City Council — 2019-03-04
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Michael P. Zwirko: Thanks, everyone. Alderman Zwirko, did you want to add anything? I'm sorry that we had to- No, I felt a little rushed, but maybe I can weave it in with some questioning. So I'm good. If I could ask Chief Lyle, if you could please come before the board at this time. I won't say good evening. Say good morning. Morning. all these double shifts so uh chief first i'd like to say thank you for um being here this late especially going through the first uh the first order so orders don't usually take that long but you know that uh it's a it's a very important order that has to do with the fabric of the community so i appreciate you being here i'm here um so listen this is a uh you know at least in Melrose it has obviously been legal for some time in the Commonwealth
▶ 0:53 Michael P. Zwirko: especially from retail facilities when the first one opened up so you know we're dealing with some of the burden even though a retail store does not exist in Melrose so at this point could you could you talk about some of the impacts that you foresee not only that we've been dealing with but that are likely to increase with retail facility here in Melrose regardless of its location I'll use the word potential because it's it's an unknown right now but the potential could be there for, we'll call it OUID, OUI drugs. There's OUILs, liquor, OUI drugs, and that's actually going to happen. If it isn't already happening in the areas of the state, it will be happening. So how exactly does a patrolman, patrolwoman, officer make a determination on OUID with respect to marijuana?
▶ 1:43 There are field sobriety tests that they can give an individual, but the ideal officer is called a DRE, a drug recognition expert, and there is a substantial amount of training to keep someone certified and up to snuff. Now they're looking for officers that are paramedics and then have them become DREs. It's a long process. We had two officers here many years ago, one still on the police force, Sergeant Byrne. He was a DRE and he just you know, he didn't keep his credentials because it was a burden on him So do you think that more of our patrolmen and officers lieutenants will need to become DREs? I would certainly open that up and you know, it would be a voluntary basis Yes, and I'd like to train them and do you know what the costs are with that type of no
▶ 2:25 Michael P. Zwirko: I do not right now because the schools have you know, they've changed quite a bit and you know We actually go around the country to different states to be certified Because that's how they do the training and mass concerts and such as how they become DRAs they grab two three hundred people and they do feel sobriety tests on them they go through the their certifications and that's how they apply it and then become certified and then you have to maintain your certification just like an EMT or something well if the advent of retail marijuana is going to impose some burden on us financial physical or otherwise do you see that there could be benefits from its do you see that there could be some fiscal benefits for your department with the revenue that stream
▶ 3:14 that comes in here should certainly it would have been assist otherwise everything comes out of my budget the way it is and we find a way to pay for things another thing that our request is compliance checks we deal with alcohol we should be doing it with this marijuana establishment when it does open regular checks that's something and i think education is a huge thing that we should be doing in the schools and our two sros you mentioned them they should be trained as well in you know the education component we work with our substance abuse coalition uh folks and you know what really get ahead of the curve here i mean i walk main street you could smell it coming in and out of cars all day long when you walk on main street i don't know if you folks catch it did you catch it
▶ 3:56 Michael P. Zwirko: in the audience tonight i sure did and i'm not a consumer please but i certainly smell it um it's prevalent yeah so and and thank you chief for that and i certainly open it up for other aldermen have questions but that's really the purpose of this order again it could have a three-year shelf life if we feel that it's something that's unnecessary but like let's let's get a gauge of it let's have a way in which we can account for the revenue that's coming in any of the impacts on those three areas public safety is defined as ambulatory services fire department as well as police in addition to that it's substance abuse and prevention and and education it allows us the discretion where needed to apply those funds on an annual basis if this
▶ 4:43 John N. Tramontozzi: were stabilization fund were to go in effect and we had a retail facility it probably wouldn't be until a year from now in which we would be appropriating said funds so with that I appreciate your time chief and I yield the floor to my colleagues great thank you well I appreciate alderman's workers work on them on this proposed order but I'm really troubled by this proposed order this order does not establish that type of stabilization fund as we have established on rare occasions I might add in the past this marijuana tax money should go into the city's general fund from there we can allocate the resources to the appropriate budget by a vote of this body if the school needs money we budget accordingly if we need drug prevention or
