City Council - workshop

Sure. I like to yell at them, too.

Great.

I don't know if Chair Owens would kick us off, or do you want me to just? Please, clearly. Thank you, council and project management team, for coming out tonight for a discussion of our kind of key priority items, tier one, tier two, and tier three, that we work on as a team. For tonight's workshop, I know we usually preview things that are about to come before the council or in kind of early stages to give more in-depth feedback, but Sarah and I really thought it would be helpful to kind of give you all a preview of our project management team Updates which to me it's kind of like they get smart fast than just the wide range of city initiatives Some big that are going to require some significant council input at some point future date some much smaller which are operational just kind of good governance thing that kind of Brings to the top of our attention the reason that we we created this this group of people to work on these new products is I noticed upon arrival that There was some great work being done around the city by our departments, but there wasn't a lot of cross-collaboration or coordination and input from others. So you'd oftentimes come to something and they'd say, hey, I've got some input on that. You didn't realize that there's a big public works component on that, or how much time that's going to take for IT. to do that thing. Or just it was completely out of left field. Or I think a lot of times, it just kind of goes in the back burner and gets forgotten about. And it might have been an important thing. And it's not until you get a report from some state agencies that, hey, what's the status of that? And it's like, oh, yeah, we really need to prioritize that. So I went through a few iterations with this. teams we were working on and then Sarah's brought on gosh it seems like a decade ago that was one of the things I really stressed in the hiring process and just if we need to figure out a way to kind of keep track of the city initiatives so we can get a line of kind of a work plan and make sure we're making forward progress in some really big initiatives And so we went through a couple iterations ourselves on, okay, let's create a product management team, kind of like a tiger team in the parlance of create a group of cross-functional, highly collaborative, very open and honest discussions, and kind of fast-paced. This isn't to be like, here's the end, I'll be all this subject. It's really to kind of get updates on larger initiatives and start providing feedback as they move through the process. And it's become probably my favorite meeting of the month. Maybe some staff will like you and say, there's two. Maybe they can reach out to you afterwards. But to me, it's always like I've really, it just shows the wide breadth of things that we're working on and how helpful we can be as a team to each other. But there's a separate piece too, which is getting the council more aligned to what our internal work plans are. in an ever-changing council. And I think chair Lyons says he's retiring at the end of this year, so I'm going to be on my third city council chair in less than three years, you know, come this November, December. And, you know, we had 100% turnover of the three city council seats last cycle. I think there's a lot of things we've done internally as a staff to reduce turnover, to get oriented to our projects in planning and work planning and prioritizing. And to me, really the logical next step is, you know, allowing the council and the community at large to do that work as well. and getting some level of buy-in. I don't know if at some point for today's discussion we really just want to have counselors feel free to jump in at every time in these items. Sarah will probably move us along because we've got a lot we want to get through. And if we don't get through all of the items, we might bleed into the next workshop. um one of the things that's that's really important as we think about is uh you know we've got the comp plan we've had city priorities there's some things that are like deal breakers that you know i'm i'm walking a city manager if we don't keep doing something like the water treatment plan um i don't you know if the council really wants to vote down that don't keep spending work on this or time like we need water for our citizens but there's other things like the dog park um some of our trails initiatives other things that you know have been priorities in the past um and things like the downtown restroom um that there's mixed opinion about and it's really um i think oftentimes as i mentioned people think it's my my job to sort of set policy or direction for the city, and I really feel like it's more to orchestrate conflict in a lot of times. Oftentimes, you mean values conflicts that manifest themselves in projects. I think we've seen that over and over, and I think that's actually a good sign of healthy, robust debate. It's not about the staff or myself representing something that, hey, this has to be done. It's really, in many ways, this is something we have to move forward with. Discussing something that should be moved forward. should we do it or not? What are the things that we need to do? I put up there, we think a lot of our project management team in discussing these items and how to tier them is about the public value triad. We don't have a profit motive in the city. In many ways, we just do a lot of things that are unprofitable. Paving roads and doing it, providing schools and education. Expansive view of is it authorized, which is Does the city council tell the staff members to do it? That's one way to think about authorization. Do we need city council approval for it? Should we be doing up or down votes on all these project management team items and agreeing on a work plan for the next couple of years? To me, that's an area sometimes where it's the business community and some advocacy groups and others really wanted a downtown restroom. And it's been discussed. And we've set moving it forward. We've had some workshops on it. And then there was a fair amount of feedback, some questions that didn't quite get prepared for this season. That could still be in our work plan. We've kind of put it on the back burner. We need a better system for deciding, is it truly authorized? Maybe it is the city council as the representative of the communities at large. And to me, in addition to kind of previewing the current version of the council with this so we can get some good updates, you know, as we think over time towards the next city council, I'm already thinking of, like, how do we iron through a work plan that we can get some kind of votes on, give some people some previews, but this is what we're going to do, and then as things get added throughout the year from the city council, or if the staff says, hey, we've got to do this so we can have a method for ensuring that these things remain authorized and that they're good values of the city's time, because the backlog is endless. for all of us and the activities we're doing. With that, I think for today, I'm gonna hand it off to Sarah in a second. Have you passed out the... We're going to go through our tier one, tier two, maybe we'll get to tier three. We've got a carve out for the city seal for a little bit of a broader discussion, although we're bringing that back to the city council meeting this August, so this will be the final piece there. Sarah will kind of introduce each item to each member. They give kind of an update on what the project is, an update on kind of where they're at now, and some next steps. We'll see how this works in public and with council. I know when we do it in our offices, there are very lively, interesting discussions. I really encourage, like, hey, what do you think about this? AND WE'LL SEE. IT'S ALWAYS A DIFFERENT METHOD HERE, BUT I THINK OURSELVES AND THE COMMUNITY CAN REALLY SEE JUST HOW MUCH WORK IS BEING DONE.

OUR FORMAT'S A LITTLE DIFFERENT, JUST BECAUSE WE WANTED TO CLEAN IT UP A BIT AND MAKE IT A LITTLE BIT MORE FRIENDLY TO THIS SETUP. SO IT DOES LOOK A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT. SO HERE'S OUR LIST OF TIER ONE PROJECTS, AND WE'RE JUST GOING TO GO RIGHT THROUGH THE PROJECT MANAGER LISTED, OR PROJECT MANAGERS MIGHT WORK TOGETHER ON A PROJECT. They're going to give a brief overview of the project, an update of where we're at currently, and then next steps milestones. So first up is phase two ordinance rewrite. Brittany.

So much fun. This project was just added, so I have not presented this at all to this group, so bear with me. For the Phase 2, starting off, we are focusing on planning board chapters. So we're looking at Chapter 56 and Chapter 18. I've split that into six phases. So we'll be looking the next couple months at governance and procedures. So that's Chapter 56, Article 1, and Chapter 18, plus the creation of planning board bylaws. I GUESS THE PLANNING BOARD USED TO HAVE BYLAWS. I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO SURFACE AN OLD COPY OF THEM. I THINK THEY WENT AWAY WHEN THE UDO WAS FORMED IN 2012. SO WE ARE DISCUSSING BYLAWS MONDAYS, DAY NIGHTS, WITH ANY BOARD MEETING. IT'S GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN.

There's not a consultant on this one, right?

No, it's just internal, because it's, bylaws are basically planning board study on rules for the meetings. So, and my job will be making sure they complement chapter 18, and we'll of course make sure those are people who are doing that type of thing. And I'm expecting that to take two to three months, depending on how in the weeds and controversial planning board is setting rules for themselves did the phase one identify some things that needed to be updated in phase two yes there's a whole laundry list of items sitting in the phase two parking lot that are not related to planning board those have yet to be prioritized but that is coming BUT I'M FOCUSING ON THE PLANNING BOARD RIGHT NOW. IT'S AN EASIER WIN RIGHT NOW. SO ONCE WE GET THE GOVERNMENT'S PIECE DONE, WE'LL MOVE ON TO THE DEVELOPMENT REVIEW. THAT'S ARTICLE 6 AND 7, WHICH IS OUR SITE PLAN REVIEW AND THE SECOND ADVISION REVIEW, JUST TO HELP Streamlining that a little bit better, renew some redundancies and modernize the process. We're looking to find a balance between protecting drinking water and the city of Ellsworth as a whole, plus making it an easier process for developers to navigate through and hoping to find that balance. And then after that, we'll look at reduced regulations. That's going to be a larger project depending on what direction we want to go in, whether it's looking at rezoning or just exploring to see if we do need rezoning. And then after that, we'll look into development standards. So that's basically Articles 8 through 10. We are going to take Article 10, stormwater, out of this lineup and push it up to the governance as kind of like concurrent projects because we have TA assistance through the TCP program specifically related to stormwater. And we only have that until the end of December. So we're going to try to get the stormwater article and get that up to date by the end of the year. And then after that, it's just miscellaneous, and then general housekeeping and legal consistency. And so we're in the very beginning stages. And the next thing when we dock it is Wednesday, and it's when we're in to discuss bylaws. And then next week, we have a meeting with the stormwater stakeholders to review the stormwater updates.

I would love to add the ECO. to that as there might be a cost to that. Yeah, and that could be considered for economic development dip funding. But it seems like something that, now that we have our code for the phase one of the ordinance in a reasonable format with titles and this and that, the next step is getting it to be really navigable by developers and searchable.

Charlie, are you saying E-code?

E-code, yeah.

Basically, Portland uses it. Yeah, it's pretty common. So you just plug in your code there. It's so much easier to navigate and search for things. I think a piece of that, too, is you can put, like, framework packets directly on the website. Because right now, people would have to request. But with this kind of software thing, you can just load it up, and it's ready to go. It's all organized.

So this is more process-important now?

Yeah, just like how it distributes the chapters and these developers are more used to, I think.

