City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. do do Thank you. you

Oh, well. Burpees. Everybody knows burpees. Burpees.

I'm not doing burpees.

I'm not yet clear. No, I'm probably doing her.

Oh, yay. Good. I get to hear you.

I can't. I think it was over there.

And it's 5-6-29.

No. No.

Spiders over there.

I have six. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right. It's a giant tarantula in his words.

Wiggled and jiggled and giggled.

All right. I got six. Recording in progress. Regina is good. All right. I'm going to call the meeting of the Essex Junction City Council to order for Wednesday, June 10th. Any agenda additions or changes, Regina?

None for me.

Council? Nothing.

No.

I'm not seeing any. We do not need to approve the agenda. So we'll move on to public to be heard. So if there's anybody in the public who would like to be heard, come on up, sir. Come up to the microphone and state your name and have at it. Good evening.

My name is Dan Maxon. I live out at 54 Old Colchester Road. I have personnel issues I'd like to discuss with the council.

sorry personnel issues i would like to discuss with the council i guess could you be a little bit more specific um personnel stuff is is okay my interactions with certain members of city staff okay i would suggest that i don't know have you spoken to each other So this is our city manager. I would suggest that you have an offline conversation with the city manager. She is responsible directly for all of the staff.

I don't think that's quite enough, actually. I think it's important that I speak with you all.

Okay. Can you... I really hate the personality.

I don't want to speak names.

Yeah.

Right? So we should go into executive session.

You don't have the ability to do that without warning in executive session. So. Okay.

Do you want me to speak names?

No, I don't. I would like you to speak to the city manager.

Yeah, I think that's usually the first step.

Yeah, that's really the normal protocol.

Well, probably she's on the list.

Okay. Then why don't you reach out to me separately and we can have a discussion offline. And I'm happy to give you my contact info.

That's the way you're going to have it. That's the way it will be.

Anybody else in public? Marcus Serta.

Good to see you all again. I wanted to bring up a concern not just for myself but in speaking with neighbors especially recently. Welcome to the time of year when the cars and motorcycles are flying and what we're observing or not observing is more police presence. And I know and understand why the chief doesn't share operational details about how they conduct that work but I would say through My own personal observation, I'm not seeing that obvious police car that's usually down by the gardens. That used to be a regular spot with a regular presence, and we're not seeing that. And Monday, as I was standing outside at 2.30 in the afternoon with school guards on the corners, and the kid on his motorcycle had to be flying at about 60 miles per hour, if not more, flying down West Street. And you could hear it, because as soon as he came around the turn from that stop sign down there, came around that curve, and he saw nothing but straightaway, he gunned it and was flying through our neighborhood. We're just not seeing the presence. So the question I would like to ask is, what is their patrol plan? How many cars are really in the areas right now that need this kind of presence available? And again, I know in speaking with him myself, talking about some of the things that he was doing or thinking about, especially coming into the season, I guess I'm just not feeling it. I'm not feeling their presence, whether it's on Pearl Street. I do see them drive through, just not seeing them. waiting for these moments like I think we've all observed in the past. So I'd really like to see more around that. The other thing I wanted to share briefly is I just wanted to acknowledge the conversation that you all had during the retreat on economic development, recognizing the difficulty because talking about many different ways to particularly play this game and make this happen and whether it's consultants or hiring someone full time or having a committee and all of this. So totally get and understand the challenge. I think the concern that I have and will continue to express is Whatever we do needs to happen as quickly as possible because of the fact that we have to change that revenue stream or change that stream in such a way that we can lessen that burden on the residents. So however it happens, I hope we don't delay. I hope we move the process forward as quickly as possible. So anyway, thank you so much for the time. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Just to say that I will talk to the chief. There you go.

Thank you. All right, anybody else for public comment? You just state your name for the record.

So my name is Heidi Swevens, and I'm here to just talk about the Green Mountain Transit situation. I don't know if that's now or when it's actually on the agenda, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity.

You can feel free to tell us your comment now. It is later on the agenda as well, but some people don't really want to stick around for the whole meeting, so you can certainly feel free to tell us now. And you can stick around if you want, but you also are free to...

Yeah, mostly I was going to show up and just be present and listen, because that change in the bus schedule impacts me in a very day-to-day kind of way. So I am a disabled non-driver, and I live in Essex Junction. And the office that I'm subletting currently is on Carmichael Street in Essex Junction. I started a very early startup consulting and creativity business after the place I worked for over 13 years closed last summer. So I realized from the news articles I've been reading that there's been opportunity for a public comment. But in all transparency, I've just been trying to stay afloat. So I know that there's seems like there's not enough to go around but I think public transportation fills a gap for many individuals which then translates into families and communities and the center is so close and yet so far if you don't drive so when I read there's 78 I think it's called unique riders that use the paratransit service to me I think it's important to say that they're people I've ridden vans with people who are don't know what they look like but they seem like they're older adults and there's a lot of housing out in that area that is I think servicing and marketing to seniors and this is a guess and maybe my own bias but I think if you could drive in Vermont you would and so there's things like medical places and other sort of necessities and then there's things that make you a whole person like the movie theater the bank and my little office that has helped me through a big transition and will be disruptive if not expensive for me to try to change i know i'm one person but it felt really important for me to speak because feeling like i don't have a voice is a not a community i want to be part of so thank you thank you i just wanted to also note that uh clayton who is the general manager for gmt is online so he is hearing you as well okay thank you thank you can i just take a second to point out carmichael street is essex town so i think it makes you more than qualified to go speak at a select board meeting as well Great, and the root is like a both and. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But just so you can show up there and say, I'm a business owner on Carmichael Street.

Or email them. Yeah.

Because they're making the same sorts of, having the same sorts of meetings and making the same sorts of decisions that we are about this route.

Is that easily findable online, that contact? Yes, of course. Great, thank you.

Sure.

Any, Bridget? Yeah.

Okay, I can always think of more things for us to do. Marcus, ditto. Pleasant Street, you've heard from us ad infinitum about the traffic on Pleasant Street. It is horrendous this year. And it's not only speeding, it's also, and I don't know what to call this because I'm 80. But, you know, the backfiring cars on purpose. Help me out. Thank you. It's just awful. And people are now out in the streets. It's mainly when school gets out, to be very honest with you. And they're out there now on Pleasant Street slowing, you know, trying to get people to slow down, saying no when they do. We can't do this forever. I mean, it feels like it's a straightaway. We've tried to speed, I don't know what the heck they were, and that didn't work. That was like a takeoff for people who really wanted to launch. And then we had, then Rick just, decided we would strike the road, maybe that would help. No, no. And so we got to do something. I don't know what, but traffic calming here is important and it's becoming more and more important every day. So however we do it, however we approach it, I feel like we got to make a real concerted effort to say we want this place to be safe for everyone, particularly when you're a pedestrian. We don't want to stop pedestrianism in the city. We all walk some places. And it would be horrible if we couldn't do that anymore. And so I really love the walkability. And I think we need to preserve it. And I would like to see us work on that somehow. And I'm not sure where it would be on the priority list. But I think it's important. Two, I brought this up before. And I think it would be really fun and important to do a committee A meeting of committees. Committee on the committee. Yeah, like a speed dating thing where all the committee members got together. You've got the most involved people in the city here, but you know what I mean, on the committees. But we're not talking to each other. I don't know how recreation overlaps with tree, with bike walk, with capital. I don't know that, but it would be fascinating to have this group together in a well-established orchestrated event and have us talking to each other about how we can do things together, how we can do more together. And that's two. I had three and, mm-hmm, gone.

I will note your motion to lead up that committee.

I would do it. I know you will.

It's the thing I've heard the most this spring already. The only feedback I've gotten is from tuned cars, about tuned cars at this point. It's shocking how much. I don't understand the police chief's hesitancy to enforce what we've already got in the books for it. Let's find out.

Any other public comments? Risa.

Thank you. Just to jump in with Bridget and Marcus, it's not like it's quiet here in countryside. When the motorcycles and the cars go through and two in the morning, it's like, oh my goodness. And they go through the whole circuit. So they're up and down each street. So I'm hearing from in front of my house, behind my house. Again, I realize there's a lot going on, but The noise is pretty bad everywhere. Second, very quickly, there's been so much discussion online in the various Facebook groups about the reappraisal. And I think that an important piece has been missed. I'm not hearing when I talk to people, when people have talked to me, I'm not hearing as much the concern about, oh, my God, my taxes are going to double. What I'm hearing is the angst with how wrong the appraisals are. I have a you know, someone will say I have a three bedroom home. They told me I had five bedrooms. They said that my house, which is a cave, is a colonial. It's that sort of stuff that has people angrier than what their thinking is going to happen with the taxes. If they felt their appraisals were accurate, and yes, they know that they can go and speak with the appraisal company, but when they've gotten things wrong for this, when they've had internal visits to the house, it just causes all sorts of all sorts of angst. People seem to be anyway, the ones who have been talking to me, understand that as the grand list increases, the tax decreases. They get that. They understand that their taxes, individual taxes, may go up or down a little bit. It's not going to be gigantic based on the appraisal. It's that the appraisals are so wrong. So, you know, something to keep in mind as the other thing is there isn't anywhere, anything that explains it. So if they get your number of bathrooms wrong, if they forget this, if they think there's no way of getting an idea of where something should be to check them. So as it seems, it's going to be something that happens more often rather than less often, unless the legislature changes things again. Just something to keep in mind as the next appraisal goes forward. When I think of how many people I know who have to have meetings because things are so wrong, it's just not a good look. Thank you.

