City Council — 2019-11-18

City Council Regular Meeting

This meeting starts at 24:55 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Manisha Bewtra present · At-Large; Robert A. Boisselle present · Ward 4; Scott M. Forbes present · President/Ex Oficio; Kate Lipper-Garabedian present · At-Large; Shawn M. MacMaster present · Ward 5; Jeff McNaught present · Ward 2; Monica C. Medeiros present · At-Large; Peter D. Mortimer present · Ward 6; John N. Tramontozzi present · Ward 1; Francis X. Wright Jr. absent · Ward 3; Michael P. Zwirko present · At-Large

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE CITY COUNCIL BULLETIN● NOVEMBER 18, 2019 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:45 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Manisha Bewtra At-Large Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Present Scott M. Forbes President/Ex Oficio Present Kate Lipper-Garabedian At-Large Present Shawn M. MacMaster Ward 5 Present Monica C. Medeiros At-Large Present Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Absent Michael P. Zwirko At-Large Present Jeff McNaught Ward 2 Present

ORDER-2020-34 Utility Petition Petition of National Grid to install install 1SO Pole on Summer St beginning at a point approximately 10 ft South of the centerline of the intersection of Summer St. and to Install guy stub pole and side walk anchor fixture. Passed

ORDER-2020-41 Grant Police FY20 911 Support and Incentive Grant Award Melrose Police Department has been awarded $81,187.00 to assist the Police Dispatch (PSAP) in providing enhanced 911 services. Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2020-42 Classification of Property Request to set a Public Hearing on Classification of Property for November 25, 2019 at 7:30 P.M. and subsequently determine the Classification of Property Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2020-43 Transfer A transfer in the amount of $30,000, from Regional School, Essex Agricultural (013012-547300) to Inspectional Services (012412-529000) to cover the costs associated with Building Inspectors. Assigned to Committee Finance Committee

ORDER-2020-44 Resolution City of Melrose Page 1 3/9/2020 12:25 PM Minutes City Council November 18, 2019 A Resolution in Support of the 4th Annual Melrose Random Acts of Kindness Day on Wednesday, November 20, 2019 Placed on File

ORDER-2020-35 Grant Acceptance of FY20 State 911 Department Emergency Medical Dispatch Grant Program in the amount of $18,000.00 to fund Cataldo Ambulance Company Emergency Services. Passed

ORDER-2020-32 Grant Authorization to Accept a Grant in the amount of $219,028.00 from the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) through the Green Communities Division; and Authorize the Mayor to Execute a Contract with the Department of Energy Resources; funds to be deposited into Fund #4030 Passed

ORDER-2020-30 Authorization Emergency Management Services - vehicle acquisition request Leave to Withdraw City Council

ORDER-2020-37 Request Request for the City of Melrose to produce infrastructural data relating to all municipal sewer lines. Passed as Amended

ORDER-2020-16 Appointment Appointment of Paul Moore, 35 Laurel Street, to the Conservation Commission for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2021 Passed

ORDER-2020-36 Request Establishing a Designated Parking Space at City Hall for Veterans of the United States Armed Forces Placed on File

ORDER-2020-15 Appointment City of Melrose Page 2 3/9/2020 12:25 PM Minutes City Council November 18, 2019 Appointment of Melissa Riley, 119 West Wyoming Ave., Apt. 2, to the Conservation as an Associate Member for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2022. Placed on File City of Melrose Page 3 3/9/2020 12:25 PM

Transcript

▶ 24:49 Scott M. Forbes: bought it from the russians in 1954 good evening time being eight o'clock on this 18th day of November I call to order this meeting of the Melrose City Council before we do get started I'd like to acknowledge Ward 2 Councillor Jeff McNaught who's participating in his first city council meeting welcome and also the council does want to extend their congratulations to Mayor Paul Broder who was sworn in this morning in front of family and friends within these council chambers this meeting is being recorded in accordance to our Massachusetts general open meeting laws all meetings are broadcast live on MMTV and can be access through the City of Morrow's website as well. Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Councillor Bewtra? Here. Councillor Boisselle? Here. Councillor

