 does not tolerate such actions and strongly condemns them. Well, it may not always be possible to prevent hate speech from occurring. During public comments, the council will continue to take measures to make it more difficult to express such views. Are there any agenda additions or changes? Anyone? No. OK. Bring on. Public to be heard, this is the portion of the meeting where members of the public can share comments, questions, concerns with the council for items that are and are not on the agenda this evening. Is there anybody in the room that wants to speak tonight? No. Is there anyone on Zoom that wants to? Oh, sorry. Oh, I apologize. Just very briefly, do I need to approach that? Yeah, if you don't mind coming up and just saying your name for the person who does our minutes. Sorry about that. No worries. I was thinking about it. I'm Helen Donahoe. I'm on the board of Brown Now. And I just wanted to speak in support of Wendy Hisco, who I was trying to remember. I think I've been on the board about eight years. I came in on a partial term and then I just re-upped last year for another five. And I can't think of a meeting that I've been to where I wasn't just wildly impressed by Wendy and so appreciative of all she does. She is always prepared. Her reports are always very thorough. She keeps us informed. She doesn't belabor things. She's incredibly efficient. And she's just good at a lot of different things. So I just thought that was worth saying that I've been on a lot of boards and a lot of different places. And I've rarely found someone who is just also very pleasant to deal with who is as talented as she is. So I just wanted to say that. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone on Zoom who wants to share any comments? I'm not seeing any, but I am seeing. There is no sound. There is sound setting that is not. And folks in Zoom hear us now. Feel free someone to unmute and say yes or no. If you can hear us. If you can't, then you probably won't answer. I can tell you Wendy just asked me if the meeting has started. She said I heard reporting in progress and that's it. Risa says they can't hear us. Yeah, I think he's working on it. We're going to take a minute and get this fixed and then we'll continue in a second. Can folks hear us now? OK, awesome. Great. This is a public to be heard session of the meeting. Is there anyone on Zoom that has anything they'd like to share with the council during public to be heard? I'm not seeing any hands raised. Karen? Karen? Karen, go ahead and unmute, show your last name, and bye. My last name in the chat because it's a little bit long. Sure. I just wanted to participate in, as a library trustee and member of the community, thank a recent, I wanted to thank, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, wanted to thank Marcus for coming into a library event, a viewing of the public. We had a really good conversation and I really appreciated his coming and participating. And I wanted to thank the counselor who came to our recent trustee meeting and engaged and participated in a really positive way with the trustees. And I wanted to thank the council for all of the work that you guys have been doing around this budget cycle. I've learned a lot by participating more than I ever have before. And I wanted to publicly thank the staff and members that work in our Browno Library every day for coming in and dealing with the public and members of our community and having a smile on their face and being hopeful and thoughtful and kind. And I just wanted to publicly support them and say thank you. That's great. Thanks for doing that. And because the chat doesn't carry over, can you say your last name for a minute, take it? It's Hergishimer. Perfect. Thank you so much. Yes, H-E-I-M here. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else on Zoom that wants to share any comments? I'm not seeing any hands raised. We'll give another second. It doesn't look like it. So we will move on to Business Item 5A Library conversation with Wendy Hisco, who is on Zoom with us. Thanks for coming. Yes, thanks for having the hybrid option. So I'm not sure I did send in a form with some general information. If you have questions, I also wanted to thank Elaine for coming to our trustee meeting. Last week, it was really great to have a city council presence in person and engaging with our board. And just appreciated Karen's comments as well. Things at Brownell continue. We're busy. We have a lot of new folks and old folks that continue to use the library. We're working with Harlan on hopefully a new roof this year. And I've applied for a large grant to hopefully get that and make our front entrance ADA accessible, which it is not currently. And that has come up in the conversations around the roof as we discuss the black rice and that really looking at our building and how we can only get people who have physical disabilities safely and through our back door, which means they need transportation. So something, if we don't get the grant, I would love to continue that conversation in the future of how we can address the steep slope in front of Brownell so we can get people coming from the sidewalk and bus stops. Yep, for sure. I think we all certainly not going to make you read your memo. I think we all read it. Very excited about that opportunity for the grant. Thank you for applying for that and doing all that work. I can't recall when we might hear about that. It's a couple. Yeah, they're expecting to announce the recipients in, I think, two months with the money to arrive this summer. It's a competitive grant. And there are other libraries in Chittenden County that have applied for it. I don't know, but we're in good standing because of how much work has been already done for the roof construction and redesigning if we move the door away from the ice area that gathers now. And yeah, we'll find out. And they're trying to award at least one grant per county. We don't qualify as far as the community. We don't get points for the Vermont Community Index where there's 10 different things that they rate communities on it. And S-Extension is not in a low income area. So we don't get points for that on this application. But we do get other things like being in the city or a downtown location and having public bus transportation and that it includes ADA accessibility. And it's really for technology access and getting people in the building to be able to access technology for a variety of things, which we see all the time. And we also included a pod in doors. So a work pod that would allow people to have private use of a space where they can have, if they want to have telehealth or any sort of meeting where privacy is essential, that would be part of this grant as well. It's something we do not offer really anywhere, unless maybe in tech services, because they're down in the basement in the corner. It's the quietest in the library. But we do have our challenges, and the work pod would be fantastic as far as being able to have it mobile in the building. So if we need to rearrange things, we could do that without a major construction issue. Yeah, yeah. Does anyone have questions for Wendy? Comments on what she shared with us? Anything else? I have a couple of things. Sure. Wendy, I just want to acknowledge first in reading your memo. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. And just like memos that you've presented in the past that we've read, again, acknowledging a significant number of challenges that are happening around now, I just want to acknowledge that I've heard it, and I continue to hear about it. And I'm looking forward to hearing from you, the staff, the trustees, on some possible solutions, ways that we can continue to work together to try to help these situations that are happening at the library. The other thing that I want to acknowledge too, and what I hear from the community who have reached out to me about the library specifically, again, I just want to acknowledge overwhelming support from the community for the library. While all of that has come in as well, a majority of the commentary that I hear about giving feedback toward the library is, again, the library people wanting the library to reassess Saturdays during the summer. Because what I hear most from all the commentary is, we love the library, protect the books, but we want our Saturdays in the summer. So I just want to make sure that I've said that for all the people who have reached out to me specifically on, again, supporting the library. So that was it. Do you have constraints right now, including budgetary constraints about Saturdays? So that's something to consider moving forward and how that would work for sure. Contractual constraints and budgetary constraints. But I do appreciate you sharing both all of the feedback. And I also encourage our library board meetings are open to the public. And our board is an engaging one. And the library is open to the public for anybody. We are very collaborative departments. And look forward to being able to collaborate with our leadership more. I would like to. There's a table that keeps being mentioned, everybody coming to, and being able to move forward from a table towards solutions would be really great. Describe, like for folks that aren't aware, all the different ways people, I mean, briefly. Because there are a lot of them. And you're very knowledgeable about it. But all the different ways people can access materials and resources at the library now and some of the ones that have been added in the last few years, sort of three or four years. Yeah. So we have our standard print collection, which libraries are most famous for that everybody assumes. That's what libraries are all about. But we also have a audio visual, a extensive DVD collection, which some people, it's very heavily used. Not everybody has streaming. And there's also a lot of titles that are not available for streaming. We have a lot of digital materials, digital audiobooks, digital ebooks for downloading, digital magazines that are available. So these are all 24-7. Anything digital is available 24-7, which is really what is great about their expensive, but having that access to library materials whenever you feel like it without having to go to the library is something that working people in particular really appreciate. We have, I think, 15 or 10 public computers and standalone stations, as well as Chromebooks for people to borrow. We have a newspaper database, which isn't as fancy as, like, say we looked