with new lines to operate it so that though we are having issues with the underground lines um over at benck Road in Main Street and those are becoming problematic to get to work right so we keep working on them this would replace all of the Machinery in behind the scenes that controls those and makes them would make them work better then eventually when we do new signaling for that whole intersection on the up above portion crosswalks traffic signals themselves they would all be reporting back to that new unit as well so again that big metal box that sits on the corner is what controls all your lights and this is what they're proposing to replace and so it would solve problems that this community has been bringing to us about both of those intersections potentially also the one at benck and Mill yep it also gives better control so it can be done remotely there's better ways to change it and set it and program it and I have one more clarification question does this um new technology allow us to do um what community members have been asking for which is to stop all traffic and let people cross Main Street from ucu 2 Mill Street without cars turning at them does it give us that option finally which we've been told we haven't had up till now I did not ask that one in specifics but it's more control of that intersection I can verify and confirm but I don't even know if that's a possibility of any trait signals but I can't see why this wouldn't be allowed to stop all vehicles with a red light all the way around and allow pedestrians to cross should we so choose I don't see why that would not be back there sorry this is just to me a really important clarification question because that's the biggest thing we've heard from the public over and over again I agree so I would say that at Pine Street currently it does stop traffic it does not stop traffic for a long period of time it stops it for enough so that people can get out and get a cross in the crosswalk when they can move but it doesn't stop it like for three minutes to allow people to walk through M Street you mean not Mill Street it does it right now at Pine Street okay but Mill Street would we have the ability to stop the traffic there I I would assume that it would be the same as the setup we currently have they would just have to program it in that way I do know there's a hesitation at the Mill Street but I I have not looked at that the same way I've looked at Pine Street I know what happens at Pine Street I guess I got to clarify you're asking though to put all lights red and allow pedestrians only to cross for a period of time yeah because currently folks start from ucu crossing the street and you get like four steps into the sidewalk and the left turning traffic off benck is turning into that crosswalk that's the thing we've been there's a techology to they they have changed it so there is a hesitation so before what used to happen is when that when the crossing lit up automatically that turn would go green at the same time now there's a hesitation I don't know 2 seconds 3 seconds so that's red you start to walk so people can see the other issue is no one could even you were going before anybody knew they were in the crosswalk so they have made a hesitation so my assumption is make that longer yes they can and I guess the only thing I would just caution is we're not guaranteeing any requests that have been made on one-offs I mean this is going to be time for all uses if somebody gets to the light as it's just about to go to don't walk and then gets halfway crossed and then gets the next one expecting it that may not be that may not be in the cars but yes this was asked will this improve all our pedestrian issues for better programming and they said yes I just didn't go through which options thank you I just wanted to be clear and I want to thank you Sarah for raising that because that I mean that's as a frequent pedestrian downtown myself it is uh I found it rather ridiculous a number of times that I'm told that I can go and cars are coming at me yeah it's especially scary at night okay any uh clarifying questions before we open up I ask you can tell me if this is a clarifying question I'm going to give you some leeway probably um do you know when when was the last upgrade of these of that brain if you will Clint do you do you know that all I can tell you is in the conversation is their reference was this is the last one in the Bangor area and it's of the oldest model that they still maintain I did not get an exact year but I would say that's probably ballparking in the two decade range 20 years is okay W okay great I can confirm officially and you said this does mention moo Vision vehicle detection system including traffic movement counts as part of this is that that seems like it's more than just the back end there's some correct so all the new data of all the new signals they're installing in the region give realtime data back to backs and that can be shared with us so that we can find out what's going on how many vehicles are going through what hours they went through um Etc so that we know when our what adjustments could be made to fix that and with the Advent of of uh AI they'll probably be able to send that data through different programs that will give give us recommendations to improve the things that we're trying to to address but this is the most state-of art intersection controlling system offered in Maine right now okay thanks councilor Baker with a clarifying question anyway yes um so from my understanding the uh current guts don't allow for um us to remotely change which is why we have to have a police officer standing out there in the cold weather manually changing it during the hockey games which is Amazing by the way but it also still stinks for that person does this system allow yeah for remote control things that okay we that's the sensor they're referring to okay perfect and then second thing um so we've got a lot of traffic initiatives and um especially along the route to Corridor not you know even counting the big project um is this duplicative of any of those projects or initiatives that we have like you know are we spending the money now only to realize that another system that we're upgrading needs to you know I guess I want to make sure that we're not duplicating efforts here or that you know we're not going to have to replace this or upgrade it because another system requires an upgrade that we're doing on multi- level answer we have asked these questions because there are multiple project problems is we are still working towards timelines on all of them and we have no definitive timelines and there's a lot more questions that have Arisen lately than there have been answers in that we did ask because there is funding through CDs for work in that intersection they are not prepared nor can we use that money for our share because that funding has to be spent at once it has to be part of one approved plan and So based upon the instructions I had from this Council was to get as much done and time it as best we can it's all integrated for logical growth but we're pursuing these as quickly as possible because we didn't want to wait and I just received