Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2016-05-05

Attendance

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 absent · Vice Chairman; Jennifer L. Lemmerman present · Ward 2 Alderman; Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis absent · Alderman at Large; Monica C. Medeiros late · Alderman at Large; Peter D. Mortimer present · Chairman; John N. Tramontozzi present · Ward 1 Alderman; Francis X. Wright Jr. present · Ward 3 Alderman; Michael P. Zwirko present · Alderman at Large

Agenda

1. Call to Order (0:00)
2. Public Participation (0:18)
3. Orders
4. ORDER-2016-158 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2017 in the amount of 75,328,574.79 (Seventy-Five Million, Three Hundred Twenty-Eight Thousand, Five Hundred Seventy-Four Dollars and Seventy-Nine Cents) (1:12)
5. ORDER-2016-168 : Reauthorization of the Council on Aging Donation Revolving Account # 2811 for FY2017 (35:12)
6. ORDER-2016-174 : Reauthorization of Revolving Fund #2657 Waste Collection & Recycling for FY17 (2:48:32)
7. Adjournment (2:50:02)

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 5, 2016 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 Gail M. Infurna Vice Chairman Absent Michael P. Zwirko Alderman at Large Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Late Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Present Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis Alderman at Large Absent 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: Memorial Hall Trustee Chair Mary Sexton, Memorial Hall Operations Manager Kathy Pigott-Brodeur; Council on Aging Director Dawn Folopoulos; Energy Commissioners Lori Timmerman and Tyler Ballew; City Planner Denise Gaffey; Director of Public Works John Scenna, City Engineer Elena Proakis Ellis, Assistant Director of Public Works Ann Waitt, Superintendent of Parks and Open Spaces Joan Bell

ORDER-2016-158 Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2017 in the amount of 75,328,574.79 (Seventy-Five Million, Three Hundred Twenty-Eight Thousand, Five Hundred Seventy-Four Dollars and Seventy-Nine Cents) Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2016-168 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization of the Council on Aging Donation Revolving Account # 2811 for FY2017 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 6/9/2016 5:43 PM Minutes Appropriations Committee May 5, 2016

ORDER-2016-174 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization of Revolving Fund #2657 Waste Collection & Recycling for FY17 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 2 Updated 6/9/2016 5:43 PM

Transcript

▶ 0:00 Peter D. Mortimer: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Committee on Appropriations of the Melrose Board of Aldermen. It is a committee of the whole. All aldermen are members of this committee. I am the Chairman, Peter Mortimer. We are joined this evening by Alderman Michael Zwirko, Alderman John Tramontozzi, Alderman Robert Boisselle, Alderman Jennifer Lemmerman, Alderman Scott Forbes, and President Donald Kahn. Is there a motion for public participation, please? So moved. Second. Alderman Lemmerman has moved for public participation. That motion was duly seconded by Alderman Zwirko. All in favor of opening public participation, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, public participation is now open.

▶ 0:49 Peter D. Mortimer: If there are any members of the public present who would like to speak on any order on tonight's agenda, please come forward now seeing none motion to close public participation alderman forbes has made a motion to close public participation said motion duly seconded by alderman Boisselle all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none public participation is now closed we are beginning our budget process and the order number for the entire budget is order 2016-158 city of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2017 in the amount of seventy five million three hundred and twenty eight thousand five hundred and seventy four dollars and seventy nine cents mr. president yeah just just a couple of

▶ 1:46 brief remarks on the budget as a whole you know I'm sure that there are people People who are hopefully going to be tuning in during the course of our discussions this year who haven't gone through this before or are unfamiliar with the budget. The city has a budget of $75,328,574 which has been proposed to us. The role of the Board of Aldermen in connection with the budget process is to consider and investigate the budget, potentially make cuts if we think they are appropriate. One thing that the Board of Aldermen cannot do is increase the amounts of the budget as a whole, or any individual budget. We have no power or authority to do that under our charter, and in addition, the Board of Aldermen has no authority to

▶ 2:46 transfer or change money from one budget to another. So as we go through this, the scope of our review is to examine the individual budgets, determine where the money is going and why, but we do not have the authority or the ability to allocate money, move money around, add money, or place money where we would like to do it. That is the responsibility and the authority of the executive. I also would point out that this budget is $2,534,861 more than last year's fiscal budget. And that is a percentage increase of 3.48%. So that's kind of the backdrop as we approach the budget process and as we go through it. And one final thing, and then I'll stop, Mr. Chairman, is one of my things that I'm always interested in is how much total debt the city has.

▶ 3:49 Peter D. Mortimer: As we get the budget material from the auditor and from the state, all of our debt from all sources is $64,195,093. That includes all of our general fund debt and all of the debts for purposes and debts that are financed by water and sewer borrowing debt exclusions and things of that nature so i appreciate the leeway i as we start i like to try to make sure that people who are watching us have an idea of what the scope of our responsibility and our authority is as we go forward thank you very enlightening well said are there any other aldermen who would like to make Make any opening statements before we take up our first department budget? Seeing none, Madame Clerk, would you let the record reflect that we also have Alderman Wright in attendance this evening?

▶ 4:45 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much. The first budget we have before us is department number 693. It is the Memorial Hall building, and we have the Memorial Hall director and one of the members of the Memorial Hall Board of Trustees. We have Mrs. Cathy Piggott-Broda and Mrs. Donahue, Mrs. Sexton. Sorry. I was thinking of your business, Sexton and Donahue, real estate of Melrose. Thank you for the plug. Wait, wait, wait. See how I did that? Made it look like an accident. Thank you, Mr. Sexton. All right, so is there a motion to suspend the rules? So moved. A little belated since they've already joined us, but we'll take it from Alderman Lemmerman, motion to suspend the rules. seconded by alderman Forbes all in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none

▶ 5:37 would you like to make an opening statement ladies yes I would please proceed thank you so much as chairman of the board of Memorial Hall I have to say the city has done a great job and we really appreciate everyone's help we appreciate being invited here tonight but more importantly we have lots of news about the size of you know how Memorial Hall has grown since the last time we were here so Kathy's gonna tell us more about that but I also wanted to say that Kathy has been wonderful and I speak for the board not just myself she has really taken this job to heart and make sure everything gets done and it's really been a pleasure working with them so thank you we we have Rotary Club meetings there and I've been to many other functions and I wholeheartedly

▶ 6:23 Peter D. Mortimer: I wholeheartedly agree, Mrs. Piggott-Broder has been a blessing and a boon to that building. Are there any motions or questions from any members of the horseshoe at this time? Is there a motion to move this bottom line then? President Kahn, but before you continue, sir, Madam Clerk, once again would you let the record reflect that Alderman Medeiros is in attendance as well. Good evening, Alderman Medeiros. Thank you, good evening. President Kahn, please proceed. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a few questions relative to your budget. In your salary breakout, it shows that in addition to your position, you have two event operations assistants and you also have three event operations assistants and another part-time position.

▶ 7:22 What is the scope that those individuals work? full-time part-time no they're only um three of them are approximately 17 and a half hours a week and one is five hours a week and why i say approximately is because i'm an event driven business it depends what events are going on what week how many hours they work but if you average it out over the year those are their hours okay and everything that's reflected in your budget is what they're paid by your department oh yeah it's all out of my budget okay so there's no off budget payment to any of those folks and you also have revolving of the fund for Memorial Hall is that correct no we do not have a revolving account that's all I have on this budget mr. chairman Thank You president Kahn alderman boy cell

▶ 8:18 Robert A. Boisselle: please good evening welcome you have quite a activity going on next door because a part of the Alderman can't find your part any parking space in the area becoming quite a popular place question here in your budget your cleaning supplies to clean the facility is wiped out is there a reason for that or is the Public Works picking that up or no no it's not wiped out I have I have a little bit of it left but I just did I usually do a cleaning supply order in segments and I just ordered my final round of your budget for 2017 says zero oh oh I'm sorry I apologize no we know we moved it to miscellaneous supplies because what is happening is when I buy supplies they're not just cleaning supplies it could be a lock for a door it could be a toilet paper dispenser so

▶ 9:15 Robert A. Boisselle: they felt that cleaning supplies doesn't accurately reflect what I purchased so this year it says zero but all that money has been moved to miscellaneous supplies now how is the hall doing I mean every night seems to be there I mean how many activities are going on per month well in March we had a record-breaker of 56 we slowed down in April to 49 and this month I believe this month may we have 33 but overall we're a 5% increase over last year's five percent now I've been in the Memorial Hall quite a quite a bit in the point that there is some problems that are occurring in different areas now I believe you initiated a gate fee when groups are involved here you how much is that and we have a restoration fund purchase a ticket at Memorial Hall only

▶ 10:16 those that purchase tickets there's a one dollar fee added to the ticket and that money is handed on an honor system after the event the groups that rent the event hand in a check for that amount and that is how we've been able to for example um that the roof needs to be checked on so I have a proposal for that we're going to use that money that's how I've been able to when the sound system broke replace the sound system so that's mostly where that money has gone to and and that is managed by the trustees. So the trustees receive the check and they deposit it in? Well, I receive the check and I deposit it, but I can't touch it. I have to go before the trustees to get approval to spend any of that money.

▶ 11:00 Robert A. Boisselle: Okay, good. And has it, well, with all these activities, it must be very, you must have, the fund must be increasing in size. A lot of my activities don't sell tickets. So it has to, remember that it's only tickets sold. example if we have like the Winthrop talent show or if we have like the knowledge high school pops they don't sell tickets to their events or we had a Middlesex Sheriff's Department Community Association gave a luncheon to the senior citizens they do not pay a fee it's only those that sell tickets which is about one-third I think of my customers very good well thank you very much for coming this evening and are you rushing back to the activity going on Memorial Hall thank you thank you it's a boxing match we've got to let her go

▶ 11:49 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: before they wreck the place no they're very respectful of course of course I spoke out of turn all of them mister one more question are they selling tickets yes they're actually sold out yeah I did sell up there's some dollars for the restoration fund Alderman Lemmerman please Thank You mr. chairman thank you very much for being here tonight just a couple of quick questions you are just before us maybe a week ago for a transfer of some some funding for electric and gas I believe which was a result of some of these events that you've been talking about how busy it's been over there so I see in your in the budget proposal for this next fiscal year you have a 15% increase for electric and a 4.2 percent increase for gas do you it does that reflect yeah

▶ 12:36 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: this increase and that need for some additional funding I should it's the first year I've been able to increase I've been level funded every year and this is the first year that I've been able to increase it so I projected as much as I could for utilities so great thank you and then just finally the the very bottom item here I see it's a little over $3,000 that wasn't originally in the FY 16 budget and and it's not in this one that we're proposing so this 3012 in 84 APF y15 could you tell us what that's for that was one a one-time item of landscaping great okay but the rotary actually donated and purchased flowers for the hall so we don't need it this year great thank you very much Thank You mr. chairman Thank You alderman

▶ 13:23 Monica C. Medeiros: Leberman alderman Medeiros thank you thank you very much for your leadership always a pleasure there and I was one of those circling because of the parking which was great but I did want to just follow up on the question about electricity are you on a contract for your electricity right now my HVAC or in terms of price is it is it variable we in a fixed contract or for with National Grid yes or I'm not sure if it's with National Grid or my electricity is just like the rest of the city it's it's on the city fund it's everyone pays the electricity DBW pays everybody's electricity yes but I'm the only one that pays my own but it's the same contract as the rest of the city I don't negotiate any of that thank you so much appreciate that thanks thank you very

▶ 14:17 Michael P. Zwirko: much Alderman Medeiros Alderman work oh please Thank You mr. chairman thank you both for being here tonight I know it's busy so I'll be very brief I um you mentioned the amount of activities that you have over there and I know that many of them are from local civic organizations here using the hall for various reasons whether it be the GAR room or the actual hall itself I'm just curious is there actually a discount for civic organizations versus a private organization to use the hall well I counted by profit and nonprofit organizations I don't have civic pulled out my nonprofit count I can tell you exactly what it is my nonprofits are 77 percent and 23 percent are business organizations and is there a is it a first-come first-served basis based on

▶ 15:04 availability for the hall or the GAR room or is preference given to one over the other I guess how does it work if I were to apply as a nonprofit and seek it versus a private public for-profit organization is it just I don't distinguish which one of those you know rents the building everybody's money is green so I'll take anybody but what happens is I give preference to for example the Melrose Symphony Orchestra every Monday night rents the hall they've been there 87 years so they I block off every Monday night for them the first Sunday that in April the first Saturday of May so they automatically get it so I have a list of recurring customers that come there every year there's a couple of dance recitals moral symphony the rotary automatically gets

▶ 15:48 John N. Tramontozzi: every Thursday so that's like for out till 2007 that's already on the calendar online so then if you want to rent the hall you just go online look at the calendar and say I'd like to rent this date and the calendar says date available and if that dates available you're welcome to rent it whether you're a business or nonprofit or profit doesn't matter no I appreciate that thank you it's all questions that thank you Alderman work Oh alderman Tramontozzi please Thank You mr. chairman so I see you no longer have a line item for landscaping and I assume that's because the good the green team of the Public Works Department correct there's all that yes it's wonderful great job yeah they do a great job great job I often walk by

▶ 16:28 John N. Tramontozzi: there and see them working they work hard I do have to ask this though because it is a in the public what is looking into this is that I also see that you don't you do not have a line item for water and sewer no that was removed from my budget a few years ago and but but does Memorial Hall have a separate metering device to measure water usage I believe so I do I don't even see any of those bills okay thank you that's all I need Thank You alderman Tramontozzi alderman Forbes please Thank You mr. chairman I'll be brief it's always nice to see the hall booked with so many events as you went through the numbers I was just from a revenue standpoint do you know approximately how much revenue Memorial Hall has generated either if you use fiscal year-to-date or

▶ 17:10 last calendar year could just kind of give us summary of those numbers that'd be great I'm on target to collect 87,000 this year last year I collected 84,000 the year before was 76,000 the year before that was 71,000 and my first the very first year that I was here was 36 that's what I was gonna ask you so we're definitely trending upward in the building is a vital tool for bringing everybody in the community together so thank you very much for all your hard work thank you mr chairman thank you alderman forbes is there a motion to move the bottom line of two hundred thousand four hundred four dollars and seventy eight cents so move mr chairman alderman forbes has moved the bottom line for The Memorial Hall Building, budget number 693, duly seconded by Alderman Boisselle.

