Selectmen's Meeting

Speakers are labeled SPEAKER_N. This transcript is machine-generated.

Recording

Okay, I'd like to call this meeting of the select board to order.
It's August 4th at 602, and we're in the town hall.
And I would make a motion that we approve the minutes from 21 July, 2006.
So moved.
All in favor?
Aye.
And I would make a motion that we review and approve the manifest, which, which,
which we all got to look at.
Malen Tabor, say aye.
Hi.
There's a minute.
There's five pieces of this manifest, mostly because I send her things on Thursday,
and then I send her more things on Monday.
Luckily, it's a new pen and it has a lot of them.
It's where it goes.
So, yeah, there's five of them.
But there's always at least two,
because one are the things we already paid using the debit card or ACH,
and the others are checks.
Yeah, this is.
it's nice getting these in advance.
Yeah.
Except these were all one document that you sent us, wasn't it?
Yeah, it was 13 pages long.
Yeah.
Yeah, it doesn't really matter.
No.
All just expenses.
No, but it was.
I like the way these come to us now.
Very easy.
Yeah, much easier than what quick books are you seen.
Well, and I love the plot as I read through it.
The plot?
plot. Yes. How to spend money plot. Well, it is large for this round because
well, the school payment also here it also transferred all of what was voted on for the
capital reserves to the trustees as well. Yeah, but I like having that already done.
That's, you know, certain interest, like it's good.
We usually do it in the summer beginning of fall, so I just went ahead and
with the bottom one thoroughly just so that we could get it doing a better job.
I'm going to work.
There's more to sign up after a while.
It's all right.
I bring a signature everywhere I go.
So we don't have any guests that have anything to say, do we?
We don't have any guests.
Okay.
All business.
Rail trail update.
So I guess I can talk to that.
Good.
Yeah.
So the Westwood snow belt is put in for a couple of grants to do improvements on the rail trail.
One of them was because there was a washout, just a little bit north of the
crusher road. And it was getting worse. And of course, as you know, we're trying to improve
that rail trail so that everybody can use it and have a good time and have it be safe.
So I was awarded a grant, and it was a 60-40 match, and we had White's groundskeeping, bring out
some rip-rap and fill in where it was going to wash out, repair the area, resurface
the area. So that job is complete. And it came out very nicely. We're very happy with the work
that was done. The money that I asked for is $9,250. And so the club got $6,750. And the
recreational committee had worked out. I guess we have $10,000 that may be.
appropriated for this rail trail improvement. So the Recreation Committee was going to make
sure that there was a question that's still about that's got that $2,500. Then there's another
project between London Road and Gilbow Road that I wrote a grant for. And the grant
that I wrote in for was for Sherpac to resurface the area starting at London Road, have
Have you all been on the rail trail?
No.
On the real trail?
I've been on the rail trail over the years, but...
Okay.
Well, the rail trail used to be a mess.
It was.
And now you can actually ride your bicycle all the way from the sick home, Walpole, all the
way to Keene, easily.
And not in any wet spots, any mud, anything terrible, but there are areas that are rough,
and they have roots in them and so on.
And one of those areas is between London Road and Gilbert Road.
So I put in for 420 yards of Sherpac and it was awarded to the club.
And then what the Recreation Committee would like to do.
The Snowbelters.
The Snowbelters got the grain.
Yeah.
But the Recreation Committee would like to get that material the snowbelters got
and have White's landscaping.
What's the name?
What's the name?
this business?
Zane, I don't know.
Zane White.
Anyway, Zane White.
Truck it there and spread it.
And then the recreation committee will have volunteers pack it.
And the area that they'll actually put the new shirt pack will be from London Road.
And then if you go London Road, it starts off not actually being where the rail trail used to be.
It's kind of to the side of it.
I mean, that's where all the knots I don't know it.
all the routes are and everything.
Then you get onto the rail trail and it's kind of rough getting down to where it washed out years ago when we had the floods.
And then it starts to level out again.
So we'd only do from where it starts to level out back to London Road.
And we got an estimate from whites.
He said $1,500 a day for his guy, the trucking, the whole nine yards,
and we figured it would probably take about four or five.
take about four or five days. So our plan was to use most of the other $7,500 to do that project.
Probably leave $100 in the account.
I thought you had a grant for it. You said you got a grant.
We got a grant for the materials, but not for the labor.
So Bruce Clement and I have talked about it a lot,
and he was under the impression that we had, you know, $10,000 to spend.
$1,000 to spend.
I believe that's a false impression.
It was.
Okay.
Well, yeah.
