 Well good morning everyone. Thank you for being here today. It's great to be with students, business leaders, and teachers to talk about careers and construction in the trades. As you know this is where I come from and it's not just the construction world but right here at Spalding. This is where I developed my passion for the trades, working with my hands, designing and building things. When I went to school here I took college prep classes in the morning and then would go to the machine trades program in the afternoon. So now I've carried the lessons learned here with me my entire life. After graduating with Spalding went on to UBM where I studied to be a tech ed teacher and received my teaching certification. But in the end I decided to go into business instead where I co-owned a construction business for about 35 years. As governor I've tried to make promoting the trades and careers in construction a top priority because it's so important to all of us whether it's building homes or bridges, repairing vehicles or equipment, doing the work of electricians, plumbers, or more. These are all good paying needed jobs and we need to inspire more to take this path. So I want to thank the Associated General Contractors and the Associated Builders and Contractors who are with us today as well as the employers they represent for all the work they're doing to recruit and retain talent, train the workforce, and do the important work of keeping employees safe on the job site. And with all the disruptions that might come in the years ahead with new technology and artificial intelligence, I can guarantee you this. Demand for hands-on jobs and construction will not go away. Some of you may have heard me talk about the need to end the stigma around the trades and CTE. For far too long we've made going to a four-year college and getting a degree as the only measure of success. We emphasize that doing so will lead to the best career opportunities. But that's not exactly true. For some it could be the right path and if that's what they want to do they should. But some of the most successful people I know come from the trades and then go to college. We need society to recognize that having a CDL is just as important as having a PhD. And while we're breaking down stigmas, there's another one we need to address. And that's the notion that this path and these jobs are just for men. That couldn't be further from the truth. We need to focus our efforts on making sure women know just how lucrative and rewarding these opportunities are. And that work needs to start right here in our schools. Center Vermont Career Center is working hard on this and I appreciate your efforts. I also want to acknowledge and thank Vermont Works for Women who we'll hear from in a few minutes Ronnie and for all the great work they're doing. Over the past several years we've been working to promote and invest in CTE as well as workforce development initiatives like apprenticeships which Secretary Boucher and Commissioner Harrington will talk about in a few minutes. But before turning it over my message to the students in this room is simple. Keep it up. Follow through. Whether this is the path you end up following in the future or not just being here and broadening your horizons will open up so much more potential for you in the future. You might not even, you might not have had to have this experience if you hadn't participated in CTE which is why it's so important. And I guarantee you, I guarantee you because I've experienced this, what you learn here will follow you for the rest of your life in a positive way. So with that I'll turn it over to Secretary Boucher to learn more about apprenticeships. Thank you Governor. Good morning. I'm so happy to be here to talk about the power of CTE for our students in Vermont and particularly the power of CTE in the trades. As the governor stated it is so important that Vermont has people trained in the skilled trades. The jobs are plentiful, the work can be rewarding for people who enjoy hands-on projects and concrete tangible materials to work with and given the sheer need that we have for folks to do this work the pay has never been better. So to students and families there's never been a better time than now to think about participating in a CTE program to explore options as the governor just noted to enroll in a trades program officially or to complete an apprenticeship. We have a critical housing shortage in Vermont and it's going to take both an all hands on deck approach coupled with creative strategic investments to solve this challenge. CTE programs are and should continue to be a critical resource for trades training and the state's broader workforce concerns. I want to provide some information on how we're doing in terms of CTE participation and enrollment in Vermont. First over time we've seen more and more eligible high school students participate in CTE exploration and programming. More than a quarter to upwards of a third of eligible high school students participate each year. This is wonderful. But what would it look like if all students have an opportunity to explore and participate in some type of CTE experience? That is the goal that we should all get behind and think creatively about how to implement. We know that many centers have waiting lists and reduced capacity to serve all students who are interested. We need to incorporate the need to expand and perhaps integrate better with sending high schools who have space as we move forward with robust CTE options for students. Vermont also continues to see more and more students opt in fully for a CTE program each year. And these students are deemed concentrators in our federal