 We could try to get others under the 10 if you'd like. You're welcome. You're welcome. We can talk to sort of the parking lot. Good afternoon and welcome. Governor Scott, Senator Mazza, Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, Representative White of Hartford, representing House Transportation and Chair Kurt McCormick, Senator McCormick, Senator Perchlich. I'm not sure if I've seen him. Representative McCarthy of St. Albans, Mayor Lucas Herring of Barrie, Gwen Zeikoff of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, other dignitaries as well as many transportation stakeholders here today. We are pleased to be hosting the signing of the 2019 Transportation Bill and the Department of Motor Vehicles Miscellaneous Bill at this impressive bridge project, bridge replacement project. This existing 326 foot long bridge was first built in 1928. The deck was replaced in 1971. The northern abutment behind me was severely eroded during Tropical Storm Irene and again, severely eroded this past spring. As a result of that, work began with an emergency repair of the northern abutment being completed in early May. Work on the bridge replacement began on June 3rd with clearing and site preparation which you see around us. The new 365 foot bridge, $5.5 million, will be constructed upstream of the existing bridge while traffic is maintained on the current structure. The completion date of this project will be October of 2020. I'd like to recognize Artie St. Ange and the crew of AL St. Ange of Montgomery, Vermont and thank them for their efforts on our behalf. The Transportation Bill being signed today continues the agency's commitment to maintaining the state's transportation system, providing safe highways for the traveling public, and making sound investments and efficient transportation options for those traveling in our state, whether by electric vehicle, by bus, in a commercial truck, train, walking, or biking. Additionally, we will continue to improve customer service at our Department of Motor Vehicle Offices statewide through modernization efforts such as our new driver's license and credentialing system being launched as we speak and enhanced translation services for our customers. Now it is my pleasure to introduce Vermont Governor Phil Scott. Well, thank you very much, Secretary Flynn. Great to be here on a nice sunny afternoon. But this is typical of a construction site, right? When it's raining, you're still working. I haven't had to do this for a while on a construction site, work at the same time. But my hat's off to the St. Ange crew, because while we leave this afternoon, they'll be ongoing with this project for the, certainly for the next few months, probably the next year or so before completion. It's great to be here for the signing of the transportation and the DMV bills. And I appreciate everyone coming to Bethel, including all our federal, state, and local partners here with us today. As you all know, we had a long, fluctuating winter with some of it cold and some of it warm. This proved to be a challenge for our road crews and I wanna thank them for their hard work. Due to climate change, we're seeing winners like this and it requires all of us to be smart and strategic about our investments. As you can see, it takes a toll on our roads. That's why I'm so pleased to be here to sign legislation which will invest over $615 million in our transportation system and moves forward with many innovative policies as well. I wanna give a special thanks to the transportation chairs, Senator Mazza who's here today and Representative McCormack and all members of the transportation committees as well as my team at the Agency of Transportation for your work in crafting this legislation. These bills do a lot for our infrastructure, transit, and Vermont drivers and I'd like to run through a few of the highlights. For the third consecutive year, the Agency of Transportation presented and the legislature passed a budget that doesn't rely on any new taxes or fees. It keeps a strong focus on our state highways and investing $373 million which is an increase of about $3 million over last year's budget. It invests nearly $100 million for the interstate and town bridge programs which includes 41 bridges under construction and an additional 52 projects in different phases of design and development. Over $100 million to improve road surfaces which will result in 150 miles of roadway being paved in over 70 million miles of district leveling. This year we also are moving forward with the roadway projects like the Champlain Parkway in Burlington, Main Street in Waterbury, the Crescent Connector in Essex Junction and continuation of key projects on Route 7 in Brandon and Pittsburgh. Overall, the roadway investments will total nearly $50 million. As well, $20 million will be used for traffic and safety investments including new roundabouts in Burlington and the exit 16 interchange in Colchester as well as numerous other projects. This bill also makes significant investments in public transit, aviation, bike ped, parking ride and rail. In total, 93 million will help improve our system including funds to help move us closer to having Amtrak service to downtown Burlington. The town transportation program will receive $66 million, supporting town highways and highway structures and providing state aid for town highways and disaster