So anyways, what really needs to happen for the Westland Snowbelters is for the snowbelters to be reimbursed,
because we don't have the money.
It would, the club would be extinct, extinct.
Yep.
So the $2,500, really like to see the club get reimbursed because that work has been done.
And Zane's being paid.
So.
So, may I?
Yeah.
When the club came in, the potential committee came in to speak with us,
it was, I don't remember if you were there, but there was a gentleman from the consortium,
the rail trail.
Mike, Alan, Bruce, and they presented us with a proposal with a proposal.
The last words of that proposal, second to last paragraph, say,
importantly, this initiative will not add to the town's bottom line.
All funding will come from grants, gifts, and private donations, not from the town's operating budget.
Every dollar received and spent to the rail through the Trails Trust Fund
will represent outside financial support, contributing to the town's assets and infrastructure at no cost.
to the taxpayers.
Right.
So that $10,000 that was put into the Parks of Recreation Fund is not money that they raised.
That was money that 20-some odd years ago was misappropriated.
And we tried to do it in 2024 and found that that was, that we couldn't do it at that point
either, so it went back into the surplus, surplus, thank you.
And then to make it so that we could use that money,
we voted on it again in 2025 and brought that into that fund.
During that town hall meeting,
it was mentioned that that is a possible use for,
the railroad shows a possible use of that money,
but not the sole use of that money.
As far, now I'm not to speak,
Now I'm speaking personally.
As far as I am concerned, the fact that you, as the snow belters, came up with a grant and were able to do the work,
yeah, I think you should be reimbursed for that.
Ideally, we should have known that that was going to happen.
Yes, yeah, I thought everybody knew all about the whole thing, A to Z.
This was the first I heard about it.
I was what I was to believe was that the money was there.
It was for the recreation committee or the Snowbelters project on the rail trail.
That's not.
And that it was a goal.
No matter what happens with the Capital Reserve,
it has to come to the selectmen before.
Well, it's a good thing.
It's a good thing that Cushing did not have any shirt back because we were going to start that Monday.
That would have been really bad.
That would have been really bad.
So everything happens for a reason.
for a reason.
Right.
So I'm glad that Ezra did not have any new time.
This is good timing then.
This is good timing.
It's great timing.
Because if we, if we, um, we can still get the material.
I have to just show that the material was bought.
And the material could be put on the rail bed near that area.
And then funds can be appropriated somehow from some
somewhere, a donation or volunteer work to get the work done at a later time.
But right now we don't always ain't any money,
except for what we've already done north of the Crusher Road.
So personally, I would, I'll make a motion that we take $2,400
from the Park and Recreation Capital Reserve Fund.
reserve fund to reimburse the snow belters for the work they have done repairing the culvert
and that portion of the railroad.
I'll second that.
All in favor?
Aye.
If I had known that that money wasn't already there and wasn't appropriated for that,
I wouldn't be here asking the guys for us.
But that's a good...
We wouldn't have done it because we don't have the money.
The reality...
rail winters haven't made us rich.
Right.
So to me, before the Rail Trail Committee decides what work they're going to do, they need to come to us
and let us know exactly what they're going to do.
And then we will discuss it like we are right now and decide, okay, is it?
and decide, okay, is that good use of that fund?
It was never intended in my mind,
and I don't know about anybody else's here at the town meeting,
that this was all going to go to the railroad trip.
We were also talking about a tennis court.
We've been talking about various other potential areas
in town where we might do something like the,
it was a large, what's the,
the state...
Woodwood field?
You have the state park we just found out that we have?
It's not a new state park, we just didn't know that it was.
We just didn't know that it was.
It's probably related to the bridge we're paying for also.
Everybody gave us a lot of gifts.
Now we got money at that time and that's what happened.
So that's...
So if I could add also to me, and again, I assume that you or someone from me,
you or someone from the organization goes to the Recreation Committee meetings,
because they're kind of, I mean, you're a subcommittee within...
Right, well, what happened was...
Well, I guess what I'd like happen is,
is there is now a capital reserve,
and the committee has that,
and minus $2,500 now.
Right.
And it'd be very helpful if that committee gets together and develops a plan.
Like, what?
what do we want to do this next five years?
Yeah.
And then have a plan for how this, that way we don't get surprised.
And this stuff can happen in a kind of a logical, easy manner.
Yeah.
Because again, I just don't understand how anybody can think,
well, let's just go spend this money.
Because guess who's going to answer the mail on that?
Yeah.
Not the recreation committee.
Right.
And as a wise person said,
we got people upset that we're not paving roads and we turn around and spend money to, you know, make a dirt path, a better dirt path.
Yeah.