notice in the past week that this they're moving forward with the CDs funding for the actual work with the town and what they will Implement and we've asked a lot of clarifying questions on that before we give a formal explanation of what they're opposing alls we knew was they wanted to go forward with the design and implementation and we're just trying to figure out what that means in the grander scheme of all the other projects that are happening including a resurfacing of our bridge this Summer that was a surprise as well and you that was shared a few months back but they are going to be resurfacing the bridge this summer okay are there any now that staff has made its presentation and answer clarifying questions is there any comments from the public okay any Council discussion I think it's great okay there's no discussion all those in favor have a question that's not discussion discussion is you know clarifying question all right no I think any I think you know the work we do on on route two and safety is uh is a priority concern to our walkable community and I'm I'm excited I appreciate staff staff bringing these kinds of opportunities forward as they come Council marks yeah I just wanted to say the same thing I really appreciate staff doing this work with main do and bringing this to us which sounds like it has the potential to finally solve some problems that folks have really been trying and I know staff's been trying not having the technology so to me this is really exciting I'm really excited about increasing the safety for folks trying to cross streets in our community thank you and allowing Jacob to get to the hockey game he's got season tickets Darren yeah yeah now once Council discussion is started people are only invited to join the discussion again at the invitation of the chair with that Darren what do you got for us uh where would it be remotely controlled from so the remote control is actually all automated it could be done by multiple sources it's computer-based cloud-based so they'll be able to log in and access it but the predominance would be someone here in town as well as through backs as well as through um main Department of Transportation I have a followup question in in a case like of emergency uh like would the fire department be able to like change that light to like red so like they can get through easily yes okay yep thank you makes sense it's great good question um okay there's no more discussion and uh we'll all those in favor of order 2559 authorizing the town manager enter new agreement with Frasier sign Technologies of easy for the upgrades that's unanimous 7even nothing now we're going to go back to order 2558 uh order approving the minig grant request for $750 from Isabelle celnik nail it go you got it for the class of 2025 council at the University of Maine class gift of an outdoor classroom re redesigned to Foster Environmental Education or design is it designed to Foster Environmental Education in Orno um so I had a chance to talk with his Belle um by text and we touched face earlier today um to see if she could be available to give us uh her thoughts a little more information on what was behind the proposal so thanks so much for joining us absolutely thank you for having me before I start speaking I want to say I'm getting over a bit of a cold so my voice does not sound that nice so please bear with me but my name is Isabelle castanic and I'm the president of the 2025 class Council um so as Dan said um right now we're working on our class gift so every year the senior class is given the ability to give a class gift back as a means to leave some type of lasting Legacy or mark on the University of Maine Community that being said this year when we were brainstorming for our class gift we knew that we wanted to do something that was going to go a little bit greater than just Humane and really have an impact on Orno itself being a big university in a small town we take a lot of resources a lot of time a lot of people and when we give that back we don't always give it back in the same proportion that we take so we thought this would be a good Avenue to be able to give back and um provide something that could be used for a little bit longer than we're going to be here so this project aims to develop an outdoor class class room space behind the University of main Cooperative Extension um Science Center over on College um if you know where Terell house is just past Fraternity Row there um it would be located in the back of their facility um but the goal is to provide a space that could be used by The Cooperative Extension and also other groups in the area as a means for um mainly School AED children um Environmental Education in the area um and to not only be able to run these programs but act as sort of a a town space or community space um that different folks can get involved with so excellent um anyone have any clarifying questions for the presenter or additional questions Council Kenny maybe just a comment thank you for for thinking of us and and putting this together um there was a I want to say maybe a Schoolboard member that was working on an outdoor classroom at some point that was actually trying to be closer in in town um anybody have a name uh Noah Charney Noah Charney very good excellent yeah and so I don't know if he if there's an opportunity I don't know where he ended up I think we sort of didn't have he couldn't get space or something but he might be someone good to connect with on on enhancing the usage from from this from the town and from schools so yeah absolutely thank you for that that's a great name he's wonderful and I know him pretty well well so that's a good point of contact to have thankk you c larway yeah I I see in your proposal that you also talk about um this project as an opportunity to honor and integrate some wabanaki knowledge and experience and expertise and could you say a little bit more about how you envision that sure absolutely um especially with the the rich cultural heritage we have here in Oro and being on indigenous land um that's something that I mean especially in the last kind of 15 years has become crucial to Environmental Education and really educating folks especially school age children on kind of where they are and where they're coming from and the value that our land has Beyond just what you hear about in the history textbooks and so this is an opportunity to not only kind of Honor that and educate about it but also bring in folks with those perspectives and those diverse backgrounds to um kind of restructure our community around those routes so how do you sorry I mean what are some of the the plans for that kind of integration for for collaborating with with folks yeah absolutely um so someone that we work a lot with is John nepe um who's of the Penobscot Nation um but there's a couple other folks over there that have backgrounds in either Environmental Education or just um very rich historical knowledge that they're very willing to share um and so one of our goals when talking with the Cooperative Extension is bringing those folks in and being able to do um curated well-developed programming that um kind of honors those perspectives