Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2026-05-04

Appropriations & Oversight Committee Meeting 5/4/26

This meeting starts at 3:03 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Jason Chen present · At-Large; Cal Finocchiaro present · Ward 6; Bradley Freeman present · President, Ex Officio; Maya Jamaleddine present · At-Large; Manjula Karamcheti present · Ward 1; Elizabeth Kowal present · At-Large; John Obremski present · Ward 2; Christopher Park present · Ward 3; Kimberly Vandiver present · Vice Chair; Ryan Williams present · At-Large

Agenda

Minutes

Appropriations & Oversight Committee Monday, May 4, 2026, 7:00 PM City Council Chamber, 1st Floor 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 MINUTES I. CALL TO ORDER Kimberly Vandiver Vice Chair Jason Chen Cal Finocchiaro Maya Jamaleddine Manjula Karamcheti Elizabeth Kowal John Obremski Christopher Park Ryan Williams William Bradley Freeman President, Ex Officio Devin Romanul Chair Meeting was called to order by Chair Romanul at 7:02 PM Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Kim Vandiver Vice Chair Present Jason Chen At-Large Present Cal Finocchiaro Ward 6 Present Maya Jamaleddine At-Large Present Manjula Karamcheti Ward 1 Present Elizabeth Kowal At-Large Present John Obremski Ward 2 Present Christopher Park Ward 3 Present Ryan Williams At-Large Present William Bradley Freeman President, Ex Officio Present Member Devin Romanul Chair Present II. MINUTES APPROVAL Appropriations & Oversight Committee Meeting April 27, 2026 6:45 PM 1 Motion to Approve the minutes by unanimous consent without reading made by Chair Romanul All were in favor and minutes were approved RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams III. PUBLIC COMMENT When: May 4, 2026 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Topic: Appropriations & Oversight Committee Meeting Join from PC, Mac, iPad, or Android: https://cityofmelrose- org.zoom.us/j/91515115255?pwd=6Is9DpDImb2s9LaICczEpmDH9yQtpG.1 Passcode:806042 Webinar ID: 915 1511 5255 Motion to Open public comment made by Chair Romanul at 7:03 PM Comments on the floor: Susan Cain of 123 E Foster St asked for support in passing the DPW truck appropriation request, commenting that allowing trucks to be used at Wyoming Cemetery, especially smaller trucks, causes less damage to the site. Joe Pelrin of 70 Howard St had questions about the DPW truck funding request. He asked how the city plans to purchase the trucks and are they put out to bid, how many sidewalk snowplows is the city purchasing (one or two), and will the city purchase electric or gas-powered versions. He prefers gas-powered to be used for plowing. There were no comments via Zoom Motion to Close public comment made by Chair Romanul at 7:07 PM IV. APPROPRIATIONS

A. (ID # 2026-1150): Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $244,944 to the School Department (#1620) for medicaid reimbursement received in FY25. Motion to Recommend made by Councilor Finocchiaro Seconded by Councilor Karamcheti All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council 2 AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams NAYS: None Comments and DIscussion: Ken Kelley commented that the city has several revenue sources besides city appropriations to cover medicaid reimbursements and requests funds from the federal government also.

B. (ID # 2026-1147): Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $170,000 to Capital Outlay (#931) to purchase a sidewalk plow. Motion to Recommend made by Councilor Vandiver Seconded by Councilor Williams All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams NAYS: None Comments and Discussion: Elena Proakis Ellis explained that the new sidewalk plow would be more versatile than current equipment, allowing for year-round use including cutting brush and maintaining sight lines. The committee discussed the current state of sidewalk plow equipment, with three operational machines from 2016-2018 and one older machine in need of replacement. The committee also touched on potential cost savings from in-house operations versus contracted services, which could amount to significant savings. They explained the current process of purchasing through state contract suppliers and the challenges with used vehicles, including uncertainty about bidding processes for used equipment vendors. The group discussed the possibility of acquiring used equipment from other communities, with them noting that while this approach has been successful in the past, it requires having available funds and going through proper procurement and disposal processes. If approved and if all the requested funds are not used on this purchase, the remainder will be sent back to free cash.

C. (ID # 2026-1148): Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $880,000 to Capital Outlay (#931) to purchase DPW Vehicles. Motion to Recommend made by Councilor Karamcheti Seconded by Councilor Finocchiaro All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] 3 TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams NAYS: None Comments and Discussion: Elena Proakis Ellis presented a request for $880,000 in free cash to purchase vehicles as part of the capital improvement plan. She explained that the department had been unable to make significant vehicle purchases in recent years due to budget constraints, and noted that industry standards recommend spending approximately $1.1 million per year on fleet maintenance. The proposed purchases include a new hook lift truck with brine tank capabilities, four new dump trucks, and extended-cab pickups, with the total amount covering not just the vehicles but also necessary equipment and modifications. Elena discussed the importance of maintaining the DPW fleet to handle snow and ice storms effectively, noting that while having a full working fleet would help, the city still relies on private contractors for comprehensive coverage across all wards and streets. Councilor Karamceti expressed support for the fleet replacement requests and inquired about additional needs beyond the current $780,000-$795,000 annual requests for years 2 and 3. The discussion highlighted specialized equipment needs, including sidewalk plows and sewer equipment, and that having the right specialized equipment when needed remains crucial. They agreed to consider mutual share agreements with other communities for specialized equipment. The current resources and personnel can manage these additional trucks and there will be storage space for them as the city removes old vehicles that are being replaced. Motion for Recess to start the City Council meeting made by Chair Romanul at 7:47 PM Back from recess and meeting was reopened by Chair Ronamul at 7:51 PM

D. (ID # 2026-1149): Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $865,000 to DPW-Snow (#431) to close the snow and ice deficit for FY26. Motion to Recommend made by Councilor Finocchiaro Seconded by Councilor Karamcheti All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams NAYS: None Comments and Discussion: Jim Troup explained that the challenging winter, particularly with two 20-inch snowstorms, resulted in higher costs than recent years. The council discussed the significant difference in costs between regular plowing operations and snow removal operations, with snow removal costing around $40,000 4 per day due to the need for hired triaxle trucks and additional equipment. Jim explained that snow removal costs are based on hourly labor and require decisions about whether to remove snow from downtown areas, with the option to scale back services for potential savings. Having new city-owned equipment could reduce the contractor plowing hours during future storms. Councilor Vandiver mentioned the WRAP, Winter Road Assistance Program, as another source of funding for snow plowing and removal.

