 I will call the meeting to order. It is 12 01 PM. We can start by introducing ourselves since it is a remote meeting. Jack McCullough, mayor. Jack, you might want to call on people. Okay, that's right. So I got you Donna. Donna Bay district one. Ellen. Hey, Lincoln district two. Kerry. Kerry Brown district three. Lauren. Lauren Hurl district one. Okay. First item on the agenda. I'll. Not spend any time with the meeting logistics and remote instructions. I'll say the first item on the agenda is to approve the agenda. Is there anything. That we need to add that's not on the agenda already. Okay. Provide update if people have it or answer any questions about flood related things. We've been trying to get you as regular information as we have, but certainly. I know it's not specifically on the agenda, but we're happy to do that if we can. Next, we have general business and appearance. Donna was trying to get in. Oh, Donna. We added discussion of the remote guards. We've gotten a couple of emails on it. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. General business and appearances as an opportunity for any member of the public to address the council on any item that is not on the agenda. And we can go ahead and do that right now. Okay. You can move to item number five approved emergency health order. And basically the two orders that are on your agenda today are. You know, a formality that we need for FEMA to give us the authority to do certain things and show that we mean business and to retroactively authorized decisions we've made since last Sunday and going forward to sign certain contracts. And if we want to have funds reimbursed to us, we need to have these resolutions in place. And they need to be approved by the city council. Yeah, so I could just use a little clarification on what these actually say. So there's, there's the, there are two things right there's the declaration of state of emergency slash public health threat. And it's got a whole bunch of where as is but it doesn't have any kind of statement or statement or anything. It's just all where as is and so I'm not totally sure what that, what that is. And then the second one has a bunch of where as is that it says now therefore city council acting as a board of health programs of public health emergency. And then there's another whereas about immediate debris and trash and it's, it's not really a complete sentence and I'm not really sure what it says. So, so if you could clarify, maybe we'll have to send out some revised ones. Mary says we uploaded new ones this morning. I don't know where would I find them because I just want to find the page. On the agenda page. That's where I got this. That's where you get them. I wonder why they're not coming through. So, I can tell you what they're intended to be, and you can decide what you want to do with the bottom over can just one another meeting. The health order is basically so so there's an issues with FEMA and with the debris removal. FEMA doesn't necessarily do commercial garbage removal, but they will do health and safety related debris removal. So we are declaring a health and safety hazard for having all the trash in the streets, the debris, the flood related debris so the health officer issued an order but the health officer can only issue an order for up to 48 hours and then the board of health which is you all would approve that order and then that says that now this is a public health and safety emergency that needs response it's not just trash, commercial trash pickup. So the second is supposed to be an order authorizing city manager to execute contracts emergency contracts outside of the normal purchasing policy for a period of up to the next meeting of August 23. That's for your approval because again if we have signed contracts we need to show that we had the authority to sign the contracts. So item, item six on the agenda bill but I think questions were about both of the, but number five. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, okay so I'm seeing that number five has two attachments. And now, and one of them is the health officers emergency health order. Right. So that's just for our information I'm assuming yes, we don't need to do anything so then the second one is is the health and that's the one where it's, it's that last whereas section it's just a little. It's very clunky. And there's no. And maybe that's fine. So, so the gist of that one is that we're proclaiming a public health emergency slash state of emergency. Right. Okay, great. And that the track the presence of the debris downtown is causing that. So I think this is the one that I emailed you about this. I think that what it that last thing that said after this, the now therefore, where it says, whereas the board of health, health free claims, I think it's probably say the board of health further proclaims that immediate safety and trash removal from the public right. Public and private rights of way is essential for the maintenance of public health and safety. And so the chair would entertain a motion to adopt that resolution with the language that I read out. We adopt the resolution as adopt as amended. Second. So any further discussion. Okay. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Okay, we have adopted that resolution. Next procure on authorization for city manager. Again, this is as as the manager described it and chair would entertain a motion to adopt this emergency procurement authorization. I'll make a motion to get the city manager emergency authorization. I think it's very clear. I think it's it says in the document, but just to be clear, this is only for flood and recovery related efforts. It's not for everything else in the city. I'll second. Okay, question. They moved in quite seconded Lauren your question. Yeah, just just curious bill like what kind of things do you anticipate. So for example, we procured document document preservation. It's happening right now. And that is reimbursable but that was $48,000. Normally anything over 10 would have to come to the country. We thought we were going to have to procure the downtown garbage pickup, which could be close to half a million or a million dollars. The state instead is picking that up for municipality. They're handling that. But at the time we drafted this that was one. So those kinds of things, you know, we've got folks in cleaning professionals cleaning out city hall and cleaning out the fire station and we, you know, we had to do it. So those are the kinds of things that when we get audited, we need to show that that those contracts were entered into under proper authority. I mean, you know, our purchasing policy, something we should look at doesn't have an emergency exemption or, or section. So you're just basically saying for these things, the council's okay. You know, obviously we'll report them and those kinds of things, but so that is clear that these were duly authorized purchases. Just to be clear. So those do we anticipate much of that will be reimbursable by FEMA or we just don't know that most of it will be great. But we still have to, you know, we still have to