▶ 18:05 Peter D. Mortimer: Seeing no further discussion, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board at the conclusion of the budget process, which should wrap up in June. Thank you very much. You need not return, hopefully. Thank you. The next budget we have before us is budget 541. It is the Council on Aging in the amount of $180,782.52. We have the director of the Council on Aging, Dawn Philopoulos, here with us this evening. Would you like to make an opening statement? I would. Thank you. Outside of salaries, this year's budget is level funded. But if it's okay, I'd like to take a minute just to very briefly, I promise, describe some of the things going on at the senior center.

▶ 18:55 Is that okay? still okay um during the past year we have offered over 2 500 programs at the senior center also our monthly publication now goes out to about 1900 people in the city seniors this past year we mostly focused on a positive living series that included we've tried something new and actually it was very well received we did programs like creating a personal vision daily gratitude using Reiki and meditation for pain management body mind and spirit healing and it was very well received and we actually brought in a lot of younger people having these programs also younger seniors we also worked on the assessment and the purpose of the assessment is to identify current and emerging needs of Melrose residents 55 and over and later in May we will

▶ 19:51 present to the city the action step the outcomes of that assessment and also the action steps that will follow very similar to how our city was carried out in the coming year FY 17 we're going to focus on the action steps of course some of it includes better access to resources so we're going to make an online resource and then also a booklet form of a resource I mean resource directory also there will be an annual picnic and there's been when you see the action steps the outcomes rather there's been requests for financial literacy and also more information about financial benefits so and also a lot of questions technology so we'll do a learning series in next year also and what's really exciting is that we're doing a project to refresh the interior you're all going

▶ 20:53 to want to have your meetings there when this is done so the city has agreed to fund some repairs that we need before the interior changes can begin so that included approval from the other night mostly to have the French doors repaired and also some interior doors and the HVAC system so the interior changes are being 100% funded by the friends group and they'll include essentially windows walls and floors so there will be three phases the first phase is Tierney Hall windows were windows walls and floors and then the classroom which is the big room upstairs that will get new windows walls and floors meaning painting but also cabinets and countertops and then phase three if there are enough funds will be to

▶ 21:49 Redecorate the lobby just make it more vibrant than it was before We have I should say that with the assessment Gary Romano has been invaluable helping us With this helping us carry it out correctly, but also analyzing the results But with this interior design project, Anne Lenahan has been helping us pro bono. So we've been super, super lucky this year, with a lot of great talent. So that's all, that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Philopoulos. We have your budget before us. Is there a motion on this budget, or any questions before a motion? President Kahn, please. So, in reviewing your budget, it looks like you have listed yourself as a full-time employee and potentially one other, and then you have, is it yourself and one other full-time employee, and are the rest of the people part-timers?

▶ 22:54 Right, there are two full-time and 15 part-time. And are any members of your department covered by any collective bargaining agreement in the city? Yes. And which one, which position would that be? That is the program coordinator, it's 30 hours at the other full time position besides myself. Okay, and are all salary expenditures by your department fully reflected in your budget? They are not. They are not. There are other funding sources also. Okay, can you tell me what other salaries are paid and from whence they are paid, please? Yes. So I have a state grant, a state formula grant, and that's issued essentially by a dollar amount per senior in your city. So last year it was $53,800, and we use it for salaries, but also for supplies, but even bigger supplies, like new conference room chairs and things like that.

▶ 24:03 So, all together, we have 6.25 FTEs in the whole department, so two FTEs are funded from the formula grant. So it's an office assistant at the COA office for 18 hours, then also the senior center dispatcher coordinators for the afternoon at the senior center, it's 20 hours a week, then also 29 hours worth of driver time those are all from the formula grant the city you can see but then there's also the Emerson fund and the people that oversee community dinner and also clean up after community dinner it's nine hours a week altogether they are funded from the Emerson fund they are the point two five FTEs. Okay. Anything else? Nope. That's not the body. Okay. So your actual salary expenditure is the one

▶ 25:07 seventy nine seven eighty eight point five two plus fifty three thousand eight hundred plus whatever you get from the the Emerson fund. No, the fifty three eight hundred. It doesn't completely go to salaries. Okay. How much of it goes to salaries? Oh, goodness. I don't know specifically. I'm sorry. I can get back to you let you know yeah we go through this during the budget process mr. chairman and it's somewhat confusing and I don't mean to be obstinate on this but I think it's important with each department that we determine what all of our what salaries and wages are being paid from any source and the the city budget doesn't show us any grant or other forms of funding and positions that actually are paid fully from grants don't even appear in our

▶ 26:03 Peter D. Mortimer: budget book so well much to the dismay of probably many members of the committee I will be asking these kind of questions relative to every budget just so that we get the information out and it's before the public thank you I actually do know the number you do yeah it's 47,000 it just came to me so 47,000 from the formula grant is used to pay salary and wages that's exactly right Thank you, thank you. Excellent questions, no dismay, I don't think on the part of any alderman. Great questions, we want to be fully transparent, as we've striven to do. We have our chief financial officer in the hall throughout this entire budget. And he heard your question, I'm sure. And that would be a good idea if you have any questions going forward

▶ 26:55 Peter D. Mortimer: as to the exact origin of any salary and every dollar that comes into a department's budget for salaries and for other expenditures. I'm sure we can talk to Mr. DellaRusso and we can get it down to the last dollar so we have a thorough and exhaustive accounting of everything. Alderman Boisselle, please. Good evening, thank you for coming. You mentioned in your opening statement that you had, you presented 2,500 programs. Right. That's quite an extensive programming for the citizens. How many citizens actually take part in all these programs, on average? Exact, in the past 12 months, 812. 812, so 812 different people attended these 2,500 programs and altogether it comes to 24,000 units of service.

▶ 27:58 Does that make sense? That's very good. Is that, that's a little bit hard to follow. Yeah. You also have a van that picks up these senior citizens to, now are they bringing them to the building or are they also used for errands to doctors and supermarkets and so forth there are two vehicles yep and um if you need to go out of town to an adjacent town and also reading then that's okay for medical appointments or for shopping at market basket other than that we don't go out of town but if you need a ride inside melrose it's anywhere people will take the will take it to go to the bank the post office the hairdresser to meet their friends for coffee to go to a gift store um whittemores there's anything

▶ 28:46 at all now how does the senior center a senior senior individual do they contact the uh who they who do they contact well the information's in the newsletter that's the best place to get it but if they call either the milano senior center or the coa office then they'll get connected with the schedule and you know what the different options are very good yeah I would like to say that for rides we did just under 8,000 rides 600,000 no no just under 8 just under 8,000 just under 8,000 that's that's better thank you very much thank you alderman Boycelle alderman Medeiros next in queue please thank you thank you very much for all you do and for all the volunteers that assist you as well in your staff I wanted to just

▶ 29:41 Monica C. Medeiros: follow up on I believe you had told President Kahn that there's one 20-hour afternoon dispatch position it's actually a couple of different people fill it a couple of different people okay yeah so it's not one person and and the driver time the 20 hours of driver time that's not one person also or that's actually it's 74 hours for the two vehicles 74 hours a week and there are six people that fill it okay and I think you had mentioned that on the the state funding grants that that included 20 hours of driver time on that 29 hours of driver 29 hours and then the city pays and that's not all one person it's not it's not the city pays for 45 hours of driver time so it's not equally divided yes that's okay thank you and I appreciate that and thank you I think

▶ 30:42 Michael P. Zwirko: that satisfies me thank you Thank You alderman Mazeros Alderman Suarco please Thank You mr. chairman thank you for your time this evening and all the hard work you do you mentioned that you do some of the programs that you ran over this past year it was specific to financial literacy we're actually going to do them in the year coming oh it's forthcoming yeah so I do I work in finance and there's a large event I'm sorry I'm looking for presenters do you want to present I'm honored thank you and what one of the growing concerns that we deal with is elder abuse with respect to finance and I was just curious it's a huge issue it's a growing issue I think there's something like 10,000 baby boomers a day retiring or it's an astronomical number

▶ 31:28 Michael P. Zwirko: so you know I'm just curious if when you do run this program will there be any type of alignment with reaching out for financial elder abuse in addition to you know physical elder abuse financial elder abuse is actually generally committed by family members that's right it's a tragic you know occurrence so when you do talk about financial education and things of that nature I would just you know try to tie in the the financial elder abuse as well it's it's something that we as a company that I work for we're trying to get out there and you know because you deal with mental capacity issues and other health concerns as well and you're dealing with the state so it's just to bring the awareness to the issue would be very valuable I feel for the community that

▶ 32:09 Michael P. Zwirko: you're representing I was also no yeah please please and if you need materials or anything you know feel free to reach out okay thank you so you also had mentioned some of the part-time employees you have I'm just curious we have a senior tax work off program and being in the senior center do you utilize any of that your volunteers that come in to assist with programs well we actually run the program you do so we grab could you speak a little bit about it as well just for folks that yeah so the property tax work program is you have to be 60 years old Melrose resident and you it's not really it's not work it's not volunteering but you help out in different departments throughout the and you are compensated at a rate of the minimum wage which is currently ten

▶ 32:54 dollars an hour so the cap is a thousand dollars so the property tax workers can work up to a hundred and I would say all of them do work up to a hundred unless they become sick during the year or worse so they get $100 off of their property tax so there are last year there were 18 this year there's been some changes in the program so the income guidelines to participate have been lifted and also the amount of slots of how many people can participate in the program has been lifted so last year was 18 and so far it's 37 this year so those changes made a big difference in the people participating thank you for that a final question you had mentioned that there's that one of the vans takes trips to Market Basket that's right there's two supermarkets here in the

▶ 33:50 city of Melrose I'm just curious how long has this trip and to market basket been going well we also go to Shah's here oh yes yeah you know you don't go to the Whole Foods we do not yeah there's not we did try but there really wasn't a demand for rides to Whole Foods and in the market bass is that the one in Reading that's right yeah yeah how often is that how often yeah we go once a week and we take a couple of different buildings on the first trip and then a couple of different buildings on the second trip so that's all that one vehicle does on Thursdays yeah and then Shaw's is depending on where you live depends on which day you go to Shaw's because we try to take a group to you know maximize using the minibuses I think those are all the questions that I

▶ 34:40 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Alderman Zwirko. Is there a motion on this bottom line, please? Motion to recommend the bottom line for the Council on Aging by Alderman Boisselle, duly seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the budget for the Council on Aging will be recommended to the full board at our final meeting before we conclude the budget in June. The next order we will take up. Thank you. No, we're going to do your revolving account. Oh, I'm sorry. That's quite all right. No problem at all. The Council on Aging revolving account 2016-168. It's revolving account number 2811. Would you like to speak to us about that? I think most people here know what a revolving account is,

▶ 35:33 but it might elucidate the people walking at home, watching at home. So, the revenue comes into this account from program fees, donations, and sponsorships. The expenses are, the funds are used for supplies, office supplies, paper products, program supplies, also repairs to the minibus, the sound system, kitchen appliances. It's also used for program costs, like to pay for the internet for us, different instructors, printing, copying, those are primarily the things we use the Revolving Fund for. We currently have a cap of $25,000 and it has been, I've received permission to increase it each year. So it's gone from $12,000 to $15,000 to $20,000 to $25,000 in the past four years. I will be back because the more programs we have the more payments the seniors

▶ 36:38 put in and then the more I put out to instructors so it's not actually spending more but it shows that we are doing more so thank you very much alderman right please good evening these do your programs include overnight trips or travel of any type and does that money circulate through your revolving fund well we don't do any overnight trips and we really just do trips for necessities well yeah mostly necessities but as part of the action steps there were requests for trips to cultural places in Boston and also trips to New York City so it's something that we're going to be looking at okay and is there friends organization yes the friends organization they're the ones raising all the money for the interior changes okay and is there any commingling of

▶ 37:37 Peter D. Mortimer: those funds or with revolving fund or I'm just wondering how does that money spent separately or the friends money yeah it's it's held completely separately and if I would if I want something I will go to the meeting and I request it so for instance if I have a program that I would like them to fund rather than charging the seniors a fee then I will request it from the friends group great thank you thank you mr. chairman thank you alderman right is there a motion to recommend recommend passage we have an order to recommend for passage on the council on aging revolving account from alderman Mr. Lemerman, duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this will be recommended to the full board for passage.

▶ 38:30 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much for your attendance here this evening. Thank you. And thank you for the wonderful work you do for our seniors. The next department budget we have before us is number 196. It is the Energy Commission in the amount of $2,500. Good evening, Mrs. Timmerman. Hello. Lori Zimmerman, the co-chair of the Energy Commission, along with my peer, Tyler Blue. We're hoping that we could just have a few minutes to talk to you about some of the activities we've been involved in the last year and the programs we're pursuing. Certainly. Awesome. So first, we'd like to thank you for your ongoing support of the Energy Commission. We've done a lot of great work in the last year. We brought back the Melrose Energy Challenge.

