Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2020-11-09
Attendance
Christopher Cinella ; Jack Eccles ; Mark Garipay ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Jeff McNaught ; Leila Migliorelli ; Robb Stewart ; Cory Thomas ; John N. Tramontozzi
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● NOVEMBER 9, 2020 Web-based remote meeting Committee Meeting 7:30 PM , Melrose, MA 02176 The public should take notice that the Melrose City Council may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the City Council 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 Christopher Cinella Chair Present Leila Migliorelli Vice Chair Present John N. Tramontozzi Voting Present Shawn M. MacMaster Voting Present Jeff McNaught Voting Present Jack Eccles Voting Present Mark Garipay Voting Present Robb Stewart Voting Present Cory Thomas Voting Present Maya Jamaleddine Voting Present Jen Grigoraitis President, ex oficio Present
ORDER-2021-30 Bond Authorizing a Bond under the Water Enterprise System through MWRA Local Water System Assistance Program bonds for FY2021 in the amount of Eight Hundred Seventy Five Thousand Dollars ($875,000) Recommend Passage City Council City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 11/12/2020 1:23 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Christopher Cinella: We are recording. Okay, good evening and welcome to the November 9th Appropriations Committee. My name is Councilor Chris Cinella, the Chair, and present this evening are voting members Vice Chair Migliorelli, Councilor Tramontozzi, Councilor McMaster, Councilor Eccles, Councilor Garipay, Councilor Stewart, Councilor Thomas, Councilor Jamaleddine, and President Grigoraitis. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020 order, suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, the Governor's March 15th, 2020 order imposing strict limitation on the number of people that may gather in one place, this meeting of the Appropriations Committee will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible.
▶ 0:52 We'll post an audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of these proceedings. As soon as possible after the meeting on the city and the website. And mtb3 dot org should know that in my sleep now, but I don't. I will entertain a motion at this time for public comment. Motion open public comment. motion public comment made by counselor stewart seconded by president Grigoraitis madam clerk please call the role chairman sanella yes nice chad Migliorelli yes councillor Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor McNaught councillor eccles yes council agarapay yes councillor stewart yes councillor thomas yes councillor Jamaleddine yes president Grigoraitis yes and yes all right and let the record reflect that councillor mcnaught
▶ 1:58 is with us this evening three minutes late do we have anybody in queue for public comment we have nobody in public comment motion of course second motion to close public comment made by councillor thomas seconded by councillor stewart madam clerk please call the role chairman sanella yes vice chair Migliorelli yes councillor traymond yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor mcnaught can't hear you sorry can't hear you councillor i'll come back councillor eccles Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Councilor McNaught, can you go? Yes. I can't hear you. Is there somebody in queue? Is that what he's trying to tell us?
▶ 3:01 The person in queue works for Public Works. No, an attendee right now that I see on the website is Jim troop. He's saying, hold on a 2nd, I know there's a possibility he had someone that would like to speak. To the order this evening, you know what counselor. I will see if I can add the option to. Chat the chat box. We'll get this down 1 of these days. right counselor mcnaught if you want to let's see i have uh mr pelrine i believe mr pelrine is in queue now let's see if he's able to speak to us we closed public comment do we need to reopen it sorry let's just see you're right mr paleron can you hear us you can you hear me can you yes hear him yes so we should probably do it to reopen motion to reopen public comments
▶ 4:16 motion to reopen public economy by counselor uh thomas seconded by counselor who vice chairman chairman sanella yes vice chair Migliorelli yes council of tram and tozy yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor mcnaught i think he's gone councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor stewart yes councillor thomas yes councillor maladin yes president Grigoraitis yes and yes okay mr power and the floor is open for you if you'd like to speak okay thank you you can still hear me is that correct yes sir okay thanks for around let me join in you guys i'm sorry i was late kind of a newbie on this that's okay yeah okay i'm i'm here tonight to talk about the proposal of the city of melrose authorizing a bond for 875 000
▶ 5:31 dollars for more water pipes and so i had a few questions about this and the first one being has there been any other bonds from the mwa mwra paid off recently uh mr power just procedurally um we don't have a q a during this time it's public comment okay and that's well these are my comments okay so i don't expect an answer i'm just all right and then i guess that um i'm thinking that this is a little bit exorbitant at this time due to maybe some of the covid 19 expenses that the city is going to be incurring coming up and that you know we're spending a lot of money on the schools for the safety of our students and our teachers and support staff and so i'm just wondering you know by my rough calculations this would be approximately
▶ 6:37 7 400 a month for a payment back to the mwra and would that be covered in the existing rate structure so that there'd be no increase next year to borrow this money and um pretty much that's it i'm kind of opposed to this spending at this time i think we should sit tight for a year and see what happens and see what the federal government can do to help us with all our other expenses i thank everybody for your time and uh see you around Melrose. Thank you, sir. I'm Clark. Anybody else in the queue? I do not see anybody else. Motion to reclose public comment. Motion to reclose public comment made by counselor Stewart. Second by president. Chairman. Yes. Vice chair. Yes. Councilor Trey Manisha? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor McNaught?
