[Caraviello]: Good evening, everyone. 28th regular meeting of the Medford City Council. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears? Present. Councilor Falco? Present. Vice President Knight? Vice President Knight is absent. Councilor Marks? Present. Councilor Morell? Present. Councilor Scarpelli? Present. President Caraviello?
[Caraviello]: Present. Six in the affirmative, one absent. Please rise and slip the flag. Councilor Scarpelli. Motion by Councilor Scarpelli to suspend the rules to take. To take paper 21490. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Councilor Mears. All those in favor?
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Caraviello]: All opposed? Motion passes. 21490 offered by President Caraviello and Vice President Knight, being so resolved that the Medford City Council commend and congratulate the Medford Invitational Tournament on its 25th anniversary. We would also like to thank the men and women who have helped the special needs children of Medford and greater Boston for the past 25 years. Our challenge today will continue in the future, but it'll be run by the District 12 Little League. And we have a lot of people in the audience tonight that are from the organization. And Ron, if you want to come up and say a few words before we get to say some good things about you.
[Giovino]: Name and address of the record, please. Ron Giovino, 326 East Porter Road, Medford, Mass.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. For those who don't know, Give a little brief synopsis on what the tournament's about and how long you've been doing it.
[Giovino]: Yeah, so we began in 1996. There's only one other left from that fateful day, Charlie Chimpaya, but we created a program to allow 12-year-old all-stars to play a very competitive baseball game. Then we moved to running the Tufts Winter Clinic for 10 years. We got involved, we created the Medford Baseball Council that helped all the baseball leagues in the city join together and talk as one. We took over some fledgling bankrupted leagues. And then we turned on to Challenger Baseball, started in Malden for children with mental and physical health challenges. We brought them here to Medford, had an incredible first game, and now 15 years later, a week from Sunday, we'll do it again for the final time for the Medford Invitational.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. I want that support of the group. Having one member of my family has been involved with the group for many years. And thank you and Charlie and the other people involved there to be there on the Sunday and see the amount of work you guys put in and characters and the games and everything that goes on with it. If you've never been before, try to come, it's a week from Sunday. Try to make it, say it's a fun day. If you'd like to help out, they're always looking for volunteers.
[Giovino]: And if I may, I just want to say that this group behind me is just a portion of the great volunteers. The families of the kids are amazing. Our city officials have been very supportive, both in Medford and in Malden. We couldn't do it without the business community who have given us such great financial backing. So we're very proud to have done this. It's a great community event. I'm pleased that I get to be at least part of this. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: You guys have done a great job over the years. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm sorry to see that you're gonna end it. And hopefully the group, If that takes everything, we'll do just as good a job.
[Marks]: Councilor Marks. Mr. President, maybe if Ron could just mention who's here with him today.
[Giovino]: Yeah, I will. I don't know if you wanna stand up, but the great Patty Falasca, who... President of the Billy Falasca Foundation, her grandson, little Billy. Diane Butler. Amel Techi Bariola.
[Unidentified]: Talk into the mic, talk into the mic.
[Giovino]: Kevin Chin, Tommy Russo, and our CFO and partner in crime and co-founder, Charlie Chimpaya.
[Marks]: That's it, Charlie. Thank you, Mr. President. When you look at 1996, it's amazing what a bunch of volunteers did in our community. To last 25 years and to go as strong as they did over 25 years is a true credit to all the volunteers that stuck it out this long. I know there were some real lean and hard times during this whole process. For sure. You've, not only you, but everyone else here have been a stalwart in making this a real success and benefiting many aspects of our community. And I think that's what goes a long way with me. When you went to the challenger days and saw the smiles and the people that you touched, truly it's an amazing story. and one that I'm not gonna forget. Since I've been in office right around the same number of years, your group has been synonymous with community involvement. and from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of all the residents of this community, I wanna thank you and all the volunteers here. It's great to see such familiar faces and truly thank you and hopefully the next endeavor you come up with, which I'm sure you're working on right now, right, Ron? I'll take that as a yes. I wanna be part of that as well. I appreciate all your efforts. Thank you, thank you.
[Scarpelli]: Now, I'm fortunate enough to know the gentleman at the podium, it's someone that I idolized growing up across the street, probably hit the farthest half ball home runs I've ever seen in life. So some people looking, what is half ball? But this is what, you know, we talked about the last year and how difficult the last, really the last year has been in really society. And I think that, you know, we talk about, you know, the division in our community and At that time, if you remember back then, Medford's baseball was sort of what the city was about today. And there wasn't anybody really bringing that together. And I think Ronnie and your team really stood up and kind of put baseball back on the map in Medford. I remember as a young man watching this happen and saying, wow, I would love to be part of that. And you could hear the kids that I would teach, they would be so proud to be in that tournament. And then to move it to the next level where you see where it really pays dividends and shows where the kids that needed it the most found something and reaching out to challenge it and having families, the Alaskans and the Butler's for some that have been supporting it for years and doing great things in our community. And it's been a sad, it's been a sad couple of months here. You know, you're hearing these different, all these different changes in Medford. And for someone who grew up with these great changes, I'm excited to see what the next step will be. But when you see the moving on of a Michael Mox or the end of an era and challenger and the MIT and see what you guys have done, I want you to realize there's a reason why people want to move to Medford. And it's people like yourself, Ron, and your team that made Medford the city that everybody loves and wants to be part of. So I'm proud of that. I'm proud to be your friend. And I thank you for everything you've done. And I can't wait for Sunday's event and support you guys again. And those people that don't know the reason why I leave, I have a sweating problem. So I don't know what it is lately. It's like 90 degrees and humid and we have our, and you know, I try to, I've been pawning my kids off now. Hey, we're going to volunteer. And then I try to hide behind a tree. So, but I just got to tell you, again, thank you for everything you do and we're definitely going to miss this.
[Falco]: So thanks. Thank you, Mr. President. I also want to thank Ron and Charlie and all the volunteers that are here tonight. I know a lot of time, effort, dedication, and commitment go into this on a yearly basis. And to be doing this for 25 years, year after year, that's a long time. But as you, as Councilor Scarpelli mentioned, and Councilor Marks, this has been a successful tournament year after year after year. And it's something that you hear throughout the community. Thank you so much for all your time, your commitment to the tournament, to the youth of our community. I can't thank you enough. And I just want to say thank you for your years of service and commitment to our community.
[Unidentified]: That's what we're up.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to echo what my fellow Councilors are saying. And thank you, Ron and the whole team for the tremendous amount of volunteer hours you've put in over 25 years. Like my fellow Councilors, I'm someone who benefited from youth sports, but those things don't happen on their own. Someone has to put that together, hold it together for as long as you all have. So I thank you for the tremendous effort, just this great community offering, and really just this offering, this inclusive offering to our young athletes in Medford. So thank you and congratulations on 25 years of great work.
[Bears]: And what's the best. I mean, I don't think I could say it any better than that. The folks have been so involved for a long time. I was only three years old when he started. So, I know a lot of my friends who played baseball and then friends were involved in the community. I've been a part of the event over the years and I've really appreciated it. I'm especially grateful that the Challenger Day will be continuing. I think that's really important. So thank you for your work. Thank you all who are here for your work. And hopefully your next endeavor will be as successful as this one.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. And again, for those who haven't had a chance to look them down, see the special needs kids. I mean, they have characters, and every year, the fire trucks, and I know the Batmobile was down there one year, and everybody pictures a great day. I remember one year, Ron had me cook about 800 hot dogs. He puts me on this table, this grill's about eight foot long. By the time you turned it, you had to walk back to it again. But again, thank you, thank you for all you've done for the special needs children. And again, please try to come out on Sunday, next Sunday and help them out. And just, you know, let's go to the chalkboard. The mic's not on, Ron.
[Giovino]: Thank you. This is for our VIPs. We have opening ceremonies that start at one, and we have closing ceremonies this year that start at three. So you're welcome to join us at any point. Really like to see you all there.
[Bears]: Thank you.
[Giovino]: Just for the benefit of the viewing public, this is Sunday the 29th? Sunday the 29th at Bruce Field, right in front of Irish American in Malden. And we go inside after the game and have a nice little lunch and presentation. We'd love you to just stop by and say hi.
[Caraviello]: Thank you again. Thank you and your team for all the work that you do. Thank you. While we're on the suspension, Councilor Scapi, can you make the motion on this? I can't make the motion.
[Scarpelli]: Is that a motion? No, congratulations. Yeah, right. So make the motion that under special rules, we have a presentation from Councilor Falco to Eagle Scout. No, we need to vote on this one first.
[Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Scalia to congratulate and seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor. All opposed, motion passes. While we're on suspension, 2-1, 5-1-3 offered by Councilor Falco, be it resolved that the Medford City Council congratulate Desmond Lambert on earning the rank of Eagle Scout. Desmond, where are you? Get up here, come on.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, hi, my name is Desmond Lambert. I live at 330 Baldwin Street.
[Falco]: You didn't have to do that, but thank you very much. That was it.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hey, I feel like the last procedure.
[Falco]: We like that. That's perfect.
[Hurtubise]: The clerk appreciates it.
[Scarpelli]: He's a little slow today.
[Falco]: I'd like to begin by thanking Desmond Lambert for being here tonight and congratulating him on earning the rank of Eagle Scout. This never gets tired. We have celebrated, we've had a lot of Eagle Scouts in our community that have come through Troop 416, and a big congratulations to Desmond, and also a big thank you to his parents, Tim and Julie Lambert in the back. was at the ceremony last night, and it was described as a journey scouting. And it has taken many years, not just for Desmond, but for everyone that begins in scouting and sees it through to the end. And I've had the the pleasure of knowing Desmond for probably about 16 years now. So I remember when he was just a kid and here he is a young man, he's made it through to the rank of Eagle Scout and he's done a fabulous job. He's someone that is a really, really, I'm really proud of everything that he's done and he's come a long way. And tonight we're going to be presenting him with the council accommodation from the Medford City Council. The Medford City Council takes pleasure in awarding this council commendation to Desmond Lambert. Congratulations on being elevated to Eagle Scout. The realization of this outstanding achievement will undoubtedly lead to success in accomplishments throughout your life. Respectfully offered by John C. Falco Jr.' 's Medford City Council.
[Scarpelli]: Come on up, Desmond. Thank you very much. Mr. President, if we can.
[Falco]: Yes.
[Scarpelli]: Well, Desmond's making his way up there. I think that it's important that I think everybody here really celebrates Desmond's achievements. I think that, you know, first, I've been given the honor in the past to present an Eagle Scout, and I think that was one of my biggest honors, because you realize how amazing and how important and What an honor this is the great people that have done that. So, and I know Chris Murphy comes out every year, every time there's an Eagle Scout presented as a fellow Eagle Scout he's here to present so here to show his respect. So again, with your family and in the whole team behind you. I know the work that has to be done to do that. And I know Desmond understands the greatness that is upon you now. You know, president, vice president, something big is gonna happen, Desmond. Just don't forget Medford. So thank you.
[Marks]: Mr. President, also, if we can get a commitment that Desmond is not going to run for local public office. What do you have to worry about? A true politician. Desmond, if you could just relay, we've had other recipients come before us, and I know a big part of becoming an Eagle Scout are the many adventures that you go on, but also the community service part of it. And what project you've done to obtain the community service aspect.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, so my Eagle Scout project was I built a, like a big bench at the Medford dog park. The more recent one at the middle schools. And yeah, it served a couple purposes provided more seating, of course, but protected the tree that the dogs are getting at. And yeah, I'd say that was a really cool project. But like, in terms of the community service aspect, like the thing that's going to stick with me is the Veterans Day dinners that the scouts would put on every year. And those, you know, we've been doing it for many years now. And it's something that we really take pride in. It comes up every year. And, and Having that commitment, it shows a lot, but it also teaches the right practices. I think that is something I'd like to highlight a little bit more.
[Marks]: That's excellent. And every Eagle Scout that we've spoken with always states that it wasn't just solely their effort. It was other people that helped them along the way. And I know you have a few people with you today.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes, yes, of course. I'd like to shout out my parents as well, Julie and Tim Lambert. It really is a group effort and you can't say it's all one person, but it was everything that all the volunteers put in and all the scouts around you, how they contribute to your journey as well. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the Eagle Scouts before me that that pushed me to, you know, achieve this goal. And, you know, I owe a lot to them as well. That's great.
[Marks]: Well, you're truly a fine young gentleman. I look for great things from you in the future. And I'd also like to thank your parents that are here tonight for their involvement. And I also would like to thank Councilor Falco, who since I've been on the council with them, I think has recognized a number of Eagle Scouts. And I think he holds that great responsibility. obtaining of that badge as a real high honor. And I want to thank him as well and congratulate you. Thank you.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Thank you for earning your Eagle Scout. I think there's something in the water in Medford that I think, I don't know, since I've been here 10 years, an awful lot of Eagle Scouts have come through. I don't know if Medford has a record or something, but I want to thank you. You did say something which was good, how you enjoy doing the community service and how it feels good to do something for somebody, especially with the veterans. It's a great project you guys got behind. There's nothing better than the feeling of helping somebody. And again, I want to thank you and your family for everything you did. And again, congratulations on whatever you, You moving, are you going to college? Are you going anywhere?
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I'm going to Bunker Hill right now. So I'm, you know, don't really know what exactly I'm gonna pursue, but it's one of those things that why go into a lot of debt? So yeah, just buy myself a little more time and I don't know. getting through this pandemic.
[Caraviello]: Good for you. Just keep on doing what you're doing. You're doing a good job. Congratulations. Thank you very much.
[Morell]: Thank you, President Caraviello. Thank you, Councilor Fabio, and thank you for bringing this forward. Congratulations, Desmond. As someone who dropped out of the Brownies after about one year, the level of dedication and commitment that it takes to get to the rank of Eagle Scout is just something that will serve you so well in your life, but already serves the city of Medford and will continue to serve us as long as you choose to stay here. So I just congratulate you on such an achievement and all of your hard work to get here. Thank you.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. Congratulations. I was lucky enough to have a couple of friends at Medford High School who also became Eagle Scouts. And I think at some point I was in, you know, 10 years ago or so I was back in this audience congratulating them. So I know what kind of accomplishment it is. And I think your, your attitude is right on about about community service as well. And all I can say about Bunker Hill, I think that's a smart choice. And if you do two years there, and you do well, you can transfer to a public university, know what you wanna do, get out in four, and get a good degree. So I like that. And if you have any questions about that whole process, I've been involved with it for a few years now. So my contact information is on the website.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. And to answer your question, Councilor Marks, Councilor Caraviello, The past 10 years, there have been 17 Eagle Scouts that have come from Troop 416, which is a remarkable achievement for Troop 416, for their commitment and dedication to the community and to the Scouts. And once again, like we said before, it's a journey. It always takes a good support system. So thanks to mom and dad as well. And we wish you well. Good luck. And congratulations.