▶ 5:40 John N. Tramontozzi: education we budget for it frankly once the state recognizes that legalization of marijuana use will result in the need for drug abuse and prevention education then the city should have been hopefully the state will provide some of those funds and then we can apply for those funds and not be turned down because we have allocated our own funds for such purposes second creating this new stabilization fund just opens the door to another means to request a proposition two and a half override this time to fund a stabilization fund which is allowed under the statute so even though the legislative body at the Statehouse has authorized cities and towns to do just this pursuant to the amendments the general laws chapter 40 section 5b this is written is this
▶ 6:27 John N. Tramontozzi: really what we should be doing to fund so-called stabilization funds I don't think so through it as a general rule all taxes received are collected by a a city or town from any source is credited to the general fund and can only be spent after appropriation this is a tax it's not a fine a fee it's a tax this is the way it's always been going back to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and by decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts respectfully even the division of local services at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue has indicated right quote there is no No general law that establishes a different accounting treatment for one, revenues generated by the local sales excise on retail sales of marijuana for adult use.
▶ 7:16 John N. Tramontozzi: Or two, payments made under community host or other agreements with marijuana establishments or medical marijuana treatment centers. Therefore, the money belongs to the general fund that can be only spent by appropriation. Now the legislature has in their wisdom decided that maybe cities and can use the tax marijuana money as they see fit but it should not be through a stabilization fund it's through the general fund where it can be appropriated by this body thank you going to chief again thank you for being here so late in the evening now you were talking about training for your for the officers for this type of analysis. That's only one part, though, Alderman Boisselle. That's an expert. So we have a motor vehicle crash.
▶ 8:09 There's a question about the sobriety, and I'm going to use the word sobriety, because marijuana consumption and alcohol consumption, that's the way the law enforcement is looking at it. So I'm sorry to interrupt. That's my answer now. I mean, for an alcohol problem, you have the breath analyzer. analyzer now with the marijuana is that technology has come to a point yet that there's some sort of test from a device that you could use typically an alcohol that is called the BT a breath test they're they're developing a it's actually in pilot programs around the country now where it can detect THC levels in a human in a body and that would eventually lead to an intoxication that's still in its infancy so I don't see it coming down the road
▶ 9:04 Robert A. Boisselle: immediately at some point so still in research research you rely on field sobriety tests cognitive skill tests and a DRE expert his his expertise okay Thank you. Well, the three categories of the education, public safety, substance and abuse, I have one problem with this. It's the education aspects of it. We're going to have a two-and-a-half override in probably another 30 days, and we're going to be $5.2, $5.1 million through the education. I don't see creating another stream of revenue from this to do this unless doing an education infrastructure watching the school committee and they're trying to fix a phone system at the lincoln school and they're short thirteen thousand dollars and they can't
▶ 10:02 Robert A. Boisselle: find it i can see that in education and infrastructure but uh if if if they're just going to use it for salaries and everything else in that aspects this stream of revenue is not for this particular category and we're only talking the way the alderman was saying is this is for two to three years if it works or not and I think it's it's a bad way to create more revenue streams for the education it should be solid from the coming from the general fund directly if that's the way should be it should be done if it's if there's an amendment to this to adjust the education to education infrastructure and I can see it's not going to go because like Alderman Zwirko is saying no right off the bat I will not support
▶ 10:57 Monica C. Medeiros: this at this point thank you very much Alderman Medeiros thank you very much much thank you chief I I recently had a chance to sit down after one of the opioid forums and in talk a little bit with one of the substance abuse prevention substance abuse coalition members and it was telling me about so much of this the products that they're finding in the school that they're finding you know we we know there's more and more use of vaping things like Juul and and that more and more that they're finding the kids with things that are that have THC in them things like you know vaping of marijuana vaping or gummy bears gum chewing gum oils can you talk a little bit about you know what you're hearing coming from the high school and and and or middle school if it's
