 Let's go for it. Good evening everyone. My name is Brennan Hogan, Chair of the Public Works Commission calling to order the September meeting of our commission at 631. Good evening all. First item on the agenda is the agenda itself. I'll make one comment. I think we'd heard from staff there's a wording change on one of those items. Would you advise giving that its own treatment to put that in the clear? Yes, indeed. Yeah. And I didn't print out that adjustment. So, I mean one multiple, I'll pull that out. Yeah, if you could pull that up for our benefit. Yeah. I would state it's a, with regards to Consent Agenda Item 4B, there's a minor change to which ADA parking space is remaining, is proposed to remain which is proposed to be removed. We can just crystal clear on what that change is. So we can just perhaps pulling that one. All right. So for the Consent Agenda, we were recommending that the motion be to approve the Consent Agenda, noting the revised action item on 4B, which is modified to remove the ADA space on the north side of College Street in the second space east of South Willard Street. There are two accessible spaces. We had proposed to remove one in talking to Commissioner O'Neill. The second one seemed to be the better one to remove. So the language when we get to the Consent Agenda, I don't think there needs to be any change to the agenda, but when we get to the Consent Agenda, I can offer that language. Okay. Okay. Be comfortable keeping it. So the agenda can be approved as is and then when we get to the Consent Agenda, we can make that motion. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Any discussion around the motion? All right. So now I'm going to vote in attendance as in attendance. In the room here. Your favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye for myself. Any opposed? The agenda's passed. Thank you. And to be clear, Commissioner Bose is not on dialing in remotely. I have not heard from Commissioner Bose. Oh, there he is. Allow him. We won. There you go. Good evening. Welcome. Now our life is complete. Did you catch that dialogue, Commissioner Bose on the Consent Agenda? The agenda passing. Okay. Thank you. The agenda has passed then. Six, two, zero. Next item, public forum. It's at one. This has been at least in the room. Yes. Welcome. I saw your agenda, you were allowed in 10 minutes, but I won't take that. I'm going to try to be concise and keep it to three. Yeah. I was going to do it on the camera, but I got to get used to coming out, right? Don't we all right now? Yeah. And so this is my second public appearance. This is 18 months and so. Anyway, my name is Wanda Hines. I'm an old Northern resident since 1963. And I've lived in my home since 1998. I currently live next door to 88 Oak Street co-op. And currently inside, there are two startup businesses operating and I wish them the best. They are having great success now. My address is 94 Oak Street. I'm here to focus mainly on the, to talk about the making space program, an excellent initiative. And so I'm going to just read from my script and I'll stay on course and they'll cover all the points. And for the audience out there, it'll be some of it will be recapped so they'll know what I'm talking about, okay? Okay. In 2020, Mayor Weinberger, asked the Resource and Recovery Center, Public Works and Church Street Marketplace to lead a multi-department initiative to develop an expedite cost strategies for businesses and residents so we can enjoy the summer in light of COVID. The making space initiative allowed businesses to operate downtown, downtown businesses. Okay. To comfortably expand into the right-of-way and Burlingtonians to enjoy the summer outside. Now again, I keep stressing downtown businesses. It was definitely excess the grab-and-go carried over into the winter, into this year, hitting into 2021. As you all know, the Making Space Initiative has three parts to it. There's the expanded street seats and basically that's an expanded program of the 2020 initiative with the Department of Public Works and the Church Street Marketplace where they worked with the businesses and communities on expediting low-cost ways to expand dining options and retail into the green belt, okay? The green belt, they're in the warmer months. Okay, and then there's a part two where there's the grab-and-go pickup where they worked with, again, working with the businesses, the downtown business community, to determine where temporary short-term parking can be placed into allowable, safe, and efficient pickup for Burlington's food menus and excellent in retail. And I love the fact where it says here, if you are business looking to have short-term parking added nearby, please email Phillip Peterson. And then I add, what's missing? Well, if you are a homeowner in short-term parking is impacting your property, please email Phillip. That's what's missing, okay? Now, there's the open street part, that's the third part, which allowed for the outdoor dining and shopping, et cetera. And that's fine, that doesn't have anything to do with me. But the list of participating entities last year, November 15th, 1920, there were 10 businesses. They all signed up for the grab-and-go pickup. There was only one located in the Old North Inn and that was Nunions. Nunions is on the corner of North Champlain and North Street. So it's still pretty much downtown area, right? I guess that was the business street before we got Church Street back in the day. Everybody else is on Bank Street, Church Street, Main Street, College Street, Bank Street, College, all downtown, you know, it's a collaboration. What's missing? Let's see, the Department of Public Work, they continue to work with businesses. What's missing? There were no residential neighborhood locations nearby. The design was clearly by the input of Church Street Marketplace designed for downtown with the work of the collaborating partners. There were no cars, no children running, no playing or running up and down the street or up and down the sidewalks, no home owners. And as it should be, last year was a success because it was designed for the downtown area. The second year, 20 businesses signed up. Making spaces evolved. The program evolved. It just wasn't sidewalk or the grab and go anymore. It was the sidewalk and parking stalls and sidewalk seating with the picnic tables and the green belts. You see it all downtown, don't you? With the little planners on the corner and all that, yeah. 20 signed up, except this time. One was in the Old North Inn in my neighborhood next door to my home where I've been for 20 years. Once again, the Department of Public Works of the Church Street Marketplace worked with the business community. What's missing? No input from residential homeowners next door to the business. I feel I was not afforded the same input as neighboring downtown businesses. What's missing? In the year, all 20 businesses were not located downtown. And again, once I said when was next door to my home. And there are a couple others, not as far into the neighborhoods, I would like to say. It just really kind of vexes me that the permit was applied for. It's seen from some paperwork. I've been accumulating and doing research in October, especially for the license outside. The grab and go was okay because the spillover traffic and such, anyhow, let me finish. I'm getting off track. That's why I wrote this down. The making space program via the Department of Public Works neglected to work with neighborhood homeowners. Neglected to provide and install the required safety elements for parking space encumbrances and spillover traffic due to the green belt parking stall seating, which is located in front of 88 Oak Street. Note the space, which where the green belt parking stall sits, that space was originally the commercial truck delivery parking space in the food pickup parking space, okay? And yeah, they would just pull up and hey, there's no, you know, there wasn't a, now what I have going on is I received much of the spillover traffic from blocking my driveway to double parking on the corner with excess trash. And I don't want to seem like a, the tattle tail because I raised my children. So when I go out of my house, I don't go right and have to go through the traffic. It is an encumber, a nuisance, whatever you call it, because I raised my kids, but there were a lot of children going through there. There are a lot of kids with bikes going down through there. And the other day it just broke my heart. When I saw a 10 year old child, you could tell they were coming from the projects, which with you come straight, I'll go right through where everything is set up at 88 Oak Street. But instead of going up that sidewalk, he put his arm around his seven year old sibling and went to the outside, into the road around this encumbrance. And that really just broke my heart. But you know, I'm gonna try to stay in my lane on this as a homeowner because there are a lot of moving pieces here. And they should have consulted the homeowners because there is another homeowner on the other side that's not pleased either. You should have just stuck with the grab and go because both of those businesses are doing excellent. And I'm here because I have been there for 22 years and I've seen this before. What do they say? Same soup, different pot or whatever you wanna call it. And they're growing and it's only gonna get worse. And so I would like to say that I believe this is an excellent making space program adjustment opportunity right now to consult with homeowners, especially since we are all gonna be stuck on the COVID impact. And we all truly want an enjoyable quality of life outside whether homeowners or businesses. I think that we can do better on that. I am concerned about the safety of the children even though my children are grown. It's, yeah, it was all designed for businesses downtown. We're not a downtown. It's not just foot traffic. People are coming with their cars. Hey, you guys have been great. Thank you. I got a board meeting tomorrow on my own to prep for it. And it's good to see you again. Bye bye. Okay, keep well, everybody. You're doing a great job. Keep it up. We're all in it together. Thank you for your comments for public comment. For the consent agenda. Two items on the consent agenda, a 30 meter parking spot. It's 37 Church streets and the reallocation of an ADA parking space at 360 College Street. So the proposed approval motion would be to be consistent with Commissioner O'Neill's suggestion to switch which space was being removed on College Street. Would say to prove the consent agenda, noting the revised action on 4B, which is modified to remove the ADA space on the north side of College Street in the second space east of South Willard Street. So we'd welcome a motion, a second to that. So move. Extend. Second. There's a discussion around the motion. Go to the vote. Call roll here. Commissioner Bose. Commissioner Mutano. Aye. Commissioner Bob. Aye. Mr. O'Neill, welcome. Aye. Aye for myself. Senate Agenda's pass. Six zero. Thank you. Moving forward. Item five, the Sustainable Infrastructure Plan. For staff communication on this. And we got a preview of it two months ago, right? Welcome back. That's correct. We're fortunate to have both Martha Kena and Norm Baldwin here and they are gonna hit highlights that have evolved since the last time, knowing that we gave you the full presentation last time. So you do have a memo with a motion in it and that motion now needs to be amended. So we met with Board of Finance and City Council on Monday night for a presentation of the slideshow that you have. And at that time, there were a number of questions that arose from the Board of Finance and from Public Forum. And because of that, we postponed having a vote that evening and we will be going on September 27th to Board of Finance and City Council