Appointment of Steve Barron, 647 Lynn Fells Parkway, to the Planning Board for a five year term, said term to expire on the last day of February 2030.

Transcript (~4 min @ 2:50)

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▶ 2:38 Kimberly Vandiver: Great. Uh, motion to recommend Councilor Fiocchi and a second vice chair car. Shady. Anyone on discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? So, that will also go back to the full counsel with Motion to recommend, uh, onto the appointments we have ID number 1 2 5 5 2. The appointment of Steve Baron. 6 47 Lynn Fells Parkway to the Planning Board for a five year term. Said term to expire in the last day of February, 2030. And I will, uh, also state for the record that we have, uh, counselor Stewart joining us, uh, and voting member of the committee. Uh, do we have, uh, Madam Mayor, would you like to present, uh, this appointment? Thank you.

▶ 3:22 Speaker 1: Good evening, Madam Chair and Counselors.

▶ 3:25 Jen Grigoraitis: Um, thank you for having us before you tonight. I am thrilled to present Mr. Baron for consideration to join our planning board. Um, Mr. Baron, like some of the new appointees you'll hear from tonight actually proactively sought, um, this appointment after we had done some outreach through various communication channels to let folks know of some opportunities to serve on boards and commissions.

▶ 3:45 Speaker 1: So thank you for taking, um, the initiative.

▶ 3:47 Jen Grigoraitis: He, like some of our other appointees tonight is a relatively new member of our community and I'm thrilled to see people so willing to donate their time to our city. Um, he brings a rich background, um, in engineering, has worked in both the public and private sector and had the experience of serving on a planning board in Texas, which is a little bit different than serving on a planning board in suburban Boston. Um, and I think really can speak to sort of some of the things that he learned from that experience and some of the things he really values about Melrose and wants to see us continue to maintain in the community. So I'm thrilled that his willingness to step up. I think he'll bring a really welcome perspective to the board as they continue to, you know, balance our needs to increase housing with kind of maintaining the walkability of our community.

▶ 4:33 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you so much. And, um, uh, Mr. Baron, we'd love for you to share anything regarding your background and interest as well.

▶ 4:41 Speaker 2: Sure, yes. Uh, thank you for having me. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you all. Um, I just, I think that my experience and my education working, I've worked as an engineer for eight years now. I started in site and land development down in Texas. I now work up here doing transportation drainage for public private clients. Um, I think based on previous meetings with the mayor as well as the planning department, I think my ideas for development align with the direction that the city is going. So I think I can be an asset to the planning board and I think, I think I'd be a good servant. So thank you.

▶ 5:22 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you very much. Are there any, um, questions from the committee? Councilor Occhio? Just Wanna say thank you and, um, your resume is great and being a civil engineer and having experience is a perfect fit for the planning board. So thank you. Appreciate you stepping up Vice Chair Carm, jd.

▶ 5:37 Manjula Karamcheti: Um, I also wanted to say thank you in my time as a city counselor, I've spent a lot of time with the planning board, um, and really appreciate that expertise, um, that you have and that you'll be bringing, especially given the engineering background and drainage. Yes. It's amazing how much drainage comes up. Um, so delighted to hear that. We'll have someone on the planning board who can speak to that. Um, I won't ask you any questions about that now, but they will be coming from me probably in the future. Sure. So, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you.

▶ 6:09 Kimberly Vandiver: Any other questions or, uh, motions? I'm Just gonna make a motion to Recommend, but I'll second. Okay. Thank you. A motion to recommend, um, councilor FIA and a second from Vice Chair Karm Shady. Um, uh, all in favor a aye. Any opposed? So that will go back to the full council with a motion to recommend. And, uh, Mr. Baron, you don't need to attend that meeting. You're welcome to if you would like to. Thank you so much for coming before us today and, and as has been said, your willingness to serve the

▶ 6:40 Speaker 2: community. Yeah. Thank you very much.