City Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, look at that. Well, the time is 6:00. I will call to order this meeting of the Wooki City Council. Uh we will start with the pledge of allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Brenle. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Wonderful. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Okay.

Um, I will move on to Gosh. Sorry, my tabs are all not open. Lucker and control board. Jenny, good evening. Good evening. I asked the applicants. I sent an email. I left a voicemail message to see if they could attend. Yeah.

To be here at 5:45. Um, so this is a new establishment at the former subway location, 476 Maine. And why it's conditional is because they the owners needed an interpreter. And so code enforcement is arranging it, I think, for Wednesday. So that is why that was conditional because they don't have their inspection yet. Okay. Um, so with needing an interpreter, was has anything been able to has code enforcement been able to go there at all yet or? They're going Wednesday. They're going Wednesday. Okay.

I spoke with their um person that's helping them with the rehab. Um, and he just explained it all to me. Yeah. Okay. Um, my normal question would be any concerns from staff, but as staff has not been able to be yet be there yet. Is this the former subway space? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um and there were two businesses. So, are both um spaces within that building vacant at this point? Do you know? I believe so because they I originally talked to him a few months ago. He came in initially. Yeah. And then he was asking about licensing

and then they came back and they said they're getting closer but they're just doing a lot of, you know, refurbishing the space. Yeah. Yeah. He said it's small. I kept saying it's small, but he I couldn't really determine what small was, but everything was fine in their liquor application. So, it's passed through that stage at this time. Um, and it's Ecuadorian food. That's what it's specialized. That's really exciting. Um, any I I'm just thinking about some continued Main Street work. So, I don't know what if you're able to find out like I'd be curious what their open date what they're hoping for for their open date. Um, initially it was June.

Okay. Yeah. So, we'll see. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Um, and then the other conditional on here, Jenny, the Hickok and River. Still waiting for an inspection. Waiting for an inspection. Okay. Um, is that the name of the business? It's the former chicks market. Okay. So, that's what it's called. Okay. All right. Um, well, then I will seek a motion to approve these with the two conditionals waiting on their instructions. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I

I wonderful. Thank you, Jenny. All right. Um, we will move on to our continue our agenda for the WC city council agenda review. Do we need to close the liquor control board? I don't know if we've ever done that. I didn't hear what. Do we need to close the liquor control board meeting first? Yes. seek a motion to close the liquor control. So moved. Seconded. All those in favor? I I don't think we've ever done that before. I know I haven't.

Well, when you open with a liquor, then you move to council. But because you open Okay. All right. Um All right. Uh so back to council 604. Um agenda review. Councilors, anything you would like to move, change, or have questions about? No. No, no,

no. Okay, we will move to public comment then. Uh, this, uh, item of public comment is reserved for comments and questions on topics that are not in tonight's agenda. So, if you have an item for tonight's agenda, I'll just ask you to wait until that moment. Uh, given that, does anybody have any public comments? All right, I see a hand raised. Paul, can you bring them over? Hello. Hello.

Hi, it's Terry Ziggman from uh West Street. Um I had a couple of things. Um first, I I just heard um I just got home from work, so I just barely caught the end of the um Chicks Market. Um I'm just curious. Um, I I I think they were just getting a liquor license, but um I noticed there's a picnic table outside now, and I'm curious if that is something that they need a sidewalk permit for. Terry, thank you for that question. Um, Jenny, sorry, follow up.

Okay, we will follow up on that. I don't have an answer for you on that right this moment. Um, so I'm going to The second question related to that, um, if they do need a permit, um, I'd like them to get one because it's on the sidewalk. It's on a public space. Yeah. Um, and and I would like to ask that they be required to have a trash can out there. Um, I was out in the rain on Saturday on Green Update picking up garbage in front of there. Yeah. Underneath their picnic table. And there's always there's always garbage on that corner that we clean up. Um, so I'm requesting that they have a garbage can out there.

Okay. I don't I'll have to see if that's something in our regulations that we can ask for, but I don't believe we have ordinances that would allow us to make them do that. It's certainly something we could ask. Okay. Um, and then I did have one other um one other thing for public comment that to talk about. Um so um just kind of um in light of uh the big discussion that's been happening in many meetings about Franklin Street,

um I just wanted to uh plant the seed once again. Um since Franklin Street is a place where there are no sidewalks and it's currently unsafe for people to walk and um three units of housing just got built there um with zero impact fees. I would like to uh ask the council to once again consider the idea of imposing impact fees on developers. It seems like what's happening on Franklin Street is a great example of some place where having impact fees actually could be effective and useful. Um so I just wanted to put that out there.

Thank you, Terry. I appreciate I appreciate that suggestion. Okay. Yeah. and Terry, um, the city manager does have a response for you on that second question. Okay. More of a status update, but yes, thank you, uh, Thomas. So, staff or council asked staff to look at impact fees this u fiscal year as part of the policy priorities and strategies and we have a report out on that. Um, so at our next quarterly goal update, we will be giving council an update on that. if not before. So, uh yeah, we can tell you when that meeting is so you can listen in.

Okay, that's great. Thank you. Appreciate your time and your service, everyone. Thank you for your comments, Terry. Appreciate it.

Uh is there anybody else online who has a public comment or anybody in the public in the building? All right, seeing no more, we will um move on to our consent agenda. Uh on today's consent agenda, uh we have the approval of city council and liquor control board meeting minutes of April 20th, 2026 and special city council meeting minutes of April 27th, 202026. Uh payroll warrant April 12 to 25. Accounts payable warrant April 30th. A resolution for Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. A resolution for Jewish American Heritage Month. A resolution for Older Americans Month. A resolution for mental health awareness month. An approval of inclusion and belonging commission charter change to specify a staff liaison.

So move seconded. All those in favor? I. Perfect. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to council reports. Um, council will read. Yeah. Um, so just to review, our April municipal infrastructure meeting commission meeting was cancelled. Um, but we did have a Burlington Wooki bridge meeting uh this past week on Wednesday, April 29th. I want to thank everyone who was able to attend and give feedback for the bridge in the adjacent park. I think it was very well attended, which I was very happy to see. Mhm.

Um, and we look forward to discussing and reviewing the the bridge in our upcoming municipal infrastructure commission meeting. So, if you want to give feedback and tell the city about a little more what you learned or things you want to talk about, um, please attend our next meeting. Thank you, Eli. Council,

excuse me. We had an airport commission meeting on Tuesday, April 28th. The airport commission moved forward with a recommendation for the airport budget which will be moved to the Burlington City Council and will be voted on at their next meeting. And we have an airport commission meeting this Wednesday at 4 p.m. I also just want to highlight a few things that as a city council member I'm working on. One of which is walk to school day which is this Wednesday. Um I'm very excited about that. I'm working on that in my capacity as um someone who has recently joined the safe routes to school commission meeting group. Um uh anyway, and so I just want to invite all of our Wooki neighbors, community members, students, parents. Um and we are partnering with Locomotion and Watt, which I point to council member Oglev because he's a member of that. Um, and so each year, Wooki community members, families, and Wooki school district teachers and staff come together to celebrate walking, biking, and rolling to school. Students, and adults gather together at locations across the city to form walking and rolling school buses, traveling together to school as a community. This is about making walking and rolling feel safe, joyful, and possible for everyone. And so, like I said, we'd love for our neighbors to join us. This is more than just about getting to school. It's about building connections between neighbors and creating safer and more welcoming streets and showing our students what community care looks like in action. Um, I also want to note that at the Wooki School District, we also have an opportunity to learn more about voting rights on Tuesday, May 12th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. And that's it for me.

Wonderful. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Um, yep. So, seconding the notes about the Wooki Burlington Bridge replacement meeting that was this past Wednesday. Um I got initial updates on attendance. It uh estimated to be closer to 150 people. Nice.

