[SPEAKER_05]: 它是。
[SPEAKER_02]: 谢谢。 谢谢。 是的。 好的。
[Lungo-Koehn]: 我的支票一、二，我的支票一、二、一、二。
[SPEAKER_02]: 我认为这是一个好问题。 看起来是这样的。
[Lungo-Koehn]: 大家晚上好。 请随意坐下。 我们将准时开始，因为我们希望每个人都能安全回家。 我们努力将节目时间控制在一个小时以内。 感谢大家来到这里。 首先，我想宣布今晚我们有一位非常特别的嘉宾为我们开始。 我们迎来了第一位桂冠诗人特里·卡特，他将为我们读一首诗。 特里已出版五本书。 目前正在写他的第六篇文章，很快就会印刷。 他的诗歌等等对我们社区、学校、西梅德福社区中心和整个社区的各个部分来说都是一笔巨大的财富。 言归正传，特里·卡特。
[SPEAKER_05]: 一定是欢迎委员会。
[Carter]: 梅德福的心态。 我相信你一直在关注这一点。 请知道我们的意图是经过锤炼和纯洁的。 我们希望让我们的城市从市长办公室到市书记官都能发挥作用。 我们希望您参观住宿、自行车道、公园和地铁站。 我们希望您看到艺术、非营利组织和基金会之间的合作。 我们希望您看到小企业蓬勃发展，公共卫生让人们生存。 当公民解决他们的问题并用平静取代愤怒的叫喊时，具有传统意识的进步举措可以点燃发动机。 对种族和理性的真正讨论，没有对浪漫叛国的黑暗恐惧，新学派有数据和证据，旧学派承诺常识。 这仍然是我们对经验丰富的治理范围的最大希望，满足每个灵魂的需求，使我们作为一个整体变得更强大，不认为投票是理所当然的，而是尊重我们的祖先播下的种子。 通过明智而公正的解决方案增强了公众的信任。 这些简单的韵律，通过例证，构成了这座城市的宣言。 携手合作，就像梅德福野马的军乐队一样。 工人们可以在这里进行谈判并赢得他的信任，而没有仇恨。 急救人员赢得尊重，是的，他们总是提供服务和保护。 建筑商们停下来仔细阅读合同条款之外的内容，超越他们的钻头和锯子，聆听共同事业的声音。 骄傲的彩虹完全消失，差异不会让我们感到害怕。 教堂崇拜和平和忠实的追随者。 友善的释放，“黑人的命也是命”是根本，我们认为所有人的面孔都是善良和温柔的，我们睁开眼睛抚养我们的孩子，课程不仅仅是消毒，老师可以教，孩子们可以学习，而且没有女巫或烧掉书籍，我们欢迎来自各个国家的新朋友，孟加拉语、拉丁语和海地语， 创新迎合传统，形成新的改进条件，遗产与变革的大胆推进一起美妙地共舞。 这是这座城市内心的呐喊。 在这个新赛季，我们从这里开始。 目标是理智和明智地共同进步，而不是分裂。 社会正义产生共鸣，人们进行健康的辩论，当邻居走进敞开的大门时，每个家庭的盘子里都会有美味的食物。 现在是所有人听到响亮而清晰的团结信息的时候了，而其他人可能会鼓吹愤怒和分歧，并竭尽全力煽动紧张局势。 可信管理的目标是清晰透明的沟通。 在这个新冠疫情时代，我们仍然必须要求领导人安全地摘下口罩。 城市现状的简单事实是人们希望看到更多的证据。 有能力的领导者能够掌舵并拥有强大而稳定的控制力。 新的想法随着智慧的倾注而被实施，就像从历史深处发酵的葡萄酒一样，在进步需要时可以分配。 什么才是正确、合理的解决办法，才能完美执行、远离迫害、遏制报应浪潮？ 这些简单的韵律，通过确认，承认我们对激活的渴望，承认我们对收回梅德福最佳合作的追求。 因此，诗人读星星就像读透明玻璃罐里的萤火虫，以暗示充满希望的 2023 年会发生什么。 神秘的潮汐将会扭曲和弯曲。 但现在是梅德福修补我们公民楼梯上破损的栏杆以及对我们公共事务的磨损信心的时候了。 这仍然是我们对经验丰富的领导力的最大希望，能够满足每个灵魂的需求，使我们作为一个整体变得更加强大。 这是我的恳求，善良的梅德福人。 现在这位诗人说晚安。 谢谢。 谢谢。 谢谢。 现在这是我的荣幸。 谢谢。 现在我很荣幸地介绍学校委员会副主席珍妮·格雷厄姆。
[Graham]: 大家晚上好。 感谢隆戈-科恩市长邀请我今晚发言。 我很荣幸来到这里并成为学校委员会的副主席，也许更荣幸的是梅德福的公民近四年来一直将他们的信仰传递给我。 过去的四年确实感觉像是短暂的一生。 当我回想这一年的回顾时，感觉就像是我加入学校委员会以来每一年的回顾。 因此，每年，学校委员会都会与学校行政部门一起努力工作，以取得进展。 每年，我们的学生都应该取得更多的进步，这一点也非常清楚。 因此，当我想到这一点时，我常常不知所措，但我将从一些亮点开始。 所以在过去的一年里，我们为学生投入了大量的高质量课程。 这已经是姗姗来迟了。 这包括许多高中课程的教科书。 它包括针对我们中学生的新数学课程，也包括针对我们小学的新数学课程。 我们还继续在初级阶段将基于自然拼读的课程融入到我们的编程和识字编程中，同时我们追求 更全面地取代我们的扫盲课程。 科学告诉我们，基于语音的方法显然是支持所有读者和改变生活的方法。 因此，我真的很感谢学校管理部门的坚韧，因为当我们谈论最基本的事情，即学习时，他们努力真正使我们小学的教学和学习方式发生巨大转变。阅读。 在我们展望未来时，我也很高兴看到我们召集了一群梅德福居民来审视我们的健康课程，并确保未来我们的健康课程是全面的，以科学为基础，并且致力于防止学生群体中的欺凌和暴力行为。 我们组建的团队确实令人惊叹。 他们是如此有资格。 我简直不敢相信所有这些天才都生活得很好 在我们称之为梅德福的这个狭小的空间里要小心。 除了我们在课程方面所做的所有出色工作之外，我们花费了大量时间来解决的另一件事是我们为加强对学生的心理健康支持所做的工作，这让我感到非常自豪很明显，就像我们所有人一样，仍在思考如何摆脱这一流行病及其影响他们的所有方式。 因此，我真的很高兴我们能够加强这些支持，并且我们正在做的工作是 是艰巨且超级重要的。 过去的一年是重要的一年，我们与 11 个谈判伙伴进行了谈判。 我们梅德福公立学校内有 11 个工会。 通过这项工作，我们感谢我们的老师在大流行期间及之后以及之后的辛勤工作。 我们达成了最优惠的合同 对于我们的老师来说，几十年后，也许永远。 我们还承诺，梅德福公立学校的员工应获得生活工资，并且我们找到了一种方法来确保我们的专业人员获得补偿，这不仅仅是生活工资，而且对我们的员工和学生来说，这是他们应得的令人难以置信的进步。 我们还与护士、学校秘书和木匠建立了联系。 我们仍然有工作要做来解决剩余的合同，但我们致力于确保我们的员工为学生提供的服务获得生活工资。 我要感谢社区保护委员会对梅德福公立学校的持续支持。 最近，我们组建了一个咨询委员会，在他们的支持下考虑更换麦格林小学操场。 设计令人惊叹。 它认识到玩耍就是学习，这真是太神奇了。 这是或将会是 Method 市第一个真正包容性的游乐场。 咨询委员会非常努力地工作，以确保我们听取各个利益相关者的意见。 我们听到了孩子们的声音，我们听到了大楼里老师的声音，我们也听到了社区的声音，因为那个空间也将是一个社区空间。 我们能够提出一个以可持续性、包容性和乐趣为中心的设计。 感谢中国共产党长期以来的支持。 我们承诺为建设提供资金，并向市长提供 ARPA 资金 让这个游乐场成为现实。 我很自豪能够与学校委员会的女委员梅兰妮·麦克劳克林一起在该委员会、咨询委员会本身任职。 我认为可以肯定地说，整个学校委员会都迫不及待地想在完工的操场上剪彩。 去年提出了一些挑战。 我相信您都听说过它们。 我认为可以肯定地说，没有哪个校舍比梅德福高中面临的挑战更大。 在过去的几个月里，我们采取了措施，确保我们的高中安全并有利于所有学生的学习。 创造一种值得梅德福自豪的氛围和文化无疑是一项正在进行的工作，也是我们所有人都致力于的工作。 我的心和我的工作与那些感受到我们历史上的痛苦的家庭同在，正是因为这些声音，因为这是正确的事情，我们正在深入、认真地审视正在发生的事情，以及更多重要的是，需要改变什么。 我致力于做出这些改变，无论它们有多困难，因为我们的学生值得这样做。 最后，我们的高中生也应该拥有一栋既能支持现代尖端教育、又能为我们职业学生提供充足空间的建筑。 我对去年我们向马萨诸塞州学校建筑管理局提交的申请感到自豪，但令人沮丧的是，我们没有被邀请进入下一步，这主要是由于建筑项目、整个学校建筑项目的成本飙升。状态。 我呼吁我们的州代表团尽其所能，确保我们在明年和未来几年增加州一级对 MSBA 的资助。 我很高兴地宣布，我们将在四月份重新提交申请， 包括建筑当局概述和建议的补充内容，我们还将开始讨论我们可能有的其他选择，并开始探索我们如何推进重建或更换梅德福高中。 我也期待与市长合作，使重新构想的梅德福高中成为现实。 最后，我要对观众中所有的百万富翁和亿万富翁说， 如果您想知道如何影响周围人的生活，请给我打电话。 我们可以谈论重新构想的梅德福高中对我们的学生和我们的城市的影响。 在此，我很高兴向大家介绍我的朋友，妮可·莫雷尔，她是市议会主席。 谢谢。
[Morell]: 感谢格雷厄姆副主席的介绍以及您的同事在过去几年所做的工作。 我知道有人说校委会实际上是政治中最难的工作，我正在和大家聊天。 我同意。 感谢隆戈·科恩市长邀请我今晚发言，分享市议会的一些亮点。 如果有一个孩子在这期间尖叫，那是我的孩子。 所以完全没问题。 我很荣幸担任梅德福市议会主席。 我对自 2022 年 1 月以来我们举行的 100 多次会议所取得的工作感到非常自豪。 我们制定了新的条例，投票支持了宪章审查，批准了一些变革性项目的资金，并完成了分区法规的重新编纂，所有这些都是为了支持一个更加宜居、充满活力和可持续的梅德福。 作为一个委员会，我们所做的大部分工作都是正在进行中的，因为好的工作需要时间。 是时候作为议员相互合作了，就像我今晚在这里见到的卡巴洛议员一样， 有时间听取居民的意见并与居民合作，有时间平衡相互竞争的观点，有时间回应我们城市各部门、理事会和委员会的巨大努力。 一年多来，该委员会以住房为重点，继续开展建立保障性住房信托的工作，为城市总体规划提供建议，投票赞成住房生产计划，并致力于制定住房通知条例，所有这些都旨在为居民提供住房机会和支持。 去年年初，该委员会最终确定并投票支持分区重新编纂，这是几十年来贝德福德分区的首次全面审查和改革。 更新后的分区清晰简洁，为可持续发展和住房机会奠定了基础。 我期待着我们的分区工作的第二阶段，我感谢市长为此分配资金，在这项工作中，我们可以再次与市政府部门合作，更新我们的分区以支持居民，并与综合规划保持一致对于城市。 除了我们的分区工作外，该委员会还致力于使该市户外餐饮和食品卡车的条例和政策现代化，响应我们的商业社区和居民的需求，支持繁华的梅德福。 我们在城市内通过了一项聚苯乙烯禁令，首先由公民和社会责任中心的学生带头。 由此，梅德福与全州各地的社区一起，认真对待此类污染的有害影响以及我们对可持续发展的承诺。 该委员会还投票将老年人财产税递延限额与老年人断路器税收抵免挂钩，该税收抵免每年自动扩大该计划的资格，并帮助老年人留在家中。 去年，我们更新了除雪条例，并向政府提出了一些政策建议，以简化除雪指南，并希望有一天在梅德福试点城市运行的人行道清理计划。 我们在居民的帮助下完成了所有这一切，更重要的是，在市议会和委员会以及这座大楼的工作人员的帮助下。 他们是这项工作的合作伙伴，提供宝贵的专业知识和见解。 我感谢那些市政府工作人员如此投入时间来支持这项工作。 我们还有很多工作要做，我相信我们可以作为市政厅的一员共同努力，推进分区更新，推进更加可持续和有弹性的梅德福，并推进对我们的城市宪章的审查，以确保它反映我们今天所在的城市。 我要感谢大家抽出宝贵的时间，让我分享我们作为一个整体并与这座大楼里的人们一起工作所取得的一些亮点。 接下来，我想介绍尊敬的梅德福市市长 Brianna Lundekarp。
