 Good morning everyone and thanks for being here today and we have a few updates for you First on our heating system efforts We've heard back from about half of the 1,000 we surveyed due to reported damage to the heating system With about 50% of them reporting their systems are still not working The next step of this process is to connect those who need help with repairs with technicians So we're sharing our list of those in need with both the fuel dealers Association and efficiency Vermont Who have already begun reaching out to offer finding someone to do the actual work? As efficiency Vermont outlined last week They also have financial assistance available and they're working with homeowners to connect them to the resources as well To make sure we reach as many impacted for monitors as possible a team at the tax department is offered to help and Started making direct calls to those who did not answer the email survey Again, if you know someone who still needs their system repaired after flooding Please ask them to call my office at 802-828-3333 If they haven't completed the survey Next we'll have an update on the business assistance program be gap from Commissioner Goldstein Following the changes we made last week As a reminder, we remove the cap and increase the grant to 30% of the damage for most and For those who already applied to receive their grant. They don't need to do it again You will automatically receive another check if you qualify for more And the program is not closed to new applicants so you can still apply if you haven't already Then Deputy Commissioner Batesy will give an update on debris removal Including work. We're doing with municipalities and their stormwater systems There's still a lot of work to do and as we've discussed before cleaning out storm grains Will be critical before spring to prevent potential flooding that comes with snowmelt Lastly, General Roy will give an update on some of the headlines for FEMA aid If you haven't already applied for individual assistance and you suffered damage in an eligible county There's no reason not to I know there's still maybe many out there who never bothered to put in a claim Because you were concerned you were taking money away from someone who needed it more But that's not how it works. In fact, leadership in congress did the right thing by coming together Avoiding a government shutdown and replenishing the disaster relief fund at a record level So there's no reason not to apply and get this financial assistance Again, General Roy will be more give us more in a few minutes But now I'll turn it over to Commissioner Goldstein Governor thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to update everyone on the business emergency gap assistance program or as we call it BGAP As a reminder that 20 million dollar program came out in august and it was meant to help businesses Non-profits and landlords recover from physical damage that they suffered during the summer floods We were very motivated by the fact that this is helping businesses reopen It's helping them recover Employees coming back to work customers being served Tenants being served to give you an idea on the numbers We've got 502 successfully completed applications in the system 335 of them have been approved For a BGAP grant 167 are still under review The average BGAP award is now 22,424 and if you remember several weeks ago It was as low as 13,000 So you were definitely seeing the results of the increase in the grant award calculation There's 8.1 million dollars that have been committed so far And again the difference from the last time I reported out It was about 6 million committed. So we are seeing the differences In the applications organizations are reporting over 150 million dollars in total damages and 124 million is uncovered And that's how we're calculating awards is on that uncovered damage We just started paying out the increase for people who are in queue to be reviewed So just this week i've seen some award Approvals for area businesses, especially montpellier restaurants as an example Prior to the new calculation, they would have received 20,000. They are getting six figure checks So the team and I were very motivated by the fact that this is really having an impact It's been encouraging to hear about the increased amounts for those who already received payment in the old formula We will start sending supplemental checks next week We'd like also like to remind organizations we have about a hundred incomplete applications And we've sent a variety of messages over the last several weeks about what is wrong with the application why it's incomplete But if there's any Misunderstanding or lack of clarity, please contact us at accd.biz flood grant at remont.cov And we will reach out and connect with you To take you through the application and what is missing or what is incomplete so that we could serve as many people as possible We want to hear from you and work with you so that as many as possible benefit from the program Thank you. I'm now going to pass it to deputy commissioner batesy Good morning, everyone. I'm dan batesy. I'm the deputy commissioner of public safety Been asked to give you a brief overview of the debris removal process The damage of the july flood created an unprecedented challenge associated with debris When the waters receded and our citizens literally dug out We were left with mud and silt and construction debris from flood damaged homes and businesses and a variety of trash and organic material that washed away And was deposited in different locations by the flood waters From the early impact assessments. It was very clear that the debris presented a health and safety hazard and needed to be removed immediately We should start by recognizing The outstanding work that local municipalities did to remove debris It was their crews that did the lion's share of this work. They Logged countless hours to meet the extraordinary challenges of debris in their communities and oftentimes this work was Excuse me was unrecognized. So we want to make sure that we We recognize them this morning However, it became clear that those teams needed some assistance right off the bat and for