Any other public comments? Not seeing any. We'll move on to business item 5A. So this is a slew of interviews. So just a couple of general announcements for this section. So we have a lot of interviews tonight, so we're going to kind of try to keep it on track here. We do have an executive session scheduled at the end of this meeting, so we are hoping to make appointments at the end of the meeting, and then staff will be in touch with everyone. There are some that we might not be able to appoint tonight, and I think that's rec. We might not. So I'm not sure entirely who we are or not, so you'll hear from staff either way. If it's not this week, it'll be hopefully by the end of the next meeting, which is the end of the month, so beginning of July. We have to reappoint by July 1st. So that's the first announcement. Second, we do have everyone's applications. So I would ask that when, I'm gonna go by the list that's in our packet and just call the names as they're in order. When you come up to the microphone, if you can just tell us general, if there's something on the application or nothing, There was a question that wasn't addressed on the application that you would like us to know the answer to, so any information that's just not incorporated. And then we also always ask the same question. If you're not appointed for this particular committee that you've applied for, would you be interested in sitting on another committee in the city? And if so, what committee would that be? I think that's my general announcement. So with that being said, we are going to start at the top, and hopefully I will not totally screw this up again this week. So we're going to start with Bike Walk, and I have Jessica Huntley, who is on Zoom with us.

Hi, everyone.

If you want me to repeat them, I'm happy to do that. Yeah, please, I'd appreciate that. You filled out an application for joining the bike walk and we have that application. Is there anything that wasn't asked on the application that you'd like us to know? To sit on this committee.

Yeah, honestly, I filled it out quite a while ago, so I'm not sure what was on it. But briefly, I could mention I'm interested in joining the bike walk committee because I am a walker in town and I ride my bike and I'm really interested in getting involved. So that's really why I put my name out there.

Other general question is if you're not chosen to sit on the bike walk advisory committee, is there any other committees in the city that you would be interested in sitting on?

I don't know all of the different types of committees, but I depending on what it is. Yeah, I would be interested in being involved in some way if I don't get this one.

Is there any questions? Council.

Sorry, yeah, we can't see you, Brian.

I can see him on my or you can go ahead, Brian.

You mentioned that you were a teacher, Ms. Hundley. Where do you teach?

Yeah, I teach at Milton Middle School. I'm here right now. Actually, we have an event tonight that I snuck away from. Very nice.

What's your overall impression of how the city's doing with bike walk infrastructure? I mean, I don't know how long you've been here and how much change you've seen or not. I'm just curious of your overall impression.

Yeah. I've lived here for about four years. I live on Iroquois Ave. I have a dog and I walk every day, twice a day, all over the place. I really appreciate the walk infrastructure. The sidewalks are good. I really like that some of the businesses are dog friendly or have like a window that we can go to. We heard a lot about the public comments about cars and speeding cars and the likes. I think some extra like crosswalks or just like general signs that there are walkers would be helpful to alert more drivers. Overall, I feel safe walking. Biking is a little bit of a different ballgame because I think that we are missing bike lanes and just bike signs to, again, alert traffic that you're sharing the road.

Do you have any questions for us?

No. It's my first city council meeting.

Load of fun.

Oh, yeah.

I can tell already.

School events, city council.

Yeah, board meetings, they seem to be a little similar.

Thanks for joining us, and have fun at your events tonight. Great, thanks so much for your time. Take care. Bye-bye. John O'Brien.

How's it going, everybody? It's going, you. All right.

You need the questions again? No, I think I'm good.

I mean, I was lucky enough to join Bike Walk about three years ago, right when Chris joined community development. So I feel like it's a really exciting time for our city to be taking on some pretty big, big projects and really directing. our time towards addressing needs like traffic concerns, speeding, and maybe taking on some unpopular considerations in order to address those needs. Because this is an issue that we're hearing in our meetings. It's an issue you're hearing Here, especially at this time of year. So, you know, I want to join and really push as much pedestrian and bike-friendly infrastructure as possible, possibly at the expense of, you know, motorist convenience. So that's where I'm at with that. It's a fun community to be a part of. And I will also say while I'm here that community development has a traffic calming section on the website, which directs folks to go to see ClickFix to really highlight those issues and those concerns that they have in their neighborhoods.

And it's important to do that so that we can have these things recorded so that when we go back to the police department, we can say six people reported this in this month. And I know people don't like snitching on their neighbors. It's kind of how it's perceived. Right. But it's sort of like, please do, please just go do something.

Yeah.

Data is important. Second question. If you can't, if you're not on bike walk, any other committees.

Yeah, I mean, I'd love to join some of those really glamorous ones, planning commission, DRB, you know.

Council.

Yeah, all these. But yeah, I'd love to help out in any way that I could there.

I appreciate that. Any questions for John? No. Not seeing any.

Appreciate your work.

Thank you, John. All right, I think that's it for Bike Walk. Triple checking. Yes. All right. Capital program review. Mr. Serda.

I have a prepared statement. Just kidding. I know you well enough that you were.

I don't know. I mean, I could have.

Just wanted to see your face for a moment there. Yeah. No, look, it's real simple. I think you all know me pretty well. I've been around here for a little bit. But yes, absolutely, I would participate. And I've already communicated with a couple of you, as well as Regina. Beyond the capital review, I would be willing to also put my name in the hat for DRB. depending on what happens with economic development. I anticipate some potential later participation there as well. So, yeah, absolutely open to that.

Questions for Marcus?

You said the magic word, DRB.

I don't understand why it's such a scary place.

It's not. Brian, do you have a question? No. I'm all good.

Okay. So disappointing.

Anybody? Stephanie? No. Hit him with a hard one.

I was really hoping somebody would be like me.

Well, I could ask him on the spot to re-grade everything in under two minutes. It's on the capital list.

Do you have any projects that are on the capital list that you would like to see prioritized?

Look, I think that the Capital Committee has done a very good job up to this particular point of really going through that particular work and really setting the stage for this. I think what I saw over this last year was some adjustment, and I think the Capital Review Committee went through some changes because, obviously, depending on revenues and how things are kind of playing out, projects, whether delayed or, you know, again, there's money available, yada, yada. You have to go through that, and the Capital Review Committee, I think, did well. decent job with that so it's a matter of joining that particular committee for myself comes down to really two big things again I want to sustain the process moving forward and then the other is look this is the stuff that really evolves the city and make sure that our infrastructure stays in place and we continue to provide these regular day-to-day services and so it's such an important and vital part of the process that I figured if I can't sit over there sitting on that particular committee talking about the projects that do make a difference day to day, it's going to be a good place for me. But again, as I said, I'm more than open in any way, shape, or form to support my community, if that's on this committee or something else.

Thank you. Thank you. OK. All good? Feel free to hang out.

I'm going to go make a video.

Bye.

Have a nice night. Now what?

Thomas Cohen.

It's a hard act to follow. Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. It's okay. Freshly. You got this.

Freshly. How's it going?

It's going great.

Do you want the questions again?

It's all right. Yeah, I think I tried to be comprehensive in my application. I mean, basically, after serving on the governance committee, which I very much enjoyed, just looking for another opportunity to serve my community, the capital review committee appealed to me because of the impact that capital projects have and how it can spur private investment, how it can transform parts of the city, how it can really upgrade our infrastructure. It has a big impact on people's daily lives. And from my day-to-day work, where I support state and local governments across the country in thinking through how to better measure and implement services, I thought I could leverage some of those analytical skills to think through the different trade-offs, the opportunity costs as you weigh different projects. Obviously, if you could do everything all at once, it would be done, but that's not possible, and there are resource constraints there. So I would love to be part of those deliberations and to work collaboratively with the committee, think through those trade-offs, and offer my new and unique perspective to that mix.

The question about other committees.

If there are other committees that I would be willing to serve, depending on what the committee was.

Questions?

No.

Right. You're off the hook. Thank you for coming back. Thanks for coming back for more. Appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Kevin.

Hey. Kevin Collins. And I think Amber and I got on shortly after the 2014 bond vote, maybe? So we've been there a while.

I don't know that I've been there that long.

