ren, go ahead. So I mean, I think given that we've got strategic planning in two weeks, I think, you know, it makes sense thinking of the the money that we've talked about the, you know, 700,000 or whatever the amount is that it's not just meeting what the voters approved and the projects that we're planning to do that got put on hold. I mean, I I think having a bigger conversation that like looks at our our strategic priorities and needs as a community and what we can be doing with that, you know, for I guess my question and maybe it's to bill is knowing that however much money has actually come into our hands, like what would you need from us, you know, not eating into that pot of money, like I think that's a really important piece, but like to be able to move forward with projects. Is it a general sense of the spreadsheet? Well, that was that was the list of things. So yes, go forth with this and well, so conversation soon about the we can, I think, you know, we can come up with, I was actually just making a note to make sure we have a complete list, which you already have of the delayed projects and list of other potential projects in the loop in in, you know, that are sort of on the table and then or funding needs and then whatever else is comes up with that strategic planning. I don't think that's a bad way to go personally. You've you we what we've we've actually only received the 385,000. We do have that in hand. You've already voted to appropriate 330,000 of that to road projects or to infrastructure projects. So that's already being planned for you set 50,000 aside. So, you know, I think the question would just be, you know, I'm making this up. I'm not recommending do we want to take 200,000 more and put it in different structure right now and then save the discussion for the what the rest or something like that. Just, you know, that it's really, like I said, we're not fully here with the recommendation because we didn't know we'd be in such a good position financially, which is not something we normally say. Thinking about moving forward, I I'm getting the sense that nobody wants to take out that 50,000 right now. And that's where I'm at as well. I think that serves its own conversation. But in the meanwhile, so, Bill, you're you're suggesting that at a future meeting, we could have a sort of an outline of what specifically that money could go towards aside from the 50,000. Is that Yeah, because you've got, you know, this year, so we're going to get 1.1 million. So we've got another $700,000 coming in this fiscal year. So it's well beyond the 50,000. I think what Council Member Hurl was suggesting is we've got strategic planning coming up that might identify some projects that would make sense to put some money to. We know we could spend it all on delayed project. I mean, you know, we have one and a half years worth of funding in delayed projects, which we have committed to doing. So it's just how much of that we put towards this year, how much of it we put to next year, and then how much we want to have left over each year. Well, it makes sense to me to also wait till after that strategic planning meeting anyway, unless we want to, I mean, the check's not going to get here between now and and then. So any other thoughts on that? Yeah, go ahead, Dan. Yeah. And just to be clear, Bill, that the ARPA restoration list that was sent around in the packet represents the projects that we had initially planned for whether we formally approved it. I recall that we did at least give some sort of imprimatur of approval towards it, but that's the 1,040,000. Right. And then, but then there were some other equipment and things too. So those are the roadblocks. Right. So these are the items that had been approved in budgets in FY20 that we cut at the last quarter because of the financial shortfall and then had already been approved in the FY21 budget that we cut. And I think some of the other list was things that we had on it, and those are fuzzier because they never were approved. So then there's another list of things that would have been proposed in the FY22 budget that didn't even make it because we had a lower budget. So that's where other projects, whether it's radio, infrastructure, or anything else, you know, none of those have ever actually been vetted because they would ever present it. So there's that list too. But the commitment you made was to take the, not the personnel on some of the other costs, but to take the project and equipment, things that had been in and taken out, put those back in. Yeah. And we have a pretty solid list of that, and that still leaves a fair amount of money left for other things. Right. But in so in other words, I mean, I don't know if it makes sense. I mean, I don't think we would need, you would need to kick the can down the road on the things that have been approved by the budget that were taken out that are in that list. Those seem like the starting points. It's really the next phase that the council needs to debate. And you're right. But so I guess the question there though, it's policy question for you because that even that list of one million, it's okay. It may include the 330,000 that we've already approved, in which case that would basically spend all of this year's money. That basically is this year's allocation. So if we were to just say that do that list, then there would be nothing left for anything else that you wanted to talk about. So that, you know, that's a policy question. Yes. I think it makes sense that we will do everything on that list, but we might do it over two years as well as fund whatever we're going to fund for next year. Hopefully our budget will be back to normal when we don't know that yet. And we can go back to putting the $600,000 a year in for roads or whatever. Lauren, go ahead. Yeah. So I guess, you know, my, my preference would be for most of it wait until strategic planning so that we can do it in a more thought-in-the-way. My question for Bill is knowing that winter is coming and we have a certain construction season. Right. Are there things that waiting, what would essentially be at least three weeks, but by the time we would get through to getting it to get to, is there anything that we I'm not aware of that because, because we hadn't planned for the launch or some of the money. So, I mean, you would have, it would be something we'd have to gear up to get to go. So I can find, I can get that answer. Maybe there's even a sense of the council tonight of like projects where we could get something going and on the ground that we're on this list that we have approved that we plan to do and it's something we could get done this year that we front-load that versus, you know, something that might be able to the purchases of equipment or other things that we could decide it as part of the strategic planning process, but I guess I just don't want to like hold up work when we know the data. Well, I see Donna here. She may, she may be able to add some light to this, but, you know, just thinking about, for example, the Presentations Act just gave, you know, one easy way to get work done is, you know, we already have a paving contract where we just have them add paving to the work, which is great if we have projects that are just paving work. If there, if there's, you know, subsurface work or all these other things, you know, so I don't know as I sit here right now whether or not they're just, gee, we could add another, you know, $100,000 of paving money and get another half a mile or something like that done and we have half a mile of identified rows. If we do that, that's, that is something that probably could get done. So now Donna, Parla, Casey wants to weigh in. Oh, sorry, go ahead. I, I don't, we have not talked about that internally. So I'm sure we could come up with our priorities pretty quickly, but I don't have that information to share with you tonight about specifics. It seems to me we should just take this up again after the studio plan and move on for now. Is that okay, team? Okay. We'll know more after then. We're not going to probably spend that money between now and then. Did you have anything you want to say about this? Go ahead. Clarify something that Bill touched on is that the the public safety assessment has been delivered and you'll be hearing about it in a few meetings from the CDPSA and it describes a radio architecture which has not yet been engineered, but that needs to be more fully integrated with what the police department's asked was, because it talks about a multiple simulcast systems that work in umbrellas or combined mode or separate mode. And so it's complicated but I will make sure that, you know, I guess Donna will make sure everybody's got a printed, hopefully get some printed copies of that to the council and to the served municipals. But I want to also emphasize that the discussion around the homeless services, so far one trailer with showers and toilets is not going to be enough for the anticipated demand and yet there's no siting, there's no maintenance, there's no staffing, any of that provided for, but those decisions will need to be made sooner, especially if we decide to try to order some more of these type of hygiene facilities. And so I want to just stress that point that y'all may be missing a window of opportunity to kick this down the road even a month before you start making some decisions. And so far no one has served up an actionable plan. So I'm happy to try to refine that argument with Connor because he's been most involved in it, but I'm just cautioning you that you may need to make some rapid decisions in order to be prepared for the emergency that we're watching unfold before us. And also it's the direct relation to the COVID because the hotel vouchers and extensions were expiring at the same time as congregate shelters are not likely to be safe. Packing 34 people in the seminary street, which is not in our town and or 34 in January into, I talked with Rick today after the meeting of the homelessness task force, and he's planning double occupancy in those little rooms. And if it, if COVID persists, he may have to go to single, which means only 17 people. This is a very complex equation, but it's really the most impacted of most of the other things you're dealing with. So no one's arguing that it's not important. And I think, you know, in terms of the council, just for you all not arguing with Steve, you know, if you choose to put money towards homeless services, you can, you could do that in a way that was pretty flexible in terms of not having every little decision coming to the city council to make decisions. So you could simply say, we're providing $50,000 or $100,000 to, you know, allocating it for homeless services to include XYZ and the manager will report to us on how it's spent. And that's kind of so, so we could respond quickly if you chose to do that. Great. Just checking in again, anybody else online have anything they would like to say about the ARPA funds? Okay. So we'll revisit this probably later in September is my guess. So we're going to move on to, actually, I see Dan Dickerson is on. So let's actually jump to the encampment response policy discussion. This was an added agenda item for which I don't anticipate taking a vote if that's okay, your team, but discussion is fine. Am I turning this over to Bill or to Dan?  