Town Council - Regular Meeting

So great. Want me to start? Yes. Yes, please.

Okay. Um, first I just want to say good evening. Um, if you didn't catch my full name, I'm Bera, director of New Milford Social Services, and I thank you, town council members and board of finance, and of course, mayor for giving us an opportunity to speak about um our budget. Um, for those of you who may not know our mission statement, uh, Nilford Social Services, um, we offer resources and programs to enhance the well-being and the self- sustainability of New Milford residents that are experiencing psychosocial and economic adversity by addressing their basic needs, including food and household self-reliance. And I'll get into the psychosocial piece of it in a little bit. Um before I get started, I just want to acknowledge um I have my four staff members here. I've got Monica Roberts, our office coordinator and the um unofficial boss of all of us. Um Wanda Filer, who has been um absolutely outstanding as our program and volunteer coordinator. She coordinates and um well, she manages about 25 to 30 weekly volunteers. um Ray, including one of them who's absolutely wonderful, um one of our newest food bank volunteers, um Maria Dale OA, uh social worker and diverse community advocate, and Alyssa Cole, the baby of the um department. Um the young, uh the newest member, two and a half years, going on three. Congratulations. Um and she is our uh social worker and our postcrisis navigator. So, we'll we'll get in a little bit about that in a little bit. Um, as you can see from page 171 of the budget, um, you will notice that, um, our chose uh, shows, um, and this first slide, this is an opportunity to bring together two puzzle pieces, creating a bigger cohesive piece to better meet the socioeconomic concerns of all of the adult population of New Milford uh,

residents as it relates to um, those that are in financial crisis, experiencing high risk and vulnerabilities that impacts their well-being. Um, aging in place and aging with dignity. Um, this we see as an opportunity to synchronize our collective response despite age. Uh, the field of human services does include um the field of human services is a bigger umbrella word um that includes working with all ages of adults, youth, and seniors to enrich and enhance the well-being of these residents. Each town has different configurations of how they organize the work done by human service department. So not every town is created equal, if you will, in terms of how they how they call them, how they organize them. Um uh New Milford uh has three human service providers. Uh the youth agency um with Jason um the senior center run by Jasmine and uh and us. This budget reflects a new configuration that is not unique um as I said to other towns and states and um it does show the move of the three positions which in addition to the municipal agents includes a seasonal assistant um who to the municipal agents. Okay. So this slide helps understand a little bit about what the um duties, responsibilities, charges um that are pressed upon um these two these positions in terms of helping uh the community. Um as you can see uh I tried to highlight in purple um there's an overlap of what we all do. Um we we basically we all do an economic and benefit needs assessment. Um we all do information referral, we do assistance with applications, community resource

awareness and then referrals to any sort of extended services. Um protective services is is listed um for municipal agents. Um primarily because um they are protected class with a lot of vulnerabilities. Um there are no adult protective services for disabled young disabled in the Milford. Um so we have to think out of the box for that. um um but still um we try to do what we can. In addition to that, social workers, social workers and in the case of this department, they're licensed social workers. They're able to provide a psychosocial assessment added to that needs assessment for person people who are seeking services. They use these assessments to understand a client's current living situation, their social support, their mental and emotional health. They can perform comprehensive inquiries and often guidance and intervention and connect individuals to resources, managing challenges like trauma or chronic stress. Psychosocial refers to the interconnection of internal and external factors and experiences that impact someone's ability to enhance or more maintain their emotional well-being, their health and their mental health, and if their ability to become or remain self-reliant, maintain their quality of life with dignity. With this new configuration, our goal is to strengthen the town's response to the internal and external factors that impact all adults we work with to help them with their self- sustainability and quality of life. What does that really mean? Um it means that when you come in looking for you have a need, you have a financial need, you have a an uh a benefit, you're looking to search for um whether it is um something you're lacking like heat um

finances to uh adjust to an increase in rent um or something else that might be going on in your life. There's added stressors that people have. There's things in their life. There could be past trauma. There could be current situations, a change in medical condition in uh someone's with someone's spouse um or themselves. Um they could be coming out of a domestic violence situation or intimate partner violence situation. Um there's a lot of factors that pertain that prevent us sometimes from that self-actualization, from that moving forward. Um what our workers do, what our social workers do is they they recognize and are able to realize that there's some people who just have more going on and need more. Um they need to be worked with a little bit more. Um they're not going to be able to just say, "Hey, just go get a job. Here's a few jobs. Do your your you know, go on Indeed, get the job, and see." There's some folks that are struggling to keep those jobs. Um, so if they're struggling to keep those jobs and we're able to look at resources, maybe we connect them to a job coach. Um, help them um, get through whatever might be in front of them, whatever obstacle that might be impeded them for moving forward. Um, sorry about the wordiness. Um, it's just the best I can do. Um, what I wanted to talk about with this slide and and I want to talk about continue to talk about social workers before I get into the rest of what social services does is our social workers. They spend a lot of their time they spend about 70% of their time going beyond um those applications, those connections of financial resources um those basic needs that I'll talk about in the next slide. Um and again like I

said they are there to help people um figure out what the obstacles are that are impeding their path. Um how can we connect them to resources? Um they work closely with community partners. This is just a short list of uh community partners that we uh constantly are communicating with. Um we're advocating for our clients. We're helping them build those relationships. we're trying to um help them move through. You know, we talk about strength-based approach. Um and I want to talk a little bit about strength. Um because when somebody comes in and they're stressed out and they're looking to get something done, they're something has changed. they've moved into a different chapter in their life. Um whether naturally um because they're getting a bit older um whether they're um relationships are falling apart um or whatever it it is. Um but they're coming in and sometimes we're going to be able to do what we can do inhouse, but we need to connect them to partners. It's going back to the second slide. is what we've all do in both centers. Uh we connect people to resources and what we realize is that there's going to be some people who just can't quite do that or they come in and and they come in and they feel like they feel like oh gez I'm in social services I must be at the bottom and actually um you're not. you're actually doing pretty well because when you're able to step through doors and say, "Listen, something's going on. I can't take care of it myself." Um, I need a little bit of help. Um,