▶ 12:07 applicable and if you're seeing any kind of trickle-down and what happens when when you find minors or people who are you know under 21 with these kinds of materials which we know they're not the intended users of these products on a school setting we always rely on the schools that take to take their administrative action because when we get involved it's a criminal action and then alderman uh sean mcmaster would know pretty well about the diversion programs when it's a criminal act we would send them to a diversion program to give them a second chance in life not to make the same mistake it's automatically expunged it never gets into the court system so a lot of times officers will rely on the schools to take administrative action so that's the process how we handle it
▶ 13:01 i do hear from other communities as well they have the same problem with gating it's oils marijuana it's all different synthetic marijuana there's a number of chemicals the ladies downstairs in the substance abuse office the health department would have a lot more information than we would okay now in your in your oversight through the police department specifically non-school are you seeing an uptick in these kinds of products being found or you know and if you get an oui or um a lot of people uh possess marijuana a lot of people um and it's been decriminalized uh some time ago you know what i've always said a parking ticket has more teeth than what we can do with a city ordinance violation so if you were to
▶ 14:02 Monica C. Medeiros: find someone um do you you know and you suspect that they've say they have gummy bears i mean you know you know what i imagine you know what's the joint pretty obviously right but you saw that in the police academy they actually we were exposed to marijuana marijuana but you know i think it's pretty hard to tell the difference between a gummy bear outside of the package that has THC and a gummy bear that does not are you seeing more costs to test things that are collected or we need kits to test these so that would be an additional cost as well I don't believe that cost is a budget buster we do have a federal drug account from seized assets we could purchase the equipment okay I rely on my drug officer thank you well you know I just also want to I had
▶ 15:06 Monica C. Medeiros: meant to mention earlier tonight and I think it's something that's sort of important that we saw recently saw the Salem facility mentioned a number of times for the successes that they've had with their appointments however I just happen to read rather recently that they actually were forced to close their recreational sales because they had an inaccuracy or some kind of discrepancy in their inventory with their recreational products and i don't know if they've been allowed to reopen yet or not but you know there's certainly there's a potential that things are going to go into the wrong hands and i'm glad to see that you know that was corrected quickly from the state but i think it's it's apt that you know we're going to see you know with this use becoming legal i think it's
▶ 15:59 Monica C. Medeiros: reasonable to expect that it is going to become more accessible to the hands of the unintended users whether they be you know intentionally using the product or we've seen um you know new stories about pets and in some cases young children you know accidentally getting into these situation so i do think there's going to be some public safety costs that are going to come up as a result of this and you know i know personally um you know this is something that you know we probably sat in this chamber and had our debate when we were running for office and i know i certainly have said in the past that i'd like to see that any funds that we do raise from from this purpose are you know dedicated to public safety and to the extra you know to address the
▶ 16:46 Monica C. Medeiros: the extra cost that we may see come up and as well you know substance abuse prevention it's something that comes up in in front of us many times and you know we did I think Altman's work will refer to it we you know we had some grants that we don't have anymore and a very important position is the substance abuse prevention coordinator and sometimes we wonder how we're going to fund that I in theory support the creation of this stabilization fund I I do, I would definitely support an amendment to eliminate the education-specific piece in this and stick with public safety and substance abuse prevention, because I think that could be prevention education. I think that's really something that is constantly on the chopping block
▶ 17:34 Monica C. Medeiros: and something that really matters. And not that education doesn't, but this is a very specific source, and we don't i don't think lumping this together right now i can see you know the schools inevitably we give all our extra money to the schools i mean let's face it we get free cash we give it all to the schools we inevitably we cut other city departments constantly in an effort to give money to the schools and i think that that will continue moving forward that that's what we do as a city so i think if we create this fund and it includes education i think it's very apt that the other aspects like public safety and substance abuse prevention specifically may end up kind of falling to the wayside but so i would be in support of an amendment to that however um through
