Would city councillors please take their seats good evening everyone and welcome to tonight's growing to city council meeting Would you please rise with me and recite the Pledge of Allegiance? Call us regular meeting of the city council to order at 707 first item on the agenda is the agenda Councillor Bushard Councillor Bushard Excuse me. I pulled my iced tea as opposed to the mic Talking to your iced tea So I'm gonna move to amend and adopt the agenda as follows note presentation slides for agenda item 2.01 Presentation Burlington net zero energy roadmap per Jen Kaylee note updated version of these slides per Jen Kaylee Note streamlined version for this agenda item per per the notorious Mike Kenarec. No, correct Anyways, no that doesn't say notorious here, but no correct for consent agenda item 4.08 communication Stephanie Reed HR manager Deanna Luba HR director David white planning director and Brian low chief Innovative officer regarding reporting line and title change for GIS position To move within I and T per Stephanie Reed note Final with amended motion of this agenda item per CIO low Note final version of consent agenda item 4.16 ordinance housing enforcement and penalties Councillor Bushard first reading per city attorney's office added the consent agenda item 4.17 communication Adam roof ward 8 city councillor regarding use of council initiative funds for Code for a BTV with the motion to approve the proposal to contribute 662 of city council initiative funds to be used solely for the support of code for BTV BTV's expungement week event as provided in the above statement proposal per CIO Anderson note revised version of this agenda item with the revised motion to approve the proposal to contribute 662 dollars Note correct sponsor for agenda item 5.04 ordinance housing accumulation of garbage trash Abandoned vehicle appliances and furniture on any property within the city Prohibited ordinance committee second reading per assistant city attorney Sturt event removed from the agenda item 5.07 resolution the consideration of climate impacts by the Department of Public Works Councillor Hanson per Councillor Hanson removed from the agenda item 5.08 resolution Declaring a climate emergency and initiating a just transition for city staff Councillor Freeman and place it on the September 23rd 2019 regular city council Deliverative agenda per city council president right per councillor Freeman and I so move Amendments moved by councillor Busher Seconded by councillor Hanson any discussion hearing none all those in favor of the agenda as amended please say aye Any opposed we have our agenda item number two as a presentation on Burlington net zero energy road map general manager Springer and Please just each person identify whoever speaking identify yourself for the record Thank you for having us here I'm joined by Jen Calle from Synapse Energy Economics and we also have Jonathan Slason from our RSG and Asa Hopkins from Synapse these are our partners on the net zero energy road map Also joined this evening by a number of the folks from Burlington Electric Department who are here And I want to thank all of them for their work on this effort We were in this room earlier today releasing the road map for the first time publicly at an event at 1 30 and This goal the net zero energy goal of reducing and eventually eliminating fossil fuel use across the electric thermal and ground Transportation sectors dates back to 2016 when the mayor announced the goal and the electric commission adopted the goal as part of BED strategic direction and in 2018 we looked at establishing this road map Project because we needed an opportunity to analyze what it would take What are the pathways to get us to this net zero energy goal by 2030 to put this in context? This is one of the most ambitious local government climate goals that I'm aware of anywhere in the country And it really will require a number of different policies different incentives different programs We at Burlington Electric included this in our FY 19 budget that you approved and we issued an RFP Had a very competitive process 13 firms bid to be a part of this road map process. We selected Synapse along with their partners RSG to conduct this analysis for us Jen is going to walk through the some highlights from the analysis and talk through What the road map is about if you go to Burlington Electric comm back slash or I should say slash Nze you will find our net zero energy road map page Includes the roadmap document a list of frequently asked questions with answers As well as a number of different events. We're gonna be doing around the community To share the road map and some of the announcements we made today We launched what I believe is one of the most comprehensive and sweeping set of new programs To make progress on net zero energy You know really in BD's history earlier today incentives for new cold climate heat pumps for heat pump hot water heaters new incentives in the EV space and the full list of those incentives are available at the website We will be going myself and Jen Green our sustainability director to all of the different NPAs over the course the next couple of months to share the road map and solicit feedback We have a button on the website to join the conversation and offer us ideas and feedback From the community and we're looking forward to engaging and sharing this this work product So without any further ado, I want to turn it over to Jen to provide you with some of the highlights from the roadmap Thank you very much for having me today I'll be walking through our roadmap map analysis and some of the key findings from this analysis And we've already had the team introduced so I'm just gonna go cut right to the chase So we can simply define net zero energy as reducing and eventually eliminating fossil fuel use And as Darren mentioned, this is a very comprehensive analysis and Including three different sectors. So the electric sector the thermal or heating sector and the ground transportation sector as a note Brallington electric department has already done a fair amount in the electric sector by Sourcing 100% of their renew of their energy and electricity from renewables So really what we're doing here is focusing on the other two sectors the thermal heating sector in the ground transportation sector and We looked at three different scenarios a business as usual a 20 net zero energy by 2030 and net zero energy by 2040 scenarios so on the top the top line the black line is our business as usual scenario Which simply assumes that all of the policies and practices that are in place today continue and no new policies or practices are adopted Down from that the the second line is our net zero energy by 2040 scenario and the scenario at the very bottom is net zero energy by 2030 and really the big difference between 2040 and 2030 is that there's equipment for example that Someone we might have installed last year that won't be end of life in 10 years from now So in net zero energy 2030 we're talking about replacing that equipment with more efficient equipment and Electrifying that equipment as well. We're also talking about using some renewable natural gas to offset Emissions and energy use fossil fuel energy use for certain buildings and residences that are really hard to get to this takes a look at Burlington's energy use fossil fuel energy use today and so This is a very comprehensive look again at all that all the different sectors that the community has so there's four sectors here The light gray is residential buildings. I'll just point to these if I can Right here darker gray commercial buildings. The black is Burlington based vehicles So vehicles rest registered in Burlington and then this really large Has set hash section our vehicles not Registered or based in Burlington that visit Burlington or commute into Burlington from elsewhere So what you can see if we take a look at this whole universe here is that transportation? So really whoops the left side of this pie the black sections are the largest share of fossil fuels fuel energy use today And if we take out These visitors and commuters to Burlington what we see then is that the remainder this these light gray sections actually Become the largest sector for fossil fuel consumption and these are our buildings and this energy is mostly used for space and water heating So now we're going to look at some of the opportunities that We can pursue to get to net zero energy by 2030 and this shows four pathways So four types of opportunities that we can pursue as well as the magnitude of each of these pathways So how much opportunity is here for in each of these pathways? So we have one efficient electric buildings and really this this pathway is most a good chunk of the opportunity at 60 percent The next is electric vehicles another Significant chunk at 20 percent a district energy system at 15 percent an alternative transport solutions at 5 percent So the the two largest pathways efficient electric buildings and electric vehicles account for about 80 percent of the total fossil fuel energy Reductions, and these are also the most cost-effective policies that the community can use to achieve this goal However, I will note to achieve the goal. We need to address the opportunity in all four pathways So if we address the opportunity in all four pathways, what will we see? We'll see changes in energy consumption So fossil fuel energy consumption the black section of this graph is falling down to zero in 2030 The green section is your electricity use which is actually increasing over time. I know it's a little bit hard to see But it is increasing But overall the total energy consumption if you compare 2018 to the end date of 2030 is dropping substantially 60 percent Focusing in on the electricity come consumption, which I just said is actually increasing over the time period and the reason why it's increasing is That heating and ground transportation is becoming electrified. So we're switching from fossil fuels to electric Solutions and as we do that electricity use does grow substantially in the coming years and that's this top wedge here So we need more electricity in 2030 Then we do today However, I will say that this analysis takes into account lots of efficiency So this isn't as high as it would otherwise But we didn't have really efficient solutions in place and this efficiency is very necessary It's controlling the amount of renewables that we need to source And we're also we're also controlling for upgrade costs to Allow our electric grid to deliver this much electricity. So there are cost control measures in place here Because we're focused on through the goal reducing fossil fuel energy use we're also going to see changes in CO2 emissions so this is showing these emission drops here and the bottom section is our natural gas use which is dropping down to zero in 2030 and the Black section is our petroleum use dropping down to 2030 which is mainly used for in our transportation sector So our gasoline and our diesel fuel and Because our carbon emissions are cumulative over time So they accumulate in the atmosphere the quicker we reach this goal the more emissions that will be reduced So now I want to turn to one of the really interesting and exciting parts of this work Which is supporting strategies that the community can use to get to this goal And and what we know because it's such an aggressive goal in an aggressive time frame as Darren said is that we need a whole suite of Supporting strategies to get there And so what we did was parse the time frame which is a total of ten years into three segments The near term being one to three years the mid term is four to six years and the long term is more than seven years In the near term Basically deploying capital to advance energy efficiency and building a foundation for regulatory action And I'm going to go a little bit into a little bit more detail in that in the next slide the midterm You're actually taking regulatory action. So while you're setting up for that in the near term. You're really Deploying regulatory action in the midterm the longer term if you look to the report And I really hope you will these tables are actually quite interesting There's not many strategies that can be deployed in the long term because at that point the opportunity to address a lot Of these things has passed. So there are few but not many and just to conclude I want to go into more detail on the need near term supporting strategies because what Will need to be done immediately is of most interest to people here today. I think so One thing we note in the report in a number of places is that a number of partners will be needed for to achieve success For example any regulatory reform that happens at the state level will help the city in achieving this goal For from the council perspective, there are a couple things I want to call out that might be particularly relevant to you folks here So for example under build regulatory action one of the initial action steps might be to update zoning permitting and building codes And I believe there's some recent action through the housing summit to address Energy efficiency standards and rental properties, which is right along those lines Also adopting building energy benchmarking labeling and rating policies is another one you might see action to implement a district energy system and Then the bottom section which is really looking at policies for alternative transportation. This includes Advancing different travel modes walking biking e biking e scooters and transit options Travel price signals, which is pricing travel differently than than it is priced today demand management, which is looking at For example transit subsidies ride-sharing Telecommuting allowing for more telecommuting those types of things and land use changes, which is Ensuring that growth at any additional growth is happening In certain areas of the community that are more densely populated And with that I want to open it back up for questions and thank you for the opportunity to present today I really appreciate it. Thank you for that presentation. We have a few minutes left for questions Questions from the city council council pipe Thank You mr. President. Thank you for the presentation. It was from a great overview my my question I work in this field so every day I face the challenge to Pursuade property owners whether they be public sector or private sector or homeowners to Make an investment in efficiency and with natural gas fossil fuel prices as low as they are That's our biggest hurdle. So I'm just wondering How we get from really cheap fossil fuels to this vision. I didn't quite see that piece. Is there some missing something? So, yes, I mean we certainly do need to transition from Voluntary or what you see I guess in the near term is a focus on voluntary incentives and things like that to motivate people And then what you see in the midterm is certainly a transition to more requiring certain energy efficiency standards requiring buildings to have Renewables requiring buildings to Have to be all electric In all energy use so there's that transition in place now certainly The existing state where we have a lot of natural gas use You know the it is close to being cost competitive as you know, but not quite there and also depending on the application So yes In the short term, there's some cost hurdles certainly with natural gas, but that is changing Actually one follow-up question and that is Is there a specific recommendation to pair the utility bill with the basically on bill financing? Is that actually part of your proposal or is that too granular a detail to get into? So if you look in the strategy tables, there's a number of different Finance so they're grouped actually by like regulatory financial or technological Policies and so under