Latest / Aired Out / March Madness, MLB, and what you need to know if you live in Barre

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March Madness, MLB, and what you need to know if you live in Barre · Aired Out

• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Egans engineer, Joe Joss statutor doctor at.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: All.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Right, here we go two day or is they like
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: just a brand new day, twenty sixth of the month.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: A couple of birthdays today. And I'll begin by saying, listen,
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: if you know any of these people that I'm about
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: to list off on the birthdays, give them some love,
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: give them a shout out today, maybe share a story
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: about them, but give them some kudos. Top of the list,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Brendan Thompson. And I don't know how old Brenda is today,
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: but I'll find out. She looks so good, stiff Brenda Thompson.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Happy birthday, Crystal Demassey, Barry Chad ben Or, Laura grand
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: Field and Nicky Lynn, Happy birthday to each of you. Man,
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: we are getting close to April. Logan Loose is going
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: to be joining me here momentarily from athletics. Nicholas Strelli,
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Castro our city manager, is going to be swinging by
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: this morning as well, and he's going to give you
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: a couple of a couple of nuggets on what's going
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: on in the city and some really big things. We
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: have a lot to look forward to, we have a
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: lot to be excited about. We got warmer weather coming.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Speaking of witch, let's give you the forecast. It's a
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: little bumpy here, all right, kind of like our roads.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Spring like today, gonna beauty, already beautiful out there. What
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: is it? Forty two degrees right now at nine oh nine?
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Love it spring like? Beautiful day today? Mid fifties. Yes,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: some often on rain showers, but look we're starting out
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: with sunshine, mid fifties. Will take it. Hoping that a
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: little bit more of my floor in my barn will
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: melt so I can start moving all the sand and
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: all the crap out of it. Tonight, rain canna be
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: mixing with snow. We'll get down around twenty five. You'll
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: probably be sleeping by the time it changes over. Not really,
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: you know, you might, depending on where you are, you
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: might wake up tomorrow morning and see some of that
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: shitty snow on the ground. I know this time of year, man,
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: it's like this is when we were like, come on
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: stop it, mother nature, just stop tomorrow. A cloudy start, sunny,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: finish thirty degrees weekend from the front side of it.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Saturday cold twenty eight degrees only for the daytime high
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: with a mix of sun and clouds. And then Sunday,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: still sun and clouds, but a lot warmer, around forty
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: five degrees. This is this is a great time for
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: sports fans who are especially NC double A fanatics March Badness.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: The men's NCUBLEA Sweet sixteen tips off with four games tonight.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: I'll post up the full schedule for you, but man,
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: it is just high tide for March Madness freaks out there.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: And there's plenty of you that are freaks. One of
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: them is Logan Loose.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Putty, Good morning JD. Thank you so much
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: for having me this morning. Thank you.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: Are a March Badness freak. Am I right?
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: That is correct?
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: We are.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: We are half we are halfway there. We are entering
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: tonight the Sweet sixteen. We had a couple of games tonight,
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: and we got some games tomorrow.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: And we get we got some heavy hitters that are
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: still alive. We got Duke, we got Houston, Arizona, Michigan amazing.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: Yep. We would have had Florida, but Iowa, Iowa took
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: care of them for us in a very surprising game.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: With Also another surprising team that's also here too is
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: the Texas Texas being here is also surprising eleventh seed.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: They were able to upset Gonzaga number three Gonzaga. So
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: both Texas and Iowa are in here from crazy upsets
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: and so we got some surprising ones, but we also
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: got teams that we're you know, we're not surprised either.
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: We got some Juggernauts, we got some hidden you know,
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: hidden gems in here. I think this is gonna be
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: a very like, this is gonna be a very interesting
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: March Madness this year. I think it's gonna be very interesting.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, tonight tomorrow you win, You're in the Elite eight.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, my god, this has come down right to it.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: This is where brackets either look amazing or they look
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: like they're a freaking disaster exactly.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: Also, specifically, the game between Nebraska and Iowa is going
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: to be crazy either way because that game. I'm gonna
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: watching that game specifically at seven thirty two, mainly because,
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: like you know, Nebraska has never made it this far.
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: This is the first time in Nebraska's history they have
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: ever been in a Sweet sixteen. They have never they
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: have never in their existence made it this far. So
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: this is huge for Nebraska alone. And then Iowa being
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: here is also like this is huge for them. So
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: both teams, you know, underdogs, you know, hoping to see
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: one team make it out the other and maybe, you know,
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: maybe one of these two teams will make it far,
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: you know, very far.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: But either way, it's just like all these teams look great.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: Michigan, Iowa State, Purdue, Arizona, you know, Houston, like you said,
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Et cetera.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: It just like we got such a huge roster for
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: this this year's Sweet.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Sixteen, and man, Idaho just reminding us that there's never
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: been a perfect bracket and probably never will be. I mean,
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: holy crap, right out of the shoot, man, nobody saw
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: that coming. Say that again, Idaho?
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: What about you mean? Oh, I well, Idaho?
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Idaho was yeah, right out of the beginning, man, when
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: this whole thing started, Holy crap. Yeah, huge, huge upset.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: So so what who are you? Who do you I mean,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: who do you think is gonna take? Who got it last?
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: Last time? It was the Huskies? Right, I think?
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know. So, like the Huskies are playing Yukon.
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Yukon and Michigan State play tomorrow at nine forty five.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: So Yukon is number two in their division, Yukon looks
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: really good too, Yukon. Like the thing is like there's
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: just so many, like, you know, I just see so
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: many you know, one seed, two seed, three seed, four seeds.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: So it's like it's it's really hard to say, JD. Honestly,
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: who's gonna make it out? I mean me personally, I
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: think the team that really has it is like you
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: said before, his Duke, Duke is really, you know, looking
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: really good.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: I think Duke could take it all the way.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: But I also think like a surprising, you know, team
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: that can make it all the way too is like, uh, Tennessee,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: Tennessee sixth seed, they look pretty good too.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: So it's like there's just there's at least.
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: A couple of teams in here. I think that could
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: make it all the way, but there's just so many.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: Like I said, there's just it's hard to say. There's
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: just there's so many juggernauts. So right now, it's like,
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: you know, I think once we get down to the
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: elite eight, I think after you know, after today and tomorrow,
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: we'll have a better understanding of like who's gonna make it.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: But like right now, it's like it's anybody's.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: You know ball game, like because like it it really
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: depends on who comes out in the Yate playing the Mets,
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: because at this point, it's like.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: It just comes down to you gotta win. You just
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: gotta win every single game.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're just gonna keep it. Seven ten tip tonight
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: for Texas and Purdue, Iowain Nebraska, seven uh Arkansas and Arizona,
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: and then the night cap tonight Illinois and Houston. How
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: exciting man, Major League Baseball? Did you get a chance
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: to watch opening daily?
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, Giants to get absolutely shut out by the
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: Yankees in the first game seven to nothing.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Huge, huge, Like.
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: It's just like it's huge for the yank Yankees fans
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: because you know, starting off the season with such a
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: juggernaut of a performance like seven to nothing like that's
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: that's a crazy start to the season. And so yeah, no,
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: that's definitely like it's definitely a statement It's a statement
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: game for sure, you know, just telling people that you know, hey,
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: the Yankees still got it. You know, there's still a
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: big team to look out for this year. You know,
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: a lot of good teams this year. I think you
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: know a lot of you know, obviously Red Sox fans
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: are hoping for a better year this year that last year.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, no, I think I'm excited.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: I'm I'm really excited for the baseball year we're getting started.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Players, players are locked in. Yeah, I mean it's really
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: exciting a lot of guys going to be on the Dodgers,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: the Braves this year. Of course, the Yankees, the Red Sox.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: Of course we have to mention them as well. But man,
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: do you I think the wind will get back in
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: the in the sales for for the Giants?
