City Council — 2016-11-14

City Council Regular Meeting

Attendance

Robert A. Boisselle present · Ward 4 Alderman; Donald L. Conn Jr. present · President, Alderman at Large; Scott M. Forbes present · Ward 7 Alderman; Gail Infurna present · Ward 5 Alderman; Jennifer L. Lemmerman present · Ward 2 Alderman; Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis present · Alderman at Large; Monica C. Medeiros present · Alderman at Large; Peter D. Mortimer present · Ward 6 Alderman; John N. Tramontozzi present · Ward 1 Alderman; Francis X. Wright Jr. present · Ward 3 Alderman; Michael P. Zwirko present · Alderman at Large

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BULLETIN● NOVEMBER 14, 2016 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:45 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176

ORDER-2017-37 Opening Statement Regular Meeting of the Board of Aldermen to be held on Monday, November 14, 2016 at 7:45 P.M. in the Aldermanic Chamber, City Hall, Melrose, MA Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Gail M. Infurna Ward 5 Alderman Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Ward 2 Alderman Present Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis Alderman at Large Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Present Michael P. Zwirko Alderman at Large Present Donald L. Conn Jr. President, Alderman at Large Present

ORDER-2017-38 Appointment Appointment of Samantha Hammar, 12 Bartlett St., to the Commission on Women to fill the unexpired term of Mary Julie DeLillo; said term to expire on the last day of February, 2018 Assigned to Committee Health, Education & Welfare Committee

ORDER-2017-39 Appropriation An Appropriation from the Contract Stabilization account in the amount of $369,520.22 to Fire, Salary and Wages and Overtime for the settlement of the FY15 and FY16 Fire contract. Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2017-40 Appropriation City of Melrose Page 1 1/17/2017 5:37 PM Minutes Board of Aldermen November 14, 2016 An Appropriation from the Ambulance, Retained Earnings account in the amount of $52,610.18 to Ambulance, Salary and Wages for the settlement of the FY 17 contract Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2017-41 Appropriation An Appropriation from the Ambulance, Reserve for Retained Earnings account in the amount of $68,848.32 to Ambulance, Salary and Wages and Overtime for the recent settlement of the FY15 and FY16 contract. Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2017-42 Appropriation An Appropriation of $2,745,646.46 from available free cash to various accounts as set forth within. Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2017-43 Establishment of Fund Establishment of Streetscape Improvement Fund #2887 Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2017-44 Classification of Property Request to set a Public Hearing on Classification of Property for November 28, 2016 at 7:30 P.M. and subsequently determine the Classification of Property Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2017-45 Utility Petition Petition of National Grid to Extend Gas Main 130' of 6 " Plastic to serve #85 Ferdinand St. as shown on Plan No. GP-MEL 1115681-16-152, dated 8-02-2016 Tabled

ORDER-2017-46 License - Hackney License Application of Kibreab Hailemariam d/b/a Abe Family Taxi for a Hackney Carriage License (1 Cab) at Essex Street Stand Assigned to Committee Protection and License Committee

ORDER-2017-47 License - Common Victualler City of Melrose Page 2 1/17/2017 5:37 PM Minutes Board of Aldermen November 14, 2016 Application for a Common Victualler License, Paul Cunningham, 40 Wyoming Inc. d/b/a Cloud Nine at 40 West Wyoming Ave, Melrose, MA Assigned to Committee Protection and License Committee

ORDER-2017-48 Request BE IT ORDERED that the Board of Aldermen establish a subcommittee to screen candidates for the position of Clerk of Committees. Said subcommittee shall consist of three members of the Board of Aldermen and shall recommend three (3) finalists to the Board of Aldermen. Assigned to Committee Finance Committee

ORDER-2017-31 Accepting Act of Legislature/Local Option Acceptance of MGL Chapter 90, Section 17C, as amended by Chapter 218 of the Acts of 2016, to reduce the prima facie speed limit in the City of Melrose to 25 miles per hour. Passed

ORDER-2017-32 Accepting Act of Legislature/Local Option Acceptance of MGL, Chapter 60, Section 3F, as amended by Chapter 141 of the Acts of 2016 (Sec. 12) To Place On The Property Tax Bills Or Motor Vehicle Excise Tax Bills a check off for taxpayers to donate to a veterans assistance fund, to assist veterans and their dependents in need. Passed

