 Thumbs up. OK. Everyone ready? Welcome to the Essex Junction Trustees Meeting. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Welcome, everybody. And if you haven't signed in, please do so. Thank you. We are, I will just take a moment to introduce our new recording secretary. Kathy, do you want to introduce yourself very quickly for the folks? Sure. My name is Kathy Ayesworth. I'm a general director of county for monitor. Happy to be here. I have experience with grant writing and technical writing. And I look forward to being part of the team. So thank you. And Kathy, I'm sure, is a consummate pro. But just to be on the safe side, make sure everyone annunciates. OK? We want to make sure that here in Essex Junction we all are good speakers, all right? Because we'll be compared badly to other places. So first order of business, agenda additions. Evan, anything going on? Just we have one letter from the Chin-Tin Solid Waste District, just to add to the reading pot. OK. Do I hear a motion? I'll move away from the agenda. Do I hear a second? Second. Laurie seconds. All in favor? Aye. OK. The agenda is amended. So we will move on to audience and guests' questions, comments, anything that's not on the agenda tonight. All good? All right. So moving right along we will go to new business. And we have two item, we have two Route 15 sidewalks at two different ends of Route 15. And the first one has to do with the end at Athens Drive and Dennis, come on up. And anyone else to come up with you? Dennis, you're going to walk us through this. Actually, no. I'm going to make a very quick introduction. OK. And sit down. Yep. And I'm going to introduce the representative from Stantic, Eric Daling, and Christine Ford for the meeting. Yep, like Christine. I think most of the trustees have been at least a one public hearing on this project. Yep. You're kind of aware of it. Mr. Everyone knows scoping is, in fact, just the first stage of a longer project because if all is scoping with design right away and then construction, as of today we have no committed funds to build either of these projects. Right. But we hope to. So this is, the intent of tonight's meeting is for the trustees to basically select a preferred alternative, if they so choose. And with that, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. Thanks, Dennis. OK. The first of the two projects, as Dennis mentioned, is the piece from Susie Wilson to West Street Extension. The Project Advisory Committee, or PAC, is made up of members from the Village, Town, and CCRPC. Tonight's purpose is to go over the project area, review the process, look at the alternatives, and to seek endorsement of the preferred alternative. Here's an overview of the project area. I mentioned in the first slide that it's from Susie Wilson to West Street Extension. You can see there's actually another piece that continues to Ethan L. Nav. We'll touch on that in a couple of slides. But an important piece to note here is we are looking at just bikes and pedestrians. We're not proposing any changes that's going to affect traffic flow through the area. A few facilities that are planned. This is the 10-foot shared youth path that goes from Whiteville to Susie Wilson Road, which is currently in design. And on the eastern end of the project, there are two on-road bike lanes that travel east from West Street Extension and towards Five Portals. The typical project process goes as follows. We're in the project definition phase where it's scoped. We look at alternatives and ultimately try to seek a preferred alternative. After that, it goes in for funding, and then ultimately engineering and construction. We are getting towards the end of the definition process. We have some alternatives, and we have a preferred alternative that we're seeking endorsement of. So this phase is basically at the end. Quick timeline. We started about a year ago. We presented to the public in January and again in June. And we're here to summarize those results. The purpose of this project is to provide a safe, visible, comfortable, convenient, and direct bicycle facility. And it would complete a much needed missing link. We'd be inviting corridor for users of all abilities and would help reinforce the town, village, and region and schools for mobility. We did look at three alternatives to this process. The first is one that's always considered and that's to not do anything. Can I, I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you. It's not a big deal, but I think either my agenda says we were going to first talk about the Athens Drive project and then the West Street Extension Project. And it seems like we've, does everyone else have that in their agenda or is that just me? That's probably correct. And I think because, and that's the way we did it last night in Essex, I think because this is wholly an S-extruction, we thought you might want it. That's, it's just a formality and a technicality. I just wanted to make sure there was no confusion because some of us are thinking we're going to be talking about upper, you know, so we want, I want to make that correction. And I don't know, I'll leave it to you, Evan, do we need to amend the agenda to be talking about this? I personally don't care. I don't think any of us care, but I just want to make sure we don't- I think about consensus, you could just move. Let's just, let's just all understand that we just sort of switch, we flip-flop things. And it's fine. My plug is you can talk about it. Sorry. It's fine. And I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I just wanted to make note of that. Okay, thanks. Yeah, so as I mentioned, the bill bill alternative was always considered. And then there were two billed alternatives. One was to leave the median intact and reconfigure the existing lanes. And the third alternative was to actually remove the median and add a left turn lane. You can see on the image there, the existing conditions. I'm sure everybody here knows that pretty well. It's a facility designed solely for vehicles. It's got two 12-foot lanes with no shoulder, 16-foot median in the middle. There is a modest four-foot buffer on the north side between Susie Wilson and West Street and a five-foot sidewalk. Turn that buffer on the side. That just falls off most of the time. On the south side, yes. It falls off to the railroad. There's nothing over there. There's nothing there. Yeah, yeah, correct. So the second alternative would actually leave all the curb lines exactly the same and it would just reallocate the space within each lane. And if we do that, there's room for an 11-foot travel lane in each direction and a buffered bike lane. The four-foot grass strip on the north side would stay, but that sidewalk would be increased from five to eight feet to accommodate bikes. Alternative three is the more construction-intensive alternative and that would actually remove the median completely, almost completely. And holding the south edge of the roadway, which is shown on the right side, there would be room for a buffered bike lane, an 11-foot travel lane in each direction, a left turn lane heading east. And even with all that, there's enough room for a 12-foot grass strip along the north side and then again, increasing that sidewalk from five to eight feet. And that 12-foot grass strip would provide space to replace the trees that would be removed with median. Here's an aerial view of what it looks like. You can see that 12-foot grass strip really stands out there. We can zoom in on the intersection of Suzy Wilson. A couple of important things to know without that median, there's no longer a need for, well there's that awkward kind of U-turn slip lane right now if you're heading west on Route 15, which would allow people that live on the north who want to travel eastbound would have to come up to Suzy Wilson, do a U-turn and head back. So without the median there, there's no need for that slip lane and the intersection geometry can be tightened up quite a bit, which is nice because that makes for a shorter crossing across Suzy Wilson. You can see on the very left edge of the image, that's where the proposed shared use path ties in. The users would cross Suzy Wilson there and could either continue east along the shared use path or bicycles could cross the road and continue east on the on-road bike facility. Taking a look at the other end of the project as we approach West Street, zoom in here. A couple of things to note that again, for the same reason that the slip lane that Suzy Wilson is in need of, you could partially remove some of the turnaround shown on the top of the screen. We would propose a raised curb bus stop and that would allow bikes to get behind it and not be in conflict potentially with buses. And then for the on-road facility, you can see those green markings which Bennequah has been on Wilson Road in the last year, they're there, they're great, they really stand out, they've been holding out pretty well. Traveling east at the end of this slide is where we tie into the existing bike lanes that are there today. The other piece I touched on, Ethan Allen Ave to Suzy Wilson Road, this is an opportunity to create a safer crossing of Route 15. If that meeting was partially removed, there'd be space for the three lanes that are there today, the two laps on the Suzy Wilson and the through lane and that would be space for a seven foot bike lane. And it looks like this in plain view, it's only adding a facility to the south side of Route 15 to the eastbound direction. The advantage here is you could get bikes off of the path into a bike box where they wait for a green light