 Okay, so I'm going to call this meeting to order. And the first thing is to review and approve the agenda. We do have some changes here. So we're not going to be taking up. Chapter 13 of the. Ordinances at all. That's item 14 in the agenda. And the other thing that I would like to do is move the strategic plan. Item to the end. And also Tom, I see that you are here already. And so I'm tempted to move that item up. I know like I had a couple of, like a couple of requests to move some stuff up, but I don't see them here and, and I kind of wanted, I wish I could do all the items first, but you're, you're here. So let's. Move up. The down home park lit reuse. To. Let's, let's do that just after the parking garage updates. Unless there's any, other thoughts or objections to any of that. Okay. Great. All right. So without objection, we'll consider the agenda approved. So general business and appearances. This is an opportunity. For any member of the public to address the council on an item that is otherwise not on our agenda. And if you would try to keep your comments to two minutes, that would be great. So, and that. That'll be true for other comments from the public through the meeting. Does anybody have an item they would like to raise. And Cameron, would you mind like unmuting everybody real quick just to make sure we've got that opportunity. Anybody have an item they'd like to raise. Okay. All right. Cool. Thanks. So we're going to move on. The overseas. Yep. So we're going to move on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion. Regarding the consent agenda. I move the consent agenda. Second. Okay. For the discussion. I just want to note. That there's a local emergency management plan in there. And I'm just glad to see that. I just wanted to highlight that before we passed over to, but they do want to say anything about that, like what that's for anything. Not. Not really. Okay. That's fine. I do know there's something that needs to be signed though. Is that right? That you are proving. Yes. There was something that there was. We need to be able to. Apply for a grant and it requires the city's authorization. For us to just. Get that confirmation. That we're eligible to apply and we submitted that late. I'm sorry. I don't have an updated. That's okay. Just even that background is helpful. So. Okay. Any further discussion. Really just a reminder that we need you guys to come in and sign. Police department tomorrow. Yes. All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Opposed. Okay. So the consent agenda passes. Great. So the above and beyond award. So I'm going to turn this over to Bill. And I'm going to turn it right over to Cameron. All right. So I'm really excited to sort of announce the continued success of our above and beyond employee recognition program. I think that in times like this, it's really important for staff to be able to shout each other out. They've all been going above and beyond. This was a very exciting month for me because we had many, many submissions and multiple people got submitted multiple times. So. So I'm going to turn it over to Cameron. So I'm going to turn it over to Cameron. So the best. The month of April. Norma Maurice from our community services department. One are above and beyond award. She is our office manager for community services, which is the park department, the rec department and the senior center. Norma's nomination highlighted her grace and assisting residents during this difficult time for dedication to the city and her community staff. And she's the only admin. Office workers still in our community services department right now. The rest are all on voluntary furlough. So she's really had to shoulder a lot of responsibilities that she didn't have before. She is our sole office support staff right now. And in her nomination, her nominator stated that. She demonstrates every day that she's engaged, caring and motivated to get the job done. And she's been working with the public at ease. And she has cultivated great relationships with our volunteers and structures and community partners. She's constantly on the lookout on how she can contribute to facility improvements and safety measures. And to create better efficiencies for our senior activity center and other community service division. She's shown amazing commitment to the city in the face of our pandemic situation. And remained in our office and facility is the sole employee on site where others are working remotely. She's also stepped up as the lead person to distribute our feast to go meals outside twice weekly to those who need extra food. And she manages duties in the account payable and donor acknowledgement visions, which she wasn't doing before. They, they sort of concluded by saying it's hard to imagine the senior center ship sailing without Norma's competent leadership. So we really do appreciate her and thank her for all the work she's been doing. Yeah, congratulations Norma. That is a wonderful praise and well deserved award. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Right. So we're going to jump into the. Appointments that we have to make. And the first one is to the. I'm sorry. The social and economic justice advisory committee. There are a number of seats open on this committee and we had one applicant. That was. Bogdan Lawrence you. And. I think I saw. You're on here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And Bogdan, would you like to introduce yourself to the council and tell us about your interest in this committee? Hello, everybody. Very good to be here. And thank you for having the opportunity. My name is Bogdan. I immigrated here from Romania in 2011. With just $500. And the landup job. I am grateful and deeply humbled for all the opportunities that I have. Thank you all. Thank you. It's going to be in June. I am the store manager for TJ max. We will reopen soon. Everybody's going to ask me. I'm running out of candles. So we need to open. Other than that. I finished college for computer science. the IT side. I'm currently involved and an alumni of the partnership. They are based in Boston. They are focused on teaching, training, mentoring minorities, so to speak, in all aspects of corporate America and not just that in terms of leadership, mentoring and supporting others. I'm interested in this committee a little bit for the social and economic justice. I'm a strong believer that everybody, regardless of where you come from, what opportunities you had growing up or what life threw at you, you should have the same opportunities as the person next to you, regardless if you went to college or if you only finished high school or elementary school. And unfortunately, there are still cases out there. The governor mentioned one earlier today, or it was yesterday unless I'm mistaken, about a little incident with racism. So we really need to tackle these and it's my strong belief that it's not going to happen overnight and definitely it's not going to happen tomorrow. But if we all put in the effort and we actually do something about it rather than just being vocal about it, then we have a better chance of expediting that process and making sure that everybody at the end of the day, they have everything at their power and the information at their fingertips to be successful in life. After all, this is America and it's my strong belief that if anybody can make it somewhere, they can make it here. So that's all I have. Again, thank you very much for allowing me to say a few words. Thank you, Bogdan. I have one question for you, which is, would you prefer to have a one-year seat or a two-year seat on this committee? I'll take any. So allow me to be, can I elaborate a little bit? For just a minute, I'm not going to speak a lot, even though sometimes I do have the tendency of, I am looking for opportunities to give back. Like I said, I'm humble and grateful for everything this country has provided to me so far. Since I came here, it wasn't easy. I started from the bottom as a server in a restaurant and a temp employee in retail at TGMAX and at Walmart. And I've had at any point until probably a year ago, I had two jobs constantly to kind of have the life that I wanted to have. And no excuses on that. And I'm really happy that I did that. But I'm looking for opportunities to give back, to give a little bit back because I got so much. And I had a lot of people that supported me and mentored me and sponsored me and really believed in me. And some that didn't, it is what it is. So I guess I'm just looking for an opportunity to give back. So I would give any chance you're going to give me. Thank you. Is there a motion? Conor, go ahead. Yeah, sure. Apologies about that. I really like your speech. So I'm going to make a motion to appoint you to the two-year term of the Social and Economic Justice Advisory Committee. Thank you. I appreciate it. And I'm open to questions if you guys have any questions for me, of course. I'll second that motion. I think great. Also, Donna, I think you also were trying to second, but you were muted. So yeah. Great. Okay. Any further discussion? Hey, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Great. Thank you. And congratulations to Bogdan. Thank you. Thank you. I promise to make you guys proud. Excellent. All right. So the next one is the Energy Advisory Committee. For that committee, they're still loading on my computer right now, but I believe we had something like four candidates for six seats. And so that would have been Jeff Fitzgerald, Donald DeWall, Kate Stevenson, and David Weir. And I think I, so David, you're here. David, do you want to introduce yourself to the council and tell us about your interest in this committee? I'm just going to put that out again, David. Can you hear me? Would you like to introduce yourself to the council? I'm sorry about that. I'm having a little bit of bandwidth here, but I've got you now. Yeah. So I'm going to leave the video off to my bandwidth a little though. My name is David Weir. I am an architectural designer, a volunteer from Oregon, last July with my wife here, in community and I think you're talking about the Energy Commission moment, right? Yes. I think I applied for both the Energy Commission and the Regal Plan. Both of those kind of start for an architect to develop energy programs here and also push energy programs here. So David, you're cutting out there a little bit, but does anyone have any questions for David? Not me. Okay. Okay. So again, we have four people in six seats. They're all two year terms. Does anyone want to make a motion? David, are you still on? I'll make a motion to appoint the four candidates. I believe it's David Weir, Donald DeVall, Kate Stevenson, and Jeff Fitzgerald to each to two year seats on the Energy Advisory Committee. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Great. Well, congratulations, David and others. Thanks for stepping up. Okay. The Recreation Advisory Committee had one open seat and one applicant, Scott Van Beck. I thought maybe I saw Scott on here. Is Scott on? He was. Yeah, he is. I have unmuted him if he wants to speak. Oh, there you are. Oh, right in front of me. Scott, would you like to introduce yourself to the to the council and tell us about your interest in this committee? Oh, he's still on mute. Scott, you're still on mute. There you go. Hello, everybody. My name is Scott Van Beck and my wife and I moved to Montpelier from Houston, Texas three years ago. And Sarah serves as the chief financial officer for national life up on the hill. And I'm a career public public school educator. I worked 35 years in Houston, left as a regional superintendent and ran a educational nonprofit in Houston for 10 years. And one of my earliest memories of living in Montpelier was getting introduced to a noontime basketball at the Rec Center. And I've really enjoyed the times down there. Love the pool. I like to play some tennis with my little 10-year-old mentee. I'm a mentor with Girls Boys First here in Montpelier. And it was actually Chris Hancock and I were talking and Chris's on the rec committee. He had told me of the the opening and so he introduced me to the director. And then I saw it posted that it was it was time to apply. So I sent the application in. I've been around athletics and recreation most of my life. And I think a strong community is defined by many variables, but one of the most important variables is how healthy and how recreational the community is. So I'm really excited to serve the city of Montpelier in this role. Super. Questions or a motion? I move that we appoint Scott Van Beck to the Recreation Advisory Board. I'll second. Any further discussion? All in favor please say aye. Great. Thank you and congratulations Scott. Thanks for stepping up. Awesome. Thanks to the city council and to the mayor. Okay. Moving along we have another appointment to make to the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission. And for this we have two applicants. So David Weir and Marcella Dent. And so David do you want to speak at all to your interest in serving on the on the Planning Commission? Or I'm sorry not the Planning Commission. The Center right the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission. There we go. Sure. Yeah. In addition to my architecture, my background in architecture, I completed in sustainable practices on a regional level food systems. And in looking through the Central Vermont Planning Commission's website, I'm glad that they kind of had a hand in all of that. So I was hoping that that might have kind of buried background in our mind. So for this appointment because there are two people for one seat, I think it is very likely that we may go into executive session. And the council has another link to to do that. Is there a motion? Yes, Jack. I move pursuant to one VSA section 313A3 that we go into executive session to consider the appointment of a public official. Second. For the discussion on favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Great. Opposed? Okay. So we will be right back. So council members leave this meeting everyone else can stay. Right. And logged into the executive session. Great. Motion to come out of executive session. So we'll second. Further discussion? All in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Is there a motion? I move we appoint Marcella Dent to represent the City of Montpelier on the regional planning section. Further discussion? All in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. None opposed? Thank you. And David we want to thank you for your application to this as well and you know I want to acknowledge that we're psyched to have you on the energy committee and want to share the love. So anyway thank you again for stepping up and congratulations Marcella. Thank you. Yep. Okay. Okay. So we've moved the strategic plan to the end and so the next item is the parking garage update. And so for this I will turn it over to Bill. Oh actually maybe I should just clarify. So the way we're gonna just organize this time is we're gonna hear from city staff and then I know there's a number of folks who would like to make some comments. So we'll go straight from there to public comment and then from there the council will have a discussion and we'll go from there. All right so go for it. Great thanks. We have some of our consulting experts and legal experts on the line. I think David Ruzon, Stephanie Clark. Not sure if Greg is on. Yes Greg is on. There he is right in front of there's David. So basically as you recall