Latest / Aired Out / Barre City Manager Nicolas Storellicastro talks Brandon Carbo, budget and more "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hol

Transcript

Barre City Manager Nicolas Storellicastro talks Brandon Carbo, budget and more "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hol · Aired Out

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: The Bat and bad Man.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: All right, Flying the Wall Productions bringing you the Airedout
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: podcast this morning live on Facebook and YouTube, streamed everywhere
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: you get your podcasts, and on the web at airedout
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: vt dot com. I don't even know where to begin
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: this morning. Before we even get into it, quick heads up,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Donna Poytross and Eddie Sanborne are going to be both
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: with me tomorrow on the airwaves talking about Bikers for Beth.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I am so much looking forward to meeting Eddie. I
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: think I may have met him in previous past lives.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I think I don't know. But Donna, of course, I
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: think I've met her a few times. She's going to
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: be in here tomorrow with Eddie Sanborne Bikers for Beth. Thursday,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: of course we have Gee. Friday, We've got Rex. That's
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: going to be a packed show Friday. Don't miss that.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: But Wednesday is going to be an episode that is
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: going to probably stick with you more than anything this week.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Alice Goltz is going to be returning to air it
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Out on Wednesday morning, and wait until you hear her story.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: I'm telling you it is something, and I mean this.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: You will never forget birthdays Today Roseanne netto John Pelke,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Jen Snelling, Jill Moser, we have faith, Odell Angel, Maru
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: or Moreau maybe and Art Fletcher. I hope you had
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a great weekend. I hope you had a real nice
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Easter yesterday. Easter bunny very active everywhere, running around, you know,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: the the Facebook question of the day this morning. And Stacy,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: I know you'll have something insightful to offer here on
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: this and this was this has been a discussion at
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: my house and it was just over the last forty
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: eight hours of what gender you think the Easter bunny is?
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: But it's to tell with bunnies, and we've got one
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: at home and we still don't know the verdicts oud
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: on it, you know, Peter cottontail people start leaning toward
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: male movies like Rise of the Guardians, you know, maybe male.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: But what do you say about this? What do you
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: say to my little girl who still doesn't know if
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: her bunny rabbit jellybean is a male or female? What
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: do you say? I mean, everybody knows only female bunnies
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: lay eggs, so there's that, But what do you say
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: about this? I would love to know. I would love
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: to know. It is only thirteen days thirteen days before
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: the big day, and I know, I know Chuck is ready. Chuck,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: are you there?
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I'm here?
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: Are you there?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: I'm here, buddy. Listen. Thirteen days until.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: You bothering me. I'm at work.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: I thought you were at Chilette Stadium this morning, Dulllette Stadium.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: I'm at work. You know, none of us can all
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: play on the podcast all day. We actually have jobs.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I thought you. I thought you said you were down
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: at Chillette Stadium this morning, getting ready for ac DC.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Thirteen days early, thirteen days.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I got my I got my tent pitch.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah that makes sense. Yeah, how's that going down there?
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: How's that going? I mean, I paid six d.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: And fifty bucks for tickets, but I thought maybe I
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: better get here first.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, thirteen days is pretty good. I'm guessing you've
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: got a pretty good parking spot right up front.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, I got a parking spot.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: I got a ten going, I got a grill going.
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: I'm ready for you.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Where are you? Well, I'm still in Barry. Unfortunately, it's
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: gonna take me a little while. I've got to wait,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: you know, twelve days until I can get down there.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Twelve days, I thought you were like, jeez, disappoint.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Are you okay though? Are you feeling healthier? You're going
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: to make this show now? This has been a bucket
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: list your entire life. You're not going to get sick
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: or anything at the last minute.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: Oh no, no, no. And I've got enough friends from
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: the nursing house business to wheel me in with an
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: IV if I need to.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Well, I was just going to say, if tragedy were
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: to strike in the days leading up to this ACDC show,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: would you still be able to make it?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, No, that's a serious question.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: To be They'd have to be like God himself would
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: have to come down and say, hey, yo, he ain't
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: going yeah right then he Then he'd have to kind of,
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: I don't know, really convince me.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Well, well, listen, you and I are going to be
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: chatting Moore this week about this. But I'm so excited
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: and I would like to get you in here before that,
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  Speaker 2: before that show, in the next thirteen days. All right, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I would love to.
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  Speaker 5: I have this.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: I can try to come Thursday. I don't know that
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: I got a bunch of running around it do, but
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I actually have another doctors appointment.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Take a guess, why shocker listen with the studios open
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: for you? All right?
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. How are you doing, buddy, I'm.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Doing okay, I'm doing all right. I'm just coming out.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Are you ready for this? I'm extremely ready.
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  Speaker 5: I was.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Actually I listened to an entire ACDC concert yesterday in
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: my kitchen and it took me that long to wash
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: the dishes and it was just pure bliss. I loved it. Yeah, yeah,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: that's good.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you got any excuses I gotta worry about,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: you're gonna be going?