▶ 25:37 Lipper-Garabedian? Here. Councillor McMaster? Here. Councillor McNaught? Here. Councillor Medeiros? Here. Councillor Mortimer? Here. Councillor Tramontozzi? Here. Councillor Wright? Here. Councillor Zwirko? Here. President Forbes? Here. Ten present. Very good. Please rise and join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. President, I make a motion to open the floor for public comment. Second. Councillor Mortimer has made the motion to open the floor for public comment, seconded seconded by Councillor Boisselle. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? This is a portion of our

▶ 26:34 Scott M. Forbes: meeting where anybody from the public can come before the table and speak on the orders that are before us. Is anybody willing to come forward? Motion to close public comment Mr. President. Second. Seeing none I have a motion to close public comment made by Alderman. There's one Councillor Mortimer seconded by Councillor Boisselle. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? public comment is closed mr president i make a motion to open the public hearing scheduled for 8 p.m second thank you we got a motion to open the public hearing made by councillor mortimer seconded by councillor Boisselle all those in favor any opposed public hearing is now commenced read the order so the public hearing we have order number two zero two zero three four it's

▶ 40:10 in providing enhanced 9-1-1 services that'll go to the department appropriations order 2 0 2 0-42 a request to set a public hearing on classification of property for november 25th 2019 at 7 30 p.m and subsequently determine the classification of property council Letter garabedian yes i'd move that we for immediate consideration to set the public hearing for order 2020-42 for november 25th at 7 30 p.m council Letter garabedian is masked has asked for immediate consideration on this order is there an objection you may continue so i would move that we do set that public hearing um for the classification on november 25th at 7 30 p.m second the motion we have a motion to set the public hearing for order

▶ 40:56 Scott M. Forbes: number 20 uh 20 20 42 at november 25th at 7 30 p.m seconded by counselor mortimer all those in favor any opposed the public hearing has been set for november 25th okay and then i guess it's a motion to send the remainder to committee i don't know if i need to make that motion or motion of the COMMITTEE OR LAY THE ORDER ON THE TABLE WE HAVE A MOTION TO LAY THE REST OF THE ORDER ON THE TABLE BY COUNCIL LIPOR GARABEDIAN SECONDED BY COUNCILOR Mortimer WE DON'T HAVE FULL MEETING IT NEEDS TO IT'S GOING TO BE AN APPROPRIATION NO IT'S A SENATE APPROPRIATION FIRST ONE TWO COMMITTEE OKAY THE BALANCE OF THE ORDER WILL GO TO THE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE GREAT THANK YOU COUNCIL MEDEIROS PLEASE THANK YOU ON DISCUSSION UH WILL WE BE GETTING SOME INFORMATION FOR THIS ORDER

▶ 41:41 prior to the meeting in the public hearing the city assessor has let us know that the the information would be certified or approved by the state today and he'd be posting it tomorrow for you all thank you thank you thank you continuing with communications from her honor the mayor order 2020-43 a transfer in the amount of thirty thousand dollars from regional school Essex agricultural account 0 1 3 0 1 2 5 4 7 3 0 0 2 inspectional services account 0 1 2 4 1 2 5 2 9 0 0 0 to cover the costs associated with building inspectors that will go to the Committee on Finance new business please order 20 20-44 a resolution in support of the fourth annual Melrose random acts of kindness day on Wednesday November 20th 2019 Thank You mr. president I'd like to

▶ 42:40 Michael P. Zwirko: seek immediate consideration of this order councillors work goes seeking immediate consideration is there any objections counselors worker you may continue Thank You mr. president before we went on recess we suspended the rules I would understand that we're still under suspension yes we are I would ask at this time given that we're under suspension of the rules if I could approach the podium with two guests that have here this evening yes you may so thank you everyone um this evening um i sponsored the order to for this resolution on behalf of the random acts of kindness day which was begun by maribeth darwin here on my right and before i get into reading the resolution and we have a few words