ORDER-2017-35 Grant Acceptance of the Regional EOAF Grant in the amount of $40,000, to be deposited in fund #4025. Passed

ORDER-2017-36 Appropriation An Appropriation of $9,593.40 From the Contract Stabilization Fund to various accounts as set forth herein for the funding of the first year of the new three year contract most recently executed between the City of Melrose and the Local 272 Clerical Union. Passed City of Melrose Page 3 1/17/2017 5:37 PM

Transcript

▶ 0:00 If we could come to order please. Good evening everybody. My name is Donald Conn. This is the regular meeting of the Melrose Board of Aldermen for November 14th, 2016. Ms. O'Shea, could you call the roll please? Alderman Boisselle? Here. Alderman Forbes? Here. Alderman Inferna? Here. Alderman Lemmerman? Here. Alderman McAteer-Margolis? Here. Alderman Medeiros? Here. Alderman Mortimer? Here. Alderman Tramontozzi? Here. Alderman Wright? Here. Alderman Zwirko? Here. President Conn? Here. We have a quorum. Could everybody please rise and join me in saluting the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

▶ 0:53 Our meeting this evening, as with all of our meetings, will be recorded and it will be rebroadcast on Melrose Cable Television in accordance with the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. Mr. President, I make a motion to open the floor for public participation. Second. Second. Alderman Mortimer moves to commence public participation. Motion is seconded by Alderman Forbes on the motion. All those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. This is the portion of our meeting where any member of the public can advance to the table in the middle of the room, state their name and address, and they can speak on any issue that is on our agenda for the evening. Is there anybody who wishes to speak? Please come forward.

▶ 1:40 Good evening. Good evening. Thank you for giving the opportunity to present some thoughts. My name is Gabrielle Watson. I'm from the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee. I'm the chair of the committee. to read portions of a letter that we've sent already to the older people in regards to the ordinance around the speed limit so I'm only going to read a portion of it because it's somewhat long but so the for us the topic is particularly timely as we have been the home to two fatal traffic collisions in the past month the Melrose pedestrian bicycle Advisory Committee is strongly supportive of the measure that would improve safety and accessibility of our streets we encourage the Board of Aldermen to take advantage of this

▶ 2:31 opportunity by adopting the 25 mile an hour speed limit on all applicable roads in Melrose that currently have a limit above 25 miles an hour this would be consistent with actions taken by many other municipalities in the Commonwealth including the city of Boston which promotes this change as part of its vision zero initiative a goal of zero traffic fatalities however we feel it's important to emphasize that changes to the speed limit should be considered as part of a multi-faceted effort to improve road safety not done as an isolated measure there is research to suggest that the number posted on a on a speed limit sign has little impact on driver behavior. In contrast, queues such as lane width

▶ 3:26 and visibility distance have much greater effect. This observation has led to better ideas and guidelines for traffic calming as described in the official publications of organizations such as the National Association of City Transportation Officials, NACTO. so with this broader road safety view in mind we encourage the Board of Aldermen to continue their support for the work in progress related to the establishment of complete streets policy and its associated work working group an annual review process the mechanisms provide an excellent vehicle for identifying strategic strategic priority streets for additional traffic calming infrastructure and these changes can be introduced incrementally as the

▶ 4:18 Ryan Williams: city does routine maintenance annual lane striping and roadway repairs thank you very much for your consideration thank you is there anybody else who wish to speak this evening please come forward sir my name is Ryan Williams I moved to Melrose from Chicago about three weeks ago 88 Malvern which is just north of Malvern in Lebanon I have to say that moving to Melrose was kind of a happy accident for me I wasn't looking for a community I wasn't specifically looking for Melrose as I've come to understand a lot of people have been in the very recent past but I found it by accident and it's pretty close to an ideal community from my perspective I have two small children it's very walkable it's close to public transportation it's got a lot of parks

