[Richard Caraviello]: Good evening, everybody. The 28th regular meeting of the Medford City Council, September 19th, 2017. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Dello Russo? Present. Councilor Falco? Present. Councilor Knight? Present. Councilor Lungo-Koehn? Present. Vice President Marks? Present. Councilor Scarpelli? Present. President Caraviello?
[Richard Caraviello]: Present. Please rise and salute the flag. and to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hearing 17616. Hearing City of Medford. Notice of a public hearing. Public hearing will be held. at the Medford City Council in the Caron Theater at Medford High School, 489 Winthrop Street, Medford, Mass. On Tuesday evening, September 19, 2017, at 7 o'clock p.m., on a petition from Ultimate Tango, 5 High Street, Unit B and B3, Medford, Mass, 02155, for a special permit to amend its hours of operation in accordance with Medford Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 94, Section 94-145, to operate Extended hours at its business at 55 Street, unit B and B3 Bedford. Mass onsite being located in the commercial one C1 zoning district that allows. Extended hours of operations requested Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 11 p.m. to 1 p.m. petition may be seen in the office of the city clerk at the City Hall. Please call 781-393-2501 for any accommodation or aids. The city of Medford is an EEOA 504 employer. For any information, please contact the city clerk at 393-2425. This is a public hearing. Those in favor of this request, please state your name. Name and address of the record, please. Name and address of the record. Anita Flater. Are you in favor of this petition? Thank you. Is there anyone else that's here to speak in favor of this petition? Name and address of the record, please.
[I5lIrWN8Vh8_SPEAKER_15]: Dominic Kamara, 219 Lawrence Road, and I'm definitely in favor of this.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you very much. Because, because.
[I5lIrWN8Vh8_SPEAKER_15]: That's all we need to know. That's all we need to know, but I want to give you a good reason.
[Richard Caraviello]: And after you can. You can after. Is there anyone else that wants to speak in favor of this? Hearing and seeing none, that part of the meeting is closed. Is there anyone here in opposition to this hearing? Hearing and seeing none, that part of the meeting is closed. Those who would like to speak in favor, please step forward now. Yeah, that would be it. Name and address of the record, please.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_35]: Anita Flater, 5 High Street, United of Massachusetts, 02155.
[Richard Caraviello]: And you were the owner, correct?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_35]: Yes. I'm the managing director of Ultimate Tango, We want to speak in favor of that and we basically want to express or explain the reasons why we need these extra hours. So Argentine tango is not simply just a dance, it's the whole culture that basically teaches people how to behave in public places when there is a dance involved. and also involves different customs and habits of the cultural behavior between lady and the gentleman. So we have this, besides just teaching simply the tango during our regular classes, we also have these gatherings that are called milonga, where people come and practice their dance, but also meet socially. So those gatherings in Boston area are happening every day in different studios. And right now the only day that is not occupied is Sunday. So our starting day where we would like to use this additional two hours of being open, business being open, would be Sunday to start. We will not initially use any other day. so it will be once a week on Sunday when people will come at 9 o'clock for the special event and stay until 1 o'clock to dance. Those milongas have special settings, it's the gathering when people can sit, talk between each other, they usually come as a couple, husband and wife or people who are together or sometimes come the whole families and they sit together There is a special code of dress, there is a special code of invitation, how to invite lady for dance, there is a special code how many dances then dance together. There is a lot of different little customs that people who dance tango, they know it. And of course, some of you participated in our opening night, so you're kind of familiar how it looks like. So there is no kind of like a wild party settings. The music is very mild. People behave actually very, very politely. They care for the ladies, they care for the partners. They walk them in, they walk them to the car, so it's very safe. I explained all that to Mr. Sacco, the chief of police, who had a little doubt and he seemed to be understanding. how it looks like, and we also invited him over, so that's why he now supports our application too. And that's pretty much it.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you very much. I mean, one of the reasons also we have the event at 9 p.m., because as we say, there are quite a lot of events happening during the week. So on this Sunday, there are another two studios who organize two more practices in different hours. If we don't want a conflict with another business, We want to respect the hour. The only hour we can start it would be like at 9 p.m. And because we finish also our lessons around 6 p.m., some people coming from New York and for different areas far away, and they want to just go home, maybe with the family, you know, take a shower, get ready for coming back to the party. For they coming back, sometimes, you know, driving 45 minutes, some people driving one hour and be in the studio just for two hours practicing or maybe And also in Argentina, the milongas went for hours, so people just keep dancing. It's a kind of ritual. In Argentina, we dance very much all day long, from 10 a.m. until...
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_35]: We also believe we will not interfere with anybody because it's a business area and also our music is really mild, like nobody even hears it outside. And since most people drive, and there's plenty of parking here, and it's a business district, most businesses are already closed, only two restaurants open till 11, then I don't think we're gonna collide with anybody specifically.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Councilor Dajew.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I've reviewed the paperwork and the paperwork appears to be in order. I've noticed a couple of concessions that the applicant has made. Initially, the request was to stay open until 4 a.m. Sunday evenings. Chief Sacco wasn't too fond of that idea and has approved a restriction of operation until 1 a.m. That's something that he feels as though he's comfortable with. Also, I've noticed that the petitioner has agreed to have the doors locked at 11 p.m. And no one will be allowed to enter the facility unless they're buzzed in through an intercom system that they have there, which also has a camera capability so that they'll know who's outside the door so that random people won't be wandering in off the street. I do have a question for the petitioners. Is there going to be any live music?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_35]: No, there is only going to be recorded music.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, the paperwork is in order and everything appears to be signed off on by other heads in the like. So with that being said, I see no reason in the way of this approval.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think my first question you answer the sound will be mild, so you won't be able to have sound barriers around your facility.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_00]: The sound of the tango is very mild music. It doesn't get out. Even the rest of us, we did a check sound with them and they don't hear nothing.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. And my second question, if you are going to be open till one and people will be dancing since nine, what are you doing? What will there be for food and beverage?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_35]: During regular milongas we do not provide any food or beverage, just drinking water. So no, sometimes, like we had an opening night, we did have a little snack to cheer people up, but normally no, there is no food provided by us, just drinking water.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you very much. Development Committee, which takes care of signs. We've worked in several subcommittee meetings with the proprietors of this group quite intimately over the past few months, and I have to say that they've been the most congenial people. They've been compliant to any of our requests. They've certainly made the effort to, and they have, attended all the meetings when we've scheduled them, which, as we all know, can be cumbersome for us, and so if they're traveling from other towns to come in, they've been great people. As a fellow business person here in Medford, I'm delighted to have them operating in our community. They'll bring something new and diverse to us, something positive and energetic, and so I welcome this request and lend my voice of approval to it, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Anyone else would like to speak in fairness?
[I5lIrWN8Vh8_SPEAKER_15]: name and address of the record, please. Once again, Dominic Camara, the Chamber of Commerce of the Governmental Affairs Committees, and I'd like to say that I was fortunate enough with several other people to have visited the Tango Studio when they first opened it up about roughly a month ago, when they inaugurated and sort of cut the ribbon symbolically, if nothing else. And I was very, very enthralled. I was very happy to see the operation. It's beautiful. It's downstairs at 5 High Street, for those of you who may not realize where the geographic position of the place, and that's where the old Channel 3 thing used to be. And it's very, very nice, very professional and so on. And I gotta tell you, with all the tango that was playing and so on, and these two can dance. Oh my God, can they dance? And so when we left, myself and the other two or three guests that we went to visit that night, by the time I got up to the lobby, you couldn't hear a note of the music because it's downstairs, number one. So even if it's loud and whatever it is, you're never going to hear anything. So disturbance is not an issue. But here's the bottom line. Any life that you can bring to Medford Square is a desirable thing to have and to wish for. So I hope that another studio like this opens up and wants to be open until 2 o'clock. I don't want to, you know, when the time comes. And that's pretty much what I have to say. And I welcome them in the city of Medford. I think they're wonderful professional people and they're so talented. And I have nothing but happiness for them.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Thank you. And I for one can say I was there that night that they opened. I was very impressed. The men were dressed. The women were dressed. The dancing was outstanding. And like Mr. Kamara said, when I went down to the bottom floor there, I could barely hear the music in the hallway. But again, she's promised that she can teach me how to tango, and anybody can do that. But again, I welcome them, and I think the studio was very, very nice, and it's very impressive what I saw that night. If they weren't dressed, we'd be in trouble. That's right. We wouldn't give up hope. Move approval. On the motion by Councilor Dello Russo. Second. Seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor. Aye. Motion passes. Thank you very much. And we'll hopefully be done. I'll be down for those dance lessons. Okay. 717-617. Location of poles, attachment of fixtures, underground conduits. You are hereby notified that by an order of the Medford City Council, public hearing will be given at the Caron Theater at Medford High School, 489 Winterstreet, Medford, Madison, 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 19th, under petition by Comcast Cable Communications Management, LLC, for permission to lay and maintain underground conduits, manholes, handholes, vaults, and ladders with wires and cables, to be placed therein under the surface of the following public way. Several occasions to be placed in accordance with the plan titles proposed, Ashland and Salem Street, dated July 20th, 2017. Ashland Street. Starting at existing utility pole number 5143 on Asher Street, excavating in the roadway and placing two 4-inch PVC conduits 105 feet give or take to a proposed 24-inch by 36-inch vault located in the sidewalk on Salem Street. Salem Street, from proposed vault number one, continuing with two four-inch PVC conduits, 160 feet, give or take, in the street to a proposed 24 by 36 vault located in the sidewalk. Approved. Chief Engineer with a provision that, prior to obtaining a trench permit from the city, Comcast shall submit a detailed traffic management plan Night work may be required. The impacted handicap access parking space will need to be relocated. Any work on Ashland Street will require grinding and inlay of the trench from center line to curb. Trench paving of Salem Street will be asphalt-based coarse material. In addition, pavement will be made to the city in lieu of Comcast final pavement. Sidewalk will be replaced in kind with curb removed and reset if necessary. Test pits, well in advance of the work, will be required at the crossing of Salem Street. Comcast's plan shows that in electrical duct bank with no terminus minus, this must be corrected prior to conducting test pits. All city-owned sewer drain and water laterals must be shown as well. No city-owned or private utilities will be damaged. Water and sewer mains and services, for example, being crossed by the proposed conduit will be investigated by Comcast and the city in advance of the receipt of street opening permit. The city will determine which need to be replaced, and Comcast will either replace or file the replacement. Proper vertical and horizontal clearances will be maintained. Overall, the contract shall utilize the City of Medford standards, in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices as appropriate. Approved, Superintendent of Wires. Call 781-393-2425 for any accommodation. This is a public hearing. Those in favor of this, please step forward.
[John Costas]: Name and address of the record, please. Jermaine Acostas, 25 Salem Street, owner of Metro Electronics. And definitely in favor of this,
[Dave Flewelling]: Good evening, Mr. Congressman. Dean Forwell and Comcast, moving Massachusetts. I'm in favor of the project. Thank you. Thank you. To be able to provide service.
[Richard Caraviello]: Anyone else in favor of this project? Hearing and seeing none, we close that part of the meeting. Anyone that is not in favor of this project, please step forward. Hearing and seeing none, we close that part of the meeting. Mr. Comcast, if you could step forward. Name and address of the record base? Dave, the Walling Comcast.
[Dave Flewelling]: Okay, could you please explain your project then? For this project we have a request from the Century Bank to provide service We're basically going to be coming out of Ashland Street with two new conduits and trenching down Salem Street. Originally the Century Bank is the customer but in doing this project we'll also be able to provide services to the customers on the odd side of Salem Street in conjunction with service getting down to the Century Bank. I did submit yesterday, a little bit late in the afternoon, a preliminary traffic plan for review. I don't know if we've had time to review that or not, but if approved, we will work with the city engineer to revise that as needed. Those maps.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Those full maps. I think everybody has their maps with them.
[John Falco]: Mr. President. Mr. President. I have a few questions about just the project in general. So if you could just let us know and let people watching at home know, how long do you think this project is going to take?
[Dave Flewelling]: That's going to depend upon the street opening permit and when the work would be allowed if approved. I know that's a heavy congested area. Depending upon the digging and the amount of utilities, there's a few things based off of the engineer's comments that we're going to need to address prior to the work once we get that taken care of. I would say the work would probably take a week, maybe a little bit longer, again, depending upon the digging and the working hours.
[John Falco]: And do you think some of this work will be done at night, or is it mostly to working hours?
[Dave Flewelling]: Again, it all depends on what the city engineer believe when they issue the permit, if it's going to be to do it at night and we may be able to get more work done. I just don't know what the working hours would be, what would be approved.
[John Falco]: And could you tell us, let's see, basically with regard to the sidewalks, you're going to be, I think, ripping up a few sidewalks. You're going to be, can you tell us a little bit about, you know, how many sidewalks you're going to rip up? You're going to be replacing them with cements? Yes. And can you tell us, is it two sidewalks, or do you know how many?
[Dave Flewelling]: I believe there's three vault locations in the sidewalk there. And I think, I believe, I haven't been out there in a while looking at this, but I believe there's at least two panels getting to where the vault location is. So there's roughly around eight panels total that would need to be replaced in kind.
[John Falco]: And they'll be replaced with concrete?
[Dave Flewelling]: Yes.
[John Falco]: And can you tell us with regard to Ashland Street, what would be the impact on the neighborhood with regard to people being able to access their driveways? Are they going to be having problems accessing their driveways?
[Dave Flewelling]: Not at all. The first utility pole that we're going to is basically at the corner of Salem Street, so there'd probably be just a couple of parking spaces from the first utility pulled down to Salem Street that would be impacted, and that work there is probably only going to take a day or so. They would excavate the trench, install the conduit, and backfill it, you know, the same day or night, whatever the case may be.
[John Falco]: And with regard to, you know, we've had a lot of talk during these hearings with regard to paving and how you're going to pave the work. needs to be paid once you're done opening up the street and whatnot. And this has been a point of contention with anyone that opens up the street is, over time, a lot of these holes, they sink and whatnot. And I noticed that you're going to be making a payment to the city in lieu of the final payment. So is that payment going to be reimbursement from curb to curb paving or is that going to be just a reimbursement for the sections that you cut open?
[Dave Flewelling]: I'm not too sure about the reimbursement on the paving. I just recently saw this this morning and only had a short amount of time to kind of circulate this around. But I did see that there was some requirements in there on Ashland Street specifically to pave from the center line of the road to the curb. So I'm not sure if the city typically does that paving or if we bring our contractor in. That's all something that we would have to work out when the street opening permit was issued.
[John Falco]: So I guess regardless of who's doing the paving, it looks like you're going to be reimbursing for the paving. So I guess my question is basically, are you going to be reimbursing for curb to curb? It sounds like enough. It sounds like it's going to be maybe just for the sections that you are going to be opening up.
[Dave Flewelling]: Based off of what I saw on this, on the recommendations from the engineer, I can agree to be able to provide this customer service this year and keep the ball moving forward to be able to do the work this excavation season. I can agree to these stipulations here that the city engineer had wrote in the agenda.
[John Falco]: I think that might be a little bit of a point of contention. I mean, just because I know that we have other utilities have been opening up roads. The last meeting we had, we had a number of utilities that came before us. And they basically promised that they would pave curb to curb. And I feel like we're almost setting precedent by doing this now. And in some ways, I feel like almost all utilities that come My colleagues may have a further comment on that, but I just think that we need to. make sure that the street is repaired. And I may like to see curb-to-curb repaving. I think it's a necessity just because we have so many, you know, I look at Salem Street. I mean, I think this is a good project, without a doubt. But I look at Salem Street, and that is a heavily traversed street on a daily basis. And I can easily see, you know, if you're just going to be repairing patches, or even half the road, I could definitely see that being torn up over time. Um, it's a big cut through the street methods. Big cut through community. And, um, sorry, I think curb to curb paving would be something that we should look at.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. And first of all, I'd like to say, as someone who's been on the council a number of years, the lack of Wi-Fi in many sections of our downtown business district has always been a concern. And I'm glad to see this project moving forward, and I'm glad to hear that this will not only benefit Century Bank, but many other businesses in that Salem Street area. We also had a petition three or four weeks back from Comcast to bring Wi-Fi into the old Armory building. And I know that's under unfinished business, but that's also a section of the square that lacks Wi-Fi. And I'm glad to see this finally moving forward. The question I had, and I think Councilor Falco touched upon it, is of recent, the Council has been requesting that projects not be repaved just by trench work, but curb to curb. And it's been an issue of contention among this council. And we've had some utility companies that have been willing to step forward and do curb to curb knowing that, in my opinion, that's the best and most efficient way of putting back a street so we don't have to worry about it. And the question I have on this particular proposal It does mention on Ashland Street, which is a highly traveled road also, as a cut through, it says center line to curb. And right now, I really would prefer curb to curb on that. And it goes on to say in the last paragraph, it says the city will determine what the need is to replace and Comcast will either replace or refund the replacement. What exactly does that language mean? That doesn't really say much to me.
[Dave Flewelling]: That's something that the city engineer wrote in. So I'm not really sure on clarification on that myself. Typically, we do all our own paving. Typically, we repave the trench. Sometimes if it's a two foot wide trench, we would go two feet on either side. But in this case, it sounds like the engineer wants us to go to the center line of the road. Therefore, you would do a temporary patch, then we would bring our contractor back in and then pay from the curb to the center line. Or I'm not sure on her, I need to get clarification. If we do the temporary patch and then the city brings in their own contractor to do that curb to the center line.
[Michael Marks]: Okay, and the way I read it is a little different. I read it is the city will determine how these streets will be put back and not just whether Comcast will do the work of the city will do the work, but whether it would be curb to curb center line to curb in the city will make that determination. And I think as a member of the council, before we take a vote, we need to know what the parameter is on this. And do you have the ability tonight to make a decision for curb to curb?
[Dave Flewelling]: Yes.
[Michael Marks]: And if that is a request of you tonight, you'd be able to make that? Yes. So I would put that, Mr. President, as a form of a motion on this paper that all work be done curb-to-curb based on the representative from Comcast on this particular project.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you. Councilor Dyke. Mr. President. Very difficult for us to sit here and vote on a special permit when we don't have a traffic plan that's for us to review, that there's no clear and concise project schedule as to when this work is going to take place. And the petitioner comes forward, and they've met their obligations that's been issued by the administration. But the city engineer has certain criteria and certain parameters that she'd like to see met. But before we issue the permit, I think these are things that we also need to know. I mean, we need to know if there's network that's going to be going on there. We need to know if it's going to take eight months for them to fix this. We've entered into a situation where we have a project with a construction schedule in Medford, where the Craddock Bridge, and it's been going on for three years. But we don't know what the construction schedule is. Now, it's 160 feet of conduit that's going to be delayed. I think it's important that we deliver Wi-Fi to the business district in Medford Square. I think that's going to be a key component for us to help revitalize the district. We need to embrace technology if we're going to be able to do a better job in Medford Square and fill in those stores and making sure that it's a vibrant place that people want to go. So with that being said, I don't have so much problem with the petition or the request that's being made, but I do have a little bit of problem with the information that's provided us from the administration. And I'd like to see it, Mr. President. You know, I think Councilor Marks is on the right track. I mean, we want to see the curbs paved. We want to see it paved curb to curb. That's been something we've been hounding on for four years. It's a pet peeve of mine when I go down these neighbourhood streets and I see French work and grounded inlay work that isn't completed or is completed shortly. Sometimes it seems more so that public utility companies that provide gas and electricity than Comcast are more focused on getting the next shovel in the ground than they are about coming back and repairing the damage that they've done in the neighbourhoods. So that's one of the concerns that I have, Mr. President. Certainly, I think it's a noble cause and I think it's a great and a great way for us to expand opportunities and methods of work. I'm just a little bit concerned about the fact that we're not being provided with enough information for us to see a full picture and we're being asked to vote on a special permit this evening without knowing exactly what direction this project is going to go and what to expect after the issuance of the permit.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Councilor Dello Russo. Mr. President, I want to thank Councilor Knight for his insight on this. A couple of things were mentioned here tonight, and a couple of things have been sort of brought to light as far as where the community stands on a number of things over this past week, only confirming some of the work that I've been doing for well over a decade. First, let me say this. I think this is a good measure, we need it in the square, and Comcast needs to get this work done. They're the primary provider here in the city of Medford, and people need this service. I'm looking at the language in this petition, and what it says to me is that the city engineer has finally gone, and she's doing something about it. is going to decide the extent to which that any of these utility operators are going to have to repair our streets, and that they're going to be directed by the office of the engineer. And if it's curb to curb that the engineer determines is needed, then that's what they're going to provide. And I think we need to have a motion an amendment to this paper that the city council understands that the language herein, this petition for this public hearing and to have this work done is saying that the city engineer of the city of Medford will determine how much repair work has to be done to these streets and if it is curb to curb that Comcast understands that and will fund the City of Medford and or their contractor to provide that type of repair to the streets for the people of Medford. Traffic plans, traffic, digging up sales. 10 of my 12 years on the Council, I've been involved in at least two plans for the revitalization of Medford Square. We had an unveiling to the general public last week of the redevelopment plan that has been presented. not engraved in granite, but pretty close by the MAPC, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which advises communities in the greater Boston area about planning and development. We had several private contractors over the years advise the cities. The plan has had its fits and starts, but we're on the verge of doing something right here. And one of the things that came out of the meeting this past week from citizens of Medford, from people who are eager to see us get going, is that we have to shake it up and make ourselves a little uncomfortable to get things going. And one of the things that this project could enable us to do is see what it's like to tighten things up on Salem Street, to use that type of work as a diversion of traffic so the people of Winchester can stop using Salem Street, High Street, and Winthrop Street as their private superhighway. And let them find another way. Let them go up 93 and get off at Highland Ave, right in their own backyards, rather than going through our backyards and front yards. So if it's going to tighten things up on Salem Street for some of the people that use it as their cutthroat to Winchester or to Arlington, all the best to them. Let's let's look at this. Let's let the engineering department and the community development department experiment with some of the things that were presented to us in this meeting as part of this plan so we can get a feel for it. And I think the citizens of Medford will benefit. They're going to benefit from getting this work done. Hopefully, they'll get in there, get it done, and get lost, and give us the service that we need. And Mr. President, I'm ready to vote for this and approve for it tonight. Thank you. With that amendment. Thank you.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, my colleagues. I think everybody has brought up some valid points and issues, concerns. I appreciate Dave from Comcast. I don't believe Comcast has any issues. I have any issues with Comcast. I think you've done your due diligence. I think that the questions that were brought about this evening, I think that we've made echo this my first meeting here at the council and what our roadways and sidewalks are looking at looking like with our utilities after they come in and use Medford for what they want and then just take off I think not I think excluding Comcast because they think that the conversation that we've had and the response that you put forth as your company, I think that's been very receptive. But I do echo what a few of my colleagues are saying, which is the biggest point is City Engineer. We can talk going back and forth about voting or not voting, but I think that my recommendation would be just to table this and have an emergency meeting with the City Engineer to get these questions answered. Traffic plan, the positive aspect of bringing Wi-Fi in the square, that's a basic necessity I think everybody in our community should have, especially in Medford Square. But understanding that how many neighbors will be making sure that they've been notified, both on Ashland and our businesses up and down Salem Street. I don't want to delay this. I want to push it forward. But at the same time, I think we need to have these questions answered by our city engineer and her department. So I want to move forward. for our businesses and our community, but at the same time, I think that my colleagues have brought some valid points, unless we have some answers from our city side, and that's our engineer, about a traffic study, our timeline when we're doing the construction, our notification of our neighbors and our business owners, making sure that they were notified. making sure that the pedestrians that are walking those sidewalks during that construction, that it's a safe, traversed area because it does go to one of the busiest bus stops in Medford Square. If I could, is there a way through the chair that we can call for a meeting as soon as possible with the city engineer? Well, then my motion tonight would be to table and then move forward with trying to get the engineer and moving this forward. I don't want to delay it so it does fall into construction questions. but moving it to get these answers, these questions answered and then hopefully be back at the table by next week and get all these answers that we need that we can bring to our constituents and make sure that the job goes without any issues and it's brought back to with what we've set as a standard here as a council for all of our utilities that we're saying curb to curb and making sure that the construction timeline and notifications are done properly and thoroughly. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Mr. President? Thank you, President Caraviello. I just want to be clear. I understand what my colleagues are saying, but did I hear you say you would do curb to curb?
