Health, Education & Welfare Committee — 2018-10-01
Attendance
Manisha Bewtra ; Robert A. Boisselle ; Scott M. Forbes ; Jennifer L. Lemmerman ; Kate Lipper-Garabedian ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Monica C. Medeiros ; Peter D. Mortimer ; John N. Tramontozzi ; Francis X. Wright Jr. ; Michael P. Zwirko
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Comment
- Orders
- ORDER-2019-10 : Appointment of Karen Smolens, 10 Ravine Road, Melrose, to the Melrose Commission on Women for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2021.
- ORDER-2019-11 : Appointment of Miles Selena Wentzell, 473 Lebanon St., Apt. 1, to the Melrose Commission on Women to fill the unexpired term of Elish Barker, said term to expire on the last day of February 2019.
- ORDER-2019-13 : Appointment of Robin Peevey, 308 East Foster Street, to the Historic District Commission for a term to end on the last day of February 2019.
- ORDER-2019-14 : Appointment of Kevin J. Erb, 16 Everett St., to the Historic District Commission for a three-year term; said term to end on the last day of February 2019.
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● OCTOBER 1, 2018 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:30 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 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 Chair Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Vice Chair Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Michael P. Zwirko President/ Ex-officio Membe Present John N. Tramontozzi Nonvoting Member Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Nonvoting Member Absent Manisha Bewtra Nonvoting Member Present Shawn M. MacMaster Nonvoting Member Present Kate Lipper-Garabedian Nonvoting Member Absent
ORDER-2019-10 Appointment Appointment of Karen Smolens, 10 Ravine Road, Melrose, to the Melrose Commission on Women for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2021. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen
ORDER-2019-11 Appointment Appointment of Miles Selena Wentzell, 473 Lebanon St., Apt. 1, to the Melrose Commission on Women to fill the unexpired term of Elish Barker, said term to expire on the last day of February 2019. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen
ORDER-2019-13 Appointment Appointment of Robin Peevey, 308 East Foster Street, to the Historic District Commission for a term to end on the last day of February 2019. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 10/2/2018 1:45 PM Minutes Health, Education & Welfare Committee October 1, 2018
ORDER-2019-14 Appointment Appointment of Kevin J. Erb, 16 Everett St., to the Historic District Commission for a three-year term; said term to end on the last day of February 2019. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 2 Updated 10/2/2018 1:45 PM
Transcript
▶ 9:19 to have order two zero one nine dash nine transferred to the appropriations committee all those in favor aye those against order two zero one nine dash nine will now be submitted to the appropriation board motion to adjourn motion to adjourn is there a second second all those in favor aye aye dpw is now closed good evening ladies and gentlemen this is the committee on health education and welfare it is a committee of the melrose board of aldermen being held on october 1st 2018 It is 7.33 in the evening, and this meeting is being televised on MMTV. It is also being recorded for future viewing on their website, as well as the city website. That's the city of Melrose website. Is there a motion to open the floor for public participation, please?
▶ 11:17 Peter D. Mortimer: So moved. We have a motion to open the floor for public participation made by Alderman Forbes, duly seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. All in favor of opening the floor for public participation, committee members please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the floor is now open for public participation. If there are any members of the public wishing to come forward to comment on any item on the agenda for this committee, this committee only, they may come forward and do so now to make some public comment. Seeing nobody coming forward, Alderman Lemmerman has made a motion to close public comment. Truly seconded by Alderman Forbes, all in favor of closing public comment, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, public comment is now closed.
▶ 12:05 Peter D. Mortimer: I am the chairman of this committee, Peter Mortimer, the vice chair is Alderman Jennifer Lemmerman. Voting members are Alderman Boycelle, Alderman Medeiros, and Alderman Forbes. Non-voting members present this evening are Alderman Tramontozzi, President Search, Alderman Bewtra, and Alderman McMaster. The first order on our agenda this evening is order number 2019-10. It is the appointment of Karen Smolens from 10 Ravine Road, Melrose, to the Melrose Commission on Women for a three year term. Said term to expire on the last day of February 2021. Trustee Alderman Forbes has made a motion to open the, excuse me, to suspend the rules. It will be seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. All in favor of suspending the rules, please say aye.
▶ 13:00 Gail Infurna: Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, may we now hear from the candidate for appointment and from our mayor. The candidate for appointment is Karen Smolens, as just mentioned. And our mayor, of course, is Alderman, excuse me, Alderman Infurna, I almost said, is Mayor Infurna. Thank you. Good evening Ms. Smolens, good evening Ms. Williams, good evening Mayor Inferno. Thank you to the Board of Aldermen. It's always a pleasure to come back here, and it's always a pleasure to come back with employees that want to serve and volunteer on our commissions. Tonight I'm here to introduce Karen Smolens, although she doesn't need a lot of introduction to most people. She comes to the commission with an extensive experience in the non-profit sector.
