 All right, it is six o'clock on Monday, July 19th. I will call to order the Winooski City Council Board of Health meeting. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Hal Colston. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Welcome. So we have one item on tonight's agenda. Investigation of a domestic vicious pet incident. Chief Audi. Do you have an introduction for this? I think I need to bring some guests over. Yeah, so, you know, under our ordinance, you are the Board of Health who would do this hearing. And did request a hearing. Our animal control officer Stephanie gingers is here. I believe the victims here. I don't know if we heard from the pet owner today, or he's in the list. In essentially, you're going to send you the packet you will hear from the animal control officer the victim, the pet owner. And then in chapter three, you'll review and believe it's a through E and see what's applicable. And you can take no action or you can take action as allowable within within the ordinance upon your determination, we will then draft a order for whoever you authorize to sign such order. Um, Stephanie, welcome. If you would like to first give us a summary of the incident and your recommendations. Yes, definitely. So in your packet you should have my report that I'd written up and signed for you guys, but I'm going to summarize that for you. So I apologize, give me one second so I can kind of. This is so the 18th at roughly 0753 a.m. Miss bro sue Heidi came in to the station after being attacked by a dog on the walking path near the woolen mill, the one who skew falls damn near the woolen mill. She spoke with Lieutenant hyzinga. I was not in the office and she spoke with him and gave her report. I mean, I spoke with Heidi to get information about the incident and also spoke with the dog owner. Heidi was walking down the path, saw the dog and owner gave a wide berth to go around them. The owner was bent over, presumably picking up feces, which the dog owner did confirm that's what he was doing. Heidi went around the dog. The dog lunged at her the way she and bit her, I believe knocked her down Heidi can correct me on that when she speaks, but knocked her down as well that are in the in the rib cage on the right side. There are photos included in your packet photos that where there's a photo taken that morning by the by the lieutenant who's hyzinga I apologize. As well as pictures that Heidi provided afterwards. Heidi described incident as similar to videos that you see of police canine dogs, when they, you know, rah rah rah and go kind of go, sorry, my little, and they kind of go at, you know, at something that they're intended to. So that's how she had described it to me. I spoke with. I want to make sure I apologize there's William and Alexandra are the owners of the dog. And they, their husband, you know, married couple and they have they have two different last names Mr Landry William was the one who was with the dog, walking him when this happened. And I did speak with him and he described the incident as the, you know, he was he was attempting to pick up poop, and the dog, you know, lunged at her. I'm quite sure, you know, he wasn't able to see what happened. He believed that Miss Brosu did not give enough space for the dog and had come into the dog space, which startled him. We were unable. We have no prior history with the dog the dog's name is Remy, an eight year old Anatolian shepherd mix. We have no prior history with them. The, they recently moved up here from Texas. Mr Landry and his husband. Last name is out first names Alex six is last name escaping me I'm sorry. We were unable to locate his rabies vaccination. Remy has since been vaccinated against rabies. He was quarantined for 10 days and was required to wear a muzzle at all times. They have gotten they got that much when he was outside of the home when he was outside, he had to be wearing a muzzle. I checked on the fit of that muzzle. It fits him well. He did really well wearing the muzzle. And he was healthy at the end of the required 10 day quarantine. And after the quarantine he was able to get vaccinated, you get vaccinated mountain view animal hospital in Essex. I apologize for his last name is escaping me I'm trying to find it here my notes I really do apologize, but Alex had Mr Walker Walker says last name I apologize, you know, expressed that. You know, continuing to use the muzzle, because it made him more comfortable while having Remy outside, as well as the dog didn't seem to have issues with wearing a muzzle. The muzzle that I requested that they get is what's called a basket muzzle. You have some muzzles you have the cloth muzzles that are literally just a piece of fabric kind of have your duty cloth that goes just around their nose, where the basket muzzle is literally that kind of a basket over their muzzle, which prevents them from biting period, where with a fabric muzzle, they can still kind of knit, they can open their mouth a little bit. So if you want to get that muzzle, Mr Walker advised that he intends to continue to use it. I also, my recommendation would be the continued use of a muzzle and the requirement which is also required by the city is that the dog always be on a leash. It would be leashed at all times which is required in the city of when you ski anyway, but that would definitely be my, my suggestion is that he wear a basket muzzle, and I say specifically a basket muzzle because it prevents the dog from fighting completely, but it while it allows him to pant and you know breathe normally as well as drink water, you know stick some treats in through the small holes and stuff you can stick beef sticks in there so it's a lot safer of a muzzle to use. And based off prior history, I just that would be my recommendation. Heidi is there anything you would like to add about your, your account of events. Oh, you'll have to go off mute. Okay, so. Thank you guys for having this meeting I really do appreciate it very much. Nothing like this is ever happened to me before I grew up with dogs. The I did want to correct. I did take pictures of the area of where I was coming around. I was nowhere near the dog I was across the path. I don't know if the pictures are going to show up or not. But that shows the path right there. And I was approximately here, and the dog was up on the hill. The dog came across the path to me I was walking. And I didn't have time to run all I had time to do was turn quickly to the side. It was not just a bite where he was protecting or he felt threatened. This was the side of my body. The picture that the policemen took at the time. You couldn't see because I had on a sports bra that came down here so you only saw the bottom. When I got home and took it off because I couldn't understand why I was in so much pain is when I saw all the rest of the bite that had happened I was in pain for more than nine. Up until like the last few days and I still have marks. The dog viciously came after me. The fact that the dog was on a leash and broke from the owner. Made it even more so aggressive if you know with the owner having it if the one thing that does bother me when I walk down I see people with dogs without leashes all the time. I'm not aware of dogs and I stop and I walk slower or get as far away as I possibly can. So I don't get in the area of the dog. I want the dog to know that I'm coming around we see each other. And I walk more slowly. This was shocking to me. It was wonderful talking to me tell me about the muzzle. I was confused I didn't know what to do. The thing that bothered me and that the thing that concerns me is that after all of this happened I was screaming said the dog knocked me down. He came across and knocked me down and then bit me on the side. And I was screaming the girl I had the girl's name that came out from the apartment from all of it. But after all of this happened and I didn't know what to do and as I was walking up the hill there was a man and his child two children walking down toward on the bike path. And this gentleman after all of this happened continued walking his dog. He didn't go straight home after his dog just attacked me like that. He continued walking his dog on the path because he pointed oh I live up here like that and he continued to walk. And that's when I knew I had to report it I mean I just and the and the man and his child I told him I was just attacked by this dog, and the guy is still out walking this dog. And so they turned around and went back and so my concern here. Well I do appreciate the muscle and I. I'm here today to do everything I possibly can to protect anybody else is out there. I now carry mace and I have a small bat that I carry with me because when that dog knocked me down like that and when that pain came in and bit me. I didn't know I was going to live through it. And I didn't know how to get it off of me. And so I know the fear of that and not being able to stop it, the owner was able to stop the dog. But I've seen dogs bite. I've had a dog that would bite if you went down towards it. The dog didn't just bite he was, he was, he was coming after me. And so, you know, even when I video the owner and say well, I got to get your name your information. And he was saying well, she was running past me and she got in his space and I knew right then is like this, this version of this story is going to be like this dog who would normally, if you come quickly in front of a dog, and you surprise it, it's going to, you know, go to protect. I was not running. I'd slowed my walk as I was coming around. I gave it lots of space. And, and the dog didn't scratch me the dog went after me so I really don't. I put in my letter that I am the kind of person says oh I'm okay don't worry it's going to be all right I know dogs. But, you know, I'm here today to protect the next person that this dog possibly do this to I had on a thick fleece jacket because it was cold. And the damage that that dog did to the my side if I had not had that on if I just sat on a regular t shirt. If I had been a kid. If I hadn't turned quickly