 Thank you all for joining us. We have an exciting announcement to share with you today. This is an announcement that is really a landmark moment in a many years long endeavor for our city. When we went to the voters almost a decade ago now with a vision to rebuild and reconnect this once vibrant part of the downtown core, we were really trying to accomplish three big things. We were trying to, first of all, build a lot more homes. We were also trying to restore the street grid and connectivity for both vehicles and pedestrians that was lost during urban renewal. And we were attempting to update aging infrastructure under our streets and to transform these city blocks into great public spaces for everyone to enjoy every day. Always a challenge doing press conference on the street. In many ways from the start, this project has been an attempt to repair the damage that was done to this part of the city when Burlington like so many other American downtowns tore down a large swath of the downtown as part of the federal urban renewal program. Big goals like these, big goals like we set out to achieve are not easy. They require vision, hard work and persistence. And there were many times over the last decade when it seemed like this effort would fail. First, this project that you may remember faced some organized opposition. Then construction delays at the city place project and a revised somewhat smaller project shrunk the capacity of the TIF district, which was an initial plan to pay for all of the new public infrastructure that we had hoped to build. And then probably one of the biggest challenges over the last couple of years, historic inflation combined with rising interest rates created even more hurdles, putting our really the ability to complete the full public infrastructure project very much at risk. But our city team with the confidence of the voters who understood from the start the impact of this project kept fighting for that initial vision laid out in plan BTV to see this once vibrant residential neighborhood restored in the heart of our city. We also took action against the original developer Don Cinex to get control of the streets running through the site. And we collaborated with the new city place partners who I'm very happy are here with us today, at least two of the trio of three, Dave Farrington, Allison Ockel, thank you for your partnership. Thank you for being here. Thank you for what you're doing, which was essential, essential making this happen. We, I'm having collaborating with these new partners and last November, even though there were a lot still to be worked out, that construction project got underway and as you can see, it's going full steam now. We also saw it to additional resources. Since it was clear the TIF project alone wasn't gonna be able to pay for the full vision, we sought additional resources to close the funding gap on what will now be a nearly $50 million public reinvestment in the downtown. Today, we are very excited to announce that Burlington has been awarded a more than $22 million rebuilding American infrastructure with sustainability and equity grant, a raise grant. This grant, combined with $12 million in congressionally directed funds secured by Senator Leahy before his retirement and $16 million that will still be coming from the Waterfront TIF investment, ensures that this project to reconnect downtown Burlington will be realized in the coming years. When we went to voters in 2016, we envisioned up to six blocks of city streets along with two new streets, the reconnected pine and Paul Street being built, so eight blocks with these new federal funds and it's now clear that not only we're gonna be able to build those eight blocks, we're gonna be able to do two additional blocks, so 10 blocks altogether will be rebuilt in the next few years. Reconnecting this neighborhood from north to south, creating great new outdoor public spaces and improving public transportation and creating the public infrastructure that supports new housing and economic opportunities in this vital part of the downtown. Before you leave today, I hope you will all head down and take a look at what's going on on the construction site. You can see that there's a lot of the new buildings are going up, the first pieces of the work for the new public infrastructure is being built is underway now as well and the rest, the other eight blocks that are now funded, these three blocks from Winooski to the end of Winooski, sorry, from Winooski to Pine Street at the end of Bank Street here, as well as five blocks of Cherry Street, all of that work is projected to start construction in approximately the end of 2024. So, in a moment, we have a bunch of other speakers, I'm gonna call up here, we're so grateful to have them all here. Before doing that, I do just wanna say a couple of thank yous to people that we won't be hearing from. In addition to the city place partners, other property owners here on Bank Street and Cherry Street, we worked with them to secure the right way for this infrastructure project that