▶ 13:45 Gail Infurna: She grew up in Melrose in a family that exemplified community involvement. father Irving smallins was a d-day veteran and an active participate in our veterans activities her mother Edith was a teacher in our community as well as a community activist and a true role model for any woman who wants to change the world Karen worked for Mystic Valley elder services and since 1989 she has worked for the Boston psychoanalytic Society and Institute where she fills a variety of roles she has already begun thinking about new issues for the Commission on women to address and I am confident that she will bring both wisdom and skill to the Commission to help them fulfill their mandate welcome Karen would you like to say anything miss smallins I'm
▶ 14:31 just looking I'm really looking forward to getting involved in the Melrose Commission on women and I'm really excited to be contributing to the community where I grew up thank you very much miss Williams would you have any comments at this time the only comment we have is all of the commissioners are very proud to nominate Karen Smolin's she's as you've heard had a long history in Melrose and we look forward to having her bring new ideas to the Commission indeed quite correct by everybody alderman lemon when I saw you first thank you mr. chairman and I was going to ask the question that you asked which was um if you wanted to say a few words about yourself miss mullins but since you did and thank
▶ 15:20 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: you i just will take the opportunity to say thank you very much for your willingness to step up and serve on the commission um i would certainly agree with mayor inferno that your your family uh needs no introduction in this community and has been so involved i think your parents were some of the first people i met when i moved here 10 years ago and started getting involved with the community and so thank you for stepping up to be part of this commission we appreciate it thank you thank you thank you alderman Medeiros please thank you uh you did submit a pretty extensive letter thank you i enjoyed reading it um i was hoping that you could share with the board and with the public some of your agenda items for if you have any special interests or
▶ 16:02 any agenda items you wish to push forward as a commissioner uh well part of the reason that um When Jessica Buster approached me, I'm really interested in the whole life cycle with regard to women. And given my age, I'm especially interested in sort of the sandwich generation of dealing with seniors, which I've done with my own parents, and also dealing with my own issues as I'm heading towards the retirement age. And I think it's really important that people have an understanding of different things that are involved. For example, having a power of attorney in place, making sure that you yourself have a will in place, but that your parents also do that kind of thing. And also to sort of understand what kinds of things are available for seniors
▶ 16:59 Monica C. Medeiros: and also for people who are trying to help their own parents as they get older. So those are some of the things that I'm really interested in right now. Thank you. Thank you. I think those are very important, and I had to deal with some of those myself. And it's challenging to maneuver your way through, and we find more and more women are caregivers and also the ones that end up living longer usually. So Thorp a different set of challenges and sometimes living alone and and managing so thank you thank you thank you alderman medeiros are there any any further members of the committee or outside the committee wishing to be heard at this time is there a motion uh recommend for passage by alderman lemmerman duly seconded by second alderman forbes seeing
▶ 17:47 Peter D. Mortimer: no further discussion all in favor of recommending this the full board for passage later this evening please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none this order will be recommended to the full board Board for passage, you need not stay around, you can leave now. There should be no problem at the full board, they usually follow the committee recommendations. And thank you very much for your service to Melrose. I know you've been a Melrose stand out for years and now we're lucky to have you on our committee. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. The next order we have before us is order 2019-11. It is the appointment of Miles Selina Wenzel, 473 Lebanon Street, apartment one, to the Melrose Commission on Women to fill the unexpired term
▶ 18:41 Gail Infurna: of Elish Barker, said term to expire on the last day of February 2019. We are still under suspension and the candidate has come forward to take the seat beside the mayor and Ms. Williams. Mayor, would you like to continue? Thank you, once again, I will introduce Myles Wenzel to the committee. She graduated last year from UMass Boston, where she was active in a non-profit organization, Strong Women, Strong Girls. She is now a public affairs intern with Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, and she is clearly passionate about women's issues. In addition, as a young college graduate, she started out in the job market. She brings a new voice to the commission, and we welcome her. Are you the youngest?
