Appropriation in the amount of $340,000 from Capital Stabilization for DPW Refuse/Yard Waste Truck
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
A. (ID # 2026-307): Appropriation in the amount of $340,000 from Capital Stabilization for DPW Refuse/Yard Waste Truck Motion to Approve made by Councilor Chen Seconded by Councilor Finocchiaro All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: PASSED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams NAYS: None Comments on Discussion: -President Freeman asked if the city can increase the amount of yard waste pick ups throughout the year as a result of obtaining this new truck, and they will look into that possibility. 3 -Councilor Finocchiaro supports the new truck and asked why the funds are coming from the Enterprise Fund and not the Capital Stabilization Fund. They replied that the Casella Contract was assigned to the Enterprise Fund to keep the accounting of it clear and clean. It is used to collect the trash fee with the correct amount to pay Casella and is structured to balance over the 5 year contract term. There is consideration over the long term to add more of the DPW budget/payments into the Enterprise Fund but it will require more funding to allow for that. -Councilor Park asked if the truck is brand new. It is a demo truck from 2025 with minimal mileage and was not used to collect trash. He asked how long they expect this truck to last. They hope to get 10-15 years of use out of it, not 20+ years as with the current one, but longer than the average 6- 7 years. -Councilor Kowal asked about the price of the truck and if there is a deadline to purchase this truck if it is not currently approved. The price range is $300,000-$360,000. The current leadtime is about 3 months so if we do not get this truck, we will struggle with yard waste pick up which starts in April. That would require renting a truck or fixing the existing one. -Councilor Karamcheti asked what are the long-term plans and maintenance to avoid emergency situations such as this requiring the purchase of expensive equipment. For years these trucks have been on the long term plan with requests for capital funds from free cash but there had not been sufficient funding. Their hope going forward is to be on a replacement schedule and not emergency reaction. In regard to preventative maintenance, they hope to transition to a fleet module software system to better manage that. -Councilor Chen confirmed that this is an accurate cost for comparable trucks and the preventative maintenance is a cost-saving strategy for cities. VI. ADJOURNMENT Motion to Adjourn made by Councilor Williams at 7:38 PM Seconded by Councilor Karamcheti All were in favor and meeting was adjourned RESULT: PASSED [UNANIMOUS] AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams NAYS: None 4 HAS Comments 01/26/2026 CITY OF MELROSE Office of Treasurer-Collector City Hall, 562 Main Street Kathryn J Armata Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Treasurer-Collector Treasurer - (781) 979-4162
Transcript
▶ 8:23 Devin Romanul: Motion passes, and that order will be brought to the next full council meeting, uh, with a recommendation for passage. Thank you so much. Thank you. And our, uh, second and final, uh, order, uh, request this evening is ID number 2026-307, appropriation in the amount of $340,000 from the capital stabilization for DPW refuse yard waste truck. And still joining us this evening, uh, Director Proia-Casella, thank you so much.
▶ 8:48 Speaker 4: Thank you. Um, so replacement of this truck has been on our capital plan for a number of years. Um, it is aging equipment, it's rusting, and it has a, a critical failure right now, that when this failed, we thought now is the time to no longer keep pouring money into fixing this truck. Um, the repair was gonna be about $15,000, and we just said, "You know, let's just stop the bleeding and, um, look into replacing the truck." So this truck is used predominantly for our curbside yard waste pickup. Um, I did run some numbers. We had-- When we negotiated our contract with Casella for our, our curbside, um, trash and recycling contract, we did ask them for a price for yard waste pickup, and it was on average, over the, the next three years, it would be on average about $150,000 a year. So that cost, um, even if you factor in our labor and benefits for that labor and all that, for the amount of time it takes for our ten weeks, approximately, of curbside yard waste pickup that we do each year, um, it is still less expensive, more economical for the city to own our own truck. So, um, this is the most critical piece of equipment right now that requires replacement because we don't wanna sink that money in. There's a truck available on the lot at Allegiance Motors that they are ready to, to sell us. Um, it just needs a winch attached to the front. We also use this as a backup for tipping dumpsters at the schools and city buildings. So, um, it just needs the winch affixed to it and some lettering on the side to say Melrose Public Works- Mm-hmm ... and then we could own that truck. So that is our hope, that if this gets approved, we can proceed directly to having a truck probably within a few weeks.