at Ethan Allen Ave, they cross, get into the facility on road. And once they get to Suzy Wilson, they can cross that intersection without having to cross lanes of traffic, which is why we added that piece to the scope of the study. Eric, could you just go back to the Suzy Wilson road and explain the lane draw? Oh, yes, yeah, that's a good point, yeah, thank you. So V-Trans is currently setting the Suzy Wilson Route 15 intersection and is likely that their preferred alternative will include two left turn lanes off of Suzy Wilson onto Route 15 eastbound. So we've left two receiving lanes in there, which means that if this project goes or that one goes first, it doesn't matter, they'll be compatible. Similarly, heading west, we've left two lanes, which will allow the same amount of vehicles that get through after this project were constructed. It would now reduce capacity through that intersection. Thank you, Christian. And then they tie into each other. Well, they tie into each other because of also the reduction of the slip lane U-turn. These projects, yeah, will have to keep in contact. Which is helping reduce the efficiency of the intersection. Conflicts. Yes, definitely. Conflicts. Yes, I agree. We'll touch on that again at the end. Just comparing the costs, there's substantial cost difference between two and three to this because the median is removed. And with that comes a lot of stormwater drainage modifications and an amendment to the stormwater permit. That 12 foot grass trip does work well to do some treatment right there alongside the road in the form of a stormwater garden infiltration basin. Otherwise, the third alternative addresses the bag needs and also the vehicle movement needs in terms of removing that median in that barrier to the northern properties. All right. Yes. I just want to make one comment. You sure have to cost. As I said, we haven't tied down costs yet. Yeah. One of the critical things is that when we did the Circle Highway Alternatives there was a bike path scoping project that went from Manuski through to West Street. Yes. However, the portion from Susie Wilson Road to West Street was not well defined. Yeah. But it was part of the Circle Highway Alternative projects, which are 100% funded. So we split this one off to settle the scoping for this portion of the road. You know, what should we put out there? And it went from simple bike lanes in the beginning to what you're seeing as a preferred alternative to make that road diet consistent through the village and provide the bike lanes and provide that multi-use path. So the argument that we feel we want to make collectively town and village is that this was always part of those Cirque Highway projects and should be 100% funded as part of it. The Susie Wilson Road Intersection Project being done by the state is a Cirque Alternative project that's 100% funded. The other caveat to this is that the Class I paving costs that were set up for the village were stopped at West Street pending the results of this study. So those funds, theoretically, are still in the table some place at V Trans to repave this. So the argument we'll make going forward is that whatever alternative is chosen we think that there should be no local costs and that those Class I paving costs should be assigned to this project. So I just thought that's our approach on how we want to fund this one. The other second one we'll get to later is a little different animal but this one I think has a history behind it that we feel we can go after. Okay, the bike turnaround that you're talking about as being part of the Cirque Alternative project but that's not funded yet. That would have to come from the second round of Cirque Alternative funding or another round of Cirque Alternative funding. Is that what you're saying? Probably, George, yes. They've already funded the portion from West Street to Susie Wilson Road and that's in fact under-designed by the state that's in the tip and moving forward as a project. So there's got to be some maneuvering on the part of us all to decide can we adjust that scope to include this and that project or do we define this as another phase of Cirque Highway projects to be funded and go after the funding that way? To be decided. So for the reasons Dennis mentioned Alternative 3 and Option A is the alternative that came out of the pack. Going forward there's some uncertainty there but this portion may be left to the village as a local project so we'll be trans-worked on the intersections or maybe it becomes one project. And as Dennis mentioned there's the funding for the Class 1 paving project that may still be there and we've also asked to be trans-considered the additional fees beneath and out of that in Susie Wilson Road. So the tax recommendation is Alternative 3 with Option A and we would seek endorsement from the trustees. So can we ask questions? Absolutely. So I just want to get some clarification on the part that you're saying in a picture, could you show me the part that you're saying is already funded the section that's already funded by Cirque Alternative? That's the intersection. It's west of Susie Wilson Road to Winooski. Oh okay, I thought you said west street so I was confused. West of Susie Wilson to Winooski. Thank you. Eric, could you put a picture of Alternative 3 back up? The cross section? No, the overhead section. I just have a couple of questions. I'm just questioning why it wasn't this one but another one but it was why you felt such a lengthy left-hand turn lane was necessary. It seems like you have a long left-hand turn lane or maybe I misunderstood it. Yeah, go back to that one, that cross section, maybe that was it. It seems like if you look at the cross section it looks like my understanding that the left-hand turn lane is running much longer than it is right now. Well this left turn lane would be to access all those properties that are currently separated by the median so that would be like a center turn lane essentially but you could only turn left because there are no properties. So that one, so the bottom, we're looking at the bottom picture, the large picture. And this is looking towards S6 Junction. I'm standing at Suzy Wilson. Well this could be any point along that stretch of road. Okay. George, think of the road diet that was done on Pearl Street from West Riyen. It's a very same concept except since there's nothing on the railroad track side to turn, instead of having a center lane that you could turn right or left this would only be signed to turn left. Okay. But it's this very same thing as the road diet that was occurring between West Street and it's coming into the village. But it just looks to me like it's the purpose is to stack traffic up that's going to turn left and it's like there's never that much traffic turning left. If we look at the overhead view, you could be in that lane to turn it to any one of those driveways along the way. You wouldn't be stacking up necessarily. Okay. That center lane runs right through here. It doesn't start until this point here. Okay. And then you've got, you know, if somebody wanted to make a last they could simply get into that left turn lane and turn into that driveway or that driveway. But there should be no stacking along that lane. Okay. But you know, and I understand so as you were saying, Rick, thank you for explaining it. So instead of having the center either side can turn lane, there's nothing to turn into. Correct. I don't want to interrupt. It's just sort of a follow-up. The only thing, and I would like to get everyone's comment here, we've always struggled with Pearl Street. You know, the overarching goal of all our streets, particularly state highways is slow everybody down. And to me, the median that's there now gives the visual cue for drivers coming up Route 15 out of Winooski, Colchester and typically what happened in the past is they finally break free from the traffic and they hit Pearl Street it's an open road and they hit the accelerator and so the idea is that we put the median we didn't put the median in, that was put quite a few years ago but the median visually slows people down. Maybe I'm giving too much power and authority to an inanimate object of the median. But in my mind my understanding is that's what that was the effect in removing that, is that a concern that you're visually signaling people you're still on a main highway speeded up. I just thoughts. So one of the things that we noticed very early on in the Pearl Street when we went from four lanes to three was the traffic did slow down and right now the median actually is an encouragement because there is as you drive in that left-hand lane there can be no encouragement coming at you because there is a barrier there and so in some ways that barrier actually encourages you to give a free reign to go a little bit faster. Under this proposal what the team has talked about Dennis and we've all talked about is that the speed limit now would be dropped starting at Suzy Wilson Road coming to Village. Right now as you know it's 45 until you get just up to west and it goes to 35 then we drop ultimately to 25 when we get into the pedestrian zone the discussion now is that we would start at Suzy Wilson and go at least to 35 maybe even to 30 and start the speed limit there now that we're in a three lane section to also from a regulatory standpoint slow the vehicles down and visually you're going to be instead of seeing two lanes moving in your direction you're going to see a single lane a striped lane you're going to have a barrier striping for the sidewalk the buffer striping so the overall feel would be actually