So that was very well attended. Um it was a great event. Uh really well done, planned out. Um and thanks to everyone who um who showed up and asked questions and participated in the feedback. Um we will have our safe healthy connected meeting on the 12th. Um, look for an agenda notice coming out later this week and the housing commission meeting, I believe, is scheduled for the 19th this month um due to holidays and um and some scheduling conflicts. So, um again, agenda for that will be coming later this month.

Nice. Thank you. Um at the last planning commission meeting, uh they had a public hearing around the amendments to the unified land use and development regulations. Um it was also a joint meeting with the housing commission. Um the public hearing um I thought was really well attended which is always nice. We always appreciate when the community comes out for a public hearing. So it helps guide the commissions and then helps guide council. Um they will be forwarding on the items that they were discussing to us. So we will see that at a future council meeting. Um, a lot of this, uh, conversation, as councilors, I believe know, is um, uh, fueled by, uh, the construction, the recent construction on Franklin Street, uh, in terms of, uh, the public comments that we received from from residents. Um, and then during the housing and planning joint portion of that meeting, uh, we received a presentation, uh, from the team behind the building typologies project. uh really fascinating work um that they're putting together. They're still working on it, but it's fascinating to kind of see the different um possibilities for for layouts for um infill uh in the city. So, if you haven't been able to check that out, I would definitely uh recommend uh taking a look. Um the next planning commission meeting will be on the 14th at 6:30 p.m. Uh that happens in city hall and online as well. Um, Greenup Day just happened. Uh, so thank you to everybody who participated in Greenup Day. Um, a particular thank you to the deputy mayor who we may have to name Greenup Day after one year. Um, you always encourage so many folks to turn out. Um, and you stay out there and collect probably more green bags than than many other folks. But also a huge thanks uh to staff and to all of the

organizations who were involved. I know that there was a cleanup and a tour of Memorial Park um where um we're hoping to do some work uh in the future so that it is a park that more residents can use. Uh the pictures uh that I saw councelor and deputy mayor look like you cleaned out a lot of things there. Um but Ry, thanks to you and your staff. I know that you're heavily involved in everything green up day. Um, and just really thanks to the residents, it was nice to drive around throughout the day after I did a little volunteering and just seeing people cleaning up. I don't know, all evening. I mean, I was driving through town at one point when it was kind of dusky and I still saw some people uh cleaning up our our city. So, thank you. Thank you everyone. And I think that's all I got. Elaine.

Yeah. So reminder that the O'Brien Community Center and Wookuski Memorial Library renovation will begin this fall if all goes according to plan and the library is now closed for the month of May and will reopen in June at 65 Wooki Falls Way. Again, that's the space formerly leased by the commodities market. Uh to view the details about this process, you can visit wookivt.gov/news. And if community members wish to support the redevelopment of the Brian Community Center, including the library project, uh they can make a gift online to get a home.org slashdonate O'Brien and it will not go to housing particularly. It will go to the to the community center. Uh please save the date. Everyone's invited to the uh community parade on Saturday, June 6, 2026. The Wooki Mosaic campaign continues with that uh Main Street community parade. It'll start at the Wooki School District at 12:00 p.m. and will be followed by community lunch at the Wooki Senior Center. Keep an eye out for the announcement this week. We do need volunteers to march in the parade with banners that promote businesses that the that this uh campaign will provide. To sign up and learn more, you can do that later this week at downtown.org/mosaic. When you see residents interested in running for state representative Chitten 21 district, uh that's two representatives for two-year terms during the Vermont primary election that take place on August 11th, 2026 must complete and submit the required paperwork to the Wooki City Clerk's office no later than 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 28th, 2026. For full details and to download your paperwork, you can visit wookivt.gov/news gov/news or stop by the city clerk's office Monday through

Friday 7:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wookki board commission and committee terms are expiring on June 30, 2026. Residents with relevant experience, skills, interests, and or a willingness to engage are encouraged to apply for these great opportunities and to participate in local government. groups include the development review board, finance commission, housing commission, inclusion and belonging commission, local resources advisory board, which uh concentrates on historic preservation, municipal infrastructure commission, planning commission, safe, healthy, connected people commission, and the Wooki Memorial Library Committee. The city council and staff welcome a diversity of voices. And if you've never served on a board, commission, or committee before, we will do our best to support you. To learn more and apply, you can visit wookivvt.gov/news. And to echo council, uh, many thanks to everyone who attended the Burlington Wooki Bridge open house last week. It was great to see so many community members connecting with the project team, asking great questions, and learning about the project. Updates and next steps will be posted to the project website soon. And finally, uh, again, echoing council, thanks to the many residents and volunteers for another amazing green update. Some impressive stats at a glance. Uh, thanks to our community services department. 531 greenup bags distributed. 137 volunteers signed in. Likely many more who volunteered who did not sign in. Uh, volume of trash is one large roll-off dumpster filled plus three smaller ones. About 1,000 lbs of tires and one truck full of metal waste. So, this is always this funny thing where it's like, "Oh, it's great that there was so much picked up, but it's terrible that so much was picked up, but concentrate on thanking the community for pitching in." A special thanks also to the Wooki Valley Parks District and the Friends of the Wooki River for hosting the Memorial Park cleanup and

cookout. And of course, to Ray Coffee and the rest of the community services team for putting in so much work uh not only that day, but uh surrounding days as well. Thanks.

Thank you very much. Is there any public comment on either the council report or the city report? All right, seeing none, we will move on to our regular items. Uh, our first item of the night is a discussion. Chinman Solid Waste District annual report. Paul, go ahead and bring over Sarah and Beth. Hi. Um, I'm Sarah Reese. I am the executive director for the Chand District. Thank you for your time today. Um, I am here to present not our annual report, but our uh, fiscal 27 budget proposal. Um, it is something that we do need to ask our cities uh, for their support and for their vote. I go to your mic. That's okay. There you hopefully you're able to see that. Wonderful. Keep coming here. So, who we are is Jim Solway District. We were chartered back in 1987 to manage the solid waste generated in Jim County um in an environmentally sound, economical, efficient and effective manner. And uh we represent the entire entirety of the um communities in Chipney County. Um this is our breakdown of our last year's revenue and it changes a little bit from each year to year depending on um fees and and sale redemptions etc. And you know why we're here is because per our charter the legislative bodies of each member of the municipality need

to vote on our budget. Um each select board and council has one vote and the weights are the votes are not weighted by population one. I usually also get asked how we're doing um as as a community. And so how we're doing is this is back in 25 again. Um Chad County generated a little over 300,000 tons of solid waste total. of that uh just just over 124,000 tons were landfilled. That's that column three. And of that um the materials that could have been diverted fall into those those four categories of uh special materials, recycling organics and construction demolition debris. So we've been focusing a lot of our education outreach um efforts over the past couple of years on that organic um that organic piece. Uh we're fully you know 30 almost 31,000 tons of food scraps could have been diverted. So we feel that there's a huge opportunity there um to do more. I want to kind of get this right out there um up front um and talk a little bit about um how the pro the MURF project fraud incident that we experienced in March has affected our budget for the next year. So we had completed our draft uh budget process. We had our finance committee meeting on that draft budget in midFebruary and a few weeks later uh we fell victim to a significant fishing scam. um $3 million was uh diverted to a fraud um that was intended for our construction partner. Uh we then um you know had to revisit

