 So I will go ahead and call the Village Board of Estates Junction meeting for Tuesday, December 14th to order. Thank you all for being here. Do we have any agenda additions or changes tonight? Yes, we do. We have a possible we're going to ask. We've got a late request for a recognition. Marguerite, you just sent that out. Have you had, has anybody had a chance to look at it the five minutes ago? I have not seen it. No. So the executive director of 2-1-1 is retiring and they'd like a proclamation for her. Okay. Mary Ellen Mendel? Yes, there was a proclamation of Mary Ellen Mendel Day, which would be December 16th. She's retiring tomorrow. I just sent, so if we get time as a business item, I can put it on the screen and we can do what you like if that works for you. Sure. Why don't we put that as a last thing? So let's make that 5-E, nothing like a last minute request. Please no, no judgment, Marguerite, about the five minute email thing. No, no, it was quite last minute. Yep. Any other agenda additions or changes? No, not from staff. That was plenty. All right. If there's none other from board members, I would entertain a motion to amend the agenda. I move to amend the agenda as presented. I'll second. Thank you, Dan. And thank you, George. Is there any further discussion on that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Great. So that passed unanimously. And this brings us to the portion of the meeting for public comment. And this is for public comment questions, concerns to the board about things that are not on tonight's agenda. If there are things on tonight's agenda that you have a comment or question or concern about, we will get to the public comment period during that agenda item. So for those of you using Microsoft Teams, please go ahead, start raising your hand if you have any questions, comments, concerns for the board about things that are not on the agenda. While you're doing that to those of you at 2 Lincoln, is there anybody in the room who has or anybody in the room who would like to speak to the board? No, there's 1 member of the public here, but they do not want to speak. Okay, coming back to Microsoft Teams, I am not seeing any hands up, nothing in the chat. So we'll go ahead and move off of public to be heard and on into business item 5a. The upcoming legislative session with updates from our state senators and representatives. So I'll go ahead and welcome our representatives and senators here tonight. We have representative Lori Houghton, representative Karen Dolan, Senator Ginny Lyons, and Senator Thomas Chippton. Appreciate you all being here tonight, taking time out of your busy, busy days as you're also preparing for the new session coming up. So appreciate you being here. So to get to get things started, what's what may be helpful if you don't mind just for those who may not know, could we go around and just better understand which committees you're assigned to so that may help to frame the conversations. And if we don't mind starting representative Houghton, could you go first? Sure. Thank you. Hi everyone. And everyone trustee is thanks for having us. I know when I sat in your seat, it was always wonderful to have the representatives and senators come in and talk to us. So thank you. And I serve on the house health care committee, I am ranking member and that is the only committee I serve on because in the house you only serve on one committee. Thank you. Representative Dolan. Hi everybody. Thanks for having us. Karen Dolan and I sit on the house corrections and institutions committee. Thank you. Senator Lyons. Good evening and thanks so much for having us. It's just unfortunate that we're not there in the meeting room, but maybe in the next several months, that'll happen. Hi, I am Jenny Lyons and I do serve as chair of the health and welfare committee in the Senate. I also serve on the education committee. And among other appointments, I am on the justice oversight committee and the child protection oversight committee, as well as the legislative committee on administrative rules. The reason I mentioned that one is because we get to have this look at every single government agency and department as rules and guidance documents are written. So it gives us a little bit more of a broad perspective. So that's it. And I look forward to having a conversation. Thank you, Senator Lyons. And last certainly not least, Senator Tom. I'm I'm least that's that's fine. It's all good. So I'm Tom Chinden. I sir, I am a new legislator, one of the four new senators this year and I serve on Senate education, Senate transportation, and I also was appointed to the Vermont State Infrastructure Bank Board and also I serve on the Joint Information Technology Oversight Committee for the legislature. In addition, I am currently finishing my last term on the South Burlington City Council and I just want to say as a another municipal officially elected official, I want to thank you all for your service. I know how these meetings can go really long and I promise not to talk any longer than need be tonight and I really appreciate you having me. Thank you for being here. And before we kind of really get into things for the senators, I'd also like to just take the moment to appreciate you all in particular and Karen Lori not to take away from the two of you. Just to recognize the fact that this is going to be the last time that two of you would also then be carrying our interests as a part of being Chinden County delegates. As the the recent passage of I can't remember whether it was a constitutional amendment or a bill, but whatever it was where our Senate delegation will no longer have more than three members per per district. So we will we will lose some of you and want to appreciate you for your years of service. No matter whether that's just been this is your first term or whether this has been more terms and I'm going to count right now. I really appreciate your years of dedication and service to our to our county in our community. So thank you very much. I'd love to start off a little bit with hearing some of your individual priorities coming into this this legislative session and then afterwards I had some questions and I'm sure the rest of our board members have some questions to really have to speak back and forth conversation. And no need to call on people if anyone of you wants to chime in first with what's what's hot on your mind. We're going to let the senators go and have the limelight for a little bit. Go ahead Senator Chinden. All right Senator Lyons. I will be glad to start off so just some things that I've been working on I serve on Senate transportation where I have to say not enough people know about train service in Vermont. The Vermonter is a little secret that people don't know they can get on every single day now that it's back in service and get all the way down to Washington D.C. and all the stops in between. And I'm really excited about additional train service that's going to be coming online this coming spring. But as I as I grown up in Chittenden County I used to live in Essex Junction on West Street. I'd like to see more coordinated train rail and air planning. So I as I drive on route 15 and I see the Burlington International Airport over there. I just would I keep