Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2021-08-16

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

This meeting starts at 1:20:00 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Christopher Cinella present · President, ex oficio; Jack Eccles present · Vice Chair; Mark Garipay present; Jen Grigoraitis present; Maya Jamaleddine present; Shawn M. MacMaster present; Jeff McNaught present · Chair; Leila Migliorelli present; Robb Stewart present; Cory Thomas present; John N. Tramontozzi present

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● AUGUST 16, 2021 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:20 PM 562 Main Street, 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 Jeff McNaught Chair Present Jack Eccles Vice Chair Present John N. Tramontozzi Present Shawn M. MacMaster Present Mark Garipay Present Jen Grigoraitis Present Leila Migliorelli Present Robb Stewart Present Cory Thomas Present Maya Jamaleddine Present Christopher Cinella President, ex oficio Present The Appropriations Committee is called to order by Chair McNaught. This meeting is recorded and may be viewed on www.mmtv3.org

ORDER-2022-11 Informational An Order on the Status of Various Park Commission Projects Recommend Place on File City Council

ORDER-2022-2 Appropriation An appropriation from Capital Stabilization, account number 84052-590000, in the amount of $20,000.00 to Veteran's Professional Services, account number 015432-529000 for restoration of the Veteran's Honor Roll. Recommend Passage

ORDER-2022-3 Grant Authorization of Accept Two renewable AFDA grants in the amount of $2,500.00 each for the Health Department Recommend Passage City of Melrose Page 1 9/1/2021 12:47 PM

Transcript

▶ 1:20:37 Jeff McNaught: Councillor Garipay, Councillor Grigoraitis, Councillor Jamaleddine, Councilor Stewart, Councilor Thomas, and President Cinella. This provides a notice of the quorum for the record. In accordance with the open meeting law, this meeting is being recorded and broadcast on our local cable access channel, MMTV, as well as being live streamed through MMTV3.org and open for public viewing and participation online via WebEx. A recording of this will be available for future viewing through the City of Morales' website, and on mmtv3.org. For the folks at home, this is the portion of the meeting where any member of the public may come forward to speak to any item on the agenda this evening for the appropriations.

▶ 1:21:24 And if there's no objection, I will move by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Public comment is now open. Please step forward, state your name and address for the record. name is jim donahue i live at 31 gooch street melrose thank you mr donahue the floor is yours good evening so thank you all um so once again my name is jim donahue melrose resident um parent of three children two of whom have graduated from melrose high school a third is going to be a freshman this coming fall i'm also president of melrose youth soccer one of the items before you this evening will be an update from the parks commission on a number of items that are a number of initiatives among which is consideration of improvements and potentially turfing the west

▶ 1:22:23 knoll fields which is both the home to the the the high school team the high school boys team as well as a site for practice and for games for Melrose youth soccer and the larger field as well as the smaller field which abuts the the tennis courts so I wanted to speak to you and fit in in support of considering this moving this initiative forward I recognize there's no vote before the board today but just wanted to take this opportunity to present to you and to to share a little bit more about Miller's youth soccer and some of the areas where this is particularly important to us so the Miller's youth soccer program is a program that's available to kids in grades kindergarten through eighth grade

▶ 1:23:14 it's an affordable program in fact we when we open up our registrations we openly request that folks who may need financial assistance to come forward anybody who asks the answer is yes we simply waste the fee no no needs requirements so it's really a program that's that's open to all and it's one where we've seen considerable growth in the last numbers of years so in this fall season we anticipate that we'll have slightly below 1,300 kids in those age groups we'll have between 200 and 230 volunteer coaches and probably in neighborhood of about 120 teams that's about a 20% increase from just two years ago and based on where we're seeing the growth which is particularly in both in girls and in the younger age groups we'd anticipate that we'll see a continuation

▶ 1:24:09 of this growth whether at the same 20% every two years I'm not sure it's going to be to that level but but it's it has been considerable and we'd anticipate that to continue to give a sense of in terms of the use of the field so with that number of teams this fall for example on an average week we'll have about 170 practices and in close to a hundred home games or about half of our teams have to get two practices a week and the others have one practice a week so we're seeing a contingent you know a significant increase in the demand for field use and it's not just limited to our program I think we're seeing an increase in the high school enrollment in sports programs and we're also seeing it in the other youth so youth recreation programs that we have

▶ 1:25:01 throughout the city when you look at the conditions of the field right now it's got a number of limitations obviously to anyone who lives in Melrose you'll see that it it has challenges when it rains it also is a little bit less flexible than you would typically see in improved fields that would have configurations that would allow you to accommodate multiple different age groups as it relates to soccer but also multiple different sports and the flexibility that gives us allows us to more reliably put kids on on the fields to participate in these recreational activities you know we don't have the same issue with rain we can you know we can play when it's raining as long as of course it's not lightning

