Public Comment

Transcript (~16 min @ 26:12)

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▶ 26:05 Leila Migliorelli: Onto the reading of the Minutes. At this time I will motion to approve without reading and by unanimous consent The minutes from the regular full council meeting on September 15th, 2025. Seeing no objection, those meeting minutes are now approved. Next up is public comment. I will motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objections, the floor is now open for public comment per rule 33 A of the Melrose City Council rules. This is a portion of the meeting where the public may speak on any item on tonight's agenda. Comments expressing any viewpoint on other matters are also welcome. Just a reminder that the public comment period is an opportunity for the public to share comments. Counselors will not respond public. Has up to five minutes for comments. Is there anyone wishing to speak in public comment tonight?

▶ 26:54 Speaker 4: Yes, please. Please. Yes.

▶ 26:56 Speaker 6: Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it and I will try to be quick. Um, a lot of you I've been working with already on this issue, so I know a number of you are familiar with it and I appreciate that. Um, I do have some notes just to keep myself on track. And just

▶ 27:11 Speaker 4: To, sorry to interrupt, just state your name and

▶ 27:13 Speaker 6: Address. Oh, the record Som Sorry. I'm Casey Blevins and I live on Grove Street and I've lived in Melrose for about 20 years, right around the Melrose Common. And in the last few years since COVI, the amount of off-leash dogs have been a significant problem and it's been a big increase since that time. Additionally, I did meet with some of our city leaders a few months ago, or a couple weeks ago, I guess 10 weeks to be exact. And the police, since Chief Fowler took over, there have been no enforcement of our leash loss ordinances at all. Um, and today they finally did post something on their Facebook page. But again, we had that meeting 10 weeks ago. So the reason I'm here tonight is in March I was walking, my dog was jumped on by a really aggressive dog at the common, um, I was bruised, I had a cut in my leg, my clothing was ripped, wasn't great. I then contacted the city the next day and I contacted the city many times. I called, got no answer, I called on the voicemails, got no response, I emailed, got no response. So fast forward a few weeks go by and we're into July. My college age son is walking our dog and out of the common come barreling at him, a very aggressive Australian shepherd. We know this dog, we know it lives in our neighborhood. We recognized the two dogs the people had. And my f son was able to give a pretty good description. The people ran off after their dog. We made a police report that night. Um, my son when he got home. So to be honest, he wasn't hurt very badly. But I teach psychology. What we use when we teach psychology to teach how fear is developed is a snarling dog. 'cause universally, we as humans are scared of snarling dogs. They are dangerous. So this is something that it really bothers me that the city isn't, doesn't seem to be taking seriously. My son gets home, we make a police report. He's not very traumatized, but my dog is, he is bleeding. The next morning he goes to work and I unfortunately was doing a lot of dental work that day. So I reached out to some of you modular Mark Cal, um, as well as emailing the city directly, especially the Office of Health and Human Services. That was the office that I had been reaching out to prior to this. Um, I get no response from the city, but Mark, who does not have a master's from Yale in public health says, why don't we just try to find the dog? Every dog in the city and this year there are 1,860 of them are registered with the city, um, at the fee of $20, especially if there's a late fee that's $35. So it does go up, but we've collected about 37 $500,000 since the beginning of this year. Um, anyway, I think brilliant, this is gonna be easy. So Mark calls the city clerk on my behalf. They give him some idea of where the dog could be located. So I unfortunately, again, I'm in and outta the dentist chair trying to deal with this. So I think great, I call the city clerk's office. Here's what's weird. They gave me an address, which is odd because they wouldn't call the people, but they gave me the address of their house. And personally I find that dangerous, but I'll get back to that in a minute. But I say, can you please call these dog owners? That sounds like the people. And they say, we don't know. So when I finish my dental work, oh, and in the meantime, concurrently to this again, I've been trying to get in touch with Anthony Chu, the Director of Health and Human Services, by email and by phone did not get back to me at all. He does call my son and tell him to go get the rabies shot. So my son, um, is a little panicked at this point. He calls his doctor and the doctor says, this is very serious. Rabies is deadly. If you sharp sewing symptoms, it's too late. You need to come in as soon as you can. My son is a diligent worker. He was at work. He was like, I can't leave work. I'll get there when I can. So I think, great, this will buy us some time. So I come to city Hall thinking I'm gonna go to the clerk's office. They'll probably already have contacted the people because we know pretty much that these are the dog owners. That was not the case. And I'm gonna fast forward through a lot right now. But I was in their office begging them to make a phone call. Now, to be honest, in hindsight, I should have just taken that address, gone to the Melrose PD right away and had them go to the people. But again, I'm a citizen. I'm now afraid for my son. I spent the whole day in the dentist chair. I'm just in tears at this point. I'm running around this building like Shirley McClain in terms of endearment. And no one is willing to help. I go down to the Office of Health and Human Services. No one's willing to help. I try to explain the situation. They look at me blankly. No one helping. I finally go up to the mayor's office. I'm like, the buck stops there. Surely someone will help us. Especially because my son had interned for the mayor, knew the people in the office. And I thought maybe they'll be compassionate. And instead of having my son endure, rabies shots will make the phone call for us. For those of you who aren't aware, a rabies shot is not a one shot deal. This is not an easy fix. This is two weeks of incredibly painful, costly, and again, inconvenient shots. And we had two very important family trips coming up. We were going to see my stepson in California and we were going on our mother son trip to Ireland. My son would have to miss both of those experiences as the victim of this attack because rather than calling the dog owners, the answer I got in this building was, your kid gets the rabies shot. Okay, I'm not okay with that. They are, again, very costly. We have health insurance. Not every citizen in Melrose does. So that is incredibly unfair. But the city would put that burden on the citizens rather than make the phone call. Additionally, again, I don't have a master's in public health, but my son has negative reactions to vaccines, which Anthony Chu wouldn't know, but his doctor did. So his doctor, sorry, I'm gonna get very emotional,

