pre-town meeting required by law in order to have us vote by Australian ballot tomorrow. We're not, we're not amending anything tonight. Don't try to do that. That's all part of the ballot process. The flag is in the back and it's our practice to say the Pledge of Allegiance. If you could turn around. 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. Thank you. There are five articles. I'll read each one and then presumably people will have the opportunity to ask questions and find answers. If any of you are not residents of the town of Berlin, I would ask the assembly if you would have any objection if they spoke at this meeting. Anyone have any objection? I'm not, I'm a non-resident. But you don't object. I do not object. Okay. And so it'd be good if when you do speak, you stand up and you give us your name and if you're not a resident, you don't have to tell us if you are a resident. But if you're not, so we know where that opinion is coming from. So the first article, the Berlin Town Center Gateway Improvements, reads, shall general obligation bonds or notes of the town of Berlin payable from revenues derived from the town's general fund in an amount not to exceed $2,550,000 subject to reduction from the receipt of available state and federal grants and aid. That may, those words don't really belong there, be issued for the purpose of financing the cost of developing water sewer, stormwater treatment roads and sidewalks in Berlin Town Center. The estimated cost of such improvements being $2,550,000. And who is prepared to answer questions here? Tom, the House of the ER Assistant Administrator. Any questions about Article 1? Or what are your questions for Article 1? Questions? Oh, I can add that. Why don't you, yeah, why don't you tell us a little bit about the project? Yeah, I can, I can add that the, as you may know, the town received a new town center designation in June of 2020 last year, and something that the Planning Commission started about 25 years ago, and it's finally come to fruition. This is a program that that allows towns without a traditional downtown like Berlin to access funds, technical assistance to, in effect, create a downtown. This is a 25 year program from the state. Berlin is the third recipient of a new town center. The other two are in Chittenden County. And Berlin has a relatively small population compared to our neighbors in Chittenden County. And we're very proud that we got this. We, at the end of the day, we hope that rural communities can see what we have done as a community and use this as a springboard to bring development into their community. So what this does, the town received, in May of this year, a 3.8 acres in, in, there was the five towns that make up Washington Central Unified Union School District voted to approve to give that 3.8 acres to the town. And now that is the first property coming into the gateway. If you, if you have the handout, there's a map attached. It's the, it's the road. It's coming off Route 62, which is the current Berlin Mall Road. It's envisioned to reconstruct and realign that road, making it significantly more pedestrian friendly. Anybody who's travels that road now knows that it's, it's hardly anything but pedestrian friendly. There'll be sidewalks, streetscapes, street lights. Berlin was, was instrumental in bringing the Chestnut Place, the 98 unit senior housing that you see there now built on your little map that you can see that it's the, the T building at the top of your top of your map there right across the street. Fox Run is 30 units of workforce housing that's in its final stages of permitting from the town of Berlin. They plan on going to bid in the winter, this coming winter and starting construction in 2000 and 24 in the spring of 2000 and 24. So this project has received two grants now, one a $500,000 grant and another $205,000. We are now applying to Vermont Agency of Transportation for an additional grant. We thought it was going to be about 300,000 we're going to request. They are now including stormwater in their applications. So we're going to be asking for $700,000 grant from an agency of transportation. Those of those applications are due to the state early December. We will likely hear in the spring of 2000 and 24 if Berlin gets awarded. So but all those would reduce the bond cost. And I lost my train of thought. Sorry, but I just want to make sure everybody understood that that reduces the amount of and I guess that's it. If anybody has any questions, I'll remember what I was trying to think. Questions over in the back. Yes, sir. I just want to make sure I understand what the numbers mean. It says that each of four parcels is each estimated six million. That would be 24 million. It's the grand list value. What's that's what you think each parcel that will have a grand list value about $6 million. That's correct. And so that's not related to the amount being asked for. No, there's not a subtraction from that to the grad. So there's like three different kind of numbers here. There's grant numbers. There's some kind of value. And then there's the cost that you're asking for. What we're trying to do with that number is to show that the value added that the community is going to receive from from this investment. Anyone else? Yes, sir. Very shully. I'm wondering who would be responsible for the maintenance of this? The roads and sidewalks, the town of Berlin is said that they would take over. Okay, so that would be additional cost. Of course. Yeah. Another thing I was wondering about looking at the geometry of the roadway here was consideration given to the fact that large delivery trucks will be using this road. Yeah, yes. That's not a final design. That's planning purposes. But the folks from I'm gonna forget their names. They're engineering firm out of Burlington designed it. So we believe that it'll allow a proper truck reuse. Anyone else have a question? Paul Martin has the $500,000 grant already been spent. It has not. So the two point is in addition to that amount, or would that be subtracted from the two point five? It would be subtracted as the 205,000 will be subtracted from other questions on article one. Sir. Yes. Is there any timeframe for the building of the road or we're trying to get it as much grant money as we possibly can. And this $700,000 asked that we get trans if it comes to fruition, that will pay for over half of the project with what we have in place. It would be staff staff recommendations to select board that then we would we would go to bid in short order if we get all those grants. My name is Jane Fallon. So we voting on a bond for the $2,500,000. That's okay because it doesn't say we're voting for a bond. It just says Berlin Town Center, gain improvements. The warning is that it says Shell general obligation bonds be issued. So it's asking you that it's not on there. It's that's just them. Oh, you know what? That's a very brief. There's a warning has is the question that's here. And I don't think there's are copies of that. And I also believe that would allow you to borrow against those bonds. Yes, sir. I'm Bob Richard Berlin. I'm just trying to get a concept not on this particular article, but all of them on how much it affects property tax. In other words, let's just let's assume you know, you get some federal funds and you get some matching. But for every million that the town has to pay, roughly how does that affect will say $100,000 appraisal? I could give you rough figure. Yeah. So each the three articles that impact you as a resident, because article two and article three are not paid by the General Fund. That's they're paid by the users of the sewer system and the users of the wastewater system. So to me, that's different than articles one, four and five. Okay. For it's a rough number. You don't have no current interest rates are going to be but we estimate for article one with without receiving the $700,000 grant we're going after be about $400,000 home about $13 a year on your taxes for the article four, which is the multi years. We talked about that later. It's another $13 per $100,000 home. And the last one, the ice rink improvements. It's about $7 and 70 cents per $100,000. Yeah, thank you. Get it in my head, you know, what all this means and dollars and cents. And that doesn't sound unreasonable. Another question. I have a great deal of faith in our select board who probably have had work to explain to them then what we got at the website or off the warnings. I noticed only three of five of you signed the warning on the website. Was that was there a reason for that? That's my question. I believe Dave Sawyer wasn't there and someone else was ill. We just had the three of us. I guess the question is, is there a dissent? Article one, so we go to article two. This one comes with the film, so it's more entertaining. Shall general obligation bonds or notes for the town of Berlin payable from revenues derived from the operation of the town's municipal sewer system in an amount not to exceed $2,200,000 subject to reduction from the receipt of available state and federal grants and aid be issued for the purpose of financing the cost of repairs and replacement of 50 year old sewer line. The estimated cost of such improvements being $2,000, $200,000. And user are the videographer here. Mike Smith is the design engineer on this project and he's helped us develop the budget. Good. No, there's not raise any expectations. This will not be entertaining. I can tell you joke afterwards if you want. But my name is Mike Smith. I work with Weston and Samson. We're we have an office up in Waterbury. Been around since 1899, about 800 people now. And we do civil environmental engineering, water sewer, wastewater plants, industrial wastewater, that kind of thing. So that's the first four slides. I'm going to be respectful of your time and jump into the meat of it here. Again, this is all just about us. Tom can tell you more. So Hospital Hill, where you're headed down the bank to CVS, if you were to go down that way, there is a sewer line that runs from the corner of Fisher Road, that intersection by the hospital down past the hospital parking lot goes down toward a substation down there. And then it cuts goes underneath the highway. And then it goes down through the woods over the bank behind the tire place. And you'll waste water treatment plant, right. They used to be in the 70s. There was a wastewater treatment plant, which has been abandoned, but that sewer line still conveys the sewage from this area town, down to that point to a main pump station, then it kicks it over to Montpelier. Right by the hospital parking lot, section of the sewer broke about a year ago. And it was a minor discharge. And Tom reached out to us because we were currently doing an asset management plan to look at the entire wastewater collection system for the town. So we did a little extra investigative work there and found that the pipe, the sewer line, which is rigid, and it's got bell and spigot joints, so they kind of stick into each other, got pushed by unstable soils, which pushed it away from the hospital parking lot toward the ditch. This is also being exacerbated by continuous erosion of water going down through that ditch line. It's cutting it deeper and deeper and deeper, making the soils even less stable. So the pipe failed. It is back in service and it's in operation right now, but it's not sustainable the way it is. In order to replace that section of pipe, we're going to have to not only replace it but stabilize the soils so that the pipe stops migrating. So it's about 9 almost 1000 feet of pipe from the corner of