you're courageous and you need to be commended for that. Um, I I throw an analogy with my team all the time, and I do this with the folks that I sit across the desk with, too, is it's um I don't know much about baseball, but I know enough to know that everybody gets a chance up to bat, but as everybody successfully goes around the the plates, you're benefiting the entire team. So, the person sitting across my desk happens to be the coach, pitcher, the main person, the name of the team. So, if I come along and I help out a little bit, I advance them. We get them connected to the center. We get them connected to Abilities Beyond, we get them connected to um End Hunger, uh we get them help them find a job coach or or get them connected to the American Job Center and they get some training. Um that's another person up to bed and all we're doing is helping them. um sometimes they're going to stumble. And so what these wonderful um professionals do is they sit there and say, "Okay, come on. Let's get back up again." And if there's something in their way that we can address, then we can just be like, "Hey, can you clear that path or can you give them another chance or let's build that up again? Let's fill that little hole if that's what tripped them. Let's do something." Um we don't do it for them. to do it with them or we educate them how to do it themselves because again it's about self-reliance, it's about empowerment. Um, but that's that's the kind of gist of it. And right now, so what we do is that, you know, we're we're not long-term case managers. We don't do long-term um therapy counseling. What we do is crisis intervention. What we do is short-term care management. uh support management is is how I like to refer to

it. And right now, um Alyssa and Maria are carrying about 35 to 40 people each that they're seeing um several times uh in a given month, sometimes in a given week. Um because somebody just came right back in and like, Maria, you told me to go ahead and do this. I meant to go. I could you I just could Can we I can't Can you just help me motivate again? Um we work with uh we work with um young disabled. Some of them have the ability to go to work part-time. Um that itself can be a harden thing to navigate. Social Security Administration um can be hard to navigate. Uh trying to do both can be hard to navigate. uh you could only make a certain amount. Um sometimes you get a little overtime, you Oops. Um you didn't get paperwork in, they found out five years later. Um so now you need a little bit of help because something's going on. Um and there's an adjustment or something. Um Alyssa spends I don't know how many hours on the phone with Social Security um trying to get these folks to make sure that their um benefits aren't going to be going away because that's how they're paying their rent. Um lots of changes with Eversource. Um folks that were on um budgets that were able to be negotiated are no longer able to be on those budgets that are able to be negotiated. Um so there's lots of changes. So we're having people to navigate and rearrange their budgets. Um understanding what their priorities are. Um it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of work. Um it also takes a lot of emotional understanding because you're dealing with folks that are elevated. They're anxious. Um the anxiety is there and with that sometimes can come um a difficulty in understanding. How many

times has anybody gone into uh visit a doctor and wanted to bring something with me some somebody with them just because they wanted to say listen help me hear what the doctor is saying because I have a strong feeling my ears are going to be shutting down halfway through this conversation. um be my support. Um that's what these professionals do. Um post crisis navigator um was a not a new position. It was a new configuration of a position. Um again uh postcris navigator they used to just be called the full-time social worker um who was also the volunteer and program coordinator. um which as Pete you mentioned was me um up until about seven years ago. Um post crisis navigator was um basically we saw uh the mayor saw and the community saw that um there was a lot of mental health issues. There was a lot of relationship issues. There was violence going on out there. There were people that were um uh slipping through the cracks. And so this gave the opportunity for the social worker to again we took that position out gave it Wanda um became the program of volunteer coordinator and the social worker was able to be a full-time social worker and be able to then handle those cases and have the opportunity to see people multiple times um whether it be in person by email or by phone or even sometimes by text. um you know, especially there's certain populations out there that a phone call is um not discreet enough. They need to text um for one reason or another. So, lots of opportunities and that means you need to be there and you need to be there to answer those calls um when they're happening. The homeless, we do work with the homeless. Um we try to work in

conjunction with the uh police department and with um Officer Schneider with that. Um but we have a lot of the homeless that come in. They need to connect to services. They need to um sometimes they need to get their ID or get their social security cards or get connected to SNAP or need a phone or something and and and food. Um they're going to find their way to us. And so then Alyssa deals a lot with our homeless population um and um tries to again strengthen that relationship with the community outreach workers from Danbury um and again advocate for them um they didn't answer their phone. Well, I don't know where the phone died. You know, they're here with me now. Can you take this call now? Um because they need to finish that um evaluation. and they need to get into the system because the way Connecticut works is you have to be in the system in order to find housing or get connected to services that then will help you then obtain and sustain housing. Um so we work with a lot of that. Our our diverse community advocate um we have a growing diverse community. Um sometimes you know English is their second language. their proficiency in English, especially in in reading English um the English language in some of these things is a challenge to them and again another obstacle in them completing what they need to complete whether it's just filling out a um the you know uh free lunch reduced lunch registering for school advocating with teachers um I myself came from an im immigrant um mother who um I don't think she would have felt confident enough um advocating for herself um with a teacher um uh just because sense of authority in other cultures and um you know there's a lot of impedement. Um Maria speaks

Portuguese and Spanish um so we're extremely grateful um that we have I don't know um I I'm hoping I'm sure there is other triilingual um employees but we're very grateful to have her. Um Wanda is a Spanish- speakaking person also. So we have two um we have a bilingual and a and and unofficially Monica does excellent with Spanish and Portuguese. Um actually um so the diverse community advocate um she's works with a lot of our refugees or asylum seekers um our immigrants that are in the middle of their um obtaining their citizenship and they have uh connection they need more connections to immigration lawyers and so forth. She also works with um high-risisk folks um uh even if English is their first language. So it's beyond the diversity. She's not exclusive to that. Um, so she does keep keep her own case load of domestic violence um cases or medical or mental health issues um young disabled um that again need that kind of help that navigation through services and systems. Um, I'm going to talk about um the other stuff that we do. Um, and um and jump in if there's any any questions, of course. But the social workers are not just charged with handling all those kinds of cases, those complex life situations, those obstacles that impede people from moving forward, connecting to services, meeting their basic needs. Um they also just do the the work the ground work. They're doing heating applications. We did 344 applications last year. Um home and basic needs. Um I kind of lump that in with our emergency funds. It's our good Samaritan fund for

those that know that fund, the hope fund, and I think I even put our renters rebate applications there. That's 172 applications. Uh ARPA, we received ARPA funding um a few years back. um 197 applications. That was fiscal year. Um we're actually up to 206 um with those funds. Um that's a lot of work. That's an intense application. Um food vouchers, gift cards, um and then camperships. And uh as as Jason mentioned, we work with the youth agency, we work with park and wreck, and we do all the means tests for anybody who's looking for scholarship through both those programs. So we bring them in, we assess that situation. It's a wonderful um marriage of services because um again exposing your your your financial situation that's a vulnerability. So we keep that confidential. It also gives us an opportunity to once we've done that for their scholarship to say have you realized there's so much more we can do. Um and so we we now you know they're now recurring folks that come in for energy assistance. Um maybe they're attending the food bank. Um and uh some of the other things that we do that uh you may or may not be aware of uh with the United Way, we run the back to school program. Last year we helped 260 children. Um we run the Thanksgiving program um the food program um with the wonderful help of United Way and the Women's Club. Um and that was 300 families Santa Fund. Um, everybody might know about the Santa fund. Um, last two years we have hit over 500 children. We did 568. I've never seen numbers like that before. Never. Um, I used to freak out when I saw 400. Um, so we're doing that. Um, we do um we we've connected 42 children this year to winter boots. That's a wonderful program that comes out of the um uh high school