reflecting on how crazy how difficult would it be to at least have some some planning on either public transportation busing lines or otherwise some coordination between when the Vermonter arrives so that in the evenings so that there is the right type of transportation directly to the airport so that we can try to unify some of those multimodal modes of transport. So I'm interested in pursuing some of that. I did have a brief conversation with President Brown on that earlier. It's just a notion that I want to explore some more similarly. I don't want to be known as the toll guy. But I will say that one thing that I think from our should look at as we continue to electrify our vehicles is other ways ways that have been used since the dawn of civilization and all of our neighboring states do now that the technology is available using technology to use based assessment on our roadways to replace to supplement the declining gas tax which we want to decline. There are ways not I'm not saying tolls on every roadway. There are ways to track usage the same way that you can track how much your cell phone is monitored or is used by the cell towers. There are ways to track how cars are using our roadways over the next five to 10 years. So that's an interest area that I've been working on on the edges with Senate transportation. Similarly with the airport governance. So I'm going to be introducing an amendment on a charter change which will be involving a few different things and I've spoken with them about that related to education. I don't know how much time you want me to use but I am interested in looking at the kindergarten entrance age and Vermont is one of the 11 states out of 50 that allows local education agencies to choose a date between a four month period August 30th first August 30th to December 30th 31st. I'm getting the ones wrong there. But that actually does put additional pressure on our childcare system. So with also inconsistencies across municipal boundaries. So I understand there's a lot of work on this in the past but I think it's worth revisiting again in the light of the childcare pressures that we're seeing today. If this is something small that we can do to also better utilize our school resources with the declining school age population. I think it's worth our time and attention. I have been investigating concealed carry permits. So I just want you to know a lot of time I will investigate issues only to conclude that I don't necessarily want to do something with it. I promise to voters I'm working hard on things that just sometimes the efforts don't necessarily materialize into something I want to move forward in the legislature. Really quickly I'm really proud to be a co-sponsor of a birth certificate adjustment to allow for gender differences to be recorded by the state registry. We're expecting the pupil waiting report to spend a lot of time or to use a lot of our time this coming session. That was just released this past Friday. I've read the first 20 pages of it and I have a general idea that I can answer some questions. But some of those I might have to defer to a later time. Other than that I'm always interested in Act 250 reforms to try to foster infill and downtown development to make it easier so as to invest in our downtown areas to achieve the smart growth we all want. President Brown I don't know if you'd all need to talk more but those are the things on my little list. Well I appreciate you sharing your list with us and I appreciate the time you and I had the other day to talk further about your transportation efforts and appreciate being for having the village kept in mind as those continue to go forward. Given not only the train station and the high use of that as the most heavily trafficked passenger train station in the state but then also are our linkage to the to the bus station that's right there and potentially could just to the airport so greatly appreciate that. Senator Lyons would you like to go next. Well you know I can't go through the entire list because it is it's a pretty comprehensive list but I will say that the waiting study in education is very important to me and to others and I as it will be to the Essex school district. And having spent some time last night listening to a full report of that waiting study and I do have some concerns about some of the recommendations that are that are there really. I think we all need to understand what when you teach and I know you're not the school board but there will be some overflow I'm sure. But when you teach kids English language and the kids are coming from a diversity of countries with diversity of cultural backgrounds. The cost is more than just teaching English language it goes to teaching children what it means to be in a Vermont school and to be in a different culture. So I'm looking at the actual cost associated with that and hoping that within the waiting study report we can accomplish the goals that we need to educationally there in education. There's also an area of great concern that we looked at this summer in our child protection oversight committee. And that is you may or may not remember the Kern Hatton outburst of media exposure where Kern Hatton children were alleged to have been abused for many many years. And what we have found now is that there are residential independent residential schools in our state that have no residential oversight in other words when kids stay overnight. There is no DCF authority and there's no agency of education authority. That's a concern for us so we'll be taking that up in our committee. Beyond that in education of course there will be other issues but I do think that that relate to child care and early childhood education. And so moving to child care last last year we passed a very comprehensive bill that will help to fund and help to put a system in place for child care. And I know it's just an ongoing issue for businesses. It's an ongoing issue for schools. It's for teachers and for folks who have kids generally. So we'll be looking at child care and trying to plug the gaps on the system. We know that part of that will be a conversation around federal dollars and build back better should we see that money. We'll also be looking at other infrastructure funds available to us whether it's for capital improvements in our mental health system or other areas and trying to utilize federal dollars as effectively as we can. There is an area of that I think is important both to me and to Representative Houghton. We serve on a task force together. I actually co-chair the task force on affordable accessible health care. That's a concern for everyone. The cost of health care continues to escalate. That includes prescription drug costs. It includes long term care costs and our of course health care premiums. So the goal we have our we have our meeting tomorrow with that task force. And one of our goals is to ensure that when we save money, the money is saved in people's pockets. So we can talk about lowering the cost of health care at a broad state level. But that doesn't mean that we individually are paying less for our health care, our premiums. And then finally I had there's a lot more but another area of interest that maybe Lori will be talking about is the telehealth. One