Fischer Road toward the substation. Some of the impacts of this project not being done. It's a major environmental liability for the town, very costly, very expensive, the state's aware of the failure. And their anticipation is that the town will do something to repair it. This is this area, these four corners up here designated as a large commercial district, which I'm sure you all know, serves the airport, the hospital, the schools and the new town center. All of the wastewater from those entities goes through this pipe, which is the bulk of the sewage generated within the Berlin collection system. So it's a critical piece of your infrastructure. This is just an aerial photo with some of the stuff that we picked up from a quick field survey. This is Route 62 headed down towards CVS, that's the ramp. The substation is down here, it's hard to see. And the sewer line, Fischer Road is up here, but the sewer line comes down through. And the pipe came apart, the existing pipe came apart right about in this area, between two sewer manholes. So it's not a it's not a it's not a matter of just dropping in another manhole, or putting in a repair with 10 feet of pipe. It's going to require stabilizing the soils because the entire line is in danger of failure. The project cost, the construction subtotal, and I'll get into how that broke down and why it seems as large as it is, is 1.3 million. If the project is funded through SRF, engineering fees for preliminary design, final design, and then construction phase engineering services are capped at about $300,000. That's because the state of Vermont uses a fee curve. Contingencies right now because there isn't a final design, we carried it at 30% for budgeting purposes so that you don't get partway through the project and find out you didn't set aside enough money. There's some construction easements that will probably be required temporarily, and that may cost some money, we approximated that at about $25,000. And then typically the town will have some internal administrative costs. So for planning, we carried half a percent of the total construction costs for that. All in is 2.2 million, which is what the moderator just mentioned was on the bond article. So that's a breakdown of the cost. So the project includes, as I mentioned, stabilization of those soils around the sewer line. So you've got this ditch line with the hospital parking lot being up here on top of one of the banks. And sewer line is actually in the bank. So to get down to the soils that are unstable and failing, we've got to do and also to replace the pipe. We have to do more than just excavate down to the pipe, we have to open that area up a little bit and put in some better material and some drainage. So the stabilization is an expensive piece. Complex traffic control because there's a lot going on as you can imagine rated that that intersection and we're going to have construction vehicles coming and going and serving that area. Bypass sewage pumping. That was on the order of $250,000. And what that means is we're going to have to set up temporary sewage pumping, at least at this point, to move the sewage around the construction site so that the sewer line so that sewage can continue to flow. And we don't have backups or other issues or discharges upstream of the construction site. Stormwater drainage. There's a bunch of stormwater structures that crisscross through that area. They're going to have to be addressed. We're going to be working in a wetland, which is up toward the corner or the intersection of Fisher Road. So that's going to require some some special considerations, soil stabilization for the excavation. The existing pipe is asbestos cement. And it was commonly used in the 60s and 70s. It's all over the place. It is now considered a hazardous waste. So a piece of the cost is going to be to remove the pipe and get rid of it. It used to be common practice to crush it and leave it in the bottom of the trench and lay your new pipe on top of it. And the thought was, as long as it's still buried where it was, it's not a danger to anybody, but that the EPA is no longer taking that approach. So while it's not a huge expense to the project, it is an added expense that you wouldn't see otherwise on a sewer project. So then we have the new gravity sewer and manholes. And as I mentioned before, there'll be some fairly complex excavation support, because we're trying to replace a pipe that's parallel to an embankment on the side of the embankment. So we got to go back in a ways. It's going to be a fairly complex project. Financing. So as Tom mentioned earlier, this particular article, or the money voted under this article is going to be paid for by the connected sewer users, not by the taxpayers of the entire town. The town is considering SRF loan funding, which is a state revolving fund. The state loans out money for infrastructure projects like these. And as towns pay that money back, the state rolls it back out into other loans. Because it's got some federal money involved in it, or federal seed money. The state does charge 2% financing fee. It's essentially interest, which is very low. I don't know what the commercial for commercials 5.3 5.3 USDA is for USDA another federal program that does similar infrastructure projects is for you said so that's gone up. So the state still holding it to because it's a sewer line, it's expected the the asset itself once it's built has a design life of anywhere between 50 and 100 years. That outlives the life of the loan which allows the town to spread that out over 30 years instead of the typical 20. If it was a sewage treatment planet would only be a 20 year loan. Payments would begin one year after the project is complete. And something else to consider is when the town applies to get on the state priority list for this type of work. You can also get in line for pollution control grants through the EPA and there still are some ARPA funds left that could be contributed, all of which would pay down the the loan principle. So your worst case is 2% for 30 years on the eligible cost for the project, which would be engineering and construction, but not land acquisition. That would be the worst case, which isn't bad. And it would only be offset or made better by grants that could be applied. But the town won't know if they have those grants until they apply for them and also if they're on the state priority list. And that's it in a nutshell. I wanted to be respectful of your times. I know you have other things to talk about. Anybody have any questions? Who is that connected users are people who are paying a sewer bill? So anyone like who has a home or a business? Yep, homes, business, the hospital. So in a nutshell, the town has a sewer budget to cover all of the costs of owning and operating the sewer system plus treatment at Montpelier. And they divide that up into what's called an equivalent residential unit or ERU, or an equivalent dwelling unit sometimes call it EDU. So typically one home, a two bedroom or three bedroom home would be one EDU. The school would be many EDUs based on their flow. Town offices would probably be like one EDU. The hospital would be huge number of EDUs. They're about 65% of our customer base costs. Yeah, there you go. So in a nutshell, the hospital would pay for 65% of this project conceivably. Did that answer your question? Or dig off the rails? You mentioned land acquisition. This might be a question for Tom, who owns the land where the line will be repaired and the construction. The town has a current right of way there. We're hoping to stay within that right of way. We're not anticipating much land acquisition at all, Carl. Some of that land acquisition cost would be like could include temporary construction easements. If some of the work has to cross outside of the town's sewer line easement, or if access to the site needs to take place from private property like the hospital parking lot, some of those costs would be included in that as well. Yes, sir. Is this the only pipe that channels sewage to mope your sewage treatment plant? There's it's it's kind of like a tree. Yeah. This is the main branch that comes up the hill. But there's also another sewer line that comes from Duncan Donuts down on 302. The very town line. Very city line towards more failure. But this, the by and large, I'd say better than 90% of the town sewage flows through this, wouldn't it? I wouldn't say that much. I'd say 6040. 6040. Any idea what this will cost the residential homeowner that is on the system? I know a lot of the town is not. I broke it down. Yeah, I didn't I don't have it with me right now. You want me to a rough number? Yeah. So Tom asked me if I could take a quick look at this right now. Right now. The town has 547 equivalent residential units. So again, 65% of those are with the hospital. But per per ERU would be an increase of about $180 per year. per ERU. Like the ERUs that I gave you were our water customers. We have twice as many sewer customers as we have water. So that would be by half. Yeah, so $90 a year per ERU for the sewer customers. Thank you. And that's that's based on that $2.2 million. I want to say to that worst case scenario. Yeah, and these are planning costs. So the 30% contingency is going to drop when we get a final design. And hopefully the numbers, you know, right now with with COVID construction prices are all over the place. It does seem to be stabilizing a little bit. So that gives us more confidence in the numbers being good for another year. But there'll be another opportunity to do revised opinion of cost after the final design is done. And maybe we can find some efficiencies with the design to help keep the cost lower. And and also as you just pointed out, so it's $90 per ERU per year increase. But if the town gets a PC grant or some ARPA money that they can buy that principle down with that $90 is going to go down to. And that's just for 30 years, right? Correct. Correct. Any other questions? So the pipe currently is working. I'm presuming and I mean, is this an emergency or do we wait a year or two? So technically, the town could apply for the funding, calling this an emergency. Right now it's functioning. But if there was a backup in the sewer line, which is how it was discovered in the first place. It's a gravity sewer pipe, and it's very steep. So the water is coursing down pretty quickly and it's shallow in the sewer. But if there's a backup, it backs up and it spills out through that broken joint where the pipe was deflected. So if the town, so there's two answers to your question. Realistically, it is not on fire. But it's not sustainable and something should be done as soon as possible. But secondly, if the town does apply for emergency status, it'll give you more points on the priority list, which will make it more likely that the funding will come through quicker. Mike, I just want to say something to I'm Rob Allen. I'm the chairman of the Public Works Board here in Berlin. And this hospital hill line is very concerning for us as the board members. It would be disastrous if this line failed on us. We'd have to, Mike pointed out there'd have to be during construction, there'd have to be some bypass pumping. If this failed on us, we would have to do actually bring in vector trucks and pump from an upstream manhole for a time until sewer water doesn't stop flowing.  