APPRO-2023-28 : Fiscal 2024 Operating Budget in the amount of $101,173,341 (one hundred and one million, one hundred seventy-three thousand, three hundred forty-one dollars and 00/100 cents)

Transcript (~46 min @ 7:52)

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▶ 7:48 Speaker 1: Order motion passes. Thank you. Um, I think you can stay there. So we're going, it's a little bit out of order here on the agenda. Cause we had the appropriation 2023 dash 30 Enterprise operating budget, but now we're gonna proceed to appropriation 2023 dash 28, the overall budget, which is fiscal 2024 operating budget, and the amount of $101,173,341. Um, and I think this would be the time to take on the park's permits, revolving account 26 69. Um, if you'd wanna speak on that right now. Yeah. So we have a, um, uh, we, I call it the permit account. We put all the, um, outside user groups that use our fields that rent our fields. We put the money in there. And then those fields that are used by those groups are the ones that get the most wear and tear, and we take that money and do maintenance and repair to them.

▶ 8:43 Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilor Gepe?

▶ 8:44 Mark Garipay: Yes. Uh, thank you again for being here. Um, how much do we bring in in that revolving account annually?

▶ 8:50 Speaker 1: Well, there's very little, um, field time, I think you all know, that is not used by Melrose Youth Groups. The only time that we really do, uh, rentals is, um, summertime Mareli Field. We have the Melrose Americans and some other Boston Park League baseball teams. We have a couple men's, um, lacrosse teams during the summer nights and some outside user group camps, um, during the summer, during the day. So roughly, I would say probably fif probably 10 to 15. Um, right now we have a balance of 24,000 in it. We just got paid, um, for a lot of the fall ball programming that we did. Um, we really don't go much over that money that has been in there. What has been used for, we redid the, um, pellets on Fred Greenfield, um, a year and a half ago. It's 13,000. We do, we do extra work on Mareli Field, where that's the field that gets the most use from outside user group. So we upgrade on the clay materials that we use. Um, so it's those sorts of things. Like right now I'm looking at the padding behind, um, home plate, all along that fence line that needs to be replaced. That's something that would come outta that fund.

▶ 10:02 Speaker 3: Pretty much whatever comes in goes back out in maintenance for sure.

▶ 10:07 Speaker 5: And there's more maintenance and there is money in that. Um, I guess, um, so my question is, have we, I know other communities,

▶ 10:15 Mark Garipay: I, I guess what do we charge the user groups for the use of the fields annually?

▶ 10:21 Speaker 1: All Melrose Youth Programming does not, is not charged. Okay. The only people we charge are outside renters.

▶ 10:27 Mark Garipay: And this is probably gonna be an unpopular statement, what I'm gonna say now, but have we ever looked at other communities? Do, do it maybe charge, um, for each registration of a participant in the league, maybe 10, 15 extra dollars that gets, um, transferred back to the city and goes into a revolving account. So we can have, when we have big fixes or big repairs, like for example, the Fred Greenfield mm-hmm. The little league fields redoing the in fields, or have we ever looked at trying to generate some revenue that way? I,

▶ 11:01 Speaker 1: I think it has been brought up in the past, and I think past administrations, the, um, kind of the field was that if we weren't charging Melrose Youth Groups, um, you know, large amounts of money to rent the fields, then they would keep their costs down to the people that are in the program, which are residents. Um, so that way they, everybody could participate. Um, I know that some of the communities around us do it. I think it's just, you know, what the, what the feel of the, the city and the park commission is. Right. But in the past, it's been to try to keep it as minimal as possible so that those youth groups wouldn't, wouldn't be such new participants bo amount of money. Yeah.

▶ 11:45 Speaker 3: The other, the other thing too is, is the recognition that like a lot of those youth groups, um, donate money and donate time and donate, you know, sweat equity, uh, particularly little league groups, and they don't come back to us and ask, you know, can you help us? You know, what, what some of the costs, they do it on their own. I know the, the soccer folks do it. I, I think there's a, a healthy, uh, partnership with the youth groups in Melrose that kind of offsets that a little bit. Yeah. It's worth thinking about. But at the same time,

▶ 12:19 Speaker 1: I, I think it has been brought up and I think that, um, whenever there is a major project being decided on a field, we would go to the youth programming and ask them to contribute. Um, we did it on the West Snowfield when we recounted a few years ago when youth soccer gave us a considerable amount of money. Um, I don't think that's out of the question when we do, when we do, you know, c i p projects that are over what we have in our, in our maintenance budget.