▶ 43:40 Michael P. Zwirko: i just wanted to say that when i first heard about this i was really pleased that the community was doing something like this and it brought me back to one one event I was in college and I was driving and as many people know I'm from Western Massachusetts and I went to college in Maine so I had about a six and a half hour drive ahead of me and I got to the Portland tolls and this was in the late 90s and this is when you actually still had to pay for your tolls with coins and the car in front of me had paid my toll so when I got up to the gate I kind of looked at the toll clerk and they kind of waved me through and I'll never forget that right it happened like 20 years ago but it was a really cool

▶ 44:16 Michael P. Zwirko: moment and it was something that I just appreciated that somebody just in front of me didn't know me didn't know who I was paid my dollar toll on the Portland Turnpike in Maine on my way to college and and that's kind of paying it forward right and I try to do the same I don't do it all the time but sometimes I'm in the line at Starbucks or a local cafe and I'll leave my debit card there for the next person to get a coffee on my dime or whatnot and you know it you don't know where people are in their lives you don't know what happened to them that day if they're in a good mood a bad mood or indifferent and that random act of kindness can really go a long way and here we are 20 years later and I remember the moment when someone paid a dollar for my toll and a main

▶ 44:52 Michael P. Zwirko: turnpike so it is important so with that let me read the resolution and then we'll get to some some remarks here this evening whereas Melrose random acts of kindness day was created by a dedicated group of Melrose residents who are engaged in our various PTOs and civic organizations as well as local businesses committed to living up to our city's motto of one community open to all and whereas the purpose of melrose acts of random kindness day excuse me melrose random acts of kindness day is to celebrate kindness with random acts of kindness performed by individuals businesses schools and organizations throughout our community and beyond and whereas the melrose random acts of kindness day started in 2015 as a social media campaign to encourage random acts

▶ 45:34 Michael P. Zwirko: of kindness on this day has grown bigger each year and it is held annually on november 20th to recognize this date and a date that should be filled with kindness instead of violent acts or acts of transgression whereas the melrose random acts of kindness day has grown larger each year and continues to grow to be a positive outlet for our community the first year began on facebook and invited others to join the second year a banner was hung over main street to bring about more awareness the third year it included kindness posters warrior stickers and kindness cards and this year is its fourth year whereas practicing random acts of kindness help improve someone's day and remind others that love is the most

▶ 46:11 Michael P. Zwirko: powerful force in the universe in a world where kindness seems to dwindle it is important to remind ourselves and others that people care and we are all in this life together and therefore that we the melrose city council have approved this resolution in support of the fourth annual melrose random acts of kindness day on wednesday november 20th 2019 and further pledged to practice random acts of kindness and spread goodwill towards others that this day on the 18th day of november in the year of 2019 a copy of this resolution be spread upon the records of the city council thank you i just wanted to give a few comments about the day so thanks to mike for putting this resolution forth and to everyone on the city council for practicing kindness every day

▶ 47:03 none of your jobs are easy and we appreciate you doing them stephanie and i are i should say stephanie is my co-sponsor of miller's random acts of kindness day stephanie nelson and she and i are grateful to be here to increase visibility of the day that is so near and dear to our hearts november 20th is our fourth annual celebration of kindness we're asking everyone in the community to practice random kindness throughout the day it's as easy as buying someone a cup of coffee holding the door giving up a parking space or complimenting a stranger being kind strengthens the soul not just of individuals but of a community our city is stronger because of the kindness we share so we brought cookies