a narrower lane which should encourage people to go slower which we did notice very much so happened on Pearl Street when we went to Road Nile. Very good explanation thank you Rick I appreciate that okay I got it thanks I have several concerns I like the idea of having a separate lane for biking and walking and what have you in this sketch here my concern is crash crashes crash data and what exists now with the median is a physical barrier that prohibits left turns onto traffic a heavily traveled route where people are all kinds of traffic going through there I think it's opening up opportunity for some serious crashes the other thing is not this photo is west read extension you don't see it there as you approach west read extension go back okay right there you have a dedicated lane it's not just that little slight part it indicates it well before that dedicated lane just to turn onto west read extension make the right turn as you at eastbound on 15 what you have in the drawing you have a a turn lane we're doing away the median we're going to have a turn lane I went up to here and we're going to have a straight lane so the lane traffic traveling east on 15 from Susie Wilson from Winooski what have you is going to be in the southern lane if you want to look at this as we're looking east west route right here okay they're going to be in that southern lane they're going to be hit traveling eastbound then they're going to have to move because that becomes now a dedicated right turn lane they're going to move back in the left lane to get to go straight through this west read extension I'm just saying that typical section would go back to the slide let me just show you something here just try to have it on road so okay right here go back to the one before that this way here this is what you have okay this is going to be westbound traffic on 15 correct this is going to be eastbound traffic on 15 that's the turn lane that's the travel through lane that says traveling lane right now as you approach west street extension how does that change show me that that travel lane stays straight once you get in that travel lane so you're saying it's going to open once you get in that travel lane that middle lane is only for for both left turns into those houses and left turns out of those houses which is really critical so once you go from the two lanes you come off of Susie Wilson and you come on to Pearl Street those two lanes will go to one that one is your straight path straight into the village any turning movements the right turn into west street is a lane if you're turning left turn there to go into the park it's a lane so the straight moving traffic once you get into that lane you're on that lane all the way into the village correct and so what happens now is there are two full lanes all the way from Susie Wilson and you decide at the very last minute that oops I really want to go through straight now you're making that move back in you're making that there's the race to get it back into the left hand lane under this plan it will not happen because the through traffic is set and you have to make a move to the right now to make that turn to west street so people won't find themselves in a right hand lane going oops I want to go straight and taking out that sign I hear what you're saying Rick but I honestly believe it's great that you're presenting this to our board into the select board but honestly you need to talk to the police department and really speak to them they have a lot of information it would be very helpful with this I truly believe I've seen a lot of accidents there in just in the last six months there's been a couple serious accidents right there and people confused on what lane they're in what they're doing and I think getting away from that barrier that median that is a buffer and protects you from the other traffic I really get concerned with vehicles turning and in and out of private driveways trying to gauge whether they can make it for what it's worth can we go back to Super Bowl the intersection we didn't go into this a whole lot it's important um is that median states the only way for those people to get back to the village is to turn around this intersection the states design this intersection there's not enough room to land here in a tier with Sunderland Brook the houses that are there if you took the houses there's not enough room to get a reverse turn movement at this intersection for those global services trading to a certain degree is you're allowing those vehicles to turn out and the speed limit is dropped it's a concern but that's the trade off between this intersection which won't work continue to work with that reverse turn and two turning lanes it's just not going to work so that's the dilemma is we have this maintains that same road diet in the rest of the village and I can't speak to these traffic accidents in the village but I think that road diet in the rest of the village has worked and I don't see why it wouldn't work here because the trade off is you can't fix this intersection so it's there's there's buses and there's wine that says on low side okay well I just we'll see we'll see okay yep great and I would assume that also by reducing this feed that would also help because I would allow motorists to have additional time additional reaction time if any crash were to happen hopefully it wouldn't be that severe with that aside one of the questions that I have are concerns so the way that the other Susie Wilson Road project is configured is there's going to be two lanes turning left from Susie Wilson to go eastbound on to route 15 my assumption is that's because of the amount of traffic coming from Susie Wilson to go on to 15 is going to be increasing is that correct it's existing today you've got I'll try to explain this as best I can without getting into a lot of detail but the conflicting turning movements at this intersection time wise and you've only got a certain amount of traffic you can fit through in a time clock and so the two left turns here coming in is a dedicated turning movement that basically what allows you to do the right turns but in the afternoon it doesn't make any difference it's basically, oops sorry I'll know so you've got these two which take up an immense amount of time and the PM traffic will come out abruptly the same thing is occurring in Susie Wilson Road because of that queue so if you've got and I'll pick in over 50 cars back here and you've got to get into a certain time frame and you take that 50 cars and put them into 225 foot lanes you can double the throughput which means in that same time frame you've improved the efficiency of the turning movement essentially if you and we had the state go back and study this because I know it's got a question about receiving lanes without the two left turns the intersection goes for level service half long ways and essentially fast and the state say we're not going to put money into a project that fails so you need those two and when you do that it takes the intersection from a level service F for these left turns to a level service C and that's both today and 20 years from now so then taking those two left hand lanes to then come into two for a short distance to then come into one and then it merged into one and that's although there's been a lot of traffic work done in the scoping study and one of the first parts of the design element is to look at from both elements because you've got one lane coming this direction and it goes out to two as it approaches the intersection what's the length of that queue that you need based upon traffic counts and traffic estimates and the same is here what's that length of the queue that you need to blend those two lanes to allow and I'll use the example 25 cars whatever the magic number is to get into those two lanes to blend it could be 400 feet it could be 600 feet it could be some distance but the intent is to do your merging of those two lanes into one in a shorter distance as you can so is part of what you're saying that the distance that it is two lanes isn't necessarily exactly what we see there because it's a scoping study and it could change into the future if traffic models are showing we need more we don't need as much my estimate and I think that's one thing in the public hearing we said that we got our design we would have them really take a hard look at to see if in fact this needs to be lengthened by 100 feet or some number so it's not locked into what that's showing I believe this line is pretty accurate because we've got accurate traffic counts coming out of here I think the question becomes one of what do you need for that queue length coming from Village Traffic especially and again Village Traffic both AM and PM peak because there's a difference I almost think AM peak is worse than PM peak you answered thank you I appreciate that and then the only other thing to comment I really appreciate how in taking away the meaning what it would do is I think personally it would make it feel more neighborly more like a neighborhood and less like a major thoroughfare that it feels like that I have to take many times a day because for those of us who leave at 6 Junction and go into the Burlington area using Group 15 it should hopefully then allow for us to have a clear sight of the traffic lights that we currently don't see until we're right there eating the slam on our brakes who may be going to Speedrun or so because of the distance from that last tree to the lights I appreciate being able to see the light events this also provides that connectivity to eat 40th and Allen somewhat difficult