▶ 12:50 Mark Garipay: Yeah. Um, uh, please, my, my son has played all the sports and taken advantage of, of all this and still does. Um, I'm just looking forward over the next couple of years, I think we're gonna have some, um, financial struggles and the, the D P W does a great job keeping, keeping the fields up, but I want to continue to maintain that, and I'm just worried down the road. So I was just seeing if there was any thought into that and maybe, you know, keep, keep it out there as an option. Yeah. So

▶ 13:20 Speaker 3: You're not wrong on that thought by any means. Um, but at the same time, you gotta balance it honestly, you know, with, with the cost of the folks in the city. And it's, um, it's something we've discussed a hundred times over without a doubt.

▶ 13:37 Speaker 5: All right. Thank you Council

▶ 13:40 Speaker 1: Williams. Thank

▶ 13:41 Ryan Williams: You. Um, I wanted to jump off of what, uh, counselor Gar Pay said, because, um, I, I hear that we are, we're not looking at permit fees based on other communities, so I assume we're also not looking at permit fees based on total need. Right? Like, you know, we have a CIP P budget of 500,000 and we have X number of users, so we don't do that either. Which I, which I understand that's kind of the other extreme of the, you know, no permits or full cost argument. Um, I wanted to ask two kind of disparate follow up questions to this. With the capital improvement planning process. Do the youth groups get engaged in that, the inception side? So you said, if we want to redo, uh, a field, we'll go to youth soccer and they'll give us money. Does Youth soccer or Melrose Little League ever come to you and say, we want to do something different?

▶ 14:31 Speaker 1: I think a lot of the pro, a lot of the projects are brought to us by them.

▶ 14:35 Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's great. Um,

▶ 14:37 Speaker 3: They're very proactive in the city of morose. The youth groups are, there's no question about it. And they ask for things, there's no question, but I mean, they ask for things that maybe we can't do or, you know, budget wise or whatever. But, um, there was a good partnership with the youth groups in us, I think,

▶ 14:55 Ryan Williams: And I, and I want to join Council Gupa in making unpopular statements, uh, tonight. One that I think people will hear me say maybe a couple of times through the course of these budget hearings. When you look at what people are spending on houses in Melrose over the last three years, it's not what it used to be, right? We all know that. But the numbers are pretty extreme. A million, 2 million. There's people who are joining our community. We have an extremely low tax rate, especially compared to peers. And I think that folks do have an appetite to spend a little more on some of these things if it means that the quality improves. So, uh, you know, I would say when we're thinking about this, um, I wouldn't reflexively discount the ability of people to pay more to get the quality that they want. Because I think you're seeing that a lot of people moving into Melrose are, are bringing money with them. So let's get it. Yeah. I think you'll find though,

▶ 15:52 Speaker 3: counsel that a lot of the folks in Melrose and the youth groups will do it voluntarily. It, it really has been, if you disagree with me, but I think it's not like we have to kick 'em to, to help with stuff. They always do it. You know, it's just the youth groups, um, are very conscientious about what they, they want to do for the youth in Melrose. And, um, in the long time I've been doing it, I I've been totally impressed how they do it, you know, so I know what you're saying, an extra five or 10 bucks, um, is probably a drop in the bucket for a lot of folks, but, um, maybe we should consider it. We'll see,

▶ 16:36 Speaker 6: That's great to hear. Appreciate that. Thank you very much.

▶ 16:41 Speaker 1: Council Garbe. Yeah,

▶ 16:42 Mark Garipay: I just wanna say one other thing. Um, park, the Park Commission's not an easy commission. You're dealing with a lot of the user groups and just, I want to thank you and, and the commission especially, um, John McLaughlin and, and Mr. Lane for this service over the years to what, what they were able to do under their, um, leadership, um, the fields. As some of us in this room, we never had these, uh, these type of fields when we were growing up. So I just wanna say thank you for, for all you do.

▶ 17:11 Speaker 3: Wouldn't had a lot of those fields without those guys. Yep. And for sure. And the golf course, Jim Lane on the golf course part. So,

▶ 17:24 Speaker 3: thank you.

▶ 17:26 Speaker 1: Any other questions? Councilor Stewart?

▶ 17:29 Speaker 4: Chairman, I'll make a motion to, uh, move this to the bottom line.

▶ 17:33 Speaker 1: Second motion to, um, move this to, before I say this, let's see what the number is. Um, we're in the park.

▶ 17:41 Leila Migliorelli: 2 6 69 2, correct. 2 6 69. Right? Nine. Yes. Nine. Correct. Nine. Um, made by Counselor Stewart, seconded by Counselor Ella. Um, on discussion, I actually have a question. I just wanna echo Counselor Garrette and Counselor Williams. Good comments here. I, I, as a parent who has got Sons in sports and youth sports, in hearing some of the conversation, I do hear the challenges that your department budget has in terms of the improvements you're, you're able to make to fields, and that perhaps some of the youth groups would like to see more improvements and to really kind of have an honest conversation about what types of revenue these youth groups are bringing in that could be used to help make the necessary improvements or, and come up with, you know, I thought that, uh, counselor Berry's idea is a, a good one. Just finding some way to generate a little bit of revenue, if not more. Um, and, you know, perhaps having a conversation with a lot of the youth groups in town to see what could be done to, to help make these improvements. Cuz I know it's a delicate balance between, you know, the work the D P W does, the work that you do, the, the kind of tight financial constraints that the city is under. And, um, especially with certain programs that are, uh, you know, we have a lot of students or children enrolled in these programs and I think there's a lot of, uh, capacity on there untapped. So hopefully something we can think about going forward.