So we'd have to do some emergency controls for this for the for the sewer, which would mean getting in vector trucks to pump it and take it down to the Montpelier plant until we could arrange some kind of a bypass system. And in the winter time, I'm not sure how we would even do that. So for us on the board, this is this is an urgent matter for us to get done. I, you know, I, I would like to see this done next year for sure. Every meeting we we check in to see what the status is. And I'm surprised it didn't move to too much. None that we know of during the July flood when when everything was so wet and landslides are happening everywhere, it seemed like. Thank goodness, this didn't seem to slide any. I called Tom the day after that happened. I was thinking the same thing. It scares us that that we could have a disaster.  So we really need to, you know, if we need to fix it, there's no there's no option not to do something here. So we need to hopefully this bond passes. Otherwise, we're going to have to we'll have to borrow money from a bank or something to get this done. So follow up on that. The state is opening the priority list for applications. They're going to have documents ready for the municipalities on November 15. So if the town votes to move forward with this project, then you could be getting in line for money as early as the spring. The big thing on the SRF program that you're trying to get is the construction money, which is the big that's the big nut. And that's what all the competitions for between all the other communities right now. It's a perfect time to get involved in a project like this because a ton of money has been dumped on the state by the feds because of the COVID situation, stimulus money that we've been hearing about. Secondly, the state has through the SRF program what they call a planning advance, which means that there is money right now tonight, available to start to design for this project, even if you don't qualify for construction funding next year. I think you will though. But the point is, is the design can start as soon as the town is ready to get you in line for construction and the P list application. The town votes to move forward with the project that should go in as soon as possible. You could even potentially have money available the first of July. Any other questions on article two? Thanks for your time. Thanks a lot. Article three, completing waterline loop. Shall general obligation bonds or notes of the town of Berlin, payable from revenues derived from the operation of the town's municipal water system in an amount not to exceed $3,702,000 subject to reduction on the receipt of available state and federal grants and aid be issued for the purpose of financing the cost of completing 1.8 miles of water main, creating the closed water system, the estimated cost of such improvements being $3,702,000. Who will speak for this? I have a map back here I could show a little handout really says at all. Town built its first water system in 2015. We've operated it since then. We're very proud of that water system. It's relatively young and it operates in the black. Not many water systems as shown operate in the black. The problem we have is our wells are up past the airport of the dodge dodge farm road. And so there's a 12 inch line that comes from their down airport road that all of the water passes through. If there's a break on that 1.6 mile loop, all the water customers are without water. And a 12 inch line is a large line, a lot of water, we have a 420,000 gallon tank, two hours probably to that that tank would be loaded. So what the problem probably talked a little about this, but the idea here is to put a redundant line in from the wells coming down Scott Hill Road and connecting to our line on Comstock Road. And that's the 3.3 point $7 million project in a nutshell. Questions on this. Waterline loop. Margaret Shelley, by the way, which is the on the colored map, which is the new red? Okay, I thought so, but I just wanted to make sure. Sir. Oh, all right. Questions on article three.  So this is going to be paid for by the people who are on the sewer on the waterline. Correct. Not by everybody. Correct. Slep or agree with that? Yes. On the town's water on the town of Berlin's water. Yes, not the city of mob failures, water, nor hedges water system. Both of those operate in this town as well. Tom, as we add sort of the project to the new town center, as we're adding more dwellings, are they going to be lowering the amount shared across all users of the water system? The more customer base you have, the lower the cost for everybody is I think. So the answer is yes. It it's that building apartments does not occur overnight. We have a 10 year plan to add housing over there to new town center. We've got the the one project built the senior housing we're doing this 30 units. The thought is 350 to 500 units of housing there in the new town center in the next 10 years, they will be consumers and customers of those waters. If there was any expansions, I'm assuming it's the same like units, similar to the sewage, because any expansion to the hospital or anything else like that, they would incur a greater portion of retain. Correct. Other questions about the waterline loop? Yes. So currently, I think just brass tacks, I think I'm paying about $440 a year towards the bond. Correct. Because four times a year I get a bill and I pay. And so this seems like a large chunk of money. And we're when we put the new pipe in. Are we instantaneously adding any customers to help pay this down? Or is it all of us that currently are on the system? Everybody was currently on it. All right. So what's that going to do with bond payments? It's going to go up. The development in a new town center is what we hope is that customer base is going to be added as well. So is there any way of knowing like the the original system that was put in in 15, part of the reason I bought my house because I knew there was going to be water. The house didn't have its own source of water. Do you know what that cost? Remember? Somewhere between six and a half and $8 million. Oh, it was that much. We got half of that in a grant. So our bond payments right now are for about $3 million. Yes. Just trying to get that was a 40 year note. So do you think like my bond payments are going to double? I'd have to go back. I don't have that number. We will seek grants here. We haven't found any on on this project. We don't know what per ERU this is going to jump. No, it's all going to depend on the amount of grants we we have to take Mike's point here when he said this house isn't on fire. But it's it's it's a pending issue that can seriously impact the school. All there are a lot of customer base here. We need we need to be able to provide this town wants to grow economically. We need to provide good quality water on a reliable basis. We can't have water outages. You've seen communities around us have water outages outages for weeks on end. We cannot do that, right? We cannot do that. Berlin is on it on the cusp of some, some growth here. And we need to fulfill our obligations as a community to serve our our customers. Anything more on the waterline loop? Let's go to four. The recreational multi use path sell general obligations, no bonds or notes of the town of Berlin, payable from revenues derived from the town's general fund and an amount not to exceed $1,610,000 subject to reduction from the receipt of available state and federal grants and aid be issued for the purpose of financing the cost of constructing approximately two miles of recreational multi use path, the estimated cost of such improvements being $1,610,000. Who is familiar enough with this? So this article goes hand in glove with number, number three. So if if we are putting a waterline on and we're tearing up Scott Hill Road, as it's torn up, we want to be able to add bike lanes to that road when we replace it. And and so that's what the $1.6 million is for is to add those bike lanes. If number three never comes in fruition. I doubt number four will ever come in fruition. It just makes no sense that the cost would be I'm probably prohibitive if you try to do it on your own outside of the reconstruction for for the Scott Hill Loop. So it's a hand in glove. The the some members of the Recreation Commission here, the they have they have a very aggressive schedule to to put in bike trails throughout Berlin. You see communities that have put bike trails in mountain bikes. It's an economic engine. People are coming from miles around states around to come visit community spend their dollars in recreation. People want to live in a community where they can recreate. They want good schools, they want clean water, they want access to adequate wastewater, and they want recreation. And so it's one of the cornerstones of the whole economic development plan that the town of Berlin has for the next 10 years. Question. Yes. The yellow are proposed trails. Yeah, that was that was that was a planning document we put in for a grant. We didn't get a grant. So it, yeah, that's it's, it's, it's the commission sat down and he said, well, yeah, this makes sense. Sort of important to note that currently there is not a bike trail along the airport road. There is no. No. They're on to very town. No, we want to be there. Yeah. Gary Shelley, uh, so despite what it says here, multi multi use pass, this is basically just wide shoulder on the road, right? It's eight feet.  And if you've been on the Burlington bike path, it'd be very similar to that paved two way traffic. And what you see is cottage industries spring up around these facilities. It may be two miles today, but we want it to be 20 miles in 10 years. So would this be able to be built within the existing right of way? That's the anticipation. Correct. Yeah. In the back. I, um, this isn't really to do with recreation, but I'm just wondering, looking at this, I think this is what tags on with it. Is, is there anything in the plan about addressing people being able to cross the intersection of 62 and Fisher Road? That's always in up for discussion. The, the in our town center now, and which encompasses that area when a, when a property owner wants to redevelop their property, they're required by our zoning regulations to put sidewalks in. And there are several properties being, being discussed through redevelop. We're hoping that that intersection can be addressed in, in, in this time. So people put in crosswalks would then they put in like a crossing? Yes. Thomas, is this part of cheaper because we're, is it with this product be cheaper because of the work done with the water line? But if this was done without doing the water line would it just be more expensive? Much more expensive. So this this just happens to be like an opportunity to do this. And then does this do you feel like for the grants that you've been applying for or something like applying for a ton? The starting some of these projects that we're looking at starting, send any messages or help us at all with future grants? I think what, what ends up happening, if you have a bond vote in the community supports that the project like this, this says a lot to the folks who give grant money, right? They say, this community is really has, has an interest. They have their heart and soul in it. And they're willing to put some skin in the game. So I found that. And that's what's called shovel ready. If you're ready to go, you have a greater chance of getting funding. So it's one, one more step to get you down the road. Well, the multi use path be simply a wider road, or is it going to be separated from the road to keep bicyclists and walkers safe? We haven't got the final design yet. Ideally, it would be the latter. Yeah, ideally, but we haven't got I'll never ride a bike on a road that has cars on it. Too many family injured and dead. Further questions