Perkins law, which they might not even know, but that's how state folks talk about them. If we dig in a bit further about who is actually fully enrolling in our CTE programs, specifically into who participates and enrolls in the trades, the picture is a little less rosy and I wanted to be sure that I mentioned that today. So nationally, when we look at trades career clusters like construction, manufacturing, transportation, about 80 to 85% of students enrolled in these programs are men or young men. So only about 15 to 20% of students, therefore, enrolled in these trades identify as female. In Vermont, it's even worse. Our data show that we lag about 10% behind these national trends with less than 10% of students enrolled in construction, manufacturing and transportation identifying as young women. For participation in CTE, again, these are students who are just trying it out. The percentage of Vermont young women participating in these trades clusters is slightly better at about 11 to 13% for construction and manufacturing. So in essence, the national data show that we're not doing very well in getting young women interested in and participating in trades programs and we have even more work to do in Vermont. And we're very committed to this. I will say my understanding is that our state CTE director is currently at a training or a conference right now actually just on this issue and working with several CTE directors to figure out how best to entice women into the trades and other non, what we call non-traditional career pathways. I want to acknowledge Jodi Emerson here at Central Vermont Career Center for the work she is doing not only to model career leadership to young women through her own professional trajectory, but for stepping up to do all she and her team can to advance CTE and opportunities for students. It's truly wonderful to see strong leadership by women at CTE centers. The power of role models for women in technical fields, perhaps most importantly in the trades given the data that I just reviewed, simply cannot be overstated. CBCC is always a fantastic partner in new initiatives, including most recently agreeing to take on a new project the state offered, which will involve refurbishing mobile homes that were flooded this summer. And this will offer students and hopefully young women opportunities to engage in renewable construction work and training and to have hands-on experience with aspects of construction, electrical work and plumbing that they might not have otherwise encountered through traditional projects given the unique nature of these flooded properties. This is a great example of how students and especially young women can engage in teamwork, service to one's community and entrepreneurial endeavors within the trades. I believe we're also going to hear about some other great programs focusing on women and hands-on training programs later in the press conference. But for now, I'll hand the mic off to Commissioner Harrington, who will tell us about some important information regarding work at the Department of Labor. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you, Governor. We're here today to highlight the importance of technical education and careers in the trades and the impact they have on Vermont's future success. But what better way to do this than during career and construction month? That said, for those of us who work for the governor and know the governor, I'm pretty sure every day and every month is career and construction month. Also, I want to give a special thanks to the Career Center for hosting us today. It's great to see the students here exploring possible career paths and building their skills. And as the governor has stressed time and time again, Vermont has been battling a demographics crisis for decades now. There just aren't enough people in our communities, kids in our schools, or skilled workers for our jobs. But it was the pandemic that put a fine point on this problem and moved it from a small state issue to a global issue. For anyone who has been looking to make repairs to their home, finally upgrade that kitchen of theirs, or for a business that's looking to expand operations, the shortage of qualified trade workers is no surprise to any of us. This summer's storm did not help matters. If nothing else, the July flood recovery underscored how important the construction industry really is and the occupations that make up that sector, like engineers and builders, carpenters, heavy machine operators, CDL drivers, electricians, plumbers and mechanics and many more. In 2022, construction accounted for about one out of every 10 businesses in Vermont, about 10 percent, and one out of every 20 jobs. These companies paid out an average wage of roughly $61,000 a year, exceeding the statewide average wage for all for wages by about 3%. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Association of Women in Construction, women fill only about 10% of those jobs in the construction industry, which is probably not surprising for any of us. It wasn't for me. This is not a new issue in the industry, but there is room for every person in this economy, including the trades. And regardless of how a person identifies, there's a space for them. And there are employers out there willing to train people who have little to no experience and pay them while they learn. I'm happy to be here today to celebrate careers in construction and the trades people that make it all happen, especially those that defy the odds and challenge the stereotypes. There is great work being done across the state to expose people of all backgrounds to these amazing professions. We're joined here today by Vermont Works for