financial there's a number of different mechanisms and financing is one Certainly that that would be to need to be developed over time to accompany incentives and that gets to the fact that all Buildings need to be ultimately reached and some individuals have more ability to make those investments than others And certainly when we think about like low-income customers and whatnot They'll need to be different supports in place for some customers versus others I would just add for counselor pine with the incentives that we launched today include our first major foray into Cold climate heat pumps and other electrification technologies for natural gas customers And we're trying to make them as strong an incentive as possible to address the issue that you just raised Which is you know the payback may otherwise not be attractive enough So we do have an enhanced incentive for low-modern income customers to make it even a little bit better For those customers and the incentives are are reasonably attractive. We're hopeful that they'll make it dead Thank you counselor pine counselor busher and then counselor Tracy and do other counselors want to get in the queue any other counselors Councillor busher so Thank you there are a couple of questions one has to do with alternative transport pathways and In in a in a state like Vermont you talk about response to travel price signals and Charges in in parking costs and vehicle mile charges, etc What I don't know is how do we balance this so that we don't Strangle our economy If indeed we are trying to discourage Vehicles as you showed coming into our community, and we don't have adequate public transportation How are we going to deal with the retail that we have? How are we going to how does that work? And I think that that is something that I don't expect you to have the answer But that's one thing that comes to mind, and I don't have the answer to it either Everything you have here makes sense But I don't know how to get to that point without some harm and people say well, there will be harm, but I think that That it needs to be carefully Transitioned on the second piece is that you know I as part of this community Recall when we were encouraging people To no longer use electric heat and go to natural gas and we've partnered with with Vermont gas in this region and to try to bring about affordable Heating solutions for this climate and And so I'm trying to understand I I get it how to and you touched upon it when you were talking to counselor pine, but I think that evolution now that transition now from natural gas back to electricity is Challenging one Especially since as you all know the state and and not many wanted this but did that pipeline and You know the fracking that goes on and Etc. Etc. None of which I really wanted to have happened, but it's happened and so How does Once a partner now become a competitor and how do we work together? To help not only Burlington, but others make that transition from fossil fuel to thank you counselor But sure did you have a response? I mean my quick response and I believe we say this is a report in a number of places that education is going to be very critical on a number of Fronts certainly from a technology standpoint and as you mentioned There's been a rapid change in terms of what fuel sources are being used for heating over time from oil to natural gas and now back Or you know once what what once was electric to oil to natural gas and now back to electric So certainly there will need to be an education component across Many dimensions and I would just add that Vermont gas has been a partner for us We work together on weatherization Services, which they provide to the vast majority of folks in the community complementing our energy efficiency services They were here today for the roadmap announcement. We've kept them in the loop And we are actually enhancing our heat pump incentives if people participate in their weatherization program So we don't see it as a competitive situation. We'd like to partner with them as we evolve on this on this pathway Thank You counselor Bush or counselor Tracy Thanks for the presentation District energy has long been identified as one of the largest single largest things that we can do in order to Impact our carbon footprint as a city I'm wondering if you think that we're able to achieve this net zero goal without creating a district energy system in the city of Burlington and Also, if you're able to share any updates I'd asked you'd shared some updates the last time you were before the council with regards to this Wondering if anything's happened in the intervening time as well On the latter point a lot has been going on in the intervening time in terms of we had had that Package passed at the legislature to provide us with the potential to offer Incentives for the project. We are having our original Memorandum of understanding with quarks had concluded they've completed the feasibility work We are examining Partners and pathways forward that I think are quite promising I'd like to be able to come back in the fall and provide you with a really thorough update on where we are I don't have more to offer at this point, but I do want to say that we are working on it And we do have some reasons for optimism around it And on the first point, do you think that we were able to I mean, yes You certainly technically could do it differently But being that there's efficiencies and various things that could be leveraged from the existing system It's it's something that should be considered Okay, and then just one more thing which is how do you see the city council is being involved with this work and supporting the Work that you're trying to do here Well, as I mentioned a lot of the Strategies and policies that you might see in the report might come before you at some point in the next few years And so it's kind of a preview for what you might be able to expect Now not every single policy might need to be adopted and some might be you know exclusive of others so You know which ones Will be interesting to see but certainly, you know I pointed out a few that I think are most likely candidates that you would be having discussions about over the next few years Okay, thank you very much. Thank you councillor Tracy councillor Hansen Thanks. Thanks so much for this. This is really exciting And I look forward to working with you all and hopefully everybody in this room to make sure that we actually achieve this My question has to do with the ongoing tracking Pro you know progress reports. Can you speak more to how we're going to? Because it is you know 12 years or 11 years less than 11 years it Might seem like a long time, but it flies by pretty quick And I want to make sure that we're having regular updates and understanding if we're on track to meeting these goals Excellent. So as part of our announcement today We are going to for the first time track these net zero energy metrics in our annual performance Measures report, which is released on town meeting day every year The types of things that I'm envisioning is we'll be tracking fossil fuel use across sectors We'll be tracking things like EV registrations. We'll be tracking usage at our electric vehicle charging stations e-bike rebates e-bus incentives all the different measures Also fuel use we want to see that declining over time And we want to see these different measures being adopted in greater scale over time And we'll be offering new metrics as part of that report so the community can see how we're doing Great, and will that be presented to the council as well or absolutely the the performance measures report is presented to the council typically as part of our presentation, which we did a few months ago with our commission chair Thank you very much. Thank you. Councillor Hansen Councillor Shannon, then we'll wrap up with the mayor Thank you You had mentioned incentives for low and moderate income folks, and I know that the vast majority of our housing units are rental units and Probably an even vast majority of our low and moderate income residents are Renters and so wondered what those incentives look like For tenants From us today's announcement Some of the technology is the heat pumps the heat pump hot water systems that have a low moderate income component May not immediately be accessible for a renter the the standards around energy efficiency for rental housing more broadly We'll likely have a bigger impact than the individual incentives We are working. I didn't get a chance to catalog all the different pieces of the announcements today We are working on the electric transportation side We're offering for the first time an incentive of $800 on pre-owned electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids Because those are going to be at a more affordable price point than a new EV or a new plug-in hybrid We also are going to add more than 20 charging stations, including with a focus at multifamily buildings around the community We have a partnership through excel VT, which is an entrepreneurial effort We've been working with companies who come in to Vermont from around the country. We're partnering with a company called EV match They have technology that will allow us to install more than a dozen charging stations potentially at multifamily buildings around the community and make them accessible for the first time for Tenants who might want to get a plug-in vehicle or an EV and don't have somewhere to charge it So we're very conscious that this is in some ways the toughest sector in terms of rental housing to make an impact with Some of these programs and we're trying to use all the tools We have at our disposal to make sure that they're as widely available and adopted as possible Can I continue I feel like your response is how we're helping low and moderate income people is by having these incentives built into the transportation sector, but it still leaves me wondering how you're going to What incentives there are for all those buildings which you showed is a major part of your of your wedge And I know that there are some existing Programs that are incentivizing really based on cost, but there are I'm wondering if there's anything else ways to is it in Ordinances that are going to require Rental units to be more energy efficient or what else is there to incentivize building owners, whether homeowners or Multi multi unit owners absolutely our energy efficiency programs that we work on in partnership with the muck gas We've offered incentives to upgrade weatherization standards energy efficiency standards, but we recognize very much I think the roadmap recognizes that that's not enough So to me one of the most meaningful things that we can do in the near term would be to have the Rental energy efficiency standards contemplated in the mayor's housing some at work be adopted and have for the first time a broader standard for energy efficiency across all rental housing as opposed to just at the time of sale Because we don't capture enough buildings I think just through the time of sale if we can have that standard established and then build on that over time the roadmap report Actually envisions that over time those policies would become even more Ambitious in terms of the types of things that we would do in multifamily buildings to lower energy use And lower bills for for renters as well So policy as opposed to incentives may be more important in that area Thank you. Thank you councillor shannon one more question from councillor Freeman before we go to the mayor councillor Freeman Thank you president right. Hi. Thank you for the presentation I had a question about sort of the scope of the proposal and what was included in it and what was maybe Left out. I guess so on page nine it sort of talks about what is Included on the sectors of electric thermal transportation things that were left out were sorry on the full report not on the on the slide presentation Things that were left out were things like air transportation, which has been talked about I see here that also Non-Berlington registered vehicles for examples left out of this 2030 roadmap so I'm wondering so for me I guess the way I think of it is if someone said your whole house is flooded and then Sort of gave you information about the whole house, but then only gave you Information on how to clear the water out of the living room There's still the rest of the house that's flooded So I'm wondering how those decisions were made in term made in terms of the scope And what was accounted for and what that looks like going forward So we developed the scope at BED based on the net zero energy goal Which is focused on electric thermal and ground transportation in Vermont thermal and ground transportation Make up roughly three-quarters of the emissions So they're the biggest sectors to really tackle the same in Burlington They're the two biggest sectors to tackle particularly so in Burlington because we're 100% renewable with electric Is that accounting for air transportation those it does my understanding is that those two sectors number would surprise me If we were including air transportation, yeah, my understanding and I could I could be mistaken I don't know if you have different information to share But is that transportation and thermal are the two biggest sectors and our goal doesn't encompass the goal adopted by our electric Commission doesn't encompass air travel. We know there's progress being made with electrification of air travel In fact, there's a company that we're going to visit pretty soon Called beta that we've BD has been working with that's testing some of this technology What we wanted to do is make progress in the biggest sectors where we can have the biggest impact But we know there's other work to be done.  