▶ 1:25:51 and it doesn't wind up closing the fields for for use in subsequent games i think if we the the proposals that we would anticipate coming forward for the improvements to the knoll would address many of these things and give access more reliably including it in the evening times we would have lighted fields that could accommodate kids who were in younger age groups which is particularly an issue in the fall as it gets late as it gets dark earlier if we look at this past year in particular I think it's really highlighted the importance of not just soccer I'll speak from that perspective but of these types of outlets to the physical and mental well-being of our kids and their development as human beings in terms of

▶ 1:26:43 interacting with others and in learning in a non classroom setting some of the dynamics of of being a you know a productive and a contributing member of our society and it's really great developmental activity opportunities so I we're in the absence of trying to address some of the increased demand we're seeing in our sport and in other sports I think we're going to wind up having potentially challenges I'm not sure that we're in any immediate point where we'd be talking about rationing the access to it but it's certainly an increasing challenge I know that was we're doing our planning for the season right now it's a it's a major challenge for us now when we didn't suspect that to increase in the in the future so so once again I'm here to to articulate I

▶ 1:27:40 think the importance to our program and really to the kids who participate in it so I hope as this issue is discussed over the coming months it's something that you will consider it a priority and and consider making that improvement to our recreational facilities in our city so thank you thank you mrs. Donnie are there any other Member of the public that wish to speak to the appropriations agenda hi good evening we're from zero waste Melrose Rebecca into Bartolo Tom Middleton and Gina McNeil thank you for the time we're also here to talk about about the alpine project kind of in a more broad sense as most of you know we used to be called the knowledge recycling committee but several years ago we changed our name to zero waste melrose and

▶ 1:28:45 we just want the city to really kind of make sure they're focusing when they're thinking about the alpine project on that focus of sustainability and zero waste and the importance of keeping our fields usable for our children i have three children in the mellers public schools keeping the focus on grass fields versus turf i understand the appeal of turf is kind of like a knee-jerk reaction of oh it's so pretty and it's easy and um but really to think about it's it's a it's a mat of plastic and and is that what we want our kids playing on is that what we want long term what happens in 10 to 12 years when it needs to be replaced where does all that plastic go and really would like the city to kind of think more long term about the effects of turf versus

▶ 1:29:41 grass and hopefully focus more on sustainable efforts being a graph keeping the field grass focusing on improving the drainage so that is usable even when it rains you know the whole project as a whole about improving uh the l pond area for all residents and improving the drainage efforts to keep the field usable as grass hi how are you i'm tom middleton two banks place and again i'm working with rebecca and gina and i'm just going to very briefly mention um just um kind of two points and kind of piggyback on what rebecca was saying um and just our feeling where we really want just the conversation heard about a natural grass and soil field. One of our main ideas is that, you know, artificial turf really eliminates any of the benefits

▶ 1:30:28 of natural grass and soil, and it is our belief that most of the time, you know, when nature is left alone, nature and the ecosystem does a very good job of supporting natural life on our planet. Nature and a natural field are home to insects and wildlife, and as a result of this, a lot of this nature becomes natural filters for air and water. natural field would also help to reduce carbon dioxide and actually release oxygen a natural field and nature cools the environment right obviously a major issue in our world right now recently we had um we had a melrose resident go out and measure the fields on a particularly warm day here in melrose the temperature on the grass west knoll field was measured at 86 degrees

▶ 1:31:15 Fahrenheit the temperature on the Fred Green turf field was measured at a hundred and forty five degrees Fahrenheit and again just to kind of summarize that one point yeah we just kind of feel that with synthetic you're kind of just smothering nature with plastic and synthetic materials my final point is just that synthetic particles from an artificial turf field often migrate and they go out into the environment which can really contribute to micro plastic pollution which we all know again is a very big deal right micro plastics have been found at the highest peaks and the deepest places in our oceans micro plastics are now being found in the animals we eat which populate our planet and now we are also finding

▶ 1:32:01 micro plastics in human beings studies have shown that by 2050 there may be more plastic in the ocean than there are fish so again when we look to um you know the l pond redevelopment plan right and we look to the future and what our future wants to be it is our field at the west knoll field which is right next to the pond if it was synthetic could lead to again microplastic pollution would would go right into our pond so again these are some of the reasons you know i've come before you to speak everyone i'm gina mcneil from 97 maple street also a member of zero waste and i wanted to make a couple of additional points about um our concerns and questions about this and product or field um and then make some recommendations to the council and

▶ 1:32:53 for commission in the city more broadly about moving forward on this idea of improving the western field in terms of additional concerns this steps a bit outside of our specific mission of zero waste melrose but just to add to the conversation that in addition to the environmental and the waste disposal issues associated with artificial turf there are also other public health concerns so for example artificial turf infill uh commonly um is tire from there are other infills as well a number of these types of infills not just the tire crumb but others as well have been documented to contain carcinogens such as lead or excuse me carcinogens heavy metals such as lead and also endocrine disruptors in the form of phthalates and other documented chemicals

