 Evan Teach, thank you so much for joining us. You, as the unified manager of Essex and Essex Junction, the town and the village, I'm sure, taking up many issues during this, what I would call the special period. And I wanted to give you the opportunity to talk directly to the folks in your community and to tell us how a rural suburban community is responding in Vermont to COVID-19. Wow, that's, thank you for the opportunity. I think the first thing we wanna say is how sad we are to report that we've had some loss of life in our community. I know that you've had the story and others have run the story of a couple of the recent deaths that we've had that are COVID-19 related. And that just hurts us all. So the loss of life is really tough for us and our first responders who went to the scene and dealt with that. So that's the first thing I wanted to get out there. And two, mostly we find that our citizens are compliant. They want to help in any way possible. They are keeping their social distancing. They are getting out for their walks, taking their pets, getting a little cooped up, but in general, they are doing what the CDC and the Vermont Health Department have guided. For us, we started several weeks ago, can't even remember the first day, but we took it very seriously. We started Unified Command, which is more of an emergency management system where it put me in charge with the chief of police who's our emergency operations coordinator. And we tried to get out in front of a bunch of issues like how would we work from home, separate our staffing so that should someone get affected, we didn't lose an entire department. We still have our police department patrolling streets and our parks and our spaces and just had a lot of great cooperation from the village and the town. And the one thing that we said early on, we wanted this to be a unified response, not a village response, not a town response, but a unified response with one message, one action. We didn't want one building open, the other building closed and confused people. So, and kudos to our staff for really buying into all of that and communicating what the needs of the community would be and what we were capable of doing in a short time span. So talk about the EMT and public safety because I think in communities across the country, we're anticipating there'll be real stressors on that part of municipal and government. How are you preparing in public safety? First and foremost, we took our emergency operation center and got it ready to be active. So we have a room inside the police department that has workspaces for every local entity that could operate out of our emergency operation center that's Essex Rescue, Essex Fire, Essex Junction Fire, Essex PD, Administration, and then other state and local agencies could all be operating out of the same room. We have not activated it, but it's ready to go. Second, as I mentioned, we started talking about how we respond to calls and making sure that our emergency responders have the right equipment and take each call very seriously and to the point where they need to start assuming that any call that they go on, they could be dealing with an infected person even though they're not showing signs. So they have gloves, they have masks, they have gear and that's how we're being prepared in that way. And to date, they have gone on calls and they have done what they've needed to do. And luckily, most of our citizens are compliant with what needs to get done and the time it needs to get done. Do you have enough protective gear? We do currently. And first and foremost, I wanna thank Global Foundries. They did donate some gear to us. We had some, we pre-purchased some. It was very hard to find, but we did find some N95 masks and we had some in store. But Global was very helpful in giving us some extra, at least initially so that we were not crunched. And how are you cooperating with other entities, municipalities in the county or in the state? How can you talk a little bit about that collaboration? Sure, on a daily basis, there are emails that are sent for updates. The Department of Human Services has been in contact with me and others about use of facilities in and around Essex and Essex Junction like the CDE, we call it the Valley Expo. And the managers group of Chinden County have always had an email group. We've been keeping in touch and updating each other with what each other is doing. And if there are questions about an issue, we go back and forth. And then also a shout out to the Chinden County Regional Planning Commission. They have been great. And a lot of what they do is help bring us together and keep us thinking in a global way. Have you seen any examples of really inspiring problem solving either regionally or within your community? Issues you've been able to move the needle on quickly in this circumstance that might have gotten bogged down in other times? Sure, a couple of things like we were just talking the other day, the town has a 1% of our budget for health and human services. We have a grant program it's been going on for years. Usually we do that in late June and disperse monies. We just started a couple of weeks ago deciding to try to get that money out sooner. So our review process has gotten moved up. Normally that might be a little touchy when we do it, how we do it, who's gonna be winners? We may not get everything they want but we wanna be able to get that money out sooner rather than later. Just this last year we were talking about focusing that money and making sure we were focusing monies on food security and not only of seniors but of families in need as well as mental health and people who need medical assistance. So we're right on target to be able to get that money out very quickly. So are you seeing real distress economically in Essex and Essex Junction? Is that evident to you from your perch? You know, it's hard to see everything. To be brutally honest, we have about 21,000 residents and 36 square miles but you know it's there. You know that when you watch the news and you see all the jobless claims rising and all that, you know it has to be affecting your community. We do have, even before this, we had discussions with the school district. 