PUBLIC COMMENT

Transcript (~13 min @ 0:50)

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

▶ 0:29 Devin Romanul: At this time, given the length of our most recent meeting, I'm going to offer by unanimous consent to hold the meeting of the minutes because scholars are still working on compiling everything that was said. They will be ready for our next meeting on June 11th. Seeing no objections, those minutes will be held until June 11th. Thank you for your patience and for the scholarly efforts that are being made. Thank you so much. Also, a motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objection, we are now open for public comment. This is the portion of the meeting where members of the public may speak out on any items on tonight's agenda. Comments expressing any other viewpoints on other items are also welcome. If there are folks in attendance, please feel free to have a seat. And if you wouldn't mind when you sit down, feel free to sign in and offer your name and address. And I also want to remind members of the public, we have a five-minute timeline for public comment, for each individual's public comment.

▶ 1:49 Speaker 2: Good evening. Good evening. Evening.

▶ 1:51 Speaker 3: Let me sit my butt down here. Takes a little bit, but I'll get down without falling over, I hope. My name is John Connery. I'm a resident at 19 Parker Street in Melrose. I've been in the city about 49 years now. My kids went to school here, so when I hit 50 years, I'm definitely an old-time Melrose guy, I hope. But anyway, I've come tonight on a couple of things. First of all, as a past president of the Melrose High School Athletic Hall of Fame, we have reorganized ourselves quite a bit this year. We have a number of teams coming in. We have the great year of 2017. We have the football team, the winners of the Super Bowl. We have a team that in 2017 is a state track champion, and included in that, we have a four-man 4x100 state champions. And I can tell you that Melrose has no dearth of great athletes. I tell people in our committee that we're living through the greatest age of Melrose sports. We really are, folks. We have a lot of champions. A lot of people are participating, which is the best thing. But we have cost issues, too. And we went to a Memorial Hall meeting seeking some relief. We left there thinking, "No, these guys are working really, really hard for the city." They try their best to keep costs down, but increase income. And I know the city itself, through you folks, pick up the balance. I'm here to tell you on behalf of the Hall of Fame, please keep up that balance. That Memorial Hall is gold to the city of Melrose. We've had 5,000 or 6,000 people at our events over the last 20 years, all local people. It's great for us to use it. We're going to use it again. We'll just raise the money to make sure we cover it. Costs us about $1,300, $1,400 to rent it for the night. It's not a big deal for us this year. But I just want to say that we were so impressed about the committee's work and effort to explain to us how they work and what their obstacles are. And they asked us if we would-- I asked them if they would mind if we went to the city council and told them how valuable that building is. And I know we got a $100,000 grant recently for lighting, which is tremendous. But I can remember times in that place where we had to go to the bathroom in City Hall because the bathrooms weren't there. We still had 300 or 400 people at the event. That's just one thing I wanted to say. The other issue is simply, and I'm going to say it, is just me. I've been in the city a while. I'm trained as an architect and city planner. I've done 4,000 units of 40B housing in the state. I've done a lot of developments, shopping centers, and things like that. I was the aggravating person to get Oak Grove built because we didn't have the proper zoning to get it done, but we went through an excruciating process and then changed the laws. Made it much easier to develop in that area. But the thing that I notice from a design point of view is the seal of the city of Melrose. It might sound funny. The only thing I see on there is North Malden when I look at it. It's all words. It's black and white. It has nothing to do with our history. It attempts to go from Charlestown to Pondfield, to North Malden, to the town of Melrose, and then finally the city in concentric circles.But I was wondering very much, I'm going to talk with the Chamber of Commerce, and I've talked with some of the arts groups in town. They may be willing to sponsor a contest to come up with a seal that makes sense. We were a great ice producer. We produced a lot of ice in the world. We could have the lake in the picture. We could have so many different things. We could have the historic city hall tower. We would like to just tell you folks, we'll come back when we have it set up, but through probably the Chamber of Commerce, which many years ago, I was president for six years. You might remember me in the hat and the coat with Marcy out there, marching with the kids in the parade. It was great fun. But, I would like you to consider, at least think about it. Look at the seal yourself on the car and say, "Does that represent Melrose?" It'd be a fun thing to do for the city, and we would bring the final decisions here, I believe, to make it. That's just one thing I want to tell you. The other thing that I'm working on is a lot more serious, and I'm going to talk with the mayor, I've been talking with the assessors in the region first, is new growth, as you all know, is one year. You get one year of new growth. It never really worked right because the people who put together Proposition 2.5 never had it in their mind at the last minute. Said, "Well, give them a year." For a multifamily development project, there was problems in getting the assessment correct, because if you have one year, the project is not completely built. As a result, your final assessment on that project is less than it's worth, but the year's up and you're gone. We were always working on a January 1 date in the past. Chapter 626 moved in the direction that I'm going to be talking about in a minute. It made the cities and towns six more months to capture that new growth. New growth is simply that. It's new growth. It's exempt from the 2.5% for one year.