▶ 1:33:46 of concern the data related to chemicals of concern and other things are in this information package that we put together for the city council which i'll be happy to to pass along so certainly the the toxins exposure to children playing on the surface we think should be part of the conversation about what happens with the west knoll field in addition to that we would also like for this project to consider data related to injuries on artificial turf and i know you can do a google search and find a lot of information on both sides of kind of where the injuries are on artificial turf but i did think it interesting that just as recently as the fall of 2020 the nfl players association national football league players association has asked the nfl to make

▶ 1:34:37 all fields in the national football league natural grass instead of turf due to the higher incidence of injuries documented in their data among nfl players so just for example one of the stats is that non-contact foot and ankle injuries in the nfl are 69 percent more likely on artificial turf fields and then just very recently in the current issue july august 2021 of the journal current current orthopedic practice there's a study that analyzed actually high school data which i understand is relatively less common in this research on turf versus grass but actually looking at high school athletes on 26 different high schools looking at data from 953 different injuries that compared the incidence of injury on grass versus artificial turf and the study

▶ 1:35:30 concludes that high school athletes are 58 percent more likely to sustain an injury on artificial turf and specifically football soccer and rugby athletes were at a significantly greater injury risk on artificial turf so again outside of the specific mission of zero waste melrose which is we think is important for the broader public health conversation um and where we want to put taxpayer money for our athletic facilities um the and i just want to circle back to the comments that were made earlier by mr donahue that that i think we're very clear that we believe in support improvements at the west knoll field we think that's important for all of the reasons that were stated in terms of flexibility the health and enjoyment of not only milrose youth

▶ 1:36:17 but you know everybody who likes to use natural spaces which have been you know i think a lifesaver to many people's mental health in the last 18 months or so and the good news is that there is a way to achieve the objectives of this project without artificial turfing the field There have been a number of case studies from municipalities in Massachusetts, specifically Springfield, Marblehead, and Martha's Vineyard, across the island of Martha's Vineyard, that have done a really good job of documenting how they were able to transition to natural grass fields with very little or no use of chemicals in those fields and to have very high quality reliable playing surfaces that are also cost effective so again

▶ 1:37:09 in this package there's some really good data with costs how much it's actually costing each of these municipalities on a per field basis average it out you know per acre so you can compare across them that i think does a great job of showing that this is possible to get the field that we want but also have it in an environmentally public health friendly way and there are also a number of people in these municipalities who can be resources to city of melrose to our first commission etc in terms of achieving those objectives here in melrose so i really want to underscore that that we support this project but we just want it to be um you know full consideration of a of a natural grass field and that just to wrap up um the the recommendations

▶ 1:37:54 or the requests that we would make of both the city council and the other decision makers who who are going to be involved in this are really to within the conversations that we've seen today that seems as though the project goal has been stated as to turf the field at the west knoll um and whether or not that's the formal objective that's sort of the way it's been talked about um so our request would be to really shift that to instead of talking about the goal being to turf the field the goal is to find a more to put in a more reliable improved playing surface or playing field there that really serves all of the needs of the community and then part of that process to give equal research evaluation and consideration of the natural grass field as well as synthetic

▶ 1:38:40 turf we think all of these options should be conclude included but make sure that there's definitely a fair and thorough review of the potential for a natural grass field there um we think that the process should analyze the full life cycle costs of the artificial turf field as real as natural grass so both the installation the maintenance and ultimately the removal and disposal of what happens with either of these to really understand the full cost implications of all of these options and to make sure that when an rfp is eventually developed that it asks for proposals to address both of these options so that a full again a full cost comparison of what's involved in both a natural grass field or synthetic turf field could be

▶ 1:39:23 Jeff McNaught: evaluated i think those are our key points anything else that's good i guess the last thing i would say and then we'll let you move on with the meeting is um that we do really appreciate and respect all the work that the parks commission has done on moving this project forward and having this meeting tonight it's clearly an important initiative to have an improved field at the with Noel again, which we support and appreciate the efforts that they've made in advancing that conversation forward. Thank you. Thank you all a few moments ago. I flashed a note to the clerk that said anyone in Webex, if anybody was wondering what that was before I was on TV, that's only because I want to be sure that we rotate back and forth between in person and online public participation comments.

▶ 1:40:15 Jeff McNaught: so there's not nobody nobody in queue in webex um is there anyone else that would like to speak to the appropriations agenda seeing no one else um at this time i'll move by unanimous consent to close the floor for public comment if there's no objection seeing no objection public comment is now closed we do have folks that are not from the council here to speak with us this evening so council mcmaster yes mr chairman before we suspend the rules i'd like to make a motion to take order 2022-2 out of order that is a veterans professional services matter which will be relatively quick we do have lieutenant colonel burke with us and colonel driscoll and i expect that to be very quick before we get to the first order so i'd make a motion to that effect at this

▶ 1:41:09 Jeff McNaught: time second we have a motion to take 2022-2 out of order made by councilor mcmaster second seconded by vice chair eccles all in favor all opposed okay we will do that and at this time if there is no objection um i will make a motion or move by unanimous consent to suspend the rules so that we can hear from folks from the public you could please just state your name and address for the record Karen Burke 89 Felsby Road in Stoneham I'm the veteran service officer here in Melrose I'd like to thank you all for having us here tonight I was here with you a few months ago when we discussed the honor roll restoration project and our initial request for funds was $30,000 and I'm here tonight respectfully asking for an additional $20,000 the initial bid for