▶ 47:49 because any meeting scheduled for 7 45 and going on as late as this one already has on a monday always have cookies so we'd like you to take one and pass it on thereby um kicking off kindness right here in this room two days before the big event we're also distributing kindness warrior stickers when you wear yours on november 20th you'll be easily identified as a kindness warrior or a superhero and if you're wondering about your superpower it's right here with the kindness cards so the kindness card was created and the language says you've just received a random act of kindness now it's your turn do something kind and unexpected for someone and leave this card when you do it will make you feel good when you

▶ 48:40 surprise your kindness target use this card you can tell them if you don't feel comfortable you can you know just pass the card and have it hopefully pass along merchants throughout our city educators and our service organizations are ready to go with their stickers and cards you'll also see kindness posters displayed in all of the window fronts uh downtown a quick shout out to our Glenn Blackburn who's a Winthrop father and he donated his time to come up with all of this artwork so we appreciate it Glenn so what will happen on Wednesday well more kindness than you can imagine we've heard so many wonderful stories over the years from the PTO that provides note card delivery giving kids the opportunity to anonymously celebrate kindness through

▶ 49:27 school mail service to the downtown florist who hides bouquets throughout the city so that random people can find them enjoy them and then pass them along last year someone visiting melrose trekked to the chamber of commerce and presented cookies we heard about the day the visitor said and we wanted to do something for you each year the ymca randomly presents a visitor with a free months membership this year the Melrose ed foundation plans to surprise the library with a showering of kindness it's all pretty cool one of our favorite stories is a Melrose resident named Kathy who had been contemplating what to do on random acts of kindness last year she went to Shaw's plan to make a donation to a family in need with their giving tree during checkout Sharon the

▶ 50:19 customer service manager gave Kathy a $25 gift card. And her response was, I'm here to pay it forward, not to get an act of kindness. So she then took the value of that card and gave it to the Salvation Army person at the door. In return, she received a wide smile and exuberant thank you. Feeling all sorts of warm and fuzzy, she went to Dunkin' Donuts, got a box of Joe and a dozen donuts, and decided to go to Tom's Golf on Upham Street because they've helped her out with her car a number of times well when she arrived she found out that they had already received a box of joe and a dozen donuts as part of random acts of kindness day earlier in the day but tom said we so appreciate the gesture let me fill up your tank and she said she keeps finding herself trying

▶ 51:05 to go out and do something additionally so i imagine kathy slept well last night as all of our kindness warriors do so how can you help well we're just looking for you to kind it up we'd love to see the city council as one unit celebrate kindness by showering another organization in our city with love make a joint donation to melrose grad night send flowers the melrose alliance against violence by lunch for city hall this year we'll have a mural in the ymca courtyard the mural is a way for you to show that you are the i in kind so you stand in for the letter i there's a large k then there's a space then there's an n and a d you stand where the i is and you hold a white board that tells us what you did to be kind that day chris rodolico of

▶ 51:53 all your art has generously donated her time to create the mural and we'd love for everyone in this room to stop by in the ymca courtyard during the day on wednesday to show us how you embrace kindness we encourage you to engage as many businesses in melrose as you can so many of them have surprises planned for throughout the day starbucks will display a poster of 100 ways to be kind the mayor's blog will send that to julie nolan has promised to have her pub table in front of the melrose post office i love this offering free coffee free hugs and advice if anybody needs advice she'll top another example is tapas gave out free appetizers and surprised a couple of diners with complimentary dinners buccaloos has promised to surprise residents

▶ 52:44 at a local retirement home with a lot of delicious goodies and our schools are also extremely supportive and have embraced the idea they're excited to get in on the fun we've encouraged these children to maybe sit with somebody new at lunch or compliment a classmates work play with a new friend at recess or give up the coveted first line in spot first spot in the line in the morning what is it about the children leading us if we watch them they will so look for us tomorrow we'll be on let's talk Melrose Melrose we've also done segments of the Julie Nolan show and the Melrose scoop follow us on social media look for us look for the Melrose Kind page on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The SDM Foundation told us how to do

