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← City Council · 2025-11-17 · City Council Meeting

National Grid Petition for 14-24 Tremont St WR#31123475 to install underground facilities on Tremont St and to install concrete encased PVC Conduit and 2/4" steel conduit riser under western sidewalk from existing pole #440 located toward 14-24 Tremont Street property. These conduits need to be installed to feed new pad mounted transformer to give power to new development at 14-24 Tremont St Melrose MA.

Clerk file 2025-217 — its full path through the council

Passed · Recommend as Amended · moved by Ryan Williams, seconded by Kim Vandiver Yes: Cal Finocchiaro, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, John Obremski, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams, Mark Garipay, Ward Hamilton, Leila Migliorelli.

Agenda original PDF

No further agenda text.

Minutes original PDF

iii. (ID # 2025-217): National Grid Petition for 14-24 Tremont St WR#31123475 to install underground facilities on Tremont St and to install concrete encased PVC Conduit and 2/4" steel conduit riser under western sidewalk from existing pole #440 located toward 14-24 Tremont Street property. These conduits need to be installed to feed new pad mounted transformer to give power to new development at 14-24 Tremont St Melrose MA. Discussion on this petition: Councilor Williams asked about the protection device being installed on the pole. It will be for over current protection. Councilor Garipay asked about the location of this pole. It will be in front of the Melrose pool at 36 Tremont Street and a transformer will be relocated for the new development. The developer will eventually do curb to curb paving of the street upon completion. Councilor Garipay asked about the wires coming off of this pole since it is near the pool, and the wires will be straight tangents, no angles downward. National Grid's lead time is 4-6 months and they expect to fit it with power June-September 2026. Melrose is finding that most developments need more electrical power due to air conditioning and required code updates. Councilor Finocchiaro asked if this will require extensive underground digging and they expect only one sidewalk panel to be disrupted. Councilor Karamcheti asked how long this will take start to finish and National Grid estimates 5 days. There are no safety concerns or issues to be shared with residents. National Grid will notify the abutters when the work will be done. Motion to Amend to include the pole made by Councilor Williams Seconded by Councilor Vandiver Motion to Recommend as Amended made by Councilor Williams 4 Seconded by Coucilor Vandiver All were in favor and motion passed RESULT: PASSED AS AMENDED [UNANIMOUS] AYES: Cal Finocchiaro, Mark Garipay, Ward Hamilton, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, John Obremski, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Leila Migliorelli, Ryan Williams NAYS: None ABSENT: Robb Stewart VII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Appointments/Reappointments

All documents for this meeting on the city portal

Transcript (~8 min @ 43:05)

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

▶ 42:54 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you. Alright, so I'll, I'll restate it again now that I've also figured out. So this is a poll. So it's the, there's two orders, one, two separate locations. This is the location by the fire station 204 slash 206 Tremont Street, both a pole underground conduit. Now we're gonna talk about 1424 Tremont Street, which also has a pole and underground conduit two. Okay,

▶ 43:16 Speaker 10: Got It. Okay. Uh, in this one we are asking for a pole to be installed actually in front of 36 Tremont Street in front of the pool. The Melrose pool. Mm-hmm. Um, the reason that we need to this pole is because we want to solve two issues here. One is that we gonna relocate an existing transformer that is in front of 14 three month street. But actually that transformer, that overhead three phase three phase overhead transformer is feeding, uh, 30 sixt on the street. So we are having some low voltage issues. So we gonna put the transformer in this new pole. And then, and the pole that actually has the transformer, we want use to install, uh, an electric, uh, protective device that we need for the area. And it gonna help us to serve the new development in 14 24 3 Mon Street. Mm-hmm.

▶ 44:14 Speaker 9: And then the conduit is from the old pole?

▶ 44:18 Speaker 10: The old pole, Yes. Into the

▶ 44:18 Speaker 9: property? Yes, under the sidewalk.

▶ 44:22 Speaker 7: Okay. Councilor Williams, you're

▶ 44:23 Ryan Williams: Talking about an overload protection device?

▶ 44:26 Speaker 10: Yes. Voltage protection. Yes. It's a, actually a what we call like a hook stick, low break.

▶ 44:32 Ryan Williams: Okay. So it protects against low voltage?

▶ 44:34 Speaker 10: No, the protection is for current, for over, over current. In this case the, the low voltage issues is that we gonna move the existing transformer Yes. To the new transformer. Right. That gonna be in 36, 3 months. Three. And

▶ 44:46 Ryan Williams: The devices for what? For,

▶ 44:47 Speaker 10: Uh, for protect the whole feeder, the whole area for our current.

▶ 44:53 Speaker 1: Can you say, I'm not sure. I'm sorry, I don't understand.

▶ 44:56 Speaker 10: Current, Over Current.

▶ 44:57 Speaker 1: Over current. Over current. Over current. Got it.

▶ 44:59 Speaker 10: Thank you. Sorry, my about my accent.

▶ 45:01 Ryan Williams: No, no, no worries at all. I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure I knew what you were saying over current. Understood. Thank you. Okay,

▶ 45:07 Speaker 7: Council Garbe, where's the, uh,

▶ 45:08 Mark Garipay: current transformer is what in, in front?

▶ 45:11 Speaker 10: The current transformer is in four in 14th Trenton Street.

▶ 45:15 Speaker 2: That's a new development. Right.

▶ 45:16 Speaker 9: So the transformer that serves, it's a little confusing, but, so there's 36 Tremont Street, their existing transformer is in front of

▶ 45:26 Speaker 2: 1436 is a dry cleaner. Yeah.

