 Good afternoon everyone. We're here today to announce the first round of approved projects for the community recovery and revitalization program As you might recall this was an important initiative that we strongly advocated for during the last session and Worked with the legislature to secure 40 million dollars in federal ARPA funding to support projects across the state Which will help our communities grow and recover Of the 40 million dollars about 10 million will go out in this first round to 31 approved projects That funding will help leverage and support project costs totaling more than a hundred and fifty-three million Mr. Goldstein will offer more details on the program and the first round of award winners And we're grateful to have at least one of them here We're going to have to but the weather might have delayed them a bit to talk about how this funding will support their revitalization projects and their communities These first 31 represent diverse areas like housing child care and agriculture They're also supporting the arts entertainment and hospitality sectors which suffered significant losses during the pandemic as I've long said We must be strategic and make lasting investments with this one-time federal money My administration has been focused on that goal and this program will help businesses and organizations over the long term ARPA funding has received a lot of attention over the last year Mostly on how and where to spend it and we're now beginning to see how transformative it can be With projects like these But we can't stop here We have to continue to look down the road and make smart investments that will build on progress we're making The funding decisions we make today need to work in tandem with the many state programs. We already have It's why in my budget we increase funding for our downtown organizations and regional development organizations So those on the ground can help prioritize projects that need financial support to help create a vibrant downtown structure It's also why we must support economic development initiative initiatives like making sure we have industrial space Available and ready So it's a so it's there when a company looks to move or expand here or continue to fund brownfield redevelopment projects as I've said, there's no quick fix for the state It will take all of these programs working together to make lasting changes in all 14 counties So we hope the legislature will continue to work with us to prioritize investments that help the parts of the our state They need it most and with that I'll turn it over to Commissioner Goldstein to talk more specifically about the program and those 31 projects Thank You governor and hello everybody our team in the Department of Economic Development has been hard at work reviewing these community recovery and revitalization program applications to ensure that the awarded projects are Making capital improvements or capital expansions that spur the economic recovery in communities that need the revitalization All across the state as the governor mentioned 31 projects have been approved for funding thus far And we've spent just a little over 10 million dollars of the 40 million dollars available has been allocated these These projects will be This 10 million will be supporting a hundred and fifty three million dollars worth of project costs So just this bit of government money helps for additional capital investment These projects are expected to support 354 existing jobs and enable the creation of 205 new jobs 79 new affordable housing units 196 new child care slots for a load of moderate income families the awards are spread across 12 counties with 20 projects coming in from the priority groups We had historically underrepresented groups and towns with stagnant or decline in grand list values were looked at first this program also was made available to municipalities and We're happy to say three were awarded in the first round. That's Highgate Manchester and Killington And we're very pleased with the Variety of projects that we're seeing all types of projects that are being supported through this program the demand We knew was acute when we first developed it and we want to impact areas as diverse as child care affordable housing Tourism the arts and agriculture to really make this truly make this a unique program in total We've received 83 applications Including the 31 that have been approved and that is to support more than 408 million dollars in project costs So what's what's so inspiring about having this pot of funding is to see the great projects that are being done all over the State by all kinds of people in all kinds of organizations Applications not approved in this round remain under review And they'll be announced in the coming weeks as they are approved applications will continue to be accepted Until the funds are allocated as the governor mentioned the ARPA funded projects are a great start And it's great to see ARPA dollars at work But we know we need to do more and we need to maximize these investments And that's why we need the legislative support to support our full slate and portfolio of economic development initiatives this year including brownfields the rural industrial development fund the Vermont training program and new worker incentives So we can continue the work of ensuring our communities are able to recover Grow and continue to be revitalized in the future with that I'm going to turn it over to Mowee Moulton and Letty Moulton