▶ 7:53 Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. 11 yes okay so we want to order this evening order 21-30 authorizing a bond under the water enterprise system through MWRA loader local water resource system assistance program bonds for fiscal year 2021 in the amount of eight hundred and seventy five thousand dollars at this time I'll entertain a motion to suspend the rules motion to suspend the rules so we can hear from members of dpw motion to suspend the rules made by president franeritis seconded by vice chair Migliorelli adam clark please call the role chairman sanella yes vice chair Migliorelli yes councilor Tramontozzi
▶ 8:57 tozy yes councilor mcmaster yes councilor mcnaught yes councilor eccles yes councilor Garipay Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. 11 yes. All right. I'll bring in the Director. One second. My mouse is not working. Okay. And I'm going to bring in Jim Troop. Elena, can you hear us? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. okay can you hear me yeah yes Jim can you hear us I can hear you okay okay I have a brand new laptop and I'm still adjusting to it and also for some reason everything looks very green in my on my new camera um so I'm gonna share my
▶ 10:08 screen assuming I'm able to do that kristin do you have to give me permission to share um it's not asking for anything elena hold on one second because when i go to share i'm not getting anything hold on privileges share documents apply okay how's it now uh it's giving me an option to share a file but not to share my screen let's see what happens when i do share file no i don't think that's going to work i didn't yeah we've never had trouble with this before i don't know i don't know you're sharing anything so on my end documents event communications everything is checked as in okay and to apply okay should i just send you the file sure okay sorry council sorry this normally has worked explain you're gonna send it via email
▶ 12:11 yes i just sent it it goes over the airwaves quickly um okay water bond it's the attachment that you sent earlier last week for the to the file it's on the file right now on the order oh yeah it's also in the order correct yeah it's everything you guys have seen this It's a PowerPoint presentation that's attached to the order. Okay, did you receive it? Yes. Hold on. Yeah. I'm going to share my screen. Can you guys see this? Yep. Okay. There's still one thing in the way, Kristin. One dialogue box open, it looks like. There we go. Just to be conscious of the time too, we do have the public hearing at 8, as you know. Yes. Yeah, and this is quick. I think it's only 13 slides. And I'll go through it pretty quickly. So can you do start slideshow or do slideshow from beginning?
