City Council — 2022-09-19
Attendance
Christopher Cinella ; Jack Eccles ; Mark Garipay ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Manjula Karamcheti ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Leila Migliorelli ; John Obremski ; Robb Stewart ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Pledge of Allegiance
- Reading of the Minutes
- Public Comment
- New Business
- ORDER-2023-14 : Acceptance of Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs 2023 Coastal Habitat and Water Quality Grant in the Amount of $100,868.00
- ORDER-2023-15 : Acceptance of Two Grants from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Community Compact Best Practices Program in the amounts of $35,000 and $25,000
- ORDER-2023-16 : Authorizing a Bond for the purchase of landscaping equipment necessary to run Mt Hood Golf Course
- ORDER-2023-17 : Appointment of Michael Barry, 910 Main St., to the Melrose Housing Authority, for a one-year term, said term to expire on the first Monday of March 2023.
- ORDER-2023-18 : Appointment of Susan Lawson Cann to Melrose Cemetery Commission
- ORDER-2023-19 : Appointment of Francis X. Wright Melrose Board of Registrars of Voters
- INFO-2023-6 : Status of the Melrose Public Library Construction
- Communications from His Honor, The Mayor And Other City Officials
- Unfinished Business
- LIC-2022-12 : License: Application for Madison Ave of Melrose (MAOM Holding Company)
- Resolutions
- RES-2023-3 : Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
- Licenses
- Reports from Committees
- INFO-2023-1 : Net Zero Action Plan Presentation
- INFO-2023-4 : Calling A State Election - Tuesday, the Eighth Day of November, 2022
- INFO-2023-5 : 2022 State Election - November 8, 2022 - Early in-person voting schedule
- ORDER-2023-6 : Authorization for the Procurement Officer or his/ her delegate to increase the contract term on all future Management Agreements for the Operation of the Mt. Hood Memorial Park & Golf Course from 3 years to 5 years.
- ORDER-2023-8 : Appointment of Doug DiBrielle, 39 Reading Ave, to the Melrose Human Rights Commission, for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February, 2025.
- ORDER-2023-13 : Lead Water Service Planning SRF Loan
- Expiries
- Rule 53 Reports
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE CITY COUNCIL BULLETIN● SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:45 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jack Eccles At-Large Present Mark Garipay Ward 4 Present Jen Grigoraitis Ward 6 Present Maya Jamaleddine At-Large Present Manjula Karamcheti Ward 1 Present Shawn M. MacMaster Ward 5 Present Leila Migliorelli At-Large Present John Obremski Ward 2 Present Robb Stewart Ward 3 Present Ryan Williams Ward 7 Present Christopher Cinella President Present
ORDER-2023-14 Grant Acceptance of Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs 2023 Coastal Habitat and Water Quality Grant in the Amount of $100,868.00 Assigned to Committee Appropriations & Oversight Committee
ORDER-2023-15 Grant Acceptance of Two Grants from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Community Compact Best Practices Program in the amounts of $35,000 and $25,000 Assigned to Committee Appropriations & Oversight Committee
ORDER-2023-16 Bond Authorizing a Bond for the purchase of landscaping equipment necessary to run Mt Hood Golf Course Assigned to Committee Appropriations & Oversight Committee
ORDER-2023-17 Appointment City of Melrose Page 1 11/14/2022 9:17 AM Minutes City Council September 19, 2022 Appointment of Michael Barry, 910 Main St., to the Melrose Housing Authority, for a one-year term, said term to expire on the first Monday of March 2023. Assigned to Committee Appropriations & Oversight Committee
ORDER-2023-18 Appointment Appointment of Susan Lawson Cann to Melrose Cemetery Commission Assigned to Committee Health, Education & Welfare Committee
ORDER-2023-19 Appointment Appointment of Francis X. Wright Melrose Board of Registrars of Voters Assigned to Committee Finance Committee
INFO-2023-6 Informational Status of the Melrose Public Library Construction Assign to Committee Appropriations & Oversight Committee
LIC-2022-12 License - Second Hand Dealer License: Application for Madison Ave of Melrose (MAOM Holding Company) Granted
RES-2023-3 Resolution Childhood Cancer Awareness Month Place on File
INFO-2023-1 Informational Net Zero Action Plan Presentation Filed
INFO-2023-4 Calling Election Calling A State Election - Tuesday, the Eighth Day of November, 2022 Filed
INFO-2023-5 Election City of Melrose Page 2 11/14/2022 9:17 AM Minutes City Council September 19, 2022 2022 State Election - November 8, 2022 - Early in-person voting schedule Filed
ORDER-2023-6 Contract Authorization for the Procurement Officer or his/ her delegate to increase the contract term on all future Management Agreements for the Operation of the Mt. Hood Memorial Park & Golf Course from 3 years to 5 years. Passed
ORDER-2023-8 Appointment Appointment of Doug DiBrielle, 39 Reading Ave, to the Melrose Human Rights Commission, for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February, 2025. Adopted
ORDER-2023-13 Appropriation Lead Water Service Planning SRF Loan Passed City of Melrose Page 3 11/14/2022 9:17 AM
Transcript
▶ 10:08 Christopher Cinella: sonella. all in favor Hi opposed. We are Gent. Good evening. Welcome to the September 19th. Melrose city council meeting. I am president sonella. And The Time Is Now 7:45. Madam clerk, you can please call the roll counselor Eccles here Council agaripay here. I'm so gregoritis here Consular maladene. Council of Karen chady here counselor McMaster here Council amigliarelli here councilor Obremski here counselor Stewart here counselor Williams here president sonella. Yeah 11 present, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. And if there is no objection, I'd like to approve I'm meeting minutes without reading from our August 15th meeting in August 22nd special meeting. Hearing no objection. Those minutes are approved.