We have an incentive now to electrify forklifts anything that can be electrified We are interested in because it can reduce emissions reduce fossil fuel use Even if it's outside of the parameters of the net zero energy goal But the goal itself is as far as I'm aware one of the most ambitious in the country Okay, I had a question two more questions One is about and so if we don't meet these Benchmarks that have been set out. I'm wondering what sort of accountability is in place And I wasn't able to get through the entire written report, but I'm just I'm wondering what What sort of accountability is is there if we don't meet these benchmarks? so I think in my in the way that I'm trying to think about the road map and the goal and Recognizing again that it's it's one of the most ambitious efforts that I'm aware of at a local government level in the country if we were to achieve 80% Directionally what we're trying to do in this report We would be leading the country in terms of fossil fuel reduction greenhouse gas emissions reduction on the time frame that we're talking about the 2030 time frame a lot of folks are talking about Additional efforts going out to 2050 But taking this goal and adopting it for 2030 and making trying to make the effort that we're making Is really significant and so I don't want folks to lose sight of the idea that the direction We're going is the right direction in my view I think it's the right direction for the community on climate It gives us the opportunity to respond in a way that can benefit all of our different customers at BED and the entire community potentially economically and There's one other point. I just want to make about it, which is we've actually done some analysis That's new that says if a dollar is spent on gasoline for example at the local gas station You only see 20 cents of that stay in the Vermont economy at BED if a dollar spent to charge a vehicle for example More than half of that in our estimate is staying in the local economy So we think it's the right thing to do economically the right thing to do for climate the most ambitious goal in the country And if we can get 80% of the way there, I think we'd be a leader among communities in the country And I'll just say overarching, you know the penalty or consequences Worse climate change which is more costly in a number of ways than doing a number of these things So that's the that's the consequence, but outside of that. You're right. There is no Penalty to BED or anyone else. Thank you. Councillor Freeman. We have to get the public forum. Do you have one more quick question? No, that's it. Thank you. All right. Thank you Brief remarks, Mr. Mayor Thank You president right Thank you to our partners to the BED team to everyone who was involved in Bringing today's work forward. This has been an effort years in the making and I think this is an exciting day and one that that is a watershed day for the city As the questioning tonight already suggests, I think it's been a great discussion and it points to the challenges and the difficulty that This plan Implies and suggests I mean we are talking about a dramatic Restructuring of much of the way that our buildings and our transportation systems work to achieve this goal We need to go from something like 300 or so electric vehicles in the city today to more than 20,000 electric vehicles by 2034 for this to For us to hit these goals for one example the What beef I think today should be about though and I guess what I would urge the What is on my mind and I offer to the counselors in the public is We have numerous examples in our history where setting these ambitious environmental climate goals and then coupling it with Outstanding with hard work and outstanding technical resources at BED or elsewhere in the city has yielded Very impressive results the most significant being that we went From a situation in 2004 where the city was sourcing only 25% of the electricity from renewable generation The moment at which the city decided to stop purchasing power from Vermont Yankee It was not at all clear what would happen over the decade after that There are a lot there was a lot of concern that could lead to more dependence on Burning of coal that could lead to a substantial increase in electric rates. That isn't what happened We went from from 25% to a hundred percent in a decade and we did that with Only one rate increase and that that increase rate increase now is more than a decade ago I think there's some Hope and Parallels there for what our challenge is going forward Oh, there's no doubt this one in which we will be up against in many ways the energy many energy companies We're up against the current president Will be certainly harder This one and I'm I know this urgency to get to poly form the last thing I have to say on this is I Think what is gonna have to happen this time because it is harder because it goes beyond the challenges We've faced before is this time this net zero energy effort needs to inspire Burlington the Burlington public to be fully engaged and committed in a new way We are gonna need Burlington residents and property owners to be aware of and consider Starting now these incentives that have been Introduced today and the new ones that will roll out from here This is going to be something ultimately there's only so much that city government can do it is going to require action By our friends and neighbors To get there so to that end What and this goes also to the question that came up What's the council's role from here certainly the council have many roles many opportunities to sign off on? new policies that flow From this line of thinking but in the immediate future I would welcome the opportunity to work with counselors who are interested in considering endorsing the goals of This net zero energy roadmap and to come back soon with a strong resolution that can signal to the Burlington public That this is something everyone needs to be attention to and that we should have a common desire to get behind Thank you, Mr. Mayor and thank you very much for that presentation. I'm sure we're hearing a lot more about this. Thank you Thank you very much We are late getting to the public forum. So we'll open the public forum up right now item number three we have a lot of people scheduled to speak so it's going to be two minutes and Just should alert all we ask is that you are respectful Comments should be directed to the council president not made personal to the mayor or counselors Speak on any issue that you want, but you should know ahead of time that items 5.07 and 5.08 have been removed from the agenda will be coming back at a subsequent meeting.  Welcome. Have a seat and pull the microphone right in close to you.  No My name is Jesse Porter I live at 101 College Street apartment 407 have been living here in Burlington For two years and two months almost to since the day that I got here. I have been Disrespected by homosexual Videos and of course comments I have had groups of people approach me With offers to help but to novell So I have come to you for help. I have learned of Some important things about the attacks and the possibilities about who and why I Think that if you believe That I think that if you believe that our children are not touched by these please remember That technology is in their generation So I need your help To get to the bottom of this But it's been bothering me for over two years now, Mr. Porter This is not a unfortunately not a time for question back and forth But I'm sure you can bring this to someone in the administration The mayor the mayor will be happy to have one of his people in the administration talk to you outside of the public forum And I think he's looking I think he's looking for someone to talk with you now Thank you, Mr. Porter Jennifer Decker is up next to be followed by excuse me. Will heard it evening. Miss Decker welcome. I Came here to speak to the amendment that was a recent topic Relating to the basing of the f-35 I Wanted to say that we too love the guards people and We do remember the time when the state guards were deployed for primarily Humanitarian reasons and not used for endless wars overseas. I Feel that the basing of the f-35 plane here in Burlington, Vermont represents a failure to protect the life Liberty and property of the residents of this state The plane has eight times the crash risk and is four times louder than the f-16 The amendment was a bit silly to me because Talking to Jean Richards about it next month is Way too little way too late in addition, I felt that the council president's remarks that our movement is misleading people were inaccurate I feel it's misleading to tell the American people that we can't fight For our life liberty and property when it's under threat There are children living in the noise impact zone Soundproofing and remediation is a fallacy the FAA said it would be ineffective And there's no way to protect people from the noise other than removing their homes What are the city's plans to pay for this ineffective remediation, and where will you be drawing your funds from? Who will pay for the medical and educational costs of this tragedy? Thank you, Miss Decker Will her is up next to be followed by Nick Florsch Good evening, Mr. Herd welcome Resolution I was gonna comment on has been tabled So I'm tabling my prepared comments and just going off the cuff here But I was thinking exactly the same thing that Mayor Weinberg was was just saying that yes the city government can go ahead and Make these great plans, but if you don't get the citizens involved It's not going to have a great effect and a great way to get the citizens Involved is to send a wake-up call and to declare that the city of Burlington Has it has a climate of declare a climate emergency by the city of Burlington I Was thinking of the embarrassing fact that we did declare as a state of Vermont in 2012 that we would reduce our admissions by 25 percent They've gone up by 4 percent So I think that this tabled resolution will come back on the 23rd. I would love to hear From people why how we can get this climate emergency declaration passed. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Mr. Herd Nick Florsch Good evening. Mr. Florsch welcome. Good evening Counselors mayor my name is Nick Florsch I represent code for BTV code for BTV is the local Brigade of code for America and code for BTV Is helping the local government community organizations serve the public good efficiently and effectively through the use of modern technology National Expungement Week is kicking off on the 21st of September and our group is working hard to build an event here in Burlington to participate in the National wide effort our goals to help everyone better understand the legal logistical Psychological and emotional journey of the Vermont citizens that work with an attempt to work through our state's expungement ceiling and rights restoration Opportunities this means both justice impacted citizens and those who are helping them from within the legal system Code for BTV has been developing expertise and expungement through our work with Vermont legal aid in addition We represent a community that has been doing user research for a very long time the tech community We think of justice impacted citizens as users and the rights restoration processes as products that we want to see through their eyes In an effort to better capture the experience with expungement that our state's law professionals already have and to focus their knowledge and skill through The lens of technology user research practices We've decided to split up our original event into two events The first event will focus on coalescing and focusing that existing knowledge of the law professionals by matching them with the user research Professionals that will happen here con to as I saw Ramon 21st It will technically be open to the public But it will be that dedicated to tailoring that user research process the second event will happen at a later time And we will be Interacting directly with justice impacted citizens of Vermont We feel that by preparing ahead of time better with everybody that's going to be part of the process We will have the ability to make More value out of our time with these individuals We want their voices to have as much impact as possible We feel this event serve to primary goals first This will be a special opportunity for those legal professionals participating in rights restoration to meet and learn from each other as well as help Crystallized understanding of the legal issues that are still needing to be addressed or improved And the second is the outcome of the second user research event will be a data set to shed the light on the system from very different perspective From those that are in it and need it the most the data The stories and the understanding that we will gain from these events will help to further the ongoing efforts in the city We asked for your support, and we hope that we get it. Thank you Thank you mr. Flores, and thank you for helping me with the pronunciation Kaylee Haberstrom is up next to be followed by Richard Vaughan Everyone, please just remember to pull the microphone all the way in my name is Kaylee Haberstrom I use she her pronouns, and I am the chair of the UVM student government associations committee on legislative and community affairs This year our committee is really committed to being more involved in the community and just engaging with local politicians So we're hoping to give regular updates to you all So this weekend it was really great to see Councilor Roof at the office of student-communion relations, which is Oscar They had a community coalition this Friday Thank you for engaging with us and joining in with the conversations there The following day we were joined by councillors Hanson and Roof at the Oscar welcome bag event And we just went around and welcomed off-campus students to their new homes and neighborhoods And I just wanted to update you all on a few new projects we have coming up So we are planning on hosting councillors Hanson Roof and Busher on campus for a coffee with the councillors event Just so they can meet with some of their constituents and answer any questions they might have Our safe ride home program is in its final stages with an upcoming soft launch for the middle of the semester This program is going to allow students to call a cab at any time any day of the week To get them home safely and hopefully reduce sexual assaults violence towards students and overall increase the safety of the entire city for all residents And then due to the fact that one in five UBM students qualifies as food and secure We have started a food pantry pantry initiative, which is in its final negotiations And we're just waiting on a space allocation for that and then our team of students will be ready to fill the shelves And lastly time kind of going in with tonight's theme President Jillian Scannell has sent her climate action plan to President Garamella Advising him to recommit to goals UBM has made about climate action in the past and SGA will be hosting in campus climate strike On September 20th at 11 a.m. And we'll be marching downtown the city hall to join in with the city's overall climate strike And we look forward to seeing many of you there and lastly will be at the words one of me MPI meetings this week We have many more projects coming up this year, and we're just looking forward to working with you all on those. Thank you Thank you. Ms. Haberstrom Richard Vaughan is up next to be followed by Jean Sasony good evening, Mr. Vaughan welcome Good evening My name is Richard Vaughan I'm the owner of perky planet a coffee shop at the corner of King and St. Paul here in Burlington My wife and I opened this shop in an attempt to serve great coffee and provide employment opportunities That is completely paid and meaningful to people with disabilities Today my shop sits cut off from the city of Burlington by closed streets closed sidewalks chain link fences open pits and construction tape That's the way it is today, and it's way it's been every day since we were opened in January Today we celebrate the second week of the second year of the closure of St. Paul Street But I'm not here to complain about the time schedule. However, I am here to tell you know about The decisions that we made in moving to set to the St. Paul Street address my wife I had many choices as to where to put our shop It wasn't until the city published on August 9th of 2018 a In conjunction with CEDO the Department of Public Works they documented title of the Great Streets BTV St. Paul Street this document laid out a time schedule a Scope of work and a project team for this project and a detailed about a hundred and forty three days of street closure for St. Paul We're now on day three hundred and seventy, I believe We made our decision to move into the St. Paul address because of that document the city knew when this project When the document was created That they were likely to encounter contaminated soils yet this document presented a timeline that was based on the knowingly false assumptions of the soils were pristine It included it excluded work that the city knew had to be completed before the contractor and ever they encountered contaminated soils these misrepresentations and emissions were purposeful and Calculated an attempt by the city to avoid having to comply with certain state regulations for Environmental quality That's wrong And I'm here to let you know that thank you for your time Thank You mr. Vaughn Jean say Sonny to be followed by Lucy Gluck Good evening. Say so Sonny welcome say Sonny say Sonny I've been coming here for say seven years on the same subject many of you are still here as Counselors, I hope I don't have to come for seven more, but if I'm still alive, I will be coming I Am so upset after being one of the readers of that 68,000 pages of