Public Comment

Transcript (~5 min @ 0:24)

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

▶ 0:21 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Good evening. Good evening. The hour being 7.30 p.m. on October 15th, 2018. I call to order the meeting of the Appropriations Committee of the Melrose Board of Aldermen. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMTV. It's also available on the City of Melrose website for viewing later. Motion to open the floor for public participation, Madam Chair. Second. We have a motion to open the floor for public participation made by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boisselle. Before I take a vote, I'm just going to call the roll. I am the Chair, Alderman Lemmerman. I'm joined this evening by members Alderman Mortimer, Alderman Boisselle, Alderman Tramontozzi, Alderman Medeiros, President Zwirko, Alderman Bewtra, Alderman Lipper-Garabedian, and Alderman McMaster. We have a motion made and seconded to open the floor for public comment. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The floor is now open for any member of the public who wishes to come before us to speak on any item on our

▶ 1:04 Speaker 1: agenda. Good evening. Good evening. So I've never been here before so you guys can feel free to tell me if I'm doing this wrong welcome thanks my name is Danielle Bowers I live on Tremont Street in Melrose I have lived on Tremont Street for about 10 years and love it here in Melrose I am fortunate to live within walking distance of schools and shops and the train that I take to work every day but the issue that I came to talk to you guys about is is really my frustration with snow removal you know I I think that it's in in some ways it's kind of a crazy conversation to have because I think the the right thing to do and the neighborly thing to do is to shovel your sidewalk and it makes me a little bit crazy to think that we need to think about a law or some sort of rule around this but I can say in my ten years of walking to the train I I don't

▶ 2:08 Speaker 1: find that that is the norm and so for me I why work in healthcare so I go to work in all weather I am a physician assistant at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston so if the trains are running I'm going to work it doesn't matter what the weather is doing and I think it's really important that I be able to get there safely so I live on Tremont Street I am literally a three-minute walk from the train and I still can't get there after snowstorms without climbing snowbanks or walking in the middle of the street and for people who work in health care you are doing that when it's dark in the winter because you go in before the Sun comes up and you come home after the Sun goes down so never do I feel comfortable walking in the middle of the street after dark with cars and and plows and slippery roads and so I end up trying to climb the snow banks which is never how I want to start or end my day and you know thought it sort of hit home more for me last year when I was walking my daughter to school so up until last year I was just me but now I'm walking my daughter to Roosevelt to school and even from Tremont Street to Roosevelt which again is a three minute walk in the other direction we couldn't get there I mean she literally last winter was climbing a snowbank taller than her to get there at the corner of Brunswick Park so Roosevelt is on Brunswick Park it's a one-way street and the end of that corner we couldn't get we couldn't get through to the school I mean she was climbing a snowbank taller than her and at one point I had my younger daughter and her trying to climb a snowbank to get to school which just doesn't seem like the right answer so I would certainly love to see something like this happen because I think it helps hold people accountable in my mind I would never think that we have the resources to be able to patrol this I mean I don't think that police officers are going to be able to go door-to-door after every snowstorm but what I do think would be nice is the opportunity for me when I can't get my kid to school to call and have there be some sort of recourse for that and some sort of corrective action because otherwise it just happens again and again and again and in my ten years of walking to the train I know exactly where I can walk in which ones I can it's always the same sidewalk that's not shoveled but there's nothing that I can do without some sort of policy like this and some help enforcing that I don't know if people

▶ 4:53 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: have a question we can't we can't take questions during public comment um but we thank you very much for your participation and if any members have any sort of um you know comment on what you've said they could address it during our our debate on the issue okay awesome thank you

▶ 5:09 Peter D. Mortimer: thanks for having me motion to close public participation madam chair second we have a

▶ 5:12 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: motion to close public participation by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Boisselle all in favor aye aye any opposed public comment is now closed we'll move to the first item on our agenda this evening which is order 2019-16 acceptance of community mitigation funds on core boston harbor