and really branches out from what we think of is just kind of traditional um Environmental Education um and being able to share that with kids so whether that's actually bringing folks in to talk about that or developing curated programming um that touches on those subjects that's kind of our intentions so thank you yeah C marks I'm not sure that I've ever exactly figured out there's some sort of Botanical Garden that's also on that side of the river at the University are you close to that far from that where is that located do you know sure so that one's located I'm trying to think of what buildings it's between it's down a little bit further on kav um it's actually in Arboretum so they do a lot of um like the forestry classes go there a lot um The Cooperative Extension doesn't have a direct connection to them but then again kind of all of our outdoor spaces are are funneled through the same same Avenues um so less connection with them that you may assume but um we do sometimes take students there um like school age students to to look at the different trees and everything but it's more of an ornamental and um I guess kind of research oriented Place rather than educational and just a a question again on the space is there from where this piece of land is or where this would be developed is there a path along the river there that goes behind the fraternity buildings that folks can actually walk along the river there am I correct sure there is um it's not incredibly welldeveloped it's kind of just a muddy Channel around the river bank um and they're having um some clarifying discussions right now about where those property boundaries are and just making sure that we really do know what is ours and what isn't um but yes there is a path down there by The Still Water thanks for joining us this afternoon um how do you Invision Cooperative Extension Cooperative Extension will be the owner of the the space um how do you envision Cooperative Extension working with the town be it parks and recck our community engagement director the library the schools to share information about the availability of the space sure absolutely I think a lot of it right now um is just getting the word out there through those different networks um the members at The Cooperative Extension they're very passionate about what they do but they got their space just before Co and then of course with all the things going on with that um were kind of lost in the weeds where people didn't necessarily know that they were back there or what they do um and so even though they have this community presence with the programming they do people don't necessarily know where their space is so that's another big goal that we've been talking about just kind of internally um but this is a great Avenue for us to work with the town and to really engage with those programs like you said parks and wreck Community engagement um and being able to not only connect the town with what we're doing um but families um with school age children and really connect them with those programs and those opportunities to participate and is the is the space open now or is it going to be open when when does it is there an opening sure so right now um they have their Science Center where they run programming out of all of it is um inside their facility they don't have an outdoor space um so they either do it at the facility there or they'll do different programming um around the town um at different parks and things like that um so we don't have an outdoor space right now that's open it's more of kind of a a loose backyard of sorts for lack of a better word but this would be the chance to develop that and have um a bigger Gathering space for for the community so excellent any other questions yep do you have any sort of sort of um you said total budget at 3,000 do you have any sort of breakdown of what's included in that sure absolutely so our main goal right now is um doing some sort of outdoor Pavilion structure so they can do programming in inclimate weather obviously being Maine you never know what the weather's going to be like outside so that's a big goal um making sure that we have seating so right now we're trying to determine if we want that to be more Amphitheater style using benches or if we want to do picnic tables for collaborative work um but generally speaking those are around the same price points for us um so I think that's going to be a predominant amount of our budget that being said um every day I'm getting new emails from people who want to participate and be involved so our hope is that that budget will continue to increase and with that we'll be able to um do a couple more things another goal is um an outdoor chalkboard which is really key for um bringing in a community and being able to actually physically show something um and make it a little bit more classroom feeling than just a bunch of picnic tables under a pavilion um and so those are our big goals but like I said that budget is is pretty flexible right now and we look like we might be projecting a little bit more than we had originally anticipated which is really exciting so could you provide just where the current budget is now send it to Clint um sure absolutely we're at 3,000 right now um with all of our Incorporated fund just a breakdown of what what that includes what that 3,000 includes course um s Pavilion we're expecting to be around 2,000 um that being said we have some different donors um and contractors that are willing to work with us on that price just because it is for the community um which is always always helpful and the town of Oro is wonderful place for community building so people are pretty willing to contribute to that but um like I said we're still kind of determining that seating budget um just because um we aren't sure if we want to do picnic tables or benches but each of those are about 200 a piece we're looking at I'm sorry I didn't want to but if you just forward it to me when you maybe finalize it I'll share it with the rest of the counil absolutely sure how that works Absolut email or we'll connect sure absolutely uh Council marks thanks this has all been so helpful I did just have one more question so um understand it'll be behind the Cooperative Extension and Cooperative Extension will be using this space a lot for their programming which they do with school groups from all around the state right who come is it also space that would be available for the town to host an event at if parks and recck had something they wanted to host there or if the schools had something that is it a space that does every event have to be facilitated by Cooperative Extension or could other people who were say the the schools in town or the parks in wreck ask to use the space for a Town Event how is that going to work sure that's a great question our hope is that we can incorporate the town and make that a space that is available um to anyone who wants to use it um a big thing that we're trying to work on is collaboration with the town of oreno not only in that programming but also just the space itself so that is one of our biggest goals is making sure that it's not only accessible to the University of