Hey, good evening and welcome to the pandemic version of Montpellier Civic Forum, the version where you don't necessarily have to go on town meeting day to vote. You can do absentee ballots, but you still have to get out and vote. And before you vote, you have to be informed about what you're voting for. And that's what these shows are about. We've got some excellent candidates for school board. We've got some city council candidates who are very good. We have a candidate who's running for a five-year term on the park commission. And that's good. We've got Bill Fraser coming in talking about the budget. We have Jim Murphy coming in on the school budget. We've got a lot of them. But the one I really enjoy is the one tonight, which is Anne Watson, our mayor and former city council person who I used to interview as a candidate coming in to talk about from the mayor's perspective what's going on with Montpellier. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me, Richard. I think this program is just so great. I want to make sure that you get enough credit for doing all of these programs. I mean, my goodness, I think this is such a service that you do for the city. Well, you know my wife, and this gets me away from her, so it's a service for her as well. Anne, we did one of these last year, and everyone enjoyed it. And what we do is we challenge you in your mind to envision driving around Montpellier with the mayor. And we're going to drive around. We're going to look at projects. We're going to look at proposals. We're going to look at things that might be, things that are, and things that we hope will be. Yeah. Right. So let's start, Barry, where we're trying to get the communications together and coordinated. That's been an ongoing effort for years. Yeah. What's going on with that? That's been an ongoing effort for Montpublic Safety. Absolutely. Yeah. So they are, so just in case folks don't know, just to catch people up, Montpellier is in a collaboration with Barry about public safety. And so what the focus of that group has been lately has been looking at our dispatch services. And so particularly what the technology needs are around making sure that that infrastructure is going to be functioning well on into the future. So what they've been doing recently is they've put out an RFP for- Request for proposal. Thank you, a request for a proposal for someone to do a needs assessment for just looking at the infrastructure we have and where it needs to go in the future. And that report is supposed to be finished and presented to the group within the next couple of months. So we'll know pretty soon what the results of that are. And that'll dictate potentially where we spend some money. If I recall, and I did an exit interview with Tony, an entrance interview with Chief Pete. Yeah. And Tony said the two systems weren't totally that far apart. Yeah. So I know one of the things that we are looking at now, and actually pertains to the current budget actually that's going to be on the town meeting day ballot, is we're looking at potentially buying some new console infrastructure for our dispatch folks. Because the model that they have now may actually not, I think the manufacturer is actually going to discontinue it and so replacement parts may not be available readily. So that is one indicator anyway that we may need to actually to change that system. Now, as far as like how well those systems are compatible with each other and speak to each other, you know, I think- That study will tell you a little bit. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it will give us some fiscal parameters on what it might take to get those to mesh? Well, that's my hope, right? So it's going to give us an assessment basically of what our gaps are. And so if there are technology needs to fill those gaps, then my hope is that they'll give us a ballpark about what that might be. What's the advantage of having these two systems meshing? Well, so being able to- There is some usefulness in terms of redundancy, right? So if one goes down that there is a way to redirect calls and inter-municipal communications as well as thinking about basically the reliability of the infrastructure themselves. So whether that's based in radio or fiber optics, all of that is sort of at play here. Is there any talk of a police chase in Montpellier that's heading towards Barry that somehow this equipment would give them a better heads up or vice versa? Well, I think we're just going to have to see what that study says. Yeah. When we came to the water treatment plan, how is Berlin on this? Why are they not members of this? Well, we in the past anyway have made offers about water deals and they didn't want to take it. But in terms of this communication equipment? Oh, in terms of the communication equipment. Yeah. Why are they not involved? That's a good question. I know that there are- So as a part of the Central Vermont Public Safety Authority, I know there is an organization that is a part of it called the Capital Fire and Mutual Aid Group. And I don't think that Berlin is a part of that, but I'm not- Why Berlin walks through its own drummer. Yeah, yeah, I suppose so. Let's stay in Berlin for a second. Let's go down the hill. How are the speed limits doing? When we were talking a year ago, the neighbors had just come in saying, we want 25 miles per hour on that street and console had come in and said, 25 miles an hour, maybe 35. Yeah. Well, we haven't heard much about that since actually. We haven't seen folks coming to us saying that it's- Since that discussion saying that it's still too high, but we're certainly open to having that discussion. I believe they put a- Oh, what's the word for it? A speed sign, right, so that you can see how fast you're going. And I think that's been helpful. I'm going to stay in that neighborhood. Okay. I know that Dan and Jay, the counselors for District 3, have been looking jointly at opportunities for parkland. And we had talked about this last year. They've identified, I believe, now I might be wrong, I think they're looking at that highly disputed piece down off of two that used to have the old house on it. Oh, Five Home Farm Way. Exactly. Yes. What are the legal hassles that surround that, or is that just- Well, so how much time do you got? So that property, well, so it's got a lot going on. One thing that's important to know is that there was a non-profit that was there that has since dissolved, but on the way of, I guess, before they dissolved, they sold a right of first refusal to another organization. And then there, at the same time, there were two conservation easements or historic preservation easements on that, one being on the land and one mostly being on the building, though that part of the land where the building is as well. So it's not totally clear who owns it right now. And it's not totally clear how to resolve who owns it. And I know that a number of parties have been meeting to try to answer that question because it is a really interesting piece of property. I mean, it is right down there by the river. So part of it is in the floodway, which means that that portion of it can't really be developed. But there's this historic preservation easement on the building because that property was owned by Jacob Davis, who was, I guess- It's an old property. Yeah. Well, it was the site of the first resident of Montpelier, which was Jacob Davis, but apparently that building that is there is not actually his house. So the building doesn't go back as far as that fellow, but- And you can tune in tomorrow night for the rest of this story. It goes on. So don't expect anything this year on that except for exploration. Yes. Well, and I do hope that we figure it out because I think that site has a lot of potential. Let's go up the hill over behind Sherwood or above Sherwood. We had talked about that last year. Could you describe that piece of property that the city owns? The Stonewall Meadows. Yes. Well, so my understanding is that we are in the process of- No, we own that. Yes. Yes, we own. And I think there is some question about some of the boundaries. So that's still, it may be resolved, the last I heard, I think it was resolved, but it might still be in process. But the hope is that we can turn that into a park for that side of the city. What do you envision that, a park that would have swings and stuff like that or picnic table? Well, I think- Or is that actual forest park? Well, so I think that will be potentially a part of some input from the surrounding neighborhoods. I think that would be a really great process to go through. Do you see what are the needs, what are the wants of the folks in that area? Is there any other space that we have, a green space, public green space, potential in District 3 on south of the river? In District 3, that is probably the most promising site, particularly because we own it. But other than that, I don't, nothing comes to mind on that side of the river. Now, I'm going to hop and skip you downtown so I don't forget it. What about next to, between the grocery store and the art store? That lot right there, that either is going to become a building or park space. Is there been any movement on thinking about what that empty space that people are walking and driving through? Yeah, so a couple points about that. So one is that we had to make a decision about whether we were basically going to ensure that we, the city, had the title to that property, or whether we would basically give that property back to the state, which is also its own kind of long story. But the point is we, if we were going to have it be a park, then we had to own it, right? And so, plus if we wanted to sell it, we could still do that if we owned it. And so we did make the decision that we would like to have that control of the property. And so we did actually make a plan with the state so that we could have the title to that property being clear. Is there a possibility it might be a building? That is still a possibility. Which has yet to be resolved. But the second point is that in the meanwhile, we've actually applied for a grant to turn that into sort of a little pop-up park space, which I think has a lot of potential and is very exciting. On the other side of that bridge? Yeah, right. So exactly between Shaw's and the drawing board. Yeah, just next to the bike path. I'll walk you further. I'm just going into open spaces right now. Sure. Yeah, go for it. Making sure that open spaces are covered. Yeah. Dog river.  I fenced in dog run. Yeah. Is there any discussion that's going on about that? That's a great question. We, a few residents contacted me about being interested in dedicated dog park space that could be fenced in. And so I ended up working with the parks director and connecting the park director with these residents about some potential locations. And there are a number of sites in the city that could work for. Dog river is one of them. But there are a few other places around town too that were potentials. But the structure that we were looking at for that was to have the kind of system where a group of dog owners would be sort of the champions and caretakers of that facility in terms of like, you know, the city could provide sort of, you know, help and whatnot. But we were hoping for some self-regulation. Yes, and some dog-loving champions to help make that happen. And so that's still in process as far as I know. How would that affect the policy and the current policy in Hubbard Park? And how would that affect the policy over by the baseball field? Yeah, the North Branch. So I think for now, if we were to, I think that the rules would likely not change for now. Based on what's already established in Hubbard Park or the North Branch trails. But I could picture this space where that's all fenced in, could be a space where dogs can be off leash. And so we would make, perhaps, I would anticipate anyway, making an exception for that kind of space. But I don't think it would, at least at first anyway, change any of the rules for the other spaces. Is there any way of enforcing North Branch? I know people are upset because North Branch, you are supposed to walk dogs on lead. Yeah, yeah, no, that's a good question. As far as I can tell. It's an honor system. Yeah, it is basically. And if issues escalate, then call the authorities to at least make a complaint or let folks know. Or actually even the Justice Center to let