to the right, would that have been my throat or my face that that dog would have gone after. Like I said I am a big dog person I do not think this dog should be allowed on a bypass it should not be allowed in a public area. They want to let their dog out in the backyard and walk it around with the leash. That is the only place I think this dog needs to be anywhere in public that the next person might not be as lucky as me. I appreciate the use of a cage. muzzle for the dog that's dog should I worry every time I walk down there now that I'm going to see that dog out there. I my heart just races as I'm coming around that area every single time that that person is going to be there with that dog again. I get my mace out fast enough. Anyway that's I just, I cannot say this strong enough I do not feel like this dog should be allowed in a public area. I was lucky the next person might not be that lucky. Thank you. Thank you for reporting at Heidi and attending the meetings tonight to share your story. Thank you for those photos look very aggressive. So counsel per our ordinance, we can direct this owner to dispose of their pets muzzle it chain it or confine it. Those are the options here in the ordinance. We could have staff send this directive to the owners and you know should they have a dog in public space and when you ski not complying with whatever order we set forth, they, there would be penalties for them. We've heard from our health officer recommendation to have the dog muzzled and we've heard from the victim of recommendation to confine the dog essentially and not allow it on our public spaces. And so I think those are the kind of that's the choice that we need to make this evening. So I would ask if anyone has thoughts there or if you have additional questions for Heidi or for staff. Yeah, thanks. I just want to say I'm so sorry to hear about this incident. And definitely can feel for you. It's got to be pretty scary. I'm curious if she thought he or the jingles can say if there's any precedent for something that similar that's happened in the past of how it's been managed by the by the council. So, quite often, the first step for a first bite. Typically, that's been, you know, my recommendation and kind of the subsequent thought of the council is, you know, is muscling and requiring the leash. I also worked for Colchester so they don't require a leash like I've done council meetings for both. And so that's also something that they requires the dog to leashed. I have had a dog that was that did not reside in Colchester but was visiting and family and I believe I don't want to say 100% but 99% as I'm remembering clearly is that they requested that the dog not be allowed to back. The dog cannot come back to that neighborhood was what they ended up doing it really can it varies on severity of, of the incident, the number of bites, things of that nature so you know typically for the first bite that usually is my recommendation, if it had, you know, and of course my recommendation would also vary depending on, you know, the severity. Yes, the injury was severe and traumatizing. I definitely don't want to downplay that whatsoever, because it definitely was. Does that answer your question. It does if I'm allowed another follow up mayor. It sounds like they based off of the report that there were no tags on the dog and that up until you got actual vaccination that there wasn't any vaccination for that was there any fine or I mean it doesn't sound like the dog was registered in the city. You know has there been any additional follow up on those elements. He was vaccinated since he was I ensured that he was vaccinated there, you know, he went, there was an appointment and that the appointment was made and that he went at the end of the 10 day quarantine because they cannot be back if they're expired or anything like that and they need to get updated they're not. They cannot be updated during those 10 days so he was updated on that 10th day. Yeah, I think my question really was sorry. There have been any penalty issued for not being registered in when you ski or not wearing dog tags I mean there's other elements in this ordinance that I'm thinking about. I did not know. I don't believe this person resides in when you ski heat. I was just going to say I think the dog. Frequence two different addresses one in Colchester one and when you ski. Okay, the owners have two different addresses. No they live in. They live on Main Street. The addresses that we have in the system for them are actually one of them is grand aisle. And I can't remember the one the other one. But recently when they moved back to Vermont, at least from my conversations with Alex, Mr Walker. They, you know recently moved back and they're living on Main Street lower Main Street. Yes, lower Main Street. So yes they are when you ski residents and no I did not issue a fine in regards to the dog not being vaccinated. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question for you Heidi, and I, I'm really sorry you've had to suffer from this traumatic experience. Just a clarifying question how many different bites did you experience. I don't know. I felt, I felt a like, like, like a bear clamp on my side. And that's when I screamed out because of the pain of coming back and I was just busy I remember thinking, I, how do I get this dog off of me I don't know how to get it off of me. But what I showed looks is the bite circle. So, I don't know if I'm getting that close enough to see, but you can see within sizes or the sharp teeth are, you can see the top two and the sides and the bottom. That's how big his mouth was open to come across and I appreciate the, the, the one bite rule. I think that using the word bite is minimizing. This was an attack. The dog came across, knocked me down and attacked me. And so I, like I said, I have a dog that would bite. And I kept her in the house. So I don't know. But I just, I felt the one great big pain of when it, when it happened. Thank you. Thank you. Mike. Yes, hi Heidi I'm sorry that this happened on our bike path. Heidi's right. What happens if this was a child? This would have been a real bad situation because it could have easily have really hurt child. At least Heidi is strong enough to be able to move on. And I think it's irresponsible of the owners not to be here tonight. Think it's irresponsible of the owners not to register their dog or have the tags on the dog. And I kind of questioning why there isn't a fine in place for these owners. Now that the dog has bitten somebody. I also want to make a suggestion that the dog definitely has to be muzzled in public spaces but I think it needs to be confined to its own yard for a provisional period, until the dog can get used to the muzzle and see if the muzzle will even work because I don't know if the muzzles can get knocked off of the dog's claws. But being the first incident, and this is a pretty violent incident I'm not sure if I'm ready to make a recommendation of terminating the dog's life. But I think it should be definitely muzzled and confined to the home for a provisional period. And we revisit this, because it definitely shouldn't be at any parks or any children. And I think the owners need to take some ownership of what happened. Sure. The, the young man in his two children have one in the stroller and the toddler walking behind him minutes, you know, after we had done and we probably stood there around 1510 what I don't even know how much time before I started walking away. And they were walking down on that same path. And if that would have been them. It would have, you know, where they had been too close I was not intimidating to this dog at all and the again too for me to turn. When I turn like that and that dog did that, it could have been my throat or my face. And I understand the one by rule and I don't want to terminate any dog's life. I love dogs. I struggle with this, but not at the expense of what the next time is going to be. Again, I've been around dogs all my life and this, this was just bizarre way and like I said when I saw those kids that is immediate went to me is I can't just say oh I'm okay I'll be all right. And, and, you know, the Mr. Myers you're right with the irresponsibility they show up today. The, the fact that that guy kept walking on the path with the dog right after that happened I would have gone home and then scared to death of what just happened with my dog. But he kept walking the dog. Like I don't even get that. So, so I do want to say, Stephanie. Thank you so much. I was lost after this all happened and talking to you for all that time and, and, and listening to me and giving me the guidance that you did. I have been so impressed with with the police when I went up and reported the incident with Stephanie immediately getting in contact with me with this meeting today. I appreciate everything that you guys are doing here and I feel, I have the I feel very hard. And that's all I want to do is that it's taken off of my shoulders, and I'm putting it on your shoulders. I've done everything that I can. And so any next incident is not on me. Thanks, Heidi, Mike. Yeah, I have a follow up on, if, if we do confine the dog to the properties owner. How is that regulated. I mean, I think if it is found out and about they would be penalized again. Okay. I think the question here for staff then it sounds like there is some interest in a period of confinement, followed by permanent muscle order, as well as penalty for not being licensed. Is that within our purview. What. What do folks think the confinement period should be my initial thought is like 90 days go through the summer period when we will have the most children out and about brand I saw you unmuted. Yeah, I mean, this is a really serious incident. I, I mean I'm almost opposed to having it be anything less than permanent. I'm not really concerned about the dog being out. Having even, you know, I agree with counselor Myers to some extent worry about the consistency of wearing the muzzle. It's a muscle comes loose. I mean it, we really are fortunate