 Welcome to Montpelier City Forum. My name is Richard Scheer and this is yet another in the series of television shows that we're doing on Town Meeting Day. And we're doing candidates. We have one good show coming up on the school budget that will be an hour long. We have another good show coming up on the city budget that will be an hour long. And those will also cover the articles on the ballot such as bonding. But tonight we're going into District 3 and we have a candidate here, Craig McDermott. Craig? Hi. How long you lived in District 3? I've lived in District 3 almost my entire life. I've lived in Montpelier my entire life. Where in District 3 do you live? Off of Berlin Street, Wilson Street. What's it like on the hill? We love it. It's a great neighborhood. Lots of young people and never had a complaint. Craig, District 3 is different than the other two districts which are kind of snakey and gerrymandered. District 3 has a lot more cohesion to it. Could you give us your sense of what District 3 really is? I think District 3 is different because it's got a whole bunch of different pieces to the town. I refer to it as a town. But the city in itself, in District 3 you've got business downtown. You've got a big piece of, I wouldn't call it a big piece, but you've got a piece of the business district downtown. You've got a bunch of neighborhoods. And then you have River Street and going up into national life in that area, it's just got a whole bunch of different pieces to it. So it is a different district. It's a very large district. A large portion of the population lives in District 3. There's a lot of renters in District 3, a lot of single family homes. And so, yeah, the population of District 3 is spread out in all directions. It's much different than a lot of the other areas. There may be more one family or two family households or renters specifically. District 3 has a little piece of everything going on. District 3, we've talked a lot in these sessions about downtown Montpelier. District 3 has a different business section that in a sense is perhaps neglected. How would you help that business district that's to the east of Dunkin Donuts and to the east of the Granite Street Bridge? That's part of District 3. That's a great question. I mean, I'm a big believer in incentivizing new business development and offering opportunity for businesses that exist in District 3 and even in the rest of the city. New opportunities, fresh chances to get out and develop and expand. And whether that comes in from a tax incentive or some other type of incentive, I think there's things we can do as council members to facilitate that growth. Now, you're knocking in the doors like everyone is in your district. Sure. What are you hearing from District 3 people? I'm hearing a lot of people complaining about snow removal right now, I think, in the condition of the roads, which I think that's just a result of the weather. As a matter of fact, I put out a bunch of flyers with surveys on them and I posted some surveys on Front Porch Forum and I've had a lot of response to that. What are you hearing from the surveys? We're getting responses from people concerned about traffic congestion. They're concerned about pedestrians being able to navigate the city safely. Specifically on Berlin Street, we've had some feedback about pedestrians being able to cross the street, lack of signage and a number of responses in regards to snow removal. And I think it's the timing, like I said, of me putting out these surveys, you know what I mean? Right. A couple of the times I put the surveys out there was some pretty good storms, so people might have been feeling the effects of those storms, but for the most part, people seem pretty satisfied with what's going on around here. I mean, we have a great city, you know? You grew up in this town? Absolutely. Okay, and you went to the schools? Yep. What kept you here? It's a great place. I left for college, but Montpelier has a quality of all of its own, as we all know, and we love it. What is it? It's a small town. If you were describing this to somebody who said, Craig, I'm thinking of moving my family here. Why should I move to Montpelier? I would ask them, you know, do you like Norman Rockwell? That would be my first question because the city is, you can pick any location in the city and picture a Norman Rockwell oil painting or a drawing. It's just, it's picturesque around here. It's beautiful. And the way of life is a very pristine, naturally awesome way of life. And I think that people that live here and grew up here specifically know that. One other thing is that the summers are amazing. You know, it's just, it's great to be here in the summer. You know, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I think people are crazy when they move to Florida or, you know, wherever else. It's just, why would you leave this place? The social environment is wonderful. People care about their backyards. They care about their neighbors. They care about their neighbors' kids. You know, I mean, it's just, it's a great community. And that's what makes Montpelier a great place to come. Now that we have the idyllic, let's move to the less than idyllic. Sure. And that's one of the systems that you see that you would like to see addressed and that's, that form the basis of your candidacy. Yeah. Yeah. So I think one big challenge we have as a city is affordability. How do you define affordability on the local level? Affordability is, you know, at Brass Tax, it's what it costs to live here, right? It costs to be a member of the community. How much is it going to take out of your wallet every week to operate and function within the town? And it's becoming more challenging for more people. I just had a lady who I didn't even tell. I was running for city council. She just came out and we were talking on the playground. I have a seven-year-old that goes to Union School. And she was talking to me about how she's going to leave when her kids get out of the school system because, you know, they can't afford to stay here and retire. And