[Falco]: The fifth regular meeting of the Medford City Council will now come to order.
[Hurtubise]: Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll. Council Bears. Present. Vice President Caraviello. Present. Councilor Knight. Present. Councilor Marks. Present. Councilor Morell. Present. Councilor Scarpelli. Present. President Falco.
[Falco]: Present. Seven present. At this time I would ask everyone to please rise to salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
[Caraviello]: Justice for all. Mr. President, motion to suspend the rules to take paper 2059, communications from the mayor.
[Falco]: On the motion of Councilor Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Knight to suspend the rules to take paper out of order. All those in favor?
[Caraviello]: Aye.
[Falco]: All those opposed? The motion passes. 20-059, communications from the mayor. Joint resolution to make Medford hunger free. It is hereby resolved by her honor, the Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, the Honorable Medford City Council and Honorable Medford School Committee that. Whereas hunger and poverty are issues of grave concern in the United States, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the city of Medford. Whereas Medford is committed to educating people about food insecurity and the importance of food banks and alleviating hunger in our communities. Food insecurity is a persistent and significant reality in Medford, where 1 in 10 people, 1 in 8 children, and 1 in 14 seniors do not know where their next meal will come from. Whereas the Greater Boston Food Bank and its member agencies provide vital hunger relief services to our most valuable neighbors, Whereas, Medford shall strive to work with hunger relief organizations to make Eastern Massachusetts hunger-free by supporting access to three healthy meals a day for our residents in need. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City of Medford, by her honor, the Mayor, the Honorable City Council, and the Honorable Medford School Committee, that one, Medford will set the goal to be hunger-free no later than January 1st, 2028, and two, that all residents of Medford are respectfully requested to take note of this joint resolution and participate fittingly in achieving this important and worthwhile goal. If we could please have your name and address for the record, please.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, 19 Richard Street, Mayor of Medford. Good evening, everybody. Thank you. Good evening. To the two new Councilors, you look very nice in those seats. We're here before you. I have Saram McGivern from the Board of Health, as well as the COO of the Greater Boston Food Bank here with us tonight, just to give you some statistics on hunger in Medford and obviously the Commonwealth. This is a pledge that was brought to my attention several weeks back, and it's something that I believe strongly in, and I'm sure you all do, to try to reach the goal on or before, before would be great, 2028 to declare Medford hunger-free. Right now, one in 10 people are hungry, one in eight children. There are children in our schools, families that we see at the baseball fields, seniors that can't get out of their homes. So I thank you for taking this pledge with us. The Medford School Committee voted last night unanimously to also take this pledge. We have a number of different things we want to bring awareness to. One is the new food pantry. The grand opening that I hope you all can make is in a couple of weeks, the Walnut Street Center on Mystic Ave. It has a beautiful pantry set up, so that is going to help tremendously in our community. We also have micro pantries that have been installed up and around different churches. We have one being built by our Department of Public Works. I think they built it in one day that is going to go up in front of City Hall. City Hall is going to sponsor it. The mayor's office is going to take charge. We're going to have everybody sign the proclamation and laminate it and put it on the side of the food pantry, so I'd love you all to get involved. It's to spread awareness and to reduce the stigma for those that need help, who are insecure when it comes to food, and this is just a great step in moving Medford forward. So I would like to bring up the professionals on the topic, and they've worked very hard on this as well as a whole host of things in Medford and we greatly appreciate the steps we've been able to take.
[SPEAKER_06]: Could you please have your name and address for the record? Of course. I hope you don't mind I read from notes. I made such a mess of it last night that I'll just read through this. Good evening, Councilors. My name is Carol Tinken. I am a Medford resident living at 261 Governors Avenue. I'm also the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Distribution Services at the Greater Boston Food Bank, the largest food bank in New England and the 12th largest food bank in the United States. I am here before you this evening to commend you on this proclamation, and thank you for your leadership in this important step to ensure all Medford residents have access to healthy food. By setting this high standard, Medford will show other cities and towns in the Commonwealth that there is not only a commitment to end hunger, but an action to end hunger. In the past two and a half years, in partnership with the City, the Malden YMCA, Project Bread, St. Francis, St. Ray's, and the Unitarian Universalist Pantries, and the Medford Schools, we've been able to move Med from the third largest meal gap in eastern Massachusetts to the seventh place, the third being we were only putting enough food in Medford for one meal a day for the people who need it. And just to give you an idea of how much that is, roughly 900 to a million meals are needed in Medford annually to feed those who are not able to access food. So right now we are about 200,000 meals short of that goal, a little bit more than 200,000, so we've made enormous progress. In the last year, we, as the mayor rightly said, we're looking at that 2028 goal, but we're expecting to beat it. And certainly the new pantry will help support all the other pantries, but that has yet to be seen when it's open. The hunger-free, that is, access to hungry food is within our reach. Once we reach it, we need to sustain it. That will be the key to making this pledge what is really have feet. And again, we will use this as leadership, a leadership opportunity for us to show other cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts and in the commonwealth. that this can be done. The Food Security Task Force will continue to be at the center of this work and I'm here to assure you that the Greater Boston Food Bank will stand with this community in lockstep and certainly as I'm a resident I have a lot to hang my hat on to make sure that that happens. I'm going to yield to my colleague from Project Bread who will provide you with some more data.
[SPEAKER_17]: Hello my name is Sarah and I'm a resident here in Medford I live at 16 6th Street and I'm the vice president of programs and policy. work at Project Bread. So you are very fortunate you have two powerhouses right here in the city of Medford. Project Bread has worked really closely over the last several years with Medford Public Schools and this year we helped to launch free breakfast in all of the school buildings across the city. And we also work with the YMCA and with parks and playgrounds to provide summer meals to kids in need who rely on school lunch and school breakfast during the school year. Because we know that there are a growing number of kids who are struggling with food insecurity. And as I'm sure you're aware, there's even a growing number of kids who are struggling with homelessness here in this City, and so we want to ensure that kids always have reliable, healthy meals every single day so that they can grow and thrive and take advantage of all that Medford has to offer. So I thank you for your consideration around this pledge. Thank you for working together with us, Project Bread, and with the Greater Boston Food Bank, and with the Food Security Task Force here.
[Falco]: Thank you.
[s-4VJY_TglE_SPEAKER_01]: Hi, I'm Sarah McGivern, 63 Watervale Road. I'm the Mass in Motion Coordinator in the Board of Health. I'm the coordinator of the Food Security Task Force. which convened about two years ago to work on issues related to hunger in our community. We recognized that there were a lot of people that were trying to work on getting people food secure, but they weren't all working together. So in fall of 2017, we started meeting and trying to get some common goals. The first thing we did was we did a food assessment for the city and we published this food plan, which I brought the summary copies for you. So this food plan, we spent a lot of time writing and researching and looking at best practices from other communities. And there are a lot of recommendations in there for what our city can do to become more food secure. So that was published two years after we started meeting, and now we're at a point where we're really proud because the school committee and the city councilor and the mayor and our leaders in our community are all coming together and saying, you're all coming together and saying you're making this a priority, that we need to make sure that nobody in our city goes hungry. So we really thank you for this attention, your attention to this matter. And also we are one of the first communities, we think probably the first community in the Commonwealth to be doing this, so thank you.
[0SdCkR9KuqQ_SPEAKER_06]: Hello, good evening. My name is Marian O'Connor. I'm the Director of Board of Health for the City of Bedford. And I want to thank you on behalf of putting forth this resolution tonight. It is truly a public health victory for the City of Bedford. To think there is one child, one adult, one senior citizen that doesn't know where their next meal is coming from in this country, in this state, is a tragedy. to know to the extent that it's happening here in Medford is really a call to action. And your resolution tonight is really a call to action for all the residents of Medford to get behind this effort to eradicate hunger and security in this community. I want to applaud the Food Security Task Force led by Sara. and the work that they've done. The food plan is really a blueprint for how we can achieve these goals. I also sincerely want to thank the Greater Boston Food Bank and the Malden YMCA for their efforts in helping us really move the needle tremendously in this endeavor. So again, thank you deeply from the bottom of my heart for this resolution tonight. It's great.
[Falco]: Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to applaud everybody for bringing this forward. I don't think people actually know that Medford has a food shortage. I think everybody thinks we're a nice, wealthy community. We're not wealthy, but life is good here. But there are many, many families that struggle with food that I know of. And I've been happy to do my part with St. Francis Food Bank and St. Ray's and the Unitarian Church over the years. And you actually get to see the amount of people that do need food on a weekly basis, and I applaud. the task force for bringing this forward. And I would like, hopefully we can move up this date to a closer date rather than that long. Can you give us the date for Walnut Street? I don't think you gave that. For the Walnut Street Food Bank. February 14th, Valentine's Day. And can we urge people to bring donations that day?
[Falco]: Excuse me, if you could come forward, just because there's people watching at home on TV, and so everyone gets the correct information.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think it's gonna be pretty crowded that day. Okay. But if people do, I'm sure that they won't go wasted at all. But I know that the RSVP list right now is quite high.
[Caraviello]: And I applaud you for your work at the food bank, too. I've been there many times. Thank you very much. It's a great building, great facility.
