Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2022-06-13

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

This meeting starts at 7:33 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 absent · Vice Chair; John Obremski absent; Robb Stewart present; Ryan Williams present

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 13, 2022 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:30 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jen Grigoraitis Chair Present Leila Migliorelli Vice Chair Absent Shawn M. MacMaster Present Jack Eccles Present Mark Garipay Present Maya Jamaleddine Present Robb Stewart Present Manjula Karamcheti Present John Obremski Absent Ryan Williams Present Christopher Cinella President, ex oficio Present

ORDER-2022-126 Grant Acceptance of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($150,000) from An Act Relative to Immediate Covid-19 Recovery Needs for accessibility and safety improvements for the 2 elevators at the Melrose High School Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-127 Grant Acceptance of Three (3) MassDOT Shared Streets and Spaces Program Grants for various equipment and pedestrian safety measures funded at a total of $158,843. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-128 Enterprise Fund Proposed FY23 Sewer Rates Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-130 Appropriation City of Melrose Page 1 6/17/2022 11:00 AM Minutes Appropriations & Oversight Committee June 13, 2022 An Appropriation from Free Cash, account 01-324001, in the amount of $341,621.03 (Three Hundred Forty-One Thousand, Six Hundred Twenty-One Thousand Dollars and Three Cents) to various Public Works Snow and Ice accounts as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-131 Bond Authorizing a Bond for the replacement of the Salt Shed. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-135 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash, account 01-324001, in the amount of $783,025.22 (Seven Hundred Eighty-Three Thousand, Twenty-Five Dollars and Twenty-Two Cents) to various Public Works Accounts as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-144 Appropriation An Appropriation from Water Retained Earnings, account 6100- 319000, in the amount of $570,098.10 (Five Hundred Seventy Thousand, ninety-eight dollars and ten cents) to various water accounts as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-145 Appropriation An Appropriation from Sewer Retained Earnings, account 6000- 319000) in the amount of $1,123,629.51 (One Million, One Hundred Twenty-Three Thousand, Six Hundred Twenty-Nine Thousand and fifty- one Cents) to various Sewer accounts as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council City of Melrose Page 2 6/17/2022 11:00 AM

Transcript

▶ 7:54 Jen Grigoraitis: president sonella ex-officio. This serves as node as notice of a quorum for the record in compliance with the open meeting law. This meeting is being broadcast on mmtv, and we'll be available for viewing later on the city of Melrose website. At this time, I will motion by unanimous consent to open public comment. Okay, public comment is now open. I don't think we have anyone here in the room tonight. Do we have anyone online Mr. Clerk? There's no one online at this time. I will motion by unanimous consent to close public comments. Seeing no objection public comment is now closed just as a point of information. We have eight matters before us tonight in this committee, and we will need to Recess by 8:15 in order to

▶ 8:38 Jen Grigoraitis: enter into the special meeting of the city council. So just for those keeping an eye on the clock, the first order before us tonight is order 2022-126 acceptance of 150,000 from an act relative to immediate covid-19 recovery needs for accessibility and safety improvements for the two elevators at the Melrose High School. And I believe we have someone from DPW here to speak on this tonight. We have assistant director Jim troupe. Is that who you're pointing out both of you and director Elena Prairie Casella. So while you two get settled at the table, I will entertain a motion to spend the rules that we can hear from the administration. That the rules second so we have a motion to suspend the rules made by councilor. Karmchatie seconded by councilor Eccles

▶ 9:23 all in favor any opposed the rules are suspended. Welcome and the floor is yours. Thank you. So we have very little to say on this other than this is a much needed project. We have the opportunity to get $150,000 from the state toward the cost. We have a consultant on board who's doing the design plans and the bidding and Bid opening tea. Yeah. I'm not sure about when the bid opening date is but this 150,000 a year mark is a state state funding that's going to supplement the work that needs to get done to bring the elevators modernized up to current codes. And what have you there is some additional work that is being funded this fiscal year, but most of the construction will start taking place in the next fiscal year.

▶ 10:18 Robb Stewart: Thank you. Are there any questions from the council? Counselor Stewart. Thank you madam chair. Welcome Mrs. Ellis, Mr. Troop. So it's $350,000 in total. For the elevators, right? I believe it's 350,000 in addition to the hundred fifty the addition to the Past estimate that we have is between 5 and 600 500 600,000. And so where's the 350 gonna come from is that that's the I believe the This is been an opera approved project. So we'll be using our performance because it obviously is geared towards the most acceptable vulnerable part of our community the children and it does address a health and safety issue at the at the high school complex great. Great. Thank you. Thank you any other questions from the

▶ 11:10 Jen Grigoraitis: committee. President Snow I would motion to recommend Second we have a motion to recommend for passage made by President. Snella seconded by councilor Karm chadie. Is there any discussion? Seeing none Mr. Clerk can oh, it's actually acceptance of a grant all in favor right any opposed. Okay, so that will be moved to the full council with a recommendation for Passage. Next up we have order 2022-127 acceptance of three Mass DOT shared streets and spaces program grants for various equipment safety measures funded at a total of 158,843 and we are still under suspension of the roles. So please chime right in. Okay. This is one that we're very excited about not that we're not excited about elevators, but we've done

▶ 12:00 a lot of great work with the shared streets grants to date. That's what funded our parklets our slow streets program and our Central Terrace project. That's where they'll be a ribbon cutting on Friday if anyone's available at 10:00 in the morning, but we applied for three more grants this the spring Vonnie research city engineer applied for those and we received all three so there for reconfiguration of the intersection at Emerson and Vinton our plan is to tighten that intersection up. I've always found that to Be very hairy place and then you add the farmers market or any other sort of events on and it gets even worse. So that's about 79,000 of the grant we have. Applied for an additional piece of equipment for

▶ 12:51 snow clearing at the schools. We had difficulty this past winter where our contractors weren't available to the same level that we had in previous years and one of the things that was really tough was the contractors who provide the smaller equipment when they weren't available. It was hard to back feel that we don't have enough extra small equipment to plow School walkways and the like so this will be a piece of equipment that's basically dedicated to the schools. It would be a small sidewalk plow. And that was about 50,000 and then the third piece is traffic calming. So originally we had wanted to do a traffic calming toolkit, which would help guide where we should be implementing which types of pilot programs

▶ 13:39 for traffic calming and we found out eligible for this grant. So we ended up applying for the Actual physical infrastructure to do traffic calming. So we're funding the toolkit which is about 25,000 out of arpa. And then now we'll have temporary speed bumps and some different actual infrastructure that we can bring out and pilot in the locations that the toolkit says are The Logical locations to do so, so that's the third component of the Grant and we were excited to get all three. Are there any questions from counselors counselor Williams, right? Well, it's great news. Thanks for coming before us tonight. It's it's this is at least 300,000 that we've gotten from shared streets because the park Le Grant was like 70,000 and

▶ 14:31 Ryan Williams: the Yeah, it was about 60,000 for yeah, 60 to 70,000 for the combination of the park within so slow streets together. Yeah, I think it's about 60 and then Central Terrace was 26. So a little shy 86. Yeah, and then this is another 170. Yeah, it's it's great. And I know that the I know that the people in the pet by committee and then all the people that they're represent really appreciated. I just drove by Family on facts and Street on my way here today and there had been a crash on Malvern Street another crash on Malvern street right where I live and they had deployed their cones in a new fashion in response to all the traffic that was being redirected up their street and they were able to kind

▶ 15:15 Ryan Williams: of calm their own straight take control of their Destiny and and and help slow things down, you know on the street where all these kids play. So it's it's a program that has a lot of legs. It's something that that I'm really excited to see you all moving forward on and had one question with regard to the traffic calming toolkit. I know that with Public Works, we're all kind of little new at the lake, you know on road traffic calming type stuff. So Are you pursuing other ways to bring the expertise in to build that toolkit? And if so, how will it interact with the equipment that we're getting as part of this grant? We're signing a contract with neighbor waves who was originally the Consultants. We wanted to do the toolkit with

▶ 16:04 when we were going to apply for the grant for it. So we'll be leaning on their guidance and expertise as to how best to develop the toolkit and what what type of Pilots would be deployed where so that will all come out of their guidance and we are we have paused any of the slow streets requests. We're not taking any new slow streets requests right now. We're putting them on the list for the toolkit. So when the toolkit project is ready, then those will be the first streets that get funneled through that process. And I had one and one other question actually question more of a statement to ask when The Neighbor waste project starts if we could have an opportunity to talk maybe the word counselors or just an informal

▶ 16:50 Ryan Williams: conversation not like a hearing with the Consultants or participate somehow as part of a public hearing process or whatever. Just some way for us to get in get in on that action because you know, it's something that we've been I mean talking about for very long time and everybody's always hearing about traffic calming and I know that we would all love to at least share our thoughts. Sure. Yeah, I'm pretty certain that. We had a public process involved with our in our scope of work. So that's cool. That's wonderful. Okay. Thank you. Council Carm JD I just thank you for bringing these two our attention and I just wanted to also appreciate proactively reaching out for these grants particularly with

▶ 17:33 Manjula Karamcheti: the snow plowing which definitely impact a lot of kids and families on those Corners. So appreciate like the trying to think of solutions for that and also getting us some of those temporary structures for for calming traffic. I know that's a hot issue in word one and as I'm sure it is another neighborhoods as well. So having some actual Tools to use to work on that is great. So my only question is just particularly related to those and like how will you decide which streets? So that's what the toolkit will be designed to do. Okay, is it sort of a screening process? So, you know if someone were to come in who lives on a major road and they're proposing, you know, let's make this street one way.