I think it's going back to each other, so it's easier to cross-reference stuff.

And search within it. Search within it. I think in the future, like, when you update and navigate things, you can figure that out easier.

So you don't have six different definitions for the same thing scattered across.

Right, or conflicting information in one area that goes to another. So Bainmore uses it. Bar Harbor uses it. There's a lot of communities that use it, especially for our size.

It makes a lot of sense.

The other thing with ordinance reform, and I think it's relative to maybe some of the discussion we'll have, the council meeting on moratoriums the parks data centers further, I'm sure, regulatory environments for specific things, but also, in my opinion, as well, deregulating certain areas to make it kind of match what we're seeing in the city and making it especially when it comes to housing as easy to add housing as possible. So I'm currently kind of taking the quieter approach, we use the consultant to fast track the initial phase one approach to really get everything in line and user friendly and this next step, you know, there's things that are more politically sensitive to important appeals in the nearing scope, you know, relative to larger housing developments. Increase the timelines there. Are there other things on zones? And are they, as we looked at over 10 years, some of the things in the comp plan would take a lot more time, could potentially take consultants that might be beyond staff resources. So that's something we're out for. And there's something mentioned, too, on if we do that type of thing, what things have to be falling off our appliance to handle the capacity to meet that type of work. Any other questions on ordinance?

While you are working on this, my understanding is other commissions can be working on it. The cemetery commission has decided to move forward and work on those. So how does that fold in with this work, or is it just a separate track that this is its own?

to track, unless it relates to a different cross-reference or something. But right now, we're just separate. And I haven't set up with a project management system to track everyone else's. But I can definitely put that on my list to explore.

So I assume that they are working, they're comparing with other towns in the area. And then Robbie is their person, their contact person. But I'm assuming it would go to you next. And then, of course, legal review and all that. Yeah. Okay, so that can keep going in its own track while you're doing these.

It is a separate project here, too, as boards and commission standardizations. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Charlie, can you speak up?

Yeah, sure. I can hear you. Wow. Yeah, there's a separate item for boards and commissions, standardization processes for all of these pieces. Great. We are seeing a lot of fragmentation and questions, and we want to make sure that there's resistance. Yeah. Great.

I have a question. With what's going on? What? Oh. Hold on, one second, Pam. When, best case scenario, no hiccups come up, what's the timeline of phase two completing? What does that look like? If nothing pops up in an ideal fantasy world.

My estimate for just the planning board piece is 18 to 24 months.

For just the governance and stormwater part, or just the planning board chapters 56 and 18?

For all six parts of my chapter, of my planning board piece, everything's governance, the zoning, everything like that.

Everything you said.

Yeah. Everything I went through of that in itself is 18 to 21 months.

And is that the entirety of phase two? No, no. So this is like phase two?

Yeah, phase two is not comprehensive. It's not like phase one. It's not a comprehensive look at all ordinances.

We will work on a better organization system. This is just what we're starting with, and then we'll flush out the rest as we go.

Because this is all being done with staff, so we have to kind of pace the work to make sure we can have the capacity for this.

this is a glaring red light needs to happen so I can smooth my process and then I have greater capacity to do other things too. That's why I'm focusing on this.

Did you have a question? Well, to emphasize what Brittany was saying, we need to take care of land use ordinances for us in zoning, okay? But any commissioners and committees and have rules and regulations. They need to bring them before the council so that we can make them ordinances, like use of the parks, all the various things. If you don't have rules and regulations, you apply to everything. Unfortunately, it's not becoming a nanny state, And we need structure, order, and discipline, you see what I mean? So, but our land use ordinances are so, and those are very important, okay? But it's like governance of the cemeteries, okay? You know, you gotta have rules in place. Without that, without rules and regulations, and approval from the city council, you know, it could be willy-nilly. We could end up in an entity, and we need to make sure that there's a thoughtful process to all that. Otherwise, that could end up costing us more money. Okay? That's my thought process. You know, there are a few things in, like, the zoning ordinances Yeah, the state recommends that we not have setbacks. I don't have a warm reply to you. At a minimum, a 10-foot step back on residential properties.

Back in the day, it happened.

Now I'm realizing where I get the word.

I keep saying warm places.

That's just a small piece of what I'm trying to get at. You see what I mean? We want something that's going to work right. for the people that we represent.

Exactly. As Pat, to your point about the cemetery and all of the commissions, there is an ordinance in place, but it's old and out of date. So we do have structure. I don't worry about anarchy, but we have the structure that we're working on getting it so that it reflects modern state laws and modern requirements for the cemetery. So we're on the same wavelength.

Okay, I'm going to move us along to City Seal, if that's okay. So Carol... This is your, like you're not normally at the project management team meeting, so I can go through the update or I can turn it over to you for you to give your update. If you'd like to hear what staff has been working on. Yeah, why don't we do that? Okay. So Roddy's not here tonight. He had a pre-planned vacation, so he provided some updates for me. So we're currently working on developing an RFP for the repair and restoration of the seal. which we expect to issue if we get the go-ahead in the next couple weeks. And the goal is to better understand the availability for restoration options and associated costs for determining the best approach forward, including storage, replacement, repair, all the things. So our intent was to develop that RFP, share it with and see who we get specific and some requirements would be They would have to do a site visit. We would rent a lull to get people up to look at the actual structure or lift, whatever people call it. And another requirement is that they would have to have worked with historic preservation. So they have to have a historic preservation background. Yeah, I think that's really important. If we were doing this just at the staff level, that would be the update.

Okay. And I think, I mean, when I was working on this, and I've got about 100 hours in this right now, I did put a sample in there of specific specifications for an RFP, but for phase one. Because what you need before you start worrying about repairing it is getting it off the wall. And historic preservation has to issue a COA for that to get it off. So we've got to find somebody to get it off first. Is the COA a certificate of acceptability? I can't . What's the COA stand for again? A certificate of appropriateness. Appropriateness.

would be appropriate for Roddy to take this memo and draft that RFP based on the elements that are in here. I haven't read this yet. I just saw it just now.

So if that's okay with you for the next steps. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, I haven't heard anything from Roddy on this project in a year.

Well, can we be honest that Twyla lit a little fire under all of us because she was on a flight home and sat next to somebody that specialized in historic preservation of buildings and things. And you can tell the story, I guess. I don't need to say it.

No, I'm just, I mean, they were interested in, you know, like, is it going to go out to bid? I'm like, I don't know. So I brought it back to our meeting, and then we decided from there that it would be a good idea to put it out to bid.

Yeah, because it was identified in the CIP as a project, although not a year one funding. It's really important to, this is part of getting it to funding. So making sure that we do these things and get this, you know, accurate funding estimate so that we can program either mid-budget cycle or as part of next year's budget. So it feels like taking the work that you've done CREATING A DRAFT RFP THAT'S IN OUR OPEN GOV SYSTEM, SHARING THAT WITH YOU TO MAKE SURE THAT THAT'S APPROPRIATE AND IT HAS ALL THE ELEMENTS THAT YOU WANT TO SEE, AND THEN POSTING THAT OVER THE NEXT COUPLE WEEKS. AND THEN COMING BACK, IF WE GET IT POSTED IN THE NEXT COUPLE WEEKS, WE COULD COME BACK TO THE SEPTEMBER MEETING WITH A PROPOSAL FOR MORE.

Some stars are aligning here as well. Thank you. I can't hear you, Charlie.

You let your voice drop really low, and I can't hear you.

I'm sorry. Yeah, some stars are aligning, I think. First, thank you for bringing this really into the Tier 1 category. Roddy and myself and others, we've been focused on a lot of things, and that piece fell down a couple years ago. It's looking okay, but especially reading your memo and the comprehensive history on in the 80s it got repaired, in the 90s, and then 30 years go by, really not much anything. The repairs that were done might not have been perfect. There wasn't a plan moving forward. You're at 100-year point. This is extremely unique.

I think this may be the last time we get to do this. I mean, this thing's going to come. I haven't looked at it, but just from reading what's been done to it, there's been pieces that have come off every time they've taken it down. It's been compromised by sanding and chemicals and a whole bunch of other things that shouldn't have been done to it. And I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. I don't know what the Historic Preservation Board was doing in the 80s or the 90s. But I've got some of their notes and I cannot understand how they could have allowed what was done to be done to it. I can't expand my conception. But, be that as it may, got to get it off the wall.

Yeah, I think that's for me some of the stars aligning things is Cara sent us the Revitalize Me ME grants that are really funded from the state of Maine projects that are above this scope. Amy talked to a group that's involved in our sciences, done historic preservation stuff. The person Twyla talked to, I'm sure you know some folks, too. So getting this RFP out there, to me, could also help dictate what we put in this grant memo. We have good contacts in the state in this area, too. So really making a hard press on hopefully getting some funding. I think the key inflection point for me is this, I think you're right, this phase one could be the basis for the RFP. But that we want to make it focus on the removal, take down cost for that. And storage. Storage as like the near term aspect. But then also I think hopefully like what they would anticipate the restoration work to cost. Because I think with this grant we want to put as much of that information in there.

Oh, absolutely. But you can't do that until you get it down and dry it out and look at it.

It's got to be professionally assessed. So if we're looking at early October for the Revitalize Me grant, I wonder if we'd be able to get the information on what the rest of it is.

I don't know that we'd need that much information to apply. We need to show need, that we have a need for it, and we can do that based on Jim's prior assessment. I'm just...

Well, I think you need to, if you get the RRP out and come back with a number for getting it down, that would draw it, quote, to necessity. Because if somebody comes back and says, hey, I can take that thing off the frigging wall for two grand, then, you know, that's a lot more doable than somebody comes back and says, Well, we can get it down, but it's going to cost you $50. That's another predicament. So getting the RFP out and getting some data back that we can compare and look at, I think is going to be critical.