from neck of the woods daycare Which is based in Waitsfield one of our recipients. Thank you Good afternoon. I am Mowee Moulton. I'm the executive director of the neck of the woods program This is Letty We'll see if she can make it through this one neck of the woods is a child care center located in Waitsfield, Vermont with me here today also is one of our amazing toddler teachers destiny Miller and We're hoping that let he can manage to hold out her squeals of appreciation for this grant quicker than than I can We're absolutely honored to be here today and we would first like to express our utmost gratitude to governor Scott To the state legislature the agency of commerce and community development and those administering the community recovery and revitalization program that is hard to say when you haven't slept in three weeks Similar to the rest of the state the matter of valley has a dramatic shortage of child care available to families with children infant through preschool age Many families have to patch together child care options often with one parent staying home and out of the workforce Providing high-quality child care is a critical component to young working families considering moving to Vermont Neck of the woods programming began in the early months of 2020 with our team's vision of providing high-quality child care and early education to the Madover Valley and the surrounding communities in 2021 we bought our campus from small dog electronics, which includes 11 acres of land a 10,000 square foot building and a 5600 square foot warehouse At the time of purchase we began a two and a half million dollar capital campaign To renovate the main building and turn it into a much needed child care facility Since 2021 we've renovated the main floor of the building to include five classrooms and bathrooms and improve the building envelope In HVAC systems We currently have 45 children enrolled per day ages six weeks to five years of age and We'll be expanding to allow available slots to 68 children per day by the end of this year this grant that we were awarded of $468,000 will give us the opportunity to continue to expand our facility By renovating the second floor to open up more classrooms Adding handicap access with a new elevator and entryway It will allow us to continue to update the building envelope and systems to meet all state and federal requirements and in a county where there are over 1100 slots needed for infant through preschool age children to meet the demand for child care We will be able to provide 125 slots for children in these age ranges once the second floor is complete We would again like to express our appreciation for this grant and the opportunity to help fill the critical need for child care for Young families and our beautiful state of Vermont. Thank you Thank you so much and we'll now open up for questions Maybe we can stay on topic first and then we'll take the off topic questions afterwards Is that specific We're we have a whole slate of economic Growth initiatives that we'd like them to to adopt So I'll let Yes, so for the community revitalization We're not asking for additional funding but we're asking for 10 million dollars for a brown fields revitalization And 10 million dollars for industrial development funds to help spur development Of industrial facilities all around the state so that we're ready when businesses are growing Or when we're recruiting businesses from canada as an example The other asks our five million dollars for a Vermont training program and four million dollars for the relocated worker You mentioned housing being one of the sectors to which these grants are going Do you have a sense of how many new units will come on board as a result of with this With this 40 million dollar grant with it with the 10 million that is being appropriated in this round If you can talk about 31 net increase in housing units So of this in the 31 projects, we're going to have 79 new affordable units. That's in white river junction So there's that's one project in white river junction. That is that's correct. Okay For the first round we have many housing applications in q There'll be more I Guess it's probably different for different projects, but when you're just you're vetting these applications What are some of the criteria that you guys are waiting? Sure. Um, thanks for the question project readiness weighs very heavily as does the Sourcing of other funds most of these projects have many sources of funds and if it's early days We really are kind of deferring those and asking them to come back when they've located some other sources of funds I'd say those are the two most heavily weighted We also look at geographic distribution. We look at child care and affordable housing You know, so there's a variety of things that go into it But I'd say the two largest components are readiness and the leveraging of other sources Is it moe? You talked about This grant giving your organization the opportunity to be able to create more slots for kids Presumably, you're going to need more people Employed in order to do that. Can you talk about? Have you think you're going to be able to address some of the workforce issues that other Organizations like yours are running into That's a tough one. We We definitely all in child care see difficulty in hiring staff. Is that what you're asking? Yeah So we do we do find that it's a very difficult balance Because in child care, you don't necessarily get paid an extremely large