Maine and students Etc but making sure that it's accessible to people in the town so excellent any other questions I guess uh say I I know you just answered so many questions in such rapid succession I hope it doesn't feel like we're grilling you but I'm also just fascinated by this I think this is a really cool project and um I'm excited to support it yeah excellent um with that said councilor lway would you move um order 2558 since I neglected I was so excited that Isabelle was here to talk with us and I forgot to ask for a motion so moved second second second okay now we've had our discussion we've had our presentation thank you any comments from the public Cody am I FY tighten this up will you thank I'll be best You' look thank you um all right so we've had um had my joke we've had a motion we've had the presentation we've asked the public any any more Council discussion all those in favor excellent pass unanimously thanks so much excellent thank you nice to see you that's better Cody um all right now we're moving on that's all our action items for this evening and we're moving on to uh agenda item 10 Council committee reports and we'll start with the Community Development Committee Matt so we don't have an update on the um review of the special area management plan samp there's some stuff I think going on in the background in terms of that um and um we are also um looking at um we've a recommendation about lighting a manora and with opportunities for cultural invol involvement during the holiday season and we'll be coming out with a recommendation with that pretty soon and um we are going to have a very um big workshop on the 18th if you're available to come and you want to um put your input into um the Oro Festival days um and the Revival of Oro Festival days this is your chance to come and give the this particular committee um feedback as to what you would like to see um what you like about that so that will be the 18th of March at 6:00 and um we're still working on um a report on how best to analyze the route to cour safety metrics so that we can continue to make Oro a very um pedestrian safe place um and when it's I think safe for pedestrians it'll be safer for cars also so is is there anybody else on the committee who would like to add to that on the um thank you Matt um on the manura item did we is Staff gonna come back with us with something yes so it kind of come moves off our plate as a committee is that right Clinton Mitch is that that was kind of the expectation I had that would move off our plate and not require a further okay so we're done with that you know further posting as part of our committee reports that was the way that meeting ended yes y okay good so remove it yeah I think so it's on you now we had a good conversation and Mitch it's on you and Mitch just those of us not on the committee it's a holiday tree lighting and minura lighting right it it's not it it it's broader than just minura right right talked about all the work that goes into the Still Water Trail um and all that collaboration we thought be important to have guess some balance and something and we're open to like I think way we're going to bring forward through Community engagement is if there's public members that are interested in other things we're we're open and receptive but um we're just going to kind of slowly work it up and do more so all Traditions welcome to bring ideas thank you that's what I needed Clarity on okay thanks and we talked about the town working with the University Credit Union who already does a tree and try and incorporate all of that together okay thank you for that Matt um next up is finance and operations committee uh Clint will talk about this in his management report okay uh nominations evaluations and Council policies committee um I think we had a lot of time tonight and we'll be moving on to other items on our agenda and taking the charge that you gave us uh to work further on our draft surveys so nothing else to report okay ordiance Review Committee uh we met recently um with Shelly uh to try to get us on a schedule of reviewing our ordinances uh according to the the schedule that is recommended with lots of feedback from staff about sort of what the priorities are for ordinances to look at I think upcoming is uh us going over some of our um GA ordinances making sure that those things are up to date some of them have not been updated for decades so um just making sure that we're in compliance there and then also we'll be looking at some of the ordinances surrounding business licensing and I know the um Solid Waste issue is also something that was raised and put on our agenda I think that's we're going to wait for a little bit more feedback from staff about exactly what amount of work that would take on their part that will help us as a council determine whether or not it or where to place it in terms of priority whether or not we're putting this on people's workflow and I will say that we have adjusted our meeting time to be the third Thursday of each month at 9:00 a.m. that means this month it's on the 20th um of this month yep the 20th of March is our next meeting and I think that's everything I have sure Council marks has a question um yeah this is such exciting news thank you all um I was wondering if there has been a um schedule approved uh if that's something that could be linked to a council agenda just so that the rest of council would have a sense also of which ordinances are coming up for review when I think it's terrific that we're doing this and I would hope that we can make your work as efficient as possible so that you know if if there's already feedback people have heard from community members on a certain ordinance that they could pass it your way early in the process rather than late and I'm thinking we could facilitate that if that um whatever it is year schedule has been adopted if that was made publicly visible somehow I I think there's still plenty of discussion left to happen on this I think we were initially presented with a a sheet that gave the list of priorities that were um identified by staff but I don't think we've gotten to a point where we have an A finalized sort of approved by committee schedule for everything I think the review schedule that Shell's sheets seem to recommend is a five-year um cycle and I know we've talked in the past about our this committee having a 4-year sort of cycle charge so that's something that we might need to discuss a little bit more too but yeah whatever those are I think we should um get them to council and or discuss as a committee to make sure that we have some unified idea of exactly what the schedule is even if we could just see what the ordinances proposed to look at over the next three months are whatever it is even one month at a time just some way so that that's transparently out there which ordinances are getting looked at if there is a schedule at anything month at a time two months at a time whatever exists if we could find a way to share it thanks I think that makes a lot of sense I I and I don't think but I don't think there is anything confirmed just yet we haven't confirmed even even a month yeah yeah yeah yeah I got you