Women and a couple of the young trades people in the making, not just to bring attention to these amazing careers, but to challenge the notion that the construction industry is solely for men. I had the pleasure of attending the Vermont Works for Women Women Can Do event earlier this month in Randolph. And I cannot tell you how amazing it was to see over 400 young people from across the state exploring careers in construction, aerospace, robotics, electronics, forestry, heavy machinery, and more. But it's more than just having women in the trades. It's about shattering age old stereotypes about what women can or can't do. By supporting women and other diverse populations to land these jobs in construction and by challenging long held personal and professional stereotypes, we are fostering a more inclusive workforce, one that acknowledges that a woman's place is wherever she wants to be with equal pay for equal work, and one that recognizes the important role each person plays in our economy. To highlight just one occupation in the industry, the Department of Labor estimates that there will be nearly 5000 openings in the carpentry occupation over the next 10 years, meaning we need to find 500 new carpenters every year just to keep up. The message couldn't be any clearer. To women considering a career change or a career path in construction, Vermont needs you. We need you and other talented and driven individuals to help build not only the Vermont we need today, but the Vermont we want for the future. By staying and working right here in Vermont, you can make a difference in your life, your family, your community, and your state. This is work that matters. It's also important to point out that there are about 3000 women owned businesses in Vermont. However, only 66 of those are in the trades and manufacturing. So there is significant opportunity for growth all around the state. These are good jobs and great careers and afford people the opportunity to grow within the industry, maybe even become an entrepreneur and start your own construction business, which the governor knows a little something about. Vermont is a tight knit community. We stand by our neighbors, cheer on their successes and support them in times of need. Let's extend that same community spirit to women and all students pursuing training and education and careers in nontraditional fields. On behalf of the Department of Labor and the businesses and communities we serve, thank you for making sure your choice, your voice is heard and for choosing to be here today and for ensuring that women, girls and gender expansive individuals are included in the economy and career advancement opportunities in and across Vermont. It's now my true pleasure to introduce Ronnie Basden from Vermont Works for Women. Ronnie. Thank you, Commissioner. I'm Ronnie Basden, the executive director at Vermont Works for Women. I am proud to stand here today with Governor Scott, our Vermont state agencies, necessary employers and critical programs that are all working to address our increasing needs and our labor challenges. Women are a critical part of our workforce and significant contributors to the growth of our communities. Yet the fact remains that women are underrepresented in Vermont's fastest growing, highest need fields, fields such as construction, electrical, weatherization, flood recovery and infrastructure development. Talking about and diversifying our construction industry is no longer just an opportunity, it is now a necessity. We know that today Vermont women have a 79.5 percent employment participation rate that very closely matches Vermont men at 81.9 percent. But the fact also remains that women still only represent 4.1 percent of shovel-ready construction careers. The opportunity is there to empower, upskill and connect women directly to these motivating careers today while also investing in the potential skills of our youth. Vermont Works for Women has been working since 1987 to raise awareness about careers opportunities, provide hard skills training programming and connect women and youth to motivating employers and ongoing education. Our Trailblazers trades training program geared towards women and gender expansive individuals runs from Barry to Brattleboro, Rutland to Burlington and over to Newport. Our Trailblazers pre-apprenticeship training program pairs the hard skills training necessary to be job ready with the support and the empowerment to retain and thrive within these careers. We partner directly with employers and our industries here in Vermont to ensure that these work environments are family sustaining and motivating. But we also need to recognize the potential and the opportunities in our Vermont youth. At Vermont Works for Women we work to expose middle and high school girls to career pathways, training opportunities and partner with them to dismantle the stereotypes around entering trade certification work or construction careers for women. Today we sit at Central Valley Career and Tech Center that provides an incredible opportunity for certification skills and education. But we also recognize that we need to increase our female enrollment in these critical programs across state tech centers and build in representation that naturally attracts the carpenters the welders and the workers that we need across our state. Increasing access to construction careers and diversing our industries only happens in collaboration. We are incredibly proud to partner with our Vermont state agencies to ensure that there is access to quality programming for all Vermonters who are interested. At Vermont Works for Women we work closely with our community collaborative serve learn and earn