[Dave Flewelling]: Yes. And if I if I could also say, I mean, we're open to doing the work at night. We just need to know if we if we're allowed to do the work at night, what would be the working hours? And then I would be able to give you a schedule, the point of information if I can.
[George Scarpelli]: I'm sorry, this is the frustration frustrating part. This is something that the engineer that we should have had from the engineer. This is something that you as the contract of for Comcast, the business owner of Comcast doing that. So that's my frustration. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: If it wasn't such a busy thoroughfare and one of our main roads, I'd be ready to approve tonight, especially where you said curb to curb. But if we're going to meet on it next Tuesday at, say, 6 o'clock, if we could just get a copy in by Friday of the traffic plans for the week.
[Dave Flewelling]: I do have a traffic plan. I did submit it electronically yesterday, and you probably didn't get it in time. And I do have a copy with me, but I only have one copy. Is this it, Dick?
[Michael Marks]: No, this isn't the traffic.
[Dave Flewelling]: This is what you said? That's the traffic.
[George Scarpelli]: Yeah, that's the traffic.
[Dave Flewelling]: So again, that all hinges on, I mean, that may change if it's night work. I mean, we'd probably be able to get a lot more work done if it's at night. But I need to know, again, the working hours and what would be allowed. And if we're going to notify the abutters, I'll need to give them some sort of a schedule.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And I have it, too. I was looking at it. It didn't look like the directions aren't on here. But it does say where the cones will be placed, the signs, the work zone, things like that. So I guess we do need probably some more clarification of where traffic's going to be diverted. My last comment is that we, within our meeting, if we do meet on this, hopefully within the week, that we discuss what the standards are going to be. I know I had mentioned a month ago we were requesting curve-to-curve from one company and then with the other company we weren't requesting curve-to-curve. So I just think we need to figure out a way that, figure out what we want as a group, collectively, of going forward for all utility companies. So we do it fairly, and we require the same thing from every single company. And I think we're on track with, obviously, making our streets be repaired much better than they have been, and where things are sinking and dipping. So I think we're on the right track. I just think we need to have a discussion in in committee on where we're going with this and make sure our city engineer is on board and thinks it's feasible.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Layton.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I don't think that the rub lies with the petitioner. I think that the rub lies with some of the information that we've received. I think that we've held a public hearing. We've heard that there's really no outcry of opposition to the approval of this permit. I think that really the issue is whether or not we as a council this evening are comfortable approving this permit with the contingencies that the traffic engineer, I mean that the city engineer submit the traffic mitigation plan and submit the traffic on the project work schedule. to the Council for approval. So we could this evening, Mr. President, approve the permit with the contingencies that the traffic plan and the schedule of work be submitted to the Council for approval. So if the permit can be approved, provided that those materials come into the Council and we approve those. Just an option, just a way for us to maybe move this along. I don't think the problem lies with the gentleman from Comcast. As I said, we just need a little bit more information to feel comfortable moving forward. We could approve the permit with the contingencies that the city engineer provided us with the traffic mitigation plan and with the concise work schedule for approval. And upon our approval, the permit will be issued. But we don't need to bring the gentleman back. I don't think we need to even have another public hearing on the matter. We can just ask that material to be forwarded to us and then vote as to whether or not we're comfortable issuing the permit at a later date.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Dello Russo. Mr. President, I think Councilor Knight is right, if I understood him, in that my amendment was to clarify this language as we're clarifying it. If we accept this amendment, we've clarified it. We want, and I think if we can understand a consensus that's come out of our discussions over the past year or two where this has become such a problem is that the engineer needs to supervise this better, these types of projects better, and hold the contractors accountable. And it seems to me the way I read this language here in what she's added is that she's gotten it and she's doing that. And I'm comfortable letting the engineering department determine with the contractor the scope to which the repairs need to be done. So if the engineer believes that it serves the people of Medford best, that it be curb to curb, then she's going to demand that of these contractors. Quite frankly, I'm not qualified. I'm not an engineer. I'm not a construction person. I can't shovel snow. I'm pretty good with leaves. Every morning you'll see me at 6, between 6 and 7, sweeping cigarette butts in front of my office. That's the scope of my construction skills, but the engineer and her staff understand this. This is their profession, and it seems to me, again, that they've gotten what they've asked, and I think we should allow them. I don't think it would be wise on our part to mandate extremes where they're not necessary. I think that the construction people need to be aware that National Engineers had some serious problems historically in that area. So I think you're aware of that, that there's been some problems over there. And as far as the traffic plane goes, if the engineer and the police department has signed off on that, that's never been our area of concern. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. As I said earlier, I'm pleased and comfortable making an approval here, and I don't think we need to hold it up, nor do we need to have an emergency meeting. Councilor Scarpelli has a motion on the table, if you want to present it.
[George Scarpelli]: If I can, I would present it. I appreciate Councilor Knight and Councilor Dello Russo's initiative. I think that, again, my biggest concern is that the What we set forth, I think, not only curb to curb, I appreciate that and move forward with that, but the idea of when the construction. will, what's the timeline for the construction and whether making sure that the neighbors were notified and having the understanding that personally, I would rather see it done at night, especially if there isn't a residential area that's being, you know, if we could put that forward, the recommendation that it eliminates some of that congestion in Method Square and to help our business owners and the, the neighbors in that area, I'd be willing to take that off and make that as part of the amendment that goes forth to the city engineer.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Councilor Layton.
[Adam Knight]: So as I understand it, Mr. President, the matter is that right now before the council would be moving for approval of the permit with the contingency that the gentleman has agreed to a curb to curb repaving that the city solicitor, I mean, the city engineer is going to report back to us what the construction schedule is going to be. And that the city engineer is going to also provide us with an updated traffic management plan. And the council would also be issuing a recommendation that the work be done off hours during the evening as to not impact negatively the local businesses or the traffic flow in the area.
[George Scarpelli]: And the, if I can, the notification to the neighbors again that they are given, you know, the proper timeline so they can understand what's going on in that section.
[Richard Caraviello]: Summarized perfectly.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: I think somebody else would like to speak.
[McKillop]: Name and address on the record, please. Dave McKillop, 94 Rockblind Road. One of the things that I just want to kind of touch base on is the curb to curb. I think that Councilor Lungo-Koehn is 100% right as well as Councilor Marks and a few others. My recommendation on the curb to curb is that you folks get together and come up with a comprehensive engineer and, you know, project to project, it might not have the best resolution for one particular street. So in other words, if they open up another section of a street and that opening might be four feet by six feet or five feet by eight feet, whatever it is, but there are four other openings on that street, that street has become a disaster. So I kind of, I don't agree with the fact that we're getting a little bit better because some of those streets have anywhere from two and three patches to five and seven patches. So I think having a parameter set up where that person or that company has to be responsible for a curve based off of length, width, depth, and the amount of openings that have already occurred on that street is probably a better direction to go. So it's now something that you can use as a guideline as opposed to going from project to project. And I think that's something that you should do prior to making these decisions going forward. I agree with Councilor Scarpelli of tabling this item and considering that prior to making those decisions, even though that they've already agreed to curve to curve. Thank you. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Name and address of the record, please.
[John Costas]: Hello. Geron Colostos, 25 Salem Street. I understand everybody's concerns, and they're all valid, street safety, the whole nine yards, and we have to hold somebody accountable for something. So I'm not gonna disregard as being not important. It is, it's very important. But my part of Salem Street and behind Riverside Avenue, we've been waiting a very, very long time for this. Now, I went 30 years without anything but DSL. Now we're fortunate enough that Verizon came in with Fiverr, and that's great. But at this point, they're the only game in town for us. So whatever they want, if we need a high-speed internet, we're going to go to Verizon. I do have Verizon. Comcast has done their homework. They signed up a whole lot of businesses that would be interested in going to Comcast. And the savings is great. So what I don't want to see happen is, as much as all these details are important, I don't want to see Medford Square end up being kind of like a tug of war. Well, we're going to hold Medford Square hostage until everything is where it's supposed to be exactly. And in the meantime, us businesses on the square, we're just going to keep paying the higher rate to Verizon waiting for our expenditure to do what they need to do. Whatever the council can do to move this along quicker, and I like the idea of the approval, and then if you're satisfied with what they submit, move forward and not come back to another public meeting. So please, let's move this along as quickly. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Move for approval as amended, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Scapelli has a motion to take.
[George Scarpelli]: I believe I rescinded and move on to the recommendations of Councilor Knight. Move for approval as amended.
[Richard Caraviello]: A motion by Councilor Knight for approval, seconded by Councilor Dello Russo. Mr. Clerk. Please call the roll.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Before you call the roll, just as a B paper, if we could set up a meeting within the next month to discuss standards and guidelines, I think that is important. David hit it on the head.
[Richard Caraviello]: I would ask if we could do it within the next 14 days rather than a month. Point of information, Mr. President?
[Adam Knight]: I do believe we had that meeting already. We posed a series of questions to the city solicitor as to whether or not we could restrict the number of permits that are issued in the year, so on and so forth. I think that maybe we want to reiterate our need for a response to that paper as well.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And I think we need to go one step further and create guidelines amongst the seven of us. And I don't think that was specifically done at the last meeting. And I agree, we do have unanswered questions that, um, there are a lot of things we asked Cassandra or Cassandra's office to be able to do. And I think that's important to get some answers so we can regulate the companies and the work they do. Mr. Clerk. Yes. Yes.
[Clerk]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 7 negative. Motion passes. Suspension. If I can. Thank you. I know that since we have
[George Scarpelli]: I know we have a paper that's been tabled 17-593. I believe that Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC, High Street, the position High Street and Hillside Ave for intersection. I believe that we're waiting on a question that maybe could be answered to move this forward. I believe the question was that we were asking for If we can't take it off the table.
[Richard Caraviello]: Motion by Councilman Scott Felde to take this up 17-593 off the table. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Councilman Scott Felde.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. Again, I apologize for jumping the gun, but I believe we're asking some clarification on this paper that we asked Comcast to report back to us to see if that job could be curb-to-curb also paving. So if you haven't, can you respond to that?
[Dave Flewelling]: Yeah, I didn't think that it was curb-to-curb. I thought it was half centerline.
[George Scarpelli]: My recollection is curb to curb.
[Michael Marks]: We have a copy of the minutes, right? Could you, from the last meeting, can we get the copy?
[Fred Dello Russo]: 1517-593 Comcast Cable Communications Management, LLC August 15, 2017.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, if I could.
[Adam Knight]: It was tabled based on a roll call vote for in the affirmative, three in the negative. I believe it was tabled for the purpose of receiving the answers to the questions that we had posed to the administration. But it doesn't say that, it just says upon motion to table a roll call vote. And it's not reflecting.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, if I could. I happen to recall the discussion from three, four weeks ago, even though I don't remember what I had for dinner last night. I do recall that discussion. And at the time, the gentleman from Comcast, when we asked him if he could do a curb-to-curb, said he didn't have the authority to do so. So we asked him to go back and find out if that was in the specs to do curb-to-curb. So I think that's where we left off, because that particular night, as you recall, we also asked another utility company, and they agreed to do curb-to-curb, but they had someone in the room that had the ability to make that decision. So I don't know if this gentleman for the a high street project which is going into the armory. I believe it's for a medical business that's in the armory that needs internet access. So maybe if we can pose that question to the gentleman.
[Dave Flewelling]: For the record, Dave Walling, Comcast. I was going by the agenda from the trench to the curb. But again, if it's curb to curb, I can agree to curb to curb. And we'll work with the same as the other petition on the schedule, whether it be at night or we'll work on the traffic management plan. Um, I know this customer is looking for the service, so I'm looking.
[George Scarpelli]: I don't want to slow it down. Okay, if we can on the motion that we move forward with the same stipulations, um, on the motion by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Russo.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. Clarity, Mr. President. So PayPal 17593 is off the table. We're going to vote on this evening to issue a permit. to dig a trench to access the armory building, and the same contingencies that we had just voted on for the prior paper would be in place?
[Richard Caraviello]: Same contingencies that were on the other plan will be held to this standard also.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And did we vote on the B paper last?
[Richard Caraviello]: I thought that was part of it. On the motion by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor De La Rosa, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Dello Russo?
[Richard Caraviello]: Aye.
[Clerk]: Councilor Falco? Yes. Councilor Knight?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Lungo-Koehnan? Yes. Vice President Marks?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Scarpelli?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Senator McCabeo?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, none in the negative. Motion ordinance passed. Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, we're in suspension. Can we take communications from the mayor? Paper 17649. Motion by Councilor Knight to take 17649.
[Richard Caraviello]: Aye. Motion passes.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President and councilors. Mr. President, motion to waive the reading and have a representative from the administration. Give us a brief synopsis of the paper. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Even though we can't see your name and address of the record.
[_ILL_rSpLCY_SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. Frank Gilroy, Fire Chief, City of Medford. On 26 May. The request before you this evening, Mr. President, is for, uh, to approve payment of those five invoices with this year's appropriation. The amount totaling $4,362.25. Move approval. Councilman Locario.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_13]: Just through the chair, what were the invoices specifically? I'm sorry? A breakdown of what the invoices were for?
[_ILL_rSpLCY_SPEAKER_00]: Overhead door repairs on various stations.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_13]: Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, if I may? Constantly. Chief, have those door issues been rectified in their entirety? Have there been new doors placed in, or is it more of a patchwork repair type of thing?
[Richard Caraviello]: These were all just repairs for various items.
[Adam Knight]: And if I may, Chief, would you be comfortable this evening giving us an update on the status of the relocation search committee for the training tower?
[_ILL_rSpLCY_SPEAKER_00]: Not at all. I believe we're much closer to acquiring the property that I've requested behind the VFW.
[Adam Knight]: Okay, so you've identified a site.
[_ILL_rSpLCY_SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I wrote to the mayor. The mayor passed that along to our state representative, Mr. Donato, and he's been in touch with MassDOT and they seem to be very receptive to us. Excellent. Excellent.
[Adam Knight]: Great. Thank you very much. You've been done. One other item I just want to follow up on. The turnoff key, has that been issued?
[_ILL_rSpLCY_SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry?
[Adam Knight]: The second set of turnoff key, or is the second set of turnoff key have been issued? We're just waiting for delivery. Waiting for delivery. OK. Thank you very much.
[Fred Dello Russo]: You're welcome. Councilor Dello Russo. Chief, thank you for your leadership of the department. You're a man who gets things done. Thank you, Councilor Dello Russo. Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Move approval, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: Move the motion by Councilor Layton, seconded by?
[Clerk]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes. Yes.
[Adam Knight]: Move to suspend the rules and take 1-7-6-5-0, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: 17-6-5-0.
[Adam Knight]: Motion to waive the reading and have a representative from the administration give a brief synopsis of the paper.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_24]: Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening, Councilors. I'm here tonight to request approval for a bill we have from Jamie Thompson-Plumbing regarding a site at 38 Circus Street. He was called out in November of 2015 on two separate calls on an emergency basis. There was a two-family dwelling, first floor was vacant, and on the second floor, A single mother with three children, they had no hot water, so he had to go out, place a hot water line, and hook that up to the second floor water line to give them the hot water. The next night, because of, this all occurred because of a sewage backup that went in the house, caused several other problems. And the next night, he had a no heat call. He had to go out and repair the boiler, fire up the boiler, restart it, so this woman and her young children could have heat. And the total amount on these bills that we're requesting payment for is $545 for the plumbing work he did at this site. Thank you. Councilor Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: If I may, through the chair, thank you, President Caraviello. You said the bills were from 2015. Is there a reason why it's taken so long?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_24]: Yes, Councilor Lungo-Koehn, there was a reason why it took so long. There was an absentee landlord who subsequently moved to Hawaii. And during that time, we were in the process of contacting a management company, which took quite a while, and what ended up happening, we had to put a lien on the house, and it took several, after the lien was put on, the vendor took several months to give us his invoice, and then once we got the invoice, we had to wait another several months for the attorney that closed on the property to give us a check for the lien that we had placed on the property.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you. Mr. President? Mr. Mulkey, you said that there's Thompson Plumbing Company and they went out to this site twice? Two separate occasions. Two separate occasions and the total bill was only $545? Yes. That's quite a deal.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_24]: Relatively speaking, it's a very good price, yes.
[Adam Knight]: Move approval, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor McLachlan. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor De La Rosa? Yes. Councilor Falco? Yes. Councilor Knight?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Lungo-Koehnan? Yes. Vice President Martz? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Vice President Caraviello?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, nine in the negative. Motion passes.
[Adam Knight]: 17-652. Mr. President, City Council. Mr. President, motion to waive the reading and have a representative from the administration give a brief synopsis on the paper. On the motion by Councilor Knight, do we have a representative from
[Richard Caraviello]: We can't say how to seal this. We can't say we shouldn't. Thank you. The record, please. Alicia Hunt 41 Watson Street, Medford. Um, so basically this is, sorry,
[Alicia Hunt]: I expected to have it all read, so I am going to summarize it for you. This is a request for $348,336 from Free Cash. The information you typically request is there in the paper. The first $256,000 is to upgrade the lights at the Andrews School to controllable LED lights. This is a natural next step after the other work that we've done in the schools. You might be aware that last winter we did the Curtis Tosta LED lights interior. We did some of the hallways and some other LED light projects at the schools. This is the direction that the industry is moving. Our DPW was built with all LED lights as well. This particular project is being, I'm asking for this money to do this project at this time. because this will serve as the city's match to a grant the state and B2Q Consulting received from the state. So the lighting project on its own makes sense. It'll save the city about $22,000 a year. But if we do it at this time, we can use it as our share on this grant project. The grant is to do electricity peak demand reduction, and it's a pilot for the state. So basically the state gave B2Q and the city money to work on this. The grant itself is $478,000. And as well, National Grid is very interested in how this would work. And they have committed $125,000 of technical assistance time on this specific project. And the project would actually run in the Andrews School and the DPW. We'll get additionally, they'll be upgrading the controls in the schools and the DPW to be able to control the lights in both of those buildings through our computer system, as well as doing additional upgrades to the heating and cooling system and their controls, how we run it, energy efficiency. It is also likely that we would get revenue from the demand response program. The amount of that revenue is very dependent on The whole process, we're still doing the feasibility part of it that determines how much electricity we would actually produce through these programs during peak demand time. That's one piece of it. The other part of the money is $83,000. that would serve as a match for another grant that we received from the Department of Energy Resources that would add battery and the ability to run solar off-grid to the DPW and the Andrews School. And as you know, we're in the process of putting solar on the DPW, so this adds battery to that.
[Richard Caraviello]: Can you repeat the figure you just said?
[Alicia Hunt]: So, which, okay.
[Richard Caraviello]: The amount awarded by the grant from the Department of Energy?
[Alicia Hunt]: So the first grant is, $478,688. The second grant, I'm asking for $83,000. I can be more specific. $83,336 serves as a match. It is 10% of the grant amount. Hold on a second. Because we have it as $833,000. No, the grant is $833,000. Yes, so the grant is an $833,000 and change grant.
[Richard Caraviello]: And so our match is 10% that we need to have in hand as we begin the project.
[Alicia Hunt]: So battery is very, very expensive to pair with solar. And we believe it's a good idea. It'll allow us to run these buildings off grid when the electricity is down. And the grant will pay for this battery that would go with both the solar systems, the one we're in the process of, and the one that is planned that will be coming eventually our future. We have to redo the roof at the Andrews School before we come forward with a solid proposal on solar for that building. So that's the whole package altogether.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you.
[John Falco]: Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Falco.
[John Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you for this report, Ms. Hunt and Superintendent Bellison. I think this is a great opportunity, and I think it's a great program. And I'm glad to see that we're getting grant funding for this here type of project. Can you talk a little bit about the impact on the schools with regards to when this project will take place and how the students will be impacted?
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, so the lighting project, it would be our intention to do it second shift. So they would be in there 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. in order to do that piece of it. Solar, if and when we are able. So we'll need to do a new roof and solar. My hope is that we could get something lined up for next summer. But that is still the chunk to come. The battery piece of it would actually be completely out of the way in the back area, not where students are. There's a separate entrance into the electrical rooms where we have generators and HVAC equipment. So the contractors, when they do do work, could work in that area without ever having to go into the main portion of the building. Or they could go in through the main portion, check in with the with the security, but then they would just traverse through the building and be in that back area and never have to actually be in student areas. I also know the superintendent is here to speak to some of this as well.
[John Falco]: If I may, what would be the duration of the project? How long would it take to replace all the lights?
[Alicia Hunt]: A couple of weeks. So I will tell you that this is a large project, so it would have to be bid out. And part of the bidding out process is to ask the contractors, how long will it take? Because some contractors will put one crew on and do it over many weeks. Other contractors will say, I have 10 crews, and I'll get it done in three days. So because it's going to be a project that would be bid out, I cannot tell you now. And I can't bid it out until we're at that stage of the project. is when we would have to schedule.
[John Falco]: Mr. Superintendent, so it sounds like there could be some workers in the building while the students are there. Will all the workers be quarried and whatnot?
[Roy Belson]: If there is any time in which a worker is in the building, that worker would be quarried, even if he's working second shift, because there are programs that run in the afternoons. Exactly. So we would quarry anyone that might have the opportunity to be unsupervised with young people.
[John Falco]: make sure that we're doing everything we can. This is a pretty big project. There'll be a lot of people in the building, so we just want to make sure we're protecting our students. So, thank you.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. Alicia, regarding the paired battery storage, will we be able to accept additional electricity from the current windmill and also provide that to the battery storage?