▶ 13:25 This is from the beginning, Elena. But you have to go to slideshow and then make it so it fills the screen from beginning yep there you go there you go okay all right can everybody see that yep okay so um so normally when we do our uh our water main improvement projects we do a project every year and uh they are part of our larger multi-year roadway and utility program so i So I know we've discussed this in other venues before, but the components of that program are the water system improvements, sewer system infiltration and flow reduction projects, our paving projects, including our complete streets, and then national grids gas main replacements. Next slide. So just a refresher that our 2020 program,
▶ 14:38 our construction schedule that we presented earlier in the year, consists of a number of different projects. The gray are paving, the blue are water, the yellow is gas, and the green is sewer. And so the projects come together year after year where we do the utilities first, and then we do the above ground infrastructure after. And then at the end of about a three-year period, we have a brand new street, newly paved street trees, new street signs if we need them, you know, everything that the neighborhood actually sees happens usually at the end of the three-year period next slide okay so the capital efficiency plan which guides where we do our water main improvements has three components we look at
▶ 15:26 oops back two i think elena you can just press the back arrows yeah sorry about that okay there we go um i think there's something else open on the top now too that's graying out the top of the slide. No, this is not. Oh, there it goes. Okay. So, the capital efficiency plan was completed in 2017, and that is our capital plan document that guides where we need to do improvements to the water system. So hydraulics are the areas that don't have good flow or good fire flow. Asset management refers to old pipes, pipes that are substandard materials and then critical components refers to is it say the only pipe that serves an important facility like a school or the hospital or or something like that that would make it a critical
▶ 16:22 facility okay next so this capital efficiency plan was completed by tata and howard in 2017 and it breaks down the water main improvements by priority um the phase one priority areas have now all been completed and so now we're working on projects that are in phases two and three and then sometimes we add other projects to the plan just based on we might have a number of water main breaks in an area and then that is new information or we may have a pipe that we had to cut into for a different reason over the course of the year and we see what the condition looks like inside and we decide this really needs to be made a higher priority so sometimes we throw in other projects in that way okay next so this just shows um our projects from a couple years ago
▶ 17:14 some of the streets that we did and just the difference in our flushing or our hydrant flushing data so you can see for instance florence street used to have a flow of only 300 to 350 gallons per minute when we would flush the hydrants during our biannual flushing and and biennial flushing. And then the recent results are on the right-hand side there, so 1,350 gallons per minute after we replaced the water main on the street. So this has a huge impact. These are just samples from one of our recent projects, but the impacts of these projects are huge, and it's important that we continue doing these projects to continually bring our system up to speed to how it should be. Next. So this map shows, I don't know if you're having
▶ 18:07 trouble too seeing the one square on the screen, but the date ranges there are 2000 and 2010 are the mains we replaced in purple. The next range is 2011 to 15, I believe, are the ones in blue. um the next one is 16 to 19 is in red and then lastly oh there we go and then last year's project um is in green so this is the project actually this year 2020's project are all the ones in green so we're just finishing those up so those are now going into the next phase of the cycle so you'll see a lot of the red projects are where we're paving right now so um or where we've recently paved like Warwick Road and Altamont Ave, Florence Street, Ashmont, Ashmont Park. So those are the streets we did a couple of years ago
▶ 19:06 and now we've brought those to completion with paving and restoration. The 2020 projects will now go into the queue for next year for 2021 paving. And then these new projects, National Grid has completed some work on some of these streets, the new streets, then those will go into the queue for 2022 paving next okay so this just runs through those projects that we just finished they were on damon and glendale first street from ashcroft to waverly echo from whitman to the hoover school brown street and wyoming heights and then some testing that we had to do on the pipe on wyoming ave next so the proposed projects with the new loan are burnett sycamore and hunwell so that's an area where we had national grid do work last year
▶ 20:08 in anticipation of our doing work this year those were driven by their extremely poor roadway condition rankings that neighborhood has been asking for a long time when they're getting paved they've had a lot of roadway condition issues so we had told them a couple years ago you can get paid soon but we have to go through the utility replacements first and then brazil street brazil street is both in poor condition pavement wise and in need of gas main replacement and also we're going to be doing sewer work there so this is perfect timing for brazil street it's a phase two project in the water plan so it's perfect time to do it we have some portions of pleasant and washington streets just a very small segment but it is in proximity to 99
▶ 20:55 washington and because they're going to be doing other work in that area we thought now's the best time to get that done felt in place we national grid did work there last year we had the intention of paving it it was not on the water main replacement list but we had multiple leaks when we were trying to do the gas work and then when we were trying to replace the water services in advance of paving last year where we realized that we couldn't pave that street the water main is in terrible condition and really needs to be replaced and then ashland street is another one that we dug to do some valves in the last few years and that one is not in good condition we know it needs replacement but we're bidding that as what we call an ad alternate which means
▶ 21:39 if we have enough money in the budget based on how the bid prices come in we'll do it and if we don't then it'll get delayed the design will be done but it'll get delayed till the following year next So here's how the budget breaks down of the project. The construction cost is 850,000 and the total project cost is 930,000. So we would be using 875,000 from the new loan and then 55,000 we can either use from the operating fund or from interest from the old loans or leftover money from the old loans. So we do have, we just closed out our project from two years ago, we have 9,000 left from that project. So we would put that towards this. We also know we have interest in the account in the amount of about 150,000.
