Bill's Country Store Grant Denied

Some interesting developments were unveiled at last night's Select Board meeting. Given the controversy surrounding the "Transportation Enhancement Grant" that the town had applied for you would have thought its status would have been front and center, yet it took Bernie Rome's request for an update toward the end of the meeting for it to come to light. Seth Webb mumbled something about how he couldn't believe he forgot about it before relating that the grant had been refused. So it's pretty much back to the drawing board on the monetizing of Bill's Country store. Apparently the Park and Ride slated to go into Bill's parking lot will have to be reconsidered as well because it was dependent on work that was going to be done with the Transportation grant. Thank god the town is off the hook for the 40k it was going to match the grant with.
Also last night the board appointed Mark Fiore and Tom Rock as fire wardens while kicking native son Truman Bates to the curb. I can see appointing Mark as he is a resident and a volunteer firefighter but Tom Rock's appointment seems to me to be a little sketchy. Tom Rock's business is headquarterd in Rutland and he lives over the New York border. There is no requirement that the warden live in the town he is responsible for, but I would think you might want him in closer proximity than New York. In a comic aside, during Seth Webb's presentation of the proposed Strategic Operating Plan, he let slip a whopper of a Freudian slip during his discourse on increasing tourism by stating the strategy of "Promoting policies and services that support business growth while protecting the rights of businesses." What he meant to say was "while protecting the rights of residents."  My impression is that he got it right in the first instance.