 You know, first of all, summer's here. Second, we've been vaccinated. It is so, I just have to keep saying this. It's so wonderful to be out and be back in Vermont. Oh my goodness, it really is. And Vermont, I just got to praise everybody from the governor to every citizen, the highest vaccination rate, the lowest infection rate, and that means we can all be together safely as we are today. So nice to be in Burlington. And it's also nice to be in Burlington because this week in Congress, I'm going to have an opportunity to vote on a transportation bill. We have been talking in this country for years about the need to pass a significant transportation bill that would provide money to fix our roads, bridges, improve our neighborhoods. And under the new rules in Congress, members of Congress are allowed to designate certain projects to be included into the transportation bill. I supported that. It's congressionally authorized spending. It has to be in public. It has to be for a project that meets community needs. I have to put my name on it so it can be subject to review and criticism. And I want to say that with great pride, I put my name on the project in the Invest America Act that would allow for a funding of an initial phase of the Rail Yard Enterprise project. And under this legislation in the Invest America Act that we will be voting on this week, $2.25 million would be authorized for the planning, the permitting, the preliminary work. Only the road connected that way. We'll let you get set up. No, that's great. And just while we're waiting, the people who are with me and will be speaking today, of course, our Mayor Murrow Weinberger, also Michelle Boomhower from the Vermont Association, Agency of Transportation, Mark Hughes from the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, and Chapin Spencer, Director of Public Works in the City of Burlington. But as I was saying, this project is what would inform the days we called Congressional Year Mark. It has to be public and I have to put my name on it. It's subject to scrutiny so anyone who disagrees with me knows what I did and knows why I did it and can act accordingly. But I'm very proud that this congressionally designated spending, the first time I've been able to do it in years, is for the Rail Yard Enterprise project. This can be transformative for this section of Burlington and connect us the rail yard area with the south end that is vibrant and booming. It's about a project that improves livability for the community. It has the potential to alleviate traffic in a high residence area, have it come here where it will be much less intrusive, at the same time connecting two neighborhoods that can be vibrant and providing access to the bike path that is so close to us. Transportation projects take a while, but they also take money. And the money here is going to be for the planning, the permitting, and all the hard work that is necessary to be done in order to then continue on a $20 million project that is ultimately what we think the price tag will be. This money quadruples the money that has been available only through the city and the Vermont agency. So it should be a very significant contribution to significant progress towards the Rail Yard project. So I now want to turn this over to the mayor of Burlington who's got the easy job of making this all happen. Good morning everyone. It's exciting to be with you and it's exciting to be with this group this morning of federal and state partners as well as community partners who we've been talking about this project with for some time and this is a significant milestone today in bringing into reality the Rail Yard Enterprise project. As the congressman said, there is broad consensus that the Rail Yard Enterprise project will advance many shared goals by creating a new network of multimodal infrastructure investments here in the south end. The Rail Yard Enterprise project will, which I'm going to call REP from here, will improve the ability of neighbors to live, work, and travel safely. It will enhance connectivity between Pine Street and Battery Street and our newly developed Waterfront and it will advance economic development and make new connections making our street network more resilient. You know just standing here and seeing how that truck had to do this kind of awkward turn a moment ago is an example of how the south end has really been the transportation network in the south end has been incomplete and unfinished for a very long time and what this project is about is about getting that transportation network done and getting it right and it's one of a number of projects here in the south end that we're working on with both the state and the federal government to get this right and it's very important. The fact that there has been these this area and farther south in the south end these sections of the city that are unfinished and the status of the projects that have been talked about there are unresolved has not been good for anybody. It's been bad for walkers, it's been bad for bikers, it's certainly been bad for people who want to get around town driving, it's been bad for truck traffic, it's been bad for a net zero goals in that an inefficient incomplete transportation network doesn't do everything it can to reduce emissions and it's been bad for investment. It's left many projects on the drawing boards not moving forward because of this uncertainty. We're in a period now where we are bringing that uncertainty and incompleteness to an end. We're getting it done, we're getting it done right and working this formally known as an earmark investment is a key step in that that is really going to make sure that this project which has been you know I think we have to acknowledge has not gone as fast as we wanted to up until now. Chief and I said at a press conference around the corner you know nine years ago this is really going to accelerate this and bring this into reality. Another just point I want to make about this and then I'm excited to hear from others is that there has never been a time in the almost decade now that I've been in office when the state local and federal partners have been so aligned and working together so well on so many issues and I am confident that this is an example not only of the way in which we're tackling climate and transportation issues together but that we will be working together to recover from this deep recession and working together to tackle other crises of our time including reversing systemic racism and the historic harms that racism has done to our communities. So thank you Congressman Welch the Invest Act supports so much of what Burlingtonians know progress demands in addition to this piece of it it supports investment in rail the electrification of transportation and other aging infrastructure and modernization and it's a really exciting time and we're looking forward to talking more about the partnership with the federal government on other projects in the weeks and months to come so thanks again Congressman Welch and thank you to our partners for being here. Thank you Mr. Mayor and our state partner is the Vermont Agency of Transportation and Michelle Boomhauer is here to speak on behalf of the agency thank you. Thank you Congressman Welch and Mayor Weinberger it's been quite a journey as the mayor indicated it's nine