[Richard Caraviello]: 36th regular meeting of the Medford City Council. November 21st, 2017. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Councilor Dello Russo?
[Clerk]: Councilor Falco? Present. Councilor Knight? Present. Councilor Locker? Present. Vice President Marks?
[SPEAKER_18]: Present.
[Clerk]: Councilor Scarpelli? Present. President Cameo? Present.
[Richard Caraviello]: Please rise and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance 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. Councilor Lococo.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Caraviello. Just asking to suspend the rules to take 17765, 17763, and then obviously the petition from Eversource, and I believe we have one more.
[Richard Caraviello]: All in the motion by Councilor Lungo-Koehn for suspension of the rules, seconded by Councilor Dello Russo. All those in favor? Motion passes. 17, seven, six, five. Five. Petition by Cheryl Rodriguez, 281 Park Street, Medford, to address the council on do zoning laws apply in Medford. Good evening, name and address for the record, please.
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: Hi, Cheryl Rodriguez, 21 Park Street. Thanks for taking me. I'm having a little bronchitis, so. So I just wanted to start with a notification. If you live on or near Bellevue Street, Capon Street, Fairmont Street, University Avenue, or Winthrop Street, please be advised that Tufts University intends to convert these properties there into dormitories. I have no further details on this project and have just heard about them. The ZBA meeting for their variances is on Monday, December 4th at 7 p.m. here in Council Chambers. Unless you are an abutter or an abutter to an abutter, you will not be notified of this meeting. Sadly, I'm here again to speak on the gross negligence of our Zoning Board of Appeals with regards to the 87 Medford Street Project. After the October 25th meeting, I and another resident filed a complaint with the Attorney General for violation of open meeting laws and not allowing residents to speak. Two subsequent complaints were filed after the November 13th meeting. I also included in my complaint that our Zoning Board members seem to not understand what their job and limitations are. They are not permitted to create new zoning laws on a parcel-by-parcel basis through variances, which is essentially spot zoning, and frankly are not allowed to create new zoning laws at all. That is the job of the Medford City Council. In the presence of dozens of residents and four sitting city councilors, a member of the ZBA in October stated that the board was forced to grant illegal variances because the Medford City Council has not changed zoning. That's not true, and I again ask this council to set the record straight that this is not in their purview. Variances should be rare and only under legally allowed conditions. These developers time and time again express surprise when they meet resistance to their projects as they say they are being encouraged by the administration to build denser. This council needs to find out where that message is coming from. Is it the Office of Community Development? Whoever it is, why are they encouraging developers to ignore zoning laws? Because projects with nine plus variances aren't bending zoning laws, they're pretending they don't exist. According to the Medford Zoning Ordinances, Chapter 94, Section 173, entitled General Dimensional Requirements, Table 6.3, titled Table of Dimensional Requirements, this project is so grossly outsized for the property provided that it was illegal for it to have passed. A multi-dwelling, which is as close as this mixed use which is not allowed, requires 10,000 square feet to start, 4,500 square feet for the first two units, then 1,000 square feet for each additional unit on floors one through three, 600 square feet for each unit on floors four and above. By this math, the size of the property is about 45,000 square feet and they're only legally permitted to build 32 units as the housing doesn't begin until the second level. If the housing began at the first level, they would only be allowed to build 31. The project approved was 55. Let that sink in. A full 23 units over allowable density if this project was legally allowed to be there. To put that into perspective, the developer threatened if this project didn't go through, he would build a 40B there. I counted that a 40B might be smaller. 40B projects would also provide 25% affordable units instead of the six provided here. but they are legally allowed to go outside the zoning laws, but likely not as far as this. Even though this project is illegal for the sake of argument, even 30% outside of our zoning of 40B would only be 42 units, with at least 10 of those units being affordable, still 13 less than were legally approved by our zoning board. That evidence removes all arguments that this is done to increase affordable housing because it adds 49 luxury price units and only six affordable units. This is a density project and nothing more. The approval of the project was illegal. It shows a fundamental lack of understanding of our zoning laws and the boundaries of the powers of the ZBA. It also runs contrary to the reasons that they stated for breaking our zoning laws without remorse. The entire board should be removed. The decision should be immediately overturned. When a new board is installed, they should be made to watch the open meeting law tapes the Attorney General ordered the board to watch after their last violation of open meeting law. They should also be made to read Massachusetts General Law section 40A, paying particular attention to section 10 entitled variances. These are the only way that this board can legally grant variances, not based on a density agenda, not based on the will of the administration, and definitely not because they feel responsible for solving the greater Boston housing crisis. Yesterday, the meeting of the open meeting law complaints was held by the ZBA at 8.45 a.m. The board affirmed that they feel they are fighting against this council for a greater good. It was again stated that they are forced to grant variances because this council has an updated zoning. Further, it was said that even if this council asks them to expand who they notify for projects, they will refuse to do so. They said they will follow the letter of the Massachusetts law and only notify abutters to abutters within 300 feet and only residents directly across the street from the project. One of the complainants was from a resident who was across the street from the project and one house over. She complained that she was not notified. The ZBA says they are under no obligation to notify her and will not notify people similarly in the future. This project will impact her as much as her next door neighbor. This was highlighted and they asked Solicitor Rumley to back them in this interpretation of the law. This board has consulted with our city solicitor and has made it clear that they intend to do the minimum and will not do more even if an ordinance is passed by this council. The time has passed to talk here at meetings. This is happening and accelerating quickly. We have a ZBA that is moving to increase density through variances and refusing to be checked other than through the filing of court cases. I asked Solicitor Rumley if there was a board I could appeal to that would help, since the ZBA is going outside of zoning and refusing to follow the laws on granting variances, and he angrily told me to hire an attorney. Apparently that is our only recourse. But you need to do it quickly. This last illegal approval allowed density that was 70% more than what is allowed for a parcel of this size in the city of Medford. It provides zero setbacks. Even if zoning was completely modified tomorrow, it is doubtful that a project like this would have been allowed. If you update zoning to allow more density and the ZBA still feels that it isn't dense enough, we'll stop them from approving projects 70% over what you make in the new laws. You've lost complete control of our zoning laws. The time to play nice is over. Our ZBA is doing as they see fit with regard to zoning laws. Our Mayor is meeting with people behind closed doors to write zoning laws the way she wants them to be. Where is the City Council in this conversation? Where is the resident input? This is your area. This is under your control. You have far more power than to make a speech. Please use it. The residents are counting on you. You saw that the ZBA only allowed you to speak at the Medford Street Project in October. And all that you spoke was to say to let the residents speak, which they did not. You need to speak for us now. In 18 months, it will be too late. You've all retained your seats. You can all start the work now. I encourage you to retain an attorney versus loaning laws to help you with this. Not just a group that's charged with increasing density in cities. You need to reign in this board. You need to take control. What are you going to do about this project? It's now passed and the only way to stop it is to file a lawsuit. Is that how it's going to work here in Medford? Either you stop gross overreach or the city continues to sue itself over and over again. Thanks.
[Krause]: Good evening. Name and address of the record, please. Thank you. Yes, my name is Ken Krause. I live at 50 Mystic Street. I'm not speaking on behalf of Tufts University, but I just wanted to share some information for people who might be here or watching about the items that were mentioned coming up on December 4th at the zoning board. I saw the public notices in the transcript last week for 13 single-family homes that Tufts intends to convert to housing for upper level students. Just for a little bit of background, again, I didn't bring my notes or anything or come prepared to speak on this, but I called the community relations office when I saw that because I was curious as to what that entails. So briefly, Tufts requires their freshmen and sophomores to live on campus. About 50% of the junior students study abroad. Tufts has found when those students come back, they don't want to live in conventional dormitories with a bunch of freshman and sophomore type students. So they're looking to provide housing for the upper level junior and senior students in another setting that's more typical to apartment living. Tufts owns 13 buildings on the streets that were mentioned, Winthrop, Fairmount, I forget the other two names, University Avenue, including a building that houses the Community Relations Office, and they're going to be moved.
[Richard Caraviello]: I think they own all but I think three.
[Krause]: Right. So they're currently. wooden homes on the streets and they're going to remain wooden homes. Instead of being on the open market, Tufts rents them now, they're going to be offered to students through the housing program that they offer their students. So I just wanted to share some of that because if people heard they're going to change these streets into dormitories and think there's going to be bulldozing of those streets and all those residents that are there. That's not the plan. I encourage people to come on December 4th. The Community Relations Office indicated they've already spoke to the mayor. They've spoken to each of you. They've talked to many of the abutters. Many of the abutters are absentee landlords and Their situation is different than you might typically anticipate when you encounter neighbors. But it sounds like they're doing the right thing in terms of the outreach. And just in a nutshell, that's what they're planning. So I encourage people to learn more about this project. December 4th at 7 o'clock, I believe, is the Zoning Board of Appeals hearing. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cross.
[Richard Caraviello]: All right, any further discussion on that? Thank you, motion to receive and place on file? By Councilor. Motion by Councilor Dello Russo to receive and place on file, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Sorry? Councilor Knight has requested a roll call vote. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Dello Russo? Yes. Councilor Falco? Yes. Councilor Knight. Yes. Councilor Kerr.
[SPEAKER_24]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Vice President Marks. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. Vice President Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative and a negative. Motion passes. 17763, protection by Marianne Ducey to Nott Street, Medford, Mass., to address the Council about non-notification to residents about the Green Line meeting on November 20th, 2007. Good evening. Good evening. Name and address for the record, please.
[Maryanne Adduci]: Marianne Ducey to Nott Street, Medford.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you.
[Maryanne Adduci]: There was a meeting last night of the Green Line. They're talking now about Route 16 again. There wasn't any public notification of that to abutters for the most part or the adjacent neighborhood. I found out accidentally a neighbor, I don't have a computer, I don't have email. So a neighbor started on email but it was conversations between two proponents of this talking about the meeting and the notice. So the neighbor brought it down to me and asked me if I knew about this. I said no. So I decided to knock on a few doors to find out if anybody else knew. Long and the short of it is I knocked on 150 doors. Passed out 90 flyers. For the most part, people were not informed. And those that were informed found out, as I said, through Facebook or some other communications. But most people thought that the Route 16 part was going to be on hold until they finished the College Ave portion. The College Ave portion is going to be completed in 2021. They're already starting to do some work. I don't know if any of you have been down there, but they are doing some work. I spoke to the DOT last night, the head of the DOT, and explained this to him. And he had said, oh, it was a good turnout tonight. I said, yeah, you have me to thank, because I knocked on 150 doors. So he was surprised at that. So we got both sides of the picture last night, because usually at these meetings, the proponent group is pretty organized. And they call each other and say, show up. But the abutters and the elderly people and the people who don't have email and the people who are just not in line with this all or in the communication link, they don't know. So this has got to change now. We've gone through this in the first phase. There was a lot of this non-notification. In fact, I have a letter that I wrote in 2012 complaining about this very same issue, which you can have a copy of, which substantiates that this is a pattern. They kind of like have a subculture. They, you know, they speak amongst themselves, but the ones who are most directly infected are out of the loop. And we're afraid that by the time we find out about it, it's going to be too late to make any changes. It may be already too late to make any changes, but we should have some input before this thing goes too far. Let me see here. Oh, the neighbor that informed me called the Boston Globe, the Medford Transcript, neither of them had any kind of public notice posted. I called a few of the city councilors who recommended that I come tonight, which I'm here. at City Hall here, got a reverse 911 call. So a reverse 911 went out Saturday night, although it was only two days before the meeting. So if you had plans, you know, you were out of luck. Also, I didn't like the idea that they scheduled this meeting on Thanksgiving week. Even if you knew about it, people are busy. And the response period, the comment period, is right after Thanksgiving. Again, people are busy over the holidays. They haven't got time to deal with this. So it's from past history and what they're doing now again, it's suppressing comments because they don't give people enough time to find out about this stuff and to send their comments in. I don't know if all of you are aware what the plans were in the past, but about five or six years ago, The Metropolitan Planning Council came out and gave a presentation to the group. And basically, they want to do economic development around the station. The station is going to be sited somewhere in the vicinity of the U-Haul building. Now, that's summable. So any economic development that happens there, summable is going to get the benefit of that. So the Metropolitan Planning Council said, well, maybe they could do some development in Medford. They had suggested putting a row of retail stores along Auburn Street, where Whole Foods is now. But if they do that, that's going to take away from Whole Foods parking lot. So what would they do there? Would they put a parking garage up? Then they suggested, well, you could probably put condo development where Walkwing Court is. Not very high, maybe four or six stories. But when they built Walkwing Court, they built it specifically to be two stories high because they wanted it to blend in with the surrounding neighborhood. Plus, it would be displacing all those seniors and disabled people that live there now because they said that this would not be for seniors. This wasn't going to be a senior complex. It would be for, you know, the regular public. So, I just can't, you know, cope with that because, I mean, you know, we don't need that there. I mean, you're going to displace seniors who like living there. They wanted to site this station at Route 16, and the whole purpose of this transit here is because they hope to take cars off the road and get people onto transit. However, if you put a station at Route 16, if any of you have traveled Route 16, any time of the day, a lot of traffic, always a lot of traffic. But it's not traffic coming to Medford. It's pass-through traffic. It's traffic going to 93, it's going to Route 2, it's going to 28, it's going to 3. So if you put a station there, that's not going to alleviate any of the Route 16 traffic. Matter of fact, it may bring more traffic if people come to the station that wouldn't ordinarily come here. Plus, we have ample public transportation in the area. We have a bus that goes to Lechmere, which may get taken off if they put the station here. And they may say, you can get on the Lechmere line at either College Ave or Route 16. Plus, we have Davis Square. We have Harvard Square buses. We have the commuter rail. And, you know, it's a short walk to Medford Square. You can get on other buses that go to Wellington and other places. So it's not like we have no transportation. Plus the cost of doing this. We're talking about, they say a mile. I think that's the way, you know, if you measured it with a tape measure. But people, like where I live on North Street, I can walk, to call it jab, in about 15 minutes. And I'm a senior citizen. So younger people got much faster than I. If you're going to come to Route 16 station with a bicycle, so you pedal a couple of more minutes and you get to College Ave, no big deal. This is going to require rebuilding the North Street Bridge and the Winthrop Street Bridge because they're not high enough or wide enough underneath for the two sets of trains to go under. The North Street Bridge right now is very steep. I was standing outside the polling place at Walkwing Court on election day. A guy came by with a baby carriage. And I was asking him if he knew about this. And he said, no, he didn't know about it. And he said, I told him they have to rebuild this bridge. And he says, I can't even push the baby carriage up the bridge now. Another guy came by on a bicycle. I told him, he says, I have trouble pedaling up the hill now. And not to speak of the people who have to walk up the hill. So I don't know if it's going to be higher or what. And living in the neighborhood, when they rebuilt those two bridges, it wasn't all that long ago. It was a terrible inconvenience because all the streets around there have been made one way. So the only way to exit from where I live would be in front of Whole Foods onto Route 16. So you're putting more traffic onto Route 16 because you're closing the bridges. I know it's only a temporary couple of years until they fix the bridge, but still. So when you add up the cost of all this, can you cost justify that the expense that it's going to cost to put one more station at Route 16, that some of those are going to get the benefit of it, and the method's going to get the pain of it? It's not gonna help us. Now I know the mayor comes in various public meetings and she says she's all for it, but I'd like to know what's in it for Medford? Why is she so for it? We have to find that out. The city mayor, you people, you have to have a listening session or a meeting with just the abutters and just the people in the immediate area to hear their concerns, to look at their neighborhood, I would be happy to take all of you people on a little tour so you can see what, I mean, you know, it's one thing seeing it on paper. It's another thing walking the route and see what we're talking about here. I would, if the mayor's listening, you can come too. You probably, you should benefit from this. So, and premature, I think it's premature. Finish college ed, you'll learn a lot probably if you finish college ed before you even consider Route 16, whether you want it or not. So, I know the proponents of this are very enthusiastic. It's not that I'm against public transportation. I'm for public transportation. When it's justified, when it's cost effective, when it's going to be beneficial, If it's going to do some good for the city, fine. But I just, I mean, you just can't see it. The city has to hear the other side of the story and pay attention, not shut us out of this whole process. Because we've been shut out for the whole project, you might as well say. So basically, that's really all I want to say. I mean, if you have any questions, I can give you the past history.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: to express your dissatisfaction with the notification policy. I find it very frustrating myself when the neighborhood isn't notified of such an important meeting. And it's something that goes on. with a number of different things in this city, and it's unfortunate. I don't know if that's the MBTA, but I think that the city, knowing of such a meeting, should have done a reverse 911 call.