someone know that problems have occurred, especially if they're recurred. Are we considering better signage there so that people are more aware? Well, I think that's a good idea. As far as what we can be doing to make that better, certainly better signage would be part of the solution. I want to stay up on Hospital Hill because that's where we were. The water plant up there, what's going on? What's going on with the water plant and the finance of the water plant and our water bills? Yes, yeah, fair enough. So we actually were just talking about that at our most recent council meeting. So the city adopted a 50 year plan for both the water treatment plant and the water resource recovery facility in terms of our water and sewer rates. And so we do need to increase the amount of funding that we're giving to our water and sewer infrastructure. And so those plans call for sort of a steady increase into those water rates so that we can be replacing and repairing infrastructure at a more healthy and sustainable rate. And so I think we're looking at for this next year an increase of I think it was about because inflation was 1.4 so I think we were at 2.5 percent. Yeah. Do we foresee any shocks in water usage? I know the last great shock was when they changed the toilets at National Life and made it more water efficient. And we hadn't planned for a decrease in National Life water usage that was that profound. Yeah. Well actually in the last couple of years we've actually added some more users to the water system. So actually the amount of usages has gone up. So we're back in Berlin. Berlin's not going to come in. Well as far as I know no one has contacted me about them jumping on, no. We talked about this when you were a candidate how many years ago. Yeah. We spoke about Berlin coming in. Yeah right. Let's stay up there. Okay let's talk about Berlin Pond. That's nearby. What about Berlin Pond? What's going on with that? We spoke about that a couple of years ago. Yeah so there's not really been any developments no pun intended. There's basically nothing new on that in the last couple of years or so. Yeah. The dire consequences that we predicted did that happen? So far it hasn't which is good but we still need to remain vigilant. Some of the risks up there are people transporting boats across different bodies of water that might be bringing in different kinds of algae basically and other microscopic organisms. Particularly you know at the time we were very worried about cryptosporidium which is very hard to detect but can make people very sick and that's still a concern and we certainly hope that people are taking precautions if they move their boats between bodies of water. Now that entire issue not only involved the courts but it also involved Montpelier in the legislature. Yeah yes it did. Is there anything sitting before the legislature right now in terms of Montpelier in the legislature? Well yes not necessarily not not pertaining to Berlin Pond. Stay in that boat of no pun intended. Just stay in Montpelier in the legislature and things that go before the legislature. Sure so within the last couple years we passed a non-citizen voting measure which did not pass the legislature last year. It did pass the house but got stuck in the senate and that bill has already been reintroduced for Is there another city or town that's also that's passed that sort of legislation? Did Burlington pass that? You know I'm not sure I don't know where other cities are at with it. I know they were considering it as well as Winooski. They were also considering it but I don't know where that is at right now. We have some new leadership in the senate and so I think we have a fair shot of that passing potentially this year. Now speaking again of Montpelier in the legislature marijuana and a marijuana place where one can buy marijuana that's going to be on the ballot. Could you explain what we're voting on on that? Yeah sure so what Montpelier has currently is a cannabis dispensary for medical purposes. Where is that? I believe it's down by oh gosh where the bear naked growler is down that part of the way. I always think of that as like where restore used to be but like that's not a helpful reference anymore. And the computer barn used to be. Yes yeah right so but it's down down that way. So the difference between what we have now and what's on the ballot is the the legislature provided a pathway for towns to approve retail cannabis or basically non-medical cannabis to be sold in towns and in cities. But it has to go through a particular approval process and so one of the steps there is that it has to be approved by the voters of the town. So it's going to be it is on it's on our town meeting day ballot on March 2nd and so the the city Montpelier will be able to weigh in as to whether or not that's something that we want to have in our city. If we say yes on March 2nd 2021 when do we possibly see a marijuana dispensary and is or a marijuana retail store and is there any zoning that would have to be changed to allow that? So that's a good question. My understanding is that it would still take quite a bit of time potentially like a year or so before we would see a store opening but I'm not sure about the zoning question and that that's that's a valid and very good question and I think it's worth revisiting yeah. So we're talking about 2022 I think so yeah in real time in stoner time possibly 23 or 24 is there anything else that the state is doing that affects us that other than allocating COVID funds? Well I was going to say the COVID funds are are pretty big right now I mean we are certainly hopeful that the city Montpelier will be able to get some of these funds for potentially making up lost revenue as well as construction projects so that's that's on our radar besides that I can't think of any other bills that we have pending yeah but we're we actually have a legislative agenda this year that has laid out what our priorities would be as a council that things that we hope well what how does that differ from past years? Well we've we've had legislative agenda here we have better communications we have you know. Sure yeah and the like and the like we've so in the in the past you know when you know for example John Holler was a mayor he was also a lobbyist so he was up there all the time so we had kind of a direct connection to folks in the the legislature but you still don't you have a former mayor who's head of the appropriations committee? Indeed we do which is great. And don't you have another former council person who is also in in the senate yeah right so you know so we certainly do have connections but we've been making at least as a council we've been making more of an effort in the last couple of years to to have our legislative delegation in to council meetings to talk about our agenda what we hope they have on their radar and what what what we hope they will pass yeah so and yeah just anticipating that there are things that are happening in the legislature that affect us and there's money to be had that we could maybe potentially tap into. Again speaking of state initiatives that impact Montpelier I believe on your phone you have an app for the for the Jitney bus? Yes yeah so would you talk about that program? Sure yeah absolutely so it's called My Ride and this is a program that's pretty similar to Uber or Lyft if people are familiar with those apps where you can it's a flexible schedule flexible route situation where on your on the app on your phone or you can call or you can use the website you can say I would like a ride from this location to that location at a designated time and so it'll it'll show up basically at your doorstep and deliver you to wherever you want to be um within a certain area uh within Montpelier and and actually Berlin yeah so that would include going to the hospital exactly yes would it include going to Price Trafford or Shaw's up on the hill um I don't know if Shaw's is in the zone I'd have to check the the region but we were intentional about having it include the the mall and the hospital yeah so people can get to doctors what are the hours for this um the the standard hours that we have for the circulator yeah uh yep so I believe the earliest that you can book a ride is 7 a.m. and it goes till about 6 p.m. Is there a copay? No oh thank you it's free so uh that uh for me like was was pretty appealing I actually use it just about every day um it is because I I both live and work in the designated area and so it is how I get to work uh and home from work every every day basically yeah now this is not a sucker question you know which you probably don't have an answer um will they if and when the mountaineers are playing this summer will they pick people up from the the stadium it's it's within Montpelier yeah so uh I was actually just talking about this very question with Brian Gallagher um not that long ago who's Brian Gallagher thank you Brian Gallagher um is he the executive director of the mountaineers I think that's I think that's um true so uh yeah so I was talking with him actually about what his what the plans are for the mountaineers this coming summer and they're hopeful still they're still uh waiting to see what what all happens but they're still hopeful that they will have a season um this coming summer but I was talking with him about whether or not this could be extended uh in terms of hours for it to to work for the for the mountaineers games um and I I think that's a lovely possibility but I think it would probably take some uh you know some collaboration obviously between the mountaineers and green mountain transit who is running uh the my ride program so any possibility under discussion not this year certainly Montpelier high school about what now being able to transport kids from general areas to Montpelier high school oh that's already happening um certainly I mean I I think that's sort of happening in an ad hoc kind of basis but uh the all the administrators are aware of the program and have been advocating for it with students uh particularly like if if they are stuck in need to ride home uh if they if they live in the area um that the bus serves or that the uh the vehicle serves then you know there's that's it's a great option I think one of the limitations though is that it does not serve all the the areas of Montpelier yet um so what areas are not served well well one of the areas that comes to mind right now is sort of out by uh dog river like the translation of the creamy stand um that is not in the service area presently but if this is a successful pilot then I think it is very likely that the service will expand it include those places and I know the area around dog river is a favorite of yours because it has one of your favorite projects the treatment plant that's true would you discuss the project at the treatment plant which was which you shepherded through well I I think a lot of the credit really should go to the the staff uh there for but it's an imaginative project oh indeed it's absolutely it's very um it's very forward thinking and I'm I'm just thrilled that that is moving forward could you describe it yeah absolutely so um so it one of the reasons I love it because it gets a little sciency so I'm going to try to not go too much into science but okay now stop yeah right what do you do for a living oh sorry thank you um so I in addition to being mayor I am the a science and math teacher at Montpelier high school mainly I teach physics that's uh that's my passion and a former coach yes I also um have coached ultimate frisbee for many years as well so let's sorry anyway right so for any wastewater treatment plant uh they that that that uh effluent that um where I should say that waste uh generates methane and methane is a greenhouse gas on its own and it's very it's it's flammable right so uh we could actually burn that methane uh to uh reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that we as a city are emitting and at the same time generate uh heat or electricity uh which can then offset any fossil fuels that we might be using for heat or electricity so this project uh was designed to significantly ramp up um a the amount of intake that of like um liquid waste that we were taking so that no we have new liquid waste customers I imagine yes exactly um and those are all still in in process because it's um still being constructed uh but the plan is to significantly increase