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  Speaker 2: Not not one.
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  Speaker 3: You do understand. I'm known for kind of like getting
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: in trouble. So like if I see an opportunities to
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: go backstage or anything.
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  Speaker 2: We're going, I'll be there with you. My plantar fasciat.
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  Speaker 2: This is not going to prevent me from going to
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  Speaker 2: a c DC. I can guarantee you.
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  Speaker 3: Actually, I actually have a goal to get on stage
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: and do a shout out to Angel in.
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  Speaker 2: Case he doesn't go well, I'll be with you when
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: you get arrested. Thank you, buddy, Love you pal. We're
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: looking at a sunny start to the day today, clouds
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: and rain by the afternoon and lower sixties. Thanks for
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: getting your your day, your work week started with us.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Right next to me is Nicholas Starelli Castro, our city
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  Speaker 2: manager right here in the Granite City. Good morning, sir.
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  Speaker 2: How glad to have you here. How are you doing?
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  Speaker 2: Man house? Everything going?
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  Speaker 5: It's good, you know, happy mon plugging along, plugging along.
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  Speaker 2: I know I've said this in the past, but I'm
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: going to say it again. I love that you can
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: just walk in here and you know what to what
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  Speaker 2: to expect. Now, just grab a microphone, sit down, make
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: yourself comfortable and uh and here we go.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 2: Where are we going this morning? We want to talk
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: city budget. Yeah, but before before we do that, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to I know that you've been hearing a
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: lot from our community about Officer McGowan, who is is
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: and has been over the years a long time, a
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  Speaker 2: very well known officer here in the Granite City. What
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  Speaker 2: say you about all of this?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think, first and foremost, I think the whole
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  Speaker 4: situation is tragic, and uh, you know I I'm it was.
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  Speaker 5: It was a difficult situation. From the beginning.
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  Speaker 4: Our priority, myself and the chief was to make sure
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  Speaker 4: that we we did what we thought was the right thing,
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  Speaker 4: and that we treated Officer McGowan fairly, and I think
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  Speaker 4: we we accomplished both both things, even though the situation
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: was a separation from employment. So I think it's it's
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  Speaker 4: been difficult, you know. One, I've been thinking a lot
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  Speaker 4: about this issue because because I know Officer McGown well,
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: you know, if I've interacted with him quite a bit.
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  Speaker 4: He's very active in the community. Our kids play soccer
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  Speaker 4: and hockey together.
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  Speaker 5: I'm going to continue to see him in the community. Uh.
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  Speaker 4: And I've I've always you know, I've always liked him
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  Speaker 4: as a as a human, as a person, and as
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  Speaker 4: an officer. So this is obviously obviously been weighing on
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  Speaker 4: my mind quite a bit, you know. I think j
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  Speaker 4: D I thought about I was on the debate team
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  Speaker 4: in high school, and I used to be pretty feisty
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  Speaker 4: in the my civics classes and stuff. And my history
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  Speaker 4: teacher she she gave all of us like a quote
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  Speaker 4: at the end of our senior year. And the quote
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  Speaker 4: she gave me was, you know something to the extent
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  Speaker 4: of the test of a first rate intelligence is to
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  Speaker 4: be able to hold two competing ideas in your head
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  Speaker 4: and still be able to function.
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  Speaker 5: I think it's a f Scott Fitzgerald quote.
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  Speaker 4: Stuck with me all these years, obviously, and I keep
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: coming back to that quote because there's a lot of
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  Speaker 4: things that can be true and people have to I
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  Speaker 4: think show some show show some ability to have those
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: competing thoughts in their mind.
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: Right.
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  Speaker 4: The first one is that Brandon Carbo's a nuisance. Right,
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  Speaker 4: the guy that was was the use of force was
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  Speaker 4: applied against.
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  Speaker 5: Right. It can be true that.
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  Speaker 4: He's a nuisance. It can also be true that even
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  Speaker 4: a nuisance shouldn't be treated like that, right, and so,
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  Speaker 4: and it can also be true that Officer McGowan is
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  Speaker 4: a good person. All these three things can be true
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  Speaker 4: at the same time. And I think that the you know,
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  Speaker 4: our personal test as a humans can can we hold
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  Speaker 4: those concepts in our head at the same time. And
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  Speaker 4: that's why objective objectively right? And so I think I
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: have been able to That's That's what I've been you know,
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: struggling with because.
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: It obviously was a very difficult situation.
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: But it is all three things I think are true,
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  Speaker 4: which is, Brandon Carbo is a nuisance who harasses residents, right.
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  Speaker 4: I don't think there's any dispute about that. This was
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: the wrong way to address that situation on that day.