E. (ID # 2026-1151): Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $10,000 to DPW-Highway (#422) to purchase bike racks. Motion to Recommend made by Councilor Williams Seconded by Councilor Vandiver All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams NAYS: None Comments and Discussion: Elena Proakis Ellis discussed a $10,000 appropriation for purchasing bike racks across the city, with Councilor Williams leading the discussion on following guidelines and prioritizing locations. The city does not yet have an approved list of their locations but is taking input to complete the plan, and hopes to accommodate multiple types of bicycles. Installation will include cement pads where necessary. They hope to install 8-10 bike racks with this funding. V. ADJOURNMENT Motion to Adjourn by unanimous consent made by Chair Romanul at 8:09 PM All were in favor and meeting was adjourned 5 City Auditor CITY OF MELROSE AUDITOR’SCity Hall, OFFICE 562 Main Street Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone - (781) 979-4110 Fax - (781) 662-2182 Free Cash Orders for Fiscal Year 2026 “Free cash” is a term used to describe any remaining, unrestricted funds from the previous fiscal years. After it is “certified” by the state, free cash use requires a recommendation from the Mayor and an appropriation from the City Council. More information on free cash is available on the state’s website (https://www.mass.gov/info-details/free-cash). Council Order Item APPRO Balance of Free ID Amount Cash Dep/Fund Description Status Certified 5,558,450.00 2026-612 20,020.00 5,538,430.00 Dept - 162 Poll Pads and a label Printer Approved 2026-614 50,000.00 5,488,430.00 Fund - 2543 Melrose Cultural Council Approved 2026-615 25,000.00 5,463,430.00 Dept - 121 Chamber and City Event Support Approved 2026-1147 170,000.00 5,293,430.00 Dept - 423 Sidewalk Plow 2026-1148 880,000.00 4,413,430.00 Dept- 931 DPW Vehicles 2026-1149 865,000.00 3,548,430.00 Dept-931 DPW Snow and Ice Deficit 2026-1150 244,944.00 3,303,486.00 Fund - 1620 School Department 2026-1151 10,000.00 3,293,486.00 Dept- 422 Bike Racks *The first three appropriation requests listed were approved at the 4/6/26 City Council meeting. As requests are submitted by the administration and approved by the City Council, the table above will be updated accordingly and shared with subsequent orders. MELROSE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES 360 LYNN FELLS PARKWAY, MELROSE, MA 02176 TELEPHONE: (781) 662-2000 FAX: (781) 979-2149 WWW.MELROSESCHOOLS.COM CARI BERMAN, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS KEN KELLEY, DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT - FINANCE DATE: April 17, 2025 TO: Honorable Mayor Grigoraitis Cc: Melrose School Committee, Kerri Golden, City CFO FROM: Ken Kelley, Deputy Supt. - Finance RE: MPS FY26 appropriation funding request consideration The District is respectfully requesting that the Mayor consider the following funding appropriation request for the Melrose Public Schools (MPS): The District is respectfully requesting the Medicaid reimbursement transfer for FY26. The Medicaid funds are used as part of the District’s year end budget offset funds. Transfer In Account: 16204 49000 Medicaid reimbursement: $244,944 Thank you for your consideration. 1 DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS Administration–Engineering–Water–Sewer–Facilities Parks–Forestry–Highway–Sanitation–Cemetery–Fleet CITY OF MELROSE Elena Proakis Ellis, P.E., BCEE City Yard, 72 Tremont Street Director of Public Works Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone – (781) 665-0142 E-mail: eproakis@cityofmelrose.org MEMORANDUM To: Mayor Jennifer Grigoraitis Melrose City Council From: Elena Proakis Ellis, P.E., Director of Public Works cc: Kerriann Golden, CFO/Auditor Lauren Grymek, Chief of Staff James Troup, Deputy DPW Director – Administration & Finance Matt Spinale, DPW Operations Manager Date: April 17, 2026 Re: DPW Sidewalk Plow Purchase – Free Cash Request The Department of Public Works requests $170,000 to purchase an additional sidewalk plow. During this winter (FY26), the City’s sidewalk plows had consistent problems during storms, resulting in only three of four plows operational during any given storm event when sidewalk plowing was required. This caused DPW crews to get behind in sidewalk and corner clearing, with more drivers available than equipment, and with four established sidewalk plowing routes that each require equipment. The proposed vehicle is estimated to cost $170,000 and can eventually also be used for summer operations with the purchase of additional attachments in future years. The Department of Public Works hereby requests $170,000 of free cash to add one new, more reliable sidewalk plow to our fleet. The funds will be deposited into a dedicated account set up by the Auditor’s Office (019313-551002). Thank you for your consideration of this critical equipment. City Auditor CITY OF MELROSE AUDITOR’SCity Hall, OFFICE 562 Main Street Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone - (781) 979-4110 Fax - (781) 662-2182 Free Cash Orders for Fiscal Year 2026 “Free cash” is a term used to describe any remaining, unrestricted funds from the previous fiscal years. After it is “certified” by the state, free cash use requires a recommendation from the Mayor and an appropriation from the City Council. More information on free cash is available on the state’s website (https://www.mass.gov/info-details/free-cash). Council Order Item APPRO Balance of Free ID Amount Cash Dep/Fund Description Status Certified 5,558,450.00 2026-612 20,020.00 5,538,430.00 Dept - 162 Poll Pads and a label Printer Approved 2026-614 50,000.00 5,488,430.00 Fund - 2543 Melrose Cultural Council Approved 2026-615 25,000.00 5,463,430.00 Dept - 121 Chamber and City Event Support Approved 2026-1147 170,000.00 5,293,430.00 Dept - 423 Sidewalk Plow 2026-1148 880,000.00 4,413,430.00 Dept- 931 DPW Vehicles 2026-1149 865,000.00 3,548,430.00 Dept-931 DPW Snow and Ice Deficit 2026-1150 244,944.00 3,303,486.00 Fund - 1620 School Department 2026-1151 10,000.00 3,293,486.00 Dept- 422 Bike Racks *The first three appropriation requests listed were approved at the 4/6/26 City Council meeting. As requests are submitted by the administration and approved by the City Council, the table above will be updated accordingly and shared with subsequent orders. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS Administration–Engineering–Water–Sewer–Facilities Parks–Forestry–Highway–Sanitation–Cemetery–Fleet CITY OF MELROSE Elena Proakis Ellis, P.E., BCEE City Yard, 72 Tremont Street Director of Public Works Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone – (781) 665-0142 E-mail: eproakis@cityofmelrose.org MEMORANDUM To: Mayor Jennifer Grigoraitis Melrose City Council From: Elena Proakis Ellis, P.E., Director of Public Works cc: Kerriann Golden, CFO/Auditor Lauren Grymek, Chief of Staff James Troup, Deputy DPW Director – Administration & Finance Matt Spinale, DPW Operations Manager Date: April 17, 2026 Re: DPW Vehicle Replacement – Free Cash Request The Department of Public Works requests $880,000 to replace vehicles that are beyond their useful life and are required to provide essential services to the City. Vehicles proposed for replacement are outlined in the attached report and include the Year 1 vehicles listed. The proposed vehicles include: • One heavy duty hook-lift style dump truck that can be used with a liquid brine tank in winter and a dump body in summer. We propose in Year 2 (FY28) to request funds to purchase a clam shell catch basin cleaning assembly to futher build the utility of this vehicle for year-round use, as compared to the existing truck which is used only in winter operations. There are presently no reliable electric or hybrid options for this truck. The estimated FY27 cost is $300,000. • Four one-ton dump trucks and two pickup trucks, in place of five one-ton dump trucks. These trucks will be for the Parks, Forestry, Cemetery, and Highway Divisions. Electric or hybrid vehicles will be considered for the smaller pickup trucks, depending on whether they will be used for snow operations. The estimated cost for these vehicles is $110,000 each for the four one-ton trucks and $70,000 each for the two pickup trucks, for a total of $580,000. The Department of Public Works therefore requests $880,000 of free cash to replace these critical vehicles. The funds will be deposited into a dedicated account set up by the Auditor’s Office (019313-551002). Thank you for your consideration of this critical equipment. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS Administration–Engineering–Water–Sewer–Facilities Parks–Forestry–Highway–Sanitation–Cemetery–Fleet CITY OF MELROSE City Yard, 72 Tremont Street Elena Proakis Ellis, P.E., BCEE DirectorMay 6, 2022of Public Works Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone – (781) 665-0142 E-mail: eproakis@cityofmelrose.org To: Jennifer Grigoraitis, Mayor Kerri Golden, CFO/Auditor Date: February 6, 2026 From: Elena Proakis Ellis, Director of Public Works CC: Jim Troup, Deputy Director Administration and Finance Matt Spinale, Operations Manager Derek Lanphere, Operations General Foreman RE: Vehicle Condition and Replacement Request The Department of Public Works has updated our vehicle replacement program to reflect vehicles that have been replaced in the last several years and our current needs. We are at a critical point with trucks that are failing and are in dire need of replacement. By the end of our recent large snowstorm, eighteen vehicles used for snow and ice response were out of service. One week later, we still have eleven of those vehicles down. The following trucks are recommended for replacement as soon as possible and have been programmed into a three-year replacement plan. Trash Packer Truck 26 - 2004 International Packer - 120,000 Miles - Sanitation Division (yard waste/municipal waste) 1 Condition: Rotted body, hydraulic lines in need of replacement, rotted hopper, currently out of service Replacement Cost: $340,000 Additional Notes: This vehicle is critical to the department’s day-to-day operations. It is used for curbside yard waste pickup and occasionally for municipal barrel collection. Replacement of this vehicle has been determined to be more cost-effective over its life cycle than outsourcing yard waste pickup or continuing to repair this unreliable and old vehicle. The DPW has identified a suitable replacement vehicle that is immediately available from a state-contract vendor. A winch will be included on the new vehicle to provide redundancy for municipal and school building dumpster collection. Heavy Duty Trucks Truck 21 - 1999 International Dump – 78,000 Miles - Highway Division (out of service) Condition: Cracked frame, rotted floor, failed inspection. Replacement Cost: $350,000 - Ford F650 or F700 (non CDL) Additional Information: This truck is proposed to be replaced with a hook lift truck with a brine tank instead, to expand the City’s capacity to use liquid brine. Other attachments could include a dump body and a salter. We would also like to purchase a catch basin cleaning clamshell for this truck, which would cost approximately an additional $100,000 and could be added in a later year. This proposed replacement will allow the City more versatility and year-round usage of this truck. The existing truck has traditionally been used predominantly for winter operations, with minimal utility in other seasons. Truck 29 - 1997 International – 35,000 Miles - Highway Division (snow operations) Condition: Rotted floor, failing frame, difficulty passing annual inspection Replacement Cost: $230,000 2 Light Dump Trucks Truck 33 - 2012 Chevy 3500 Dump w/Liftgate – 70,000 Miles - Parks & Forestry Division (also used for snow operations) Condition: Rotted holes in floor, difficulty passing inspection Replacement Cost: $110,000 Additional Information: This is the primary vehicle used for pulling the landscape trailer and for parks maintenance. Truck 35 - 2011 Chevy 3500 Dump – 53,000 Miles - Parks & Forestry Division (also used for snow operations) Condition: Rotted floor, difficulty passing inspection Replacement Cost: $110,000 Truck 38 - 2012 Chevy 3500 Dump – 70,000 Miles - Parks & Forestry Division (also snow operations) Condition: Rotted floor, difficulty passing inspection. Replacement Cost: $110,000 3 Truck 47 - 2011 Chevy 3500 - 52,000 Miles – Cemetery Division (also snow operations) Condition: Rotted bed. Replacement Cost: $110,000 Truck 48 - 2009 Chevy 3500 - 58,000 Miles – Cemetery Division (also snow operations) Condition: Rotted body and bed, difficulty passing inspections. Replacement Cost: $110,000 Truck 56 – 2006 Ford F350 SD – 75,000 Miles – Facilities Division Utility Body (snow operations) Condition: Normal wear – 20 years old, rusted components Replacement Cost: $80,000 to $110,000 4 Truck 58 – 2008 Ford F350 SD – 33,000 Miles – Facilities Division (also snow operations) Conditions: Rusting floor, normal wear of 18 year old vehicle Replacement Cost: $80,000 to $110,000 Pickup Trucks Truck 59 – 2007 Chevy Colorado – 48,000 miles – Facilities Building Systems Supervisor Conditions: Rusted body, normal wear of 19 year old vehicle Replacement Cost: $65,000 Additional Information: Could be considered for replacement with an electric vehicle, though it is normally stored at Melrose High School where charging capability presently does not exist Specialty Equipment Truck 50 - 1997 Case Backhoe – Cemetery Division (also snow operations) Condition: Rotted floors, primary vehicle for all cemetery operations. Replacement Cost: $210,000 5 Truck 77 - 1997 Volvo L90 C Loader - Highway Division (snow operations) Conditions: Rotted body and in need of tires. Engine overhaul needed. Replacement Cost: $250,000 Truck 64 – 1997 Ford F350 Utility-Boom Bucket Truck – 46,000 miles – Highway Division Conditions: Rusted frame, normal wear for 29 year old truck Replacement Cost: $150,000 Vehicle 1 – 2008 Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV – 102,800 miles – Engineering Division Condition: Rotted body and needed engine overhaul that was cost-prohibitive. Retired vehicle and disposed of as surplus. No photos are available. Replacement Cost: $50,000 Additional Information: Can be replaced with an electric vehicle, since charging is available at City Hall and this vehicle does not perform snow or other 24/7 operations. The Engineering Division is presently operating with no City vehicles. Vehicle 40 – 2004 Chevrolet 1500 Cargo Van – 150,000 miles – Facilities Van Condition: Vehicle was inoperable so was taken out of service and disposed of as surplus. No photos are available. Replacement Cost: $70,000 Additional Information: Could be replaced with a Transit-type van or similar. 