[Marks]: We take a picture, Mr. President?
[Falco]: Absolutely. Let's do that.
[Unidentified]: Thank you, Mr. President.
[Falco]: Mr. President, I'd like to move approval on that motion.
[Caraviello]: All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Motion to be brought back to regular business.
[Marks]: Mr. President, can we take the elections paper? Okay. While we're under suspension.
[Caraviello]: Um, 21489 offered by Councilor Marks. City of Medford call for a preliminary election Tuesday, September 14th, 2021. be it ordered that in accordance with the provisions of the general laws of Massachusetts and the revised charter of the city of Medford insofar as the latter is applicable, the city clerk be and he is hereby authorized and instructed to notify and warn such of the inhabitants of the city of Medford qualified to vote and as the law requires to assemble at the several polling places as designated in this order and within several precincts where they are duly registered voters on Tuesday, September 14, 2020. Then and there to give their ballots for the nomination of respectively. six members of the Method School Committee to serve for a period of two years from the first Monday in January 2022 to be elected by and from the qualified voters of the city at large, and one mayor of the city of Medford to serve for a period of two years from the first Monday in January 2022 to be elected from the qualified voters of the city at large. We have further resolved that the following main polling places be be and they are hereby designated to be used at the preliminary municipal election to be held on Tuesday, September 14, 2021. The said polling places are to be open from 7 a.m. to 8 o'clock p.m. Boarding precincts, Ward 1, Precinct 1, Andrews Middle School, 3000 Mystic Valley Parkway, Ward 1, Precinct 2, Firefighters Club, 340 Salem Street, Ward 2, Precinct 1, Roberts Elementary School, 35 Court Street, Ward 2, Precinct 2, Roberts Elementary School, 35 Court Street. Ward 3, Precinct 1, American Legion, 321 Winthrop Street. Ward 3, Precinct 2, Temple Shalom, 475 Winthrop Street. Ward 4, Precinct 1, Tufts University, Cousins Gym Entrance, 161 College Ave. Ward 4, Precinct 2, Walking Court, Auburn and North Street, Fondacaro Center. Ward 5, Precinct 1, Missotuck Elementary School, formerly, former Columbus Elementary School, 37 Hicks Ave. Ward 5, Precinct 2, Missotuck Elementary School, former Columbus Elementary School, 37 Hicks Ave. Ward 6, Precinct 1, West Medford Fire Station, 26 Harvard Avenue. Ward 6, Precinct 2, Brooks School, 388 High Street. Ward 7, Precinct 1, Mystic Valley Towers, North Building Entrance. Ward 7, Precinct 2, McGlynn K-8 Public School, 3004 Mystic Valley Parkway. Ward 8, Precinct 1, Senior Center, 101 Riverside Avenue. Ward 8, Precinct 2, South Medford Fire Station, 0 Medford Street. Because of an insufficient number of candidates for the nomination of the Office of City Council. That office will not be part of the September preliminary election. Just the offices of school committee member and mayor. All three offices will appear on the November ballot. Councilor Locks. Mr. President.
[Marks]: I defer, Mr. President.
[Falco]: Councilor Falco. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor Marks. She had a question regarding Ward 2, Precinct 2. I know that will be moving voting usually takes place at St. Francis Parish. I'm sorry, 2-1, I apologize, I'm looking at the wrong page. 2-1, usually occurs at St. Francis Parish and now it's at the Roberts. I believe you had mentioned earlier that there's going to be a mailing going out to the residents of that change. Do you know what dates those mailings will be going out?
[Hurtubise]: Should be going out either late this week or the beginning of next week.
[Caraviello]: Can you give me the name and address of the record, please?
[Gale]: George P. Hassett Drive. I'm currently the acting city election coordinator. To the best of my knowledge, those postcards went out today.
[Falco]: They went out today, okay. Yes. Is it just one round of postcards? Are there going to be multiple mailings?
[Gale]: One round of postcards for this election and three robocalls. Is that correct, Mr. Clerk?
[Hurtubise]: It's one round of postcards for this election.
[Falco]: One round of postcards and two robocalls.
[Hurtubise]: Correct.
[Falco]: Per election.
[Bears]: Mr. Clerk, just FYI, there's something going on with your microphone.
[Hurtubise]: Yeah, I can't get it to turn on. Thank you very much. I can't get it to turn on, Councilor Bearce.
[Bears]: I just want to make sure you can see, because I saw you went to press it.
[Caraviello]: Motion for approval, Mr. President. On the motion by Councilor Marks, seconded by? Seconded by Councilor Scarpelli.
[Bears]: Roll call.
[Caraviello]: Roll call vote has been requested. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears? Yes. Councilor Falco? Yes. Vice President is absent. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell?
[Caraviello]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Caraviello?
[Caraviello]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. Motion passes.
[Marks]: Mr. President. Councilor Marks. While we're in suspension, we take paper 21-508 communications from city offices and employees.
[Caraviello]: 21-508. Okay. Communications from city offices employees, 21-508. To President Caraviello and members of Medford City Council, registered voters at Inverter Beach Clerk, early in mail voting, date August 12th, 2021. On July 29, Governor Baker signed Chapter 29 of the Acts of 2021 among the items that the legislation extends early voting by mail for all elections through December 15 of this year. The legislation also allows the City Council to designate in-person early voting for any election upon request or recommendation of the local election official. Within the parameters of the legislation, I am requesting and recommending four days of in-person early voting leading into the preliminary municipal election on September 14th. And I am requesting and recommending five days of in-person early voting leading into the municipal election on November 2nd. For the preliminary municipal election on September 14th, I am requesting and recommending that you designate the following four days and times for in-person early voting. Tuesday, September 7th, 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., normal city hall business hours. Wednesday, September 8th, 8.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m., normal city hall business hours. Thursday, September 9th, 8.30 a.m. 4.30 p.m. normal city hall business hours. Friday, September 10th, 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. normal city hall business hours. All in-person early voting would occur as with past practice in the city council chambers. For the municipal election on November 2, I am requesting and recommending that you designate the following five days in time for in-person early voting again in the city Council Chambers. Saturday, October 23rd, nine o'clock a.m. to five o'clock p.m. Saturday voting. Monday, October 25th, 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Normal City Hall Business Hours. Tuesday, October 26th, 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Normal City Hall Business Hours. Wednesday, October 27th, 8.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m., normal city hall business hours. Thursday, October 28th, 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., normal city hall business hours. For both elections, in-person early voting can begin not less than 10 days before the election and must end no later than the business day before the business day preceding the election. Thank you very much for your consideration of these requests and recommendations. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Absolutely wrong.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. I just have a question for the clerk for the chair for the note about for both elections in person. Early voting can begin not less than 10 days before the election. Um, this it seems for the September election. That's it's in a smaller window of time. Is that because of the Labor Day holiday? There's like special exception for that.
[Hurtubise]: That is that is correct. Councilor can begin not less than that, because and with Labor Day weekend, uh, right, we wouldn't want to do the voting on a holiday weekend, right? So that is that is correct.
[Morell]: Okay, thank you.
[Hurtubise]: Any further discussion? Mr. President?
[Marks]: Councilor Marks? We happen to have Sandy Gale that's here, who's the acting elections coordinator. So I was wondering if she could step to the podium, just basically tell this council the need for early voting in this community and her staffing levels. And I want to make sure that we administratively are able to pull this off, Mr. President. in a very important city election.
[Gale]: Mr. President, Councilor Marks through the chair. Um, I think that early voting is is a very important aspect of elections. However, given The preliminary election, it's my opinion that I don't believe we need four days. I think in initial talks with the clerk, we were ready to jump on board. For the full four days, I think five days would have been absolutely impossible. But I think we could achieve the same goal if we drop that to two days, which would be Wednesday, the 8th, and Thursday the 9th. We still would have over-the-counter voting, going on in the clerk's office for that Friday and the Tuesday. So people that vote absentee and are accustomed to voting in that office for preliminary elections, they still would have that opportunity to do so. That also would reduce budgetary costs for early voting because I do have to have a minimum of probably eight staff, including myself. I have the staff. That's not a problem. But to reduce on a preliminary election some cost, it probably would be a worthy idea.
[Marks]: So through you, Mr. President. So, Sandy, the coverage of the poll that's gonna be here at City Hall. Is that done with existing city employees or of these poll workers that would come in?
[Gale]: Mr. President, Councilor Marks, it would be done with existing election workers that have done early voting last year all the way since 2016. It's been an ongoing training process for that early voting. Initially when we started in 2016, everything was on paper. Now we are lucky enough to have poll pads that we use that we can look voters up. There's a barcode so that when we process those ballots downstairs in the registrar voters office after voting has closed, we scan the barcode and it automatically takes that person out of the system. so they can't come and try to vote early again. So it's an ongoing evolving process.
[Marks]: So just so I understand, it's not done with existing registrar voters employees.
[Gale]: It is at night. At night, okay. When voting is all done for the day. So the process is you come in, you check in through the poll pad, you are given an affirmation envelope or what we call an EV7. You're affirming on that envelope that you are the registered voter that is listed in the rolls. You sign the envelope, put your address, print your name. You are then sent back to a table. And since we all get the same ballot, this time around, there's no confusion about ballots and things like that. So everybody for the preliminary will get exactly the same ballot. They get their ballot, go to the booth, fold it up, put it in the envelope, and then they drop it in the ballot box on their way out the door. We close the gap after voting is over for the day when myself or the clerk, with a police escort, take those ballots downstairs to the Registrar of Voters Office, and we open the VRIS system, which is our state voter registration information system. and we scan each one of those barcodes. And that generates a list. The difference with the preliminary this time is the plan is to send them out to the precincts to be tabulated on election day. So they would be handled like absentee ballots. And they would go with a checklist that would be created by us.
[Marks]: And my other question, I did read through Chapter 29 of the Acts of 2021.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Marks]: And I thought I read and correct me if I'm wrong, there's language in there for people that are unable to attend the in-person voting that would allow the registrar voters office to actually go out to homes and have people vote by ballot.
[Gale]: Is that correct? That is correct. We've always offered that service in Medford. It depends on I'm last year. It was a little, um, a little more dicey because of Cove it and being in the midst of a pandemic, we had to get a little more creative, like putting things in baggies or having the police drive or something like that. But we've always offered that service, and I personally have done it myself for someone that had a disabled child that could not get to the polls. And I took the ballot out and allowed her to vote. And I do believe that the Board of Registrars also has done that in the past.
[Marks]: And does that need to happen in conjunction with the days that we approve? Or does that happen right up until the election?
[Gale]: I think that happens right up until the election and including election day. Because you don't ever know what type of emergency situation. And you certainly don't want to turn a voter away because someone can't get out there. That's one of the reasons why we have registrars and people who are equipped to do that.
[Marks]: And that's great, and I think part of offering this is also notifying the public that it exists. Because when I read the acts, I wasn't familiar with some of it myself, and I've been around for a while. So I think part of the outreach that will be done between now and the plenary and the general election should include that outreach, what options people have available. So I'd ask that that be done. Have you had the opportunity to put a monetary value on what it's gonna cost the city to provide each day with having election employees as well as I would assume you'd need a police officer present for the time and any other associated costs with allowing the in-person voting?
[Gale]: A rough guesstimate is it probably would cost roughly it's gonna cost about between 750 and 800. Does that sound fair, Mr. Clerk?
[Hurtubise]: That's ballpark.
[Marks]: Yeah, that's ballpark. And that would be based on the number of days that you offered the full for the preliminary?
[Gale]: No, that's for both days. That's for two days of early voting. So it's roughly about $400 a day.
[Marks]: So that's for two days of early voting. Based on what you're telling me, I feel very comfortable, especially knowing the preliminary election in this community typically has a real low turnout. And I think having the early voting in person voting for four days sounds kind of excessive. Friday to me is kind of a lost day because Friday City Hall closes at 1230. So you're really only getting four hours on a Friday. I much prefer having the extended hours on the Wednesday. for those that may be working and can't make it during the day. So I would support and put it in the form of a motion, Mr. President, that we have the early in-person voting for the preliminary on Wednesday, September 8th, from 8.30 to 7.30 p.m. That's normal business hours. And Thursday, September 9th, from 8.30 to 4.30, and that's for the preliminary. and Wednesday, October 27th, 8.30 to 7.30, and Thursday, October 28th, 8.30 to 4.30. From my tabulations, that's 19 hours of additional in-person options that people have in addition to mail-in ballots and so forth and other options that they may have, Mr. President, for voting. So I would offer that in the form of a motion, Mr. President.
[Gale]: Point of information, Mr. President. What are the information for your early voting in October, which is for your general election in November? The one thing that you want to do is definitely capture at least one weekend day so that those folks who work a regular job. I do think that in the October early voting for the general election, you do need to offer all five days. That's my opinion and based on looking at what the numbers were for early voting last year, we have a much higher turnout. And without really knowing where we're going to be as far as community health concerns in regards to the Delta variant in Medford, the controlled environment that we have here with help from DPW who comes in and fogs for us every two hours, it's probably a little bit more important for the general to have that five days.
[Marks]: I just don't know why this would be any more controlled than any other poll. Don't we follow the same standards?
[Gale]: Yes and no. I don't anticipate having sanitizers and spacers in the precincts unless something develops in the next several weeks. that the governor reissues a mask mandate or reissues closings. So I didn't anticipate having sanitizers and spacers as I did last November. So the staff in a polling location has changed even from March of last year. We had a warden and a clerk, two check-in inspectors, and two check-out inspectors. Under these acts, we have eliminated the checkout inspectors, which has worked much better.
[Marks]: So at this point, Mr. President, I'll listen to what my colleagues have to say. I will withdraw the motion I put forth for the general election and listen to my colleagues. I do want to say, Mr. President, that it's vital that we have an election coordinator in position which this council has been pushing for for several years now. And Sandy Gill has been our election coordinator for all intents and purposes for a couple of decades now in the community, Mr. President. As we found out, Sandy is acting and the administration's working on apparently uh, posting the position and so forth. But we also heard from the city administration less than an hour ago that they like to get people into acting roles and then push them into the role, Mr. President. And here we have someone that's been acting, doing the job, a very capable person. That's another thing we heard from the city administration, that they wanna make sure if they are gonna put someone in an acting role, they're capable, and then also have the ability to do the job. And here we have someone that's capable doing the job. I don't know what the hangup is, but in my opinion, 26 years elected in this city, Mr. President, the integrity of our election process is of the utmost importance. And if people lose confidence in how we run an election, Mr. President, I don't want to be around for that. So I think it's important that we have a coordinator, the council recognize that, while waiting for the city administration to follow through. And it's vital, Mr. President, we have someone in that role. I appreciate Sandy's and the acting role, and I think it's about time the city administration gets off their duff and does something, Mr. President, in order to maintain of the integrity and security of our elections. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Raul.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. I understand the rationale of Councilor Marks' motion, as well as what Ms. Gail is sharing. I personally don't feel comfortable cutting the days for early voting for the preliminary. I would support the original four days that were recommended. And that's just, as an elected official, I don't feel comfortable limiting the days. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. Through you to Coordinator Gale, my first question is on the mail-in voting. Are we or is the Secretary of State's office going to be sending a postcard out to let people know that they can apply for a mail ballot?
