ORDER-2024-17 : Request for the authorization to issue $1.650 million bond to fund for the roadway component of the City's Multi-year Utility and Roadway Improvement Program

Transcript (~46 min @ 1:00:50)

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▶ 1:00:49 Maya Jamaleddine: And first on our agenda for tonight is order 2024 dash 17, request for the authorization to issue 1,000,650 bond to fund for the roadway component of the city's multi-year utility and roadway roadway improvement program. We have, um, city engineer Bonnie, uh, Reese. Ms. Reese, the floor is yours.

▶ 1:01:17 Speaker 5: Thank you. Um, and thank you for this opportunity to, um, be here tonight to explain this. And I will answer Mr. Re's questions. Um, as part of this hopefully, um, I'll do my best. I'll do my best. Um, in your packet is a memo that was prepared by DPW director Elena PERAs Ellis. Um, and, um, I wanna make one note. Um, the, uh, Catherine Armada, our treasurer, has, uh, requested that in the second paragraph, the last sentence, um, where it says, for these bonds to be issued for multiple years at once, um, that, that be changed to, for these bonds to be approved for multiple years at once. A revised memo was added, um, on IQ M two today. And then also on, um, your packet is a small presentation of how our road program works. Um, and I know we've got some new members of the council welcome and I'm happy to address any questions that you have about how we manage our road program.

▶ 1:02:31 Speaker 5: Um, before I, um, get started, the one other aspect, um, we always put together around this time of year, we, uh, put together a construction calendar of what's coming for the next year. Um, and we do it, um, by year. But really in reality, we internally are looking several years out. Um, so we do think about what are we gonna be doing next construction season, what are we gonna be doing construction season in 25, in 26. Um, and that's part of our entire process. And then, um, to the question about why we do the bond every three years, it's a lot of work and, and it, frankly, an expense to the city to put a bond, um, together. And it makes a lot of sense to bundle it like this. Um, the, I'll try to explain it as best I can, and if I don't do a good job, Catherine might jump in. Um, the first 750,000 will be bonded in August of 2024. That will be, um, probably bundled into a larger bond with some other items that we already have on the books. The next 2, 4 50, um, in 25 or 26 and 27 will be short term bonds that will then get also rolled into a larger bond in 27. So we won't be borrowing that 900,000 now that's gonna, it's gonna be borrowed in those two different fiscal years. Um, so if that answers the question about why are we borrowing early and paying interest, um, that we won't be doing that, um, was that good?

▶ 1:04:31 Speaker 5: Um, so our road program is a multi-year program. We, um, look at, uh, water and sewer improvements that need to be done. We look at all of our infrastructure. We work with the gas company on what streets. They have old cast iron gas pipes that have a history of leaks, um, and plot out basically what our strategy is gonna be. Typically, we have the gas company go in and do their work, then we follow with sewer and water, and then we finish up with new sidewalks, curbing new pavement. And so that can be a three or four year process depending on how much work needs to be done. Um, we also look at electric work and other utilities, but those are really the, the big ones that, that we look at. Um, our program also relies heavily on roadway condition assessment. So this, uh, we just, every three years we do a roadway condition assessment. It is, um, a very prescribed process. It's not, uh, subjective at all. The our, our team goes out, they drive every single road in Melrose. They have a criteria, you know, number of potholes with the road cracking are the cracks, alligator cracks are the deep cracks. Um, is there pavement missing? How old is, when was the last time this road was paved? Um, and then we determine what the best treatment is. Um, paving is not one thing. It, there are many different ways that you can fix a road depending on what the condition is. Um, so we look at all of those things and we just finished doing our new roadway assessment. So in that handout, there is a color coded map of, um, what we have developed for this year. And this'll be our, our roadway assessment for the next three years going forward. And it'll help us to, um, work on which roads need the work the most, but also we'll coordinate with National Grid on, Hey, we're, we're looking at probably paving these roads in the next three years. Do you need to do any work before we get in and do that? Um, also in addition to that, we have a very active lead water service removal program. And we are all, so that's one of the other things we look at. Do lead water services need to be replaced before we pave the road? So a lot of, lot of moving pieces, um, that we put together. Um, Elena asked me to just say a few words about private roads in Melrose. We have quite a few private ways. Um, most of them are very short, like two, 300 feet long with two or three houses on them. Um, typic typically they were, you know, a long driveway and then the lots got built out, or, um, they are private development and the city never took possession of the road. Um, on private ways. We provide snow plowing. We provide trash pickup, we fix potholes. And, and we do that because most of those items are public safety items. They're access items. Um, so we, we do that, but in reality, if the residents want the road to be repaved, that road belongs to them. And, and that has always been our position at the DPW. Um, so there is, you know, obviously some distress from the residents when they, when they hear that if they live in a private way and they want their road repaved. Um, but we've been, that, that is, that is our policy and it's actually the policy of most communities, um, for private ways. But if you have any other questions about that, it'd be happy to answer it. Um,