of the things that we did in our committee last year was to extend some of the emergency rules for telehealth, telemedicine. And so you recently saw in the paper or in the media that you can get tested and the test costs will be covered by private insurers and others. So that is a result of the emergency rules that we allowed to keep in place until March 2022. So now we're going to be going back and looking at what are the rules that are there in place that we should keep permanently. And so we've done that for some of the telemedicine features, but we we have to go back and we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. In other words, just because the pandemic has ended doesn't mean that we can't continue with some of the benefits that we've seen in the health care world. So those are some of the things. There are also some issues regarding some other health care areas and maybe we'll get into those a little bit later. But one of the things that I'm particularly interested in is ensuring that your charter is seen quickly and effectively in the house and that it can go through. I know I just know that you guys have been working on this since 1999. And I know that that's a long time. I know the stresses and the strains that you've been through and I just want to congratulate you on the work that you're doing. And it's it's significant. And I think people need to appreciate what you've done. So I look forward to voting for your charter as quickly as we can in the session. That's it for now. The whole bunch of other stuff. But you know, we'll talk later. Thank you, Senator Lyons and representatives. If you don't mind, since Senator Lyons opened that door, I'd like to just walk through that for a moment. So with with that little separation vote we had just a few months ago, where 88% of the community overwhelmingly said yes, we want to separate from the town of Essex. If you don't mind, do any of you and this doesn't include representative Putin, representative Dolan, do any of you have any questions and or concerns that we could help to answer and or address in advance of us going to to the legislature. And what I mean by that is selfishly as I'm preparing for our legislative testimony things that I can put on there now. So I would say, from my perspective, from what I understand and you can correct me if I'm wrong, you've really negotiated agreement with Essex town. So there shouldn't be any pushback coming from the town. It seems that the voters have spoken. And you've to go to the department from what I understand you're the fire department is taken care of your, you're down to the nitty gritty and I, I can't you make to make changes in the charter so I think I don't have questions at this point, but And I don't think you are going to say I'm going to knock on wood and say I just hope that you don't run into a brick wall at any point. Thank you, Senator Limes. And yes, you are correct that even as an update from last night's joint meeting we had the town of Essex select board. We have agreed to the language of I believe seven or eight different agreements at this point in time, ranging from the police department to how delinquent taxes will be taken care of. And the ones that we, we currently have remaining are who has access to which recreation programs and how we do senior services so things that I'm, I'm assuming really are not going to be of concern for, for you or the house. Senator Tom. Just Tom. So I've been following the issue and I did attend an open house session in front of the library I remember speaking with you trustee T bow so thank you for that. So I feel pretty comfortable fully supporting this, especially with that outstanding vote result. I guess what I would welcome of you all is when you hear of objections when you hear the voices and the the concerns that will be raised. Just educate me. Let me know how much work has been done to address those and what the, what the mitigated solutions are so as you develop any one pagers or when your testimony is coming up as a Chittenden County Senator representing a six junction in town I'd love to just be in the loop so please please send me any emails you think would educate me on this. Representatives. I will just, I'll go before Karen. So, you know, I obviously Karen and I have been intimately and all and the leadership on both sides has been amazing so we both thank you for that. I think you're both bring forward the pertinent pieces of information we need to know I think one thing that's really important is that this just means we're working with our, you know, neighbor municipality just like we would work with another neighboring municipality at this point, but that the our destiny is in our control completely which I think it's really important and the people have spoken. I can also just give a quick update if you don't mind Andrew so Karen and I heard from Ledge Council today, as everyone should know we had put in a bill draft request soon after the last vote. And that draft has been written it is being edited at this point so we should have a copy in the next couple of days that we can share with you. He made some quick comments that he doesn't see any issues with what he has reviewed so far. There were a couple technical changes that needed to be made. I'm changing governing body to City Council Karen and I both said that was fine, and then just honestly renaming some sections that will match the, you know, what will eventually be the old charter so, so that's good. There's no questions coming back at least from Ledge Council. So once we get that draft will forward it to everyone knows that this will start in house gov ops and, and as much as everyone wants this to happen very quickly. That's not the concern, not the concern, but there's also the issue of redistricting, and that what we want to make sure is if we're separating as municipalities, we look at the redistricting in that light as well. We know that in the village and in the town but especially in the village we are over the number of people that we can represent. So we will have to divide in some small way. And so they just want to look at that as well when they're looking at the charter. So if I can just say, and I will be really quick in regards to priorities. As ranking member on the House Healthcare Committee a part of the leadership team and we met today and we have a three page list of priorities, the timelines and we look at some of the issues around telehealth including licensing audio telehealth and you know just making sure that people have the access they need in or out of a pandemic and hopefully will be out of it soon. Also, we had a meeting last week we had a special meeting the House Healthcare Committee solely dedicated to mental health and what's happening in our community and in our emergency departments and quite honestly if anyone wants to watch the testimony I highly recommend it. It is, it is impactful and it really is quite gut wrenching when you have a leader in an emergency room at UVMMC visibly be shaken during his testimony to us. It's not a good situation and we understand that I know Senator Lyons understands that and I anticipate that our committees will be working closely over the session to see what we can do to make sure people are