Wards 4 & 7 NPA

Wards 4 & 7 Neighborhood Planning Assembly (NPA): Notes Wednesday, December 10th, 2025 6:00PM-8:00PM Approximately 40 neighbors in attendance 6:00 Free Community Dinner from Stephen Brown | 30 mins 6:30pm Welcome | 5 mins ● Adopted the agenda+ Reviewed the Ground Rules: o Listen to each other o Treat others respectfully o Share your opinion politely o Respect the agenda and process 6:35pm Introductions | 5 mins ● Introduce ourselves with name, pronoun and ward 6:40pm Open Forum | 10 mins ● At next NPA (4th Wednesday) please bring non-perishable food items to donate to the food pantry ● Where is the agenda posted? Civic Clerk city’s website, FPF ● Concern from resident – Rat problem in NNE, wondering if this is impacting others? Could this be due to feeding birds? Can we put it on a future agenda? ● Write suggestions ● NNE Food Pantry – thank you for all the donations from neighbors. This Saturday we received 1,850 pounds donated!!! You can make donations between 8 and 8:30 on Sat/Sun winter clothing. Santa, bake sale, and craft sale this weekend – Saturday 12 - 3! Also always looking for volunteers. Northendfoodpantry.org We are feeding 140 – 150 people each weekend. ● Please turn your lights off to save energy (and the polar bears!) ● Sund 12/21 – NNE Holiday Bazaar is happening at the Miller Center  ● Teresa from the City – encouraging people to take Overdose Prevention Survey ASAP ● Mark Barlow – City looking at providing services for unofficial streets in the city. Tues 12/16 at 4pm this will be discusses. A large number of these streets are in the NNE. Lots of concern about this issue. ● There are a number of street lights on 127 that are out. Go to See-Click-Fix to report this. Add how to use this feature at a future NPA meeting ● Afghan Alliance – looking for a new Executive Director – please refer people there! 6:50pm VT State Representative Monique Presley - The People vs Big Tech - | 60 mins ● Representative Presley from Bradford, VT presented on how consumers can stay protected when navigating the ever-changing digital landscape with a focus on privacy, digital marketing and artificial intelligence. ● Presley shared about her work in VT legislature, around the state and country. For more information people should go to her website: Peoplevsbigtech.com ● She talked about a wide range of every day products that can and sometimes do share (sell) consumer data to big companies. Data is shared via Car cameras, Ring cameras, credit/debit card usage, Uber, loyalty shopping (restaurants sharing data with hotels), smart fridge, Rumba, smart toilets, smart glasses, medical websites ● Presley feels hopeful that Vermont can set precedent through legislation and Class action suits 7:50pm Share feedback from last meeting | 10 mins ● Amy shared some of the community feedback from the October NPA meeting and solicited additional ideas for future meetings. ● Take more feedback 8:00pm Adjourn ● Our next meeting will be Wednesday January 28th, 2026 Ward 4&7 Steering Committee: Annie Lawson, Joanne Hunt, Amy Bielawski-Branch, Sarah Diaz, Stephen Brown , Jane McDonald