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: It was it was it was inappropriate, and it was
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: against City Police Department policy, and it was against police
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  Speaker 4: Academy training. And James McGowan can was, is and will
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  Speaker 4: will be a good person, right like I think all
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: those things are true, and and uh, we just had
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: to do the right thing and and and I think
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: we did even though it was a difficult situation.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Uh. I have received so much about this story. I
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: know you have to probably hell of a lot more
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: than than I have. How do we how do we
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: get a you know? Uh? And I'm not making an
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: excuse for for anyone, but a lot of what I
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: have read from listeners who have texted me publicly on
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: the page but also privately, is that, above and beyond
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: being a police officer, Officer McGowan, like the rest of us,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: is a human being who's subjected to the same life
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: that we all live, which is full of stress. It's
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: full of anxiety, it's full of mental illness, it's it's
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: full of everything. And and I know you just mentioned
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: the training which which a lot of people go back to,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: that you've you've got to be a well trained police
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  Speaker 2: police officer with always having the right mindset before you
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: put your uniform on every day, to be a human
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  Speaker 2: above all things. But we're all we're all guilty of something, man,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: and we've all snapped in one way or another and
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: and acted in a way that's not necessarily consistent with
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: our character. That's happened to all of us, me, you, everyone. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: But when you do have that uniform on, you are
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: held to a higher standard, which for some it can
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: be very difficult to maintain that standard when you're dealing
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: with everything else going on in this world.
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean the you know, the police officers, trooper, sheriffs,
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: whatever you want to call them, folks in law enforcement,
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: they have the legitimate use of force in our in
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: our society. We've we've given them that, Yeah, And in
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: exchange for that, there's training, and there's and there's high standards,
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: and we do hold them to a higher standard. We
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: train them to those standards and we expect them to
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: keep it. And the keyword is legitimate use of force, right.
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: And I think in this case, you know, what what
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: the police chiefs saw when he reviewed the body can
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: what I saw when I saw it. We certainly had
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: our doubts about it, which is why we had it
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: investigated independently, right, And so both both investigations in this
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: case were done outside of our own building. We didn't
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: want we didn't want our own personal biases one way
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: or the other, both because of who the subject was
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: and because of our connection to Officer McGowan to be
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: injected in any of this of this review.
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: So the first investigation is done by the Vermont State Police.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: Second one was internal affairs investigation done by the Windsor
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: Police Chief.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: And so.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: In our minds, policies of the police department were not followed.
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: This was an action that was not consistent with the
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: training the individual received. And for many people, I agree
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: with you, JD. I mean, there's a lot of professions
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: where you can make a mistake and you can recover
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: from it. Some professions police officer, airline pilot. Your first
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: mistake might be your last one, right, and and so
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: that's that's a tough standard to live up to. There's
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: mistakes I could make that could be my last one,
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: you know, so uh, and you have to live with
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: those consequences and and so but yeah, I think what's
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: what was important for us again was making sure that
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: we let the facts take us to the proper conclusion
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: and that we we do a fair process, which which
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: I think this was.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Brandon is not the the only I'm trying to
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: think of the of the word individual in our community
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: who is consistently recurring as is an issue. There's a
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: few others that have been painhandling aggressively, not just right
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: here in our city limits, but outside of our city
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: limits too, and pushing into Montpellier and South Berry and
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: so on. How do we you know, and we've chatted
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: about this before, you and I that that there's not
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: a line ten miles long of people tripping over themselves
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: anxious to become a police officer there these days. And
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: you've had a great community form up at the auditorium
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: not too long ago. I hope that there will be
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: more to hear what the community has to say. But
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: how do we get a grasp on some of these
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: troublesome individuals that just won't go away?
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: You know?
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: That is the that is the ongoing frustration that's you know,
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: up and down the organization, from myself to the chief,
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: to the officers too, and I know to residents like
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: it's ongoing. Last year, we have the top eight individuals
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: with multiple contacts had had three hundred sixty seven contacts
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: with the Berry City Police Department. That is, on average,
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: more than once a day we were interacting with one
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: of these eight individuals, sometimes more sometimes, but right, three
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: hundred and sixty seven contacts in three hundred and sixty
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: five days is not good. I'm going to present to
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: the city Council tomorrow because we're we're actually making a
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: pitch to buy some security cameras for public areas and
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: we have the same debta. The top eight individuals are
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: on track again for three hundred and sixty eight contacts,
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: one more if we project out for the full year. Right,
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: not acceptable. I think that you know, we this is
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: a it's not a problem that Berry City created. It's
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: not a problem that Berry City alone can solve. We
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: need all hands on deck. This This is you know,
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: this is an executive, legislative, judicial branch challenge that that
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: we need to basically roll up our sleeves and all
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: work on together because you're seeing it's not just Berry City, right,
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: Like Saint Aubans has had difficult conversations about this, Brattleborough
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: which we we we you know, stole there their ordinance
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: trying to do that. They had this difficult conversation. These
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: are not you know, these are the communities from my
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: limited knowledge, right, some of them are further left, some
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: of them for the right than us. It's a it's
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: across the spectrum. And so we're what we're trying to
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: do now is we're trying to give our officers better
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: tools to address this with purchasing cameras. So we're going
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: to put cameras up City Hall, public Safety Building and
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: then UH Merchant's Row and some of the high traffic
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: intersections to give our police department those tools to better enforce.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: That's great. Are these cameras being worked into the budget?