involved work with the Larkin Company as well as Doug Nettie's companies and the owners of 100 Bank Street, the Redstone companies. I also wanna thank the DPW team who has worked so hard to make this project a reality for years now. We have city engineer Norm Baldwin here. And we do have Laura Wheelock, our senior engineer who has really shepherded this project for many years and been personally committed to making sure it happens. Thank you, Laura. I wanna, I believe Brian Pine from CEDO is right here as well, Brian Pine and the CEDO team have been critical to this project in so many ways from the creation of the TIFC district to all the community work that's involved in the creation of this workforce development project that is also a part of today's announcement in addition to the federal funding for construction, there's also approximately one and a half million dollars for creating jobs in the, in working with the local community to create job opportunities. We also are very grateful to Vermont V-Trans month and Michelle Bumauer and your colleagues at V-Trans. And then finally, I do see Nicole back there. This is, we created about a year ago a grant writing team to go after the new, particularly federal opportunities created by the recent Congress and this is the biggest success yet by far. This is one of the largest federal grants the city's ever been awarded. So congratulations, Nicole, for your work there. So with that, we are very grateful to the federal delegation, the entire federal delegation. I want to thank Aaron Monkey who's here on behalf of Senator Sanders. We also have several representatives, I believe, we have a beck and balance congressional office. Thank you for being here. And finally, I am very grateful that we're able to be joined today by Senator Welch, my old friend from, from a grown up in Heartland. It's pretty exciting, Senator Peter, to be able to announce this with you today. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Murrow. Murrow and I went hiking, he left me in the dust on Mount Washington, I'll tell you. You're still looking for me. I am so excited to be here and I'll tell you why. You know, I parted the Washington delegation, worked closely with Bernie, with Patrick, with Becca. And there's a lot of dismay folks have about what goes on in Washington. What we're trying to do is get the funds back to the communities that they need to do the hard work of revitalizing their community. And that we were able, in the infrastructure bill, through a raise grant to get 22 million that is gonna come right here to Burlington, along with the $12 million earmark of Senator Leahy, where the work begins about housing, about downtown neighborhoods that are livable, that invite people to be present, that are welcoming to young families. Where there's a coexistence by the efforts of our businesses that are represented here, by our city planners, by the Burlington taxpayers who committed themselves to this project. What you end up having is government working for the people the way it's supposed to work, it's a partnership. The federal government has more resources that can then be sent back to our communities. And as hard as the work is that Bernie and Patrick and Becca and I do, trying to wrestle through the resolution of some of these fights that just go off the rails oftentimes down in D.C. As hard as that work is and as happy as all of us are that we had success with this money that's coming to do real things in Burlington, the hard work is right here. It's people facing the challenges. It can be inflation. It can be the permit process. It can be access to contractors. It can be getting the workforce. It's having a business model that's gonna be sustainable. That takes effort and that's the hard work. And what I'm so proud of is that we've got people here in Burlington from the business sector, from the government sector, from the retail sector that are willing and able to persist, do the work, and then transform this community. And by the way, what the work that when this is done, this will be here for generations. Our grandchildren and their grandchildren will be enjoying the benefit of this. And what better testament to the future than our commitment to it than by taking on the ambition of a big project about enhancing the livability and the sustainability of the place where we live. So I salute all of the folks who are here who not only have brought us to this point but who are accepting the responsibility to get us to the end. So Mayor Weinberger, thank you so much for your leadership in City Hall. And all who are here with you, thank you for your efforts that are gonna continue. The work begins now. Thank you very much. So I'm not sure I quite managed to say it. I think what you, Senator, have done, what Senator Sanders has done, as well as Congress when bailing with this new focus on infrastructure, on getting this bipartisan bill, led by President Biden, getting it done, this is a great example. The transformative impact it is having and we're really very grateful for it. I