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: Oh, I think they could. I mean, it's it to
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: be very it's it's literally the first game of the season.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: It doesn't really mean anything, yeah, to be the Giant.
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: The Giants could have lost this game, but then they
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: could they could proceed to win the next three games.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: You know, they're still very high likeliness.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: So it's like, you know, first game of the season
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: doesn't really exactly mean anything, but you know, first game
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: of the season definitely like winning the first game of
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: the season definitely makes your team, you know, really makes
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: people see being like, oh, this team has potential.
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: So I think it's huge, you know for the Giants
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: to start it off, But just what a surprise though,
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: seven and nothing like just shut out a shutout game
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: to start the season.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Hoping to get to the ballpark this year, any ballpark, frankly, anywhere,
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: but mostly the Vermont Mountaineers. I can't wait to just
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: get outside and watch a game and yeah, oh man,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: it's it's just we're just craving it so much. But
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: it was just amazing to see baseball.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: When does the when when does the Mountaineers start their
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: first season game?
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: I believe in I believe in June. Brian Gallagher is
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: going to be in here the general manager. He's going
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: to be coming in real, real soon, and we're going
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: to be talking about a lot of stuff, a lot
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: of stuff, including how Vermonas can can get more involved
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: with the Mountaineers and help out in a couple of
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: different capacities. But it's just going to be I'm just
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: so excited for I really am right.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: I want to I want to do I mean too
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: because like I mean, like I didn't go last year,
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: but I think I want to at least try to
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: attempt to get to a game or two for the
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: Mountaineers this year. I think I'm going to try to
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: at least make a couple because I didn't have a
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: chance last year, but this year I might have.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Some more free time, so I'm hoping to making games.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: I know that you're a big NBA guy. I know
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: that you're an NC double A guy. I know I
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: know that you love Major League Baseball. But we're a
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: couple of weeks away from the NFL draft. Logan loose.
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, well, actually less we have less. We are
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: twenty eight twenty nine days counting.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: How many hours that I don't know.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: I'd have to google it. But but either way, I'm
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: super excited. There's so many well it's it's gonna be
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: such a good draft class we.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: Have for starters, we have so many, like you know,
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: so many cornerbacks that are looking crazy, but like running
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: backs look great this year too. Like the one position
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: though that's surprising, like doesn't have a lot coming out
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: of it is the quarterback besides besides uh, Fernando men Mendoza,
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: which if you don't know yet, Fernando Mendoza is like
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: a huge, huge prospect coming out of college and he's
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: expected to get signed overall number one with the Raiders.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: It looks like the La Raiders are probably going to
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: draft him number one. It would be surprising if they don't.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Honestly, Yeah, there's a there's a couple of teams that
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: are at the top looking for some some franchise changers,
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: and man, this is where franchises are built or or
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: set back many years. It's going to be really interesting
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: to see what happens. And I just I always learn
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: so much from you about this. I mean, quarterbacks always
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: going to dominate the conversation here. All eyes are going
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: to be on what's going to be coming down. But
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: you know, big big changes coming. I'd be remiss if
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: if I if I forgot to ask you. And I
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: know that we're talking about football here, but I meant
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: to ask you what you think about the whole technology
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: behind what's coming with these the robots, if you will,
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: of what's happening in Major League Baseball with with pitching.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: And I don't know if you're following this, man, but
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: it's there's some new technology that's kind of taken the well.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: I know that there was I don't know. I don't
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: know about pitching. I don't know about that, but I
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: do know I will say though we can come back
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: to it, but I do know that they're like talking about,
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: you know, developing.
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: Cameras, like motion cameras that can like you know, track
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: the players instead of like having you know, real people
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: controlling the cameras, so then like you know, the cameras can.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Be as accurate as possible. I've heard about that, but.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: In terms of no, I don't know, like, are you
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: talking about like the batter's box.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like yeah, oh, I see, okay.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's well, there's a lot of there's a lot
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: of fans that are pretty worked up about this. Mm hmm,
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: you know, and I know we can't really avoid technology
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: and development.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: My my opinion on my opinion about AI in sports
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: is like I think AI is one of those like
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: I think people hate AI in general because of like
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: what it can do and can't do. Now, the thing is,
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: like AI being in sports isn't not a bad thing,
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: I think, because like, you know, unless you're.
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: Blatantly building a robot, which they're not. But still the
• 17:10
  Speaker 6: AI is helpful because AI can help us be more
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: accurate in terms of stats. It can be more accurate
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: in terms of that.
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: But I think my thing with AI is like, you know,
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: if it's used in the wrong manner the wrong way.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Then it's not as cool. But if it's being.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: Used properly, like you know, if it's being used to
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: better you know, make things better, then then I would
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: say it's being used.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: In the right direction.
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: But if it's you know, if it's being used for
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: stupid things like cheating for example, Like if it's like,
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: you know, if they're using it for cheating, then it's
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: like then you know, maybe that the NBA, the MLB,
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: you know, whatever is, whatever program is using it, they
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: should definitely look into it more and you know, discuss
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: ways of how to prevent it from doing things they
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: don't want done.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: So it's hard to say, yeah, but I think I
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: think AI can be helpful.
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: It's just but it depends on like the manner it's
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: being used in, because if it's not being used for
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: anything logical.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Then it's like, why are we using it in the
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: first place.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's uh, there's some some real diehards out there
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: who are I would say, you know, my age or
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: or maybe a little bit older. We're having a real
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: problem with AI and and how it could be changing
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: sport of baseball, you know, predicting pitch sequences in real time.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is I don't know, man, Well.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: It's hard to say because even like as smart as
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: AI is, like it doesn't you know, it doesn't always
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: like you know, it's not always accurate.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: Like because like to be fair, I just saw something
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: either a couple of days ago or last week about how.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: A group tried to.
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: Use AI to answer like scientific questions on like medical science,
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: like stuff about like health and some of that nature.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: And even with that being said, the AI still was
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: not one hundred percent accurate. It was pretty accurate, It
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: had pretty good you know database, but it wasn't one
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: hundred percent accurate.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: And so the thing is, like, you know, it's like
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: it's the That's the thing about AI is we have
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: to understand is like you know, developing, you got to
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: treat it. You got to treat it like it's an
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: actual baby. You know. You can't, you know, hand a toddle.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: You can't hand a toddler TV remote and expect it
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: to know how to.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Switch the channel. But if you teach it to switch
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: the channel.
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: Then it'll get better, it'll get smarter, and it'll understand better.
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: So I mean, like I said before, it really depends
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: on how they use it. But you know, if they,
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: like you said, if they're if they're gonna use AI
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: for predicting pitches, using AI to predict you know, uh,
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: to accurately determine miles per hour on pitching speeds, all
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: that stuff, swing path, all that stuff, swing path like
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: you know, the direction the actual bat is going. But
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: the thing is, I don't really see the point of
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: them using AI for that because you already have like
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: that's the whole point of why people go to school. Like,
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: you have people who are going to school for you know,
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: baseball analytics or like baseball stat you know, you have
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: people who are going to school for that or going
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: to college for that kind of stuff. And so it's
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: like it would really defeat the purpose of people getting education,
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: you know, paying for education for this if you're just
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: gonna replace them with you know, artificial intelligence.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Or it just doesn't make any offense. It makes Yeah,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: it doesn't really makes sense.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Well, listen, man, it's going to be an interesting year
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: for for It's going to be an interesting year for
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: sports period.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: But before don't don't forget too.
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: We got the besides all so the draft and everything,
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: we also have the NBA playoffs will be starting less
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: than a month.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: We've got less than a month before that.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: Shame on me for forgetting that.