that reason From the start of the declaration of emergency. We convened a task force at the state emergency operations center And this task force team represented a diverse mix of the state enterprise Uh, the team represented uh from modern emergency management the agency of transportation the agency of natural resources The agency of digital services among several others And we really had two functions find the debris and remove the debris To find the debris we first turned to the local emergency managers and town officials They identified areas of need and specific requests for assistance The task force took in over 300 Individual requests for help We also recognized that there were more challenging areas of need such as less populated rural areas And also citizens that required a certain degree of particular help For that we turned to several emergency medical services across the state Especially those who helped us during the pandemic and we knew had some of the capacity that we could utilize In particular rescue ink in brattleboro waterbury ambulance middlebury ems Regional ambulance in ruttland and glover ambulance all became scout teams For the state emergency operation center to help us find those areas of need These teams used their close connections to the community to work with citizens And connect resources like volunteer groups and uh volunteer efforts to help citizens navigate some of the debris removal process We also used these teams to drive literally hundreds of miles of our waterway to help us scout Problems with debris at bridges and culverts We'd like to extend sincere appreciation for all the work that they did All of this information and the intelligence that we received on debris was routed to a central spreadsheet managed by the agency of natural resources To manage They from there the they assigned removal assets from a variety of different sources To manage the initial large-scale debris piles and you can imagine those are the ones in Maupilier and berry the big piles We used a pre contracted vendor The these vendors were contracted with the state emergency management plan prior to the flood Series and tetra tech were the two that we used They service communities throughout vermont and carted over 5000s of debris 5000 tons of debris We also added the agency of transportation resources led by their flagship truck nicknamed the bounty as in the quicker picker upper AOT resource also logged hundreds of miles and moved many tons of construction debris and vegetative matter Their work is ongoing and will continue for a while I'll be glad to share some specific numbers around the debris That they've moved if you that would be helpful later The task force also identified some unique challenges with debris including flood debris on private property As the governor mentioned clog storm drains and communities And also debris within the channels of the river right now We're working on a variety different solutions including working with local municipalities On the storm drain issue what we're trying to do is identify those communities who need some help Many communities are able to manage the situation themselves. Some have their own back trucks But when they don't we have contracts with vendors who can aid their assistance So if they're identifying and we're working with them with our emergency managers To help identify those areas of need In fact today the agency of natural resources and fema are also out on a bit of a field trip They're visiting a variety of river sites to help identify Debris challenges there the goal is to develop a plan Based upon our river engineers recommendations to ensure that the debris problems of today don't become problems in the spring when we have You know the ice out As of this morning, we've brought our original list of over 350 identified debris sites down to about 11 Although admittedly that number is dynamic. It changes all the time. We will add more In the future We still have some unique challenges like large washed out culverts and river issues that I just spoke about But the task force is working on the creative solutions that we need To date we've moved 12 million 10 000 pounds of flood rate related debris And 1 987 cubic yards of vegetative debris That's not including the work of local municipalities For all the success, however, we know there are ongoing challenges Towns and cities have had their hands full for a very long time They're also homeowners that are still in need of assistance or waiting for fema reimbursement before they begin their renovations So this means that our work will continue If there are debris related concerns, we urge citizens to contact their local municipalities first They most of the time have resources if those municipalities need additional assistance They can contact us through their through their local emergency managers at the state emergency operation center and we can extend some help Be happy to answer your questions later. Thank you. I'll turn it over to general roc Thank you, sir Good morning the FEMA staff continues to work Both public assistance and individual assistance here in vermont We've just Passed 20.8 million dollars in individual assistance And our current estimate Before we've completed all the work with aot and bgs is about 123 million dollars For public assistance and that's growing more than likely it will eclipse Irene which was over 200 million dollars for public assistance The deadline for individual assistance applications is october 12th. So just around the corner We ask that anybody who has had damages from the storm to please apply We did extend the period another 30 days So we did some analysis and from the 13th of september until I think it was three days ago when we completed the analysis 156 people applied for assistance and of those 156 people Um 64 of them were eligible for assistance and the average award grant was $4,000 So there are still people out there who have had damages And we asked, you know anything you can do to help us get the word out to apply for assistance Please do so. We still have three disaster recovery centers that are open We have one in ludlow. We have one in berry and we have one in