just need to just change up the order quickly. We're about to lose Mark Sherman who is the owner of Raptor Gear Exchange. They've been a great partner through all this transformation in the downtown, put up with quite a bit through it. What do you say to have you with us here today, Mark? So Outdoor Gear Exchange started in 1995 on Main Street and has, through the past 28 years, been committed to Burlington's thriving Church Street marketplace and broader downtown. The work done by the Weinberger administration to bring downtown blocks up to the Great Street standards has been key in keeping Burlington growing and improving. Adding Bank and Cherry Streets to the Great Streets program over the coming years will be another huge step in keeping the Queen City on the forefront of downtown vitalization. I say vitalization because we don't need to revitalize the city. It is vital right now. This, along with the completion of the city place, will continue to expand the shopping district beyond Church Street and in doing so, bring more and more strength and diversity to the downtown shopping district and help support the many local businesses like ours that have and continue to invest in the community and make Burlington a great place to live and visit. We look forward to seeing this project get underway. Thank you. Thank you for your work. So Mark, Mark mentioned the Great Street standards. What everyone should have in mind in understanding what that means is the two new blocks of Lower St. Paul Street that between Main Street and Maple Street that were built just several years ago. Those same standards are what is gonna be applied. What is gonna be built over all 10 of these blocks similar standards to what the new Main Street project was about to get started is gonna be built to as well. I want a next welcome to the podium here, Michelle Boomhauer. She's the division director of policy and planning and intermodal development division at the Vermont Agency of Transportation. Michelle, in this role and our prior role of the Regional Planning Commission has just been a great partner to Burlington in so many ways as has all of the Vermont Agency of Transportation. And we're really grateful to have you here today to celebrate this milestone. Welcome, Michelle. Thank you, Mayor. Having grown up in Shending County, it's great to see these improvements and enhancements that have happened over my lifetime. The Agency of Transportation is thrilled to have a national grant of this scale awarded to the city of Burlington. Over the past decade, we've partnered with the mayor and his staff to improve transportation safety and community connectivity delivering projects which have been decades in the making. This project will close the chapter on the 60s and 70s urban renewal, error policies and designs which oriented the city around the car, returning the streets now to all users which is very exciting. Transportation and land use are inextricably linked and we are really excited that the elements are coming together through the city process. Many thanks to our congressional delegation for their support of the multimodal transportation projects which support equitable access and safe streets for all Vermonters and especially here in the Queen City. Thank you very much. Now, I did want to recognize also, I left them off before. Part of the DPW team of course is our DPW Director, Chief and Spencer who's also been very committed to this and Kara Allen-Israeli who is the head of our Business and Workforce Development Department. So, it's great that we are, the city people of Burlington are very fortunate to have so many talented and committed department heads. Next, we are gonna hear from another neighbor of the city place project and another key anchor on Cherry Street, what will be the new Cherry Street soon and that's Hans Van Wees from Hotel Vermont. Welcome, Hans. Thank you. Great to see you, Senator. Welcome, Mayor. Thank you, everybody present. And thank you for the work done when I heard you managed to get a $22 million grant that is phenomenal work. And thank you for your work done on reconnecting Burlington downtown and upgrading Cherry Street and Bank Streets to the Great Street Standards. We at Hotel Vermont have actually been ready for this project since 2013 when we opened our doors which is 10 years, we're celebrating our 10th anniversary. And Hotel Vermont was actually the last parcel of the urban redevelopment project that was being redeveloped. So that is over 10 years ago. In the early 1900s, this neighborhood, I'm talking near our hotel, was known as Little Italy, was bustling with activity led by entrepreneurs like Alfred Pirata, a grocer on Cherry Street, and Bellino's a store on the corner of Battery and Cherry Street. Following the opening of Hotel Vermont in 2013 and the courtyards are going to the Harper Hotel in 2007, Cherry Street started once again to become a destination for locals and visitors alike. In fact, between the two hotels, we've hosted over 750,000 people at our hotels coming just to stay over at our