▶ 45:27 Speaker 9: Okay. And so that's being moved. That transformer will be moved to the existing, no, to the new pole. Mm-hmm. In front of 36 freeing up. Mm-hmm. The old pole in front of 14, that's gonna get the over current protection device and then a conduit coming down under the sidewalk to feed a pad mounted transformer on the property of the new development.

▶ 45:50 Mark Garipay: Yes. And I know we've been ripping up Tremont Street for the new development a lot. Is that eventually gonna be paved curb to curb? Is that they're responsible for

▶ 45:59 Speaker 9: That? That would've been where someone is the, um, the developer would be responsible for that. I would, I don't recall exactly the wording from the planning decision, but we, as a road that was paved within the last 10 years, we never would've allowed that without curb to curb. So I'm certain that we are requiring curb to curb.

▶ 46:16 Mark Garipay: Um, quick question on the pole that's gonna get installed. You know, sometimes we have cables that are coming down at an angle. Is it just gonna be a pole? Like sometimes yeah, it's gonna be, I know at Syl Street they've had some weird things. Yeah.

▶ 46:30 Speaker 10: Sometimes we need to do that when it's like some kind of deviation or like a difference of angle that you say. But in this case it's just a pole line, so it's gonna be tangent. So it's not needed, uh, any kind, any type of down guiding or anchor.

▶ 46:44 Speaker 9: So you're referring to the down the guy wire? Exactly. Coming down across the sidewalk

▶ 46:48 Mark Garipay: Pool and everything running around over there.

▶ 46:50 Speaker 10: So, so it's not necessary in this case. And, and when would that use the pole? Sorry, go ahead. No, no. It will be used the pole in this case because it's a, an straight pole line.

▶ 47:00 Mark Garipay: And when, when would you be doing that work? Uh,

▶ 47:02 Speaker 10: Sometimes we need that when, for example, an, an easy example would be when we have like a pole line in one side of the sidewalk and then we need to go to the other sidewalk. So we'll be like some forces that wanna be bringing the poles to be leaning in some point with the time so that those times are the one that we need to install a guiding and anchor to hold the poles of leaning.

▶ 47:27 Speaker 2: Will the work be done over the summer

▶ 47:30 Mark Garipay: if the pool's open? I just don't want, you

▶ 47:32 Speaker 10: Know. Yeah. So realistic clean? Eh, it depends more, eh, usually like our lead time now is between four months, approximately between four to six months. But it depends, like we know that the developer, they are hoping to be able and to be fed with power. They told us that it's gonna be kind of between June and September of next year. Yeah.

▶ 47:58 Mark Garipay: And was this always kind of, with the new development, was this always something we were planning on?

▶ 48:03 Speaker 9: I would say these days with most of the developments we're finding that we need different electrical infrastructure, new poles, new transformers. It's become sort of standard just based on the capacity that we have. And, um, you know, regulations have changed since whatever was in these places before. And then they obviously, a lot of them have much higher electrical needs because of electrification of HVAC and all that.

▶ 48:28 Speaker 10: Yes. Thank you. You're

▶ 48:30 Speaker 7: Welcome. Councillor Pra. Thank you.

▶ 48:32 Cal Finocchiaro: Um, I just wanted to ask, um, how extensive is there a lot of digging when you run the conduit underground? Like how, how extensive is that work? Is that not digging?

▶ 48:41 Speaker 9: Its usually like one sidewalk panel and, and That's it? Yes. Perfect. All Right, thanks. Yeah, and we have a, I might have seen in my memo, um, that we have a regulation that anytime we want the, the private utility has to run a shadow conduit, a parallel one for the city. But we don't really see a need for a parallel conduit in either of these locations. So it'll just be whatever meets their needs.

▶ 49:07 Speaker 7: Councillor, Carm, Judy, just curious about

▶ 49:08 Manjula Karamcheti: how much time does it take from start to finish in terms of doing the poles, doing the transformer transfer, all of that. Just again, thinking about that area of Tremont and it's an access point for a lot of people to a lot of different things.

▶ 49:24 Speaker 10: It's a good question. So in this case, approximately, we estimate that it's gonna be like five days. And all in all these days we usually like, eh, have all these details for each one. So for example, a poll can be done between half and a whole day. Transferring the equipment will be like another day and doing the other job in the existing transformer will be another day. And then doing that, the underground part of the job will be another day. But we give like an extra day of, I say like, yeah, we give an extra day for something that we maybe happen that we doesn't expect. So it will be like five days, but for a pool would be one day.

▶ 50:08 Manjula Karamcheti: And just outta curiosity, 'cause it's in the ward that I oversee, are there any like, safety concerns where we do this work? Or like things to be mindful of or pay attention to or anything that should be communicated to folks?

▶ 50:21 Speaker 10: So actually when we do usually like this type of work, we, we locate like the contaminate areas. But in this case, even though we are close, we are not working the contaminate area for National Grid. I don't know the purpose realistically, but the DPW, the uh, building is for us like an area that we don't want. If we do some kind of job, we need to involve our environmental department, but in this case it wasn't needed.

▶ 50:50 Speaker 9: And we also notify part of our requirements for National Grid is that they have to notify all the abutters. I think it's 48 hour notice that we require.

▶ 51:01 Speaker 7: Alright, thank you so much Counsel for Ikara. I

▶ 51:02 Cal Finocchiaro: Just, uh, make a motion to recommend

▶ 51:04 Leila Migliorelli: Or, um, I just wanted to, yeah. Uh, is there anyone in the public wishing to comment on? No. Okay. And is there anyone online? There's no one online.