▶ 18:28 You know Main Street that's not going to happen. So the toolkit will will help streamline and make it consistent and more objective how a street that's interested in being part of the program goes through the process and is determined to be a logical place to Pilot something and then what's logical to Pilot in that location, the the toolkit will help guide us. Great. And again, please pass our thanks to tovani for applying for these opportunities a lot of work. Thank you. Counselor Eccles, then councilor pay then counselor Stewart. I was just gonna make a motion to recommend for passage. So if we won we do that discussion. So we have a motion to recommend for passage made by counselor Eccles seconded

▶ 19:16 by counselor McMaster counts. Is there any discussion counselor Gary? Yeah. Thank you for being here and I apologize in advance if I missed it on the west Emerson in Vinton intersection. And we have a potential start date. No, so we are going to be working with our Consultants from stantech and our contractor aggregate who has our on call contract right now to finalize the engineering division did a preliminary design so we just need to finalize exactly what the intersection is going to look like and then it's going to be sort of a design build approach the plan is for to take place this construction season. But you know, we have to have neighborhood meetings and all too. And so if there's opposition from the direct debutters

▶ 20:03 Jen Grigoraitis: to what we're proposing that can obviously drag things out so no specific date, but the hope is this year. Okay that you answered my other question regarding neighborhood meetings. If I could just be included in that I have the one corner. I know console Stewart has been very involved in that but I do have the corner of Vinton in Emerson. Okay. Thank you. Make a note of that. Okay, I'm just on discussion one. I just want to thank you for including Line Street, which counts of Williams and I share I know there's been a lot of activity there and then I did notice that some of the traffic calming devices were purchasing includes portable speed bumps and it seems like for whatever reason Melrose has.

▶ 20:42 We don't do speed bumps. Is this a shifting of philosophy because it is a question. I get asked counselor constantly by residents, so Having been on the traffic commission for the last six and a half years when we talk about speed bumps. There are always Neighbors in favor, and they're always neighbors against and so You know, it's never seemed to be the right application for any of the places where it's been suggested and technically the traffic commission doesn't vote on speed bumps, but it ends up being a discussion that happens in that forum. Because people come in about other traffic calming measures. The reasons why people have traditionally been against them in the neighborhoods is noise and

▶ 21:25 just a perception that it makes it more difficult to the residents to to Traverse their own street, but I do think we've heard a lot recently about you know, really great speed humps. Not bumps humps in different locations. Medford apparently has a fantastic new speed hump. I guess off maybe it's Lawrence Road or Winthrop Street. So so we've been hearing about these one in Everett that somebody told me about I think there's this sort of optimism that there might be newer designs that are more gradual and less noisy and less intrusive for the neighbors. And so if that is true and it's something that makes sense once we've piloted it then I think we're open to it. Great. I'm happy to hear that. Thank you. Is there anyone else on discussion?

▶ 22:18 Okay, seeing none all in favor. Hi any opposed? Okay, so that passes with the recommendation to the council? Next we have order 2022-128 proposed fy23 sewer rates. You two continue to be at the table. So go right ahead. This is specific to sewer only rates, correct? So I presented most of this last week at the budget hearing, but our proposed sewer increase for this year. I don't have the numbers right in front of me. So. I guess I don't really have anything specific to add. In addition to what I presented last week on sewer rates. Okay. Jim has the numbers but it was all summarized in the memo that we submitted. We're proposing a tier one rate of 11 dollars and 78 cents and a tier two rate of 14 dollars and 84 cents.

▶ 23:30 And then we have the base fees. as presented in the memo that You know depending on the meter size the base fees go up. The base fees are set at 10% of the operating budget and then divided by the number of accounts. So that's how we that's how we select those base fee numbers. So that is what we're presenting tonight. Any discussion from the committee? Seeing none. What is the will of this body? motion of recommend a second So we have a motion to recommend made by President sonala seconded by councilor Williams. Is there any discussion? Seeing none Mr. Clark. Can you please call the roll? Council McMaster, yes. Counselor Eccles, yes. Counselor garepe yes counselor. Jamaladin. Yes. counselor Stewart

▶ 24:31 Jen Grigoraitis: Yes. Council crime Shady. Yes. Counselor Williams. Yes. President vanilla. Yes. And children greatest. Yes. We have nine. Yes, and yes, so that will move forward to the full council with the recommendation for Passage. up next we have order 2022-130 and appropriation from free cash account zero one dash 324001 in the amount of 341,621,000 and 3 cents to various Public Works snow and ice accounts as set forth here in counselor Williams we have until 8:15. Sorry. But thank you. I appreciate it. Go right ahead. Thank you in the packet. You've seen a memo that has been prepared that outlines the money that has been spent in excess of our appropriated budget for fiscal 22. This 341,000 that we are requesting we've worked

▶ 25:38 with the CFO and have identified an opportunity to cover this deficit this fiscal year without having to finance the overspending over the next three years. It's a sound practice. It does not affect our Budget moving forward. And again, it covers anything that we spent in excess of our approved budget for fiscal 22 at the end of the packet. You will see that there is a best practice of five years. We do continue to exceed the budget each year fighting the snow and trying to make the streets as safe as possible and you will notice that this year the overspending is less than the average. So we appreciate the consideration and thank you for your support of this. Thank you. Are there any questions from counselors?

▶ 26:29 Counselor Stewart. Thank you madam chair. Mr. Troopa Could you explain the overrun on the high equipment? Sure. So one of the things the challenges that we've faced this year with our contractors is escalating rates. We did a survey of the rates for the contractors in the general area of comparable communities and we did adjust our rates up this year the two storms that we had that we called the contractors in historic blizzard and 24-hour prolonged storm. You had those two things together and that shows the excess and hired equipment so that strictly our contractors and the amount we spent on them over the course of this winter. good things and then on the the parts and repair what what was that primarily targeted

▶ 27:22 for so that specifically deals with our Fleet. We have an aging Fleet the cost to repair that as escalated and in fighting those storms, especially those long drawn out and heavy storms. It takes a serious tax. It puts a serious tax on on that Fleet. We do as much as we can to prevent prepare and then to address to make sure that that Fleet is ready not only to continue in the storm operations that we're currently in but also in preparation of the next storm, so we try to be as very proactive agent, please. Okay. Thank you. Thank you any other questions? Okay, what is the will of this committee motion to recommend for passage second. We have a motion to recommend made by counselor garapay's seconded by counselor Eccles. Is there any

▶ 28:10 Jen Grigoraitis: discussion? Seeing none Mr. Clerk. Can you please call the role? Councilor McMaster. Yes counselor Eccles. Yes counselor garpy. Yes councilor Dean. Yes. Counselor Stewart, yes. Councilor crime Shady. Yes. Counselor Williams. Yes. President sonella. Yes and Cherry redis. Yes. That's nine. Yes nine. Yes, so that will move forward to the full council with the recommendation for passage. I do know that the next order before us we have several members of the administration here. So I will entertain a motion to recess so we can quickly. Take care. Of our special counsel meeting without having to stop mid discussion. I'm sure I'm like a motion to recess second. We have a motion to recess made by counselor Stewart seconded by councilor Eccles

▶ 33:32 authorizing a bond for the replacement of the salt shed and we are still under suspension of the rules. I believe we have several members of the administration either coming to speak or in the audience tonight. We're gonna This is exciting stuff. squeeze in show so while we get set up just for our viewing audience at home. We joining us tonight is treasure reflector Catherine armada's DPW director Elena prokos Ellis CFO slash auditor Patrick De La Russo and DPW deputy director of administration and finance Jim Troop. Okay clear. I've been running. All right. So thank you for hearing this order. I know we've had quite a bit of discussion to date about the salt shed. We wanted to just put together some information specific to tonight.

▶ 35:29 So I'm going to run through a slide presentation. You all should have it in your in iqm2 for your viewing in case it's hard to see up here. so order 2022 want - 131 we're requesting the authorization to borrow 1.757 million to pay the cost of constructing a new salt shed, including all costs incident incidental and related there to The immortization schedule for the loan that was in the packet is projected with a 30 year term at 5% interest. So I know we all have talked a lot about why we need a new salt shed and some of you have been over to see it salt is obviously critical to our winter operations and to Public Safety the recent CIP process ranked the salt shed as the number one priority Based On

▶ 36:23 A large group effort for the new CIP. And we recently were issued a demolition order. So since the last time we were here we did Circle back with both our consultants and with Building Commissioner Paul Johnson. Paul felt that the condition was when he came out for the site visit was even worse than he had expected based on the last time he had been out and he was very I guess enthusiastic about issuing the demolition order. He felt strongly that the building needs to come down as soon as possible. And I did take a couple of new pictures since the last time. I presented I guess that doesn't work. pointer Won't try to use the pointer. So the picture on the top left is a fairly recent or larger. Anyway whole in the side

▶ 37:19 of the building the picture below it is a large hole in the roof that is getting larger by day by day on the right on the bottom, right? You can actually see so that's just below that same hole in the roof and you can see the roofing materials sitting on top of the salt. So this is deterioration that's happened. Just since the end of the winter we get windy days the the Metal roof is peeling off. It's coming off in sheets. And then the sheathing below. It is falling actually into the salt shed onto the salt and then the top right corner is just the same support that I had shown the last time that's almost completely off of its footing in the front of the building. So this is what commissioner Johnson saw

▶ 38:05 when he came out to do the inspection and felt that you know, this is an immediate Danger. So the cost breakdown on the on the existing order Is a Construction contract of 1.543 million? And the great news about that cost is that it is 100% locked in it is a low bid in hand contractor ready to sign a contract tomorrow if we get approval and then we can proceed. Construction Administration, which would be through Western Sampson, we've budgeted at a hundred thousand dollars and then we have a contingency of 114,000. That was our contingency the same dollar value that we use the last time we were here and so we decided just to maintain that same value. We've had discussions with a lot of counselors over the last couple of

▶ 39:03 weeks about a fabric option based on the fact that we know the capital costs for a fabric shed would be less. And so taking the in the packet that I had for you the last for the information meeting. We had a cost estimate from November 2021 for 1.46 million for the fabric option. Backing out from that cost the construction portion of it. I've estimated. The Construction contract would be 1.163. And the we've accounted for 50,000 in redesigning and rebidding because the design obviously that we've put out to bid is for the high arch gambrel option. And so we would have to go back and redesign. Our original design costs were a lot more than 50,000. But because we already have existing conditions plans and

▶ 39:53 the front end of the specs and all that. We wouldn't have to redo all of that effort, but we would need to revise the design and rebid with the fabric shed. construction administration were estimating the same 100, 000 the construction contingency is higher because that's the amount that was in that November 2021 estimate but it's prudent for it to be higher because you need more contingency when you're at a planning level cost as opposed to a bid in hand. So that accounts for the extra percentage and then I've escalated another five percent on the total project cost to account for the time that's elapsed since that November 2021 estimate was completed and That 5% is consistent with the the bid

▶ 40:39 prices that we had from a year ago to this year went up 7% So that seems to be a fair amount to escalate for a slightly shorter period of time. So comparing the features of the high arch gambrill design and the fabric shed the foundation. For the gamble is cast in place concrete whereas we would do an eight foot high block wall for the fabric. The door opening is 30 feet high by 16 feet wide. for the high arch and 20 feet tall by 16 feet wide for the fabric and I'll talk on one of the later slides a little bit more about how that impacts our operations. The footprint necessary for the high arch is smaller. It's 72 by 40 because we're allowed to we're able to get the salt higher and so we can shrink the footprint a bit.