▶ 5:16 Ryan Williams: around every single neighborhood there's a good supply of shops downtown the only thing that has really been the only thing that the only thing that I don't like about Melrose is the way that people cut through on certain streets during rush-hour traffic especially by and large I think that people are being pretty conservative and pretty friendly in the way that they drive but at certain times of day it definitely breaks down and the way that it breaks down happens to impact people that live in the thickly settled neighborhoods like where I live a little bit more than it does on major streets like Lebanon or um Linfels Parkway a lot of people use the street that I live on to avoid the stoplight at Grove and Lebanon and because it's on an incline people can

▶ 6:06 Ryan Williams: build up quite a head of steam I've got a two-year-old who loves to run and she loves to run out to the sidewalk and every time I see a car coming from either direction I have to ask myself if this is going to be the time that somebody gets up too much speed and is distracted or is looking down at their phone and and you know it has an accident with one of my kids I myself have been driving 25 since I learned about the new initiative regardless of what street I'm on sometimes people take it well sometimes they don't but it's really opened up my eyes to how easy it is to drive 25 and what little impact it has on when I arrive at my destination I track every mile that I drive with Google Maps and

▶ 6:46 Ryan Williams: it never puts more than a minute or two even when I'm driving all the way from the north to the south end of town but as the pedestrian and cyclist Advisory committee chair just told you the reduction in speed of even 30 to 25 miles an hour is significant national highway authorities say that if you reduce speed from 40 miles an hour to 30 miles an hour you get a pedestrian fatality rate that is down from 50% to 44% if you lower it from 30 miles an hour down to 25 miles an hour the rate drops to 5% there's just a magic number in 25 miles an hour I heard about the traffic deaths that happened here in October I know that one of the individuals was walking in the street and that's a shame but if the person had been driving on a street that was

▶ 7:32 Ryan Williams: designed to force him or her into obeying a slower speed limit I think there's a solid chance that that individual would still be alive and I would hate for it to happen to anybody that I know or that many of you know so I very strongly support the 25 mile an hour speed limit I also think it should be the first step in a larger more comprehensive transportation plan to introduce traffic calming I think that it should be designed strategically based on behavior patterns where people cut through to avoid lights where people speed to get in and around Melrose having driven during rush hour pretty much all over the place to drop my kids off at daycare and take my wife to the train just off the top of my head I can name Lebanon as probably the prime

▶ 8:16 example of a street that needs to be reduced to 25 and you probably also need consider putting in some one-way streets to try and dissuade people from using it as a right angle cut through to get to the other streets that's all I'd say thank you sir thank you thank you anybody else who wants we'd like to speak this evening good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is Alice Golub I have been a resident of Melrose for 12 and a half years I am recently retired and I have taken up a retirement career of driving for uber so I drive a lot in Melrose I am familiar now with streets that I never knew existed but I have the honor and the privilege on living at the intersection from hell which is Howard Elm and Clifford streets and I see you all

▶ 9:10 nodding so you're all familiar with that intersection and there have been Numerous times where I have called the mayor, we're all on a first-name basis, the police chief, Sergeant Gock, and I welcome any of you to come and sit on my front porch for half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening. What happens is the traffic comes across Franklin, down Green, then makes a turn, becomes Howard. There's an island there. They can go right or they can go left. Each way there is a yield sign, not a stop sign. They can come from Green, coming from Linfels Parkway. There is a stop sign. I live at 15. The stop sign is basically in front of, I think, Marcos House's number 9. I would venture to guess that 58% of the cars do a rolling stop, 20% do a full stop, and the 78.

▶ 10:13 so the other 22% don't bother to stop at all the how cars that come whipping down green and around on to Howard then have three options they can continue on Howard they can make a sharp right onto Elm Street or they can make a soft right on to Clifford Street which they dart across and do very often and of course on Elm Street we have an island and it's two-way traffic around each the island so cars aren't quite sure where they're going. If they're coming from the Saugus line on Howard, you can make the left turn on Elm on either side of the island. If they're coming from Howard, they can do the same thing. So it is truly an intersection from hell. We have all the young people walking to and from