▶ 33:37 Speaker 6: though know was very worried. So again, why was that the answer?

▶ 33:45 Speaker 6: Um, anyway, I do leave this building. Thank you so much. In tears shaken up and really just so disappointed. I supported this administration. I voted for the mayor. I thought, of course the city knows what they're doing. And I left there thinking what is happening? The Benny Hill music was running through my head as I walked through these halls. It was not okay. But I get home, I go on Facebook. I had put a post out that morning saying, can anyone know these people? Can we find them? And thankfully, a fellow Mel Rosen had the information. I called Melrose pd 'cause it also was the same address that the clerk had at 10 in the morning. Um, so I was like, okay, this has to be the right place. And Officer Hinchey, by the way, officer Hinchey and Rob Carillo, amazing through and through, they are fantastic employees of this city. Officer Hinchey came to my house. I explained the situation. He went down, sorry. He's like my hero. Um, got the information and my son avoided the shots. Shots.

▶ 34:52 Speaker 6: So end of the day, that is saved obviously. But I have serious concerns. Number one, dog attacks are a serious issue. Some of you might be like, Ugh, she's like chicken little. I am not. Dogs are deadly. That is why they instill fear in us, right? People can be significantly hurt. And the people who are most often attacked are young children, postal workers, and the elderly. So we're lucky that it was my 19-year-old son who was able to put himself between my dog and the attacking dog. But it could be any one of your kids. It could be someone's elderly parent. It could be any one of you or your pet. Three days after that happened, a kid was maimed in Lynn by two off-leash dogs. So I don't understand why no one is enforcing the ordinance and telling people, put a leash on your dog. 'cause the answer I got from the city. So after this debacle, oh, sorry, I should add too. When I left the Office of Health and Human Services to add the cherry to this delicious Sunday, I looked over my shoulder and the people in the office were laughing at me. So as I'm tearing up talking to you, imagine laughing at a citizen whose son is about to do rabies shots because they refuse to make a phone call. So I asked for a meeting and Lauren gave me a meeting with Lauren Grek, the, um, Rob Carillo, Anthony Chu, and Chief Fowler. And a few concerning things came up. Number one, chief Fowler said, again, this has not been enforced since I've been the chief. That's concerning number two. I asked Anthony Chu, who's responsible for answering phones in your office? Blank Stare. Who's responsible for responding to messages in your office? Blank Stare. Why didn't you respond to my email? Blank stare. What we need in this city is someone who is going to respond to citizens. That is a number one thing that we need.

▶ 36:52 Leila Migliorelli: Ms. Blevins, I'm sorry, I don't mean to cut you off, but there's a, there's a five minute okay. Time gap. And this is, we've, I've let you kind of continue on for a little bit more. Do you wanna, if you wanna like take a minute, drop up. Do you want me to? That'd be great.