▶ 41:34 The fabric shed uses the whole area of the existing shed, which is the 100 by 40. Um because we end up with that extra space the high arch design has a 28 by 40 area in the back. That would be a covered canopy off the back that's included in the bid price that we have. Now that allows us to store roughly four vehicles undercover that are presently stored out in the open or we could opt to put all of our salting equipment there in the summer months, which is also presently stored. Out in the open. So it's a lot of additional covered area compared to what we have right. Now. The fabric shed again takes up the whole footprint of the shed we have now, so there's no extra. The total height of the building is 40 feet

▶ 42:23 for the high arch gambrill and 31 feet for the fabric. The salt capacity is roughly the same the higher can get a little bit more salt, but you know my mind that's comparable 1300 versus 1200 tons. The expected life of the fabric structure is 35 years with about a 15 year lifespan on the fabric itself provided. It doesn't get damaged. So if it's if it's in place and not damaged in functioning as it should then after 15 years every 15 years it needs to be replaced. And the cost of that is roughly $10,000 in today's dollars plus the time and effort for design and construction oversight. and then the expected life of the the building we've just listed as more than 35 years didn't put an actual year on it, but the existing shed, which is

▶ 43:17 You know a similar to probably not as well constructed design lasted 50 years. So, you know, I would say that the timeline would probably be longer than 35, but we didn't want to put an exact year on it. So there is based on what I just presented. There's a 224,000 difference in the total project cost and that's an estimate but the administration is coming to you tonight with a continued strong recommendation for the building option. I've said this earlier to a couple counselors, but I am as a stingy as anybody especially in my personal finances. I hate to spend extra money unless I truly think that that extra money is worthwhile. And in this case having spent the last two years becoming intimately familiar with salt sheds

▶ 44:15 and salt shed designs and site constraints. I strongly believe that this is the best option for the city and worth the additional 224,000. some of the reasons being first, we have construction bids in hand as I've said that is that is worth its weight in gold right now because it's a number that's locked in and there's just so much volatility and supply chain issues that are so unpredictable right now. It avoids any further further safety risks we can begin demo as soon as we sign the contract as soon as the contractor can get in here. We can demolish what's there? We'll move our salt to Wakefield as they've agreed and then we'll demolish the shed. Um as mentioned the fabric would need to be replaced two to

▶ 45:01 three times over the lifespan and at a cost of the 10,000 in today's dollars plus the city staff time and effort. We gain that extra 1120 square feet in covered storage area which results in other protection of other Investments. We save money by having vehicles kept undercover instead of out in the elements. In the new shed. So this is where the height comes in the salt can be delivered in the truck all the way into the shed. So right now the shed that we have and the fabric off option. The door opening is not large enough for that large bed dump truck to lift its gate and then or lift its it's dump and then pull out of the building while the salt is falling out of it. That's how they would

▶ 45:52 They would discharge the salt into the shed. So It doesn't have the height clearance to do that. So right now the salt is dumped at the door, and we push it in. And in a couple more sides, I'll talk a little bit more about what that really entails. But operationally we much prefer being able to discharge the salt inside the shed. It also reduces lost product and the environmental impacts of that loss product that ends up in the catch basins going towards alpond from our site. The higher interior height also limits damage from Vehicles during operations. We can accommodate the solar panels as we've discussed before the payback Martha Grover ran and estimate with one of her vendors and they said a minimum of

▶ 46:45 $20,000 over the lifespan of the actual return on investment on the solar panels. They were assuming that they were going to be skylights in the In the roof, so they didn't have maybe as many panels as they would have so that was a minimum. But even if it comes up, I mean, I don't think it's coming up to more than 30,000 which is not a great payback. However, it is more money in our pocket ultimately and it's also it also has the intangible benefit of helping us meet our Net Zero goals. And I know this is a city priority. It's a priority of the administration and something that we think has additional benefit Beyond just the financial There will be significant savings just from having assault shed

▶ 47:30 ready for winter. If we don't have a salt shed if we have to delay and redesign and rebid we're looking at late August early September by the time we'd open bids. If we got through Demolition and ground improvements before the winter, that would probably be a realistic expectation and then we're left with no salt shed. So we have to assume that there will be a cost involved with the additional gas obviously gas prices are through the roof will be driving to either a neighboring Community or DCR. Whoever is willing to let us share their shed temporarily. We'll have to pay the contractors also for that time that they spend driving. Elsewhere and back because we pay the contractors hourly rates

▶ 48:11 for their winter assistance. And then there's just the logistics of having to go somewhere outside of Melrose coordinating that with another Community or with the DCR. Tracking the usage paying the other community all the logistics that will go into it throughout the winter. That's going to be a significant amount of staff time. and I was reading the globe this weekend and this chart was was in the globe with the headline inflations at a 40-year high and the Futures uncertain and I just wanted to highlight. This is what makes me so nervous about going back out to bid because If we can't bid for another month or two because we have to redesign. We don't know where those costs are going to be. We don't know where interest rates

▶ 49:00 are going to be when this project is finished. There's so many unknowns that we avoid by acting immediately that there's a cost there as well. So I ran some numbers today and frankly. I was surprised that this came out so high but the cost over the 35 year lifespan of the fabric shed just to push the salt from outside to inside. The shed is 101,000. And that's estimated based on our deliveries are 30 tons. I was told that well and I calculated based on our past years on average we use about 5,000 tons. That's even on the low side for some really bad Winters. So that equates to 166 truckloads and our operations Foreman said it takes about half an hour to push the salt in per truck for a heavy machine operator who I estimated. I

▶ 49:56 assumed this was done during the daytime not during overtime. Sometimes it is over time, but I was trying to keep everything, you know, a fairly tight conservative estimate and I still came up with 101,675 just of Staff time to push the salt into the shed. So if we have the higher doorway design and we can discharge inside the shed that that would be the savings over the life of the shed. and then on top of that so we have the 224,000 cost differential if you assume that a hundred thousand is now gone from the the moving of the salt that leaves about 124,123,000. These are all the Lost costs if we go with the fabric option so money that is not actually going anywhere inflation. increased interest on the loan

▶ 50:51 All that staff time to coordinate the winter as I mentioned already. The gas cost is Transport Salt farther distance this winter the contractor costs to transport salt to further distance this winter. We project that the contractors might be sort of frustrated with us when we bid a third project and might be skeptical about wanting to bid on our project and they might add a factor just for the, you know, possibly difficult client to work with Compared to the bids we have now and then there's the Personnel time for the replacement of the fabric every 15 years when that comes up that's also lost time. So it's it's very difficult to put numbers in all of these. I would love to have had a slide that

▶ 51:37 had exact estimates for all of these items and a net zero number, but you take that hundred. say 123,000 you take the take 20,000 for the solar panels and you take 30,000 for replacing the fabric say three times. And then you're down 60,000 and then they're all the benefits that they come along logistically and with being able to demolish right away. So it is our strong professional opinion that the order before you as written is the best option for the city. Are our goal at this point is we really need to demolish what's there and we want to move forward as quickly as possible. We're you know, if a vote goes a different way if the fabric shed is preferred we will work with whatever option we are given, but we

▶ 52:35 Maya Jamaleddine: just wanted to come in with all of our reasoning. Sort of Consolidated into one presentation. So you all understand where our recommendation is coming from and we welcome any questions. Thank you. I know councilor gemaldine you had your hand up. Thank you. It only shows how much you believe in this project and and I appreciate that just want to clarify. So the expected life time is 35 years and we are paying 5% fees over 30 years. um, we are projecting that this would be paid off by over 30 years. Yes. That's right. So we'll have five years hopefully more. Break, you you did mention about the solar panel, which is a great news. I know we have so many City buildings that are qualified for solar

▶ 53:49 Maya Jamaleddine: panel. We are using is this kind of hopefully commitment or foreseen project that we're going to have so hopefully if this passes and we have this shed we will definitely have solar panel. Yes. The reason why a lot of our buildings don't have them where we could have them is because the roofs are too old and slated for replacement in the near term. So would make sense to put them on now, but I know the Hoover School and The Horseman school where we're working on the mspa projects to replace the roofs Martha's already Martha Grover's already talking to the solar companies about having that ready to go after those roofs are in place. So our hope is any new roof that can accommodate solar we'd like

▶ 54:34 to do it. That's great. You've mentioned that we have now in order to demolish the current shot. So do we know when it's going to be demolished regardless of if this order passes or no? So the the demolition is part of the Construction contract that we have with the bitter we have right now. So if we move forward with the bid for the high arch gambrill design, then we could start the demolition as soon as we signed construction contracts, which we could sign this contract within a week if we If that passes if it doesn't pass I did explore whether it would be feasible to still award the demolition to this contractor, but it's not we wouldn't be able to do that. Legally. It's too much of a reduction in scope. So we would have to

▶ 55:25 Maya Jamaleddine: go back out to bid. So the the rebid for whatever the redesigned option is if there was a fabric option. If we opened bid say late, August early September we would start the demolition in September. so did And Mr. Johnson, did he ordered to close and no one is able to access that shed right now. So as of today, no one is a is allowed to access it. Yes, the only the only item that I would Envision anyone would be in there for as we will remove the salt as part of the demolition process and then the And then the demolition itself may require the contractor to be. In and around it and you mentioned that the demolition would be part of the whole bed. So the contractors will be responsible to demolish. We