But having a first step of the RFP to analyze it with the appropriate people that are... Now, I just want to make it clear, and I've been agonizing over this too, my dual role here as councilperson and chair of Historic Preservation, what I've What I think, I have to step back from one voting aspect. I do. I have to step back from one voting aspect. Ethically, I'm really bound to vote as the council person. So I'm not going to step back from that. I'm going to step back from voting on when you send these COA applications to preservation, I'm not going to vote on them because I will have helped formulate them. So I'll be voting on a plan I came up with, which is not ethical.

And it might be nice to say that also in the council meeting so it's reflected in the minutes.

Yes, you're absolutely right. That needs to be said every time I talk about this. It's hard to switch hats, but I've looked at it really carefully. What I can do for you folks who are doing the actual groundwork is I can write the specs and I can point you in the right direction. I can't recommend vendors or contractors, and as far as recommending one choice to do one thing rather than the other, I can only do that within the bounds of the Secretary of Interior's guidelines for this. So, you know, I think as long as I step back from that COA vote, I think this will be okay.

Yeah, I think we'll have to analyze, like, the scoring committee of the RFP submissions, too, because there is an aspect of, like, some guidance in the SOAR commission on some of those aspects, but we don't typically open up scoring reviews outside of staff, so it might just be, you've already provided a good garden. you know, in previous work, and I started reservations, and we shouldn't have what we need, and it would really be more of the .

That's one of the benefits of doing it through OpenGov is that you can put all the scoring criteria in there from the outset, so it's pretty ironclad how people score.

And that could be what we seek yours and others' guidance, like what criteria should we touch the vendors on. Yeah.

Great. So the next step will be we'll draft that RFP and share it and get it in OpenGov. And just by way of process, I would say this is, you know, a really successful way to approach the CIP as well to make sure that projects just don't linger on, that they get, and that it doesn't just get dumped into one funding cycle. Having some funding for an RFP and evaluation to get really good cost estimates, I really enjoy that.

Okay, back with you. Can I just ask one more question? So when you get an RFP done, when you get it finished, it goes out into what, the ether, or do you send it to specific?

It does not get sent to specific. We can once it's posted. So what happens is we develop the RFP, we post it live in OpenGov, so any vendors who have registered will get a notification. Amy posted on our website, and it normally specifies what we're looking for to give some more context to it.

I mean, at that point... At that point, we do, like, in this case, I'd probably send it to Twyla. Like, we don't do any pre or trying to scope the RFP to match a specific vendor. We may ask, like, a client. Once it's public, we want as many people. If you know people, send it to Twyla. We'll probably send it to DaVinci as well and just probably ping the Historic Commission of Maine.

Say, hey, if you know people, yeah, and drive them to OpenGov.

I mean, there are... I mean, I do know there are resources as far as... people are qualified to get this down in maine but there's there's also a lot of them in massachusetts if we we need to go there for some reason i mean i just don't know how far this reverberates but okay yeah that sounds like a plan great uh

Yes for this as many of you know from sitting in on the last council meeting when Reagan gave her Kind of final update and she did focus quite a bit on Beckwith Hill She gave some recommendations in there and that's really what I wanted to highlight for this meeting and this is what I would say if we were just staff going around the table to Because a lot was shared and that will Amy, I keep forgetting to send it to you because she just sent it to me, but if we can get that on the TIFF page, that'd be great, like her PowerPoint and slides that she handed out. Thank you. Beckwith Hill is currently capturing approximately $630,000 each year in tax revenue, and the total capture year-to-date since its inception is just over $11 million. And she did highlight this in her presentation that we're in our final five years, and it's capturing at 67%, but it was structured such that it's going to go down next year to 50, and then 40, then 30, then 20 in the final year. So that reduces the $630,000 by quite a bit in our last year. So, and she just reminded us in that presentation that when we choose not to shelter TIF, Ellsworth loses approximately 64 cents on the dollar of tax revenue. So we have to think about that. And she was kind of recommending, I think she, not kind of, she was recommending that council consider amending the Beckwith Hill TIF to allow for 100% value capture given our CIP projects and how much it could just go directly toward that. Instead of allowing it to go down to 20%, just bump it up to 100% for the final five years and hit those short-term and mid-term projects hard that are allowed. And a lot of them are because they're infrastructure-based.

And I should note, too, that we established those other new TIF districts, and they have the same set of expenses in there so as those are building up revenue in those areas at the expiration point we might be able to just switch some of those activities so you're still getting the tax shift benefit And then there's a question, too, on the 20-year extension under 75% of the TIF districts. Yeah, that's a good question.

Yeah. And so then two examples of that, and there are many more. And if you remember, we can get them to you again. But she had handed out, she spent a lot of time drafting, like, short-term priorities that TIF could fund and then midterm ones, or what do you call them? Yeah, midterm priorities. So, for example, if we did this, it could fully cover the installation of the water supply cistern and dry hydrant at North Ellsworth Public Safety Station under fire. And traditionally, TIF has been hard to use TIF funds to pay for fire and police needs or, in this case, capital improvement projects. But she believes that if we amend it, it could pay for that. And another example would be the paving and fencing at the police station. So these are, you know, TIP funds can go toward that. It's not coming out of the, you know, the, what am I saying? Yeah. General revenue or bond. Right. So it's just an easy way to kind of match what we are capturing to projects on the CIP list that would help us move it forward faster. And then the second really big recommendation was thinking about in five years that the Beckwith Hill TIF will sunset, and we have the opportunity to extend it for another 20 years if 75% of the TIF revenue is used for affordable housing or transit-oriented development. Freeport just did this for transit-oriented development. They extended theirs 20 years. In our case, I think it makes more sense given

the need you have for housing to put it toward affordable housing so we have a little bit of time on that but not a ton yeah and how we start thinking of that now i think of the courthouse road and it's you know there's a tag in there for development infrastructure outside the district housing transit Or even things that are just pretty simple, like Boggy Brook. You know, we're in for $750,000 with a match from the state for $750,000. That project alone. Bayside Brook. Sorry, Bayside Brook. Boggy Brook's another.

No, Bayside.

That's going to be, you know, an enormous amount of funds once we get the engineering done for that as well. So these are potential uses for just infrastructure projects that are already in the works.

I have a question. Can you only extend for 20 years, or do you have some flexibility on the amount of years? Could you do it 10, could you do it 15, 5, or is it kind of...

I don't know. I'd have to find out. When I looked it up today just to... I was curious if you could split, if you could do like half transit-oriented development and half housing at 75, like 35 or whatever, 35. And I couldn't find anything on that. I think it has to be one or the other. And all it references is 20 years. It doesn't necessarily give the option of less, but it doesn't mean that we couldn't ask. Other TIF questions? You're up next with TIF Task Force. Okay, so yes, we're working on this and I guess we have to decide too if it's going to be called a task force or what was proposed at the time of the new TIF districts was that it would be called a review committee and it would be established to provide advisory review, financial oversight, and strategic alignment for the use of municipal TIF districts and funds. and that it would serve in an advisory capacity to the City Council and not exercise independent spending authority. Its purpose is to evaluate the proposed uses of TIF revenues, monitor performance of active districts, and recommend priorities that support the development plan. And then the suggested membership is seven to nine members appointed by the City Council reflecting financial, economic development, planning, business, and community expertise. And a committee would meet quarterly or more frequently as needed, and they would comply with Means Freedom of Access Act and be publicly noticed. And there's an annual report provided by the committee to city council summarizing the TIF revenues, expenditures, project outcomes, and recommendations for future investment priorities. So yeah, I'd like to bring that I'm hoping to get that. I think we had said on the August agenda, right? Or not yet? Maybe September. Maybe September. OK. I mean, it's pretty much ready to go. But I don't know how much, like, I thought maybe we were going to workshop this tonight. But that's fine in September.

Yeah, maybe we try to bring September workshop. Let's do that as it's on the plan.

OK. And then you want to ratify the committee at the September meeting?

yeah i mean we should have well no i don't think we can because membership or just i think we need to put um we need to allow a few weeks anyway for because two of the seats are a representative from it could either be the elsewhere ebdc or it could just be someone from the business community and then the other one is an at-large resident with relevant experience and that's kind of a very broad term but we would want to allow people time to submit their letters of interest and then that would be presented to the council as well. Okay. And hopefully... A following meeting.

Right. Okay. Yes.

Other than that, it's the city manager, and this is following what other towns and cities do that have TIF committees. City manager or designee, finance director, economic development director, planning board member, city council liaison, so that'd be, you know, someone from you all that would want to serve on that. And then the last two would be... from the business community and that large resident.

Yeah, to me, this kind of goes back to, gosh, I wish something like this had been around since they established this. And then we wouldn't have to be doing so much work to figure out a lot of this data that we needed to consult, necessarily, to go through this piece. And I think, moving forward, priorities for this would be the audit current TIF districts where we're at. We have probably a substantial amount that hasn't been spent in the economic development category that have been generated by the TIF districts. So analysis of that. Really looking towards the next budget cycle when we get to TIF and funding and items. And this is a recommendation of the committee as part of the budget process. And that'll be important in accounting so that you all have better track of this and then that 2030 cliff that we're going to, you know, hit with this and should be redirecting to housing. I mean, this is a committee or commission that could kind of, a task force that could really, you know, start setting us up now for that 2030 so that it's not, oh my gosh, we need to spend the next nine months crashing on this to figure out what to do before, you know, that tax shift hits right back on. So, yeah.

Okay. Anything else on TIF? Great. Eric, you're up. Water plant replacement.