our draft budget which we did uh which resulted in significant um cuts to programs to expenses. Uh we deferred capital and we revised our revenue expectations for the upcoming year. regarding kind of next steps on um on this process. So, I want to be very very clear that our member municipalities are not going to be asked to bear the burden of closing the funding gap. That $3 million again was um with two separate payments for our construction partner for work that they had done. Um so, you know, we were then, you know, immediately behind $3 million in payments for the project. So we have made that up um just about made that up to them. Um but we are now again behind in our uh our funding projections. So the revisions to our fiscal 27 budget were designed to uh basically recover um preserve cash and um that cash that will be directed to the project funds. So any revenue next year generated that exceeds our budget needs are going directly to that project. Uh we are anticipating that we're going to need to seek a short-term bank loan um which will need to be um you know paid for uh like municipality and the short-term borrowing uh within a 12-month period. Uh so we are working with our bank on that and we'll be giving the proposal to our finance committee and then to our board in the next month or so. I am projecting uh that the kind of the very short variable basic budgeting process and operational process will will spend the next two fiscal years. I am forecasting that we'll be be starting fiscal 30 kind of

back where we uh thought we were going to be for next year. So, I don't anticipate this being a long-term effect or long-term issue, but it is going to be a tight couple of years for the next two fiscal years. Um, so we're currently CSWD management and our finance committee um are reviewing again the expected spend over the next couple of years including capital um projects. Essentially, the only capital project we're working on is this MURF project, but also looking at current assets. Uh we'll be making some some recommendations to the board in the next few months regarding disposition to some of our assets and also the finance committee will be reviewing our current financial policies and key procedures and we'll be passing along any recommendations for changes to our board. So our new revised bottom line for our budget for fiscal 27 we are anticipating revenue or budgeting revenue at just over $19 million $19,451,000. Um, we include cost of goods sold, which are the cost associated with producing things like compost and local color pink. Um, rooting us the gross profit just over 19,000 $19,250,000. Our expenses after again all of the um the cuts to programs to uh avoiding costs and deferred capital brings us in at 16 just over $16 million. And so that income from operations before depreciation and transfer is just over 3.1 billion. So we are not going to be um dividing up any of that excess revenue should we have that revenue to any of our our reserve funds but for the MURF uh project fund. The only exception to that is the community cleanup fund which um we have committed to continuing to to fund um fund that fully for our municipality.

And so this is the breakdown of our revenue. Um you can see that uh we're anticipating again pretty close a little bit less in tipping fees than we were last year, a little bit more in the solid waste management fee, a little bit less in the sale of materials. local waste management fee is the tax that is charged to haulers for every ton of trash that is disposed um in the landfill in country. Our expenses um roughly similar to um last year payroll is roughly the same. Materials management is slightly higher, not by too much. Administrative costs have gone down quite a bit. Equipment has leaked down quite a bit. Um but so it's it's looking similar to last year as far as the breakdown. The revenue change is is significantly higher. Um again that is in part due to to a revision of our our revenue expectations. We tend to be very concerned in how we budget our revenue. Um we don't like to count too many chickens uh before they're hatched. So this year we decided to make it much closer to uh what we're realizing this year and um and not be so super conservative on the revenue. So we're hoping it will look similar to this year recognizing that there's quite a lot out of our control. Material sales increase 28%. That is some of that is due to the recycling facility, but um also that increase due to the projected uh more robust sales for a compost facility which is already um seeing revenue uh in excess of their currently budgeted amount for this year. So we're trying to kind of hue closer to our actuals for this protected budget both on the revenue and the expenses. Uh and again the revenue changes represent some cash preserved using spending and capital project deferral and the expensive change um it's

basically a level of expense uh from last year. So very modest increase in wages and benefits um material management increase that is our the what we pay to haulers to move material um either out to market or to the landfill. And then some significant um cost reduction and expense reduction. So, uh you can see some of those listed there. The significant tens costs reduced in marketing, advertising, um we usually do every other uh year surveys, um business travel and professional development. Um and operational supplies that are not safety related. So, um we want to make sure that again services to our customers were not um decreased and that if it's a safety issue, it continues to be funded. We are not taking um any cuts of safety and we're looking at we have a a pretty robust schedule capital replacements for things like rolling stock. We are took a hard look at that and we are deferring some of those replacements out in a couple three three years.

Does anybody have questions about any of the acronyms? Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah. Um oh gosh. Yeah, please do stop me. we get into our journey. I apologize. I agree.

Yeah, we'll make another too. We do have some fee changes um that we are proposing in this budget at our drop off centers. Um we we're looking at ways again to be able to help um fund capital um revenue. Um the new materials recycling facility uh will not be able to contribute significantly to the overall general capital fund as it has over the last 20 years. It will be needing to use all of the revenue that it generates from its operations to pay for the operations, pay for its debt service and contribute to its own capital reserve. So um the solution that we arrived at for the dropbox centers was to implement a facility use fee. Uh we actually asked our Dropbox users for their input on this. We did a survey over three weeks in in um March I believe it was and said we need to raise these need to raise a dollar somewhere. Uh and so we asked them of these four areas do you have a preference and if you preference could you please rank that? And so it was pretty it was actually just about tied between a facility use fee, which is pretty much uh means any vehicle that comes through the gate will pay a dollar to use the facility or raising a dollar adding a dollar to the price of the bags at the drop off centers. And we felt that the more equitable solution um was to spread the the dollar fee across all users versus just adding it to our our trash customers.

Um every you know we have customers who are coming in maybe once every month or once every year for something special they may need to um dispose of that's not a bag. They may have a subscription hauler and they would not be to use the facility. whereas our weekly customers would see that fee every every week on their bags. So more equitable solution um we felt was to add a facility fee for each vehicle of $1. We're also going to start to charge for leap and yard. Um this is new this year uh is to address the um the sheer volume of material that comes in um you know mainly in the spring the fall and the cost associated with moving that material. So uh it's a dollar for your per cific. If you have really more than two to three cubic yards, it will likely be uh more cost effective perhaps to bring it directly to our organic recycling facility in Willisting where there will still at this point be no fee associated with direct polling there. But that will be new and that will take it back in July but will likely be coming into effect for most folks in September. The uh tipping fee or the user fee at the material recycling facility has already increased. It increased $200 on April 1st. So that is carrying through July one. The organic segment facility we're having Fremont compost is increasing from $70 a ton to 77. Um no increase at the environmental depot. And the following management fee will increase from $40 a ton to $41.92 a ton. that is um basically following the garbage and trash index according to the US bureau of labor statistics consumer pricing

and for folks that don't know the environmental depot is the hazardous waste household hazardous waste facility. Thank you very much and then I'm going to talk to you. Um and again we do ask our municipalities to vote to approve our our budget each year. And really that was a lot of lot of information short time. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Sarah, thank you so much uh for that presentation. Um my city manager would like to say something. So I'm going to let my heart go.

Yeah, Sarah, that my apologies. I miswarned this meeting item and so I'd have to ask council to you can you can um vote as suggested but the be uh I'll just have it on the next agenda under consent as the official approval

and we'll just want to change it from the annual report to the annual budget so that that's um that's corrected. Okay. Um sir, I always appreciate seeing um your presentation. I this will be the fifth one I've seen. I think fourth or fifth. And it's you you always do a very good job at breaking down the finances and it's something that I have appreciated. It it makes it very understandable uh for me to process and I'm sure for the public to process as well. Um, only question I have is um, regarding the fishing scam that happened. Obviously, that's that's in the past and it was very upsetting for you all, I'm sure. Um, but have what measures have you taken since then to try to stop um, fishing from happening again? And completely understanding that the amazing thing about fishing is it can quite literally happen to anybody. Um, so I I don't think uh you're the first or the last organization, but just wondering if there have been extra trainings or or anything like that.

Yeah. No, you're you're you're right. And you know, one of the reasons that we felt it was important to talk about it was to to highlight that this can happen to everyone, anyone, and it is happening um throughout Vermont. Uh we are certainly not the first and we won't be the last unfortunately. Um so one of the the first things we did after notifying our bank um was and notifying authorities uh was to have our um our networking and um our IT company run a full scan of all of our systems. And so we are confident that there was not a breach uh to our network or to any of our bank accounts. It was a true sophisticated fishing scam. Um we have revamped our our uh training. Um all of our office folks are required to take uh training um each year. So we um and we were just in the process actually of of revamping those modules when this happened. So it's an annual exercise that our IT director goes through to to you know improve the modules and it was underway.