▶ 56:19 don't have to pay any extra, correct? Okay. Worst case scenario of this order did not pass. What is our options you did mention that we're going to use neighboring communities and How was any conversation have been made? So we haven't had conversation specifically about sharing. because of you know a potentially failed order but we have had conversations with both Wakefield and DCR surrounding the salt should Topic in general and I get the sense that either would be willing to work with us on a temporary basis. So we would have to bid if we didn't get any money. For either option at this point we would have to bid the demolition on its own. just to get the shed down and we'd have to identify a funding source for that and then we would just

▶ 57:24 you know, we'd have to figure out as we go what we're going to do next. Um last question. We you did mention that we have a parking space for equipment. And so All our equipment will have spaces or no. We still will have some equipment housed outside for sure. Okay. Right now, I mean some of it is seasonal which equipment gets parked inside versus outside depending on the time of year, but we always do have a number of trucks that have to be parked outside. So this will just give us, you know, four more spaces than we have now, but they'll still be other equipments. So we but the Plus on the positive side that we have for extra from what we have currently exactly. Okay, okay. Okay, thank you. Thank you. I have counselor

▶ 58:16 Ryan Williams: Williams followed by counselor Eccles. Thanks very much. Um, so I wanted to follow up on the space question. Vehicles space for vehicles What kind of vehicles are we talking about? Parked inside the shed with the I'm not inside the shed. Okay on the background covered under Canada. I just want to be clear because yeah, we would never Park anything in the corrosive environment results. I assumed like a one-ton dump truck size when I figured out the four could probably fit but that wouldn't necessarily what would be what would be kept there. It would be a discussion with Joe Hobbs our operations manager to tell us what's the highest priority to put undercover. Sure. Do you feel like That creates more efficiency circulation space

▶ 59:04 Ryan Williams: for something else. Tell me about that. space and And we have a particularly tight space where the public comes through to drop their. Yard, waste and recycling. And so, you know, if we're able to move anything that ends up out in that area toward the back. That would be helpful. Yeah, but I'm not again. I don't want to speak for Joe what he whatever he thinks is the highest priority. Maybe it's our new vehicles that we're also hoping to get authorization for tonight. I have a second question. Councilor maladene you made a great Point Solar is a big deal for this roof option and just to put a pin on it the solar produces revenue and the fabric is an expense and it's a liability because it could tear and it needs to

▶ 1:00:00 Ryan Williams: be replaced multiple times. And the other thing is that we probably all know that there's just been a big move by the White House to invoke the defense production act for solar panels. And so there's a moment where solar technology and research and development investment is going to Skyrocket and we don't know what the future of solar will look like. But we do know that solar panels have gone from 9% efficiency in the 90s to 47% efficiency experimental nrel labs in 2020 and could go higher. We know the costs have gone down 13% by what over the last same time 25 years. So just having the capacity to add solar to a city building for me is a huge benefit can't be understated has the opportunity to bring Revenue

▶ 1:00:47 Ryan Williams: into the city. We might be able to access Grant programs to pay for it to offset the cost and with this big Federal push on solar there's no telling what might happen in the next five or ten years. They could make our lives very very easy and really open up some Untold benefits for adding that kind of Energy generation to the building and I'd love to hear that. You're thinking about it on the other buildings, too. I can't wait to see it on the Uber school. That's it for me. Thank you. Thank you counselor Eccles. Thank you madam, president or chair rather? My question is for Mr. Dalarusso. looking at a group a in the FY 22 Capital Improvement program I imagine that a lot of this stuff is going to be things. We're

▶ 1:01:36 Jack Eccles: going to bond. Is there anything in here you see that? Would be kind of like a you know, if we go for this we might have to push this off a certain amount of time or do we have the capacity taking the public safety buildings out of it. So it's never really been in the question of something that we're going to bond. Do we have the capacity to finance all of those in the next few years? And candidly on the capital Improvement. We do have other items of long duration that we would consider. However, and I mentioned it before the Emphasis right now is on what's before us today? There may be opportunities for other funding who would ever know that the biopa funds available today three years ago. You wouldn't know that.

▶ 1:02:25 We there's always an opportunity to seek alternative funding for those other projects, but when they come before you like we did with Memorial Hall. In fact, I specifically outline earlier. Autonomy into the chairs with accounts that one of the considerations was that we knew this was coming up the salt shed. We knew they had to be resolved with some kind. It's the third year in a row. It's been the CIP number up topgory. So having said that it was a determination made that if we could fund the Memorial Hall the 1.5 million from free cash, which is what we did. Then that would provide the opportunity to be here tonight to talk about this in a way that we didn't want to Cloud any judgment on behalf of

▶ 1:03:18 the council just to treat this independently as a project and therefore we by doing what we did Memorial Hall we save significant money and interest in animal Debt Service. So I see no hesitation whatsoever with the funding of this project. If you look in back in June, I sent an illustration to the council by year or 30 year debt program and the simplest way to look at it because I like Ready's digest I don't they even printed anymore but I like it but it's really simple in this sense that we're always monitoring the direction of deaths capacity and Debt Service. In fact, I was notified today that as of June 30th 2021 just under 80% of a principles and paid off in 10 years. So we're consistently

▶ 1:04:14 we tiring dead at a significantly High number I think stands and impose actually uses 65% as if you make that threshold you're in the top category. We're almost 80% 79.5 so The longest audience there is that I would not put any other project in the same queue as this project today because we're always always looking at what is the best way to fund the project before us as you always recall. We used 500,000 to assist us with the library HVAC. From the Apple funds that's that's you and again that minimize the cost of that project. What did that do that actually helped here. Reduce what we see Our obligation is for the library project by 500,000 over 30 years that's huge and that opened the door for another project on

▶ 1:05:11 Jack Eccles: the capitol program. So those kind of strategies are always active. But I have learned from the past and I hope will take it into the future that work with what you know and what you have because those other opportunities are always out there and I don't want to miss out on. Thank you. There. Yeah, I guess the reason I ask is just I think that You know we talked about scarcity. I think that we've we've budgeted for for 1.7. The net difference between the two designs doesn't really get us much as far as anything on this list exactly or you know, it doesn't contribute a whole lot to annual Debt Service based on you know, my back of the napkin excel math 13% So I was fine with this at 1.3 million

▶ 1:06:02 Jack Eccles: and the first CIP. I was fine with it at 1.65. last year and I'm unfortunately fine with it at 1.7 right now because that is what it is. I don't I think that the intangibles are worth. You know. what what the difference is as far as operational efficiency and the potential for solar so I look forward to hopefully recommending this for packet passage as is. Thank you madam chair. Thank you. Is that emotion or is that not no? Are there any other question counselor McMaster? Thank you. Good evening. Thank you all for being here Ms. Process. You talked about the capital Improvement priority list in this ranking number one. Can you just explain so that the public understands what the methodology was for

▶ 1:06:55 determining and rating that ranking system Yes. Actually I'm gonna grab my laptop. So we had a CIP committee that had a number of representatives from all different city departments school committee. City Council and as part of that process we first the department heads submitted projects It was open to any City Department to submit projects. I believe we had 99 projects that we considered. And then each City department head who submitted projects came in and presented those and explain and and gave their own ranking within their own projects. So, you know, if if it came in with 30 projects, they had their projects ranked. one through 30 then after that time The committee then took all the information we got from

▶ 1:08:10 those presentations and we each came up with our own ranking. And then Martha Grover and Denise Gaffey took everybody's rankings and I believe the methodology they used was they took out in addition to ranking in numerical order. We also gave it a ABCDE priority categorization. They took out the outlier. They took out the high in the low from each. I can't remember if they did it from each ranking numerical ranking or from the ABCD, but I think it was from what number you ranked the project. So if salt shed was ranked, you know, one four five six and ten the one in the 10 went away and the average the remaining numbers and then they placed it in that order. So they ended up with a priority group a

▶ 1:09:02 and the copy I have in front of me was the Final draft and so I don't have the final final in front of me, but have one two, three four five six. 15 projects that were ranked as priority group a And then one other discussion that we had within the group was there are other projects. There are some projects in this list that are really recurring processes such as Asbestos removal in the schools. We need to be chipping away it a little bit every year traffic coming traditionally. We've done free cash every year a little bit at a time trees, which I know councilor Garipay and I would love to see in the budget but you know that's traditionally been done by free cash. And that's a recurring cost. So we also tried to consider those a little bit separate because

▶ 1:09:55 Shawn M. MacMaster: those are something that should have some sort of recurring funding source. But on the true Capital items we had we had these. 15 items in the end and I think the vast majority of these are either up for a free cash vote this spring or they've been submitted for consideration under arpa. And that leaves the salt shed in the public safety building as the two that really, you know, still need a funding source and a funding approval. Thank you. So of the 15 projects that were categorized categorized as priority group a has the salt shed been consistently the number one priority or was there ever? Another priority that has been addressed since the CIP plan came out. No the CIP identifies the salt shed as

▶ 1:10:50 number one. There's nothing that was ahead of it in the queue. And yeah any of the other projects that have already been funded in priority group a they were lower they were always lower than number one and this the the committee was a multi. departmental Group. Yes, it is over. Yeah, we have we had a resident or two we had School committee. Yes Council so Department. planning department nice blend Everything yeah. Yeah and everyone had a had an equal vote. And like I said, the outliers were eliminated so that made it a little bit more fair so that if you had a pet project it didn't rise to the top and in the process took us four months. Yeah, but for months. Young intensive each department had an opportunity.