Hi, I'm Eric. I'm the new superintendent for the water department. So the update on the new water system, Wooded and Current has just submitted this new updated schedule to the state. We're looking at design basis report due at the end of October, 60% design. at the end of January 27, 90% design by the end of March. Bid set also at the end of March. Bid opening at the end of April. Hopefully construction start in June of 27 and end construction end of October 2028. At the end of this week, as a part of the preliminary work, they're putting in another test well up at the treatment plant facility to look at soil types for the future aeration part of the treatment facility. That's happening on Friday. And at the end of this month, August, pilot plant will return the last week of August and the first week of September to do more coagulation and other operational chemical and filtration media studies. So once that's done, that's really the lion's share of material that Wooden and Kerny needs to sit down and actually do the design of the filters, coagulants, rates, and that sort of thing. So it's coming along. It's been a steep learning curve for me, so it's a lot, but it's good. I'm really excited about this project and to be here for this.

And one of the other things with that project that has been added recently is originally when the plant was being considered There was no consideration for the staff to be at the new treatment plant, which that's changed now. So the design will incorporate office space for the staff, locker room for the staff, the same thing we have at the wastewater plant.

Which kind of goes into the next item that was kind of born from Eric's work with the team when we were... Evicted. Evicted from... So, which it's a really nice long-term solution rather than trying to find a rental space or squeezing in a place that doesn't really work or fit for their operations. So he worked with the team and that seemed to be the best long-term solution to have a permanent home.

And at some point in the future, we'll need to look at having some sort of satellite because that's where the majority of the work happens. Driving back and forth 10 miles out to the treatment plant if you need a tool or something and then back to town isn't really efficient. So, you know, part of the upcoming plans that we're going to consider is having a space in town that they can have tools and mirrors and things like that that they need in town without constantly having to try and drive back and forth all the way up to Bucksboro Road to the water treatment plant all the time.

Similar to the seal, we should be probably looking at Pump Station Point. Amanda really corrects us when we get it wrong. Pump Station Point, it's a city asset that's sitting there not really being used to its maximum capacity because there are some safety concerns with it. But should we be looking at doing an RFP evaluation of what it would cost us to get that up and a usable asset for the city or to get rid of it? That's on my list.

And then on my city owners. What is it?

It's where the old water company office used to be.

Oh, so it's office. Well, it's a different building.

It's this old, beautiful, great building that says I can go out there. I would like to live there.

When you say get rid of it, we need to be clear. You mean repurpose it out into the world. Right.

Have it not be an asset of the cities to be responsible for. That's what I thought you meant. And it's a historical building. Yes, that's what I meant. It is a historical building.

Yes. If I may, it is a historical building. Yes, absolutely. You know, it would make, it would make somebody a nice place.

Yeah.

You could stitch one with water. Go and a half one and the other. You got to look at, can we revitalize it to be able to use for like an in, like we'll say, in town area to work on it. for materials and tools in support of the system? Or should we relocate someplace else?

It's being used for right now. Parks and Rec is storing their equipment there. We are, as part of the water department relocation, putting some storage workshop type area on site. But there's very limited use of the actual building.

It is, the building is in very a lot of disrepair. It's a case in point of previous administrations way beyond us that had kicked the can down the road.

Yeah, and to give you some background on that, how we get to where we're at now is mold, ceiling issues, water department had to get out of there in a hurry.

So is it better for us to dump a lot of money into it and possibly not still have anything. I really don't want to get rid of a historic place. You see what I mean? But you've got to look at the cost effectiveness. And we don't need to go, I've already spouted off in the past about leasing property. But you have property. But you have places to be able to put facility. And kudos to Eric and Mike about expanding the water treatment plant so that it'd be like the wastewater plant. It'd have a place for the employees to be able to take care of the stuff.

Eric, do you want to give an update on the relocation out there?

Certainly. So we have rented a offices on either end, and then a common area in the middle. We had that delivered about 50 days ago, and then getting power to it was a little more of an ordeal than I originally thought it was going to be. But we got power about two weeks ago, and thanks to the hard work of Jason and his crew, we were able to get IT and communications last week. actually got to sit down and write reports in my own office and I even had a view. It's really nice. I think it'll serve us well. And it gets us next to the treatment facility itself, which means a lot more eyeballs will be on the treatment equipment, the analyzers, the filters, chemicals, things that when you only have one person there on a shift, you just have more eyeballs and more folks who can And when you have management and other folks there, you can view things and maybe correct things earlier than otherwise they might linger. So I'm excited to be up there. The current facility... And you'll have a permanent facility once it's all done? Yes, yeah.

Perfect.

Very nice area. And a little preferable to the old Payless Shoe store that could hold 75 people and had three desks.

And it's cost effective. It's less expensive than that rental.

So in some ways we're coming to the solution that we probably should have had a while ago. And also big props to Eric, Mike, Amanda. They really stabilized the ship staff-wise over there. Got a great team. And I know I've seen some things and some training stuff they're doing. You're doing great things. with the new kind of program to get the team's new water quality surgery or water quality? Licenses. Licenses, so I'm excited about that project too.

Me too. They started, they're on their second class going into their third, so I think it's being well received. Great.

Okay, office relocation. This is the departments of City Hall. This kind of came out from a couple months ago. There were some safety concerns about people kind of going into offices that weren't really public facing in some regard um meetings being interrupted things like that so we had a discussion at um council meeting so we actually our code enforcement officer deputy code enforcement officer said why don't we just put all of the public facing services downstairs and finance and administration upstairs so we have done that relocation the last of it was happening today so in the old um city manager finance area is code enforcement um assessing in economic development and planning and upstairs is finance um and city administration you've relocated so the final steps of this is amy's going to work on some um way fine signage internally here with our new branding on it um to let people know where THEY NEED TO BE GOING. I THINK FOR THE MOST PART PEOPLE HAVE, I THINK IT'S LAST WEEK WAS A LITTLE, LIKE WE HAD QUITE A BIT OF TRAFFIC UPSTAIRS FOR CODE AND PLANNING, AND I FELT SO BAD WHEN BRIAN SAID, SORRY, I HAVE TO GO BACK DOWNSTAIRS. BUT THIS WEEK IT'S BEEN PRETTY QUIET SO FAR. THAT'S IT FOR THAT ONE, I THINK.

I THINK THIS IS GOING TO BE A BIG VALUE ADD FOR THE CUSTOMER NOW, FOR MOST CUSTOMER CENTRIC AREAS. RIGHT ON THE FIRST FLOOR, WALK RIGHT IN, STAFFED APPROPRIATELY, But also, I think, you know, Twyla's taken a lead role of really aligning economic development, planning, code, assessing, and it's kind of a mini version of this team that just focuses on those pieces of the project. So that, you know, soup to nuts. Twyla, myself, other people are bringing developers in, but then they get put into that pipeline to, you know, give them the permission. And there's just Watkins. I think it was at 11? housing unit permits pulled last week in line with new state laws. So we're seeing a lot of development in the city of Ellesmere still. We want to keep the gas on that, but we need a system that can guide people through this process. And I think this physical relocation will actually go a long way for that. Taxes and registrations, do you have anything? But you can also just pivot. five feet away and see all your business needs done as well. So it should be a good project.

And as always, all departments are kind of available to meet with the public. But you just need to just let us know. And we are more than willing to meet with the public. Anything on that? OK. Maryland Extension Construction. This is Mike and I. I've been working with Kleinfelder and the state to some degree about an amendment to the developer agreement. And Kleinfelder has been working on kind of the peer review of the construction documents. Kleinfelder is an engineering firm that we hired to help us with the peer review and with the funding cost tracker for this project. so andrew mccullough has finished the construction docs mike has put them all into open gov tomorrow we have a meeting with andrew and kleinfelder to finalize them and they should be put out to bid at the by the end of the week that's our construction schedule i'm sorry our bid schedule um to have it put out to public bid or private bid um by the end of the week with coming back to the council at the September meeting with either the preferred vendor or a cost estimate for Public Works to do the work or a hybrid of both of those things. So really excited to be moving forward with this project. The timeline for construction is about four to six months. We're hoping on the four-month schedule, so that gets us way ahead of the developer agreement. It does not include any upgrades to the intersection that will be required as a traffic movement permit, but that we're hoping if we do move forward with a private contractor, it could just be a change order to that work, because it would be a similar type of earthwork that they would have to be doing.

And big props to Sarah who really helped negotiate with the state judiciary. Big props to the judiciary as well on some of the intersection changes and what would have been at the Surrey Road and their commitment to fund a traffic movement permit and larger intersection upgrades. The state has authorized up to $415,000 to be contributed to those intersection upgrades. And I think we're trying to codified to another $30,000 to $40,000 on the intersection itself. Right now there's no crosswalks as you can go there. So that will be, and it's, you know, the preliminary designs remain DOT on a substantial positive upgrade for that entire intersection as it's navigated, that all being feed and seed, barrel furniture, key bank. So we still have a bit of negotiation there, but a big thanks to Sarah and Gia Sherry on funding the project and Much money better served here than on the Surrey Road, the area that moved and that was great infrastructure. If you haven't seen lately, even since the groundbreaking, oh my goodness, what a difference three weeks makes.

Yeah, they are going great guns up there. we provided them with their temporary power so they had temporary power obviously the construction road was put in um and since then sergeant corporation bowman is doing the kind of thing as a general contractor they have done a serious amount of clearing and bringing in fill and has been sending submittals our ways in terms of what they're looking at to put a perfect structure for courthouse itself so yeah this project is moving at pace I would say that another key piece to the developer developer agreement

Amendment is the letter of credit. We asked the judiciary to go with a letter of credit rather than an obligation bond. It was going to save us initial upfront costs. And in that discussion with counsel, there were some concerns about how they could draw down that letter of credit. So as part of that, there are some requirements about how the judiciary can draw down. They have to notify us about why, give us some time to rectify the problem before they can just draw that down. We have not issued the letter of credit yet because we're still waiting for the final inked signature. But as soon as we have that, the banks have re-upped that negotiation, so we're fine with that. Anything else for Marilyn? Well, Robert. But Twyler's going to give the report out for short-term rentals.

