Public Comment

Transcript (~17 min @ 28:29)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 27:49 Jeff McNaught: Councilor Migliorelli, Councilor Garipay, Councilor Grigoraitis, Councilor Stewart, Councilor Thomas, and President Cinella. Oh, and we also have Councilor Jamaleddine with us. This provides a notice of the quorum for the record. Pursuant to the suspension of certain provisions of the open meeting law, this meeting of the Appropriations Committee will be conducted via remote participation to greatest extent possible we will post a comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the city of melrose website and on mmtv3.org the public can find online access instructions to view this meeting at the city of melrose website it's cityofmelrose.org backslash remote hyphen meetings for the folks at home this is the portion of the meeting where any member of the public may come forward to speak to any item on the agenda this evening and before I move for unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment the one thing I was going to mention was we've received numerous emails from the wonderful residents of the city of Melrose and a lot of folks have also written in to ask to speak this evening what I would ask is if you are speaking to just read the email that you've sent I just want to note that all counselors have received your email and read it so if you could briefly summarize what you've said in your in your emails that would be great and I only say this because I think we've got a lot of people in queue for this evening all that being said um if there is no objection at this time i'll move by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment seeing no objection mr clerk the floor is open um and i i don't i'm going to let you manage the attendee list looks like an awful lot of people uh an awful lot of the names that we saw say that they wanted to speak but i do not see any digital hands raised all right if you're here for the

▶ 30:11 Speaker 1: library order library renovation order please raise your digital hand so that i may allow you

▶ 30:24 Jeff McNaught: to speak could also be the melrose community gardens order mr clerk although i do think

▶ 30:34 Jeff McNaught: you're correct most people are not here to speak to that i'm sorry if you are here for public

▶ 30:40 Speaker 1: comment for any items on the agenda please raise your digital hand i'm seeing a bunch pop up now

▶ 30:58 Speaker 1: i'm seeing i'm gonna let uh mr hoff in all right mr can you hear me yes okay thank you um and i

▶ 31:02 Speaker 7: promise i will keep my uh comments brief um i'm david hoff 46 warwick road i am here as the chair of the uh city commission on disability i communicated with each counselor via email earlier today uh just to uh summarize my comments uh briefly um as on behalf of the commission i'm just we are requesting approval of the funding for the um library renovations and construction um having recently toured the facility there are numerous issues which enumerated in our email regarding lack of accessibility of the current facility and in order to correct those that it really is necessary to make a major investment into the building and obviously there's lots of of other issues to be resolved as well. If Melrose is truly going to be a one community open to all, it is essential that we have a library which serves as a major community hub and major resource to the community that would be universally accessible for people with disabilities. The current facility is out of date, is not accessible, requires, for example, wheelchair users to go to the back entrance in order to access the building. there's numerous other issues that enumerated in my email as well so on behalf of the Commission I just want to say we really appreciate full consideration as funding request and approval of it thank you very much thank

▶ 32:36 Speaker 1: you mr. off all right next up is mr. waste back coming on the

▶ 32:43 Speaker 8: Good evening, I'm Ed Weistak. I'm the chairman of the Library Board of Trustees. It's been my honor to serve on the board for 32 years. The library has a special place in the heart of the community and over my years on the board I have seen changes that include the introduction of computers and the internet, dramatic increases in programming for all ages, and changes in the ways that people use the library what hasn't changed is the fact that people of all ages still come to the library work has been done to keep the building up to date with new and rearranged furniture replace carpeting and other improvements however the time has come when we the building needs a significant level of repair and updating uh for the library uh that's this is the time to do it the trustees feel strongly enough about this to commit funds to study planning and design work necessary to submit a grant application in 2017. We still feel strongly enough that we voted to commit two million dollars of library trust funds representing a very significant percentage of our funds to this project. I'm asking you tonight to now do your part in making sure that the city's valued public library can continue to effectively serve community community by voting to approve this building project

▶ 34:18 Speaker 1: thank you mr. Waystack you're welcome next up I have miss Nolan can you hear

▶ 34:34 Speaker 4: us oh I'm sorry I didn't I didn't hear Nolan I heard a different name anyway Yes, I'm right here. I think Mr. Wastak put it perfectly. I just want to jump on that and say that I think sometimes when people think of libraries, they think of children, the children's room, kids getting out of grammar school and going and working on their projects. And then sometimes you just kind of mentally think of a much older generation that goes and likes to read real newspapers and things like that. But I just want to say that the library has been a lifesaver for me. I don't work and I don't have an office, but I write. I'm a comedian and I'm also writing plays and it has been pretty much everything I've done has been because that library is accessible and is quiet and i'm not in my son's room looking at the chips paint and getting distracted so i just wanted to represent my age group i'm in my mid 50s i live at 74 argyle street and i just really hope that this library project uh moves forward thank you thank you miss nolan uh ms moneo can you hear

▶ 35:56 Speaker 4: us yes yes thank you thank you for the opportunity to speak um so i'd like to comment also to um to request the approval of funding for the library renovation project i'm a member of the historical commission and i also manage archives and collections at a local history museum and before the pandemic i volunteered to help with some projects in the local history room and i can speak to the significance of those archival collections they are phenomenal but the current space is truly inadequate and those items in there are irreplaceable the preventable damage like the recent ceiling leak or the ongoing lack of a proper climate control can mean the permanent loss of these historical records that document our community for those unfamiliar with the space there's yearbooks photo albums maps a century and a half of city directories and also small collections of artifacts and records that really give us insight to the citizens of melrose from all walks of life some of those stories you may have seen shared by the melrose historical commission recently and those records used to discover those stories that were shared would be lost without the library's stewardship so i think renovating the library now with the available grant funding will ensure the protection of these special collections but beyond that it'll also improve access to those records for the entire community so i'm fully in support of it thank you thank you miss monae can you just state your address