▶ 18:25 Monica C. Medeiros: through the chair um to the maker or actually in particular i guess maybe through the clerk committees if we could hear from um the city solicitor on the legality of this i would greatly appreciate it i know when something similar had come up in discussion uh related to the meals tax and and uh i was told at that time that you know earmarking the funds and would not be allowable so i i think all the tramitosi shared some similar concerns so i in theory i'm on board but i'd like to see something um from the city solicitor to confirm members are good you just want to speak very discreetly to whether you've had any outreach or conversation in that point so there's been a couple of comments that I'd like to respond to but I'll respond to this one directly right
▶ 19:16 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: now I just just on whether or not you've got something so I've spoken with the city solicitor okay all right president Lemmerman thank you I had cut just a couple of things in this order first of all thank you chief Lyle for being here It's very helpful to have your insight into sort of what you, to the degree that you're able to at this point, anticipate. I think it's obvious there will be costs for public safety around this. It's under the purview of your department, and that means it's work that didn't exist yesterday. But what we have heard is that we don't know yet what the need for increased patrols will look like, what the cost of training will end up being. That's something we just don't have information on yet.
▶ 20:07 The district attorney's office is deeply involved. They're looking for DREs now. Okay, great. For Middlesex County. So that's forthcoming, most likely, or at least some sort of analysis. I don't know where the funds will come from. I'm hoping that they have some funds. Sure, but some analysis of what the need will be in terms of funding, right? The problem with becoming a DRE is there's considerable overtime involved because wakefield may need to read tonight august or medford or reading or someone so this officer or officers are going to be around and they're going to be compensated for off hours so if they get a call for a crash in the middle of the night and they're the only one around they don't okay
▶ 20:45 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: so there is a cost okay that's that's an important factor thank you um you know this order though talks about and affects others as well so I have to admit I don't really understand the connection in education other than the school resource officers so I you know I that one to me it feels like an outlier in this order the substance abuse prevention stabilization or the sorry the substance use prevention piece would be really helpful to have the health department or somebody be able to provide some information and we haven't received that info on how much is raised through the tax I don't think we need a stabilization fund for that we can ask the auditor's office and get that information at any time this feels at this point a little to me like you know
▶ 21:43 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: budgeting your salary before you've gotten the job offer I mean we just tonight dealt with and it's still not even fully passed whether we would even have these in our city and now to be parceling out the funds in a specific way we have no analysis of what these three lines are going to need and we have no analysis on what could even possibly be available to put in this fund so i just to me i don't feel comfortable creating a new fund without that kind of information thank you alderman wright thank you madam chair um Alderman President Lemmerman expressed a lot of same concerns I have and Alderman Medeiros raised the issue that I also was interested in getting an answer to which is the legality question that Alderman Tramontozzi has raised. I'm
▶ 22:42 Francis X. Wright Jr.: also concerned that you know we are four weeks away from an override vote dedicating these funds to a stabilization account for these specific purposes when we don't know whether as Alderman Boisselle indicates it'll pass and we'll have all this money that is dedicated to maintaining or improving our educational system or the you know the or it doesn't pass and then do we really want this money dedicated to those purposes as noble as they are when we may it may be the difference between keeping a teacher on or or some other city employee or function being maintained so I have a lot of concerns a lot of issues again very noble gesture and thought processes you know and I appreciate all the ms work those efforts in these uh on these um in these areas on this matter
▶ 23:47 Francis X. Wright Jr.: uh but it is late um and i did step out for a moment is there a motion before us so no yeah no i i would move that this matter be held in committee uh at least until we get a uh an answer as to the legality of of the stabilization fund and the dedication of these um to these funds for the purposes proposed alderman mcmaster thank you madam chair i wanted to thank alderman Zwirko for filing uh this order i appreciate his initiative his um excuse me very very sorry to point point of order if a motion is made isn't the next thing that has to happen either it gets seconded or it doesn't i didn't hear a second i waited oh it did it my apologies we have a motion to hold this in committee i'm so sorry to interrupt so is does the motion fail for
