 Hi, welcome to In the World of Winooski. I'm Mayor Christine Lott and I'm joined today by our Director of Public Works in the City of Winooski, John Rauscher. Welcome, John. Thank you. We are here to talk about two bond votes that you'll see on the Town Meeting Day election this March. Before we dive into the details, just want to start with what is a bond vote. If you haven't voted recently in Winooski, we have had several of these. A bond vote is basically a loan that the city takes out to cover significant expense items and we are required by state law to get voter approval on that. You'll be asked on the ballot if you approve us taking on this debt or this bond and allowing the city to borrow money that's paid back with tax dollars. There's going to be two bond votes on the ballot this Town Meeting Day. For example, John, can you share some items that might typically require a bond vote? Sure. So typically anything like large equipment, so say a fire truck or if we're doing a major street reconstruction project where we want to take out a long-term loan, that's when we'd look at doing a bond vote. Yeah, it's items that take like 10, 20, 30 years in order to pay off. Correct. Yep. Let's take a look at the two items that will be on the Town Meeting ballot March 5th. So they are called Article 6 and Article 7. The first one, Article 6, will ask you if we can use leftover bond proceeds from a prior bond vote from the Hickok Street Reconstruction Project to make additional capital improvements. And then Article 7 will be a bond to pay $4.6 million towards the Burlington-Winooski Bridge project. So let's talk about the details of each of these. So Article 6, in 2019, voters supported a bond vote of $1.3 million to reconstruct Hickok Street. This project was completed under budget, leaving over $500,000 unspent. And because of the rules of a bond vote, these funds can only be used for street reconstruction as authorized by voters. John, can you tell us a little bit about the leftover, like how did we end up with leftover money from Hickok Street? Yeah. So we, as you mentioned, we performed a reconstruction project on Hickok Street primarily because of water main replacement work that was pretty critical. We were having multiple breaks. So we reconstructed the entire street, sewer, paving, sidewalks, curbing. And we ended up being a bit more efficient with the project, because we didn't have to reconstruct the entire street. We were able to do some work without disturbing some of the piping underneath. So we were able to, what's called slipline sewers. We didn't have to excavate down to the sewers to rehab them. So saved us a significant portion of funds that is now allowing us to potentially roll that to another very similar project. Yeah. And we can't, because of the laws around these bonds, it's not like we could invest this money or put it into the general fund or use it for other purposes. Right. So this is the language, the actual language you'll see on the ballot, asking to approve use of up to that $515,000 of unexpended proceeds for work on, oh, we don't have the actual streets listed in the bond language, for additional infrastructure improvements. So let's talk about what those are. So this is a picture of our annual paving plan. And can you tell us a little bit about that and then dig into where I've noted here, bond vote approval? Sure. So this is a slide that we showed during our public budget presentations. So what you can kind of see here is there's two boxes, both with some FY25 work that we're proposing. So the, on the right hand side, you'll see some streets that are listed for the bond vote work. So that is Reginald, Bernard, Florida Ave, and we've... Gail or Roger? Gail Street up there. So what we're proposing to do is use those bond proceeds that are left over to replace the concrete curbing, which is in really, really poor conditions, some place it's not even existing. And we're also replacing the sidewalks for those streets because of the grade of the roadway, if we're increasing the curb height, we're also going to want to increase the sidewalk height as well. So we have proper drainage. And what that'll allow us is in a future year, FY26, we can go ahead and then resurface those streets. So we have to do some of that work before we can get to the resurfacing work. And these streets were actually planned for resurfacing a year or two ago, is that right? Yeah, correct. So our crews actually have done quite a bit of work on those streets already. Our internal DPW crews will go out and the manhole structures in the street, they'll bring them back up to grade and make sure they're in good condition. That takes a few weeks to do that work. So a lot of these streets are already prepped for for paving work. And then looking back at the slide, we have in the upper left regular FY25. So there is always funding annually for a certain amount of repaving work. When your crew discovered that the curbing was kind of shot on the other side of town, what is the funding gap that that like curbing is significantly more money than just the annual