Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2015-06-08

Appropriations and Oversight Budget Hearing

This meeting starts at 16:18 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Jaclyn L. Bird present · Vice Chairman; Robert A. Boisselle present · Ward 4 Alderman; Donald L. Conn Jr. present · President/Ex-officio Member; Scott M. Forbes present · Ward 7 Alderman; Gail Infurna present · Ward 5 Alderman; Jennifer L. Lemmerman present · Ward 2 Alderman; Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis present · Alderman at Large; Monica C. Medeiros present · Alderman at Large; Peter D. Mortimer present · Chairman; John N. Tramontozzi present · Ward 1 Alderman; Francis X. Wright Jr. absent · Ward 3 Alderman

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 8, 2015 Aldermanic Chamber Budget Hearing 7:30 PM The public should take notice that the Melrose Board of Aldermen may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the Board of Aldermen consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Peter D. Mortimer Chairman Present Jaclyn L. Bird Vice Chairman Present Gail M. Infurna Ward 5 Alderman Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Absent Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis Alderman at Large Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Ward 2 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Donald L. Conn Jr. President/Ex-officio Member Present In Attendance:

ORDER-2015-154 Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2016 in the amount of $72,885,826.66 (Seventy Two Million, Eight Hundred Eighty Five Thousand, Eight Hundred Twenty Six Dollars and Sixty Six Cents) Hold Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2015-162 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization of the Beebe Estate Revolving Account # 2750 for FY2016 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2015-160 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization of Health Revolving Fund #2659 for FY2016 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 6/9/2016 3:52 PM Minutes Appropriations Committee June 8, 2015

ORDER-2015-164 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization of the Melrose Veterans Events Revolving Fund (2607) for FY 2016 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2015-163 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization of Recreation Revolving Fund #2652 for FY16 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2015-161 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization and Increase of the Council on Aging Donation Revolving Account # 2811 for FY2016 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2015-155 Enterprise Fund FY16 Mt Hood Enterprise Fund Budget in the amount of $1,470,846.84 (One Million, Four Hundred Seventy Thousand, Eight Hundred Forty Six and Eighty Four Cents) Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 2 Updated 6/9/2016 3:52 PM

Transcript

▶ 16:19 Peter D. Mortimer: The Vice Chairman is Alderman Jacqueline Bird. I am Chairman Peter Mortimer. We're also joined by Alderman Inferna, Alderman Tramontozzi, Alderman Medeiros, Alderman Boisselle, Alderman McAteer-Margolis, Alderman Lemmerman, Alderman Forbes, and President Kahn. This meeting is being recorded, a DVD is available at MMTV, or you can watch a rebroadcast of this meeting streaming on the City of Melrose website or on the MMTV website. Is there a motion to open the floor for public participation, please? So moved. Second. Alderman Byrd has moved to open the floor for public participation. Said motion was duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, we are open for public participation.

▶ 17:16 Peter D. Mortimer: Seeing no members of the public coming forward. Motion to close public participation. Alderman Byrd has made a motion to close public participation. The motion was seconded by Alderman Inferna. On discussion, seeing none, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, public participation is now closed. The first order we have before us is the budget. City of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2016 in the amount of $72,885,826.66. The first department we have before us is the Human Rights Commission, department number 544. Is there a motion to suspend the rules please? So moved. Second. Alderman Byrd has made a motion to suspend the rules. The motion was duly seconded by Alderman Forbes.

▶ 18:12 Peter D. Mortimer: All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, we are under suspension and we are joined by Sean McMaster, a member of the Human Rights Commission. And whom do you have with you, Mr. McMaster? Good evening, Mr. Chairman. I'm Sean McMaster, the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission. With me is Ms. Karen Andrews, the Treasurer of the Human Rights Commission. Welcome. Thank you very much. Would you like to make an opening statement or proceed directly to questions and comments? proceed directly to questions and comments very well members of the board the floor is yours upon recognition by a show of hand president khan please yeah mr chairman this is a level funded budget it's three thousand dollars there are no employees that are included in this budget

▶ 19:01 Peter D. Mortimer: and i would move that we recommend second line president khan has made a motion to recommend this order for passage to the full board duly seconded by alderman inferno all in favor please Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this department's budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Your mere presence caused the passage. The next department we have before us is the Beebe Estate, department number 540. We are joined this evening by Ms. Jean Gorman, who will speak regarding the Beebe Estate, if you would like to. Would you like to go directly to comments, or? We can go right to budget. Right to comments, right to budget.

▶ 19:46 Peter D. Mortimer: Alderman? Same reason. President Kahn, please. Yeah, Mr. Chairman, this is another level funded budget. It's $7,900, it contains no salaries, and I would move that we recommend this budget. Second. President Kahn has made a motion to move the bottom line on the BB estate budget. Said motion was duly seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. The Beebe estate budget is passed, or will be recommended to the full board for passage. Excuse me, before I declare it as recommended to the full board for passage, it seems that we have some discussion. Alderman Medeiros, please. Yes, I'd just like to move that we take, I think we have an order out of order for a revolving fund at the Beebe.

▶ 20:27 Peter D. Mortimer: Yes. Okay, can we pass this one first? Okay, all in favor of passing the budget for the Beebe estate, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the order, the department budget for The BB estate is passed, and your motion now, please, Alderman Medeiros. My motion now is to take order number 2015-162 out of order. It's the reauthorization of the BB estate revolving account number 2750 for FY16. Second. We have a motion to take order 2015-162 out of order by Alderman Medeiros. motion was duly seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis all in favor please say aye the order is before us motion for passage we have a motion for passage by Alderman Medeiros duly seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis any discussion seeing none all in favor please say aye any opposed the revolving

▶ 21:27 Peter D. Mortimer: fund order will be recommended to the full board for passage as well thank you so very much for your volunteer service to our community and thank you for coming the next department budget that we have before us is department budget number 652 it is pine banks we have mr kieser before us on the pine banks board of directors mr kieser welcome would you like to make a brief opening statement i'll proceed directly to questions and comments a brief statement i circulated our annual budget for this year yes everyone has a copy thank you very much for doing that and page seven is the indication of the unified budget for the park which is funded by both the cities of malden and melrose the center column there which is indicated as the budget contrasts this proposed budget

▶ 22:23 to the prior year of the current year 2015 and the total budget is 735751.82 which is a contribution from each city of 367 875 91 the center portion there for equipment and capital purchases is something that is deferred through the end of the year we usually look at that in October or November the line 44 is the amortization of the ball field projects which was the improvements in in the creation of the track, baseball field, softball field, and so forth. It's pretty straight forward in the same presentation as it was last year. With some additional pictures. If there are any questions, glad to answer them. Motion to recommend. We have a motion to recommend this budget to passage, duly seconded by Alderman Forbes.