at New York Times online and it was extremely expensive and limited and how much people could use it. So database, there's a lot of local great newspapers, including the Essex Reporter that are in that database. We have other databases for research. We also have a streaming, online streaming, which has a lot of content that we can't carry at Brownell. There's a lot of people who enjoy PBS and BBC shows and those are all things that are involved in this streaming, as well as a lot of independent films and other TV shows and more kids' materials. The Overdrive magazines are also in many languages, which is something that we really are proud of to offer. We don't really, it's really hard to cultivate a print collection for the 36 languages in the Essex Westford School District and it would be really hard to develop collections without any large sections of the community that we could develop. Like, we're not a large enough city for different sort of diverse neighborhoods, but we do try to include more digital resources, but those also have their own drawbacks. People don't have the technology. We have a robust kids' programming that is happening many days of the week, we're trying to include many Saturdays, which are very, very popular, especially in the winter months when people are looking for things for their kids to do. I'm trying to think, there's so many things that we have out of the library of things. So we have the library of things, which is a growing collection of, it started really with tools, I think years ago we got garden tools for the community, for people who don't wanna have tools, but wanted to use the community gardens and it's really grown into a lot of tools, things to experiment with, things that you may not want in your house, like noise-making instruments that maybe you don't want all the time, or maybe you wanna give them a try. We have like our karaoke machine is very popular, we have laminating machines. The VHS to digital transcribe technology. So we have a lot of different things that are available through our, you can look at our catalog and then we have a big shelf when you enter the library. And a growing number of games, which has been extremely popular with people because they can rotate through. And we also have a puzzle swap, which has been, now we're collecting data on that and that is very, very popular for both people purging their puzzles as well as picking up puzzles. And we have an ongoing puzzle and our main remaining room at all times now, which has become a great place for people to just spend some time, whether it's on a lunch break or if that's part of their weekly regimen, daily regiments. And we have a lot of friendly staff that are willing to connect people with information, good quality information. Or we have a lot of people that come just to say hello and have an interaction and they range in age. I mean, kids are practicing their communication skills at the youth desk all the time and everywhere up through people who can get themselves to the library or coming to just have people interactions without it costing them money. We've had some challenges more recently with people needing resources. Generally with our computers, it's easier. That's the highest, I think, interest. We've needed to connect with 2-on-1 as translators that are available and that has been a huge resource for us when we don't know the language, somebody's speaking. And yeah, so 2-on-1 has been a good place to connect people with somebody that can speak their native language. And then otherwise, the youth generally are becoming, they, because they're in the school system, they're English, they pick it up very quickly and are able to interact with staff. And otherwise, there's a lot of, I think just trying to point to resources and trying to figure things out. I think most people that do come in and are looking to interact with staff have some grasp, at least of a few words, to be able to explain what they're looking for and we do our best to provide that. And I know there's a possibility that we could also use translation services like Google Translate or something like that, if we need it. We haven't had a huge amount of need at this point outside of calling 2-on-1 to connect people to social services. And new Americans coming into this community might see the accessibility to the library. And I'm not saying this as a criticism about the library. I think about libraries in general and just their accessibility to the language, whether or not you might think that they potentially see a barrier that may or may not exist. I would say it's a reasonable assumption. Our youth staff in particular do a lot of outreach to schools to get involved in different diverse activities that we can. There will be library trustees and staff at a multicultural fair coming up. I think our greater challenge is educating people that the libraries exist. It's not something that is something that is guaranteed from where they're coming from or they might not have had the opportunity. And we do reach out to the refugee resettlement and then AAOV, which is, I forget the, it's another group that's sort of taken up after the refugee resettlement. Does the work that they are contracted to do. So we try to outreach as much as possible to members of the community that may not traditionally use the library. And we have great success with some families that have taken that big step to come into the library and really do feel like they're part of the community once they do that. But I think our greater challenge right now is getting them in the door and connecting with them. I think a lot of people who are new Americans are dealing with a lot of difficulties. And so I think computers are the one thing that we really do connect people with. I think a lot of working people and most refugees are working don't have a lot of free time and are struggling. Like they're not looking for sort of, what some of the library community is looking for as far as like enjoying reading and our DVDs do have translation in them. But it seems more like they're looking for real tools to move like there with our visa application, job applications, that sort of thing. And we can certainly connect people to those. And I think in general, the community has just talking to different groups that it's a challenge to get people who are really just settling into a community to engage with the community. And we do that as much as possible. And our trustees will connect a lot of our, several of our trustees are mentors with new Americans. So we do have some good contacts amongst our trustees and our staff is some of them have traveled widely, speak other languages and are very understanding of cultural differences. So we have that on board to help navigate a lot of different situations. Thanks. Just one second, sorry. Is there anything else from, sorry, Jane, is there anything else from counselors? No, okay. Standing from Amber. So this point, are there any questions from the public and we'll start in the room. And I know there is one. I do have one thing that came up last that I just wanted to mention and I did mention it to Regina. The train station is really, I think it brings a different element to us extension and speaking to our outreach workers, there's a crisis element to the train station because it doesn't have a pay phone. And it assumes that you have an ability to have tickets available on a smartphone. And it's only staffed for hours a day. So having people do everything that they can to get to our train station to find it closed, I think is something that is causing some stress with individuals that are trying to find their next place to be or get to their families. And so I just wanted to put that in your minds as far as how we could improve that because we do get a lot of people at Brown L looking for pay, like we don't have a pay phone or no pay phones in S extension. And it's often ticket printing jobs. So Brown L is kind of a hub for track station as far as the support that we get to offer. And we do, but I think it would be great. Like the person in George that I was speaking to last week said that other train stations there's more digital signage and other things to just give people information. And I did take a walk around the train station and you have to walk around the whole building to find the closed office, but that's ours and that's about the extent. So as we look at upgrading the train station and what we can do as a city, it would be great to have more resources so people know what they're doing. If they get off the train there or getting the train, what resources that they have access to and we tend to have people showing up not frequently, but every few weeks that are kind of stressed out because they wanted to take the train and the train station's closed to them when they get there. You're able to help them sounds like with the computers and everything. Yes, we do, we do, we do help them. But I didn't realize the impact on outreach that this had. So I thought that was very helpful information for them to share for sure because we just do that as part of our day to day, but it is something that I think as a city could be better as far as if we're gonna be a transportation hub giving people information that they can access would be great. Yep, we can pass that along to Amtrak and ask them to provide people, provide their customers with the information that customers should have to. Yeah, and having a pay phone, I've talked to Burlington and Telecom, there's no rail solutions for pay phones but that is something that I think it should be on a bucket list because everybody needs our phones at Brown Owl and we give them the phones at our desks for brief phone calls. And it's, my staff has to witness a lot of things that they might not wanna know when people use these phones. Okay, thank you. Writing down. Okay, sorry to cut you off earlier, Wendy, I should have asked you if you had anything else to add? Let's move on to that. Jean, would you mind coming up to the table so that it's people at home can hear? Just real quick, a couple of other things that the services, one. Can you just say your name? Yeah, Jean Grant and I'm on the trustee board at the library. Just a couple of things that you didn't mention that I'm super proud of. With the seed swap at the library. And I was able to reach out to a number of places like Clausens gave me a box this big of seeds that people can take with them. And Gardner Supply also donated some and we got some individual