 Um, great. Well, it looks like it's 6 30. So we'll get started. I see, uh, CEDOs on the line. So I think our community center friends are tapping in. So yeah, welcome everybody to our March and PA meeting. If people on zoom could generally keep yourselves muted just for sound quality, that would be great. But yeah, welcome. My name is Molly. I'm a steering committee member from Ward three. And we'll just go through and call out the other steering committee members that are on the call. Patrick, do you want to start off? What more do you and Patrick? Oh, Ward two. Tony, you want to go? Yeah, sure. Hi, Ward three, Tony Reddington. Thanks, Tony. Yes. Jess Hyman, Ward three. Great. And I don't know if any steering committee members are on in the community center. But we also have Charlie, Joanie from Ward three, Barbara from Ward three, Kevin from Ward two, and Miami from Ward two. So we have a great team. If anyone out there is interested in joining us, we would be, we would really welcome more steering committee members. We're always looking to have more ideas, more, more assistance, and especially people from Ward two would be awesome. Right now we have three active three, Ward two steering committee members, and we could really use a few more. So please shoot us an email if you're interested or talk to one of us. And we'd be glad to share what it's like to be a steering committee member. We're always interested in additional agenda items. If folks have ideas, please send us an email or request a slot from via the CEDO website. They have a submission form that goes directly to our email so we can consider it for the next agenda. Our next meeting is April 14th and recordings of all meetings can be found on YouTube and on CCTVs website. So please check them out. Jess, do you want to give an update on the community grants? Sure, I'd be happy to. Thanks, Molly. So as folks know, we had a community grant grant round where we invited individuals and groups to submit ideas for for projects that would increase community engagement, support the community, support the NPA and generally do good things in our neighborhood. And we had some great applications and we're really excited to announce that we were able to give funding to all the groups that applied. And so the final funding allocation is $1,000 each for a laboratory B for the Old North End repair cafe, for food not cops for their daily food and essential supplies distribution. And also for Naomi and Noor for the people's farm stand for their fresh produce distribution that happens right here in the Old North End. And also we were able to award $500 to Shelby Glass for the Braille Trail at the 311 North Avenue Poetry Walk to make that wonderful community resource more accessible. The rest of the funds will be spent on let's see $250 for NPA operations. So that's yard signs, flyers, other outreach. We're really focusing on ways to get more people participating and to get more people You know at the meetings, especially when we get back to an in person at the community center. And then the remaining funds, which is $750 will be allocated to the community dinner. And so those funds will be used if and when we're able to restart community dinners again and if and and also for general food and good things for the community to So if we if we end up with a non traditional community dinner picnic outside something Something once the weather gets warmer. That's for those funds will be used. So thank you to everyone who applied and to these amazing projects and we're really looking forward to seeing how they turn out. And then also related to community dinner. I would love to pass it over to Patrick to give an update on some upcoming plans and needs. I don't want to jinx it because it's been a long time, but we are hoping to start our community dinners backup. Definitely by June, we'll see if we can pull it together by May. It's probably going to be a bit different than it was in the past, given our fearless leader is currently enduring Some cancer treatment. So there we're going to have to reach out to a lot of the usuals and some new folks for assistance might just start off with some basic dessert snack foods. Or we might go full on dinner knowing Janet it'll be full on 12 course at the LBN dinner with some sort of weird Mexican wedding cake for dessert. That is all the news I have. I'm excited about it because it's been a long time. And that was pretty much the only reason that we had 150 people at most of these NPA meetings was for dinner and I wish they would stay around. But I will keep everyone updated. Hopefully, depending on on what we all decide in terms of getting together at the community space would be nice to trash the zoom thing, not completely but mostly Hopefully, maybe sooner than later. All right. I think that's all like me unless anybody has any questions. I had a question Patrick if someone wants to get involved to help out with the community dinner. Who should they contact? I think we have a community dinner website, O and E community dinner at Weebly. And through that, you can reach out. We will start our volunteers have the benefit of member worker hours through the co op. So, If folks out there can pass the word, you will be able to get your member worker hours again. If you if you go to our website. There is a sign in sheet that has positions available to sign in. I remember it's been two years. We'll try to update it so we won't have too many people that we clean up crew and starting the usual stuff. And again, I don't want to jinx it, but That's great. Thanks for the update Patrick and all our best wishes to Janet. So, great. Well, I think we'll slide into public and public forum. So if anyone has an announcement that they'd like to make please raise your hand or wave me at the video and please try to keep your announcement to two minutes. Jeff, do you want to say something. Oh, while we let now we can let Charlie and Tony go first and I'll make an announcement after. Okay. Mine is a forum comments. Are we doing forum first or announcements for For now, Tony, go ahead. Okay. Again, Tony, we're running 10 I live. Across from the park. The famous park at City Hall. And I just want to comment. We're going to be hearing more about the Main Street project from the public work shortly and I think I'm typical resident of the old north end and downtown been here around 10 years. I have personally been almost seriously part or killed at the pro street north Winnowsky intersection walking and biking I came out of Cherry Street which is the last time I'll do that to turn north and almost got hit by a car so I've had to near death experiences. I've also had a A bicyclist fly literally fly at my eye level. One early evening on Pearl Street is that bicyclist was hit by a car. And he fortunately landed in the big puddle there at the George street parking area. Got up he was okay. And I also saw a bicyclist J. J hooked at a side at a entrance to a driveway on north Winnowsky and actually was the one who called the emergency number to get the emergency services to him because he had a very severe certainly had a concussion. We have a very unsafe street system except for the marketplace. And right now, the Main Street project has five, it has four of the seven intersections at a high crash that they average 78 entries per decade 7.8 entries a year. And there's no provision in the project has been no examination has been no advisory committee, none of the normal things we do when we do a quarter study. I therefore proposed a resolution that I'll, that I'll send to the committee to the steering committee which says, let's, and I'll quote it here. Or three is a location of six of seven Main Street project injury plagued intersections three on the Vermont transit Vermont trans high crash list. And we hear by vice city council safety first while addressing racial and low income inequality and climate heating, carry out national and Vermont proven safety count countermeasures for this project cutting pedestrian injuries and overall, cutting pedestrian injuries and overall reducing injuries on those intersections by at least half and fadles or serious injuries by 90%. It's no longer, it's got to be for safety first we haven't been doing that. And I think that we as a, as a, as a NPA, at least in Ward three should be advising the city council to make safety a serious consideration. Thanks, Tony. Is that a resolution for us to consider at the April meeting. Yes, exactly exactly Molly. I'll submit the wording to you in a few minutes. And then, you know, which has been so we'll have we'll have it from the next agenda. If the steering committee is willing to do it. Okay, thank you, Tony. Charlie, like to go ahead. Okay. Yeah, let's see. Just keeping track of the time. There are many homeless people but in BHA buildings. Sometimes we have problems. Now somebody had written into the front porch forum about the police not being able to help get a trespasser offer. He said she was sleeping in the garden and the police couldn't do anything. We had a person sleeping in our flowers. One foot from the sidewalk on College Street near Pine, and the police were called by the building manager. In the other case they said well if you don't own the building or you don't work here you can't call the police about somebody. So we had the building manager asked the police to remove the person, and they wouldn't even wake them up. There's a lot wrong with the rules that they enforce and the rules that they don't enforce. I'm very glad that the mayor did not succeed in keeping the person who's doing what he's doing now which is like not enough and with a bad attitude. So let's see. As far as the Great Streets, it involves the ravine at the top end. The block which is gaily named the gateway block. It's over the old sewer ravine. And the people who work on Great Streets will probably try to leave. They'll be playing with the ravine for last, but it'll just run over budget and be totally a mess for years. Start at the top, fix the ravine, fix the sewers. And if you have money left then you could play with Main Street. And as Tony said, we need safety things. It's not supposed to look like a tourist park. It's supposed to be a place where people live and keep on living. Thank you, Charlie. Abbott, would you like to go next? Yes, thank you. And sorry, it's a little dark here. I had to pull over and call in for my car because I'm just coming back with, I'm in Ward three and I'm with my neighbor who's in Ward two. The issue I wanted to bring to public forum tonight, I'll try to keep it really brief, is that over the last two years, we've been looking at short term rentals in Burlington and trying to regulate them in a way that stops property speculation and also protects renters from being displaced. But, you know, a lot of the existing short term rentals that are here are done by and this is things like Airbnb as an example of short term rentals, or vacation rental by owner. And the ones that are here, we've heard from a lot of public comment in the planning commission and now at city council are for either folks who want to age in place. It's mostly women and lower to middle income people who are doing these short term rentals. One class of people and then the other are more like myself where they're sort of like young entrepreneurial types but I also really believe in mixed income housing so personally I've used the short term rentals that I do in the building that I own to offset the rent increases, you