sign the contracts. So, and we have to, and it won't be reimbursable if we don't have proper source. So, so the, the million dollar limit is, is what it's not the total limit. I mean, it's. We per contract. We just at the time we were talking about this, that was what they were putting as the upper limit of the trash removal contract. We can't imagine that there's anything else that we would have immediately that would approach that. But we put that on just because we thought we were going to have to sign a million dollar contract for trash removal trash removal. Yeah. Okay, anything else. Okay, the resolution has been moved and seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed. Okay, we've adopted the emergency procurement authorization. Item seven fee waivers. This is just an informational thing, Bill. This is Mike. Nope. So, hi, Mike Miller planning director. So we need to, we don't have to, but it is common. The state has already done this to go through and say during, during the floods that we would wave our regular fees for any flood related permits. And so that would be something you guys would have to approve those fee waivers. I haven't had one here in Montpelier, but when I was at Barry city in 2011 we did that. The state is waiving their fees for building permits. So this would affect building zoning and flood plain for any flood related permits. They still have to pay recording fees. So it's there. There are still fees, but it's just the recording fees. And that's just a suggestion for you to consider. And a building building permit includes. Permit for demolition, I assume. Yeah, it'll be demolition. Could be resetting resetting oil tanks and the reconstruction that happens afterwards. Okay. So what you need is a motion to waive those fees. Yes. Okay. Just ask a question. So you're, you're not asking for something time limited you're asking it for like anything so it's worded, like, anything tied to the July 2023 flood. Yeah, we could put you could put a time limit on it. I mean, as I said, this isn't a requirement. We could still collect fees. It's just common practice to go through and waive fees for these types of disasters. A lot of these businesses are already struggling and to ask them for a time limit. I mean, as I said, this isn't a requirement. We could still collect fees. It's just common practice to go through and waive fees for these types of disasters. A lot of these businesses are already struggling and to ask them for a $200 building permit to start reconstruction is really difficult, you know, and, and it could be something that we could waive. I'm just wondering about it sort of unlimited that way, you know, you have people trying to relate whatever it is they're trying to do to flood damage it seems like a time limit when we at which point we could renew it might be prudent I don't know what people are trying to do to flood damage it seems like a time limit. But how is it typically handled in the past is just a, a, an unlimited waiver related to a descriptive like flood damage. Yeah, the way. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, Zach, do you have an answer for you? Do you want to wait and let Mike answer that question first. I just have another question once we're all done. Okay. So the now lost my train of thought of the The question was, do people just put on the application. This is flood reconstruction. Yes, that's the way it works with the state permit you have to put in the put in the description this is flood related damage that is being requested and then it gets evaluated I mean obviously we need to make a judgment call as to whether or not this is something that is that somebody was, you know, tying flood damage to a future renovation but it's usually pretty clear what the flood damages but I agree Sal, we could make a 30 day or a 60 day, and then come back and renew it if we think there are more flood damage projects that may be coming in but I expect most of them will be in the first 30 days. Well, I'd be more comfortable with that I mean we can always meet again and renew it if we feel like it hasn't served you know its purpose. What are people, what do people think that maybe a 60 day limit or do you want to make that your motion so I have a suggestion maybe you could set it to what's our first meeting in September. Whatever the date of that meeting is so you can set it established then and then you could have it on the agenda whether it to be renewed or not. I was, I want to say the 14th but we can confirm that in a second. We have the public works permits to that as well we've got obstruction on the right away related to flood as well as dump dump disposal fees that we typically would charge for. And also bulk water. We've had some requests for like portable restrooms and water supply to deal with that so just some direction on what you like there. Okay. I think those all seem reasonable. And I like the idea of limiting it to be renewed at the next meeting if necessary. So be the September 13 meeting that basically gives people two months. And then we can consider at that meeting whether. And then we don't have a gap we don't have to call a special meeting and all that kind of thing. Yeah, I like, I like. Yeah, I'm a sense pillow pillow and you've got your hand. Yeah. Since we will renew it I don't think it will be a huge problem but if we create a limited time, then we should be very good at with communication. So everybody gets the word so they know that there is a limit so they can apply and use it. I think it is important. I was thinking that if we made it a broad one for any city permits related to the flood, the flood, and then letting staff have that discretion between now on our meeting in September. Okay. So who's going to make the motion. Is it, is it still your motion cell. I'd be happy to move it if you can recreate it. I think the motion is to waive all that waive permits for all city services and applications related to flood damage recovery. To expire on September 13 or September 14 probably. There's a change in the fees right. Not the permits. Right. Okay. Is there a second. Any further discussion. All those in favor, signify by saying I. Hi, hi, hi. Any opposed. Okay. And now we are to other business and I think this is a time to talk about. So to the question that Council Member Bade already posed and many people are posing about both the National Guard and health requirements. It's amazing that the assistance we get here. We have followed the state's health guidelines there are PP of it, P, PPE available at the at the hub. Both masks and gloves at the volunteer hub they're being made people are being asked to wear them some are some aren't. We are not, you know, going after people that aren't it's their health but we are certainly advising people to do so we've shared the information from the State Department of Health website with Montpelier alive they're following it we've asked. In fact we have a request into the state emergency operations Center for more PPE and hasn't arrived yet. But we're absolutely on top of that we I asked, given the sort of number of communications