repaving? Yeah, the the concrete work is substantially more expensive than just resurfacing a street. So in this case, it's, you know, the bond amount that we're looking to roll over about half a million dollars in just concrete work that we have to do ahead of the paving work, which is more like $200,000. Okay. And so you said it would be FY26 when the actual paving would happen. So to be clear, will FY25 work happen this upcoming summer or the one after? So we're looking to do that work this summer. That's our target. We do have some big construction projects going on. So there is a chance it could slide into the beginning of, well, FY25 is it bridges into the next next year. So it could be later in FY25. But within the FY25 period targeting this summer. Okay. And then for reference, it's Pangro Terrace and up there upper North Street is that's just the regular repaving work that we do every year. Correct. Yep. So that's our typical, we call mill and resurfacing where we replace inch and a half of street pavements. It's about 0.6 miles of paving centerline paving. We estimated about $212,000 worth of work for FY25. That's a lot every year just to keep up with our existing street network. Yeah, absolutely. And then we have here, similar to the annual paving plan with the streets, there is a sidewalk plan. And so we show here, again, some of that sidewalk work would be a part of this bond vote. And then we've noted the main street project that'll also include sidewalk. And we have another piece happening right down on West Canal. Yeah, small, around 225 linear feet of just gap sidewalk that's missing. So we're happy to try to fill in those, those missing sidewalk gaps when we can. But yeah, overall, I think we're looking at with the next year to around 5000 linear feet of new sidewalk, which we hear from the community members, that's a large priority that they want to see done. Yeah. And so can you tell us a little bit about our, the approach to annual paving and sidewalk work? Sure. So we typically are looking to do at least ideally a mile of resurfacing work a year. That's our goal. We look at the entire street network. We do what's called a pavement condition inventory. We've got a little slide that shows this. Yeah, great. So we look at, you can kind of see on the bottom there, there's a graph that shows pavement condition inventory ratings, which it's pretty simple at, you know, zero to 100, 100 is great, zero is your street is failed. And what you can kind of see is a curve where we try to get to the streets before they really hit the really steep portion of the curve when it gets extremely expensive to do that work. Because now we're, we're not just milling and resurfacing, we're reconstructing, which is substantially more expensive. So we keep a pretty good eye on what our street network overall looks like. So right now we're, you know, high 68, our target is 72, which is a good condition. Okay. And I will say, you know, we, we in the city have invested increased funds annually to try to get to that, you know, one mile getting to a street every 15 years of mill and fill. That's helped along by the Main Street Reconstruction Project, the Hickok Street Project that we did. So I, you know, we've been making some pretty good strides, trying to maintain that street network. But it's been challenging, you know, winners like this, where you have these freeze-thaw cycles that really damage the roadways, creates more work and degrades the road network a lot sooner. And the budget that's on for town meeting day this year also has some increase into that annual work. Yeah, correct. Yep. So let's move on from the, the first Bonvo article six, which is asking to reallocate funds from existing debt. It's not adding new debt, essentially. Article seven does add new debt. So this is a bond vote to cover a portion of the cost of the Winooski Burlington Bridge Project. So a large federal grant has been awarded to cover this, maybe even over 70 million dollar project. State statute requires a local match. And our portion is estimated at 4.6 million. I think that's a conservative figure that is being put on. And so let's get into a little more detail on that. You can see here the actual bond vote language. So the, the bridge, very critical part of the regional infrastructure, also critical for Winooski residents. Too narrow, not good bike and pedestrian infrastructure. The surface is in less than ideal shape. Can you tell us a little bit more about what is included in this project? Sure. So some background. The bridge was constructed in 1928. So as mentioned here, it's, it's coming close to the 100 year sort of, you know, design life that the bridge was, was meant to, to be around for. In 2017, some stakeholders, the City of Winooski, the City of Burlington, we are the 50-50 owners of this bridge. We met with the Chinning County Regional Planning Commission and started looking at what's called a scoping study for the bridge, knowing that, you know, it's getting to the end of its useful life and we need to start doing some planning to determine the best options