Yes, Robert had a prior commitment tonight, so he asked me to let you all know, in case you didn't see online, Amy did post this already, that on August 10th from 5 to 7 p.m. there will be a listening session about short-term rentals. And as it says here, as Ellsworth continues to grow, the city is exploring whether a short-term rental registration and safety inspection program should be considered. Before any recommendations are developed, we want to hear from you. This is what was posted online. Community input is an important part of the city's decision-making process, and this session is designed to gather perspectives before any recommendations are brought forward. During the evening, participants will learn why the discussion is taking place, hear a brief overview of STRs or short-term rentals in Ellsworth, visit interactive input stations, share ideas, concerns, and suggestions, and help shape the conversation moving forward. no registration required to show up. And Robert is inviting the council to attend along with the public, not necessarily your voting body capacity, but just to observe and hear what everyone is saying. and to give your own input. And he also wanted to share that he has been reaching out to multiple software companies that manage short-term rentals. OpenGov is an option, but it's very expensive. And he has found some that are designed for our size city. OpenGov is what maybe New York City would use. But it has a lot of capacity when it comes to short-term rentals. I don't think we need, he doesn't think we need that much going into it, so he could find something for a lot cheaper, like probably 10, like 90% cheaper. He said it's like $4,000 to $5,000 instead of $40,000. And GovPilot is the one that he's looking at the most, but he's still collecting that information. And then he said he thinks there would be another listening session this fall depending on the feedback we get August 10, maybe due you know, like I said, one more workshop and try to have something ready by the end of the year to bring back to council. So that was kind of his report on this.

Amy, we are going to be posting a survey also for folks who can't participate in the listening session. So the survey is going to kind of mimic the tabling exercises and things like that. So we have a draft of that that's been circulated to the team to finalize. But Tracy wanted me to ping you to let you know so you can maybe think about where and where we're going to push it out. So I think the team is finalizing that. Hopefully, the goal was to get it out in advance of the listening session so people can do both if they want, one or the other. Yeah, so we need to get it posted this week. So I think, Charlie, you need to get your eyes on it.

Yeah, I've got a draft of an email with too much changes, but I'll get to that. One of which I think we need kind of like an intro of the why. on kind of, hey, council, we've been discussing this, you know, and it's really, in the initial stages, I think we're focused on a registration system, a potential registration fee, and maybe a small level of compliance for safety type issues. And even that's on the table. Nothing has been decided. There's been no council votes on this. Like, we're looking for input on this, too, as well. But at the same time we know that there's gosh there's some folks that are on it do none of those three things Regulation of the short-term rental market. I'm actually more in that category if we're going to do a registration system Let's actually pay for it. And we have some folks that are like we need to regulate to a very large level Limited it to only owner-occupied and while we're not Necessarily considering that it's kind of phase one here. It really is a conversation about that registration system Registration fee and safety compliance features, you know, we do what we acknowledge that there are a wide range of opinions on this too and really want to kind of hear all of those So I can tell you the feedback through the surveys We will be doing a report out in the August meeting on just the feedback from that session But I expect this to be one that people have very strong opinions on, both sides, in the middle. We'll keep reporting back to council. This will not be the end of the workshops on this one. Once we have a system identified, we'll look forward to it. To see if this is where we want to be, gather the data, see where we're at. Some reports in the Bingham Daily News are up to 1,000 emails worth. From a couple hundred emails six, seven years ago to almost 1,000. It's a fundamental change of the housing market. To me, there's also a revenue-sharing conversation. The state has 9% of the lodging tax that's coming from the growth of those. I'd really like to see the state kick some of that money back to the communities that are affected by it. I'd rather not have to have any registration fee and just have it exclusively as a cost-sharing from the state of that remedy, they're already pulling from that activity. So, two different things, and talk more about the missionary aspect of these, but all of that needs to be on the table.

Anything else on short-term rental listening session? No, if you have any questions, just reach out to Charlie and Sarah, for the council anyway, and they can pass it along.

You're up again, with Irving.

Oh my, okay. So, we received a Let me back up a little bit. Like two months after I was hired, we being Hancock County Planning Commission, Healthy Acadia, and the city applied together for a community action grant, the Maine Won't Wait initiative as a community action grant 2025. It took a very long time because it's partially NOAA-funded, and some of that funding was put on hold. It took a long time for it to be approved. I mean, all of us who applied were in the same boat. And we just found out at the end of June, and it begins July 1, and we have to wrap it up by the end of May. So it's less than a year now because it started late. But part of that grant was, again, looking at IRCEI as a possible food hub, like not necessarily food itself flowing in and out of it but anything from an information hub for hancock county around food or we could look again at it being commercial kitchen like just lots of things so we kind of put that on hold for a while because it's it's we're fully um every office is being used right now and it's and it's generating you know enough revenue for us to be income neutral and even probably income positive this year But now that the grant came through, we're like, oh, we have to do this. We have to look at this again. So there is money for a consultant, and then Healthy Acadia will be kicking in the other half of their time to do this together with the city. But I just wanted to put that on everyone's radar that we're kind of resurrecting the irky reimagined idea for purposes of this grant. And it may end up being really worthwhile. So either way, we have to.

I'll let you do that.

It was only 74,000 across three organizations, and this particular piece was only 5,000.

This is the second time we've gotten this grant. The other time was to match for the VPI. I see. We received the community resilience grant to, well, some of our match for the VPI.

This might be a stupid question, but in the spirit of when this is not on, we ask the nasty questions, but can it be used for like, if we wanted to imagine it as a restaurant? I've often thought like you kind of dead end at the marina and we don't have any waterfront restaurants in Ellsworth.

I don't think this particular one, Lobster Paw. Oh, that's true.

Not that you can pull up a boat.

I think there are a lot of houses there. Yeah, they have a dock.

Lobster Paw you can get to?

Yeah. I have Canoe there before.

Canoe I would take. I don't think I've been to Lobster. I wouldn't take a motorbike. Actually, I did that with the Florida Water Superdense. That was a ride. Okay, well, it's a good question. No, it's not.

I can't answer that, but it is one. You're both wrong.

I just wanted, like, as we're listening to the conversation, we got the grant, so this is opening up an opportunity. It's just $5,000 of that to explore how we might use that facility. And that's all it is, is the consultant to look at opportunities. And I don't think that You know, a retail food establishment there is not a bad idea. That is a really unique waterfront property. So how broadly do we look at this as part of food system? Or if it's a commercial kitchen, will there be sale options? The farmer's market is there now. I think opening it up really creatively to look at what a higher use of that building might be has some real value.

We're supposed to develop an action plan for converting it from Erky to a headquarter for a local food hub. So I'm not sure that a restaurant, unless it's like a co-op restaurant or something like that.

I mean, food hub, we talked in there. I mean, it can mean a dozen different things. So something with retail food would be an interesting part of the conversation.

It would be. And I think we will be building for sure on what the Downey's Food Systems Partnership has already done. Right.

I was just talking about turning into some kind of restaurant or co-op. I'm also aware that the rec department has had issues, sorry, the harbor has had issues finding a part-time food vendor there even, so that's a concern I have about pursuing it too far. I understand they are fundamentally different, Sure. That has been issued. Good point.

Not to Clay.

Yeah.

What was that? Nellie Downer or whatever. Nellie Downer. Nellie Downer. Nellie Downer. Nellie Downer. You're telling me you got five grand to study turning an Ingle food up?

Or something of that sort? Well, it's building on prior work. I mean, we have another grant, not related to this one, I don't think. I forget what that grant was that they got, the Down East Food Partner System. But yeah, we're coming back with some recommendations and Healthy Acadia is stepping in as well. It's exploring... ECONOMIC, LOGISTICAL, STRUCTURAL, AND OTHER FACTORS TO LAUNCHING THIS BASICLY. I MEAN, I DON'T THINK IT HAS TO BE... I THINK IT NEEDS TO BE A FINAL REPORT.

ALL I'D LIKE TO POINT OUT IS THERE IS A LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES HERE. SO WE HAVE MOVED our universal resources people down there that are well established in that building now you've just said that all the offices are rented in that building now and either income neutral or revenue positive and so for me personally my opinion we finally got that space to where it is stable we have done a good job at creating more space in city hall and getting human resources into a spot where they can have the privacy necessary to deal with personal issues and not have people listening in their offices and now we want to look at maybe possibly trying to do something to convert the whole building into something different and i i'm sorry but i am one thousand percent against that yeah and i think you're

right in so many ways in that way. And in some ways that's been this whole pivot in this last year. We're not doing the biotech. It's kind of a we work for shared office space. But I also think we do have to keep up the highest use of that really unique asset. Waterfront property. Waterfront. And if it could become a tourist draw to really draw people in. But as part of the longer term thing with the river walk that connects the marina to the downtown. partnership initiative so we got to keep our eye on yes you're right from the next few years but let's start looking ahead and this isn't like get the plan and let's change unless it's like oh my gosh or it would have to be as simple as because i mean i can get on board with that like yeah i i'm fully on board with that piece but if we were just going to look at doing something at the lesser extent

I'M NOT.

NO, BUT I THINK THAT'S WHAT IT IS. I'M WITH MY... I'M WITH MY... I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU A SHIRT THAT SAYS THAT. YOU KNOW, THE WATER DISTRICT, LEAVE THEM ALONE. FROM WHAT I'M DOING, THE NUMBERS IN MY HEAD ABOUT THE GRANTS, YEAH. AND THEN BE REALISTIC ABOUT The river will walk. Come on now. I mean, angel fish is not going to leave the river. Our drone is not going to leave the river. And honestly, I just, you know what I mean? All this talk about removing the Union River dam is a bunch of Because they remove that, what's going to do the long-term impact of everybody's electric bills? And not to mention our rates of property taxes. Think about the long-term consequences. Think about the long-term. Bigger, huge picture. This turning it into a food court, a food thing, The numbers don't jive to me. I need bigger numbers in my house.