▶ 39:24 You may remember, originally, this program was launched in 2011. help facilitate more than 2,000 home energy assessments in Melrose these improvements the improvements that were undertaken as a result of the challenge have results in residents saving an estimated three hundred and fifty four thousand dollars annually on their utility bills so we've received a lot of great feedback from folks that it's been helping we also as a result of a great program that National Grid offers we applied to participate in what's called the community initiative and it's this program that's allowed us to reinvigorate Melrose energy challenge so this program sets goals for each of the seven participating communities related to energy efficiency improvements so

▶ 40:13 we've been working since January to schedule 511 no-cost mass save home energy assessments other energy challenge measured areas of the community initiative include insulation air sealing heating system upgrades and Wi-Fi thermostats so if the energy challenge goals are met by December of this year we actually have an opportunity to bring some money in rather than always come to you and asking for it so we'll receive 34,000 in award money to spend on energy efficiency programming so it's been a great opportunity for the Energy Commission along with the city we applied together for for that particular program so just as a little plug for that if you haven't had your energy assessment in the last two years please

▶ 40:57 sign up I'm around and can help you out the other area that we've been pursuing in the last year is the continuing promotion of the goal solar Melrose program we've partnered with energy sage to bring an online solar marketplace to the community it's available for residents businesses and nonprofits and it allows them to get an apples-to-apples comparison on solar quotes so in the four years since launching solar programs in Melrose the community has gone from just seven solar installations to just over 220 so it's it's been a really great thing for folks to not only save money on their utility bills but reinforcing our renewables initiatives and just in the past year alone we've had added 70

▶ 41:47 about 75 installations in addition to the community programs that the Energy Commission supports we've worked closely with Martha Grover the city energy efficiency manager to support the energy performance savings contract the LED lighting conversion implementation of the community electric aggregation and all the other achievements that she has brought to this city none of which would be possible without the support of the Board of Aldermen as well as the mayor's office our plans for the remainder of this fiscal year for next year are continued outreach for the Melrose energy challenge to meet our goal of five hundred and eleven assessments reaching new segments that we have not yet targeted for energy efficiency education including new residents of

▶ 42:31 Melrose and those that heat with electric or oil and continued outreach to owners who have solar eligible properties or solar properties suitable for solar to educate on the value of participating in the Go Solar Melrose program, as well as continued support of the community electric aggregation program and encouraging folks to sign up for the 100 percent renewable premium local green product, as well as adding a sustainability pledge that's interactive to the MEC website and revamping the MEC website as well. Thank you. Thank you very much, and first in queue, we have Alderman Medeiros, please. Thank you, that's exciting, I just want to make sure I get some of the numbers right. So you've had 511 so far since January,

▶ 43:21 Monica C. Medeiros: or 511 is the number you have to reach by December? The goal by December. And where are we at now? We're at about 111, and the last date I got from National Grid was March data. So a quarter of the way there in the quarter of a year. You guys will be at Healthy Melrose on Saturday? Yes, please come by. And just in general, is the solar just electric solar, or are there other options? There are other options. This particular marketplace is very focused on the PV, but you can get solar thermal and other capabilities on your home. And if people wanted to find you, they could find you at Healthy Melrose Fair, or otherwise, is there a place where the resources are kind of hubbed, where residents can find more information?

▶ 44:15 Robert A. Boisselle: Yes, melroseenergy.org is one place that talks about all our programs. And melroseenergychallenge at gmail.com. email great thank you very much thank you thank you alderman Medeiros alderman Boisselle please thank you for coming in other states solar there's been having solar energy on homes are starting to have problems the utilities are starting to fight back we're not fight back but to charge the homeowner for the insulation of the solar's basically because of the use of the grid there were the the powers pushed back to the utilities as that sort of sort of moved into Massachusetts at all there's any bills in in the house that are going to be affecting solar energy in the homes yeah a lot of energy legislation that's

▶ 45:23 going through right now yeah so it could become it wouldn't be something that would impact folks who already installed but it could impact us in the future going forward for the for the most part in in there was just recently a solar bill passed by the state legislature for the most part residential solar is unaffected if you have a solar array on your house you you're paid by the utility the retail rate for the electricity that you're putting back into the grid but there are a lot of changes going on in terms of commercial solar farms that are going up or for any other private businesses but for the most part residential and municipal solar has been left untouched I there have been proposals by the utility to add just sort of like a flat rate that's

▶ 46:18 Michael P. Zwirko: a charge to your bill of a few dollars but but at this point nothing has has changed for residential solar so the solar units that we have on the high school and so forth won't be affected yeah municipal is left untouched by the most recent legislation very good thank you very much motion to recommend the bottom line we have a motion from alderman Boyce L to recommend the bottom line of $2,500 second duly seconded by alderman lemmerman on further discussion we have in queue Alderman work oh please thank you mr. chairman I don't really have a question it's more of a comment and an accolade you know the line item here is for $2,500 and I just want to make the statement that the work that's gone on by not only the Commission but also Martha Grover with

▶ 47:05 Michael P. Zwirko: respect to the LED lights switching out with the respect to the aggregation for the energy electricity rates solar panels that we've installed on municipal buildings this is really a division that actually brings money not only to the brings money by saving money to the residents and the city so that's just something that you know should be noted so I appreciate not only the hard work but the foresight to find areas and where we can save money and I also just have to say I love the new LED lights it makes the the neighborhood a little bit brighter at night for folks that are walking their pets are just going out for an evening stroll and for a safety issue as well so I was towards the end of the install but I love them so thank you for all your hard work and that's

▶ 47:51 Peter D. Mortimer: really all I had to say Thank You mr. chairman Thank You Alderman work Oh seeing no further alderman indicating that they wish to be heard a motion to recommend this budget to the full board has been made by alderman boys Allen duly seconded by alderman lemon all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to the full board at the end of the budget process thank you very much for coming thank you for your service to Melrose the next for we have before us excuse me the next budget that we have before us is budget 175 it is the Planning Board in the amount of two hundred and ten thousand six hundred and sixty three dollars and forty-five cents we are still under suspension miss Gaffey would you join us please would

▶ 48:45 Denise Gaffey: you like to make some opening remarks good evening good evening thank you so the budget for the Planning Department is I guess it's slightly adjusted by three three point nine percent for this coming fiscal year over last year which is essentially just cost of living adjustments for salary most of the budget the budget is primarily for salary so the the planning department supports five positions we have a full-time planning director an assistant planning director who's also full-time we have a GIS technician and slash account manager slash office manager who's full host 30 hours a week and then we have two part-time positions the energy efficiency coordinator position and the planning coordinator also the ZBA clerk position so those five

▶ 49:44 Denise Gaffey: positions are all bundled under the planning and community development budget so that's essentially I'm happy to answer any questions you have about the budget thank you very much miss Gaffey president Khan please yeah I have the same questions I have every year so your salary and wages that are on budget are one hundred and ninety eight thousand five hundred and fifty three forty five what is the actual salary and wage budget from all sources and so sure so essentially I think I say this every year it represents about two-thirds of the salary the general fund in other words the general fund pays about two-thirds of the salary and i actually put together a spreadsheet of all the different sources if you'd like i can hand that around that would be wonderful so we can talk about that

▶ 50:33 Denise Gaffey: thank you very much so as you can see the total salary is 311 822.66 the general fund picks up 208 553 of that so there's a there's a difference there between what you're looking at in the budget which says 198 that's a 10 000 difference and that is because our gis technician um she does an awful lot of work both with the assessing department and with the public public works department so $10,000 of her salary is funded out of out of the DPW I believe it's it may be the water and sewer enterprise account I'm not exactly sure but it is funded out of a DPW fund because she does so much of the work GIS work for DPW and engineering and we've been doing that for for a couple years the next category of grants and incentives that represents we try we

▶ 51:51 Denise Gaffey: endeavor to to the extent possible to get grant funding to help offset our budget we are lucky because there are a lot of grants that we can take advantage but a lot of that funding is actually fun goes towards our energy efficiency manager so we get a lot of funding from National Grid and other sources green community funding and that also that category also represents some home funding that we get so we do a lot of work with affordable housing and the home funding is is basically federal HUD funds that are funneled through the North Suburban Consortium which is a consortium of communities that we work with to try to leverage home funds for affordable housing in the community so that's essentially what those two categories are the next category is

▶ 52:38 Denise Gaffey: project funds and that is sixteen thousand dollars and that represents funds that are allocated essentially towards my salary from some of the capital construction projects that I work on right now I'm working on the Hoover elementary school window project and the Learning Commons project at the high school so those funds are are a slight offset to my salary for the project management work that I do and then finally we have a community development fund that I know everyone the board is is well aware of and we have traditionally carried a large source of our funding from the community development funds this year it represents approximately $50,000 so those are those are basically the categories okay yeah mr. chairman I

▶ 53:25 certainly appreciate funds that we get from any source to supplement but then And perhaps we can do this next year, I think it would be important if we could have a supplement to our budget package where we have a breakdown that shows what each position is actually paid. I understand that some of these funds are not budgeted funds, but I would like to be able to see attached to the budget break out that shows what in actuality all the salary and wage expenditures are you know and frequently grant another source of funding ebbs and flows and i think it gives us a better sense for planning purposes if if we know from our looking at our budget members of the public would know from looking at our budget what the salary liabilities are that's

▶ 54:26 Peter D. Mortimer: well thank you mr. president seeing no other alderman wishing to be heard is there a motion please bottom line we have a motion to move the bottom line from alderman Boyce L duly seconded by alderman Forbes seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended the full board thank you for coming miss Gaffey thank you for Thank you for your presentation. The next budget we have before us is 401-401. It is public works, administration, and engineering. In the amount of $729,534.20. We have our director of public works, John Shannon of the building, and our city engineer, Elena Proakis, here as well. you like good evening would you like to make an opening statement on this budget

▶ 55:36 lady and gentleman good evening budgets before you this evening represent the salary and expenditures that are associated with eight of the ten operating divisions of the Department of Public Works those include the administration division an engineering division the highway division the sanitation division park and forestry cemetery division fleet and our facilities division water and sewer that are both enterprise operations and whose budgets are not before you this evening form the last two operating divisions within the department inclusive of water and sewer the DPW has 68 full-time employees that work within the various divisions the budgets that are before you this evening total eight million three hundred forty seven thousand two

▶ 56:28 hundred ninety six dollars and ninety nine cents that's a two point seven percent increase in comparison to fiscal sixteen Department prides itself on working efficient suit efficiently daily in order to provide the highest levels of service to residents both in terms of quality and quantity we strive to maintain our operations in both the transparent and accessible manner residents can access the department through the online services traditional phone calls or stops to our administrative offices on Tremont Street that are open Monday through Friday from 7 to 4 updates and notices are provided in a variety of forms from traditional mailings and drop-off to social media website postings and at times even Twitter now we continuously

▶ 57:22 find manners in which to challenge the staff professionally for the better good of the community the department is staffed as I've said many times to operate in a lateral manner so that resources can be shared as demands require from division to division ultimately the end goal is to make Melrose a better place for its residents in all locations whether you walk into a building bring a child to a sporting event or just walk through a neighborhood it's very important the Melrose knows it's DPW is visible and working to make their daily lives better this is what the men and women of the department do on a daily basis and I just want to take this opportunity to personally thank them for that outside of the daily and seasonal maintenance

▶ 58:11 programs this past year DPW processed 3,200 work orders through its various divisions whose budgets are before you this evening in parallel the department completed several capital improvements to Melrose's infrastructure it works collaboratively with other departments throughout the city in regards to capital facility projects energy upgrades open space projects development reviews and inspections the budget before you the budgets before you account for a 53 week payroll period for all of the 68 employees mentioned the exception of the 14 in water and sewer the budgets account for all Melrose Association of Public Works employees collective bargaining contract requirements that went into effect in the fall of 2015 the budgets also

▶ 59:05 account for all energy expenditures throughout the city including school and municipal buildings with the exception of Memorial Hall and the Beebe estates they account for all snow expenditures throughout the city the few increases that are before you are mainly contractually driven and required to or required to support neighborhood in building upgrades and services similar to the department these budgets are very service driven with me this evening is city engineer Elena Proakas Ellis we're very fortunate to have had Elena join our staff in the fall of 2015 in the position of city engineer her fresh outlook and her insight and her expertise in water and sewer and storm water and regulations have helped further shape our engineering division

▶ 1:00:01 and the direction that we're going to bring the department forward this coming fiscal year she's prepared a brief summary to share with you of some of the items that have been concluded and some of these new items that this budget will fund thank you mr. Shana so I'll try to be brief I have a one-page list here of items I just want to run through turnouts take up too much time I started six months ago and it's been a very busy six months so I just wanted to run down a few of the things that we've completed over the last six months and then what our major major initiatives are coming up into the next fiscal year since I began we've completed the Highlands rehab project as well as nearing completion on the Lebanon Street project which I know was lengthy and very

▶ 1:00:50 visible we've bid and completed a drainage project on Mill Road we've awarded the contract for drainage work in the Stowcroft and Burrell neighborhood we've initiated some drainage studies in the areas of Lebanon and Sylvan and Fairfield that have historically had some fairly severe flooding issues as well as Grove and Linwood that has also had drainage issues recently we bid and have nearly completed the BB estate exterior renovations we've strived to improve the organization of procurement and also regulatory compliance document management within the engineering division and I think we've come a long way so far on that we've performed many detailed reviews of new development projects as well as inspections of the