That would be problematic and, and quite honestly, you know, for the total impact on the town, it's, you know, it's minimal.
Well, what we've done so far was the safety issue, so it's actually a good thing that that was taken care of.
The rest of it is passable, it's just not nice.
Yeah.
And it would be great to have...
Great to have that all be nice someday.
And I think that's in the plans for the future.
They are talking about a recreational trails program grant later on.
And that's also an 80-20 match, I think, is what that is.
So it would be nice eventually to have the rail trail
from, say, the dump and Keene all the way to Graves Pit
be nice enough for a six-year-old to ride a bicycle on.
Yeah, please don't take this in any way that we are
against yeah i know you guys want we want this just has to be done but it has to but there's a way to do it that we can
actually make sure it eventually happens it's just not going to be tomorrow
there was nothing to say that the next meeting directly they could get together and say hey
maybe we could ask to pick my one or something like that right so you know i'm hearing i heard a
a little road park you know that there was money needed there didn't it wasn't up to the specs or whatever for it's going to be i would guess relatively substantial but work needs to get done to even find the fence i think so to do what to find the fence in some areas because it's so overgrown brush and stuff so yeah there's there's there's yeah i know there's a hole in it because there's been a hole in it for years we used to use it to get to the snowmobile trails
yeah well there's i played bald there as a kid that's what we did all day when i was growing up i grew up right on the corner of south so that so that that area is
traditionally used to get to the trail then by the snowmobiles not anymore oh because i was going to say if we're
going to put a fence up we need to put a gate there no not anymore that's not at all okay okay so people either go up and down the pressure road and i have a trail that goes through the churchyard comes out on the rail trail just shy of
okay all right on robbie kingsbury's property and um john lynch's property which i have written
permission for nice um i've been i have an idea um that may help with this but it since i just sort
of found out about this today um or actually i guess yesterday um it's not completely uh vetted yeted yeted yet yet
so let's see what happens you know in the future but for the committee the committee needs to come to us
right you know as mart said with a plan here's what we want to do year one year two you know however you
you know you all want to break it out yeah i mean if we're considering writing the grant we've got to get you guys
in bed with us first right before we even bother writing the grant yeah because to start work without
knowing if a grant's coming in or not is not going to happen right um and the fact that you've got a grant
how much was the grant for the shirt pack um well i got seven thousand five hundred and sixty dollars
worth of a shirt pack but it has to buy sure pack yeah they can't buy it you can't do anything else or buy
right that's all that's good for and and how far is that going to that would be the whole area what it would do
it would allow us to do it's about 2 000 feet and we'd be six inches deep all the way from
london road to where the slope ends before it flattens out before gilcaro.
how easy is it to get equipment there we can get it up front of there okay yeah yeah in fact um
zane was willing to actually bring it in and spread it that whole distance for us
um and we thought well we thought we thought we had five days worth of money that you know that was the idea
so we would have him go in and get as much done as you could get done in five days which i think you'd
get it all done and then somebody was going to use somebody around here has a packer
yeah a roller that actually vibrates and that's the best one to have to have to have that set in nicely
so that was had been arranged too for some of those so how would you
going to get the sure pack at this point they they would go get it i set up an account for the snow
snow belters with um cushions okay so if so now but right now i don't have trucking there you got
trucking was part of what the town was going to do yeah um so you having purchased the surepac
from cushings they're willing to let it sit there for a bit yeah i guess they have somebody coming
this week to produce it from i guess material they have sit inside yeah yeah so basically you get the
shirt pack you can't get it's right yeah the sure pack's just going to have to sit there at
this point right and i'll probably call ezra tomorrow we'll tell him if you haven't you know if
it's too much of a pain in the butt to make the shirt pack don't bother right now
things are unholes how many yards there in this there 420 quite a few dump trucks
so that's a 40 dump trucks yeah i mean if you think about it what zane doing that for
1,500 bucks a day that's a lot of gas that's a lot of trips
jane's that's a good price he's done all the work at my house he's very good well i certainly
have no yeah i have no dog in his fight you know well so that's
you guys know what the rep committee wants to do right so now we know the plan well that's the first
paragraph of the five-year plan so that's the first paragraph of the five-year plan so
right um yeah and i mean the five-year plan is to make it so that that whole section
like i said a six-year-old could ride the bicycle from one then to another it's it's kind of
interesting because the only thing i've heard about the from the uh recreation committee in the last
couple years was they're concerned for the the tennis court and the fence
i think they got over that apparently well it needs to be just ripped out it's
yeah pretty much lost yeah so they either need to replace it or whatever yeah i mean could
have been parking there's a lot i'm sorry go ahead there's a lot of use on that rail trail