▶ 23:28 Gail Infurna: discussion all of them in front of please thank you very much mr. chairman thank you mr. keyser and your board for all that they do certainly pine banks is one of our jewels and I love the idea that it sits in the middle of Ward five they're lucky at the end of Ward five so I I just have a question I'm just looking at your upcoming projects for the fiscal year 1415 but I know I I love having the track down there I do walk it I really enjoy that but the gate that from Sylvan Street onto the track it goes uphill and it's really hard to go up and down it and try to open up the gate and everything I just didn't wonder if there were any thoughts of putting in some steps there I don't see any particular problem with that I know the engineer who designed that I will take a

▶ 24:20 point of making him walk through there several times to make your point we have ongoing projects that we're looking at one of the things that we have to do is resurface rf1 which is the rugby field that's 12 years old now they do have a useful life the technology is better and we're looking at different approaches to get that refined for restructured in the same within the same budget that we have here we also have a view towards doing further remediation in the landfill which is the area between our fields and the Wyoming cemetery so our engineers are going to be back and I will make them walk through that gate I've heard that yeah I don't even believe the gate opens up all the way because now it

▶ 25:14 Peter D. Mortimer: Let me take some of that landslide that's kind of happening there, so thank you very much. Thank you Alderman Inferna. Seeing no other Alderman wishing to be heard, a motion has been made to recommend this department for passage. It was duly seconded. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, the Pine Banks budget will be recommended for passage to the full board. Thank you very much for coming, Mr. Keyser, and thank you for all your work at Pine Banks. The next department we have before us is Department 511. This is the Health Department budget in the amount of $721,722.47. We are still under suspension. Thank you for joining us, Ms. Clay. I think this is my last one. You have a revolving account.

▶ 25:59 Peter D. Mortimer: Well, yeah. As well. Would you like to make an opening statement or proceed, okay, let's proceed directly to questions. Is there a motion to rec, oh, go ahead. Motion to recommend. We have a motion to recommend from Alderman McAteer-Margolis, duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. On discussion, President Kahn was first, followed by Alderman Medeiros. Now, Ms. Clay, of the people that are listed in our budget for the salary page, I'm presuming that the public health and school nurses are working exclusively in Melrose and are fully funded in this budget, is that correct? Yes, they are fully Melrose nurses, they are partially funded, but one of the nurses is paid by the school department and the rest are in this budget.

▶ 26:45 So one nurse position is not in this budget. Correct. And. I'm ready for you, Don, I'm ready for you, here you go. If you have it all written out, if you want to just go through it, that would be great. Yep. I got it. So, of the staff of the health department, we're funded through 11 different sources. The health department budget, the school department budget, the Wakefield health department budget, the Melrose Revolving Fund, emergency preparedness grant, a tobacco grant, mass in motion grant, federal drug free community grant, Wakefield drug free community grant, federal stop grant, and the new grant that you just adopted tonight. Do you want to know who's what, or just in general, all the different sources?

▶ 27:38 And other than the public health nurses. School nurses. And school nurses. Is everybody else who's listed in your budget working in this community and other communities? No. I work Melrose and Wakefield. Our administrative assistant works just Melrose, but coordinates with Wakefield. The senior health inspector does Melrose-Wakefield and potentially Redding. The two part-time health inspectors are Melrose and Wakefield. Animal control is Melrose. Public health nurse is Melrose-Wakefield. The tobacco coordinator is Melrose-Wakefield, Malden, Medford, Stoneham, Wakefield, Redding, Winchester. substance abuse coordinator for the DFC is Melrose and a little Wakefield the assistant is Melrose the coalition one we talked about tonight is Melrose

▶ 28:42 Wakefield Stoneham Malden Medford Winchester massive motion is Melrose Wakefield and the school nurses are just Melrose so based on the ingenious funding source that no alderman could possibly understand okay I have a spreadsheet what I'd like what I'd like to know is what of the people that are on our budget what the actual annual salaries would be that part is in the budget so these are the real the real numbers are the part that Melrose only pays for anything that Melrose is not paying for isn't in the budget so this is Melrose payments for Melrose employees and Melrose share people would not working a hundred percent of the time in Melrose yes what I'm trying to find out is is whether what what the actual salaries for these positions are

▶ 29:48 okay so the act the actual salaries for anybody who's partially paid by Melrose which is myself the administrative assistant the three inspectors animal control public health nurse and school nurses are there part of my salary the The inspector's salary and the public health nurse salary, we get reimbursed by Wakefield. But because we're all Melrose City employees, the full salary is in the budget, yet part of that is offset and goes back into the general fund. Okay, that's all I have for now, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, President Kahn. Next in queue, we have Alderman Medeiros, please. Thank you. I was hoping maybe you can share that spreadsheet with us? That would be- I brought coffee. Oh, thank you.

▶ 30:48 Monica C. Medeiros: Excellent. And then I did want to ask, are we not partnering with, we're doing regionalization with Wakefield. Are we not partnering with Redding any longer? Correct. As of the end of this month, they've chosen not to be part of our regional department. Does that affect any of the administrator salaries? Was that? Well, it affected my salary. I got a significant pay cut. So that's not in this budget, but that's from a portion that was coming from Redding? Or is that? Well, if you're trying to look at salaries across the years, you're going to see a significant drop this year. Because the full salary last year was in there. And then part of it reimbursed by Redding? Well, unfortunately our materials here are not showing us

▶ 31:54 Monica C. Medeiros: before and after so much, and we're just seeing a 2.8% decrease for the whole entire salary line. Right. So it's just- Well, I'm only one little part of the entire salary line, so. May not show, yeah. So that's why there's a decrease. Normally there'd be a slight increase. Yeah. There's a decrease because of- of my salary and are we looking at some future opportunities with different communities moving forward as far as you're aware I'm not I don't know you'd have to ask the mayor okay thank you thank you Alderman Medeiros next in line we have Alderman McAteer-Margolis please uh thank you Mr. Chairman um thank you Ms. Clay and thank you to your um team that does such great work in the community so your salary as it's reflected in the salary line for

▶ 32:46 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: the coming fiscal year reflects the absence of the reading funding correct okay my other question was what can you explain a little bit about the animal shelter the cut in that when it was 2000 last year and now we've zeroed it out No, it shouldn't be zeroed out. Well, it appears to have gone from 2000 for the revised budget to 1475, 73 for the actual budget and then zeroed out this year. For next year. For next year, yeah. Okay, well, we'll look at that. Sorry. That, that was, Patrick. An over, I just wondered, I wondered if it got moved. It's not a significant amount of money, but I wonder if it got moved somewhere else or absorb someplace else wasn't there what happened to it no no it's you're right sorry yeah somewhere that disappeared no no actually it's supposed

▶ 33:47 to be 3,000 for the for the whole year I don't know somehow we made a mistake the 2000 was for part of this year if you remember earlier this year I came to the board because we had been operating off of a very generous donation that a woman had left in her estate I think we've been using it for about eight years and we finally spent it down so part way through the year I asked for an appropriation just to get us through the rest of this fiscal year and we took an average of what we have been spending over the past five years and it has been averaging $3,000 a year of course you know that can change at any time depending on what animals we get or don't get so we meant to put $3,000 in there and I'm sure Patrick can find a way of fixing that thanks for noticing