[Alicia Hunt]: The wind turbine is actually connected to the McGlynn School, not the Andrews School, so it would not be connected to this battery. Right. But we couldn't connect one to the other. I mean, the schools are on the same property, right? The wind turbine doesn't make as much electricity compared to what a solar installation does to make it worth the amount of electrical work you would have to do to do that. There would also be a lot of changes to the control system in order to take in that separate, very different input. And I hope that at some point in the future, we'd be able to do a similar project at the McGlynn School, and at which point we would have the wind turbine. We would also have the benefit of having done this project at the Andrew School first.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Hunt, thank you very much for your work. I'm looking at this paper and reading what it says. grant for this, grant for that, grant for this. And I know that those grants didn't write themselves. And I think that they deserve a lot of credit for going out there and finding the money. So thank you very much for your effort. And looking at this paper, I mean, we have $265,000 to upgrade the LED lights at the Andrews. My math, as spooky as it is, would come back and show that we have about 12-year return on our investment. We're going to save about $22,000 a year if we convert to the LED lighting, and we'll be able to capture this investment within a period of about 12 years. I also understand that this $83,000 is a 10% match on the battery, correct? Right. And if you add the $265,000 and the $83,000, we come up with a figure of $348,000. So this appropriation is for $348,000, but we're also looking at $100,000 grant? A $478,000 grant? Yes. A $125,000 grant? So the $100,000 is
[Alicia Hunt]: There are two different numbers for National Grid. One is an incentive for the lighting. So the lighting project is actually more expensive than this. So that comes in to offset the cost of the lighting. And the other is that National Grid will put technical assistance in to this project, which honestly, I feel is very notable that they've actually said that this project is interesting enough to them that they want to put that much of their own into the project to make this work. But it's the equivalent of $125,000 in national grid time.
[Adam Knight]: OK. So in looking at all the grant money or the matching funds that have been awarded to the city, how much money are we talking here?
[Alicia Hunt]: I have not done that math. But we're looking at like 833 and 478, so that's close to one plus the $100,000, on the order of $1.3 million of money that'll be coming into city buildings.
[Adam Knight]: So this evening you're asking for us to make an investment of $348,000 so that we can get a return on that investment of over a million dollars?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Adam Knight]: I'm comfortable voting for this this evening. Thank you very much for your work, Mr. President, and for approval.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Councilor Lungo-Koehn. Thank you, President Caraviello. Ms. Hentwell, we have you before us, and we're talking about the Andrews School. Can you give us an update on the test borings that were done very close to there and whether or not they were done behind the Andrews School, any results that may be coming back?
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, so I do believe that there is a response in your packets that is from the motion prior about that. I'm happy to speak to it for a minute or two. That would be great. I don't have the response that went to you in front of me. But we did the test scoring. We found that there were two locations that had very high levels deep down. One was, oh my gosh, my brain is going to stop on that, lead. And the other was very unusually, threw me for a loop, I believe it was zinc. Is that right that's in there? And I didn't even know prior that could be contaminating. And so those two locations, we need to do, so we did testing in the grid, and two spots showed up with high levels, and now we need to, oh, thank you, I really appreciate that. I did not refresh myself on it. Yes, zinc. Sorry, it's such an odd thing. I was not aware that zinc at a high level could be a soil contaminant until we got involved in this project, so I always question myself when I say that. So those two spots are very high and actually either have to be removed or we have to do extensive room reporting and testing to the state that would be extremely costly to removing those areas. So we need to do testing around those locations to find out exactly so we know where there is a problem and we know these areas where there isn't and we want to test in closer to see how small of an area can we deal with. So it might be that we put you know, a bench and a paved area and a bench over the zinc location, or it may be that we dig a hole and dig it out. And we need to, in order to do one of those things, do a little bit more testing to understand those locations. We haven't yet tested on the other side of the sidewalk. The lead level is actually very close to the sidewalk, and so as part of narrowing that, we are gonna need to go on the other side of the sidewalk and do that testing. But we'd sort of been waiting to get it all done at the same time and not do that separately. There were two areas that had petroleum and PCBs, which we also have to do some further examination to understand. The other thing that was notable that I mentioned in here, one of the other properties, they have had a problem with their groundwater that they are very aware of. And one of the questions that had come up to me, and what prompted this testing partially in part was, was this problem in the groundwater under our property? And we did not find any of that under our property. So additionally, some of the area within the fence belongs to the Department of Conservation and Recreation, DCR. That area has been delineated. We have not been doing testing on that area, but we are in close contact with them. I, in fact, discussed that. with them today, and they're very interested in working with us to be able to do a solution that provides safety and protection to everybody, but is as minimal expense and actually impact to the area as possible. And with their extensive experience in these sorts of problems, I think we're going to be able to do things a little bit better because they're going to be a partner with us on this.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you very much for the update. We do have it in our packet. There are a number of parents that have been asking me questions, you know, so I wanted you to state it publicly. And just so I have it clearly, after reading it and after your explanation, test pourings were done at the clippership part section. The lead and the zinc were found. But there will be, as requested by the council, there will be some pourings on the other side of the walkway, which is behind Andrews, where the children play soccer and whatnot.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. So I do not anticipate that we would go up onto the soccer field. We were able to find the records. So when those schools were built, They found arsenic in that area, and the area was low enough that they were legally allowed to close the site without doing anything. But they came in and put clean fill over that whole area. But it was after the fact that the area was closed with the state as being acceptable as is, but then the city came in and put the clean fill on anyhow. So the records on that and exactly the locations are a little different, but it's pretty clear to the eye that where the soccer field raises up is part of that area with the clean fill on top. and which makes us very comfortable about that area. And it's just the part that slopes down to the pathway where you might say, well, that doesn't look like there's clean fill on there. And so that's where some of these borings are going to be.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And then can you just, lastly, just give us a time frame so we know when to request an update?
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. So I'm hoping to do that over the next four to six weeks. Some of it is scheduling with the equipment that is necessary to do that. And finalizing it all. We've been waiting. Honestly, our point of contact at the state The Environmental Protection Office has been out for three weeks on leave, and we really wanted him to see our most recent report and discuss it with him, and he returned from leave yesterday. So before I schedule the borings, I do want to review with him the results of our first round of borings.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Move approval.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you for following up on that.
[George Scarpelli]: It's you.
[Unidentified]: Wow.
[George Scarpelli]: It's Zink. It's Zink.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Scudero.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you. My colleague asked the questions. Thank you very much.
[Richard Caraviello]: Move approval, Mr. President. On the motion by Councilor- Mr. President. Second. Seconded by Councilor Naik.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President. Vice President Mox. Just if we could, if we can also, while we have Alicia here, if you can give us just a brief update on where we stand with the lighting in the square.
[Alicia Hunt]: So the lighting of the square has been folded in with our larger city lighting project, and I actually spoke with our consultants at Lane Thomp, oh my gosh, on Monday, yesterday, about the history of those lights, what are in those various fixtures, what we're looking for, Based on what I've said and the observations, and I'd love feedback, but my impression is that most people are happy with the light levels at the Peace Garden. Those are the same fixtures, but much brighter. And so I believe that we'll be able, through this project, to install equivalent light bulbs, basically, from what's in the Peace Garden into the square. For technical reasons, under an energy efficiency project, I could never put those in because it would be increasing the electricity that's used. And that would fall outside of any kind of grant money I could do, or I would have to put that out to bid. Under our larger lighting project, it's probably the right thing to do. And that will increase the electricity usage on those lights. But at this point, I think most people would agree that's the right thing to do. And we'll be decreasing the light, the electricity usage throughout the rest of the city. So that is our tentative plan, and I've asked them to get me that information concretely as quickly as possible to move that forward faster than the main project. But I'm not sure what the timing on that would be and whether there's an appetite for coming forward with a request for just that chunk of money separate from the main lighting project.
[Michael Marks]: Originally, it started off as a standalone project.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, it did. And we were trying to make it an energy efficiency project that we could procure through energy, through the Green Communities Act at the state level. And you can't do it in an energy efficient manner and fix the light levels there. So.
[Richard Caraviello]: Move the question. Thank you. On the motion. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Kellogg?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes. Yes.
[Clerk]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Michael Marks]: We have to wait. It'll be two minutes, because the other topic is going to take a long time.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Marks, session of the rules.
[Michael Marks]: We're already under suspension, right?
[Richard Caraviello]: Uh, no. All right.
[Robert Cappucci]: Name and address of the record, please. Thank you, Mr. President. Robert Capucci, 71 Evans Street. Thank you. Unfortunately, I'm here again to address this council on the matter of the upkeep of Evans Street. Spoken to you for years about it at the council chambers, at the last meeting across the courtyard, and here I am in the little theater addressing you again tonight, and I really hope to God this is the last time. The last meeting, This council informed me, which I then informed my neighbors on Evans Street, that Evans Street wasn't on the list. And then we came to find out that that was a miscommunication, that Evans Street was on the list. And DPW workers came to Evans Street and they mapped out with colored spray paint the water pipes on Evans Street that are going to be replaced. And we were told, a friend of mine, one of my neighbors, Shawna Smith, has a friend in DPW who told her that work would begin on September 11th. It's September 19th, the work hasn't begun. So my friend Shauna went on C-Click Fix Sunday night to report to the city that Evans Street is one big pothole. We come to find out there that the work wasn't started on September 11th, as promised, because the work order was assigned to the science department. Terrible incompetence on the behalf of this mayoral administration, or it's on purpose. We are at our wit's end on Evans Street. And this is the proper format, I think, for the current mayoral administration, because it's all an act. We're frustrated. on Edmonds Street. Thank you, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Point of order, Mr. President. Point of order, Councilor Dello Russo. I wish that caution would be given as to making disparaging remarks.
[Robert Cappucci]: Thank you, Councilor Dello Russo. Mr. President, if I can address that. It's disparaging for 30 houses on Evans Street to be paying taxes for the last 67 years in the tune of millions of dollars and not have proper basic services done for the residents of Evans Street. That's disparaging. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_13]: We could just get an update through the chair on What is the latest status of every street? Several weeks since we.
[Richard Caraviello]: Resolution by Councilman Locario that we get an update on the status of every street. All those in favor. Aye. Motion passes. Motion by Councilman Locario to take paper 7. 17-590. 17-590 off the table. Motion to take that off the table? Aye. Seconded by Councilor Falco. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. 17-590 special permit hours for the Meadow Glen Mall Awakements. Do we have a representative from Awakements here this evening to make a presentation? Good evening.
[Brian Dugdale]: Name and address of the record, please. Good evening, Mr. Council President. Brian Dugdale from Goulston and Storrs. Here on behalf of Medford Associates LLC, an affiliate of New England Development, the owner of the Medford. And do we have a representative from Wakeman's here also? We do. Mr. Art Drez.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Good evening, Mr. President, members of the council. Art Pierce, Wakeman's Food Markets.
[Richard Caraviello]: And do you have a presentation you'd like to make this evening?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: We do, yes. And then we'll start off with Mr. Dugdown.
[Richard Caraviello]: OK. Thank you.
[Brian Dugdale]: Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Council President and councillors. My name is Brian Dugdale, again from Wilson and Storrs, on behalf of the owner of the Meadow Glen Mall. We're here in connection with a request for extended hours at the mall, which is located in the city's industrial zoning district. We have a detailed application on the record that goes through in detail each of the criteria for a special permit and how this request meets that criteria. So what I'd like to do is just give a very quick introduction before Art from Wegmans comes back up to give his explanation about Wegmans, its request, and to answer any questions the council might have. So this request, which is to extend by just one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening, was submitted in connection with substantial rehabilitation of the Meadow Glen Mall. New England Development is extremely excited that this fall we'll be bringing forward not only Wegmans, but also Petco, Dick's Sporting Goods, to support the existing coals and marshals that are located at the Meadow Glen Mall today. New England Development is very excited. The whole purpose of that redevelopment project was to bring forward tenants of the highest quality. And Wegmans, if anybody's been to a Wegmans, you know that that supermarket is really top of the industry. So we came before the city council on August 15th, at which time we were instructed to engage in further discussions with our immediately abutting neighbors to the east at the Mystic River Park condominiums. We immediately engaged with the condo and had what we believe turned out to be productive conversations. NED, together with Wegmans, as part of those discussions committed to do, we heard their concerns about overnight loading, in particular, at evening hours, so New England Development and Wegmans committed to no overnight loading, sealed loading docks, a landscape buffer, fencing, and other funds for the condo to put even more landscape buffering on their side of the property. In addition, there will be protocols for security and a designated representative at the shopping center to handle any concerns from any of the residents of the condo or otherwise. So we're confident that the community overall, as well as our neighbors, are going to be happy with the changes that have come to fruition here at the Meadowland Mall. And we're very excited to have Whiteman. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Perez. Thank you.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Thank you, Brian. As Mr. Dugdale just presented, we're here for the application once again for extension of the hours of operation specifically, and a special use permit modification on that. And with that, currently it's allowed, as the council knows, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. With consideration of the weather in the Northeast, of the states here obviously, as well as the traffic in the area, we're seeking an extension on either end by simply one hour. That being allowing 6 a.m. till midnight hours of operation. Hours of operation meaning allowing the store to be open for the public. With that, understanding and speaking to the residents, more specifically the residents of Mystic Condos right behind us, as noted by the council on the 8th, 15th, the question I think was raised, have we reached out? And in fact, we had reached out and had communications prior to that to a representative of the condo. As of today, we've had conversations with representatives of the condo, recognizing their adjacent neighbors, being a good neighbor, and in the culture of a community partner, both on the business level, where we've reached out, even as of recent of August 15th, we've invited and had a special meeting with local leaders of the community, the school superintendent, United Way Food Bank, Food Bank, et cetera, recognizing that we are part of the community. We are in this fine community and are very respectful for that and are involved across the board. So as we are engaged with the community through the community leaders, we are also respective of our neighbors. Therefore, the reach out, once again, prior to the August 15th and up as of late yesterday. And as Mr. Dugdale noted, we will self-restrict overnight deliveries, mimicking the hours of operations for the board to grant the application request. With that, I'd be glad to address any questions from the council.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilwoman O'Connor.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Councilor Caraviello, if you or Brian could go over the no overnight loading deliveries, scale loading, landscaping, if you could just go into more detail. Because the only complaints or questions that I've received from the residents that live behind there are worries about overnight deliveries, the noise, obviously, how the property looks. But other than that, I really haven't. I want to just make sure those are addressed. If you could just give hours.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: So it's very simplistic here again. The application, and that's the beauty of it, we're currently 7 to 11. Store operations allowing our customers to come into the store with consideration of many families have two of the adults working in the family, school activities, and just a desire to get into the store and do their shopping on the way to work or after work. It allows them that flexibility. So here again, the key point is hours of operations of the store. Tied in with that, we will self-restrict out of consideration to the neighbors and not have tractor-trailer deliveries at the rear of the store from midnight till 6 a.m. in the morning. As far as the property here again, New England Development has committed to, as evidenced by Mr. Dugdale's statements there, that they are committed to a number of additional landscaping treatments at the rear of the store, the property line, the fencing, including access across the driveway to the condo development. As far as the site overall itself, I think that speaks for itself. As Mr. Dugdale had made presentation, it's a very beautiful upgrade from what the development had been. I hope that addresses your question.
[Michael Marks]: Vice President Box. Thank you, Mr. President. And by no way am I speaking on behalf of the residents of Mr. Condos. However, the phone calls that I received from residents mainly were regarding the deliveries. And there's roughly 132 units that directly face the rear of your establishment. And I would say within approximately 200 feet from the rear of where deliveries will take place, give or take. And I think the concern that I've been hearing from residents is, and I appreciate the fact that you're saying no overnights, but when a truck rolls up at 11, 11.30, quarter or 12, to me, that's a late hour. Or when it rolls up at 6 a.m. in the morning, That's an early hour, and I can appreciate the fact that you have sealed loading docks, and you're taking steps to minimize the noise impact of the Mystic condo residents. However, in my opinion, in order for this to be acceptable to Wegmans, who we welcome you to the community, I look forward to shopping in Wegmans. I currently have to go up to Burlington now. to shop at Wegmans. And we welcome you here. The residents that I've spoken with in the condos also are eager to shop in your facility. But the concern is the deliveries. And I would ask that the deliveries be limited not to just your hours of operation, but to hours that are acceptable to, even though you're in a commercial zoned area, to residential abutters. And that would be my first point, if you're willing to make a concession on those particular hours. And knowing that, you know, that's the heart of a business, deliveries, and I understand that. So that would be my first. The second point residents have noticed that I spoke with was having nothing to do with delivery trucks, but the exhaust unit on top of your building, which is the size of a small bus. And recently that exhaust unit has been functioning. I don't know if they're testing it or what's going on, but it emits a rather loud and frequent noise. And I was wondering if there's any consideration to put additional buffers I know with other business establishments, we just had something on Riverside Ave, Smashburger, and a few other establishments that had something similar, not to the size that you have for exhaust, and they were able to put noise buffers to mitigate some of the noise for area residents that were roughly in the same proximity. I was wondering if you could speak on that also. So it would be limiting the delivery hours, not to just your hours of operation, but to extend it further. and also the exhaust on top of the building.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Right. Let me work backwards on that. Certainly, as far as the rooftop units, we use state-of-the-art units. We offer to this council and certainly to the building department and any professionals they have on staff, we can certainly review with the town engineer or, again, through you, with you, the specific specifications of those units and if there's the possibility to look at possible mitigation measures on that. As far as the deliveries, we are not speaking a large number of tractor trailers from 11 to midnight, or between 11 and midnight, and 6 AM in the morning. We're talking one, two at the extreme, and the standard time of year. And that's once seven days a week. So we're talking one tractor trailer the anomaly of two at that one hour at the extreme and one hour in the morning. And here again, we're, we will be in compliance, we're committed to as we are in all communities being compliance with town codes, city codes or noise ordinances in this particular case. And we have the city council has that if you will, that safeguard to come to us and saying you're in violation. But quite frankly, before that happens, we'll be the first to hear in our store operations, our store managers. This is not the first store we're adjacent to a residential unit. We have at least a dozen of them in our chains. And we have worked through any issues, if there were issues to begin with. And that's where we would offer, here again, self-restricted overnight deliveries, but keep up to midnight, with the understanding that it would be one, two, at the extreme as far as the anomaly, and that is in that particular hour, at the end and at the beginning. And here again, it comes to, if we It does come down to the basics of the weather and transportation and the overload of the highways. These tractor trailers are coming from Rochester, New York. It's six plus hours. So we have the, as folks that are familiar or in the business themselves, I'm not telling them anything new, the logistics on getting stuff from a warehouse into a truck 300 miles away. There's six hours away. It's very difficult, and it's a challenging month of flexibility. That will allow us as a free board, and where we can, we will try to keep it to 11 and not 5 to 12 or 11.45. Our intent is not to push it to the limits, but give a little latitude to remain a flexible, productive, successful business for the benefit, obviously, our business and then the community.
[Michael Marks]: So from what I'm hearing from you, and I appreciate the flexibility, but not at the expense of the residents that live within 200 feet. And I appreciate the fact that these trucks are going to be coming from Rochester, New York. The fact that there's New England weather involved. and so forth, and that makes me even feel more comfortable with my decision not to go right to midnight, because I think what we're going to end up seeing, and I've been doing this for a number of years, is that we're going to see the later deliveries, and we're going to see the 11, 30, 12 o'clock, a truck shows up at midnight, or 10 past midnight with $300,000 worth of filet mignon, I'm sure you're going to unload it.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: I can commit to Mr. Councilman and to this council and to the community, we would self-restrict on that. We start hearing those concerns, our tractor-trailer drivers, if that starts happening, we will be the first to reign that in. And adjusted accordingly. But that's where we're asking for that flexibility under the recognition. We are a partner. We are a community neighbor. We ask for that. And we will not be doing the 12 o'clock, 1145. It will not be creeping. If that happens, we'll be the first to cut back on it.
[Michael Marks]: And you realize this is a special permit, so even the fact that you understand code and noise ordinances, you're asking to work outside of the operating parameters of the current... No, actually, what I'm saying is an overlay on that.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: I'm respectful of what we're saying is... that certainly understand that, yes, and I'm not trying to end around the special permit. I'm recognizing that we understand the rules and regulations just as throughout the construction that we have to abide by, you know, building codes, etc. The same thing once we're up and operating, we understand and respect, quite frankly, and understand and we will comply. if not self-restricted, if there's little missteps, we are the first to react to the positive in reaction to the community, more specifically the town and the council. You have our commitment.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, just if I could, and I know some residents are probably going to want to speak from the Mr. Condos. My support for any special permit tonight, and I just want the gentleman who I respect and thank the business for coming into our community, that my stance is going to remain the same, that the hours of operation for delivery should at the very least coincide with current ordinances and not the extended permit which you're requesting. And if that is something that you can work with and compromise, then as a member of the council, you'll have my vote tonight. Otherwise, I think, at least from my standpoint, I can't support it.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Mr. Ferris, you have a store in Chestnut Hill. We do. That has apartments that are closer than what are here in Midwood. How have you dealt with that situation?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Here again, we're committed as we are in this community to that community. And it's restricted from midnight to 6 AM.
[Richard Caraviello]: And you've had no problems in Chestnut Hill?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: That's my understanding, correct.
[George Scarpelli]: If I can, thank you, Mr. President. I know in the past this council has looked at different concerns and issues like this and not holding Wegmans back, but could we do a 90-day trial period and move from there to see if that, in that 90 days, if those 200 abutters feel that we report back to those neighbors, and if it's something that it has been a distraction, that we re-evaluate.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you. Councilor Layton. Mr. President, thank you very much. This is a situation that is very similar to the situation we faced at the last meeting, where we had a business that was seeking a special permit that directly abutted a residential property that was multi-family use. Now, we have Wegmans, and Wegmans has been a great partner of the community. I'm not going to say they haven't been. Wegmans has done a great job in redeveloping their parcel and giving it a new, fresh look from that old, tired, and drawn-out look that was the Meadowbrook Mall. But we also have an opportunity this evening to protect the quality of life of 132 residents whose homes face this building and face this street, Mr. President. I, for one, am a little concerned about an application for a special permit. And Wegmans coming here and asking us to offer it when they really haven't been in operation for too long, as it is right now. And the residents, the 132 residents that units face this property, haven't really gotten the full picture of what it's going to be like when Wegmans is in operation, whether or not the hours of operation is 7 in the morning till 11 at night or 6 in the morning till midnight. One of the concerns that I might have is, We say, OK, here's your special permit. You guys can go until 12 o'clock at night, and you can deliver until 12 o'clock at night. Something I'm not too crazy about at this point in time, Mr. President. And what happens is the residents come back and say Wegmans has been in operation now for 180 days. And over the last 180 days, at 930 at night, 55 trucks pull up, and they make more noise than we could ever deal with. We have the opportunity, because this is a special permit, to put certain restrictions and certain parameters on the special permit. Some of those restrictions that we could put in would be that signs are posted visibly at the access points that say no loading after certain hours or during certain hours. And those hours can be whatever this council sees fit, whatever this council deems appropriate, Mr. President. Whereas this is a special permit, and I believe it's Governor, under Chapter 48 of the General Law, Section 9, we have 90 days to act on the request once it's perfected and comes to our body. And I think it might make sense for us to table this matter and wait 90 days and see what happens with Wegmans when they're in operation so that the residents have a better idea of what it is that they're dealing with, Mr. President. Ultimately, we're in a situation right now where we have a new, fresh business in the community, and they're a great partner. They are a great partner. But I think that the first job that we have in the City Council, number one, is to keep our streets safe, and number two is to protect the integrity and the quality of life of the taxpaying residents that reside here, Mr. President. And I think it's very important for us to recognize the fact that the condo market in the city of Medford is, through the roof, skyrocketing hot right now. The residents in these condominiums pay a ton of money in taxes, as does Wegmans, Mr. President, as does Wegmans. But I think that the residents have to come first. And I think that this is something that needs a longer and hotter look, Mr. President. We need to determine what the impact is going to be. And maybe we should look at that impact in the first 90 days of their operation. Right now, we have a permit that's in front of us that's saying, you let us be open longer. Why don't we say, well think about it, let's see what happens over the next 90 days, as opposed to putting contingencies and parameters on it. Why don't we see what happens over the next 90 days, let these residents get a taste of what's going on over there, so when they come back to us with their concerns, they have a little bit more of an informed opinion and a little bit more of an understanding of what it's really like. so that they can tell us what it's really like, because none of us live there. They live there every day, and they're the ones that are going to have to deal with this. So, well, you know, the partnership in the community is excellent, and we certainly appreciate the fundings that they've donated for the Clippership Connector and so on and so forth. It's the people that live in this community that make this community great, Mr. President. We need to protect them. So my recommended course of action would be tabling this matter for 90 days, as outlined by the general laws, which is well within our scope and authority, and seeing what happens over the next two or three months during the regular hours of operation of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. so that we can determine whether or not there are additional parameters that need to be put on the special permit outside of the 11 o'clock hour, never mind granting it until 12. Maybe they come for a special permit and say we want our hours of operation to be X, Y, and Z. But all the residents are very upset that the deliveries that happen at a certain time, during jeopardy, I don't know, for whatever reason, whatever problems that the residents have with deliveries happening, whether the volume is high, so on and so forth. We have an opportunity to protect these residents, Mr. President, and I think that the proper course of action this evening would be to table the matter.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Caraviello. I'd just be interested in hearing from the residents, if anybody would like to add. And they have made concessions. Wegmans has made concessions. There's been suggestions on the floor, but I think it's important to hear from those that live there.