waterbury We were extending All of them beyond the end of the registration period of october 12th We're extending Ludlow out. I think it's to the 19th of october berry to the 27th of october and Waterbury to the 14th of october And again the purpose of the disaster recovery centers is really while you can sign up there The really the the purpose for those is to go there to receive assistance if you received a determination letter That there is challenges with your application or they you need additional work on it or a documentation So we wanted to keep those open For the one that's in berry now, we're moving that it's currently at the auditorium And we're moving it to the community resource center on I think at the 12th of october as a current day for that And as the governor said the immediate needs funding was lifted So we've been able to start obligations for things other than individual assistance, which is great news for for vermont as we continue to work with all the Towns and cities on the public assistance requirements. They have And then lastly At 220 today, I think you're all probably tracking But we'll all receive a notification on our phones Emergency alerts are part of the emergency alert system So it's been well publicized, but just want to use this opportunity to once again Ensure people got the word That it's not an emergency. It's just a test of the system And so with that I'll turn it back over to the governor and stand by for questions. Thank you, sir Thank you general roey. We'll open up to questions at this time Clarify something really quickly the deadline to apply for individual assistance is going to remain october 12. Yes, ma'am Yes, yeah, yeah, and and If somebody misses that deadline and there's Extend waiting circumstances They have up to 60 days to come forward with a request and and the you know Extend waiting circumstances is why they they couldn't apply Okay, just describe a little bit The types of people that seem to be coming in here at the last minute sort of would be smaller sort of requests So that they not know that they were eligible. Have they just been taking time to process the the information You know, unfortunately, we don't capture why you didn't come in because it's kind of intrusive We just you know open the doors say, you know, come on in whether it's disasterassist.gov or the 1800 number Or they come to the drc's I'm just glad that over 156 people have come forward and I'm hoping that we you know anybody who has had Challenges applies. I think a lot of times it's words of mouth, right? You know somebody applies and all of a sudden, you know, after you know, they get assistance Say hey listen, I my foot my basement was flooded and I didn't think I qualified But I did and I got X amount of money. In fact, I had a similar incident when I was in A local gas station The clerk the clerk working there. I said, hey, how'd you fare? They said, oh, we got a little bit of you know stuff in the basement, but you know, we don't really qualify. I said, well Call us and you never know next time I ran to him say, hey, we got some clean, you know and sanitize money So so you never know right and the reason The center's open after the application deadline is to help people with their applications. Yes, sir Following that that's a great question because a lot of times people request assistance and For instance, they may have insurance and so to get a determination letter saying, you know We're unable to provide funding at this time because And then I'll give a list of what why and it's like, you know, we'll need to see what your insurance is before We can make a determination how much you may be eligible for so things of that nature there's a number of different types of letters they'll receive and The purpose of the disaster recovery centers is to be able to have some of you You can look eyeball to eyeball with and say, I don't understand this. Can you help me understand? All right, thank you so much Where do we stand with fema in the city of Montpelier for the direct housing program and trailers? And you also mentioned last week. There's maybe a potential location in supreme field I believe is what you said if you have any updates on that as well Sure, absolutely. So for the city of Montpelier, I believe this friday We're coming together And I think we'll have the lease signed to take a look at some of the infrastructure We also were working with them on the footprint as to where it's located, you know As you may be aware, there are housing plans for the golf course And what we want to do is we wanted to make sure that we weren't impeding the opportunity for them to continue on with that effort While we're taking care of the folks who needed assistance with the mobile home units So we now have a footprint We've drawn out our Our how we'll lay it out The city and the state are in concurrence that that will work There are discussions about the the size of the piping for water and wastewater that are required for it But I believe by this friday we'll have that resolved And then we've already laid the contract for for the work to be done So we we're hoping that we'll be breaking ground on the infrastructure work In a very short period of time and get people in before hard cold weather hits And the location in springfield area, it's a commercial park And so there are pads available there if people are interested right now We don't seem to have anybody who's interested in going to that specific park And when you said cold hard weather, you mean like january december? What are you thinking? We are still shooting for for december timeframe As we all know with construction And the number of units or number of people you think 36 is right now is the number we're looking at The population we started with working with for direct housing was around 54 It's now at 41 as we spoke about before right, you know the longer it takes to get things done people find other type of solutions Um, so right now we're still looking at 36 units for the uh the golf course Montpellier area Is that 41 statewide? Uh 41 statewide, yes ma'am. I think I think it's like five five and and and then uh, I think uh It'll be 31 I guess right