▶ 11:36 Christopher Cinella: And if there is no objection at this time, I'd like to open up. for public comment and seeing no objection our public comment. Now open but before we do begin. I just want to remind everyone that all speakers are encouraged to present their remarks during public comment in a respectful Manner and whenever possible, please try to refrain from mentioning the names of private individuals in your comment and remarks. The comments and Views expressed by speakers during public comment time are theres alone and are not to be in any way a statement of the city or it's Representatives. Do we have anybody that like to come forward? Speak on an item on our agenda. I Julie dilol 13 Circuit Street you have on your agenda tonight the appointment
▶ 12:30 of Frank Wright to the board of registrars, and I'm before you to say I'd ask you not to move this forward. On September 1st both the Democratic City committee and the Republican City committee received certified letters from the mayor requesting three names. The bottom of this letter it states that we have 45 days to do it. It says if I do not receive this list within 45 days after this notification, I shall make set appointment without reference to such a list. Yet we weren't given the opportunity to even submit a list. The mayor took the Democratic City committee list. And made his choice. In this letter, it references the general laws. When I was before you I talked about abiding by the law, right?
▶ 13:20 This is abiding by the law. But there seems to be a difference. between the Democrats and the Republicans back when we had an initial resignation. when Eric resigned on the Democratic side the city committee sent their nominees. The law says at least three candidates. they submitted to and one was chosen when the Republicans submitted less than three. Oz was returned Saying we were not in compliance with the law. We needed to submit three. And we did. Treated differently. both times I read the opinion the legal opinion from the Secretary of State. What's interesting in that? If you don't mind, I'm just pulling it up for my reference. It's dated, August 11th. August 11th, I was still the nominee.
▶ 14:24 I was coming before you. on August 16th the end of this legal opinion to the mayor says accordingly. the appointment that you intend to make this is August 11th. I was still the nominee. The appointment you intend to make as described in your letter. Does not appear to be in conflict with the law. That says to me and to people who've read it. That me coming before you on the 16th was ceremonially. I do appreciate those that voted for me. I really do. But we're treated differently. In this in this community that's open to all we are treated differently. in addition in this illegal opinion It talks about. resignation that if someone resigns then you have to fill it with a member of the same party.