can s just to clarify Rob I think we are going to talk about the solid waste right we're going to talk about it among before we well we will be discussing it but what we asked shelle to do from my recollection um and Dan you might be able to correct me if I'm I'm wrong in any details here is just that um we have two things that were identified as definitely uh priorities and this we were going to um ask Shel to confer with some staff members to figure out what the work would take um from them to engage on this issue because it would be really from her recommendation Us opening up the entire Chapter 30 um to look at this stuff and whether or not that makes sense to Move It Up in priority amongst the other things already identified by staff so we're going to get a presentation from her maybe not a full presentation but some some some information from her about exactly what that's going to look like so we will be discussing it at our next meeting but I just don't know to what extent and I think we had for ourselves a homework assignment to read through chapter 30 because it's it's clearly an example when we switched from bags to bins it's clearly an example of where an ordinance has been overtaken by events the the ordinance still talks about you know putting your bags out and stuff like that and well no one's picking up your garbage in Orno if you put it out in a bag anymore um so that's there's some need that's a perfect example of something that needs to be addressed and we should do it um it's once you get into this work it's surprising how the amount of work it takes to keep ordinances and policy and just the reality of every day operations aligned as they should be so the good news is Staff adjusts and does stuff and gets it all done so now just coming back and trying to keep up with policies it's very good news but we want them to have cover you know we don't want them to be out you know um and all right and there is there A diversity Equity inclusion thank you Rob is there A diversity Equity inclusion and blond committee update Matt um there's nothing further at this time but we had a great educational meeting last Tuesday that was very well attended um the library yeah at the library thanks I was glad to hear I'm sorry I couldn't make it but I was glad to hear that you held it um for Council chair update I think um I've got a couple items I I think the comp plan committee update we got from Isabelle this evening probably um I don't know Rob if you have anything else but I think that probably suffices for bringing us up to speed yeah no I would agree I wasn't able to make the last meeting but you did so I think uh what we just discussed makes sense yep um still what last week at our Council two weeks ago at our council meeting we had a Aaron is it landan Lan um is a Still Water resident in Oro and and came in with some concerns about um Still Water traffic we and we picked it up a little bit in our discussion of route two in the community development committee when we were looking at metrics to by which to decide we have this oral stops service promise that that you know commits us to building a culture of roadway safety and sharing in Oro and based on three kind of pillars one is um education one is enforcement and one is infrastructure and what we don't have as part of that is met a plan to report back to people metrics to determine how we're doing you know is Orno stopping more or better safer um did we actually are we establishing that culture um um and so we we're discussing how do we assess how we're doing and potentially a report to the community um an oral stops report or something of that nature to the community where we show things like the the work the the replacement of the traffic light infrastructure the Westwood blinky light that's going to go in the um you know all the different work um the work that we do with education through our community engagement team the work that the police department does through enforcement um and we talked about rolling in still water and Forest in terms of those kinds of major corridors so the route two Corridor still we've made a lot of progress on Forest um but we have a lot of work to do we've made a lot of progress on inner Forest we have a lot of work to do on outer forest and still water throughout so we talked about how we bring that forward with staff and we're going to I think at our next community development committee meeting we're going to hear back for more on on the work that we need to do and we talked about Finance commit is goingon to love this one um Jacob but we talked about identifying and engaging the community and like let's pick you know a handful of the projects that we could Finance next you know like we did the Westwood project that cost us 20,000 so those kinds of that that kind of ballpark if we picked you know and put five of them out in like a survey format and ask the count ask the town to vote on what's next what do you think is the most pressing is it the the lack of visibility at the landfill and you can't see people coming down coming out of town coming out Forest Avenue out of town you can't see them when you tur and left to come back into town you know those kinds of things so we thought that was an interesting way to potentially engage create some awareness about the work we're trying to do and get some Community input on what's the most pressing need um you know we've defense at uh Oak Street that's kind of come down it's not fully down yet but it's mostly down I there those kinds of that's not something we'd fund but something we you know is there a need for I know there's a need for better crosswalk visibility there we bought a paint machine right or we did I don't know if we have it yet or we okay but you know so we're going to be you know so we won't have to rely on external contractors to freshen up our sidewalks and have better visibility so those kinds of things um and and really putting more effort into communicating what we're doing to make it you know to establish that to achieve that culture of roadway sh caring and safety so that's what we talked about there can I can I ask a question about that sure so on um where where is staff's input before I I assume we're we're having staff input before we would go throwing different projects out and one thing and and I believe Forest St out there might be a state road or something anyway so like if we're going to be talking about cutting down that hill or something like that I mean that's one it's a state road I think so maybe we couldn't do that but so point being where's our Public Works director in the conversation before we do anything like that yeah I would think we' have to have them package a handful of the questions in terms of and you know like at Forest ad I'm not thinking about redesigning rebuilding the road like maybe it's a flashing light when oncoming traffic or something someone's waiting to turn or something like that but um we'd absolutely have to have you know we need Ballpark and what it would cost um you know kind of know what it cost to do one of the flashy light intersections this the more technical term the E erfi yep be yeah well just you know stop damn it