▶ 11:02 Horace Mann. We have people walking to the early childhood. We have teenagers walking to the middle school and to the high school. We have commuters walking to the bus and to the Highlands train station. There's constant, constant foot traffic, bike traffic, car traffic, truck traffic, you name it. The 25-mile-an-hour can't come soon enough. Last week, we did have a meeting of the pedestrian bike committee. I believe it was last week. And the next day, there was increased patrolling on Howard Street. It was wonderful. We were all posting on the Facebook page. We were very excited. That lasted a few days. I walk that loop very often, and I noticed on the weekend where they have the flashing speed sign, people were just zipping right along. And I

▶ 11:51 understand that the police officers, it's impossible to monitor traffic 24-7, but if we change the traffic pattern, if there's calming effect, some raised intersections where people will have to stop it will really improve the safety of the entire community of Melrose and one other fix that I really think would work and I did mention it at the meeting last week is Clifford Street if it were one way coming out from Nelson then the cars at least couldn't zoom across Howard and down onto Clifford coming out of Clifford they would have to have a full hard stop at at elm street it would be impossible to continue because you have to either go right or left so that would at least alleviate that rocket of cars zooming across so i appreciate all your time and

▶ 12:45 your effort and if you ever want to come sit on the front porch i'll serve you a cup of coffee or a cup of tea and you can sit and watch the traffic and i think you would be really shocked and disappointed by what you see thank you thank you thank you anyone else hello thanks for the opportunity to speak my name is Andy Monat I live up in Melrose Highlands on West Hill Ave been a Melrose resident for three years now I'd like to speak strongly in favor of the 25 mile an hour speed limit and echo everything that the previous speakers have said I take I'd like to take a moment to remember the two people who are killed by traffic violence in the last month or so you know these are these are people who are particularly

▶ 13:35 vulnerable who we need to do better to try to protect the the 25 mile an hour speed limit is a great change but as they've said it's not enough one thing I'd like to put in your minds is lean widths I know you know on residential streets maybe it's one lane no big deal a 12-foot wide lane is a highway lane and when you're in one of those you feel like driving really fast when you're pretty much nothing in a city should be wider than 10 feet ever I just like 10 put 10 not 12 in your minds there's all of the studies show that those don't slow down on the overall amount of throughput you get on a street hate doing ten-foot lanes but they do decrease the the maximum speeds which is the dangerous part part of people's driving as they said there's lots of

▶ 14:28 dangerous intersections and corridors and Melrose for instance I would be perfectly happy taking the occasional bike ride going on the part of Main Street right through downtown Melrose that's totally fine right it's narrow people don't go very fast you know no one's gonna pass you doing 45 as they're driving and you're on a bicycle but as soon as you get south of there you come to you hit the gas station and it's much wider and suddenly it's just you know people people just see the open road and put the pedal down and you know I drive to I drove over here it absolutely happens to you when like you take the cues from the way the road is designed and you just find yourself driving whatever whatever is the speed that it seems to indicate right remember my

▶ 15:13 mother telling me she was one time and on a road trip in South Dakota and she looked down and she was doing 90 miles an hour and she's not a 90 mile an hour driver but you know an open highway nothing around right so you hit you you pass through let's say you pass through Highlands where you know they recently did some narrowing and it feels very constricted and you're like oh no I need to be I need to be on my guard I need to slow down which is exactly what we need to have people feeling and the one last thing I want to touch on is bicycling facilities if you I'm sure some of you have children so imagine you have a ten-year-old child or grandchild if some bicycling facility like you know on a

▶ 15:52 Peter D. Mortimer: street is not something you would feel safe letting your ten-year-old ride on then it's not safe enough there I can I'd be happy to talk at great length about all of this stuff but that can wait for another time thank you very much thank you sir thank you did he sign the sheet motion to close public participation, Mr. President? Second. Alderman Mortimer moves that we conclude public participation for this evening. Motion is seconded by Alderman Boycelle. On the motion, all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. Mr. President, I have before me the minutes of our meeting from September 19th, 2016, and I make a motion that they be accepted into the record without reading. Second the motion to accept the minutes. Alderman Mortimer moves that we accept

▶ 16:37 minutes of our september 19th meeting without reading motion is seconded by alderman forbes is there any discussion on the motion all those in favor of the motion please indicate by saying aye anyone opposed motion passes order 2017-38 appointment of samantha hammar 12 bartlett street to the commission on women to fill the unexpired term of mary julie delillo said term to expire on the last day of february 2018. that order will be referred to the committee Committee on Health Education and Welfare. Order 2017-39, an appropriation from the contract stabilization account in the amount of $369,520.22 to fire salary and wages in overtime for the settlement of the fiscal year 15 and fiscal year 16 fire contract.