know our taxes have increased quite a bit but also just I do to low income like section eight vouchers. And, you know, when I bought the building a few years ago, it was it did have a couple of section eight people already it was in total disrepair. There was a disabled adult man and a disabled mother who live in one of the apartments and they've been there for 18 years you know it's just doing short term rental allows us to keep them in place and also make the building of safe quality for them and other people to keep habitating in it so the issue has got got it planning commission made a recommendation and then it went to full city council, and they totally threw it out. And then Sarah carpenter who's worked in affordable housing her whole life in our ward she actually was responsible for the creation of the Monroe place it's at the corner of Monroe street and North Champlain Street it provides housing to some of the most vulnerable members of our community they work directly with Howard Center. And so that's a Sarah carpenter project she was also the executive director of VHFA for a long time. Sarah made a Sarah carpenter made a proposal that really curtailed short term rentals but allowed for some of these niche uses such as affordability offsets and low income housing provisions and now that the council didn't have to cut you off we're trying to keep it to two minutes. I understand you have a lot to say there but you can feel free to chime in again there are some other folks we just, we always will go over time here. Yeah I understand thanks for listening. Thanks for having me. Jeff. Thanks Molly and thank you Abbott for that also on the topic of housing. I just wanted to let folks know that April is fair housing month. And it's an opportunity to raise awareness about discrimination and exclusion that happens in housing. All over the, all over the country, including here in Vermont, and also to celebrate what's working celebrate inclusive affordable communities. And so there's a whole series of events, informational events webinars, even some in person events with the youth and arts focus, and I'd really encourage folks to check out the Fair Housing website which is fair housing fair housing month. VT.org and the events around the state are coordinated by the Fair Housing project of CBOE out in partnership with Vermont legal aid the Human Rights Commission. CEDO, the Vermont Department of Libraries and a whole bunch of other sponsors and partners that make these activities possible. One of the most fun activities is a heart and home community art project. That's in partnership with the old northern art center and art so wonderful and groups libraries and community groups and and also housing sites can can request bundles of art kits to be used for this community project. So I'd encourage you to check out fair housing month VT.org and to think about the ways that we can make our communities more accessible to everyone and make sure that everyone has a home. Thanks Jeff. Miami. I think you're new. When it comes to housing. Things are really bad. I mean people are asking like 3300 for a three bedroom in when you ski. Okay, and our rent are comparable to New York City. So, I mean when it comes to housing the housing I'm living in is substandard. I have. I have air coming in through my floor I've sent an email I've called my landlord and they have done nothing. So, when it comes for me personally when it comes to short term rentals. Now, because what you're doing is you're the people that are being squeezed out of the old north end are the low income. You know the working class like the neighborhood that I grew up on in Peru and George it's all like young professional there are hardly any working class families. And when I grew up that's all that neighborhood was. I'm sorry I don't. I really as far as it comes to short term rentals I think they suck. I think they really hurt our housing market for the people that can least afford to do it. I'm not saying that what he's doing is not a good thing but I'm just saying that there are some landlords that will literally kick people out, fix up the apartment and then it turns into a short term rental. I know of several that that has happened to that they've had to move. So, I don't know. I'm just, I'm not in a good mood. When it comes to housing, you know, thanks Miami. Chris Aaron, Aaron, did you have your hand up. I did just briefly. I am. Thank you. I to. I feel like with regard to the short term rental situation. Currently short term rentals are less than 2% of our Burlington housing market. In the last two years time I have spent a lot of time learning about this subject and listening to the people who operate short term rentals here in Burlington. In addition to the fact that I feel that the the ordinance that the, what the city council the resolution of the city council had passed is some of the most restrictive if not the most restrictive in the country it will have unintended consequences and ripple effects upon our economy. I think that Sarah Carpenter did put who has a record of working with people and creating affordable housing here in Burlington came forward with a proposal that is more acceptable. And I encourage us to really take a moment and think about how Burlington is in a housing crisis caused by a serious serious lack of supply. And 30 years at least worth a failure to lead in this area. If we, we can't really regulate our way out of a housing crisis caused by regulation with more regulation. We really need to humble ourselves and check our egos on this. If we stick our hands in the batter in the dough too much, it will never rise. And we really need to have a more moderate approach to this. So if I have any time left I'd like to yield it back to who have it if, if he still has something else to say and thank you very much for the time. We are pretty much on time so I think we should flag this as a potential future topic for our for our group and move on to the next one. I have one last public forum person from my house. Well, this is Jacob. Hey, you might remember last, I don't know summer or something I announced. I community build for insulating window inserts. Oh wow my hair special. And it happened it happened in November. Rock Point School hosted us very generously in their library and a bunch of community members came together and built insulating window inserts and we built over 150 of them. And it was really cool to see. We had homeowners, we had renters, we had landowners who want to provide further units and we even had instance where a renter got their landlord excited and and have a do for their whole building so it was a great mix of folks. And what I'm announcing what I'm saying is we're going to try to do it again, and we want more people, we want to do bigger. We want to go well over 200 inserts next fall and so if you're interested, or if you want to help spread the word please do. We're going to start doing a little campaign here. And so you might see us more. The, the organization that helps us put this on is called window dressers. So the easiest way to learn more about this is just go to window dressers calm. And in the, in the different community builds you can find a Burlington one and, and reach out to the local group. And if you want to sign up for for next fall that would be great and also if you please please spread the word and let people know. Yeah, that's what I got and hopefully you'll hear more from you later on. See you. Thanks. Thanks. Okay, let's wrap up public forum there. And move on to our next agenda item which is great streets the main street concept and design presentation and discussion from the city. We have Olivia here from the Department of Public Works so would you like to go forward with your presentation. I think I'm actually going to kick us off today so I, Laura Wheelock with public works I'm a senior public works engineer and one of the project managers, working on this project for the city. Olivia is also here with me tonight. She's also a project manager with DPW. There's many people that are involved in our team here. This project has a really strong water resources component so we also have one of our water resources engineers that sits with us and helps us with this project, but really it's an entire city kind of a collaborative of all the departments there's CEDO, REIB, Church Street Marketplace. I'm sure BCA and probably still missing a few so while it's us here tonight it's certainly a collaborative effort and I do have a short presentation to maybe get some thoughts going about this project for everyone. So I am sharing my screen hopefully you guys can see this. I'm going to kick us off with the main street revitalization project. We appreciate everybody's support with the town meeting day vote. Really that just gives us some funding to continue to move forward to look at the different options to be able to investigate and start collecting data on the ravine sewer. So we appreciate that. Thanks. We're here to talk about the more of the roadway component today. That's the part that we've already started our concepts with. This will go from Battery Street to South Union Street. It's six blocks of the downtown. It's seven intersections. So it crosses a pretty significant area within our community and mostly within Ward 3. So to build this off of is the downtown Great Street standards. This was adopted by the City Council in 2018. This really just gives us a guide about how we want to shape and form some of the fundamentals and the functionality of our streets. It also gives us a palette of materials to use to help with a little bit with consistency and long term maintenance and having comparable materials. What are we looking at for Main Street? We want to make sure that we're establishing safe connections for bicycles, pedestrians and all users on the street. Improving the transit options and also at the same time managing stormwater a little better. Main Street has a significant amount of impervious area with the block faces and the wide right of way along with all of the buildings and other areas that feed into it. We also are pausing to figure out how to make Main Street have places and so this is one of the things that a lot of our outreach has been doing and our focus groups is really trying to hear the creative ideas that our community has and the ways that they want to see Main Street reshaped so that it becomes a place that's that's thought of a little bit more, you know, like the waterfront or church tree that it's more of a destination and not just a place to pass through. The focus of this is making sure that people of all abilities are able to use Main Street. It is a bit of a challenging street. It does have a significant slope to it within the project limits and very limited flat areas. And so we want to make sure that both movement up and down the street as well as adjacent to supporting businesses is better accommodated throughout the corridor. So really this project is for pedestrian cyclists transit users businesses property owners as well as vehicles. So as we look at the street we try to break it down a little bit into different categories. There's functional portions of the street the roadway the sidewalk. The sections that a lot of people don't necessarily see or think about every day about the utilities that are underground. The soil that might support tree volume, stormwater infiltration. But there's also the other community type spaces, the unique and beautiful