 So that means some of you can hear I know some of you are still eating getting dessert started anyway so welcome everyone to am I good Charlie okay a portion of tonight welcome my name is Lauren I'm one of the steering committee members on I to now I'm on North Ave and I'll introduce the steering committee here in a minute but for our agenda from last week so are there any objections to adopting our agenda actually for this week sorry I'm Mr. Robert's rules at the agenda is on everybody's table so feel free to follow along there are also QR codes that have the agenda so you can follow along on your phone and thank you Shelby for printing those QR codes and there are all of the presentations that we'll be doing today if there are slides are also included so seeing disputes will adopt tonight's agenda and get moving so first I do just highlighted at the steering committee but I would like to highlight our wards two and three steering committee so we have some new members at the steering committee members could stand up or is everybody who are yay Shelby's right here in the front Erica is walking by we're all in Ward 2 Shelby hi I'm Shelby glass and I'm in Ward 2 and I'll be note-taking tonight welcome everyone hi Michelle Borvis Ward 3 I have a microphone already hi everyone I'm Erica Faulkner from Ward 2 is it on hello I'm interrupting it's it's a really annoying the hell out of me for many many many minutes people are up front talking and people in the room are not paying any effing attention whatsoever and we have no idea what you're talking about and it just annoys me as a longtime community person I wish that either you weren't wasting your effort or we were paying attention or people who wanted to talk and visit which is a perfectly wonderful thing to do would like go over in a corner or another room just my opinion just my little personal tantrum I just would rather respect the visiting and talking unto itself and I'd rather respect the people up front talking about community stuff thank you sorry it's okay no that's a great call out and thank you thank you I know it's an I'm in Ward 3 on the steering committee thank you all right I know I saw Chris floating around and Jess are also some steering committee members and I just want to introduce this group because if you have any questions or any suggestions for what to include in an upcoming meeting please feel free to find one of us we're obviously here and we're also available by email which the information is on the tables all right and just a note our next meeting will be on Thursday November 9th and as Jess mentioned we will of course have our community dinner beforehand which I know many of us look forward to because it is amazing all right so we have a pretty big group today I don't think we have time to go around the room and introduce everyone individually but I do encourage you at your tables to introduce yourself to someone you may not know share what words you are maybe an issue that you care about we'll have a little bit of downtime that we can do that so we want to build community with this any questions move forward all right so the next part of our agenda is the public forum so if you are interested in sharing anything please state your name your pronouns what ward you're in and also please follow our MPA ground rules which are in if you scan that QR code so if anyone has any items that they'd like to bring up right now please raise your hand and we can get you a mic one I'm Kristen McDowell I use she her pronouns I live in war two on Oak Street and I'm here on behalf of the interval center to talk about an exciting new market that's actually going to be in this room in the winter so the interval center is starting a bulk market here in this room every second Tuesday November through April where you can get things like produce me eggs beans in other staples in bulk at a different price at three different price tiers so we'll have a three squares price here where you can get 50% off we'll have a supported price tier if you could use help affording food and then we'll have a full price price tier I've placed flyers for this event on the entry table if anyone is interested and I hope to see you guys there thank you thank you all right okay hi everyone my name is Joe Cain I live in Ward 3 and I have a petition with me and it's an anti-apartheid resolution related to Palestine that we're trying to collect signatures for to get a resolution on the ballot for Burlingtonians to sign it's a to vote on I think this coming March there was some effort to get the city council themselves to take action in 2021 and it didn't succeed so now we're trying to do something ourselves have to put it to a vote for the citizens it's not specifically like a boycott divestment sanctions resolution it's just strictly an anti-apartheid resolution I think it would be helpful for putting pressure on the city council to do something and I think the city council doing something like divesting from Israel for instance if the city website is on Wix which is a web platform from an Israeli company shifting to a different web platform I think that could be helpful for counteracting you know the actions of the Israeli government I think economic pressure proved very successful in the case of South Africa local pressure you know we'll build up towards the state and federal level if we you know put our minds to it it was helpful in the case of Vietnam South Africa as I mentioned so again there's this resolution we need about a thousand signatures to get this on the ballot for Burlingtonians and I'll be over here with the clipboard so if you're a Burlington registered voter please come by and sign your name I would really appreciate that thank you thank you is there any other public forum that those in the room would like to share hi I'm Liz Curry and in the new Ward 2 the old Ward 3 and Joe you wrote a post on perm porch forum that was awesome about a forum and I wanted to ask if you could announce the forum that's October 17th yes sorry I forgot to mention and I didn't want to take up too much time but yeah there is gonna be a forum discussing the recent events in Gaza and around Gaza Tuesday evening in this building I think it's room 218 or 208 there's a post on front porch forum about it it's it's seven o'clock on yeah this Tuesday there will be a speaker there from Vermonters for justice in Palestine a woman who I think is associated with Jewish voices for peace and central Vermont Jews for peace or something to that effect there's a third speaker I think from I can't remember the name some socialist magazine and I think it'll be very informative because there's a lot of miss yeah just sort of misinformation coming from mainstream news sites you know including your representative Becca Balin who referred to the retribution this past week as unprovoked it's not unprovoked colonized people have a UN established right to engage in armed resistance we celebrate armed resistance of colonized people well after the fact but during it's difficult particularly because the colonizer has much more power in particular you know it's well connected internationally so you'll see media organizations you know putting forth pictures of Israeli families who got killed which of course is awful after being completely silent about you know atrocities committed by this occupying colonizer regime for decades so the attacks were not unprovoked and we're gonna talk about them Tuesday evening in this building 7 p.m. yeah I can't quite remember the room number but I'm sure you'll find it if you're here thank you thank you and we can if it's on from porch form we may be able to actually I just wanted to add so it's room 218 CCTV is recording it so it'll be a it'll be available on YouTube and on the regular channels for CCTV in about a week afterwards thank you thanks Charlie all right any other public form from those in the room good evening Burlington it's hockey season your UVM lady catamounts will be playing tomorrow 5 p.m. so if you're looking for some affordable family fun tickets are $8 a pop for regular admission and they're currently ranked number 12 in the country so it's be a good game if you're looking for something fun to do so have a have a good night and sorry about the loudness Chris have you considered being a commentator yeah you know it's possible they're playing up at the gut puck drops at 5 p.m. thank you any other public forum in the room I do want to highlight one thing at the tables there is a copy of this typed form here it is not the agenda we are looking for representatives from Ward 3 specifically to serve on the community development block grant advisory board so this advisory board works with the city to allocate funding to different organizations that apply for it I am not going to read this whole paper but if you are interested please let one of the steering committee know and if you have any questions also let one of us know at the end of the meeting all right any last call for public forum in the room then we are joined tonight by Sophie who is going to give us a quick update on Roosevelt Park Sophie go ahead we can't hear you Sophie do you want to try talking again we can hear you perfect so last call for public