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you so much. First, I wanna start by thanking Steve. I wanna start by thanking Steve Smerity, the director of communications and Emma Tombley for helping me write this speech you're gonna hear tonight. I think Steve and I had a tougher job the last week cutting it down from 25 pages to nine. So you can thank me for that later, but there's so much that has been accomplished in this city that I wanna speak about. So I'm gonna do that tonight. And I'm not gonna rush, usually I rush, I feel so bad, I'm long-winded, but I'm not gonna rush because this work that everybody's doing on a daily basis is worth taking my time for. And just before I start, please know that just because something's written on a sign doesn't mean it's true. And I'm sorry that the horns are beeping. And I'm sorry to Terry, but the horns were beeping. Thank you for those joining us here tonight. Thank you, if you're watching from home or on Zoom, I do know that we have many elected officials here, Representative Donato, School Committee woman, Kathy Kreatz, Member Ruseau, and City Councilor Rick Caravielloa, and Member Hays. Thank you. And former member, Paulette Van der Kloots. Thank you for joining us. Thank you to Terry Carter, our poet laureate, member Jenny Graham, and President Nicole Morell for kicking off the event. Before I begin, I must thank the tireless work of our department heads, city staff, and volunteers who have committed to doing amazing things under the difficult and ongoing conditions caused by the pandemic. You're all integral to the success that I will be highlighting here tonight. You're the reason why we're here tonight. I stood before you last January and outlined my vision for Medford, listing many long-term goals, including numerous projects that are currently underway, and laid out our roadmap for the next two years and beyond. Now, as we begin this fourth year of growth and progress, I want to give an update on how things are going, what challenges lie ahead, and how we continue to deliver on the promises we made, the vision we shared, and the future we've imagined. Walking through the city, visiting places I frequented as a child, young adult, and city councilor, what struck me in many instances was how infrequently some places change. A community that does not grow does not thrive. And here in Medford, because we have done the planning the last three years, we now are about to see growth mode. We've been able to make this transition and kickstart our economic engine because of a key goal, tapping into the unrealized potential of our squares, our green spaces, and our city-owned properties. The most obvious opportunity to begin our next generation of development is at Wellington Station. The untapped 28 acres of land has been in city control for over half a century. Since 1969, and in our community was completely missing out. not only on the potential revenue streams, but also the exciting opportunities that could be realized with diverse transit oriented mixed use development designed to attract new families, workers, and students. Since we issued the request for information in September, we have spent the past few months reviewing proposals from eight highly qualified developers and released those to the public earlier this month. Each plan had a unique vision for the area's potential and suggested bringing much needed housing options and other mixed use features, such as retail, office, hospitality, and green space. We will take you through these proposals and use them to help inform a future RFP in 2023 that fits the needs of our community and brings about generational change to the Wellington area. In addition to Wellington, we're also attempting to reimagine a few