at our last meeting we outlined a general change in design that was trying to address some of the concerns that have been raised over the years and we were continuing to work on our numbers to present where that was financially what the costs were. So we're in better shape to do that at this meeting. I think the design has made a couple of tweaks since you last saw it which Greg can talk about. I think David's prepared to give us an update on the case and Stephanie's here to walk us through finances and then obviously any other questions that people have. So I don't know who's going first. I wasn't sure if I had the control. We know how I feel about that. So Cameron I sent over the PowerPoint just now. I don't know if it's better that you share it or I share it. I've given you permission to share your screen if you'd like. All right. Is there any way you can do it? I'm a little afraid I'm not going to do this right. I heard someone say it's a learning curve for everybody. Yeah. There's a lot of technology going on. But we are going to start. I can start off just by saying hi. I'm Stephanie Clark with Whitenberg. I have met most of you but I have not met all of you in person. And tonight we're just going to give you an update from where we were back in April. Last you saw us we presented the new shorter east west shorter footprint of the garage and we said we'd come back to you with numbers with a budget and we also want to provide you with the legal update. So Dave Ru is on the line to do the legal update and then I'll walk through some of the design tweaks that we've had as we've done some value engineering over the last month and then we can get into the numbers and if we need further conversation we'll go from there. So Cameron is loading that up and I think starting on slide three is where Dave is going to jump in with the legal update. Yeah. Hi everybody. I'm Dave Ru from Stetzl Page on Fletcher. I hope everybody can hear me okay. My laptop has a bad habit of mysteriously cutting my mic and audio without me knowing it in the middle of me talking. So I can see Mayor Watson on my screen. So Mayor just wave at me if my if my audio cuts out. Since we last spoke back on April 8th we had a very favorable decision from the Environmental Division of Vermont Superior Court. The court found that the municipal parking garage was a development for municipal purposes on less than 10 acres of land. So it dismissed the appellants appeal of the Act 250 approval for both the hotel and the parking garage. What the court's ruling means basically is that while the hotel is still subject to Act 250 as a housing project the city's garage project is no longer subject to Act 250. In response to that favorable ruling the appellants the named appellants are Les Blomberg and Dan Costin have filed motions to amend or alter the judgment and if that's the court doesn't amend its judgment they have said publicly that they're going to file an appeal with the Vermont Supreme Court. When the court's looking at these motions to amend that were just filed including our response it has wide discretion to decide the motion. Usually they're rarely granted and we think that the court's going to stick by its original decision because its reasoning was pretty sound. By their motion to amend one of the things that is indicative of the from the filing is that the appellants are now challenging not only the parking garage but also the hotel portion of the project. Previous public statements have indicated that they supported the new hotel but by continuing to fight and asserting in their motion to amend that the decision that the court should not have dismissed the appeal it's clear they want to continue to fight and bring the hotel portion of the project into their challenge. The Vermont Natural Resources Board also filed a motion to amend the judgment and they adopted a jurisdictional argument that the appellants previously made. It appears that the goal of both parties in filing these motions and instead of accepting the court's ruling is to increase the cost of the city and delay the project even further. In the zoning approvals there's a separate appeal of the zone to the site plan and subdivision approvals for the garage that's proceeding now with discovery after we won a number of rulings as I described back in April that limited the issues from roughly 30 down to about nine and that dismissed 16 of the 18 members of the appellant group from the case. So at this point in time we're proceeding with discovery in the zoning appeals and we are hoping to stick to a fall trial. We can't say for sure because we don't know what the emergency closure of the courts, what the impact of that is going to be. As many people probably know all courts have been closed as a result of COVID-19 for anything other than emergency matters but nonetheless we're hopeful that the schedule was set far enough out that we're going to be able to stick to it. So that's where things stand right now. We've had a number of favorable decisions and if the counselors have any questions I'm happy to answer them. I'm not seeing any questions from council at this point. Am I wrong about that? Okay. Okay moving on then. Thank you. Next slide. So I'm going to quickly go through just the slight changes we've made to the design that have been a result of the value engineering process that we've gone through looking for cost savings for the budget and we were able and I say we but that's really not me. This has been a huge lift from the architectural construction team to achieve a lot of savings without changing the footprint or the general site design or the overall aesthetics but to see a lot of cost savings. So we have now gone back to the interior layout. All the changes that have been done have been mostly interior which had some exterior impacts but the interior layout going to a helical design which is the sloped floors. That's what we had originally and we thought we could go to the flat floors last month but it really doesn't work financially to do that. So going back to the helical design it actually reduces our height of our building by two to three feet which is a good thing and it increases our total number of spaces which is also a good thing. We originally had a 348 space garage that was what our approvals are for but we have seen that number go down and go back up. It will be around 348 or it could be as high as 358 that's the current layout but as these designs evolve you see spaces come and go a little bit depending on circulation, turning movements, accessibility, ventilation, etc. And the windows on the building which you could see in some of the in the renderings and in the elevations have been adjusted slightly based on that interior change. You can also see that for value engineering purposes for cost savings we had to remove the glazing on the elevator shaft and we've chosen to go with a hybrid steel cast in place concrete structure which will have finishing elements included in that for longevity. These were all made to realize good cost savings very significant but truthfully this is going to be subject to further design tweaks based on accommodations, negotiations with the budding properties, stormwater permitting, value engineering and we expect that those things will hopefully continue to keep reducing the cost in doing so. We have a more technical memo that we'll be sending to counselors tomorrow that has the real nitty gritty level of detail of some of those changes the specific specifics of measurements that have changed if that's the level of interest you're interested in. This also resulting in the the slope back to the slope floors does get back at that question I know someone had raised previously about reuse. The garage is being built for parking and it's a long-term investment for the city and parking we have not intended for any reuse of this building down the line that became more of a possibility if you had flat floors but with the ramp floors that's not really a possibility again that wasn't the priority of council in the city to begin with so we're not losing anything here but that that is the reality of going to the slope back to the slope ramp floors. You can see on the next slide we provided these two comparisons that we provided in the packet yesterday there's the entry this is the entry view the top photo from the view you saw in April to the view now. You can see it's not a significant change to the overall aesthetic to the overall look or scale and in the following frame the next slide has the same to be said of the aerial view from the southeast. You can see there a little bit clearer of the change to the sloping. With that I'm going to pause and see if there are any questions on design we have Greg Rebedo the architect who has uh I god hope he didn't age more since you saw him in April because he's done a lot of work to realize these cost savings but he's here if you have any questions. Go ahead Jack. Thank you I didn't do all the dimensions is it accurate that the building footprint is basically the same now as it was discussed back in April? Correct. Yeah exactly as a matter of fact precisely the same. Great thank you. Go ahead Don. I just want to mention way back when we first looked at the flat floor we did have you price out what would happen if we put enough steel in it to repurpose it and it was so costly we decided not to advance it I just don't want people to forget that when we cost it out before it wasn't feasible that's why I'm quite comfortable going back to the slope thank you and I appreciate the the drawings really helped to see thank you. David do you want to add something? Yeah I just wanted to add that these two elevations these are just two elevations we will have the rest available and posted on the Wood City's website in the coming days. I had a question have any of these renderings been done as sort of night views as to how the illumination is going to look and along those lines this is our second related question is am I understanding correctly that there's going to be sort of less windows out of the building and within that will any of the illumination be affected as to what it's going to send out into the night? Well in the first case I could say that we haven't done any night renderings that's certainly something we could do you know I guess I'd have to talk to Bill Fraser and the rest of city staff to talk about you know what that might cost if it's necessary we have done photometric photometric analysis of the site plan so that we know that the lighting as proposed performs to city standards in terms of the foot candles on the surfaces but I think you're getting at a more of a night sky kind of thing right? Well I am although the photovoltaics I think answered my primary question because I just I noticed I was sitting there thinking about the old design that it had more windows in there and whether that was going to make this building pop a little bit more against the sort of background of the night and that really is my second set of questions is you know am I correct in understanding that as a result of this there's going to be less windows or openings to the from the building which would be illuminated inside to the outside? Well not truly not I think the one place where we're showing more solid wall than what you had previously seen is up adjacent to the hotel itself where the two buildings faced one another but the south side say facing the bike path with it where the east side facing the Hailey line have more or less the same disposition of windows in more or less the same set of relationships. We have a couple of things going for us in terms of the in terms of controlling that lighting we are still showing the sort of fiberglass art scrims that sort of cover up the larger openings. I think the openings with the green walls are going to offer a very filtered sunlight once the vegetation establishes I mean not sunlight but emitting light from inside the building. Generally speaking I think our biggest concern would be the pole mounted lights on the upper deck because close down and around the building where we've shown walkways that that lighting is sort of built into walls and stuff it's a little more discreet and and it's all down lighting so I'm not sure I'm completely answering your question but I I don't think the change from April to May is really going to have a dramatic impact on how much light emits from the project. We're just going to kind of go along with EISI standards for for lighting performance and and your your zoning rights to try to minimize light trespass so thanks. Okay thanks. And either clarifying questions council may have for architect or the finances. Okay all right so we'll go into the finances now yeah. Oh okay sorry go ahead. I haven't even gotten into it yet. So in 2018 when we had the bond vote in November we had done the estimates for the garage project as a whole which was a combination of the hard construction costs which was 9.2 million and other costs which was 1.3 million that was a combination of other costs was like brownfield remediation and garage equipment like the electric charging stations and snow removal equipment and also soft costs. In 2020 a year and a half later now we have seen that estimate for the hard construction go up now that looks like a modest amount by 100,000 to 9.3 million but that number still still may change as we'll talk about as you saw in my memo but the other costs projection is up by 1.4 million so up to 2.7 million for a total of a 12. million dollar project and this is an estimate that assumes the appeal is going to continue and it is that but it's making the assumption that it's not remarkably more complicated than we're estimating so you know a lot of that is subjective this is yet to be seen. On the next slide you'll see to date we have spent 850,000 over the last two years in preparing for this project and doing the work that needs to be done to get this project teed up but 250,000 of that is has been spent on the appeal and that is direct costs on appeal. On the next slide the updated estimate is showing that this cost increase is the result of four major factors one being the appeal. We are projecting around 550,000 of costs will be spent on the appeal by the time this is done if all of our projections hold true and what's not reflected is that time is really one of the main drivers of this that it's not direct expenses that can be linked directly to the appeal but as time has gone on other soft costs have accrued due to that project delay because as things progress they get delayed they get stale they have to be updated and things have to work has to be redone that's just the nature of you can imagine if you've ever done a home renovation project the longer it draws out the more costs accumulate. We've had some site complications additional brownfield investigation and archaeological investigation that came out of the activity process we've had negotiations and accommodations with the butters that have increased costs the brownfield in particular those costs are high we have an estimate we assumed the high end of the estimate but that's because of the contamination the disposal of the contaminated soils there's no good way to dispose of those soils there's no good options for local disposal or reuse on site it's just the nature of these kinds of urban soils so that's a really high number but like this cat is the is it going up or is it going down is the number going to is that that number going to change