6 HB-2 – 2012 Falcon Asphalt Hotbox – Highway Division Conditions: Inoperable Replacement Cost: $40,000 Vehicle 62 – 2008 Prinoth (Bombardier) SW 4S Sidewalk Plow – Snow Operations Conditions: Intermittently out-of-service during last several storms Replacement Cost: $190,000 Additional Information: Proposed to be replaced with a trackless machine with various attachments that will make it a useable vehicle year-round, rather than dedicated only to snow and ice response. Vehicle 23 – 2016 Freightliner 114SD Vactor – 19,000 miles – Sewer Division Conditions: Several components of suction and tank mechanisms have experienced failure in the last few years, sometimes costing upwards of $25,000 to $30,000 for individual repairs. Replacement Cost: $650,000 Additional Information: The DPW uses the Vactor for both clearing sewer blockages and for vacuum excavation. Excavation can be harder on the equipment but minimizes the risk of damage to surrounding 7 utilities when digging in tight locations. The DPW is proposing to consider replacing this truck with a model that has a slightly smaller chassis but an equivalent tank size. Summary As shown above, the conditions of the vehicles compromise the safety of our staff and jeopardize the levels of services that our residents have come to expect from the DPW. We have exceeded the expected life of these vehicles on both miles and age. Some vehicles present safety concerns with large holes in the floors, potentially allowing exhaust to enter the cabs of those vehicles. Our personnel have welded floors back in and made temporary repairs, but continuing to repair these severely deteriorated vehicles is not practical or cost effective. Snow operations have become increasingly challenging due to a lack of functioning vehicles; in the recent large storm, we had four employees who were unable to perform their jobs by the end of the storm event due to a lack of operational vehicles for them to drive. As noted above, of 18 vehicles that were rendered inoperable during the storm event, eleven continue to be out- of-service, awaiting repairs by our mechanics. Recommended replacement intervals for fleet vehicles were taken from the report by Matrix Consulting Group specifically evaluating Melrose’s fleet, as well as Fleet Counselor Services, a nationally recognized consulting firm. Vehicle Type Recommended Useful Life Age of City Vehicles* Estimated (Fleet Counselor Services Data) Replacement Cost Packer – Yard Waste 12 years or 9,000 hours #26 – 21 years $340,000 Heavy Dump Trucks 12 years or 120,000 miles #21 – 27 years/OOS $300,000 #29 – 29 years** $290,000 Light Dump Trucks 12 years or 120,000 miles #33 – 14 years $110,000 #35 – 15 years** #38 – 17 years** #47 – 15 years #48 – 17 years #56 – 20 years** #58 – 18 years** Pickup Trucks 10 years or 120,000 miles #59 – 19 years $65,000 Backhoe - Cemetery 15 years or 9,000 hours #50 – 29 years** $210,000 Loader 15 years or 10,000 hours #77 – 29 years** $250,000 Bucket Truck – Highway 12 years or 120,000 miles #64 – 29 years $150,000 DPW Engineering 10 years #1 – 18 years/OOS $50,000 DPW Facilities Van 10 years #40 – 22 years/OOS $70,000 Hotbox 15 years HB-2 – 14 years/OOS $40,000 Sidewalk Bombardier 15 years #62 – 18 years** $190,000 Vactor 12 years #23 – 10 years $650,000 TOTAL 3-year cost $3,315,000 Average annual cost $1,105,000/year Average annual cost (excluding sewer vehicle) $888,333/year *OOS = Out of Service **Experienced failure during January 25, 2026 storm 8 The Melrose DPW fleet vehicles shown above represent approximately $3.315M in short-term needs. Please note that this list does not include non-DPW fleet needs, such as the Fire Department, Police Department, Council on Aging, Inspectional Services, etc., who also operate vehicles within the City’s fleet. The proposed expenditure of $1,105,000 per year shown in the table above is very closely in line with Matrix Consulting Group’s estimated replacement need of $1,134,222 annually for Melrose’s fleet. When eliminating the cost of the Vactor truck, which would be paid using the Sewer Enterprise Fund, the total annual need is approximately $888,000. The three-year needs have been broken down into the following proposed plan: IMMEDIATE: The following request is being made concurrent with this memorandum: • A replacement for yard waste/refuse truck #26 has been submitted, for which Capital Stabilization funds are being requested in February 2026. The estimated cost of replacement is $340,000. YEAR 1: For this year’s free cash request, DPW recommends replacing the following Public Works vehicles: • Heavy Dump Truck (#21, already out of service) – proposed to be replaced with a hook lift truck with a brine tank, dump body, and catch basin cleaning clamshell assembly. The estimated cost, including the various style body attachments, is $300,000. • Light Dump Trucks (#33, #35, #38, #47 and #48) – we propose replacing these with four one-ton pickup trucks and two smaller pickup trucks. Electric or hybrid vehicles will be considered for the two pickup trucks, depending on whether they will be used for snow operations. The estimated cost for these vehicles is $110,000 each for the four one-ton trucks and $70,000 for the two pickup trucks, for a total of $580,000. This results in a total free cash request of $880,000 from the general fund. Sustainable options will be explored for one pickup truck if it is determined it will not be used for snow plowing, consistent with the City’s EV-first policy. In addition, the DPW is pursuing replacement of the Sewer Division’s Vactor truck. This specialized equipment has an estimated cost of $650,000. A budgetary line item has been carried in the Sewer Enterprise Fund of $80,000 per year, intended to be used toward a lease-to-own Vactor truck. There is enough free cash in the Sewer Enterprise Fund to pay for a $200,000 downpayment, with annual payments of roughly $89,000/year over five years. Free cash for the downpayment will be requested in spring 2026 from the Sewer Enterprise Fund’s retained earnings balance. 9 YEAR 2: We recommend replacement of the following vehicles in Year 2: • Heavy Dump Truck #29, with an estimated replacement cost of $230,000 • The Wyoming Cemetery backhoe (#50), estimated to cost $210,000 • The 2008 Bombadier sidewalk plow. We recommend replacement with a trackless machine that can also be used with attachments for summer operations, with an estimated cost of $190,000. • Engineering Division vehicle – this can be replaced with an electric vehicle, given the availability of a charging station at the City Hall parking lot. This replacement is estimated at $50,000. • Catch basin clamshell attachment for the new Truck #21 (hook lift) - $100,000 This amounts to a total of $780,000 for Year 2 replacement vehicles. YEAR 3: We recommend replacement of the following vehicles in Year 3: • Highway Division bucket truck - $150,000 • Light trucks (utility bodies for facilities with one salter) - #56 and #58 ($80,000 to $110,000 each, depending on what is specified) • DPW Facilities van #40 - $70,000 • Pickup truck #59 - $65,000 • Loader #77 - $250,000 • Hotbox HB-2 - $40,000 The resulting request for Year 3 is $795,000. The DPW is anxious to get our fleet up to a serviceable level, to allow us to provide both efficiency and cost-effectiveness in the services we provide. We appreciate your consideration of this capital plan for our vehicles over the next three years. 10 City Auditor CITY OF MELROSE AUDITOR’SCity Hall, OFFICE 562 Main Street Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone - (781) 979-4110 Fax - (781) 662-2182 Free Cash Orders for Fiscal Year 2026 “Free cash” is a term used to describe any remaining, unrestricted funds from the previous fiscal years. After it is “certified” by the state, free cash use requires a recommendation from the Mayor and an appropriation from the City Council. More information on free cash is available on the state’s website (https://www.mass.gov/info-details/free-cash). Council Order Item APPRO Balance of Free ID Amount Cash Dep/Fund Description Status Certified 5,558,450.00 2026-612 20,020.00 5,538,430.00 Dept - 162 Poll Pads and a label Printer Approved 2026-614 50,000.00 5,488,430.00 Fund - 2543 Melrose Cultural Council Approved 2026-615 25,000.00 5,463,430.00 Dept - 121 Chamber and City Event Support Approved 2026-1147 170,000.00 5,293,430.00 Dept - 423 Sidewalk Plow 2026-1148 880,000.00 4,413,430.00 Dept- 931 DPW Vehicles 2026-1149 865,000.00 3,548,430.00 Dept-931 DPW Snow and Ice Deficit 2026-1150 244,944.00 3,303,486.00 Fund - 1620 School Department 2026-1151 10,000.00 3,293,486.00 Dept- 422 Bike Racks *The first three appropriation requests listed were approved at the 4/6/26 City Council meeting. As requests are submitted by the administration and approved by the City Council, the table above will be updated accordingly and shared with subsequent orders. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS Administration–Engineering–Water–Sewer–Facilities Parks–Forestry–Highway–Sanitation–Cemetery–Fleet CITY OF MELROSE James Troup City Yard, 72 Tremont Street Assistant Director – Administration & Finance Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone – (781) 665-0142 E-mail: jtroup@cityofmelrose.org MEMORANDUM To: Mayor Jennifer Grigoraitis Melrose City Council From: James Troup, DPW Deputy Director – Administration and Finance cc: Kerriann Golden, CFO/Auditor Kathryn Armata, Treasurer Collector Elena Proakis Ellis, DPW Director Date: April 9, 2026 Re: FY26 Snow and Ice Commitment In consideration of the commitments of the Snow and Ice Budget for Fiscal Year 2026, the Department of Public Works is requesting a Free Cash transfer in the amount of $865,000 to make each category whole and to avoid financing the deficit. This winter dealt us challenges that have not been seen in nearly 10 years. Total snowfall exceeded 60 inches, highlighted by two storms at the end of February and early March that dumped over 45 inches of snow and each lasted more than 36 hours. The DPW Team responded to nearly two dozen events. Contracted vendors were used for 6 storms. Snow removal operations were in effect on four separate occasions. Adding to our difficulties was a stretch of nearly two months when temperatures did not exceed 30 degrees. The strain of the winter weather operations coupled with the aging fleet requires additional costs to maintain our equipment. Please note that our 5-year average spent on Snow and Ice operations is $1,024,066. Unlike FY23, FY24, and FY25, this year was a far from mild winter. Fiscal controls including purchasing from State Contracts and competitive bidding for supplies and materials continue to positively impact the spending in this category. We continue to leverage these controls to minimize the effect from the Snow and Ice deficit on our operating budget. The Free Cash allocation will be distributed to offset deficits in Overtime, Contracted Services, and Supplies/Materials line items that include fuel, road salt, and repair parts. Thank you for your consideration and continued support. City Auditor CITY OF MELROSE AUDITOR’SCity Hall, OFFICE 562 Main Street Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone - (781) 979-4110 Fax - (781) 662-2182 Free Cash Orders for Fiscal Year 2026 “Free cash” is a term used to describe any remaining, unrestricted funds from the previous fiscal years. After it is “certified” by the state, free cash use requires a recommendation from the Mayor and an appropriation from the City Council. More information on free cash is available on the state’s website (https://www.mass.gov/info-details/free-cash). Council Order Item APPRO Balance of Free ID Amount Cash Dep/Fund Description Status Certified 5,558,450.00 2026-612 20,020.00 5,538,430.00 Dept - 162 Poll Pads and a label Printer Approved 2026-614 50,000.00 5,488,430.00 Fund - 2543 Melrose Cultural Council Approved 2026-615 25,000.00 5,463,430.00 Dept - 121 Chamber and City Event Support Approved 2026-1147 170,000.00 5,293,430.00 Dept - 423 Sidewalk Plow 2026-1148 880,000.00 4,413,430.00 Dept- 931 DPW Vehicles 2026-1149 865,000.00 3,548,430.00 Dept-931 DPW Snow and Ice Deficit 2026-1150 244,944.00 3,303,486.00 Fund - 1620 School Department 2026-1151 10,000.00 3,293,486.00 Dept- 422 Bike Racks *The first three appropriation requests listed were approved at the 4/6/26 City Council meeting. As requests are submitted by the administration and approved by the City Council, the table above will be updated accordingly and shared with subsequent orders. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS Administration–Engineering–Water–Sewer–Facilities Parks–Forestry–Highway–Sanitation–Cemetery–Fleet CITY OF MELROSE Elena Proakis Ellis, P.E., BCEE City Yard, 72 Tremont Street Director of Public Works Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone – (781) 665-0142 E-mail: eproakis@cityofmelrose.org MEMORANDUM To: Mayor Jennifer Grigoraitis Melrose City Council From: Elena Proakis Ellis, P.E., Director of Public Works cc: Kerriann Golden, CFO/Auditor Lauren Grymek, Chief of Staff James Troup, Deputy DPW Director – Administration & Finance Date: April 17, 2026 Re: Bike Racks – Free Cash Request The Department of Public Works requests $10,000 to purchase and install bike racks in various locations throughout the City. City staff had previously maintained a list of all current and desired bike rack locations. This list will be updated and desired locations will be documented to determine which are the highest priority. Locations that have been discussed include schools, parks, and business districts, many of which already have bike racks but could benefit from additional bike storage space due to existing demand. The proposed funding will be used for both the purchase and installation of these bike racks. This project is consistent with the City’s Complete Streets and Safe Routes to School programs, encouraging safe and convenient active transportation and reducing traffic congestion. The Department of Public Works hereby requests $10,000 of free cash for bike racks. The funds will be deposited into a dedicated account set up by the Auditor’s Office (014222-551075). Thank you for your consideration of this project. City Auditor CITY OF MELROSE AUDITOR’SCity Hall, OFFICE 562 Main Street Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone - (781) 979-4110 Fax - (781) 662-2182 Free Cash Orders for Fiscal Year 2026 “Free cash” is a term used to describe any remaining, unrestricted funds from the previous fiscal years. After it is “certified” by the state, free cash use requires a recommendation from the Mayor and an appropriation from the City Council. More information on free cash is available on the state’s website (https://www.mass.gov/info-details/free-cash). Council Order Item APPRO Balance of Free ID Amount Cash Dep/Fund Description Status Certified 5,558,450.00 2026-612 20,020.00 5,538,430.00 Dept - 162 Poll Pads and a label Printer Approved 2026-614 50,000.00 5,488,430.00 Fund - 2543 Melrose Cultural Council Approved 2026-615 25,000.00 5,463,430.00 Dept - 121 Chamber and City Event Support Approved 2026-1147 170,000.00 5,293,430.00 Dept - 423 Sidewalk Plow 2026-1148 880,000.00 4,413,430.00 Dept- 931 DPW Vehicles 2026-1149 865,000.00 3,548,430.00 Dept-931 DPW Snow and Ice Deficit 2026-1150 244,944.00 3,303,486.00 Fund - 1620 School Department 2026-1151 10,000.00 3,293,486.00 Dept- 422 Bike Racks *The first three appropriation requests listed were approved at the 4/6/26 City Council meeting. As requests are submitted by the administration and approved by the City Council, the table above will be updated accordingly and shared with subsequent orders. May 3, 2026 Re: Appropriations ID # 2026-1151 (Bike Racks) Dear Members of the Melrose City Council, We are writing to express support for the city’s requested appropriation of $10,000 from free cash in order to purchase bicycle parking racks for use throughout the city. Free cash requests should ideally not create unsustainable future capital burdens on the city, and bicycle racks ﬁt this mold: they are low-maintenance, long-lasting capital items which are critical for supporting the city’s short- and long-term transportation goals. Many of the city’s existing downtown racks date to 2012, and will still be operational for decades to come. If appropriate bike parking is not available at popular destinations, people will either switch to car trips (leading to more trafﬁc, more crashes, and more conﬂicts for vehicle parking), be discouraged from making local trips (hurting local businesses), or will choose to secure bikes inappropriately (potentially damaging other infrastructure). Ample bike parking is not only functional, it signals that the city takes seriously its Complete Streets and Net Zero goals. As development patterns in the city continue to evolve, we encourage the city to review locations where new mixed-use buildings may be planned or in progress, to ensure those neighborhoods have ample bike parking to support the city’s current and future businesses and residents. Back in 2024, we developed a set of Bicycle Parking Design Guidelines which could be shared with local developers, with the goal of ensuring bicycle parking in Melrose was designed with end users in mind. We were pleased to see that the city’s Planning Department was very receptive to our recommendations, which were ultimately adopted by the Planning Board. While those recommendations apply mostly to private developments, we urge DPW to review our recommendations to ensure that the racks which are purchased are functional, high-quality, and will withstand the test of time. Melrose Pedestrian & Bicyclist Advisory Committee 1 www.pedbikemelrose.org