▶ 15:31 I have written to the Secretary of State. I've written to the mayor I've written to the city solicitor. Because for 17 years Ted hunts out on the register the board of registrars. So the 12 years I've been on the Melrose Republican City committee. his appointment rolled each time It was a call saying hey, we're going to put Ted forward. It wasn't a request for a list each time. It just rolled. entitled continued on when I called when I knew that Ted might retire and I called the city clerk's office. I was told when I asked about the process we had to hold off in case Ted changed his mind. That says to me that what precipitated? the letter to me was Ted's resignation because if he didn't resign
▶ 16:30 it would have just rolled. And so the law is clear. It says that the language if there is a death or a big or a resignation, you must fill it with a member of the same party. I'm getting clarification on that. I think I have the right to do that. We have been treated so differently. By the mayor and this city in the city council. That I'm imploring you to do. What's right this references the law. The legal opinion references the law. Yet the Democrats did not have to abide by it the first time when we did. The mayor accepted the Democrats three nominees and chose one before we even had a moment to read this letter. So on before you to just say treat us the same. That's all I'm asking. Let us submit our
▶ 17:29 names. They don't have to be chosen, right? He has the choice but let us submit our names. It's the law. And that legal opinion I will say that August 16th. It's a travesty. that by that time it was known. That I was really not the candidate because August 11th was an opinion that said the appointment you intend to make. Was not my appointment. Anybody online looking to speak it was a MK doesn't part of the person's name. So I'm just gonna allow them to talk in case they wish to speak. MK do you wish to speak at public comment? You can unmute yourself. No. body else wishing to speak this evening and if there's no objection, we will close public comment at this time. New business Madam clerk order 2023
▶ 18:33 - 14 acceptance of Massachusetts executive office of energy and environmental Affairs 2023 Coastal habitat and water quality Grant and the amount of 100,868. I go to Appropriations and oversight or 2023 - 15 acceptance of two grants from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Community compact best practices program in the amounts of 35,025,000 Appropriations and oversight. What are 2023 - 16 authorizing a bond for the purchase of landscaping equipment necessary to run Mount Hood Golf Course Appropriations and oversight. What are 2023 test 17 appointment of Michael Barry nine 10 Main Street to the Melrose Housing Authority for a one-year term said term two expire in the first Monday of March 2023 Appropriations in
▶ 19:22 oversight. Order 2023-18 appointment of Susan Lawson Khan. To Melrose Cemetery commission. We're going to health education and Welfare. order 2020 3 - 19 appointment of Francis X Wright Melrose Board of registrars of Voters committee on finance and filings by the honors city council info 2023-6 status of the Melrose Public Library construction. I'm going to Appropriations and oversight. and unfinished business license 2022-12 application for Madison Ave of Melrose moam maom holding company Council Gratis, thank you, Mr. President. This order was held in. I believe June sorry the month start to blend together and we have been informed that in the license was granted and through our September
▶ 20:20 Jen Grigoraitis: meeting. We've been informed that the applicant is seeking an extension through January 30th as she wraps of business and Melrose and have that letter in our packet along with a letter from Chief Lyle letting us know that he is no longer denying. The application is moved believes. We can move forward with it in good standing. So at this time I would make a motion to approve the application through January 30th 2023. motion made by counciloritis to approve the application through January 30th 2023 Is there a second second by constantly garapay any discussion? Seeing none all those in favor. Aye any opposed opposed. one opposed Okay. Moving on to resolutions. Yes, 2023-3 Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
▶ 21:22 Robb Stewart: Counselor Stewart. Yes, Mr. President. I would like to move for immediate consideration of this resolution and I proper that since this is an awareness of September and given that we're in September. I think it makes sense for us to move forward with this. Okay, maybe consideration before us and I do not hear any objections to that. So this is now great. Thank you. And before I read the resolution, I just would like to say a couple of words about it. As someone who's a cancer survivor myself. I understand. How difficult it is to get through it. When it's a child, it's that much more difficult. And so I just asked the community the council to heed the words take it seriously and think about what you can do as individuals to support the cancer
▶ 22:15 Robb Stewart: awareness. There's a lot of great programs out there from the Jimmy fund to St. Jude's to other so please consider that when you're listening to the words and and I would appreciate it. So this is an honor of September's Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Where is the American Cancer fund for children and kids Among Us children between infancy and age 15. This tragic disease is detected in more than 16,000 of our country's young people every year. And an estimated 400,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer globally every year. And where is one in five of our nation's children? Loses his or her battle with cancer many infants children and teens will suffer from long-term effects of comprehensive
▶ 23:05 Robb Stewart: treatment including secondary cancers. And where is founded nearly? 30 Years Ago by Stephen firestine a member of the philanthropic Max Factor Cosmetics family. The American Cancer fund for children Incorporated kids camps are Connection in corporate and Lions Club International are dedicated to helping these children and their families and whereas the American Cancer fund for children and kids can't connection provide a variety of vital patient. a psychosocial services to Children undergoing cancer treatment at Boston Children's Hospital Tufts Children's Hospital Shriners children's Boston Dana Farber Children's Cancer Center, Mass General Hospital for Children as well as participating hospitals throughout the
