Public Comment

Transcript (~5 min @ 10:58)

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

▶ 10:53 Christopher Cinella: so, you know objection that is now has been as approved and if there's no objection I'd like to now open the floor for a public comment and if anybody wishes to Speak to an item on our agenda this evening. Please do so.

▶ 11:10 Christopher Cinella: President Obama counselor mcnaught if you could please state your name and address.

▶ 11:15 Jeff McNaught: Jeffrey mcnaught 562 Main Street Melrose, Mass Rather not give my personal address. It does feel a little bit different not being in our pajama pants and on WebEx, but It's my first time back in the chamber and I'm here to read a letter pertaining to item number five on your new business. This is a letter from the public safety buildings committee. requesting funding for pre-designed services for the public safety buildings Dear honorable City councilors. We the Melrose Public Safety building committee request 68,500. For design services, including reimbursable expenses for an architectural firm to complete pre-designed services. For proposed upgrades to the city's fire and police stations. These Services which include developing conceptual design plans schedules and cost estimates. For several options will allow our committee. To refine two options and present these options to the mayor the city council. and the public for review in early 2023 in late 2021 the mayor established as public safety building committee. To come up with a recommendation for how to upgrade our Public Safety buildings. To serve the needs of the police and fire departments. We initiated our effort by reviewing the previous feasibility study for the public safety buildings completed in 2017. And are coming up with our recommendations which balance both the needs of the city and an effective use of our taxpayer dollars. We will present our recommendations to the mayor. The city council and the general public in stages as we come up with our findings. Our task is to make an informed recommendation on the best path for Public Safety buildings for our city. And to explain this to our fellow citizens. So that we as a community can reach a consensus on the funding for this effort. Our committee is confirmed that our police and fire stations have been in dire need of upgrades for quite some time now. Improving our Public Safety buildings will be a major multi-year project for our city to undertake. The actual cost of this effort will to plan depend on which plan Melrose selects the design fees the construction and land costs and the phasing of the project.

▶ 13:52 Jeff McNaught: Outdated police and fire stations are not a local phenomenon. We have studied how surrounding municipalities of upgraded their public safety building infrastructure. And our learning from their planning funding and execution. Door and Whittier, the Architecture Firm who also performed the previous 2017 feasibility study have completed a number of Public Safety projects. for municipalities in New England They are presented us with the scope of work and fee proposal to assist our committee, which we determine to be reasonable. Their work will take approximately four months. pending approval of this appropriation request Contracting and signing a notice to proceed we are requesting this funding for door and Whittier to refine their design including schedules and cost estimates for the following options identified by our committee through our work over the past year.

▶ 14:52 Jeff McNaught: Making structural utilities and accessibility improvements to the central fire station on Main Street. Renovating and adding a two-story addition to Engine 2 on Tremont Street. demolishing and building a new engine to on Tremont Street renovating and adding a second floor to engine 3 on East Foster Street. demolishing and building a new engine 3 on East Foster Street renovating engine 3 on East Foster Street without any additions Building a new police station and Dispatch Center on a larger site. Converting a larger existing building into a new police station on a new site. And different combinations of the above. We appreciate your consideration of this request and look forward to discussing it with you and it's signed respectfully Eugenia Gibbons and myself the co-chairs, but I can assure you. There's many great residents of the city of Mars who have helped over the past year in this project. So I thank you for your time.

▶ 15:55 Speaker 7: Thank you. Anybody online?

▶ 16:01 Speaker 1: There are zero attendees at this time anybody else

▶ 16:03 Christopher Cinella: wishing to speak? Seeing none if that objection will close public comment. And we have some new business filings.