called the Star Project done by the French Honor Society. That's okay. A big huge thank you to our community. Absolutely. Time and again uh come to the need for the kids, all the ones that donate. A big huge thank you to the police department for their, you know, fill up their truck. And then also you have Oddfellows uh do just such a fabulous job. Not to mention the infamous Jen Arnu. Oh yeah. And her wonderful team. I was just going to say agenda businesses that support fantastic work uh with her and her team. It's just great to just see the community just continue to rally together to help. Yeah. Uh you know, and you guys were very helpful with us with

when we actually helped another community. We did. And that was the community in North Carolina. Uh it was tragically devastated. And uh I know we housed all the wonderful uh uh community donations in your uh side of the building there uh to help out and give a big huge helping hand. And uh Katie, big thank you to you as you were able to go through Kimberly Clark uh to also get some of those uh big needs that the that the community in North Carolina

needed. So again, the community rally, big thank you. There's a lot of um a lot of wonderful um community members. I try to uh list them every year in the annual report which is online so please read it. Um yeah so um so we do um we run a lot of programs and the social workers are um in all of it because they're the ones that have to do the means testing. They're the ones that have to make sure do they qualify for this program or that program? what else can they qualify um and doing that in addition to again everything they do that is taking a lot more of their time um these days um I said I'd bring it back to the money and someone teased me that I I don't have revenue um however um the programs are able to connect um heating assistance um emergency funds the ARPA funds um vouchers and gift cards to food. Um, and our SNAP matches at the farmers market, which I'll I'll mention in a second. Um, our camperships are just some of the programs. And, um, we've brought over $588,000 back into our local economy um, by be able to provide those services. those are direct, most of those usually are direct to vendor um and um not only help sustain um the people that are receiving those services, but of course are helping the local businesses um maintain theirs. So um that's um that's our revenue, Katie. Um not bad.

Okay.

Okay. It's okay. Um, I need to shout out to the fact if somebody who doesn't know about our emergency funds or does not know about how the food bank functions in terms of the food um or the money to buy the food um it is all donations. If there's one thing you will not not see in our budget, it is money provided to emergency funds. Um there is no good Samaritan line in that budget. There is no hope fund line in that budget. the fund we share with the senior center community fuel bank. You won't see it in either one of our budgets. Um and of course the food of the food bank. Um everything is run by donations. Um the food bank also wouldn't function without the 25 to 30 volunteers that run that program. Um because when you're looking at 250 families on average coming in every Thursday um in a 7-h hour period, that's a lot of people to get in and out. Um and again, we're not just giving them a bag of food. So it is not a driveby. It is not a handoff. Um they're in there um with respect and with dignity. They're allowed to pick their choices. Um and um for some it's even a a social content, you know. Um it's a quite wonderful thing um that happens there. Um I can draw your attention to the middle chart. Um we're serving more people. We continue to serve more people. That's just the last uh say five years. Um since 2023 um last year we registered over 2400 people. I think we're up to about 8 and a half% of the town's population has come to the food bank. Um and it's just keeps growing. Um and have sought out our services. Um and um and we've served um thousands and thousands of of meals um with that. Um, the food bank is, you know, it's it's not usually the thing that comes that brings people in

the first time. It's usually the last time. I don't, you know, I think I don't know the family I grew up in, it's like, don't worry, I can handle my food. Um, again, it adds to that vulnerability. It adds to that. So, um, kudos to the folks that are able to come in. Um, again, I go to that strengthbased. I go to that, um, that courage that folks have. Um we do serve um folks of all ages um and we have for um over a decade and two um so um Ivana there's another asset for the food bank is that when the people come in and you have alternate days and you'll you'll uh let them if they need to come on a Tuesday rather than a Thursday but what I've noticed in the years 10 years now of being around there is there's um opportunities in the bulletin boards for jobs. There's opportunities for uh maybe they need English uh help with learning English. There's opportunities there

and they meet people. Uh we even one time did some uh voting registration. Um I sat there and talked to people when they came in to see if they wanted to register to vote. Some of them could, some couldn't. But I think the uh the camaraderie or the friendship that when you walk in the door, I've had people tell me uh I didn't go to the food bank because when I pulled in I saw somebody I knew

and that you brought this up earlier and then I say well what do you think they're for? You know, so you go back and but it is a welcoming place. I know it's a school. I went to that school. I know it's a hallway, but it's a very welcoming atmosphere. And once you step inside, the volunteer that's here, they're everybody is pleasant. And once you step inside the little opportunity, I call the mini mart or whatever, it's everybody's happy.

Yeah. You know, piggybacking on that K just said for a moment big thank you to you guys is we go through these numbers every week and uh when we made the change to really move uh social work to true social work and we brought in Wanda at the food bank you know we were only at that time it was just Thursdays that was kind of it and then you and Wanda had worked out where now it's so uh client centric that if somebody can't make it because of work, you know, and before that, if they were working, they're out of luck. Mhm.

Well, now you guys have uh been able to make it to where if people don't have that, they have by appointment, they can come in and get their food to really help that sustainability. Also, in partnership with the senior center, uh there are some clients they can't make it down to there, so they're dropped off either at the senior center or our office. So, big thank you to you guys. You thought kind of outside of the box, how can we work it to really become more client centric and help more people and a big kudos to you guys for doing Yeah. Yeah. Um thank you and and and and um uh yeah it's not just food. I want to interrupt you for one thing. It's not just food.

There's hygiene drives that Rotary and and the United Way do together. But those are the kinds of things. It's not just the drives that we do to collect things, but it's uh it those are the very expensive items. You know, we don't think about deodorant hairs. Nights of Columbus with their coats. Absolutely. And then Jen going full blast and getting So it's a scarves gloves. Yeah. It's really almost like a one-stop shop for anybody in need. You could find something there, I think.