relief. And Vermonters will see five new park and ride locations with 554 new spaces statewide. That's a 34% increase. An effort that's been championed by Senator Mazza for the last couple of decades. In fact, he and I worked on a small scale community park and ride program over a decade ago. But this year's transportation bill is more about more than just roads and bridges. Working with the legislature, I propose an electric vehicle incentive program for low and moderate income Vermonters, a $2 million investment which will reduce vehicle emissions and household transportation costs. And as I called for my budget address in January because I think it's important that the state lead by example, our Department of Buildings General Services will be transitioning the state vehicle fleet to electric and hybrid vehicles. We've also increased transit program investments by 17% for a total of $33 million. It's not only expands community bus service between Burlington and Berry, but also adds two full-size electric vehicle or electric transit buses and two electric shuttle buses. We know cars, trucks, and buses are a big contributor to our missions. So we're committed to addressing it. These investments we feel will have a positive impact. And much of this work is made possible because of the Department of Motor Vehicles which collects roughly $345 million for our transportation fund dollars this past year. So I'm pleased to also sign the miscellaneous DMV bill today and there are a couple of items and areas that I'd like to draw your attention to. First, I propose and the legislature supported an initiative to test automated vehicles on our highways because I believe there's an economic growth opportunity if we can capitalize on research and development in this sector. We'll create an automated vehicle testing guide of giving manufacturers an easy tool to show if it's Vermont and it is a valley, these vehicles can be tested there. Next, as many of you know, attracting more people to live and work in Vermont so we can reverse our population and workforce trends is a top priority for me. So I'm pleased to see this bill allow the DMV commission to waive certain requirements in order to help military personnel easily obtain their commercial drivers licenses for CDLs. The commissioner will also be able to accept licenses from other jurisdictions with similar examination requirements to Vermont. And to ensure Vermont is welcoming to newcomers and immigrants from all backgrounds, DMV will translate applications, forms and exams into the primary language of any applicant as well as to allow new Vermonters to use a translator on the road exam. The department will also provide additional training to help staff understand potential cultural differences for other barriers to equal access. And finally, in an effort to strengthen Vermont's sign laws and protect the beauty of our state, Senator Mazza led an effort to make it easier for local communities and state law enforcement agencies to address sign violations through civil penalties. I believe these are really important measures that I'm pleased to enact. So thank you again to the House and Senate Transportation Committees and everyone here today who worked so hard to implement and pass these important bills. So now it's my pleasure to turn this over to my mentor for many years on the Transportation Committee, Senator Dick Mazza. Thank you very much. I'll be very brief. I know it's raining. I just want to say how pleased I am to be part of this. Every year we sit in our room and we look at all these figures, but we never see it out of the dirt moving around. If we get to come out and see this, it's really exciting. There's a lot of projects over 70 communities are going to have projects like this this year. And one of the good things that I can be proud of is the fact these projects come from the municipalities along with the state. We don't force any projects on anyone. They work together and see where they're needed the most. And also we're really pleased that we're doing a great amount of progress on our rail systems, our airports, it's all part of the transportation network. So with that in mind, the governor stated all the facts about our budget size. We need more funds from the federal government to help us, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen relatively soon. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. And now I'd like to recognize Representative White, who will represent the house. Please. Go ahead. Thank you. Hi, I'm Representative Rebecca White and I didn't have as long as a drive as some of us here. I'm from White River Junction. So Windsor County, thank you for making the drive. Sorry about the rain. I'll get on that. So I'm speaking on behalf of Representative McCormick, who's the chair of house transportation as well as the house committee. I wanted to raise two points that I believe we should highlight today based on the bills that are going to be signed. I wanted to highlight the diversity of the backgrounds of the House Transportation Committee. In spite, rather than in spite of our differences, but because of our differences, I think the committee was able to craft legislation that represented a very large swath of Vermont and is the product that we're going to sign today. So the House Transportation Committee has 11 members with six