▶ 19:03 Speaker 1: Anyone else on discussion? See none. Mr. Clerk,

▶ 19:08 Speaker 2: Vice Chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor son? Yes. Counselor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepa? Yes. Counselor Stewart? Yes. Cremsky? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Greg? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's 10. Yes.

▶ 19:27 Speaker 1: That motion carries. Thank you both for being here. Thank you. You So much. You can stay.

▶ 19:35 Leila Migliorelli: Um, now we, next up we have the recreation department, um, with Director Frank Olivieri.

▶ 19:44 Speaker 1: Everyone, Thank you for coming.

▶ 19:56 Speaker 7: Uh, thanks everyone for, uh, for having us tonight. Um, recreation department's been, um, having a co a successful year, and we're looking to continue into next year. And, uh, as you can see from the budget and before you, it's, um, we don't ask for much for what we try to contribute. And, um, just this past year we've had over almost 5,000 participants go through our programs, and that's not including our events that we've been running as well. So, um, we're happy to answer any questions that anybody might have. Couple

▶ 20:34 Speaker 3: With the fact that, uh, how many scholarships, Frank? I mean, anybody who needs to be involved in the recreation department, uh, is, is involved in the recreation department for sure. How many scholarships do we

▶ 20:47 Speaker 7: We give out usually 80 to a hundred. Annually. Yeah. Sometimes up to 120. Um, we have $4,000 reflected in our general fund budget, but we spend upwards to usually 10 to $12,000 a year that the recreation department picks up those costs through our, the, some of the revenue that we generate. So we, we pick up that we've never turned a family away. We've never turned a participant away in my time that we've been here. Um, we feel lucky and proud of that fact. Um, that's a, that's kinda what we're gonna continue to do

▶ 21:21 Speaker 3: The way it should be, 85% of the budget, the recreation of budget is funded by the revenues generated by the recreation programs. And, um, it's admirable to say the least. And I think that, uh, we should be proud the way the recreation pro, uh, the program in Melrose has been run under Frank's leadership. Um, it made a big difference during the pandemic. We're out of the pandemic now, but there is so many different programs and different types of programs that we've run through the recreation department that, uh, the city should be proud of. And I think it's, um, a testament to a lot of Frank's leadership

▶ 22:12 Speaker 1: Questions. Council Gepe.

▶ 22:14 Mark Garipay: Um, Joe, thank you. Uh, thank you for being here. Uh, quick question, a couple quick questions. I guess, um, I see that there's no salary increase for your department, um, and this is the first department we've seen, I think come in front of us, no salary increase. Um, Are you advocating for one, We did have a comp study, so I'm just curious, um, is it, is it covered in the revolving revolving account or

▶ 22:39 Speaker 7: We're, we're still, we're still haven't gotten final figures on what that bumps gonna be. Regardless, it appears that we're gonna be picking up the, the increase through the wreck revolving. So it's, we're, we're, we get put in a position a lot of times where we have to try to figure out things year to year because we don't, expenses come up, salaries change, and over the years, um, we've had to increase programming to cover salaries and benefits as they go up or, or make cuts here and there. Um, last year, the city, the last year, the city contributed to our salary and wages lines for the first time, um, in almost 15 years. Um, we've been level funded ever since that point. We are level funded up to last year, and I've noted we put in a request, but it doesn't look like it made through final cuts. So, um, as of right now, no, it doesn't look like there's any additional funding for salary and wages.

▶ 23:40 Mark Garipay: So what's the total revenue that the, uh, the recreation department brings in, uh, compared to the expenses?

▶ 23:47 Speaker 7: Um, it, we're usually just in the black through management. It's, we're usually just in the black, but we usually generate through revenue somewhere around 500 to 520,000 a year. And our expenses match it very closely, but that, regardless of what our expenses are, there's some years where we need to re-certify football helmets and it's a $10,000 expense, and we have to find a way to, to work that around our budget to cover it. So it's, it's, it's, we, it's almost like in, there's a lot of entrepreneurialship in running the department because you really have to make sure you're covering your budget the best you can with what programs you're offering. It's challenging, but it's, um, we've been able to do it. We get very creative and we've been able to do it.

▶ 24:40 Mark Garipay: You mentioned you, uh, had a new software package. What, what does that entail? Is there any continuous expense on that?