hotels in addition to all those visiting the restaurants. Together with our neighbors on the streets, particularly also Tricathedral Square, our neighbors across the road, efforts were undertaken early on to help to improve the bottom of Cherry Street and to create more of a neighborhood. What was missing, however, was a suitable streetscape promoting a healthy neighborhood. We're excited now that the City Place project is underway, providing much needed housing and residential use of Cherry Street. This federal grant will provide the opportunity to recreate a real neighborhood making Cherry Street and Bank Street streets to be proud of, befitting the beauty of Burlington and this unique neighborhood. We are thankful to our congressional delegation, Senators Lay, Sanders and Welch and securing earlier funding as well for 12 million and look forward to working with city government, our neighbors and other businesses to welcome the new Cherry Street soon. Thank you. Okay, and finally, we have a real treat. We've been joined today by Monica Farrington, who when she was growing up, lived in the old neighborhood here that was lost and that we are now taking this step towards using properly as a downtown neighborhood once again. Understanding the classic small world that is Vermont. Monica has a connection with the other Farrington that's here, I'll let her call that out, but it is great to have you here with us, Monica. Welcome. I had a three hour speech, but they told me I had to cut it down to three minutes. So don't mind me if I'm jumping all around, but basically I grew up about three blocks down on South Champlain Street in this house, which my grandparents had purchased in the 1920s. It had a 20 room mansion type and a four room little house in the back. My grandparents bought a car and took a picture of them, had someone take a picture of them. So this is how long my family had been there. I'm not into cars, I can't tell you what this is, but that's my grandmother and my grandfather. They had emigrated from Lebanon from a Christian village called Hadith Ojibi in 1890. And he came first and saved the money and sent money for her and she came in 1900, I have their paperwork. So my mother and her five sisters and their brother were all born here in Vermont. And that switched between Barry and Burlington. My grandfather couldn't make up his mind whether he wanted to be a farmer in Barry or a little shopkeeper in Burlington. So he'd switched the family back and forth. Long story short, my mother married a man from Wunusky and they were living in Wunusky. That area is also torn down with urban renewal. That was East Center Street, that's gone. So my mother and father split when I was a little kid. I was born in 1941 and they split around 1945, 44, 45, my mother moved back into Burlington, hello. I guess they're joining me, are they applauding? Okay, so we moved back into this, my mother and I moved back into this little house in the backyard and I went to, one thing I wanted to say, I told you I had to cut this three hour speech down so short. It was a safe neighborhood. We could walk anywhere and not get accosted and not get shot and not get tripped and pocket books stolen or anything like that. Long story short, it was also convenient to everything. There were neighborhood grocery stores. My dentist was upstairs over Kresge's store, which was one of the two dime stores on Church Street. My school was Cathedral Grammar, which I could walk to and that was over on that block. My church was Cathedral Church, which is burned down. So anyway, you could go anywhere. You could walk to the hospital if you wanted or you could catch the bus on the corner and go. Nobody needed a car. There were very few cars and we walked everywhere in our neighborhood. When I was 15, I got a job selling tickets at the State Theater right here where the farmhouse is now and that was the State Theater and we had double features because they were second runs long, so that was fun. I decided I needed to be Annie Oakley when that movie came by, Annie Get Your Gun. And I watched it multiple times. Anyway, I ended up at Cathedral High School and then my senior year graduated from Rice Memorial High School and I went on to UVM from there, four years, walking from South Champlain Street to the university campus, walk, walk, walk. Anyway, so I wanted to talk about diversity of our old neighborhood and I made some notes here if I can find them, that it was ethnically diverse. A lot of us were Lebanese, Catholic, yeah, Catholic Protestant and Jewish at the time. There were Italians, mostly Italians, but it was quite a mix in French and English. And one representative of the French families were the Mokwins Bakery that some of you have probably heard about. There were some pictures recently posted on Vermont Area History online, on Facebook. By religion, we were diverse. There was some of everything here. And then by occupations, we ran from Blue Collar. My mother worked in the, after working in the mills of Winozki, she switched to the factory, the sewing