we've had I actually communicated with the Department Health this morning asking if they had specific guidance that they wanted to give us and they have not responded yet. They probably what I am told is from prior emergencies like this they do not they say aren't our recommendations are on our website and that's that. But if we get specific guidance from them we will share it. So there's that in with regard to the National Guard we did speak with them last week, and specifically told them that we had issues with radio communication towers that were damaged and they indicated that they would get on that to try to repair those for us. So today, we just start instituted a meeting today the mayor was present with the people at the hub and city staff just to make sure we're having once a day, check in. And we believe we could use the National Guard for medical assistance at the, the main tent and for blocking the roads. So we are going to make. We haven't checked with our police people yet but we believe we're going to make that request if they think they need the extra help just to keep check it, but otherwise we have not seen a huge. I don't know what it is that people want us to use the National Guard for but we are, we are aware of them we've talked to them. We will be asking them to do a couple specific things. And when I did check in with city of Barry, and they have not deployed them for anything either. So, not that that makes it right. Hi, sorry, sorry I was late. Just a quick intro my name is Lucia I grew up in Montpelier went to school with some some folks, you know, relatives or daughters and so I, I. Anyway, what I do now I work for Columbia University, and I provide work with the National Center for Disaster Preparedness there to give trainings on FEMA programs and best practices for planning for recovery. So, I just came here like a few days after the flood hit, because I live in New York now but wanted to help. So, the, that's just like some some background and who I am, but the one thing I wanted to say in response was, we've been to the hub a few times now over the weekend to volunteer. And I will say, we didn't notice any sort of health related guidance coming from them. So, like you show up you say hey I'm here to volunteer what should I do. You know, the, the guidance is is kind of like, we, like we have these, you know, gloves and the things you know you can grab feel free to grab them and just like find, like find a place to be like XYZ are still restaurants or whoever are still like doing debris removal right now like, you know you can head to them or something like that. And I definitely was like zero in the in the way of like health precaution or training or anything for new people. And I definitely like a positive by for example, the owner there he literally like he's throwing himself into the debris and like he has like an eye infection and had to go to the hospital last night. So anyway just like as a not to challenge anything just a little bit of like eyes on the ground if that's helpful. Thanks. We'll talk to them about being, you know, they're being stopped by volunteers to so the word may never be getting around. Thank you. So Lucia, are you recommending that we should have like a handout for all volunteers to say, here's what is recommended that you do. Yeah, definitely a handout that that's like such a low stakes easy thing to do. If you feel like the volunteers could also like have capacity to speak to speak some of those instructions to people when they arrive just to ensure that that gets through that would also probably be a good best practice but at the very least just a handout. And, you know, my brother's been volunteering a lot he knows a lot about that he's worked in the restaurant industry and like knows a lot about health code and things like that so he's he's very willing to come up with that for you guys. So, or whoever, and you know triple track so there's plenty of people I'm sure you could delegate that. Great. Thanks. So, we receive emails that are like sent to all of us and also we receive individual emails so one of the individual email I receive. The person was talking about she helped cleaning with a mask, but now, although she was wearing mess, she cannot breathe well. So maybe, I think the demand from public is some of the cleaning needs professional action. So I think they want this kind of cleaning should be done by National Guard, public. They can have other things, but they don't want to put their health on a stake. Everybody wants to help but then afterwards they have some health issues. So, even saying that oh, if you are doing this, stay and do cleaning. I'm just making up half an hour, don't stay more than half an hour, because if the person is having breathing problems issue of that they stay somewhere they shouldn't be that long. And like inhaling all the dust or whatever. So I think the public is looking for that. It's my understanding. Maybe just one more thing just to jump off of that. I think people are diving in without even asking the question, like, because about like what's going on to your point. So even having someone who could like go and assess the situation for them like a niche like do a quick assessment, you're okay to like jump in would be really helpful to learn. Thanks to questions one part of what a number of people have asked about is what role the Red Cross is playing also so it would be helpful to kind of understand how that is playing here and like what role they can or already are playing. And then the other question I had a few folks have been asking about like how are assessments of safety to return to buildings being done I think there's a lot of concern, especially for renters who don't have any control of the process or like wouldn't be engaging directly with, you know, knowing that the right questions are being asked just to so people know, like what's. I don't know if there's like a resource or something of like here's like the checklist of what is being asked and you know concerns about long term like people are being like okay it's like the electricity safe and whatever and so you can go back but really there's going to be huge like mold issues or something and like how, how we're trying to get ahead of that so I don't know if anyone here can speak to that yet or just raising it and we can kind of continue that conversation. So I can answer both those questions Red Cross is providing the shelter a very still open and still providing talked with their representative couple days ago and this is just good information in general when if any of you get asked you know why doesn't the city have its own shelter. They provide you know mental health services medical services beds, cuts food, pet care, you know assistance and finding other locations there, you know fully stuffed it so just throwing up an open building saying here's a place for you to go that might be great for an hour or or two but but without those sort of ability to do that. That really is all they're doing. We did hear that there were some people going around saying they were from the Red Cross I think I'd