Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2022-05-05

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

This meeting starts at 48:26 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Christopher Cinella present · President, ex oficio; Jack Eccles present; Mark Garipay present; Jen Grigoraitis present · Chair; Maya Jamaleddine present; Manjula Karamcheti present; Shawn M. MacMaster present; Leila Migliorelli present · Vice Chair; John Obremski present; Robb Stewart present; Ryan Williams present

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 5, 2022 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:58 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jen Grigoraitis Chair Present Leila Migliorelli Vice Chair Present Shawn M. MacMaster Present Jack Eccles Present Mark Garipay Present Maya Jamaleddine Present Robb Stewart Present Manjula Karamcheti Present John Obremski Present Ryan Williams Present Christopher Cinella President, ex oficio Present

ORDER-2022-106 Bond Authorizing a Bond under the Water Enterprise System through MWRA Local Water System Assistance Program bonds for FY2022 in the amount of Six Hundred Eighty Five Thousand Dollars ($685,000) Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-108 Appropriation An Appropriation From Free Cash, Account Number 01-324001, in the Amount of Six Hundred Thousand Dollars ($600,000) to Parks - Turf Replacement, Account Number 014753-551177 Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-109 Grant Acceptance of a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in the amount of $1,500 Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-110 Grant City of Melrose Page 1 5/10/2022 1:28 PM Minutes Appropriations & Oversight Committee May 5, 2022 Acceptance of a MassSave Community First Partnership Award in the Amount of Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars to Support Energy Efficiency Measures for Melrose Homes and Businesses Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-114 Appropriation Drainage Easement Appropriation Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-115 Property: Easement Easement Acquisition 9 Wildwood Rd. Ought to Pass City Council City of Melrose Page 2 5/10/2022 1:28 PM

Transcript

▶ 48:04 Jen Grigoraitis: motion made by uh president solanella to adjourn yeah second seconded by council williams all in favor aye opposed we are adjourned good evening it is monday may 5th 2022 the time is 7 58 p.m this is a meeting of the appropriations and oversight committee i am the chair Councilor Grigoraitis joining me tonight are vice chair Migliorelli and councillors mcmaster eccles Garipay jamala dean stewart karm chady Obremski williams and president sanella ex officio that will serve as a 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 live streamed on the mmtv website and available for future viewing through the

▶ 49:18 Jen Grigoraitis: city of melrose's meetings portal at this time i will move by unanimous consent to open public comment okay seeing no objection public comment is now open we don't have anyone in the chamber with us is mr clerk is there anyone online there's no one online there is no one online so public comment i will now motion by unanimous consent to close it okay we have six orders before us tonight the first is order 2022-106 authorizing a bond under the water enterprise system through mwra local water system assistance program bonds for fy 2022 in the amount of 685 000 and this is offered by mayor broder and i know we have Member of the administration before us tonight so i will motion by unanimous consent to suspend the rules so joining us is dpw director

▶ 50:11 pro akis ellis to speak on this order the floor is yours thank you um this project is just our annual water main replacement project we try to replace about a mile of pipe every year this year it's actually a little bit less but it's part of our multi-year roadway and utility project so these are four streets where the where national grid has recently replaced the gas at our request knowing that we then wanted to replace the water and then these will be slated as paving streets in another year um the loan request is for 685 000 from the mwra it's a 10 years euro percent interest loan through their local assistance program the remainder you will hear from us again when we're doing our our budget we'll be requesting 250 000 in free cash from the water

▶ 51:07 fund to fund the remainder of the job the mwra has a certain amount available to each community each year and so the 685 000 that they have for us right now is a little lower than what we've borrowed the last few years because we had a bit of a backlog so we had some more available to us but this year we only have the 685 left so that's why we're looking to supplement usually we do about a million dollar project each year so that's it and one other thing worth mentioning is that bond council and i believe state law requires a certain number of days between when the order is filed and when final action is taken for the bond and so i believe that it can be voted to be sent back to the full board tonight if you choose