you know across the street so those yeah we'll bring those forward with staff's help in terms of you know identify what those might be but I I I I'd like to know you know we hear about it in onesie twosies it'd be interesting to hear kind of collectively from the community about what they think the most pressing these are the five things that we've identified you know what which of these five are the most important to cross off the list this year and number two goes on the list for next year and we'll keep ticking them off okay uh Town management report I sometimes purposely don't look back at Leo doesn't have any followup for me on his question yeah thank you so I had a few items that I wanted to share with the council first one um you had adopted the naming for Farnsworth way um that has been signed with Community Development there'll be some Outreach on that we're doing the planning now if you have any feedback feel free to send message my way or Cody's but we're beginning some planning we'll be reaching out with them as well figuring out the correct time of year how to set it all together timing it around some of our other events maybe even mirroring it with some of the other events we got in the community so it' be a nice part of those but we'll keep you posted and we'll bring more back here when those are done um this is something I'd queued up quite a few months ago that I wanted to do an announcement this time and it actually came up I believe at Community Development on just main day planning on how we do it and what things occur I think it was Community Development but um you know just and I don't know what has been shared with the council in the past but main days and all day Police Department event all staff are called in um there's collaboration with the fire department um the collaboration with main UMaine Police Department main State Police crowd management team main panovscott County EMA panov Scott and Communications dispatched it's a cute event through all of them um so and again American Legions is where they run as a home base there's other things that we do in regards to what's already occurring um they Channel all those calls service through the call center or operations center at the legion and then they put them out from those places you have uh an additional 12 staff and all eight unmarked vehicles in operation that day this year in cooperation and more with that we're going to work some with Community engagement to put out more information through social social media and the town's websites but again that's the ongoing plan that's what's been using and has been working um with all the conversation I know there's been talks about how we interact and engage the neighborhoods I think right now we're a a little over a month out um from Main day and I think more of this is uh what we're going to be doing next year as we welcome in and how the how we're building that communication strategy between the neighborhoods and the university um and all people that are in it because again it's not just universities students every other activities happen in our neighborhoods that aren't University students um so again that's how we're working approaching it um if there's questions or feedback please come my way or or through the chief Merill and we'll have some followup with you if you need it but I just want to make sure that was shared um can you plan to share the like engagement work that you know with the council so we have a chance to at least be aware what what our postings you mean the the the yeah the notice plans yeah yeah I think important for the neighborhood to understand people you know it can be intimidating when there's a large group of you know you know it's main it's Main's week of service as I understand it's been rebranding rebranded by the university but it's still the day is still the day and um there is it's remarkable the orchestration and collaboration that are um police department and other Town agencies conduct with other you know partner agencies from the region um ultimately there's still there you know there are people that live in the neighborhoods particularly those closest to where the big Gathering is held I think it's a I don't want to yep I don't want to tell anybody where to go to party but I mean you know it's you know see somebody with a gallon of something looks like juice it's maybe a little bit of juice um but you know the neighborhoods thato most closely a but where the where the big event is a social event um and that folks who live in those neighborhoods feel like it's it's a in inclusion or not you know it's it's disruptive to their you know can be disruptive to their neighborhoods and to the extent that we can do a better job of letting people know like you know what the resources are that are available who you know when they who and what they should do to call if there's more of a presence from the police department in the I I understand the import I don't want to ever get in the way of telling commanders how to command and control you know a response Center um but to the if there are opportunities to have more visibility within the neighborhood you know police cars and things like that particularly as we expect people to be leaving the big event and kind of you know Meandering back to some of the some of the rentals or houses in the in the neighborhoods I think it would be helpful I think it would be helpful too if like afterwards if I think it's important to tell residents that if you're not sure call F report your complaint they'd rather know and check it than have you be at home wondering what's where they are where are they patrolling and that type of thing um and I think too if we do some followup afterwards with any residents who do file a complaint um if we could just do some followup with them on what maybe they have suggestions for the next year Council marks yeah um I also just want to say that um as someone who has run a nonprofit in town before like the students do amazing amount of service work during this week and it's really incredible what comes out to the community um whether it's called main day or main week or whatever it is and um I just want to sort of say that but also just ask is that something that we also have on our town websites how Community organizations that may want help on things can connect to the university and actually ask for student groups to be assigned to come help I know we do have a really great range in Orono of so many Civic Service Groups but this is a time when students really turn out and in my experience can do an amazing amount of work in a short amount of time they are very energetic and many of them much younger than me um and much appreciated so I don't know if that's something we also can get on you know our own social media for the town for how to let groups connect to whoever on campus is coordinating that but I think it'd be great if we could thanks thanks Clint y so okay um I'm actually going to just jump see for just a second so the uh D Association for Rural and small Library Grant this is the process I'm following um the library has applied for a $115,000 grant it's relating to the ramps that are being laid