yes but by how much and in which direction we don't know and that's because we've made some conservative assumptions here the for instance the high end estimate of the brownfield remediation we've also built in several contingencies and we've assumed a flat tax increment from the capital plaza project so that's on the conservative side it also doesn't factor in the funding that we're pursuing or the additional savings that may be realized through value engineering it also doesn't account though for time and unpredictability in the process in 2022 when this project is when we may may see this project break ground based on the appeal process time it will take to get through it we don't know at the earliest it could be 2022 what will be the costs then we don't know this 12 point this 12 million dollars is a 2020 cost estimate historical data has shown us that the costs can come down some during a recession and we don't know where we're going to be in that recession but it's not a guarantee so if we are looking at projecting this out a few years we may want to assume a modest two to four percent annual inflation staying on this slide we we are looking at savings the process is ongoing we're evaluating the equipment options waste cost share looking for further tweaks to the design that don't compromise long-term longevity quality and longevity which is a fine line to walk we want to be careful with that but the question is you know can we can we afford this and what how will we it will there be a gap because our 10.5 million number was based on parking revenue and tiff revenue the 12 million dollar garage may have to factor in some additional funding may pull we could potentially if by the time we're ready to construct use tiff the tiff fund if the tiff fund has realized additional increment that's not been used elsewhere in the city that's what that's there for is to pay down tiff debt we don't know what the bond bank rates will be and maybe we even can find some other lower cost lower interest loans we have a mix of taxable and non-taxable debt through the bond banks so maybe going with other options for lower interest loans would be helpful so these numbers aren't completely final the federal stimulus money has come up as a question too could we potentially be eligible because this will be a project that will get people back to work it's an infrastructure project but any delays and getting caught in the appeal process are going to slow that down and increase our risk of being eligible for that funding so depending on where we land with that cost after the litigation and our after our continued efforts we may we need to assess that gap routinely and figure out what that gap is and how we can fund it using parking rates and at the very last option it would be increasing property taxes which is something we don't want to do and it's something we've not been planning on doing from the beginning but with these additional costs that is a risk but there's all these other funding mechanisms and other ways we want to explore we remain committed to the project we being the entire city team the appeal and the delay have and will continue to increase costs but it's the will of the voters who approve the project by a significant margin to see this drug this garage constructed and so the work on the financials is ongoing we're keenly aware of how important this infrastructure and construction project will be to the economic recovery of downtown Montpelier and downtown businesses so that's why we're here tonight to ask you to approve the design change that we proposed that we've proposed and with this point in time update get that approval to proceed so we can continue in the court process with the next steps that Dave outlined and I can answer any other questions on the finances okay do any counselors have any clarifying questions about the finances okay sorry oh yeah go ahead Jay I just want to throw in a couple points thanks Stephanie I appreciate all the additional information I think that you know going back a couple slides and looking at the original budget one is that assuming around a approximately a 10 percent overall project cost give or take a percentage point or two is totally you know standard for this type of project so I think that the original assumptions were okay if anything maybe we're a little bit low obviously we're dealing with the with the appeals and so that may push us up a little bit higher but understanding that a project of this scope requires this level of initial investment and long term and continued expense is normal it's exactly when I you know participated in the building in the new playground at the elementary school that is exactly how we built in how we built our budget moving forward so I think that your numbers are right on as far as that goes to use that as a segue I also think that one of the things that we did with the successful construction of that playground was look at possible construction and construction changes to help bring it into closer into original budget planning now I I get that building a playground was kind of a lot more modular like we could sort of take this structure out and that went out you know you alluded to Stephanie the value engineering and you've obviously already gone through that over the last month but there may be some things that we could look at as we are getting towards a point where we decide whether or not we're going to commit to the to the ultimate the financing and the the the the contracted budget that there are some things that maybe could come out of the design that maybe could then come back in as we work through the construction product process you know with the playground we just like you have done we were very conservative with the brown you know brownfield and remediation and you know other contingencies like digging up it you know an oil drum like you you don't know what you're going to find so you want to have those contingencies and you want to be conservative but as you get through the construction progress you find hey we we we haven't had to spend on these contingencies so we could bring these pieces back to the to to the project design so it seems like there might be an opportunity instead of just assuming a larger number this is taking out the legal piece but in terms of construction costs there might be some ways that we can look at entering into the construction process on budget and then realizing if we don't have to spend on the contingencies that we can then bring some features back into the project I appreciate this is like a totally like a it's a it's a chicken or an egg and it's a back and forth and it's we there's there's it's so often we have to deal with real time decisions around budget but if we have options in front of us in terms of give or take relative to to contingencies and features I think that will help us keep it closer to the original budget as we move closer to construction sorry Bill I didn't mean to cut you off no that's okay I you know to you just a couple things one if you notice the actual construction cost is about what it was a couple years ago in part due to the work that we're doing it's the other related soft costs and including running it out and that is the product of a lot of hard work by by Stephanie and Greg and our dw team Tom McCartle you know really working on this there as you say there's not as many moving costs moving pieces to this one of the things that we've been very hard on is keeping the design and the extra parts of the project consistent with what was presented to the community and presented through the design review process so some of the external treatments and those kinds of things the bike path connections those are all things that were identified as being very important and so you know when you start talking about leaving things out that's what starts getting left out is the art on the side of the wall or the the green screens or the bike path connection and those I think we've been we feel were part of the package that was presented so we're trying to keep that I wanted to point out one other thing about financing too that Stephanie mentioned and I'm certainly not trying to raise the specter here but the notion that some of this may have to come from tax costs in the future because of the increase in costs I point out that we've already spent $850,000 it's going to probably be a million very shortly if we do not go forward with the project that million is coming out of tax dollars too because there will be no other place to take it so we'd have to float the bomb we've already approved and pay for that so you know we're not it's it's not like gee if you keep going you're going to get a cost a million well if you stop you're going to cost a million so I think it's important to weigh those things together I just wanted to hadn't been mentioned earlier so I'm done any other questions about the finances and just to be clear what we maybe what we're considering tonight is just approving the design changes not necessarily even actually moving forward with the project in general you would be continuing the project through the litigation using this design obviously when when we get to whenever the finality of that process is then we would you know we won't really like anything you never know the actual cost until you put it out to bed but you know so we would be making decisions about that all along as you know obviously the hotel project Jack did you want to um yes yes thank you um the the brownfield remediation costs are those higher than we expected because there's more polluted material on the site or because you've determined there's not any other way to to take care of that or or what exactly is it that's a good question um it's when we first had the estimate in 2018 we had most of the characterization done I think at that point in time so we knew it was very dirty dirt um but we didn't quite know how what level it would rise to on DECs the the state's um measure of how it could be disposed of because they have specific regulations around that and then it was a question of where and there's lots of different there's some options we tried to get as much on the site if you can cap it on your own site and it's a parking structure so it's great problem is we're digging we're going deeper so we're actually excavating and having to get rid of material so it was a combination of how would it be characterized by the state that we didn't know and also we didn't know where it could go and how much that would cost thank you um following up on this and this might be a question more to the manager than to you but if the if the project does not go forward does the city have any uh any source of funds to uh do that brownfield remediation at the present time you mean just do the brownfield remediation without doing the project yeah um we don't really and we i'm not sure we would uh the the bulk of it is on land that is currently owned by the capital plaza that will be being transferred to the city so wouldn't be the city's property uh to do it and the remainder i fact i'm not sure how much there is on the heating lot it's not a lot um so the city doesn't really own either of the properties at that point obviously if we were to acquire the land from capital plaza as per the arrangement um then it would be our property we'd have to do it and we as part of our lease amendment with the heathens we would take care of that there and and to your point um it's also it won't be disturbed if there's no project it's conceivably not being dug up and exposed and needing to be removed from there because it would just continue to be under the parking lot as it is today but so that part that polluted soil we just stay there if not for this project which is funding that is funding to remove it correct thank you hey any other uh questions about the finances okay so i know there are some folks from the public who would like to make some public comments about this um and i had a heads up from uh sandy bitsume and rebecca davison that y'all were interested in making um some comments so we'll start uh with you and then we'll see if there's anything we would like to make a comment um sandy or rebecca would are you still interested in making a comment i don't i'm trying to oh there hi uh this is sandy um i am actually uh going to speak first if i tend for bill kuthi he had trouble with his audio and um i can't sorry um he just asked me to read this out loud for him okay um hello i would like to speak later for myself but this is for that's fine yeah hello my name is bill kuthi i live at five veerfield drive i'm firstly a concerned citizen and also a member of the appellant group for the proposed parking garage for the new hymn and hotel i'm a resident of montalier for 25 years raised my family here and i'm a member of christ's church i've not been active in city politics until i became a member of the group on election day in 2018 when i signed a petition to challenge the 10.5 million bond to finance the construction i was persuaded with logic the taxpayers should not take on debt and since then i've learned a great deal more about the genesis of the financing and the design that's raised even more concerns for me the most tangible design concern has to do with public safety that is both the first and the new design makes no improvements to the primary access between the garage and the capital pausa and christ's church the city agrees that this is a street but it does not meet safety criteria for a street there should be sidewalks on both sides of the street and parallel or angled parking the proposed design is a life safety hazard and it's specifically prohibited in our zoning ordinance i'm a member of this group without a legal mind but i'm very proud to participate in the meetings and i've been impressed with us the work of our lawyer i do believe that we have the best interest amongst their mind i'm not anti-garage nor am i anti-merchant nor am i against the sheriffs i just want i want the hotel and the family to prosper there are plenty of concerns about the project and are only highlighted in these COVID-19 times how many businesses will reopen after this whichever whatever after me sort of pandemic will a new hotel be necessary will the hampton incorporation be inclined to make the investment what are the updated constriction costs does the remark general fund have the sources for the tip funds should the city voters be given a chance to vote again on the new design can a garage or a hotel be built with proper social distancing how do hotels and restaurants operate moving forward i believe these are viable questions that all monthly residents may have regardless of how they feel about this project or how they voted in november of 18th the climate has changed a great deal since then i understand it would be very difficult for the city manager to help the project at this point is how much investment has gone into the project i have a very good idea at the inception of the project with some uh oh it was a very good idea at the inception of the project with some flaws times have changed and it may be best to take a more conservative approach and pause the project i believe it handle it properly the city council the mayor and the city manager should gain the confidence of the public with caution there's still time to do the right thing thank you that's still thank you sandy um since you have the floor do you want to um make your comment actually no i'm going to turn uh comment over to dan