[Richard Caraviello]: If any residents would like to speak on this matter, please step forward.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_08]: Name and address of the record, please. Hi, Bill Barabino. I live at 390 Mystic Valley Parkway. And I can say, I joined the community commerce there in supporting this. I think this is gonna be, Wegmans is a beautiful building. It's amazing on the outside. I myself and my wife went to the Burlington store just to check it out because we got the Wegmans fever. And I've met the owner, not the owner, but the store manager, Kevin, he was here a minute ago. Very kind, very, very nice people. So however, I think Wegmans, as it stands right now, as it's set up, it's gonna be damaging and it's gonna be simply destructive to 39020 Mystic Valley Parkway. In particular, I think what you find is the west facing side. So, and the reason why is basically, and I have a packet in front of you, I don't know if you've gotten to it, but essentially what you have is a 390-20 Mystic Valley Parkway is a very large 11-story, 265 units, I know you're familiar with it, but it's large and it's brick. And then you have Wegmans, and the whole Mystic Valley Parkway Mall, and what that is is also a very large brick. building, or it's cement or whatever. What you have, it develops as an echo chamber, right? It's an echo chamber in there. And in fact, they've even made another road, which has sort of taken out some vegetation as well. So it's probably even slightly even louder than it was. But what you have is now an echo chamber. And the shipping lanes are in that echo chamber. So everything you hear about the trucks is spot on, spot on, everybody who has mentioned that. Yes, it's a big problem. So the shipping lanes, the reason why this place is defective is because the shipping lanes go right through the back, right in between that echo chamber. For example, when something travels in between, it's loud. For example, trucks. Trucks have to go through there. They go through there. Trucks are loud for all the reasons. The gate drops, the doors shut, and the engines, the brakes go. But the biggest thing, The biggest thing is when the reverse lights go on. So as you're probably well aware, and it's probably come up before, the reverse alarms, when a truck, any truck reverses, the alarms go off. It's federal law. They have to have those alarms. They make a loud noise. Those alarms that you hear, first of all, at night, it's dead quiet there. At night, you don't even hear the traffic unless you're out front. But in that echo chamber, you hear those alarms. And those alarms, those reverse alarms, most pungent, those are at about between 97 and 112 decibels. That's how loud they are. That's basically the study show. 97 between 112. Now, to give you an example of decibels, a turboprop airplane taking off at 200 feet away is 118 decibels on takeoff. So it's that explosive, that noise. And I don't think that's taking into consideration the echo. Now, what happens when those alarms go off? I wake up, and so when I wake up, I can't sleep, or I at least get up for a period of time, and then when I get up, if I can't sleep there, then the whole purpose of my home is no longer there. And what I have is now, I own a piece of brick, and I own some sheet rock in Medford. I don't own a home, because I can't live there. Fortunately for me, and I think for some of the people here, is I know that the city council, can't protect my family. And I know I can possibly have a partner here. And that is because in 2014, I came before the council. I just happened to be here. It was exactly the same issue. It was a special permit in Kohl's. Kohl's, because it's a special permit, and you can put conditions on it, I simply came up and said, you know, there's a couple trucks and the reverse alarms. And because I think Kohl's at the time, they wanted just to operate 24 hours a day. And that's essentially what Wegmans is to us, because I think the most part, if it's during any time you're sleeping, forget it. But what they want in 2014 is just to operate six days, 24 hours. And right here, right at the podium, I was so impressed. I hadn't been in one of these before. We solved it right there with the attorney. And you guys, ladies and gentlemen, both came in and said, we sat there, went back and forth, and eventually you put a prohibition. You said, listen, 11 to seven, you're not driving trucks, and you also put some, I think, some police presence and different things, which hadn't even come to my mind, but in the knowledge and wisdom of the board, you addressed it, you protected the community, you protected me. Now, fortunately, as Councilor Knight had mentioned, people don't know what's coming. There's been construction, the construction dude's been pretty good, and I've gone out and talked to them, and there's been some missteps, well at least I can tell you, I don't know if they're missteps, but I can tell you at least three events in the last two months that document in my affidavit, and also give you some supporting evidence, but I can tell you that, We don't really know what's coming. The building's up. It's nice. We haven't seen a truck, really. I mean, you've got some pick up. We're not ready. So I know you've saved certainly my family. And I think it's going to be a lot in 2014. I think it's going to be a lot different now. I'm asking for three things. So I'm asking for three things, and I think that, we can coexist with Wegmans, and I think embrace them and have a great welcoming to Medford. And those three things are, which have somewhat been mentioned. One is that you limit the operation of the vehicles. So that's really, I think, is going to be the operation of the back of Wegmans, the vehicles. So that's number one, the operation of the vehicles. When those alarms go off, I think it's fair, we want, I think you need to get eight hours of sleep. If we know that they're gonna, you've acknowledged to me before that they can be bothersome, we're gonna restrict them. So we should give at least eight hours. So I'm suggesting, I've talked to the attorney, the morning hours are more important to them. Personally, I get up at 6.30, I don't wanna speak for everyone else, but my sense is, start at seven, or even six, but let's just get to bed, because you gotta go to sleep to get to work. And I know for me, I go to bed at 9.30, and as counsel has mentioned, I'm not sure exactly who, but when we were talking about it before, I would be, when they start operating, I would be sitting, waiting, because I go to bed about nine, 30, 10, I would be sitting waiting for them to stop operations to go to sleep. That's what I would be doing. So to think one's rolling in. Now, so I said one, the hours of operation, two, the other thing is they also have 24 hour, they also have 24 hour trash pickup. Now, that's an accelerated noise. It's actually as you get the reverse lights. 24 hours, it's minus 10. I've talked to the building department. The building department, they're allowed to do that. That 24, that is a disaster. 438, I've been out there. I talked to them. Apparently, they're allowed to do that. And it just scrapes the two, right, the metal right off. I mean, there's nothing else to do but go over there because I'm awake. I've talked to Kevin, and this is an important point, and I think he's mentioned it too. The question is, we want to partner with weapons. We don't want to interfere with them. I can tell, and I know, Mr. President, you were very supportive and you've been very communicative. You've answered as best as you can all my concerns, and everybody has, and I acknowledge that. I have not been ignored by anybody, and I thank you for that. But the last thing I have is oversight. Because whatever restriction you have, that restriction has to be like, that is it. And you don't get in. And I feel bad for some person driving from Maine. But we need to know that that's it, that's bedtime. That's the rules, that's bedtime. My suggestion, six, seven, whatever it is they start, but let us get to bed and you have to give us eight hours of sleep. Now, the only thing I mentioned and I'm gonna close is, I've spoke to, in terms of controlling deliveries, I took time off of my schedule and I went to the alcohol meeting and now the question was, they wanted special permits. Now you, I listened to the questions and it was very probing questions of all the councils. They're gonna have end caps, they're gonna have, they're gonna sell alcohol at the end. They're gonna have I think something like 10,000 square feet.
[Richard Caraviello]: That is a separate commission that doesn't fall under our purview.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_08]: I'm going to close right now. I would just say that at that meeting, you were very generous with your time there and you were now, but I would just close with I met with, I didn't object, and I conditioned my objection solely on deliveries. And when Kevin gave me his card, which is in your packet, he told me, we control deliveries. It's not an issue. I spoke to the attorney, I spoke to Kevin. It made me feel good. And it also, additionally, it also is reinforced by the fact that They come all the way from Maine. So I think it's really scheduled. But really, I just want to, you know, be able to go to sleep on time. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else like to speak?
[John Costas]: Name and address of the record, please. Hi. Again, John Costas, 25 Salem Street. Past president of the Chamber of Commerce, current board member of the Chamber of Commerce, but I'm not speaking here for the Chamber of Commerce. Wegmans is a huge operation. We all enjoy large operations in the city. The property tax they're paying, and what they're going to do financially for the city at twice the residential. I mean, what is the answer? In other words, why did we allow Wegmans to build all the Meadow Glen Mall? When Meadow Glen Mall went out of business, we should have said, tear it down. There's residential condos. No matter what we do, unless we put a tiny modern pub store there, you shouldn't have Wegmans there. However, we had Meadow Glen Mall for 35 years there. I understand there's noises. But for the people that are going to complain about the noises at 11.30 at night, you're going to have people that work nights. They're going to complain, I don't want you unloading your trucks at 11 o'clock in the morning. I got to sleep. I work nights. Again, what are you going to do? It's a big operation. They can't be accommodating every single little rule. And if the city and the residents have issues with these corporations, then do not allow any large corporations to open up in this city anymore. If you're not a tiny operation, you're not going to sell alcohol, you're not going to have tractor trailers, you're welcome in Medford. But if you're a big company that's going to generate 1,000 jobs, get lost. We don't want you here because you're too close to residential condos or apartments or whatever. Case in point, the doggy daycare thing. So what is the answer when you get residential next to commercial industrial property? I mean, we can't keep coming and complaining and saying, listen, I don't want this business here. I can't sleep. I don't want this business here. Again, we should not have let them open if everybody's going to complain about their operation. I mean, they have good neighbors. They're going to generate all this revenue for us, all this job opportunities. What else is the answer to them? I mean, let's not make it difficult for business to survive in this community and put a whole lot of restrictions on them. Try to find an answer, but they're good people. And I think they have a lot to offer this community, in addition to twice the property tax rate their residents pay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Good evening. Name and address of the record, please.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_23]: Hi, Tina Caruso, Medford Square. I am the president of the chamber and I'm representing the Chamber of Commerce. And I just want to take a moment of your time just to give you our view on the support for Wegmans. Since the announcement of Wegmans coming to Medford, they've generously donated to many local organizations and events. And it's all throughout the city. But also, they're present. They don't just write a check and walk away. They show up. By changing the work hours, they're meeting the needs of our community, the part of the community that has to be in work super early and those that work very late. They're also hiring locally, part-time as well as full-time. Think of the effect that that extra one hour can have on one part-time employee. It's about $3,000 a year. And I think of my daughter and I say, oh boy, she could really use that. All these types of things, along with the other things that have already been said, are helping our local economy in Medven. As a strong contributor to the economic climate in our city, it would be beneficial to support Wegmans in their request. Thank you so much for your time.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you.
[I5lIrWN8Vh8_SPEAKER_15]: Name and address of the record, please. Donovan Camara, Chamber of Commerce, co-chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee for the Chamber, and a very happy resident of the city of Medford. Actually, before I make the comments about Whitewater, I'd like to say how happy I am to return to Medford High School after 33 glorious years of having taught the likes of George Scarpelli and Adam Knight at this wonderful high school. So it's nice to be back. I feel at home. I would like to strongly echo everything that Madam President of the Chamber just said and John Costas, although I am extremely empathetic that the gentleman spoke just before them. I think it's important to get a good night's sleep. I think it's important for me. I live on Lawrence Road. And on any given morning from, let's say, September to June, I hear nothing but beep, beep, beep, because this high school has cursed me for the past 40 years that I've been living there. Why? Because they have to get to the high school. And it's a hell of a noise out there in the morning for 10 months out of the year. But I chose to live there. I love where I live. The woods are in the back, so it's quiet in the back, but lots of noise in the front. So I accommodated myself to having lived there. I made a choice. I also made a choice not to buy a condo in that particular complex years ago. I could have when Murata first built it, you know. And it's one of the busiest parkways in the state. So that's a choice that we make, or we don't make. But I feel bad. I feel bad for the gentleman who says he wants to go to sleep at 9.30 at night or get a good night's sleep. I do not. So I would be strongly in favor, I am, as a member of the chamber and everything else, for their extended hours, assuming, of course, that some arrangements can be made, accommodations between the council, the neighbors, who should be respected, of course, and, naturally, the Wigmans itself. It's a great institution. I can't wait to go shopping there. I mean, we've got Bar Food Store in South Medford. I love it. We've got Whole Foods in the back, and now we have Wegmans. How lucky can this town get? It's a beautiful, beautiful combination, and I'm happy that they're here, and I hope that a resolution that is happy to the neighbors and Wegmans and the council and everybody that wants to shop there is reached. So I am strongly in favor of the extended hours. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Name and address of the record, please.
[I5lIrWN8Vh8_SPEAKER_16]: Charlotte Scuderi, 283 High Street, Medford. First of all, I want to say I'm happy to have Whitemans in our city. They have an excellent reputation wherever they have come up. And I think that extra hour isn't going to bother anybody. I live on High Street. My trash gets picked up at 6 o'clock in the morning, and there's a lot of noise with the trucks. I chose to live there. I don't believe they're going to be having trash removed all day, all night. That's not happening. As far as the liquor, that's not happening. The trucks coming in, delivering, I know they'll find an answer. I think we should move ahead, give them the opportunity to show us what they can do, and if there's a problem, address it after, not now. Thank you.
[Clerk]: Thank you.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_38]: Good evening. Name and address of the record, please. Brice Cipriani, 3920 Mystic Valley Parkway. I'd like to start by saying thank you again for having us here this evening, and thanks to everyone that came out to speak on this issue. A lot of the items that I had in my notes were already addressed, so without risking repeating a lot of things, Comments will be briefer than what I originally thought. But it's also important for me to say that I think we all agree that we're welcoming white men into the community. I also, and my family, also frequents the Burlington location. And to have a location right next door within walking distance, we're thrilled about that. I personally, I'm not in favor of the extended hours, but I want to be very specific that this is pertaining to the delivery, not the hours of operation of the store or what's going on in the front of the store. We're fine with that. But again, that's my personal opinion. As a member of the Board of Trustees of the Conval Association, I have an obligation and a responsibility to the unit owners and address any concerns that they have. So it's a balancing act. We want to make sure that we're being good neighbors, welcoming Whiteman's into the community, but we do have the concerns against specifically what's going on in the rear of the store. As far as the hours of operation, store hours, that's fine. In talking with some of the residents this evening, I think that we would be open to possibly considering a review and maybe readdressing the issue. I will say one thing, that this morning, by coincidence, at 3.04 a.m., a truck pulled in to the back of Wegmans and made a delivery. So I think that Wegmans should already be taking control of this, not once the store has this grand opening. I think from the time that the shovel was put in the ground up until whenever they're gonna be in control of this. And so 3 or 4 a.m., I made a note of the time, and I got up to see that truck making a delivery. So another one of my concerns is that even if we do allow a certain amount of time or a time window from 7 in the morning, 8 in the morning, 9 in the morning until 10 o'clock at night, what is going to happen? Are those hours going to be extended because of unforeseen circumstances? Are we going to have trucks coming in earlier than the time that we do agree on, trucks staying later? than the time we agree on. So in wrapping everything up, I think that we would like to find a balance and we're not against having a review period and confirming that everything will be in line. Thank you. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Caraviello. Maybe we could get addressed the trash pickup.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_12]: Good evening, Elaine Mastracola, 3920 Mystic Valley Parkway. I live on the ninth floor overlooking Wegmans. I'm delighted that they're there. I was thinking of going for a job. I don't know if they hire old ladies, but I'm delighted they're there. But I respectfully submit that I would request we keep the status quo with the hours. And if Whiteman really cares about community, they will adhere to the 7 to 11 as well. Thank you very much.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Firstly, I'd like to express our appreciation for all the accolades from the various individuals that just came up before us. As far as Ms. Councilwoman, I'd be glad to address a number of the questions that were raised beyond the trash collection, if you'd like, but starting specifically that we do not have overnight pickup of refugees at all. Great. And I'd be glad to go down and, from my best recall, address it.
[George Scarpelli]: I'm sorry, maybe not a pickup, but do they have a compactor that works?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Our compactor is up against the building and enclosed. We feed it from the inside of the store.
[George Scarpelli]: So there is no noise.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Correct.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: And once again, Mr. President, if you'd like, I can go down the list the best I can recall of the number of comments and questions. So we just answered the refuge. There is no overnight refuge or pickup. As far as the security, we do have, in fact, a very intensive security staff supplementing Police Department that are in this parcel on the site for Wegmans specifically from 4 p.m. to midnight. So here again and one just one other factor where Wegmans is helping the community out in the area of security well beyond just being here as a good neighbor. In addition to that The backup alarms. I mean, there is technology out there that you have more of a swish thing rather than the high audible that was referred to. That's something that we can certainly look into. And if it's available, which I believe the technology there, we can incorporate that into our program. As far as condo values, our experience is whether we're there before or after, when people know there's a wetness, the property values typically are increased. We've never had any indication in the 93 stores we have that there's been a decrease in the values of real estate, more specifically residential, against us. In fact, we've had places that we've been building, the condos came up after the fact, and they jumped in price, realizing that road use is coming into place. As far as the use, obviously, we're a special permit. We understand that in an industrialized zone, a more intensive use than is technically permitted on this parcel. We ask that that be a very key consideration in this. We need to remain competitive. As you've probably read in the papers, The grocery business is becoming more and more competitive for a number of reasons. And this here is another factor that allows us to remain competitive and remain more flexible. We've heard all the comments, and we respect very sincerely and deeply the comments made by councilmen and women, as well as the residents about the noise. And that's here again. I cannot overemphasize our commitment to be in compliance with code, noise ordinance or otherwise, should there be an issue, we respect and expect and will deal responsibly to the town officials, whether it be here again the council or building inspector, et cetera. And we will have ongoing dialogue with the neighbors and take that into consideration. The overall conclusion, though, in all of this, hearing the potential scenarios that were offered by both council as well as citizens, we ask that, at minimal, focusing on the central application, that we have the store open and operating from 6 a.m. till midnight. We ask that be the key. Should there be a desire to have some kind of restriction beyond our self-restriction of no overnight deliveries, then we bring the deliveries from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. So this is a consideration for the board out of appreciation to all the comments and not to extend the meeting to the wee hours of the morning for the sake of obviously the council and the citizens. But here again, one indication. But to remain successful in a competitive market, we need to remain flexible. We have to have the hours of operations. It's very critical. And there's no guarantee that just because we're Wegmans that we're successful. Rochester knows very well the implications of not remaining competitive, not staying ahead of the eight ball. Kodak has come and gone for all practical purposes. Bausch & Lomb is fighting for its life. Xerox has been split up. Here's the point, you always have to be in front of the game, ever flexible. With respect for the community, so you can give back to the community. There is no guarantee that we could be here if we're not successful. So it's a benefit to them all, to the community, and certainly to our business. I'll be glad to address any of the questions that I haven't been brought up. As far as, here again, one other point that store manager Kevin Russell pointed out to me. If a trucker comes there and he's outside the hours or close to the hours, then he should not be there. Because we're going to dictate, if we do have the 11 to 12, you cannot come at 10 minutes of 12. You cannot be there a quarter of, et cetera. You have to leave the site now, go back to the throwaway, and station it there, wherever that way station is, number one. Number two, when our trucks come here, our cabs are turned off. So that engine is not running. I know there's some people who have thought and we've heard expressed concerns about the cab running. That engine is turned off as it comes in. The refrigeration units, when they're there, yes, they're on. But they are no different than the refrigeration units that are on the building. So in essence, it's the same mechanical operation that's on the building. And I go back to the initial concern that was expressed by Mr. Councilman. about the units on the HVAC units. I'm not sure which particular unit that the individual is concerned about or which one the noise emanating has come from. We will certainly work with the city, look at it, look at the specs, and if there's a mitigation measure, we would incorporate it. Yes.
[John Falco]: Councilor Falwell. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm just curious. As far as when the trucks come to make deliveries, Will they be coming all in one direction? Will they be coming from Locust Street or the parkway? Which way would they be approaching the back of the building?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Quite frankly, I don't know if we have that specific on that, but Kevin might have more detail.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_36]: Hi folks, Kevin Russell, store manager at Wegmans. What I envision, and I'm not a professional truck driver, but looking at the property, I would say the one that makes the most sense would come off Locust and go around the side of Marshalls and come across the back in that direction. I'm not sure if they're on the Mystic Valley Parkway, if they could really turn a right. It's pretty sharp. And again, these folks are professionals and they might be able to get it in there. I couldn't do it, but I think it'll come around the backside. And if we say that's the way you have to come, that's the way you come. When I was the store manager in Burlington, and I don't know if anybody's been up there and seen the third item project, but we said, let's not have trucks come in on first, second, or third. We'll come in on fourth. And that way, they're able to navigate and negotiate much easier. And it's easier on the pavement, too, in an area like that. That's what we do there.
[John Falco]: I'm just thinking if you come around that side of the building, it probably might get a little bit quieter. But, um, so thank you for answering that. With regard to the compactor, um, I believe the compactor has some sort of, uh, I think when you hit the button, it starts to compact. And is that pretty loud? Or I used to work in a store when I was back in college. I knew that seemed to be pretty loud, but I don't know.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_36]: I personally don't believe that it's loud. I've worked with wagons 31 years and used the compactor, I don't even know how many, probably hundreds of thousands of times. It's louder on the inside because you're actually there with the mechanics. When you hit that button, there's a big ram that pushes out and compacts the garbage. On the outside, it's much different. And last question.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: We could certainly restrict the hours on that operationally wise.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_36]: Yeah, typically overnight, we'll have grocery stocking that takes place. And they're really generating cardboard, not waste. So that goes inside a bale or inside the building that you wouldn't even know existed from the outside.
[John Falco]: OK. And as far as, actually, you already answered the question.