▶ 37:03 Speaker 6: Sure. Thank you. Um, so what I'm asking for is some oversight. Number one, I would like all of you to press the police and the city to take this seriously and start issuing warnings and citations to people with off-leash dogs. My postman today thanked me for coming tonight because he said if he asks people, they basically say f you. Who are you to tell us what to do? Rob Carillo has shared the same experiences with me. Unless a uniformed officer is the one telling people, put your dogs on a leash, they are not going to listen. So we need that to start happening to avoid another tragedy. Obviously this was not tragic. We had a great time in Ireland. It was all good, but it could have been. So I'm urging you to take this seriously. And also, last thing, I'm sorry, please. I'm asking you to look into what is happening in the Office of Health and Human Services. I think to tell my son to get rabies shots was not the right answer, but I'm mostly concerned with the fact that they don't respond to residents. And then finally I had that meeting with all of these city leaders. Lauren followed up with me a couple days later and I said, you know what, let's follow up in a few weeks. I wanna see what meaningful actions the city can take. So I did and I basically got the email equivalent of new phone who diss? It was like none of this had happened. There was no enforcement increase, no social media. She promised me that Tom Dalton, once he returned from vacation, would do a social media campaign That did not happen. So please, I'm urging you to tell the city if they tell residents, we are going to do this, this, and this. Don't do nothing. Thank you. I'm sorry I took so much of your time. I appreciate it. Thank you. And thank you. Oh, and sorry, I also, I put together, this is what I brought to the meeting with the city. I'd like for some of you to look at it. It's what I'm asking the city for as well as kind of the entire incident. And I really hope that you take this seriously. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a lovely evening.

▶ 39:04 Leila Migliorelli: Is there anyone else wanting to speak in public comment this evening?

▶ 39:21 Speaker 4: Hello, my name. Hello, my name is Carrie DeWolf. I live at 27 Malvern Street. I'm a lifelong Melrose resident. I prepared a statement I like to read regarding the FOS Park pickleball court. If it's, if it's okay with you in the interest of time. Thank you. We have been struggling with this pickleball nightmare again, FO Court Park for four years. We have gone to many, many, many parks and Rex meetings, um, advocating for a no pickleball sign to no avail. In March, 2025, there was a article published in the Melrose Weekly News ending pickleball at Fos Park was a difficult decision. I have it if everybody would like a copy of it. Um, and, and the the, it says the, in March, 2025, the committee voted to end pickle pickleball play at FO Park. However, when we went to the June meeting, they said, the committee backtracked and said, it's no city, no city nets polls, but people can bring their own and play. What's the difference? The noise is the noise. The noise is what's causing us the trauma there, doesn't it? As I said, it doesn't help with the noise level and our pickleball trauma burden. At the June meeting, we were told that they planned to do a basketball court. The basketball court that was previously, we were told to, they were gonna do it over by the end of June or at least put up a hoop by the end of June. Again, this didn't happen In the August meeting, we were told that they were getting multiple prices and they can't give us a timeline on when these pickleball courts would turn into a basketball court. We have heard many dates, one of them being actually after next July. So July, 2026. Again, this is asking us to wait another year for this. Honestly, we're tied to being gaslighted by the Parks and Recs committee. We understand and appreciate that this process costs money. In the meantime, we were asking that a no pickleball sign be placed immediately on these courts while the city continues to work on converting the courts, the mental and physical anguish that these courts cause the neighbors is unjust and unfair. Folks can play pickleball in other parks, the Trenton Street courts. I know the rec league was playing there, the YMCA or even other cities. And just so you guys know, it's 50 to 60 feet from our homes. If you can kind of picture that. No sound barriers. We only have one home and have a right to a peaceful home environment. We hired a lawyer and sent a letter to the Parks and Recs department asking that this no pickleball sign be placed, ASAP. We plan to attend their meeting again next week. We're prepared to go further with, with this lawyer, but hoping for a peaceful resolution as our elected officials. Please help us and end this pickle bear nightmare, pickleball nightmare. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I appreciate you listening. We've really been struggling, as I said, for four years, and we just want, we're not against pickleball, we're against pickleball in our front lawn. So we, we appreciate a few guys could please help move along this process. Again, all we're asking for is a sign. We're not asking for the courts to be done right away. Appreciate your time. Thank you very Much. Thank you. If anybody would like to see the letter. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

▶ 42:23 Leila Migliorelli: Is there anyone else wishing to Pete speak in public comment this evening?

▶ 42:30 Speaker 6: Is there anyone online? No one

▶ 42:31 Speaker 1: Online. Okay.

▶ 42:33 Leila Migliorelli: I will Motion by Unanim Consent to close public comments, um, with no objection.