coston that that i'd like to come back later thank you okay um well since rebecca uh davison had gotten in touch um ahead of time do you would you like to go next rebecca um you're on you no let dan go first okay that's fine dan did you want to make a comment dan coston i've seen from you right okay go for it dan uh yeah so uh your name and and also just try to keep it two two minutes or name where the 50 seconds i time myself okay all right so uh so yeah my name is dan coston and i served on the uh i might tell your um transportation advisory committee and also the energy advisory committee uh i'm sorry the transportation infrastructure committee and um during that time uh i worked uh to try to implement the uh city's transportation plan which is called montalior in motion and so uh that plan outlines uh the bike pad network plan for the city of montalior and uh i also during that time worked on some of the improvements uh to the bike paths along or the uh the bike lanes on elm street and north of street that were put in and and that process that we followed at that time was uh you know when there were some new project coming up where a road need to be repaired uh the infrastructure improvements from that plan uh the transportation plan was uh you know put into effect and we added that infrastructure but for this project it seems like the first go around uh that wasn't really followed in that uh it was sort of done without the montalior in motion plan in mind uh and so uh we were left without that link there was a link in the montalior in motion plan through the heaney lot as part of the plan bike network uh and you know it looks like that's improved with this version uh but it's still a little bit less than what it could be and the two major issues that i have with uh the bike path that goes through there is uh first it's not wide enough i don't think it's uh it's eight feet wide and right up against the garage and uh v-trans has guidelines uh that we followed for you know the rec path that goes along with muski for a 10 foot wide path with uh two foot wide shoulders uh and and that doesn't seem to be you know followed for this one and the second is that it is quite short it only goes halfway past the garage and then stops and uh i really don't see any reason why uh it couldn't be extended all the way to state street it would be a lot easier for uh bicyclists uh to find it off of state street and actually get to the rec path along the muski if that were the case and um and so uh yeah i would just like to say that uh we should have higher standards for bicycle infrastructure and pedestrian infrastructure in the city and uh i'd like to see that change thank you um who would like to go next andrea would if i could uh andrea yeah go ahead thank you uh thanks thanks for the opportunity i appreciate it i'm andrea standard i live at 25 liby street in montpelier i've been in montpelier for about 23 years um i want to say that i appreciate uh the revisions to the revisions of the design that were described tonight although and in this case i'm specifically referring to the return to standard parking lot or parking garage design of slope floors and so on because i did a little looking into that because when i thought about the possibility that this building could be put to a different use in the future that seems like a good idea but when i looked into it i i realized that and i'm not an expert on this at all and i did just a little bit of research but the previous design would never have worked or would have been horribly expensive to turn into housing so um but as i said that was one ray of hope for me that this building could have another life in the future um i won't get into that any further at the moment um but i have spent a good bit of time down there looking at that space after having looked at the renderings and and so on that were provided and i have had a very hard time trying to envision what this will look like um in reality and so the request that i would make is that as part of this process as you go forward and i'm still a little confused about when and for how long the public gets to comment on this redesign but we really need to see renderings that show us what it looks like now and what it will look like when the project is in place because there's a whole lot of impacts that i can envision just from standing there staring and looking from different angles um and kind of estimating sizes and stuff that that will significantly change the way the downtown looks um i'm pretty sure if you're standing on main street near Shaw's you probably will maybe be able to see the top of the golden dome maybe i'm not sure it's hard to tell um and i do worry about the impact on the church um not just the possibility of them ever building housing as they had talked about but also just the visual impact on the church i mean that beautiful stained glass window that's in the church will hardly ever see the sun as far as i can tell looking at the dimensions and everything so i would really ask and and i hope the counselors would want to see these themselves is and i know it costs money and all of that but this is a huge investment and it will change the character of the city of forever um to see some renderings of what does it look like now and what will it look like when that project is built thank you thank you oh who'd like to go now or i'll go ahead dot i'm you're muted though uh oh there you go yeah i'm one of those old people anyway hi hi everybody um for the record my name is dot helling 29 east state street and i wanted to talk a bit about parking spaces uh because in my opinion the city cannot really argue in favor of this project on the grounds that increased parking will be available to serve the downtown and i've looked at the space count and follow my numbers because in fact i see the combined project as it's currently presented losing losing a total of 43 public metered spaces um in 2018 before the bike path construction and the closures related to this project there were 120 available public spaces um since the plaza lot closed and the bike path opened there appeared to now be just 52 spaces and they're all in the heating lot and there will only be 77 spaces post construction the initial design provided for 88 the project just simply does not guarantee increased public parking um the total gain including the car lot spaces is only 52 and not the 160 that's been claimed um the so-called flex 200 flex spaces to be used by the hotel are not readily available to the general public we can't count on these spaces being available during our busiest days when the hotel gets them first come first serve for their tenants their sub-lessies their staff their hotel guests and conference attendants um i think the city's numbers should not mix apples and oranges to say we have available public spaces which include what were christ church and worthfield savings bank spaces is inaccurate those were not public and the church will lose four spaces under the new plan um the latest change the plan has had an increased negative effect on the number of parking spaces available to the public it does not add spaces to the inventory at a minimum it takes away 43 public spaces at a minimum this entire project reduces it just does not increase the number of readily available public meter parking spaces um you know i love our merchants i love our downtown but losing 43 fully public parking spaces hurts them and hurts them all we've seen the effect of losing as few as three and we're talking about losing at least 43 so that argument just doesn't fly in my book unless the city can explain otherwise thanks okay thank you dot um who uh by the way i'm sort of keeping a list of um you know comments and questions people have but other other folks who um else would like to say something uh yeah jill go ahead hi i'm jill mure i live at 234 main street i've lived in mont colier for 31 years and i was glad to hear that finances were discussed tonight but i'm i've been worried about them from the beginning and i still am to a high degree uh city center garage downtown spends 909 per space annually and that's an amount that the owner says is not enough um there was also a 2006 study done by experts that estimated $720 per space and that's $921 in current dollars accounting for inflation um so i'm trying to figure out how mont colier can realistically say that they will spend $270 per space it seems way off it's less than st albin cities um it's also vital that this garage be built with high strength concrete that has anti-corrosion additives and epoxy coated reinforcing so i'm wondering if that's part of the design and if that cost has been counted for and i really am trying to understand as a resident uh the $93,000 annual budget it just doesn't seem like enough um based on st albin's budget um then even with the high strength concrete which i hope we would use and the anti-corrosion materials garages still need a new membrane uh in year 20 and that cost adjusted for inflation will be about $144,000 so we really need to put a lot of thought into this and do it carefully i happen to work under city center garage it's not the most pleasant thing we have frequent loud repairs and colleagues have occasionally had to move spaces because the garage was leaking on their computer space um that happened as recently as a few months ago um if you park there your car gets rusty water stains that won't come off um through regular means you have to bring it somewhere and um i don't think the garage actually has ever been inspected and frankly i'm actually nervous that it's going to fall down and kill us off so um i would like to request that the city maybe think about inspecting it um so my point is that it's really crucial to be realistic about proper construction and uh be really transparent and meticulous about all the costs and about setting aside enough money annually and i know that's really hard for the city there are a lot of pressures with infrastructure uh breaking with high health costs uh climate change is going to be wreaking even more havoc in the coming years so um i guess i just asked that we do this right if it happens and that we not kick the can down the road for future generations to bear the cost of our mistakes thank you thanks who else would like to go uh go for it sandy yeah uh you are still muted there we go there i get to see everyone else that we can't see ourselves so um thank you i think um these previous comments all tie together about the whole picture of this garage the initial investment the ongoing maintenance of it um how does the cash flow work and then uh the issue of major maintenance later on um i want to point out that the initial uh bond vote for 10.5 million should have contained at least a 10 contingency i would have been shocked if it didn't because it was not based on any kind of bid so it actually probably should have had a 15 contingency so this increase of 1.5 million or 10 percent particularly the fact that it's in soft cost other than the cost of inflation is is is a problem and it doesn't work with the pro forma that has been laid out um all of the those were all in 2018 dollars and that whole thing needs to shift but i hope this is an opportunity for the city team to use uh what jill said is meticulous process to make sure that it's comprehensive pro forma um that one in a half million extra principle is going to equal more than two million dollars of extra debt um i want to point out that the green walls that are now back in the project have a particularly high maintenance cost um i don't think that the cities can included a number of things um looking at st alvin's uh schedule of cost um they spend 213 thousand dollars a year and um we would have their garage is only two stars the size of a monthly or one uh this new change of reducing the quality of construction down to steel plus concrete has definite effects on your long-term maintenance costs and the critical annual maintenance of washing down the structure repairing small um damage before it gets larger and and damage gets down to the reinforcing um it is probably not a wide long-term investment someone needs to do a life cycle analysis of the more expensive kind of construction versus the steel and concrete construction um and also be seriously considering major maintenance around year 20 um the superior methods require about 150 to 200 thousand dollars a year after year 20 which is a lot of money in 10 years that's like almost more than a million dollars itself uh but this you could be looking at one to two million dollars alone in year 20 and more replacing it if you keep in mind um i worked on a state garage in burlington and it was going to have 14 million dollars worth of repairs either that or keep the building closed or demolish it it becomes a non-negotiable situation when concrete is falling on cars and possibly people um this also could so i as i want to point out may have a shorter lifespan where you're having to look at demolition before 40 years that should be in a life cycle cost analysis all the way back trade with the grade grade does not mean uh deteriorated structure standing on the edge of our city it means removing it that should be part of your life cycle cost analysis um sandy do you have a bunch more you're out of um almost four minutes okay i appreciate it i had a lot and i condensed it a lot i know almost done the other thing i talked to Dan Richardson about this and he knows some of my particular concerns but the pro forma should be contained also including rent for surface spaces at the capital plaza and in the guinea lot as well as the revenues for those spaces i want to close with a very important point which i don't think people understood and it took me a while to get this talking to a couple of our other residents in town who know a lot about finances that our total grand list is now 877 million dollars our total tax burden right now is 23.6 million dollars what that means is once the handsome in it 6.5 comes into the grand list we are only going to have a savings so if you look at my house which is assessed at 340,000 it's going to mean that the Hampton Inn brings me a savings in my taxes of $68 a year 68 dollars a year and that is assuming that the building doesn't decrease in value in the first 20 years which is almost impossible so every million that the garage goes over budget out of the pro forma of a net zero every million i personally will be paying 387 dollars out of my pocket so when you go over 1.4 1.5 million and it turns into an extra almost two and a half million dollars that means 500 out of my pocket there is no savings to me as a taxpayer that the Hampton Inn is added to the revenue for the city it's really important to think about that and and to understand what you are doing this is about the biggest potential risk that we've been put in we have bonded for very important things like the sewage treatment plant and i i just don't think this is in the same critical infrastructure category and so it's you're at about you're at about six minutes right now thank you i really appreciate you for not muting me i just want to say it's important to be in this particular please thank you thank you um right i um i i'll speak now go ahead go ahead rebecca thank you so um uh sort of building on what sandi and others have said um i i think that we all understand that we're living in extraordinary times that this is not this is not 2018 anymore folks this is really really different um and it's