for approval of this request of the voters for a ballot on a special election date still to be picked but within 2021. So I have amended my memo and I can send it to you updated but I can also read the motion when we're done with this. I just wanted you to know that was a big change that came Monday night. So I did go over all the history last time and you have heard that. So what I wanted to share tonight was we have done come up with a proposed investment of the dollars that we're requesting of the voters and also the various revenue sources that we might have using the federal infrastructure bill, state and other funding. And so I wanted to share those slides with you rather than going through the whole PowerPoint again. So let's see if I can do this. And I'm actually using the PowerPoint from Monday night which is on board docs if you are interested in it. I show myself as fully full screen so I don't. I'm sure to get you there, yeah. Okay, so we are looking for a bond of $40 million. And what we did is we're trying to continue the initiative that we started in 2016 but also take advantage of some of the funding opportunities that we have. The federal infrastructure bill itself is very DPW centric. So it goes to bridges, streets and sidewalks, sorry. And bike infrastructure, intersection improvements. So we are very excited about that bill getting passed hopefully soon and it's opportunities that it provides to us. So what you see in this request is the first year of initiative needed for sidewalks and streets. And so we're hoping that the federal infrastructure bill will enable us to do the added work we need in the other two years from that funding source. We also have all of the street capital funds that continue to go into it. So this is a minimum request to continue the investment in it. We will have intersection and bike infrastructure is around 2.5 million and it has within it the annual amount of money that has gone to the transportation planning budget which is around 460,000 that gets a lot of little things going and keeps it going. And then there are some larger projects that dollars in there for projects to be able to move forward with. There's the can't live without our local match for grants. We have a lot of large grants going on right now just starting the real yard enterprise, Shelburne Street roundabout, very exciting the different initiatives that are out there. In our initial capital plan, we didn't have bridges. Now we have bridges in it. And we have two that are a priority at the moment Rock Point Bridge and the North Beach Overpass. The North Beach Overpass would finish the bike path and that is a key part of tourism to the city and recreation. And the Rock Point Bridge goes over the bike path and is a part of Rock Point Park per se. And so both of those are critical to get done. There are other bridges that are included Queen City Park Bridge, Winooski Bridge, and I'm missing one, but I can't remember. There's project management. We need resources in order to get this work done. Civic buildings, our buildings continue to have deferred maintenance just like our streets, but holes never go away. The buildings never stopped deteriorating. Within our fleet, it will be fire trucks, three fire trucks, snow plows and sidewalk tractors. All items that have a life of more than 10 years and are more efficient to bond than they are to go out and borrow in a master lease or other form of financing. And the public safety infrastructure, which is we did, we were able to reduce that number from the last time we spoke with you. It's down to 4.3, but it is a complete replacement of our police and fire radio infrastructure, including cell towers and repeaters. In this, we have included money for Memorial as well. Something has to happen with it. So whether it can be brought back up to code and used as is or whether it is utilized by another entity or it has to transition to a different life, we had to put money in this to be able to make those moves as we move forward. And so to be clear, just to put a fine point on it, what we presented last month to you was a $30 million plan that did not list Memorial Auditorium. So the difference between what you saw last month and this month is Memorial Auditorium. It's Memorial Auditorium, yes. And so this is a little bit hard to read, but it is the different assets and then the potential revenue sources for it. And so you will see that street capital tax is in there. Your traffic division is going to make some contributions to it. They can help with anything in the right of way. Is that the correct wording? Controlling and regulating traffic. So traffic fund can be used for general fund needs as long as it's consistent with charter. Quite a bit of help from the Federal Infrastructure Bill. We have for the buildings, there are a number of things in the buildings that qualify for ARPA funding. So we're hoping to do a lot of work on ventilation with the ARPA funds. And then we have some already existing grants that are out there that will help with our funding needs. The bond proceeds for the parks. They have penny for parks and impact fees that they can use on an annual basis, but they don't really cover some of their larger projects that they have. So North Beach is in need of a, it has a master plan and a major renovation to, and it is a major source of revenue for the city. So it's an important step forward. The marina, the harbor needs to be dredged. Like, and that's another large revenue source for the city. So doing those things with a bond is more effective than to try and have them phase it over multiple years and not give attention to their other smaller parks. And then there's our, we get, at the moment we get $2 million a year for the annual capital bond. And you guys are in my way on this one. I don't know how to move you. Oh, that's the master lease. And so we have been utilizing with our new fleet policy, a master lease each year to purchase vehicles. And so for the vehicles that have a life of less than 10 years, we use that process. And this, the bonding will only go for the larger items with the longer life. Now the big question that everybody has is how, whoops, whoops, how do I get to go back, Chapin? I'm sorry, I'm technologically challenged. Back, Ara. Thank you. Sorry. No problem. You're doing great. I didn't bring my mouse tonight. I can do a lot of things with my mouse. What's going on to explain in technology? So last time we didn't have this, how does it affect the taxpayer? So our median house is now at 379,000. And it would see some modest increases. And that goes from $7 a month to $13 a month. And then it starts going back down again. So the reason it starts going back down again is we're retiring debt. And so with this, it will increase slightly and then it will start going back down again. So that's a nice aspect. And one of the things that's been talked about a lot is how this plays with the schools and what our debt policy is. And so we have this summary of how it impacts. And the city's goal is, our target is 1.75, but our allowance is a 2% ratio. And with this, it does bring us close up to 1.94, but it keeps us below that level. And then it starts going down again. So we would be able to keep our Moody's rating with this bond. And our target with the schools and our city debt is 4%. And this would keep us well below that level. And we did some calculations on Monday night. And even if the school were to fully borrow the money that they had available, it would still be below that 4% number. So we are still accommodating the schools being able to bond and do the work that we need on our infrastructure. And with that, I think I covered all of the new areas. So is it possible for me to kind of jump in a little bit and share some of the public works perspective on how this relates to some of the programs that are important to the department? So Martha, I think touched on this, that the goal is to continue the same measure of investment that we had for sidewalks and paving in this first five-year cycle of this 10-year capital plan. As she had noted, and I want to highlight this, is FY23 is proposed to be part of the bonding that's being requested here of the $40 million. And the next two years is presumed to be, we'll be using federal dollars for that. And we yet don't know how that funding will arrive and how it will support or fund those next two years, for sure. But that's what's carried in the assumptions in this process. We have obligations or commitments within the transportation program. When I say transportation program, I'm talking about bike-ped facilities and expanding bike facilities. And there are certain key thresholds that we're trying to meet for, I think, 2020, what is it, 2025? And also a big topic of conversation with the public is traffic calming. The council expressed support for adding another person within our tech services team to advance that work. Our process has changed where it's not a process of, I don't want to put it to public, coming into full agreement, but really finding thresholds of where there are operational performance issues in terms of people speeding or accidents that are the threshold that drive those decisions in terms of mitigation or redesign. One of the things that we've seen in that process is the police are not as active in their enforcement given their enforcement priorities. And so we are seeing more demand on our work to design or redesign streets that are affected by people's behavior. So it's an important thing that we're trying to do here and it needs to be funded and supported either through a consultant or staff to manage those consultants to make those things happen. I think we have a long list, I think a queue of 13 streets. So that's an important piece. Timing is also important. So the mayor was unsettled about whether or not he would ask for a November vote on bonds, bonding, given the financial challenges of the public. I think there's a cost to not pursuing a bonding initiative and that is we go through a planning cycle in January where we're putting stuff out to bid. And so it has to be known what our financial opportunities are to support that bidding that we're proposing. And we also have to have time to plan to develop those plans. So November vote is something that's within reach to keep us on a January cycle. This past year we were late in getting our bid out for paving and with the state competing for the same contractors in a limited staff resource perspective, we ended up not getting competitive pricing and couldn't advance as much paving as we'd like for this season. So I simply don't wanna have a second year of repeat of that experience because we have critical paving that needs to happen or to keep pace without having what we had previously, which was the Frostpocalypse of Pine Street, if you remember. So that's an important point to make here. We also have ongoing obligations with local match for projects that we've accepted grants and need to fund. So some of those are things like the North Champlain bike facilities, other things like bike pad facilities for Lake Street that connect to Waterfront North. And more recently we're successful in getting a grant for Innavale Road to develop pedestrian facilities adequate to service all the activities that are down there now along with in the mix of that commercial traffic. So there are significant issues there that have been, we've talked about it for many years and our hope is with this federal dollars, we will solve some significant problems that have been perennial in nature. So there's a lot of good things to do and still need to be done. And we hope that the public will support this bonding initiative because it is critical to providing these services that people rely on. Add to what you said about the timeline, that doing it in 2021 is really important