partners. Vermont Youth Conservation for Audubon Vermont and Resource Vermont to provide paid service and training opportunities in a collaborative problem solving approach to workforce challenges. Construction careers can provide a significant opportunity and tremendous benefits. But there is work to be done to ensure that women are entering these fields that we are retaining their critical talent and that we are working together to create a thriving and diverse construction workforce for Vermont. I'm incredibly proud to be joined tonight by a trailblazers graduate who can best speak to these goals. The demand for trades training programming is increasing across our state and today Vermont Works for Women and our trailblazers program has graduated 132 women since just 2019 and we are hosting our largest cohort ever in Redland. I'm very proud to introduce our 2022 trailblazers graduate and trains women Tiffany Marquez. Thank you Ronny. So my name is Tiffany Marquez. I currently work for mom killer construction and I've been with them since the end of last year. I really do think of Vermont Works for Women for this change of mind because it was a career change. I did not have a set path that was meant for me or made for me as a female. I did actually grow up around contractors and builders and engineers and trades people in general. But I was actually never encouraged to pursue these careers even though I was so interested in them. So regardless of that I still pursued with this interest. And here I am you know speaking before you all and I really do think the support the people that really did all the footwork for me to get to this point. It was not easy you know especially knowing facing you know going to be in male dominated areas of work and knowing and being curious to know if these companies are actually going to be open to having female workers in general. So thank you Vermont Works for Women as well as Resource. They both really did encourage and do the work that laid that path for me to feel welcomed happy. And I honestly can say that I do wake up every day you know knowing that I work building homes and just remodeling and all sorts of really awesome things. And I do encourage others who are interested to follow this path. It is fulfilling. I literally just I'm so proud of even my colleagues and coworkers who are so forth coming with their knowledge and just willing to be open and sharing as much as they can with me. So you know break those barriers continue going and here next I'm introducing Ella Townsend who's a student from CCVC. Thank you. I'm Ella. I'm from CVC. I've always known about tech but I had never really thought that I wanted to be a part of it. And if you had asked me last year do you want to build for the rest of your life I would have said no. I slowly started to learn about tech last year and I seemed really interested. So I went to the shadow days for for building trades and I really enjoyed it. It was hands on and it was kind of like a no brainer for me because I don't learn well being stuck in a classroom all day. I like hands on work. My favorite part about tech is knowing that I'm waking up and coming into my family. I love my class. They're like my family and we all get along very well. I would totally recommend this program to anybody that that likes construction work. I would like to carry this on for the rest of my life and go into college for construction management or business management. Being a woman in this trade makes me feel powerful and makes me feel good about myself. I work hard for what I do. And that's it. Thank you. I will pass this on to Richard Wabi. It was just 50 years ago that we were running up and down the hallways here at the Industrial Art Center. I think it was. And who would have imagined where that journey would have taken either one of us. I think it's time to pass that baton to the next generation. And with your understanding I would like to introduce Ben Osha from AGC who was our new workforce development assistant. Ben would you come forward. Thank you all for being here as we join other states other associations across the country in recognizing careers and construction month. But at the Associated General Contractors of Vermont we believe a career in construction should be celebrated every month. One of them one of the missions we are most proud of AGC is to be the first to participate in the construction of the CBCBT. It's seeing the outcomes of young women and men who choose the trades as a career path. Those outcomes include great incomes with benefits. That allowed them to grow great families own homes great lifestyles and participation in a community at large. We know we have a tremendous need in this state for successful. It must include advocacy. Elevation engagement in promotion. As the longest standing Vermont Construction Association. We have a rich history of advocating and delivering programs to help people get into the trades and keeping it inclusive for all. Programs such as the new CTE experimental learning program that funds hands on projects for students a grant program for personal protective equipment. And earn while you learn programs. We have sought to elevate the construction workforce by creating new leaders through professional training and creating a road map. A pathway to success. That's how people go from carrying their first shovel to running their own crew and oftentimes becoming an owner of company themselves. By regularly engaging with workers to improve systems within the workforce. That will help attract more talent. Figuring out what motivates and drives talent is the key to our mission. Because they are what are driving our industry today