So that has been done and everyone has retaken the training. Um and again we're you know looking at our financial policies and um our procedures and making sure that there were no gaps there and that we're just tightening everything up as as much as we can. Uh and it's it's one of those things where there was not an obvious reach, no big hole. Um it was, you know, something that that again can happen to anyone and is happening everywhere every day. And so we are um being super cautious now. We're always careful. Uh but now we were we're very cautious. We're quite suspicious. We're slowing things down um and taking extra steps that are may seem, you know, maybe silly, but um it's giving us that confidence that uh this will not happen again. Um but yeah, it was jarring, devastating.

Wouldn't wish on anybody. Yeah. No, it's um it's very true, Sarah. Thank you for for bringing that up. And um I I agree. is something that we should talk about more often because it definitely happens. I've received emails from the city manager asking me to bring the gift cards down. Yeah. Um and among other things, um Deputy Mayor, I don't know if there's anything you'd like to share with us, uh through your work on the board.

Sure. Yeah. Um I've been on the Solid Waste District board since 2017, I think. Um, so coming up on 10 years, not quite there yet, but um, and believe that is like there are many other um, board members that have a longer tenure, much longer tenure than that. Um, so I'm trying to catch up. Um, but the, uh, the district does an excellent job. They are often setting the bar for the rest of the state for municipal solid waste districts. um their education and outreach um uh programs and staff are top-notch. I think you attended a training recently. I was at a training um last week uh for Waste Warriors. So, I'll put a plug for that. There's another training coming up um I believe next week or the week after. Um and yeah, I just I I can't say enough good things about CSWD. Um, I will still always advocate for a higher uh dollar for our community cleanup fund for Wooki. Um, but I I also will temper that ask right now as well. Um but yeah, I I think the staff across the board, the facilities um do a great job asking, you know, in this most recent survey for community feedback um on the best um direction to go for, um raising basically a gate fee. Um I thought that was really well done. Um came together very quickly, had results um by the end of our April meeting, which was also very impressive. So um yeah, it's a it's a professional team. So, I appreciate the work.

Thank you, Bren. Oh, wait. I'm not done. I was going to ask

Sorry, Mr. Mayor. I also just as Deputy Mayor um Oakleaf highlighted this. I recently took an amazing compost class and I'm obsessed with Gabby and Rhonda and I'm now a um I'm just gonna use the term compost warrior and I learned a I I was asking about compost enforcement and particularly how we can get more folks particularly in our municipality to compost and deputy mayor Oakley reminded me that it's about how do how do we educate folks to know that compost exists and how do we make it more accessible for them and I have been thinking since reading our materials that we received from um the city team earlier last week regarding the gate fee as someone my wife and I use to solid waste district sometimes and um it makes a lot of sense particularly just putting on my city council hat the idea that you have so many cars who are using your parking lot right you have to repave it etc just like the intersections of all those things makes a lot of sense so um I just think that's really smart on the leadership team and I just really appreciate I've been a huge as when my wife and I lived outside of Chitten County but I used a lot of transfer stations or um dumps and I uh it's a running joke in our family that I have favorites around the state. Um and so I just want to say I deeply appreciate what the work of the work of you and your team and I've become a huge fan because of um our deputy mayor. So I just want to highlight you all and just say thank you.

Sorry to appreciate that. Anybody any questions? Um sure. Yeah, I have a question if you don't mind. So, I'm I'm I'm looking over the the budget, and I'm curious the So, the 1.63 million that was uh in cash savings for this next budget. Um, and you said it's going to go until 2030, you said, is going to be the drastic savings to try to recoup the money lost during the fishing. Is that was I was getting

So, the the thought is, thank you for asking that question. Gives me a chance to clarify. The thought is that um this kind of barebones um operation will last through fiscal 30. So meaning um many of the cuts will likely remain in place. So kind of you making sure that our base level services continue. Um so things like you know business travel will likely be light to nothing. um we're going to be very creative with our promotional efforts uh and um you know very smart use of any advertising dollars um and probably not being introducing many new programs u frankly so just really making very very good use of what we have um and thank you for highlighting the waste warrior program because that is one that really makes benefits and that's something that we feel we can expand um and so kind of looking to the strengths that we have in safe place expanding things that will not not involve a lot of um dollar investment or people's time investment. Um and then you know again it's it's make you know kind of deferring those those purchases that can wait. Um you know it may be that we're not replacing all our signage uh right away. may mean that um we're going to make sure that you know people are are taking care of uniforms and and things of that nature. It's the small things that add up, but it's it's something where uh I don't know that we'll get 1.6 each year. Um but it's you know again queuing very close to our actuals and uh and taking a hard look each year for the next two three fiscal years uh and making sure

that again we're providing all the services that the community needs and expects from us at the level that they deserve um while maintaining safety uh for our employees. So I can't guarantee 1.6 fix for the next couple of years, but um our board was very pleased that we found this this amount this year. And um and yeah, I'm hopeful we'll be able to keep our expenses in check and in line around the same amount. The big qualifier um and we likely will go over our fuel line item for this year, for example. Um that one we we always raise it a little bit. We did not change that number in the past three weeks um to account for certain events, but there will be areas that we are not going to to realize those savings. But for the ones that we have control of, we we're going to be looking at those um closely and and trying to maintain the savings.

Um just kind of a follow-up question. Is there so some of it some of it says deferred uh large you know replacements for investments of uh machinery. Do you think there's a risk of operational problems because of that?

So what I asked my operations um director to do was to be very honest with me about the need, right? And he always is. But did we have a a very robust replacement schedule? Because before I got here, um it was more of a um kick everything kind of down the road and then when things start to break, then we'll make that purchase. And that's that's not what my philosophy is. My philosophy is put it on a good schedule, make sure you're doing good preventative maintenance, and then replace it as needed while you still have a little bit of value there. They can either trade in or if you need to have a spare, you got it. So what we I asked my operations departments to do is to look at that schedule and take a hard look at each item that was in the near term to be replaced and to say can we safely get another year out of this truck? Can we get another year out of um this loader? And when the answer was no, the answer was no. This needs to be replaced and that we will we will figure that out. But more often because of the past five years we've been doing um this more regular replacement schedule, we're in a good place to be able to defer um several of those larger planned um purchases down the road without affecting safety and without affecting um you know efficiency. Some of the things that we also had been planned were some of the u more more heavy um maintenance at our dropoff centers. And again, we had an engineer come in and say, "This is what we have we're thinking of. Can we get another year out of this structure? Can we get, you know, do we need to replace this right now?"

And so we had some satisfaction from our our engineers that said, "No, we can you can safely, you know, push this out a year." So, we have some items that are out just one year, some that are out two, and some that are out three. So, we'll continue to evaluate in the next six months, we'll take another look at those items that are a year out and make sure that's on schedule, as well as a two-year, and uh just really keep a very close eye on it. But anything that had any safety notifications to it, those items are not on the deferred list. Those items are are still um on the replacement list. Well,

thank you. Yeah, I I don't envy your position, but I trust your opinions right now. So, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh, any questions from members of the public? If you're online, just raise your hand. All right. Let's see any questions there. Any further questions from counselors? Thank you. Um, okay. Okay. So, we can't technically vote on this. You can give her an indication today, but then you can make it official next time. Um, so you can vote, but I'm not going to seek a motion for said vote. Just uh All right.