places for street furnishing signage trees, taking in and reflecting the architectural character of buildings. So this is the community led about how the split spaces can be activated, energized, used throughout, you know, all of our 12 months, and for all of the different community members that we have. This rendering was done under our previous effort back in 2016 so in the original creation of the downtown tiff. We did have a little bit of money to start a concept plan and so this rendering comes from that. We have everybody ideas. The main street corridor under the walk bike plan dictates that there will be separated dedicated bicycle facilities within this corridor. This is just one representation about how that could look on the street, but other things to take note of our wider pedestrian spaces, place for tree ecology so the tree belts would serve to infiltrate stormwater as well as provide subsurface structure for healthy tree growth on street stormwater management and still travel lanes, parking lanes, crosswalks and, and other amenities that that could exist that we want to hear feedback on. So what have we've been doing to date. Really this effort started in the beginning of February, where we introduced the mainstream concept. So let's be the beginning. You know that some of you haven't heard about this project since 2016 or 17 when we've, we kicked it off, and that's, and that's okay. This effort over the next few months is really about gathering the people who are interested and providing us feedback being engaged in stakeholder meeting groups and providing feedback about both the design process and, and during construction this effort that we've been going through since the beginning of February is really about kind of collecting everybody that really wants to help us with Main Street. So we've been to a lot of different meetings, and we'll be going to a whole bunch more meetings but really that kind of turns over into our consultants providing a concept plan, right around the end of April. And that will be April 28, there'll be information coming out about where that's going to be hosted. I imagine it'll be a hybrid meeting, and then that'll follow with a few other structured meetings, and then ultimately landing at the City Council for acceptance of a concept. And then proceeding right into our action and more continuing with the design, leading towards construction, but really a lot of outreach from the city from our supporting departments, and our consultant throughout this phase to touch a little bit on the focus groups. And one of the things that was really glaringly obvious we had our neighborhood meeting at the beginning of February. We completed our typical engagement that our engagement plan would have called for and even went a little above and beyond it did a lot of mailings. So, one of the questions that we asked was a little bit was about the demographics of the people in the room. It was a very, very clear message that it was 100% white people that had attended, and they all fit that like 30 to 50 generally demographic. What we've been doing, and it didn't show up one of these boxes and show up but we've been targeting those groups of people that didn't quite or don't typically attend our structured meeting so a youth group we've met with some high school students. We've met with our businesses a few times that we've had an immigrant and refugee group meeting. We're going to be meeting next week and actually we have a mobility support group meeting or mobility group meeting on the 24th of March. So, if you're interested in joining in any of those group meetings that could have potentially already happened or are still scheduled, we are going to meet with these groups a few times throughout this project so if you're interested in participating in one of those and feel more comfortable participating in one of those please reach out and let us know. So we had done with some of our other outreach. This is just an example of a poll question but we trying to make our remote meetings a little bit more interactive had a few poll questions to go to the audience through dynamic responses. But I wanted to pull these two out just to get people thinking about, you know what is Main Street to you today, and tomorrow I want Main Street to become. And those are the types of things that we want to learn about what is Main Street now and and how can we really make Main Street great. So our next steps, I talked a little bit about how that late April early May timeframe is the looking to present concepts to the public with what we've heard and then moving into the design and permitting sort of construction is targeted as fall of 2023. So this is anticipated to take a minimum of two years, and it's worded that way. Charlie had spoken to it a little earlier, the ravine sewer, which was a part of the vote that happened at meeting day is just barely getting started. So we're working on procuring a consultant so that we can get some early testing of spring water flows and then move that portion of the project through design or concept design and construction. It will be constructed with Main Street that's the ultimate goal there's doesn't make any sense to do the surface of Main Street on that end of the project and not have addressed the sewer but anything that we do in that area will be a big effort and so I anticipate that that end of the project will might take more than two years, whereas the other lower sections towards battery could be a little faster. We want to highlight, you know, we've learned a lot through earlier Great Streets projects as well as some of the city's more recent projects with the waterfront with Shelbert Street roundabout about our engagement process throughout, but we're also still learning so as we do reach out to the community, you know, we want to learn about other better ways that we can stay connected, both you hearing what's happening as well as us hearing from you, what's happening. So I have Olivia's contact information up here. The Great Streets website which was actually on the agenda tonight so her contact information is also on the website. I'm really the best person to reach out to you about either knowing where to go get information how you can participate or just taking in any comments, feedbacks or questions. So I conclude, hopefully a short presentation tonight with leaving Olivia's information up on the screen, but maybe kicking off, you know, the question, do you or people in your community visit Main Street. I will share why not. I will share and allow anyone to provide us some questions or feedback. Great, thank you Laura. We have about nine minutes for questions and feedback so yeah anyone who'd like to speak please raise your hand. And if there's nothing at this point you guys can easily have your time back but it looks a few seconds to think of good questions. Tony, what you got on your mind. We want to get our money's worth out of the presenters tonight so we'll hold them here for a few more minutes. I live about with a stone's throw from Main Street. I'm moved from basically just to North W Mesquite just above Radio Bean about almost two years ago. So this is, I'm in the downtown area versus being in the old north end. And the one thing I've learned in the last two years it was a real surprise to me is that I now can go to a lot of places while ever going through a signalized intersection where I have to push buttons and wait for cars to stop and look for the people pushing the stale green or pushing through the red lights or turning when they shouldn't. So, I really love it. I don't I can go to the marketplace and went to breakfast this morning. I'm going to go tomorrow morning without ever going through a signalized intersection. The intersection I'm next to which is Shelburne is Main Street and St. Paul, of course, is the site of the last one of the fatal crashes in the city in which a young worker at deal dot com was was killed in a T bone crash. I've been in two, almost near death experiences on the corner of south one of ski and Pearl and down at cherry and Pearl that consultants have always talked about that section between south one of ski from Pearl to to Main Street is is Death Valley. And so that's true. I've had two near death experiences there so I think that was an apt name. There is no standard for safety and the so called safety standards that the city established. I was at the hearing back in 2016 and safety, I had to mention oh is safety one of the purposes of the great streets and and the presenter said oh we we forgot that. And one of the reasons this is that that those six intersections, seven to be seven intersections are three of them are high crash including highest crash intersection state of Vermont which is a regular pieces, which is that Main Street and South one of ski. There is no there I didn't find any standards. The standard that we have in Vermont is and nationally now is the roundabout that would cut at least 90% of the serious and fatal accidents. I don't care about the injuries I guess we can have them but we shouldn't be killing and seriously injuring people on Main Street anymore and that means the current standard downtown standard for Vermont and in federal highways is the modern roundabout particularly for pedestrians. The roundabouts the only proven counter safety measure for pedestrians and one third of the people who live in this area have no access to a car. I would think you'd have a focus group made up of people who only walk and do not have cars and that that that is one third of the population here. Okay, I'll just wrap up by saying, there's nothing addressing specifically analytics for correct climate change and the standards is it's nothing that approaches and deals with the fact that we have a community of color. The King Maple neighborhood which is adjacent, and they are, they are most vulnerable to the lack of safety at these intersections. Thank you for for many many comments. Safety is really one of the first goals of this project. There will be many safety improvements both shorter crossings to visibility, as well as working to understand vehicle speeds. There's a lot more to come on that we have heard earlier conversation or the earlier comments that you've brought during the bond process as well that our consultant is working through more to come there but I do want to give the other hand a chance if we have time. Yes, Chris, go ahead. Thank you for taking my question. I just want to echo what Tony said about the roundabouts I think that, you know, as I understand it the roundabout is recently recognized by the federal highway administration is being one of the safer alternatives and I would hope that, as we move forward in this with the design decision on the basis of facts and data, particularly as things have evolved, it appears in the years since the project was initially envisioned. The second piece I have there is also related to the loss of parking. Currently we have the diagonal parking spaces, and we're going to be going to parallel that implies the significant loss of parking so I'd like to know how many spaces we have now. I'd like to know how many spaces we're going to have after this has been re-envisioned. That's still a difficult question to answer. I think we had spoken at the first public meeting. Really this process right now is shaping kind of the change in the parking and how many spaces we would come forward with with the concept. We've heard a lot from the community about different