SmartTranscript of House Environment-2025-02-14-10:30AM

[Speaker 0 ]: I'll let [Chair Amy Sheldon]: you know. [Elise Schanbacher]: Okay. We are live. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Alright. Good morning, and welcome to the house environment committee. This morning, we are going you're from the Vermont Housing Conservation Coalition. Step is, Drew Watson from the Nature Conservancy. Welcome. [Drew Watson]: Thank you, Chair Sheldon. Thank you everybody for being here, taking the time to listen to these, phenomenal witnesses talk about remote housing conservation board, and for inviting us to speak. I'm gonna give a one minute introduction and hand it over to these folks whose stories are are much more important than my voice. My name is Drew Watson. I'm policy manager for The Nature Conservancy, and I'm the co chair of the Vermont Housing Conservation Coalition known as VHCC. We're comprised of roughly fifty organizations. We work in your communities and others throughout Vermont, and we utilize VHCB funds to create affordable housing and conserve land with the goal of improving the lives of Vermonters and strengthening our communities. Protecting this permanent affordability of housing and land together is what makes VHCB a unique model, and it is one of the only long term solid housing and conservation partnerships in the country. The coalition, you'll hear from them today, is asking general assembly to support full funding for VHCB, which would be thirty six point nine million in fiscal year twenty six, included in the governor's proposed budget. The full statutory share is essential for ensuring the affordability and sustainability of our communities. Today, I'm joined by four Vermonters who have been touched by the work of VHCB and have their own life experiences to share with you. Elise Schanbacher from Firehouse Apartments, Damien Boomhower, Bittersweet Valley Farms, Hayden Smith from Trust for Public Land, and Jamie Schult from Monctantown Forest. With that, I'm gonna step aside, run slides, and invite Elise up first. Ask you another question though or one question. Who's your co chair? The other co chair is Abby White from Vermont Land Trust. There's two, conservation chairs and two housing chairs. And I'm stepping in, for those unfamiliar, for Lauren Oates, our director of external affairs, who had a baby on Saturday. Yay. So just stepping in for her while she takes much needed rest. Thank you. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Thank you. [Speaker 4 ]: Once you come [Drew Watson]: up, I'll have your slides right over here. [Elise Schanbacher]: Well, good morning, Chair Sheldon, and thank you for having me. I'm Elise Schanbacher. I'm the executive director of Addison Housing Works. I live in Birch Ends. I used to live in East Middlebury. Used to be a neighbor of chair Sheldon, and now I am a neighbor of representative North. But I'm here today representing Addison Housing Works and the housing coalition across the state as well as, of course, all the housing work that we do in Addison County. So, next slide, please. And it's a PDF. So it's next scroll, I guess, next page. I'll tell you for those of you who aren't, familiar with, Addison Housing Works or other nonprofit, housing developers and managers, we, are that exactly nonprofit private five zero one c three, developer, owner, and manager of permanently affordable housing. And we have seven hundred and fifty permanently affordable homes that we are managing or stewarding in Addison County. And that includes three hundred and fifty three permanently affordable apartments in our downtowns, like Firehouse Apartments in Bristol, Bergens Community Apartments right in Bergens, and lots of properties in Middlebury as well. We also have nine manufactured housing communities across Addison County. I'll be focusing on those in this committee today. And then we also offer shared equity homeownership opportunities. We have seventy six permanently affordable single family homes and condos that we hold deed restrictions on so that they remain permanently affordable. And the median sales price of a home that comes up for resale in our program is a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, so it really is creating that deeply affordable housing opportunity. We also offer resident services. That's we've been doing SASH since, twenty thirteen. If you're familiar with the support and services at home program for seniors, we can serve up to two hundred area seniors around Bristol, Vergennes, and out in Shore of Orwell, so some of our very rural communities. And since twenty twenty one, thanks to private philanthropy, we've been able to offer resident services to our more vulnerable families in our housing as part of stepping up to help address the homelessness crisis. We were previously fifteen percent of our units were dedicated to formerly homeless households. Now it's twenty two percent. So we're seeing just a higher level of need for more robust wraparound supports for a lot of our residents in our housing. So we've stepped on top of that as well. Great. You can scroll slowly past this one. This is a a ribbon cutting, actually, a teepee cutting out at Lindale Manufactured Housing Community in Middlebury back in October. We have sixty seven homes in that park, and we just cut the TP on a twenty thousand gallon per day, fully code compliant community septic system for all of the homes out there. That is we hope will last the next hundred years so that that housing resource [Speaker 5 ]: is protected. What's the TP? Toilet paper. Sorry. [Speaker 4 ]: It's a [Elise Schanbacher]: little unconventional. When you cut a ribbon on a community septic system, it's a little bit different than cutting [Speaker 0 ]: the Wait. [Elise Schanbacher]: Ribbon on new. Yeah. You got it. New acronym. New apple. [Representative Sarah Austin]: Just trust [Damien Boomhower]: me. It's all biodegradable. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Soon, it won't have PFAS in it, but we can get it processed. Oh. [Elise Schanbacher]: Well, as I mentioned, fully code compliant, twenty thousand gallons per day. So all of that wastewater that is ultimately flowing into Otter Creek and out to Lake Champlain is now getting adequate treatment so that we all have cleaner water, not just the sixty seven households that live in Liddell. So why manufactured housing community preservation matters, and especially in Addison County. It's it's really critical to the rural affordable housing stock. Across the state, about one in sixteen Vermonters live in a manufactured home. And in Addison County, up in Starksboro is actually one in five housing units. And Starksboro is an Addison Housing Works, a lot in a manufactured housing community. [Speaker 0 ]: And those [Speaker 4 ]: are all owner occupied. [Elise Schanbacher]: They all own And that figure is statewide ninety percent of people who live in a manufactured housing community actually do own their own home. Median lot rent is about four hundred dollars a month. If you have a mortgage on top of that, which many people don't, you're still looking at housing costs that are probably in the range of a thousand dollars a month. If you wanna buy a new energy a [Chair Amy Sheldon]: question from [Elise Schanbacher]: our Oh, yeah. [Speaker 8 ]: Yeah. I'm I'm the that home cost seems quite reasonable, especially since in light of what [Representative John Bartholomew]: we've been hearing for quite a while now. And I'm wondering if [Speaker 8 ]: if you can give us any more information about, like, the energy efficiency, the size, what that price range actually includes. Like, just trying to get a sense of what the real cost might be and what you get for your money. [Elise Schanbacher]: Yeah. So for a hundred thousand dollars, you are getting about a nine hundred, nine hundred and fifty square foot, two bed, two bath home. One, zero energy ready, so it won't have, like, the heat pump and the solar yet, but it's constructed so that you can add those things in the future. For one fifty, you are getting that home with all the zero energy upgrades, or you are getting a zero energy ready double wide. So, like, fourteen hundred fifteen hundred square feet, three bed, two bath, more like a family home. And then financing can really vary. So it's hard to, like, you know, quote what that translates into as a mortgage, but the more we can make conventional thirty year financing available to people who wanna buy one of these homes and put it on non owned land on but on land that they're leasing from a land trust that is under an affordability covenant to keep it permanently affordable, which has the same security pretty much as owning your own land, I think that that's a a big need that could help a lot of people. [Speaker 8 ]: These these costs would would this is just for the [Chair Amy Sheldon]: For the home. Building itself, the structure. [Elise Schanbacher]: My, like, back