▶ 1:11:45 To the chair to counselor each department had an opportunity to present their project or projects. It was very well heard and listened and provided a lot of documentation. So it was something to really be proud of to be part of I was every fortunate to be on that committee myself, but it was excellent. I think that's all I have at this time. Thank you. Thank you madam chair. Thank you. Counselor jimaldi would like to make a motion to recommend, okay. We have a motion to recommend for passage made by councilor Jamal Dean seconded by councilor Williams on discussion counselors Stewart. And I apologize. I didn't want to. Ask questions prior to that. Thank you madam chair. so yes several questions here and thank you for being here tonight. I appreciate

▶ 1:12:34 it. So I know that you had contingency that were different based on the the two alternative designs. Why is that? So the most recent cost estimate that we had. for the for the fabric option was from November 2021. And so the well twofold one is that I took that cost estimate and used it to develop the cost that we had and I added that extra five percent onto it but that cost estimate because it was a planning level estimate had a higher contingency built in the project that we have before us right now since we have bids in hand the contingency drops down. So I have about a 7% contingency on that one and a 12% on the other and that's typical in construction cost estimating that when you're when you're

▶ 1:13:31 in planning level you have a high contingency when you get into design, it drops a little when you get into. Bidding it drops a little and then when you have a bid in hand, you're really down to that last incremental, you know, now you have a solid price and the contingency is really just for unforeseen conditions in the field. Once you're constructing whereas the contingency on a planning level estimate is obviously they're just more unknowns in that. Thank you for that. Mr. Del Rosa Did you calculate the fully advertised? cost of the two alternatives Did I yes we did run both myself and Catherine I have both right here. And the Essences that the average cost for the 1 million five thirty three

▶ 1:14:21 salt shed people compared over the years as approximately 99,672 and it's about 114,000. 6 for the traditional higher structure that we'll look at tonight. Do you have the the total cost to do? Seven right here. Yes. So if I'm looking at approximal again, it's locked me 5% that we're using. It's three million 435 600 for the model that we're looking at this evening and for the salt shed. It's just under three million. Two million nine, ninety one fifty approximately. Okay, so 435,000 difference between the two over the 30 year average in about 15,000. Yeah, that's correctly. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. um so some of the I'll be honest. I feel a little backed in the corner here because it

▶ 1:15:31 Robb Stewart: really I haven't seen. the benefits of the canvas yet. All I've seen are the the negatives and it's been pretty and I know you're strongly recommending. the the building option but there's several considerations that I think are out there that have not been spoken about so for example With a with a canvas shed, I would imagine that it's easier. To change direction in other words if you had to disassemble or if you had to move locations and so forth. That's that's a much easier option. If there's a lessoning demand for salt if there's continued warming going on in 20 years from now, there's much less need impact of the winter weather based on this building that we built. Did you factor any of these into consideration? I'm

▶ 1:16:33 just just curious. consultant to answer the question about whether this moved because I'm not certain if that's if that's true. So so the answer is yes, you can move the the fabric structure. it fairly labor-intensive, but it could be done. You take it down. It's built with the block wall Foundation that can also be moved so it certainly can be done but it's not something that's, you know done overnight have to be done carefully. By you know contractor with experience working with that type of structure. And stored properly or relocated and reassembled properly to help make sure that the warranty would still be valid so it could be done. It has been done but it's it's a pretty extensive process to do

▶ 1:17:35 Robb Stewart: that. Thank you. And how long when will this quote expire that? We currently have on the table? Excuse me. I'm sorry. Yeah, sure. When will the quote expire? Oh the bid we have. June 27 Oh 30 business days. I just learned something about State procurement. So do you know what date that is? July 11th, okay extension, July 11th. Thank you. One last question how many times a winter do we have salt actually delivered because it sound like 5,000. Tons, but we only have either 1,2,300 depending on which option we have. Yeah, so we never the the number of truckloads I had up there was so 166 truckloads in an average winter if we were using 5,000 tons for the winter. But we tend to get deliveries of about 300

▶ 1:18:43 tons at a time. So that would be that would be say 10 truckloads. So 60 16 times. I had asked our operations form in that same question earlier today, and he estimated. you know, maybe six to twelve times in a in a lighter winter I think six times is is important thing You were always assessing the level of salt to the inventory in the shed and you always want to have roughly two storms worth of salt there. So as the season comes winds down you may be playing that game in March that you're trying to keep that inventory low you force a purchase of salt maybe in October or November to get ready for the season, but you're always constantly assessing and what both sheds provide to us as an opportunity to stay proactive with two

▶ 1:19:45 Robb Stewart: to three storms worth of inventory at any given time. As Canada as I can be I'm very much struggling with this and the reason being is even though you say well it's only a 225 or 230,000 difference. Right and Mr. Troop. You yourself had said that we have an aging Fleet that we need new trucks. That were fifty thousand dollars over our expenses because of all of the maintenance that are required. And that 225,000 can buy us a new truck. Right and to me it's a management of capital. Right, and how do you how can you best utilize your Capital at hand? not how you can you buy the optimal solution so That's why I struggle with this. And sometimes we need to make a compromise. To find the right solution that will satisfy not

▶ 1:20:49 Robb Stewart: just one thing and that's why I think the CIP is helpful and thank you for putting that together. But when I see a total focus and we say we just need to look at this as a separate project. That doesn't make sense to me. I think what we need to do is look at it in comparison to everything else that we need to do. And so when I see that there's another 435,000 over 30 years that can be applied in the capital sense to something else. That's real money. That $200,000 is real money. So that's where I'm really having a hard time with why do we have to go with? The end and I'd like to hear your thoughts on this because you know, I know we have to get this done and I'm not here to say no. We don't

▶ 1:21:37 do this. I'm here to say what's the best solution for us relative to everything else? I I truly believe. them number two on the list as of the final draft that I had was the high school elevators. We have a solution for that now. I believe number three is the the breathing apparatus for the fire department. And is that being funded through Arthur? That's being funded through our prayer. Next is Memorial Hall, which we're funding through arpa lead Water Service inventory that's being funded through arpa Fred Green fabric replacement. You just devoted to approve that for free cash public safety building upgrades we all know that's a enormous project and there's a lot of work going into that high school

▶ 1:22:35 bathrooms. We just got approval to do the design for $150,000. again through arpa The fiber optic Network project I believe is the one that you sent to Committee in your other meeting that got a grant for 200 some thousand. Sewer pump station emergency backup generators, you're hearing that tonight for free cash from the sewer fund. Fire station HVAC is being funded through arpa. School facilities master plan. We're still working on a funding source for that. But I would imagine within the next six months. You'll be seeing us again trying to address that project new pumper truck that one I don't know about. What the is there a source. Maybe okay, so that one's being looked at switch refresh. I don't know

▶ 1:23:24 about that one and Ashton Street water main replacement. We ended up being able to fund that through the through the operating budget in water. So that's that's what I have as as of this final draft version everything that was in group a so we have funded or identified a funding source for almost everything in group a You know, respectfully I understand exactly what Patrick is saying about. We need to look at each project individually and where it fits in at that moment and I agree a hundred percent, but I don't want that to imply that we're not all so planning for all the other items. I think we're in fantastic shape for funding our high priority items. one last question A lot of these other initiatives are being funded by Arthur. Can

▶ 1:24:10 we fund a portion of this through our Sorry for the musical chairs. And and why or why not? Good evening. I did check what the consultant obviously before I came here tonight. Two things one is if we had already issued debt for this obligation and that would be off the table. If it's if it's a consideration for using Opera funds we would have to be able to clearly identify what aspects of the project are APA in which is dead. So it's quite different than and I'll put in context if you take a look at the library project that was a significantly large project. We could identify clearly the HVAC component cost. It was clearly identify what that cost is and that was with the Opera came in to address that we're talking about assault shed.

▶ 1:25:16 And I'm not sure and again, I don't have does me and I have a year, so no answer to that how it being what it is the structure where there is really no. No office per say in there. There's no way you know, you don't have those same components as you wouldn't in the library obviously, but I'm not sure how you would break down. the different aspects of the project so that we'd have a certain amount of portion for debt and a certain portion not dead very difficult. I would think to do that because of the nature of the structure. But again, that would be the way we would have to to frame it or to structure it. So isn't there a whole piece of deconet decontamination work that's different distinct from the actual blood. That's

▶ 1:26:03 why I'm just bringing up this evening. I literally I just got the response before I came down today from the consultant on the asked on just like that. Could we break it down? Could we use our And at what point could you use Opera? So again item? I'm not capable of breaking down that project in that sense. I don't have that ability. But I mean, that's not that that would be something we'd have to find out. I think to add to that the construction cost would be very challenging to break down because it's bid is a lump sum with they're a handful of items that are unit costs. But the vast majority of the bid is a lump sum cost. So the only piece that's really a separate entity with a separate price

▶ 1:26:45 is construction Administration. Which we have estimated at 100,000. I mean that's clearly separate because it's a contract with Western Sampson not a contract with the low bidder but aside from that everything is sort of grouped in when the when the contractor first Begins the project that one of the first submittals that required to give us as a schedule of values and that's where they take the whole lump sum of the construction and they tell us you know, this Milestone is this amount of money in this master is that amount of money and then that's how they submit their pay requisitions for payment. But you know, it's not bid that way that's that's a step that happens after we sign a contract.

▶ 1:27:29 Robb Stewart: Yeah. so Madam chair I would be comfortable if this number were at for example 1.3 and then it was Bridge with our funding. I'm not so comfortable at the full one seven. And so I just I don't want this to die in in committee. So I just want to let you know that that's what I'm thinking right now. Thank you counselor Stewart. So just to regroup we have a motion before us with a second for recommendation for passage at one point seven. So Is there anyone else who wants to discuss that or and/or help? Yeah, just to console Stewart's point, you know, the 400,000 over 30 years. We're doing an unbelievable job. getting you know eliminating the priority group a projects. But as we eliminate them priority now comes

▶ 1:28:27 Mark Garipay: priority a so it is real money. We have 75 other projects that we could be used in this additional additional cost. I we've had many conversations on this you everyone you know where I stand. 1.7. I struggle with for a building that's We're investing in that. Is housing salt which is a necessity. It's a necessity, but it's not housing people. We have a lot of infrastructure issues in our buildings. So I took a pro I too could maybe do something a little bit less than Then then 1.7 but I can't support this. I didn't support that one five. I'm I can't support that one seven, but Thank you any other counselors wishing to speak? No, okay, so we are moving forward with a call of the role on 1.7.