that amount of waste so that it is economically feasible to uh to burn that methane and that's going to make the wastewater uh the water resource recovery facility uh be thermally net zero or in other words it won't require any fossil fuels to heat that facility which is a huge win and then in anything over and above that's uh of energy that's generated uh will be turned into electricity which we will then sell back to the grid which obviously also is great because uh since that's an organic um uh source that uh counts as as a renewable resource and is a a great base for electricity because it can be on all the time and it's not dependent on the weather right like a wind or an or solar might be dependent on the weather uh so it's a it's a uh wonderful resource for the the city of Montpelier and you take pride in it oh i'm i'm thrilled let's go back to district three again i'm top scotching around which i didn't want to do um okay and that brings the elephant in the room as we cross the street going south yeah and we head across that bridge yeah and we stare at what would be a parking garage in a hotel yes right what is the status besides it's still caught up in court no that's that's exactly it it's still caught up in court and and again we're we're just waiting for uh decisions to be made about that and and we'll we'll roll with it whatever it goes is there any indication given covid known in the realities of tourism is there any indication whether there will be a hotel you know again as have the bishara family spoken to have you asked the bishara family that issue no not to my knowledge yeah yeah so we'll we'll just we'll just have to see yeah and i think you know i think we're all certainly hopeful that uh we will get to a point where travel is no longer restricted i mean we're obviously not there now but with the vaccine on the horizon i'm certainly very hopeful that that the restrictions will start to be lifted that will start to see the the tide turn there and that that was i know this is not what you were asking about but i mean that was that question of what is the timeline for covid was a relevant question for us when we were making our budget for this year so well so have you had your meeting with bill yet i i hate to say this no okay but by the time you're watching this it might be on the air sure uh well so just for so you may end up talking about this with him as well but just for context uh we had a significant shortfall in revenue in the city budget uh projections for this year and so to make up the money the one question was you know do we look at delaying projects or do we look at cutting positions and really that was a question about is this a short term or a long term problem because if it's a long term problem then we have to be honest about the services that we are going to be able to afford to provide when you talk about projects does that include the level funding of streets of it does and what is the level funding of streets sure so i know what it is but everybody else doesn't yeah no fair enough so a number of years ago we realized that uh there that we were underfunding our streets right so in order for streets to maintain an acceptable level of condition uh we would need to be putting um five hundred thousand dollars yeah right it was it was a significant amount of money in more than what we were putting into um uh our capital projects uh capital improvement plan uh funding and and so we we went on a track to to ramp up our funding of streets and sidewalks so that we could be at what we would consider a level um basically a steady state uh level of funding for all of our streets and sidewalks so that they could maintain an acceptable condition uh over time right because it's always better to uh to be doing that sort of routine maintenance that needs to be done so that they can that their longevity uh can be fully realized because otherwise if you start to let them go then the rate of deterioration accelerates then we're constantly patching not and not just patching but doing major overhauls um over time um so the construction projects that we are uh are looking at putting off um in the short term are um they're more of these sort of bigger construction projects while maintaining some of the more um just maintenance level so it would be we try and do one street or two a year where we do a complete street yes right and would that be postponed for this year so there are yes so there were some streets that were postponed but not all of them so for example uh Hubbard street is also is still on the list uh there's a stretch of berry street that's still on the list um things like that in terms of sustainability of the budget eventually we're going to have to yes sit and return to that or we're going back to losing hubcaps absolutely and so we are going into that eyes open and planning for that now and so we're already talking about uh having a bond to do that catch-up work when it feels more fiscally appropriate to do so what happens to the project's pre-pandemic the big projects that we were discussing when we went through this city budget last year and i'll give you two of them yeah the downtown master downtown plan where we had traffic circles and we had major sidewalk adjustment what happens to that and what happens to the post pandemic recreation center that wasn't budgeted to have a significant ventilation rehab yeah no absolutely those were two projects that i was particularly looking forward to to seeing um some change some progress towards our complete or our berry street main street traffic study exactly yeah so what happens to that and what happens to the recreation center well so it it just gets delayed i mean these are projects that are still on our radar that we have uh plans for and it i mean the the berry street main street uh traffic plan was always going to be realized in pieces so we were always going to have to take it one piece at a time like one chunk at a time and my highest priority was uh the fixing the berry street main street intersection the dangerous intersection yes which we had decided should there should be a traffic light there uh but we the we just don't have the funds this year does that take out smart lights as well uh i believe the cost difference was um we were i think we were going to go um smart lights or what are smart lights uh so they're coordinated uh lights with other lights in the area so they would be coordinated say with um memorial drive and main street but that uh i i'm i'm not too worried about that part of it i think that transition uh if i recall we were we were planning on just going straight straight for that what about the solar panels on city hall and the like the the idea of putting more solar capacity on on city buildings has that fallen to the wayside um i am not so i don't think we actually have solar panels on i thought there was a discussion of increasing well so we have solar presence so we do have uh so so this the city has um what's called power purchase agreements with two solar fields uh one is actually on log road in Montpelier but the other is in Sharon Vermont uh so one of the discussions that is upcoming is that we will have the opportunity to buy those the um those arrays uh and i i think it will likely be in the city's interest to do that to to buy those it will be cheaper than paying this third party uh but but it will take it'll take money to do that and we know whether that's something we start setting aside money for now or whether it's a bond i mean that's that's still a part of the discussion yeah how are the fiscal's looking for the district aid uh well so i don't know if you saw the recent times article times argus article about that but uh you know in terms of i realized this is not your question but uh in terms of service i think uh the city and and folks generally speaking are satisfied with this level of service that they've been provided unfortunately you know no one anticipated that the price of oil yeah the oil prices would be as low as they are and so the the projections are they're just not as good or the i should say the the cost savings um that we were hoping for are not being realized right now um but you know like who also who would have guessed that you know there was going to be a pandemic right like it's it's really tough to anticipate how those prices are going to go so i'm i'm still hopeful that that that will be uh have been a good decision for folks um in the long run particularly in terms of climate change you know knowing that uh folks were able to switch over from burning oil to burning wood chips i mean that that is a good thing yeah i'm gonna stay on that side of town we're in that that building at 302 at the roundabout yep we're right near the bicycle trail that's another one that that you take pride in oh my gosh could you talk about the bicycle trail sure and and and visit the distillery at the same time sure uh so i mean as everyone probably knows we we we were able to complete that shared use path um basically just in time for the pandemic my goodness that was such a lifesaver back in last march when we were sort of told to uh to not be you know going going places but we could still be on the on the bike path that was that was huge um and so that that stretch now completes uh it's it's called the Sibawina B path which is an abanaki phrase for um river water i'm glad that you said it not i yeah i had to practice it um and so it connects basically gallison hill all the way uh through to mains oh not to main street to the rec building another is you know we're part of that that intersection yes right discussion of the intersection of main and berry yeah right and how so part of that connects berry main street traffic study was to figure out how to connect uh just that short section between the rec building and where the shared use path picks up on main street uh and uh yeah so we'll do people use the walking the multi-purpose path oh my goodness they have it has been significant uh we were getting lots of wonderful positive feedback about uh the shared use path well when you talk about bad timing the distillery has to have had bad timing well you know so uh for what i hear no one has told me anything about uh that um from from their perspective but it's a lovely facility it is a lovely facility and i am thrilled that they were able to uh convert to to making hand sanitizer i don't know if you if folks are aware that you can buy hand sanitizer from them that's that's huge uh and uh you know i think with the the distillery along with other restaurants and um bars in town uh i you know i think it makes a real difference to them when folks purposefully get takeout uh are able to you know spend their money at at these these businesses now we're walking down berry street yeah we're walking by the distillery and we turn and we look north yeah do we see housing well i'm talking about this year next year well what is going on with savings past year that's a great question so um you know there's been a lot of i know there's always been a lot of talk about uh housing in savings pasture but one of the uh things i can talk about for sure is that we as the city have uh we actually just at our last meeting looked at some potential zoning changes to is that on top of the master plan revision uh you mean yes yes that yes this is something that's um we're we're going to be taking up in the next couple of weeks what with those two so this was mostly about looking at traffic impacts because if if we are able to put more housing up in savings there may be some some traffic impacts and so we were looking at how the zoning talks about traffic and the requirements for new developments uh their impact on traffic now i might be wrong at this and if i am we're going to cut this out of the script okay um that that entrance into the distillery is called gin oh gin lane gin lane oh is it gin lane yes gin lane yeah right the gin lane could actually go straight up that hill that it was designed so that gin lane could go up the hill yeah so especially as uh the distillery was being planned there was a lot of coordination that happened for potential future um development in that savings pasture area yeah and there was work done adjacent dealing with infrastructure matters that would benefit potential development indeed there were there was infrastructure that we put in for water and i'm not sure if it's sewer as well but