forum we're doing pretty well on time so we have time for one more if anyone has one more I have some feedback for Sophie if she's still here sorry I just thought of it I'm wondering if they're gonna be bringing back the ice skating rink that they used to have at Roosevelt Park they didn't have it this last winter and that might have been due to a warmer winter but I'd love to see it back because it was a great community space awesome thank you thank you everyone for your comments so now we want to take some time to recognize someone in this room and who is a face that is very familiar to all of us which is Charlie and we want to recognize him for his service to the NPA thank you everyone we do have if you if you want to talk Chris is gonna read something really quick if you want to comment after that or before up to you Charlie okay try this little quieter now the word two and three NPA recognizes and thanks Charlie Ginoni for his decades of service to the NPA as a steering committee member our NPA is stronger and more connected to community for his tireless efforts and contributions okay so let me fill you in on a best kept secret in Burlington the best kept secret in Burlington is actually being on an NPA steering committee and because you can actually you can actually see things happening in the city or in your neighborhood and you can actually bring it to your neighbors and have a meeting not only do you have a meeting on it usually by people who know what they're talking about but you also get it recorded and broadcast by CCTV town meeting television so that hundreds of other so when you serve on a steering committee you can actually if you have like special interests or pet projects you can't guarantee that they're gonna get on the agenda because it's up to other people as well but so the best kept secret is being on a steering committee because it allows you to participate in your community to a greater level than most people so it's actually kind of a selfish thing to do as far as I'm concerned because I've been doing this a lot of years and so I've had the pleasure and the privilege of actually doing that kind of work other people have a much higher level of commitment than I do have like serving on the city council or the mayor's office you see so I do what I can I don't I don't do a lot but I'm on the steering committee for the old north end and so that's it's it's been very rewarding over all these years and I should hasten to say that right now the wards the Ward 2 NPA steering committee is just packed solid they've got so many people on it not Ward 3 Ward 2 they've got so many people on it they just bumped me right off the bunch right off the bench okay it's like they got six solid people that serve on the steering committee like these two right here Shelby and Erica right here in the front and of course Lauren and Jessica Hyman who's in the kitchen doing all our wonderful dinner for us and Chris Hageley was just here a minute so the only thing I want to say has been a privilege and you'll probably see me again two or three years in the future in the meantime I'm going to still hover around the NPA like I'm doing tonight because you don't just because you're not on the steering committee you can still go to steering committee meetings and participate and help organize these meetings and decide what the agendas are but I'm I pretty much last year or two I just I just let these people do whatever they want I just say I just agree with whatever they want to do because they are very committed and they're very knowledgeable and skilled and so it's a I know that the the NPAs in Burlington especially in wards two and three is very well served by the present steering committee so that's wonderful so that's really all I have to say that if do yourself a favor if you really want to be able to pitch in and and work to solve problems or to basically help the city of Burlington to thrive try thinking about getting on a steering committee for one of the NPAs in Burlington and I think you'll find it's a rewarding thing to do thank you thank you Charlie we're definitely the better for having you help us out now and in the past thank you for your service all right so moving right along next up we are joined by Sarah Morgan from the office of city planning who is going to give us an update on changes to the Burlington neighborhood code so Sarah you can feel free to sit up here and take it away and just a reminder that these slides she has them on the screen they are also available if you open that QR code the PDF is in there as well so feel free to follow along on your phone awesome thank you so much for having me I feel like all the speakers today it's so hard to follow you all everyone so lively thank you so much my name is Sarah I'm with the office of city planning I'm joined by the director of city planning Megan Tuttle online as well at the end of this will help me answer about 10 minutes worth of questions so I'm here today to give a quick overview of the Burlington neighborhood code and I recognize several of you who might have heard of this before or have heard us speak about this excited to see you again and also see some new faces hold on sorry getting a preview of all these here we go so the Burlington neighborhood code is all about how we build on the strength of the city's neighborhoods evaluate zoning tools that regulate how new homes in these that regulate the new homes in these neighborhoods and areas today and identify opportunities for new neighborhood scale housing at a city-wide level and this is focused on housing types such as duplexes town flex their townhouses and for flexes kind of in this middle area of this range so our team in recent years has been largely involved in a number of changes to our zoning laws related to specifically housing and these changes is how changes have helped us implement our plan for how we use the city's limited land area in the future as part of the city's comprehensive plan so most of the changes have focused on these areas pictured in gold and that our areas plan for intensive future growth however not all these areas will can or will accommodate new housing these are areas that are planned for jobs businesses etc and they include public school sites and other areas that are that are non-residential development and an area that we have paid particular attention to is this downtown area which is circled and that that is only 4% of the city's land area and though we have been it successful in adding about 1300 new homes across the city in the last decade the vast majority of these homes have been new apartments and developments in this primarily downtown area so the neighborhood code instead focuses largely on this on the far right kind of hard to see the difference in the colors but this planning to sustain that 40% of the city's land area that's in blue that is our residential neighborhoods and this focuses on how those neighborhoods can be can be a place that'll allow for more and different types specifically of housing and in Burlington we all have very strong connections with our neighborhoods unique patterns they link how they link to the city's history and the people that live within them and these neighborhoods can and should be places that support the needs of current and future residents and make ten make tangible efforts to address the climate emergency and also help us respond to our chronic and emerging housing challenges and the neighborhood code is how our neighborhoods can is a proposal that focused on how we can evolve these neighborhoods in incremental ways in order to meet these changing needs so sorry the neighborhood code plans to increase housing opportunities throughout these three neighborhoods scale solutions this concept of neighborhood skill housing will has several benefits including requiring less land for home that's utilizing but better utilizing these infrastructure allowing for more housing types and choice and allowing for potential socio-economic integration within existing city neighborhoods opportunities for multi-generational housing and aging in place this point in particular has really helped grow our relationship with AARP which I'll mention a little later on and it also allows for an expanded tax base and sharing a tax burden among the households lastly if this will allow us to comply with the Vermont home act of 2023 which introduces new statewide zoning requirements for duplex triplex and four unit buildings across residential areas now this this proposal aims to allow these housing types ranging from single family homes with three standing back lot buildings duplexes for plexi cottage courts townhouses and a few more not pictured here and these types that we're looking at to allow largely are not allowed in the majority of the in the majority of neighborhoods across the city you might see them in neighborhoods like the Old North End or in the older parts of Burlington but largely per current zoning ordinance they're not allowed today and this is for a number of reasons right now our current zoning ordinance has standards that don't reflect what's already been built Burlington's been regulating standards since first adopting zoning in 1947 with these standard