Hi Folks! Welcome to Queers go to Council (QC)! We wanted to go to congress, but this was SO much closer to home. Start where you are! QC is an RBCC initiative to increase civic engagement so we can create a world with equity and unencumbered joy. The purpose of QC is three-fold:
- Make the information presented at City Council more accessible to the people! City Council meetings can be a painful slog. I mean, there’s time for ANYONE in the community to get up and speak, even politicians! We don’t get paid to go, there’s hard seats and no free pizza. Despite (in spite of?) all of that, there is SUCH vital information and OPPORTUNITY at each meeting. We gotta make it easier for people to be involved in their local governments- in a mycelial way!
- QC aims to fuel civic engagement, believing these words of James Baldwin to be true: “The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it.” Nobody is gonna give us equitable and accessible housing, healthcare, justice, freedom- we must do it for ourselves. Luckily, there are committees, yay!! There’s many committees, each with several seats, and many have multiple vacancies. These groups cover all sorts of things that affect our everyday lives, like parks and housing and government accountability, as well as long-term vision and planning. Need something less governmenty? No worries! Some committees also have working groups, yay! All the joy of helping your community without as much responsibility burden!
- Finally, QC aims to be a cylinder of manifestation in the engine of community! (Phew!) It’s an important part of our mission to transform the world via Love-Actioning. Politics may be a necessary evil at this time, but someone’s gotta do it. May as well be the people whose lives hang in the balance. Time to get to work!
Some points of order:
- Please note that these notes are in no way comprehensive, authoritative, or anything officially sponsored by The Man. This is what we capture when we aren’t dissociating, staring at a wall and considering our life choices and whether or not I have enough money to afford rent, gas AND food this month, lol. We try to capture what matters most to the Queer community and poor or oppressed people, but things happen. We also shoot for a little humor and some of the random fun things that pop up in council.
- Mama’s tired, lol. The truth is, the Queer community should have a representative attending every council and committee session in order to hear what’s needed, speak what’s necessary, and share what matters. If you are reading this and you are interested in being a part of the team, please reach out! Queer Folks in Barre and all over central Vermont can do this and report back to our broader community. The RBCC is happy to use its platforms to share this important work, and to have you on the team! Email us at info@rainbowbridgevt.org or call/text us at 802.355.6316 to check in. On that note! We may not have the bandwidth to edit, curate or polish these notes. Presented below is an incomplete, messy distillation of our City Council happenings, yay! Please see the respective City Council’s Meeting Minutes or recorded meetings for all the deets. If you’re in Barre City, these can be found here: https://www.barrecity.org/city-council/. Montpelier folks can find their council minutes here: https://www.montpelier-vt.org/129/Agendas-Minutes.
Queers go to Council – Tuesday, November 7th, 2023 (Adam Jacobs Reporting)
City Manager Report-
Flood repair work has started at Public Safety Building, and then shifting to City Hall.
Two major landslides, Pike Street and Foster Street, are being helped out. FEMA disaster recovery center is shutting on 11/9 at 6pm. Barre Up is holding open hours on Wednesday from 6pm-8pm. Ice is down at BOR.
Extension of yard waste disposal from 8am-4pm this Saturday.
Free flu and covid clinic tomorrow, 4-8pm, at Spaulding High School. 6months-64years (not using medicare to fund it). Walk-in clinic.
Winter Parking Ban going into effect from 1am-6am till April for certain parking lots. Do sell overnight parking permits. Can park on streets. Unlawful to deposit snow onto city streets.
Trying to look into robocalls and text messages to make the ban more equitable with ticket impact.
Julie Moore (Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources), presenting
Patrica Multon (Central VT. Recovery Officer)–zoom
Last week presentation Intent was to inspire interest and start conversation. The reality is you know your community better than state government can. Hopefully, we can identify one or more key partners from the city to work with the state, around communications and engagement. The first step is a planning process, locally led, with capacity from the state government, to turn to our federal partners for implementation. The sooner we can get to planning the better we are to pursue strategic funding opportunities. There is a time element. I intend to stand back personally from this particular plan, and focus more on waterways with the city.
Jake: Future agenda item, for partners. Interest from Lauzon to make a housing strategy. Next week, combine housing task force with looking for partners. Coordination with city manager is key.
Waszazak: Pat will work with Nicolas for an idea to present to council to approve to start for engagement.
Lauzon: Looking forward to meeting you, you have an incredible skill set. I was a little star struck that last week our governor was here. We have had varied reactions to the conceptual plan. We all agree it’s a blank slate, it’s what we make of it. I will try to be the best partner we can be. I am excited for all the opportunities. The biggest question I have is deadlines. When does this plan need to be complete?
Julie: Sooner is better. We are dealing in a world of unknowns. Federal gov is operating on a continuing resolution. Need to go back to it to see if need to reallocate it. Difficult discussions around buy-outs, help move through process, understanding what the interest is, need to happen sooner than not.
Lauzon: Want to manage expectations and everyone’s schedule. Might schedule duplicative meetings if people can’t make it. If we’re thinking by January 15th we have to have a pretty big plan, I’m thinking how to manage the plan timeline.
Julie: I don’t know if we have an explicit deadline in front of us. We can self-impose a set of deadlines. I think we will miss opportunities if it extends longer than usual. A 6-month timeline is what we’re looking for right now. Latest winter, earliest spring.
Lauzon: Maybe March 31st.
Resident: Nothing settled for what organizations will take part or community feedback will work. A plan to create a plan.
Samn Stockwell: Money comes from FEMA as a request and then goes where?
Julie: Fema buyouts, transaction between FEMA, City, and owner. Another important source of funding: community funding block. Congress may take some part of $10 million from FEMA and reallocate to community funding blocks. Get conversation going with design concept. How quickly we can move forward, push pull with making sure we have community impact.
Stockwell: More comprehensive, the better.
Resident: Mid-october, we had a fine-grained discussion around infrastructure. All those notes and information is going anywhere…
Nicolas: VCRD will have a report from that meeting.
Julie: Going to pull as much data as possible from different reports, bring it all to bear.
Peter Anthony: As important as it is to focus on built environment, I hope to focus on long-term and expertise from Natural Resource agency, the river corridor. Until we embrace, improve, appreciate, and manage it we will have more flooding. We need to remove some of the misbehavior of the 19th century. Appreciate it, make it work for us, instead of fearing it.
Resident: As a historian, how will you save the history of the North End, in whatever project you have. The voices of the people in the North End, making sure they are aware of meetings, going around and making sure they have a voice. They have already lost so much.
Dam Removal Proposal
Benefits of Removal: Overall stream health and stability, restore natural sediment transport. Improve habitat for aquatic life. Lower flood elevations. Open 5 miles of streams for fish passage.
FreeVermontRIvers.com
Peter Anthony: Sportspeople appreciate it as well.
Unanimous “ayes” to remove dams
Upcoming Business
$77k fine for City of Barre from the state, for compliance issues.
Future meeting material:
Next meeting 6pm
City wide reapprasal discussion
Roundtable
Middle school football
Hope coalition at 7th day adventist church if you need flood recovery help.
Tis the season – Lauzon – not everyone’s gonna get what they want but we should be adult enough to give everybody something.
Samn- “without housing you don’t have a city”
Mayor- acknowledging veterans day. Two grandfathers fought in WWII. Ceremony on Friday, thank you to all putting it on.