underused city-owned lots in Medford Square. with the help of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council working to develop priorities and criteria for future redevelopment through a community-driven analysis and visioning process that will incorporate the needs of residents and stakeholders. We will finally see progress on this project in the coming year and get out an RFP for Medford Square in 2023. We have an opportunity with these lots to implement smart resident-focused development that aligns with our community's priorities and vision. If we do this the right way, it will benefit our downtown square by creating a more sustainable and accessible future for the area. But as I said, we can't do this in a silo. We must engage and work with our seniors in the neighborhood, our local small businesses, Chevalier Theater, and residents to access their needs, assess their needs, and implement a strategy that recognizes their importance to building a more vibrant and thriving downtown area. One of the three 40B projects we are negotiating on Mystic Ave has been a topic that has garnered much debate, controversy, and discussion over the years. There's an opportunity for meaningful, lasting development on this strip that we can't afford to miss. Director Alicia Hunt, Economic Development Director Victor Schrader, now part-time, and I would not settle for thousands of luxury apartments at this site. and have been working with the developer on a different vision, one that can bring innovation and lasting possibilities to Mystic Avenue, a $1 billion life science development equipped with open space and first floor retail. As we look to strengthen our commercial corridors, we must not lose sight of ensuring that people who will use these new developments also have the ability to continue to live in our city. It's no secret that there's a housing crunch in the region, Cities across the Commonwealth are feeling the pressure to create lasting solutions to this problem and Medford is no different. Our city, however, is finding solutions that will bring more housing, especially affordable housing to Medford. We'll have a comprehensive master plan, which is being released very soon, will help guide our housing policy in the future. We currently have two other 40B projects that my administration is negotiating and working on. We worked with the developers on the project on Mystic Valley Parkway to resubmit plans to the Zoning Board of Appeals that includes 350 units, 25% of which are affordable housing units. We're committed to using ARPA funds to support and assist with affordable housing projects, like the ones at our Housing Authority complexes at 121 Riverside Ave and Walkland Court. We've allocated 400,000 to help offset permitting costs of renovations, thanks to the help of Bill 40, for upgrades and renovations to new affordable units at 121 Riverside Ave just this past week. Using existing funding sources like ARPA are helpful and allow us to make immediate expenditures to ease the burden on partners, but we're doing so knowing that we need a long-term plan for additional revenue sources. ARPA will end in 2025 and we don't want our partners left holding the bag. That's why establishing affordable housing trust is so important and will help allow us to fund new projects in the absence of ARPA. We've done the work, communicated with stakeholders, and are ready to move forward. The next step in the process is working with the council, who I know is supportive and understands the value of the trust. Those are just a few of the over 30 development investments we are working on. A special thanks again to our planning team led by Director Hunt and our now part-time economic development administrator. Thank you. Thanks to the work of our police chief, Jack Buckley, Medford PD is setting an example for how to operate as a diverse professional police force that continually engages with the community, builds new lasting partnerships and promotes inclusion and empathy with the way each of our officers conduct themselves. Aiding in that mission is the remarkable facility that the MPD calls home. And I have made it a priority to see that the fire department has a headquarters that is just as dynamic and meets the current needs of our firefighters and emergency personnel. Also, one of