about the recreational path? Is there a way? Absolutely. I mean, there's the town has parking at its campus. There's parking at Berlin pond. The school has parking. The parking ride that just opened a year and a half ago doubles its capacity. There's a lot of parking around. Okay, yes. This is a question or more of a comment. But we're talking about two miles of road. And Mike Poginski, I've lived in this community for 22 years. Whenever I ride my bike, that is the last place that I think about riding. There are so many other places to ride around our town. I'm just wondering the efficacy of putting all that money into it. I understand what Tom is saying about future development. But that seems like a lot of money for two miles of biking in a spot that's really not the primary at the bike anyway. We all all of us that bike bike around that lovely Berlin pond. So I guess that's my two cents. Thank you. Anyone else? Article five recreational improvements to ice rink. Shell General Obligation Bonds are notes of the town of Berlin Parat table from revenues derived from the town's general fund in an amount not to exceed $775,000 subject to reduction from the receipt of available state and federal grants and aid be issued for the purpose of financing the cost of installing a solar power generating canopy while creating a four season recreation facility. The estimated cost of such improvements being $775,000. Who speaks for this time? Or is there somebody from the recreation? I can or the right commission could jump in as well. Everybody knows that there's an ice rink. And hopefully everybody knows there's an ice rink at the at the town office campus. It's really used. It's it's nature makes the ice. We don't make ice. We don't have a Zamboni's all volunteers do the work. We the Recreation Commission is really believes and I've got to say I drink that Kool-Aid as well as that there are limited recreation opportunities for young adults and and older adults in our community. So thought process is put a canopy over over over that, make it a four season, and underneath that canopy during spring, summer and fall, you could do basketball, pickle ball, pickle ball, volleyball, various different recreational activities that many communities have, which we don't have in our community. So again, if Jeff or Tom, if you have anything to add, you're more than welcome. I'm Tom Willard. I look this old because I've been maintaining that. It was it was built in 1990. I think of 1995. It was built with all money that we raised town businesses with no town general fund money. It's been very popular. It's that location where we have security, the police departments there, the town officers are there. There's plenty of parking. And it there was a lot of talk about some grants and putting in a canopy for solar 760kw solar project. And he said, it doesn't make me sense to put it over a parking lot. Let's put it over the rink. It would increase the use. You know, you'd be able to play hockey in the wintertime when it's snowing. And you could turn the lights are there, the electrical is all underground systems. It's going to need a lot of work in terms of the subsurface construction and drainage in order to support tennis or pickleball or stuff like that. But gee, with the lights there and the canopy, it could be a year round facility. It could be I think a community builder as well. Now in the winter, the community is all winter ice hockey skating type people, but it could be a bigger community, I think amenity for the town. So I think it makes a lot of sense. And I think it would would really, really be a real benefit to the town. I'm Jeff Ferrell, Rick, another recreation commission. I also live right next door to the skating rink. Like I get to hear all the hockey parks hitting the boards at two o'clock in the morning. It's great. Because people are out using that facility and having fun on it. And one of the things that we don't think about and Tom just kind of glossed over is the maintenance of that of that thing that is there for everybody in the town and people from all around the area to come and use. And one of the other views that I get to have is three o'clock in the morning when the lights are on and Tom is out in a raincoat and a snowmobile pants, spraying water onto the rink. And and and then later in the day when it snows, when it snows two feet, and either I go out with the snowblower or Tom is out with the snowblower. One of our other rare volunteers is out with the snowblower blowing the snow off off of the rink and making it useful for everybody who wants to be able to use it. When we like Tom said when we came up with the idea of the canopy, we thought, you know, oh my gosh, something over this thing would just make everybody's lives so much better. We could put the disco ball in there and everything would be great. Yeah, a couple of skate and all that kind of stuff. But but the but we looked at it and it was extremely expensive to put a roof over the thing. So Tom mentioned, hey, there's money for a solar thing. And that was what we looked at. We said, hey, if we can get some money for a solar thing, let's generate some power, put it over the skating rink, make it so maybe so we can use it. So when we go out, we don't necessarily have to snow blow it every time it snows. We don't have to repack it and then re and then re ice it if we if we go too long without snow blowing it after it snows. It's there all the time so that it's available with if we can put a substrate down underneath it and have smooth ice. Has anybody skated on the rink recently? Has anybody been afraid that they were going to lose a body part because they're going to fall into a hole on the ice? We've all been concerned about that. It's a great natural feature, but it's a natural feature that it makes it a concern for us to have have little kids, people with less stability, people learning how to skate, people who are really good skaters and used to skating indoors, coming out and finding out that this is what it's like to skate outdoors and there's a hole somewhere. So those are the kind of things that we've been concerned about and we really want to have a good facility. Like Tom said, it's right next to the police department.  They can be there in a relatively safe somewhat controlled environment where kids can go and make good decisions for themselves without necessarily a whole lot of adult supervision. But they have the but they have access to emergency services right there, feet away from the skating rink. And how many other facilities do we have in town for the public? Places to get together, places to congregate, meet, play sports, do whatever. There's a little park over on Muzzy Road. There's a, well right now the road going down past, what's that, Painter Plank north is Community Park, but only because there's a hole in it and it's blocked off. That'll probably not be a park for long. Then that's about it. So we've got the mountain. We can go up and ride bikes and cross country ski and do things like that. But how many places do we have where a kid can go and play kind of on their own? And we don't really, we don't really have a whole lot of that. So me the neighbor who's going to listen to the basketball's bounce at two o'clock in the morning, me the neighbor who listens to the hockey pucks, hit the boards at two o'clock in the morning, send it. Let's have it there so we can have people who can come out and enjoy our community here for a lifetime. Thank you. Thank you. Brett Murphy, West Berlin. I understand the benefit of having a canopy over the over the play surface, but what is the thought behind the usage of the electricity generated from the solar array? Is it going to be net metered sold and or is it going to be used by the town buildings or how how is that going to benefit the town to have a solar array above it? I'll swing it this way. So Jeff mentioned that, you know, an idea of some grant funding. It really wasn't grant funding. There are developers out there that that I've spoken to and the cost, the cost of the solar is about $300,000 that we would sell the rights to the electricity to that developer and they would build it the canopy for $300,000. So the town of Berlin has no skin in the game on the electric. It's it's up to those developers who have paid for it to pay for it. Okay, yes sir. Adam French in Berlin here. The question that I have, I'm just wondering what people think about is around, well, you mentioned a good facility, creating a good facility over here. It sounds like it's going to be something fantastic, a great facility and it's like a it would be like a no-brainer for our community to do this for the for our for our children and young people. I'm wondering about the the the the more traffic we would get there from other towns and I'm wondering how people feel about that people coming in from, you know, from Northfield and Montpelier and any other towns and the the traffic increase for that. I'm wondering if anybody having any thoughts about that? Tim, you got any thoughts? Tim, right on the corner. We're the we're the prime candidate for the people who get the traffic from other towns. My thought was Jeff kept and he's right, I do hear the pox, I hear the noise.  Sorry, the question, oh about the traffic, well Shed Road already has, we have tens of thousands of trucks that go up and down Shed Road every year. I guess I'm not talking about this car traffic, I'm talking about people, more people coming in from other communities to to use those facilities, you know what I mean? Well and not necessarily our own from our own community. Right, I don't know if you can have somebody standing there checking your residents I'm just wondering what do you think there were thoughts on that? No, I don't have any thoughts on that. I think it's great to have the kids playing and people playing is great. If you got a kid here in town, where do you go now? You go to Montpelier, you go to the rec fields in Montpelier, you go to the nice facility that Barrie Town has that for some people in Berlin is probably a 40-minute drive from their house to go to the the Barrie Town, Skate Park, Dog Park, Baseball Field thing next to the elementary school middle school elementary school in Barrie Town. Maybe you go down to Northfield to use the pool.  So people coming from other communities, East Montpelier has its own little skating rink that they put together. There's a capital skating rink down down at the at the Capitol building in Montpelier. Barrie rink with the cover over it. Yeah and so there are other places that other people do go. The one thing that I would say about our facility is that if the nice thing about our facility is we probably would not encounter some of the problems that they have at those other places because we have the police department sitting right next to the skating rink and it's kind of obvious when there's five police cars parked there. So I'm selfish. I want this community to grow. We have a nighttime population of 3,000 and a daytime population of 12,000. We need to get some of those people to move to Berlin. Help with our taxes. So buy our water. Use our sewer system. Shop at the grocery stores. And what if they're going to if they're coming here to play hockey or basketball and they're living in Northold and say oh my goodness I'm I'm this close to the interstate. Honey let's move to Berlin, right? And and that's why people move. That's why they have amenities that people don't want. You know they're they'll buy gas at our grocery stores and and all that. Sir. My name is George. Now a reality check. I need my wife to review because I need glasses. Okay well we're both fiscal conservatives and I know that everybody's talking very hopefully and cheerfully about all these plans. My concern is the condition of the of the country and the condition of every time I get my statement from my retirement it goes down every month. Down and down and down. The prices go up and up and up. We're over 33 trillion in debt as a country. We have one trillion in debt in credit card debt. Citizen bank failed just two days ago. I don't know if people are aware of that. Major bank failure and that's poor bond market performance that cuts into that. And mortgage-backed securities. The largest mortgage-backed security bond fund ETF traded MBV. It's rated AAA.  