So I'm sorry, is it units or people? I'm sorry. Yeah applicants. Yes, uh, Washington. Uh, so for washington county is a big number Thank you, sir. Um, and then the smaller numbers from a little oil and uh and windsor Great, thank Oh, no, thank you so much. All right I have a question. I'm hoping that you could elaborate a little bit on what you found from the survey of people with damaged or no heating systems You mentioned you've heard from about half So I guess how many people do we know right now don't have a functioning heating system? Yeah, right now right now. It's about half of the original half. So about Right 200 200 and something That don't have Heat So that's the number we're dealing with. We don't know what stage they're in right now. We don't know if they're In contact with a contractor but we're We're diving in a little bit deeper to get all that and make sure that the Fuel dealers and the efficiency from under have the same information so they can help us assist us In making sure we get heat to to people in vermont Do we have any new information about How well the efficiency program is working? I don't have the information on that But we should probably have peter walk come back in at some point when we get the rest of the survey results And and see what they're able to do I know it was a big concern, you know coming out of the storm will We make sure that everyone has heat before the winter, right? Are you confident that that will be the case or just do you remain concerned? Yeah, I remain concerned That's why we put the survey out and trying to get the assistance of Fuel dealers and and others to make sure that we're putting people in touch with those who are impacted I felt that there was a gap And just anecdotally I felt there was a gap and so We're trying to bridge that gap now and making sure that we get to them just as quick as possible but I mean it's still doable, but But as we've seen, you know the temperatures Elevated in the past week or so, but they're going back down next week. So it's a concern What are you finding are the biggest problems just finding people who can do the work or That I don't know. I mean we We haven't I haven't gotten into the survey far enough to know whether supply chain issues or it's the actual technical support And the actual trades people to do to do the work So that's why we're trying to analyze that and get the fuel dealers and efficiency from aunt Get their feel as well and their feedback Of the original 1000 only about 250 still don't have heat that we know of Or is it just that that's how many people have like affirmatively said I don't have right Those are the only ones that have affirmatively said that they don't have heat or complete heat We don't know what states are in either. They may be somebody working on on their issue But but that's out of you know, we have 500 So we have a thousand we put out 500 responded and then half of them Said we don't have heat. So we don't know if that's it or Or whether there's more Thank you. That's why it's really important if if you know someone who doesn't have heat and if they haven't fill out the survey Call our office at that eight to eight three three three So governor at the beginning of this you granted yourself, I think We have like the right way to say it some powers to streamline certain permitting requirements and other things Have you considered or do you think it would help to have some sort of expedited ability to repair systems without permits? Or was that anything we'll do whatever at that the emergency order still in place And we still have the ability to waive whatever restrictions stand in the way of someone getting heat So if there are restrictions We will do whatever we have to do to make sure that we alleviate that do you think that might be one of the hold-ups I mean, I remember getting someone to look at my heating system and it involved setbacks and things and lots of complicated sort of engineering, I don't I don't know you would want to Wave engineering requirements for safety, but maybe there's something yeah, it would depend on what the issue is for instance if it's a um If if it's somebody that was If we needed to get more help out of state for instance in new york or New Hampshire and there was licensing requirements or something we could waive that But but certainly not safety We would want to make sure that we work our way through that to make sure that they were they were safe But I can't imagine what that is to be honest with you. How hard would it be to waive the licensing requirements for out of state? Not very hard Do you think you'll do that to given the what you've said about the severe lack of electricians and eating? Well, we don't know that yet. Oh, right. I mean in some respects That's why the fuel dealers have said they have enough capacity. They have the people And that's why we brought them in and share the results with them because and there may be in different parts of the state that aren't interacting with those in washington county were very hard hit obviously and And so or lamoille or or others. So we just want to connect them first. We we may be okay We just don't know at this point the fuel dealers have said that they have sufficient technicians. They said they said They hadn't heard that there was any There was a any short supply in terms of their their people but People in in some counties may have not have reached out to them It's been saying for years that there's been a huge shortage of people in those fields Yeah, but to deal with this this disaster Yeah, overall there's still a lack of trades people Governor statewide, there's a Many many leafkeepers and tourists that are coming fall foliage is is popping right now as we speak Many of these buses are going to be stopping in montpelier as well What do you hope that that tourists and leafkeepers take away when they see some of the the damage well again, there's There's a lot of places to visit throughout the state that weren't impacted much like iran But I think having some empathy for those who are suffering and going through this is good for people to see But we are open for business and we're optimistic that this is