▶ 17:28 That order will go to the Committee on Appropriations. Order 2017-40, an appropriation from the ambulance retained earnings account in the amount of $52,610.18 to ambulance salary and wages for the settlement of the fiscal year 17 contract. That order will also be referred to appropriations. Order 2017-41, an appropriation from the ambulance reserved for retained earnings account in the amount of $68,848.32 to ambulance salary and wages and overtime for the recent settlement of the fiscal year 15 and fiscal year 16 contract. That order will also go to the Committee on Appropriations. Order 2017-42, an appropriation of $2,745,646.46 from available free cash to various accounts as set forth within.

▶ 18:28 That order will be referred to the Committee on Appropriations. Order 2017-43, Establishment of Streetscape Improvement Fund number 2887. That order will also be referred to the Committee on Appropriations. Order 2017-44, request to set a public hearing on classification of property for November 28th, 2016 at 7.30 p.m. and subsequently determine the classification of property. Mr. President, I rise to request immediate consideration on this order. Alderman Mortimer asks for immediate consideration of order 2017-44. Is there an objection to immediate consideration of the order? There is not. Mr. President, I make a motion that we set the public hearing for November 28th at 7.30 p.m. Alderman Mortimer moves that we suspend the rules and that we set up a public hearing relative to this order for November 28th, 2016 at 7.30 p.m.

▶ 19:28 Second. motion is seconded by alderman forbes is there any discussion relative to the motion all those in favor of the motion please indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed motion passes the public hearing will be noticed out for that date and time goes to appropriations balance of the order would be referred to the committee on appropriations order 2017-45 petition of national grid to extend a gas main 130 feet of six-inch plastic to serve number 85 Ferdinand Street as shown on plan number GP-MEL 11115681-16-152 dated August 2nd, 2016. Alderman Inferno. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I rise to ask for immediate consideration in order to set the public hearing Alderman Inferno asked for immediate consideration of what a

▶ 20:25 2017 dash 4 5 is there an objection to immediate consideration there is not motion to suspend the rules Alderman Inferno moves to suspend the rules motion seconded by Alderman Mortimer on the motion to suspend the rules all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion passes the rules are suspended and motion to set the public hearing for Monday December 5th 2016 at 8 p.m. second the motion alderman inferno moves that we convene a public hearing on this order on december 5th at 8 p.m the motion is seconded by alderman mortimer is there discussion relative to the motion all those in favor aye aye anyone opposed motion passes the public hearing will be noticed for that date and time and to send the remainder of the order to public works

▶ 21:16 sorry motion to table alderman inferno moves to lay the order on the table second motion is seconded by alderman mortimer on the motion all those in favor anyone opposed motion passes the order will be laid on the table order 2017-46 application of cabri helen mariam doing business as abe family taxi for a hackney carriage license for one cab at essex street stand this order will be referred to the committee on protection and license order 2017-47 application for a common victor license paul cunningham 40 wyoming at avenue doing business as cloud nine at 40 west wyoming avenue melrose mass this order will also go to the committee on protection and license do we have any orders out of order this evening i'll make a motion to take an order

▶ 22:13 Excuse me, take an order out of order. Alderman, and which order are you moving to take out? It's Order 2017-48. It be it order that the Board of Aldermen establish a subcommittee to screen candidates for the position of Clerk of Committees. Said subcommittee shall consist of three members of the Board of Aldermen and shall recommend three finalists to the Board of Aldermen. Second the motion to take the order out of order, Mr. President. Alderman Zwirko moves to take Order 2017-48 out of order. The motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer. is there any discussion on the motion all those in favor of the motion please indicate by saying aye anyone opposed motion passes the order will be referred to the committee on finance