and they're actually starting to monitor there's a there's a monitor of some sort at the summit
yeah i saw some dead off of that how it's
change from three years ago to today yeah it's getting good use it doesn't necessarily
getting good use from westland residents but it's getting good use but a lot
people do use it including people from town sure i feel like um this is sort of like i it's almost
like you've got a 50-50 grant match is what they're looking for which is right so it's a
immediately it's a two-to-one return on money right which is
which is good different than what we're kind of thinking it was like in place of getting a grant
but it's really a grant match yeah it's a match um so i think we need which i can say that
susy did put in an email that said that the recreation committee as a whole was in support of the rail
trail work being done so okay so that just want i just want to feed you the pieces yeah and um you
to make a decision from there yeah because the rail trail project if you think of it from the snowmobilers
point of view doesn't matter is right yeah covered in snow right so if there's snow on it's no if there's
no you're all right you know six-year-old kid's right right right but you know as far as like walking and
riding bicycles and horses and all that during the summertime it's wonderful to see people out there because i go out
from time to time on my four-wheel with my chainsaw and cut things out of the way or try to
throw big stuff out of the ditches you know just to keep those ditches open because we've established
the ditch system all the way down through that whole rail trail so now the water is all staying off the
trail not washing the trail out and the in the cut then i really said nothing to do with westland but
in surrey where it goes through the ledges towards the dump that's all of the
above grade now the ditches are established on both sides and you know years ago you couldn't
even get through the island it's terrible now it's a class five room you could you know and another
good thing about having this trail open is like if we ever had a washout on route 12 like say
where the iron caten used to be we have a way now it's key yeah you could drive all the way down
through and get to key come out where the water tower is
and you know it would be a way to get around if there was several watchbacks have
may i make a suggestion let's bring the rail trail committee in here next meeting
sure let's next meeting is going to be uh thursday not two days but nine days
because we have to move that meeting because many of us are not around yeah um and it's
it'll be at 10 o'clock in the morning so 10 a.m.
15 is that the it's only agenda 13th 13th
13th right yeah yes um so let's let's that gives us a little bit of time to think about this
yeah um and you know the fact that you already have the share pack grant is
from what i was aware of yesterday yeah because we were told that there was a grant they didn't know if they had yet
oh no we have it so yeah so spending money now when you think you're getting a grant
no you know spending money when you have a grant that's different right you can commit the money if you
get the grant but you don't want to spend it prior to you don't want to do it before that right so i mean we have the
material now we just have to get it there
okay so now that we have all the information properly yeah um just give us you know a week to you
know you guys are going to try to figure something out if there is anything you can if we can because we're
in favor you know it's a great project for a number of reasons including the fact that if something
washes out yeah that's something i hadn't even thought about so you can drive down there at this
point oh sure it'd be interesting yeah just trying to think if there's any way
it would be tight i mean it would be tight through the ledges but you certainly could do it that's
yeah the ledges one way yeah but we figure we have a nine we have a nine yeah we have a nine
we have a nine foot wide drag that we pulled behind the Tucker 2000 so cars aren't nine feet wide
no perfect um yeah so that
what you told us tonight is more information than what we had previously yeah um so if we could uh
do that in nine days whatever it is sure um that would be really helpful
cool thank you thank you thanks for the consideration well thanks for thank you well thanks for
coming in and also thanks for going and getting the grants yeah um that's huge you've done it for
ages i mean i don't know if you ever walk any of the trails but there's bridges there's you know a lot
of things that we do a lot of cut in we throw a lot of brush out of the way hey trying to keep
snowmobiling alive in southwest corner of new amshire what can you do about the snow
have a good winter last year snow we can start we can start seeding clouds yeah i mean we all kind of
got a grant for that you know we all miss a good winter but yeah well i guess there was a decent one
here last one he was gone you weren't here i know yeah well i went i came back and i went to
pittsburgh and i went to moosehead lake and believe it or not moose edlade didn't have as much snow as we
got but there was none in florida so so dan thank you yeah yeah i think i think i'll stay for the notley
that's okay you can stay for the entire thing you're more than welcome okay
we can stay away we like companies not we do not we do you
thank you yeah you were saying something about the conservation commission oh um oh i just
i attended harrisville's conservation commission meeting today at paul snowball and i did and i did and uh
they basically they spent like an hour and a half to reviewing what they had done over the last few years and um it's really successful what they've done over there they had the guy who actually sprays it he runs the company that sprays it and um you know they hit it last year and he said about 90 90 to 95 percent of it's gone and what they'll do is he'll hit it every year for a while have a plan when you do it for four years ago and you let it set for a year and then you hit it again