▶ 1:42:08 project was early on the honor roll has sustained a bit more weather damage since that time and we sought bids from different contractors and the contractor that we got back who's highly reputable very skilled came back with a quote that was more than the initial estimate so we were coming here tonight to ask for the additional funds to complete the project we did go before the historic district commission last week and gained their approval to move forward with the project pending this last step here. So thank you again for having me tonight. Colonel Driscoll has also joined me to speak of the project on behalf of the Veterans Advisory Boyd. Good evening, Bob. If I could just for one moment,

▶ 1:42:45 I do want to read the order, which is something that we need to do before we discuss it. This is order 2022-2, an appropriation from Capital Stabilization, account number 84052-590000, dash five nine zero zero zero zero in the amount of twenty thousand dollars to veterans professional services account number zero one five four three two dash five nine five two nine zero zero zero for restoration of the veterans honor role please proceed thank you my name is Bob Driscoll 33 Thurston Road in Melrose and I'm the chairman of the Veterans Advisory Boyd and I found it very important to be here tonight to speak on this matter and the purpose of the veterans memorials and the importance of the veterans and memorials the veterans

▶ 1:43:43 memorials across the city represent the city's expression of gratitude to all the men and women of our community who have and will wear the uniform of the United States military. We honor and recognize each veteran for their courage and dedication to our country. We believe these memorials also encourage and foster patriotism for all who enjoy their intent. These memorials of respect and reflection will remain for generations as a reminder of the sacrifice made by ordinary citizens who accomplished extraordinary things. I I appreciate your time tonight both counter McMaster yes thank you mr. chairman as the liaison from the council to the veterans advisory board I strongly support this order if you recall as lieutenant colonel Burke said

▶ 1:44:37 Shawn M. MacMaster: this matter came before us originally we approved a $20,000 appropriation excuse me a $30,000 appropriation the bids came in much higher I do want to acknowledge mayor Broder after our last veterans advisory meeting where we well two meetings ago when we reported back that the allocation was approved it was at that time that a discussion occurred about the bids being much higher I contacted mayor Broder I said that we really need to find some additional money he immediately responded that he would do so so I thought it was important to uh acknowledge his support of this and the timeliness and ensuring that uh this comes before so we can vote on it and uh hopefully approve it um before um uh veterans day so that's really the

▶ 1:45:26 Shawn M. MacMaster: goal is that we can get um get the work done uh before them so with that in mind mr chairman i'd make a motion to recommend for passage second second motion to recommend for passage made by councillor mcmaster seconded by president sanella this will be a roll call vote um mr clerk will you please call the role chair mcmahon yes vice chair eccles yes council Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes council garpe yes council Grigoraitis yes council mcgrady yes councillor stewart yes councillor thomas yes councillor Jamaleddine yes president sanella yes eleven yes motion passes this will be recommended to the council uh with a recommendation for passage thank you very much appreciate it next up we have order 2022-11 an order on the status of

▶ 1:46:29 John McLaughlin: various park commission projects how's everybody doing tonight thank you for uh the opportunity to appear and talk a little bit about what's going on at the park commission i think i'll start with the most recent appropriation from the city council out of the free cash to make some improvements to a few of the fields and playground areas and in melrose we greatly appreciate the opportunity to spend some of the city's money and fix up some of the parks so there are three items that we're looking at right now we have an allotment of money for an inclusive park a pickleball court and then a renovation of the lebanon street softball field all three of these projects are moving right along at our most recent park commission meeting we had

▶ 1:47:31 John McLaughlin: representatives in the community who have advocated for the inclusive park appear before the power commission we are clearly going to listen to what they want for equipment and accessibility in the city right now we are bringing in manufacturers of this inclusive playground equipment and we're going to put together a plan to most likely put this project down at the warren street park which is on warren street off of franklin street excuse me sir just to interrupt you for one thing if you could just state your name for the record oh i'm sorry john mclaughlin uh morris park commission thank you uh the second item that we're taking a look at is the pickleball court we've met with a rabid group of pickleball players in the community

▶ 1:48:23 John McLaughlin: and we are looking forward to finding some space for them we've got that narrow down to the Foss Park which I think is their preference and we're also taking a look at a possibility to provide that activity at Mary Livermore Park I think that right now Foss Park probably is the likely destination but we're going to continue to explore that and then finally the Lebanon Street Park Joan bell who's been a phenomenal asset to the city of melrose for many years now on these projects is rigorously working through the details of renovating the softball field at lebanon street we think that it's going to be a great facility for the melrose girls softball community to attend and play in and and at the same time we're actually trying to address some field space