[Richard Caraviello]: Can you address the gentleman's comment, Mr. Cipriani's comment about the truck coming in at 3.05 this morning?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: I'm not aware of it. That's the first I've heard. That's definitely a road tractor trailer. I'd be surprised if we don't have a receiver that early in the morning. We're not up in operation now, so I can't speak to who that was. I know we did receive a number of complaints in talking to our construction folks. We had received it from a number of the neighbors. But my understanding is those were construction vehicles as part of the overall site construction. But I can assure you again that there are roads in this particular case, especially coming down to the line with Peck opening up and decks and, you know, we're coming down to the wire. But that's an anomaly that something that, here again, if we hear something like that, it'll be shut down very quickly. It'll be addressed immediately.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_36]: I also wanted to mention that so the property really isn't turned over to us yet. Yes, it will be us as of November 5th. We'll run that building. As you know, New England Development was the developer. EMJ actually runs that construction site. May have been something that they ordered in. But as Art said, we don't have a receiver on that property until 7 a.m. They may have had 28 cash registers come in from North Carolina. They got here early, thought it was OK to park behind the store, pulled in. I don't know if that unit continued to run. I know nothing about that delivery. But I can guarantee you that if we say we won't have folks after 11 or before 6, it won't happen. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Further comments from the audience? Yes, you may. Name and address of the record.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Andrew Castagnetti, Cushman Street, Method, Massachusetts. Patiently, I've been listening, and I'd like to offer a few words, knowing that you can never satisfy all the people all the time. However, I believe that is still an industrial zone, not residential. And also, the old saying goes, competition usually makes better business. So the more competition, it would definitely be better for the consumer, I presume, lowering the prices, maybe stopping shop or lower the usury prices. As a matter of fact, it might be a great idea to, instead of the 490 unit proposed development across the street, which is tied up in two or three lawsuits, that market basket goes in there. And then we could really lower some prices. Thank you for listening.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Come on down, Frank.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_09]: Name and address of the record, please. My name is Frank Bankey. I am a trustee, and I happen to be chairman of the board of trustees at 3920 Mystic Valley Parkway, which is the abutting property. I do not profess to speak for everybody in the building. Nobody can. Nobody has that authority. I'm here to speak for myself, but I'll say one thing. I don't think anybody can dispute the fact that I get around the building probably more than anyone else because I happen to be retired and I know a lot of people, and I do speak with them. I can honestly say I have never had anybody say to me that they were against waiters. Welcome them with open arms. We're excited to get them. But there are some concerns. And some of those concerns would affect me because I am on the side that abuts the back of the building. Now today, the Honorable President of the Board made reference that one of the members of the Board of Trustees met with people from Wegmans, and that happened to be me. We did have, I thought, a very productive meeting. Many of the things, like we've heard about the great contributions that Wegmans has made to the community at large, but I'll tell you, They were more than happy to support a resolution that the president of this city council is going to propose at the next meeting that I'm asking for his support. And that is, I think the people who live in our building can appreciate the poor condition of the sidewalk in front of our building. It's particularly that section that leads from our driveway over to Wegmans. There's a lack of adequate lighting, and the trees are overhanging. Now, I today contacted the office of Senator Pat Jalen, who I've known for a long time, and I said that I would like to get some support from the local community. And your president here, the boy, jumped right on it. He said, be glad to do it. I'll sponsor it for you at the next meeting. And the people from Wegmans, when I spoke with them, glad to do it. That's what we want to be, is we want to be good neighbors. We want it to be a two-way street. We want to be able to go over and speak with the people there. A couple of other issues that came up. You people are going to have, when I say you people, I mean Wegmans, is going to have 24-hour security. Now that bolsters our security. First day I took office as the chairman, I ordered the security guards at nighttime to make rounds of the building so that we have increased visibility with the security people. And now if we have the, I understand that the people from Brinkman's are going to be outside as well. So that gives us another degree of security, I think, at least on that side of the building. There have been some pretty good issues here raised tonight about the picking up of trash. And it is loud. It is loud. And I'm talking about the compressor that we have on our own property. Certainly something can be done to probably abate that, whether there's some kind of muffler systems or whether We could have scheduled pickups during normal business hours, not through the night. I understand that these types of things, according to the law, they're able to come in. I know in Somerville that they have problems with that. They can come in commercial people and empty dumpsters at all times of the day and night. I came here tonight with the you know, expectation that you people were going to vote on it. I have no problem with going with the normal scheduled hours. I heard Councilor Knight come up with what I thought was a pretty good proposal and that was to put it on, I don't know if the correct term was to put it on the table or hold it in abeyance for a period of time so that if there are particular complaints, certainly people in my building are not bashful about expressing their complaints. uh... they would contact either hopefully they would let us know on the board but they would also contact Wegmans as well but I'm one person who is extremely excited and grateful to have this new business coming into our neighborhood they've done a heck of a job on the front of that building and when you think of what's left there are no disparaging calls but the way the brick and mortar stores are going I don't know how much longer Kohl's is going to last And if that falls under, and we didn't do anything about bringing Wegmans in, we'd have a dust bowl over there. We'd probably have cops down there all the time. Speaking of which, and I worked for the Somerville police for 28 years, if ever there was a violation of any kind that somebody suspects, they should call the police and the police will come down and stop the delivery. And also, When the police department responds to a call, they are required to keep a record of that call, so that if we came back in 30 days or 90 days, it's very simple to go down to the police station, any one of us, and ask for a copy of the calls that were received by the police for the response they had to May 29th. So I don't want to be here and frustrate Wegmans from coming in. I think everybody here really is for them. And I think with your cooperation, your guidance, I'm sure we can have a great relationship with them. I know that I've spoken with them today. They're going to do some shrubbery work for us, and they're going to help us out with some property concerns that we have. Again, I'm excited about getting this front sidewalk fixed and the trees trimmed and adequate lighting, and it's going to be safe for people to go back and forth. And in closing, I do want to thank you very much, Mr. President, and all the honorable members of the board for allowing us to come here this evening. A little tough there during the beginning there, you know, with the long hearings there. But this was productive. It was worth the wait. But thank you very much. Being a former select one, I think, you know, I was in this business. I know how boring that is.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Mr. President and council members of I white. So we've heard a lot tonight from obviously the council and the neighbors here again back to the original application asking for hours of operations 6 a.m. to midnight. We asked that that We voted on with consideration that we will not only self-restrict overnight, but if the board chooses to restrict deliveries between 11 p.m. and 6 p.m., that we feel We feel that that is a situation where it's very clear in its cast and stone where we heard the resonance, we respected the resonance primarily at the end of the night, end of the day, if you will. Albeit, it restricts us in the, quite frankly, I'll tell you the challenges now, again, and not to belabor it, with the weather. Ideally, we'd get both together, hours of operations, 6 to midnight, and deliveries, because the weather, and it's not something that I fabricate this, but we feel it's going to happen. possibly with the weather and traffic, and then we don't want the frustration with the neighbors, the council, and certainly us. But with that said, we'd appreciate an offer if they would, 6 a.m. to midnight for hours of operation, and then concurrent with that, a restrict of deliveries of tractor trailers in the back from 11 p.m. till 6 a.m.
[Adam Knight]: Councilor Knight. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I appreciate it. Sir, can you please explain to me a little bit more about what Mr. Bakey was discussing, some of these contingencies and some of these commitments that you've made to the Condo Association over there, so we have a better understanding?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Yeah, I'll have to defer to Mr. Dugney. I believe he's referring to site improvements, that New England development. That's, once again, it's a tenant, so that was New England development.
[Brian Dugdale]: Thank you, Councilor. Again, Brian Dugdale from Goulston Stores. After the development, there were commitments that have been made. I think we went through a lot of them previously in terms of there'll be sealed loading docks. In terms of the landscape offer, there will be additional planting that's done between the mall property and the condo property, as well as a fence that's going to gate off. There's a, I don't want to get too lost in the weeds, but there's a driveway that leads right in between the two properties, and there's an entrance. That's going to be gated off to ensure that there'll be no truck access from the condo side. Everything will be coming through the mall property. We've agreed to give additional funding. The amount's still to be determined, but that funding's going to be used to plant an additional layer of shrubs, buffer-type landscaping improvements on the condo side of the property. In terms of security, I'm not sure that exactly it's going to be 24-hour security, but there is going to be security both through Wegmans and the mall. There's going to be two layers of security, and there will be monitoring, I believe. And Wegmans, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but 24-7 with cameras. And again, the other commitment the two other things that were discussed there will be a designated representative so it's gonna be very easy to get in touch with both the ownership of the mall as well as Wegmans for to address any of these issues and then the other thing that we were talking about earlier is just the condition of the sidewalk. Mr. Bakey was referring to. It's along Mystic Valley Parkway, which unfortunately is owned by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. So we don't have the ability to actually do those improvements, but we would be more than happy to support any sort of a resolution of this council or any actions taken by Mr. Bakey himself to try to get some sort of funding and attention on that matter.
[Adam Knight]: The reason I ask, Mr. Dungill, is because I think that based upon what we're hearing from the residents, that they want to be a good neighbor. They want to be a partner with Wegmans. And I think they realize that Wegmans is going to be there for a long time, provided that they have tools to be successful. concessions that have been made, I think, are very important to gaining the support of the residents of 3920 Mystic Valley Parkway and their efforts to be in favor of extended hours. And I was hoping maybe that we could get these criteria outlined so that we could include them as conditions in the special permit. Because the way that I'm looking at it, I think, is that people don't seem to have too much concern over the front of the house. They're not too worried about the hours of operation being six o'clock in the morning till midnight in the front of the house. The concerns are really on the loading in the back. And, you know, the request that's before us this evening is to allow a 6 to 12 operation in the front of the house and allow a 6 to 11 o'clock at night operation in the back of the house. I, for one, am a little bit more comfortable with the status quo operation in the back of the house. and with the 6 to 12 operation in the front of the house. But I think it would be very important that we get these criteria included. I'd make the motion, Mr. President, to support the special permit, provided that there are restrictions that are placed upon it, one of them being that these special conditions and concessions that have been made by the developer and the condominium association are included as an addendum to the special permit. that the hours are restricted for deliveries from status quo 7 to 11 in the back, and that we allow the permit to go forward for 6 to 12 in the front for the operations of the house, Mr. President. I also have a concern about the permit being issued in perpetuity. And I think that there should be a review placed on it. And I also think that the permit should go with the petitioner and not the property. So those are some of the concerns that I have. And I think that with these parameters, I'd be comfortable voting for this.
[Richard Caraviello]: I think they're more concerned, it's probably the beginning hours more than the back hours for deliveries. Because most of their break and things like that are all coming in the morning versus in the afternoon. So I think they're concerned it's more of the. The front of the hour versus the back of the hour. I don't know if they want to address that.
[Brian Dugdale]: Mr. President, I don't want to speak for awakens, but just to be clear, we're happy to accommodate any of those conditions as part of the conditional special permit, with that exception. I think, again, I don't want to speak for awakens, but I think I heard that 6 to 11 is what their request is now in terms of the length. Mr. President?
[Fred Dello Russo]: If I could, just a point of clarification on Councilor Knights, if I may, Mr. President, Chair, to Councilor Knights' summation. Now, I understood from the speakers and from the representatives of Weidman that there seems to be a consensus that people would be all right with 6 to 11 in the back of the house. And your suggestion was that remains status quo. That we have a review? That your suggestion is status quo? That we have a review? Yes? Yes. At what point? 30 days. 30 days. 30 days. And that we have, that it's tied only to weapons. Only to weapons. And not to the property.
[Adam Knight]: Correct. Do I have those three points? Those three points are correct. Hours 6 to 12 in the front of the house, 7 to 11 in the back of the house. The permit goes with the petitioner and not with the property. And then the criteria that have been outlined and agreed upon between the two parties would be attached as an addendum to the special permit so that we know what's expected.
[Fred Dello Russo]: And with a 30-day review, we can look at this.
[Adam Knight]: 30-day review, provided there's no problems with the deliveries. Maybe we can look at extending the hours of deliveries and the hours of operation in the back of the house, provided that there's no problems from the deliveries during the status quo hours. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Councilor Kern.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. I just also like it noted on the as a condition to make sure there's no trash pickup in the back during the evening hours, the night hours from at least 11 to 6 in the morning.
[Richard Caraviello]: You would want to address that the developer because there are three of the four other companies uh, besides waiting, there's a pickup trash. Um, wagons are saying that they will not have any trash pick up again. That doesn't address the dicks. Marshall's calls.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: You're not before us right now. Wait, wait, wait. They said they will not trash pick up. And if we can make that a condition to make sure that stays that way,
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: And, Mr. President, if I might, back to the 6 a.m. hours of operation to midnight hours of operation. We still, once again, request that. And then back to the deliveries, to the point of being freshness here again. We're trying to get product, fresh product there, out there before our customers come in. And that extra hour goes a long way to allow us to get it private. And I think it was made mention that my ears heard, because I think some counsel folks that the residents seem to support the 6 a.m. They definitely did not like the evening. We heard that very loud and clear, not speaking for each and every one of the residents, but I thought that's what I heard, and it's on record. So we ask that that be modified for consideration of a 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. for the deliveries.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Through the chair, would you be willing to go to 10 p.m.? ?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: That's taking a step backwards and really being problematic for operations to put them on. We already have had, at least even last week, I've had conversations with our distribution transportation groups. They are reconsidering all of Massachusetts and all the programs. That's how strapped we are with the tight program of 7-Eleven. That would be more than problematic. Vice President Mox.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, if I could, I think the compromise that the gentleman is stating from 6 to 11 is a compromise. As Councilor Knight mentioned about putting a 30-day review And I'd like to see maybe a 30-, 60-, or 90-day review. I'd like to see them all. And then we could take a look at it to talk to the residents of Mr. Condos to see how it's working. And the condition is only based on the reviews. So if within 30 days, sir, if we get a number of complaints about the trucking and so forth, we can withdraw the extensive
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: I'm not overstating my welcome, but any operation up and running, it takes time to get some of the bugs out of it. We have truckers coming into the site that haven't been here before. We'd ask further out than 30 days, whether it be 60 or 90, but just from a more practical up and running sort of thing, versus out of the gate. Hydronaline is obviously a here, We're going at a mile a minute sort of thing, with consideration of that factor, that we're going from zero. And I trust you'll find from our other experiences with stores, it'll be very successful, thanks to the community, and hopefully, obviously, our customers, including the condo residents. It will be going 100 miles an hour, all aspects of the operations, internal and external. So we ask that, whether it be 60 or 90, 30-day, we certainly respect the ultimate goal, but that's, from a very practical point of view, a challenge. But at the same time, we're not surrendering at all the recognition that we have to be in compliance.
[Adam Knight]: Cops on night. This brings me back to my initial point, Mr. President, when I first spoke on the topic. We don't know what to expect down there. So now we want to go from 7 to 11 to 6 to 12. He just says, we're going to be going 100 miles an hour. The first 30 days, it's probably going to be bumpy.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: No, I didn't say that. I said it's always a challenge and be very realistic. I don't think in any kind of event, any kind of exercise, that giving due process consideration of practical time is somebody's up and running. It's just a recognition of reality. We are very successful in what we do, but I didn't want to have the town get a false read why anomalies without liars. That's my point there. And I think as you give a little beyond 30 to 60, we're not trying to duck away from any responsibilities. We're trying to fine tune our machine from day one. And we're not rated number one in the industry because we're slack at what we do. We are very good across the board, but I think from the practical point of implementation, that's all I'm asking for a little free board there. We respect everything else that goes with that. And if it's 30 days, it's 30 days. Certainly, in the end, we respect it. But that's all I'm asking for that point of view. So if I might, from our point of view, if you could, Again, summarizing, I think, what I've said, to make sure I'm clear, is that 6 to midnight for operations, in front. I like how you put that, very good. The back is 6 to 11. And then we ask, if not, if it's 60 or 90 would be considered. But certainly, if 30 is 30, that's what it is.
[Adam Knight]: Well, why don't we do both, Mr. President? Because the residents are going to have to live there for the 30 days, and they're going to have to put up with it. So why don't we bring them in at 30 and at 90? So we can see if the kinks have worked out, if any issues are raised within 30 days that may be attributable. A 30-day review and a 90-day review.
[Michael Marks]: 60 and six months. We could do that too, but I mean... Let's do three reviews.
[Adam Knight]: I'm all for it. All for it. Do it. I just want the flexibility to be able to address the residents' concerns and not have to wait 60 or 90 days to get the main evidence.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Once again, our preference is other, but certainly we respect the ultimate vote on the board.
[Richard Caraviello]: So I just want to make sure that we have this correct. The front of the house. will be able to operate from 6 to midnight, 6 to 12, correct?
[Unidentified]: Correct.
[Richard Caraviello]: And the rear of the house for the deliveries will be 6 to 11. The review for the back of the house will be in the 30 days, another review in 60 days, and a third review in 90 days.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: And again, that's the review of the back of the house. The back of the house. That's correct. Thanks for that clarification. Back of the house.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Mr. President, if I could point out, a special permit solely to the company of weapons, not to the property. That's correct. And, like I said... And the trash, President Langelkorn, without any trash... Maybe the term we should use is no loading or unloading.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah, there'll be no trash pickup during those hours. This is 30 days from when they start the... This will be 30 days from when the store opens, correct? Correct.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, also a review of any potential mitigation regarding the exhaust, which the gentleman already said that they would review the exhaust on top of the building.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: And as far as guidelines tonight, I mean, we can start with specifications, show that it's a state-of-the-art, and we can provide that to the council through engineering. What's your preference on that?
[Michael Marks]: I'm in particular mitigation regarding noise mitigation.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: That's what I'm saying.
[Michael Marks]: I'm sure the unit is state of the art. I'm sure it's up to code.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Correct. And so the point is, what is triggering the mitigation? Because what's the threshold? I guess that's what I'm doing. So we'll comply with ordinance of the city. And I don't know if it's how specific it is, quite frankly, because we haven't been asked to review that. But we'll take a look at that.
[Michael Marks]: I would say the mitigation is regarding any additional steps And our building department would be aware of this, like we did on Riverside Ave, which is right around the corner from your current establishment, when we had a few food establishments go in that had a similar, actually much smaller, exhaust, and they were able to put some type of barrier. around the particular system, the system was state-of-the-art, it was very efficient, but this barrier helped with alleviating some of the noise potential.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: So I would ask that that be reviewed. We certainly will review it, yes, and we'll present that to the Council through them, however you prefer.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Move approval on the motion by Councilor Dello Russo, seconded by The motion will be the front of the House 6 to 12. Back of the House 6 to 11 with a review of the 6090 days to be no rubbish pick up and there will be a review of also of the ventilation. This is correct.
[Clerk]: I have everything in the system.
[Richard Caraviello]: And the president is restricted to wagons only. Okay, very good. Everything. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Dello Russo? Yes. Councilor Falco? Yes. Councilor Knight? Councilor Long and Kern? Yes. Vice President Mox? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Calvillo?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. Motion passes. Thank you very much. If I could make one request under legal developments, we're holding Wegmans to this high standard. I hope that you'll do the same with your other five stores that are coming in and make sure that they comply to the same standards that we're holding Wegmans to. Thank you.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: And if I might, in closing, number one and two, One woman that talked about being, working for Wegmans, we were rated number seven in the, by Fortune, best workplaces for women, number two on the Fortune list of best 100 countries, 100 businesses, number two behind Google and ahead of the Boston Consulting Group. and number one in supermarkets in the nation, so. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Motion by Councilor Scarpelli to revert back to regular business.
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Richard Caraviello]: All those in favor, aye.
[Adam Knight]: Councilor Scarpelli has requested a five-minute recess. Mr. President, can I move to have the record reflect that I vote in favor of that last paper, please?
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. Clerk, if you could move to reflect the record, show that Councilor Layton is in favor of this motion. and we'll take a five minute recess.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_24]: Okay.
[Richard Caraviello]: I can't see it. I can't see it.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: No, actually I'm not a lawyer.
[Unidentified]: I'm a second person.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: Now, you wear a blue suit and you think, man, this is a real attorney. I know. First year.
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: It's all right. It's all right.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_17]: First year or 100 year.
[Adam Knight]: Where did you go to school?
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: I went to Georgetown. Oh, nice. But I'm from the area, so.
[Adam Knight]: Where are you from? I'm from Lowell. Lowell?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_34]: Yes. I mean, I'm from Northwest.
[Adam Knight]: God, no Keith? That's what I was going to think was right.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_34]: That's not fair.
[Adam Knight]: Do you go to the library?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_34]: No, I don't.
[Adam Knight]: I used to go to the library. Oh, really? Are you from there? No, I'm from Medford, obviously. But no, I used to represent the waste water treatment plant and school custodians, the libraries, the school clerks, the cafeteria workers. You'd think it has been gone. It sounds like it's actually been abandoned. 10% of the population. You're busy, 90% of them. You see that in these people? I went there. Oh, you did?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_34]: Yeah. OK.
[Adam Knight]: So Mike Javis was the Cambridge Region Latin basketball coach. Patrick Ewing, you know what I mean? They ended up down there in Georgetown. I chose Washington, rather. My father and Mike played together in college at Northeastern. They played against each other. My father played at Summerline. Mike played at Cambridge Island. And then my father was a coach. My father played at Northeastern. And Javis played at Northeastern. Well, they played together after college. And my father graduated. He graduated. He went to Cambridge Region Latin. My father went to Summerlin. He coached Patrick Ewing. when he got the college job. He's a lawyer?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, exactly.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_34]: Right. So with them all? No, I don't.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_09]: I live in Dorchester. Dorchester?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_34]: Yeah. Lowell Hills?
[Adam Knight]: No, no, I live between Staten Fields.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_13]: Oh, OK. Do you go to the B&G?
[Adam Knight]: Do you go to the B&G? I literally go to the B&G all the time.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_13]: That's why.
[Adam Knight]: Are you serious? Absolutely. I literally go to the B&G all the time. I don't mean to make myself sound like I'm too far off, but I go to the B&G all the time. Yeah, I go to some corrections offices. You guys always talk to me all the time. Motion to return back to regular business.
[_ILL_rSpLCY_SPEAKER_00]: Motion for suspension of the rules to take committee report of the side committee, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: A motion by Councilor De La Russa to take... 17-651. 17-651. Subcommittee on Business and Economic Development.
[Fred Dello Russo]: I said Chairman Marks give a discourse on this matter.
[Richard Caraviello]: Who's giving a discourse on this matter? Chairman Marks. Mr. Vice President, would you like to report on your subcommittee on business, economic, development, and science meeting of September 6th, 2017?
[Michael Marks]: Yes, thank you, Mr. President. The subcommittee on business, economic, development, and science met September 6th. Attendees at the meeting was myself, Councilor Scarpelli, Paul Mulkey, the Billing Commissioner, John Mavuso, Code Enforcement, Pastor Ferrier, was out in the audience. Former President Robert Mayocko was president, and George, Rick Sackle was also president at the meeting, Mr. President. The request that we had was for a sign, a denial, for the evangelical Haitian Church 400 High Street. The sign exceeded allowable size. We met in subcommittee to discuss the request of illumination, which we recommend to this full council that the sign be turned off by 11 p.m. Also the request for a message board on the sign. We requested that it only be used for church and educational notices, which we presented to the full council tonight. And the frequency of the changing of the sign, which this council has debated over years, and the standard pretty much is four times per hour. So we allow a 15-minute frequency of change for the signage. And we ask that this paper be reported out favorably to the full council, Mr. President.