is what happens is when it's almost dead and it just comes up a little you don't want to spray just a little you want to come up a little more
so he's got an all system and uh he uses a two percent um glypicy you know forming right and he's got some other things he uses it he puts in a it's an anti-drift agent so what it does is it makes it makes it heavy it makes it heavier so it doesn't you know it doesn't you know it
blow away in the wind it lands right on the leaves and then there's another man i can't remember i haven't written down
someplace but it's another thing that he puts in there it's like a one-s-s-s-to-punch the website and this other one makes it kills it up
anymore and the other region is very you know very not very toxic but all yeah i was just reading about some of this stuff
and mostly because of our yard and a lot of what they're what they're pushing now is a 45 percent
vinegar solution is salt water and what that does now it won't kill the roots
but what they say is if you apply it over multiple years eventually it'll just kill itself off
but that's only good like you you you like if you've got gravel and you've got grass and stuff
growing it that's really what this for you can't go out into your yard because it you'll just end up
killing everything kind of like what i did with my blow torch too
weeks ago when i got in trouble with the interesting thing about vinegar i don't tell scottigone
oh really class two chemical yeah yeah and glyphosate is in class three so vinegar is actually
no toxic than glyphicine wow really and these guys all really know what you're talking about
but uh they say the big thing is glyphosate's really got a bad rep you know bad rap because you're just being
round up with the sun in the proper amounts and at the right time of year you have you have to do it
right after it blows and before the first frost so it's because it blooms and bees will be you know
they'll beat on that stuff but if you do it at the right time it's really it's when all the nutrients
are going back down into the roots and that stuff has to be stuck down into the roots you
spray any other time of year doesn't get brought down to the roots and that's the
those roots can be like i think they're 10 15 feet deep so the issue that i've heard as a beekeeper
the issue that i've heard is that the glycifate also stays in the soil so something that grows
later that may have blossoms has glycifide um so i would that's something i'd like to
they didn't talk about that but that's
reference on that you should look at it's but that's also depending on who you speak with
you will get a bias from their particular point of view so i heard that in a presentation
but it was a presentation about bees and so i would like to know you know just how accurate
that was you need an unbiased
these are you guys are saying you know you're using a couple of ounces like you know hundreds of
square yards it's a very minimal amount that you're using we actually viewed you know the
treasurer depot is down in chesh and harris bill yeah yeah so they that was a spot that they hit last
year and they took us on a tour and walked down and you can see all the dead stocks and then some of the
native plants are starting to come back there which is that's one of the reasons why you don't
really want to you know have this knowledge is it takes overall chokes out the native plants and the native
plants support you know the native insects the native rabbits and you know so you kind of want to
see if you can get rid of this stuff i don't want to know more about shelf life you know soil life in
this case um to how much of that actually
is then passed on to the next generation of plants that that populate that area.
I've got the contact with the nations for these guys, but there's some of them that are in the industry
and chemical stuff like Paul's a woman scientist you know and a couple other guys over there.
Yeah, if you're in the chemical industry then you're going to think this is a great thing.
If you're in the B industry you're going to think it's a terrible thing so maybe what we need to do is
talk to an entomologist or a biologist about, uh, uh, uh, uh, biologist about, um, uh, uh, a biologist about
at the state level to find out what the is there a middle ground there or is one side correct
right we wouldn't have somebody in d o t paul's actually right in legislation and in the o t
like well the environment the environmental side of them so they they i mean that should be then but again
for sure we have to let out no ones yet yeah yeah any questions i can pump it up i mean the new
cooperative extension may have somebody that knows that kind of like um myafsky he he's
Carl myevsky yeah Carl's really good car would be somebody he'd be somebody you might be able to get
information from yeah Carl's very very very good the extension agent also you think he
yeah that's what he works yeah that's what yeah he is come the guys over at this man have to live in town
actually visited us they visit our country and conservation commission um the guy
who does the spring and one of the guys actually the chair the committee came to talk to
parry and everybody did you ever speak to the uh to the slug board chair i had to talk to the select board
but these guys were all you know i actually do want to talk to them still i think we should because
um there was a the one conversation that i had with him when southwest had that uh
gathering of select board chairs type of thing yeah
yeah wouldn't let you go um he mentioned that he was not as positive about that and i don't know why
and he said it's a long story and it may not be the fact that he wasn't positive maybe some people
weren't i i don't know where he was going with that they did it around the same the same thing with some
people thank you one of the slum it wasn't but i didn't really get a chance to talk to me i think we should