Yeah. It it becomes an all-encompassing kind of a resource. um speak to um the special arrangements and the appointments that we can make. And um again, Wanda was able to bring um build a successful volunteer team where we were able to we are able to bring in a few volunteers that can help us um uh one day a week in the late afternoons. And um we do have some working folks or folks that are um uh very vulnerable dur uh due to medical reasons. So kind of sitting in the crowd in the hallway um for one reason or another um causes a bit of a detriment to their health. So this is a way for them to come in uh late afternoon and then again um come in after work and not having to to miss it because the food bank goes only um traditionally is 9 to 4. Uh and that's going back 30 something years. Um so this is a way for them to come a little bit later. So uh wanted to stay late. Um we all stay some of us will all stay late on Wednesdays and and do that. Um that has been a growing program. We we were actually kind of at a max um for that um that we're able to provide. Um but there are other special arrangements. So again, between the social workers and Wanda, there's a lot of negotiation going around. Again, these ladies are advocates. So they're not just advocating with outside resources. They're advocating with their own co-workers um to say how can I get food to this family um who just can't make it in a certain day. Um and so uh accessibility is is an obstacle um in town. So again, we do and we love the fact that the the senior center is able to bring the the bus down and get a lot of our seniors who um mobility and accessibility and transportation are an issue. So it becomes um a wonderful way to serve. And you know, currently we're serving um we have over 405 um households that are active currently. Last year we registered over 850 families um households um of uh various configurations. Um, but when you're looking at about 235 to 250 families

that come weekly, you're looking at over half of these families that are active are coming more frequently. Um, which of course then means more food going out the door, more food that needs to come in the door. Um, and uh, and we do it all. We, you know, we go get the food, we rescue food, we buy food, we bring food in, we sort through donations. Um, we do everything. um Wanda and her team. Navon, I know, so sorry. I know it's getting late for everybody, but just so people know really how important your department is really to the to the entire community and how it really provides really help if we didn't have it. It would be really detrimental in so many ways, both economically, socially, emotionally.

You could talk about two things real quick. One is really uh we saw the uptick in domestic violence. Yeah. And how you guys interplay is really being the really the intermediary and then you pass on kind of the long-term uh needs to save the center which I'm a huge fan of. Um and then also if you could talk a little bit right after that um about critical needs. So, for instance, a few years ago, we had a fire that was in the condos, not the new ones, uh, over there on Lanesville, but the older ones. And with that fire, there was a whole bunch of people displaced.

And then what does what do you guys do with social work to help provide that safety net to make sure that people had at least a place to go to? Because I think that's important. You guys do so many things, right? Here's another two things.

That's an example again of of of a trauma that's happened, you know, an unexpected life incident that happens that has um longer effects on someone's ability to move forward. Um um not just financially, but then again having to readjust um shift their path um let go of, you know, one way of thinking or or I I need to continue to do this but it's not working for them. helping them change that. So, it's like, you know, we see this a lot unfortunately with housing. Um sometimes people are so far behind in the amount of rent that they own or that they owe that um there's not enough financial assistance and there's not enough income in that household to um maintain where they are. And so, the conversation has to shift to how can we divert them um you know, we don't want them to go into homelessness. How can we divert them from where they are to get something more sustainable? How can we help them understand that's not a direction that's probably going to continue to work for you? Um, if the rent has gone up by $400 and your income is short by $300. Um, so there's a lot of things that need to be discussed and everything you just said is a good reason that the municipal agents will have the background that all of you have and at their at their uh beck and call I would say if you need something that you have. Well, my my my hope is is is my hope is to um be able to um on a more consistent basis and and and and have that opportunity to be there for them to um help support the work that they're doing, they're currently doing because there are a lot of factors um that happen um that do go beyond um the simple um benefit needs or economic needs. And it's a lot of work. Um, and

there's a lot of um, a lot of things that need to be kind of worked through. Um, but you're going to do that. Yeah. I mean, I have no doubt you all will do that.

Fires don't discriminate against age. Domestic violence doesn't discriminate against age. Raise and rent doesn't discriminate against age. trauma um uh you know, none of this stuff um is limited to families with children um or young adult seen uh young adult disabled or those above the age of of 60. Um we hope that our experience, our knowledge, and our um discipline as social workers, our approach, our our motivational interviewing, our um strength-based approach to try to build people up will be able to contribute um to the senior population of our town. Um and um the you know um just to end with um the two programs that were offsets of um um sprouted out of the food bank. Uh one is the SNAP at the farmers market. Um uh two years ago we were able to SNAP at the farmers market is a way for folks to use their SNAP benefits. A lot of seniors take advantage of this program and um a lot of growing families. We're seeing more. Um again Wanda runs that program. It's every Saturday. So, she has a six day week um for about five or six months out of the year. Six or seven months out of the year.

I get to see you and Ally there. Yeah. Right. From the donuts.

Yeah. And our wonderful our wonderful long-term volunteer Ally who's been amazing. Um but that is a way for them to take their SNAP benefits and uh we were we're able to receive funding um where they get matched. So, if somebody's only able to spend $10 in their SNAP benefits, um then, um which for some people who've been around a long time, it's called it used to be called food stamps, um we're able to then match those funds. So, that $10 becomes $20 and they're able to then um benefit from um the um local farmers. And you know, one of the side things that we try to do with all these programs that we do is we try to reduce that inequity that happens when finances become an issue. Um, so you know, you you fear going to the farmers market because it's too expensive and you can't afford it. We're going to help bridge that gap. Um, and so that program has been a growing program and um, uh, it's a win-win because the farmers are actually they've gained we we we we um, last year was or two years ago was over $11,000 we were able to provide to the the farmers in revenue. I I did I add that in? Um, I only added in the matches. Um and um uh this year uh was about over was over $8,000. Um but uh it's because SNAP benefits have gone down. So there's there's less to work with. Um the other program that's only two years old is a summer lunch program. So again, thinking out of the box, trying to meet these needs. Um when school is out, a new meal for children don't have lunch. Um and um it becomes another financial stress on families. And so, um, uh, we basically, um, I mean, looked to Wanda and said, "What can you do?" And she came up and said, "This is what we're going to do." Um, and so we helped over 300 children last summer. Um, every two weeks we were able to provide them with um, two huge bags, every child, not every family. So, if a child has three kids, each child got a