factories, in the back of College Street. And so she could walk to work and sew at the sewing factories. My stepfather worked, by then I had a stepfather. And he worked at Champlain Valley Fruit Company, which had its fruit and vegetables and groceries and beer come in on the railroad. And he was on, he worked overnight on the railroad platform, unloading the rail cars and putting them in trucks that went to the local grocery stores. No car needed, he walked to work, he walked back home again. We also had Dr. Hogan, who had a doctor's office. We had Dr. Eastman, who had an obstetrics office down on College Street. We had Mike Corey, who had a gas station. There was some of everything and a little grocery store on every corner. And the Contoy's family, you all know the Contoy's Auditorium is named after Raymond Contoy's. His family's home got taken with this movement too. And he was city treasurer of Burlington and his wife was one of the very two first female police women in the state. So that was really cool. Mr. Antonisi was a barber. He lived across the street in his home, but he had a barber shop about three doors up in the next block, the block that was between bank and cherry. Our block was bank down to college. There was a lawyer named Mr. Hopkins. There were bankers named the Morgans, the Morgan family. So my point is that we were diverse in occupations and in education and in religion and in everything, it was just amazing. The prices that urban renewal paid everybody and devastated them basically were just obscene. This house that was my grandparents with the second house in the back, that housed five families that got paid 16,500 and by the urban renewal authorities. They also had a catch 22 clause that if you sued in court and the court came up with a lower appraisal than what you were offered, you had to pay the difference. And so they caught you. People were afraid to sue. My family did sue. By then my mother had, my grandmother had died and my mother and her five sisters sued. And everything was wonderful except, let me tell you about something that happened that was very sad. My mother had a little brother and he was given a sled a few days before Christmas. He went sliding down College Street and got hit, got run over by a truck on Battery Street. So we had this tragedy in our family too. And this is my mother and dad. The property behind them is all Pine Street and with that, I will relieve you of listening to my mouth. Thank you. Thank you, all right. Thank you, Monica. One last point I wanted, we may have just lost her, but Megan Tuttle is our planning director. This also again, this goes all the way back. I know Dan, you were around for this. When plan BTV was a city planning document that really kind of set this all emotion back in 2011 and 2012. And so also the planning department, a big part of this. So with that, thank you all for being here. We'd be happy to take a few questions if there are any. So obviously there's a lot of construction that's happening down here. Is there going to be a way to stagger it? So all these streets are going to be happening at once, including with the industry projects? Yeah, Catherine. So absolutely, you may remember we recently, there is so much investment going on and so much federal investment. We have been working with V-Trans and federal highway to coordinate these projects. You really saw, really the city's not in recent memory had kind of a coordinated plan like we have for the South end recently. Now that these awards have been made, I'm sure we will be doing something similar for the downtown. Chip, do you want to add any detail on that? I mean, it's really, you know, this awards have just happened and the final schedules haven't been settled on. But the main street projects, we are looking to get going, you know, either at the end of this year, the beginning of next year, and then we're talking the new streets are starting now through the model properties, Cherry Street and Bank Street. Like I mentioned before, we're looking at the earliest, around a late 2024 start. So there's definitely gonna be a lot going on in the downtown. I know we got Kelly Devine from the Burlington Business Association here. She will be in my office making sure this all well coordinated and we're communicating well with any impacted businesses. I mean, there is no way to do this type of construction without there being some level of disruption. Our teams have gotten really good at working with the impacted property owners and working to minimize those disruptions and certainly be doing that here. Yeah, so yeah, I mean, absolutely. I mean, basically of this, what we're a total budget now approaching 50 million there will at this point, I believe we have 600,000 of that funded from property tax dollars. The rest is being leveraged through one program or another, certainly the TIF program is a significant part of that, which is future property taxes, but it is pretty remarkable, I think that we will be able to do something approaching 50 million dollars of infrastructure investment