27% of their student population is on some type of food assistance. That has to tell you a lot about your community and its need. So we are already in tune with that. I guess my follow-up question, well you know I'm thinking about just the distress and I'm wondering if it's impact on your budgets and if you've been doing budget projections based on what you think might happen with revenue. We have not actually started that but we've been thinking very deeply about that. The first question that comes up with that is well, how long is this gonna go? And I don't think anybody really has that answer. Second, and I really do not want this to sound insensitive but because of the way we've done property taxes, about 90 plus percent of our property taxes for this next year have already been collected. We are looking at ways to discuss how we're gonna do water and sewer billing into this next quarter and how to deal with penalties for people who haven't paid and we wanna try to do that in the most humane way possible. Sort of on a side note, right before all this occurred, we were seeing a very large uptick in activity for financing and refinancing of homes. I know you know our community a little bit. We have properties changing hands all day, every day, people doing all of these things, changing the properties into dechanges or whatnot. And when the Federal Reserve changed its policy and lowered its interest rates and banks followed, we saw a huge surge of refinancing. Now we are currently keeping our clerk's office open because the people that do title searches need to do that work in order for the refinancing and or new mortgage to occur. We are doing that because we know people need it to occur. And if we close, that activity is gonna cease. So that's where we always play a balance between trying to keep our staff safe and the public safe but also making sure we're not doing something that hurt somebody downstream. Did I see that the parks were closed in Essex and Essex Junction? Yes, yes, we just did that order yesterday. We have had people who are using our park equipment and some of our facilities. We do not disinfect them, can't do it every day. It's really not cost effective. And we just felt for public safety, that was the right thing to do. Does that include Indian brush? When the parks themselves are open. Okay. It's equipment that is not open. Understand. It's like the playground equipment, tennis courts, pickleball, the dog park, those are going to be closed. It's the parks and the paths that are still open. Are you satisfied with the governor's response, the state level response? Is that meeting your needs as a community or two communities? I think governor, the governor has done an excellent job of framing the issue, using experts and getting out in front of things. He started, even though I believe, days keep running into each other, but early on, even though there was little to no cases in our area, we were doing social distancing. That is a direct reaction and a forward thinking idea that I think has helped keep us from seeing that ultimate surge that our neighboring communities, states have seen, including use of the guard and other facilities. We have been contacted at least two weeks ago that state departments were looking at CVE and local hotels to be able to move patients from hospitals to other facilities so that the hospitals could focus on COVID related cases. So I have to give them high marks for that. And tonight, today's April 2nd, you have a meeting scheduled for tonight, is that right or next week? We do have a meeting tonight because the village's annual meeting was supposed to be yesterday and the law requires that the elected body hold a meeting as soon as possible to reset a date. They were, up until last week, very specific, and I'm gonna get back to why last week, very specific about the days and times you had to re-worn a meeting. Since that time, and since the scheduling of this, they have come out with an adaptive law that says, if you have a floor vote meeting scheduled, you could change it to Australian ballot. But the board still wants to meet to be able to discuss what day it wants to do it and try to do it on the same day that the school district is doing it so that we can be on the same page and only have to vote once. As you know, many of our poll judges and are in the target age group that we really do not want them to be exposed to people on the public. So trying to push that off into May as far as we can, if not early June. And you've also, to the point about public meetings, you've moved as many communities have to the remote platform and