urge people to be leery of that the Red Cross is providing that shelter and staffing it still and will continue to do so for the time being to your second question, both the state and city building inspectors are going around building to building and certifying whether they can be reopened so they are looking at molding, they're looking at building stability and basically giving people the all clear to either go back in or turn their power back on or those kinds of things so that is happening just talked with two of them on the street today. So they're still out doing that. Carrie, Carrie you were up first. Yeah, although Sal has a follow up to that. I just had a question about that. When they certify the building do they post it somehow or I mean if they make a note on their clipboard great but how do people know that the building has been cleared to reenter. I don't know exactly I think they basically give them some sort of permit or okay I mean, I will find out we'll get back to you on that. So we have the right answer. We'll check on that. Carrie. So, so two questions. One is just a little bit more about the National Guard and about what they can do. Palin brought up the question about cleaning is that is that something that they can do so if there is, you know, if they're capable of coming in and shoveling out people's basements and pulling trash out and doing things like that, it would, we could use all the help we could get on that right so. So that's a, that's a question the other, the other question I have is about people who have been displaced and can't go back to their homes, particularly renters who are not sincerely sure when they can go back but they're, they literally can't go back to their homes until something is done and is there what resources are there is there anything that we can do to be helpful is there. You know, is there housing that we can find Connor Casey has been suggesting that maybe we could talk to VCFA and see if some of that dorm space up there could be used temporarily. And so just wondered what we might be able to offer along those lines. So that is a difficult question. You know in the short term that is what the Red Cross shelter is for. We have had some conversations with VCFA, you know, I saw what Connor saying out and we really appreciated his leadership on that. I'm not sure we the city right now have the wherewithal to, to provide those services we need to partner with a down street or somebody like that and of course they're out straight. There was a major building that did have to displace people. It was a building that was owned by down street and we understood they found housing for all but maybe one person who had some challenges with being housed and I was actually told today that they've got the least certification to go back in that I mean they know what they need to do they can't reopen but they've already got electricians there they they're expecting to be reopened shortly. So I, I, we will have to find out those those are external housing resources for us. And again, VCFA is a great idea. We just can figure out who would, who would run that. I can tell you I talked to Angie Harbin the director of the down street just last week and she confirmed that the people that had to be removed from the Elm Street apartments. They've been able to find places for them to stay, not necessarily convenient or local because they're just looking everywhere but that they have been able to find play apartments for those people to be. Um, so sorry my internet is like slow. Have everyone can hear me but so, so there's a few things my head is like exploding with answers to this because this is one of our trainings. So basically, I guess I would suggest. This is actually what I was hoping to get out of this meeting a little bit to is to understand how much coordination has happened within the state and federal levels for Montpelier, because there are a bunch of especially housing assistance programs that FEMA will reimburse for or people provide, we just got approval through the disaster declaration through for individual assistance, which can be direct assistance from FEMA to individuals. Yeah, so I don't know how much people know about this but the disaster declaration happens you get basically either public assistance and or individual assistance under those two headings they're like a bunch of different kinds of things. So we got public assistance immediately. That means that that assistance comes through the state and local governments like and and nobody can access that directly unless they're going through the state local governments. And what that means is you provide that assistance like upfront and then you get reimbursed for it. And as long as it's under like the eligible criteria, you will get reimbursed for it up to 75%, but you have to be in coordination with the state who's really running that. So that's one thing and then under that public assistance umbrella, there's lots of stuff you can do for people. I also would say that there's direct assistance from FEMA now that's available for individuals. And so that can be things like TSA is a really common assistance program the temporary shelter assistance program. And basically individuals and as well, governments can be reimbursed for like hotel stays. That was something that has happened in prior disasters in Vermont, as well as things like the multi family lease and repair program which is an apartment building or complex that is vacant or like not being used and you can basically allow people to stay there for free under under this program that's again reimbursed so that like it's basically reimbursed the cost of assist of sorry of rent and that's sort of calculated in a certain complicated way, but the point is there are all these different types of programs which are available that could kind of guide what what you guys might pursue, because then it could be reimbursable. But I think the bottom line is that coordination really needs to happen with the state on that because the money is coming through the state at least public assistance is as far as individual assistance, I can actually drop in the chat this resource that I've already put over which like polls not only like what I know to be true about this disaster declaration and what's available, but also some of the other things like go fund me is and like the random things that have popped up for like businesses or homeowners. I'm actually made like a Google Doc so if you got which can be up which I'll be updating. So you guys can like I'll drop it in the chat but that's like a resource you can look at like immediately. So it explains in layman's terms like what like how this works. It is available I made it with business owners and individuals in mind. So it isn't it isn't as technical as it probably should be for you guys as guys city government, but it's a good start as like a snapshot of what's happening what's available. Thank you. That's super helpful. I don't know if you got my messaging. Are you available to this afternoon. Yeah, I can come. Because that's our I mean, I know that I'm glad the