 City Council for Wednesday, December 14, 2022 to order. Thank you all for being there here, wherever that may be. Do we have any agenda additions or changes for the night? Not for me. Okay, council members. All right. No need to approve the agenda that will move us into item four, which is public to be heard. And so this is the portion of tonight's meeting where if there are members in the public who wish to bring anything to the board's attention is not on the agenda. And I was a time to do so. If there's anybody in the room who wishes to address the board, if you could please raise your hand so that someone could identify you. Nobody in the room. All right. For those of you on Zoom, if you could go ahead and raise your hand. All right, Will, go right ahead. The floor is yours. Great. Thank you, Mr. Council members. My name is Will Dodge. I sit on the Essex Energy Committee, which up until, I guess, I guess you should say still, at least until July of next year, is a committee that has been devoted to covering the energy needs of both the town and what is now the city. And by covering what I mean is we're a volunteer committee that look at things like municipal energy usage, trying to help members of the community with things like weatherization, electric vehicle adoption, renewable energy development, and a whole host of related issues. Right now, we have almost a full committee, and that includes, among the members, at least one Essex Junction resident, as well as the building manager for Town of Essex, who is really, as part of his employment, is focused on Essex Town, but has at least in the past provided some advice and assistance to Essex Junction. We understand from what's happening with what I'll just call de-merger that most committees are not going to be replicated or that you will end up having town committees and city committees for different functions. I guess we would like to propose, and this is based on discussions that we've had both internally and also with others, that we actually maintain being a committee that is serving both the city and the town. The reason that I'm raising this this way tonight is because we wanted to know what would be the best way for us to kind of present that as a more, I guess, formal option. I had thought of maybe something along the lines of a memorandum of understanding, so that if, in the future, there's some reason within city government to say, no, I think it makes sense to have our own committee, then maybe at that point we dissolve it, but that at least for the time being, and particularly in light of all of the focus on funding that's coming in that could be helpful to a large number of transportation related, energy related, building related projects, we'd really like to continue our role with respect to the city for the time being. Thank you, Will, and I do remember this topic coming up when we were talking with the select board around what to do when we get to this inevitable point, and I think if you wanted to come back to us with a memorandum of understanding and or even just an outline as to how this would function, what the benefits would be, what the potential cons would be, those types of things that would be helpful for our future conversation. Some of the things that if I remember correctly at that point in time that came up as reasons for separating were largely around things like funding and how to ensure that there's equitable funding for both portions of the community, board membership, those type of dynamics, those are all things that we would need to take into consideration. Very good. Well, I appreciate it. I don't want to, I know you have a busy agenda, so I just thought that this, I would raise this now. Will, we actually have a meeting tonight, so we'll talk about this more and see if we can put together some type of formal proposal. Sounds great. Sounds like the timing was perfect. All right. Great. Great. Take care, Will. Thank you very much. Good luck with the rest of your meeting. Thank you. You as well. All right. I'm not seeing any other hands up on Zoom, so then we can go off of public to be heard and move right into the public hearing on the proposed municipal ordinance updates to remove redundancies. Yeah. So what you've got in your packet talks about the municipal ordinances. We talked about this at the last meeting when you set the public hearing warning. This is essentially rescinding a number of components in the existing municipal ordinances that are now redundant based on the new public nuisance ordinance that was passed. So you've got this section on your agenda for public hearing, and then we've got the documents itself down on the business item for action if you're ready to do that. Thank you, Regina. And so just as this is a public hearing, if there are members from the public who have any questions, please feel free. Those of you on, or those of you in person, if you have questions on this, please go ahead, raise your hand. Nobody in the room. All right. Those of you on Zoom, if you have any questions on this, please go ahead, raise your hand. I'm not seeing any hands go up. Just going through the participant list, still no hands. So with there being no hands, then we could go ahead and close the public hearing on this item. And we will now jump into 6A, resolution of appreciation for Bernie Flurry and Jerry Furkey. Yeah. So you've got two resolutions for you in your packet. Apologies for Bernie's resolution. There were some typos in there, so you folks have that corrected version in your email today. Andrew, so you know neither of those folks are here in the room with us? Thank you for that, Regina. Appreciate that. If one of the members of the board who might not be under the weather would like to read the Bernie's resolution, that would be appreciated. I'd be happy to. Okay. This is a resolution of appreciation for Bernie Flurry. Whereas Bernie Flurry was hired by the city of Essex Junction as wastewater operator on March 12, 1979. Wow. Whereas since that time, Bernie's in-depth knowledge and experience has led him to hold roles as assistant chief and chief operator for over 30 years, training, mentoring and guiding new and seasoned operators. Whereas Bernie will retire on December 16, 2022, as the longest continuous serving employee with 44 years of dedicated service, leadership, knowledge and experience at the wastewater treatment facility. Whereas Bernie has witnessed, participated and given input in every upgrade that has occurred at the facility and remote pumping stations, including the addition of secondary treatment and sludge management, parentheses 1983, the gravity belt thickener and equalization building addition, 2011 maintenance upgrade, upgrades to West Street, Susie Wilson Road and the high school pump stations. Whereas Bernie has assisted with several innovative and cutting edge pilot programs at the facility, including a phosphorus reduction and recovering process in partnership with UVM and Vermont phosphorus innovation challenge and a protein matrix grease reduction management program in anaerobic digesters. Whereas Bernie was an active member of several trade organizations, including the New England Water Environment Association and Green Mountain Mountain Water and Environment Association. He was a member of the operations team called sewer marines, representing Vermont and New England at regional and national wastewater operation challenge competitions, placing in several categories. Whereas Bernie received the wastewater operator excellence award from Green Mountain Water Environment Association for outstanding outstanding service in water pollution control in 2020. Whereas Bernie's sense of humor, teamwork, leadership, passion for doing a job thoroughly, teaching others and historical knowledge of the facility will be tremendously missed. Now, therefore be it resolved on this day, Wednesday, December 14th, 2022. The Essex Junction City Council expresses its appreciation to Bernie for his dedicated career at the Essex Junction wastewater facility. We thank you for your time and your service to our community. And I simply just one of these, he's an institution and I don't know how we're going to replace him, but we're going to try, but he is certainly an irreplaceable person. And I think we're all extremely appreciative of what he's done. One of the unsung heroes of this community. But hopefully he'll get a little bit more notoriety now. Absolutely. Thank you, George. Very well said. And certainly his impact will be felt or has been felt for years and will continue to be felt for many years beyond that given the amount of training and impact he's had in our community and the staff here greatly appreciate all of Bernie's work. Are there any more comments from the council members? Hearing none, I would entertain the motion to approve the resolution for Bernie. So moved. I'll second. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, George. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Those opposed, say nay. Great. So I've passed unanimously. Thank you all. And George, if you don't mind again going into the resolution for Jerry, be appreciated. This is a resolution for appreciation for Jerry Ferkey. Whereas Jerry Ferkey has been the Essex Town and Essex Junction Health Officer for 47 years. Again, wow. Whereas Jerry's term will end on December 31st, 2022, ending his 50 years, year service as a Vermont Health Officer. Whereas Jerry has worked in difficult and stressful situations with empathy for the parties involved. Whereas Jerry has assisted the city with rental housing complaints, rodent issues and countless public health issues. Whereas Jerry's dedication to the health and safety of this community has been invaluable and will be missed. Now therefore be it resolved on this day, Wednesday, December 14th, 2022, the Essex Junction City Council expresses its appreciation to Jerry for his dedicated service as a health officer. We thank you for your time and service to our community. And let me add, Jerry, you have earned a well deserved rest. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you again in 47 years for something that again as an unsung hero and for a role that is greatly underappreciated broadly in this state. Really appreciate that dedication to our community. Can I just clarify? Please. I put both 50 years and 47 years in there because he's been a health officer for 50. Just happens to be three years in Jericho, but I want to make sure that it's clear. Wow. It's quite impressive. It is. It's very impressive. Stay with it that long. Remarkable. If there are no other comments and I would entertain the motion to approve the resolution of appreciation for Jerry Ferkey. So moved. Second. Thank you, George. Dan, any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, please say nay. Great. So again, that passed unanimously. Thank you all. Bernie, Jerry. Thank you both very, very much. Your tenure has been certainly well noted and appreciated, and you will definitely be missed. So thank you. And that will bring us into the discussion and consideration. They shouldn't solve the waste district applicants. Why don't we first have John O'Brien? I assume John may be in the room this evening. And if so, John, if you don't mind going up to the microphone and starting off. Oh, sorry, Andrew, he's on. Oh, there he is. John, if you're here with us on Zoom, you could go ahead and oh, yes, I understand that time well. So then why don't we start with Mike Sullivan? Mike, I think you're on Zoom. I am on Zoom. Great. Hello, Mike. Nice to see you again. Likewise. If you don't mind just starting off with why you're interested and what you hope to you would be able to do with being on the the Warfoot Chittin's All the Waste District. Well, I've been looking for something to do to contribute to the city. I'm very attuned to the difficulties that we have with waste. I'm very personally, I'm very cognizant of what I throw and how I throw away stuff and where I put it and separating all the metals and such. I'm very excited about that new sorting machine that CSWD is bringing in. And I've learned a lot over the years living in Vermont from the time growing up in the city. It was like, well, you just put it on the sidewalk. Well, that doesn't quite work so much for here. I don't have any particular background as to experience. I'm an engineer from