▶ 23:56 Robb Stewart: country, thereby enhancing the quality of life for these children and their families and whereas the American Cancer fund for children and kids cancer connection also sponsored toward distributions. Laughter is healing. positive appearance programs pet assisted therapy KCC Supercar experience educational programs and Hospital celebrations in honor of a child's determination and bravery to fight the battle against Childhood Cancer. Therefore it be resolved that the city council recognizes and applies these heroic efforts and Records this Outreach in the records of the city of Melrose on this 12 day of September 2022 19th day. September 2022 Right. Thank you. Thank you. Well done. Anybody have
▶ 24:51 anything to add at this time? Okay. What is the will because president will make a motion places second motion place on file pay by counselor Stewart seconded by Council Gary pay any discussion seeing none all those in favor. I any opposed, okay. as placed on file reports from committee and at this time I will suspend our rules if there's no objection. a rules around to suspension info 2023-1 Net Zero action plan presentation Do we believe we have? Let's go over with us this evening. with a short presentation do you need a few minutes because we could actually just move ahead with some of our other agenda items you're Very fast pace tonight, you know. I say can we move on let's move on and finish what we have it's mostly
▶ 26:35 Maya Jamaleddine: short info 2023-4 calling a state election Tuesday the 8th day of November 2022. Joshler. Council jamaladin this order comes from the finance committee with a recommendation. Sorry. Hold on one second. Yeah, you're right. with a recommendation to place on file moment. I would move to play some file second motion made to place this order on file made by councilor maladian seconded by counselor Eccles. Any discussion seeing none all those in favor? All right, you post on file order 2023-5 20 22 state election, November 8th 2022 early in person voting schedule. This order comes from the finance committee with recommendation to place on file and at this moment I would move based on file. Second place on fire made by Council jamala Deen
▶ 27:44 Christopher Cinella: seconded by counselor. Gregoritis a discussion seeing none all those in favor. Alright any opposed? Okay order 2023-6 authorization for the procurement officer or his and her delegate to increase the contract term on all future management agreements for the operation of the Mount Hood Memorial Park and Golf Course from three years to five years, how's the gregoritis Mr. President this comes from the Appropriations and oversight committee with the recommendation ought to pass and at this time my motion for passage second Motion for passage made by Council gregoritis seconded by Consular nigliarelli. Is there any discussion? Seeing none all those in favor. Oh, we'll do a Voice vote on this. Yeah, follow the
▶ 28:30 roll, please Madam clerk. Yes counselor Eccles. Yes counselor garapay. Yes counselor. Gregoritis. Yes councilor. Maladene. Yes Council Karim chady. Yes counselor McMaster. Yes counselor. Migliarelli. Yes counselor. Opbremski. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes counselor Williams. Yes, president. Zanella. Yes 11. Yes. Next order 2023-8 appointment of Doug dubril 39 reading Ave to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three-year term said term to expire in the last day of February 2025 Casa guerritis, Mr. President. This order comes from the Appropriations and oversight committee with the recommendation ought to pass at this time. I motion for Passage. second motion capacity made by counciloritis second
▶ 29:16 of my constantly any discussion seeing none all those in favor. I and you opposed that water passes. Last one what a 2023-13 lead Water Service planning srf loan. Calculator Mr. President, this also comes from the Appropriations and oversight committee with the recommendation ought to pass at this time. I motion for Passive second motion capacity made by counseloritis seconded by counselor Stewart any discussion seeing none all those in favor? Do a roll call on that actually. Counselor Eccles. Yes counselor garapay. Yes counselor. Gregoritis. Yes. Council's your melodyne. Yes Council caramshady. Yes counselor McMaster. Yes counsel amigliarelli. Yes Consular. Opbremski. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes president. Oops.
▶ 30:07 Excuse me. Counselor Williams. Yes president. Sonella. Yes, eleven. Yes keeping on your toes. We could just adjourn but I wouldn't do that to you. Floor is all yours, Martha. right Thank you. Grover new sustainability manager for the city of Melrose and I'm here to present. The results of a two and a half year process to come to create a net zero action plan for the city of Melrose. This is a community-wide action plan that impacts all of us and just to go back a few years to 2016 when mayor Dolan committed. the city of Melrose along with all of his colleagues at the time who serve on the Metro mayors climate preparedness task force to a net-zero future Net Zero by 2050. They this was the big signing ceremony
▶ 31:09 for this commitment. It was signed in 2016 and we decided a couple years later that we needed a plan to figure out a way to get there and We were selected by mapc the metropolitan area planning Council along with Natick and Arlington mapc had received a grant from the eea the office of energy in the environment to do a planning process with our three communities. And I think they picked the three of us because we all have positions like mine people in these positions who can make this kind of work happen and the idea behind that engagement. I think it was about two years was to use our communities as Kind of a test case to figure out how to create one of these plans without spending hundreds of
▶ 32:09 thousands of dollars like some communities have spent but to do it in a way that solicits feedback from the entire community and do it in a way that that has real actionable steps in it. So we started out on this plan with some Community engagement. We Engage The Energy commission and what we call then the model Rose climate Action Group. We did some kickoff events at the Victorian fair. I think that was 2019 some Community input survey and online open house throughout the process at different steps, which was great. We got some great feedback. The other thing that we did with mapc was we helped them to design a greenhouse gap gas inventory database. They hired a consultant to create a database.