Council is hearing that these resources are available but that's the team that will really be putting together these resources so if you could join us that would be and walk us through what what the potential is because I think for many of us we've been just in clean out mode and you know trying to understand what the possibilities are so this is very helpful. So look forward to seeing you and I will learn just as much probably from you guys as you would for me because I know what the state of things are and definitely respect that like there's a way there are people handling this and like not coming in out of you know what to do but just help. Yeah, thank you so much for reaching out to us. So, I would like to circle back to two other questions that were raised. One was on the public health questions that people have approached this with one of the things that a number of people have asked is whether there's been any kind of analysis of the content of the of the silt or flood residue and and its potential health impacts. Not that I'm aware of. Is that something that the State Department of Health would be on. Perhaps we haven't heard anything from the State Department of Health to be honest with you since this began. We've heard from, you know, their EOC emergency operations center and BGS and a couple other departments but not from Department of Health has been no outreach for them. So as I said I reached out to them today to ask if they had any recommendations or guidance so we'll see if they respond. And so, could we could could somebody take a sample or some of that stuff so we could ask the city, ask the state if we could get it analyzed. I don't know. I don't know if it makes that much of a difference because I assume that the recommendations for going to the buildings and do work would be the same no matter what is in the stuff. Yeah, we can talk to them about that. And then the other question again is carries question. What about asking this National Guard to come in and do digging out moving stuff. Yeah, we can easily add that to us. We were, like I said, we'll probably be calling them this afternoon to to line up specific assistance. We're happy to add that. Great. Council, is there anything else that we should talk about? Okay. Thank you, Bill. Is it okay if we receive email asking National Guard coming and cleaning can you say that city already contacted them. Yes. Okay, we'll, we'll, we'll put out, you know, when one of our regular public updates, we will put out this information with the National Guard and Department of Health and everything that we know, you know, what we know, which Yeah, and the second thing when I go to a city website, you did a great job like top of it. It's like disaster recovery assistance and other links that people go and get information. Is it possible if it doesn't create too much work for city staff at like frequently asked questions. Like all the things we are talking now and you know, I'm sure I did. I'm sure other city council did the same to just forward emails to you. So maybe we can have some kind of document and man people ask us. We can also, okay, this is the link you can go and check, but that's the answer of your question. Is it possible. That should be, we should be able to do that. Okay, yeah, thank you. Great. Donna. And along those same lines, Bill, I was expecting the staff to come back with a response to those emails about the guard. Would you be planning one. Yeah, we're going to, we will put that out in a public. I mean, yeah, we'll respond in a public way about what we are doing. I think some of them were. We'll, we'll, what's, I think some of them have a plan for what we're. Yes. We're getting a lot of suggestions from people in a lot of different ways and they're, you know, we appreciate people's participation and some, you know, some have more usefulness than others. And so we're trying to wade through those and figure out ways to respond in a public way that about what we are doing. Well, maybe you can tell me, I mean, one of my responses was when people were saying we should have had the guard out there on Monday. How much you can't just put people out on the street. There was a lot of decision making and process had to occur. Yeah. And so they were trying to get the car. I'm not really planning to be honest with you to respond to what we should have done that of time that's going by. You know, I think everybody made decisions based on what was in front of them at the time. And we did the best we could. I probably would just respond to, here's what we're doing going forward. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. And regardless of national guard coming or not, all these emails and questions show us that there's a concern about health issues and people who volunteer they are now having health issues like infection in something. So we should do something about it. I agree. Right. Because it's a it's a huge concern. It's coming from all over the corners to us. Yeah. Yeah, one, one final health question. I got a question about boil water orders. I mean, it was somebody who was saying, you know, we need more information when we get a boil water order and we need to know what to do after it's been lifted. Should we flush the pipes, yada, yada, and I looked for information. On our site, I found some like at the health department of New York. Do we have anything on our site? And if not, I'm happy to put it together. I think it's an easy enough thing to do, but you folks all have other things to do. I'd be happy to take it on, but I don't want to redo it if it's already there, but I just couldn't find it. So we defer to DPW whether it's already there. I can tell you the boil water notices are put into place. You know, again, Kirk give you the more detail, but when typically if there's a water main break and there's a chance that they could be with a call reverse pressure so something contaminated could get into the water supply. And it's usually in the area around the break. So that people will boil their water to, and once it's fixed and flushed and then what we typically do is after the boil water notices, or while that's happening, we test the water. And if there's no contaminants found in the water, then we say, you know, it's always a precautionary act. It's not because there is evidence of a problem, it's to prevent a problem. It's not something anybody needs to do once it's taken off. If it's everything's tested fine. And they, and they don't know that is right. Right. I would be happy to create a document that spells that out for people so that when we get a boil notice we can include that information and if so if that's already, if we don't already have that I will put that together and then submit it and people can look at it. Kirk, do you have any thoughts on that? I don't have a specific document to that. You know, when we dis you boil water notices it has language in there about, you know, flushing. Yeah, let the water run until it's clear, approximately five minutes that we put on when we deliver notices in door to door. So I'm happy to provide that to you, Sal, or I can have. I'm