Poll. Can I have an indication of if you would vote uh in favor of this budget? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. We will see this on consent then. Great. Thank you very much, Sarah and Beth. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. Thank you. All right, we will move on to our next item. Discussion approval adopting policy on temporary work agreements. Jesse,

I'm going to cover for Jesse. Okay. So, uh, as first reviewed with city council at their April at your April 20th 26th meeting, the city has and will continue to need temporary employees for tasks that make the positions unlike regular employees and not like contractors. Um, examples include an American Sign Language interpreter who is not currently a contractor and does not plan to be, but already has an relationship with uh the person they would be interpreting for. Another example is focus group participants recruited based on their community relationships. Uh council had feedback at their last meeting to put in a maximum duration for such temporary work agreements and for reporting to council. Uh both of these to our understanding was to reduce the likelihood that a temporary work assignment would be inappropriately prolonged. The revision in the packet accounts for these changes at a high level. we would have more detail of course in a procedure. Uh is there are there any questions or further comments from councel?

Great. Thank you. Um Elaine, nice to see the uh suggested changes here. Always appreciate seeing that especially clearly in a different color. Councilors, do you have any questions for the city manager? No, I do not. Yeah. I also just wanted to say um thanks for um the discussion last week and and for um taking some of my um feedback and incorporating that into the revisions tonight. So I appreciate that. Of course. Yeah. And the swiftness with which it happened. Appreciate that. In that case, I will uh seek a motion to approve adopting the adopting the policy on temporary work agreements. So moved.

Second. All those in favor? I. Wonderful. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Uh our next item discussion strategic vision goal area update municipal infrastructure. John, are you online? Yes.

Great. Thank you. Uh so this is our third uh update for uh FY26. Um, as you can kind of see in the the memo provided, all of the most of all of the must dos are proceeding as planned. Uh, the first three uh infrastructure activities are sort of our big three projects that are currently ongoing. So, the Abanaki parking garage is number one, Main Street, and the Bonuski uh Burlington Bridge project. So, those are the big tasks right now. um uh that's probably right around an $80 million investment into the city. So, you know, three items, but major impacts uh for the city infrastructure. So, uh Abanaki Way, I'll just go through that one real quick. So, that one um as you can probably tell if you drive by the site, uh that is getting pretty close to um reaching the end of construction. So, the developer is targeting this summer to be complete with the hotel and housing units. Uh, so that will allow this the city to take over the parking garage structure. So, we're um we're that project has gotten very active uh recently because we're starting to close out items and work pretty closely with developer. So, thanks to Angela for helping with that. Um, as I mentioned in the memo, one of the things we're looking at right now with that developer is um, potentially modifying the parking agreement that we have executed with them. Uh, they would they're willing to uh, take over the day-to-day sort of management activities of the parking garage, which um, you know, as for the city, that's a big benefit because uh,

that's less resources that we have to put into that garage. Um, we still have to obviously maintain all the capital assets and safety equipment and things like that, but one of the reasons they're really looking to do that is because of the hotel and providing a a pretty frictionless guest um, uh, experience for them. So, we're working through that right now. And it's,

as I mentioned, the memo that may be something we we look to bring you if we can come to an agreement with developer in maybe June or July as a potential um item to discuss. So, that's in the works. Um, obviously, we're working through all the construction closeout items with that project. As far as um, you know, we're looking at operation maintenance manuals for the parking garage and trying to get those drafted. there's a lot of just sort of legal um items that we need to finalize like the road dedications and so that is um that's taking up a bit of time right now but that's that means it's getting close to the end which is great so all good news there um uh then the main street project um that as you know kicked off in early April again uh that work is predominantly on the north end of the corridor this season uh the you know the the one-way detour will not be implemented this season to a lot of people's favor. So, that's good news. Um, most of the work will be transportation related. Uh, so sidewalk, streetscape, and as you probably witnessed today, they they just started the Tyan Street intersection reconstruction. So, that means they're they're doing the the main cut up there to put the road back in. Uh so that work is expect to take place this week and then they're going to be repaving uh next week is the target weather pending of course. So that that's probably this is probably the trickiest part of the project for this season is uh finishing that Tigan Street work. Um, as you can imagine, you know, traffic impacts are are are pretty tough there because uh because of the sort of Norman Street exit and the the you know, the Tyen Street detour. So, they're they're doing

one side sort of uh east side, west side, kind of flipping from one side the other to maintain traffic. So, that's in the works right now. Um, and then you'll start seeing some of the, you know, the init the the remaining light posts and some of the more of the streetscape elements come in, uh, this month. Uh, traffic signal foundations were going in today. And, um, so you'll see some of those tra new traffic signals being installed this month as well. So, pretty exciting. We're looking forward to, you know, getting this one wrapped up. There's obviously still a lot to do on, you know, close out of the project as far as as builts and uh closing out financing and that sort of work, but um so far so good uh this season. Uh and then on the Wiski Burlington Bridge, um as Eli mentioned, some of you mentioned, we had the the open house that was um I thought really successful. We had a great turnout. We got a lot of really good feedback. Um the consultant for the project in Vrans is currently compiling a lot of that data. I've seen um uh just a quick look at some of the the data they that they did receive uh from specifically on the parks. So I imagine we'll be sharing some of that along. Um, and I think that will we're still trying to figure out the best approach to kind of use that data and potentially modify the um the design build uh specs to capture some of that. And um we I was talking with our VR project manager today and he's coming up with some uh potential options where maybe the council can weigh in on some of that information. So look out for that. I'm going to have probably a memo

uh pres put put together by H&TB if folks are interested where um if council wants to see some additional details on on the parks options, we can uh we can definitely bring that to you all. Um other than that, we're continuing to look at the um design build RFP that will be going out uh hopefully late June, early July. uh and that will that will basically kick off you know the the procurement for the design build contractor that would be uh coming on board and likely the winter winter spring next year. So there's a very long procurement process with sign build um because ultimately you know we the current team gets the project to about 30% design level and then the design build contractor has to kind of take it from there. So there's a lot of work involved both on the design build uh contractor side put a proposal together for that work. So a little different than our typical sort of um design bid build process where we get a project to you know construction level design versus what we're doing here. Um so that that's kind of our main task right now is just working through that that RFP and providing comments to vrans and other stakeholders. Um, and then the other items I'll I'll kind of briefly talk on. So, you know, uh, infrastructure item four, the parking garage, elevator, you know, that will kick off really in July when we get into the the FY27 budget. So, not much to discuss at that at this point. Uh, and then infrastructure items 5 through seven are storm water related. Um, so we've made a lot of progress on those three items in the last month. Um, so most of that is is sort of regulatory

because we have an expired permit downtown. Um, that is is pretty complicated that it overlaps with a bunch of other permits. um you know that that would include the new bridge uh storm water permit operational permit uh our MS4 and phosphorus phosphorus control plan. So we do have a working with we working with Vermont DC we do have a good game plan to address that uh through our updated phosphorus control plan that we have a grant um in the CCRPC uh UPWP plan this year that starts in July. So that's their annual kind of work plan solicitation uh for um grant funded projects that typically help transportation and storm water energy projects. So that will kind of kick off in July, but we have a good at least plan to proceed with that. And then you may see some work um starting up in the next month or so up at Gristen Court and Cedar Street. that is um two uh smaller rain garden bio retention basins that uh that we are currently bidding out. We have bids coming in this week for that. That is part of our phosphorus control plan um projects and we we've also tied that into our paving bid this year as well. So that work will be kicking off um next month. Uh and then finally we did receive our sort of final storm water um I know not very exciting but we video inspected pretty much our entire storm water system um with this last phase of uh grant funded work through CCRPC. Uh so we're we're just starting to digest some

of that and that will ultimately show up in sort of our capital plan uh for next season. So, uh, more to come on that one. But, so with that, um, yeah, I'll answer any questions you may have. Thank you, John. Yeah, it's a lot. Sorry.