I thought it was like 15 or 16. Maybe not. Anyways. So I really enjoy the committee. I learned a lot from our staff and from other members of the committee. And my passion is looking out for the current infrastructure of our community. There's always a big focus on new projects. Everybody gets excited when they have new ideas and new projects come. But I want to make sure that we take care of our current infrastructure. And I'm also a big sidewalk advocate. And to go along with the speeding car discussion, what I've observed in neighborhoods as I bike around the community is as we change our housing model and we look into shared homes and accessory apartments, This time of year, cars tend to overflow into the streets and that's another reason to look out for our sidewalks. What I've observed is parents pushing strollers in the road because the sidewalks are too rough and when they're pushing strollers around cars that are in the streets, it really starts to narrow the streets and traffic is is dangerous for that. So that's another reason that I think we should keep a focus on our existing sidewalks. Other than that, I thought about other committees. I haven't really picked one. Due to time, I've never signed up for any except the capital committee. If something came up, the Economic Development Committee sounds kind of interesting to me, so I would consider that. Planning Commission, DRV are always exciting, but I'm not able to commit the time with the Capital Committee.

Questions for the President?

Appreciate the sidewalk parking issue. A lot of neighborhoods don't have sidewalks. So this time of year gets really tough in some neighborhoods that are street parking is open. So people are walking down the middle of the street because that's where they walk because there's nowhere else to walk. And so that's definitely noticed in our quadrant. Spring is tough getting everybody to slow down and remember. So yeah, good point. Capital committee-wise, no other questions. Appreciate the work you've done so far and been doing. Thank you.

Any other questions? Any particular accomplishments from your time on the committee you'd like to highlight?

So it goes back to the current infrastructure, I think, and maybe my time is wrong, but as we looked at that bond vote for those five projects in 2014, the goal was to stay away from bonding. As you're paying interest on bonds, you're not putting that money into the community, you're paying it to the bond bank. And I like the scoring project that came up. And a few years ago, we needed to upgrade the matrix to include a service life. So we could, sometimes we push things off a little bit because we think it can go a little further before we spend the money. But we wanted to make sure that we never got to a point where everything was coming due at the same time. So we assigned extra points for service life and we tried to estimate when those projects would really have to be done. And that way, the existing infrastructure didn't get compromised for new projects. So I'd like to kind of stay on track with that and try to avoid bonding and see if we can keep up with the current list. I know the list is never going to end. It's never going to get shorter. But if we could stay with it without bonding, that would be a goal that I think we should pursue.

thank you i would have thought it would have been the 25 lot funds but yeah do you think that's enough for sidewalks right now I'll speak for it now.

Not according to the CCRPC. Is that right? Well, this is a lot. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. It's a very small patch of sidewalk. We started out at 20%. And then during that meeting, we got it up to 25% based on the CCRPC study. But it's still the time when you do the math is out so far that

that was just a snapshot in time when they do it again there's going to be more failing sidewalks so that's another list that's never going to end that's that's why the conversation we've played around with here toyed with and kind of danced around is the what you just brought up bonding has been avoided but i don't know how much longer um because some of this might not just just waiting for some of this to be done 15 years for some of the sidewalks for instance like i might be exaggerating a little bit but i don't think so no um that are already so yeah interesting yeah Very nerdy and very interesting.

Thank you. Any other questions for Kevin? Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, Kevin.

I don't see Mike Lee. So maybe he'll join us later, but we will move on to Susan. Is it Swagger? Yeah.

OK.

Cool. Thanks for joining us.

Hi. And it has been a minute, so I don't remember exactly what I put in my application. What I'm going to say is that I have a broad general interest in infrastructure, and I'm interested in learning more and contributing to my community. I also have a great deal of experience sitting on committees at work, and I am an active contributor. So I can give you that background. I don't think I included that in my application. I am interested in infrastructure generally. So if I'm not selected to serve on this committee, I am interested in serving on another committee. I was most interested in planning of the ones that you listed. But I'm also interested in energy. And I saw you had a committee for sewers. And I have a lot of experience with arranging the toilets at Essex Pride. I sit on the board. So I am also interested in water and infrastructure in that way. Thank you.

OK. Any questions for Susan?

Did you get any positive feedback on the bathroom arranging at Pride this year?

So I have never gotten any negative feedback on that. That's a win.

That's feedback.

That's a win.

That is a win.

The most important piece of the whole function, too. It is. It is fundamental. For sure.

Which is why sewers are so important.

Exactly. Exactly. They're not pretty, but they are important.

They matter deeply for public health and every other reason.

Yes. Absolutely. Okay. Any questions? You guys are getting off easy tonight. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thanks. Appreciate it.

All right, none for moderator, none for planning commission, none for PCAB, moving to rec advisory. Everyone confirm that I'm on track here? You are on track. Bridget.

Okay.

I need a second set of eyes, sometimes three at this point. It's coming.

I'm Bridget Meyer. I serve on the Recreation Advisory Council. I'm trying to think. I think it's my 15th or 17th year on that council. We took a hiatus there for a while during merger, but back on now. And I'm the chair of that committee. I don't know what I said on my application, but I love... I love, I love that committee. I think that EJRP is a real asset, a huge asset in this community. People move here for it. Other community, from surrounding communities are incredibly envious of what we have. And I can't, I don't hold the rec council, you know, It's the staff. It's the staff. It's admin. It's everything that happens there. So this interview kind of took me by surprise because we've only been meeting for a year.

Yeah.

And we've taken that year to learn about the program staff. We changed directors. A lot's happened. But we're just getting going. In terms of rec advisory, we're just getting going. Probably everybody has some goals. I have a couple. One is to do a strategic plan, which we haven't done since 2006 or something. I don't know. and also to build a good volunteer committee there, mainly comprised of, well, community members, great, but high schoolers is what I'm hoping to do. I don't intend to stay there on that committee forever. I thought I was on for two years and then I would leave, but I'll serve my next two years nicely. And would I serve on another? Sure. I mean, I'm not qualified to serve on some of these.

Some of the committee on the committee.

Yeah. I'll do the committee on the committee on the committee. Economic development.

It's only two times. We can't do a third time. The committee on the committee. You've all been on the banner.

But yeah, I'd definitely be willing to serve on other committees, as long as they're within my area of interest and expertise. I mean, I'm happy to do that. But I really love REC Advisory. It's great.

Bridget, you did the rec advisory when it was under the school district. I did. And then it disappeared for a while, and then it's surfaced here outside now that EJRP has been separated. That's right. I'm just wondering if you can speak to the difference of what you see now to yesteryear. Do you feel like it's the same, or do you feel like it's different?

Oh, no, it's very different. Very different, yeah. So when I started in 2001, I think I first joined that committee, it was relatively informal. REC wasn't what it is now. The programming wasn't as extensive. We didn't have much staff. So it was quite different. We did have a representative from the schools always met with us. And that was great. But we had a very easygoing relationship with the schools. We used the schools for after school. Our relationship was circular. It was really great. This time around, there's much more programming. There's much more staff. And we still obviously rent the school spaces. And I think the relationship is good. But it is quite, what would I say about this? A little more formal? That's, I think, how I would say it. Although our meetings are very informal and friendly and funny and all that stuff. But it is a little more formal. It felt a little more loose back in the day. But I think it tightened up when when I wasn't on it. You know what I mean? We had years there where we just didn't have a rec advisory council for all those years. So a lot happened. And I think now it's amazing. I mean, we meet every other month. It took us this whole time to get to know the programming and the staff. That says something about what's happened there.

I appreciate that insight. Thanks.

Yeah.

Sure. Can I ask one follow up question? Do you think meeting every other month is sufficient?

Yeah, I do. I actually do. I think it's actually worked out well. I actually think with a committee like this that it works out really well because sometimes meeting once a month is hard for people, especially people with kids. I think every other month is great. Our meetings are very organized. They move right along and I think we generally meet for an hour and a half or so. And again, I want to say that we're moving into a new thing here. We're moving into us being more involved. It's been basically informational coming to us, and now it will be more what do we think? What do we think should be happening, if it can? I mean, some things are impossible, but, you know, we want more land. Where are we going to get that? Don't we all?

I've got ideas.

Oh, I do too. And you can come back to Rec Advisory, Raj. But yeah, I think that meeting every other month is fine. It would be interesting to ask Mark that question. But I think, I can't speak for him, but I think it's okay with him too, especially in the summer where everything, it is crazy over there.

Absolutely.

And I think the... one of the last things they would want is for us to be continually meeting while they have hundreds of kids and tons of programs going on. So no, I think it's fine. I think it works out really well. Yeah. Thank you. Anything else?

Brian? You're good. Thanks, Bridget. Thanks, Bridget. All righty. Yep. Rachel.

There you go.

That works.

Hi, I'm Rachel Hambon.

You could say ditto too.

Ditto to several people. I also put some thought into my reapplication. I think one thing that I failed to mention in my reapplication that was in my initial application is that I professionally work in a form of recreation and event planning so it is like that is why I chose this committee because I felt like I had something to bring to the table in addition to being just an exceptionally heavy daily user of EJRP parts but also programming I have kids that went to the preschool and are now in rec kids and will be at camp all summer long. My dog's at the dog park. We're constantly interfacing with rec. And just to extend on what Bridget was saying about the information that we've been taking in, we have not even been able to get to all of the different parks in the city because of how much we have been learning about each kind of different aspect of the work. So it, to this point, feels like a year would be an extremely incomplete amount of service. So that is my kind of additional comment to my application.