my understanding that the hotel is a critical financial viability for the parking lot correct the hotel has to be built with the parking lot parking garage um but my question is what is the status of the hotel project both the new hotel and the boutique upgrade the hilton corporation um stock is down 40 percent in response to the co-covid-19 crisis the company issued a press release on March 26th it said quote with travel at a virtual standstill operations have been suspended across many managed and franchised hotels the the president and ceo is for going to salary for the rest of 2020 the top executives have taken a 50 pay uh 50 pay cut and the company is eliminating non-essential expenses including capital expenditures so my question is is this really is this hotel really going to be built are we really going to have enough visitors to warrant a parking garage um the other thing about in terms of parking um what is and what will be the need for parking downtown is really really in question unofficial estimates um from the state are saying that 90 percent of the state workers are going to be working from home for the foreseeable future according to one staffer at v v ten v trans they're expecting to work from home two to three days a week after the pan after the pandemic um and in fact in the in in uh governor scott's news um uh press conference today his spokesperson said that people are going to be working for home for at home for a long time so i don't know where the revenue is going to come for this to pay and it's going to be uh it's going to be the taxpayers that are going to be paying it um so what is the city's plan for anticipated losses in property tax revenue you know nearly one third of americans didn't pay april rent or mortgage what are what are the current what's going on with the current landlords today any unemployment rate when the unemployment rate skyrockets which it is now how long will the landlords and banks carry these loans what is the city plan for the significant budget shortfalls through lost revenue that the sales tax restaurant closings and tourism losses is the capital plaza going to be able to make its tax payment and rebecca you're about three minutes okay i have one sentence with the city and the state facing masses expenditures and the monumental critical public health care needs we're facing during the coven 19 crisis can we honestly think that expending money on a parking garage is the right thing to do thank you um all right anybody else a lot to speak and that's coming in um you heard that i live in seven hillside avenue i did a little math and i think i lived in the city for these 45 years we're tied i live here 50 okay thanks for this opportunity address the council we've heard a lot of specific comments this evening about design specifications and costs of the proposed monthly garage and it's increasingly hard for me to see how this garage can be built and paid for but let's not quit on talking together and thinking critically but before i want to discuss the proposed garage i want to acknowledge some very positive things that are happening in my food um net if you would hate net if you would try to keep your comments specific to the topic at hand that would be helpful it is in writing this and it is it is relevant keep it keep it to this topic thanks um please don't interrupt him all right i am on topic here okay thank you go ahead net if we're speaking about this dark preservation ten or so years ago with the founding of the roman college upon the new college saved college all and the college campus a terrific achievement i'm talking about positives this heavy growth over the monterey farmers market as a source of locally grown fresh food and a community meeting place is another positive then this past year the renovation of the main street french block opposite city hall really transformed what looked like an abandoned downtown block and turned it into a place for people to live and live downtown then this year we celebrated construction of a new transit center that center gives a holding first impression for visitors entering tappel city overlooks a new bike path and affirms the logic and necessity of transportation alternatives not just cars but people walking bike riding taking a bus or a train i worry about the proposed new garage for these reasons first it's in the wrong location because it blocks a view from one direction of the remote state house and blocks and access to the north branch river from the other direction second the new garage if built will cause a downtown traffic quagmire imagine the car entering the city across the taylor street bridge and quickly encountering the failed intersection at taylor and state and after a right hand turn on the state street there's another failed intersection at state anelmo you're still driving but you're not yet at the garage and you're still not parked in the structure third we've got to see our rivers as a valuable natural resource let's not hide the north branch behind an oversized garage for years we have imagined creating a walking path from the confluence of the north branch in wanuski rivers north to state street then to langen street then to school street all the way to lane shafts and finally to the montelior rec field montelior deserves our care and affection let the center of town be a place to walk shop dine meet friends let montelior breathe instead of filling our streets with traffic pollution and congestion thank you thank you net and i would remind folks to try to be respectful of how we run our meetings and that means that i do get to interrupt people when it's appropriate uh so um any other have something that would like to add okay i'm not seeing anyone else um build with did there were a number of issues raised do you want to address any of the concerns that were brought up sorry um i think we can address a lot of them if possible many of them not all of them but many of them related to the litigation pending litigation i i guess i wonder if we can't spend a couple minutes with our attorney and executive session and figure out which ones we can answer now and which ones we can't um or shouldn't and uh because some are general statements that i think are easily answered and some are very specific you know our issues in discovery and our so that would be my suggestion before i just start answering okay i think that makes sense um so your recommendation would be that we go into executive session yeah i don't think it's been super long but we've got dave's here um i would need to be sent the link please oh right yes stefanie too i think we want to include stefanie yes karen can you send david and stefanie the link thank you um donna looked like uh donna and then jack what mine is more procedural uh mayor and that is i'm just looking at a break do we get a break before executive session or right after so people understand when we're coming right back that's a great point maybe um we can uh vote to go into executive session and then um talk about what we need to talk about there and then take a break before we come back does that sound okay thank you great thank you thank you um jack yes pursuant to one vs a section 313 a1 e i move that we go into executive session to discuss a matter in litigation second okay so there's been a motion in a second um all in favor please say aye hi hi hi um can i just make one oh yeah go ahead dan i'm not opposed but i i just like to make one clarification that we're going into executive session to discuss the legal matter receive legal advice the um premature discussion in public of which would cause prejudice to one or more parties because i think that's a required finding under the statute do we need i think we this is maybe one of the things we have to have two votes yes we need to make have a motion to make that finding first okay let's let's do that let me um i'll make the motion um that the premature uh that that we need to seek legal counsel at this at this point in time and that the premature public discussion of said legal advice in the public forum would cause prejudice to one or more parties second for the discussion uh all in favor please say aye hi hi okay uh and uh so now as uh bill did you have a point if you when you move to go to executive session when you please move to include davidou stefany clark and greta rabidou as well as me but i think you've already included me anyway so now i'll move to go into executive session on the ground stated before and to include davidou uh greta rabidou and stefany park and camera manager i mean greta's gonna need the link too and i'm told you great you're the best okay any further discussion uh all in favor please say aye hi hi did somebody seconded this time around i can second it i okay oh gosh okay one more time all in favor please say aye hi great uh oppose second okay um we will be right back from our um executive session for the discussion uh all in favor please say aye hi opposed okay so we are back and um so i i just want to um thank all of you who made comments about uh about the garage and i just want to know we're going to take those um comments under advisement um that's all i'll get to say for now is there a motion i'll i'll move that the city council accept the uh revised garage design as proposed i'll second we have multiple seconds uh okay any further discussion uh all in favor please oh uh jack go ahead i just want to comment that uh as we've gone through this whole uh process and it's over it's about a year and a half since the voters uh voted to approve this well people continue to come to council and uh indicate for improvements in in the design and improvements in uh how how the design uh parking structure would fit in with uh the city and i think that that advocacy has been effective because over that time we have made significant changes to the design that has those changes have made the design better than it was when we started out and so i appreciate the the public participation but i also want to emphasize how responsive in my view the city has been to uh the concerns of the uh community okay thank you any further comments okay there's been a motion and a second uh all in favor please say aye hi hi hi opposed okay um thank you all and um we actually did not take our break while we were in an executive session um yeah so it was that that was you waving goodbye david okay good um so by stefan thank you and greg um so uh we are gonna take a break right now um let's reconvene at 8 50 six whole minutes okay okay we do have a quorum we could move forward um we'll give uh oh donna's here donna's back awesome dan and we and we have dan great well we're all here so uh we're gonna come back from break thanks for being so prompt everybody sounds great uh all right so we had moved some items around um and the the next one was uh the the down home parklet uh reuse um we had moved that forward and i'm glad that we did um so i think it's still timely here um and i know so tom glogg is here um fred beshera uh so uh either bill or tom uh who would like to explain the situation um i can't add if you want to want me to go forward i want to um well j morgan's has been offered the opportunity from the down home owners uh to purchase their parklet and to potentially move it in front of the capo plaza for this summer um with the opening or potential reopening from the governor of a restaurant space it's going to be significantly limited to start so we we're interested in it and so we figured we'd uh we'd hear it out and see if it was a possibility from the city um to move would basically just take the same one that was on langen street and move it in front of j morgan's um where it is right now at least for this summer um it would occupy i thought it was only two spots but it looks on the agenda it says three um it would occupy the spots right next to the outdoor seating that they already have out there right now and it would allow for more access to outside seating for this summer for j morgan's so we got this request from capo plaza from j morgan's for this and you know we spent all our time on the parklet ordinance this is one contingency we never really thought about um you know we approved the the parklet for three years for down home in that specific location and i i think you know the if i think the question is if somebody had come into that down home location and wanted to take it over for the remaining year or whatever that's only there wouldn't have been any question like yeah a different owner but same location same but here we you know someone wants to move it i don't think you're philosophically i don't think we from the city have any issue with that we haven't done the kind of vetting and review that we normally do there's usually a little traffic safety thing that goes to just make sure where the location is going to be and all that stuff as you know you get that from the police and fire which we'd be happy to do for this location but my first reaction was i you know is this what the council intends uh to do it's not really spoken about is this can people sort of or would this be a new application how do you want to handle this so i like you said we don't i don't have any particular philosophical concerns about it um other than we would want to do the safety vetting um but it's really your interpretation of how you want to handle the ordinance and if we want to change that in the future and related to that we i don't i don't i hope we can take these separately so we don't hold up the capital plaza folks we also got a request for a food um a food truck not just one of our little vendors and again covid related i mean they make smoothies and things they're not really a meal but they wanted to use a parking space for the summer now we do have one more parking space in the park blue ordinance but it wouldn't be a park lid it would be a food truck um but this is a person who normally makes their living going to festivals all around Vermont all summer and they're all canceled so they're like like we park somewhere trying to do it this way so again i'd separate those but it's uh you know i think we've got some unusual things i'll shut up i'll let you guys have at it sorry one one clarifying point about that um bill if i'm not mistaken the uh food truck issue is um might actually be that some there might be some kind of problem with food trucks and another part of our ordinances is that is that also your understanding well there's we have a vendor ordinance so it was really intended for the vending carts and that vending ordinance specifically says you can't use a parking space right where's the food so i just wanted to make sure that part was was out there um even though i think i agree we should take these um separately uh jack you had some um potential language yeah i did and uh thank you i i spent a little time researching our park hood ordinance since this came on our understand and um okay to keep going yes go ahead yes and uh at that time i not realize that there was an agreement or a potential agreement to transfer the park hood and there actually is a one line in the uh in the ordinance about transferring park hoods which says the interest applicants interest in the agreement under said section seven is not assignable without the prior consent of the city so that seems to be a negative pregnant and it seems to be saying that in fact it can be assigned with the approval of the city now the the right uh that down home restaurant has in this park hood is for one one year left