getting the right at the right place. So that will be one of our priorities and there's many more but we wanted to just put that out there. I'll just concur with Lori and Representative Houghton and I do have a bill in on that and I know that I'm pretty sure that most for all of our Chittenden County municipalities are deeply involved in trying to solve the problem of mental health response. That's great to hear. Thank you. Karen. Yeah well I think a lot has been shared so I won't repeat everything I think folks have covered a lot of the priorities that we're seeing I feel like it's important to echo what Representative Houghton shared with the mental health piece that we had a community conversation this past Saturday where we had great attendance this is where the Essex and Westford reps come together and we had a virtual community conversation and mental health was definitely a big topic on that. Along with some others but I think we're hearing that folks are struggling in lots of different areas whether it's mental health, it's housing, it's childcare, it's work there's a lot of demands on folks and so I think we're just going to have to balance all that. There's going to be a lot of folks that are looking for help for assistance and we have a lot of work to do ahead of us this session. I'm looking forward to this session it's going to be my first one in person and obviously there's going to be challenges with that that we're still in a pandemic and I had I spent the day there for a legislative briefing last week and it could feel the it's different energy when you're there and so as a new legislator I'm looking forward to that opportunity to connect with colleagues and see that work. In my committee and corrections and institutions we deal a lot with infrastructure and so we're going to have the benefit of there's a lot of money that's coming in for infrastructure right now so that's going to be work of seeing how do we prioritize projects and relook at our capital bill to see where we want to have spending on the corrections side of it. So what we're looking forward to is at the end of last session we kind of put out to Department of Corrections and building BGS building general services of kind of what are their design plans for the women's correctional facility or reentry facility. I'm looking forward to seeing what that is going to be and how they're moving forward on that because the folks have been following that that is long overdue and actually had an opportunity this summer to go to the main reentry and correctional facility and see which is right now the current model that we're thinking of looking at things for so that would be great to see that on a similar note to that I am introducing a piece of legislation. I think will help us with our criminal justice reform efforts in this work which is supporting victim services or creating a victim services advisory council for the state to help coordinate victim services. We found last year we had some legislation that had to kind of go backwards a bit in our efforts in criminal justice reform because it didn't get to the full input of victim voice and there really seemed to be a gap in getting that. And so this legislation would ensure that there's better coordination and support for that. So I'm somebody who's really about criminal justice reform and I think the only way we can really make that happen to be effective is if we include solid victim voice along with it. So those are some things that everybody else said there's a lot going on. That's for sure. Thank you Karen. Shaped but with specific regard to Act 250 I was paying close attention to the climate action plan from the Vermont Climate Council from the GWSA result and some key passages in there really talk about how we need to look at land use and zoning from a statewide level. A ways to steer from a region we are lacking in county wide view but I'm the new guy I'm going to keep saying that for another three months and I don't know if that if this has any legs. The issue around an Act 250 statewide land use plan was one of the things that was dropped off Act 250 when it was first introduced and now the discussion is coming back. And as you well know there are still some towns that don't have planning and zoning and recently then to this and it sounds like there's also in. You know, first time home buyers one or two bedroom apartments and homes so that we can have those starter homes up for folks so I think definitely legislators going to be legislators going to be looking at it and having lots of conversation. And I'll just add the Essex delegation really thinks that Karen she did the most of the work advocating for as they you know continue with her business so you know keep us abreast of what they do. Please. One of the things that probably hasn't been brought up recently is the funding for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, where so many much of our bonding comes for affordable housing so we had a $25 million bond put forward last session. I think it was last session and that that's still being utilized and it was to target some pretty unique. There were some areas of that bond that were being utilized to target. Housing for folks with mental health issues and to work with some of our designated agencies and then also to identify some of the areas that Representative Houghton was talking about and that is trying to get workforce housing in place. I appreciate that thank you and anything we can do to help advocate for fully funding of Vermont Housing Conservation Board always happen to be a part of that conversation. Terrific. So other trustees I've asked a lot of questions I've spoken enough. George why don't you go and you're muted though. Sorry. I'm going to kidnap and sidetrack the conversation and take us into a slightly controversial area and ask Tom a question back a few years ago. South Burlington catalyze the idea of trying to have a regional airport authority. And it was one of the regrets at my time back then we were we found ourselves here in this extension up to our necks and controversy as we always do. And I but I thought it was a great idea. I think as Chittenden County expands, you think of our three communities where impacted more by the Burlington regional airport than the city of Burlington is. And I'm just wondering if this is something that you're going to be revisiting or is that either at the at the state level or at the south Burlington level. George, you're hitting right now in my ballpark. I love talking about the airport. That's I'm trying to give you for that was a soft. So I have three things that we're really looking at one H 454 is the charter change. I fully support giving the city of Winnowsky a seat. But if you know what that if you look at that bill, there's currently five members of the airport commission one South Burlington for Burlington. This bill adds a Winnowsky seat and then another Burlington seat. That's where I raised my hand and I said, I'm sorry, but that's just not the right thing to do. From my eight years in South Burlington City Council, I have lost the most sleep over the Burlington International Airport and the lack of voice of the communities are affected by the use of our collective airspace. I could talk all night