[Gale]: At this time, I'm sorry, through the Chair, Councilor Bears, at this time, the only advertisement is the Secretary of State making infomercials or having on their website that you can vote by mail. There is a link. I did work with Ms. Peeks like a week and a half ago on putting some information up on our Medford website where you could click the link, download the application. It's very important that when voters download that application, that they don't type their name in, they have to sign it, physically sign it, or we will be returning it, the application will be rejected. We did run into some of that last year. The mail-in is an evolving process. We are learning. Last year, it was done on a scale that had never been done before. But by November, we were perfect. So we've learned and made notes, and we have the plan. It's just getting the information out there, which also brings me to, the clerk and I have already ordered a large banner to hang, reminding people that September the 14th is preliminary election day. We have lawn signs to go throughout the city and two larger signs that are gonna be put on frames in the front lawn to get voter awareness out there. But as of right now, in my last account from the state, which was earlier today, no, they are not sending out any postcards. But it is important for voters to know on this platform that if you're applying for a mail-in ballot for the preliminary election, that one application covers you for preliminary and general. So you only have to do it once.
[Bears]: That's helpful, yeah, and I have full confidence in the mail process and the votes being all of that. I think it's the question of do people know that it's still an option? So I'm glad to hear that there's gonna be some efforts made. I think for the, I guess my question, then I'll make my comment. How, is there a date, can I request a mail ballot today for these elections?
[Gale]: Through the chair, yes, Councilor Bears, you can. Okay. You can request one right up until, I believe it's the eighth, Mr. Clerk.
[Hurtubise]: I have to check the exact schedule. I think it's five days before the election. Five days before, I believe it is the eighth of September. It might be six days before the election. So that would be, yeah, it's the eighth of the ninth, but I think Sandy's right, I think it's the eighth.
[Bears]: All right, that's great. Yeah, and I would just maybe suggest, I know, It may incur a cost, maybe even a pretty significant cost, but letting voters know the options, maybe via a postcard or a robocall of some kind, I think would be helpful. Just because the law, I mean, it's right here. This came to us August 12th, the law was signed July 29th. There's kind of been some back and forth. There's some concerns that some options may not be available. So I do think just to make sure voters know all their options, that could be helpful.
[Hurtubise]: we can we council bears. We can request a we can request reverse 911 postcard would be, um, might be prohibitively prohibitively expensive on this one. Um, last year, as you'll recall, the Secretary of State's office, in other words, the Commonwealth covered the cost for all those postcards, which was a which is a very large cost. But I think we can definitely do some reverse 911 citywide alerting people to this. Um, part of the reason and we'd be more than happy to do that. Um, particularly if you act tonight on the early voting dates, because we can get all that we can get all that information out at once, and we could do it more than once.
[Bears]: Fantastic. And then on early voting, I personally I hear Council marks on the low turnout, but this is the first election I can remember in many, many years where we've had a preliminary election for the office of mayor. So I think that may significantly increase turnout from a preliminary elections in the past. So I personally would like to maintain the four days of early voting for the preliminary election. I know that I respect your view on it, and I understand that it would save about $1,000, but I just don't think we know what turnout might be and having three candidates is is unusual. Custom rope.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. Councilor Bears job. My memory. I've seen some people if I could for coordinator Gail through the chair. People voted absentee for the first time last November. They still need to request to vote absentee to vote mail in ballot again. Correct. They're not going to automatically get something.
[Gale]: Through the chair, Councilor Morell, yes. They need to request a new application for this year. And that application will cover them for the preliminary election and for the general November 2nd. So they only need to do it once and it stays checked in our file system. in VRIS so that we know, okay, they requested we have to mail this out. There have been no ballots mailed out as of this time because they were just ordered today.
[Morell]: Great, thank you, because I've seen that question posed in a number of places, and I just want to thank you and the clerk for doing the work on the banner and the signs. That's a request I've seen for a number of years, so I'm really excited to see those go out. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilor Falco.
[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President, and miss Gail, thank you so much for your presentation and the clerk as well. And we've been talking about advertising elections for a while, and it's it's great to see that this is occurring, and it's, you know, it's I said we're reaching out trying to engage people, and you know being part of the process of voting. I for one, I completely understand the rationale for. reducing the number of days, but for me, I like to see that this flexibility, so I would be in favor of keeping the four days in person early voting as stated here, the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th for the preliminary. That would be I think it's great that we have the flexibility, especially with concerns of COVID and whatnot. If someone's weary, they had the flexibility of coming over a multiple number of days. So I think four days is ideal, and I would be in favor of the four days. Thank you. Through the chair, thank you, Councilor Thompson.
[Caraviello]: Have we been in contact with the post office yet? I know last time we had some issues with the post office.
[Gale]: Mr. President, I do. I have a direct contact now at the post office when the issues began to arise. I went in person to the post office and I have a direct contact here and we've made an agreement how our in city mail will be handled, especially if it's ballots. So generally the track of mail in Medford is it goes to Forest Street, and then from Forest Street it goes into Boston, and from Boston it comes back out to Medford. So my contact at the Forest Street post office, as long as we keep it separated as to local mail and non-local mail, meaning non-Medford delivery, they will deliver immediately. I also have a postal connection that I made last year at the urging of the clerk to establish some groundwork with another gentleman at the post office in Boston. And he oversees all cities and towns in any mailing through the Secretary of State's office, and I have a very good rapport with both of them. So I don't anticipate that to be an issue at all. Thank you. You're welcome.
[Caraviello]: Any further discussion? Okay. Council Marks, you have a motion on the floor to have the yearly voting for just Wednesday and Thursday, correct?
[Marks]: Based on the recommendation of our elections coordinator for the preliminary, I withdrew my recommendations for the general election.
[Caraviello]: So, on the motion by Council Marks, As amended, seconded by, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: So I need some clarification. Are you voting on the two days of early voting for September and then all the additional days for October, or are they separate votes?
[Caraviello]: No, it's one vote.
[Falco]: So the motion is to reduce it to two?
[Caraviello]: The two days. For the preliminary. For the preliminary, for the Wednesday and the Thursday on the recommendation of the election coordinator.
[Hurtubise]: Yes.
[Unidentified]: Wait, wait, wait, what?
[Hurtubise]: I had a question about if it was severed or not, because I wanna, I don't know what, okay.
[Bears]: Are we voting?
[Caraviello]: The motion is by Councilor Marks. He supported the motion as amended. He's amending the motion to reduce the early voting in four days to two on the Wednesday and Thursday.
[Bears]: I would like to vote on the amendment first and then vote on the... Do you want to sever?
[Caraviello]: I don't... They asked me a motion to sever the vote. Wait a second, we're voting on the whole package at once.
[Bears]: Yeah, I would like to vote on the amendment proposed by Councilor Marks and then vote on the final paper, depending on... And then that version of the final paper will be determined on the vote of the amendment, if that makes sense.
[Caraviello]: I'm not opposed to that. Okay, so on the amendment, a motion by Councilor Markswell to reduce the days from four to two. Seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Falco]: So this is to reduce from four to two, for the preliminary.
[Caraviello]: For the preliminary.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears?
[Bears]: No.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Falco? No. Vice President Knight is absent. Councilor Marks?
[Marks]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Morell?
[Morell]: No.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Caraviello? Yes. It's a tie, we have a tie.
[Bears]: Motion fails.
[Hurtubise]: That generally means motion fails.
[Caraviello]: Motion fails.
[Hurtubise]: So does that mean that there's no early voting?
[Bears]: No, I'm now moving to approve.
[Caraviello]: There'll be four days now.
[Bears]: I move to approve.
[Hurtubise]: We gotta vote on it. Approve. That's what I'm trying to figure out.
[Bears]: Motion to approve all nine days of early voting, four for the preliminary, five for the general.
[Marks]: I'd ask that we sever that vote, Mr. President.
[Caraviello]: What do you want to sever out of that?
[Marks]: take them as two distinct votes, Mr. President.
[Caraviello]: Preliminary and the general election.
[Bears]: That's fine with me.
[Caraviello]: Okay, so on the motion by Councilor Bears to vote on the preliminary dates, seconded by, seconded by Councilor Morell. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. And this is for the dates of the preliminary only, the four dates.
[Marks]: Mr. President, if I could.
[Caraviello]: Council Max.
[Marks]: Just if I could, it was only roughly, I think less than a month ago that a member of this council offered a resolution to do away with the preliminary altogether. And here we have a preliminary that's gonna take place and now we're adding days, which I'm not opposed to, I'm opposed to that many days, but now we're adding days from going to eliminating the preliminary to adding days. I just think, you know, I don't know where we're going, Mr. President, you know, unless it's just, you know, on a whim that we go back and forth, but it doesn't make much sense to me.
[Bears]: If I may, Mr. President, I actually took a page from the book of Councilor Marks on that one. And my resolution was that the preliminary election be discussed. And I just wanted to feel out the room to see if there may be interest in not having a preliminary election. and clearly there was not. So we discussed it. We decided against it. I think if we're going to have the election, we should make it as flexible and open as possible. So that's my position, right?
[Marks]: But that wasn't the original intent. The original intent was to have a vote on it. And this council thought better because We didn't even have the full number of people that were gonna run. We didn't even know if we were gonna have a preliminary election.
[Bears]: We discussed it and decided it was a bad idea and I stand by it.
[Marks]: Right, right. But I don't know how we go from one extreme to another, but I guess everyone's entitled to their opinion, Mr. President. But my vote is based on the recommendation from our election coordinator that's been in this community for a number of years. And to think that because of the election in this preliminary, that there's gonna be some strange turnout I think is misguided, very misguided, Mr. President, but that's my own opinion. We shall see.
[Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Bears, seconded by Councilor Morell. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. And this is to approve the- To approve the four days of preliminary voting.
[Marks]: Councilor Bears. Just before you call, so if this happens to get voted down, Mr. President, in the spirit of cooperation, if this happens to get voted down, there will be no early, in voting at all for the poll. And so a three to three vote is eliminating it altogether. So rather than having four days or two days, we're gonna have zero days. So in the interest of negotiation, Mr. President, I just wanna put that out there. So no one's caught off guard because I know what I'm gonna do. I'd rather have 19 hours of in-person voting than zero.
[Bears]: But if I were to move to reconsider before the end of the meeting, would we be able to take up the vote again at this meeting?
[Marks]: No, because you're not on the prevailing side. You have to be on the prevailing side.
[Bears]: I may end up on the prevailing side.
[Marks]: I may or may not. Who knows? It's a risk. Let's go.
[Hurtubise]: Mr. Clerk, you saw the vote? The motion is for four days of early voting, September. Yes, that's correct. Councilor Bears? Yes. Councilor Falco? Yes. Vice President Nye is absent. Councilor Marks? No. Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: President Caraviello? No.
[Caraviello]: Four in the affirmative, two in the negative. Motion passes. On the dates for The municipal election. On the date for the municipal election, do I have a motion?
[Bears]: Motion to approve.
[Caraviello]: Motion to approve the dates for the municipal election of five days. Seconded by, seconded by Councilor Morell, Mr. Clerk please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Council Bears. Yes. Councilor Falco. Yes. Vice President Knight is absent. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Morell.
[Caraviello]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. Motion passes. Thank you, Senator.
[Marks]: Motion to refer back to the regular audit business, Mr. President.
[Caraviello]: Motion by Councilor Marks to report back to the regular audit business. Thank you. Seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor. Aye. Motion passes. All right. We're back here. All right. Hearings. 21-190, legal notice, City of Medford, Medford City Council, Chapter 94 zoning. Medford City Council shall conduct a continued public hearing on Tuesday, August 17th at 2,021, 7 o'clock p.m. via Zoom remote video cursor relative to a petition by Mayor Brianne O'Connor to amend Chapter 94 zoning of revised ordinances. of appeals, from three members and one associate, to five members and two associate members. The full text of the amendment may be viewed at the Office of the City Clerk, Medford City Hall, Room 103, or on the city's website at www.memphis.org, departments slash community. based development backslash by clicking on the current CD on board the filings. A Zoom link for this meeting will be posted no later in August 13th, 2021. All right, so this is for something that, Mr. Clark? I believe so, let me just take a look. This is to expand the board. Do we have any discussion on this? So we have a communication from the, from Andrea LaRue, Chair, in regards to Council Paper 2190, proposed amendment to revise zoning onto the City of Bedford, Chapter 94, Zoning, Section 94-35A, to change member structure of the Bedford Zoning Board of Appeals. Following a duly advertised public hearing conducted on July 21, 2021, the Community Development Board voted to recommend that the Medford City Council adopt the proposed amendment to change the structure of the Medford Zoning Board of Appeals from three members and one associate to five members and two associate members. The board recommends that the council consider reincorporating language related to staggering terms that is present in the existing ordinance by inserting the following second sentence after the phrase, term of three years, which shall be staggered so that terms of not more than two members expire annually. Thank you for your consideration of this recommendation, Andre LaRue, Chair. Do we have any discussion on this? Okay, no, do we have a motion on the floor?
[Bears]: Just to clarify, the CD board wants us to amend this to make sure the terms are staggered?
[Caraviello]: It says they want to insert the following in the sentence after the phrase term of three years, which will be staggered so the terms of not more than two members expire annually. Okay. Okay? So, do we have any discussion? No, we have a motion. Motion to accept. On the motion by Councilor Scarpelli to accept, seconded by? Second. Seconded by?
[SPEAKER_22]: It's a motion to accept.
[Caraviello]: Councilor Bears, Councilor Morell.
[SPEAKER_22]: It's a motion to accept the suggested language. Okay.
[Caraviello]: The language by the CD board chair.
[Scarpelli]: Yes, and having a mass exodus with our board would be devastating, so I'd support this, thank you.
[Hurtubise]: I'm unclear whether this vote is gonna approve the whole amendment or is it just gonna accept the recommendation?
[Caraviello]: It'll accept the recommendation of the whole.
[Hurtubise]: Do we have a second vote?
[Caraviello]: Yes. So, first vote is to accept the recommendation of the board. Motion was made by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Bears. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll on this.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears? Yes. Councilor Falco? Yes. Vice President Knight is absent. Councilor Martins? Yes. Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Vice President Caraviello?
[Caraviello]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. Motion passes. On the original On the original paper, 21-190, do we have a motion on the floor? Motion to approve. So you're approving with the new language?
[Bears]: As amended.
[Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Bears, seconded by? Second. Seconded by Councilor Morell. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears?
[Caraviello]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Falco? Yes. Vice President Knight? is absent, Councilor Marks?
[Caraviello]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Caraviello?
[Bears]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent, motion passes. Mr. President, motion to suspend the rules to take paper 21-509.
[Caraviello]: Motion by Councilor Bears to suspend the rules, seconded by Councilor Morell.
[Bears]: All those in favor?
[Caraviello]: Motion passes. Councilor Bears, what was that?
[Bears]: It's the petition, the license.
[Caraviello]: Laundromat? If they're not here, I just. 21509, petitions, presentations, and similar papers. 21509, petition for a cleaning and dining license by Camilla Dinamaca in Glendalewood, Chin, 19 Lewis Street, Everett, Mass, 02149, in 119 Skyline Drive, Daly City, California, for GNC LLC doing business as a laundromat, 281 Boston Ave, Method Mass. Do we have anyone here? I thought I saw, I see Gwendolyn Chin here. Good evening, sir. If we can unmute Mr. Chin. Just one second, sir.
[SPEAKER_24]: Hi everyone, sorry about that. I couldn't unmute myself.
[Caraviello]: Good evening, sir. Name and address of the record, please.
[SPEAKER_24]: Evening. Sorry, it's on my paperwork. It is 281 Boston, Medford, Massachusetts.
[Caraviello]: And your name is?
[SPEAKER_24]: Gilwood Chen.
[Caraviello]: Gilwood Chen. Okay. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli is the licensing chairman. Yeah.
[Scarpelli]: Scarpelli. Thank you, Mr. President, but maybe Mr. Chen can... We're asking for your name and address.
[SPEAKER_24]: Oh, I'm sorry. My current address where I live is 1119 Skyline Drive, Daly City, California, 94015. And my name is Gilwood Chen. Camilla is currently busier at the moment, so she couldn't fill in on the council meeting.
[Scarpelli]: Okay, so a couple of few questions. I know that now this is just changing over from one. Yes. The other correct. I know the word when it comes. Yes, correct. I think that's just just the term that we use cleaning dying. Yeah. You know, yeah. The biggest, you know, in this area is what's happened in years of water so people may see dying, but just to be sure this is just a legal form a formality for cleaning and laundry.
[SPEAKER_24]: Sorry, excuse me.
[Scarpelli]: How many employees do you have? How many employees we have?
[SPEAKER_24]: It's just me and Camilla, we're co-owners, and it's just a straight laundromat, there's no dry cleaning, there's no other special chemicals that we're using, just detergent and soap.
[Scarpelli]: All right, and your hours of operations?
[SPEAKER_24]: Six to 11.
[Scarpelli]: Six to 11, okay.
[SPEAKER_24]: 6 a.m.
[Scarpelli]: to 11 p.m., sorry. Great. And so, I know the service is a lot of the college, Tufts University. Exactly. Yes. Okay, I know that the business there was good, respectful and there were no issues. I know that moving forward, we see everything in order. I don't see anything holding this petition up. I just wait for my colleagues if they have any questions.
[Caraviello]: Do we have any further discussion on the license for hearing and seeing none? I move to accept this move forward. On the motion by Licensed and Chairman, Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by? Seconded by Councilor Morell. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, sir. Good luck, Mr. Chairman.
[SPEAKER_24]: Thank you very much, guys. Appreciate it.
[Scarpelli]: We're up to regular order of business, Mr. President.
[Caraviello]: Motion to revert back to regular order of business by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Bears. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. 2-1, 4-2-2, petition for a grant of location, 257 Spring Street Citizen Bank, doing business as ADA upgrades. You are hereby notified that by order of the Medford City Council, a continued public hearing will be given by a Zoom and in-person in Howard F. Alden Memorial Chambers on the second floor of Medford City Council, 85 George B. Assett Drive, at seven o'clock on Tuesday, August 17th, 2020, a link posted no later than Friday, August 13th, 2021, on a petition of LR Construction, Inc., on behalf of the Citizens Bank, for permission to construct the proposed ADA upgrades at 257 Spring Street, Citizens Bank. Proposed plans have been filed in the office of the city clerk. Wherefore, it prays that after the due notice and hearing, by law, they'd be granted permission to complete the project in accordance with the plans available for inspection in the office of the City Clerk of the City Hall room 103 George Piazza Drive, FMS 02155. The entire scope of this project includes ABA upgrades of three locations. front ATM vestibule and lobby, rear parking lot, and the front entrance along Spring Street. The work at the front entrance includes modifying city sidewalks. The scope of the work at the front entrance is as follows. Demo existing sidewalks in three sections along the building, 108 square feet, install a new ADA compliant landing and ramp, install a new EDA compliant handrail around landing along the ramp. Approved city engineer with the following conditions, recommendations. One, the engineering division provided a suggested process to assist the city council in our October 21, 2020 memo. As indicated in that process, if approved by the city council, the petitioner would be required to draft a proposed licensing agreement in coordination with the legal department and engineering division. The engineering division recommends that the city council determine if this process is adequate and reasonable pursuant to section 74-63 of the city ordinances. Two, the engineering division recommends that existing encroachments be allowed to remain so situated for as long as they remain in good condition. If they fall into disrepair or poor conditions, the city will revoke the license. The existing encroachments will include a metal fire escape, building cornices, and signs attached to the building three. The easement plan indicates an easement area that extends beyond the existing projections into the public way, the engineering division. takes no exception to this approach. However, the license agreement should indicate that no new encroachments or expansion of the existing encroachments is allowed beyond the limits of the existing encroachments as shown on the eastern plan. Four, The license agreement should indicate that the licensee will maintain the encroaching items in good condition. Five, the license agreement should indicate that the city will revoke the license upon removal of the encroaching items. Six, the city council should decide if the license agreement should include a renewal period or expiration. Seven, the city council should recommend a reasonable fee be charged by the city for use of public property for the benefit of the petitioner. The licensed area must include the level landing at the base of the ramp. Nine, the license agreement should acknowledge that the potential presence of underground utilities beneath the proposed ramp should not restrict access to these utilities. 10, the notification for the public hearing regarding this approval process should include utility companies that have infrastructure in this block of Spring Street. 11, the sidewalk work associated with this ramp is adjacent to a cracked sidewalk panels. adjacent crack panels should be replaced. 12, the ramp is a projection of the building and is associated with the building. Entrance and exit. The ramp must be built per applicable building code and inspected by the building department for code compliance. 13, the plan indicates a national grid manhole near the proposed ramp. The licensee should not restrict access to this manhole. The plan indicates relocating a tree pit on Spring Street that conflicts with clearances needed for the ramp. The new location appears reasonable and should be confirmed with the tree ward. 15, the license agreement should indicate the minimum clearance between the ramp and the front of the curb to be 72 inches. Call 781-393-2425 for any further accommodations. Do we have any discussion on this? The petitioner is on call. Where is the petitioner? Ammar Salam?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, sir. Yeah, I'm here. This is Ammar Salam. I'm from Senior Project Manager from Citizen Financial Group. I'm the one who's managing the project at this location, and I reviewed the comments provided by the engineer. Comments no, I will kind of like if we go from number one and down Common number one. We have no issue about this common back to the consulate. Yes, sir.
[Caraviello]: Can you hold on one second? We're just dying to hear Are you here speaking in favor of this hearing?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, sir
[Caraviello]: Yeah, thank you very much. Is there anyone else here speaking in favor? Hearing and seeing none, we close that portion of the hearing. Is there anyone here opposed to this? Hearing and seeing none, we close that portion. Thank you, Mr. Salam. If you can continue with the presentation.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sure. Item number two, uh the engineering division uh recommending metal fire escape uh building cornish and signs attached to the building the metal fire escape was constructed in this building from day one and i just want to kind of like uh uh present citizen bank side we are leasing this building triple net so we pay lease we maintain it And when we leased the place, which is constructed, I think 1934 or around this time, the metal fire escape was already existing over there. So my thought in this case, the metal fire escape, it's a landlord issue. It's not citizen. The building coronation signage, we removed it and we installed more modern design, which less much less projection. So For item number two, we have no problem in regards to the signage or the cornish because we already took them out and installed newer version with much less projection than the existing one. And this work was done like early this year, and a permit being pulled from the township, approved, and the work is done. For item number three, we have no issue. No.
[Scarpelli]: We have information Councilor Scapelli. I'm sorry, I'm a little confused. Are you saying that there's a discrepancy that we're not, we're not, it's not, I'm confused. You're saying that there's an issue with the fire escape that has no reflection to citizens, but to the landlord, what does that have to do with, I'm confused with this project.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean, metal fire escape, it's existing condition in the building. When the building is built like 19, mid 1900, is the original landlord, or the Lakarta landlord, when it's built, they build the fire escape, and at the time, probably, the permit officer approved it. It's existing condition, and usually, it's not related to our project at all.
[Scarpelli]: So Citizens Bank does not agree with number two, then?
[SPEAKER_04]: Part of it, because the mental fire escape, it's a part of the building that's been constructed since 1934, and probably has been approved at that time. I'm not sure why the engineer would like to include it in the scope of work that we're doing. He is pointing out some violation. And from Citizen Bank, the fine and Cornish building, it's already been demoed earlier this year. We have a brand new signage. If you guys allow me, I can share my screen with a new picture. My only comment here, I agree with the building coordination signage, but the metal fire escape, it's existing part of the building. It was happening before we leave the building.
[Scarpelli]: Okay, do you realize this is a hearing that will depend whether this council supports us or not? A city engineer is requesting that this be one of the stipulations. You understand that, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean if you guys want to include it because but in this case if you if some deterioration happened to it We are liable to fix it because we are leasing the building triple net So we are liable of fixing any item in the building that could cause any hazard to the public Yeah, I mean We can maintain it, but when our lease expire, we're not responsible for the metal fire escape after that.
[Caraviello]: We have Chris Schultz on the call. Yeah. From LR Construction.
[Hurtubise]: Yeah, I'm here too. Yeah.
[Caraviello]: Name and address of the record, please.
[SPEAKER_05]: Chris Schultz, 346 Lake Street in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
[Caraviello]: Okay. Chris, I think there's a, maybe you could enlighten us about the fire escape issue.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just a lot of these comments were brought up by the city engineer in our approval process for this job. And a lot of them, they have nothing to do with the work that we're doing. It's just these, all these comments were addressed or brought up. As armor said, their existing conditions that have nothing with this job that we're trying to get completed. So why are you bringing it up? We didn't feel the need to bring it up. This was the stuff that was brought up in our review by the city.
[Scarpelli]: I'm trying, I'm just, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_04]: I can clarify more if you allow me to share my screen. I have a picture of the building with the fire escape. And you guys can see it is that Citizen Bank hired LR Construction to build a ramp on the front of the branch and the landing based on a registered architect drawing. And this is the scope of work that we requesting approval on. I believe like the engineer, when they went over there, they find existing enroachment and they incorporated on this hearing. does not relate to the scope of work that has been noted in the beginning of the petition, which is scope of work at front entrance is as follows. Demo existing sidewalk, three section, install new ADA compliant landing and ramp, install new ADA compliant handrail around landing along the ramp. This is all what we're doing. Item number two, it's pointing existing condition. been built like from day one from the building, except of course, time, which is maybe.
[Scarpelli]: Yeah, no problem. Unfortunately, the city engineer isn't on the call, and as I'm reading this, our city engineer division recommends that existing encroachments be allowed to remain so situate for as long as they remain in good condition. If they fall into disrepair or poor condition, the city will revoke the license. The existing encroachment includes a metal fire escape building and sign attached to the building. So you're saying that, um, so I just want to make sure we're clear on this. So you're saying that citizens bank does not agree with number two and will not.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just, no, I'm clarifying that the metal fire escape, it is not. something new we're building.
[Scarpelli]: It's existing, and for item number two, the engineer is giving us direction as a council. These are steps that the engineer is giving us that you would abide by, so we would give you this permit. We would allow this to happen. Do you understand what we're saying?
[Caraviello]: Yeah, yeah, yeah 100% I'm not agreeing with his comment where we need to maintain it in good condition So I'm agreeing with that He's saying that yeah already on the building and it is in good repair so if it does correct They will have to fix it
[SPEAKER_04]: We, Citizen Bank, will have to fix it as long as we are leasing the building.
[Scarpelli]: If I understand that correctly. Right, but I'm understanding that Mr. Salaam said that they do not support what that is because that is... He's saying that that's not part of his scope of work.
[Caraviello]: He's only doing the sidewalk. He's not touching the fire extinguishers. I mean, the fire escape. All he's doing is a sidewalk and ABA.
[Scarpelli]: I'm going to yield to my fellow consultants.
[Caraviello]: Maybe I'm overthinking this. If I understand that right.
[Falco]: If I'm correct, though, with this paper here, These are the recommendations for approval by the city engineer.
[Caraviello]: So the papers here, these are the recommendations that he's basically- The engineer has said that as long as these things remain in good condition, which the fire escape is one of them, they will be allowed to keep their license.
[SPEAKER_04]: And Citizen Bank will agree with that.
[Scarpelli]: This is not Citizens Bank's concerns, it's the landlord's concerns. So obviously, so they're not taking responsibility for that, if that happens. Am I confused with that?
[Caraviello]: No, these are already on the building, the existing encroachments.
[Scarpelli]: What he's saying is- It's not a question, Ricky. This stuff is already there. We know that, but if the petitioner just said, this is what I'm getting at, he said that This is a disagreement with the landlord. That's the landlord's responsibility. Well, the landlord's not here for this permit. Citizens Bank, if they're not gonna take responsibility for this, then they're not gonna support this. Do you understand what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_04]: No, no, no, no. Excuse me, sir. We're gonna take responsibility for it as long we are leasing the building.
[SPEAKER_05]: If they move out, it's not their responsibility.
[Scarpelli]: Why would you bring up the landlord? What would this council need that for?
[SPEAKER_04]: We are not we were maintaining the building any Deterioration to fire escape or any other item within the building or outside of the building is the citizen bank responsibility As long as we are leasing the building So you agree with that?
[Scarpelli]: Yes How is that so difficult Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I just want to clarify that the metal fire escape was existing structure from the building originally. It wasn't part of the project, but we are maintaining it. We know. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Number four, we agree with it. Number five, we agree with it. Number six, we agree with it. Number seven, we kind of like don't agree with it because we notice other property within the township have ramp and landing, and I don't believe that the township charging fee for it. In addition to that, our lease, we pay in taxes, all the taxes required for the building.
[Caraviello]: Mr. Slavkin, Councilor Falco has a question.
[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. It's not a question for Ghalam. I believe last time we In the last meeting, we asked for some guidance on, I think, point number seven.
[Caraviello]: Yes, and Ellen Bourdeaux is on the line to give us some guidance for that.
