 Good morning everyone. Thanks for being here. As you know last week we began reaching out to about 1,000 Vermonters who had reported damage to the heating systems as a result of the floods to check in on how they're doing. With cold weather around the corner we need to make sure those who haven't been able to make the need of repairs get that help that they need to do that. We need a better understanding of what that includes and what stands between them and a warm home. So far we've heard back from about one-third of those we emailed and as a reminder anyone who reported to FEMA or 211 that you had damage to your heating system you should have received an email from a Vermont.gov address. So please complete the survey if you received it so we can give you a helping hand. Later this week we'll start making direct calls to anyone we have not heard back from. The calls will come from the tax department but don't worry they're not calling to talk about taxes. They've they've stepped up to help us. Another example of how we work together is one team during a crisis. If you didn't get an email and you still have damage to a heating system call my office at 828-3333 and we'll get the information we need over the phone and if you know someone in this situation ask them if they filled out this short and simple survey or encourage them to check their email or call if not. We're working with many partners including Efficiency Vermont, the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association and Vermont Gas. So we can use the surveys to connect technicians to those who need service and equipment. Again we know that for some it's been difficult to find contractors available to repair their furnaces. The Fuel Dealers Association have agreed to help connect people with contractors to get the work done and I want to thank Matt Cota who is here today for his teamwork on this. But even after the FEMA Awards we know there are many financial barriers. So Efficiency Vermont will reach out to make flood victims aware of the financial incentives and resources available including the recent 10 million the eboard approved which they oversee. Peter Walk from Efficiency Vermont is here with us today to go over some of the programs are operating right now to help those impacted by flooding. We continue to update you on our progress and how we're working with these partners. But I want to thank them for their collaboration as we work together to make sure Vermonters impacted by the flooding have the heat they need to get through the winter. So with that I'll turn it over to Peter Walk. Thank you Governor. Good morning everybody. My name is Peter Walk. I'm the managing director of Efficiency Vermont. I'm happy to be here today to talk to a little bit about the programs that are available to help Vermonters get back into heating and hot water and other basic appliances before winter comes. As the governor mentioned the emergency board took action in late July to repurpose 10 million dollars of existing ARPA funding to support this effort to support low and moderate income Vermonters getting back into heat and hot water and other basic appliances before winter. We have been working with the public service department to rapidly deploy these dollars and I'm grateful for the partnership across the board working with our partners across the energy space to be able to get these dollars out. There are three primary components to this program. There is the 10 million dollars that I mentioned that is focused on residential programs. Those are available to anybody who any family making less than 120 percent of the area median income and we have an easy to follow table on our website. There are programs that are focused on homeowners and tenants as well as rental property owners. We are offering contacts through Efficiency Vermont's team to do virtual home energy visits where very simply you can walk around with your smartphone and show us what your heating system what your weatherization what other aspects of your energy use look like to be able to best support you. Those rebates are interact with the FEMA process and the eboard to maximize that award at $10,000 or significant support available to folks. It's available for both primary and supplementary heating systems. So if FEMA was to have helped you get back into your furnace or boiler and you wanted to explore getting a heat pump or a pellet stove or another option that would be available to you as a as a rebate. Additionally through work with the public service department we were able to secure through the PUC an additional million dollars to support businesses in recovering from the flood. The businesses are eligible for up to a thousand dollars per appliance or piece of equipment that they need to replace due to flooding up to four appliances so they can receive a max of four thousand dollars. And additionally we've been working with the agency of natural resources on a program to help to ensure that there is contractor availability as the governor mentioned so that we can make sure that everybody is working together because we know that many contractors have come in to try to help as much as possible and they have other business waiting and so we need to make sure that we get help people get into warm homes for the winter. I'm grateful for the governor's team to be putting out the survey that they did that will help us understand the remaining lay of the land and who needs the support and how we can help them get back into those systems over time. Additionally there is as part of the grant we worked on the public service department and these will extend further into the future. There's five million dollars available to help people switch to heat pump hot water heater systems which can help them save significant money and energy use over the course of time as well as money to help with electric panel upgrades to allow for the electrification of heating and transportation and other things. We have been working very closely to deploy to get those monies out the door with partners with the other electric energy efficiency utilities and the distribution utilities to get those monies outdoors quickly as possible and all of that is on top of the existing incentives that