Public Participation

Transcript (~19 min @ 0:58)

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

▶ 0:57 Speaker 1: Mr. President, I make a motion to open the floor for public participation. Second. Alderman Mortimer moves that we commence public participation this evening. The motion is seconded by Alderman Boisselle. On the motion, all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. This is the portion of our meeting where any member of the public can come to the table in the center of the room, identify themselves, and speak on any item that is on our agenda for this evening. Is there anybody who wishes to speak?

▶ 1:27 Speaker 3: Good evening. Good evening. Julie DeLillo, Circuit Street. I'm here to talk on the library,

▶ 1:39 Speaker 3: and I know there's been a lot of email and conversation, but I understand that you are not voting to expend our money, I know that. You are voting for them to apply, but the way it's worded is once they apply, if it's granted, that they will expend it. And that means down the road, we have to fund that.

▶ 2:04 Speaker 3: And so why am I before you? Because down the road, that amount is about $10 million based on the numbers presented, the preliminary numbers. Those numbers can go up, they could go down, that'd be great, but they can go up. And so what I'm looking for is what were the other options. What were the other options? I know these, the numbers that were presented are preliminary, but there had to have been preliminary numbers on the other options. And what were those? Why did we choose this option over the other options? Why demolish and rebuild? What about remodeling? The funding scheme for this grant, the less you spend, the more money you get, right? more percentage you get so if you look at the funding scheme up to three

▶ 3:00 Speaker 3: million you get sixty percent three million to six million you get forty five percent six million to 1540 and then 15 plus you get so what were the options that maybe put us into a bracket where we would have got maybe potentially higher higher funding and again I know this is preliminary what What I'm asking is that we hold off just on this vote, it doesn't mean they can apply, it doesn't mean I'm asking you not to vote for it. I'm asking you to gather this data so that when you come to us asking us to fund 10 million dollars that we too have the information we need to make an informed decision. I understand that most of you do believe that you're just letting them apply but imagine if in July whenever they come out with this Melrose is granted seven

▶ 4:02 Speaker 3: million dollars maybe that's two three years down the road that is going to be hard for you guys to then come back later right to get the funding it's going to be hard to say no to that that's seven million dollars and i know yes you could vote it

▶ 4:21 Speaker 3: down but most likely as with the override it gets pushed to the taxpayer right it gets pushed to the voters and so just arm us with all the information that we need what is the 16 and a half million again i know these are preliminary numbers but they came up with that somehow what is that how much for they talk about infrastructure how much for HVAC and electrical what is that how much for some of these spaces and there's the questions that I have you know it's a zoning right what about the zoning you know it's a two and a half right now zone to two and a half stories 35 feet we want three stories what does that mean we can't fulfill our parking

▶ 5:08 Speaker 3: obligation now we're going to expand the square footage square from the parking

▶ 5:14 Speaker 3: is based on square footage so you're not you can't you can't fulfill it now and now you're gonna need more of it and so what does that look like and so all I'm asking is that we just ask to get some more information while we can because yes I understand that once the applications in and we can go through a

▶ 5:38 Speaker 3: process but you're approving this design or something pretty much like this design without understanding what the remodeling might have looked like you

▶ 5:47 Speaker 3: know I looked at it and thought there's a great teen space but that was looked at before the Resource Center opened up at the high school to teens I don't know maybe they do maybe they still go to the library but the Resource Center at the high school was for teenagers the high school kids to hang out study do what needed to do we built in that resource center a 300 seat auditorium or something something around 300 seats and now we want to put in 140 50 plus seats into the library I don't know how many big meetings or big events we have like that and can we think creatively so these are the questions I have with these designs. And so it's hard for me to think that I'm going to say, yes, have $10 million, whatever my portion of that is, right? Because this looks good. So that's what I'm asking you to do. I'm not asking you not to vote for this. I am asking you to gather information. think for us as our elected officials that's for me that's your obligation to to educate us to help us understand what you want to help us sort of help you right but if we're going to vote for it that we know what we're voting for so again i'm not i'm not asking you i i again i'm going to tell you i'm a friend of the library i like the library i use the library um But I think we need to be very diligent in looking at what we're doing here. Thank you.

▶ 7:31 Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else who wishes to speak?

▶ 7:42 Speaker 4: My name is Joan Lounsbury. I live at 14 Faxon Street. I've lived here for 35 years. I'm also the administrative assistant at the library. So what I'd like to talk to you about is some of the things that are really exciting me about this plan first of all it's been a process that has involved all of the staff going along each individual has talked about their needs of their own departments and we've worked with other departments we've talked with architects we've talked with

▶ 8:23 Speaker 4: linda and denise and the folks working on it so i'm going to just talk a little bit about what is my part of it at the library I'm the one who books the rooms or helps people utilize the meeting spaces at the UM in the library and I'll use an example from a week or two ago we had an author come to speak at the library and he was a

▶ 8:54 Speaker 4: local person O'Connell O'Connell and he was talking about the homeless situation in Boston and how he would treat patients on the street and help homeless patients the program we set it up with a capacity of 70 and an unlimited wait list and we very quickly could see we were hitting 70 and we could have gone so much higher had we had the facilities but 70 is pushing our limit with our meeting space we eventually did let everybody who was on the waiting list come and we ended up I think with a number of about 80 but it's programs like these that we just don't have good facilities to bring wonderful authors into the building and run a great program it's crowded the AV isn't done right you're kind of way in the back if you're that 80th person coming up you might be standing room only we have these fabulous programs and just by doing this project we would be able to do so much more when we have our children's programs baby steps and toddler time you can have as many as 90 little ones come in on a weekly basis and you know you're setting up in the morning for 90 babies you're setting up at night for 70 80 90 adults and you're having the sodium running in and out to get all these changes done the new plan has a dedicated children's space where they'll be able to set up and they'll be able to have the baby programs and the other part of it would be having you know a nice and big meeting space where you can have a big adult situation and you don't you know you're not running back and forth to change it all the time and so that's just my little piece of what really excites me about this plan is that we will become so much more to the community it really will be a community meeting space in so many more ways than what it is right now we do great I think we work great with what we have we work really hard but the possibilities are fabulous so that's my little bit Joan sign your