certainly at least for water in connection to the distillery but also under the railroad tracks for any potential development across the way there in savings yeah now the economic development corporation was working on this yeah montpelier alive is still around yep the economic development corporation what is the status of that project oh sure so the montpelier could you explain what the economic development corporation is so just a little bit about the history we had an economic development master plan edsp development strategic plan um that laid out some goals for the city in terms of housing and jobs and out of that one of the recommendations was the creation of this development corporation so we the city voted to form that and they have their own board now and their so and their own their own charter i suppose their own their own rules but yeah so they've had a couple of executive directors over time and where they're at now is that they don't have an executive director but rather they are um hiring people uh for uh specific projects are they in the city budget this year they're not yeah so this year they there's there's no funding planned for them but uh but you know we we're actually actively talking with them about what makes sense for the future so um you know i don't i don't uh i'm just speaking for myself i don't see them as as going away i think our relationship may change or the way that um yeah there there was there may be some changes but i i think uh they've there's still some great potential there we're walking down berry street by the recreation center is it gonna be closed this summer given ventilation and given the masks and and all that you know uh again tough to say sort of where we'll be at um by the time we get to the summer i all i can say is that for now it is closed uh yeah what is the current thinking in recreation about the summer camp over by the pool and what is the current thinking of the pool for this summer yeah yeah so the uh the camps well so just for context the city did run camps last summer uh and we were there were provisions that uh you know childcare providers had to meet in order to operate and we were able to to meet those provisions and so we anticipate that we'll be able to do that again this summer um that and there's certainly a demand for it you know with um parents kids penned in their houses yeah right absolutely you know that that sometimes is a matter of uh the question of whether or not people need to um so you anticipate ample demand oh yeah ample demand exactly i mean people are uh potentially staying home from work if they don't have childcare right so so this is a huge a huge need for folks um what about the pool again well i think we'll just have to see it was closed last summer yeah well and and and that is absolutely a possibility for this summer as well yeah so we'll again we'll just have to see where we're at we're walking downtown let's skip downtown because i'm gonna come back to it in a second we're going up to hubbard park yeah anything any changes that you see uh any will there be activities on that little stage that they've put together or that uh i get well so um i believe i saw that there was a like a hot chocolate uh event that was happening up in hubbard park and i know they've been doing uh walks through hubbard park and there was a a version of the enchanted forest uh that they did back in october um and i i think we can continue to do these kinds of socially distanced events but that's that's about it so hubbard park the life of hubbard park remains the life of hubbard park yes well i mean we may not have park of palooza but uh but generally speaking yeah and we certainly want to encourage people to to use the park let's go back downtown uh we're we're heading down towards downtown and we're gonna turn over the bridge and we're gonna go north on main street yeah and we see the source of controversy we see a big sign what's your take on the controversy over the signage yeah yeah no i i certainly hear folks folks's complaints about the sign you know i um just from a perspective of the process of what it went through um that that uh all of the the sign designs uh went to multiple council meetings uh for approval it just took so long it was so long ago it was it was it was a long time ago in all honesty when i saw it go up i was like oh right i'd forgotten that that was even happening um and then it did go through uh it went uh before you know the design review committee um and they were able to uh give feedback and some of those suggestions i i guess were taken into account in the the design but um but yeah you know it it did make me think about uh i think mostly folks is the the complaint that i was hearing the most was like well we didn't get to see this right like you know i i didn't get a chance to weigh in on it or you know again the delay was so long ago yeah yeah i was like why is this a surprise and i i hear that you know i it really made me think about like well what are better ways that we can that we can communicate about that sort of thing and it was a long time ago and so uh you know open to suggestions there you know how can we be using the the city website better or list serves better like that that kind of thing well there are some subtle public policy things on those signs uh the business district to the east when you go out of town you can actually see that there's a business district to the east yeah that's a policy decision yeah that's huge uh berry street you know that's a policy decision that that people are pointed towards that yeah several of the signs point to hubbard park for the first time yep tell people that hubbard park exists yep it's key is everyone on council pretty pleased with that project you know i think so uh i uh we actually haven't talked about it very much but uh as far as i've you know talked about it with with folks on council um i think people were were pleased with the signs uh generally but um you know the the difficult part now is that of course if if people even wanted to move that that one sign i think mostly people are generally okay with most of the signs um it's just the the one right that is um the sticky point it would actually cost us quite a bit of money to to remove it um or or even to move it at all so um so you know i think well if we can't shrink the domino sign we certainly can't move that one right yeah it's true um in terms of downtown yeah when the eviction freeze eventually ends yeah what 30 percent of small businesses across america are behind in the rent payments yeah do you foresee a jigsaw puzzle downtown this is not only our downtown this is every downtown in every city suburb no absolutely do you foresee a jigsaw puzzle with some unsightly pieces missing well you know i uh i do worry about that but uh my my normal optimism is like somewhat uh sobered in this because i think it's really important that we be honest about uh sort of where where we're at uh as a as a downtown uh where are we at as downtown yeah yeah well so actually i uh was in touch with dan groberg the executive director of montpular alive about this very question and he uh said that back in december uh about 75 percent of businesses were reporting self reporting that they were making at least 75 percent of what they made in the previous december the pre-pandemic uh december um and there were a significant number of those that were that had made uh at least 90 percent of what they had made the previous december so that is um that i i found out was was cautiously encouraging um that folks are starting to to reemerge uh financially um that that does not necessarily parse out how retail businesses are doing um as separate from you know bars and restaurants and it must be brutal for bars and restaurants indeed yeah right so i i don't have clear data about that but and and that's the the part that um i think you know bars and restaurants play a key role in the culture of of our city and so you know it's something i'm certainly paying attention to um but at the same time we can't discount the idea of the arts and trying to yeah make a play work with a third of the people oh yeah no absolutely the audience absolutely the the arts industry also significantly affected uh by by the pandemic so again also that's an industry that i'm um you know keeping a close eye on again uh but is there anything that we can do to kind of bring ourselves back together and rend the whole so that people are out communicating with each other and and basically being Montpelier as we knew it in a sense well and so i i hear that it's it's also a tricky ask right because we can't have the kinds of gatherings that we that we used to have at least not under the current restrictions uh but i think as far as as we can for those who are able it means the world to uh to the to the arts uh industry as well as to to bars and restaurants when you um purposely uh spend money locally you know um so that that's something that i've i've tried to keep in mind um even for for myself that it that it's it means a lot to to those folks i'm gonna close this the same way i closed it last year except for now the mayor doesn't have mayor's hours anymore what what's the status of city hall opening again uh so uh city hall is open i believe um something like Tuesdays and Thursdays um but it is otherwise closed um and uh well it was open i i actually should probably go check so i apologize that i don't that i don't fully know but you can also make an appointment um to to see any of the city staff you need to see the mayor still does not have her hours right when we're allowed to and city hall is open yeah will you re-establish mayor's hours i would like to yeah no absolutely i there were people actually came to those office hours to the to the mayor's hours and i would like to do that again but in the meanwhile i am happy to have conversations uh to have meetings with folks anytime so just be in touch and we'll find a time that works is the mayor of Montpellier zoomed out oh my goodness so many museum meetings you know for as many zoom meetings as i am a part of i am always happy to still to still meet with people yeah mayor thank you so very much yeah i i look forward to next year when we'll do this walk around the town yes and we'll talk about hopefully we'll talk about the um resurrection of the community of Montpellier and how successful it's been yes i look forward to that discussion for sure what i look forward to is you voting on tom meeting day isn't that a good segue of you getting out there and actually responding to your absentee ballot is showing up on town meeting because it's really important in fact it's more important now than ever to weigh in and that we have wider participation but before you do that watch the shows get to know what the candidates are about hear about the budgets and basically tell your friends it's on orca media on youtube on the youtube channel and it's on the cable channel and i thank you for watching


So last time we were looking at properties of vector norms and the punch line was that given two norms alpha and beta we can find constant c small m and c capital M such that the beta norm of x is sandwiched between c small m times the alpha norm of x and c capital M times the alpha norm of x for every x in r to the n. So that's the key part is that this is a bound that's valid regardless of which x you choose in r to the n and these constants c small m and c capital M may depend on n the dimension of the space over which you want to find these bounds. The consequence of this is that over finite dimensional vector spaces all norms are equivalent in the sense that whenever xk converges to x with respect to say the alpha norm then it converges to the same x with respect to any other norm. So in particular since all norms are equivalent all norms are equivalent to the infinity norm which is the max entry which in turn means that if the limit of xk as k goes to infinity is x with respect to any norm that is true if and only if the limit as k goes to infinity the ith entry of xk being equal to xi for i equal to 1 2 up to n that means component wise convergence is equivalent to convergence with respect to any norm. So the other thing here is the same x if it converges to one norm it converges with respect to any other norm. So this is what we saw in the previous class. Okay so today we will proceed with a little bit more discussion about norms.