that it wasn't more serious. I do, I do agree that there should be a penalty. I'm okay. It is for a designated period of time but I do think the muzzle should be permanent and there should be a fine. Thanks, how I agree, and, and I'm really concerned that the owner is not here, as counselor Myers pointed out that just. I mean that's. I mean I, if even if we were to impose a permanent confinement, I go along with that. I think this is horrible, and it should, shouldn't a strong message to the, to the community that you better keep your dogs under your control. Stephanie. Sorry. I just want to address the issue. So I have, I verified that the muzzle, I've seen the dog on the muzzle on a couple different occasions. I had seen the dog and he actually, you know, I was very impressed because I was calling to try and get it off for having a hard time adjusting to it and the muzzle is actually a really good fit for the dog so I did verify they had everything on properly, it was fitted properly. So yes, I understand, and you know whatever you guys feel I just want you to know that I have, you know I did check it and things can always happen. But it's when you know that I have checked it, it is an appropriate fit. He actually like most dogs I was shocked because usually they're trying to get it off the whole time and everything and, you know, when I did meet and see the dog with the muzzle on on three occasions. He didn't paw it at once. Didn't try and shake his head any of that kind of normal wanting to get it not being used to a muzzle. So just so you guys are aware of that piece yes there's all kinds of other circumstances but I have seen it so just so you have that piece. Thank you. Mike. I think if we do the confinement it shows sends a message to the owner of how serious we're taking this. So it's kind of like a probation period on him. And you know, I just forgot what I was going to say. So let me gather my thoughts again and come back to me okay. Well I, I would lean towards a temporary term of confinement with the suggestion that these folks get training for their dog and have a second chance, but understand also the feelings about the serious nature. Jim I saw your hand. Yes, thank you and I'll just add on Heidi I'm so sorry that this has happened to you and as a parent of two small kids I very much immediately thought of that situation and being lucky that to some extent it was you not and I hated that you had to face that and take that for another family but thank you for doing what you're doing here by bringing this issue forward. I support a muzzle requirement and a probationary period I too was thinking three months as an initial start. Because I think that gives also time to ensure that these owners are going to be responsible and following that order and I think if there is any. Any violation this order even once with no incident just saying hey we found this person walking their dog without a muzzle or walking their dog at all during the confinement period as a sign that this these owners can't be trusted to have this dog. So that would be a pretty serious next step I think that we should take I would also encourage us to notify the town of Grand Isle that this has happened. And I think that they're aware that this dog that apparently may have two addresses is that they are aware of the situation as well. Thanks chief already. From a practical standpoint, knowing the address where they reside in Winooski. So as you talked about our council do with the interest of confinement. That is a property they are using public space, because there's no yard with that property. So as you talk about confinement. There's, there's no, there's not an option so as you take action I just ask that you give city staff, ACO and myself. You know the, the leeway to understand how they can confine them in the animal and if it's not acceptable to us then we need, we need to be able to come back to you. Because there's just, there's not a yard at the property at 22 me. They're using the public park because that's their yard. So, I just not to complicate things any further than it is. Mike. Yeah, that got my train thought and chief, chief audio must have heard my brain talking because I wanted to know what the address was because I didn't see it in the report or missed it. And that was my next question is did they have their own space to walk the dog. So, now we have a bigger problem I think. I don't know how to do the, the hand thing so I apologize to do it old school. So, I did like your idea, you think, is it Christine, the way yeah name of showing that the dog went through some kind of training. That if it was going to come back, if you guys are doing a probationary that it would attend some kind of training. One of my clients has a dog that is going through training right now because it goes after other dogs. And I do respectfully understand that 22 Main Street does not have their own yard, but I'm sure he has a car and he can drive to Grand Isle or he can drive somewhere that it's not on the bike path to where it's not at least where people are walking every morning but I understand I'm. I don't know what to do either but I you said something about training for the dog. I think that. I think you said it just in passing but I really like that as far as I just wanted to say I like that so. Thanks. I don't I mean is that within our power to order. It's not explicit in the ordinance. Well, john do you have thoughts there. We have the power to terminate it don't we can, can you say that again mayor sorry. Do we actually have the authority to say your dog is confined until you have completed can show us it's completed some kind of behavior training. Yeah you can put any conditions. You know you could say the dog can't reside in when you ski. What I'm going to have with some of the conditions is it then puts it on staff, and that's tough right and that's saying it can be in a public space, lesser than the, the bike path. That's, you know, you were all saying the owners aren't responsible enough to be here tonight are they responsible enough to stay in a space that who's going to determine that safe is that space is is a better space than the bike path and that puts a lot of liability on on staff and a lot of, you know, they're just it's an awkward position to be in. Yeah I mean I so I think part of your recommendation to muzzle is because that is the most viable solution we have here. Unfortunately, we can't. I don't think we can order confinement, like the dog has to go outside to go to the bathroom. I'm not inclined to have it disposed of. And I also am not inclined to honor first incident, while it is a very serious one, say that they have to either get rid of their dog, or move, essentially. I think that is the tough corner that we're in. I like the training idea, why don't we impose a condition that they need to go through a training with her dog on the muzzle and see how the dog goes through the training if the dog can't pass the training then there's only a few options and that's the dog not residing in the people not residing in Windows key, or the dog's life ends. I mean it's just simple as that because if this would be a different conversation if it broke her arm, or really seriously get her face and really put her in the hospital. I mean imagine my 10 year old daughter. It's just, it's unacceptable. So, it's a tough, it's a tough deal but I think we're the people that have to protect, or not protect but we have to ensure that our policies protect all our residents here. Small and big. So I think we could say permanent muzzle. We want a fine for the lack of license, and we want proof of training, proof of behavioral training completion, or we will consider further action. How. I would even ask us to consider that we have a check in with the owner at a future date and understand how this all played out. As far as the training, but have the owner really be held accountable. So, Jim. Can I suggest that we at least attempt to limit the area of when you ski that this dog is allowed to be in since confinement to the home and yard is not an option. I mean I would hate to see this dog at Landry Park or in Cassavance or in other public spaces where there could be children separated from parents on the trail. I hear that point I'm glad that it's been made that we can't utilize the home space for this but is there is it possible to restrict to a certain area so this dog is observed outside that area that is notified. So I would counter that I see on the company children on every sidewalk in this town, and that perhaps. I don't know what that property looks like perhaps a restriction is like you could take this dog out to use the bathroom in the immediate vicinity of your building, but you cannot extend beyond the property. Is staff familiar with the property to say if that's viable or not. Stephanie. I'm not sure if john would know working you know being in zoning so it's kind of a question direct to him is I'm not sure who owns that little grassy area to the left of 22 main maybe that is even an area that I don't know where that who that belongs to but maybe that's even an appropriate area to restrict it to is that grassy area I don't know if anybody knows what I'm talking which area I'm talking about, but I don't know what that like property addresses or whatever if that's part of 22 main, and maybe the dog just can't leave 22 main. That might be a nice. It's right there by the apartment, and it's a good size a decent size little grassy spot for the dog to be able to go. I'm just not, I don't know logistically like what do we call that what you know what the address is that stuff. Does staff know the answer to that. I believe that's when you ski falls park. That's the area she's referring to. Yeah, I think, I don't know. I think that we could say like you can only, you can only the stock and only be in when you ski falls park for this duration, you need to come back with us and prove that you have completed behavioral training before that ends. And then there's also this muscle or Mike. What we're about