▶ 1:49:26 John McLaughlin: for the Melrose Grove softball program at Pine Banks Park the board or the council may or may not be aware that several years ago the city of Melrose through special legislation and revenue at Mount Hood participated with Malden and we built a world-class softball field and a track and an all-purpose field at Pine Banks Park and we think that there's more time available for Melrose Girls Softball at that park so along with creating a better environment at Lebanon Street we recognize the need for girls softball to have increased access to fields and we think that's a pretty good destination for it so those are the easy ones and based on some of the public comment and uh I think the the the bigger question I think going forward for the community is going

▶ 1:50:25 John McLaughlin: to be you know what to do with the West Knoll Field and in 2017 prior to a pandemic uh an all-encompassing override initiative and a couple changes in administration uh West Knoll Field was park commission's major priority to this day it remains the park commission's major priority simply because we do not have the field space to accommodate the high school athletes and the youth sport athletes in the city of moros and you know and there is as we're all aware not any real new land for development and our fields largely fall in a floodplain so it has been incredibly challenging to try to solve this problem. I've been looking at this problem for 20 years. We first started to take a look at this in early 2000. So what we have

▶ 1:51:26 John McLaughlin: finally been able to do is make a little bit of progress on the West Knoll field. We had Weston and Sampson do something that we had hoped would have been completed in 2018 which is dig some test pits and look at the soil and look at the water levels at the West Mill field to see you know what's going on there and what can be done Joan Bell has made valiant efforts as has the DPW and the city's green team for better than 15 years to try to grow grass in that field and it's proved impossible and we really needed to get below the surface to see was going on with it what was what was happening over the past couple of weeks was Weston and Samson the city's engineers who the city engaged in 2018

▶ 1:52:21 John McLaughlin: for a feasibility study actually you know got into the soil and gave us some information for the first time to really understand what's happening down there there and and I'll get into that in a minute the next phase of the project is to really grind that information and figure out what it means to us right I mean I think you know clearly Zero Waste Melrose and there are other community Member that feel that it should be a natural grass field and we have community Member that think that it should be a turf field and the power commission you know we'll go through the process and listen to weston and sampson and take a look at our alternatives i think you know we looked at this same problem five years ago we looked at the

▶ 1:53:08 John McLaughlin: problem 10 years ago we looked at the problem 15 years ago and we won't find an engineering firm that will come out and tell us that they can build a natural grass playing surface that will allow the use that a turf surface will allow and it's just you know and and we talked to weston and sampson about that at our recent meeting so that clearly when we're limited in our field space and this might be the only viable field for boys and girls soccer boys and girls lacrosse a carryover field for field hockey the ability to play middle school football flag football on a surface i mean we're talking about thousands of hours of programming and kids that are going to be used that are going to be using or or in need of a field and you know and and a solution if

▶ 1:54:05 John McLaughlin: there was an all grass solution that could could handle that use you know we would be for it I understand what Sarah Westmoreland was saying and we'll continue to listen to what Weston and Samson and will report back to us. Interestingly, as someone who's been involved in this particular field for almost two decades, we never really knew it was under there until about two weeks ago. And we're still gonna learn what that actually means. But what is under there is essentially two to three feet of soil that is completely unsuitable to grow grass. There is ash, there is dumped material there, there is waste, there is peat. And what the engineers told us was that in addition to having unsuitable soil to drain,

▶ 1:55:02 John McLaughlin: we have a water table in the flood zone that on average is three feet below the upper layer of the grass with a range of one feet one foot to five feet across the entire field area again you know so we've got a situation where we have water that has nowhere to go when the field gets wet we have unsuitable soil to grow grass and we have a pretty good explanation now as to why for 15 or 20 years we haven't been able to grow grass there we've tried crowning it they put a swill in there to help with the drainage you know and it's it's an ongoing issue so um we will have a meeting i think with western and samson in the next couple of weeks when we get their information and their recommendations as far as what their analysis means for a grass surface

▶ 1:56:00 John McLaughlin: a turf surface what the compensatory storage and flood storage issues are there and And what it means for permitting and what permits we need and what the approval process is for either project, we'll definitely discuss it at length at the Park Commission meeting and we'll be more than happy to report back to, you know, the Boyd of Aldermen. Because, you know, one of the opportunities that this meeting this evening gave me the opportunity to speak about on behalf of the Park Commission is that, you know, for the first time in 40 years, the City of Melrose is coming, I'm sorry, the Park Commission and Member of the City of Melrose are coming to the Boyd of Aldermen and the Mayor's Office to ask for an investment in high school athletic facilities.