ways to activate the street, different things that are important, public seating, spaces for maybe some sort of street food or other activation and so that's going to drive a little bit of parking use and demand or the other space use on the street. That the answer to your question should be available around mid-April. We have a presentation plan for the City Commission, which is the authority of body over parking in the city. And so they do need to hear about the parking loss and we'll need to adopt and accept any recommendations. Which body is that? The Department of Public Works Commission, they meet on the third Wednesday of every month at 6.30pm. Well, I would think that we could probably do some quick math here between the blocks. There's a finite distance there and if I recall correctly, a standard parking space is about 14 feet in length. I think you might have a better idea as the engineer. So if we applied the math. 20 to 22, okay. So bigger spaces. So recognizing that the current width is maybe 8 feet, 10 feet, you know, 10 is half of 20, it kind of implies that we're going to lose about half the parking. And I understand we're still in the divine process, but it is a bit disappointing that we can't really get any hard and fast numbers from the department as this goes down. But you know, we'll give you guys some opportunity to work through it because it sounds like there's still some moving parts going on. There certainly are moving parts and the parking loss is, you know, a concern to more than just the residents, you know, the businesses, some of them are highly concerned and the other of them are actually fairly excited about some of the changes. But we will be bringing kind of all of those thoughts and ideas and feedback collectively together as we do work to present the concepts. Thanks for your work on this. I know it's kind of be challenging to try to, you know, integrate all the different viewpoints into a final product, but I appreciate your willingness to come in to the MPA and listen to what folks have to say so thank you for doing that. Thank you. Great. Any other questions we still have about five minutes. If I could, I have one more in response to Tony talking about safety and the DPW commission we have adopted the vision zero policy with our projects, and that was done. I'd have to I'd have to go back in the notes but it was done before. Certainly before COVID when that idea about how DPW would approach our transportation projects. And to meet the vision zero goal. So there there is a focus for safety. It may not have been written in the Great Street standards, which really just apply to the downtown. We are working on engineering standards. And that information would certainly appear within that document that applies to the whole city. Sorry about that everybody. I have a question in my house. So you asked, you know, how do we interact and I thought about it throughout this whole time. I feel like I don't really go down Main Street that much I'm more intersected. So I don't know what that means, but I thought I should let you know I'm more often intersect Main Street through all the other roads I don't really go down at all. So, there you go. That's helpful feedback it we we want to know you know what where and how people are encountering the street and it may or may not. In the future divert them, or maybe it'll make your trip a little easier. Maybe. Was that a zoom bomb. Okay. Great. Any other feedback for to be UW infinite. Thank you. Really quick, maybe not so quick, but in a, and maybe at another time. I'm really curious to hear. How the project is going about procuring contracts from consultants. I reckon that you'll have quite a few consultants coming from multiple different directions throughout the project and I'm just curious how the city like with the city's procurement processes for handing out contracts for some of the projects. Yep. That's a great question. The current design team that we have is made up primarily of a civil engineering firm called BHP. So, we're going to meet them a firm agency landscape and planning, and then also helping with a little bit of design and outreach is grayscale collaborative. A really diverse group of people, generally from the New England region, if not really local to Vermont, but there's, there's not kind of a collaborative that's over on the west coast or whatnot that really a core group are focused in New England. We also have our water sewer design firm that is local to Vermont, but I think that they're a little further north northeast of here. As we move forward. It would be a competitive bid for like a construction contractor to to construct the project. We are working with our racial equity and diversity group as it relates to how this project meets certain initiatives that the city has. And I think that that would lead to trying to find make sure that our general contractor does have certain subs and maybe meets a disadvantaged business type requirement. Wait, so, so when you say racial equity group, are you referring to Green's office? Yes. Our RAB department, as well as we are meeting with their committee next week. And I've already had participation from one of the staff members within the department at a few of our meetings. Oh, I thought they were. I didn't know they were so active. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, I think we have time for one last quick question. So I'll give it to Charlie. Can you make it a minute or less? I just wanted to say that there is now a Burlington Aging Council. I beg them to change the name because everybody's aging, but it's about taking care of the older people and making sure that the city is doing right by the people who can't get around so well and the people who are aging. I think they, you know, Brian Pine is one of the organizers. They should be giving you feedback about what it's like on Main Street for people on wheels and with walkers and people who have a hard time getting around. Burlington Aging Council. We did have a preliminary meeting with them in January, but it is a great reminder to go back once we have something more substantial to display. Thank you. Great. Thank you, everyone. I think we'll leave it all. But thank you Laura and Olivia for coming in and speaking the best and for your hard work for the city. Great. So we will move on to our next agenda item. We have Andy Simmons here to talk about the Pine Street Barge Canal and give a presentation. Hi folks. My name is Andy Simon. I'm here with my partner Ruby Perry. And we live in the south end next to Callahan Park on Locust Street. And wanted to talk to you about what seems to be on the face of it seems like a south end issue which is questions around conservation of the Pine Street Barge Canal but like to convince you that the fate of the Pine Street Barge Canal is something that the whole city should be concerned about. So we're going to do a short presentation and, and then we'd love to have some questions. So share my screen. And just wanted to start for people that don't know where the, the barge canal is. It's where the where the little marker that says site is. It's actually just west of Pine Street north of Burlington Electric Department. And south of the Maltex building right along the lake. I'm assuming that some of you, many of you perhaps know this, this area, and people have been skating there and going by on the bike path for years. It's 28 acres of wetlands and forested land. And, and we want to just give you a little orientation to it a little introduction to it. This is the, it's really important to know a rather complex and interesting history of this area. This is the view of the extent of the wetlands area pre 1850s. That means before the coming of the railroad before the industrialization. This was an area that was a transitional zone between the growing city of Burlington and the lake. It was a place of hunting and gathering and fishing for indigenous people for many centuries. And then later for the early Euro American residents, the big first major ecological change that happened at the barge canal and that whole area is the coming of the railroad. This is the one of the locomotives of the Rutland and Burlington railroad they arrived in 1849. And you can see with this map. If you can get oriented the lake is in this view up above. You can see that the, the railway cuts off the barge canal from the lake pretty much totally. And the, the, the arrival of the road also promoted the rapid industrialization of Burlington will come back to this view but just wanted to sort of use that to show that the, how, how the railroad is sort of in between the canal and the lake, whereas it used to be just a wetland. What happened in the, in the 19th century and the second half of the 19th century was the late the lumber industry totally dominated the economy of Burlington. Once forests were were pretty much depleted. The wood mostly came down from Quebec on sailing barges. And as the industry grew these wetlands the wetland area got pretty much totally filled in with with wood chips with sawdust with other industrial detritus from the lumber mills. The problem for the lumber mills was that since they were coming down on the lake, they had to get a lot of storage for the winter time when the lake was frozen. So, Lawrence Barnes, you will know, remember him he was a lumber barren in the 19th century, and he got the idea of having this barge canal excavated into the fill area with a drawbridge. They could get through the railroad track, and the drawbridge is still there. But that's what filled up this whole area is all these stacks of lumber this is the view from 1887 drawing. But the lumber industry declined at the end of the 19th century. And another industry took its place at the barge canal. This is a manufactured gas plant. This is a manufactured gas makes gas from coal and it ran on Pennsylvania coal that was shipped up on first on barges and then later on the railroad, and the Burlington Gaslight Company supplied gas to businesses and households in in the city for 60 years and didn't close until 1966. This is a very big storage area in the background of this view of a gas plant, making gas from coal was a really dirty business. The coal tar saturated saturated wood chips and other waste products were dumped out back in the wetlands and on the disused lumber storage areas with the growing environmental consciousness of the 70s and 80s. The newly created EPA environmental protection agency took charge of the barge canal as a federal superfund site. They identified and studying this area 56 contaminants of concern. These included benzene toluene other hydrocarbons and lots of heavy metals. And the after a really fairly lengthy and unique and sometimes contentious process. The EPA issued a record of decision in 1998. And the result of that was they decided to cap the coal tar that was sitting on the bottom of the water and the canal and essentially leave the land alone. They would review it every five years and do regular monitoring of the soil and water. So we're back to this map just to sort of give you an idea of what's happening pretty much now and since the since 1966 when when the manufactured gas plant closed. In this view, you can see that little red square down at the sort of street that's where the manufactured gas plant was. And the whole plant the whole area, the 28 acres of water and wetlands and forests that are there now are pretty much grown over with native plants, like