▶ 1:08:58 Speaker 5: So we have many different buckets that we get our roadway funding from as well. Um, we get chapter 90, and that's based on our miles of roadway that we have. And that, that has been pretty consistently the last few years, around $530,000. So we use the road bond money to supplement that Chapter 90 money we spend this year. We spent about 1.6 million on roads and sidewalks in Melrose. Some of that money came from ARPA funding. Some came from the Winter Recovery Funds. Um, some came from the quote unquote millionaires tax. Um, and the rest of it came from, uh, chapter 90 and our fiscal year 22 road bond that we already had in place. The question about the city hall parking lot, the city hall parking lot has been on our list of something that needs to be done for a very long time. Um, we Had

▶ 1:10:07 Speaker 5: hoped to get it off the ground this year. It didn't happen. Some of the money that was in this year's funding is still reserved for the city hall parking lot. And a little bit of this new money will be used for the city hall parking lot, um, to the comment about making sure that the money gets used for the reasons that we, it was appropriated. It's, it's in the appropriation. You know, we can't, the schools can't come and say, we're gonna take your Chapter 90 money. 'cause Chapter 90 money can only be used for roads. Road bond money can only be used for roads. So, um, I hope that puts that fear to bed. And we're very, we're, we're very frugal in how we try to spend this money. We try to get the most from every dollar that Melrose spends on these programs. We also sometimes get private utility contributions from Ingrid, um, to supplement our program, although they have gotten, um, a little stingier in the last couple of years. Um, and then develop our contributions as well. And then we're always looking at grants. We have, we did the Vinton Street, west Emerson intersection this year, uh, with a $77,000 grant that I got from the Shared Streets program through Mass DOT. Um, so we're always looking for free money that we can use to help supplement the road.

▶ 1:11:39 Speaker 5: Bond itself, as, as you know, is, um, we're, we'd like to set aside $500,000 for the tip project for Lebanon Street. The, uh, the, the DOT estimate right now is $3.7 million, um, that the state would provide for us to do this work. That number will most likely go up, but that will be a conversation between us and DOT, um, to see if they can give us more, um, money. But the, right now, the estimate for the 25% design, which is the, which is a milestone in the TIP program, the estimate is about $300,000 more that we need right now. Um, once we're at the 25% design, DOT will program us into a tip year, meaning that we have 18 months or so to finish the final design, and then they'll give us the construction money. So even though the money for the tip design sounds like a lot of money, um, and we will need more to get beyond the 25%. Um, so that's why there's 500,000 in here. Even though it sounds like a big number, we're going to get close to $4 million from the state. So they'll, they'll fully pay for the construction of the project. We just have to pay for the design. Um, and then in year, in this first year of this bond, uh, $250,000 toward the road program supplemental funding. So that would be combined with our 500,000, um, from the tip or from the chapter 90 money. So that'll give us about seven 50 next year to do the roads that we wanna pave. And then the two following years, the four 50 each, which will be combined with the Chapter 90 money. So about a million dollars each those years to do road work. Um, and that's really about what we need to just to kind of maintain the status quo. There's, there, there are a lot of needs in terms of roads and sidewalks and in Melrose. And, um, it, the, you know, rough back of the envelope estimate is always about a million dollars a mile for roadwork. So, um, that's what we're looking at. We do about one and a half miles a year with a million dollars.

▶ 1:14:19 Speaker 5: So any questions?

▶ 1:14:21 Speaker 7: I just, I'm new at this, but I was looking back.

▶ 1:14:23 Speaker 4: Excuse point of order. The chair has to

▶ 1:14:26 Maya Jamaleddine: Announce. Sorry. No worries. Sorry. Um, and, um, I have, uh, counselor William on, um, uh, first and then, uh, counselor, uh, RO and then Counselor gpe

▶ 1:14:41 Speaker 3: and Counselor William, counselor Warren, go ahead. Thank you.

▶ 1:14:45 Ryan Williams: Um, sorry, just lemme grab my notes real quick. I dropped them by mistake. Um, okay. I have a couple of of small questions. 'cause you said something that jumped out at me. And then I want to ask some actual questions about some of these cost categories here. You said when you're doing analysis of the roads for the, um, uh, ranking program that you take into account the width of the road, what effect does the width of the road have to the roads ranking?