[Falco]: Okay, if we could hear from Ellen with regards to point number seven, I'd greatly appreciate it.
[Caraviello]: Mr. Clerk, can you unmute Ellen, please? I don't know if she's still muted. Ellen, can you give us some guidance on a reasonable fee that should be charged by the city for this?
[Ellen Brideau]: Yeah, good evening Councilors and I apologize for the mute thing I have a three year old grandson being very vocal in the background. So, um, I, I apologize that I'm probably not going to give you the information that you want to hear this evening, um, I received this request. Prior to going on vacation I came back from vacation this week from, and I did provide. the mayor's office, and then Adam had contacted me this evening, earlier today for my notes. I have reviewed the parcel. I don't have market data that would support providing an estimate of the cost to rent 108 square foot sidewalk. I don't gather market data on the value of sidewalks, roadways, or anything that's used as a public right of way. And honestly, for me to do some wild guess number, I would be guessing at something that I, you know, I'd be in violation of Uniswap. So I truly cannot give you a number of what that kind of what that would be. And the best guidance I could say would, if that's something that the city council wanted to pursue would be to find an appraiser that has expertise and valuing that would not be an easy thing to do but I'm sure there's probably somebody out there that could offer some kind of number. And, and that's really all I can can add to that.
[Caraviello]: Ellen, is this a common practice in other cities to rent the sidewalk?
[Ellen Brideau]: Not, I contacted other peers, certainly I only call on three, I've just got back from vacation. They do not have any data in their communities of knowledge of renting sidewalk space. It's a public right of way. I was kind of, like I said, I received this right before vacation, so I apologize for not getting back to city council earlier. I just returned yesterday. It's not, yeah.
[Bears]: Councilor Bears. Ellen, do you think that if we were to just decide on some sort of nominal flat fee, that that would be an irresponsible decision or would it be, you know, Do you really feel like we have to go the route of getting this area appraised?
[Ellen Brideau]: I would ask, you have members that have been with this council much longer than I've been with the city. Is this a practice that does the city have, is the city leasing this type of space to anyone else today?
[Bears]: My understanding is it's a unique situation. Yeah.
[Ellen Brideau]: Okay. Yeah, I truly, I wouldn't know how to advise you on that. I apologize.
[Falco]: Councilor Falco.
[Ellen Brideau]: Thank you, Mr. President.
[Falco]: When I look at this here, this is a recommendation that has been made by the city engineer. So the city engineer must know of some community that is taking this type of action currently. So I think we need to either reach back to him and find out what community is going through this process and how do they arrive at the fee that they charge the particular company in that city or town. He must have come up with this somehow. It must be done in other cities and towns. We need to get more information with regard to how much we should be charging. If you guys allow me,
[Scarpelli]: Councilor Scott. I think this is such a big issue because I have also reached. I did talk to a few residents that welcome the ramp because, uh, you know, handicapped accessible. I think it's very important, but I think it's unfinished business between the petitioner and the city engineer. uh I think it might behoove us that both parties that we table this so we get further clarification so this possibly could go to no vote which would then extend this longer than we should so I don't know if um if that might be the course I just put it out to my colleagues to to maybe contemplate that without the engineer being here with the assessor really not gauging, you know, the understanding of this as much as we should right now, because understandable factors. And, you know, I don't, I see the sides on both sides. It's a city sidewalk. It's taking land that not everybody will now traverse because it's being, uh, handicap ramp, which I think it's very important. I think that I want to move this forward, but I just want to make sure that, you know, there seems some discrepancies and some, uh, to be gone, but the negotiations shouldn't be done at this level. This should be done by the city engineer who are the professionals in this situation with our city administration, the council. So I truly think we should table this and until we get this information that Mr. Salam and his team sit together with the engineer and the city administration to clean up these fine issues. So this isn't in jeopardy of failing this evening.
[SPEAKER_04]: So if you guys allow me, Good. I'm an architect for 30 years and a project manager for 15 years. And I've been doing this project, I'm running the program for the ADA, for Citizen Bank for the past six years. I've been done work in Pennsylvania, like over 250 branches, Philadelphia, Central City. And we have the same situation when we approach the township. As long as not intervening with the path of the public, In addition, it maintaining the building, there was no other option for us to make it accessible in the building. They approve it, they give us a variance, they never charge us. Actually, next to your township, West Medford, one of our branches, the landlord, we designed it, we find the issue over there, and the landlord approached the township, he got the permit and built it. And there's no charge to the landlord. In addition, I built at least like 10 or 20 ramp like this in our building in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, where it was infeasible to do the ADA compliance through the lobby. And we use the city sidewalk and they never charge us. It's a public service to make the building accessible. Especially we have this issue with the old building. They were never designed all before like the 2000 or 1999 was concept of making the building accessible to challenge persons. and seniors. So this is what citizen bank doing now. We're running the entire program along our entire portfolio. And we try, we are making it compliant based on the new code for the AD. I mean, before we had option to make it one entrance only compliant, but now require 60% of the entrance to be compliant. And with two entrances mean a hundred percent compliant. And when I talked to Tim, yes.
[Bears]: Sorry, you can finish your sentence Mr. Salama when you talk to Tim.
[SPEAKER_04]: I talked to Tim and I pointed out to him about the issue of the fee because we are, as I mentioned, we are leasing the property triple net so we are liable to pay all the required taxes for the property. I talked to him that in other communities, we built this we take the variance as long as the ramp and the sidewalk. is no, there is any conflict and everything is moving with a public path. And it's plus it's a public service to the public. It's not like for our special purpose, the customer will still come from all entrants anyway. And I pointed out to him like this project started in 2019. And all of this been dragging across Citizen Bank so far, way beyond the project cause that we started and The cost of the ramp and the landing, it costs between $25,000. It costs us way more than that for me bringing the consultant in the meetings, preparing the document. I just want to point it out.
[Bears]: Mr. Salaam, you mentioned West Medford. When was that project completed?
[SPEAKER_04]: This is like 2019.
[Bears]: A couple of years ago. That's when that ramp was installed? Yes. Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Ramp and a landing. And actually it's a little bit bigger than ours and the sidewalk is less than this location.
[Bears]: Well, that should have... West Medford is part of Medford. So what was the process when that project was approved?
[SPEAKER_04]: It was a part of my project, but the landlord decided to do the exterior under his scope of work. because the exterior is part of his scope of work, our lease, so he developed a growing approach, a township, got the permit, built it up, and we inspected a citizen bank. It's compliant, we agreed, and that's it.
[Bears]: All right, and I mean, I meant also to my fellow councilors, did that come before the council?
[Caraviello]: I do not recall that coming before the council. I don't remember that. It never came before the council.
[Bears]: I would be fine having, I mean, I think,
[Caraviello]: So, Mr. Salam, are you in agreement with everything, the exception of six and seven, which should be the renewal fee?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, sir. I mean, yeah. I mean, everything else we're complying with, everything I agree with. We have registered architect, LI construction, Chris did like dig safe for the site. All of the item below, we agree on it and we're confirming it.
[Scarpelli]: know exists. Right. So what are we trying to do here?
[Bears]: We don't have Mr. President, I would say, you know, number six, I would be fine with it be five years or something.
[Caraviello]: Number seven, I'm taking early but at this point, yeah, I mean, you know, again, I hate to tie this guy up. They want to get the work done. I mean, they're doing their work.
[Scarpelli]: We're setting precedent right now. This council setting precedent something we don't know. know that we've never done before. So I think we need guidance and we don't have anyone right now. We don't have the engineer. Our assessor has just told us that there's not enough time right now to get the information that she needs to help us with this. And I understand West Medford, but I also know that Salem Street encompasses a lot more of the sidewalk.
[Caraviello]: It's a smaller sidewalk than it was in West Medford.
[Scarpelli]: But it's a longer sidewalk.
[Caraviello]: Mr. President. Councilor Marks.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. The petitioner just mentioned variance, and we as a body do not issue variances. That is done by the Zoning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals. So that is not something that's under our purview. So if something was done in West Medford through a variance, it's possible that it never made its way to the Medford City Council. This request is for a petition for a grant of location. which would be approved by this council. So maybe it is a matter of how this was presented. The original one in West Method was presented as a variance and that was voted on by a separate board and commission. and this one is being presented differently, I don't know, but it doesn't sound right to me, Mr. President, because Mr. Salaam just mentioned a variance and we have nothing to do with variances. And regarding Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and everywhere else, to be quite frank with you, that's not the city of Medford. And in my opinion, if you're gonna use public land, you should pay. That's my own opinion. If I wanted to build a porch, Mr. President, on my house, and it was one inch on a public sidewalk, one inch, it would not be approved. It would not be approved. So I think to sit back and say that they don't pay in other areas and this and that, that's up to them. But in this city, Mr. President, if you're going to use public land, for private entity. Since when is it our responsibility to make sure a citizen's bank has proper ADA compliance? It's not our responsibility. We're willing to work with them, Mr. President, but it's not our responsibility. So I think there has to be some give and take here. And my question, Mr. President, if we could, I agree with Councilor Scarpelli and my other council colleagues that this probably should be sent back, but definitely, Mr. President, we should find out regarding what West Medford, how it was approved. Was it approved by a petition for grant the location or was it approved by a variance? And that's key if we move forward on this. We can't answer this question. Right, right. But I would make that, Mr. President, in the form of a motion.
[Caraviello]: Oh, sorry. I'm sorry.
[Morell]: Thank you. I just want to say thank you. I agree with Councilor Scarpelli. I think it may seem like this is a simple one off. But what we're doing right now is setting precedent. And if we don't get this right this time, the next time a petitioner comes before us, they're going to cite this case for their reason for why they're doing something a certain way. So we need to get it right. And I agree with Councilor Marks that this is this is a public right of way, and we need to treat it as such and figure out the right way to do this. And if that's charging, then that's charging. But I agree that I don't think we should move on this without just insight from our city engineer at this point.
[Bears]: I would add, if possible, to the motion that, I don't know, Engineer McGivern asked us to come up with the renewal period and the fee, I would actually ask that he make a proposal for what might be reasonable, and we could consider that as part of sending it back. With the assessor. Right, right.
[Caraviello]: All right, so the chair waives the motion. Well, let's vote on these motions.
[SPEAKER_05]: I add one thing, if I have a quick second. Yes, sir. In regards to the comment about Tim, the engineer, what the last person just said, it is correct. He's the one who brought this up to you guys. So I don't know if he can actually advise on. and what to recommend for the situation, because I know he was looking to you guys for guidance on that. So we might just be going back around in a circle here. But in regards to the comment about if you go one inch into the sidewalk from your house, the city might say no. I think that's more like extending your house. It's still a public sidewalk. We're just making it 80. The building isn't extending to get more square footage so they have more, office space on the inside. It's just to upgrade the sidewalks to make it safer. And if we're doing, we were doing a little give and take back and forth, we agreed to replace additional damaged concrete sidewalk sections around it, making the whole area safer. It's kind of a, you know, we'll help you guys out. We'll replace more sidewalk if we're allowed to put the ramp out front. was it? We're not extending the building. It's just we're making this the city's safer and we're going to replace panels around it to make the entire sidewalls because it is it is in rough shape.
[Scarpelli]: If I can, Mr. President, I know that I'd like to vote on the motion, so it is out. And then I truly think, you know, we Like the gentleman said, I think we get everybody involved. We don't want to go in circles, but we think we bring Tim. We have the city assessor. We have city administration. We bring in, you know, even the ADA compliance officer. I think that it's important that he's here right now. So, you know, we get all these answers, these questions answered because it does, it is important. I think that it's, you know, not the idea is very important, but I think the process has to be done the right way. So this council doesn't set precedent for something that's leading us in a bad path moving forward. So I, you know, if I can. Yeah, I understand. We understand. Thank you. Motion to table?
[Caraviello]: We've motioned to table. Our motions won't fall out, correct? Motion to table until we
[Scarpelli]: I'm going to I'm going to motion the table and, um, have the if we can ask promotion that we have the city engineer, the ADA officer and the city sister and the city administration work together to try to find, um, uh, common ground so we can, uh, not chase the tail all day, so we can get this project moving forward. I know it's a delay, but I don't wanna go to a vote, the vote's no, and then we can't bring this up for a long time. So if we can do that, I vote to table.
[Falco]: Mr. President?
[Scarpelli]: Second.
[Falco]: So if I may, Councilor Scarpelli, through you to Councilor Scarpelli. So we're looking for specific recommendations for 0.6 and 0.7 from our city engineer?
[Scarpelli]: Correct.
[Falco]: Perfect.
[Scarpelli]: And while we're there, I personally, you know, for my edification to get the understanding of point number two. So that's a little bit clearer in my eyes, you know, but my thing is moving past two, six and seven, we need that clarification.
[Caraviello]: Perfect, thank you. And so on the motion by Councilor Scarpelli to table this until the engineer makes his recommendations on number two, six and seven.
[Marks]: Yeah, that's it.
[Unidentified]: Do you want to repeat your motion back with the clerk?
[SPEAKER_04]: It wasn't variance. I don't know if it was variance for West Medford. It was handled by the landlord. Plus there's multiple other sites within the township. Probably you guys have the same thing.
[Caraviello]: on the motion by, on the motion table by Councilor Scarpelli as amended. You want to put it in with his or you want to report it out as amended by Councilor Marks on how the project of West Bedford was completed.
[Marks]: If it never came before the council, I don't recall it coming before the council.
[Caraviello]: Second. Second by Councilor Bears. All those in favor. Aye. All those opposed, motion passes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. 21457, petition for a grant of location, national grid, north end of Massachusetts, location of underground electrical condoms. Do I hear notified? that by order of the Medford City Council, the Council of the Medford City Council will hold a public hearing in Howard Hall left chambers at Medford City Hall, 85 George B. Henson Drive, Medford.
[Marks]: And- President, motion to waive the remainder of the reading and just to give a brief synopsis. Do we have anybody here from National Grid?
[Caraviello]: Excuse me, thank you, sir.
[SPEAKER_09]: I'm gonna vote to waive the motion on the table.
[Caraviello]: We deal on the motion by Council Marks to waive the reading seconded by Council Mayors. All those in favor. Aye. All those opposed. Motion passes. Good evening, sir. Name and address of the record, please.
[SPEAKER_20]: Good evening, councillors. My name is Moses Okokoro. I'm here from National Grid Electric. My address is 170 Medford Street in Malden.
[Caraviello]: Can you give us a brief synopsis of this project?