going to go ahead and I'll use that as a starting point and then I'll send you whatever I find elsewhere, and we can decide what the final version is. One more thing I want to add about this particular boil water water notice is that there were no incidents in the city that would have normally caused the need for boil water notice. You know, the brakes we didn't have reverse pressure we didn't have any of that the state asked us to do it as a precaution, and then they asked us to do additional testing beyond what is normally so it took extra time. So, you know, I think people got confused that this flood it contaminated our water system in the case. Yeah, when the water was fine the whole time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, okay. Good people would be happy to know that, you know, so yeah, Donna. Well, I have a bit of concern of you and Kelly and others being in the building. If indeed it has all that damp and mold around. We are taking precautions. Yeah, we're trying. Yes. Maybe you should go somewhere else. Well, we're talking about it. So, so the front of the building, the manager suite, the clerks we really didn't get hit at all there is kind of, you know, the air is rough we've got air cleaners and dehumidifiers in here and all that. We open the windows for a while and I think that made it worse because stuff blowing in from the outside. It's, it's, you know, it's not bad from kind of the rest of the way back is pretty much closed. So as we mentioned, everybody's moving to the senior center. So our goal is to get the people that absolutely have to move moved, because that's a big undertaking, you know, national life is donating a lot of office equipment and those kind of things we've got to get phones, internet, you know, copiers all that kind of stuff. So, you know, we have to get it set up and then take stock of whether we then should move ourselves, but because we're at least functional. We don't have anything that's disruptive we don't have wrecked files we don't have any of that stuff. And, you know, we're, we're hanging in here for now, you know, of course, we're in the middle of a reappraisal and grievance hearings, which has been interesting and in, you know, the assessor's officer in here so disrupting them right now would be difficult. But we hear you and we're concerned about it. And there may be a phase two of a move, but we're trying to get phase one done with with the minimum of disruption, and then take it from there. Okay, council members is there anything else we need to talk to about this item. I guess I could say this to my council report but I really encourage people. I went online and found several places where I could buy gift cards other places where I could make donations that every little bit helps that if we as council members as well as residents who are out of the state flood zone, we could go and support our local businesses with those kinds of financial support, however small it really matters. So please support the local businesses with their come back. Thank you. Okay. Lauren. I was also wondering about if there's value like I almost hate to suggest it because I know city staff is so busy but like Thursday evening like a one hour community zoom conversation like just like a to come ask your questions and make sure people are getting like the right links to the right resources like something because because we are getting so many questions and so many people have so many different issues they're dealing with. So something that wouldn't take a lot of prep, obviously would be the time to show up but like the things that you know in your head to be able to answer the questions. I don't know. We will, we will take a look at that that is a good idea. You know, so just, you know you've heard me say this so we've got. First of all, you know, we're not, our staff has been fabulous and we're not working any harder than the people that are trying to put their businesses back together I mean everyone's, everyone's got their, their burden that they're carrying right now. We are, you know, we do have kind of a double edged operation going one is trying to do the all the community support that we're talking about and deal with the cleanup and all that sort of thing, as well as put back our own. We don't have an HR department or a finance department or planning department or, you know, right now so we're trying to get our own bits back together. Fortunately, police fire public works are fully functional now. So, so I think people need to remember that we are also not not at full full capacity right now ourselves. So we are, we are also a business that's recovering and trying to get ourselves back together. We're not as, you know, we will be able to do it. But yeah, so that's what we're at. Hey, let's move to council reports. Donna, do you have anything to add to what you already said. No, other than just so grateful for everyone pitching in and helping and just being so positive. Thank you. Hey, Kerry. Yeah, thanks everybody and just, I just finished right before this meeting meeting with FEMA, they're going door to door they came by our house and I went through the whole registration process and everything got a lot of my questions answered got a lot of good information. It's a, it's a process, it's a bureaucratic process as I'm sure everybody here knows but I, I think we need to do whatever we can to get the word out to people and encourage them that there's multiple steps to it and you know for instance I was warned you're probably going to get a response that says FEMA is not going to offer you assistance until you provide this information from your insurance company or something there's multiple steps that have to be followed and I love the idea of a kind of a public meeting I hate to put any more work on staff I wonder if that is something that city council can kind of, you know, take the lead on and make happen. I don't want to, you know, tell our mayor what to do but it could be a great opportunity for the mayor say I'm calling this public meeting and just have people to be able to ask questions and, and in general, any, anything that Evelyn may be able to do to how to get information out to people beyond the standard internet based ways. You know the, I'm not sure what those are but I'd be happy to brainstorm with her about how to get more information out to people in my district who are currently affected and, and to keep that going, you know, because there will be lots of ongoing questions this is going to be a long, long process. And I just, I just want to reiterate my thanks to the community and to all the volunteers and our houses that just in a such a different place than it was a week ago it happened really quickly. And so we're not immediate now we're drying out and we're, I'm waiting for the electrician right now and all that kind of stuff and I know that lots of other people are going through all that and don't necessarily probably have a lot of questions that are going to continue to be answered timely so that they don't miss opportunities for assistance. Yeah, thank you for that Carrie and I'm