out for the new work they're doing um this would offset that overall cost and would be added to their General budget to to uh like make that funding go as far as possible um e the old Fire Station transfer um I kind of need this isn't full agenda but what I what is going on and I wanted to at the council and if this is not the accurate Direction you would need to direct me otherwise but there were two primary ways that this could be done to ensure that it was Captain historic use one was getting it designated as a with a preservation easement to the main uh uh main preservation sorry had to think um and again and the way that works is you would do a $300 application fee and then they would respond back and there's another donation which would be expected for the easement for that historical designation to revert to them if it ever had to change um sometimes those donations can be great you do not know what that donation is until you apply the other option the town's attorney and I discussed is just a deed restriction back to the town that says that it would revert to us with a voluntary Choice like you discussed um although the main preservation easement was a neat idea because of the cost Associated I'm moving forward with the reversion back to the town itself and if that is not agreeable you can kind of you'd probably have to call another session we can talk it out and bring more information but because of the cost that I was hearing Associated to it just didn't seem to fit in with this project I will say KCI is still working on this we're waiting for more conversations with them so the deed wouldn't have been quite ready yet anyhow but there's your update on that one um clarifying question on that go ahead is it so are you saying you you moving away from that and going back towards just a deed deed restri a deed that restricts and reverts back to us with a council action in order to accept it back you can say no you keep it do what you want historic designation waved um and now we're talking a little bit more to is whether it's external or internal we're working that out but predominantly external but I think there are some internal components we got to just make sure we're referenced so I will report back if I need more and I'll use the committee finance committee a little bit for feedback as well as needed I want to update the whole Council and you're working in a a plan to think the neighbors and stuff like that in terms of what the before it ends up being executed we're gonna We G have to have public hearing anyway right yeah I just don't know how to I can't set the date to do that without the information and I'd like to have kind of a pre-meeting rather than just a formal hearing just kind of like a come in and ask and talk rather than you know all those in favor all those opposed neither for nor opposed that's kind of gets that structure that yeah may not invite be as inviting to some of the neighborhood let you know thank you um but I don't have a timeline yet so it's hard to set it up the uh uh I'm going to go back now so for the budget fiscal year 26 we're about to kick kick it off this is it this is the week where a draft Capital Improvement plan is supposed to be available and made available um I can tell you the work that's been done is I'm impressed it's daunting and it's a huge project there's more to this than there's been more left to to be decided at later dates for a longer period of time than I think that everybody kind of is realizing also you know oro's that's you know and I hate to use it it sounds trite but a nice big little town um and that's an oxymoron intentionally we are quite big when it comes to Capital planning there's a lot more to take in and to consider to do this well so this is as you will hear more of is the first year of a NeverEnding annual process to improve and get better in that I'd like to ask for a little bit of breathing room because I know the calendar said we'd post on the 13th and I could but my what's going to happen is is there's still few gaps we're pulling data together to make it more refined and if we post and then we repost it again with even at a later date I'm concerned that it'll be people say well I read the earlier one can you just can you just quickly review the changes no there will be no quick reviews of the changes because these are fairly lengthy spreadsheets so if you're good I think it's going to be about an extra week or end of the week after um so what's and the next step is is that the council is supposed to uh uh talk about this on the 24th with an actual workshop on the 31st so what I was thinking is is that if we had till the 24th to really get it posted that's also the day of a finance committee meeting that's the date it would get posted that's a full week before and just on order of magnitude right now it's a 35-page document with about 15 pages of attachments so it's it's it's it's good and it's all kind of internal there's no outside real you know there's no software or anything that's helping us pull this all together we're kind of doing it ourselves through Excel spreadsheet so we'll talk more but is that work if we kind of push it moving the 24 on the calendar that's the date I'm going to kind of look towards that everything would be posted on that date and fully refined yeah so what's what's the expectation for us on the 24th if we're going to post it on the 24th we have a fin committee Mee parous it as a draft yeah between then and the 31st and the 31st we have an entire night dedicated to talking about it and that's that's for Council that's for counil yep I'll be presenting what I figure is probably about a half hour presentation of what's in it um and then we'll go back through q&as and areas you've highlighted and then it's all yours I step back and you can have at it so I think my question was the same as Leo I must have misheard I heard you say Council discussion on the 24th and the 31st but I don't think I mean we can't discuss on the 24th if we're only getting it then so we're committe meets on the 24th finance committee meets on the 24th and Council doesn't discuss it till the 31st correct thank you yep is there anywhere that you need to update the schedule in case anyone's I mean you will have I mean there a handful of citizens will be look I mean I that this is new to me I don't know what you do with a calendar we can we could do just a posting that says that the draft is being Council met this day and we're going to the draft will be made available 24th of March yeah okay I think that makes sense I'll post that and then my last uh little update is I wanted to congratulate the entire senior staff team and a few others um that we brought in including Amanda um Brian uh uh the Scott from the police department with the senior staff but they all graduated a six-week training course in the art of human relations focuses on communication Styles how we communicate with each other how to work with the public and how to work with and it was again two hours for 6 weeks 12 hours total they all graduated got their diploma um I guess it' be safe to say the most most valuable player most improved player uh as voted by the people that went