people just donating seeds. So that I think can be super useful to new Americans. You can take some, you can leave some and that will be going on all summer. And there's also the, I don't think you mentioned the museum passes that people can get. I didn't. Yeah, so that's all. Awesome, thank you. Is there anyone else that wants to add anything in the room? I don't see any hands online. Just give it a second. All right, Regina, do you have anything you wanted to add to this? Okay, great. Wendy, thank you so much for joining us tonight. I've got an option work for you. All right, good to see you all. Have a good night. You too. See ya, thanks. All right, I'm going back up. 5B update from the Tree Advisory Council and Nick Meyer. If you come up to the... Can I ask more on Spinner video? Oh, great, sure. You're part of Tree Warden and member of the... There's another. Yeah, me too. Well, thank you for the opportunity to be able to come and speak to you. I've been about the Tree Committee and the work that we've been doing. I think in your packet, did you get the summary that I'd sent? And I'm sure that you've all read it and have lots of questions for me. That's what I said. But I thought I'd just open it up and just read something that was here. And from there, I can sit, talk about some highlights of the year and then leave it to you to ask questions. Oh, great. So why trees in Essex Junction? Street trees, the trees in your yard and the trees in our parks comprise the city's urban forest and contribute to our city's livability and beauty. The benefits of trees are numerous. Trees control erosion, lessen stormwater runoff, dampen wind and sound, help cool our homes and buildings, provide food and shelter for wildlife, convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and add immeasurable beauty to our environment. And then this day of climate change, they're one of the tools in fighting that change. So the many benefits of trees. We had a pretty busy year in 23, as you've read. We planted about 37 trees, which brings our total up to over 250 since the tree committee was formed. Branch out Burlington, this marks our third, I think third fourth year of growing all the trees for the city. And we're really fortunate to have that relationship with them and it allows us to buy young trees, grow them for two or three years and then plant them on the streets, saving the city a great deal of money and being able to partner with an organization like Branch Out Burlington. It's been a terrific relationship. We had a celebration of Arbor Day. One of our goals is to work with the youth in the community and to get them involved and educate them a bit on trees and what they mean to the community and to try and teach them to become the young three stewards of the future. And every year we will go to a different school and have an event. This was the eighth year that we became a Tree City USA community, which means it's a commitment by the city to invest a dollar amount as well as having Arbor Day events and other things that shows that we are really committed as a community to be warranted a Tree City USA. And during that time when we do the application, we have to compile what the volunteer hours have been for our committee. And we think we're up to probably over 300 volunteer hours during the course of the year. And I think it shows that what a working volunteer committee can do in a community. And we've got a great group working together. We've been collaborating with the Planning Commission more this year after the new land development code was written and advising them on various projects in the downtown area and other places as well. And I think this is evolving into a good relationship that we can provide some expertise to them. Let's see, we had a tree walk, a tree actually a historic walk in June. It was well attended, it was a great event with probably 28 people that came bringing our local historian back in and Warren Spinner. And we had an awesome tree contest again trying to engage the community, get them to participate and seeking out their favorite trees. And these are all things that we hope to continue in years to come. So that's sort of a highlight of what we have done this year. And I think that I was actually having attended a number of the forums, the strategic planning to see how community members, sometimes we think we're acting in a vacuum of the work that we do, but that seeing on the visioning statements of what were priorities, how many individuals were citing green streetscapes, the importance of it in their community. So that was great to see. We've had a great relationship with public works. We work hand-in-hand with them. We're able to do a lot of the communication for them to the community members. There'll be a phone call that comes in and Rick will generally refer it right to us and we will either go out and see the situation or talk to them about it. So I think that's all I've got. And I thought maybe Warren could speak a little bit about something that's developed this year with the grad that we received and our Emerald Ashbor issue. Excellent. Thank you, Nick. That was well done. We got a lot going on as you just heard and we had a new scenario arise in late December this year where we had discovered Emerald Ashbor had actually found its way into Essex Junction. Sad to say, we were anticipating it. We brought a plan forth to then the trustees which was approved in 2018. And we have been preparing citizens for this moment, if you will, and now that it's here, they're more in tune to what's going on, which is great. So we found it in late December, had confirmed by a force test technician from Forest Parks and Recreation State of Vermont. And so then we had to break the news to Regina about this and then, okay, how are we gonna manage? What are we gonna do? And it's been really good because we've put some PSAs together, put it out on the website, put it out on our webpage, put it out the front porch form. So we've gotten the word out and because of the work that we've done prior starting in probably 2019, we've been knocking on doors and letting people know it was coming asking if we could interplant trees and then start to remove some of the ash trees. So by this spring, we will have removed via contractor or with Public Works Health almost 60 ash trees in the city. So we're getting there, people are aware of it. And in the area where most of these trees are they were planted on both sides of the streets as most of you know, some are on private property and we have received messages from folks about what to do. So we have the answers for them, which is great. So we also got a grant which you have seen and approved and we appreciate that. And it's been initiated and we're working with that. And that was from the State Forest Parks and Recreation and within we have two years to finish that grant out. Part of it, the big part of that grant will be planting 18 large trees in the area where we're removing the trees. So that it's a work in progress. And so far so good and kudos to the Public Works Department because they have been removing ash trees for us over the last few weeks. And for the most part it's going very well. So glad to report that to you. How many you've taken 60, how many more, how many ash trees do we have remaining? Over a hundred. Okay. Our population for public trees in the city is around a thousand, give or take. And about unfortunately 16% of that were ash trees. And very isolated into the southwest portion down up West Street and Hayden, Wilkinson, Tyler and LaVoy area. So that's the area that we're working hardest in. We've got a few on Main Street here. We've got a few on Pearl Street. We have actually that row of trees as you go down to Susie Wilson Road. 50% of those or probably 60% of those are ash. They'll all be coming out eventually. So I didn't think it would be here this quick, but on a state level with EAB, it's in over 65 communities now in the state of Vermont, so. And when you're all planting trees, it sounds like you're really mixing it up. We are diversifying, yes, yeah. So we've got a good mix. And the nice thing about working with Branch out Burlington, as Nick mentioned, is we can choose the trees that we bring into plant in the nursery and grow them up to bring in so that diversity, that's how it's happening there as well. So it's been going well. How do, I was thinking about this, knowing this was coming up today as I was walking the dog the other day. How does a neighborhood or a resident request trees for their neighborhood? And the part beat of that is, especially a neighborhood that doesn't have sidewalks for instance. So it's inherently or more obviously private as opposed to yard sidewalk, green space road, that kind of thing, right? So how does that, is there a way that? Yes, if a resident should call and ask about wanting a tree, we have a system in place. We have an easement agreement, which was adopted by the village quite a while ago and is still in play where we would work with a homeowner, figure out, let them know what we had for trees, then we would come in and plant the tree for them on their property and they could, you know, in the front yard so as to be visible from the street. Sure, yeah. And then we would maintain it for a year and then it becomes their tree. So we would obviously work with them on how do you maintain it? What needs does it need to survive, you know, watering being the most important to start with a new tree. So there is a mechanism there to do that, yes. We have in the past, we've looked at the main corridors coming into the five corners and kind of branched out from there. And so that has been sort of our focus initially. And we're now getting to a point that we will start moving into more residential areas and there will be knocking on doors and an opportunity where there aren't sidewalks, that lends itself a little bit better for a street tree. Yeah, more soil volume, basically. Yeah, it's just much better for the tree. What's the impact on our public park space? Because you mentioned a number of streets, but now I'm thinking about Stevens Park very specifically because you're talking about that particular area and that's really about the woods. But I'm wondering if it's also impacting any of our other specific parks and green space. The impacted from Emerald Ash floor, okay. As far as the native areas in Essex Junction, the only place that I found native ash growing any number at all is down behind Cascade Park. There's really