going to be a a banner year for tourism in some respects We we still have I don't I don't believe we're peak everywhere in the state And and I think there's still a lot of time left between now and six season governor House speaker karinsky last month asked the climate council to Focus on climate adaptation and resiliency Has your administration responded to that and might it force spending less money on emissions reduction We haven't responded directly. I think that was in I think her her comments were to the global warming solutions Well, the letter was to uh administration secretary christin clauser Head of the vc right, yeah, I'm sure they and they as the the council Have I don't know if they've responded or not, but we've talked about it. In fact, they were working on Many of those same initiatives, so I think they were going to respond Do you have any perspective on the Debate over what the steam heat in burlington the district heating from the big meal plant Whether it's a good idea or not from a climate point of view. I I I can only give you my point of view I think it's a great idea. I think it's served Serve burlington well. I think it's serving them up to your well and I think it should be part of our Her overall, you know heating programs will heat For deputy commissioner beat see we're speaking of debris I don't know if you'll be able to speak to this at all But considering we do only have the one landfill and coventry I guess is that where most of the debris was going is there any concerns that it can handle it? Are we going to be all right there? It seems as though we've been all right. Uh, we've certainly, uh Peaked the crest of the debris now. It's not saying that mission accomplished or anything, but They've they've handled the bulk of what we've thrown at them and there's no indication that they're pushing back against us A lot of the debris that we have left now is vegetative debris And we've been working with A site down in springfield That is handling all of that and doing all of the grinding and The various things that are necessary to take care of that So, uh, I've had no indications that there's a problem, but we'll keep an eye on it You mentioned there's 11 areas. I think you said that our work still kind of working on where where are some of the problem areas still due? They're a little bit all over the place. Um So our original list of when we reached out to communities the original list was 353. I believe it was We've worked through that list down to about 11. Uh, but as I said before it's a dynamic number We get requests On a regular basis Yesterday aot was in johnson and took nearly 10 tons of debris out of johnson And that was just a coordinated effort by the communities by the community there to reach out to homeowners who We're still doing some renovations. So so those pop up from time to time. So 11 could be 15 tomorrow It could be nine tomorrow. Um, but that's about where we are As I've said to the governor before it's a little bit like playing whack-a-mole Every time we we sort of get a bunch done more pops up over on this side Uh, but we'll keep out it Got a few folks on the phone. So we'll start with uh, chris royne newport daily express All right, we'll go to tom davis compass vermont Thank you, uh on a different topic the governor the news and citizen as a story today saying that As long as not to stow or avail corporation at this time As uh postponed any plans to try and build this gondola connected to ski areas mainly because of a lot of opposition from the Agency of natural resources. So I'm wondering if you had a comment on that Yeah, I had not uh heard that nor do I have all the details and what they were going to do It sounded like an interesting concept when I first heard about it But I don't know the area that they were considering obviously going over Um the upper elevation But but I didn't know what the root was and what the difficulties were in doing so Okay, one other question. Have you noticed uh, and have you gotten Calls for anybody nationally in the media about the latest developments and the opening of the new beta technologies of manufacturing plan? Have not, um I don't know. Is there anything you've heard now? No, nothing yet Okay, there's been a couple of stories. It's been good to see that. Okay. Thank you. One more question I'm hearing that there may be a bigger big story maybe on good morning America at some point Which would give it more attention Excellent. Thank you Tim Quiston from on business magazine Hey governor, I wonder if you have a reaction to The draft report that might have been put out on Vermont State University It's not surprising that they want to do a lot of consolidation, but it's still pretty sweeping including laying off multiple time Faculty I guess up to 30 years depending on how It works out any reaction to that draft report. Yeah, I haven't uh, I haven't read the draft report at this point But I'm not surprised We they continue to struggle But I think there is hope on the horizon And this is something, you know, the legislature had asked for there was a lot of money that was put into the from our college system the state university and But there was also The request by the legislature to reduce the amount of money That was for overhead and and to try and get into An area where they could be self-sufficient. So It's no surprise that that's that there's some layoffs I look at it from a business perspective and And I look at students like customers and if I have fewer customers I and to survive I need to cut my overhead And and I think they have the same situation here. I mean, this is this is not Something that's happened overnight. It's happened over decades now and They just have to cut their overhead and over to survive But at the end of the day what we need to do is bring more people into the state And I think beta is a good example of how we're going to be able to do that But we need more activity economic relief. We need to make vermont more affordable And we need more families to move to vermont because 90 percent of the students at historically at the vermont college system Had been vermont students. They come from vermont So when we have