▶ 1:56:50 John McLaughlin: and i just want to you know give a brief history on that so uh and and my hope is along with airways melrose and user groups in the community here that we start a real discussion about what the what the children in the city need as far as build space goes we should have had this discussion in 2017 and 18 and we we were clearly sidetracked along with you know the rest of the community many different fronts because of a whole host of issues none the least you know the fact that we've been shut down as a as a community for 18 months but uh the Member of the power commission in nine in around the year 2000 got together and we looked at a community that had the worst athletic facilities in the middlesex league fred greenfield was unusable morelli field had fallen

▶ 1:57:43 John McLaughlin: went into disrepair. The Daphne gym, the floor was dead. The Maracu gym was a disgrace. We had no hockey rink to play in. And it was a bad situation. And on top of it all, the city had no money. An override had been tried and failed. And we were left trying to figure out, you know, how do we fix this situation? So one of the areas that gave us an opportunity to correct the situation was the passage of the middle school debt exclusion and along with the middle school you know there were Member on the Park Commission myself included that you know advocated that we should push for more than just a new middle school this gives us the opportunity to renovate the Daphne gym or essentially replace it and renovate the Mark Kruh gym and the

▶ 1:58:36 John McLaughlin: Initiative was successful and the athletic portion of that middle school Athletic piece was probably six to eight million dollars by the time was done, but the kids got Basketball courts for high school basketball. They got a volleyball venue. They got a wrestling venue They were all new locker rooms built. There were coaches room built And and it was a great it was a great accomplishment for the benefit of the kids and the city didn't have to take any money out of their operating budget and they didn't have any money in the operating budget to take out that situation persisted for you know the next seven or eight years but the situations didn't get any better in the fields so we made a push to pass special legislation first with the

▶ 1:59:28 John McLaughlin: approval in the city of Melrose and then second to the state to take revenue from the Mount Hood golf course and use it to renovate athletic facilities in the community and we were successful with that and the Mount Hood golf course through you know the excellent management of GMC over the years and the attention that Joan Bell pays to the place has generated the next enough extra revenue to pay about 350 000 a year and in bonds that allowed for the renovation of fred greenfield the replacement of the stands the concession stand that building this day with the bathroom facilities in the back renovated morelli field that had fallen into disrepair gave the boys and girls track team their first home track meeting over 20 years with a new track

▶ 2:00:25 John McLaughlin: up at pine banks we put an all-purpose field at pine banks and we gave the girls softball program a phenomenal venue probably one of the best softball fields in the state to play in we next turned our attention to the hockey rink and the group of melrose people including Member of the park commission brought together with the city of winchester and we successfully bid on the flynn rank so we have a non-profit that now runs the flynn rank over the past five years we convinced the dcr into putting a six million dollar investment into the flynn rank and kids now have a phenomenal uh skating venue for learn to skate melrose youth hockey boys and girls high school hockey and you know they you know in between the the bonding of uh the other fields

▶ 2:01:20 John McLaughlin: and the uh hockey rink was about a 10 12 million dollar investment that did not touch the city of norris's direct budget of finances so and it's been a 20 year to do this and and after 20 years the the last great remaining need is this field and the power commission and the park commissioners were out of tricks we you know we don't have there's nowhere else to go but it continues to be the biggest need in the city and because of changes in environmental law over the past three or four years where environmental commissions have approved artificial surfaces and flood planes by allowing us to use the drainage system as compensatory storage we have a chance to solve this problem and as i as i stated earlier we'll have our ears completely open if the engineers

▶ 2:02:11 John McLaughlin: can come up with a way to create a natural grass field that can provide the time and need that the youth community in Melrose has for field space, well listen, I'm skeptical after 15 or 20 years and I'll end this by just simply saying that we're cognizant of environmental issues you know that we're cognizant of the steps that other communities have taken to avoid the rubber pellet issues and you know and the benefit of drainage in that area that the turf drainage system brings so there's there's be a lot of information that we'll look at when western simpson gets back to us we invite the council to come up to any of our park commission meetings and listen and and i hope that tonight kicks off the process of getting

▶ 2:03:07 John McLaughlin: the board of aldermen and the administration of melrose i'm sorry the city council and the administration of melrose engaged in helping us solve this problem because at this point we need your help and and it's critical it's been a major issue in melrose it affects virtually every family in melrose whether you've got children playing on it you've got nieces and nephews or grandchildren are playing on it you know we use these venues uh and and and our goal with the park commission and the park commissioners for 20 years has been very simple we want to improve the lives and the opportunities that the kids in melrose have recreationally throughout the city so that's that's my synopsis here and i'm certainly available for any questions that anybody

▶ 2:03:54 Christopher Cinella: has thank you mr mclaughlin i have two people in queue i have councillor Garipay and president sanella we'll start with you councillor Garipay i'm i'm good i was just going to introduce uh i was just i was just going to introduce uh mr mclaughlin and just explain the reason why uh councillor thomas and i sponsored this order but he did he did a great job explaining it so giving us an update thank you thank you councillor Garipay president sanella thank you chair McNaught um thank you for being here tonight mr mclaughlin you addressed some of the concerns of the questions that came up in public comment but are there any other options besides using turf with the tire ground up i know when my child comes home from football or lacrosse half a good year tires in

▶ 2:04:45 John McLaughlin: my house yep i'm the same way alternatives to that yeah there are there are actually and i think when Fred Greenfield was renovated that was the predominant fill that was used and the concerns that were raised today have been raised really nationwide on this issue and I personally have spent a lot of time reading about it because I'm curious as to not just the environmental impact but the potential impact that the rubber fill had on the athletes that were that that were actually out on the surface. So what we're seeing in Malden is just on it, you know, there are crushed walnut shells that they're using, there are other natural type of fill material that they're using. It's anticipated that in the next several years,