keep it open i mean we could establish you know communication between that and do some other research on
well when you drive through rood 63 where i'm sure the state would not necessarily want a
spring not at this point but they also mow and when you mow not weed it ends up everywhere
you know times ten dave's been doing all this mowing now so you can really he doesn't mow it out of it so it's
just as well you can see what it is right on south bill and you know my hair is probably there's
going over interesting thanks you're now the knotweed king so thanks
thank you can give me one second i'd like to add one thing to old business and it's basically
to bring people to our website um so if i can just go to our website myself here
you're looking john one of the thing we paul and i talked about is he's thinking the recycling
center would be a good place to do an experiment perhaps because there are already test wells there
and they test those wells every year so that could be this information as to is the stuff
getting into the aquifers or not plus you have that stuff that the recycling center cars and
now the area you can get on the tire tires and they can spread it so it's kind of
be a worth looking at how to do that but obviously the main goal is to use as little as the
every side as possible right doing it properly and at the right time of year it's it's pretty
minimal the stuff you have to use um looking at the manifest today i saw david mazorov's you know
bill which reminded me that we should be getting the results of the re-evaluation fairly soon
he's been working on it yeah so what i would like to do is just once again in the minutes
and on this video remind people that on our town website westmaland nh.h.gov on the very
front page scroll down and it says 2026
and each revaluation as part of the property re-evaluation process
randomly selected properties may be visited by both the town's assessing contractor
and representative from the new hampshire department of revenue administration
d r a as part of the review and verification process currently the town's overall assessed
values are estimated to be approximately 60% of market value residents should expect
assessed value that excess and let me start that all over again resident
should expect assessed property values to increase as part with the reevaluation process.
However, the tax rate is expected to decrease accordingly to reflect the updated assessments.
Residents should not estimate future tax bills by applying the current 2025 tax rate to new assessed values.
Repeat. Residents should not estimate future tax bills
by applying the current 2025 tax rate to new assessed values as a tax rate
will be recalculated following completion of the re-evaluation.
If you have more questions about that, there's a box right below it, find out more that
will take you to a frequently asked questions page where you can go ahead and read more
about the reevaluation process.
The real key again is do not try to calculate your own tax.
rate.
The tax rate will not be determined until November by DRA.
So when you get the re-evaluation, if your property went up X number of dollars, it does not necessarily,
you cannot currently determine your new tax rate.
A 40% increase in your property value doesn't mean a 40% increase in your taxes.
Absolutely not.
So because of the way of the tax rate.
Because of the way things have been since COVID,
there will be a good chance that your property is more valuable today
than it was two years ago.
But do not panic at that point.
We will not have the tax rate until November.
And when we have that, we will share it.
That's all I got.
That's a good public service now.
But I figured there was something that was probably going
to take some people off in there.
So prepare for phone call.
Well, that's what I'm trying to get rid of is the fact that not everybody knows this and there is no really good way except the West Mlander to get it out.
I believe we've spoken about this now probably four times at least.
We spoke about it at town meeting.
We've spoken about a budget committee meetings.
We've spoken about it's the select board meetings.
This is the last time before this is going to move.
I used to make some recordings like
No, you cannot build it on Classics Road Record and NY.
And no, your tax rate will not go up 40% in Y.
There you go.
And that way I can push the button.
Which one would you like?
Right.
To find out more about your tax rate, press two.
Yes.
Okay, thank you.
I just wanted to remind folks that that's happening and
you really cannot determine your tax rate at this point.
Yep.
All right.
So we get a bunch of signing to do.
This limited power of attorney, this is so they can do the closing for these properties that they are auctioned in that day.
So I just need to get signed.
Then we have a deed waiver and a payment plan.
I made two copies of a payment plan so that an original can also be given to the person it's going to.
We just need to get signed.
We hope we've made plans with all the people that are having an issue with getting attacked.
if you would get the taxes paid so that we don't have to deed anybody's places.
It's the same property.
That's a waiver and these are payments.
I just want an original for the person and original for us.
It has taken a lot of effort.
Bill's made many calls, Melissa has made many calls.
There have been letters.
Finally, we're getting to the point of everybody has a plan
because deeding was supposed to happen next week.
So we don't walk there.
We don't want their places. We want them to have them.
They're both the same.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
I have a couple of cemetery beads as well.
That's for us with him.
Yeah.
Excellent for me.
Yep.
So 10 to 14 days ago, we got a letter.
The town got a letter from a coalition made up a
and made up of the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights,
the League of Women Voters, New Hampshire,
and Open Democracy, New Hampshire.