on this. So what I'm asking for is to offer the town of Williston. I have not received interest, but it does not seem that Williston necessarily wants a seat, but that's the current leadership. They haven't said they don't want it, but on my point is this, I think we'll make better decisions if we have the communities that are affected by the use of our airspace around the table. Reviewing evaluating directing the aviation direction of that asset. It's a publicly funded asset. The city of Burlington does not the taxpayers do not pay into that asset and they haven't since 1948 entirely funded from the use of our airspace. So George, thank you and I'll stop talking because I go on for an hour. I'll just add one thing, Tommy, in your right, and it's not just the airspace, but we think of the policing. We think of the ways it impacts, you know, with all the traffic that's going into the airport. I'm not just talking about the F-35, which is the most visible and controversial aspect of it. I'm talking about passengers and all the various infrastructure impacts that it has on all of us here. And that's, and again, we don't get, we deal with it, we deal with the impacts, but we don't get any compensation. So I'm with you on that. I hope I'm good luck. If I may, President Brown, just one other thing. So that's the charter change and that I think is an easy ask, but honestly, it won't actually do that much because that commission doesn't have much influence where I really want to put my shoulder behind it. I hope I have Senator Lyon's support on this. I've already spoken to Diane Lampier about this as well as Senator Mazza and many others, and it just makes sense. There's this bill H-52 that's been introduced for four years in a row, and what it does is exactly what a group of really smart people said that we should do back in 2013, which is to have the state conduct a governance study of the airport. Burlington evaluated their own assessment. They said, everything's great. Well, you know what? It's not just up to Burlington. I love Burlington, but it really should be led by the state. And we should look at other governance models that have been recommended going back to the 80s. So I'll leave it at that, George. H-52 and H-454, two things that I want to get my shoulders behind. And there's one other thing that we're exploring. I don't really expect it to move anywhere, but it would be separating the airport out to a separate charter. I'm open to that. I think it makes sense, but that's where I would need Senator White and Senator Lyons to give me guidance on how to navigate that path. I would talk the airport all night long, happy to have coffee with any of you. It's a subject of mine that got me motivated to get engaged in politics. So let me, I'd like to just chime in and say that Senator Chittenden is doing an amazing amount of work on this in the statehouse and also in the county. The issue that, that Williston currently has not come forward, I think is unfortunate. I think it's just a matter of wanting, not wanting to, as you said, get, cause a rumble. But it should happen. The interesting thing is that when you talk with people in the statehouse and some of the chairs of committees that might be involved with this, they really don't understand that Burlington owns part of South Burlington and continues to buy property in that city. That is a great concern. So, and as you said, the, the, the demand that is caused by the airport in a number of ways has an effect on other towns and cities. But really what we will be working with our government folks and our transportation folks to try to at least get, I would like to see S 52 taken up. So you brought up a really good issue. Thank you, George. And thanks for the thoughtful answers. Thank you. And if there's anything, is there anything that our board could do to help with those, those measures, please don't hesitate to be in touch. Yeah, exactly. Amber or Dan. Um, just if we're on as long as we're on the topic transportation train and aviation or the airport. Um, I'm the representative for our community on Chittinry's real planning commission and during my tenure there in the last 10, 11 years. The, uh, Syrac highway was canceled as proposed under the Schumlin administration and we came up with a Syrac alternatives task force and a bunch of different projects that we felt should be completed to alleviate the traffic problems we're going to continue to have as the community continues to grow and especially right in the center lions neighborhood in Williston area at the interchange there. And then I know we have a visit from congressman waltz coming up to speak to our crescent connector project that we're going to be doing here in the village, hopefully soon. I'd like to hear if you have any information on moving forward with the projects that we've got listed. If there's going to be any delays for whatever reason, just curious it's it's been a while and really love to see these things completed. So I serve on Senate transportation. So I feel like I should jump in again. I have not heard any, any objections or concerns with the crescent connector here. Quite the opposite. I hear it's going on track. I've also, I know Charlie Baker and CCRPC and I've talked to him about some of these issues as well. And so I'm hoping I had lunch with him probably two months ago, but I hope that he will reach out. He does see a problem occur. They did raise something about a Burlington the Burlington Southern Champlain Parkway. So that's now split into two projects. So that's moving forward. But as for the crescent connector, I'm told everything's on track and I've also been cautioned as a new senator sometimes me asking questions can slow things down. So I can tell somebody tells me I should chime in or probe. So if you think I should please let me know and I'm I want to see the crescent connector happen. That's really exciting. Really hope public transportation is really thought about in the plans. Go ahead. I appreciate that. And I just, I can think of a bunch of different scenarios. I mean, since, you know, as you probably remember, Tom as well, when interstate 189 used to travel over Shubham Road, and they reconfigured that intersection, right, that interchanged maybe 40 years ago. And that was supposed to be the Southern connector. It was never completed. The there's ultimately the the highways supposed to go all the way over to North Avenue and connect through over Water Tower Hill and such. That obviously is not going through at least not my lifetime, but maybe sometime after I'm sure going down to Southern Vermont, you go down to to root seven down in Bennington, you can see where the ramps were built to improve that. I mean, it just seems like there's a lot of projects that start with some legs and then they die off. I know there was a study done at. It wasn't an exit was proposed back three years ago for Bolton Valley right there on 89 to have an interchange possibly put in down there. And I know we're looking at possibly putting an interchange in by the 116 overpass in South growing them right on 89, which would really alleviate a lot of problems throughout the whole Chittenden County area. I really would love to see those projects move forward. I try not to talk so this