ORDER-2019-106 : Acceptance of a One Hundred Thousand Dollar Grant from the Executive Office of Housing & Economic Development Mass Marketing Partnerships/Office of Travel & Tourism Program for a Memorial Hall Restoration Envelope Study and for selective repairs and improvements to the building.

Transcript (~10 min @ 24:57)

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▶ 24:55 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: move to the agenda items our first order on the agenda is order number two zero one nine dash one zero six acceptance of a $100,000 grant from the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development mass marketing partnerships office of travel and tourism program for a memorial hall restoration envelope study and for selective repairs and improvements to the building yes I just

▶ 25:23 Peter D. Mortimer: put myself in queue a motion to suspend the rules motion to suspend the rules that we may hear from a second second okay we have a motion to send the rules

▶ 25:30 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: made by Alderman Mortimer second by Alderman's work go all in favor opposed we're under suspension of rules and we really appreciate the city planner and director of memorial hall being here tonight thank you good evening um my name is

▶ 25:41 Denise Gaffey: denise gaffey i'm the director of planning and community development and i'm here with kathy pickett broder who's the building manager for the memorial hall facility and um as has been stated we are here to request the alderman's acceptance of a grant in the amount of 100 000 to do some some critical building envelope work at Memorial Hall. We are specifically using these funds to do what's called a building envelope study. We've hired an engineering company that does this type of work primarily and they're identifying where all of the leaks and other water infiltration is coming in through the building. It's been quite a few years, well decades really, since we've made significant investment in the building envelope. So we're at that point where we really need to do that again. And it's apparent to anyone who's been inside the building that there has been some impact on some of the interiors. So we'd like to identify and address as much as we can of the water that is infiltrating. So we're doing the building envelope study, then we'll be spending some funding we're identifying the highest priority needs including specifically the area over the gar hall and the kitchen which has seen a lot of fun water infiltration so those would be the areas that we're prioritizing with this funding do you want to add anything and this has been um i just want to mention too that i'm assisting kathy with this project sort of doing all the the project management and contract management around it and we're we've consulted directly with the Board of Trustees on once once we became aware of the funding that we consulted with the board about their priorities and they have identified it though the water infiltration being the most important concern I'm happy to answer any

▶ 27:50 Denise Gaffey: Any questions?

▶ 27:52 Speaker 6: Alderman Mortimer?

▶ 27:54 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much, Chairman Lipper-Garabedian, I want to thank you very much, Denise, for the presentation. Kathy Bigot-Pirota, I'd like to thank you very much for running a great hall in Melrose Rotary Club, and we have lunch there every Thursday, and it's a great place to have lunch, but I do see the defects that have occurred over the years. Fortunately, the bones of the building are built out of granite, so that's not going anywhere. That will be there for another thousand years, but the roof, always a weak point in any building, and the outside, the interior, the leaking. But you managed to keep it together with wire and chewing gum and duct tape and make a nice presentation. Melrose Rotary has lunch there all the time. As was mentioned, the boxing matches, the Melrose Symphony, which occasionally, fortunate enough to attend. oldest volunteer symphony in the history excuse me in the in all of the United States it's a great thing a really nice event we had this year that you were there for was the brawl in the hall the Melrose wrestling team took on the Wakefield wrestling team and they pulled it out at the last minute and won the whole meet by three points but it was great because that attracted enough people because it was Wakefield for us to wrestle against Wakefield and them Well, I used to be on the wrestling team a million years ago, but it was a great event, and like many of the great events there. And I'd also like to extend a hearty thanks to State Representative Paul Broda and Senator Jason Lewis for being able to shake this money down from the state. It's good when we can grab money from the state. It's always an important thing. Heaven knows the people of Melrose pay enough in state taxes. I wish most of that money would stay in Melrose, but people in Melrose pay a lot of state taxes. So I'm really happy when State Representative Broda can get some of that money to come back to serve the people of Melrose instead of other people all over the state. And at this time I'd like to make, one quick question. There's no, I know what, but there's no matching grant on this. This is a straight up.

▶ 30:05 Speaker 7: That's correct.

▶ 30:06 Peter D. Mortimer: Yeah, I knew the answer anyway, but I want to let the people know, no money from the Melrose budget on this. is straight up money from the state no matching funds needed and at this time I'd like to make a motion to recommend this order for passage second motion to

▶ 30:21 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: recommend the order for passage made by Alderman Mortimer and seconded by Vice Chair Boisselle we do have a few members in the queue Alderman Tramontozzi

▶ 30:30 John N. Tramontozzi: thank you madam chair Alderman Mortimer said and commented essentially what I was going to say as well the question about the matching funds this order as well as the next order i assume of both non-matching funds and it's great and i appreciate and thank our state legislators representative broder and senator lewis for making this happen for us the memorial hall and the middle school finance center well deserving of this funding and the great great venues for for the city so thank you and uh thank you sure alderman Medeiros

▶ 31:11 Monica C. Medeiros: Thank you. Thank you. I know back in late 2016, early 2017, we had appropriated $75,000 from free cash towards an envelope study for Memorial Hall. Could you just talk about what happened with that?

▶ 31:30 Denise Gaffey: So I am not directly connected to that request so I'm not exactly sure I just want to just want to reveal that so in case I misspeak and misspeak but I don't I don't know if it was that much funding and I believe that was for a feasibility study it wasn't specific it was not for I know it was not for like a building envelope study I think it was more intended to be a feasibility study that looked more broadly at all of the needs in the building I believe it's

▶ 32:03 Monica C. Medeiros: actually having to pull it up since we were talking order 2017-58 it was appropriation the amount of 75,000 from available free cash to Public Works professional building services for a public safety building feasibility study and building envelope study from Memorial Hall so it's joint between the

▶ 32:27 Speaker 5: too oh the director public that was given to public works yeah so it is so

▶ 32:29 Denise Gaffey: it is a it is a it was some of it was more an envelope study for his funding through the public works department so I would recommend that you speak with them directly I'm not as familiar with it it sounds like it sounded like it was it was combined with the public safety study is that public public safety

▶ 32:47 Monica C. Medeiros: buildings feasibility study and building envelope study for Memorial Hall okay I

▶ 32:56 Denise Gaffey: I guess I don't know I don't know the answer except that so it was related to two different projects I mean two different projects were combined for

▶ 33:05 Speaker 6: that one director people W join us I don't know if you can answer this

▶ 33:23 Speaker 8: question good evening everyone up that funding was for two studies the public safety building study which is complete and the Memorial Hall feasibility study for pending projects that we could complete in the near future that is not complete and i made mention of that i think a week ago at my public works hearing that money's still available in the public works budget and as soon as this project's complete we can move forward with that there's about 25 000 of that original appropriation still available in the public works budget

▶ 33:58 Denise Gaffey: okay thank you so um i didn't realize it was categorized as a building envelope study i I thought that was specifically for feasibility studying but in any event it makes more sense to use the grant yes it definitely makes sense and so we won't

▶ 34:13 Denise Gaffey: be doing it we've just receiving one building envelope study area I expected

▶ 34:16 Monica C. Medeiros: that would have been addressed so tonight so I apologize thank you any

▶ 34:23 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: other questions we have a motion on the floor to recommend for passage duly second it all in favor any opposed great we'll make that recommendation to the full board thank you thank you our next agenda item order number two zero one