standards adjust being adjusted nearly every decade and for example some of the current low density districts are miszoned with with many properties not conforming to today's current zoning due to density or lot size and in fact some of these neighborhoods have characteristics that are closer from low density to instead medium or even high density we also prohibited prohibit what the code seems to allow there seems to be a little bit of a mismatch of what's in the code versus what actually is possible to build for example as it stands duplexes on lots in low density residential zoning are required to be built on at least 10,000 square feet but in reality the average lot size in residential districts is just below 8,000 square feet and also these standards don't relate to perceived scale so these are four houses located in medium density and from the street they feel very comparable in scale however they range in density as you can see these on that far right the two on the right actually are not conforming to the 20 unit per acre requirement for medium density however the two on the left do which is again difficult to see from the street scale there's also a limit to these housing options the zoning standards don't allow a range of housing types on flexible lots this is an example of a parcel in the new north end or what it could be with a cottage court which is several freestanding smaller structures located on one parcel and this is not able to be built today for one reason being that lots are too small to utilize the existing planned unit development standards that would allow this type. Additionally this is a parcel located across the Hannaford on North Ave and it could have a foreplex as well as a duplex on it however there is low density is not does not allow for multiple freestanding structures on on each lot so all in all going back to what is and is not allowed to be built today the neighborhood code aims to go from this chart to allow more of these housing types as well as enable four units citywide and provide greater flexibility in older more walkable neighborhoods and especially a long major transportation corridors. Current zoning recommend recommendations include and along with this proposal allow for smaller minimum lot sizes along with smaller rear setbacks with higher lot coverage limits we want to replace density limits with standards that guide building mass as opposed to what we had seen earlier and also creative solutions for home ownership with solutions to create new lots for infill and also forms of creative of splitting of the lot sorry splitting of the lots and standards to guide creation of cottage courts and townhomes and one of the reasons that I'm really here tonight is to talk to you all about the and invite you to the joint committee meetings that we're having this is done through a joint committee process through the Planning Commission and the City Council Ordinance Committee and I also have on the table over there they'll put up there some flyers with a lot of this information thank you that has different examples of this middle housing types on the back and all these dates as well so at these joint committee meetings we are they're available online and in person and with opportunities for public feedback and we'll be discussing in detail what the specifics of these proposals are and also developing the ordinance language as well as these coffee hours hosted in partnership with AARP will also be having a community meeting a virtual community meeting I believe mid-November which we will definitely let you know more about and also feel free to grab me with any questions or sign up on our website we have a pretty comprehensive web page with information as well as availability sign up and give general comments and ask questions online but I can think I can take a few now yes yeah are there any questions for Sarah we have lots of time for questions so we can yep okay I see hands going up I'll come around with my I will do my best to answer the questions and if not I do have like I said Megan Tuttle online so I'm not sure let me stop sharing awesome do somebody online that you want to talk to first no she's just gonna okay answer questions yeah I just wanted to know what's the connection with the accessory dwellings and the ordinances or I don't know what the plural of that is changing around ADA's yeah I think we should give see if Megan is able to speak first and test that thank you do you want to go next so how do this what you're trying to accomplish your have you taken into account impermeable surface requirements those types of things throughout the city yes in in these proposed standards of a lot of it in those massing standards and talking about focusing more on the building size and scale as opposed to density the lot coverage is considered pretty heavily in that hi I'm Liz Curry and it might be premature to ask this question first thank you for the presentation but I'm just curious about like I have a friend who tried to develop an ADU and hit kind of a roadblock when it came to managing the utility expansion that was needed and I'm just curious about how like what is the vision for getting the water and wastewater DPW on board to be like part of the team like is there are these conversations happening already or you know like people have to talk to so many people in the city just to add one unit and a lot of it has to do with really mundane stuff like utilities and you know just infrastructure and it I think it's really hard for people to navigate that so is DPW kind of like gonna help people navigate that better thanks I can start by just saying definitely they have been in a lot of these conversations and I know that the barriers that are being are run into related to not just utilities but also building code requirements where we've definitely had several focus sessions with stakeholders DPW specifically trying to work or figure out work arounds and make this a little bit a little bit easier I definitely don't want to sugarcoat it. I think that there are going to be a lot of challenges that we're trying to work through in a more proactive way with those departments. And one of the things that we did do as part of our work on reforming the rules for ADUs was actually put together a pretty comprehensive guide in partnership with our other departments in AARP to help even if we couldn't overcome some of those challenges at least help make them be a little bit more upfront so to properly know what things they might expect as part of the project and what questions to ask. So we have started compiling the list of those types of topics that we think will be relevant for buildings that are slightly larger and I think that will make that kind of resource available too. The high density town homes seem interesting because that seems really the maximum density and I'm wondering sort of what is that scale how much of that is expanding and also overall with this project do you have a sense of how many units or bedrooms this will enable hypothetically. Megan do you want to field that one? No you're totally fine. You're totally fine. So some of this is a little premature to answer just because we're still working on the details. But we are anticipating that this could enable hundreds of new homes across the city. I think it's important to recognize that this is definitely not the only tool we need to help address our housing needs. Are there any other questions in the room? I was just wondering is that the only why for this proposal addressing the housing issue in Burlington. I'm sorry if I missed it at the beginning but just basically yeah what brought about this proposal. Yeah this conversation this topic referred to as this conversation is about missing middle housing has been talked about in cities across the U.S. Small to large for probably about the last decade and working to allow these types of homes and just not only talking about the housing crisis but also acknowledging the climate emergency is a big part of it. Higher density and allowing for this this higher density developments allowing for more more people in more neighborhoods and as Burlington is continuously more of that but also have less area to expand. This is a really great opportunity for us to really look at and reintroduce in a way infill housing into the ordinance. For these housing types not only to create more homes but more homes that specifically can help people have more choices within neighborhoods. Right now we know that people's options for the way they can live can be really limited by what types of homes are available in that neighborhood. Sarah mentioned AARP. I know that these types of homes are a high priority for AARP at a national level and certainly we've been working closely with AARP here in Vermont. You know they really see this as introducing opportunities for people to have more choices in the community where they live now as they get older and need different types of living arrangements. And I think also a big piece of this for us is about thinking about how we have more homes in places where we already have infrastructure. We already have sewer lines, we already have streets and sidewalks so making kind of the best use of those