Dan Richardson drafted, kindly last night, a take on some language to address the conversation that was had and circulated it today to Dan Dickerson. So certainly the Parks Commission as a whole and other groups haven't had a chance to review it. But given that this is council member Richardson's last meeting, a certain chance for him to propose what he's proposing and to get some feedback from the council and then get hear from the other groups and have it on for further discussion. Okay. So what I did was based on the conversation we had last week, I think we had expressed and I had specifically expressed a desire to sort of take a cut at this. And this is my cut for better or for worse. What I did primarily was remove the language that identified specific city properties as high sensitivity areas and instead changed, you know, kept a lot of the language. You'll see there's a red line version that I created that basically takes the existing definitions and tries to use them as a criteria based determination for the city staff to use when they're approaching a homeless encampment in one of the city properties and really looking at three groups of criteria, public health factors, public safety factors, and environmental protection factors. And these being, you know, something like these and these were, most of these were criteria that had already existed in the prior draft. I just moved this up into, you know, how we would fund and what I'm trying to avoid is a JM golf type of situation where you have a standard list criteria. So we have a definition. So the way it's written now is you have a definition that describes a high sensitivity area. But then you have these criteria as a way of fleshing out that that meaning and that definition and giving specific standards for a city staff to say, oh, you know, there is the location of the encampment is on public land, where individuals have private easement or ownership interests, or where the city owes a duty to maintain said lands and perpetual care for the benefit or partial benefit of private individuals, i.e. city cemeteries. So it's a way of saying, okay, well, this this this inflict this conflicts with this other private right. So there's there is that concern there that translates to a public safety concern. And so once and the other big change is then to say, okay, we have this defining what a high sensitivity area is. And then I added a little bit of a definition or purpose of the designation. And it's to clarify that this isn't intended to penalize. This is not, you know, we're thinking about what this is and what where the discussion of this is gone. The idea is that this designation is is is likely not to be something that the general public would be aware of. It's not something where we're going to list and put a sign up high sensitivity area right here in this this meadow. It's more of a criteria for city staff. Because I'm looking at this, what I think I came to a conclusion is that its best function is to give city staff priorities so that, you know, if they come across an encampment in the middle of and using the prior example a city cemetery plot, a private plot, somebody set up a tent, that's a higher priority than somebody who's in the back of Hubbard Park that, you know, only if you go through the brambles would you find and it doesn't seem to really be either in some sort of ecological protection area or something like that. It's not saying that this camping is good or something that the city endorses. It's it's still illegal to camp on these grounds, but it's saying if you have these two situations, which is the higher priority, which one can you express more patience with which one do we have to as a city address in a more timely manner. And so that kind of language is intended for that purpose to define what this policy is intended to do. The high sensitivity area is just something that should rise to the higher level of the city's attention. And again, emphasizing too, it includes language I think is important that says, you know, this policy shall at all times be interpreted and implemented in a manner that affords dignity and care to the individual being asked to move or relocate. So, you know, it's really intended as we're trying to take somebody and I use the sort of hypothetical, the sort of bright line examples, if somebody set up a tent in the rotary circle or Main Street and Spring Street meet, that's a danger. That's a danger to traffic. That's a danger to the person camping there, you know, it would be a higher priority and that's something that would be identified through here. This is more for the more difficult issues and a more difficult type of situations and trying to identify that. Again, it's not, it's also making clear it's not to say, okay, let's let people camp but it says if they are, here's how we're going to sort of prioritize treating them. Most of the other changes really are, and it adds, you know, I think at the response of the Parks Commission, it adds an environmental protection criteria saying that, you know, public health and public safety are important but so are environmental protection factors. So, if somebody's camping on an erosion area, we want to, you know, make that a high sensitivity area that would prioritize for city staff to remove. And then towards the end, this just, the other big change was some of the timelines that we changed, I changed to reflect a longer period of time. So, for example, instead of a high sensitivity area being a 24 hour turnaround, three days instead of a non-high sensitivity area, five days, make it seven days. In response to, I think, some of the public feedback that we received. And then if the city stores it, store it for 90 days, because again, that was another piece of feedback, the 30 days wasn't enough, 90 days seemed much more reasonable. And so the real impact of this policy is that, you know, you would have to give the city staff clear guidance as to when they would prioritize the removal of a particular encampment if it was in fact something that they determined to be a high sensitivity area and it would shorten the period of time that they would take action based on the other parts of this policy where they would ask these people to move and, you know, present the card. And again, with the idea retaining the old policy ideas that this be something that is aimed to get people into housing, into shelters, into services so that, you know, this emergency situation can lead to some point of assistance through city intervention. So that's essentially it. I recognize that, you know, because of the short time and turnaround that the Parks Commission may want to take another cut, I tried to label out factors, but I may have missed some under environmental protection factors, or I may have overstated some. Wow, gosh, Dan, this is, I'm just, I mean, I'm very curious to hear how people are reacting, but my initial reaction is that this is great. Are you sure that you have to resign from the council? So actually to start, the, well, actually, initial other comments from the council and then I want to make sure that we intentionally go to Dan Dickerson, who is with us virtually, just curious for his input, but we'll just start with an sort of initial round of thoughts. Yeah, go ahead, Connor. Yeah, no, I think huge credit to Dan on this. Obviously a lot of work went into it. And I think in many ways, it sort of brings it back to the original intent that Cameron had when she first drafted this policy. I think the, as I said last meeting, I think the public debate has gone a bit out of control on this. And it's sort of a charf battle, you know, where it's really focused on geography and the worry that, ah, we're rolling out the welcome map to the parks, or, you know, maybe we're being too restrictive, like, more than we have been with the status quo here. So I, you know, I think it's practical. I think it's compassionate. And it does what it's meant to do and give staff very clear direction on how to handle this. By the way, like we've been debating this for weeks. And, you know, unless Cameron and Bill want to correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think we've had major issues with, like, you know, interventions or places being overrun with tents or anything. At the end of the day, I think a lot of this is, you know, just a bit of hype, you know, getting out of control in response to a very, like, legitimate crisis. But, you know, it never did what we, you know, the worst fears of what we thought it would do here. So I, anyways, I think this is really great then. And I would be comfortable passing it as it is. But I think we did say last meeting, you know, we want to give parks. And I think people in the homelessness task force would probably like to take a closer look. So it's great we had Dan go through it. But maybe save the vote for another day here. Yeah, no, for sure.  Yeah, thanks. I mean, first of all, thank you, Dan, an incredible amount of work and really, I think taking the spirit that we had talked about last week and putting it on the paper. I guess my question is for staff, like, does this feel workable and like, like this, this implementable in the way that we would want it to be? I'm getting knotted heads. So yes, this is both. I'm nodding, but I can go and move. I can report Cameron is nodding. Do you want to, do you want to come in? Yeah, yeah. But my initial read of it is that it sticks very closely with the staff response part, which is obviously I think where a lot of my attention is on this at this point is actionable and fine and sticks with what we've been talking about as staff. I do believe that our department directors would also like some time to look at it and make sure that they're comfortable with it. You know, I never want to write a policy where someone isn't comfortable with any of our staff would be uncomfortable implementing that policy. So just checking in with staff, but to sort of speak to Connor's point real quick, no, we have seen a few additional campers. I won't say that we haven't, but we haven't had any issues and we haven't had to have more than one pretty routine intervention. So. Thank you. Okay. All right, I want to jump now if we can to Dan Dickerson. Yeah, thoughts, impressions, comments, suggestions. Well, thanks for giving me an opportunity to talk. And first, I just want to I want to apologize for last week. I sort of waited and waited and waited. And I kind of thought that there would be another opportunity for public comment. And then I, you know, stuck my hand up in the middle of a motion. So I apologize for that. But thank you for giving me the opportunity today. You know, I do, I think this is much better than it was. I do have a few concerns.  