GRANT-2023-10 : Acceptance of State Funding for Fire Headquarters Repairs in the Amount of $150,000 (One Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars)

Transcript (~6 min @ 22:52)

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

▶ 22:45 Leila Migliorelli: This order will be brought to the full Council the next meeting. Thank you Ms. Grimac for appearing next on our agenda is Grant 2023-10 acceptance of State funding for fire headquarters repairs in the amount of 150,000 tonight. We have Jim troop and chief Kalina here with us to speak on the order.

▶ 23:11 Speaker 3: Good evening. Welcome.

▶ 23:13 Speaker 5: Good evening.

▶ 23:16 Speaker 5: Thank you for having us tonight in front of you use the acceptance of State Grant from the amount of $150,000 to help upgrade and renovate the fire headquarters next door the chief in collaboration with the DPW have identified quite a few projects that are needed to update the living quarters and the condition of the building and we feel that this grant will go an awful long way the bullet points that are in the memo in front of you include obviously reaching out to have an electrical and an engineering study for the building to address needs for us to I guess evolve that building in any potential larger Renovations that are needed we've identified some deep cleaning of upholstered and tiled floor coverings reconstructed Murphy bed in the little dispatch office just on the ground floor. Window and Door Replacements those would obviously be select we couldn't do the entire building upgrades to the living in living quarters, including the kitchen dining areas sleeping quarters and Facilities. We've already reached out to the VOC and have been pledged some help for the students to come in and they feel as if that would be a tremendous project for them to do. So we'd be responsible for supplies. We're talking about exterior as well as interior Mason repairs flooring repairs roof repairs and then storage improvements. These priorities are going to be determined in collaboration with the chief the firefighters that are stationed there and the DPW and obviously dictated by the budget available to us. Thank you very much for the consideration. We're looking forward to making some Headway next door for our First Responders.

▶ 24:58 Speaker 3: you

▶ 25:02 Christopher Cinella: Coming up. How does this parlay into the overall big plan? I know the timing of that is going to be

▶ 25:11 Speaker 5: yeah, there's there's no date. There's no doubt that there's some full skill Renovations that are necessary there, but the bottom line is we want to have an immediate impact and take care of some critical needs that are impacting obviously morale as well as their everyday living quarters, but you know, we feel as if this is going to be very timely and very much needed in terms of an immediate impact to those that are stationed there.

▶ 25:38 Christopher Cinella: Any matching funds or you mentioned something in your comments about if the budget permits does that mean? Yeah,

▶ 25:45 Speaker 5: so I mean we feel as if we're going to be able to I guess tick off some of the things that have been communicated to us as priority from the chief from the firefighters from the Union. Correct, and and we want to maximize that impact and and check off as much of the list as possible. Obviously as funds allow.

▶ 26:04 Speaker 1: Said any stars on the floor. I know that that was any what the status on the under the flooring that I think we had appropriate we had that looked at

▶ 26:11 Speaker 6: by a structural engineer back in. August and it's it's being held up Tempt with temporary Shoring. And as of August, it was suitable for pedestrian traffic only on the on the upside of the floor.

▶ 26:27 Speaker 1: Thank you.

▶ 26:30 Jen Grigoraitis: President Greer greatest thank you madam. Chair. Thank you both for being here tonight. I first just wanted to acknowledge. I know this funding is coming through a state earmark and wanted to thank replica obedient and Senator Lewis for advocating for Melrose and then just wanted to ask you both a little bit on the timeline for executing and completing these projects. It seems like a lot of small but time-consuming work that involves a bunch of different contractors. When do you think we would actually get underway and how long will

▶ 26:57 Speaker 5: it take? So in anticipation of this grant, we've already reached out to potential Architects and Engineers. We've reached out to National Grid to take a look at what the electrical upgrades would need and we have vendors that are ready to implement to you know, whatever is necessary. I mean, he's easily we can clean if this is accepted and once we have the accounts we could we could snap our fingers and then have vendors ready to go. We have quotes in the queue. So a lot of these things are very easy to start implementing and make upgrades immediately. Obviously, we'd have to coordinate something like the kitchen with the voke and you know how the students have for availability what they have for availability, but there's a lot of things that we could have immediate impact to affect the current conditions. Thank you.

▶ 27:48 Manjula Karamcheti: Counselor Karma JD well president Greer. This asked my question. I just wanted to ask about the timeline as well. I think we're all very well aware of the need for significant improvements in a very quick way to support our firefighters. So thank you for asking my question president.

▶ 28:08 Mark Garipay: to recommend for

▶ 28:11 Speaker 3: passages second. Most recommend me by councilor Pace. I can enter by counselor sonella.

▶ 28:18 Speaker 1: Mr. Vice chair gemaldine. Yes counselor McMaster. Yes counselor. Sonella. Yes Pastor Eccles. Yes Council. Gerepe. Yes councilor Stewart. Yes Council crime Shady. Yes councilor bemsky. Yes president Grigoraitis. Yes. And cheer. Miglielli. Yes, that's 10. Yes, right.

▶ 28:35 Speaker 3: Thank you for to our next full council meeting.