the u.s. Air Force emails of the deception the manipulation it's Hair-raising It it brings tears to my eyes because something that I once so had trust in my government I have no more trust in I Encourage you to take a look at those documents And that's why I will never stop with this cause I will never stop as a little girl. I grew up in Grand Isle and the nightmares have now come back I Participated in the duck and hover cover when we watched the cartoon and were taught to dive under a desk in case a tidal wave Would consume us from the Air Force? Bombing if the if the Air Force base in Plattsburgh was bombed we had a escape route East Shore people East of route 2 would take one road and the people on the West Shore Road would take the other to evacuate and I had nightmares as a child. I cried for weeks and I wouldn't tell my mother why and so finally I told I Asked her if she would buy me a life preserver if I could sleep with it The city of Burlington is gonna have an obligation the Cold War is returning whether those plank nukes are stored here or not is irrelevant they Know a nuclear posture review James Matt has stated the f-35a will will carry is part of the nuclear triad and It doesn't matter if the nukes are here or not a simple taking out of the base and all of the planes will solve the problem So I encourage you to start the next seven years. I will spend coming here. Make sure you have an emergency plan for the schools Thank You. Mr. Miss. Say Sony Lucy Gluck is up next Fault to be followed by Julie was Suga Good evening miss clock. Welcome. Hi. Good to see you Lucy Gluck from Blodgett Street, Old North End So the reason we're gonna keep showing up even if the f-35 isn't on the agendas because It's as we know it could be any day now before these jets start Flying over and and you know being in our neighborhood, so I was gonna. Thank you I do thank you for passing the anti-nuclear bomber resolution. I think joining South Burlington and Winnowsky Was a good thing to do But I think it's important to keep this issue on the front burner and make sure we're thinking What is gonna happen next and how are we all gonna be responding when these planes start flying over and now We have new information about the afterburners and good evidence that it's not just gonna be 5% of the time But could be 50% of the time that they have to use the afterburners on our short runway in Burlington Is is really frightening so we need to be thinking about that and you know on Blodgett Street We we heard the f-16s regularly, but it was nothing compared to what folks in you know The close range and Winnowsky and around the airport are gonna be having to deal with with the f-35 So I may be able to avoid it most of the time But there's quite a few people as you know who will will not be able to live with that and can't afford to move so You know what what are we gonna do about that and you know? I mean our wish obviously those of us who've been opposing this is for this plane All of these planes the 16 or however many that are coming would be canceled based on the inappropriate You know basing here and the fact that this plane could work much better somewhere else And we could have a more humanitarian and a much better Assignment for for our guard who we do respect so we need to keep thinking about it all of us and Unfortunately, I'm afraid we're gonna get to a crisis mode very quickly So let's keep it on the front burner, please Thank You miss Gluck Julie Masuga to be followed by Charlie messing. Good evening miss Masuga My name is Julie Masuga and usually I'm sitting here because the police or the f-35s are about to destroy someone's life But this time I'd like to talk you about talk to you about my actual work I run I run fossil fuel resistance campaigns for 350 Vermont and I study Vermont gas very closely I can confidently tell you that the city's net zero energies is supplemented by the biggest greenwashing scheme I have ever encountered Vermont gas is renewable natural gas program Vermont gas sources less than 5% of the total product They're distributing from so-called renewable sources and customers can opt to pay extra fees for up to 100% Renewably sourced gas yet Vermont gas admits they have to purchase carbon offsets to legitimize this claim Here's the important part 95% of their product is still fracked gas And that is extracted and imported imported from indigenous Territory in Alberta almost 2,000 miles away because while Vermont banned fracking It's still okay to import import the stuff while perpetuating the genocide of First Nations people RNG or renewable natural gas is a distraction which keeps customers reliant on fracked natural gas It is also clear based on Vermont gas's own manual for the program that there are no current plans to reach a hundred percent of Renewable product by by anytime soon in fiscal year 2022 The goal is to have only seven hundred and twenty of their 53,000 plus customers or 0.013 percent subscribed to this program according to their 2018 manual I cannot fathom away which this would suffice for transitioning all of Burlington That and our our renewable natural gas is coming from a landfill in Quebec. So we're importing trash at this point So while I am deeply appreciative of these goals and any efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption I am justifiably afraid that Vermont gas is going to pull the wool over the city's collective eyes Let's not forget that Vermont get Vermont gas's track record They are currently under investigation for nine categories of safety and construction violations and may be giving more of more control Indirectly to the fossil fuel giant on bridge. Thank you miss Misuga Charlie messing is up next To be followed by the final speaker James Mark Lees. Good evening, mr. Messing Welcome. Good evening Sound a little bit like Alfred Hitchcock there Yeah, well, I said what he said that's for sure Okay, I can't wait to see how Burlington housing authority changes all its Electric everything to gas because there's hundreds and hundreds of apartments and Everything is electric everything I heard Well, the f-35 we're gonna see I were here.  I firmly believe that Pine Street Reconnect I want to apologize for saying that the building has to go for it to work Tony Reddington who is the expert on Vermont highways and roadways and all of that He says that cars can fit through the archway no trucks, of course, there'll be a low ceiling but One lane either way could happen and then the bikes and stuff other stuff people Pedestrians would be 20 feet to the left So I wanted to apologize for saying that could never happen because in that sense it can happen now the Portland Lou I found out that keeping it clean twice a day It's gonna put another twenty seven thousand dollars a year into that San Antonio has a great story the homeless people in San Antonio Wrecked their Portland Lou because they were fighting over who would get to sleep there In some cities it's not working out all that well It's got a blue light in it so that people can't shoot up because they can't see their vein because it's blue light So many things and not enough time to speak about them I Can't wait for the leaf blowers to become electric They are noisy Okay, we'll leave everything for another time Make sure there's more trees. I heard about that plan more trees. We need more trees Thank you, Mr. Messing our final speaker tonight is James Mark Lee's good evening and welcome mr. Lee's so in the last week or so we've heard about The F-35 afterburner in the news and The problem is putting it On jet planes in a city Far away from the city three or four miles away from the city It wouldn't be an issue But putting it in a city makes it an issue now one of the great selling points of the F-35 Was that it wasn't going to be using its afterburner it was going to be quieter than the F-16 in the Chamberlain school neighborhood because of that and But it wasn't going to be that much quieter just a little bit Which actually was a good thing and a bad thing it was good because it was going to be a little quieter But it was bad because without its afterburner It was almost as loud as the F-16 with the afterburner Now the F-16 with afterburner is four or five times louder than under normal military power So we were really going to have a problem in Winooski And this is why the mayor the mayor keep saying it's Inconsistent the noise pattern is inconsistently perfectly consistent the F-35 is almost as loud as if the F-16 Kept its afterburner on when it flew over Winooski But of course they didn't pilots would turn it off while they're still over the runway Because it's its purpose is to give extra power and thrust for takeoff. So takeoff is safer So there's less danger of an accident. So that's why they use the afterburner, but if But now we're going to have both problems with the increase in afterburner use For the F-35 it's going to be far more noisy in the Chamberlain school neighborhood Then it ever was with the F-16 and it's also going to be Far noisier in Winooski even when they turned off because the F-35 is almost as loud as the F-16 with afterburner Thank You mr. Lees and with that we will close tonight's public forum and Go back to item number four on the agenda. That's the consent agenda councilor busher Yes, I'd like to move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated Seconded by councilor roof any discussion hearing none all those in favor of adopting the consent agenda and taking the actions indicated please say aye Any opposed that passes unanimously Item number five on on the deliberative agenda is 5.01 communication from mayor Weinberger regarding the appointment of Assistant city attorney mayor Weinberger Thank You president right I'd like to invite Tim Devlin our Nominee to be an assistant city attorney to join us I'm very excited about this appointment and hope the council will join me in that enthusiasm Tim comes to us. He is a native Vermonner studied And McGill and following that worked in a variety of roles that I think really show his commitment to municipal law and the kind of work he's going to be engaged in here and Also prepare him well to be Immediately a very valuable member of the team. He worked for the transportation research board of the National Academy of Sciences And also worked for a short time as a business manager for a small environmental consulting firm in Montpelier the Clark Group he earned a degree from Boston College Law School and I had a chance to meet with him last week after he went through an extensive vetting process from the city attorney's office and We can't wait for him to join the team and get started We really appreciate your interest Tim and wish you the best with this process and In your time here at Burlington. Would you like to add anything I mean? the city attorney's office with the assistance of the Director of Human Resources went through an extensive process of and interviews and were really impressed with with Tim and His presentation his references were outstanding and we're all very positive And and saying that we we've got a real find in Bringing Tim on board. Did you want to say anything? Mr. Devlin? I'd just like to thank you for the very flattering remarks. I'm certainly To be here and would like to reiterate My passion for municipal law and I for certainly find myself in a wonderful opportunity to Be here before you More general excited to return to my mr. Devlin. I'm sorry. Could you pull the microphone? I do apologize Forgive my nerves. I would just like to reiterate fine it's a fantastic opportunity and I'm certainly excited to return to my home state to practice law here, especially in Burlington a City I have greatly enjoyed living in before and a city where my wife and I wish to build a future I'm eager with the endorsement To jump into the engaging and purposeful work of the city's attorney's office, and I do hope You'll approve my nomination. I'm happy to answer any questions. You may have my candidacy. Thank you very much Look for a motion to confirm the appointment councillor Mason. Thank you president, right? I'll they can make a motion to confirm the appointment of Tim Devlin as the newest assistant city attorney Motion made by councillor Mason seconded by council roof any discussion Hearing none all those in favor of the appointment, please say aye. Hi, any opposed Congratulations and welcome aboard. Thank you very much item number 5.02 is a presentation from superintendent. Oh bang is the superintendent's presentation Ready if you're watching at home. Just talk amongst yourself for a couple minutes here. We'll be right back cancer busher You want to sing a little song for us? Good evening superintendent. Oh bang. Good evening. They just cue me up there and All right. Thank president right for getting me on the agenda and also council I am here to bring you good news. I'm not asking for anything. So what a wonderful opportunity What I want to share with you this evening And I know I don't have the time to go through the whole slide deck So I encourage people to go to the district website on the superintendent page And you'll see the year in review and you can see all the data and the content in detail But I did want to share with council some of the highlights and every year we do a review based on our global ends policy for the board in terms of initiatives and things that we've done throughout the course of the year and This year when I completed it, I started doing some reflection on While I entered my fifth year and started thinking about When I first arrived at the Burlington and some of the challenges and most of you know that Getting across the border was even a challenge in terms of these Complications and challenges, but we overcame that and at the same time we had experienced in the last the year About a year and a half two years about three leadership changes in the district. There was some financial Irregularities and there was a failed budget piece there There were racial tensions in our schools between staff and students and students on students We had crumbling buildings with 88 challenges Our suspension rates were significant meaning that students were not having full instructional times All in the backdrop of stall negotiations and we have eight bargaining units So some of this I knew coming in but when I arrived I found out a little bit more about some of the other challenges So I'm really excited to share this latest update So it reflects the perseverance of our staff and our students in terms of moving forward the Closing achievement gap and raising the bar. So I will share some of this highlights And as I said, I'll go through because I normally have 10 minutes But I encourage people to go to our website and look at the entire slide deck in In this in this full some entirety And if it's ready, yes, no I have I have it on the stick to if you want it easier Technical difficulties. Is it going to be a couple minutes? Should we take it? We're gonna we're gonna take a brief recess while the We figure this technical issue out. We'll be in recess for a couple minutes. Thank you Technical difficulties and I'll share the 2018-2019 year review Quickly one of the things I wanted to highlight is that we're still focused on our strategic plan goals There are three major areas Which I call the big rocks inclusive teaching and learning Equal climate culture and sustainable finance and facilities and we developed this plan about two years ago through some CUNY Consultations and one of the challenges that We tried to overcome was making sure we have alignment with the state agency of education And you can see at the top here. These are the Vermont Accountability requirements and they align very well with our goal areas So it made it very seamless for us to Develop approaches that we can do our