loaf of a large loaf of bread, two, three pounds of lunch meat, um, vegetables, fruit, and various amount of snacks um to help them. And a lot of families have come back to Wanda and said, "Thank you." Some of them weren't even going to go to camp because they didn't have lunch because you you camps can't provide the lunch and you need a lunch that is portable. Um you know, you don't have the lunch box, you don't have the microwave, you don't have hot lunch that they're all used to during school. Um so it's a benefit. Um and we're looking forward to um we um last year uh that long orange column up there is that we gave away over a thousand um of those lunch bags. Um some people stopped coming. Wanda would call them up and say, "You didn't come last week. You know, we only have like one more distribution." They said, "I'm still working off what you gave me the other time." Um so, you know, um I think they were giving away a lot of food, but that's okay. Um and thank you to the youth agency in that regard because they're wonderful in helping us prepare those bags. We we um are able to give back to our community in that way. And um we also through the um food bank, we try to be as sustainable as possible. And so we have a uh composting um program and the youth agency helps us to instead of throwing out expired food, we uh we compost it. Um so um we try to do a lot of that. Um I have taken up a lot of your time. The situation has taken up a lot of your time. So I thank you for your patience. Um I thank you. Actually, before you go, this is Ari Rosenberg.

Hi Ari, I just wanted to say thank you very much for an excellent presentation tonight of all the services you provide to the community. We're really fortunate to have you. You're really helping people when they're at going through, you know, the worst time in their lives and and since you're really just doing the Lord's work. I had just a a couple questions for you. Um, one is with the homeless population in New Milford. Um, do we have a sense of how many homeless people there are in Milford right now?

Um, I think we have a bit of a sense of that. Um, and I'm hoping to get more uh information once the the point in time has been calculated by Catholic Charities. Um, but um I believe the shelter has a rotating schedule of about 8 to 12 people that are coming through their shelter. um with the amount of people that um Alyssa's been helping the last 6 months and not all the homeless folks are sticking around, but um we counted over 20 um um that we've seen in the last say 6 to 8 months. It was about 20. Some of them have moved into housing. Some of them have moved into long-term shelter like ARCs shelter um and then moved into uh supportive housing or long-term housing um and then some people um are just moving on. Um but um that's that's the rough number. Ari.

Yeah. No, thank you. So so it's like 8 to 12 that have themselves that they shelter. Are there other people that are choosing not to use the shelter? Are there like people living out of their cars or anything like that?

Yeah. So when um when we were uh there are um I would say we knew about three four people. We have about three or four people that we are aware of are living out of their cars. Um some of them are the you know mo most of them are connected to the homeless outreach workers. They're in the system. They're waiting for that connection to services. Um some of them are still trying to make that decision um of how to connect and when to connect. Um but um yeah, and you know, then there are of course there's folks that you know don't count as homeless but are um house sharing um and staying with families and friends until they can get their own place and those are kind of um again, you know, it's it's you know that it's not necessarily the best scenario, but they don't count as homeless.

Sure. Um, um, I see in the, uh, line item for the shelter, it's only about $700. Um, for for for this current year, not the not the current year. Um, do you need any more financial support like for supplies or anything? Because I do have a state grant and I could I could provide some supplies if they're needed.

I thank you for that. um that um that part in the in the um in the budget is uh the emergency shelter. Um that is usually reserved um for that one or two night stay at a hotel um because there's an interruption to your uh current living arrangements. So it's not necessarily money that is for like say the Nilford Community Shelter. They have their own funds. Um so that's kind of reserved that way. Um, and we we have brought that up a little bit over the years just because but those are usually somebody who has a sustainable plan but um for one reason or another needs to uh go into um go into a hotel stay and really just can't afford it. Um something interrupted that or they're hey they're about to get into housing um but it's not going to come through to the 1st. Today's the 28th. They need a couple of days. We don't want them outside. It's it's cold out. Um but there's a plan moving forward. So there's an end to that. But we can we can definitely talk about Yeah.

Let me know. Yeah, we can definitely have that conversation. Absolutely. I'd love to hear more about that and then see what more we can do um for for folks beyond those those situations. Thank you. And and my last question was really about the food pantry. Um I know like at at the food pantry that I run in Danberry, our last five um distribution or our largest five distributions ever in Danberry. Are are you seeing an increase in the last month? Yes.

Yeah, we have. Um yeah, we have we we um 250 is becoming our average that when we see um we're not shocked to see 250. We're seeing 235 and um we've gone up um over 20%. But yes, um you know, it's the winter months and when people are deciding who um if they're going to buy that extra oil, which everybody's going through a lot faster because of all the snow, um then food becomes the the one budget they pull from. So yeah, um where we are and and that's again it's something that we've talked about. This is it's you can take definitely look at the sign of your economy and um the environment um and you know what's going on out there that makes people um come in a lot um more often and I would say it has been the snow and the um excess heating um even probably people going through their gas if I don't know enough about cars but I'm assuming we go through gas quicker um when it's cold out. So yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for everything that you're doing for our panel.

Thank you, Ari. I really appreciate that. Any other questions? Mary J. I can't even describe it. Um and same with the senior center that they do. Absolutely. So much work and I really believe that both these departments need more help

and I mentioned it to you. I thought maybe a better solution rather than you know changing the use of agents that seems that you guys really Jane one of things we'll be looking at isana we have our weekly meets the data points uh come August uh we'll be able to kind of have a run rate of about six months where we can see and plan and see the need uh and maybe we do uh recalibrate uh some of the staff additional staff if we can uh actually do it make sure this budget gets passed uh and see about adding additional resources

absolutely Of course. But we're lucky that we have what we have because you're going to start with, you know, you start working with them and start to set what you know, see what is needed or not needed or however you do it. And then from there, if it continues, then you could look at something else. But I think they have a great foundation with, as you said, everybody that's there.

Yeah. My my approach really um you know and I've talked to to Mayor Bass about this um when he asked um you know to to this to get done is really just to enhance the current amazing work that they are doing um because of the complex issues that lie behind beyond the paperwork um you know um that brings people um either falling through the cracks or coming back for services. So we're just hoping to enhance that. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions for Vanna? Fonna, thank you. Thank you your team. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Good job, guys. Thank you. All right, Mark. Okay. Lake Authority, page 186.

Martin, aren't you going to come up? Nice to see you. And it's page 186. Yep.

Okay. Thank Thank you everyone. Thank you for having us here tonight. My name is Mark Howorth. I'm the executive director of the Candlewood Lake Authority. I'm actually joined by Will Me who's our treasurer and a delegate on our board and our chairman Martin Okconor sitting sitting in the back. Mark, before I start, we have some new members on the council board of finance.