cottonwood and red ozure dogwood and many invasive plants like Buxorn and frag mites, but lots of animals beavers herons ducks geese inhabit the wetlands and the major contaminants that were identified by the EPA are pretty much according to them stabilized state in place they haven't moved around a lot since the land was left alone. So, this is the, this is again reoriented back to sort of north south. This is the zoning map for the for that land, you can sort of see that the area in green outlined in green here is all zone conservation. This land right here is public land right in the middle 11 acres. There are other private parcels that were within the conservation zone, the, the yellow boundary is the federal Superfund boundary. And these two parcels right here 453 and 501 are currently for sale for two and a half million dollars, and are slated for some kind of redevelopment but we'll talk about more about that later. So, here's where we started our campaign to conserve and remediate the barge canal. On a cold day in mid November 2021 we gathered with friends and neighbors to consider how much the barge canal has done to heal itself and protect the lake with debris from the land. We collected flowers and herbs from our gardens and paintings of mushrooms and birds we created this collective offering of gratitude. On that day in a very real way we committed ourselves to caring for this land. There are many, many reasons to conserve and care for the barge canal site, and we'll take a short drone tour in the hopes while we discuss them in the hopes that you too will come to care for this land. Obvious benefit to Burlington is a healthy functioning wetlands habitat in the middle of the south end, home to mammals, birds, insects, plants, fungi and microbes. The living barge canal protects the lake by providing flood control for the south end and helps the city manage the stormwater runoff. It stabilizes the soil containing and slowly transforming the toxins left over from industry. The living barge canal sequesters carbon creates a climate resilience and nature-based solutions to a climate disruption. The barge canal also has the potential to remind us of our history, indigenous, natural and industrial history. At this point the city of Burlington owns, as Andy pointed out, the 11 acres in the center of the barge canal which was purchased decades ago in preparation for construction of the Southern Connector Highway. The rest is privately held. The small private parcels along the railroad track are wetlands and are already zoned for conservation, and this is where our regeneration work needs to be started immediately. We can begin this spring to care for the land. There is extensive debris from decades of neglect at the barge canal starting in April. There will be a volunteer effort to inventory the plants and animals on the public land. Non-native buckthorn has taken over large parts of the site along the canal and native polycultures need to be planted and nurtured. We're envisioning the site as a forested parkland, maybe even a botanical garden of diverse native species. We imagine the barge canal as the center for education with interpretive pathways to learn about our natural history, indigenous presence on the land, as well as the obvious industrial history that's embodied here. We imagine it as a research and training ground for scientists, a living laboratory for much needed cold climate bioremediation research. And a UVM class in plant and soil science has already designed their semesters project here, so that's 11 students that are doing work on that 11 acre public parcel. A Wildlands Park could offer safe public access with boardwalks in a possible route through to the bike path. Ideally, we see the land already under conservation, expanding to include the private land at the barge canal. We're exploring the idea of rematriation of the land, opening to its original inhabitants for ritual and traditional uses by entering into partnership with our Abnaki neighbors. We have been active these last few months. Our main strategy has been to learn as much as we can about the barge canal and to get as many people aware and involved as possible. Just to give you a feel for it. Consulted with indigenous elders and leaders, we launched the petition, we have now 576 signers and counting. We talked with city boards and commissions provided information to the city council discussions with CEDO, the EPA, Vermont DC discussions with land trust engaged with private landowners, worked with UVM students and teachers made contact with the Vermont environmental groups held pop up events on Pine Street, talked to South end residents and business leaders presented at the NPAs like this one. We have been busy. You can help. Your voice is essential to conserving and remediating this land. And now is the time to get involved. And develop your own relationship with this barge canal, visit the barge canal, and then write your city councilor speak at public input sessions on the south end rezoning when they begin. Talk to neighbors and friends show up for pop up events participate in citizen science projects which will be starting in April. We have a petition. We send regular updates out to petition signers we have a Facebook page and a nascent website and we need your help with all aspects of that campaign. The city of Burlington needs to be a partner in this effort to help with the active regeneration of the land, including cleaning it up as well as restoring and protecting the natural ecosystem system. And this to happen, the city government needs to hear from Burlington residents that they care about the barge canal. We'll ask that these links that are coming up there be included in the, in the, in the minutes when you get them, or you can contact us directly at SOS Burlington at Gmail.com. So we see this brownfield transitioning with our care into a greenfield. The vision for conserving the barge canal land is a paradigm shift. A different way of thinking about development and open land and about our responsibility to clean up after ourselves. A different way of thinking about our relationship to our home will leave you with a poem by Judy Dow and a Benekie elder and educator. That she used in this poem gypsies and pirates are derogatory terms that were used by people in Burlington for a Benekie and French Canadians during the eugenics period. This is Judy's poem the canal barge a little inlet where one goes to seek refuge home to the ancient ones big and small gypsies sell their ash baskets to those going by while pirates dock their barges for a temporary home. Lumber stored in piles mountains high brought flames red hot and smoky tones of gray throughout the sky. A cemetery for three barges wide and long skeleton from a time long ago sit side by side with a schooner while bare bones of others sink deep in the mud. Their silhouettes outlined in the archaeological reports, the basin dredged and filled over and over again protected by breakwaters today the canal stands calm. Sealed shut until 1961 and opening was made for barges to once again enter where they sat abandoned along came the Burlington Gaslight Company. The beautiful wetlands filled to their top with coal tar years of abuse left behind a huge super fun site. The wetlands plants fight to survive hanging in there for another day, but they can't do it alone. They need our help. Our feet have led us there and back many times leaving only footprints behind. We've watched nature struggle along the canal for far too long. Those that have benefited from this land need to remember. Now, so we'd love to have your questions. I can't imagine that you don't have any. Thank you Andy and Ruby for that great presentation. Yeah, we have about seven minutes for questions and comments. Yes. Thanks. Hey Ruby and Andy that was a good thank you so much for that presentation it was wonderful to see the the aerial view of the site because so much of it is hidden and we can't see it from either the bike path or or pine street. So my question for you is about the space so when you're when you're you're you're talking about preserving and, you know, the the barge counts area. Are you talking about the entire undeveloped area or just the area that's currently market for conservation. And do you see any possibility for any sort of partial development of the of the property on the pine street side, you know, as you know, there's there's always this, these these competing pressures of needing to preserve and honor land, and also especially here in Burlington, needing more home, needing more more housing development. And then do you see any opportunities for some use of that space or would you really like to see the entire space completely preserved and conserved and regenerated. Well we feel like, I think that's a great question I'm glad you asked it just. Ideally we would love to see this whole, the whole open land preserved conserved by remediated cared for. There are those two parcels on pine street that have been slated for development for decades. In fact, there have been several projects that have been planned for those those parcels, and they've all fallen through for one reason or another. There seems to be another person interested in buying, buying at least one of the parcels from Rick Davis. But you know a lot of the, the attention in the south end rezoning proposals have been on housing, but there are a couple reasons why housing doesn't work well in on this space. The most obvious is that, you know that the contaminants of the of the Superfund site and the adjacent brownfield really don't make it a very appealing place to live permanently. And we have a long history in this country of housing, especially low income people on toxic waste sites. So there's some real environmental justice issues that come up. It seems that the development plans that we don't have any real details yet at this point are not related to housing. They would have to jump through a lot of hoops the EPA and DC have had restrictions on that land no housing no childcare centers for since 1998, and with good reason, and to get those change they'd have to change the zoning to make it residential. I think that it's just there's too many barriers. And, and most of them with some logic behind them and some science behind them to turn that into housing land. That's why that should be maybe activated. I heard that word from from our friends at DPW turned into something that would benefit the tax base would make the economy more lively on pine street. So those are the discussions that are needed going to need to happen we just want to draw attention to the benefits that we're already getting from that land that the above and beyond tax base benefits above and beyond sort of like the first and the bottom lines of that we usually operate with we want to think about think more broadly about the many many benefits in this era of climate disruption that we get from that land and we will get into the future, especially if we care for it. Thank you. Tony, would you like to go ahead. Okay, thank you Andy thank you Ruby that's a wonderful presentation. I just had a question that relates basically to the pine street side or that area I think is a lot of us know who who've worked on the, you know worked on issues in the plan, the city plan that was developed for the for the south end Burlington Electric Department alone has a well that's constantly tested because it there's constant movement of these contaminants underground, they just