[SPEAKER_20]: So National Grid is petitioning to install two four-inch conduits from my existing manhole on the sidewalk towards the building. Yeah, so basically we, I've actually indicated here though, the conduit length would be approximately seven feet. But after we submitted the petition, we did a manhole survey and we'll be hitting the building from a different angle. So potentially that may increase to not something significantly different, but probably about 10 feet from an existing manhole to the building. This is for the purpose of providing the electric service to that customer. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: You have questions for the gentleman? It's present. Oh, one second. You are in favor of the project, correct? Yes, sir. Anyone else in favor of the project? Thank you, sir. Hearing and seeing many more, is there anyone here opposed to the project? Hearing and seeing none, we motion that by the hearing closed. So, sure, if you can come back here. So you have the conditions by the engineer in the back here? Yes, I saw the conditions. Do we have questions for the gentleman? Councilor Falco.
[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. I have a couple of quick questions. The first being, if this is approved, when will the work begin and how long will it take?
[SPEAKER_20]: Potentially, I mean, it shouldn't take more than one day's worth of work. Yes, and as soon as it's approved, we will ask our civil contractor to get the permits and we can start almost immediately. Thank you. You're welcome, sir. Thank you.
[Bears]: Councilor Bass. And in terms of the sidewalk, the new sidewalk has not gone in yet, so is that correct?
[SPEAKER_20]: I'm not sure, I've not been to that location for a while.
[Bears]: Okay, but if it has, and you have to dig it up, you'll replace with concrete, correct? Yes, definitely, we will. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Any further questions for the gentleman? Okay, so, Chair, what's the motion?
[Marks]: At this time, I would ask that we amend the petition to include what the petitioner just mentioned, that it's not seven feet, it's 10 feet. and that reflected in the approval by the city engineers, he also refers to seven feet.
[SPEAKER_20]: So it's 10 feet, not seven. Yeah, I mean, it may still be seven feet, you know, it may, I mean, increase to 10 feet. The issue is, when we did like a manhole survey, they actually discovered the underground submersible transformers will not allow them to go in the direction we intended to go. So now they want to go from a different angle. They are not sure what they will do until they get the civil contract on board. So what I'm saying basically, it may increase to about 10 feet. It may, it may not.
[Marks]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah.
[Caraviello]: Okay, so we'll change this. Thank you. Okay, thank you. So, the motion by Councilor Marks to increase it from seven to 10 feet is seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Any opposed? Okay, on the original motion. On the motion by Councilor Bears to approve as amended, seconded by? Seconded by Councilor Marks. All those in favor? All those opposed? None. Motion passes. Thank you, sir. All right, we got another one. 21458, petition for a grant of location, National Grid, North Andover, Massachusetts.
[Unidentified]: Motion to waive the remainder of the brief, Mr. President, to give a brief synopsis.
[Caraviello]: I'm running out of breath here. This is a public hearing. Are you here in favor of the project? Yes, I am. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Anyone else in favor of this project? Hearing and seeing none, this part of the hearing is closed. Anyone opposed to this project? Hearing and seeing none, we close that part of the hearing. Sir, if you could just give us a brief synopsis of this project on Magoon Avenue.
[SPEAKER_20]: So this is an existing customer. His service goes overhead from the pole line to the house. Now he wants to relocate to the underground system. So we're installing approximately eight feet of one three-inch concrete from the pole towards his house, going across the sidewalk. Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: Yep, exactly.
[SPEAKER_20]: Yes, exactly. Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: Mr. President, a quick question as far as
[Falco]: How long will this project take? Yeah, less than one day's work. One day's work, okay, thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Okay, the motion by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Bears. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Okay. 21459, petition for a greater location, Verizon New England, underground cables and fixtures. We hear by notified. Motion to waive the remainder of the reading, Mr. President, and to give a brief synopsis. On the motion by Councilor Bax, seconded by Councilor Bears. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Do we have anybody here from Verizon this evening?
[Marks]: Motion to table, Mr. President.
[Caraviello]: Hold on. Maybe there's James. Is that James?
[SPEAKER_00]: Good evening, Councilors. James Day, Toronto, contract engineer on behalf of Verizon New England.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, sir. If you could give us a brief synopsis of this project.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. So Verizon will be placing approximately 10 feet of two 4-inch conduits from Handhole 1 to the property line in order to connect with underground facilities at the property line of 662 Boston Avenue. We're doing that to provide Verizon service to the new MBTA station of the Green Line, I believe it is.
[Caraviello]: Okay. Okay. So with this as a hearing, you are in favor of this project, correct?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sir.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, sir. Anyone else in favor? Hearing and seeing none, motion that part of the hearing closed. Anyone opposed to this project? Hearing and seeing none, we motion that part of the hearing closed. Okay, so any more questions for the petitioner from Verizon? Mr. President.
[Falco]: Councilor Falco. Thank you, Mr. President. If I may, how long do you think this will take to complete?
[SPEAKER_00]: From what I have here, I don't anticipate it will take longer than a day.
[Falco]: Okay, perfect, thank you.
[Caraviello]: Of course, sure. The motion by Councilor Scarpelli for approval, seconded by?
[Bears]: Second.
[Caraviello]: Seconded by Councilor Bez. All those in favor?
[Bears]: Aye.
[Caraviello]: All those opposed? Motion passes, thank you, sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. Good evening.
[Caraviello]: Okay. It's time for my stuff. I think that's it for the petitions. Okay. 21491 offered by Councilor Bez. Be it resolved. by the Medford City Council that the Cannabis Advisory Commission and or the city administration include labor peace agreement language in any host community agreements made between the city of Medford and any potential recreational or medicinal cannabis dispensaries. Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. As folks may or may not know, one of the fastest growing unionized industries in the state is the medical and recreational marijuana industry. Um, several of our local unions have been, uh, have been going out and organizing workers at these various locations. Um, one thing that has been included in many agreements between municipalities and the owners or license holders of these facilities is that the license holders will not actively, will not try to oppose the unionization effort if it comes to their shop. So that is the request here of the Cannabis Advisory Commission and the city to include language in our agreements that ask these license holders not to oppose unionization efforts at these facilities.
[Caraviello]: With all the hearings that have already been completed, I don't know if we have the authority to demand this in that. The hearings have already been done, so to add new language into, maybe something going forward, but to add new language into the agreement that was already reached with these people, I don't know. I think we should be seeking a legal opinion on this.
[Bears]: host community agreements have been agreed to, because they would have to have been approved.
[Caraviello]: Let's say the hearings have all been done.
[Bears]: But that's for the licensure. The host community agreements are the, when they decide on the final three applicants, then they would begin negotiations around the host community agreements. So that's my understanding of the process.
[Caraviello]: All right, so thank you. Any further discussion on this?
[Bears]: I would move approval.
[Marks]: Mr. President, I, Mr. President, Councilor Marks. I would tend, I would feel more comfortable if we did get an opinion from the city solicitor, you know, and we did create a cannabis advisory commission for purpose and I don't want to overstep our boundaries. The resolution refers to include, include to me is asking them to put it in there, not asking them whether they would review or take it under advisement. Changing the rules. You're asking them to include it. So I just would feel more comfortable having city solicitor to take a look at it, yeah.
[Bears]: I've made a motion to approve, but whatever happens happens. There's no second on it, so.
[Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Bears to approve, seconded by.
[Bears]: I'll withdraw the motion.
[Caraviello]: The motion has been withdrawn. 21492, be it resolved. Offered by councilors, be it resolved. Councilor Bears, do you want to withdraw the motion?
[Bears]: No, I was just withdrawing my motion to approve. So if there's another motion on the floor.
[Caraviello]: Oh, Councilor Marks, you want to, I'm sorry, I thought you were going to draw it over.
[Bears]: No, if there's a motion to refer to the solicitor.
[Marks]: I wouldn't be opposed to that, or I wouldn't be opposed to receiving it and placing it on file, Mr. President.
[Caraviello]: Councilor Bears, it's your motion. Do you want to receive it and place it on file?
[Bears]: Motion to refer to the city solicitor for an opinion.
[Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Bears to refer 214-991 to the city solicitor for an opinion, seconded by Councilor Marks. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes.
[Marks]: 21- Mr. President, just for the edification, because the city solicitor is going to want to know what we're referring to and for what purpose. And the purpose, I think, at least for me, is to find out whether or not we have the authority to request that in a separate board. or a separate commission by state statute that's created. So that would be the question I have, whether we have the authority.
[Caraviello]: Okay, 21492, offered by Councilor Bears, be it resolved. by the Medford City Council that abutters within 250 feet of a city-owned tree be notified at least 14 days in advance if the tree is going to be removed. Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. There have been many city-owned trees that have been cut down or removed with pretty short notice. I did receive some communication from the tree warden that the forestry department generally does not decide to remove a tree until one to two days before they remove that tree. And there was also a mention of emergency removals with National Grid. I have no problem if there's an emergency with something needs to be removed. But you know, I do think that abutters, I've run into abutters, there's a tree right in front of their house, they've planted their whole garden based around that tree, they've, you know, put a table out there based on that tree, and then they come out one day and there's a sign, and the next day the tree's gone. And that doesn't seem like enough due process, or at least enough of a notification for abutters that something that provides shade and that they've come to rely on is going to be removed. So I would ask that there at least be more formal notice and the ability of, you know, residents, if a tree is going to be removed to come to us or come to the tree warden with some advanced notice, I put in 14 days because I felt that was reasonable. So it is just a request that they provide a little bit more time. I certainly have no problem with emergency removals happening if they're an emergency, but if this is something that's being pre-planned and doesn't need to happen in 48 hours or 24 hours, I really do think that residents should get more notice when a tree is going to be removed.
[Caraviello]: We have Aggie Tudin on the call here. Aggie? Aggie, are you here? Aggie Tudin? See ya. Aggie? Okay, Councilor Morell.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I support the intention of this resolution. I think there's, I know personally there was a tree chipper down the street from me the other day, and he'd go running to the window to see which beloved tree is coming down. And I think that notification is really important. You know, trees don't benefit just the direct abutters, they direct, you know, they benefit the whole block, they cool the whole block. So I think just as advanced notification gives people a chance to, whether it's just get on the list for a new tree, buy their own tree, or just wrap their head around what's happening. I think this is important just for stewardship in our community. And I also, I don't know if we need amended language to include the emergency situations or if the tree we're in would offer that if she joins us. But I do support this, but I also support the inclusion of emergency language.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Aggie, last call. You were there. Any opinion, Aggie? No, it's not. Good evening, sir. Gentleman from East Medford, name and address of the record, please.
[Marks]: The mic's on now. The mic's on?
[Castagnetti]: I'll have to be careful what I say then. By the way, Mr. President, to the chair, off the record, I could tell Councilor Marks, say it ain't so, Joe. We're gonna sorely miss him, but not for long, I hope. Thank you. On this tree business, it is my understanding, let me back up, I'm not sure what the ordinance or law is within the city about trees. I love nature, personally speaking, and I have three trees around my house, city trees. My question Actually, my thought was, I remember reading the legal notices all too often, and I thought they were advertised in advance, so at least I want to guesstimate a week, two or three weeks in advance, and usually has a listing of multiple trees at certain addresses in the city, saying and calling them public trees, and they will be taken down, so that's all I can say. I'm not sure if I was dreaming when I saw this years and years ago, haven't seen any recently.
[Bears]: I don't know personally if it existed in the past, but I think that's exactly the kind of practice I would like to see in terms of notification, that a notice go out and give people due notice that something may be removed. I mean, I've had residents say, I walked out one morning and my tree was gone. It's been there for 30 years and now there's no tree.
[Marks]: Okay. Mr. President, if I could, Aggie's not on the call.
[Caraviello]: She's on the call, but she's not answering. Okay.
[Marks]: Because Aggie we know best, but from my previous experience, the state statute is very clear about the removal of a public shade tree. And Aggie falls that to the T. And my experience states, unless it's an emergency, that it requires the tree be posted. So the tree will officially get a posting on it, And I believe it requires a public hearing for any removal of the tree. And that is duly posted as well as Mr. Castagnetti said. And I've never heard of the one or two day notification. It's more like seven to 14 or maybe even longer. So if trees are being removed, it may be an emergent nature or it may be the city's no longer following state statute, which I highly doubt. Mr. President, but it's about time we take a look at our own tree ordinance, which we don't have. By the way, we don't have anything that protects public shade trees on. There's been a lot of talk over the years, but very little action. And I think this is a perfect time, maybe to send something to a subcommittee, maybe the public works subcommittee, um, and have them take a look at the creation of a tree ordinance. Mr. President,
[Caraviello]: Councilor Falco.
[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. We do have a pre-ordinance, I think that just got moved to Committee of the Whole, that we reviewed, I think about a month ago.
[Bears]: In subcommittee?
[Falco]: It went from the Woodman subcommittee to Committee of the Whole. So it was just voted over, I think it was July 17th.
[Bears]: I would be happy to refer this paper to the same Committee of the Whole and have that discussion as part of the larger pre-ordinance.
[Caraviello]: I think that would make it complete. I think Aggie might be on the call now. Aggie, you on the call now?
[SPEAKER_02]: No. Again, I'm trying to committee of the whole refer this to the same meeting. She's there but she's not answering.
[Bears]: All right, so all right, we've been here a while. I don't want to belabor it. So my motion is to refer to committee of the whole for discussion along with the tree ordinance.
[Caraviello]: Okay, so on the motion by Council of is to refer this to Committee of the Whole with the tree warden. Seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. I'll skip mine because I got a couple here and then we'll share. 21494 offered by Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: I withdraw.
[Caraviello]: You withdraw this?
[Bears]: Yeah, we've discussed it enough. Okay. 21495.
[Caraviello]: offered by Councilor Bears, be it resolved by the Medford City Council that we receive an update from Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee regarding Paper 21, not 312, to support state legislation regarding pilot payments. This paper is in committee. Mr. Clerk, who is the chair of that committee? Who's the?
[Bears]: I can look on my phone.
[Caraviello]: I think I am, Mr. Chair. Councilor Marks, you are the chair? I think so. Maybe call a meeting going down the line?
[Marks]: Yeah, I'm not quite sure what we're gonna discuss. The action was to wait for the state legislature to enact a piece of legislation, which never happened. I mean, I guess we can meet to talk, because we have nothing else to do.
[Bears]: I believe the, well, we have plenty to do. The resolution was that this council would contact the legislature and say that we support the legislation that has been filed. And I believe the issue at the time was that bill numbers had not been issued yet, that kind of thing. So it was just kind of still on a docket number, a temporary number. Bill numbers have now been issued and we put a 90 day shot clock on the paper that the subcommittee would meet in 90 days to discuss whether we thought it was reasonable for this council to support such a legislation. So that's, I believe, where we left it.
[Marks]: And I don't believe that council has the authority to put a 90 day shot clock on a subcommittee. So I think the council overstepped its boundaries, but needless to say, Mr. President, I'm not sure quite what will be the discussion on a piece of legislation that hasn't been passed. So that we need to give local cities and towns the authority to make a pilot and in lieu of tax payment mandatory for certain entities. And if that legislation is not passed, I'm not sure what the subcommittee's use is. If you're looking just for the council to give a vote of support on the legislation, then I don't think that was the correct place to send it to a subcommittee for that.
