Health, Education & Welfare Committee — 2023-01-09
Attendance
Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Manjula Karamcheti ; John Obremski ; Robb Stewart ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Comment
- Orders
- ORDER-2023-44 : Appointment of Sarah Besegai, 52 Stratford Park, to the Beebe Estate Board of Trustees for a two-year term to expire on the last day of February 2025.
- ORDER-2023-48 : Appointment to David Thimble, 94 Crescent Avenue, to the Beebe Estate Board of Trustees for a two-year term to expire on the last day of February 2025.
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JANUARY 9, 2023 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 6:40 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 The public should take notice that the Melrose City Council may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the City Council consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Manjula Karamcheti Chair Present John Obremski Vice Chair Present Maya Jamaleddine Late 6:41 PM Robb Stewart Late 6:46 PM Ryan Williams Present Jen Grigoraitis President, Ex Oficio Present
ORDER-2023-44 Appointment Appointment of Sarah Besegai, 52 Stratford Park, to the Beebe Estate Board of Trustees for a two-year term to expire on the last day of February 2025. Ought to Pass
ORDER-2023-48 Appointment Appointment to David Thimble, 94 Crescent Avenue, to the Beebe Estate Board of Trustees for a two-year term to expire on the last day of February 2025. Ought to Pass City of Melrose Page 1 1/10/2023 11:43 AM
Transcript
▶ 0:01 Manjula Karamcheti: Good evening, everyone. This is a meeting of the health education and Welfare committee. I'm counselor Karm chadey the chair joining me are Vice chair Obremski and voting members Williams and president Grigoraitis EX officio. This takes place of an attendance roll call and this also provides a notice of a quorum for the record in accordance with open meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast on our local cable access Channel mmtv, as well as live stream Don mmtv.org. This meeting will be available for future viewing on the city of Melrose website as well as the meeting portal. At this time of our meeting we open up to the public comment section. This is a time where any member of the public can speak
▶ 0:53 Manjula Karamcheti: to any agenda item that we have on our play this evening. The committee does not engage in back and forth dialogue at this time, but we'll listen to what each individual has to say. A motion by unanimous consent to open up public comment. Seeing no objections public comment is now open. Is there anyone here wishing to speak? Mr. Clark, do we have anyone online? There's no online at this time? At this time, I'll motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Seeing no objections public comment is now closed. We have two orders on our agenda this evening. The first order is order 2023-44 appointment of Sarah bessegay 52 Stratford Park to the BB estate Board of Trustees for a two-year term to expire on
▶ 1:56 Manjula Karamcheti: the last day of February 2025. Mayor Broder and the candidate are here. So I'll entertain a motion to suspend the rules so we can hear from our guests motion to suspend the rules. Second we have a motion to suspend the rules made by President Grigoraitis and seconded by counselor Williams all in favor. Hi. any opposed All right hearing none. The rules are now suspended. Please come forth. Good evening. Everybody. Happy New Year. Good to see you. All Madam President. Congratulations on reassending to the throne and Madam chair your first your first Venture into the into the chairperson Stewart one would never know. You're doing a fantastic job so far glad to see it. So thank you very much for your time and attention.
▶ 2:51 Paul Brodeur: We have two nominees tonight for the BB estate Board of Trustees as most folks know but probably not everyone knows the BB estate properties and interesting property here in Melrose because the city owns it but it is essentially run by a managed by the BB State Board of Trustees, which is a in some respects a separate entity, but it is a five person board who's members are pointed my me subject to your approval. This does not apply to the back office if you will to the Milano Center, which is a different property. Obviously that we do have some city offices within within the Milano Center. That's a little bit of a little bit of a different entity without having been said it is it's a tremendous cultural resource.
▶ 3:45 Paul Brodeur: For those of you've been here a long time. It was a residence then it was the The school Department administrative offices, which was probably the notice respect to that. Fine group was not the most. Exciting news for such a for such a place. There's a wonderful place both inside and outside. It's tremendous community resource and that brings me to Sarah. So Sarah correct me if I'm wrong you have already participated in several meetings of the Board of Trustees to see see what's what and to see what her interest may be. So she already has that experience her background in experience is highly complementary to the work that that has done there. She has many years of project management and marketing experience
▶ 4:32 Paul Brodeur: in areas of art Collections and Museum planning and management community art skills and in the education sector as well. I have a whole bunch of information that I know you have been able to review interesting that she has also done some grant writing in her role at the Griffin Museum of Photography and rather than me continuing to speak I offer her for your consideration. our view the floor Thank you. Um, so my name is Sarah bezel guy, and I've lived in Melrose for about 12 years. I've more recently gotten to know the BBA state by attending some meetings and learning more about the house and the property and how it serves as a community resource to the city and I'm really I think it's just a
▶ 5:22 Jen Grigoraitis: really important and really special resource for the city and I'm very happy to lend any help. I think it parallels nicely with my professional experience and then also my interests as well. So I would be happy to serve. Are there any questions from the committee? Thank you for being here. It's lovely to see you. Um, just one brief question since you've already been attending meetings, which is really wonderful. Thank you for doing that is there. Anything that strikes you is something that you want to engage on around the management of the BB or a project you're excited to get involved in based on what you know that's happened so far. Well, I'm still learning. I'm still learning more about its place in the community. I think