▶ 34:45 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: well I'm right and it's a rather significant I mean it's not an it's not a significant amount but it is a very significant service significant my budget and it's a significant service that you provide and I know a lot of people in the community do depend on it especially you know when they have a missing animal so yes our animal control officer coral hope hat is then she's been fantastic our previous ACO was also fantastic and I just didn't think we'd ever find somebody as great as Diane and we have because coral is compassionate and great at dealing with people and their animals anybody who's dealt with this knows that it's probably the most one of the the most difficult situations to deal with people feel including myself very passionate about their pets

▶ 35:35 and anytime there's a problem people can be very very upset about it and she does a fantastic job of it and I'm really pleased to say that she's able has been able to place every animal including a bird that we found about a month ago everybody is placed dogs cats birds we find she finds homes for everybody including a number of City Hall employees she finds home for City Hall employees way more than $3,000 right now we have a number of city employees who have recruited you yes city employees to just great fabulous job and so what would the $3,000 be used towards towards those placements and towards sheltering the animals while they were it's actually placed for it pays for when we have an abandoned animal or a surrendered animal we have to keep it for seven days that's less the

▶ 36:42 state law changed a year ago to from ten to seven we have to pay to house the animal usually it's either across the street at melrose animal hospital or at vca and wakefield so we we pay for the seven days and then usually we foster them so that we don't have to pay for any more after that expensive mr. chairman I before I would make a motion to increase this budget I would like well to ask mr. de la Rousseau if he can I know we can't increase but I mean if we can ask mr. de la Rousseau if he's aware mr. de la Rousseau at the request of alderman McAteer Margolis would you come forward and try to shed some light on this $3,000 that there seems to be a discrepancy thank you president khan no i think that's the best reason all right thank you sir

▶ 37:36 good evening the um the animal shelter line was funded from ofs last year under revised budget for two thousand dollars this past year we prepare in the budget we did sixteen hundred and eighty dollars for the shops program which is four lines up if you looked in original budget that was zero under revised it was 1680. so we were able to fund that fully this year we were not able to fund the animal shelter fully as we had anticipated period it's as simple as that thank you thank you thank you alderman mcintyre margolis any other alderman wishing to be heard seeing none there is a motion to recommend this budget for passage it has been duly We second it. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

▶ 38:33 Peter D. Mortimer: Hearing none, Department 511, the Health Department budget will be recommended. Please stick around, Ms. Clay. Will be recommended for passage. And while we're here, would someone like to make a motion to take order 2015-160 out of order? So moved, Mr. Chairman. Alderman Forbes has made a motion to take 2015-160 out of order through the authorization of the health revolving fund. 2659 for fiscal year 2016, duly seconded by Alderman Byrd. This way we can get you out of here and you can be done and go home. All in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the order is before us. Motion to recommend. We have a motion to recommend the order for passage, duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle.

▶ 39:21 All in favor? Aye. Excuse me, excuse me before we call for the vote, we do have some discussion from Alderman Byrd. Just a quick question, Ms. Clay, can you just let members of the public know what the revolving account is used for as far as the money that comes in and out? It's primarily used for our flu clinics. We pay for the vaccine out of it, and then the revenue goes back into it. Right, and bike helmets as well, is that right? Bike helmets is a small, yeah, small amount. And one of the salaries, a couple of hours a week of the public health nurse's salary is also paid out of that. Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, Alderman Byrd. Alderman Medeiros, please. Ms. Clay, is this no opportunity for donations into this account, is that correct?

▶ 40:07 Peter D. Mortimer: No. Is there an account in the regular budget that would allow for donations? Or would it just come before us if people were interested? We don't have a donation account. No donation. We'd have to create one. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Alderman Medeiros. Seeing no further, Alderman wishing to be heard. All in favor of the motion for passage that has been duly seconded on this order, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, this revolving account will be recommended to the full board. That motion was made and seconded? Yes. Yes it was. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. The next order we have before us is the Veterans Department, Budget 543. We have Major Driscoll and Sergeant McClain with us this evening.

▶ 40:56 Would you like to make an opening statement or proceed directly to questions? I would, I only get to hang out with you once a year. So, just wanted to thank the mayor, my advisory board, who keeps me on track, as represented by Bob Driscoll. The great veteran organizations in the community, all the great departments, and just to prove real quick how much the departments help me behind me. Recreation lets me borrow their truck for our food market, Council on Aging provided me wheelchairs for trip and helps our seniors library helped us with research for the korean war monument superintendent bell does a great job with the flags because i can't raise them all myself memorial hall we have events in planning and patrick hired me so all helping vets and more than i'm forgetting

▶ 41:45 across the city everyone chips in i don't want to say free of charge because time is money but they help with veterans and i think my peers should be acknowledged for that my staff we just hired alicia redden who works in the community and also wakefield and saugus in our district mary doyle who everybody knows and is indispensable and my lead volunteer ann daly helped me as well in terms of assistance this year we're going to approximately provide 408 000 in assistance to melrose veterans through chapter 115 of which we're getting 98 of the 75 back we've distributed more than 10 more than 10 000 in local assistance through our veteran relief fund to include food heating car repairs and assistance with things like books for school

▶ 42:27 we did more than 300 va claims this year and although we're not directly responsible for this number we do certainly help keep it and the office has for many years melrose saw 3.5 million in federal dollars brought into the city through va programming not to include education which is very expensive but not included in that number and we had more than 2100 contacts with veterans and their family members this year in the district uh we distributed more than 870 000 in chapter 115 assistance with a 99 percent of 75 percent reimbursement rate uh 12.9 million dollars came into morrow's wakefield and saugus through va claims and assistance and we had over 30 3 700 contacts with veterans which is a large increase from the 3 200 we had last year

▶ 43:14 One of our big focuses this year was working as we created the district to get beyond just Chapter 115 and some of the more expensive programming that has continued to be solid, but we worked really hard to create long-term procedures to help with that. We wanted to get into programming that has a smaller impact on the operating budget, and some of these things include the veteran mobile food market, if you haven't heard of that. Once a month, we provide fresh produce and food to any veteran or any family member connected to a veteran. Memorial Hall helps us out tremendously with that, in addition to the rec department, and city employees help in addition to local veteran volunteers. Our memorials program bring attention to certain veteran populations and also bring people in for assistance,

▶ 44:04 I believe, when they feel more welcomed or more attuned to their service. We did the Minor McLean Memorial this year, the Women's Service Tree on Veterans Day, and the beautiful Korean War Memorial on Memorial Day. We also worked really hard with the schools to increase the connection between those generations, the veterans and the schools, and also to teach schools about patriotism, flags, what a veteran is and why I think they should support them. Operation Remember was a great example of that, a good partnership with the Marlowe's Veterans Advisory Board, getting good feedback from that trip. So the future, what this budget allows us to do, this year we're committed to doing a long-term plan for memorial maintenance to include a master vision that we will vet in the community through our town halls and other interactions with veterans, to include city officials, for work at the Knoll and the veterans section at Wyoming Cemetery.