we're channel 17s working with you to stream that. Are you happy with that solution? Do you think that satisfies your need for a democratic purpose and public participation? That's a brave new world. You go from having five to 10 to 20 people in your audience to currently sitting in a room by yourself with five to 10 people together on a video chat and then trying to figure out how they get to speak and when they're gonna speak and any time lag. It's what needs to be done for right now. Government does serve a purpose. Our boards are very much and our members are very much wanting to help the community and they don't wanna just go down to their basements and be in seclusion. So being able to meet however we get to do it whether it's video chat or on a conference call or other means they want to be here for helping the community. Is turning the Champlain Valley Expo into a hospital makeshift hospital something that's being seriously considered? As far as we know it is and it makes sense. The Expo is 130 acres. It has as much parking as any facility in this area if not the state. It is used to holding large crowds. It has municipal water, sewer. It has electricity, galore, which is all the things a makeshift field hospital would need. I'm sure if it comes to it, the Army Corps of the National Guard would also bring generators but when you can have consistent power and heating and ventilating, you've got everything you need. The other thing we also have as many of our local residents know, we also have food stores, restaurants, gasoline and everything right adjacent to that property and we're close to 89. So to be able to be local and when you need to be big and somewhat insular to a property, it's everything that they would look at in an emergency facility. So whenever they decide to look at and do it, we're supportive of it. So Evan, I know that you and the team have been working really hard. I'm sure many, many hours. What's your deepest fear? What's your biggest worry about the community response to the COVID epidemic pandemic? That even the darkest projection is not enough. I think that now we are really on a path to slow the curve. Those are good things. And then how long this will be? That's what I get from a lot of people. I know we're supposed to social distance till April 15th. Do you really think April 15th is when this is gonna end? And to be honest, I don't think April 15th is the day. I think we'd be better off pushing that out a couple more weeks and maybe going a couple more days than we think we should go. And the fear is that people get too antsy and want it to end too soon. And then I think we will be in for a longer recovery than maybe otherwise would have been. So I guess take the pain of this weird isolation now. Let it go a couple extra days. Make sure that we are taking care of the people among us that absolutely need these extra days. And then when the all clear sign comes, wherever it comes from, whether it's the federal government or the state government or both, we slowly get back to what our new regular life will be. Because other than that, we are going to potentially not have the resources available. I'm going on a bit, I'm sorry, but we run on a paid on-call fire department. We run on a local ambulance service. If those two services are inflicted with the virus and really curtail our response, that's going to have a bad downstream. We have a police department that's wonderful, but they're human and they're subject to the virus too. And so everything has a consequence and they work almost in a chain and sometimes they are unrelated. But I think my fear is that if this goes on too long and too many people get infected, it is going to affect how we are able to help our citizens and our businesses and we're no different than anybody else. And what gives you hope? What kinds of, what silver linings have you seen in this period? Oh, you can see it on Front Porch Forum. You could see it on Essex Facebook, VT. There is a lot of people who want to come out and help. They will volunteer. I have already seen people volunteering to do food distribution. I've seen people volunteering money in order to be able for the food and others to get going, making sure the least of us have something in their bellies every day. And that's what gives me hope because I know our community already. I've been here two years, I've seen it. I've seen it in action and whether it's a rainstorm or, well, which now turns out to be a pandemic, they are here for the rest of the community. And that's what always gives me hope. And in closing, do you have a final statement? Not a final statement, but a closing statement you'd like to make? Thank you for making me laugh. I don't get to laugh much in the last couple of days. You know, hang in there. This is tough times, but together we will get through this. If we divide, it will be worse. Know that your village and your town are working together as they always have to provide service, to provide for the least of us. Hopefully it won't snow again and that together we can get through this. We're a strong resilient bunch and I have faith. Thank you, Evan, teach unified manager of Essex and Essex Junction for your time and all the work that you're doing and please extend our best to all the folks in the municipal departments who are working hard for the people in your community. I will do that. You have a great, safe day. Thank you, Evan. Bye.