employment and I have a fairly good number or a fairly good head for numbers and for mechanical problems and also think I'm fairly good at being a compromising person or that sounds what being a person who is willing to listen to both sides before or without making and willing to listen to someone else's solution. So other than that, not much else I can put out there, I think, unless it's a specific question. One question for me, if you are not selected tonight or if you were not selected to be on the Chittin's All the Waste District Board, would there be other committees that you might be interested in? I would consider such. Yeah, energy perhaps. Okay. Now that you, but you've got to solve that problem with the town first, right? Or for the other? Yes. Council members, other questions? I don't have any. I'll just observe for both the candidates. I've just, I've been a substitute for that board for many times and it's actually, it's a great board. It's very lively. Every single community in Chittin County is represented on it. And they actually do some really good stuff. So it's a fun board to be on. And they do have an impact. Cool. That's what I heard. That's what I wanted. I hear it's party. Yeah. No. Thanks, George. And along that line, I assume then you would be able to attend their meetings that would work within your schedule to be there and fully represent city bus extension if you were appointed. Oh, yes. That should not be a problem at all. When you're retired, you have a little more time to do things. Maybe a lot more time to do things. Great. Do you have any questions for us? Yes. You also appointed an alternate too, right? Yes. Is there one already? Currently, Amber is our alternate. Interestingly, Amber, please chime in. My understanding is their meetings are the same time as our meetings? I might have gotten that wrong. Oh. I do believe they're Wednesdays, but they might be, I might have gotten the weeks mixed up. I don't usually attend them as is pretty obvious from the fact that I don't even know when they meet at the time. But I do know they are Wednesday meetings. That's none of that's a problem. Great. Any other questions for us, Mike? Um, will there be instructions from you guys as to your positions on things that will come before the board, I guess? Generally, there are not. In the past, there have not been. If there are questions that you have that you're under, if there are things that come to you that you're unsure how to answer, certainly happy to have those conversations. In all honesty, we likely would look to you unless there are significant things coming down the line like this new Murph, that would certainly be one of those things that we would like to have a conversation about to make sure that in this instance, you would be in support of. Okay. Yeah. I understand. I wasn't even sure I was supposed to be at this meeting as much as I didn't get any information. I just happened to look at the agenda tonight and I said, oh, maybe I should log on. Well, it is not required that you be here for an interview. It's not required that you say anything. It's an opportunity that we put forward. But apologies from staff all the same. You should have been invited. So apologies for that. Okay. Well, thank you. Well, and so, Mike, if there are no other questions, we appreciate you applying and putting your name out there in your time tonight. And, John, just one last call. If you do have the time to talk right now, though, you did say that it was bath time, you can completely understand if not. I've managed to pull away briefly. So, yes, I've been listening along and have a similar drive as Mike to contribute to the community. My family and I just actually moved to Essex after residing around different communities in Chittenden County and growing up in Vermont. And we're also looking for ways to just kind of get involved. You know, the future garbage and waste management recycling, they're all very important to me and my family, something we take a lot of time to think about, our usage and impact, especially because I have two young kids at home who are certainly holding us to that. So seeing all of the new and exciting changes to Chittenden solid waste from the new facility and just kind of seeing our state as a leader in a lot of sustainable practices, I just kind of want to be a part of that and contribute voice to our city's drive there. Thank you, John. A similar question to you of if you were not selected, are there other committees that you would be open to considering? Absolutely, yeah. Considering the many ways that the city is finding itself now, yeah, I would certainly be open to that. Great. Are there any topics of interest to you? Anything in particular that sticks out or just a general openness? General openness, pretty open availability. I'm lucky enough to be stay at home with the two kids right now, so I do have some availability. Great. Counselors, any bigger questions? Okay, I assume that again, you would have the availability to attend their meetings once a month, the ability to read their packets and to attend those meetings and make decisions on her behalf. That is correct, yes. Great. And do you have any specific questions for us? Not this time, no. Thanks for the consideration. Well, John, appreciate your time and we will be sure to let you know. So for the council members and Regina, something that I missed when we were going over this agenda is typically we would have these conversations in executive session about the two candidates. And unless I'm missing something, I'm not noticing an executive session for this conversation. Correct. So, board, our next meeting would be in, we're not having a second meeting in December, correct, we were going to wait until January. Right. If we don't appoint somebody tonight and we wait until that January 11th meeting, I assume that means there's one meeting that CSWD would go without having a representative at the most. The term doesn't carry through the fiscal year? That's a great question. I don't know the answer to that. Yeah, I thought we had discussed just keeping the status quo until as we do with the other committees. I for one would be fine waiting until January. If others are okay waiting another month, so we could have the conversation in the executive session and then make a decision at that time. Yeah. And so this situation is where Alan Nye from the town has been the rep for both the town and the city. So we were wanting to get a city representative, but I think your good assumption that January is a fine approach. Great. And let's table the rest of this conversation until January. Mike, John, thank you both. We will be back in touch around mid-January. Very good. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you as well. And that would bring us into a presentation on the Housing Trust Fund proposal from the Housing Commission. And I believe we have Katie Ballard, chair of the commission with us virtually. Yes. Good evening. Hi, Katie. The floor is yours. Take it away. Excellent. And Regina is going to share the presentation. So, sorry, one second. Okay. Does that look right? Yeah. Excellent. You can go ahead to the first slide. Thank you. So when the Housing Commission was created in 2020, one of the main topics we were given to consider was the potential for developing an Essex Housing Trust Fund. So tonight I'm here to provide some initial information about what this could look like and how we could consider funding one, but this is purely informational and just meant to give kind of an update on our progress and hopefully allow us to get some feedback from the city council on direction, on kind of any sort of questions that we can answer as we continue. A Housing Trust Fund is typically a dedicated source of funding for subsidies dedicated by a local or state government body for affordable housing projects and many other potential activities, as we'll discuss later. In addition to providing funding for approved projects, it would potentially provide a source of local match funds to leverage larger funding sources. If our community were to establish inclusionary zoning or set up a payment in lieu option for density bonuses, such payments could potentially be directed to a Housing Trust Fund as well. While not meant for large endowment funding sources, many local communities do receive a number of private donations to increase the availability of funding. Oftentimes there's people who will bring private donations that are almost connected to some of what those private donors and organizations might do in grants or other funding awards. The advantage of a Housing Trust Fund is that it creates a flexible funding avenue that allows for creative and innovative resources to address a number of varied purposes related to the housing needs of our community specifically. They are proven to be effective across the country. 47 states currently have a Housing Trust Fund as well as more than 750 cities and counties. By researching various models we can create a structure that fits the needs of our local community and allows for the appropriate municipal control of how resources are allocated. Next slide please. Sorry, excuse me. Access to stable and safe housing is one of the central needs for every member of our community and plays a pivotal role in the quality of life people may have. And this has only gotten worse since the pandemic started. When you're forced to spend significant portions of your income on your housing alone, it can cause issues with finding childcare, employment, accessing health care and education, as well as limit someone's ability to participate and engage in civic discussions. Vermont Housing Financial VHFA estimates that up to two-thirds of households in Essex and up to three-quarters of those in Essex junction who qualify for rent assistance are not receiving it. This is largely due to limited amount of funding available. Not only are limited funding resources a barrier, but accessing those programs and resources can be challenging for those seeking help. There are lengthy applications and steps in the process in addition to many requirements for eligibility that can not only be overwhelming but difficult on those attempting to access the support and resources necessary for dignified housing. One barrier we don't often realize is the stigma that comes from accessing these resources and having to continue to seek the support. Housing costs for both renters and homeowners have skyrocketed and in our community the demand has far outpaced the supply. Our current existing availability of housing is very far from meeting the needs of the community at large. Next slide please. In specifically in Essex junction or Essex a housing trust fund would potentially increase the housing stock available in our community by addressing or supporting the changes or work that would be needed to use some of the most underlined housing stock. That could look like creating accessory dwelling units. It could look like renovating spaces or potentially bringing buildings up to code if they wanted to rent to somebody that might be on section eight. A local housing trust fund would also have less limitations on the funding and who it can receive it. Most federal funding comes with a number of requirements and restrictions. In a housing trust fund locally the the city council would be able to dictate and set the parameters on the requirements which often are more flexible and able to serve more of the community than the restrictions in place for federal funding. This would also potentially allow the municipality to leverage other funding avenues. As we mentioned before the private funding some grant some grant funding requires that there be a housing trust fund or an agency in our community specifically dedicated to the funding and providing the staffing or the support needed to make sure that all of the paperwork was done as required and that there was also somebody checking the different steps more so than in some of the bigger federal funding programs. So the next two slides really include a list of various different options and this isn't an all-inclusive list but we really wanted to try and give a variety of options that you could think about as you're considering this proposal in the future and this is there's no order to this. It would potentially create a lower barrier funding