[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, why don't we start by just going through the administrative stuff, and we approve the minutes from last time, motion to approve the minutes from last time.
[Brenda Pike]: Sorry I sent those out so late, everybody. Did you get a chance to look at them?
[SPEAKER_04]: I did, yeah. I was looking at it before we started the meeting. Did everybody else get a chance to look at them?
[SPEAKER_02]: Me, I honestly did an overview of it, but it looked good from what I saw.
[SPEAKER_06]: I did not look at them.
[SPEAKER_02]: I did either. Maybe we can wait off on approving it, Brenda.
[SPEAKER_04]: We can discuss it for the next meeting?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: That sounds good. The other thing I wanted to bring up here, I know tonight's meeting was supposed to be a hybrid and that didn't pan out. Do we want to make the December meeting a hybrid meeting?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sure, yeah. If we keep it on Monday, I should be able to come into the office.
[SPEAKER_02]: What day would it be, Brenda?
[Brenda Pike]: Monday.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I know, like, what date, like, like December 16th. Yeah, I don't think that'd be, that'd be bad. It's fine.
[Brenda Pike]: Natasha, Stacey, any thoughts? I'm good.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm good. Whatever the group decides is good with me.
[SPEAKER_08]: I am good, but if anything come up, I'll let you guys know. Sure.
[Brenda Pike]: And then the meeting after that is on a holiday. Martin Luther King Day.
[SPEAKER_08]: What was that? I'll be absent on that day.
[Brenda Pike]: So yeah, so do we want to move it to a different day and what day would be best for you? So that would have been January 20th.
[SPEAKER_04]: Do we want to postpone it to the week after or before?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like the 27th?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't mind the 27th.
[SPEAKER_04]: Either date should work for me.
[SPEAKER_06]: What's the December date?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sorry. Martin Luther King Day is on the 20th, so we could either- December, the December date.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, the December. The hybrid date.
[SPEAKER_04]: Will be December 16th.
[SPEAKER_06]: Okay, sorry about that.
[SPEAKER_04]: No problem.
[SPEAKER_06]: I should have been writing it down.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then, so for January, we can either do it on the 13th or the 27th. 27th is good. 27. It's good. It works for me. Natasha, does that work for you?
[SPEAKER_07]: Give me one second. I'm checking my calendar. Is that a Monday? Yeah. Monday, 530?
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: Why is this calendar like this?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I guess we'll move it to Monday, January 27.
[Brenda Pike]: That sounds great. And we were just talking earlier, before everyone joined, that it sounds like the calendar invitations that I thought everybody had are not actually appearing on your calendars. So I'm going to delete those and send out new ones. And let me know if you receive them just so that like just reply yes to them so that I have that information because I thought you've been getting them the whole time. Are there any other sort of administrative things that we want to talk about?
[SPEAKER_04]: Other than just go over the city actions, right?
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, yeah, but that's not that's not under the administration.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I don't have anything really. Anybody else? Have any concerns.
[SPEAKER_08]: Administrative I'm sorry January 27 will this be hybrid or zoned.
[Brenda Pike]: So, we had talked about alternating between zoom and hybrid, so it would be zoom only. Okay, unless you would prefer it to be hybrid. Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brenda. Under administrative, it says introduction of guests. But I don't see.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, I'm reading the wrong 1. Are you looking at the minutes from the last. Meeting 1 with you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because we had guests last time we don't have any. Okay, do we want to move on to the. Bedford connects events.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, sure.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. Okay. So now, how did the winter preparedness event go?
[SPEAKER_04]: I wasn't there, unfortunately, but so I was just asking everybody else. The lady from ABCD end up coming. Her name is Roxanne, I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think so. She did.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. But in all honesty, it was a really good event. It was a lot of people.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's good.
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of people.
[Brenda Pike]: I just went to set up our table. and leave, because I had the stuff. And there were people lined up for it, like 45 minutes beforehand. That's good to hear. It was amazing.
[SPEAKER_08]: And people were still coming in, too. Even after I left, I left like, I think around close to 730-ish.
[SPEAKER_04]: Were there enough coats and hats for everybody?
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Although it's helping I was helping Jennifer with some of the stuff that Alicia's or Alicia's Alicia's your what?
[Brenda Pike]: Sure. Alicia. Yeah. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know what I say. I think because my mom says Alicia, so I get, sorry. But yeah, it's the stuff that her organization had donated, like the hats and stuff. And that alone was a lot, you know, nevermind the coats and everything that was donated. So that's good to hear that it was enough stuff for everybody.