[Maryanne Adduci]: Well, they did at the very end, but I think that was prompted by some conversation I had with one of the councilors here.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Right, and I think the comment period, like you mentioned, I believe the comment period on this is by Tuesday, November 28th at 5 p.m. So, I mean, my first recommendation would be to reach out to the MBTA and ask them to extend that. That's basically comments are due immediately after, you know, the Thanksgiving holiday when a lot of people are away.
[Maryanne Adduci]: He didn't feel, last night he was just emphatically saying that that's the deadline, so he was, you know.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I'd like to take a vote tonight and just request that that be extended by another week or two. I don't think it hurts to allow public comment, whether you're for or against the extension. I think public comment should be given a more extensive period of time to do that. And I think a meeting with the abutters, whether the city council holds it or the mayor, I believe that we do need to know what the positives and negatives are, and we need to know the concerns so that we can help address them with the MBTA. So those are just two things I wanted to add. I think we should vote on. We want to make a request that the city holds a public hearing or a public meeting.
[Richard Caraviello]: And extend the comment period? Yes, please. Mr. Clark, do you have that? The MBTA or the City of Medford.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: The MBTA or the City of Medford.
[Richard Caraviello]: And the City of Medford hold a public hearing. Public meeting, excuse me, public meeting.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We want to hold a public meeting, that's one thing. And then, Clerk Finn, we want to also ask that they extend the comment period by a week or two past the Tuesday, November 28 date that was written on the notice. People have to comment to the Secretary of Energy and Environment Affairs, MEPA office, no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, November 28th. Can we request that that time period be extended, especially for those who just learned about this project during either the reverse 911 call or when you notified them by knocking on doors?
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion, Micah.
[Maryanne Adduci]: Do you want a copy of this 2012, whatever I wrote? Because it documents this to show you people that it's not a new problem. I documented it in here that was lack of notification. So it's an ongoing problem. It goes back and forth. Sometimes they invite you, sometimes they don't.
[Richard Caraviello]: If you'd like to give it to the messenger and he'll give it to the clerk to send along. Thank you very much.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think just to close, I think we've all one time or another have voiced our frustration with this reverse 911 system. We get notifications multiple times about fund community events, which is great, but when you have such a serious meeting with regards to the MBTA or our last speaker who spoke about notification about zoning meetings, zoning board of appeals meetings, and nobody's getting notified, and we're not using that reverse 9-1-1 system, it's extremely frustrating. This is just, I'm hearing it far too often from residents who should be the ones controlling the situations, controlling and having their voices heard, controlling development, controlling a number of different things in the city and we're not notifying them of important public information a neighborhood should know about.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Good evening. Name and address to the record, please.
[Anita Nagem]: My name is Anita Nagum. I live on Norton Avenue in Medford, just off of North Street, near Walkland Court. There are a couple of things I would like to add to what Mary Ann has just said. First, as far as the notification, well, first let me start. I contacted the Green Line Extension Project at MassDOT and asked that the comment period be extended. It took a week for someone to call me back. I explained to him that abutters had not been notified. And we are talking about people on Charnwood Orchard and Piggott who would actually have property taken, not to mention people as far away as I am, which is about 150 yards, who are legally considered abutters as well under, I believe, federal statute. He said he'd get back to me. He never did. I put two requests or comments into the governor's office. asking that this comment period be extended and I still have not received any response to that. Concerning notification to residents, the MassDOT used an email list which was obtained from 2009 to 2015 about when the previous series of meetings was held. People came in and voluntarily signed in on sheets. If they put email addresses down, that information was given to MassDOT and that was used to provide the only notification for this last meeting. Previously, MassDOT, actually because they were trying to get federal funding, went and put flyers around if not by mail, but I believe they usually went and actually put flyers on the houses of abutters to notify them of meetings. I, at the meeting yesterday, challenged them on their lack of notification, and the response was, well, we sent out an email that is completely unacceptable. The reverse 911 is fine, but that was done by the city of Medford, not the state, and it was only done because Mary Ann happened to call. and speak with one of the city councilors. In addition, that is not sufficient. A lot of people, because of the overuse of the 9-1-1, reverse 9-1-1, have opted out. Many people who have cell phones have never even opted in to begin with. There are many elderly residents who do not have email and would not know about this unless they were directly notified. The notification is unacceptable, and we need the city council to advocate for us with MassDOT to get adequate notification about these issues. The situation is really unacceptable. The third thing just about the general project is a federal environmental review was only done for the station up to College Avenue. A federal environmental review was never done for the Route 16 station, and it was dropped before one was ever done, was done. The MassDOT MBTA has filed a notice of project change, which would allow them to add the Route 16 station without a federal environmental review. NEPA, National Environmental Protection Agency policy, is much more rigorous than the Massachusetts policy. And I would hope that the city council would advocate on behalf of residents to require that a review be done under NEPA national standards. This is a backdoor way to try to get the project in without a federal review. Because they're not asking for a federal review, they would not be eligible for federal funding. And if they ever wanted federal funding, they'd have to go back. But that ought to be done at the beginning. It's really not acceptable to be doing this in this manner.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Excuse me. The clerk didn't get your name and address, so if you give it to him again.
[Anita Nagem]: Anita Nagum, N-A-G-E-M.
[Richard Caraviello]: And your address also?
[Anita Nagem]: Excuse me?
[Richard Caraviello]: Your address.
[Anita Nagem]: 9 Norton Avenue. 9 what? 9 Norton Avenue.
[Richard Caraviello]: 9 Norton Avenue. Thank you. Good evening. Name and address of the record, please.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Yes, Doug Carr, 124 Boston Avenue, West Medford. I was at the Green Line meeting as well last night. I agree with the preceding folks about the lack of communication about this meeting, but honestly, this is a symptom of a larger problem that Medford has had for a long time, which is a consistent lack of competent planning in this city. We do not have enough people. There is nobody in this building whose job it is to shepherd the green line. through the process, through the city of Medford. There hasn't been, for 14 years, we have basically been on the sidelines observing what the state does, not really participating in the process. If we had that, we would have more notice. The state can do some things. The city can do some things. But the city of Medford really needs to participate in the process, not observe it from the sidelines, which they've been doing now for over a decade. And that's where a lot of this misinformation comes from. And we're at the frustration level, which I agree with, even though I obviously support the green line and have all the way to 16, because I think it does benefit more people in Medford. It does benefit West Medford, which is still a mile away from College Avenue. It benefits a lot of people who cannot walk that far. The green line going to College Ave, basically, it just touches the hillside, and it's mostly South Medford. But it's dramatically a larger part of Medford that would benefit from Route 16. And this is the beginning of putting this project back into the larger project. It's a long way to go. It's not like we have a design yet. They're just studying it. So I do urge. all the people from North Street and every other street around there to get on the mailing list and I concur that the City of Medford needs to do more. You really need to hire two or three more planners full time. It's like you have Somerville has seven full-time planners. We have one. We've added thousands of apartments in Medford. The Green Line, all these planning things that didn't exist 20 years ago, but we have the exact same size OCD we had 20 years ago. That is a fundamental structural imbalance in this city. It's like having a third number of the police or fire that we have that we need. Nobody would accept that, or teachers. Why would we accept the same thing for planning? And look at the pattern that's happening. The Medford Square master plan sits for 10 years, not executed. You have zoning problems, not executed. You have green line problems. The thread that ties them together is planning and the lack thereof. And until you get more bodies in here, not volunteers, legitimate planners full-time to accent what we already have upstairs with Lauren D'Alenzo and Clodagh and the other people who are good people, they need more help. And I know you guys have been working on that, but it's not fast enough and the city is getting overrun by proposals. So we need more bodies. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Dello Russo.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by Councilor Lungo-Koehn. Oh, I'm sorry.
[Krause]: Good evening, name and address of the record, please. Thank you, Ken Crouse, 50 Mystic Street. I agree with Mary Ann. We can't do enough as a city, as the MBTA, as a community, to engage people and provide more notification for these meetings. They're very important. And the more people that participate, the better. A couple of things I just wanted to clarify, as someone who has been closely involved with the project since 2004, and one, The Walklane Court situation would, anything that would happen to Walklane Court would be decided by the Medford Housing Authority and they control that property. And frankly, one of the largest beneficiaries of the Green Line extension will be the people who live at Walklane Court because, especially people with limited mobility. The buses that we say we have are very difficult to get on board if you happen to be disabled. Our commuter rail system is completely inaccessible. If you're disabled, you can't use it at all. The buses run very infrequently. The trains run very infrequently. The Green Line cars will be level boarding that will run every seven minutes or so. will provide an unbelievably improved service to the people at Waukling Court. And if anything, this project will leverage our opportunity to get funding to improve Waukling Court and expand it and bring it up to today's standards. The other thing that I want to clarify in terms of historical thing that keeps being mentioned, it was mentioned last night and also today. that there was some sort of attempt to circumvent the environmental review process on the national level. This project was part of the draft environmental impact report, the Route 16 station in 2009. When that was completed, the MBTA, MassDOT said, we're not going to be able to include this station in the first phase of the project. So that environmental review will proceed up to College Avenue through NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act. The final environmental assessment was done. But at that point, it was stated explicitly by the Secretary of Environmental Affairs on January 15th, 2010, and I'll quote Secretary Bowles, as it is not anticipated that construction of the Medford Hillside to Mystic Valley Parkway Route 16 segment will commence within the applicable MEPA or NEPA timeframes, reassessment of alternative two will be required in the form of a notice of project change. That's exactly what the MBTA is doing, as they were directed seven years ago by the Secretary. This is the initial step in the environmental review, which will probably take about a year. So again, I encourage everybody to get involved. There was a great give and take last night of people from all angles on the project. It was a great start to this process, and I hope people will continue to be engaged Throughout, but I just wanted to clarify that in terms of how the process is being undertaken It's a poor it's it's totally by the book. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Gross
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I just wanted to conclude. I agree with, thank you for the comments of Ken and Doug Carr, and I agree with Mr. Carr with regards to the lack of planners. I think we've all spoke at budget time to request additional personnel in that department. We were lucky to get a traffic engineer, but nobody in the planning department. The bottom line is, with regards to just the notification, that is something that you don't even need another planner for. Notification and sending out a reverse 911 call should be a given when it comes to such an impactful neighborhood concern. And for a city councilor to have to beg for a reverse 911 call to go out to a very large section of the city that's going to be impacted by the Green Line to let them know of a very important meeting, is a problem and it's an extremely large problem that's been going on for some time that needs to be fixed and hopefully that will be now that election time's over and we can stop being, not only saying we're transparent, but actually being transparent.