▶ 51:57 but it can't be voted until after may 16th by the full board so to meet those statutory time frames so it's up to you if you want to hold it in committee or send it back to the full board and hold it there but apparently a full vote can't be taken until after may 16th is that written down anywhere I don't see that in the just that would have been helpful information yes that was information from Catherine Armada that I got yesterday she had to consult with bond council and we were waiting for a response from them with the exact requirements so yeah we just found that out we had filed the order well before we find well before I found out about the required time frames are there any questions from councillors Councilor

▶ 52:45 Ryan Williams: Williams thank you for being here can you describe a little bit the real-world impacts that residents of these streets might expect to experience at the conclusion of this work are we talking pressure how do you define quality are the mains undersized sure so the mains that we're replacing I believe all of them are unlined cast-iron I don't have that right in front of me but but I'm pretty sure that's the case and some are six inch we we aim for a minimum size of eight inch anything that's larger than that or required or if our consultant our design consultant says it should be larger we would go larger but typically we're replacing old unlined cast-iron mains with lined ductile iron means cement lined and then we replace all the water services from the main to the

▶ 53:36 property line or to the shutoff valve we replace lead services if they're under the street and old cast-iron services which sometimes have a piece of lead at the main so it's also beneficial for our lead removal program the residents can expect there will be temporary water mains set up on the street they'll all have hoses to their houses from the temporary mains for the duration of the project it other than that it will be pretty much the same thing that they just experienced from the gas main project where they install the main first and then come back and do all the service connections so the street gets pretty torn up there are police details out there every day for traffic mitigation and in some instances where the streets are in very bad shape I

▶ 54:26 think Appleton is one that's rated in very poor condition sometimes the street condition actually gets better after the project because we patch the patch that we put in is better than the potholes that were there before and then we let everything settle over one winter freeze thaw cycle and we come back and do final paving the following year do you do you repave all the streets in the water main replacement program yes all the way out yeah curb to curb so we we dovetail the the reason why we call it the multi-year roadway and utility program is that we we try to target the streets that need to be paved and then also need water main replacements and then we work through all the utility work to arrive

▶ 55:14 at final paving at the end as part of the paving program so the water project doesn't normally pay for the paving it's a separate project the following year with chapter 90 money what's the average time frame it's approved on the 16th when does construction start how long does it go so ideally construction would start in the summer but lead times on materials like everything else have been insane we're hearing stories of of water main not being available for months after contracts are signed so we're hoping that the worst case is that we do work in the fall um our plan is 100 to finish this work this calendar year but the trouble is once you get into cold temperatures you can't have that temporary bypass pipe up above the ground

▶ 56:01 Mark Garipay: um so if we reach if there's no pipe available and we're in late october we're not starting the project so but our hope is that that won't be the case and it's it's a it's a loan or a bond so you you just do it yeah we still the money would just sit until we use it so that wouldn't be a big deal but but we don't want to get behind because we have another project that we want to do next year yeah for sure okay that's it for me thank you okay counselor Garipay yeah just one quick question when you're doing these projects just with irving street um no one because i lived there most of my life i think the middle of irving street has a double lot and it flows down into harvard street i believe there's probably an easement there maybe i think um right

▶ 56:42 right around 27 Irving Street. If there is one, if there's another pipe that goes from Irving to connecting to Harvard, do we check that while we're doing all this? Do we check if there is one there? That would be a drainage pipe you're referring to? Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, so when we do the paving project, before we pave, we always try to camera inspect all the pipes underneath any street that we're paving. So we would inspect the sewers, the drain, then any laterals coming from catch basins into the drain and so if there is a pipe that that goes across the road and into an easement we would hopefully it's already on our plans but we would see that when we tv'd it thank you any other counselors with questions what is the will of

▶ 57:31 Jen Grigoraitis: this committee i'd like to make the motion to recommend for passage second so we have a motion to recommend for passage made by Councilor williams seconded by Councilor Garipay is there any discussion seeing none mr clerk please call the roll vice chair migliorelli yes Councilor mcmaster yes Councilor eccles yes Councilor Garipay yes Councilor Jamaleddine yes Councilor stewart yes Councilor carmjade yes Councilor bremski yes Councilor williams yes president senella yes and chair Grigoraitis yes it's unanimous 11 yes so this passes um if you could get something in writing to us just about the timing because it procedurally it will pull up to the full council on the 16th so we know how we can proceed thank you thank you i think you're