[Brenda Pike]: So you didn't run out of hats and coats and things like that?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no, no. In all honesty, even even if we did like run out, we had like the list of like people to put their names and stuff for like what's up later, like chats, just in case they needed something, they could reach out. But scarves and and and, you know, hats and everything, there was like a ton of them left over. Jackets was really good, right, Stacey? Natasha, it was, it wasn't.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it was funny. We left with, we packed up some coats and stuff as well. So, but everything left over.
[Brenda Pike]: What happens to the things that are left over?
[SPEAKER_06]: That's a good question. I'm not really sure what happened to them. There were still some people, you know, we were putting things in bags and boxes. I'm not really sure where they were gonna land, but there were still people there that were going through stuff and still taking stuff.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think the Medford Family Network takes whatever's left. Okay, gives them to families, but I'm not 100% sure. That's what I think that's what Catherine was saying.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me. I just wasn't sure what was going to happen. Because like Lizette was saying, there was talk about, you know, taking names just in case we got calls and folks needed some things or they were calling looking for some things.
[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Overall, it was a successful event, Brenda. Like, really good.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's good to hear. It was night and day from last year.
[SPEAKER_02]: big time. I think this year was just more like organization and you know more thought out than like last year. Last year I mean like I guess the only flaw was just not having everyone like grab one jacket. It was like a limit right? So like the jackets immediately like went out when we like opened. But I think for this time we did really really good job.
[SPEAKER_06]: 2, I think the being at city hall was was a benefit as well. You know, parking and the size of the room and and people just kind of probably see in city hall for the 1st time too. So.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the city. It wasn't in the library. It was in the big room in the library. But in all honesty, I do feel, like Stacey said, like being in the City Hall, it's a different type of like, you see City Hall in a different light, not just like all like, you know, meetings and all this other stuff and like official things. Like to use the chambers for like a event like that was really like cool. And I think In all honesty, we should be using that more often for all of our, like, events and stuff so people can get comfortable to coming, you know, into the building and then getting information right on the spot instead of having to go to the library or this other place or whatever. You're, like, right there, you know?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Did you partner with more organizations this year?
[SPEAKER_06]: I think so. It seemed like there were definitely more people there, it seems, this year. Seemed that way anyway. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: That's great. I was very sad that I couldn't be there. Oh, did the Electrify Medford table go okay? Okay. I'm always nervous, but I'm not there.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, don't be. The table still gets people there. Thankfully, Natasha, what's your friend's name? The one from the Haitian task force? She's the one who... Ruth. Ruth. Yeah, and then Zila came afterwards. Yeah, they did very well with the table. Great.
[Brenda Pike]: Well, any other events coming up?
[SPEAKER_04]: We have the winter extravaganza, December 4th. So that's not next Wednesday, but the Wednesday after. So I think we're all going to be there because that's when our meetings are anyway. So should be fun.
[Brenda Pike]: That's great. Yeah, I'll be tabling then too. Do you guys have a table all set, all reserved and everything?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I assume so. Yeah. We have, I think we're going to discuss more about the event this week. because we were just like more can more prioritizing the winter preparedness event last week. So we'll have more details and more organization about it. This in the coming days.
[Brenda Pike]: Makes sense. So last year, all of the tables were outside. And then the tree raffle and the, there were like children's activities and stuff that were, was happening inside.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, so when you say outside, you mean outdoors, not like outside in the hall. Oh no, like actually outdoors.
[Brenda Pike]: Cause there are like, there were like food trucks that were there. It's not too cold.
[SPEAKER_04]: Last year was cold. Oh, you went last year, Natasha?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it's not really last year, because I don't remember the extravaganza.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't think I was here, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, so you're saying is that this year it's going to be outside, Brenda?
[Brenda Pike]: I think that's the plan, unless this year is bad and then they'll move it in or something, but yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's going to be like the seaport, freezing cold, and then we're going to have to have hot chocolate, because if not... They had free hot chocolate last year. Oh, my gosh, I don't know what this weather.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's an early event too, right? It's like at 4.30. Yeah, 4.30 to 6.30. Yeah. So that's not too bad. But I think Catherine was talking about doing arts and crafts in our room. You know, you know, okay, perhaps thing. So, I mean, I don't know. I don't know if, you know, our, our office will be. Our tabling or, you know, if there'll be stuff out outside, but like said, we'll probably. Perhaps we'll get more information about it this week.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I feel like it would be so cool to do something like that outside. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, I talked with Marie Cassidy briefly about because Medford Family Network usually does like an arts and crafts activity inside about doing some sort of like gingerbread house decorating thing. With like, you know, some little educational things about here are things you can do to your house and or electrify Medford. But we hadn't hadn't solidified anything yet, so that that's a good reminder that I should reach back out to her about that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it says here on the thing at Medford City Hall. And this is rain date Thursday, December 5th. 2024 430 to 630.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, so they won't be moving it inside. They'll just be moving the date.