So I'm aware that we're kind of running short on time.  It's going to be a pretty short talk. So I wanted to talk about how you document communities and what you document and what you don't document and what you do and don't open source. And it's one of those things that, I mean, why do you do it? Why do you document anything? And we've heard it already, because it's a live repository of what's going on, advertise what you're doing. It's also to let people know that the community is being taken care of, just like Deb said. That's actually one of the main aspects of it. It's an unintended consequence of the fact that you document is that there is evidence that this place is being taken care of right now. So that's what you're doing when you document. So what do you document? What do you not document? What do you open source? So there's the clear stuff around who we are, why we're doing it, when we do it.  You don't need to document that. It actually tells you what's going on. All the stuff about why you do what you're doing. As a community manager, what else do you document? You document all the FAQs. I'm a newbie, what should I know? One of the things you really need to document is who knows what. And this is mostly like as much for the new people coming on entering the community as well as the new people coming in and taking over managing the community. You need to know where you store the paper clips. So that's not just things like, where do I find the chairs on a Thursday night at the hall, but it's also things like, where do we store the logos and the passwords? Mostly it's about who knows what about what. Who do I talk to when this thing breaks down and who do I talk to when I want to find out how to update this weeky and who takes care of their embersments, that's what you document. And you make that as publicly open as you possibly can within your community. Sometimes you can't.  Although I've seen people do it. I've seen people do it like, you know, in plain text. Try not to. It hurts sometimes. So the mailing lists are a live documentation site. You know, this is the history of the community. Who's through mailing list logs to figure out something about the way a place works. Yeah, yeah. People here do. In most other places, nobody does that. Nobody does that. It's amazing. It's really stupid because it's one of the best logs about how the cultures evolve and what's going on and what the decisions were made. So it's no different to recording, say, the decisions we came to during this board meeting. It's a really worthwhile place to look at. Nobody does. So don't bother thinking of it as somewhere that people are going to look at, except like the seriously geeky people. And in this community, yes, that matters. Which brings it around to the other side of things, which is you've got to make sure that you have really clear codes of conduct. So you document that. You document that every time people enter any online space, also any time they enter a physical space one way or another. We don't always do that, but it's actually really worthwhile. The other thing I wanted to say, yeah, one of the things that's really worthwhile documenting is how you fit into the landscape of other communities in your area. Like actually you have cross links or have portals that link whatever project you're working on to all the other projects that do what you're doing. Who here has done that? Who here has thought about doing that? Yeah, a couple of people. Yeah, yeah, everyone's thought about it. We've all talked about it, actually. Lots of people have talked about it. It never happens. It's a really worthwhile thing to do. Tell people when they enter your site. So we work in this space, but we actually also overlap a fair bit with these people and these people. It's just worth letting people know that that's what you do. Now, this is an unpopular opinion. There's a lot of stuff you shouldn't document in my opinion and this is my opinion. I think you really shouldn't document how you manage the community for several reasons. Lots of it's already documented actually. Like people have been doing this whole group thing for some time, so don't reinvent the wheel. Like there's stuff that you need to tell people about. Like these are the 10 most frequent conversations that people ask that we as community managers get into or this is what matters to us from a culture point of view. But ultimately, you can't tell anyone how you do that. You can record things like make sure you speak to every person that walks in the door, especially if they're new. You can't really record what you do to manage the community. You can learn it from other people in the place. So don't lie to yourself. Don't pretend that you can record all the different things that you do to make the community what it is. Let people have conversations about it and make sure that people learn from each other, either through the mailing list, which they will. But that's an organically evolving document. You can't sit there and write that down. You can pretend to or you can take chunks and say, so here's an example. But ultimately, it's a bit pointless because really that'll change over time and you're better off learning it as what's going on. That was anything else. So there's the gray area of, as a community manager, what do you do about troublemakers? Who here is like dealt in that situation where you know you've had the offline conversations about, so there's this person? Yep, yep. And so there's the back channel conversation about it. Yeah. What do you do about it? Yep, that's one option. Sorry, so distract them with a mathematically impossible problem for several weeks. Yep, that's one option. Another option was go to meet space with a large hammer, was it? Thanks. Thanks, Vic. What else? Wait a second. We had to ban an account from the mailing list that was occupied by multiple people. Yep. It was really weird. They all posted it as Steve. Yeah, so you ban people. But how do you, OK, so how do you document how you came to the decision? How does that, how do you document that for other people who are going to be taking over what you're doing? Yep. Just the team archives. Archives, yep. What else? Collective memory of those who are still around. Right. Yeah, the collective memory of people who are still around. Yeah. It's one of those things that like a troublemaker will likely show up again and will likely show up somewhere else right near you. And there are people you know who aren't currently dealing with this person who probably will soon, like soon enough that you'll know about it. What do you do about it? Yeah? So we had a problem maker in our community and it was a physical space community and it got to the point where I told them to no longer attend and they switched to attending another like-minded group. And because we have relations with one of the organisers of that group, we do have a conversation back and forth in a back channel. It's not documented. Yeah, yeah, that stuff's not documented. But it's in people's emails and it's been around for a long time. And when you're dealing with all the other people in the same space, you know each other and you tell each other about this. It's kind of one of those gray areas because you know how much are you impeding on people's privacy if you make this stuff public, even semi-public, even accessible by a very small group of people. My opinion is you don't really document it any more than we already do because there will be archives, there will be emails. When this person resurfaces, they will be around. It's really worthwhile sending an email to anybody who might come in contact with this person and that's your archive, that's your documentation. If anybody else has other ideas, I'd love to hear about it. But you know, it's one of those gray areas. When you're documenting a community, a lot of the stuff you do, you think you're documenting or not. You're just sending emails. That's it, thank you.


Former Senate President Iorcha Aiu takes the win as the new national PDP chairman and candidate supported by the party's governor's win position in the National Working Committee. Plus, Governor Yesung Wiki of River State gives the federal government 48 hours to probe the raid on Justice Miri Odini's residence. This is Plus Politics, I am Miri Anacor. The newly elected national chairman of the People's Democratic Party PDP Iorcha Aiu says the party if elected in 2023 will develop Nigeria as it did when it was in power for 16 years. Aiu, who was the consensus candidate at the party's 2021 National Convention in Abuja, he spoke about the convention and it seems the so-called big wigs have lost their group on the party as the selections of the party's governors won places in the National Working Committee of the party. For instance, Taufiq Araquaja, a former deputy governor of Ior State who was supported by the governor's Bidz Olagun Soye Unilola, who had been supported by the likes of Attiku Saaki and Lamidong, barely for the position of the deputy national chairman South. And what you've mentioned is the absence of the former president, Goodluck Jonathan, who has been rumored to be planning to join the all-progressive Congress APC. While joining us to discuss this and more is Venasius Ekame, he is Cross River State People's Democratic Party Chairman and Opponabor Inko Tara, a former Special Advisor on Media and Publicity to the governor of River State, Nyesung Wike. Thank you very much for joining us, gentlemen. Thank you. Great. I'm going to start with you. I'm going to start with you, Mr. Ekame. It's very interesting. Like I mentioned in my intro, there are so many people at the convention. Of course, the known names and the big wigs, the leaders of the party, were all in attendance. But what you have note is that the former president, Goodluck Jonathan, was conspicuously absent. Now, many have said that, you know, the rumors of the president, former president leaving the party might just be cemented by his absence at the national convention of the party. What's your take on this? Mr. Ekame, that question is for you. I don't think that Mr. Ekame can hear us. So I'm going to throw that question to Opponabor. Go ahead, Opponabor. I'm sure you heard my question. Oh, yes, I did. I did the questions on why President Goodluck Jonathan did not attend the convention, is it? Yes. Well, the difference is for his absence, they said he already had a scheduled appointment in Nairobi. So it's in the realm of speculation. Of course, you will have to agree with me that when there is a new public home void, there is a possibility of speculation and all kinds of interpretation. So we'll wait for Goodluck Jonathan to at least let the world know if his defection comes in. And that is one rumor that I've been writing the air, his defection to APC based on the oversight of, or supposed overthrow from the APC. I think for now, I will not want to weave the interpretation into his asses because he already had an appointment in Nairobi and probably is going to play a key role that assignment. And so he just couldn't compromise that. I don't want to believe that President Goodluck Jonathan would be sent to the APC. But it is a strong start of his own position. It's politics. And politics is all about interest. They say in politics there is no permanent interest, no permanent anything but permanent interest. So it's all about interest. But I for now still doubt that although the air is so few with the news of his likely defection to the APC. Many party fate fools have called the act of the former president not showing up at the convention as a convenient excuse to stay away from the convention. In fact, many have gone further to say that leaders of the party had paid him a visit previously before the party's convention, persuading him to be part of the event and then leave, even if it meant to give a few words before he departed to Kenya, but that he refused. And they're continuously saying that this might mean that there is