▶ 58:23 Jen Grigoraitis: sticking in your seat for the next order order 2022-108 an appropriation from free cash account number zero one dash three two four zero zero one in the amount of six hundred thousand dollars to parks turf replacement account number zero one four seven five three dash five five one one seven seven and this is offered by mayor broder and we have director proakus ellis and park superintendent ms bell here for with us tonight so the floor is yours hey how are you um as you all know fred Fred Green Field was put in in 2011 and the life expectancy of a turf field is 10 years. We've maintained it very well and have gotten an extra year and we'll be able to continue until we can get this work done.

▶ 59:12 We're asking for $600,000 for the replacement of Fred Green fabric turf and fence lines all around the high school property. We've had a company come out and evaluate the drainage that's under Fred Green to make sure that it's still in working order and we wouldn't have to add any additional funds there. We were told that the drainage below was actually in better condition than some of the fields they're putting in today, so that was good news. We also had the rubber tested because we looked at possibly replacing it with something else, when you crunch the numbers and get down to it it made more sense to keep the rubber the rubber that we have there was tested it's not it has not degraded it's good for 30 years so all we have

▶ 1:00:06 to do is bring it back up to you know add additional to bring it back up to conditions for concussion and making sure that we have the the right amounts in there so it made more sense we actually get 25 to 30 cents on the dollar for the rubber that we have there we don't have to ship it out to a pit somewhere or on a boat to deliver somewhere for recycling purposes so in the long run we actually are saving a lot of environmentally as well as far as the fence the gauge fencing that's around the field has it's a very it's a very thin gauge it hasn't taken and the abuse from soccer balls, footballs, equipment, very well. It's beat up a lot. After speaking with the school AD and some of the sports teams,

▶ 1:00:59 it made sense for us also to do some shifting of gate openings. Right now we have two main entrances onto the field, and that hasn't helped with the wear patterns on the field. we're trying to get more double gate openings to get socket nets they can rule them out instead of trying to rule them turn them drag them and also to shut down an entrance spring and fall so in the fall we can have it where it normally is right now but in the spring the way a patent we can shift to the other side of the field we always try to work with the school department and the ad and coaches you know to have them move around the field more often instead of coming out staying right at the end where they are um and that that really hasn't you know helped

▶ 1:01:46 Leila Migliorelli: so those are the type of things that we're we're trying to improve with the fencing no are there questions from the council counselor vice chairman thank you madam chair um thank you for coming tonight i actually have a question it may be more for mayor broder who's still back there but so the request just looking at the memo you're the design phase would begin this spring summer if approved it would begin this spring summer correct bidding the fall construction next summer just the rationale between like asking for the 600,000 now versus later just well I think that it's after talking to the filter of companies it's very hard to get on their calendars we also have to bid out a portion of this so we still have to go through all that

▶ 1:02:43 I think that's the the logical explanation is that looking at time material as Elena was saying and talking to the field turf companies it's it's a wait it's not anything so you have to get on their calendar before you can even begin the process to to order and you the whole the whole portion approved by to do to start the process so ideally we'd be bidding the project as soon as this summer and signing a contract as soon as this fall okay so the and then there's the wait time for the materials and for contractors to have the time capacity to do it so really it's um you know it seems like a long ways off to construction but we want to be under contract with a contractor by the fall Okay, and any concern about costs going up? Well, that's part of it. Yeah

▶ 1:03:36 Okay, thank you counselor Jamal Dean, thank you Thank you for being with us tonight do we have a list of materials that need to be disposed So the only thing that will be disposed will be the fabric itself Everything else is remaining okay so just the fabrics and do we have is there any cost for that or everything is it's included everything's included okay yeah no additional cost okay thank you Councilor Stewart and then Councilor Williams Thank You madam chair thank you both for being here at this evening just two-part question how long is the effort going to be anticipated and when will this be performed so the idea was that we have to clear schedules next summer we're hoping to do it after the high school season ends say in June just to