[SPEAKER_02]: If the 1st for the official, I think it says Wednesday, December 4th, like. He said, so it looks like there's going to be a lot of, like. Vendors as well, so, yeah, it's outside.
[Brenda Pike]: Any other events coming up.
[Unidentified]: I don't think so.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not sure. I think for this year that's... Maybe one later, like December 14th. I forget what it was. I'd have to consult the county.
[Brenda Pike]: Um, so the only other thing that I have coming up for electrified Bedford is, um, we're doing an event at the library on January 16th. So that's another month out even. Um, but it's just going to be, uh, a thing, you know, another thing, introducing people to electrify Medford, if they want to come and talk to coaches right there. Um, and then the pumpkin smash that was on November 2nd, um, was actually a really well attended event. I was surprised at how many people came through there and how, um, like engaged they were. People were like really coming over to the table and talking with us for a long time while their kids were playing with stuff. And it was just a good group of people to be talking to about this sort of stuff.
[SPEAKER_06]: That's awesome. What time is the event on the 16th? The January 16th event? Yeah. That's 7 to 8 at the library.
[Brenda Pike]: Um, do you want to move on to city updates? Yes, yes. Cool. So, for electrify Medford, we've had. 92 people sign up and so far, 26 of them have been coached. Um. And let's see, oh, I applied for the national, sorry, the Mass Save Community First Partnership. Um, which is like a 3 year program where we would work really closely with national grid to do outreach about the massive program. So it's really just kind of an extension of what we're already doing with electrify Medford. But it would allow us to get monthly updates from them. Including data about, like, measures that have been installed in Medford. So that we can kind of see our impact a little bit better. And then we'll also be able to do bill inserts in people's energy and gas bills. So hopefully that's something that we get so we can move forward. We should hear probably in January if we did. One additional thing there, small business outreach is a part of it too. So I talked with our economic development planner and she would be willing to put in some hours doing outreach to small businesses about Mass Save too. So that would become part of the Electrify Medford program too. Let's see, oh, the electricity aggregation program. So letters went out to residents about the new pricing that starts with their December billing cycle. And we've had a lot of calls, mostly people already on the aggregation who think they have to sign up again. So for the record, they don't have to sign up again if they're already on the aggregation. They'll just get the new pricing automatically. But we have come across some people who heard about it and wanted to switch and were on competitive suppliers. One person was paying $0.28 per kilowatt hour. And the new pricing for the aggregation is $0.14. So they were paying double what they could get for the aggregation. So every time we come across someone like that, I'm really horrified, but I'm glad that we're doing this outreach in this program so that they can save some money. I submitted Medford's Green Communities annual report. To the state Department of energy resources, so this is for municipal. Building and vehicle use, so it's just municipally owned buildings and vehicles. So, and our total energy use is down 19% from our 2009 baseline, which is when we started those reports. Um. But if we weather normalize that, so like if the weather were the same essentially as it was in 2009, it's only a 14.5% reduction. So it's really just because winters have been warmer that it's down, it's the difference between the 14.5 and the 19% there. But it's good progress. We had promised for green communities, we have pledged to reduce our energy use by 20%, so we haven't hit our 20% pledge yet, but we are so close. And then the Energy Committee had a meeting last Wednesday, and they're looking to add two new members. And we've had some people already apply through the boards and commissions website. Sorry, the boards and commissions application form, but if, you know, anybody who might be interested. Definitely send this along so that they can sign up. It would be a process where they. They put they put through the application and then we talk with them and then we would like, recommend people to the to the mayor and then the mayor would appoint them. Let me drop in the chat. The link to that, uh. Form the application form for the boards and commissions page. The energy committee was also interested in starting a zero waste Medford initiative. There was someone from the community at their last meeting who came in, who was very enthusiastic in talking to them about it. And so they've gotten very interested in this. They were talking about potentially setting up like swap events, doing a campaign to get restaurants not to use like black plastic containers, which aren't recyclable, fix-it clinics, electronics recycling. So this is all stuff that's happening kind of here and there and they're wanting to sort of like organize it more to get the word out more and do more of these things. So if that's something that you're interested in getting involved in, I would definitely make sure to keep you, to connect you with them more. And then they're also interested in developing After the wildfire smoke, they were really interested in developing some more air quality communications to send out to people, like some quick, easy to understand tips and then like a link to the purple air maps that show like real time where the air quality is bad. So you can see if it's bad in your neighborhood at the moment. And then from there, they were thinking, you know, as well as like for droughts and heavy rainfall and snowfall and other extreme weather, it would be good to have like tips like that already prepared, because we didn't really have anything like that to send out that day. And I've reached out to Catherine and Mary Ann to see what the Board of Health has for any of these topics. It seems like they get some communications from the state, but that might not necessarily be pinpointed or targeted to things quite that exactly. So we'll have to follow up on exactly what that might look like. Do you think that that's something that people would be interested in or that would be useful to people? Do you think anybody would pay attention to it?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, to be honest.