▶ 10:33 Devin Romanul: Terrific. Um, first, I have, uh, President Freeman.
▶ 10:36 Bradley Freeman: Uh, thank you very much. Um, well, I wanna thank you both for the, you know, memo you provided for this, but also the long-range plan of replacing the DPW trucks. I think it's, it's, it's very much needed. Um, so I appreciate you getting that in front of us. One question I have, and it's more of a request, um, if, you know, this request truck is approved, I would love to see and have a discussion about: can we increase the amount of yard waste pickups in the city? Um, I know it's not just, just the truck, it's obviously there's a lot of labor costs and, and, you know, employee time that goes into it as well. But I'd love to see, you know, an additional week in December. I, I think, you know, looking at the schedule, that it cuts off fairly early in December, and leaves do tend to fall after that, so would just love to use- utilize this truck as much as possible, recognize that you're gonna have a truck that's not needing constant repair, and maybe we can look to, to spread that out a little bit more.
▶ 11:23 Speaker 4: Okay, we can look at that. Thank you.
▶ 11:26 Speaker 1: Councilor Finocchiaro.
▶ 11:27 Cal Finocchiaro: Thank you. Um, so I'm totally supportive of getting a new truck, and I think it's needed. I just have a question about, and I don't know if this is a question for you, but I believe in 2024, the council approved, um, a solid waste enterprise fund? Yes. So I'm just curious why the, why the funds are coming from the capital stabilization fund and not the-
▶ 11:47 Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's a, uh, that's actually a great question. So the enterprise fund was created, and there was a lot of discussion at that time between finance department and DPW about what to include in the enterprise fund from the outset. Um, the decision was made that the enterprise fund was set up in order to keep it very simplistic for the public to understand, because we were moving to the new contract with Casella, and we had the cart, the new carts, and, you know, a lot of changes. So the decision was made to only include the Casella contract in the-... calculation for the enterprise fund. So basically, the enterprise fund was set up to collect the trash fee, and the amount of the trash fee was set to pay Casella- Okay. - and Waste Management, where we dispose of that, of the solid waste. So solid waste and recycling curbside pickup, that was set to, um, basically match up. We have had discussion about there are a lot of things we could potentially add into the enterprise funds to have it function more similarly to the water and sewer funds, where it self-sustains the whole program. Um, so right now, anything that happens at the yard, anything that involves staff, none of our staff are paid out of the enterprise. Um, so if we were to move, like, our entire sanitation operation and recycling at the yard and, and everything into the enterprise fund, we would need to have more revenue sources for the ev- enterprise fund to cover that. And, um, charging for stickers at the yard would be the natural place to get that additional revenue. So that's kind of a down the road discussion, if we wanna convert the solid waste and recycling fund to be a more holistic fund that covers the whole program the way water and sewer do. But right now, it is just set up, the money comes in, it goes out to Casella and Waste Management, and it's- it is structured to, to balance over the five-year term of our contract. Mm-hmm. So we did collect a little bit extra in year one, but by year five, if we don't change the trash fee, we will be breaking even.
▶ 13:48 Cal Finocchiaro: Okay. Yeah, I think, uh, personally, I think that it would be great to, you know, pull funds for solid waste out of solid waste, you know, enterprise fund, and leave the capital stabilization fund for other things. But, uh, that makes sense, the way it's set up, so, um... or your explanation, so I appreciate that.
▶ 14:03 Speaker 4: Yeah, and personally, I do think that's a great long-term goal- Yeah ... for the city.
▶ 14:07 Speaker 7: Okay. Thank you.
▶ 14:09 Devin Romanul: Perfect. Next up, I have Councillor Park.