▶ 1:04:36 Robb Stewart: at least start the process I from the conversations it shouldn't take longer than four to four to five weeks to do that's if everything goes according to plan so we're hoping to have it up and running by the fall of 23 okay and have have you spoken to the the users of the field over the summer because it's still it's I know it's hard because it's gonna be disrupted no matter no matter when you do it it's helping them with like refine readjusting their plans for next summers yeah mostly during the summertime it's camps you know what I mean it's yeah so like early morning high school workouts we can still do those at other fields it but it is gonna be we are gonna have to try to help out or find other areas we usually keep the western snow closer in the summer

▶ 1:05:28 because it's the only rest time it gets in order to you know try to keep it in half decent condition for the fall but it might be something that we have to look at to be able to put a couple camps out there over the summer but most of it those are non those are money-making for you know different people coming in renting our field it's not really our people so much it's our kids I'm sure go to the camps yeah but you know yeah it's very important for the parents to make sure their camps available right i get it i get it we'll have them you know we're going to do our best to try to um you know fit everybody in but yeah it is it's definitely going to be a loss for some great great thank you thank you thank you counselor williams uh so the the fabric is what's

▶ 1:06:11 Ryan Williams: being disposed of correct what's it made out of nylon rubber backing where does it go so they the recycle they take it to a recycling company who's they I'm sorry the vendor that we hire field turf they have they do this all the time so they I'm sorry the well this particular vendor that we reached out to we're gonna we're gonna put it out but field turf is the original vendor that we have that put it in in 2011 is this the first time that we've done this recycled this or remove first time we've replaced the field all right have you talked to them about their recycling practices do you have confidence that their recycling practices are legitimate I would think that they have to yeah I mean we can

▶ 1:07:07 Ryan Williams: follow up on it but I'm sure they meet all state and federal guidelines there well there are no state and federal guidelines for recycling turf that's what I ask the average turf field has about 40,000 pounds of plastic mm-hmm right that's a lot of plastic this is the council that banned plastic straws because we were all so worried that it was gonna wind up in the environment and so I I would really urge a very solid verified and maybe get these folks in here you know at some point to talk to us about what their plan is for recycling this stuff I know that it can be reused very hard for it to be actually recycled into new material you cut it up into like doggy pee pads and things like that that's the kind of thing that I would want to see and feel

▶ 1:07:55 Ryan Williams: very confident that it's happening because you know there are some towns in Massachusetts where very well-meaning and hard-working folks in the city have said this is absolutely going to happen and then somebody walks out behind the school and finds it in a ravine you know two years later and it just it is it isn't the city's fault you know it's just the nature of trying to dispose of the companies that we we have worked with a very reputable they do Gillette Stadium I think that I mean what we'll get whatever information that you okay there you want I appreciate it thank you very much mm-hmm we did also have an extensive conversation with them about recycling of materials on our last call where we fortunately learned that because they don't have to pull the

▶ 1:08:38 rubber out that's a huge you know environmental benefit that they don't have to put that somewhere or recycle it or dispose of it but they did indicate that different communities put different things in their specifications as to what they want to happen with the materials and basically that you know there's a cost to doing X Y & Z with the materials but they're always willing as as long as it's in the bid price they're always willing to do whatever so they said that you know some some communities when they pull out the rubber they don't want it to go to incineration they want to go to recycling and it has to be trucked all the way across the country you know I think they said sixty thousand dollars more we will absolutely do that so I think it's also about how

▶ 1:09:23 Ryan Williams: we write our specs for them I would I would I would myself personally I would be happy to approve a little bit more at the end of this process when we're ready to do it if you came back and said for another fifty thousand dollars they will take this and do it in this certified way that is you know sustainable and shows us that this material is getting a second life I mean you know it's not a huge amount of money so I'd be very interested in following up on that as we to go through the process. Thank you. Councilor Karamcheti. Thank you for being here. When I think about Fred Green, I think about it very similarly that I do to like Memorial Hall. It's really like a place for our community to gather