trouble in paradise. Will the PDP be missing anything if, for example, the rumors were true and the president, the former president, might just be moving to the APC but softly? Well, the truth of the matter is that whether we like it or not as a former governor of the United States, a former deputy governor, a president, they have a lot of sympathy and definitely foolish. But again, politics is all about perception. A lot of people dissenting from one party to the other, they contemporize it, not necessarily because of the out of it, or because of the foolish, what it really has to do with perception. If Mr. If, for example, most house of rest men that are dissenting really don't have that policy, they don't have the normal approach. But it is in the eyes of the public, if a man of this statue would dissent from this party to this other party, then the common man will say, then this is going to be the winning party. Why do you have a lot of people dissenting that this party has to go to that party? So that is all about psychology. But the truth is, in good luck Jonathan, a man of good luck Jonathan's family should dissent from PDP to APC, apart from the number of people that are going to go with him. I can assure you that it's going to rub off negative, not the PDP, because of perception. A lot of people will conclude that the PDP, whatever you might know, will be the next presidential election. And that is why good luck Jonathan suspected people. And this will make a lot of people also start scrambling the members of the police. So it's all about perception. Perception and politics is key, is crucial. Okay. Joining us on the phone is the State Chairman of the People's Democratic Party, Banasya Sikkim. I don't know if you can hear me now, Mr. Ekim. Can you hear me? Mr. Ekim, can you hear me? Hello? Yes, can you hear me now? Yes, I can hear you. Well, Oppenaba Inkotaira here is saying that, he's saying that if the former president, good luck Jonathan, were to leave the party, a lot of people might think that the party may not be able to win come 2023. Does the party really, would the party lose anything if the former president were to leave the PDP today, bearing in mind that there have been speculations as to the fact that he did not show up for the past his convention, even though he had, you know, an event to attend in Kenya. Yeah, I can hear you. Yeah, I know that the conflicts for the former president's presence at the convention would have been quite significant.  Yes, I'm here. Yes, go ahead. We're trying to, we want to hear your position if you think that if he left the party, the party would be losing a big fish in any way. Yeah, I was trying to say that the conflicts for his presence at the convention could have been positive for the party, but nothing can be found out from the troops to say that if he left the party today, the PD would automatically lose the 2023 elections. As former president, his contributions are critical, like we say in politics, perception plays a significant role in what we do, but perception is not everything. Bayelsa is a PDT state who also know that Bayelsa is one of the smallest states in this country. We know that we need every vote, but I'm not aware that the Bayelsa is so critical to any national election as far as I'm concerned, and I also do not know that the former president hopes entirely the same trend of Bayelsa states. Having said that, like I said before, for optics, for the significance of his position as former president, Urana remains the party than he leaves the party. So you're limiting the position of the former president to just optics. You're also limiting it to just Bayelsa state. Is that what you're implying that he might not necessarily, when it comes to putting weight, he might not have that much weight? What I do know is that the determination of the people of the South-South, including Bayelsa state, would be beyond the former president's say so. I say so from very informed reality of what is going on in the South-South, and I know that we could win elections in Bayelsa state in the South-South, despite his position one way or the other. But again, I think that he's remaining in the party would play a significant role in our winning. Oppenaba, I'm tossing this back to you. Do you necessarily agree with him in terms of the optics, how he put it? He's also saying that he's certain that the PDP would win elections in Bayelsa state, whether the former president is within the party or not, but that him leaving the party might not necessarily change anything in the life of the party?  And you cannot rule out good-law, good-law president, good-law, good-law, good-law's clout, a new court in Bayelsa state and even beyond. They might not have the kind of clout that the likes of Attiku and Saraki may have, but the truth is you just can't dismiss him. That's the truth about it. I haven't said this. Bayelsa, yes, is today a PDP state because the court said so. Otherwise, Bayelsa would have been an APC state. That's one fact that we should not forget. We must not be oblivious of that fact. The court, Bayelsa, was elected APC state. So it's all about perception with my brother, Dr. Sundar, that it also I agree on that the defection of good-law cannot turn from PDP to APC. Like I said, they might not have the clout of Attiku and Saraki and what they do, but that will definitely impact negatively on the PDP in terms of perception. And like I said earlier, if, for example, you ordinary would have had 10,000 persons voting for the PDP, the defection of good-law Jonathan might reduce the number to about 6,000 or 7,000 persons. Because the impression to be in representation in a lot of people in Israel is that a man like good-law Jonathan who was a president on the ticket of the PDP could defect, it simply means he knows what majority of Nigerians know. And so that might be the winning party. Or that might be a party that will retain power from 2023. So it's all about perception, but that does not in any way make the fact that it's essential, it will automatically never put a signal to failure of PDP. That's not what I'm talking about, but it will definitely impact the PDP negatively. All right, let's move away from that.  They seem to have had the upper hand in terms of those they supported making up the members of the National Working Committee. They seem to, according to a lot of reports that were coming out on the national dailies, to be the stars of the day. We saw the likes of the former vice president, Tatiqo Abubakar, former senate president, former Jigawa state governors, seemingly having a foretaste of what might be happening come 2023 in terms of who's going to fly the flag of the party. Do you see as a state party chairman that maybe the governors might be the determinants of who would emerge as president? I'll ask the question again. I'll ask it again. Can you hear me now? Yes, I can hear you. So I'm saying that the governors of the different states, the governors under the People's Democratic Party seem to have been the stars at the National Convention, being that their members or rather the people that they supported emerged in the National Working Committee. So I'm saying, does this mean that the likes of the former vice president, the former senate president and the former Jigawa state governor are getting a foretaste of what will happen when it comes to picking who will fly the flag for the PDP presidential ticket? Well, if I understand you talking about the powers of the governors and all that, I can only say that that is not even a new thing. Neither is it limited to Nigeria. Governors control significant political control within the areas of their governance, if you like, or their states. Now, back even in the 2023 second election of presidential Bassangio, I'm sure if your memory goes that way back, you will recall the role the governors played in almost cuddling the sitting president's ambition to go back for a second term. That continued to the young adverse immigrants, late young adverse immigrants as president and good luck, young adverse immigrants as vice president. It has been it has been like that. So there is nothing untoward about the role the governors play. And the fact that when they come together, they usually would be the most influential segment of the party in any policy. You take that even to the US and everywhere else, it remains the same. So what is happening is that when the major stakeholders, because the governors are the major stakeholders of the party, when they take a position, it is only fair and natural that the rest of the party will move in that direction because they are like the few commanders of the party in the various states which are the federating units of the country. So it's a natural thing to happen. There's nothing unusual about it. If I understood your question, that's what I can say about that. All right. Let's move away from that. To you, Apunabor, what do you have to note is in the convention is a young man who emerged as the youth leader for the party as opposed to 50-year-olds who normally were youth leaders in the PDP. Many have applauded this saying that going forward maybe a lot more things would change within the party. Does that also one way or the other give an additional plus mark to the PDP in terms of getting more people involved within their party come 2023? Well, it's a step in the right direction. It's something that should be encouraged. Although we still believe that it shouldn't have been restricted to build the national leader, I think so. It's like giving a woman national women leader or something. Of course, you're not going to make a man giving a national women leader. You're going to give it to a woman. So I think, yes, it's in the right direction as against when you have adults, you know, shamefully describing themselves as youth, just perfect in every game. That was quite shameful and embarrassing. So I commend the PDP that today you really have youth as national leader of the youth in the PDP. I mean, I don't say that. I think it should not just be the students who are back for today alone. They should have been given other, even if it's not, let's say, the principal, they could have been given deputy positions. But let us appreciate what they have done, what the people they have done for us. Okay. Mr. Ikem, I think that you're talking what we can't hear you. Mr. Ikem, I'm going to throw the same question to you. I'd like for you to start again because I could hear you, but we couldn't hear you very well. No, I'm sorry about that. Yeah. So I had, yes, go ahead. Go ahead. Yes. We couldn't hear you at all. Yeah. I was talking about the significance of the youth leaders' images on the scene. Yes. As a young man, as a fresh face, as the future of the party that we look up to. Because for many of us, we're a generation that's fast-fading. And so when you begin to see a replacement generation, call me up, God see and articulate. You don't even have any choice than to support. So for many of us, we simply supported even when we had not met him because we liked what we were seeing that the party, our party has a future in a young generation of politicians coming up. I heard you say something about coming to Cross River State. Well, we also know that. Yeah, I said I did extend invitations to him to come to Cross River State so that we can mobilize young men around him so that they can see what is possible. What can be possible in the PDP moving forward. But there seems to be a lot more young people, I might be wrong, participating in politics in Cross River or is that not necessarily the case? Sorry. I think I didn't get the rest. I was asking that are there not more young people participating in politics in Cross River or am I mistaken? Oh, there are very many. I think that if we could present the person of the current national leader of the party to the people of Cross River State, to young people in Cross River State, it will make a whole difference to them. I can say this. By 