if you will and connectivity to the Suzy Wilson corridor as well as the junction because that that's confusing and most people just don't do it yeah between this project and the proposed shared use path that goes down the line kill is going to be a pretty good length of connected facility and then the second part is those parcels that are closest to the corner does this alternative help future economic development is it neutral to it I don't see anybody taking the left out of that first parcel or two it looks like a share of driveway proposing but yeah those first two are a little tough with the meeting there without it I think they have a tough time it's not many vehicles that would come in and out of that driveway that's the plus side it's not like it's a you know busy store but yeah just the proximity to the intersection is a challenge for sure I don't think this hurts them necessarily but it's certainly not ideal so further back you go somewhat easier to get oh definitely yeah now getting in from eastbound you're sitting in a left hand turn yes and then you would cross two lanes of traffic to get into your driveway but at least you're doing it from a left hand long to the east of what we're showing here you'd be only crossing one lane yeah well there's a two lane queue yeah there's only for this one piece that's just to get the vehicle correct and I think that if I just carry that forward a little bit one of the things and speaks to your concern and to Dan's concern I think if the westbound or the part coming out of S6 Junction towards Suzy Wilson had remained two lanes it would be a little more concerning people taking a left hand turn over two lanes and negotiating a bike path and a sidewalk to get into their driveway but since you're reducing it to one and we're going to really reduce the speed limit right here 25 miles an hour no okay just that was just wishful thinking 30 miles an hour okay but still you're reducing it and it makes it a little bit safer that you're not it pretty much I understand it puts it in the same environment as up at Pearl Street which is what you mean by that any other questions comments comments are welcome I'll just say I think the amount of people that I see walking in that area now I think this would be a big plus for them to feel much safer you know I share Dan's concerns when you take a median away but I really appreciate the idea of lowering the speed limit and all the things Andrew said I mean it looks like a really great win win for every mode of transportation we're trying to help here okay I will allow just a very quick I don't know that is anyone in the audience who has a comment but I will allow it right now if someone has a comment or a question all good everyone good okay so let's we have another scoping study to look at so let's wrap this do I hear a motion I think this is the right one I'll move that the trustees approve alternative 3 with option A as preferred alternative including the recommendation by staff as outlined in the document do I hear a second any further discussion all in favor opposed now Eric walk us through the next one alright okay alright so we're still on route 15 but we are now between Athens Drive and 289 this is the same pack essentially Village Town and CCRPC staff this slides a little off but we're in the same purpose we're looking for endorsement of the preferred alternatives this project area is just north in the east of the five corners this is a high priority bike route by the village and the project area is shown here between Athens Drive and the west side of 289 is the original area we actually extend it a little bit on each end as you'll see as we go through same project process as the other project same definition process and this one actually followed the same exact timeline it was really nice working on them both because we were able to meet at the same time and the public meetings have been one after another so it's been pretty efficient similar purpose and need to provide safe, visible, comfortable, convenient bicycle facility and it would provide that for all users it would be a year round bicycle and pedestrian facility and inviting to pedestrians and bicycles three alternatives again the no-builds a 10 foot lighted shared use path with bike lanes on road and a 8 foot shared use path lighted shared use path with on-road bicycle facilities look at the typical section that's there today it's two 12 foot travel lanes and a 2 foot shoulder that 2 feet is less than the minimum that's considered safe for bicyclists that minimum would be 4 feet so we can take a look at alternative 3 the travel lanes on the road would be narrowed from 12 to 11 feet and then a foot would be added to each side to give that 4 foot bike lane we would also propose a 5 foot grass strip and then the 8 foot shared use path alongside the road here's a look in plan view the dark gray is new pavement and the green is just impact from construction a little closer this is one of the pieces I mentioned we extended the project limits to the right of this and that is fair view drive down into the left there's one section between there that's 5 foot sidewalk if you go just west of this it's 8 foot shared use path we're proposing a foot shared use path and then to the east of the project limits it's 8 foot so this is kind of an obvious missing link we propose to widen that 5 foot to 8 foot and to minimize impact push it right up against the pavement and separate it from the pavement with a curb this is the middle section of the project we can zoom in the Brian French parcel was the house that is closest to the road so in order to minimize impacts here we propose to again push the path up against the road which would leave space for a driveway turnaround that would allow motorists to back into the turnaround and then enter route 15 heading forward which is safer for that motorist and pedestrians and bicycles just a little bit further to the east this is the crossing of Indian Brook there's a culvert there today that's in fair condition in an extent quite a bit beyond the edge of the roadway so all we have to do is just kind of beef up the retaining wall that's there today and then run the path right alongside the road with some slight guard ground modifications doing it this way would also minimize impact to the wetland and wetland buffer in this area heading towards the eastern end of the project you can see the interchange street view of that you can see that the path fits in pretty nicely without impacting the utility poles and you get that nice 5 foot grass trip and 4 foot bike lane which gives a nice separation between the path and the roadway and then finally the interchange we extended to get to right there on the east you can say where it says end proposed path that's the existing 8 foot path we would propose to widen the sidewalk on the bridge from 5 to 8 feet we use the path in the median refuges at the on and off ramp and utilize that 8 foot wide and sidewalk across the bridge where the on-road users would get a lot of green pavement marking which is standard procedure now for interstate interchanges here's the street view of what that would look like across the bridge you can see the pavement marking and the wide end sidewalk this evaluation matrix is a little different the only difference in cost really is that extra 2 feet of pavement the impacts are nearly identical though there would be a few more impacts to right away in wetlands associated with a 10 foot path both would require the same amount of drainage modifications and neither would require storm water permit it's important to note that V-Trans is actually working on a paving project that would add those 4 foot bike lanes to route 15 that's in design right now for the next fiscal year so our preferred alternative would be alternative 3 and we would like to see lighting because of the importance of this corridor and making it a year round facility and also adding that section on the western end converting from 5 to 8 feet and then to get across the bridge and connect into the area to the east and so again it's the pack's recommendation that alternative 3 be selected and we can open that up for discussion questions go back to the view the whole overall view so what so it's a road a bike lane something and then a pedestrian path so is it a green buffer as in like grass okay it's not just the green that's painted on there no those green pavement markings would be near the energy but thank you I love the concept the ability what this would do for connectivity as it has been a missing link and the only other way to get around it is either take your life into the motorist hands like that route or take the existing bike path that goes through countryside area that in terms of efficiency doesn't make much sense so I love that my only recommendation is if it hasn't been thought about is coming from the town into the village and that changes from 40 to 30 is when you're going down a hill when you're already partially down the hill and so there are not many motorists who appear to be following and reducing their speed and if we were to push that 30 mile an hour zone back further into the town it would be wonderful great idea well done we're working right now with our planning commission and trying to make that as a gateway to the community from that end of the community my feeling is that just like I think Suzha Wilson Road becomes a defining point where you go from high speed to low speed urban area I think in Essex in the town the same thing applies and in my view the difference is you can control the speed limits of those because