fewer of them, it's It doesn't take long to come to the conclusion That there are less students available And so that's been that's been their issue and and they just are trying to come to grips with Being self-sufficient and now you're looking at this from a distance, but Um Would you Be in favor of even closing one of the the campuses I I think that's a decision they have to make on their own. Um, this is uh, they're separate they're out of our purview in some respects, but uh But I think there's there's a way to do this In a structured way where you may not have to close a campus But you're you're going to have to find other uses for part of your campus. That's not being utilized today So again, I think that they're all contemplating that and We'll see what happens as a result of this uh, this report Has a long ways to go Keith the Rockland Herald Hi, I was wondering, um If anyone was aware of the current situation going on in Paulette with the The slate bridge and the owner Daniel botney. My understanding is The environmental court had put out an arrest warrant for him The time period for that arrest warrant expired without him ever being arrested I think now the court is saying because this isn't being appealed to the state supreme court. They they can't modify the order anyway. Um They're just wondering what anybody thinks of this situation if there's anything else to be done here If it's just um Or what's going on with this? I mean, it looks like the the court's authority is kind of being a little undermined here by law enforcement not following through for whatever reason I uh, I don't have any I guess I'm not aware of of what We could do at this point in time, but we'll certainly look into it I I have heard and read something about the the situation Uh, but uh, but I'm not sure of the uh the details of that and what what is even being asked at this point Try chrysleroy one more time Right back to the room governor you uh speaking of slate ridge you I believe you signed a bill earlier this year Uh banning paramilitary camps. How how do you see that playing into the picture of where we we stand with, uh, mr. Bonnier Yeah, well, I think uh, I think his contention is that uh, he doesn't fall under that Jurisdiction he's found another way or he's at least that's what he's going to The argument he's going to make to the court. I believe is that he doesn't fall under that But I still believe it was the right thing to do Governor so tonight, it's though. We have a benefit concert. We're a hundred percent Money is going to recover efforts even october fest later on in a ton of events like that So I guess just from your kind of helicopter position as go I guess what's it just been like the last few months watching municipalities organizations come together to help with thousands and thousands of restaurants and businesses that have been affected Yeah, well, it's heartwarming to see and uh people who weren't affected by the flood directly Still feel a sense of camaraderie to those who were across the state and I think that that's part of The beauty of being here in vermont and neighbor helping neighbor coming to the aid of those who need us at that time And we've proven it time and time again, whether it's sireen or or this uh, July flooding event 23 We're still seeing people coming together to help but they we still have a lot to do right and I'm going to probably talk about this more and more as time goes on in the next few weeks, but There are still a lot of projects that could use the help of volunteers I see a lot of projects when I go through either Montpelier or berry and so forth They just need some volunteer help people come together and I know they're willing They just need to know about them. So we need to to bring that all together and And and help one another out one community to another The state's unemployment system, how would you How would you express or how do you feel about how it's responded to the ability to get money in the hands of people who've been affected by this flood? Well, I think in some respects if you're talking about the du a in particular or just overall Just and you're talking about the unemployment system or yeah The the program that's set up Obviously, we are looking forward to the new it system that will come into place and that will be helpful in the future But but I believe that they did respond in the way that we normally do with With any a type of unemployment activity if you get laid off from your job unexpectedly We respond and then in this case, I think we did as well The du a complicated things a bit, but it was a smaller number But we can always do better obviously we want to do better But I've heard you express frustration in the past about how long it took to set up the du a system We're continuing to hear though from businesses who are expressing profound frustration that It's it's taken them extremely long period of time to get the straight answers to Which program their employees ought to be applying to and then They're running up against this This need to continue to look for work The employees need their waiver period of 10 weeks, I think Um, have you considered Waving this period of time where people have to be looking for work in order to get benefits because that's something we did during covid Right, but I gather we haven't done that. Yeah, I'm not sure if commissioner herrington is on I might have him respond But I but I do have a lot of sympathy for anyone And we should find a way through this because anyone who is connected with a business that is going back They just have an open backup We should extend it right but to wave it Across the board may not be the answer So strategically And maybe surgically if we can do that I'm all in favor But but on the other hand We have for those who are unemployed at this point in time Not not connected to the flood We need we have We have more jobs than there are people to fill them So we have a lot of need out there in terms of filling those positions. So if you're unemployed right now There's all kinds of opportunity out there and we want to make sure that people Are filling those those jobs that are open But for those who are impacted