Just a quick uh synopsis. We are part of the towns that surround the lake. So, it's not just New Milford. We have Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, Sherman. Uh did I leave anybody else out? No. Right. So, that's all of us. We have delegates that represent the town of New Milford and by charter uh when the delegates all vote they'll vote for say this budget that's being prepared for us right now. That's what the charter says that we do go with because those delegates represent the town. So that being said, I'd ask Mark as they do come each and every year to present to us what uh really Canoa Lake Authority does uh for us uh not only enforcement wise, safety wise, but also environmentally.

Thank you. Thank you. So just a little bit of background about the Lake Authority, especially since we do have some some new members here. Um we are entering our 55th year as an organiz I know. as an organization. Yep. 55th year. Uh another interesting milestone is actually uh this year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of construction of the lake. That's right.

So 1926 they started construction of the lake. So uh yeah, pretty pretty pretty amazing. 100 years that they started the construction of it. Um so our organization, as I said, it's our 55th year. When we started out, we were uh essentially started out as a public safety organization with a marine patrol. There was a need for public safety on the lake. Uh and a few short years later, uh the leaders of the five municipalities around the lake got together and said, "Hey, you know, there's some water quality issues that are that are cropping up on the lake. We also need you guys to uh you know, address the water quality." So that's how we became sort of a a dualpurpose agency with the marine patrol providing the safety for the the boers so they can recreate safely and the environmental side to protect this amazing valuable asset that we have for future generations. Um so that's a little bit about us. We also do I mean there's other things we do which some people may not realize. One of them is if you go out on that lake, you will see close to a hundred different hazard and navigation and speed buoys. We deploy those every year. We maintain them throughout the summer. We remove them every fall. That's one of the jobs of our that our operations manager does is is making sure that when you're out there navigating the lake, you can do do so safely. And we also do a lot of public awareness and outreach. So different events that we do, but also utilizing different platforms, especially social media uh for for our outreach. So I'm just going to go over a couple uh quick things here. Um just talk about a few of the priorities that we have uh for 2026. So at the end of 2025, at the end of the summer of 2025, prior to uh Labor Day weekend, we had met with um the uh leaders of the five municipalities around the lake. uh First Light and uh also uh the Department of

Energy and Environmental Conservation uh both on the Encon police side and the boating side and we came to a decision at that time that the islands of the lake were being overcrowded and there were health concerns on the islands of the lake. These are very small islands. So the islands were closed indefinitely at that point. uh and so going into this year uh that indefinite closure remains. However, we are working to find long-term sustainable solutions for the reopening of those islands so that they can be managed and people can safely enjoy them.

So, that is one of the priorities going into this year. Uh, another thing that's been going on, this is now we're entering our third year of it, is um, sort of a project that maybe flies a little bit under the radar, but is extremely important environmentally, and that is the what we call the nutrient budget or the nutrient pollution study on Kandlewood Lake. So what we are working to understand something that's never been done before is understanding where the nutrients that are in the lake that can help to fuel algae blooms where those nutrients are coming from. So two summers ago we studied what is coming out of the lake bed this former farmland that is that was flooded right

almost 100 years ago. What nutrients are coming out of the lake bed that's known as internal loading. and we took hundreds and hundreds of water samples and we used the University of Connecticut lab and that was done in the summer of 2024. Last summer we studied what's coming in off the watershed. So we did stream studies and it's still actually going on studying what's coming in off the wershed in the streams. Right. And then this coming year we're going to be we've been working with the health departments of the five municipalities doing some test uh shallow wells to understand what's coming in through the groundwater. And so when all that data then gets compiled and analyzed and turned into report that will give us the knowledge to provide management recommendations for the long-term future of the lake. You can't it's hard to make recommendations on how to manage nutrient pollution when you don't really have a firm understanding of exactly what those sources are because each of those types of sources is a different management, you know, potential solution. Uh and then the last thing I just want to touch on, we've actually been working on uh legislative changes, exploring legislative changes for the lake. Um the envir the the recreational environment and the usage of the lake, whether it's the type of vessels or the uh um usage patterns of the lake. While the recreation has has advanced over the years, the regulations and the laws that help keep people safe really haven't kept up with the changes in in in what's going on on on the water. And this is something that a lot of lakes and states and everything are dealing with. So, we're working on uh trying to address some legislative changes that will help us better protect the public out there on the lake so that everybody can go out, enjoy the lake safely, and return home after having a nice time on the water. Uh, and last thing I'll just mention quickly is, uh, we talked about some of the public awareness we do. Um,

we're also now entering our third season of producing, um, uh, educational videos for the public. These are short clips about a minute long or so. Uh, we do them both for public safety where we, uh, inform public about specific rules and regulations and, uh, um, things that are going on on the water for for boating safety as well as environmental topics. and we found that they've gotten a really really uh great response from the public. They enjoy it and uh we've got a we just met today. We have a whole list of new topics. We won't be able to film them all this year, but we have some in the pipeline that are already filmed to start the year off and then we'll film more uh throughout the year. So, um I'm going to hand it over to Will quickly to do numbers and then we'll be happy to answer any questions.

Okay. Thank you very much. Um so as the mayor said um what we ask of the five towns is to equally divide our budget between them um and take that through your referendum processes and and then that will be done. But uh our request of this year of each municipality is $132,815. That's a 2% increase or $2,615 year-to-year u from LA the current budget we're in to this. Uh overall uh our budget in totality is up 4% uh but we were able to raise some of our uh donations that we received from the public at at large. Uh as well as one of the grants we received from the state of Connecticut uh so to mitigate that. So we're only asking for 2% which is about what we asked last year as well. Um uh overall our changes really come in three places. One is the administration side of it which is really Mark and his his team at that that run the organization. Public safety where we have our marine patrol officers and the vessels. And then conversely the other way is our watershed budget is actually down. And it's down because as Mark mentioned our nutrient budget uh we think that's fully funded. While the study is not complete yet, we think all the financial aspects have been dealt with through the last three years worth of budgets. And so we've put that aside and are deploying that as we go. Um uh the other thing that I will show particularly for the new members here is we've been working to modernize the Canada Lake Authority over the last five years. Uh if you don't know it, we've purchased three new marine patrol vessels over the last three years. Our third one came in this past August. Uh with that, we've been modernizing the technology we deploy on those boats, which is we now have uh laptops, modems, and attendants so they can connect out on the water. Uh and we just recently signed a software as a service contract

so that all the contacts that we have with the public, whether that's a result of infractions or just normal meeting, can be documented on the water while they're there and not have to spend extra hours after shift to document all that. And a big huge thank you to the council uh when you needed the additional funding, capital funding for the boats you guys came and presented. Yes. And board finance. Big huge thank you uh to those boards to allow for what you're talking about. Thank you. Can Link Authority.