[Brenda Pike]: What were you guys doing when the smoke was so bad? Did you like look stuff up online or?
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, in all honesty, my mom like, made all of us wear masks, obviously. And then, no, we just didn't, like, we didn't air out the house. Like, we just, like, kept it closed and stuff. She didn't really, like, I didn't really, it didn't really affect my area as much, like, on Salem Street. It wasn't that bad. I don't know if anybody on your areas was worse, but here it wasn't that bad. But yeah, going out with masks was one. one thing we did.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was pretty bad. When I was like, because I remember I was like, kind of, I could physically see like, there was like the fog and stuff. But, um, and then I like looked it up. And I just said, like, there were forest fires in like, the New Hampshire area. But after that, like, what can you really do other than just like wear the mask and and stuff.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, I mean, they have tips for like, depending on the air quality in your in your neighborhood, like how long you should spend outside before like, how much you should limit your activity. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, they did have that advice we shared in our Facebook group to our community. And especially my son, who had asthma. So we thought about the people who has asthma. So if you don't really need anything, stay in. And like Liz, I was saying, suggest wear masks as you know, if if you need to be out there. Mm hmm.
[Brenda Pike]: So can you, can you see my screen?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[Brenda Pike]: So this is the purple air map that I was talking about. And it, and it shows you like the particulate matter in particular, in particular areas. Um, so like right now in Medford, it's, it's not bad, but like over here in Arlington right now, it's actually quite bad. And so there are like particular like recommendations for like limit your time outside to a certain amount of time based on like this number here or the, you know, what color this is essentially.
[SPEAKER_04]: Why do you think it's so high in that area specifically?
[Brenda Pike]: That's a really good question.
[SPEAKER_04]: Because like, you know, the surrounding areas are not that bad.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. I wonder if there's like a house fire or something, right? Is that in, you said that's in real time? Um, I think it's every two minutes that it updates. Okay. So this is see, oops. He zoomed in too much.
[SPEAKER_02]: You use purple air, Brenda. I use the, um, Accuweather.com.
[Brenda Pike]: That that shows the air quality to.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like, for example, now it says it's fair. 34, so the air quality is generally acceptable for most individuals. However, sensitive groups may experience minor or moderate symptoms for long term exposure. And then it shows, like, the current. An air quality scale.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, so I think purple air might have more local sensors than the weather does. But it's also limited now, so certain neighborhoods in Medford, for instance, have no sensors there. And I know the state had a grant program. where you could get a certain number of sensors and then do outreach to ask people to install them in their own homes or outside their homes in particular neighborhoods to try to increase the coverage in the area.
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, it might be if it was if it was something that folks, you know, if it was some sort of link somewhere or something, or even if it was like a robo call that went out. About the air quality, and they said, you know, you could check link. I think people might be interested just to see how close things are. You know, it's first thing in the morning, you know, whether they want to send their kids to, you know, are their kids going to walk to school that day, you're going to throw them in the car and drop them off, you know, that sort of thing. I mean, if you can get down to just where things are worse, you know, it might not be so bad at your house, but up by the You know, the middle school, it might be a whole, whole different thing. So, it's one of those things, 6 in 1, half a dozen of another, I think, you know, just kind of depends on. If you got people who need to go out that day or. I know I was in the hospital during that time, and I was in Melrose. And it was actually pretty bad first thing in the morning. I mean, you could smell it in the hospital. And I could see it. I could just see the haze. So it was pretty bad, because I was like, yo, what is that smell? And then, of course, I caught on the news what it was. And it was primarily in the morning.
[SPEAKER_04]: yeah that's when it was was worse or the only time i really noticed it was in the morning this was like like maybe three weeks ago two weeks ago yeah i i remember there was like you're saying stacy there was like a very strong burning wood smell and like a visible smog in the air yep
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, definitely. And it was when I left my house, my house, there was a faint smell, but not terrible. And the closer I drove to work, I was like, it got worse and worse and worse. So you're right, Stacey, like people might not just by looking outside know what to expect, sending their kids off, whatever. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_06]: especially if you can look ahead to where you gotta go, or, you know, you know what I mean, where you gotta go, where you gotta get to next, how close is it to your own home, and, you know. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: And the thing is, with climate change, stuff like this is going to happen more often. Like, you don't think of wildfires being a particular threat in Massachusetts, but...