by the flood and are going back to the business that they they came from that just hasn't reopened We should find a way to to give them some relief. That's what I'm here to take part of the problem is this is sort of this Process where the business is trying to reopen on a certain time frame But then they're just having extreme difficulty getting reopened and it's creating this confusion about whether their workers can Can avail themselves of unemployment benefits during the intro. I feel Maybe a connection to Ethan Allen. For instance up in Orleans county when I visited there They had 300 employees and and I know it was going to take They They offered they're just going to take some time to open back up And they didn't want to lose their employees because they're few and far between in that area But they're a major employer. So so again, I I feel I feel an urgent need in that particular situation as I do with anyone who was impacted by the flood So now we'll see what uh, commissioner erranton has to say Hopefully it's all the same thing It's deputy commissioner degree commissioner erranton's everything isn't here We have extended the 10 week return to work date for a variety of companies on a case-by-case basis basically For the reasons that the governor has has outlined. I mean the reality is it's a it's a It's a date to make sure that Statutorily Companies in the past have kind of used An extended return to work data as as kind of a way to game the system And that's kind of the reason it's structured there But we have worked with companies to extend that date or that that time period from 10 weeks to 12 weeks to sometimes 14 weeks That have been in communication with us and we would certainly love to hear from any companies Who are who are interested in in extending that date for the exact reason the governor just Just outlined we don't want a company to lose its workforce Because they were struck by a natural disaster. So that is something that we can do on a case-by-case basis We have it And the commissioner has kind of resisted Doing it holistically across the system But certainly any any company that's running into that return to work date. We'd love to talk to them You know, it's not something That I think we're comfortable just waving in perpetuity But if you know that it's going to take 12 or 14 weeks from that date Or or longer if there's a date certain That's the reason That's the reason that's there. So have the rich out to us And certainly we'll work to get that message out as well Deputy commissioner degree call him so last week Seven days publisher paula ratley published a An editorial saying the basically drugs and homelessness in berlington are just broken and out of control And it was looking what do we have any new ideas? And I'm wondering if on the state level are are there any innovations for either vermont? Homelessness or drug problem that that we haven't heard about yet Yeah, I think we need to continue to do what we've been doing and just amplify that Whether it's the drug issue. I think The four legs of the stool We need more prevention. We need more treatment. We need more recovery and we need We need more enforcement as well So we have to amplify all of that The homeless situation is some something you know with our housing crisis and then now with the With our flooding has exacerbated the situation and we're trying to get We've got all hands on deck trying to do whatever we can to alleviate that as well. So I think those two situations We just need more more resources and unfortunately we need more time that we don't have And we just need to amplify everything Burlington mayor windberger has said that the hub and spoke model hasn't been able to keep up with fentanyl and and other Other challenges that have been facing the the system. I mean, how do you think hub and spoke is old? Yeah, no, I think I think it is part of the answer But but I would agree fentanyl has taken over it's taken over the country. It's not just here in vermont It's across the country and we need to stem the flow somehow And that may be more globally But um, but I would agree fentanyl has changed the game and then Xylazine, I think is that I think that's the new newest one as well. That's That's impacted us in the face of rising overdoses As you know, well, no, there's some people like mayor fire windberger who are saying we need to change our approach We need to try new things You have you continue to say is today, you know, we need to double down on what we have been doing I guess why do you believe that right that We just need to double down so we are Because we saw success with that program with that model In the beginning and then again fentanyl changed the game So my belief still is that it's the right approach We just need to do more of it And that takes resources and it takes resources including not just money But people and we're in a short supply Of people in the state. We're having a hard time with our workforce hiring And and so forth. So and that's across the board and in our health care system. It's it's Become an issue. It has been an issue for a while and it's it's good Getting worse And that's why we've worked with our congressional delegation on this center sanders has taken this on who was here last week With another senator from kansas republican To try and work on our health care system. So I think we all recognize and realize that this this is an issue that we have to confront And there are answers out there, but some some of the answers are what we've been doing already. We just need more of it so, uh FEMA's disaster relief fund has been topped off That's obviously big relief to vermont but you know Are you still hoping that the federal delegation will be able to get more right either? Yes, uh, are you hoping for more? Yes, okay, and what does that look like? Well, it's for major projects like I've spoken about in berry for instance, uh, I think there's an opportunity there But we need to make sure that we have some funding to back that up because i'm not sure that we can do the scale of Development that I think is needed in berry On our own we need extra help and that will mitigate the sum of these