[Bears]: That was not my motion to send it to subcommittee, certainly.
[Marks]: That's what was passed, right?
[Bears]: Right. Well, I mean, I'd be happy to file it again.
[Marks]: I just don't know what we're going to discuss. What do we discuss? Something that may eventually be passed by the state legislature?
[Bears]: Well, that was, I mean, it could be a five minute meeting to say, yes, we should send our note of support to the legislature that we think this is something that we should have. Just on the substance of it, I do think we need more authority and uniformity in state government and state statute to provide clarity around pilot agreements. And we know the pilot agreements are very important to the city bringing in close to $5 million a year in revenue of our $200 million. So that's why I put it forward is the state doesn't have a good framework for this. and this bill would provide a new state framework that then we can operate under. The request was just that we support these bills and ask that our delegation advance them in the legislature.
[Marks]: Right. So in my opinion, Mr. President, and maybe this is the conversation we're going to have at subcommittee, but in my opinion, Mr. President, the city is what needs to put together a framework regarding in lieu of tax payment.
[Caraviello]: City Council does not negotiate battle agreements.
[Marks]: And there is no current, as far as I know, game plan within the community. And I was one of the first members when I first got on the council to request Tufts University, which never gave it a little tax payment. And I was one of the first to initiate that Mr. President, and then Mayor McGlynn signed a 10 year pilot program, which was severely underfunded, in my opinion, or not what it should have been for such an institution. But needless to say, Mr. President, this legislation doesn't say that the cities and towns have the authority to create their own policy or procedures. This states that it goes from voluntary to mandatory. That's a huge change, Mr. President, that could potentially impact every church in the community. And every nonprofit that's servicing homeless, that's servicing disabled, that's doing yeoman's work, Mr. President, this could have a giant impact. So I don't think it's as easy to say we should just support this. This has really far reaching impact on nonprofits, including churches, Mr. President, in this community.
[Bears]: I don't want to get into the minutiae, but the legislation that is proposed in the State House would not apply to churches or social service organizations. So there would not be mandatory payments for either of those groups.
[Marks]: That's from the gentleman I talked to that I think you've been speaking with, and that probably initiated this with you, that will be left up to cities and towns. Um, so I was told that that will be left up to cities and towns.
[Bears]: I believe he may have been not exempt. He had not gotten that wrong.
[Marks]: But well, that's that's the feedback I got. Um, you know, so And I as one member, I'm not going to go after churches, Mr. President, or any other nonprofit that's doing social services for our constituency.
[Bears]: If you read the legislation, it explicitly includes a specific category of nonprofits, which is the large educational and medical institutions. and excludes the church's religious organization.
[Marks]: Why don't you provide that language to us?
[Bears]: I believe I did when I proposed the original.
[Marks]: I'd ask that you provide it again. That's not my understanding.
[Bears]: I would be happy to. In any case, on your other point, which is the local action that we can take, I do have proposed ordinance language, and I would love to have a committee of the whole on what we could create as a local ordinance around pilot agreements.
[Caraviello]: City Council does not negotiate pilot agreements.
[Bears]: The Mayor does. Yes, this would create a framework, and actually I have had several discussions with the Mayor and residents on this.
[Caraviello]: Well, when the Mayor comes here with her suggestions, we'll take it up. But meanwhile, the Mayor is the chief negotiating officer of the city, and the Mayor negotiates pilot agreements, not the City Council. All right. So, on the motion by Council of Mayors, to receive a report, that's it.
[Bears]: I withdraw.
[Caraviello]: Motion to adjourn. 21496 offered by Councilor Marks, be it resolved that the method... that Medford Deputy Fire Chief Fran Fosco be recognized on his recent retirement after serving the residents of Medford with distinction for the past 34 years. Councilor Marks.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. For all of us that know Deputy Chief Fosco, he started up through the ranks, Mr. President, and worked his way up to deputy chief. And you couldn't meet a kinder, gentler man, Mr. President, a man who has raised a family, a man who has dedicated his life to the firefighting profession in the city of Medford, a man that always has been honored and respected in his field, and someone that really is going to be sorely missed. His breadth of knowledge regarding fire suppression, uh, regarding, uh, you know, fire management and, uh, just, uh, the administration of a fire department. Uh, it goes on matched and, uh, you know, personally, I wish he had a few more years because I think, uh, he would have made a great chief to be quite frank with him. Um, he's loved by, uh, his fellow firefighters. He's a man of reason, a man of knowledge. And I think someone that would have really done well in that role. But however, he is retiring. I want to wish him well. And I look forward to seeing him around the community, Mr. President. And I wish him well on any future endeavors. Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: Councilor Scott Belli. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Council, for bringing this forward. I think that Mr. Fusco is someone that I personally would reach out to if we had issues or concerns, and he'd be the first person to call back. Always had a solution to assist you in not leaving people in the lurch or leaving them dumbfounded. I think that Councilor Marks, as his knowledge of what he does, is second to none, and I agree. He would have been a great chief. But more than that, I think the respect And what he gets from his colleagues and the people that work for him, I think is pretty pretty impressive. So I think that it's again, you celebrate and you applaud and you congratulate him on his retirement, but it's definitely, they're definitely gonna be shoes that need to be filled by a few people, I think. So thank you, Mr. Fusco, and again, a great Medford family, and I'm glad he settled in this area to raise his family. So thank you so much. Thank you. Councilor Falco.
[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to thank Deputy Chief Fusco for his many years of commitment to our community, to the fire service, and wish him well in his retirement. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. And personally, I see him almost every day now. even though I wasn't seeing him before, but he had a little different job. He was a safety officer. He went around, he did inspections, and always made sure that the best interests of the city always came first. So, Brian, I'm glad I see you every day. Now you're a much more relaxed guy. Good luck in your retirements. All right, all in the motion by Councilor Marks, seconded by? Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Marks]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 21500 offered by Vice President Knight is asked to be tabled. 21501 by Vice President Knight is asked to be tabled. 21502 offered by Vice President Knight is asked to be tabled. I didn't get that part yet, hold on.
[SPEAKER_09]: Did I miss one? Oh yeah, I'm sorry.
[Caraviello]: 21497 also be tabled. Yeah, those are all the tables. So on the motion, Councilor Falco, you make the motion to table all those for Councilor Knight because he's not here?
[Falco]: Yes, I'd like to make the motion to table those resolutions offered by Councilor Knight until he returns.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, seconded by?
[Unidentified]: Seconded.
[Caraviello]: Seconded by Councilor Scarpelli, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed, motion passes. 21503, offered by Councilor Morell. It's all resolved that the city council requests that the administration provide an update on the implementation of the city's bicycle infrastructure master plan or any other comprehensive plans for bicycle infrastructure. Councilor Morell.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I have this on here because I've had a number of bike commuters reach out lately just about certain improvements to streets. A lot of those streets are referenced in the infrastructure master plan that was put together by the Bicycle Advisory Commission, which I know was meant to be used as a guide suggestions for DPW and a city engineer. And it is my understanding that these improvements are generally implemented only when a street is repaved. And as we know from this very council, a very small number of streets are repaved each year, and a number of them just aren't even in this plan. So, you know, noting that we've got the Great Clippership Connector, which is connecting a number of greenways and a number of bike paths that they, bikes are mentioned in the draft of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. And also just noting that ideally there will be hopefully substantial infrastructure money coming down from the federal level. I would just love an update from the administration on priorities around these improvements for bikes around the city if it's something that it's just going to keep being done kind of as we slowly repave streets. or if there is something in the works that if we do get infrastructure money, it'll be something we'll be moving quickly on. So I would just love an update so that it's something I can, you know, that can be shared with the cyclists and would-be cyclists in Medford.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Any further discussion? Second. Mr. Castaign, did you want to speak? Good evening, sir. Name and address of the record, please.
[Castagnetti]: Andrew Castagnetti, 23 Cushing Street, Medford, Massachusetts. I sincerely want to thank City Councilor Morell for bringing this up, especially the Clippership Connector part. It's very personal to me being injured in that location. I scribbled a few notes, I hope it makes sense, but this missing incomplete bike community path. And we in Medford have the best location in all of New England, in my opinion, five miles north of Boston with Route 93 here. But you know, they can't seem to finish off the missing link, the half mile right behind 99 Riverside Ave. I was supposed to wave to Mr. Sano, who lives there. Anyways, It's sad because you could go from West Method and beyond, actually, you come right through here, if you didn't have the half mile blockage to the Duggar Andrews, you could go clear to the MBTA stations without dealing with Route 16 or Route 28. That's huge as a safety concern. So it's long overdue. Personally, in my opinion, it should have been done 20 years ago about when they built the two new schools, so-called two new schools, with bike paths and footpaths that go underneath Route 16. Also, they should do this job right. Finish this half-mile missing link in the center of Medford Square with the Riparian Right Law. It's a 1600 Massachusetts law. And that means we the people have the right of pathway, egress, I believe it's 15 feet alongside waterways. In this case, the Mystic River and Blessing of the Bay. Please, build this missing link The part that's missing is right next to the Doug Randrew School, that piece of land there. And then the next piece would be the Riverside Yacht Club. And then heading towards the square would be two condo buildings, 54 to 68, Ship Ave, I believe. And by the way, they have two fences on each end of the property. that go from the sidewalk all the way to the river, which, in my opinion, under riparian rights, is illegally built on the people's egress land. And then there's another building going towards 93 that will be the last building, the 76th shipyard, large condo complex of approximately 20 units. They have plenty of land and they didn't build any fences on top of the people's land. And it continues around where I actually broke my hand with a bike injury when my bike found one of two potholes, four feet wide, one to two feet deep. They're still there. They put cones there. I found one on the river today, took my bike ride again. I put one cone inside the hole. The DCR, they should at least fill in the potholes, which is grass. And the storm outfall number is OF04100. And then it continues, the missing link I should say, does not continue, underneath 93 to behind the senior citizen center, which is the building in the back where Mr. Sano lives at 99 Riverside Avenue, the high affordable rent building. It's a lousy half a mile, we're talking like 10, 15 miles beyond Arlington, Lexington possibly. Are you kidding? This is ridiculous. Excuse my lack of 10 cent words here, but I understand the wheels of government work slowly, but 20 years and still waiting is ridiculous. Come on, man. Let's get the missing half-mile path done now and complete the 10-mile plus route to the MBTA assembly row and station landing, and safely keep with the people off the streets, especially Route 16 and Route 28. This is a no-brainer. Please, city, wake up.
[Caraviello]: We recently received some funds from the federal government for the station landing area to do a bridge and some more of the walkway. I think Councilor Falco and myself are there for the dedication.
[Castagnetti]: Last week's transcript? No, is that? It's going underneath Route 28, like some of them already did it at my path to Sunday Road. They already have that. This is great. Barbara is the rep? Yes. Right. But you know, I'm talking about the center of method over 20 effing years. Come on, people.
[Caraviello]: I don't want to speak French no more. That's a DCR project. They know they're working on it. Is the clippership approved?
[Bears]: Yeah. Yeah, the clippership, it's approved. Right.
[Castagnetti]: And are they actually going to build it on our property? As far as the egress next to the river behind those condo complexes? Because they were complaining. Yes. Yeah. Or they have to build a little bit onto the water. in order to give them a break, which they don't need. They already built the fence on our land. I'm speaking straight English here. That's wrong. I'm sorry, my heart bleeds, my head broke, I was bleeding, broke my hand, I have receipts and bills like this. I did not sue DCR or the city. All I'm asking for is common sense 20 years later. Thank you for listening.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Morell. On the motion by Councilor Morell, seconded by? Second. Seconded by Councilor Bears. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 21-504 offered by Councilor Morell being so resolved that the City Council receive an update from the administration. on transportation network company TNC fees anticipated to be allocated to Medford and any plans for said fees. Councilor Morell.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, since the implementation of these fees for essentially ride share, these have been used for a number of projects, but because of the pandemic, I know these companies took a hit, they weren't going out as often. So I'm just curious if there's any update that the administration can provide on what those numbers actually look like this year based on the lower rates of use. I know it was some topic of debate with the transportation bill, but just, it still stands the fact that these, these companies went out so much less during the pandemic. So I'm curious what we can look at, what we're anticipating with that, and if there are any specific projects that this money is earmarked for. So just seeking an update. Second.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Now on the motion by Councilor Morell, seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 21-505 offered by Councilor Falco. be a result that the administration provide the Medford City Council with an update in regards to the private investigator that was hired by the administration on or before June 23rd, 2021. Councilor Falco.
[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. This is a simple request to receive an update as to where the investigation stands and when it will be complete with regard to the allegations that were brought by the former CFO. Move approval.
[Caraviello]: So on the motion by Councilor Falco, seconded by Seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor?
[SPEAKER_04]: Aye.
[Caraviello]: All those opposed? Motion passes.
[Falco]: Mr. President, if I could withdraw the next resolution.
[Caraviello]: Okay, yeah, we got something in that. 2-1-5-0-7, an offer by Councilor Bez. Oh, here we go. Councilor Marksley, I've got a couple of things on there if you want to take care of them.
[Marks]: 21498. Paper 21498 offered by President Caraviello be it so resolved that the Medford City Council send its deepest and sincere condolences. Paper 21-493 offered by President Caraviello. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council request that DCR make openings in the guardrail at Duggar Park for easier access into the park. Council President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I've been approached by some members of the park commission in regards to the guardrail over by Duggar Park. There's only like one opening or two and the other one is five down. For some people, it's hard getting over the guardrail. So we're asking that DCR make a couple of more openings, especially over by the basketball court and a little further down so they can be more openings so people can just a little easier egress into the park. So again, if we could send that to our state delegation and to DCR to open that up.
[Scarpelli]: I can amend that. Councilor Scarpelli. Thank you for Councilor Caravielloo bringing that forward. I know that, you know, with the updates now with the tennis courts and as you see what goes on at Duggar Park and how much of a vital pocket is the community there. I often thought why those guardrails are even there. I think that there's gotta be something more pleasing to the eye. I know that there is the post and reel type of guardrail. So it'd be interesting to see if we could ask the South State delegations to look at maybe converting that old rod iron, which is pretty dangerous on the other side, very dangerous on the other side, that we can look at more traditional, you know, fencing that's used. If there's any even needed. I know that there's a need because I think there's no sidewalk, I believe. But I think we need something there. But I think that there are so many aesthetically pleasing, you know, solutions we can use. I know that they have just the, it has the wood look that has the post and rail look. I think it looks so much classier, more inviting and allows the openings along as you walk. So, and provides the safety that's needed. But I know a few times with kids that are playing basketball and, you know, I know it's further away, but someone's taking a run at that and they run into that guardrail. I'm shocked we haven't, at least we haven't heard. any more serious incidents. So if you allow me to amend that to ask the state delegates to look at replacing that altogether.
