Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2025-02-24

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

Attendance

Cal Finocchiaro present; Mark Garipay present · Chair; Ward Hamilton present; Maya Jamaleddine absent · Vice Chair; Manjula Karamcheti present; Leila Migliorelli present · President, Ex Oficio; John Obremski absent; Devin Romanul present; Robb Stewart present; Kimberly Vandiver present; Ryan Williams present

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● FEBRUARY 24, 2025 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:01 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Maya Jamaleddine Vice Chair Absent Cal Finocchiaro Present Ward Hamilton Present Manjula Karamcheti Present John Obremski Absent Devin Romanul Present Robb Stewart Present Kimberly Vandiver Present Ryan Williams Present Leila Migliorelli President, Ex Oficio Present Mark Garipay Chair Present

(ID # 12453) Appropriation An Appropriation from Capital Stabilization in the amount of $52,000 to DPW Facilities to upgrade switchgear components at Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School for the purposes of safety and code compliance Ought to Pass City Council

(ID # 12429) Acceptance of general law; decision; fund Requesting Grant Acceptance of a Complete Streets Grant from MassDOT in the amount of $450,803.50 for the construction of sidewalks on Swains Pond Avenue. Ought to Pass City Council City of Melrose Page 1 2/25/2025 3:46 PM

Transcript

▶ 0:04 Mark Garipay: Good evening. It is 7:01 PM on Monday, February 24th. This is a meeting of the Appropriation and Oversight Committee. I'm Erica the chair. Also joining me tonight are our counselors, Williams Hamilton Cuche, um, Vandiver Stewart Nuro Romano, and President Moore 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, recorded and broadcast live on MMTV. Um, before we get started with public comment, I just want to make, um, everyone aware of the, in the public that we had an order tonight that was gonna be scheduled, uh, um, informational order, 1 2 4 2 8. Uh, the mayor produced before the city council, any city officer member

▶ 1:04 Mark Garipay: of a city agency or a city employee who shall provide information and answers questions relative to the efforts to reduce crashes and improve vulnerable roads, user safety on Franklin Street and other roads in Melrose. Um, as the cheer last week, we had a, uh, number of questions come in, um, towards the end of the, um, the, the cutoff. And in order to have a thorough discussion, um, and give the administration enough time to answer everything, I decided to, um, pull that off the agenda. And that will not be heard tonight. It will be heard at a later date. We are working, um, we've had some conversations tonight. We're working on, uh, trying to come up with a date that works hopefully for everyone.

▶ 1:50 Mark Garipay: Um, so I just wanna let everyone in the public know that that will be heard. Um, my assumption is hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll be going back and forth, but for anyone at home or online that, uh, thought that was gonna be heard tonight, I just wanna make everyone aware. So, moving on to, uh, public comment, I will motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objections, uh, public comment is now open. This is the portion of the meeting where the public may speak on any item on tonight's agenda. Comments expressing any viewpoint on other matters are also welcome. Is there anyone in the gallery that would like to speak regarding anything? Uh, tonight Seeing no one in the gallery.

▶ 2:37 Mark Garipay: Is there anyone online? There's nobody. Okay. If there are no objections, I'll motion by unanimous consent to close the public comment portion of the meeting. Seeing none, public comment is now closed. Um, onto the agenda. Oh, I'm sorry, um, minutes. At this time I will motion by unanimous consent to approve without reading the, the minutes of the February 10th, 2025 appropriation and oversight meeting. Seeing no objections, those, uh, minutes are now approved. Now we will go on to, um, our agenda, which is, first up we have ID 1 12 4 5 3, and appropriation from capital stabilization in the amount of $52,000 to the DPW facilities to upgrade switchgear components at the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School.