▶ 32:57 Greenhouse gas inventory tool that is now available on their website. So we were the beta testers of this tool and here are the results of The greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the city of Melrose and this is a community-wide inventory the tool collects data from you know, the department of motor vehicles from the utilities from local sources Etc to create a baseline because in order to have a plan you've got to be able to measure it over time. So, this is our Baseline it's based on 2017 data because that was the most recent year that we could get complete inventory using all this data in. I know this is kind of small. It's on your it's in your packets, but the gist of it is that this is no surprise.
▶ 33:52 60% of our of our emissions come from buildings homes and buildings 36% from Transportation. Very small amount comes from the municipal energy use meaning municipal buildings and fleets and another very small from municipal waste. So these next slides just kind of look at the same data in a similar way, but just breaks it down in different different fashions. All right. There we go. So again, not a surprise here that in a community. That's mostly residential. that residents are responsible for 81% of the greenhouse gas emissions in Melrose businesses, 17% Municipal and public services just 3% and then if you break it down into emissions by person It's seven metric tons of CO2 per resident which
▶ 34:52 again is that's kind of hard to put that in context, but I can tell you that it's it's average. For the state in the United States. So which fuels are generating these emissions in Melrose given the predominance of Vehicles particularly passenger vehicles, it's gasoline. And then our home heating it's going to be natural gas and oil and some from electricity. So, how do we get to Net Zero and what what does it mean so that the idea here is that over? Our goal is 2050, but we have very aggressive goals for 2030 and the idea is to remove the emissions from all of these fossil fuels that are Heating and feeling our homes and vehicles over time. And so we move from this. To this where we reduce those community-wide greenhouse
▶ 35:47 gas emissions as much as possible and offset. What's remaining By capturing and storing carbon through tree planting and clean energy use another big component from maybe mapc and also for the city is to get their equitably so throughout the development of the plan and through the implementation and actions and their components in every action that takes a look at the equity impacts of each action is looking at who's been historically impacted in our community who would be the most impact impacted in the types of changes in our climate. We expect to see going forward and how will the benefits of this plan in each action be distributed equitably throughout the community. So, how do we get there? I'm going to just you feel
▶ 36:35 free to ask questions, but I'm just going to go through so there's three basic. sectors that we're looking at the blue are buildings the green is transportation and the yellow orange is our is our energy sources. So in terms of buildings the goal is to make our homes and building super efficient and then Electrify everything in those buildings in those homes electric heat electric cooking all electric appliances you Electrify everything after making it is efficient as possible. Then you Electrify your car's trucks buses. And you make walking and biking in public transit the best way to get around get people out of their cars. And then the third the third component is the clean energy. So once you've electrified your homes
▶ 37:27 businesses buildings and transportation you green the grid. So that's getting rid of all the fossil fuels on the system at least in the community like Melrose. And it can be done and this is a goal that's in line with the state. So our NetZero road map. I'm not going to go through this. but we laid out where we are today on these five on these five overall categories where we want to be in 2030 and we want to be at Net Zero by 2050 So what I'm going to do next is just for each of these sectors just pull out a few of the action items that I want to draw your attention to that. I think are important for us going forward so for buildings. For most of our buildings, they're mostly heated with natural gas. We have some on oil and some
▶ 38:20 electric heat. A lot of that electric heat is really old like what's what we have over at the Melrose Towers 1970s very inefficient. some of this data is actually not very reliable because if you think about it when All of our assessors data is based on what was heeding that home for instance at time of sale and it's not updated over time. So as we as homeowner does upgrades to new heating systems currently our our data doesn't capture those those upgrades. So we want to try to figure out how to improve that we don't have it yet. Here are some of the roadmap strategies for Electrifying homes. I'll just go pick out a few number one. We were about to Launch. the new Melrose energy challenge, which
▶ 39:18 is a three-year program probably will go on for 30 years of create an ongoing program to help homeowners and business owners transition from fossil fuels to lower Mission Alternatives in their homes how to Electrify their homes. So there are a ton of new incentives that just came out this year from Mass Save for heating heat pump upgrades for all kinds of Electrify electrification and uses in addition to weatherization, which is a which is a very very important to weatherize your home first and then Electrify all of the all of your appliances and heating and cooling systems. The other thing to note here is that the inflation reduction act that just passed has A ton of money I've listened to a lot of webinars about