through was uh was Zack Turner our finance director but it was a close race there was a lot of other good ones and only one employee out of everyone in attendance won a one week award each week people would win awards for participation and only one player was completely omitted from winning anything for the entirety of the six weeks me I didn't win and it was quick to point no one else was going to point it out but I could see the smirks in the room and I'm like hey am I the only one that didn't win you know in the in the town manager search communic material we put together we talked about vulnerability being an important component and I appreciate that right there is an example of vulnerability and hurts you would you WI a prize for being vulnerable it was great though and I should add we're going to do another course next fall is the plan with Lori for another group of Staff members which is where working on the Departments figuring out who would the next round be so we're pretty excited this is getting to be quite a bit of quite a bit of fun and conversation amongst us so that just makes things better hopefully for the community as a whole and you even see there's been a few signs posted up uh what the have you heard I can't even remember what it was but there's a few signs around that kind of came out of that little quotes and and euphemisms if you will yep so excellent that's it okay hey can I just uh on the on the finance side it seems like it is worth um just mentioning where we're at from a state funding oh yeah um it's a it's a projection today but it is I think for context where we what what it what has happened over the last three years and what appears to be happening this year I think I mean AB the finance committee will be meeting on the 24th one of the areas they've asked me I put together a report and well as some other information come in from them but uh main Revenue sharing it's it's a moving Target and it's based upon all 400 and something community that comprise it some of which are unorganized territories depending on what each of them are doing as in the whole or in the part affects the total formula but we received 5.4 million I think it was last year top of my head and we're down to 5'2 or we were at 52 and we're down to five it was a $200,000 loss as projected coming in this year to revenue sharing so we're looking at different options on how that will come out in the budget but there is a $200,000 loss um it's about onethird of a mill SO3 your Mill ratees worth $665,000 in cash if you converted it so that you know and that in conjunction with increases for the County taxes and other things we'll have to deal with there are some challenges for this year's budget but that is a shortfall we're going to train it's actually the uh and I don't think finance committee knows this but what they received as we're working through this is that we were working on that I was working on that with staff to have a component or a section in the budget dedicated to revenue sharing explaining it so when they asked it it go to a bigger explanation and I said well we'll just take the bigger explanation now and actually put it in the final budget document for the community to see um so it just outlines how Revenue sharing is a combination of your Town's population the valuation of your town how much you spend in relation to those three and then there's rev one and rev two rev two actually says that unless your Mill rate's over a certain number you get nothing and it's the state adjusted valuation for your community and it sets it at Ms so we are over it we're the one of the top receivers of rev 2 um that's actually quite uh clear why that would be the case because we're a small town with low value with a large percentage of nonprofit value taking up a big portion of our community and a high population so we kind of create the the The Perfect Storm of being a high receiver of rev to um yeah so I mean as that comes true we'll be learning a lot more about it but yes we do have a challenge with Revenue sharing right the door starting the year and and I think the context is important that for the past three years we've gotten close to an additional million dollars each year 900 1.2 so when we say we're losing 200,000 where we've been getting an additional million dollars a year that that's that's a significant impact uh I think I mean it's more significant really I think than just saying yeah we're getting 200,000 less because we're accustomed to getting a million more each year so that context I think is in the term yep right thank you y okay and on a high note um public petitions we have none uh future agenda items and Council requests for supporting items Council Marx has one I do um I was just thinking about this during tonight's meeting um both when we got the really great comp plan presentation from Isabelle and then Dan when you were talking about the traffic issues in town um we've as a council talked several years since I've been here um back to when we had um our town manager Sophie Wilson had brought forward the idea about this flash vote system that would allow for Community feedback via cell phones on short and simple questions and I think we put it in the budget two years in a row but I don't think we've ever purchased flash vote and I guess I would kind of like a something back from staff about is it something staff is deeply not interested in or has it just been a casualty of you know the busyness we keep giving you to do and various you know interim Town managers but I'm still really interested in this idea because I keep hearing how hard it is to get feedback from as many people in the community as we would like when Leo points out you know percentages of community feedback and I keep thinking everyone I know responds on their cell phone to quick little things but not to you know bigger more complicated surveys as much so I'm still curious about this technology and what value it could bring us as a town and I'm wondering if at some point we might cycle back to whether it's something we could consider purchasing for next year if staff would find it valuable or if staff has made an assessment that it's not I'd like to hear that too since that'd be sort of a change from what we heard before so I'm GNA request some kind of update on flash vote when we could get it could could we have a maybe a discussion at Council about it as well again or something rather than I I mean 100% saying where it goes first Leo I'm just bringing up flash vote and what we want to do with that next I it sort of got approved twice didn't happen and I don't know where we're at with it so okay any other future agenda items or items of concern excellent um now this a last public comment session of the evening this is a chance for anyone to speak with us about anything that um we didn't address this evening anybody have anything okay um 15 executive session we going to have any we're not going to have any business after executive session are we no so we'll not have um so that i' take a motion to move us into executive session pursuant to one mrss section 4056 C regarding Economic Development so moved second mov in second all those in favor