not a lot of naturally growing ash trees in Essex Junction. That's why I was thinking, oh, even where we've got them, where they were planted, they would be isolated, but the big means to move that insect around is firewood. So I believe if you drive down through the neighborhood and you look, there's a lot of people burning wood and I'm assuming that that's how it came in. Gotcha. Yeah. Sure, yeah, yeah. I just wanted to say first of all, I really want to commend both of you and the members of your committee. You are one of the most effective but quietest committees we have in Essex Junction, but your work is really important and it's noticed. So I just really want to thank you for that. And I love the tree contest and I really hope you do it again. That's so much fun. That's great. Just fall again. Great. Appreciate the comment. Yes. I walk on Cushing Drive all the time and the ash trees are dropping branches by the arm load. And I don't know, is that an effect of the ash borer or are they dealing with another issue? But every one of those trees seems to be losing significant amount of branches at the moment. Cushing. It's down below, isn't it? It's you. Cushing's the one that's off of Levoie. Levoie, exactly. Those are Little Leaf Linden's. Those are Linden's. Yes. Oh, interesting. Yeah. So you don't have to worry about emerald ash borer on there. That's great. But they appear to be. They seem to be immense. Yeah. Look at that. So those, the ones that are in the public right away on Cushing, we're going to start pruning those pretty soon. Because the neighborhood is called and wants them lifted, basically. Oh, good. So that they're up a little bit, you know, and they're not in front yards and they're not, you know, the people that maintain, got a mow under them, that kind of thing. Yeah. So, yeah. But they did plant, like, on the side that it's ours, there's 20 of all the same kind of tree. So anyway. No one seemed to have seen the memo about Dutch alms. They were like, way back, man. Yeah. Yeah. So you're not consulted as much as you'd like to be. They are now. They are now. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, that's pretty much what I had. Okay. Really a question. So if a resident has ash trees on their property and they're looking like they think they have EAB or they want to be proactive about it. So they call the city and they ask for, like, who can help me with this? And then you come out, inspect the tree, and then give them a suggestion, suggested plan. Like, do they have, they cover the cost of removing the trees and all that kind of thing? If it's on private property, we would be like technical advisors to that. And would, yeah, I wouldn't mind going out and checking. Just cause I'm curious now that I know what's there. And I know there's private trees on Hayden street right now that are infected. And, you know, they're, they're in decline. I would think the homeowners would know that, but it's going to spread. Yeah. So the larvae will hatch in early June. And then they'll go out and feed you. They're hardly noticeable feeding on the leaves. But then when it's time to lay the eggs on the trees, boom, they go in and then the whole process starts. And it just keeps going. Yeah. Is there state money to help homeowners remove these? Because the tree removal is not very expensive. Yeah. They're in this particular grant. There is not, they don't provide money to remove trees on private property. However, there is room in the grant to allow planting on private property. However, I mean that's in the future. Should we, if that money continues to become available and the money that they're getting is coming from the federal government. And if we should get another grant next year, I mean, these options are going to be open because if that whole area gets devastated, you're talking, you know, like I said, there's still over a hundred trees down there to come down. And that's private and public. So if you say, okay, like there's 60, 70 trees all coming out of homeowners front yards. You know, I mean, some people that we've talked to would like a tree back and some would prefer not. So we work with them. And some have been proactive already on their own trees and remove them and planted on a few occasions, but I think they're seeing a lot more activity in terms of public parks and what we're doing that. And the PR that we've tried to do. Is there anything else? Just general question again, in order to continue to support, because I agree with what Elaine said, but to continue to support your committee, is there anything else that you would ask from us or whether it's in connection with us, communication with us? Is there anything else that we could do to help support your efforts? Some more youth volunteers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now just having your support. As city counselors and from city staff. Helps because I mean, there will become, you know, we're going to need financing down the road as well, but we're trying to keep those costs to a minimum by getting grants by, by branch out Burlington allows to grow trees up there. We get them a lot less expensive, you know, but you never know what's going to happen. So yeah, your support knowing that we can come to you and say, you know, what our scenario is, what, what our needs are, you know, you've been great so far listening and understanding. And we do appreciate that. Yeah. Um, I got distracted by something that just happened. So I apologize for that. I lost my train of thought, but we're really appreciate to go. Oh, I know what it was. I was thrilled to hear about the, uh, sorry, thrilled to hear about the coordination with the planning commission. I was on bike walk for quite a while and, um, and was often frustrated lack of coordination between, you know, like we often felt would be great to be consulted on some of these projects that were being proposed. And we would take it upon ourselves to look and then try to provide the feedback. So I'm really glad it's working out that the coordination is happening with the planning commission. Oh, it's great for us. Cause we're between the two of us, we're able to comment on most, any one of the, the, the all say the bigger projects. So you also with DRB or. I was going to say, it probably is the DRB. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now we have a DRB. Yay. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's with, it's with them and on the projects. It's, it's challenging definitely in the. Five corners area. Just because of the lack of real estate and the footprints of the buildings. So, but we are trying to push. Or what the community is asked for that to. Incorporate some green infrastructure. Yeah. As much as possible. Yeah. Just reminded me that that sandwich, but I'm really good. And a green spit. I'm sorry. That's cute. Well, thank you for both. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for the work. Yeah. Appreciate it. So sorry about that. I'll just call you back. I'll just do a quick review. Uh, five C too. Lincoln remodel update and discussion. Arlen. Please join us. Yeah. I had it all set up. Are you on 31 or. Or 30. Or do you go to four. I went to the overview. Okay. I think that's floor. Floor one. As just as I can say. I'm sure as you read through the memo that we originally started out with our original scope for the building and to address a lot of needs and then after going through the first estimate and Taking a look at the cost of what the project was going to be we adjusted the scope a little bit and Discovered some needs that also needed to be added to the scope and we went out for an estimation for a second round and That estimation has come back to us and we are still looking at Possible changes in the scope in order to reach the original target that we were tasked with to stay within budget and then In the packet we've given you a lot of the comparisons And we wanted to bring it to your attention and we are looking for your input as we start to look at some of the recommendations in order to reduce the project To try to fit within the target that we have put out to the architectural and engineering team and the build team I don't know If you would like me to describe any more detail or if you had a chance to look through the material that we provided And start asking some questions and Maybe providing us some input I could give you since I'm closest just a real quick little overview just so you to remind everybody where we're at with the design itself so We are looking at First floor We are right here In the conference room right now. So this is the main door that you access from the back parking lot here So A component is building a new vestibule on the outside of this Entry way so that this becomes a much nicer entry entry way It also much like we're trying to solve in the library the snow falling off the roof problem There's snow falling off the roof right here. So this helps with that You come into the lobby and essentially this is a much more open space And you've got a counter that you can talk with the clerk right here And a counter that you can talk with the assistant zoning administrator right here Um, this hallway opens back up and essentially on this side, you've got assistant clerk city clerk Uh, conference room area space for the title searches that uh, where the vault is right here Then down on this side, you kind of keep with the community development team As zoning administrator city planner community development director Uh, manager is in the back where I used to be over there. Um I'm an assistant here. So what kind of really changes here is the stairwell goes to the back corner And that goes all the way down to the basement and all the way up to the second floor um If you come this way towards the conference room, what's happening is we're putting an elevator right across from the existing staircase A bathroom here This becomes the hallway into the senior space here with another bathroom there And then this becomes another um Sort of open space that could be used for a variety of things more than likely storage Yeah, uh The tables and chairs and programs as we continue to move through the multi-purpose spaces gotcha And this as I see it on the screen is the 2.9 part of the second estimate Total project 2.9. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, these are the 50 construction drawings that we're looking at Right, right. Yeah, I just wanted to not I just wanted to Make sure that I was clear on that since below that it's it starts to acknowledge things like taking out the festival Right. So I just want to make sure that Yes, I'm looking at this Okay, so this is the second floor. Um, so main state staircase here And the new staircase in the back corner here so Down this corner now That uh, traditionally was the teen center space. We now at this very day We have 3 city offices up here in this space right now It's where the finance team is and then the teen center is in the back here And then the teen center is in the front and The big big room Over there that we're not touching in this process Um, so the changes again that you see the elevator comes up here next to the staircase There are 2 bathrooms here The kitchen area which is right now in the bigger space in the teen center comes forward onto this side a Stove is added in this space The doorway between the old building and the new Well, the 2 different parts of the building really moves over here Because if anybody's been up there right now, if you try to walk from here to there, you walk right smack into a pole Um So that's what's going on there. This kind of gets cleaned up in terms of what's going on in there. Um So this becomes a usable space this becomes a usable space for the teen center Teen center offices here Then you come to a door And then these are other city office spaces up here a bathroom And a staff break room So there is segregation between Staff our staff and the teen center more public area access Yeah, presumably swipe card kind of locked areas that Okay, yeah and the Just again, so I just so there's three teen center offices And then one community and then one larger space for the teen center along with the activity space Yes, correct. Okay, and then the rest of them. So finance is being moved to the to that back staircase. Okay. Yeah, got you Finance is that large lower area there Um to the left of that is the employee break room right there strategic Or I'm sorry communications is the office next to that Go ahead And then there's a small conference room just off from the stairway And then we have those three additional offices on the back wall One of those is hr already designated hr And then I believe the other two are will be Filled with some of the other positions depending how the city tends to move forward um Okay So, yeah, that's that's essentially the overview. Um, there are some other things going on in the basement including Already starting on this right now actually trying to move all the server equipment into one particular space That's in a better space that can better access everything Oh, this foreskin is so crunchy Juiced in 9 11 Juiced up baby penises breadluker mocha Ursula if we could get them out of the meeting There's three of them Once again, we apologize for the vile and inappropriate comments Thank you Is set a waiting room Amber could you let us know if you can hear us? In the corner of the big screen up there. It looks like we are muted and Yep, there. Oh see I Yep, sorry one second. I have to just remember how I do I'm gonna make you co-host Amber can you hear us now? Amber or anybody out there actually can you hear us? I'm waiting for communicating with Amber She can hear us She can yeah, okay great Yeah I asked her to message if she wants to speak Okay But those are the floor plans Yes, um Did you want to go into I'll just do a quick rundown of first scope What we remove Second scope and what the recommendations are? Yeah, that's great But the first scope of the of the project was self-grade to building the three-phase power Relocate the generator add the elevator address lobbying services uh to the residents address public bathrooms and meeting spaces um address office space layout security workflow and efficiency Um HVA systems to provide air exchange, which the building Um does not have at the moment We look to put the HVAC system to the roof at that point Um to maintain the storage space that we have down in the basement um, and then We we're trying to accommodate the teen center needs as we were going to need to take over some of their space as we move forward When they came back with the first estimate that were We were outside of our target, um financially and they did some um Value engineering, which is they came back to us and said that you can do things differently and that we recommend that you remove some of these items Um, which then brought us to our second scope. We removed a lot of those items Still didn't get us into our target range, but got us Very close and then we were going to try to get into our target range with our scope um, so the second scope we took the um HVAC units off from the roof and put them into the basement um We left the power as single phase Um instead of changing it over We changed some aspects to the lobby um We reduced the vestibule which was originally three bays. Um Created a nice little mean uh meeting space out there. We changed that fact down to one We added a sewer line lining which we have discovered that two Lincoln needs to have And address the teen center types of flooring and address some door replacements Um that the architect had In the first scope drawn into the first scope To try to reduce the cost even more and then we've gotten our second estimate back And that's where we're at and we've provided that document of The items that we pulled out and then now The value engineering or the second estimate of 321 24 as you go down through there and then they They have come back with some value engineering now in the process Of them doing their estimate We gave them a scope because at that point we knew what our Out of pocket costs were going to be And we gave them a scope within a 200 000 range And in the process of them estimating it they left some things they knew that they were we were already outside of that range So there were a few items that they didn't put in so that's why you'll see That in the estimate zone Three heating system for the teen center or the hvA system for the teen center Wasn't even in the final estimate because they knew they were already outside of our target um So, okay You go So That's where we're sitting and this is Where we would like your input or comments or direction or Um Can I just say one more thing please? Yes. So yeah Where we're at today, which you can see from the uh cost estimate. We're about 350 000 dollars off We are in a scenario where we're just at 50 construction drawings and it's all estimates Nothing's gone out to bid to get any real actual dollar amounts What we felt like when we started to see the second round of reductions from The construction manager is we are just like nicklin and diming these things and trying to pull pull out some stuff that um Starts to really I mean we're already in the first stage. We took out some things that feel like We don't want to take those out and now we're like um sort of struggling with that a little bit so basically, uh, we're um Moving forward without taking that second round of stuff out because it's just a little too piddly And we just really want to see what the actual cost estimate is once the once we go out to bid What we'd love to know from you folks is if there's anything that is already kind of removed in that first bucket that gives you like Really struggle with that and you want us to include it back in the project Just knowing that we are going to have to figure out Where that money comes from um, and there aren't really a lot of great sources so just Love to hear the feedback in terms of whether You do want us to just continue to try to cut or we'll go out to bid We'll see where it's at and some of these things like the best of yule Can be put in as an alternate So we kind of get what that cost amount is and we can bring it in if we can afford it and the rest of the dollars Come in under so just so great. So just so i'm clear and Once again, I've already talked about this once today, but I just want to make sure i'm clear um We are looking at the first In this chart on packet page eight We're looking at the first section Stuff is that that's what you're asking us, right? But it looks like in the second at the second estimate includes Removing the best of yule period Correct, that's one of the recommendations of the value engineering right now is to remove Invest of yule as a total And only report the sidewalk that is currently out there The doorway would get replaced um But the best of yule itself would Would not be there um, I guess that you know as we as we start to talk about this, um, I think I always assumed this would be an evolving process and we were Starting with the ARPA money we had and some incredibly rough estimates on how much a renovation would be And you know in my head at least understanding that this was going to have to evolve in the real world In terms of how much everything was going to cost um I'd sort of like us to take the approach that we're We're trying to do this in a way that we don't have to return and do it again um that you know We might need to be open and to to try to figure out how to find some more money So that we don't have to make this level of compromise on a renovation for For this building. So I just wanted to kind of start there that Hopefully This is more than we thought it would be but I think we need to be open to some of this still needs to be done so we're not returning With the troubled entrance for interest for instance, um We're sort of having that conversation with the brenda library entrance right now, right? So It seems that we would knowingly Leave that off if it weren't all possible to do it. Um I mean, I I'll start I I just think way up at the top and the early stages. I was a big I was a proponent of having public restrooms. I don't know that just seems completely out of the question at this point um but I still think it's important. Um I've heard from business owners downtown that think it's very important because right now they are the public restrooms um So that's something I still think is Pretty important. Um any of the items that um Reduce our efficiency long term from a Utility point of view. Um, I think personally or a priority, you know, making sure we're we're not Shooting ourselves in the foot. Um In that regard, um So, you know the shifting around at the age, I don't know anything about this stuff, right? So, you know just saying that out loud But um, I don't know how much of a compromise it is Except for space to put to put it in the basement or to not, you know, stick with natural gas versus trying to do some