much but I'll just say one other thing this past session my first session I did actually introduce some language to the T bill to address Act 250 when it comes to transportation projects recounting what a paved or disrupted service would be. It did get to be considered by Senate natural resources since it extended beyond transportation, Senator Bray took it up we took testimony I testified on the matter, making the case that Act 250 is really for private development and when it comes to public infrastructure public dollars for the public good. Maybe we should be a little more of considerate of getting those dollars to work faster and spending less money on regulation, which would address some of the projects you just highlighted. I don't know. There's other aspects of regulation in Vermont that slow down these projects but I want to see the southern the Champlain connector come through and I wish the circumferential highway wasn't dead. We need transportation to foster a strong economy in the great state, I'm talking too much, but I'd be happy to talk with you more about this later Dan, please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you. Let me just say that as this as your regional planning commission goes forward in conversation about what what what are the projects that meet highest priority and I know there's the list every year. We also have a significant amount of money coming to us from the federal infrastructure bill. And frankly, I don't know you you may have seen this already Charlie may have brought it to you at the Planning Commission. What funds are available for planning purposes and moving ahead on some of these projects so I would I would be more optimistic than you are I think at this point that things are not going to happen. I think they are going to happen and but I think having the resources to do those in a timely way prioritized the way the county would like them. It's going to be pretty important. Thank you. Trustees any other questions. I have lots of questions Andrew, but I think we should let all of our representative representatives and senators have a pleasant evening and thank them very much for coming here. Where I was going to go next. There's my email. And make sure to address him as Tom. And similarly Tom I am Andrew. So representative senators thank you for being here we really appreciate it. If you have any other questions. If you have any comments or things you want to make sure we hear please feel free otherwise really appreciate you all being here tonight. Appreciate your years of service to our community and beyond so so thank you all. Thank you and take care. Good luck. All right. And so now we will go to our next agenda item. 5B the potential appointment of co-interim village managers. This one gets to be a little more exciting than the rest of the stuff that we do. I'm not sure who's controlling the TV and the in the meeting room or for those watching at home but if you could pull up the memo I'd be appreciated. So for the past few past few weeks months or so we've been talking as a board about what we're going to do. After Evans contract expires on February 25th as we are going to continue to have the need for for management within our community. And we now have us an answer to that question. And the answer at this the answer is that for the next few months we are looking to appoint both Wendy his go and Brad luck as co-interim village managers to serve in that capacity and help bring us to a point of hiring the next full time permanent manager for our community. We've had a few conversations about this in the executive session and the contract that is following the memo. At this point in time trustees unless there are no other comments questions or concerns. I believe we are we are ready to make that that appointment that is unless of course Brad or Wendy unless there's any other second thoughts but if there are frankly I don't want to hear it. George I see your hand is up go ahead and you're muted. Yeah, thanks Andrew. I keep trying to mute myself and to not interfere. I actually am thinking that we're not I'd like to make consider increasing the compensation. I think that we're asking them to take on a big responsibility. I think the last time we did this. The interim co managers received 1000 and extra 1000 I would like to actually consider. And I but I don't want to hold things up the weird the wheels that are going to push this forward, but I'd like to consider making set of 200 to make it 250. We can always consider anything George that's that's the entire purpose of this portion of the well one of the purposes of this meeting. When I reached out to Susan McNamara Hill to help jog my memory. She had reminded me that we had provided 150 a week. Okay, I was wrong to her and Lauren. I was opposed to increasing it. Brad and Wendy had had indicated that they were good with the 200. Okay. Just thrown it out there. Yeah. Other trustees Dan amber. I'm good 200. They've already expressed that they're okay. It's not to say that they're not worth it. 200. I think I think we've also said, um, Wendy, Brad, make sure you communicate with us. If you know, you feel like there's there's a ton on your plate and stuff. Just open communication with us. Um, well, one of the, one of the questions I have along these lines though in terms of both the library and the wreck department. Uh, our other people are other staff and those, and maybe Wendy and Brad can speak to this just quickly. Our other staff going to be taking on more responsibility. And so what we need to be looking to compensate them more. I'm just not sure how this is all going to work. I think maybe one thing that would be beneficial. One of the things that I did not put in this, this memo, nor is it within the contract. Brad and or Wendy, would the two of you like to talk about how you would manage the village in this co interim capacity. Sure. Thanks. And just to answer your question, George, the we are not anticipating at the start for any of our employees to take on any additional roles or duties. There may be, you know, projects and days and times where they're going to help out, but I don't think we have any visions of them taking on anything officially. But I appreciate Amber what you were saying to that if we find that we need to do that and reach out and say that, you know, we need to assign certain things that we could do that. Otherwise, Wendy and I are looking forward to, we've been talking about continuing to serve the village and getting us through this interim period until you can advertise and hire for a full time city manager. And kind of broken up the duties. Basically along the lines of our strengths and experiences and you'll see both of us, I think at board meetings, I think primarily I'll be working on some of the board business and the city and charter related items. Wendy's going to has great rapport and relationship with our current department heads. So she'll be working with them and all of the village staff to make sure that things are sailing along as we kind of hold the reins until we get a full time manager. Okay. Wendy was there more that you you want to add to that. I can echo just what Brad said, I think they'll, yes, there will be probably more projects put on our