Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2025-02-10
Attendance
Cal Finocchiaro ; Mark Garipay ; Ward Hamilton ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Manjula Karamcheti ; Leila Migliorelli ; John Obremski ; Devin Romanul ; Robb Stewart ; Kimberly Vandiver ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Comment
- Minutes Approval
- Appropriation
- APPRO-2025-3 : An Appropriation from Mt. Hood Reserve Fund, account 8417-590000, in the amount of $100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Dollars) to Mt. Hood Capital Improvement, account 620000-529006 to do tree work. The current balance as of 1/16/25 is $320,344.93.
- Orders
- Request for the Approval of Petition to Enact Legislation Authorizing the City of Melrose to Establish a Means Tested Senior Citizen Property Tax Exemption in the New Amount of 100% of the Circuit Breaker Income Tax Credit.
- Acceptance of a State Earmark for Various LED Lighting Projects
- Authorization to Submit a Statement of Interest to Massachusetts School Building Authority for Franklin School Roof Replacement
- Authorization to Submit a Statement of Interest to Massachusetts School Building Authority for Melrose High School Roof Replacement
- Grants
- GRANT-2025-9 : Acceptance of the Fiscal 2025 Local Cultural Council Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in the amount of $16,800.
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● FEBRUARY 10, 2025 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:00 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Maya Jamaleddine Vice Chair Present Cal Finocchiaro Present Ward Hamilton Present Manjula Karamcheti Present John Obremski Present Devin Romanul Present Robb Stewart Present Kimberly Vandiver Present Ryan Williams Absent Leila Migliorelli President, Ex Oficio Present Mark Garipay Chair Present
(ID # 12407) Appropriation An Appropriation from Mt. Hood Reserve Fund, account 8417- 590000, in the amount of $100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Dollars) to Mt. Hood Capital Improvement, account 620000- 529006 to do tree work. The current balance as of 1/16/25 is $320,344.93. Ought to Pass City Council
(ID # 12403) Home Rule Petition/Special Act Request for the Approval of Petition to Enact Legislation Authorizing the City of Melrose to Establish a Means Tested Senior Citizen Property Tax Exemption in the New Amount of 100% of the Circuit Breaker Income Tax Credit. Recommitted to Council City Council
(ID # 12417) Grant Acceptance of a State Earmark for Various LED Lighting Projects Ought to Pass City Council
(ID # 12423) Grant City of Melrose Page 1 2/13/2025 5:07 PM Minutes Appropriations & Oversight Committee February 10, 2025 Authorization to Submit a Statement of Interest to Massachusetts School Building Authority for Franklin School Roof Replacement Ought to Pass City Council
(ID # 12424) Grant Authorization to Submit a Statement of Interest to Massachusetts School Building Authority for Melrose High School Roof Replacement Ought to Pass City Council
(ID # 12426) Grant Acceptance of the Fiscal 2025 Local Cultural Council Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in the amount of $16,800. Ought to Pass City Council City of Melrose Page 2 2/13/2025 5:07 PM
Transcript
▶ 3:43 Mark Garipay: Seeing no objections, we are adjourned. Good evening. Good evening. The time is 7:00 PM on Monday, February 10th. This is a meeting of the Appropriation and Oversight Committee. I'm Mark Ape, the chair. Joining me tonight, uh, is Vice Chair Jamal Ledine. Um, councilor Hamilton. Councilor Chetty. Councilor Reky Councilor Stewart. Councilor Van Devin, council of Fanuc Chiro Councilor Romanul and President Meili Ex-Officio. This serves as a notice of a quorum for the record in accordance with the open meeting law. This meeting is being recorded in broadcast live on MMTV. Um, I will motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objections, uh, public comment is now open.