to me, you know, what we were just talking about are the qualities. Those qualities come right now at an expense. And it's a very expensive place to live. Property taxes are expensive. And right now with inflation and all the national issues we're dealing with, it just compounds into this very challenging situation for people to navigate on a daily basis around here. What levers does council have on that? You know, I think we can facilitate growth and make it a little bit more enticing for developers to come here. And I know some of this stuff is already in the works, you know. But we can make it more enticing for developers to come here and build high-density living areas. Were you following the master plan discussion? I was. It's hard not to because you've gone on and on. It's right here. It's gone on and on. It's right here in front of us. And I mean, if you're from here, you should pay attention to it. What was that discussion like from your perspective? Did it end up at a place that you felt comfortable with? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm comfortable with the way that Montpelier is operating right now. I like the direction we're headed. I think it's a great place. And I just think we need to do more to facilitate opportunities for people to come here and live and be able to afford to do so, you know. This can't just be a town for lawyers, doctors, and lobbyists. And the other challenge there is that we need to be able to provide middle-class jobs and an expansive job market, right, inside the city, inside the town that we are. The city councilors sit on commissions. They sit on boards. They also sit on agencies that are funded by the city. There's a councilor on the Kellogg Hubbard Library. There's a councilor on the Public Safety Commission. There's a councilor on Montpelier Alive. Sure. There's a councilor on the Economic Development Corporation. If you were on the Economic Development Corporation, what would you see? How would you see us economically developing in order to pick up a few more people in town in order to raise all boats and that sort of thing? Is there a direction that you have in mind for Montpelier 10 years from now or 15 if we were doing it right? I think there is. I think some of these parking lots that we have, and this is kind of along the Montpelier Alive purview and the net zero. Some of these goals are shared, as you know, by some of these groups and these initiatives that are already happening and rolling. I think we are headed in the right direction, so we can do a better job at facilitating some of those opportunities and maybe that comes from communicating and asking for more support from our state representatives, getting them more involved and trying to get it going on their level and communicating what we need from them to make it easier for our growth. What I was going to tell you is that some of these areas right now are just one level parking lots. To me, that's just a waste of space. We can put those cars just about anywhere, including in the development or below the development or above the development of those high density housing buildings which would offer ample space for some business as well. Those businesses would offer economic growth and opportunities for middle class families to come here, to live here affordably and hopefully stay here and add to the population. One of the things that the Economic Development Corporation has done is the distillery, the proposed distillery over on Berry Street and there's infrastructure going out to that, there's water, sewers and the like and that's a hop-a-skip and a jump from Sabin's pasture. What's your view on what's ultimately going to happen in Sabin's pasture? That's been a decade plus in discussion. Yeah, it's been a long battle and I understand both sides of it. To say that I have a future view for Sabin's pasture or a plan, I don't, I'll be honest with you. I think it's going to be hard for a developer to come in and work with that land. It's challenging land, right? But I don't think that it should just sit around and just be there. I understand people want to use it, right? But there are opportunities. We could have some green companies come in, some companies that are sustainably and responsibly based and they could do some really good things to that area. Not the entire area, but there's some area over in Sabin's pasture that could be used. I think, you know, I'm not opposed to that. The city budget, are there areas in the city budget where you could see adjustments that could be made, either investments that you think would help the city or areas where you think we could achieve greater efficiencies? I'm pretty comfortable with the city budget the way it is. I'm usually a supporter of the bonds. I have kids in school and I tend to be a supporter of the city budget. I think they do a good job in getting things done and allocating funds where they should be allocated. And I think that the city does a fairly good job of spending those funds. I think there are places we could find savings, I'm sure, as many municipalities are being forced to do with our current governor administration cutting back some of the school funding, it becomes harder and people are forced to make cuts or find savings on certain levels. But, you know, I think we do a pretty good job. We do a pretty good job. As we see the cuts, we're downstream from those cuts. They'll start in the federal level, they'll head down to the state level. Trickle down to us. Right, and then those cuts will trickle down to us. Do you see the city budget being expanded to take up those cuts? I don't. I tend to be dubbish on tax hikes and tax raises for the middle class and even the upperclass. I mean anybody really, tax hikes in my book are a negative thing. I do support the school bond this year, not just because I have a child, but because our last school bond is in the Delta period. It's retiring. What is your Delta period? It's retiring. So 20 years ago we took out a bond as a municipality and we've paid that bond off, so it's retired. And