 Hello, Essex Junction, we are here with an independent moment and I'm joined today by Essex Junction State Representative, Representative Lori Houghton and Representative Karen Dolan. Thank you so much for coming to this idea I'm really excited about it and we're in a really exciting historic moment in our community and I'm so excited that I just wanted to find out more about it and and share that with with our with our viewers. Can you tell us please, Lori, where are independence charter change is that at the State House please. Great. Hi Annie it's so great to be here and to be talking to everyone. So, age 491, which is a charter change for creating the city of Essex Junction is currently in houseways and means, if you remember from Annie's conversation with Andrew it got out of house scope ops on a vote of 11 zero which is really exciting. And so there was testimony and ways and means and it's in that committee because of the tax implications to both communities. They are hearing more testimony on Wednesday, I think they had a minor change they wanted to make to some language, which was confusing for what we wanted it to do. And so they're going to make some change and then hopefully on Wednesday they will vote it out. If they vote it out Wednesday, then it will be on the House for for full vote of the House on Friday. So just a quick, a quick look at the trajectory was the, the community voted for this charter change this past November. And then it goes to the, the last piece it was that that Andrew and I spoke of remind me. Yep, House government operations operations now it's at houseways and means, and then it goes to the floor. And then happens after that if it gets. And then if it passes out of the House floor, it goes moves over to the Senate and we start the process all over again. And then, once it gets out of the Senate, it goes to the governor for signature. And so the process all over what you mean by the process all over again is that there's a visit to the Senate level of those pieces. Yeah, so there's a Senate go box piece. I don't know if it will go to the equivalent of houseways and means in the Senate, but it has to go through House or Senate go box, and then potentially Senate finance, and then to the Senate floor for full vote. And if they make no changes, then it goes right to the governor's desk. Well, and there's been so much work. There's been so much work our community. There's been so much work by staff there's been so much work by the trustees. There's been so much work by both of you. And we're all so grateful and I feel very strongly as though the coming together of of the entirety of of S extension has been so integral to the to the charter change and to the movement and to the desire to to move forward and to grow. You know, Annie I'm glad you said that and I agree with you and I just want to make one comment that it's everyone here today that has got us to this point it is a total team effort, but there's so many people from the past, who took step after step after step people who are longer with us people who have moved out of the community. And I feel like it took every single effort that has happened to this day to make this be the right time that this can happen. So I just want to make sure we're appreciative of all the work that has gone in from those before us. Not only is your point valid, I feel, I was teary while you were describing that so much work. You know, as, as we went around our community, everybody that you bomb did you had a story about the last time that they tried and the last time that they tried and the last, and so it's such a beautiful tether. And I really like that vision that you've provided for us today and that strong reminder that it's not just now it's not just here but all of the things that have built the momentum and all the hard work and all the visionaries and all the Yeah, pretty incredible. Yeah. Karen, you had mentioned earlier what questions you hear. Remind me, tell us about that please. Yeah, so, so one of the questions you already covered is where is the bill at what's happening with the charter change. So that's one question the other question that comes up a lot from folks is, what can I do, what can I do to keep the momentum going. And I think that goes back to that whole piece, as you're all saying that collaboration is the big thing with this, with this charter change, everybody is ready to come to the table to pitch in and do the work. And I think that's what we're seeing at the State House to that when we present things folks like wow like this is very thorough you thought of all the pieces you have all the things in place. And so one, one way folks can stay involved with this is just watch the process unfold. That is one of the silver linings of you know this whole pandemic experience we're going through is things in the State House are all on YouTube and live streamed. And so, Laurie and I are trying to keep folks up to date on when things are in committee and testimony and votes are happening so as Laurie said, on Wednesday house ways and means is going to be hearing testimony and a potential vote. And so folks can watch that. Obviously if we have a vote on the House floor, you can also watch that other things that you can do. I think right now for the House things are kind of good right now we probably don't need any community assistance, we're just going to let things unfold. Of course, if things change, Laurie and I will let folks know, but one thing is get to the Senate, as Laurie mentioned we're going to start from scratch again so it could be that there is opportunity that we might need folks to share their support and get the word out. And so, we will let folks know how we've been really communicating with folks is on front porch form actually just posted today gave an update where things are at and on the Village Facebook page. So those are two great resources, and you can reach out to Lori at any time we're happy to let people know where things are at because obviously things can change from day to day. Great. That's great Karen I'll, I'll share links below this video for the agenda and the, and the live stream for Wednesday, and any future possible links as well as links to your representative pages that you have on Facebook and can be viewed by people who don't even have Facebook because they're public pages so people who would like to know can look at that as a, as a website, and go look there, and then I really like the updates that you provide in front porch form and I am I correct Karen and Lori that normally independence falls with it with a with a title of independence and then has information about it within your updates so people were just looking for that they can find it quick like that. Yes, if you're skimming and that's the piece you really are interested in is that I think today's it was on the top. Oh great. Great. Okay, this has been so much fun I'm so grateful to be in community with you both and so grateful to everyone that's brought us here and this important reminder that it's everything that's gone before it's our history from the get go right from the very people in the village that wanted to create the village in the first place for those reasons I feel like we still have that same energy, you know I'm saying. Definitely great it's been all of that and Karen I really love this this idea for what community can do and speak to and how we can come along for the ride and then be supportive when it's our turn to do so. Exactly, exactly. Is there anything. Okay, I was just going to say and we appreciate you any doing these snippets to make sure people are staying up to date I know visual and conversation is really important for some people some people would rather just read a phone porch forum update so it's great to have the information out there in so many different ways so thank you. Well I appreciate everybody you mean giving it a try is it's really nice if you are. This is fun this is great. Great. Thank you so much thanks for all you do and we look forward to learning more on Wednesday and forward and thank you so much for everything that you do for our community we are so fortunate to have you both. Thank you. Bye bye.