▶ 53:31 that, thereby being kind early. You can post photos, videos, and stories on our Facebook page or send them to our email address, melroserak at gmail.com. Look for the Melrose Random Acts of Kindness Facebook event and indicate that you are going. A Melrose company, the Video Creators lounge has offered to put together a video of kindness that occurs on wednesday so it's really important that we get tons of feedback about the day we also have plans to continue spreading kindness throughout the year one way we'll do this is is with our wednesday kindness warrior social media post each wednesday we'll post on facebook instagram and twitter a short profile of a particularly kind Melrosian. Some of our most popular kindness warriors to date

▶ 54:22 are Scarlett, a 13 year old with a passion to save African elephants, Joel who corrals shopping carts at Shaw's while singing Christmas carols year-round, and Jenny who we call the dog whisperer because of her passion for rescuing runaway pups. If you know a warrior we should feature please let us know. So thank you for having us to speak this evening and for this kindness resolution we are continuously amazed by the reception that we get throughout melrose when we talk about november 20th and the day proving once again that our community is more than just kind for melrose kind thank you this also shows um where you can um post on facebook so i just thought i just made those for everyone all right mr. president we could have a brief recess motion for

▶ 55:22 recess second i just realized that yeah yeah get it back thank you very much all right we are back from recess council's workout please thank you mr president i make a motion at this point that excuse me at this moment to place the order on file second we have a motion by council's worker to place the order on file seconded by council mortimer all those All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That order has been placed on file. Are there any orders out of order? No. Are there any orders from committee? Mr. President. Council Chairman Tosi, please. Thank you, Mr. President. I make a motion to remove order 2020-30, emergency management services vehicle acquisition request, removed from committee.

▶ 58:07 Scott M. Forbes: Second the motion to remove the order from committee, Mr. President. We have a motion to remove 2020-30 from committee by Councilor Tramontozzi, seconded by Council Mortimer. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The order is before you. Mr. President, this order was brought before the full board for a vote. The vote in committee was that it ought not pass. for a vote for the full board regarding this order okay so we have a motion made by council chairman Tosi on the order for it ought not to pass do I have a second second seconded by councillor Lipper-Garabedian this is a voice vote and the majority the majority rule so all those in favor of this order ought not to pass point of order clarification yes means we agree yes so a point of

▶ 59:15 Scott M. Forbes: clarification a yes on this vote would mean that the order would not pass thank you so all of those in favor a voice phone it's a voice vote it's not a roll call vote so all those in favor say aye opposed opposed show hands on the opposed all right that order does not pass council Lipper-Garabedian yes I move that we remove from committee order number 2020-35 acceptance of a fiscal year 20 state 9-1-1 department emergency medical dispatch grant program in the amount of $18,000 to fund Cataldo ambulance company emergency services second the motion to remove the order from committee mr. president Letter Letter Garabedian makes a motion to remove order 2020-35 from committee seconded by councillor Mortimer all those in favor aye any opposed the order

▶ 1:00:14 Scott M. Forbes: is before you councillor this comes with an order I'm sorry this comes with a recommendation from the Appropriations Committee for passage and so I move that we pass this order councillor Letter Garabedian makes a motion for passage of this order second seconded by councillor Mortimer this is also a voice vote all All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That order passes. Councilor Lipper-Garabedian for the second time. Yes, I move that we remove from committee order number 2020-32 authorization to accept a grant in the amount of $219,028 from the Department of Energy Resources through the Green Communities Division and authorize the mayor to execute a contract with the Department of Energy Resources funds

▶ 1:00:55 Scott M. Forbes: to be deposited into fund number 4030. Second the motion to remove the order from committee, Councilor Lipper-Garabedian makes a motion to remove order number 2020-32 from committee, seconded by Council Mortimer. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The order is before you. Thank you, President Forbes. This also comes with a recommendation for passage by the Appropriations Committee, and I move for passage of order number 2020-32. Second the motion for passage. Councilor Lipper-Garabedian makes a motion for passage, seconded by Council Mortimer. Again, this is a voice vote. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? motion passes or order passes let's move on to the calendar please oh I'm sorry before the