▶ 1:01:41 development projects that are being built right now including 37 Washington Street the during lumber site on Essex Street and the proposed new development on Corey Street as well as a number of others we've participated in the oversight of the LED streetlight project that's nearing completion and we've done a lot of work closely with operations within DPW and water and sewer to coordinate on a lot of initiatives that cross over between engineering and operations our major initiatives coming up this year this isn't a complete list by any means but these are the highlights we're on the verge of having a policy for the complete streets program and that is a state initiative that will allow us to access grant funding at the state level for

▶ 1:02:30 increasing the the transportation network in Melrose's its ability to serve all modes and all ages and abilities so everything from vehicular traffic to pedestrians bicyclists ADA compliance there's a whole host of things that we hope to do under the complete streets program the first step of which is putting a policy in place and we're having a public meeting to review the draft policy on May 25th at 7 p.m. here in this room and we encourage everybody to attend we plan to use the GIS as a tool to develop a lot of baseline mapping for what infrastructure we already have within the city both for complete streets and also towards roadway management and then the first step of seeking funding from the state for the complete streets program is

▶ 1:03:27 getting a $50,000 grant for technical assistance to put together what's called prioritization plan and that will include a holistic look at the city and what networks we have now for transportation infrastructure again for all modes all abilities and looking at where there are gaps and then prioritizing those plans so that we can then seek the funding from the state for the actual projects so the first 50 000 is for the technical assistance for the plan and then after that for this year it's up to four hundred thousand dollars per community for the actual projects um i mentioned the roadway management program we plan to re-evaluate the condition of all streets and sidewalks within the city this most likely this

▶ 1:04:11 summer again using the gis as the baseline tool for that and incorporating a lot of that into the complete streets program and then also creating a three-year plan for roadway management going forward. For water and sewer, I know that's not part of this budget specifically, but we'll be talking about them next week. But the sewer infiltration and inflow reduction program is going to be a major initiative in this fiscal year. We've started that with flow metering throughout the city. We have flow meters right now in 30 locations in the sewer system. They're being read every week. They gather data every 15 minutes continuously, and they'll do that over a 10-week period so we're going to get an extremely detailed look at where the

▶ 1:04:59 extraneous flows are coming in and then the idea is that we put our our MWRA grant and loan funding towards hitting the low-hanging fruit the largest contributors and the ones that can most be the most cost-effectively removed we plan to come back in the fall to seek authorization for the MWRA loan program and this year that program is 75% grant money and 25% loans which is a big increase from what we've had previously on the water side we're doing similar to what we're doing with all the other infrastructure we're in the process of creating a capital efficiency plan which is a holistic look at the water system and identifying where there are issues that need to be addressed for the capital program and then we'll tie all of this in together the water program

▶ 1:05:45 the sewer needs the roadway needs and hopefully build projects that that make sense by timing and phasing the work so that we do the underground work first and then do the roadway work after and then lastly the EPA's new stormwater permit under the National pollutant discharge elimination system program was just issued and the effective date for that is July 1st 2017 so that won't be until next fiscal year but we need to get our ducks in a row for that there be increased requirements for system evaluation system mapping and so we'd like to get ahead of the curve and start with some of the system mapping again using the GIS GIS is going to be hearing that all over the place it's our tool for doing most of these projects there's a rumor at the state level that that

▶ 1:06:39 they may try to push the effective date out even farther than July 2017 but for But right now, that's what's been approved and that's what we're working towards. So with that, are there any questions? Thank you very much. President Kahn, please. Yeah, before I get specifically onto this budget, everybody needs to realize that today's Department of Public Works is absolutely and radically different from four or five years ago Department of Public Works when Trash pickup and hauling was a major component of what we did. We got out of that business and we devoted a lot of our efforts towards the green team. And another radical change that was made relative to this department was the institution of a facilities unit,

▶ 1:07:35 which subsumed many of the functions that were being performed on the school side. So this department is now performing a lot of work, a large amount of work, the amount of several hundred thousand dollars that used to be performed by school employees on the school side. We're not in the trash pick up business for the most part anymore. So we've seen a complete transformation of what this department does over the last four years, John? Four, yeah. And this is a significant department in the city at this point. My math is not always good, but I calculated that you're approximately 15% of the overall city budget. Just on your in budget expenditures, not counting things that are covered by enterprise accounts.

▶ 1:08:28 John, how has the transition to these new functions worked over the last two or three years? I've seen a tremendous benefit to the community. only has the department transition the personnel in the in the Department of transition we're very service-oriented very we have a lot of flexibility to adjust it's rained all week in the past you know the contractor wouldn't come we've been able to go out and dribs and drabs and our hair a couple hours there to maintain parks and improve I think the level in our playing field the level our parks and playgrounds is improved the attention to detail in buildings is improved the one major component of it is the utility piece putting all of the utilities in one grouping in

▶ 1:09:19 one division and one budget has allowed us to to really take a macro look and we've been able to level fund um like utilities for two years in a row we haven't supplemented those budgets I think that's that's a big a big big positive of that reorganization trash is still being collected but those resources are doing different things there we have an ability to fix traffic signals now in-house we have an ability to make sidewalk repairs in-house we have we have a fleet division that maintains not just public works vehicles but council on aging vehicles 1415 police vehicles and you know recreation vehicles we it's really changed the whole dynamic the whole culture of the DPW and one of the greatest benefits is

▶ 1:10:13 in the winter where it we don't rely as much on contractors it is our people that don't go home the next day or when the snows over there's a they take a great sense of pride in what they do and I think that that level and that thought our process when they come to work every day has increased the level of quality right throughout the whole department. And you haven't had any difficulty in utilizing the workforce and finding things for them to do since they've transitioned from trash to other things, have you? No, we've been very busy. And when we discussed this, we had a big back and forth, and I was skeptical and is grilling Mr. Del Russo about cost savings and what not. And has this resulted in cost savings, the change over of this department?

▶ 1:11:05 It's resulted in a tremendous amount of cost avoidance. And we've been able to, some of the new trash programs that we've put in place with the private vendor has resulted in a reduction in trash tonnage. But we do a lot of projects where we provide the labor and just buy the material now. That could never happen before. We support a lot of events. I mean, we'll be there Saturday at Healthy Melrose, and that continues. Starts Saturday and continues right through the fall. So there are a lot of veterans projects that never happened before, or if they did happen, they happened with outside resources. We chalk a lot of little league opening days that didn't happen before. cut the grass for a special event never happened before so these are all positive aspects of of

▶ 1:11:58 the reorganization well and one tangible thing that i've noticed is our our mowing contract used to be annually 150 to 200 000 range and now it's down to 50 000 that we're paying outside vendors for uh for mowing and is your is your department fully staffed at the present time we're fully staffed and um there's been no freeze on city hiring or limits on on hiring during the uh this last fiscal year have them in no and um as we discussed on the other budgets what i what i would like to see or discuss as we go forward is um you have salaries that are that are not all reflected in the general fund budget some are divided amongst departments some are divided amongst enterprise accounts and and budgets in the general fund

▶ 1:13:01 i would like to get a breakout just of what everybody's salaries actually are so that we have that as part of the process and another thing that i'm not smart enough to figure out and i was asking mr delarusso this i never understand how you how you make the allocation as to what portion of an employee's salary goes into what particular budget can you give me a little bit of an insight into the methodology that you use to do that yeah what we do is we look on average what an employee does and for instance let's to direct the salary sixty percent of it is on the general fund twenty percent is on water twenty percent is on sewer does that mean that um on an every given day i spent twenty percent of my day doing water work no but over

▶ 1:13:55 the course of the year i do spend twenty percent admit at a minimum twenty percent of my of my day in water functions whether they be billing whether it's setting rates whether it's water projects going out with the water crew managing the water crew that's the type of thing that we do we look at how the department operates the majority of the year and that's how we allocate them to the various budgets that that are before you okay so this is a management decision that's made by the department it's not an accounting formula or calculation the budgets and administration in the split is something we feel is fair in how we operate day to day and i do have i do have a spreadsheet that breaks down the administrative salaries in the department um if you don't mind

▶ 1:14:46 i'll pass it out yeah that would be good thank you so the majority of these positions are administrative and engineering everything else and all the other budgets before you they're fully funded in the budget that we'll be discussing but these these positions are split throughout the DPW admin budget which is which we're discussing right now and then the water and sewer enterprise one project engineer position you see all the way on the right it says other those are project accounts that we we take that portion of the of the funding from the superintendent of Mount Hood and open space we pay for 50% of her salary and administration for her park related duties the balance is paid by the Mount

▶ 1:15:55 Hood Enterprise Fund and the park administrator position 70% of her salary is paid through school building rentals because that's a split position right now she spends two-thirds of her week with Public Works managing building events and making sure custodians get to building events and making sure the buildings are open at the right time and we read we seek reimbursement from the school from the school revenues that they collect on the rental for two thirds of her salary and a third of her salary is that is on the mount hood enterprise system enterprise um fund okay well i appreciate that this is the kind of information that i was i was looking for and i appreciate the department heads coming down this evening with this uh

▶ 1:16:50 material um as it relates to this particular budget you have a vacancy for building systems manager is that is that something that's a critical need is it something that you're going to fill that that that's full um we have a actually a melrose resident mark thompson who's starting the 31st of may he'll be on board working in our facilities group managing electrical systems hvac systems energy management systems so that's actually full okay that's all i have for now mr chairman thank you mr president alderman forbes please thank you uh just looking through the budget lines i just noticed uh just some of the the increases on some of the particular alliance professional services uh up 26 from last year is that a part

▶ 1:17:47 of the i i um no the um no that's not that's mainly to to outfit the engineering division with the gis software and licensing and tools that they need to i think a constant throughout her presentation elena's presentation was gis we're going to do that gis what they're trying to do is create data files and and they need the resources to do it i see this as a one-year increase we'll probably bring it back down to normal levels um next fiscal year okay and i'll obviously uh the other one i was going to talk about just there was a clothing budget uh line item up 32 percent is that just for uh that is professional gear that's that that's contractually driven yes 51 uh the 51 employees in the union that gives them their clothing

▶ 1:18:39 Scott M. Forbes: allowance according to the new cva okay and i noticed that you did talk about uh elena you did talk about two uh engineering projects that were going on in ward seven specifically uh lebanon and fairfield and then the corner of grove and linwood is there any updates or anything from from either of those two projects that you would be able to uh sure um i know you and i have spoken specifically about it but we're nearing the completion of the evaluation phase for the sylvan lebanon and fairfield area and then we have a draft design for the grove and linwood improvements we did find upon uh inspection of of that area of drainage there is a collapse and so that will require repair um and we have a draft design from the consultant we just need to determine

▶ 1:19:29 whether it's repair work that we can do in-house or if we're going to have to go out to bid for that right so those are progressing along yeah all right thank you very much thank you mr chairman thank you alderman forbes alderman medeiros yes i saw you previously you're next thank you uh that's great the part-time salary in wages line looks like it's up 45.6 percent is that so that is um to fund year-round interns in the engineering division um now that we have a city engineer back in the in the in the role i think that's a very critical position um actually we just interviewed a melrose resident who i believe may be starting in a few weeks and the intent is to keep the intern position right through the year a lot of colleges now

▶ 1:20:21 Monica C. Medeiros: offer internships in the fall semester or spring semester so with elena's professional resources we feel pretty confident now that we can keep the intern position throughout the year and that's what that funds and hope and possibly some maybe we'll look at hiring some of these interns at some point internally which we've actually just did we took our intern from last year he graduated from Penn State and he he was offered an entry-level project engineer position so it's a great feeder system if it works out that's good lots of experience and then the only other that seems a little bit uh like increased is is copy maintenance copy supplies is that due to some of these projects do you think no we we purchased a new lease those that's the lease

▶ 1:21:15 for two new copy machines scanner copy uh one is at our facility on tremont the other one is in the cemetery administration office this way we can start scanning files and fax machines really are a lost art so we needed to upgrade our equipment to uh keep up with the technology that's what the increase is there and do we expect that that's kind of going to be the the new norm going forward is that like a contract or those yes so okay thank you thank you alderman Medeiros alderman boyce hell please uh in the thank you for coming this evening by the way uh when we had the planning board director here she mentioned that she's sharing a gis operator with you and that's where the extra 10 000 is coming from that individual

▶ 1:22:06 is working both in water and sewer uh it basically i do with this mapping out the areas that you're digging up the streets we lacked that skill in engineering up through the fall but i think with elena's hire and some of the hires that she's made and the direction she wants to take the department we're now working collaboratively but before we really relied on that position to update water sewer and drain infrastructure layers of the gis um we continue to work together and i guess you could speak to that a little bit of the partnership yeah we certainly rely still on planning especially until we get our new gis software in house right now we can only basically view data we can't edit it we can't do really anything

▶ 1:22:59 sophisticated but with our longer term plan being doing a lot of our asset management and our asset tracking and our asset maintenance tracking through the gis we're going to have a lot more gis work that we'll be both doing in-house and i think we'll still continue to rely on that position in planning because she's really the the person with the most expertise in terms of the ins and outs of the software and how to get how to get the final product that we're looking for we can collect the data we can identify how the data what data we need but she's still going to be a resource to us the assessor's office was here a couple weeks ago showing their GIS operation now are we talking about the same group

▶ 1:23:46 working together so we're not we don't have four or five different groups going out are we all in the same room together yeah we actually had a meeting engineering planning and the assessor probably about a month or two ago and we discussed the need to establish a GIS committee within City Hall so that this is really a collaborative effort because the the software purchase for instance that was the topic of that first meeting that we had we wanted to be sure that we are all on the same page with exactly what we need what we need to purchase and there are different options for how to do licensing you can have you know one license that you can use on multiple computers or individual licenses for the