▶ 1:29:32 Jen Grigoraitis: So we have a motion made by counselor jimaldean seconded by councilor Williams to recommend for passage Mr. Clerk. Can you please call the roll? Council McMaster Yes. Counselor Eccles, yes. Council gripe no Counselor jamaladin, yes. Tells their Stewart. No. Council Carm Shady. Yes. Counselor Williams. Yes. President Sonoma. Yes. And chair goodness. Yes. We have 70s two nodes seven. Yes two knows so that will be recommended for passage to the full Council. I just as a point of information will remind everyone that we are missing two of our colleagues tonight and that in a full Council and appropriation requires eight votes, so to be continued on next week, so thank you all for your presentation on that. We will

▶ 1:30:35 Jen Grigoraitis: move right along to thank you. Thank you very much order 2022-135 and appropriation from free cash account zero one - 324001 in the amount of 783,025 and 22 cents to various Public Works accounts as set forth here in and Director for wakeus Ellis and assistant director troop continue to be here with us tonight. Getting the well, there's a number of there are a number of memos that tally to the 783,000. It's traffic calming trees Melrose High School bathrooms Vehicles Cemetery and Cemetery appropriation Let's start with the vehicles. Yes your portion. so one real benefit of having a new operations manager is a fresh set of eyes. And so we had Joe Hobbs our new operations manager. Inventory all of our Fleet working with

▶ 1:31:54 Derek lamphere operations foreman and Mike kaleska who was our Fleet Foreman before he left. And then Joe worked together with Jim to put together the recommendations we had about 18 19 vehicles that were in the worst condition and most in need of replacement. And so they pulled together the memo that you have with all the pictures and everything summarizing the condition of the fleet and these top priority vehicles. and then at the conclusion of the memo We included a table showing the vehicles that were over 20 years old. And then we make a recommendation for the replacement of six Vehicles. One of which we'll discuss later in reference to the Sewer fund because it is a sewer division vehicle, but the

▶ 1:32:49 other five are general fund general fund expenditures that were requesting to fund with 482,000 of free cash. Would you prefer that we go through each item individually or go through all five and then answer questions. I am happy to just ask if there are questions unless everyone would like to hear about each item individually. Okay, we will keep moving. Okay? so so the next one while Elena is pulling up the next one, she'll present appropriation for 10,620.65 working with the cemetery commissioner Mr. Dan O'Neill. He and the DPW crew that work at the cemetery have identified some specific need. They solicited a quote for lowering device. It's a full kit and will help deliver the services for the funerals at the cemetery. It's an

▶ 1:33:50 overdue product that's need for them to deliver the services at the cemetery appreciate you consideration. And one quick item to add to that is that we got an appropriation for free cash last year for the cemetery that was for Paving and for completing the digitization project. And our consultant worked a lot slower than we had hoped on the digitization project. So we still have a lot of money left over there and then the paving is planned for the summer. So You know, normally we come in with a with more requests on behalf of the cemetery. But this year we will be doing that other work that was approved last year in addition to requesting this equipment. Excuse me. The next item is the trees. So

▶ 1:34:38 we are requesting $70,000 to continue to plant trees. This roughly offsets the approximately 125 tree removals that we do per year. So this is essentially a Breakeven but the good news is that last year you all approved $150,000 which was more than we typically get for trees. And once we complete our fall planting this year, we should be all caught up to you can't plant right after you do a removal especially if it's right in the same area because you still have the live roots from the tree that you cut down and we need time to grind the stump and and let everything sort of die off in the area. So, you know, we don't we never expect to be caught up to a tree was taken down yesterday and we're planting a new

▶ 1:35:26 one today, but we want to be within 12 months of any request. And so we've planted I believe it's 171 trees so far this fiscal year and we have we have a fall planting round all lined up and then this would pay for our spring planting round. And so at the end of fall we'll be caught up. To our within one year and then allowing us to plant in the spring. We'll keep us caught up and keep us from falling behind again. Another group a project in the capital improvement process is going to be the renovation of the high school bathrooms. Front of you for consideration tonight is 150,000 free cash. for the advancement of the design of the Melrose High School bathrooms Several of the fixtures and the rooms themselves are

▶ 1:36:17 date back to the original construction 1974 and we all know the use that the high school bathrooms take on a day-to-day basis. The 150,000 would go towards a request for qualifications. And then we would expect once a cost estimate and a detailed scope to be presented to us for consideration for us to be back in front of the city council requesting funding to actually perform the construction. And the final item is traffic calming and the amount requested is 70,4044.57. And I think in the past CFO delaroso has typically used either traffic coming or sidewalks. To have the odd number that gets to the total that he's going for because there's no specific reason why it's seventy thousand four hundred four dollars and 57 cents. It was just going to be roughly 70

▶ 1:37:20 thousand dollars. I just wanted to note that so they don't think it ties to it exact project that's been estimated at an exact amount. In the memo that we provided I had actually pulled together. Just a couple weeks before in response to a council question about how we've spent past free cash money. I had pulled together the list of all the rapid flashing beacons the solar speed feedback signs, the intersection reconfigurations all the various traffic coming measures that we had done and the Ada curb ramps that we had added for new crosswalks. So because I had just summarized that for this other memo I included it in here just so that the council can see that we are very proactively spending this money as we're getting it and we've

▶ 1:38:09 made a ton of safety improvements every time I drive down Main Street on my way into work and somebody presses the button at Boardman or Highland. I I'm excited to see the lights flashing and also by the McCarthy house. I drive by three of them just on my way in and they're extraordinarily effective. Hopefully you all agree that when you see those lights flashing they really make a difference. So this year's funding order would would continue to fund the higher priority items on the list. We keep a running list, just so everyone's aware of our process. As residents call for any of these, you know the rfbs or the solar speed feedback signs. For new Ada ramps or intersection modifications we maintain this list. It's

▶ 1:39:01 in a shared file. So anyone either in engineering or in the DPW office can add to it when someone calls with a specific request and then as money becomes available DPW in the police department work together to identify the highest priority locations. We look at things like What has the highest pedestrian traffic, you know volume? where the speeds the highest where might there be sightline issues or you know other things that make an area just very congested in people are less likely to be looking at the crosswalks and where the blinking lights would help more. So the decisions are made in and also any historic information about crashes. So that's how the decisions are made and you know, we have some known high priority areas where we still

▶ 1:39:50 want to put them and so this money would go towards those and also, You know intersection modifications. Sometimes they those tend to pop up during our construction projects where we're we're Paving a road and we think you know, we really nice to bump in this intersection a little bit to make the crossing distance a little shorter like we did on Warwick Road at Sears and Dyer. We just just tighten the intersections up a little bit. It makes people drive slower. It makes the crossing distance the shorter. So those types of projects. That's where this funding would go. I think that's all five things. I know counselor Jamal Dean had a question. Thank you. I just wanted to make comments on The Meadows

▶ 1:40:37 Maya Jamaleddine: high school bathrooms. I'm so happy to hear that. This is something that's gonna happen. Hopefully finally it's way overdue. I know many of our students are either, you know decide not to use the bathroom because they're uncomfortable using it or they end up using the middle school bathrooms because of the current status of our high school bathrooms. So thank you so much for working on that. I also do have a question on the trees how and just for the sake of the public. How do we do you identify the trees that need to be removed? So we have a tree assessment process. Most of our removals come from requests from residents. Usually the direct to butter to the tree if they see the tree is dying or it seems to be dropping a

▶ 1:41:30 lot of branches during storms and they're starting to get nervous about it. They put in a tree assessment request the public can put a request in on the website under DPW service request or they can call down to the city art or an engineering or you know, speak to any of us and the work order goes in then our tree crew goes out and does the assessments if they feel That they can't confidently make a determination about a specific tree or if they think that it's dead or dying, but just want a second opinion. We do have a certified Arborist on on and on call basis who we call in to do a report. If the tree is deemed that it should come down. We then post the tree we distribute a notice to the immediate of Butters. We do

▶ 1:42:19 a hearing on request. So if there's opposition we can do a tree hearing and we are now also putting the trees coming down on the website so that we have multiple. levels of notification Although that said our webmaster position is currently open in our new person is not starting till July 5th. So there may be a little Gap if you go to look, you know tomorrow for a specific tree. and then once all that has been done then we schedule the removal if if it's If we're able to remove it, we do it in-house if it's too big for us. We have an on call contractor for that and if it's in and amongst wires, then we have National Grids contractor come and take it down. And that process takes you know, how long

▶ 1:43:08 all this well traditionally. It's actually taken. I would say six eight months. We've had a backlog at times. But another thing that Joe Hobbs are new operations manager has been tasked with is getting caught up on our tree assessments and sidewalk assessments. We want to be pretty much up to date on those and he's really been been working. Well with our tree crew to do that. We have a brand new tree Foreman forestry Foreman as well who's very enthusiastic about being caught up and staying caught up my last question. How do residents request a treat to be planted? So there's also service requests for a new tree again, that's one either. They can enter a request online or they can call us and we can enter the request for them.

▶ 1:44:01 We fulfill the requests from oldest to newest. So we just work from the bottom of the list up and you know, hopefully now that we're getting caught up. If someone puts in a request hopefully within 12 to 18 months, they'll have a tree if we continue to fund at the at the level that and we're all caught up now. As of fall, we will be all caught up. So with the 171 we planted in the last. between I think it was November and now we're Close to caught up and and when we get through the next fall planting we will be caught up. What kind of trees are we planting? So we have eight species in our on-call contract. A resident did bring to our attention that one of the species that we've traditionally

▶ 1:44:49 planted is a non-native species that is beginning to be considered invasive. And so this year we took that one off the list. We just asked the contractor not to bring any pear trees. They're Cleveland in calorie pear trees. We I am aware of a resident who is very interested in working with us on Our species and we're we're very open to that. We've I've done some research myself and attended some classes on street tree selection and there's some really good guides out there. And I know one of the big pushes now is installing trees that will be good in the climate that's going to be here 50 years from now instead of installing the tree that survives best in today's climate. So, you know, there's a lot that can be

▶ 1:45:37 Robb Stewart: done there and we're not experts we've tried to educate ourselves to be sure that we are aware of all the current research but if you know if there's a passionate resident who wants to Give their feedback. We're really open to it. Thank you. I have counselor Stewart councilor Williams and counselor garapay and Q counselor Stewart. Thank you manager. dogwood turkeys so the design of the bathrooms both boys and girls, right? benjal neutral great great super In the trees, they're more than a replacement you're adding trees as well, right? so the current funding allows for basically just replacement. Okay, because and the reason why I asked Miss peregos houses when we talked about West Emerson and some of the traffic