1998, when PDP was being formed, many children who were being formed that year and even a few years later are eligible voters now. Indeed, like he said in his video, he's only two years older than the PDP. So you can see the significance of that because many of these children have never seen a military regime. Their whole orientation is a global orientation which has no military inclusion in it. And so if you can see one of them promoted to the level of the, I mean to national politics, it should governize their support around the party. That's why I say that's the new face of PDP moving forward. Okay. Mr. Inkotirah, this question is for you quickly. We all know and have watched what's happened between the chairman, the national chairman of your party, the courts, and of course the party leaders. We already saw members of the national working committee, previous national working committee move to the APC and all of the imbroglo that's been going on. Now that the convention has come and gone, what next should we be looking forward to within the party? Let's not forget that there are other pending issues within the party. Mr. Tara, can you hear me? I'm saying that this is public. It's public knowledge. Just before Friday, the case was in court. Mr. Sekandus had said that he was not going to, he was going to stay and wait until the court pronounces, you know, judgment on that issue. But then of course the judgment came on Friday and the PDP was allowed to go ahead with the national convention. So I'm asking again, going forward with all of the issues within the PDP, what does the future hold for the party? Well, like I always say, conflict is a function of interaction. And because man cannot communicate, man is prone to it. The solution is much more than what is seen, even in heaven, there was conflict. So having said this, Mr. Sekandus, it is sad to note that Mr. Sekandus just embarking on what I referred to as academic insight because the court will never ever nullify a convention. First and foremost, as to when the convention was held, there was no court case. PDP won on Friday and on Saturday and Sunday, they had a convention. So as Mr. Sekandus said, we would have a few days here, but I'm not going to be considered today or maybe tomorrow. So I don't see the Supreme Court at all. It's going to be a total other issue to think that the Supreme Court will never nullify it. But it's going to be an academic society that says that those that will come after us to come before me, okay, I am cool, might be the beneficiary of the judgment of the Supreme Court. I don't see Mr. Sekandus being the beneficiary. He's probably just a part-finder. Okay. That's the way I look at it. So the NWC let this person that I've been elected will be in office for another four years, if the governors and other principal actors will allow them to be, if after two or three years, they will not orchestrate the exit. Because what really I won't say is that whenever these leaders are at loggerheads or these leaders are dissent, I would, I would, I imagine you with the, for the governor, then the governors will now use their power to ensure that for straight and eventually remove the leaders. That is what has not necessarily been in the interest of the party. Most of these battles are egocentric battles. They are not necessarily in the interest of the party. They are in the interest of the person, the dramatic specimen, those involved in this trouble. That is the truth about. Okay. Mr. Ikim, can you hear me? Because I want to ask about the PDP in Cross River. We all watched as the, yes, we all watched as the governor of your state moved to the APC and, of course, did not just do that. He took the whole structure of your party, took the party secretary at also over and painted it in colors of the APC. And we saw the two former governors, including former governor Donald Duke, who officially had left the PDP, come back into the party in a bid to rescue the party. So I'd like to ask you, where's the PDP in Cross River states now as we speak? What are your structures like? Have you been able to put your house in order? Thank you. You know what's happening in Cross River states will become a case study for the opposition in several other states. Our house to see the list perfectly in order. Our new, newest senator, the senator representing Cross River North, which is Governor Yardes, Senatorial District and mine. He just had a reception at Uguja over the weekend. And the tunnel was something that became known by everyone as a carnival. And it was almost something you can compare to the national convention that just happened. And the message went out very strong that despite the governor's presence from the north, the north of Cross River state, we are on face. Absolutely. Because the party is growing in bounds and lips in Cross River North. Many people who were in APC returning. Indeed, on that occasion, we received over 5,000, the campus, even though it was merely a church, a Thanksgiving service. And many more people since then have been reaching out to us to go and receive them. So for us, I can say in summary that our structures are in fact, our structures are growing stronger and we look forward to a lot of significance. So you're telling me that one senator moving to the PDP is what determines that your structures are in a good place or in a good place? Is that what you're saying? Because if I remember, former deputy governor has been chairing the committee that is in charge of the party. Now that you have new party leaders, I know that you also emerge as the party chairman, what is the road map? Because of course 2023 is supposed to be what the vision is for every political party. And Cross River has never been in opposition when it comes to the PDP. The PDP has always led the state. But now you are playing the opposition. So what is the plan? Well, we have our plans. I'm not sure our plans are for national television or in the close, but so far so good to see. Like you said, our preparedness for 2023 and completely in total, for lack of what to say, we're going to pretend that the governor is not there. And that's what is happening now. People are doing what they're doing, declaring their interest, showing their support despite him. So for us, he's being there, is not affecting our mobilization, not in the north of Cross River where it comes from, not anywhere else in Cross River state. The reality remains that the governor has failed, and everybody knows it, beginning from his hometown to every part of the state. So we are looking beyond where the governor comes from. We are looking at the two parties comparing the performance, like you said, of the previous two governors with what he has done, which has basically been destroying almost everything that other administrations had been able to accomplish. So we look forward to rebuilding the state, absolutely. And when you talk about Reskin, Nigeria, we talk more about Reskin Cross River state back home. That's where we are. All right. Well, Vanessa, you came is the chairman of the People's Democratic Party in Cross River state. I break your partner and I put up in Kotaia as a former special advisor to the governor of River state. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for speaking with us. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right. We'll take a quick break. Thank you all for staying with us on plus politics. We will be talking about another judge in River state being attacked this time in Abuja. Stay with us.


Congress didn't vote on any of these anti-coal regulations. They came basically from presidential edict, from Barack Obama who said, here's these regulations. They come from unelected bureaucrats, tens of thousands of pages. So like the power plant rule that's putting our utility plants out of business, that was written by unelected officials. That shouldn't happen that way. Laws are supposed to be written by Congress. If you don't like the laws that Congress writes, you can unelect them. But we can't unelect the people who are killing our industry in this state. They're appointed by the president. But if you get a president that would appoint people that were friendly to Eastern Kentucky, friendly to business in general, and I think you really need a balance. I care about the environment as much as anybody, but you also want jobs. So it's a balance of environment and jobs. I think some people in Washington have forgotten how important it is to have a job.


So, in this lecture, we are going to look at the application of first law to combustion systems, basically first law and later on we will look at application of entropy balance also to combustion systems. In both cases, we actually will look at steady flow situations, but as I said before, application of first law to combustion systems which are non-flow systems is really straightforward. Many examples or at least one example of that is given in the textbook. So, I urge you to look at the textbook for that example, because all the examples that we are going to work out here will be steady flow examples. Now, before we can actually start applying steady flow energy equation to combustion systems, we need to revisit the concept of enthalpy as we have done it so far in the previous course as well as up to now in this course. So, you may recall that specific enthalpy h is defined as u plus pv where u is the specific internal energy and pv as you know is equal to RT as long as we take the gas to be perfect gas which obeys the ideal gas equation of state. Now, the specific internal energy for ideal gases is related to the modes of energy storage in molecules. This is something that we that I discussed in detail in the first level thermodynamics course. So, if you are not familiar with this idea, I suggest that you look at the video on pure substances modes of energy storage for ideal gases. So, in compact terms, the modes of energy storage in molecules are translation, rotation and vibration. These are the modes of energy storage that you will see in general. For a monatomic gas for example, there is only translation rotation and vibration are not available for diatomic and polyatomic gases, definitely rotation and vibration or modes of energy storage. Most importantly, the energy stored in these modes is dependent only on the temperature of the gas. And such a gas is typically called thermally perfect because its internal energy is dependent only on the temperature of the gas. So, for our purposes, we have actually simplified this in some instances some more and said that the specific heat capacity Cv or Cp is also a constant and which does not change its temperature that led to the so-called calorically perfect gas model, but that is not necessary. We have also done calculations in this course earlier using variable Cp for air and so on. So, that is a simplification, not necessarily a limitation. So, thermally perfect is adequate, thermally perfect plus ideal gas equation of state is what we prefer to use in this course. Now, we can fully account for energy that is stored in these modes because it is only temperature dependent and in the case of pure substances which are not ideal gases such as water for instance and refrigerant, we resorted to the tabulated form of internal energy because there the specific internal energy is a function of both temperature and pressure. It is a function of temperature only for thermally perfect gases. Now, if you look at the internal energy, it is made of generally we look only at the translation energy stored in translation, rotation and vibrational modes, even vibrational modes are not excited until the temperature, until and unless the temperature is very high, greater than let us say 1500, 1600 Kelvin or so. Now, normally the energy that is stored in the bonds, chemical bonds that make up the molecules is not accounted for. It is somewhat like dead storage in a reservoir or dam and we need not really account for it as long as there are no chemical