Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2025-10-06
Agenda
Transcript
▶ 8:25 Mark Garipay: This is a meeting of the Appropriation Oversight Committee. I am Mark api, the chair. Also joining me tonight of Vice Chairs, uh, Jamal Ledine, uh, councilor Stewart, council Ver Councilor Fanuc Chiro Councilor Romano Council Hamilton Councilor Williams, uh, councilor Ache and, uh, president, uh, Elli. This serves as a notice of a quorum for the record in accordance with the open meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMTV. Um, we are gonna go to minutes approval. At this time, I will motion by unanimous consent to approve without reading the minutes from the September 15th, 2025 Appropriation and Oversight Committee meeting. Seeing no objections, those minutes are now approved.
▶ 9:12 Mark Garipay: Uh, moving on to public comment, I will motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objections, public comment is now open. This is the portion of the meeting where the public may speak on any item on tonight's agenda. Comments expressing any viewpoint on any other matters are also welcome. Uh, is there anyone in the gallery that would like to speak, uh, in front of tonight's appropriation and oversight meeting? Seeing no one in the gallery, is there anyone online? There's no one online. Okay. Seeing no one online, I will close the public comment portion of our meeting with the unanimous consent. Seeing no objections, public comment is now closed. We have one item on our agenda tonight,
▶ 9:59 Mark Garipay: and it's grant ID 1 2 8 8 6, the acceptance of the Environmental Protection Agency, L Pond, stormwater Design and Construction. Federal Airmark. We have j Coy from the engineering office or department with us City engineer, acting city engineer, acting city engineer. Um, so I will turn it over to you, um, if you want to say a little bit or if there's any questions. Sure. Absolutely. Um, good evening Council. Um, as you're all aware, in 2022, we completed a feasibility study for Alpine Park. Um, as you're all probably even more aware, um, that was a very expensive outcome, um, of in the tune of about $8.5 million of what the preferred, um, design was. Um, so in order to start chipping away at that, um,
▶ 10:48 in conjunction with the planning board, we, um, applied for an EPA Congressional Direct Spending grant, um, and was awarded that earlier this year. That grant is in the amount of $1 million. Um, and what that grant is for is specifically just the stormwater portion of the project. It's not for any of the fields, any of the walkways, uh, any of that. It's just anything that, that has to do with the storm water management of the project. So what the $1 million will do will get us through, um, about 25% design of the entire project, but specifically to try to get us to a hundred percent design of the stormwater, go through any permitting that we'll need to go through, and then what, what's ever left,
▶ 11:32 Ryan Williams: we will then take whatever the priority parts of that stormwater management and bring that through construction. So it is design, permitting and construction. Not necessarily of all of the stormwater components, but whatever we can get through with that $1 million. Um, yeah, and that's really about it. Any councilors have any questions? Councilor Williams? Thank you. When you talk about the Elon n feasibility study, and I see it's referred to in here also as the Elon Park Master plan, these two documents are the same document. Right. Okay. Um, I want to ask whether you feel that the need for, or whether, whether the the design work that Weston and s Samson and City Melrose has done indicates the need
▶ 12:18 for stormwater improvements absent the increase in, um, runoff that could come as a result of synthetic or plastic grass? Um, so I will say that the design that we're going to go through, um, is regardless of whether we go with synthetic or natural gra grass turf, um, that will be, um, handled in a way that whatever design ends up being chosen and whatever ends up being the final plan, whether it be synthetic or natural grass, that the stormwater design will be the right design for either or. Um, what that means, I don't know, um, because it just really depends on what the, um, what the design ends up calling for. But, um, if they, you know, they'll probably design for whatever I call worst case scenario and,
▶ 13:12 Ryan Williams: and deal with it that, and if that means that that portion isn't necessarily constructed until the field is constructed, then that's probably what they'll, they'll go with. But it's, it's hard to say in terms of what will and won't be designed at this stage for, for that kind of, um, field designation. Okay. Okay. And, um, refresh my memory, 'cause we've talked about this before mm-hmm. You were here before. Um, this, the project is where is the physical location of the project? Can you just rehash this? 'cause Yeah, I mean, for the public too. Absolutely. So, um, it's at, uh, ELLP Pond Park where all the East Knoll, west Knoll, the parking, the dog park, the, um, tennis courts, everything that's in
▶ 13:53 Ryan Williams: between basically, you know, the Lin Fells area, all that over on that side of the, um, not on the high school side, but across where all the, all the fields are. Um, it's, it's that entire plot of land. Would the, would the construction, I mean, just like physically describe the, the scale of this mm-hmm. Are we talking about culverts under the, the ground? Are we talking about like, um, improvements to stormwater drainage on Lintels Parkway? Is it sort of the whole thing? Is it on the pond side? Is it on the street side? You know, that kind of stuff. Sure. So the extent and what it's going to look like is not designed right now. Okay. Um, it's, that's what the first, uh, step would be is getting to a 25% design of the park,
▶ 14:33 which would then in turn get us to the a hundred percent design of the stormwater. So I can't tell you what it's gonna look like right now, all I can tell you is that from the feasibility study, I know that there was some, um, rain garden areas, some depressed areas. Um, sh there'll probably be some new culverts that go through the grass fields underneath that, um, discharge L pond. Um, things like that. Um, I don't foresee any crazy construction going in in Lin Fells, but I mean, I, I don't wanna say yes or no without, because I just don't know. Um, but I'm sure everything will kind of be solidified and, um, focusing on just that plot of land, I'm sure they're gonna try to not expand the limit of construction. Yeah. Yeah.