heat pump work Um, you know over the next 20 years Are we going to save enough? Going the more expensive route now Do you know what I mean? Are we going to pay more over the life of this period? Um, and just having that information might be You don't have to come back to us with it, but I mean just that's kind of where I'm thinking. Um And I'm also curious It's hard to tell from this list How much extra cost Having the space available for the teen center is adding to this so trying to figure out what That component is As we look forward to continuing to host that And what is that taking away from the overall project and what we're able to do? Um for me, that's a consideration um And it looks like it's been recommended. You said the sewer line needs lining and it looks like it was recommended that could come out Um, but I know we're doing that work around the city. So I'm assuming that Yeah, so I mean, I don't know if that can be done from the you know public from the capital budget for that program um The other thing, you know, like looking at this list, you know, they've removed um Restoration repair for windows I don't know if that's something that would already have to be done with the building If it wasn't being renovated anyway like a down the line as a capital expense It's yeah, it's That gets into the efficiency pieces that you were talking about so obviously as you're in construction and You're ripping off some trim work and so on and so forth and you're right there That's the time to really try to seal some things up. Um I think most of you may be aware that tool linkin went through a energy audit today and We will get that report back in a couple of months through the municipal energy resilience program that the state has put forward And we are going to try everything that we can to incorporate all that information the the timings of those two The our progress and the state program We think that it will be Some good information for us to utilize We're just not we're sure where it's going to fall on our schedule And how much of it we can really jump jump on and implement, but we're definitely going to try it's it's part of our plan And then I guess, you know, what to do with the The stuff at the very bottom of the chart that's important but not really included Which is about a hundred thousand dollars, which is yeah, which are some wishlist items that were um relayed to us early on in the project that Yeah, those are my thoughts right now. I know we can go around the room. Um I'm sure some conversation might trigger more anybody else want to chime in I just think once this goes out to bid for a preliminary estimate It's going to be higher and then there's going to be more to cut out Yeah, so you're more hopeful that the market is really weird. We are we are never going back to pre-covid We are no longer in covet but there was a time where As we were coming out of covet and some of the prices changed a little bit labor was a big issue We are seeing in some of the trades Where it looks like they've been able to get their labor and there is more competition and In a couple of areas there has been some areas seen And that's why we've decided to go full forward into guaranteed maximum price Because until we know that right, that's what that that is is if we can get to that point They were like this construction project is not going to cost you anymore right now where It's estimates were plus or minus 20 plus or minus seven seven Until we get to that guaranteed maximum price We really don't know what our true costs are and that's why we haven't Changed anything as we Even though they've done the value engineer and made some recommendations We've asked our team to get us to a hundred percent Construction drawings with the scope remaining the same so that we can get to that get guaranteed maximum price Which should be our true cost Um But I I agree with you We feel that the numbers aren't going to change a lot But that we're still in that probably that 2.9 area My next question is Where is that money? Where does the gap come from? We struggled with the budget process to reduce it by a mere 0.4 So I'm really not sure where the money's going to come from to cover that gap. There is only one place What The one place if we are successful at the getting the library grant Right now in that building maintenance fund 300 000 is for that library roof and project we In that grant application we committed a hundred a thousand of that still to that project in hopes that we can make ourselves more competitive Because like wendy was saying we don't hit some of those targets. We're not low income and so It it's might be tricky for us to get that but Um So that would be um, I forget the exact exact numbers, but 200 000 ish that we would be able to use for this project Um, so that's an opportunity like harlan was just saying the other energy municipal grants that are coming from the state They're just like It's really taking a long time with that program. Um It will come with the same stipulations that we are not in the low income category And so it may also be difficult to get those funds, but you know, some of these things like if we were to go um to heat pumps um, it's probably not a complete redesign We just are able to fit that equipment in if we can get that state funding program to actually help us do that um So some of these things are workable some of those things on that bottom list that you're talking about Those don't get done right away. Those don't get done right away. We've sort of figure them out down the road um So those are the kinds of things that feel like it makes sense to sort of move forward get that 100 estimate And then we can kind of tweak a little bit as we as we go um And then lot fund really would be the only other right. I think that's the only the only bucket that's left place Yeah, Andrew I was just going to say that outside the local office there isn't another source that exists to to tap into In terms of what is a priority or is not a priority in all honesty I would look to those of you who spend the most amount of time in here as to what you all need to be able to do your jobs most efficiently and effectively Because frankly from my perspective here, that doesn't really impact us all that much So what you all need to do your jobs should be more important If there are opportunities to get Uh estimates on some of these where they are optional estimates so that we don't necessarily need to Commit to that. That sounds great The only other thing that this says to me as well Is a need for next year to rush the conversation on our future building needs and in particular the fire department public works Have the community conversation about going out for a bond sooner rather than later And having a small portion of that as a part of this project as well I'm gonna move that up I would like to say that, um, I think the things that are that are not included Are things that I would say I would really like to have included. I don't want to see omitted I mean, I think for our commitment to community engagement and the need for safety and security I think we need those particular items um I'm a little concerned about taking the vestibule off the off the list because of You know what I've heard from the the need and again safety in that particular corner um And this is me kind of you know having looked this over and thank you Here we are nickel and diming but Like the car charging station is that like is that an opportunity for revenue into the city? Or is that it was the intention of having a car charging station in sight just therefore free public use or Employees that's a revenue generator. They're not free Um, I don't know if we get anything from it, but doesn't the state have grant programs for ev chargers Yeah, so that's um What we were thinking too with that is at the very least we because they're going to be sort of opening things up and Redoing some of the electric on the back end of the building just put the condo in it in for now while they're doing that and then we Yeah, see that's definitely a thing that the state's got grant funding for right now that we could do that Um, I don't know that we've thought far enough in advance in terms of operationally how that works um and if We could put a little surcharge on it. Yeah, that would be my question. I mean again, I don't I agree with you I don't think it necessarily needs to be a priority For this moment I like the idea of having it ready to go in case we decided to go that direction But it would be a question line. It's whether or not it would be an opportunity for revenue generation by having Charging station here. I was actually I was I was a little caught off guard that the charging station was even into the plan Because it wasn't something that we had put into the original scope And I believe what was explained to me is that there is a A new law or public parking lots if you are remodeling or re-changing your public parking lot There's some sort of a requirement and I believe that's why the architects had one placed into the scope Because there was some look at doing a lot of work to our parking lot Um, especially with the new vestibule Almost a third of that parking lot gets regraded a little bit and changed And there may be a requirement that we have to have on there has been a discussion of at least putting the infrastructure Conduit in the general area of where it would go and get hooked up So if it is something that is added later, it would be an easy add the infrastructure To drop it in place would be there So we're trying to be as creative as we can To make sure that If we do have to back a lot of this stuff out, we're trying to make sure that it's stuff that We don't have to rip off a bunch of new stuff that we just did to do it. Of course Let me check Amber She can raise her hand. Okay So and also when you're ready for it anybody at home can raise their hand and I can unmute them. Okay Great chat was to say anyone else How does that sound Regina and Harlan So I believe what you have just Asked us to do is to continue with the scope like we have continued at 100 get to the guaranteed maximum price Was there some thought that we wanted to review some of the items that we had already removed out of the scope as alternates out of the first area right and we just to be just to be very clear that The items under first estimate 11 16 20 23. Is that what you're referring to correct? Yes We were I believe um Window rest on repair you that was you wanted us to look at