with that small of a fraction being carried by current property tax payers. Yeah, so from, I will start and Brian, you wanna speak a little bit more to what I mean, workforce development has been part of the Goal of the City Place Project from the start, the development agreement that we have with city place partners has a number of commitments and requirements to paying fair wages and to working to create local talent. What this does is add to that actual federal dollars to put meaning behind that. You wanna add a little more on that? Sure, I think it's the workforce development piece that's really intended to ensure that the economic opportunity that comes from this project, that some of that benefit flows to historically disadvantaged and marginalized populations. So the focus is on low income youth, youth of color to develop the skills in order to fill jobs in the higher paying construction industry. Monica asked us to mention the video that she has. Yeah, of course. Yeah, this is great, go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, I'm sorry. Hello, break it down. 20 years ago, my son started a four-year project on his own with his own money, shooting, interviewing, doing everything himself and doing all the research. And he came out with this video, the Champlain Street Urban Renewal Project. We had, in that day, 20 years ago, there were multiple showing videos available, take a look on YouTube because he's got some beautiful photos of the old neighborhood and a history of how it all happened and he's got interviews with the developers and that sort of thing. And it's on YouTube, the Champlain Street Urban Renewal Project by Patrick Farrington, yeah. Great, thank you. Again, if people couldn't hear that, the Champlain Street Urban Renewal Project, I remember watching this video, it's a great documentary on what happened in this neighborhood. I watched it again last night, but it's now the first night. On your bank street before this pandemic, that forced us to close, what are you doing and what part of this 22 million is dedicated to multi-culturalism around downtown, which will bring diversity as well as entrepreneurship in obtaining space? How much of the 22 million is being allowed into that? So, I'm not familiar with what you're saying at Hunter Bank exactly, but happy to talk to you offline about it. As you just heard, there is a significant piece of this federal money is going towards job creation and with a specific focus on equity. The name of this federal program is to do infrastructure while being focused on equity. So there's a big focus on workforce as a piece of that. In terms of what is going to be in the downtown, going forward, we certainly think that bringing that there's gonna be, we're going from a situation where this part of the downtown was dominated by a one-half-story suburban mall to one where there will be thousands of people living and hundreds of jobs. And the CTM will certainly be working to make sure that that is done in an equitable way and if you can, as that comes into being. And we have, happy to talk to you more about that. Bringing multi-culturalism for those who are of color. We're gonna bring about more jobs. Hi, I'm the Director of Business and Workforce Development and we actually have two employees fully dedicated to helping our BIPOC community and our LGBTQ community help start businesses. And we have micro-business programs, we have zero-interest revolving loan programs and we also offer technical support. You can come to my office anytime and we can sit down and work with you. We can help you find locations, help you work with your landlord and help get you established. We open. Yes, yes. You had the hair salon. Yes. Yes, I remember. Yeah. Yeah. Megan, did you set two blocks for adding and use all the federal money? Yes. Which two? It's really the initial project, Dan, and Vision coming up from the lake to Church Street. We now can do one block more on both Cherry Street and Bank Street. Okay, thank you all for being here. Thank you all for being part of this. Appreciate you coming out in the heat and congrats everyone involved again. I'm Al Seneca and I'm here with Dave Farrington from City Place Builders. In the background you can see the cranes and the towers, the stair towers that have been built. The crane on the right hand side is building foundations and the one on the left is erecting steel and the project is moving very quickly now and that's all I can say at this point. I don't know if Dave has anything to say. Out of the south building, which is the building that's on Bank Street, we're all done the foundation work and they're doing steel erection now. It'll be going up over the next three months up to 10 stories tall and then you'll see it getting closed in over the late summer and early fall. We'll be closing in, getting windows in there and then we disappear inside for about a year and finish it up and the following spring we'll be doing some of the exterior finish work and we're hoping to be done at the end of 2024 with the south building.