the ongoing initiatives that has been moving forward over the past year is upgrades to all six of our stations. We have already spent over $1.3 million on over 20 projects to upgrade each of our stations, including lighting projects in each substation, roof repairs or replacements, kitchen upgrades, and one final one to go. And we will continue to ensure these are the best working environments to keep Medford safe. Since day one, bringing our fire stations up to the standards of the 21st century department have been a priority of mine and my chief of staff, Nina Nazarian and chief John Friedman have been working tirelessly to get an owner's project manager hired and an architect contract signed. We are happy to announce that we do have an owner's project manager that we have hired and are very close to signing a contract with an architect firm for the design of the fire head quarter building. A special thank you to Medford residents, Luke McNeely and Paul Holian Jr. who have also done a lot of work, a lot of reading as it relates to this project. Please know that these things take time, but there is a committed group pushing these projects as fast as they can with me nagging them every step of the way. In addition to the efforts underway for the fire headquarters, our fire substation, engine three on Salem Street, is going to have the garage floors replaced this year. Thanks to the work of this team, as well as the dedicated help of our chief officer, Fiona Maxwell, and her team, and available community block grant funding, we can move forward on this project exponentially. Finally, this year, we'll begin IT work of over 500,000 and are designing window repairs or replacements at all the substations too. That's an additional over $2.2 million investment in new projects at the fire stations with a potential over $20 million bond after that for the headquarters. And in order to help fund these infrastructure improvements, I spent months negotiating to have cannabis dispensaries in Medford that would benefit our community. Our terms were eventually met and in addition to receiving the maximum 3% gross revenue coming back to the city, which will be used towards roads and sidewalks. We were also able to secure funding for our library, fire stations, DPW vehicles, cruisers for the police department, local nonprofit aid, veteran aid, and so much more. With all of these new projects coming online and countless more already completed, it's critical that we have sufficient transportation infrastructure in place to handle the demand and allow people to get to move about the city safely. That's why we commissioned a street and sidewalk infrastructure assessment early in my first term and showed the city, and the city has 200 million in backlog of road and sidewalk work that needs to be fixed due to the decades of neglect. This is a huge task, and although the city does not have the funding or capacity to complete this work in a year or two, we are not shying away from planning and implementation. We have been diligently working to complete our most critical roadways. In the past few months, With the help of our city engineer, Owen Hortella, we outlined a pavement strategy for Freedom Way. The road was in dire need of repair and was used regularly to access schools and city facilities. I'm happy to report that we have done the initial repaving with plans in place. Owen, there's more work to do. For a complete road rebuild in about two years. We've made a significant investment in upgrades to our sidewalks as well. This past year, we bonded a million dollars and we'll be going to the city council for an additional bond of 1.5 million that will include equipment. So even more work can be done in-house by our DPW team. Thank you to treasurer Judy Johnson for always helping us whenever we need her, when it relates to bonds. We've also identified more cost-friendly options for some road repair. Recently, 94 streets were identified in our assessment as prime candidates for a process called crack sailing. Over 30 streets have been completed with roughly 60 more to finish this spring. We are also working on a comprehensive patchwork plan that will be finalized and released to further repair our roads. Engineering and our Department of Public Works Commissioner Tim McGivern have been instrumental