And what this organization has done
is they've gone out and reviewed all the town web pages
and what they have as far as voting information.
And they looked at several different areas
and then better yet, they just
better yet, they just didn't point out what the problem was.
They actually gave us a solution, which is unusual
and greatly appreciated.
And it covers how to register to vote, how to vote elections,
and then information on election officials in the town.
And so the rest of this document, I think it's four pages.
I wrote them back and said, can you send me an electronic copy of it?
And with that electronic copy, I produced
I produced this document that I gave you all
and tailored it for our town.
And I think it's pretty good.
I mean, there's nothing dramatic in here.
And I think what's really helpful is that they've actually
included several state web pages
that people have further information.
And so really all you have to do is click on the link,
and it'll take you to a state site
site that tells you a bunch of stuff of those are my notes.
I have a work on there that goes right to the state site.
Yeah, well, I think the beauty of this is they take each phase of it,
how to register, how to vote, when the elections are, and that sort of thing.
So I think it simplifies it, quite frankly.
And I went to each one of these sites just to make sure they were still working links.
So they do.
And quite frankly, the only, I had Ellis look at it today and I deleted a
couple things. And so I don't think it changed anything here. But the question I had, I've
already talked to Nancy Zeller and asked her to get me a copy or when their next meetings are
because those should be posted. So she's working on that. And I talked to her about that last week.
And then really the only thing I have left is on the back
page. And what they recommend, and you can see on the last page, I've got Ellis's
contact information in here, as well as the State Secretary for New Hampshire and the Attorney
General's Office. But they also recommend that the supervisors of the checklist be there,
their phone numbers, and their emails. And what concerns me, oh, and also the moderator,
I'm not sure that we should do that. And my recommendation would be that we just, under the
supervisors of the checklist, we just put the town administrator there. And if someone's got a very specific
question, then you can send them towards the supervisors of the checklist.
It really should just be Ellis. Because I don't, only thing I do for elections is get ballot books.
Okay, well, we can do that.
I have a good Ellis. Okay. And what about the moderator?
He has nothing to do with that either. Well,
he does but i think alice would probably be the okay he's a kind of the point person for that
all right well i will make it so okay and so this is fine and dandy and that leads me to another
question but i think the answer's in in the emails because i noticed an email in there that
were we got an update from the company that's doing our web page i didn't understand all of
it. But my idea is when I get this done, I send it off work. I guess you send it off to them because you're the only one that has access.
You get that done, I could put it on our current website. Okay. They'll just be migrated as part of it.
Okay. All of them email them from them is that they're moving to another phase. Yeah, that's what I took from it. Yeah. And I got into the minutia, which is the wrong thing because they didn't really understand the minutia. But yeah, I understood we're moving on.
So that's what I'll do. I'll make the changes and then I'll just send them to you and you can put them on the web page.
And then I didn't read through the whole thing, most because I didn't understand it, but do we have a date when they think it'll go hot?
Not yet?
End of year.
Yeah, I would take late year.
Okay.
Some of that was our bad at the beginning of the year.
because we were too busy to work with us.
Well, I mean, that's okay.
I mean, we're not going anywhere as long as it's updated.
But, I mean, if I get this on the website, it'll be more useful now than if I give it to them and it's after the fact.
Yeah.
So.
And the thing that I like about this is the fact this is not political.
Oh, absolutely.
That was the very first thing I checked is make sure this didn't come from the left or the right.
Yep.
It's simply, here's how you do stuff.
It's kind of.
the way we used to get news.
Let me just tell us what's happening
and then wouldn't pontificate on that stuff.
So I do, I know
I'm showing my age,
because I do remember watching the news and going,
oh, okay.
But anyway.
Oh, Walter.
Yeah.
I remember Walter.
All right.
Well, that's all I have.
I let you have any questions.
No, that's a really good idea.
Because they've made it more complicated.
and they tried to make it less complicated.
Stay tuned.
They'll do it some more because that's all they do.
That's what they do.
Ellis showed me the book that they got last year that's like this stick.
Yeah.
And then the book that there's no more trainings, mind you.
The book they got this year, it's this stick.
What went away?
Right.
But it seems to me there should be more to it
because as has been pointed out to me
by some females that I know,
is actually for a lot of footwork,
makes it harder if they don't walk around with their birth certificate, their change,
their legal paperwork for changing their name after they get married or after they get divorced.
You know, there's just all kinds of things that, so
yeah, anyway, I'm not going to get...
I think here is we say you need proof of citizenship, but if you don't have it, you can sign an affidavit.
Those things are.
Crazy.
Do you affidavit so?