▶ 24:46 Speaker 7: We, we implemented a, a new registration software system this past year. Um, the city funded that initial cost for us, which was about $10,000. Um, the expense for this this year in upcoming years is somewhere between eight to $9,000 annually. And the recreation department's gonna be covering that also out of our wreck revolving fund.

▶ 25:12 Mark Garipay: Yeah. Some of these things I just, that kinda, that's more or less a fixed cost. I think that should be in the city side of the budget. Um, if we continue to drain the revolving fund, it's gonna limit, as you mentioned, being able to provide equipment for kids, you know, helmets expand programming, I'm assuming. Um, so anything that I, I can do to try to advocate to get this budget up, I think the city, um, has a responsibility to not just continue to level fund this every year, because now more than ever, um, we need to get kids active, especially after covid. And, um, so anything, anything I can do feel free, uh, because I think, I honestly think this, there should be an increase here compared to some of the other departments within the city. So

▶ 26:01 Speaker 7: Thank you. And, and just to add to that, the record department right now, our biggest challenge is that we feel, given the resources we have, we're almost at capacity, if not over capacity. We, we have very little office space. We have practically no storage space. We have a limited budget, we have very limited staff that we have to get extremely creative with, especially when it comes to evenings, weekends, and holidays. And so we, we really, we, we are really, people keep continue to ask for more programming and we try to deliver on that as best we can. However, a lot of times we aren't able to because there just isn't enough resources for us to do it. So it's, it's, we provide the best that we can with what we have, but we could do more with more, if that makes sense.

▶ 26:54 Mark Garipay: Yeah. You know, we, we, I think there was this year that, uh, this is the year of health and wellness, and to see a level funded rec budget to me is unacceptable. So thank you.

▶ 27:06 Speaker 1: Thanks Counselor Williams.

▶ 27:10 Ryan Williams: Thank you. Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna come, I'll go off of, uh, counselor Garrett Bay's comments again because I was, I was thinking through the offerings the rec department has, which excellent youth sports offerings do we ha and I and I, when he said the year of health and wellness, it reminded me that this year in the winter we did the mental health classes and these other things, right? Kind of more, um, like passive health and fitness,

▶ 27:31 Speaker 6: recreation. Do we,

▶ 27:37 Ryan Williams: do we have those kinds of programs absent the one that I'm just talking about now? Are there, are there, you know, what kind of programs do we have that would fall under that category of like passive recreation?

▶ 27:47 Speaker 7: Sure, sure. It's athletics dominates a, a heavier portion physical activity, let me put it that way. Sure. Dominates a heavy portion of what we do. But we do offer, we, we offer, we were offering mindfulness classes. We continue to do that throughout. Um, we offer babysitting courses, home alone safety courses. We're offering, um, passive hiking clubs, adult hiking clubs. Cool. Um, we have social play groups, which is not sports necessarily, but more to address the anxiety issues that, that exist right now, especially for kids and parents. Uh, so the, throughout the year we, we do, we do have quite a few trainings or educational opportunities or clubs, stuff like that, that people can join. Yeah.

▶ 28:31 Ryan Williams: I that, that stuff's tremendous. And I, I, I would love to see more money come into the department to be able to fund even more of it, just like what Council Gepe said. Um, and what about when we think about the diversifying community of Melrose, um, do you feel that there are recreation options or that you could create recreation options that reflect diversity in the community?

▶ 28:55 Speaker 7: I, I'm sure we can. Um, one, one of the big focuses is in inclusiveness for us and regardless of what we're putting out, the idea is to, to make sure everybody understands it's, it's open and we actively try to spread word to those areas of the city that to try to, to try to get people out to participate. Um, I'd have to think more, a little more deeply about, you know, what some of the other things that we could do. But I, of course there is, the short answer is yes.

▶ 29:24 Ryan Williams: I think that, I think that would be an interesting kind of a community discussion. You know, what does recreation look like in Malden? Maybe is there a particular, um, class or series of classes that appeals to different groups of people? I don't know. I'm just, you know, spitballing. I'm not the, not the right person to answer that question, but I'm, I'm just, I'm just thinking through it. Um, and do you, do you know what the recreation budget is in, in nearby communities? I mean, Malden has a much larger budget than we do, but say, you know, Wakefield Stoneham,

▶ 29:55 Speaker 7: I, I don't necessarily know what their budgets are. Um, I know we are a department that offers no knock to any of our surrounding communities. We offer a lot, we offer a lot of programming for what we have. One of the things I do know is most of those positions, their, their salary and wages are under the general fund, which opens a lot of opportunity for them to do stuff, either at a less expensive cost or, or with a lot more resources, with a lot more staff. So that's, that's the piece that I can add is that I, I know the surrounding communities, the general fund covers, covers that portion for them.