amount of money So I think what we've been doing is we've been working with our board to piece together How that balance is going to look and making sure that we continue to Build programs so that we can use a multitude of programs that will funnel The money in together so that we can distribute out more money to our staff than we otherwise would Be able to with just one or two programs. So we kind of use A multi-tiered approach to those things Yeah Any other questions on topic anybody on the line? Yeah, tim sarah edd or guy have on topic questions Want to go now we can circle back for off topics All right, thank you very much she was very good As you know before Fortown meeting day break the senate voted out s5 Looks a little different has a has that check back has a study Associated with it does does the current proposal that was voted out of the senate meet your concerns? No, no it doesn't But we still hope that they will be able to make the changes in the legislature as it moves through Through the other body and we'll go from there What specifically I want to build to specifically say We're going to take this back in And then we're going to I've listed it in the in my veto letter from last year Um exactly what it's going to cost and what it's going to mean and what we're going to look for And I think it really has to be specific and go through the normal bill process And it really doesn't say that it says a check back of some sort and and that could be changed In many different ways and it really is in the wording Because who knows who's going to be here when that comes back from the puc Um some of us may not be here. I may not be governor. Who who knows? So, uh, that leaves it to interpretation And when you go to interpretation, you have to go by the the words Not what the the intent was If I'm staying in a hotel right now, government is paying for me to stay in a hotel in a hotel And I hit that exit date right whether it's may 31st or June 31st What what's next for me Well, we've been doing, um, I think something that's uh, that hasn't been done before Um, and because a lot of this is new to us in some especially the expansive nature of all the folks who are in the enrolled in the hotel motel program But we've gone in with a team to actually Talk with with them to find out what their needs are And what they're going to do or what brought them here and what they're, uh, what we're going to do in the future. So With this, uh, type of approach We'll have a better handle On where they go next and have provide some of the services they need Whether it's in recovery, uh, whether it's in transitional housing Whether it's in any type of other type of temporary housing, uh, as well as for long-term housing So finding job opportunities and so forth. So we're working, uh, to try and make sure this is soft landing for them as possible So they can get back on their feet And we can get them into permanent housing in the long run What would the temporary housing options look like for some of our But we still have our program, right? I mean it's still it's still there still viable So the program a general assistance program isn't going away. It's just changing Um, but um, but with some of the investments we've made In some of the the organizations There will be more housing available in temporary in nature There as well Man ask, uh, Secretary Samuelson if she could take it from here All right, thank you I'm going to address that question quite well. Um, I just want to reinforce that The agency and the administration they've had a very active role investing in Housing having to re-house more than 3,000 People over the period of the pandemic We continue to work on making unprecedented investment bringing the units online As well as um adding shelter bed And shelter units As we work move forward As the governor reiterated the agency conservative is in part that across all of the departments as well as with other Other agencies And working to assess the needs Both the health care needs housing needs the economic needs and the workforce needs In the hotels, which is that's more information than we've ever had before but also As a stronger resource casement approach To working with individuals who are spending often We have confident that these approaches will give us the information need to continue To move forward and to help the clients that we're working Forward into housing or other situations in the future Secretary Samuelson, I Understand there are about 1,800 households and motels and hotels right now when we Go into the new iteration of this program on june 1st of july 1st or whatever it is How many households where there'll be capacity for In in that program We are currently Lately And across our shelters across the work we're doing for the Vermont housing for the end of What I can say is there are Many individuals who were formerly housed off the family and friends units We came This point in time in in those analysis, but We can we can and have supported on going family and Houses as their loved ones We're being in creative ways each day Providing financial support to individuals experiencing the font all turn What I will be Our current in program not favoritizing the most vulnerable and the number of units that are available for decline the for all of us to Begin to look at our programs going forward To make sure that we're housing children and youth That we're housing individuals with disabilities and older adults as we go because right