▶ 1:15:07 Speaker 5: Um, well, as you know, for some of our roads, we've, we've been, um, adding bike lanes and that kind of thing. Um, the width of the, the width of the road influences the cost of repaving. It, obviously 'cause it's more material. Um, and also some of the narrower streets, they don't have curbing Mm-Hmm. Um, and so that causes the unraveling along the edges. So that influences the condition of the road.

▶ 1:15:34 Ryan Williams: So when you're looking at the width, you're not using that to categorize the quality of the road. You're just adding that data point into the set. Yeah, I get it. Okay. Yep. Thanks. I was that, that jumped out at me, but I appreciate that. Um, is there a rough estimate for the cost of the parking lot work? Because they don't see it in the, in the, um, road program funding, uh, table?

▶ 1:15:53 Speaker 5: We don't have a design yet. Okay. For the, for the parking lot. Um, and honestly, we, we need to, we probably need to spend some money on it, I don't know how many years ago, but a design was done by Stantec and because of the way the drainage is in the parking lot, I don't know if you've ever been there in a big rainstorm, but it's a lake. Yeah. Um, they, um, the consultant proposed putting in a giant underground storage tank, but the soils are peat and so that won't work. Um, so it's something that we need to figure out what will work in the parking lot. So I, I don't have a number for you. I can't answer that question right now.

▶ 1:16:38 Ryan Williams: That's, that's fair. That's fine. So, I mean, the, the materials talk about the parking lot, but the parking lot's not actually, all these funds look programmed. So it doesn't look to me like this bond would pay for the parking lot because you've got your 500,000 for Lebanon, you've got 250 for the supplemental funding, four 50 for FY 26 supplemental FY 27 supplemental. Would you just kind of see if you can fit some of the design work in there? Yes, I get it. Okay. Yes. Okay. Very cool. Um, are you, this, you may not know this. I'm gonna try, um, Senator Lewis and, um, representative Lipper Garabedian announced 250,000 some dollars for transportation. Yes. Is that going into chapter 90?

▶ 1:17:17 Speaker 5: That, that was the Millionaire tax that I was talking about, right? Yes. It's being distributed through the chapter 90. Great. Okay. And it, and so it's already, yeah, it's already in these numbers. Cool.

▶ 1:17:30 Ryan Williams: Very good. Um, yep. Okay. About the Lebanon tip. We've talked about this for a very long time, right? Yeah. So it's very exciting to see it on the, um, to see it on the agenda. Um, you're at a 10% design right now. The state, AKA, the MPO, the, the, the regional group that approves these things requires 25% design to be put into the cycle.

▶ 1:17:52 Speaker 5: Yes. To actually get a, a, a funding year. Okay. Assigned to you.

▶ 1:17:56 Ryan Williams: And you said in the memo that the total cost of the design was a million dollars. Um, It says that at some point, let me re let me, um, let me guide this a little bit, a little bit better. Um, I think it would be helpful to have some breadcrumbs in the packet that show kind of the staging of these costs, maybe with the, um, the, uh, consultants. Is it Stantec? It is Stantec, yeah. With stantec's, um, you know, their bid sheet or whatever on there so that we can see, because it, it, there's a bit of confusion that I have picked up on around like, is the whole design 500,000, is the whole design a million? Are we spending 800,000? 'cause you said 500 plus 300. Walk me through like what we've spent already, what we are, um, planning to spend with these funds. If you could please.

▶ 1:18:53 Speaker 5: We've spent already, we've probably spent about 150,000, um, that includes survey work. Um, they did a LIDAR survey that includes preliminary layouts and then it, that includes, um, the whole process of what DOT calls the 10% over the shoulder design and review, um, from DOT and meetings and that sort of thing. Um, we're probably, I think when, um, Elena put a million in here, she may have been counting some of that money. Uh, Stantec gave us a number of about 830,000 to finish the design completely. And then they gave us that 300,000 just to get us to 25%. So we are potentially looking at about another 500,000 to finish the design after we get to the 25%. Um, I, you know, I don't wanna, I I wanna be transparent here. It's, it's expensive to design a tip project because of all the requirements from DOT. They have. Well, so just in the $308,000, uh, Stantec had six 1,659 hours Mm-Hmm. Of work. Um, and that's just to get us to 25%. So that gives you, you know, some order of magnitude of what these DOT designs require.

▶ 1:20:20 Ryan Williams: So you think that, or you are saying that this road bond, the $500,000 will get us to 25%, or we're gonna need another cash infusion.