▶ 30:38 Speaker 3: In essence, I think Frank does more with 85% of the revolving fund funding. His entire budget is, I think you guys are touching on, if there was a little bit more they could, who could do a lot more. Um, he's done it for years. Uh, just, uh, how to take a couple of bucks and make it into great programming and, uh, a diverse type of program. Just not athletics, not just something like that. Um, I, I can tell you firsthand, you know, he was ahead of the curve on the pickle ball, I gotta be honest with you. So, I mean, the point is, he's, he's in touch with, um, the different type of things that could serve the community, both in recreation or, or whatever you want to call it. But I think it's more than recreation. I think that's almost a misnomer in some senses for the, uh, programs that are offered through, uh, Frank's department.

▶ 31:36 Ryan Williams: Yeah. I appreciate that. Yep. I, I thank you for everything. And by the way, my, my daughter, uh, dragged me out to Dick's to buy our first pickleball paddles last week. Good. We booked the cord at 8:00 AM cuz it was the only slot we could find. Yeah, that's, so we walked down. We had a great time. That's good. Yeah. Thank you very much.

▶ 31:54 Jen Grigoraitis: President Grigoraitis. Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you both for being here. Um, I just wanna pick up on a question that Counselor Gar Pay asked, um, about the comp classification study that the council voted to approve and then apply retroactively to, um, all of the non-US Union positions, which I believe include your position is not unionized. So I just wanna make sure I understand that your position was included in that study, but the funding for that increase was not included

▶ 32:22 Speaker 7: To my, And if you don't know, that's okay. I I, I have to say my, honestly, I'm not 100% sure. Sure. Okay. It appears to be that way, but I'm, I'm not 100% certain yet. Okay. I'm still trying to get, I'm still trying to get a better understanding of it.

▶ 32:35 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay. I mean, I think I, I'm happy to join that quest because I think part of how that was presented to us was as an equity argument and to then find out that there's certain staff that weren't included in that sort of feels like we're undercutting that argument. So I'm happy to, um, make some inquiries as well. And, um, I just wanted to see if you could talk a little bit about the teen programming. I know the, for my own family in particular, the middle school football program has been absolutely transformational. Um, so in terms of the numbers that you're seeing, if we're at capacity for some of those programs, um, you know, there's a huge concern about teen mental health. Um, how are we, how are you able to address that and do you have what you need?

▶ 33:13 Speaker 7: Yeah, It's, it's, um, can be challenging to get teens to do stuff.

▶ 33:18 Speaker 8: Yes, it can.

▶ 33:20 Speaker 7: I've learned that it can be challenging. Um, we, we use that funding to try to give them as much out of school opportunity to be together as we can. Um, some of that includes keeping the weight room or the strength and conditioning room open year round after school. That is a facility that before we were there was hardly opened or only open to varsity teams. It's now open every day staffed and every, if you go down there, we have 60 to 80 kids daily in that facility, again with one or two staff members sometimes. Mm-hmm. Which is, we should have more down there. I I understand that because, but it's a budgeting thing, right? So it's, it's, um,

▶ 34:07 Speaker 7: We also do stuff in the gyms, like, especially in the wintertime, trying to get high scores and middle schoolers out just to, just to do open gym nights. Uh, so we, we, we partner with the health department and the health and coalition, um, health and wellness and Coalition board, um, committee to, to also try to get some things going. Um, the money goes quickly, you know, staff is expensive, especially part-time staff if you want to keep quality staff. So that's, that's, that's usually what that funding goes towards. But we've found the most success directly after school and offering programs,

▶ 34:44 Jen Grigoraitis: I think. Yeah, I think it's from, again, what's happening in my own house. It seems to be hugely impactful, so thank you for that. Thank you. Mad chair.

▶ 34:52 Speaker 1: Any other questions?

▶ 35:00 Speaker 5: What is the will of the committee make a motion to move the bottom line?

▶ 35:02 Leila Migliorelli: Second Councilor Gar pay motions to move the bottom line on 6 31. Seconded by Councilor Ella. Anyone on discussion?

▶ 35:11 Speaker 1: Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll

▶ 35:12 Speaker 2: Vice chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Sin? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Council Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Cremsky? Yes. Council Williams? Yes. President? Yes. And Chair Mc? Yes. That's 10. Yes. Unanimous.

▶ 35:29 Leila Migliorelli: That motion carries. At this time we'll also vote on the recreation revolving account. 26 52.

▶ 35:36 Speaker 8: Motion To move the bottom line on 2 6 52. Second.