resources. Hello. So we have a lot of potential for density but do we have the utilities infrastructure to support that density? We start outing houses, a lot of houses per street and then your transformers have to be increased and then you start adding sewer. Your sewer has to be increased and then your stormwater flow. So what's the max density that our current utilities can handle if we're actually thinking about doing this? Is it practical? I'll just go ahead and quickly start. I'm sure Megan will have more additions after but with that I think that kind of highlights why this is a more incremental approach. Sorry I think this might not be, might not be okay cool. This is more of talking about that incremental approach and starting at you know as Megan said this isn't adding hundreds of new units into one specific neighborhood. This is adding hundreds across the city to really kind of balance out that in that more incremental approach. And we have as I mentioned earlier these conversations with DPW with water and making and really having these open conversations. So I don't necessarily have a specific number of density for the for stormwater. Do we have any idea what the current load is and is you know the big flush that happens every morning? How much more can that be increased by? I'm sure that's not within your preview. It's more water department but I know just putting in an electric car charger if you're the last one to do it and the street can't handle the load. You spend four grand on a transformer. That's just for an electric car charger. So what are you going to have to do? It's going to be incrementally more expensive. Oh please keep going. Thank you. Are there any further questions? In my office job I always say wait eight seconds and if there's eight seconds of silence that means no more. That puts us I think we're over eight. Okay. Well thank you so much Sarah and Megan for joining us today. Thank you so much. All right so we are running a little bit ahead of schedule right now. So next on our agenda is an update from the city arborist is VJ in the room. I think they said they were going to join via zoom so they might not have joined yet. So he is online but we're just waiting for him to join in. Maybe now is a great time to quickly talk amongst yourselves and introduce yourself to your table mates if you haven't already. Oh you can continue to do that while we get. Hi VJ welcome. We're moving a little ahead of schedule so you joined just in time. Okay okay great. We can hear you we can't see you we see your name bubble right now. It is great to see you VJ. All right the floor is yours. About 1100 of those were green or white ash and of those about 920 existed within our green belts throughout the city and various places and the rest were in park spaces or cemeteries. And so what we started to do was look at using our inventory software system where are these ash. And if you haven't heard about this insect you can retain ash trees but it involves injecting them with an insecticide every two years. For the probably the remainder of their life to protect them against as an insect. There can be a very costly option. There's obviously the implications of introducing pesticides into a tree in a public place. Where's that going. I felt like there'd be a lot of public concern about that. So in Burlington we made the decision not to treat any of our ash trees. Instead we went through and identified these areas and looked for all available areas where we had ash growing where we had the opportunity. And the space available to plant a new tree of a different species adjacent to the existing ash. And the idea here was to get a new tree going get it you know we don't know when this insects going to get here requiring the removal of the ash tree so. If we get three four five years of growth and get this tree established by time we have to remove the ash because the insect has invaded it. We'll already having its replacement in place. And we started this process out in the new north end in the apple tree point neighborhood. The reason being is because on the five streets and make up that neighborhood. Ash is the dominant species. It lines both sides of all but one street out there. When that development was built the developer planted all the ash so it's a monoculture. It represented about 24% of our green belt ash trees. So we started their inter planting we used up to 15 different species of trees so we're really diversifying our tree canopy over time which will help to insulate us from. Future insects or diseases and that are specific to one species. And then we moved to other parts of the city. So there are some ash in words two and three they tend to be one here one there. Specifically certain. I can think of George Street on the end closest to Pearl there. There were a few ash we planted adjacent to those. In the south end there were a number of places it was South Manuski have. There was upper college tree. I can't even think of all the areas but if you see young trees planted very close to larger adjacent trees. That's what's happening. Those are ash that are eventually going to go away. So doing all that we've really increased the number of trees that we're planting every year in the hopes of, you know, continuing to increase that overall canopy coverage throughout the city. When I first came here that the city have been planting on average for many years, about 130 trees or 140 trees per calendar year. And the bulk of those trees were coming from a tree nursery that the city has in partnership with branch out Burlington, which is a volunteer group that's been around for 20 years. Or more maybe some of you have heard of it. And we have a tree nursery with them on property owned by the University of Vermont actually in South Burlington. At the UVM Horticultural Research Center. And over the years, more than 1500 trees that now reside along Burlington streets have come from that nursery. So the two things we did to increase the number of trees were planting annual the three things we've done is instead of just planting trees in the spring we now plant trees spring and fall. That allows us to get more trees in the ground in a calendar year. And because our crew does all the landscape work in all the parks. That's a busy time in the spring for us to accomplish all that work and do tree planting fall gives us much more time. And we've also increased the size of the nursery over the last four years by about a third, close to half again as large as it was. So we have more trees coming from the branch out nursery. And then we also started supplementing what we're planting by using bear root trees that we're buying in from a nursery that specializes in growing trees and shipping them in that manner. From Western New York State, they're the only one regionally who does that. So when I say bear root, the trees are dug in the spring before they leave out or in the fall after they go dormant. They remove all the soil from the roots they dip the root system in a gel that coats the root system to keep a moist they put a bag on them and ship them to us and we go out and plant them. The benefit of planting that way is it has allowed us to plant a whole lot more trees very, very easily. We can put 30 to 40 trees on a truck with two guys with a shovel and we can go out and plant them in a day. So doing all of those things we have now over the last three years increased our annual tree planting from 130 or 140 annually to over 400. Last year we planted I believe 436 trees. This past spring we planted about 240. In this fall we've got another hundred and 75 going in the ground in the next few weeks. So that's where we're at. I think Burlington's canopy is tree canopy is in really good shape, especially when you compare it to other communities of our size around the country. And we're really feeling good about where we're at and the work continues and the challenges will continue. So if anybody has any questions, I'm happy to take them. If, you know, we're, as I said, we're managing 13,000 trees throughout the city besides everything else we do. So we are not able to see all the problems that are out there, even though I'm out on the road every day all day. So if you live on a street and you see an issue with your tree, you have a concern, please contact me. I will get back to you and we will come out and take a look and mitigate any problems. I'm very accessible and very responsive to resident requests. So with that, I'll turn it over to questions if there are any. Thank you, Vijay. I know we have a couple of questions in the room. So, this being the old North end, are you involved at all in the Roosevelt Park planning? Are there any trees involved in the Roosevelt Park upgrade? Yes. So I the initial meeting that I had with our parks planning team and our facilities manager and, you know, our whole parks team we actually met out there two weeks ago with the consultant. It's working on that. And I weighed in on the trees. I'd love to see a ton more trees around Roosevelt Park. Obviously, you know, based on how the space is used, if, you know, if you're going to maintain an open ball field, you're not going to plant trees in the middle of it. But there's some issues