The underlying things are not AAA. You can get down to FICA scores on everything that's underlying everything that's in there. I think that we're headed for a big crash and I don't think that it's going to be a crash like 2008. They've kicked the can down the road time and time and time again and what they're doing with the with the mortgage-backed securities now. This is residential. This is not even commercial. Usually commercial is considered to be much more risky. And these mortgage-backed securities that's residential it's actually performing worse than the commercial. So I think that we're headed towards a crash. 1927 crash. 1929. Yeah I don't think that it's going to be because it's not going to be 2008 again. It's going to be worse. And I think that we're headed there. Fitch downgraded the U.S. long-term foreign currency issuer default rating from AAA to AA three months ago. A day after they they did that Fitch downgraded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to AA the very next day. So my concern is that we're spending I've never I don't remember ever seeing this this many things of such large amounts to vote for on a single vote in terms of money and my concern is that we'll be spending a lot of money now maybe some of it's necessary the sewer line and the water line but in terms of having a center now I don't know if we don't vote on the center what happens what happens then if we don't if we vote down a bond. Ask the select one. What happens if it gets voted down? Well we don't get the money to take and improve the the town center we will probably have to drop it. The thing to remember though is that if you're going to take and look at financials our taxes are affordable enough because of that shopping because of that mall if we do not take care of the mall help them become stay solvent and what you're saying will happen in just Berlin not with nation because they supply a lot of tax revenue for the town. Okay well so what does a Berlin town center have to do with the with that? They own the land. They own the land for the for the town center the mall owns the land. The mall owns the land. Well that's my major concern I just think that there's a lot of spending here and just with the circumstances financially you know I'm concerned about the future. We've been up here over 30 years and always seems to be a spend expense and for all these like fluff projects look I don't care I'm 77 you know how many years I got left you know but I mean if you guys got kids or whatever they're going to inherit your debt and their kids are going to probably inherit your debt but you can't think of the president I don't even think anybody here really even thinks about the future you know maybe a month two months a year next bill it's his life we're into a big bang big big bang look at Ukraine look at Israel and this bum we got as a president just spending money hand over fist it's going to come down it's going to have to come down you know if you say and you ain't got adult people in the bay and you're out like you did in 1939 I mean we're going down the shitter anyway that's my okay yeah that's all we wanted to say thank you thank you um something else on article five that's the one I would like to speak about getting back to that one uh the two gentlemen that are on a rec committee I'm wondering do we have any data of how many kids use that facility only anecdotally do we have have you ever seen anything with anecdotally we have there's probably 20 to 30 kids like on a weekend night um out there using that using that facility at night uh I say anecdotally I mean looking out my window or when I'm over there um so 20 30 kids and they're and that's people coming and going throughout the throughout the day um week nights um a little bit less but you look at it four or five kids um coming and going families showing up um pretty regularly throughout the day been out with homeschool groups that come and use it um during the day uh it's like they're fuzed for homeschooling to get together and um and use it um so yeah throughout the week or throughout the winter several hundred heads show up and and use it that's good information you know and we can all I guess compare that in terms of our use and the person use um second question was in order for the pickleball courts and all the other envisioned improvements you got to do something you've got to spend more money to resurface that uh the ground is that part of the that's part of it yeah was that part of that's that's part of this yes okay okay so we're going to get and just get the part I was flat ground underneath and a roof overhead okay and a roof that not just a place you can connect the lights but a roof that's because I was a little unclear when people were okay it's not going to be a a civic center by any means but if you can imagine a pavilion type thing with a uh with a with a hard surface underneath like a shed roof shed roof yeah okay yep okay very good and thoughts about monitoring that because one of the things I taught school in my pillow for 30 years I now monitor their rec department in evenings and sometimes no kids show up sometimes the whole basketball team shows up right sometimes I understand whatever yeah but you know in terms of if this really does take off I mean do we have do are the police expected to monitor this situation no but I I mean kids need free play time and free play space where they can where they can be without necessarily be without um somebody standing on their throat telling them what to do all the time I bet those two would have supported me but but the uh so um yeah so we're not necessarily going to have a home monitor out there okay yeah thanks thank you good yes sir nobody's mentioned it but I think it would be an excellent arena for like a cornhole league most of the undercover I mean not just kids I mean a lot of stuff yeah it would be a good center you know rain or shine what's good about this recreation commission they got a lot of young folks on it you know my hair color your area and and uh they've got a lot of juice right now and they they have kids and it's just wonderful the energy that they're bringing to this community and we as community need to ride their coattails because they are they are the future and it's a bright future for the town of Berlin yes I just like to express my appreciation Tom and the others that have maintained that ring mainly Tom that one of its distinct advantages is that there are not league players and games and they're constantly being scheduled I wouldn't be skating it's so little free skating time they didn't get the surrounding links I'm not sure that that's speaking in favor of probably thousands of dollars but to this point I appreciate it so I'm Doreen Lane from East Road and I too am concerned about the future so every year I've been here I think 12 years now and every year I get my tax bill and I go oh my god it's going up again and I want to know I want you to know that I'm I'm actually losing capacity here prices of everything's going up and when you're my primary income I'm you know no secret I'm retired that's not going up that fast so my question for you is what's next what will you is there something that you know about that's going to be another big bill that you're going to be coming back to us before the town now owns 3.8 acres in in the in the town center they have designs to to develop it they they depending on how they do it they could enter into an agreement with a developer and lease the ground that's I think something in the if that's what happened that could could be something that the select board would come back to the constituency with again that adds value to the community right if they put in housing 40 units of housing and you have 40 families move in you got 40 families now paying taxes to the town of Berlin it it's every item on here is an economic development engine there are no frills here this is looking at the growth of this town and looking to hopefully address your your your problem again we have 3,000 people that pay taxes right and live here we have 12,000 people visit our town every day we've got to capture some of that 12,000 and and have them have them in our community I I agree with that but I I need I need less spending overall because the reality is really hitting hard so please know that and thank you thank you thanks for sharing anything else I'm Flo Smith and I'm on the local select board and I'm very proud to be and I thank everyone for being here tonight and for your involvement and sharing your views whether they're for or against but I am extremely for this and what Tom just said we are very cost conscious on the board it may look like we're trying to spend a lot but we look at ways that we can do it that's going to be beneficial to the community and along that line we're looking at local options tax and that will be to your point that will be very helpful like Tom said so many people come into our community at all times of the day from other communities and back to Adam's question I wholeheartedly would love to have other towns come if this passes the more the merrier and do for our youth there our future and so I appreciate you all being here and sharing your views thank you that sounds like it yes on the local options tax the one thing is we pay local options tax to bury because our zip code is buried when we buy anything on the internet that is an excellent question and a past select board member Carl Parton who's here tonight he was on our board and he actually brought that to our attention yeah and that was very keen information for us so that's something that we are looking at as well I don't know how that changes get our own post office well get our own post office yes that would make the difference sure yeah the polls open tomorrow at 7 10 a.m and close at 7 p.m and in order to get out of this meeting I'll need a motion to adjourn excuse me Paul and that's at the town office not here that's correct so moved and second second second all in favor say aye those opposed no no


Americans throughout the world are celebrating our independence this holiday weekend. Take a moment to think about the sailors who are standing to watch, helping to keep Americans free. All hands up date, hit the streets to find people with a special message for sailors who are serving away from home this 4th of July. Happy 4th of July! To all your families and friends, I know you guys are away a lot so thank you. Happy 4th of July! To all our service men and women all over the world, happy 4th of July. Happy 4th of July! Thank you to all service men and women out there, God bless you all. To all of our service members wherever you may find yourself this 4th of July, please know that those of us at home, thank you and recognize that we wouldn't enjoy the freedoms that we have today that wasn't for your efforts. Happy 4th of July!