and for the future. Finally it's critical that we promote the industry and its impact on the world around us. These young women and men are at the front lines of our infrastructure. Clean energy systems. Transportation. Our homes. And they are also responsible for the important work on climate change resiliency. This association has the honor of growing the workforce with our industry partners both here at CCTC CVCC and across the states at the CTE's and other various schools. And I'd like to introduce Josh from ABC. For those in the industry, if you got a name like Ben Osha, you were destined to work in construction. My name is Josh Rape. I'm the presidency of the Associated Builders and Contractors of the New Hampshire Vermont chapter. And I'm here today to express support for everything that we're talking about. But also to just raise awareness of what the industry provides as an opportunity. And we've heard a lot of great things about trying to work in construction. And it's a statistical fact that there is no pay disparity in construction. Construction is leading the charge in terms of providing people an opportunity for all that want to come into work in construction. And we need to do more to get more women involved in construction. So I'm great that there's really great work being done by Ronnie and others to help increase that message. And I just want to say to all the people that are out there that we're working with the Associated Builders. The women in your lives about the opportunity that it's provided you and that there's great opportunity with the construction as well. I think we could do a lot more to try to promote more of those career opportunities that there are. And one of the great things we're very proud of here with the Associated Builders and Contractors is we are providing a great opportunity and pathway to career development for Carpentry. We have a great opportunity to launch that program. This is an opportunity to help people get into construction that may have come out of the CT Center and looking for advanced training that employer provides training for. It's a great program because the employers pay for it. The employers are providing opportunity for people to go to work and earn what they learn. And we've got a great partner with the State of Vermont Department of Labor who has helped us set up this program to be able to help launch that program. And I'm very pleased to see that we have our second cohort going in this fall. We have a lot of employers have engaged with that. We have a growing number of employers that get seeing the benefits and opportunities that come from apprenticeship pathways and we encourage more people to explore them and get involved with them. And I got to say too for all the young men and women behind us who are building this awesome setup for an opportunity to maybe even be hired on the spot. I know we've got Dan and Johnny from HP Cummings and Rearq respectively here. I'm sure they'd be happy to talk with you. They're very proud of you guys assisting the work that you're doing here. And lastly I just want to say it's an honor to be here and to represent the industry and help the champion be partner with many of the other people that have spoken with you already today. And to help us bring it home today I just want to say thank you very much. Well thank you all very much and you've heard a lot today. I'm sure you have lots of questions for some of our youth here in particular today. And so now we'll open up to questions. I did tell Ella that she'd be answering all the tough questions you might have so I'm going to refer to her when they come along. As you probably know where you live at the end of the last legislative session there was a report that was going to go over from something to see that needs to happen in Hawaii to make sure that they're... Yeah, there does need to be a balance amongst educational facilities. CTEs were developed. They were vocational schools back 50, 50 years ago. They were 100% funded by the federal government and that has since lapsed in some respects but we need to recognize that they need to be on the same level as the traditional educational facilities and because it's a great career path and when I was in school when you became a junior in high school you had to make a choice either going to college or you're going to vocational school and I chose both. I wanted to do I wanted to go to college but I also knew that I learned better with my hands. I loved that part of the problem solving, building things creating things. So I did both and I think that that's what we should be offering kids today a path forward where they can get excited about what they want to do in life because there's all kinds of opportunity out there today, especially today especially in Vermont where we have this aging demographic and we need more people in the workforce. We need to attract more people and we can do it through education. So I'm all in favor of trying to find opportunities for us to get on level a level playing field with CTEs and more traditional high schools. Secretary Boucher. Sure. Thanks governor. It's a great question just to echo a bit of what the governor said. Yes, we do have significant inequities across the state in terms of both the physical facilities structures that you've talked about and then also in terms of what programs are available. Our CTE centers are also across the board experiencing some significant labor shortages in terms of their teachers as is our broader PK-12 education system. I think there's a few the report is fantastic in my view and has a lot of great recommendations for us to consider from the state level. I think it's time we