▶ 1:24:27 more sophisticated versions of the software and so we worked with assessing and planning to develop the needs for all of City Hall and then so are we under one license that can do multiple operations or we're proposing to purchase I believe it's one advanced license which would be for the planning position again the one requiring the most sophisticated tools from the software and then two standard licenses for engineering and one basic license for assessing they said that would be adequate for their needs very good and the Lebanon Street also goes through Ward 4 and is there an update on that I know you were talking about a punch list finalizing this project so we we did a final walkthrough with MassDOT and we came up with a punch list it was about a

▶ 1:25:18 five page long this direction you know landscape excel spreadsheet um so there are a lot of items but they're for the most part they're minor items but they're items that we want to be sure are done so that everybody along that corridor and everybody going through that corridor feels that the project was a success some of them are minor things like replacing loam and seed in areas where it didn't take from last year we also plan to plant trees along the corridor i think 30 trees approximately so let me say from the constituents i've been talking to the street has come out very well except for maybe the punch list that you're working with but it's it really looks nice thank you and on on the punch list we're trying to coordinate directly with the

▶ 1:26:06 Michael P. Zwirko: residents who are still who still have specific issues to be sure that we address the issue once and for all and that we're not revisiting there's about a half a dozen of those we we talked about that all right thank you very much thank you mr chairman thank you alderman boycelle next we have alderman Zwirko followed by alderman Lemmerman alderman Zwirko please thank you mr chairman thank you both for being here this evening appreciate your hard work um i know it has been a busy six months for you starting so um appreciate it uh so you had just mentioned and Alderman Boisselle spoke about GIS it's a great program and I'm glad that we're utilizing it it's especially with the folks that are able to use it the to the

▶ 1:26:44 Michael P. Zwirko: extent that they can I used it in college so love maps but I really wanted to talk about two line items specifically with respect to street lights I just have some questions there so they they signify relatively large percentage changes and I'm just I need some explanation there so it is actually in the section there's one that's a 16.6 reduction it's under contractual it's the top of page 32 that I have it does address the projection or the the request is two hundred and thirty three thousand and it's lower than the actual 2016 original budget I'm just curious what that's from and I know that earlier we discussed the LED change I don't know if it's applicable to that if it's the costs that we anticipate in reduction um so saved monies um it's could you just explain that line

▶ 1:27:35 item there i think you're a budget ahead of us i'm sorry i we can speak to it i don't know what the will of the chair is i i think he's in the facilities he may be in the facility oh 402 i think yeah you want to hold the discussion or it's under yeah it's it is for it's no it's 52 i'm sorry right 52 contractual i apologize this is my first rodeo so i'm not uh you want to proceed now or you want to wait till we i guess i clarify i'm i'm remiss so we're in if if I may mr. chairman would you hear the floor I yield okay if you don't mind alderman lemon just informational so the public works kind of contains several different budget line department oh and we're only administration engineer in 401 but this is a little bit different where there's a nice overview of the

▶ 1:28:43 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: department thank you I yield back I know I appreciate the explanation alderman and learning that I guess I'll draw my questions we have several others yep so it's good Thank You Alderman work Oh alderman Lemmerman please thank you very much mr. chairman thank you for the overview and for the information my question may also fall in another one but I don't see it and it last year was a part of the general overview so I'm going to ask it now but you can direct me later if you need to during last year when you are you're giving this presentation you mentioned the double poll program um and you mentioned that i think at the time it was about 200 polls that were being fixed and we've heard our board has heard

▶ 1:29:22 about this issue from residents before so i just wanted to ask if that's included in this budget as well so we don't have funding for double polls because we don't do much but administer it but it's an issue it's another initiative that's been on elena's plate i'll let her speak to it She brings the powers to be together, and I'll let her give a status update on where that stands. Sure. So we've had one in-person meeting with Verizon, National Grid, Comcast, fire department, and engineering. Those are all the players in removing a double pole because everything has to be moved, as you probably are aware, from one pole to the other before the pole can be taken down. Right now Verizon has about 100 or a little bit more

▶ 1:30:06 in their court and the fire department has about 25 more where once they move them, it moves into Verizon's court and we've had a commitment from Verizon that at the beginning of June, they would start taking down approximately 120 to 150 poles I think they can take down in June. We have encountered a stumbling block though which has been the strike at Verizon has prevented. We have two poles that we need moved for the Essex Street project that they were supposed to do in April and it was right as the strike started and we've just been waiting for that strike to end. We've now, you might've seen on Essex Street, we now have a pole in the roadway that's just blocked in by trucks and barrels.

▶ 1:30:52 So we're doing our best to hold that off as long as we can, but we're just hoping that the strike issue gets resolved as quickly as possible. And if it does, we hope that we're still on schedule for that June start date. We haven't heard anything to the contrary from Verizon. But I wouldn't be surprised if it is pushed off by at least a few weeks just because they might have some other backlog of commitments from the strike period. And if you or any other alderman have a particular poll that you'd like prioritized, just let us know. Give us a street address or a poll number And we will try to, they systematically bring things through, but when we meet together, we can try to bring that pull to the top of the list.

▶ 1:31:35 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's all my questions. Thank you, Alderman Lemmerman. Motion. Alderman Wright, please. Very briefly, along that line, dealing with Verizon, I just noticed around my neighborhood, And I did speak to the gentleman about who he was working for, and it was Verizon, and I'm sure it's an engineering task. But they went around and they spray painted a bunch of fluorescent orange triangles and points and all that, and I'm sure there's a good reason for it. If the kid from Gooch Park came out and did it, we'd call it graffiti. But Verizon seems to be able to come out onto our sidewalks and use their fluorescent orange paint and spray paint for their purposes. And when they're done, they leave that behind.

▶ 1:32:27 They don't come out and power wash it away. They leave it in front of people's sidewalks. I've seen it all over my neighborhood when I'm out walking the dog. Is there anything we can do about that? I don't know if statutorily they have a right to do it. um there are there are there is digs there is a dig safe requirement whenever anyone digs or installs a pole however there is also common sense and we try to the to the greatest extent possible and and rick hantone and elena's office knows that that's a big pet peeve of mine for instance i think they've marked in front of memorial hall and city hall and we're still trying to search who that dig safe originated with so we we try to we try to send messages through our verizon rep

▶ 1:33:16 and our national grid reps our national grid gas and electric rep dan cameron is very good to send the message down to use some use some common sense especially when you're in a historic district or you're in and around the park but it is a it is something we struggle with but it is something that at the same time we try to remind people as well this area is serviced by on target and they have four or five service technicians that come out and do the marks and rick does a good job of finding them and then tries to encourage them to be as diligent as possible with the marks but at the end of the day if they don't market correctly and something gets hit it's on them so it becomes a liability issue which i'm sure you're familiar with yeah no i am and i don't fault them for

▶ 1:34:05 Francis X. Wright Jr.: having to make their mark it's it's it's necessary but it does you know you can go to home depot and buy a power washer for 100 bucks you know they can send the crew around and you know they they start guys out and meter reading and all that and women and they could start somebody out with a power washer and go back afterwards i know they don't want to do it i really want to spend the money but they've basically um defaced some of the sidewalks in my neighborhood and um it's not It's not that big a deal, but it's a pet peeve, so anything you can do is appreciated. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Roache. Motion to recommend the bottom line. Second. We have a motion to recommend the bottom line for

▶ 1:34:46 Peter D. Mortimer: the Public Works Administrative and Engineering Department in the amount of $729,534.20. That was made by Alderman Boycelle, seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to the full board the next order we have before us is budget 4 0 2 it is the public works facilities budget in the amount of three million dollars three million eight hundred and forty seven thousand nine hundred and ninety nine dollars and two cents would like to say a few words about this mr. Shana yes this is the largest of the budgets that's before you this evening the division of department continues to make strides and improve in this area works very closely with several departments

▶ 1:35:41 across the city and the maintenance and cleaning of facilities most notable as Alderman Kahn mentioned is the tremendous commitment both financially and also from a resource perspective that the department provides the Melrose school department this division and this budget staffs 11 custodians 11 school custodians two municipal building custodians and three tradesmen that work throughout all the buildings with me this evening is our assistant director and wait who anchors this division is responsible for the day-to-day management of the staff a couple of points as she joins me this budget includes the ESCO project payment the I believe it's the third year of the lease payment for all the interior energy improvements that was done in the

▶ 1:36:36 buildings the budget includes a rebalancing of electricity expenditures to Alderman workers point there is a reduction in street lights and that's directly related to the LED project it does have slight increases in electricity at the public safety buildings fire and police and an increase in our DPW operations facility but we're working with the Energy Committee and Martha Grover and I just have to take this opportunity to thank all of them because their work has absolutely had a huge impact in the budget that's before you but we're working on another solar array on the roof of the DPW the main DPW building to try to offset some of these expenditures will hope this we hope this comes to fruition this year this coming

▶ 1:37:27 fiscal year so this way we can maybe impact this line next year so facilities had a productive and challenging year and the DPW maintains 15 municipal buildings in schools about 1.5 million square feet so I'll just give you a little highlights of what went on this year as a result of the amoresco project I think we feel more comfortable and adept at the management and the implementation of the energy management system and the associated controls that we had from previous years this has given us the ability to not only control but reduce our utility consumption which helped with the offset the utility rate increases and for instance last summer we participated in shed loading where we turned off and or lowered HBHC or electrical usage just on select days to

▶ 1:38:22 avoid excessive load to the generating plant which lowered with our electricity costs we did that in conjunction with Martha Grover heat and air conditioning now runs on a schedule in buildings so we no longer operate those when the buildings are not occupied unoccupied buildings set temperatures are at 55 now so in the past they would be it whatever it was when the person left that day we also able to monitor buildings from home or other remote locations during off hours this helped us avoid frozen pipes it also helps us avoid problems with the system or boilers and so we can get there before school opens maybe avoid any problems or fix the problem before school starts or the building gets

▶ 1:39:08 occupied we can also remotely from laptops adjust temperatures in some classrooms and schools depending on the building we can also do trend reports and temperature reports so if someone has an issue in a classroom we can run a trend report and follow up with the on the issue I'm to date the this fiscal year the Public Works Department has done over 300 work orders in the schools and 200 admissible buildings that's all right along with our regular PM and annual inspections of boilers elevators roofs kitchen equipment bleachers stands science equipment I wash just to name a few we've addressed numerous capital repairs and assisted with the capital improvement projects that are going on at the high school in the Hoover School I'm on the Missoula side we replaced

▶ 1:39:55 failing HVAC unit at the engine 3 we removed moss and did roof repairs at engine 2 and we just began a bathroom rehab at fire station headquarters we also replaced a failing air conditioning unit here at City Hall in the IT server room we made repairs to the police generator that were long overdue in the schools we refreshed the high school cafeteria with repairs to the wall ceilings we remove the draperies and we tinted the windows for a bright fresher look. We assisted the IT upgrade project in the schools. We moved classrooms, offices, and lots of furniture, supplies, and books. We set up new classrooms. We made a reception area and office into a classroom, conference room, and principal suite at the Winthrop. We painted, painted, and

▶ 1:40:51 painted classrooms, hallways, bathrooms, offices all winter. With not such a fierce winter and only 46 inches of snow this winter the green team and other operational staff helped our facilities with our long list of cleaning painting equipment and furniture moving their help this winter allowed us to focus on other projects like the much requested filling stations at some of the schools Hoover Roosevelt and Lincoln we were able to make a customized security box for the sound board at the auditorium we made gym repairs and we changed over 350 light bulbs at the middle school I think there's an attached list the workday just so people know that workday in the school buildings doesn't end when school

▶ 1:41:41 ends we currently have custodians at the high school and middle school beginning at 6 a.m. and going to 1030 at night five days a week this coverage has allowed us to cut overtime costs and allow the schools to have custodial presence a minimum of 82.5 hours a week all the elementary schools are staffed until 6 p.m. to help support the edge station program and that Roosevelt and Lincoln often had evening and weekend events especially during the winter we continue to work on our procedures staff and methods to keep our buildings clean safe and running smoothly this year we increased our training opportunities improved our communication to building staff group texting emailing custodians now communicates makes it quicker and more efficient we've added a tradesman

▶ 1:42:25 last year that helped gave us the ability to work on time-consuming projects while still meet handling more urgent requests at the same time this summer we will continue to support the Learning Commons and the Associated High School improvements the Hoover went window project in the addition of new classrooms to the Lincoln Roosevelt and Winthrop schools along with other miscellaneous projects throughout the school district we also plan to help the improvements at the milano senior center so we look forward to a busy summer and dpw day on june 9th thank you thank you very much miss wake president khan please in looking at this budget there was the one thing that i didn't understand i i presume that the line uh for that appears to

▶ 1:43:13 be custodial 586 151 is that funding that the school custodial staff the 11 school custodial yeah we track them separately um so that we can extract that cost and report it to the doe that's requirement that they have why don't we why don't why aren't those positions reflected in our salary and wage breakout here uh they should be i have a copy if they're not i can forward it to you not sure the auditor stepped out but i do have them and i can forward them along yeah i'd like to and um i mean is there a reason why we wouldn't include them i would say it's a copy ever by the auditors just because we found the same thing this afternoon that they weren't included in our budget okay so i printed it separately okay so so it might be just a mistake i think that the um

▶ 1:44:09 the salary is reflected in the budget but the detail of what makes up the salary is not so we i can provide that um yeah i just was concerned that there was some kind of a swapping off here where they would not i think appropriately should be in this budget at least as far as i can see yeah they're funded in this budget um except the background what makes up the the 586 and the listing of the positions was not there. But we can provide that- There's no transferring of funds back and forth to fund these positions. And these individuals are supervised by the Public Works Department, is my understanding. Although I do realize that under the Ed Reform Act of 1993, principals do have some role in custodial staff issues.