in this planning. With an eye on maintaining and improving the structural integrity of our streets and sidewalks, we've made tree stump removal and tree planting a priority. Working with our tree warden, Aggie Tudin, over the past year, we've secured over a half million dollars in funding for this work. And we'll continue to invest our resources towards this over the course of the year. I want to thank our state delegation, Rep Donato, Rep Garbally, Rep Barber, for providing some of that funding for this project and many, many others. Thank you. As we upgrade infrastructure, we additionally want to continue investing in our local businesses that are so important to the fabric of community. A few weeks ago, the city awarded $75,000 to 23 local businesses for storefront improvements. With this second round of funding completed, we have awarded over 100,000 through small business facade improvement grants. I spoke about revitalizing Medford Square in my inauguration speech last year, and I'm proud to say we are working towards that goal with programs like this that inject funding and create opportunity for local businesses to thrive. I can't mention local services without mentioning directors, Pam Kelly, Kevin Bailey, and Barbara Kerr, who have done an excellent job running our senior center, recreation department, and library through the last few years of the pandemic. And of course, without the leadership and expertise of our board of health director, Marianne O'Connor, and the staff in the health department, we would not have been able to navigate our way through the early days of the pandemic. Marianne and the team, including Board of Health Nurse Sarah Harris, provided clarity and calm during a truly chaotic and scary situation. So thank you to all, including our volunteers who helped administer over 2,800 COVID vaccines and 600 flu vaccines just in 2022, including close to 190 homebound vaccinations. Vaccines were administered throughout the city with the help of our community liaisons. who connect the community to city resources and expand communications and accessibility to our non-native English speakers in Medford. Expanding opportunities to showcase Medford's growing diversity and culture offerings has been a key part of our development strategy. Our parks and recreation spaces have also been upgraded with new murals. And just today I was at Wright's Pond working on the next with a local artist and Kevin Bailey. Chevalier Theater additionally renewed a five-year contract with the city back in September, bringing world-class entertainment to our hidden gem for years to come. We have signed a contract with a cannabis dispensary company, Theory Wellness, to construct our first-ever art center on Mystic Ave. They have broken ground, and we cannot wait to see this become a reality. Medford's waterfront will also become a new place for residents to enjoy, with plans in the works to create more recreation areas and beautify the area with murals and other art from the community. We hope to release the initial design for community feedback late this winter. Our city services and facilities are not the only community driven spaces that deserve our investments. We've also been able to prioritize our local nonprofits that have been instrumental to providing critical services and resources to our community. In addition to CDBG funding, we awarded over 230,000 to 25 nonprofits through the Community Fund Committee earlier this month. Included in this round of funding was the American Legion, Temple Shalom, the Medford Chamber of Commerce, and all four of our elementary PTOs, just to name a few. We expect to open up the second round of funding of grants later this year. We've talked a lot now about our progress and excitement for future projects, but we have also been met with some challenges this year, especially in our high school. Our schools, especially the high school, have needed to make change to better address the growing issues stemming from the pandemic. And I've spent, thankfully spent a lot of time over the last month with our superintendent, Dr. Maurice-Edouard-Vincent, as well as other district leaders, pushing for plans that are sustainable, adaptable, and work in the best interest of students. We have two newly trained student resource offices, a revised bathroom plan, and