But that's not what this is, right? No, no. I've got a impression.

What is a bigger picture?

The main mall.

The Barneymore Department, the water district down there, We've got HR in the place. Let's keep utilizing it the way it is. Sorry, one second, Pat, what do you have to say?

I just call, everybody's crammed into a closet. Okay, my turn. So, well, I'll go quiet. What did you expect? Hurry up. So my understanding, though, and I may be misunderstanding, but is that this grant is just to basically talk about what might Yes. Be appropriate.

A very small portion of it is just for this, but now that we have state and federal funds given to us, we have to use them according to what we said we were going to, and that was last August. It was a year ago. A lot has changed in a year, but it was given to us now, and it wasn't our fault.

Can I please, because we have a lot of folks that have been waiting, so I'd like to just move us along. strategic trail planning do we have any update on that okay I think Ronnie probably would have given he he has some looking at a larger connected trail parks outdoor learning initiative for a broader vision for the parks and recreation. I think that has some of the trail integration. That's a separate workshop. Yeah.

That's a really big vision for elsewhere in Chelsea.

We were applying for a grant with FDC and some pieces and I think we can put a clause in some of it. Okay.

Capital improvement plan, we had a discussion at the last council meeting about that. Some direction was given to move forward with what projects we should come forward with for a bond package. That'll be at the September meeting. We've updated the plan. Amy has created a website, a webpage on our website for that plan, our story map. should be up there. It is beautiful, I'm sorry, a beautiful page on the website. Our story map will be up there very soon. Some of the projects had to get updated. And that should be, as we like to say at the project management team, we can check that off soon.

We can check off the initial

process for developing a capital plan and methodology. What were you going to say?

I want to create an RFP to have ready if the local roads that we've selected are going to go forward.

Yeah, sure. That's a great idea. And then sidewalks.

Yes, sidewalks are normal.

Yeah. Knowlton Park upgrades. There's been a committee, an advisory committee, that has been working on the design presented by Game Time and developing recommendations for modifications. The committee has been focused on value engineering, improving ADA, and making sure that playing features reflect the interests of Ellsworth youth. I plan to meet with game time in August to present the committee's first rounds of recommendations and continue refining the design, remain on track for final design being brought forward in early fall. Bayside Road, Mike has developed the RFP for engineering services for the design of the MPI, for the first phase of the MPI. It's live. It's live, out. ready for bid we've already had a question on it that will come also at the september meeting for awarding this is just for the design design and whatever is left over for minimal construction whatever we can do because then it once we have the design the full cost we will phase that based on the 1.5 MILLION-DOLLAR CAP ON MPIs. SO THEN WE'LL KNOW HOW MANY MORE MPIs WE HAVE TO APPLY FOR.

AND THE MPI'S MUNICIPAL PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE.

AND THAT WAS A $750,000 GRANT MATCH THAT SARA SECURED WITH THE STATE FOR THIS PROJECT. A LITTLE BACK UP, THAT'S gets this road to build status over time, and then the state, once it's at that status, will start taking care of it on a more regular basis.

Well, they'll keep evaluating it to maybe take care of it.

Well, if it gets to build...

Thank you. You're going to get a t-shirt that says that, too. I think I have your t-shirt. It gets it up to a built priority three, which gets it into a seven to 10 year cadence. If the volumes continue to rise and the uses on that road continue to change, it could, now that it's built, it could get bumped to a priority two, which gets it into a more frequent, um, maintenance cadence. So worst case scenario, it's a built road with a five to seven year. maintenance cadence. Best case, it'll get bumped up to priority two. with a five to seven.

And it won't be the most horrible potholed road that we have in the house, right?

No. It'll have paved strollers on the drain.

We're going to look at a multi-use trail, pathway on it. Possible sidewalk. Things like that.

Hi. Hi. So the 750 match for the state that doesn't include the design, this is a separate.

So this MPI is for the design to bring it to built status. That is part of that 750. So it's going to cost us one point, probably a million dollars to design the road.

With the money in it, any money that's left that wasn't expended on engineering, we can try and pick a small phase of the project to start construction.

Okay. And then we'll have to do multiple phases with more cost. Yes. It'll be the same thing every time. So it's 750, 750, X1, 750, 750. The same was done on Christian Ridge, it's just with a much shorter segment of road, but there was the MPI for design and construction.

And this is one of those ones, too, where you see the magnitude of the scale of this problem, right? 750 to a million on just engineering on a single road, of which we have dozens like this in the city of Ellsworth, with $279,000 in road sharing from the state. and a decade of disinvestment in the city's roads. So to get caught up on this, you know, this is the scale of the magnitude we really need to be talking about. I know a lot is talked about with the $14,000 branding initiative, and we can weigh the pros and cons of that, but this is what's going to be driving a lot of the cost increases in Elmer. And it's something we need to talk to the state about, revenue sharing on and road sharing. We weren't expecting the extra 2 million people to come to Acadia, and they're now using this road as a bypass cut-through on an unbuilt road. It's putting an enormous amount of, there's 23,000 trips a day on that bridge.

And there's only, this partnership is only eligible on certain roads. It's not like we could ever do it on like, Red Bridge Road or anything like that. Like it's only on state A roads.

Can you remind me where the starting point is? I know the ending point is Beechland. Washington. Washington Street. Okay.

That's going to make so many taxpayers happy. To get that road tucked in.

And the bond proceeds, the bond is being paid for with TIF.

And the TIF is going to be trapped.

Yeah.

I'm just going to say every time we talk about it, and consider, what is the phrase you all have used here? New roads, same speed limit. One thing the horrible condition of the road does is change people from going up.

We just talked about that today, that as part of the engineering design and evaluation, we will look at speeds, and if there is a recommendation to the state, because the state sets those speed limits to reduce them. Road dieting? How dare you!

We all drive faster when the roads are nicer and modern. We've got line design. Well, we talked about, I think in an earlier meeting, I mentioned something to Sarah about traffic calming. And she was very polite and said, well, is this actually the opposite of that? But finding a way to acknowledge that people will go faster is going to be a concern. So any way that that can be incorporated into the design as well. Yeah, we already have plenty of speed bumps now, right?

exactly well this is where you can use like added police presence to this area right and make some speed immediately after construction and there are some landscaping design that might help with speed to you know make it feel like what people want to slow down a little bit without and design elements so um but new black pavement people really do like to go a little bit

Very quick, we have 10 approved projects that we've been working on. One has been completed, we have four that are active, and three that are pending, and two have withdrawn. Well, they just ended up doing the work themselves, and it wasn't that much money, so they just pulled out of their match and the grant.

So that's where we're at. Twyla, would you back up? Two-sentence narrative. Is this the thing with part of Ellsworth, and it's for downtown facades?

It's not with part of Bellsworth. This is CDBG money from DCD. Sorry for all the acronyms. Community Block Grant. Yes. Thank you. And we got 100,000. And so the four that are active right now is Pyramid Studios, active in that, you know, we're at different phases in having the work done, like evaluated and done. Pyramid Studios, Bogtown, the Grand, and so, yeah. And then we have a couple more in the queue.

I just needed that context. Yes. Yep.

And we have until next summer, too.

Okay, so the people that have withdrawn, are you going to hold another round of applications or look? back at the applications that were submitted and reviewed those.

I mean, it wasn't in the case of the sweet spot. It was just like a gutter. Because the way the water was falling, it was freezing in the winter and people were like slipping on it. So he had that redone by mainly vinyl, but he ended up doing it out of his own pocket because it wasn't that much money. And so his facade grant wasn't even that much. We're just going to hold that for like extras because... It's gone up so much now. The original quotes that we're getting for this work are more than anticipated. Gotcha. Thanks.

I'll go quick on the next two. track of study and update from Amy and a team on status of the vendor and how we're targeting the fall to really get into the field replacement. I'm up to 54 on confirmed pledges and I've got 86 on my prospect list right now for some additional fundraising. I'm still working with Amy and the team on what pledges, what going from Che, thank you, counselor, on what the price point's going to be for those on the back of the track, sponsorship, a scoreboard sponsorship, sponsorship, and then we'll have kind of a general pledge area, an opening event with the city at some point. Rod and I had planned and hoping to try the fast session before. so we could tear down the field and have a big camp out down there and really destroy it beforehand. But it didn't quite seem like we had just enough time for that, so we'll have to do that maybe on the football field. When that looks new and replaced, we'll do something like that. So the idea could still have merit. So that's the proceeding of PACE. I'll try to give a much more robust update at the next PMT once I've had a chance to talk to Amy Bowles and Josh Frost. Engine 7 apparatus replacement should be good to go. We had the council approval on that and updates there. I know Scott's still waiting because we haven't drawn down from the band yet for the replacement. So I'll try to get Scott for next time he's here. Did he give you any other updates, Sarah, before that?

No, it's on track. We did draw down, but we just have the check waiting to be delivered to the vendor. We're on track for the early April delivery. A couple of the senior leadership in the fire department are going to actually go to the manufacturer in December to do a site inspection of the apparatus. So I think, and then just get scheduled with IT and communications integration to make sure that when it does get here, it's ready to go. Jason, if you're listening, street lights is up, but Sarah.

So if you recall, Council approved acquiring the streetlights from Percent last fall. Construction began a month ago, six weeks ago. They currently have replaced 421 of the 507. And we expect to have it complete within the next couple of weeks. The current issue, they've replaced most of the lights except for Bay Street, Powder, State Street, and Bangor Road. They need a bigger truck to do that, and they're working around scheduling for that truck. So it'll be a couple more weeks. Next steps will be getting in and learning the smart controls, and then putting out an RFP for ongoing maintenance. So it's just about wrapped up.