▶ 4:45 Mark Garipay: Um, I don't see anyone in the gallery looking to speak. Is there anyone online? There is not. Okay. Um, I'm gonna close, um, with unanimous consent. I'm gonna close, uh, the public comment portion of the meeting. Um, seeing no objections, public comment is now closed. Uh, at this time I will motion by unanimous consent to approve without reading the minutes of the January 13th, 2025 appropriation and oversight meeting. And the January 27th, 2025 appropriation and oversight meeting. Seeing no objections. Uh, those minutes are now approved. Alright, moving right along. We have a busy night onto the agenda. First item on the agenda is appropriation 1 2 4 0 7 and appropriation from Mount Hood Reserve fund
▶ 5:45 Mark Garipay: account 8 4 1 7 5 9 0 0 0 0 in the amount of a hundred thousand dollars to Mount Hood Capital improvement account 6 2 0 0 5 2 9 6 to do tree work. The current balance as of 1 16 25 is $320,344 and 93 cents. Seeing that we have, um, Mr. Carillo and Mr. Donahue of the Park Commission and our superintendent of the parks here, we do like to come up and join us and let us know what's, uh, what's going on. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Good Evening. Um, so this is the second phase of a two year project for the tree work at Mount Hood. Um, the three points were, it was course safety, um, to avoid dead limbs, dead trees from falling on the course, um, to improve the sunlight to areas on the golf course
▶ 6:42 that need it for, for grass growth, tee boxes, um, putting greens, everything like that. Um, and then the last things for letting the course kind of play out the way it's designed to be played. Um, there hasn't been major tree work there in over 20 years. Um, so this will kind of free up some of those fairways. Um, allow for better shots and everything like that to help out the course, help out the golfers, make it a little more inclusive for the younger and the older crew, or the people like me that kind of don't have the most skill in the golf course. But, um, so yeah, if anyone has any questions, Thank you. So it's safe to say I'll find some, uh, some of my golf balls this year. Hopefully. Um, seeing anyone, uh, anyone looking
▶ 7:23 to speak Council, uh, Hamilton, thank You. Thanks for being here tonight. And I think, uh, I don't wanna speak for the council, but I think, uh, everyone's well aware of the success at Mount Hood, and I thank you for all that you do. Mm-hmm. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks. What's the will of the council? Uh, motion to recommend. Second. We have a motion to recommend by Councilor Chetty seconded by Council Ro on discussion. It's a roll call vote. Mm-hmm. Okay. Counselor Jamine. Yes. Councilor Ro. Yes. Councilor Hamilton. Yes. Councillor Chetty. Yes. Councilor Bruski. Yes. Councillor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Vandiver. Yes. President Melli? Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Motion passes.
▶ 8:22 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Thank you. Thank You. Thank you. Good Evening. Thank you. Alright, next up we have order number 1 2 4 0 3. Request for approval of Petition to Enact legislation authorizing the City of Melrose to establish means tested senior citizen proc property tax exemption in the amount of a hundred percent of the circuit breaker income tax credit. This, uh, this was postponed, um, to tonight, um, and we have a motion on the floor at the moment that was made by the Motion for passage that was made by Councilor Hamilton, seconded by Council Stewart. So, on discussion Councilor Vanderberg, Um, after taking, I appreciate everyone taking the time for a little further review. Um, speaking for myself, um,
▶ 9:20 Mark Garipay: after, um, reviewing the additional information, I'm comfortable going forward. Any other councilors looking to speak? What's the will of the committee? I'm sorry. We'll take a roll call vote. Sorry about that. I'm thinking last name. Hey, councilor Jamal ine? Yes. Councillor Occhio. Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Karen Chetty? Yes. Councilor Reky. Yes. Councillor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Vandiver. Yes. President Elli? Yes. Councillor Garipay? Yes. Motion passes. Okay. Next up we have one. Uh, id. 1, 2, 4, 1 7. Acceptance of state earmark for various LED lighting projects. Do we have, we got, uh, DPW CH Ed Director. Director, sorry. That's okay. No problem. Ellis.
▶ 10:26 Thank you. Um, thank you for hearing this order tonight. Uh, this one's pretty straightforward. It's a $50,000 earmark from the state. Um, it was actually approved, uh, in the budget last July, but for some reason just took a really long time to get the paperwork together. Um, so we're finally the paperwork from the state side, so we're finally able to accept it, um, formally as the city. So it's, um, $50,000 towards the energy efficiency upgrades that we've been doing. Um, we do these sort of continuously with National Grid. There are a lot of major incentive programs where they pay a good portion of the cost. Um, and this earmark was specific to LED lighting upgrades at some of the schools.