▶ 1:20:30 Speaker 5: This is gonna get us past 25%. It's

▶ 1:20:32 Speaker 4: Gonna get past 25%. Yeah.

▶ 1:20:33 Speaker 5: Okay. But probably not all the way to the finish line. Yeah,

▶ 1:20:36 Ryan Williams: Right. I got it. Okay. Um, and then anticipated tip cycle are ret, 'cause I know, um, for the public tips, tips come down from the federal government and then they're programmed into years, four years apart, 2024 to 2028 is the current year that's already been approved. Are we hoping to get in here 2025 to 2029?

▶ 1:20:56 Speaker 5: I don't think we'll have the 25% done for that. Okay. To be perfectly honest, we have, um, we have been in constant discussions though with the MPO and, and people at the TIP program to keep us on, on the radar. And they, um, they've been, so far, they've been very understanding about the fact that we are struggling to come up with the money for design.

▶ 1:21:21 Ryan Williams: Okay. Cool. Um, and then, you know, we've talked about this before offline, but I'm, I'm very excited to see the, the designs progress and I would encourage a lot of participation with the board counselor and, you know, the ped bike committee and residents and things like that. As we start to move closer to a more final design to help make suggestions,

▶ 1:21:45 Speaker 5: There will be a very, um, very open public process that's, that's also part of the TIP program. Yeah.

▶ 1:21:53 Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Next I have Councilor Firo. Yes.

▶ 1:21:58 Speaker 6: Thanks. Hi. Thank you for being here.

▶ 1:21:59 Speaker 7: Um, so I'm supportive of anything that we can do for our roads. Um, but I was just looking back, um, is this amount fairly typical, like the bond amount for three year?

▶ 1:22:11 Speaker 5: It is. Uh, we, the last time we came for three year bond, it was about 1.5. The time before that it was about 1.68. So yes. Yeah,

▶ 1:22:20 Speaker 7: I, I, I was just thinking around and I found an agenda for this meeting from 2015 and it was 1.55%. So just to give some context, it's not like it's, you're asking for, you know, it's $150,000 basically eight years ago.

▶ 1:22:34 Speaker 5: Yeah. This has been an ongoing program and over the last 10 years, this is probably about the average. Um, and the, um, per the interest rate right now that we're looking at is 5.5. Okay.

▶ 1:22:49 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Okay. Next, um, I have, um, counselor, uh, gpe.

▶ 1:22:55 Mark Garipay: Thank you Madam Chair. Um, thank you Ms. Resine here. Uh, couple quick questions for clarification. We got the public works department road program funding 20, these are calendar year 24, 25, 26. Right. And then, because then it's fiscal year 25 road program, which is really 24 construction, correct?

▶ 1:23:20 Speaker 5: Correct. Okay. I Just wanna clarify. That's Where it very confusing. Yes. Yeah. Alright. Because the construction season gets split by the fiscal year, so, okay.

▶ 1:23:28 Mark Garipay: Um, thank you. Um, yeah, you answered, uh, some of my questions that Mr. Pel Ryan had, uh, had said, um, the road assessment, um, FY 26 road program FY 27. Is there any way as a ward counselor, our, one of our biggest, um, we hear the most from residents who've regard the condition of the roads and they're deplorable, especially this time of year. Is there any way now that we have the assessment to give the ward counselors an idea, and I know this is gonna change and things can change, but an idea on what roads will be done in FY 26 and FY 27. Um, we have, now that we have this done, you got it up here.

▶ 1:24:13 Speaker 5: So now that we have this done, I mean, we could, we could come up with a list of, you know, the top 20 or whatever. Um, but it also, you know, an even better indicator is what we see coming for our water main project. So, um, we do about $800,000 worth of water main replacement every year. Um, we do, we do that after the gas company and then, and then we do the paving. So we know, for example, next year what streets we are planning to pave because they're the streets that we did water main on this year.

▶ 1:24:55 Mark Garipay: Next year, meaning spring of 24.

▶ 1:24:57 Speaker 5: Spring of 24. Yeah. This, this year. I'm sorry. Yeah. This year. Um, so yeah, we, so, um, we could, we could definitely try to put something together as long as the understanding was that it's fluid fluid because, you know, some, you get, um, emergency water main breaks or emergency gas work or something like that. And that might change the priorities. Um, but we could definitely look at putting something like that together.

▶ 1:25:27 Mark Garipay: Okay. That'd be, um, helpful. Um, on the FY 25, um, road supplement funding, so novel Henry Taylor, Elwood, Redding Hill, we've been working on that this past year when we started that project. Why wouldn't that funding have been in the last bond?