it's a class one highway we've got to go through the state but I think we're prepared to do that and I think what we need to do is look at what's the appropriate point it could be Sand Hill Road to start that speed limit change as you come down through it could be as far east as Allen Martin's Rock now I'm not saying it'll be .5 out there but I'm saying right now there's a series of ups and downs and speed limits from that end of town right through and I know that it's important to slow speed down that I could provide some gateways there so that we can essentially do the same thing we're trying to do in the village and that is manage the traffic that we know we're going to have coming at us but do it in a way that slows it down and makes it calmer at a minimum I would say Sand Hill but I think at least by the time you hit the town center all the way into the village it ought to be consistent and so that's one of those things we will probably have to do some studies on our own and go to the state and make a recommendation before these projects even come to try to get that speed limit reduced and we'll be glad to come back and share that with the village too but I agree that it needs to be both approaches to both the town and the village yet there's a lot of traffic on it but it needs to slow down and be recognized that it's an urban area it's like downtown Burlington you know when you go into Burlington same thing my assumption was that if there are funds allocated for the next fiscal year for this area to be paid then it would make sense if the state has to approve it while it's fresh on their minds and not have to come back a second time to just get it done at one point thank you, appreciate that my question it's a question, it's not a comment but I notice both alternatives two and three alternative two both are the same cross and you've got the lateral space to componder having a 10 foot path but you chose an 8 foot path but I'm wondering if we look at this bottom image right here why wouldn't you move the bike lane into the make it part of the sidewalk so that you have a sidewalk with a bike lane part of it's a bike lane, part of it's a walking path and then the green buffer protects everybody from the higher speed traffic this typical section was developed to accommodate all users and there were a certain number of bikers that are just not going to want to use an on-road facility so this gives them the option to use the on-road facility and then people not comfortable with that have the shared use path along the side just curious on maintaining the the path of the walkway bike path, multi-use path throughout the winter the town highway is that going to be state? the state won't maintain those portions it would be up to us to maintain and I say us collectively because as it would go forward we need to look at and I'm not trying to presuppose any discussions but if a sidewalk plow in the village can get there quicker and go part way and maybe we meet part way or maybe the town does all that we need to look at our plowing routes with respect to all the issues that are going on now and I don't think for this round if this gets built we need to take a look at that and say okay, what's feasible for either party to do but the answer is the quick answer is if we go far away there's most of the routes in the town the town would commit to do it but we may want to look at other options as to how to do it but we would, this is an important route it's the highest priority of all the bike projects that the town bike and pedigree has put together we'd have to keep it open in winter there's no question also one other question you showed the overview of the whole stretch isn't there a section if I'm not mistaken just east of Fairview where it narrows and there's ledge on the side of the road very close to the road there maybe I'm wrong but I just you are correct actually there would be so the village is aware what we're saying in the comments at last night's select board meeting is with these bike paths you will be taking on more pavement you will be taking on more cost for maintenance and capital for its repair and replacement but as Dennis did mention it is a high priority rated project it connects town to village neighborhood to neighborhood there is going to be lighting which was also a comment last night that stretch as you guys well know can get dark and somewhat lonely although there's development opportunities over there and with Lanefarm and some others and the connectivity to Essex Center there is movement through there a lot and we would like to see that be protected moves versus out on highway and having come down that way many times Andrew you are talking you will be on your brakes you are on your brakes downhill going 40 you can't and you have people coming up right behind you that and then you go right into Athens drive which we've heard from those residents about that crosswalk and how fast people are going or they believe they are going that was mentioned during one of our previous meetings they had requested enhanced crosswalks in those locations so that would be something that could be considered as part of this project and with some vegetation removed up near the roadway on the eastbound side it will make visibility of people on that path better and on the road better other questions? comments? one comment I like this project I would love to see the same project pursued down on 117 where we connect down there there is a large span where there is nothing the sidewalk ends in the junction and you have nothing and this should be great you hear that Christine let's let the state finish its multi-year project on 117 I will open it up to anyone in the audience it was an additional comment or question one point that was also made last night and I know you guys already know this but this vote doesn't lock you into anything this is just an endorsement we are going to change her okay other questions so do I hear a motion who would like to make a motion to remove the board approve alternative 3 as the preferred project alternative including the 4 recommendations by staff as outlined in the proposal for the group 15 sidewalk path study on a section from Athens drive to Vermont route 289 I'll second Andrew second even though the recommendations says 4 recommendations that are provided of course are you good on that thank you if you could state that one more time I appreciate it including the 5 recommendations okay second any further discussion questions all in favor opposed great thank you thank you folks thanks for coming Rick thanks for the insight okay we are now on to a request to collaborate with the University of Vermont capstone project traffic calming study sticking to a traffic theme those of you that don't know him this is Jeff Rowling he is a member of the bike walk advisory committee and conveniently Jeff is a UVM engineer that is convenient so on that note I'm going to hand things over to Jeff I've got a little conflict of interest I hope you don't mind so as you know one of the goals of the bike walk advisory committee is to promote and provide safe and friendly neighborhoods for our citizens for pedestrians and cyclists and so along that line we are talking with a group from UVM group of seniors that are doing their capstone design project and particularly on the subject of traffic calming in the village so the scope of the project would be looking on three areas in the village east village, Mansfield, Pleasant Brickyard west village Wilkinson south area and then more I guess central I'm not sure what you would call it south summit in the west so these areas the proposed study is across two semesters so it's basically a year long project for the students the idea would be a sub team associated with each one of these three areas and in each area they would do limb to fall traffic counts basically collect data in the winter analyze the data do simulations and modeling come up with some potential treatments and in the spring do some top up treatments and collect data before and after the treatment to see how the calming takes place so that's kind of the scope of the project so there's a variety of stakeholders that would be involved the BWAC committee the school district the staff from the village that are involved with the streets and whatnot so that's kind of the scope of the project I don't know if you see the reports they've done before they're pretty extensive they're high in the sky a lot of times one thing I really like about this project is that we would get some actual treatments that we could test out so there's testing before and after so that's kind of the scope of the project I guess there are things that we would need the village to be open to interactions with the staff the students would want to talk to people I guess we'd all part that probably about 10 hours total basically support to do the pop up treatments and advertise those and whatnot I think in terms of funding there probably would be nothing that the BWAC committee could cover okay I would imagine you would need a little bit of interaction with the Essex police in terms of putting people in the roads or doing things that might yeah but I don't see that again as a big issue but I just wanted to mention it anything else Evan? we would coordinate with Ricky in Public Works PD probably put out notification stuff on the front porch and just make sure people know what we're doing out there and that it's studying not necessarily permanent or leading to something but yeah it's a good idea it's good to use the brain power to our west to our advantage as well as the brain power of our bike and welcoming Darby you're going to work you're going to be on board with this? I think it's great this is I've never worked with a multi semester UBM class but we've worked with other UBM classes before and I think it's a great experience for everybody so one thing you can expect is that they will do a public presentation at the end and also meet with our committee so people are interested in seeing what the potential pop up treatments would be and what they're thinking about the policies that would be available to the public yep other questions? that's great I love this idea so thanks Darby I don't know if you need a vote or do you just need consent what do we say do we have a vote? there is a recommendation I'll move that Bill of Trustees authorized staff with Professor John Lenz, I hope I'm not poetry here. Thank you. And team of UVM engineering students to implement a neighborhood traffic calming study. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Fine. Opposed? Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. You're right. This is great. It's fun. OK. So Andrew, you're on. It's funny I'm not talking too much. Oh, well, go ahead. So this is coming from the Capital Program Review Committee. And in essence, the goal, we have a few different goals of this. As it's been a policy, we've spent quite a few months developing and debating. But really the goals around this are to one, memorialize a process that we've been going through since the creation of our committee, as well as to ensure that the staff who need to be involved in capital projects are involved as early and often as possible, especially during the design phase and funding phase. There was a project where we had some lessons learned in terms of not everybody being involved and could and should have been involved. So this is a bit of a, also coming from a lessons learned process. Other than that, we have it in answer questions if you have it. That's great. So does this, are the actual ranking requirements that we use separate from this? This informs the ranking process. So the ranking criteria uses the information that would be provided in here. So the memo that's provided helps. What I'm asking is, are the ranking criteria a part of the policy here, or are they separate? It's its own separate. It isn't a part of this policy in particular. I assume it could be. Really, the ranking criteria has changed twice, I believe, since we originally developed it. As new information came available as always, it would really strengthen the process and make it as accurate as possible. So with that, I'm kind of hesitant to put that in. But with this, one of the things that has historic we happened is our committee has ranked projects through a verbal conversation with our village engineer, with our group of staff. And this would help to put it into a documented process instead, which would allow us to do some homework night before instead of having the conversations right there. The meeting possibly reduce the frequency in which we meet and or the times that we meet. So it really helped to expedite that. Thank you. Andrew has in this spirit and in the atmosphere of alignment and connecting things with the town, is there any thought of, we at first thought maybe this would go away, and then when I think when everyone looked at it, they saw the intelligence of it. Is there any thought of moving this, of expanding as a town considered doing something like this, or how do they, do you see any overlap of possibilities? I see a whole bunch of possibilities, whether or not that has been considered and having to have that conversation with the select board. We haven't done that yet. I know with that said, one of the things that we'll be talking about in our next meeting is the fact that the millions and millions of dollars of projects that still have yet to be done and the lack of millions and millions of dollars that we have to fund those projects. Yeah, well that's a different issue. It's not unique, and so maybe what we can do by these conversations is to help expedite that process. And when the hopeful time comes around, this could be part of what the citizens have to do. Right, am I right? Yeah, but considering that we have two select men in the room, that might be something for them. I just wanted to raise that issue. Yeah, I would be happy to meet with the select board about this, and you're having support come to the committee or if it's just a joint trustees select board conversation. Okay. I'd be happy to have that. Go ahead, Evan. So my question is going to be to Evan, what is the town's policy? Is it written, is it like this, and are there similarities? Let me know. That would have been a great question about seven minutes ago for Dennis. I'm not exactly familiar, but one of the things that the town does and we want the village and also to do, and the town needs to do it just a little bit more, is make sure that other departments are in the room as part of the discussion. Every once in a while, you get that epiphany of like, oh yeah, we have stormwater issue and we should have Jim Juterus in this meeting or Annie Kistani or Chelsea or somebody or bringing the police in sometimes and just having that round robin session about our projects, and Rick and I are talking sometimes, something's pretty straightforward or you think it is until you talk to another department and they're like, yeah, we've known there's a problem there all the time but we haven't done anything because it's under your road. And so we want to make sure that a lot of what we're doing, the money that we're spending is impactful to as many people as we can because if you have limited resources, you don't want to do just a project that only affects a few people when so many are waiting. So in follow up to that, just a reminder that when the Public Works Committee met over last summer, one of their recommendations was to align the capital planning process for both the village and the town and to have some sort of ranking for all projects. Yes. And currently they are really just right now focusing on operational, but they will get into it. And if you'll remember, the town worked with the village on the Main Street Bridge that's just east of 81 Main. And that was a capital project that was worked out and was several village and town departments. So they did coordinate it, but they haven't planned as much. There is a project that's on the village list that is involving the town stormwater and that's sort of germinating and working its initial stages. So there is some coordination, but the planning has to really get beefed up. And exactly what you're talking about with the town village collaboration on that project wouldn't have happened if some staff that hadn't been involved early on, they had not been involved in this process. So by doing what we're asking for here, we really helped to memorialize that and keep it going. And a lot of what we're gonna be looking to do is that communication and coordination. Dennis, Ricky, Rick Hamlin, Aaron Martin from the town and stuff and other departments at our department meeting saying here's our list, here's our thoughts. Bring us comment. Other questions about this? Andrew, I noticed this is stamped draft. And I was gonna say, is our next step here to approve the revised, this is a revised policy for capital improvement projects or do you wanna, because it's drafting me and it's not finished or what's the goal? I didn't put the right, the goal would be to have us be approved. Sorry. So is it worth something to be effective to approve the village vest extension policy for capital improvement projects? I think we're gonna make that happen. Okay, I will make a motion that the trustees approve the new revised policy for capital improvement projects. Second. Any further discussion? Was that well stated? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Great, thank you. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you all. So we are now on to amend our street marking policy. Not as intricate as our capital policy, but the village does have a policy on the books for street markings. Some people may know it as the hash marks that are put in front of driveways or in front, well, pretty much in front of driveways. A excellent example is a hash mark in front of the fire department. Basically, the rule is, when you have a hash mark, you are not supposed to stop and block the driveway while you're there. So for the residents and people driving through our dump, that's what those are for. And so we were looking to, when we were discussing the village hall, senior center, library, fire station complex, but it didn't miss anybody, oh, and gyps, our complex, and the closing of the driveway through traffic. We were talking about how people use the Maplehurst driveway as an ingress and egress that happens to be owned by someone else, a very dear friend of the village. And so people tend to use that as an ingress and egress to the library and all of our complex. And it's also an egress. And if we hash that, it will enhance flow. There's only a certain period when you can get through to make a left turn or a right turn on the Lincoln. So when we wanted to add that into the list, and then we noticed that there was a need to be updated. So we updated the list to be accurate. To put in the markings is about 20 bucks a paint and some staff time. Ultimately, and that we have not talked with the owner really in depth of that driveway, we use it, we come clean, we use it, the staff uses it, the patrons of all of our buildings use it. It is not ours and we