▶ 1:44:59 but so these people are fully within your department, should be part of this salary and wage breakdown. That's correct. And are paid on the city side through Public Works. Correct. And I'll provide that information, that breakdown electronically. That'd be great, I appreciate that. And I also see that we're paying $734,885 for school electricity and three hundred and forty one thousand two hundred and fifty three for school heat correct and two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars for school cleaning out of this budget that is correct but that has been read your deadline was reduced again the second year in a row we've reduced it by about ten percent uh we competitive competitively bid the contractual cleaning of the middle school

▶ 1:45:57 and this is uh that line reflects that contract okay and um on the last page before we turn to the salary schedule there's another item that's entitled school custodial 109 500 is that anticipated for overtime or well those are school supplies those are cleaning supplies paper towels toilet paper cleaning supplies okay and what what is the four hundred and a thousand dollars for school contractual what what is that so that that's when we use vendors in the school it could be something as small as a locksmith with a door issue or something more complicated HVAC repair so forth so so it appears that more than two million dollars in this budget is directly spent on school related costs that's about right thank

▶ 1:47:02 Monica C. Medeiros: you Thank You president Codd no further alderman wishing to be sorry Madero's please quite all right thank you I just wanted to go back to that middle page some of the items in regard to electricity some of them seem to be the lines seem to be flat and others we are seeing somewhat big increases like for instance that's police electricity 55% increase that's correct could you speak to some of those lines and you know what's what's driving that up to this fiscal year what we did is we took the line that was present in the pride in the department's prior prior budget three fiscal years and just brought it into public works sometimes they worked sometimes it didn't work and as a group at all it seemed to always work but what we've done to so that the analysis is a

▶ 1:48:01 Monica C. Medeiros: little more straightforward is rebalance I think you'll see a reduction in this building but you but we took this and we increased police because that original funding wasn't enough to cover the consumption of that building did all the fight apartment I don't we took that original budget three years ago brought it over it hasn't met either of the three years but we had surpluses and other lines so that's why we rebalanced it a bit in hopes that we can get every line to stay positive this year okay and so that's more to do with you know making sure that the the usage fits the the building and rather than it's not a difference in the change in the contract with the the vendor for electricity no

▶ 1:48:47 that's just to try to make the the budget more reflective of what's actually happening in the building and we do have a lot of contracts for electric rates right on the city side that we're locked in yeah and again thanks to the work of the energy committee and Martha the auditor Rob VanCampen and I spent a lot of time renegotiating deals for the transportation of power and also gas so we have we have some great deals we jumped ahead of the spikes and we do we have one contract who's our energy provider training TransCanada and and has and has for gas and so I asked one of the things I've wondered if we can at one point if it would be beneficial to us and if we might be able to eventually you know join in with the community

▶ 1:49:48 aggregation from some from the city side and some of these these pieces are some of the the usage amounts due to the building or you know are we having energy or heat escape the building is that driving you know we have a lot more control over the systems than we've ever had we're looking forward to that new position that we spoke about earlier joining the department because that'll take be able to take the technology to the next level we'll also be able to do a lot of at least maintenance and keen maintenance pinpointed maintenance you have to understand though that the school buildings are it they don't close when school ends we've discovered that I'm the middle school the lights don't shut off until 1030 at night and it's not because we're in there cleaning

▶ 1:50:43 alone they're being used and all of that usage is reflective in these budgets the police station is a 24 7 building for the most part you know our fire stations are the same our building has really been we we open now it's our first shift is in at six and um usually we lock up at six or seven a night and that's outside of the winter so yeah there is a lot of use that that goes into this but i i must say though the energy management systems have really made a big impact in how we can manage buildings and the fact that we can just you know we say put them to sleep at 55 degrees but we can lower the temperature overnight and then you know five in the morning just raise it again so that's that and it makes a big big big difference over the course of a year

▶ 1:51:35 Peter D. Mortimer: and obviously things like the fire station which has you know big doors that sometimes need to be open and stay open is a challenge and of course as people's living in the fire station so we can't go down to 55 degrees probably ever so okay so thanks very much that answers my questions Thank You alderman Medeiros motion to recommend the bottom line of the public works facilities line we have a motion to move the bottom line for budget 402 public works of civilities by alderman Duely seconded by Alderman Zwirko. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the public works facilities budget will be recommended to the full board. The next budget we have before us is budget 422.

▶ 1:52:25 It is public works highway in the amount of $550,697.89. this division this starts many of the divisions that are managed by our operations manager peter peter antonio um i know deals with a lot of you on resident and constituent issues the division staffs four full-time employees responsible for a variety of roadway and sidewalk maintenance work throughout the city street sign maintenance and installation event supports in regards to detours and road blockages we now do street light and traffic signal maintenance we've sent the moment of this group out to get trained in traffic signal maintenance they do standard pothole trench maintenance a lot of landscaping of treescapes and fence and fence repairs highlighted in this budget

▶ 1:53:24 is yet another decrease in street light maintenance this goes in parallel with with the cut we just talked about in street light electricity consumption this is a result of the led project we used to pay a vendor to come in on a monthly basis to maintain street lights light bulb out or a ballast issue but we paid them monthly for that service and as of next sunday that contract will be terminated so we um we we cut the line appropriately there overall this budget has actually decreased just over two percent in comparison to last year president khan please and um all of the individuals working for the highway division salaries are fully disclosed in this budget is that correct correct they're not allocated amongst any other budget so that's

▶ 1:54:27 Michael P. Zwirko: off this budget mr chairman thank you president khan Alderman werco please yeah just curious so i'm looking here i see three lines in the 2016 actual or spent to date um that are at zero but they're going to jump prior to the end of this fiscal year i'm just curious um if you could could just help me understand that a little bit yeah we do a lot of uh storm drain maintenance in the spring right now i don't know if you've some of you have seen it but bmc has been around doing catch basin cleaning uh it's a it traditionally is a very good thing to do coming out of winter we also a lot of sinkholes develop in the winter with the frost and the heave so that's why we kind of delay that some of the work we do is seasonal and the

▶ 1:55:15 budgets um follow it so i was just it's a very good point but no we intend to fully expend all of it and um we've increased the storm water piece here engineering drives a lot of our storm water maintenance and with the new ms4 we're trying to be proactive we're trying to do a little more we're trying to do we're trying to spend some time in regards to storm water quality and as the engineers want more this budget reflects the work that the men are doing as a result of it you use the term ms4 is that what we refer to as the sewer truck no ms4 is the next next level of the NPDES permit that is could go in place may go in place next fiscal year I know that there's some talk at the state level of delaying that three to five years but I mean I think we as a

▶ 1:56:08 Francis X. Wright Jr.: department have to prepare for worst case and that's implementation in july so we've we've increased these but these lines to better prepare us for that thanks for the clarification that's all question i have thank you alderman Zwirko alderman wright please thank you mr chairman uh john first of all i want to say um once again i've had a great experience this past year working with your department um everyone i mean peter does a great job he's very responsive in is always very responsive looking forward to working with Elena but everyone in your department is very professional very responsive and it makes my job that much easier when dealing with constituents my question though has to do with the c-click fix app I'm just wondering what percentage

▶ 1:57:01 Francis X. Wright Jr.: or in some way can you quantify how effective that is and I know all the cities and towns use it and i've looked at it from from the perspective of other communities and they seem to have more options than we do with regards to what you can report i don't know if you can speak to that or i'm actually going to bring ann back because she may have some more stuff that she manages the that aspect of it see click fix is limited in melrose because we offered ego before that our work order system is ego web-based as well the see click fix app is used and we still do use and we continue we monitor that every day you want to speak to no i know i mean i've used it all the time myself to report potholes rather than email

▶ 1:57:46 Francis X. Wright Jr.: you guys or call you i'll if i just i'm driving down the street i just go on the app and i report it so there's several ways to do it so not everyone can do that who can take a picture you can take a picture and send it in through c click fix you can do the online system egov link it's right on the website or you can so that also goes to the work order system you can do uh potholes at city of melrose dot that'll come you'll get an immediate response that also gets and we track them all in the work order system so nothing gets left behind yeah the actual crews only work with one work order system everything else gets put into it okay is there an app for ego or is it I just find that cyclic fixes is really easy I've reported potholes here and

▶ 1:58:29 Francis X. Wright Jr.: I've reported things and actually in other communities where the same route I drive every day and if I'm out I have my phone I see something well I'm walking or driving a pullover whatever I do it then because if I don't do it then you know I'm gonna forget that's why we still offer still offered I think we'd get five to ten percent of our work orders on a monthly basis come in through I just hope you'll consider expanding it so we can report all the things I mean I've used it to report other things I'll just pick potholes and tell you that they're seeing graffiti or whatever and so those are suggested we do we could certainly and people do adapt it so it'll say portal they'll write sorry this isn't a pothole but it yeah I've done that that's fine all

▶ 1:59:15 Monica C. Medeiros: right okay great thank you mr. chairman Thank You alderman right alderman Medeiros please thanks just a little bit on on see click fix I use it and like it very much and have good great response it's great for me because when did you see things that I at odd hours and it's you know it goes right into the system is trackable at the the Mass Municipal Counselors Association annual meeting that we had a representative from see click fix come and speak and actually some folks from Malden next door which is the fourth highest user of see clicks fix in the country actually so they had actually said that sometimes the they actually suggest to keep the choices a little bit lower because sometimes if

▶ 2:00:02 Monica C. Medeiros: there's so many things you know it gets hard to direct these to the right person and that people usually find a way to manipulate it just as you know I would like to put in for a dead animal one which is kind of gross but inevitably sometimes we do get that but but thank you and and then is is the cost for C click fix in one of these budgets it do we have a cost associated with that see see click fix is covered in the water budget the sewer budget and and add administrative professional services as well we split that cost we split that invoice around are you finished all of them oh yes thank you for yielding the floor if President Kahn has made a motion to the bottom line for PW highway duly seconded by alderman Boyce L all in favor please say aye aye opposed hearing

▶ 2:01:15 none public works highway budget number 422 will be recommended to the full board the next budget item we have before us is budget number 4 2 3 it is public works snow in the amount of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars director Shana please believe it or not it did snow in excess of 45 inches and although it was defined as a while mild winter the department activated for nearly 20 snow and ice related events throughout the course of the winter due to a series of transfers I think it's important to note that we carry as a city we in a community we carry no deficit into next fiscal year as a result of last year's historic winter or this year's snow operations the auditor has elected once again to increase this budget by $25,000 I know it's just

▶ 2:02:14 twenty five thousand dollars you may say on a budget that um is a half a million but 25 000 at a time we've been able to bring this to now a 550 000 budget which is starting to come become more and more reflective of a winter as the as we just experienced and if i may through the chair just want to take a quick minute to commend the employees of the department for their commitment to snow and ice and for the unity that they show as a as a department when it comes to snow related operations it's very very difficult to go to work when most of the business world is telling you to stay home and leaving family behinds in those circumstances is difficult however Melrose relies on Public Works in these instances whether it's a few inches of snow or four

▶ 2:03:07 blizzards in a month the group understands their role in the community and work together to manage these storms and maintain the balance of our daily responsibilities so I'd be remiss if I didn't take that opportunity to acknowledge that and acknowledge that I appreciate the fact that they understand that thank you very much mr. Shana president Khan please yeah I'm glad to see that we've brought this budget up to where it is now this accurately reflects what the city spends in an average winter over time I think if you go back 15 or 20 years and you kick out the 215 216 debacle I think we averaged somewhere between a hundred five hundred and twenty and five hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year in snow removal expenses so um traditionally we we were under what we would

▶ 2:04:06 spend and i think it's important for this budget to have an accurate number that reflects what we're going to spend on snow and ice so that we don't end up in a deficit situation so i don't generally speak in favor of increasing budgets but i think that this this is a this is an appropriately set budget now um i hope i hope it doesn't continue to expand because i think maybe we'll get beyond what we need but i think that this is a good level i'm glad to see this budget 550. i'm going to support this and after everybody speaks i'm going to move the bottom line very good thank you president khan i don't see anybody else uh and to move the bottom line of the well public works no second president khan just said he was going to move it right away whenever

▶ 2:04:51 Peter D. Mortimer: second I'll take that as a motion you are a second all in favor oh all in favor please say aye aye the bottom line for the public works snow budget number 423 will be recommended to the full board the next budget item line number 433 we have before us is public works sanitation in the amount of one million two hundred and fifty five thousand five hundred and twenty two dollars and fifty two cents mr. Shanna so this is the second largest budget of the public works family that's before you this evening this this budget staffs two full-time employees that still collect from collect trash and recycling from business districts parks and open spaces schools on a daily basis collect metal items weekly and provide all curbside yard waste collection and

▶ 2:05:46 also maintain the recycling facility on Tremont Street that's open daily during the week and on Saturdays the budget includes a contractual increase of sixty-five thousand dollars that is the jrm curbside contract but on a positive note I'm very happy to report that for the second year in a row we're proposing a five percent reduction in the curbside trash tonnage line this is a reflection of the ongoing work of people like our recycling coordinator Sadie Brown a prior recycling coordinator Jesse Smith all the volunteers and the recycling but single stream weekly recycling is has to be the one initiative and in the past decade that has been the most openly accepted in Melrose three years ago