[SPEAKER_06]: I thought it only happened in California, not only in California, but that's what we hear about it most. And, you know, that's more wildfires and stuff, but yeah, it was, yeah. It's crazy.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sometimes like, um, these are naturally occurring. Right. And that's actually like, it's actually good for the environment. Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: I mean, naturally occurring, yes, but because there's been such a drought. And so everything is really dry. And so when things catch, they just go. And with climate change, you're going to have more droughts because hot air holds more moisture into it. And so the hotter the air is, the longer it holds that moisture in. or it has the capacity to hold that moisture in for longer. And so you're more likely to have longer periods of droughts and then like a lot of rain coming down all at once instead of it raining every once in a while. Okay, well, on that happy note.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it was just making me think about the kooks who say that, you know, climate change is not a thing. Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: You made me, you guys made me think about when I was in Ecuador. There was such a drought that there was electricity, like shutdowns. And it was all scheduled every like four hours. We had like no electricity for like four hours. And it was like insane. Yeah, it was not fun. I'm telling you, it made me feel like I was back in Lebanon again. Wow. Climate change is real.
[Brenda Pike]: Do we want to move on to the tree ordinances? Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, yes, excuse me.
[Brenda Pike]: So, the city council committee of the whole is actually taking this up this Wednesday. They're not voting on anything. They're just looking at it and just the ordinance isn't discussing them again. It's been quite quite a while since the last time they took it up. And let me drop into the chat. The links to the. To that meeting, which has all of the ordinance information in it if people are interested. As far as I know, there haven't been any edits since the last time. The energy committee talked about it. But there's still conversation about. does the city have the resources to be able to manage a tree ordinance, especially a private tree ordinance where there are like permit applications and actually like making sure that people are monitoring to make sure that people are actually doing what they're supposed to. So I know that's going to be part of the discussion too. But entries Medford is meeting tomorrow night at six o'clock to talk about this and prepare for the committee of the whole meeting on Wednesday. And Trees Medford is also working on creating a landmark trees list for Medford. This is something that some other towns have done where they basically just have a list of like, historically significant or just very old or. some sort of landmark trees where they'll do like walking tours and things like that just so that there's some awareness of like important trees in the community so that people might be able to like rally around them if there's some threat to it at some point, I think. So that's not related to the ordinance, but that's something else that Trees Medford is doing. just a refresher the tree ordinances there's one that focuses on trees in city-owned property and there's one that focuses on trees on private property and then there's one that sets up a committee to oversee that And there's a lot of details in there. You'll see if you click through into the agenda, there's a lot of details about like. You know, permits you have to apply for and fines that you might need to pay for cutting down trees of a certain size and things like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: talking about trees, Brenda. I saw the I was talking to the mayor. After the event, I saw her like, watering the new trees that were around City Hall. Yeah. And um, yeah so she said that there was like a few like that were like planted around like medford so if we ever see one to like you know there's like the bag there you just put like the water in for us to fill it just in case i wanted to let you guys know If you see a tree, like you guys have water or something like to water it.
[SPEAKER_06]: So is it self-watering? So the blue bags just need to be filled with water? Yeah. Cool.
[Brenda Pike]: Just an FYI. It's amazing how much water those things hold, though. I have a new tree in my backyard that we planted this spring. It has taken a lot of water during the drought to keep it alive. And the amount of time that I just spend there with a hose filling that bag every single day is great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think I think it's like one, like, you know, like the water gallon. Like it's like one of those and maybe a little more.
[Brenda Pike]: I don't know. It feels like a lot more than that, what I'm feeling now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know. I saw the mirror with one whole big one and she filled that thing. I was like, oh my God, just for like one. So that's a lot.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, this drought is not being kind to the new trees. That's one of those things, though, where you're like, OK, you don't want people watering their lawns, necessarily, because that seems like a waste of water during a drought. But trees, because they're like long-term investments, new trees in particular.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, so they need if they need a fighting chance to root and. You know, yeah, definitely. When I hear things like that, I always think about, you know, students and community service and, you know, I don't know, maybe it could be a science thing or something where. You know, the kids, you know, they get a map of where these trees are and stuff and, you know, they. Everybody bring a jug or two, you know?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. I mean, the city has a water truck that they bring around to water the trees, but I don't know if they just can't get to them often enough or what. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I just always think, you know, community service, you know, small ways to do community service and, you know, projects for the kids at school, something to do. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that way they can get involved with like, like the knowledge of like, like knowing how important it is, especially for, like you said, Brenda, that route that we're going in. It'd be really cool if they, like, each, like, next to each tree had, like, a thing about it. Like, you know. I think there is.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, like a little post or something. Uh-huh. Or a thing, yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that's not a bad idea, actually. I think there is, actually. And there's even an adopt-a-tree program that people can volunteer to water trees I think what they're thinking of is like trees near your house. It might be easier for you to commit to watering, but that's what this website that I just dropped into the chat. Oh, Girl Scout Troop 68137 created this website.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I saw that.
