ORDER-2017-61 : Appropriation of $20,000 from Available Free Cash to Planning Exp - Professional Services for Master Plan Project

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▶ 1:24 Peter D. Mortimer: is order 2 0 1 7 dash 6 1 it is an appropriation of $20,000 from available free cash to planning expenses professional services for master plan

▶ 1:43 Gail Infurna: project motion to suspend the rule so we can bring Denise Gaffey forward Alderman

▶ 1:46 Peter D. Mortimer: Inferna has made a motion to suspend the rules duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle that we may hear from the director of planning miss Gaffey good evening miss

▶ 2:08 Denise Gaffey: Gaffey would you please enlighten us on this order yes of course so I am here to request some additional funding to complete the master plan effort as I explained in a memorandum that I attached to the order and well there a couple of items that I attached there was a memorandum that attempted to provide an update on the progress so far with the master plan and and then there was another document that outlines the scope of services and tasks that are needed in terms of technical services by our consultant with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council in order to complete the plan but just in terms of background I was initially here in front of the board back in 2015 the city had received a technical assistant grant technical assistance grant from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council to to begin work on updating the master plan and at that time this was that service was valued at $40,000 and we requested an additional $25,000 from the city to essentially match that funding and put together a scope of services to embark on the master plan update our master plan had been last been updated in 2004 so at the time we thought that while we knew that that was not a particularly robust budget for a master plan they typically run in the vicinity of about $100,000 we were hoping through the efforts of by trying to provide we were hoping that would be able to to keep the cost at a minimum for the city by providing some staff assistance and that the effort would not require as much funding we were hoping that the $65,000 would be adequate to get us through the process unfortunately we were very optimistic and and realized that with all of the other challenges that we had going on in the in the department over the past year that we couldn't dedicate the kind of time that we had hoped to in terms of assisting the consultant with some of the with drafting some of the sections of the plan so we are at a point now where a little bit behind schedule we feel like with the with this additional funding the twenty thousand dollars we can we can complete the project in a timely manner we're really hoping at this point we've done a lot of work we've had a lot of public meetings we want to have one more public meeting in March of 2017 in order to bring the full draft of the plan in our original idea our initial thinking about goals and objectives to the community to get some feedback so we've outlined a process where we can complete a draft of the plan get some feedback through a public process in March sort through that public feedback during the month of April with the master plan committee and then have a draft of a plan to present to the planning board for approval in May so that is our and that is our goal at this point in order to complete the master planning process it's been really fulfilling up till now and we have had some some great meetings the master plan committee meets just about monthly we've also had some focus groups with some interested stakeholders like land use and real estate attorneys and in our senior population so we've gotten some really great feedback through those processes and that's all getting kind of stirred into the equation and and we'll get you know pulled together into a cohesive plan so with that I now request your consideration of this funding and happy

▶ 5:43 Peter D. Mortimer: to answer any questions thank you very much miss Gaffey Alderman Inferno please

▶ 5:47 Gail Infurna: thank you very much mr. chairman thank you Denise for coming as the representative the aldermanic representative on the master plan from this board I want to just agree with what Denise had to say and certainly the office is a very busy office and with her leadership and everything I think we're going to pull this through and have an exciting master plan for you for everyone to read so I hope everyone will support this funding Thank You alderman

▶ 6:20 Robert A. Boisselle: Inferno alderman Boisselle please in your email of December 14 funding for master plan project you've given off the sort of looks like the time schedule for 2017 projects and schedules and at the bottom you have in the budget how you're spending or how the money is being spent in a different categories one category is interesting is the public facilities which is probably the largest category in all of these are you considering or is this also involved a new well the public safety building or the new library that just kicked off its own master plan last week I believe is that being incorporated into this master plan

▶ 7:03 Denise Gaffey: well it'll certainly double counting here we're not no I mean we will reference in the public facilities and services chapter we will reference some of the current planning efforts that are going on the library master plan and the feasibility study for Public Safety and Memorial Hall things of that nature but we are not doing we are not doing those plans as part of the master plan we will just reference that that work is is going on currently okay good i'm just wondering if there

▶ 7:27 Robert A. Boisselle: was some sort of double counting that was going on all right thank you very much thank you mr

▶ 7:33 Peter D. Mortimer: chairman thank you alderman boyce alderman mcintyre margolis please uh thank you mr chairman

▶ 7:37 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: and thank you miss gaffey um you've been doing a great job so far we've seen lots of um outreach to the community on this and um i think it's important that you get to finish it i know your office is extraordinarily busy with many other things and projects I did just want to clarify so we had that technical assistance grant and was that 40,000 it was $40,000 and then we added the city we budgeted 25,000 correct and now another 20 so we're basically with that grant like $85,000 so it's still pretty much under where a normal plan would be and the city has contributed only about half of that amount correct if we support this tonight right great well I think as I say you've been doing a great job reaching out to various stakeholders and we look forward to the final report

▶ 8:35 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you thank you very much Alderman McAteer-Margolis is there a motion recommend mr. chairman Alderman Forbes has made a motion to recommend this order for passage at our full board meeting later tonight said motion was duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this order will be recommended to our full board meeting later this evening. You need not stay around. Thank you very much for your presentation this evening. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you. The next order we have before us is

▶ 9:14 Peter D. Mortimer: order 2017-56 it is authorization for the mayor of melrose to execute a power purchase agreement for the installation and location of solar voltaic panels on the rooftop of the public works operations facility we are still under suspension and we will ask miss grover to come forward and