years since we kicked this project off I was the director of transportation at the Chittenden County Transportation Regional Planning Commission at that time and so I've been involved in this project for a long time as well and my last six years at the agency of transportation have been dedicated to making sure as state partners that we are bringing the staffing expertise and the resources needed to support the city in making this happen as the owner of the property here in the rail yard we are sort of key partners in making sure that we find solutions that keep our rail business active which helps with our greenhouse gas emissions while really working to problem solve how we create neighborhood connectivity and assure that the residents in the Maple King Pine Street area are not burdened with transportation impacts that we have historically seen as issues here in the city and elsewhere in Vermont so this additional federal funding is going to allow for us to really accelerate the permitting and design and right-of-way processes for this project we are looking to assure that we have a resolution on the final environmental document the NEPA document which will be required to allow us to allocate federal funding to this project when it's ready to go to construction and the final alignment design is ready to advance and we're hoping that that will be in May of 2022 just less than a year from now is what we're targeting and then the agency of transportation has set aside in our planning for future construction activities about 20 million dollars in funds that we estimate will be required for this project and we have our top engineering staff ready to assist the city and we're very much looking forward to this project advancing expeditiously now that we've sort of reached the point where we are going forward so I'd like to thank the city of Burlington thank the congressmen and all the partners who stand with us today and who will continue to stand with us moving forward to make this project a reality thank you thank you Michelle and from Mark Hughes from the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance it's really important in America's transportation plans that we begin addressing what we've neglected to address and that's the impact of transportation projects on racial justice mark thank you so much for your work thank you representative west and thank you so much for inviting me out Mr. Mayor it's good to see you again it's always a pleasure to partner with you on projects like this Michelle Chapin all of you I've even met a brother from Iowa that's out there that's actually going to be engineering the project so that's my homeboy just to let you know um so um yeah why are we here why is the racial justice alliance here you know based upon everything that I've heard so far it's probably hard for you to connect those dots uh you know first let me introduce my pastor the new alpha missionary Baptist church the Reverend Dr. Christopher Von Cochra who's here joining us also a chair the board of the foundation that's behind the alliance uh we also have our community outreach Cleofas here one of our directors of community outreach is going to be very significant very impactful and reaching out continuing to reach out into these impacted communities uh that this particular project is seeking to avoid uh I think the um the you know I want to you know also introduce uh Roy Roy V. Hill II who's also a member of the board and then also Rajni Eddons uh cultural empowerment and spoken word here in community a very powerful voice in the community why are so many black people standing behind us they were not invited I invited them I invited them because of what we came here to stand for uh the reason why we're here is the reason why we're associated with this project despite the fact of me being asked not to talk about it I'm going to talk about it because that's what I'm here to do that's what I'm remaining committed to is is the Champlain Parkway which is a 60 year project we know that that project right now is it it is headed towards a you know the biggest black and brown and poor neighborhood uh in Vermont and we also know that it is with its design it will reduce traffic in a fluent white neighborhoods in in the south end by 72 percent and it will increase the traffic in black neighborhoods by 37 percent that is why we are here okay we didn't come just to discuss the rail yard enterprise and some kind of microcosm or something as if our larger issues do not exist that is not how we solve issues what we're here to do is to to you know support what it is that our representative has done this 2.25 million actually quintipples not quadruples the amount of money that was already allocated towards this effort as some of you know about this project the rail yard enterprise was the original alternative route for this project to avoid the mess that we're trying to avoid so the question is simple how do we address the realities that uphold the edifice of what produces a situation where a highway project reduces traffic by 72 percent in a fluent white neighborhood and increases traffic by 37 percent in the in the most black brown and poor neighborhood in the state probability on that is like throwing darts or crashing planes the reason why that exists is because we have we have systems that are failing us systems at the federal government and i'm calling on Secretary Buttigieg to insert himself in this process so we have we have failures at a statewide level there's no reason why we should be out for a summer study talking about what we're going to do about rating equity on these projects right now we should already be way out ahead of that game this whole business about the um you know the screening processes that have just been implemented in terms of the Vermont transportation project selection projects prioritization process process and if there is no equity in it we know that there's no reason for it everybody knows what we need to do and one of the things I challenge the state is is you know let's get you know let's get busy let's lean in you know stop hiring all the consultants that are telling you all of the things that you want to hear and lean into this process stop dancing around this issue uh what we have here is we have an emergency and it is a shame that the coronavirus has not taught us at least that that we're on the other side of that and we're having this conversation where i'm being told not to talk about this larger project so I appreciate what you have done representative um Welch and and I I do think that it is a small step in the right direction in terms of addressing this issue um in terms of putting a mandate over this issue but at the edifice of what it is that we're dealing with there are some serious structural things that we need to do to address what it is that is creating these whether it's in the chinton county chinton county regional planning office whether it's at the statewide level and even at the city and mr mayor I challenge you because at the heart of all of this is economics at the heart of everything we're talking about I think Dr King said it best there can we cannot address this without a radical redistribution of political and economic power and as you're preparing for your housing summit I challenge you to take a step back from that and give us an