▶ 40:13 it. I can barely get my arms around my head around all the money that's coming out over the next few years to help people take this step homeowners renters. And again, our focus of this program is on households that have been missed by these initiatives over the years focusing on renters and landlords low and modern income households multi-family housing and small businesses in town. We already did a big Outreach to all the small businesses in town and we're going to continue to do that. We've got more things coming. We're parting with Malden by the way in a lot of this work helping them do the same thing the other action under building that I what really want to draw your attention to which is one of the main reasons for being here tonight is to
▶ 40:59 give you the context for building code upgrades updates that are happening at the end of this year. Melrose is already a stretch code Community has a green Community meaning our Our building energy code that we have in place. What was the stretch code back in 2010 today? The base code is now has now caught up with the stretch code. So the department of energy resources is is improving that stretch code and it will go into effect at the end of this year and will automatically adopt it. It's in its mostly it's really looking again at Energy Efficiency of Renovations and constructions new construction and weatherization insulation and really pushing Pushing making it making it more expensive really
▶ 41:54 for someone to do a new construction. Using fossil fuels but the it doesn't go quite far enough for a lot of communities. So we will have the opportunity to adopt an opt-in specialized Net Zero code and that is my goal is for us to adopt the opting code at the end of the year that would go into effect sometime in 2023 and there will be more on that more another presentation at some point when that new code is promulgated at doer but it's it's a major tool in our toolkit to make sure that anything that's being built now is going to be all electric and in line with our with our goals another component of our plan is that all new Municipal public buildings and major Renovations are all electric.
▶ 42:58 Melrose Public Library has been is designed to be all electric. It was a originally designed is natural gas, but they changed the designs and when they Last year when they got the got off the list and it's really exciting. It's a great example of what we can do even with an old older building on transportation again, just to reiterate that all the passenger cars that are that are using gas and emitting fossil fuels. There are a number of strategies within that section of the plan here are 13 and 14 which are all about making walking safer in our community and encouraging Everywhere everyone everywhere to you to walk bike or use other modes of transportation other than cars to get where they need to go. Especially if
▶ 43:55 you're just getting around Melrose. We've done a lot of work in this area, but there's still more to be done. Another action is creating is advocating for making it easy or in teaching folks about the benefits of electric vehicles. We had this amazing EV Showcase in June. We'll be doing this again. It was all local. They're like 30 locally owned electric vehicles. I still have people calling me and coming in to show me their cars. I had a guy come in just last week. They're just so excited to talk about them and show show them off and and they're the best ambassadors to encourage others. and we also will continue to work on installing public publicly accessible EV charging and easy to use areas
▶ 44:47 and these pole mounted Chargers which are like the first on the east coast is one great example, and hopefully there'll be there'll be others especially in parking lots at schools or at the library or other public areas. We just adopted again with the city leading by example. We just adopted and put in place. A new policy that all new fleet vehicles will first consider all electric and then last consider ice vehicle. It's really made a difference. We've already got an order in for a F-150 Lightning for the recreation department and we'll be putting in an order. for DPW for an F-150 Lightning and we just submitted a grant for all electric refuse truck to replace number 18. I don't know if the little one
▶ 45:49 that goes around to the parks and collects the trash. Hopefully it would be great to get the funding for that to help offset the cost of going electric and action 14 is just continuing to Advocate as mayor Broder continues to do in his administration for Community Transit needs again, making it easy for people to get around on something other than a car final one is is doing everything we can to Green the grid and Melrose has definitely done its share in terms of rooftop solar. We're up to I'm going to guess that we're up to 550 maybe closer to 600 solar rooftop installations in the city of Melrose we can continue to to do more and more. The federal tax credit now is is set at 30% for the next 10 years. So
▶ 46:49 it's a great investment for people to make who can take that tax credit. We will we're moving towards a hundred percent for our Municipal energy. Supply and also within Melrose Community power I think both will be 100% renewable by 2030. In addition action 28 is maximizing rooftops in Melrose these this is the Hoover and the Horace man. We've those roofs as you know are being replaced. We've got plans in place in a proposal to put Soul around both and we'll do the same on every rooftop that becomes. That's replaced as time goes on in addition to the ones we already have on the Public Works building in the high school middle school. So we laid out a plan for implementation. We've already hit the ground running. We've already done quite
▶ 47:43 a bit and I just wanted to share this with you so you can Encourage your constituents and help the city move this plan forward and all of the action items and as we talk to Residents and small businesses. Send them to me creating a new website from Melrose energy challenge where people can go depending on what sector they're in they can find the information find where to get the resources. They need with me as the backstop and the person who can answer their questions. and speaking of questions if you have any I'm here, I didn't see any hands go up counselor Stewart. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you Ms. Grover for this one presentation of one area that you talked about you talked about building Transportation energy source.