[Michael Marks]: Vice President Box. Thank you Mr. President. You know, this is, as we heard from residents tonight, that this is a common theme. You know, not too long ago, we heard about the Grove Street water project that's going on, and the lack of notification for abutters on Grove Street. Tonight, we discussed, and we're going to discuss it further, the Winthrop Street Eversource project, which, again, I'm sure will be concerned with the lack of notification, and the gas line on Harvard. uh, that we discussed just recently when about has had to come up and say they never received any notification. Um, you know, I think we're going down a real slippery slope when we keep on relying on reverse 911 to be the notification system for the city. The 9-1-1 was never intended to be the civic engagement of the community. It was always intended to be there for emergency purposes. You get a reverse 9-1-1 call, think about it, 9-1-1. It shouldn't be telling you about a soccer game going on down the street. That's not what the intent of 9-1-1 is. And if you look at surrounding communities, and the City of Somerville has a great program, it's called Resistat Program, and they have a system of sending out weekly email notifications to residents that sign up. And those notifications talk directly about projects that are going on in the city, timelines, events that are happening, additional information. This is where people get their information from, not reverse 911 calls. That's not the way it should happen. So again, Mr. President, because of the lack of notification in this community, if I hear one more time that, oh, we follow state law, within 300 feet, we notify Director Butters. Is that a way to operate a city? Is that a way to talk about a project like the Green Line and say we're only going to notify these 40 people that live within 300 feet of this particular area? Or the water project that's happening on Grove Street that impacts the whole neighborhood? How do you just notify people within 300 feet? That may be the state requirement, but it doesn't need to be our requirement. our requirement should be full notification of the city and I think the city of Somerville addresses it appropriately with this Resistat program that notifies residents, you sign up for a newsletter, they hold regular community meetings to discuss and gather input from residents and we do a lot of that in this community too but the community outreach in Somerville to me is a perfect way of reaching out to residents, and not everyone's on email, and I can appreciate that, that everyone doesn't have email, but it's an attempt to reach a broader spectrum than just, oh, state law requires us to notify Director Butters within 300 feet. That's not adequate in a city this size, and we hear week after week after week the concerns of residents. So I would ask, Mr. President, that this city administration look into another way of communicating and engaging people in the public process in this community other than reverse 9-1-1. That's a great asset and it should be used for emergencies. But look into another program that could alert residents on things that are happening. If you're not interested, you don't sign up for the the weekly emails that go out, the newsletters. But if you are interested, Mr. President, it's a great way of letting abutters and residents of this community know what's going on, timelines. How many times do you hear from people saying, jeez, you know, we heard that this project's starting, when does it end? Is it going to go through the holiday period? When's it going to end? Where are we going to park? Where are they going to stage the equipment? This should all be in a newsletter and things that people can read readily available and not through just a random 911 call or a random meeting that people may or may not be able to attend on a five o'clock on a Tuesday night here at City Hall or wherever the meeting might be, Mr. President. So I would respectfully ask my colleagues Mr. President, to send a recommendation to the city administration to mimic a program similar to what they do in Somerville called the Resistat program, which provides ample notification to residents via news email letters.
[Richard Caraviello]: You want to add it onto this, correct?
[Michael Marks]: Yes, yes, Mr. President. I know that was one of Council Lungo's recommendations regarding notification. So I would ask that we amend it, Mr. President, to address the very serious issues that we hear week after week. If this was an isolated incident, I wouldn't bother. But week after week, I think we do. And you heard from many of the residents that got up. One of the biggest, I think, drawbacks in this community is the lack of notification. Even with the zoning board meetings, you know, we hear about this that show up and say, I'm not opposed to this five-story building, but I am opposed to the fact that I had to find a crumpled up piece of paper in the middle of the street that alerted, you're supposed to alert me to a meeting that was taking place that impacts my neighborhood. So I think those are the issues, Mr. President, and I would ask that that be done in a roll call vote as a form. Thank you, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Leong Cunningham, as amended by Councilor Marks,
[SPEAKER_24]: Mr., are you requesting a roll call vote, Councilor Marks?
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Knight.
[SPEAKER_24]: I further amend the paper and just ask that copies of the request to the MBTA go to a state delegation as well. Mr. Clerk, if you can amend the paper that the papers go to the state delegation as well.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. President. Councilor Dello Russo.
[Krause]: Some members of the attending audience wish to address this matter further.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. Duchoux, do you want to speak again? Before the roll call is taken.
[Maryanne Adduci]: Just one point of clarification for Mr. Krause about Walkling Court. The problem with Walkling Court is that the commuter rail train is going to be moved closer to the buildings. And right now, between the edge of the building and the fence where the track is, there's only the width of a fire lane. So if that fence has to come in onto the fire lane, that can't be. There has to be a fire lane there. So that's what puts Walkman Court in jeopardy. So I just wanted to clarify that.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Dutcher. Good evening. Name and address of the record, please.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Andrew Castagnetti, Cushing Street, Method, Massachusetts.
[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome back.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Welcome to you. Nice to see all the city councilors. Congratulations. You're all back in your respective seats. Thank you. The gang of seven. And I'd like to also congratulate the first mayor in the Oval Office. And more importantly, I'd like to thank all the challengers that ran with their ideas and foresight to hopefully help city government improve society. If I may, I'd like to commend them big time. Back to the subject of the Green Line, Mariana Ducci brought up some good points, especially the advertisement. I would think, I'm old school, it should be in the method non-script, I mean the transcript, at least one week prior. not two days prior. Also, I believe Mary Ann made some noise about this green line extending from College Ave, Tufts University, westward to uh, Route 16 and Boston Avenue. That seems kind of redundant to me, the way I think, because that's at the doorstep of West Medford Square, and they already have a commuter line that goes to Boston, and it also goes right through Winchester, and that's above ground, mind you, with the freight trains also, at all hours. On the other side, the east side of our city, Malton Center, has the Orange Line. I would think common sense would dictate many years ago, from college out, they should put an underground tunnel. without doing any eminent domain to speak of, and have it emerge in the Medford Square subway station right behind you, Councilor, President, and take that one building by eminent domain, the red brick building, you could put down a piece of grass, you could call it the Medford Commons, and you would have the eternal stimulus, economically speaking, for all times. Okay, cost extra, cost more underground. I've talked to the union reps that dig these tunnels. Maybe if Tufts really wants their station, maybe with $7 billion in the bank, they could put up some cash in a form of a bond. They get their Green Line station, and when it's completed, maybe they would volunteer their funds to dig the tunnel underground. Again, we are five miles north of Boston. Route 93 is right here. I don't understand, in my opinion, the lack of common sense. And we should turn our back towards the river and not away from the river. This could be the most happening place all of the North Shore, in my opinion. Thank you for listening.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. Castagnetti. On the motion, if I could. Good evening. Name and address of the record please.
[SPEAKER_44]: My name is Rita Donnelly and I live at 35 Charnwood Road. I'm a direct abutter to the tracks. I did get an email because in 2009 I did get on the email list. I appreciate what Councilor Knight said about contacting our state reps. Our state reps are Senator Jalen and Representative Barber. They are for this project. They do not care about the Director Butters. We are a small constituency to them. They are going to do whatever Somerville wants. I have also spoken to the Mayor and asked her to look at our neighborhood and the changes that will take place in our neighborhood and how you will drive people who have lived in this city for years out. I am directly affected. The commuter rail will come towards me. I haven't decided what I'm going to do, but the diesel particulates, MEPA has said that they are a carcinogen. They cause asthma, COPD, lung cancer. I've lived there for 20 years. When I bought my house, I didn't know about diesel particulates. I do not understand how you can move a known carcinogen closer to the public for a mile of track. College Ave, the railway is wide enough. It narrows as you go from College Ave to Route 16. They don't want you to call it Route 16 because Route 16 is so busy. It is now the Mystic Valley Parkway. because who refers to it as the Mystic Valley Parkway? It sounds like a beautiful drive, doesn't it? So I would hope. that this council will keep the neighborhood and the residents that are directly impacted by this project. If it has to go to the Mystic Valley Parkway, it has to go, but it has to go safely and without impact to the residents. I have several new neighbors that have moved into the neighborhood with small children. They bought the tracks. They didn't know about the diesel particulates and they were not notified to come to the meeting. So it's a sad situation when people have lived in this city and supported this city and been a part of this community and their voices are not heard. There's a select few that are for the Green Line extension. And they are a group. And they talk amongst themselves. And they seem to have unlimited time to talk about it and to push the representatives and the mayor forward on this project without any consideration to the people that actually live there. And it's not right. I don't have a voice. I did try several years ago to talk to Senator Jalen about this. She looked over my head to see who she could find to talk to. That is wrong. When I spoke to Carl Scortino, he was on the opposite side of me. He had an intelligent conversation with me, he explained things to me, I felt better about The Green Line extension, at least my voice was heard. I do not feel like my voice is being heard today. And it's unfair and unfortunate. And I love Medford. I've lived here a long time. And it's just not right, the way that things are done behind people's backs. And the people that are directly affected are not notified. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you.
[Anita Nagem]: Anita Nagum, 9 Norton Avenue. I would just like to follow up quickly. First, I addressed this specific issue last night at the meeting. The state currently has no plans to do a review under NEPA policy. If at some point in the future they decide to seek federal funding, they would do one, but right now it will only be done under NEPA Massachusetts policy. Second, I just want to say I am very much in favor of public transportation. I bought my house in Medford Hillside 28 years ago because it was very well served by public transportation. We didn't have a car for 10 years, and we used the MBTA almost exclusively, except for times when we have large loads to carry. I also worked with the MBTA, and at my suggestion, because I used to live in Winter Hill and go to Cambridge, The only way at that time to get to Cambridge from Winter Hill was to go to Sullivan Square, into the city, and come back out. It's not a great solution, but what they came up with was running the 89 bus that runs from Sullivan Square to Clarendon Hill. Every other bus now goes to Davis Square. So I just want to say I'm very much in favor of public transportation. This project is not cost effective. It is not going to improve transportation for the residents of Medford Hillside. My husband teaches at Boston University. He takes the Green Line. I have timed how long it takes to go from Lechmere to Park Street. It was 14 minutes off peak. And you might be able to reduce that a minute or two. Even if this comes all the way out to Medford Hillside and it's two minutes from our house, it would still be faster for him to go to Davis Square, get on the red line, and get on the green line at Park Street. This is not for the benefit of Medford residents. This is to open the door to development. And again, the City Council brought this up. Councilor Marks brought this up. People outside, the last time I followed comments from, I very closely when the draft and final environmental reviews came up, about 60% of the comments, if I recall, came from people in Acton and Concord who wanted this because they want to come, park here, drive here, and take the T into Boston. Most of the Medford residents, a majority, who commented and were actually, who lived very close to the station, not even West Medford, but in the Medford Hillside area, were not in favor of this. The last thing I want to say is, at one of the meetings in the previous series of meetings, I was speaking with Catherine Fichter, who I believe was with MassDOT. She might have been with the Mass Planning Council, Massachusetts Area Planning Council. But she actually said to me, well, we envision Medford Hillside becoming the next Davis Square. That statement really took me aback. And I would urge the city council to start getting involved and advocate for the residents. I don't live in Davis Square because I don't want to. I live where I do. It is quiet. I grew up actually in a very small town. Even though I am 150 yards from the tracks, You could not believe how quiet it is there. That is one of the things that is the best about living in Medford Hillside. It is peaceful. It is quiet. And even with the commuter rail, which runs occasionally, and an occasional freight train, those are occasional occurrences. They're not disruptive to your life. A Green Line train running every 10 or 15 minutes all day would be. And I would really urge the city council to start advocating for the residents of Medford Hillside who do not want the development that would come with this station. It is clear from the meetings that this is not just going to be a simple station. There's going to be a lot that goes with it. It's going to be a magnet for development. And I would really, really urge you to pay attention and listen to the concerns of the residents of the area.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by Councilor Lungo-Koehn. That'll be as amended by Councilor Knight and Councilor Marks. Seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Motion passes. Motion to revert back to regular business. We'll do the hearing quick so we can get them in. Motion to revert back to regular business. Seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? 17-734, location of poles attached with fixtures and underground condiments. Motion by Councilor Knight to waive the reading. We have a public hearing first. Those in favor of the project, please come forward and make yourself known. Good evening, sir.
[SPEAKER_18]: Name and address of the record, please. Good evening, Mr. President. My name is Bill Zamparelli. I'm the Community Relations Representative with Eversource Energy. You are in favor of the project? I'm here representing the project, yes. You are, but you are in favor of the project, correct? Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Is there anyone else here in favor of the project? Good evening, name and address of the record, please. Mark Chubbs, 356 Wentham Street. I'm in favor of the project. Thank you, sir. Anyone else in favor? Hearing and seeing none, we close this section of the hearing. Is there anyone here that is opposed to this project? Please come forward. Hearing and seeing none, we close that section. Would the gentleman from Eversource please come and give a brief description.