▶ 19:24 think so yes very good thank you mayor uh miss wenzel would you like to uh say a few words at this time sure just that i'm really excited to have this opportunity and i really hope that i do get voted onto the commission and i look forward to um to working on it and seeing what happens thank you ms wenzel ms williams would you like to say anything yes i'd like to uh uh also say how proud the commission is to nominate miles to become a commissioner and as we've noted she represents a younger voice um on the commission so we're delighted to have another perspective thank you very much ms williams alderman Medeiros i saw you first this time thank you thank you i was wondering too if you'd like to share with the board and with the
▶ 20:15 the public any of your agenda items that you'd like to push forward as a commissioner um so starting breaking off from what i did with strong women strong girls i'm really passionate about getting um younger women and girls involved and letting them know from a young age what they can do in life and that they can um pursue to be anything that they want to be and that they have power um and so that's one of the things that i'm really focused on and also just getting young women in general like of I'm 21 so of like 18 and voting aging older letting them know what they can do in terms of lobbying and who they who their Congress people are and how to get involved and know that they can go and like see them
▶ 20:58 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: whenever they want and all that kind of stuff because Thorp not a lot a lot of people know that and I think that since we're majority women in the world that it's really important for us to be able to organize and to know how much power we have very good thank you very interesting like your enthusiasm look forward to your perspective thank you thank you alderman Medeiros alderman limelight please thank you mr chairman uh i just wanted to take an opportunity to say thank you as well for taking the the time out of your life to dedicate to um the community in this way and the commission i agree it sounds like you have a lot of enthusiasm which i think will be an exciting addition to um to the commission with some of the
▶ 21:38 Manisha Bewtra: younger the focus of of the younger population i think we've seen more and more younger people becoming interested in the process and so you might be able to harness that in a special way so thank you for for taking the time thank you thank you alderman limelight alderman butcher please thank you um as uh i'm not a voting member of this committee but um i just wanted to applaud the commission on women for um these appointments because i think um both of you will bring forward a lot of great energy and also thoughtfulness in terms of how do we make our community more age-friendly and involve everyone so thank you here here thank you alderman Bewtra seeing no further motion recommend for passage alderman wishing to be heard on discussion we have an
▶ 22:28 Peter D. Mortimer: And Alderman, excuse me, you have a motion to recommend for passage from Alderman Lemmerman, duly seconded by? Second. Alderman Forbes, seeing no further discussion, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, Ms. Wenzel, your appointment has been given a recommendation for passage. It will go to the full board later tonight where invariably you will be approved. You need not stay around for those proceedings. Thank you very much for your service to Melrose. Thank you. Thank you very much. The next order we have before us is order 2019-13. It is the appointment of Robin Peavy of 308 East Foster Street to the Historic District Commission for a term to end on the last day of February 2019.
▶ 23:27 Gail Infurna: Good evening, Ms. Peavy, nice to see you. Mayor, would you like to say a few words? once again I'd like to introduce Robin Peavy but of course if anybody hangs out on Main Street they really don't need to this introduction but Robin is a Melrose businesswoman who is well known to those of us who work and shop downtown as the owner of Buckelews as her store is located in the midst of Melrose's historic district she is well aware of its importance and the special feeling that sets Melrose downtown apart from those of most other surrounding communities Robin has lived in Melrose for 12 years and before opening Buckelew she worked as a college administrator and higher education consultant those
▶ 24:07 roles required attention to both the big picture and the small details I am sure that her talents and her perspective I will make her a strong addition to the historic district commission thank you thank you very much ma'am miss Peavy would you like to add anything to that at this time I just I'm really excited to have an opportunity to serve the community I I love Melrose as everyone in this room does and it's um it's a it's a great place to to work to shop to live I said in my cover letter and I mean it sincerely it's kind of like that whole strip is you know the heart of Melrose you know from people going to the YMCA or to the post office whatever it's just kind of our it's what you know what I love about Melrose but I also don't like is it's one of those
▶ 24:47 Michael P. Zwirko: places you can't sneak down to CVS to get something without seeing somebody you definitely have to be prepared to run into people you know but it makes it the most wonderful place to live so walk a mile in my shoes and that's the what I represent to the downtown district is there a motion please motion to recommend for pass a motion to recommend for passage from alderman lemmerman duly seconded by alderman Boycelle on discussion president's work oh please Thank You mr. chairman and miss Peavy just at this time I just wanted to say thank you not only for being a business owner here in the community but also your role as a business owner and property owner is helpful because it's actually a requisite for this position on the commission so seeing that and the work that