[George Scarpelli]: Councilman Scarpelli. With the focus on just church business. I don't know if I missed it.
[Michael Marks]: Church and educational notice of the church business question.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by President Box that this paper be re- You have a deadline?
[Michael Marks]: You want to take up the other one? Yes, 17-573 for Global Healthcare Services, Mr. President. This particular petitioner did not show up at the meeting, Mr. President. And at the time, there was a motion during a subcommittee meeting that it would be received and placed on file. So that would be the motion for paper 17-573. Motion that the committee report
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Dello Russo, seconded by Councilor Marks, that the paper be adopted. Aye. Ready?
[Adam Knight]: Aye.
[Richard Caraviello]: Let's get back to 17.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, we're under suspension. Can we take paper 17-606 off the table? 17-606. The recommendation for the sign for the Evangelical Occasion Church at 400 High Street.
[Richard Caraviello]: Motion by Councilor Knight to take paper 17-606 off the table. Moved and seconded by Councilor Dello Russo. All in favor?
[Adam Knight]: Aye. Mr. President, I think Councilor Marks gave an excellent synopsis of what occurred at the subcommittee meeting. I thank him and the other members of the subcommittee for their work. Personally, I think this is a good way to make some concessions to a situation that had some concerns. I'd just like to add that the permit expired with the petitioner, if my council colleagues would indulge me. And also, we put a 90-day review on it, and I'd have no problem supporting this this evening, Mr. President. I don't think I'd have a problem supporting it either way, but I have gotten some feedback from some abutters and residents in the neighborhood that did have some concern about the illumination and would like to see a review.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Nate,
[Michael Marks]: second by Councilor Mr. President, if I could Mr. Vice President, I think those are excellent recommendations made by Council at night. The 90 day reviewers, I think, is appropriate where this sign is illuminated. Um, I just want people in the viewing audience to realize there at one point there was two signs in front of the church, one off to the right and the main sign which we're dealing with, which is off to the left. And that sign actually faces perpendicular to High Street. So it doesn't face High Street. And I just want people to realize that. But I think that's an excellent recommendation with the permit to expire with this petitioner and the 90-day review. I would support that, Mr. President.
[Adam Knight]: Move approval as amended, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: So, on the motion by Councilor Naito, move the committee report as amended.
[Adam Knight]: Committee report has been adopted. I want to move the paper out favorably. 17-606 approval for a special permit for the sign of variance with both following criteria of the contingencies. The AB&C that was established at the subcommittee, a 90-day review and the permit with the petitioner.
[Richard Caraviello]: 17606 is not on the table yet, Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: We just adopted the committee report.
[Michael Marks]: He asked to take it off.
[Adam Knight]: We adopted the committee report and we took the paper up for the pastor and then we adopted the paper with those five restrictions.
[Richard Caraviello]: Unfinished business, right?
[Adam Knight]: Well, the committee report came out. If I may, point of parliamentary procedure, Mr. President. The committee report was reported out favorably. That's paper 17651. Right. Paper 17651 contained two papers, 17606 and 17573. The petition 17606 is the Evangelical Church. But its entirety is the committee report. Yes. Which you're adopting those provisions.
[Clerk]: What you're doing is you're actually amending the committee report for a 90-day review. That's what you're doing.
[Adam Knight]: 90-day review and elimination. Good point. Good point.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Knight, as amended. Roll call vote, Mr. President. Roll call vote has been requested by Vice President Mox.
[Clerk]: Councilor Dello Russo. Aye. Councilor Falco. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes.
[Clerk]: No. Six of the affirmative. One of the negative motion passes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Motion to revert back to regular business. 17-634, offered by President Caraviello and Councilor Layton, be it resolved that the Medford City Council send its sincere condolences to the family of William Bill Quigley on his recent passing. Bill was a lifelong Medford resident and Navy veteran who served his country in World War II. His presence in our community will be sorely missed. I personally have known the Quigley family and Bill for many, many years, He passed very quickly, and we had a good man, good family man. He will be missed. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much, and I'd just like to take a moment to offer my condolences to the Quigley family. Bill was a great guy. You'd always see him down at Puppers wearing his hat and showing that he was a United States veteran proudly. He and his sons would always go down for dinner. His grandson, Michael, and I were very good friends in high school, played lacrosse together. It's very sad to see him go. He was a good man, a good friend, and he's going to be sorely missed in this community because he was somebody that gave back. So with that being said, Mr. President, I move for approval on the paper. I ask my council colleagues to join us in offering our condolences to the Quigley family.
[Richard Caraviello]: 17-636, offered by President Caraviello, be it resolved that the Medford City Council request that the tree warden, Aggie Tudin, attend the next city council meeting to explain the fungus that has affected hundreds of trees in Medford and offer a solution to what can be done to prevent this from happening again. I know Ms. Tudin was here earlier, but the meeting went on and she did have some explanations and she will be happy to come next week to offer and explain what has happened to the trees and what can be done to hopefully stop this from happening again. Motion by Councilor Dello Russo, seconded by Councilor- She'll be coming next week to speak.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So you're going to leave this on this table? Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: The resolution is to ask her to come next week. Seconded by Councilor McCurran. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. 17-637, I'll invite Vice President Mox and Councilor Lungo-Koehn be it resolved that the administration provide an update to the Medford City Council with regards to the Hagen Center and what current and the future plans are. Vice President Mox.
[Unidentified]: I'll yield to my colleague.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I'll be brief. Thank you, President Caraviello. I believe the last time Council Member Mox and I brought this up the request of a number of residents that live in the area and just inquiring what's going on with the Hegner Center was in June. We asked just for an update from the administration. I don't believe we got a detailed update that we were expecting. I know that I did reach out to the chief of police at the time, and there was allowable use by the police department in that area. I think it was some dog training going on, and it almost seemed like that was going to be just temporary until a plan is put in place for the Heckner Center. The city did acquire it, and we as a council just want to know what is the plan. It's been mentioned that to have it as a possible art center? Are multiple uses for the city? Are we going to redevelop it? Can we afford to redevelop it? But are we going to redevelop it? What is the plan? Simple question. Can we just get an update on the Heckner Center? There are neighbors that live in the area. I know it has been cleaned up by the DPW, so the neighbors are very thankful for that. But an ultimate plan, what is our yearly plan for this? What is the five-year goal? Do we have goals for this Heckner Center? Is it included in the capital plan? A number of questions that just need to be answered for us and for the residents. Thank you.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you. Vice President Mox. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Councilor Lungo-Koehn for co-sponsoring this resolution. As the Council mentioned, there's been a lot of activity over the last several months there. and residents in the area are concerned what's going on, and naturally with the track record we have as a community on upkeeping our facilities, they're concerned that this building not fall into disarray. So, that is why we offer this tonight, Mr. President. We have a number of needs in this community. Councilor Scott Peli will tell you, with the new addition of a recreation department, this may be a great location for Method Recreation. We currently don't have a home for Method Arts or Method Art Council. That would be a great location, Mr. President. in that area. And I would ask, Mr. President, that it was only roughly about a year, year and a half ago when the city administration sent a paper to this council requesting that we sell off the building. And it was this council that stood up and said, Wait a minute. First of all, we leased this building out for $1. And the stipulation was if it was no longer gonna be used for the intended purpose, which was to assist people with disability, that it would revert back to the city. So it was this council that halted the process, and thanks to City Solicitor Mark Rumley, we were able to get control back of the building, which in my opinion was a step in the right direction. Now we have to figure out what we're gonna do with the building. So I support this resolution wholeheartedly, and hope we can get an answer on this.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes. Seven affirmative. None of the negative motion passes. 17 6 3 9 offered by council night. Whereas the method square draft master plan recommends establishment of a metric square historic district in whereas the sea of method has adopted general laws chapter 40 section 18 to enable the establishment of the Medford Historic District Commission. Again, whereas pursuant to City of Medford Code of Ordinances 48-546, the Medford Historic Commission shall propose from time to time, as the Mayor deems appropriate, the creation of additional historic districts or changes to the existing historic districts. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council request that the Method Historic District Commission examined the recommendations outlined in the Method Square Draft Master Plan and provide the Council of the Indian Administration with an analysis on implementation. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, this is a rather self-explanatory resolution. Ultimately, we spend lots and lots of money in this community on plans. And we get plans and reports back, but One thing that I think we're not so strong at is implementation. And this right here, Mr. President, is a measure that was outlined in the Medford Square Draft Master Plan. And it calls for the establishment of Medford Square Historic District. And I think that this is going to be a catalyst, Mr. President, in generating some interest in foot traffic down through Medford Square. I think it's going to be something that's going to help us revitalize that I don't wanna say blighted business district, but business district in need of some resuscitation. So with that being said, Mr. President, I'm asking my council colleagues to support the resolution asking for the Medford Historic District Commission to exercise their power established under the general laws and by city ordinance to provide the mayor with an analysis on the implementation thereof so that it can come to the council and then we can move forward on the matter. In looking at this, Mr. President, and thinking about the situation in Medford Square and the status of the certain requests that come before this council, I also want to put forth a B paper asking that the Medford City Council place a moratorium on sign variances in the proposed Medford Square Historic District until the analysis is completed by the Medford Historic District Commission. So with that being said, Mr. President, I'd ask my colleagues to support the A paper and the B paper moving forward.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: If I may. Thank you, President Caraviello. I think on the main motion, I think this is definitely a great resolve by Councilor Knight. I think it's important that we get input from the Historic District Commission on which areas they believe should be designated historic. I'm hoping that there's not obviously many changes and definitely not eliminations to any of our current historic districts. And I don't think that's the premise of the resolution, although I did get a concerned citizen calling me about that. Otherwise, I think it's a good resolve. I think a moratorium is something that probably just needs a little bit more discussion. It's a late hour, and I just would like to lay that B paper laid on the table for a week so we can wrap our minds around it.
[Adam Knight]: And if I may, Mr. President, the reason that I bring the B paper forward is because if we're going to take a serious look at preserving the historic character of Medford Square and the sub squares that have been identified in the master plan, then I think one thing that we need to do is make sure that we have some continuity and some compliance with our locally established ordinance. We've been giving a lot of variances. The property, 5 High Street, comes to mind. We've had how many requests for sign variances at that one property? That's one of the keystone buildings in our square. And the more times we issue permits for non-conforming use of signs, the less and less character we have down there, the less and less historic feel that we have down there, Mr. President. So I think that it is time to take a look at that. I certainly have no problem with Councilor Longo's recommendation that we deal with it at a later time. However, it's something that I think is very important. I think it's very important to the revitalization of our square. I think it's very important to the aesthetic feel of our square. And I think it's very important to us preserving our historic landmarks in the square and those items that people recognize from afar and have recognized from afar for many a year. So with that being said, Mr. President, I withdraw the B paper. I'll reintroduce that paper at a later date. And I ask to move for approval on the A paper.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Domenico Falco. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. 17-640 offered by Councilor Lungo-Koehn. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council be updated with regards to the status of hiring of a traffic engineer. Councilor Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Caraviello. I'm not sure if my colleagues have any answers with regards to the traffic engineer, but it's something we did approve back in June with the fiscal 18 budget, and it's something that is desperately needed. So I'm wondering if the hiring process has started. Well, if I can.
[George Scarpelli]: Councilor Scarpelli. The only reason why I can speak somewhat to this, my fellow council, that both the recreation and the assistant recreation director's position has been posted with the traffic engineer's position has been posted, and they're now accepting resumes for all three positions, which is very exciting.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Mr. President, just just finish. No, I think that that's great news. I'm glad to hear it, and I think it's extremely important, especially with the new plans or potential plans for Method Square, Mystic Ave and a number of other locations within the city. And we need traffic engineer for the entire city complaints all the time about traffic, and definitely it's a needed position. So it's good to hear that it has been posted.
[John Falco]: Mr. President, Councilor Falco. Thank you, Mr. President. As everyone knows, this is an issue that's near and dear to my heart. We've sponsored a number of resolutions regarding a traffic engineer that was supported by this board unanimously, and I'm happy that it's been included in the budget. And I've been on top of this with regard to, I mean, we really want to see this happen. And in the police community meetings that we have monthly, traffic always comes up. we have a meeting in, traffic is always the number one issue. So I've been in contact with the Chief of Staff on a regular basis just to get updates. And what I can tell you is, just to give you a little bit more specifics, is that it's been posted on the Mass. Municipal Association website, as well as the City of Medford website. They've gone out to different colleges, WPI, University of Lowell, UMass Boston, Bentley, and so it's on numerous college websites and boards and they've also gone out to three engineering associations as well to post a position and they are currently screening resumes and people can still apply but it's definitely something that I know that they're working on. Like I said, this is near and dear to my heart and I know I've been curious about it as well and that's just to give you an update with regard to where they are with regard to the hiring process. Thank you. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Kerr. Seconded by Councilor Marks. All those in favor? Aye. Motion is approved. 17-641 offered by Vice President Mox be it resolved that a citywide reverse 911 call be made alerting residents where to find contact info regarding airplane noise. Additionally, that the city create boilerplate noise complaint letters on the city website for residents to use. Vice President Mox.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I had the opportunity to attend the September 11th meeting at the South Medford Fire Station. And I just want to put out a special thank you to Luke Presner and Peter Hulk, who are the appointees to the MCAC, which is Massport Community Advisory Committee. And they've done yeoman's work over the last several months and organizing and also having a seat at the table when decisions are being made at Massport to make sure that method is well represented. And I can say unequivocally that is happening. which didn't happen for a number of years. But it was well attended. There probably was 80 to 100 people stuffed into that small room, and there was a number of issues discussed, a number of concerns raised by residents. And two particular ones that I raised tonight, Mr. President, is that unless you've been following the issue, most residents that are experiencing this particular noise from airplanes on a consistent basis, early and both late in the evening, are unaware where to file complaints. they're unaware what the next step is. And I would ask that the city take its reverse 911 option and alert the 58,000 residents of Method where they can get this information and how to go about filing a complaint with Massport regarding the noise, Mr. President. Also, it was recommended that let us be written to our congressional delegation and also to Massport regarding the noise and some of the other communities like Milton and other communities that have been very successful. in kind of altering the air traffic over their communities have created these boilerplate letters that rather than having a citizen sit down and try to craft their own letter, they can go online and just pick out a letter, Mr. President, and send it to the congressional delegation or the Mass Board. So I would ask that our city put on our website right now some boilerplate letters on behalf of the residents of this community. There is currently, what we heard that night, MIT is currently doing a study that the city of Medford will be able to use as an impact study on the air traffic over our community. And I found it very interesting that Some of the modifications that could be made to decrease the noise of our community is to have flight patents go out over the water rather than over the major communities. And from what we heard from Peter and Luke, is that sometimes these are decisions that are made by the actual pilot and not Logan. Logan may recommend they go some way, but it's only a recommendation. And maybe if we're able to put some teeth in these patents, flight patents, we'll be able to divert some of this traffic out over the ocean where there'll be less of an impact on our community. Also, Mr. President, because East Boston and Winthrop and Revere have such an impact, when planes take off from Logan Airport, they're going at a much slower rate of speed. And that lessens the impact of noise to East Boston, Winthrop, Revere. However, once they take off at that slower rate of speed, to reach the altitude they need, they have to start picking up speed. And that's when they're coming over the city of Medford. And that's when we're hearing the rumbling that these large jets are trying to pick up altitude. And if they were able to take off a little quicker at Logan Airport, we may be able to alleviate some of the noise that we're considering, however, that'll be more of an impact on East Boston and Winthrop and Revere. So the MIT study is taking all this into consideration, flap deployment, modified acceleration, and a number of other issues, Mr. President, but It's fair to say that this is not an issue that's going to go away. It's an issue of grave concern in this community. And I would ask that the reverse 911 call go out. I get calls for every particular road race and everything under the sun. And this is an impact issue that affects the entire community. And I think it's only appropriate we use our reverse 911. and also to create the boilerplates to make it easier to file a complaint. I looked up the complaints over the last several years. It'll list all 60 or 70 communities that filed complaints, and I found it interesting month after month, Method was in the top one, two, or three for number of complaints filed every month consistently. So I think it shows you that this is an issue, Mr. President, and hopefully with the new representation we have now on the Community Advisory Committee, we're gonna be able to get some results.
[Richard Caraviello]: I'd like to concur with Vice President Mox, that Peter and Luke, from having no representation, these two gentlemen, in nine months have done more work than anyone can imagine. I'll tell you, the knowledge that they've brought and the slides and the work they've done is just overwhelming. I think that if you listen to the people of Milton and these other cities that were there, And the people from the MIT study says, you know, you have to stay on top of the FAA because the federal government allow the FAA to do these things. So again, you know, you can send all the stuff you want to Massport and everywhere else, but it's our federal officials are the only ones who can stop this, and those are the ones that we really need to hound to get this done. And let's see, we had some great representation there tonight. I was there, Councilor De La Ruzo, Councilor Falco, Vice President Marx, we were there. So we had good representation from our council to keep everybody abreast of what's happening there. And again, Peter and Luke, those two men deserve a tremendous amount of respect in this community for the work that they've done in nine months. Councilor Dello Russo.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Mr. President, thank you for that. I too was very, very impressed with the amount of expertise that they've developed. It's clear that the work of making headway with the FAA is going to be through contact and petition to our federal delegation, to our representatives, to the House of Representatives, and also to our Senators, and through work at their offices, with the cooperation of Mask Watch at the FAA. Because it seems to me from their presentations that There's not going to be elimination of this noise. There's going to have to be a way to find an equitable distribution of who's going to get some of the noise, some of the time. And that's what we're going to have to live with, if I understood their presentations correctly. But our efforts have to be focused, as you mentioned, on the federal level.
[John Falco]: Councilor Belco. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to thank Councilor Marks for bringing this forward. The meeting that Peter and Luke put on was a great meeting, great presentations. They did one earlier in the spring. Very informative, and it's nice to see that there are many people that are attending these meetings because it's a quality of life issue that impacts pretty much all the neighborhoods throughout our city. But the most important thing that I really took out of this is really that it's a federal issue, and we really need to make sure that we contact You know, Senator Markey, Senator Warren, Congresswoman Clark. I mean, it's important. And they need to be involved in this. And we need to make sure that, you know, we have many people sending them letters so they know how we feel. This is an issue that impacts all of us. Like I said, it's a quality of life issue. I think the boilerplate letters are a great idea, and it makes it easier for everyone. So I support the resolution.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by Vice President Bach, seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes.
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: I don't want to fall down the stairs. Just really quick. Sharma Rodriguez, 281 Park Street. A couple of important takeaways from that meeting for me were that we need to keep filing the complaints. The volume of complaints are what our elected officials, our representatives, our senators use to show that our community is impacted. So while it's great to write letters to our federal delegation, and I encourage you to write to Elizabeth Warren. She is our representative on the Quiet Skies Caucus. So that's in the federal level for making the skies quieter and more livable for all of us. We need to keep filing the complaints. Those are the numbers that they refer to. If the complaints go down, that's how Milton got action was that their complaints were up, unique complaints, multiple complaints. And that's what they're going to use for leverage. So we need to keep filing those complaints. So I hope that reverse 9-1-1, will get us some unique complaints.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Thank you. 17 642 over by Councilman occur and be resolved that the administration look into purchasing flashing stop signs as a pilot program on at least 10 of our highly trafficked trafficked intersections. Councilman go current.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Caraviello. I put this on because as you drive through neighboring cities and towns, you always look at different ways that Cities and towns are trying to curb, obviously, speeding and create safer streets. So I've had an interest in the last couple months since I've been seeing the flashing stop signs. It definitely brings more attention to a stop sign, and it worked great from what I saw. I was at the Traffic Commission meeting on Tuesday. There are a number of issues on. One specifically was on South Street. There are a number of residents that are concerned with the traffic and the pedestrians crossing from the square. There are three or four different crosswalks from both sides of South Street. And I suggested this. I said, have we looked into flashing stop signs, especially at the stop sign at Walnut and South, where you have hundreds of people going into the square and coming heading into South Medford, crossing that roadway. It's been busy the last, especially in the summer months. And the chief of police said to me, stated to the residents that that's just something that needs to be, there needs to be funding allocated. The traffic commission can't just vote to put a flashing stop sign in without the funding. So I then put it on the council agenda. Because I think it would be a great pilot program along with speed bumps and various crosswalks that we've been talking about for a long time. But if we could investigate, see how much these flashing stop signs are and pilot them in a number of different highly trafficked areas. busy intersections where there are a number of accidents, I think it would go a long way. And I think it's just an addition to the new radar guns that we've all fought for and that we've received and are being put in place. I believe new laser guns, new speed monitoring signs. This is just another way to curb traffic, slow people down, make them realize there is a stop sign. You need to stop for pedestrians. You need to stop, obviously, for safety reasons. And this is a way I think that will definitely help. So if we could roll call vote on this and purchase, look into purchasing and purchase 10. blinking stop signs, I think it will go a long way. You can see how it does.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. What a wonderful measure. And I was pleased, I forget what venue it was in, but recently at some point this summertime, I believe I heard the mayor announce that she was pursuing this, this exploration and was working on it as an effort for traffic calming measures.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Councilor Knight. Mr. President, I find this to be a great resolution. I hope the councilor doesn't mind if I amend it and give 10 recommended intersections that we can place flashing stop signs at. No, in all seriousness, this is a great resolution. It's something that the community needs. I was just sitting on Woburn Street the other day, and I watched five cars in a row going 35 miles an hour blow through a four-way stop sign. Just one after another. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So it's getting to the point now where the cut through traffic is not only becoming a problem with congestion, but they're also getting pretty familiar and bold and almost have a contempt now for the rules of the road that we have here in our community, Mr. President. So I think this is a great measure. Anything that can raise awareness to drivers and bring some more controls to the area for pedestrian safety is something that I'll always support. This is a great resolution.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Name and address of the record, please. Andrew Castagnetti, Cushing Street, 02155. I want to thank Councilor Piano for bringing this resolution forward, especially when in 2001, I believe, we had a large meeting with the neighborhood crime watch at the old train station, I believe, on Washington Street, former Redskins building. And that's when the new schools were opening, I believe. police, if he could get installed a push-button stoplight so the children could cross Riverside Avenue onto the newly created Freedom Way, the two schools, Tucker Andrews and McGlynn. And basically, his reply, I believe, And I said, well, basically, I'm just asking for a push-button stop, not a full-fledged. It cost $100,000. So nothing has ever been put there except a crosswalk, I believe. If I'm not mistaken, not long ago, within 12 months, on High Street, they put something in real quick when the child was almost hit by a car, they say. And it's on High Street in front of this book school, I believe. I would like to confide with Councilor Knight also, if I could have a request to put it there, because that crosswalk, the dangerous street, Riverside Avenue, and furthermore, it's used 12 months a year, not just for the school year, because of the park, footpath, bike paths, partial bike paths, soccer fields, et cetera, Little League. request. Thank you for listening. Thank you.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. And I want to thank Councilor Lungo-Kurd for bringing this up. I've been talking about traffic calming initiatives in this city for the better part of a lot of years. But needless to say, Mr. President, I agree with this, but I think procedurally we have a commission that is responsible for signage in any traffic calming initiatives. markings on roads, that is the traffic commission. So I would respectfully ask my council colleague if we can send this to the traffic commission, let them review the need for these particular flashing stop signs. And then the requests be sent to the administration for the purchasing based on their recommendation. So I think this is kind of putting the cart before the horse, asking to purchase signs and not go through the appropriate body first. So that's the only change I'd make. I support this wholeheartedly. I like the flashing signs. I like raised crosswalks. I like, you know, cutouts, bump outs. I like all that traffic calming. approaches. So that was that was the one thing I'd ask my council colleague if she would amend it and send it to the Traffic Commission for us for their input.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think maybe we could do both at the same time. I think that's a good resolve. Ask the administration to look into pricing and send it to the Traffic Commission. When I was there on Tuesday, they said that it seemed like that was something they would definitely want to implement but didn't have the funding for it. So I think sending it to the Traffic Commission and having them figure out where the locations would be, because we'd all probably fight over, we'd want 100 of them, between the seven of us. But if we could have them designate where these 10 spots would be, or more if we can afford it, and have the administration try to figure out how much they would cost, and what funding we have, and how many we could purchase, I think we could collectively be able to implement it within a reasonable amount of time.