[SPEAKER_18]: We are planning to install a 115 kV transmission line from Woobin Station to Mystic Station in Everett. This would be about, I believe, 7.7 miles. would be about two miles within the city of Medford. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Scarpelli, who is the Chairman of the Licensing Division, do you have a motion on this?
[George Scarpelli]: We do, I believe the motion is to table. I know that we had a meeting prior to this, it was very informative, but I think that we ran out of time and a lot of the Constituents' concerns need to be addressed before we vote on this, so I believe that we're recommendation to table this until meeting on December 5th, I believe. December 5th, Tuesday.
[Richard Caraviello]: Tuesday, December 5th will be the next hearing, and hopefully we can get it all squared away by then.
[SPEAKER_18]: Okay, that'd be 545? 545 again. Yes, 545. Okay, thank you very much.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion. Table. On the motion by Councilor Scarpelli to table this to December 5th, seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Thank you, sir. See you on the 5th. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. On the motion by Vice President Mox to take paper 17762 out of order. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. 17762 offered by President Caraviello be it resolved that the Medford City Council welcome Maria Ferretra as the new Executive Director of our Chamber of Commerce. And we have Ms. Ferretra in the audience. If she could come forward and introduce herself to the community and the business community, we'd greatly appreciate it. Good evening. Name and address of the record, please.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maria Ferretra, 19 Pool Street. Hello, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. I am so super excited to be the new executive director of the Medford Chamber of Commerce. And I've been going out into the community and getting to know some of the business owners and Impressed very impressed by as I am tonight listening to all these people in the audience with their devotion their dedication and just their their knowledge of what's going on in the community and How invested they are so I'm excited to continue to do that go out listen to people build some relationships and find out different ways to better serve our current membership and try to increase our relationships with other organizations as well. So thank you all. I'm excited to be here and I appreciate the opportunity to come and say hi.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Councilor Falco.
[John Falco]: Thank you Mr. President. I just want to say good luck and congratulations on your new role. I had the opportunity, we bumped into each other down in Haines Square on Saturday morning at Modern Hardware and you were talking to George and introducing yourself so it looks like you've hit the ground running. which is good to see.
[SPEAKER_03]: You were very gracious too. It was good to see you and George is a great guy as was Ricardo from Medford eyeglass shop and they're very invested in that community and so I thank you for your graciousness.
[Michael Marks]: No worries.
[SPEAKER_03]: And thank you. All right.
[Michael Marks]: Good luck to you guys as well. Thank you Mr. President. I just want to state that the chamber using the interview process. The person is lucky they get a job or they're happy they get a job. But the chamber is going to be very lucky that Maria accepted the job because honestly I've never met someone so energetic. Someone that really is a leading advocate in this community for a lot of different issues, as well as business issues. And I think it's going to be a great fit, Mr. President. And I think Maria single-handedly is going to put the chamber back on the map again, where they rightfully should be.
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely, that's the goal.
[Michael Marks]: That was the energetic part I was just talking about.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, thank you.
[Michael Marks]: But really, it's a great selection and I look forward to working with you Maria and the Chamber.
[SPEAKER_03]: I look forward to seeing all of you at one of our events. Thank you very much.
[Richard Caraviello]: And I'm proud to be the one to sponsor Maria for the job. So Maria, thank you, and thank you to Gina Donnelly for the work that she's done prior to you. Thank you, welcome to the chamber, and we look forward to your good work. Thank you. I'm sorry? The motion by Councilor Marks to approve the paper. Seconded by Councilor Falco, all those in favor? Motion passes, 17. 7-5-8 offered by Councilor Falco, be it resolved that the DPW install a no left turn sign between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. and a no right turn sign between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. at the intersection of Elm Street and Brackett Street in the interest of public safety. Signs should be placed on Elm Street. Councilor Falco.
[John Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. This issue is recently, actually, it's gotten better. They put up a DPW with the assistance, well, it passed the traffic commission, and they put up a do not enter sign from 7 to 9 a.m. in the morning, and that's helped out tremendously with regard to the traffic that flows down Brackett Street onto Andrew Street and all the surrounding streets, and it has significantly lessened the traffic on Fulton Street in the morning. You know, it's impossible to do constant nonstop enforcement. So there are people that do take that, depending on which way you're coming down Elm, they'll take a right or a left to go down Brackett. So I'm just basically asking that if we could have a no right hand. If you come and ask north of Elm, no right-hand turn sign and no left-hand turn sign if you're going south down Elm. So just to prevent people from going down Brackett Street in the morning between 7 and 9 a.m., so just asking if the DPW could put up those signs. And of course, if you could send this before the Traffic Commission first for their approval and their advice as well.
[Richard Caraviello]: So move approval. On the motion by Councilor Falco, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Motion passes, 17-760 offered by Councilor Falco. Whereas the administration has been meeting on an ongoing basis to plan and design the new Medford Police Station, be it resolved that the administration provide an update to the Medford City Council with regard to the status of the Medford Police Station in the timeline of construction. Councilor Falco.
[John Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. I believe you may have skipped a resolution, though.
[Richard Caraviello]: OK, we'll do that one.
[John Falco]: OK, perfect. Sounds good. Yeah, so throughout the last few months, I've received a lot of calls with regard to the police station, the progress that's been made. And I know the administration has been working hard with the chief of police and the Medford Police Department with ongoing meetings. with regard to the future of the police station in that project in general. So I just think, you know, we've already appropriated some money and I know we're going to be appropriating money in the future to build a police station, that it's fair that we at this point in time ask for an update with regard to the project. Any information that we can receive in, you know, timeline as well I think would be beneficial to all of us just because I know that I'm receiving calls, I'm sure many members have been receiving calls about this issue as well. So if we could receive some sort of formal communication from the administration, just updating us with regard to this issue, or committee of the whole meeting, if that's the way members would like to go, I think that's fine too. So, I move approval.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Falco, seconded by Councilor McLaren. Sorry, Councilor. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I'm just hoping I can amend the paper with no objection from the Councilor to get an update also from the fire training tower search committee and where they are in the process as well. Part of the appropriation for the design funds for the police station was also a commitment from the administration as well as the creation of an ad hoc group to go out there and be sure that we have the opportunity and ability to relocate our fire training tower with the construction of a new police station. So I'd just like to ask for an update from our training tower committee as well, Mr. President. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Council Member O'Kurin. Thank you, President Caraviello. I want to thank Councilor Falco for bringing this forward. I too have, you know, received questions, people questioning what's the process, where we are at the process with the police station. So I wanted to second the resolve. I think it is time that the City Council gets a written update of where we're at. I know that the Mayor spoke of the process and how it takes time during the debate, but a written update so that we know exactly what's taking place, where we are now, and a timeline of where we're going to be in the next few months. That way we can tell our constituents as well as those who work in the police department a timeline and we have an idea of what's going on that will be beneficial. And also maybe going forward if I could just amend it that we get an update every three to six months so that we know where we're at and how we're going to proceed and how it's going to progress. I know things take time. Having answers, if the city council is informed and we can let the public know and the men and women that work there know that things are being done, I think it will be helpful. But us not ever getting an update, it doesn't help the process. I feel as one councillor, if I'm not getting updated, then really what is going on and I really have no answers. Letting the police department know, as well as the council, a monthly or bimonthly update would be very beneficial.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by Councilor Falco, as amended by Councilor Knight and Councilor Lungo-Koehn. All those in favor? Motion passes. 17-759, offered by Councilor Falco, be it resolved that the DPW correct the divot in the road in front of 20 Windsor Road in the interest of public safety. Councilor Falco.
[John Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. I received a call from a number of residents down on Windsor Road regarding it's a divot. It looks like it's actually maybe some trench work that was done before in the past and it's sunk over time. So if we could just have the DPW go by and just try to fill that in. to level the surface in the interest of public safety.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by Councilor Falco, seconded by? Second. By Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Motion passes. 17761, offered by Councilor Falco, be it resolved that the DPW print a stop line at the intersection of Water Street and Fulton Street and at the intersection of Water Street and Fulton Street in the interest of public safety. Councilor Falco.
[John Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. I received a number of calls from people in this neighborhood or residents in this neighborhood asking about placing a stop line on the ground next to the stop signs. This is a, it seems like with the So many people using Waze now, the app that sends people through neighborhoods that, you know, there's increased traffic and there's a lot of kids in this area that traverse back and forth to the Roberts Elementary School. And so this is a safety issue that needs to be addressed. So if we could have a stop line placed on both ends of that street in the matter of, in the interest of public safety, I'd greatly appreciate it. And if we could actually forward this to the Traffic Commission for their approval as well.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Falco, seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. 17-767 Offered by Vice President Motz. We have resolved that Hustle Road be discussed regarding its use as a staging area, parking lot, and dumping ground for the Rose Street Water Main project be it further resolved that the city solicitor write report back to the count of the ownership of the wooden land abutted the train tracks on Bustle Road. Vice President Mox.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you Mr. President. This is regarding the water main work that's being done on Grove Street currently. Many residents on Bustle Road were unaware that their particular road, which many people are probably familiar with, which runs right off of Grove Street, was going to be used as the staging area for heavy equipment, was going to be used for dumping of dirt and debris that was dug from the trenching of the water main work that's going on, and the wooded area that abuts the street and the train tracks, the city of Medford for many years told residents that that's not their property and they have no ownership of that land and the MBTA claims that it's not their property. So I think it's only appropriate that we get a response back from the city solicitor to find out who actually owns that particular piece of land, the wooded land that runs from Grove and Bustle all the way down to Century Street Extension. on Bustle Road, Mr. President, to see who has ownership. I would also ask that in the future, when projects are being done, that wherever the staging area may be, even though it's not on the street where the work is currently taking place, that those residents also be notified that you're going to have heavy equipment, construction material, and anything else that's going to be placed on your road for a number of months. I think that's important, Mr. President, that people get notified. So that would be my motion, Mr. President, that the residents receive an update on when this equipment will be removed from Bustle and also that the city solicitor report back of ownership of the wooded area along the tracks. Thank you. Good evening.
[Tom Lincoln]: Name and address of the record, please. Tom Lincoln, 27 Gleason Street. Just coincidentally, I went by there the other day, and there's an astonishing amount of equipment there. It's actually starting to edge into the wooded area itself. I think the question about ownership is quite interesting, but I think that will be resolved. But I would be concerned about the appearance of the property once the equipment is removed. Just as an analogy, they've used a corner of Placed at Park that's quite near the parking near the train station in West Medford, that's been used. on and off for staging of various projects. And I have to say, I haven't monitored it assiduously, but it doesn't look as nice as it looked as part of a park as it did five years ago. And Bustle Road, that's a nice wooded area that also provides a good sound barrier for the trains on people on Bustle Road. Thanks.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I think Mr. Lincoln took the words right out of my mouth. I'd like to amend the paper to request that the public contractor, upon conclusion of the project, conduct a cleanup of the area along Bustle Road as well. Provided the sponsor of the resolve has no problem with that.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. Councilor Marksley.
[Michael Marks]: Also, Mr. President, if the city has a memorandum of understanding with this particular contractor, I'd like to see a copy of that and to see if there was any language included for a staging area and mitigation regarding the cleaning up of the particular land after the debris and heavy equipment is removed.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by Vice President Marks, as amended by Councilor Knight, and as further amended again by Councilor Marks. Seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Communications from the Mayor. Where?
[George Scarpelli]: Oh, sorry.
[Richard Caraviello]: I don't have my sign. 17768, authored by Vice President Mox, be it resolved that the electronic speed sign be placed on Bustle Road due to the speeding cut-through traffic in the interest of public safety. Vice President Mox.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. The same gentleman that called me regarding the staging area also mentioned the fact that Bustle Road for many years, not just now, is being used as a cut-through for people that are coming from Playstead Road that want to get on to Grove and vice versa. And this is only compounding the issue when you have, as Mr. Lincoln mentioned, heavy equipment on the street, which narrows the road, and you have cars that are speeding down that very bumpy, narrow road. So in the interest of public safety, I'd ask that one of the two electronic speed signs be placed on either end of Bustle Road to alert people that are going down Bustle what the speed limit is, Mr. President. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: The motion by Vice President Mark, seconded by Councilor Layton. All those in favor? Motion passes. 17-764, communications from the Mayor. Dear Mr. President and city councilors, I respectfully request and recommend that your honorable body approves the appropriation of free cash in the amount of $200,000.00 to fund the Brooks Estate Carriage House Stabilization. Stabilization includes, it is not limited to repairs to walls, provide watertight building envelope, stable structure, roofing, new decking, and chimney repointing. The balance of free cash prior to this vote is $8,788,941. Tom Lincoln and Mark Warren, members of the Medford Brooks Estate Land and Belt are present to answer any of the council's questions regarding this matter. Good evening, name and address for the record.