▶ 8:30 Devin Romanul: Mr. Connolly, I'm so sorry to interrupt. I'm afraid we've reached our close of our five-minute- Okay. I'm sorry ... person time. Oh, no, you don't need to apologize. It's all good stuff, and I hate to cut you off. Okay. But if you have further-

▶ 8:42 Speaker 3: I'm going to come back with a proposal.

▶ 8:45 Devin Romanul: That'd be great, and if you have further testimony, if you-

▶ 8:47 Speaker 3: That should allow us to make an extra $700,000 a year without increasing anybody's taxes.

▶ 8:52 Devin Romanul: That's fantastic. I'm all ears, and if you'd like to submit further written testimony, we'd love to either meet individually offline or accept written testimony that we can read into the record. Sorry to go on. No, you don't need to apologize. I hate enforcing a five-minute time limit because it's always good stuff, but- Okay. Thank you ... in the interest of keeping the meeting moving. I appreciate you.

▶ 9:10 Speaker 3: Keep up the good work with the memorial hall. It really is the heartbeat of the city. So much is done there. So many private groups are in there. It's worth every penny we spend on it.

▶ 9:21 Speaker 2: Thank you, sir. I appreciate you. Thank you. Yeah.

▶ 9:45 Speaker 4: Hi, everyone. I'm Kelly Vrooman. I live at 30 Baxter Street in Melrose. I am not a public speaker at all, so I'm going to read what I wrote. But like I said, I live at 30 Baxter Street in Melrose. I'm a lifelong resident of this community as well as a wife, mother, coach, and nurse. Last May, I appeared before the Melrose Parks Commission to advocate for installation of seven automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, at our local parks and athletic fields. This initiative represents an important step towards improving the safety and wellbeing of everyone who uses our parks, courts, and recreational facilities. AEDs are critical lifesaving devices used during sudden cardiac arrest. When every second matters, access to an AED can mean the difference between life and death. While many people associate cardiac emergencies with older adults, sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, a child, a coach, a referee, a parent, a spectator, or someone just walking by a field. Having AEDs readily accessible at our fields means we are not simply reacting to emergencies, we are prepared for them. Some of you have probably seen me around the community carrying a bright yellow bag. Inside that bag is an AED that I bring with me to games, practices, and events as an added safety measure. While I am proud to do that, no family, coach, or volunteer should have to rely on one person bringing an AED to a field. Every park and athletic facility should have reliable access to this lifesaving equipment, whether it is needed or not. This cause is deeply personal to me and my family. Providing these devices throughout our community is more than a safety measure. It's a commitment to protecting our loved ones and ensuring that families can enjoy our parks and fields with a greater peace of mind. It is about doing everything we can do to prevent a tragedy before it happens. Tonight, I'm proud and grateful to share that with the support of my family, friends, local businesses, including ARS Construction, Turner's The Rising Eagle, Superior Image Barbershop, along with Melrose Little League, Melrose Youth Soccer, and countless members of this incredible community, we have successfully raised $16,816.79 to make this vision a reality.I am here this evening to respectfully ask for your support on two items before the council. First, I ask that the council accept the funds raised and allocate them to the Parks Commission with the understanding that these funds will be used exclusively for the purchase, installation, housing, maintenance, and ongoing upkeep of the AEDs. Second, I ask for your approval of the free cash appropriation request necessary to complete this project and ensure these life-saving devices are available throughout our community. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your commitment to safety of the Melrose residents. Together, we can make our parks and athletic fields safer for everyone.

▶ 13:05 Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you very much.

▶ 13:08 Speaker 5: You're welcome.

▶ 13:12 Devin Romanul: Do we have any other members in the chamber who wish to speak?

▶ 13:18 Speaker 2: By chance, do we have anybody online? No one online. All right.

▶ 13:22 Devin Romanul: Seeing no other folks for public comment, either in person or online, I'll motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Seeing none, we are now closed for public comment. All right. And I just want to mention that Vice Chair Vandiver and Councilor Williams are here, and now that everyone's here, I want to offer my sincere appreciation to the full committee for your flexibility in allowing me to do this job remotely during our most recent marathon meeting, and I want to offer a specific thanks to Vice Chair Vandiver for her leadership during that discussion.