So Tears of the Kingdom is trending to be one of the largest launches in Nintendo history. In Japan it's trending to be a much bigger launch than Splatoon 3 which did, and historic nearly 2 million, and maybe even trend ahead of some Pokemon game launches in Japan as well. Also it's just trending in general in almost every single region to be one of the most pre-order games in Nintendo history, and there is an outside chance that it could top Pokemon, Scarlet, and Violet to become the biggest launch Nintendo game published by Nintendo in Nintendo history, and technically it could do that without beating Scarlet and Violet because Scarlet and Violet was a two game combo to get to that 10 million in three days mark. What if Tears of the Kingdom does 8 million in three days? That probably puts it at the number one spot in earnest. That being said, we need to talk a lot about some updated news we have for you not just with sale charts, but also with some other numbers we need to look at, and one little piece of news we're going to drop towards the end of the video about Tears of the Kingdom coming out of Japan. Now before we do all of that, I want to remind you that we are giving away a Nintendo Switch, Zelda, OLED edition, a collector's edition of Tears of the Kingdom as well. Also we are giving away one of those pins from PAX East. All you have to do is go down into the pinned comment or the description, click the link to enter, and we're now on our road to 133,000 subscribers, so I want to thank you guys so much for being here and please drop a like, subscribe to the channel, and maybe hit that bell icon to set it to all notifications. Alright, so let's get into this. The one we first need to look at here is something that many of you guys maybe never thought to look at, and that is let's really look at trailer views, right? Trailer views are insane, and you try to glean some data from it, and look, the final trailer for Breath of the Wild back in 2017 has over 20 million views. It is one of the most successful trailers in Nintendo history. If you sort their YouTube channel by most viewed, it is in their top 10 easily. It is one of the most successful trailers for any video game there is outside of Mario Odyssey. But here's the crazy thing as we look at that final Tears of the Kingdom trailer we got. In the first 12 days of release for Breath of the Wild's final trailer, it garnered six and a half million views. Now this is according to the Wayback Machine, which does capture time on the internet. So that's pretty crazy. If you look at the first 12 days of the Tears of the Kingdom final trailer, it is now 8.6 on its way to 9 million views. It is trending ahead of that trailer, and who knows? Maybe in a few years this could be a 30 million view trailer instead of the 20 million Breath of the Wild got. This signifies obviously that Zelda is more popular today, but it also signifies that there's a larger interest in Tears of the Kingdom 12 days after that trailer than there was in Breath of the Wild, a 30 million seller 12 days after that trailer. Now we're not done though, because we have other data we need to look at, such as metrics showing that the Zelda fanbase has grown through the Breath of the Wild, so how about these extra metrics from Japan and one from the United States? Looking at the Japan sales charts on Amazon for the past few days, Tears of the Kingdom is not only the number one selling overall item for video games, still, it has led to an explosion in Nintendo Switch sales. The white Switch OLED is sitting at number two. The neon red and blue Nintendo Switch OLED is at number four. The Splatoon 3 OLED is at number five. The Zelda OLED, which is now sold out in Japan, is at number seven and their little special addition with Tears of the Kingdom with a Zelda spoon is dropping in at number ten. Due to Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo Switch dominates the top ten with six of the top ten sales spots. Wow, big shout out to Player Essence by the way for grabbing all that Japan data. I was struggling on my side for some reason. Anyways, since starting that marketing campaign with the ten minutes of gameplay they did earlier this month, Switch has been outselling the PlayStation 5 in Japan every single week by pretty hefty margins after being behind the PlayStation 5 for over a month. So yes, just further direct evidence Zelda is driving sales. Now for overall best sellers in the United States, the Ocarina of Time Amiibo which recently got restocked. And if you haven't been paying attention guys, almost all of the Zelda Amiibo have been restocked at this point. They didn't restock them all at once, over the last six weeks there's been like a new Zelda Amiibo every few days getting restocked. So yeah, we did get that Zelda Amiibo restocked that other countries got. So people keep asking me, when are they going to restock all the Amiibo? It's not all at once, it's been sort of piecemealed in. That being said, just looking at the overall sales here with obviously Ocarina of Time sitting there at number two, the Ocarina of Time Amiibo, Tears of the Kingdom is sitting there the game itself at number three and the Zelda OLED is at number seven. Now obviously we have a much bigger market in the US, much more diverse so we're not going to see that Nintendo Switch dominance of the top ten like in Japan. But what's really cool here is in the latest Famitsu charts which just dropped today. Tears of the Kingdom topped the most wanted charts ahead of Final Fantasy 16, another massively popular game in Japan with 1,002 votes and that's a rarity to see any game top in the charts with over 1,000 votes. So that is, that's just really cool. I know Famitsu is not the biggest thing. We talked in the past about ComG, an actual retailer that owns about 1% of the market sort of showing that Zelda is dominating not only Breath of the Wild but Splatoon 3 and pretty much any other Nintendo Switch game to come out with just blasting people with pre-order numbers and look that's absolutely incredible and it just shows the huge success that we're seeing with Tears of the Kingdom and the excitement being driven before the game even comes out but we're not done because Famitsu magazine did one nice thing in their most recent release which I believe is one of their final magazines before the game comes out. They released a giant ad for Tears of the Kingdom and just take a look at this. It is, it's awesome. And here's the thing, as we're looking at this, there are so many other cool things Nintendo is doing with the marketing for Tears of the Kingdom, you know, Nintendo of America isn't necessarily doing as good of a job I would say as Nintendo of Europe right now but you know that's okay. Nintendo of America has got a couple of weeks to sort of quote unquote get their act together but if you actually look at Nintendo of Europe and you scroll down their page you're gonna see this really cool tweet yesterday saying I know why I am here it's something only I can do showing off Princess Zelda and when you open up the tweet it's it's so cool they're taking high fidelity screenshots from the most recent trailer showing all the people that might be helping you on your journey from fellow Hylians and Gorons to you know Tullin and Sidon and Riju you go to the next image and you see Link sort of majestically on his own on that bird we see Riju doing what we think is herbosa's fury then we see Sidon and Link fighting together we see that mysterious Zonai character which technically we know the name of what we're gonna leave that alone because Nintendo hasn't unveiled it yet then we see Tullin and Link doing their dive and then we see that new mysterious female character that something is Zelda maybe it's all his mom maybe it's Hylio we don't know but what's really cool is this is the first high quality screenshots we've gotten from the trailer and there's also an interesting dynamic too where people have been trying to figure out what resolution and stuff this game runs at and Digital Foundry did their own examination of trailer footage just admittedly trailer footage not direct gameplay feed and they keep saying that they think the game runs at about 900p so they speculate it'll be 900p docked 720p undocked I think that's interesting and is in line with Breath of the Wild but what's also noticeable is if you do a pixel count of all of the supposed cut scene moments they all seem to be 1080p and they also seem to have anti aliasing so I'm curious to see if we're seeing a difference in pre-release footage or what's gonna happen once we can direct capture the game basically you know what once we can direct capture and we get away from in motion you know gameplay that's been down rendered and all the stuff through YouTube what what what is actually gonna be we want to wait long Digital Foundry will drop their review at the same time everyone else's reviews drop and their review is always very different the other reviews are all talking about the game and the story and their review goes into literally a bunch of technical analysis which is pretty cool so when we do our review summary and we're bringing all the information to you guys you know a day or two before launch we'll be sure to include Digital Foundry's findings in there as well on the final you know tally of the the performance of the game you know at the FPS drops if there's certain moments where the where maybe even the resolution might be dynamic you know I guess we'll find out then anyways guys thank you so much for being here I'm so excited for Tears of the Kingdom it's hard to it's hard to contain the hype but we have so many other videos we need to get to today had a bit of a late start today so I got some other videos in the work some brand new games from Nintendo coming up here that they haven't announced yet but we got some evidence of their existence and more man who knows they'll probably be by the time I'm done putting the Zelda video up they'll drop even more Zelda news good feels like we're getting tears of the Kingdom news every day thank you guys for tuning in and I'll catch you in the next video


Hi, I'm Zor. Welcome to Unisor Education. Today we'll talk about analysis of certain smooth functions using their derivatives. Well, this lecture is part of the advanced course of mathematics for teenagers and high school students. It's presented on Unisor.com and that's where I actually suggest you to, which this lecture from, because every lecture has detailed notes which basically serve as a textbook, plus registered students have ability to go through some enrollment, exams, and it's free, by the way. Okay, so maximums and minimums of functions. Well, first of all, as we discussed before, if a smooth function, now smooth, let me just repeat a little bit, when I'm talking about certain derivatives, I assume that the function does have a derivative. If I'm talking about derivative of a higher order, like second derivative, for instance, again, I assume that the first derivative is differentiable to produce the second derivative. So, when I'm talking about smooth function, it basically a replacement for saying all the time, well, considering this particular derivative exists, et cetera. So, smooth means whatever I'm saying does take place and available for this particular function. So, a smooth function, if it has a local minimum or local maximum, so this is a local minimum and this is the local maximum. Now, as we know from the Fermat theorem, by the way, the derivative at the point of minimum or maximum is equal to zero, well, which means that the tangential line is parallel to the x-axis, because derivative is a tangent of the tangential line with an x-axis. So, this is system of coordinates, then this line is parallel to this one, as well as this. So, now we will talk about a converse statement. If derivative is equal to zero, does it mean that it's either minimum or maximum? Well, the answer is no, but even if it does, question is which one is this minimum or maximum? So, that's what we're going to talk about. All right. So, first of all, let's just tell just a general statement, general definition, if you wish, a stationary point. Stationary point is a point where the derivative, first derivative is equal to zero. So, minimum and maximum are stationary points, as well as some others, which we will be talking about in the future. All right. So, first of all, let's just talk about, let's say, local minimum. Now, when I'm saying local, it means that the function might have something like this shape, in which case this is a local minimum, this is a local maximum, and this is also a local maximum. So, we are talking about local minimum at the moment, and what does it mean? Well, example, first of all, example, function f of x is equal to x square. At point, it's a parabola, as we know, and at this point, at point x is equal to zero, it has a minimum. So, it looks like a minimum, right? So, let's just talk about, from the perspective of derivatives. Now, let's just think about it this way. What does it mean that the function has a local minimum at this point? Well, it means that in the immediate neighborhood of this point, maybe small, but there is some kind of a relatively small neighborhood around this particular point, where the function is monotonically