▶ 22:33 So we would put that towards this as well if maybe Ashland Street only costs a little bit more, maybe we dip into that interest for this too. The interest is always available to us. It sits in an account that is dedicated to Melrose and it's just the interest the prior loan monies have earned in the time that we're spending them down and so mwra tracks how much money is left in that and then provides that money back to us whenever we need it for capital projects they have to be eligible projects next so details of tonight's request uh 875 000 from the mwra local water assistance program which is everything that's presently available to us they make about five to six hundred thousand a year uh available to us and
▶ 23:26 um and uh we got a little behind a few years ago where one project took us into the next construction season and so then we got a year behind so then we had a little bit more money and actually there was some backlog of money from a few years ago as well um so we're now at the end we're fully caught up this brings us to zero available and then in july we get the next 500 something thousand and then that's what we would have available to us from here on out until mwra changes their program but i want to stress that this is our money basically being given back to us and every so often mwra re-evaluates the program they can take the money back from the communities not using it and then they can reallocate it within their budget
▶ 24:12 um so this is almost like a reserve fund that through our rates mwra sets aside money for us to be able to then borrow back at zero interest and put towards capital projects um it's a way for them to ensure that we're funding the needed investment in our system and so if we don't use our money that's allocated then you know someday we could lose that money and so i always say that it's you know it's our money and so we should be using it rather than letting somebody else use it it's a 10-year payback with zero interest or $87,500 per year and to answer one of Mr. Pellerin's questions we do have an old MWRA loan that is going off the books in fiscal 21 so our first payment on this new loan will be in 22 and we have this loan for $105,898 that will no longer
▶ 25:04 need to be paid starting in fiscal 22 um so that more than offsets the the new debt that we'd be bringing on for this loan and also in light of uh of covid we did not raise water and sewer rates for fiscal 21 as compared to fiscal 20. so we have made an adjustment that is um that has helped people in the current situation uh even given that this is uh just a slide to show that our water and sewer funds remain healthy our revenues collected in fiscal 20 met our revenue projections and we were able to cover all of our fiscal 20 expenditures in both water and sewer our first quarter revenues in fiscal 21 are up compared to prior years and are exceeding our projections so we're our water and sewer funds are receiving the revenue that we that we need to keep
▶ 25:59 them sustained for the fiscal year. Part of this, the reason it's up, is due to increased water use with people being at home. And I will caution that in fiscal 22, our MWRA assessments are going to go up because we are assessed in large part on the water side 100 percent and on the sewer side in large part based on our percent share of what we're using of MWRA system. So as long as Boston does not have as many people in it during the daytime and their percent share goes way down compared to prior years, then the percent share of everybody else in the MWRA district is going to go up. So they'll probably be one year where it's a little higher than usual, and then we'll adjust back, assuming that COVID
▶ 26:50 Christopher Cinella: fiscal 22 that things are starting to return to normal. So that is just a caution. But even with all of that, we feel that our rate model shows healthy, steady rate, no large increases, no big impacts to customers. So I think we're in good shape. So I couldn't see anybody raising their hands for questions, but we only have three minutes to go before the public hearing. so I want to make sure that we have ample time for questions and responses. So let me just write down right now, Councilor Garipay, McNaught. Did I miss anybody else that has questions? Stewart, anybody else have questions at this time? So we want to bounce over to City Council, start the hearing, and come back. I want to send a motion for a five-minute recess, not a five-minute recess.