[Brenda Pike]: Each bag holds between 10 and 14 gallons of water. Whoa. Which is why it's hard. It's not something you can just like walk up to a tree and water. Like you gotta have a hose that you can get from somewhere.
[SPEAKER_06]: That's insane. Oh, you're not kidding. That's a lot of H2O there. Oh my gosh. That's more than a gallon, girl. Yeah. Hey, well, I don't need to tell you what I heard. I know, I'm just saying. No, I hear you. I'm just saying. That's a lot of water. I don't think I'd be volunteering to do that. That's just a little too much water to be carried around.
[Brenda Pike]: Well, that's why I was thinking if you were doing something that's near your home, you might be able to run a hose out from your home or something. Yeah. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think at this point, we need to pray to mother nature to, you know, do her thing. Because that's that's insane.
[SPEAKER_06]: I agree.
[Brenda Pike]: Anything else for the tree ordinances any questions or.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, but this stuff is interesting to see if you don't send it to us, Brenda, I don't think people know. Unless I don't know, or do you get this?
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, trees, the trees, Medford thing. I mean, trees, Medford is a very active group there at a lot of events that I'm tabling out for electrify Medford. They give out lots of trees. They just did a big tree distribution thing this fall.
[SPEAKER_03]: Mm hmm.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, there's a thing on their website where people can request a free tree in the spring to plant in their backyards.
[Unidentified]: That picture looks like it could be in West Medford actually.
[SPEAKER_02]: The one on the tree?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, the on the adopted tree looks like it could be the bridge there right before the. Rotary either that or mystic river road where the. Basketball courts are, but I don't see any basketball on the other side. Could be the other end.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, they have the map of where they put all the trees.
[Brenda Pike]: So there's nothing else about the tree ordinances. Last time we talked a little bit about green jobs. And. I spoke with our economic development director just to get his suggestions for like how to go about something like this. And he suggested partnering with MassHire because they do job fairs and things like that. And he's in contact with them regularly anyway. Right now he's talking with them because of the the Anheuser-Busch plant closing down and trying to help those folks get new jobs. He's in pretty regular contact with them. If hosting a mass hire job fair is something that we would be interested in doing in Medford, I think that's something that we could pursue with him. Is that something you think would be useful? Do you think people would be interested?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think so. And I think it ties in pretty well with my new job. So yeah, definitely I can get in contact with him maybe to set up something in the future. Charbel, what's your new job? Oh, this like financial security community connector. So my new title. So I think this ties in pretty good with that.
[Brenda Pike]: That's great. If you're interested, I could just set up a time for the three of us to talk about it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, sure. Usually, you know, I'm available to speak like during this time on most weekdays, but I don't know if that will work for him. I don't know.
[Brenda Pike]: I don't know if Sal, I don't think Sal is often available weeknights except for Wednesday nights. Are you available Wednesday nights at all?
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, that's usually when we have our meetings, so I guess not.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, do you guys have weekly meetings on Wednesdays?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes. Yeah. But I mean.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, if you were thinking about, you know, just, you know, having conversation about, you know, something that comes up every now and again, I think you'd, you'd get a pass, I think, right? You miss one, you know, you miss meeting every now and again, you'd probably be able to get a pass. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Do your meetings usually go until 730?
[SPEAKER_04]: Like seven. Yeah, seven o'clock, but I can like I can take we can have the meeting during During the meeting and then I'll just have somebody catch me up. I can read.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, you can step out. Yeah, so Well, did you know Brenda that we we changed our our positions I didn't know I yeah so charbel he's the um financial like security what is it charbel yours the connector yeah so that's the climate equity connector now um what's it called natasha's the liaison now for Haitian Creole with Darlene, and Stacey's the liaison for the, what is it?
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm just a liaison, just a community liaison. Yeah. Just a community liaison.
[SPEAKER_02]: We all changed.
[Brenda Pike]: What is Tamiya's new focus?