reactions. For example, we may have O2, N2 and CO2 forming an ideal gas mixture or we may have O2 and N2, it is then mixed with CO2 to form an ideal gas mixture. In all these cases, CO2 remains as CO2, O2 remains as O2 and N2 remains as N2. Or if you consider psychrometry for example, we had moisture which was treated as a mixture of two ideal gases, air and water vapor. But the composition of the water vapor and the air or the individual components in the mixture remain the same, which means that the energy stored in the bonds remains intact and we need not really account for that. Now once chemical reactions begin to take place, we could have a new product species which are formed from the reactant species, which means that bonds in the reactant species are broken and new bonds are formed to create new product species, which means the energy that was stored in the bonds in the reactant species and the energy that goes into the bonds in the product species all has to be accounted for, all have to be accounted for and that is what we are going to do first. So this means that the specific enthalpy, the expressions that we use have to be modified. The definition itself does not change, the definition for specific enthalpy is always h equal to u plus pv. So we need to carefully look at the expression that we have been using and modify it so that we can take into account the energy that is contained in the bonds. Let us see how we do that. So for any chemical species, the enthalpy at a given temperature T is defined to be the sum of the enthalpy of formation, notice that we are encountering this term for the first time. So the enthalpy of formation is denoted hf0 of T rough, f refers to formation and the superscript refers to standard state. Standard state is 298 Kelvin and 1 atmosphere pressure. So the enthalpy at a given temperature is defined as a sum of the enthalpy of formation and a sensible enthalpy denoted delta h bar and again you may recall from the previous course that an over bar is used to denote the fact that this particular quantity is measured on a per k mole basis not per kg basis but per k mole basis so the over bar is used here also. So h bar of T which is a specific enthalpy on a molar basis so this means that this has units of for instance kilo joule per k mole and not the kilo joule per kg that we are familiar with. So h bar of T is a sum of enthalpy of formation plus sensible enthalpy. Notice that sensible enthalpy is a function only of temperature. So what we have been doing so far, what we have been calling enthalpy so far is actually the sensible enthalpy. So this was what we have been calling enthalpy so far but enthalpy is actually the sum of sensible enthalpy plus enthalpy of formation and as long as there are no chemical reactions we can pretty much ignore this and work only with the sensible enthalpy. Now sensible enthalpy is a function of temperature and for combustion calculations what we will do is use table for looking up values of sensible enthalpy. Of course curved field polynomial for Cp bar may also be used and we can then evaluate the sensible enthalpy h bar as Cp bar times T that is possible but we will use tabulated values of the enthalpy itself in this particular course. So that is the most important thing we need to account for the energy that is contained in the bonds of the molecules or the chemical species when we are doing combustion calculation because reactant species are being dissociated or bonds in the reactant species are being broken and bonds are being formed new bonds are being formed to create product species. So basically the enthalpy of formation is nothing but the energy that is is more or less the energy that is contained in the bonds or it is actually the energy that is required to form the species from its constituent elements and it is more or less very close to being the energy that is contained in the bonds as we will show in a minute but strictly speaking it is defined as the energy that is required to form the species from its constituent elements. Let us look at how the energy contained in the bonds how well this approximates the enthalpy of formation. So here is a table containing bond energies of different types of bonds it is a very short list and it contains bonds that we encounter customarily. So you see single bond H H single bond C C and double bond triple bond C C and so on and double bond C O and so on and so forth. So these are bond energies in the gas phase. So let us note a few things about the bond energy bond energy is defined as the energy that is required to break the bond. In other words if I have let us say a vessel which contains H 2. H 2 molecule is nothing but H H the single bond H H. So if I have a container with H 2 then if I supply energy or the energy that I must supply to break the bond or dissociate H 2 into two atoms of H is called the bond energy. So that is the energy that is used to that is required to break the bond and dissociate the molecule and convert it into its constituent atoms and our sign convention for heat given to a system is positive which is why this has a positive sign consistent with the sign convention that we have been following in thermodynamics. If for instance we have a container with let us say atoms of H and we want to form let us say molecules of H then energy must be removed from the system and we must form the bond. So that means energy is released when two atoms of H combine to form a molecule of H 2 that then in that case energy would be negative in keeping with our sign convention. Bond energy for the double bond are then those of a single bond for instance you see here single bond CO has a bond energy of 0.36 times 10 raise to 6 whereas a double bond CO has a bond energy of 0.804 times 10 raise to 6. A single bond CC has an energy of 0.348 times 10 raise to 6 whereas a triple bond CC has an energy of 0.814 times 10 raise to 6. So bond energy constitutes a major part of the energy contained in the molecule you will not go into the details or nuances of this but it constitutes a major part of the energy that is contained in the molecule. And which is why the bond energy is very well approximated or very well approximates the enthalpy of formation. Let us work out a couple of examples to indicate this. Determine the enthalpy of formation of gaseous methane and acetylene that is I will leave it to you as an exercise to do ethylene. Let us do gaseous methane and acetylene. Assume the enthalpy of formation of carbon in the gas phase from the element carbon in the solid phase to be 0.7184 times 10 raise to 6 kj per k bond. So gaseous methane contains four CH bonds. So you may recall that gaseous methane CH4 looks like this. So it contains four CH bonds. So the four hydrogen atoms have to come from breaking down the bonds in a hydrogen molecule. In other words we have to make this reaction happen. So to get the four hydrogen atoms. So two hydrogen molecules have to be broken to get four hydrogen atoms. So energies needs to be supplied for that. So now and the carbon here has to go from the solid phase to the gaseous phase. The energy has to be supplied to take the carbon in the solid phase to the gaseous phase. Now we have a soup of atoms in the gas phase carbon atoms and hydrogen atoms. So four hydrogen atoms will combine with the carbon atom through a CH, each through a CH bond. So that will cause energy to be released. So now we put together all these energies and then calculate the enthalpy of formation approximately of CH4. So here is the energy that needs to be supplied to take carbon in the solid phase to carbon in the gas phase. Notice that this comes with the plus sign because we have to supply energy to do this. This term represents the energy that is required to take to break down two molecules of hydrogen into four hydrogen atoms. Again it is positive because we have to supply energy to do this. So if you look at the previous table, HH has a bond energy of 0.436. So that is the energy that is required to break the bond, HH bond in a hydrogen atom. Now the formation of four CH bonds requires this much energy with a negative sign. Again notice that CH bond requires 0.413 times 10 raised to 6 or CH bond has a bond energy of 0.413 times 10 raised to 6 which means that I need to supply 0.413 times 10 raised to 6 kilo joule per kilo mole to break a CH bond. To form a CH bond I have to remove this much energy that is 0.413 times 10 raised to 6 kj per kilo mole. So or alternatively, stated alternatively when a CH bond is formed from its constituent elements 0.413 times 10 raised to 6 kj per kilo mole of energy is released which is why this goes in with a negative sign. So if you sum it all up we get the bond energy contained in CH4 to be minus 61600 kilo joule per kilo mole. The actual value is minus 74000 kilo joule per kilo mole it is reasonably close. Let us next look at acetylene. So acetylene contains so if you recall acetylene is C2H2. So it contains a carbon-carbon triple bond and two CH bonds single bond. So the two H atoms are or produced by breaking down one hydrogen molecule and the carbon two carbon atoms have to be taken from the solid phase to the gaseous phase. So from this soup of atoms one carbon-carbon triple bond and two carbon hydrogen single bonds have to be formed. So let us calculate the energy associated with each of this bond breaking and bond forming. So this is the energy that we need to supply to break the bond or to dissociate a hydrogen molecule. This is the energy that we need to supply to take two carbon atoms from the solid phase to the gaseous phase and both these terms go with the plus sign. This is the energy that is released when CC triple bond is formed from two carbon atoms and this is the energy that is released when two CH single bonds are formed from the constituent atoms. So the final value comes out to be 232800 kilo joule per kilo mole. This is the energy that is contained in the bonds and you can see that this is reasonably close to the enthalpy of formation of acetylene which is listed at 226736 kilo joule per k mole. So you can see that energy contained in the bonds accounts for most of the energy that is required in forming the species from its constituent elements. Accurate measurements and values are available but this procedure although it is slightly less accurate than the actual values indicates the nature of H of 0. So this shows that H of 0 is largely or the contribution to H of 0 comes largely from the bonds that make up the species. That is the important takeaway from this example. I will I will let you work out the bond energy contained in ethylene C2H4 and compare with the book value or literature value. So now we are in a position to carry out first law analysis of combustion systems. So the most important change that we are seeing here is the definition of is our understanding of the specific enthalpy of species. So far we had basically so far we had neglected H of so basically we had neglected H of so far and we had said that the specific enthalpy of species is simply its sensible enthalpy. So the modification that we are making now is that the specific is that the enthalpy of formation has to be accounted for and we will account for that in our in our expressions and calculations. But the modification to the energy equation or SFE that we derive is nil. So there is no modification to the energy equation that we derived. So whatever we had called enthalpy in our steady flow energy equation is still enthalpy. The only difference is the expression that we use for calculating the enthalpy. In the case of gases we said that enthalpy was equal to the so we said enthalpy was equal to the sensible enthalpy. Now we are saying enthalpy is enthalpy of formation plus sensible enthalpy. So only the expression for calculating enthalpy has changed not the terms that were you know that had enthalpy appearing in them. That is why I said the definition of enthalpy is still h equal to u plus pv nothing has changed that still holds.