▶ 11:11 Mark Garipay: Any questions from the council? Council Vandiver Make a, I just make a motion to recommend. Second. Second. We have a motion to recommend by cons. Vandiver Seconded by Council Hamilton on discussion. Um, roll call Grant, please. Councilor Jamine? Yes. Councilor fro? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Carrum Chetty? Yes. Cremsky? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Vandiver. Yes. President Melli? Yes. Councilor Gareg? Yes. Motion passes. Okay. On to I, uh, next one. ID, 1, 2, 4, 2 3. Authorization to submit a statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for Franklin School Roof replacements. Thank you. Um, so the, um, the MSBA Accelerator Repair Program, some
▶ 12:11 of you're probably familiar with it from other projects. Um, it pays typically about half of the cost of projects of this type. We did the Hoover School and the Horse Mann School roofs a few years ago. Um, the, the Franklin Project actually involves the roof and ideally the windows and the doors, the remaining windows that we haven't replaced yet, as well as the doors. But we're still working on, um, cost estimates to determine if we can really fit that whole scope into this project. Um, but the good news is for tonight's vote, all we're asking for is permission to submit that statement of address, which is the first phase, um, of the approval process. And the school committee did recently vote to approve, um,
▶ 12:54 the city's ability or the superintendent's ability to submit a statement of address. So that's what we're seeking tonight. There's no money involved, and we would have to come back before you with authorization to borrow, um, or, or to use another funding source, uh, for our half of the project. Okay. Um, right now, uh, councilor Hamilton is first in the queue. Thank you. Just a few quick questions. Sure. Um, and I know the, uh, next item before us has to do with the high school roof over the learning commons. Yes. Um, about a year and a half ago, I don't know if it was Gale Associates that did some studies mm-hmm. And it was the roof over the learning commons, the Ripley and, and the Franklin. And the Franklin. Yes.
▶ 13:37 So I know it was a year and a half ago, but we have a sense, or we're working towards a sense of what those costs are. Yeah. We do have an estimate from that process. We have an estimate for just the Franklin roof, but we don't have the estimate yet for the windows and the doors. Right. Because those weren't part of that initial study. Yep. Um, yeah, the, the Hoover roof was, I wanna say around two and a half million. Um, and is a very similar building. One difference is that we are replacing that small section of roof in the Franklin right now. So that would be removed from this project as compared to the Hoover project. But it's, it's a very similar project. So the roof component itself will probably be,
▶ 14:17 Ward Hamilton: you know, in that ballpark. And, uh, and I understand that the, the Franklin project has to do with roofing and windows. And I think we've seen that the masonry component, particularly between the windows and the parapet, or the top of the brick masonry walls in issue. And then, you know, looking at that myself, uh, you can see there are some really significant deficiencies. So my only comment would be that as we put together cost estimates, um, for what we're gonna submit to MSBA, that we make sure, not make sure, but that, you know, we watch and keep, keep in mind and be cognizant of the masonry needs for, for the brick walls that, you know, need a lot of work. So, thank you. I appreciate you doing all this,
▶ 15:06 Maya Jamaleddine: and thank you. I and appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Jamal. Thank you Chair. Um, thank you for being with us tonight. I, uh, actually the question is kind of following up on, um, councilor Hamilton question. Uh, we know how much Franklin, uh, uh, school is in need of a total, um, renovation, construction, and all kind of, um, uh, you know, work for the building. Um, starting with the roof. Is that something that you feel it's, it's the need to prioritize if we know that this building needs way more work? Yeah, I think the interior of the Franklin is actually not, not in terrible shape. We've done a lot of the floor remediation over the last five years. Um, so a lot of the flooring is new.
▶ 16:06 We've painted a lot of classrooms. We've started replacing the windows. Um, I think the, the interior is not actually in, in all that bad shape and can, we can continue to maintain it with just, you know, smaller renovation projects. But the building envelope is in fairly desperate conditions. So the, um, the roof and the windows and the masonry, as Councillor Hamilton mentioned, are the highest priorities. The exterior doors, we replace the worst of them. So the, if we have to cut something from the project, I'm envisioning the, the remainder of the exterior doors would be the first thing to come off the project. Um, but I do think that the building envelope is the, the most dire need over there.