▶ 24:42 Shawn M. MacMaster: lack of a second i didn't i didn't hear a call i will i will second that i would second that okay we have a motion to hold this order in committee made by alderman wright seconded by alderman mortimer okay on discussion we do have in queue alderman mcmaster yeah i i just wanted to thank alderman Zwirko for filing uh the order um as i started to say i appreciate his initiative his forethought and his big picture thinking i do agree that any tax revenue from the sale of marijuana should be air mapped for specific items i agree with him relative to the associated costs of police training i agree with him about school resource officers we know that the interface contract as well as the substance abuse coordinated salary are both at risk if the
▶ 25:35 Shawn M. MacMaster: override doesn't pass we know that the tobacco coordinator's salary is something that's just covered right now by a grant so i think you know those are types of things that this could be used for and we could potentially look at working with the school to implement a substance abuse curriculum that being said i agree with the spirit of course of the order but i'll have to vote against it just based on the concerns that i raised earlier this evening thank you madam chair thank you alderman Bewtra thank you um i just wanted to say that i appreciate the spirit of this order um at this time i'm inclined to agree with my colleagues who have raised concerns regarding public schools and administration and i know we're going to be discussing this further but
▶ 26:26 Manisha Bewtra: but at that point, maybe thinking about substance abuse prevention and education efforts is a possible amendment. That said, I think Alderman Wright point about the upcoming override and potentially putting us in a position where we may not be able to, where we may have over-restricted new revenue funds and if the override doesn't pass, that would be concerning. So thank you for holding it, suggesting we hold it in committee. Thank you. Would any aldermen like to speak for the first time? I'll just, for the good of the group, and probably everyone already knows this, to create a stabilization fund would require a two-thirds vote of our body, so it's not just a simple majority. Alderman Zwirko.
▶ 27:17 Michael P. Zwirko: Thank you, Madam Chair. I did want to address some of the concerns that were raised by my fellow aldermen. I will also add that I think in my tenure here I've been more willing to to bend rather than break so I'm happy to field amendments to this proposal should it move forward and I also support in holding it in committee that being said one of the materials that I attached to the order I will read it it is a attachment b the file is lfo-2018-3 underscore zero item number seven on page three of three reads is there a way under state law that a municipality may dedicate payments made by a marijuana establishment or medical marijuana treatment center for later appropriation for particular purposes yes a municipality may use local
▶ 28:08 Michael P. Zwirko: acceptance option which we did previously under an order filed by alderman Rita and approved may dedicate all or a portion of at least 25 percent of the collections of the excise tax on retail sales of marijuana or payments from a community host and other agreement payments to a general or special purpose purpose stabilization fund established under gl section c 40 section 5b for the procedure that must be followed to accept and use this local option under this option these collections and payments may be dedicated to stabilization funds because they are not earmarked for a particular purpose under state law in addition the excise on marijuana retail sales is not a locally assessed tax or SI excise
▶ 28:48 Michael P. Zwirko: specifically excluded from dedication that is a document that was promulgated by the division of local services on September 24th 2018 on a local finance option money from marijuana establishments and medical marijuana treatment centers this document was what I cited in my discussions with the city solicitor on the legality of the establishment of such a fund so we are able to do this and the reason I said that we probably should is because we don't know there are a lot of uncertainties as to what this market is going to bear and there's a lot of uncertainties as to what those downstream effects on either education public safety or substance abuse prevention efforts there's also in the order itself uses a word that says or so
▶ 29:42 Michael P. Zwirko: if we feel that we have $100,000 and there's no money that needs to go to education it doesn't have to the discretion lies with us I think that's a very important key point here is we have the ability to completely dedicate this or not dedicate this to these areas so if it goes into the general fund our discretion is taken away we always have the discretion of line items of course but we actually have a fund in which we can dedicate and appropriate to and it holds the money basically in a lockbox that allows for us to see the impacts in which we would annually appropriate so if folks are uncertain or unwilling to include education that's okay there is a provision of or but we could take it out