[SPEAKER_06]: We appreciate that. Thank you. And I am very proud to be a Medford resident and seeing this happen. This is great.
[Caraviello]: I was actually there for the opening, when you opened it up.
[SPEAKER_06]: Where did you, really?
[Caraviello]: Yeah, a long time ago, when you first opened. That's awesome. I commend you for your work. Thank you, Councilor. Thank you.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Okay. Oh, Councilor Marks first.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Mayor Lungo-Koehn for presenting this joint resolution. I also would like to thank the Greater Boston Food Bank, as well as Project Bread and our very own Method Food Security Task Force for doing yeoman's work on this subject. The question I have, and maybe this is for our own task force, is that the 2019 food plan goals Is that how we're going to arrive at making method hunger free over the next several years? And if so, if you could describe, I know there's some broad strokes listed, removal of systematic barriers to food security, improved access to food assistance programs. How will this be done in order for us to move forward?
[s-4VJY_TglE_SPEAKER_01]: Well, this sheet that you have in front of you is a summary of the greater version of the food plan, which is on the city website, and it's really long and much more detailed. But I think the answer is that the Food Security Task Force is part of my part-time position in the Board of Health, and I'm the only person who's paid to be running it. It really depends on the partners and the capacity that they have. For example, this new food pantry that's opening on the 14th is a collaboration between the Malden Y and the Greater Boston Food Bank, and it's them who have decided to put their resources together to make this happen. I mean, the city is not paying for it or doesn't have a lot of control over how that happened, besides just saying that there's a need and then our partners that work in our city responded to it. There are lots of ideas, but there's not really a concrete plan of exactly what's going to happen when. If you have an idea of how we could do something more detailed, let's set up a time to talk.
[Marks]: Okay, thank you for that. I think part of the concern that I see is the fact that disseminating information out to the public, and how do we get into the circles where we may have a larger need? And I'm not sure quite how to do that, to be honest with you, and maybe we can do some brainstorming. In my other life, I work with homeless families. And I can tell you right now that probably a majority, if not all, of our families that we service through the Department of Housing and Community Development do have food insecurities. And the Greater Boston Food Bank has done tremendous work in assisting 3,600 families currently right now. that the state houses to get them off the street. And in my opinion, when you end food insecurity, you also need to end homelessness. And they go hand in hand.
[s-4VJY_TglE_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's a really good point. And the reason why we have chosen to work on food is because it's a little bit easier than working on, say, the cost of living, or fair wages, or this big looming housing crisis that we have, like getting food to people compared to those other problems is a little bit easier. So I don't have a good answer for you.
[Marks]: You know, I've been on this council, uh, 18 years and I could tell you over the last year or two, I received more phone calls from people that are living out of their car that lived in the city, can no longer afford to live here, but maybe in their car living in the cemetery or behind the mall, and it's happening more and more. And it's really at a point right now that I think we as a community have to step up and address this issue that for years maybe just went under the radar. But I'm seeing it more and more, I'm fielding the phone calls now. And I think we should work in conjunction with your task force as well as any other agency that would like to step up and assist our homeless families that are coming from the city. These aren't people that are just moving into the community. These are families that have lived here for many years that all of a sudden, because of the economy, they can't keep up and they become homeless. And it's at an epidemic proportion right now. But I appreciate all the work you're doing. I do support this and will support this tonight.
[0SdCkR9KuqQ_SPEAKER_06]: I appreciate you bringing all those issues up to the forefront, because we see that every day becoming more and more of an issue in the Department of Public Health, even particularly for seniors who are trying to live in their homes, who can no longer afford to keep them up or to stay there, and issues snowball. Again, Sarah's position is part-time. It's grant-funded. We don't know when that grant will end, and it's unfortunately most of the work we do around these issues are not city funded, they're grant funded. So going forward, maybe we can have a discussion as to how we can sustain these wonderful jobs and positions that do this kind of work with city funding. I appreciate it.
[Falco]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor Marks. Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President, and I just want to thank everyone who's here. And I also want to thank you for giving us multiple at-bats on this, going to the school committee, coming here, because I don't think enough people in Medford know these statistics. They're pretty shocking. I'm just going to repeat them. 1 in 10 residents of the city facing food insecurity, 1 in 8 children facing food insecurity, 1 in 14 seniors facing food insecurity. And I think every time we can say that, on public access television and wherever else so that people know it's a problem is important. I think Councilor Marks and Sra and Marianne and others brought up a really good point which is that addressing food insecurity is an intersectional issue and the work that we do around housing affordability and the cost of living and the economy and making sure Medford works for everyone who lives here helps address this problem. That doesn't mean we don't have food plans and food-based solutions but I think we need to think of it holistically. I, in my other life, work with college students and workers on campuses, and this is a huge problem there. I was lucky enough to be at a Greater Boston Food Bank sponsored event and Project Bread and a bunch of others talking about housing and food insecurity, homelessness, and hunger on public college campuses. Upwards of 25% of students at community colleges in Massachusetts are facing hunger on a regular basis. Upwards of 10% of community college students are facing housing insecurity or homelessness on a regular basis. So some of those people live here. Some of those people live in Medford and go to school at these places. And I just want to bring that into the conversation and thank the groups that are here who are working to address that. I also want to thank the MicroPantry group and the Board of Health as well. Yeah, I think I've said almost everything I want to say, and I'm really happy about the intentional approach and the progress that we've made, but I want to make sure that we get the resources that we need to address it and that we can do our best to try to integrate food and food insecurity into the other conversations we're having about what it means to live in Medford. Thanks.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much, and thank you, Madam Mayor, and to your team for putting together such a well-thought-out proclamation. Ultimately, the matter before us is comprehensive data-driven collaborative effort that was put together between community stakeholders working together towards a common goal. It's something that I support wholeheartedly today, Mr. President, and it's something that I'll support wholeheartedly in the future when we continue to talk about ways that we can come up with funding mechanisms to continue to fulfill positions of vital need here in the community. So I thank the administration for bringing this resolution and proclamation forward and would move approval on the matter.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilman Knight. Councilor Morell. Councilor Morell.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I really just want to echo what my fellow councilors have been saying. I appreciate everyone for coming out, for the mayor, for putting this forward, and to Mary, and for really putting a fine point on the fact that we have a number of great programs going on in Medford, but the funding mostly comes from outside, or almost entirely comes from outside sources. I emailed Sarah about this, and she gave me a great listing of different ways that these services are delivered and can be delivered beyond just kind of like the standard food bank that we think of different ways to have people get access to this stuff. So again, echoing Councilor Knight and the point that looking as it's budget time, funding sources are ways that we can really address this problem and help to add on to how we can fix this problem in Medford. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Morell.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you all. I just wanted to answer a little bit about Councilor Marks' question and just in a way of an update. I'll be sending out a press release within the next few days of all the open board and committee positions. commission positions that are available as well as any other task force, pilot programs that the mayor's office is going to see if there's interest in, and one of those will be an affordable housing task force. So I think it's hopefully there'll be some interest in the council as well, but ways to create more affordable housing in Medford. We also have our Office of Community Development that is working on a housing production plan. We are putting out an RFQ for a consultant to do a housing production plan. We're also working on a number of different things related to housing and the 340B projects that are before us. So I just wanted to give you those in the way of updates. I want to thank you for your support. Thank my chief of staff, David, who is here tonight as well. My family came because it's... Yes, I have two chief of staff, David. My family brought them here, as well as Sarah, who brought her son here, because it is such an important issue. And thank you to Sarah, to Sarah, to Carol, and Mary Ann for working so diligently on this. It was a group effort, and you're part of that group. So thank you. I have the proclamation here to sign, and after you take the vote, I will pass it around. Thank you very much.
[Scarpelli]: Councilor Scarpelli. Thank you, Mr. President. I won't be redundant. I know what my fellow Councilors said is very important. I know that as a former teacher and a coach, the avenues and the partnerships of the school is going to be vital. Working in my capacity in recreation in Somerville, one of the biggest partnerships we have are the school department. And one thing we realized is we realized how many of our young men that we, at the coaching side, how many kids have serious concerns, you know, that they come in in the morning with their free breakfast, free lunch, and then some of those kids don't eat again until Monday morning. So I know we took an active role in really You're looking at our athletic department, our guidance department, really looking at those individuals and using those avenues because there's a connection there where kids have trust in those people and to reach those families. And once that started, it really took off. And we've reached out to a few different organizations that will be hopefully working with Method soon about doing some food drives and really do some great things here in Method. So I'm really excited about this because where I was seeing it, it was really in a bubble. And now being the first in the Commonwealth, we're really bringing this out on the forefront. So I give the mayor a lot of credit and city staff and volunteers. I think this is amazing. So, um, kudos and I support this 100 100%. Thank you.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. And before I call the roll, or before the clerk calls the roll, I'd just like to thank everyone for coming down tonight to speak on this issue. It's a very important issue that actually, it has an impact on so many people throughout this community. And I think far too many times people think, or just under the assumption that everyone has a meal, when everyone does not. And it's something that needs to be addressed. And I'm happy that this is coming before us tonight. And I just want to thank everyone for their involvement in this. So thank you.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: And if you could give us your name and address for the record. Reverend Wendy Miller Olapade 105 Brooks Street, Medford, Massachusetts. I just wanted to add the affirmation that it takes a village. to solve problems like this. That it is not just our city government's responsibility or not just the department's responsibility that all of our neighbors can help each other. And I just want to share that, you know, as one of the pastors in town who's got a micro food pantry at their church, it took us about two months make, to actively have to keep that full. And I don't have to do anything now. People just put food in the pantry and people come and take food out of the pantry. And it's a beautiful, beautiful thing and it didn't take much at all. And I know that that's a tiny little, tiny little piece of the pie and yet somehow You know, when we start to pull together as a community, when we create opportunities to talk to each other across difference, when we look at each other and say, you're a human being, and I'm a human being, and you go to that church, and you go to that temple, and you go to that mosque, and you don't go anywhere, but we still share this beautiful community together, and that we're all responsible for it. So I just wanted to lift that up and say, we can do this if we just talk to each other. Thanks, John.