to dog being confined to a small space is its anxiety to be able to get exercise and, you know, get his blood pumping. So, this is going to work, trying to get their owners responsible, but they could just probably tell us no and just take their dog to Bronson's dog park, or some other dog park how do how can we fix this situation. And are we going to be able to do this tonight because John. Mike, I think a little bit along your lines is with your emotion. I would suggest that you put some very strict timelines on on stuff the dogs muzzled. That's what you so choose anytime it's, it's outdoors. It's confined to that park. The owners need to make one of your August Council meetings and in 60 days they need to be at least enrolled or through a dog aggression type class. That's acceptable to our animal control officer. I think that covers quite a bit. It gives us a timeline holds them accountable limits are the city's liability in my opinion. And if they miss those steps, you know, if they miss the August meetings, we're coming back to you to have a different conversation. Okay, that sounds good. I like that. You want to add something. Sorry, I keep having trouble with that mute button. I just wanted to point out that with my conversations with Mr Walker, they have, they are trying to, they are actively looking for house and are actively looking to move outside of Wednesday. This has always been kind of a temporary move before they could find something. You know, with, they moved in here last year. And so with, you know, the pandemic and everything so they did look at a property a home in in water rary. So they are intending to move. Yes, that could happen could not happen we don't know but that is something that they spoke with me about actively doing is looking for a home home, a house. It might not be when you see is not intended to be the permanent residents. Thanks, Stephanie. Um, so does someone want to make a motion to permanently muzzle the dog outdoors can find into only when you ski Falls Park until it is enrolled in a training course acceptable to our town health officer, and require them to show proof of enrollment and training within 60 days. Second. Motion by Mike second by how all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed. Motion carries. Well thank you for the attention and time you all given to this manner. This is the end of the board of health meeting. The end of the agenda. So may I have a motion to adjourn. Second. Motion by Mike second by Jim all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you so much. I forget about my community with you guys running it. Thank you. You for letting us know. Okay, so we are, it is now 645 p.m. I am going to call to order this meeting of the regular meeting of the when the city council. The first item up is, I need to on promote Heidi as well. And I'm having trouble. Thank you. The first item on our agenda is agenda review. I actually wanted to propose adding an item. So staff wanted to discuss with us the schedule of our August meeting. And or adding a second meeting. Would y'all be in favor of adding that to the end of our agenda discussion of August meetings. And I have a, if so, if someone is in favor, I have a motion to make this addition to the agenda. Second. Motion by Bryn second by Hal all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. So we will have an item F about our August meeting schedule. With that, we are at public comment. So this is a chance for members of the public who wish to speak about a topic that is not included in the agenda already. If there is any agenda item, please hold until that time. If you, if there is any member of the public that wishes to speak right now, please indicate that the raise hand or by using the chat to let us know. All right. Moving to our consent agenda, we have our minutes of June 26. And the warrant from 630 and 719 and the warrant for period 613 to 710. I'm missing at that meeting. I saw I'm saying myself. Okay. Are there any questions or concerns about the consent agenda? Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Before you do that, I just do need to for transparency's sake and in accordance with our purchasing policy. I just wanted to make sure that one of the checks was issued as an emergency payment to obtain housing for the family displaced by the fire. So that check has already been issued and given to the vendor to get housing for those people. But that is the only check that has already been given out without council approval. Thank you, Angela. Excending circumstances. Did I have a motion to approve? Second. Motion by Jim. Second by Bryn. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. And those abstaining. All right. Motion carries. Thank you. So we are on to council reports. How can I start with you? Sure. I have one item to report. I'm going to go through the report. I'm going to go through the report. I'm going to go through the report. I'm going to go through the report. I'm going to go through the report. The safety. Healthy connected people commission is in the process of. Recruiting. Two commissioners. And one. Alternate commissioner. We had interviews last week. We interviewed three individuals. And later this week, there will be recommendations. And then it'll be bought for. And that's all I have. Thanks, Hal. Thank you. The housing commission was unable to meet last time due to lack of quorum, but we are fortunate to have three applicants. Going through interviews this week to fill vacant seats on the commission. So I'm looking forward to participating and bring those recommendations back to council in the near future. Thank you. Mike. Thank you. I have nothing to report. The municipal infrastructure committee did not meet this month. They have a meeting scheduled for August 4th. So looking forward to that. And that's all I have to report. Thanks. Finance also couldn't meet for lack of quorum. Often happens in July. And we also have three candidates that we are in the process of interviewing right now. So I'm looking forward to that. Also have been doing. City manager search committee has been interviewing candidates for the city manager role. We are, we will complete five interviews. As of later this week. With the intent to bring recommendations to the council at their August meeting about finalists. Which we will then interview. And then we will have a meeting about finalists. And then we will have a meeting about finalists. And then we will have a meeting about finalists. So there will be more information on that, that process when those recommendations are shared in August. Planning commission did meet. Continuing form based code review. Nothing new or big to report there. And. Since our last meeting also just wanted to mention. I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the pride flag raising event that we had on June 28. Thank you. Brinn for your contributions there and staff for, for facilitating that. Also had. Our other state rep. Taylor small president for that event. First time we have done that. And when you see. That is it for council updates then. So let's move on to city updates. Great. Thanks. Yep, I can go first. So first item the, because you all probably heard last week, we had a pretty major fire in Manuski at 62. Weaver street right across from city hall. So just want to give some gratitude to chief. I and his team. They did an amazing job. Also, I want to kind of give credit to same mics and Colchester, Burlington, Essex and V Tang. They were all there to support us. So that's much appreciated. Also, you know, our team. Yes. Red Cross did an amazing job of helping out that family. That was unfortunately displaced. And as Angela mentioned, you know, they worked really hard to find housing and, and support those when you ski residents. So thanks to everyone who was involved with that. Second item is just enough data on the V trans project that's going on in the circulator. So they've started the next phase of work, which is a little bit longer duration. So they're doing joint repair work, which will take a couple of weeks. It sounds like that's going to be a little bit more disruptive. Unfortunately for folks that are down there. So a little bit noisier. There's going to be, you know, lights on during the evening, but they're going to try to get out there as soon as possible. Their schedule is I think Thursday to Sunday, 7pm to 6am. So they're trying to, you know, work around businesses, work around traffic, but it's still going to be unfortunately a disruption for folks or for a little bit. And then the last just kind of update is at one of the previous council meetings, you all approved a noise monitoring agreement. So that's Burlington airport is going to be bringing in some microphone equipment to do noise level readings here at City Hall. So they're scheduled to install that equipment on Thursday right now. They're targeting. So I imagine shortly after that we'll be, you know, putting out information on where you can find that data and how to access it through a public portal. So more to come on that. That's all I have. Hi everyone. I don't have too many updates because I've been out of the office, but I did want to thank the team for some really great team work around some of those challenging situations that happened over the past couple of weeks. And I'm also excited to start the next stage of the process for city manager. So thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for your interviews and the council can keep an eye out for scheduling emails from me coming over the next week or so. So looking forward to that. Thank you. And welcome back. So we will move to our regular items. Starting with item A, which is on for approval on Mansa street block party, which Heather will introduce. Yeah. And I have Keith. I'm going to start with item B. I'm going to start with item A. I'm going to start with item B. I'm going to start with the event. So we've received an event permit application for a combination Manso and high street block party on Saturday, July 31st from four to seven PM. So this is a really. The type of event that we've been trying to encourage in our community. And it's a very light lift for city staff. So really we just need to shut down the road. So we're going to start with item B. And then we're going to start with item A. And then we're going to start with item B. And then we're going to start with item A. So we're blocking off the other end of the street. And the event should probably be about 30 to 40 people, a potluck just for the neighbors. No alcohol will be served. So I think this is a pretty straight forward one. And this will be the first ever. So I have Keith here to answer any questions you may have about what they intend for the event. Staff recommends approving this event. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Another neighborhood. Stepping up to, to do this kind of event. So thank you, Keith. And to you and your neighbors for, for organizing. Do I have a motion to approve? So move. I can. Motion by Mike. Second by Jim. All those in favor, please say, aye. Aye. Aye. The motion carries. Christine, I do think Keith was trying to say something. Sure. Well, I'm happy to say it now. You've already approved it, but thank you very much. I mean, I moved here last summer and I've been meeting some of the neighbors just in passing. And I've always wanted to, you know, have a block party. This will be my first time hosting one. And I'm, I'm just, yeah, I'm really excited now that we're going to be able to do this. You're taking the initiative. Someone's got to do it. All right. So Manso street block party will occur. Moving on to item B. This is a, this is on for discussion or approval. Reserve fund request for hybrid meeting technology, which Angela will introduce. I mean, I can, but John Rouscher prepared the memo and has done a lot of the legwork on this. We were approached. That sounds like you want me to do it. I don't know. We were approached by channel 17 about installing hybrid meeting technology and the council chambers that would allow zoom meetings to be held there, making the chambers basically a zoom box on the, the webinar. They gave us a quote of just under $8,000 for all of the funds. We have passed this by Simquest for their review of the technology. They think it's a great system and didn't see any risks with our current setup. And this is a potential use of ARPA funds, but is not necessarily something that we would have to use ARPA funds for given the amount of reserves that we have. If we identify other uses of those funds. We would have to use ARPA funds for our tele-meeting meeting to answer any questions about the equipment or how other municipalities are using it in, in the package that you all have, I put in some FAQs and it's mostly questions I've been asking them about the system just, so we kind of understand how it's being used. I think the thought is, you know, the equipment would be just operated by town meeting TV. We would still run Zoom meetings like we do now where staff administers those. It really just enhances for the experience for the remote users and gives better communication for the folks that are live in attendance. So, and I think what the proposal would be is we would just be using these for council meetings to start, there is a potential to use it for commission meetings and other meetings. But it requires some training and it might be a little bit tricky to have like a staff person trying to wear equipment and Zoom meetings and whatnot. So I think really it's for the larger council meeting discussions is what we're looking to use it for. So yeah, if you have any questions, Megan is here and yeah, that's it. Thanks, Angela and John. Yeah, I'm happy. Yeah, hi. Hello. Welcome. I'm happy to answer any questions that folks have. We've been installing these. It's been in Williston was our pilot. And so they've allowed us to test out the systems on them. We're gonna install a three camera system this week in Burlington. I think maybe the quote that we gave you was a two camera system. We're gonna start with a single camera system and maybe said the quote maybe that may be the up to but not over could be how you're looking at that approval. And so just to be clear, it sounds like operationally it's not gonna change what any of us are doing but it will add a better experience for Zoom attendees when we are all back in chambers. Yeah, and I think as for those who don't understand how meeting televisions relationship, we have a board of trustees you were represented by Kevin Lumpkin on the trustees from Winooski. I consider this public, we're a public trust. We shepherd public resources. And what we do is agreed upon by the trustees, we cover certain meetings based on your subscriber base. We are at the place where we're reviewing those contracts. So we have a contract and we cover, I think it's three meetings in Winooski a month plus some events. And we also do, for example, in the world of Winooski show, so we do other shows trying to use these resources to connect community members. One of the cool things once you have cameras installed is we can consider, we can begin to think of this as a decentralized community television station resource. So I sort of got excited about the fact that you can have your own community TV station in City Hall and maybe this is not a selling point. I don't know, maybe there are other entities that have meetings such as CSWD that we could support to also do hybrid meetings and or maybe other folks that we are already covering those meetings. And we are working out a memorandum of understanding with the City of Burlington that we're gonna base this on. So, you know, you owning the equipment but us running it means a change to how we've done business. So it's gonna be kind of requiring some imagination and creative thinking and we're gonna work with the trustees to do that. We wanna be a technical resource for you to be able to help you do this work and keep public participation fun and interesting. I don't know, fun, maybe that's the wrong word, but I think, yeah, talking. Lots of talking. So if you have any questions on that, I'm happy to answer it. I can go all geek on you if you want. I have one question and that's if you have costed out like the equipment replacement and maintenance cycle and cost. Yeah, I'm assuming this is gonna be a three year initial cost. What we're gonna do beyond that, how often we're gonna have to replace these cameras? I don't know, honestly, these are an entirely new breed of camera. They're called PTZ, they're point tilt zoom. I think the technology is gonna change. I mean, I don't know if any of you have had the opportunity to work with the owl, for example, a lot of boards were like, oh, I'm gonna buy this owl because it automatically follows people around but the technology is not quite there yet. So we're hoping to help move through the hurdle of this hybrid world and lift. And so the long and short of it, Christine, is that I'm thinking of it as a three year cycle at this point. That's helpful. Yeah. Do other counselors have questions? Jim? So I'm excited to see this moving forward and the idea of these remote meetings becoming permanently accessible. So very excited to see this. And the one question I had is what level of, and maybe this is kind of baked into the previous answers, but I imagine that if it's remotely produced and the remote production link connection goes down, how much disruption do we expect in the room as someone tries to figure out how to take over manually on site? Or is that even an issue? Probably like Zoom could still function, we could still be having a meeting, but the ability of Channel 17 to control this equipment from Burlington may break. Is that a concern or is that something that with a little bit of training a staff person can jump in and start doing that remote production for you on site? So we're not gonna be remote, we're designing the system so that it could be run in a remote way. So recognizing this new world where, who knows, there may be a system where you wanna have four people in person, they have to be there. The rest of the people have to be at home and you don't wanna feel producer walking in the door because we have a virus, I don't know. So right now we're gonna continue to send our field producers. We want them in the room with you, we think you want them in the room with you, they're gonna be there on site to answer questions. So while it's able to be like our technical person beams in during this testing period and is there virtually, we're gonna have a real person in the room with you for the foreseeable future. Great, thank you. Yep. Ryn? Thanks. I am excited to start talking about hybrid. I'm curious, do you have a sense for what the legislature is doing for their hybrid options? I know that they put out a request for proposals and they're looking for folks to weigh in on it. I'm not sure where it's at at this point. I think there are a couple of different things. There's the technical side of this, then there's the open meeting law side of it, and then there's the what really builds community side of it. And I think you've all had those different experiences and we're gonna continue to work through that. We wanna be there right now to support the technical side and the open government side. So town meeting television's mission is to open the doors of democracy. So we're there to help with transparency, with archiving, with airing and live streaming your meetings. And we're gonna use technology to do that. It's a kind of shifting, I mean, I don't mean to be, there's a lot going on with it. So, for example, in the live stream of this meeting tonight, we have our producer Kevin Harms is here recording this meeting and live streaming it, and there's a title underneath you all that says what we're talking about right now. That you don't see in the Zoom meeting, but maybe that's a possibility that we wanna bring in in the future and add the functionality so that if people are in the Zoom, they also know what are these people talking about rather than just on the live