[Richard Caraviello]: So are you going to amend it to send it both to the administration and the traffic commission? Yes, please.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Move approval.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion that we send this vote to the administration, in the Traffic Commission. Motion has been on the motion of approval by Councilor Dello Russo, seconded by Councilor Langlois-Carron. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. 17-6.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, just if I could, not to have any confusion, but I think we have to word it a little different. If we're going to send the Mayor a request to look into purchasing flashing stop signs, we're certainly not going to ask the Traffic Commission to look into purchasing Flashing stop signs, but we're going to ask them to look into the feasibility of... In locations.
[Richard Caraviello]: Feasibility in location. If we could amend that, Mr. Clerk.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I think this is where it becomes important that we get the traffic engineer on board. We get the traffic engineer on the payroll. Because the traffic engineer is probably going to be the one that's going to be able to determine where the best locations are and where we're going to get the most bang for our buck and the most impact.
[Richard Caraviello]: I think that's what Chief Sacco was saying.
[Adam Knight]: And I think Chief Sacco is on the right track when he talks about that. I mean, Chief Sacco, I think, is more excited than anybody to have a traffic engineer come on board here in the city. for the last 20-some odd years. He's been the one that's been wearing the badge that says this is where the stop sign goes, this is where the do not enter sign goes after the deliberations from the Traffic Commission. So I think this traffic engineer is going to add some professionalism. It's going to allow us to have some data-driven decision making, Mr. President, as opposed to some reactionary decision making. So I'm looking forward to it. But I think this, again, is a great resolve. I mean, we can ask the Traffic Commission to implement, but the locations, I think, really should be up to them and the traffic engineer, the people that have the ability to make data-driven decisions.
[Richard Caraviello]: All right, so as amended there, we'll change the wording. All right, 17-643, offered by President Caraviello, be it resolved. that the Medford City Council commend and congratulate Deacon Mark Rumley on his recent assignment to St. Raphael's Parish by Archbishop Sean O'Malley. It was announced a couple weeks ago that our city solicitor, Deacon Rumley, will be joining the staff at St. Ray's, and I just wish him good luck on his new assignment there, and I know the people in the community were also excited about having him there also. Yeah. We see a motion to receive. Motion by Councilor Dello Russo, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. 17-638 offered by Councilor Lococo and be it resolved. that the Medford City Council provide the criteria of how one can become a member of TV3 and how one can get a video aired on TV3. Councilwoman Locren.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Caraviello. I'm actually asking that we be provided the criteria of how one can become a member of TV3 and get a video aired. I think it's, people are very excited about TV3, it's opening. And people also have questions. There's been scuttlebutt of whether or not you need a court report filled out. I think that's. obviously something that may be needed because it is located within the high school. So that's obviously understandable. But if we could just get a list of what is going to be required, is it going to be a contract that's going to need to be signed? How long will it take to be quarried? When can you get a video aired? And how will you be able to get a video aired? I think that's important for the public to know now that it's We have a new station, people really want to get involved, and it's just common information that probably should be posted and figured out. Name and address of the record, please.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: Good evening, Councilors. Ben Brown, station manager, City of Medford, Medford Community Media. I brought with me tonight the form for how to get a show on the air. It is several pages, and I apologize if it wasn't in your packet ahead of time. Simply, to fill out, to get a show on the air, there is this form. Once it's filled out, it does require a QWERTY form also to be submitted the first time the resident submits programming. And after that, they can submit programming as many times as they like. As far as becoming a member goes, we're going to have an open house on October 15th from 10 to noon. And we'll be signing members up then in a more official way. October 15th, 10 to noon? Yep.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And if I may, through the chair, the CORI form, once one does come in and fill it out, how long is the process to get that back and approved?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: It's not long.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: 24 hours? Yeah, usually.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: We normally wouldn't start airing programming the same hour that programming came in anyways. We usually air schedules on a weekly basis, so if you came in on Monday, it may not air until Friday. That's just logistically the timing to get the programming in and started. That's not to say it wouldn't happen faster than that, though. Go on.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And it does look like there's a contract here, producer agreement and indemnification form. Correct. Who drafted that?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: That is city policy.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So City Hall?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And once that's signed, who's going to keep hold of that?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: That comes to me, and then I file them and put them on the computer. Yep.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think we're just getting this, so I think that's, how can somebody, do they have to come in and apply to be a member, apply in person, or will this be online?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: It will be online once the media center has a website, but that's a couple weeks-ish away. But if anyone wants to email me, I'm happy to send it back to them. And I have sent it back to a few people.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So have you had anybody sign the agreement and become members yet?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: I've had one come back to me that's been fully signed, and I have a few others that are out now.
[Clerk]: Thank you. Councilor Day. Ben, welcome aboard. Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: We've had the opportunity to see you at your finest hour. We had a couple of council meetings over there in the media center, and things went well. It's certainly a lot cooler in there than it is in here, and the lights aren't as bright. But with that being said, can you tell us a little bit about your experience so far being there, based upon where you've been in the past and where you are now, what you think the direction the media center can go in, and what we should expect?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: Sure, so I'm coming to Medford from the town of Brookline. I was there for seven years. Previous to that, I was in the city of Northampton. In both the media centers that I worked in in the past, they've had a long record of being the media center for all three of the channels. And Medford used to be known as TV3. Now I've been asked to help support all three of the channels. And as part of that, we decided on the name Medford Community Media, as opposed to just TV3. And going forward, I would hope that we could work to be a model of media centers around the state and around the country. providing media training and education, providing some media literacy education, and as well as the normal public access programming that everyone has known and loves.
[Adam Knight]: And in terms of programming right now, obviously the TV Guide right now.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so there is... I'm a big Three Stooges fan. There is some programming on the channel. It's all educational programming and public domain movies. There was one form that came back to me today that is a resident who makes both an English language and a Russian language program, interview program. That'll be on within the next couple days. There is a cooking show that has been requested be aired. I haven't gotten the form back. There's a music program that's been made in the city of Medford that's been requested, but I haven't received the form yet. And other programming would be things like NASA TV and other news programs from around the country.
[Adam Knight]: And where can an individual find out what's playing and when?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: So right now, you can't because we don't have a website. Once there's a website, it'll all be on our website. My hope would be that in the future, There is a push for Comcast and Verizon to include the media centers as part of the electronic program guide, and I would hope that we could adopt that in Medford soon, though it's a complex issue at the Comcast and Verizon level.
[Adam Knight]: Great. Awesome. Thank you very much. Keep up the good work. The place looks great. I think you're doing a great job. Thank you. Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. President.
[Michael Marks]: President. Thank you, Mr. President. This question is for Ben. Ben, I just had a question for you. What involvement did you have in putting together this particular application?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: So there are some standard forms that are used in other centers around the state. You know, I took that and submitted it to the city. So, you know, the original language is from me, but I'm not an attorney and I don't represent one as the city. So I couldn't venture to say that that's my writing, I think.
[Michael Marks]: So just if I can understand better, what was the discussion or thoughts regarding first time submitters will be required to fill out a core reform?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: I believe that has to do with the location of the media center.
[Michael Marks]: So the fact that the media center is located at the high school, we're requesting core reforms?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: I believe so, yes.
[Michael Marks]: OK. And I was under the impression that this had a separate entrance. I was under the impression that the new media center would be used on off hours. Is that not correct?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: That is correct. We are planning on having hours outside of the school day, yes.
[Michael Marks]: Okay. Because I really have a concern with this. And let me tell you what my concern is. That if the requirement of a quarry is based on the fact that this is housed here at the high school. And the fact that we have outside non-resident organizations that are renting out school facilities, and as far as I know, not required to fill out core reforms that are occupying our school buildings, How would that be any different than someone coming up here from the community that's in a room that's dedicated for that purpose, with no access, the way I understand it, into the high school, then be required to fill out a core reform. But if I live in Lexington, I can come up here on a Saturday, spend hours in the building, bring in rolling luggage with me, occupy classrooms under lock and key, in a building that houses our students without a quarry check. And this question may not be for you, it may be for the superintendent of schools. I just, I wanna better understand why we're requiring a quarry for local access. And if what you're telling me is because it's up at the high school, but then we have people renting out these buildings, numerous people renting out these buildings, and not requiring a quarry to be inside these buildings, I have a concern. I want to know what's going on here.
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: I unfortunately can't speak directly to that. I can only speak to the form. Um, and, you know, the form states that because it's located in the high school, that's why the court check is being requested.
[Michael Marks]: So maybe the superintendent schools, I don't want to put you on the spot, Mr. Belson, but maybe maybe if you can answer that, you stay to the late hour. So
[Roy Belson]: So I'm here, Mr. Vice President, as tonight's security, because you were concerned about that, as I mentioned. Oh, you're providing the security. I'm wearing blue, so.
[Michael Marks]: It's good to know. It's good to know.
[Roy Belson]: Feel safe? We'll see. What's your answer? OK. So we do quarry checks on everyone who has unsupervised contact with students. And that's anyone who works here, a contractor, anyone who comes in like that. dedicated door that you can't go from the studio into the high school once it's fully operational. Obviously we're still using it with students so they can go during the school day. But there are any number of activities that students have that people coming up here in the afternoon might interact with them. And so I think that the city, and I don't have an objection to taking the extra step in making sure that anyone who might be up here frequently, who is moving around that area outside of the studio into the area, might find their way into the front door at a given time. we check it out a little bit. As far as other groups go, we've rented properties for years, and we haven't required it because generally they're under the supervision of people, and the people there are on a volunteer basis. So, it really isn't exactly the same thing, but it doesn't hurt to have the extra measure of precaution.
[Michael Marks]: I'm just trying to figure out, Mr. Superintendent, if this is a new standard that we're implementing because the media centers up here at the high school, or for that reason, any other building, then why does it not trickle down to organizations that have full access to these buildings? And why wouldn't we want to secure our buildings to that extent? And are you willing to make that commitment?
[Roy Belson]: Our students are here. So if we had a coach, and they were coaching on the field, they'd be quarried. If we have a rental out there, they're not our students. So it's not unsupervised contact with students. That's the requirement of the court.
[Michael Marks]: Right, but they have access to our building.
[Roy Belson]: Yeah, but access to the building isn't the standard. There are people who have access to the building. A parent comes up here. They're checked in, but they're not quarried. So access to the building is one thing. The standard for quarrying is unsupervised contact with students.
[Michael Marks]: So for instance, on Saturdays, you know there's a program up here on Saturdays where hundreds of people, mostly from outside this community, come in and use the classrooms, use the facilities, use the cafeteria. And in my opinion, you might say they're supervised by their own staff, not by our staff, by their own staff. Why wouldn't that then trigger off this new requirement of being in a building unsupervised that, you know, could have a potential risk?
[Roy Belson]: Look, you can have a person walking on the street and have them contact with someone who's inappropriate. In this building, When we have a rental, and we have a situation where people, let's say the Japanese language school, because that's the sanity reference you're making, they have their own students, they have their own people, they have their own coverages, they supervise their students. We're not responsible for their students. But anyone who works with our students, if we had an athletic team, if we had a club that met on the weekend, whoever is a supervisor has a quarry check. And on top of that, most instances has a fingerprint check.
[Michael Marks]: But wouldn't we have a responsibility, Mr. Superintendent, to our students that attend the public schools, that whoever we're letting into the building, rental, or whatever other purpose, that we know who they are. And the reason why you're requesting a quarry is to check the background of someone that's coming into the building, that's using the media center, and that you want to know who they are. And you want to make sure that the quarry, because the quarry's for a reason. You know, you're doing a background investigation on the person, but then again we're saying, we'll allow hundreds of people up here with luggage, wheeled in luggage, and access to every classroom in this community, in this school, and not have the same type of requirements. I just don't understand. I'm just trying to figure out what the policy and procedure is.
[Roy Belson]: But you're making two different things. So, for example, on parents night, parents come up for curriculum night. We don't quarry every parent who comes in the door.
[Michael Marks]: I'm not talking about parents.
[Roy Belson]: But they could.
[Michael Marks]: Byron is a person. I'm not talking about, you're talking about something that I'm not talking about. I'm talking about the renting of our facilities.
[Roy Belson]: You're talking about a type of person in the building, but there's all kinds of people who come into this building who are not chlorinated.
[Michael Marks]: Right, so if we're going to require a quarry for someone using a particular room, a media room, that doesn't have access to high school, maybe we should require a quarry for people that are coming into the building, that are renting the building, and not just this high school as you know, other school facilities, and make it so that we have a responsibility to safeguard our students. because in my opinion, Mr. Superintendent, there's no way that we're supervising what's going on. We're relying on people that are renting to make sure it's a secure atmosphere and make sure that our students are safe come Monday morning. And that is a concern I have, Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: I understand what you're saying, but that's not the standard of Corey. The Corey check requires when a person has unsupervised contact, a frequent visitor kind of thing. So if a person's going to use the media studio, and they're going to come up here more than once, I assume they're going to try to use the studio more than once, they're not becoming a member to only have one production or one activity. So they're a frequent action person up here, and so it doesn't hurt to know who they are. That's all. Right, but it would be supervision, correct?
[Michael Marks]: Is that studio lift unmanned? They won't be supervising students? No, no, I'm talking if someone's gonna come up here and use the media center, is there not, Dan, someone that's gonna be supervising, or will that be unmanned? They could. I'm asking with all due respect to the gentleman. Does your facility go unsupervised?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: It will not go unsupervised to an extent. I think the point is that they could walk out of the media center by accident, right?
[Roy Belson]: They could walk into the front of the building. They go out the main door of the studio.
[Michael Marks]: So similar to the hundreds of people that come in here every Saturday, could walk into any area of the building. generally at that time they're not here. Mr. Superintendent, I don't want to belabor the point. I'm just trying to figure out if this is a new policy or procedure, based on the fact that people coming up to the high school or any of our schools, I think it should be carried out across the board. That's all I'm saying. Check every parent who walks in the building too. Now you're getting back to the parents again, and I'm talking about rentals. I don't know how I can lay that out any easier.
[Roy Belson]: You can't tell who's who's a problem on a given day. It could be anybody.
[Michael Marks]: Well, it doesn't seem like much thought went into this quarry process. It seemed like it was just isolated to the media center, and that's all I'm bringing up. I just want to know what the thoughts are. I wasn't involved in creating this, so I just want to know what the thoughts are.
[Roy Belson]: I don't think it's unreasonable if a person is going to be up here frequently. have access to a particular area of the building.
[Michael Marks]: Right. So the rentals we have are frequent rentals. And some of these organizations have been renting for, I'd venture to say, 10, 15 years. I don't know how much more frequent you can get than that, Mr. Superintendent. It may be longer. And I never see a request to have other people storied that are using our buildings.
[Roy Belson]: They're not working with our students directly. They're working with their population.
[Michael Marks]: And someone going to the media room is not working with our students directly either. They could.
[Roy Belson]: All right, look, it's obviously a discussion. Right, thank you. Councilor Dello Russo.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Just one suggestion, please. Motion that the city solicitor be sent this question as to how this questionnaire developed and what the standard was used to institute the query and ask for an answer from the city solicitor. This way we can get an answer. rather than be swallowed up by endless speculation and debate.
[Michael Marks]: What I'll do is respect that. It's not speculation and debate. And if the gentleman had students in the public schools, he would be looking out for the safety of students. And that's what my concern is, Mr. President.
[Adam Knight]: Ben, if you could tell me, the Cori check is required. What if the Cori check does not come back clean? Is the person now precluded from being able to utilize the studio, or is it just so that you know that there is someone in there that might have a questionable background that needs to be monitored more closely?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: The way the policy is written, they would be precluded from using the studio.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Name and address of the record, please. I'm sorry.
[Robert Penta]: My name's Robert Pentez, Zero Summit, Rowan-Benton Mass, former member of this body. When we talk about security, again, you can walk into this building tonight, there's no security here at all. This is not the first time this has happened. And I know it's been a pet peeve of Councilman Locke's relative to the security of the building. So that's number one. Number two, we had Mr. Brown come up here and talk about the father of this producer's agreement, the demarcation bond. Have you been query checked? Did you pass? OK. He speaks. No. The question becomes this. He's running the program. He's corporate checked. OK. But I think if you ask the question of surrounding cities and towns, they don't have this. And the question boils down to, if in fact, as the superintendent alluded to, these are unsupervised contact with students. Councilor Falco, you mentioned the question when we were doing the LED lights for the Andrews School, and I think the comment was that the second shift of the people in the building, they will become quarry checked, okay? So if we're going to follow this train of thought, maybe you or the council should get a notice that who the people were and were they quarry checked and did they pass. You know, just making the comment is one thing. And the superintendent is absolutely right. You guys up here tonight, you shouldn't even be here because you haven't been query checked. This is public access. This is a Medford City Council meeting. It's public access. The people can see it. They can come in and they can talk the same way you can, too. So you've got to follow the same rules. You, in essence, are producing your own show, which is the Medford City Council. Now when you talk about, I think it's section, I believe it's number five, it says here that the producer acknowledges that there's a possibility that the producer will have direct and unsupervised contact with children. Okay, we'll give you a grant to that. But if I never walk into this building and I send you something through the mail to have it played, are you gonna play it without having the quarry checked? If I can't answer it, I would have to go back to the city and ask. And that's where the problem begins. You have to go back to the city. Here's the gentleman who's the manager of the station. And these questions should be all readily available. You know, there are things on here that talk about what can and cannot be played. It talks about, in section 4D, materials that contain bias, motivated threats, intimidation, and coercion that interfere with a person's civil rights. Well, I can attest to the fact that I was a product of the former Channel 3. They did all those things to me. And now they're putting it in here, and I'm glad to see that it's in here. Because there's a civil rights section in here for the violation of any of those things. And there's also a section here as it relates to what can and cannot be shown, as it relates to obscenities, and without getting into the graphics of each and every one of the words. There I think you might have an issue as it relates to constitutional rights as to when and how it can be spoken and what time of the program, morning, noon, and night, it can be played. There's also a section here regarding you or anyone who's listening or anyone in this audience who decides to become a producer by giving something to If you give them something and they lose it, they destroy it, or what have you, they're not responsible unless it was gross negligence on their part. But if you were to borrow something from Channel 3 and there was something wrong and some damage took place, you would be culpably liable financially and otherwise. That's what this agreement says, Mr. Bennett. I really think what you really need to ask is, there are some people who might want to just come in and say, there's a community section in here on cable television. They may want to come in and, I don't know what the terminology might be, they may want to show a birthday party, or they may want to show a wedding, or whatever, just a one-shot deal. And for that one shot deal, and coming in that entrance over there, not coming in at non-school hours, you're telling that person, call them a producer, that they have to get a Corby check. Now Councilor Marks, you're absolutely right. You really need to know the genesis behind this. No city and town around this has this. This is crazy. This is not making any sense at all as to go through this. Because this is going to really stifle free speech. This is going to stifle your election coming up right now. for reelection and any new candidate running, is you're going to have to get a carving check to walk into that room, submit a tape, whatever it might be. Now, you think about it. You've served all these years. And now you have to submit a Corby check to get into your local public access channel. It makes no sense at all. To me, I think it's an administrative discrimination point. I don't think the administration has the right to do this. I think the city solicitor needs to come and present his argument before you. And the only person that can change this, the only person that can change this is the issuing authority. And who is the issuing authority? It's the mayor of this community. because you are on public access right now and you guys and gals are producers because you're making this show, you're producing your comments, you're producing your votes. But to get over on that other side of the room and to be there and have your voice heard as an announcement, you'd have to become a producer, you'd have to come and get a quarry check. And that'll stifle free speech and free access in the city of Medford. Thank you. Thank you.
[Joe Viglione]: Move approval. Name and address of the record, please. Hey, my name is Joe Villione, 59 Garfield Ave, and I just rushed here from band practice. We play once a year. Inside this phone's one of the best bands in New England, my band. And the key here is this, more than the Corey check, which is laughable, when I called Access Station and read it to them, they laughed, they fell over laughing. I've been in Access Television since 1979. In America, I'm one of the oldest producers. I produce over in Somerville. Ben Brown has five of my shows. So he played Steve Katz's from Arlington, great show. But he's hemming and hawing about playing my show, and it's like, come on. You know, I've got Gilbert Gottfried on, and Ray Manzarek at the door. So you want me to go down with thousands of people I've had on? You know, tomorrow I've got Gentle Giant, a band that opened for Jethro Tull. Last week I had Jethro Tull's Martin Barron. So I'm a famous rock critic. But I do community work. So my great community work for the Kitty Connection, which I do a lot of work for Marie, and I'm going to continue to, is stifled not only by the Corey check, but there's another element to that contract which threatens to sue you if, oh, someone thinks you've intimidated a witness, and God knows I prevailed in court over that when someone fraudulently sued me. You know, that's the kind of thing that can happen. So if you do a show and someone doesn't like that, you say, oh, I saw the city council president skip out on a vote to pay the part, which I did. If you say that on TV, the city council president could probably sue me because he doesn't like what I said, but he'd be wrong in doing that. It's my free speech. So then you have to pay for your attorney. And in the contract, you must pay for the city hall's attorney if my reading is correct. What planet are we on? I'm one of the oldest producers in the history of friggin' public access. Pardon my friggin' French. And I've seen many a producer's indemnification agreement and this is wholesale censorship. And may I quote the city solicitor, I would find the city squelching free speech. Repugnant. Mr. Rumley, you're the author of censorship. What are you talking about? Now, I believe in public access. So if a grandma wants to do a cooking show, you insult her by cory-checking her. Who's she gonna hurt? Number one. Number two, to have a grandma sign this thing, and if someone's just deciding they're gonna be a bully, and they don't like her grandson or her husband, and they sue her, That poor family has to go through what I've gone through, paying thousands of dollars in legal bills, because I've fought for public access harder than any person in Medford for the past 15 years. And the 600 grand we have came because I kept the fight alive. And then a city councilor came in, and Doreen Wade came in, and we brought down TV3. And that's why the 600 grand. You want to talk about someone who's really upset? Because I've given a quarter of my life to Medford. And I've given thousands of dollars in legal bills. And I win. I won against the TV station manager in Superior Court. I got a restraining order on the next manager. And if I have to file restraining orders on the mayor and the new manager, so be it. My show has to be played. You have my show. I've done nothing wrong. I'm a good human being. How dare you? How dare you not play my show in this city? My God, I have sweat blood for public access TV, and I will not be intimidated and bullied and dragged into court by people who aren't even fit to shine my shoes. And I will see them in court in another venue. Now, I want the access, I want it now. The candidates running for office are being denied. They were denied the primary election. So all the incumbents came in, including Mrs. Cuno, But the people that don't get the traction did not get it. While I've been fighting day after day after day to get public access in this city, I will not stand for it. And if I had to sue a smirking Dello Russo, I will sue him. I'm tired, I'm fed up. You, Mr. Dello Russo, said we need a young man to do access. No, Mr. Dello Russo, I'm the authority here. You know about undertaking. I know about public access. I am the authority. We need an older person that knows public access, that knows the rules, and that wants to facilitate programming. That's his job. Outreach is his job. And that contract, that indemnification agreement, is the antithesis of outreach. I just played in one of the best rock and roll bands in Boston. just now. And I have to come over here. Johnny Byers called me. That poor kid wants to put his sports show on the air. We are denying him now. Anyone who subscribes to this is denying him now. This has to end. It has to end now. And if I have to file an injunction, so help me God, I will. I'm pretty good in the courtroom. as someone here knows very well. And I will not stand for this and the smirking and the censorship at this very city council. So let's have access TV. If Ben Brown can't answer the questions, he should just quit. He couldn't tell me how a Verizon contract works. So I sent him to Hingham and I sent him Malden. I'm only music director over in, uh, I'm Malden's live on tape, and I'm music director over at Boston Free Radio, and I do my show in Somerville. So why should I be denied a show when I do it in Somerville, when I have six memberships, when you could learn so much from me, young man, you could learn so much from me, but you'd rather take the blood money and censor us. So that's what I have to say tonight. You want to know about AXS TV, give me a call. You know where I am. We're going to have access to TV, we're not going to have censorship, and Stephanie Burke will be held accountable if this nonsense continues. So help me God.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, a couple of questions for the gentleman at the podium. It sounds like, based upon the presentation, that you haven't signed the producer in indemnification form. Is that correct?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_36]: Yep.