[Castagnetti]: Mr. President, Andrew Castagnetti, Cushman Street Method Mass. If I may, I'd like to commend the mayor for her mission and her entourage. It's a great idea because no one should be hurting. If they're hurting now, imagine if at full employment, mind you, as we're going to hear tonight from the State of the Union. Imagine if we have a recession or something worse We're it's really going to be much worse of course I'm sort of thinking out loud Would it be possible to ask the presidential candidate the ex? Resident of massive method mass mr.. Bloomberg for some assistance on this matter. Just think it out loud.
[Falco]: Thank you On the motion of console caviello seconded by councillor night I Clark-Hertogheese, would you please call the roll?
[Hurtubise]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative, the motion passes.
[Falco]: Sounds good Thank You counsel a night on the motion of council night for a brief recess seconded by council of beers all those in favor all those opposed We're now in recess
[Unidentified]: Seconded by Councilor Caraviello to reconvene the meeting.
[Falco]: All those in favor? All those opposed? We are now back in session. Councilor Caraviello?
[Caraviello]: Mr. President, while we're under suspension, can we take papers 2057 and 2058, common victuals license?
[Falco]: On the motion of Councilor Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Knight to take Two papers out of order. All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes. Petitions, presentations, and similar papers, 20-057. Petition for a common vigilance license by Richard Chang, 1000 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02188 for 400 Cafe, Unidine Corporation, 400 Rivers Edge Drive, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155. On file, business certificate number 027, building department, fire department, police, traffic impact, health department, treasurer. Letter of compliance, sales tax ID, workman's compensation, and the petition. At this point, I'll turn it over, actually, to the chairperson of licensing, Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for being here this evening. Good evening. As I reviewed all your documents, everything seems to be in order. Now, again, this is, you have a similar, this is your second location, I believe? That's correct. We currently occupy the cafe at 200 Rivers Edge Drive. And it's inside the? Office building, that's correct. Okay, excellent. And I know I hear great things, and I'm sure that The hours of operations will be the same. That's right. It's Monday through Friday.
[Falco]: It's married.
[Scarpelli]: It's breakfast and lunch. OK. All right. So I yield to my colleagues before I rule.
[Falco]: So make a recommendation. Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli.
[Knight]: Councilor Knight. Mr. President, I've reviewed the application. The gentleman's a successful business owner in the community already. He's running a very successful similar restaurant in virtually the same location. There's been no problems there. I would anticipate no future problems with his new location. And I move for approval of the paper.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. Councilor Scarpelli, did you have any further questions, sir?
[Scarpelli]: No, I find everything in order. I move approval. Thank you.
[Falco]: On the motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion passes. Congratulations. Good luck. Thank you very much. Thank you. Order to suspension 20-058, petition for a common vigilance license by Neil Parris to Foley Farm Road, Wilmington, Massachusetts, 01887 for Lives, Juice, and Akai Bar, 56, Station Landing, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155. On file, business certificate number 030, letter of compliance, building department, fire department, police, traffic impact, health department, treasurer, state tax ID, workman's compensation, and petition. At this point, I'll recognize the chairperson on licensing, Constance Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. Gentlemen, I see, again, everything is in order. Can you give us a little brief synopsis so the public can know what you're presenting to us?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so we're doing healthy-type foods at very reasonable prices over at Station Landing. Smoothies, fresh pressed juices, apple juice, orange juice, all sorts of mixed juices, fruits and vegetables, a salad bar, some gourmet-type toasts, avocado, and some sweet peanut butter and Nutella-type toasts as well, and a few grab-and-go items as well for people on the run, power bars and smoothies and healthy snacks.
[Scarpelli]: Okay, and your focus of hours of operations?
[SPEAKER_04]: So we're set right now for Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
[Scarpelli]: Okay. I see everything in order. I move approval, Mr. President, if my colleagues have anything to share.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. If we could please have your name and address for the record, just so the clerk.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sure, Neil Paris, Tufoli Farm Road in Wilmington, 01887. Thank you.
[Falco]: And the motion of Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes. Thank you and congratulations.
[SPEAKER_04]: Good luck guys. Thank you very much.
[Falco]: On the motion of Councilor Knight to revert back to the regular order of business, seconded by Councilor Morell. All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes. Motions, orders, and resolutions. 19-623 offered by Councilor Knight, update on the Eversource project.
[Knight]: Councilor Knight. Mr. President, thank you very much. And through you, I'd like to thank also our friends from Eversource that are here this evening. A couple weeks ago, we put forward a resolution asking that we get quarterly updates on the Eversource project. It's going to be a large scale, large scope project that's going to be coming through our community. And I thought that it might be in the best interest, as well as my colleagues did, I believe, to have periodic updates as to what's going on, what to expect, and to be able to address any concerns that may be coming up in the neighborhood. So with that being said, Mr. President, we do have some representatives here from Eversource that I'd like to thank for being here. We have Mr. Shortell, Mr. Zamparelli, and I do believe we have a new community relations liaison here that we're going to be introduced to this evening. So I'd like to turn the floor over to our friends from Eversource, provided my council colleagues have no problem with that. And we can move on with an update from our friends over at Eversource, Mr. President.
[Falco]: Thank you, Consul Knight. If we could please have your name and address for the record.
[Rob Collins]: Thank you, Mr. President. My name is Rob Collins, Londonderry, New Hampshire. I am the Eversource project manager for this particular project. Thank you for the opportunity to provide an update to the project. We did provide a handout that I think all the councilors received that provides an overall overview of the project. And I'll quickly go through that as well as provide an update. And also with me is Sean Shortell. When we talk about community relations, I'll turn it over to Sean since he's the go-to guy for community relations. Overview of the project, the project's approximately eight miles long. It starts at the substation in Woburn, goes through Winchester, Medford, Somerville, Boston, and into the substation on the Mystic River. Just want to clarify one thing that I think the council has a misunderstanding on the project, based on watching some of the prior meetings on TV. This is an electric transmission project. It's not a gas. line project, so just for clarification. It is a 115,000 volt underground transmission line project. Basically, again, between the two substations. The reason for the project is back a few years ago, I don't remember exactly when, it was before my time with Eversource, but ISO New England did a study and concluded that the greater Boston area is at risk for potential outages. And so this is one of a number of projects that Eversource has and Engrid has to increase the reliability of the greater Boston grid. So this project is necessary for the entire area. You go to. Page three of the handout, you'll see that the process of construction is you can visualize a train. It's really a construction train. The cattle catcher at the front is the saw cutting exercise. We have a saw cut go out in front of the project, saw cut the street to make sure that the excavation is neat in the asphalt. Then we come back later, excavate the trench. Then we come back behind that, install the pipe, backfill the pipe, and move on. Typically, it's done from a manhole to manhole segment standpoint. We install one manhole, then install another manhole and try to work between the two manholes is the most efficient way of doing it. The project has nine vaults, electric manholes that are approximately 10 by 10 by 30. We have five of them installed. We have four remaining. If you go to page five of the handout, you'll see the location of the various electric vaults and the ones that have been installed, when they were installed, and the ones that are remaining. Overall, the project itself, we have about 35% of the of the trenching pipe work done. If you go to page six of the handout, you'll see what work we have done, when it was done, and what work is remaining. We currently have a plan developed to get this project completed this summer. Myself, McCourt Construction Company, who is our contractor for doing this particular work, will be reaching out to the city to work with the city staff to present our plan and get buy-in on what we think can be done, how it can be done to minimize the impact to the community as we're moving forward with the construction. Following completion of the pipeline from substation to substation, a separate contractor will be coming back next year to pull the cable and splice the cable. Once the cable splicing is start, that's a 24-7 operation. Estimate is going to take about five days of 24-hour operations at each manhole to do the splicing. And with that, if you've got any questions regarding the construction of the project, I'll be glad to answer any questions. If not, I'll turn it over to Mr. Shortell to talk about the community outreach aspects of the project.
[Falco]: Thank you.
[Knight]: I'm going to let them finish their presentation, Mr. President. And then if we have any questions, we can do it. I don't want to ruin the flow.