▶ 1:10:10 Manjula Karamcheti: and be together. And so really more for the benefit of the public, just could you share a little bit about like who oversees Fred Green, who's responsible for the general upkeep, who makes decisions about field usage, and then how those decisions are made. Okay, so Fred Greenfield is under the parks, which is overseen by the Melrose Park Commission. As far as maintenance of the field, we use the permit fund when we rent fields, and we put that money back into our field. So we hire a company that comes it maintains the field twice a year so that we make sure that it's tested and it's up to power of what it's supposed to be. We also have purchased a couple machines that we use in-house with the green team

▶ 1:11:08 that can do maintenance on it on a weekly, whatever basis that we need. As far as priority on the fields, the Park Commission's policies have been set for, since I've been here anyway, 15 years. So high school has first priority on all fields. Then comes recreation. After recreation comes Melrose Youth Programs. That's youth programs like Melrose Youth Soccer, anything that is a volunteer-based staff. And then it goes to Melrose Adult Leagues, rentals that they rent. And then it goes to outside, outside user groups, whether it's adults, whatever, youth programs, AAU programs. Okay, so just to clarify, does that mean that all high school sports, like whether it's football or soccer or whatever,

▶ 1:12:04 Manjula Karamcheti: like in the fall season, all of those teams would have the opportunity to schedule dates and times for games and practices before whatever is left would go to the recreation department? Is that how it works? In theory, yes. So the high school has the fields basically from 3 to 6.30. We don't schedule anything. That's the AD. So the AD is the one who schedules all his programming. He sets games for whatever groups. We don't do that. We do time blocks. My office, I'm in charge of permits for all fields in Melrose and the liaison for Pine Bank. so I do all the scheduling at Pine Banks for our youth in high school programming. The ADs, they set their own schedules, right? And they change on a daily basis

▶ 1:12:52 Manjula Karamcheti: depending on cancellations, weather, I mean, it could be anything. So yes, he has the priority. We try to keep them within that 3 to 6.30 timeframe. They get a couple night games for senior night or whatever event that they want. but that's not our call, that's the AD's call. Okay, thank you. That's very helpful in terms of like clarification on how those decisions are made between teams. Gotcha, yeah. Would you happen to know in relation to like a game versus practice, like do all of the teams get to schedule games on the field first before practices are determined? Call Steven Fogarty. Thank you, thank you. I will I will do that and then just another question regarding how this Fred Green project

▶ 1:13:49 Manjula Karamcheti: fits into some of the other fields a few of the counselors and myself we met with the entire Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School eighth graders and a high priority on their list was actually the cabbage patch they expressed a lot of concern about its usability its functionality sort of what happens when it rains so on their behalf i'm curious so how does the re-turfing of fred green relate to prioritizing the cabbage patch the knoll that kind of thing um do you want me to take that yeah so we've just completed and actually hopefully the final report will be coming out any day now the el pond park feasibility study and that study did include the cabbage patch as part of what was analyzed the recommendation in that report is to have turf eventually

▶ 1:14:43 at the cabbage patch but the turf at the west knoll was considered a higher priority by by the working group um so more likely we would see turf first at the west knoll before we would see it at the cabbage patch the whole project all in is roughly 10 million dollars so it's not it's not an insignificant project you know if if there was grant money or some will to suddenly spend ten million dollars in that one location then they would both get turf and we would get a whole bunch of other fantastic improvements at El Pond Park the the project includes improvements to stormwater to the wetlands to the parking area at the knoll what else walking trails oh like a little amphitheater area all sorts of great

▶ 1:15:37 things for the community but with a price tag of ten million dollars I would just encourage us to consider the youth voice in terms of sort of their needs and their recreation and sort of and I think what you're talking about is is something that I think everybody who has kids or has played on any of our fields walked any of our fields they didn't call us cornfields for no reason you You know what I mean? So the West Knoll, the East Knoll, and the Cabbage Patch are just in that lowland area that there's not, unless you're redoing it, unless you plan on doing a re-turfing of it or sinking some substantial money into drainage underneath the field. The whole idea is to keep as much grass turf on it as you can, because when it's grass