▶ 25:31 Peter D. Mortimer: will come before you Thorp already some work that's waiting so i hope you're ready to roll up the sleeves and we're really happy to have you there and your perspective is going to be very good for everything that will come before you and eventually towards us so thank you for your time thank you thank you mr chairman thank you very much president's workout we have a motion to recommend this order for passage duly made by alderman lemmerman and duly seconded by alderman boyce cell seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this appointment will be recommended uh for passage at our full board later later this evening as you've heard me say already you need not stay around for those proceedings it
▶ 26:09 Peter D. Mortimer: invariably will be passed by the board of alderman thank you so much for your service to melrose Do you know how hard it is to sit here and not vote? I really was ready to say yes quite a few times. Just kidding. The. Order 2019-14. Appointment of Kevin J. Herb, 16 Everett Street, to the Historic District Commission for a three year term. Said term to end on the last day of February 2019. Good evening, Mr. Erb. Good evening. Thank you for coming this evening. Mayor Inferno, please continue. Thank you very much. It's my pleasure to introduce Kevin Erb to this board. I've known Kevin personally for, gosh, about, well, 25 years or so, as he was a Ward 5 constituent. Kevin was raised in the historic town of Guilfid, Connecticut, which has 257 historic sites,
▶ 27:14 Gail Infurna: including the church he was married in with his wife, Joy, who is in the back row today, which was built back in 1643. Our Victorian buildings may seem pretty modern by comparison, but having grown up surrounded by historic homes and public buildings, Kevin is aware of how important it is to preserve not just the structures themselves, but the look and the feel of the area as a whole. He has lived in Melrose for over 30 years, and during that time he has been an active and involved member of the community, coaching sports and participating in the Lions Club and other organizations. He is also a practicing attorney, so he will fill an essential role role on the Commission and his office is located just on the edge of the historic district so it is an area he literally
▶ 27:57 sees every day Thank You Thank You mayor Perna mr. herb would you like to add anything to that I would just like to say that I consider this privilege and an honor to be considered for this position as madam mayor said I grew up in a small town that that had an incredible number of historic buildings the Henry Whitfield house was built in 1639 it's the oldest stone house in New England but there are many houses in Guilford that are built in the 1700s and they weren't museums people lived in them and it's that ability to have it alive and preserved at the same time which is something that I think Melrose is striving to do and I'd like to be a part of that thank you very much well All said, is there a motion, please?
▶ 28:47 Michael P. Zwirko: Motion to recommend for passage. We have a motion to recommend from Alderman Lemmerman, duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. Is there any discussion? President Zwerchel, please, followed by Alderman McMaster. President Zwerchel, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Erb, I see you almost every Friday night when football games are in session. And I know that you've been a longstanding member of the Lions Club. And just at this time, I was hopeful, because I did see some recent news in the papers about the Lions Club and philanthropic efforts and I was just hoping that you could kind of share not only the charge of the Lions Club but your role with the Lions Club and what things that you've done over the years on behalf of the Lions Club well I got
▶ 29:26 involved in the Lions Club many years ago and it's just another aspect of living in Melrose that turned out to be something that is a real joy for me I I get to see young kids demonstrate the kind of things that sometimes we lose track of. This happens on a regular basis. We sell a can of soda for $1.50. It gives you $2, and you give them 50 cents change. Every once in a while, somebody will make a donation, and they're all together, and he says, what was that? He gives you an opportunity to explain to them that we're a charity, and we take every dime that we make, And we give it away, whether it's to Mass Eye and Ear, it could be to different programs. And they hear that. And then the next kid, he puts his 50 cents in.
▶ 30:15 And after that, and you see demonstrated in this city, which is why I love this city so much, this kind of love that, you know, people share. And the Lions Club is something that is near and dear to my heart. We are looking for members if anyone wants to join. but the Lions Club has been in existence in Melrose for I believe 93 years now so again I guess old things just run in my blood and since you asked my daughter happens to live in Wakefield and she and her husband are the custodians of the Hartshorn house so you know I guess we have a love for things that are historic been old and thank you for that and the opportunity to advertise that you're seeking some memberships yes thank you so much thank you appreciate you and
▶ 31:09 Shawn M. MacMaster: your members service on the Lions Club that's all I had this time mr. chairman Thank You presidents work Oh Shaw Alderman McMaster please Thank You mr. chairman as the mayor said mr. herb is a longtime resident of Ward 5 it's nice to see a Ward 5 resident come before us this evening for one of the appointments that are before us so thank you for your willingness to step up please serve and look forward to getting to know you in the in the months ahead I also must say that I enjoyed reading your letter and it's obvious from reading your letter of interest and from hearing from you tonight that you really have an affinity for your boyhood town of Guilford and your interest in history and historical
▶ 31:47 Peter D. Mortimer: preservation is certainly palpable so I think you're going to be a great addition to the Historical Commission and again thank you for your service and I'm looking forward to supporting you tonight. Thank you, Alderman McMaster. Seeing no further Aldermen wishing to be heard at this time, we have a motion to recommend this appointment for passage made by Alderman Lemmerman and duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this appointment has been recommended to the full board for passage and will be passed at the Board of Aldermen tonight as in due course. You need not stay around as you've heard several times earlier. I'm free to leave. You are. You're free to go, sir.