▶ 15:19 Ryan Williams: And this is the hydrology here, if you are familiar with it. Um, is, is it intended to sort of be a catchall for all? 'cause you said it's a depression, it is kinda like a bowl. Mm-hmm. It's intended to be sort of like a system that captures rainwater, uh, both running down into the sha into the fields, but also like percolating down onto the grass and then discharging it for better drainage of the playing field surface. Yeah, yeah, Absolutely. Okay. Yep. As, as well as treating the stormwater as well. Right. I went over, I, I went over the feasibility study again before we came here, and I, I noticed they had the, the test pits and that they were all very wet and mm-hmm. Most of them except for one, had standing water
▶ 15:59 Kimberly Vandiver: and some had all had weeping water. So it seems like no matter what happens with the grass situation, there's a big need and maybe, especially if there's not synthetic grass, there's a big need here to improve drainage mm-hmm. To keep the soil healthy for absolutely. More field uptime. Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you for mm-hmm. Going through that with me. Appreciate it. Yes, Of course. Anyone else? Council Vandiver? Uh, thank you Chair repay. Uh, I just had a quick clarification about the amount. So I saw in here that there's a 20% matching From 25% match. Yeah. 25%. Yep. Um, and looking at the, um, the PDF with the award detail, um, it looks like the, the Melrose portion is showing fully currently,
▶ 16:46 but then we'll only get a portion of the EPA portion. Now I, I see a 346,000 number instead of the million number. Mm-hmm. And could you clarify why that is and when the other phases would come? Absolutely. So when we applied for the grant, we had broken it down into phases, the design phase, the permitting phase, and the construction phase. Um, so we had broken it down into the first phase being, um, so that design phase and that's, that will get us through, I don't quite remember the timeline, but I think it was that first year. Um, and that's what that 346 is. So we're basically phasing out this $1 million over the next three years. I think the end of the grant ends January, 2028. Um, so over these now two
▶ 17:28 and a half years, um, we'll be phased. So that 346 will come first and then another portion, and then the last portion for construction. Okay. Great. And, and the 250,000 recipient contribution that comes up front and then there's no additional later recipient contributions? Yeah, so right now I, um, we have appropriated 80,000, um, upfront for that first phase for, uh, in-kind match. And then the next phase will be another portion of that 250,000 for the, the permitting and, and further design. And then the final portion will have to go for construction. Um, so that 250,000 will also be phased as well. Understood. Okay. That's really clear. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Thank you. That's all. Council Romano.
▶ 18:13 Devin Romanul: Um, thanks so much for the explanation and, and uh, the questions for my colleagues. I, I did want to ask, what is the, um, and forgive me if you mentioned this earlier, what is the, uh, work not related to storm water, um, and what is the anticipated cost long term for that? Sure. So the work not in, um, in regards to stormwater is new fields, um, parking lot, design, um, pathways, uh, trees, um, I think there's a new dog park. I know there's, um, I actually have it, the plan in front of me, uh, wetland restoration that might actually be part of the stormwater. Um, it was new tennis courts, uh, yeah. East and west noll field and as well as across the street, the cabbage patch field as well.
▶ 18:56 Yeah. And so in 2020 $2, that was about eight and a half million dollars. Um, so I don't know if dollar for dollar, it works out to take a million of that away for what we're doing now and bringing that down to seven and a half, it might not quite work like that just because of the piecemeal of that. Yeah. Um, it's probably gonna end up being more expensive because it's all gonna be piece piecemealed together, but Right. Obviously we don't have eight and a half million dollars to do this all at once, so, so I hear, um, so we're gonna, we're gonna start with the storm water. Terrific. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Absolute. Anyone else? Can I ask a couple questions? Anyone good?