No, no, I'm laughing at something you probably can't see. Um, we I think I could speak for everyone. We would definitely love to see some of those plans for the park projects around the bridge. That would be great. So, thanks for for mentioning that. Um, you didn't specifically say it, but I think it's important to say that um in your memo you say substantial completion at Main Street will be done this summer. So, I think that is huge uh for residents to be aware of. Um just one question from me, John. Um on um MI9 transportation, consider including enough budget for sidewalks the metro plan. It's the only must do that you haven't uh been able to start yet. So just wondering if um it's something you think you might have time to get to anytime soon or um if it's just might linger there a little longer. Yeah, ultimately that will end up being a sort of a FY28 budget item. Uh we do have funding right now to that's set aside for the uh east side of town for Florida A and Regginald and some of those streets that are that are really for concrete work. So there is some budget there, but

I think ultimately it's like getting through some of these main street larger projects and then hopefully getting back to some of these like smaller um you know budgeting for sidewalk replacements, that type of work. So yeah, in my mind that's probably more of an FY28 budgeting task right now. Okay, thank you for that clarity. Council, any questions? You said that this was very boring, but I actually am very excited about this. What the video that you're doing of the storm water pipes, what is the desired outcome of of the video? Like, why do you do it?

So, it it's for a couple reasons. So, one, we're updating all of our uh GIS digital mapping. So, just making sure that our mapping is accurate. Um, so the pipes that are in the ground are what we have mapped and the sizes are correct. Uh, two, it's identifying the pipes that are in, you know, potentially very poor conditions that will sometimes drive our paving program as well. Um, so when we're looking at, you know, streets for road reconstruction, a lot of times we're looking at the utilities as part of that. Um and we want to identify any like major issues that we have to address immediately. So some spot repair issues. Uh and then ultimately what our goal is with this too is is long-term capital planning on our storm water side. So you know understanding if if you know we have uh you know some pipes that we're seeing that we need to say slip line. So slip lining is when we don't have to actually excavate the road and replace the pipe um and we can just line those in situ then we'll do that or there may be pipes that we do have to actually excavate and replace. Um, and so the goal is to really build that into the sewer fund uh, uh, long-term capital plan as well because right now we don't have I mean we don't we do have some data based on the previous video, but now that we have all of it together, we can start going through and and sort of prioritizing uh, pipes for replacement. So yeah, it's really helpful tool. Um, and it just gives us a little more clarity on where network is conditional conditionwise and costwise.

Thank you. Hi John. Nice to chat with you as always. Um uh number seven, the storm water improvement project. Um is that how is that being funded? Is it being funded through the Yeah. How is it being funded?

Yeah. So right now we we do have one grant that will basically fund the improvements at the ones I mentioned at Person Core and Cedar Street. It will also uh fund some of the design work for the other projects. So our phosphorus control plan uh it may be posted on our website. I'll check. If not, I'll post our website. It outlines, I believe it's four or five um different storm water projects throughout the city that will ultimately meet our phosphorus uh threshold uh that deec has set. So with those projects, you know, we will um basically capture, I forget the number, 20ome kilograms of phosphorus um including some of our existing uh storm water structures. So we have like four or five that we have to build. So the grant will fund at least construction for one and some design support for uh at least two of the other projects. So basically that means we do have to find grant hopefully grant funds to build these remaining projects. Um the deadline if I remember don't hold me to this I think we're at I think the deadline to complete the the projects is like 2036. So we do have we do have some time to um to chase some additional grant funding uh for these projects and most of them are kind of smaller projects. So, you know, it's these bio retention basins at Bristen Cedar Core. Another project would be at Landry Park underneath the um parking lot. Uh and then uh there's there's a project at Richard Park um

that be sort of a similar size smaller bio retention basin. Um, and I I'm forgetting where the other one is right now, but they're all sort of smaller ones that that we have to implement by the I think 20 36 date. So, we are going to have to chase some more grant funding for those. Um, are those So, if there is a match required for the grants, would they be coming from the storm water fund in the mid the water fund? Okay. Yep. Storm. Yeah. Sewer fund. So, sewer fund. Yeah. Yeah. Sewer. Uh, sewer includes san expenses. We had the fun. Okay.

Yeah. I've got several questions. Um follow up to councelor Turos. Um for the video study, will there be a report available? Yep. Yeah, we can um we can post that on the on our landing page with the rest with our rest the other like master plan reports. Okay. Do you anticipate when that might be available? Uh probably within the next month or so. We just have to go through it, make sure there's, you know, it's draft, make sure it's final for posting. So, probably next month or so.

Okay. And then for the um lines that will the condition allows some insitue work will that is that something that would be proposed to be addressed on the near term.

Um I'm not sure yet. We still have to sort of digest that report and see and kind of build out a capital plan. So, it's a little too early to tell at this point, but um I think like I said, our goal is to kind of build a five-year capital plan with just on the pipe network based on the the reports.

Okay. Would and then just related to that those findings will that also inform some of the scoping work that's done that usually relates to like other street management projects like thinking of Lefountain as an example of how and Hickok as an example of how water sewer lines tend to also influence other um you know other street improvements, sidewalk curving, etc.

Yeah, I think so because then at least you know a lot of times when we do like say found street scoping study, we don't have a general sense of what the condition of the storm piping is until we do that video inspection. And so now that we have sort of the whole city videoed, um, you know, that's obviously a cost that we can bake into many of those scoping studies where it's like, okay, well, if we're doing the surface transportation, we we have to do the storm water rehab, that's an extra, you know, x, you know, th,000 and or it's full replacement. So I think that's where we we would sort of bake it into these scoping studies is like we would have a better understanding of what the cost of the rehab or replacement of the storm water infrastructure would be. Um and it may even also guide like if if we're for example looking at a road diet or something like that and we know that the storm water infrastructure is in poor condition. It's like, yeah, makes sense because it will, you know, we can move catch basins around because we're going to have to replace the storm water system anyways. So, yeah, I think it will be a helpful factor when we're looking at scoping studies.

Okay, awesome. Um, on to some other related topics that you just covered. Um, I was curious with the Abnaki garage in discussions with a developer for that. Would there be an expense that's presented to the city that's affiliated with that partnership for the garage management? I don't Angela I might tag you in but I I don't think we have talked about an expense. Um right not directly. I am still working through a potential contract. I have a meeting with our attorney tomorrow on this issue as there are some complications around our tax exempt financing um and doing any sort of thirdparty agreement. Um but we are not anticipating that this would have any cost to the city. Um at most we are anticipating potentially foregone revenue but there will be an equivalent savings on our side for expenses.

Okay. Follow-up question to that if see if I can phrase this well. Um so if the agreement it would be allowed to go forward um considering the financing parameters would the developer then be responsible for managing the lease of all the spaces. Am I understanding that correctly?

So all of the revenue for any contracts would continue to come to the city. The only contracts that will exist in that garage are the hotel, the housing, CCB, and the Digest property. Any other parking contracts would be for the Cascades garage. Um, and we are working through specific agree agreements in the operations agreement that we're uh proposing uh around those contract uh operations and how we would expect them to be managed. Okay. Helpful. Thank you. I'm sure I'll have questions in the future, but that's helpful now. Thanks, Y.

Um, John, two follow-up questions. Um, is there anything on the uh I don't know what to call it, but the to-do list, any of the mayos that may be completed in this year or you anticipate being completed?