▶ 1:46:33 Robb Stewart: coming that we wanted to do one of the suggestions that Ms. Rice had provided was to plant trees. Yes, but we haven't seen that yet. Yeah, so and when we do have special projects and also when we pave a street and we try to put in some trees those are usually above and beyond we try to fund those through other sources through chapter 90 in the like in the case of Emerson. My plan is actually just to have them jump the line and be in the fall planting around this year. Great, okay. And then finally on on traffic calming how can residents? Take advantage of this. So, you know, there's because I know that there's all sorts of tractor coming that you can have right like in the slow streets and so you buy them a couple of cones and things like

▶ 1:47:19 that, right? And that's that's kind of a short money. How can they get in? How can a resident that you know, like, my neighbor? For example, save Alden Street one do it. What would they need to do? So the traffic coming order is more for the free cash is more geared toward the purchase of infrastructure, like the rfbs and the sole speed feedback signs and the like And that is really just if they request it, we put it on the list. We don't really pass judgment when we put it on the list. We pass judgment when we have the funds and we decide is this really an appropriate location. So really anybody can contact us and say, you know, I have a crosswalk out by my house and I'd like to have a push button signal at

▶ 1:48:03 that crosswalk. The traffic calming toolkit is more the place for you know, people just generally drive too fast on my street. I'd like to see people slow down. What can you do? This? Toolkit will allow us a place to Channel all of those requests put them through this process that determines. What's the most appropriate thing if anything to Pilot on that particular Road and then the grant will pay for the equipment. in order to do those Pilots, so that's the more appropriate Avenue for kind of a more generalist request of I just want people to be safer and slower on my street. Okay, great. Thank you counselor Williams. Hello, so. Let's get back to the thing here. I wanted to talk a little bit about the traffic calming devices.

▶ 1:48:57 Ryan Williams: Did I hear you write that the $70,000 essentially goes into like a fund that you'll then use to decide how you deploy? Maybe in our rapid rectangular flashing Beacon, maybe a speed physics. I'm maybe also bump out something. Yeah, that's great. I I would encourage. Us to look into design guidelines for the speed feedback signs their best used at transition periods. For example, we have one on Lebanon in my opinion. It doesn't really do much good it was set there because the police department used to be in that space that area where they would do speed traps, right? That's not really an engineered solution. They are most effective in transition points and they're most effective when paired with a speed sign that shows the user you are going

▶ 1:49:45 Ryan Williams: this fast. This is how fast you're supposed to go and so for example in Wyoming The speed feedback scientist currently completely obscured by a tree that has grown over it and there's a black powder coat pole with a nice 25 mile an hour sign about 25 feet to the West. So I just pop that bad boy off put it right above that 25 mile an hour sign. I think these things you know, they're not my first choice for traffic calming per se they do work in some locations. They also collect data. And I think when we're talking to the neighbor waste folks some of that data could be super useful. I've seen some of the data and it's pretty revealing as far as how people are actually driving how fast they're driving.

▶ 1:50:29 Ryan Williams: How many cars we have. and yeah, I just wanted to To say that out loud since we're sitting in the same room. It's always bothered me that we have so many of these radar signs that either aren't in the appropriate transition point or they don't have the speed limit sign posted below them and we don't have that many of them yet. So I wish we would just I hope that we can just make that happen. So that there is useful as they can possibly be. And one constriction there is that we can't post the white regulatory speed limit signs unless there's an established speed limit specific to that area. We're not allowed. We're not permitted to post the default speed limit of 25 in a white sign unless a speed study has been done and approved by Mass DOT

▶ 1:51:18 most communities. Don't obey that but we we do we do where we put new signs new signs. I will say there are historic signs that are in locations where they probably shouldn't be and I'm not Planning to take them down the traffic commission couldn't approve by itself to post the posted speed limit. Now. We've had this conversation with Mass DOT. So we can post with the solar speed feedback signs. We can post Yellow 25 mile per hour science if we choose and most people don't know there's any distinction, but I just wanted to point that out that we can't put the white signs wherever you want. It's interesting. Okay, okay on the trees since as a person who's had a bunch of trees cut down on their street

▶ 1:52:01 Ryan Williams: that process that you described which is so great. They don't think it's always occurring in the way that we would like it to I've heard stories from folks who have a notice go up in the tree never comes down. I've seen people who never get a notice but the tree comes down and you know, it's a lot of work especially with all the trees that we're cutting down to do like, you know, the noticing and everything and I get that but I'd encourage us to think of ways that we can make as much information as possible accessible as possible, you know on the website have the list of trees linked have a link to the direct ego of site or an email address or whatever some kind of you know information because this is a question. I hear a lot from people

▶ 1:52:40 Ryan Williams: and even myself had to ask like, how do I get a tree and it's a great amount of trees that you all have been planting and please thank Jen Rosa for me. I should thank her myself and I will but if you talk to her tomorrow, thank her because we have four new trees. Hoover Playground and just today when it was 85 degrees outside if you look at the Playground space there was like a line of people sitting in the shade that the tree provides it's a thin tree, but it provides like, you know four foot wide. So it was like people were sitting adults and children babies carriages were sitting in the line of the shape already had immediate impact people are getting shade. It's really working out and and

▶ 1:53:19 Ryan Williams: we really appreciate it and want to see more of it. My last substantive question is on the vehicles. So I'm looking through the list of the vehicles. These are big trucks. Most of them even the 3500s are fairly big they've got big beds, but we did have in the net zero action plan that you mentioned about the shed roof. We did have a line in that Net Zero action plan that said that National Grid would be working with the city of Melrose to Electrify the public works. Fleet so I'd like to know if you consider electrification for these vehicles. I happen to have some professional experience in electrification of heavy duty and medium duty Vehicles. So I know there are lots of constraints with this procurement,

▶ 1:54:00 but I like to hear what steps you took what you think the future might hold and how you came, you know, or whether you're considering replacing some of the vehicles with electric. So Martha Grover is this close to releasing the EV first policy for the city and we've been working closely with her. And so we've provided her with the the memo when Jim and Joe completed it and we are talking about so the pickup trucks we're gonna look at electric. Okay, one of them is going to be at the cemetery and one of them is going to be used for the highway Division and possibly used for some some light plowing, you know as More of a management truck, but someone might want to drop a blade from time to time.

▶ 1:54:53 So the cemetery vehicle we think could probably be an electric truck an electric pickup. We'd have to put in infrastructure down at the cemetery or at the very least a plug, you know have a designated place to plug that in. We're considering. For the highway truck. Maybe it makes sense to do a hybrid. You know, we're not sure we want to rely on full electric for something that's going to be used during snow operations. But but a hybrid might make sense and then the light dump trucks. We're we're working with National Grid and with Martha to identify if their options for those that are hybrid options, we would be unlikely to go full electric on those because they are heavily used during snow operations

▶ 1:55:36 and they need to be up and running all the time. and the roll-off truck so our experience with the with the much larger equipment like we were just talking with Martha the other day about the Street sweeper. Yeah and how the electric street super options are still twice as expensive. And so, you know certainly becomes cost prohibitive. So I would say highly unlikely that the roll-off is going to be electric. But if you know, if there's some high efficiency option then you know, we're certainly open to exploring that. Thank you counselor garapay and then councilor gemaldine. Thank you. Just a couple quick questions on the cemetery. The lowering device is the current one working or and how long is the current lowering

▶ 1:56:26 Mark Garipay: device working? The curve that is a safety. This is going to improve safety. It's going to improve efficiencies. It's it's time for an update. No, it's currently working though currently work and how long will it take to get a new one? I think the lead times was six to eight weeks when we take the quote. Alrighty, thank you for the line item for the trees. I know we've had this conversation in the past and you've reached out to the administration about putting a line item in the budget. They give in any reason why they can't put a separate line item in the budget. No, this is we didn't frankly I didn't ask for specific feedback. We submitted. You know in our initial budget request we probably had.

▶ 1:57:09 Six or seven items that didn't get ultimately funded. Yeah, we obviously want to honor the instructions to level fund the budget but there were certain, you know, whether it was a council request contractual obligations. What have you we did make the exception to add line items and for the second year in row. We did add the line item for the trees. You see that exact number pretty much right in front of you tonight. And we as a lady said we don't necessarily solicit feedback as to why And and we work so closely during the whole budget process with the finance department and by and large, they're extremely supportive of our DPW budget. So, you know, we don't we don't push back when we don't get something we put in I would just like to see

▶ 1:57:56 Mark Garipay: see more money. And I and I agree and we will probably submit it again next year. the bathrooms at the high school Is going to go out to design my assumption is it would be for just so the public knows that this is a long-term project. I'm assuming this is not something that would happen soon. It'll be probably next summer. I'm assuming and how long would that date? We'd want to we'd want to move as quickly as possible to get somebody in for design and to try to bring somebody on board and we would want to try to streamline this obviously the most efficient time to do this stuff would be in a summertime. It's clearly not going to happen this summer. So I think right now it would be a very ambitious Target to look at

▶ 1:58:41 Mark Garipay: next summer. Yeah. I know just know that we all know that the bathrooms are in in tough shape. And now that this numbers we don't want to set in unrealistic expectations that they're going to be. They're gonna be done and then design only yeah, so everybody should be aware that we would have to return for some sort of funding authorization for construction. Yeah, I think that's it's going to be a large funding based on the IP. I would guess just a couple questions on the fleet. the roll-off with we use it about 20 hours a week right now. Is there any opportunity I know used vehicles are expensive but with the acquisition with JRM to Republic do they have any extra assets around that maybe give us something immediate because

▶ 1:59:30 Mark Garipay: we know deliveries out at least a year on on this new equipment. So if we need something immediate if we can we maybe explore that option. Yeah, ironically not necessarily for the roll off but we had a situation recently in the fleet with a repair we needed basically a packer and we did explore so, you know based on need we would we would look at any available option as a rental or some sort of a short-term solution to a problem that we have. So yes short answers. Yes and maybe some extra equipment out in the in the market right now and then with the packer My only recommendation with this is if we could. We're delivering on equipments out a year. It's probably even made could be even a little bit longer. There's a lot of components.