[Falco]: If you could please continue with the presentation, and we'll do questions at the end.
[Knight]: OK.
[SPEAKER_18]: tag in for Rob Collins. My name's Sean Schwartel, and I live in Charlestown, Massachusetts. So we've appeared before the city council a few times before. I know that we have two new members, so congratulations. Rob and I put this packet together with some of the construction means and methods slides so that you have a better understanding of what you'll see in the roadway. Some of these slides may be redundant to other members, but just a refresher on what the construction activity looks like. And that kind of segues into my role. My role with the project is to communicate what we're doing, when we're doing it, to stakeholders along the routes. That's businesses, schools, and most importantly, your constituents and your neighbors. So we have a community outreach program where we go door-to-door during each phase of construction in advance of that work so that people are kind of have a general awareness of what's happening on their street on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis. We also layer that with website updates that are updated weekly. And there's an example of that on slide 10. Additionally, we are co-hosting some of the information about the project on the city's own web page. And that's something that we also update not quite as frequently as weekly, the Eversource Project updates are weekly, but the ones that go through the city website are a little less frequent, and we can certainly accelerate that if we determine from our stakeholders at the city that there's a need to do so. Additionally, we have stakeholder emails. I think almost everybody on the council has been getting them from me over the past year. They generally go out biweekly, letting you know what's going on in what part of town and what some of the issues that we've identified and how we've attempted to address them. And then as Rob mentioned, municipal coordination, we're working closely with your city engineer, your city traffic engineer, your police department on what our plan is to get this project done in 2020, this summer. And then finally, there's a 24-hour hotline and email address for residents with questions. Those emails and 800 numbers, they come to me, and I respond to them generally within 24 hours, sometimes even sooner. And then as I mentioned, slide 10 is a brief example of what the project website looks like that's hosted by Eversource.com. And then the final slide is both Rob's contact information, my contact information, and my supervisor Todd's contact information as well. So that is our cell phone number. It goes right to our email. We are here. Rob has an office in Medford on High Street. And I try to be here several days a week. We want to be responsive and work with you to alleviate any concerns of your neighbors and constituents.
[Falco]: Councilor Bears. Actually, no, Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I'd like to thank you both for being here this evening and thank you for your presentation. You know, Sean's done a great job, I think, of keeping us informed as to what's going on with the project. We've all been receiving periodic updates, there's no question about that. I think it's also safe to say that the Worst is yet to come when it comes to the construction and the impact it's going to have on our community. When you're looking at the project breakdown here, we're about 40% of the total project is in the city of Medford. And what do I see here? 5,800 feet scheduled for completion along Winthrop Street. Another 1,400 feet on south, another 550. So there's a significant amount of construction that's going to take place in the community. And I think really what's going to make this you know, the least painful on everybody in the community is going to be this open dialogue and our ability to sit down with other sources on a periodic basis to get updates from them to address the concerns that we have in the community. They've been very responsive, in my opinion, based upon the concerns that I've had in my neighborhood right in front of the Medford High School project they did. a lot of work out there at the beginning of the school year. It went relatively smooth considering the scope of the construction work that was being done. The area was maintained relatively clean. Access to the park, access to the sidewalks was still there. Traffic was able to flow as best as possible. And I thought that the road construction detours that they made made it passable and livable for the period of time that they were there doing the work. So with that being said, Mr. President, I do appreciate the work that Eversource has done in putting into this. I do appreciate the work that McCourt Contracting has done putting into this because they are paying close attention to some of the community needs and quality of life issues in our neighborhoods. And I'd hope that we can continue this dialogue. One of the great things I thought that we got during the Craddock Bridge project was those three week schedules with the project briefing overviews that said, you know, 83% done with the project. Next week, we're going to be working at these locations on these times. And that's pretty much the emails that we've been getting from Sean anyway throughout the course of the sporadic construction that's been going on. So, Mr. President, I want to thank our friends from Eversource. I think that, you know, there's going to be a lot more time to talk about some of the issues and the impacts that are going to happen along with this project. But as of right now, you know, I think that it's the open dialogue, the understanding as to when the construction is going to happen and the impact that it's going to have on the neighborhood. in the neighbors, in the traffic, in the congestion in the community that really needs to get out there so that we can get ahead of it.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilman Knight. Councilman Beers.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. I just had a quick question for you, Rob. So it says in here 7 to 10 days. I don't know anything about the engineering of the project, so completely ignorant. If my questions come from a place of ignorance, I hope you'll correct me. But it says 7 to 10, you said 5. Is that, are you doing something different?
[Rob Collins]: My subcontractor is saying that basically once they start the splicing, it typically takes about five days, a continuous 24-hour operation. We say seven to 10 just to be on the safe side.
[Bears]: Yep, got it. And is this basically just pulling the cable from one end to the other?
[Rob Collins]: So what happens is if you go to slide eight, you'll see Top left-hand corner is a picture of three cable reels. So these cables, this cable is actually three-phase, so it's three separate cables that are pulled simultaneously through the pipe. And that's what the reel looks like. That takes about two days of pulling to pull from one manhole to the other, which on average is about 2,000 linear feet. So they'll start up, pull the cable. Once they get the cable pulled from adjoining manholes into a single manhole, Then they start splicing, and that splicing operation takes five days or so.
[Bears]: Got it. And just looking at what Councilor Neill was looking at, is there a reason you, and maybe it's completely coincidental, is there a reason that it looks like the construction started on the MassDOT jurisdiction and is moving to Medford, or?
[Rob Collins]: So it started in MassDOT because we didn't have the GOL in Medford, and we did, from a MassDOT standpoint, it was within MassDOT jurisdiction, so we started in MassDOT. Great, thanks.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. Councilor Morell.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. So going back to the cable splicing, which you mentioned is once that work starts, it's 24 hours, it's around the clock. What kind of sound can we expect from that? And then also lighting.
[Rob Collins]: So it's relatively minimal because the splicing is down inside this underground vault. There will be a generator, a whisper generator outside providing power down into the vault. There will be some lighting overhead shining down into the vault, but it's gonna be minimal.
[Morell]: Okay, and then how soon after the work is completed on these areas can we expect that curb to curb?
[Rob Collins]: So in discussions with the city engineer basically what you want to do is You want it to you want the trench to sit for over a winter so that any settlement that's going to happen happens So that then when you do the curb to curb it's going to be nice and your settlements already occurred So we're looking at the following year doing the curb to curb.
[Falco]: Okay. Thank you. I Thank you, Councilor Morell. Councilor Marks.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. Regarding the vaults, in particular vault 8 and 10.
[Rob Collins]: Yes.
[Marks]: Any time frame when that work will start?
[Rob Collins]: We're hoping to get out there as soon as the winter moratorium is over. So April 15th. And I don't remember off the top of my head if McCourt was looking at starting at 8 or 10. But that's when we want to try to start.
[Marks]: And roughly, what's the length of those two vaults?
[Rob Collins]: So the installation of the vault's about two weeks.
[Marks]: Two weeks?
[Rob Collins]: Yeah, providing there's no ledge there. We encountered ledge at vault number nine. That's why it took us as long as it did to install vault number nine. But if there's no ledge, we should be able to get it excavated, the vault installed, and backfilled in about two weeks.
[Marks]: Right. And isn't there a way of checking for ledge before you start to dig?
[Rob Collins]: Not really. It's once you start digging, when you hit it, you hit it. I mean, we suspect there's going to be some ledge around manhole 8, but we're not 100% sure.
[Marks]: And depending on the type of ledge, would that include blasting?
[Rob Collins]: No, no. The MOU and the GOL precludes blasting. We would have to come up with another method. What we did at manhole nine was essentially a big jackhammer, a whole rim attached to an excavator to beat on the ledge. And that breaks it up, and then we're able to excavate it.
[Marks]: And residents notified when that type of jackhammer was?
[Rob Collins]: Yes.
[Marks]: So if any of that takes place on vault 8 or 10, there'll be ample notification of area residents?
[Rob Collins]: Yes, there will.
[Marks]: Do you guys do any video of people's homes and so forth if they're in close proximity?
[Rob Collins]: We haven't in that area, no. We wouldn't be opposed to it if someone asked for it out of concern.
[Marks]: The other question I had, currently within the MOU, there's some language in there that states if there's any city utilities that are either over or under your transmission wire, if they're cast iron or so forth, that you would replace them. Is that not correct?
[Rob Collins]: I don't remember, off the top of my head, I don't have the MOU memorized. We're definitely identifying them. And the city comes out and takes a look at them. And if it's determined it needs to be replaced, then we'll address it.
[Marks]: OK. Has any of that happened to date?
[Rob Collins]: We haven't encountered one that needs to be replaced yet.
[Marks]: But you are working over and under our utilities, correct? Yes. And you haven't seen anything to date that needs to be replaced? No. Now, replaced meaning you see something actively leaking or you see something actively wrong? Is that when you see it?
[Rob Collins]: Then we would notify the city and they would come out.