[Tom Lincoln]: Tom Lincoln, 27 Gleason Street, forgive my voice, I'm recovering from some dental surgery. This issue has been in the background for quite some time. Just as a point of interest, 2017 marks the 75th year of public ownership of the Brooks Estate by the people of Medford. As you know, this is a property that was preserved permanently by the city council and the The city of Medford has been owned for 75 years, since 1942. Our organization, working with the city and other parties, has worked for almost 20 years to bring back the property from a rather sad state, and the Carriage House is key to that effort. We thought, in the interest of Advancing this question that we'd ask our new board member Mark Warren, who is the mayor's new appointment to the inbuilt board to speak on the matter. Mr. Carr and I will be available for questions also. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. Lincoln.
[SPEAKER_13]: Good morning, Mr. President. Good evening.
[Richard Caraviello]: Name and address on the record, please.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes, Mark Warren, 16 Chestnut Street. I am the mayor's new representative to the board, the land trust. And this is her motion, so we thought we'd be appropriate if I presented it. You probably also are tired of hearing Tom Lincoln and Doug Carr. I'm not just a parrot for them. I have my own opinions about the estate. While we're in total agreement on the need for this $200,000, it's critically necessary funding to prevent the carriage house from total collapse. I see things a little differently than them. I don't think they may see this $200,000 as a one-time expenditure with only one real benefit, saving the carriage house. I think differently. I think that this $200,000 will also be able to reduce the amount that we'll have to spend eventually on the restoration. We're calling for a repointing of walls and things like that that I don't think will need to be done twice. So that's just a very little thing. But it's an example of where I differ a bit from Tom and Doug. Now, I know that more of a few of you had promised the voters that you were going to avoid wasteful spending. And I'd like you to look at this not as wasteful, and it's also not spending. It's more of an investment. And it's an investment that has a very real return on investment. It has a return on investment for both the city and for the local businesses. And I have an example of benefits to local businesses that I'd like to share with you. You may have noticed the Appalachian Mountain Club sign on the corner of Oak Street some evenings. When the Appalachian Mountain Club sold their headquarters on Beacon Hill, moved to Charlestown, they kind of forgot to have meeting space in the new headquarters. So they had to shop around. I was part of the committee. I'm very active with them. I was part of the committee that was looking in Newton and Somerville and other places in Boston. We finally settled on the First Baptist Church in Medford because, as was noted before, Medford's a happening place. It's really convenient to get to. And the church is about 50 yards from my house. We've met there four times so far. About 500 people have come so far. We've ordered over 60 pizzas and over 10 Greek salads from Rose's on High Street. The Millennials, the young members group, is soon going to start using it. And they're going to be looking for a sit-down restaurant to go to after their meetings. The Korean barbecue, you know, all you can eat place will be, Sura, will be very, you know, popular with them and they'll see a real uptick in business as well as the other local sit-down restaurants. So that's just one example of, you know, where meetings can benefit the local business. Weddings, too. Weddings will have a need for catering, they'll have a need limousines, they'll have a need for tents, other equipment like that. These are things that the business benefits that the business community will get. Now, the city will also get the benefit of not having You know, the drag that the city building, the manor and the carriage house, and they're a drag on the budget right now. However, if the carriage house can be restored to where it can start hosting weddings and meetings and things like that, it'll start generating revenue. And a good example of another, what I hope will be our competition, A building similar to the Brooks Estate Manor is the Whittemore Robins House over in Arlington. That building is totally self-sustaining just from the revenue from weddings. Now, a wedding over there cost about $2,000, which if you know anybody who's gotten married recently, it's a real bargain. I had one of my weddings over there, and I'm pretty cheap, and that's why we chose them. The Whittemore Robins House has two drawbacks that the Brooks Estate Carriage House does not have or will not have. One, you can only fit about 66 people in the two rooms. What they have are two rooms and an archway in the middle. They can have a capacity of about 66 people. The Brooks Estate will have a greater capacity and the Brooks Estate will have parking. There's no available parking at the Whittemore Robins House, except for a few handicapped spots right behind the library. But we'll see significantly more revenue from weddings and meetings at the Brooks Estate But we've also got significantly more expenses. We've got two properties, two buildings to maintain, and the overhead associated with them is greater than the overhead for the one Wintermore Robins house. We'll also have to pay off the bonds that'll be needed for restoration. Those are expenses that the Wintermore Robins house doesn't have. However, the expense of maintaining the manor is something we're going to have anyway, whether we have the income from the carriage house or not. So it makes sense to get the revenue from the carriage house. And the only way we can do that is if we save the carriage house. If it's continued in its current state, it's probably not going to last the winter. If we get a winter like we had a couple of years ago with unprecedented amounts of snow, it's probably going to be history without this funding. So I see your decision tonight as kind of binary. You can either authorize the $200,000 disbursement from free cash and save the only source of revenue, or you could waste the money that's already been put into the manor and into the estate. It's a pretty clear choice that if we want to continue the manor as a viable institution and the estate as a viable institution, we need to save that carriage house.
[Richard Caraviello]: Any questions? Thank you. Councilor Dello Russo? Move approval, Mr. President.
[John Falco]: Councilor Falco? Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Warren, for your presentation. Just a couple of quick questions here. So, in the description, it mentions all the work that needs to be done. If this was to pass tonight, do you know how long it would take to do all that work?
[SPEAKER_13]: Is this going to happen over a long time span? No. It may go into the spring. But we have to get up two by six supporting walls. We have to get supports for the roof and trusses. Maybe Tom and Doug can speak more exactly about how quickly it can be done. But it's work that would have to start immediately to save it from the impact of this winter.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Doug Carr, 124 Boston Ave. Councilor Falco, this is probably about a six-week process to execute the plans that you've seen by a couple contractors, so we want to get it started obviously before the winter really starts, but they can do this work largely during the winter as well.
[John Falco]: Do you know how much it would cost to totally rehabilitate the carriage house?
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Yeah, it's grown. It grows every year by between $1,500,000 with inflation, but it's between $1.5 and $2 million total. That's the carriage house. That's the carriage house restoration, just the carriage house. The master plan has a detailed cost estimate in it.
[John Falco]: So I've only been on the council for about two years now. And during that time, we talked about the Brooks Estate a little bit here and there, but this is, I think, the first time that something's come before me to appropriate money for the Brooks Estate. And I would agree with Mr. Warren. The way I look at this, this is an investment. If we own it, we should embrace it. And we own it, and we should be embracing this. This is a project that I think that's good. I think, in my opinion, there's a lot of potential here. There's a lot of potential. I've scanned the business plan. I think that was the master plan. I've seen that before. And I think that there's a lot of potential with this property. It's a long-term investment, yes. But if we own it, we should be investing in it. It doesn't do us any good to let it rot away in the woods. As time goes by, it only becomes more expensive to fix it. So it's an investment that I think we should be making. I second the resolution tonight. And thank you for your time.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you.
[John Falco]: Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Councilor Knight. Yes, Mr. President. Thank you very much. This is for any one of you gentlemen. About how much money does the Medford Brooks Estate Land Trust have in its coffers at this point?
[Tom Lincoln]: We have about $60,000. I would like to make one other point. About the manor if I might the manor is very far along. We've been working with the Mackey group the artist group We've had some they've had some events there. We're hoping to work on a regular basis Just in terms of community outreach. We're doing some walks now with the walk Medford group I don't know how familiar you are with them, but they are absolutely fabulous in terms of of energy. The other issue about the carriage house is that this also buys time. We understand that the entire funding package is not at hand at this point, and we've advanced the project on many other fronts in the interim. But with stabilization, it gives you the opportunity to restore the carriage house. You reach a certain point, and we've talked about this quite frequently, you reach a certain point, that opportunity is gone. The investment is no longer there. Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you. Also, Mr. President, are the renovations to the manor finally complete and it's at its final end state?
[Tom Lincoln]: Basically, the, we've done a long list of things. Remember, the manor was in very, very bad shape when the council passed the preservation and conservation, conservation preservation restriction in 1998. We've secured a new roof, five chimneys, 70 windows with shutters. We paid for a new boiler. I think that was $18,000. The building is handicap accessible, which includes a lift to the second floor. We've replaced the veranda. We've replaced the west porch. I think I'm more concerned about what isn't done than what has been done. What is not done is painting and a little bit of woodwork on the second and third floor trim. Some smaller amenities, for example, we're putting in shades and drapes in some of the rooms. And maybe Mr. Carr can think of some other things here. Has the plumbing issue been addressed up there?
[Adam Knight]: I know there was a plumbing issue that was going on.
[Tom Lincoln]: The water supply passes the test, if that's the right word. The pressure is not very good. It's certainly adequate. for current needs. It's interesting that the Grove Street project was mentioned because the water pressure in this whole area, both on the Playstead Road side and the Grove Street side, I think this is quite common across Medford actually, is not great. As we've discussed before, the other issue here is the actual drive, the access drive, which is 1,900 feet from Grove Street. And it makes eminent sense to, when that is redone, to furnish a new water line at the same time. It's very interesting. There was a discussion here earlier.
[Adam Knight]: So when we flush the toilets, it still goes into the leaching?
[Tom Lincoln]: Oh, yes, it does. But this is not a commercial building at this point.
[Adam Knight]: And then we go. So it's the 75th anniversary this year. So what type of programming do we have coming out of there now that we have the? manner renovations near completion, do we have any type of snowshoeing, after school programs for kids, bird watching, anything like that?
[Tom Lincoln]: The road is an impediment to certain heavier uses, and that's just a fact of life at this point. We've had speaking programs, I mentioned we're working with the Mackey We've had a number of open houses, walking tours. We've worked with the Victorian Society, which also is very interested in the Episcopal Church in your neighborhood, sir. So, you know, we're and of course the property is not just two historic buildings. It's it's a 50 acres of conserved Habitat open space, which it gets a lot of daily usage We've had relationships with Tufts for our work days We've done and hope to do more Boy Scout what you call a Eagle Scout projects and we're certainly hoping to do more on all these fronts. This is such a multifaceted project.
[Adam Knight]: Do we have trails mapped out there so people can come and pick up a map?
[Tom Lincoln]: There's a free trail map.
[Adam Knight]: Yeah, go ahead. And trail maintenance is being done.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Yeah, we're looking to go after some CPA funds, not only to design the road, because the road, as Councilor Mark has commented several times, could be done earlier with parking and the utilities in advance of the entire restoration. We could do that, which will actually open up for a lot more public usage of this property and the buildings. The carriage house presently has no utilities at all right now for anything. So obviously that would be done when the building was done. But we think there's a great opportunity not only with CPA funds for the trails as well, but the road, the trails. But CPA won't pay for maintenance. That's just a part of the fact. It has to be capital improvement and public benefit. It can't be for maintenance. This is clearly just pure maintenance at the point. Otherwise, we wouldn't be going for the CPA funds for this very cost. Any other questions?
[George Scarpelli]: most desirable sites in Medford when you talk about history and what the Brooks State talks about the Brooks Manor and the Carriage House and making sure that we continue with that and making sure that our kids' kids can follow with what we're trying to do here in Medford. One of the pieces that I wanted to bring along is as we had our discussions last year and looking into the recreation, full-time recreation program, and you look at the partnerships that, you know, I personally use in my community with recreation and look to see what kind of funding we can bring for both organizations, I think is a plus in the community I work for. And looking at the Brooks Estates, Excuse me, the Brooks, the manor and the carriage house, it was one of the biggest. attractions when we talked to different constituents. And I know that Councilor Knight mentioned it, but you talk about the trails, you talk about the area and what recreation really means. It's not just parks and playing games anymore, but when you're talking about snowshoeing and trail walking and then fishing and the other issues that people don't realize when you talk about nature and getting out and bird watching and covering insects. There's so many out-of-the-box thinking and using this wonderful location as a jumping point. I think that it's a historical piece, but this is new life that could be fed off that. So I'm really excited about it.
[Tom Lincoln]: I greatly appreciate it. I forgot to mention, we have done some walks for young children. I'm sorry, I can't remember the name. Actually, it's a preschool in West Medford. I think they used to run out. It's, no, yeah, I'm sorry, yeah, that sort of thing. We've also thought a lot about, there's been some wonderful things going on in the Fells vis-a-vis the high school, and this is exactly the same kind of environment as the Fells in terms of some of the issues of invasives and that sort of thing. So it's always a matter of, with this kind of programming, of finding the passionate person, the person that has the knowledge. I mean, I'm not capable of talking about the ecological detail. It's not Brooks' Day, but somebody certainly is. And I think it's important to remember, too, that a lot of people have been benefiting from this property for years. You know, they take their daily walk. They get away from Medford. And the last thing I want to mention on the history side is that it's not just the Brooks family. In fact, you know, this is not a monument to the Brooks family. What this is, is a monument to, and a reminder of 300 years of Medford history. I mean, there were 200 veterans' families living at the Brooks Estate from 1946 to 1954. Many of their descendants are still in Medford. We know a lot of them. In fact, we did a reunion some years ago. in 1996, actually. And so this is a living history kind of thing. It's really something that we felt, we've always felt very strongly belongs to the people that own it. And we worked, I think, really hard to make that come alive. I only say that, I would only say that If we knew how big this project was when we started, we might be thinking differently. But we're right in the middle of it. Thank you.
[George Scarpelli]: So John and I see the easy part. So this wasn't a big deal. No, I'm not going to say that. But again, we've all preached our historical sites and how important they are to Medford. And I think this is the granddaddy of them all. So thank you for all your hard work.
[Michael Marks]: Vice President Mox. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm not aware of any other capital plan that's going on in the community currently. And maybe if the people that spoke at the podium are aware of another capital plan that may be out there that we're going to be talking about not only shoring up and buttoning up the potential carriage house from collapsing, but maybe a capital improvement plan that we've discussed several years back for the site?
