ORDER-2021-134 : An Appropriation from Free Cash, Account 01-324001, in the amount of $50,000 to Planning Professional Services, account 011752-529000) for wayfinding projects.

Transcript (~12 min @ 10:26)

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

▶ 10:16 Jack Eccles: ALL OPPOSED THANK YOU VERY MUCH THANK YOU THANK YOU ORDER THE SECOND ORDER ON AGENDA TONIGHT IS order 2021-134 in appropriation from free cash account zero one dash three two four zero zero one in the amount of fifty thousand dollars to planning professional services account zero one one seven five two dash five two nine zero zero zero for wayfinding projects i believe we have a member of the administration here tonight to speak on this um and the rules are under suspension so we have miss chanera bataglia to to kind of talk on this order hi um am i

▶ 10:53 Speaker 4: okay well i denise already um sort of introduced what we have before you um essentially we're looking to build off of the way finding and creative place making work that we've been doing over the last year um we sort of started our effort looking um very much looking at sort of these way finding signage concepts but then sort of public art kind of took up a lot of our time learned a whole lot about managing a public art program and that was obviously a really positive experience to sort of see that implemented to have um you know kind of opportunities for people to get out and see these new works in the community during covid and now we're really interested about getting back to the signage component and the way finding um for the ability for it to you know enhance active transportation um you know there there's research that shows how it can you know make people more likely to uh you know obviously ditch their cars but also just be more likely to walk someplace when they know exactly what the distance is or they know exactly where they're going um when we did our engagement process uh about a year ago we you know we heard

▶ 12:08 Speaker 4: from hundreds of people and there really was a strong response towards this idea of wayfinding but um we never really settled on an exact signage concept we sort of left off with a couple conceptual ideas and when we first presented that to the community at our webinar it was very split so there was really no clear indication that one approach was more favor than the other so So we were sort of interested in using this as an opportunity to re-evaluate kind of the identity, what people sort of see as the identity in Melrose, and how that would translate into a signage and wayfinding campaign. Signage meaning all different sorts of things. So there's some, you know, some parts of it is more landmark signage, just to kind of tell you, you've arrived in this district or you've arrived in Melrose. other kinds of signage could be trail signage or historical markers or you know other sorts of things that could identify important important points in the city things like updating the kiosks or adding more of those and then directional signs like I mentioned that would be targeted towards both pedestrians and cyclists and also vehicles and you know some other benefits the same way that sort of people are maybe more inclined to walk someplace when they know exactly where they're going we finding can have positive benefits in terms of cars you know if people are more likely to know exactly where they're going or know that they could access parking maybe not right at their destination but nearby you know anything that we could do to cut down on travel times and get more cars sort of off the road is part of whole concept so feel free to ask me any questions thank you thank you i have councillor thomas

▶ 13:56 Jack Eccles: councillor mcmaster anyone else wishing to speak at this time councillor thomas thank you mr Eccles

▶ 14:05 Cory Thomas: good evening uh welcome um it says here that there's three vendors that we're going to send bids out to have any of the vendors worked in melrose before are there any signage examples

▶ 14:18 Speaker 4: that we could see in present day um so we haven't gotten that far obviously so part of what this work would entail is kind of getting things in a position to take it to bill to bid um which requires more detailed design drawings and whatnot so we're not at that stage yet but i think you know if we we would definitely want to preference we would definitely try to preference i think a local um sign maker if possible sure for some signage like temporary signage we put up earlier um for uh advertising the the art projects um we put up kind of the yard signs and we used i can't remember the name but a local guy he was great so you know whatever we can to keep

▶ 15:02 Cory Thomas: our money local we definitely try to do have there been any discussions about changing the welcome to melrose signs or the welcome to melrose sign on the foulsway well you know

▶ 15:10 Speaker 4: But we definitely kind of heard about the sign, and some people kind of have complaints about it, both that it can be kind of an obstruction, but at the same time, those signs are pretty nice, so we're definitely not trying to get rid of good things that people like. That would be part of this process, would be kind of evaluating what signage we would want to keep we want to replace um definitely prioritizing things we could add in new kinds of locations i think replacing existing things would be probably a lower priority and especially those landmark signs are also quite expensive so that would be and the estimates of fifty thousand

▶ 15:56 Cory Thomas: dollars you know there's a a good faith estimate you can get what you want done for that fifty

▶ 16:03 Speaker 4: thousand dollars i think so i mean a lot of the signage the directional signage is just a couple hundred dollars so um we really can do any combination and i think if there seems to be a really big emphasis on wanting trail signage we could kind of bolster that if people really want it to be want to see bigger things you know we could we could prioritize that i think we just really want to hear um a little bit more about what people are interested in sure i'm sure there's

▶ 16:30 Speaker 4: gonna be some need in ward seven for trail um yeah exactly exactly thank you very much thanks Councillor McMaster.