of a three-year agreement and three spaces and the ordinance has been amended to say two spaces so that uh when when the this park hood the permit expires the next year it would only be eligible for two spaces not three but i think it would be great i think that all the all the good things about uh park that's why we like them are are carried out in allowing this to be transferred and moved to a different location um i i agree i think so at one point i had thought that maybe we should um take the time to let other potentially the interested parties also weigh in but um i i think it probably makes the most sense now to just uh if we if we can if it's the will of the council to as you're suggesting jack just make the reassignment of this parklet for one year pending you know the safety approval and then revisit the ordinance language uh to potentially address you know the the suggestions that you have or if we think that it's fine with this one line it seems like it could probably be clearer um and also add into that any refinements regarding food trucks um and as well as um i actually have some other thoughts about um uh whether whether retail stores wanted to um access parklets for additional like open-air sales um i mean i would like to make that available to retail folks if that's of interest so those are all separate things from the question at hand um which i feel comfortable i'll speak for myself i feel comfortable um just you know doing that today um dana well it's i'm not sure why tom you chose to take over down home because the parklet has two functions one is the space which down home had next to their place and then it's what they constructed in it that they're actually wanting to use over on state street so i see it as a new application that just happens to be using the furnishings of a park that we're familiar with and that would give them three years if we were to approve it so i would think you'd be better off just saying this is a new application great and that you're reusing a parklet so we're familiar with what it looks like and move on it tom do you have a preference there do you i mean the three years would be better obviously because we could you know um you know we were approached so we didn't you know this was an option that they approached us we haven't purchased it yet pending city approval so if it doesn't happen we probably won't do it um we would obviously appreciate three years versus one year because it would give us a chance to i don't know you know obviously this year is the most important because we have limited ability to keep people inside and and i know the governor's proposal is probably opening up with 25 capacity to start which is going to be very difficult for anyone to to start with so i would suggest donna's suggestion of three years would be what we would we would have significantly appreciate uh jack we've got a difficulty with that because the application period is from November 1st February 1st i know but in these times give me a break i know November 1st of February but we weren't doing them then were we well we uh downhill was was closed during two thirds of that period so well but if if somebody were applying for down homes actual location then that would really affect it but right now i see it as just park at space that they're requesting that they're going to reuse the material from another space the only issue and again i'd be happy if they got three years it'd be fine the issue that jack references i think we changed the ordinance to say that they could they can only be two spaces so if this was a new application for three spaces for three years we may not be able to approve it whereas we can transfer an existing one year and then figure out when we're doing drafting maybe we'll go back to allowing three spaces or grandfathering three spaces or you know however we want to deal with that but uh that would be um can we not make it an exception because they are reusing something that we feel that is a good parking it makes sense to me that we would um at least grandfather in that sort of um you know the three space structure but that's all part of the conversation for the revision of the ordinance um the other issue and again i'm just saying this everyone i'm honest is if if we were going to do this as a new application then it should be on an agenda to give a butters and everybody the chance to weigh in on it if it's an extension of one year being moved or we can say well we're going to do that and if you they want to re-up it then they've got to go through the full application process and people could come in and all that because you can be sure that we'll hear about three parking spaces on state street although maybe not this summer but we will well so go ahead Donna so if indeed you're saying we do the one year and then next year you could come back and do the new application and we will have amended this to be more flexible is that correct bill okay that's what i heard others i heard her honor saying hopefully really the will of the council are you ready for a motion uh about this uh about this specific parklet yes i'm gonna and let's other i'm sorry before we do that any other thoughts anybody else want to weigh on this you know okay okay go ahead Donna uh i'll make a motion that we approve the parklet uh from down home on Langley street to be moved to state street in front of capital bazaar to be used for jay Morgan for the final remaining term of a year and lauren that was a second from you okay great um uh uh dan and then jack sure can i offer a friendly amendment that that uh that motion be subject to a safety review as proposed by the city manager okay and lauren too okay great uh thank you uh jack that was what i was gonna say too okay perfect for the discussion okay all in favor please say aye aye opposed okay thank you and thanks tom thanks for uh bringing this to us and um good luck with it oh thanks a lot take care of one okay see you right seniors thank you too oh yes thank you i stayed awake all this time stuck through the previous topic thank you right um all right so uh as long as we're talking about this um i don't know that we need a motion exact well we need a motion we probably don't um how bill how do you well bill do you feel like you have clarity about like if we were going to revise this ordinance right now do you know um sort of how do you feel like you know do you feel like you have good enough direction about how to revise it yet not really but i also don't think we need to do it right now because there's six spaces this is three positive parties too so we maybe you know if anything we take a look at the food truck aspect and as long as we get it done by november or the next season you know well i'm i mean if there's this lady who's hoping to have a food truck this summer seems like it would so i guess the question is maybe begin you know with the end in mind right what do people are people generally favorable to that or not if they are then we can figure out how to propose an amendment or whatever what needs to happen to make that happen if if people feel like we don't want food trucks taking up parking spaces then we you know i think it's what's the policy we're trying to get at and then we can drop um lauren then connor um i would just um offer i mean i think it came up a little bit before but just having more options for outdoor opportunities and seating i mean this entire summer is going to be so challenging for our restaurants for our businesses so and you know for people who want to come enjoy our downtown so having options and opportunities including parklets including i mean certainly we could get some input from the existing restaurants that are already going to be struggling like that i think that dynamic is worth thinking through um for the food truck specifically um but i think outdoor spaces in general um you know you know more picnic benches maybe like more opportunities like how are we getting places where people can sit and get get food to take it outside or other things to enjoy so that we can encourage folks to be eating in our great restaurants um so i think like that that approach and and what policies can help support that for for this year and whether or not that's a long term for everything or at least just to get us through this really challenging time uh connor i i mean i was gonna say essentially the same thing i think the ordinance as written is pretty sound um but pretty exceptional times here and we just when you say like uh maybe retail once they get out on the streets um that seems like a wise way to like carry forward so i'd love to pass up on that at least gives us some flexibility to maybe have more parklets um you know maybe relieve some of the restrictions just in the meantime there i think it's worth having to think anyways what i i agree uh sorry go uh uh go ahead bill and then donna okay go ahead donna well i was just going to support lauren made a suggestion about just even having picnic tables in some parking spaces for the summer that again encouraging people to have a space to sit whether it's right in front of an eatery or retail it just gives them a gathering space um this summer and if we had picnic tables in our network of city equipment that we could possibly bring down to the city streets and and look at that as well as some suggestions we've had for the summer of turning a lot more parking spaces into other things and whether that's some one way street or closing land in but giving ways that we can be together and still have our distance that we need i'll just say um mayor and i talked about this a little bit this week about you know some of these requests we're getting and it might make sense to to think about these comprehensively maybe make a sort of emergency ordinance effective only for 2020 for now and then see you know see how some of these things work and if we like the ideas we can continue them but really you know just say hey we're going to bend the rules because we think we will have less parking less traffic this year than other years um i will say there's bending the rules and then their safety and i know that the the transportation people have great concern of people sitting in parking spaces next to a travel way without proper protection and the the parklets that we have have been specifically constructed you know they're built to they've got the sort of crash bar in them and they've got you know obviously they're at high speed they're not going to protect somebody but at sort of low speeds along our street if a car bumps into them their protection for people that are sitting there a picnic table doesn't do that or even a retail space so i think we should be thinking about ways we can we can do this but just you know there's there's doing i think we should be as exceptional as we can be for our merchants at the same time not putting somebody in harm's way agreed uh jack go ahead i i think it's a bigger discussion i think that we're i don't think we're close to being in a position to give to help bill hearing your marching orders here's what you should write up um that i'm happy to to have that bigger discussion probably not tonight since some of these other proposals i never even heard about before tonight and we should hear from themselves what they want um maybe this is uh something that we can put on the agenda for next time if it's not already too full it's fine okay um and so i i guess when i say put this on the agenda what i mean there is um exploration of some kind of emergency 2020 um ordinance changes um and maybe we could purposefully invite Montpelier live or MD MDC to participate in what they're hearing those needs or wants from the community from the downtown businesses um go from there um jay did you have something oh just that you read my mind and i think that would it would make absolute sense to have Montpelier alive because they're so in touch with with uh so many with city businesses uh you know be the aggregate and put together some proposals that we could consider whether it's we can decide how far along we want those proposals to be it could be that they were just ideas or very specific proposals but either way i think that they would be the perfect conduits to gather all those ideas from from merchants yeah especially if we were able to ahead of time say here's some things that we're thinking about like giving people something to respond to is um sometimes a good way to get people to you know generate ideas um even themselves so uh okay any of the anything else on this topic okay so i just want to um uh checking about the five home farm way um topic i am if it's a a a a a a a a like has been on the line here this whole time and i know this is probably what you wanted to talk about like unless there's um urgency for this tonight i would um i don't know how do how do we feel about putting that one off do it because this one feels like it's not going to be a short conversation yeah sorry not only that but i couldn't get the document open i don't know if anyone else had trouble with it but maybe they could be recent i don't know why i've tried several different devices and i can't get it open the document from jamie dug in well the one that's attached to the agenda is there a separate one that i should be looking for okay but i think i should put it off and do it justice thank you jack do you have um anything further yeah i was just gonna say it doesn't require us to act tonight so i think we can take some time okay and my um lauren yeah i'm just wondering i know um alex had sent some good kind of food for thought for all of us i don't know since he's on the line if there's anything that would be like thoughts to to just um flesh out a little bit what what he shared with us so that we could kind of think about that before the next meeting he had no need out but if you stayed on all the time but there was any framing you wanted us to kind of consider for next time oh here's alex yeah yeah so knowing that we're not going to have a full discussion tonight but you know you can frame it up for us i wouldn't say i have anything monumental to add um other than what i said uh so it's a nice suggestion i wish i had more to offer but i think it's going to be more of a discussion um for you all um you know that the balls in your court as far as i could see it um and i think dhcb is looking for guidance from from city council um you know in addition to the parks and and everybody else so uh boy good luck um it's a very complicated scenario and i think there's a lot of unanswered questions and um i think you're wise to put it off and maybe it'll give folks to a chance to really um do a deep dive on what's involved here if you haven't already yeah okay well thank you um and we'll take let's you know plan us taking this up next time um okay all right so moving on to um we were not doing chapter three so the coronavirus uh and related issues update um and i know uh also dan jones has been hanging out on the line here um thank you dan for doing that i assume we're going to start with uh camera in and then we'll shift to dan all right um so i did send out um a memo uh earlier today i just wanted to walk through that um so that uh the greater um community from here is sort of our updates um i just sort of want to put out a disclaimer as um the weather is getting warmer and we're all wanting to go outside more i really do want us to urge folks to remember that the coronavirus is still a very present health threat um the state is slowly starting