[SPEAKER_02]: Tamiya? You see, Samia is of the young, the youth and families. Yeah, so we each all changed our positions.
[Brenda Pike]: That's cool. So does that mean that you're not directly connected to, because before you were directly connected to different partners, right? Like one person was working more closely with the Medford family network and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_04]: In different languages. We like, we still like, like we still support our liaison counterparts. Like, you know, if, for example, if Samira, my mom, needs help with, like, any Arabic-related stuff, you know, I can still help with that. But pretty much, it's just under the new grant, they had to restructure our jobs and our, like, our responsibilities, pretty much. You know, bureaucratic stuff. Gotcha. Okay. But since you bring that up about the mass hire job fair, it would tie in well with what my new responsibilities entail.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that would be great.
[SPEAKER_04]: If Catherine won't mind if I missed a meeting just to, you know, like, set something up.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, yeah. Or we could just do something from like 7 to 7 30 or something on a Wednesday. A couple of times, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not too late for you?
[Brenda Pike]: No, no. On Wednesdays, we're at City Hall until 7.30 anyway.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay. Yeah. Will you both be at City Hall? I forget. What's his name?
[Brenda Pike]: It's Sal DeStefano. He's the economic development planner and he's out of my office.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so you. Okay. All right. All right. That's cool.
[Brenda Pike]: So, yeah, so I'll email him and you sure about. just set something up. And the thing is, there are existing resources out there that we could pull together to just, you know, have this list of resources that could be shared out to people, whether that's in a flyer or on social media or whatever. And then also maybe have a, like a physical job fair at some point. That might be interesting.
[SPEAKER_04]: That would be perfect. Thank you.
[Brenda Pike]: And I'm obviously more interested in the green jobs part of it, but I think Sal and probably you Charbel would be wanting to open it up to more things than just green jobs for these resources.
[SPEAKER_04]: Whatever, like we just need, uh, just need like more, I guess, awareness on how people can get like, you know, good paying jobs and get the skills for it as well. So yeah, green jobs or, or whatever, it's all relevant, you know.
[Brenda Pike]: So I think that's all that I had on my, we had on our agenda here. Is there anything else that folks wanted to talk about today?
[Unidentified]: Bye.
[SPEAKER_08]: Can I circle back on what you guys were talking about the job fair? Charbel, if you do have that meeting, can I get a little information? Because me and Darlene were kind of brainstorming not too long ago about having a job fair in the community. But we were kind of like focusing it more on the migrant, you know, and because there are a lot of them are really My phone fell off my hands. Okay. A lot of them are having issues when it comes to trying to land a job, like interview problems, and the employers are kind of like really tough on them too. So maybe if we could kind of like talk to the employee, that's what we were brainstorming during our meeting, the Haitian Method Task Force, to like have a person that would go out and kind of say, okay, how do you, you guys, like, what do you feel about hiring immigrants? And then two, how lenient is the interviews part with them, you know, because of the limited of English, So they could kind of give them a slack in a sense, you know, because some of them it's like, OK, interview. And they kind of give them like a really big question. What is your strength? What is your weakness? And these people sometimes certain vocabularies they don't understand. So it's like really hard. And then they just brush them off and say, OK, come back when your English is a little better. So if somebody could like talk to them in that sense. So I don't know if that's your job, Charbel, somebody, a spokesman, you know, to kind of talk to them.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's definitely connected. But what do you think of just like you come into the meeting since, Natasha, you work for, you work with Mass Hire, right?
[SPEAKER_08]: No, well, I don't work directly with them. I kind of bring people to them. I work with ABCD. Right. Yeah. They affiliate in a sense of me, the students that I have, I kind of like, um, send them their way so they could register and get a job quest ID so they could start learning how to get into the system and basically get trained to get ready for work. Right. In that sense.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I mean, I still don't, do you think it would be like a good idea if you, if you, join the meeting as well. Sure, I don't mind. You can gather something or you can add something from your experience. Okay. It would be from 7 to 7.30, I'm not sure. Yeah, that's fine.
[Brenda Pike]: I don't think it would be this week based on people's schedules right now. Oh, and it probably wouldn't be next week. Next week's holiday. Apparently, we're still there at City Hall until 730, but... What?
[SPEAKER_03]: November... Is it going to be 20-something?
[SPEAKER_08]: Wait a minute. City Hall don't get out early?
[Brenda Pike]: Not that I've heard. Maybe they'll tell us on the day of that we can get out early. Wow. Oh, my goodness. Oh, but you know what? So we can do it after the winter extravaganza.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that should work.
[Brenda Pike]: It looks like that's the first Wednesday that That people will be free.