▶ 16:35 Speaker 1: Councillor McMaster.

▶ 16:36 Shawn M. MacMaster: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, Ms. Schnurrish. Thank you for being here. Please thank Ms. Gaffey for the supplemental memo, in particular the second part of the memo, the wayfinding implementation at 30,000 provides the breakdown that I think we needed to know. Can you just provide a little additional context for the first part of the memo, the wayfinding design and engagement at 20,000? Put that in context, is that 20,000 going to Selbert and Perkins for that continued work or what what specifically sure is that going to so we're not actually

▶ 17:08 Speaker 4: committed to working with them either so I think we actually will probably have to take it out to bid we just need to do the three quotes because we ended up you know having to extend our contract our previous contract a little bit so we're not necessarily committed to working with them but yes that money would go towards the consultant to basically help us run the final engagement push you know post a survey analyze the results you know narrow down kind of present the three concepts find out what people like and don't like about them narrow down a final design and then create those kind of detailed I guess they're called design development drawings that would then be in a position to go to the

▶ 17:56 Shawn M. MacMaster: fabricator so the tasks under those four bullet points will be outsourced to somebody may not be silver perkins um no money will none of the twenty thousand dollars i assume would be used to compensate staff time it's all outsourced um i mean staff time would definitely be spent on it

▶ 18:19 Speaker 4: um we just i guess our money sort of i don't exactly know where so there's no expectation

▶ 18:22 Shawn M. MacMaster: that this would sup the 20 000 would supplement the staff of city employees but that the money is being used entirely to retain outside parties right to do the work right exactly that essentially

▶ 18:36 Speaker 4: that being work that is just not really in our in our wheelhouse doing that kind of design work

▶ 18:52 Mark Garipay: thank you and that's a conservative estimate council yeah uh thank you for being here just um and thank miss gaffney for the uh the work she sent or the email she sent uh the information on it um i see that there's three uh three concepts on here and one is being the victorian one and looking at the map it's kind of tough to see is there any in the historical district any of those signs that would be in the historical district i know there's an ordinance right now that states on buildings they have the all signage on buildings has to go in front of the historical district commission um i'm assuming that would that you would get them involved ahead of the

▶ 19:29 Speaker 4: game on that yes definitely and i think um you know i think any signage that would be in the historical district we would want to kind of coordinate it with any other kind of historical signage we might do outside of the district so you know we might be able to have some consistency there but we would certainly engage um the historic district commission and also the

▶ 19:52 Speaker 4: historical commission great thank you very much councillor mcleary thank you uh mr chair um thank you ms schnerbeck tagli for being here tonight um just have a question so the three the three concepts were presented to the committee there was no consensus on the three they were they were presented both to our wayfinding creative placement committee and also to the public at a you know online open house webinar okay and there's no like it was like 30% 30% 30% so there really was no clear winner okay so then we were hoping like one would really stand out we were like oh okay we could just go do that but the results really told us that it's not just about figuring out exactly what signage people want but like what what is the identity they're trying to capture right so the 20,000 would be used to go back to the drawing board on all three or I don't think no so I don't think we go back to the drawing board I think we would present those three concepts and kind of get more insight on what people like and don't like about each of them and then use that to come up with the best concept or something that maybe captures a little bit of each of those things and so I think we would probably want to host some kind of survey or you know maybe you know i'm not sure if in a person sort of forum could work but we definitely want to present um sort of the different concepts and see what people like and they don't like and and they do kind of range in they can range in cost so you know that would be part of

▶ 21:23 Leila Migliorelli: the equation too okay um also the the estimates for the signage um how are those uh arrived at so the consultant that we worked with on the first part that's just okay those are prices that they're sort of seeing and they've they've worked with a number of communities this is sort of their bread and butter doing this okay finding creative placemaking work so I would just I would sort of challenge the plaques it's at 150 each I don't know what materials are thinking of using but as someone who does this in my day job it's usually more than that so I would just i don't push back on that process for for some of these i would assume those are like kind of an aluminum plaque yes still um it's it could i've seen it up to like three times that cost so just something to to know when moving forward and working with the consultants

▶ 22:17 Speaker 4: thank you and we would also i think try to have as much installation done you know in-house as possible so whatever DPW is able to do we would love to have them assist any

▶ 22:37 Speaker 1: other councillors wishing to speak seeing no one what is the will of the

▶ 22:41 Speaker 5: committee motion to recommend for passage second motion recommended made

▶ 22:44 Jack Eccles: by a councillor greatest seconded by President Sinella all in favor aye all All opposed?

▶ 22:51 Speaker 1: This motion passes. Thanks for coming.