In my mind, but I mean, it's, yeah, they still do it, but it's like,
you're supposed to have to sign that affidavit and then get your stuff.
So then they spend time chasing people around.
And I used to be, like in my dad's age, he proved, he gave what he needed to do,
registered to vote, and went to the polls.
Now they're trying to, you know, hold everybody's hand and let them do however they need to do.
It's just,
At some point in time, people have to take responsibility and get what they need.
If you get a passport, that works for pretty much everything.
Yep.
So it's like...
But passports are expensive now, and it takes a while.
I mean, if you try to get a passport now, you probably wouldn't have it for the September election.
You might not.
Yeah.
But that takes a little plan.
Right, yeah.
And again, well, I'm not going to say it.
I'm not going to say we're solving a problem that doesn't exist, so.
yes, so. All right, let's Woodward Field sign.
Yeah, don't say that.
Couldn't help myself.
I bid the Central South American Africa.
We're good.
This sign was made by Justin Trebe,
and they would like permission to have it hung
at Woodward Field.
My guess is, probably, on the
shed.
signed and hung up.
Yeah, that's got to get up there too.
So yeah, it needs to get hung up and not lost because I have to ask her for a little and I'm going to cry.
Yes.
We actually have money on it, you know?
There's an office pool.
Cool.
We're all picking dates.
Anyways, they wanted this to be approved to be able to be able to hang over there at the field.
Yeah.
I think it's a nice sign.
Yeah, it's very nice.
All right.
Great.
All right. So you guys all agree.
Thank you, Mr. Freebie.
Just is very talented.
He is very talented.
Yeah, that's a beautiful sign.
That's all my God.
Okay, so then the deeded property auctions is on the 8th,
and Jody informed me today she's already got it
squared away, so all three of us can be there without it, you know, legally.
Well, you can anyway, because you can't,
can attend things.
Right.
If you happen to speak.
Yeah.
It's posted.
And how many of us are not going to speak, John?
I am Mark.
I am not going to speak.
I mean, Bill.
You probably won't have a lot to talk about there.
But there is a lot of interest in the properties.
They've done a great job advertising.
And they're going to do it right in here, correct?
Yeah, okay.
We'll see what goes on.
But, yeah.
It should be kind of an interesting thing, but
I've had to explain more times than I care to count
how you cannot build on a classic stroke.
You cannot build on a classic road cross.
You can't.
And you still can't build on a classic road.
And you still can't build on a classic sort.
And nope, nope, you still can't
because people are convinced that the state made a change
and now I can.
That's not entirely true.
So.
We still have ordinances that you can't.
Right.
The town is the ordinance.
The town has an ordinance.
The one that is most restrictive is the one that's enforced.
So if the state is more restrictive than we are,
the state rules.
If we're more restrictive than the state is, which in this case we are,
our ordinances rule.
Which I believe that is.
state legislature are trying to fix.
They want to take priority over anything we do down here.
But from what I've read, I'm not sure that's going to happen.
You're also five of those.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then last but not least, as we mentioned earlier,
our next meeting is now going to be on the 13th of August at 10 a.m. right here.
And that's due to
us.
Vacation.
So.
Scheduling condos.
Yeah.
I was going to suggest we just didn't have a second one, but now you've made us have one.
But that's okay.
You're welcome.
Gee, thanks.
That's okay.
Bill, you got anything else?
No.
Negative.
I have one thing that we should acknowledge is the fact that Ed Johnson did pass away last week.
And he was the,
the pirate deputy and he was fire warden for many years.
Many years.
And, you know.
And a really nice guy.
Yeah.
He was too young.
I think he was 81, right?
Yeah.
That's young in Westmoreland.
Yep.
All right, well.
You didn't know any snow bills and he was putting up all the sides for me still.
Really?
Nice.
He was devoted.
Yeah, snow belt there.
Oh, that's also.
I didn't even know that piece, so that's good.
Yeah, that's good.
It's nice.
He put up the size on Hunter Road called me every year.
Sure, he and wouldn't look at down.
But it was always nice to stop and visit him
when I went to Clair Trails up there.
Mowl.
All right.
I reckon years ago at Martin.
Look at this guy.
Ellen donated a quilt once when we had a radar one.
She had snowmills all over this.
Oh, that's awesome.
She's such a closer.
There was a raffle.
And I think you got like 400.
dollars as well.
All right.
All right.
I'd like to make a motion that we adjourn.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
I'm standing.
Okay.
Noted.
Noted that you're saying.
It's exactly
one hour.
I've got 12.
Here's the
the, let's see.
So you're down here by the church, right?
Right.