▶ 16:46 And, um, these two projects, the, the Franklin Roof and the Learning Commons roof along with the Winthrop roof are probably our three biggest needs right now. But the problem with the Winthrop is that school really needs a lot more. Mm-hmm. So, you know, that's a bigger conversation. So these are the logical next projects for the MSBA. Yeah. So if we are, we are talking about the ECC specifically, what is the next item that you feel that needs to be done at the, in this building? The, it's a close tie between the roof and a handful of windows that still have some leaking issues. Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you. Council Nuro? Yep. Thank you for being here tonight. Um, I actually just have a question about the timeline of things.
▶ 17:35 So this has to be in between before March 21st, is that correct? Mm-hmm. Yes. And then can you just walk us through a little bit of the, what happens after that? So then we wait for the MSBA to make their determination. Mm-hmm. Which takes months. And I don't remember from the Hoover and Horseman projects, but I do recall that we applied one year and then the roofs were constructed, not that next construction season, but the construction the summer after that. So that would put us in summer 2026 construction if everything Okay. Stays on track. I believe that's, that's how it worked with the last two. And We're, we're looking at them funding about 50% of it typically. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you.
▶ 18:16 Robb Stewart: Council Stewart. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, thank you madam. Uh, can, can you share, um, have you discussed with finance, how, if this goes forward, uh, this will, uh, be financed. So until we have the final cost estimates, they can't tell us for sure, but I did meet with Carrie to talk about, you know, possible funding strategies. Um, and we do seem to have the, the bonding capacity. Um, so that's a possible avenue. But she said that, you know, without, until we're a little farther down the road, she wasn't comfortable identifying a specific funding source. So she asked me to, you know, let you all know if it came up that, that we don't have a specific funding source identified. And most likely in fiscal year 26 sounds like
▶ 19:10 Robb Stewart: For construction? Yeah, For financing. Oh, for financing. Um, You can try to squeeze it in this year, or No, it certainly wouldn't be, we probably won't even hear back from MSBA this fiscal year. So yeah, 26 at the earliest. 26. Okay. It could even be fiscal 27 if the, if the construction is starting in summer of 26, we'd be into fiscal 27. Okay. And that leads to the next question. Is there, um, uh, other temporary plans in the case that, uh, further deterioration, like if we have leaks and so forth? I would, We've been, uh, our staff has been up on the roofs of many of the schools plugging leaks, um, putting on coatings, various things to, to stop leaks in all different roofing systems. Um, and we would continue to do that.
▶ 20:00 We're also, right now we're working, uh, Greenwood Industries is under contract to replace the, the small roof over room 26 in the Franklin, because that was the one that was having an immediate issue, that it's been a problem for years. Um, we could always consider doing another small contract like that, but I think at this point, if we get into the M-S-B-A-Q, we would just patch things until, uh, until the project is ready. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Anyone else for the first time? Councilor Jamal? I'm sorry. Thank you. Um, council Jamal, it's actually, uh, just remember, is there any brands that could be available for this kind of projects in terms of fixing the roof and or the building?
▶ 20:43 I'm not aware of any grants beyond the MSBA. I mean, technically the MSBA is essentially a grant for half of the cost. Um, and with a lot of these programs, they don't, they don't allow, if you're getting funding from something else, they don't necessarily allow you to chase another funding source. But yeah, most of the grants that we're seeing right now, um, they're not for roofs. The only one I've seen that's for roofs is if you're putting on solar afterwards. And I'm not sure we, we will certainly look into if we qualify for that. Um, but short of that, I don't anticipate any, Any good things. What about the other, um, projects that we need to fix in the building? For instance, the Windows or any other things?
▶ 21:24 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, did we look into grants? And if in any case, do we have someone that would monitor? Or how does your, you know, team monitor those grants or look up for these grants? We're, we're sort of in constant communication with the state, with, um, professional organizations. We get a lot of literature all the time when there are grant opportunities. And also a lot of our consultants who are always trying to get us to hire them to help with grant applications so they can ultimately help with the work of the grant. Um, so we do tend to hear about them. And I think energy efficiency is the one way that, that, the one avenue that we've seen for some, um, you know, maybe windows and there may be some very small incentives
▶ 22:10 Mark Garipay: from National Grid if we were able to improve energy efficiency with any of these projects. Um, but I will say roof's, windows and doors really aren't a big area for grants. I think like the HVAC systems and decarbonization, that's where a lot of the new grant programs seem to be. Got it. Thank you. Council Ro second? Yes. Um, Just wanted to make a motion to recommend Second, second motion to recommend by Council ro seconded by Counsel Hamilton on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. That order, we'll go on to city Council. Next up, we have ID 1 2 4 2 4 authorization to submit a statement of interest to Massachusetts School Building Authority for Melrose High School Roof Replacement Director.