And today we haven't done that. And that's not to say we won't, you know, we, we, we rushed a letter to the city council, you know, with, with the best, you know, with the time that we took, which was almost four meetings in thinking that, you know, this, this really needed to happen fast, where we said, we're not going to grant an exception to the curfew at this time. You know, I still think there's an opportunity for that to happen. But, you know, if it doesn't, I sort of raised to Bill, like, what does that mean if the council passes a policy that sort of runs contrary to the code. And then, you know, the other piece I looked at just a bit goes in title 24 of, of the Vermont statutes, you know, the parks commission has control of the parks. So there are two, you know, existing laws, both at the state level and the city level, that give the parks commission pretty clear authority over the parks. And this policy, you know, without the parks commission having taken action runs contrary to those authorities that we have.  And so I, you know, I want us to be able to move quickly. But I think, you know, given the code and the statute, you know, we really, the parks commission has to have more time to, to just look at this and make a decision on whether or not to adjust our curfew.   You know, one of the, one of the sections under the natural resources criteria is if, if the encampment is substantially interfering with a park wilderness environment or wildlife habitat, that might be subject to intervention. And then I think the last one is evidence of substantial impairment of natural resources. And I think that really is the big concern for me is, I mean, when you get to the point of substantial impairment, that raises a lot of red flags for me. And I don't know if there's, if there's a better way of wording that so that we're not at the point where, you know, an area around an encampment is, you know, I don't know how it would look. And I don't want to create this sort of horror story picture because I don't know that it's going to happen. But, you know, I do think that, you know, getting to the point of substantial impairment is not where we want to be before we would intervene. And then also, who is, who is making that determination? You know, is that, is that going to be something that Alec and his staff are going to have to go and check day after day? That's a lot of his time. And, you know, and I appreciate that the city council has, has given us funding for additional staff, but I would like to, for the staff to be, you know, maintaining the parks and not having to constantly check on encampments to make sure that, you know, we're not reaching these criteria or, I guess, running contrary to the criteria. So those are the concerns that I just wanted to raise. You know, I think the parks commission will continue talking about this. You know, I can't speak for all of them, but I know it's, you know, I'm interested in finding a way for us to, to work with the city and with the council to, to make this work. But, you know, given the code, the statute, and a few of the concerns, you know, I would like to hold off. It sounds like you're not going to pass it tonight anyway. So I, you know, there's a time, but I don't think we meet until the third week of September. So we'd have to call another emergency meeting. You know, it's, for us, that's, that's a lot.  For the parks commission, we've, we've spent a lot of time on this and, you know, I think we'll continue doing that. But I just want you to be aware that we don't work at quite the pace that the city council does. So, so thank you for giving me the time and I'm happy to take questions if anybody has them. Dan, I just wanted to let you know, I'm sorry, just procedurally, oops, I might, that the next meeting, this would likely be considered by the city council is on September 22nd. The next, the next meeting, our next regular meeting on September 8th is going to be devoted entirely to strategic planning and network. They have an emergency meeting next week just to appoint a city council member. But that's it. So the next business meeting, so that is the third week in September. So hopefully you can not have to call an emergency meeting. Sure. I'll, you know, I mean, I'll reach out to, and yeah, I had to make sure I didn't make you myself. I'll reach out to the commission and just see if we can, you know, get that into our meeting in September. I think we had a few other things to talk about. One of which is, you know, I think would be of interest to the city council is Gertin Park, which we didn't know it was our responsibility. And now we kind of think it's our responsibility. And so we have to figure out what to do about that. But that's a different story. So yeah, we'll, we'll discuss and hopefully we'll come to some sort of decision by then, by the time you meet again and talk about this subject. Okay. Thank you, Dan. And we'll certainly be interested in hearing about that discussion. I also just want to make a note that I think we also ran the last draft by the Cemetery Commission. And I think we'd want to run this draft also by the Cemetery. Yes. Oh, you did. Okay, great. Excellent. Jack. Thank you. Thanks for coming down. I realized at the end of our meeting last time that it was the first night back where some people were wearing masks, some people were not wearing masks. And so I didn't even realize until that point, well, that's who that was with the mask on. So otherwise, I think I would have felt bad for us to have proceeded without the affirmatively asking for your input. And so apologies for that. I've been, I think that I appreciate the work that Dan Richardson has done on this. I definitely think we're moving in the right direction. I've been pondering since this came out, the question of where the lines of authority are between the Parks Commission and the City Council, because obviously the City Council or the Parks Commission has clear authority over the parks. And but as I think about the policy that we've been thinking about for a while, this is not a policy whereby the City Council is telling anyone what to do with the parks. I think it's a policy that says, in our role of directing the activities of the employees of various city departments, we're deciding what we will and will not have the Park City employees do in relation to circumstances that they come across. And so that may seem like a bit of judge whittical reasoning, but I do think that it is important to make sure that we're not reaching the authority of another of another elected voting.  And I'll build on what Jack is saying, because I've thought about that as well. I mean, you know, if you think about this, this whole policy is in part an overlap of various county and city boards and elected officials. You know, you have the state's attorney starting a lot of this by saying, I won't prosecute any case involving an enforcement of, you know, vagrancy laws or campment laws. You know, don't look to me and my office, we're just going to reject them out of hand. And we can't control that because that's the state's attorney and that's his prerogative, that's prosecutorial discretion. And then I think the city council has general oversight over it. Jack's points out the staff as well as these type of city-wide policies. And I think it's important that we coordinate with the parks commission and with the cemetery commission that have direct oversight of specific areas of the city, whether it be the park or the cemetery. So, you know, there's nothing in this policy, as it's written, that would prevent the parks commission from enacting a curfew or enforcing a curfew except that the parks commission doesn't control the police or any other agency that would actually be called upon to enforce you know, a policy. It becomes a little bit like a court, which is a court can issue a judgment, but the court can't make you come in and pay. You know, the parks commission can set rules and can set controls for the park, but you know, it would be up to this, you know, the city council would have to say, okay, we're going to, you know, have the police and enforce this. And that's informed, of course, by something that we don't control, which is the state's attorney's office, who says, you know, you can have a curfew, and you can try and enforce it, but it's not, you know, there won't be any prosecution. So, you know, frustrate that purpose. And I think part of this is intended to get us all together on the same page. And so, you know, I certainly, some of what Dan is saying about the specifics about language like substantial, by all means, you know, there may be environmental concerns that you as park commissioners have. And I would, I would highly encourage that that language reflect your, your concerns as park commissioners, and, you know, your priorities for these environmentally sensitive areas, by all means, it should, and that's why I would support beyond simply the notice issues, you know, or the fact that we, you know, we put this on to the agenda, but we didn't. It wasn't on the first published agenda. It was tabled last meeting beyond those issues. I think it is important for the parks commission to take a look at this and to have a feeling like, yeah, this works with the way we see the parks working. And in, in some ways, it was intended, I think, to keep the pressure off of what I felt like the parks commission felt in that impossible task that it was initially assigned so that, you know, you have a workable set of criteria that you can, you can use to enforce and protect. So I, by all means, I mean, I think it should be, but, you know, I think the, the issue here is as far as lines of power and, I mean, they overlap. There's clear areas where, you know, the parks commission is given in our