▶ 45:02 For programming, Greater Boston Food Bank has decided that Melrose is a good place to become a distribution center for that mobile food market. So we'll be hosting other communities to include Saugus, Wakefield, Stoneham, Nahant, and perhaps Arlington as a hub. So that's a good thing. It means I don't have to drive in the truck to Everett and bring all that food here, so it's helpful for me. We partnered with a local company that does fly fishing for disabled veterans. I went there myself and tried it out. a good program we're going to try and beef that up again no cost allows people to overcome some mental health and other physical disabilities and our our melrose veterans advisory board will be

▶ 45:42 doing their food drives local support and assistance we continue to to recruit and work with them to make sure that they're keeping us on track uh we fielded a survey a melrose veteran survey from memorial day got a decent response about 12 you know i love stats so we're looking to uh to build a report and talk about where we're going and where Melrose veterans want to go so we can sort of tie our services to that those findings we're almost done with our grave project we're trying to identify and document every grave in Wyoming cemetery through a veteran volunteer and also the Melrose veterans memory project which is a group in the high school a non-profit Lisa Lord is the CEO that name is familiar to many she is working with us for some of those

▶ 46:27 history projects like the gray project we want to continue our online expansion to include virtual vso twitter and facebook our virtual monument museum which is we're trying to get all the melrose monuments online so people can see them even when they don't live here in the city and to do some blogging so the those are sort of the highlights i tried to go as quickly as i can and of course we're here to talk mostly about the budget so if you have any questions i'd i'd be happy to answer them thank you very much sergeant mcclain uh motion to record we have a motion to recommend this budget for passage duly seconded by alderman forbes was that was that you alderman forbes who made the second alderman inferno thank you very much

▶ 47:10 Monica C. Medeiros: alderman Medeiros please thank you i know you you went through it very quickly we're doing very well on our reimbursements yes uh we're at 98 of the 75 level so this year on the cherry sheets we're expecting 313 000 last year we got 282 000 even though we had a small decrease in benefits this year so we're continuing to see money roll in tends to take 12 to 18 months which is a statewide fight but not something i can control and are things at the statewide and federal level are they you know is anything in jeopardy moving forward with our reimbursements or we look like we're stable and on track as it's codified i mean i don't have a full say over that there are controversies or discussions or debates about how veteran services

▶ 47:57 should be structured mass is the only state in the Union that has a locally hired mandatory via so like myself that's been under attack I think since the Civil War so we fight really hard to keep that we feel like the fruits of our labor are shown through our veteran programming but if the veterans have anything to do with it I don't think it'll go away so glad to hear that and Thank you for working so hard all year long, and especially on those reimbursements, too. Thank you very much, Alderman Medeiros. President Kahn, please. Yeah, and people should understand, one of the reasons that smaller communities are able to keep a service officer is because of regionalized programs like this, and we're proud of this program here in Melrose.

▶ 48:42 It's been a great success, and it's a model for other smaller areas who maybe can't afford to fully fund their program themselves. But this is a model that can be successful going forward. So I think your program is a source of pride to the city here. You folks are doing a great job. And this model, I think, is something that's going to be used more and more in the future. Where communities regionalize and unify and have two or three communities operating as we are here. Thank you, President Kahn. A motion to recommend this budget for passage has been made by Alderman Boyce-Ellen, duly seconded by Alderman Inferna. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

▶ 49:26 Peter D. Mortimer: Hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. May we have a motion to take order 2015-164, a reauthorization of Melrose- Second. Events revolving fund, I have to read it all, 267 for FY216, out of order please. It was made by Alderman Inferno, it was duly seconded by Alderman Boisselle. All in favor of taking this order out of order, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Is there a motion for passage? So moved. Alderman Forbes has made a motion to recommend for passage duly seconded by Alderman Medeiros. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor please say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this revolving account budget will be recommended for passage to the full board.

▶ 50:08 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you so much for your service to Melrose, your service to our country, and Thank you for your presence here this evening. You as well, Major Driscoll. Thank you very much, sir. The next budget we have before us is the library, budget number 611 in the amount of $922,363.99. Ms. Walsh, I'm sorry, your married name? Gardiner. Gardiner, Ms. Gardiner, would you please come before us? I know you go by the new name now. Welcome, we want to thank you for all the good work you do with the library. So you got your steps repaired the other day. Is there a motion to recommend this budget for passage? Second. We have a motion to recommend this budget for passage by Alderman McAteer-Margolis, do the second by Alderman Boisselle.

▶ 50:54 Would you like to make an opening statement or proceed directly to questions? If I may, I would appreciate a statement. We have had a busy and exciting year at the library. With over 15,000 visits to the library last month alone, our staff are kept on their toes. We, in the last year, have received meeting room requests for community meetings from 35 different Melrose organizations, totaling over 500 uses throughout the course of the year. That's in addition to our own in-house programming, which continues to expand to meet demand. In 2014, our children's room librarian, Mary Ann Stanton, added a popular Baby Steps program and increase the toddler time to twice a week, and we have a packed house every week.

▶ 51:46 Assistant Director Diane Wall has been responding to requests for more adult programming with support from a friend and has had great feedback. Programming overall was attended by over 10,000 people of all ages in the last year. We have moved our website to a new design this year using WordPress. The previous site was dated and had become very difficult to work with. We, in the new site, used the same Melrose colors as the city's website and the schools to better integrate our site with the rest of the community. Staff have been receiving training from employees at Noble, our library consortium, where our site is also hosted, and we will be able to make our own updates and changes moving forward in-house.

▶ 52:37 With the assistance of DPW, who were really fantastic, by the way, we recently reconfigured several areas on the main floor. Our goal was to improve service to the public by bringing similar collections into one area and moving the reference desk into the main lobby, making the reference staff more immediately accessible. a lot of people weren't quite sure where to find them staff worked diligently to achieve the best use of all of the spaces in addition to the desk shifting a large computer bay was moved into the center of the room to create a nook for quieter study tables display tables were moved just outside of the main lobby to minimize congestion in heavy traffic areas the library trustees funded the

▶ 53:29 purchase of new paperback shelving and all other furniture in the process was simply relocated from one spot to another spot a new initiative in partnership with the Melrose garden community group has resulted in a new Melrose seed library over 90 people have checked out seeds for a variety of vegetables at the library promoting healthy eating and it's a great intergenerational outdoor fun and learning. The seeds were provided by the Melrose Garden community and they are housed in the library's original card catalog which gives new life to a really nice piece of furniture. It happens to be located right outside my office so I've really enjoyed listening to everybody talking about what they're going to grow. Moving ahead into the next year I will

▶ 54:24 continuing my role on the executive board at Noble and I'll be moving into the vice president president-elect position there this new fiscal year as one of the busiest libraries in the consortium it's nice to have a voice at the table during discussions of the regional priorities our administrative assistant Joan Lansbury will be serving on the Massachusetts library system Purchasing Cooperative Advisory Committee. She will be able to provide insight into how the MHEC ordering system can best benefit libraries. She does a great job. We have access to several different group purchasing deals and she's really done a fantastic job of seeing where we can get our best prices. The staff continue to offer excellent programming to the community at all ages.