with the trees existing at Roosevelt Park on the side facing Walnut Street, on the side facing, I'm trying to think of what the other side street is there. And then on the Oak Street side, the trees that are currently there are Norway maples. Norway maples are an invasive species that is actually you can no longer plant in Vermont or by in any of the New England States and plant. And the ones that are there are in very poor shape. They're in declining health on the Oak Street side. We removed a number of them. They have girdling roots. The crowns have been declining. And so, yes, ultimately, the revamp of the park, I, I, my way in the other day was, I'd like to see the whole perimeter of that park planted, you know, to give it a sense of enclosure. And, you know, there was some talk that at some point, maybe where little Roosevelt Park is that the playground area might be incorporated into the main park. And we'd certainly put as many trees around that as we could. Hi. I think my comment is partly a compliment to you and the people who made the ash tree management decision and partly a description to the audience. So I won't say what town this is in, but in Vermont definitely within a county or so. And I hang out sometimes a lot in the neighborhood where my grandparents have lived since the 40s or 1940s or maybe earlier. And there's a lot of ash there. And the people who made a decision in that neighborhood just decimated everything. They took down every ash preventively supposedly in their opinion that they could get their hands on. And the place is devastated. So I don't know who made those decisions or the policy that you have. And I don't know if I know your policy, but it sounds way better than my personal disastrous experience. So I just wanted to say thank you. Well, I appreciate that. Like in that apple tree point neighborhood that I talked about where there's, you know, over close to 25% of our green bell ash trees. You know, the ash that are there are currently in and fairly good shape. They're quite large. They cascade over the street. You know, conservatively I did the estimate it would cost the city 35 to $40,000 every two years to inject those trees with the insecticide to keep them alive. If this if and when, while when this insect gets here. And, you know, I didn't think that was a good option. And even then we'd be still maintaining a monoculture. And those trees could be subject to some other disease that could come along and eventually kill them. So it didn't make sense. But it also didn't make sense going there and cut them down right away. They're healthy now. So we planted, you know, I think there was 183 ash in there to begin with. We have taken down maybe a half dozen in that neighborhood that were in decline. Because there's no reason to spend time cutting deadwood out of them. You know, we just took them down. Meanwhile, I think we planted about 140 new trees where we could in between. And those trees have now had, I think four full growing seasons to grow and some of them are, you know, 20 feet tall and really starting to get some size to them. So by time we have to remove those trees that the effect will not be as dramatic and we'll have this great diversity of species there and it just made good sense to me. So, and it spreads our costs of removal over more years, because it's going to be a huge cost when we have to start removing those trees. And once the insect once we know the insect is in that neighborhood, we will need to start removing ash trees because within two years the tree is completely dead, and they get very brittle, very fast and then they become a public safety issue. All right. Thank you, Vijay. Sorry to cut you off. I just, I know we have a couple more questions in the room and I want to keep us on time. So I think we have time for probably two or three more if we want to ask quickly. Go ahead, Chris. I have two questions quick. My old neighborhood Beale Street, Corner Beale and South Wynowski. There was a large tree there by the church. I noticed that's now gone and there was a large tree at the corner of South Willard and Beale Street outside my old apartment building. That's now gone. I was just wondering what necessitated the removal of those trees. We don't just a quick heads up on that and then I do have a more substantive question. Yeah, I remember both of those trees. The one closest to South Wynowski, a portion of that tree failed in a storm. A big portion split off and came down and left a big open cavity. We had internal decay there. It was a public safety issue. You know, we don't, it's funny because people walk around the city and then we remove a tree and they're like, oh my God, they remove the tree. We don't remove a tree. You just, you know, a perfectly healthy tree walk up to it and cut it down. It's most often a public safety issue. The one on the corner of Willard and Top of Bewell, I believe it was, that same thing. That was a linden. Our large old linden have very poor structure. They have multiple stems emanating from the same point on the trunk and they get what's called included bark. And that's where you see the big failures and storms. And so where possible, we've installed hardware in those trees, cables high in the canopy to sort of prevent that failure. But it's not a surefire thing. But that was actually a resident that pointed that tree out to us, emailed me and said there was a big split down the trunk. And we went and inspected it and we felt that it was beyond trying to mitigate with hardware to make it reasonably safe to leave it intact. Thank you. Thank you. The follow-up question is the current neighborhood is downtown and I think it's been close to three years now since the trees at the corner of church and college were removed. And now we have another tree up a little bit further up the block near Bank Street that's been removed of branches, which is obviously going to be coming down shortly. Why have those trees not been replaced and what challenges does the city face in putting trees there on the marketplace? I've heard that there were some reasons that they weren't done immediately replaced per the policy that you had mentioned, but I'm kind of curious to a more nuanced explanation. So just so you know, we do not manage the trees on the church street marketplace. Those are managed by the marketplace. We don't go in there and prune. We don't go in there. We don't, we do nothing to those trees. I can tell you that that is an extremely, extremely tough environment to try to grow a tree and establish it. The honey locust, which is what is primarily going up church street, have been there for years and they they're the same size now as they were when I was in college 30 years ago. You know, it's like trying to grow a goldfish in a teacup. It's all about soil volume. We got high volumes of salt used in the winter. It's just a very, very tough environment. So the trees that were recently removed at those corners along church street, you know, to establish a new tree there. They would have to excavate out the old root system, which would involve removing brickwork for probably, you know, 10 or 12 feet on all sides of that tree going in there digging it out, replacing with new soil. And then you're still, and then redoing the brickwork, which has to be laid on top of a base of crushed stone. You can't just lay it back on top of topsoil. And so you're left with the same scenario. So, you know, I don't know that marketplace is thinking there, but it's a huge investment. And you may never get a tree that's going to grow there and survive and provide the benefits for what you're planting. You know, I think moving forward when you're same Paul Street's good example where they rebuilt St. Paul Street where those trees appear to be planted in a great in the sidewalk. There was actually a very new innovation relatively new innovation where soil cells were installed underneath the sidewalk out to both sides of those tree pits. So those trees actually have like 1800 cubic feet of soil for the root system to access for them to grow to a mature size. And I think it's evident if you if you've paid attention to that stretch how quickly those trees have been growing and how well they have done compared to trees. Sorry to cut you off. I just want to make sure we're running a little bit behind schedule so we have one more question in the room. And if it's okay with you, Vijay, I like to include your email and our notes so that way if anyone absolutely. Okay, so please reach out to Vijay but real quick just one last question and then we can move on. You kind of just answered it just with regards to reaching out to you when we identify an issue. Should we email or call you directly or use the C click fix app or another method. Any of the above I get the C click fixes every day. So whatever whatever's more convenient for you. Thank you. Great last question. All right. Thank you so much. Vijay and like I said will include his contact information in our meeting notes. So if you have any questions. Yes, email will put the email address and you can come find us at the end. And we'll be sure so that way you can reach out. But now I want to invite our city representatives up to the front to provide an