efficiency from other partners offer so that people can really have much of those needs met over the course of time that's weatherization dollars that's existing incentives for pieces of equipment and so you can stack those resources on top of that that they do not the existing resources and those that five and the 19 million dollars do not count towards the $10,000 cap. We understand that many are on different stages of this journey in terms of recovery and so there are complicating factors across the board. The FEMA process while wonderful and great and the folks in FEMA have been wonderful to work with it's complicated and it's a complicated process for an individual. We want to make sure that Vermonters are maximizing the award that they get from FEMA and then the support from us helps to supplement that effort so make sure you're working through FEMA and your insurance company first and then coming to us to see what additional support that we can provide. We also know that upfront capital is a problem and so we're working with partners to try to better understand what that need is and how we can help meet it through existing and expanded loan programs and other ways for folks to be able to access the capital they need so that then the rebates that we offer can come in on the back end. We also know people are struggling. The scale of this challenge is overwhelming and the number of programs that they need to access so we're here as a resource with our other folks who are acting as resource. We want people to be able to work with us however they they need to. That's why we're working with community partners to help be an extra layer on top of the trusted partners that are out there. So without I'm happy to hand it to the general here to talk further about what's going on with FEMA but I'm happy to answer questions at the end. Good morning. A couple updates for you all. Under individual assistance we are now at nineteen point eight million dollars that we've been able to provide to approve for Vermonters who requested assistance. We can continue to work with Vermont on the deadline right now is October 12th. So extended it 30 days at the governor's request and due to that an additional hundred sixty seven people have been able to apply for assistance. And of course I would appreciate your help in putting out the information. You know if you haven't contacted us yet please do do so prior to October 12th at one eight hundred sixty one three three six two. We currently have four disaster recovery centers open. We ask people to go there if they've received a letter from FEMA and have questions about it. That's a primary purpose for them. Although they can also register there. The location we have in Barton will be closing today relatively slow low numbers. That'll leave us with Ludlow, Barry and Waterbury as the three remaining disaster recovery centers. We're also working with the state on public assistance. And so right now we have a hundred and eighty three applicants. Applicant can either be a town city or a private nonprofit. And based upon those hundred and eighty three applicants we've already built out approximately three hundred and twenty five projects. That's typically based upon providing funding back for funds that are already expended that are eligible for reimbursement or projects that need to be completed. The current estimate for the costs and I was always interested in that right now our current estimate based upon the damages we've received from our applicants is around a hundred and twenty million dollars. But it's early. We continue to work with AOT. One of the largest applicants we have as well as working with the state on the state buildings in Montpelier that obviously were impacted. The governor requested assistance under the community disaster loan program. This is designed for applicants to be able to receive low interest loans while they await funds to come from FEMA. That has just been approved. And there'll be a conversation between the headquarters region one and Cambridge and the state on the program to lay the foundation for how that can be executed. And with the extension of the incident period Franklin County's damages which occurred on the twenty first of July are now considered as eligible. However the facility that was most impacted is a waste treatment site and so it's a lot of complications with it there. So we haven't received the determination yet as to whether they'll be qualifying for categories A through G along with the other 12 counties. So that's yet to be determined. But we're working very closely with the state on that and hope to have the answer very very soon. And then just a couple of quick stats. We still have 352 people with FEMA on the ground here supporting the state. Fifty nine hundred and seven people as of this morning have applied for assistance from FEMA and for the small business administration our partner agency. They've actually had three hundred ninety four loans equating to twenty one point nine million dollars that they provided for assistance. So that's a quick recap of where we are at. And I look forward to any questions you may have and I'll turn it over to the governor. Thank you sir. Now I'll put it up to questions. Governor with the potential for government shutdown coming this weekend. Do you see any need to extend that even at that line once again or do you think October 12th? Well regardless of whether they shut down or not. We are considering extending it but haven't made that decision yet. But in all likelihood we will we will extend that. Several times. Some of our most immediate needs will still continue to be met by FEMA. But it's more that longer term planning the long term recovery. Can you just help us understand and maybe recovery officer Farnam as well about or really anybody of what that really looks like. Yeah. Well first of all we still don't know whether it's going to be shut down or not. We've been through this. We've seen this film a few times and they always seem to be able to come up with something in the end. I'm hoping that's the case this time. But if not we have practiced this drill year after year after year. So we have drawn down all the funds we possibly can to make sure that we can get through this as well