[Adam Knight]: And if you did, you'd be subjecting yourself to a Corey check, is that correct?
[Joe Viglione]: Well, the Cori check, who cares?
[Adam Knight]: What I'm more concerned about, sir... Just bear with me for a minute.
[Joe Viglione]: City Hall has my Cori, come on.
[Adam Knight]: Just bear with me for a second, sir. You'd have to take a Cori check if you signed up for the producer identification form, right?
[Joe Viglione]: Who cares?
[Adam Knight]: It's not a big deal. Can you pass the Cori check? Of course I can. You can, Mr. Corry.
[Joe Viglione]: Unlike you, Mr. Knight, I think I can. I'm worried about you. I'm not worried about you.
[Adam Knight]: I'm concerned about you. I actually worked for the school department for a couple of years.
[Joe Viglione]: I know you do. I've actually passed the Corry check. I think, you know, when people put signs against bus stops, people should be held accountable. You break the rules, I play by the rules. Exactly. And I want to thank Councilor Brianna Longo-Curran for putting this on the thing. But the thing that concerns me is not the Corry check and you trying to embarrass people all the time.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I do believe I have the floor.
[Joe Viglione]: You ignorant person.
[Adam Knight]: I do believe I have the floor, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Knight has the floor, Mr. Biglioni. Councilor Knight has the floor at the particular moment. Was he congratulating someone? Or did someone die?
[Adam Knight]: I'm congratulating you on your excellent presentation this evening. I do appreciate you coming out here this evening.
[Joe Viglione]: It's been very enlightening.
[Adam Knight]: What are they called?
[Joe Viglione]: We're called Love and Flame, and we were one of Boston's five best bands in Playboy magazine, 1978. That's a good year. That's the year I was born. Well, I know a little bit more about dancing on stage, too, so I think I gave a pretty good performance here tonight, after I sang all Lou Reed's songs on my own.
[Adam Knight]: Sounds like you had a good night. Congratulations. I really do.
[Joe Viglione]: The band is unbelievable. Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: It's nice of you to come up here and put that aside to come up here and share with us, so I do appreciate that, Mr.
[Joe Viglione]: You know, I wish I could teach you how to talk in a mic, too, Ms. Linda. You talk way too fast. You have to articulate.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, this is bringing me to my point, Mr. President. I fail to see how this is helping move Medford forward.
[Joe Viglione]: I'll move Medford forward with Kitty Connection and with all the personality stuff I do with people on the street. I want to help the city. I want to help the city. I don't congratulate people. I work hard for people.
[_ILL_rSpLCY_SPEAKER_00]: Keep it up.
[Joe Viglione]: I congratulate you for your hard work. The thing that worries me is not the quarry check as much as the legal aspect of that. That is the thing that worries me, Mr. Knight. The quarry check, City Hall has my quarry. Who's Skidding Hall? I don't know.
[Adam Knight]: I was just asking a question.
[Joe Viglione]: I was in court with someone. Of course they do. But that doesn't worry me. What worries me, what concerns me, is more lawsuits. Because you shouldn't go to Axis and be sued like TV3 did. And that's what Mrs. Burke is setting up here. And it's wrong. And I'm trying to facilitate programming for 60,000 people in Medford, and I want to help the candidates out. Mr. McKillip, Cheryl Rodriguez, Ray Scarfo, they all deserve Axis TV. What else is happening? The quarry thing is kind of like a stumbling block
[Adam Knight]: I don't find it to be scary either. That's why I was just trying to get a little bit more clarification.
[Joe Viglione]: I really don't know. I can't speak for 60,000 people. It doesn't scare me, you, but it would scare the community, and that's not right.
[Adam Knight]: It doesn't sound very scary to me, but I do appreciate Councilman Longocare bringing this matter forward, and I do appreciate Mr. Brown for being up here this evening as well, because I think he did a great presentation. So thank you very much, Mr. Brown. Name and address of the record, please.
[McKillop]: David McKillop, 94 Rockland Road. I guess you just gave it to me. Basically, I had a couple of conversations with Ben Brown, and a couple of really great conversations. I believe that Ben has a long road ahead of him in the respect of trying to get TV3 up and running. I agree with him in one respect, that there should be some modicum independence from the city, although it can't be completely. It should be a non-profit organization with a board of directors and I believe hopefully someday we'll get there and that will help in that respect. As far as the Corey check goes, the conversations that Ben and I had, because I believe all candidates, both incumbent and ones that are running for positions, are very excited about the opportunity of Medford Media. Am I saying it correct, Ben? Medford Media. I think everybody should be excited about it, as well as the community itself. However, when I had those conversations, what I was asking Ben is, how do we get involved in it? How do we get to be a part of it? The first conversation was based off of this contract that City Solicitor Rumley had Ben did call me and tell me that he finally got it in his hands, whatever that timeframe was. And then in the next question I asked, quite specifically, how can candidates get involved now that we have some leeway? And the first response was, my plan is, Dave, to try to get all the candidates to submit a film stating what they would like to project for their candidacy, and that way there he could air it the first two weeks in October. My first question was, my God, that's so many candidates. Are you going to be able to pull this off starting the end of this week, hopefully? And then my next question was specifically, well, what happens, and I'm sorry if I throw you under the bus, Councilor Marks, but what happens if Michael Marks asks, how do I get myself on TV and do a call-in show or something like that? And there was a little hemming and hawing because he wasn't quite sure of the answer as of that point. Nowhere in that conversation did it state a Corey check. I think everybody here, If I'm wrong, please correct me, but I think that everybody knows that a CORI check takes some time, not 24 hours, maybe not even a week. 24 hours for sure? Okay, so then I stand corrected. So again, I apologize. But that would be, you know, the first step is to get that out of the way and get everybody up and running because... If you are going to submit a copy, and we all have to be quarried on that, and we're not even in the building, that doesn't make any sense to me. But if we are coming into the building, and it is a one-shot deal. I don't see candidates coming in once a week to start a show. I just think it's a one-shot deal. They want to come in, and they want to present their case in the respect of how they'd like to see Medford move forward. I think that Medford has to be better than this. I think that this hemming and hawing about Medford media has got to stop. I mean, let's just move it forward now. Let's stop this constant trying to find a way to figure out how it's going to delay the process a little bit longer, a little bit longer, a little bit longer. I think we have somebody that really wants to move it forward. His vision seems in my mind to be a progressive vision. He believes that, you know, the technology has to come to a different level. There's a lot of work to do. But in the same respect, it's got to be launched and it's got to be launched now. And I think it's time. And I think all of the including the mayor would probably want to see everyone be able to use this. And I and I would ask Mayor Stephanie Burke to make a comment that she can't wait to see us all get on here as well because that's really what this is about. I think everybody should be able to use this and be able to show the people in Medford that may not be able to come to different events and different venues that want to sit at home or can't do anything but sit at home but want to listen and want to learn. And one of the things that surprised me more than anything else and Ben can attest to this, is how fascinating the fact that Medford residents love to watch this media. They absolutely love watching it. So it is viable, it's incredibly important, it needs to move forward, it needs to move forward now. So now that we've got the contracts and anybody that wants to get involved, let's get this ball rolling. That's really all I can say.
[Richard Caraviello]: Name and address of the record, please.
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: Hi, I'm Cheryl Rodriguez, 281 4th Street. So I'm not afraid of my Cori check. I get it every year. a very active volunteer at the Roberts Elementary School, and I'm fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom and able to go into the school during the school day to submit my CORI. My husband, Alex, works outside the home, and he usually has to work from home or something if he wants to get his CORI. because it's only offered during the school hours. So I'm concerned about possibly hours that people will be able to do quarries. I'm not sure if everyone knows that you do have to submit a quarry in person. You have to show a physical copy of your ID. So if we wanna make sure that this is accessible, there needs to be multiple hours. I'm not sure why if you're not coming in the building, you would need one, but just logistically speaking, it can be difficult for people to do the quarries in person if there are not evening hours, weekend hours, things like that. Thanks.
[Roy Belson]: President, let me just make a couple quick comments on CORI so everyone understands how CORIs work, okay? First of all, a CORI check is very quick. You fill out the paperwork, you bring in your material, obviously identification is required to ensure that you are actually the person who is being CORI checked. That's just a safeguard. You get it back in about 24 hours or less. It's that quick, right? Now, if you're denied employment or volunteer status on a Cori check, what happens is you then can be told why you're denied, and you have a right to appeal it. Now, I can't share a Cori. If I get a Cori, and I'm the person who reviews Coris in the school department, I can't share that Cori with anybody. I have to look at it. I'll give you an example. Typically, DUI. insurance violation, failure to register your car. There's a lot of those things that show up. Those things are not terribly important to me unless, in fact, you're driving a bus or you're doing something that might be related to the particular offense. Obviously, substances, things of that type. And when it happened, how it happened, did it happen last week, last year, or did it happen 20 years ago when you were a kid? I mean, those things are different. Obviously, you look at those things. But let's say you're denied. You have a right to get your Cory check. You have a right to make it public yourself. And if you're denied for something stupid or something you think is discriminatory, you can make that public. I can't, but you can. So any issuing authority has to keep it quiet, has to look at it that way. But an individual who's affected by it has every right to protest. that, in fact, that Corey was denied for some superficial reason. So it's important to know that. So you can't discriminate just simply because, you know, I don't like you because you're a person who says things that I don't like. It has to be a substantive reason or a person has a right to appeal it. And oftentimes, people come in and they say, you know, that happened so many years ago. I've been this way for so many times. Can you give me a chance? That happens. So I just want you to understand how that process works. Now within the school system, everybody has to be fingerprinted as well. It's an FBI job. Not volunteers, but people who are employees. Fingerprinted. So there's a whole series of things that have to go on in our world. It's the nature of society today. People are very concerned about safety. They're very concerned about who's there, who's in contact with their young people. And there's a lot of steps involved. But you do have a right to protest an adverse decision on your car for each other.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, President Caraviello. I know it's late. If we could just get an update, I want to thank Ben for being here and answering questions as well as the superintendent. If we could just get an update with regards to outreach to the public to let people know that there is a process in place, how they can apply. A lot of people don't really know about this. We've kind of bring it to light tonight. There was word that there might be a candidates clip that you're going to accept, so obviously reach out to the candidates. But with regards to the general public, if they want to become a member, if they want to do a show, want to put a tape in, what type of outreach will you be doing? Will there be a reverse 911 call?
[MjGBHu28DvM_SPEAKER_02]: So as far as the open house goes, we're going to invite the delegation from the school committee and the city council, as well as the mayor's office and other people that we can get off of lists from around the community. After that, we'll hold several nights for different groups of people. We'll hold a night for nonprofit organizations. We'll hold a, you know, just meet and greet nights where I do plan on working with the Arts Council as well as the Chamber of Commerce to try to get the word out there as much as I can. And yeah, my hope is that that will generate enough organic response.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I just, as a resolve, I'd just like to see if we could put out a reverse 911 call before the open house and let people know that applications can be submitted either at the open house or in person anytime and with the hours of operation of TV3. So we can get this up and running and help Ben with his endeavor.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by Councilor Lingo-Curran. Name and address of the record, please.
[Robert Penta]: have a quarry check or not? Because you just said you were going to invite the men over there. Is that going to be required of a candidate running for office? Incumbent, newcomer? Yes, I believe it will. So tonight we had you folks up here with your public access. And we had, right down the hall, we had the band playing, practicing. You followed the rules, and you guys were all in violation tonight because you didn't have a quarry check. And this is where the situation is going to become really sticky and technical. Why the quarry check? No other city in town around this has it. If you look at their applications. Now, you guys in Bureau, you're candidates as well as candidates for re-election. You're all going to have to have a quarry check. And I disagree with you for 24 hours. For the time being.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by Councilor Locario, seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor? All those in favor? Aye.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Aye. Motion passes. If I can move a suspension of rules that takes 17-648, I'm going to table my last four since it's almost midnight.
[Richard Caraviello]: 17-648. Petitions, presentations, and civil matters. 17-648. Petition by Andrew P. Castagnetti, 23 Cushing Street, Medford, to address the council to ask a question. Mr. Casey Diddy.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: I just want to re-ask a question that I brought forward to the council at the last meeting. And that was simply, for a council, councilor I ask to bring forward the question. To ask the mayor, why isn't new growth, brand new real estate tax used to offset any proposed The council voted for it. I just wanted to know, was that question actually sent to the mayor?
[Adam Knight]: Mr. Clerk. The minutes haven't been adopted. I do not know. The minutes haven't been adopted from the last meeting. Until we get official minutes.
[Richard Caraviello]: That's right, the minutes were not adopted from the last meeting, so that question would not have gone to the mayor. After tonight when the minutes get adopted. The minutes weren't adopted.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: They will be adopted. My question, hopefully, is indeed inside the minutes.
[Richard Caraviello]: It is inside those minutes. Are you sure of that, Councilor? I would hope so. Clerk Finn does a very good job with his records. If it's not, I'm sure, Councilor Lungo-Koehn will, I think she, Councilor Lungo-Koehn is reviewing it right as we speak. Thank you very much.
[Michael Marks]: You have another question, Mr. Castagnetti?
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Yes. The rules are suspended. Can I address the council? I wanted to make, I actually wanted to say, Honorable Councilors, While I have this moment, I would like a minute to congratulate all of the seven city councilors and the seven council challengers. I wish you all good luck, and more importantly, good health before and after seven of the 14 are elected in November. Also, I'd like to give a heartfelt thanks to my 499 people who voted for me. It did me no favor. Because now I'm in a real good place. This is my five key priorities. That is, number one, improve public safety. Three, encourage fiscal responsibility. Four, promote responsible development. And my baby, number five, reduce real estate tax burden. for unoccupied homelands by adopting the full 35% undone message of the federal law, under 59 section 5C, as it's done in the formidable Walden area, and all across the other area communities. Finally, provide some long overdue tax relief for homelands. And now I have a sixth, Thank you for your attention, assistance, and public spirit. Now back to my question. Was the question in the records, Councilor? Yes, it was. Thank you very much for listening.
[Adam Knight]: It is 17607, Mr. Kessinger. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Mr. President, while we're on to suspension, I've been asked to make the following announcement by the leaders of the There are a series of public forums coming up for surveys and input into the community preservation process. The committee forums will be on Wednesday evening, October 4, 2017 from 7 to 9 at the Medford High School Library. And Saturday morning, October 14, from 11 to 12, at the Medford Senior Center, 101 Riverside Avenue. And to take the survey, and for further information, go to www.preservemedford.org.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Councilor Donovan. Thank you, Mr. President. 17-644.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to table my next four.
[Richard Caraviello]: Motion by Councilor Landau-Kernan to table 17-644, 17-645, 17-646, and 17-647.
[Roy Belson]: Mr. President, I'd like to be heard for a moment. I've been here all night. I've been here all night. And three motions on the agenda tonight, I stayed to answer them, and they just got tabled. So I'd like to be given the courtesy of making a couple of comments, if I can, because I've issued you a couple of reports that the school committee received. Maybe some people don't want to hear the facts, but nevertheless, here they are.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: No, Mr. Superintendent, you gave them to us at 10 o'clock for us to review. Why 10 o'clock? I saw you give them to Larry, the answers, at 10 o'clock. That's OK. Can I have an opportunity to review them before my own resolution?
[Roy Belson]: That's OK. Your resolution was on the agenda. I came here and stayed here.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: But if you were here all night, why didn't you give them to us at 10 o'clock?
[Roy Belson]: Because I gave it to everyone, but I thought you wouldn't listen to the other. I'm not going to trade with her. But I'd like a moment as a citizen to be able to address the council.
[Richard Caraviello]: We will not, uh, Councilor Laguna has pulled those motions, but you are free to address the council.
[Roy Belson]: Thank you. Just want to say something. There are three reports on the agenda tonight. The school committee received these reports last night, or received the update last night. Let him speak.
[Richard Caraviello]: Are we in public participation or are we in suspending the rules? Motion to suspend the rules by Councilor Dello Russo, seconded by Councilor Falco, I mean by Councilor Scapelli. All those in favor? Aye.
[Roy Belson]: Thank you Mr. President, members of the council. Tonight, on the agenda, there were items that dealt with enrollment and real estate development, and the impact upon class size, the impact upon enrollment in the schools. And I think it's important that you hear this, and you are aware of it. I gave you reports tonight. One report was done at the beginning of the school year. The second report was done this week and given to the school committee, and they had a discussion on it last night. And I think it's important that you know this because there are some things flying around the community that are just patently not true. And I think it's important that you know it so that when you're asked these questions in public, you can answer them truthfully and you have the statistics in front of you. I'm gonna refer to the report that was given last night because I think that's the most relevant one right now. It talks about the impact of real estate development on class size, class enrollment in the Metro Public Schools. And we picked eight units or eight different developments in the city with 150 or more units in it and looked at the class size impact, looked at the impact of student enrollment by school, by grade. by different development to give you an idea of what the impact is. And if you read it closely, you'll find that there's 105 students in eight developments that come to our public schools, 105. Two of them are in outside placements. Two of them are in outside placements. And if you spread them out and look at it, the average class size in the elementary schools is 18.3. That's the best in the commonwealth. Almost the best in the commonwealth. You should be proud of that. You support the schools. The school committee supports the schools. You should be proud of that. Because you've got good class size. Because you've asked the question about class size over and over again at the various meetings that I've attended on budget. So I think you should have that as you go into the campaign. I think you should know that. But there is a rumor going around that somewhere development is overrunning the schools. The schools are overwhelmed. It's not true. It's not true. Go over the report. I'm not going to go over it with you now because it's late and you can read. But I think it's important that you know this as you move around the city and people ask you about development. Development is important to support the various initiatives, to reduce the tax rate, to do all the things that you want to do in the community. And at the same time, it's a legitimate concern to determine whether or not it's going to cost you more money in your public schools. Well, right now, we're doing just fine. Right now, you could add 155 seats to the elementary schools and still be below 20 students in a class, on average. Sorry, it's a flashlight. I'm sorry? Your light? Oh, I'm sorry. It's all right. I just had it so I could see. you could add 500 seats and still have decent class size at this particular point in time. Now, there may be some need for some looking at distribution. One school maybe has a little bit less than another. That's always the case. You work on that. But you should know as a city council, you should know as the people that help to fund the budget and do development in the city, that your schools have sufficient capacity to handle additional students right now. And we can move forward. You should also know that our schools are doing just fine. And you're part of the support. There's a lot of great programs going on. And then you're here tonight in this auditorium, which has been renovated in many ways. You're going to see any number of other additional renovations. Last night, the school committee received a report on the merger between the high school and the vocational school and the exciting programs that are taking place there. And we welcome the opportunity when the new Bistro 49 is there to have you there and to see that and to see how the youngsters use the new resources that you have helped to support. Last spring I came to you and I asked you to support the submission of an SOI to the School Building Authority. The School Building Authority will be in Medford on October 5 to begin their site visit to determine whether or not we can receive funding for that purpose. So we can look at that as another possibility of developing our schools, our programs, and moving things forward. So a lot of good is going on. And I welcome the opportunity to share that tonight. But I didn't want to miss the opportunity to tell you that the discussion about overwhelmed numbers in the schools are not true. It's not true. Look at the numbers. Happy to answer any questions you have. I want you to know that, and just in case you get asked on the street, and when you have to make development decisions, I want you to be fully informed. So I appreciate the time. Thank you, and have a good night.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: The public know that I am not one to be spreading rumors. My point of the resolutions that I'll put forward next week is that we plan and get the answers like we did tonight at 10 p.m. I would like to just review them and hopefully I'll be able to thank whoever produced them for us next week. But to get something at 10 when you're trying to concentrate on people in the audience, on people at the podium, It's a little hard to review what you were given. I have not been spreading that rumors. I believe two of our schools are close to or at capacity. That was proven this year when two classrooms had to be moved from the Roberts to the Brooks. All I'm asking for, or I will ask for next week, is just a plan, the numbers, so that we can plan accordingly.
[Richard Caraviello]: Table records of the meeting of July 18th, 2017 were passed to Councilor Knight. Move the roll, Mr. Councilor. Councilor Knight, have you reviewed the records? I have. Move the roll. Motion to accept the records of July 18th. Seconded by Councilor Dello Russo. All those in favor? Aye. The records of the meeting of August 15th, 2017 were passed to Councilor Legal Kern. Councilor Legal Kern. How did you find those records?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I've reviewed the records. I'd like to review them in a little more detail. I believe there's one mistake that I just want to clarify.
[Richard Caraviello]: Should I table those? Yes, please. Councilor Lungo-Koehn has requested that the minutes of the meeting of August 15th be tabled until next week. All those in favor? Motion passes. Motion to adjourn by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Dello Russo. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Meeting adjourned.
|
total time: 24.85 minutes total words: 1932  |
total time: 26.94 minutes total words: 2472  |
total time: 14.34 minutes total words: 1327  |
total time: 13.18 minutes total words: 654  |
|
total time: 7.38 minutes total words: 672  |
total time: 30.14 minutes total words: 2091  |
total time: 7.33 minutes total words: 365  |
total time: 13.17 minutes total words: 676  |
|
total time: 2.29 minutes total words: 203  |
total time: 7.08 minutes total words: 194  |
||