▶ 1:16:28 it's absorbing it's drinking it's growing it's not mud but once we get to that area when it turns to mud it's very hard we don't have down time on our fields we don't have that many fields so they're always in play so it's hard to get that that's why you know it's so important sometimes when people get you know aggravated when i shut fields down it is for a reason i mean we're trying to keep it at a level that we don't have to take it offline at any given point in a season you know we try to get through the seasons with it well i appreciate your efforts and dedication to taking care of all the fields okay Councilor Garipay thank you madam chair at this time i'd like to make a motion for uh to the full council for passage second discussion we have a motion

▶ 1:17:16 Ryan Williams: we have a motion to recommend for passage made by Councilor Garipay seconded by Councilor stewart is there any discussion Councilor williams yes on discussion last piece um does the company disclose whether pfas is present in the material that they're putting down on the field do you know that for a fact we can find that out we can ask and and we probably have it yeah i don't know too much about the specific materials that are used but again we have an opportunity to we'll be writing a bid spec for this material and if it's feasible to get one without pfas we will try our best to do so it was it was framing him by the way that's where they uh two years ago they were they had a massive amount of turf that was left to rot above their water supply and it just

▶ 1:17:59 Maya Jamaleddine: had a pfas in it so it's a nasty ep is you know all over it right now so there's a lot of resources out there thank you there we go Councilor Jamaleddine thank you um just to follow up on my question and counselor william's question um when i ask about this what's the materials that we need to be to be disposed inside um the fabrics and it's all inclusive in the cost so do we know how they're going to dispose it and what are we paying for to be able to compare it with what we would wish how we would wish to be disposed yeah i was looking we had a breakdown at one point from the the um the company who gave us the cost estimate um but we don't have that with us but again you know when we put the project out to bid this is just an estimate from one

▶ 1:19:01 vendor and so we're going to work with a design consultant who's going to help us produce bid documents and we can we can specify in there whatever we want in terms of disposal or recycling or whatnot and then the bidder who bids on that project would be the one telling us what the price would actually be for the disposal versus the new material so you know with the level of estimate that we have right now we don't necessarily have hard numbers on that right so we don't know as if now what is the basic how would be the basic disposal right well we can specify that in our bid document okay so we don't know at this time but it's our choice so it's not inclusive that's what i'm trying to explain it is inclusive in the estimate that we got because the company indicated

▶ 1:19:54 Maya Jamaleddine: that it's included that they have a list of what their price does and does not include and somewhere in here it says so i guess i i don't want to take more from your time i guess my question is if you're going to come back and ask for more money for disposal with that more you know um environmental uh friendly disposal um i i wanted to know that i want to be able to compare are we disposing as if now with this offer so with this office and i i'm just saying i don't know what it is but if this offer is to dispose it in a landfill say then that's the price we're getting on this if we want to truck it across the country and have it cut up and recycled or whatever then that would be the additional the additional fee so that's what we'll find out for

▶ 1:20:49 you we do have a little contingency in the um built-in built-in the construction cost estimate that we have is 525 000 and then we need cost for design we need cost for construction oversight and so we have 75 000 for design and construction oversight but there's a little contingency in there since we are still at a planning level so it may be feasible that we can cover the cost entirely even with recycling with the with the price that we have but we just won't know that so you won't be able to get more information as of now no we would have to get into the design hire a design consultant and get those bid documents ready and then they would give us a construction cost estimate a more official um you know engineer's estimate based on an actual

▶ 1:21:37 design and then then we'd have a better idea and the turf that we're gonna put as if like we're going to replace is it good for 10 more year or it's 10 more years yeah okay baseline 10. you could get up to 12. yes thank you anyone else on discussion okay mr clerk can you please call the role vice chair migliorelli yes Councilor mcmaster yes Councilor eccles yes Councilor Garipay yes Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Obremski? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Sinella? Yes. Chair Gergaritas? Yes. It's unanimous. 11 yes. 11 yes. So it passes. Thank you both for being here tonight. And so we'll head to the full council on the 16th.