▶ 28:02 Motion to recess. Second. Motion to recess, made by Councilor Stewart, seconded by Vice Chair Migliorelli. Chairman Cinella? Yes. Vice Chair Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. 11 yes. All right, we're now in recess. All right. Thank you, Councillor Stanella. Good evening. It is 7.59 p.m. on Monday, November 9th. I am President Grigoraitis, and this meeting of the Melrose City Council is called to order. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order, suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law and the governor's march 15 2020 order
▶ 51:49 Is that over the last 10 years? Is that something we get annually? We can apply for annually. Yeah, so we get roughly $550,000 a year allocated to us. That's been the number since I've been here. I'm not sure how long it's gone back as that same number. But then if you don't use it, it builds up in an account set aside specifically for your community. And so last year we did a project that was 1.44 million. The year before that, we did 1.025 million. And then those are the only two I remember off the top of my head. But, you know, at some point farther back in history, we had to have been doing more like the 500,000 that we've allocated. But then there must have been a couple of years when there weren't projects when that money built up. So 87, 875,000,
▶ 52:48 I'm sorry, not 87.5, let's say annual payment. Is that the most we could go for this year, or is that what we feel that we can finish within the timeframe of the construction period? I would actually love to go for more, but that is the total of what we have remaining. So that's all we'll get. And then, as I mentioned in the presentation, we do have about 150,000 in interest from past projects, and we do have a little bit left over from the last couple of years projects. So, you know, we would have roughly over a million, which is part of why I put in that Ashland Street at alternate bid, so that if we do find that the construction prices come in good and we find that we can fit Ashland Street in there, we would do that as well.
▶ 53:35 So all the outstanding bonds that we have now for this program, how many of them are still, are we still paying? You said one's coming off. There's one coming off, I think. And how many more? One is coming off. That's a question that I can answer, but I will have to look up. Let's see how quickly I can answer that question. So we build this all while I'm opening up our rate model. We build this all into our annual rate model. So we have every past loan listed in here for water and for sewer. and the exact payment structure. So each year we can see how many loans we're paying. So I'm just going to count up here in water for fiscal 21. We are currently paying 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. We have 10 loans that we're currently paying back. And the majority of those are MWRI
▶ 54:53 loans i think the only ones that were general obligation bonds are we did one loan um a couple years ago to cover some of the costs of roadway restoration on the um the streets that we were paving post water main work we didn't have quite enough to fund through our chapter 90 project program so we um we got some additional funds from a general obligation bond excuse me um and then And when we did the water meter replacement program, I believe that was also a non-MWRA bond. Okay. And just one other, or actually two other questions. Any indication whether the MWRA will continue this program after 2021? Yes. They have every intention of continuing it. And in fact, on the sewer side, they actually even expanded it last year at the recommendation of the MWRA Advisory Board.
▶ 55:55 Mark Garipay: I'm on their executive committee, and I attend monthly meetings with them. And so that's a board made up of all the member communities of a representative from each. And these are the sorts of things that we continually push for. And I don't expect that program to go anywhere. And then just for the annual debt service, I think it was 87, what, 87,500 on that. Does that come from, how does that money get allocated to pay that debt? Is that from the Water and Shore Enterprise Fund or is it through the city budget? It's solely from the Water Enterprise Fund. So, actually, in relation to one of the questions during public comment about the uncertainties during COVID and the other expenses that we may have, the water fund and the sewer fund are each independent of one another and independent of the general fund.