economic summit because what we need to do is we need to sit down and talk about money in this city so you are welcome for the 2.25 million dollars and I appreciate having the opportunity to come and address you thank you thank you mark and now chape and spencer the director of public works chape thank you thanks from new welch chape and spencer director of public works thanks for having me I'll be brief given the temperature that we're all enjoying right now I wanted to talk really about the foundation that this project is sitting on which I think mark is you well discussed really we need to engage the community fundamentally and from the first step and that this project really has benefited from that we have had a steering committee we have had countless public meetings we've done two planning processes really to make sure that this project is solidly on the right foot we've worked with federal highway and v-trans on new opportunities such as the planning and environmental linkages program that really helps expedite projects certainly there are projects that are federally in state funded that take too long we are approaching this project in a different way in order to deliver the benefits that you've heard from the mayor and others today sooner and my department is going to lead this project it is a top priority some of our staff are here today who are going to lead that project we are very excited to be a partner I will say and give a shout out to one other constituency group today and that is the property owners in the adjacent area here this project is not going to be easy there is no current public right of way in this area so it will really be our successful partnership with the neighbors here that is going to drive this project to a successful completion and I look forward to working with them every day as we had moving forward so thank you all very much and look forward to getting this project in the ground thank you we have time for a few questions yes for other infrastructure projects throughout the area like the I-89 walk-like bridge well there's two things first of all all local projects whether it's in Burlington and Chitton County or Vermont generally need federal participation and what is different this year or us in congress is we actually have a congress that is intent on passing a significant infrastructure bill we'll be voting on this bill we saw that there's enormous progress on a bipartisan bill in the senate so I have more optimism that we're going to get significant federal funding for infrastructure projects and that means that bodes really well for communities that are incredibly hard work of planning and dealing with all the issues that range from this specific project to the racial justice issues that mark raised they'll have some resources to be able to make progress so I see this in the context of a congressional commitment to finally getting funds back to our communities and our states to do these projects that are so important to them I'll just add that I mean the the project you're you specifically reference there is a South Burlington project and is um I would say uh you know it's not something that this team of the city team city of Burlington team is is responsible for for planning we are we are we make comments on on that project I do think there are a bunch however as I referenced of projects going on here in the south end some starting as soon as this summer the rebuilding of the rotary the shellburn um road rotary it's going to start in a matter of weeks weeks at this point on the other side of the building here we have work going on right now that is going to bring Amtrak here and has impacts on the on the rail yard right over here we um uh are um we have this other federal project which is a separate at this point a separate federal project the Champlain Parkway we have improvements on main street and water infrastructure in this area all this all this work needs to be properly coordinated if we're going to get it all done get it all done right and get it all done in a way that has um the supports the the the south end and the communities here as as we go and this this federal grant this 2.25 million is very helpful in um accelerating the rail yard enterprise project uh and getting all that work properly coordinated and our team right now is working on a schedule that will become um will be going to the city council for approval with uh soon that will show how all of all of this tens of millions of dollars where the work is going to be coordinated and one of the reasons so important to get it coordinated is because fundamentally the city of burlington hat agrees uh with what mark was was just saying and has always agreed with what mark which is saying is that this connection from battery to pine street is critical it's critical for for the community um and uh that was taken out over the objections of the the city of burlington back in the 2005 2006 period by the state and federal government that's why one of the first things I did when I came into office was to font create a new federal project and got support from our state and federal partners nine years ago to start this and it hasn't again it has not moved as quickly as we like today's announcement more than anything is an indication that this project is now moving forward it has alignment with the other levels of government it now has funding from the other level of government it's very exciting to hear a representative from the state say that her goal is to have the federal approvals in place by next spring that is an aggressive timeline um and uh so so I mean more you wanted to hear exactly but this is about coordination with the other projects and this is a very good sign for that coordination yep so Courtney we've been studying that question through this um um updated environmental impact statement um process that is uh still underway and that will result in a um a new report and uh potentially a new record of decision being issued sometime this this fall we are working hard with the state and local partners sorry state and federal partners um uh on exactly that uh on the issue of how uh all this work is coordinated and um we will be coming forward soon uh hopefully and we don't have it yet or we'd be talking about it today but hopefully with a schedule a coordinated schedule um that uh gets all this work done and gets it done in a way that is best for the community and we look sorry well the council have to approve that schedule that'd be something that goes to them for I believe remind me exactly what I think it is. Sure um our plan is definitely to bring this to the council ultimately uh the council's decision of what they choose to do with it but the council does have footage area authority to approve construction contracts so really what we're doing is trying to lay out a landscape that the community and the council can understand and that the council can then uh work with us to progress these projects through it in order to move forward for this fire. It's asking any unrelated concerns of yours regarding addictions of any of our mom hotels or hotels? Well I'm happy to answer that question but I don't want to keep everyone standing here if there are other questions. Yeah I'm happy to do that. Any other questions for for this group? Okay well thank you, thank you guys. Appreciate it.