Well, let's get started.

Good evening, everyone.

This is Andrew Zachary.

I'm co-chair of the fiscal committee for the Board of Representatives.

With us tonight are the other representatives and co-chair Eric Morrison, Virginia Representative De La Cruz.

I see Representative Walt Goldberg, Representative Adams, Representative Dorsey, and Representative Sanford.

If I miss anybody, please raise your hand or let me know.

And with that, Weinberg as well.

Did I miss it?

Oh, thank you.

Yes, I see you right next to Eric.

And I'm sorry, just uh slip of the eye.

Um no harm, no foul.

All right.

And we are with that.

Uh it's 632, and we're ready for the budget budget presentation uh for this evening's Board of Fiscal Committee for the Board of Representatives, starting tonight with the Bartlett Arboretum, and supposedly Tracy Kay is going to lead off.

Yep, that's me.

Um, Tony, am I able to share?

You should be.

Uh there you go.

It's coming out.

Okay.

Well, Tracy Kay, CEO of the Bartlett Arboretum Gardens.

I'd like to thank the Board of Representatives Fiscal Committee members for the opportunity to discuss the mayor's recommended support for the Arbreedom in fiscal year 25 or 2627.

I know some of the members attended our get to know the Bartlett event back in February, but before we get into the budget numbers themselves, I'd like to give everyone a brief overview of what our organization's all about.

Um the agency overview of the Bartlett Arboretum through a lease agreement with the City of Stanford, maintains a city owned park open to the public, free of charge, down to dusk 365 days a year.

We do serve over 100,000 visitors each year.

Um we were uh noted by the HTTV uh best green spaces in all 50 states is Connecticut's best public green space.

Uh other notables are the Adirondack Park.

So we sort of consider ourselves the Adirondack Park of Connecticut.

Just joking a little there.

Um, but it also should be noted that while we have a lease for the core 64 acres of the Bartlett property.

We also care for an additional 27 acres of city land that includes uh Potter's Field, which was used by the city for over 100 years to bury nearly 400 of its poor and unclaimed dead.

And we uh maintain those other 27 acres uh sort of on a handshake agreement with the city.

Um, the mission of the Bartlett Arboretum is to cultivate and develop an expansive collection of trees, gardens, and plants for all to explore, enjoy and study, and to provide through education and stewardship a greener, healthier, more beautiful environment.

And our vision is to be a nationally recognized center of living collection expertise, education, stewardship, exhibition, and horticultural practices.

Just to give you some highlights of what was accomplished over the past year, as I said, we hosted over about 110,000 visitors that we track through our gate uh counter.

Uh over 15% of those are from out of state based on license plate connects that we we did not count New York State license plates who were really from really out of state, out-of-state plates.

Um we conduct a number of on-site and off-site programming and workshops for community partners, including Inspirica, Children's Learning Centers, Building One Community, Beyond Limits, the Boys and Girls Club of Stanford, and several Stanford Senior Centers.

Uh, we do serve every second grader in the Stanford School system with plant lifecycle programming.

We expanded our partnership this year with West Hill's agroscience program.

Uh I'll get more into that as we talk about some of our projects that we're proposing and trying to continue to support.

We also provide an extended day after school program for a number of Stanford elementary schools that sort of addresses the latchkey situation.

Our staff goes in really at the tail end of the day for parents who are working nine to five and they're in the schools providing some education but also some entertainment for the children who've had a rather long learning day.

Uh, we do hold an annual plant sale that raises more than 25,000 in support for the Arboretum's operations.

We have an eight-week long summer camp.

This year we're close, we're almost two-thirds fully registered.

Uh, 320 campers, 25% are supported on scholarships from private individuals and corporations.

We host successful uh summer outdoor concert series last year, was attended by over 1,500 people.

And two other major free community events are Arbor Earth Day, which will be we have one coming up this April, and our Honey Harvest Festival, which sort of closes out the summer and begins fall.

We graduated 32 members of the Master Gardeners program in cooperation with the University of Connecticut Extension Master Gardener Program and engaged over 100 local high school students in free education programs, internships, and volunteer work.

And one of our major projects that we completed last year was the construction of an auxiliary greenhouse, which is in a sense a temporary site for uh that was funded totally by private donations at a cost of about $50,000 to provide on-site facility for the Arboretum's tropical plant collection as we prepare for construction of the new horticultural complex.

We've increased our volunteer support from the business community, particularly in helping with our grounds.

This is just a partial, it's actually a full listing of who participated with uh corporate events and volunteer events here at the Arboretum.

What we're looking to do in 206-27 is in association with city schools and other nonprofit organizations.

We plan to continue our expansion of workforce development programs in the areas of arboriculture, horticulture, and landscape design.

I should note that two of our current employees as part of this workforce development program come from West Hill High School.

Both West Hill High School Agri-Science Program graduates, one went on to Cornell and has come back to work with us, been here now three years.

And another, we just hired on Monday West Hill graduate who went on to University of Connecticut and is working with our pre-school programs.

We're also looking to work with our partner organizations, including Downtown Special Services District and Mill River Collaborative to help build on existing efforts to enhance the city's urban forestry and landscaping initiatives, which is part of the Stanford 2035 strategies.