Appointment of Anne Ahern, 98 West Emerson Street, to the Park Commission

Transcript (~2 min @ 22:23)

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▶ 22:12 Kimberly Vandiver: Recommend Councillor Stewart. Uh, second vice chair car. Shady. Anybody on discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? So that will also, that also passes and we'll go to the full council with a recommendation. Uh, the next item on our agenda is ID number 1 2 6 3 6. The appointment of Anne Ahern, 98 West Emerson Street to the Park Commission. And would you like to speak to her as Sure. I, It's possible she's outside. I'm not quite sure what's going on out there. Oh, yeah,

▶ 22:39 Speaker 4: Yeah. Sorry. She

▶ 22:40 Jen Grigoraitis: Is, she travel? Travel? No, she's travel. We did have a message that she's not able To make it. She travel. Sorry. My bad. Um, so I think many folks here may know, and she is a longtime Melrose resident. She, um, has, is raised her own children here and is now has several grandchildren here. She was a member of the Park commission 40 years ago. And when she reached out to say she was interested in re-engaging in city government, which is a really wonderful thing that we have residents kind of throughout their life cycle saying they wanna get involved or re-involved. Um, she was really interested in getting back on the commission. Um, I think it would be really wonderful to have a resident who has lived so much of their life here and who is also quite candidly out of the kind of youth sports world. Um, she's really heavily involved in that as, um, a coach for men, both girls softball and I think also girls field hockey, but also has a lived experience beyond that point in life, which is often, I think can be what dominates the conversation around our parks. But we know that they are so much more than that. Um, she's worked in Melrose Public Schools. She is, um, heavily involved in many aspects of the community and I'm just thrilled that she's willing to step up into this role and is really excited to serve back on the Park commission. And she's also a member of our Melrose Emergency Fund Board. Um, and so she brings that knowledge of some of the challenges that we're seeing from some of our more vulnerable residents.

▶ 23:55 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you so much. Councillor Occhio,

▶ 23:57 Cal Finocchiaro: I should say, I personally know Anne, she's a remarkable person, has been involved. Uh, her kids live here, three kids live here, grandkids here, and I know she's very invested in the city, so I'm happy to see what she's, um, what she's stepping up. So I'd like to make a motion to recommend.