have to actually solve the funding of CTE which has long been a challenge and a problem. We will be putting forth some ideas about what that might look like to the legislature. I also think that there is a corollary task force that's going on right now that focuses on a long dormant state school construction aid program and I think it's going to be really critical that we keep the focus on not just as the governor alluded to our K-12 bricks and mortar but also our CTE centers because just as our schools have experienced lots of deferred maintenance and some real pressing challenges in terms of basic functioning our CTE centers many of them are in that state as well. Finally I think another piece I would say before finally is I think we have to really do some creative thinking around transportation for students. We do fund some transportation from the state for students to access our programs but we do I think need to think a little bit outside the box in terms of that because the solutions that I'm talking about are not going to happen tomorrow and so we're going to need some kind of immediate solutions to really get on that equity piece and make sure that we are providing relatively equal experiences for students to the extent that we can. The other thing I would say about that is that there's another inequity as well which is exposure to CTE programs. I think the best way to get students excited about CTE is to start early with them. So we have some great examples and some of our CTE is having really robust partnerships with middle schools and high schools where they actually bring younger students fifth and sixth graders into the CTE centers, set up some kiosks and interesting hands on experiences for these littles, if you will, to really get them excited about what CTE could be and really start that seed early on in their mind of what not only the educational experience might be like but what a potential career is like in those fields and I think we can do a better job of helping our local entities from the state perspective helping our local entities kind of bridge that gap between how do you actually get middle school students hooked up with CTE centers. There's a variety of different models that can be deployed. Into the education fund Yes, funding that through the Ed Fund. Well they are funded through the Ed Fund, it's just a very complicated model right now. So there's a portion that goes directly to the LEAs for CTE and then there's a very complicated commissioning from the CTE centers back to the LEAs the school districts but it's still coming from the Ed Fund so I want to clarify that but it is very complicated and I think the time is now to actually really simplify that and there's a whole host of downstream challenges with that approach in terms of pressures on the overall system and I think that we have some creative ways to actually really make it work. I think this administration my predecessor posed that and posed even going a step further a unified district for the whole K-12 system I think there will be a lot more work to actually focus on in terms of what is the best governance structure because we do have three different types of governance structures. In my view it makes sense for us to start actually with the funding first and then a quick follow up would be the governance structure but I'm looking forward to talking with that with the legislature about their views on that as well. I think they're two very related very complicated aspects and so I think we need to start kind of with either the funding or the governance first and then make sure they meld together at the end of the day. The revenue numbers for the first quarter I don't know if the flood caused a bit of a decline in some of them or if there's going to be ongoing decline in revenue as you put your budget together and I assume the money flowing from the federal government in the last few years has diminished. Yeah I mean we've received a lot of funding from the federal government and that goes back to our cash reserves as well. We have a lot of cash but I think it is going to get diminished. I think our revenue is going to get diminished over time and that's why I keep the legislature that this isn't going to continue the good times aren't going to continue so we have to be realistic about our budgets in the upcoming session so that we make sure that we don't become more unaffordable here in Vermont that we're not raising taxes we need to wear a high tax state and it's difficult for some to maintain a lifestyle here live here their choices throughout the country and we want to make sure that the choice is here in Vermont so we have to be on equitable with them and at least be competitive and right now we're out of balance so I'm concerned about the revenues but we have to live within our means. There could be a correlation there with the flooding. We don't know at this point I think we have to let it play out just a little bit longer it's not gloom and doom we had a robust fall I believe I'm just traveling around the state especially coming back from up north coming through Stowe for instance this fall it was difficult to get through there was actually traffic jams backing back up on the interstate on 89 so I think we'll find that to be leveling out some but inflation has taken over because we're paying more for almost everything and so we're just going to have to be realistic in this budget cycle about how we pay for things what we need and what we want and differentiate between the two You signed a contract with Corsivic for extension of the prison in Tupwiler Mississippi Tupwiler is a long way from Vermont about 1,420 miles from where we are today