as we've reported before due to the ARPA funds and so forth that we've received over the last couple of years. We have a lot of cash on hand. So we should be able to make it through this without a lot of harm. But I will maybe I'll tell you have Doug come and supplement anything missed. And as well maybe while we're on the topic of General Roy talk about what this means that FEMA as well and to the state. Thank you Governor. So while FEMA may not be able to obligate in the short term in the event of a shutdown we will be still be able to work together with FEMA to build the damage inventories and the project workbooks and everything that goes into knowing what our long term what our permanent work and what our long term efforts will look like. So I mean that is a time consuming process anyway. So shutdown would have to be extremely long in order to impact that that long term planning and recovery process. So we should still be able to move the ball forward potentially without any delay in our in our long term recovery efforts. And so when would that money in theory come as the governor said we've seen shutdowns before. I think the longest was back in 2019 or so 30 days. So would would that affect how money flows into Vermont. Not any significant extent specific to our FEMA on this particular disaster. Because generally speaking we can establish an obligation but then it's still some time before we actually draw down that funding with FEMA. So the we're not at that stage yet where we'd be drawing down funds for most things. We're we would only at this point be drawing down funds for our emergency response which fall into the immediate needs category and may still be eligible for draw down. General Roy can correct me if that's that's wrong. But I believe that's the case. And yes under I and F immediate needs fund funding. We continue to be able to support Vermont. The only thing that's on hold right now are the funds available for the public assistance program. But we are as I said we're really really early in that in that stage. We haven't yet in projects yet to actually be obligated. So we're in a good place. All the personnel we have deployed will continue to stay. They're paid out of the disaster relief fund which continues to have funds in it and available for us to continue our operations. Can you tell us at this point how many households have been identified as eligible in FEMA temporary housing and also how many are interested. Sure. We have around 200 and 40 ish that were have reached out to that qualify either for destroyed homes or substantially damaged. And of those the initial population expressed interest was 54. I think we're down to 43. And as you recall we talked about the fact that the longer it takes to find a housing solution or for FEMA to set up the housing for them. You know the population they find they find their own path along the way. That certainly doesn't impact our ability or desire to continue to move forward as we will. It's just you know it's we see it time after time after time. Those people are going are they actually communicating with FEMA. We're going to family or moving out of state or what that means. Sure. Yep. Absolutely. As so for the population of the 54 we started with you know if they you know we they call us and say hey I don't want to be in the direct housing. I found a rental place that's going to work for me or I've made a life choice to go somewhere else. So they provide feedback and then beyond that of the 200 and some odd that we had reached out to. They have the opportunity to change your mind as well. If they thought they were in a good place and all of a sudden they're not. They can't come back and say hey. You know circumstances changed and so we we're going to need some assistance. Thank you. Today I guess how are you going to be working with the Moncule Dealers Association? What does that partnership look like? I guess it's just making sure that there are going to be the numbers to get these people their heat sources by winter. Well this survey will tell us a lot about those who are impacted. Those who are waiting. I think we've heard back again from about a third and about half of that third have said that they're all set. But the other half have have some questions about whether they're in the process or they just can't find anybody. So that's what we're trying to determine. And if we when we have that number will be will be conferring with both efficiency Vermont and the Field Dealers Association and they've agreed to try and put people together so that we know of a contractor who might be available. A field dealer out there who might be able to help get these people the heat they need to get through the winter. So we don't have all the information yet but that's what we're driving at. We know we want to get those people connected and determine whether if it's a financial need that they have will put them in touch with people that who can help them. Any way we can do anything we can do to bridge that gap is what we're that's our mission. Response to the survey so far. And when will you guys start directly reaching out? We'll start directly reaching out now. As soon as we we know we get I mean I think having a third respond immediately. I think that's good. We're hoping that those who haven't received the email or maybe they don't have service now who knows and they're listening to this and reading and listening to your reports will reach out to us 828-3333 so that we can help them right here through the governor's office. I have a question for you and it's admittedly a pretty subjective question. There were obviously lots of people in Vermont pre flood who were interested in upgrading their home heating systems. I can imagine that a lot of people if they weren't flooded out maybe feel guilty about coming forward and wanting to pursue upgrades to their home. Do you have any advice for folks that like should they continue or should they need to wait a year? What do you think for folks who are flood impacted or those who are not implanted. I think people need to make the choices that they want to make on the timeline that they can to make them. Obviously we want to make sure that we have a contractor supply to be able to help those who need to