now we're, as a municipality, in need of some infrastructure changes around the city. And I'm in support of that bond for that reason. It's an important issue, I think. And taxes are an important issue, and you're right. The chain of command or the way that things really work right now, whether we like it or not, are that the cuts come from the top and they end up at the small, at the little guy. The typical story, as unfortunate as that is, we'll see what we're faced with as a municipality later on. I can't tell the future. I don't know what our challenges are going to be. So I don't want to say that the municipality may not ask for more money, because they may. But I'm committed to representing my constituents. And if they tell me that they're not into paying more taxes, that's probably the line I'll tell. What's the thought on, you're up the hill closer to the water treatment plant that I am down in the district to? What's the feeling on the methane project that would pick up the equipment to generate power? Exactly. It's a capital investment. Right, and I think it's a good one. I think opportunities like those are good for our city, our municipality, and our state, national ideology. I think it's a good project to look into. I don't know all the answers, and I don't know exactly how those things work, but I think alternative energy is a wonderful thing. I think it's a net positive for us as a community to get into them. You're pun intended. Right, exactly. Yeah, right. I think it's a really good thing for us to look into. Anything that is going to save us money is going to be healthier for us and greener for us is a wise decision. Everybody, all of these shows that I do have one commonality, and everybody's complaining about the infrastructure, and you had spoken before about people talking about the streets. Can we do more? How do you view our infrastructure issues? Are they just so overwhelming that you throw up your hands? Definitely we don't do that. Throwing up our hands is not the answer, but I think we're going to have to start if the cuts continue to come down from the federal level and they continue to put pressure on the state, and the state continues to put pressure on the municipalities as has been the direction of this administration and even at a state level, the administration. We're faced with the challenge of looking elsewhere and trying to think outside the box. It's going to be challenging as we advance, but I'm confident we can do it. The city council in March, once they're elected at the next meeting, they go on a retreat and Bill goes with them and Bill has his white board and they've put their objectives and their goals, and each councilor has the chance to put his or her goal and his or her mark on that board as to what they want to do. What would your one or two suggestions be that go on that board? What are your priorities? I think my first priority would be to make sure that the school infrastructure around the schools are okay and sound. Right now we have a huge challenge within our schools. But those are separate budgets and those are separate oversight. They are, they are, but just as a community member and a citizen, that would be on the list whether or not, you know what I mean, it would just be there. So you're talking about links, natural links between the city and the schools, such as recreation and things like that? All kinds, yeah. And you tend to see, there's more links between schools now than there was 30 years ago. And there's a lot of municipalities that are using school facilities like gymnasiums and stuff like that to bring in all kinds of business, and generate all kinds of traffic to the city. I think there's an opportunity for that. But to answer your question, I think a big goal of mine would be to fix infrastructure, I think, and to bring down affordability for people into attract middle-class families to the population of our town, our city. How do we deal with the social issue of, let's use opioids or mental health or any of those larger meta-issues that affect our city? How can we best handle that? Is there a better way of dealing with it than the way it's dealt with now? Or would you continue the current thing a little bit more? I think generally we're doing the best we can. These issues come down to a very finite difference, I think, in a lot of cases. There are differences between families and people and individuals. And I think we're doing a good job as a municipality at addressing a lot of these issues. They are very challenging. They're extremely costly in many cases and they're very stressful to the services that we have as a city. So we're doing a good job. I think our approach right now is a good one. I don't necessarily know that I would have any suggestions to change that at this point. I would have to confer with those and do that job on a regular basis and get a better feel for it. Farmer's market is moving up to State Street. For years it's been in that little nook next to Julio's. What's your thought on that? What's your thought on downtown development in the core downtown? The development in the core is a good thing. I think it's a great thing. And events like the farmer's market coming to State Street is a good thing. There's a lot more traffic into the core. And I think it gets people ready for a larger change that is eventually inevitable probably. What is that larger change that's eventually inevitable in our town? You've been in this town for your entire life minus college. I think that congestion and traffic has gotten to the point where we need to try to figure out alternatives around the downtown core. And whether that's closing off State Street or a portion of State Street or redirecting traffic and finding alternatives, at some point we're going to have to make some pretty big changes as a city to facilitate growth. Otherwise, our taxes are going to... How do we facilitate growth? I mean, you're looking at a line that from when you were young and Union Elementary has gone like this. In fact, you could even say you have kids in Union Elementary