Public Comment

Transcript (~8 min @ 28:32)

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

▶ 28:14 Leila Migliorelli: Good evening. The time is 7:48 PM on Thursday, September 28th. This is a meeting of the Appropriations and Oversight Committee. I'm Chairwoman Lila Elli. Also joining me tonight, our Vice Chair Jamine Councillor Ella Eccles, gareg Caram Shady, um, Stewart Anne Williams. This serves as a notice of a quorum for the record in accordance with the open Meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on M M T V. Now a motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objection, we are now open for public comment. This is the portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on any item on our agenda tonight. So if anyone's here wishing to speak, um, please approach the, the table microphones

▶ 29:03 Speaker 1: and just state your name and address. Sure.

▶ 29:09 Speaker 1: Good evening, everybody. My name is Cassandra Ku. I live at 29 Crystal Street in Melrose. I understand what's on the agenda. Tonight is the purchase of an electric vehicle for the city, and I'm here to support that because I think that the city needs to electrify its fleet as any, um, opportunities arise. If we're ever going to achieve net zero for Melrose in 2050 or something approximately close to that, then we need to, you know, aggressively and energetically, um, make this change and make these appropriations. Thank you. You're welcome. Should I sign in here? Sure.

▶ 29:54 Speaker 1: Anyone else? Anyone online?

▶ 29:56 Speaker 2: There is a participant online with the raised hand. Lemme see if I can unmute them.

▶ 30:01 Speaker 1: We have one person in person too.

▶ 30:08 Speaker 2: Hey, thanks everyone. Um, Finn McSweeney, one 60 West Wyoming Avenue. Um, just wanted to, uh, quickly voice my support for the, um, order on the agenda for the purchase of the EV equipment, um, and the truck. Um, as a member of the, you know, the committee that worked on the net zero action plan, I do believe this request is supportive of that plan. Um, and I think the, you know, the, the one other thing I'd add here is that the alternative, you know, you know, purchasing a diesel truck should just not be viewed by this community as an alternative to electrifying the fleet. We live in one of the wealthiest parts on the planet, and we all know that we have an obligation to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, as soon as possible. So we, frankly, as a community just should not view the purchase of diesel truck as an alternative to this. At the end of the day, this has to come down to services, and it has to come down to, do we want to continue to offer the services to our residents that this vehicle provides? And if so, how do we do that in a net zero fashion? Is it an electric garbage truck? Is it downsizing the waste stream with the, you know, the school community and servicing some of the municipal barrels with smaller electric vehicles that, you know, maybe that's part of the conversation, but it, it just, we cannot have the purchase of a diesel truck be seen as an alternative, um, to, you know, to operating these services. We purchase a diesel truck now we're telling ourselves that we're gonna be operating diesel equipment in Melrose in like 2045. I mean, we just, we can't take ourselves seriously as a community, um, if we go down that path. So I think this order makes sense. I, I believe it's supportive of the, uh, community's goals and I encourage the council to pass it. Thank you very much.

▶ 32:22 Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you,

▶ 32:25 Speaker 4: Joe PE Ryan, 70 Howard Street. Aye, I too am here to talk about the electric trash truck. Um, I, I just have some concerns. I agree we need to move forward in our goals for electric vehicles, but I'm just not quite sure that this vehicle is the answer. Now. I'll just talk about truck 18 briefly. I know that, uh, it states in the, uh, paperwork that the truck is failing, but I do believe last year the city spent over $200,000 repairing this truck. And it should run for a couple more years, five years, maybe more. We have mechanics on staff, and that's their job to keep the truck running. It doesn't go that far. Melrose is only a couple miles. So what's it driving 30 miles maybe a day. I think that this will buy us a little bit of time to investigate other options in, in five years, the technology for these vehicles will be so much better.

▶ 33:36 Speaker 4: One of the things I worry about buying this truck right now is

▶ 33:43 Speaker 4: servicing it. Who is gonna fix it? When it breaks down? It's gonna break down because it has a lot of moving parts. The compact compactor, the hydraulic system. I just, I don't think we have that kind of capability on staff. And so where would the truck have to be brought to, to be serviced? And how would it get there? Are we gonna tow it?

▶ 34:11 Speaker 4: I think looking back just a little bit, I think the perfect truck that would've been the opportunity to try and electrify first was the truck that hauls the, uh, recycle containers to wherever they go, because it has less moving parts. It's a big, huge diesel truck. We just bought it, what, two years ago? Maybe that's when we should have been looking to try and reach our goal of electric fleets. And then the last thing I just want to throw out there is I'm wondering why we're not looking at hybrid. Somerville has hybrid trash trucks. I see them every day. They're not big, huge humongous trash trucks. They're used to collect all the barrels in the neighborhoods at the parks and whatnot. Um, according to the website that I read, they get 150 hours per charge. They also have an automatic shutoff. So when the truck is idling for more than five minutes, it automatically shuts off. So as we move forward and we're worried about greenhouse gas emissions, how about our fleet at Melrose Public Works? All those dump trucks, the loaded trucks and whatnot, do they have automatic shutoffs? This would be one way to help out with greenhouse gases. I'm sure like 20 other things will come to my mind and I'll send you guys an email. So, uh, have a great night. Thank

▶ 35:51 Speaker 1: You. Um, and there'll be a,

▶ 35:55 Leila Migliorelli: we have a message to be read into the record.

▶ 36:01 Speaker 2: This is from Ellen Katz. On Friday, September 22nd, she wrote to the city council, I urge you to approve this appropriation request. The city has done a great job corralling various funding sources to highly subsidize this purchase. This will be an opportunity for Melrose to take a major step to protect against climate change and give us a headstart in gaining experience with medium heavy duty commercial electric vehicles, diesel trash trucks, particularly because they move so slowly and operate long hours, emit tailpipe air pollutants that contribute to asthma and other health problems. I'm proud to see my city taking steps to fight climate change and protect public health. Sincerely, Ellen Katz,

▶ 36:44 Speaker 1: Thank you. Seeing, um, if we have no, no one else. If there's no objection, I'd like to close public comment. Seeing none,