• 21:28
  Speaker 7: It's okay, hey, but either way, we're it's just like
• 21:31
  Speaker 7: right now is a perfect time for sports because you know,
• 21:34
  Speaker 7: since the since the Super Bowl, this is you know,
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: a good time.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Like you know, like you said, the NFL Draft is
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: coming up.
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: We're gonna see the young young kids, you know, joining
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: their teams. We got the playoffs coming, you know in
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: we've got Mars Madness halfway through.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: You know, so we got right now is a great.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: Time for sports, and so it's a perfect time to
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: you know back and turn on your.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: You know sports sports you know shows, or.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: You know, tune in here, tune into the athletics podcast,
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: or tune in the air and out with JD. You know,
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: yeah you here.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: I look forward to h to chatting with you more.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Logan for for popping on this morning.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: And yeah man, and you know, just remember as a
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: as a baseball fan, it's it's not just about uh,
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: what's what's happened, It's about what's going to happen. It's
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: about what's about to happen. And yeah, man, I mean,
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: there's there's no tapping the brakes to AI and it's
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: going to be changing, not just Major League Baseball as
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: a sport, but it's going to be creeping its way into, uh,
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: into everything. I hope you're off to a great start
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: this morning. Again, we're about forty two degrees here on
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: North Main Street in Barry on the twenty sixth of March,
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: almost April. We're gonna shift gears here and bring on
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: our city manager, Nicholas Starelli Castro, who's sitting right next
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: to me here on the couch. Good morning, my friend,
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: how are good morning? Been a while, man, It has
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: been a while, and I think it's we should begin
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: by saying, it's really nice to walk down North Main
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Street and not be freezing your asshole. It's very nice,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: very nice. I love it. I love seeing some sun.
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: You know, it's nice to you know, maybe we're we're
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: finally turning the corner. No more parking bands, no more plowing.
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: Hopefully are we still alive?
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: God? I speaking of the the the parking bands UH
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: regroup was so instrumental this past winter, more than yeah,
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: the one before. I mean, we just knew what was happening,
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: and we have plenty of time advanced notice to get
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: our vehicles moved up to the auditorium so that we
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: didn't get towed. But those emergency parking bands, and there
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: were a good number of them too.
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: We used it a lot this year, a lot of plowing,
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: especially remember I mean back to December. Remember how heavy
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: December was with the snow, A lot of snow and
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: it wasn't just a storm.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: Seeing there was snow removal. Yes, well, yeah, it has.
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: A lot of snow removal. I mean I remember earlier
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: in the season we were out of salt. I mean
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: everyone was out of everyone, So, yeah, it was it
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: was a tough It was a tough winter. You know,
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: our cruise did a good job getting us through it.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: But yeah, Regroup is is it's it's easy, it's free.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: You know. The beauty.
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: I know people still have Vermont VT alerts, but the
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: beauty about Regroup is it's specific to Bury. I don't
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: know about other people's experience with VT alerts, but mine.
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: You know, I inherited a phone from the city that
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: had VT alerts for the whole state. So when I
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: would get the messages, it's like, you know, lam Oyl
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: County traffic.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: What do I care about lam Oil traffic County? Right?
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: But now when I get the regroup, I know it's
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: specific to me. It's about my where I live, it's
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: about where I work. So and it's easy. It comes
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: right to your phone. You don't have to go looking
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: for it.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: So right and as fast as you guys were getting
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: the information, the public was Yeah, I mean I can
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: I can be.
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: There's been situations where I'm out to uh, you know,
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: at a hockey game with my kids, out to dinner
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: with my family, I get a notification from our public works,
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: from police department, whoever, that we got to send out
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: an alert. I can do it right for my phone.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it is. It is.
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: It is basically mass texting the city. Yes, right from
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: my phone, which is which is great.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: So there's no delay on it. It's it's just it's
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: the way to go. Good push information. Man. What do
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: you have for us today? There's a lot of stuff
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: going on into the city, and it's just said this morning,
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: there's a there's a lot of really great things that
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: are going to be coming up this spring and this
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: summer here in perry Man. I mean not just the
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: Heritage Festival, but so many other things.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: A lot of stuff going. It's gonna be a it's
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: gonna be a busy season. I mean number one on
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: the dock. It is. Council met on Tuesday, and we
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: seem to be done with the city budget, which is
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: good news. Looking at fifteen point eight million bucks of
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: a general fun budget, it's about seven percent increase on expenses,
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: only expected to be five percent increase on the taxi side,
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: because we're generating revenue with non tax things, fees, state revenue,
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: things like that, so that you know that comes up.
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: May Town meeting day now is May for us, so
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: May twelfth, voters will go to the polls to wait
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: on our budget, which is you know, it's the most
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: important thing we do every years. It sets the priorities,
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: it allocates resources, It lays the path for the year ahead.
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: A lot of exciting things in it. We are restoring
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: the bees program, which I know is was a favorite
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: of a lot of longtime Bary residents. The police, downtown patrols.
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: We are rebuilding the recreation department. We had to you know,
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: take cuts out of there in the lean years after
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: the flood to make our budgets balance, but we're now
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: in a position where we can rebuild it a little
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: bit and we've been doing some great things up there
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: on the hill. You know, we have a little bit
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: of something for everybody. We have cherir yoga, we have
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: you know, mocktails and painting events for you know, for
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: families come in with their kids too. You know, there's
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: an artist there who guides you through a you know,
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: a portrait for the day and you get some mocktails
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: with it.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: So these great, great.
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: Things to keep families busy. You know, the bo R
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: was busy as ever this year. We had the Coyotes
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: up on the hill for you know, their first and
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: their first season. Now we have the Turf down on
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: the bo R, which is season three of Turf I
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: believe we're at and it.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: Keeps getting busier and busier.
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: We've actually I encouraged people to look at it for
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: birthday options, so we've actually reduced the rental rate if
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: you're renting it for birthday party, we've reduced that rate
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: to make it affordable for people. You know, you don't
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: have to you know, haul your family to get air
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: and williston to do a birthday party. You can just
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: bring them right here. We'll get the soccer nets out,
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: bring the balls and let them run around. Yeah, let
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: them run around.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: So great. That's where I do my kids' birthday parties.
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: So yeah, so recreation departments back, the bees are back,
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: and you know, we funded our partners. We have some
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: really good partners in the city. The Aldrich Library fully
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: funded by the city this year. Very Area Development which
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: is doing great work, also fully funded by the city
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: this year, as was the partnership. And you know, Tracy
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: does a great job downtown. So a lot of good
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: things to like in the budget.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: The thing that also people want to know about is
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: the paving. The paving is funded separately as a separate article.
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: I think we're very excited that, you know, Mayor los
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: On sort of spearheaded the push for increasing the paving
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: allocation up to eight hundred thousand dollars, which is a
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: very significant increase. And we have you know, last year
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: we did a lot of paving. We know there's more
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: to do on the docket for this year. Camp Street,
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: lower Camp Street, which is in pretty rough shape. Auditorium Hill,
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: so when you head up Seminary Street up to the auditorium,
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: the front of the auditorium where a lot of people
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: come for our events, where people go to vote. You know,
• 29:06
  Speaker 5: that's a that's an important part to make sure that
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: it's it's it's in good shape. And then we're getting
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: into some side streets Spaulding Street, Plane Street, Warren Street Planes,
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: Did I say a plane?
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: So we're we're making progress and we're gonna look to
• 29:20
  Speaker 5: expand that with this extra two hundred thousand dollars that's
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: coming in.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: We've had I've had questions about Air Street.