▶ 1:25:49 Speaker 1: Um, right,

▶ 1:25:51 Speaker 5: Because those pro, okay, so those are the roads that we did the water Maine on this year. And the Water Maine work is funded through the MWRA water monies that we get. Um, and we pay for the paving through the chapter 90. So there are different buckets of money that it's coming out of. Um, and so the, the chapter 90 money will pay for roads that are done in that year that the chapter 90 money is given to you.

▶ 1:26:24 Speaker 1: Okay. Um,

▶ 1:26:32 Speaker 8: what else did I have?

▶ 1:26:35 Mark Garipay: The tip project on Lebanon Street. Um, we've invested, um, 800, a thousand or whatever in the, uh, design or close to it. But my guess my question is, are we guaranteed if we get to 25%, are we guaranteed by the department DOT to get that funding for that project to be complete?

▶ 1:26:58 Speaker 5: It's never a hundred percent guaranteed, but we have a letter of interest from DOT that says that they, um, that they think that the project is worthwhile and that if we, you know, fulfill all the design obligations, do all the design justification reports and all of that, that yes, we'll get the money, but it's never a hundred percent

▶ 1:27:20 Mark Garipay: As we realize from the cemetery with fema. Right. Um, Right. Um, nothing to do with us, the federal government there. Right. Um, alright. Um, I

▶ 1:27:36 Mark Garipay: think that's it for right now. Um, oh, uh, I'm sorry. One other question on the, um, on the as road assessment, and I'm gonna put my plug in for, um, you have Rose Street in here as red, that, that was supposed to be done with National Grid. I know we talked to the residents there. I was under the impression it was gonna be done last construction season. That's still not done. And I don't see it on FY 25.

▶ 1:28:01 Speaker 5: It is, um, it is on for the ne for this construction season. National Grid owes us that work. I am very much aware that it hasn't been done and very unhappy that it hasn't been done. Um, it should have been done last construction season and, um, I, I apologize that it wasn't, but National Grid did not step up and, and do what they said they were gonna do. Okay. And we're gonna keep after them to do it.

▶ 1:28:32 Mark Garipay: Is there any recourse with National Grid? They're in front of us looking for conduit going underground or poles or any, any way we can put, put the pressure on them to, to follow through on their commitments as a, as a council?

▶ 1:28:45 Speaker 5: We'll, just, Elena and I are talking to, um, people there and we'll just keep, we'll just keep going.

▶ 1:28:52 Mark Garipay: Okay. Um, and then the only other plug is we've talked about it from Bro Street, uh, Porter Mm-Hmm. Which is an access to the hospital via ambulances.

▶ 1:29:03 Speaker 5: We have that labeled as a, one of the worst that needs to be done. Yes. No,

▶ 1:29:08 Speaker 1: I see that here. I'm just trying To get a, I know a date from It.

▶ 1:29:12 Speaker 5: I, I do not disagree. I agree.

▶ 1:29:13 Mark Garipay: Alright. The ambulance. I wouldn't want to be in an ambulance driving down that street. No. So, thank

▶ 1:29:20 Maya Jamaleddine: You. Thank you. And, uh, next we have councilor uh, Stewart.

▶ 1:29:24 Robb Stewart: Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you Mr. Reese for being here this evening. Um, just, uh, one side comment. Uh, you mentioned the, the work at West Emerson Vinton Street. I do wanna compliment you on that work. Um, oh, I've gotten several complaints about it and I don't care 'cause it's done. What it was initially laid out to is it slowed traffic down. So well done on that. Thank you. People complain. It's doing, it's what it, what it was intended to. So thank you. Um, I, I, and I'm sorry to be a little bit of a stickler, but I, I want to come back to, uh, the parking lot. Okay. Because I believe it was three years ago, uh, certain members of this council approved the money to get that fixed. And when, and what I heard tonight was there hasn't even been a design done for that. So is there money reserved from the previous work, or can you talk a little bit about that? Because, um, it, it just sur surprises me a little bit that it's coming forward to us again when we thought it was gonna get done last time.

▶ 1:30:32 Speaker 5: So there is still money left in the fiscal 22 road bond, um, for the city hall parking lot. It's not the full two 50. We, at the end of, towards the end of this construction season, there were a couple of streets that we had been looking to pave that we decided to, to get done this year. Um, and so we spent the money there knowing that we'd be getting more chapter money, chapter 90 money, um, next construction season and we can, and we basically swapped it out.