[Marks]: Right, but just the mere fact that it may be a cast iron pipe, water cast iron pipe, is that? From my reading of the MOU that I have in front of me, signed by the city solicitor, it states that, this is bullet point three. It says, in addition to surface reconstruction, Eversource should upgrade city-owned underground utilities that are in close proximity. For example, a minimum, a bucket width of five feet to their new transmission main and or for those utilities that cross over under the transmission main. So are you saying that only if you see something actively wrong with the pipe that you would bring it to the city's attention? Correct. So you don't think that there's a responsibility to replace anything that you cross over or under?
[Rob Collins]: No.
[Marks]: Okay. Mr. President, I'd like to get just a response from the city solicitor. Regarding bullet point three in the MOU for March 9, 2017, that was signed by City Solicitor Rumley. Just if we can get clarification on the responsibility of Eversource when they cross over our utilities.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. So Councilor Marks is making a motion to get a response back from the city solicitor regarding bullet point three on the MOU that we have with- From March 9th, 2017. From March 9th, 2017. On that motion by Councilor Marks, seconded by Councilor Bears. All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes. Councilor Marks, do you have any further questions?
[Marks]: I am good for now, thank you. Thank you, Councilor Marks.
[Falco]: Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: I had one more. Just looking at Vault 12, police stations being built right across the street. Do you plan to time that? Have you coordinated that with the chief?
[Rob Collins]: So we've actually had discussions with the chief, and he wants that work done at nighttime.
[Bears]: Great.
[Rob Collins]: So we will be coordinating with the chief on exactly when we're going to get that done. Great. Thank you.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. Excuse me. So if you don't mind, from the chair. So do we know exactly when that's going to happen? I know at night, but do we know? Do you have any type of time frame with regards to months?
[Rob Collins]: I don't have that right now because that's the part of the plan that we're going to be presenting to the city departments, traffic engineers, city engineer, and police department. Mapping out what we want to do when we want to do it and get the buy-in.
[Falco]: Do you know when we can expect to maybe get a time frame?
[Rob Collins]: I'm hoping to meet with the city engineer and traffic engineer by the end of the month to work through that.
[Falco]: And I had a question, thank you for that answer, and I had a question regarding the splicing that Councilor Morell was asking. So you talked a little bit about, I think, noise. What about traffic? Is there going to be a heavy traffic impact on that street when that happens?
[Rob Collins]: when the splicing happens, it will be a lot, there will be a little bit of traffic impact, but it will be a lot less than when we're installing the vaults and installing the duct work. Because basically what it involves is just setting up a box truck, you know, a cargo van at the manhole location. So traffic will definitely be able to flow by it, but we will have to have a piece of equipment there to support the equipment.
[Falco]: Are there any other further questions from the consular? Any questions? Okay, seeing that there's no questions, Consular Night.
[Knight]: I move to invite our friends from Eversource back next quarter for a future update. I'm sure if anything happens in between then and now, we all have the ability to flip this packet over that they gave us and make a phone call and get the answers that we need. There is a pressing need to bring them in sooner. They've been nothing more than accommodating in the past, so I don't see why we can't put this off till next quarter, have another update when the construction season starts in the spring, and go from there. Do you still like the table till next quarter? Yeah, same thing we did with the Lawrence Memorial.
[Falco]: Councilmembers, would you like this to be a B paper on this original paper? That's fine. Okay, so that's a B paper. On the motion of Council and I to table this to next quarter, where we get our quarterly update, seconded by Councilor Bears. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. Appreciate all the information and the update. Thank you.
[Knight]: Thank you for your patience.
[Falco]: 20-051 offered by Council and I be it resolved that the Medford City Council recognize Medford native and MHS class of 1996 graduate Justin Springer on being honored as a 2019 ABCD Community Hero Consul Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Justin Springer is a dear old friend of mine. We went to kindergarten all the way through high school together. A close, close friend of mine. Came to vacations with me and my family. Grew up in West Medford. Spent a lot of great afternoons after school in his house, at his grandmother's house down on Monument Street. And we lost touch over the years, Mr. President. And just recently, we fell back into touch. I was speaking with His stepfather, Mel, not too long ago when he gave me an update that Justin was doing well, and I started paying attention on social media and noticed that Justin was named this community hero by the ABCD. And ABCD is an anti-poverty community development and human service organization, Mr. President. It's the largest non-profit human service agency in New England. And it serves over 100 low-income families in greater Boston through its programs like neighborhood service centers and something we're all familiar with. I'm sure we've all heard of the Head Start programs. Head Start falls under the ABCD as well. So Justin was named a community hero this past year. And I'd just like to read a little bit about what they said about Justin in the brochure. Justin's proven to be a tremendous asset to ABCD by lending his vast branding and marketing skills. Talents and resources to help bridge gaps in how communities assess public health education and engage with various initiatives. His numerous accomplishments in this area include orchestrating a street outreach team every year, conducting social media platforms for many of ABCD Health Service programs, producing major fundraising events for the Take the Test Boston program, which ABCD Health Services is a founding member. And he did this all in his own dime. So with that being said, Mr. President, I always think it's important that we notice and recognize the individuals that were born and raised in this community, whose families still live here, who helped make this community great. And we should point out the good things that they're doing in other places and here in Medford. Justin's someone that's really an inspiration. He's someone that's given his time, his energy, and his effort. I'll free a charge to the city of Boston and to its surrounding communities to help make our lives a better place. Helping service over 100,000 families that are in need. So with that being said, Mr. President, I thought it was important that we point out the great work that Medford residents continue to do on a daily basis, not only here in Medford, but in Massachusetts and across the globe. So with that being said, I'd ask my council colleagues to support me in this resolution.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilman Knight, and thank you for bringing this forward tonight. On the motion of Councilor Knights, seconded by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes. 20-052 offered by Vice President Caraviello. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council contact the DCR to replace the guardrail on the bridge at Auburn Street in the interest of public safety. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, this guardrail which is over by Whole Foods has been probably hit several times in the past few months. The steel is on the sidewalk and it's kind of a safety hazard for people that are walking by because that's the sidewalk you have to go by to get to the crosswalk. I'll ask the DCI to replace it as soon as possible, and if we could also send a message to Representative Gobley to hopefully expedite this so we can get this done as soon as possible.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. On the motion of Councilor Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Morell. All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes. 20-053 offered by Councilor Bears. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council meet in Committee of the Whole to discuss the report of the acting city solicitor regarding a draft ordinance enabling the establishment of a payment in lieu of taxes pilot commissioned as requested by Councilor, I'm sorry, as requested by the Council in paper 20-021. Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. I think it says it all. I would like to move the report that we got from the acting solicitor to a future committee of whole meeting.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. On the motion of Councilor Bears, seconded by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion passes. I would ask at this point if Councilor Marks could please share the next two motions. There you go. Turn these off for you. You don't have to turn it off. You know what? Yeah, I can get it for you.
[Hurtubise]: I got it right here.
[Unidentified]: Put yours on, too.
[Marks]: Paper 20-054 offered by Vice President Caraviello and President Falco. Be it resolved that the city administration develop a pilot program to resurface a portion of our roads using recycled asphalt. Vice President Caraviello. What's up with this thing now?
[Unidentified]: Do you have one that shows all the? Yeah, leave this on, right? It's so sensitive.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Last week at the MMA show, myself and President Falco had the opportunity to meet a company that does what they call Horton Place Mill Asphalt Recycling. And what they do is they come and they grind and they take our asphalt that normally we would give back to the asphalt company and we would buy it back from them. We would keep our own asphalt here. They recycle it in place and heat it and it goes right back down on the road as soon as they do it. It sounds like a very good cost saving plan because when we talk to them, They gave us a price of somewhere around $25 a yard, which normally we pay $48 a yard. So thinking outside of the box, we could probably do two streets for the price of one street. So I think it's something that's worthwhile looking at. I had the opportunity to speak with Steve Tanaya and DPW director and they both liked it and they agreed that it's something that we should look into. And I'll yield to President Falco.
[Marks]: Thank you, Vice President Caraviello. President Falco.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. As Councilor Caraviello noted, we actually talked to the representative, or representative at the MMA conference. And it's definitely, I think, something that we should pursue. And that's why we're recommending a pilot program, thinking that this would be a nice idea to try out on some of our streets. It would definitely save the city some money. And it definitely has some benefits as well. I mean, if you take a look at the number of streets that we're repaving each year, we're very limited to what we can do with the funds that we have. So this is kind of an out-of-the-box, kind of thinking out-of-the-box type of solution where we could do something with the recycled asphalt. And there's definitely some benefits to it. It uses in-place materials that are already there in front of you. They actually do it all right there, recycle it right on site. And like I said, it saves money. It's a shorter construction time to actually repave a road. And it's easier to work around catch basins, manholes, water valves, and other type of things that you'll find in the middle of the street when you're repaving a road. And it also lowers the engineering and traffic control costs as well. So this is an idea that we wanted to bring forward. We think it would be beneficial to our community and actually save the community money as well. So at this point I'd like to move for approval. Thank you.
[Marks]: On the motion for approval, Councilor Knighton. That's all I know.
[Knight]: Can the sponsors of the resolution please explain to me if this is a machine that would come and do this, like, infrared technology right there on the site, if this eliminates the use of manpower and it's a machine that's performing the work?