its phase reopening but that isn't the time to let up on any of our mitigation strategies folks really do need to continue to practice physical distancing from each other wear masks when you're outside around other people and to choose activities that keep you away from others um we're doing really well in vermont because we're doing really well at those mitigation strategies so i do want to put that message out there um there's quite a few state updates since last time we spoke um governor scott on april 24th added addendum 11 to his executive order that started um sort of directing folks to start opening again um it also required um all of our employers who have been open or are starting to reopen to the give their employees a voccia training which the city of montpellier staff has completed um on may 4th governor scott amended addendum three of his executive order allowing health care providers to provide to begin to provide non-essential outpatient clinic visits so um the that amendment details the specific measures that are required for those folks to open if you would like details there on may 1st he issued addendum 12 um requiring that traveling and commuting public should wear face coverings over their nose and mouth when they're using public transportation that includes buses and a ride service on may 6th he issued addendum 13 where he stated that the stay home stay safe order remains in effect but um he does allow now gatherings of 10 or fewer and that was sort of related to outdoor activities um making sure that vermonters have the option to go outside um and um um have activities that are um low or no direct contact with 10 and fewer i'm sorry my light just went out okay um he also stated that you could have inter-household socializing where members of one household may gather and allow children to play with members of another trusted household provided safety and health precautions were allowed to follow addendum 13 also um authorized government entities to offer outdoor recreation activities on may 8th the governor held a press conference that highlighted that child care programs can open by June 1st at their discretion and that summer camps will um are be are going to be expected to be able to open under their own discretion but they have not issued the guidelines at this time that i have seen they might have come out while we're sitting here i do not know but he said that he would have guidelines for opening camps by the end of the week we're going to need to see if we have the fiscal ability and the health and safety requirements that we're going to need to open our summer programming so no determination on our summer programming has been met at this time the governor also stated that the school system should expect to remain virtual to be end of the school year that graduations will not be allowed and they are making plans to have school resume in person in the fall i recommend that people look for further specifics for that from the motley rocksbury public school system and then today the governor held a press conference that highlighted his potential extension of our state of emergency that announcement will be made on friday may 15th he also emphasized the importance of wearing masks in public and maintaining six feet of physical distancing between folks he did say that he is not interested in coming up with a mandate to wear masks and would prefer people volunteer with comply so in general our city updates is that we did comply with addendum 11 all working city staff has taken the mandatory boshu training on health and safety requirements in a response to the governors within them 12 the city is beginning to build out its phased approach to reopening so the city is working on our phase one reopening plan which will be shared for your approval at the may 27th regular council meeting so we're currently working on that and what that looks like and what our timeline is and we hope to have that to you by or before next next council meeting our dpw teams want to remind residents that you might not see as many crews working on street projects out and about that you normally would as most of our crew went on voluntary furlough to help the city through the cobit 19 financial crisis that it's triggered and so they're working as hard as they can with the reduced capacity so they just ask for your understanding and patience also i don't know if i announced this but the vermont mountaineers have let us know that they've canceled their 2020 season out of an abundance of caution so if you did sign up for summer ball you can get a refund by contacting brian gallagher at 802-272-8728 so again as you know we're having we're maintaining a list of situational updates on our website um there is been a change in some of our regional aid groups when i've brought call line is now being staffed and managed by capstone community action as when i've brought this slowly um uh stepping back from being fully operational so that call line is still open though um the capital area neighborhoods does have an email and a phone number that you can find on our website and the montpelier mutual aid group is tracking open meal sites and their locations and that is being shared on a few billboards around town as well that they've been putting up i think i saw one in front of um uh don't remember what church that i'm talking about anymore so i'm just going to move on um so as some updates to our programming is that the montpelier senior activity center piece to go program has implemented a no mask no food policy so they're handing out masks to folks and making sure that people have masks but they're not going to interact with folks without a mask um as far as our recreation and park facilities updates um the city tennis courts are now open all of them and our basketball courts will be set up for use after memorial day throughout this all city parks have remained open however park shelters the pool pavilion the courts and the skate park are used at your own risk and are subject to the governor's safety measures so we ask that groups remain 10 or less folks keep six feet of distance and please wear masks if you are able yes you know what i'm gonna say yeah i know so the tennis courts are open because the police chief and the assistant city manager put up all the nuts themselves the two of them oh wow because the wreck all the wreck folks run furlough and the wreck director had to leave the state for a family funeral and asked quarantine for two weeks so the show must go on don't let's go on so thank you tony and thank you camera thank you for doing that i learned a new skill and it was very it's going to be useful to me when did when did that happen yesterday wow okay cool i'm making an update tomorrow this is big news big news i think the bigger question is at what point do we not call them tennis courts and we just call them pickle ball courts also because that's pretty much all i ever see happening over there it's a very sensitive subject from constituent correspondence very sensitive we do just want to let folks know that because of our budget constraints and because of our lack of staff we're unable to maintain the fields so there's going to be no field rentals or outdoor facility or shelter rentals through at least july 1st 2020 so we'll share updates as that as things come on board but right now we've opened all of our sort of interactive outdoor facilities but our fields and our rentals are currently still down so on sort of your feedback we've been really ramping up our social media posts about COVID-19 and i won't go into too many details but on average we've really been receiving a lot of interactions on that social media our social media quite a few of our posts are now getting over a thousand interactions which is really great for our social media so we're trying to track how our metrics are doing with our posts and we're doing really great and we're reaching a lot more folks than we normally do i also wanted to add a section on Montpelier live they are currently strategizing on their reopening tactics they're helping local community businesses figure out how they want to open and what their plans are sort of in light of the governor's orders so they ask for sort of patience while they're working that out but any updates for businesses can be found at montpelieralive.org and then they did partner with the center for women in enterprise and have hired a i should also say they've also partnered with the mdc to hire gene pissner as montpelier's recovery navigators so she can help businesses figure out their reopening plans and help them figure out the money situation that they might be in she can be reached at gene just gene or j e a n at excellence in oks.com so i just wanted to announce that publicly so i want to sort of turn it over to dan who's been super patient and great in this meeting um he has a capital area neighborhood project update for you which i think is very exciting thank you thank you and uh go for it dan thank you again for your patience hi um well basically the uh you know that we sent out the whole thing what i'm kind of proud to say is that we've had almost 35 people step up to be uh neighborhood coordinators uh and volunteer on the uh this and um which is actually more than the um mma is actually turned up as people who meeting help specifically so far there are people are informationally interested but there hasn't been the demand we thought in terms of the actual services what we have what we're beginning to find now is actually people wondering about uh more economic issues uh that the um you know the lack of work and stuff is showing uh sort of anecdotally that people are becoming increasingly worried so this is an area that we'd like to be able to bring up a little bit more um the one of the things that we've uh you know i stuck a bit in the report i've talked tried to talk to and about etc but um a number of the neighborhoods are discovering there are parts of the neighborhood that are easy uh to identify with they kind of know each other they've got email addresses and things like that and then there are the rental areas like along elm street along berry street etc which are a little harder to actually uh get touch with folks without uh some more uh direct manner and uh we've had a request from people that uh the suggestion request that maybe we could have some um sandwich boards that would give information on how to get touch with the local uh coordinators in the neighborhood so that people know you know where to find help etc um this this is going to require some printing and stuff that sort of goes beyond what we can uh have done at the senior center so i'm kind of putting a push in or a pitch in for a little bit of support in that regard through the city printing budget if there's any available um the uh because the knock rock thing is being uh cut back as a uh you know there is just basically now down to uh capstone uh the traditional mechanisms where we've been trying to stay in touch with the various parties who are providing services is now coming much more down into basic things of uh you know like the fees program of the senior center like i said uh access to food and that food issue has been what uh we're finding uh interesting there's been some discussion about uh with people and we've helped uh initiate this to some degree but the idea of being able to figure out what is our food security issues in Montpelier uh if you've gone into the shores recently etc or you're noticing that the meat counters are getting less product uh that there's more empty spaces on the shelves and stuff and that's beginning to translate into what people are seeing it so we're looking at uh trying to figure out how do we begin to attend to Montpelier's food security as part of uh this effort of you know is there a way of being able to recognize what people are indeed what they need etc are the ways of using public spaces for community gardens etc to increase our local food security and I want to bring that back to you if you allow me uh in the future we're exploring it right now but we will be having tomorrow night and um I've asked if you don't uh complain to ask Jay Erickson if he would be uh sort of the council representative for a Montpelier area food security uh coalition which will bring in you know the food pantries it'll bring in the farmers market it'll bring in the uh various organizers within uh a number of these issues to try and talk about you know how do we ensure that there is a steady uh food supply if there is a disruption uh coming in the uh the coming months and so I wanted to inform you of that we'll be able to report to you on it later but this is sort of an outgrowth of the can effort and uh for that I'll uh open any questions if you have them any questions for Dan no uh sorry um Dan we had talked earlier in the week um about the idea of whether or not some city services um could be used to help citizens who are looking to develop the gardens is that is that something you're ready to sort of discuss tonight or is that well I've I've been kind of informed that uh there is no resources for that so that's you know I'm I'm hesitant to try and ask for what there isn't um you know I know having talked to Alec Ellsworth etc that uh he says well this is stuff they would like to help with because uh he's a strong believer in the uh the public garden thing and I would you know it's the kind of thing I would hope that the council would be open to considering like I said if the food security issue is becoming uh you know more recognized uh and the food security remember is not just a question of the availability of the food but it's over the cost of it and what they're what we're finding in public information is that the uh inflation across the board in the country is going down except for food which is going up rather rapidly so we have to worry about all those out of out of work folks who may be having affordability issues in the future so I that's a long-winded answer Dan I'm saying that uh we would love to be able to ask for it but I would love the council's guidance on how we could so I'll jump in here and say that I I'm gonna plead guilty here and say that I really um so Dan and I talked earlier today and I was very hesitant about whether or not we would have the capacity to um to help out with with private gardening uh type efforts um so but of course Alec is also on the line here as well I mean we have uh as I heard it our entire rec uh staff is on furlough right now through June 30th I don't know how many of our park staff are also on furlough but I think it's well I shouldn't speculate um and so is there so it put I I'm just gonna say I feel like it puts this in kind of a tricky position um to ask for that but I'm curious for others thoughts on something like that and and to be specific you were you were thinking Dan something like rototilling um I was thinking you know there there is an industrial strength rototiller uh you know available through recreation I think that it the kind of thing that could do you know what would take a couple of people a day and a half to do could do it in half an hour that's why yeah unless the entire park or the entire rec staff is not available right like so right um so uh Donna go ahead well I okay I also was discouraged about thinking that we don't have enough city staff but you know there are some incredibly equipped gardeners in our city that would be willing to probably help out I mean I'm so impressed with the work you've