▶ 35:39 Leila Migliorelli: Motion to move the bottom line on 2 6 52 made by President Greg. Seconded by Counselor Ella. Anyone on discussion? Second? Seeing none,

▶ 35:48 Speaker 1: Mr. Clerk,

▶ 35:50 Speaker 2: Vice Chair Jamine? Yes. Council McMaster? Yes. Councilor son? Yes. Council Eccles? Yes. Council Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Cremsky? Yes. Council Williams? Yes. President Gu? Yes. And Chair Mcle? Yes. That's Steven Unanim as Walton. Yes.

▶ 36:07 Speaker 1: That motion carries. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much

▶ 36:10 Speaker 7: Everybody. Thank you

▶ 36:10 Speaker 3: All. Thanks for all you do. Thank

▶ 36:14 Leila Migliorelli: You. All right. Um, lastly, we have Pine Banks with Henry Keezer, the President of the Board of Trustees.

▶ 36:42 Speaker 4: Uh, I'm Henry Keyser, president and chairman of the Pine Banks Park Corporation. With me is Kevin Benner, who's our superintendent, who really, really does all the work. Did everyone get a

▶ 36:59 Speaker 4: Uh, the front piece is a picture of the Malden City Council President sitting in the lap of the Malden Animal Officer playing Santa Claus just before Christmas. Just in case you wondered.

▶ 37:20 Speaker 4: This is an enterprise that was created by Elijah Congress as part of his will. 1905. The, uh, legislature created a corporation to hold Pine Banks park for the benefit of the citizens of Malden and Melrose, and mandated that, uh, a portion, uh, of the value of the, of each city would be a minimum funding amount. Uh, that's recited on pages three and four

▶ 37:54 Speaker 4: on our report. Basically what we do is to take last year's assessed valuation for each city shown on page four. The lesser value is City of Melrose is at 6.7 billion, and then a fraction is applied to that and, uh, it's $447,000, uh, from each city to a combined statutory mandate of 8 95. Um, so that's the benchmark. On page five, we've got a budget summary showing where we,

▶ 38:32 Speaker 4: what we do with that. And then there were two columns in there prior year. And then the budget. Um, that's to show what's changed over the two years. And then it shows the, uh, dollar increase, the percentage increase the amount per city, and the increase per city for each of those line items. We've carried this forward now for 15 years or so. So it's a standardized form if you've seen it before. You're familiar with what, what it is. Our operations between the two cities divide this all into three general parts. The first is type one, and that's, uh, salaries, wages, pensions, benefits, and insurance. That's, uh, lines one through five. And with that situation, we are operating out of the Melrose, uh, HR department and we're leasing employees. We're fundamentally MES employees. We lease them at Pine Banks to work there. And they're treated like MES employees for all other, uh, purposes. So the payments are coming out of, uh, Melrose's Carry and Con, uh, it takes care of that. And then the City of Malden quarterly remits the amount, uh, to make up the difference so that it's an even split. That's worked out pretty well. Um,

▶ 40:01 Speaker 4: then other operations from line six through, uh, 42 are type two income as we call it. And that's an amount that, uh, monthly the cities of Malden and Melrose send us a separate check for. And we make disbursements for those items. Uh, and that's worked out pretty well based on actual expenditure experience. And then lines 43 through 57 we call type three. That's, uh, capital purchases and the amortization of the, uh, debt for the field improvements. Um, and we send requisitions to, uh, Patrick Del Russo and Chuck Han and Malden, uh, annually. And then we make those amortization payments from our office. Uh, lines 44 through 47 are the, uh, principal, uh, uh, field improvement loan, uh, servicing amounts. Uh, we got a mass, um, development bond in, I think it was 2016. Uh, it was fixed for I believe 10 years at three 3%, uh, which is a pretty good rate and it's getting better every day. Um,

▶ 41:20 Speaker 4: the, uh, line 46 is a supplemental F facility shed. That's a loan that we got from a local foundation, uh, at the same rate of interest. Uh, and it allowed us to complete the, uh, utility building, which is now on our fields. Uh, so line 47 is really dead amortization over a long term and we're able to get a mass development bond, for instance, which, uh, allows us to get tax free, uh, borrowing without having to be on either city's, uh,

▶ 41:56 Speaker 4: bonding schedule. Uh, it gives a little bit of relief, I think, to the cities. Um, line 49 through 53 are sort of the interesting of the new initiatives. We've had user groups ask for, uh, roofs over the dugouts and uh, they tell me it's not so much when the sun's out, but when it's freezing like it was over this weekend, having a roof makes an off lot easier. And our girls' softball, the softball field needs that. Um, and we're looking also to put roofs over the, uh, benches in the dog park. We've had some requests for that. The other big request in the dog park is for water. Um, I was thinking about putting a dispensing machine with per air at a bottle, a dollar a bottle, um, just to see how that might work more, you know, um, then we had some big discussion over line 51 pickleball court and, uh, the feeling was that if Joan Bell had a pickleball court, we should have one equally as good. Um, it's becoming quite the rage. I don't understand it, but I had a client come in over the 65 year old fellow and he came in with a boot on and I said, what happened to you? And he said, pickleball.