▶ 56:50 Jeff McNaught: So, these, you know, the savings from not having to pay back this loan could not be used for anything that doesn't pertain to water specifically for this project. Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Councilor McNaught. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Provan-Casellas. I think I just answered my question, but just to ask it again, I think there are difficulties with the salary and the folks at home. Can you just review how this loan is paid back? I know it's 0%, but can you explain how the loan is paid back, by who, and if it's transferred to ratepayers or not? Sure, so it is paid back through just automatic transfers from the city back to the MWRA in 10 equal payments
▶ 57:45 over the next 10 years, starting in fiscal 22. It is absolutely accounted for in the water rate. So when we do our rate model each year, we plug in all the expected expenditures and then all the projected revenue. And we have to ensure that the water fund can sustain itself. So our revenue does have to offset our expenditures. And so the rates are built to include a certain amount of debt, but similar to the general fund, we try to time it so that we're bringing on new debt as we're paying down old debt. And so this year, as I mentioned, we will pay our last payment of roughly $105,000 on one of our old loans. So when the new loan kicks in for fiscal 22 at $87,000, we'll still be in the black
▶ 58:39 Robb Stewart: in terms of this new loan would not result just by itself in any rate increase. Thank you. But it is transferred, essentially transferred to the rate payers. Yes, it is definitely paid for by the rate payers. Yes. Thank you. That's all I have. Okay. Chancellor Stewart. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Ferri-Casales, thank you for your presentation. You're well-prepared as always and it's very helpful to understand the proposed in front of us and it makes a difference in terms of helping to decide. Thank you for that. I do plan on supporting this, But I just have a couple of comments for information, I think, as the previous 2 counselors have suggested the, the financing and the structuring of the money is coming in and going out and where it goes.
▶ 59:45 Robb Stewart: It's fairly complex and it would be helpful because you talk a lot about it during your presentation and you have a couple of high level numbers. But for me, it would be very helpful to see that laid out a little bit more in a finance sheet. In an Excel spreadsheet, I think, and it can be contained. To the matter at hand, but from that standpoint, I think that would be. A useful contribution in terms of the general understanding and clarify some of these questions that are coming up. The other point that I want to make and I'm sorry, did you have any feedback on it? No, I just said, okay, uh, the other comment that I, uh, wanted to have is, uh, that's a little bit of a general greater concern.
▶ 1:00:30 Robb Stewart: And it's not directly, but indirectly related to this is just there. The percentage of people that might be struggling to make payment on their water rates. Um, because you didn't use words like no large increase and no big impact, which. Indicates that there is going to be an increase and there is going to be back. So. It would be helpful to understand what that is and to get in front of. People, and this is something maybe more for the mayor's office, but to get in front of. Anybody that is going to be struggling and continues to struggle with that what their options are for. Being able to continue to support the water bill. On this, but I appreciate again your input here and thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
▶ 1:01:20 Thank you and I would like to say 1 thing. I'm getting a lot of. Okay, that's better. Thank you. 1 thing with regard to. People who could could be struggling to pay their water and sewer bills in light of everything going on. We have been very flexible with for a long period. We were not charging any interest or demand fees. I believe we are once again charging fees. Um, as of, I don't remember the exact date, but sometime this fall, but for months, we did not, um. Charge any, if people were late on their payments, we haven't had a lot of people having trouble with their payments, but we certainly encourage anyone who is having an issue to contact the city. We are able to work out payment plans with people. We, we don't want anybody unable to pay for their necessary utilities. So that is absolutely a priority for us to make sure everybody can afford to pay their bills.
▶ 1:02:25 And with regard to increases, as I said, we didn't have any rate increase coming into this fiscal year. And, you know, it's hard to predict where our rates will be from one year to the next. But what I can say is that we have a very robust rate model that our consultant built for us a few years ago that the city is now able to run ourselves. And it really allows us to take a close look at the impacts of different, you know, small items on the rate and understand how they affect the big picture so that we can make sure that we are, you know, moving forward in a very steady fashion. so we won't have any rate shock or any years with 10% increases or anything like that. We've reached a point now where we are extremely stable in our increases. It's unrealistic to have zero
▶ 1:03:23 increase year after year after year, because that means you're neglecting your system, both systems, water and sewer. But we do try to have very consistent, smaller increases year after year and one other note on that is with the number of miles of pipe we have and the average replacement cost right now if we were to divide that by 100 years we should be spending roughly a million dollars a year replacing water pipes they have an estimated lifetime of 100 years we have pipes that are over 100 years old and so a million puts us at a break even over time after this year when we only have 500 some thousand from the MWRA each year then we really should be thinking about supplementing that with either retained