for homelessness prevention so that's really talking about people who are at risk of losing their housing due to inability to pay due to any sort of utility kind of any of those pieces that might not have other options to access. Subsidies are grants to make existing units ADA compliant for more potential populations to be served by the current housing that we have. Grants for alterations to existing homes to create new housing units and that would potentially include accessory dweller units. Subsidies for weatherization upgrades. Subsidies for affordable units within otherwise market rate development projects. Next slide. Potentially could be used for down payment assistance for first-time homeowners that is something that we looked a lot at Champlain Housing Trust model including the shared equity program to kind of figure out some of the different ways that could potentially be leveraged. Supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness. Domestic abuse victims. Substance abuse recovery. It could go towards providing access or the necessary changes to make potential programs like that available in our community to purchase and do the preparations of lands for future affordable housing projects for a municipally funded construction of housing or infrastructure upgrades and other housing quality enhancements like landscaping for some places are more recently beginning to look at helping provide access to homeowners for alternative methods of electricity. So helping provide access to some of those more energy efficient options like solar panels could be potentially. Now all of these are definitely options. None of them are necessarily a requirement of having a housing trust fund that can look any number of ways and that would really be dictated by the group your group as you consider kind of what priorities our community is facing and what does seem appropriate. The one piece of this that we have started to realizing talking to other groups or other people who are involved in creating housing trust funds for their communities was that it is sometimes too complicated I guess would be the right word for groups to choose all of the options because that would require a lot more capacity to be able to ensure all of the requirements and eligibility pieces and the follow-up afterward are in place and met. Next slide please. So this slide is inclusive of a number of different possible funding mechanisms. As I said before there's several possibilities not all of which include sorry involve property taxes although that is a common source since it's directly tied to the value of housing in the community. This could be included as a line item transfer in the operating budget or as a separate dedicated rate similar to the capital funds in the budget based on the FYE 2022 budget. A new tax of one cent on the dollar of assessed value would have generated about 270 279 74000 and would have increased the average taxpayers bill by about $23. Now some of these are pre-separation figures so full disclosure we have we've not necessarily reworked those numbers since post knowing all of that. So an increase of the tax rate is not the same as an increase in the overall budget which might include other revenue sources other than property taxes. Some of those other options include part or all of a local options tax on sales meals alcohol hotels. Some places are also doing taxes on short term rentals and that tax goes into the housing trust fund to support local housing and these type of options estimate are estimated to generate up to $1.2 million. Payment in lieu under inclusionary zoning for developers choosing not to construct their own affordable unit if this was implemented could increase substantial amount but we haven't had a chance to look at comparable numbers charitable donations with the potential for groups like the housing commission or other organizations that might be interested to be able to also fundraise and have a set budget or line item for that fees for documents reported with the town clerk or a local property transfer if allowed by statute. Next slide so the next part would be to kind of talk about process and timeline the first step which we have been focusing on for a while now which this has definitely been one of our priorities I think as we've also kind of had to at some points kind of focus on separation and those conversations and membership we would have liked to have done this sooner but we hope the next steps in the process would be quicker. This research that really included exploring the different types of uses structures funding and also oversight by looking at other housing trust funds we also interviewed and connected with people who were either overseeing or were a part of the process to create a housing trust fund. One person was Polly Nichols in that pillar who was a wealth of information and and has offered to continue kind of engaging as we move forward if there are questions that would be helpful to have somebody with experience in this answer. Our next step is really to take all of that information and we have begun a set of recommendations for creating a housing trust fund both here and also in Ethics Town and at the time we're trying to really get clear on what information would be the most helpful to the city council in considering a proposal like this would it be information related to different funding options, oversight, more clarity on the different options that we could utilize the funding for and what that would look like in terms of impact to our community those are all places that we've begun to really focus on but would love any feedback on the idea would be to once we have more information and a little bit more clarity on a scope we would want to bring this forward to the community through stakeholder interviews and other outreach opportunities that we would like to have and be able to hear directly from the community in terms of the barriers or specific needs we are facing here in Ethics Junction or besides the city of Ethics or really in terms of what fund what would be helpful to fund is there a need for first-time homeowner support or is there more a need for looking at providing funding to improve the current housing so would be really helpful to hear we've also actively been engaging with nonprofit agencies like Champlain Housing Trust as well as finding opportunities to hear from other developers and landowners we're hoping to create several avenues to get community engagement and input as we move forward creating this proposal next slide please I will not read this entire list as as I think done enough talking but these are some potential questions that we came up with that just to give an idea of of some some different questions and if there is any information that we can can look into or spend more time researching we would be happy to bring back any answers or information as we continue to get it thank you so much for the opportunity to present this in this kind of beginning stage of the Housing Trust Fund and I also just want to take a moment to say how excited this opportunity or potential discussion has been for me personally as somebody who has experienced homelessness in our community and struggled with with accessing resources for a number of reasons to know that this is something that was a priority or or a question from the beginning from from our officials really means a lot so thank you thank you Katie and please pass a thanks on to the rest of the Housing Commission members it's greatly appreciated that you all have done this work in terms of just trying to answer some of your questions I'll go ahead and start and then we can just go around to everybody else to make sure that everybody has that opportunity absolutely in support of of a local Housing Trust Fund some things that would be helpful to know are just some examples as to what some other communities are doing and how they have used their money and specifically what type of impact that had on their on the community so whether that's going towards funding and whether that's going towards leveraging funds of other units such as how many units did that help to fund if it's ADA rehabs what types of rehabilitations and how many rehabilitations I wanted to go towards those types of things would be helpful to know which would then help to figure out how much funding we would be looking to provide for this or seeking to provide for a Housing Trust Fund it would also be helpful to know the when the intent and purpose of the Trust Fund needs to be determined if that's something that can only be determined at one point in time when the fund is created or if that's something that every time funding is dispersed it can be determined at Hawke at that time or anything in between that would be helpful as well and then in terms of public engagement I'm happy to help with it personally I don't want to get in the way and in general I would say my personal opinion I don't feel you need to come to the city council to have your survey or public engagement plan approved of but those are those are my thoughts who wants to go next and would it be possible I just one of the questions that you had asked was the second question you asked was about can you remind me sorry might have been examples and how far those funds have gone um and I think you're I'm sorry the question I wanted to just respond really briefly to was the one about kind of the timing for needing to determine kind of the purpose and mission and what I would say is what we've researched and what we found in terms of kind of best practices or common practices is really that there is a clear kind of list of potential um options and then through the process of approval there's more flexibility in the specific requirements but again that is something that we could provide some of those specific examples of some of what that looks like and what that potential scope is um from some of the local housing trust funds across Vermont too if that would be helpful that would be very helpful thank you Katie I think I saw Raj's hand first thank you Katie for this this is great I do support it I feel like we have a lot to consider around housing funding and and other things coming up I think it could be helpful I mean one question I have I guess is is with the funding for this do you you don't have to know this right now but um you know I'm wondering if it's if it's an initial infusion of money to get the funds started and then um some of the mechanisms that you gave as examples you know operate as revenue streams for that fund or or we is this something we're we're budgeting for annually um or is it a mix I can answer that for you right now it's a mix so it's really okay oftentimes there is an initial kind of infusion and then those other mechanisms come into play but then a smaller annual amount might be considered um in addition okay and I guess um I guess the other sorry I'm getting a cat alert that's interrupting my meeting excuse me there's been an incident on campus um what was my other question um I guess I'd we'd I'd want to know more from your um from your listening sessions your engagement what the specific needs are but I think this is worthwhile um I'm curious uh in our community with with it as built out as it is how this would work so I'm probably spend a little bit of time thinking about what this would look like for the city um where where it appears that a lot of um new housing opportunity is going to be apartments um so I'm wondering if it's more renovation um and the ADA side um or the ADUs um and that sort of thing um or maybe you know grants to to put an extra room on for a in-age parent or something like that um so anyway great great presentation um a lot of questions I'm looking forward to hearing more about what the commission comes up with from engagement and please don't be shy um in letting us know or um Regina know how it's going um what you might need um and all of that thank you very much and I have that list of questions and as we're continuing to work I'll make sure that we um update as appropriate through Regina or or even email from myself to to you all with just a periodic update our hope is that this will continue and I know myself and Gabrielle my vice chair on the housing commission who are both city um appointees are very involved and have been involved in this since the beginning