▶ 55:15 This summer's reading program will offer opportunities for involvement to children, teens, and adults. The staff do a great job of sharing space, staff, and resources to maximize our offerings to the community. Our museum passes continue their popularity and we'll be offering a pass for the first time to boating at Spot Pond this summer so people can pick up a pass and get a free kayak or canoe at spot pond in the past year the library pass program saved Melrose patrons in total roughly forty three thousand dollars so if everybody had been paying for all those passes they checked out it was and nothing that we do would be possible without the dedication and professionalism of our library staff and I just want to take this moment to acknowledge all of their

▶ 56:12 hard work throughout the year. This morning I was in a meeting with a Melrosean who reminisced about coming to the library every summer growing up and watching the decorations in the children's room grow as more and more children signed up and got their name put on the wall and read their books and I'm really proud that our staff has part in making such positive memories and connections in the community and I believe the fiscal 16 budget is in line with the needs of the library and the municipal appropriation requirements thank you very much appreciate your comments Alderman Boyce-Hell please thank you for coming going through your budget for fiscal 16 in the book line you're asking for about $40,000 but for actual for

▶ 57:06 Robert A. Boisselle: 2015, you spent 72,000, I mean, you're almost a 48% decrease. Is there a specific reason for that? We will be doing a transfer in the fall. We are allowed to transfer money from the fines and fees account specifically into the book and periodicals account. So we transfer money every fall to increase that amount. And in addition, the trustees will be paying directly for books to supplement that further. Very good. Another line item is the electronic data. Is this for the e-books or what is, is that the line we're talking about? Yes. And again, you have the same, you dropped from, you're spending about 19,000 now and then you're requesting 12,000. Is there a decrease, or is that the same fall activity?

▶ 58:07 It's some of the same activity, and also you'll notice that the it's, the electronic world is somewhat shifting in terms of where they put this. So you'll notice that I have 2,500 in electronic databases, 534-210. Yes. And then 534 to 40, so some of those funds will just be shifting around from one line to another as they reclassify. So you're splitting the account in two lines? Yes. Okay, very good. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Karen. Thank you, Alderman Boycelle. Alderman McAteer-Margolis, please. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gardiner. The library looks wonderful. And the staff is truly one of the treasures of the community, I think. in terms of everyone I've encountered there. I did want to just make sure that you were meeting

▶ 59:03 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: the state requirements for spending on materials and everything else that you're doing in terms of aligning with the increases vis-a-vis probably two and a half or however that works, right? Yes. Right, okay. And the electronic material, the 2500. Yes. Are you doing a lot of downloadables now? And do you have staff available in the library for patrons who want to learn how to do that? Absolutely. Most of our staff, if not all, have done a little bit of the downloading themselves, excuse me, and we get training from the staff at the library consortium so that we can then turn around and better train the patrons. And the zeroing out on the databases, that's being picked up in a different line?

▶ 1:00:03 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Is that what you said? Yes. So, are you talking about 52200? Yes. That is shifting somewhat. Some of that has actually really gone away. It was a small line item to start with. Okay. is moving to contract maintenance and, and yeah, contract maintenance and mobile. So are those, those are databases that residents can access for information, like the consumer reports database and student research, that kind of thing? Those databases are down in the 5300 series with electronic databases, things like EBSCO. all right great and congratulations on your new leadership role in Noble I'm sure it's gonna be very challenging but I know that you'll bring a lot to the table there in terms of representing not only Melrose but the entire network so

▶ 1:01:04 Monica C. Medeiros: congratulations and good luck thank you Thank You Alderman McAteer-Margolis Alderman Medeiros please yeah just a quick question in terms of some of the database work and things that resources that are available to us do you work at all with the high school in terms of sharing any access to those databases the the schools and the public tend to be sort of in a different arena and different sharing groups we have an awareness of the things that each other has so we it tends to be more statewide sharing so a lot of the databases that we have we share the cost for that throughout the state and then other ones we share the cost throughout noble and then so we don't have a lot of and then the schools have a different set of databases so we don't have a lot of

▶ 1:02:03 Peter D. Mortimer: duplication thank you Thank You alderman Medeiros seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard a motion to recommend this budget for passage has It has been made and duly seconded. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none. The library budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you for all your good work. The next budget we have before us is budget 631. It is the recreation budget in the amount of $64,030.18. We have Mr. Oliveri and Mr. Gardiner, the Chair of the Park Commission and the Director of the Recreation Department with us in reverse order. As I just explained it, would you like to make an opening statement or proceed directly to questions?

▶ 1:02:47 Just a couple of informational points, if I may, Alderman Mortimer. Please. The budget that's submitted on behalf of recreation here represents a fraction of the costs and expenses incurred in running this fine operation by Mr. Oliveri. Roughly, the amount that's submitted under the budget is roughly 20% of what it takes to run the operation. and anybody who's utilized the services of the Melrose Recreation Department understands the quality of services that are being provided to the citizens of Melrose. For instance, the salary line item is 40% of the salaries, 60% of the salary is paid out of the recreation revolving account, as are the bulk of the expenses and costs incurred in operating the programs for the citizens of Melrose.

▶ 1:03:34 Peter D. Mortimer: Mr. Oliveri's stewardship and management in the last few years the place every year has come in at least break-even but more importantly and most usually in the black so that those things I understand that you folks probably all appreciate and understand but I would hope that the public would understand the fine job they're getting from Mr. Oliveri at the Noros Recreation Department here here motion to recommend we have a motion to recommend this budget by Alderman Boycelle, duly seconded by Alderman Inferna. Seeing no other motion to be heard, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board. And before you leave, we have the revolving account. If someone would like to make a motion. Motion to motion 2015-163,

▶ 1:04:19 Peter D. Mortimer: recreation revolving account, out of order, Mr. Chairman. Said motion made by Alderman Bird, duly seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. That order is taken And out of order, the reauthorization of Recreation Revolving Account Fund 2652 for FY16, is there a motion please? Motion to recommend. We have a motion to recommend for passage by Alderman McAteer. Second. My goal is duly seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that revolving account budget will be recommended for passage to the full board. Thank you for all your good work and thank you for coming this evening. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next budget we have before us is the Memorial Hall building.

▶ 1:05:00 Peter D. Mortimer: We have Kathy Pigott-Broder in attendance with us this evening, and Mary Sexton, a member of the Memorial Hall Board of Directors, Board of Trustees. Chairman. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Board of Trustees. New chairman. Fully elected. Congratulations. Thanks, I thank you. This is budget 693 and it's in the amount of $174,795.45. Is there a motion to recommend? We have a motion to recommend for passage by Alderman Boisselle, duly seconded by Alderman Byrd. Would you like to make an opening statement or proceed directly to questions? Proceed directly to questions. Alderman, the order is before you. Alderman Boisselle. Since I live across the street from Memorial Hall, parking becomes a big problem.