now. How many people were Union when you were? My grandmother went to Union. And I bet it was a lot more crowded when your grandmother went. How do we get more people into this town? In theory, we've got the housing stock. You've got elderly people who could be moving out and opening up houses for families. Sure, yeah. How do we entice those families? I think going back to incentives incentives for small business, incentives for businesses that can entice the wage opportunities. There needs to be opportunity here in the city in order for middle-class families to come here or families to come here in general. Boy, that almost sounds circular. You need families to come here to get the downtown moving. You need the downtown moving to get families. And they totally are interdependent. They depend on one another. So it's one of those things. And it's a challenge that we're working on. I think that the council has done a good job thus far. And a number of other people around the community are working very hard on this issue. But we have more work to do. And we could make it more business-friendly. I truly believe that without impacting the environment. How can we do that besides incentivizing? Is there anything else that you would do to help the business environment? Sure. I think that we could do a better job getting the city's name out. Advertising and marketing the city for what it is. A great, beautiful place to live. A wonderful place for businesses. A place with a lot of money. There's a lot of money here. And that's enticing to businesses. We don't necessarily need to have just tax incentives or tax breaks for businesses. We could be bringing businesses here just on the premise that our crime rate is next to nothing here. We have an extremely low crime rate on a national basis. That's one of those qualities. We have lots of opportunities here. We just need to do a better job talking about them out there and generating conversation about that, I think. You're the only candidate who's grown up here that I've talked to in this cycle. There's a lot of them that have lived here for a long time. Sure. You're children at Union. How is it different for them walking on Main Street and State Street than it was for you? Just what do they face? What kind of Montpelier are they facing that's different than when you went to Union? I would say that the city overall, the historic look of the city has not changed much. The social environment has changed greatly. I think that we've progressed a long way. And progressed in what ways? Positive growth. Positive. Good. Community connected. Just really... Are we an oasis in social discord around the country where communities have disintegrated in a sense? The sense of community? I think we are. I think for the most part Montpelier is still a community whereas other places are not. The quality of the city that makes us a wonderful place to live. We still have a sense of community. We still know each other. We can walk down the street and say hi to each other and know each other from a couple of days ago. Now, there might be a sense of, because we're so small and we have 7,000 people, roughly, that might be one of the reasons. But the other reason is that we care about each other. We go to each other's birthday parties. We go to each other's events. We're very good at networking and we stay connected. I think that's one of the things that they see that we may have even gotten better at than when I was younger. And that may have changed for the better. As far as the appearance of the city, it hasn't changed much. That's one of the reasons why I want to run is to see positive change in the city in some of these areas I saw knocked down when I was my son's age. They're still parking lots. They're still filled with 40 to 100 cars. And it's just a waste of space. It's a concrete desert. Why not throw up a building and offer business space there and affordable living space? Now, for someone who's lived here for this many years, I get the opportunity to ask a question. Sure. Which city council person, past or present, would you model your style after? You've seen so many city council people over the years. Is there one that sticks out in your mind as having a style that you felt really worked? I think personally, because of my age and when I started paying attention to city council, I think my favorite city council member is Justin. Justin Turca. Yes. Why Justin? Just because he's very active. He was on the... I'm forgetting the name of the... the board that he served on with corrections. Community Justice? Yes, Community Justice. There you go. Thank you very much. He was on the Community Justice Board and did a lot of work there. And has just been very vocal at times and a positive influence on the city. I think he's done a really good job. As well as a district review person. That's right. And he worked... I have a grandmother that lives at the senior center and above the senior center. And he's had a very positive influence on her life, too. She talks about him all the time. He's just a very open and outgoing city council member and I appreciate him for that. And he's been a role model. Craig, thank you for coming in. I so appreciate this. Now I want to talk to you. And I want to say that you've watched this show. I hope that you'll watch the other candidate shows. We've done all of the candidates at this point. I hope you'll watch the one hour one on the school budget. That's good. And the one hour one on the city budget and the bonding issues is important. But what's most important is that you take this and get out and vote on Town Meeting Day and get your friends out to vote. Get your family out to vote. We've been talking about what a great community it is. But it's a community because you're out there doing things as a community, participating in planning, the commissions, the boards. But most important, getting out there and meeting the candidates, understanding what the issues are and then actually fulfilling your obligation in getting out and vote. Thank you so very much for watching this.