charter, you know, the charge of construction maintenance and control of all public parks within the city. And I interpret that as being able to set a lot of rules and policy within the city. This ultimately is a staff policy and how staff is to respond, which is under city council's control. But we should be aligned and the parks and the cemetery commission should, you know, this should work with them. And I think it's, it's more than fair to give them a new adequate opportunity to align, especially with the staff as well. You know, this, this should be something that should work and make sense. Otherwise, it shouldn't be a policy. Dan, go ahead. Yeah, I do just want to, you know, I understand perfectly what you're saying. And that was another, the staffing challenge was another thing that was brought up, you know, a number of times as we were talking about this and that, you know, if we took an action, which we ultimately did, of leaving the parks out of the equation and this, you know, we don't have any enforcement power to make sure that, you know, the curfew continues to be in place. But I will say, you know, another, I wouldn't call it hurdle, but, you know, another criteria for the parks commission to really be on board with, you know, bringing, or feel comfortable with bringing parks into the policy is that, you know, we need to know that the city, you know, beyond just the parks department, but the city is going to put either money, staffing resources towards making sure that, that our natural resources that are, you know, our park lands aren't impaired, you know, whether that's substantially or, you know, preferably in any way. But, you know, I think given the possibilities, I think there is going to be potentially some impairment.  But we just didn't, we didn't feel that level of comfort when we discussed this. We didn't know what the city was going to put forward to help defray any of the impacts on the parks. And so I think, you know, there are little pieces of language in the policy that I think we would want to adjust. But I think we need, you know, a good faith gesture from, you know, either the city, the city council or the city staff that, you know, if, if there are issues in the parks with regard to degradation of the natural resources or trash or human waste, that we'll, we'll put money if we need to towards mitigating that. Yeah, that's a great point. Thank you. And yeah, something that we should be thinking about. Any other thoughts or comments? I don't think we're going to do anything further with this tonight, but certainly very, very grateful. Go ahead, Stephen. I guess I want to, I mean, I applaud the work you put into this, Dan, but I really want to point out from, this is an issue I've spent years studying. And I've discussed this with a lot of the folks who are living out on the street, even in neighboring communities. And it's likely we're backing into this thing. This is, this is a, this is the outgrowth kind of a contorted policy proposal based on the fact that some of the underlying assumptions were the city's not in the business of providing social services or we don't want to designate. It's unsafe for its potential liability for the city to designate camping areas. And so you, you kind of approach it with two legs of a stool cutoff and you can only lean in one direction. And this policy is intrusive and invasive from the point of view of a camper. I mean, there's a guy here who starts work tomorrow at Aubuchon, full time, you know, at a good salary, but he hasn't had housing for a week. And I've had, I've helped him out with finding safe places. But my point is that we wouldn't need this policy if we had some designated spaces. We want to encourage folks and incentivize folks to, to camp if necessary, nearby where there's facilities. But if we don't provide the facilities, because we don't have the, that planning capacity, we create this mess. We know damn well that the parks department, nor the public works department has the extra staff to go around and search out these camps. And yet that's what this policy is based on. We're going to find everybody and report them to the police. And then we're going to bring in a team to invade and inspect and check off a criteria. It's all backwards. You need to find the most logical places for folks to camp. Some will stay within, you know, 50 feet and others will go 200 yards just for privacy and quiet sleeping. But this thing is backwards. The whole thing is, is, I mean, I can't I'm too upset about it because the amount of time that's spent, you know, trying to develop a policy from a backwards approach back and into it is wasted time because we've got an emergency and we need shelters. And in fact, all the enforcement that we're trying to shadow box from the Boise decision goes away if we provide even a soft shelter co-located with a bathroom. That means the shelter capacity and the free camping on any public lands doesn't is in trigger. So let's work on getting some soft shelters near some, you know, facilities and alleviate the demand, the push, the unpoliceable, impossible and degradation. We don't even police the people crapping in our alleys and on our river banks today, you know. So why are we pretending that it's good? We're all all of a sudden going to have the capacity to handle 100 people crapping everywhere else. Thank you, Steven. It's yeah, I think it's an important piece to keep in mind that like this is not the solution. I do think it is important part, but you know, it's not enough. That's that's fair. All right, any other comments before we move on? Okay, great. Thank you. So we'll probably take this again in September. And I think we're on to the strategic planning updates for the end of the year. Hey, with a eye to the time, I won't be crazy. So I think I need to share my screen first. Hold on. Did I just break it? I know. Great. Just great. Anytime now, computer. Y'all are watching me hit slideshow, right? I'm doing this. If you want to just present with this size, that's okay. Okay. Yeah. Well, so a lot of this isn't going to be thank you, John. A lot of this isn't going to be news to you. We have done a really good job, I think, sort of coming to the end of our fiscal year strategic plan, even in the face of COVID-19 budget cuts, staff furloughs, etc. We have, I'm going to sort of skip ahead here, already gotten to 74% progress, which I think is great. We've had a lot of pretty major disruptions that we could not get over because of budget impacts, because of some other things that we've been keeping you up to date on throughout this process. Things have been delayed and have had major disruptions, which has kept us from that 100%. But I truly believe that staff has gone above and beyond to get that 74, 75% completion for this plan. So we've done a lot of work in on this. And so just sort of taking a step back, reminding us of what your priorities were going into the fiscal year 21 strategic planning process. You know, I think we're going to talk about this a little bit later, but really thinking about what did we accomplish? Where are their red? Where are their yellow? What can we do to move those things forward going into our strategic planning process next meeting? So this sort of talks real quick about where we're at. So it might give you a better idea of where our projects are and what areas might need more focus heading into the next strategic planning process in our city manager's office projects, which were a lot of the COVID-19 related ones, we feel we're in a pretty good space. I hate even having to say that I feel almost used to putting out COVID-19 policies, but I think we're at a place where we've been working with it for long enough, where we understand what that means and we know where to go and we know where the resources are. So we feel pretty comfortable there. Finance is also working on quite a few things that we'll get into a little bit later, but they're also doing well and have had a lot of progress. I think when we get into public works and some of the other infrastructure processes, you'll see some of those major disruptions that we'll get into a little bit later and then it really just comes down to, I realize now I put that in twice, but it really comes down to public works and some of our larger infrastructure projects, like our recreation center. So I did want to just sort of walk us through where we're at with some of these larger scale goals and what we've done just so you're familiar. Again, none of this hopefully is new. If anything is new, please start screaming so we can talk about it. But looking at our budget process, we really are getting ready and gearing up for our fiscal year 23 budget process, which was a big component of Kelly's goal for community prosperity is making this a more transparent process, making sure you're getting quarterly updates, making sure that we've been very clear about our mitigation plans, which ties very closely into that COVID-19. And now that ARPA funding is something that is coming to us, making sure that we are as transparent as possible about our priorities and what y'all's priorities are. So I'm very excited about what comes out of the fiscal year 23 budget process. I think Kelly did a lot of work bringing that process up to speed through this goal and had a lot of initiatives around that she's accomplished. So again, I sort of talked briefly about COVID-19. We did have a very recent update for this where we still feel like we're in good track, but y'all even passed this last week a new ordinance or not ordinance, but a new emergency order asking folks to wear masks inside City Hall. And we are doing our best to track what the Delta variant means for our community. And we'll respond to that as things change. Something that is still doing well, but we'll need further conversation and it might be something we talk about in our strategic planning meeting is the economic development that goes sort of along with COVID-19 response. MDC was really a partner there, but they are dissolving. So what do we do next?  And you remember a lot of our goals and actions or around sort of economic development and helping our small businesses and not clear alive at MDC, we're real big partners in that. At the end of this year, we're looking at that being a completely different situation. So how do we work around economic development to not only take us out of COVID-19, but maybe make that a future goal? We also had environmental stewardship as a goal. We're doing, you just heard recently, your net zero report. So that is still doing fine and is an ongoing initiative for us.  