▶ 2:06:42 before we switched to weekly single stream recycling we did a curbside inventory through the volunteers that I mentioned and I think the recycling rate was around 65% of the houses we saw recycling something our recycling coordinator Sadie Brown volunteers from the committee are currently doing a another curbside audit to set per se as of today they had visited 1500 about fifteen hundred and forty houses and they've now found that 75% of those houses are recycling and the houses that are recycling are recycling more so those are positive impacts of the of the program do I feel that the trend of reducing trash tonnage five percent every year will continue no we might be plateauing this year so far in 2016 the first quarter of 2016 is trending

▶ 2:07:46 slightly above the first quarter of 2015 I granted last year in February people were putting very little curbside because you'd nothing fit but it's something to watch carefully and part of the audit is to get some data so that we and administration figure out okay what can we do next to increase recycling and reduce trash but just to throw some figures in 2013 as a community we disposed of seventy five hundred and eight tons of trash 2014 we increased slightly to seventy five hundred eighty four last year we reduced our trash tonnage by three point eight percent we only threw away seventy two hundred ninety five tons of trash on the recycling side of things we increased into from 2014 to 2013 we increased between 15 and 20 percent our tonnage we

▶ 2:08:47 went from 1900 to about 2200 and this one comparing 25 2015 to 2014 in 2015 was a full year of single stream weekly recycling we increased at another 13% we hope the trends continue realistically I doubt we'll see double digit increases because it's harder to convert the very few that still aren't recycling but through education efforts and notice and just letting people know that this is what you can do and you could put it out every week and you could put it out whatever you feel like whatever container it's convenient to you we really can't make it any easier than we do in Melrose right now to to recycle so we're hoping to get that small percentage that still aren't participating or participating at the rates that we'd like to see thank you

▶ 2:09:47 very much mr. Shannon president con please mr. Shannon in terms of our to the two contracts that are set forth in this budget um how far do we have to go in terms of contract term with the hauling and the disposal contracts so the contract is um through 2021 it's a seven year contract that started in 2014 and there are three option years in addition to that that's all i got mr chairman thank you president khan alderman Zwirko please just to speak so when you talk about recycling and how those efforts have grown that's actually a savings via cost reduction due to tonnage is that absolutely correct so I just I think I think we do do a great job here I love single stream it's very helpful just another way we could reduce tonnage to

▶ 2:10:43 Monica C. Medeiros: folks that are paying attention at home composting helps and I know that the DPW sells not only rain barrels but also composting bins and using those you can reduce some of your waste as well so just wanted to make that comment and I appreciate it that's all thanks for all the men's work Oh Alderman Medeiros please thank you thank you very much glad to see to hear those results and that we're going on the positive trend so we right now we pay for our trash tonnage and then we also are we paying right now for recycling tonnage or do we get a credit for it I know that depends on the market sometimes no no when we switched and privatized recycling the the hauler JRM takes the recycling we don't pay for it we don't get a credit either the only credit we get is for the

▶ 2:11:35 Monica C. Medeiros: material at the Tremont Street facility we monitor that facility we haul it to JRM and they send us a check monthly for whatever cardboard we take there all commingles we they don't pay us but we don't pay them either for taking it as neutral that's great and then so you know now if we're talking about somewhat plateauing probably our next challenge or you know to look at is just trying to help educate people and help reduce just overall trash output in general and I know you've taken several steps to do that and have monthly recycling drop-off events for different things from everything from hazardous waste to styrofoam to shredding to and so on and I know I had asked you last year and you've put together this little chart here which I received this afternoon on

▶ 2:12:36 Monica C. Medeiros: on what was happening with Bay State recycling the textile recycling drop bins at the schools which is another way to get the trash what might otherwise be be trash out of our waste stream and it looks like this program is generated 13 over $13,000 to go to the schools is that correct to the various schools are some 1500 of that gets returned to DPW goes in our recycle the one in our facility goes to our recycling revolving account however the program that we put in place in 2013 located them throughout the school district we worked with the PTO's and the PTO's see the see the money from from from the program but the community sees the benefit of the car the cost avoidance of this ultimately

▶ 2:13:27 Monica C. Medeiros: getting into the trash stream and I did the figure I see here is for 2015 it says ninety two thousand three hundred sixty five what unit is that is that it's not pounds so that's I should know is that a thousand pounds and a ton to two thousand pounds in a ton so that's that's quite a lot that's been diverted out of the regular waste treatment so those are the bins that can anybody can take a used clothing it doesn't have to be necessarily something that is resellable grade it could be could be clothing towels textile textiles textile based pocketbooks shoes and that if they have that and they're especially if anybody's doing any spring cleaning they can drop these off at their local schools in the parking lot at the DPW in those bins correct thank you thank you

▶ 2:14:30 Peter D. Mortimer: alderman Medeiros single further also move online mr. chairman second alderman Mr. Forbes has made a motion to move the bottom line on budget 433, public works sanitation. Said motion duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board. The next budget we have before us is number 475. It is public works, parks, and forest in the amount of $691,273, thousand dollars 273 excuse me 691 273 dollars and 76 cents we have with us the director of parks and recreation would you be coming up for this one so this is uh this is bell this is the dpw's most visible budget um most visible staff i would say uh throughout the city this budget

▶ 2:15:28 staffs nine full-time operations employees Joan Bell does a tremendous job in managing the use of the facilities and the use of these park facilities drives the scope of work that these employees do so I'm going to turn it over to Joan to give you an overview of the use in the facilities and how the division has impacted has impacted parks and playgrounds and open space throughout the city I just want to go over a few of the projects that were completed in the last fiscal year we ended the year on the common playground which was a huge endeavor and we started the new fall season off with the completion of the Franklin ECC renovation there was a lot of it's a two to five-year-old playground we did a lot of face work work to it adding paint

▶ 2:16:21 panels butterfly stepping pods balance beams farmers markets the project cost $30,000 for the upgrades the city contributed $10,000 and the rest of it was funded by residents the school fundraising efforts by the Franklin ECC new a garden area consisting of planter boxes surrounding the great oak tree in the middle of their playground which they didn't want to lose if you've driven by there they are now basing some curriculum work off those gardens and growing different things so that was a great success at the end of September we went into the rebuilding of the Tremont Street tennis courts which started in May and finished at the end of September where it was rededicated to former mayor Richard Lyons besides the tennis courts itself other work that was done upgrades

▶ 2:17:16 to the area were the asphalt paths that go all around it which made it a lot easier for people to get in and out of instead of cutting through people's games there was support walls put in retaining walls which made great seating areas for people to sit on and there was a landscape area where the dedication rock was added I know that we talked earlier about the green team and all the efforts that they do and they do so much that you know in little pieces don't seem like much but when you put it together as a whole really makes a great contribution and one of them was the Korean War Memorial on the the knoll where they they you know contributed all the labor to that you know all the landscaping pouring the forms for the for the memorial itself just a ton of

▶ 2:18:07 work went into it and it was so nice to be able to do it in-house with them the friends of El Pond and the Knoll area every year do a huge cleanup day which we're very grateful for they replanted some trees and the reach in the rain rain garden thank you they donated some dogwood trees some shrubs and other small miscellaneous plantings along the shoreline so we're grateful they do that every year a few of the avid skateboarders in the community came to us interested in adding a couple new pieces to the skateboard park and we reached out to rotary who had don't generously donated to the park originally along with open space funds we were able to add an eight foot grind box and also added another bank ramp which was a additional section that met with another

▶ 2:19:03 piece down there we also while they were here i'm doing the equipment we got a full inspection and maintenance check was completed on the older equipment cosmetic repairs were made all the ramps were painted with a special salient paint that has to be used on those on those arcs the park itself got a facelift with new retaining walls that hold the dirt back it used to wash into the park all the time so it that also created some flowerbeds you know some some landscaping efforts that were nice and to finish the remodel off the green team installed new signs rededicating well the rotary had asked us to change the name from rotary park to robert um lasav rotary skate park in honor of a long time secretary that had been with rotary the push this year going into the spring was

▶ 2:19:55 really upgrading the little leagues in baseball fields infields that needed a lot of work we started off in the fall with Morelli we brought in 50 yards of new clay mix up upgraded clay mix we read it all the stone dust areas the warning tracks we resorted the baselines you know took out the bumps on the lips we moved on to Conan they had a little bit more extensive work they needed pitches mounds and home plates redone in generously National Little League made a donation contribution to help with that the common the softball fields the common and Lebanon Street both got the common got 50 yards apiece and Lebanon 20 way overdue on the the softball built the fields at the common it really made

▶ 2:20:49 such a difference although you might not notice it with it being shut down for three days right now but we don't have puddles anymore you know it holds the water well we're not missing games on normal light rain day so Lewis Monk also saw some extensive work on their baselines Churchill also made some upgrades to the batter's bark and the pitches the pitching area DPW green team came in this fall did a lot of painting fence fixing tree trimming so all that little stuff playground audits I did half last fall so I have a nice list to start this spring with I still have another half to do I know last spring when we hit when I was here we had talked about how we wanted to shut down the west side know for the starting in the fall season 2015 and keeping it

▶ 2:21:46 closed through I mean the spring season 2015 keeping it closed through the fall season pine banks came through with funding for the all-purpose field down there and we really couldn't take the West know offline we wouldn't add enough fields to run a fall sports so we're hoping that once the all-purpose field which is coming back online this spring we're hoping that again in October once the high school soccer season has ended to shut down that field and really get it some rest and regrowth to it permitting from July last year to I mean yeah from July last year till June this year what we have permanent already is three thousand one hundred and forty six permits on the Melrose fields we also had seven hundred and seventy five permits on Pine Banks fields it's

▶ 2:22:38 approximately 28,000 hours worth of use on our fields on top of that the green team supplied over $100 of additional overtime hours that was paid for out of the rentals on our field so we paid for the overtime anything that was overtime we paid for out of the rental fee we're looking forward this year to getting in and really doing some maintenance on older playgrounds painting kind of you know we did we did some repairs last year we still have some moving forward we're looking at community gardens you know we're still on the hunt working with the planning department on that and from my perspective I have to say in the ten years that I've been here the last four years have been just tremendously

▶ 2:23:26 with the green team with the help of the green team such an easier transition from having them being able on a daily basis to call them when we have problems it's not like for example Kara showers has you know has purchased over 25 bike racks and that probably would have taken us a lot longer to get them in where this year you know we have the green team and if we have a down day they're out there doing it I know the work we did in the Highlands on the parking area we also redid sod and irrigation and sprinkler systems and I mean so they're they're everywhere you know if we where we can use them more efficiently I you know have to say thank you to Superman Peter Petro Antonio and the green team

▶ 2:24:13 Robert A. Boisselle: for all they do you know it just makes it makes my job that much easier and the budget does also reflect school grounds and playgrounds as well Jonas certified and playgrounds and she inspects the school playgrounds on a yearly basis and we go in and update that equipment and repair the playgrounds on schools remulch them as necessary and as she finds thank you very much Alderman Boycelle please I see the title here is public works parks and forests you did quite a bit on the parks aspects of it you also do quite a bit of the forest maintain or the trees maintenance within the community and so forth and are we planning more trees or are we cutting down more trees we we had let me give you some statistics on that I do I have that piece of it this

▶ 2:25:14 we had 540 work orders processed entry in the forestry group alone this fiscal year there were 155 trims 128 removals 77 stump grindings there were a lot of assessments we're actually getting ready now with the trees blooming to go back out and reassess again we don't take anything down that is healthy we always try to trim first and when we do take something down and grind the stump ultimately that goes on a list I know working with the mayor's office right now and the auditor to try to put a program together this fall hopefully through supplemental funding the budget doesn't reflect any plantings as it stands right now but I think our list of requests is into the hundreds right now very good and when you talk about the maintenance is there sort of review of

▶ 2:26:18 the trees to see if they're disease and so forth it's repeated there's a lot of that Peter Petronio and in our forestry foreman division foreman John Doherty who lives in Melrose spends a lot of time in Melrose looking at these trees with Peter we don't like to take down we don't like to take trees down in fact sometimes we even let the trees stay and through the work order system write a quick evaluation to go back out in three or four months to take a look at it again sometimes we'll just we'll get into the tree and we trim it and let it be and then so that's what we do we evaluate it that way some of the healthier trees that residents insist should come down we bring an arborist in or if we're uncomfortable we bring the services of an outside arborist as well

▶ 2:27:04 Robert A. Boisselle: we have an arborist under contract a tree removal contract has arborist services as well so PETA sometimes reaches out to that to that resource is there any danger in the trees that the utilities come in and it is the tree goes up like a cone but they come in and trim it and it looks like two edges on the side of the wires and so forth does that cause a problem in storms and so forth that so they it's a tree off balance that they come down they claim that they leave the tree balance okay so long as the trees balanced the tree should be safe aesthetically it does a job on it but the way they cut the V in them the tree is balanced on either side we we've made some great strides with National Grid our engineers have a good rapport with them I think Peter has

▶ 2:28:01 Robert A. Boisselle: developed a good working relationship with the arborist and we try to we try to get on those asked one three companies quickly when we know they're in town to try to protect the canopies but similar to dig safe they claim they have a job to do and it's to take the tree away from the wire but again we try to have them use some due diligence in that and what happens to some of the trees that we have I know my award that four or five feet in diameter and they're coming up they're taking up almost three quarters of the sidewalk uh is does that cause a problem if i mean if the sidewalk is being pushed up and the utilities can't be very far from that does do we do something about that or does it do the neighborhood has to make a decision