Transcript

▶ 3:15 Devin Romanul: My name is Devin Romano. I am the chair. Also joining me this evening are Councilors Chen, Fornochiaro, Jamaleddin, Karemcheidi, Kowal, Obremski, Park, Williams, and President Freeman. This serves as a notice of quorum for the record. Thank you. In accordance with the open meeting law, this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMTV. I will now motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objection, we are now open for public comment. This is the portion of the evening where the public may speak on any item on tonight's agenda. Comments expressing other viewpoints on other matters are also welcome. Also joining us this evening is Vice Chair Vandiver.

▶ 3:56 Devin Romanul: If there are people in attendance, do we have any-- Oh, excuse me. Yes, we're already open for public comment. All right. My apologies. Lost my place in the agenda. If anybody is here for public comment, please feel free to. And if you wouldn't mind signing in, please state your name and address. Yes, Susan Kann. I'm chair of the Cemetery Commission, 123 East Foster Street. I did send all of you an email. I'm here tonight asking you to approve the DPW appropriation. I believe it's 880,000. I'm particularly fond of two trucks that are in that appropriation. The two trucks are a little different than the rest of the DPW trucks because we need a smaller truck, a lighter truck, so it can maneuver the

▶ 4:48 roadways and also in between the graves if they've got to be moving things so that they don't damage anything. The heavier trucks have a possibility to cave in graves, for lack of better reason. So, I would ask you to approve the entire amount. Thank you. Thank you so much for your comment. Appreciate it. Do we have others in attendance for public comment? Hello, all. Good evening. My favorite room. I'm Joe Pellerin. I live at 70 Howard Street. I'm here about the DPW also. I just have a few questions. All right. So, it's agreed that the trucks are in dismal shape. One of the questions I have is How do we go about buying the trucks? Are these put out to bid? We're not just going to a Chevy dealer and saying, "Hey, I need three dump trucks

▶ 6:14 with plows." Is there a format so that it's competitive and the city gets the bang for their buck? The next thing, I see a discrepancy, in my opinion, that there's a line item for a sidewalk plow. Everybody saw that, right? But buried in the 880,000 packet is another sidewalk plow. So how many sidewalk plows are we really buying? One or two? The next is the DPW isn't sure yet if they're going to buy electric vehicles for pickups or the regular heavy-duty gas engine. Once again, in my opinion, I think we should be going for the gas engine so that the truck is more versatile and can be used for plowing. We have a history of holding on to our trucks forever. So I say in five or six years, the electric trucks are going

▶ 7:18 Devin Romanul: to be sitting when we could be using them gas-powered to plow the cemetery, say. So that was it. And then I had one more thing, but I can't remember. I should have wrote it down. Well, that's it. If I think of it, I'll write you guys. I appreciate the time. You're welcome. Thank you very much, sir, for your public comment. And for any members of the public watching, you're more than welcome to contact us by email anytime. Are there any others here for public comment? Do we have anybody online? No one online. All right. If there's no objection, I'll motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Seeing none, we are now closed. At this time, I'll also motion by unanimous consent to approve without reading the minutes from our most recent meeting.

▶ 8:11 Devin Romanul: Seeing no objection, those minutes are now approved. All right, moving right along. First item on tonight's agenda is appropriation ID number 2026-1150, appropriation from free cash in the amount of $244,944 to the school department for Medicaid reimbursement received in FY25. Joining us this evening, Mr. Ken Kelly. Thank you so much for joining us. Sure. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time this evening. Deputy Superintendent of Finance, Ken Kelly here. You have in your packet our annual request for our Medicaid reimbursement through the city. And I'm here to answer any questions you may have respectfully as you consider this request. Any questions from my colleagues? President Freeman.

▶ 8:58 Mr. Kelly, thank you for being here. As a new counselor, could you just provide me with a little more information just about the process of the Medicaid reimbursement, what exactly that entails, and how the school goes about determining what it is? Sure. Yep. Sure, I can do that. So, I'll back up one step. We have several different revenue sources outside of the city appropriation where we receive revenue outside the city's appropriation, this being one of them. So, through the federal government and then at the state level as well, certain special education services, predominantly like OT, PT, physical therapy, things like that, that blend more with some medical services. Students with IEPs may receive these at the school site, and as

▶ 9:44 such, the school's allowed to apply for partial reimbursement for some of those costs to deliver those services at the school level. Just as in other parts of-- students may receive or under IDEA, people may receive these services in any number of ways, one of them being at the school level. So, we annually request the funds that are received to the city, then are appropriated over to the schools based on those services that were delivered at the school level. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Any other councilors with questions? What is the will of the committee? Make a motion to recommend. Second. Motion to recommend by Councilor Finocchiaro, seconded by Councilor Karim Shadi. On discussion.

▶ 10:31 Devin Romanul: Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Vice Chair Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karim Shadi? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Chair Romanul? Yes. All in favor, motion passes. The motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Thank you very much for your consideration tonight. We appreciate it. That will be brought before the next full council meeting with a recommendation for passage. Next up, ID number 2026-1147, appropriation from free cash in the amount of $170,000 to capital outlay to purchase a sidewalk plow. Joining us this evening,

▶ 11:15 Mr. Jim Troupe, Elena Proes-Ellis. Thank you both so much for joining us. Thank you. So this item is in addition to our request for the vehicle replacement. This was actually, if you looked at our vehicle capital plan, it was originally a year two proposed purchase. And we just decided to, since the funding appeared to be available in free cash this year and since we had issues during this past winter with sidewalk plows going down, we thought we would try to advance this a year sooner. So that's the reason why this one is both separate, because it wasn't in our original year one plan, and also why it's proposed for this year. And we are only proposing one sidewalk plow. Councilor Williams.