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: They would be part of the budget.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So so on Tuesday night, it'll be before the
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: council to authorize the purchase of them tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow night, Yes,
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: tomorrow night. And so what we have funding in the
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: budget to do the licensing software piece of it, uh
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: and then the actual purchase of the cameras would be
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: capital improvement funds. So so it's fun that it can
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: be executed as quickly as as I think they could
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: start installing in May if we approved.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: That was a question that I had, is how how
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: soon it's go time on something like, yeah.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: It'll be, it'll be Assuming we get approval tomorrow night,
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: we could start seeing these cameras up later this spring.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: All right, what do you think if if maybe this
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: isn't a fair question. But if it's not, that's fine,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: we can pull away from. What do you think the
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: general consensus might be of our city residents with regard
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: to these cameras being pro?
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: I think so?
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Or agan?
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: I think so.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: I think the general consensus is pro. I think we've
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: we've heard the frustration from from some of the last
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: people you'd expect to be frustrated from our Some of
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: our partners in the faith community have been eminently frustrated
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: by some of the quality of life issues going on
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: around their properties. They tend to be the best among us,
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: and when they're getting frustrated, I think that's like the
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: canary in the coal mine situation.
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: So, you know, cameras are not.
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: You know, I'd love to take credit for being innovative.
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: Cameras are everywhere. If you travel to you know, New
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: York City, you're going to be on a camera wherever
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: you go. If you go to Burlington, they have cameras Middlebury.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: So this is not uh, this is not Berry City,
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: you know, leading the way here. We're actually frankly behind yes.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: And and you know, so I I don't behind my yeah,
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: And I think you know, I I I don't think
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: it's a I don't think it's an ideological debate. I
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: don't think it's a left and right debate. You know,
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: Burlington is not known as a bastion of conservatism.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: New York City is, you know, one of the most
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: progressive places in the world. They have cameras, and so
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: I think that I think it's it's a it's a
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: common sense next step for us to take to give
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: our officers the tools they want.
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: One of the things we heard at that public safety
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: forum from you know, there were some people who were
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: against the ordinance. We were floating, and some of the
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: response was just enforce what you got, Like, Okay, this
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: is a tool to help us enforce what we got.
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: And so I think it's, uh, it's an important next step.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: I think we've we've all heard too much about you know,
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: people being being under receive even end of the aggressiveness,
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: you know, merchants hearing from their customers trying to get
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: into the store who they can't get from the card
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: of the store without being harassed.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: And so just recently Metroway, Just recently.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: Metroway, there was there was right and it turned into
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: an assault, and so you know, they can also be deterrents,
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: you know. So I think that it's the appropriate next
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: step and and I hope that we you know, I
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: hope it's a proof so that we can we can
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: you know, take that next step with it.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Well, listen, there's a boatload of comments that are coming
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: in about this, and and frankly, we could talk about
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: this for a couple of hours, I'm sure, as most
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: communities I think could easily. But let's let's shift gears
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: and dive into the budget. Now. I know, Monday morning, JD. Really, seriously,
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: you're going to talk about budget on a Monday morning?
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: God?
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Uh, what's going on? What is the latest with the budget?
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: So the city council approved a budget to send to
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: the voters on May thirteenth, and I think it's a
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: very responsible budget. I think we had a terrific process
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: with the city Council. The budgets are difficult. We're still
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: doing too much cutting. This year, the real challenging part
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: was that we lost the million dollars we got from
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: the state. So we might remember last year we got
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: a million dollars from the state because of the immediacy
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: of the flood. This year that didn't come through. There's
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: still a chance we get some money, but certainly not
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: a million. So you're losing a million dollars right off
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: the top of that bat. You got to make that up.
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: Health care increases went up eighteen percent. You got to
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: make that up.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: Our personnel cost week, so most of our staff has unionized.
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: Those contracts have hive percent escalators.
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: We got to pay for that. Now.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: You know, people will say, well, that's your fault. You
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: need to go shate those contracts. Absolutely, we negotiate those
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: contracts because if we don't have competitive increases, those people
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: are going to find other jobs. Right, So it's a
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: it's a mixed fleshing right dance. It's a dance, right,
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: So we are Yes, I negotiate those contracts with five
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: percent increases. But if I don't, I think we got
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: bigger problems. We still have to pay for it. We
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: lost a bunch of our reserves because of the flooding, right,
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: so we took all our fun balance and had to
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: prepay the flood expenses. We get reimbursed, but we that's
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: still cash that's out the door. With all those headwinds,
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: we still came in with a budget that is spending
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: less than last year. Seventy three thousand dollars less than
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: last year.