Democrats, three Republicans, one independent and one progressive. Of those members, we have the smallest towns represented with Kirby and Caledonia County, as well as the most populated parts of the state with Burlington having two representatives from there. And we have almost every corner of the state represented on the House Committee. We go from, we've got St. Alvin's back here with Representative McCarthy and Swann up in the north. Then we have Bennington and Brattleboro. And then we have myself and Hartford. And then we've got Clarendon and Rattling County. So it's the entire state in the way that's impacted with this bill and transportation in general. You've got all of the different corners of the state, all of the different representatives who actually fit those, who actually fit that. So this diversity led to civil, but heated debates on everything ranging from sidewalks to salt usage to the larger philosophical budget pieces. And I wanted to highlight one last piece on this, which is that it's incredibly important to recognize that the Speaker of the House, Mitzi Johnson, she was able to create a committee that both has new and fresh perspectives like myself, but also holds onto a lot of that institutional knowledge that we've seen with previous transportation committees. So the second piece I just wanted to highlight as I close out is, as a 24-year-old is one of the youngest members of the State House representatives, I'm often considering how decisions we make today will impact the future of both myself and the communities around us. And I wanted to bring forward the fact that this, both of the bills we're signing today lay an incredible groundwork for future, for the future of Vermont. It continues the Agency of Transportation's innovative and cost-effective asset management programs. It supports a technical analysis of potential for commuter rail and it supports public transportation initiatives by furthering study how we can expand our networks. And the last thing I'll say is while all these strides are incredible, they're not enough to get us to a place where we hit our statewide energy goals. For example, I applaud and commend the governor for his leadership on the $1.5 million going towards electric vehicle incentives. But to reach our statewide energy goals of 90 electric vehicles on the road added by 2025, this bill sets a foundation, but we can do more in the future. So I'm thrilled to work alongside the different partners we have here today with the Agency of Transportation, with the Senate, with the governor's office. And I wanna thank you all on behalf of the citizen staff and my fellow elected officials for putting work into this year's T-Bill and the DMV miscellaneous bill. And thank the governor so much for signing this important piece of legislation. Thank you. Can I come to the top floor? Yes, I am. Not Friday the 13th. I know. I did. Okay, actually, he's flipping the image while you're gonna work on the operation. Yeah, we got you the money. Yeah. That's always important. It helps. With that, we'd be happy if her and answer any questions you might have. I wanted to ask about the park and rides. Could you talk a little bit more about why this year was the time after you mentioned that this was a long running process, possibly for Senator Mazza as well? Yeah, I think Senator Mazza can answer some of those questions as well as some of the others on the House committee. But from my perspective, this is something that's been an effort for a number of years, possibly a couple of decades. One in particular, I think the Williston Park and Ride has been significant, something that we were working on back when I was in the Senate. But as well, we had these communities, small community park and rides that we promoted Senator Mazza and I worked on over probably 15 years ago. And they've had quite a difference. They made a difference in the lives of many communities, small, sometimes gravel, sometimes paved, but really trying to make good use out of open area where people need a safe place to park and can join forces to go to different work opportunities. But this year, everything somewhat came together, many, and we're seeing a great need in the state for more assisted parking ride facilities. So Senator Mazza, anything you wanna add? I just think that the Williston, as you know, had a very active one years ago, we lost it and Richmond is overflowing. And so we got Williston back on track because people are using them more and more and we encourage them to use them to ride chair. And if you encourage people to use ride chair, you got that facility to go on the park. So every year we try to do a little better. Yeah. What was it that came together this year? Well, for the Williston one, it's just been a lot of missed opportunities, a lot of public input in terms of where it's going to be and citing the property permits and so forth. So that's been a long time coming and finding the, again, the land that we needed to do that. So again, it's just all coming together at the same time. And we're very thankful for that because there's a great, as Senator Mazza said, there's a great leadership in County for these rideshare opportunities. Anything I missed from the, from the House perspective? Any other questions? Oh, great. Everyone grab a shovel and then we'll start to talk to you. Thank you very much for coming.