What will it look different to? as a result of this, what will people see?

The color of the light is very similar to the old sodium bulbs. But if there were any LEDs that were already replaced, those would look pretty bright white. color, so to speak. And that color temperature is more in line with dark spectrum redesigns. So the other thing people will notice is there won't be any lights that are out. Which is the big complaint right now. There's a big complaint right now. There are a lot of lights that were out. But as of right now, most of those have been fixed. I mean, there's only a small number that are left. The contract has been great.

That's why I stepped out there as a visual representation. You didn't have lights in this parking lot.

These haven't been replaced yet. They have temporary lights still here. Temporary lights.

They haven't done these ones yet. So do these ones, that's what we need.

They've done the ones along Church Street, School Street. So those are done, but the parking lot hasn't done them.

And then once we get the system up and running, we might have Jason kind of preview for the council how he's able to monitor this in real time so we won't have issues with light outages that we don't know about, and then just somebody complaining, and that's kind of the best that we'll actually be able to know. And then hopefully be able to do cool things like for the Christmas tree lighting, turn off these lights for a quick second, turn on the Christmas tree, for the people to be healthy.

It is a big energy savings. I don't know if the numbers can be, but it is a big savings. We can even go as far as to dim the lights after a certain time at night if we want to, so we can save people more energy that way. There's a lot we can do.

We call it multi-colors.

We can't do multi-colors. They exist. I think that's a good call. So yeah, it's been an interesting project. I've learned a lot. But I'm glad to see it's been wrapped up here. And we should have a few years without having to worry much about it. They come with a 10-year warranty anyway. So the first few years should be pretty uneventful.

Thank you, Jason. Library renovations.

Sarah.

Okay, so I don't know how many of you have seen the news today. Yay! No. We are now in a continuing resolution situation. So we are on pause until November. Sarah! Yay! It just gives us more time to plan. I'm going to maybe switch that one.

Yeah, it's not done.

I already met with Colin's office today. As soon as I read news this morning, I was like,

And I called Carol.

I can't say it on camera. Oh, right. They were just like, oh my gosh, what does this mean? Does it mean what I think it means? And she's like, yeah, yeah. We're waiting until nothing will happen until November. Yeah. So there we are. So I'm using this as a little, I pulled some stats that should hopefully make everyone feel really good about the library project. So... Year end, we do our stats by fiscal year for the State Library. In fiscal year 26, we had over 11,000 participants come to programs, which was up 6.4% from fiscal year 25. We had 77,852 visitors, also up more than 6%. In fiscal year 26, we collaborated with over 30 community organizations, presented over 753 programs, and issued new library cards to 800 people. All of that was lower than the previous year. We had done better the previous year. So I feel like we're like, OK, we're still holding out against the whole of the internet. That's what I think about. Choose your battles. So we did a garden party last week as part of our, it was our first ever donor recognition. And we gave a little preview of renderings. So I brought them tonight. And I wanted to also remind you what's going on in the building right now. In the past three months, May through July, we have had a... I had to write them out so I didn't forget anything. A failed boiler, a broken AC unit, a leak in the roof, leaking pipes in the restroom ceilings, a broken elevator, and a broken radiator in three months. That's why we're doing this, because I can't do it. We have to fundraise. We did a spring appeal for the first time ever because... I can't start our fiscal year with zero money in our building maintenance line using it all in July. So let's look at some renderings so we can dream for just like a minute. Okay, I know you all like props. So on this one, The green sections are renovations, and it doesn't include things like HVAC wiring, that kind of stuff, because then everything would be green. And then the additions, new construction is the orange-ish. That's that one. And those are here. You can pass it on. That's the three different floors. This is the new, people kept wanting to know what the lobby area looked like. You walk in this new entryway. So that is, this area right here is where the current circulation desk is. This is currently where large print is. Sorry, I didn't want to reprint. We're trying to save on color printing so you get what I have. This is the new entryway. We're still fine-tuning this. I don't like the railings. I have put my trustees in charge of coming to historic commissioners to speak with you all soon. Hopefully I will do that soon. And then this is a little bit of a view of here's the glassed-in kind of teen area to limit noise. Here's a new conference room over here that can be bookable. And then the new extended space out on the riverside. I also want to put a little balcony-like seating area out over the river. So all of these are still drafts.

We're still kind of fine-tuning. And how is your capital campaign going?

We have not technically announced it yet. We're in the exploratory phase, but we do have eight members of our exploratory campaign committee. We are meeting with GFA about weekly. But yeah, it'll be silent for a year. But we'll be trying to raise one million.

And what's the total project cost?

5.8.

So that's supposed to be you.

The library patrons are very happy. You'll see my favorite person is, oh no, my favorite person is in this one. Did you notice this? any questions for Sarah I have a question that is not about this but it's a I know that your programs were young

really young kids. Do you have any programs that are geared towards young children with special needs?

Not specifically. We do something for older. We get teens and kind of young adults that's called a friendship group. So we have most of the people that come, I mean, quite a few individuals that have Down syndrome. Yeah.

Specifically I was asking because my grandson is autistic and he loves books. I mean reading is his thing. But a lot of commotion is good for him. I mean we do have

Like moving group would not be a good fit. Today we had 70. But like one of the smaller story times on one of the days that there's like a Head Start program, that morning story time is smaller and there's like 15 people. Thank you, Sarah. THANK YOU FOR THAT INFORMATION. MY HUSBAND'S IN A MEETING.

HE'S UPSTAIRS, BUT, YOU KNOW, NOT PAYING ATTENTION.

THERE WE GO. ALL RIGHT. SO THE SURPLUS PROPERTIES, THE LAST MEETING, AS EVERYBODY KNOWS, I PRESENTED WHAT WE HAD FOR FORECLOSED PROPERTIES. BY SARAH. BY. Where that is right now, that list has gone to the realtor. She is helping me to find these people. And then I will get the letters out. And I'm hoping by next week that those letters will all be out. And while that's going on, legal is working on drawing up contract for the realtor and also while that's going on I am working on a binder of city owned property not tax acquired and I was hoping to have it ready for the next council meeting but I don't think I'm going to make it there's just so much information I don't think I'm going to have it ready in time But it is ongoing thing and I will get it just as soon as I can, hopefully September. But that's really where I'm at right now.

Any questions? Okay, and just a note on the tiers.

It's not in order or by priority. It could be the speed, like the street lights that came up fast that has to be acted on swiftly. It could be that there's already been authorization for it. So these move around a lot, just so everyone knows. So public comment and question process. This is a brand new one. This has not been discussed at the project management team yet. This really has been put on here because there's been some discussion internally about how to address the questions that are asked during the public comment period. or during other points when staff or counselors are approached with questions, how can we develop a process where it's not a real time back and forth at meetings, but also where questions can be answered and given publicly so that other people that might be having those questions will also have access to the answers. We do get some questions during public comment period. We get emailed questions individually through the city website currently that it probably would be good to post those answers. So people, I know that some, I've been emailed questions and my answers get posted on Facebook. So that's one way that my answers get out there. Thinking about having a repository so that we can track questions that are being asked and also provide answers to the best of our ability. Not meant to be a public interrogation for staff to have to constantly be answering kind of questions, but when questions are asked in a reasonable, respectful manner, So Amy has developed some framework around it. You said it all. We had this planned out really well. I just messed it up. Sorry.

That was perfect, Sarah. No, thank you. That was well said. So you're right. We have seen that residents do often raise really thoughtful questions, be it at meetings or through other channels. So some of them can be answered immediately. Some need follow-up and research so we're really looking at a way to put this put this together so you know like Sarah said we have a successful contact us form on the website so as those questions come in and the staff have a workflow to get them answered you know let's look at what they are and maybe We could identify opportunities. It could be a website story or even some form of a PSA or any kind of a frequently asked question. Because when it comes down to it, if one resident has the question, chances are others do as well. So we've started the conversation. It's in the planning stages. Really, the takeaway goals are that residents know where to ask questions. Staff know how to respond. Questions are tracked until they're resolved and nothing falls through the cracks. Thanks. Thanks, Mike. I'm with Mike.

This is a new information stream. I think we've done a lot better at transparency, these workshops, trying to get as much information as you possibly can. get out there but my first job out of college was as a staff assistant on Capitol Hill and just doing constituent services and drafting letters from questions from citizens and putting together and there was a few people in the office that worked on that so we're also trying to figure out how to as these come through how do we have a better process with providing timely information and we can't drop everything on a question. We have one citizen who's just pinging four different departments over the last two weeks with really complicated, long-form answers. We can't in every moment just drop everything we're doing, spend four or five hours trying to answer the question. But certain things are more immediate. And we need a tiering for, OK, let's filter everything that's come in. Here's what's immediate. Here's what's middle term. Here's what's more long term. Here's what you should go through the FOIA request process because it could take a lot of staff time to figure out that answer.

And letting people know where they can find their answers and when they're going to be answered.

Because sometimes we're not the authority to answer a question. Sometimes it's the state. Sometimes it's another organization. They think it's a city question, but it's not a city question.

Exactly.

Yeah, we kind of have a backlog that we're trying to get better at. I know in Congress, at least we have a backlog of the frequency of the questions. It's just, OK, pull it up in this file. This question's been asked before. Copy and paste it over. We've somewhat started to do that through the CRIM system, as I notice there's just such a huge uptick in council requests. And a lot of that's driven by citizen requests. So we track that. We catalog it. It takes a lot of my time, but at least I know there's not too many things going through the cracks. But we need to do the same thing as you citizens at Marsh that processes for this and places the information.

And provide information so that we are providing the information, that it's not being provided. Misinformation isn't being provided everywhere.