▶ 48:36 Robb Stewart: What I'm interested in is the energy source for the electricity that's going to charge the electric vehicles you speak a little bit about that because that you know, that's that's the big contention that the naysayers say is. Well you just burning coals so it doesn't really matter right, but can you talk there's one Coal Fire? Plant electric Generation Plant on our grid in the state of New Hampshire and it's going to be out of business very soon. There's very little oil in our on our on our grid 60% If you if you there's a great app, by the way, if you want to get into my world, it's called ISO to go. And you can get on that up anytime of the day and look at what the Energy Mix the fuel mix is on our
▶ 49:21 grid for the entire New England region. And at any given time it's 40 to 60 usually about 60% natural gas all of which is imported. So and then there's some renewable and there's there's a breakdown of the renewable and Small hydro and other sources so yes today. That electricity is coming from natural gas, but they're you know, we're going to have offshore wind. The first one first big project goes live in 2024 and the plan is that by 2035 the New England grid will be renewable and large Hydro offshore wind and solar And do you have an understanding of the mix of where that energy source is going to be with the anticipated shutdown of the Chelsea plant? I don't that's that's like deep in the
▶ 50:19 weeds policy wise. I mean that's constantly changing about what the Fate is of the Chelsea plant and hearing that they you know For for a number of reasons, they're looking to extend the life of that plant for a couple years just to keep it as back up during during winter Peak demand. Yeah. but it's yeah, that's not where I All right. I was not my area of expertise but I do I do am very interested in that stuff and I don't keep up to date with it. I didn't see any other hands go up. They miss anybody. councilor Williams Thank you. So, you know a big proponent of the Net Zero plan contributed to it. Love it. I'm so glad to see it in action. And the only thing I wanted to throw out there in the
▶ 51:07 Ryan Williams: presence of his honor the mayor is that we should really be thinking about budget years 2023-24. How are we going to execute this work? Who are we going to put in place to? Drive the project management aspect of it to do the Outreach component of it. You are a phenomenal asset to City of Melrose. You're still just one person and I find myself especially, you know, as a very closely track a lot of The Pedestrian and bicyclists projects in the renewable energy projects really wanting for speedier resolution. I think some of the delays that we have with projects are just a natural result of the market and Supply chains and some of them are capacity issue that we have in the city and I want to see us move forward on these projects as quickly
▶ 51:57 Ryan Williams: as we can because Melrose is already an example for other communities not just in Massachusetts, but across the country, you know, I'm very well connected into renewable energy advocacy and when people see that map of the solar panels, it just blows them away. You know, how many homes have solar panels in your little Community people who have been working on solar reforms for you know, 10 years or just so, you know excited to see that it's really happening somewhere. So that's my one. That's my one pitch would love to see more. Capacity in future years in the city's budget to execute this work to project manage it and to really like get it moving at fast clip. And I I completely agree. I mean
▶ 52:41 also, given Paul is here, but I I can tell you that you know, when I was hired 12 years ago, my job was to manage Municipal projects and municipal buildings Fleet Energy Efficiency on the municipal side. And and as as the need has grown and the climate emergency has become more apparent just look at the news in Puerto Rico today. You know, this is an all hands on deck. This is an olive government approach that we need to take and I think that some of it is a cultural shift to think about municipal government playing this role in terms of being cheerleader educator Outreach. We do it in other Realms Health Public Health That's the first one that comes to mind but taking on this role of being of being and putting
▶ 53:34 Paul Brodeur: resources into it because as you can tell I've been toiling away for 12 years in what I've been working on only represents 3% of our missions, and there's so much more to the city of Melrose. So I think that Yes, a couple of points in that there's definitely an opportunity and to your point the market changes fairly dramatically in two ways because of like private market conditions, but also government activity and government subsidy at the state and and at the federal level and the federal level for a little more than four years. There was no activity. So in some respects, I appreciate your your question Council about all right. What about what about the grid Source because you're absolutely right if you plug