for replacement. So we went through this, this planning study that lasted from 2017 to 2019 and came up with some alternatives with stakeholders, VTRANS, other agency groups in the area and arrived at a project that was approved by both city councils. And that is currently what we're progressing as far as a project for replacement. There's actually, in this note about timeline, you can see the advisory committee here. There were a number of kind of local groups engaged in that design process as well as some public meetings. So this is widening new bike and pedestrian infrastructure. What will that part look like? I know that's a bit of... Yeah, so the existing bridge, as you mentioned, is, has restrictions. It's 57 feet wide. It's two four-lane, very narrow traffic lanes are 10 foot, six inches wide, and then two six-foot wide sidewalks with no shoulders. So not ideal for, you know, the current users of the bridge, you know, multimodal users and even vehicle users. So the proposed bridge would look at increasing the width by about 19 feet, so about 78 feet wide. It would slightly increase those lane widths to accommodate modern vehicle widths, so 11 feet wide. But it would really where this bridge is going to have the most enhancements on the bike pedestrian side. So we're looking at two two-foot shoulders on either side of the vehicle, the end of the vehicle lanes, just to give a little buffer. And then 12-foot multi-use pass protected by a barrier on each side. So pretty significant increase in width, but mainly to accommodate the multimodal use of the bridge. So twice as wide and with a barrier there, a lot a lot safer for the folks walking and biking across. Right, yep. Let's dig into the, oh well first, before we leave the timeline, when would we anticipate construction happening? So construction would start around 2027. So, and that is primarily driven by our federal grants that we have. So back in 2022, we received a federal DOT raise grant for $24.8 million, which is significant portion of the bridge. But that really triggered this bond, though, in moving forward with this project. And with that grant comes these pre-restrictive timelines for building the bridge. So we actually have to be completed by 2031 per the grant requirements. Okay. So that is why we're looking at 2027 to give us, you know, two or three years of actual construction. And can you talk a little bit about what's planned so far for the process? I think I had read that as I recall in the preferred alternative, they may be able to build it kind of upstream and reduce the amount of time it's closed. Yeah, that is potential. So there is the process for constructing this bridge is what's called design build. So that will give us the best chance to meet those deadlines. And one of the options we're looking at is accelerated bridge construction, where they've they build the bridge physically next to the existing bridge. And then at some point, we'll take the bridge, the existing bridge out of service, and slide in the new bridge. And there's roughly a four to six week closure with that, that type of construction. The team is also looking at some other options where the bridge could be realigned potentially so that, you know, some of the existing bridge, the partial lanes could remain open to allow, you know, emergency vehicles and some like one way traffic potentially. So they're they are reviewing that currently. So there's a few options out there right now. So those are, you know, two potential items. And I think Burlington and Winooski have both talked to the project team and to VTrans about trying to retain pedestrian bike access throughout, given it's much harder to do a detour for those kind of users. Yeah, correct. And both actually those options would provide, would maintain bike and pedestrian access across the bridge. And knowing that this would be a significant undertaking, have significant traffic impact during construction, when do we estimate our main street reconstruction to end, which should be kicking off this summer, right? Yeah. So Main Street will is looking to start this April. That currently is projected to be a conservatively three season project. So, you know, there would be a pretty good gap in between bridge starting. And there is a chance that, you know, the Main Street project could be a two season project even. So a little more gap between this, that project and the bridge. Great. It's going to be a busy several years. Let's talk about the cost and funding. You mentioned that raise grant. That's covering 80% of the cost. Is that right? It is. So the raise grant is 24.8 million. However, the project itself will be covered 80% by federal funds, VTrans covers the other portion. Then ultimately, the cities are required to cover 10% of the remaining project costs and then split 5% each way. Right, because we have that 50-50 ownership. And I have to apologize. I left a placeholder. I forgot to update this slide. With this bond vote passing, we'll then have to make these payments. There's sort of a schedule laid out here where it really kicks in in FY28. So