glad to hear things are moving on. So, with regard to a couple of things there that I wanted to respond to one is, we are sending out, not, I wouldn't say everything but a lot of what we're sending out we also do is press releases so they are going out to radio and news media. I mean, I, you know, I don't know, you know, I mean, you can always do more I would imagine but we're trying to get out to as many people as we can. So overall, I think a forum is great one of the things that we've been trying to be really cautious about is not to get bad information. So we've really been reluctant to speak for FEMA about what they will or won't do or how that will work. So I think I'd be more inclined to do that if we can get a FEMA person that maybe would participate, just like you know whenever, like we're trying to make sure that the people who are in position to answer questions can answer them. And I know, you know, people have been asking us all the same questions what's FEMA going to do about this and the answer is we don't know we might have. We might guess we might have an idea. But we'd rather have it come from a credible source and the same thing like just something with public health like get it here where everyone's concerns are let's ask the Department of Public Health, you know, the State Health Department for what they say just the dams. Let's ask for my dam safety for their analysis because there is a lot of second guessing a lot of expertise so we'd rather get it directly from the source or I think if somebody something bad. So, I really I just wanted to get to thank everybody for the job you're doing I and I hope you understand that the kind of questions we're getting from the public I think they're they're normal, you know there's information people need it. And I'll bring them to you is not a criticism in any way really you're doing a great job. You know we can always we can always do more but we can't do it we can't do everything for everybody so thanks for what you've been doing and if there's, you know, I'm really mucking out basins is not something I can, I can really do but I can, I can do other things there's other ways I can help like with this boil water thing, happy to do the research but if there are even more important things where I can help. Feel free to feel free to give me a call. Thanks. Thanks. Continuing around the horseshoe. Yeah, I will echo the things and great to thank you everything you are doing. I wish I could be more helpful. But even like forwarding emails of like public, it feels me like I am doing something. So, but like cells that please let us know if you need more from us from me. I can talk for myself. And another thing I was thinking, it's a natural disaster, we don't have any power or capacity to stop it, or to avoid from it. But maybe since it happened twice before, maybe this time we could prepare something some guidelines for afterwards. So people what are we doing like all the volunteers sign up here so no this is the first thing we will do this second we will do this. Unfortunately, we became experienced. So we can prepare something like that I hope it doesn't happen again. But if we have some kind of very short document. It shows that next people. It happens. I hope it doesn't then they they will know what they will do and it will be quicker and public will be maybe more relaxed and comfortable and they will feel that they are being taken care of faster. So, thank you. Thank you for that. I, we will be doing, you know, a debrief after all of this is not only, you know, from the city like, right from what did we do right or wrong as the things were unfolding and all that but also how best to work with the community and obviously, the community in the country that this happens to so there's a lot of national and we have been consulting a lot of you know best practice. That's really how popular alive was able to. So quickly, you know they had experienced volunteer who was able to tap on systems that already work on how to match volunteers and needs and the same thing you know how to set up your emergency operations so there's a lot of good info but we can still always learn what went right and what went wrong. It's interesting. I just tell us as an anecdote, the city manager who is here in 92 Ryan cotton, maybe one of you on your screen two of you may have known Ryan reached out to me he was here for the 92 flood he reached out to me and offered his, you know, support but any he had some words of them he said was the best thing they did was a daily update for you know they had put out a daily update and I wrote back to Ryan if we only put it out daily would be who'd be drawing quartered as we're we're on like every two hours now you know so it's time change so you know who knows maybe but you know when the next one happens everyone's you know who knows what the technology will be. So I think yes, we can learn and also times you know the demands and expectations of people are just far different every time around to so. But yeah we've had, we've had a little practice of this, and like I said, Waterbury, the time manager from Waterbury from Irene call me this morning with some suggestions so there's a network out there. For sure. Yeah, yeah, we will definitely do. Yeah, sure. I wasn't saying city for city I was saying for public everybody city to you know what they have to do afterwards. Right. I also think there's going to be a lot of looking at what you know like I think we mentioned even in this building like do we do we I'm not sure we have to put offices back downstairs, you know maybe those become the meeting rooms and and the offices move upstairs so that you know if we have a flood we lose a meeting room and not files and you know all those kinds of things. And you know I think we're going to have to make decisions or people are going to have to make decisions about their buildings. You know, you know, we've how many times has this happened and we've still had folks storing merchandise and basements because it's no other place to put them. And so at some point, you know, we're going to conclude that that's not a good idea so you know I think there's a lot to be considered to make us more resilient in the future. Lauren. Yeah, thanks for all this. I just did a couple quick things I mean one just echoing the gratitude for everyone in the community. It's really inspiring and amazing. The community forum. I, I totally hear what you're saying Bill about wanting the right experts I mean I would love to still organize something and be like part of it might just be gathering questions I mean like we want to you know we're working to get FEMA here like an official to do another community conversation we're working to get the Department of Health. If we can't line people up. I just feel like even collecting those now would be helpful to understand what are the real issues, and not trying to answer them with half information but just being like really clear at the level of how we set how we frame it up like some of this is just understanding so we can get the right experts to answer the right questions that you all need. And