are engaging with students on a much more personal level. But most importantly, we have heard the students' concerns and listened to their lived experiences. We must strengthen our relationships and trust with both the students and caregivers and ensure that our school system is safe and an inviting place for all. As Jenny stated, we're still looking to obtain an MSBA loan to build a new high school. The building we have now is not amenable to quality education, and we believe we have a strong case for the next round of loans due in April to rebuild a state-of-the-art flagship school that our students and faculty deserve. I thank the school committee, the superintendent of schools, Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent and Mr. Dave Murphy for all their work on that application and we will be resubmitting. As our community continues to grow as a destination for families and professionals, there is a significant opportunity to expand accessible and efficient public transportation options. As I'm sure you've all seen and hopefully written, the Green Line Extension finally opened in December after many challenges, delays and questions. That was probably the happiest I've seen people at 5 a.m. on a Monday morning cramming in line to get a spot on the T. That just proves that the extension is a turning point for Medford. And I want to thank the community group that advocated and worked on this project for years. I will never stop pushing for better public transportation in and around our community as I did with the MBTA new better bus redesign and the closure of the orange line over the summer. I thank director Todd director of traffic and transportation, Todd Blake, for being the expert this city needs, advocating with us, working with us, and advising us along the way. Thank you. With his help and many others, we've also increased the scope of blue bikes around the city this year with three new docking stations at Tufts Square, Brooks Park, and Medford Square. We are working to expand this network further as alternative green transportation options support our climate action and adaptation plan, including efforts to provide residents with clean, sustainable, and affordable alternatives. I'm happy to announce that we have secured funding for seven additional Blue Bike locations, with the next three coming online later this year at Hormel Stadium, Harris Park, and Spring Street. For the four remaining, we're tentatively exploring Riverbend Park, Haines Square, West Medford, and the Hillside. As outlined in our Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, we have lofty goals of reducing our emissions by 50% by the end of this decade and have been working to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. To do this, we've taken a series of steps aimed at making our city operations, facilities, and policies more conducive and adaptable to climate resiliency. The last time I spoke at this podium to you all, I mentioned that we were in the process of securing funding for two additional electric charging stations with the hope of installation this year. Thanks to the work of the Planning, Development and Sustainability Office, especially the work of Planner Yvette Niwa, we've delivered on the promise and have two new stations, one at Hormel and one at Carr Park. And I'm happy to announce that we're expanding on that growth with two more, one at the Missittuck School and one at Tufts Park, coming online this summer with an additional seven being planned over the next year or so. But to implement real changes in the way we conduct our operations, we must commit to reversing our reliance on fossil fuels internally as well. This is also a priority of our city council and school committee. I'm happy to announce that we have secured $230,000 grant Diesel Emissions Reduction Act from the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act from the state with the help of Mike Wentzel from DPW to assist with the purchasing of an all electric commercial grade sweeper, which will replace our diesel engine vehicle. We also made concerted efforts to transition our other vehicles in our fleet to more green friendly options. The police department has purchased new hybrid vehicles and is patiently waiting for their arrival, hopefully in June, which will make their