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: Yes, air Street is in very bad shape. But Air
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: Street is also associated with a water main project that's
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: in the million dollar range that we're looking to get
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: funded next year. So we don't want to pave airs
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: until we can do that water main project. But that's
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: that should be in the next year or so timeframe.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Last time you were in here, I remember you listen,
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: We're always going to be talking about the roads. Yeah,
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: are Our community is always talking about the roads. And
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: I should say in it's not just complaints. It's also
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: kudos to dp W Cruise for doing what they can. Yeah,
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: but what they can in the middle of February. Ye,
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: but one of the things that you one of the
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: points that you made last time you were in the
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: air here is that some of these streets are are
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: state roads. Yeah, and you've got your your you've got
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: your hands. Yeah, absolutely so.
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: So the ones that we hear about the most Main Street, Washington, Maple,
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: South End, Comby's South End Combies, those so those are
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: you know, main Street right now where we're at. We
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: we actually if people remember, uh, I think two years
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: ago there were the goalies here. We took care of
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: those right in our core downtown where people would come
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: and shop and eat and visit. And when you try
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: to I don't know if you remember when you try
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: to cross the crosswalk, it was you had to be
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: careful on your footing because otherwise you take a you
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: take a header.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we graded it down. We took out those hills.
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: It'd actually helped for flood mitigation because water would pool
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: there and as cars drove up, they would they would
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: they would send the water up to the storefronts. We
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: did the Yeah, the South End combies we paved because
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: that was becoming dangerous. We would you know, I took
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: the state there, I took aot there. I said, you
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: stand here with me and you watch as cars coming
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: down with veer onto the oncoming traffic to avoid the
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: crevices the canyons.
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: So, but those streets are you know, these are state roads. Now.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: I do have good news about that. The state.
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: The initial when I when I started this job, the
• 31:37
  Speaker 5: state was planning to come in to repave these in
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: twenty seven. They pushed that out to twenty thirty. I
• 31:44
  Speaker 5: heard yesterday from the state. They're looking to do at
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: least some of these projects in twenty eight. That's still
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: two years away. That's better than twenty thirty. It's not
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: as good as twenty seven. But you know, you take
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: it where you can. You take your victories where you can.
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: I don't know if that's the full extent of the paving.
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: I don't know if it's just main Street. I don't
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: know if it's just what I don't know.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: They're roads. We're talking about state roads.
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: And yeah, and so when you know, when we look
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: at our paving plan, you know, and I try to
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: be creative with this. When we looked at what streets
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: to pay, we looked at, you know, let's do from
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: City Hall on South Main Street to Air Street intersection,
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: which is one of the worst stretches.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's a state responsibility.
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: We called AOT and we said, hey, what if we
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: pave that this year, and when you guys come in
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: to do your paving, you pave Elm Street and Summer Street,
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: which is about the same distance. They can't do it
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: because those aren't state roads, so they can't get federal match.
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: So we're trying to be creative. And I know that
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: the most complaints we get are about those state roads
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: because if you look at our you know the paving
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: we've done. You know, Prospect is done, Allen is done,
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: Berlin is done, Farwell is done. Prospect was, Prospect was huge.
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: I mean we've done a lot. You know, Camp will
• 33:03
  Speaker 5: be done next year. So the main Cassie's done. You
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: know a lot of these main Quarry Street, Quarry Hill,
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: remember how bad that was. So a lot of these
• 33:13
  Speaker 5: main thoroughfares that people are are are using to get
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: to and from home have been taken care of. The
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: ones that aren't in great shape now are really the
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: state ones. And what we're trying to do now, you know,
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: when we when we put our paving plan together, we're
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: we're now starting to get into the smaller neighborhood streets
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: because we've taken care of the farewells of the of
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: the world, the prospects of the world. So yeah, and look,
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: we we we feel it just like everyone else's. I
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: live here, I live here, I got to drive to
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: work here, I gotta drive.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: I drive my kids around here.
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: You know, our our our cars, our city fleet takes
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: a beating on these roads. You know, we're we're right
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: there with everybody. We want these roads paved. The issue
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: now is that the ones that are left are really
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: the state road and you know, should we put money
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: at them? That's a that's a question, that's a policy question.
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: Should we throw money at something that the state should
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: be fixing when when we don't have an unlimited pot
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: of funds, Right, That's that's a fair question.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: I think bumps and potholes, it's it's part of living
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: in Vermont and we all know that. But what if
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: somebody is like, oh my god, there's a crater that's
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: on Hill Street, which there is possibly, uh, that is
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: a rim breaker. What did they What should they do?
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: Should they pick up the phone?
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: Should yeah, call pick up the phone, call my office,
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: call public Works. There's the feedback form on the website.
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: We look at those, you know, and I'm I'm one
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: of the you know, I'm I'm like a residence. When
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: I see you know, when I see that driving, I
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: think I've reported the Hill Street one. I call public
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: Works and I say, hey, when the guys are out,
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: they got to make a stop here, yea. And so
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: that's import that's how we that's how we know where
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: to send our guys to go do that that patching work.
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: So yeah, we you know, it's not going to offend us,
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: it doesn't bother us. We you know, it's good for
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: it's good for us to know where they're, where they're emerging.
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: And and when our guys are out doing patching, they
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: have a list, you know, that's that's created from from
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: those calls. You know, they're not out they can't be
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: out doing it every day, but when they're out there
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: doing it, they have that you know, that information that
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: that we collect from myself from from residents.
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: Right and and d p W Man these guys and gals,
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: big kudos to them. They're they're busting ass. I mean,
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: they're fixing water main breaks in the middle of the winter.
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: And crazy hours. They're just they're doing the best they can. Yeah,
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: they are. It's it's tough work. It's real tough work.
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: They you know, they they they put in long hours.
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: They're coming off the toughest time of the year with them,
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: you know when they're when when we have these parking bands,
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: that means they're out plowing overnight. Yeah, and that doesn't
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: mean that the work goes away in the morning. A
• 36:03
  Speaker 5: lot of them have to come in to keep keep
• 36:05
  Speaker 5: going in the morning. Yeah. So it's Yes, it's brutal work.
• 36:08
  Speaker 5: Which one of the nice things is we're you know,
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: we're making progress on getting them up to the new
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: garage we have. You know, last November we got the
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: bonds approved for the public works garage that we bought
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: up in Barry Town. We got our DRB approvals from
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: barry Town. This winter, we have to go through an
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: Act two fifty hearing. But we are, we are making
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: progress and we we should be. You know, we'll be
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: moving dirt up there sometime this spring. We're actually taking
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: we've owned the building, uh for some time now. O'Reilly
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: was still there. We're actually O'Reilly's vacating it. We're actually
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: taking full possession of it on Tuesday, the thirty first,
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: is their last day up there, So we've been up
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: there making sure they're clearing out, and yeah, it's exciting.
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's just just great to know that we're
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: so close to getting things moving up there and getting
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: these guys out of this this garage a're on Burnham
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: Street up to a much nicer location on the hill.
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: Any any developments on the water treatment plant.
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah, the water So the headworks for the water treatment plant.
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: That's the big project we have going there. That's it
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: about ninety percent designed, so they have to go through
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: the engineering design phase. They're about ninety percent of the
• 37:18
  Speaker 5: way done with a you know, that's sort of an
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: engineering benchmark. And so what will happen next is we'll
• 37:25
  Speaker 5: go out to bid probably in May. We'll do the
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: bidding for that and then we'll be breaking ground right
• 37:31
  Speaker 5: after those bids come back. So wow, that's huge, that's
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: you know, and we talked a lot, I know, we
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: you know, the headworks is the incoming the intake of
• 37:40
  Speaker 5: the plant, and the headworks at the plant at our
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: plant has really never had any improvements main since it
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: was put in and the problem is that it's it's
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: failing and so it's letting in material and grit and
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: all sorts of things that then clog up the rest
• 37:55
  Speaker 5: of the system, which takes time and energy and money
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: to fix. And those systems are failing, and so we
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: we can't make other improvements to the plan that we
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: plant that we know need to happen until we fix
• 38:08
  Speaker 5: the headworks. Any money we would put into the plant
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: now elsewhere, we might as well just dump into the
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: headworks because it would be for not right, It's it's
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: until that headworks is done and modernized, we can't really
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: make those improvements to the rest of.