I'm happy to help organize this if that's useful. Just let me know I'm happy to think through a quick agenda and whatever else is useful. So, I don't know if Jack you want to work on that I can. I think this is light on the city staff as possible. No, I didn't mean to imply that we didn't want to do it either I think it is a great idea I just I just was trying to say that we are, we want to be careful. Yeah, I totally agree with what you were saying. And, you know, obviously we'll have the city council meeting and. Oh, that's just feels like timely opportunities would be. So, yeah, just let me know if I can be helpful in organizing and my other. There's been some conversation online with like the energy committee who are like how can we help like so I'm just thinking about all of our city volunteer committees who might also be resources and have kind of different areas of expertise and so. You know what I'm happy to try to do some thinking with if any other counselors are interested or something like take that project off the city staff as like an initial thinking. I don't want to exercise but again, you know, with like various types of paperwork or experts or whatever that different groups might have like through that broader volunteer network that people have kind of self selected to areas of expertise and interest. So just just putting the idea out there that we might want to think about how because that group already was like how do we reorient we had a whole strategic planning process a few weeks ago but now the world is different and how do we like make the most impact for our community in this moment so I bet other groups and so. Anyway, just throwing that out there for future consideration. Thanks. Mayor's report. I echo what people have said. City staff top to bottom have been just incredible working so much and so effectively. Like there's couldn't say enough great about everything they're doing. And I think we're this really shows that that we're getting our money's worth in the, in the people that we're employing and the, and the services we're paying for I think it's, it's great. And we can also report that this morning we had a press conference to kick off the month, month you're strong recovery fund. It's a joint effort of the Montpelier. Until your community foundation and the Vermont community fund. Is that right though. Montpelier foundation and my pillow lies and then the Vermont community fund made a contribution to it. But the recovery is going to take a lot of money and a lot of it is not going to be forthcoming from FEMA or any other free source and so this is a big fundraising effort and it just started and already we have commitments for something like $280,000 and which I think is, is really pretty impressive. There were a lot, a lot of coverage at the press conference and hopefully we'll get out on the TV and on the news and that will start some money coming in. And I think that's pretty much all I have. Anything on city matters measures report that you haven't already covered bill. Well, you skipped city clerk. Yes. I have nothing except to say that I'm hoping to have things in one form or another up and running by Thursday. So actually, we didn't rehearse this so Kelly, could you, could you give an update on where we are with the office move just so people know. Actually, as we've been in this meeting I've been getting contact from national life so they donated a bunch of deaths and filing cabinets and things and their team is on their way right now. Some coordinating volunteers to get over there we were able to move some of our office equipment over. And so what we'll be doing is then once we can get the desk setup will be assigning them to the departments that were most impacted. And then we'll take it from there we'll do two locations one at the senior center. And then the other one will be at the DPW garage and they're upstairs the conference space. And so we're working on getting people fully operational and those spaces we've been focused primarily on city owned properties so that then, you know we can if this thing takes a while which it's going to take a while, then we're in a good spot. So we hopefully will be up and running soon. We're really focused on making sure that we can get finance and planning up and running for permits but then also to be able to get people paid and to be able to get those. So we are focused on core operations as well, just to make sure that we can offer some continuity in this situation and we'll keep going. Thanks Kelly just some of our other challenges are the generator that served both fire department in this building as wrecked. So we're trying to make decisions between rehabbing that are buying a new one and we find out the new one was something like 40 weeks out so we think we're going to rehab the one we have. And the meantime the fire station has a generator so they are covered this building now is not but that's okay because we've got such limited usage in here. So that's okay alright police is covered. One of the kind of things the elevator of course is out are we, I think I mentioned that we've done a huge amount of file saving and restoration and sorting we had state archives folks here going through giving us guidance as to what was most important to try to save. And there is some process where you freeze these things and clean them and I don't know, we're doing it with the rolling boxes. We're spending a lot of money for it. People were we're just doing all that we are, we now have a daily connect with my pillar alive we're going to have a daily connect with our team, the bear joint that he mentioned the fundraising. I just want to know I've told you but since it's public is when I also acknowledge Walmart gave us a very huge donation of supplies. They just said what do you need we gave him a long list and they showed up with Amazon is delivering a whole bunch of things that was asked for and also acknowledge the city center space and the state they're allowing us to use space in that building to store some of these. The Walmart deliveries are at the rec center as are the churches of Christ disaster fund from out of Nashville. They showed up with a couple of tractor trailers full of supplies. Those are all stored in the, in the rec center as well and they are reaching out to, I think, really individuals in need. So three great sources of donations national life of course with their, their thing so not to, and of course, huge amounts of people that you're seeing downtown. And so thanks just thanks to everybody. And we're rolling along and we'll try to keep you as updated as we can as we think of things to tell you so. You know, some of the comment to me, yes, please keep sending comments from people we understand that you're not necessarily you're just passing them along. And, you know, people offering their opinions as part of the deal. That's what we all sign up for. And we sort through them and, you know, we learn something from all of them and try to make the best of it so and so we will proceed from there. Okay, great. I think we are set. And I think we can adjourn at 108pm.