staff, but we're not anticipating it being in a situation that we're not going to be available to our departments. So, I think that's we're working as a team to get through this interim period is a great thing so we can be available as needed. Okay. Thanks Wendy. And I may not have been very clear. I do really appreciate the two of you and your willingness to do this. Beyond that, frankly, I can't think of other people who I would rather have doing this as within this role. Exactly. The two of you are fantastic leaders for our community you are fantastic leaders within your departments. I do think it's time and time again as to reasons why people come to Essex Junction and stay in Essex Junction are because of recreation opportunities and our library opportunities. So I really can't thank the two of you enough and do truly look forward to, to having you both serve in this capacity. I do think it's an exciting time for our community. So it's, I think it'll be. I'm sure it'll have its bumps, but I think it'll be a, it's a great way to be there for our community right now. Okay. Good to hear. Trustees, any other questions, comments, concerns. Someone would like to make the motion. I'll make a motion that the trustees approve of and sign the employment agreement of Wendy Hisco and Brad lock. To serve as co interim village managers effective February 25. Six, I'm sorry. 2022. Second. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Amber. Is there any further discussion on that motion hearing none. All those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Anybody opposed. Didn't think so. Thank you all the past unanimously again, Wendy Brad, thank you both so much. Look forward to to having you serve in this capacity. With that said, Evan, I continue to thank you again for your leadership and having a speed to where we are today. And I'm hoping to ensure that this community has been a fantastic community to live in, work in, pass through. What have you you've your leadership to get us to where we are has not been forgotten and really appreciate all that you have done and will continue to do. Thanks for the kind words. So next we go into business item five C a discussion and edit agreements and MOUs with the town of Essex in relation to independence. I know originally when when we had this agenda item on here, I was unsure as to how far we were going to get through the agreements from our joint meeting. Thinking about all of the fantastic work and all of the agreements that we have approved of at this point in time. Unless my memory is escaping me. I'm not sure we really have much to talk about in terms of editing these agreements. I'm just going to go to the trustee staff, if any of you feel differently, or if there's something that I'm missing would love to hear it. Go ahead, Amber. I was just going to second that I think we spent a considerable amount of time on this last night and I would love to move on to the next agenda item. It was a late night and early morning. Quick update. I did get that list of stormwater projects both from Chelsea and and Dennis. So that'll be coming out. As I said, there was a list. I just didn't have it. So that was one comment from last night. Other things that I have mentioned before. Stay away from please stay away from trying to charge each other rent for spaces in your buildings. Just be shuffling money back and forth. And really, they are operations that need to be in those buildings for space reasons. As you all know to Lincoln's not exactly the biggest building in the world. Neither is 81 main. You guys can use each other space pretty well. That's that you've kept it out of your agreements. I say continue to do that. And congratulations on all the ground you covered last night. Thank you. Go ahead, George. I just a clarifying question in terms of all the committees that we jointly share are you're not looking to actually sign contracts and buying the agreements that sustained that continue these committees. Correct. What are you looking for there? It wasn't really clear. At this point, we were looking for which committees would we want to potentially share as separate municipality. Okay. And that would then start the process of ironing out those agreements, not necessarily that we are looking to have those committees be perpetual committees. Whether or not to continue working together. But okay, we're not, we're not, I just, it just would be strange for us to sign a contract saying we, we commit to always having an economic development commission or housing committee. A year from now we may decide to go in a different direction, but I'm pretty sure I understood that as well as clarify. Thanks. Okay. Go ahead, Brett. Yeah, just an update. So the language was sent to the attorneys to draft to the finance contract and the two clerk treasurer's contracts and the rec Indian brook senior contract. So those will be drafted for whenever the next joint meeting is review. And so the only outstanding item that's currently in the MOU that doesn't have anything drafted will be the board's commissions and committees. Thank you. So anything else on that agenda item? Nope. Okay, so since there are no motions necessary, we can move right along this, this agenda we have and into discussing the budget schedule for January. I can just introduce this quickly, which is just this is what's put forward by Sarah. You know, two weeks ago or whatever it was as we were trying to figure it out. And so we wanted to get it in here. One of the big things that's different here is that maybe it's not big, but one of the differences from last year is that there is only one public hearing and the part of the reason we had to last year was because it was a different, you know, because of COVID, the operation of your annual meeting was different. So that's why it was deemed to have two last year. So that's something here. There's only one. And if you wanted to, we'd want to know that now so that we can make sure to get, you know, get everyone in there and get it in on time. But we figured one since at this point, annual meeting looks like it will be back to how it usually is. And that sort of all required and what was done before we went back to sort of that system. So. And that's a that's a good question. In terms of annual meeting. I'm assuming we may want to have a hybrid option. And I don't necessarily mean that so I can continue to wear sweatpants. I'm just going to name it, but rather for those for those community members who want to be able to, you know, be home to provide that as an option. I fully support that. I think we definitely have seen an uptick in attendance in the past two years and annual meeting is not heavily attended to begin with. Adding the hybrid option would hopefully add some attendance to it. And I think, especially since our, we're no longer going to be voting on the floor for the budget questions. Sorry, I missed that. Go ahead. No, no, I didn't like electronically raise my hand if I memory serves me last year. Because of COVID, the high school was not available to us because of space restrictions that they had at the time. So, depending upon if you do want to have something in person, we'll have to reach out to the high school and see if it's available. That's all we'll make