 right into our meeting I'll do my best to attend to zoom at the same time so if you do have your hand raised on zoom and you and I'm not paying attention just unmute yourself. I'll try to keep an eye out for you. Thank you Harry. So I'm Kettering O'Saias, I'm the recreation director for the town. We have a number of people that have been working on eclipse things and town officials here to talk with you all today to tell you where we stand. I think the overarching theme for how Waterbury is addressing the coming eclipse is that we want to operate as close to usual as possible knowing that we will have a lot of visitors in town but we want to make the experience good for them while also still operating our town. I'm sure most everyone I'll let Katie introduce herself I don't know what Ian Tom wants to say but Katie's new to the town. I'm Katie I'm a program coordinator for the recreation department so I'm helping out with whatever Kettering needs me to do. I don't want to say anything but I'm Bill Woodruff. And I'm Tom Lightstown manager. If something goes wrong it's all Bill Woodruff's fault. And then we've been working really closely with revitalizing Waterbury so thanks Karen for being here. I guess I'll go over the high-level overview of what we've planned as a town and then just open it up for discussion if there's things you want us to address. I'll either we can talk about what we have thought through or the wire it is or isn't happening but again we're trying to keep town operating as close to usual as possible knowing that there'll be a lot of people here. So I think we all know that the eclipse is on April 8th. It's coming it's a Monday it's an early April in Vermont. I think where our fingers are crossed for being able to see the eclipse on that day but you know there are some things that you know not everything is in our favor an early April in Vermont. The skies will be darkened for about two and a half minutes in Waterbury. We are in the path of totality so that's exciting and then we do expect maybe around 10,000 people to come into town that day it will of course depend on if it's sunny if you're able to see the sky and then they you know they might jet somewhere else if that's not possible in Waterbury. We think that's comparable to a busy leaf paper weekend. What has the town done so far? And hi everyone on Zoom. We have free eclipse glasses. We have them available the town offices. We were passing them out at town meeting day. The library has been kind enough to have them at their front desk too and we have worked with the schools to make sure that students have those free glasses also and then if there are businesses here today or anyone that would like to pass out glasses on their own please feel free to talk with me about that. We do have glasses. They do have to be passed out for free. We also have at by request laminated no parking signs so if you're a resident and you think that your your personal parking lot will be you know a person might zip in and steal your personal parking spot feel free to ask us for one of those laminated signs. If we don't have one on hand it means we truly have to laminate it so do give us time to to accomplish that. Like don't request on Sunday April 7th. We will be posting temporary signs in all of our parks that have no overnight parking and no camping signs because we don't have a we don't want camping in those parks and we want to make sure that they're open for the day of the eclipse so those will be posted around town the week leading up to to the 8th. We will also have additional traction recycling in locations around town knowing that there's going to be more people and therefore there'll be more trash. We also have some portable toilets coming that will be in our parks around town. We have also talked with the state about the horseshoe and may have some portlets there as well. Waterway fire department and ambulance have been notified and are preparing for in case there are any emergency events that day and then the schools currently have a half day dismissal for the students. Right now the only road closure planned ahead of time is at the ice center on Friday night and Saturday night they will be closing the road during the nighttime because they have weekend events and they just want to prepare for no one continuing to be able to have their weekend events. Other than that there are no planned road closures leading up to the eclipse or on the day of the eclipse but of course it's early April in Vermont and there can be road closures so we will post those on our websites like we always do and Star Eclipse website. At this time there's no planned traffic control. The state has traffic signs that will be set up on all of the state-owned roads and right now that we are relying on them for that those messages and then for parking we still have parking at all of our public lots. We have talked with the state for the Waterbury state office complex and the lots they own. Those conversations are ongoing but they have asked their employees to work from home that day so once we sort of get more confirmation of which parts of the parking lots will still be used there will likely be more spaces there too and then we have the Stanley Watson lot that they own but that we can use. And then a reminder that Hope Davy Disc Golf Course and Nature Trails are annually closed during this time of year so they will still be closed during the eclipse and the state is working to have some of their state parks open and that includes Little River and the reservoir on the day of. For fun things we will have a world map here at the town offices for visitors to come and you know show us how far that they they've traveled from so please direct people here. I don't know the exact location but please know that it will be you know either right here or outside of the building. I think those are the biggest updates and I'm sure you have plenty of questions and things that you're planning that we can help with or help promote so I will leave it to the group and try and facilitate questions as best I can. Can I just add a little? Please Karen. So as a designated downtown I've actually been in contact with all my colleagues and I actually had a