▶ 1:04:17 earnings or other water fund expenditures either operating budget or separate borrowing but to stay on pace with where we should be we should be at roughly a million a year in capital Anything else? No, thank you. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for being with us tonight. You mentioned that we're going to be done with payments of one loan. Do you say next month? At the end of the fiscal year. at the end of it and do we have any other loan that would be done this year that's the only one on the water side that finishes um this coming year just looking quickly at the others we have two that finish in in uh let's see actually all of the others continue on at least for the next three years our three years yeah our model that we have here
▶ 1:05:31 is it goes out to fiscal 2024. So I can see that all of our other loans, we had one that ended in fiscal 20. We have the one that's about to end in fiscal 21. And then the other nine or so loans all continue for at least the next three years. So one in 20, one in 21, and then eight in the next three years uh so we have 10 that we're paying off right now or say we had 11 that we were paying off in 20 and then 10 in 21 and then um or thereabouts uh although we did bring a new loan on this year the one we approved last year so they they've roughly offset each other okay here but but starting in fiscal 22 we will have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 plus the new loan so we will have 10 loans being paid back out of the water fund all with
▶ 1:06:41 Maya Jamaleddine: fairly steady I'm sorry I correct me if I'm wrong this new loan will be done in ten months right in ten years ten years yes okay so I am well strong thank you for clarifying so so so ten loan will be done in three years and then one will carry for ten years well no I guess what I'm saying is that the the ten that I show on my screen eight of them go they keep going beyond fiscal 24 and the rate model that we have is built out to fiscal 24. so i don't know exactly what year the rest of those end i just know that they all appear in fiscal 22 23 and 24 and then beyond that i don't know with the spreadsheet i'm looking at right now i don't know um when they end but uh catherine armada has a cip
▶ 1:07:47 Shawn M. MacMaster: for all the debt service that shows exactly when each of these loans um when the principal payments end okay thank you so much okay council mcmaster thank you mr uh chairman uh i just uh I think it's important to note that if this order gives pause to residents watching at home, because of the potential rate increase, it's, I think we need to look at it as an affirmative long term investment. Because when we make these investments, any type of a bond of this nature, that investment is really done with the aim of bringing down rates over time. So, although we're looking at it in the short term, we see it as a rate increase over time. It's what we need to do in order to bring our rates down. I think it's also important for me as a word 5 counselor to note that 21% of this has been earmarked for needed improvements to Brazil street and is really tied to the gas work that is going to begin later this month.
▶ 1:09:02 Shawn M. MacMaster: So, oftentimes with these types of projects, they're not unilateral in the sense of, they don't focus on just 1 issue. They're often connected to many related issues. So, I know, as the council award 5 has been working closely with this practice Ellis and mayor broader and the residents Brazil street that it's important that we move forward on this bond in order to get that work underway. So, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Paracas-Ellis, for your work on this. Thank you. President Grigoraitis? Thank you, Chairman Sinella. I just want to echo Councilor McMaster. Over half of this is earmarked for Streets and Ward 6, which Ms. Paracas-Ellis referenced in her presentation, that are in dire need of infrastructure improvements and have really felt neglected for a long time by the city.
▶ 1:09:56 and so i'm i'm really happy to see that we're going to finally help bring those streets back up to where they need to be um and at this time i would make a motion to recommend for passage motion made to recommend for passage made by president Grigoraitis seconded by council mcmaster any other additional discussion seeing none uh madam clerk please call them chairman yes vice chair Migliorelli yes council of Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor mcnaught yes councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor stewart yes councillor thomas yes councillor Jamaleddine yes president Grigoraitis yes 11 yes okay i'll entertain a motion for adjournment once you do adjourn thank you good motion to adjourn made by counselor stewart seconded by
▶ 1:11:06 vice chair Migliorelli adam clark please call the chairman yes vice chair Migliorelli yes councillor Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor mcnaught yes councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor stewart yes councillor thomas yes councillor Jamaleddine yes president Grigoraitis yes 11 yes Thank you, Chairman. All right, and we are back to the full council meeting and we will begin with agenda item number six, communications from his honor, the mayor, and other city officials. Madam Clerk of Committee, can you please read what we have? Order 2021-32, acceptance of fiscal year 21 Massachusetts Urban Agricultural Grant in the in the amount of $5,827 for the expansion of the Melrose Community Gardens.