of the envelope, how I would describe it, is this is about a hundred dollars a square foot just for the structure. And in new construction private sector new construction, like Summit is doing some stone crop in Middlebury, that's at, like, five hundred dollars a square foot just for the structure, so, like, not site work. So it's a lot more cost effective, and you're getting a high quality home if you get one of the zero energy ready ones. [Speaker 8 ]: And those numbers, that's, like, the price that goes to the manufacturer that doesn't that's not subsidized by any other [Elise Schanbacher]: Correct. That would be a person might bring a down payment and then finance the rest with private financing. This is what the state is doing with the rapid response manufactured housing infill program, where I think it's VTrans. They're using VTrans's procurement system to contract for homes directly from a manufactured housing, company in New York, maybe. And so they're getting the pricing down this hundred thousand. We've actually seen one come in at ninety. They're getting good pricing. They're taking the risk, which is something that a nonprofit is usually not very well equipped to do or, you know, stewards of scarce resources. So we tend not to build homes on spec, but the state is doing that and now turning around and finding buyers who are bringing their own resources into the deal. I like manufactured housing communities because you can actually reach a lot of levels of affordability. We have a grant. We've helped two people in the past year by one of them is getting a new home without a mortgage because this is a extremely low income family that doesn't have credit, and so they aren't gonna be able to do that. So we're bringing grant money into that deal. We are helping somebody else who can afford to finance, about fifty thousand dollars, so they're not quite there. We're bringing another she's getting thirty five from Champlain Housing Trust program, if you're familiar with that one, and we're bringing another fifteen on top of that to bridge the gap. So you can, you know, meet a number of different levels of affordability, right, with various levels of state investment. It's flexible. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Representatives [Elise Schanbacher]: When you say manufactured Yes. Is that different than mobile phones? That's one question. [Speaker 5 ]: And the other one, you define affordability. Is that, like, the thirty percent of someone's income? Said that okay. That that's how you're using affordable. Okay. Just the manufacturing. [Elise Schanbacher]: So a mobile home would be anything built on a chassis. It's sort of the old term for something built before HUD enacted the nineteen seventy six HUD code for manufactured housing. So now something built since nineteen seventy six that we think of in the popular imagination as a mobile home is is technically a manufactured home. A mobile home could be something built in the sixties, you know, the optical the trailer. So it's just the current term for something that's built to a code and meets that level of quality. Okay. And so something that's built in panels or parts and then assembled on-site and is not mobile, is not a manufactured? Correct. That would be modular. Okay. These terms get thrown around a lot under off-site construction or prefab construction. Modular housing, also great. They're using it at Stonecrop. I think Zeek was quoted Summit, the developer from Zeek was quoted in Vermont Digger a few weeks ago saying it's saving maybe ten percent, and it's also helping them with time versus a hundred dollars a square foot for a manufactured home. That's where your real deep cost savings [Speaker 5 ]: are. Thank you. [Elise Schanbacher]: Yeah. Absolutely. Great questions. So, in manufactured housing communities, we did an income study in one of our parks for the financing we received for the Lindale septic system. We found that was, like, twenty twenty one, thirty five thousand dollars a year was median income. So today, that's, like, about forty thousand dollars of median income. So these are folks who are working, often working full time. That's, you know, more than a full time minimum wage job, but it's still less than half of area median income. So these are are folks that really rely on the nonprofit model and the investments that we've gotten from Vermont Housing and Conservation Board so that we don't have to take on more debt and raise lot rent in order to finance infrastructure improvements. And then the infrastructure improvements are sorely needed because a lot of these, parks were built in the sixties and haven't seen significant water infrastructure upgrades since. So we've been dealing with a lot of backed up septics. And, actually, I think if you scroll to the next slide, this is just directly from a resident at Lindale before we put in the new system in twenty twenty one. I'm writing this email because our septic tank backed up into our house again, Friday, ten twenty two twenty one. This has been happening now since we lived here over two years. I spent about an hour scrubbing the whole shower, tub, and toilet. I threw away our shower mat curtain and used chemicals to clean with like we have been doing for over two years. This is a costly costly expense, which is ridiculous that we keep paying for. The park is responsible for this to be fixed. This is a hazard to me. Wife and three kids should not be exposed to this harmful unsanitary issue. My health and family's health, so please let us know when you'll have this project problem fixed. So it's a big, huge issue that really impacts people living in these communities. If you can imagine having your septic back up into your tub or your sink or your laundry, is another one that we know happened. So it's very important that we're addressing these. Next slide, please. So state investment is leading to really essential benefits for for these parks. So as I mentioned, due to the low incomes in parks and also the state statute that limits as it should lot rent increases, we're also limited by people's ability to pay, we really can't go out and get debt financing to build a five million dollar community septic system. So we need to rely on state funds, in particular ones that flow through Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, as well as the ANR Healthy Homes program. Those are key resources for us to help us do these projects, and they also leverage millions more in federal funds. So that five million that came together for the system at Lyndale, we got six hundred and fifty thousand from Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, and the rest was all federal. At the time, the ANR Healthy Homes program was ARPA funded. So it's it's also getting a lot of leverage in federal money. There are other state programs that I'll just skim through that also help on that housing quality side. So we're dealing with the infrastructure, and meanwhile, residents need assistance to then update that nineteen sixties mobile home to a modern manufactured zero energy ready home. So manufactured housing improvement and repair program provides direct grants to residents to, help repair their homes. In the wake of disasters, we had that big windstorm, like, eighteen like, last winter in Addison County that blew some roofs off of some old mobile homes. They were able to get help through that program. It, also helps with energy efficiency and health and safety improvements. And then the main the rapid response manufactured housing infill program was the other one I was talking about that, will actually you know, while repair is great and needed in health and safety emergencies and disasters, what is really needed is replacement of the homes. And MHIP has been, I think, very promising. It's kinda started small within, with infill, but I think it's been very successful, and I hope that it's a model that can be continued. Next slide, please. So a couple of projects just from the last few years that we've been able to do because of the VHCV funding. One was a new water system for a nine unit park in Moncton, actually, Vaughn Court. And that was entirely VHCB funded, which meant we were able to get it done quickly and cost effectively because we didn't have to blend together ten different pots of money to do it. So that project only took six weeks. And now these nine homes, they had, frequent outages because the electrical for the pump was all corroded, and they also had really bad pressure. Now they've got great pressure, a distribution system that we won't have to, you know, spend a lot of money and, hence, a lot of lot rent maintaining and more reliability. And, actually, a lot of the homes in that park, that blue one is a brand new one. There's one off to the left that's brand new, and there's three were mods, which are the old the modular. Again, not manufactured, zero energy modular homes in there too. So it is good