▶ 3:30 For the purpose of safety and code compliance, we have Director Proa Aass with us tonight, and I will hand it over to you. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Um, so this is a pretty straightforward request. It's $52,000 from the Capital Stabilization Fund. Um, my understanding is the fund currently has a balance over $600,000. And in my mind, this is exactly the type of project that that fund is intended to, to cover. Um, we had some testing done of the switchgear at the middle school. Um, actually we did it at all the schools. And, um, we've had some power sort of dips and spikes that we've been seeing, um, over the last few months. And so that was part of what we were hoping to discern with the testing.

▶ 4:17 And they did find that there are three faulty breakers and possibly a fourth. Um, and the way the, the way the electrical system is set up over there, there's two different, uh, transformers I guess, that need to be shut down in order to access all the equipment. So they accessed the bulk of the equipment through the first test that they did, but they have a small component that they still need to test. So they would plan on doing that final test at the time when they're doing the replacement of the other components. Um, so we did include a little bit of contingency in case they find another, um, component that needs to be replaced. Thank you. Um, just for, uh, for everyone's information, there was a, a letter put on or a memo put on your desk.

▶ 5:00 Mark Garipay: Um, tonight the cash balance in capital stabilization fund is currently at $627,074. Um, right now I have Council Hamilton, Thank you. And I appreciate your proactive efforts to address an issue in one of our buildings. And at this time, I make a motion to approve. Second. Okay. We have a motion to approve by Council Hamilton. Seconded by Council Williams on discussion. Counselor, comment chair. I just have a quick question. I'm just more curiosity than anything else with this kind of thing. How long does it take to upgrade, uh, switch gear and then like how is the school impacted? I believe, and again, just curious. Yeah, I believe they're hoping to do it over April vacation. Okay, great. But

▶ 5:45 for some reason it wasn't able to be done over April. It would be done, um, as soon as school gets out. 'cause this, it does have to be shut down, but my understanding is April vacation is the plan. Okay. Thank you so much. Any other questions from the council? Um, Madam Clerk, can you please take the role on that? Yes. Counselor Jamine. Uh, counselor fro? Yes. Counselor Hamilton? Yes. Counselor Caram Chetty? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Melissa? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Alright, Thank you. Um, next up we have, uh, grants ID 1 2 4 2 9 requesting a grant acceptance of a Complete Streets grant from Mass DOT in the amount

▶ 6:40 of $450,803 and 50 cents for the construction of sidewalks on Swains Pond. Af Ms. Ellis. Thank you. Um, so this request is for acceptance of a grant that is from, uh, mass DOT. We used to be able to apply for the Complete Streets funding, the construction funding annually, and then a few years ago they changed it so that you could only apply every four years. So we're finally, we are finally able to apply again. We've taken advantage of this funding for a bunch of other projects, um, on Howard Street, the North South bike route. Um, and the sidewalks around the Hoover School were all funded through the same funding source. Um, the cap used to be 400,000, now it's a little higher. So we were able to get the full

▶ 7:27 4 58 0 3 50 that we requested. And there's no city match component. Um, we identified the Swains Pond to have sidewalks as the next in line in terms of the highest priority item, uh, to apply for this year. Because in the time that I've been here, it is now at the top of the list of the projects that we hear requests for the most often that you have to pick from the prioritization plan list. And on that list there's about 40 projects. We've completed about 15 to 20 of them. And the ones that are left, this is the one that we hear requests for all the time because people want to be able to walk to their houses, to the conservation land, to school. Um, and there's no sidewalks at all on that whole stretch.

▶ 8:12 Devin Romanul: Councillor Romanul, um, thank you so much. And given the geography, I'm quite pleased, um, where, where this is, and I hope it encourages more residents to walk along, uh, Swains Pond and Towners Pond, although more Swains Pond, given which ward it lies in, you know, um, just my own personal bias. Um, I, uh, uh, so want to thank you for applying and, and, um, uh, I wanted to ask, um, is this gonna involve any repair on some existing, is there some existing sidewalk that's on the, on the where after it jogs south, um, after it intersects with Penney Road or Penny Lane, rather Penney Road. So after it intersects with Penney Road, there's continuous sidewalk all the way to Lebanon Street. Okay. So that will remain, we won't be touching any of that.