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: The plant that we know need to go in there. So,
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: speaking for the community, and and they're asking, because I
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: see it, when are things going to start smelling better
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: over there? I mean that's you know, I mean, that's
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: the they understand all all of this stuff. Bottom line though,
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: when when is when are things gonna smell better at
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: the north end? I think we're we're a couple of
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: years out. I mean.
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: The the problem with the smell issues, and I know
• 38:50
  Speaker 5: it's it's worse at different times of the year, is
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: that that's really with the digesters and the flare right,
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: and so when when the the digesters are basically next
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: in line after the headworks is done, right, there's no
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: sense in us doing anything at the digesters until the
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: headworks is done because the diget. What happens at the
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: digesters is they get they get clogged with you know
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: those wipes that we talked about that people shouldn't be
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: using because even if they say flushable, they're not, they're not.
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: And so those kinds of things and I think I
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: think I posted pictures at one point when we were
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: looking at the bond of the mounds of rags that
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: the guys had to take out of the system is
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: you know, gross and just bad. So so once the
• 39:36
  Speaker 5: headworks is in place and done, we can start making
• 39:39
  Speaker 5: those improvements to the digesters. We can make improvements to
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: the flair system. Now, I will say, you know, we
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: have some great leadership over at the wastewater treatment plant.
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: Now we've been making some huge strides. I can't remember
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: if we talked about it, but we the council approved
• 39:55
  Speaker 5: last year or two years ago, they approved us building
• 39:59
  Speaker 5: a roof over the sledge bunker, which is saving us
• 40:03
  Speaker 5: tons of money. And I think this is This is
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: interesting and just a good a good story about how
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: creatively the staff down there thinks to save money. So
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: we take the sludge that's created and it gets dried
• 40:17
  Speaker 5: out and it gets shipped to Canada. And before we
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: put this roof on it, we would have it they're
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: sitting drying and to try to get the moisture out,
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: because we pay by the weight by the ton, right,
• 40:32
  Speaker 5: so that the more water that's in there, the more
• 40:34
  Speaker 5: expensive it is. Sure, So we'd have it sitting there drying,
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: and then we'd get a rainstorm, right, and that would
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: undo backwards everything that we had done to try to
• 40:44
  Speaker 5: dry it out. So we build a you know, I
• 40:47
  Speaker 5: think it was forty thousand dollars roof and now all
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: it does is it keeps the rain out. So now
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: when we dry the sludge, it stays dry. We're saving
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: tons of money on shipping this stuff to Canada because
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: you know, simple idea, right, but you got to spend
• 41:02
  Speaker 5: a little money to save some money. And just just
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: a small example right of of what they're doing down
• 41:08
  Speaker 5: there to find ways to save money and to be
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: more efficient and to not pay to ship water rainwater,
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: which is what we were doing. We were paying basically
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: to ship rainwater to Canada. So just an example of
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: the things they're doing down there to make things, you know,
• 41:23
  Speaker 5: more efficient.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: And I actually had a couple of listeners questioning and saying,
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: come on, JD, are you making this up? What the
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: hell's going on with this public nudity ordinance in the
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: city of Barry.
• 41:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, come on, what's going on? You know we're tackling
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: the big issues of the day, JD.
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: You know, you know us.
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: So what did we had. There's a new cab driver
• 41:59
  Speaker 5: in Saint Albans. Yes, the new cab driver in Saint
• 42:02
  Speaker 5: Alban's called Berry City Clerk's office several times saying.
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: I'm on my way, just want to make it give
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: you a heads up.
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: By the way, he said, I'm coming and naked. Yeah,
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: to start my permitting process in Berry City. So this
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: happened while I was in Australia, so I didn't I
• 42:22
  Speaker 5: didn't catch up on this until I got back.
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: You didn't get a phone call in Australia.
• 42:28
  Speaker 5: No, this didn't rise to the top of the list.
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: This didn't didn't didn't rise to that level. So new
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: taxi driver from St. Albans wants to start doing new
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: taxi service in Berry. We get together, we say, you know,
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: I don't know, let's maybe get ahead of this one.
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: So in Vermont, you know, the rule, the state law is,
• 42:52
  Speaker 5: you're allowed to be out in public in the nude.
• 42:56
  Speaker 5: You're not allowed to disrobe if you exit your home. Dude, dude,
• 43:00
  Speaker 5: it's okay, you can't disrobe in public.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: Right, So we thought, you know what, let's just get it.
• 43:07
  Speaker 5: Let's just get ahead of it before before there's a
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: hubbub and we're reacting to it and this guy's already licensed,
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: and you know, and we have an incident or we
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: have a situation or whatever, and so it was just
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: a matter of you know, let's let's let's be ahead
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: of the curve and let's just say, you know what,
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: we're not interested in that stuff in Berry City probably
• 43:30
  Speaker 5: worth more trouble than it's you know, than value added
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: to the community. Sure, so we you know, we looked
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: this guy up in Saint Albans. Apparently he does door
• 43:40
  Speaker 5: dash also, which you know, let's just not cross that bridge.
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: But yeah, we we we looked at you know, Burlington
• 43:48
  Speaker 5: had taken the step last fall of of a public
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: nudity ordinance, and so we said, you know what, this
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: is a good model for us. Thank god they vetted it.
• 43:58
  Speaker 5: You know, we were able to take their language. And
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: you know, Carol Dawes, very helpful as always, came to
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: me and said, you know, when I was on the council,
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: we passed an ordinance that said that any nude performers
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: have to be within it cannot be within three feet
• 44:12
  Speaker 5: of the audience. And so we already have a history
• 44:16
  Speaker 5: of regulating nudity and so this this fits within the
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: infrastructure of our existing ordinances to handle this. Now, I
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: will say, you know, I know Montpelia has a naked bike.
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: Right now, Yes they do. I think it's in may
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: I believe. So my personal I've always wanted to do it.
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: I well, just kidding.
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: My personal opinion is biking with all the gears and
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: the chains and the nude doesn't seem like great idea.
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: But if that, if someone were so inclined to have
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: a nude bike rayson Berry City, it's allowed. You could
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: get permitted, right so we allowed we left room in
• 44:55
  Speaker 5: the ordinance for a permitted event, and that would be
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: certainly a decision a city council make if they so
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: chose to have a nude bike ride or a nude
• 45:04
  Speaker 5: five k race. I don't you know whatever it is, Yeah,
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: that's that would be permissible with a permit. We just
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: I think it's fair to say, you know, if you
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: if you step into a taxi cab, clothing should.
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: Not be optional. You know. That's that's our position. I
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: know we're on a ledge here, but you know, you
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: know the thing is, man, it's like, it's this, it's
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: the city manager. You guys just have so many bigger
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: fish to fry right now than to be thinking that
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: this this kind of stuff. Yeah, this wasn't this is
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: you did on the bingo card. You didn't see this
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: one coming, didn't They.
• 45:48
  Speaker 5: Didn't didn't train me for this one at grad school.
• 45:51
  Speaker 5: Wasn't a seminar on dealing with public nudity ordinances.