▶ 22:55 do we have any orders from committee this evening do we have any reports from all the manic members of outside committees under rule 53 this evening alderman inferno thank you very much mr president the master plan advisory committee will be meeting this thursday morning at 8 30 upstairs at the um cassidy conference room great thank you anyone else okay if you could call the calendar please order 2017-31 acceptance of massachusetts general laws chapter 90 section 17c as amended by chapter 218 of the acts of 2016 to reduce the prima facie speed limit in the city of melrose to 25 miles per hour this order comes to us recommended by the legal and legislative committee alderman wright motion for passage second alderman wright moves for passage of the order the motion is

▶ 23:55 Gail Infurna: seconded by alderman mortimer is there any discussion relative to the order alderman inferno thank you um just for a couple of things as a member as the member of the traffic commission here um this will be on the traffic commission's agenda just to kind of have a discussion on it and that will be the third wednesday in december i believe is our next meeting and if i could just take a moment of personal privilege to address somebody that spoke this this earlier this evening regarding clifton street being one way the traffic commission did look at that several years ago not to say that we wouldn't look at it again i can't remember the the exact discussion of it but it was something that the traffic commission as well as the neighbors did not want so if i could just

▶ 24:41 Scott M. Forbes: make that point any further discussion relative to this order alvin ford thank you mr president i was not at the uh previous meeting when this was ordered in in committee i just want to say that i am in support of the the 25 mile an hour speed limit um last week i was able to sit on my porch on mystic ave i did not go into work this that morning i was surprised to see 15 cars come down my street in about a 45 minute time period average speed limit about 30 miles an hour you cannot go more than 20 miles an hour down that street i've lived on that street my entire life it's heavily congested with kids more and more we are seeing people use melrose as a cut through community to get to their places of business two weeks ago i happened to go down

▶ 25:31 Scott M. Forbes: howard street just as an experiment to see how fast the acceptable rate of speed actually is I was surprised to see myself going well over 40 miles an hour I know we're on the highways we see a 55 to 65 mile an hour speed limit we all go 75 to 80 miles an hour it's the acceptable rate of speed that's way everybody is going and we seem to justify that problem is is that we've taken that same highway mentality on to our side streets the difference is is that you don't have houses full of families and children on these side streets when you're on the highway this is the first step in the something that we need to focus on 25 miles an hour is is step number one but it has to go further from there so I

▶ 26:13 Francis X. Wright Jr.: hope to be working with members of the traffic committee I think all options read at this point in time are are on the table to make our streets a little bit safer Thank You mr. president you Alderman I have Alderman Medeiros for the first time I see Alderman Wright the maker of the order I defer to him Alderman Wright for the second time thank you Mr. President, thank you, Alderman Medeiros. We've spoken on this at some length in the committee. I just wanted to reiterate as the maker of this that since I filed it, I've received a lot of communication, e-mail, telephone calls, et cetera, all in support, which is unusual. We usually receive some level of contact on both sides of issues. Since that time, some of the information I've received, I've looked at,

▶ 27:08 Francis X. Wright Jr.: and as one of the speakers indicated this evening, that apparently a pedestrian hit at about 40 miles an hour has a 90% chance of not surviving, whereas one hit at about 20, 25 miles an hour has a 90% chance of surviving. so for that reason and for all the other reasons we've heard related as the speakers have said today all them in Forbes is noted a lot of cut through traffic keeps going faster and faster I know the mayor's and the chief are willing to and ready to step up and do an enforcement campaign I think that this is a is a first step I think that you know attitudes have to change I think our actions have to change we all need to allow a few extra minutes five minutes in the morning five minutes in the evening to get home get to where

▶ 28:08 Monica C. Medeiros: we're going and we can make this work we can make Melrose a safer place to walk to bike to cross the street thank you thank you you know in in committee I expressed my opposition to this which remains I I understand and sympathize with the desire to make Melrose safer and to reduce the speeding that's on the streets I don't really believe that reducing the speed limit citywide to 25 miles per hour accomplishes that and as i mentioned in the committee meeting i think in fact it could very well lead to increased road rage the problems that we have on many of the streets are people going a lot faster than the posted speed limits or the current standard speed limit of thickly settled district of 30 miles per hour and it's the exception not the rule of