[Marks]: All in the motion by President Caraviello, further amended by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Paper 21-498, authored by President Caraviello. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council send its deepest and sincere condolences to the family of Mary D. DeFranzo Coletta. On her recent passing, Mary serviced the city of Medford as treasure collector until 1991. President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to send the condolences to the family of Mary. She was our treasurer for many years and though I didn't know her personally, some friends and family asked me to put that on and I'd just like to send the condolences to her family for her work to the city of Medford.
[Marks]: On the motion by President Caraviello. All those in favor? Second by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Paper 21-499 offered by President Caraviello. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please rise for a moment of silence. Thank you. Paper 21-499 offered by President Caraviello. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council demand that the DCI cut the weeds on Route 16 at the Main Street Bridge and all surrounding areas of the bridge that have not been cut in two years. Please send this correspondence to Senator Jalen and Representative Babba for immediate assistance. Council President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, this is something I put on last year, and I asked, and now I'm kind of demanding, I mean, the weeds are, six feet tall, especially on the bridge area, and that whole area all along the Craddock Bridge, the Main Street Bridge and over there, I'd say severely overgrown, the weeds are growing everywhere onto the road. I say they haven't been cleaned in two years. Please, if we can, if they can please get those done. It's an eyesore for our community. So I request that we contact our two separate representatives, represent that area and get the DC out on it just to clean that up. It's a mess.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. Councilor Falco.
[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. Councilor Caraviello for bringing this forward. I was down in that area the past couple of weeks at the farmer's market and also at one of the MFN concerts, and it is really overgrown. It needs to be addressed. I saw a parent walking their child on the sidewalk and the weeds were taller than the kid. And that's just unacceptable. And the DCR needs to do a better job of actually maintaining their property within our city. If you go to any of their properties within the city, it's just overgrown, and it has been mowed in ages, and we always have to ask for it to be mowed. It's never mowed on its own. So if I could amend the resolution to get some sort of a maintenance schedule from DCR as to how often they come to our city to maintain their properties, because to me, it always seems like they're not maintaining them unless we're asking, and they should be able to manage that on their own, without us getting involved but I want to see some sort of maintenance schedule so if the Councilor would allow I'd like to amend the resolution.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President, if I could ask one more time, you know, with the advent of you know we have the, the, the people down there with the paddle Boston. I asked every year. please get the trees out of the water down there, especially with the Craddock Bridge, where those people rent the canoes and the kayaks. In that whole area, there's trees that are falling in the water and sticking up. Someone's gonna get hurt there at one time. And again, I've asked probably three to four different times over the years, send someone down there and get the trees out of the water so nobody gets hurt in that water down there, in that Craddock area where Paddle Boston is. If I could amend that motion also.
[Marks]: On the motion of President Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli, further amended by Councilor Falco, and further amended by President Caraviello. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The amendment is adopted. Motion to take the papers in the hands of the clerk. Do we have something else?
[Caraviello]: Councilor Bear says he was out when it got to him.
[Marks]: My apologies. Yep. My apologies. Paper 21-507 offered by Councilor Bears. Be resolved by the Medford City Council that the utility pole blocking the middle of the sidewalk on Boston Ave across from the new Greenline Extension Station be moved to ensure full ADA access. Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. We have in this specific area, it's kind of right in between the garage where Tufts Police is and the heating and cooling building. There are three poles in the sidewalk right next to each other. One of them is holding a streetlight. The other two seem to be holding phone lines, electric lines, that kind of thing. The one holding the streetlight is dead center of the sidewalk, and you have to basically go in, out, up and around. And I don't even know if you could fit a wheelchair through there. So that pole really needs to be removed. All of those services could be consolidated onto one pole that would not obstruct the access. And especially with the Greenline extension coming in, you know, that's gonna be a very highly trafficked area. So I would hope that with the construction and everything going on, that this is something that could be addressed quickly. Thank you.
[Marks]: On the motion by Councilor Abuez, seconded by Councilor Falco. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. We have papers in the hands of the clerk. Motion to take papers in the hands of the clerk, Councilor Falco. Motion to take papers in the hands of the clerk. All in favor? Seconded by Councilor, President Felk. Caraviello. All in favor? Ayes have it. Mr. Clerk, papers in the hands of the clerk.
[Caraviello]: Those are seconded, Councilor Scapelli is a second in those. As a co-sponsor in those.
[SPEAKER_09]: So this is Vice President Knight and Councilor Scapelli under suspension. Vice President Knight, Councilor Scapelli under suspension. President Caraviello under suspension.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Paper 21-510 offered by under suspension by Vice President Knight and Councilor Scarpelli, be it so resolved that the Medford City Council recognize Michael McDevitt for his ongoing and unparalleled support to the veterans in the city of Medford and be it further resolved that the Medford City Council extend its gratitude and congratulations to Michael McDevitt for being named post 45 member of the year.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President, I know Council and I wanted to be a talk on his good friend Mike McDevitt, I think that Mike is a fixture, and his family's method method icons I think that Mike deserves. Congratulations, and a pat on the back because he uses. the post for so many outreach events for community events to bring our community together. And he's a catalyst behind that. So I just want to thank him and congratulate him. And I hope that my colleagues join me with that. Thank you, Councilor Scott Felly. Councilor Falco.
[Falco]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I'd also like to thank, well, congratulate Michael McDevitt-Falco. It's hard work with the veterans and congratulate him. Congratulate him for being named with the honor that Councilor Scott mentioned earlier, and I wanted to thank him for all his hard work with regard to the veterans in our community. Thank you.
[Marks]: Thank you, Councilor. Council President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Again, I want to thank Michael for all his work with the veterans, being the veteran subcommittee chairman. I see the work that he does out there, and again, it's a good honor for him, and congratulations to him.
[Marks]: And if I could from the chair, anyone else? If I could from the chair, I want to thank Vice President Knight and Councilor Scarpelli for putting this on. Mike Devitt has been absolutely stalwart when it comes to veteran affairs in our community for many, many years. And his name is synonymous with assisting veterans and keeping the memory of veterans alive in this community. So I want to personally thank him. On the motion by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Paper 21-511 offered under suspension by Vice President Knight and Councilor Scarpelli. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council make the following announcement in support of Medford's veterans. There will be a veterans rally on Thursday, September 2nd between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. at Medford City Hall to raise awareness concerning veterans rights and benefits. All are welcome to attend in support of our local heroes. Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Again, I think that once the word came out such an event, I think anytime that we have an opportunity to celebrate and stand hand in hand with our veterans, I think we as a community have to stand up and do so. So I thank Councilor Knight for bringing this initiative forward and giving me the opportunity to spread the word and making sure that we all find our way to supporting our veterans that day and letting them know that the city of Medford truly, truly appreciates everything they've done for us and where we've come, where we are today and where we go tomorrow. I think our veterans are a key part and a cornerstone of that vision. So thank you, Mr. President.
[Marks]: All in the motion by Councilor Scott Peli, seconded by President Caraviello. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Paper 21-512 offered under suspension by Vice President Caraviello. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council send its deepest and sincere condolences to the family of Frances Gianetti on her recent passing. Frances served the city of Medford for 20 years as an employee of the city of Medford under Mayor Parika and Mayor McGlynn. in various positions. Council President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Just want to know, I knew Fran, and Fran, she was a fixture of this building for many years. She worked with two different mayors. She held many positions there, and she was a well-loved member of this building and the community. So just send my condolences to the family. She will be missed.
[Marks]: Thank you. And if I could from the chair, Mr. President, I wanna thank you for offering this. When I first got elected to the council, Fran was one of the first people I met in city government. And she always had a welcoming word, a smile on her face. No matter how many times I may have butt heads with the mayor that she was working for, she was always extremely friendly and kind. And I always appreciated that about Fran, and she will be sorely missed. On the motion by Council President Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Please rise for a moment of silence.
[Caraviello]: The motion by Councilor Bailão to take papers 21, 4, 5, 0 off the table. Seconded by. Seconded. Okay. It's taking its third reading this evening. Personal ordinance amendments A, B, and D. They were advertised on January, July 13th, August 5th, and August 17th. And tonight they're also for the third reading. On the motion by Councilor Behr for approval. Seconded by?
[Marks]: Second.
[Caraviello]: Seconded by Councilor Marks. Mr. Clerk, please call the rollers. Take it to take it straight away.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Councilor Falco. Yes. Vice president is absent. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Morell. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Yes. Six affirmative one absent. Motion passes. What's the committees? Two zero. 573 July 20 21 public works subcommittee Council biz.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President, this is our strong crew working on snow removal ordinance. Thank you to Councilors marks and Falco for the continued work. we got to, I believe, an agreement on the first section of language for our new ordinance. We requested that the building commissioner and the city solicitor provide language around the enforcement and fee structure for snow removal going forward. And we also received, you know, communication from local 25 and Vice President Steve South regarding the priority sidewalk program and whether that would be outsourced by the city administration or whether it would be done by union workers. And we requested that the union and the city administration meet together to discuss the priority sidewalk program. My hope is that, A, that that meeting has happened, and that the other requests that we made of city staff on this issue have been fulfilled, and we can hopefully meet again relatively soon. I would guess at this point, probably in the month of September, to at least advance this further, if not, hopefully have the answers we are seeking, and maybe move this, report this out to the larger body.
[Caraviello]: Okay, on the motion, report this out. By Councilor Bears, second and by. Second. Second by Councilor Falco. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 20568, July 14th, Committee of the Whole, report regarding zoning with Jay Hrabowski. We are coming close to finishing this up and hopefully we're waiting for him to give us a date for hopefully the last meeting before we send it to the OCD board. So Councilor Scarpelli on the motion to report this out, report this favorably.
[Bears]: Second.
[Caraviello]: Seconded by Councilor Bears. All in favour? Aye. Motion passes. 19-070, July 28th, Subcommittee on Zoning report to follow. Councilor Falco, is that you?
[Unidentified]: Yes. We met on live.
[Scarpelli]: Maggie Tootin.
[Caraviello]: Okay. Second, on the motion by Councilor Falco for approval seconded by Councilor Scarpelli all those in favor. All those opposed motion passes. I think records to Adam. I think I got everything yes, anything. Council is not here on the motion by Council of bears, the table the records, Mr. President.
[Scarpelli]: I'm sorry, I jumped the gun table the records and then I have something to share on the motion by Councilor bears seconded by Councilor Scott play the table the records.
[Caraviello]: All in favor.
[Scarpelli]: All right. All those opposed motion passes. Mr. President just want to share a date with everyone. Saturday morning, we'll be celebrating the, the life of Jimmy Madonna. uh, method, legend, and, uh, um, unbelievable young man who passed way too soon. They'll be doing a huge fundraiser to support scholarships and other ventures for our kids here in Medford. It'll be a wiffle ball tournament. That's still some openings. I know that the team is working very hard. And then we'll have a I know Mr. Tanaka is working very hard. to prepare the 50 70 field that's in the far corner of car park to be, um, be renamed after Jimmy Maturana. And we're going to have, uh, Billy O'Keefe and Babe Ruth is going to do a two inning ceremonial baseball game with Method Babe Ruth players. And then just like I said, just a great community day. It starts at nine o'clock, and I believe the ceremony is looking to be at two o'clock for the dedication. So it's going to be a long day with a lot of fun and a lot of great stories. for a great young man that's gone way too soon. So thank you. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Anybody else? Anything else?
[Marks]: Mr. President, if I could. Um, recently, the mayor's office submitted a press release regarding the strong stump removal in this community. And from what I can gather, the mayor is subcontracting out to a private vendor. The removal of I think the article stated 26 tree stumps in the city of Medford. The last count that I think I received, which I think is sorely underestimated, was there was about 575 stumps. And I believe it's much higher than that. Just from my informal, you know, cursory of the community. And so it was quite disappointing to see a press release go out that addresses roughly 5% of the stumps that have been in this community for tens of years, to be quite frank. And I am very disappointed to see that we couldn't deal with these stumps in one fell swoop rather than just piecemeal it once again Mr. President, as we heard today, there's trees being cut down, and those will be added to the stump list, and we're never going to get ahead of this. So I have to express my disappointment with this latest attempt to get ahead of some of the concerns that I'm hearing from the community, which is stump removal, poor sidewalk conditions, and very poor road conditions in this community, Mr. President. And I don't think that addresses anything by removing 5% of what we have out there. It doesn't sound like a game plan to me. Thank you, Mr. President.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. If I may also just, I know it's in the agenda, but our September meeting is moved to the 21st instead of the 14th. So we will be meeting the 21st of September.
[Marks]: Mr. President also. Yes, sir. Just while we're on the topic of tree stumps and poor condition of our city streets and sidewalks, the mayor also came out with a press release recently, Mr. President, asking residents to adopt a catch basin. So we are now asking residents to clean catch basins, which I always thought for years, and I've always asked during budget, we have a contract out to clean catch basins. So I'm not quite sure what direction we're going in this community, Mr. President, but we have to start asking residents to clean catch basins, I think is way out of whack Mr. President, and that's not what we should be asking residents to do in this community. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Excuse me. Yes, sir.
[Castagnetti]: Name and address of the record please cast a netting on the subject of Councilor Marks about the condition of the city. I once made a comment is looking. It's looking like Chelsea around here but I was, I was corrected. I looked at Chelsea Chelsea looks a lot better. I can point out defects and, but I don't want to complain too much behind doors with a difference for one example, the bricks are sticking up like eight inches. It's incredible, and with the snow, you don't see that. But anyways, besides what my wife felt, Mr. Caballero tried to bring up that issue before we went on vacation. In front of Doris, what a difference, and she ripped her shoulder apart. I want to thank you, Councilors, for bringing up these concerns. But you know something? Out of 550 tree stumps, and we're going to fix 10%, maybe 50. I used to be involved with methadoncinitis. a chairman at that time, 2001 until Councilor Moss recalls. You know something? Put a planter with a hanging plant over it. Good night.
[Marks]: Thank you, sir. Motion to adjourn. Mr. President, if I could, it's not on the agenda, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention I did bump into a resident this morning. His mother, elderly mother, lives on Dwyer Circle. It's imperative that she gets out during the day and exercise, but unfortunately she's unable to because of all the uneven sidewalk panels on Dwyer Circle. And I'd ask, challenge any of my colleagues to go out and take a walk around Dwyer Circle. This is not a private way. It's a public road, Mr. President. It's in deplorable condition, the road and the sidewalks. And, you know, I'm not going to put it formally, but these are the type of things, Mr. President, when you talk about quality of life, here's a woman that can't get out because they're afraid of a trip and fall hazard in front of her own home.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Thank you. And if I can remind everybody, go out and vote. Go out and vote on September 14th. I'm sorry? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Castagnetti. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Motion to adjourn. On the motion by Councilor Bears, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor.
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