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: You know. And and here's the thing, And I'm not
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: a nudist, but if I if I was, I don't
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: know that I would leave my house nude and and
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: come into Berry City or anywhere. Frankly, uh that Vermonors
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: would would that would be well received, especially you know,
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: around their kids or whatever, at the farmer's market or whatever.
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: I would be fearing for my life. Yeah.
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: I think it's you know, that's why we thought it
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: was good to get ahead of it. Right Let's let's
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: let's just let's just let's just nip this in the
• 46:37
  Speaker 5: bud right now and not not deal with it after
• 46:41
  Speaker 5: we have an incident, and let's just stake our position
• 46:45
  Speaker 5: on this public policy debate right.
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: Now, right now. Yeah. It's you know, there's there's a
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: how you all keeping a straight face at city council.
• 46:54
  Speaker 5: It was you know, it was hard, especially with the
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: police chief in front of me, uh, you know, trying
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: to do his best. I you know, I I advised
• 47:01
  Speaker 5: him no puns. I think he got one in there
• 47:04
  Speaker 5: about exposure, but uh, you know, I I don't know.
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: He couldn't help himself. This is yeah, this and the
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: temperatures have not been conducive no for this. No, No, yeah,
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: not at all.
• 47:18
  Speaker 5: No, it was but no, it's you know, it's just
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: it's just I think it was the right thing to do,
• 47:25
  Speaker 5: and I would say the council unanimously approved it. So
• 47:27
  Speaker 5: I think we're we're we found some common ground, you.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: Know, has there been anyone that has reached out to
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: to you or your office and been on the other side,
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: hey pro pro nude. No, No, they haven't, not one.
• 47:43
  Speaker 5: But I will say I I will need the IT
• 47:46
  Speaker 5: guy to check my computer because I did have to
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: google the new taxi driver in Saint Albans to do
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: research on what was going on up there. So I,
• 47:54
  Speaker 5: you know, I did let Chris know that you had
• 47:58
  Speaker 5: to google that I did. And if there's repercussions of that,
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: you know, you.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: Just said it unaired out. You're being so transparent about
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: this right now. This is this is important. Yeah, wow,
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: anything else we have budget otherwise.
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: So Steven's Branch apartments on Seminary Street also moving along. Yeah,
• 48:20
  Speaker 5: talking to all the time with fantastic partners. Just love
• 48:24
  Speaker 5: working with them. You know, they are doing the small
• 48:28
  Speaker 5: things now. They're doing we're talking easements with the landowners
• 48:31
  Speaker 5: that are abudding. We're talking they're doing some electrical utility work.
• 48:35
  Speaker 5: The bids came back that'll be on the council agenda
• 48:38
  Speaker 5: on April seventh for the construction to do the improvements there.
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: So things are happening.
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: You know, we got the Grand Awards from cdb G
• 48:47
  Speaker 5: d R, the disaster recovery, for Prospect heights, for the
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: Harrington Avenue debris racks, for storm water planning. We're doing
• 48:56
  Speaker 5: a lot of a lot of good stuff, and I
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: think we're right on the cospit. You know a lot
• 49:02
  Speaker 5: of these things getting shovels in the ground to make
• 49:05
  Speaker 5: them happen. So, you know, a lot of good stuff
• 49:08
  Speaker 5: out there. Council has been very busy. I think we've
• 49:12
  Speaker 5: had some good, good conversations about the you know, the progress.
• 49:16
  Speaker 5: I think a lot of different opinions on the council,
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: but I really like that on the big things there
• 49:21
  Speaker 5: seems to be a lot of alignment, like on the
• 49:23
  Speaker 5: flood recovery projects, on Stevens Branch apartments, project, on the wastewater,
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: on the budget. You know, the budget has been it's
• 49:33
  Speaker 5: never an easy process, but I will say there was
• 49:35
  Speaker 5: a lot of consensus. I think the the one area
• 49:38
  Speaker 5: that I may have ruffled some feathers is I proposed
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: a cut to Green Mountain Transit. Ye right about that,
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: And yeah, they they came in. You know, we gave
• 49:48
  Speaker 5: him an opportunity to come in to make their case.
• 49:51
  Speaker 5: And my my rationale was you know, we contribute thirty
• 49:55
  Speaker 5: eight thousand dollars and change to Green Mountain Transit every year.
• 49:58
  Speaker 5: We've done that for god knows how long. I looked
• 50:02
  Speaker 5: at their local assistance contributions and Waterbury is contributing twenty
• 50:05
  Speaker 5: three hundred, two thousand, three hundred dollars, and I said,
• 50:08
  Speaker 5: that doesn't look right to me. You know, Waterbury has
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: a lot of service, they have a link bus to Burlington,
• 50:17
  Speaker 5: they have internal routes. Why are they paying two thousand,
• 50:21
  Speaker 5: three hundred and we're paying thirty eight thousand.
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: And so.
• 50:26
  Speaker 5: Green Mountain Trains that acknowledged that there's some inequity. They're
• 50:30
  Speaker 5: going to try to make sure that those local allocations
• 50:33
  Speaker 5: are more accurate. And I said, look, we'll restore the funding.
• 50:38
  Speaker 5: You got to make progress on that, because if you
• 50:39
  Speaker 5: don't make progress on that, I'm just going to propose
• 50:41
  Speaker 5: the cut next year. There's no reason we should be
• 50:44
  Speaker 5: paying that much more than Waterbury at this point. And
• 50:48
  Speaker 5: and you know it's not my job to advocate for Berrytown,
• 50:50
  Speaker 5: but barry Town pays five thousand dollars double what Waterbury Waterbury,
• 50:56
  Speaker 5: and I you know, you can argue. We can argue
• 50:58
  Speaker 5: about whether Berry City has more ridership or need than
• 51:02
  Speaker 5: Waterbury for the buses. I think it's pretty clear to
• 51:04
  Speaker 5: everyone that there's not that there's not double the number
• 51:07
  Speaker 5: of berry Town residents riding on Green Mountain Transit then
• 51:10
  Speaker 5: they're on Waterbury.
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: I think, what's Berry City been paying? Thirty eight thousand?
• 51:15
  Speaker 5: So, you know, I think I think that the berry
• 51:18
  Speaker 5: Town number really puts it in perspective.
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: It's three eight, and then the Comma three eight, and
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: then the Comma not three in the Comma.
• 51:25
  Speaker 5: Three eight, Comma thirty eight thousand. Okay, yeah, thirty eight thousand,
• 51:31
  Speaker 5: thirty eight big.
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: Ones for in how many years is that contract?
• 51:34
  Speaker 5: It's way, it's not a contract. It's it's been sort
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: of an allocation in the budget. But it's precedes me
• 51:39
  Speaker 5: and probably precedes Steve. It's been a long time.
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: And how often are we paying thirty eight every year?
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: Every every year, year, every year?
• 51:48
  Speaker 5: So we proposed knocking it down to twelve thousand this year,
• 51:53
  Speaker 5: and you know, Green Mountain Transit came in and pled
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: their case and I look, I I'm I can be understanding,
• 52:01
  Speaker 5: and they acknowledged that there's inequity, and I you know,
• 52:03
  Speaker 5: my my point back to them was try to fix it,
• 52:08
  Speaker 5: Try make progress towards fixing it. And if you you know,
• 52:11
  Speaker 5: and I don't think we need expect it all to
• 52:12
  Speaker 5: be fixed next year, but you've got to make progress
• 52:14
  Speaker 5: to fixing it. And if you're making progress then will
• 52:17
  Speaker 5: be good. If we're not making progress, then you know,
• 52:19
  Speaker 5: we're gonna consider some cuts to make our you know,
• 52:22
  Speaker 5: will force.
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: Equity by making our cut right.