[SPEAKER_04]: No way, exactly what time the extravaganza is. It's 4.30 to 6.30. Okay, yeah. Well, yeah, that should work. Cool.
[Brenda Pike]: Natasha, remind me again what you do with ABCD.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, the title is Employment Services Advisor. I'm like, why are they trying to make it so fancy? I'm a career advisor. Just say that, will you? That's the title they give me. I'm like, OK.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. This is right up your alley, though.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. So especially as we're looking to like pull together lists of resources and stuff, Natasha, you're going to be a resource for that.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes.
[Brenda Pike]: Awesome. Cool. Okay. I'll reach out to Sal about that tomorrow then. Um, anything else about brain jobs or about jobs in general? Anything else folks want to talk about today? For our next meeting, I have a list of possible future meeting topics here that I've just been jotting down as we, from month to month. One of them was green giveaways. Having each member come with a list of suggestions, is that something that folks could do for the next meeting?
[SPEAKER_04]: Like suggestions that we give away?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, like things that we could give away at events and things that are not terrible for the environment.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's very hard. This is really hard. I sent you my favorite. That's been like, it's crazy. It's not, it's not easy, especially like something that it's like, not as expensive for us to be able to like, get to. Because the thing is, there is, but it's like, on the pricier side of it. You know, we have a budget, I'm assuming. So
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, we talked about this a little bit last time, but I was not ready with a list this time and I didn't think anybody else would be.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're gonna give like seed packets away. What? Is that something?
[SPEAKER_00]: Seed packets? Seed. Oh, seed packets. Perfect, seed.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, looking up green giveaways.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I came up with, I think I put that there. I also did the fans. The fans is a good 1. Brenda, the. You know, I like that 1 will go.
[Brenda Pike]: Do you want to add that to the agenda for next time?
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm looking at some down.
[Brenda Pike]: And I might see if the tree warden can come. To talk about the where the ordinances is that something that you're interested in.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, that's such a cool job title to. Tree boarding.
[Brenda Pike]: And we had something jotted down last time about under transportation topics about bus routes. Is it?
[SPEAKER_04]: Or route, the bus route.
[Brenda Pike]: The 94, yeah, the new bus routes.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's the one that's being taken out, right?
[Brenda Pike]: Yep. I shared the flyer with information about that, right? Yes. About the changes to the routes. What do we want to discuss about that?
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, let's see. I don't know.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. I was debating when I was looking at the minutes from last time.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know that we can sign the petitions, but is there anything more we can do as a way to sort of like spread the word or maybe try to like delay this?
[Brenda Pike]: This has already gone into effect, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: It's going into effect next year, right?
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, I thought it went into effect today. What, the redesigning? Well, OK, sorry. Somebody I know had said something to me about the new bus. He was surprised by the new bus route today. So I assume that that's what he was talking about. So.
[SPEAKER_04]: On the flyer says like late 2025. Yeah, OK, late 2025, early 2026. Gotcha. I obviously was not paying enough attention to that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so maybe I don't know if
[Brenda Pike]: Our transportation director would be able to come to the meeting. But maybe I can ask him for some more information about what. He thinks people can do for the about the new bus routes. I know he has been advocating for Medford. Bus routes himself in statewide meetings that he goes to and stuff, but. If there are ways that people can get involved more directly other than what we put out on the other than what I sent you about the that flyer. That would be good to know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember I emailed you about that. Remember Brenda. As well as, like, I asked you if there was available and, like, other languages so people can see it.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, the only thing I had was a paper version of that flyer that somebody dropped off in our office. But it might be. I mean, we dropped them off in our office, actually. But that might be something. Is that worthwhile to for for you to translate and and get out to people?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. I mean, it would be it would be good to even like, for example, the winter extravaganza where there's a lot of people there, maybe have that so that people can be aware of it. And give it out.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, let me let me I said, let me let me talk to the transportation director here and see if he had if there are other things that he's aware of that we can be sharing with people too. Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then that way, we can also post it on our Facebook. That has to be obviously, like, accurate.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay. Okay, unless folks have other things that they want to get on the list for the next meeting. I think that might be it.
[SPEAKER_04]: So motion to adjourn the meeting.
[Brenda Pike]: So you're seconding it, Lizette?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, I second it. That's what my peace sign was. I didn't have the audio up.
[SPEAKER_04]: Then all in favor, say aye.
[SPEAKER_06]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_06]: Lizette, why are you giggling?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because Natasha's so funny. We all went, aye. She's like, I like a pirate. Aye. Oh, no. All right. We'll see each other on our next meeting, guys.