because when the voters approve a bond, you just don't get the money the next day. And so if we were to wait and do it at town meeting day or a later date, that means that all of their hard work can't be done because they would like to be awarding it in February and March and they wouldn't be able to even put the RFP out until we knew we had the funds. And so getting it done now is a more critical thing so that they can keep their process going and we can get the paving and sidewalks done next year that we would like to do. There's scheduling dependencies. If we don't have that determination in time, then we miss the opportunity for all constructs this season. Can you answer any questions? Sure. Commissioner Stesha. Yeah, thank you very much. I'm still going to be in this area and I'm not so familiar with what Memorial is like. Yeah. No, that's a great question. You want me to? Yeah, I'll give you five minutes and I'll take the five minutes, but yeah. Okay. I would just say in brief summary, Memorial Atom is a building that was built in the 1920s. It has structural steel in the core of the building and it has brick veneer that encases that structural steel. The roof system at some point had failed many, many years ago and the city had identified that as a problem because it was neglected and not repaired to prevent any sort of water penetration within those wall systems. That water got into the structural steel, it corroded that structural steel and expanded and you see spalling of some of those those masonry elements, particularly the parapet. Unfortunately, over the years with that level of water penetration, it's descended deeper into the wall system to a point where it's significant and at least one third to half of that wall system has been compromised. And it's, we've had structural engineers look at it. We've tried to, we've actually asked that people not occupy the building for those concerns. We also have aging systems in that building. There's a heating system that is, it looks like something from an episode of Freddy Krueger. It's a big old boiler, it's may not reach, it may reach its end of life before this heating season. And so there's significant cost to fix and repair those things. There's also sprinkler systems within that building that need care if we're gonna have people who continue to occupy the space that don't meet code. So it's been vacant since 2016, December of 2016. And that has not been kind to it. We did have a proposal for a renovation just prior to the pandemic that looked promising. And with when the pandemic hit that fell through. So we don't really have any, it is on the list as per of last night of being one of the school options. But it is, as you're saying, the boilers are 63 years old. And most boilers live about 30 years. So they are very old. And there is no ventilation system and no elevator and no ADA within it. So major items that would have to be redone in order to bring it back to life. But we do believe that around $10 million would allow that to be done, but would not allow a change to the programming and use of the building, which is questionable whether that is the right thing to do. Commissioner McDonough? Yep, I got a couple of questions. The first one is about the scope of the street free investment. How much of that is traffic calming stuff versus kind of more general sort of road work to the right of way? Yeah, so the actual streets portion is repaving. Right, but wouldn't that be within this category, Martha? No, it's up in, it's the street. It's the 1.3 million a year. So what, I'm sorry, let me share my screen first. And then. It's this street? Is that what you're referring to? Yes, that's street capital tax. And there is seven in the bond request. There is $700,000 for the first year, which is the added amount above the street capital tax. And so he's looking at this list, not this list. He doesn't have that list. So basically the proposal would allow for four miles plus of paving in the 2022 year. And then if we get federal infrastructure dollars, we could continue that four plus miles a year. This plan, as you see here, so that's 700,000 in streets is just for 2022 with supplemental money from the federal infrastructure bill. But I think your question was related to how much money are we spending on traffic calming? Right, yeah, where does that like fall in there? That was what we were moving to next. Feel free to touch on that one. So that's for your infrastructure. Right, which is? Which would be some of the medical stuff. Right, the five. Five, eight, there's four, 60 a year. And then there are some large projects that are traffic calming intersection work within this whole plan. So it would be, so like the intersection at Colchester Pearl Pond Prospect is one of those that's the project in this. Fixing that intersection. So generally there's 460,000 towards transportation projects. I think Martha has broken out some of the major ones with their individual listing of sources of funds. But effectively most of that is traffic calming. Some of it is some smaller transportation projects. So I can't give the exact number, but it's within that subset of 460,000, is that correct? Right, and then in addition, there will be some money in this bond that will go for larger projects such as the Colchester Pearl Prospect intersection. All right, thank you. Thanks for giving sort of like specific examples. And really, I mean, what we got in July and now really the center of it is sort of this kind of breakdown, the annual investment into the different categories out of the total bond. But it's a little difficult to see where the supplementary sources of money are for all of those and really how they all like relate to each other in that regard. Yes, and if I went to this, which is... Yeah, that is very... So that shows you that the overall is about 8 million that would go into those types of projects. So, and that we're looking at it coming from multiple different sources. Do you wanna zoom in by doing that toggle down there at the bottom? Yes. I'm hitting the presentation button because you're not in screen mode. Yes, that one. Except for it went back. Well, you can... Yeah, just... That one, there we go. Well done. I'll get it before we're done tonight. So the far side shows you the total investment into that asset through different sources. And the bond is just in some ways a very small part. It's 151 million we're hoping to work with through different opportunities. The bond is one quarter of it. So to Martha's point and just to be explicit there, as you'll see in the third column from the left, the federal infrastructure bill shows that we're seeking tens of millions of dollars to supplement the bike infrastructure to supplement paving bridges and the like. So the 151 million dollars of need is far more than we currently have funding to support. But by seeing the bond proceeds, which is that kind of middle column with numbers on every level, you'll see that really is the proposed program of the additional work we could do with the public support. Great. This looks like exactly the slide I was imagining. This was presented to the Board of Finance on Monday. So you can find it on Board Docs. Beautiful. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you. Commissioner Boz. That it sounds like, so these are local matches for projects that are already committed, right? This is not something that is dependent on the federal bill, other personal things. If you don't get this amount for this local match, which presumably is already allocated for grants that you've landed, where does that money come from? Does that get reallocated from something else with the budget that's not able to be handed out? So I think I can answer that. So what we have is Street Capital Fund is paying a significant amount of local match obligations under existing grants. If I may address, could you summarize the question? For a minute, I think. So his question was... Trouble getting. Yeah, so his question was effectively, he sees that there are local match obligations that are continuing. If that does not get funded, what is the consequence of that action or decision by the public? And the answer is that we have flexibility within the Street Capital Program, the first priority to fund our current obligations to pay local match obligations, at least for what we know as public works projects, other departments who have grants, which I don't think there's many, I don't know the consequence of that, but I would say that if Street Capital is being demanded to pay those elements, then maybe there wouldn't be as much money for sidewalks and paving. So you have to make conscious choices about what's really available to you and what your first obligations are. So we've signed on to those commitments and we're gonna honor those. Yeah, to be blunt, the money, if we don't get the bond, the local match will need to come from existing general fund money in Street Capital, all of which will reduce paving, will reduce other building improvements, and basically put us in a position where we have to honor existing commitments and not take on new responsibilities. So yes, it is a contingency plan. We know that we need to do something and had the pandemic not occurred, we might have had a solution, but it did and it has been hurt by that year and a half to two years. And it is one of the last three on the high school choice. So it is possible that this would aid in the high school choosing that as a location or we did have a new structural engineer report this year. And as Norm stated, it does have some structural issues to it that need resolving. The recommendation was to take all the brick off to the auditorium floor, fix the steel and put it back up again and replace all the windows. That could cost, just to do that could be an extremely expensive idea. And then the other option is to transition it out and not have it be our building, whether it go away or be someone else's, that would be another option. I would frame the funding for this. I would frame the funding of this not as a contingency but provisional for, with the potential of trying to redevelop the building itself, absent any sort of public investment. The question is, will this, will we be able to make a decision that is within reach? And so I think that that's a very good point and that this bonding would be phased and so the money for it would not be drawn down until we had a plan. And so there we can go and get approval of the bond but the Board of Finance and Council has to approve the use of the money once it's there. And so we would not draw on the bond for that money without a plan that would had already gone to the Board of Finance and City Council. So it would have the process before the approval for the money doesn't mean we use the money. Yes, I think the Mayor is working on, I think the Mayor is preparing, have conversations with Council about how to provisionally establish it if it's not the preferred site, how that money would be used or not used. So Councillor Paul had some questions on it and she has a finance background and we have done further work to be able to explain it better and in more depth and make her comfortable with it. But they are comfortable numbers. We've talked to our bond council who does our rating with Moody's and it's important to us that we maintain our credit rating and these taking this bond and the school would still keep us within our A rating with Moody's and we have verified that. And this is the carried assumption that's $700 million approval, right? 