daily operations much more efficient, cleaner, and adaptable to challenges. We also thank director Faye Morrison, who will also be transitioning her fleet in the near future. The city is additionally enhancing its climate resiliency and emergency preparedness efforts through our MedFit Connects program led by our office of prevention and outreach manager, Penny Fanioli. This program seeks to expand and strengthen resources for our underserved community members. And we recently secured a grant, another grant for over 400,000 from the state to accomplish this work. An important part, I'm almost done, I'm sorry. An important part of our commitment to expanding resources and programming for residents is our investment in our green spaces. Medford's many parks are a source of pride for the city. and we have plans for upgrading the construction in many of them, close to 50, actually. I engaged an internal team who have been meeting close to monthly for three years to plan, gain community input and secure funding. In projects scheduled to start this spring and summer alone, we have secured over $5 million for renovations. One of our largest upcoming projects is Carr Park. Carr Park's vision plan was released the end of 21, and we are proud to say that phase one is fully funded and in design and expected to start this spring. Carr Park recently secured additional funding for phase two, which is on the horizon as well. In phase two, we can get excited for new basketball courts, one which will be covered by solar panels, a new playground and much more. Car's solar infrastructure will be funded by $1.5 million earmark in the federal 2023 budget. I wanna thank our federal delegation, including Congresswoman Clark, Senator Markey, Senator Warren, for their work in passing this budget and helping fund community projects here in Medford. Our planning office has been instrumental in this work. Thanks to their work, especially again, Director Hunt and Planner Amanda Centrella, we have not only secured opera funding, but a match of $1 million from another grant from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for phase one. Awesome job. Upper funds have made a huge impact on our community in the work we are able to do throughout the city. Unlike other communities that set specific funding amounts for various sectors, Medford has taken a needs-based approach, allowing us to invest funding where it is needed most. The data we collected from the community focus survey released this past summer helped inform many of the projects I've mentioned already tonight, with many others that I don't have time for. With the help of our amazing federal funds manager, Lorena Escalero, We will be continuing to invest in areas like affordable housing, public health and infrastructure, as well as plan for the future while being transparent with the work we're doing. Throughout our opera planning process, we have been open and transparent about our financial outlook and the need to allocate a percentage of funding to revenue replacement. Like many other cities and towns in the Commonwealth, the economic effects of the pandemic left a sizable gap in several revenue streams that we traditionally have counted on. For the past two years, the years we have reduced our reliance on ARPA dollars and expect the trend to continue in fiscal year 24 and 25. It's no secret that the city has incurred a structural deficit. And though we have several dynamic development opportunities on the horizon that will inject revenue into our bottom line, thanks to our assessing team, especially, I see Jim O'Brien and Ellen as well have been great. We are analyzing the potential need to come to a solution as to how to fill and address the gap. especially when ARPA is gone. We are closely monitoring and reviewing the need for an override in the future to ensure we keep performing work at this level. These decisions are not easy and we must balance the need and the ability to pay while taking into account that we will need a debt exclusion to build a new high school in the not too distant future. Since hiring CFO Bob Dickinson and budget manager Courtney Cordello, We are back to our baseline staffing levels in the finance department, and my office and the finance team have been hard at work with department heads, collecting information