▶ 1:31:07 Speaker 2: So you pivoted. Right.

▶ 1:31:08 Speaker 5: Okay. Right. So, but there, but there is still, um, close to 200,000 left in the fiscal 22 road bond for the city hall parking lot.

▶ 1:31:19 Robb Stewart: Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. That's, that's helpful to know. Um, so on, I think all of us were looking at the map pretty closely, you know, in our, our neighborhoods and our wards and so forth to see which roads and, and we're all thinking, well, wait a sec, that road's not good. Excellent. It's, so is there any way or to give any feedback, uh, on, on the road evaluation and, and the reason being is, and I'm sure ev every council may have this, but there are some areas that are really, I would say much, but they're, they're, they can be very small, specific areas. And the example I think of um, is it was last winter when, uh, the, the DPW came and fixed Circuit Street, that one stretch that had flooding. It was a disaster. And it was, it was done very nicely. It solved a lot of problems. Uh, is there a way to dispute or get smaller pieces of work like that done that would, I think go a long ways? Or is it this is the plan and this is what we're doing?

▶ 1:32:24 Speaker 5: No, there's, there's always an opportunity to give us feedback. You can just use the, um, the online system. Okay. For that. Uh, or, you know, your constituents can, um, you can always call me and you and your constituents call me too. So, um, but yeah, we're always open to feedback on issues like that.

▶ 1:32:46 Robb Stewart: Okay, great. And specifically, um, within your, your deck, you call out, uh, the work that's gonna be done on Washington and portions of Trenton. Is that gonna be the triangle area?

▶ 1:32:59 Speaker 5: Yes. So the city that was part of the city's water main project this year, also about four houses right at that triangle on Trenton. Um, we own paving that. However, we National Grid owns paving Washington Street along, um, all the way up to the Townline for what they did with their gas main work this past season.

▶ 1:33:24 Robb Stewart: Okay. And are they gonna repave the, the disaster that they put in the, the, the new paving? Yes. They're gonna redo that. Yes.

▶ 1:33:30 Speaker 5: So that was a negotiation that we had with them. Um, and we, we did a little horse trading and got them to agree to that.

▶ 1:33:40 Speaker 2: Great. Great. Thanks. Uh, and,

▶ 1:33:48 Robb Stewart: uh, yeah, that's that. Well, just one last question on, so do you think there's any risk on chapter 90 given some of the, the pullback at the state level?

▶ 1:34:02 Speaker 5: I can't say. I mean, chapter 90 is a very well established program. Um, I think the programs that we're a little more worried about are some of the grant programs. Okay. Um, 'cause chapter 90 and chapter 90 is based on your miles of roadway and taxes collected. So, um,

▶ 1:34:24 Robb Stewart: Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you Mr. Rua. Thank you Madam Chair.

▶ 1:34:28 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, thank you. And next I have, uh, councilor Ward.

▶ 1:34:32 Ward Hamilton: Thank you. Thank you Mr. Reese for being here. I just have a few questions. Uh, you mentioned earlier when talking about the City Hall parking lot, we know that there are drainage issues there. Yes. At one time it was a pond, and I think now that connects by culvert over to the, uh, el pond brook, um, and the soil's peat, which is problematic. I could be thinking of what Councilor Stewart referenced earlier from a few years back. But I have this recollection of Ms. Gaffey talking about his receiving a grant to, to deal with or address that, or am I mistaken?

▶ 1:35:07 Speaker 5: You are not mistaken. So the design that I spoke of earlier was paid for by, with a grant from the, I believe it was the Hazard Mitigation Program, which is under fema. Um, and then when we applied to them for money to do the, to do construction, we weren't gonna be able to build that huge tank, but we were still gonna do, um, some improvements to the parking lot. They turned us down. Okay. So, um, we got money for, for that design, but we didn't get money for the construction. So when I say that we haven't done a design, we do have a design, but it needs to be refined a little bit better because of, um, we need to figure out how, what's the best way to deal with those drainage issues.

▶ 1:35:56 Ward Hamilton: So will those two projects occur in tandem we'll down the road some time? We'll, we'll deal with the drainage at before

▶ 1:36:03 Speaker 5: We That would be the plan. Yep. Okay. Exactly.

▶ 1:36:06 Ward Hamilton: Thank you. Uh, next question I have is when we look at the, um, where is it,

▶ 1:36:15 Ward Hamilton: I think it's the, uh, fiscal 25 roadway plan where we have the individual roads and streets. That's, that's all work that's, uh, performed by outside vendors, not in-house, by DPW. Is that correct?