so we we are very much looking at this from a city and a town perspective in terms of the the options because we do recognize the difference between the the lay of the land for lack of better terms uh between the two great all right Amber go ahead thanks Katie this was a really good presentation uh lots of information uh Andrew I think covered most of what I wanted to say um I just wanted to make sure that I personally don't know a lot about housing trust funds and I'm really curious to see um exactly what the other communities in the state of Vermont specifically are doing so I almost envisioned this like spreadsheet that has like the communities on it and what their funding sources are and what they allow to be used for those funding sources and maybe this already exists maybe there's some there's some pdf out there um that I don't know about but that's kind of where my mind was going to to be specific more about what the folks here in Vermont are doing with the with a housing trust fund that's a great idea in terms of the spreadsheet I love it I don't believe there's one after all the conversations I think we would have found it by now but um it it seems like something that would be beneficial to more than just our community so um I I definitely will bring that to the commission and we will get working on kind of that type of information but also the data that really provides the impact to the community thanks Katie George or Dan uh yeah I'd like to comment on this um thanks for the presentation uh excellent presentation uh just regarding housing and the availability of housing in our community affordable housing or otherwise um there it's a holistic approach I think we have to take it this just the funding alone is not going to be enough my opinion is as Raj brought up we're built out community we're a small community we're a very small city we're going to have to look at zoning and plan development code and look at changing that I mean we're we've got to look at the potential of going higher we can't really build out much more so either you build up or you build out so if we can't build out we're never like a building up so that's something that we may want to be looking at I can just briefly say that we have been looking at the zoning piece of it in terms of beginning to think about and understand the aspects of it related to the housing stock that we currently have and how do we get creative and think about what our limits currently are in our zoning and and what can we think about for changes in the future so I think we can definitely um be of any support in that conversation in the future please feel free to reach out and and let us know when and how that would be helpful George Katie I'll I'll finish up and say I agree with uh we're all I think we're all of one mind uh on the city council all the all the comments I've heard and um Andrew Raj Amber Dan said all the things that I had in mind I think I'm generally speaking I think for the council it would be good if you actually came back to us with recommendations and priorities that you find in your survey um you know in particularly again and this sounds like you're going to do it something that is uh specific to Essex Junction um how what what are the issues what are the problems that we are facing in terms of priorities one thing I would like to stress uh or suggest when you do outreach uh for senior citizens people on fixed incomes aren't always as responsive and accessible uh for surveys as as other people and yet they are probably one of the most um marginalized groups in Essex Junction people who on fixed incomes who are struggling to stay in their homes um and so I I would just like you to keep that in mind that you may need to make some special effort and outreach for that population I would like to see um uh some engagement with them too thank you absolutely and and just to to share with you briefly we have begun looking for the the different ways that we can engage with that population especially um in terms of is it better to you know provide different locations and opportunities for face-to-face connecting with agencies that that serve and help those populations as well as making sure that it is posted or shared in various methods that would be likely to be accessible to them but if anybody um had any suggestions of groups or people that we should engage with or that might help us create that plan I would love to have that and be more than happy to connect with them and get support because this is a population that is not represented currently on our housing commission thank you Regina did you have any questions or thoughts I don't have any questions thanks so much Katie thank you all and I look forward to continuing this conversation in the future likewise thank you Katie appreciate it and again please pass my appreciation on to the rest of the council or the rest of the commission please all right so next up we have 6d the discussion and consideration of Champlain Valley Expose financial agreement yeah so we've got David here in the room and I'm just realizing when I stopped sharing that we our recording is paused so thank goodness for town meeting tv and I'm going to get that started recording in progress okay um so you've got a memo in your packet about this um the I think it was our the last meeting um that you saw the conceptual plan for uh one main street park and um the cost estimates are coming in we're on we're on the CVE one I think we're on the CVE oh I'm sorry yeah almost that's okay Gina Tim Shea is in the room yes um so for this agenda item you've got um a recommendation for extending the financial agreement between um CVE and the city of Essex Junction um and uh Tim Shea is here if you want to add anything um and their board uh approve this on Monday night great um I don't have any questions this this looks right um are there any questions from the the board Raj I see your hands up yeah I was just surprised to see it starting at uh 15 as opposed to having been having been increased already in previous years um I know he took a pause but before that it was to go up so I was surprised to see it starting back for three years ago or more at the at the base level at 15 my understanding is it would have had at least one or two increases I know he did pause for one year for COVID um so I'm not sure what folks think about that but otherwise looks fun thanks Raj um not going to ignore your question um Amber do you want to ask your question as well just have a giant free for all that point so I had I had a number of comments but that was my first one as well generally speaking if you're starting you're starting off um you're going to start where the old contract ended so it would be 15,200 or whatever it happens to be and then 2% increases each year thereafter um there were I guess like my one of my questions that I had was we had traditionally been doing a three-year contract and we this is switches over to a five-year which I don't necessarily have an issue with um but I'm just curious why the change I think when um I can't answer for the exact year as to why longer Regina I think it may have been please correct me if I'm wrong trying to align the time of this and the the sound agreement yeah the uh last time that we talked about this there are um the other agreements are off schedule so if we get this one to go to the five years next year when we update those agreements we would get them all aligned at the same time um so we wouldn't at that point we wouldn't necessarily need to do it for a five-year time period you could potentially do them all for a shorter time period but this would at least get them kind of lined up collectively together okay so then so because the sound agreement expires at the end of next year so they would just be at that point they're on the same time frame yeah um so a couple of other just like little nitpicky kind of things in the agreement itself because it's shifting over to a five-year agreement um the language in section one is incorrect because it says there's two additional subsequent donations which would actually be more than that because of the time frame again um and also should be last painted being June 20 June 15 20 27 because the agreement doesn't go beyond 20 27 I think we had some discussion though correct me if I'm wrong about removing the donation use section and allowing us to be able to determine ourselves what we wanted to use this this money on um and then my last comment I'm just gonna throw these out here Andrew you can comment after um is there is a reference to in section nine the notice section that's that um had unified manager just uh just a legacy left over that's all I got uh Amber would you be willing to um in terms of your edits state which uh where they're incorrect and what you would like to see them replaced as yes I can I can do that um am I gonna skip over the money piece yeah okay we'll just have that conversation right after okay so section or paragraph one the first change is to the second sentence should be make me do math here right should be the with four subsequent annual donations is that right yes okay um and in the same sentence should be the last um should be changing including July 15 2020 it should be including July 15 or June 15 20 27 if these aren't clear just let me know um and then section two would be deletion in its entirety paragraph two and paragraph nine deleting the reference in the notice section attention unified manager's office and replacing with city manager I also had toyed around it with adding a carbon copy to the city council too so if there's any sorry I didn't mention that around first time around um if there's any notices that CVE sends to the city manager that they should also be coming to the city council that work okay sorry I just realized I was muted thank you Amber thank you Raj uh George or Dan did you have any other proposed changes I don't have any proposed changes uh Andrew I just and just out of courtesy I would want to um check uh to see if CVE I I don't I can't imagine that you care how we use the money but maybe you do no yeah please thanks Tim yeah Tim Shea executive director of the Champlain Valley Exposition um thanks for putting time for this on your agenda and knowing the what you folks do with the funds is entirely up to spend any anyway council correct okay okay so I I would finish my comments by saying I'm I'm very I I see the $15,000 and with the 2% increases is is fine I'm fine with that I I see this as just a portion of all the other things that uh CVE does for our community um and I don't want I'm not going to try to get into them here I think we've had a very good working relationship with them uh so I'm generally very supportive of this contract thank you George um Tim uh it would be great do you have any uh any questions concerns about the proposed edits or changes that you've heard including the $15,000 uh as well as um any of the other changes that Amber had mentioned uh no um uh we support all those and in my mind too we we I should have caught that myself too in seeing the draft we'd pick up where we left off as far as the the $15,000 plot I think we had I think we had two adjustments of the CPI since what he originally did this in my head if we'd start it it's like $15,000, $5,000 or $15,000 whatever that number is we'd start there and this disagree we would pick up where that left off that's helpful Tim just doing some quick math so yeah that would put about $15,000, $606 with the two adjustments and that would be that's something that you're you're amenable to you're okay with that it's a part of your understanding very much so yes thank you appreciate that Tim so then uh with those proposed changes so that would be in section one changing the $15,000 to $15,000, $606 and then Amber mentioned all the others which are in the in the recording if there's any questions uh council any any questions comments concerns so then I would entertain a motion to amend the agreement between champion valley exposition incorporated and the city of sx junction uh as amended or as yeah as amended so do you read this I'll read the motion I moved that city council authorized the city manager to enter into financial financial agreement with the sampling valley expo from january 2023 through december of 2027 with the amendments as presented by amber and the board sounds good if