▶ 29:13 Monica C. Medeiros: the people who are really the problem i know a couple of people have mentioned the traffic deaths and of course we're all concerned about that but i don't believe that in either case it's been determined that speed was an issue i know that in one of them one of the issues was solar glare and some of these things you know sometimes we can't necessarily control as much as we would like to there are other things that i think we can do to be more effective to reduce the speeds on our roads and some of them have been mentioned tonight some of them are traffic calming issues like just sometimes as simple as repaving the road sometimes it's areas that need reconstruction inevitably money becomes an issue and how we how would we pay to do that but certainly maybe we

▶ 30:05 Monica C. Medeiros: should be looking a lot more at repaving roads um sorry not at repaving roads re restriping roads we've seen the lindfels parkway in recent weeks has been repainted to create a bike lane that's actually painted and the road has been narrowed and i know that i don't feel as comfortable going as fast on that road as a result of those new line markings i think there's other ways to accomplish this other than reducing the speed limit i think we have an issue already with the speed limit not being enforced and i don't really see how dropping it five miles per hour will change that much i think we'll see a lot of people speeding and so we'll either have a situation where we have a speed limit that's not enforced or selectively enforced or as it will be enforced i think we'll

▶ 31:03 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: have a lot of residents pretty upset that they're getting tickets for going you know 31 or 36 miles per hour and their their rates of insurance and everything else will go up so i don't think this is a good idea did you wish to speak no i'm okay um thank you mr chairman um i i am going to support this order and um uh thank alderman wright for bringing it forward um as part of the new municipal uh changes that are available to us um i live very close to ms gollum and um i live right off the lindfels parkway and i can tell you that although some people might not feel as comfortable going as fast plenty of people still do plenty of people cut around me when i'm turning left into my street and go into the bike lane thank goodness there are no bikers there at the moment

▶ 31:57 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: to to pass me on the right i think this is and can be an effective pretty much low-cost way of starting to look at a more comprehensive plan and I do agree that we need you know a little bit more attention and maybe people will have to pay fines and maybe we'll have some revenue that we can put towards restriping certain areas and and redoing certain traffic islands and putting up better signage so people will know exactly how to make turns in a safe manner I would ask through the through you mr. president to a representative on the traffic commission several people have asked me about specific roads and whether or not they will be part of this 25 mile an hour limit and I just wonder if the traffic commission if our representative can identify those roads

▶ 32:59 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: and well I think this just changes the default speed limit for roads that are not posted from 25 from 30 to 25 right right roads with specific designations would not be changed by this would not be changed so perhaps we need to ask our traffic commission to look at some of those roads and see if they can be included in this in some fashion down the whip down the road I mean I don't know about howard street i do know it's it's definitely a speedway in the morning and in the evening and i believe there are parts of it that are posted at a higher limit i'm not certain i certainly know that the lindfels parkway is and we all know that that's kind of a thorn in our side as far as enforcement but i do think that it is a good start and i do believe as one of our

▶ 33:53 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: speaker said if i've been really trying very hard to drive 25 and i think if we all get in the habit of it we will find that um it becomes a community effort and a peer pressure effort and people will slow down and maybe the people who are using mirrors as a cut through will decide that they can't do it any as effectively or they won't be saving as much time or they'll be costing them money if they speed through our community so i'm happy to be supporting this tonight thank you thank you one thing that the public needs to know is the lindfels parkway is not a melrose city road we always talk about the lindfels parkway when we're talking about speed enforcement and things of that nature and just so as not to confuse the public the lindfels parkway is under the

▶ 34:38 Francis X. Wright Jr.: jurisdiction of the commonwealth not the city of melrose alderman wright thank you mr president just to follow up on uh alderman mcdermott my goals his comments it's my understanding that this speed limit could or would apply to all streets and roads in the city other than those as uh president khan indicated that are posted as we but they have to be as a result of a speed zone study that the department of transportation would have issued at some point in the past so uh i think we need to confirm that maybe either through the traffic commission or maybe through the city solicitor's office thank you thank you anything else on this order ms o'shea could you call the roll please album brazil yes yes alderman forbes yes yes all of an inferno yes yes all of