That was Yella as of a couple hours ago, but I think we've now gotten a green light to move that forward. So that's another one of these things that were not completed that we would talk about continuing into your strategic plan for next year. More housing is also doing fine. The city has continued to issue first time home buyer awards and are building out the ADU program. So the housing task force feels very accomplished and didn't identify any issues moving forward with their strategic goals. Our lobbying subcommittee is also doing well. That changed, I think, a lot this year. I think that has been far more active and might be something you consider continuing into your next strategic plan. This is where you'll start seeing some of those infrastructure Yellas. The childcare option study is very closely tied to a recreation building redesign plan, since we don't have currently any locations that would pass any sort of licensor for infant care. So one of the things that we're looking at for any new facility proposals that we may bring to y'all, and we will be giving you an update on that soon, would need to include space for childcare. So that's sort of on hold because we're looking at other options for y'all to consider. But I do want to sort of plug that our current capital kids after school program is doing really well. We have had an increase in folks signing up for that. So we're really seeing that starting to take off. And this is a shameless bug for the community who might still be listening as we still have openings and we are the most affordable game in town. Also talking about our sustainable infrastructure, this does have some outstanding issues that are still considered disruptions and what is holding back some of our completion percentages on this plan, including the Granite Street sidewalk repair. We did just have an approved contractor procured and we are aiming to get construction done by the end of this year, but it's still an ongoing issue. And then there is a major disruption in our Grout Road Bridge project. We do not have funding for that. We did get a grant, which is a great first step, but there is substantial funding still needed. However, I will note that we got a majority of the large projects done. That is a very small percentage of things that are still being done that you identified as priorities. We finished crack ceiling, Chestnut Hill storm water improvements, cleared an avenue, both phases for the road reconstruction, the Taylor Street storm water and road construction, and we completed the 16 Main Street project, which is very exciting. And I do want to also say that the Arts Commission, I don't know if you've been told that, are putting up some temporary art spaces, art projects in that location, and we're very excited about that. So I just sort of wanted to take a moment to talk about what I would like to sort of ask you to have like homework assignment almost for the strategic planning process we're going into. So first I want to just sort of stop and take stock of anyone had any questions on what I just talked about. No, it's awesome. You all rock. Thank you. Thank you, Mary. Yeah. So I'm excited about our strategic planning process that we've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes of staff to try to make sure that we are bringing to you the most holistic look at what plans we have floating around. I've been working very closely with Mike, who has the city plan that is slowly being developed with our committees and our community. And we really see that as the long term strategic plan for the city. And so how do we get us and your all's plan, your strategic initiatives tied into that, right? So how do they interplay with each other? So what I would like for y'all to do, I ask respectfully, is to sort of sit and brainstorm those large scale goals. Like what is included in the city plan? What are the large scale goals? If you had pie in the sky dreams for the city, which I know you all do, what are they? And let's stick them on the wall and see what fits. I really think at the beginning of this process, we're going to think really large. And then we're going to look at what that means and what is important to the city and what is important to your constituents and residents and our community at large. So what we'll also be doing is reconsidering our current goals. I sort of outlined them again here, but do any of them fall off? Do you feel not that they're not important, but do they rise to the degree that you want to include them on your strategic plan for the year, which is what we as staff will be using to guide our policies and our budget decisions because this is for us what we tie our work to. Take a look at the report, the long form report that was attached to your packet today and really see what you think is next for a lot of these projects. What I'll do between my hopefully tomorrow is send you the full report, which doesn't include just the things that are on your strategic plan, but everything that the city has been working on. As we sort of talked about it as an iceberg or an inverted triangle is y'all's priorities are top and what we work towards, but underneath it is all the day to day work that the city is doing. So I also want to give you the report on what that looks like and how we're doing with that as well. And so what didn't we finish that is still a priority for y'all? What do you want to see carried over? What do you want to see us focus on moving forward into the next year? And I really think that if we come into the conversation with some of those things fleshed out in your own minds, that it will help us with a general conversation. What I would like and what I'm looking for feedback on and what I hope to get out of the meeting, our strategic planning meeting is y'all's top priorities and some initiatives that you would like to see or goals you would like to see accomplish some of those. And so then staff can come back and sit down and we can talk about it. And what projects do we already have slated that would fit into that? What do we see as actionable solutions to get to the goals that you've identified? And then we can work together to sort of refine that. And so we have a real actionable plan for a year that guides not only our actions, but our budget choices and our policy decisions. So that was a lot. But I'm very excited about it. I think we ended this year in a really good place. And it's an exciting springboard for this next one, which will sort of bring us into budget, which will bring us into approving the city plan. So that that was my presentation, like I said, short and sweet. I have a couple other slides on here just for public consumption, just to make sure everyone knows we do put our updates to our strategic plan on the city's website. And so every time we go over this information with council, we then put it online for the public to look at and ask any questions that come up. So that's what I had. It's great. It's looking forward to the brainstorming part. That meeting that we have every year is always very exciting. It's kind of a highlight. That's a lot of pressure because last year it was on Zoom and it was very stressful. I'm very excited to actually speak in person about strategic planning. That's right. Well, we did kind of sticky notes up. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, cool. And I mean, I know I'm already working on my list. And I hope you're all working on yours. And so yeah, looking forward to that meeting in that process. Okay. Any other comments on that? Okay. I think we're the only ones on the Zoom now. So not so many public. All right. Well, we can turn the lights back. No questions about this at this point, team. Okay. Great. So that is the end of our regular business. Council reports. Donna, I'm going to start with you. Okay. Hey, I get the first to say best wishes, Dan. And thank you very much. It's really been a privilege to serve with you. And I wish you well in Burlington. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Hold your applause to the info. Every time. Yeah. I'll just second that. And you know, when I came onto the council and love other people, like there were a lot of ribbon cuttings and all that type of stuff, that Dan's known nothing but like stress. Right to a pandemic, but he's really like, you know, he's he's built head on into all the tough issues, like the street painting policy, you know, Dan took a stab at that in Cameron policy took another whack at that to like address concerns. So just the depth of knowledge he's brought to the council is going to be so missed here. So sorry to see you go there. Make me sound so violent, taking stabs and waxes. Dan, you'll be missed. I'll leave it at that. On a lot of levels.  How can you miss him if you won't go away? Yeah, I could go on about your contributions as past a couple or a year and a half will be on that. But I think we all understand how much you've brought to just to the city and your years of service and and in so many different roles and on the council. And it's really been an honor to represent our district together. And you'll be missed. So I'll leave it at that. And then just sort of the annual obligatory school starts tomorrow. So give yourself a little more time. I'll leave it for your commute because there will be school buses stopping every other block and lots of kids on the roads. And so make sure you're being safe in your commute. And then just the the other thing that goes along with that and it seems like such a small thing, but I think it's always good to remind people as a dog owner, which I am, I have two dogs now that we have lots of kids using all of the fields in the city now as sports have started. So be a responsible owner and clean up after your dog river, the rep fields, the school properties themselves. I think that's really important. And it's had a really negative impact in the past. And it's such a simple thing. I think we can do better. So thanks. Yeah. Take my mask for this. I first of all, really appreciate having the opportunity to serve with all of you. As I said in my resignation letter to the mayor, you know, I think we all come at these issues from very different perspectives and different backgrounds. But what defines us as a council is our ability to listen to each other, to hear different points of view, to civilly discuss these issues and to work at all times in the best interest of the city. And, you know, I think Jack at one point said during a very heated discussion, look, I don't for a minute doubt that everyone on this council is as the best interest of the city at heart. And I think that's absolutely