[Tom Lincoln]: Well, we have updated, this has actually happened last year at this point, earlier this year, updated some of the numbers from the master plan and presented that to the mayor at her request. And we have not heard you know, whether there is, you know, another five-year capital plan. As you recall, this was part of the laundry list, if that's the right word, of capital items a few years ago. And so I honestly don't have any other knowledge than that in terms of, but it's certainly, we would certainly advocate You know as a public facility and as a something that's been known by the city for a long time that we'd be part of that process when it happens Thank you Mr. President
[Michael Marks]: You know, I've been involved in this process for a number of years and was part of the discussion when the Brooks Estate's master plan was presented to the council. And I thought at that time the plan really was forthcoming and a lot of due diligence went into the plan. And at the time, I think as a compromise, because I don't think the support was there to do the manor and the carriage house, was to work on the road, which I think was at the time a million two or a million three, or maybe a little more than that. And to me, the road is the fundamental issue here. Because right now, I'd ask anyone in the community trying to get up there, It's extremely, extremely difficult, unless you're in a four-wheel vehicle, to get up to that site. It really is. And I don't think I'm, you know, playing this up. It's very difficult to get up to the site. And I, as one member of the council, think if, you know, we're going to do anything or talk about plans for the Brooks Estates, we have to look at the infrastructure leading up to the Brooks Estates. And if that's an issue, that should be part of a capital plan that we should be discussing. And, you know, I'm not opposed to making sure the carriage house doesn't fall down. I appreciate the significance, historical significance of that property and maintaining the property. But in all good conscience, you know, and I'm sure the people that have been involved with the Brooks estates don't like to hear it. You know, when I hear from firefighters saying, how can you sink money into this and not address concerns we've been bringing up about our fire stations throughout the community, what do I say to that? I say that we need a capital plan to address not only this issue, but the other issues we've been hearing about. You know, when you hear firefighters say that the HVA system doesn't work, when you hear them saying that windows don't open or close, When you hear them talking in the main headquarters about deplorable conditions, which I viewed firsthand of the showers in the restrooms in the headquarters. When you talk about the bunker gear, we still have new washes that they purchased. But they didn't purchase the dryers. So they have to air dry the new bunker gear, which takes many, many more extended hours to air dry the bunker gear. I mean, these are just a few. The fire alarm system on Salem Street doesn't work. You go into the kitchen, there's a hole in the floor. These are where men and women are spending seven days a week, 24 hours a day, Mr. President. And I don't want to cloud the issue with the Brooks estates, because I think they should run on its own merit. But how do we stand up here in good faith and vote for $200,000 without having a meeting on this? This is the first meeting, Mr. President, and I'm glad Councilor Dello Russo feels comfortable to move forward on this. I know he's been a big advocate of the Brooks estates over the years, and I know he feels comfortable, Mr. President, but I don't know how much of the $200,000 is going to go towards just the capping off of the building so it doesn't pour inside the building. how much is gonna go towards the repointing of the chimney, how much is gonna go towards the decking and so forth. I think that'd be interesting to know when we're almost spending a quarter of a million dollars on what it's gonna be spent on, Mr. President, and what we expect. Is this going to be buttoned up for the next 10 years or is it possible that there is a capital plan coming down in six months from now and we're going to have to take the envelope off the building after spending $200,000? And I realize and I appreciate some of the issues that you brought up, sir, about potential upgrades to or somewhat upgrades to the Carriage House that could be used down the line. But these are the things, Mr. President, that I'm struggling with on looking at other infrastructure needs in the community and saying, hey, wait a minute, you know, we do have a carriage house that's in deplorable condition, that's on the verge of collapse. And we remember last time we had another building called the DPW building in the city that was in terrible condition and condemned by the Board of Health. And I don't want to go in that direction with our fire stations. And we're at that level on many of these buildings. And I can't in good faith vote for any package right now until I see a capital plan that's outlined, Mr. President, that not only addresses this important issue, but every other capital issue in the city. And it goes to roads and sidewalks. We all sit behind this railing and say, oh, we want the sidewalks, we want the potholes, but we're not putting any money, we're not putting any investment into it. This is a worthy issue, Mr. President, but I'm not going to jump on it tonight, and I'm not going to be under any political pressure to jump on this tonight, Mr. President. We were told last year by the proponents that this building wasn't going to last through the winter. If I'm not mistaken, I think that was a direct quote when they asked for money to buckle it up last year. It might have even been two years ago. Was it two years? And it wasn't going to last through winter. Two winters have gone by. The building's still standing, I'm sure. It's probably in less wear for the good.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: I don't think that's a fair assessment of the situation. That's your opinion. No, it is my opinion.
[Michael Marks]: Right, you're entitled to your opinion. I'm making a statement.
[Richard Caraviello]: So Mr. President, as I stated, you know,
[Michael Marks]: This shouldn't be a quick knee-jerk reaction of $200,000 to spend when we have so many other issues that are confronting infrastructure issues in our community. I just pointed out a few. I'm not going to go through a laundry list of them. But if we get presented with a capital plan that makes sense, that addresses the current needs, I'll be on board. We have over $8 million. You read it in the paper. $8 million in free cash out there. We can address a lot of needs, Mr. President, and this is one of them. And I think it should be addressed. But let's not do the piecemeal. Let's not forget what we talked about last year and the year before, that we're going to get piecemealed to death on issues. Oh, here's the next issue that the mayor wants to present. Here's the piecemeal issue. Let's present a capital plan that makes sense. The homework is done on this project. I don't think Mr. Link and Mr. Carr, I don't think they have to go back and do the homework on this project. They presented a project that, in my opinion, is worthy of debate and discussion. Let's talk about it. We're talking about revitalizing it. You know, buttoning up the carriage house, in my opinion, sounds good, might make you feel good, but does it address really the issue and the needs of the Brooks estates? I, you may think so. I don't think so. I think we have to look at a larger picture on this project. And I, for one, am not prepared tonight, Mr. President, to support this paper unless I see a full capital plan on the needs of this community. And also, if the Brooks Estates has 60,000 that they were able to raise, that, some of that portion of that money should go towards the buckling up of this building. That's what they're raising money for. That's what the intent is. And if that's the case, fine, but that's not what we were presented tonight. It's 200,000 of free cash to do that, Mr. President. So those are my comments. I'd love to hear from the members that kept this Brooks Estates alive for so many years. I mean, this is truly a volunteer basis. Otherwise, this building would be the same faith as many of our other city-owned buildings in the community, which would be rubble. So those are my comments, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. Warren, would you like to address some of the council's comments?
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes, I can. I'm new, but I can address many of them. You're totally right about the road, and we're going to be seeking CPA money to rebuild that, to look for the design first, and then to be rebuilding that. And that'll be in the spring. When is the funding for CPA? It'll occur in the spring.
[Michael Marks]: So the road is not maintenance, but the building, the carriage house is considered maintenance.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes, it's deferred maintenance. We can't use the CPA funding for that. It has to come from free cash. It's not a capital investment as maintenance. A capital investment is the sort of thing we would have to float a bond for. Or, you know, if we can, use CPA money. That would be the preferred route. Yeah. But where this isn't a capital investment, and by the way, if you'd like, I have the exact numbers for, you know, the repairs, and I can summarize them for you if you'd like.
[Michael Marks]: Well, I think that'd be helpful to pass out to the council. Sure.
[SPEAKER_13]: I only have one copy with me, but.
[Michael Marks]: City messenger can make a copy.
[SPEAKER_13]: One, you know, I can go through it. I don't need my time. But some things like the plywood, it looks like it's a huge dollar item, but every window in that carriage house has to be boarded up using a special T111 plywood that's exterior grade. It's pretty expensive stuff. But the idea that we have to just study this and study it, the problem is we've had two, I don't know what was said two years ago. I wasn't here. But assuming they did say that it was going to fall down that winter, we've had two very, very light winters. The winter before that was huge. It was record setting. If we have a winter like that again, I can guarantee you that it's going to fall down. I mean, when I first went out there before I'd been appointed, I wanted to be able to tell the mayor I'd at least been out there. And I saw the building, and I thought it was a total knockdown. It was total loss already. I didn't think that was a big deal. You could build a new modern structure there that would be much more efficient. Then I did a little research. And it's much easier to do research now. I used to be an attorney for the city of Boston. And it was much more difficult to research things back then. But now you just go on Wikipedia, and you can see, in 1998, a conservation and preservation restriction was put on the property that would require us. We can't just put up a new structure. We have to rebuild the existing structure. Financially, that's unfortunate, but we're preserving the history. Like the Whittemore Robins House, it's a really rich part of the Medford history. There's this Arlington history. The historic value is huge. and if we don't get the $200,000 in funding, we may not have a second chance to restore that new carriage house to the point where it creates revenue and it's paying for the manor, it's helping out local businesses. We may not get that chance again. This may be a one-shot deal. Maybe two years from now, without funding it, maybe it'll hold up. Maybe not though, probably not.
[Michael Marks]: Don't you agree it's a sad commentary at this point after all these years we're talking about just buckling up and trying to save a building from falling down after all these years. And that's why I say we need to even though the proposal didn't go through a few years ago this needs to be revisited again. This, we have to have a direction. Where are we going with this? We have to have a direction.
[SPEAKER_13]: I agree that the MAS plan really has to be looked at and should, you know, ultimately, you know, be funded, but hopefully funded in phases. So it's not going to kill. I'm also a taxpayer here now, but a couple of years, you're right. It is sad that we've come to this point, but think too, we've saved a lot of money by not doing that maintenance. It was essentially an abandoned building for years.
[SPEAKER_34]: I mean,
[SPEAKER_13]: If you tried to maintain every abandoned building in the city, you know, you wouldn't have as much free cash as you have now. So for a while, it was an abandoned building. It had no real purpose. It had no real plans for it. But now there is a real purpose. People want to save it. People want the history. And it's vital to, you know, stabilize it now and use some of those funds that we saved from years past when we didn't do any maintenance to it. So that's why I'm thinking it's a good investment now, just looking at it from a financial standpoint. But you're right. We do have to look more closely at funding the whole thing. And then it'll be a very wise investment.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: If I could just add on that. Obviously, if we had passed the bond two or three years ago, the Carriage House would have been restored right now and actually generating money to pay off the debt. make so many more people be able to use it. I would just add a couple of things. when the city council funded a study to fix the carriage house, which was what we did, you guys did two years ago, it was so unsafe in there that they actually had to buy some wood and stabilize just a couple of things so they could do their job safely. That's why the building didn't fall down last year, because they had to actually do some temporary shoring just to be safe in the building itself. It is, It is condemned. It is not safe to go into that building today if you're not a professional like Paul Mulkey and other people. And yes, M-Belt has $60,000, but I feel like we're being held to a different standard. You don't ask the, no one asks the friends of the Medford Public Library to pay for the library roof when it leaks. I don't know why M-Belt and the members of M-Belt, which have sunk over a quarter million dollars of private money, in St. Brooks Estate in the last 15 years, why we're being asked to do everything. Maintenance. I mean, that's not fair. Nobody funds maintenance. That's the city's job. We all own this building. We go after grants. We've gotten grants. We've gotten over $400,000 in grant money in the last 10 years for the roof, And this is not just CDBG money, but I'm talking about Cummings Foundation, Mass Preservation Projects Funds. We've put our own money into it. But we can only take it so far. We need a partner in the city. And you guys have been there for us. You've given us a lot of money over the years. But clearly, the clock is ticking here. I just don't want the Brooksville State to be held hostage, because I agree, we need a police station. We need a fire station. But that's not a reason not to do this. We do need a capital plan. I agree with the Councilor. But we can't wait forever and ever. And every year, it becomes more and more expensive to restore this place, the road, the buildings. We just need to move forward. Thank you. Council Boxer, you're done?
[Tom Lincoln]: I also agree we need a capital plan, but I would point out that I don't know how to say this, but it's not our job to create the capital plan. We've created a roadmap for the complete restoration of the estate. We did a tremendous amount of work on that. We're all volunteers. We paid for outside expertise. We have a very nuanced and deep understanding of the needs of the property. Unfortunately, with the Carriage House, this has been deferred. It's not just two years. This was in the capital plan, which is in the fall of 2011, and it was discussed quite a lot in the year and a half following that. I've kind of lost the chronology. So it should not be a surprise, I guess, is one way of saying it. It really, in the broader sense of things, this is buying time. I think Councilor Marks asked, when you button this up, what do you get? You get at least five years. You can probably get 10 years. And I'm not an expert on it, but that's certainly not Unreasonable plan Unreasonable and we certainly ought to be able to have a capital plan in five years. I would hope and there's certainly a lot less Than that and the other thing is and this has been true from the get-go. This project is different and From a police station police stations absolutely critical. I'd be the first to say we should have had a new police station some time ago and you've seen the detailed problems there But this this unlike a police station this comes with a potential revenue stream with a way of paying off Bonds, we can't predict the future entirely, but it's certainly a model that's been used as we've said many times been used successfully all around the country for projects like this heritage projects projects benefit the community and The long the long term we've been in this for the long term I I Personally, did not expect to be working on this for 20 years. And I'm 66, and I don't think I have another 20 years to work on it. I doubt. But maybe I'll be fine. Sorry. So it's really, you know, I think as Mr. Carr has said, we've said that on this piece of this, this critical piece of this, the clock is ticking. This is a physical reality.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Caraviello. I want to first thank the gentleman for the breakdown. That was going to be one of my questions, so getting a breakdown of the 200,000 helps. And then it was brought up that CPA funds can't be used for this, but there will be an application for monies from CPA for the design of the road. Is there a, has the MBELT met or? with regards to almost like a five-year plan of what funds will be requested from CPA. And that is attached to not only how we'll proceed with applications to the CPA from the Brooks estates, but also just goes along with the whole issue of the capital plan and the mayor's vision for this in the future, because I guess at this point we're trying to buy time. But what are we buying time for? And number one, it's CPA funds. But number two, it's what is the mayor's plan? Because this did come before us. It went a certain way. Is this, I mean, we have the road for a million to a million and a half plus. And then we have to restore it would be another 1.5 to maybe 2.5 at that point. Where are we going with it is my main concern. So I guess that would be my first question. What is the plan for requesting CPA funds?