▶ 43:17 Speaker 4: Um, and then we've gotta replace a 2008 pickup. Uh, that's line 53 and that may be a little bit high, uh, but we need a pickup truck that can have a strong front end for snow plow cuz we have to take care of their own roads. Um,

▶ 43:36 Speaker 4: so line 57 is the total of capital expenditures. It's at 4 74, which is an increase of 1 0 6, and it's principally the, uh, dugout and the the truck. The summary of the budget is at line 58. It breaks it down into compensation of benefits and the operating expenses. And finally the equipment purchases. So this year, line 72, our budget would be at 1,000,001 44, 6 67 46, uh, which is in excess of the statutory mandate by $248,000. Um,

▶ 44:20 Speaker 4: which is rough, roughly the debt service, uh, that we look at in the, in the field improvements. Um,

▶ 44:28 Speaker 4: we have two artificial fields and we've replaced the artificial turf on the rugby field. Uh, that was an earlier rendition of artificial turf. The technology is now better. Um, and you can't wear the things out. And I think we've got a 1517 year old useful life on, on those surfaces. And our intention would be that if the surface wears out on on the fields, we'd be looking at mass development for another, uh, another blonde for the replacement. Um, which is a good thing because it allows us to borrow it and this, the debt service is part of the budget, but it's, it's a, it's a good approach,

▶ 45:18 Speaker 4: I think. Um, so that is about, if the, uh, report has Kevin's report of some of the things that are going on, user groups on page nine, we've got an awful lot of, uh, private user groups. Um, Vikings, AAU baseball is one of them. Um,

▶ 45:38 Speaker 4: and there're it's been a good addition. Um,

▶ 45:44 Speaker 4: I should say that we have a website, uh, pine banks.org and the website has got a situation where folks can, uh, get on the site, use their credit cards to rent fields and picnic sites, and no one has to talk to them. And that's worked out very well. Um, we look forward to talking to some of our customers. Uh,

▶ 46:10 Speaker 4: it gives us, we've been able to raise about $40,000 on it, uh, this year. So having the, the facility of taking the money in through the website, getting it paid through MasterCard or whatever, uh, is really working out well for us and has provided a buffer on a, a lot of things that break there aren't, aren't foreseeable. Um,

▶ 46:35 Speaker 4: we, uh, have had a, uh, pretty big year because this was the anniversary of Elijah Conver 200th birthday. So the family showed up last June and there's, uh, some pictures of, uh, that celebration. One of the pictures on page 12 shows the inside of our new utility ship. It was a beautiful day in June. Uh, and a lot of the folks who got to come to that said this would be a better function hall than should be a utility shed. So maybe we'll be hosting weddings there. Um, it was certainly better than last weekend's weather for the graduation, which, and then the power goes out memorable.

▶ 47:25 Speaker 4: And then there's the obligatory picture on page 13 of both mayors.

▶ 47:34 Speaker 4: Um, so that was, that's about the report. Is there anything that we can uh,

▶ 47:40 Leila Migliorelli: Yes. Uh, thank you both, uh, thank you both for being here. Just to make a note, we have to adjourn in five minutes for the public hearing. That's at eight o'clock. So if we can wanna get a question in, we can do that or we will have.

▶ 47:56 Ryan Williams: Thank you Mr. Keyser. Um, um, Mr. Benner? Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. I just wanted to say thank you. The boulders between Forestdale and Plain Banks. Oh, right. That did not go unnoticed. I heard a lot about that. It was really beneficial to people that walk and bike between those spaces. Thank you. They were like celebrating it, saying, oh my God, the boulders are finally gone. Um, something I've heard from constituents, I'm the Ward seven city counselor, so I back right up on this wonderful asset accessible pathways from the parking areas into the, um, guest seating at the, uh, at the field. So if you have an elderly person who needs to walk from that paved surface, the rough uneven surface prevents a little bit. Pres pr, pr, I'm sorry, the rough uneven surface presents a little bit of a challenge to them. Sure. You know, think about like very short paved paths that just lead up to the, um, to the, to the seating areas. That was something. And funny enough, you mentioned pickleball. When we were talking about pickleball, we had a little bit of a, of a discussion, um, at Foss Park and one of the things we noticed right away was that you have a big open asphalt space that you can fit like two or three pickleball courts and it looks like between the soccer pitch and the, um, and one of the baseball diamonds. And, and certainly you guys do what you need to do, but it would be great to see a couple of pickleball fields pop up there because the demand on Foss Park right now is substantial. It's booked solid all day, every day. So that's definitely a, a winner. And thank you both for coming. It's great to see you both and I'm glad I got to meet you in person.