true. And that's rare. And you know, I've represented municipalities throughout my career. And I can tell you that it is rare and not a common occurrence to have a board composed like that of people who are committed to the best interests of the city. And it is a rare art and a dying art in some respects. And so I'm deeply disappointed not to be able to serve out my term, I fully expected to be able to do so before this opportunity arose. And it was too much of an opportunity to turn away. I'm very excited. And I'm very glad to have this opportunity to work with the city of Burlington. But at the same time, it's, it's, it's very bittersweet to be leaving this group that works so well. And with so many of these issues that feel like, you know, like the homelessness camping policy, we've worked really hard on it. And there's gonna be some more work continuing. And I think at the end of it will be a very good policy, because we thoughtfully crafted these things, we've borne it out of care and consideration, as opposed to anger and politics. And I think that's really an important way in which we conduct business as a, as an elected body. And I'm, I've enjoyed it. I've learned a lot from each of you being on this council. And I think we're lucky as a city to have that. And I think it shows, you know, I think we all have issues that need to be done better, you know, there are roads that are not in as good of a shape as we want them to be. And we hear about it from constituents. And we can only say, yeah, that really stinks. This road would be better served to be better. But, you know, never do we say, well, we're just not going to consider it, or we're not going to even think about it. Or we don't like you for having raised this issue. I think, as a body, we try and listen to our constituents and raise these issues and bring them forward. And that's really the heart and soul of this type of representative democracy to bring these issues forward. And so I certainly hope that my successor is in that same vein. And I'm deeply disappointed to not be here in a week to help with that, or actually more importantly, the week after that was strategic planning. It was very, it was hard to sit here and say, I'm not going to be a part of that. But at the same time, it's been a delight to be here. It's been an honor to serve with all of you. And I certainly hope that in the future, there'll be other opportunities. But who knows, this is politics. And there's always second and third acts. But it's also hard for the first time in 16 years, I won't be serving the city of Montpelier in some capacity. And that's been really, you know, I, growing up, I remember my first time going to a city council meeting for citizenship in the community merit badge. And it was really weird, because growing up in a city where my neighborhood didn't have city counselors, didn't have lawyers, didn't have people who belonged to country clubs, you know, it was mostly a working class community to go in there and watch how, how power was wielded. You know, because this is one of those, those old steel union towns. And it was just fascinating and probably sparked something. And so to be able to not wield power, but to just be a part of that community, be a part of helping people get permits for zoning or improve their design review elements so that they preserve historic features so that our, our city continues to look the way it does or, you know, to manage and steward the cemetery or, you know, ultimately to serve here on city council, you know, has really been, I couldn't imagine my life in Montpelier without this opportunity to serve. And I can only recommend it to others. So thank you all. Thank you. Well, luckily, you finally pulled your way up to the country club elite of Montpelier. Two non-Richardson comments to make first. One is that we heard tonight about the, the use of interns for, by the city. And I think that it certainly enriches the city and its efforts to be able to do so. But I am just interested in making sure that our policies regarding these employment of interns come, flies with the standards that one call for them to be paid and to the call for them to be actually get derived educational benefit from their activities. And so I don't know what our policies are for that, but it's, so I just want to flag that. Second, after our discussion of last week and continuing discussion about people taking shelter on public land, I'm curious about whether there's been any further, or any response from the Department of Building and General, Buildings and General Services about the state land. I see the manager shaking his head. That's disappointing that the state is not. Well, I'm going to check your email back and forth and I'll sit down for you next week. So great. It's given everything that's gone on in 2020 and 2021, it's really kind of hard to believe. I went through my emails and it was January 3rd, 2020, which is really not that long ago that I got an email from Dan saying, hey, I'm planning on running for one of the open seats on the council. Can we sit down and talk about it? And that's really, that's nothing. That's practically the blink of an eye ago. And yet we've had, we've done so much since then and Dan has become such a pivotal figure of the council and contributed so much. It's hard to believe, but it's also demonstrates what a contribution he has made. And congratulations on what you're doing. Sorry to see you go. I'll just pile on briefly. Yeah, Dan, just really it's been such a pleasure to work with you.  As you said, everybody's different perspectives and just constantly like doing the hard work to put forward, okay, how do we get somewhere together knowing that everyone here and hearing from the public we're trying to just do the best for our community and just that spirit you brought to all the work.  So great. So, you know, during a really hard time to come on and then just get to work and have a great attitude and productive and get a lot done. So just so grateful and it's been an honor to work with you and Burlington's lucky to have you for now, but hopefully we'll get you back and see you at some point. So good luck with what you're doing and thanks for, thanks for everything. Well, I'm also going to pile on here a little bit. Dan, I'm so grateful that we got to have you on the council. I'm so grateful that we got to serve together. I am grateful that this group is very functional. I keep coming back to this thought that like how lucky are we that you as a basically like a municipal law expert have been on the council. I mean, we have really benefited obviously from that from your insight there, but also like you have, I appreciate the questions that you ask. I appreciate especially the hard questions that you've asked and that you've brought a lot of energy to this position and enthusiasm and that beyond your expertise has really come through and we have, we have as a group as a city, we've benefited from that. And so I along with everyone else are certainly sad to see you go. But of course, we know that like that is Burlington's gain, of course, and they're lucky to have you. So thank you for your time here and I, you know, I also, you know, I hope for you that you find another different way to serve. I mean, perhaps you will, I don't know. But yeah, thank you for your time here. It's been great. Well, hard. It's been hard. It's also very grateful that you were a part of this group through this difficult time. I have one non Dan Richardson item, which is the Vermont League of Cities and Towns annual meeting is coming up in September. And we usually send a delegate to that.  I'm a fan of this conference. They are great. I wish that I could go. I cannot. Is anybody planning on going hoping to go? That's Jack. Yes, potentially, I don't have it in front of me now. But when I got the notice, I thought, boy, there's some interesting stuff there. So, you know, given what's going on at work, I'm not certain, but I will make sure to take a look again. So can I weigh in on this as a board member of VLCT, as well as your city manager? You're all eligible to go. City will pay that, you know, in terms of the conference and education, it's not just one person and any number of city staff can and often do attend because it is a good training opportunity to meet people. So if anybody who would like to do that, we can, we do need, they do vote on the municipal policy. And that's where we're only allowed one voting representative per community. And we do have to designate that person. So it's always great when it can be a council member. I will be there. I have done it on behalf of the city in the past. If no one else was going. But it would be, it's really better if it's one of you all. Donna, did I see that you are also going? I will attend at least remotely, whether or not I'm a delegate. I mean, I usually attend part of it. So, I mean, Jack could be the delegate and I can be a substitute if he can't make it. Alternative. It could be the alternative. Neither of you could. Thank you. How do you, how do you feel about that, Jack? Let's, let me, let me look at it. Okay. But yeah. And we do have another meeting between now and then. So I just wanted to make sure it's on people's radar. That's in for me, John. Oh, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn. Yeah, you're not getting out of this that easy.  