▶ 1:01:41 John N. Tramontozzi: calendar we have any reports from rule 53 I know we have council chairman Tosi yes thank you mr. president so as you might recall I was the City Council representative on the fiscal year 20 capital improvements program committee the fiscal year 20 capital improvements program began in June of 2019 and the committee was selected and the committee the process was that the committee heard from the department heads and who were asked to provide their capital needs for the next five years the committee The city consisted of the Office of Planning and Community Development Director and the CIP Chair, Denise Gaffey, the CFO City Auditor, Patrick DellaRusso, the City Treasurer, Art Flavin, Interim Public Works Director, Rick Stinson, the Energy Efficiency Manager, Martha

▶ 1:02:40 John N. Tramontozzi: Grover, School Committee Representative, Ed O'Connell, Josh Trulli, the City Council Representative, and a Community Representative, Lisa Lewis. There was a total of 66 capital improvement projects were submitted by nine departments and these projects were reviewed. Total value of $95,618,238 in overall costs over the next five years. The committee then reviewed the projects for capital funding using a set of valuations criteria. I'm pleased to report that a report has been produced. The report provides a summary description of the priority group projects that the CIP committee has recommended. The report has been submitted to Mayor Broder for his review and to address the capital improvement needs in forthcoming years.

▶ 1:03:45 John N. Tramontozzi: suspect that this board will eventually get recommendations from the city as to capital improvements i have the report itself i'll leave here for everybody to review in that in our room and if anybody cares for a pdf electronic format just send me an email and i'll be happy to send you one thank you very good thank you counselor any other counselors under uh rule 53. council medeiros please thank you as a school committee representative i just have a brief update that tomorrow night the school committee is going to have a special meeting of the school committee held at the learning commons at melrose high school to discuss uses of the bb school and so this is an opportunity for public comment that's going to be at 7 p.m

▶ 1:04:36 Shawn M. MacMaster: tomorrow there's some information on the city website and again under meeting agenda portals what people can see the proposed the items under consideration by the school committee and the public can weigh in thank you thank you counselor anyone else under rule 53 all right we can continue with the calendar please order 2020-37 request for the city of melrose to produce infrastructural data relating to all municipal sewer lines this comes from the public works committee council mcmaster please thank you mr president this order comes out of the protection and license committee with a favorable recommendation for passage excuse me out of the the public works committee with a favorable recommendation for passage

▶ 1:05:27 Scott M. Forbes: very good at this time makes a motion to recommend for passage as amended yes mr president second i have a second by council Letter garabedian again this is a voice vote all those in favor any opposed order passes order 2020-16 appointment of paul moore 35 laurel street to the conservation commission for a three-year term said term to expire on the last day of february 2021 this came from the public service committee with without recommendation for passage i believe mr moore is here this evening and we thank you for your patience sir uh do we have a motion to do are we under suspension of the rules so we need a motion for suspension of the rules all right we are under suspension you may you may approach sir

▶ 1:06:18 Michael P. Zwirko: first and key i have counselors worker thank you mr president i am the chairman of public service and at the time where we held the meeting mr moore indicated that he could not show up for that meeting so we agreed to move forward without recommendation with the understanding that he would be before us this evening so we appreciate you being here we also have miss murphy who is i believe the chair of the conservation commission here so this will be like a committee setting this evening for this order we do appreciate we know that schedules can be tough from time to time so thank you for being here this evening i just wanted to state for the record that we do have a resume that is attached for mr moore and conservation commission has a couple of