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Well, as you know, I sit on the CPA board, so I've seen firsthand how they put it together. It's been a really good master plan, and you all, I think, have received copies of it. The Brooks Estate was noted in there as a top priority for the city in the historic preservation, but also in the open space component, because it qualifies for both. And we will be competing for both. But obviously, we can't count on that money. It's competitive. There could be dozens of products. The city itself can compete for them, obviously. Since the plan just came out literally, the CPA plan came out literally only a week or two ago, our next board meeting, we're taking up this very subject. And we will be debating it and coming up with a strategy. Obviously, put forward a project every single funding round for every year. And we'll chip away at things that make sense. You know, obviously, you actually have the ability to bond with the CPA as well. That is one of the possibilities to do it. You still need the five votes that you need in this body, which you could do yourself, obviously. But there is, you know, over the next five years, we're talking about $7.5 million, but we don't have any illusions that we're going to get anywhere near that, or even a fraction of that, for obvious reasons. Because there's a lot of needs in this city. For affordable housing and open space and recreation up beyond historic preservation. So My answer is we don't have an answer right now, but we're working on it Councilor.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you I
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So the first request, so you will put forward an application to the CPA on a yearly basis, which I expected anyway. I guess I was looking for more clarification on the amount, because when you're talking about a $4 million project, I want to know as a Councilor, is the CPA going to be able to fund this going forward, and if so,
[Richard Caraviello]: It's only $1.2 million.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Correct. But if you do it in stages, is that going to be the plan of the CPA? Because like Mr. Carr said, there's going to be so many organizations that are going to be vying for that $1.2 million and whatever is added into it the next several years. So my main concern then is where the administration stands on this. And I think that's something that we probably won't be able to get the answers to unless we hold off, whether that be a week or two, and ask the mayor to meet with us. Whether it be just on this one issue, set aside a half hour to meet with her, or if we can discuss an updated capital plan from the one we got two years ago. I think that it's time to do that. This council is going to be sitting for the next two years. And I think it's time to do that before we do this. Councilman Marks makes good points. Yes, you're talking police station, fire stations, library, a number of things that need to be done. And in the Brooks Estates, there's a number of different projects. But we are looked at as how can you approve certain money that may or not be, you know, just to keep something stable when we might be putting the library and the fire departments before that, and they're not going to expend the $3 million to do the Brooks Estates. I just want to get a better understanding of where we're going moving forward and what the plan is, because it seems like the council's in support of this, which is fine. But I just want to know where we're going in the next couple of years and what is the plan.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I would second Councilor Dello Russo's motion for approval.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Dello Russo, as seconded by Councilor Knight.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I would first request that we have a motion to meet with the mayor in the next two weeks to discuss.
[Richard Caraviello]: Would you like to make that in the form of a motion? Do you want to make that in the form of a motion? On, well, we have a motion already on the floor for this vote. Mr. Councilor Del Rosario, do you want to rescind your motion? So, before Councilor Langers?
[SPEAKER_08]: I move to table the motion based on the first item appearing on the City Council agenda, first on our rules, and then move my motion forward.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Langers, the table of this motion, seconded by?
[Michael Marks]: It's the first time. Rule 20.
[Richard Caraviello]: Rule 20.
[Michael Marks]: Rule 20, any financial data.
[Richard Caraviello]: Okay, and Councilor Lango-Kurt is invoking Rule 20, and this motion will be tabled for one week, correct?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: That's out of Section 22. We have to take a vote on Rule 20.
[Richard Caraviello]: We have to take a vote on the Rule 20. I think it's one week for section, yeah. It doesn't require, she can invoke that at any time. This has been tabled, this will be tabled for one week under section 20. And that the mayor, that's a separate motion. Thank you. Thank you. On the motion by Councilor Lungo-Koehn that we meet with the mayor to discuss the Brooks Estate issue. All those in, seconded by? Second. Seconded by Council Member Mox. All those in favor? The chair seems to be in doubt. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Dela Ruccio. No. Councilor Falco. No. Councilor Knight. No. Councilor Kerr.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Vice President March. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli.
[Richard Caraviello]: No. President Caraviello. No. Five in the affirmative, two in the negative. Two in the affirmative. I said two in the affirmative, five in the negative. Motion passed.
[Michael Marks]: I would respectfully ask of the President that any paper that appears before this Council for future agendas that is for a financial paper, that we set up a Committee of the Whole meeting, Mr. President, prior to any paper appearing on the Council agenda, You know, especially papers when you're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars need to be vetted out before this body takes a formal vote, Mr. President. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Motion to take papers in the hands of the clerk by Councilor Falco, seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Motion passes. Offered by Councilor Scott Peli be it resolved that the City Council discuss the traffic issue on Oakland Street and connecting roadways. Councilor Scott Peli.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. I know I got a few phone calls this morning. I know that the Traffic Commission did their due diligence with their study on Oakland Street and stopping the incoming traffic coming from North Medford. And that uses a cut through, but what we're seeing this morning, I believe, that there was a confrontation with two cars going opposite directions. could have escalated because of that being used as a cut-through and the neighboring roads as well. So I know if we could just ask the, if we could make a motion to ask the Chief in the Traffic Commission to give us a report of what has been done and what studies have been done to remedy that and see if we can look into making that a one-way if that's possible, but it's something that has to be looked at, so thank you. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Scott Felly, seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favour? Motion passes. Offered by Councilor Falco, be it resolved that the Traffic Commission consider making the Yale Street a do not enter between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the interest of public safety. Councilor Falco.
[John Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. I received a number of phone calls and emails about this once I had my The resolution I mentioned earlier tonight with regard to Brackett Street, and I guess there's a lot of speeding in that area and heavy traffic flow in the mornings. So I did talk to a number of residents about this and told them that I would bring this forward to, of course, be moved to the Traffic Commission for further review. It may actually have gone before than once before.
[Richard Caraviello]: It has been before the Traffic Commission before.
[John Falco]: I didn't know that for sure, but if we could actually have them look at it for reconsideration, I'd greatly appreciate it.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Palco, seconded by Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Is this yesterday's conversation? Yes, it is. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Falco, all those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Offered by Vice President Mox, be it resolved that the sidewalk at 128 Bonner Ave be replaced in the interest of public safety. Vice President Mox.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. Just recently, an elderly woman fell on that sidewalk and did some damage to the side of her head, Mr. President, because of a sidewalk that is sticking up. So I would ask that that be repaired in the interest of public safety immediately.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by Councilor Marks, seconded by Councilor Lungo-Kearns. All those in favour? Aye. Motion passes. Offered by Vice President Mox, be it resolved that the potholes at the corner of Commercial and Riverside Ave be filled in the interest of public safety, and be it further resolved that the Medford Police Traffic Division review the tractor trailers parked on Commercial Street. Vice President Mox.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. This is the second request for the potholes at the intersection of Riverside and Commercial. It's a parkmark of holes in that particular area, and it needs to be addressed, Mr. President, immediately before the winter comes, which we all know is going to create more problems with all those holes. Additionally, Mr. President, Commercial Street is now being used for tractor trailers to not only park their vehicles there, but also leave their whole trailer behind. So you'll see trailers sitting there for days on end that don't have a cab attached to them, which I believe is illegal. And I would ask that the police traffic division go out there, Mr. President, and see who's leaving these tractors behind and these trailers behind in the interest of public safety.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I had made the same call myself earlier in the week. On the motion by Vice President Mock, seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Offered by Councilor Knight. Be it resolved that the City Administration investigate and report back to the City Council whether there are any deeded restrictions on the parcel known as the Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, the Lawrence Memorial Hospital has been an elephant in the room for quite some time now, and as we sit here and scratch our heads and ponder the future of that piece of land, I think it's important that this Council has an understanding as to whether or not there are any deeded restrictions on that parcel. There's much talk about zoning, much talk about development in the community, and if there are no deeded restrictions on that parcel, then we need to take a long, hard look at what's going on up in that area.
[Richard Caraviello]: Very good. On the motion by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Falco, all those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Offered by Councilor Knight, being resolved that the Medford City Council wish the Medford Mustang football team best of luck on this Thursday, 130th Medford Malden Thanksgiving Day football game. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I will spare my colleagues and those at home viewing of my rendition of the Mustang Fight Song. However, I'd like to wish the Medford Mustangs the best of luck on Thursday morning, and hopefully we can pull off a victory. So I wish them the best of luck. They've had a great season. They've made us proud, and this is the big one.
[Richard Caraviello]: And don't forget, on the day of the game, there'll be a dedication of, there'll be a couple of dedications there at halftime, so please make sure everybody gets out there. POW chair. Above the POW chair. On the motion by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Offered by Councilor Knight. Being resolved that the DPW commissioner report back to the council the status of paper 17666 relative to Wildwood Road. Councilman Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Four weeks ago I put forward a paper asking that the engineering division investigate the concerns of the residents at 31 Wildwood Road. Back when the Winthrop Street draining project was done, they used the front of that home as a staging area. And what's happened is the road's sunken in, the nice strip of grass out front's sunken in, and it's creating a puddling and pooling situation out there. So we've asked the engineering division to investigate the matter and get back to us. We haven't had a response yet. It's an item that I'd like to see taken care of before the winter months begin. So with that being said, Mr. President, I'd like to reiterate my concern and ask the DPW Commission to report back what steps have been taken.
[Richard Caraviello]: The motion by Councilor Knights, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. I have a note here from the clerk. This is a short week. Anything that anyone's gonna want to get on the agenda, please get it on by Wednesday for next week. Is that correct, Mr. Clerk? Two o'clock. Two o'clock on Wednesday. Which is tomorrow. City Hall. City Hall. Okay. The table records of the meetings.
[Michael Marks]: That's all I have.
[SPEAKER_24]: That's it. Where?
[Richard Caraviello]: Offered by Councilor Marks, be it resolved that the set of traffic lights at the corner of Forest Street and High Street increase the timing of the green light on Forest Street to assist with the cars cutting through the surrounding roads.
[Michael Marks]: Vice President Mox. Thank you, Mr. President. Residents on Oakland Street are extremely upset because Oakland, believe it or not, is being used as a cut-through from cars on Forest Street. And because of the timing of the lights, the Forest Street lights led by three or four cars at best, and the cars are starting to queue up all the way, so cars are trying to get around that light and ending up going down Oakland, which is creating chaos on that particular street. So I would ask that our head of lights, Mr. Randazzo, fix those lights on Forest Street to allow more cars to extend the green light to allow more cars coming down forest to access through the intersection of Medford Square.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, as a B paper, I'd like to propose that the Superintendent of Lights and Lines also provides us with a cost estimate as to what a study would cost. City of Medford and the Traffic Division and the Council pushing to reduce the speed limit from 30 to 25 miles an hour in the community. That does have an absolute effect on the timing of lights and the traffic patterns and the traffic flow in the community. That's why we did it. So we can reduce the speed limit in the community, but if we don't go and look at the timing of the lights across the community, I think we're missing a key component to the purpose of doing it. So I'd like to ask in the form of a B paper that the Superintendent of Lights and Lines provides us with a cost estimate as to what that study would cost.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Vice President Mark, as amended by Councilor Naye. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. The table records of the meeting of October 17th, 2017 were passed to Councilor Lungo-Koehnan. Councilor Lungo-Koehnan, how did you find those records? On the motion by Councilor Lungo-Koehnan that we find the October 17th records in order, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Motion passes. The table records of the meeting of October 31st, 2017 were passed to Vice President Mox. Mr. Vice President, how did you find those records?
[Michael Marks]: I did not have a chance to review them, Mr. President, so I asked that they be tabled.
[Richard Caraviello]: On the motion by Vice President Mox that the October 31st meeting minutes be tabled for another week. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. The records of the meeting of November 14th, 2017 were passed to Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Scarpelli, how did you find those records? On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Knight to approve those records. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. On behalf of the Bedford City Council, I'd like to wish everybody in the city of Bedford a healthy and happy Thanksgiving and hope to see everybody at the football game. Motion to adjourn by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Aye. Meeting adjourned.
[SPEAKER_31]: if but when a woman steps onto that lunar surface. We are trying to work on being ready for that. I know you want to go back to the space station, but would you also like to go to the moon? Definitely. I mean, I would definitely pick the moon, right? You want to go where you haven't been yet.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: The future will be based on...