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: We'll be spent.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: Now taxes are projected tax rate on just the expense
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: budget is an increase of five point eight seven Now
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: you might be asking, why are my tax is going
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: up five point eight seven percent if you're spending less
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: than last year. We lost that million dollars, right, so
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: we got to make that up. Another great thing that
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: council did this was at a Mayor los On suggestion,
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: they increased our streets sidewalks capital improvement line item by
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. So that's going to
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: bump the tax rate a little bit more, but that's
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: money going straight into I think what we hear about
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: from people the most, which is the conditions of the
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: roads which were really difficult this year. And that's not
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: a knock on our public works guys. They they couldn't
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: stay ahead of it. It was a difficult winter. Patching
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: in the winter is really challenging. And so anyway, not
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: a knock on our guys, it's just a it's basically
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: a knock on the underlying infrastructure that we have. So
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: I think that was a great suggestion. Mayor los On
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: suggested increasing one hundred and thirty thousand. The council unanimously
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: approve that. So altogether, when you look at, you know,
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: our expense budget, you know, that's the thing that funds police, fire,
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: public works, planning, the clerk's office. That went up five
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: point eight seven percent in terms of projected tax. When
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: you include the items on the ballot like the street sidewalks,
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: all the other organizations that request funding, your total comes
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: to seven point one five percent increase. So difficult budgets. Still,
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: we're still you know, there won't be a bul key
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: waste event next year.
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: We had to cut that.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: We were able to restore seasonal cemetery staff. I think
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: that's a that's a real uh pain point for a
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: lot of people, and that was when we got a
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: little bit of money back. That was one of the
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: first things we funded back in the budget, we funded
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: year round use of the Burrytown yardwayt site. I think
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: that's something residents like. It's a good service. We don't
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: have a yardway site, so we pay Burytown. We split
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: the cost of their site with them. That way our
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: residents can use it as well.
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: So it's it's a pretty lean budget still.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: And uh, like I said, overall, we're spending less than
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: we did last year, which given all the headwinds we had,
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: is a is a minor miracle. But you know, we
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: we you know, hoping voters will see it to support
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: the budget and come out on May thirteenth and vote
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: and you know, get their apps and tee ballots ahead
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: of time if they choose to vote that way. And uh,
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: May thirteen, May Thurteam.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Big Guy, Big Day. A lot of decisions can be
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: made that day. Yes, Yes, getting a text here from
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: a friend asking, uh, tell us how the water treatment
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: facility works into all of this and the new city garage.
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: So the water and sewer is separate from this budget.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: The water and sewer rates are are funded. They're an
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: enterprise fund so there they support direct customers, so it's
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: not funded out of the city budget. Directly. So those
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: rates are set in August. So those rates, we haven't
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: set those yet, we don't know exactly where they'll land,
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: but they are set separately because they're not their customer
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: based right.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: So we think I think they're talking about the new digester.
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: The new so that is underway, that was bonded so
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: that that that is all already funded. Work on that,
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: the engineering work on that is ongoing. Yeah, and we'll
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: probably break ground maybe later this summer on that. So
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: so yeah, that's that's separate from this budget that voters
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: will be approving on May thirteenth.
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: But that was that was huge.
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: That was you know, the city residents came out in forced.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: I think seventy five percent voted in favor, so that
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: was very very grateful for the support there. And the
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: public works garage is is also funded out of separate funds,
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: so so a portion of the acquisition is coming from
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: the Capital Improvement Fund, a portion is coming from a
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: loan from the Water Fund. So that'll be the acquisition
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: of the garage itself, the three million dollars and the
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: we'll have to do the rehab to to turn it
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: from a warehouse into a garage. That'll probably be on
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: the ballot in November.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: And all right, and for folks that may not be
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: familiar with what you're talking about, this was the big
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: news that you were in here last time talking about
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: that we have a new public works garage that's going exactly.
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: Where Morrison Road in Berrytown. Yeah.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: So it's a fantastic bond, the old bond, current O'Reilly's warehouse,
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: fantastic site. I mean, if if people haven't seen our
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: public Works garage, they you know, I think they'd be
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: shocked to see it. This is a building built in
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: the late eighties. It's in you know, excellent condition. It's
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: going to be a great long term house for our
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: public works employees and up high up high way out
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: of the flood floodplain.
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The current public works building literally I don't even
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: know if we could call it a building.
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: No, I think it's it's that building is very generous
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: for that facility.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Gaping holes in the room roof there.
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, No, we spend thousands and thousands of dollars to
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: heat it because it's it's got all these gaps.
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: It's just unsafe.