reporting and also receive funding that fits into our strategic plan So the documents the the elements the highlights you'll see are under these categories So under the inclusive teaching and learning One of the things I wanted to highlight was around our expanded learning program bit very few people know a lot About our expanded learning when they hear that term They're not sure what it means but often people are familiar with the term after school to our after school programs Support students after the regular instructional time But also goes into the summer and we have all sites types of programs that are free for our students that also provides nutrition and provides curriculum Advancement as well too and we've received a number of accolades both statewide and national For our expanded learning programs. So if you get a chance, please go on the site and review some of the Wonderful programming that's been offered to our to our students And you'll notice up here that our satisfaction rate from our parents who engage In these programs and 99% so parents really see the value of these programs for our students and we service 1600 students from K to 12 that's larger than some districts in Vermont. This is this extra expanding learning program This is a continuation expanded learning Wanted to highlight one of the one of our unique programs, which is the parent university Which is started about four years ago and that was really targeted For parents in terms of getting parents engaged around learning around themselves and also what they can do in the schools and it's really become a niche program where we've really focused on newcomer parents and last year we graduated about 26 parents a year before we had about 50 and It's an it's an amazing program where you see newcomers coming to Burlington and at the end of the program They're really invigorated and they're engaged in the school system And they also understand some of the cultural nuances to help support their youth in the city Just some metrics you can look on in terms of our district success one of the the feedback We had years ago was around communication and we've revamped our webs a web page and looked at two different strategies in terms of communicating with our constituents and our students and The data is very favorable in terms of the responses back from from different people Student support services so when we talk about student support services, most people understand that as special ed That's part of our special ed programming student supports for services is a lot broader It looks it looks at counseling and other supports for students as well, too a number of great initiatives There I'm just I'll just highlight this one graphic here. This is the opening of the gag up gag a pit anywhere familiar with gag a ball So if you've seen that so it's kind of a craze right now among our elementary students in this particular school at Flynn they started from the beginning of process doing a fundraising and analyzing The effects of gag a ball and finding ways or strategies to build it and they even helped in the construction And then they opened it up on this particular day today And I had an opportunity to to engage with the students in a third grader got me out. So it was a little distressing early education success pre kindergarten is We know that when we start students at our early age We put dollars at their early stages that it has many benefits at the later stages both at the high school level and even at higher ed and we have a five-star programs in all our pre-k programs and We're in the process and part of our capital plan to look at how we can expand that and accommodate More students we every year. We have wait lists in Burlington of parents wanting to Put their children into our programs and we have to turn people away So we're working on strategies to improve that and they've been very beneficial so far in terms of Surfacing a large number of our students also come with special needs And those are challenging for main districts to accommodate But I'm really proud of our staff in terms of the way they've been able to develop programs to support these families Burlington technical center, this is one of the best kept secrets. I've been saying this for a while in Burlington and maybe the state where there is a Compendium of different types of programming and often, you know historically when people thought about tech they think about Low-academic students, but no the it stretches the range of different learning styles and high-end we have a really unique health Platform program where we've had students in the last few years go off to Medical schools and nursing and and all different range in the health department And so we're doing a real alignment with Burlington high school to try to create schedules to give more opportunities For for students to access technical centers We also service the region right so we have students from around the region attend And one of the pieces I didn't put up here is our aviation program Which is the only program in the state which is quite unique for us to to hold in Burlington as well Scholastic achievements There are a number of achievements that our students have achieved throughout the course of the year. I wanted to highlight a few Here every year we have students that step forward that reach at the highest level at the state level at the national level You can see Jackson elder there was a presidential scholar At the end of last year and represented Burlington well And one of the things I would say if you look back at some of the other slide decks every year We've had Presidential scholars and there was one year. There was seven in the country And three of them were from Burlington high school. I was like, how does that happen? Wow amazing, right? So you can take a look at this graphic here. I'll point you to The scholars bowl state champions This is a group of all female team That went to the the bowl and and captured the championship and a number of the students that we've highlighted here that are Really reaching the top of the bar one of the things I've been to the one the mantras We've been kind of sharing with is talking about closing the achievement gap and raising the bar And we mean by raising the bar raising the bar for all students And this is a great example of how we are still working on the most vulnerable students But our kids at the top and they're still achieving at the same time. We're pushing everybody up some other achievements here Of course English language learners are focused for us And we have a number of collaboratives Not just within our district but with Community organizations and neighboring districts We have the largest number And we partner with winooski as well too and we often are providing services that support The region and are able to lead in this direction. So I'm really proud of the staff And our multilingual liaisons who do a lot of this work and they become sort of cultural brokers for our families Not only is it just a language translation, but they kind of Inculcate them to the community and the culture and what they should do when they go to school and how they should communicate and Help them in many aspects even beyond school often We're introducing technology last year. We're able to develop an app that was specifically catered to Our newcomers and everyone seems to have a phone. So we're saying, okay That's a that's an entry point to access that particular group that we can engage them more in the types of things That are happening in our schools Celebrating success once again. So here's an opportunity where we're highlighting our staff accomplishments. We have a range of Staff who've soared to great heights both to the national level on the state level. We have like national Principles of the years. We have christa galise who was the after school ambassador Selected nationally. She's won a number of major grants for for berlington And so on and so forth you can go on and see that and if you look at our website, we've been Profiling different staff who've been doing a number of different Initiatives that've been recognized both within vermont and across the nation as well curriculum innovation Many of you may have engaged with some of our students from the city and lake semester program And so this program launched a year ago And this has been an engaging Innovative program where students are out of the classroom And I believe they did come to me I know they met with mayor's office and they were working on and that met with city council as well too And one of the things when they did their graduation last year I got a chance to go and hear the culminating activity when they talked about their major projects and I asked the students what was different about this than in the classroom and I have to tell you that the students who are engaged in this program range In terms of academic ability you have students who Were struggling students and students who were high achievers and they're all in this class And the one thing that came through that they all expressed was that the the type of engagement was different They really encouraged them to seek learning Regardless of what barriers they had and look for different niches that now many of them are looking at career paths And so we will be looking to how we can support and expand this this type of Initiative I'm currently involved in a program called deeper learning at the harvard institute and there are 12 districts internationally working and City and lake semester we brought that forward as for analysis and comparisons some of the innovative programs across the country and So we'll be looking at that a little bit deeper as well cooking cart the cooking cart was created by students and our food services and it's used Science as well as to service food for students I have you've heard me talk about achievement gap We had a big step last year where we we actually identified an achievement gap lead person And a data management person one of the things around looking at achievement is making sure that the data is valid and reliable And so we're we're going through a process of Considering what is the data we need to look at and how is that going to be Formative in changing our practice We've got a great team to do that and then we have achievement gap lead that's been working with the team To look at the high yield strategies We need to implement as a system to be consistent in improving our achievement across the the district picture of teachers in the classroom applying some of the data strategies Instructional coaches for introduced in the last couple years Building capacity of our teachers to become even better teachers And then continue monitoring working with the aoe brings pulls out some data called a snapshot and last year They had some difficulties In pulling together because you're in a process of redefining how they collect the data It's been challenging for us to be even waiting for the information so we can respond to it But we've said you know what we need to organize and have our own data We can use not just in a year-to-year basis because you can't wait for a year to see how well you're doing and then go Oh go back I'm a proponent of using a cycle process where in classrooms you go six weeks And you can see if there's progress if there's added value and they can change practice if you have to And that way you can communicate with parents on a regular basis too to make the change You don't wait a year later and say well Johnny wasn't doing so well based on that particular assessment or test, right? So that's where we're moving to and not being solely dependent on the snapshot that we receive from the state Sustainable finance and facilities We want to thank burlinton for supporting the the campaign around the high school And looking forward to that to support the future generations in burlinton and We'll be able to see better learning spaces provided for our students So we want to thank burlinton once again for doing that and that feeds right into our capital plan There are a number of projects happen many of you have driven down main street over the summer And you've seen edmonds construction site there We're trying to clean that up. Hopefully, but there's lots of work happening So in all our schools have projects that are being developed I in my opening I talked about coming into the district with crumbling schools with 88 challenges And so with the support of the community of supported the the bonds around that now We're actually implementing and making those changes to see Very learning spaces that are conducive This is a graphic of the edmonds site You can see these spaces this place used to used to be called the dungeon And now look at it Right beautiful spaces we can use that for a cafeteria also for workshops and learning spaces for students And we're proud to say that the community has supported education in burlinton over the over the last Five years. They've supported our budgets and overwhelming supported and Be able to put that directly into Programming and when we received surplus we've been able to redirect that back into Savings for taxpayers and also programs for students burlinton schools food project our food Services is one of the best in nation our Director is the elect for the nation in terms of food services association and We've won numerous awards for our food programs and one of the unique things about our food Programs is that we serve as we we serve three meals a day for students breakfast lunch and dinner And on those snow days we even offer lunch And you think that students wouldn't come but there are students who If they don't go to school that day, they don't eat and when we provide those bag lunches They come and they get them and this is done at Our doug davis our director of food services actually runs this program At a profit he's able to generate dollars because we also service out into the community and bring money back to the district so In the last rock We talked about the equitable climate and culture and the big focus We've had around that is restorative practices And we see ourselves as a restorative practice district and we've been working at the system level in both in classrooms Looking at the strategies around restorative practices and In the summer we had a huge in service with all our staff. You can see the entire system together learning about how to utilize restorative practices in their departments in their classrooms And in other other spaces in the district as well Some initiatives that happen throughout the year reading to end racism We would encourage any of you to volunteer In around february many schools invite readers to come and read Inclusive books to our students and we had a number of People do that last year and then for the second year we had the beyond the black history month event Which we had a great turnout You can see from the community in terms of supporting this and I purposely placed this in march Because we wanted to make the statement that black history is just not in february That you know inclusive curriculum is should be starting throughout the whole career And I hope at some day that we're not talking about black history because it's integrated into history But obviously we're not there yet. So we're taking steps to To engender that practice Great story that was done about the gender neutral locker room at bhs That was part of the capital plan work And so we're proud of Stand up for social justice in burlington. I don't know what happened to the graphics for teacher appreciation, but And I'll end there did that that's a six hour presentation. I just did in 10 minutes very good very impressive Thank you superintendent obeying. Okay, we'll open it up to the city council now City council councillor pein And then busher