[Caraviello]: In fact, we have a brochure. We'll get some copies out to you. They mill it, grind it, and heat it, and put it back down immediately as it's done. And like I said, with Chapter 90 money being thin, I don't think this is something that you'd probably want to use like in High Street or Main Street. But I think it'd be a worthwhile project to look at on some of the side streets that really need attention.
[Knight]: devices, Mr. President, in various shapes and forms and various places on the internet, which means they must all be awesome, right? Because they're on the internet and they almost work great. But no, it makes sense. I mean, it's a machine that's performing the work. So we're alleviating our exposure to liability for workers getting injured. We're also having the machine perform the work so we know we're going to get the same standard, the same quality, every single time the work gets done. This is something I support wholeheartedly. It's something that we've discussed in the past. with street scan and other types of infrared technologies that we can use to determine what our underground infrastructure looks like, what our streets and roadways look like, what condition they're in without actually having to go and rip them apart. So I support it wholeheartedly and I thank my colleagues for raising the issue.
[Caraviello]: Normally when we do a street, they come and they grind it and maybe sit three, four, five, maybe a week before we get started. This gets, as fast as it's ground, it's put right back down. So I'm assuming they could probably do a street in a day or maybe more.
[Morell]: Also more up. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Councilors carry on Falco for bringing this forth as I did not have the pleasure to attend the MMA training. I did a little research on this myself. So to your points, it's cough saving it diverts waste and then the fact that you're doing the work. At that actual site, you're removing the fuel costs associated with transporting these very heavy materials. So I'm excited to see this. I support this. And I appreciate you guys for raising something that's just one small way to move Medford forward in a more sustainable way. Thank you.
[Marks]: Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you. Council marks I know that I appreciate my colleagues doing their due diligence. I know that this council, especially myself, we've looked at the biggest issue, which is. employees for the DPW and any way we can help lighten their load and, like Councilor Morell said, look at the whole footprint, our footprint and how we can improve. I think it's important though that we really dedicate a recommendation to the mayor as we move forward to budget season for that, I know I've been saying it year after year, but a sidewalk pothole. making it even a bigger piece, which is repaving and re-sidewalks. I know as you go on to the next resolution, it's in the same breath. So I think that we need the employees. I know that when Mayor Burke, before she left office, they've eliminated the civil service test for hiring. I think it's about time that we really put our money where our mouth is and make sure that We put the employees in place and the equipment that's needed to implement projects like this and really do something off the cuff here, something we haven't done or haven't seen in a long time. So I'm pretty excited about this initiative and I appreciate bringing it forward. So thank you.
[Marks]: Thank you. Thank you, Councilor.
[Caraviello]: Councilor Knight. Any idea what it costs? Yes, it's, like I said, their projection was somewhere about $25 a yard or a foot. No, for the machine. I'm sorry? To buy the machine. Oh, it's a big piece of machine. I don't think it's something we're buying. And Mr. Keran said we're paying $48 right now for the same thing. It's almost half of what we're already paying. Right, no, no, it's the same thing.
[Knight]: Oh, and if we buy the machine, we're going to have to save 50% of the costs, plus fuel and manpower on the machine. Maybe it's worth figuring out what the machine costs and buying one, as opposed to contracting out work to an outside entity to perform work we could do in-house.
[Caraviello]: It looks like it was a pretty big... Few pieces of equipment.
[Falco]: Yeah that If I may I think there'll be a pretty big capital cost to buy that machine I think the best thing in my own speak for Councilor caviar, but I think we would agree in this I think through the pilot program if we could pick out You know a handful of streets that this probably bring in a rep from one of these companies because I'm sure there's many that do it and actually talk to them and and see, well, what type of streets will this work on? And then pick a handful of streets, come up with a pilot program, and just resurface those streets with recycled asphalt. And then, of course, get a price. So I mean, get a price beforehand. But see how many streets we could do. Try to figure out if we could have like a, the mayor has some sort of a budget for this. And then see what we can do. And it's definitely more efficient, I think, in lower cost than what we're doing now. We have very limited funding, chapter 90 funding for street repair. So I think this would hopefully allow us to do more streets. just make our money go further, so I think developing a pilot program around this would be something that would be beneficial.
[Knight]: So, Mr. President, I guess my question is that is the intention to establish a pilot program that would privatize a portion of the work that the DPW is now performing? They're not doing the streets anyways. They're not paving the streets right now.
[Caraviello]: It's not potholes.
[Knight]: It's not potholes. It's the whole street. Because that work would fall under the scope of the DPW just because historically they've contracted out doesn't mean that it's not work that would fall under their purview.
[Caraviello]: I don't recall the DPW milling and grinding streets, the whole streets.
[Knight]: I don't recall them having the proper equipment to be able to do it. But it still would fall within the scope of their labor certification for work that they could perform as ME02, maintenance equipment operator.
[Caraviello]: Unfortunately, our manpower staff is kind of thin.
[Knight]: That's why if we have a machine that can pave streets that does the work of four people, we might be a worthwhile investment.
[Marks]: So if I could, from the chair, I agree that funding would be an issue. And the Chapter 90 money is very limited. I think it's about $980,000 a year we receive. However, there is linkage money that's out there. You would know better than I, Mr. President, how much money is left in that account. But I would tend to say, as Councilor Knights mentioned, if we could take that equipment and do it in-house, We go from doing one or two streets to many streets, and I realize the upfront cost, but it may be worth looking at. Thank you, Councilor Knight. Councilor Bierce.
[Bears]: I think it's a pilot program, and if at the end of the pilot program it's so successful, I think we should explore what Councilor Knight was suggesting. I'd like to make a motion to add a B paper to this, requesting that our state delegation ask the Speaker of the House and the Senate President to increase Chapter 90 in this year's budget.
[Marks]: Hey, you know, on the original paper 20-054 and the BPAS amended by Councilor Bears to ask the state delegation to increase our Chapter 90 funds. All those in favor? Aye. The clerk just corrected me. We'll do the B paper first.
[Bears]: And to clarify, asking the Speaker of the House and the Senate President, that's where we are in the budget cycle.
[Marks]: Amended B paper by Councilor Bears, that we ask the Speaker of the House and the Senate President to increase the City of Medford's Chapter 90 funds. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. On the original paper, 20-054. Offered by Councilor President Falco, Vice President Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Morell. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it, the paper is approved. Paper 20-055 offered by Vice President Caraviello and President Falco. Be it resolved that the city administration develop a pilot program to repair our trip and hazard sidewalks by saw cut repair instead of grinding. Council Vice President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Again, something we came up with visiting the trade show last week. This is a company that takes trip and fall hazards. of sidewalks, and they grind them and smooth them. We do have a machine in our city that does it, but it is not, according to Mr. Chairman, it is not a very big one. But this company would come in, they would identify all the trip hazards, and they could repair them at a cost of about $125 per sidewalk. As we all know, every year we are approving lawsuits At $5,000 a piece, if we save one lawsuit, we can probably do 25 sidewalks. Again, something that's worth looking into. Like I said, they'll come in, help us develop a list, and do the work. Again, I spoke with Mr. Cairns and Mr. Tenaglia. They both agree it's a worthwhile program to do. And I'll yield to President Falco.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. And this here is another solution where it's just a more efficient solution, where it's not going to cost as much money. Because with a lot of these trip sidewalks, trip and fall sidewalks, it's just an edge that pops up. So what they do is they literally cut the edge, flatten it down. They don't have to replace the whole panel. It doesn't take days, it literally takes probably hours. The sidewalk's not out of service, it's not costing you as much money because you don't have to replace the whole thing. You don't have to worry about someone destroying the cement when it's trying to dry. So it's definitely more efficient. It's a concept that's used in other communities, Cambridge, Quincy, Newton, Lowell, Salem, Swampsford, Haverhill, Westfield, Peabody. So that's just some of them. They use this, I guess, at Gillette Stadium as well. And they use it at different colleges, BC, UMass, Lowell. So there's a bunch of colleges that use this as well. So it's definitely more efficient for our community, and it would save the community money as well. So I'd just like to move the paper forward at this point in time. Move for approval.