700 million. Yes, the carried assumption is that it's what the schools have been approved for to date so that if there is additional funding needed for now this expanded high school program that would be over and above the calculations here. All right, thank you. Councillor Barr. Actually Commissioner Bose kind of touched on one of the ones that I wanted so that sounds good because I was really curious what the board of finance and the finance board said and you've kind of indicated that. So other than that, I mean this plan, obviously keeping the Moody, we score at least where it is the investment. I would say that I've been here and seen Memorial Auditorium when it was used and now it's not used and if nothing else it needs to be made safe so that people walking by or anywhere near it. So I can see something like that. So that's really all I have. All right, Vice-Chair on the other side. Yeah, I think Commissioner Bose asked some really good questions. But I'm just gonna dive a little bit more. We got to talk about the elephant in the room which is the school district because I feel so much of this. These are big numbers. How the messaging is really key on how we sell this. I live in Burlington. My property taxes just went up a ton. I have kids in the school district, one's at the Macy's. And the school district situation is on this later I will ask more pointedly about how public works is at the table right now. For infrastructure, for transit, bike path, all that jazz, but for this piece it feels like that Memorial Auditorium, is it, is it not? Is there like, when will we know if it's a final contender for the school district? I know that the meeting last, I mean, there was like the Shelburne roundabout meeting last night, there was a school board meeting. There was, I think, Bob, Parks Commission meeting, but how are we, is this like kind of like a game of chicken I feel like right now? I mean, we, I know that we need to do something with Memorial Auditorium to make it safe. Is $10 million, like the sweet spot, of fixing it so it doesn't fall down? What does it cost to just tear the whole thing down? It's gonna be close to that $10 million number. Is, and that's why we picked that number, is that $10 million will, if we were to open it back up as an auditorium with some sort of use in the ground floor, we would have to put in a whole new ventilation system, elevator, ADA, lights, sprinkler, fire alarm, and do the stabilization. That would cost about, it would take up that $10 million. If we were to demolish it as you're asking, it would probably cost around that. Six to eight is what we've gotten for a quick estimate, but being a historic building, all the bricks have to be saved and sent to the correct historical spot. I didn't mean to roll on that. All of those fun things. And you've got the different hazards that you have to address as you take it down also because of its age. So... And if we were to try to, I don't know, unload it, sell it to a different entity. One thing that people should realize is that we have certain obligations. We have a BT as a tenant within that building and that contract continues, or at least continues for, I think, at least another year, right? 24. So they have all their IT infrastructure within that building itself. So it's important that we keep that building secure and safe at least for the equipment. And we've attempted to do that, but obviously, as we go further down the line and things progress, are we managing the acceleration of the decline of that building or not? Right. Okay, so I really do think that messaging is really, for those of us who know Memorial Auditorium and have been to Circus Mercus in there or whatever, and see, there's some value still in it. And I didn't even know that BT had their infrastructure in there. So I think that that kind of piece is really important as we move forward on pushing this out to the public to ask for the bond. I believe that the timing is really key. And I think there are costs to everything we do. And there's huge costs to inaction, which again is really key to the messaging on what happens if we wait. And I know everyone's still stinging from all this. We will sting more right if we don't do anything. So I think kind of setting up the timeline and couching the Memorial Auditorium, those pieces that you just communicated, I think will be key to moving this forward. And I don't know kind of what issue has to go with city council on whether it goes in November or whatever, but certainly I recognize that that I think we should move kind of sooner rather than later on it. Everything else to me looks really good. I think, as I said, the elephant in the room is like what's gonna go on with the school district and with the gateway block, so that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The main thing I'm still unclear on is I realize that the difference in 10 million since we looked at this last was for Memorial, but on our ability to do this side, we heard that the 30 million was what was left of our allowance in the debt limit two months ago. Could you clarify like here, probably again for me if I missed it earlier, but like where is this squish of like now we have 40 million in the debt limit? Yes, thanks, Chapin. So yes, they have done a lot of recalculating is that with the reappraisal that did change the grant list which then changed all the numbers. And the calculation of the actual growth rate of the grant list was at one level that had been done relatively conservatively and it turns out we have had a better growth rate than the conservative rate that they were projecting at, which it's never terrible to be conservative. And so when that was redone and re-looked at, it opened up this space to add that money in. So as I understood it is there is significant reinvestment or expansion of buildings. And as a result, there's value there, but there's also value in the improved, I guess the continued financial impacts of, I don't want to put it, I don't want to explain it. Adjustment of housing as an entity, it's just a financial adjustment on an annual basis of growth within costs. So for instance, my house was appraised at 243, three years ago, it suddenly went up 300,000. How'd you get there? It's because of the market rate, competitive market rate that has brought it there, but there's also that element that is the capital investment in people either putting expansion on their home or improvements to their home that have added to that kind of that picture and with the reappraisal and that calculation of how much has been additional investments happened on properties. I think that's how they got to this number that was more than what they originally thought conservatively. I listened to Megan Tuttle's conversation on Monday night about the growth and we've had an 8% growth in housing in the last 10 years in the city, which is the highest that I've seen in a long time. And that helps with this as well. You're probably just like Cambrian Rise and those sort of things, it's a significant investment that adds to this picture. Okay, thank you. The denominator increase from some improved market conditions. When we came back last time, there was still a little window there. We were trying to leave a little window there. There's still a little window there. Like we're always going to leave a little window, but we were able to look at the calculations and they weren't different. So the reality was better than the conservative estimates. They're not, I understand. This is a projection even, right? This is our best guess. Thank you. All right, I think we circled through our commissioners here, open up to public comments if there are any. Chancellor Busher, welcome. We can. Yes, we can, welcome. We can, okay. Thank you for letting me review on the comments on the bond request that's before you. Speaking of public form at the city council. And I just want to run and Martha and Chatham are all doing what they should be doing is advocating for the department and for the city as to what our infrastructure needs are. I don't deny any of that as a resident as a long-term resident. I agree. The disconnect for me is what our needs and desires are versus what residents can afford. And I say this from a point of, as we all know, coming still in, coming out of a still in COVID and the economic impact that's had on individuals and the fact of reappraisal. I feel that this is a big ask. I understand that if we don't get this money that it will break the continuity of reinvesting in infrastructure that's old and needs attention. But I think that really what I'm telling, asking all of you is to consider the taxpayer. That's not your job completely, but it is your job to put forward recommendations for the council that are sound financially. And I feel that this is a big ask and I'm really concerned about it. I did say that also there's been a shift in the tax space we've lost commercial and retail. So this debt will go predominantly on the residents. I was also concerned about the fact that in the proposal there is a delay in the interest payments because they know that the taxpayer can't afford it. And so I am concerned about delaying those interest payments. I read the script, it's not supposed to play out badly but I am concerned about it. When you did the math and then in the white papers and the information that went to the council it was $15 per month which would be $180 per year. Every month it's something like $13 a month. But if you would look at, I'm not certain what the cumulative impact would be from just the bonds that APW has or the capital plan. Have we, we've drawn down all the $27 million as the residents have residents felt the impact of drawing down all those dollars. There is proposal to draw down more money from the wastewater bond. And what will that financial impact be coupled with this new proposed debt. Then coupled and add that to buy school. Although we do delay a city and school as you all know, as you all live in Burlington too we get one tax bill. And I'm really concerned about that. So I was asking the city council, the mayor and the board of finance. And I'm asking you to consider delaying this for a year until you see how much money you get from the Fed for infrastructure. And I understand it doesn't address all of the needs that are in this capital plan. But that I think would be the best financial recommendation for the residents of Burlington. I don't want the load to go down. And I know it's probably not my three minutes but I did want to say one other thing about Memorial Auditorium. That was a city councilor for years. And I also know the history of Memorial Auditorium as Mock said, there was a plan of a proposal that just died when COVID hit. But the city and the residents showed strong support for maintaining that it's a memorial. That truth came out of strong support. It's not just an old building that you're gonna tear down because, oh well it's an old building. It has history. And I think there will be a lot of opposition to that kind of approach. I just wanted to, and I really think that if there are new people who don't know that history it would be only fair for them to get some kind of synopsis so they understand the sentiment of the citizens of Burlington. There were meetings and con toys, et cetera. It was well orchestrated. And there was a plan that was supported. So I just wanted to add that. Thank you so much. Thank you. May I say something too? Please. Sharon, are you still there? Yes, yes. So Sharon, I wanted to say that the point in the white paper about the deferral of interest was an error. And that's on me is that that was in the 2016 white paper as a method of financing. And we updated it and I did not take that out. So I take full ownership on missing that to come out. And I my apologies on that. We did draw down all of the final 27 and a half million in 2019. So that has hit everybody's tax bill. And so you have seen that. And you have a good point on the wastewater although I believe that would hit as an increase in your water bill rather than on any tax bill. So I just wanted to make sure that you knew that