▶ 1:36:28 Speaker 5: For the most part, yes. Um, under our capital plan right now, we have a, um, on-call contractor, DNR paving, they do all of the capital roadway and sidewalk work. However, the operations department also, um, does, um, the smaller, like localized, replace the sidewalk panel here, fix some curbing there kind of work. They use DNR also, um, for that work. But we do, we do a small amount of work in-house.

▶ 1:37:01 Ward Hamilton: Is that work that DNR does on call to be an on call vendor for the city? Is there any type of, uh, competitive bid process that occurs? And if so, how often?

▶ 1:37:12 Speaker 5: It occurs every three years. It is a competitive bid. Um, it occurs every three years. We have the option to not renew their contract each year. So there, um, there's the initial award and then there are two opportunities to extend their contract if we choose not to, which is we actually did with the previous vendor that we had. Um, we put it back out to bid. Um, and all of the contractors who bid on the projects have to be mass DOT pre-qualified for paving. Um, and it's, um, you know, we follow all the chapter 30 30 B bidding laws.

▶ 1:37:57 Ward Hamilton: Um, is there any type of control over the time of the year that the work takes place? Or can repaving take place, for example, in the debt of winter?

▶ 1:38:06 Speaker 5: It cannot. Okay. Um, it's too cold. The, the asphalt would not set up properly and you just end up with a, with it cracking and failing. Right. Um, it's got, it's gotta happen in the summertime. And also most of the asphalt plants close between December and April or May. Uh, yeah. April.

▶ 1:38:27 Ward Hamilton: Um, one last question. Uh, when this work is scheduled, um, and I know it touches different departments in the city, like the police department and road details, when we, uh, or when we work, when we're working with DNR to create a schedule or a timeline, I know we've, it's not, it's been a couple years, but I can remember a few times between paving work and utility work, it could get challenging to, to negotiate the city. Is there coordination between departments, um, and communications with, uh, grid and other utilities? Um, as far as scheduling these things or sort of

▶ 1:39:09 Speaker 5: Yeah. Ab absolutely. There, there is, um, we work with National Grid, in fact, well this wasn't, this wasn't paving work, but the, the movie crew that was here this fall, we had to, uh, tell National Grid to leave for a week so that they could film up on West Emerson. Um, but yes, we do. Um, so most of the crews, as long as the police have the bodies to fill the details, most of the crews have details every day. Um, and we know I get a daily report from National Grid, so I know where they're working. That's the email that I send out to everybody. Um, so yeah, we do our best to try to minimize the impacts to traffic and road closures and that type of thing. Great. Thank, thank you

▶ 1:39:59 Maya Jamaleddine: Also. Thank you. And next I have, um, counselor Bever.

▶ 1:40:04 Kimberly Vandiver: Hi. Thanks. Um, I wanted to follow up on Councilor Stewart's question about Washington Street Mm-Hmm. Um, which, uh, it sounds like is National Grid's responsibility to repave. Um, uh, since we both share that section, um, between our wards, um, what type of notice since that work won't be done in-house, um, what type of notice can we get so that we can be proactive about, especially residents who have driveways coming off of Washington, making sure that they know about any, um, inconveniences that will come up?

▶ 1:40:34 Speaker 5: What we can do is ask them to hold a neighborhood meeting. So before they go in and do Gas Maine, we always have them hold a neighborhood meeting and talk to the residents about any concerns we can ask them to do that before they start the paving project. Since that's a pretty busy section and, and it has the potential to have a lot of impacts.

▶ 1:40:56 Speaker 2: Okay. Great.

▶ 1:40:58 Speaker 3: Thank you. And next I have Councillor Romanul.

▶ 1:41:01 Devin Romanul: Thank you so much for being here and answering our questions. And I'll, I have two very, very brief questions, I promise. Uh, one, um, whether or not it's the Lebanon Street tip or any of the other projects that you've outlined here, um, do you have a sense as to whether or not those are eligible for the Safe Streets for all, um, planning grants under DOT and the bipartisan infrastructural law? 'cause I know that they're actually having trouble filling, um, from, from what I gather, they're having trouble getting enough applicants. Uh, so they, they have more money than

▶ 1:41:35 Speaker 4: they are giving out. Um,

▶ 1:41:36 Speaker 5: The shared streets does,

▶ 1:41:37 Devin Romanul: Uh, that's what what I was told. Um, okay, so maybe we should talk about this

▶ 1:41:41 Speaker 5: Afterwards. Yeah, we should. Um, that, that's good news. Um, however, you can't use federal funds to pay for the design for the TIP program. Alright. Yeah, We already, we are, I did ask our consultants that question back at the beginning and they said, no, that is, but we might be able to use it somewhere else. Alright,