▶ 2:05:34 John McLaughlin: Fred Greenfield will be replaced, the service will be replaced, and that the rubber fill will be removed and replaced with something that is more environmentally safe, I guess, for lack of a better term. With respect to the inclusive playground, I think it's great that we're going to do that at Warren Street, but I don't think one is enough. Is there a plan to assess all of our playgrounds? I know it's a money issue, obviously. Yeah, it's a great question, and it's one that the Park Commission raised. And we felt that we would listen to the parents who or pushing for this, and I think that the feeling was was that they would like one place for the time being to have as an inclusive playground,

▶ 2:06:28 John McLaughlin: but the Park Commission was very clear in our discussion with Joan Bell that we shouldn't renovate playgrounds moving forward without including accessibility and function to the equipment and the space itself it as we get the opportunity to so i think it'll probably be uh initially we'll set up an inclusive an accessible playground at the warren street park and then i think as we move forward we'll see the opportunity to be have more accessible equipment and space in the other playgrounds as we renovate them right thank you thank you thank you president sonella uh councillor thomas thank you mr chairman mr mclaughlin welcome um thank you for all that you do and all the park commission does um to give the facilities in the city that we have um also thanks to the park

▶ 2:07:23 Cory Thomas: department and the dpw for maintaining these fields um feasibility study do you have an estimated uh number of responses you've gotten to that feasibility study meaning people that have completed it in this in the community have you seen the numbers of how many people can have completed so you know there was it was probably a year ago that there was a survey that was sent out by weston and sampson that um came back i i i can't remember the exact numbers i think it was it was substantial enough where we got a pretty good indication of what the community community felt they would like to see happen at that space and there were a number of options were there two or three different options of of what people would like to see you know did was there a was

▶ 2:08:06 John McLaughlin: there a clear-cut direction where that survey was taking i think so so the survey was it was it was it was broad right so i think that we looked at it at a getting from a couple of perspectives there was clearly advocates for maintaining the spaces as grass there were people who wanted to replace it with a turf field but you know the more encompassing thing that i think we spent some time looking on was there was it you know there was a desire to have uh the walking path or the bike path replaced around the pond you know when we were kids i mean we we knew what it was like right to connect the entire loop around el pond so that we could have some uh a good nice walking path there was you know comments about enhancing the dog park

▶ 2:09:00 John McLaughlin: adding bike accessibility to certain areas and bathrooms to the area so there was a lot going on I think that that you know from from that specific point I think that we didn't see you know any large desire for either grass or turf I think there was more response of what we like to see improved and accessibility in hours on that space was I think the biggest point that came out of it is there a timeline with the Park Commission or the city with Weston and Samson and what direction we'd like to go or or finalize the direction we want to go in yeah yeah I think so you know so we are anxiously looking forward to our next meeting with Weston and Samson which should come in the next couple of weeks they owe us you know a digestion of the data that we had you know and

▶ 2:10:00 John McLaughlin: from there I think that will most likely have a you know a discussion about what's practical and what meets the needs of the user groups in the community that wants to be there and and you know without discounting walking paths and bike accessibility um there are walking paths in melrose there is bike accessibility in mars our priority is trying to figure out a playing surface that accommodates the needs of the kids right now so we'll i'm sure we're going to be focused on that discussion and you know as as many people know that you know the the proximity to the pond and other fields uh for the null area um drainage is a top issue um we've got a very wet rain rainy july as i'm sure everyone um can say you know it was it was an astronomical amount of rain that we got this year

▶ 2:10:57 John McLaughlin: um the overall drainage seems to be slowing down in that area i don't know if it was because of the rain this year um have you talked to anyone at the dbw about this a number of cancellations occurred on you know nearby morelli field on on the little league field that's nearby uh the west knoll you know in itself is traditionally wet um yeah yeah so so clearly the spring demonstrated you know the need and the problem at the west side no because the field was basically closed you know for the entire spring season we i'm also aware of the cancellations that occurred at morelli and you know we're digging and we're looking into this and and um i think you know i i personally was under the initial impression that with all this rain the

▶ 2:11:45 John McLaughlin: old pond mitigation project where you can lower the pond uh maybe you should have started a little bit earlier and that would have alleviated some of the flooding but as we looked into it we don't think that that's what's going on in morelli where the swale is in left field and i think joan and i and the power commission have discussed getting somebody to get into that area to see if you know what's causing that to remain wet you know and and you know i think that at the appropriate time you know there's a long history of that swill that's out in left field and why it's there and it relates to the floodplain and all these other issues and i think that you know for it seemed to function up until this year and i don't think based on the questions that we've asked and the