disasters in the future if we do this right so they're senator sanders in particular I've spoken to about this a great deal and in fact just the other day at beta So we're going to continue to work together. We need to work with the city as well Make sure our visions align And so we're all on the same page and to confront this because I think There is an opportunity here. We can make lemon lemons if we do this right, but we're going to need Funding resources to do that, but I think there's an opportunity because they've they've more than replenished the Disaster FEMA funding so there's an opportunity to For congress to utilize some of that to mitigate in the future Are you hoping for just additional housing money in general? I guess or is it just or is it just a development to vary? What is kind of the universe? You know, I look at this as a you know bigger universe and and you think about How do we prevent the flooding in the future? I've talked about the volume Storing the capacity to store more water in the future It's part of the answer and not building right on the river banks and extending the river banks broadening the river banks in order to store more water flood water And so but this all can be done connected together with housing and buyouts and so forth To try and replenish the housing as we as we provide more storage capacity. So it could be done um You should start upstream and um And work our way through in some of these impacted areas that are historically vulnerable The vermont history museum is reopening Filling on october 10th. I'm just wondering what does that mean maybe for your offices? Attorney general offices. Can we see you guys moving back to mob failure around that time? No, no, there's still Issues with the rest of the building, but they're on the first floor And they're right out front. So they can reopen and obviously we have Tourism starting so it'd be good to open that back up So that so people that do come and visit Bus tours and so forth have a place to go along with our beautiful state capital So which wasn't impacted by the flood, but the rest of the floor is in 133 Um, I still have a ways to go You've seen the story that estimated the cost of 100 million dollars to state facilities in in mob failure from the floods Do you agree with that and if so? Where's that money going to come from is that all federal FEMA dollars going to help? Build those buildings or we heard the hope with FEMA dollars. Yeah I think for the most part, uh, we'll meet that Threshold of the 111 million Of public damage to reduce The what we have to to put in The match money So that'll be reduced from 25 to 10 percent But yes, I believe most of that will come from FEMA But it doesn't surprise me Considering the damage that I saw and all the I mean that that's what's different about this The situation than Irene when we had Irene everything was somewhat visible About 40 bridges, I believe structures that were visible and uh, not that it took a long time to rebuild them But you could see them This affected our downtowns more dramatically affected more homes, especially in berry When you look at the difference in the quantity of debris from berry into montpellier, for instance And we know how hard montpellier was it, but I'd say there's at least twice the debris In berry than in montpellier. So that tells you the extent of this So it's all the hidden components so in in the buildings themselves that are so expensive To to rebuild and recover I guess I mean I understand your explanation about the need to go upstream and find ways without water to be confused And some of the energy to be spread out into But is there anything more you can say about what the state is going to do to actually Find those properties Develop those areas in ways that they can handle flood waters or is it just an idea at this point? Well again without without funding. It's just an idea It's just the concept pages. It's it's something that we can continue to do But it'll take that much longer. There's going to have to be buyouts associated with this willing participants To to do this But I but I think there is I think there's an opportunity here and and I I look at this as the glass half full and and I think that it's doable And if we have the funding we can do it quicker If we don't we can still do it. It's just going to take longer and it's going to be strategic Well, what is your confidence level after what you've seen in congress this week and specifically the house of representatives What's your confidence level? Well one day it's it's higher than some other days But seeing that they came, you know, I I Believe they did the right thing leadership in in the house Speaker McCarthy did the right thing and reaching a deal Cost them his speakership, but But that's what we all have to do and we have to we have to deal with the reality at hand and do for the greater good and stuff that consequences after so I'm hopeful that That they'll come together in some way but but we're seeing this division this fracturing throughout the country and It used to be I've used this analogy before It used to be that there was the pendulum that went back and forth, you know more liberal more conservative back and forth like that But now this pendulum is just broken right down the middle and it's going in opposite directions I don't know how we we need to bring it together Because I think the vast majority of people across the country Are more moderate centrists. It's the extremists on both sides of the aisle that have a lot of voices and obviously With a limited number of people Have quite a bit of power when you have such a fractured government Thank you all very much There was a story the other day in seven days about an individual from platzberg who was banned from riding the ferry back and forth From platzberg to burlington where he gets medical care Because he had sent an email to the company expressing his disdain for the company and for It's monopoly over the ferry service in the in the state and I guess I just wondered if you saw that and whether you had it I did not see it. No Yeah, I don't have any details hard to comment on that before seeing that Thank you very much