Thank you very much for that insight.

committees, other committees?

I certainly am less qualified with my kind of rec background in serving on a different committee. I think I would be, again, open to, you know, if there were committees that did not have anyone kind of raising their hand, I would be interested in looking, but I have nothing that I'm, like, dying to do. And I do love this committee.

Sounds like co-chair for the Committee on Committee.

You know, Bridget and I would vibe. We'd do that.

Planning commission, done. Questions for Rachel?

No. No?

Man, you guys are really getting off easy. Patrick, maybe you'll get off even easier. I don't know. Oh, that's good.

You got it? Thank you.

Good to see you. Good to see you.

Hi. So my name is Pat Lynch. I've been on the REC Advisory Committee now for the last 14 months. Just to pick up kind of where Rachel and Bridget said, it's been really fascinating the last 14 months i think for all of us to learn really the size and scope and depth of what ejrp does for people i don't think anyone even really quite understands the surface level of what's going on there and the amazing things that they're able to touch on and i think we're at a really exciting place in our committee i think we're all armed with this information uh you know we've got new leadership over there to say nothing the old leadership brad was fantastic and mark is equally fantastic and super receptive and everyone is really I think engaged in the idea of what more can we do you know and things like that you know and you know Bridget mentioned the you know sort of scheming a strategic plan and you know what kind of things can we do with you know everyone thinks the parks in city they think Maple Street obviously but you know I live on South Street and so I spent a lot of time at Cascade you know I'm adjacent to Stevens Park as well which is a space I think Is there something there, but we can't quite figure it out what it is exactly. But I think, you know, but I think, you know, we'd love to, you know, I'd love to make it more inviting, but you got to find a reason to invite somebody, you know, and I think that's, you know, kind of maybe where that park is at. But, you know, I try to, you know, kind of be an advocate for those places as well. But, yeah, I mean, and just in general, I'm a big fan. believer in the department. I think EGRP is probably the city's most important department when it comes to how we are viewed outwardly in terms of how we are viewed as a community by other communities and even internally how we view ourselves as a community. In terms of other committees, I mean, yeah, I'm always open to listen. don't necessarily have a background in a lot of these other things, but I'm kind of a fake it till you make it kind of guy. So I'm a quick study, and maybe I know something about things. We'll see.

That's what we all do.

Sure, that's what you want to say when you're applying.

Very gendered answers, you guys. You two said you're not qualified. He said he'd step up. Just a little lesson.

Okay.

Any questions for Pat? He's hoping no. Oh, no. Keep up the tracker. None.

The rest of the interviews will be conducted by Regina tonight. Right.

I'm not hearing it. I'm good. Okay. We're good. All right.

Not necessarily bad.

I'll be over there for another couple minutes. Okay. All right.

I'll call you back up.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Drew. Hi, how's it going?

I'm Drew. I gotta be completely honest. I have no idea what I don't remember what I wrote. Yeah, I have a background in outdoor education management with a degree from Linden, which is what brought me to the state of Vermont. I've just spent the last few years with a nonprofit volunteering and helping run programming for their summer camp. Unfortunately, the camp had to close due to the place we were renting sold. But I have a lot of experience in that regard and would love to find a way to give back and see it be rooted closer to home kind of thing. And yeah, for other committees, I'm pretty much open to anything. I mean, my background is more in outdoor programming. kind of thing. But I do work a day job in like sales for building companies. So I wouldn't be opposed to other planning committees kind of thing.

I don't think so. I think You know, just realizing this committee's been barely there a year, it's kind of hard to ask, so what have you done? As we've heard, it's a lot of work. I'm Brandon. That's right.

Yeah, sorry. Actually, Bethany made a post on social media, and that's what kind of drew me in.

All right. Yay.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. That's fantastic. I appreciate you stepping up. Thanks for stepping up. All right, moving on to Tree Advisory. Amanda, join us at the mud. Nick loves trees.

Hi, I'm Amanda Borak. I really love trees. I don't know if I put that exact sentence on my application. Yeah, I think I pretty much spoke about just my passion for gardening and the environment. And I'm, like many other people here, a daily sidewalk user. And so my... Hours and hours of walking around all of the streets of Essex Junction. I appreciate how walkable and our town is. I wouldn't say it's fully bikeable. Just put that asterisk there. I don't feel that safe. But walking around, one of my favorite things is looking at seeing what trees have been planted. And I'm always like staring at birds and trees and plants. So I figured this is my time.

This is my time to shine.

That's how I connect with my community. I live over on Summit Street, and the kids are up and down the street every day. So I'm like, my garden is for you. Ask me questions. So I've been trying to fill my plot with as many trees as possible, but it's very small. So I've run out of room. So the next step is the entire city, obviously. There you go. I'd be very interested in, you know, seeing how many additional connections we can make with potentially like nurseries locally or getting sponsored trees. I don't know. Just kind of thinking in that side of things. I know we work with like UVM and all the tree wardens and things like that. I don't have professional tree experience, but I have unofficial. I like to read a lot. Tree love. It's just every, you know, I saw the sign for the Tree Advisory Committee like a few years ago.

I was like, that's a thing? Oh my god.

So I started looking into it and I got really excited. I was like, wait, it's built for me. So it took me a little bit of time to figure things out. But I think that could be, it's just very much right in the passion, what I like. And I feel like I'm, again, that's how I connect with the community. work, I like to keep work as work. And this is very different from that. I don't necessarily want to do anything with finances or other planning. But I know with all of the development that's going on with this town, like it's great for us financially, it brings in tourism makes living here great, all this building and new housing and new businesses. But as that's happening, you know, I'm just want to make sure we're not cutting down every tree. So like, one of the things I'm always thinking about as I walk past a new apartment building is like, every apartment building should have to plant 40 trees. Just put it in the building requirements. And I don't know. This is not something I'm familiar with of how involved this council would be with construction and things. But I feel like if you're building a multimillion dollar building, I feel like you could shell out a couple hundred bucks on that.

Like, it's a very small ask.

So I'd definitely be curious of exploring avenues we maybe haven't explored yet and kind of finding out what we've done in the past and what we could add in. So... Yeah. So on that note, not really that interested in other committees. However, I would be interested in rec if there was a need, but there were a lot of people interviewing, so I don't think I need to fill that gap there. Thank you. Keeping it full passion. Yeah. I like trees. I don't know if I said that.

I don't know if we can argue with tree love. I like trees.

I'm going to introduce you to Nick Meyer. He's also interviewing, but he's been sitting for at least a couple years on this committee.

Yeah, a few.

He's a little familiar with trees.

And I will tell you, they came through my neighborhood and planted trees this year. So I've lived there 20 plus years and have gone through the series of The trees are old, and they fall down, and they cut down, and they have to be taken down preemptively before they fall. And so we were losing. And this year, we picked up eight, Nick? There's four in the neighborhood houses, and then maybe five down at Hiawatha's, maybe nine. But it's changed the whole drive into that neighborhood.

Yeah. It keeps it feeling Vermont-y.

Yeah. So it's just a nice piece that I've noticed on my day-to-day when I come in. So if you love trees, I think that's a great place for you to be.

But I could do your finances, too. Well, yeah.

Don't say that one. Too loud.

I'll spend all your money on trees.

I think that's on public record now, right?

Questions for Amanda? Nothing. No. Look at you, you got affies too. Thank you. Thank you. Luca. Hello. Hi.

Yeah, no problem. I want to join the tree committee because I've lived in Essex Junction for about 12 years. I grew up here. I went to the local high school. I did forestry and horticulture. I graduated from that course and I've continued my, like, I'm working as an arborist with Teachers Tree Service. I've been there for like two years and And trees are like my day-to-day job, but they're also just like everything in my life, really. I do everything outdoors. Like I ski, I snowboard, I mountain bike. I stay on the lake all the time. And I feel like my background with living in Essex and like working with trees every day could really benefit this committee. I don't know what else I wrote on my application. Yeah. Yeah.

committee is there any other committees that you'd be interested in and sitting on um i'm good with anything really i just i would like to help out in any way possible wherever so the tree passion tonight is yeah yeah great thank you any questions for luca

I don't have anything. I feel like everybody's joy for trees is coming through well in the review process. So how do you follow that up? It's one of the best interview nights we've had. It's nice to see so much passion come through.

I think it's passion for everything, just to be clear.

That was going to be my next statement, was not only for trees, but for everyone that has come forward. It's not an easy task. It's a lot of time commitment to want to help your community. So we're incredibly fortunate to have such a great pool of applicants for so many committees.

Yeah. And also, just to add on to that, we're so lucky to have so many new faces who want to contribute and get involved. Yeah. Exactly. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. So back to you, Luca.