thank you, mr. President I appreciate the update. There's a there's a lot there to we could go on many of those tangents or topics, but the one that You didn't mention but that's on my mind is we had a community I would say dialogue is probably an overly polite way to phrase it around the issue of preschool And the fact that closing the achievement gap really requires getting kids Attention much earlier than when they're five So we didn't go forward with that. I'd like to know what is the status of that Um, what are your thoughts about moving ahead in that direction? Have we shifted a little bit in the in the approach we're taking since that did not since those plans are abandoned Yeah, thank you for that question. Um, I certainly support investments in pre-learning and early add and so that's why we developed the plan to move forward The board at the time felt that they need to do some more work on the plan itself And they went through a number of community engagement opportunities And right now it's in the finance and facilities committee to make a determination. We have a number of plans So they just need to decide which one we want to go forward So I'm hoping that the committee will do its work and bring it back and say here we go Because we have the dollars we've gone through the dollars we have the plans We just need to go ahead To start that work and then we can provide more services for our students and be set up for the future My other question is actually at the other end of the spectrum is when you were Introducing the notion of closing the achievement gap at high school level There were parents who said what about our high achieving students were worried about them And when I look at where our students are going to college That's not the best way to measure it, but it looks like we're doing extremely well for the high achievers So I just want to hear your take on By closing the achievement gap. Do we leave high achievers out of the mix or they still You think well served by our absolutely not I mean, that's why we talk about closing the achievement gap and raising the bar and if you look at our That are the kids the cohort that's at the top. They've been consistently doing well It's the group at the bottom that hasn't but one of the things that I know from my own experience and even from the research Harvard is when we implore High-yield strategies into the curriculum and not only benefits the target group, but it also benefits all So I'll give you some real-life examples for instance the step on the On the on the sidewalks, you know, you walk on a sidewalk and you get to the end and it slopes down The slope that initially was designed for wheelchair accessibility But if you walk around who uses it You got parents with carts you got bikers you got people who are not fully and it benefits everyone So those are the kind of strategies we're looking at in the classroom to say that we want to engage students so they can develop to a higher level and Those kids at the top based on the data we have and you can see from the slides that we're performing Um at a very high level with the with with those students It's the other kids that we haven't really come up with different strategies to help them Join the growth that we're getting at the top end Thank you councillor pine councillor busher then councillor tracy and anybody else want to get in the queue So I have a quick question and then I wanted to make a comment, but um Where is horizon and on top located now? We have horizons at st. Mark's Okay, and on top is at the it's on the high school campus is where it's on the high school campus. Okay, it's a btc will Which one is that st. Mark's Horizon will that come back to well, we that's our plan We hope to bring them all in one space once the we finish the high school project Okay, okay, that's just important because I know they were scattered and I really worried about those students and How they felt connected or isolated? From the student body. So anyways, and I know they have issues anyways. I mean, they're different No, I don't think it was a matter of it. I think the decisions were just logistical But I do think for a cultural perspective. We do want to bring the program together So the staff can be together with those students And also on on economic level, we wouldn't be paying a lease for another site We're going to have it on our own site So they won't have more dollars to use for the program rather than just paying for another room So the economics are a fact but the um So I think what I see is, you know, your gap analysis achievement gap analysis and My concern is um having being a parent And seeing sometimes people who needs um attention because of Maybe dyslexia, which is not really what you call it anymore, but whatever it is And and not getting that intervention at the right time Um certainly delays their ability to achieve To meet their potential, but it also destroys their self-esteem And if you destroy someone's self-esteem, it's really hard to ever recover that You know lessons learned. So I'm just wanting to understand um Where how you address that so that the timing of reaching out and understanding the need To coach or whatever is given at a time Before self-esteem is destroyed or a child is isolated from their peers Yeah, well, that's a number of things that we're trying to do to wrap around our kids And one of the first things we did last year would start a survey To identify what the needs are and one of the most singular things that came forward was around social emotional needs Our kids were saying they're social emotionally fragile So we've had to look at how we resource counselors and social workers And pairs within the system to identify to wrap those those students and then looking right now We're looking at how do we restructure our special ed programming so we can really address those students At as early as possible Right to support them But I mean the entry points have to be at different levels We're not going to catch everyone always at the earliest level But we're hoping that we we can have a good wraparound approach that we're able to get as many as possible and build that up And just one last thing I'd be really interested at a at a later time if you could Inform or educate or direct me as to whether or not That coaching et cetera happens Removing the child from the classroom or after or before Because once again when a child is made to feel different That has an impact also. So i'm just trying to figure out how this is all accomplished Yeah, I mean that's you know, that's not a new dilemma I mean the the dilemma of conversation around With drawn students or in and the stigma of okay. I'm going to a special. That's that's a continuous debate. I'd love to Talk about that in terms of what we're doing at some point and get a little deeper into it Thank you, councillor busher councillor tracy then shannon and then freeman Thank you for the presentation We had had in the not too distant past a pretty painful contract impasse that resulted in a strike Which I think teachers took as sort of a last resort something that they didn't want to do But felt like they really that was their last resort essentially And I really hope that we are able to restore a better working relationship between the administration and the burlington education association That doesn't put us in in that kind of a position again So I'm wondering what steps have have you in the district taken to improve and build trust with the union And to create a more collaborative working relationship such that we're able to really have Avoid any sort of future contract impasses. Yeah, um, great. Yeah, we immediately started. I think after the last contract in Working on strategies to Build some collaboration before the next contract right because once you get into negotiations becomes different I know the uh, the unions changed their leadership So we've got some different players So we had to get to know new people and I've spent the summer and the previous months doing Regular meetings just one one on one just talking about what are some of the Issues we have in our district that we can work on together and there really was um, I really did see the new union president really stepped forward say, yeah, let's do some things together And we've been able to find success small wins and trying to build that we've even solved some Um, some contractual things on the side Prior to and so and they're very much interested in having a smooth Um next negotiation So I'm hopeful at this point and and I think the last contract which we just did a few months ago actually Was the quickest we've had in years It was we only negotiated for three about three three and a half months four months And we got a contract so I'm hoping that sets the stage for continued collaboration As we get into the next round and be able to um resolve that Thank you councillor tracy councillor shannon and then councillor freeman Thank you I think that uh councillor pines question about um About the high flyers and bridging the achievement gap while still Providing opportunities for the high achievers and what you have noted is um Is very important to the health of our schools And my own family's experience was that in elementary school those opportunities really were there for everybody um Starting in uh in middle school You had to figure out the path For high achievers and nobody really helped you with that and that was before your your time Um you came in kind of at the end of that at least you know relative to to our experience But in high school it has been Extremely difficult Um To navigate that path and I have heard um From kids at the lower end of the economic spectrum Who I really feel have been hurt by not having An advocate within their family to help them navigate the system and they could have been far more successful Had they had that the way some other middle class or maybe upper middle class students had um And I wonder if there is a way it's hard to track I would think opportunities lost Like you don't know, you know people i'm talking to you don't necessarily know what they could have achieved because it's a very kind of personal account um And but I do know that for example when When there are constant cuts to ap classes and then ap classes Only have one section and they're at the same time You can't get all of the ap classes that you want to get so then you could go to uvm But with your blue days white days that actually doesn't work and so it becomes extremely difficult to um get Get what kids need when they get to a certain level and I hope that um as you're collecting data that you will Um and and you can tell me if you have this But you will try to track like who in elementary school seems to be doing really well and um Compare those socioeconomic levels and achievements in elementary school And are they able to continue that through high school or are there some barriers? But I also know some cases where kids actually aren't really achieving that that much in elementary school And um They blossom later in life. It is hard to track it. So I don't know How you can measure that or but I want to at least put it on Your um radar that I hope we will make an effort to measure that. Thanks. Yeah. Um, thank you for that Longitude no data is critical in terms of being able to uh Um track the students and that's why we have a new data systems coordinator to try to look at that and I was used to a system previously coming here where each student had a Tag and you could track a student's achievement. Even if they moved out of Your jurisdiction and so you could say you could put some metrics to it and say okay This kid was here for three years and this is how he ended up or this kid for four years And you can also look at the added value And that's what I was talked about in terms of not waiting for the annual Um state data because if they're reporting on grade four, it's a different cohort as well too But if we were able to set up systems for our own we can monitor um Little yow and be able to say okay He started in grade two and he got this far and he's here and keep tracking him right through And see if there's added value within the year and then even beyond the year beyond the big standardized testing pieces But our own metrics in terms of seeing if there's added value because you can have a student that starts You know, maybe at five percent on some assessment and then he takes the assessment and you say Oh, he's still under achieving because he's at 40 percent But you can say wow he went 35 percent in seven months. That's huge. There's something there What did what made it made that difference and we need to capture that and be able to monitor that But so that is something we're looking at and I'm hoping that our staff are able to Coordinate with the the types of software as we have now and um to be able to do some good tracking some good reporting on that Thank you, councillor shannon Councillor freeman and then we'll finish with councillor polino. Thank you. Thank you for this presentation. It was lovely Just yeah, tons of information and I was curious, you know noticing that there's such a concerted effort towards integration and inclusion through a lot of initiatives around You know just a number of things listed in this um presentation I You know, I don't I don't think I know enough about this and that's why I'm curious and you know, whatever you You know information you could share and it would be You know helpful I something that I've been really curious about is what the schools are doing around consent education and sort of sexual assault of prevention and um how that could be integrated into the curriculum. So Yeah, I was just curious what Yeah, there's a look actually there's a number of programs there and we partner with um So many community agencies and we have um, they're called sap's i'm trying to struggle what that stands for Um, and they particularly work at the high schools and they do the counseling work and they do they go into classrooms They do training around sexual education Violence and we also have an equity Director who does a billion harassment. So there's a lot of training that happens around one of the things I don't think we do well enough yet Is to engage our students to be the leaders around some of this work Um where they could be talking with their peers. I think they have a better authentic effect Then the usual adults saying let's have a conversation about this. So that's a step that we need to Take for sure And what do you know at what age that sort of education is coming In and is being integrated. I mean, I know for myself, you know, my Health classes were pretty Limited and it wasn't actually till I was a college student that I was Really presented with a more robust curriculum around these issues. So I'm curious Well, we start before college for sure. Yeah Middle school. That's when you get into some of the sensitive issues around The range of topics and I'll say in Burlington our students are pretty engaged and um They're pretty informed around um some of these issues. So they're they're ready for the uh the task and One of the reasons why we're a restorative practices District is really setting the classroom climate safe space to have those critical conversations You can't get to those and sometimes teachers aren't comfortable even getting there. So we need to Lay that groundwork and be able to get into that deeper work. So Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you. Councilor Freeman and councilor polina will have the final question Thank you for coming and uh giving us your presentation I just wanted to make a comment that came up as you were speaking and I I'm speaking on behalf of a lot of my constituents Which is that You know, I think you cite that the budget was