all done I applaud all those within the SMC group and the can neighborhoods that I think if you put out a call you might be able to find some rototillers and human power I also think for your flyers that you could talk to Glenn a capital copy and I'll bet you he'd give you um potentially made me some free but definitely reduced for your flyers and other copying that you need we don't have any we have we have no budget for this other than the people that are you know we've got working so uh that's that's let's go talk to him he's been known to give Glenn Glenn again to put out a call for rototillers and people who are willing to help they know where to go Glenn had offered to to do public service things um at capital copy and I think if it's making a few copies I'm sure the city would be happy to help even though our budget is pretty strapped I think if you make it a few photocopies we probably will pick up that tab we have you know they can bill us okay well I will try it and report back to you as far as the rototillers there's just having seen an industrial string for rototillers it's one of those things where finding people who can spend a whole day pushing one versus you know the one that gets pulled like I said does does the whole day's work to work in 20 minutes so it's a uh that that was the idea was to get things done relatively quickly uh Connor it's uh it's definitely an interesting concept to me and something I'd be interested in uh hearing more about I'm just like a couple questions about the scale of a dam would you be looking to like maybe launch this in more a modest fashion how many lawns are you talking about for like lawn gardens we've had a good what would be a good result for like oh a good result would be 2025 over the next uh month if we if we don't have stuff in a month from now uh the planting season has pretty much passed so it's uh it's really what can what can we accomplish in a you know in a relatively short period of time I mean I'll just say that sounds more achievable than like the number that was in my mind when I envisioned this but that's you know that's right and we've actually part of part of what we're uh reaching out with the can neighborhoods etc is we'll call them garden mentors which I think Donna speaks to what you're and others talked about you know it's those people in town who actually know what they're doing so we're trying to figure out how to use the can neighborhoods to match those people who have some expertise with the people who want uh done and uh figure out how to make the best use of the human capital that we have in town Lauren um just wanted to also say I mean I think this is a great idea and this year being able to do a kind of pilot project and I mean even Cameron was talking a couple minutes ago about the social media of the city reaching a thousand people you know some of that just promotion connecting people putting up if you're making how-to videos or things like I think there there are things that even with really limited staff and um financial resources at the moment that could probably be used to help support it so maybe thinking through some really discrete ways that the city could help promote this I I would you know hope we could find ways to do that um if nothing else sure and one one thing I would mention I had to talk with Connor who's at least offered to explore this but I'll ask anybody else who might have similar context uh you know I understand the Department of Agriculture may have some COVID money uh and this this is a kind of project that is directly COVID related so if the city would be capable of supporting what we're trying to do you know to look for some support from ag etc that would be much appreciated well let's keep being in touch about it okay that's uh that's what I have to offer tonight I will uh I may be back to knock on doors but I'll uh you know I just wanted to give you an update on what we're doing uh it's actually been pretty impressive the outpouring of support that we've experienced so far and people want to do things yeah go ahead Connor yeah okay I just want to say I thought the flyerin was great because you know there's all sorts of things we can do with technology to get the word out uh but I think there's no replacement for people just rolling up their sleeves and putting the doors like they did uh and I heard a lot a lot of people in the neighborhood who really appreciate you getting that information so um I think that alone you know if that was the only thing can did it was definitely worth revitalizing for that oh yeah and actually that brings up that social media thing I will be we will be informing Cameron of this but uh the you know many of the neighborhoods are actually creating their own Facebook pages uh so uh they're they're actually developing their own identities uh separately which is wonderful because it gives you know them a sense of mission of purpose etc so well we'll keep you informed on that as it comes along great great great thanks for going thank you have a good night thanks okay so I think that uh wraps up yeah the only thing I'm gonna add well first of all I think we can deploy Cameron to do all the rototilling so we cover there there's plenty of laws done no time but after after she and Tony for your setup no the only other thing in you know I mentioned to you earlier in executive session but just publicly I I believe this is gonna be an announcement as early tomorrow about a new fund for to benefit downtown directly related to COVID-19 and supporting our local businesses a group of private individuals have put this together they've raised some private money and as soon as we have more details about what it is how people can donate to it so the city will certainly help partner get that word out about that so it's very exciting to see not only some local individuals but some local some big local businesses really stepping up to help their more struggling neighbors right looking forward to that it's great news okay so we are we do have an other executive session scheduled for this evening so what's that that's strategic play I do do oh and strategic plan oh my goodness okay sorry I forgot about that it's only like the most important thing for the year okay so it's 942 I I think we can I think we can do this executive session should be very short unless you don't want it to be I can it's just updating you on who the three finalists are for the police chief so no okay um unless folks would prefer to not do the strategic plan tonight or just move it as presented yeah your work all right so talking about strategic plan um I'm gonna assume that we've all had a chance to check out that document um camera is there anything else or anything further you wanted to say about it um no just uh well I mean um thank you guys for for voting um I think you guys had um a lot of really great things rise to the top that had the majority vote um I think they're all very important I do want to say that I try to emphasize that none of the other initiatives um that we have presented as staff are going to go away um and that we did fold a lot of the things that you all discussed and voted on that we agree could be done into those initiatives um so that will be presented in full um when we finish this document um we'll have all of those uh department level work plans up um once we finalize those so it kind of goes you know strategic plan and then our department initiatives so nothing is like really going away that we presented to you um so all of your goals have something that support it through this year just the ones that you guys have highlighted the nine that you have highlighted as your priorities are what's going to help us guide us through this year doesn't mean that your goals are not being touched um if you didn't vote that into the top nine so just thank you um I thought this was a really great strategic plan and I'm very excited to hear your feedback um I also want to say that um Jasmine um nicely our assistant in our office has really helped me um make a better aesthetic version of this document so when you all approve it I have some really exciting visuals to share with you cool so I think the question here is you know these are essentially what you said where your top priorities now this is your chance to sort of truth that out and either try to lobby each other to change them or uh go with them or you know before you or just adopt them but I think this is that's what the the question before you is is this anybody want to try to sway other votes I think we provided everything that got votes right yes and you know that in the email right I was happy with this um you know not all of the things of my 10 made it onto this list but you know what they're as cameras said they're not going away so I think that's fine other comments jack I move that we adopt the strategic plan as presented by the assistant city manager uh it looks like Jay seconded um or Dan maybe go any further discussion on this okay um all in favor please say aye hi hi hi hi okay thanks everybody thank you I appreciate it this was a really um fun process and I'm really excited to be part of it yeah thank you for all your work on on this yeah well really good product I think good work um okay so we'll do council reports all the reports and then executive session um let's start in the normal order uh Donna uh had a few neighborhood complaints of people's neighbors so you can tell people are a little stressed right now but it's been quiet so that's all I have to say thanks okay uh Connor yeah I think I'm all good those are really nice uh w c a x p said a day or two ago about my failure restaurants helping out healthcare workers so good job everybody in town uh Jay yep I just want to quickly let everybody know that green up day was rescheduled to the end of May the 30th and thanks to Donna and everybody at Public Works for being able to adjust their schedule and be able to support that effort into my failure alive to be able to um uh sort of pivot and and join the rest of the the state on that day the other piece is it's just a little bit of follow-up from from what Dan was talking about is I'm happy to really happy to be a part of the the coalition that Dan and my sustainable Montpelier are putting together around food security um Dan really has put together a great a strong um collaborative group of folks um looking at everything from small front yard gardens up to you know larger-scale security that could affect our community so um I think we could all expect more from that group moving forward so just want everybody to know about that um uh Dan um actually I I'll just echo some of the other um comments of the counselors Jack thank you I just wanted to note we we didn't mention this earlier but I wanted to note the death last month of Corky Nielsen um some of you may remember Corky Corky served on the move to Montpelier in 1972 lived here ever since then and he he was served three terms on the city council back in the late 80s and early 90s he obviously loved the city of Montpelier he did a lot for the community there was a time back in 1992 when I on behalf of the some community activists sued the city council actually named the mayor and each member of the city council as defendants including Corky and I went out to his house to serve him with the complaint and he uh never was any less friendly to me after that and good good for him for doing that there's also a great story that I didn't personally witness but uh the story of one night when the city council meeting was going on and Corky was sitting at home watching it on television and he was so upset about something that he heard that he got out of his chair pulled his boot and coats on over his pajamas cut this car and drove down to city council to uh to give the council so Corky was a was a real character and a great uh resident of Montpelier and it's just sad to see him go yeah I witnessed that all right Lauren um only thing I would add which I think uh mayor you might speak to more but the I know most of the committees are on pause right now but the um the group working on the energy ordinance was able to have a couple conversations because there is a grant opportunity so we can update you all but it's exciting and this these really challenging times that maybe there could be some funding to help us put in place this this project that will help us towards our net zero community goal so fingers crossed on that and we can keep you all updated but exciting when some positive news could possibly be coming so um well and I don't necessarily need to add more to that um I am just gonna say I'm really excited that the tennis courts are open um that's that's a big deal uh so I'm gonna leave it at that John do you have anything to add sorry I was playing Gallagher um no I got nothing okay cool uh bill um one serious thing or one lighter thing I'll do the serious one first this really you've heard me say this but it's I think it's just coming up even more and this has to do with the furloughs and now that the some of the restrictions are getting lightened up in tennis courts around you know we when you heard uh Cameron's rundown of COVID-19 we're starting to hit that point that we knew we would hit where people are like well can't we reserve the fields can we do this and some of it has to do with health regulations a lot of it has to do with the financial decisions that we've made and to to reserve our city's budget we had our you know a team meeting this morning talking about our reopening plan and which we will be getting I think you may be getting a draft of it some point soon and um a lot of that's driven by you know who we have for staff so uh you know we're still on the June 30 so I think you as elected officials could probably expect to keep you know over the next couple weeks weather's supposed to get really nice the next week and a half start hearing how come the city's not doing this how come the city's not doing that so just remind you that was a policy decision that we all made and it's the next six weeks are going to probably be tense about that on the lighter note I also wanted to mention quirky uh thank you jack I was going to tell the pajama story but I have another one too I hadn't been here more in a couple weeks starting this job and I was walking around town and I went by the coffee corner and there were four or five older gentlemen at the older probably my age now but whatever sitting there in the front they waved him I had no idea who these folks were you're the new city manager are you and it was quirky it was jim johnston and uh there's one other guy oh um yeah san Fitzpatrick and they're sitting there there you know they said listen if you ever want to know what's going on in town you ever want to know how a bond issue is going to go how the budget vote's going to go you come down and you talk to us and have coffee and whatever we tell you the other thing's going to happen and that actually proved to be pretty true so it was good dull weather pretty funny that's all I get okay um all right so uh that is the end of our regular business for this evening um we have a quick executive session and we are not going to likely return to make any decisions after that jack pursuant to one vsa section 313 a3 I move we go into executive session to discuss the appointment of a public official I'll second for the discussion on favor please say aye hi hi oh god i'll get the notes from here okay so we again we leave this bit meeting and go to the other one okay