▶ 54:21 Paul Brodeur: in electric car here, but it's the powers coming from a coal plant that is topping off Hydro in Quebec. You know, what what's the difference right? It's a good question, but the as an example the the procurement for offshore. The wind off the coast of Massachusetts or the what we're seeking to procure as a state has grown tremendously, but part of the frustration there is the federal government for four years essentially refused to act on any of the regulatory pieces or the lease approvals that that needed to go forward in terms of a certain degree. We are at the mercy of forces beyond our control, but we've seen a lot of action at the state level certainly the inflation reduction act has as Martha said has put a ton of resources into
▶ 55:12 Paul Brodeur: that. We hope we hopefully, you know, hopefully that's sustained over time because unlike some other policies when you're talking about infrastructure like this and I want a boy but stranded costs and long-term Roi and things like that you need consistency of policy over time if we're going to if we're going to make progress it looks like we're going in that direction and Try to estimate imagine take advantage of the changing landscape be it through. Partnering with our state and federal delegations public private Partnerships without a great deal of success with and will continue certainly continue to explore and it's something at some point to Martha's point. We can be cheerleaders and Advocates and things like
▶ 56:04 Paul Brodeur: that. But we do need to transition a little bit the messaging from this is a city thing. This is a community to this is a community thing. This is more of a societal thing. Everyone is going to have to really support the mission because that 3% Doesn't sound that great when you say 3% out of a hundred, but I can tell you we are. Leaders in the Commonwealth but also paints a picture what the current state of play is. Yeah, the questions and new. There's anybody is Castle Williams. I'm very impressed with your acute knowledge of ocean leases. In fact, I wanted to point out that if you're talking about the Exelon Mystic station, that's a power plant. It's a natural gas plant that provides about 1400 megawatts of energy.
▶ 56:58 Ryan Williams: and the 2022 Bureau of ocean Energy Management lease that went up for sale just six or seven months ago is expected to produce seven gigawatts of renewable energy. All the stuff is happening right now. And so when the grid when the when the RTO in the grid provide or balances all their energy demands, they're looking down the road and all the energy that's coming online as well as the energy that's coming offline. And I think that the the most important point to emphasize with regard to electrification is that the sooner we're prepared in the community for full-scale electrification when the ocean leases go live when the renewable energy kicks in we're there. Automatically instantly the other way around is that we wait for
▶ 57:45 Paul Brodeur: the ocean leases to finish and we wait for the wind to come in. And then it takes us 30 years to transition the The Fleets and the vehicles and so that's why it's so important. It really is a growth opportunity not to keep on keeping on but this is stuff I enjoy talking about so my apologies but you see the state transitioning where Salem had a large coal plant. They were trying to figure out what to do with it. They were talking about national natural gas for a while it is now this is like right in Salem Harbor. It's now going to be a a noble energy a wind offshore wind kind of Hub and great point in Summer Set. I want to say down your New Bedford wasn't old Coal Fire plant that is now going to be kind of
▶ 58:31 Paul Brodeur: the onboarding point for a lot of the power that is going to come from from the art for the size will offshore wind. So the those again it's those big Investments those Investments started. Probably six or eight years ago, but you have to have that you have to have that basic infrastructure so you can bring the power on Shore. So we are we are getting there but it is it's it takes a lot of foresight last thing last thing I want to say to that point is that the as the money flows in as the in I always trip with the IRA. The inflation reduction act comes into play every city in town and state in America is going to be trying to procure all this stuff to buy these equipments these, you know sign these contracts and that's why I
▶ 59:23 Paul Brodeur: mentioned having some extra hands on deck to execute because it'll be easy for the smallest city in Massachusetts to get left behind there will be I think you'll find there'll be some tendency or acceleration to the tendency among among municipalities to cooperate to somewhat regionalize to take advantage of some economies of scale and to make sure that you know from again from an infrastructure perspective not allowed to duplication and we get the most bang for our buck both in chasing those dollars and in making the progress we need to make house together Thank you, Mr. President. I was going to make a motion to place this on file second motion made to place on file made by Council Cafe seconded by councilman McMaster
▶ 1:00:11 any discussion See none all those in favor. Hi, you posed. Okay. Thank you, Martha. Thank you very much. Thank you Martha opportunity to talk to you all of you. Appreciate it. Do we have anything to report on the rule 53? So the traffic commission is meeting Wednesday at 5:30 virtually. anything else All right, seeing none. We have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second motion to Jerry made by castle Yeah, if a second about Council Stuart all those in favor. Good evening.