that if possible I it just seems That's a big amount So I understand why it's on the list. Yep, but And I think that's more of a question for the board, you know I think once we start hitting anything over the five or ten thousand dollar level We have to have a conversation about whether we're going to actually find funding, right? I think that's the reality. So, okay, you know once we start saying we insist on the best appeal and we want the rest Oh done Um, we're really talking about we're willing to talk about finding funding from the local option tax fund or something So it's been perfectly transparent. I think that's it sounds like that's what we're saying, right? So Um, I guess I'd put it back to the group and say, you know, what's the How strong do we feel about any of those items in there? Can I give a little bit of feedback to that before you before you have that conversation? So please those items can be we can go back to the team and those can be alternate ads in the bidding process All right, so we could say The the bid would be replace a mechanical heating system to natural gas And an alternate ad would be to use the type of equipment that would incorporate a heat pump with inside of it so we would kind of You would get your heating system for this cost if you add The heat pump system to it so we can do those things. So again with a window restoration as well Um, that could potentially be an ad that we ask our team to put into the bidding process that says There's 37 windows and doors or whatever the case may be um And we want to make sure that the rough opening area of those windows are being sealed and airtight So we can add those as ads Okay, so if if those are two items that you're concerned with we will look at how to Do an alternate ad bid Where then we can go and come back to you and say This is a guaranteed maximum price if we add these items these are going to be the additional cost over and above that Do you think those two particular items are worth worrying about? Or we're doing that I would do that process for I was pleasantly pleased with Some of the information that I got out of the energy audit without actually getting a report back I think we're aware that most of the windows have been replaced So the windows themselves are doing pretty well, but the rough opening in behind some of the trim work around those windows is not holding up that well or or did not stand up all that well, but the building overall In a lot of the areas that work has already been done Actually turned out it was a bit of a surprise that it was good There were a lot of things that I think we knew that were not a surprise that will Will be addressed at some point, but I think it's worth Having it out there as as as an additional add potentially It's over the long term. It's a money saver, right if we're not pushing heat outside in the middle of winter Then our gas prices are we're not spending as much trying to eat the building so Yes, what are we losing harland by going from a three phase power to a single phase? um So this is Where I get technical because it's only how I understand it Um or or how to describe it And I think everybody knows that within electricity that there is what's referred to as ambridge, which is heat resistance And the more resistance that you have The more power you're burning Going to a three phase system instead of provide instead of everything drawing off from One or two lines some of your heavier equipment can draw off from three Individual lines of power coming in It runs cooler runs with less amperage Draws less power over the life of the unit So that would be your elevator your hvac components of those types of And then distributing the load throughout three legs of power coming in We're probably going to have three or four 200 amp electrical panels to wire the whole building. We're sitting at three right now um So then you've got those three different legs and you can try to balance your loads So that you're not Drawing power all from one leg and creating a lot of resistance and costing more money on the end So there's there's an energy efficiency to it It's not massive. It's not like heat pumps and solar panels and Um, but there is longevity in the equipment um So there there's it's there's a balance there, but for the For the exuberant amount that we would have to pay to bring three phase in there because we run a generator system It's payback to go to a three phase It's probably 50 to 100 years So that's why i'm saying there's not there's not a massive benefit to going to three phase So increasing the having the mechanical like adding the elevator, for example That's not going to put an undue burden on the single phase No, they they design it. Um, so the motor is it's specifically designed to run off from a single phase Yes, it's going to draw more power than a three phase would And it's going to run a little bit slower that some of the trade-off that you get going to a single phase In a building like this, you're never going to notice it in a 15th story building. You would notice it Um, it'll go to the basement too. So it's free free And then the same thing with the heating system, you're not you're not going to notice any difference within the building Longevity of the equipment Slightly so there's The the three phase power was not a hard one To walk away from So my thoughts are I kind of agree with a little bit of everything that everybody said Um But I agree if we can do some alternate ads and add-ons to the bid Just to get an idea as to what we might be potentially looking at before we decide totally to strip things out That's great. If we can do it Um, I also would add that when we're looking at like changing and removing things that we should be focusing on Our overall plans for the city including the energy plan and the land development code And I do think that there are a couple of those things that are are tagged by the heat pumps for example And um and the car charging station. I know there's a current discussion going on at the planning commission level about car chargers. So, um I would just keep those things in mind, but I I I definitely uh trust that Staff is looking at what they they need long term That makes sense to everybody Yeah, we're good. Yeah all right, so I think I should know this but when wind would be here On the next step after this. What's the next? Um full cds. We are hoping by 4 23 or 4 26 about a month um Going out to bid I think it was I think they were telling us that they thought that they could start getting A lot of that to go out to bid in may Yeah mid-may Hopefully and have the answers back shortly after that. Yeah, hopefully early june Okay. Yeah, I think We're we're more than likely going to have another meeting with the full team Within a week as they're we we did receive some other information to it's Everything's rapid fire right now since we moved into the direction that we have and there's some clarification that I I think we're going to want And we wanted to get this meeting and your input And I think we'll probably have a full meeting with the team and I believe Regina and I would be able to put better dates To give you that answer that you just for the question you just asked. All right, great Thank you Thank you. Thanks appreciate it Thanks Dottie If there's um anyone on uh zoom right now, um that does want to Um make a comment. Please raise your hand. We'll unmute you one at the time Due to what happened earlier. So we'll You're from Dottie. Just please Dorothy Birkenball First of all, I do not envy you This is this is So it explains to me some of what is going on I am I'm concerned as a person who uses the senior center Because among other things Regina didn't even mention the senior center while she was pointing at the schematic And the seniors are wondering what is going to happen to physically happen to the senior center with this process And I now know why we aren't being told because you don't know I'm here to ask for a little bit for an attempt to get more information to the seniors We've been told that we have to move out at the end of april And is that really the case? With what's going on with the estimates and the bids and the stuff and Yes, what changes are going to be made to the space When we come back And that's the questions that um, I want you to consider having answered There's going to be some kind of meeting next month with the rec department But that assumes that everybody is going to come to one meeting And I don't know whether that so I think I don't think anything I think we've we've communicated what was going to be done with the space And a and a time to move out. I don't think any of that has changed because of this But I'll let Regina If you have if you want to read well, are you going to need to move into the space in may to use it as office space? That's what we were told so we Have set out a schedule so that everybody could properly plan because this is a lot of staging and moving And so the city offices will move into that senior space during the renovation Yes And we also have a level of Contaminant work that will happen before we even ready to start construction in this part of the building That I'm to allow myself to be able to set up for the office to be able to move into it So I've requested that time that timeline and everything that The city is planning for that space is tempered We'll go and we'll set up our own spaces all of that temporary stuff will come out If recreation is speaking to something different Um, that would be up to them, but there are no plans Here at this point to make any major changes other than potentially upgrades I did hear that the kitchen may get upgraded the kitchen area. It's not going away, but it may be upgraded I did hear a rumor with that conversation going on but as far as this plan that's going on Everything we do in there is going to be temporary When this building is completed the city is going to move back out Okay, thank you. Sure And we are working on figuring out Where we host the senior activities In the renovation time and so that's also in the works We'll be coming to the council as soon as we've got that sorted out and we'll be sure that the seniors says Thank you. Thanks. Is there anyone Else online That has a comment on this I am not seeing anyone All right, so we'll come back to everybody here. So it sounds like we're We're good to go on this No, we're doing great All right So we'll move on to 5d discussion consideration of green mountain transit funding support