update. And I think we are joined. I know I have a statement from Jean, but I know counselor McGee is also I think he was joining by zoom. And counselor Grant is in Montpelier and may be able to join us. Hi, I'm Jean. Hello. Oh, it is happening. Hi, I'm Jeannie waltz. I am your school board rep central district which is both boards two and three. I love it when people tell me I'm quiet. I'm Jeannie waltz. I represent Ward two and three central district commissioner on the school board. I'm Polly Vanderputin and I'm school commissioner representing Ward three. And I am Martin LaRocke. You look I am actually living Ward four. I am your also a school board commissioner and I am your state senator. I'm one of three. So I'm here with two hats tonight. No problem. Oh, so many microphones in the room. So we're here tonight with a few different topics because we know that we have set amount of time. We brought a one pager about the BHS BTC project that is circulating. I highlighted a few things from that that I thought would be important things to think about. So I'll start with good news about that and then a little qualifier. I wouldn't call it bad news. It's just a qualifier that I would say for any construction project. So the board recently approved the guaranteed maximum price for the project. That was a really big deal. It means that we are locking in prices for materials and labor. And I think that that was really important to do it when we did it because those prices are only going up. So we're really trying to be responsible in terms of the bond that we asked taxpayers for and to keep within the limits of that bond. We were awarded $16 million for environmental cleanup efforts from the state, which is wonderful. We are well positioned to receive a million dollars from our federal delegation for... I didn't write this one down, but I have it in front of me. You also have it in front of you. Stormwater. I was going to say water, but I didn't know. Thank you. Stormwater. And then I think it's really, really important because sometimes different news sources like to sensationalize things, in my opinion. The updated project budget is still within the estimates and we are still within what we put out to taxpayers. So sometimes it's confusing with the numbers because it looks like it's costing more. It isn't, it isn't. It's not costing taxpayers more. And that's a really important thing to know. It will not. We're committed to... There's not going to be any more asks for money from taxpayers. Thank you. Demolition continues to, I don't know if you've been by North Avenue or Down Institute Road, but for those of us who have been seeing this from the beginning, it's really exciting. The demolition was slowed by the discovery of asbestos, and so that is going to slow down our move-in date. It'll be a little bit later than we originally wanted to get in there, but we also knew that our plan to get in there by August of 2025 was incredibly aggressive. So we're now looking at January of 2026, possibly school year 2026, which I still think is wonderful. So everything is as on track as it could possibly be. Should I talk about the IAA renovation or do you want to do that? I also want to add that the blasting is going to start, which is really exciting, right? On the 17th and the 19th, they're going to start testing the blasting, and after they, I don't know, determine what they need to determine, there's going to be up to, this is the exciting part, there is going to be two blasts a day, one mid-morning and one mid-afternoon, five days a week for three months. And each blast, it only lasts one or two seconds, but it's going to be exciting. I work right next door, so I'm looking forward to it. I live right down the road, so I'm really looking forward to that, just scaring me every day. Would you like to add anything about BHSBTC? The only thing I could add is that I am on a task force that has been meeting this summer and will continue to meet throughout the fall. It's called the School Construction Aid Task Force, and some of you may know that in 2007, the legislature stopped all funding of school construction aid, which has resulted in some deplorable conditions in our schools around the state, including what we're looking at here. So we are going to get a report at the beginning of November that's going to go through all of the buildings across the state. It's probably going to be in the, it will be in the billions of dollars, that's how far gone we are at this point. But I always say it's exciting and daunting. It's really daunting, but it's also exciting because I think it will give us some opportunities to make some structural changes in the way we do things in the state, and also, you know, we have to find some money to help our school buildings, because some of them need help today, yesterday. Yeah, so that's what I would say about that, to be determined at a later date. Well, thank you, because the next thing I put on my update list was the Integrated Arts Academy renovation project. Because this is not just about the high school that we have to replace. It's also about all the other schools that we need, that we have a lot of deferred maintenance on. So the school district approved using $10 million in what they call American Rescue Plan, or ESSER funds, to replace the HVAC system at Integrated Arts Academy. There are actually $11,750,000 of available funds for this project. It's long overdue, as are many of our construction projects at our schools. The thing that I would say would be of note for our neighborhood is that it's going to displace a lot of students for a period of time. And figuring that out logistically for staff and students and families is really tricky, but it has to happen in order for this project to be realized the way it should be. So the district did work with the IAA PTO looking at the plans and figured out a solution that seems to meet the needs of most people. There will be some transition to St. Mark's, which is a space that we rent on North Avenue. And I think it's going to be... That's not 100%, that's the hope. It hasn't actually, it's not solid. So probably about a month and a half, two months away from a definitive, we know where the students and the teachers are going to, the swing space, where they're going to be housed while the renovation happens. Okay, that's a complicating factor. Finding swing space. So then, is there anything else you want to add to that? Okay, speaking of magnet schools, Integrated Arts Academy is a magnet school, so is Sustainability Academy, which is on North Street. Through our budget process in the last cycle, the superintendent was asked to look at and evaluate the magnet schools and to say, what is their purpose? Why do we have them? Initially, what was the plan? And why do we continue to have them? And how do we fund them? Or what kind of funding do they need if they remain magnet schools? So there was a task force that was created and those on the task force for both schools overwhelmingly want to keep them as magnet schools. So one is with the mission of sustainability incorporated into education and the other is the arts. And there's a potential ask for additional funds of the board in this budget cycle. And so that's something that we're looking at. And also long term, thinking about what are these magnet schools in the context of the city? Are we meeting our requirements? Are we meeting the needs of the students going to these schools? They are neighborhood schools for the neighborhood and also they attract students from other parts of Burlington. There initially was a lot of concern about the numbers around free and reduced lunch students and literacy and math scores. That's why they were created in the first place. And those numbers since they were created have shifted a bit across the city. And I think it's a really important kind of analysis for us to do as a board to think about what that means. Yeah, I want to say economic diversity was one of the main reasons to create the magnet schools. But I think really what we're looking at, the task force was charged to look at. What does it take to stay on mission with the support needed to stay on mission for a magnet school? There are different needs that whether they be academic or extracurricular that are going to cost money. So sustaining a model school magnet is really the ideal that we're working towards. Financially, it being sustained in the budget long term. And the district is very committed to the magnet schools. There's as much as there's been talk about like, oh, does the district really support the magnet schools? Are they going to go away? Are they going to be dissolved? It's not going to happen. There's really, it's not on the table. They are going to stay. So the last thing that I put on my update list, and of course it's really hard to do all of the updates that we would have for you in this period of time. So the meetings are public. Come to any meeting you want or find the video on what's it called, media factory? Yeah, okay. So, live streams on Facebook. Live stream school board meetings. So I'm sure this is a particular point of interest to me. I'm sure many of you read the article recently in Seven Days titled Reading