▶ 35:33 lemmerman yes yes all of them in mcateen my goals yes yes all the maderas no no all the way mortimer yes yes alderman Tramontozzi yes yes alderman wright yes yes alderman's record yes yes president khan yes yes 10 years that order passes order 2017-32 acceptance of massachusetts general laws chapter 60 section 3f as amended by chapter 141 of the acts of 2016 section 12 to place on the property tax bills or motor vehicle excise tax bills a check off for taxpayers to donate to a veterans assistance fund to assess excuse me to assist veterans and their dependents in need this order comes to us with a recommendation for passage from the legal and legislative committee alderman wright motion for passage second alderman wright moves of passage motion is

▶ 36:31 Francis X. Wright Jr.: seconded by alderman mortimer is their discussion relative to the motion alderman wright thank you mr president um as i indicated in committee um to make of this motion uh i hope it'll pass and i also hope that the extent the city has to choose between property tax bills and excise tax bills that it will put this on the excise tax bill property tax bills often go to your bank your mortgagee and while you do see a bill you don't pay it so you wouldn't necessarily be checking that box and adding a dollar or five dollars or twenty dollars but excise taxes go to anyone who owns a vehicle whether you're only your rent and um you know i think last friday we had a great example of the support this community has for its veterans in the morning and then in the evening

▶ 37:20 Francis X. Wright Jr.: over at memorial hall and as well as earlier in the week at the middle school so we've had a lot of of activities over the last month involving the school children and the veterans so i think we've got a great level of support in this community and i think this is an opportunity to make an easy way to support those veterans in need and i hope the members of this board will support this order thank you alderman anything further alderman inferna thank you very much mr president thank you alderman wright for submitting this order um and thank you for mentioning about you know the property tax bill versus the motor vehicle excise tax bill there's more excise tax bills i'm sure than property tax bills because that will go to

▶ 38:09 the renters and anybody else like you say who owns their an automobile so thank you you for mentioning that and hopefully they'll do the excise decks yeah thank you so shay could you call the roll please alvin bazell yes yes alderman forbes yes he is solomon inferno yes he is solomon lemmerman yes he is solomon mcintyre margolis yes he is solomon maderas yes he is solomon mortimer yes he is alderman Tramontozzi yes he is alderman wright yes he is alderman's workout yes he is president Conn yes yes 11 years that order passes order 2017-35 acceptance of the regional eoaf grant in the amount of forty thousand dollars to be deposited in fund number four zero two five this order was recommended for passage by the committee on finance most of the passes mr

▶ 38:58 president second alderman forbes moves for passage motion is seconded by alderman mortimer is the a discussion relative to the motion would you call the roll please alderman brazel yes yes alderman forbes yes yes alderman inferno yes yes alderman lemmerman yes yes alderman mccarty margolis yes yes alderman adaris yes yes alderman mortimer yes yes alderman tumatose yes yes alderman wright yes yes alderman Zwirko yes yes president khan yes yes 11 years that order passes Voter 2017-36, an appropriation of $9,593.40 from the contract stabilization fund to various accounts is set forth herein for the funding of the first year of the new three-year contract most recently executed between the City of Melrose and the local 272 clerical union.

▶ 39:51 This order was recommended for passage in the Appropriations Committee. Motion for passage, Mr. President. Second. Alderman. mortimer moves for passage the motion is seconded by alderman porcel is there any discussion relative to this order could you call the role please all of them yes yes all of them forbes yes yes all of them inferno yes yes all of them yes yes all of them yes yes all of them Alderman Mortimer. Yes. Yes, Alderman Tramontozzi. Yes. Yes, Alderman Wright. Yes. Yes, Alderman Zwirko. Yes. Yes, President Cron. Yes. Yes, 11 yes. The board passes. Motion to adjourn. Motion for personal privilege. Yeah, before we adjourn, I'd like to ask the board to join me in a moment of silence to honor

▶ 40:36 Paul J Spencer, a colleague of ours who passed away last week. Thank you very much. Motion to adjourn, Mr. President. Alderman Mortimer moves to adjourn. Second. Alderman MacMaster seconds the motion. For a minute, I thought you weren't going to adjourn. All those in favor of adjournment, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. The board stands adjourned.

City Council — 2016-11-14

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