there can be a second I'll second sorry yeah so I think that motion should be through December 2028 you're saying we because we had the uh because the payment would go through June 2027 yeah I think the the term on the agreement itself is in section three is 2027 yep the conditions agreement shall remain in full force and effect until December 31st 2027 yeah sorry so I think I was figuring this out along the way and might not have got it correct everywhere so I think uh if it's 23 24 25 26 27 that's the five years that's right yeah okay sorry I kept going back and forth on that no worries we appreciate it Regina so we we have the motion we have the second any further discussion hearing none all in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed please say nay great so that passed unanimously thank you all uh tim I appreciate you you being here and I'm sorry that you're gonna have to talk about it again at your next meeting thank you no thank you all right and now we can go into uh the update in the budget discussion on the one main street park I was holding back because I thought I was jumping the gun there okay so Andrew now David Burton is here in the room um so you've got uh your memo with um still I think fair to say rough cost estimate um of different items that are in there um and a lot of that is specific stuff comes from land shapes which David has worked with to try to get a sense of um what the cost would be minus the uh pergola shades shade sales lighting and soil work and then some of the project management work so if you sort of put all of that um together we're coming in pretty high um almost as much as 650 depending on how how this kind of all shakes out um we are going to apply for a grant um a downtown grant which um it seems like it's a really great fit for that grant program uh that would be about $200,000 um and we'll apply for that in January I'm not certain when we find out but I think it's in the spring we find out about that grant um and I think we would have two years of construction um with that grant program so um the thought is to get some feedback now from the council on um what what we might do about this to uh either bring that cost down or um potentially phase it um thank you Regina um I think that's a great question is uh are there things that are included in here uh that there could be a phase in where you have a phase one and a phase two or is this a it needs to be done all at once so yeah this is this is David um and yeah that's um there there are definitely things that we could do in phases um in particular like the the pergola could be something where we could set up uh the the the footings for and then potentially have it be purchased and constructed at a later date um and and then you know some of the other items whether we talk about the um the fencing or you know other other things like that I think could be um you know kind of phased in to achieve I think there will be some things that will need to go you know go in at the uh initial construction things like I mean I would like to see all the planting going in the trees going in the and you know um if we do silver cells which is one of the drivers for the the um the cost and that's a that's a sort of a subgrade um way of installing trees and allowing for uh decreased compaction and healthier trees long term um so you know some of those different items um what would I think need to go in initially but I think there are other items that could be phased in over time and uh do you think it would be possible to phase it in where there's about 200 or so thousand that could wait until a second year I think we could I think we could probably yeah figure that out I think we could work work that in I think it would probably be the fence structure as in the pergola I would imagine um would you know just looking at the budgets and just yeah a comment on the budgets too are they they are they are rough so they are based on lack of you know just conceptual drawing so in that process you know we were kind of airing on the um on the high side because of the you know the lack of um detail um so what I'd rather do that now and have that conversation now than have bids come back in and then be surprised by at that point so um so yeah so I so I do think there there could be potential for for figuring that out yeah I greatly appreciate that and it's um a general practice of uh plan and budget conservatively and then hope for the best we we have in our consent agenda a uh um a covert uh replacement that we had estimated the cost over a million dollars and the project is coming in at about 900 so we'd much rather be in that kind of a uh situation than plan on 500 thousand and have it come in a 700 yeah much much better conversation to have uh counselors uh what questions comments concerns you have well I'll start since you all know who I feel about this um I I'm not at all surprised first of all I think that it's it's roughly what I had I thought was going to come out at um I I think this I would go full speed ahead on this if it needs to be phased then phase it that's fine um I look at this as pure economic development I'm going to get a little uh maybe digress a little bit here and look at our grand list our grand list has been hovering right around 11 we have a fraction of a percent growth every year most of that growth has come from uh improvements of properties in the village center or the city center and on the pearl street quarter that's that's the horse we're riding uh into the future and I see this as a major major improvement in a major boost um I I've been one of the old platitudes that uh former manager patch idel always said you cannot expect investors to developers and investors to invest in you if you don't invest in yourself particularly when you're trying to renovate an older little old downtown um so this is a very worthwhile investment I think it will uh go well towards in hopefully becoming a focal point of the community if we look at other little cities around the state uh St. Albans has the space for great big park in their downtown uh Winooski has their their water walkway um we don't have the space we have traffic we have a we have a great big traffic jam in the middle of our community and this is one way of visually um mitigating that and at the same time making a wonderful space for the people who actually live in our city center to come in to congregate uh I I know I could go on and on I could probably go on for about a half an hour how much I support doing this um but really I think it's money well spent the last thing I'll point out back some of you I'm not sure if Dan or and Andrew you were on the board when you renovated this building and we wound up spending 700,000 to just to renovate the outside of roughly the outside of this building and I know that when we voted to do that and was like a breathtaking amount of money to just uh it's just to repoint and clean the bricks on the outside of a 200 year old building but we got nothing but compliments and praise um because I think people saw have have pride and people who live in Essex Junction saw this building as the kind of the set piece the cornerstone that that that helps define our community and I think this park will be exactly the same thing I I think there may be a few naysayers but I think generally speaking even people who are just commuting through will really appreciate the effort and the statement this is that this makes so I'm fully supportive of going ahead with it thank you George go ahead Amber I am I'm supportive of it my concern is the money um you know just doing a back of the envelope and I know that the memo says that we're we would be able to cover it between the Amtrak match and and the project has presented assuming the $200,000 in the grant um you know we're looking at $1.5 million of which we don't have completely in our economic development fund obviously the fund is going to continue to grow over the next couple of years but generally speaking I wouldn't want to like take all of the money out of that fund I would like to leave some so that we have some in reserves um and so I'm I am concerned about the money piece and as long as you know finance can tell us that that we're that we would be okay with having both of these projects on our you know having the Amtrak match in having this project as presented and some money still left in the economic development fund um then I would be totally on board with let's go forward without phasing if there are some concerns about the money piece then I I think phasing makes sense I would just say that when we we decide what we're going to phase just be mindful of the grant and any particular retirement requirements if there are any that would preclude us from getting that based on the on the phasing thank you Amber go ahead rush yes um the only thing I'll add to this your only question I have is um timeline I'd like to finish I'd like to have our second conversation around the budget before I commit to this at this at this level um I support the park I think we can do it I think it's going to be vital as George said agree with everything um there's a lot of moving parts I just kind of want to have a better understanding of where we're at before we for instance make a decision to just go go for it or or two uh phases so I'm generally in agreement with it I just want to make sure I have a really clear picture for myself as to what how everything else is going to come together but judging from the fact that it's almost definitely coming from the economic development fund um as Amber said if we can be assured that we're in good shape and then I'm behind it does that make any sense made sense does it no I don't think it did but I tried made sense Raj you made sense that's the important thing I see Regina nodding her head Regina's laughing so that's that's great make sense to me for sure any our plan is to talk about the budget again your first meeting in January so can I can I make just one can I just throw one thing in here um I I noticed that that city engineer uh Rick Hamlin is is is present and Rick did you have something you wanted to add any uh no I'm I'm here to support the project as a part of the design team um and I think the concept if if the park does need to be phased has many components that would readily lend themselves to phasing uh in a way that was efficient um so I think if phasing is is desired there I think a couple different ways of addressing that and and bringing the elements in a piece at a time uh like I say in in an efficient way so I agree with that concept and I'm here to answer any other questions that you may have uh I guess my question is um if you could send me that picture so we can just have that as the background um that would be yes I'm yes I'm I'm coming to you live from the future Rick I think we'd all like that photo if you could yeah it's it's uh it's right it's right from the preliminary plans that David has put together it's just uh one of the detail sheets off those off the plan no it's fantastic really appreciate that Richard uh Rick um one of the things that I uh I think that it's pretty clear as we all want this park to be done you want to be done as soon as possible it's taken a long time to get here and so it's not to lay any longer than necessary uh so I think the general consensus from our our board is yes let's let's move along let's get this built um we do just want to make sure that we have enough funds to take care of Amtrak's the Amtrak station and the other needs that we've talked about so having that conversation at our next meeting I think will be beneficial and I hope that is enough clarity for for those of you who Regina, David and and Rick can I say one thing yeah um I guess the one thing that I would just put out there from a timeline standpoint is we talked about kind of ideal timing for when to when to go to bid for a project like this and um February is is would be ideal if we could if we could get have our kind of our ducks in a row to be able to do that that's kind of prime time where we'll get a lot of good good um attention and um and um interest so in a perfect situation we would kind of have the feedback and have sort of the the the green light to move forward sooner that you know sooner the better so that we can spend the time that we would need to getting the getting the detailing