We we did uh five years ago uh put a concerted effort into a 10-year capital plan much like you all do. We decided we needed to do that same discipline and so we put that in place. Uh so good straight man to the next subject. So, we have revised our 10-year capital plan. Uh, for the most part, our capital acquisitions are behind us. So, we purchased the three new uh marine patrol vessels. Uh, the board approved two years ago the purchase of a new science vessel that is due to be delivered this spring. Um, we purchased a new vehicle to pull those ve vessels in and out of the water and tow them to various parades around the towns. Um, and then, uh, we're going to purchase some new price personal watercrafts that are our current ones are at end of life. So, with the exception of that, there's nothing big in front of us other than the fact that, you know, occasionally we're going to have to replace some motors on those on those vessels. So, yeah, Kate,

how about the carp? How about the carp? You asked that last year. You tried to I didn't hear you mention the carp, so what what's up?

Yeah. So, uh, you know, the carp, uh, last year, uh, you know, Deep has been primarily running the program to try to remove some of slowly remove some of the carp to encourage the vegetation to grow back, right? Um we have seen signs especially towards the tail end of the year when the carp have slowed their eating that the vegetation starts to regrow but we have not yet seen a bump during the season where the vegetation regrows. We were hoping this year this year, this winter, that we would have a shallow draw down on the lake, which means that the water only goes down four to five feet. Right?

Because of the extreme cold that we had this winter, um the uh power company received a request from the grid to generate more electricity. So that meant they drew down to a deep draw down level. With the lake, there's always a little give and take. So the deep draw down would typically kill more vegetation off. The flip side to that that's potentially beneficial is a deep draw down will kill off more exposed zeb not carp zebra muscles. Zebras, right? Yeah. So there's always a little, you know, it's always a little flip side. The carp are the carp are under the water shivering and and

along with the other fish there forever. Let's Yeah. So, but but Deep does those removals. Uh we do, you know, work with them on that. Um they've had more success in the springtime when they do those removals as opposed to the fall. So, typically they they they frontload their removals in the spring. Uh I'm I don't necessarily want to quote a number that they've taken out. Um but it's usually a couple hundred a year that have come out for the past few years. Um, so you know, we're just sort of waiting to see when the scale will tip and we'll sort of see that regrowth. But the vegetation is so far, but

it's it's still not able to get ahead of the eating from the carp. It's, you know, got knocked down. I mean, it's but it is it's still there. It's still trying. So, it's not that it's, you know, it the carp are eating it as fast as it can grow except for late in the season when they start to slow their eating down. Then the vegetation starts to starts to regrow. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Got a couple questions. Hi, Mark. Thank you, Will and Mark, for all you do. Um, what's the long term on on the island closure? Like, what is it that you're really working on to to try to get these islands opened up again?

Yeah. So, so one thing we have to sort of keep in mind about these islands is most of them are very small and there are no facilities on those islands. Yeah.

There are no restrooms, there's no trash pickup, right? So, when these islands get overcrowded, we run into these health health concerns on these islands. And one of the issues that we have had is people um coming from launches being dropped off on the islands or wherever and basically sort of fing out to the islands, right? And so then you have people on the island with no way off. So there's challenges there. So the goal for the islands is not to permanently close the islands, but to have a managed island recreational system of some kind. that it may take some legislation uh or some other actions to be able to manage these. And again, there's a little bit of a it's there's a lot of people who who play a role in this. The islands are the ones we're generally talking about are owned by First Light. Um you have uh the towns that are involved. You have uh deep especially Encon and boating. So there's a lot of different people to sort of coordinate to try to work through a long-term sustainable solution for them.

I'm just a little concerned because sometimes even though everything you're mentioning is is obviously a concern sometimes it could create another problem like now you're going to have people on the boats just wandering around the lake. Uh because some of those islands they hold all these people and they just stay there for hours and hours. So, so one of the things that we talked about actually today, we I mentioned that video series and one of the uh efforts that we're going to put forth is a large educational effort to let people know uh that the islands are closed on the lake to prepare for that, right? So, you know, we don't want people to be surprised if they came, you know, and always knew that they could go to certain islands. We want them to know in advance the islands are closed, you know, and and here's the situation. So please plan plan accordingly.

I think a lot of the problem is coming from outside. You know, I think a lot of the problem is coming from people that aren't from Danbury, New Milford, uh you know, shelter. I think the people are coming from New York especially. they were getting crashed and and you know maybe that there's another way we could look at it where we can have more securities at these public dots where people just go in and then

you know I I think you need to look into that. I know Orlando, when we had the meetings of the towns, we actually had it here in New Milford and a big thank you to Deep as they were here. Um, and we did ask for additional enforcement at those docks, those launching pads. Uh, some of the other towns, Danbury, for instance, represented New Fairfield. Big concern about the um, what are those things called? Uh, jet skis. Yeah, jet skiis. The majority of them unlicensed. Correct. and people were not licensed to do those uh coming on. So, one of the things that we were concerned about is asking deep to help us come up with a plan. So, before they even get into the water,

uh we are assessing whether or not they're licensed uh that they have the ability to safely uh boat there and also catch those parties that were doing substantial for a big income, substantial fairing of people to the bigger islands. Correct. uh to stay there. And I believe Mark, you told me one of those nights, the person that was fing them decided to leave and people were stuck. We got on the island. We got a call late at night. Our our officers got off the water. I want to say around, you know, 11:00 that night or whatever on their way home and got a phone call uh that there was a call that came in to dispatch um that people were left stranded on the island. Um

can can I add to that? Oh, no. the numbers, guys. So, our our marine patrol, they went and got him, brought him to shore, but when they went to get him, they struck the prop of the boat and caused $9,000 damage. They they hit the they hit the the ground in the boat on the water. The the islands don't have So, you know, that's not something that's not something I advocate that we continue to do. That's right. It's a huge expense, right? I don't blame you. all all my you know growing up life people would go there you know kids but we never had this problem that they have now because I do believe it's right they're from out of town the problem is out of town the problem we saw this problem happening in Fairview our neighbor in town