▶ 2:00:22 Mark Garipay: With the rubbish contract coming up. In what two years I think two years so we got a year leeway. And we may totally change how we bid the contract we may include compost so. I would like to see I support this order but I would like to see if we can hold off on that because we don't want to go and invest in a $300,000 piece of equipment and then find out a year later that it's not we're not using it anymore. And we've lost it's just lost 40% of its value and it came off a lot. So if we can do some of the other smaller equipment Then the only other comment I would have is on. Is the industry right now deal with on a daily. Basis is the The equipment the smaller equipment are we buying off a lot or we buying production slot dates?

▶ 2:01:14 Mark Garipay: I think it's going to be a combination of both. We've already made a inroads with a municipal vendor looking at see what's available. Obviously that is a big challenge to be most efficient. We would want to see if there's anything available but I think it's going to be a generally a mix anything that might be available. We might have to paint it, but that's something the operating budget can handle but we want to try to maximize the turnover in the vehicles and try to minimize the age of Fleet. I would just encourage that if we're looking at five units at five five trucks. We secure four leave a little leeway because there's a lot of surcharges going that is with production dates at a year out on raw materials. They're only guaranteeing slot dates

▶ 2:02:02 the industry right now, and then we you know, we don't want to be You know all coming back to us with large additional money. That's I would be my only recommendation, but I support all these. Thank you. Thank you. Any other counselor for the first time before I go to counselor Jamal Dean? Counselor jimaldean, thank you. Just thought with the high school bathrooms. Are we is the all genders bathroom included? Yes. Okay. Yes there I think a lot has changed in bathroom. Thinking since those high school bathrooms were built. And we'll be relying on our consultant to really tell us what the industry standards are right now, but I know you know. Boys rooms have moved away from urinals moved toward

▶ 2:02:51 individual stalls. A lot of places have moved toward just individual single-use bathrooms. We also have I'm sure a lot that we can do for accessibility to bring our our bathrooms up to code. So we'll be looking at all of those things and we want to really meet. The the standards of where they are now. I mean, I know, you know different students feel more comfortable in different situations and my kids happen to be children who are very sensitive to the bathroom situations in their respective schools. And and so I know it's a concern like you don't want a child holding it all day because they don't feel comfortable using the bathroom and we currently have only one all gender bathroom in the high school in the high school. I believe and I feel

▶ 2:03:44 Maya Jamaleddine: with the I would strongly recommend that we we make those bathrooms more than one to. To accommodate our students and to make as much the bathroom, you know as much comfortable for to use for our students as possible. Yeah, I would imagine we would be going to more than one especially I'm not sure, you know, you don't you don't want to cut down too much on the total number of fixtures for the same time. I would think that having a couple of single use restrooms that really makes it simple to make it all gender because it's To everyone person in a time and I think covid really forced a lot of that where you know, we were enforcing rules of one person in the bathroom at a time. And I was I never heard any complaints of long lines

▶ 2:04:41 Jen Grigoraitis: at the bathrooms as a result. So I think you know we can we should be able to make that work. Thank you. Any other counselors on this order? Counselor Stewart, and I'm sure I'll make a motion to recommend that I could we have a motion to recommend made by counselor Stewart seconded by counselor Williams. any discussion Seeing that Mr. Clerk. Can you please call the roll? Councilor McMaster. Yes. Counselor eckels. Yes counsel. Gerepe. Yes counselor Jamal Dean. Yes. Counselor Stewart. Yes Council crime Shady Counselor Williams. Yes, president sonella. Yes and chair greitus. Yes, that's not yes nine. Yes, so that will be recommended to the full Council. next we have ordered 2022-114 and appropriation from water retained earnings accounts 6100-319000

▶ 2:05:35 in the amount of 570,098.10 to various water accounts as set forth here in Point of order Madam shirts order 2022-144. Sorry. Thank you for that. Well, thank you wish to share with us. Sure. So again, we talked about some of this at the last meeting. We alluded to some of this but the I did provide a memo dated, May 17th. That was from the entire Water and Sewer rate committee. And summarizes all of our requests including the rates and the retained earnings expenditures, but just to review what's included in that water. Um retained earnings request there is 200,000 to cover any potential Revenue shortfalls that came from this year because it was a very wet summer last summer our Revenue was down compared to what we expected. We've also been

▶ 2:06:41 having a little bit of an issue with the banks in terms of how quickly the money is posting as we as we collect on the Water and Sewer bills for some reason, there's been a bit of a delay and so we're concerned that as we close out the fiscal year. If any of that delay impacts us having the revenue on the books for this fiscal year rather than having it pushed into the next fiscal year. We just want to make sure that our operating budget covers our Revenue requirement. So we're requesting you'll see the same item in a minute in sewer, but requesting 200,000 in each of water and sewer to go from the retained earnings and those respective funds back into the operating budget and then if that is not used then it

▶ 2:07:26 just Right back into retained earnings when we close the fiscal year. So it's really just to stop Gap measure. We have no intent of spending, you know, if we push 200,000 in and then on June 25th, we realized we have 150,000 Surplus. We're not going to run out and spend that money. That's just gonna go. Close out the fiscal year and go back into retained earnings. So it's just a buffer. 28,298.10 is to fund the water Enterprise fund Reserves at our 10% goal. So back in 2016. I believe it was we hired our new rate Consultants from RAF Dallas. They recommended that at a minimum we should have 10% in reserves in each of the water and sewer funds and so that 10% is of our operating budget and so each year as our operating budget goes up a little we need

▶ 2:08:18 to Push in the the difference to get back up to that 10% So that's what this 28,298 10 reflects. And then we're requesting 91,800 towards the design of the Capital Improvements for the water system for both this year and next year reason being that we're and I mentioned this when we were talking about the loan order that you recently approved for the water Capital project from the mwra. This is the design for that same project plus next year's project. And the reason why we're doing two years which we don't normally do is so that we have shovel ready projects in the event that infrastructure Bill funding becomes available. It's going to require shovel ready projects. So we're putting that design together.

▶ 2:09:05 And then finally 250,000 to supplement the water construction project for this calendar year again with the remainder funded through the mwra loan the way we work through our multi-year Rowan utility Improvement program is that we try to pair our work and National Grids work prior to Paving and so we have these four streets where National Grid did their work last year. And now we want to do the water work this year and we didn't quite have enough available through our mwra allocation. So we wanted to supplement that with the 250 rather than making one of those streets wait an extra year because they've already been dug up last year. So now they have pavement patches and we don't want to have them wait another year

▶ 2:09:52 and then do water main and then pave the following year. That's just a really prolonged construction experience for the neighborhoods. So we decided to just push a little extra into this year's project and request the free cash. Thank you any questions. Counselor jimaldean Washington recommend second. We have a motion to recommend made by counselor Jamal Dean seconded by counselor Eccles any discussion seeing none Mr. Clerk. Can you please call the role? Mr. Yes counselor Eccles. Yes. Counsel. Gerepe. Yes Council Jamal Dean. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes Castle crime tree. Councilor Williams. Yes president sonella. Yes and Cherry Gardens. Yes. It's 9 yes 9. Yes. So that will be recommended to the full Council last

▶ 2:10:44 but not least order 2022 - 145 and appropriation from sewer retained earnings account 6000-319000 in the amount of 1,123,000 629,051 cents to various sewer counts as set forth here in Thank you. Take it away. So similar to what we just discussed on water item a is just to cover the revenue shortfall potential in sewer. Again for $200,000 and item C in the memo. The 33,62951 is to fund the reserves up to that 10% threshold. Item B is 400,000 that we discussed last week at the that are budget hearing where we're proposing to use $400,000 of retained earnings to offset a bit of the rate to try to mitigate the rate impact for the for the ratepayers. This is not a sustainable approach to do year over year which is why we're not we did

▶ 2:11:53 it last year in the water fund this year. We're readjusting to back to a sustainable rate in the water fund but we're proposing to do it the one time in the sewer fund so that we're not hitting people with a large water and sewer increased both in the same year and we are still hoping that we'll have a bit of a Readjustment as as covid. changes Where our usages on this on the water end, we pay based on the water use the prior year on the sewer end. We pay based on a three year average of the three prior years. So sewer's gonna take a little longer to readjust and And so this recommendation is consistent with that. We will. We'll try to readjust next year back into a sustainable rate on the sewer.

▶ 2:12:43 Item, D is 400,000 for the design of construction of backup power generators at the album Street and Fellsway sewer pump stations. These are our two largest sewer stations. They were designed in the 50s or 60s with Backup generators that have not worked in decades the equipment still sits there. It is inoperable needs to be removed and replaced. These stations right now. If we lose power we have a portable generator that we're able to go and hook up at the station or were able to put a higher contractor to come in and put a hosed all the way down the stairs into the wet well and suck out the wet well and then transport that Wastewater elsewhere in the city, but that's not something that can be done consistently if we have a major power failure

▶ 2:13:32 that lasts for days and we also only have one portable generator. So when we have a major power failure, we're running around from one station to the next and it's really not It's not an acceptable practice for the long term. It works right now, but these stations having worked in other communities both as a consultant and as an employee, I haven't seen stations of this size without backup power dedicated backup power in other communities. So it's really not the industry standard. We're trying to move toward the industry standard and that's why it was ranked. So highly on the CIP. As well and then finally the item e is 90,000 for the purchase of a jump truck to replace truck number 55 a 17 year old

▶ 2:14:15 Jen Grigoraitis: truck that's actively used by the sewer division. Thank you any questions. Councilor McMaster motion recommend manager second. We have a motion to recommend made by counselkmasters seconded by counselor Eccles any discussion seeing none Mr. Clark. Can you please call the roll? That's a requester. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes counsel your pay. Yes Council Jamal Dean. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes Council car Shady. Counselor Williams. Yes president sonella. Yes and chair Gratis. Yeah nine. Yes, and yes that will be recommended to the full Council. Thank you both for spending the past few hours with us. And at this time I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Okay emotions the motion to adjourned Me by counselor Stewart secreted by President. Sonala all

▶ 2:15:03 Jen Grigoraitis: in favor any opposed we are. Thank you.

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2022-06-13

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