done so that we can have a bid set for February so if at our January 11th meeting if we make that decision about whether we get the grants then this would how we'd like to see uh this move forward and if we don't get the grant and this is how we'd like to see that move forward would that work for that timeline Rick what what how would you what would you think about that I think if we if we knew by mid-January which direction things were going and there's nothing hard and fast about February if we if we went out to bid in the first or second week in March we're still in a in a in a pretty good time period what we want to avoid is May June when contractors already their dance cards are full so so if we knew by mid-January I think that would work okay that's great so yeah it would be great to be able to look at the things that we've discussed uh for using the economic development fund for and the impact of either 600,000 or 800,000 uh or i'm sorry 600 or 400,000 um and what the impact would be on that budget would be appreciated yep great do either of you have any other questions for us okay that I appreciate your your time tonight thank you for for coming out sticking around this long really do appreciate it welcome just gonna head back into the park here and hang out for a while yeah if you if you find that flux capacitor that allows you to do that um please share yeah sounds good I know it's so warm there speak speaking of going into the future and technology I believe we next have a website tutorial I think Ashley Ashley here for us I think I made you co-host so you should be able to share okay let's go ahead and share the screen then we can we can see it okay awesome so if any of you have been on our city of S extension website you will notice there has been some differences on uh November 30th we launched the redesigned website and I'm pleased tonight to give you an overview of the new homepage and showcase some of the new meeting features so let's go ahead and get started with the homepage as you can see it has an entirely new look with brighter colors and some new features such as larger and higher contrast fonts which will improve readability and accessibility one of the new features is the quick answers button which is in the right hand corner over here when you click on it it will take you to some of the more frequently asked questions in the city and this list of questions will continue to be updated throughout the year as you can see we have our utility bill question and the winter parking ban has been recently added to the list of questions some of these will stay on for the remaining of the year and others will come off as different things arise throughout the city I'm going to go back to the homepage um our main navigation which is this up at the top it has changed some um with some rearranging of where some of the pages are located but for the most part it has stayed the same underneath the main photo you will see four main buttons these main photo these main buttons are our community resources doing business in s extension the recreation and park website and the browno library website the next section is our news section which is similar to what we had on the previous website but it now has a cleaner look and feel to it under that is one of our newer sections um which is our meeting information on the left hand side you will see all the most recent city council minutes it's also take you to the city council's page on the right it has all the upcoming many meetings of all the boards commissions committees um and you can go to the full meeting calendar there as well we will take a look at this and a little bit more detail as I get farther along in the presentation and the next section you will find our community wide events which are events at city locations for the committee to know about and attend and then finally you have our footer information which has all of our contact information links to our c-click fix our facebook page and then links to some of the main navigation so let's take a look at this meeting section because this is one of the newer features that was one of the main reasons why we needed to redesign our website the current calendar that we had on the old website was no longer going to be compatible any longer we couldn't make any more updates to it so this is ecopixels revised revision to the new meeting section so let's take a look at our city council which is the meeting that we're having right now when you click on one of the meetings it does take you to the meeting page where you'll see the date and time of the meeting when you when the agenda has been posted it will be under agenda you'll have the printable packet that we had on the previous website but then it lists the agenda out in a web view which is great for people who are using a screen reader and for accessibility once the meeting minutes have been posted they will be listed on this page as well and then lastly you can go to the next meeting or a previous meeting to look at those meetings um so just so that you guys can see what that meeting section or the minutes look like once they're posted we can go to our planning commission they've had one of the most recent meetings on all of the pages you will have for all the committees and boards you'll have a brief description about the border committee their members information about their meetings and then their upcoming meetings that they have coming up and then under that is meeting and document archive this will be all where all of the minutes and previous meetings will be able to be found so when you click on that you'll see the most recent meetings and any upcoming meetings and this was their last meeting and you can see the minutes with the draft version because those haven't been approved once those are approved it'll say approved on there and then you can still go back and see their agenda in any packet so it's all right in one central location instead of it kind of being in multiple uh places that you would have to click in the previous website the last update that i'm going to show you guys is the ejrp website they also got a redesign look um it has been updated to look similar to the branding of the city website but they now have their own website in the past um when you clicked on their website or the city navigation was at the top and then the city information was at the bottom of the page which is confusing for a lot of people especially when they're trying to contact ejrp they called the main office of a lot so hopefully now this will be a lot easier for people to find their information strictly to them and their contact information at the bottom of the page okay that was a very brief and fast overview of the website so if you have any questions i'd love to hear from you guys um and uh get your feedback on it well thank you actually really appreciate the the work that you've helped to to lead through this um and appreciate egopixel for their their technical side of being able to have this all happen um i i don't have any questions um just appreciation for the the updates uh and in particular appreciate the accessibility uh enhancements as in previous work worlds um met with many people who uh need and rely upon those type of features so really appreciate that that the city council is any any questions um i i think it's terrific i i've said that already one thing i think is even most especially terrific is how the city council gets its own great big box with all of our stuff in it right on the front page i really like that part can i make one small really nitpicky editorial comment though totally we are can always looking for improvements on our website it's always on going it's an interesting grammatical point so and nearly 11 000 residents at the heart of chitin and county should that be in the heart of chitin and county that is more figure the heart of the matter you know but in but we are literally right in the middle so it's so i think it's in the heart that's i'm willing to stay with thank you for that feedback all right i'm okay with people thinking that s exjunction is the heart of chitin and county i mean at the heart of chitin and county is us a lot of ways to go so heart and soul well done any other questions comments no i did some i did some searching around and it worked much better um and it's it's just cleaner it's more accessible so thank you you're welcome thank you all right well i i don't think there's anything else so actually we really appreciate you sticking around and again appreciate your time and dedication to updating the website thank you thank you have a good night you too thank you and now we have our conversation with our recreation park director brad hi hi brad thanks for joining us sure no problem i was just going to run through some stuff real quick and then just open it up for questions if that works for you that'd be great thank you great i mean i know you all are familiar with um with the jrp and our parks and recreation system here in the city but i thought i just run through some of the things we do um you know we just uh a few months ago wrapped up summer uh we offer summer day camps um we have about 400 kids in in care every day from 7 30 a.m to 6 o'clock p.m um we run camps for nine or 10 weeks of the summer this year which is pretty unique most communities um most of the things i talk about are different in other communities either they start those camps later they end them earlier in the day or they end them earlier in the summer um it's very rare if you look around at some of the other folks who are providing similar services to us that you'd find that they're doing all of those things starting at 7 30 ending at 6 o'clock going for nine or 10 weeks and then you always look at the price um our summer day camp last summer was $190 a week um the other camps around us uh 240 a week 275 a week um so we're you know constantly trying to provide the best care as well as um the most um the least expensive care that we can we can provide while also you know competing with um a very significant increase in wages over the past couple of years um and um and also trying to find staff and so um certainly the demand for care has not changed you know we we saw a little bit of change I think post COVID when you know families were working at home more and had more flexible work schedules um but overall our numbers just are not down we have kids in the waitlist so we can't get in um mostly due to staffing issues and and not being able to provide that falsely to staff every day uh swim lessons at the maple street pool are obviously a huge important part of the summer people come you know I think over and over I'll try not to say regionally but but we are a regional attraction for outdoor pools most communities don't have an outdoor pool we're fortunate enough that we do we've had one since the 70s upgraded um at the end of the 90s um and the pool is actually in pretty great shape there's a few things that need to be updated it it is 20 years old um but but it's really in in some in good shape um our specialty camps things like tennis basketball baseball football uh arts uh we do lots of different art camps um are all uh extremely well received um we we just found a couple of summers ago that you know coming out of COVID people were just really hungry to get back into the swing of things and be with people and learn and grow and um that hunger really hasn't stopped so uh the community is seems to be really yearning for those kinds of programs and opportunities and and that's great because the more we get you know people interested the more programs we're able to offer and fill and and the more fulfilling they are um so we've been really fortunate and and happy to see that happening um sometimes we forget that we do community gardens and um we have community gardens at west street and at meadow terrace um they are always full with a wait list uh we did expand those a couple of years ago and um so that just continues to be an important avenue again thinking about as as I go through this list of things um not all communities have an outdoor pool not all communities provide daycare not all communities have a preschool or community garden so we start to you know keep adding to that list um of things that we do have here in the city and so I think we're really fortunate uh we have a preschool a