▶ 1:06:58 Michael P. Zwirko: vacancies so we would like to get this this filled but it did come out of committee without recommendations so with that if you could just explain a little bit about yourself and what you're looking forward to serving on the Conservation Commission and the like of course first of all as we said it wasn't able to make public service meeting in October I was traveling I was out of town so thank you for the flexibility in the scheduling I know meetings are late so I'll try to keep this short and we can move on to the questions but basically I first became aware of the conservation commission spring of last year i believe it was looking back my calendar i think it was april 2018 i attended my first conservation commission and to be quite

▶ 1:07:40 frank i wasn't really too aware of what the conservation commission did at that point in time so this was very much a learning experience for me on that first meeting just to understand what the commission did what were some of the things that came before the commission prior to that i knew that we were very lucky in Melrose to have some really nice, open, green spaces. You know, to be able to go to a walk, you know, in the woods when you get home from work and yet this close to the city of Boston, that's, we're lucky to have that. That's something special. That's what originally brought me to the Conservation Commission. And over the course of, well it's been a little over a year and a half now, I've really developed

▶ 1:08:22 an appreciation for the work that goes on there in terms of just protecting the resources that we have as well as the stewardship of the conservation land doing regular trail cleanups trail maintenance i've participated in a number of those cleanups i've helped you know maintain some of the trail network that we have including re-blazing some of the trails and remapping them and basically just attending all the meetings and since Mr. Drunch left us in what February I believe it was earlier this year I've tried to get a little more up to speed as some of the regulations and whatnot to that end just in October before I left and so I couldn't make this public service meeting I attended the MACC day of workshop it was out Danvers I

▶ 1:09:14 Michael P. Zwirko: believe and that was very helpful so that's that's basically I guess where I'm coming from like I said I don't want to drone on too long I assume you have some questions I actually don't have any any questions for you this evening I'll leave it to my colleagues the one comment I did want to make is I believe one of my colleagues mr. councillor Mortimer was a former member of the the Conservation Commission, is that correct? Five years, and Councilor Boycelle was chair for six years, weren't you? Yeah. Six years, and I was on for five years when he was the chair. Thank you for mentioning that. So if past is prologue, maybe you would see yourself among this august body five, six years from now.

▶ 1:09:54 Peter D. Mortimer: My wife also served on the Conservation Commission previously. You guys do get cookies, so I'm already very envious of you. I'll reserve questions for my colleagues, Mr. President, that's all I had at this time, thank you. council monomer please thank you very much and uh i greatly appreciate the green belt that we have around melrose and the woods it's uh one of the many factors that makes melrose the very special place that it is appreciate your service resident of ward six so we really appreciate coming on board and we really appreciate chairman Mary stewardship for the committee and for the open green spaces of melrose thank you for uh looking out for those areas they're very very important

▶ 1:10:35 Monica C. Medeiros: for the reasons you mentioned a little serenity when you come home from a crazy day of work and just the fresh air that it provides it's uh it's very very very excellent thank you so much to both of you thank you mr president good council madero's please thank you thank you very much i i think it sounds i'm glad to see your interest in that you've been attending you know just as a volunteer for it sounds like you know quite a bit of time now and i would just really appreciate that and your service to all of this and i know uh speaking of people giving up their time i know we have miss murphy here and i thought she may have something to add in addition i i thank you very much i just wanted to say of all the people we've had join the commission paul has

▶ 1:11:16 has really shown such great interest for such a long period of time before becoming an official member and we're very excited to have him come on board he's someone who first became involved with the Commission through the trails and trail stewardship working on the trail work but he's really as he said he's really shown an interest in all the work that we do and we're really excited to have him on board and as councillor Zwirko said we are short of people and it would be great to have a full complement because it does create issues especially when we have some of the more complicated longer hearings which i know we have at least one coming up so we would love to have a full quorum by then yeah absolutely i know it's going to be i think a