be able to respond from the flood. But you know people people have the opportunity to save money and save energy and make the choices that they want to make. Now those windows often are finite and so they should take advantage of them while they can and if they can get the support then they should move forward. For the governor too. How is that workforce question looking a few weeks ago you mentioned that you were setting up a statewide or we already have a registry you called on others to say hey it's in where do we stand and how confident are you about the HVAC workforce. Well I'm I'm concerned obviously about our workforce in general is something I've been concerned about for quite some time and this the flooding event has impacted that. So and we're getting towards winter now the temperature is dropping and so yeah I'm concerned and that's why we reached out and that's why we have the survey and reached out to the field dealers association and others to make sure that we can there may be areas of the state who weren't impacted that may have capacity and we just need to link them up with those in the areas that were impacted so that they can they can help out and I and I will see how this goes and if if we can do this with all in-state resources that's great. But if we need to if we see that we're overwhelmed and don't have the capacity in the state we'll we'll use other utilize other measures and look outside the state. Got a few folks online and we'll go back to the room. We'll start with Ed Barber, Park Daily Express. Hello, can you hear me? We can. Okay, my question is going to be for Aston Devin. I was just wondering if there has been any type of preliminary update on the crop damage that came about from the late frost and the spend time and then the heavy floods in July? And are there programs out there that people can still access to help them with their loss? Hanson, are you on the line? Thank you, Ed. Okay. Yes, I'm here. And yes, a couple of updates. We did do a survey that went out. And it's been included about two weeks ago or at least it. We think about $17 million impact damage across the board to the severe weather this summer. Also about 27,000 acres impacted. So there is a program out there. We are encouraging people they can go through the VGAP program. Farmers are eligible for that. We are getting applications from farmers, and they are qualifying for those college dollars there. So that is one avenue. Also, the Vermont Community Foundation has a granting program for farmers and producers. They are taking applications as well. We have someone from the agency that's helping with that. So those are the couple of relief programs. Also, with the designation of the disaster declaration granted by USDA, it is freeing up some relief programs. They're not direct payments, but there are some emergency loan programs that are available out there. As well as the current climate out there now, I think it's hit or miss on some of your own operations. I was at one over the weekend and they're managing it nicely. There are apples out there for folks. People are nervous about showing up and thinking there may not be apples. For the most part, there are apples for particular operations. Same with pumpkins. And many of these farms have social media channels and they can get an update with them. They're just managing them a little differently because of the hard frost. But for the most part, I think people are encouraged and we've got some great weather this week. A lot of work's been done. A lot of paying, a lot of corn is being harvested. So we're encouraged by the weather over the last few days. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Have a nice day. Keith, Rolton Harold. Hi. So I heard today that McKenzie Scott, I believe it donated, I think, I want to say 20 million to the Champlain Housing Trust. And that's obviously very good news. But I'm also just kind of curious if that has caused anyone to rethink how they might want to allocate other resources in the state. If they got such a large infusion, does anybody rethought how where other monies might go work? It's just more, I don't know, to make sense. Yeah, yeah, no. This was somewhat news, at least to me, maybe to us in general. This is great news. And we're very thankful for the injection of resources to help in our housing crisis. And Champlain Trust is a great viable organization that can put the money to work. So we'll we'll contemplate this. But at this point in time, that isn't our first reaction. It's not whatever amount of money that we put forth thus far, which has been a tremendous amount is not enough. So this is again, we'll supplement a lot of areas and will will continue to to advocate for more housing and strategic ways. So good news. And we'll contemplate what this means to our overall program. But it's just too early to tell. And the question from Business Magazine. Hi, Governor, I was wondering if you have an update on the big app program now that you expanded and it's been a week or so since that happened, there's been much activity on that front. Hi, if you're talking about new applications, I don't have that information, but maybe Secretary Curlie might be on or Commissioner Goldstein I'll just look up. Secretary Curlie is testifying a joint this morning right now. Okay. We can get that to you too. Okay, that'd be great. Just, you know, just to get an update is probably progressing. Appreciate it. And just just to be clear, those who are in the program now that have had applied and received as funding, don't need to do anything. We'll be just updating their application and sending them a check for that difference. Tom Davis, Compass Formand. Tom, it looks like you might be muted. Right, we'll go back to the room. General, I don't know if you had any update on the whole country club site. You know, last week, the City Council had just kind of agreed to it. So I don't know if there was any update. Well, we've got some schematics we're working on. We are sharing that with our head with FEMA headquarters, taking a look at how we can best utilize it. I think there's a follow on meeting this evening, I think with the council as well. And so we aren't in a lease yet. But we anticipate we're getting very close to