approved for the fifth straight year, which is fantastic But a certain large portion of my constituency Relayed to me repeatedly that they didn't understand Why uh the school board budget is Always asking for an increase and I think we do a good job of educating the people who have kids in the schools But i'm talking about seniors. Um, and their pie is not getting bigger And so I think uh, I just wanted to relay that message and if we could come up with a You know, uh, what I was thinking some kind of literature for Because I was around when the last budget and we're coming up on a new march town meeting day. So Hopefully next town meeting. I would like to see like A flyer for those for that group To be more well informed as to, you know, how expensive it is to hire para educator For the elementary schools because when you look at the number seems astronomical But then when you look at the breakdown, it actually isn't that much staff At least that was what I took away from when I saw the you know the data. So Yeah Thank you. I'm budgets always complicated and you know what I get those questions from the seniors in the community as well too They come up to me and um want to explain to me, you know about that. So We are sensitive to that and actually we're aware of like there are segments that maybe aren't in tune to the process and we have to find ways to uh Reach out better communicate and help them understand so they can feel good about their investments Right. So it's continuous work. So feedback like that is helpful in terms of maybe we'll tap into you because you've got a connection Absolutely. I would love to help in any way can and my second my second issue was Vaping and I just keep hearing a lot about it. I'm sure you're on top of it Um, but I keep reading more and more articles about harmful effects and how popular it is in the high school And how they're discovering like new effects. So I just want to Convey that as well as a concern of of people multiple students that I've heard in high school and the bathrooms and stuff Yeah, and it's a new topic um There's little data yet in terms of that matter of fact, we were just revising a policy on tobacco and And drug use and vaping wasn't in the in the policy when it was ripping That needs to be in there because that's our new reality. So we've been having conversations around. Okay What does that look like and how do we talk with the state around? Making sure that um, they're giving us the kind of supports to put into the new mandated policies around that Yeah, and luckily the law changed so hopefully that helps too Thank you. Councillor Polino and thank you superintendent obang for that presentation I appreciate it very much. Thank you. We hear more from you Item number 5.03 is a resolution dealing with the shelter in street roundabout project councillor paul Thank you president right. I'd like to move the resolution Wave the reading and ask for the floor back after a second Seconded by councillor hanson councillor paul. Thank you very much. Uh, so what we have before us is a resolution authorizing Initiating a right-of-way acquisition process for the shelter in street roundabout project as the next step in the project's Progress It's important to note that this project is not a burlington project It is a project being done by the vermont agency of transportation because it's on root seven, which is A state a state highway or a state roadway. I should say um After over a year of working with the budding property owners to arrive at right-of-way agreements This is the next step. Um, there are some properties that remain Despite efforts to arrive at an agreement and by approving this resolution and there's only one resolved clause By approving this resolution the city council is authorizing The city to initiate proceedings for laying out the design project And to set a time and a place for the city For the council site visit And hearing to determine Necessity and monetary damages if any to the affected landowners And what they may or may not be entitled to if any if anything There are several people That are here actually a lot of people that are here just for this just for this agenda item We have four people from dpw laura wheelock alivia alivia durese norm baldwin and shape and spencer We have uh, justin rose who is here from dunkeel sanders our our council on this project Lenny gluck with the state is also here Any of these people can answer any specific questions that counselors might have I hope that the council will approve this resolution so that we can move forward on this project that has been Uh, uh over a decade in the making. Thank you. Thank you very much councillor paul Um, why don't you actually come on up whoever is coming up? The presentation yes Brief presentation and then if there's questions from the council Good evening. Uh, my name is michael lucari. I'm a project manager for the vermont agency of transportation. Sorry. I forgot That's okay. I don't mind getting left off Um, so I am the project manager for um, the states, uh, brillington roundabout project which you see here. Um, And we'll talk about the the plan in just a moment. Uh, my role as project manager is Uh, essentially to see the project from the design phase all the way through into construction Uh, tonight i'm here to just give the city council a status update on where we're at with the design and The overall timeline for the project if you could pull the microphone out a little bit closer, please. Thank you So i'll be brief i'll Keep it to just a few minutes and then we can open up their questions and answers As councillor paul indicated, there's plenty of us here that can answer questions tonight So the plan that you see on the screen is essentially a preliminary plan of The single lane roundabout that we're proposing for The intersection at shelburn street lead road south willard street And locustry To orient you Left to right Would be shelburn street heading down towards 18 interstate 189 To the right Would be uh shelburn street on the way to st paul and south union street Bottom right south willard street ledge road at the far bottom and then locustry going down the hill. Thank you Down the hill locustry past christa king, uh, which is on the corner property here on the top right This intersection has had its share of issues for at least a couple decades I can tell you by personal experience when I was a Intern at dpw in 1998. This was on their radar And they threw me out in the middle traffic to put up traffic cones to see how people would react to driving in a circle Needless to say I wasn't out there very long This project then got the attention of the intersection I should say the intersections issues got the attention of the regional planning commission in the early 2000s And started to do a semi scoping effort To really sit down and figure out what the issues were and what are possible solutions to fix it So i'll just highlight a few of the issues that The intersection experience is today And we'll start with high vehicle volumes The intersection sees 19 000 cars a day Which is fairly significant throughout vermont probably Less so in burlington, but it's still a fair amount of traffic It's a high crash location. It's been a high crash location for at least 15 years The last two high crash location reports Five years starting in 2006 there were 53 reported collisions, which is a significant amount Five years later. There was 50 reported crashes in five years Which tells us indicates to us that there's no there's no improvement by just leaving it at leaving the intersection as is As you're probably well aware of the intersection being residents of the city You know, there's a lot of pavement out there The the existing quote unquote rotary that is out there Which is essentially just a raised curb island is too small and it's got an awkward shape It restricts certain turning movements, particularly left turns can be an issue there And site distance and site lines for those turning movements are also inadequate There's a high number of left turns which exasperates that issue There's uncontrolled accesses Drive accesses for two properties right now One for the majestic car rental facility here where they pretty much have an open Shot to the intersection today and then also at the century 21 Property on this corner here where they have an open An uncontrolled access is there as well There's school two churches nearby. So it's a very busy intersection for all users of the intersection Pedestrians bicyclists and one dot It's aesthetically unappealing to be honest with you. It's like I said a lot of pavement. There's a lack of landscaping In 1940s, it was nice tree lined intersection and over time development has Turned it into a modern urban intersection Underneath the pavement what you don't see is About 37,000 linear feet of buried utilities most of which is Aged and some of it is failing 37,000 linear feet is seven miles. That is an absurd amount of buried utilities And it's just a spaghetti bowl of mess under there And there's a lack of modern stormwater treatment Also at the intersection. So that is something that we would like to try to fix with this project um The solution Is what you see on the screen. It's a central or uh, sorry a single lane roundabout For those to give you guys a little perspective a single lane roundabout of the size that we're proposing here could be found in waterberry Manchester Maupillier east maupillier berry. So our modern roundabouts are fairly identical in size. This would be similar With modern roundabout we would anticipate or we would be hopeful for a 72 percent reduction in crashes, which is significant Compared to say a traffic signal if we were to install one there Left turns are obviously going to be a lot easier with a single lane roundabout The drives that I spoke of that are currently uncontrolled would would be controlled by either relocation Or allowed through a one-way movement The central island will allow which is a screen space in the middle would allow for some shrubbery some aesthetic treatment So that would assist on that front and then the Significant chunk of this project will be relocating And rebuilding the buried utility infrastructure underneath the intersection. So All the utility companies have been brought on board and we've worked with them For several years and we've got everybody on the same page and everybody's looking forward to Getting the utility situation strained out under the road For storm water, we're going to have some buried utility buried sand filters and detention vaults We work closely with the city dpw and water department to come up with a design that both met state and city regulations on storm water A couple of challenges regarding the construction of the project One it'll probably be two plus construction seasons Which is a lot of work And it will be disruptive I won't I won't say otherwise There's ledge that's shallow in a lot of places. So there will be significant ledge removal In a lot of places There is a sensitive Archaeological site on the Christa king corner Right about in this green area here It's relatively small, but uvm would like to excavate in there During our construction phase and try to extract some artifacts out of there. So that's a challenge And then Those are the those are the big points for the challenges on the project Budget we're looking at seven million dollar project 100 federally funded The city would incur some Cost but they would be reimbursed Um At the conclusion of the project Just to kind of give you an idea of what we spent so far We've spent about 888 thousand dollars on engineering So we're about 93 the way through there. We've spent about 154 thousand dollars on rights away And then um the city any sort of cost that the dpw has incurred like I said would be reimbursed and also a Sewer relining project that dpw would Commence before the actual roundabout construction Commences is also a hundred percent reimbursable So we are currently at the right-of-way phase as councilor paul had indicated We had initially Had I think Four or five Properties that we were going to look to seek condemnation against That number is now down to two And one of those properties we feel is we'll have a signature imminent So it's my hope that we would just have just the one property to condemn against that property is the majestic car rental place And at the site visit for at the necessity hearing you'd be able to see what those impacts are in person Um to finish out my presentation just the what remains in the schedule Um if we can have um all the rights away acquired before march of 2020 Um, we could potentially be able to break ground at spring of 2021 And uh, that's that's the track that we're currently on and we're very optimistic about that Um, and that is the bulk of my presentation. All right. Thank you open it up to the council now And we have a queue already started with councillor tracy Thank you very much for all your work on this. Um, I'm just wondering if you can clarify the Just explain we had gone over this at the transportation committee and gotten a great explanation as to how the bike facilities will work within this And I'm just wondering if you can again share that information Sure full council as to how we'll be able to to improve the bike Facilities in this site through this project. Sure Um, so currently there are sidewalks out there. Um, but they're not there's no crosswalks There's only a couple crosswalks right now. There's no dedicated bicycle facilities out there today Or if there are they're not really well defined So what this project is going to construct is a dedicated shared use path So that'll be eight foot wide paved bike path Just similar to what's down on the waterfront And that will take a bicyclist Through the intersection if they were uncomfortable with taking a spot in the lane and riding with motorized motor vehicles To get from the street to that bike path and then back down onto the street on the far side of the intersection There are bike ramps that Where there's a break in the curb and a bicyclist will be able to just leave the bike lane on the from the shoulder or shoulder On this on the street and take that bike ride the bike ramp up onto the shared use path And there will be one of those for each of the approaches To the intersection in each direction Okay, thank you Sure Thank you councilor tracy. I've got several counselors in the queue So let's I'll stick to informational questions councillor Paul is that next to be followed by councillor roof mason polino pine busher councillor paul Okay, thank you president right So, uh, I I do have I do have two questions, but the other thing I did want to mention is that Mike it's been probably about three years since you you were here for a dpw meeting. I'm sure you remember it Which is why I I did not see you in the crowd because I haven't seen you in three years, but I did want the council and Those people that are watching to know that we did have a meeting three years ago That was when you showed us that wonderful spaghetti map of all the things that are going under It's amazing. What's under underneath the roundabout or the rotary I should say and And explained what was going to have to happen in order to affect this change. It's very complicated But there were a lot of residents that were there It was a an active meeting I guess I would say And I had asked you at that meeting if you would keep in touch with us quarterly And I could have set my watch by you you have You have communicated with Particularly those counselors that are directly impacted by this as well as staff The city staff like clockwork and I am Personally, I am grateful you've made it possible for us to be able to convey to our constituents What's going on with this project and and it has kept on a