meeting yesterday with them and they all asked what we were doing and I said close to nothing and they were jealous so the truth of the matter is there's a lot of towns that are throwing parties and and we made a really conscious decision not to do that in that it could just be snowing that day and spending that kind of money for an event didn't make sense to us. They've also Boston Globe has announced that the top two of the top five locations of Uddi Eclipse are Barry and St. Johnsbury and neither of them are happy about that. So especially since St. Johnsbury is not in the totality really Barry's barely in the totality so just want to let you know there's a lot of communication going on all around the state and working and coordinating and we have been working with the businesses making sure they've got a lot of information and truth be told I think we did it the right way. They'll really have so I'm happy to help answer questions as well. Thanks Karen. Karen when you spoke to us still water Tennessee did they find that then people left right after or is that what you're thinking? Yes. We don't have to worry about staying up and late on Monday. Yes the question of when to stay open as a business owner I we really think the opportunity to get extra businesses on Sunday. We've been in touch I was the best Western is completely sold out all the hotels are full at this point there's no place to stay but they often are making a two night overnights so it's a Saturday night and it's like Sunday night and Monday night or Saturday and Sunday night but we don't think people are gonna stick around there's a lot of people just be driving up or driving into our area but it's also why we're really encouraging the state not to have their employees at four o'clock trying to leave before 30 the roads could be packed. Sweetwater Tennessee said it took anywhere from 10 to 12 hours to leave their town but that was a town they received 50,000 visitors. We're looking I think we've picked 10,000 out of a hat you guys but the state has gone from expecting 100,000 to the most recent quote I've heard is 250,000 I've heard so it's going to be it's going to be big I agree I suggest we have free glasses at the world map we will yes we will and we can help that so that people know that that's a place to go okay I have about I think 15 at the Waterbury branded ones left at the Stowe Street Emporium and then I can give it up. We have t-shirts and we're getting and bring that dry goods has stickers and magnets and you have the rich type of stuff has posters you have stickers and stickers so if anybody needs to send them that way our t-shirts are cool you know what I'll take sure free glasses yeah I'll make sure in one of our postings we talked about finding branded goodies yeah do other people think yeah my part I just a question about Hope Davy I know the parking lot will be open the day of will people be allowed to like bring like portable barbecues and stuff like that because a lot of people it's going to be a lot of time and stuff like that and they might want to you know you know celebration have some hot dogs and hamburgers and stuff like that yeah yeah I would say that the the front part of Hope Davy is still open just not the nature trails and the disc golf course and as long as they follow our park rules they can be in our parks is your rule because I know there were a set up barbecue spots like if they brought their own portable barbecue is that going to be I don't think the rules are allowed in our rules I don't think they're prohibited because it was usually when you have barbecue places there it's usually other barbecues may not be allowed I know I've had several people well I guess that's I don't think it's prohibited I think it should be a good celebration have some portable you know it's not like someone's gonna have a big bonfire the barbecue police will be out well the time controlling any of these areas I mean you're not going to be thick checking Hope Davy to make sure people aren't on the trails you're not gonna be yeah well I mean we don't have extra people on staff that day so you know we're gonna check into things when we're physically nearby but no we're not gonna be patrolling yeah I don't think there's a lot of somebody said to me every day why is everybody making such a big deal out of this it was like it's a once in a lifetime yeah you were talking about 51 South Maine to me yes so what we we talked about that does look at this whiteboard meeting last night we'd like to keep 51 South Maine held off and try to reserve it for staff that work downtown so we'll do a count as basis and try to do something through Karen where if you work downtown well we'll bring up some sort of parking tag in town hall and try to barricade that one off the day before yeah so we'll help with the communication of the process but that will help particularly things like our restaurant owners and the waitress no staff there what are you gonna help us with turning the lights off in town during the eclipse yeah the ones that we can so that we're not turning lights on when the once-in-a-lifetime experiences right yeah one thing that I emailed you both about and maybe there's a different way to do it so I thought I would just bring it up we were thinking about all the people that come in normally and don't know where to go for things in the story we're constantly being like okay go down this light take a right take another left whatever and whether there can be a map a QR code something that we could just say here scan this and that'll show you where the portal that's our scan this those of the great idea the restaurants that are open today like I don't know so just so if we are gonna be that busy we're gonna have a ton of people rolling around coming in and out it would be nice not to have to tell every single person I think that the town can help with the map I think knowing what businesses are open on that Monday we'll might be yeah but we can make sure that there's a QR card I have made not made enough copies but I have made a one-pager that's what the town is doing that day so it should be able to answer some of the questions right and it'll be up but it'll be updated yep it'll be updated like a force you don't count on it as it stands right yeah I'm fucked comes in and the mom says no we never yeah you say the the the portal that is right around the corner in the alley not me I say sure but it is We should put a column on four guys on here. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, I would do that. I like Katya's idea of a map. I think that's a smart idea. You've got to also show where people can go to view it. Yeah, that's a great idea. We'll take a look at trying to get to know which business. So Kathy, you said you're going to close during the eclipse. President want to see it. Right. So I think that makes a lot of sense. We'll probably close from 2 to 4.30. And then maybe instead of closing at 5, maybe we'll just be there until 6. So that there's still people wandering around. I don't know, what do you think? I think I'm going to play that. Yeah, I think we'll be fluid. What do you think, Larry? We'll just be fluid. With the art festival, we used to have the black party who would stick around. And then people came in, and they came in out to really close it down. Mostly, I think it's really important for food places, because I know there are going to be some. Stosry Cafe is not opening. Black Back is going to be closed that week. So like, we're going to be opening Black Back after this. So Gary said they were going to be open. Well, I think they're, no, sorry. They're not closed that week, but they're not opening on Monday, and they usually don't open on Monday. So they're staying that way. Yeah. We'll look into getting the businesses and the restaurant information the next week. That'd be a really good test to have, too. When someone's like, oh, we're going to get coffee, you'd be like, these four places. Yeah, I know the eclipse lasts two and a half hours, but you don't stare at the sun for two and a half hours. You kind of check on it, and then you come back 15 minutes later and say, oh, let me see how much more of the sun's covered. It's kind of kind of neat. Yeah, I think between two, 15 and three, it may be not that exciting. Right. Starting at three is when it's like beginning to be doubled up, and then it comes off. Well, we've been on the cloudage probably. It does. Cloudage? We may not even see anything until it starts to turn my time. Technically. It's a khaki, isn't it? Yeah. We'll check in on restaurants and stores and what they're doing. Like, the res is open for lunch. And if anyone's having any events, please let us know. We know Makersphere has decided to do a really cool sort of art sale and event on Sunday, afternoon and evening, because they figure people would be wandering around with nothing to do. So that's good. We know Good Fires, and Linda's on here, Good Fire. It's actually their one-year anniversary, so they're throwing a party that weekend. So if we can't, and I know we've got a couple of just local events for kids of making pinball cameras or whatever. So that's good. But if we have anything else, it'd be great. That's the library, right? The library. That's right. Oh, that's right. I saw it on Facebook. The library does have a couple of eclipse events a week before the eclipse. We're going to have the Vermont Astronomical Society. All this is on our website. Now make sure to get it to you. At 6 PM in the cell, we're doing an event on what is an eclipse and how to view it safely. And then leading up to the eclipse are Saturday Storytime on April 6, and then our Monday Morning Storytime on April 8, the day of, are going to be eclipse-themed with crafts and how to view the eclipse safely for kids. We're going to build a little screen to put their eclipse glasses in. So I'm kind of curious to see if those, especially that Monday Morning one, gets the usual just local crowd or if we get some out-of-towners in for that. And we do plan to be open normal hours, 10 to 8. The day of the eclipse, and I expect will be a stop for people looking for information. So anything that has to do with a max or on time and that kind of thing, I think would be great to have at the library. Did you bring something, a poster for that? Did you bring us a poster? Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, we've got flyers. Because that was good to have. Yeah, yeah. Please give me the events. We want to get them on the website. We're also putting related events on the eclipse page as well, so we'll get that information up. Yep, good. That's kind of cool. All right, so it does, do people have things that they want the town to be aware of for concerns that you're having that you want us to know of now rather than on the 8th? Hopefully, public works will be out beforehand, making the town look beautiful. So we'll be sweeping, cleaning sidewalks, scrubbing stuff, weather permitting, so that during the 2 and 1 1⁄2 minutes of darkness, the place will look gorgeous. But you know, it's true. I remember a year ago, walking around on April 8th, looking at our town, and it was full of great piles of snow and just garbage. And we've known how much dog poop is in the alley. So weather permitting, so of course we're doing OK. Green of day is a week month later, so having some kind of, yeah, we can encourage businesses to do the same around their spaces. And I said you're not closing any roads, and then there's no parking signs for individuals. Will there be no parking signs on roads like my road, River Road Street that really can't fit parking at all? Like, I guess it's not a question for you. There should be. Yeah, because we've run into that during, I remember when I was at the time. At least that narrow section there. Cool. Good thought. Yeah, just one of those things happen across so people can get out and keep it in. Good. OK. All right, well, I guess I can say thank you all for coming. I'm the point of contact, so if you have more things that you want to share, feel free to reach out to me. We will, I think almost always, unless someone comes in and takes them, have glasses out at the table. If you are a business or organization that wants to pass out free glasses to your customers, please contact me. And then we'll continue to keep our website updated. Yeah. Cool. Thank you. Thanks, everyone. Cool. Thanks, everyone. This is communication.