now we're not able to accommodate them in our current programs I think you probably got part of that right? Yeah, I guess I'm just wondering is there a number that you can give us for the number of households that will that the New that the next version of the program will be able to accommodate at any given time Thank you That's why we want to continue investing in the v-hip program for instance providing for accessory dwellings We think that that's provided a lot of units For a lot less money than the traditional housing program So we want to continue to invest in that area and hope the legislature goes along with us You're gonna in the not too distant future Have a bill arrive at your desk that seeks to address The issue of suicide in vermont by instituting a 72 hour waiting period for firearms purchases A requirement that gun owners keep their firearms securely locked away when they're not using them Um What's your inclination right now? What's the bill member again? 230 So that that's past the house. It's it's uh in judiciary right now In judiciary so hasn't got through the house yet, right? It's Okay, and then so it gets through the house and then it goes to the senate. Yeah. Yeah, so it's it's got a ways to go First of all, yeah a lot of changes there. I think I've made it very fairly clear I don't believe I personally don't believe we need to make any direct dramatic changes in our gun laws at this point And from my perspective That would be problematic So we'll take a look at it when the final version finally does arrive But I'd say it still has a long ways to go Problematic in what way for me In what why is it a way? Well, like I said, we we took as you Probably remember about three or four years ago. We took a lot of steps towards implementing gun safety regulations and oversight And and I think we can still improve in that red flag laws and so forth There are some provisions that we could we could adopt and go along with but If it's too expansive then it's probably a non-starter from my perspective But what's the problem that's created for gun owners in the state by the provisions that I was just referencing Which one's uh, we had 72 our waiting period and again, I've I've been resistant To the 72 hour waiting period. I think I've even vetoed one. It was for Handgun legislation in particular Um, I just don't think that that's uh, workable. I just don't I don't think that that helps the situation And say storage and you're uh, well again, who's going to who's going to have oversight of that? um, like who is going to um Someone going to go into your home and inspect your home and determine whether you've Put your firearms away I mean, how far are we going to go with this? I mean that those are the types of things that people are going to ask And they're going to wonder does this give um Uh, give law enforcement the ability to to come into your home to inspect your Whether you have your firearms stored correctly Governor as you also Probably seen the budget adjustment is uh coming your way. I think it was voted out of conference committee or they're working on it They did voted voted out. They did. I know you would raise concerns about the size and scope of some of the spending I mean, what would you make of the? My concerns are still there. Um, it's 50 million dollars over What we had asked for in budget adjustment About half of that was for the housing piece that uh, that peter was referencing um, and the other um There was 25 million more for Vcb as well So it's not where it's directed in terms of housing vcb and so forth But where's the money going to come from? Uh, you know, we presented a budget that we think was Balanced and made the appropriate investments. So it's got to come out of something And with all the other All the other initiatives they're talking about now. We're talking about I mean, there's a lot of money at stake here Hundreds of millions of dollars Is are those concerns enough to warrant a veto? We'll take a look when it gets here first of all. I mean, we have a bill review process When we get the bill we have five days to act upon it And uh, we'll take a look to make sure that there are no mistakes within the bill I think that's something that a lot of folks miss That it's not just uh, we don't just take the word for it because we've seen I think it was last session We had a number of bills that had mistakes there. I mean they were rushed through and There's some oversight, but but you miss things when there's so much at the end So we want to make sure that it's workable. We'll have all our agencies and departments Look at the the portions of the bill that they are responsible for And then give us any feedback they might have at that point. I'll determine whether to sign or not sign Um or whether to veto As we do with every bill Yeah, I mean we are in constant contact with emergency management And I had a cabinet meeting this morning We went around the table and discussed our areas of responsibility and how we were doing Obviously the the southern part of the state got hit the hardest and this isn't over We have we have some concerns about What the high winds are going to to bring and more snow The other regions of the state a lot of power outages in the southern part Before this press conference I I learned that we are setting up. I believe An emergency shelter in the Brattleboro area Route 9 is closed. Route 7a is closed a portion of that route 12. I believe in Bethel is closed. So This is you know, it's