Reckoning with the Rainbow. It's devastating really. I find it personally just crushing to read how schools across the country have gotten it so wrong in terms of how we teach children to read. And so I say across the country because it's slightly heartening to know Burlington is not alone. It's happening in the state. It's happening in the country. And it's also horrifying. So that's the bad part. The good part is that last school year the district started implementing a new reading curriculum that is phonics based instruction and based in the science of reading. So if you read that Seven Days article, they do a comparison. There's also a recent Boston Globe article that does a great job looking at comparing the two different ways. The balance literacy approach and the kind of whole word, whole language approach versus this phonics based system. So I just feel really a lot better knowing that we chose to use some of our allocated ESSER funds, American Rescue Plan to incorporate this reading system that has very good ratings called the ARC program, American Reading Corporation. It is a long term process to retrain teachers how to teach reading. The person interviewed in the Seven Days article was a veteran teacher who was very, very upset to think that what she had been doing for years was wrong. So we have to think that this is not an overnight kind of situation. But I want you to know that we have started doing this in Burlington. It is already showing positive results according to the superintendent, especially across elementary grades. My question is about older kids. How are we supporting kids in middle school and high school who have developed these bad habits? You've been taught that way. Yeah, it's not their fault. It's not their fault. So we look at our literacy and math scores and then we say, why are they so low? Why are they so low? And I think that this is a really interesting perspective to take on it. I just want to add from a legislative perspective, the agency of education which has some really wonderful people is also understaffed and under-resourced. And the fix with literacy I think needs to be a statewide effort. And we need assistance and guidance from the state as well as oversight and support. So just a heads up that I am vice chair of education in the Senate and I am working on looking at some legislation around literacy. We're one of only three states that doesn't have a dyslexia law. And that's something I'm looking at as well, which would just test kids early and make sure kids who struggle with reading would get the supports that they need early on. So I just wanted to share that with you as well. I think that we're running out of time. The only thing is next time we're here we're going to be talking about the budget. So get ready for whatever burning questions you have to share. Thank you for all that information. So I just wanted to ask you a question about the magnet schools mentioned that they were created with intentional economic diversity. And I just want to remind everybody that the point of that was the theory that by socioeconomic integration, kids with low incomes and black and brown kids would improve on the academic outcomes. And I wanted to know if that's what you're measuring, if you're measuring that rate of improvement among low income and kids of color. Because that was the whole premise at the time. I mean that was just kind of a broader educational theory at the time. So that's my question. And secondly, I just wanted to mention that too, because Stephanie Phillips, our director of teaching and learning is so amazing. She did introduce Orton and Gilliam and Phomics in 2014, but the data that's come out now wasn't available. So it's great to see that Burlington is really accelerating the budgeting resources for that. Thanks. Just to get back to the magnet schools, I think unfortunately what has been measured as far as markers of improvement. We don't really have enough sets that can be compared. So right now it looks good, right? It looks really great, but in context of what it's been measured against in the past, I feel like I wouldn't be telling the truth. We don't really, at this point, everything looks favorable, but there's not a lot of concrete numbers. But it also is across the main thing that I think we're going to have a base idea of how things are improving. It's more about climate and culture and student experience improving, which is great. I think that speaks to our hearts, right? But it is a school. The kids are there to learn. But I'm a sucker for a kid having a good day. That's a good thing. That's wonderful. Liz, I was just going to say, one of the frustrations that I have is that at the statewide level it's really hard to have data over time because, again, the AOE keeps changing the standardized test. Every five to less than 10 years, we change it. So when you want really good solid data over long periods of time, you just don't have it because the test changes. So that's something I want to work on, too, actually. There are some results that are going to come out soon, and that test, and I feel badly for the situation that the AOE is in, but they did not prepare our teachers. They did not give the materials ahead of time. It was such a hot mess, and there were people going in, and everybody basically the AOE was like, well, just try your best. We know it's not going to be great. And they didn't even bat an eye. They were like, we know this actually is kind of wrong, but we have to start somewhere. Like, we're in this plane, so we should figure out how to put wings on it, right? It's only particularly troubling because many school districts, including ours, use test results to determine budget allocations. So when you have faulty data and you know that going into it, it's very frustrating. So I think having a very holistic view of it and ear to the ground and understanding what's happening in our schools is as important as some of those like data sets that we're getting because we know. I don't even know the acronym for the latest test they rolled out. CAP, that's right. It is, it's the VT CAP. CAP, exactly. So anyway, that's my final comment, and I hate to end us on a bad note, but in the interest of time, thank you so much for that update. And I look forward to the budget discussion next fun season. So, Councillor McGee, I think you are our... I'm not sure if, Councillor McGee, if you'd like to go first or Senator, if you'd like to go first. I would like to go first because I'm going to be very short. Is that okay? Is that okay, Joe? Absolutely fine. Thank you. The only thing I had to say was that the irony, the weird thing is that when the legislature's in session from January to May, it's really hard for me to get here. So, I can be here in the off months, and that is a time when I would really like to hear from you. What would you like me to prioritize going into January? So, if the steering committee could at all manage like a larger chunk of time for legislators, that would be great. It would just help me sort of set priorities, like I said, and I could also fill you in on the work that I've been doing over the summer. But that's really all I would want to say at this point, unless you have any questions in which case I'd be happy to answer them. But I think a longer discussion would be great. Yes. Okay. Let's keep the buses free for anyone who didn't hear that. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Thank you. Yes, we can definitely take that into consideration for these next two meetings before you go into the... Super. I'm getting too close to you now. That'd be great. Yeah, December would be great. Yeah, that's a great suggestion. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. All right, Councilor McGee, if you'd like to kick us off with City Council, I also have an update from Councillor Bergman that I'll read after you're done. Great. This is very strange. I can see my own large face on the wall in there. I apologize that I'm not there in person with you all tonight. This week is steamrolling me a little bit. So I'm taking a little bit of personal time, but I'm wanting to come and make sure that at least once City Councilor was there to provide updates. I don't know if you'll want to read Jean's statement first and then I can try to fill in any gaps and answer questions. Sure, I can read through kind of quickly. He has a lot of detail, so if anyone has any questions about what I cover, feel free to come up after we're done here in about 15 minutes. But he apologizes for not being able to be here due to an important family obligation, but he has highlighted a few different key things. So one is public safety. And Councilor McGee, I'm sure you'll probably touch on this one. But they did approve a resolution and programs related to the interconnected crises involving opioids, homelessness, mental illness and poverty. And he is appreciative of the leadership of his fellow Old North End counselors, including Councilor McGee. On climate change, there are a few different things that he wanted to highlight. So one of them is the North Wenuski Ave bike lane changes. So he is using the Transportation Energy Utilities Committee to monitor the impact of these changes. And