three four and a four five classroom uh we serve 34 families there each day uh the rec kids after school program we serve all of EWSD so that includes the town in westford uh we have 375 kids a day a day in care from dismissal until 6 p.m. for 179 school days we offer vacation camps on 20 of the days that there are no school again uh if you look around us around in communities there are vacation camps here and there there might be five or six or seven or eight days that that get covered we we cover 20 um to send your kid to rec kids after school care for five days a week is 81 dollars and 25 cents this year um if you look at the surrounding areas if you live in any community that's um touching us or near it's 95 93 or 96 dollars a week um so again um we're fortunate that we're able to to work those numbers and keep them down um the cost down for families community events um regional comes up again we've talked about this recently july 4th moving to cv e because of such a large event and and i'm glad our partners from cv e were there tonight um they are uh extremely helpful and we're throughout covid and finding us programming space and also now july 4th seems like it's going to be an annual event there with 6000 plus people um we saw uh junction jam back this year construction junction the pumpkin palooza over 3000 attendees recently the return of the train hop was a great success if anybody was able to make it out last week i know my kids were out and i was out with them and it was it was a lot of fun and it was nice to see just a lot of people and a lot of people in businesses that they may not normally be you know we we had great feedback from nomad that he was seeing lots of people going to get their train stamps that that were saying they've never been in there and had that experience i was in reclaimed on uh on railroad um and i was in vermont chalky paint two places i've not been so um it was a good experience i think and hopefully you know our local businesses um were happy with it as well winter lights in the park um i'm looking at them now uh you know we're we're working on getting some people counters to really quantify this um over the course of the month um i can't tell you we we're definitely over 10 000 i just don't know by how many if you drive by here anytime of the night um from from Thanksgiving until new years the the parking lot's packed and it's not because we have a ton of programs going on in the back or because there's people you know out on on the football field um it's because they're walking through the park and so um i think it's just uh if you if you read the free press this week uh there was a uh article about regional attractions in new england and and maple street park lights were were on that list um so a pretty unique and cool thing that's happening here we're also doing letters to the north pole where kids can drop off letters here and we have a giving tree where we work with sx pediatrics and social workers from our local schools to provide gifts for families in need and that's supported through donations from from our community fall you know our running series programs has really have really gone off well we do one in the fall and the spring um we do a variety of runs uh the halloween hustle you know most recently youth basketball is a huge program that we're operating right now with 200 plus participants um in all of the gyms throughout the district adult basketball is actually really big for us as well um and we'll be taking two buses again of eighth graders to dc in april um a trip that we we thoroughly enjoy um you know i think you all recognize you know all of these things are are contributing to offering people recreational and educational opportunities exposing them to new things um but really when you when you start to look at you know some data from nrpa and such it's speaking to the quality of life in a community and um you know the value of of homes that are closer to public parks uh is is higher um by by the sheer fact that people desire to be near public parks and and access those amenities so just as we have good schools in our community and and so many other things that um that we have a strong library and the great you know public works department i think parks and recreation also greatly contributes to the quality of life here you know some of the feedback we we often do survey feedback um some summer camp feedback you know about a girl participating she's having the time of her life seriously i've never seen this kid so happy um maddie a counselor has been a blessing for my son to see every day the change of my daughter after summer camp last summer was astounding she was much more independent and willing to try new things those that's feedback from three different people um the winter lights you know it's so beautiful thank you for brightening up our community so people are recognizing not just the value in what we're offering but um but seeing that we are creating community through people parks and programs that that we're making a difference um and it's not just you know signing kids up for things but but actually connecting and adults as well um giving them opportunities in terms of looking ahead we recently had budget day so i won't bore you all with the budget but just as a reminder we have a 1.4 million dollar general fund budget and a 3.2 million dollar program fund budget the program fund is an enterprise fund it's uh funded completely by program fees and pays for the program expenses from those fees um and we are we're the inverse um from what the industry standard should be um so you know we have 31 percent general fund money in 69 program fund um industry standard is that 60 percent of our money should be coming from the general fund so um again we we are extremely conscientious about our programs and quality of programs and also keep an eye on the dollar um to try and make all those things work we are currently trying to frame um look at some designs to expand the aspire building um we've we've been very fortunate receiving over a million dollars in child care grants um from covid that helped cover staffing um during covid times which means some of that money that was budgeted was we were able to keep aside and um we really need some additional space here we're almost to a place where we're going to be able to offer all of our vacation camps here at the park or at just one school instead of throughout the schools and um i think everybody's happy about that both we're happy in in schools to to let those schools have a break so um space is a premium for us that's our hardest thing is indoor space and in vermont that's pretty important um even in the summer time you know to run a full day summer camp um you can't just stick kids in pavilions and tents in the event you have thunder and lightning you need you need quality cover um so we're constantly looking for more indoor quality space we will see in this budget that's coming forward um some price increases uh next year for some of our um in particular our licensed child care programs um preschool after school summer day camps um you know we had to increase our wages um by 11 percent just this fall you know just to try and get people to work uh we were starting at 14 dollars an hour we had to bump that to 1550 to be competitive in the marketplace and that's still just barely competitive you can you know you can work at most gas stations or mcdonalds for 18 to 20 um so um we're we're we're needing to increase our fees to offset some of those increases in in pay lastly i just um big picture big ticket items uh up for conversation hopefully in the near future uh gym space is is really important to us uh we need to kind of do an assessment of the courts that we have in this community and the courts that we want to have and when i say courts i mean outdoor tennis courts pickleball courts basketball courts the average lifespan of most of those courts is about 25 years um i cannot tell you the last time that and when i say lifespan i'm not talking about top coating i'm talking about ripping up all of the black top and replacing with new black top um is 25 years and and certainly i cannot remember in the last 25 years that we've torn up completely any of our courts we just kind of keep keep resurfacing them and um and that's not working if you if you came and saw some of our courts um that's that's not a good solution so uh that's a really significant expense to a several hundred thousand dollars just to to have those courts um our skate park has been around for quite a long time and at some point it needs to be addressed as to what our community wants to do in terms of offering that amenity um and then lastly we need to have offer year-round outdoor bathrooms at maple street and cascade or at least case cascade uh seasonal ones there are no permanent bathrooms at cascade park and and it's been a very busy pickleball haven for the last few years although those are part of the court system that needs to be addressed um and um with this hopeful addition to aspire we are going to try to get some outdoor year-round bathrooms for maple street the ones we have in the pool house are just seasonal so we're not able to keep those open in the winter months that was quick and a lot of information but I'm happy to answer questions uh and take comments thank you Brad it's always nice to hear about the amazing ways that EJRP is helping to create the community that we we do love so much um you mentioned briefly about the giving tree to those who might be listening either live or later can you just talk a little more about the giving tree and how people can learn more yeah so um thanks if you visit our website um our new website um you will be able to find giving tree on here if I click on the right places um it's under events and it's the giving tree and there's a link to donate and it's an opportunity to purchase some items um through us and so you know sometimes a traditional giving tree at least what I remember is that you would pick it off the tree and go buy those items and bring them in this one you get to buy online the items and we actually go then and make the purchases wrap the gifts through volunteer helpers from the high school and then deliver them to sx pediatrics and and social workers at schools who get them to families so it's a different opportunity to help families in need and so it's a real easy one to click and offer up some support thank you brad and then the last one you mentioned hiring troubles with child care um is that still an issue having a hard time finding people for child care you know knock on wood we have we are only short one full-time position out of out of nine full-time positions that we have in after school child care and summer day camps it's the part-time folks that are difficult to find again you know wages is one thing license child care licensing standards is another high schoolers do not qualify unless you're 18 you don't qualify as somebody who can be alone with kids and so we have some really competent wonderful kind caring 16 and 17 year olds who I would happily trust with all three of my children who cannot be alone with children here in our program we have so licensing standards catches up a few times actually I just learned I was I was working at one of the after school sites after the first snow and learned that due to after school licensing standards after school programs are not allowed to use the playgrounds when there's snow on the ground but the kids use the playground all day during the school day so it's just another example of some folks you know that the intention there is that the wood chips which are the the safe ball protection are then covered in in snow and ice and don't offer the same protection so but I digress your question was about staff and it's really about part-time staff at this point and retention of full-time staff is what we're really focused on we're really trying to make sure that we're engaging our full-time staff and and making sure that they're finding meaning in this work for more than you know just a year or two and really see this as a potential career long-term and it also sounds like there may be a desire to try and do something legislatively around some of these requirements for after-school care programs because it does not sound at all logical yeah I've been talking to to the child care