Thank you very much for coming. Do you have any questions for us?

No, I don't. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Meyer, you are the last one, so bring it home. I don't know if you were here for the two questions when I gave them out.

So the two questions were...

No, I don't think I'm willing to be in another committee right now. But I will be working with planning and review board on trees. And this takes a lot of time being on a tree committee. So I've been doing it since we started this committee in 2013. And I've been the committee chair ever since. So I am looking for young blood. here and I'm looking at there of Luca and I've met with Luca he's already participated in a tree planting that we did so I'm thrilled to do that because I I love doing the work because we do so much work directly in the field and meetings are just a small part but I think someone else could handle it better and I've tried with our core group of people to say come on won't you be the

Chair?

No, you do such a good job. Well, I don't think that's always the case. They just don't want to be the chair. Yeah, I feel that. So trying to create a sustainable committee with younger people coming on, it would be really thrilling as we have a fairly aged group. And I don't know what I said on the application, but Um things I'd like to do is to communicate better with residents when we're knocking on doors and doing things like that to reach people. Um I would like to as I said work further with um um the planning commission and review board about future projects. We can point to what's happened on Park Street is not a good example of creating trees along the roads. I think that I would like to try and create a balance with sidewalks and buffers with the push for more bike lanes because we have limited real estate there with a lot of things we want to do with it and i'm hoping the opportunities in the transit oriented design with the two shopping centers we might be able to do something better than what's happened there so you know lots of things um i want to see succeed and continue so

I just, no, not a question for Nick. I just wanted to commend the committee on the efficiency in which the doors were knocked, the stakes were planted, dig safe showed up, the trees arrived, the water bags were on, and they're flourishing. I see it as I drive around the city, you see a tree pop up here and a tree pop up there, and then you see the public works out with the water truck. But to watch it every day go through, I mean, it was amazing. It was efficient. It was fantastic. And all of the neighbors that I've talked to are absolutely thrilled to have a tree.

A big shout out to Public Works, too. I mean, we do a lot for them, but they really reciprocate by allowing us to do the planting. We're up to almost 450 trees that we planted in that time frame. So, yeah, we're starting to make an impact, I think.

I appreciate it, Nick, pretty much. Brian? Thanks, Nick. Okay.

Thank you.

Thanks, Nick.

Thank you again, everyone, for coming. Feel free to stay. it's uh we're gonna move exciting it is riveting riveting riveting we are now going to move to 5b which is discussion and consideration of green mountain transit's number four bus service and regina you're gonna start this one i know clayton's online yep um okay

So we have talked about this a few times, the situation with the number four bus and the challenge of funding that and trying to see if there is any way of potentially keeping it going in a reduced form or some other fashion. So mostly what you've got in the memo here is a little bit of a recap of why the service is slated to be reduced or eliminated, the level of ridership, and then an update as to where we are at. So you can see on the second page there that the budget at this stage of the game of keeping the number four at its existing service level, which is about 50 runs per week, is $112,000 funding gap. At a reduced service level of about 26 runs per week, the funding gap is 58,000. And the final decision on this needs to be made by Greenland Transit Board at their next meeting on June 16th. So I put this on the agenda because I think it was important to sort of have this conversation. It's a little bit of an interesting conversation for the council because we are not necessarily in a decision-making spot necessarily. I think both of those concepts I just talked about, retaining the full service or dropping down to a reduced service, does assume that the City of Essex Junction continues to contribute to the number four service as we already have budgeted. So particularly for the number four, sorry, just finding an email.

Virginia, are you looking for the amount that is in the assessment for the number four? 19,000, yep. Sorry. 19,000 currently budgeted in the FY27 budget already for the number four.

The other thing just to point out here in this memo that I think is important for folks to understand is the paratransit service, most commonly referred to as the SSTA service. You see those buses driving around. This is not the only program that funds SSTA, but it is partially funded because of its connection to a fixed route service. And that service is provided within a geographic boundary of the fixed route service for those who can't walk and use that fixed route service. A fixed route number four service is eliminated, so is that paratransit service. I thought it would be helpful to get a sense, again, you're not really in a decision-making place. It may be a little bit unfair to ask you this, but from my opinion, it would probably be helpful to the other partners, which is the town of Essex and the Essex Westford School District, who does not today fund these routes, but because they are heavy users of the number four, the GMT has been having conversations with them as well. So what might be helpful to those other partners is an understanding of whether Essex Junction would be willing to maintain your funding for the number four, even if it's reduced or if we somehow think about some other way to serve these folks. And Clayton is with us. So, Clayton, if you want to have anything to add, please do.

I WOULD JUST ADD, REGINA, THAT YOU ARE SPEAKING SO WELL ON GMT THAT I THINK IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO COME TO WORK FOR US. AND YOU DID AN EXCELLENT JOB SUMMARIZING THE SITUATION. I DO WANT TO JUST ADD FOR FOLKS THAT WE ARE EXPECTING TO HEAR FROM THE SCHOOL ON THEIR CONTRIBUTION. Like I just checked my phone to see if it had come in since I joined the meeting. And the other thing that I want you all to consider is that our GMT statute actually gives us authority beyond what I think is reasonable. And so our statute could require us to, or could allow us to continue to demand the full assessment, even if we cut the service in half. I really think that that's a poor business practice, and I would advise the board to think seriously, the GMT board to think seriously about using that statutory authority, because I think that that would undermine our relationships. And so I certainly would advise that if you all wanted to decrease, that we not hold you to it, even if that would be counter to preserving the four. I don't want to force you to pay.

Yeah, go ahead.

So this concept of, What it runs now with the 50 runs and the school district's contribution, are we sort of assuming, what's their response then? Are they only talking about the reduced 26 to accommodate the school times? They're not open to the 50, they're really kind of considering the 26, right?

Correct. They, they, uh, when the meeting that we met with them, they, uh, my impression, uh, was that one 12 was beyond, um, uh, what they could do and that, um, to their own board that they would need to justify that there was a direct connection, uh, to the school day, um, for what they were paying for. And, uh, you know, as opposed to paying for, uh, you know, a community service, uh, which would be those other, uh, routes or the other routes.

During those times, even as reduced as it is, we've talked about this in a board meeting, but it wouldn't be only available to school children. It would be available to the public still during those morning and afternoon runs. Exactly.

And it would still allow for that paratransit. And one of the questions that has come up is that if there was a gap in service during the day for fixed route, that's another case of where legally we could say, okay, well, you know, the ADA service is only available when the fixed route service is. But that would mean that we would like transport people early in the morning to medical appointments and then they'd have to stay there all day. Yeah, and we have no interest in doing that.

What about the funding model around how it works now? Remind everyone how it's not just the assessment, if I remember correctly, that covers that, right? For the ADA assessment, is that right?

Correct, yeah, yeah. And so this is split 50-50 as far as the costs are concerned. And then the assessments are based on the origin and destination of the rides, which is a change that happened recently. And that was to make sure that we just felt that having where the person lived, their home pick up the full charge didn't really make sense.

And I don't mean to hog all the questions, so please. What would it look like from a service point of view and a financial point of view if we were to try to preserve what we currently have, which for ADA service, but reduce the 4 to the 26?

So typically what would happen is that the ADA span of the day would be during when the fixed route is operating. If the fixed route were to operate and stop earlier, because I think that like say a four o'clock run would be the latest run instead of say like a six o'clock run, Normally that means that the ADA would stop earlier, but that is something that I again think that we should have a discussion with either Regina or you all about moving forward because I think that if you all are willing to pay and we're willing to pay, for that service to be able to meet people's needs. Because again, what would worry me if there was a, hey, we're going to stop at say four o'clock. Well, then that means that ADA service probably isn't going to be able to work for anyone who works and wants to get home when their shift ends at five. And so I think that that's something that we want to look at. I also know that This is where I love the irony of public service. One of the things that I know VTrans is becoming concerned about is the cost impact to the O&D program if our A&D service were to go away. then their O&D program would have to pick up the charge. So it is kind of ironic that the folks that have been asking us to consider reducing this are now suddenly concerned about what they may have to pick up in costs.

Yeah.

I mean, I, for one, would be very interested in trying to figure out, get a better picture financially and from a scheduling point of view and all of the details around how we could achieve that both. I mean, there's so many scenarios here, right? It'd be great to keep 50. I don't know that that's financially possible. I wouldn't certainly say no from my point of view yet, but I want to see what the town's open to, which I'm not super enthusiastic about what I've seen so far in a couple of their meetings and what the school district can do. But I'm very concerned about the ADA, primarily. And so I'm curious to see if there's some work you can do with, in any way, with Regina, however it works, where we can kind of get a really solid estimate of what that would cost, how it would work, so we can kind of get some community feedback or at least discuss it.