don't sit there like, you know, and basically like a, like like cuts to, they move, and they there was a surprising move of contaminants every five years that are checked that such that he had to go in and put some more barriers between the barred canal and Lake Champlain to slow that movement. So this is a live sort of like an underground live situation. My question actually relates to mine street and you've talked about there may be a couple of lots of that could be developed there along pine street. And secondly, there still would be some room in which people could access from pine street for I would guess I guess you call it, you know, quiet, quiet recreation through trails or or just to just to enjoy just to take a walk on a path on a natural path. Is that something that's being considered and recall that, as you know, I'm part of pine street coalition. We're fighting for a sidewalk along pine street right now it's a shared path. We think there should be a safe bikeway, separate safe bikeway and a sidewalk, like there is today in front of BED they're going to take it going to electric they're going to take that that that sidewalk and change it into a shared use path makes no sense at all. Would the presence of a sidewalk and a separate bikeway be a benefit to access as far as your concern for the public and for the south end to those lands, whether there are lots of developed or not. Yeah, Ruby do you want to answer. Well I say yes. Yeah, absolutely. We need sidewalks for a lot of reasons that the land along the, the borders pine street is is a eco tone it's an important transition zone between the busy pine street and all the water that's coming down off the hill and flowing into that and the city storm water system relies heavily on that wetland. So anything that interrupts that flow would have to be engineered very very carefully. I'd say yes sidewalks is definitely keep in mind that as you know that this is this is a super fun site. Those toxins are not going anywhere and our vision is that we take on the responsibility of caring for what's happening in the land. And it's not just, we're not just going to suggesting that it be dug up and hauled somewhere else, Coventry, or make make a 13 acre pile of contaminated soil and cover it. We're suggesting that we develop and be a part of the process of figuring out how do we humans take care of the land that we've destroyed. I just want to add to that that we, you know, we're sort of working in two different directions at the same time, but they all involve the city. One is to, you know, try to promote the idea of, of expanding the conservation zone to include the whole land but the other is really getting the city of Burlington to put its attention to that land to put some resources into caring for it to do the work that needs to happen. It's, it's kind of there's a there's a sort of an irony that's behind all this is that leaving the land alone for these 30 years 2325 years has been a great project for the land in many ways. You know the original plan from the EPA was to scoop up all the contaminated soil put it into a 13 foot high 25 acre or third the other way around 25 foot high 13 acre toxic waste dump right there on the on the shores of Lake Champlain. People said, no, people in Burlington just said we totally rejected that plan, got the elected leaders to get behind it, and went through a whole process that I referred to as you know fruitful and contentious and a process of local consultation and came up with the idea of just leaving that land alone and working on the bottom of the canal. So that land has been left alone and that's good compared to what had been proposed before, but now it's time to actually put some energy into that place because it needs, it needs a lot of care it needs clean up it needs replanting it needs and and that's really what we're promoting. The idea of building buildings on the on those front parcels is technically feasible, and is technically allowable under the EPA regulations they can they'll have to sink pilings down 100 feet into bedrock. Because they can't disturb the soil, more than five feet down they have to go drill straight through it. So our federal funds for for brownfield redevelopment that are going to be opened up to probably make that possible. So it's a big discussion to have, and certainly sidewalks are going to be necessary. Thank you. Thank you so much for your presentation we are a little bit over time so I think we need to wrap up our presentation here so sorry that we won't get to your question Charlie and Patrick but thank you so much Ruby and Andy for coming and speaking with us and for all of your great work for the city. Thank you. Thank you very much for making time on your agenda and it's so nice to see all of my friends from wards two and three. Thank you. Thank you. So we're going to move on to our next agenda item which is a bit of NPA housekeeping are bylaws. Each NPA is supposed to have a set of bylaws to govern its operation words to and words three NPA haven't had a official adopted set of bylaws for as long as most of us can remember I believe. We have a set that just haven't been formally adopted, and the steering committee would like to move forward with adopting the drafted bylaws, so that we can operate in a formal manner going forward. The other so that. So we're coming before the NPA to ask for a vote to approve them. The drafted bylaws are the same ones that we've warned at meetings for the past year or so. So there shouldn't, if you, if you look at them a few months ago, there haven't been any changes to them. And, yeah, there is a, there is a provision in the bylaws that allows for them to be amended as needed with a two thirds vote of support by the NPA. So they are, they are things that we can come back and revise as needed but we feel that having an adopted official set will benefit our operation going forward. So the steering committee would like to propose making a vote. But before that, we can open it up for any questions or discussion on the on the bylaws themselves. Any comments from members. Move to adopt the proposed bylaws as written. So the, the procedure that we thought we would follow is actually a zoom poll, because we have one set of bylaws for Ward two operation, and one set of bylaws for Ward three operation. Since we are separate are different words that have chosen to operate jointly. We just wanted to have adopted bylaws for each word for organization of things. And we'll be voting on these separately as, as word to and word three and will open up the zoom poll. If and when people are ready to do that soon. So maybe what we should do is have someone make a motion to vote. Oh, Sam got a little ahead of me. I'll make a motion to vote. Okay. Word to great. Anyone want a second of vote from word to second. Great. Thank you, seven. And would anyone like to make the motion from Ward three. I'll make the motion for more three that we vote. Thanks, Jess. I'll second the motion for three. Great. Thanks, Abbott. Sam, a poll has popped up on my, on my window, but it seems to be for the funding. Is there a difference? Yeah, that was my fault. I tried to open up the proper poll, but I might have messed up. So I hope Sam can fix it. Okay, I was very confused. Yes, I can do it. I'll pop them up right now. Thanks, Sam. Great. So if everyone could go ahead and vote in, in just one of them, whichever word that you live in, please go ahead and vote by your word. So I have to do them one at a time. So the word to one will be up first and then we'll do the word three. Okay, let's give people 10 more seconds to fill in the word to ballot. Okay, I think you can go ahead and close that one looks like word to some support and word to. And we'll go ahead with word three. I'm not seeing the place to vote. Am I missing something? Ward three. I believe a separate window should pop up asking if you'd like to vote basically somewhere on your computer. I've got CEDO NPAs. Is that the one? Nope. There should be somewhere on like the bottom of your screen. There might be like another window for zoom open and that should be the poll option, I think. I don't. I've got town meeting TV and the and the very bottom participants for a screen, record, raise hand. No, I don't, I don't have any place to vote. I haven't seen a poll. Would you like to vote by voice, Tony? Sure. I vote yes. Great. Anyone else need to voice vote or having technical issues? Okay. Great. Well, it seems like word three has supported the bylaws as well. So we'll, we can go ahead and I think we can call those adopted, right? Okay. I think we're ready to have official bylaws. Mayumi. Did you want to say something? Yeah, I have to leave. I have something that I need to attend to. So I've got to leave a little early. Okay, nice to see you. Okay, bye. Wonderful. Well, with that, we will move on to our next agenda item, which is. We have an update. We gave the school board a bit of extra time this month because there's so many things going on in city schools. So we'd love to hear an update from, from all the commissioners. And then maybe if, if you could save, you know, 10 minutes or so for questions, be nice to have time for, for MPA members to be able to ask their own questions. So. Does anyone of the commissioners want to go first? We don't really talk about that, Molly. We didn't say like, who's going to go first tonight, but we all do have a plan. So, um, Steven, Jeannie, would you like to go first? Sure, I'll be very brief. I just want to thank the citizens of Burlington for voting yes on the budget. And once again, they've shown great support for the system and the district. And I just very much appreciate it at the board level as it is at the citizen level. This time around, but. So, and also today I, I, it looks to me like there's good news regarding the pupil waiting study, because I think it's on its way to making a big difference in the way that schools are funded in the state. And I'm not sure exactly yet what that means financially in terms of funding. I don't know what that means again, but we will find out soon because our director of, um, of, um, Director Lavery will, will give us a report on just what that will mean for Burlington. I think it's good news. I think that's true, Jeannie, isn't it? It is, but it's not a done deal yet. No, it isn't, but it's. But things are a lot more encouraging than they were. When we started God. It's, it's been a way over a year. Yeah. And not quite too. And I know that, um, you know, there's a big ask, everyone knows it's a big ask coming up in November. Um, but I also, I'm an optimist and I believe that Burlington, everyone in Burlington knows that we need a new high school and it's been a long time coming. And we're at the phase now where we're going to, it's going to be an exciting time to be tuning in. And it's going to be an exciting time to be tuning in. And it's going to be an exciting time for us. To board meetings because of the designs and the costs and the estimates and the discussions will be. Part of the agenda is coming up probably as soon as next month. So, um, it will be a big amount of money, but, you know, education is very expensive. And we're in, we're in great need of a, of a new building and an appropriate building for the next. 60, 70 years. Um, I think it's going to be a, it's going to be a big amount of money. Um, and Burlingtonians know that and they will support it when the time comes. I do want to just emphasize that. Since I've been on the board, the discussion has always been focused on being fiscally responsible. And I know that that will continue as we go forward with this new design. That, uh, there's no, there's no wasted money. There are no really extras, but I think we've, we've, we've proposed, um, extremely conservative, um, numbers in the last four years. And I'm certain that that will continue as well. So I'm just hoping that that the citizens will, will understand the need and, uh, support the ask that's coming up in November. Thanks. Okay. So kind of on the topic of numbers. I'll just preface by saying thanks. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who voted for me in word three. Um, I ran unopposed, but I still really appreciate every vote. I don't take it for granted. That while my name's the only like superficial name on the ballot, people still voted for me. So thank you. And I'm really excited about the plans for the new high school and tech center. And tonight. I'm going to share my screen. I'm going to share my screen. I'm going to share my screen. The upcoming bond versus the upcoming bond. So I'm going to share my screen. And this. Is something from, um, A front porch forum post that I put out this week to respond to my neighbor. Can you all see my screen? I'm going to go backwards. Sorry. Okay. Is this okay? Thumbs up. Yes. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, that the. Question came up. What was the exact amount approved by taxpayers at the time called BHS, BTC, re-envisioning back in 2018. And that amount was $70 million. And of that money, we borrowed 24 million. And how much of that 24 million has been spent so far. We borrowed 24 million. We borrowed 4 million was spent on design work and site testing, which was mandated by the state. And I think it's really important to understand this was not money where people said, Oh, let's just take these $4 million and kind of play with it. This was actually something that had to happen as part of the process. And we found out that we had PCBs. So because of that. We also found out that we could not move forward with the project as planned. So we did state and federal levels. We shut down BHS. People worked very hard to get a new location so that students could be in person, which is now downtown BHS. And then they found locations around the region, mostly around Chittenden County, South Burlington and Burlington. So that tech center students could also work together in person. And so we found out that we could not move forward with the project as planned. And then this question came up, how does bond funding work? And I have to admit, I've been on school board for two years. I've lived in Burlington. Officially since. Well, I've lived in Ward three since 2006. I've lived in Burlington since 2000. Yes. 2000 1999 2000. And I couldn't answer this question. I've voted for many bonds and I couldn't really answer this question. So I'm going to ask Nate Lavery, the executive director of finance for the Burlington school district. And he said, it's a lot like paying a mortgage where you borrow a large amount of money and pay it back with interest over the term of the bond. And getting authority to borrow is not the same thing as actually borrowing it. So we don't have to get $70 million of approval and then take the $70 million. And then we're going to spend, which is a window of 12 to 18 months typically. So have we been paying that $70 million? No. We're only repaying the $4 million. Because we returned the $20 million that was not spent. And will we have to pay the $70 million that we borrowed? We are not facing any costs of this authorization, except repayment of the $4 million. So our budget, which is supported by people's taxes here in our community, is really only repaying the $4 million that we're spent. As we look at BHSBTC 2025, what about this new high school and tech center, where we're going to be proposing a bond based on plans that we make over the next several months? And we're looking at hopefully that bond being proposed this coming November. And then we're going to have to pay the $70 million. For the new high school and tech center, we're going to make a completely new request so that the community has a clear grasp of the total borrowing necessary to complete the project. So that's the end of my slides. I'm going to stop sharing. And I just wanted to clarify that tonight because there were a lot of questions about, well, what about the previous bond and will money from the previous bond be added into the project? And to say that that hopefully covers it. And maybe if you hear those questions, you can go and say to the community, no, this is what I heard at the NPA meeting, which comes from the director of finance in the Burlington school district. I didn't make the numbers up. I asked him so that I could understand it. And that we are going to be looking for a new ask. This coming November. So I'm going to say to the community, I'm going to say to the community, I'm going to say to the community, I'm going to say to the community recently, not having a permanent high school and tech center is the biggest economic and existential crisis facing our community right now. It affects our identity. It affects whether or not people move here. It affects whether or not people decide to move out. So to me, this is like blinders on. I'm very single minded about this. I'm very single minded about this. I'm very single minded about this. I'm very single minded about this. I'm very single minded about this. I'm very single minded about this in terms of how we are spending our money and what we're choosing to spend our money on. Like Stephen said, we're looking at this as an investment. In the next 60 to 70 years. Not something that's just another cycle. So I'll stop there because I know we need to leave. Time for questions. Thanks, Pauline. Let's see. Jeannie, did you want to say anything before we open up for questions? No. I'm a little bit eager to answer questions though. Thanks, Molly. Great. Questions who would like to. All up on that great report. Infinite. Go ahead. Thank you so much for that. You brought up that it was. Sort of like. Mortgage. And so. I guess I'm just curious. If there is a way for. You know, not just a borrowing amount, but the. The debt service. And the cost of. The loan. Thank you for your question. I cannot answer that question right now, but I'm going to write it down. And I'm going to send it. To the executive director of finance. I'm sure there's an answer to that, but it's not one that I could answer right now. No, it's just not yet. I know that in discussion of the cost, there will be a projection of what the payback rate will be over the years that the loan is. Active. So the board will be, will be, that will be public knowledge and upcoming board meetings. Thank you folks. And that process is actually beginning April 5th will be our first. We'll be the board meeting where. We'll be the board meeting. We'll be the board meeting. We'll be the board meeting. Different scenarios or options. Are. First. Introduced. As far as, you know, plans for what something. What a building would. How it would serve the students and what would be the associated. Cost, but of course it's not. It will be within a mark. You know, that's my understanding. If not having happened yet. It's hard to know. I live at 308 Negra. Somebody wants a mail. I live at 308. I think we're being bombed again. Walter hardware. I live in. Negra. Rooted. Infinite. May I ask if you, if you were a question about debt service was for the $4 million were we paying? Or about the new high school and tech center or both? I, uh, both. Um, you know, I mean, because I, I agree with you. I think. I agree. Uh, that. Not having in high school is a crisis. Um, I guess I'm, I'm wondering at what costs. Um, you know, with the, with the costs and the long, longer term. If that costs that will actually fall on. Um, you know. Your grandkids. To what extent, I guess. There was a call at our board meeting last time. Call by which I mean sort of like a. Almost like a call to arms to say. Um, This situation should not solely fall on the shoulders of Burlington taxpayers and that the state of Vermont could do a lot better with funding education construction across the board that this is a crisis. We're facing now in Burlington, but we are not the only community. So, um, I keep saying like, let's put pressure on legislators. Um, I don't really know how to do that. And I'm trying to figure that out and hoping to get those answers from people so that, you know, we hear about money coming in through ESSA funds and pandemic funds or that Vermont could spend more on education construction, but doesn't. And I'd love to know more. About how to go about getting that money so that it's not just going to fall. Um, We've been told that 10 million has been set aside in the ESSA funds for the construction of the new high school. So that's a, it's a little bit toward. The, um, the total cost. There's also been a lot of, um, discussion on the side and publicly as well about soliciting private donations and private, um, Um, I don't know what that's going or in what direction that's having, but Tom Flanagan has said that several times. And, um, I'm expecting that that will be part of the, um, Part of the funding mechanism. Part of part of being able to accept those donations is, uh, Having a tax exempt. 501 C3 entity or organization. And it's not just one entity. There's at least, um, there's more than one. I'm not sure how many there are. So getting ready to receive. Is definitely. Um, A position we're in. And as I did speak with, it was a long time ago. I did speak with director library about. What taxpayers were feeling in the repayment of the $4 million. And he said it was. So small that we're talking maybe not even pennies. But it would be nice to have a concrete figure. And I don't know if that's changed, right? And that was before everybody got a reassessment. I'm not sure how much of that might be different now. Any questions from the NPA? I do also want to. Say the word on the street is that governor Scott is going to earmark. Funds for. Um, technical schooling. Half of the surplus, which I think is, or I'm not exactly sure how much he said, maybe it's around 45. Million. So I'm hoping that Burlington technical center will benefit from that effort. Or the future Burlington tech center. I should say. You realize that Steven Genie and I are all teachers. And we could easily just fill this time. With talking. Yeah. Like when there's a void, we're like, no, we'll, we'll find, we'll find something to say. I want to say thank you to Steven. Who is stepping down as. Word to school commissioner. Um, for his service for the past four years. He has done so much work behind the scenes. And we are so grateful to him for everything that he's done. Um, and although she's not here tonight, I'd like to welcome Faiza Hassan, who is the new ward to school commissioner. And there was a great write up recently in seven days about the new young school commissioners. One of whom is Faiza. So, um, I just want to put that out there and hopefully we will see her at an NPA meeting soon. So thank you, Steven. And welcome Faiza wherever you are tonight. Thank you, Paula. Yes. Thank you, Steven. That's a great note to, to wrap up on. Thank you for your service to the city. Great. Maybe we should move on to our city counselors. Um, I see we have counselor mage and counselor Tracy, who's been a little bit for a while. Um, We thought we'd