[Marks]: On the motion for approval by President Falco and Councilor Caraviello. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, I'd like to amend the paper to request that before any pilot program is implemented, that the city administration meet with the collective bargaining
[Marks]: Organization to discuss the impact that this would have on their bargaining unit On the motion as amended by councillor night that The mayor meet with the collective bargaining units to see if there's any impact of this particular Motion all in favor I opposed guys have it the motion is adopted I
[Falco]: want to read it? 20-056 offered by Vice President Caraviello. City met to call for presidential preferential primary, Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020. Be it ordered that the city clerk be, and he is hereby authorized and directed to notify and warn such of the inhabitants of the city of Medford as we're qualified by law to vote for candidates at the presidential preferential primary on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020. to assemble at the polling places in their respective wards and precincts, then and there to give their votes for presidential preference. District members of the State Committee, one man and one woman, for each political party for the second Middlesex Senatorial District. Members of the Democratic Ward Committee. Members of the Republican Ward Committee. Members of the Green Rainbow Ward Committee. Members of the Libertarian Ward Committee. and the polls of said presidential preferential primary shall open at 7 a.m. and remain open until 8 p.m. Be it further ordered that the following named polling places be, and they are, hereby designated for use at the presidential preferential primary on March 3, 2020. Voting precincts, Ward 1, Precinct 1, Andrews Middle School, 3,000 Mystic Valley Parkway, Ward 1, Precinct 2, Firefighters Club, 340 Salem Street. Ward 2, Precinct 1, St. Francis Parish Center, Felsway and Fulton Street. Ward 2, Precinct 2, Roberts Elementary School, 35 Court Street. Ward 3, Precinct 1, Lawrence Memorial Hospital, 170 Governor's Avenue. Ward 3, Precinct 2, Temple Shalom, 475 Winthrop Street. Ward 4, Precinct 1, Tufts University, Gancher Center Rear, 161 College Avenue. Ward 4, Precinct 2, Walkland Court, Auburn and North Street, Fondacaro Center. Ward 5, Precinct 1, Columbus Elementary School, 37 Hicks Ave. Ward 5, Precinct 2, Columbus Elementary School, 37 Hicks Avenue. Ward 6, Precinct 1, West Method 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, McGlinnett 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. Councilor Bears. Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. Two quick questions. Might actually be for the clerk, so I, yeah. I just don't know the protocol there. I notice a couple of the polling locations don't have addresses, specifically Ward 7, Precinct 1, north building entrance, but there's not a street address. Is that just common practice, or?
[Hurtubise]: I can actually go in and add the street address. It has not customarily been on the call to election for that precinct, but I'm happy to add it in.
[Bears]: Is it posted online with it, or is it everywhere else that has the address?
[Hurtubise]: Yes, it is online. Great.
[Bears]: Will there be early voting and does that have to be part of this resolution?
[Hurtubise]: There will be early voting from February 24th to February 28th here in the council chambers during regular city hall business hours.
[Bears]: And that doesn't have to be included within the resolution?
[Hurtubise]: That does not have to be included within this. This is a designation of polling places for election day only. If I can add something, if the council will indulge me. Lori Howley from Lawrence Memorial Hospital contacted me when she contacted many of you about construction updates for the hospital. The main building at the hospital will be undergoing construction during election day. But we are still able to use the main hospital building as a polling place. Rather than voting in the main lobby, there'll be a new fully accessible temporary entrance just to the left of that lobby entrance. And voting will take place downstairs in the hospital cafeteria. I'm going to request a reverse 911 call. For 3-1 through Captain Clemente just to alert residents that that's happening, but there's no change in building. There's no change in address It's just a different floor on the same building. I've already been in touch with the Secretary of State's office There is no need for us to to designate a new polling place or anything like that but it's just it's just a matter of I want I want residents who normally vote there to To know that there's going to be a slight change.
[Bears]: Well, will you Mr. Clerk post additional signage?
[Hurtubise]: Yes, absolutely.
[Bears]: And I also just want to say that I will be early voting in the chambers, which the clerk would like to hear.
[Hurtubise]: I urge everyone who's within listening distance to vote early in the chambers.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor. Thank you, Councilor Bears. You good? Thank you, Clerk Hurtubise. On the motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Bears. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes. I just got to, you're the only one that responded. OK, I'm sorry, Nicole. Let's see. Yes. On the motion of Councilor Knight to suspend the rules. Seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? All those opposed? These are papers under suspension. 2-0-060 offered by Councilor Knight be it resolved that the Medford City Council extends its deep and sincere condolences to the family of John Byers on his recent passing. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, many of us that have been involved in local government and local politics over the years have come to know and love John Byers. Many of us who spent a lot of time in Barry Park in the South Medford area of the city would always see Johnny riding his bike down at the basketball courts. Many of us that listen to sports radio on WEI would quite often hear Johnny call in. Many of us that would watch cable access television back in the early and late 90s would see Johnny on his TV shows and as a special guest on a variety of other local celebrities' TV shows. And just this past week, Johnny lost his battle with cancer. Mr. President, Johnny was someone that was a student of government. He loved government. He ran for mayor several times, school committee, I believe, as well. I don't believe he ever ran for city council, but I may be mistaken. But I do recall that he'd run for a number of shots at public office. His father, Phil, is a great guy, a brother of mine from the Elks Club. And his son, or his brother, Phillip, and his father are both very close friends of mine, lifelong Metro residents, Mr. President. Johnny was residing in Walkling Court at the time of his passing. He was surrounded by friends and family when he went, and I just hope that we can all take the time to extend our deep and sincere condolences to the family on their loss. Johnny was a special person in this community. He was someone that we all knew and loved, and he's going to be sadly missed.
[Marks]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. Councilor Marks. Thank you, Mr. President. I think Councilor Knight hit the nail on the head. John was a staple in this community for many years. He was one of the founders with local community access, ran a show for a number of years, and the one thing I remember about John He never held any words back. He'd tell you exactly where you stood with him, whether you liked it or not. And he will be sorely missed, Mr. President. And I'd like to dedicate this meeting, if it's all right with my council colleague, after John Baez.
[Falco]: Do you want to make that part of the motion? Do I make that part of the motion? Yes, please. Dedicate this meeting after. Dedicate this meeting? Yes. Okay.
[Marks]: John Baez.
[Falco]: Did you want to just mention a corner, Brad? Okay. I just want to make sure we're including everything we want to include.
[Knight]: Someone that spent so much time in the neighborhood that he grew up in, someone that spent so much time outdoors riding his bike in the parks and stuff like that, someone that was a fixture in the neighborhood is someone that probably would warrant consideration for a corner dedication, Mr. President. I do believe that John grew up in the College Ave area, but I'll have to get the specifics to that before I bring forward a motion that would request such.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Knight, and Councilor Knight, thank you for bringing this forward, and thank you, Councilor Marks, as well. I had met Johnny a few times when I was growing up. I remember playing park league, playing basketball, and you'd go to the different parks, and he would always be at the park, and you'd see him on his bike, and he was a really, really nice person. And my thoughts and prayers go to his family. At this time, I'd ask everyone to please rise for a brief moment of silence. While under suspension, 20-061 offered by Councilor Scarpelli. Be it resolved that the City Council discuss concerns with South and Main Street.
[Scarpelli]: Councilor Scarpelli. Thank you, Mr. President. If I could, this is really just to update South and Main Street. I know that we've had some serious issues there in the past week, but had a discussion with State Representative Donato. He has informed me that with the hard work of his Representative Donato and Representative Garbaly and Representative Barber. They are presenting a bond bill on Wednesday tomorrow for $5 million to help alleviate the issues on South and Main Street. I've contacted the Chief of Police and Traffic. and also meeting with the mayor tomorrow to try to expedite some of the, again, low-hanging fruit that we've asked for. Again, I think we dodged another bullet on Friday, but the stop sign on Toro and South, the raised sidewalks that we discussed on Main and South, and painting the walkways, I mean, painting the street with limiting the lanes, I think these are short budgetary measures. fixes, and I think that would make a huge difference in that area. I think the residents that I've talked to are frustrated. We are all frustrated, but we hope to have some movement and hopefully have some word, some definitive answers for everybody by next meeting on next Tuesday. So, thank you.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. I hope that bond bill passes and we can get the money soon. I talked to a few residents, and I think what happened on Friday, there was a pedestrian accident on Friday, and we are very lucky, as someone who's lost a friend in a situation like that, the different way that the car impacts the person can deeply affect how that turns out, and I think we really lucked out. I know that the pipeline project is going to South Street, so maybe the painting and all that might be a little, raised crosswalks, sidewalks might be a little more difficult, but a stop sign at Truro and South. that can go in even if they're gonna tear up the road. That's exactly where the incident happened. A resident at 76 South talked to me in October when I was running and I spoke to her about, she specifically requested that. We brought it up recently. I really think that stop sign, expedite the expediting on that if we can. We really don't want another incident to go poorly there.
[Marks]: Thank you, Councilor Peters. Councilor Marks. Thank You mr. President also, and I want to thank councillor Scarpelli for his work on this in this follow-through If we could just track whether or not our resolutions from several months back This council put together a laundry list of resolutions that were supposed to be sent to the Traffic Commission Can we just have maybe the city clerk follow up? I'm being told that some of them may have not made it that far and
[Falco]: To the traffic commission So I'd like to just follow up on it regarding signage and so forth that we requested Thank You Councilor Marks, I believe that when we talked about this not too long ago Was he within the last couple of weeks so letter went to the police chief am I correct?
[Marks]: Okay, so right a Letter may have gone to the chief, but I'm not sure I'm not sure that they acted upon any of our requests So I just want to make sure and reiterate that. I'm glad to hear about the bond bill, but honestly I've been hearing a lot of things about the bond bill. Like there's money there in the bond bill, but somehow it just doesn't go anywhere. But I'm pleased to see that they are looking into it. But I'm going to be cautiously optimistic, because I've been there, done that with the bond bills.