▶ 2:12:28 Cory Thomas: answers we've gotten it has anything to do with lower in our pond we think that it's got more to do with what's going on in the left field there but we will definitely address it all right uh and then personally uh as a representative for ward seven um thank you for the consideration uh and and the efforts that are going to the lebanon street park the playground uh and the softball field and thank you so much for advocating for the meadows youth softball league to get onto the pine banks as well um my sons you know played a lot of sports over lebanon street park over at fox park at washington school so to hear the pickleball court is being considered for fox park i know there's been a lot of pickleball being played over fox park over the

▶ 2:13:07 Robb Stewart: past you know five or six seven years uh that's the strong sport of melrose yeah yeah i know absolutely so i thank you so much for being here and explaining so much to us thank you council thomas counselor stewart thank you mr chair thank you mr mclaughlin for being here this evening um So, without discounting the Weston and Sampson study, because I know they're quite good, have we looked at any other options of someone that has implemented a grass field? And the reason why I ask this is when I go to the Weston and Sampson's website and I do a search on natural grass, all I see is them citing examples of changing natural grass into turf I don't see anything where they've done natural grass so it raises

▶ 2:14:00 John McLaughlin: a small concern that they may be a little bit leaning towards the the the the turf idea and how are we fully understanding by getting a viewpoint of someone that has implemented similar circumstances a natural grass solution yeah I think you know I can't read into their website or their past work I can tell you that I think that when Weston and Sampson is speaking with communities about playing services that the two main with three main issues that they're dealing with our most communities built their playing fields and not the most ideal areas most communities don't have enough playing space and most communities acknowledge that the way to optimize playing surface time is with turf you can play in it when it rains you can play in it the minute the rain

▶ 2:14:58 John McLaughlin: stops you know you can play in it 12 months a year you know 24 hours a day if you wanted to so I think that you know that's what it comes down to and I you know and and I personally haven't seen in Middlesex League or or beyond recently any communities that are really doing anything but turf and I think that that's probably the main driver you know I mean we could spend and the city has spent in the past two three hundred thousand dollars trying to crown that West Noel field over there they put the swale in they tried to alleviate the flooding the El Pond drainage brought you know project all those efforts were always going to help grow grass in that field and they just haven't and I you You know, and I think that,

▶ 2:15:46 Mark Garipay: I don't think it's by Weston and Samson's design. They get paid to design the system and they don't get paid on the construction. All right, so I think that that's just the, for the community needs and the issues that the communities are facing, I just think it's been the more viable solution. Okay, thank you, Mr. McLaughlin, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Councilor Stewart. Do I have any other councilors who would, have any, Councilor Garakoye? Yeah, I just had one question. Mr. McLaughlin, and I don't know if you have this answer. Do you, does the Park Commission get a report at the end of the year of maybe how many hours of cancellations on the fields due to inclement weather? I know it's various, but the youth organizations may have it more than-

▶ 2:16:32 John McLaughlin: Yeah, we don't. I think that, I would hope that this year might be an outlier, but I think we're all a little bit concerned that it's not. And I think it's a fair question and we can certainly talk to Joan because I know that it was brutal this spring, you know, it was brutal at the Morelli Field, it was brutal at the West Knoll, I know that there were issues at Lewis Monk and I can tell you, you know, quite honestly that the person who carried that weight around the most was Joan, right. She was dying that she couldn't get those fields open for the kids. So I'll definitely ask her, and you know, with climate change and everything else, it's probably something that we should start to track.

▶ 2:17:17 Mark Garipay: Yeah, because it's a residual. I experienced it this year. It's a residual effect. My son might be playing at Pine Banks. They get bumped for the cancellation at either Morelli or the West Knoll. Oh, yeah, it was crazy. No, I know. It just turns into a scheduling. I don't know if there's any financial reimbursement that the youth groups have to give as a result uh playing less games or not i know and of all the springs that the kids wanted to get out and play right you know it was this one so thank you no more questions thank you council Garipay um i don't believe i have any other councils in queue what is councillor thomas please on file second motion to place on file made by councillor thomas seconded by president sanella

▶ 2:18:06 all those in favor all those opposed motion passes thank you mr mclaughlin thank you very much have a good evening next we have order 2022-3 authorization of accept two renewable afda grants in the amount of two thousand five hundred dollars each for the health department good evening mr chair Member of the council i'm margaret fleischman i'm new in the mayor's office and i'm here on behalf of elaine silva who was unable to join you because of a family situation to speak to this order so there are two grants um actually they're in two different amounts one is the 2500 but the other grant is 27.75 they're both from the association of food and drug officials and they're both relative to our compliance with federal and

▶ 2:19:09 state regulations having to do with food inspection the 2775 is for trainings to allow inspectors to attend seminars to update their certification as rely as relates directly to their duties as food inspectors and the other grant for 2500 is from the retail standards grant program for completion of self-assessment audit that will show us where we are relative to the food and drug administration both these grants are part of a five-year grant program to update our standards to meet fda food program standards and this is the last year of these grants thank you we have uh council Tramontozzi thank you mr chair do they require any matching funds from the city they do not very good thank you that's all i have thank you councilman vice chair eccles make a motion

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2021-08-16

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