that error is on me and that is not part of the plan to defer interest. Yes, the calculations that we provided show it with principal and interest to the taxpayer. So the $7 to $13 on a median home is correct with principal and interest. Anyone else interested in speaking up public comment? Okay, so I'll bring it back to the commission here. This was warned with possible action and there's some suggested language in there. Martha, you had hinted that you may want to revise a suggested language? That changes that in terms of the dates. So I changed it to recommend to the city council the move to request an item on the ballot for a general obligation bond for a 2021 special election. Took out the actual date because it would happen before the end of the calendar year. Okay, so you're not saying bond vote? The bond vote November 9th, it's a special election. Right. It could be December 31st. It could be. It could be. Probably not. I'm hoping not. But. I'll catch them on their way home. Just so you know. No, it stops at noon. This special election that was going to be in November has been moved to December. Right, so it would be done at the same time as the BED revenue bond. So we would be collaborating with them on the special. So they are still going and that date is going to be in December. And it's just, it would be done at the same time. God, thanks for clarifying. You're welcome. A motion if anyone, that was so kind. I'd like to make a motion to recommend to city council to move the request. An item on the ballot for a general obligation bond for a special election in 2021. Is that, I'll second. Did I get it? Thank you for that motion. Vice Chair, I'll move on to seconded by commissioner Barr. Is there any discussion around that motion? All right. Seeing none, we'll go to a vote and then we'll start on the phone. Commissioner Bose. Thank you. Commissioner Mutano. Aye. Commissioner Barr. Aye. Vice Chair, I'll move on to. Aye. Commissioner Kennedy. Aye. And aye for myself. Motion is passed. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate the support. Presentation. All right. I'm going to have a pen back here. Right along here. Item six, self end construction coordination plan. Item has no action associated with it tonight. This was a follow up requested by commissioner Overby at the last meeting to make this an agenda item. We did a quick overview last time. City Engineer Baldwin is here to provide a quick overview as there are some exciting new developments with South End projects that normal fill you in on and then happy to answer questions. So. Fighting. Thank you. Updated information that's rolled out. Maybe it's a little overlapping from what was in the packet. I thought it was important that you get a little more piece of information than it doesn't smell like the neighbor. What is in the packet? So for folks who are online, Norm is handing out some information that he will verbally go over and then it will be posted online most likely tomorrow for the public's review. Commissioner Bose, the South End coordination plan documents that are in the packet will be largely what Norm is touching on tonight. Okay. Thank you for hearing this topic. What you have in the packet is a cover memo for myself that explains kind of the disposition of recent events both related to the coordination plan and also the parkway itself and some of the actions taken there at the council this past Monday. So this is timely. So I'll start with the South End construction coordination plan. Effectively, there are a number of projects and previously I assume you had seen the coordination plan schedule, proposed schedule or assumed schedule. It outlines a series of different products within the South End that have sniffing impact to people's daily lives both in the South End but also accessing our community from the South. There are two major corridors in the South End. There's Shelburne Road and then there's Pine Street itself that provide access to the public from the South to the Central Business District. And I'm certain you're aware that there is ongoing effort or construction with the Shelburne Street roundabout and that is certainly had an impact on people's daily travels. In our conversations with the public when we went to all those public forums about the parkway, we heard very clearly that people are fatigued by construction and so it really kind of pushed us in the direction of thinking about what projects are in play in the South End and what is reasonable to expect for the public to endure while these things go on. And as you know, the parkway is pretty deep impact to daily lives if we start construction. If you have both those projects under way at the same time, it virtually creates an impossible circumstance for people in their daily lives. So this coordination or coordination plan is really intended to begin to address that. As you can see, there's a list of projects and I'll go through them quickly. There's a state effort for paving within the South End on Route 7. There is a passing rail project that's currently underway on the waterfront. You may have seen some of that work on King Street, Maple Street, and College Street. Shelburne Road roundabout I just mentioned. And then you see in the salmon color parkway listed as the fifth through eighth item on that Gantt chart. This is intended to be the first phase of two phases of construction for the parkway itself, specifically from Home Avenue to Kilburn Street. And the concept is that we, knowing that this is not really directly disruptive to access along Pine Street, it's more or less in coordination with the roundabout project itself. The benefit to doing this sooner than later is there are the ability for us to capture opportunities of removing some of the sediment within that catchment area by developing some of these facilities. So I think there's like 3,000 pounds of sediment load within the south end corridor with this project that could be captured before it discharges to the lake. So this is a very environmentally positive thing. There's also additional opportunities for shared use path and improved pedestrian access along that first phase of construction. So we wanna capture that sooner than later. You also see in here the Main Street Great Streets project. The mayor has a very aggressive stance on advancing this within his most current term. And so we're working in earnest to advance design for that and to procure a consultant. Along with that is the Rail Yard Enterprise project that is, we've gotten cooperative agreement with the state and we're also putting on an RFQ for the consultant and we've gotten two consultants expressing interest and we're reviewing those proposals. And we will likely be hopefully awarding the design contract for that by October. And then what you'll see below is the continuation of the second phase of Champlain Parkway that connects from Kilburn to Main Street. And at the last stage of this, connecting the Parkway Investment to Route 7189. And it's important that the council acknowledge and understand that they have full control of when contracts are released and when we procure them and how that timing plays into this coordination plan. I think this is a very pragmatic way of managing projects in a responsible way that addresses all the local concerns of the community that we've heard but also allows really people to function on their daily lives while we get through completing this important work. I don't know if there's really much more to say and in this document I included the presentation that was provided to council this past Monday and it shows of course the map. It also shows the talks about some of the specifics associated with the Parkway. And so beyond the South incoordination plan, I had noted some events that relate to the Parkway that are important to this commission you should be aware of. One of the things that we needed to do with the Parkway is we needed to amend the existing design contract to continue our work for the Parkway. But coincidentally we are at a critical milestone for that project where we have worked on the Limit Scope FS EIS which is the Limit Scope final supplemental impact statement. That is reached a stage where Federal Highway is reviewed and approved that document to be published and issued. And as soon as that was authorized by the local Federal Highway office, we had published it on the project website but also sent it out via email to members of the public to express interest in that project. Either through email or through hard copy through mail. Obviously the federal process has a very rigid process of publishing these things but we thought it was important that locally people have an opportunity as soon as it was available to have it be seen. And so what we've done is we've taken the Limit Scope final supplemental impact, verbal impact statement and have had it printed and made it available at the library and also at City Hall, the quick charges office and here at this office. Given the size of that document at 600 and some odd pages, I don't think anyone wants to try to print it from home, pull it off the website. And I don't necessarily know if everyone wants to have a hard copy provided to them. So we've had a limited print job available for those that really are interested in having it, a copy of it to bring it home and to read and to peruse. So those could be available if people ask and speak to Corey Mims who's the project manager for the project itself. On the more formalized track, Federal Highway is scheduled to have this published in the Federal Registry, let me say the thing, the Limit Scope final environmental impact statement on the Federal Registry, September 17th. Their process requires that the public understand their decision and action. And so there's a 30 day period, minimum 30 day period for it to be read and understood by the public. And then they will potentially issue a record of decision or a rod that firmly establishes where they are with this project and support of the project to advance. That ends up leading to an opportunity for the project to go to the next stage, which is to finalize these bid documents, separate out the different two phases that I've just discussed and to really begin to follow this schedule and stay on pace with the schedule that's described. 