quality housing that we're investing in. Glendale Community Septic, I've already talked about that one as well. Yeah. So what's next? Well, we have seven other manufactured housing communities in our portfolio that all have the same, you know, legacy infrastructure that really needs to be replaced. The Healthy Homes program has provided a lot of funding for us to do preliminary engineering and then design development and permitting to do more of these projects. We're currently in the middle of that. We've either completed a preliminary engineering report or moved on to design development in all seven of the other parts. If we're gonna be able to move those projects along to construction, then we need robust funding for BHCB, not only the statutory minimum, that thirty six point nine million. I'm really grateful for the eight million that was included in the budget adjustment act recently, and I hope that the state can continue to provide more funding for BHCb to keep these projects possible. Slide. Parting thoughts, invest in programs like BHCB and healthy homes. There should work within A and R probably on some, permitting streamlining A and R funding. So that would be like, drinking water state revolving fund, clean water state revolving fund. Also, healthy homes within ANR, healthy homes created as a new program, came with a lot of flexibility that these other older programs don't have, and those programs were set up for be very challenging for a nonprofit trying to do an MHC project to use them. So I think there's some opportunity there. Yeah. Continue investing in residents via those other programs, MHIR, MHIP. And then I have some thoughts about the petroleum cleanup fund, but I'll save those for anybody who's interested. So that's I think that's that's all I had to say. Great. [Representative John Bartholomew]: Thank you so much. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Representative Norrie. [Representative Sarah Austin]: Yes. Thank you, at least, for coming in this morning. [Representative John Bartholomew]: Just a couple quick statistics [Speaker 10 ]: on the on that Lindell system wastewater system there. Did did I hear you say this? Five million dollars for the whole package? [Elise Schanbacher]: Yes. Which includes we had two two hundred thousand of that is new debt that we did take on through USDA rural development. And in order to do that, we had to refinance the existing mortgage on the property, which we did with VHFA, which was nine hundred thousand of that. So I'm counting this whole refinance project that we had to complete before we could even have room to go after the infrastructure money, and that also allowed us to purchase twenty acres that we needed to put a system. So k. [Speaker 10 ]: So that five million included there, the purchase of [Damien Boomhower]: the land and the septic system itself. [Elise Schanbacher]: Yeah. Yes. The construction cost on the septic system was three point three million. [Representative John Bartholomew]: Yeah. Great. [Speaker 10 ]: And how many homes does that satisfy? [Elise Schanbacher]: Sixty seven. [Speaker 10 ]: Sixty seven. Okay. Good. And were they already on town water, [Representative John Bartholomew]: or does that include Yes. [Elise Schanbacher]: They are already on it. We are it's like it's what's known as a consecutive exempt system. So we as a nonprofit are still responsible for all of the water distribution within the park, but it's coming from the town the supplies from the town of Middlebury. And that was upgraded when we bought the the park in two thousand seven. So we are now feeling good about the infrastructure in Lindale. Yes. Thank you. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Representative Voss? [Speaker 4 ]: I [Elise Schanbacher]: know we're supposed to ask the [Chair Amy Sheldon]: question, but [Speaker 5 ]: can I just make a statement? [Representative John Bartholomew]: Okay. Yeah. [Speaker 5 ]: I just wanna thank you for the work you're doing. I just feel like you are protecting our most vulnerable air monitors, their safety and their health, and I'm incredibly grateful for the work you're doing. So thank you. [Elise Schanbacher]: Thank you. Likewise. Thank you so much for supporting all of this work. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Representative Bartholomew. [Speaker 11 ]: What progress are we making in ensuring these homes aren't in harm's way? We [Elise Schanbacher]: waters. Yes. So we have been lucky in Addison County. I can't speak very knowledgeably to the work going on statewide. We have two parks where that has been an issue in Starksboro, and we are in in one of the parks actually raising up a lot to shore it up from future flooding. Other than that, we we are kind of a little bit in a wait and see with this federal issue around the FEMA maps and understanding. We actually applied for some flood hazard hazard mitigation money, and neither program could figure out if we fell into the federal FEMA program or the state VEM program because the flood map isn't clear about mapping us in or out of the flood zone. But that's a little idiosyncratic to us. We've been very lucky. We've had one lot that's been impacted by the floods since twenty twenty three, and that is the one where we worked that's where our resident services come in. Our family support coordinator and our director of property management worked entirely with that resident to get the response and to make the lot safe again, but also to work with that person to understand their options and whether they even wanna stay. And what I found working with folks who live in manufactured housing communities, which I've been doing since about two thousand six now, they a lot of people feel very strongly they do not wanna move. Like, that's their home. That's where they wanna live, and they're not going to move from the home that they own in Starksboro into a rental apartment in Burlington or Mulberry. So we're really it's these are tricky issues to keep people safe and, you know, respect their choice about where they wanna live. [Speaker 11 ]: Obviously, a chronic problem where we have the the most affordable place with houses is on a flood plain. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Yeah. I see you, representative Tagliavia, but I'm gonna just tag on and say we did hear earlier that, unfortunately, even since tropical storm Irene, some affordable housing units have been built in harm's way. And so I understand the heart the heartache of moving someone who's been somewhere for their whole life. But, can you speak a little bit to how you're avoiding the future investments in those places? [Damien Boomhower]: Yeah. [Elise Schanbacher]: Oh, absolutely. So the, lot that we've had that was impacted in this park in Starkville, that's a fifty one lot park. That was the one lot that's been impacted. So as that's one of the parks that's in the design development and permitting phase of infrastructure improvements, although we don't think the construction funding is gonna very uncertain on that one. But the planning work that we're doing is exploring options, like, can that lot be moved within the park, or what are some other things that we can do to make sure that that's safe working with a neighboring landowner because it was actually their culvert that backed up that caused the flood. So so any, you know, investments in the MHC infrastructure are happening in a way to make it more resilient and not be just, like, you know, putting putting money and people in harm's way. Right? The other part where we have a little bit of, mapped flood plain, where, actually, that project is moving forward. We have an application into the HCB for May, to fund redoing the water system so that all of the waters infrastructure stays out of the flood plain. Because currently, there's actually a water line that's running under the creek there. So we're getting all the infrastructure out of the flood hazard area, and that's one where the flood hazard wasn't actually infecting homes. It was just running through a part of the park that doesn't you know, it's these seasonal mountains. This this park is on a mountain. Right? It's this it's not like the flooding you'd see here in Montpelier, the major stage flooding. It's the we got a five hundred year, you know, five inches of rain in an hour situation that just brings water down the mountain. So we're moving infrastructure out of that area. [Speaker 0 ]: Representative Taglia via then Richard. Going back to representative Bartholomew's question about the homes being in harm's way, and you mentioned what's wrong here. I I guess it's the homes that are being raised to protect from flooding. My question is about the, the wastewater, the sewage. What about the that septic field or that treatment plant? How do you go about protecting that, flood? [Elise Schanbacher]: Yeah. Great question. So this park has all on-site independent systems. A lot of them are all cesspools. We would love to upgrade them, but it's a very expensive project. This one was it was a field test. The septic did not fail, and and we, you know, we had an engineer come look at it, obviously, and the things that make that area prone to flooding also make the silt and soil there very good for septic capacity. So the septic itself was not impacted. It did not back up into the home. So we at least have, like, field tested data that that particular system isn't, I don't think, you know, at a high future risk from a disaster impact standpoint. And then we've just raised the rest of the lot up, so that the home is now above the high water line. [Speaker 0 ]: The other part that you said that whereas part of the the homes were not in in or near the flood plain, but the water system was. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Yeah. [Speaker 0 ]: How do you go about keeping parks like that affordable with respect to insurance and flood insurance and ensuring that if there is future damage that the premiums are not cost prohibitive? [Elise Schanbacher]: So the insurance in a park is gonna be split between what we carry as the landowner on the infrastructure and what the homeowners have to carry on their own homes. And I am just less knowledgeable about the picture for homeowners. I think that, the folks at CVOEO are probably very much on top of that issue, the manufactured housing pro project at CVOEO. What I I can say what I have seen is that the home values are low enough that even if the rate is pretty high, people are still able to get insurance. Whether it's covering flood, that I don't know. With the infrastructure, we have not seen it increase our rates, I think, because the flooding impacts have not damaged. There haven't been large loss runs on infrastructure due to flooding. So our insurance carrier has not responded with either dropping our coverage or raising our rates. The infrastructure, once it's in the ground and the areas that we're in at least, is pretty resilient. [Speaker 0 ]: One of the things we simply hear is my insurer will pay this time, but we're gonna get dropped. That's a concern. [Elise Schanbacher]: Yes. So that and that would affect about, in our parks. So people people are just not carrying the insurance. They're also there are you know, you you kind of level down. There's everybody is affected, then they're the ones who haven't have a actually have a mortgage, so they could get under our mortgage, which is a big concern. That's a smaller minority, though, of those people. So for the folks in our parks, I can't I just can't speak to it as knowledgeably as if, like, you had somebody from Tri Park up here, talking about the experience down in Brattleboro, which I think is fairly different. We have not seen that being a huge issue, but certainly all of this planning work that's getting funded by VHCB, that's how we're starting to address those issues, is being able to hire an engineer and advise us on what the options are and come up with a plan. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: So in the interest of time, we can have one more question from representative Pritchard, but then we need to move on. [Representative Sarah Austin]: So since it's there's been a lot of discussion in our committee about it, and I'm looking at this picture and seeing a lot of impervious surface. Mhmm. Has any of your developments that you have, have they been affected by the three acre rule? [Elise Schanbacher]: Yes. Our we have a seventy three unit park in Virgens, and also Lindale falls under three acre. [Damien Boomhower]: Okay. [Elise Schanbacher]: We were selected for construction funding. So so far, we are our needs so far are being met by the way the state has rolled out the funding for three acre. I understand our experience is pretty different from coop manufactured housing communities and other MHCs. So I don't wanna speak for all MHCs about how the three acre rule is impacting them. I have two frustrations with it. One is the timing. Like, gee, if we could have gotten that done at Lyndale when we were digging up the whole park to put in that septic, that would have been nice. But this the pace that that was rolled out was just never gonna line up with our big project, so we're doing it now. [Representative John Bartholomew]: I'm just thinking you know, I [Representative Sarah Austin]: could you we're talking about the four billion. All of this is great, but I was just wondering if if, you know, what impact it would have on this overall picture to you in compliance of that. [Elise Schanbacher]: As long as the state is funding the engineering and what the state has done, one model that I really like is the state is contracting directly for the engineers that just takes you know, we don't it's very hard for us to pay for staffing to have a project manager on staff, right, who can run a three acre project through the process. So the fact that the state is providing that capacity to contract directly with the engineers, that's been helpful to us. Thank you. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Thank you for your work, and for joining us today. [Elise Schanbacher]: Thank you. Thanks. [Damien Boomhower]: Not sure what what you'd like me to exactly tell you. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Are you Damien? [Damien Boomhower]: I am Damien. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Welcome. So if you just, for the record, state your name and then just tell us your story, what you're here to share. [Damien Boomhower]: I'm Damien. We have a sixty cow organic dairy up in Fairfield, Vermont right by the Mhmm. Chest out of her birthplace. Fourth generation farmer. And I I believe I was asked to come here to talk about a project we did. We have a stream that runs through the firm in two thousand well, we did a bunch of projects with NRCS on the firm for water quality. And one of the major projects we did was, we did a, we had a stream run through the firm that was constantly just their banks were getting taken down, you know, a bunch of soil erosion. So between NRCS, Vermont Land Trust, and, or DEC, and, a little bit of funding from Vermont for our Fish and Wildlife, This huge project of creating flood plains. So digging down, I think it was roughly about fifteen feet on both sides or twenty feet of both sides of the stream to create a flood plain. So therefore, you're not getting the, you know, when the when the stream would rise, it's not just going through that channel. It's going up, having it slow down. There's on on the of the corners where there was erosion, putting riprap into there to to eliminate that corner erosion and a extensive willow planting. It's there's so many trees down through there now. And and also putting up electric fence on both sides to keep any animals out of there. And also running a pipeline for water systems for the cows. So and and also a crossing so the cows have very limited stream access. It's only across. And as soon as they do, that's disclosed and they have with that water line, they have all the water that they need while they're on that side of the brook. I can attest that the project was an amazing success. The the willows are abundant down through there. We're seeing more wildlife than ever. I mean, you got geese and ducks, and I think there's, like, six blue herring down there. I mean, we're even seeing, like, bald eagles there sometimes. So that's been kinda cool. But and I've definitely noticed, you know, during the flooding events that we've had over the past, [Speaker 0 ]: I don't [Damien Boomhower]: know, probably ten years, the the flooding is very minimal there. The water, it really works. It's the the willows are slowing down the erosion and slowing down the water, and the water to be able to come up into those flood plains just makes a huge difference. And, actually, after we did the project in two thousand seven and two thousand eight, we actually got a water quality award for that. So it was very it was acknowledged by the state to to be a very successful project. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Can you just share a little bit about, if you remember, if it was done in two thousand seventy? Yes. Yeah. So who was your kinda main point of contact at coordinating all of those other partners that helped with the project? [Speaker 10 ]: Wish I [Damien Boomhower]: can remember his name. He was from the No. It was actually also the I say NRCS, but also Vermont. Ag agency was a big part of it too. I cannot remember the name. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Doesn't matter, but it was NRCS and AAFM who approached you? [Damien Boomhower]: Yes. Yep. So in two thousand three, we started NRCS program where we put up a I mean, I can tell you all the projects if you like. We put up a solar barn, ninety two or ninety six, ninety two feet long long by fifty six feet wide to so we let our animals out there. During the winter, They got water out there also. Once again, eliminating any contact with any of the streams. We did multiple fencing projects, multiple water lines and water tubs. What else do we do? So we did numerous lanes on the farms. Therefore, once again, eliminating erosion. So that way where the cows are walking, they're not walking in two, three feet a month. They're staying up. It's not washing off and creating murky waters. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Great. And how about how many acres of flood plain were created? Do you know? [Damien Boomhower]: I wanna say it was roughly three acres. Three to four acres. Somewhere around there. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Right. We're doing a lot with trying to understand where we're at with the water quality and our investments there, so we really appreciate hearing about your experience. Actually and was there a cost to you to participate in any of this, or was it all covered by [Damien Boomhower]: So my grandparents owned the farm at that point. I'm not really I think there might have been a, like, a ten or fifteen percent cost share. I I I don't know if you [Tucker Malone]: Tucker Malone, Vermont Land Trust. So there this project was done, you know, in part with all our partners through DEC River Corridor easement, which one of the first, I think, in the state. And so, you know, there was probably, like, a ten percent cost share on some of the NRCS practices that were done. Then, Vermont Land Trust, the DEC funding was able to purchase River Corridor easement on this area, which is to manage the channel rights, basically, which is, you know, what allowed a lot of this restoration to get done. So, you know, that that's a payment to the farmer. [Representative Sarah Austin]: Sarah? [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Well, that was a tie. Representative Boston, I'm pretty [Elise Schanbacher]: sure it's quick. [Speaker 5 ]: Yes. How many cows do that? [Damien Boomhower]: Yeah. We have a we know sixty, but about a hundred total. I have heifers and dried cows and everything. [Representative Sarah Austin]: Thank you. That was my that was my question. So take care of that. How many how long has farm been [Damien Boomhower]: in the thing? Since nineteen fifties. My great grandparents bought it. My grandparents bought it for them. Skip the generation. I bought it from my grandparents in two thousand twelve. And it's been back and forth. I mean, two thousand twelve to seventeen was pretty rocking for organic, and then we've been, [Representative Sarah Austin]: you know Just gotta get the price a hundred way back. [Damien Boomhower]: Yeah. But but overall, the all the projects that we've done with both NRCS and HSC Ag have been very positive and really good projects. I just did one actually with the Dylan Westom where we did a heavy use area water runoff projects that way And where the cows walk from the main barn into the sword barn that we built goes into a tank and pumps into the pit rather than running off into the field. And, actually, my my grandparents were actually one of the first people in Fairfield, I believe, in nineteen ninety two that did the Vermont Land Trust. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Is it possible that we heard from them in the past? That's very possible. [Speaker 0 ]: Okay. Yes. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: I remember Thank [Speaker 5 ]: you so much. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Representative Taglia here. Do either of [Speaker 0 ]: you know what the cost was, the total cost of the the report or project? I know it goes back pretty far, but just curious. [Damien Boomhower]: I am not sure. [Tucker Malone]: No. I I with all the different partner funding, I don't have a [Representative Sarah Austin]: How long do those projects last? They're they last. Right? I mean, is it a one time [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Theoretically, it is permanent conservation easement that the plane is conserved and should be functioning well into the future. [Damien Boomhower]: Yeah. That has it's it's working well. I can attest to that. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Yeah. We've looked at floodplains from many angles in this committee already this session. So it's great to hear that from the landowner who's experiencing restoration in a positive way. [Damien Boomhower]: And, actually, I have a lot of, because there's so many wells. They come and they'll take branches off, and they're doing many other projects around the state with those same models. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Got you. [Representative Sarah Austin]: Great to hear from a dairy farmer that's been helped. Okay. [Speaker 5 ]: Yeah. Thanks, Manny, for coming in and talking with us. I know how challenging it can be to transition ownership of the farm in in this time. Can you talk a little bit about anything that was particularly made it possible for you to take over the farm from your grandparents? [Damien Boomhower]: I mean, from working working out there my whole life to what's his name? Mike Farmer. He used to work at Yankee Farm Credit. I don't know if you're he actually was a big part of making it happen when I bought when well, me and my wife bought the farm. We got part of the loan through Yankee Farm Credit, and like, worked really hard to get us the other half through FSA. So therefore, a one percent loan for half of it, which obviously helps out tremendously. And as far as my grandmother, she was just my grandfather passed in two thousand eight, and so my grandmother owned it in two you know, until two thousand twelve as a sole ownership, and she knew that I very much wanted to purchase it. And the plan was at first was to for me to buy the cattle and machinery, and then one day she was pretty much like, well, I I just wanna sell it all. I don't know if I'm sharing more than you want or not. But I [Chair Amy Sheldon]: think that's a good story. [Damien Boomhower]: So it actually all surprisingly happened very seamlessly. And I can say that it was a large part because of, Mike Farmer and Keith. Farm Credit, he he just made it happen. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Okay. That's great. So great [Speaker 5 ]: to hear that you're still farming. [Representative Sarah Austin]: Thank you. [Speaker 0 ]: Thanks so [Chair Amy Sheldon]: much for joining us today. [Damien Boomhower]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Like this. [Speaker 4 ]: You guys are welcome to stand, or you don't have to send those number of seats. You wanna stay and listen, or you guys are welcome to the five chairs. We don't have to stand. It's completely Cheers. Stay on [Damien Boomhower]: the list. I have to stay for a while. [Speaker 4 ]: Good morning. My name is, Hayden Smith. I work for Trust for Public Land. I am one of our three land protection staff members in the state of Vermont. But Trust Republic Land, we're a national nonprofit. We have offices nationwide. And in Vermont, we prioritize large large acreage land conservation work with the state of Vermont, the federal government, with the Green Mountain National Forest. And then we also work at a community scale with, local towns and municipalities to create community forests. So that's what I'm here to talk to you about today. Walcott Community Forest. It's, a seven hundred and thirty five acre community forest, seven hundred and thirty five acres of forest land acquisition, in the town of Walcott. This picture I picked out because it shows it's very rural. It provides incredible in the woods, kind of almost like a backcountry experience, but it's actually wrapped around the village center and provides incredible public access to the outdoors, which was a priority for the town of Walcott and the select board, their planning commission. And, it's immediately adjacent to the elementary school. And one of the biggest concerns for the principal at the time was that he was having a really hard time getting kids outside. He was busing kids to public access areas either in town or out of town and, approach Trust for Public Land for help to try to figure out, hey. How can we protect land that's easy easily accessible from our elementary school so I can get my kids in the outdoors? So before I flip to the next slide, I just wanna share that this project wouldn't have been possible without VHCB. The project was closed last September. VHCB funding covered six hundred thousand dollars worth of the project, and it was matched two to one by project costs and federal investment through the community forest program. Next slide. So the Tonawucket, a little over sixteen hundred residents. They've, hit hard times over a little over the past decade. They lost their two largest employers. It significantly increased, unemployment rates in Walcott over the past decade. And they're also, I mean, just like many other Vermont communities kind of getting impacted by the affordable housing crisis being so close to areas like Stowe, that have just booming real estate, you're starting to see that encroachment of development, but non not truly affordable development creeping into the towns like nearby towns like Walcott, Hardwick, Morrisville. So creating affordable housing was a priority here too. And with support from VHCB, Walker Community Force is actually a dual goal mission project. It's creating a community force that's owned by the town, seven hundred and thirty five acres, but it also included a nearly two acre subdivision, that's going to create a single family, two bedroom affordable home on Route fifteen. So I'll share more about that moment. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Alright. How many homes? [Speaker 4 ]: Just one home. But it's a two we were looking for a duplex. Because of the site conditions, we realized that, one, it wouldn't be affordable, truly affordable, and would probably become an increased burden for future homeowners if we increase the capacity of the lot. So we decided to stick with a one family, residential model. And before I actually put slides, I wanna point out this photo here. This is Flatiron Road in Walcott. This is actually, just downslope from the elementary school. This was after the flood in, the summer of twenty twenty three. And, on the property, the Walker Community Forest property, there's about thirty five acres of wetland, and then five, miles of headwater stream along the Elmore branch and actually frontage on the Lamoille River. And as a property that's been conserved with VHCB funding, the property's conserved under a conservation easement held coheld by VHCB and the Northern Rivers Land Trust, which is a no a regional land trust that's all volunteer led. It's their first community force project. This was actually the first project presented to VHB with Northern Rivers Land Trust, so this was a big one for them. And the the easement includes, stream, surface water buffers along the streams and wetland protection zones to help support and maintain the ecological function of the wetlands that are upstreamed from natural or, built infrastructure like Flatiron Road here. Next slide. Community benefits. As I mentioned, the wetlands and headwater components here, frontage on, existing streams. Also want to point out the, health and community benefits here. The Walkeet Community Forest provides immediate public access to the elementary school that's roughly a hundred and ten students and the teachers there, and completely broadens the opportunities to be able to create, outdoor education opportunities for these young kids in Walkeet. And beyond that, there's actually on my next slide, I'll talk about investment from the state of Vermont through the program to create a new five mile trail network. So we're not only protecting land, protecting over seven hundred acres, but four hundred of the total seven hundred thirty five acres will actually host a new professionally built five mile trail network with two public access trail heads. And the trails are meant to be multiuse. So it's for hiking, but it also allow for mountain biking, cross country skiing in the winter, snowshoeing, things like that. And primarily be based directly behind the elementary school, but also go up into the woods and provide kind of that remote feel even though the property is within a two minute walk from the village center. [Speaker 10 ]: And I did [Speaker 4 ]: point out the equity component. I'll talk about that in a later slide. So, in terms of public access to the outdoors, the, VORG funding that was f y twenty twenty two VORG funding, it was a hundred and ninety seven thousand dollars for, five mile trail network, public access points, way finding signs, all professionally done by a local, rail outfit called Sinuosity based in Morrisville. The project is currently ongoing. My current update is that they completed all the trail components on the adjacent elementary school this past work season. So now there's actually a professionally built trail from the elementary school looping down to the rebuilt Flatiron Road and providing direct access from the school to the village center. That's the town offices, the public library, the Lamoia Valley Trailhead, and the recreation fields. So that's been built this coming work season in twenty twenty five. They're going to be building the full trail system on the Wall Creek community boards now that it's, permanently owned by the town. I also just want to point out the component of how this compliments the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail and the vest that the state has made there. The Lamoille Valley Rail Trail runs directly through the town of Walcott, and the town of Walcott actually established a trailhead right around where the town village is with the town office. And this is also the same location of where the future Velomont trail is gonna be. So that's a four hundred and eighty five mile, mountain bike optimized but multiuse trail system that's gonna run the entire span of Vermont, and it's gonna flow right by this property and complement the existing trail network. So, the idea here is that there's localized trail building here, but it's really complementing a statewide fishing. Sorry. Community benefits through the community forest. So this was always a community driven project. We were approached by the principal, but we had the backing from the town from the very beginning. There was a special town meeting in November of twenty twenty one where we received overwhelming town support for this project at the elementary school gym. And from there, the town doesn't have they at the time, they didn't have a conservation commission, so commission, so trust for public land helped the town, establish a charter to create a, conservation committee with the sole task of developing a future management plan for this forest. So they did that with help from guest speakers and, specialists from state of Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. They met with the folks at Belmont for trail building. They they worked directly with Sinuosity on the the planning and the location and siting of the trail network, and directly with the county forester, Emily Potter, on, forest management for the property. So they finished that prior to the acquisition of the property last September, and are already thinking about, hey. How can we make improvements to this forest under the town ownership? In terms of, water quality benefits, I did talk about the wetlands and the natural water water quality benefits for flood resiliency, but there's also a groundwater source protection area on the property that directly benefits water quality on the adjacent elementary school, and that's protecting the clean water for a hundred and ten students and over thirty staff. And then, the property will actually also, host the future force main for the community wastewater system in Walcott. One of the biggest obstacles for increased development in Walcott Village has been the lack of community wastewater. They've been wanting to build or establish a cafe, new shops, take advantage of empty kind of shuttered storm fronts along Route fifteen. They haven't been able to do so because there's not enough wastewater capacity. So with this secured money to create a new wastewater system, and walk it, the, actual wastewater will system will be on the adjacent community forest property, but the force main to pump wastewater uphill will be held actually on the community forest piece, and that'll service thirty five residential homes and thirteen commercial buildings in the town village. Last slide. So that's it for me. I just wanna point out again, this is a great community story. This was all driven by local folks in the town of Walcott, but it wouldn't have been possible without VHCB. I mean, the whole driven aspect of being able to conserve this property was money invested to VHCB and be able to leverage the federal money and the private money that went into this. And we're still working with folks at Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity on the affordable house lot. The, the one point nine one acre on Route fifteen, and we hope to convey that to them this year. And the actual affordable housing development will be in partnership with Green Mountain Technology and Career Center students there to help with that building of the the affordable house. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Thank you for your testimony. Yeah. Representative, I believe you. [Speaker 0 ]: Going back to one of the beginning slide slide number two. There is a it lost two major businesses. What businesses were they? [Speaker 4 ]: No. There was Bucks Furniture, which closed. Bucks Furniture was a folks probably know Bucks Furniture. They were head great commercials and Mhmm. Were pretty well known off for fifteen in Walk It. The other was a seed manufacturer. And I'm blanking on the name, but they did worked with, like, grasses and seeding, things like that, and that also closed in around that, like, twenty twelve, twenty thirteen period post recession. [Representative John Bartholomew]: Thanks. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Never saw further. Any other questions? Thank you again. Thank you. Great project. [Representative John Bartholomew]: And, how are we on time? [Speaker 0 ]: Good. Okay. Great. [Representative John Bartholomew]: I am Jamie Schulte from Moncton on the town forest committee. Our town received substantial VHCV funding for the town forest just established in November, and, you know, we're already seeing those positive effects in the community. Moncton's a small town, twenty two hundred or so. It's we're largely rural, you know, ag, a lot of wetlands, hills, that sort of thing. We don't have a a lot of a strong sort of community center like you see in some towns. We do have some community spaces like a rec park and so forth, but not a lot of public land, a lot of private land. And so one of the goals in the town plan since twenty fourteen was to establish a town forest with the idea of a community gathering place and also to protect resources and just create a new option for residents to improve quality of life. That committee got going in twenty nineteen. We started looking at properties in town that might potentially fit, you know, that kind of an idea, and identified one on the border with Bristol that's adjacent to a thousand acres of conserve already. So we were able to in this four hundred and fifty acre project, we were able to extend that existing thousand acres. And, you know, working with that landowner, they were interested in the project of the Johnson company and were a great partner with us. And as that project started to get rolling, we really engaged also with Vermont Land Trust. You know, essential to have partners in conservation projects, especially with a team of first time volunteers in the town level. Bob Heiser with Vermont Land Trust, you know, absolutely essential to, you know, for that project direction and that experience of how to guide us through the whole process. By twenty twenty three, we had an option to purchase, and then this last November, created the newest, I think, town forest and walk it extended, but also, you know, it exists prior. So it's exciting for us to have that in in Addison County. So I'll go to the next slide and talk about the land itself and then touch on, you know, community engagement, the funding picture, and kind of what it means in the larger scope. The town forest sits up on our elevated area in town. It's the headwaters of Lewis Creek and Little Otter Creek watersheds. It's only about nine miles from Lake Champlain. So, you know, when we have big storms or what happens in Moncton gets to the lake pretty fast. So it's really an important, headwaters to protect. There's also a tremendous variety of ecological features on this property, you know, including some rare species. We have or endangered species, we have a population of eastern rat snakes that are in that town forest area and the surrounding area. It's the northernmost population. There's, also populations of Indiana bats around in the area, like in Hinesburg. And so this has been confirmed as suitable habitat. So we're doing an acoustic study hopefully this year to, identify whether they're actually present on the property. But as you can see, you know, some rugged terrain here, it actually reminds me a lot looking out the window of the same this is the best view of any committee, I'm sure. [Damien Boomhower]: Yeah. [Representative John Bartholomew]: This train is a lot like that in, you know, in this picture here on the right. And it's but it also has some gentle slope, you know, gentle train closer to good access. There's just a lot to offer on this property. Vernal pools and streams and, beaver wetlands. So it's it's quite a place, and it's sitting in, Vermont conservation design, highest priority forest blocks, and it's helping to connect those, as well. So let's go to that next slide. Drew, thank you. And so this is the larger landscape. As I mentioned, about nine miles over to Lake Champlain and maybe about nine miles in the other direction to the Green Mountains. So this is, you know, it's it's it's not as big as it looks. The Yukon Forest is that yellow outline in the white block of Moncton there in Southern Champlain Valley. And four hundred and fifty acres, it's you can see that green watershed center to the south of it, thousand acres, and it's all in these big brown blocks of highest priority plant. And it you know, I think it extends nicely or builds on this patchwork of green and pink you see on the map, which are conserved lands of different types. Moncton is is is really excited to have this, you know, and I think the the ability to build out on what's already in that neighborhood is really important. Let's see. So, yeah, let's go to community engagement. So part of third the partners and the robust nature of a project like this would be the public. Right? And so we met with them initially in a series of town conversations about what would you actually want in a town forest. This is before we even identified a parcel. Once we had the parcel, it became more robust. We we really went out to, you know, town meeting and cabling and articles in the paper and Addison Independent and online and and so forth to engage with everybody and say, like, this is what we're planning to do here. You know, help us out with it. And part of that was the town would be as part of the budget, we'd be putting in, you know, a couple hundred thousand, and that would come from ARCA funds and, you know, the voters. And so we went to them with information in a survey, like a postcard survey. We got a twenty five percent response to that, which was pretty good, and, you know, overwhelming support. As you can see on this left hand stack here, that those were the yes votes. Right? And so the answer was pretty clear for us that people not only supported the idea of a town forest, but also the specific use of the, town funds. So that was great. We heard from the UVM, landscape inventory and assessment class, a graduate course, last spring, and they prevented provided us with just a wealth of information about the human history, but also, you know, the current state of plants and wildlife and everything on the property. Really helpful. They led a big walk, which you can see in the bottom center and, well attended by the community and then a presentation at the town hall. And then up in, you know, the top, it's one of our series of meetings we've had this past fall with the community about the management plan, all the, you know, hunting and trapping and mechanized uses and all the different ways that the property could be used and how we can fit those things together. And we're just now, not quite three months on from the purchase, finishing the management plan, and getting ready to circulate that to our partners in the community and get some feedback. I'll touch on the financial picture a little bit. So three hundred seventy one thousand of VHCB funds supported this one point one five million dollar project. So about, two dollars raised for every one dollar of VHCB. But I think important to emphasize the early commitment of VHCV was really key here because the town had sort of indicated, yeah, we can probably do two hundred thousand, but we hadn't really talked to the voters yet. VHCV said, yeah, we can do this amount, and it started to feel a little more real, and it was a key part of our application to the federal community forest, grant, with USDA Forest Service for four hundred thousand, and they awarded that two months later. So I do think the having a good team and a plan in place, having that early commitment from VHCB, you know, it really helped to set us apart with a federal grant, which is very competitive. There's only a dozen or so awards nationally, we landed one both that landed one. So very exciting. Yeah. And, you know, kind of looking ahead, what does this mean in the bigger picture? It it helps the state and the town a little bit in terms of our resilience and the climate future. It's a big block of land. It's the headwaters. It's, you know, supports the health of Lake Champlain. Thirty by thirty initiative, of course, is supported by this, and, you know, Monquilla is now up to fifteen percent of land covered by a conservation easement. So that's nice progress. And, you know, I I I welcome the conversation on affordable housing, you know, as well, even though I'm coming up to here today for a conservation project because, you affordable housing doesn't necessarily come with a lot of land around it. Right? And so for the quality of life that we all enjoy in Moncton and in the state, just kind of unique to the northeast here in some ways, I think, our lifestyle and rural landscape. To make that work and fit together, you know, they're both land uses. Right? And so if if I don't have a lot of land around my house, I need somewhere I can go, you know, five minutes in the car or walk to to go to public land that will be there for generations. And so this this kind of project really supports that and makes it possible to have more affordable housing and maintain that quality of life. So VHCB is well positioned to navigate that tricky balance, I think. And, you know, of course, encourage, like, everyone else to continue to support them in that mission and to make projects like the Moncton Town Forest possible. And, yeah, so last slide. Just, you know, wanna express the appreciation for your work to support VHB and, help us with our newest town forest. The public is out there. They're enjoying it even in the frigid temperatures. Like, this picture on the right is, from Wednesday night when I was out there and found, you know, snowshoe tracks that were fresh and you know? So it's it's happening. It's good. It's yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Really appreciate it. [Elise Schanbacher]: Thank you. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Thank you for Thank you [Representative John Bartholomew]: so much. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Sharing that great story. A little more. It's you're listed here as a being on the Town Forest Committee. Are you does Moncton have a conservation commission? [Representative John Bartholomew]: Yes. Yep. And I'm on the conservation commission as well. So I'm kind of a bridge member between those two. Yes. They they have their hands kind of full with, you know, education for the community on invasives and, hosting talks and, you know, they have a pretty, pretty good schedule of things you'd expect a conservation commission to be doing. I know in many towns, the conservation commission does also work with or manage the town forest. Because we were under you know, getting some sense from VLT, I think in particular of the the rigors of that would be involved potentially in pulling together a big conservation project like this. We established a separate committee to, you know, get to this point. And then we are still in an establishment phase for a couple of years, I think, you know, trails and all of that. And so the committee is transitioning toward that piece. They may merge long term. It's possible. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: And is this Moncton's first town forest, or is there another one? [Representative John Bartholomew]: Yeah. There is a yes. There there is some municipal land, but it's largely a wetland and not particularly suited to trails or other forms of recreation. So it's essentially it's a first traditional kind of, town forest. Yeah. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: And then just a little couple more, but, the grant writing that was involved in this, I guess, VLT probably helped with that. Or can you just speak to that a little bit? Because you're a pretty small town. How much staff do you have in Moncton, and then how did the grant writing [Representative John Bartholomew]: We have a part time town manager or town administrator. Yeah. So VLT and the committee worked on the grant writing, and it was really primarily that grant for BHCV, but also for the USDA Forest Service Community Forest Program. So those two were teed up together and went on a pretty pretty similar timeline in twenty twenty three. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Great. And congratulations. This is really great. [Representative John Bartholomew]: Yeah. Thank you very much. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Yeah. Right. Members have other questions? Representative Austin. [Elise Schanbacher]: Does does one thing have a local option, Pat? [Representative John Bartholomew]: I do not know the answer to that. Okay. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: They don't. [Speaker 5 ]: They don't? Yeah. Okay. [Elise Schanbacher]: There's things. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Thank you all for coming in today and sharing your story [Damien Boomhower]: with us. [Speaker 5 ]: Thank you, sweetie. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Great for us to hear. [Speaker 5 ]: Thank you for your work. [Speaker 0 ]: Of course. Yep. But We do. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Just wanna have a moment of discussion before we pick up for the weekend. Would you mind closing the door? That'd be great. All right. I just want to orient us to next week and where we are headed. We're doing a lot of education in this first part of the biennium, and we'll be kinda transitioning to more focused work on bills coming up next week and also the budget, which we have a couple of weeks to respond to our appropriations plan beyond the budget. I've asked Larry to kind of take the lead on the budget response. Others who wanna get involved should talk to him about that. And, hopefully, we'll and Kate's helping with that as well. And so we'll have folks in on the budget hopefully next week of a segment there just to hear what the changes are, make sure that we got a complete budget memo from our Appropriations Committee that includes our areas of jurisdiction and whether we need to hear from the administration or the agencies involved directly or we want to what we well, how we wanna respond to the budget proposals. Representative Zachary. I've been told that A and R is gonna be appearing at the appropriations on Wednesday morning. Got it. So that will better sense of the budget from their point of view after. Okay. So then we may have we'll probably have them in shortly thereafter and probably reach out to them to join us after they are with approach. And then we will be I had a drafting request in for the PFAS bill and updated it based on kind of the high level inputs we've been getting, and we'll have Michael O'Grady walk us through that as it will be introduced. Ella has offered to be the lead on that, so she's also on the new draft bill. That'll be coming up next week. And then sort of late late breaking, I think we will be we have a DEC miscellaneous bill that will be taking up sort of a technical changes bill. And we, have been talking about the three acre rule. So we will be looking at whether and how we might wanna address three acre rule and potentially using that as our vehicle to do that. I think that is the news from where I sit. Representative North. [Speaker 10 ]: Question about the the budget. What when will do we expect to be able to see kind of all the line item detail? [Chair Amy Sheldon]: I mean, it's it's out now. Appropriations has the budget. [Representative Sarah Austin]: Right? And [Chair Amy Sheldon]: then we have our we have we have the sections [Speaker 10 ]: what I'm saying. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Mhmm. [Representative John Bartholomew]: Yes. I am. Absolutely. Interested. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Yeah. Okay. We can, we I I can forward what appropriations sent to us. It just highlights the sections and then has a spreadsheet, I think, summarizing kind of, or a budget. It is a challenge. I'm happy to share what we have on it. And you all can look at it at your pleasure. [Speaker 0 ]: I'd like to yeah. Great. Got it. Mhmm. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Broadly, the speaker has shared with us some feedback from people in the building, about how committee works going, which is generally fine and great, but just some friendly reminders about testimony. When we have witnesses in, we're really they're here to speak with us. As chair, I try to schedule enough time for all of them to present the information they have to share with us with time for questions. It's not a time for sharing your opinions. Your opinions can be shared in other other venues, including here when we're discussing things, but not really appropriate for when this, when we have a witness. It's good to get right to the question at hand. And then other I don't think we're having these issues. I think we've been respectful to our witnesses, but just reminding ourselves that they're here at our request and sharing their experience with us and expertise in some cases. So continuing to be respectful of that is really important. Let's go ahead this session. Representative Austin. [Elise Schanbacher]: Yep. Just the feasibility study. [Chair Amy Sheldon]: Yeah. Let's well, we can talk about I mean, I'm I'm happy to assign kind of next steps to you so you can take that on. Other areas of interest folks can let me know. Bottle bill may be something we wanna look at. Representative Morris. Well, Maybe someone that wants to look at it with you. Alright. Anyway, with that, thank you all for a good week, and we will

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