▶ 23:01 Thank you for Waco office. Um, So similar to the other one, uh, this, this project, again, we're just asking for approval to submit the statement of interest, which comes through the superintendent's office. Um, the learning commons is in a slightly different situation where the roof on the rest of the high school has been replaced more recently. Um, the building is original to 1974, and the roof that's there now is, uh, let's see, I didn't put it in here, but it's, it's from the nineties, uh, oh, 1994. And, um, so it, it just now meets the MSBA requirement, which is typically around 25 years old. Um, and the learning commons, as most of you probably know, is a beautiful space that was renovated not that long ago.
▶ 23:48 Ward Hamilton: It was completed in 2016. And if you go into the learning commons now, and you look up, you see stained ceiling tiles, um, it's, it was a 5 million plus investment to do the learning commons. And it's being put in jeopardy by a leaky roof right now. So we feel this is a very high priority project. Councilman Hamilton, thank you. And thank you again. Um, so this is something that I've been, uh, observing and exploring deeply and speaking to, uh, former Mayor Dolan and, uh, your predecessor mRNA. And what you are doing falls perfectly in line with where we need to be to monitor the high school and the high school roof, particularly over the learning commons. And I thank you for your work, and I thank you for, um, your endeavors
▶ 24:42 Mark Garipay: to bring us up to snuff with the roof. And, um, I'm not gonna make a motion at this moment 'cause others may wanna speak, but, uh, this is fully in line with what we need to do to preserve and maintain our infrastructure. And I appreciate your work. Thank you. Thank you. Any other counselors? Council Stewart? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to, uh, recommend second motion to recommend by Council Stewart, seconded by Cons, uh, council Romano on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Give that also get recommended. Okay. Thank you. Thank support. Thank you. Good night. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have, next up our final item. We're moving right along. And I think we're gonna get this in bef
▶ 25:30 Mark Garipay: well, I better not say anything. Uh, next up, grants id 1, 2, 4 2 6, accept acceptance of the fiscal 2025 Local Cultural Council grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in the amount of $16,800. And we have Ms. Grimm there with us. Thank you. Yeah, I, I've got lots of time, so I feel like I can take my time on this one. Um, no, I'm just kidding. Um, so this is, um, our annual allocation from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. We get this every year. Um, it's approximately $400 or $600 more than last year. And, um, the Melrose Cultural Council is the, um, body that, um, doles out the grants for arts and culture in our community. Um, this is the, this $16,800 is the second largest investment in arts
▶ 26:22 and culture after the city's $20,000 annual allocation. Um, which is body approved last year, um, through a free cash request. And we hope to bring to you guys again, um, at the end of this fiscal year. Any questions from the council? What's the Council Stewart? Um, Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chair, I'll make a Motion to recommend to the full council. Second, we have a motion to recommend by Councilor Stewart, seconded by Councilor Chedi on discussion. Um, roll call. Roll call. Roll call. Yep. Roll call. Yep. Please. On. Thank you, Ms. We have to come back and do it again. Yep. Councilor Jamal Ledine. Yes. Councilor Occhio. Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Karen Chetty? Yes. Councilor Reky. Yes. Councilor Romanul. Yes.
▶ 27:15 Mark Garipay: Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Vandiver. Yes. President Elli? Yes. Council Gareg? Yes. Motion passes. All righty. Thank you. Thank that. Concludes our business tonight for appropriations and oversight. Take a motion to Aurn. Motion to adjourn. Second. Motion to adjourn by councilor Seconded by Council Stewart on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed for adjourned. There you go. Okay. Good evening. The time is 7 31 on Monday, February 10th. This is a joint public hearing of the Melrose City Council in the Melrose Planning Board, I am Mark Ape, the Chair of the Appropriations and Oversight Committee. I'm joined next to me by Greg Sampson, the chairperson of the Planning Board. We are also joined by other council members,