So on this agenda topic, we added this on monday. So that's why you got the revised packet. Um, so essentially Try to summarize So gmt For the last couple of years has been Working with a lot of the sort of ARPA and one time funds that have been coming down to help Manage their operations. They've also Like lots of folks been experiencing a lot of increased costs And what they are kind of coming up against is a issue in f y 25 a real real issue in f y 26 if there isn't sort of a resolution to how to Fill some funding gaps for them Um Collectively the state has been putting some thinking into How to fill the gaps in the transportation fund for a number of years as we've seen that Revenue source from the gasoline tax Go down And how do we kind of make up for that? in other ways and Either through registration tax on electric vehicles or a mileage tax on electric vehicles That said There are a lot of needs in the transportation fund not necessarily just the public transportation Needs and so, uh There's just a couple of different things kind of going on here and challenges happening gmt held a meeting on monday afternoon for The legislators as well as invited Municipal folks just to get an understanding of what's going on But really their ask at this point in time is to the state legislature to try to help them Both in f y 25, but also more more long term going forward Burlington city council has uh Approved a resolution the draft was in your packet. I understand shelburn Select board is working on a letter as well. So we thought we just wanted to bring it to you folks if you want to write a letter to the to our reps and just express support of gmt's asks or Whatever other points you want to make in the letter then we can take your comments get it into a letter and Raj consign it if that's what you would like to do So I I think starting um, I think the Resolution Burlington had was a good starting point to pull some items out. I think gmt's talking points were excellent um I don't have that in front of me so I can zoom but I think you know my overall my personal overall point would be this just goes with with the this sort of speaks to the Focus we've had to make our community more welcoming to more housing and more residents We are on one of the if not the busiest route And All of our planning and everything that the state is asking communities like ours to take on requires this investment And I I would just say we'll we'll continue to make those points in this letter and try to lobby As much as we can. I just don't understand. I understand it's complex More complex than I can I know about right now, but it This just feels frustrating when um It almost feels like these things aren't thought through when You know things like s100 come down last year and they say take on this take on that build higher build more We still can't figure out how to fund public transportation, but you know, you don't need parking so I think it'd be a good good exercise for us a good a good Effort and if anybody has anything specific they want they want in there Let us know Um, I would like to remind folks of the last time GMT considered changing route two, which is the second most popular route. It goes out to the town um, they did a public hearing here in this room and 30 or 40 people showed up and Were very vocal about how much they need route two and um, I remember at the time I can't remember the name of the gentleman who was here, but he's I up in green mountain transit um, told us it was the most um significant public feedback they'd have in a term that they'd never had a turnout like that for a hearing and um I just think if they Just being specific to the route that goes through our community that that we would have even more people And that group and a similar group that came to the town select board. Um, I went with them to Green mountain transit to a board meeting with a petition To ask them to keep route two open and they did So, um, I think the town of Essex has a serious, um, um Should have a serious role in this also Um And I don't know if we want to partner with them on, um, a letter to our entire delegation the sx station I'd also recommend that And they may be thinking about this at GMT, but we should be reaching out directly to the transportation committees and both the house in the center They were the chairs were at this meeting yesterday. Okay. Monday. Sorry. Yeah, so they both Were fully engaged and explained what they're thinking about from both of their committees And again, the big challenge is the overall gap in funding in the transportation fund In addition to the specific public transportation issue, but yeah, I mean, I I'm all for In addition to creating this letter creating a call to action that we can push out as a city on front porch farm And one of our other channels and give people quick information on how they can Then do what happens the, you know, basically do what we get. Yeah, you know, if you're concerned about this Contact so and so here's a link, you know, here's some talking points. Here's what we've sent out and And in our position, correct, right? And I think You know, they've You know that route you're talking about is down to an hour between it's almost useless and um, we have so many people dozens and dozens of people here that rely on the Essex Junction to Burlington route just to get to the hospital daily and back to work. So Yeah, so I think if we can do if we can repurpose the letter to then be a call to action for For the community I think we may be underestimating the number of residents that don't have cars Yeah That live close to the bus line on purpose I'd be curious. I mean, I can do this on my own But I'd be curious to reach out to community health center who we now host And ask them if they have a bead on how many people use public transportation to get to them because if they're coming from outside of Essex Junction They have to and they don't want to walk from the rail from the railroad station basically They're switching the bus and that is an hour wait if they just get you know It's an hour between those buses just to go out Main Street. So if they're ADA challenged and can't make that hoof from railroad street to Dense more than they're waiting an hour. Um, so Yeah, maybe I'll do that anything else Nothing specific if there's anything if you think of anything just email one of us and yeah Cool, make sure you've seen this forward Yeah And we need a board member for gmt Is anybody out in the community that would like to do that any of our current board members Like to uh They do like to send emails they do there's a lot of even after you result. They're a good bunch Clayton's fantastic, um All right, I don't where was the shore real? We should prep him on when their meetings are and just double check. We'll we'll connect. Yeah, let's connect People talk to your people talk to them Yeah, it's like it is That's why the embers not All right, there's no result. There's no motion needed for this, right? Um So I think we can move on to so you're gonna come back at the next meeting With this or are you looking for us to authorize you to sign something? No, there's a recommendation Um looking for you to authorize me to sign something so it looks like there would be a motion I'll just pull it back up page 72 I'll go ahead and move that the city council authorize the city council president to sign a letter on our behalf asking the chitin county state Representatives and state senators to support the recommendations of the report on funding sources or public transit non-federal match into the transportation bill a second Great motion is second all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye The motion passes. I'd also add that we might want to loop CCRPC into this communication I think it's really important that they are Great Um, I know we just did the motion if there's anyone online raise your hand if you have any comments There's no one in the room. So we're just going to go straight to zoom. We'll give that a second folks Joining us tonight have any comments on that? I'm not seeing any raised hands. So we will move on to Consent agenda do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda? So move Second Great all those in favor say aye. Aye. I'm going to assume amber Can't unmute so I said aye. Okay. I didn't hear you before um Motion passes Council member comments and manager report Just go for it. Sure Um, so just so folks know um on the day of the eclipse the City offices and the library will be closing at noon on that day. So Um, if you need to do any city business that day, please come in the morning Um, we also have eclipse glasses here at the clerk's office as well as the library So please keep coming in to get your glasses um uh Some folks out in the community may be getting a letter from msk engineers. Um, this is about the lead service line inventory So please do pay attention to that. It's not a scammy kind of letter It's definitely a letter. We would love you to pay attention to Um, really this is uh an effort that s extension is doing as well as rest the municipalities in the state and also Nationally to try to identify if there are any uh lead service lines so we can ultimately figure out how to get those removed and that and that is also a 12 or 14 inch tall door hanger that's laminated. It says msk that looks like an ad but it is actually real. Yeah, so great Um, and harlan already mentioned this but if you did drive By on pearl street today and saw two lincoln. We had the big red thing in the front door That was part of our Blower door test to do an energy audit for here for this building So it's probably a little shocking to see but that's what you know, there wasn't any flood damage or anything going on in here. That's Yeah That's it for me Great. I don't have anything right now. Other than to say once again We are Very sorry about the comments that were made earlier in the meeting I can assure the community that we are spending an awful lot of time consulting with Montaliga cities and towns our attorney town meeting tv The anti-definition league to figure out What we are allowed to do and not allowed to do in terms of restricting People's ability to speak in a public meeting. It's complex and we are actively working on this daily, so I'm just sorry about tonight. We're We'll try to figure this out And other than that If the motion to adjourn Second All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye All right Great motion meeting adjourned. Thank you. Thank you