a survey is coming on the 25th, so he encourages us to let him know if what we think of the survey and the changes. On a carbon fee ordinance that was authorized by the voters last year, and that's now in the ordinance committee, he also worked with the Transportation Energy Utilities Committee to fix problems with its workability. And he has been working with a Ward 3 resident, Nick Persampieri, on improving the ordinance and suggesting people contact him if they'd like to get involved. And the next meeting is on Monday, October 16th. The third point is on the McNeil District Heat Steam Pipe Project to the UVM Medical Center. So I know we spent a lot of time on this last month, but he did want to share that he's convinced that the climate emergency means that we cannot invest another $42 million of new dollars into a project to generate steam with McNeil. And he encourages the Medical Center to invest a replacement of its high-temperature steam plants. Sorry, I'm trying to skim this very quickly. On the future of the plant itself, he is committed to working and planning for a just transition away from the burning of wood for electricity, and one that involves workers at the plant and loggers, truckers, as well as management and the greater community. And one step is a solar array, the old dump, which could generate up to 2 megawatts of power. So he continues to encourage residents to reach out to him about McNeil. And the last point on climate change is the VT Air National Guard. So in July, a unanimous resolution was passed to provide city council with an annual emissions report from this and to work with them to substantially reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions from the F-35s. So he just wanted to share that there was a press release by the mayor today. He is not satisfied with the information the mayor has provided and that there is not enough information to make an informed decision by the 23rd. So he just wanted to share that he continues to be appalled by the impact of the F-35s on affordable housing and the livabilities of communities that they fly over. And finally, I know there is more, or he knows, I also know that there is more to report on the housing crisis and our work to hold UVM accountable for its role in exacerbating it and on municipal tax property reform to efforts to increase sensitive, I think there's a typo. So he will wait to provide more info on that in the future. And he said, thank you for listening and make the old north end an amazing place it is. All right, I think that gives you a lot of runway to talk, Councillor McGee. So I'll pass the floor to you. Thanks so much. So I can touch more on the resolution that Jean talked about related to public safety and the drug crisis. We discussed a resolution that, you know, was there was a lot of feedback given by downtown businesses. I ended up being the lone no vote on this resolution. While it did mention harm reduction and a number of important things that I think the city should be doing to address the drug crisis. I was deeply concerned by some of the language used describing folks who use drugs and those experiencing houselessness in our community. And also some language that kind of goes back to an old way of thinking around enforcement around substance use disorder. And I offered an amendment on that resolution. Fellow councillors were not interested in adopting that amendment so part of that amendment was also to correct some inaccuracies in a resolve clause asking for data from the state's attorney's office. She offered feedback repeatedly saying that the data that they requested was not possible to provide given the data system that her office uses. It was a county wide office that can't break data out by municipality and so I offered part of my amendment was to correct that and really offer a collaborative approach with the state's attorney's office to figure out what kinds of data she could provide. And I was pretty upset that that amendment wasn't accepted because I am not a great fan of us passing laws when we know that we're asking for information that can't be provided. And so, just kind of overall pretty upset with the process and how that resolution played out. But, you know, I remain committed to us doing everything we can to address the overdose crisis. I really hope that together with folks in the community we can really make a hard advocacy push when the legislature reconvenes in January and get the governor to act with the urgency that frankly he should have been showing from from the beginning. We're looking at a fourth year where we're going to see record overdose fatalities and, you know, we're clearly not acting. We're going to have to address this crisis. The council also approved, accepting grant funding and creating a new position within CEDO to stand up a temporary overnight Mormon shelter at the old DFW building on south musky. We'll open on December 15 that will have space for up to 30 people and a little bit of true space and then that we have extreme cold weather and need overflow capacity. Folks will get a hot meal, it'll be open from, I believe, 5pm to 8am. They'll get a hot meal at night and right now it's a snack in the morning they're going to work on seeing if they can make that a more substantial meal before folks go out into the cold for the day. That is, you know, it's 30 beds. We have, I think, around 200 people in Burlington right now who are unsheltered. So this is clearly not going to be enough space. We're counting on the state to keep the motel program and also release the adverse weather conditions. We have guidelines for this winter. That program is going to be crucial to ensuring that we don't see exposure deaths this winter, which is a real concern as our homelessness crisis continues to, you know, we're making some progress but not enough and not fast enough. So one of the other pieces that we approved on Tuesday night was a community response team through the fire department. And this is in response to the extreme call volume that they've seen over the last few months related to unresponsive calls which are often overdose related. And this team will be staffed by voluntary overtime. So firefighters who might normally be riding on an ambulance or fire truck can volunteer to ride around in one of the pickup trucks that the department has, they will have all the gear that they would normally most of the gear that they would normally have on an ambulance and everything that we need to reverse an overdose. And when they're not on a call, the goal is to have them out in the community making connections with folks and trying to connect folks to services. So as we continue to work to try to stand up the BTV cares team at the police department. This is a crucial step in bolstering our public safety response to the overdose crisis. One other thing I wanted to share is that yesterday I had the chance to join some firefighters down in Pittsburgh at the Vermont Fire Academy and participated in a live fire training with counselor Mark Barlow. We got fitted up in full fire gear and really got to experience what it's like to go into a burning building and see how fire changes when different variables are introduced. What it's like to try to search for and rescue folks in that situation. And the goal was really to deepen our understanding of the needs that the fire department has in terms of protective gear. A lot of that gear needs to be replaced every 10 years. And they're coming up on that with some of their breathing apparatuses and some of the other equipment. So that is something that will be paying close attention to on the council coming up and I know it's getting close to time there. So I want to leave some time for questions here if there are any in the room. Thank you counselor McGee. Are there any questions in the room? Super quickly just what was the resolution around the on house community and substance use that you were first talking about. I missed the name of it. Yeah, so it the name of it is quite long. If you go to our council agenda from Tuesday on Civic Clerk, it was agenda item 6.2. Thank you. Yep. Any other questions in the room? Well, thank you so much for your time counselor. Thank you. And if anybody has follow up questions about anything or other issues that I didn't cover, please don't hesitate to email me. Thank you. Great. So that was actually counselor McGee is actually closing us out for the evening. So I just want to take some time. We have about nine minutes before it's 830. I want to be respectful of everyone's time. But I know some of our presenters we did get cut short if there's anything any of our presenters would like to add or any other questions. Anyone would like to ask? Okay. I think that was a quick eight seconds. But before everyone starts to pack up, I'm going to do the raffle, which is the most exciting parts. So we are raffling off honey, lemon, ginger, spice, tea, herbal tea. Oh, you already did you already pick one? Oh, okay. Oh, that sounds biased, Shelby, if you're picking yourself. All right, Tom Smith on the first one too. Come on up and get your prize. Thank you everyone so much for joining tonight. Again, we'll be back on Thursday, November 9th. So see you then.