And one of the things, Raj and Bethany, that you're going to hear at the board meeting on Tuesday, one of the reasons why I'm in Rhode Island right now is to hear about a report about the most recent surface transportation bill that was introduced by the House. And here's something that I don't say often. There was a bipartisan bill that looks pretty good. And it made, it's made it, yeah, it made it out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a vote of 60 to 2, which, I mean, that's, I can't remember the last time I heard about legislation that was like that. And this is the five-year bill that will fund public transit. And they're looking at some significant changes that could deeply benefit Green Mountain Transit. And one of the things that this is going to now put us in this guessing game of, I'm really hesitant to try to draw down service when we don't know what our federal funding is going to look like. And I don't want to cut service and then find out six or 18 months from now, depending on whether they finish this bill on time this year or have to have a continuing resolution, and then find out that, well, we could have actually afforded that. And so it's, I will say, um, and you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a bad negotiator because I, I'm often more transparent than I should be. Um, but from my perspective, I'm motivated to do what we can to try to, uh, retain this because I think that the future is too uncertain. Um, it clearly impacts folks in a way that I'm not, uh, comfortable with. And, um, And so I'm going to do my best to find a pathway that I can sell to others as being a good way forward to retain whatever we can.

Really appreciate that.

Yeah. Clayton, can I just pull a thread a little bit on Raj's question in terms of exactly how much it might cost us to keep the paratransit going for longer? I think, but correct me if I'm wrong, that we can't really know that number until we figure out what the other two partners are going to do.

Sure. And I would say that, you know, you know what the full cost of the paratransit would be because it's what the cost of your assessment for fiscal year 27 is. And so... If we ended up keeping the full span of the day for AEA, then it would be that as full assessment cost. It's actually kind of separate the way that the gap is within the fixed route model. know i mean the gap is in both areas i guess but but but the thing is is that we you already know um what the cost of of paying the full day for ada will be and you've already budgeted for it same with the town 19 for the number four you're talking about no that's the 19 for the fixed route and um yeah i'm And I'm sorry that I didn't look in advance what you pay for ADA service. And I don't know specifically what portion of that would be just for the number four and not for the number two. But you're fully budgeted to continue the paratransit service through fiscal year 27. So how about this in a simpler way? Let's just say that we decided that the fixed route was going to stop entirely. We could have a decision that we would operate the paratransit the way budgeted. That could be a decision that we both come to. I'm sure the finance watchers that work for me are screaming if they're watching. I hope they're not muted. The other thing to keep in mind, and this is where I also, you know, and hey, we pay our finance folks, you know, to counter my expansive plans. I mean, to, you know, keep us... And so... you know, one of the things that folks are concerned about is that the $112,000 to retain the service, that's just what we, the projected savings that we would have otherwise expected by cutting the service. It's not how we normally price service because it doesn't include, you know, My salary and all of our it costs and all of you know the the other things and so folks aren't even happy aren't happy that I even suggested 112. But I feel like we need to be flexible.

I. agree with you know what's already been said about the importance of retaining the ADA service I think we should do what we can to retain the 50 rides for that reason and also because I think as a community we Essex Junction that is strives to you know make a be more walkable, be more connected. And I think that if we don't try to do what we can to retain it, then we're not really fulfilling that.

I mean, yeah, I'll absolutely support getting into the weeds. deeper here to figure out what's going on and what it looks like.

Can you speak in your microphone, please?

Yeah, I said I'll absolutely support getting into the weeds in order to see what this actually entails and looks like and what our funding obligation would be and what numbers we need to look at to go forward.

Brian, did you have any comments?

No, I think everyone asked the questions that I was concerned about. I agree that we should try to maintain at least some of the service, especially with a focus on the bear transit. Yeah. We'd like to see the numbers for those kinds of options spread over the four entities that are involved here.

I will open it up to public comment and then I want to bring it back because I think Regina specifically asked us about just the current assessment and so I don't know if you want to hear from us on that specific topic, but let me take public comment first and then I'll bring it back to us. Heidi, is there anything else that you wanted to add? Oh, I'm asking Heidi in the room. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah.

Thank you. I appreciate the conversation and the openness. And I realize it's kind of last minute. Thank you. And can I find a carpool? Is the GMTA meeting on the 16th, is that available? Is that open to the public? And can I catch a ride?

It is open to the public. It's online. And it is hybrid.

OK. I was going to say, I ride in a guide on my things. But thank you. So I will look online.

And it should be available on the GMT website if you go to the Board of Commissioners section. OK. Great.

We'll have the agenda posted on Friday. MOST OF THE COMMISSIONERS GENERALLY PARTICIPATE VIA ZOOM, SO IT IS PRETTY LIGHTLY ATTENDED IN PERSON.

I ALSO APPRECIATE THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD AND ESSEX CENTER, SO I WILL DO SOME RESEARCH TO FIGURE OUT HOW I CAN SHOW UP THERE OR ASK QUESTIONS, BUT I APPRECIATE YOU HAVING THIS ON THE AGENDA TONIGHT, AND THANKS FOR LISTENING.

FEEL FREE TO REACH BACK OUT IF YOU HAVE SOME QUESTIONS, HEIDI.

OR IF YOU NEED CONNECTIONS.

Thanks. Heidi, first, thank you so much for coming out and speaking out. Really do appreciate it. Clayton, it's always good to see you and always appreciate your advocacy on these issues. And I'm sorry that this continues to be such a struggle. So two quick things. One, for a little bit of clarity, if the school district participates, because I... Maybe I misheard or maybe I misunderstood. But if the school district comes up with a number and participates, or I'm not quite sure where that discussion is at at the moment, what does that look like for the other two municipalities in participating in this program? And then lastly, what are the numbers, if you have any clue? I recognize the fact that our community continues to age. And, you know, these... Paratransit services, it doesn't feel like the need is going to be going down. So I'm curious about what the numbers may look like now so that, again, I think for the community as a whole, they can understand, again, the deepness of this crisis. of this problem and how this impact really is going to hurt so many people that I, I know and see and observe that use the service in my own neighborhood, even as I'm driving around and I see the parent transit service going to many houses and bringing many people to those necessary appointments and even more so.

Yeah. So, believe it or not, for that circle, there's 78 people that get ADA pickups. So, it's a significant number. And so, that's 78 folks that, you know, on that loop that are going to have to find other transportation needs. And let's say that they do go to, say, the state's O&D program. You know, that's limited to, you know, six rides a month in most situations. Where the ADA service, it's a faired service. They can go as many times as they pay the fare. And so, obviously, if somebody is using the ADA service for work, six trips a month is not going to be enough.

Just really quick. I can, I can hold this question. It's, I can wait.

Sorry. Was that, did you get all the questions, answers, I think?

So I, I'm, I'm still curious about what, what it looks like for the two municipalities if, if the school, but let me, if I may follow up on that just briefly. No, I'll, I'll leave it at that for now, but thank you.

So for between Here's the thing that I would need to have happen. And I realized that this is a big ask of especially of the town of Essex, because their contribution to the number four is 40,000 Is that, let's say that I get an email from the school tonight. Hey, we're going to give you the 58,000 I didn't need to come to you and say, hey, we're going to provide almost half as much service and charge you the same. Are you willing to do that? And I hope you say yes. And then I'm going to go to the town of Essex and say, I'm going to provide about half as much service, but charge you the same. Are you okay with that? And I would need all of those things that sort of happen. And I know that I'm not going to get that answer by Tuesday. And that's okay.

Great, we'll cover the difference in addition to what? To fully fund it. The $64,000 difference between the 58 and the 112 to keep it going. So we'd have to figure out with the town of Essex, essentially, how we'd be willing to split that in an ideal world.

And because I'm not a good bureaucrat, if you just tell me that, hey, we think we'll get this to you and I'll accept the check as in the mail, because I know that you're not going to be able to do this by Tuesday.

Reset.

Thank you, Amber. I don't have any questions for Clayton. I know we need to address you. So I just want to point out to the council that I know we're really big with somewhat on being a bike and walk community, but not everybody can bike and walk. And when I look at other committees and I see what they're talking about with building and apartment buildings that don't even have one parking space per unit, people need to be able to get places. Having moved here from Manhattan, I was really lucky. I'm very used to walking everywhere, but I could hop a bus whenever I needed to. My fear, if the four goes away, is what happens going forward? Is this something that could ever come back? Are we going to be able to get other buses here? We have no, well, very little, very little mass transit. So You know, getting from place to place, not everybody can bike, not everybody can walk from five corners to countryside or the shopping center or wherever. So I know this is a big ask dollar wise, but please, as you're thinking about the future, the strategic plan, all of that of Essex Junction, keep in mind the more buildings that go up without parking spots for residents, how are they going to get around? How are they going to do this? I'm hoping that with all the things that we find money for, that mass transit is one of the ones that we realize is really important in order to have some of our other desires and wishes met. Thank you.

I just kind of want to ask Clayton to follow up quickly. Hey, Clayton. Geographically, the way things stand today, what's the general percentage of ADA coverage for the community? I feel like it's pretty high, actually.

For Essex, I think that almost all of Essex Junction is in the ADA zone.