▶ 49:23 Speaker 1: Appreciate it. Yeah,

▶ 49:24 Speaker 4: we're gonna have to get waivers of liability from everyone who's over 50. So

▶ 49:29 Ryan Williams: What about under 15? Yeah. Kids like it too.

▶ 49:32 Speaker 4: Uh, I should say that, uh, the new superintendent of Forestdale mm-hmm. Chris Rosa is mm-hmm. The tree warden. Yes. In mall. And Kevin's got all the qualifications to be a tree warden as well. The Massachusetts Tree Warden's Association had a, their meeting at Pine Banks. Uh, so they're both in love with trees,

▶ 49:53 Speaker 6: Uh, as am I,

▶ 49:54 Speaker 4: And opening them up, up that walkway. We've done the clearing on the path along the, the border wall there. Uh, we're trying to make it so the cross-country team can use the trails up there for, for actual, uh, athletic purposes.

▶ 50:08 Speaker 6: Outstanding. Outstanding. Thank you.

▶ 50:11 Speaker 1: Council Osky, Uh, have the trustees considered putting in scoreboards at the fields and, um, would that be something you'd consider in another budget

▶ 50:22 Speaker 4: Time? Well, we're, we're pricing it. We're trying to find someone to pay for it all. Great. Some of the, uh, user groups, uh, like it, some of the, the scoreboards have gotten better now cuz you can operate them off your

▶ 50:35 Speaker 1: telephone. Right. Um,

▶ 50:37 Speaker 4: that's just question storing and making sure it's not damaged.

▶ 50:41 Speaker 1: Right. But It's, Thank you Councilor Gepe. Yes.

▶ 50:45 Mark Garipay: Just, uh, one quick question. Um, I already talked to you regarding the baseball field, uh, but um, the track, the track is always being used. What's the life on re resurfacing? Uh, the tracks typically, cuz it's, you got all the track reads down there, it's gotta be, what, 10, 12 years old now? The

▶ 51:05 Speaker 4: Yeah. It is about 10 years old. Okay. When I was pricing the, uh, pickleball court, the, the installer I called was Cape and Islands, and they did the, uh, the track. So they're gonna be coming out and we're gonna do a walk on the surface and, and see what's going on. I'd like to get the lines repainted to make it look fresh. Mm-hmm.

▶ 51:26 Mark Garipay: And do they say what the useful life is for, for a track surface?

▶ 51:33 Speaker 4: They did not. They might try to sell us a new track, but

▶ 51:37 Mark Garipay: It gets a lot of you, so

▶ 51:38 Speaker 4: That's a surprising thing. If you walk, you see the people who are walking there after dark. It's, it's, it's amazing. Yeah.

▶ 51:47 Mark Garipay: Well, thank you that it's, I'm down there a lot. My son plays baseball down there and it's, it's a gem when other other communities and other au teams come in there, they, they're, they're just at awe at the, at the facility. So, thank you.

▶ 52:01 Speaker 4: Thank you.

▶ 52:04 Speaker 1: Councilor Stewart.

▶ 52:05 Speaker 4: Thank you Madam Chair. Uh, just to,

▶ 52:07 Robb Stewart: to add to Council Garrett's comment on the track, as someone who has run a lot of track, um, in his life, I, I would say that it is at, it's the near or at the end of its useful life. It is pretty worn down. It's flat, um, it's worn. Uh, I would think that you'd really want to seriously consider, uh, taking a look, a close look at that. So, um, I think Gar uh, council Garrett raised, raised a very good point. Yes.

▶ 52:40 Speaker 4: Thank you Mr. Chair.

▶ 52:43 Speaker 1: Council Williams, motion

▶ 52:43 Speaker 6: To move the bottom line. Second

▶ 52:45 Speaker 1: Motion to move the bottom line made by Council Williams, seconded by councilors sin on discussion. Seeing none, Mr. Clerk,

▶ 52:54 Speaker 2: Vice Chair jam. Jamal team? Yes. Council McMaster? Yes. Councilor Ella? Yes. Councilor Les? Yes. Council Gepe? Yes. Counselor Stewart? Yes. Cremsky? Yes. Council Williams? Yes. President mcg es? Yes. And chair Mcle? Yes. That's your unanim as 10? Yes.

▶ 53:10 Leila Migliorelli: Okay. At this time we'll also vote to hold, um, on the capital outlay outlay for pine banks. Um, since it's related to it, um, it's line 9 31. Motion to Hold. Thank you. Motion to hold. Made by Counselor Kel, second of my counselor son. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you both for being here tonight. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Entertain a motion to hold appropriation 2023 dash 28 and committee. So Moved. Second Councilor son, motions to hold. Appropriation. 2023 dash 28 Committee seconded by President Greg. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries a motion to hold. Ordinance 2023 dash one. So Moved. Second.