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: The machine, the equipment doesn't all enter into it. We
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: have to store the snowplows outside. Yeah, damages them. I
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: mean it's it's just a it's something that frankly should
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: have been decades in the making to replace. But yes,
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: this will be the move up to the hill. Is
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: is everything's going on schedule. But that's not in this
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: But you don't have to you know, it won't be
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: on the ballot in May. It'll be paid out of
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: capital improvement and a loan from the water fund. The
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: loan from the water fund is eventually repaid from from
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: the city's general fund.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: You have to compartmentalize like an animal, I'm guessing. I
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: mean everything that you have to just separate and each
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: one has its own.
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: Uses and purposes.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but this is an easy JD. I came from
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: New York City. I had a thirty billion dollar budget,
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: so this is really this is yeah, this is this
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: is okay, thirty billion, thirty billion and just the education department.
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: So the rule in New York City with my staff,
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: I had a team of twenty five thirty people just
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: to do the education budget. The rule was if it's
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: under a million, yeah, don't bother me. Wow yeah, yeah,
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: just you know, we have our checks and our balances
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: and our controls. But like you know, under a million
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: is a rounding air. Yeah, we were rounding to the
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: you know, tens of millions.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: I just want to drop this this comment on the air,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: and the reason why is because I know you've already
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: addressed this, but I want you to do it again
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: if you would, because not everyone heard the last episode
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: that you were with me, and I want to make
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: sure that this is put out there transparently, because you're
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: a very transparent guy. Come in here from Taylor saying
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: this was the building previously owned by Loson, isn't it?
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: How is that not a conflict of interest? We're talking
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: about the public works building. Yes, and that was that
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: was well written in the Times argus. But can you
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: relay what you said last time?
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: Yes, So we we.
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: Went above and beyond because of the colnel owner of
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: the building, to make sure that we were making a
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: fair transaction for the city. The purchase price of the
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: building is three million dollars. The assessed we sent the
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: city assessors who are who are independently licensed, right so
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: they are professionally licensed. If they don't give us a
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: valid assessment, that is a professional liability for them. They
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: went to look at they went to assess the building.
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: Their assessment, their judgment was this building is worth three
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: point nine million dollars.
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: Took the.
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: Milton Vermont is building a new public works garage from
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: a brand new one. We took their per square foot
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: cost to build their garage. We applied it to what
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: it would cost us to build a garage of this size,
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: and that came back to I believe eight million dollars.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: East Montpeillier is just purchased a building, or is building
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: or bonded for a building, I believe, which is about
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: a third of what we're getting for five million dollars. Right,
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: So you have all of these data points that are
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: telling us three million dollars is an absolute bargain for us, right,
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: and so independently validated the price multiple times with with
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: you know, things that can't be fabricate, right, Like it's
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: not it wasn't me setting a price on It was
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: independent people telling us that the building is worth much
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: more than and that was how many times at least three,
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: I mean we had three data with Certainly the assessors
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: went in I believe Tom had his own assessment done,
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: which also came back higher our assessments, the one I
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: put the most value on, which was three point nine
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: million dollars, right, So that's telling me. Our assessors who
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: walked through the building, kicked the tires on the building,
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: did comparable research. They said, normally you'd pay three point
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: nine million dollars for a building like this. Yeah, so
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: we're paying three, which is which is an absolute bargain
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: in terms of the transaction itself. The mayor was not
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: involved in any of the conversations between me and the council.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: He spoke to me and I briefed the council, right,
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: so it was it was all along. He wasn't in
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: the negotiations. He wasn't in the deliberations. If you go
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: back and you know, look at the record and the video,
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: you can see when we had some executive sessions for
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: real estate, Tom wasn't involved, and so you can take
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: a guess at what we might have been discussing at
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: that meeting. So those you know, I managed the negotiations
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: with the council, and then I was the liaison to Tom.
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: Tom and the council never talked about this at all,
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: and so we kept it.
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: Very very separate.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: And that's the short answer, yes, which you know, I
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: hope people are are very clear on that public works
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: building discussion. Back to the budget, What if it doesn't
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: pass on the thirteenth, Yeah, if it doesn't pass.
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: So this is this is one of the potential negative
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: consequences of moving our town meeting data to May, which
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: is we have a very short turn to get something
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: back on the ballot before July, right, so we need
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: an enacted budget before July. We would have to get
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: that very next meeting with you know, certainly at least
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: one new council member, because there's an open seat. We
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: would have to turn around a new by probably at
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: that meeting or the next one, or have special meetings
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: to get something back on the ballot, and then that
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: next one would be our only hope. Now I think that,
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: you know, the consequences would be negative in the sense
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: that you know, typically what would you know, depending on
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: what message we get right, if it's a, if it's
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: a it was too much, we'd have to go back
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: to the drawing boarding cut. I don't know what else
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: there is to cut. Right, As I said, we eliminated
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: the bulky Waiste day. We already eliminated the tire drop
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: off day, which were two things that people tended to like.