You lose almost half, I think. Yeah, yeah.

It'll be especially out Maple and then up... towards Essex experience.

That's just a huge amount of, yeah.

Yeah. Thanks. So I think the question that Regina really wanted us to tackle tonight was whether, I'm going to broil it down into my own words, is whether we would continue to honor the budgeted amount that we have already gone to the voters and got approval for for GMT. So does that sound like a... Despite, even if there's a reduction, we end up just going with the 26 runs because the school district picks up.

Yes, that's the question that I think could be helpful to GMT if you were able to provide that right now. Obviously, we can't have the information for you to answer the question of what if others pull out, then what does that number look like? But at least for right now, if it gets reduced, are you willing to fund it at the same level that's already budgeted?

I'd say yes. If everybody pulls out and everything goes away, I'd say I'd want to have a different conversation. If that makes sense, is that not what you're looking for?

I would agree with that.

Brian, anything you want to add to that?

I can live with that.

All right.

I have a further ask. Okay. How can, well, it's just an ask. It can be a no. How can we better communicate with the town and try to figure this out in a more urgent way? Is it manager to manager? To start, Regina kind of reaching out to Greg and saying, and this is just not saying, please do it. I'm just bringing it up. How do we communicate a sense of urgency to the town that this is important to us? Where are you at? How can we come to some kind of agreement on this? How can we keep this conversation with them going? Because they're on a different schedule than we are. they have a they have a very they have it i think yeah they've had it on their agenda for the last two yeah i mean that's they're having a meeting and then we're having a meeting i'm just wondering if there can be a parties together if we can i think you hit the nail it's it's uh i mean clayton's raising his hand but i think it's i think it's richard probably yeah we have yeah well i i'm sure i just want to kind of keep it yeah how do we keep that momentum somehow

yes and i would say just in the way that i would not be able to answer this question for clayton on my own without your input greg can't answer this question is there a message we can sorry yeah yeah i'll come back to you in a second clayton go ahead is there a way we can is there a message we can transmit to the town to

I feel like the answer that's coming from the town, having watched their meetings, is this is just unpalatable for them. That's the feeling I get. If they heard from us that we're super interested in keeping this and we're super interested in talking about how that works, I wonder if that would, I don't know if that's the message you've been giving to Greg. Or if you feel like you've been able to give that to Greg.

If we express that we're open to looking at ways of funding the difference.

I think I'll let Regina speak for what she said.

I will say that I spoke with both Greg and Mark just letting them know that we were having this conversation so the other parties would at least know where the council stands on this. So now I can relay to them where you stand on it.

Clayton, go ahead.

I wanted to let you know that I expect that the town of Essex is likely to vote to leave GMT at one of those two meetings. And so I just, I wasn't sure you were aware of that. We don't necessarily see that as a, you know, we work with Colchester who's a non-member to provide service. So we don't necessarily see that as changing our desire to, you know, to serve this route. But I did just want to let folks know that I think that that's what they're going to be talking about as well.

Which does indicate likely. Non-supportive. Non-support. Correct.

I mean, they have one year. They have FY27. They'll still be in. Right. And that gives GMT an opportunity to say, OK, well, the assessment's gone. Let's negotiate something like Colchester did, where they don't have the here's what you're going to pay hanging over their head. They have a negotiation now.

all is no loss right anything else from council okay nope marcus i see your hand raised but i'm not coming back for more public comment we gotta move on to the next topic feel free to email us thank you thanks clayton appreciate you joining us from afar thank you clayton thank you have fun thanks heidi for joining us thank you Have a good night. All right, we're moving on to 5C, discussion and consideration of Essex Junction, Vermont's 10th city historical marker app. Woo! Party time. Love a good party. Do we have any...

So I'll just add that VLCP, in their latest newsletter, did a fascinating research and kind of summary of what makes a municipality in Vermont. And it's really actually kind of fascinating to read through it between all of the different ways a municipality is in Vermont. But anyway, so This is on your agenda because we are contemplating an application into the state of Vermont for a historical marker for Vermont's 10th city. So you've got the information here in your packet. You have draft language of what we can submit to them. They will also look at the language and rework it if they see fit. There is no cost to the city. And the idea is to try to get this application in so that we will have the marker, if so, approved by the fifth birthday of the city, which is July 27. Awesome.

Great.

Awesome. Any questions? Comments? Concerns? Council?

No? No. Would you like the motion?

Public? Let me ask the public first.

I do want to say thank you to George Tyler for his work on this.

Okay, I'm not seeing any public comments. So, yeah, I will thank George Tyler, former trustee slash city councilor, for his... assistance on helping us with this historical marker paragraph.

I will also thank Brad Luck for giving this idea. Oh, excellent. Thank you, Brad.

Thank you, Brad. I did not know that.

Awesome.

I move that the city council authorized the city manager to apply for the historic site marker sign, approve the text for the historic marker sign with the understanding that the VDHP has a final say in the text, approve the location of the historic marker site in the flower bed by the flagpole in front of the two Lincoln building and approve the installation if approved by VDHP.

I will second.

That's a really long.

That's a paragraph.

All right. All in favor.

Aye. Aye. Aye. All right. It's unanimous.

Look forward to the party. All right.

So next we have an executive session. So we're going to move on to consent.

Move to accept the consent agenda.

Can I get a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

It's unanimous. Council Member comments, City Manager report. City Manager? Um...

We have a couple of infrastructure projects happening right now. Railroad Avenue water line is going very well, and they are testing and paving now. A big thanks to B-Trans for adding a stretch of Pearl Street. into their payment schedule this year. So that is done from Susie Wilson to West Street Extension on the eastbound side. Sidewalks on Main Street should start up next week. We just had the library roof replaced, just wrapped up, so that is very exciting. And yeah, I think that's it. Oh, one other thing is we did, for the third time test one lane westbound on Pearl Street yesterday from West Street extension to Susie Wilson Road so we will be coming back to the council soon with the multimodal alternative for Carl Street shortly. So we can move forward on that.

I was in that. Worked very well. The speed reduction was awesome. And I think it took me 20 more seconds. And it opened up at the end just fine. And at rush hour in the morning. Awesome.

And you can call me.

I agree with you.

That was my experience as well.

Any other councilor comments?

The Senior Center has reopened at 2 Lincoln. And while I missed the grand reopening party, I did see some videos. It looked like it was a fantastic time. Just wanted to welcome the seniors back. We spent the day in there for our retreat. It's a fabulous space. So hats off to EJRP, the entire crew that had a hand in it all the way through. And welcome back, seniors.

Great time again. Anybody else? All right. So motion to go into executive session. And I think there should be multiples. There is at least the personnel one. Get that one.

Yeah, I move that the City Council enter into executive session to discuss personnel evaluation Pursuant to 1 VSA 3 1 3 a 3 to include City Manager City Council and City Manager seconded favor Second one

This is the appointment of public officials one. Is that the one? Yeah.

Yeah, I've got that one. I move that the city council intern to executive session to discuss appointment of public officials pursuant to 1VSA 313A3 to include the city manager. I'll second. Second. Okay. You guys can arm Russell.

No, Roger, you can have it.

All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

all right uh we are going into executive session we will return and my goal is to be back here before nine o'clock because they turn into a pumpkin at that point so we'll see you back here

¶¶ Thank you. Thank you. . . do do you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

You could go up to two hours, or actually up to six hours. On one film? On one film.

Six hours on one film?

Yeah.

How can you go six hours on one film?

I don't know. The tape moves really slowly and it...

The movie thing is like, the ones like this are only for a half hour. The great big reels, the great big reels like this are only for about 45 minutes, a half hour. You know, the ones that they play in the movies?

Yeah. Okay, that's film, though, and this is video.

Here at the Fletcher Free Library and also at Contois Auditorium and also at the Church Street Center and some other places around town, the Vermont Storytelling Festival. And we're going to show you what kinds of places it's going to be taking place inside. Come on.

Hello, my name is Peter Burns, and I'll be your suave and sophisticated host for the storytelling here at 7.30 on Friday evening. There'll be a variety of different kinds of storytellers and different styles of stories. I'll know you enjoy it, so please come join me for this evening of stories. Thank you.

Hi! We're zucchini princesses. Nothing?

I saw on TV...

real things pardon me ma'am may i ask your name my name is mrs dick righteous mrs righteous could you look into the camera and say hello to our viewers hi now when you say nip womanhood in the bud what do you mean mrs mrs righteous

Well, I mean that we are here. I have a statement. Do you mind if I read my statement? We are here to prevent the feminist blight of blue jeans, flat shoes, and female facial nudity. We expect to see an American dress code as the law of the land. We also support a new congressional group, HULA, the House Committee on Unladylike Activities.

What I've done is made beauty. You say, what is it?

It's beauty.