▶ 8:54 That, and we did just recently add sidewalks on Dexter Road. So it will connect up that whole area, you know, where, where now you'd be able to get all the way down toward Lebanon Street with, um, with sidewalks. So it will go from the penny intersection up to, I believe it's the, uh, Laurel Street intersection, maybe one block farther down, but there's no sidewalks other than there's a tiny little stretch of sidewalks on, I guess it would be the, the west side of the road. Um, that if we are on that side, we would probably replace those. But if we're not on that side, then we'll end up leaving those in place. Now those gonna be my next question is do we have a, a sense as to which, which side

▶ 9:40 of the road it, it will lie on? There are restrictions on both sides, especially at the crossing of the, of the, um, the bridge bridge basically over the culvert, over the ponds. Um, that's gonna be probably the most restrictive point. And so that might drive which side we're on. We'd really rather not have people have to cross the street halfway down. So we're aiming to get everything on one side of the street. But we have utility poles, we have fire hydrants, um, and some trees. So we will try to find the best spot. Excellent. And I know the memo says that, uh, the work is anticipated to wrap up by the end of 2026. Do you have a sense as to when it'll be initiated? It, it should be this construction season,

▶ 10:16 hopefully starting and finishing this construction season. It'll be asphalt sidewalks, which is in keeping with what's in that part of town, um, you know, has a more rural feel. Uh, I always tell people, the community that I worked in before Melrose was conquered where they like to spend a lot of money on everything, but they hated concrete sidewalks. So it's all a matter of sort of preference. And so we try to design what fits with the neighborhood and on a windy street like that with some topography and everything, asphalt is really the better, uh, fit for that landscape. And I think there's some granite curb out there. So there will be either granite curb or asphalt berm, depending on just what fits best

▶ 10:55 Robb Stewart: with the, with the street. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh, council Stewart. Thank you Mr. Chair. Uh, thank you Mr. Re Gonzalez for being here this evening. Um, so what, this is great. Um, I, I know certain people that run around there and be, make it safer so that, that's wonderful. Um, it, what are the conditions of the road? And I mean, 'cause it's like, it sort of like incomplete streets as opposed to complete streets, right? I mean, 'cause we're not doing anything to the road. Yeah. So interestingly the Complete Streets program is not, uh, is not so much tied to anything about roadway condition itself to paving or, um, the Complete Streets. It is supposed to be, you know, making it safer

▶ 11:39 for all users, all abilities, all ages. Um, but it tends to focus on sidewalks, um, curb ramps, crosswalks, that sort of thing. Yeah. The, the Complete Streets program won't fund paving. So, um, so when we apply for these grants, paving is never a part of the application. Um, but the street is in fairly poor condition, which is why we thought now was definitely the time to apply because we don't want to pave and then come back and try to do sidewalks in the future. Um, so in anticipation of it popping up on the paving list, probably within the next three to four years, um, we thought now was a good time for the sidewalk work, but we don't have any specific plan for the paving work yet. Okay. That's, that's where I was leading.

▶ 12:23 Ryan Williams: 'cause anybody that's driven a run down there knows the condition of those roads and they're, they're pretty rough. Um, and it does make more sense to do sidewalks before roads. Yes. Great. Thank you. Alright. Thank you Mr. Chair. Councilor Williams. Hey, thank you. Um, thank you for bringing this out, right. It's been so long. I mean, we've been talking about this forever, so I was really, really excited to see it come up. And Councilor Rahul asked the question I wanted to ask, and you answered the, that it was gonna stand one side of the road, which is, is ideal, especially, um, I mean, I've driven down Swain Pond many, many, many times and walked down it as well. And I, I always kind of imagine like, who,