▶ 37:20 Speaker 4: for the record yes it's 110 walton park thanks so much miss talbot can you hear me

▶ 37:37 Speaker 9: Yes, all right. Hi, I'm Kim Talbot. 18 South Mountain Ave, Ward 7. I've been a Melrose resident since 1995, and I'm currently the chair of the Friends of the Melrose Public Library. And I'm speaking to urge the committee to vote yes in approving the funding for the library building project. Like Ms. Nolan, I want to speak specifically about the adult learning spaces in the library. The library is a hub of our community, particularly around families who are learning to speak English. we have high school students who volunteer to help families learn english and the amount of adult space for these students and the families to work is very limited i remember sitting at the table on the uh upstairs in the library working on my dissertation where the only reliable network was in our um in my neighborhood at the time sitting with the sit and knitters and watching a parade of adults and students access the um the room behind us for esl lessons later on as i was working with many adults through the lpac with the melrose public schools and we had to book a space that was large enough in the community to accommodate all of our adult learners and it was really challenging to book the one room for an adult space the library has available and once we reserved it after winding through the children's room the signage that was required to have all of our adults new to the committee to the community meet us in that room was a challenge to say the least a new library will help provide adult learning spaces for our new community our new community members and really become the resource in melrose that it's meant to be so i urge you to vote yes and approve the funding for the library building project thank you thank

▶ 39:33 Speaker 1: you miss talbot miss tom hill can you hear me are you there mr hill hi there so sorry i was

▶ 39:45 Speaker 3: just walking upstairs to get away from my noise in my house good evening everyone thank you for the time to speak again my name is lindsay toghill and i live at 186 melrose street i have two small boys in the roosevelt school in the second and fourth grade we lived in melrose for 10 years and we were really drawn by the community in in major part by the library and the strong library services that are offered and i ask for your approval of this order we've been going to the library since my children were able to toddle around the children's floor and we really loved the offerings we have really loved the offerings that they have in the book department but also books on cd audio books and we've discovered ebooks over the pandemic but what is really important to me is that the library is more than a place just to get media our lib our library is really so much more to the community my boys have also been to the library for the lego club friends with middle school children know that the library is safe for their children to gather i've seen senior citizens using the printer and the computer and other adults using the library to job search and to conduct community meetings melrose doesn't have a community center where all these things might otherwise be done no other building in melrose municipal or otherwise fulfills that need and no other building is completely open to members of the public without limitations the library is the building that unites us and keeps the community connected and that starts with the children's section these renovations are necessary to keep the building viable and allow more people to physically be part of that community with the ada changes it will make wonderful changes to our beloved children's space and honor the building's past and future at the same time so i ask you to please approve this order and to approve the order when it appears before the full council

▶ 41:50 Jeff McNaught: thank you miss taco thank you mr clerk i don't see any other hands raised i do believe we have

▶ 41:59 Speaker 10: one more person mr geller are you there yes i am all right uh hi my name is dennis geller i live on vine street about a block away from the library uh i was previously chair of the board of library trustees in brookline which is an elective position and i served on the board for 20 years and went through a building construction much like the one we're about to go through so when i saw that this had come to fruition i i read the proposal which i thought was very well done and then i asked myself you know what could i say to persuade someone who might be unsure about voting for this and i don't know all of you and i tend to assume that most people in public office support the library as a matter of course but there are other obviously concerns and so i did some poking around in the statistics from the board of library commissioners which i sent you so i won't repeat the details but what i found that i found very interesting is that compared with similar communities library usage is growing in melrose it's stronger than in similar communities that spend more per capita and it's growing where other communities have circulation dropping this is over the period what 2012 to 2018. so i just wanted to bring this up because clearly the library is really important in almost every community but i think statistics say that it is more important in melrose than many and so i would just like to urge you to consider that

▶ 43:57 Speaker 1: as you vote thank you okay mr giller at this time i do not see anyone else with their digital hand

▶ 44:01 Jeff McNaught: raised thank you mr clerk i would entertain a motion from counselors to attach all of the emails that we've received to the record concerning the library owner motion to attach all

▶ 44:14 Jack Eccles: uh constituent contact about the library project to the record

▶ 44:22 Jeff McNaught: second we have a motion from vice chair eccles to attach all correspondence regarding uh tonight's library grant order made um seconded by councillor Grigoraitis um mr clerk will you please call the

▶ 44:43 Speaker 1: role chair mcnaught yes vice chair eccles yes councillor german yes councillor mcmaster yes

▶ 44:53 Speaker 1: yes councillor Garipay yeah councillor Grigoraitis yes councillor migliorelli yes councillor stewart

▶ 45:12 Speaker 1: yes councillor thomas yes councillor Jamaleddine yes president sanella yes it's 11 yes motion passes

▶ 45:16 Jeff McNaught: I've just checked the queue again before we close public comment I see no further hands raised unless there's any further discussion at this time I will by unanimous consent move to close public comment unless there's any objection seeing no objection public comment is now closed we know that we have some folks from City Hall here tonight mayor Broder and some others so at this time I'll move by unanimous consent to suspend the rules if there is no objection seeing no objection the rules are now suspended and our first order of business tonight is order 2022-26 acceptance and by the way I may have jumped the gun a little bit on our speakers here we're all forgetting about including me forgetting about the Melrose public gardens grant order so that is also on the agenda tonight order 2022-26 acceptance of FY 22 Massachusetts urban agricultural grant in the amount of nine thousand three hundred and thirty nine dollars for replacement of 23 gardening beds at the