▶ 30:27 Michael P. Zwirko: if it makes it more palatable this really shines a light on these funds and the appropriation there too I think it's important to keep that and also allow us the discretionary power and appropriation but I do think that it being the witching hour and folks would like to discuss this a little bit more and we certainly have time I mean we don't have any retail marijuana funds coming into the coffers at this moment although we hope that we they will be there soon so I'm happy to support the motion that was made by alderman Rita there are materials that are attached to this order they were attached on purpose to certainly address the issue and creation of stabilization funds and the legality there too thank you we have all the amendment eros all right just one
▶ 31:15 Monica C. Medeiros: last comment because I do want us to sort of think about this as we move forward and it's actually based on something that Alderman McMaster had brought up tonight and and you know should we ever face some kind of legal challenge as a regard to this I think there is some wisdom in keeping these funds segregated especially as we see how things shake out between you know the federal government and and the local states and in cities and towns so I think there could be some benefit to us to having that be segregated and to take little bit of time before we release and spend the funds thank you we have a motion to hold in committee any other comments all in favor aye any opposed that motion passes the last order on agenda tonight is order two zero one
▶ 32:11 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: nine dash four nine in order to limit the location of any marijuana businesses in Melrose to route 99 also known as the Newberry Turnpike this is sponsored by by alderman mortimer alderman mortimer would you like to speak to this in in light of the amendments that were made to the first order tonight i will make a motion for a recommendation that this order be placed on file second we have a motion to place this order on file made by alderman mortimer seconded by vice chair Boisselle all in favor aye any opposed that motion carries thank you again chief Lyle for being here so late with us second motion to adjourn made by Alderman Forbes seconded by Alderman Mortimer all in favor any opposed we are adjourned thank you
▶ 39:31 motion to place on file motion to place the order on file made by president Rita alderman's work goes seconded by alderman Mortimer all in favor thank you we are now at just about 8 o'clock which brings us to our public hearing on order 2019 48 order 2 0 1 9 4 8 petition of National Grid in Verizon New England Inc to relocate three jointly owned poles on Howard and Green Streets poles 1 7 6 1 point 1 7 7 and 2 0 8 out of the center island of the intersection of Howard Street and Green Street per request of the city of Melrose work request number two seven eight six nine three two two dated 2 12 2019 thank you we have a motion to open the public portion of the public hearing so moved second we have a
▶ 40:34 motion to open the public portion of the public hearing made by honor Mortimer second boys now all in favor any opposed this will open the public comment portion of our public hearing on the order just read I would welcome forward anyone in the audience who wishes to speak on this order I would point out that this is dealing with the relocation of three poles at Green Street and Howard Street this is the part of a planned construction in the area however the board this evening is not voting on the plan we are not the plan is not before us for approval or disapproval it is simply to approve or disapprove the moving of these poles we do have a member of the audience already in front of us thank you sir hi good evening John jankowski 170 Medford Street in Malden
▶ 41:20 Mass I'm representing National Grid National Grid thank you for being here this evening so actually this exactly we are going to relocate that intersection into a rotary type of intersection just going to relocate those three poles from the center island to the exterior the members of the board may have additional questions for you following some of the public comment so if I could ask you to just step back briefly and we will hear from any members of the public and then we'll close that portion of the public hearing thank you sir good evening my name is Gerard Canton. I live at 164 Green Street in Melrose. As you know, you probably had the agenda of me being a resident in that area for over 50 years. I have quite a history
▶ 42:29 in that area. I've seen a lot of changes, a lot of different aspects. I just quickly, i'm just going to go over this here i understand the polls this is still moving polls around putting me in front of people's houses putting me on sidewalks and this is just part of this whole thing that going on as far as i'm concerned we should have actually had more public participation in what another alternative could have been for this area to take and remove a triangle area that is very appealing to the neighborhood and to put the stuff in a thing that's going to be cement and tar to an area that this rotary should actually be in an area that's in a much larger street location, an area that is much more in a commercial area.