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: You know, most of our budget, the vast majority of
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: our budget is fixed, right, And I know that that's
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: frustrating to some people, but it's things like salaries and
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: benefits for those employees which are mandated and settled.
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of things that might as well be fixed,
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: right because we have we have police cars that fuel, right,
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: we got to pay for gas if you want to
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: call city hall. I got to have a phone line,
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: I got to have internet an email.
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: So when you really break it down about we've done
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: the analysis, about ninety percent of our budget are things
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: that we have little to no control over, right, And
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: so that includes the salaries, the wages, It includes things
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: like internet, phone, gas, heating for the building's electricity.
• 38:25
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: So we're really talking about a very small margin of
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: room and our budget to do additional cuts, and that's
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: what we you know, we we'd probably end up in
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: a situation of unfortunately having to do maybe workforce reductions, right,
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: because if we can't find the savings in those that
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: very itty bitty part of the pie, you have to
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: get to the places where the costs are, which is
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: the people right, and nobody wants to do that. I
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: think we're we're already compared to some other communities pretty understaffed,
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: so so that would be certainly reads would see, they
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: would feel.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: That that reduction. Any any more discussions about housing, any
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: more discussions about the update on JJ Newberry building.
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: I've I've heard some fundraising updates from b ADC. There's
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: still there's still a couple of hundred thousand away, and
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: I think they have they have, I believe, until June
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: one to come up with the balance. You know, So
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know if if you know, if something's going
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: to come out of the woodwork to make up the difference.
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: You know, it may be a situation where they accept
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: whatever they've raised. You know, they're not getting anything for
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: that building now, right, so if you if you show
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: up with a pretty sizable check, they they might accept that.
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: Who knows, I I'm not you know, I think the
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: rate of the fundraising is not indicative of getting there.
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: But I hope that that they continue to work hard
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: at it and we have a you know, a couple
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: of months here, a couple uh what six weeks maybe
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: right to make up the difference. At the end of
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: the day, even with the council, you know, seating the
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: four hundred thousand dollars and the money they've raised, you
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: could still get a pretty decent offer on the table.
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: I don't know if I just don't know if they're
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: going to meet what they set out to do. At
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: this point, Seminary Street is progressing, so that'll be the
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: the building on the parking lot here, that's the furthest along.
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: At this point, you know, we have a great opportunity
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: coming with the there's a Community Development Block grant money
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: that the state got about sixty seven million dollars worth
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: of money. Of that, eighty percent has to be spent
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: in Washington County. So we are in really good shape
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: to get a chunk of money to fill in the
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: gaps in some of these housing projects like Prospect.
• 40:47
  Speaker 5: Heights for example.
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: So that's that application. The state's working on that application process.
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: That probably won't happen until the summer. But we're, like
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: I said, sixty eighty percent of sixty seven millions a nice,
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: you know, chunk of change, and if they have to
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: spend that in Washington County, we're in prime position.
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: To be recipients of it.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: Let's let's congratulate Josh Jerome, the new director of b
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: A d C. Who's who's coming back to to the
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Granite City. This is really exciting, very excited.
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: I had a chance to to talk to Jos through
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: the process early on, and i've you know, interacted a
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: little bit with him and his role in Montpelier. But
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: I think this was a this was a home run.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think b ADC needed needed this when
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: I think he brings a ton of credibility, uh to
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: the position from day one. I'm very very excited to
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: get to work with him in this new role.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: Uh. You were mentioning the disposal site the spring hours here,
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: You've got it on your your your page right now
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: for Barry City in Barry Town over on Holden Upper
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Holden Road.
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: Yes, this is our this is completing our first full
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: year of paying for use of the site year round.
• 42:02
  Speaker 5: So this is great. I've taken advantage of it myself.
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: I know that this is I think this is better
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: than what the city used to do, which was to
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: do like one or two days of the year when
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: you'd have to get everything out on the lawn and
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: so here you can just haul it up yourself. It's
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: open throughout the year. I encourage people to you know,
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: the hours are I believe Saturday's eight to noon, Tuesdays
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: ten to three. You know, my only ask of Very
• 42:27
  Speaker 4: City residents is, you know, be good neighbors, don't you know,
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: we don't want any situation where the town is discouraged
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: from partnering with us again on this. This is a
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: great opportunity for us to collaborate.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: Keep your household trash out of this, Keep.
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: Your household trash out of it. Just the flyer has
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: all the details about the cans and the cannots.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: What about the hazardous material stuff? There used to be
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: collections for paints and solvents and yeah, stuff like that.
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: So Central Vermont's solid waste is. I know they're undergoing
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: some change. I have something I think also posted on
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: the website there there they're making some changes to the
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: I think they're moving JD. I think to Berlin if
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: I remember correctly, So check out I think on our
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: website that was still posted as well. If it's not,
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: we can re reop it. But there they'll do some collection.