▶ 6:10 Manjula Karamcheti: one area that's really exciting for me is it seems like a valuable place for Community Partnerships to come together? Whether it's visit like the physical location of it or just interesting, you know opportunities for events or That sort of thing in the city. ready for motion Sarah I just wanted to say before we take a motion. Thank you so much for volunteering your time and energy to support the BB estate as the mayor said it is a wonderful resource in our community that often brings people together and celebration and just appreciate people being stewards of the resources that we have in our city. So thank you for stepping up to volunteer for this. What is the will of the committee well before emotion,
▶ 7:07 Ryan Williams: I'd like to add that. I've been to several BB events last year and I think it became increasingly important around covid. This is a beautiful outdoor space. It's easily accessible. It's walkable from downtown right? It's got a little playground right next door. So it's great that you're interested in helping keep it up and taking care of it and expand its use because it's definitely a great property. So I'll make a motion to recommend your appointment to the full city council at its next meeting. We have a motion from a counselor Williams and a second from counselor. Jamaladin all those in favor. I I any opposed. Great, so the motion carries. Thank you so much for being with us tonight. This will be moved on to
▶ 7:52 Manjula Karamcheti: the full Council for a full approval. You do not need to attend at that time, but of course you are welcome if you would like to join us. Thank you so much. Thanks. All right, our second order is 2023-48 the appointment of David thimble 94 Crescent Avenue also to the BB estate Board of Trustees for a two-year appointment that will expire on the last day of February 2025. Good night for the baby estate. So thank you. Again. Thank you again for your consideration. That is really pursuant maybe to president Grigoraitis last question. It is an entity that is being more and more integrated into our entire arts and culture. Programming it's really seen as an asset and other groups are looking to cooperate and work with the BB state
▶ 8:45 Paul Brodeur: to do events both inside and outside. We look forward to Growing that you know as much as we can so Mr. Thimble to my to my immediate, right? A potentially got thrown under the bus a little bit by the chairman of the Board of Trustees. He's a neighbor of Butler and David's David's skill set is considerable particularly in terms of physical plant and architecture, which if you know anything about the media state it is like your own home being worked on on steroids every, you know, every time you pull something out you talking about 50 or 60,000 bucks because we want to respect the Integrity of the building David has probably most interestingly for the purposes of this discussion was on a restoration team that worked on the USS Constitution,
▶ 9:38 Paul Brodeur: which is another you know, really construction. No, okay. I want that clearly continues to survive after after hundreds of years, but that is an example right of a project where that ATT. To detail in historic record and the value that that continues to add as historical piece, but also something is a museum as a dynamic place for folks to go and learn and grow in particularly in it in its in its role as a almost like a veteran memorial you've ever been on the Constitution. When a service member comes aboard. It's a very remarkable thing. They stop everything that they're doing and introduce that person to the crowd. It's not saying that we're going to do that at the baby estate, but that that kind
▶ 10:33 of attention to detail and Dave, you know owns his own company has been in this world for how long 65 for a long time and delighted that he has stepped forward to offer his skills and expertise to this board and David if you'd like to say a few words terrific. Well, like Paul said my background is cabinet making woodworking graduated from Northeast Regional in 76. So. background in a lot of different restoration projects so And yes, Bill did throw me under the bus, but you know willingly and you know walking into the BB. It's a It's one of those buildings that you want to keep it. You want to keep the integrity and if I can do anything to help that you know, whether it's just my opinion or help
▶ 11:31 Jen Grigoraitis: to manage. You know any in any way that I can. just to keep the upkeep and you know. You want it to look good, but you also want wanted to operate well. so that's kind of what I bring to the table. Are there any questions from the committee? President thank you madam. Chair. Thank you for being here. I just a few comments your resume is so interesting and I would love to hear about your time in the USS Constitution at some point because that must have been fascinating but I know that the BB is under I'm not gonna get the terminology correct, but like a preservation restriction, there's some sort of guidance around that so it's I think having someone if you're background in particular is really helpful as we
▶ 12:20 Jen Grigoraitis: Mary what can feel like sometimes conflicting goals of being more energy, efficient and maintaining historic preservation as someone who owns a house built in 1890 that can feel very like those two things are in opposition, so I'm happy to have your expertise there, and then I just wanted to for the record note that we have one of the co-chairs in the audience tonight and thank you for being here to support these members, and I'm very happy to support your nomination to the board. Thank you. Councilor Stewart, thank you. Madam. Chair Madam chair, and I apologize for being a few minutes late here. It happens Mr. Thimble is a award three resident and he's arrived right nearly arrived. That's right. We we managed to
▶ 13:04 Manjula Karamcheti: Bring in the good, but as someone that's well known and respected. I'm very comfortable supporting Mr. Thimble in this recommendation. Thank you. Thank you. It sounds like you were volatiled, but we appreciate those who are volatiled as well as joining up on committees, and thank you for saying yes, and applying to be a part of the BB estate and just I concur with President Grigoraitis as much as it is a community space. It is also an important building to preserve and take care of and you bringing your expertise will I think really help us be able to do that in the city of Melrose. So thank you and I also outside of this meeting would love to hear about the USS Constitution. There must have been a lot that went behind that yeah.
▶ 13:52 Manjula Karamcheti: So what is the will of the committee? We have a motion to recommend from counselor Stewart seconded by Vice chair Obremski all in favor. I any opposed Okay, the motion carries. And again, thank you for being here tonight and we will move this on to the full Council you do not need to be here at that time. But you were again more than welcome to join us. Should you be interested? Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. To this time. I will entertain a motion to adjourn move to adjourn the emotion to adjourn by Vice Chair Obremski seconded by counselor Stewart all in favor. Aye any opposed. All right. This meeting is adjourned. Good evening. It's six fifty. 657 and January 9th, and this is the meaning of the protection and Licensing committee.