goes down, reaches the local minimum, and then monotonically goes up, right? Okay. Now, when the function is monotonically goes down, is decreasing, we know that its derivative is negative, because this is greater than 90 degrees, right? This angle is greater than 90 degrees, so the tangent of the tangential line is negative, and that's why derivative is negative. So, the function is, when it goes down, when it's decreasing, its derivative is negative. It's actually more precisely to say it's non-positive, because it can be equal to zero, at some particular point, if the function is really monotonically decreasing, and I will give you an example. So, let's talk about a derivative at this point to the left of the stationary point, in this case, its point where x is equal to zero. So, derivative is non-positive, so it's negative or zero. We know that for sure. Now, to the right of the stationary point, which is in this case a point of local minimum, function is increasing. When the function is increasing, its derivative, which is tangent of this angle, is positive or maybe zero, definitely not negative. So, on the left, we have non-positive, on the right, we have non-negative derivative. Now, let's talk about this particular point here. Now, this is the point where my derivative is equal to zero, because we're talking about this converse statement. If derivative is equal to zero, maybe it's minimum or maximum or whatever. So, we're talking only about these stationary points for derivative. First derivative is equal to zero. Now, to the left, I have non-positive, which means negative or zero. But it's not really zero, because we have zero here and we have determined that there is some kind of a neighborhood around it, where the function is really decreasing, right? So, to the left, we have basically negative. To the right, we have basically positive. So, the derivative is changing sign. If it's a minimum, it's changing sign from negative through zero at that particular point to positive. Now, what's the example? Example is x square. What's the derivative? It's 2x. Now, if x is negative to the left of the zero, this thing is negative. If x is positive to the right of the zero, this is positive. And at this particular point, x equals to zero, it's zero. So, it's definitely changing the sign from negative to positive as we go through this point zero. And this is the first and very important tool, which you can apply to differentiate between minimum and whatever is everything else, non-minimum. So, in case this is a minimum, if stationary point has this property of changing the derivative from negative to positive, changing the sign, if we go through this stationary point, that is a sign of having a minimum, local minimum at this particular point. And this is an example. And as you see, this derivative is changing sign from negative to positive as we go through zero. Now, let's talk about local maximum. So, let's consider the function minus x square. So, its graph would be this. So, that's local maximum, right? Now, here we have a very, very similar situation, but instead of changing the sign from minus to plus, in this case it's plus to minus. So, the function is supposed to be increasing in certain neighborhood. Again, we're talking about certain small neighborhood around this stationary point where no other stationary points exist. So, we're talking about the function about its stationary point and neighborhood where no other stationary points exist, which means our derivative equals to zero only at this point. Now, before that function is increasing, which means its derivative is positive or zero, non-negative, okay? Now, but it's not actually zero because zero is the only point where it's, where x is a stationary point. So, we can talk about positive derivative to the left of it. Now, to the right of the maximum function decreasing functions, monotonically decreasing functions have negative derivative or zero. But again, it's not zero if we are not at that particular point because this is the only point where derivative is equal to zero. So, it's negative here. So, positive on the left, negative on the right, zero is in the middle. That actually is, again, a sign of maximum, very similar to this one. So, if the derivative is changing the sign from positive to negative, that's the maximum, local maximum point. Well, let's talk about this particular derivative of this function is equal to minus 2x. For negative x to the left of zero, this is positive. And to the right of zero, when x is positive, this is negative. So, we have exactly the situation when sign is changing from positive to negative, which signifies the local maximum. Okay. And now, I would like to present the third case when the sign is not really changing. And here is an example. Let's consider the function x to the power of three. Here is the graph. Okay. Now, let's talk about this. Now, obviously, this is not minimum and not maximum, right? However, derivative at point zero 3x squared, that's the derivative. At point zero, it's equal to zero, right? If you put zero here, we will have zero. So, derivative is equal to zero, which means tangential line in this case is basically coinciding with the next axis. It's a stationary point. Therefore, x is equal to zero is a stationary point, because the first derivative is equal to zero. Is it minimum or maximum? No. And actually, there is a special name for this. It's called inflection, inflection point. It's when the function behaves like this. Now, let's analyze our first derivative. Now, in this case, function is monotonically increasing. And it's positive, right? Because zero is the only place where we have agreed some kind of a neighborhood where there are no other stationary points. So, function is monotonically increasing. And that's why its derivative is positive. Now, here, it continues to monotonically increasing. And again, the tangential lines will be always making an angle less than 90 degrees with an x-axis, which means the derivative is again positive. So, function is monotonically increasing. And its first derivative is always either positive or zero or positive again. So, there is no change in sign. It's not like minus to plus or plus to minus. It's plus through zero and then to plus again. So, this is a signification of non-minimum, more maximum, but being an inflection point. So, basically by analyzing how the derivative behaves around the stationary point, we have differentiated three different cases. One case when the sign is changing when we go through this stationary point, when the sign of the derivative is changing from minus to plus, another is from plus to minus. And the third one, it does not change the sign. So, it can be positive and positive or negative and negative. So, that third case is called an inflection. The first two are correspondingly minimum and maximum, whatever it is. I don't remember which one I said first. Okay, so that's the analysis of the behavior of the function using the first derivative. Now, let me make just yet another approach to the same problem. Okay, this approach is related to the second derivative. Now, let's consider the case when we have a local minimum. Now, the first derivative is 2x. Now, how the first derivative behave? Well, as we go through this zero point, it's first negative, then the negativity actually is decreasing, which means absolute value of this derivative is decreasing. And finally, it gets to zero. And then it goes to the positive and increasing, basically, from zero to the positive side. So, what I would like to say is that it looks like the first derivative is monotonically increasing from being negative through zero to being positive. Well, indeed, this function 2x is monotonically increasing, right? Remember the graph? It's just linear. That's the 2x. It's monotonically increasing. Now, what do we know about monotonically increasing functions? Well, its first derivative is supposed to be positive or zero, actually. So, non-negative. Well, let's just check in this particular case. So, the second derivative is the derivative of the first derivative is a constant 2. Now, it's positive, always positive, right? So, it looks like our second derivative is always positive, which means that the first derivative is always increasing in its value, right? It's monotonically increasing. Since the second derivative is positive, the first derivative is monotonically increasing, because the second derivative is the derivative of the first derivative, right? Now, if it's monotonically increasing and we know that it's zero at the stationary point, it means that before that, to the left of it, it was negative and to the right it was positive, which means it satisfies the condition of changing the sign, which means it's a local minimum. So, what I would like to say is that if the second derivative is positive at that particular point, it means that at this particular point, second derivative is changing the sign from minus to plus in this local minimum. Similarly, let's talk about minus x square. The first derivative is minus to x. The second derivative is minus to. It's negative. The graph is obviously this. It's local maximum. So, what do we see? That second derivative is negative, which means that the first derivative must monotonically decreasing. Since it's zero here, it means it's positive on the left and negative on the right. That's what's decreasing actually. And indeed, this tangent of this angle is positive, less positive, but less than. This case is zero and this case, the tangent is this angle. It's negative. It's greater than 90 degrees. So, here is the rule, basically. If the second derivative is positive, it's minimum. If it's negative, it's maximum. Well, let's talk about the function which has the inflection point. My first derivative is 3x square. My second derivative is 6x. Well, at point zero it's equal to zero. It's not positive and not negative, which means we cannot really apply this rule. Now, the function itself has really inflection point here, right? x cubed. So, basically it confirms that we don't have minimum or maximum. But it's not that simple. Sometimes, even if the function does have a minimum, let's say, if you cannot tell that the second derivative at that point, stationary point, is equal to positive or negative number. If it's equal to zero, if the second derivative is equal to zero, you still cannot say, using this particular rule, whether the function has minimum or maximum. And here is an example. Again, very simple example. Let's take the function x to the fourth. My first derivative is 4x to the third. My second derivative is 12x square. So, again, at point zero, now, first of all, the graph of this is, it looks like parabola, but it's much tighter to the x-axis at point zero. So, it's definitely minimum. There's no doubts about that with this function. x is equal to zero is definitely minimum. However, can we say anything using the second derivative at point zero? No, because it's equal to this. And that point is x is equal to zero. It's zero, which means we cannot use this rule. The rule, based on the second derivative at this point, can be used only if this particular second derivative at the stationary point is positive or negative, but not zero. Because if it's zero, we cannot say anything about the first derivative, whether it's going up or down or whatever. So, this is not always working as a rule. So, the second derivative rule is not always working. However, the first rule which I was talking about when the first derivative is changing the sign, in this case, this is working, because the first derivative is this, and on the negative x it's negative, and the positive x is positive. So, it does change the sign from negative to positive, which implies that this is a minimum. But this is based on analysis of the sign of the first derivative. Using the second rule, which I was talking about, the second derivative at the point of stationary point is not working in this particular case. So, it's a sufficient condition, but not necessary to have this, to have minimum if second derivative is positive, negative, etc. All right? So, we are not always using this rule. I mean, this rule might not always give us the result, the rule based on the second derivative. Rule based on the first derivative can do. But then you have to analyze, you have to really think about what is the neighborhood, you have to analyze, go to the left, within that neighborhood, go to the right.  So, using the first rule, which checks the sign of the first derivative, whether it's changing or not, when you're crossing this stationary point, requires some a little bit more work, if you wish, or more analysis. Using the second derivative rule seems to be simpler. Just have the second derivative and plug the stationary point in it. But it's not necessarily working, because it might actually produce zero, which basically gives you nothing. All right. So, that's it for today. I would like you, actually, to recommend to read the notes for this lecture. And they also have some pictures. It's like a nice textbook. It's on this website. You can just go and read all the notes. And it's probably a good idea to do right now, just to refresh whatever we were talking about during this lecture. That's it. Thank you very much and good luck.