30 days ends up being October 17th, but obviously Federal Highway is not going to be taking any action on a Sunday. So at earliest it would be October 18th. So it's important U.S. commissioners are aware of what's advancing with this project, given that the public may be asking you for contacting you to be briefed. And so we want you to be the first to know but not the last to know either. So I think this is important to have this conversation with you and be available to answer any questions. Jepin, did I miss anything? I don't think so. So I'll just wrap it up and say, we think the South End Construction Coordination Plan really does provide the key that unlocks tens of millions of dollars of investment in the South End in a suite of transportation improvements from bringing Amtrak to Burlington to installing the city's first modern roundabout to creating over two miles of shared use path along the Champlain Parkway. So we're very excited and bullish about it and to put a fine point on it, the chart that City Engineer Baldwin went over shows us being under construction for the Champlain Parkway in about nine months. So this is a new day where we understand the responsibility as this 50-year-old project finally advances towards construction. We need to coordinate it with all the other projects and make sure we protect Burlington. So we're really excited by this. We're happy to answer any questions. Great, yeah, thank you for that presentation. I will bring it back to our commissioner's discussion this time. Let's start with Mr. Barr. He's perusing and listening to you at the same time, so for me if I just, yeah. I guess I'm curious, the two miles of shared use path, where is that gonna be? I was looking at the map. I'm just curious, is it something that already exists from the old South End connector area to- It's two additional miles. There is already, as Commissioner Barr noted, shared use path along the built but unopened section of the parkway from 189 to Home Avenue. The new shared use path would be from Home Avenue all the way up to Kilburn Street. And there would be additional shared use path from the Baird Center up to Shelbert Road. Okay. And there are. Right, okay. There are minor sections of shared use path being added like on the Home Avenue rail crossing to get the Champlain Parkway path connected to Austin Drive. So that's the main sections of shared use path. Yeah, also that if you're familiar with the Champlain Parkway, you realize that Home Avenue and Flint Avenue will have significant rail crossing improvements to support pedestrian and bikes. As opposed to right now, there is limited or no facilities for that. I was asking someone to pop a tire when you try and go over those things. Yup. That was kind of it. I've been biking down there quite a bit and I'm excited to see this move forward. So that's it. All right, thank you. Commissioner McDonough. All right, my question is gonna be about the bike lanes on Pine Street. It seems like construction's gonna be done by 2025. How is biking down Pine Street gonna be different than four years from now than say this summer? So to what standards essentially are these gonna be built and for pedestrians as well down Pine Street? What sort of amenities and changes could they expect to see by the end of this first phase as it's being proposed? Right, yes. So Pine Street will receive a pretty substantial makeover. It will be entirely new sidewalk up the east side that currently is in marginal shape on where there's an existing sidewalk. There will be on the west side where there is inconsistent sidewalk currently. There will be a 10 foot wide shared use path running the entire length of the project corridor. There will be raised intersections where there currently are traditional intersections with enhanced pedestrian crossings, bump outs and the like. There will be new mid block pedestrian crossing by Arts Riot and there will be granite curbing where there is marginal to no curbing along Pine Street and improved grading on Pine Street for better drainage. One of the challenges that we have myself as a cyclist and I'm sure everybody else is that Pine Street does not drain well and after rainstorms it can be a challenging place to bike. So getting a nod from Commissioner Bose there. So all those things are improvements. There will be currently, there's a one direction bike lane on Pine Street that is southbound. The plan, the proposed plan is that the shared use path on the west side will exist that southbound bike lane will be removed and there will be more kind of a shoulder both on the west side and the east side of Pine Street. So there will be a slight shift in the double yellow line on Pine Street. I would add that I didn't speak to this but there'll be fire preemption and preferential signalization for transit service. That's the change in bike pad on Pine Street. Upstanding. And you would say basically a zero conflict ride from Home Avenue all the way to the end of Pine Street with all of those kind of new amenities like even this lake side avenue section will be built essentially that standard as well. So the 10 foot wide shared use path will be continuous. There will be road crossings. So the shared use path from home to lake side is a pretty far run with only three street crossings. You'll cross at Flynn. You'll cross at Sears Lane, two crossings and then get to lake side. At lake side, you'll need to cross the road here. You'll come out in front of the building here and then you'll wrap around stay on the west side of Pine Street up to Kilburn. The second phase of the parkway project that will be built second will have bike lanes at that point up to Maple Street. So this will get you all the way from Queen City Park Road up to the Decentral Business District either on a shared use path or in buffered bike lanes. Cool, thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Boos. What is the data control report? You know, some of the things about where things will be staged, what will be closed down and so on. So I'm just wondering how, I haven't heard as many complaints more recently so I'm just wondering if there was specific outreach done to those residents to allay any particular area. That was one question. The second question I had is some of these things that when you present them, you know, it will have the estimated impacts of traffic diversion. I'm just wondering, I was thinking about this the other day I was going along Pine Street with Mark Hopper, just kind of wondering what the impact of, say the Roundabout Project has been in terms of diversion of traffic. I mean, how much do you build that into as an ongoing basis as you are developing this kind of more integrated track or point-to-south infrastructure? So just those two questions about, like taking in the feedback and how much you kind of re-bottle on the basis of how do traffic diversion take place. So I guess I'm trying to answer the last question. I'm not sure if maybe we circle back to the first question, but the second piece you asked, how do we take into account to changing condition based on actual products advancing? I think the answer is this is a starting point. We don't see it as an endpoint to how it all fits within a schedule, but it's a framework of how we think we're long view, how we're going to tie prospective products in with existing products to the best of our knowledge. And that will change as we know more about how people respond and how people endure some of those things. So it's not an exact science in many ways because you can't predict human behavior, but you can have a sense of, there's only two corridors in and if you're blocking one, you got to leave something available for people to make use of. So we're trying to be thoughtful about how we make all that work while still advancing projects. I was just wondering, do you check back? Can you do like a small study, maybe two weeks in a month? And I was just wondering what you're sort of checking. Well, obviously there's a lot of coordination that happens within my own team about where projects are. And Laura Wheelock is our representative for the, and Olivia is the representative for the Shelbourne Street roundabout. So I'm in constant coordination and conversations with them about where that, how that's progressing and how it relates to the parkway and back and forth, both Corey and myself and Chapin sharing with them where we're at with the parkway as two major projects and also the rail yard enterprise. So we're constantly updating each other about where we're at and what we're proposing to do and revising our plan accordingly. So Commissioner Boz, just to put a fine point on it, we don't usually do traffic studies in the midst of construction projects. We do have traffic control plans and should there be an impact that the residents are bringing up that we believe needs to be addressed, then we will revise the traffic control plan and develop additional accommodation. But we don't do traffic control plans or traffic counts during construction projects. It's such a very fluid dynamic thing. It's sometimes what's happening today is not what's happening tomorrow. I just didn't know if there was any kind of method to which you actually have an ability to estimate, well, this is where we think the traffic is going to flow. We changed the way in which Shelbourne Street operates now, how does that impact all their possibilities? But, you know, perhaps that's beyond the scope of it. So, go back. Post-Parkway construction, there are traffic models that show the estimated projected traffic after the Parkway is completed. Those projections show the traffic on Shelbourne Street going down, a significant percentage, I believe around 10%, and traffic modestly going up on the Pine Street corridor. Happy to share the details of that with you all, but those are the projections. As to your first question about resident concerns, you know, the South End Construction Coordination Plan really came out of that and predominantly concerns in the King Maple neighborhood about concerns of increased traffic in that neighborhood, which is why the phasing of all these projects was so key and dividing the Champlain Parkway into two phases allows the first phase to get done without an interstate connection, thereby not increasing traffic until we are projecting all the other components and improvements in the South End are completed so that there will be a pine-to-battery connection with the Raleigh Art Enterprise Project that will relieve traffic, and the projections are that, with the Raleigh Art Enterprise Project in place, there will be less traffic in King and Maple than there is today. So that's the kind of smart, coordinated planning that we're trying to deliver to best protect and benefit the community. All right, thank you. Mr. Kennedy. So I guess I'm just wondering, well, you mentioned some like traffic calming type improvements that will be had along these corridors that are great, like seem great to me, and I'm a big fan of raised intersections specifically, but do we have any good examples of raised intersections in Burlington currently that I could like, theoretically look at? Well, there's, I think the first one, if I'm correct, is Church in Pearl that was a modest raised intersection. There is, let's see, North Ave and Berry that we just completed. That's probably the best example of that. There was some improvements along Locust Street that has got some raised grade, but it's an unusual configuration in that it's a steep slope or steeper slope than a flat section. So there's, and then actually Berkscliff itself at Cherry is another example of tabled intersections. The best one is North Avenue and Washington and Berry intersection. It's a more contemporary design based on. That was just done over the summer. Yes, yeah, we just reached completion on that. And would these ones, theoretically, be similar to those ones that we just did? Or it's more like, it's less gradual and more, like, there. It's a different circumstance because it's a different grade and condition on the road. So, yes. Yeah, and we need to balance the needs of the pedestrians in the traveling public with emergency services. So there needs to be kind of an appropriate grade that allows emergency vehicles to service, given Pine Street is such a central corridor. So we've worked with the engineers to come up with a design. We feel balances those needs. It's really about making a prominence that this is something different than the normal section of road. This is where a lot of pedestrians cross and congregate, particularly our triad occurs. It's important to have, it's been at issues that have been raised in the past. That's what got us there. Thank you, I think that's all I have. All right, thank you. Mr. O'Neill-Valaco. Question on the rod, the record of decision. So in this time period between September 17th and October 18th, can the public, can public comments alter this October 18th, not deadline, but timeline for the project? So the short answer is no. The draft was published in the summer of 2020. There was a robust public outreach effort that included a public meeting, that included mailers to the neighborhood, signs in the neighborhood. This is the final document based on the public comment from that draft. So there is an internal review at Federal Highway at this point, and then an expected record of decision