▶ 1:05:54 So, what is going on at Memorial Hall in the past year? Well, I can't believe we've seen a huge increase this past year in events. I keep going up and up and up. I've increased events by 3% this year. I've increased the number of clients by 1% just from last year. And an example is in March, we had 54 events, and I had three Tuesdays that weren't booked. So, our number of events per day, we average about two per day. We have more events booked than there are days in a year, so the hall is definitely being used. We've also seen a huge increase in the amount of attendees. This year, we're going to hit about 56,000 people, guests, going through our building. We welcomed the Rotary this year, which I have to say is a wonderful addition to Memorial

▶ 1:06:49 Hall. It's a very nice addition. and to see them every week so we're having reoccurring events we have Melrose Symphony every Monday night we have Wednesday night we work with the rec department and run a Zumba class Thursday we have the rotary Friday we have the veterans meeting then in the winter time we have the Melrose boot camp and then we have Melrose Youth Ballet in the fall so we have reoccurring events on a weekly basis throughout the year which has really helped the attendance thank you very much all all the more so you still have the floor thank you thank you thank you any other alderman wishing to be heard Alderman McAteer-Margolis please well I just have to say as a member of Rotary I

▶ 1:07:27 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: really really enjoy being back in the building president of Rotary thank you chairman a member a member just like everyone else but but it is great but and you know Miss Pigot-Rotary we have had this conversation many times publicly privately and with with my husband who is also a trustee in terms of building repair and I just so wish we could get you more money to fix that building and and in my mind it is not only because it is a municipal building but because it is a memorial and I know that the veterans really appreciate the use of the building and I hope that we can work together toward something really significant in in terms of raising money for the building in some fashion or going forward I know you're exploring some grants right here yes

▶ 1:08:23 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: and I'm actually I just met with Mike Lindstrom to talk about that problem because I really do need to figure out how to fix the building it's being used so much it's time to stop putting a little love back into it yeah and I'm tasked over the next month I have to make a detailed list of prioritize which repairs need to get done there's no one knows that better than myself and try and figure out an estimate and then I'm going back to Mike to see if we can work with Denise to research some grant money because just to start doing some repairs yeah I get done very quickly I remember the last go-round I think we had a historical some funding from the state for it so seven years ago yeah seven yeah that's what the HVA system was done right before I came in seven years ago

▶ 1:09:07 Peter D. Mortimer: right so in you know whatever capacity this board can help you I'm sure they would be supportive of it but thank you for your work and for really making it a building in Melrose that is now known throughout the state thank you Thank You Waldman McAteer-Margolis a motion to recommend this budget for passage has been made and duly seconded seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended for passage to the full board thank you very much for your attendance and thank you for your service to our city the next budget we have before us is budget five four one it is the council on aging in the amount of one hundred seventy three thousand five hundred forty four dollars five hundred fifty

▶ 1:09:54 Peter D. Mortimer: four dollars and fifty one cents we have with us john philopelos the director of the milano senior center is there a motion please would you like to recommend we have a motion to recommend from From Alderman Berg, duly seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Would you like to make an opening statement or please proceed directly to questions? I would. Please do. I would just like to, if it's okay, give a little update about the kinds of things that we've been working on. Is that okay? Please, please do. Yes, the floor is yours. This is your annual opportunity to spread your wings and show us your chops. Okay, so looking back over the past year first, We've offered more than 1,300 programs at the Milano Senior Center.

▶ 1:10:44 They are education, cultural, social, and fitness programs. The Looking Ahead is our monthly publication, and I won't distribute it, because I did a couple weeks ago. And I'm sure you're still reading it, because it is riveting stuff. I'll put them on by the door, but on the left side it lists a lot of programs that we offer, but not all of them. But the newsletter also has other kinds of content that are important to older adults, like it explains health insurance, which is always changing and it's very challenging to understand, but also volunteer opportunities. A couple of times we listed scams that were purposefully targeting elders. So we use it to try to get other information out also.

▶ 1:11:33 this past year we have focused a lot of time on the citywide assessment the purpose of the assessment is to identify current and emerging needs of the people in Melrose that are 55 and over but there are three parts to this assessment the first part was a survey and we collected 965 completed surveys of those 670 came from Melrose. The other 300 came from Wakefield and Stoneham. So, second part then will be to develop focus groups around, well I should say, so now what we're currently doing is we are working on the analysis of these surveys. From that, we will develop focus groups, and then the third part will be one-on-one interviews. And then as a timeline we are anticipating that in the fall

▶ 1:12:30 we'll be ready to do a presentation for the city including action steps that will happen immediately and some that will happen a little bit further out. This past year we've also focused on FISH, which is a neighbor helping neighbor type of program. It stands for Friends in Service to Humanity. And the person who had been coordinating this program for many, many years had retired, and so we floundered around a little bit, unable to find a new coordinator, and then Action Ambulance stepped up and made this their community service project. So that's been since October, and they have been doing, they're a pleasure to work with, and they have just been doing a fantastic job. This program, February kind of threw off our stats because nobody left the house.

▶ 1:13:26 But other than that, it looks like probably about 35 rides per month are currently being coordinated. And these are volunteer drivers driving Melrose residents of any age to medical appointments. And there's no cost involved. And it's just, it's a very simple, effective, kind program. And I'm really glad to see that it's continuing to thrive. And a lot of our attention this year has been on the My Senior Center Service Tracking Software. We obtained this last year. We implemented it beginning in July of 2014, so we almost have one year of statistics. And what this software allows us to do is not use papers and pencils to count any more tick marks, But it allows us to understand who we are serving and who we are not.

▶ 1:14:22 And also which programs are the most successful. In the first year we signed up 744 registered users. So this is, these are people that agreed to register, give us emergency contact information, which is always helpful in case anything should happen. And they obtained a key card so that when they come to the senior center now they swipe their card and the computer says hello to them and then they have an option of different things that they might want to attend on that day. If they're a volunteer, it comes up with a different screen. From this software, here's what I know. In the past year, we have, there have been more than 23,000 units of service. And what units of, a unit of service is the number of times that people have participated

▶ 1:15:21 at, in something at the senior center or have received assistance from the Council on Aging office. So it's 20, over 23,000 times. We have served more than 2,300 community dinners. than 5,000 lunches in collaboration with Mystic Valley Elder Services. We have completed more than 171 tax returns with the help of AARP. As far as the two minibuses that we have, we have given more than 7,088 rides in the minibus. That is up 1,000 from last year. And in case you're interested, of that 7,088, 1,500 of those were for medical rides. And the rest were for a variety of reasons, mostly food shopping. And so that has really grown 1,000 over the past year. Telephone calls are now at 14,400. They are also up 1,000 from last year.

▶ 1:16:31 clearly the need for services is rapidly increasing okay so in the year to come we are looking forward to completing the assessment and beginning to implement whatever action steps are decided on we are we are continuously reevaluating the transportation program to see how we can serve the most amount of people so the needs change so the transportation service changes also currently medical rides are available to the four adjacent communities and reading so Stoneham Saugus Wakefield Malden and then also reading because that's where the medical complexes and then also market basket is there so what we're really excited about next year is that our FY 16 the theme is going to be positive living and so we

▶ 1:17:27 already working with people to bring programs about the power of positive thinking mindful living self-care healthy coping mechanisms personal reinvention with life coaching healthy eating series stress reduction and pain management using complementary and alternative therapies we have Reiki where we don't have it yet but we're working on acupressure meditation hypnosis massage and others there's a lot of excitement that has been generated at the senior center at the prospect of doing these learning about these alternative kinds of therapies so and the last thing is that the friends of the aging are gearing up for their citywide yard sale and raffle and those are both going to be in the early fall so that's all I have thank you thank you

▶ 1:18:25 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much, Ms. Villalopoulos. Are there any Aldermen wishing to be heard on this budget? Seeing none, a motion has been made to recommend this budget for passage to the full board. It was duly seconded. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, your budget will be recommended to the full board. Would someone make a motion on- Motion to take 0-2015-161 out of order. Second. Alderman McAteer-Margolis has made a motion to take order 2015-161, the authorization increase of the Council on Aging Donation Revolving Account 2811 for FY206 out of order. Said motion was duly seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. This order is before us. Motion. Motion to recommend.