with with Squans Bond and they did a uh

they did a study where it ended up being that they went from like a thousand 1,200 cars to like 200 now and they posted on 684, they posted on 87 where they say Squans Pond and New Fairfield is closed. So that has helped out a lot. I think we we need to look at it that way because even though yes, having a lot of people in the island is a safety issue, but people that are residents of these surrounding town, they need to enjoy, you know, we we have a short summer as it is in in the Northeast and, you know, they should be able to go to one of these islands and enjoy a a morning or afternoon and and not have that problem created by people that are coming in from outside. We know it. So that's why I asked you, Mark, like what are you guys doing? I know you meet with Pete and the other uh town heads, but what are we really doing to to be able to solve this problem? Because this is a continuing problem that's upsetting a lot of people that

by jet skis, by boats. I was going to say we we applaud you for your uh passion and we'll count on your support. Thank you. Yes. And and I agree with you. The challenge is I think the mayor said it earlier it's coming how they get onto the water and that's where we need it's we need help from as Mark said earlier multiple

it's it's it's ma it's it's it's a lot of it is is managing the access to the lake and it's it's not it's it's making sure that you know there there is management of all things on the lake we talk about island management but managing the access and and when people come to the lake you Are you do you know have you gone through a safety inspection? Do you have you know your license and things like that? And are you you know so um and potentially legislative as well. Um so um the one challenge of the lake is that there are a lot of access points to the lake. You know we talk about you know there are two state launches, there are five municipal launches. We have something like 65 lake communities on the lake almost all of which have their own launches. So there is a lot of access to the lake and that provides a challenge both recreationally as well as environmentally trying to prevent invasive species from coming into into the lake and safety.

Some of the people that come up in a boat, they haven't got the idea what's the front, what's the back. Yeah. Everybody, right? Yeah. Which is, you know, something that our, you know, it's very, very interesting. We went up to Lake George and we had to pay money to go put our boats in the water. Lake George, state of Connecticut, you don't have to pay anything. So, I agree with you. We have a lot of folks coming in there. So, but we need your help and and the mayor's been great. We need your help as well, too. If your voice is loud enough to help us with the the other folks that we have to deal with and the authorities on the state record on the state, correct? Uh side of it because there needs to be legislation. Uh because it's run by D. First Light has been very helpful for us. I know

working with them. uh is Representative Callahan. Uh he's been kind of the the front person when it comes to really working uh legislatively wise of how we can make that lake, which is the largest lake in the state, a more safe one and to look at different types of enforcements because you're exactly right. people that live here or near from here should be able to enjoy that lake, not having to worry about, you know, having to step on a lake that uh is full of trash, dirty diapers. I agree. Uh all that stuff and have a nice safe time and enjoy that wonderful resource that we have.

We we we we say that, you know, we we need to, you know, treat the lake, manage the lake like it's a park, you know, and really think about it as as as one. and uh and and really push and and push for that and and respect it because it's incredibly valuable to this entire area. And for all those people that bought a home to live on the lake or have lived there forever, you know, it's just really just, you know, it's terrible really when you think about it. Walter.

Yeah. I was just curious because I remember using the lake I'm dating myself since the early 1950s. Um or at least my family has since time. At that time it was unusual to have a boat with more than 35 horsepower. Once in a while 50 what is is there any way to control that today? Because now you're in multiple hundreds of horsepower. Yeah. I mean it it's interesting. So horsepower is not controlled on the lake and I I mean the boat that I started water skiing on was a had a 40 horsepower Evan on the back, you know, and it was did just fine, you know, ski behind it the whole day enough.

Yep. So um you know and back then if you recall pontoon boats also used to have about a 40 horse and it was a putt butt. Now pontoons some of them have twin 400s on the back right I mean it's you know so uh horsepower is not regulated uh on the lake um there are two regulations for the lake that sort of play a role in that in in that um the lake does have a speed limit um both daytime and nighttime. So daytime is 45 miles an hour, nighttime is 25 miles an hour. Um so there is that regulation. Uh and in addition, it's not a horsepower regulation, but there was a regulation specific to Candlewood put in

about 13 years ago. I'm talking I think it was 2012. Um which was the length limit on the lake. So boats were restricted to being under 26 feet in length. That came up the first time. I used to work at the Atlantis Marina one summer for a while. that came up to limit because people were coming with bigger and bigger boats and I hate to tell you that was about 1972 and it took till you just said 2017 before it happened. Well, the pre our previous executive director used to used to always say well before that regulation came into effect if somebody could figure out a way to back the Queen Mary down the ramp they could do it. It would be allowed. Right. So that's right. So so it it it it did come in.

Well I'm glad. What's the maximum length now? Uh, under 26 feet. So, essentially 2511 under 26. It's sort of as Coast Guard um categorization of of lengths go. Is there any house boats left on the lake? I'm sorry. Any house boats left on the lake? Not not really. I mean, it's interesting. the the the the boats on the lake have shifted um so much to um pontoon boats which is which never used to be because they used to be sort of you know like what your parents would go out on right that's what's creating the problem boats are driving you know

well the one of the issues is if you can imagine on you know we find that it it's really obviously you know sort of the hottest and and and you know sunniest days and you get really a lot of voting pressure and so when you add a lot of boats and you add, you know, things like speed and and you add, you know, potentially inexperienced boers. I mean, it's for even for an experienced boater sometimes your head is on a swivel watching because, you know, there's no lanes, right? So, you're you're watching. So, um it's it it can be a a big challenge on on those busy weekends and our officers are going from one call to the next to the next to the next and and they are just one after the other.

Yeah. Any questions for Mark? Thanks for uh what you do. Yeah, we're going to be at it this year again and appreciate your support.

Good luck. That's the one thing I want to say. You guys have been great. Really do appreciate it. Um I think you know financially Will and the team have done a great job. Mark's done a great job getting it organized. You see, you know, I've been been here for 5 years and we've done a lot of work in the last 5 years. A tremendous turnaround. So I you know I I think as Mark said the lake's now 100 years old. We're 55 years old. The world has really changed dramatically. U regulations haven't changed dramatically. Legislation hasn't changed. And th that's why he said we're going to be looking to make those changes which is to protect the this great asset that we have in part. So we will be looking for your support out there. So we appreciate it. Thank you.

Nice to see you. Good to see you. All right. Walter. Yeah. We adjourn. Board of Finance. Motion to recess to Tuesday, February 24th at 7 p.m. Second. All in favor? Thank you for the council. Motion to recess until Tuesday, February 24th. Second. All in favor? Thank you. Any Thanks everybody. Thank you guys for tuning in. Yeah. Thank you.