▶ 19:34 Mark Garipay: Okay, sure. Um, the 25%, uh, match by the community, is it already, um, do we have leftover money from the last, um, appropriation, um, that we did a few years ago? We're, I know we're only, we're gonna phase it in, but right now you have it budgeted 80,000, is it coming outta your budget or is it gonna be coming down? Do you know about from free cash, you know where that funding's coming from? Um, I think on the memo, the 80,000 has been appropriated from, I apologize if I, it's A free cash match. Sorry about that. No, that's okay. It's free cash. Um, it's alright. As far as where the rest of it is coming from or what has already been appropriated, I honestly, I don't know, But we don't know. We've spent everything
▶ 20:14 Mark Garipay: that we have previously appropriated a few years ago. I'm, I'm going to assume so. Okay. Yeah. All right. Um, uh, the council ramo asked my other question there, and then whether we do grass or, or a, a turf or whatever you wanna call it, synthetic, um, we have to do a storm water anyways, um, study, right? Yes. So, yep. Mm-hmm. Um, I will say this is, this is a needed project. Um, whether it's grass down the road or synthetic, we have the worst soccer field in the Middlesex League. Again, it's kind of embarrassing. Mm-hmm. So I would, uh, uh, especially my, my kid's graduating, so I, I'm not gonna be taking, having any use of it going forward, but I would encourage anyone that has young kids to really get behind,
▶ 21:01 uh, behind this. But, um, Yeah. And, and just to put it into perspective, the softball field across from the cemetery on, um, Lebanon Street, uh, year and a half ago, we did a stormwater, um, project for that. Um, and as you know, that field has significantly improved. Um, and that was just a, a pretty small stormwater project compared to, you know, these large dollars. So a stormwater project will go a huge way in making fields, you know, just in much better condition and much more u usable. Yeah. We have a low water table. It's about six inches, I think there. Right, exactly. Um, what's the will of the council Stewart? Yeah. Thank, thank you. Uh, Mr. Chair. Uh, Mr. Cord, thank you for this information.
▶ 21:45 Robb Stewart: Um, I just, I look forward and it, this is great that we got this wonderful grant. Uh, thank you for doing the work to get that. Um, but we're gonna need another seven and a half million dollars. Can you talk a little bit about timeline on what that looks like? Um, as far as getting the other seven and a half, Getting the other seven and a half, but also what, what your anticipation of doing the work mm-hmm. So that we have a completed, well formed set of fields. Yeah. So, um, so for this current grant, um, the, the grant ends January, 2028. So design construction or design permitting and construction will be through that. Um, I would imagine that any construction that happens will leave the fields in usable,
▶ 22:31 in great condition, you know, not any worse than they are now. Um, I'm, I'm assuming that will be the case. Um, as far as the future is of getting any of that other money and applying for any, you know, available grants over the coming years. Um, we don't, we haven't talked about a plan moving forward, especially as you all know, grants are pretty volatile Right, right now. Um, so I, you know, we definitely lucked into this grant and, um, you know, we're looking forward to using it, but we, we haven't really discussed what other grants that we can start applying for to, to push the rest of the project forward. Great. And that, that was my other question is, is this uh, definitely locked and loaded, uh, this grant?
▶ 23:11 Or is there any contin, any concern that it may get pulled? Sure. So I don't want to speak for our solicitor, but I know that she's gone over, um, the, the contract language in depth over the past couple of months, which is why it's taken us so long to get here. Right. Um, to, you know, feel confident enough that it's not something that is in jeopardy. Um, so I can't say for a hundred percent 'cause I'm not in charge of the funding, but we're pretty confident that, you know, we can move forward. Alright. Great. Mr. Chair, let's push it through tonight then Sooner better. Is that a motion? Uh, I'll make that motion to Second. We have a motion made by Councilor Stewart, seconded by councilor.
▶ 23:54 Mark Garipay: Uh, Che, uh, on discussion. Mme. Clark, will you take a roll call please? Yes. Vice chair Jamal Jamine? Yes. Counselor fro? Yes. Counselor Hamilton? Yes. Counselor Karen Chetty. Yes. Coun Councilor Osky is absent. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Elli? Yes. Chair Garipay? Yes. Okay. That will get recommended to the full counsel. Um, that, uh, concludes our business. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn chair. I make a motion to adjourn. Second. Motion to adjourn made by Councilor Stewart Second, and by Council Ro on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? We're adjourned. Good evening. The time is 7:47 PM on Monday, October 6th, 2025.