stream. So again, I'm not answering directly your question, but except that it's a, we're all gonna be learning this together as we go along. I do have another question if that's, I'm also curious. So I'm thinking about uses and there are a number, any number of projects and topics coming up that are going to need stakeholder community input. And I'm imagining City Hall might not be large enough in some cases. I know with some of the planning meetings that they've been held at the O'Brien Center, can the equipment be moved to accommodate such meetings? Oh, interesting. So we have what we are considering maybe a portable system that we're gonna work with municipalities on. And that would be some sort of version of this that, basically it's really what we're talking about is a laptop and a glorified webcam run by a person who is running, who's like zooming in on who's speaking and it's high quality and high quality audio. And then how you choose as a municipality to interact with that becomes, that that's the other piece that we can help you. But right now, for example, I as a participant in the webinar, I can't see anybody else in the room here, right? I might be more encouraged or want to be part of this if I could see my fellow Wenusconians. Wenusconians. But you have to decide what you have the capacity to manage in terms of that. So yeah, we can move systems around and we have systems that we can bring portable systems to do this with folks. And I think that's a good consideration. Again, back to that we contract for three meetings a month. And for a long time we were using the third meeting on planning commission because of the master plan work but is that really our priority going forward? It probably isn't, there's probably, that third meeting could be some other public engagement events. Or maybe that we work with the trustees to come up with a new contract agreement and a more friendly price point to allow you all to hire us more often to do other community events as well. So that's also part of it is maybe that you say, well, we want to cover more stuff or we want more meetings archived and aired. And part of this is teaching your staff how to use this gear, just like community members can come now to tell meeting TV and borrow equipment and make their own programs. And they do that sometimes. That's how we started filming the Burlington Police Commission is we had a citizen who for a year recorded the Burlington Police Commission meetings until we raised enough money through fundraising to support that in a different way. So that happens in what we do. And if you have the equipment you're gonna own this equipment, according to the agreement, we're gonna use this equipment, we're gonna teach people how to run it, we're gonna use it for the meetings, but your staff will also know how to use this eventually. Thanks, and I do wanna add for council, we did kind of hybrid our strategy priority session. It was a little bit challenging. And Eric also tried with the DRB meeting, it didn't go great, but we're just gonna have to keep navigating it. I am happy to experiment with my finance commission meeting next month and try to work these kinks out. Hal. Thank you, Mayor. I just think this is a great way going forward. And I'm on the joint legislative management committee and we're definitely going to hybrid when we come back in January. And because we have so many moving parts and committee rooms and so forth, we're gonna have to hire an additional staff person who has a real expertise around video because you gotta get it right if you're gonna make it attractive. So I'm glad we're going this route. Any other questions or concerns from council? Do I hear a Bryn? I'm just reluctant over the price point and it sounds like there's still opportunity to learn a little bit more from other municipal experiences where this is being installed. So I personally don't feel comfortable voting to approve this tonight. How do others feel? Does someone wanna make a motion? Do we want more discussion? Do we want to bring this back at our next meeting? So what's the motion, Mayor? If you want to move forward, then just a motion to approve this reserve fund request. So moved. So there's a motion by Hal, second by Jim. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye from Mike. Those opposed? Aye, I'm opposed. So the motion carries. Thank you. Do you guys hear me? We can now, yeah. I'm having some troubles. Thank you, Megan, for working on this. Yeah, and so it would be great to, if John will let us know what the timing is on this because we are quite eager to make sure that you are ready, that we are able to have this up and running and ready to support you when you're ready to go back in because we think it's really important that once you do start going hybrid that that system works for the community well and they don't go in with a lot of bumps. And it's a little bit harder to go this other way than to go fully remote. So we just need to hear from you when you're ready to be meeting back in person so that we can get that planned, okay? We will be in touch. Okay, great. Thanks so much. Thank you. So moving on to item C, this is up for approval. This is the 2021-22 strategies and priorities. In June, we reviewed these staff recommendations at our Saturday session that we gave staff some time to look at that and come back to us, you know, make sure this is viable, let us know if there's any conflicts or additional resource needs, et cetera. And so we have an update here that Ray has put together. Ray, do you want to introduce? Let us know what we're looking at. Sure, so, you know, quite honestly, not a lot has changed from what you worked with on the 26th of June. You know, the primary ad to this, which we discussed that day was the addition of all resident voting and the need to figure out a game plan for implementation there because that had not been part of the draft prior to that day. And then also just added, you know, more honestly for staff guidelines, I think just the votes, if you will, that folks took that day of the various items just to help us kind of get a sense from a prioritization standpoint of where council was looking at various items in the lists. So in addition to kind of those updates, also proposed here a quarterly cycle for updates to council on the four pillars of the master plan. That was truthfully a copy from the last normal year of this that we had. And Heather, you can owe me a cookie because it looks like housing only has three and everybody else has four. But I also know we've had quite a bit of discussion recently about housing issues with the housing trust fund. So it felt like that was probably an okay one to skip given that we only have the one July meeting. So beyond that, not a lot else to report. And again, this reflects what you all looked at on the 26th. Thanks Ray. I'll just say that's kind of exciting to hear that, you know, upon further consideration, y'all did not find the need to make changes or flag any big concerns here. So this, should we approve this as our priorities moving forward? Staff and council liaisons will work with commission chairs to also integrate work plans for commissions. And we will be referencing this throughout the course of the next year. Are there questions from council? Bryn. I was curious, does this include Mike's responses? So Mike had had a chance to review in advance and Mike add on as needed, but he was generally okay with the recommendations that were put forth. And so didn't make any new additions or changes. Okay, great. No, the list is a lot of familiar work that we've been, that's been ongoing anyway. And it hasn't really shifted any, it seems like the priorities are all the same line as the last retreat we had. So I was pretty impressed with what you guys came up with and I didn't really have anything to add to it. Yeah, and Mike at the session, we didn't, none of us really made significant changes here and discussed that being, you know, the result of having a really strong master plan that we are all invested in and working towards and having a shared vision. So staff are bringing forward what we are discussing as well and what our community is prioritizing. Hal. Thank you, Mayor. So a question for Ray, just a clarifying question. So in some of these activities, the proposed activities, there's an asterisk or two or three behind each. What's the, what's the significance of that? So those at the retreat each, and I'm not gonna remember the number now off the top of my head but each counselor that was there got little sticky dots to put on. And really what that's just helping is within those buckets for staff to get a sense of what are the sort of highest priority items within each of those areas? They're obviously priority items, but when push comes to shove and we need to prioritize work, it's just a little bit of a guidepost for us to say, these are the areas that really jump to the top of the list for council. Great. So thank you. Each asterisk was a dot. Got it. Great. So just piggybacking on the clarification. I've reviewed what the council did last year and then where there are asterisks for items that are recommended. How does that fall in line with the prioritization? That's a good question. So like for housing, there's one item recommended. It's got two asterisks. There's another item that's a new idea that has one asterisk. So just what's the, so I understand how we're all making sure that I'm understanding the intent and the interpretation the same way as everybody else. So can I jump in? Ray, because I would say let's tell staff how we feel about that now, right? Because this is our role is to set these priorities. The way I would view this is we have our must use. We have the start items within must do. And if we get to recommended, we have our start items there and so forth. Is that, do folks feel good about that? Heather, you want to jump in? I just wanted to point out one piece that must do is in recommended. We discussed as one thing, the new ideas were discussed specifically with new resources allocated. So I think that's part of this conversation as well if some of those new ideas come in. Yeah, and for the purpose of my interpretation that was really just an example. Does that sound good? Does that sound right to everyone else though? The way to approach this as must do, start recommended is still after must use. See some head belts. Feels like that makes sense to me. Okay. It's a good question though, because I see those now in the light areas. Thank you. Any other thoughts, questions here? All right. So can I have a motion to approve the 2021-22 strategies and priorities plan? So moved. Second. Motion by Hal, second by Jim. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. And thanks again for a lot of work has gone into this. I'm excited to move forward with this again. We are on to item D. This is just on for discussion. It is a project update for Main Street. Yes. Thank you. So this is roughly quarterly. I think we're low beyond our quarterly update, but we've been trying to come to the council to give these kind of quarterly updates on the project just so you all know where we're at status-wise, especially looking at schedule and cost estimates, work-to-day and things that are upcoming. So as a general overview for the Main Street project, there's really no council actions tonight. I would say that, so the project is kind of chugged along in the background. So this is the phase of the project where the bulk of design is done. We're not quite into bid phase yet, but there's a lot of administrative work that's happening in the background by the consultant team, by our staff. So there's no new really exciting things going on. It's a lot of getting report approvals and having discussions with utilities and other folks. And then we draw a line that's 10 feet away from another line. So it may not look like there's a ton going on, but there's a lot of that administrative work that's happening in the background. So just to kind of give a high level, we're still in 90% design phase. We'll be in 90% design phase until we get through the right-of-way process. So right-of-way process is where we go to each property owner along the corridor and request construction easements for excavation work in the street and any permanent easements where we'll need to land an electrical transformer or something that's gonna be on their property permanently. So that's really where our main focus is right now is reaching out to all those property owners, having discussions one-on-one with a lot of them, explaining the project and soliciting for those temporary construction easements. So that process is going pretty well. We've been able to reach out to a lot of folks and we haven't run into any major concerns from property owners. We haven't gotten into the permanent easement phase yet because that requires some more coordination with GMP because it's really their equipment and it's their easement, but the construction easement work we've been doing has been going pretty well. Cost-wise, no significant updates there. We're still looking at roughly $20 million projects, whole project that's engineering, construction, any tempersign contingencies in there. So well below that 23 million bond vote, the 20 million does not include the four points, roughly 4.6 million in grants as well. So way below the 23 million bond vote threshold. So, and schedule-wise, we're still on target to start construction looking at June, early June, next year. So we're still kind of on target there, assuming right away keeps going well for us. So we did provide in the packet sort of an updated summary Gantt chart that we've been doing in-house to just kind of keep tabs on how we're doing task-wise. So yeah. Quick clarification. So you're saying it's about 20 million costs, but we also have five million in grants. So the actual costs coming out of tax revenue is about 15. Correct. Okay. Or city revenue. Yeah, it's right. It's general funds to our fund and water funds. So it's, you know, that's broken up in there. Okay, thank you. Yep. And then just to highlight the major work that's going on right now I mentioned right away, GMP coordination is a big task for us right now. We're having a lot of, you know, back and forth or drawings with those folks. One of the big pieces that we got recently is a GMP cost estimate that is not reflected in this current estimate. It is significantly lower than what we are estimating right now, so that's great news. But we just want to go through it in a little more detail before we really incorporate it into our project estimate. The other big task that we actually have the next agenda item, the raise grant. So we updated the narrative and that full raise grant package, which is a US DOT federal grant, very competitive, it's nationwide. It includes benefit cost analysis, includes, you know, some background on the benefit cost. So we have to look at crash data and a whole bunch of technical details to go into that analysis. We provide the narrative so you can kind of see what's in that, but that was a big lift and major kudos to our city engineer, Ryan Lambert, who really kind of spearheaded that and updated that grant application. And I think we're gonna be pretty competitive. This is our third submission for that grant. The last time we submitted, we received a debrief from US DOT and according to them, we'd made it to the last phase of the review process, which that means it lands on the secretary of transportation's desk for sort of final project selection. So, you know, we think we're really competitive given that the grant has, the grant requirements changed a little bit and I would say in our favor because now they're looking at, how does equity play into this project and how do looking at the sort of the economic development piece of the project. So our ministry project hits a couple of those points. It's not just a bridge project that some of these folks are heavy highway project that some of these other applications are using. So, you know, fingers crossed, we will hear back in September on that grant application. I know I'm getting ahead of myself but that's a $7.2 million grant request for that application. But yeah, other than that, the other just smaller piece that I'll flag that might be of interest is we are also coordinating with CCRPC right now. They're using some what's called Bluetooth monitoring tech for looking at traffic data and speeds. We're looking at incorporating what's called smart work space, I believe it's called, into our project specifications. So basically what that would do is create some thresholds for the contractor to keep traffic moving during construction. So we would be live monitoring what the traffic flows look like during construction based on their traffic impact or their traffic control plan. And in our specifications, we would say, okay, you have to maintain X number of cars through this area per day. And if they don't meet that specification, you know, they have to make changes to the traffic control plan. So it's something we're really interested in pursuing because I mean, I think that's one of our biggest concerns during the traffic control piece of the construction project during the morning and evenings is how are we gonna keep vehicles flowing and not backing up on the corridor? So more to come on that, I'm sure, but we're exploring that further with CCRPC. So with that, if there are any questions. Thanks for including the Gantt chart. I think that's super helpful for me to see what the phases are and kind of where you are with your estimated timeline. I was noticing that it looks like project initiation might not start until June, mid-June next year. How realistic is that? I guess, is it more likely to get pushed back or is there any way to move it like earlier so that we can get a full construction season in? Yeah, I mean, I will say the estimate, the schedule right now is honestly, it's probably more for us internally to kind of keep tabs and push the consultant. So there's room either way to either try to speed up on a couple of critical path items or our goal is at least being construction by June. And then one other question, it's at least the memo that was included that there are delays with getting the easements. But how is that going? Yeah, it's definitely picked up. I mean, some of the delays were us finding some time, frankly, to start reaching out to owners. So what we ended up doing was we had some budget within our current proposal with our consultant BHB and we tasked them to bring out a staff person who has experience with easements to start helping us, supporting us with getting some of those easements and reaching out. So we'll make first contact, for example, on easements, but then BHB will help us reaching back out to those owners, explaining any technical questions or just following up and tracking where we are. So that's been sort of a lifesaver on the schedule side. John, are you encountering, we know construction costs are insane this year. Is that impacting the materials required for this kind of project? It might. Yeah, it's really hard to gauge right now because the fluctuations seem to be, I mean, just that you look at a forecast for materials and they say two by fours are gonna go down, lumber is gonna go down, or pipe material is gonna go down, or it's gonna go up. So we're really hesitant to like, to really adjust those numbers until the market sort of settles out. So once we get a little bit closer to bedtime, that's when we'll really start looking at where we think the market's gonna be for materials and labor and really take a look to see if we need to trim any scope in order to get us back in budget. But as I mentioned, right now, we're in really good shape budget wise, at least on the estimate, we're well under the threshold. And hopefully if we get out of a couple more grants, we will be way, way under the threshold. If there was continuing cost fluctuations and we thought don't start now way to year or something, is that possible? I know there's a cap on some of this grant funding in the timeline. Yeah, USDA