it's a significant event northeaster And it's not over. So we have our share of concerns anything uh, commissioner morrison you'd like to add to that Uh, sorry, I'm going to add that as a half an hour ago we had over 36,000 averages reported So it will be a multi-day restoration period. Um We have uh I've authorized the opening of a partial virtual emergency operations center to coordinate our response and to support the utilities in their work in whatever way possible Um, so yeah this one the the snow accumulation has gone much further north Then we anticipated uh, and We ran a higher volume and so I think once those winds pick up we're going to be really concerned with more trees and lines coming down the governor alluded to several roads that are closed. We had multiple reports of trees online or or uh Just trees across roads too. So This will be a messy one to pick up from everybody should be very very cautious stay home if you don't need to be outdone But we have you know, we're prepared as well as we could Green Mountain power did a great job in bringing over some of our partners from the north and canada So we were all set up ready to go In anticipating that there was going to be power outages as a result of the storm Questions online Yeah, go ahead New cc has the only landfilling provide they have the virtual To read These are why I'm bringing this office because they're most recent business strategy has been to virtually vertically integrate Which means they're buying out independent hollers. So they have control of the waste chain from the garbage can to the landfill So Recently last they made purchase of a company up here and at the same time they got post a couple of hollers from another company That company couldn't replace the drivers. So they had to keep up those routes um Just wondering if there's any concern on the administration's part that they're going to develop a virtual not leading state and we'll set their prices And they did increase their rates out last year and they increased them again from back in february I just wanted what you're taking is on how we can manage the facilities that are protected by A company that really is operating and also about production Yeah, um, well a couple of things. Uh, first of all, I don't know is there are many companies many entities who didn't Increase their rates over the last year or two. So I'm not surprised by that As well, I would say we do have another major competitor Myers out of the chitin county area And there's some others throughout the state as well So I don't think we're at a point where there's concern about a monopoly But I understand your point and we'll continue to monitor that In any way that we can This is uh, you know a problematic In terms of having just one facility that takes all of the Trash throughout the state. Uh, and so again, um, I don't have all the answers to that but um But I get your point when we'll continue to monitor Okay In January, I'll have a one-to-one pick up in January. It cost me eight dollars plus a dollar 61 type of fuel tax And then I'll talk in February On the office in three dollars sixty-one seven full tax I guess I'm wondering if Seeing how they have a lot of tariffs were locked up Um, and in the same position as if I was going to try to shop around for another electric utility Oh Yeah, well again, I don't think we're at that point right now, but we'll continue to monitor the situation Thank you S18 I'm not familiar with the bill All flavored tobacco Um, yeah, you know, um, I think in the past we've we've commented on that I'm I'm I'm a proponent of as much prevention as possible I think one in six for monitors currently smoke and and I believe that Many of our youth that's when they get hooked And so we need to continue to focus as best we can on prevention I haven't looked at that bill in particular But but anything we can do to prevent someone From from getting addicted to smoking. I think it would be beneficial for Themselves their families and society in general. So I'll take a look at it. Um, but it's again It's going through the senate has to go to the house Has a long ways to go before it comes back To to here to me I think I just think it's unnecessary I think wages have been inflated. I said this before I wasn't in favor of Uh, a $15 minimum wage before the pandemic And I still am not I believe that supply and demand Works and in this case, I I believe most people are making well over $15 an hour Not to get smarter, but why Not raise the minimum wage by legislation in that case that demand has to put the patients up Uh, I won't get smart and ask you why if we need it, but Um, I again, I just think it's unnecessary. I I just don't understand why we would have to go through this whole contortion Um, when it's not needed at all and and I wasn't supportive of of artificially raising The minimum wage when we had provisions within the bill, um, that we have passed over the years I voted for it when I was in the senate And uh put a a multiplier on there due to the cost of living And from my standpoint, that's still working. Um, so I just think it's unnecessary Okay Just a clarification, um, am I hearing you say you don't mean principle You still need to look at the bill to see what's in there, but in principle You don't have concerns with a statewide ban on flavored tobacco from Vegas Yeah, I mean I again, I would like to look at the bill, um, but um, But personally I I don't have a concern for that Thank you all very much