that call tomorrow. The other thing about that is there's actually a lot of legal reasons. So you the hybrid option is something that's still not quite clear about because of the checklist and voters and because you do have floor voting except for the ballot. I mean, so obviously the ballot is not by the floor except for the budget. I don't know how clear that is yet to everyone, probably to Susan, it's very clear, but to all of us, you know, it's not quite clear. We are preparing to have zoom and, you know, we're trying to figure that out now. I would say just how to have that option because of that voter issue. If you are going to have floor voting, then the, you know, through COVID and such as well, they were you were not allowed then to have sort of this, you know, electronic entity, but a lot has changed since then. So we're hoping that maybe, you know, there's some some software or something that's allowed, you know, where those folks wouldn't be able to vote but could at least voice things. So, but yes, we will plan to at least, you know, have our subscription to those items and we're trying to work through if that's legal or how to do that legally to have that. The 1 thing that you could do is still have some sort of informational meeting that sort of some of the kind of fix that people have been looking at so far just to, you know, to, to that point of at least letting people hybrid sort of, you know, remote in and hear from them. If they can't make it to that actual meeting because it does need to be physical for legal reasons, at least you get to hear from your constituents that way. So, thank you. Thank you, Marguerite. Go ahead, George. Two things I think I looking at 3 workshops in a row for the budgets and it would be I think we're, I'm going to guess that we're going to accomplish everything we need to accomplish on the budget in 1 workshop, maybe 2, 3 scenes. So I think maybe staff can can breathe a little sigh of relief and think that we won't need 3 budget workshops. I also think that the way this thing is going with a new variant, the new COVID variant, we should anticipate that a live meeting, a big live meeting is not going to happen. And if it does happen, it's a benefit and not, but I just can't. I think we have to sort of anticipate that it's going to have to be a completely online meeting. To that end, we are looking at switching over to zoom. Several meetings that it seems to have a few less glitches than teams, especially in the audio component. So we're working with town TV on that issue as well as with town it. So for, for luckily we have a couple of extra months to also work out some kinks, but we're going to be on zoom. That sounds great. The only thing I would, I would say to that is you then lose out on the ability to have this like together mode and some of the other fun ways that you can rearrange its faces. Oh, you'll still have the theater setting just like the ice school, but you don't get to pick which seat you're in. And you don't get the guy next to you that constantly asks questions. I can work well. But no, yeah, but one of the things I believe Tammy is also working with is zoom offers a few extra features that we're very interested in, as well as town TV was kind enough to help us with the coordination. So by April, we should have that pretty much worked in. Good to hear. Right, Jordan. Got it. Got it. So yeah, I have I have no concerns with the budget schedule as it's being presented. As George mentioned, it would be, it'd be nice if we were able to not necessarily have that many workshops though those are during our regularly scheduled meetings. We shall we'll see how much we can accomplish. Feel free to cancel. Yep. Well, so if there's nothing else that would bring us into the consent agenda. We had the addition. I knew that I was testing you all. This proclamation request. And as this is coming up, curiously, did this only come to the village board? Is this something that went to all municipalities? No, it actually went to Greg only. And I don't know much more than that. So let me let me tell you this came at the as we're saying the last moment. I didn't know if any of you were familiar with this person and the work that she has done. I could see in the letter she has a long career, but we just didn't know if anybody or any full connection to the village. So I didn't want to miss the opportunity. And then somebody say, Hey, why didn't we do that? So if the board is not of a mind to do it, then I suggest we're not ready to do it. I think if I mean, I don't know the individual here at all. I know of the service of 211. And it is a great service for our community as a whole. I'm not sure though, as to how appropriate this is with the exception of, I believe that this has been located above the post office square. Yeah, I believe that's where the physical offices are and we appreciate them being in the village. But frankly, this seems like it would be more appropriate for a legislative approval as 211 goes well beyond the village. How about a maybe something a the village offers an honorable mention to a great career. And we send her a letter of congratulations. Congratulations and appreciation for her. Absolutely. Yes service. Absolutely. A lot of heads nodding. That's good enough for me. Sounds good. All right. Yeah. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. So now, I think we're on to the consent agenda. Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second member. Thank you, George for the second. Is there any further discussion on that motion hearing none of those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed. Great. Fascinating. Thank you. We go on to the reading file and board member comments. We haven't met much lately. So is there anything anybody else want to add. Go ahead, Amber. Don't want to discuss this tonight. I want to get out before eight o'clock. And at a later meeting, can we please have just something even on the consent agenda, just a memo or what not about the noise ordinance. And there's a pesky trash haulers. Sure. In terms of whether effective they I think we talked about this a couple maybe even a couple months ago at this point about the effective date. Communication to trash haulers about that effective date. So what is at this point that it would have been effective, yet I continue to hear. The distinct noises, so. So, just to be clear, you want to know what was the effective date and what was the communication to the haulers. Correct. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Amber. Anything else from any other board members or staff? Not for me. All right. There's nothing. We're getting there. If there's nothing else, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Amber. All those in favor of adjourning, please signify by saying aye. Happy holidays to everybody. We're not going to see everyone until after the holidays. We have a meeting next week. Okay, that's right. There's one important is George. But thank you. Happy out. I've got some health curations. Happy, happy holidays, everybody. But yes, we have one important agenda item for the 22nd. All right. So we have the motion. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Great. Have a good night, everybody. Happy holidays. Good night.