▶ 13:06 Ryan Williams: you know, where would it go? Who would you have to take from? So there's gonna be some, um, conversations to have with some residents who have put planters and things in the public right of way. But I hope that we and the counselors and anybody else can help support you in that in any way possible because I think it's a really important to get people walking down there. Um, so I wanted to ask you about the technical design. I saw that you're talking about a reduction in road width of six feet. Um, are you going to, or are you hope I don't think that's accurate. Oh, okay. Yeah, we're not planning on reducing the road width. It says, as part of the sidewalk installations travel Lane widths will be narrowed from approximately 14 feet

▶ 13:43 to 11 feet for a total reduction in road width of six feet. Is that, that's Ivan's memo. Okay. That's what it says in the document. Um, we're, I would say we're not quite that far along. That's probably what she's envisioning will happen. But in reality, we like to leave a shoulder when we can for cyclists when we have an 11 foot painted travel lane. Yeah. It doesn't necessarily mean that the road is 22 feet wide. That's actually more dangerous for somebody cycling. So we're, we are not going to fit the sidewalk within the paved area. It's definitely gonna go into the grass on one side or the other. And we have, we own the right of way Oh yeah. On both sides. So then, Yeah. So then how wide

▶ 14:22 Ryan Williams: would you imagine the sidewalk will end up being? At a minimum it will be four feet. Yeah. Um, it might be up to five feet, but Dexter Road we did four feet and, and that worked out well. Um, yeah, it will be as wide as we're able to make sure it with, once we're working with the residents on, you know, working around a tree or a Yeah, sure. A Pole or Whatnot. The, um, I having, having gone down there quite a bit, I would say the wider you can make the sidewalks the better. And certainly 11 foot travel lane is sufficient. And I know I, you know, it pinches in certain points and stuff like that. I would imagine that if you do create a continuous path on Swains Pond that people who are cycling are gonna want

▶ 15:09 Ryan Williams: to use it because trying to cycle around those blind curves is kind of, um, is kind of harrowing. So, you know, the wider that you can make it, the more you can accommodate these different types of users who are gonna be wanting to use it at the same time. Um, but thanks again. This is fantastic and I'm really excited to see the work get underway. Great. Thank you. And just to clarify, we are doing everything we can to keep it on one side because we don't wanna have to cross the road. Yes. But if we, once we get out there, if there's something that that prevents us from doing it, we, we have neighborhood meetings, that's gonna be the first step. Yeah. Step. I mean, really that culvert, which was just repaired recently, it has no embankment,

▶ 15:48 Ryan Williams: it has no structure. Right. So you kind of have to put it on the right on, on the, um, west side of the street because you, I mean, can you put it over the Culvert? That's funny. I actually pictured it being easier on the east side of the street. Okay. So yeah, we, we will see when we get out there. Cool. And we'll have to probably go before the con com too, for that piece of it. Yeah. Right, right, right, right. Good luck. Thank you. Yeah, thank You. Council ro He actually asked, councilor Williams asked a question that I was gonna ask about the size of the sidewalk. So, all set. Thanks. Um, if I could just, uh, ask one question. Is the, uh, grant amount gonna cover the whole cost of the project?

▶ 16:26 Mark Garipay: Yes. Okay. Um, any other co councilor Hamilton? Uh, thank you. Uh, now I just make a motion to recommend Second, second motion to recommend by Councilor Hamilton. Seconded by Councilor Williams on discussion. Uh, Madam Clerk, can we take a mm-hmm. Roll call. Counselor Occhio. Yes. Counselor Hamilton? Yes. Counselor Chetty. Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Lyre? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Motion passes. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. That will get recommended. Thank you. Uh, Ms. Wicker. Thank you, Alice. Thank you that it, uh, concludes our business. I'll take a motion to adjourn. Motion to Adjourn. Second. Second.

▶ 17:18 Mark Garipay: Motion to adjourn by Council Chetty. Seconded by Council Ro on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed or adjourned?

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2025-02-24

Attendance

Agenda

Minutes

Transcript

Original documents