about 22 hour drive I have a friend who is there whom I visited Kentucky in Pennsylvania but his parents he's there 20 years his parents have never made a visit to him at any of these prisons there is a bus that goes back and forth to bring prisoners up to be released or to be taken down there as well as showing up to court is there some way to somehow circulate prisoners back to Vermont so they can see their parents or siblings once in 22 years Yeah, well obviously I think I've said this before if we could house all the offenders here in Vermont that should be our goal but we've offered the legislature a couple of paths forward in terms of upgrading some of our facilities so that we can accommodate that and that has been well met at this point in time so we have a capacity issue and we just need to do what we have to do to make sure that those who are incarcerated have a place to go and in this case we have to send some out of state but I would much prefer having everyone back in the state Well, I'm not criticizing the process of the prison just the process of the prisoner circulating back into the Vermont located prisons so that they can remain in touch with their parents Yeah, it's more and I'd be happy to have our commissioner of the Department of Corrections address this because it's more complicated than that different programming needs for different offenders and some need more than others and that determines where they're housed so it's difficult but at the same time if we could bring them back that's what we should do and if we could rotate I'm sure that they'll look at that but he could probably answer that question better Question about the originally built, they were flood control dams particularly Waterbury but also not Eastbury but become a recreational lake if the water levels could have, I don't know if I draw this or a dam construction person if the water levels could have been maintained at the lower level would there have been less damage by this question? I'm not sure there'd be less damage but I think you make a good point something that I thought about as well some of these Wrightsville dam Waterbury dam and they're great assets in some respects but for flood control if they were down a little bit further we would have more capacity and we would have to be concerned during a storm in July where we were worried about whether we were going to crest in the Wrightsville dam in particular down the spillway in Waterbury as well? Yeah, but I think we were more concerned about Wrightsville at that point in time there was more capacity at Waterbury and we weren't as concerned but Wrightsville was a concern it was a matter of inches in some respects but then it would have just flowed over at that point over the spillway but we're looking into that I know Secretary Moore and her team are looking for the hydrologists and so forth to determine what should we do can we increase the capacity and what would that look like so we're doing studies on that right now and do you have any control over the I believe that's under FERC maybe but I'm not positive with that to redevelop the north side of Barrie can you speak a little bit about what would you envision that proposal looking like and the cost back? Yeah, I want to start off by saying this was a vision this was a concept as most people know I'm from Barrie I know the region fairly well and we know and this has nothing to do with me being from here but Barrie in particular was hit tremendously hard when you look at the demolition, the debris as a result of all the damage from the July 5th flooding and beyond Barrie in particular was hit harder than any other energy, per capita or otherwise two and a half times the amount of debris was collected in Barrie as opposed to Montpelier in Montpelier we saw visually how much area was impacted there a tremendous hit to the downtown but two and a half times more here in Barrie in particular some of the homes so when you look at the north end coming into Barrie from Montpelier you can see visually the damage to the homes so I looked at that and thought we can do something I told my team we need to think big we need to think about something that we can present to our congressional delegation and I've spoken to Senator Sanders, Senator Welch Senator Ballant about this concept we kicked it around some and because of the supplemental that was included in the ongoing resolution there's additional funding in that for these types of FEMA funded projects so there's some capacity there but we have to bring forward a proposal so the first step again when I looked at it I sketched something out on paper something that I would envision to create more housing not just replace the housing that would be displaced but create more housing maybe two to three times as much as was impacted and put them on higher ground in different ways all different types of housing high-rise condos duplexes maybe even move some of the homes there on the new foundations in different areas up in elevation so in a green space that was important to me as a gateway to bury it was important visually because as you come up through and you see a lot of the history of what was Joan's brother's shed which is now the Grand Museum there on the right that's part of the entry into bury and then if we could expand upon that have some green space and some housing in the Northbury school up on the top of the hill and so forth it would be an economic driver welcoming more people into bury and create the housing provide for mitigation allow the water to flow we need more storage capacity in the future we're not going to be able to stop the water we have to do something to accept it in different ways