▶ 1:19:12 Peter D. Mortimer: We have a motion to recommend for passage by Alderman McAteer-Margolis, duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none. The revolving account will be recommended for passage to the full board as well. Thank you so much for your attendance, and thank you for serving Melrose. Have a great evening. Thank you, you as well. The last order we have before us this evening is the. Motion to place the budget on hold. No, not yet. Yeah, we can do that now, sure. We have a motion to place the budget on hold for this evening by Alderman Mac, Alderman Medeiros. Simply seconded by Alderman Boycelle, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, the umbrella order for the budget is on hold at this point.

▶ 1:19:59 Peter D. Mortimer: And the next order we have before us is order 2015-155. It is the FY fiscal year 16 Mount Hood Enterprise Fund Budget in the amount of $1,470,846.84. Would you like to make an opening statement? Just briefly, Mr. Chairman, the budget we've submitted on behalf of the Mount Hood Enterprise Fund doesn't contain any significant increases over last year. We were here last year when we were discussing the budget for this past year, Mrs. Bell and I were here. And we had concerns because of the fact that, as everybody knows under the special legislation, one of the biggest financial burdens that the fund has currently is the payment of the bonds associated with the athletic fields. We were concerned last year on how that was going to be because last year was,

▶ 1:20:52 last fiscal year, 2015, was the biggest payments that we had to make. And the concern of the commission and of Ms. Bell was rightfully directed to making sure that we could meet those obligations. As it turns out, the revenues for calendar year 2014 in golf were down significantly, about 90 to 100,000. revenue primarily to weather issues. The management company tells us it was weather issues. There was nothing else attributable to the decrease in revenue. I'm glad to report we were able to weather that storm, the decrease in revenue. We were able to make the bond payments, meet the obligations, the pilot payment that we make every year to the city of about 70,000. Indirect costs that we absorb, all were able to be paid without having to come back before

▶ 1:21:43 board to access any of the reserve account funds that we have our reserve account is about four hundred and seventy two thousand I'd like to say that I think the fund is healthy every year we get a good report from the from the State Department of Revenue on the free cash certifications and against that backdrop we've been able to maintain I think we've been able to maintain the quality of the Mount Hood golf course in the in the facilities the The management company does a good job, but it clearly couldn't be done without the leadership and direction of Joan Bell, who has a unique ability to prioritize what needs to be done to direct the management company and ride herd on the management company, for lack of a better term,

▶ 1:22:29 to make sure that the quality of the Mount Hood golf course and facility is maintained. We're getting nothing but good feedback this year. I'm happy to report that the golf course itself weathered that horrible winter that we had, and everybody was vigilant as to trying to preserve what had to be done. I think it's in as good a shape this year as it's ever been. There's a laundry list of things that we've been able to still accomplish despite this challenging fiscal year that we had. Our bond payments go down by about $90,000 this upcoming year. I'm also happy to report that the golf revenues already this year are up by about $50,000. The management company reported at our monthly meeting tonight that they had the best May that they've ever had in the operating of the Mount Hood Golf Course, revenue-wise.

▶ 1:23:18 I went back and checked, and they're telling us the truth. In the last 10 or 15 years, we haven't made that much in the month of May from golf revenues. So I think there's nothing that will prevent us from going forward and meeting our obligations. The budget as submitted, I think, is fair and I think it will help us do that. Thank you very much Chairman Gardiner. Director Bell, would you like to make any statements or if Mr. Gardiner has summed it up? Alderman McAteer-Margolis, please. I'm sorry, Alderman Medeiros, please. Right, and then I'll go next. Are you in queue as well? Okay, Alderman Medeiros. Thank you. Thank you very much. for all your hard work i'm sure that uh mr chairman would like to thank you too for the

▶ 1:24:03 Monica C. Medeiros: great day saturday at the common unrelated to mount hood but thank you well i would also like to add alderman Medeiros so miss bell wasn't there and she was the one i got the credit she did all the work and he did say that on saturday so i can attest no name um i just have one quick question uh i'm glad you addressed the weather i'm glad that we're we're looking good uh i had a question somebody had come asked me actually yesterday about water and sewer and how that flows through mount hood so mount hood we have a water and sewer line in this budget um you know the golf course is not using the same city water that you're you're you are using the same city water but it's not being paid out of the water and sewer fund primarily we we try to avoid using water in city

▶ 1:24:53 city water uh it is a it could be a costly and with the new rates that i think uh are in place currently it going forward it's a concern that the commission has and we've discussed uh several times uh in the last few last year or so the way it works is we try to use the water from the ponds to irrigate the course as best we can a few years we do yeah most years we're successful at that a few years back we made a capital investment in the irrigation system that is now currently in place at the course so that it was one of the better investments i think we were able to do so that we're able to monitor and efficiently utilize the water that's in in the ponds there are times though when there's not enough water in the ponds we have to go to city water

▶ 1:25:37 Monica C. Medeiros: and sewer and issues along those lines come up uh it's not a decision that we we take lightly but it's one that uh on an ongoing basis has a has been a focus of the commission and and miss bell because of the fact of the cost associated with it and i think to understand it so we use the three ponds for irrigate all the water from the three ponds for irrigation the management company pays for all the water and water usage in the clubhouse buildings all that stuff if we have to go on to city water then it comes that bill comes back onto the park commission good and then i see uh and i don't know i'm i i suspect something is kind of off on these numbers that are in uh the budget that we have here because it says actual usage or actual

▶ 1:26:26 Monica C. Medeiros: number from fy 2014 was ten thousand seven hundred and seventy five dollars and ninety two cents uh we budgeted for fy 15 20 000 but fy 15 actual was zero and the projection is 29 000. so that seems i think the zero was because we haven't paid the bill yet not yet okay probably where we're going by june 30th that number will probably change okay and do you think that this estimate of uh 29 000 is accurate compared to the 10 000 that was spent last year uh i think it's probably going to be higher to be perfect you think it's going to be higher than 29 000 yeah and the new the new water and sewer rates uh are applicable to the mount hood golf course um i think it's probably going to be at the end of the rainbow probably going to be higher the city's been working hard

▶ 1:27:19 with us on those john shenna has is coming back with us several times we've had several discussions on how to resolve uh the water bill issue but um so we think the water bill is going to be like three times what it was if we went straight on the rates i think it could be easily easily but again part of it's going to depend on whether or not we have to go to city water in july august to september of this year if we do it's it's going to be a last resort in years past when we were paying 10 000 a year it wasn't as much of a focus we said okay flip over go to city water now you you You mentioned the issue when everybody cringes on the commission, and Joan in particular, says we have a round of ten phone calls before we say, do we really have to do this?