team about how we can have some influence in that we were an influencer in particular Maureen is pretty involved in statewide after-school stuff but I've been having the same conversations that we have a lot of feedback on the existing regulations you know I'll just give you one other example staffing wise we've really been trying to get teachers from the school or para educators to try and stay after school even just for 45 minutes and help us out get through gets to get us started till we can get some high school and college kids there and we've had some success doing that but there are all sorts of licensing standards that you need to you need to attend 10 hours a year of educational components and you have to you have to get specific fingerprints and background checks and all sorts of other things when these people are already working in our school buildings all day a lot of them you know at some point if there was an audit during the year they wouldn't meet all of the criteria to actually serve as staff when when they're actually teaching kids during the day so there's certainly some some work to be done there so you can be a para educator in one of our schools but you can't uh take care of those same kids after school you got it that does not sound logical well that's enough for me um counselors any any other questions comments for Brad good no Brad just uh the child care piece was huge I mean I know it's uh I hear all the time it's a decision point for why people come here as opposed to other communities so yeah just great work all around very much appreciated yep I agree with Raj's comments that totally and again I to go back to economic development to the fact that that both parents can work and know that their kid is their kids are in some quality programs after school I think it's great it's it's it's great it's a great service we provide appreciate it the only comment I would make that's not that's just sort of a comment question is I wonder how over time um other sports that require indoor space that haven't been traditionally represented can be can sort of break in and I think we've all some of us have been receiving email and phone calls and drive buys at the at the grocery store by pickleballers and other and other athletes um so I I just don't I've heard a little bit about how difficult gym space is and I want to stay away from that as far as I can personally um but I I don't know if you have any typical Brad solutions to how to how to create more space from nothing or how to how to reshuffle the deck so other groups can get some opportunities at the at the finite gym space in the in the colder months I don't know how that's done just throwing that out there um but realizing that everything is finite yeah and and we've been having the conversation here Raj and and it's um I think the the hardest thing about we all know about winter is everybody wants indoor space and wants gym space and they all want it at the same time um and so you know and we're we're providing after school care in our in our in our gymnasiums until 6 p.m. so the first the first practices are the first opportunities start at 6 15 p.m. and it's it's tricky you know when when are you going to put first and second grade practice um you know not not at 8 p.m. and so it it's it's tricky it is it's a very big puzzle piece that we do with basketball alone and I agree with you you know more opportunities are necessary it's simply a supply and demand of physical space um so I you know the long-term solution is we need more physical space of course when we do that it will you'll have the same challenges um but um we're we we have an ear out for it um and we've we've been kind of you know things settle in a little bit uh come january for basketball and all of those things and so um we're trying to keep an eye if we can free up some opportunities great well brad thank you again really appreciate it um I don't think there's other questions from the the council so I appreciate you sticking with us this late yeah no problem and you know I I'm obviously the one the one sharing the news I'm I'm not the one who does all this stuff um I don't mow the lawns I don't provide after school care I don't teach she'll mustn't I have an amazing staff of 23 full-time people who manage and oversee and supervise all of those things we have 250 part-time and seasonal people who actually are boots on the ground providing those services um so I'm happy to share it all and um I I I didn't create it all it's just uh sharing with you all the the wonderful things that the folks in our community are doing well thank you and as always please do pass the appreciation on to the staff of each ARP as well well did thanks thank you and we are now at uh the discussion consideration of green mountain transit and the modesty valley parks district representatives and the communications union district yeah so uh you've got a memo in your packet uh for all three of these positions um uh the packet um so we are now members of GMT um now members of winewski valley park district and uh there is now a new uh chitlin county communications union district um so uh each of those require a representative um so uh thought we would have this conversation here tonight uh with the council and see where you folks would like to go with it either um add more hours to your volunteer service or um look for some community members for this these positions um and the only caveat is for the communications union district um I am happy to play that role just at the beginning of it um just to get the actual governance structure up and running because that has to happen within 90 days of the vote um and then hopefully could find somebody else to step in there so maybe for for that one come back to us when you're you're ready to move off of that or we could even start advertising early and just have it be known that uh that that's uh position could wait until 90 days after or whenever your time frame is ready yeah that sounds good for um green mountain transit uh I'll go ahead and say that personally I'm interested um it's one that I'm uh green mountain trans is very critical to our community it's something that is critical to our our broader community uh also given just budgetarily the amount that's uh the requests are in the uh something that personally would love to help be a part of so I'm happy to continue to volunteer some time and and be a part of that uh at the same time if anybody else is interested uh I understand that there can be an alternate and so I'd be happy to play that role um if somebody else is also interested and I see Dan jumping up to be that okay so I'd be happy to take on that role I'd alternate that for you all right uh when you ski valley park district I I I'll be happy to take unless someone else wants to do it I'm happy to take that on um I I wasn't the GMT driving into Burlington um on every other Tuesday or every third Thursday Tuesday versus the zoom meeting I'm I'm going to go with the zoom mr practical but if someone else really wants to be on the Winnowsky Valley um park district board I'm happy to be the alternative um if that works for you I don't know good I'm good okay I appreciate you I'll be I'll be your backup okay would you Dan I would all right uh Regina does the um Chittenden County Communications Union District does that need an alternate uh that's a good question um we don't have any bylaws yet so we don't have any um clear direction at the moment if somebody wants to be a backup I'll take it see a lady right on that board smiling like she really wants to get involved think her cat just raised her hand well see the problem I have with this one is there's a couple of things obviously I have an extensive telecommunications background but um I also represent a communication union district and so I'm kind of teetering on it might be a conflict of interest for me to do this sounds good all right so then we would have uh we would have for appointments that I would be for the Green Mountain Transit with Raj as an alternate for Winnowsky by Parks District trustees George would be the appointee with Dan as an alternate and Regina for the Chittenden County Communications Union District if somebody wanted to make such a motion sure um I will move that we appoint Andrew Brown to the Green Mountain Transit Board of Commissioners with who's the backup with Raj Chala a counselor Raj Chala as the backup and I will move that we appoint George Tyler myself to the New Ski Valley Park District Board of Trustees with counselor Dan Karen as the backup backup and I will move that we appoint city manager Regina Mahoney to the Chittenden County Communications Union District be our representative to the Chittenden County Communications District second thank you George thank you Dan is there any further discussion I'll all wills in favor please signify by saying aye those opposed please say nay I only want to ask one question can I it was it appropriate for me to appoint mice to make the motion that it points me to a board with someone I mean is someone yes some it was was it appropriate was that okay I mean yes six months from now we're not going to be find ourselves in in a in a civil suit uh okay good all right your punishment George will have to drive into Burlington for the with Andrew with coffee in hand yes I maybe think of a cartoon I won't go there yeah anyway so going on to the next agenda item thank you all we have a bunch of executive session stuff um tree farm cannabis control land use violation and conversation with Regina so we'll move past those and do that all at once at the end and we are on to the consent agenda I move that we accept the consent agenda second thank you Raj thank you Dan all in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed please say nay that's unanimously thank you and on to the reading file and are there any any comments all right seeing no comments let's go into the fun of the executive session motions I will go ahead and move I move to find that premature general public knowledge regarding contracts associated with the tree farm recreation facility would clearly place the city at a substantial disadvantage because the council risks disclosing its negotiation strategy if it discusses the contract terms in public that would further move that we go into executive session to discuss contracts under the provisions of title one section three one three a one of their most attitudes and to negotiate or secure real estate purchase or lease options under title one section three one three a two from our statutes and include Regina Mahoney Bradluck and Harold Smith I'll second thank you George any further discussion you're none all in favor think about by saying aye aye I was supposed to say nay great pass unanimously thank you I would then move that the city council make specific finding that general public knowledge of confidential attorney client communications would place the city at a substantial disadvantage I would further move that the city council enter into executive session to discuss confidential attorney client communications pursuant to one vsa session three one three a one f to the city council and city manager second thank you any further discussion you're right none all in favor basically by saying aye aye I was supposed to say nay pass unanimously thank you all round three I move that city council make specific finding that general public knowledge of confidential attorney client communications would place the city at a substantial disadvantage and I would move that the city council enter into executive session to discuss confidential attorney client communications pursuant to one vsa section three one three a one f to the city council and city manager second beat me all in favor please signify by saying aye aye I was supposed to say nay great so that passed unanimously and last but not least I move the city council enter into executive session to discuss a personnel evaluation pursuant to one vsa section three one three a three to include the city council and city manager second all in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye I was supposed to say nay pass unanimously again all right let's take a 10 5 10 5 5 minute break take a 5 minute break and then we'll see you all in the executive session plant we would not be coming back with any decisions tonight so to all of you