▶ 11:12 Speaker 4: name I don't usually do this thank you for anybody else who wishes to speak so

▶ 11:34 Speaker 3: my name is Fred white I live in Perkins Street and I'm a friend of the library

▶ 11:46 Speaker 3: as well so I think what we need to think about truly is when you think to the future the library is a good place it's a good place for kids I grew up in Dorchester one for the library probably wouldn't be standing here okay so we need a library the library we have now is a Carnegie building it's beautiful it needs to be preserved you talk about spending money so now we kind of have an idea what the fixed costs are going to be so yeah it's gonna be here maybe a man here maybe a man there obviously I don't have that kind of money and I don't want to talk like I do but what I'm saying is that this will help us with the infrastructure to the library. Whether you redo it or not, the day is coming when the heating system is going to have to be replaced. There's going to be certain issues around, you know, ADA and things like that. I think it's really not set up so good now for ADA. So those things are going to have to come into play. You also have probably some abatement with asbestos and things like that. So those are all coming at some point once you start. So that's the things you got to think about so what will happen is if we can get money now by putting in a grant to help us with those types of things and spend a few dollars from the city whether it's a vote or however we you know well we do a lot of fundraising now so we'll just we'll just turn it up a bit so but what I'm saying is that we need to think about the future and we need to make sure that we're planning for it and we don't leave this mess on somebody else because it's going to be that way there's a hole in the side of the library and if i was younger i would get a 50-foot ladder and i go up there and fix it it drives me crazy every time i walk by and see it so i think and it's it is it's a big fancy carnegie building it's something we should be proud of in this city people come from all over i know people that come from somerville and places with their children that come to all the things that we have in the summer where they play the guitars we have book sales you know i mean it's a it's a great community place for children and you know so and i can i can pretty much you know i could go on but we have these events uh so i just think we need to think of the big picture so not leaving money on the table now i think is full so i don't i mean i want to you know be rude or anything but you know you got to think about if you have the opportunity to get money now and you leave it on the table all these things come up five ten years from now I've been in Melrose 35 years myself if then we have to get money to fix everything it could be that much it could be you know five six million dollars just to come in and redo the heating system and all the other things that you have to do once you start doing construction on a built so I mean I will I will end there but I'll tell you I I really believe that this is the future, and we should at least vote on the possibility of getting a grant. I think it just doesn't make much sense to leave money on the table, so thank you for your time.

▶ 15:00 Speaker 1: Anyone else who wants to come forward?

▶ 15:07 Speaker 4: Sir. Good evening, my name is Phil Lounsbury, 14 Faxon Street, Melrose. My wife is sitting back here, spoke to you a few moments ago. I had no idea that this meeting was going on tonight. had no plans for this evening so I have no prepared remarks I'm sitting here as a very impartial or a very partial person I should say because my wife is an employee as I said I've been a lifelong resident of Melrose I remember the thrill of going to the library when I was five or six years old and I first learned how to read and getting my library card and the brand new edition

▶ 15:49 Speaker 4: at that time do we need new construction at the library I think absolutely I know a lot of thought has been going into the last several months in developing the grant proposal it's certainly not something that's being taken lightly we all need to consider future expenditures as taxpayers but as I understand the proposal before the board tonight this is just to take the very first step to submit the application for grant money I can't see any harm in taking that first step I can see a lot of harm of delaying that you'd have no idea what the rules may be at some point down the line money might not be available to us but less money might be available to us one never knows so I would just urge you to consider the proposal and really it's very important that we do take this first step and just submit the application for the grant as it's been put together and let the chips fall where they may so that's all I shall

▶ 17:23 Speaker 4: sign thank you my name is Christina Galliano I live at 30 Upland Road in Melrose I'm the chairperson of the Friends of the Melrose Public Library I've been involved in this, looking at the grant, looking at applying for the grant. I've been involved in this process for about a year or so now. And at no stage in that process was it ever inferred that we would be obligated to come up with the money without going through, you know, getting the grant, getting the matching funds. this is this stage to me is just opening the door um this is applying for a grant that's all this is um and i i can't even believe there'd be any consideration of not opening that door obviously

▶ 18:20 Speaker 4: we had to come up with some designs some different plans to be able to apply for the grant these are evolving there some of the things we had to do to apply for the grant that will of course be looked at as we get further into it should we receive funding um i guess i'm just saying i wouldn't imagine that we wouldn't want to pursue just applying for the grant um you know aside from the obvious benefits of the library of benefiting everyone in the community and being a place where everyone can go um it being an old building that definitely is in need of some work um those are things that are apart i think from what you're here for tonight which is to say can we vote to apply for this grant and again i don't understand why we would not do that so that's all anyone else

▶ 19:29 Speaker 1: who wishes to speak before we conclude public participation motion to close public participation

▶ 19:32 Peter D. Mortimer: Mr. President. Second. Alderman Mortimer moves to close public participation. The motion is seconded by Alderman Boisselle. On the motion, all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. Mr. President, I have before me the minutes of our meeting from November 14, 2016 and from January 3, 2017.