▶ 1:42:01 Devin Romanul: Well, um, we should, uh, I would love to talk more about that. Yeah. Um, but hey, if the Feds are willing to pay for planning grants, which they aren't typically, that, that will be outstanding. Uh, the other question I had was, um, I totally appreciate that we have a certain amount that we ask for every single year. Uh, you know, there's sort of a longitudinally, uh, predictable amounts of road that we have to pave. But is there a sense of, um, aspirationally like what a real needs assessment would look like to say, Hey, our, like I know my neighborhood, my kids love it because when it rains there are lots of puddles to jump in on the streets. And so, uh, they are big, big fans of when it rains you

▶ 1:42:38 Speaker 5: Usually hear the opposite complaint. Well,

▶ 1:42:41 Devin Romanul: But, uh, that's the case. They're not taxpayers. Right. So my, my sense is like sit on track. Has there ever been, have a conversation and I, I know that it's not practical, it's not economical, but like what it would take to have streets that we say like, yeah, we're, we are at a point where we're not having to pick between like things as they break down, um, that, uh, what it would cost for that maintenance and to have it be so that way the ward counselors could hear complaints that are not, um, you know, just potholes. Uh, 'cause I know I can verify that that is the, having been here only two weeks, that's the number one thing that I hear. So, um,

▶ 1:43:16 Speaker 5: I think it would take a significant amount more than what we're sure. Spending now, um, to do that. Melrose has about 90 miles of roads and we're doing about a mile and a half a year. So, um, for a million dollars. So that, like if, and, and, you know, once you pave a road, you're probably good for 20, 25 years. Gotcha. But yeah.

▶ 1:43:40 Maya Jamaleddine: Terrific. Thank you very much. Thank you. And I have, uh, for the, do we have anyone for the first time? Okay. I have next, uh, councilor Gpe. Thank

▶ 1:43:50 Mark Garipay: You Madam Chair. Um, just one other question and going back to the city hall parking lot

▶ 1:43:57 Speaker 1: and as award counselor, if, if there's any way

▶ 1:44:02 Mark Garipay: that we can, I, I'm fine with the way the parking lot is right now. I know it's floods, but it's on a pa it's, there's a pond. I would like to see any of that extra money get transferred over to paving more streets in the woods. Um, I don't necessarily know. I mean, it's, it's in, it's in tough shape, but I think some of the roads are in worse shape that cars, uh, residents cars are really getting taken a beaten on. So I'm just probably not a lot of money, but if we can, instead of taking that and allocating it for the city hall parking lot, if we can move it over to paving more roads, that would be my suggestion and recommendation. Thank

▶ 1:44:42 Speaker 3: You. Noted.

▶ 1:44:43 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Next I have for the second time counselor William.

▶ 1:44:48 Ryan Williams: Thank you. I just wanted to clarify a couple of things because these grant programs sound really similar and I know that we have some very, um, eager ears in the room tonight. Thinking about grants. So the grant that we got for the parking lot was the MVP Municipal vulner Vulnerability Preparedness Designation. We were MVP community. We got the MVP action grant or whatever in 2019. So that's one thing. Um, shared Streets for all which Devin brought up. We do know that there's an application coming up, um, that's gonna open up in February. And we've been just tugging on the folks in the city's pants legs asking them to, to consider an application for this. Shared Streets and Spaces is the state grant program. So I think what Councilor Romanul was talking about was the federal, um, safe streets for all SS four A grant opportunity. That's what he's, that's what he's talking about. Same answer I think. 'cause you can't use federal funds to program the TIP funding. But yes, there is an opportunity out there. And we do hope that the city, uh, aggressively applies for it because I have also heard that they cannot find people to take this money. Um, and that's all. Thank you.

▶ 1:45:54 Speaker 3: Thank you Councilor. Uh, Stewart?

▶ 1:45:57 Speaker 2: Yes. Madam Chair. I'll make cover my, uh, re motion, recommend this to the Full counsel. Second,

▶ 1:46:03 Maya Jamaleddine: We have a motion to recommend made by, um, councilor Stewart. Seconded by Councilor gpe. Um, Mr. Clerk,

▶ 1:46:13 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Gpe? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Mki? Yes. Council Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver? Yes. Counselor Romanul? Yes. Counselor Ro? Yes. Um, counselor, uh, president Elli? Yes. And chair Jamal? Yes. That is 10? Yes.

▶ 1:46:40 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. And this, um, uh, motion carries.