Alright, today we're gonna talk about the long run. In my opinion the most important work out in any long-distance running program. We're gonna get into why that is How to do it, how long to go, how often to do it, etc. Stay tuned So the simplest way to look at it is if you're gonna be running for long periods of time You have to practice it. So if you're running marathons, you better do some long runs because that's specific to the marathon. But Arthur Liddiard would even have his milers People running a mile Would still do long runs in training. Why is that? That doesn't make as much sense. Well, here's why. The body has two energy systems Generally, we could say it has three actually, but Aerobic and anaerobic, you probably heard about it. Generally speaking, I'm not gonna go in depth on the science But the aerobic means with oxygen anaerobic means without oxygen Basically aerobic metabolism is when you're breaking down fuels with oxygen and it can fuel you for a long time Takes from the fat, but also some carbohydrate Whereas anaerobic burns down the carbohydrate stores and it goes very quickly down, but you can run really fast on your anaerobic Metabolism, but it only lasts for a little while. So if you want to go long and long is defined as anything longer than a minute It's mostly aerobic. If we're looking at the sprinters We see that the energy that they need to produce that fast speed for like a hundred meter or 200 meter Even 400 meter it comes mostly when we're looking at the metabolism of the body It comes from anaerobic metabolism for the most part Anaerobic breakdown of fuel But there's a crossover point there around 800 meter where Where you get to the 800 meters, but 5050 anaerobic and aerobic and then you get longer than that now we're talking mostly aerobic Metabolism providing the fuel and there's no there's not a point where you're like 100% aerobic or 100% anaerobic Even sitting here now. There is anaerobic metabolism going on in my body, but mostly it's aerobic. So the higher the intensity the more anaerobic contribution there is That means that if we're running long distances We're relying on the aerobic system and therefore we need to train and develop the aerobic system, okay now that that's out of the way the sort of scientific rationale How do we train the aerobic system well the aerobic system is trained by time for the most part, okay, so we develop it by Volume right so even easy running will develop your aerobic system as long as you do enough of it Okay, and that's relative to where you're at and your training history and your goals, etc But usually up to a point. It's the more the better And so all the training you're doing in the week it contributes to this aerobic development on top of that sometimes you might be running pretty hard, right and there's a large anaerobic contribution to that workout Well in that case you're getting both some development of the anaerobic system and a lot of development of the aerobic system in that case but the number one workout To develop your aerobic system and focus on your aerobic system is going to be your long run That's why Arthur Lidier has his milers run Two and a half hours on the weekend Because it's developing their aerobic system and even in the mile The large Majority of the energy produced is coming from the aerobic metabolism. What's the definition of a long run though? Well, that depends if you're a beginner a Long run could be 45 minutes, right? If you're really advanced if you're an ultra marathon runner your long run might be five hours, okay, but typically For a normal person maybe training for a half marathon or marathon or even shorter I would say personally is my opinion that Anything longer than 90 minutes is a long run one and a half hour That's that's you know from from the physiological point of view where you're developing the aerobic system to an extent that's significant You'll even develop it just running half an hour. So if you run half an hour every day That's great But once in a while you want to go for a little bit of a longer effort because there are things that happen in the body After an hour and after 90 minutes especially and once you hit that two-hour mark It's like a different world than the one-hour mark. So Anything from 90 minutes one and a half hour up to like two and a half hours even three hours, perhaps That's a that's a nice sort of range Where the long run will be very beneficial for developing your aerobic system and you build up to it over time Obviously, you don't want to just jump in and do like two and a half hours right off the bat Got a build slowly but surely over time Jack Daniels says and by the way, I'm a certified V dot coach by Jack Daniels. So if you're interested in coaching check out my coaching website I'll put a link to it here where I offer customized training programs and and personalized coaching so he says about 30% of your weekly mileage Should be the long run or something around there 25 to 30. So if you're running a 100k a week Then you'll be running a you could you could run a 30k long run. That would be fine if you're only running 30 Kilometers a week, you know, maybe you're a beginner running 30 kilometers a week Your long run should probably be in the ballpark of around 10 kilometers or a little less maybe but 10 kilometers is probably fine So you see how in order to get that long run to last One and a half hour two hours two and a half hours It's probably good at it to start building your volume up in general in order to handle it There are exceptions, of course, if you can only do four hours a week of Training you should still probably devote two hours of those to one single long run session And it's because when you're out for that long run You are it takes a bit of time essentially to rev up that a row aerobic engine To get that fat burning happening where your body is prioritizing the metabolism of fat through aerobic means as opposed to Glycogen which is carbohydrate and that takes a bit of time to get revved up, you know usually after an hour, that's when we're seeing it's really coming into play and Also, you want to the other thing with the longer is that it empties out your your glycogen stores by the end of the run you're pretty empty and That's a good stimulus for Increasing your carbohydrate stores for the future, right? So which means you can go for longer when you're doing your marathon for example It also is a muscular thing, you know being out there for a long time If you're running a marathon if you're training for a marathon, you've got to be used to being on your feet for a long time That's another benefit of the long run Personally, I love the long run is my favorite type of run What kind of intensity though should you be doing for your long run? Well, I would say It depends, okay typically easy easy is fine and easy is defined as Somewhere between perhaps 60 and 70 ish percent of your max heart rate So we're talking really easy. It's conversational pace shouldn't be straining just slow and easy Two and a half hours That's it. That will develop your aerobic system really well Even if you're just running easy, you don't have to feel like you're running a race Well, you shouldn't because you'll burn out that way if you feel like you're running a race every time you go running Particularly these long runs that because they're pretty long. They're taxing anyway Even if you're running slow, they'll be taxing you just because you're going for a long time Probably a good idea to bring some food along with you, you know some fuel some water on these long efforts That's a good idea. How often should you do your long runs? Well, I'd say just because of the essential nature of the long run in a long-distance program I'd throw it in there once a week Okay, so I do it once a week, but Every now and then you might want to do a week where you don't do a long run because it is a taxing run if you're going for very long So perhaps you could do three weeks where you have a long run every week and then one week no long run But typically the long runs are done easy and you should be able to handle them every week really You can even at times throw in another Medium long run in the middle of the week for example where so suppose you have a long run of two and a half hours on the weekend We'll throw in a medium long run on a Wednesday of say 90 minutes, right? And then around there you could have a couple of intenser more intense workouts and a bunch of easier running to cushion it all so Once a week something like that. That's probably a good starting point at times Perhaps as you're getting closer to competition It's probably good that they also to throw in some faster paced long runs, okay? So that means maybe you're starting easy But you're building in intensity and pace as you go through the run and perhaps you're finishing your run at Somewhere like marathon pace or perhaps you're playing around with half marathon pace or threshold pace towards the end So mixing it up in terms of intensity could be a good idea, but remember that's more taxing Which means that you're new you'll need more recovery So you got to be careful when you schedule those Types of runs and that's why it's a good idea to have a training plan and a coach like myself Who can actually tell you? When to do it and when not to do it and to schedule out an actual plan so that you're like, okay Let's put a hard long run in there and another one there Make sure there's a week in between with an easier long run perhaps and so you don't overdo it a plan is always You know the backbone of any athlete the training plan is is really key. All right. Thanks for watching Please subscribe check out my patreon where I offer exclusive content like Q&A videos every month Check me out on Strava. Check me out on Instagram. There's links in the description And of course if you're interested in coaching check out my coaching website There's a link in the description where I offer customized training programs and Coaching anyone wanting to get better at running. You don't have to be really great or you can be a beginner or you can be advanced Whatever you need. I'd love to help you out. Thanks for watching. See you around