▶ 12:04 Thanks. Can you restate for us, because we did discuss this prior, you had an idea for the utility of the sidewalk plow. It's not going to be sort of the same thing that we have now. It's going to be a little different Yes. So our operations manager, Matt, has spec'd out what he thinks is the ideal vehicle for us, and it also includes the ability to add a boom flail attachment that allows us to use it year-round. The idea would be that we could use it for brush cutting and other things along the roadsides. Right now, we rent equipment every year to do brush cutting. Washington Street is one place that pops into my mind where it's needed every year. The brush starts to grow out into the street, and

▶ 12:44 Maya Jamaleddine: especially for cyclists, it becomes a hazard. So the intent would be to have utility of this vehicle year-round. Excellent. Thank you. Councilor Jamaleddine. Thank you. Thank you for the information that you've attached and you sent to us. But, do we have the capacity for someone to run this vehicle? Yes. We have four people who are assigned to our sidewalk plow routes in the winter, and so any of them would be able to drive this vehicle. And, do we have designated areas to be used, or is it- Yes ... citywide? So we have the four sidewalk plow routes. If you go on the city's website and you look for sidewalk plow routes, you can find that we have a central route and then three... Well, we have the downtown route, and then we have ones that are called

▶ 13:38 central, north, and south. We don't plan to make any major changes to our sidewalk plow routes. Mm-hmm. This equipment would just allow us to run all four routes at once. This winter, we had periods of time where we only had two pieces of equipment working, and we had four people who were assigned to driving the four routes, two of whom had no equipment to drive. So they had to wait till the other staff finished the other two routes. So we got really behind on some of our sidewalks this year, and we don't want that to happen. Okay. And just for the public, currently, how do we do it, since we don't have that truck? So in theory, we have four vehicles right now when they're all up and running. We have three Bombardier machines and then

▶ 14:24 Maya Jamaleddine: one little Ventrac machine. So normally, we would have all four machines running at the same time. This winter, we just had to stagger the operations with the equipment that we had running. There may have been one period of time when all four pieces of equipment were running, but for the majority of storms, we had either two or three of the pieces of equipment working. And, especially for free cash, which I totally understand how the process and the use of free cash, is this your top priority to use that amount of money, or do you have any other things laying that you think it would be more pressing to use it for that? So my top priority, especially of the items that we're talking about tonight for

▶ 15:15 Kimberly Vandiver: free cash, is the 880,000 for the other truck replacement. As I mentioned, this was originally designated as a year-two purchase. So I put those trucks as a much higher priority. But given the failures that we had this winter, this one does rise up to in the mix of our higher priorities. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Next up, Vice Chair Vandiver. Thank you. I appreciate your comments about also utilizing the sidewalk plow for cutting brush on Washington Street. Just want to mention that's also a sight line issue if you're turning onto Lynn Fells from Washington. When that brush at that intersection gets grown up, it gets pretty bad. So that'll be a huge help if we also get that functionality.

▶ 16:01 And, I'd like to make a motion to recommend. Second. Motion to recommend made by Vice Chair Vandiver, seconded by Councilor Williams. On discussion, first up, I have Councilor Park. Thank you. Thank you for joining us, Elena. Mike, I have two questions. One is, and you may be discussing this later tonight, how do you come about with the estimated cost of the actual vehicle? What sort of process do you go in terms of budgeting or estimating the cost? And the second part of my question is, what would be the cost savings with this type of vehicle now that it's modular? You had mentioned there's going to be some summer operations that we could have, that would help with the brush cutting of Washington Street. How much does

▶ 16:48 it typically cost to rent a machine to do this sort of service? So I'm going to look to Jim to see if he knows. Yeah, it's a great question, but it's a very complex answer. As it comes to budgeting and forecasting, how do we submit the price for these replacement vehicles? We're in constant contact with vendors who are on state contract, basically the police BAPER contract, so that it satisfies procurement. This is pricing that they will offer across the state. And then what we'll try to do is we will try to equip it with the proper things that would be applicable to the services that we're trying to deliver. So we're constantly trying to update that so that we can accurately request an appropriation so that we can

▶ 17:31 get the equipment that we need. In terms of any types of cost savings, what we want to do is we want to actually do this stuff in-house. We don't want to contract this out. So the savings that we're going to realize actually turns into a contracted price versus our in-house price. Our in-house labor is much cheaper than if we put it out for public bid. If we use our own equipment, we're saving the equipment cost that a contractor would go out. An exact analysis, I got to tell you, I haven't done it. I don't think we've done it. But there is a significant cost to do this in-house versus to put it out for contract and have a contracted vendor come in and perform the services. And I will add to that, when we've rented the equipment and used our own labor, I

▶ 18:14 Manjula Karamcheti: think we wereIf I had to guess, I would say a few thousand dollars each time we've rented the equipment, because we rent it for a week or two. We don't just do this work in a day. So if I had to guess, I'd say a few thousand dollars, but again, I don't know the exact number either. Okay. And this is perpetually every year that we rent out the equipment. Okay. Thank you. Councillor Karamcheti. Thank you. Just real quick, because I want to make sure that I understand the full context. So we had four sidewalk plows. Three are still operational- Yes ... and one is not, or two are only operational? So we'll go from two to three, but still be short. Three are operational now. Three are operational.

▶ 18:58 The fourth one is the oldest, and I was going to pull up the year. So the Bombardiers that we have, two of them are, I want to say 2016 and '17, and then the third one is a 2008 or something. It's a lot older. I can find that information if anyone wants it. But, that's the one we'd be replacing with the new one. So then we would have machines from 2016, '17, and '26, and then the smaller little track machine that we have would be the fourth one, which is fully operational and fairly new. Okay. And just more for curiosity, but also just in thinking about bigger picture of us having a long-term, having these available, do you anticipate the other three lasting? Our- Or have they already needed repairs, or where are we at with that?

▶ 19:48 Jason Chen: They have needed repairs, but our mechanic feels confident that he can continue to repair those. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Up next, Councillor Shen. Yep. So the director and I have been having an email conversation this past week on some different options, and when I first saw the cost of 170,000, it just struck me as pretty high because, for these types of vehicles, you've got a skid steer, which is like a Bobcat or pretty industrial, that can be used all year round. You have a sidewalk plow, which is essentially a thinner skid steer. And then you've got a new generation of mini skid steers, which are actually quite cheap, 10 to $15,000, which I think that's what

▶ 20:25 Jason Chen: the Ventrac is. So I'm wondering, first, what are some different options you considered? And second, could we consider used vehicles? So- Because I did go shopping online for some vehicles, and there's a great skid steer for $65,000 with only 150 hours on it. 65,000? Yeah. Yeah, 65,000. So we did purchase a Bobcat for school sidewalk plowing, and it was about in that range, 65,000. We got a grant for it probably three years ago. So that is an option, but we have Bobcats, so our operations manager prefers this trackless machine that he says is the right equipment to put the boom flail on. I'm repeating a lot of things that have been said to me, so I can't say that this is my area of direct expertise, but

▶ 21:17 he said that is the equipment to put this attachment on to be able to do the brush cutting that we currently contract out or rent the equipment for. So I don't know that that same equipment can go on a skid steer. Perhaps it can, and I will certainly pass along that question. With regard to purchasing used vehicles, so the big challenge that we have is, I know you had mentioned some vendors who work with municipalities who do everything through state auctions and whatnot. That is a possible avenue for used equipment. But in general, we're purchasing off of the state, the ComBuy state bid lists, with the state bid vendors. It's been our most straightforward and reliable way to procure vehicles because we can't make a

▶ 22:07 $65,000 purchase without going out to bid. And part of the problem I see with... or buying through state vendors. Part of the problem I see with the used vehicles is I'm just not sure what the process would be. If we were to go out to bid, we would need to solicit competitive bids, and I'm just not sure that used vehicle vendors bid on city procurement. I just don't know if that's something that happens. Perhaps with these third-party folks, it's something we can look into, and we certainly will look into it. I don't want to sound dismissive of it. We will look into it, but I'm not sure that that's the avenue we'll end up taking if ComBuys ends up being the best way to go. Okay. Could I add something?

▶ 22:51 We have done that. Hmm. We have looked at used vehicles. We have looked at things that are available in other communities. We have two pieces of equipment in our fleet right now that other communities had used, had no longer any use for, and then we were fortunately in the right spot at the right time with the right amount of money. So if those opportunities come up, I have to have the cash available to pull the trigger. Otherwise, those opportunities are first come, first served. But I love your idea, and it's one that we're always looking to see what do we have for discretionary funds available. Few and far between, but when those opportunities come up, if we're ready to pounce, we're trying to pounce.

▶ 23:34 Like Alana said, though, if we're going to try to look for used vehicles in this process, it creates a little bit of a different challenge because we have an advantage that we know how those equipments have been used. Mm-hmm. So we might not want that eight-year-old piece of equipment that has those hours. We know the tax that the work has been done on it. But I love your idea, and it is something that we have pursued in the past and been successful doing. And I think with those, they have been under the procurement thresholds. Correct. Correct. So we were- Under 50,000. Yes. And it goes through a process, obviously, for transparency. When another community gets involved, it has to go through their disposal process

▶ 24:07 Jason Chen: as well as our acceptance process. So we have to follow that as well. For sure. Thank you. Yeah. I did speak to one of these auctions, the one that I met at the 351 conference, and they exist partly for being able just to distribute government surplus vehicles, but also to help with these private used sales. So I don't know the full mechanism of it, but it is exactly there to help us- Correct ... comply with 30B laws for purchases. Correct. I agree 100%. Time is of the essence with those purchases. Yes. And I have no issue appropriating the money. I like that we have the option, if we don't need a snow plower until next season, so we have some time- A little time ... to find a good deal, and they do come up.

▶ 24:49 Cal Finocchiaro: Yep. So. All right. Up next, Councilor Finocchiaro. Thank you. I didn't know I was up next. Thank you for being here. As I was sitting here, I was trying to rack my brain on the last time we appropriated money for a DPW over the last couple of years that I was doing this. And I feel like it was a really bad rusted pickup truck. Yes. And I personally feel like the DPW has so many jobs within the city. You take care of so many things, and this is exactly what free cash I feel like needs to be used on, and I really feel like I appreciate Councilor Chen review and research on used equipment if that works. At the same time, I feel like the newer stuff will last longer, potentially. I don't know, so maybe you won't be coming back for a while

▶ 25:48 Devin Romanul: anyways. But, so I'm supportive of this and just want to make a motion to recommend. We actually have a- Oh, second. We have a motion on the floor. You can vote yes. Go for it. It was a little while ago, but we do have a motion on the floor. I was trying to get through all the comments. I believe last on our- That was a big one ... lineup, in case anyone else has, Councilor Williams. Me twice. Thank you. Okay. A couple of really quick things because I realize we have some new folks in the room. If you don't know it, the sidewalk plow route is on the website. The easiest way is honestly to just Google Melrose sidewalk plow route, and you'll see all the different PDFs. It's really fascinating.