And I wrote this script in Vermont last year, as a matter of fact, during Christmas vacation at Stowe. And we got involved in a story of what would happen if Superman really got involved in the real problems of the world. And one of the main actions of the story is that in response to a letter-writing campaign from students all across the country about the breakdown in U.S.-Soviet relations, Superman yields to their request and vows in a speech at the United Nations that he's going to end the arms race. The time has come now to realize that there are no Superman, and that nobody can come down and help us single-handedly. But we have the next best thing. We have people like Pat Leahy in the Senate.

You tell me if you're pleased with the turnout today. Oh, I'm ecstatic with the turnout. There's so many more people than we ever expected to have. It's at least three times the number we expected. Do that without advertising. That's great.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to introduce to you the 38th President of the United States, Gerald R. Ford.

I'm not talking to the guy.

I know, we will. We'll get to that. All right. He gets boring looking at us. That's what he's saying. You can only look at him. I know, I know. He does that very nicely. But why don't you... I mean, if you want to film them for a while... Okay. I'll stop. You know, but he gets his name in the free press. It's all over. That's right. Now he has an enormous ego.

He thinks he's a creative artist.

All kinds of...

Put the camera on this guy. Okay. Good.

That's what happened. I didn't film that Old North End show.

I mean, we're trying to make this man into a household word. We have people that know who he is.

You were an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War.

Yes.

And I remember once telling a story about when you went to see the president, Lyndon Johnson, to talk to him about that.

Oh. Well, that is, and so I ended up spending, oh gosh, I think half an hour with him, and we talked about this and that, and finally I gathered up all my courage, and I said, Mr. President, I said, couldn't we give some consideration to the cessation of bombing of, I think it was Cambodia or North Vietnam? With that, he turned on me, and he had a way of turning on people and he gave me five minutes worth and then he stood up and obviously i stood up and he said governor he said why don't you go back to vermont take care of your affairs and let us take care of these affairs down here and i said yes mr president and out i went

I'm practicing with a bunch of people that are going for their black belt, and I'm doing the same thing they are, so I would hope that at least they give me a brown belt.

You haven't got any pictures of you doing that, do you?

They've taken so many pictures, and they keep saying we're going to get them. We never do, so I keep bugging them. I did have some. The free press took one point, but I don't have them. right here. Yeah.

Mr. Brown, obviously your country is suffering a major image problem here in the United States. This was evident to you this morning when you arrived. And we're greeted by some 40 demonstrators out in front of our studios.

Well, first of all, it's very difficult when you're greeted with the continual type of questions such as, how often do you beat your wife? And that's exactly what happens in our case. We have people outside there demonstrating, accusing me of all sorts of things. They don't really know what I believe. They just assume that I'm a racist, that my government supports racism and so on. Get him for that!

The American press has to do it correctly, but right now it's not.

Translate that for me.

They're devils.

You're not in the press, Mr. Velvet. I am in the press. You are not. Are you a recognized member of the press?

I think you'll all recognize this as a communist trick to break up a meeting.

You are out of order. Get message out to the secret cell.

Duck down for a minute, Chuck. Duck down for a minute.

I guess the best thing I can say about Channel 17 TV is that the folks in Burlington and surrounding communities ought to realize what a special opportunity they have if they have people as dedicated as the folks that came to visit C-SPAN. who are concerned with you hearing what's going on in your local community and again making up your own mind as to what is correct, right, and wrong. And that's a unique opportunity that's not available to an awful lot of towns throughout the United States. So when you watch Channel 17, it may not always be as exciting as you'd like television to be, but it's important.

Thank you. Okay, I'm Tom Crosby from Burlington. Lived here all my life. 50 years ago, well, of course, the cars are gone, and there's a lot more people on the street now. And, of course, the different sidewalk stands, the trees. There never were trees on Church Street back 50 years ago. There might have been 100 years ago, but not. Not while I was alive.

I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Stockholder number one. Mr. Stockholder, do you have some plans for what you would like to do once you buy out Ben & Jerry's here? Why, yes, I've got some excellent plans. Well, first of all, I'd like to introduce some new flavors to you all. They're right over here. New flavors? New flavors? Flavors of the month. Flavors of the month. Yes. Did you hear that? Flavors of the month. The first flavor. Stockholm, the brown nose crunch.

Hold that, please. Thank you, Cal.

Oh, don't protest. Don't protest. How about this one? Can't you keep it local? Don't.

There's too much changeable and transformable social misery among ordinary people, among everyday people. And it might have something to do with the fact that their voices are not being heard at the highest levels. And that Martin Luther King Jr. came out of a particular species, a specific version of the democratic tradition.

Racism has got to go, hey, hey, ho, ho. Racism has got to go, hey, hey, ho, ho. Racism has got to go.

I'm Chief Homer St. Francis of the Abenaki Nation. I want to applaud the support and support the students who have stood up and spoken out against racism at the University of Vermont. You can't redo history. No, we can't do it. And no, we can't go back to harvesting salmon on the Winooski Falls. But we can change the future by acknowledging the past. And this is something we can ask the trustees of the university to do. It doesn't necessarily mean renaming Ira Allen Chapel after Greylock, although that's not a bad idea, but simply acknowledging that racism goes back a long way.

You are watching television and you are growing sleepily. You are about to descend into a hypnotic state. Let me start again.

Because too often we're perceived as just being the fair housing organization that's hammering the banks for discrimination issues. And frankly, empowerment zones, investment strategies, we just have a whole lot. We made a list yesterday.

John's bank has been good at working. Why don't we just walk on down this way and talk to them? I just don't want to miss this fight.

What I'm here to say might not sound good to the authorities. It's time for us to change our national priorities. Let's give the people more of a say about how we invest our taxes in the USA. Now here's one thing I'd really like to know. Where do you want your money to go? For nuclear weapons and Star Wars toys? Or to educate and motivate our girls and boys? Telling you, honey, we just gotta move our money. Gotta move our money. Gotta move our money.

And the thing that aggravates me about this is that 72 other nations, not two, but 72, have found a way to provide family leave. Now, what this guy is saying is that America can't do what 72 other nations can do.

I always thought this was a can-do country, and I'm going to give you a can-do administration on November 3rd if you will stay with me.

How do you think your helping your husband so much will affect the possibility of a female president sometime in the near future?

Well, I hope that somewhere right now in the United States is a young woman or even a not-so-young woman anymore who will become president sometime in the next 20 years. And I think that it will only happen because the woman who decides to do that will be brave enough to take the risks associated with being in public life and will be willing to really stand up and work as hard as she can to be judged on who she is and not be discouraged by some of the obstacles that still stand in the way of women doing work like that.

It's no longer a problem of us just talking about program. We're talking about food and clothing and shelter. We're talking about the richest society in the world letting children go to bed hungry at night. This is not a battle that we're involved. We're involved in a war. And we need to take a look at this very seriously.

I don't know what's going to happen right now. I'm very concerned that from the low intensity psychological covert war, we may go into an overt war down there. Right now, the Mexican military has 200,000 troops. Over 60,000 of their elite are in the state of Chiapas.

This is not Angola. This is not some small and distant country. This is our neighbor on the North American continent, a nation whose history, whose people, whose culture is deeply intertwined with our own. It's a nation of 100 million people, one river away.

I'm Fred Tuttle. I'm Soren Smith. Nice to meet you. What are you doing down here?

I've come to talk to you about this little campaign you're running here.

Oh, that's a great campaign. Yeah? I hope I win.

What are you going to do if you win?

Recording in progress.

Brian, can you just give us like a heads up that you can hear us?

I can hear you.

Thank you. All right, go ahead.

Okay. Uh, regarding the appointments to the various committees, I'm going to make several motions. I make a motion to appoint Robert Frederick to the bike walk advisory committee for a two year term ending June 30th, 2028 and John O'Brien, Ian Van Kirk and Jessica Huntley to the bike walk advisory committee for a three year term ending June 30th, 2029. I move we appoint Kevin Collins, Mike Plagman, and Justin Rabideau to the Capital Program Review Committee for a three-year term ending June 30th, 2029. I move we appoint Steve Eustis as moderator for a one-year term ending June 30th, 2027. I move that we appoint Kirstie Pascal to the Planning Commission for a three-year term ending June 30, 2029. And finally, nope, not finally. I move that we appoint Bridget Meyer. Hold on. Let me get my bearings here. Who are we doing?

Rachel. Rachel Ham.

For?

Thawne. They're all the same.

All of them. They're all the same, sorry. Bridget Meyer, Patrick Lynch, Rachel Vaughn, Who's the fourth one? Drew Perry. Drew Perry to a two-year term to the Recreation Advisory Committee, term ending June 30, 2028. And now, finally, I move that we appoint Amanda Borak to a one-year term on the Tree Advisory Committee, ending June 30, 2027, and Luca Karki and Nick Meyer to a three-year terms on the Tree Advisory Committee, terms ending June 30, 2029.

I'll second that. Nice job, Rob.

All in favor? Aye. That is unanimous.

Excellent. Thank you.

All right. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved.

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. All right. Have a good night, everybody.

Thank you.

Thanks, everybody.

See you, Brian.

. .