Yes, I'd say this is part of a huge communications upgrade that's in San Jose, which has been pretty dramatic in terms of all the projects that are being notified of, all the work stuff. And I know Amanda and Mike are in this, and Eric all the time, on the citizen response request with things, putting things out there. Maybe AT initiatives. all of the communications around all of their meetings, all of the additional press stories that kind of highlight Gershkin's results. Last weekend on the new tennis clinic that Robbie labeled us, it turned out to be great. All those things like library initiatives. I think one of our biggest things in the entire website now is the, what's the name of the event? Yodel. Yodel. Now you can go to one place and find out all of the events in the city. There's just so many awesome things going on.

So there'll be a lot more to come on that one.

More to communicate. More to communicate.

So if I could just add, I mean, a lot of the questions that come up are not simple. If you had the answer at all, you would have to go search it out and look for it. It's not something that can be answered on the fly. Again, like I said last time we just came up, Council can only speak, answer for themselves. You can't speak for the other seven of us. So I think that has some issues.

Yeah, and some of them will be a little bit more political. Why doesn't the city do X? Exactly. But why is the city doing Y? Well, that's a complicated question.

And that's not the answer that people want when they ask those questions. What they want to do is argue.

Or the answer might be, we may not do Y, or we may do this. There is the opportunities for it, and it's not, yes. But if you have a good process in place, this is how we respond to things. I think it will make that piece easier still here. I asked this question, and it wasn't going to get answered. This is the Ask Ellsworth email site, categorizing it, and just being more diligent about it. And if you have questions, then that's not a question you can answer.

Yeah, I think it needs to be noted that these are staff answering questions, not the policymakers answering the questions. We're just a resource. Okay, I'm going to move us along. Emergency management plan, Scott. They... are revising the emergency management plan framework by the end of August of this year. This will be a coordinated citywide project addressing emergency operations and departmental continuity and continuity of government and supporting annexes. So they're just looking at a comprehensive rewrite of the emergency operations plan. REVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT CONTINUITY OPERATIONS PLAN AND THE CITY CONTINUITY GOVERNMENT PLAN. THIS WILL BE DEVELOPED OVER THE NEXT COUPLE MONTHS. A WORKING GROUP WILL BE PUT TOGETHER, AND IT WILL BE UPDATED AS NEEDED OR AS IDENTIFIED. THAT'S ALL I HAVE FOR NOW. BRANCH LAKE DAM. NO. OH, OH.

Oh, sorry. You read her whole thing. A minute ago.

I'm coming for you.

I'm coming for you. A Doppler mask notification, Amy. This is in its testing phase. At this point, we have asked all of our employees to register and to... You didn't yet.

I know. I just said it.

Uh-huh. See, I'm not with my name. I know. Thank you. Oh, we're still there. So, we are, so, yes. So, it is, it's our city notification system. Okay? The vendor's called Doppler, right? We're not going to really use that term out in the public because the community doesn't care about the word Doppler. They just want to know what it is. It sounds like a weather. It sounds like a weather. Yeah. Yeah. So, right. Okay. Fair enough. So we are in the testing phases. I have asked our employees to sign up, and only 27 of you guys have done so so far, but I can name them. I can sign up.

I probably raised her hand. Pretty so adorable.

And the key is we really need addresses because we want to test part of it, right, Amanda? Like the whole geo-targeting aspect of the system. And I would love... to invite all of you folks as well to register, so I'll send the link. You may have seen it in the newsletter, but if not, it's okay, because I sent you guys a newsletter too, but it's already . I've completed my first training. I'm getting a second one scheduled, which we're going to get recorded. So really once we've got confidence that the system will do what we want it to do, then we'll start putting it out to our citizens. And I have a flyer that is going to go into our bills, the utility bills with the QR code. I was going to say, tax bill already went out. No, we really aimed it at utilities. So you know what? Yes, it's for public works, but it's also for other mass notifications. What is it used for? You know what? Thank you, Nancy. It could be for storm closures or holiday hours or information like the cooling centers or a water break or a road closure.

The user can select what they want, how much they want to receive, right?

No, that's like a second tier category. I think that's

So what it is, C, is you sign up, slip your cell phone number, and if you are able to give us a civic address, then we can go into the system And like, say, you know, we can just circle the road that needs to do a boil water order.

Like tomorrow, they're doing that covert work. Yes, that's right. So you can just circle Bayside Road, and then anybody on Bayside Road will get the text. Who's signed up and registered, they'll get that text. Or if it was something that the whole city, you just send it out to everybody. But you can do it area specific.

That's why we need the address.

Just for Ellsworth? Yes. So no sense in my signing up. Don't you want to know what's going on?

I think there could be a lot of just like full blast too. It's like, hey, we're having a special meeting. on some bond or thing that's important. I think that's where we're going to have to decide too. We want to focus on public works type things or closure. You're right.

We don't want to have gobbler fatigue. So one of my best friends lives in Brewer and they have a version of this. Now I have reached out to the Brewer City Manager, he hasn't, Eric hasn't called me back yet, but whatever. So we just, we want to make sure, so she gets way too many. So she's like, oh, here it is again. So we want to be careful not to have that fatigue of sending it out, you know, every time something leaks out.

But it'll prevent against anarchy.

This is so great because right now it does feel like Facebook's really the only place to go other than the website itself and it's a toxic place to be so I love that there's another way to get notifications from the city.

Also narrowing it to like emergency THINGS LIKE, I DON'T KNOW IF THERE WOULD BE WEATHER-RELATED ONES? ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, LIKE, SITTING HALL IS CLOSING AT NOON? YES, RIGHT. SO IF WE'RE CLOSING SCHOOL CLOSURES, THEY COULD OFFER THEM FOR IT?

I MEAN, I THINK THERE'S, I MEAN, ALL OF THOSE CAN HAPPEN. IT'S JUST UP TO US, UP TO AMY MOSTLY, TO SAY, OKAY, IS THIS ONE THAT WE WANT TO PUT OUT AS A MASS NOTIFICATION? LIKE, THE BOOK CLUBS MEETING IS LONGER THOUGHT. LIKE, WE DON'T NEED A MASS NOTIFICATION. If you're getting five notifications from the offer every day, you're going to be like.

That's the thing. It's part of a larger, like, obviously citizen communication. I mean, it means already putting these things out on Facebook and social media and our website and then paying it to news media. And it just seems like, oh, why didn't I hear about that? Why didn't I? Some people have this expectation, because I think of social media and other things, that everything that's happening in their lives should be served to them individually in the way that they want it. It's so hard. to reach all those channels. So we've got to try as much as we can, see what works. See what doesn't. I could see a system that is a little bit more like check it if you want to see book club this, that, the other thing.

Well, if you guys all just want to hand this around, scan it, and sign up.

And it won't replace all those other methods either because like for boil order notices, everybody has to get a notice. So like if it's in a certain neighborhood, the water group goes door to door with papers to their house. So that's not going to stop because of this, because not everybody's going to be signed up for it.

It's something Amanda and Mike worked really hard on in the public works team. Is that kind of notification, letting people know, hey, this thing's happening? Because if not, it's like, what in the world are they doing with my water? It's like, no, this is scheduled, or if unanticipated there's a leak here, this is the reason we're stopping your water for the whole system's purposes. And also, the Doppler is also for our off hours. Let's say something happens at 12 o'clock in the morning, we still have the option to call in here and get routed to Doppler 24-7. I already did it. To put it in service request. That gets routed if it's really important. They'll call Mike in the middle of the night, or they'll call the news department. to make sure those things are handled.

And there's another aspect with OpenGov, and as our asset management system gets more robust and we're using that on a more regular basis, there might be an opportunity, depending on how frequent we get calls for things that are broken or things that need to be fixed, to integrate that with our task management. I think that's a good place to stop.

Can I ask one last question before we stop on this one? Yeah. Amy, is there capacity for a person to put in two addresses if they've got a residence in an office?

Yes, there is. Yes, there is. Great. Thank you. Yeah.

So yeah, we'll stop there. There's some more. I want to get through Tier 2 and Tier 3. You might bring back. We'll probably have a little more wrap up. And there's stuff on the end. If you want to go to the last project slide, I don't know. The other, some things that, some moratoriums have just passed up. It's obviously nowhere near. The housing initiative, the four-bill property first refusal, we're getting to the end of the vote construction. I'm sure there's going to be things drop off. There's things that are in them. All of the fire hydrants are part of the OpenGov piece, the Complain Steering Committee. Some additional asset management pieces and digital modernizations are probably going to be on the docket. And I'm sure the city council, too, do have things that probably you might say, like, why isn't that on here? So the COO wasn't as high of a priority before. Now we prioritize that. How we prioritize it going forward, also looking towards that next council on, like, You know, how do we get kind of a solid plan? And when things come up, hey, we should do that. Or the cars thing that comes up, all right, what's the process we can have for the council so that we're going to move forward on a plan like this? Or if this steering committee, like, how do we decide that so it's not so much selfish that the city manager is trying to read the tea leaves of what to do? Right, right. I'd also know, we've just seen so much growth in this city, and I've often thought about, you know, Bangor, to hold that capacity. Ellsworth is shot to the front of the line as more growth than Bangor and Augusta, more population growth, more housing permits according to the state survey and housing permits, full current evidence. But we don't have, I think Bar Harbor has four planners. And these other places, they have the, so we're a pretty scrappy but awesome team here. doing an incredible amount of work for the city, and it's just such a pleasure to work with those folks. And we can feel kind of organizing more of the council and continuing our modes of transparency and modernization and just improving all the place and work, all these things really matter to have. might go unseen make sure your drinking water is okay and your row is being prepared and it is tough trade-offs and I think the state needs to do more too to make it to some of those sharing ideas that I have and you're all always welcome to attend our public management team and I'm sorry to Marina and Tabitha I noticed I just talked to these three the whole time you talked to