fairly active Trajectory So thank you very very much in my apologies for not noticing that you were here um The question that I had was that There are you know, even going way back to the start of the project back in like 2009 2010 when it first really Became a project. There were a lot of concerns about what was going to happen to cars queuing And I you know, I believe you have done account. I don't know if you've changed that information as time has gone by But I know for the people who live on the streets that are directly Near That the roundabout like adams court hoover street Those streets are concerned that they are going to not be able to get out of their Street because there's going to be so many cars queuing up And wondered if you could just speak to that and again. Thank you so much for being here. Sure Yeah, um, I can actually I can certainly speak to that for sure The the approach in question is the northbound approach on shelvin street What'll happen is there's two northbound lanes now and they're going to be emerging into one About three four hundred feet south of the single lane roundabout and So there is the potential that in the worst peak hours that There would be some queuing Initially when we did the analysis We were anticipating traffic volumes of about 20 21 000 vehicles a day and that that long queuing Which we call 95th percentile queuing. So which which means that five percent of the time Queuing cars would reach this particular distance and we measured that out to be about 333 240 feet somewhere in that and it came in right to a right about where the adams court intersection with shelvin street is What we found or what we are finding strangely Enough is that the traffic volumes are Kind of on a downward trajectory over the last several years and we're not really sure why Just maybe the change in in commuting patterns or whatnot Um, so because our estimates on vehicles per day Has dropped a little bit. We would expect that queuing distance to be even shorter That would be the worst case. We're talking five percent of the peak hour So we're only talking three to five minutes in the worst hour of the day So, um, I think in most in most cases, uh, you're not going to see a much queuing at all And if you do it probably wouldn't get much past golf court So, yes, it will it can at times get to adams court But we feel pretty strongly that the folks in adams court will will have easy ingress and egress Thank you very much. Thank you councillor paul before I go to the next councillor I just want to i'm not looking for necessarily any comment or reaction to this But I just got a text that sort of underscores just what I thought when I heard this which was Someone watching on channel 17 said it boggles the mind that a roundabout can cost seven million dollars councillor roof Thank you president right. Thank you for being here. My question is also about volume You mentioned a few other rotaries elsewhere in the state Certainly waterbury is a comparable maybe less so but also Eastbury road down 302 single single lane roundabout And if you don't have these numbers now, uh, please do do share What what sort of traffic are those single? Single lane roundabouts facing on a daily average just because I think kind of conceptually might be easier to think about kind of Experiencing other roundabouts that might be similar to this. Are they more or less? um, so the Shelvern Street roundabout will probably see the most volume Daily volume for a single lane roundabout in vermont At 19,000 cars a day That that is far more than um, you know, manchester or or Eastbury. I think they're coming in about nine to 11,000 a day Waterbury would be the next closest. I think they're at 16,000 cars a day um They're very little Cueing and capacity issues at that roundabout Um, I do want to add that this is a safety project. Um, I guess I wasn't necessarily clear about that the the Waterbury roundabout was also a safety project and our initial Analysis of crashes at the round waterbury roundabout have decreased by 100 percent Which is a kind of an abnormality an abnormality for roundabouts, but it does give you, um That's testament to what they they're capable of I'm not guaranteed that we'll get a hundred percent crash reduction here, but We're pretty optimistic that we would see a dramatic drop 19,000 cars a day at a roundabout is actually not at a single lane roundabout is actually Not even the highest at the threshold There are a lot of states that put in single lane roundabouts where there are Artereal approaches at 25,000 cars a day So we're very confident that the single lane roundabout will have enough capacity Um, if in the Unlikely event or in 40 years, you know, the intersection sees more than 25,000 cars a day There is some space in here where There could be an extra a second lane Could be added to turn it into a hybrid hybrid roundabout which would add to the capacity Thank you. Thank you councillor roof councillor mason. Thank you president right As someone who lives in the south end and travels this on a daily basis, you know, just last week alone there were two accidents And I witnessed a car almost another accident making sort of a left-hand turn out of locust avoiding The roundabout completely so This is necessary My question Maybe for dpw. I took a little pause on the scheduled timing I know we've had much conversation about, you know, not doing simultaneous construction of the roundabout and the shalburn parkway And I heard spring of 2021. So I'm curious how those don't hit each other And I say that sort of with a little bit of PTSD for what's going on now. I'm just concerned about both You know accesses to the center of burlington being under construction at the same time Right. So Both of the projects have their own traffic management plan that's been prepared and they both do require each other in Generally a free-flowing two-way capacity to be able to be constructed Um, I feel like the roundabout has always been sensitive to the shampion parkway's schedule and trying to be responsive to it Um, we have only talked, you know Internally about how that might play out if for some reason the pine street corridor on the parkway project Is still very active and won't provide the volumes that are necessary to construct the roundabout The plan as it related to the traffic management for the roundabout was to do it during daytime construction To reduce it down to being, you know, one lane each way certain times a day it could even go to flag or control Detours and so on and so forth. It's extensive and we recognize that and we also recognize the priority of constructing the parkway And the benefit that it could have to the roundabouts construction if it was in a free-flowing mode Um, I know it doesn't directly answer your question, but I think that there's a few cards that are still in the air to kind of So I guess will that will there be I appreciate that and I'm not trying to hold you But will there be a further opportunity for comment because I know I have my own view on scheduling So I'm and I'm sure there are many others that that would like to weigh in as well So I guess what I'm asking is will there be I appreciate we're moving forward with a necessity and that's a required part But will there be a further opportunity to engage in a dialogue with dpw about how do we sequence these without Them being at the same time. I think that there's still an opportunity Both projects kind of have, you know a hurdle to still overcome before they're released for construction and that once those Milestones, you know are completed and a free or schedule becomes available You know that we can look at what the mitigation challenge is. Okay Thank you. Thank you. Councilor mason. Councilor polino then pine and then councilor busher will have the last question So, uh, my question was about Can you talk a little bit more about the hybrid roundabout because as I understand it according to your memo What seemed to disqualify that option was a point one 01 score that would disqualify it from federal funding and i'm struggling with the numbers for In terms of like public good, you know, there's this language and the necessity Um proceeding that it's the best option for public good And I get it that we have to qualify for the free funding. It's seven million that we're not paying for So I think that it's worth a hard look. It sounds like you've been looking at it for 10 years It's hard for me to say that you didn't Thoroughly consider everything, but can you talk about I do have concerns that this could be a potential headache Going forward because of the amount of cars that go into it. So I don't feel that waterbury Uh, is a tight Roundabout so can you also talk about It's comparison like are the lanes going to be as wide as the field of vision into the roundabout going to be as clear as in waterbury Uh, yeah in comparison to the waterbury roundabout, um, almost everything is going to be identical size Site lines and distances will be pretty identical. Obviously, uh, you're coming down south willard street So there's a there's a grade there Um, that that's going to get flattened out a little bit. Um Lanes the number of lanes will be identical. I believe waterbury is a Partially hybrid roundabout. I believe there is a turn lane coming off of main street. This won't have that but Generally speaking Size-wise they're going to be very identical Um Really what we're trying to achieve here is just to get the cars to slow down Waterbury does that very well. I mean you come down from the interstate. There's no avoiding it and we're aiming to do the same thing here Um, so in that regards, there's not really a lot of different. There's not going to be a lot of differences between This and waterbury In regards to, um, your concern about 19,000 cars a day and just being able to handle that Like I said, this would be the first in vermont at that level, but um, there are Case study after case study across the country, um outside of Well inside and outside the new england where modern roundabouts of this size Handle way more than 19,000 cars a day extremely efficiently So while I don't have a case in vermont that I can point to to say hey, this works There's plenty of examples outside of vermont that do Outside councillor pleno Yes, thank you councillor pine and then a final question from councillor busher Sure the um, I happen to be at the toke Meeting when uh, this was being presented and I can't recall who asked this question But it struck me that I had the same question and I'll ask it again And I know I think one of my colleagues asked a very similar question The they were the narrowing down to two lanes before Reaching the roundabout when you're northbound I have trouble believing that's going to work I actually can see a real problem there with queuing cars having to queue up And the problem with the driveways getting blocked, but also just being A major bottleneck issue. I can you help me understand your traffic modeling and how you've worked through that? Um, it's kind of hard to explain without having a model in front of me, but um, essentially we We ran this scenario through three different three different software model model softwares And with um, With stochadic, uh traffic volumes on each approach Based on real real world traffic counts. These weren't interpolated or Projected or anything. These were real counts And each of those different models have different sets of behavioral criteria that they use And merging is one of the Factors that these these softwares apply this behavioral modeling to and Yeah, I mean there's it doesn't take into account Uh someone who is just an aggressive driver, you know, I mean there's not really any model that can predict that kind of behavior But um, so there is some level of assumption where people do behave somewhat Unrealistically sort of speaking when they're you know merging. It's not a perfect zipper merged by any stretch of imagination Um people you know the model does show people adjusting their speeds appropriately when they when they when they see there's Adequate warning for the merge approaching There will be a level of of um education Um getting the word out ahead of time on this project, uh, which will be starting probably next calendar year Letting people know that this is coming the merge is part of this um Advanced signing. Um, so there are strategies and techniques that we can try to um prepare the public for The changing traffic patterns You know, I I I don't know what else I could say to alleviate your concern. I mean we The the modeling has um, you know Has really proved itself. I I think I think it's going to It will perform well And um and and really it's just I think it's going to come down to education and and And outreach and just letting people know it's coming My other question is maybe a little nerdy But I need to know does the model look at the fact that a place like burlington If there's about 19,000 a day a good chunk of those are coming through that intersection for the first time ever I mean we probably have for a small city It's a way that a lot of people enter if you're coming from new york You're coming that way if you're coming from lots of places. That's the way you're coming into burlington Yeah, no model will be able to replicate something like that. I don't know how a model could do that Um, but you do touch on the fact that this is a this is a gateway for the city and we do You know, it is going to be one of the first transportation Infrastructure piece of infrastructure people from out of town heard are going to see when they come in from the south so You know getting the word out and and just trying to Make this as smooth as possible for people using it We've we've had really great success on our other roundabouts in vermont in terms of people adjusting To the roundabouts there are always going to be those people that don't like change and will poop who roundabouts but For the most part we've had really great reception with them and they've been They've been functioning fantastically I I don't think that the merge is going to be a deal breaker on this Thanks. Thank you. Councilor pine. Councilor busher Um, just a statement then a couple of really quick questions based on the Memo that we had So I I hope dpw and if indeed pine and the rotary are done Simultaneously, I hope people have thought or even if when the rotary is done I think a lot of people might Get on to main street and then go on to well eastern road and then get on the interstate to go on the bypass to Avoid this and then get on route seven. So I know that Many of you probably know how busy it is at the time of At 4 30 to 5 that well 4 3 30 to 5 30 And in the morning and I'm concerned about that traffic and how we're going to accommodate that you don't I'm just making that statement that I think that people are going to be frustrated and try to find other ways And find themselves in another kind of traffic jam. But anyways, that's just my two cents on that The communication was written a little bit ago. So one of the statements was that Burlington telecom had not given you a plan For relocation. Has that happened now? Not that I'm aware of no, okay So then the other thing was that Can you point out for me? You talk about ledge removal Is ledge everywhere or is it just isolated in one area or what what are you talking about? ledge ledge is in You know what I'll just say it ledges everywhere It's probably it's probably easier for me to point out where ledge isn't And some of it is very shallow too. So we do actually have ledge outcroppings here Where you can actually see it at the ground. So will there be a lot of blasting then? Well, we can't we can't tell the contractor How to remove the ledge we have to tell them That they have to remove the ledge They are going to have to be very s