Public Comment

Transcript (~5 min @ 4:58)

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

▶ 4:27 Leila Migliorelli: Good evening. The time is 7:26 PM on Thursday, November 30th, 2023. This is a Meeting of Appropriations and Oversight Committee. I am chairwoman Lila Meli. Also joining me tonight are councilors, Ella Repe, Karara Chetty McMaster, Reky Williams, and President Greg Exofficio. This serves as a notice of a quorum for the record in accordance with Open Meeting Law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMTV. Um, now I'll motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objection, we're now open for public comment. This is a portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on any item on the Appropriations and Oversight Committee agenda tonight.

▶ 5:13 Speaker 1: Take two. Welcome. Again, I'm Ellen Katz, um, 70 70 Line Street. And, um, I've, I'm a 20 year resident of Melrose, and I want to urge the council to support the specialized energy code that's coming up for you, um, this evening. Agenda item number two. Um, and I, I did send a, a letter this morning where I said, 29 communities in the state have adopted it. It's actually 30 communities. And it, and the whole point is that it's growing The number of of cities in town supporting this and accepting this is growing. Um, Wakefield adopted it, um, recently, Medford, Arlington, Watertown Newton. There's a whole host of communities. Um, we are, and we're facing a climate emergency. And, um, I just wanna encourage the council to really try to think long term. Um, the, this code will go, so there's a new stretch code that came as stretch energy code that came into effect. This will go a little bit beyond it. Um, and it's gonna improve energy efficiency for new construction and, um, you know, help the residents of those buildings avoid expensive retrofits later on. So, um, you know, we just wanna encourage you to think long term. The, the other really important point is that by passing this code, the, um, the City of Millrose will then become eligible for a whole host of state grants that, um, the division of energy Resources is making available. And, um, as, as you may know, when we became a green community, which was when we adopted the original stretch code in 2010, um, Melrose was one of the first 34 communities to do this. And we have, um, the city has gotten more than a million dollars in grants related to upgrading our buildings. Um, you know, Martha Grover has done an incredible job of making sure that the city takes full advantage of these resources. Um, and, you know, we've been able to just do a lot of badly needed improvements in our school buildings and other municipal buildings with the help of these grants. So this, by adopting this new code, it will then now make us eligible for this new program that will provide additional funding. So thank you for hearing me.

▶ 7:44 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you. Is there anyone else here tonight to speak on any of the items on our agenda?

▶ 7:56 Speaker 5: Um, good evening, EV everyone. My name is Dylan Patel. I live at 1 75 West Wyoming. Um, unlike Alan, I have not been a resident for 20 years. I have been a resident here for two months. Um, and I'm going to assume that my landlord is not watching this. Um, and I'm just going to say that I live in an apartment building that was built in the sixties. Um, it's all electric apart from a gas, uh, water heater. Um, if that were built to the standards of the specialized stretch code, it would be far more comfortable. It would actually be cheaper to run because of the efficiency requirements that are within both the stretch code, which is existing now, and the specialized stretch code. Um, on top of that, because it technically is classed as a mixed fuel building, would it, would it have been built today? It would have required a, uh, solar PV to offset the emissions from that, uh, from the, from the gas water user. And so living in a modern apartment building that's built to specialize stretch code requirement is a lot cheaper to operate. It is healthier home to live in. It's much more affordable and it's more affordable to build as well because we are now getting a lot of financial support from mass Save from the Inflation Reduction Act. And in many cases, especially in a city like Morose, where, um, the availability of affordable housing is a concern for a lot of residents and for the council members here, adopting the specialized stretch code will actually increase the amount of opportunities available because of the financial support from the, the state and from the federal government. Thank you.

▶ 9:49 Speaker 3: Thank you. Anyone online?

▶ 9:53 Speaker 2: We do. We have people online, but the public hearing is seven 30.

▶ 9:56 Speaker 3: Oh, okay.