▶ 26:21 Ryan Williams: And even though I know you're not making any major changes, it's always the thing that people are like, "Hey, what about this? What about that?" So, if you hear a lot of concerns about the sidewalk plow route and the areas you see are missing, it's a great conversation to have with Public Works. The second piece I wanted to add is to check my understanding of the appropriations process with the people who receive and fund the money, spend the money. So the way this works is you guys go in, you look up what things might cost, and then you ask for the money to put in an account. Yes. Then you do the bid. Then you get the price. Sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less. If it's more, you come back, and you ask for more. If it's less, what happens then?

▶ 27:03 So on something like this where we're specifying it's for snow equipment, I suppose if we were to be able to buy two pieces of equipment, if we're going for things that are more in the price range that Councilor Chen is talking about, I would figure that was within the same intent of this order. But where this is on its own, if we weren't to spend it on sidewalk plowing equipment, the remainder would go back into free cash. Yes. Thank you. So for instance, today we just closed out a project that we had requested free cash for last year. We had a $6,000 balance. We emailed Carrie and said, "Close that PO, liquidate it, put the money back." So- Yeah ... that's what we do. Thank you. And I asked you that on purpose because I wanted to make a point

▶ 27:52 Ryan Williams: to folks that the money that we send, we're kind of blind at this stage. We have a good idea of what something might cost, and we tend to overshoot a little bit, and then sometimes it does cost that much, and sometimes it doesn't. But the money usually either ends up back in free cash to be put to a good purpose, or it winds up getting more of what we intended, which is to fund snow and ice removal on sidewalks for the same price or better price. So that was all I wanted to throw out there- Mm-hmm ... with respect to everyone, and thank you for giving me a minute to do it. Of course. Always. Of course. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Vice Chair Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Chen? Yes.

▶ 28:30 Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Obremski? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Chair Romanul? Yes. Motion passes. All right. That motion passes and will be reported out in the next full council meeting. Up next, ID number 2026-1148, appropriation from free cash in the amount of $880,000 to capital outlay to purchase DPW vehicles. Thank you. So this is our year-one request of our three-year plan that we submitted. We submitted this both as part of the capital improvement plan process and also as an attachment for tonight's hearing. As Councilor Finocchiaro mentioned, it's been a while since we've been

▶ 29:20 before the council requesting vehicle authorizations. I think in the last several years, the only times that we've successfully gotten vehicles were the critical failure that we had that she was referring to with a pickup truck that we had to replace and the electric trash truck. Those are the two most recent purchases that we've made. And each year when free cash has come up, when we were in a very tough fiscal environment, we did request 500,000 per year in vehicles, and that request never made it to the floor of a city council meeting because there were so many other competing requests and so many needs in the city. So we've gotten a little bit behind now. I will mention we had a consultant.

▶ 30:08 We had a grant a couple of years ago for a consultant to do an analysis of our fleet program, and they recommended that we should be spending approximately 1.1 million per year if we want to keep up on industry standard replacement schedules for all of our DPW equipment. That said, we are alsoI guess, a very frugal bunch, and we like to run our equipment as long as we possibly can. A lot of communities have shiny new equipment every 8 to 10 years. That hasn't been our MO in the past. We really try to keep everything running as long as humanly possible. But we are now at the point where we have trucks with literal rot all the way through the floor of the trucks to the ground. They're barely passing inspection.

▶ 30:54 We're welding plates onto the floor of trucks to try to get them to pass inspection that one more year. I think I mentioned we had, I believe it was 19 pieces of equipment down during one of our storms. I think we started the storm with 12 or 13 down, and by the end of the storm we had 19 down. It reached the point where we actually had four or five employees who had no vehicles to drive for the remainder of the storm, and I sent them out with shovels into the yard and said, "Just start shoveling things," because we needed everybody to be present working, and they had no vehicles to drive. So, this is sorely needed. Our proposal is to buy-- We have a heavy dump truck that is already out of service, not working.

▶ 31:42 Our proposal is to buy a new hooklift truck for the department, which is something we don't have right now. It can perform the same work of salting during the winter and have a dump body for the summer, but it also can accommodate a catch basin cleaning assembly. Right now, we spend about $35,000 to $40,000 a year on outsourcing catch basin cleaning. So, we'd like to eventually bring that in-house. The proposed 880,000 does not include the price of that attachment, but if we can fit it in this year, we absolutely would. If not, it's on next year's proposed purchases. But the truck itself, it's basically a truck that has a hook that it can pull different bodies onto the back. And then the other big thing that we were going to buy for this truck at this time

▶ 32:30 would be a brine tank, so we can start using liquid brine for some of our treatment in the winter, which is both more environmentally friendly, and it goes a longer way because it doesn't bounce when it hits the road. And you can pre-treat up to even a day before, and as long as it doesn't rain, the liquid brine actually does a better job of melting the snow when it hits the surface. So, that's our plan for that vehicle. Then we have five dump trucks that we're proposing to replace with four dump trucks and two pickups. Give us a little bit more utility. The pickups would have extended cabs, which help with driving around our summer helpers, who are hugely helpful, but they oftentimes aren't driving to where they need to go, so we

▶ 33:12 need trucks that have enough room to load up five kids and drive them from place to place. So, that comprises the entire 880,000. And then following up on some questions that Councilor Chen had asked, I do want to mention that the 110,000 per pickup truck includes the plow assembly, a stainless steel bed, or the utility boxes that are needed for the back. It includes the hookup of the radios, the addition of the safety lights, the strobes, and the equipment inside to turn those on and off, and the lettering on the sides of the trucks. So, the 110,000 is not the outright price for just the truck. So, I think it probably sounded exceedingly high, but when you account for the plows and all the other accoutrements

▶ 34:01 Devin Romanul: that we need for the trucks, the truck price itself was quite a bit less. Thank you so much. I'll just note, I concur with your statement about using the vehicles to the end of their useful life. I recall a free cash request we had two years ago where you only requested it when a vehicle basically folded in half when you put it on the lift. At which point- Yes ... it looked like a wet sponge that just sagged. Just gave up. Anyway, up first I have President Freeman. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Perecas-Jiles for being here. I think I shared with you when you came before us a few months ago how helpful I found the memo. And to echo Councilor Finocchiaro, how important the work DPW does, and it's

▶ 34:39 Bradley Freeman: important that we do maintain this fleet so we can get all the trucks on the road. My one question I had, and I was looking ahead to the snow and ice memo you prepared as well, and you noted that there was six storms where private contractors needed to be used. If we had had an entire working fleet, would that enable the city to rely less on private contractors for some of these storms, and end of day, save costs on that end if all the trucks are up and running? So, when we have what we call an all-in event, like the blizzard or the larger storms, we would still need to use all of those contractors. Mm-hmm. But at the tail end of the storms, we could use them less if we had more in-house equipment, and I'll let Jim talk a

▶ 35:19 little more about that. Yeah, that's one of the big challenges that we have is trying to identify contractors. We could probably use more contractors. The number that we use is just so that we can basically put them out through every ward, through every street in the city. I can remember one phone call, somebody asked, "Can you come down my street more often?" And I felt like saying, "Well, what street do you want me to not go down more often to get down there?" That's the situation that we're in, and that's why we rely on those contractors so that we can get more frequent passes through all of the wards, through all of the streets in the city. So, there'll always be a viable alternative to use.

▶ 35:56 Mm-hmm. And we don't necessarily use the number of contractors, but we would use the number of inches that would be in a particular storm. So, it really comes down to how frequent and how efficient we can get through the entire city, more than the number of contractors that we have. Okay. But having vehicles that were in working order would enable the DPW to do more and put those employees who are, instead of shoveling- Correct ... out on the streets. Yeah. It just makes it that much easier, especially when you have a 24-inch storm like we had two at the end of February. We're coming down streets a little bit more frequently just because of the sheer number of the equipment out and being used in the road.

▶ 36:30 Manjula Karamcheti: Wonderful. Thank you very much. Up next, I have Councillor Keram Chetty. Oh, I didn't know it was going to be my turn already. I thought I was third. Thank you so much for this information, and I also appreciate the memo. And having been on council for six years, you very rarely are here to replace vehicles because you wait till they're rusted. And every time I read one of your reports, I'm slightly horrified by the condition that we use our vehicles too. And so, I'm definitely in support of this. I think my question is, after this free cash request, are there more things that we need to have a full fleet? What else is missing? What else needs to be replaced? And/or are there just gaps? And I ask that question because

▶ 37:24 Manjula Karamcheti: my next door neighbor... I'm not an expert in the things regarding DPW and public works, so I often consult with my next door neighbor who has a lot of experience. He's doing some consulting for the city of Woburn and has been coming home to the neighborhood pretty much every day talking about how wonderful that fleet is. And they have the regular stuff that they use, as well as specialized equipment for various scenarios. And so, I'm just curious. Obviously, Melrose and Woburn are very different cities, but are there things that would still be missing or need to be replaced? Yeah. So, we do have the year two and year three requests in the memo that we're totaling 780,000 for year two and 795,000

▶ 38:09 for year three. Granted, the year two would go down to about 600,000 if we buy the sidewalk plow this year, so that would be reduced a little. In terms of specialized equipment, the things like this catch basin clamshell equipment, that's something that some towns have and some towns don't that we would really benefit from having. We do have a fairly new street sweeper, so that's great. You will see me back here requesting a down payment on the sewer Vactor truck, another very important piece of specialized equipment that's nearing the end of its useful life. I feel like we just bought it, but we bought it when I first started, and it's been 10 years. So, those are some pieces of equipment that are critical and are more

▶ 38:56 Manjula Karamcheti: specialized. And then there are things that we do contract out, like for street sweeping, we do a combination of in-house and contracted because we don't have the fleet to do the fall sweeping when it's real heavy with the leaves. So yeah, we are a smaller city. We probably don't necessarily need all the things that Woburn has, but the thing is when you need something, you need to have one of it, the street sweeper, the Vactruck. You have to have at least one. Thank you. And just two last comments, and it's kind of a moment of privilege, but I'm going to take it now. Just wanted to say thank you for the City Yard sticker process. My husband raves about very little and was raving about how simple that

▶ 39:43 Ryan Williams: process was. So, really appreciate that, and also the work you continue to do with the youth, and having those internships available. So, just really appreciate those two things. So, thank you. Great. All right. Terrific. Up next, Council Williams. Thank you. When we installed the salt shed, which the veterans on the council will shudder at- ... because that was the hot thing, we put a brine system in, correct? Correct. And it's operating. It is- I mean, it's functional ... it is able to operate. Yeah, it is able to operate, right. Yes. And we talked about this, but this is a question I have. We never went ahead with a brine body- Correct ... for a truck. Correct. This is the one we've been talking about since then.