▶ 14:12 Speaker 9: Thank you. Um, you answered part of my question, Elena, uh, about the truck, uh, um, in terms of we-- it seems that we already have a truck waiting and, and ready for the ability to, to continue the, the process of picking up yard waste. Is that, is that truck, uh, brand new, in the sense that it is a, I don't know, two thousand and twenty-six model, or is it slightly used, or... And there's a lead-up question f- after that, so.
▶ 14:40 Speaker 4: Uh, I believe it's a twenty twenty-five. Mm-hmm. And it was used on the lot as a demo by the, by Allegiance Motors. So it has some very minimal mileage on it from showing it to potential customers, um, but it has not been used to collect, uh, any trash.
▶ 14:56 Speaker 9: Okay, thank you. And I noticed that it said in the document description that the recommended use of a truck is seven to ten years. This truck, uh, truck-- the current truck, twenty-six, is at twenty-one, which is double the, the allotted time. Where do you see realistically, uh, do you think this truck will last? Do you, do you adhere to the guidelines or want to, or do you think you can squeeze out ten to fifteen?
▶ 15:20 Speaker 4: I would love to squeeze out ten to fifteen. I think I don't wanna get to twenty-one again. Mm-hmm. But, um, and obviously, it all depends on the quality of our mechanics that we have. Right now, we have a mechanic foreman who can fix basically anything. So I think, you know, that's part of why truck twenty-six, the existing truck, has been able to limp along for twenty-one years, because we've been able to fix it in-house many, many times. Um, historically, we have not replaced any of our vehicles on the replacement cycle that's, like, the industry standard recommendation, so I would love to see at least twelve years out of this truck.
▶ 15:55 Speaker 9: Very good. Thank you.
▶ 15:57 Speaker 1: Okay. That's great. Up next, I have Councillor Kowal.
▶ 16:00 Elizabeth Kowal: Um, thank you. Um, I'm just, I'm curious about the price of the truck. Is that... I mean, is there a time associated with, like, if we, um, say no tonight, is there a deadline to get this truck at this price? Um, and if- Yes ... not, sort of, what, what in the price range are you, are you looking at?
▶ 16:18 Speaker 4: Yeah, so there are, there are various trucks of various quality, and, and some of them, um, have a lead time of about three months to get the ones that would have to be built for us. Okay. Um, the range is, I would say, three hundred to maybe three hundred and sixty thousand. Okay. This truck right now, I've put in three hundred and forty thousand, but the, just the truck itself, without the winch and without any, you know, anything else that we'd have to modify, um, is about three hundred and twenty-five thousand. So I've left fifteen thousand for any retrofits and lettering- Great ... and that kind of thing. Um, if we don't get this truck that's on the lot right now, we will be well into yard waste season, and we'll have to rent a truck- Okay ... or spend, spend fifteen thousand to fix our existing truck to get through the first couple of months. We start yard waste pickup in April. Okay. So any truck other than this one that's on the lot is, um, is gonna take us three months to get. And then secondly, this truck that's on the lot, if this doesn't get approved tonight, and then, um, through the full council, they're not holding this truck for us. Okay. They know that we are about to buy it, but they've said, "You know, if another customer, if another town comes in tomorrow and wants it, they're not gonna
▶ 17:29 Speaker 10: hold it." Thank you. Okay.
▶ 17:32 Devin Romanul: All right, next up, I have Councillor Karamcheti.
▶ 17:34 Manjula Karamcheti: Thank you. Um, it's great to see you. Um, kind of stemming off of, uh, one of the questions another councillor asked, you know, we've managed to keep our trucks, um, a variety of, um, different, different ones for different reasons toward, towards that critical state of now it's an emergency, and we have to purchase a truck. Just wondering if you could speak to, like, the ma- regular maintenance and sort of how we're, like, taking care of our trucks and sort of the long-term plan. I think I sometimes worry about getting into, like, a crisis situation where we have to buy the thing tomorrow, or we're gonna lose it. So could you just speak to that a little bit?