[Falco]: And the $5 million bond bill, I believe the $5 million bond bill is basically for the lights in the square, if I'm correct. So it's the smart lighting system that will carry the traffic to the square. As far as South Street goes, you are correct. That laundry list of solutions or potential solutions that we came up with with the residents that night, you know, we need an update on that because that's really, I think those things are the things that are hopefully going to have an impact on that situation down there. So we have a number of points of information. Councilor Berrios has the first point of information.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. In terms of what's exactly in the bond bill, I'm not going to speak to the specifics of that. But just in terms of the process, you are correct that this bill has not, I believe it might be part of a larger transportation bond bill package. I'm not sure. It's an $18 billion package. It hasn't been passed by the House, nor the Senate, nor signed by the governor at this point. And then even after that, Governor Baker has to release those funds to us. We are several steps away in the process, but the House potentially voting on that tomorrow would be good.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Peters. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: May I be so bold to suggest, Mr. President, that we ask the City Clerk to research the paper that we had forwarded previously to Mayor Burke's administration relative to South Street and forward that to the current administration so that they have it fresh and on their desk. And I would offer that in the form of a motion.
[Falco]: Do you have that?
[Hurtubise]: Got it. Yep. Okay.
[Falco]: So on the motion of console of nights, seconded by constant coffee. Hello. All those in favor. All those opposed. The motion passes. Yeah, absolutely. Everyone is more than welcome to talk and ask questions. So one minute please. That's the strangest. The last time console night, did you have any further comments on that? Okay.
[Knight]: We've talked about this topic ad nauseum, Mr. President. It's been going on now for probably the better part of four years. One thing I will say is that nobody knows this issue and this concern better than Councilor Lungo, who is now Mayor Lungo. Her parents live on the road. Her parents live on the street. So for us to think that we're going to talk the talk and it's going to fall on deaf ears, I don't think is the case, Mr. President. She's had a vested interest in performing solutions at this intersection for as long as I can remember, as soon as the issue came up. Councilor Lungo was all over it, now Mayor Lungo I'm sure will be on top of it as well. So with that being said, I don't think there's any reason for us to anticipate or expect or not to act. But I do think that when we're looking at the scope of projects that are going on down there, we have the police station, we have the Eversource project. I think one solution we may have, Mr. President, is to designate that a live construction zone, which may allow us an opportunity to meet with our friends at Area 4 for Massachusetts Highway Department and put some controls in at the bottom of the ramp. Maybe no left turn if you're getting off the highway, because there's no need to get onto Mystic Ave. from the off-ramp. You should only be able to take a left-hand turn if you're coming off the off-ramp right there at South Street, because if you just stay on the road and get off behind the DPW, you can be on Mystic Ave as well. So there are some controls that we can put in place, Mr. President. I think because of the scope of construction that's going on at the police station and the scope of construction with the South Street project, we may have a little bit of leverage here to speak with some of our friends. over at Area 4 and use their engineering expertise to come up with some short-term solutions during this very dangerous construction period, which is going to take place for a couple of years now, Mr. President, to provide some short-term relief and short-term solutions until we can address it more holistically.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. And if I may clarify, I mean, from what I heard, that $5 million would be for the lights that would be kind of at the bottom of South Street in the square. And I think even out here at City Hall, because they're smart lights and they all talk to each other. So that's, I think, what the $5 million would go mostly towards. We have a number of residents that would like to speak. If you could please have your name and address for the record.
[Navarre]: William Navarre, 108 Medford Street, apartment 1B. I just wanted to get up to give Councilor Bears the opportunity to be reminded that we should try to avoid the use of the word accident when there's an incident with a car. That wasn't an accident. That was the inevitable result of a country that is built around the automobile. It's just that every adult must drive, and in particular, it's the inevitable result of a failure to make that particular intersection safe. That's not an accident.
[Falco]: Thank you. Name and address for the record.
[Castagnetti]: Andrew Castagnetti, Cushing Street, Medford, Massachusetts. I want to thank Councilor Scarpelli for bringing this up on the agenda. The Selton Main Street intersection has been a problem when I got my license and most people in this room, if not all, were not even born. I hear the $5 million bond is possible. I'm not sure, even if it does go through, if that will help, even if you spend $50 million. Again, I hate to reiterate and repeat myself, the risk of being cruder, but I would suggest trying in right turn only at this juncture from South onto Main, right street only. Or else, as someone else suggested in the past, let me back up. Also, Councilor Knight mentioned, I believe something to the effect of shutting down that exit on Route 16 heading east. If the state will do that, that would be a big help. And another, sorry?
[Knight]: That wasn't necessarily my suggestion, Mr. President. My suggestion would be to, if you're coming off the ramp, to make it left turn only so you can't take a right onto Mystic Ave coming off the highway ramp because you can stay on the highway and get off at the road with no name that we were trying to take over there over by the dance studio behind the DPW yard to still put you back out on Mystic Avenue. But to shut that exit down for people that were coming off would actually close down the only access that they had to Medford Square, which is our central business district, and I don't think that that's something that we want to do. We don't want to divert all the traffic off Route 16 and not let them come to our central business district if they're coming that way. So, you know, it's going to take engineers and engineering, Mr. President, but for a short-term solution in the meantime to implement public safety controls, I think that's something that we could consider because it's an active construction site with the police station and the Eversource project.
[Castagnetti]: Thank you, Councilman Knight, for clarifying my brain on that. However, if it was shut down, they still could take the exit at Winthrop Street, near where your condominium's located, towards that rotary. Another person or persons has suggested another idea, and that would be to make South Street a one-way, which it is, but in the opposite direction. I understand some of the residents don't like that, but again, this has been going on for over 50 years. I and we all know people that have personally been injured and there have been deaths there. I would start with right to rent only and good luck with the bond.
[Falco]: Thank you. On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion passes.
[Marks]: on a suspension Councilor Marks uh... thank you mister president i i just want to bring up the fact that uh... the massachusetts creators award uh... recently recognized uh... local uh... cable entities throughout the state uh... for uh... television and media within uh... the state of massachusetts and uh... method community media was nominated for their work in the 2019 Method Mayoral Debate live from Chevalier. And this was an event coverage category at this year's Mass Creator Awards. And the event category is for any citywide event covered for television, either live or taped. And unfortunately, we did not win. But the fact that we were mentioned, Mr. President, in a community access station that has one full-time employee. That's Patrick Gordon, he's the station manager. Other surrounding communities have three, four, upwards of nine. I believe Somerville Community Television has about nine full-time employees, Mr. President. And Patrick runs the station. He's done an admirable job with very little resources there. And trying to attract Method residents to get involved. It's community access. But I would personally like to thank him for his efforts and thank the station volunteers for their efforts on being nominated for the category of live event and being nominated. And maybe next time we'll win, Mr. President. I want to thank Patrick Gordon. Thank you, Councilor Marks.
[Falco]: Councilor Caraviellola.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Councilor Marks for bringing this up. Patrick brought it to our attention last week after the meeting. I'm glad you brought it up. Like Councilor Marks said, he's one guy. He does work over here. He's at the station. And I'm glad he's gotten some recognition for the work that he's done. And hopefully we'll look for more things in the future from him. Thank you.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Knight, Councilor Bears. I'm sorry, Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Also, while we're under suspension, Mr. President, I'd just like to take an opportunity to wish my mother a happy birthday today.
[Falco]: Oh, happy birthday to Mrs. Night.
[Knight]: Yes, yes. I'm not going to tell you how old she is. And also, I'd like to announce that tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Andrews School,
[Falco]: Tell us more, please.
[Knight]: It's the monthly community police meeting.
[Falco]: You are correct. Thank you for noticing. That was actually, it's funny. I was on, I was trying to find out where the location was for tomorrow. Thank you. You beat me to the punch. Thank you very much. Tomorrow night, 6 p.m. Andrews middle school, the monthly method, uh, police community police meeting. Everyone is welcome. Uh, so please come down and share opportunity to ask, questions directly to the chief of police and he does not leave until all questions are answered. So definitely a nice opportunity to talk to the chief and have a cup of coffee and a donut or a muffin. So please come down Andrews Middle School, 6 p.m. Thank you, Councilor Knight. Councilor Bias.
[Bears]: I'll be very quick. I think Patrick Gordon would like me to remind everyone that you can join Medford Community Media for free. And they have a lot of resources, and they're looking for more programs, bringing people down. Patrick's incredibly responsive. And yeah, head over there. It's free. And it's not free in a lot of communities. So that's an important thing to note.
[Falco]: That is correct. Thank you for bringing that up. And congratulations to and thank you to Patrick Gordon. Like you said, Councilor Marks, it's nice to be nominated and to be recognized. And he should for all of his hard work. So thank you for bringing that forward. Minutes. The records of the meeting of January 28th, 2020 were passed to Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Scarpelli, how did you find those records?
[Scarpelli]: I find the records stupendous. Stupendous. I move forward.
[Falco]: On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve the records seconded by Councilor Morell. All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes and the records are approved.
[Scarpelli]: We'll beat that one next week.
[Falco]: On the motion of Councilor Knight to adjourn the meeting seconded by Councilor Villes. All those in favor?
[Unidentified]: All those opposed? Meeting adjourned.
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