so it doesn't do the damage that it did in this last storm because it will happen again we're seeing it more and more frequently so that's the vision it was something that I wanted to have put on paper did the work out there gave us some sort of a concept that people could at least look at react to we don't want to force anyone to do anything in this capacity we don't want to force anyone out of their homes we want to replace homes as needed but this is a big project it would be tens of millions if not over 100 million dollars in this back of the napkin type of projection that I had done but it's a big deal and there'll be now we want to present it to the city council so that they could react to it and if they are favorable would like to move forward with at least in considering this then we'll have to have focus groups with the neighborhood and people to bury and want as well this has to be something we all work on together but at the same time we need to give something to the congressional delegation so they can go to work to see if we can get the funding for it so that's going to be essential to moving forward yeah I do that's going to be everything because I think in the in this ongoing resolution I think they'd ask for six billion dollars which is what was needed for female related projects last year and they included 16 billion so there's some capacity there and we're hoping that we can be at the front of the line for a project at this magnitude because again we want to do something big we all have to be on the same page somewhat and then present it to the congressional delegation so that they can do the work to try and get some earmarks for Vermont there'll be a lot of buyouts and then building and so forth it'll be a multi-year project but it's exciting in some respects I think I don't think they can I don't think they can do anything for a couple of years once they retire I think that's an agreement that they can't lobby for any particular project but I know he understands the need he's been delivering on those needs for decades and with this seniority he delivered in a lot of respects so we miss him in a lot of ways as chair of the appropriate agents committee as well but I'm sure he'll do whatever he can to help us shepherd this through I don't know and we've been collecting data because we have an incredible housing need as you know here in the state our demographics are shifting we all know we started seven years ago sounding the alarm about we need more housing we're not catching up very quick so we're going to have to do everything we can because it's all connected if we don't have the housing we're not going to be able to welcome people in the state because we need more people here sure and we profit from that as well that's part of the economy as well so we need to find the balance we need to bring more people in and we need to have decent affordable housing for them when they arrive can you discuss some more because that's a pretty lofty goal which I like but what's the plan the question is about how do we get from 100 to 500 right unfortunately part of that is we need bodies we need people and we have this somewhat stagnant population here in Vermont we've been talking about that a lot over the last six, seven years that's why I ran to begin with you could see that we're aging out our demographics are aging we're not bringing more youth in and that leads to workforce issues and everything else and again we need to do everything we can to bring more people into the state a lot of that is with I believe with legal immigration we need more people we need them now so and we need other we need again one of the purposes here today was to highlight the fact that these jobs are available not just the young men but the young women as well and we've seen and heard from them we need young women to consider this an option so that we can make sure that we're fulfilling the need but that in itself isn't going to do it but everything we can throw at this is going to be important because we have workforce challenges and again how do we satisfy that and there's not one single answer it's a multitude of answers in order for us to get there I could talk a little bit about resource but I just add that I think the CTEs aren't the only part of capacity right there's other parts where we are training adults through intensive program we have a youth program that are separate so that's an additional part of that capacity multiple ways of getting there but again I think we need more people to come into our I mean look at Barry when I grew up here we are the third largest city in the state at that point in time we had around 10,000 I think 10,000 people today it's 8,500 so we have eroded in terms of population here and that was to do to many different factors but that's the same way with Rotland as well so there is opportunity here we just have to seize the moment and make it happen yeah I hadn't anticipated that but it's a great point and you know there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there and businesses want to make money and if there's a market for that I'm sure they'd seize maybe they just don't realize but obviously we should be doing everything we can but they're commenting that and again I think they could there's some profit in it for them as well and OSHA said we have manufacturers today making female specific personal protective equipment ball harnesses, respirators the whole gambit and if there is some concern feel free to call the Association of General Contractors in Vermont we can put you in touch with them and work on that MSA has a whole line of female specific items thank you all very much thank you students