• 52:26
  Speaker 5: And so that that was the you know, when we
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: looked at that, that Waterbury number was the real discrepancy
• 52:31
  Speaker 5: that there's no way, there's absolutely no way that Waterbury
• 52:35
  Speaker 5: is getting two Comma three thousand dollars, you know, twenty
• 52:39
  Speaker 5: three hundred thirty eight thousand. That's a huge, huge difference.
• 52:42
  Speaker 5: And knowing they have link service to Berlin, they have
• 52:45
  Speaker 5: a lot of routes.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: Access up there. But at the same time, you, I
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: would guess, would also acknowledge that it's important to have
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: public transportation, especially you know, Steven's branch apartments coming in. Yeah, Fox, Runt,
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: whatever it may be. I think it's yeah, the list
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: goes on. Absolutely. The argument is not whether we should
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: have or not. It's like, are we paying our fair share?
• 53:11
  Speaker 5: And and so we you know, we've we've had a
• 53:13
  Speaker 5: lot of debates at the city or conversation at the
• 53:15
  Speaker 5: city council love it because Green Mountain Transit has struggled
• 53:19
  Speaker 5: to maintain services. There were there were lean times when
• 53:21
  Speaker 5: they were cutting back services where it was impossible for
• 53:24
  Speaker 5: commuters who work in Waterbury or work in Burlington to
• 53:27
  Speaker 5: get to their jobs on time based on the routes
• 53:29
  Speaker 5: that we had and buried. So we we acknowledged the
• 53:32
  Speaker 5: need for that service, we just don't want to be
• 53:35
  Speaker 5: overpaying for it. And so that's that's our argument. And
• 53:39
  Speaker 5: when when we looked at those local allocation tables, that
• 53:42
  Speaker 5: stuck out as a short time, especially when we looked
• 53:44
  Speaker 5: at it compared to Berry Town, which there's no way
• 53:47
  Speaker 5: they should be paying double what Waterbury pays like that,
• 53:50
  Speaker 5: that doesn't make any sense at all. Yeah, and that
• 53:53
  Speaker 5: that that to me proves that there's a problem with
• 53:56
  Speaker 5: the way Green Mountain Transit.
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: Some oversights somewhere, there's something. I think it's a.
• 54:00
  Speaker 5: Relic of I think it's a relic of an old
• 54:03
  Speaker 5: allocation system that hasn't been And to their credit, I
• 54:06
  Speaker 5: will say they acknowledge that they acknowledge this is outdated
• 54:09
  Speaker 5: and so my point was got to bring it up
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: to date.
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: No, you know, we're not a piggy bank. We can't
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: we can't afford to be one of the things that
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be asked, and I'm going to be
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: asked really soon. Yeah, and I'm so I'll ask you
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: so that I have an answer. What are we going
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: to be sweeping the streets that should be it's still winter,
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: it's still winter.
• 54:29
  Speaker 5: I think we're gonna wait until we're past parking band season,
• 54:32
  Speaker 5: which is April one. And so once we know we're
• 54:36
  Speaker 5: we have a good sense that we're out of the
• 54:38
  Speaker 5: the snow removal phase. You know, we still had a
• 54:40
  Speaker 5: couple of storms last week.
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: I know that.
• 54:42
  Speaker 5: You know, the last two years, I think we had
• 54:45
  Speaker 5: a storm after the end of the winter parking band
• 54:47
  Speaker 5: And so once we have a real good sense of
• 54:52
  Speaker 5: and have a better sense that we're out of that
• 54:53
  Speaker 5: out of the woods with that, because the thing is,
• 54:56
  Speaker 5: if if we sweep them and we got to come
• 54:58
  Speaker 5: back down and put sand or salt or whatever, it
• 55:00
  Speaker 5: just wasts.
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: It's a waste.
• 55:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and so but yeah, that's a huge we're talk
• 55:05
  Speaker 5: to public works. I think our goal is to have
• 55:07
  Speaker 5: one the sweeper running continuously this year, just to make
• 55:10
  Speaker 5: sure we're keeping streets clean. It's a nice service. It's
• 55:13
  Speaker 5: a nice uh So the first one potentially may I
• 55:18
  Speaker 5: would say earlier. I think we're gonna I think it'll
• 55:20
  Speaker 5: be in April. Probably won't be told. It probably be
• 55:23
  Speaker 5: sometime mid April, is my guess. I know the last
• 55:26
  Speaker 5: two years it was sort of a headache because the
• 55:28
  Speaker 5: parking band season ends April one, and I know the
• 55:31
  Speaker 5: last two years we had a storm right after that,
• 55:34
  Speaker 5: so we can't force people to move their cars at
• 55:38
  Speaker 5: that point. Now, the one thing did it's a running
• 55:40
  Speaker 5: joke at the staff level is I'm a big advocate.
• 55:44
  Speaker 5: Maybe we'll have to find a way to put this
• 55:46
  Speaker 5: on the Capitol Improvement plan of a leaf vacuum, because
• 55:49
  Speaker 5: I know communities where I lived in New York, and
• 55:52
  Speaker 5: I know there's some in Vermont that do this. You
• 55:55
  Speaker 5: don't have to bag your leaves, You rake them to
• 55:57
  Speaker 5: the curb machine gums gobbles them up.
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: I remember about a nice, nice.
• 56:03
  Speaker 5: Service, right, We'll have to We'll have to find a
• 56:06
  Speaker 5: way to build that into the budget because that would
• 56:08
  Speaker 5: be another nice way to you know, another good service
• 56:11
  Speaker 5: for residents and another way to keep storm drains.
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: Clear just to come up.
• 56:16
  Speaker 5: And you know, it's a lot easier, right if you
• 56:19
  Speaker 5: have if you're not to bag them all, you had
• 56:20
  Speaker 5: to just rake them to the front.
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: We'll do the rest that point.
• 56:24
  Speaker 5: The other thing i'd mention while I got you in
• 56:26
  Speaker 5: your audience is, I know it's it's still cold out there,
• 56:30
  Speaker 5: but pool season.
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: Will be here before we know it. It's on my list.
• 56:33
  Speaker 5: We have some really good staff coming back. We I
• 56:37
  Speaker 5: think two years ago you might remember, we had to scramble.
• 56:39
  Speaker 5: We lost a whole class of lifeguards because they all
• 56:43
  Speaker 5: sort of aged out, and we had to scramble, and
• 56:46
  Speaker 5: we had our you know, affectionately, our baby lifeguards. We
• 56:50
  Speaker 5: got these fifteen year old kids who wanted to do
• 56:53
  Speaker 5: it for the first time. We got them certified, they
• 56:56
  Speaker 5: came through, they saved our season. Some of them are
• 56:59
  Speaker 5: aging out now too, they're finding other other things to
• 57:02
  Speaker 5: do in the summer, or they're you know, they were
• 57:03
  Speaker 5: at the end of their high school career whatever, and
• 57:06
  Speaker 5: so now we're looking for a couple more folks to
• 57:08
  Speaker 5: join the staff. We'll be posted I think it's posted
• 57:11
  Speaker 5: on her It's posted on the website. We'll be doing
• 57:13
  Speaker 5: Facebook posts on this. It is a phenomenal way to
• 57:18
  Speaker 5: spend the summer. You're outdoors, you know, you're getting sun,
• 57:22
  Speaker 5: you're getting you're at the pool.
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: Meet a good crew.
• 57:27
  Speaker 5: We have our pool directors coming back now. This is
• 57:29
  Speaker 5: her third year. She does a great job. And we
• 57:32
  Speaker 5: have a couple, you know, a couple other returning staff
• 57:34
  Speaker 5: who are really great part great parts of the team.
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: We're looking to round it out.
• 57:39
  Speaker 5: And uh, you know, if you're you know what we
• 57:41
  Speaker 5: do is we we help.