is the only funder we would probably have to, well, USDA and the Northern border regional folks, but they're typically flexible to open, to looking at extending if we see some movement. Yeah, bike pad, we're working with them, Heather mentioned bike pad in the chat, V-trans. We've been working with them right along, they've been pretty flexible with us, so I don't think they would have any concerns, but yeah, it would just be a matter of reaching out to those folks if the market looked a little crazy for pricing. And isn't there a cap with the bond as well, some sort of timeframe to take that money out and spend it? I'm not sure on that one. Angela, do you have any idea? That isn't information that I have at my fingertips. Okay, I'll follow up separately. This is a just in case scenario in itself. Brynn. But piggybacking on that thought, Mayor, I am wondering, so I think in previous meetings it was said that ARPA funds are not available for this project, but I'm wondering if there is inflation for supplies and equipment, if that might be an influencer to have funds be released. I don't know if that, if you got any of that with me to go. Yeah, I think it was looking at ARPA funds, potentially for to cover some of the inflation, sorry. Exactly. Yeah, it's something we can, Angela and I can review for sure. I mean, there's also potentially infrastructure funding coming down from the feds. So it looks like we're potentially going out to bid at a really opportunistic time, maybe, if the feds can push some money to local municipalities. So we will see. Other questions about the project update before we move on to the raise grant? I will say for, actually, I'll wait, is this technically about the grant? So we will move on from item D and onto item E, which is up for approval. This is the raise grant application for Main Street, which John, you've sort of already introduced. Anything you want to add? The only thing I'll add is we have reached out to all the delegation folks just so that if there's any advocacy that they can do on their end, just trying to hit all angles if possible, we did get letters of support from RPC and downtown Manuski and the school. So yeah, I learned that, you know, fingers crossed, we should hear back this fall. So I did just want to say for any potential viewers, that narrative that you had to put together for this grant is actually really informative about what is included in this project and the why behind it. You know, this Main Street project came when I first joined council and I was not sold on the project at the time and have learned more about it over time and some of the benefits that this work will bring to us. So I think it's interesting, if someone's interested in learning more about the project, I think it also goes to show how much work it takes to apply for grant money. You know, we often hear like, can't you just get more grant funding? And it does take a lot of legwork time and effort to do that. And also just want to recognize as you shared in our last item that we've already obtained almost a quarter of the cost of this project in grant funding. And so really appreciative of staff continuing to seek out these other sources of revenue. I did notice though, this application is for the streetscape only, right? And I thought in years past, we applied for the full project. So I wondered if you could talk about that. Yeah, we applied for streetscape only just because, you know, that's where we need the most support on the funding and what we heard back from US DOT folks is, you know, that seven to 10 millionish range would be more competitive for us. We do have, you know, on the water resources side, we are, we have a commitment from USDA with some significant grants funding to cover that. So, and the challenge with that USDA funding is any other funding that flows into water resources just reduces the amount of grant on the USDA side. So, you know, we got a pretty good deal of the USDA and a pretty healthy grants. So we would basically need someone to top USDA as offer in order us to move to, you know, another funding option. That's helpful to understand. Thank you. So I think this was in your memo but for Council Contacts, we've applied for this three times before, at least twice. Yeah. So are there any questions or concerns about this grant application? Great. Question, not a concern. I was curious if we know if there are any other municipalities in Vermont that are applying for this? I know a municipal official in South Burlington that mentions they would be applying for it. She may or may not work here previously. And I know RPC is putting in for a planning grant but that doesn't compete against us. The state usually puts in for some kind of heavy highway or bridge but I haven't heard of them putting anything in. So yeah, South Burlington's the only one I've heard of but we're our projects way better than theirs. So it'll be fine. Yeah. The reason why I asked is because it sounds like we've got letters of support from the RPC, the school, if there would be help to have letters of support from our legislative officials. Maybe Hal and his friends can put a letter in. Yeah, at this point, so I guess I should back up. We did submit the grant. So we're coming after the fact unfortunately but I will see if there is, I mean, the delegation has even said that they'd be willing to potentially put in a letter of support. So if there's a mechanism to do some advocacy afterwards during the review, that might be helpful. So I'll check into it. Any other questions here? All right, so can I have a motion to approve the raise grant application? Second. Okay, motion by Jim, second by Hal. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The motion carries, thank you. So we are on to item F, which was a question about our August meeting schedule. I don't know which staffer wants to introduce this. Because I can't remember the original concern. Yep, so I can introduce it. So the question was, I think in the last two years maybe Angela had one meeting up, no, get the head shake. Just in 2019, there was only one August meeting. Got it. So I guess the question would be whether you all would like to have two meetings in August. I believe it's, I think Bennington Ballad Day is in the mix there. So it's August 17th and August 3rd, or August 2nd would be the two August dates. And then I know the city manager search is kind of in the mix there too. So that is the question on how you want to set up next month. Yeah, so we're already scheduled to meet on the second. We are not scheduled for the 17th. It was there a warrant or some sort of approval that made us want to do the 17th? If you don't meet on the 17th, I will need to do an interim warrant. There's no way we can go from August 2nd until the first meeting in September without paying bills. Okay. So... Well, if I recall the reason we had two meetings last year is because we were approving our charter, or we were having our public hearing on the charter changes in August. So that was one of the meetings that caused us to have a second one in August. Yeah, because we were only trying to have one again. So I talked to Steph about this and potentially not having August 2nd and doing the 17th instead because it's better for the warrant schedule. But then the city manager search committee, I don't really want to delay their recommendations even further. Like we're already kind of behind schedule. So I had considered maybe we do both but we keep one of those meetings super light either like August 2nd is primarily just for the recommendations or the 17th is just for the warrant kind of just to try to help ease the summer scheduling. Bryn, I see your hand. Just given the decision at the top of the meeting, it seemed like we wanted to give the dog owners multiple meetings to be able to attend. I don't know if that really should factor into our decision or not. Is anyone, Mike, go ahead. I will not be able to make August 17th. Okay. Is anyone else not able to do the 17th? I will do it, but I'll be on vacation and would prefer not to. Okay. So what if we add a meeting on the 17th? We keep that agenda very light. This is primarily for warrant approval. And if it is just Bryn Howe and I, that is a form and we are able to proceed if that's how it plays out. Hey, Angela. Oh, sorry. If it's just for warrant, we can do, we have in policy and procedure the interim warrants where three counselors can come and sign so that we can release checks and then you just reaffirm the approval at your next regular meeting. So if you're just having a meeting for the warrant, that's not necessary. Maybe we're gonna add something. Yeah, just that the, for our actual interviews for city manager candidates, those will need to be separate special meetings that will be to go into executive session for. So if there is any, those are also an opportunity for approving a warrant or doing any small amount of extra business if we need to. And those will likely, if we have three candidates, we likely won't schedule all of those for the same meeting. So they would need to be separate. That is a good note. My other thought was that for some reason, we cannot get a recommendation ready by the second. We would have the 17th as a backup. We could add a meeting for the 17th and then cancel it if you don't need it. Would folks be okay with doing that? I'm fine with it. Okay, so we added an August 17th meeting. If we need it, we have it. If we don't need it, we cancel it and we can approve the warrant in one of these special meetings that we're having for interviews. Yeah, okay. Could I have a motion then to add a council meeting for August 17th? So moved. Second. Motion by Bryn, second by Hal. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right. All right, motion carries. Thank you. We'll add a meeting and hopefully we'll cancel it. This brings us to the end of tonight's agenda. Do I have a meeting to it? I'm sorry, a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Motion by Mike, second by Jim. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, everyone.