▶ 1:28:04 And it's going to probably continue that way for some time. So obviously you're using the ponds as much as possible. Are you doing any kind of efforts to catch the rain water? I mean, which the rain water probably goes into the ponds anyway. We are trying, we have contacted a well company to come out and see. We have a well down on the second fairway, which we probably get 72 gallons of- 72 gallons a minute, I think he said, is what the pump does, so I don't know, yeah. And we're looking for other, if there's other areas on the golf course that might be acceptable to do that, if there's enough water. So we are looking into it. Some years ago, a well company came out and did a survey of the area, made some suggestions.

▶ 1:28:48 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Joan has contacted them again to come back and say, can you update it for us? our options but it it is definitely something we we are interested interested in priscilla all right thank you that was more than i thought i was going to get out that answer thank you thank you alderman Medeiros alderman mcintyre margolis please thank you um i actually also wanted to ask about the water and whether you have any kind of um or you're aware of any systems that reclaim the water that you're putting into the ground i know um just the pond itself i guess just the ponds i i think there are some systems in other parts of the country that are typically very dry or have issues where they actually are able to reclaim the sprinkled water from whatever

▶ 1:29:32 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: underneath as opposed to actually drilling wells but i think the beauty of it when it rains we don't have to go collecting the rain water it goes right into the golf course right right yeah i i'm thinking of a course in florida i'm familiar with it has some kind of reclamation and they use it for all their watering as well so um but i did also um want to ask you on your um salary and wages they are not all paid out of this line correct fifty percent of uh miss bell's salary is paid out of this budget fifty percent is paid by uh the parks department budget roughly if i have those correct yep fifty fifty and miss sprigley uh is paid uh one third out of our budget two-thirds out of dpw she splits her time between um both places right thank you and then

▶ 1:30:20 your um capital improvement line do you have any particular it's um it was kind of all over the place last up down do you have any particular um improvements that you're looking to do we have every month we have a capital improvement list that we go through we try to prioritize that we've done several over the years some of the things that we've done this year which i don't know if all of them have hit the budget yet um we got a tent for the 19th hole we got a new awning for the front of the building we replaced all the everybody's around the 19th patio we redid the the the bushes in front of the front patio the floors were re-sanded and pollied we did a ton of tree work during the winter around the course we completed two areas that were badly damaged cart

▶ 1:31:12 path damage so we had asphalt paths you know redone in certain places so we're still we're always working there's always something to be done by contract we're required to spend fifty thousand right but you don't have any like plans for the tower or anything major that you're planning on attacking this year the towers on the list but we we've had that looked at we've had estimates and uh plans done uh delulo architects have uh determined a couple of years ago now what it would take to fix it it's a big ticket item it's uh six figures anyway at least according to the numbers two years ago to fix to do what has to be done uh to bring that tower back but it's the area it's in it's the it's on the list yeah as many things are and um finally your

▶ 1:32:05 professional services line took a a decrease is that what um you are paying the management company what happens is once you get a million dollars in revenue there's a percentage that goes to the management company and then the next benchmark is a million two so if the revenues were down as they were last year they didn't hit those benchmarks we didn't have to pay them the extra money i think the original when we proposed the budget last year we were uh cautiously optimistic we were going to hit every benchmark based upon uh the track record that the course had revenue-wise and only in the previous couple of years but uh that's probably the why the decreases you're probably on track for it this year it sounds like good um in terms of the 19th

▶ 1:32:46 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: hole and the um facility um we keep hearing rumors that there might eventually be a roof deck It's a good rumor, but it hasn't made it to us yet. It hasn't happened yet. It hasn't made it to us yet. Capital improvement list. There's all air conditioning units up there now, so I think it would be kind of difficult. It would be tough unless you use them as tables. We have wrestled with trying to make the patio area a three season porch type area, or a three season part of the facility. Costs were fairly extensive, so at least for this year and foreseeable future we've gone with the the tent area we're gonna tent it in and Joan did a lot of work on this and it really is I think it's gonna be something that the public will enjoy it's nice okay good well it's always up

▶ 1:33:34 Robert A. Boisselle: and passive recreation any new plans for any passive recreation up there still working on on trails we have a lot more we're working in conjunction with the mountain park association so we're running more events up there through them recreation we have a line item that the mount hood budget has ten thousand dollars allotted to recreation to run programming up there so when we do winter fest and those type of things that money pays for that okay great thank you very much thank you alderman mcateer margolis alderman boycelle please a few years back there's plans for turbine small turbine and the last thing i heard it was a There's a 300 foot turbine standing up on that hill. Right. Is there any concept of putting a solar farm up there of any sort?

▶ 1:34:24 You have the area for it, and you can sell that power back to the utilities. I think Alderman Boisselle, the way we would have to address that by contract now, I don't think we could in midstream probably implement something like that. The contract's coming up in the next few years. When we get to put it out the next time, if anybody has such a proposal, we'd be more than interested in listening to it. I think we're kind of constrained by the contract we have with those folks right now. The turbine kind of went by the wayside because there was some issues with the federal government and the FAA, and also unfortunately the moving force in my mind behind it, Shakespeare uh got ill and um he was uh he was the one who was who was doing a lot of the leg work

▶ 1:35:14 Robert A. Boisselle: on that but I remember we we had some issues with the FAA and uh air flight routes and all this other stuff as to where we could go and then it kind of diminished what could be put there and I don't it hasn't come up in several several months putting a 300 foot yeah would have an FAA problem at this place so back to that line item concerning the pathways and trails and so forth was that's ten thousand dollars for the trails or you just no no the passive record that was for community events at mount okay let's go back like the massive recreation you know what we do besides golf okay we've talked a number of years concerning trail networks in the in the system and so forth yeah and how's that gone we we have done the three trails we have one

▶ 1:36:01 more trail that we would like to continue behind the tower um it's called the fireplace trail it used to be in existence i guess many many years ago the problem is it crosses over a little bit into saugus so we have to work with them to get permission to do it but i have a trail stewardship group with alan as uh the lead um so yeah we're we're hoping to get that that final trail what we feel is now do you have that trail network on the website at this point so if you go to where would they go to see this if you go on to the mountain hood website there is a um a picture of the map and we have them at the office they're online you can print them they're not unless you print and color but okay thank you very much thank you very much chairman thank you alderman

▶ 1:36:46 Peter D. Mortimer: voysell is there a motion on this order please we have a motion to recommend second this budget for passage by alderman mcintyre margolis duly seconded by alderman byrd seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage thank you very much for coming thank you sorry you were Thank you, Mr. Garner, thank you, thank you, Mrs. Bell. Is there a motion to adjourn, please? Motion to adjourn. Alderman Boisselle made a motion to adjourn, duly seconded by Alderman Byrd. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Committee on Appropriations is hereby adjourned. Thank you, one and all.

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2015-06-08

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