ORDER-2017-11 : Petition of Lightower Fiber Networks to place (1) 4 inch PVC Communication Conduit (Schedule 40) and maintain a total of +/- 314 feet of conduit from Utility Pole #48 on Short St to the building located at 830 Main Street, Melrose, MA as shown on plan dated July 29, 2016

Transcript (~14 min @ 9:57)

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▶ 9:49 Speaker 4: Tables, order number 27-11, petition of Light Tower Fiber Networks to place one four-inch PVC communication conduit, Schedule 40, of plus or minus 314 feet of conduit from utility pole number 48 on Short Street the building located at 830 main street melrose mass this order was a subject matter for public

▶ 10:11 Speaker 1: hearing at our last full board meeting and was laid on the table alderman inferno thank you mr

▶ 10:17 Gail Infurna: president uh we found out after the meeting that this is um has to do with the hallmark health system uh building and as a board of trustees for hallmark health i wish to recuse myself okay thank

▶ 10:31 Peter D. Mortimer: you alderman motion to remove the order from the table mr president alderman mortimer moves to

▶ 10:34 Speaker 1: to remove order 2017 dash 11 from the table is there second second second by Alderman Medeiros on the motion all those in favor anyone opposed the order was removed from the table we did receive a communication from the city engineer this afternoon hopefully everybody has it and has had an

▶ 10:55 Peter D. Mortimer: opportunity to look at it motion to suspend the rules if necessary so that we may hear from the setting in city engineer and the petitioner Alderman

▶ 11:02 Speaker 1: water removes to suspend the rules motion seconded by Alderman's work oh on the motion all those in favor anyone post motion passes the rules are suspended the order is before you may they come forward then they can if

▶ 11:22 Speaker 3: somebody wishes to have them come for ladies and gentlemen would you come

▶ 11:42 Speaker 1: forward please we had some questions and we had lengthy discussion at our last meeting perhaps you folks could let us know what's transpired since then and whether you have answers to the questions and maybe explicate the memorandum we received today relative to the conditions for the grant location

▶ 12:00 Speaker 6: that you're proposing sure Bill Conway light tower the question was paving and hours of the construction we had looked into it and we would agree to repave curb to curb short Street as well as Main Street in the construction area and as far as the hours we were flexible whether it be weekend weekdays nights I know in the memorandum here it's a nine to three o'clock so it's agreeable with us I know there was also talk about doing a city shadow conduit which would

▶ 12:42 Speaker 7: not be an issue as well to go through the revised memo some of the conditions are the same but I'm gonna run through all them just just for a point of

▶ 12:56 Speaker 7: clarity uh we the first item talks about uh reviewing the corridor with the applicant with the city engineer prior to the installation and that was mainly because of the crossing of short street twice and we just want to make sure that that was really required in order to do the project the next one requires getting the applicable permits

▶ 13:14 Speaker 7: the next one requires meeting the city's standards for any sidewalks that are

▶ 13:28 Speaker 7: disrupted number four deals with trench restoration which is just our standard language number five requires concrete encasement of the conduit number six has

▶ 13:39 Speaker 7: been revised to capture the willingness of the applicant to pave curb to curb so we just revised the language to state that that the applicant would pave curb to curb from a minimum of one foot beyond their work area on the entire disturbed area of both Main Street and Short Street number seven requires them to replace any pavement markings that are disturbed eight requires notification of businesses this is the generic one we had before about 48 hours notice we added item number nine to require coordination with the robinson funeral home which the applicant also had in their letter a willingness to coordinate with them understanding that you know the coordination may be difficult due to the unpredictable nature of their business but to the best of everybody's ability that will be done um number nine just deals with approval of the traffic plan excuse me number 10 number 11 so on this one we changed the beginning hour to 9 o'clock we left the end hours 3 30 however since the applicant was willing to do night or weekend work we didn't want to specifically restrict in the conditions that it had to be night work or weekend work we wanted the flexibility to work with the applicant when the time comes and identify what's the best time of day to do this i realized that you know we've now dealt with the morning issue but the 3 30 times still has the issue of the high school and middle school getting out so it may be that night work is the most logical option so we just wanted to allow us to work with the applicant for that and number 12 is the item that mr conway mentioned of of the additional parallel conduit for the city. So then we have, this is per our ordinance, we have a spare conduit crossing Main Street in that location should we ever need it.

▶ 15:40 Speaker 1: Thank you.

▶ 15:41 Peter D. Mortimer: Alderman Mortimer. Thank you, I would like to make a motion to incorporate by reference all the conditions just laid out by our city engineer, please.

▶ 15:50 Speaker 1: Second. Alderman Mortimer moves that the conditions one through 11 set forth in the letter of today's date be made conditions of the grant to the location. I believe the motion was seconded by Alderman Medeiros. Is there discussion on the motion?

▶ 16:04 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Alderman Lemmerman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for addressing each of these issues and for outlining them for us. As you mentioned, the two big ones for myself and I think some others were both the paving and also the timing. On the paving, the curb to curb paving, I think is great to take care of that. And I believe we received an email from you mentioning that the last time this area was dug up and repaved was, was it nine years ago?

▶ 16:36 Speaker 7: 2007.

▶ 16:37 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: OK. And so this was not part of some of that new work that's been done by the hospital?

▶ 16:42 Speaker 7: No, it was not within the moratorium.