in mid-October. People are always welcome to contact us at the ChamplainParkway.com website. There's a phone number, there's an email. We are happy to answer any questions or hear any concerns. But at this point, the environmental impact statement that Norm referred to is final at this point. That's great, that's exciting news. So I guess maybe if there's any update on that, if there's any change on that, it would be, if you guys could let us know with the next public work commission meeting, that'd be great. But assuming no news is good news, right? Yep. And then, so I realize it's VTrans, not you guys, because I was thinking, and I don't know who else is, so I'm gonna VTrans something or other that we get these notices in my inbox about the Shelburne Street roundabout, which is just fantastic. And just geeking out here. I don't know if it's possible. Well, just because I live on the other side and that's a major intersection that we go through, I go the back way through Prospect Parkway when I have to, but what I like about this is their regular updates and I can just look at them. So I don't know if there's a way to communicate out through Front Porch Forum and to the public, sign up for these updates from VTrans, because that's how I first heard about the meeting last night, which of course I couldn't attend because of the school board. But here, I can watch the recording or view the presentation. So I think this kind of communication piece, just if public works can tag on to this or push this out, might be helpful in that communication piece to some folks. And honestly, when I have gotten down to the end of Willard Street, forgetting that the construction is going on and that feeling of like it's, I don't drive a lot, I don't drive that intersection a lot. So that being said, once I get through there, I'm like, oh, this is not bad. And this is even at rush hour, picking up a kid from somewhere or going to a doctor. So I have to say, again, I don't live right there, but I think you folks have done a good job looking at Norm in particular in your team. It's better already, even with all those cones. Well, I think the state has worked very hard to advance the project and do it and have a traffic control plan that is best suited for the challenge of the work that is in front of them. But I will also give credit to my staff for really pressing the state and the consultants to do their real solid homework, to make sure it arrives at a successful outcome for our public. So it's not just, it's a partnership and it truly is a work in progress on every day that that project is underway. So we are not taking our hands off the wheel. It is a tough project to do, but we're gonna try to make it as least painful for the public as possible while still getting it done. And I know it's gonna get uglier before it gets better, but- There's significant utility work that involves breaking stone that is, as Lord described, probably the hardest rock in all of North America. Yeah, yeah. So great, I like this construction plan. So if I have a comment about the signage heading northbound, is that a V-trans thing? You can funnel it through us, but you can also reach out to them. We don't mind hearing any sort of issues and concerns and make sure that we communicate it back to the state. They ultimately have direct control of the contractor but we can certainly help where possible. All right, yeah, I will. Yeah, that's enough. So there's two lanes that go down into one and there's always some jerk cutting you off. But, oh my God, we're all stuck in traffic, but I'll leave, thanks. It's tough to get people to be patient. Yeah. That's it. All right, thank you. On the subject of the service you've gone about us, yeah, like what I said, my advantage point seems so far so good. It seemed like almost, in some ways, a magical improvement in some ways when it was leveled out. You could drive straight through there. I guess a related question, if as I'm sure you all have observed, people have a tendency to avoid these things and there can be an increase in traffic on neighboring streets as people are cutting around there. And I wonder if there may be procedures whereby people could get temporary calming materials, barricades or cones or buckets or something like that to make some of the small neighborhood streets where I got a five and seven year old trying to cross the street to get to school in the morning. Now there's a lot more cars ripping down there to skip those in any case. Could we make some calming materials available potentially if there are concerns? I would think that we're open to that but I think it's a matter of managing expectations. There's only so much we can do to control people's choices and decisions. Well, so we will make every effort to make it as least intrusive as possible but we will be chasing this problem in different places when we take action in one other place. So you may have solved one person's problem and ended up chasing it to somewhere else. So it's an elusive thing when a facility is impacted like this and how people choose the routes and it's a point of resistance. Where the greatest resistance is is less likely to be there but then that means someone else is carrying that burden and responsibility. So we're open to hearing what people are concerned about and we'll try to do our best to make it as best situation as possible but there's no guarantee of getting it fully completely, fully comfortable for people. Everyone's sharing that burden I guess. Yeah, I understand. Feel free to follow up with locations that you're noticing may be problematic and we can talk about how we can. If you see something that's unsafe then we will definitely without question act to take control of that circumstance. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Science block and the line of sight and so forth. Yes, those things are primary importance. Yeah. I would thank you. Quick question on the phasing, the initial phasing for the Champlain Parkway heading north towards Main Street. I'm just curious why we cut it off at Kilburn. Is that to hedge and give the Raleigh Art Enterprise Project some? No, actually it was a decision based on what comments received from the public. You know, from a highly technical perspective, from a traffic engineering perspective we would believe that a traffic signal would improve the existing addition both for pedestrians and vehicle movements but I think the public is concerned that it's that by putting that installation immediately of improving the signals that it was somehow gonna improve throughput through that neighborhood and have them carry a heavier burden of traffic. And so hearing that from the public we put it at the later stage of the project and a simple fact is if the Raleigh Art Enterprise is potentially going to change the condition significantly in future years would that investment make the best sense immediately or not? So that's kind of the thinking but I think that that's rang true for most people we've explained that to but if you're sitting as a traffic engineer you would think otherwise. Yeah, thank you. Nothing further for me. I appreciate the chance to give this a good luck here. Yep. I appreciate the dialogue. We did debate that quite a bit internally. I'm sure no, we appreciate the work here. Is there any anyone from the public interested in speaking? Your light on public participants. Mr. Building? All right. We are not need to take any action on this. Any party thoughts from our commissioner, sir? Yes. So those modeling numbers, the average daily traffic, is that at the conclusion of the whole project with the interstate connection going all the way to Main Street? Yes, the numbers that I referenced, there are extensive traffic data in all the permitting documents for the Champlain Parkway and if there are specific sections you wanna review we're happy to go over them. Sweet, so there really is no intermediate stage where we're not really imagining what's gonna happen in this like phase one, at the end of the phase one of the project. We did have our engineer, our design consultant CHA put a memo and I believe that's in the packet for the construction coordination plan that's in your packet. I don't have my packet right with me. I don't have the packet. There should be a three page memo from CHA and what they are reflecting as professional engineers is that given that there's no additional kind of entry into the south end, no additional highway connection or connection to route seven than what exists today, that you're really just adding to the street grid within a neighborhood but not inducing additional traffic into that neighborhood. So they don't project a substantive change after phase one is completed. Great, thanks for clarifying that. Yeah, my computer died, but. No problem. Remember that. You're testing my memory. All right, very good. With that, I will close out the item six on south end construction coordination. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Forward item seven approval of minutes from the August meeting. We have the draft minutes posted in the immediate couple of days after the meeting and in the packet, we have in front of us a couple of suggested edits to those. Pardon me. Welcome any emotion if anyone's on client. Motion to accept the minutes as amended. Motion from Commissioner Barr. Thank you. I'll second the motion. Seconded from Vice-Chair Naomi Ivanko. Thank you. Any discussion around that motion? I guess you should check here on our eligible voters would be Barr, Naomi Ivanko, myself, and Commissioner Mutano. Pablo, I know we had a connection issue when I missed you for a chunk of that and Commissioner Overby's absence. Looking for a vote amongst the four of us then. Commissioner Mutano. Hi, okay, Commissioner Barr. Hi. Vice-Chair Naomi Ivanko. Hi. And an I for myself, the August minutes have passed. Item eight, director's reports. All right, speed round. Consolidated collection has been deferred to the September 27th meeting of the city council. So we expect to be in front of the city council to discuss next steps and whether or not the council is supportive of consolidation of trash organics and recycling collection. Crossing guards, we still need crossing guards. We are short. We have increased pay 10% over the last two years. We have a number of open positions. If you let people know, we're even willing to have people who just are interested in morning shifts or people who can just do afternoon shifts. We'd love to fill these open positions. The water bills that hopefully you all have received this month reflect the new rate structure that has been put into place as of July one and show a new format on the bills. It includes past balance and some additional information that had not been on the bills. We would welcome feedback. What we're hearing so far is positive response, but happy to hear any additional feedback. Anything that we should hit in addition? No, everything that I was busy active on, I think I talked about tonight. It's been a late minute, but it's there. Thank you. Thank you. All right, that will bring it back for commissioner communications. Commissioner Kennedy. All right, I don't think I have anything to say. All right, that's fine, all right. Commissioner Bose. Thank you. Good to see you back with us. Commissioner Montana. Likewise. I just have one. I saw the cruise out painting and looks great crosswalks and things in my ward. I just will ask again, I'm curious if there's gonna be the 90 degree turnoff of Colchester Avenue on a chase street. I see the paint sort of there. But I know we talked about having... Yes. We did follow up with that question after the last one and apologize if I didn't loop back to you. This is one of those items where our street maintenance team is under resourced right now. We've had a number of people out. And