▶ 2:28:52 we do um if the tree is healthy we always reach out to the to the neighborhood okay even if it's not healthy we still post the tree we we leaflet drop the tree the houses that the tree is in front of and those across the street just to notify them of the change I'm taking a tree down in the neighborhood is is at times a very big impact yeah to a to a neighborhood so we try to be as vigilant as possible and letting people know either way but sometimes you get a call and it's the tree whose house is in front of and nobody else knows in regards to utilities we try to do everything possible to not take the tree down but at times there is no other choice we had a situation I believe on Burrell Street

▶ 2:29:37 a few weeks ago with the water shut off was underneath the tree but the neighborhood wanted the tree so we and we were able to we were able to pull the utility under the tree by digging on the private property so we try to work with people but sometimes it's inevitable the tree has to come down where it's grown so big and it's well it's gotten into a sewer sewer service or a water service that we just have to deal with it thank you very much Thank You mr. chair Thank You alderman voice L president Khan please John all well salaries of individuals working in this department or in this budget correct that's all Thank You president Khan alderman Forbes please Thank You mr. chairman now just looking at the two items here and supplies and materials this looks like a

▶ 2:30:26 Scott M. Forbes: new line item for $6,500 for land equipment I assume that was a purchase of some type of equipment we added that into the budget mowing equipment has a five-year useful life equipment we have right now is four years old so if we can start to replace gradually through the budget as opposed to bonding I think that that's something that we we look upon favorably so that's that's what it of new tools and equipment for the for the park now I agree trying to stay ahead of the curve the only other increase in this budget is it looks like field marking I just assume that's just for usage for the upcoming season correct okay yeah I have no other questions mr. chairman thank you thank you alderman Forbes next we have alderman Medeiros please I'll let

▶ 2:31:16 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Alderman Wright go ahead of me very good thank you thank you Alderman Wright please Joan I was remiss in acknowledging how much I depend on you every year I just think of you as a department of one but now I appreciate everything you've done with the guys the Conan and and Gooch and and Bowdoin commonly known as Cedar Park we can expect the return of the farmers market this year correct and to some extent and I have and I have good news for you I think we've all come to well yeah no it's been a challenge only because of it's so successful and and therefore this is somewhat brought some challenges on the neighborhood but I know it seems to be getting better and working better and I guess with regards to the big park itself you guys seem to

▶ 2:32:19 Francis X. Wright Jr.: be managing the area because it takes a lot of foot traffic yeah and they said a vendors beat down notice along that path area it's making sure and we've worked with them yeah making sure that the vendors that are heavily traveled that they I know that they they come in they like to have their same spot but to rotate them when they when we notice that they the area starts to get beat up a little bit and that's it's it's saved the grass yeah no it's it's better than I would have expected the spring and with regards to continent that area out beyond right field where the basketball court was is there any plans to do anything out there just as far as sodding it yeah that's what there's any plans you know when they make and I think we were kind of waiting to see

▶ 2:33:15 Monica C. Medeiros: what happened with the backfield and the water and you know it all seems to be going very well National Little League said they've never been happier with the field you know I know the fields have been much better down there yeah where day ten years ago um yeah okay so they'll be seated in yeah open space excellent great thank you Thank You mr. chairman Thank You alderman right on the Madeiros thank you I just hoped it's you might be able to talk actually maybe more to mr. Shana we talked a lot about the the green team but of course there is no like a line item for the green team can you talk a little bit about you know who they are and where we might find them in the budget if somebody was

▶ 2:33:59 looking to say you know who is this green team where where are they so the green team is a nickname to the park and forestry group they they are all funded in this budget there's a division foreman working foreman in both parks and forestry and then a collection of laborers truck drivers and equipment operators that work together I'd be remiss to say that I mean for them they are the team they are the group and the crew that works on a day-to-day basis but seasonally going into major events going into major weekends others come in and assist so it's a collaborative effort throughout the department but this group in this the people in this budget that are listed are the park and forestry crew on a day-to-day basis and just as in it's been said many times but

▶ 2:34:50 Monica C. Medeiros: we you know we do appreciate them and you know that's the the team and in the efforts of all the DPW and parks and but you know that is the team that puts the finishing touch and puts the beautification on the city which is you know known they're the ones counting the grass on a daily basis line in the fields you know doing the trash pickup at the fill in the little thing that needs some putty thank you alderman Medeiros motion to recommend the bottom line of the Public Works Park and Forest. Second. Alderman Boisselle has made a motion to recommend the bottom line for the Public Works Park and Forest to the full board. That motion was duly seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the

▶ 2:35:37 full board. Thank you very much Mrs. Bell. Have a great evening. The next budget we have before us is number 485 it is the public works automotive in the amount of 488 754 dollars and 16 cents mr. Shana please so this budget funds three full-time mechanics that maintain all of the DPW fleet is about 60 pieces inclusive inclusive of water and sewer three recreate three vehicles from the Recreation Department two from the Council and aging three from inspectional services and health and 15 from the police department and six from the fire department so this is also the budget that houses gasoline and diesel expenditures for pretty much the entire city and we're recommending a reduction in this line this year some of that

▶ 2:36:42 reduction that recommend recommendation is obviously economy driven but I think we're starting to see the benefits of our fueling station and the gas boy fuel management system that it has this past fiscal this is a very secure operation requires an employee ID a vehicle ID has cameras are on at 24 7 9 departments use the service them their vehicles from these fueling stations there's 186 vehicles or equipment that use this fiscal year to date we've dispensed seventy thousand gallons of fuel from the facility over sixteen hundred and fifty transactions the overall the budget is up 1.5 percent there are some recommended increases in fleet parts and repairs I have to say that the DPW fleet is aging and in need of several cat and has several capital needs we're

▶ 2:37:47 currently assessing the equipment internally and creating an equipment capital replacement plan that we hope to work with the auditor and start funding as early as this fall we hope increased maintenance and repair expenses are a sign that the fleet needs some attention and this is especially true of the larger equipment the front end loaders the larger dump trucks that and even the midsize dump trucks that now are being used continuously throughout the year so that is something that next fiscal year will be looking at and hopefully trying to fund with the auditors Alderman Forbes please Thank You mr. chairman as far as the vehicle ski telly tell us how old some of the older vehicles in the

▶ 2:38:36 fleet are how long they've been yeah they've been in the fleet and I can forward you a listing of all the fleet I could forward all the all them in a listing of all the fleet so you know but we have a just looking down the list there is a 1994 fleet roadside equipment we have a front end loader one is a in 1986 and one is in 1997 we have dump trucks that go back to the I have a dump truck that's 2000 another one of us in 1997 another one that's in 1999 so the fleet ages we also have a chipper that's a just sorry our chipper is from 1996 and that's used pretty much consistently throughout the year so it's starting to age things are starting to pass their useful life and one of one of the things that I've asked our managers and mechanics to look at is what are we

▶ 2:39:43 Scott M. Forbes: putting into these vehicles in terms of parts and repairs and when the cost starts to get it comes a point in time where it's not prudent anymore and efficient to continue to repair something that is that it's useful life so so we want to evaluate that over the summer and then make some recommendations sure you could see that that line item for repairs and parts of has trended upward in the last couple of years the last last question the three full-time mechanics I assume that's what their represents 100% of the salary and wages that's correct come from any other place in the general other no other place thank you Thank You mr. chairman Thank You alderman Forbes move the line mr. chairman second president con has made a motion to move the line on the

▶ 2:40:24 Peter D. Mortimer: automotive budget the Public Works Department number 485 said motion was It is duly seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. The final order of the evening, excuse me, two more to go. The next budget item we have is 491. It is the cemetery in the amount of $233,516.56. Mr. Shenna, please. this this division sorry this budget funds three full-time operations employees that go to work the grounds and the operations of the cemetery on a daily basis very similar to parks we supplement seasonally as needed this is a very very important part of the year for the cemetery spring cleanup sees a

▶ 2:41:22 lot of foot traffic from Mother's Day to Father's Day and obviously Memorial Day day is the big weekend at the cemetery we've been working very cooperatively and very aggressively and I have to commend the the new members of the Wyoming Cemetery Committee they've put a tremendous amount of effort in trying to bring the cemetery in the right direction they've worked tremendously with with myself and Peter Petrantonio we have a new administrator Angela pizza creta office hours at 8 to 1 if you like to stop in and see her or call her and the last thing I want to mention is administratively we were also in the process in the middle of our last lottery right of burial lottery it's the fifth of five that we used to fund an expansion five years ago so you can call

▶ 2:42:18 Scott M. Forbes: if there and if there's interest in that as well thank you mr. Shana Alderman Forbes please thank you the one question I have is regarding the wall in the maintenance of that wall I know there were certain areas and I I know it it's a lot of area for you to cover could you just talk to us I don't see really anything in the in the budget regarding the upkeep of the wall but do we have any plan in place because I know there are some sections and I get calls from people that walk or jog and they if they're there's some areas that are pretty deteriorated so could you kind of just explain to us if there's any plan in place it's a very good question and the budget does not address that it just addresses the ongoing maintenance we we try to keep and the staff and the crew

▶ 2:43:10 down there there's a tremendous job of just trying to keep the wall intact structurally but we we did meet I believe in February end of February the committee met with the with Denise Gaffey the planning office our department our city engineer and one of the items that we discussed was the wall and historic preservation nature of it and there are plans this year to bring the state and to determine if it's historic and what type of grants that may be applicable once it's defined as historic and also to look at other other items in the cemetery and see their historic preservation to try to try to try to access grants and funding outside of the Melrose budget so that's something that I know they're working on I know that this has been an ongoing

▶ 2:44:02 item on several agendas that the committee the committee meetings have had so I can offer you that that it's in it's in the minds of everyone right now and how best to attack it okay thank you and I know the I know in our conversations that we had about the the drainage pond out in the back I know this really doesn't cover that and that's a totally separate line item which I'm sure that we'll have conversations on as the months go on so thank you mr. chairman Thank You alderman Forbes alderman Lehmann please Thank You mr. chairman Thank You mr. Jenna just looking at the landscape supply and cement and concrete line items that have 46 percent 66 percent increases for both of them that sounds like a maybe a project planned or could

▶ 2:44:47 you talk about those increases it is we've been working and trying to change the appeal of the landscaping around the administrative office and a few of the more visible islands as you approach again working with the committee some new fresh ideas and you want you want to try to keep the grounds as aesthetically pleasing as possible and I think it's time to change a few things and the intent of increasing those two lines was number one to further landscaping and secondly we're also trying a new approach of doing foundations in a row so rather than found a foundation for a monument one at a time we're trying this new approach under the advisement of the committee of doing a whole row of foundations at once and hopefully that would elite that's gonna minimize the

▶ 2:45:41 unevenness and the monuments as you drive around thank you thank you mr. chairman Thank You alderman limelight Alderman work oh please I just had a thank you I just had a question um like two or three weeks ago we appropriated some funds for capital improvements we talked about repaving certain sections and I don't know if that falls within or outside of this I'm just so it's not in this budget we we transferred the funding into the FY 16 budget we'll carry it forward into the summertime and but it's not in this but it's not reflective this is a standalone budget okay but it does have to do with the cemetery and what Public Works offers the cemetery we will be paving roads we will be creating a new expansion area for them and we'll be working on a flag

▶ 2:46:32 Monica C. Medeiros: flag burning monument in the upcoming month as well okay thank you for the clarification it's all I had Thank You Alderman work Oh second we have a motion to move the bottom line on the cemetery budget duly seconded by alderman Boyce L and before we call for the vote we have one other alderman in the queue wishing to be heard alderman Medeiros please thank you there is a obviously this is an area where as I think you you know you mentioned several times how important it is to keep this area looking good part of that of course is watering the grounds and the grass there there is no water line in this budget it is how are we watering the area are we doing that all on on city water or is some of it like redirected from the pond or no it's all we have a watering we

▶ 2:47:34 have a water system in the cemetery ninety percent of the areas are serviced by water spigots there is one section the newest by the Ripley school that has an irrigation system that we we put on in the driest of summer months but we don't use that throughout the season it's all on the Melrose system it's me there are meters as the water enters the cemetery we do not build them as common practice with all of the departments okay do you think that this is an area where it might be possible to somehow change the watering system to use other sources as we look in the future we could look at drilling wells there'll be a cost associated with that so that I mean it's an option thank you thank you thank you alderman Medeiros seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard

▶ 2:48:29 Peter D. Mortimer: motion has been made to pass the bottom line on this budget by president Kahn duly seconded by alderman Boycelle all in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage with the rest of our budget our final order of the evening our final piece of business is order number two zero one six dash one seven four it is the reauthorization of revolving fund number two six five seven waste collection and recycling for fiscal year 17 mr. Shana so this is a reauthorization of our recycling solid waste revolving account to the same limit as in prior years $65,000 the account assists supporting in-house recycling and composting programs the department uses the account for funding

▶ 2:49:27 Peter D. Mortimer: hazardous waste collection day paint recycling paper cardboard recycling of propane tanks batteries tires computer monitors light bulbs it's the account is funded by fees collected for the collection and recycling of white goods and metals TVs monitors and other types of collections recommend second a motion The motion to recommend this order for passage has been made by President Kahn and duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. Seeing no discussion on this order, we call for the vote. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this order will be recommended to the full board for passage. Motion to adjourn. I have a motion to adjourn by Alderman Forbes, duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor, please say aye.

▶ 2:50:18 Peter D. Mortimer: Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you, one and all.

Original documents

• Minutes (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda (IQM2 PDF)
• Bulletin (IQM2 PDF)
• Minutes packet (IQM2 PDF)
• Agenda packet (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda packet (IQM2 PDF)
• Other (CivicClerk PDF)
• This meeting on the city portal