▶ 40:24 Ryan Williams: Yeah, for like six years, right. Yeah. Okay, cool. The request that I've put in annually to fund vehicles that doesn't make it this far- Right ... has included that truck every year. Yes. Yeah. So, I wanted to connect those two dots because this is something that we splurged on way back when to create a brine tank that we could use to save money on salt and be more environmentally friendly and et cetera. But we've never had the money to then operationalize it, and now we do. So, I think that's absolutely fantastic, and I'm glad that we're doing it now. And I do want to add that we also were gifted from another community, a small brine tank that can go in the back of a dump truck. Mm-hmm. Okay.

▶ 41:02 Ryan Williams: So, we will have two. If this goes through, hopefully by next winter, provided lead times don't prevent us, we will have two trucks able to operate with brine. Yeah, and I did actually get to witness the clam grabber doing the catch basins. With the contractor? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. Yep. So, I want to shift over to the second part of the appropriation. We've all talked over here a little bit about, or some folks have talked about electric vehicles. Do you have a preference at this moment for the smaller trucks for the cemetery? Are these trucks going to stay on the cemetery and be exclusive to cemetery use, or will they be distributed to other parts of the city for other needs?

▶ 41:44 Where's your head at on that? So, the cemetery trucks do plow as well. Okay. They plow at the cemetery- Okay ... but then they can also be used to plow beyond the cemetery. I see. So, the cemetery trucks, we can't do electric for those. It's the two pickups that I'm thinking we can maybe do one. We need a plow on at least one of them, but I'm thinking that we might be able to switch around. We currently have an administration vehicle- Mm. Mm ... that is a Ford F-150- Mm ... that could have a plow. So, if we were to get, say, a Ford Lightning or the Chevy equivalent for the other pickup truck, that truck could be used by the- I see ... administrative personnel, and then the current truck, the F-150, could be used with a plow in

▶ 42:30 Kimberly Vandiver: operations. Okay, appreciate that. Thank you. Okay. Up next, Vice Chair Vandiver. Thank you. Thank you for putting all this detail together, and I'm excited that we're finally in a place where your request for capital can get to this point. It's a lot of vehicles, and I was wondering about the additional support work that would need to be done as far as identifying the vehicles, purchasing them, figuring out the maintenance schedule, actually performing the maintenance schedule, onboarding people, teaching people to drive them or operate them if they're different than the other equipment that we've had before, and all of that kind of overhead. Is that something that can be handled with the existing

▶ 43:14 personnel? Is that something that will get backed up, and things will have to go sequentially? How will that all work? I feel confident that the existing personnel are qualified and able to drive any of these vehicles. The heavy dump truck, I think, would be a CDL vehicle, so it would be limited to only our commercial driver's license employees. But all the other trucks, any employees could drive them. But I feel confident that these trucks will be lower maintenance and easier to drive, and will have all the bells and whistles of backup cameras and flashing lights when someone's approaching from the sides and all the newer safety technology that the old trucks definitely don't have. So, I think on the whole, it will actually be less work to

▶ 43:59 Kimberly Vandiver: drive these and maintain them. Great. And the other trucks that they're replacing would be retired, so as far as space, you wouldn't need additional space for storage? I feel strongly that when a new vehicle comes in, one goes out. Okay. Because I think there's a temptation to keep old things around, and it's really never favorable, and they just take up space. So, my intention is that we would be- We might be in front of you for a surplus declaration. Exactly. Yeah. We're not keeping any of these old vehicles. Okay. Great. And I appreciate your comments about electric vehicles as well, and working those in where we can and where it makes sense, and as we also think about needing to use them for plowing and everything like that. So, thank you.

▶ 44:44 Jason Chen: Terrific. And last on my list is Councilor Chen. It sounds like this $880,000 of vehicles is for everyday use, all season round- Correct ... general purpose vehicles, and there is some pooling that you can share and back different departments up. For the more specialized vehicles that are maybe the vac truck that you mentioned, can we enter a sharing agreement with other municipalities if they only use it 10% of the time, we use it 10% of the time? So, the vac truck is one that when you need it, you usually need it immediately. So, I wouldn't say that's a good candidate for a shared agreement because it's mostly addressing sewer backups or drainage backups, and it's usually emergency situations.

▶ 45:26 We use it also for day to day. But when you need it in an emergency, you need to have it. There are some other trucks that communities do have mutual aid agreements on. Things like some communities have camera trucks for doing the CCTV inspections of the sewers. We don't have one of those, but that's the kind of thing that if we could partner with five other communities and have one, that's one that you-- It's scheduled use. And actually, the catch basin cleaning assembly, you could say that that could be something that different communities could potentially use. But, other than the catch basin cleaning assembly, everything else is pretty much... Well, and that's just one assembly on a truck that we'd be using for all sorts of

▶ 46:15 other things. So, I think these would be used pretty much every day. Did that answer everything? Yes. But it's also, do we have sharing agreements with other towns for any vehicles? We don't, and that is something that I'd really like to look into. I know when the whole trash strike happened, communities were looking to have mutual aid arrangements, and we were in a position where we were unable to lend our truck to another community because, I don't know, we couldn't come to whatever legal agreement we needed to accomplish that. I think it would be fantastic to proactively establish some agreements with other communities so that if our truck, let's say our sewer vac truck goes down and we have a major sewer backup,

▶ 47:06 it would be nice if we didn't have to call a vendor if we have people who could drive Malden's truck, or if Malden could bring their truck with their personnel. I think it's a great thing to have that, we just don't have it right now. Up next, Councilor Karamcheti. I would like to make a motion to recommend. Second. Motion to recommend made by Councilor Karamcheti, seconded by Councilor Finocchiaro. On discussion? Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Vice Chair Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Abrumsky? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman?

▶ 47:47 Devin Romanul: Yes. Chair Romanul? Yes. The motion passes. The motion passes. This order will be brought before the next full council meeting. Up next, and I do want to be cognizant of time. I think we've got a little buffer. Do we want to-- Point of order. Do we want to just break for full council at this time? Go ahead, because it's 7:46. It's a little past time. Yeah. Sure. All right. We unfortunately have having such a engaging discussion. For folks in the general public, we have to start our meeting vaguely on time. So we're going to gavel in, gavel out. Don't turn off your televisions, folks. We'll be right back. I'll now a motion by unanimous consent for a brief recess to gavel in the city council. Seeing no objection, we are in recess.

▶ 50:41 hearing. Up next, we are tackling ID number 2026-1149, appropriation from free cash in the amount of $865,000 to DPW Snow to close the snow and ice deficit for FY26. Good. Thank you. Thank you very much for hearing this. This is an annual, pretty much a housekeeping request to offset the deficit spending incurred during the snow and ice season. This year, our deficit spending is $865,000. It's a little bit higher than the last three years. As a best practice, we present the five-year average for snow and ice this year. It climbed to $1.024 million per year to fight snow and ice. This was a challenging winter, especially towards the end of February and beginning of March, with two 20-inch snowstorms.

▶ 51:39 We saw more snowfall this year than we have since approximately 2015. Working with the auditor, and the mayor and their administrations and their staff, we are confident that the city's free cash can handle this deficit without compromising anything else that's being requested in front of you and for consideration, not only for the DPW, but for other departments as well. The city auditor, in the past and in my history, has had a placeholder. We've stayed below that placeholder, and it affords the city the luxury to offset this deficit each year, rather than financing the deficit over the course of three years. So, we appreciate your consideration and will welcome any questions. Thank you so much, and also I want to commend the DPW for the outstanding job that

▶ 52:30 Devin Romanul: was done on this plowing- Thank you ... this winter. That was a indefatigable effort on your staff's part, and my busted arm is a testament to how difficult the snow was this year. Up first, I believe I have Councilor Finocchiaro. Thank you. Again, housekeeping item. Something that happens every year. And it's explainable why it's up at 865,000, because we actually had a big storm season. So I'm just going to make a motion to recommend. I'll second. Motion to recommend by Councilor Finocchiaro, seconded by Councilor Khem Chetty. On discussion, I have Councilor Williams. Thank you. So I wanted to ask a little bit about the differences in cost between the different operations, just roughly, because I know that

▶ 53:19 Ryan Williams: we trucked a lot of snow out this year, right? That's true. And I know a lot of communities trucked a lot of snow out, and it was one of the reasons we all were so thrilled with the snow situation in Melrose is because the snow was trucked out, right? And it wasn't just piled up in a corner somewhere to be here until July. So, do you have a sense for above the regular sort of contract or plowing day of operations, how much that snow removal cost? Forgive me. Are you asking about during the snowstorm and then at the end when we're removing the snow from downtown, the difference in cost? Yeah. So, for the most part, our labor cost is going to stay the same, right? Right. Because it's our staff. When we're paying a plow to come in and do it, it's

▶ 54:03 roughly, let's call it about 165, $170 an hour. When we're coming in for snow removal, those trucks exceed $250 per hour. So, the couple of snow removal efforts that we undertook towards the end of February and stuff would cost nearly 40, $50,000 just for that operation alone. So- When you say that operation, like that day's operation? That day's operation. Yeah. Correct. Yes. Yeah. It's overnight, and we usually need-- So, just logistically, all of our trucks have salters in the back. So we don't have dump trucks to haul the snow up to 99. That's where it ends up going.So we have to hire those tri-axles to come in and haul the snow from the contractors, and that's the $250 an hour. And then on top of that, we're paying our own crews to load

▶ 54:54 the snow. Right. So it's a substantial operation. Yeah. And the trucks that we approved a while ago would not really touch that because they're not tri-axle. The ones that we talked about, the big dumps. That we just approved? Yeah. Yeah. So those would all end up with salters in the back. Right. So it's not that they couldn't accommodate some snow, but if it's winter, they will have salters, and so they're not available for snow. Got it. Okay. But yeah, and they're also not of that same size. The only one that's that same size is the hook lift truck, which we would get a dump body for it. Yeah. But, I suppose that would potentially, since it's so easy to take the brine tank off and put the dump body