Now, and I expect to be tested in, in turn, and I especially look forward to, oh, what, non-citizen voting, 2.0, see what you need to do to get over there. And I will mention just looking for the future that I expect I will be ready to run screaming from this job about the time you become a G. It has been a pleasure as always. Thank you. So there's not much happening this week, right? So let's see a couple of things. I will save my, my DN comments for the end. The bathroom committee, we've been unsuccessful in getting meeting time. So those of you, I know that the chief flusher is leaving the bathroom, but we will, we are trying to get a meeting together. So hopefully we can do that. I'd like to, we had Kurt Modica on earlier today, giving us a presentation on the things that he presented on. But I think you may recall that our wastewater treatment plant won the public works project of the year for the entire country. And he went to receive it and he got a personal letter from Senator Leahy, congratulating him and saying what a great asset he was to the community. And it was pretty, pretty special. So we want to make sure you all knew that and recognize that he really is one of our quiet, steady superstars. So we're lucky to have him. I've got a question about next week. We have a special, so I've been making fun that this was going to happen. And now it's going to happen because of me. The fire contract is ready to be approved. He was actually supposed to have been on the consent agenda tonight. And they've been very patient with me. So we had said there would be nothing else next week except council member appointment. So I'm asking your permission to put that on the consent agenda. But I didn't want to presume that. This is my goof up. So I'd like to make it up to them and do it as soon as possible. All good. And while we're while we're on that topic, I think police and public works will be right behind, especially public works is really a wording away. And please write one meeting. So that's all good. With regard to next week's council seat, remind you and the public that we have to Friday at noon to get your application form, a letter of interest and 25 signatures of registered voters in the district. We do have one application in, does not yet have the signatures, but we have the application. Good. Good to know. All right. It's noon. Sorry. Noon, yes. Well, just so we can get it on the agenda to go out. Right. For all of you to have time to think about it. And so Dan, yes, thank you. I will miss our Monday journeys of any topic that could possibly be talked about. Dan and I have covered on Mondays, occasionally touching about city government issues. Now it's been a great pleasure. You know, we have employees that come and go sometimes. And it's always sad to see good employees move on, but we're also happy for them if they're moving up to something they really want to do and particularly happy when they're staying or in this case, officially moving into municipal government. It's a small collegiality of colleagues. That's a bad way of saying that. It's a small group of colleagues and having good people serve in important roles in our state, municipal government is really essential. You know, Burlington is the biggest city we all look to Burlington for leadership a lot of time, and it is politically flawed. And so it gets me comfort to know that one of our leading cities will have such good advice in the city first. So thank you and good luck. Thank you.  Let's take your name plate. Oh yeah. Yeah, good momentum. All right. So we are at the end here, team. So without objection, I'm going to adjourn the meeting and there's a 1054. Thank you.


The study found that the three most important factors to the public when it comes to AI decision making in healthcare are, 1, physicians being ultimately responsible for diagnostics and treatment planning, 2, the AI decision support being explainable, and, 3, the AI system being tested for discrimination. Public policy on AI system use in healthcare should prioritize these factors and ensure that patients are provided with information. This article was authored by Thomas Plugh, Anna Sundby, Thomas B. Moeslund, and others.


Just talk in the vlog dear. So that's mr. Back there. We're still eating leftovers from Friday night's dinner that was Not as expected anyway Turkey yeah from Thanksgiving that we didn't get to eat then either. We've just sat in the freezer anyway It is Sunday evening at 7 20 p.m. We haven't done Christmas Eve. We haven't done a whole heck of a lot and After the craziness between getting the vid Thanksgiving and then what happened Friday again, you got to go watch last week's vlog We're happy to just stay home in the nice peace and quiet We've been watching movies all day you guys and it's been cool. We're about to watch one with Jason Mamoa. I Just saw the name of it and I now I can't think of it Braven braven So anyway, it's been a good Christmas Eve. I hope you all are having a good good Christmas Eve Whether it's a quiet one a busy one with a family or not. I hope you're having a good one I am working on finishing my sweater.  So yeah, so anyway I do have enough of this leftover to do a different pattern of sweater I just saw on YouTube this evening. There is no written pattern for the sweater So I think I'm gonna have to sit with the video and make notes in my notebook to figure out how to make it So that's yeah, anyway, I hope you guys are having a good one tomorrow morning We will celebrate Christmas the two of us open some gifts Adopted kids are coming over To visit with us for a little bit. We are just planning on being in our pajamas all day We are not getting out of our pajamas. So Anybody's welcome to come over but we're gonna be in pajamas. So be warned Anyway, that's matching pajamas matching Christmas pajamas. Yeah, so anyway, I'll be back Okay, I haven't woven in any ends yet and it is big on me, but I don't know I Kind of like that. It's big and slouchy. The sleeves are too long, but I can't I don't think I mind All right, hang on so I'm too short for you to see but Is that better Maybe yeah, that's a little easier. So here we are. I obviously have to read all the ends and and The sleeves are too short. I Think I'm okay with that And it's pockets and All the things and it is Premiere puzzle. So it's gonna do probably strange things when I wash it. I don't know what that's gonna do to it, but I Gotta tell you I think I like it if I make another one I might try to make it a little bit smaller, but I'm okay with this one. All right, I'll be back Hey, you guys. Good morning. Yes, my hair is wet hence the wrap Anyway, I don't think I vlogged yesterday Christmas Day at all. In fact, I know I didn't But that's okay. I spent it with Bob chilling on the couch doing some crocheting And The kids some of the kids came over for breakfast yesterday, which was great to spend time with them I broke one of my apple charging cables because of course I did I buy them in bulk because I Tend to this is not an apple one, but I tend to get them so the little end thing could just comes out I don't know. Maybe I buy cheap cables The little ones from next door came over and their parents that was fun And yeah, we just chilled I finished my sweater. I was working on I'm not sure at the moment if I have a picture or not, but if I do I'll put it here And I started a mushroom bag. I've had the pattern for a while. It's basically granny squares with mushrooms on them Made into a tote bag. If I can find the pattern I'll link it down below So I started that last night and just we just relaxed and had fun. We made some roulada and some schpezel for dinner I made the roulada and schpezel. Bob made the gravy. He's great at gravy. So Better at it than I am Today he is off to a masonic thing real quick before we run errands and I am going to prep journals for 2024 I can't believe I'm saying that um I think I figured out what I want to do for the daily arts practice stuff maybe um So I am going to sit and edit the vlog first And we are going to work on that And then I'll prep the journals um What exactly am I going to do is going to be in patreon So if you want to follow along with me on some daily art practice, I'm going to continue with the sewing and the needle work It is my first love to be honest. I started it first in life and um even used to work for chucky tees back in the day for those that don't know that I was a fabric cutter and seamstress for chucky tees. We made the robotic characters at the plant where I worked and I hate fake fur to this day So there's that but anyway, it was a one skill out of high school. I knew how to do and I had to pay the rent so Yeah anyway, all right It's not going to do itself. So let me turn on a youtube video and get video clips downloaded to the desktop, which has finally been turned on for the week and Get all the things over with because yeah, that's going to be a thing I'll be back. Okay, you guys vlog is edited and currently saving rendering And then we'll get that uploaded now. I need to figure out january's journal what we're going to do Maybe combining these two bags. This is my watercolor sketchbook, which I haven't worked in in months literally months and I kind of miss working in it so I better do some googling. I'll be back. Okay scheduled posts for Patreon and my facebook group are Done and ready to go january 1st new year's day Um, and the vlog for tomorrow is loading right now. So that's just about done I am in the process of putting some things away, but first we're going to prep the january journal's first get that ready to go So it's downstairs and all done All right, hopefully we can do that before bob gets back I'll be back so We just left winco. We have one more place to stop out because You know, it's the day after christmas shelves are empty It took a little longer than anticipated getting in and out of winco Because we met the sweetest little old lady Who was in her 80s. I think she said her name was maria and Her husband has passed away. She's very alone and She was passing on some wonderful advice. I felt like I was talking to my nana So We did And she just yeah, so it was great. Anyway Uh, of course, I've gotten a few compliments, uh about my sweater you know Anyway, we have one more place to stop at and Then we're going to go home because we're also exhausted. We're still recovering from the vid. So All right, I'll be back. Okay guys, so we made the last stop found some creamer that will work um for me some creamer that will work for me, um, but The funny part is on our way into safeway Yeah, somebody else stopped and commented about my sweater, which is fine I mean, you know, like bob just said to me literally a minute ago You don't wear something like this and not expect somebody to say something um, but this couple evidently film online courses and they want to know if I'll do some work with them and so They're going to email me. It's so hilarious If anything comes from it, I'll be surprised but Yeah, anyway As long as it ain't scam Right We'll be careful because yeah, you know, these things come to have come along in the past periodically and It never works out the way it's been promised. So But that being said, they were a very very nice couple and um It was so nice to have people I said to bob earlier say, hey, did you make that? I take it as a compliment Back in the old days when I was a teenager making things I didn't take it that way because it wasn't intended that way Now I do because it's kind of fun anyway And I'd love to show people how to do what I do. So You know, we're gonna try to get out of the parking lot get home. We're both exhausted all we've done in the grocery shop but we're exhausted And uh, yeah, because we've been to like three places four places places. I think yeah You know, it's the day after Christmas. So the shelves are all half empty so Anyway, or