▶ 1:12:01 Monica C. Medeiros: very busy year probably ahead and so i'm glad that you're taking the classes and going out there is there any particular area that or anything that you feel is like you have as as an agenda item as as a new member I think for me the area where I'm I guess most concerned about my own my own work would be just coming more up to speed with the regulations you know I don't necessarily you've all seen my resume I don't necessarily have a professional background in any of this so there's there's a bit of a learning curve and I guess if there's if there's any saving grace to this this appointment process dragging out so long as it's given me a little bit of a time to get a bit of a head start and we've we've got a great commission they're all

▶ 1:12:47 extremely helpful and i've learned quite a bit from them and so i guess looking forward for the next you know several months to a year it would just be learning more of the regulations and requirements very good well you know they have a saying where there's a will there's a way so i'm sure you'll do just fine thank you thank you thank you council Boisselle please i just have one thing to ask you is do you know what poison ivy looks like it's funny this is one of those things that i keep going back and forth on i've spent a great deal of time outdoors and i've yet to get any poison ivy and for a good deal in my life especially when i was younger i can't say that i knew really all that well what poison ivy was and so i kind of wonder at this point if i'm one of

▶ 1:13:34 those lucky individuals that maybe just doesn't have any sort of strong reactions but to answer your questions yes i know a handful of poison ivy but if you're familiar with poison ivy you know that it can take a number of different forms so i can't say that i'm well versed in all of them but before you go out on a field inspection make sure you review those guidelines yes yes no and i'm i'm very good and when i get back you know the pants go off and go into a separate load in the wash and whatnots but like i said knock on wood hasn't been an issue yet thank you good luck thank you motion for passage mr president mr chair we had a motion for passage made by councillors werco we got a second by councillor mortimer this is a voice vote all

▶ 1:14:16 Scott M. Forbes: those in favor aye aye any opposed order passes thank you welcome aboard sir thank you very much thank you for your patience tonight leave some free let it be leave some free let it be Order 2020-36, establishing a designated parking space at City Hall for Veterans of the United States Armed Forces. This came from the Public Service Committee. Council McMaster, please. Yes, Mr. President. This order comes from the Public Service Committee with a recommendation to place on file, so I would move at this time to do so. Second. We got a motion to place on file made by Council McMaster, seconded by Councilor Zwirko. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? this order will be placed on file order 2020-15 appointment of Melissa Riley 119

▶ 1:15:03 Michael P. Zwirko: West Wyoming Ave apartment 2 to the conservation should say Commission as an associate member for a three-year term said term to expire on the last day of February 2022 this also came from the public service committee counselors work oh please Thank You mr. president just as a reminder when the Public Service Committee met on this order we were notified the day of the meeting that miss rip miss excuse me miss Riley withdrew her name from consideration due to conflicts so at this time it left the committee with the motion for withdrawal so I will move for to place this order on file very good we got a motion to place on file made by councillors work Oh seconded by council McMaster all those in favor to place the soil on order on file please say aye any opposed

▶ 1:15:47 Scott M. Forbes: this order will be placed on file and before we adjourn in random acts of kindness just to piggyback on that I'd like to salute my colleagues at the Veterans Northeast Outreach Center who tonight are serving dozens of Thanksgiving meals to local area veterans in need for the Merrimack Valley although I will not be I'm not there to participate tonight I will be there serving with you next year so I salute you very good mr. president before I put forth a motion to adjourn I would like to extend our hearty congratulations to the Melrose High School football team who won the league championship and the regional championship and on December 7th they will be playing in the Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium and I know there's a

▶ 1:16:29 Peter D. Mortimer: large crowd of Melrose residents who were going there to cheer them on I hope as many people as possible can make the trip to buoy them up hot hearty congratulations the Melrose high school football team again they're going to the Super Bowl at Gillette wonderful wonderful news from Melrose well said Councillor. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn made by Councillor Mortimer, seconded by Councillor Search. All those in favor of adjournment, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned.

City Council — 2019-11-18

Attendance

Agenda

Minutes

Transcript

Original documents