give, uh, you guys about five minutes, give us an update. Um, and I'll let you pick which one goes first. Max, do you want to kick it off? Sure. Yeah, that's cool. So this is my last NPA meeting with you all. Um, after 10 years of being the ward to city counselor, I'm stepping aside and Jane Bergman is going to be taken over. So really, um, it's definitely a great opportunity for us to get together. So I'm just really grateful to all of you who have put so much time into running the NPA, making it such a special place to come every month and talk with folks about the issues facing our community. Um, you know, I, it's been really remarkable to see how you all have adapted to, um, the pandemic and just keeping this tradition going. I'm also really excited to see you all again in person. Um, when we get back into having dinner again, together. So I just wanted to kick things off by saying that and just really express my gratitude to all of you for everything that you do to keep this such a rich, um, and you know, informative meeting. Um, in terms of council, I have one more council meeting left, um, at, um, and at that meeting, one of the issues that's going to be discussed that will, um, be impacting our neighborhood, um, is the North Winooski project. So North Winooski Avenue. So this is a year, been a years long project, um, where they've examined more DPW, um, different consultants, committee and different, um, different committees have looked at, um, the entire span of Winooski Avenue, um, and recommended changes for that. The corridor has already undergone some significant changes that you all have probably noted. Um, especially in downtown where they've gone from four lanes to three lanes. The area, um, in the old North end was sort of set aside, um, with a, um, when that decision was made, it was sort of like that downtown section move forward. And then the old North end section was broken off, um, for further, um, study and review. Um, and that process, um, and the committee that was working on that, um, completed that process, um, recently with a recommendation, um, to do a pilot and to do further study, um, that, um, is going to be, um, and so that, that's what came out of it. And the, um, that comes to the city council for, um, further discussion. Um, and, um, the city council to weigh in, um, that'll be on the 21st. Um, and so we'll, we're, we're still just going to be discussing and looking at those different options. Um, I personally don't like the idea of doing a pilot. We saw the, the drawbacks of doing a pilot with North Avenue didn't really, um, you know, I don't think that it really gave us any, you know, different or new information that we, um, didn't have ultimately at the beginning of the process. And I think that it just allowed the issue, it just let the issue become, um, one that was, um, just continue to let the issue become incredibly, incredibly polarizing. So, um, I think we're going to be looking at, um, a variety, we're going to continue to look at a variety of different options going forward for the Winooski corridor. Um, and, uh, at that meeting. So if you are interested, um, in that, um, In that topic, I would encourage folks to attend that council meeting on the 21st. Um, and so that's kind of a big item that I wanted to just bring back to the group, um, At this, at this meeting. But I'll let Joe talk a little bit more because I'm sure there's other things we got to talk about as well. Update you. Yeah. So, um, I just want to thank everybody for, um, Showing strong support on, on town meeting day. I'm very grateful to have the support of, um, Or three residents for a full two year term and looking forward to working with you all. And, uh, like Max said, joining some in person MPAs, uh, here, hopefully soon. So, um, Just wanted to say thank you for that. And also thank you to Max for 10 years of service to the city and, uh, For his leadership as I've been on the council since August. So, um, I wanted to, uh, Touch briefly on short term rentals as we heard some folks comment on During the public forum. Um, The mayor is still considering a veto of the ordinance as it was passed by the council. And I need to forevote on. Uh, Our. Meeting on February 23rd. Um, so he hasn't tell the meeting on the 21st. So, um, I wanted to touch briefly on short term rentals as we heard some folks comment on during the public forum. So, um, You know, I think he hasn't tell the meeting on the 21st to make that decision. He hasn't said definitively whether or not that's something he's going to do. But, um, That could be something that we also, uh, Address. At that meeting on the 21st. So, um, You know, I heard Abbott's comments and others comments on that and just want folks to know that, um, I'm here to continue to have those conversations. And, um, I'm here to continue to have those conversations as, as folks consider those proposals and. What the council passed in February. So. Um, with that, I think you can open up for some questions. I don't know if we have other. Reps here to speak tonight. Thanks, Joe. Um, yeah, it looks like we don't have any state reps. So, um, I would offer that we should go until eight 30 with, um, Um, And, um, yeah, let's open up for the people that chime in. We have an end of meeting low. Oh, there we go. Patrick, what do you want to say? Uh, good job, Mr. McGee. Spend this job of running and you're doing a great job as council, even though I can't vote for you. Um, I've already spoken to. Previous and hopefully future. Council members about economic justice, um, on the city council. Um, and a pay scale that reflects. Currently what. The counselor makes. We don't have a huge diversity of economic inclusion on the city council. We spend a lot of time. Just time making sure, you know, trying to make the city council representative of the city. Um, you know, I don't know if it's really, but economically. I have a tough time thinking that it's a balanced and fair. City council. Approaching that is very difficult. And I think, you know, Max briefly noted a couple of things years ago when I mentioned it to him. I really feel. That people of economic challenges should be represented. Um, you. You know, you know, you know, you can do a good job of trying to, but it's one thing. Representing somebody. And the other thing representing from a place of knowing. Um, how that would work. It could be very difficult. But I really feel like it would benefit the city. Tremendously. If we offer childcare. To people on school board. If it's acknowledgement of a lot of hard work. And a serious stipend to city councilors. If they're economically challenged. Um, But good job, Max. Thank you. Patrick. And one of the things I can say is that there is still an active charter change to increase, um, increase counselor pay. That's still very much active. It was just tabled. Um, I think it's, um, I think it's a proposal to do that, whether it has support, I think is, is an open question at this point to be frank. I think it's one of those things that. Um, People kind of turn into a referendum on, you know, the council. That is there currently and how they feel about that particular council and they don't see it sort of through, I think the important lens that you're applying Patrick, which is that, you know, in order to have people be able to serve, you have to. Um, To compensate them because it's a tremendous amount of work and an incredible, um, commitment, um, in terms of your time and a lot of working class and working class, people just simply don't have the time and ability to, to do that, um, for the compensation that people are, the counselors are currently paid. Um, if folks don't know, we're paid about $385 a month. Um, and that, I mean, that translates to, you know, less than, well less than minimum wage for the amount of time you put in. So. Um, and that was even that was increased, um, since I've been on the council. So, um, it's not necessarily what I think people do it for, um, but it is an important thing that I think influences people's ability to get involved and stay involved. Yeah. And if I could just say quickly, you know, Patrick, I think that point about childcare is essential. Um, you know, these are meetings that happen late and go late into the night and, um, I think that's absolutely something that we should be looking into, uh, you know, as we address the childcare concerns in the whole city and in the state, um, how we open this up for, for working folks to be able to serve, um, on bodies that meet largely after working hours. Arlene, would you like to go ahead? Me? Yes. Um, Max, thanks for everything. Done a lot of good stuff. Try a lot of good stuff. We, uh, I think of the mayor as veto. You know, that's, that's his character. If it's not a. A develop. If it's not a development. It gets a veto. Uh, Joe, congratulations. I'm glad we got you back. And I wish everybody, uh, luck in getting places with these things. It's, it's very difficult and it does take a lot of time. And it's really a lot to ask of someone to put in that much time for that much money. Thank you, Charlie. Yep. Just about says it. Thank you both. Thank you, Charlie. Thanks, Charlie. You've had some of the most memorable public comments in the entire time I've been on city council. So I've always appreciated that. Thanks. Jamie, would you like to go ahead? Yeah. On the topic of compensation for serving, um, just to let you know, the school board has talked about stuff like that as, you know, you know, you know, you know, a strategy to diversify the boy. But one of my questions is in, you know, being somebody who has low income and also being somebody who. Um, Uh, R. Is the money that you guys receive. Is it non-taxable? So I know I bring this up because. Certain incomes can affect people's benefits. But I'm not sure that's, that's, that's a good thing. I mean, I don't know if it's a good thing to offer out there on the table, but somebody not be able to take it because that means that they're going to lose out on, you know, much more food stamps, or I know that that's fairly unlikely, but. Um, It's such a pain in the butt to get all of those systems in place. And then to. You know, two years later, even reapply or something. I don't know. It's funny you asked that, Jeannie, because I actually emailed HR today to get my W two, because they sent it to my old address. So. It is taxable. So, yeah. Yes. Barbara. Yeah. Um, I just wanted. Number one, congratulate Joe. I'm so glad to have. Um, you know, you know, I've been in a more permanent slot and, um, to tell Max that I really understand all your reasons for leaving. They're good, valid reasons, but I am not over my disappointment. Um, I had such hopes for you being the next mayor. Um, I, you know, I understand that could possibly still happen, but, um, you were such a terrific counselor and such a terrific, um, um, um, I'm just very, I'm, I understand that I'm really sad that you're going. Well, thank you so much, Barbara. I really appreciate all your support. I think that if we were in person with this meeting, we'd probably end with a standing ovation of Max for his years of service and really dedication to the NPA. I've always appreciated how you show up to all of our meetings. I'm just good advice. Yeah. So let's all give Max an appreciation. Thank you. Thank you everyone. I really appreciate it. Great. Well, with that, I think we can wrap up our meeting. It's been a pleasure getting to see all of you. And, um, I look forward to meeting with you in April.