▶ 1:22:34 Jen Grigoraitis: The next item on our agenda is order 2022-21. Is there a motion? Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. 22-109 acceptance of a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in the amount of $1,500 and this is offered by Mayor Broder Just for the record Economic recovery director Grimmick had offered to be here tonight But given that there is a substantive memo in the packet that had been added ahead of time. I didn't feel that her presence was required so What is the will of the committee? motion to accept the grant second so we have a motion to recommend for passage made by president snell seconded by Councilor karmchady is there any discussion seeing none all in favor hi any opposed okay that care that passes unanimously we then move on to order 2022-110 acceptance of

▶ 1:23:29 Jen Grigoraitis: a mass save community first partnership award in the amount of 25 000 to support energy efficiency measures for melrose homes and businesses also offered by mayor broder sustainability manager martha grover was planning to be here tonight and unfortunately is not able to be here due to illness she is open to this being held in committee for her to come before us at a later date there is also a very substantive memo in the packet so i will again defer to the will of the committee president sonella so we have a motion to recommend for passage made by president senella seconded by Councilor Garipay is there any discussion seeing none all in favor aye any opposed okay so that carries unanimously moving right along to order 2022-114 drainage easement

▶ 1:24:21 appropriation also offered by mayor broder and we have city engineer vani reese here to walk us us through this thank you the floor is yours all right thank you for having me here tonight can you everybody hear me okay so in December we got a call one morning to go out to nine Wildwood and the residents were in the process of excavating for a foundation for an addition to their house and they encountered a drainage pipe that belongs to the city it was a 30 inch reinforced concrete pipe we came back and checked on our gas and we we had records of that pipe being there so we you know informed the residents that they could not build their addition over our new pipe and then we looked into it a little bit more and we realized that we didn't actually have

▶ 1:25:21 an easement for our drainage pipe on their property and so um we have been working with the residents trying to figure a way to help them get their project done and also to rectify the fact that the easement was never recorded when the development was done so So this article is a request for compensation to the residents of Nine Wildwood for the fair value of the easement on their property and we had it appraised by a professional appraiser and it has the residents have agreed to the amount so this request is for the appropriation of forty eight thousand dollars to pay them for the value of the easement are there thank you are there any questions counselor Garipay thank you for being here um just a quick question if this

▶ 1:26:25 is to get get approved um when can they continue with construction on on their property with their addition is it i'm assuming it's been held up since since december yeah yeah it has been held up as soon as the appropriation is approved and we can record the easement documents and pay them for the easement then they're clear to go ahead with their project okay and we have we have a plot plan that was done by a professional surveyor we have a legal description with bearings and distances of the easement itself so the city solicitor will help me pull together those documents that need to go to the registry of deeds and be recorded I'm assuming we've continued on and look to see if there's any other drainage up in

▶ 1:27:20 Mark Garipay: that area that whole neighborhood was built around the same time so if we noticed any other potential easements or issues other than this this particular property we have been talking internally about doing just that looking at into where other look what other locations there might be throughout the city where this has happened when I looked back at the development plans what happened was there was an easement through the neighboring property and when the contractor installed the pipe he installed it in a different location so that that's what happened in this particular case so I'm assuming nine Wildwood this is going towards Woodcrest out towards Upham Street there's a piece of property behind we have an easement for that that property to yes yeah we

▶ 1:28:19 believe that that easement has been recorded the one that's behind because that was shown on the development plans this is just the last piece of that yes yeah thank you any other questions from the council okay what is the will of the committee Councilor Eccles motion to recommend for passage second so we have a motion to recommend for passage made by Councilor Eccles seconded by Councilor Garipay any discussion seeing none mr. clerk can you please call the roll vice chair Migliorelli yes Councilor McMaster yes Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Abramski? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President

▶ 1:29:06 Jen Grigoraitis: Cinella? Yes. And Chair Grigoraitis? Yes. It's unanimous 11 yes. Okay so that motion carries and then the final order before us tonight is order 2022-115 easement acquisition 9 Wildwood Road also offered by Mayor Broder so same story this is just the acquisition of the easement and as I said I'll be working with the city solicitor to pull those documents together and get them recorded at the registry of deeds once we've got the funds appropriated to make the payment to the residents any discussion any questions motion to recommend? We have a motion to recommend made by Councilor Garipay, seconded by President Sinella. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. Second. We have a motion to

▶ 1:30:04 Jen Grigoraitis: adjourn made by President Sinella, seconded by Councilor Stewart. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. We are done.

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2022-05-05

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