so what we're trying to do is to get a contractor in to help us with some of the quick build installations. Procurement has run a little slower than we'd like. So we are trying to get to this. Thanks for your patience. Yep, yep. And I will try to get you a firmer timeline once we get a sense of when we can get that consultant on board. It's funny, I get a lot of looks because I try and follow the paint. Yeah. Even though there's nothing physically there stopping me from going straight. And people just look at me like I'm just, I'm as weird as I am, I guess. So there's one project that failed to mention that we're underway with and that is, so North Avenue from Letty to Shore Road, there was a strong interest in repaving that segment of road. Some of the things that have to happen there to really have a long-term solution is to make some significant stormwater improvements to limit the amount of runoff that kind of settles there and destroys the road. And so our right-of-way crews are currently working on that and having conversations with my team about the design and asking questions. So it's underway this fall. The goal is to, next contraction season to have it be repaved once that work's complete. So it's a work in progress, so to speak. I think people really strongly wanted it to be repaved this season, but it just didn't pan out with how competitive pricing came for paving, but it still leaves us the opportunity to do all the stormwater improvements that are necessary that are in advance of that paving. So just worth noting that is going on now. Next, Gerald Nielovaco. Two things. One, I think is an easy short answer, perhaps. So South Prospect Street, a lot like right by Redstone Campus, it's like available parking. This is the non-resident parking section, so it's from Cliff Street South. Is there ever been interest to put like Park Mobile up there and capture some revenue? I see that as just a great way. There are people who are parking there every day. It's not resident only, it's this public resource. I live in the neighborhood and yeah, so I don't know if that's going over like the proverbial lead balloon, but I just was wondering. Or for people at UVM who run transportation and parking if they haven't. I think I almost think that was brought up for several different areas along there as we looked at South Prospect, but I'll let you go. So there was a conversation related to resident parking where we were trying to blend resident parking with short-term use. And I don't think we really discussed the idea of metered parking, but without question, we were looking at this as kind of a revision to resident parking itself. I remember there being four hour limits at one point. I don't know if that's still. For a few spaces there, we did time-limited parking to allow some members of the public to use parking in the residential permit parking areas. There is in the resident permit parking management plan a toolbox of options. And one of the things listed in that toolbox is the possibility of doing metered parking. Currently, we do not meter parking outside the downtown area. It would be something, we've referenced it in a plan now where there's openness to have that conversation, but it would be a market change in the policy of the city to start metering parking. We may not hit that hornet's nest yet. I'm willing to hit it. I think, no, I mean, I just, I looked at it the other day and I thought, wow, this we could get, you know, and have, it finishes at five o'clock, but there are a lot of UVM folks who go and park there because they live four blocks away and can't walk that far for whatever reason. And I just feel like it's a big, untapped resource. But anyway. And I'll just add, because I know that Assistant Director Padgett is probably gonna be watching this. We use Park Mobile all across campus and we've actually removed all our meters. So having stuff outside of the downtown area but making it Park Mobile and Zones is a viable way to help manage the parking crunches. We'll leave that for an instance for another day. The big one. The high school. I, are you at the table? Jaybin. So last month, I think we informed you we had reached out to the superintendent and offered our expertise for subterranean utilities with water resource and some of the transportation and traffic and surface assets through tech services. We have made that offer. We did get positive confirmation that they will reach out to us. At this point, I have not had anybody reach out, have you? I'm not aware of any direct reach out on that since that reached out communication. Okay, then as a parent, then I need to figure out what levers we need to push because the site selection, we need to make sure if we have a net zero energy plan, if we're talking about equity and access and inclusion for all our users, we need to make sure that our transportation plan is baked into the site and that we're not trying to fix things and figure out how students are gonna get to school after they build the school. And just hearing some of the comments last night, I was feeling like there are some folks who don't have a vision for what transportation could possibly look like beyond a single occupancy vehicle and complain about congestion when in fact, why are they dropping their kids off instead of looking at what are the transit routes, where are low and moderate income residents living and how far do they need to travel? And I just feel like the expertise that you folks can offer beyond the water systems and so forth, which I know are important as well are really vital. So I will push as a parent on this as well. We are happy to help in that process. Many of us who have kids in the school system are also very interested in seeing a decision be made as well and as quickly as possible. Great, and it seems like there are just a lot of these other factors, the Memorial Auditorium gateway block, hinging on what decision is eventually made and I think as many experts at the table, as many voices at the table helping inform that, I think all the better. Thank you. See, that's it, it was easy. Sure. Well said, I would second that, I feel like what I've heard from the school district and the frequent communications sounds good, but there hasn't been a lot said about the transportation issues. And I think it's, that's a pain point at every school in the district today. And we're looking at this site selection that really should be a crucial part of it. And their consultants that they're leaning on are also missing the transportation point in referencing the potential sites on Institute Road. They allotted a plus that it's on a bus line, and it is. Now the only thing better than being on a bus line is being on every bus line downtown. Like there's a huge difference in the feasibility about having to change buses to get somewhere versus catching it like everyone in town being able to get on a bus and get to a central location. Anyway, I'll leave that there. I also look forward to putting on my parent hat. This is school district concerns and take that up separately. But yeah, certainly keep on our fellow departments about transportation issues that may not be in the front or front of what they're looking at. Question on our staffing here, aside from crossing guards, which is crucial to have some success filling, of course. You mentioned at least one department under staffed is that in technical services. And I was wondering if there's an update overall, like what, how are our various departments doing staffing lines, like are there open jobs post-eating? Are we, do we need more resources from the council for to put more job ads out? I would say overall, we are doing okay, but across every division, we do have openings. And some of those are working through some kind of reclassification issues in technical services. There are two open positions currently. We have open positions pretty much in every division. If you look on the city jobs page, you'll see those positions running from fleet maintenance to tech services to customer service. So we're keeping the lights on. Our customer service team here can know that two people running the whole customer service team up front is thin, and I thank them for all of their ongoing work. So, we have been trying to evaluate what can we do to close some of the hiring gaps whether we can do outreach in different ways. We've been working with the REIB, Racial Equity Inclusion Belonging Group and HR about how we get our notices out to constituencies who might not think of working for the city. You know, the city has been, we've also been trying to reclassify jobs to have them commensurate with the skills that are required, sometimes job descriptions get stale. And so we try to reclassify to get a grade that is commensurate with the work. But the city does have a formulaic system of grading and ranking jobs that can make it difficult when you can't attract talent. Then you have to figure out another way to get our work done. For me, my team, I think it's important that we have people have opportunities to advance within the team itself, the lords, as they grow and develop and there's opportunities when someone moves out of a slot that they can move into that slot, but also just make sure the descriptions fit with what we're asking them to do and that they're properly compensated. I think that's a big thing. Work conditions, you know, obviously we have a lot of work and it's a big strain on my team. We do a lot of projects, we get a lot done. There's a lot of financial management goes with that. We, tech services, I think are in a best position to support other teams within the city who are doing similar work, capital work, that don't have the financial management expertise of my team. And so we're trying to figure out how we can reconfigure financial management of capital projects to support parks and to support water resource. Water resource is at the verge of significant capital reinvestment in their systems and Megan really needs, and her team's needs, financial support to kind of push and process that kind of volume of work. And that's a pretty heavy lift. And we do it on a regular basis within tech services quietly without problems, but it's a lot of work. And I just think that I need to make sure as a leader of the team that I'm not having people get burned out, that I get positions filled as much as quick as possible and that people get properly compensated and work conditions are important. And I would just say that I don't want to be in a position where I'm growing a team so big to respond to the workload that we can't sustain it in the future and then end up doing a force reduction. So that is why it's important that when this capital project, capital budget comes along, that there's money to support having consultants to be a force multiplier to our work. And I think that's kind of the so-called expansion space we have within my team to deal with all this volume of work that a very aggressive mayor is advancing. And without that capital resource to support consultants, we're at a disadvantage to complete what's already on the books to be completed. So it's a balancing act on a daily basis, but lots of conversations, lots of communication, good communication within teams is important to understand where people are at and what they need and what they need to be supported. Thank you for the update. I have some great employees, so. Yeah, for that team. All right, yeah, nothing further on my end. I'll close out commissioner communications and look to item 10 adjournment and next meeting, October 20th. Commissioner Barth, the motion, the second on the item 10, thank you. Is there any discussion around that motion? All right, all those in favor, if you say aye. Aye. Push your bows, also an aye, and an aye for myself. We are adjourned, that's A42. Thank you all. Thank you.