completely empty. Anyway I'll be back. Good morning everybody Uh, it's Wednesday. It's just before 11 a.m. I think And we are Obviously in the truck We're gonna actually bob is off until afternoon years So we're gonna go for a little drive and we're gonna go have lunch Up on mount hood at timberline lodge Um, because why not? Um, so and bob got a brand new dash cam for christmas Which he's hooked up And so if we get any good footage, I'll include it in the vlog But I mean now that we actually have a dash cam. We won't run into anything like that'll be a thing Anyway I have a yeah, when you have a dash cam you're not gonna get anything. No, I have some more uh yarn with me Of course, I'm gonna start in afghan. That's an easy project to do while he's driving and um, hopefully my vid symptoms are Gone and I don't get too nauseous. So there's that Um I'm not doing artsy trio again because we're just the symptoms are just Yeah, I mean I'm almost back to normal But not quite. Anyway, let me get to crocheting. I'll be back Yes, we're in the truck again We are gonna go run a couple quick errands today. We did do some purging Um, mostly of clothing. Um, mister did some shoes Is connected. Thank you Um, anyway So we're gonna drop off donations and we also have a helium tank that's empty that we've had for about a year It was from grandson's baby shower before he was born and we've never Done anything with the tank. We knew we needed to take it down to the disposal site So we're gonna go do that this morning I get it out of the garage again Then we're gonna go home and I think I'm going to work on some crocheting and also Maybe work start working on my sister and dad's idli journals. So Yeah All right, we'll be back Okay, I'm literally doing this with my phone on the sofa Bob is off to a masonic meeting. So I this is my favorite way to do afghans. It's just quick simple easy Um, there's no special stitches Um, and I do lots of scrap afghans this way Um, I hide in the ends as I go and join things as I go So at the end all I have to do is cut these guys. They're already woven in and knotted and everything Um, I also Remembered after making a few of these with the seam join it like right over here Um, and although it I did it neatly you could tell That when I do and it up until recently it's been literally a few decades since I did this much crocheting But anyway, um I remembered that when I do like to do these I like to do the join in the corner Because then it's virtually undetectable. So this is a regular corner And this is the Knock and things over. This is the join corner. You can't Hardly tell so when I Get back to the beginning which I am So I'm going to slip stitch into the first double crochet on this side and I'll talk more about how I've made this afghan, but Um, I'll slip stitch into the double crochet on this side. I'll pull the yarn Um fairly tightly And I'm going to Pull it through Then I'm going to go backwards into the Chain one space now the corners are double crochet Two double crochet chain one two double crochet on all the corners So when I've done the join like this My hook Is one stitch past the chain one space which is right here So we're going to go backwards into the chain one space grab the yarn and pull it through The slip and then chain two and then double crochet In the same space And that's half of that corner now when we go all the way around this edge and come back We will end this row with two chain two double crochets and a chain one And then we'll join the chain one to the top of this just like we did just now And that ends that row and we can start a new row um This whole blanket is is done that way now I started with Uh there so I started with four Chain four and then slip stitch into the first chain to make a loop Then I did 12 double crochets in the loop I joined To the first one with a slip stitch And then I did And we started with a corner because remember I just said I wanted to do my My joins in the corner So I started with two double sorry chain two and a double crochet Then a double crochet Then two double crochet chain one two double crochet A double crochet a repeat of that Chain one space and I did that all around till I got back to the beginning the Chain two and double crochet and in that space I did two double crochet chain one and joined it and then I continued with the blanket the way we just did this corner here Um, and you just keep doing that keep doing it and doing it and doing it and doing it And it's a great way to use up scrap yarn I don't know did that make sense Did it make any sense? If not, let me know because I make these all the time we could do something better and bigger All right, I'll be back. I also want to clarify. I know um Looking at the vlog it might seem seem like we're all well and good but Yeah, we're not since the vid um You know, we go out and run a couple of errands And then we come home and we're just exhausted. I'm still fighting fatigue and um dizziness nausea motion sickness vertigo um, and yesterday we went Out to lunch. We actually went a little bit of a drive up to mount hood, which is about an hour away um and just walking I'm granted it was slightly uphill in the parking lot. I mean up until I got covet I was actually doing pretty well with that kind of thing I had to stop five times you guys and it wasn't that far So I'm still I'm still having trouble and um, so this month again, I haven't done um rc trio and I have a backlog of projects I do have to do And but I'm in it and I will get them done. Um, I'll be it slowly. There's just no other way about it I have one particular project for my dad and sister that's a top priority So I'm working on that and I did a little bit of work on that tonight Got some things ready. Um, probably do some more work on it tomorrow um, and over the weekend and right now I'm just Sitting here doing that because it's really all I have the energy for so Anyway, all right Back to some youtube and drinking my bone broth because that's something I wasn't doing it all while we were sick. So I'll be back. Hey guys, we are I know we're in the car We're actually in the Subaru this time. We're actually headed home We just ran a few quick errands one of which was to go to the library and renew our library cards And of course that meant we had to check out books because we both love books And I found some of course crochet books, but we also stopped at value village and Of course, I always go back and look at the yarn. So Lily sugar and cream 100 pure virgin wool float four ply knitting worsted I and this is this is an old label. I don't know when this Is from if one of you all knows and can date it. Let me know. There's no date on the ball They don't smell they smell old But they don't smell bad. Um, they're definitely won't smell. Yarn is a thing. Did you not know that? That's a thing. Um But I found I think there's six balls Um like this one of which looks like it's been used a little bit But most of them are full and new and for five bucks So five dollar, what am I gonna do with him? I don't know It wasn't what I was looking for but you know Anyway, we're gonna go home now And just relax for a little bit and then um go out probably later for dinner To get some sushi because why not? All right, no kids. No kids. It's just us. It's us. It's Friday. We're seeing everybody New Year's Eve So nobody tonight So it's all good Anyway, all right We'll be back And yes, I know in the pictures of our lunch up in the snow Mr. looked grouchy, but that's because he didn't know I was taking his picture I would have smiled or he would have smiled. He wasn't actually grouchy That was just his resting Grouchy grouchy face. I'm trying to look for a word. That's not a bad word Resting grouchy face Yeah, and I can tell that I haven't been walking and I'm recovering from the vid because I had to stop like six times between the parking lot and the hotel Um just to get up the hill Which is not normal these days for me. So anyway All right, we're gonna go home I'm gonna look at the books working my blanket I'll be back. Hey guys. Yes. We're in the car again a car a car the super room We went out run a couple quick errands this morning and then came home and just relaxed at home for a while Right now we're going out to go in one mile turn left onto southwest pacific highway We're going out to visit with friends and have some dinner out at an italian place that we haven't been to before So I'm excited to try it and I'll let you know how it is It ought to be good. I think I'm halfway through the next afghan and I already have the next one planned of course I seem to be in an afghan kick I don't know All right, I'll be back Okay, we had a really great dinner out with some new friends Turns out the wives and I have a lot in common which might be a bad thing for mr. Over here. It's terrible One of them is a knitter. I'm a crocheter the other one knows about knitting and crocheting I don't know if she does either. Anyway, there's something called a yarn crawl around here that happens once a year The other wife is going to get in touch with me so Anyway, we're going to stop at the grocery store and get some things for new year's eve. I'll be back Yeah, of course. He's got his new little outfit on. It's very warm Anyway, we're home We've been home for a little bit the dinner out was a very fun The group of people that we met from his masonic lodge were Great the ladies and I have a lot in common That might be bad You both like to knit and crochet and read and read. Yeah So anyway, but it was a lot of fun We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and picked up a few things for tomorrow For the kids house. We've got a pile of stuff over there. Yeah Anyway, it's been a fun week a quiet week But that's good.  So but you know I'm gonna keep working on it. Anyway, I hope you all have had a good week I hope you had a great Christmas or if you don't celebrate Christmas that you had A great other holiday whatever that was New Year's Eve is tomorrow. I hope whatever you're going to do for that It's going to be fun and happy and safe. We are going to be at the kids house But that's for next week's vlog. So we will see you then Anyway, check out the video description for relevant links Don't forget to like share and subscribe if you want to be part of part of my patreon The link isn't down in the video description if you want some of my designs in Rubber stamps or art foamy stamps the links for that are down below too And uh, don't forget to go out have a good day. Have a good evening Do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and we'll see you next week. Bye guys