that. The only other locations we found so far, there's one in Springfield, which has a number of sites. And, you know, as part of our outreach to folks in a direct housing pool, we do offer them sites that are available. So even if they live in Lamoille County or Washington, you know, we'll ask them, Hey, if you're mobile and you are willing to move, we can place a site down there. Right now, there hasn't been any desire to do so. But not to compel to do that. So we try to keep them within, you know, half an hour of their disaster home. You mentioned these right now are improved up to 18 months. What happens in the meantime, if you're in one for six months, you find permanent housing? What is the future of a bat housing unit? Who gets that? So there's a number of options. We can either pull back and put it into our inventory. Or they can if the state's approaches, they can potentially be purchased or donated. So there's a number of different avenues to go down. They, you know, they take waivers. And so we work with the state and FEMA headquarters as to, you know, the best as a position. Obviously, the best thing for us to do is to, you know, versus having to move them again. If there's an opportunity for the state to have them, we look at that. Should the state desire to do so? So while they are in the direct house, that's a good question. That's correct. So my phone or friend is here. And the answer is no. They pay utilities. Nope. Nope. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thanks, Sam. And the state is interested in those units. Noted, sir. Back to the Kenzie Scott donation. Is there a particular way you hope to see that money spent? Well, I think it's in good hands, obviously, with the Champlain Trust. So we will, we will give advice along the way. But but I'm sure they'll put it to good use. No, the housing just took a hold of the new low barrier shelter in Burlington. Some money going into fix that. But you think that's a good use of some of that? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, increasing shelter capacity is going to be key, I believe. This is admittedly news to me, but I just saw that Vermont Public reported that your administration is seeking to keep spending increases next year to no more than 3%. Given the rate of inflation and just the direction of things right now, how do you see that playing out? Well, again, we think the legislature went above and beyond last go around 13% increase in spending. We had advocated for eight or nine. So I continue to be concerned about Vermont's ability to pay and making Vermont more affordable and spending increases of 13% just don't meet the mark. And we need to do whatever we can. Now, we haven't provided any. We want to keep it as low as possible. We have to set a benchmark in order to do that. But we'll see where we go. We haven't even begun our budget process. We haven't begun our budget process. But we are always willing to do whatever we can to make sure we present a budget that is feasible for Vermonters and their ability to pay. Is this planning on implementing any hiring freezes for state workers or, you know, cold up freezes? We can't fill the positions we have, right? I mean, we have 10% vacancy right now. So we are going to continue to try and hire, even if they would. And I'm not saying there is. We haven't even contemplated that, but we still need people to fill positions that are critical. Do you have a sense of what the federal match will be with some of the FEMA funds? I know it depends on the pot of money. That's probably going to wind down from some state funds. What do we know about the federal match? The federal match at this point in time is 25%. If we had a certain threshold, I think it's 111, 11 million, then we go to 10%. I feel as though that's going to be an easy mark, easy threshold to exceed. So I believe we're going to be at the 10%. I know Senator Sanders is advocated for no match, but I'm not sure. I don't know if that's feasible or not, but we will, if he's able to do that, that would be great. But I believe it will be 10%. Anything I should add to that, Todd? I would say that there are just a few programs that stay at the 25%, but from a financial perspective, the vast majority will be in that 10% match category. And then for municipalities, we have the emergency relief assistance fund, the ERAF fund. And so then they don't pay that full 10% based on their planning status and other factors. They pay a part of that 10%, and the state pays part of it. So I think we have a lot to figure out the match situation, but I would agree with the governor that that 90% threshold should be easy to cross. However, it won't be crossed officially for a little bit more time because it relies on the obligation with FEMA, and that's a process that we have to go through still. So you don't have any sense of what that number, that match could be as of yet? The only thing I would say at this time is that in general, the amount of damage, the amount of resilience work we want to do, this is on the same size and scope as Irene. So I think it's in that same ballpark, but beyond that general statement, I don't think I have more detail. I've mentioned weeks ago at this point, working with the congressional delegation to get some special appropriations, particularly for the north end of the Bay Area. Do you have any updates on that? No updates at this point. I think they're trying to get a budget passed at this juncture. But that's still on the table, hopefully. My last question, it goes back to Congress and the budget. I'm really sure it helps us to phrase it, but what do you think of what's happening right now in the House of Representatives among the GOP and the infighting that's happening? Yeah, I think it's unfortunate, obviously. But we've seen this type of thing building over time. And it's not unusual, at least in the last decade, to see the threats of shutting the government down. And maybe over the last couple of decades, it's become increasingly more difficult in some respects because of a close numbers. And so we'll see how it all plays out. Nobody's asked my advice, but I would find those moderate centrists in the middle of both parties and figure out a way to make it happen. All right, thank you all.