And there's a few that says like not started yet, so I didn't know. I'm I'm looking through. So the I'll just run through a couple of those. So the the storm water ordinance update, I've drafted some highle bullet points that you know we want to include um for that. So that is one I would really really like to get done this this year. Um because our our current storm water ordinance is is frankly pretty poor. It doesn't address a lot of the the you know sort of the the the very unique things in Wooki with very small developable highly highly impervious lots that um luckily we've had a lot of developers that do work with us um in putting in like storm water proper storm water treatment but um our our ordinance is is behind. So, that is one I really want to get done this this season. Um, uh, the Hoods Crossing, um, I think I mentioned the memo. That's one where we haven't heard much back from Vrans on that one so far, but I imagine that's going to pick up very soon because that's one that um, is going to be targeted for construction next spring ahead of any bridge work. So, that one is I'm probably getting an email tomorrow because I I mentioned it. So, that one will definitely pick up. Um, the treatment plant we we have um in we sort of started talking with some design consultants about that um for the flood mitigation work. So, that will really pick up in July with um with the budget. Uh, so we do have funds budgeted for that and the FY27 budget. So that will wait until July. Um, parking garage. Yeah, we haven't that is

one that's probably not going to happen this year, but looking at different access systems for the garage. So, that one um is probably less potential. Uh, I'd like to get into the snow and ice control kind of policy. Um but that probably won't happen till the fall honestly at this point. Um and then the the fountain, the very last one. Um interesting enough, there is some activity on that right now. Um it it it's sort of passive on my end, but uh we did one of the local engineering consulting firms is interested in helping um look at that fountain. Uh actually kind of in coordination with uh with the the hotel developer um as kind of a welcome to the area like we're going to try to help you fix your fountain type um task. So we're we're probably going to do some investigation on that actually this uh this spring. We just cleaned it out uh last week and we're going to do some die testing and at least figure out what where the failure is in that fountain. Um uh if it's a leak in the basin that collects all the water or it's the service line that runs to the pump. Um so there actually is some work going on with that right now. Um so that one we could have an answer on what at least what the issues are there. So,

very cool. Well, thank you. Then my follow-up question. Um, is that more like a common question? The, uh, I know on our on my tour, we talked about the brine application. I didn't really know if you wanted to tell folks how much salt was saved and so on and so forth because it was quite interesting to hear about it.

Yeah, I think I'll probably do that maybe in next update or even a standalone um, piece. Um I I give a ton of credit to the team like uh particularly Jason our our crew leader. He's really championed using liquid application this winter. We've we've been able to save uh you know this past winter saved quite a bit in rock salt usage where you know other municipalities were having a lot of issues not even be able to get salt. Um we we managed pretty well. So, I'll I'll share some numbers and some reporting. Um, we're we're also getting interest from other municipalities like um want to know how, you know, what they can possibly do to implement. So, we're um yeah, our team's really leading the way on this and really grateful for them. So, yeah, I think I'll do something um once we get a little bit more information um on confirming how much salt we've used and that sort of thing. Thank you.

Thank you.

I I have a question about the Main Street project. Um one about the Tyan Street and Norman Street intersection. Um so can you just clarify what's h what you anticipate happening this month? I I notice heading southbound into the city that the stop light um the green the left side the left light the green light doesn't light up when it um just the right side that seems intentional but I'm not sure. Um you know there continue without the line striping there continue to be a lot of close calls with folks not understanding that that's a right turn only lane. Um thankfully traffic should be calming down soon with um colleges um ending for the year, but obviously we still have K through 12 that's um in session for another month, month and a half or so. So if if you're able to just clarify what what project work is happening now at that intersection, that'd be helpful.

Yep. Yeah. So this week they're reconstructing that entire intersection, and that basically means the the roadway. So they're they're taking the existing roadway down to about 3 feet depth and installing new uh like dense grade stone and then a you know finer stone and then putting a base layer of pavement and then a a a binder layer of pavement. So everything except sort of the last final paving. Um and I actually u today we had a discussion on you know how are we going to maintain traffic through there and eliminate this this constant conflict of right turners and through uh so I you know one of the things that we're probably going to look at until the final pavement is installed is making that sort of one um one lane through there meaning through lane and right turn would be But we have to look at what the queueing would look what that queuing would look like. Um,

and so that has to be modeled and then if if that seems infeasible, we're going to have to come up with some sort of uh temporary light markings until final pavement occurs. Um, I don't have the date for the final paving. I um I'll have to look at the schedule again, but um you know the the final right now they're targeting the end of sort of substantial completion for projects uh mid June. Um so at least by you know they're currently turning right now by at least mid June being completely done with final paving and line striping and all that. So

we'll see. Um that's very weather independent and you know what they've what they find. As far as the signal goes, this one it's a little interesting because the signal is actually part of the DDI project. um it's not part of the main street project. So SD Ireland is installing the signal. Um we had a a coordination meeting with their team last week on sort of timing. Um the new signal would likely be installed I I suspect sometime in July at this point. Um because the utility pools have to come down before the new signal comes in. Uh there's a conflict there. So the the signal issue you mentioned um that is actually it's it it's um it's not working properly right now. So we do have East Coast signals that's going to have to repair the signal um the existing signal for the time being until SDR gets in.

Um once we get a little closer to those final paving dates and when the signal work is happening um I can definitely share that. Um because I think this intersection is probably one of the more like I know you all get a ton of emails. I get a ton of emails about it. It's it's it's a pretty I mean it's existing conditions. It's a pretty poor intersection. Um and so obviously during temporary condition we don't want to make it even worse. Um and try to hopefully improve it a little bit so it's a little clearer. So, um, yeah, I'll sh once we get some more details, I can share sort of what the final plans are going to look like, okay,

timing wise for that. Um, and maybe one additional thing is the flags that were placed on either side, maybe those can be replaced because they're looking a little weathered after this past winter. Um, yeah, agree. to whatever extent that that it helps I you know maybe it's worth a a lowbudget way of trying to make an improvement but um really great updates. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Anything from the public? All right, seeing nothing. John, thank you very much.

Thanks. All right. And on to our last item of the night, discussion, approval, overview of the temporary public art policy. Ray,

uh, before Ray starts talking, I have to say this is a product of, uh, this is another line in the chronicles of trying to do too many things uh, without resourcing them properly. So Ray's put in a lot of time to get this to this point. of course others have as well because there's a committee involved. Um and it was in service of trying to have an policy in place so that we could have banners on the polls in time for the parade but realizing today that that is basically not possible at this point. So we're not uh which is just as well because otherwise I would have basically been asking to violate our policy for adopting written directives. So instead we're this today will be an introduction and then next time we'll have you uh approve ask that you approve it. So today is just an overview.

Right. Um so want to say first off thanks to councelor Oakleaf who's been very involved in this process over the last month six weeks probably probably a little longer than that. Um but it's been great to have the the council interface as we've been developing this. Um, as a cover sheet states, we don't currently have any policy or guidance for staff in place to help us make decisions around public art. What it is, where it goes, how we're seeking it out, um, how we're making decisions about what to approve and not. So, a group of us, uh, some reps from city council, city staff, uh, INB commission and Safe Healthy Connected gathered a few weeks back and at the time we're looking at what we were hoping was going to be our long-term public art policy. and I think pretty quickly realized we needed more time but also have several projects in the queue now that are waiting for a response. So, uh I think some really good suggestions from uh committee members was to let's let's get a temporary short-term policy in place that'll allow us to sort of process some of these pieces that are in front of us now and then work as a group to flush out a longer term policy that will really help I think in particular guide investment in public art and how the city does that. So, what's in front of you tonight is a short-term policy that would be designed to be applied to any uh public art projects that would be completely installed by October 17th. That date, just for folks to know, was kind of selected based on the seasonality of installing public art outside. Um, that's about the and frankly pumpkins. Um, I asked for a week of reprieve in between this and the beginning of Halloween craziness. Um,

so that's the timing there. And then any projects that are looking to go beyond that uh point in time would be uh considered under what will hopefully be the long-term policy that we adopt in the coming months. Uh as you see, policy includes uh hopefully a pretty clear rubric for how we're making decisions. We want to make that really transparent with artists and and have folks applying really understand what we're looking for and not have it be a, you know, sort of behind closed doors process. uh and the application that we put together was very much we built the rubric first and then the application second so that really the application is asking very explicitly for artists to respond to items in the rubric. I think one point of which I sort of mentioned but want to just say explicitly I think one recommendation from the com committee and certainly from staff is in this interim period with a short-term policy that we not invest public funds in public art. I think we're just not at a point yet where we feel like we are, I think, equipped with a policy that allows us to do that in a thoughtful way. Um, and as we all know, there's not a lot of resources currently dedicated to public art. We have a small public art uh fund, but I don't think we're ready at this point to be investing that small amount of money based on the policy that's in front of you tonight. So with that preamble, um I happy to walk through this in detail or or simply ask questions. I think hopefully it's fairly straightforward, but um maybe ask if folks have questions and we can kind of go through piece by piece.