▶ 43:34 The other thing is, as I said before, this is a business area. It was business zoned, and now we're taking some parking spaces away from the businesses in the area, which are going to suffer. That's the last thing we need to do is take parking away from businesses. That area is very strifling for parking. The other thing is we're just going to make sure that all these poles are going to be in proper positions. And the other thing is, while we're talking about poles, there's a pole number there, 176. It's in that same area. It is so narrow between the pole and the wall there that people with a stroller that have a two-person stroller has to go out in the street because they can't get between the areas.
▶ 44:28 And it's right in the same location. And that should be really looked at if this is what we're going to have there. But I really think, when this is all done, that a roundabout is not made for this area. There are other alternatives to slow traffic down. We know that. We know that we put speed signs there that have worked. The traffic commission has even said so. We should try these other alternatives before we take and ruin a nice little green space. And looking at this storm, boy, I don't know where you're going to put the snow when you got a roundabout it's going to end up in front of people's yards that's where it's going to end up I am just sorry to see that we in Melrose are putting in something that should not be there we're making the place more look
▶ 45:24 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: like a city and that's not where we are thank you for your time thank you sir if you could sign in thank you thank you I would just reiterate for the public as well as members of the board we the board the board has no authority to vote on whether there is a roundabout in this area we are not that is not before us if anyone has comments on the moving of the polls the locations of the polls that's what is on our agenda this evening or the process by which the polls will be moved thank you good evening madam president my name is Rosa Dutucci and my family owns the property at 150 Green Street and I'd like to say that I thank you personally for the attention that you have paid to me and my concerns regarding
▶ 46:19 this project. And I had already sat down before you said you can't talk about the project, so forgive me. Indulge me, please. I'll do this very, very briefly. This project, first of all, no one in our family had been apprised of the fact that was even happening we were told after the fact we didn't we were never given a notice nothing about this project when I saw the plans I was at first very excited I thought how how lovely some green space you know modernization of that intersection and then I realized that this particular rotary in that particular place would decimate the utility of the property that we have there it is a six unit it's brand new it's beautiful but it will literally remove the one free the one the only access to the front of my building from
▶ 47:21 the street there will be no parking there will be no trash pickup it you're literally taking away the utility of this entire building I'm asking that and I know that this is a different discussion this evening but please understand that what's happening here really is a case of form over function and that as pretty and as lovely and as avant-garde as this project could be it is actually impacting the residents and the property owners in that location in ways that you may not know because frankly some of us were not informed and And we're not able to give our viewpoint. So I know this is a different issue. But I would ask everyone, please, please, take into account the concerns of the residents,
▶ 48:17 the owners in this location. Allow us to give input. Take a look at other alternatives. Because this is really fitting or shoehorning a solution into a very tight space. And to get this to work there, you have to take away the utility. And what you're doing is hurting the residents for the sake of a very lovely roundabout. So I would beg you, please, do not make it impossible for the people who live in my building to move in and out for an ambulance to come, for the trash to come. It's a serious situation, and there are implications here that have not been thoroughly discussed and thoroughly taken into account. Thank you for your time, and once again, Madam President, thank you very much for your responsiveness
▶ 49:14 to me. MS. There's further comment regarding the polls and the movement of the polls as laid in the order. MR. Motion to close the public comment portion of the public hearing, Madam President. MS. Second. MS. We have a motion to close the public comment portion of this public hearing, Mortimer second by Alderman Forbes all in favor aye opposed the public comment portion of this public hearing is now closed seeing that we do have the gentleman from National Grid here I would recommend that we we are under suspension of rules we bring him forward allow for any questions from the board and finish with this order prior to recessing to the appropriations as we under suspension I will invite you forward thank you and I would note that