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: Pay for the certification.
• 57:44
  Speaker 5: So we do if you get certified, we do fifty
• 57:47
  Speaker 5: percent up front and then we pay you the other
• 57:49
  Speaker 5: half at the end of the year to make sure
• 57:51
  Speaker 5: you stay with us. Right, But you're getting a certification
• 57:55
  Speaker 5: that you carry with you, you carry with and right, and
• 57:58
  Speaker 5: it's a great Like I said, you know what, what
• 58:00
  Speaker 5: better job is there? I don't wanna, you know, I
• 58:02
  Speaker 5: don't want to poo poo other opportunities for people to
• 58:05
  Speaker 5: do summer jobs, but like, is there a better one
• 58:07
  Speaker 5: that's at the pool where you're outside. I know you're
• 58:10
  Speaker 5: you know, you're sitting on the chair, you're doing an
• 58:11
  Speaker 5: important job. R I don't want to minimize it.
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: But you're outdoors, you know it's it's crushing.
• 58:16
  Speaker 5: So so well it'll be you know, keep an eye
• 58:18
  Speaker 5: on them for social media. But we we are looking
• 58:21
  Speaker 5: for folks to round up our crew. If people are interested.
• 58:23
  Speaker 5: Now you know who hear this, just contact HR, contact
• 58:27
  Speaker 5: our rect director.
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: They'll they'll get you lined up.
• 58:30
  Speaker 5: And like I said, it's it's if I could go
• 58:33
  Speaker 5: back to my youth, there's some some summer jobs I did,
• 58:37
  Speaker 5: I wouldn't have cared for that that this would have
• 58:39
  Speaker 5: been a lot better.
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: So same here. And let's say this to to to
• 58:45
  Speaker 3: adults anywhere, parents anywhere, if you're if your kids, you know,
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: if it's time for them to to get a summer job,
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: or you you know someone or a relative that could
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: need a summer job, to make sure they they know
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: about this.
• 59:01
  Speaker 5: This This is a great, like I said, great, great opportunity.
• 59:04
  Speaker 5: And we had a couple of when we got those
• 59:06
  Speaker 5: those baby lifeguards as I call them, some of them
• 59:09
  Speaker 5: came from the parents. The parents saw the post on Facebook,
• 59:11
  Speaker 5: they got their kids in and and like I said,
• 59:15
  Speaker 5: we got them all certified on you know, the city
• 59:18
  Speaker 5: pace for it. But I think it's a worthwhile investment
• 59:20
  Speaker 5: because now we've kept these lifeguards. You know, they keep
• 59:23
  Speaker 5: coming back and that's a testament to the fact that
• 59:26
  Speaker 5: it's a it's a good place to work.
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: Of course, of course, Uh, anything else in your your
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: list here, anything that I want to make sure it covered.
• 59:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I had I had budget paving, Steven's branch, wastewater,
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: and lifeguards, so I I you know, I didn't have nudity,
• 59:43
  Speaker 5: but we did cover that. We covered it, got it.
• 59:47
  Speaker 5: Oh my god, I broke my own pund's rule.
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: Thanks for coming in here, man, it's it's it's uh,
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: it's important, yeah, that you're in here and listen. We
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: know not everybody's going to agree with with everything that
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: you say. You think, what you're proposing, what you're not proposing.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: Everybody sticked off about the about the roads. Yeah, but
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: it's it's at least you're coming in here and talking
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: about it. And I love that. Yeah. No, it's it's
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: part of the job. And look, I think that.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 5: We you know, a lot of the times when people
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 5: call with the things that are they're frustrated about, we
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 5: we definitely share those, especially on the roads, especially on
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 5: those and I, you know, I don't know what the
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 5: story is with what happened with Berry's paving when it
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 5: was done, but I can tell you I drive around
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 5: the state. You know, a lot of my kids plays
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 5: travel hockey, so we're all over the place, and I
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 5: don't see state roads as bad as ours, you know,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 5: I don't see that. And something something was a miss
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 5: when they paved here, the mix, the process, I don't
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 5: know what it was. But you know, the towns I
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 5: drive to that, you know, and I see their state
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 5: highways or Class one highways, and I don't know when
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 5: they pay, but like, none of them look as bad
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 5: as ours, and none of them should have, you know,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 5: ours shouldn't have degraded as quickly as as they did.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 5: And and you know, the state says we're responsible for maintenance.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 5: That's not maintenance. What happened on Main Street here with
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 5: those gullies, that is not maintenance. That is something else
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 5: that went wrong.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: But well, you got we got a lot of we
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 3: got a lot of trucksit are coming through here, and
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 3: a lot of them you know, loaded up. Yeah, I
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: mean this is this is the grand granted capital of
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: the world. Man. Absolutely.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 5: Now the other thing is, uh, we're now coming at
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 5: a full cycle here because we have a World Cup
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 5: coming and the last time you and I talked World Cup, Argentina,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 5: Argentina won, and so I'm hoping that you know that
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 5: was one of my reasons for coming on today, is
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 5: just to make sure that we don't jinx it, you know.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 5: So I think last year, last World Cup was in
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 5: the winter, so I think I because it was in
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 5: the Middle East.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: So I I.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 5: Said that for Christmas, what I wanted was in Argentina
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 5: and World Cup. And this year, remember my birthdays in
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 5: the summer, so I want for my birthday what I
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 5: would like is an Argentina.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: So you didn't get that for Christmas? I did? They won?
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: They won? Oh okay, all right, all right, yeah.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 5: But this year, since it's a summer World Cup, it'll
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 5: be for my my birthday.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: President. Are you going? No, No, tickets are outrageous. I'm
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: sure tickets are outrageous.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 5: But I'd love to But yeah, they're they're not They're
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 5: not achievable.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: Especially with I could. I couldn't pull off going off
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 3: by myself. I'd have to bring of course, shis what
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: would you do if if if you could go, would
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 3: you shave the head, paint the face. What would you do?
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, whatever it took, whatever paint paint, yeah, you know,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 5: whatever they needed, you know, I would.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 3: I would.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 5: Hopefully the stadiums don't have that, you know, yeah, the
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 5: rule about taking the shirt off and painting, but that
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 5: would be I would do whatever it took. I've seen
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 5: Argentina play, I've seen Messy play, not at a World Cup,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 5: but but yeah, I would.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 3: I would. I would do just about anything. Are you
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: messy or you uh? Ronaldo argent Just you know, I'm
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: just asking just it's just a question. I mean, you
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: know it's possible. But you didn't get tickets for for
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: for Christmas though? You didn't get No, No, well I didn't.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: I didn't want the tickets. I wanted the victory, Okay,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 3: I wanted the victory. That's because that was out in
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 3: the Middle East, that was in Uh. No, I mean
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: you didn't get you didn't get tickets this past Christmas
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 3: for this upcoming world stop. Were you hopeful of that?
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 5: No? I knew it was a stretch. It was a stretch,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 5: and I think there's like a lottery for tickets. They're
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 5: not It's not like you can't go on ticket Master
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 5: and buy, of course, tickets for Argentina versus whoever.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: It's it's a it's a lottery systems man United, you
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: get into them. No, I haven't.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: Seen that, haven't seen it.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: I've I've been sticking to the hockey, a lot of hockey. Okay,
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: thanks for coming in here. Hey, good to see you.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: Appreciate you very much, and enjoy the fresh air on
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 3: that on the walk back then I will good to
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: see you. Good stuff, and let's do it soon. Let's
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 3: get back in here. Absolutely all right, Nicholas Stirley castro
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 3: our city manager right here in the Granite City. Be well,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: God blessed, take good care. We'll see you soon.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: Puttiest past stopt