ORDER-2021-156 : Acceptance of a Forty-Two Thousand One Hundred and Five Dollar Grant from the Massachusetts Office of Business Development Regional Pilot Grant Program

Transcript (~4 min @ 1:07:20)

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▶ 1:07:16 Speaker 2: from the massachusetts office of business development regional pilot grant program

▶ 1:07:22 Jack Eccles: counselor eccles mr president this time i would move for immediate consideration on this order

▶ 1:07:26 Christopher Cinella: Okay, any objection to media consideration? Seeing none, this order is now before us, and if there is no objection, I would also suspend the rules.

▶ 1:07:36 Speaker 5: I believe we have someone speaking on this order.

▶ 1:07:43 Speaker 5: Yes.

▶ 1:07:49 Speaker 5: Do you want to come up to the mic, do you mind?

▶ 1:07:52 Christopher Cinella: Do you have your name and address?

▶ 1:07:54 Speaker 4: Sure, Megan Day. I'm with the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce, so I'm actually in Stoneham.

▶ 1:08:00 Speaker 4: so we are a co-applicant on this grant and i know margot was unable i don't know

▶ 1:08:08 Speaker 4: to come today because she has a conflict so i offered to come speak if anyone had questions and i can give a brief overview sure okay um so in february um we actually partnered with mayor broder and the city of melrose to apply for a grant through the massachusetts office of business development it's a regional pilot program and we were looking to fund a private shuttle service and we were not awarded that grant but we were we were invited to apply for a smaller grant and so i worked with mayor broder and we settled on a downtown revitalization grant where we have very different downtown so for stoneham it was we were looking to rent the or lease the space next to the stoneham theater the greater boston stage company it had become vacant for the first time in 40 years and they were looking prior to the pandemic they were at capacity and so this would give them a little breathing room so we looked at the model as kind of we our downtown is pretty dependent on the greater boston stage company whereas you have a bit more of a walkable shopping district and so for the your piece we looked at the model of ours being centered around a specific landmark whereas for you we thought doing something innovative to kind of revitalize not revitalize but kind of bring more foot traffic and we had looked to what needham and newton were doing which is this pop-up in vacant retail spaces and so what they do it's an application program through there's a consulting firm called up next and so we applied for was to have funds working with up next to uh kind of activate uh space in melrose and take take applications and bring in these pop-up stores um in what would be an otherwise vacant store location so that was a grant and we were awarded it we were awarded in may most applicants were awarded in february or march and we did we were required to still meet the june 30th deadline for expenditure of funds so that's kind of the overview i'm sorry it's a little rushed but thank you uh any

▶ 1:10:25 John N. Tramontozzi: questions for mr day council chamber yes thank you mr chair mr president um is there any uh required matching uh funds city and town funds no none great perfect thank you anybody else uh any

▶ 1:10:40 Christopher Cinella: questions what is the will of the council motion for passage second motion for passage made by councillor Grigoraitis seconded by councillor Migliorelli any discussion seeing none all

▶ 1:10:51 Speaker 5: those in favor aye aye any opposed thank you very much thank you thank you do we have any uh new

▶ 1:11:04 Speaker 2: business we do have quarter 2021-157 in accordance with article 1 section 5610 of the administrative code appointment of joanne preparing six patriot way melrose mass as assistant city clerk commencing