early in the process for the formulation of the fiscal year 2024 budget, especially given the global economic issues that persist, such as inflation and supply chain, in addition to recovering from the structural deficit of the pandemic. Fiscal year 24 is expected to be another difficult year. However, we continue to work hard to get the city's revenue stream to the needed levels to sustain the city's needs. Again, I want to thank everyone at City Hall that made all this work possible. While we're still working to optimize our staffing levels, the strength of the team that I have put together over the last three years in office has completely changed the culture of City Hall. and other places and helped usher in much needed modernization and efficiency updates in city hall operations and policies. Together, we are building the groundwork to professionalize Medford like never before and create a more meaningful and welcome experience for our residents. We have so many new hires that have been instrumental to that change. Those that I've already mentioned, as well as Jeremy Johns, our director of veteran services, Melissa Ripley, our elections manager, Jim Silver, our special projects coordinator, Bill Forty, our building commissioner, Paul Riggi, the city's first ever facilities director, a position the council and I advocated in favor for for the last 10 years. And thank you to HR and our director, Neil Osborne, and the efforts of so many others for keeping this process moving forward and helping fill roles. Accountability has been key to transforming the way our city works and serves our residents. Without accountability, it's impossible to get a professionalized government that the city needs and the people deserve. Part of accountability is ensuring every city employee and resident is aware of the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and has the means and support to actively promote equity and accessibility. It's part of our social justice roadmap. And with the help, amazing help of our director of diversity and equity inclusion, Francis Waje, The city has and will continue to expand DEI training for all staff, city, fire, and police, including implicit bias and cultural competency training. I've said it before, there are things I will not tolerate and no one will discourage me from doing this hard work. We can do hard things. We can transform this city and rid ourselves of the antiquated, outdated, and inefficient policies. But it takes time, it takes focus, and it takes trust. So I'm asking you to trust me. Trust me to do this work. Trust me to make decisions that are in your best interests. And trust me to lead this city to where we all know that it should be. Because there is much more to do. It is often not comfortable or fun having to make these hard choices and do the necessary work. But I've seen and heard about governments run without accountability and they quickly become chaotic and corrupt. And I will not let that happen here. I am committed to a transparent ethical administration for the city and thus will not tolerate city employees who do not share that same work ethic. That said, to be clear, the vast majority of our city employees come to work every day and try their best to move the city forward. many of whom I've mentioned tonight and all of whom I just don't don't don't have all the time. I do and I will continue to do all I can to support them in every way I can. To conclude, please know that so much work has been put work has been put in over the last year to find creative solutions to any roadblocks the city faces. When searching for funding, we find grants and secure them. When presented with differing When we say we are going to do something, we do it. I am dedicated to keeping my promises to Medford and delivering on projects, no matter the challenges we face along the way. And finally, and thankfully, we have the personnel to make it happen. Thank you. I'm the emcee, too. So I want to just thank you all so very much for coming tonight. Those who are watching from home or on Zoom, past and present employees of Medford, we just, again, appreciate all your hard work. Thank you so much. We have a reception outside, so please stay, have a bite to eat, and get home safely. Thank you.
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