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: They have a collection site. They do some events throughout
• 43:20
  Speaker 4: the year. We'll updates as we get those events. The
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: other thing we have is May tenth is our Bulky
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: Waist Day, so that'll be that was funded in last
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: year's budget. We won't have one next year, but this
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: is the last one under this current budget. May tenth
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: at the Auditorium.
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: Close.
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: I know it's the same day the town is doing
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: theirs as well, and so yeah, so that's the Berry
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: City one is free. You do have to be a
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: SERI resident and so bring your your bills, your property
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: tax bill, bring your water sewer bill, bring your If
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: you're a tenth then bring your lease. I believe this
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: is exciting news. I believe Carol Dawes is going to
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: be staffing the check in site. She's gonna have a
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: voter registration role. So if you're registered to vote, she
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: and you have ID she can she can check you
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: off that way. It's also a good reason to get
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: registered to vote. That way, you don't have to bring
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: anything to the bulky Waste Day.
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: And a little bit of a water outage predicted today
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: and maybe this Thursday from a water main prank.
• 44:27
  Speaker 5: Yes, Monday and Thursday. It's not a break. They're doing
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: some work.
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: I'm looking across the street here just behind these buildings,
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: so they have to shut off the water for that.
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: It's only Monday and only Tuesday, and it's a very
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: I think it's six or seven properties and it's early
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: in the morning. Yes, yeah, so there shouldn't impact you
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: at your home if you're it's going to impact some
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: of these buildings right across the street from us here
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: in the studio. But that's that's for some water repair
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: work that's happening. And this exciting time of year, this
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: is construction season, you know we have. The other exciting
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: news is our our paving bid came in. We hired
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: Pike UH to do our paving UH program this year.
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: I know, you know, I don't think I don't know
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: your listeners will like a JD. But Prospect Streets on there,
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: oh my god, Prospect, Alan and Berlin.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: I remember when it wasn't the last time here, I
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: think it was the one before that where you were like, yes,
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: I'm aware that Prospect Street needs to be paved very badly.
• 45:35
  Speaker 5: So that's on the on the on the plan this
• 45:37
  Speaker 5: year Prospect, Alan, Berlin Streets.
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: That work will start Lynn Street. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, we're working.
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: We're trying to We've we've gotten really good pricing on
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: our paving and in fact, it's so we got such
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: good pricing that we're going to try to expand that
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: the streets this year because of our how much we
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: budgeted and what the bid came in at. So stay
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: tuned because we're gonna see what else we can have
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: for it to do. But we're we're getting really good pricing.
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: When we are doing long stretches of streets in the
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: same area, the vendors can deploy much more efficiently.
• 46:13
  Speaker 5: We're getting the cost savings and so that means we
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: can do some more paving.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: So incredible.
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we'll take a big chunk out of you know,
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: out of that side of the city this year and hopefully,
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: like I said, we're trying to see how much more
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: based on the pricing we got, maybe we can start
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: to get into some of the neighborhood streets as well.
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: We're trying to get all the main thoroughfares as best
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: as we can because everyone drives on those. So but yeah, hopefully,
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: hopefully we'll be able to expand it and then merchants
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: Row will be a parking lot will be done before
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: July One's that's a finish from last year's paving program
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: that our vendor got hired to do floodwork in New Hampshire.
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: So we were understanding, we've been through that, yea. So
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: they came they're going to come back and finish Merchant's
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: Row before July one.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, that would be. That's going to be fantastic. Yeah,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: that's gonna make a lot of a lot of businesses happy.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Back there.
• 47:10
  Speaker 5: Jeez, it's that's in rough shape back there.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. Thank you so much for coming in.
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: Hey, good to see you. Always a pleasure.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: May thirteenth.
• 47:16
  Speaker 5: May thirteenth, get out to vote.
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: Get your absentee ballot or seven am to seven pm
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: at the auditorium.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: Don't pass it up. Take this opportunity to exercise your
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: your due diligence. Yes, we need to vote.
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: Budget information posted on the city's website, so line by
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: line budget you can go see where every dollar's spent.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: All right. I love I love the ear so transparent
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: like that. It's good stuff. Important.
• 47:41
  Speaker 5: Hey, true shell shot. The truth shall set you free?
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: Right And what was what was that line again that
• 47:46
  Speaker 5: he said at the beginning of the show.
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: So it's I think it's test Scott Fitzgerald, and it's
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: the test of a first rate intelligence. Is the ability
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: to hold two competing ideas in your head and remain
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: the ability in retail, in the ability to function.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic, good one. Thanks man Hey, good to see
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: a big take away this morning. I appreciate you.
• 48:07
  Speaker 5: Take care, all right, we will.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Attatat tata cont.
• 50:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah, at at.
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: At at at at at at at att