[SPEAKER_41]: as a proof that we have a major democracy in Poland. But the image which is trying to be built is that this is dictatorship. Millions elected law and justice. Millions. We are not North Korea. We are not Saudi Arabia. We are European, proud, beautiful country.
[SPEAKER_35]: It may be legal to demonstrate, but after the latest abortion protests, the very next day the offices of two women's groups were raided by police. The divisions in Polish society don't just apply to the country's future direction, they also apply to its past. I headed north to visit the recently opened Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk. This museum has been specially designed to give visitors a real sense of what Poland was like in the 1930s and 40s. So I'm standing in a room which has been mocked up to look like a typical Polish street just before the outbreak of the war. I'm now on another street at the end of the war though and you get a sense of the real devastation that Poland suffered. Over here we have piles of rubble, glass and wood and the walls of the buildings are pockmarked with artillery shells and bullets.
[SPEAKER_12]: Our museum was attacked from the very beginning. We were accused of
[SPEAKER_35]: was one which would have seen all judges on Poland's Supreme Court forced to resign and then only those favoured by the Justice Minister reappointed. At a hastily arranged press conference in Brussels, the Vice President of the EU Commission, Franz Timmermans, was in no doubt. It flew in the face of EU values.
[SPEAKER_22]: These laws considerably increase the systemic threat to the rule of law in Poland. Each individual law, if adopted, would seriously erode the independence of the Polish judiciary. Collectively, they would abolish any remaining judicial independence and put the judiciary under full political control.
[SPEAKER_00]: of estate built social housing this all boosts domestic consumption it boosts the domestic tourism industry many families have been able to to go on holiday with their children for the first time something they couldn't afford to do previously this money is is being recycled into the economy and at the same time is all of these sort of almost left-wing social and economic policies are taking place. Poland continues to post very impressive growth figures, foreign investment continues to flood in, so PiS has managed to pull off a trick.
[SPEAKER_35]: These policies have been successful not just in poorer rural...
[SPEAKER_36]: been achieved.
[SPEAKER_04]: Mr. Mnangagwa, seen by many as a new hope, has been a close ally of Mr. Mugabe for decades, with a reputation as a hardliner. Priscilla Misihirabwi-Mishonga, an MP for the opposition movement for democratic change, says she's concerned over the role of ZANU-PF in a future government.
[SPEAKER_29]: Some of us feel that those that are in ZANU-PF really need to do an introspection, because if they kept this man, even after he had done the kind of atrocities that he did, I worry whether they will be the kind of people who will turn a leaf and really deliver to the people of Zimbabwe a democratic country. That concerns me, and that worries me.
[SPEAKER_04]: The Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has arrived back in Beirut after he shocked the country by announcing his resignation in Saudi Arabia two and a half weeks ago. His statement prompted a political crisis in Lebanon, and many believed he was being held against his will by the Saudis. It's not clear if he intends to withdraw his resignation or reaffirm it. The ride-hailing company Uber has admitted that hackers stole the personal data of 50 million of its customers and 7 million drivers more than a year ago. The new CEO said some personal details, email addresses and mobile phone numbers
[SPEAKER_34]: And during that 15 months, where are you? I'm in what's called Birderby Police Station, which is a temporary detention facility. Supposed to keep people there a couple of weeks, Matt. So they're cells? Yeah, a couple of weeks. I was there 15 months. During that 15 months, no investigation. There was no questioning of me. There was questioning on the first day, and then the morning after the first day, and then that was it. Nothing until 15 months later. So no questioning, no investigation. Rarely, I mean, any kind of resemblance that you would have of a normal system where if you're accused of something, you get the right to see your lawyer, translate, none of that. You never expect to have to go through something like this. So obviously, when it happened to me, my friends and my family contacted the British Embassy. They came, I think, after the second or I was being hit and I was being beaten and because you were gay because I was gay and I was sexually abused you know I had I won't go into too much detail but you know I had coca-cola bottles placed in places that you know they shouldn't be placed in in addition to that obviously because it became in the newspapers and the guards talked to the police and sorry the guards talked to the prisoners the prisoners began to know you know so I then had difficulties in the jail because again the majority of the people there were from the region, they were not expats, so that caused me great difficulties. What it also meant is that I couldn't have my partner obviously come and visit me, he's from the Middle East, but he couldn't come and visit me. And one of the things that then became very important for that for me is that I had asked the court in Dubai, can you not have my hearings in public that discussed my partner? because it puts us at risk. The English courts had granted us that, the Dubai court said no, and not only did they say no, they then put it on YouTube. So that gives you an idea of the level of pain that I was in.
[SPEAKER_06]: But the more stories like yours are told, not just here but perhaps more importantly in the UAE, in the Middle East more generally, the more they're disseminated on social media in a way that's much harder to control than conventional media, doesn't there come a point where it actually damages the country's interests and therefore it will be in their interest to change that?
[SPEAKER_34]: Yes, I think it does. And I think it's, you know, I think it's, you know, certainly when I came out and I set up the charity with a partner of mine, Radha Sterling, who had worked on cases like mine before, you know, like I said, we have a charity, Due Justice in Dubai. When we set that up, you know, one of the things that we want to do, as well as helping people there, is to raise the profile so we can say, you know, Dubai, you can change this. There is no reason to abuse and torture and have unfair trials. I mean it might benefit you in the short term in terms of your local businesses and your local families. So you're an optimist but you're still very angry? I'm very angry from my side but I'm an optimist and to be honest I would like to go there and help them change.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we'd drop off into the deep ocean somewhere like the Grand Banks, for example. Then we'd go across some deep ocean there, where there's the wreck of the Titanic, of course, at 3,800 metres.
[mgC3PACaQmc_SPEAKER_20]: The coastline of Newfoundland and Labrador weaves through fjords, bays and fishing villages that fringe the wild North Atlantic. During the first half of the 19th century, this was the promised land for immigrants from Ireland and Scotland fleeing economic hardship. They came to work on an ocean rich with cod and whales. Petty Harbour Maddox Cove is a fishing community whose very existence is shaped by the Atlantic. They used to say you could walk to shore on the backs of the plentiful cod. The whole town relied on fishing. But as the fisheries expanded and the abundance of fish attracted huge trawlers from other parts of the world, the Petty Harbour fishermen started to notice the cod were getting scarcer. Finally, in 1992, one of
[SPEAKER_11]: being much for me but now it's everything.
[mgC3PACaQmc_SPEAKER_20]: Marine collagen is extracted from fish scales, dried and made into proteins and serums that are claimed to keep the body's joints and skin supple and to delay aging.
[SPEAKER_11]: This one is perch and woolfish and salmon.
[mgC3PACaQmc_SPEAKER_20]: Hren is not the only one being creative with waste products from fish from the cold Icelandic waters. In the center of Reykjavik, we find a small gallery boasting beautiful accessories made from fish skin.
[SPEAKER_11]: And this one is caught and it's all tanned in Iceland, turned into leather. This is one factory in north of Iceland that makes the fish skin. I worked in a fish factory when I was
[mgC3PACaQmc_SPEAKER_20]: tight system that saw fishing towns cleared under the spatial planning laws. Monieba Isaacs comes from a fishing family. For 20 years, her work as a researcher at the University of the Western Cape has been with marginalized coastal communities, especially women who try to earn a living catching local fish such as snook, rock lobster and abalone.
[SPEAKER_36]: And then the women dream of fishing permits, fishing rights. And the greatest dream of all is of an abalone farm. Yes, the women dream of their own community aquaculture business, an abalone farm.
[SPEAKER_32]: just about a kilometer away is Simonstown and that is where my family was forced removed in the late 1960s to an area called Ocean View. Grandfather was a fisherman and my grandmother was a fisherwoman. And also growing up in a fishing community, fishing area, the community and fishing has always been part of of my life and growing up.
[SPEAKER_04]: political future. Mr. Mnangagwe, seen by many as a new hope, has been a close ally of Mr. Mugabe for decades, with a reputation as a hardliner. Priscilla Misihirabwe Mushonga, an MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, says she's concerned over the role of ZANU-PF in a future government.
[SPEAKER_29]: Some of us feel that those that are in ZANU-PF really need to do an introspection, because if they kept this man, even after he had done the kind of atrocities that he did, I worry whether they will be the kind of people who will turn a leaf and really deliver to the people of Zimbabwe a democratic country. That concerns me, and that worries me.
[SPEAKER_04]: The Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, has arrived back in Beirut after he shocked the country by announcing his resignation in Saudi Arabia two and a half weeks ago. Mr. Hariri's supporters celebrated in the streets. Saad Hariri is expected to make clear later if he intends to reaffirm his resignation. Many Lebanese believe Saudi Arabia pressured him
[SPEAKER_30]: I don't remember driving as fast as that day back to Santiago. And I remember going through these internal contradictions. On one hand, I thought that he had already been killed. Then, all of a sudden, you would sort of have this sense of hope and think, OK, no, he's still alive, and at the same time wish that if they are going to kill him, they better kill him soon so he doesn't suffer.
[SPEAKER_37]: In fact, it was 36 years before you had confirmation that your father was dead, when some fragments of bone that were found in a mine were found to be his. What was it like living for so long without information?
[SPEAKER_30]: deciding for me and my children's future. But I was determined to not let Pinochet defeat me. I was going to defeat him.
[SPEAKER_37]: What kind of justice did you get for your husband?
[SPEAKER_30]: I'm very aware that it was some sort of justice, probably not the ideal one, not everything that we were hoping to get, but it was also what was possible. We had to be realistic. You have to bear in mind that when the truth about his case came out, it was actually the first crime in which we were able to find out everything that happened from the moment when they were detained until they were executed.
[SPEAKER_40]: The past few years, he's been constantly on the move around the U.S. Usually he only stays in a city for a few weeks, but he likes L.A.
[SPEAKER_26]: I chose to stay this long this time because there was more to do, more people to talk to.
[SPEAKER_40]: You have a lot more music to play?
[SPEAKER_26]: I've got a lot of music up here. 25 years of it, so I've got to give it to somebody.
[SPEAKER_40]: On a good day, Shaver has made a hundred bucks in one sitting, but usually he makes enough to buy himself a meal. His favorite meal, breakfast.
[SPEAKER_26]: I usually make enough to get one solid meal, a couple of snacks.
[SPEAKER_40]: After playing at Union Station, we walk across the street to a diner.
[SPEAKER_26]: I'd like all you can eat pancakes, please.
[SPEAKER_40]: He likes to share whatever money he makes.
[SPEAKER_26]: What do you want Jerry?
[SPEAKER_40]: Today, he wants to treat his friend Jerry to breakfast. As he eats his pancakes, he tells me what it would be like if he had a home. He would cook. He would make origami. He likes to make roses.
[SPEAKER_26]: He could get permanent supportive housing. He says he's on six lists.
[SPEAKER_40]: But he always has one stipulation, a piano nearby.
[SPEAKER_38]: can't swallow, so therefore they had to put a cuff inside the throat to stop saliva going down into his lungs. They'd given him this tracheotomy, he was on this machine, because we get a very high fever, so they'd had to cover him in ice. So no, it wasn't very jolly.
[SPEAKER_37]: Robin was paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe without a mechanical pump. He wasn't able to speak for a while. Diana gave birth to their son without him there and remembers introducing them.
[SPEAKER_38]: Well, I took him in to see Robin and, you know, didn't get much. Not surprising, not much reaction really. Not surprising. He was still really very ill. He was totally paralyzed and didn't really know what was going on and you know all that sort of thing.
[SPEAKER_37]: The family flew back to England from Kenya and Robin was moved into a new hospital. It looked like he might never leave.
[SPEAKER_38]: I think probably the depression set in afterwards when he
[SPEAKER_16]: with three bedrooms with sort of intensive care standard care for severely disabled people to go on holiday.
[SPEAKER_37]: When he reached his 60s, Robin's health worsened. Jonathan remembers when he first realized.
[SPEAKER_16]: Well, it was really when he started having terrible bleeds and he was weakening. Simply the effect of being in a wheelchair and unable to move all those years, the wear and tear on his body, but also on the inside of him as well, was very, very considerable. And he definitely got, he got weaker and at a certain point the quality of life that my mother and he had built up and enjoyed over all those years was no longer there.
[SPEAKER_37]: Robin Cavendish died at home on the 8th of August 1994 having spent over three decades breathing through In Jonathan's film about his father, Robin is played by the Hollywood star Andrew Garfield. Claire Foy plays Diana.
[SPEAKER_38]: I decided before I saw it the first time that I was going to adopt a very
[SPEAKER_33]: the drummer for the Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson, who helped Manson record his first track.
[SPEAKER_14]: ♪ Cease to exist ♪ Just come and say you love me ♪ Give up your world ♪ Come on, you can't be
[SPEAKER_02]: He was a frustrated singer-guitarist, a pseudo-philosopher, a megalomaniac. But more importantly than anything else, he was an evil, sophisticated conman who cleverly hid behind the common image of a hippie, that of being peace-loving. But he was not peace-loving. He had a passion and a lust for death and murder.
|
total time: 16.39 minutes total words: 2437  |
total time: 9.34 minutes total words: 1619  |
total time: 21.01 minutes total words: 3565  |
total time: 3.68 minutes total words: 525  |
|
total time: 5.55 minutes total words: 1058  |
total time: 3.61 minutes total words: 805  |
||