And if I may, I want to give a little bit more context. Um so there's um as the memo states and the information um that Ry provided in the agenda item um representatives from uh across some of the commissions have um been meeting for um at least two months now. Um but also a community group of artists um that I've been working with um has been meeting monthly since January. Um they also uh had a chance to review this draft and offered some suggested feedback which was incorporated into the most recent um conversation that we had with the group last Tuesday. Um, and so this is kind of where folks are feeling comfortable with. Again, um, knowing that getting to this point, it hasn't been, um, a thoroughly public process with like a warranted commission item. Um but again just knowing that there are some projects in the queue a shorter term guide uh array of guidelines and um application parameters um to help alleviate some of the some of the desire to move projects forward this season. um knowing like that there's there's a whole wealth of conversation and directions that that we can and should go to make sure that this is really well vetted, well thought out. Um and uh and that the community is really excited about the projects too, making sure that there's engagement. So there are some things that you probably don't see in the short term that are intentionally um left out knowing that the conversation moving forward would be much more robust would be you know um included in more publicly warned um uh

commissioner subcommission um conversations that I hopefully get to participate in. So that's my preamble. That's great. Oh, thank you Bren. Um, right. This looks great. Uh, I would have been happy to approve it tonight, but fine to do that later. Um, I think I recall talking about public art policy when I was originally on the commission as a commissioner. So, um, congrats for fin for being able to to get something our way. Um, I don't have any questions. I think it's great.

I have a question. Um, one, it's really helpful to learn that local artists were involved in the making of this. I recently became like recently like met a amazing local artist named Misty and I just shared this with her and I she's been like craving local art in Wooki and I mentioned this to her and um just shared it with her while while we were here. So, I'm just happy to know, right? It's like the people most impacted should be closest to the power. And not to say that there aren't folks like on city council who are artists or you know on public health connected people, but I do not identify as an artist by any means. Um my question is in the artwork selection process and criteria section. Yes.

Bullet point. Two says proposalwork deemed to be defamatory, harmful or offensive will not be allowable for approval.

And my question is according to whom? That is a great question and I think candidly is intentionally somewhat vague. Um I think that that would be a determination made by this group that's mentioned here of of representatives. So again, city council, city staff, and the two commissions. It certainly is not something that would be made by an individual. Um I think there are obviously some pieces that are fairly straightforward and obvious, right? I think anything racist, sexist, etc., etc. But I think that there are opportunities to push that envelope in art. And I think that that's something that again with more artists involved in the long-term development of the plan, I think I would love I also am not an artist or don't identify as an artist. So I would love any sort of feedback or or guiding language around how to clarify that. I think that was one piece that we really worked through in our meeting most recently is trying to make some of these parameters as clear as we can because some of them are really subjective, frankly. Um, and that's okay, but we don't again want to leave too much up for interpretation by folks applying because we want to make it clear what we're looking for. So, yeah, it's a great question. I don't have a great answer for you, but I think it to say it'll be a group decision and that that will happen through two phases. So, right, there'll be this group that kind of looks it over, scores it, and then brings something forward to city council to then also make a determination. So, um, it' be quite a few community members and representatives engaged. I I I appreciate that answer and I appreciate the transparency and I also appreciate that in this section as well, it lays out that like there will be a warned public meeting and then also like the literal last few words of this or decisions of city council are final.

Y and so it feels like it's a community effort and obviously there would be an opportunity for public comment and things like that. But um I think this is great. I'm super excited that this is happening and any way that we can help or support, let me know. Yes. Um, yeah, two questions just for the order of events for this. The the temporary art committee, the representatives that are on there, how would they be selected?

It's a good question. It's not a chartered group of council. So, I think in terms of the commission members, it would be a matter of those commissions, I think, determining who those reps are at this point. Um, we hadn't discussed and it's it's certainly something that you all could propose. We hadn't discussed having it be a chartered group of council um because I think that comes along with some different requirements around public warning of meetings and things of that nature. Again, I think to Bren's point, we do want to make these meetings public and available. But um yeah, so I think that was my my thought is that the commissions would appoint, you know, two members to the subgroup um and almost have it be a subcommittee of those joint subcommittee of those two commissions

and then we as a a council would also select one person. Is that kind of what you're thinking? I think that that yes would be my thought. Okay. Yeah, that's your prerogative. But um and then and then it sounds like after the committee refers it to the council and it gets voted at council. So it'll be public the coun so it'll be public facing when it comes to the council meeting and they'll be able to view it. Public will be able to view it and give feedback. Okay. Yep. Good.

And I and I think too and Bren have talked a little bit about this. I think the moving forward the meetings of this group I would like to warn publicly maybe not in an official like you know secretary of state style but like put a meeting on front porch forum let folks know that we're getting together this again we're not trying to do this behind a closed door um so I do really want to make sure that the community feels like they can be engaged um throughout the process I love that um and one thing that I want to emphasize is like the rubric is designed as um kind of a a point of like is is this project have enough substance to it to be able to move it forward for additional discussion. Correct.

It's not um the rubric is is scored in such a way that it should be considered an an approval in any way.

I I would want to make sure that any um policy does not have administrative approval. In my opinion, I think there should be um a fairly vetted pro public process and you know the longer term um policy adoption could discuss some like staging or gradation of public involvement depending on how large of scale the project is or how much of a public investment of funds there might be. Um but I I think that that's those are things we want to make sure the community is opportunity to provide is aware of it has opportunity to provide feedback and feels excited about it. Um I think to me are some of the core elements. Um and ideally avoiding lessons learned that we've seen in in other communities in Vermont as well as across the nation. Great. Uh, anything from the public online, can you bring Terry over? Hello again. Can you guys hear me?

Hi, Terry. Great. Um, I'm very excited to see this um, coming around so quickly. Um just curious though about um the commission or the the group that's going to be reviewing the art. Um have has there been any consideration about having an artist on that group?

I think certainly longer term yes that was discussed. I think you know candidly in the interest of moving this forward somewhat quickly I think we went with groups that we had represented at the table. Um there is an artist amongst that group. Um I will say currently, but I think it's something that we'd be open to considering certainly. Um and I and again longterm that's the goal. I think this is just a a short-term sort of uh to get us through frankly. Yep. I understand. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

All right. nobody else in the public. So, Terry's good and that's that. Um, Awesome. Well, and I I mean, if it if it's okay with me saying Terry was one of the artists that I worked with outside of this

um informal commission group um with a handful of other um Wooki based artists um that are very well accomplished in their own right and have a lot of experience um with public art. Um, so it's it's uh been extremely exciting to to see that group to come come together in their own free time um to look at this and to help move the conversation forward. Wonderful. Thank you for your work on this, Deputy Mayor. Right. Thank you. Yeah. Um All right. As we're just talking about it today and not voting, right, I think you're good. All right. Awesome. Thank you.

All right. The time is 7:41. I will seek a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I. Wonderful. Have a good night everybody. Good night.