don't maintain it. And we should have a conversation in the future about working with the owner to maintain it, salt it, plow it and maintain it as open to the traffic that's going there. It is not right for the village to just use something without an agreement. I would say that that's even a more urgent issue now that we're gonna be closing the entrance between the fire department and the white building there because you are limiting now access to all that parking just to two areas and one of the two entryways and we only own one of them. So yeah, if that conversation has gone on in the past and now it has new urgency, so it really has to happen. But I didn't want to have that conversation without at least the board's nod. That's okay, we'll do it, we're gonna do it next time. Dan? Just one thing to add, I think it's a great idea. They take route 15 West as you approach 89 right there, the Colchester-Walewski line, there's a Florida Avenue, which is on the right and there's hash marks there, it's actually an intersection on the public road, but they do have signage there, do not block there. I suggest we put signage up at the approach, do not block this driveway. So it's clearly stated there in bold letters. Okay. One concern is on Lincoln Street, there is, I don't know, I don't want to exaggerate, four, five signs leading up to those driveways. There are route markers, there are street crossing signs, there's just a lot going on in that particular one, but in other places where we start marking them, I also need to have a conversation with the chief of police as to what signage he needs to be able to enforce it. The other thing I would like as we work in the town to get our police force back up, a few extra numbers of officers is some traffic enforcement. And so that is some of the stuff we would be doing. Okay. I have one question on, gosh, it was like May 2014, I was looking back at some of our previous minutes, the former Chittenden CCSU, they had come to us asking to put these similar hash marks in front of their entrance and our former school district. Check this out, so many acronyms. Yeah, yeah, we had said no in part because of a recommendation from our village engineer about the distance in which those hash marks would have been, that it might have impacted the lights on Iroquois Ave and that the traffic cues would have been missed time. I think I'm considering what the recommendation was. Given the distance of eight, yeah, of eight pearl to the five corners lights monitoring, would that, could that have any negative impacts? Okay. Just wanted to make sure that we weren't about to do something that we said no once before. Okay. And I appreciate the impromptu engineering device. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's just say that. Oh, I'm sorry, that's Rick Hamlin. Rick Hamlin, village engineer. When you were referring to, as I recall, we had another conversation. Maybe that conversation was separate from what I'm thinking of. There was a conversation about the parking spaces right here by Iroquois as you approach where the CCSU is and you'll discover a museum building that the parking space is there that, you recall that Rick, there was something about parking spaces and changing it so that cars can't park there. Maybe this was the same. Yeah, it's actually a different conversation. So there has been over time a conversation about trying to create a left turn lane into Franklin Place. So if you were at the Iroquois intersection, partially intersection, if a car turns, is trying to turn left sometimes blocks traffic. So there's been a discussion of how would you make space to make create that left turn lane? And one way of doing that would be to remove the parking spaces that were there either in front of Loretta's or in front of Rocky's. And continually the decision has been that those spaces are important to the businesses in that area, but they also, because there's such heavy pedestrian activity there, provide a buffer between the active traffic and the sidewalk and keeps the crosswalk across the distance short there in an area where as you go in the summertime there's a tremendous amount of pedestrian. So we've always said, look, the trade-off of what you get for those few cars once in a while that are in that lane, it's not worth it to lose the parking spaces that age-old dilemma of do we process vehicles through our village, or do we provide a walkable community, you know, pleasant community. So that's how that was that conversation. Thank you. Can I vote on the gentleman? Yeah, maybe not. I would suggest. Any further questions, comments? Okay, do I hear a motion? I will make a motion that the trustees approve the street marking proposal and amend the street marking policy and authorize staff to implement the changes to improve access, visibility, and safety at these locations. Second. Okay, the only thing I'm gonna say is my observation with these street marking, most of the time it's kind of like a monument to wishful thinking, right? Yeah. Don't go like, you know, okay. I don't know what you're playing with. No, I agree with you, and I think with the amount of traffic in the size of some of the vehicles that went down here when you're talking about track to trail unit, when there's, there may be enough room for two cars to be in front of that hash mark, but the trail unit, you're talking a 50 foot trailer and whatever foot, you know, vehicles like 70 feet long, it's tough. Okay. And I'm recreasing myself. Yep, okay. All in favor? Opposed? Okay, so four in favor, one with extension. Extension, I guess I don't know. So moving from traffic and infrastructure, we're going on to ethics. As you can read. We're gonna wax philosophical here. Evan, take it away. As you can read the very short memo, you do this on an annual basis. Each trustee signs the acknowledgement form as to other boards and commissions. There's no change to the policy of the regulations. Permay, please forward. Okay. All right, any questions? Questions. Yeah. So the select board reviews their policy at their organizational meeting or shortly thereafter. So I'm wondering whether there's, we feel the need to align that, but more importantly, since I don't have the select board on the front of me, I'm wondering when the ethics policies for both the village and the town should be identical. And then the select board has a orderly conduct of business policy. And I'm wondering, is that rolled into the ethics? Like, you know what I'm getting at. Ultimately, for first of all, one of the things that we are embarking on slowly, and the town side is they have all of what you mentioned, we have a concern as to whether staff even has the latest versions of those policies. So we're kind of putting them together and gonna make sure that they're updated and et cetera. We would, as part of the select board and village board, meeting more often is start bringing those policies to both of you and trying to align where we can. They don't have to be identical, but align as closely as you guys are willing to go with them together. But that's gonna be a process over time because there are several of them, some of which the village may say we don't really need and the town has done them for years and they wanna keep them. So we're gonna try to do that as we are other policies like I have a dress code policy that I wanna align between the village and the town and do some things of that nature. So we'll be doing that as time comes along. We also, from our perspective, wanna start prioritizing the ones we address. One comment, I think that it might make a lot of sense to have that conversation sooner rather than later as one of the things that it brings for me is in the town's policy, if someone doesn't accuse themselves, I remember a previous select board member having to literally leave the room. They leave the room? But yeah, when we want to recuse ourselves, we just don't vote on it, we can participate as a member of the public in the conversation. So it doesn't seem like there would be an equal playing field if two members of the same board need to use a similar policy with a similar intent but have unequal access to participate in the conversation. So maybe at a future sooner rather than later, trustees like board meetings can talk about that, try to level the playing field a bit if that should arise. I would like, that's fine, but I would like to know why you have to leave the room. Are you gonna use the mind weights or something? Why do you have to leave the room? Well, I think it's the perspective of propriety and the desire to feel repurchase. I see. Okay. And if you're gonna say something that's gonna maybe offend the person that's refusing themselves, you don't have to look them in the eye. But it is usually what it has as you refrain from the conversation and the dialogue as well as the voting. But there's also a rule, if I understand it correctly, you have to state why you are refusing yourself. Not just say I'm refusing myself. The town in some respects is quite formal. And in others, they are not. It's just how they crisscross. You guys are generally informal and you guys will have to see what you like about each other's policies and adopt and maybe mix and match. Well, there's a lot of opportunities for humor there, but I won't pursue them. So I will just move right along and say that we review the trustee's article, one, the general rules and personnel regulations and the ethics policy and sign the attached acknowledgement forms. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Great. So we shall do that. After we hear from the manager. The manager's report, go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. Agenda edition? Yes. We haven't got to the reading file yet. We're gonna do the report. Put down the reading file. Yeah, it was in the reading file. Steve Fust coming up, 21st, 22nd. We're going to have some road closures. We're gonna be closing, well, they will be closing Railroad through Lincoln Place, just short of the bus station. There will be a beer tent, beer garden, sorry, beer garden, right next to the nest, but it's going to be that area only. You're not gonna be able to walk around. There'll be bands. There's gonna be a band that the farmer's market is. Rain, if there shall be rain, which I think we've forbidden, but it could happen. We'll be over at the fire station. Kristen and her band of people who are putting on Steam Fest and all of our volunteers putting a lot of hard work into it. The village is basically a monetary sponsor of this as is the Towns Economic Development Commission. Our public works are going to provide some logistics, but not be on site. So we'll provide some trash cans, trash can liners, some barricades. We're gonna bring them out on Friday. They will put them in place, et cetera. Our on call guy will be on call, but not here. Police, they're gonna have two police officers on Friday, one on Saturday, on shift. And then we wish them well and hope for good weather. But that's the big thing that, and we tried to do a lot of coordination on that. I know staff is discussing the wall along the multi-use path along the railroad. We have offered the assistant to job that will be posted here at Tulinken. The person has accepted. So we are working out those details. She will be coming from Maine. She wanted to come here because we had shorter winters. Yeah. Not kidding. Not kidding, but they're moving south and they're coming and so she came here. She could be pretty far north in Maine. Yeah, but she must be really far north in Maine because they don't actually have north in Maine. Preskyle, but... You know, Caribou, I guess. Sarah was on the interview team as well as a few other people, including Brad Luck and Terry Haas from Tulinken. And we think she's gonna work out really well. Can you tell me again the title of the position? Assistant to TO, the manager. Oh, okay, thank you. And it'll be here at Tulinken. So we have lots of things going on. We have an assistant finance director position that is going to be open soon as Sarah moves up to Lauren's position. We wanna overlap those two positions. Actually, all three positions. Lauren's leaving, Sarah moving up and a person moving into Sarah's former position. And oh, I can't even, some of the other. All we have a public works position in the town and a parks position in the town. One of the things that we did is we linked their job descriptions with the village so that they would be very similar. And one of the things the town did, the town public works wanted the town parks and rec position to have a CDL so they could use that person in the winter. And something we may wanna look at in the village or other things and what we're doing. So it is very hard to get plow drivers. And someone who becomes experienced enough to drive an extremely large vehicle with about five to seven tons of salt in its back bay with people sipping in and out around that. That's enough. I would only add that I think, in case you didn't mention it, I think that the owner of Four Pearl Street, Brett Grubowski, is I understand it appears very generously allowed Steamfest to use one of his empty storefronts over there as an art studio. And I just wanted to acknowledge him. And as other businesses are allowing space, we expect it to be quite crowded if the weather's right. Yeah, perfect. Okay, anything else? Thank you, Evan. So now we can move on to the addition to the reading farm. So this came to me from a couple of residents, one in particular who was very thoughtful in her reach out and her reasons why she doesn't like this new policy change. So basically what's happening is CSWD has decided to stop having the reuse zones at all of their centers. So people will no longer be able to drop off appliances and things like that for someone else to take over or to then have to put into the landfill themselves. Some of the concern that I've heard is that the public outreach maybe wasn't well done. I don't know, honestly, I did not pay attention to it. So I was hoping that we could maybe have Alan and I come in and talk to us and just explain why they did this and then what maybe it sounds like there could be some potential grant money that we could use to educate people. I don't even know how much the Essex one is used. So just to get some background would be helpful, I think to put people's fears at rest. I mean, I don't know how many of you do regular trash hauling your own trash to the dump or to the transfer stations. Anyways, I've always done it. And I spoke with the guy at the Williston one because it's actually closer to my woman over here in Essex. And his reasoning for closing it, he said, it started out was great. People are putting items out there that are in good condition to be reused. And it just turned into be a dumping site for a lot of stuff. And they can't afford to man it with somebody to watch and make sure everything that's put in there is fit for being reused and such. And car seats should not be reused. You don't know what's going on. There's a lot of things that screening and processing. I would also just say that it is unfortunate, especially when you're there to not be able to drop it off. At the same time, resource in Williston and in downtown for downtown Pine Street, as well as restored in Williston, not that far from the Essex Williston border, take many of these items that would have been dropped off there. So there are places within proximity that these can go to. So I would just, I would count to that a little bit because I've tried to take stuff there and haven't been able to. So I think what would be helpful to hear from Alan and I is, what are the resources? Can you bring any documentation, anything that we can put into Fump Fort's form and educate community members of what isn't allowed and what? I mean, I completely understand their reason. And I can see that happening. But I think it is, for some people, where they really take things and aren't really sure what else to do with them. Well, the other thing, Andrew brought the restore, recycle, whatever, resources. Whereas at the transfer stations, you're going in there, there's no fee. That's just totally open for grab. And it's not an organized facility, such as restore. They actually separate items. And they're able to pick your, like you say, what they'll take, what they will take. I think that's what it comes down to. Obviously, there's a link. I've got the little pamphlet. They put it out, I think, once or twice a year, CSWD. And it explains what can be done that used to be, was we all remember, used to have to separate your files and went to one, all in one, dumping. But with this gone, where did these items go? I think that's really important. Can we tell our community members? It's still there. They've got facilities for things, to do things there for. Wait. So that would just be helpful for someone who works there. Oh, I agree. I think that I agree with you, yeah. Let's just, let's, then fine. I think Al would appreciate us tapping him and having him come in. So let's do that for the next meeting. Great. Thank you. OK, anything else? Trustee comments, concerns? Anything you're concerned about? OK. So I don't, I'm very happy that there is a Design 5 Corners public initiative happening. I think it's great. I am a little concerned that we didn't know about it. And also I went back and read the various minutes. And maybe Diane can help you, but I've read the various minutes from the last planning commission since January. There was no discussion in the minutes. And even when we had our joint meeting with the PC, you brought up Design 5 Corners. And there was no mention. So to the earlier point of staff members, knowing and people knowing, I think it's important when we're reaching out to the public that we're made aware prior to the reach out, I think it's helpful. Especially because we can help reach out. Yeah, I was surprised to see it announced that way. I thought I would have imagined, I would have hoped and imagined that it would have come through. We would have at least known about it. Known about it. So yeah, I think that was something that did fall through the cracks. We'll just make note of that, that something like that, when there's a public outreach thing, we want it to come through the trustees first. So we at least look like we know what we're talking about. We're talking about it, yeah, OK. We don't usually, but it's nice to sometimes be prepared. Yeah, Elaine. Just wanted to give an update to you. The government subcommittee has been a little slow because of scheduling issues, but we have a meeting scheduled for September 19 at 4 o'clock. Sounds good. It's our next meeting. We've only had one meeting, so. Greg's going to cover it. Yes, Greg's going to cover it. Thank you. Sorry, I just scheduled it on a day. The one day, I think that's OK. Happens. I don't want to be the impediment. OK, good enough. Anything else? Well, good. OK, so we are on to the Consent Agenda. I'm going to be for the Consent Agenda. Second? Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. And so now I will entertain a motion to adjourn. I'll adjourn. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. We're adjourned. Thank you.