ORDER-2021-47 : Acceptance of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Recycling Dividend Program Grant in the amount of $14,300

Transcript (~4 min @ 40:16)

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

▶ 40:09 Speaker 3: councillor mcnaught yes councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor stewart

▶ 40:23 Speaker 3: yes councillor thomas yes councillor maladin yes president Rita yes 11 yes

▶ 40:29 Christopher Cinella: next order this evening order 2021-47 a acceptance of a massachusetts department of environmental protection the second dividend program grant in the amount of fourteen thousand and three hundred dollars and i believe elaine will be speaking on that as well uh james

▶ 40:55 Speaker 7: jim troop will be presenting this one mr true uh good evening council happy holidays to everybody

▶ 40:58 Speaker 6: uh thank you for the consideration of this grant acceptance uh the memo in the order itself i think uh explicitly show the the benefits of the grant and the fourteen thousand three hundred dollars that uh will go directly towards our solid waste and recycling program uh these efforts supplement our budget and allow us to maintain a lot of events provide a lot of education materials uh that can go out there that help divert trash and take it out of the the incinerator The benefit is reduced costs for us as a city, but also a direct service to the residents of Melrose, and then in some collaborations that we have with Stoneham. The big thanks in this program has to go to our solid waste recycling coordinator, Samantha Flanagan. She did all the legwork, provided the application to DEP, and has done a tremendous job for the DPW, so she should be recommended for her work here. Uh, thank you for the consideration. I'm happy to answer any questions.

▶ 42:06 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you chairman. Thank you. Mr troop and Miss for being here tonight. I just had. 1 question I know it said that the maximum amount possible to be awarded was about 30,000. so we're and we're getting about half of that. What do we, as a community need to do to make it to that 100% for the grant kind of where, where can we do better on recycling?

▶ 42:28 Speaker 6: Yeah, that's a great question to ask. If we go through the checklist of things that we qualify for, we actually have qualified for the maximum allowable components of this that are available to Melrose. The things that we would have to change are really large-scale changes to our entire solid waste and recycling programs that unfortunately would involve significantly additional funding, significant changes in both behavior and the way that we do our trash. And right now, it's not really the best time to incorporate some of those things. These are long-term changes that would need both the councils, the mayors, and the resident support. So an extensive list of the things that we can qualify for are found on the DEP website and through the Recycling Dividends Program. But I can say that we have maxed out where we are. We may be able to qualify for one or two more, but I think now that we have the team in place at the DPW, we can we could aggressively go after those. But that's a that's a great question.

▶ 43:36 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you. I'm glad to hear we're doing what we can do.

▶ 43:41 Christopher Cinella: any other questions i didn't see any hands go up did i miss anybody

▶ 43:49 Christopher Cinella: motion to recommend second motion recommend passage made by counselor stewart seconded by counselor eccles any discussion being done madam clerk please call the roll chair sanella yes vice

▶ 43:58 Speaker 3: chair Migliorelli yes councilor Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor mcnaught yes

▶ 44:09 Speaker 3: Yes. Councillor Eccles. Yes. Councillor Garipay. Yes. Councillor Stewart. Yes. Councillor Thomas.