▶ 55:37 Ryan Williams: on, maybe we can use that for some removal. Probably wouldn't even hold a third of the snow that a big 100-foot truck would hold. And you'd have to make three times as many trips, which would probably- Right ... cost more. So for comparative speaking, the 24-hour storm that we had at the end of February was $140,000. Right. The nine hours that it took for the removal was only four contractors. It worked out to be about $34,000. So- Yeah ... you can see that there's significant increases. Yeah. And I'm supportive of the request. I was thinking about the cost of it, especially as we consider climate field storms, and so we can be thinking about if there's a big storm, what's that going to look like down the end of the

▶ 56:19 Ryan Williams: line if we have a year that's tight on free cash, which we have had in the past. Because I've looked back at the budgets and some of the free cash requests for snow and ice were under $100,000 in a very warm year. Mm-hmm. Some of them were $200,000. I've never seen $900,000. Mm-hmm. But it was an unprecedented storm, so you guys did a great job, and I'm happy to vote yes on it. Thank you for the information. Up next, I have Councilor Porco. Thank you. I echo Chair Romanul voice on the tremendous job you did with the snow removal. My question is, and this might be a question with a simple no, but given the extreme variance in weather, if you knew that we were going to have, let's say, a very similar winter in the upcoming season,

▶ 57:15 is there anything you could have done that would lower the costs than what you had this past season? So in other words, snow removal. Is there something where we could have a fixed cost associated with the removal of the snow as opposed to paying it on an hourly basis or something like that? I'm just trying to think ahead. Are there any lessons that we learned that we could apply to in such cases where we have big storms like this or seasons like that, that we could apply in the future years? The short answer is no, there really isn't, because most of this stuff is based on an hourly performance. You have no idea how long a storm is going to last. You have that hourly labor that's going to take

▶ 57:58 place during the storm. And then afterwards, it really comes down to a decision. Do we want to remove the snow from downtown? Do we want to remove it from these areas? And there's a cost that ends up being associated with that. To plan for it, we're getting vendors, and we publish the rates for them, so they're bidding on coming in and doing the removal process. So it really comes down to a decision, do we want to incur the cost for removing the snow? If the answer's yes, we're paying X dollars an hour. If the answer's no, then our downtown is going to sit with snow. It's sitting there. So it comes down to really a decision as to what we want to do. It's all a labor, it's a per hour cost to have that stuff get done.

▶ 58:42 And there certainly are savings to be had if we were to opt to not perform those services. If we scaled back on our sidewalk plowing, or we scaled back on our downtown snow removal. If we were willing to have a giant mound of snow in the back, in the Dill's Court parking lot behind Shaw's and CVS for half of the winter, yes, we could absolutely reduce costs. But I think there's a certain level of community expectation that you're going to be able to find a parking space, that the mound isn't going to sit in the lot for months. And so I think it's always a balancing act, figuring out how much should you be doing versus how much should you be trying to save money. I think the work that we do during the storms is all a must-do.

▶ 59:30 That's the immediate safety requirements, and there's really no scaling back on that. It's a lot of the cleanup efforts afterwards. And to Council Freeman's point earlier, the new trucks will help us save some money on some of the outsourced labor, because if we have no salters left and we're trying to salt the whole city, then the contractors have to stay on longer. If we have all the trucks we need, then we can send the contractors home at a certain hour and finish up the storm with our own staff. Okay. Thank you. Up next, I have Vice Chair Vandiver. Thank you. My question is about, you might have more information about this because I saw it go by about a month ago. But I believe that Massachusetts

▶ 1:00:16 passed a bill that included some support for communities with snow and ice removal deficits. Is that something you're familiar with? So during declared states of emergency, we do have the opportunity to recoup some costs from the state or from the federal government. So when those requests come in, we do submit those, and then we have the option of financing the overages if it's more than, Jim alluded to this before. If it's more than we can handle in one year's free cash, we can finance over three years.Which we haven't had to do. But I'm not aware of anything new. We actually did take advantage of a program, it was called WRAP, Wentworth Road Assistance Program, that the state did appropriate.

▶ 1:00:59 Kimberly Vandiver: I'm sure I'm going to get it wrong, but I thought it was about $140,000 that we were able to... It might even have been $240,000, but it was so long ago. It was a previous administration that authorized it. We did take advantage of that and applied for it. Melrose had a specific allocation, and then we brought it in to take care of some of the damage that occurred to the roads over the course of winter. But yeah, we usually are made aware of programs like that and then try to take advantage of them. We did once since Elena and I have been here. Okay, great. Yeah, and I'm not sure of the status of-- I'm looking at an article from a month ago that's talking about some money to address snow and ice removal deficits, but I'm not sure if that got completely through or

▶ 1:01:43 what the status is. So I can email you afterwards to make sure that- Yeah. In case it's anything to be aware of. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Terrific. What is the will of the committee? Oh. I thought we had a... Yeah, she- Oh, yes. Oh, I'm so sorry. We had several questions. My apologies. All right. Well, absent any other commentary, I believe that was everyone we had in line. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Sure. Vice Chair Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Chair Romanul? Yes. Motion passes.

▶ 1:02:25 Motion passes, and will be brought to our next full council meeting with a recommendation for passage. And last but not least, ID number 2026-1151, appropriation from free cash in the amount of $10,000 to DBW Highway to purchase bike racks. Thank you. So this was at the request of the mayor's office. The administration was very interested in ensuring that we had sufficient bike racks at places like schools, parks, downtown business districts. So it is not a specific request for specific locations. It's just allowing us to reinvigorate a list that we used to have. Kara Showers used to maintain a list when she was our Mass in Motion coordinator. And so we have an old spreadsheet from probably five or six years ago that were the locations where

▶ 1:03:16 bike racks had been put in, and then the wish list. So we're just recreating the wish list and adding to it as people see fit. I already have gotten one new request since somebody saw the order advertised for one of the business districts for a new bike rack. So we're open to where these go. If there's specific locations in your wards or around the city that you think should be prioritized, please let us know, and we will use it to install as many bike racks as we can till we run out of the $10,000. I love that. Thank you very much. Up first, I have Councilor Williams. Thank you. Sorry. Is this just for the purchase of the actual racks themselves, or are you going to include construction costs, cement pads, things like that?

▶ 1:04:07 Ryan Williams: So I'm envisioning that we would include the cement pads. I know right now, for instance, the Horace Mann School, the PTO raised money to buy a bike rack. Yeah. But they didn't have the money to pour the concrete pad that was required. They were requesting maybe we could move the bike rack to a different location where it would be on the pavement, and maybe they could anchor into there. Yeah. My thought is we will pay for the concrete pad, which I think we estimated was like $900. Yeah, fantastic. We'll just pay for that with this. Fantastic. And for sake of saying it, are we going to follow the Melrose bike parking guidelines in terms of the style of bicycle parking that we're purchasing? We try to do that, yes.

▶ 1:04:42 Ryan Williams: Yeah. I would say we should definitely do it, should do more than try. Well, I think some of the locations, like the one that was recently requested, was just for one of the little lollipop racks. You mean the-- Yeah. Well, that's in the bike parking recommendations. Oh, it is. Okay, because I was going to say, I'm not sure if that one's in the bike parking. But if it is, then great. There's two. There's the lollipop horse hitch rack, and then there's the U. Not the wavy. Oh. The wavy's not in it. Right, you don't like the wave anymore. You like the- Right. It's the one that's like this. Okay. Anyway, it's in the bike parking recommendations. We will mostly follow that, but I do know that we had different guidance from

▶ 1:05:13 Kimberly Vandiver: the-- I don't remember if it was Walk Boston or one of the groups that did an earlier assessment had slightly different conclusions. So we will just try to make sure that we're keeping everybody happy. Thank you. Thank you so much. Up next, Vice Chair Vandiver. Thank you. I appreciate my colleague's comments about the style of bike racks and also wanted to make sure that we're following those guidelines, which I assume are based on how can you park your bike compactly and how to make sure that it's secure and not easy for somebody to grab the bike anyways. And I'm not sure whether those recommendations also include-- There's been some evolution in how people use bikes. We have more of the longer cargo bikes around now.

▶ 1:06:02 Kimberly Vandiver: We have scooters. And just wanting to make sure that as we're doing this, that we're thinking about what do we need to accommodate in these racks, and getting the most for our spending, since it's great that we're investing in this type of infrastructure to support people biking around, and just want to make sure that we're thoughtful about all those details. Yeah. We welcome input on that as well. I know you have a larger bike. If there are certain considerations that you think we should be making while we're purchasing them, send it along. Thanks. Terrific. Up next, I have Councilor Park. Thank you. Quick question. So how did we come up with a number of 10,000, and approximately how many bike

▶ 1:06:42 racks will that actually get us? So it all depends on the style of bike racks and how many-- If they're the... that kind, how many loops they have. I would say the bike racks we've purchased in the time I've been here range from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars, depending on what style they are. I would say we'll try to stretch the money as far as we can. So if there are a lot of locations for the less expensive ones, we'll try to get a bunch of those in. But it really all depends on where we decide are the higher priority locations and what type of racks are suitable for those locations. Like the schools need multi racks. Okay. So it's fair to say maybe five, approximately

▶ 1:07:31 Ryan Williams: five? I would say more than that. Okay. Maybe eight to 10. Okay. Great. I just didn't know if it was just one luxury bike rack. Yeah, no. No. And the $10,000 number was just the number that the administration wanted us to spend on it. So it's not married to a specific number of bike racks or type of bike racks. Thank you. I'm sure there's some sort of bejeweled bike rack- ... emporium somewhere. Up next, I have Councilor Williams. I just wanted to say thank you. And I'm sorry if I came off as a little harsh in my last comment, because I'm excited. And so thank you very much, and thank you to the mayor, because this is something that people, especially people who like to bike and go downtown and shop downtown, and people with cargo bikes who can actually shop

▶ 1:08:18 Ryan Williams: downtown like they're driving a minivan, have been asking for for a very long time. And having it just sort of pop up like this is very nice. So I appreciate the thought and the effort put into figuring out where they need to go and how you can work with the PTOs and all this stuff. I think it's great. So thank you. Yeah. You're welcome. What is the will of the committee? I'd like to make a motion to recommend. Second. Motion recommended by Councilor Williams, seconded by Vice Chair Vandiver. On discussion. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Vice Chair Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal?

▶ 1:08:56 Devin Romanul: Yes. Councilor Obremski? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Chair Romanul? Yes. Motion passes. That motion passes, and the order will be brought before our next full council meeting with a recommendation for passage. Thank you both for joining us- Thank you very much ... for this- Thank you ... exciting and long Appropriations Committee meeting. That being our last order, I will now motion by unanimous consent to adjourn. Seeing no objection, we are now adjourned. Good evening. Full council is back in session. Yeah. Resuming the agenda where we left off, there are no communications from the mayor tonight, so we'll move on to new business and filings by the Honorable

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2026-05-04

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