▶ 16:43 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: OK. And as far as the time, I do very much appreciate the later start time. That's an extraordinarily busy area with kids walking to school, being right near the school. I do recognize that moving the end time any earlier, perhaps, would make it too short, but the overnight being an option, I think, is important and would just ask that the kids particularly leaving school and the safety of that is closely observed in the first few days if we do go at daytime, and a change made if necessary, just because so many children walk and it's so close to the schools. Thank you.

▶ 17:25 Speaker 1: you thank you anyone else for the first time alderman Medeiros thank you i thank you as well

▶ 17:27 Monica C. Medeiros: i think you've come to a good resolution here about many of the concerns i know the ward alderman is unable to make it tonight and had some concerns so we appreciate in particular the the curb to curb uh repaving could you talk a little bit about we obviously have a requirement that the business is being notified 48 hours in advance can you talk about what the our standard procedure is or is there any requirement for residents to be notified and how how early would they

▶ 17:58 Speaker 7: know that this work was going to happen typically we notify as soon as we have solidified our construction schedule there's always the risk of when you notify too early and then it rains or some you know something unpredicted happens and then we have to renotify because it changes we've included the businesses in this letter since it's predominantly a business area but certainly you perhaps we should have just used the term of butters because anyone any of the residents on Short Street should also certainly be notified

▶ 18:26 Monica C. Medeiros: yes yeah okay very good and and just one more thing just to clarify I know some of the trenches here might be fairly deep and to make sure that they're obviously well covered if they are left from one day to the next which I'm sure

▶ 18:41 Speaker 7: would be your practice I don't believe they should be too deep it's you're

▶ 18:44 Speaker 6: looking about 24 inches is the standard unless we run into an issue with another utility line but 24 inches is pretty much the standard and through our trench

▶ 18:53 Speaker 7: permit we do require compliance with all the the Jackie's law trench requirements

▶ 19:03 Speaker 1: thank you thank you very much thank you Alderman Wright for the first time then

▶ 19:07 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Alderman McAteer Margolis thank you mr. president I just want to be clear on the fact that I think we are on the same page when it comes to Robinson's Funeral Home you'll work with them you know residents who may be mourning the loss of a loved one and have a funeral or a wake scheduled you'll work around that we'll coordinate with them on a daily basis you know twice a day if need be again because of the nature of the business to make sure that we're not going to impact their their business thank you very much thank you mr.

▶ 19:38 Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Alderman McAteer-Margolis.

▶ 19:40 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for your consideration. I am also happy to hear that the paving will be curb to curb, even though we seem to have done that area longer ago. It's been maintained in pretty good shape. I still am very concerned about the timing, and I just wonder from the city's point of view, if you could tell us why, if the applicant has agreed to night work, why are we still putting in 9 to 3.30?

▶ 20:10 Speaker 7: a lot of times night work where there are residences nearby can be very problematic and we receive a lot of complaints so we just want to make sure that we have the flexibility to balance the various concerns so and mr. Conley

▶ 20:23 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: was it mr. Conway Conway I believe you said the last time the work would probably take maybe three two to three days is that what you were saying or correct right and if you were limited to like five hours at night would it take

▶ 20:40 Speaker 6: you longer it would probably add some additional time to it yes right so I

▶ 20:44 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: mean I live off the fells way and of course I know we don't have a lot of control over what the DCI does but I mean we've had that going on for you

▶ 20:58 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: know several nights from eight o'clock till 430 in the morning and it's all residential so I mean I really think to have you know the flow of traffic and the safety of people who are getting on and off the bus which is the bus stops are right there's two bus stops right across from each other there by Short Street and to also accommodate you know people traveling up Main Street in their vehicles and on their bikes and school kids walking to school personally I don't feel I can support this until we are certain of the timing I appreciate that you're offering them the flexibility but and I also am concerned with the other businesses in the area as well being impacted so I would really like to see the something a little firmer than you know 9 to 3 30 at least I mean maybe not I don't know starting at 5 or you know going till midnight or I don't know if you can come back to us with that in the future or if you can make any kind of commitment to that now but I personally can't really support

▶ 22:04 Speaker 7: this with the 9 to 3 30 in there I do want to clarify that we were trying to give the city the flexibility less so the applicant I mean not not that we don't want to be accommodating for the applicant but our our desire to leave it a little open-ended was not so that they maximize their flexibility but more so that if we start working with the neighborhood and we determine that there's a strong opposition to nighttime or a strong opposition to a weekend we don't I just didn't want to lock us in I see but that's not to say that you can't

▶ 22:39 Speaker 1: be more specific right okay thank you anyone else on the motion to accept the conditions all those in favor all right anyone opposed motion passes the orders

▶ 22:49 Peter D. Mortimer: before you all the one motion for passage to grant the petition

▶ 22:54 Speaker 1: Alderman Wanamer moves to pass the order as amended by accepting the condition set forth in the October 5th memorandum. Second the motion. Second by Alderman Forbes. Madam Clerk, could you call the roll, please?

▶ 23:14 Speaker 2: Alderman Forbes. Yes. Yes. Alderman Inferno.

▶ 23:19 Speaker 3: Recused.

▶ 23:20 Speaker 2: That's right. Alderman Lemmerman. Yes. Yes. McAtee-Margolis. No. No. Alvin Medeiros? Yes. Yes. Alvin Mortimer? Yes. Yes. Alvin Tramontozzi? Yes. Yes. Alvin Wright? Yes. Yes. Alvin Zwirko? Yes. Yes. President Kahn? Yes. Yes.

▶ 23:44 Speaker 3: That order passes. Thank you, folks. Thank you. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you.