▶ 18:15 Speaker 4: Yeah. So I can speak to kind of... There's two ends of that. One is that with the financial situation that the city was in for the last several years-... we've had a lot of these same trucks on this same capital plan for several years, and they haven't been funded. So we've, you know, put this in as a request to the mayor's office to be included for free cash each year, and there just wasn't enough free cash to buy these vehicles. So our hope is that we're gonna get into a pattern of annual spending on vehicles. We've submitted a three-year plan. Um, it's roughly $900,000 a year. This is on top of the trash truck pur- purchase. After that's purchased, there's about 900,000 a year that we're requesting. Um, and that will come in as a free cra- cash request. Um, from my angle, it comes from me to the mayor's office and the finance department, and then it's their purview whether to bring it to the council. Um, so our hope is that we're on a replacement schedule, not a emergency reaction, um, kind of situation. And then with regard to preventative maintenance, so one thing that I've been really trying hard to, to get to is a place where we can implement a true, um, fleet work order management system that everybody is using and that provides preventative maintenance, um, uh, triggers for our mechanic staff. And we're actually meeting with a software company. We- we've been very happy with our facilities' work order management system, and they have a fleet module that I've reviewed before. Um, and we're meeting with them next week to, uh, take a look at that software. Since we already own the package, it's just a small add-on to get the fleet software. So that's my hope, is that we're gonna have every one of our trucks entered into the system, and the system's gonna spit out, you know, it's time for an oil change, it's time for lubrication, it's time for, you know, filters, whatever else is preventative maintenance, and that we will stay on those schedules if we're prompted to do so.
▶ 20:11 Manjula Karamcheti: I, I really appreciate the- your hope on that, and hope we... And I hope we can turn it into a strategy. I think that makes a lot of sense. Thank you.
▶ 20:18 Speaker 4: Thank you.
▶ 20:19 Speaker 1: Next up, I have Councillor Chen.
▶ 20:22 Jason Chen: I spent some time in the past couple weeks shopping for Class A garbage trucks, and I confirmed this is what they cost. And the director and I also looked at some government surplus for trucks. Most of them were over seven to eight years. They were cheaper, but they are close to that useful life of 11- Yeah ... 11 years. Um, also, what you say about preventative maintenance, this comes up in a lot of city cost savings as one of the top ways to save money, is preventative maintenance on city vehicles and heavy equipment, so I think it's well worth the software. So I move to approve for recommendation.
▶ 20:54 Devin Romanul: We have a motion- Second ... from, uh, Councillor Chen for, uh, approval. Second. Second, uh, for Councillor Finocchiaro. Uh, on discussion, I believe I have... Oh, no. Councillor Williams. Anyone on discussion? I just, yeah, I was-
▶ 21:09 Cal Finocchiaro: Councilor Finocchiaro? I just wanted to say, this is off topic, but the ci- uh, the DPW has done a great job with the snow removal. Um, so I just wanted to put that out there.
▶ 21:19 Speaker 4: Thank you. More to come tonight. We're removing overnight tonight. Great.
▶ 21:22 Speaker 11: Oh, I was like, "More snow? No!"
▶ 21:23 Speaker 4: No, no, no. Sorry. Sure is. Bite your tongue.
▶ 21:26 Cal Finocchiaro: No. Anyways, we appreciate it. You guys have done a great job, so...
▶ 21:29 Devin Romanul: Thank you. All right, thank you. Anyone else on discussion?
▶ 21:32 Speaker 1: Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?
▶ 21:35 Speaker 3: Vice Chair Vandiver? Yes. Councillor Chen? Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councillor Karamcheti? Yes. Councillor Kowal? Yes. Councillor Obremski? Yes. Councillor Park? Yes. Councillor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Chair Romanul? Yes. That motion passes.
▶ 21:59 Devin Romanul: All right, terrific. That order will be brought to the next full council meeting with a recommendation for passage. Thank you very much. Uh, with that, that concludes our meeting. Thank you. I will now entertain a motion for adjournment. So moved. Second. Motion made by Councillor Williams, uh, seconded by Councillor Karamcheti. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?