in future years, what would the tax impact be for taking on this new debt? Yeah, it ends up roughly being about a 4% increase when both the principal and interest kick in. So you can kind of see we can kind of step it a little bit because in theory, an FY27 is shown. That is just an interest payment at that point. So it's not one hit of 4%. We can kind of grow into that 4% a little bit. And this is probably the most conservative estimate right now. So we're showing the full $73 million plus project. I mean, we're hopeful we can bring that cost down a little bit as we move further into design phases. So that is a very conservative estimate at this point. Well, and that's a good point too. So we are building into this bond vote $4.6 million, a conservative estimate. If our 5% share is lower, we don't have to take $4.6 million in debt. Right, exactly. And so we wouldn't be having to work quite as much in, but we need to have the space and the voter authorization in order to continue forward with the project. Yeah, it's an up to amount. And then when we actually know when we go out and bid the project and get actual numbers, then we'll go out and get the financing needed to cover that cost, which as shown, this is conservative. So we're hoping that we'll see a lower number at the end of the day. Always fingers crossed. And then finally, I don't know how much detail you'll have on this because it's not when you skis project, but I understand part of this larger project with the bridge will also include some changes on the Burlington side to that intersection. Can you share anything about that? Yeah, a little bit. That project is lagging a little bit behind the bridge. Burlington went through a similar process where they went through a scoping study that intersection has a lot of kind of odd angles where the streets come in. And ultimately, what they're trying to do is sort of clean up that intersection and make it more user friendly and more bike and pedestrian friendly. So it is sort of a separate project from bridge, but the timeline is happening at the same time, same consultant. And it's not a Winooski cost, but it makes sense to do it at the same time. It's adjacent to the bridge, so we're not disrupting people twice, and we can do it concurrently. So that's yeah, that's about it on that one. Last off the cuff question, speaking of disruption, so I mentioned previously, we've got our Main Street project starting now. This is coming presumably in 2027. There's also the Exit 16 Double Diamond Interchange project in Colchester, just north of our Main Street. Do you know what the timeline is on that? I think the latest is there's no work happening this summer. So construction that did occur was part of a Phase 1 construction project. And from what I've heard is from V-Trans is that they have not bid out the second phase work. And that is the very disruptive work where they're completely changing that interchange. So no work happening this summer, but potentially next summer. So a lot happening on the corridor. There's a lot. But when you look at these three projects, so the bridge that we're talking about tonight, that project on the interchange, and then the Main Street project that we'll be starting this summer, all of these are going to have significant improvements for bike lanes, pedestrians. We're talking like tens of millions of dollars coming into multimodal projects just in this very small area to support the broader region, but also this is part of Winooski's community vision and master plan. Yeah, absolutely. So we are here talking about these bond votes in service of upcoming Town Meeting Day election. March 5th, Tuesday, I have some details here on this slide. You can actually get it, request an absentee ballot and vote early. You could stop in City Hall and vote early. 27 West Allen Street if you're not familiar. And then voting in person is at the Winooski Senior Center. That's at 123 Barlow Street. The polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. And this is a local election, which means for Winooski residents, all legal residents can vote regardless of U.S. citizenship status, given our all resident voting act. All resident voting, I am so tongue tied. The all resident voting measure that came up two years ago and was enacted by the legislature. So please come out. Please come support both of these bond votes to recap. Article 6 to reallocate the, actually let me go back to that slide, to use leftover bond proceeds, reallocate that $500ish from the Hickok Street Reconstruction for additional capital improvements. This won't raise your taxes and will allow us to redo curbing sidewalks and streets on the east side of town. And article 7 will provide us enough debt capacity to provide a 5% local match to the Burlington Winooski Bridge project. Both of these will create a lot of safety equity infrastructure improvements for Winooski. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for joining us tonight and getting into the details, John. And thank you for joining us. Hope to see you on Town Meeting Day, Tuesday, March 5th.