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[Anna Callahan]: City Council. Good evening and welcome to the City Facilities Committee for May 20th 2025. This meeting will take place at five p.m. in the City Council Chamber of Medford City Hall. 85 George B has to drive. Uh. Today we are covering item 25-069 offered by me chair Callahan. It is a resolution to invite the friends of the
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Bears present council is our council living is absent. I believe for military service. Councilor Scarpelli chair Callahan present.
[Anna Callahan]: Thank you. So to start us off, I will just read the resolution first. Whereas the Chevrolet theater is a historic thriving cultural center used by our residents, which brings together people from all over Greater Boston, be it resolved that the city council invite Cindy Watson from the friends of the Chevrolet to attend a public works and facilities meeting to inform our community about the state of the Chevrolet theater. And I would love to invite Ms. Watson to come up to the podium and give us your Give us your take on the State of the Chevalier. Sorry, let me just... Hello? There you go, you're on. Thank you.
[Watson]: First of all, thank you for inviting me to the meeting. And Anna did yeoman's efforts to make sure that this took place at five o'clock. So thank you for spearheading the meeting. My pleasure. The rate of the pack is determined by the speed of the leader. So thank you for being the leader. Before we go into what I want to talk about, I also want to thank some of the council members for coming to the Friends of Chevalier meeting. It was a standing room only, as well as those who have chosen to become members. So thank you. I'm here representing the Friends, which is near and dear to my heart, but I'm also a commissioner. So this addresses tuitions, okay? I work closely with Paul Donato, all right? As we know, I was shocked. I went to some people down at City Hall last week. They had no clue who Paul Donato was. You know that he's a state rep from Medford, all right? So he and I touch base often because every year he raises $100,000. for the Chevalier. Okay, so this year, you know, we talk often, he's the Vice President of Friends of Chevalier. He indicated that he went before the House and Ways and Means Committee down at the State House to ask for $150,000 as opposed to $75,000. Well, They were very upset because there was no documentation from the previous year of the $100,000 that he gave us. Two years ago, we almost lost the money because we didn't spend it by June 30th. Fortunately, we were able to spend the money at that time. So I told Paul that I would take care of it. I went down to City Hall. I had the opportunity and the pleasure, I had never met him, to meet with Bob Dickinson. the CFO, I asked him to tell me, these are funds earmarked specifically for the Chevalier. He looked into, I went into his room, the computer, right now there's only $25,000 in the fund, all right? Today is May 20th. Obviously, this money is running out. So I mentioned it at the commission meeting on Wednesday. Okay, now there was a contentious battle somewhat between myself and Paul Riggi, who's the facilities director who oversees 18 facilities. That's a lot for one person. However, he also indicated that he's responsible for the fiscal aspect of the buildings, which why do we have a financial director? So the meeting ended at approximately, let's say eight o'clock, that's at six o'clock. I just left Wednesday with $25,000 in the account as advised by Bob Dickinson. I had also emailed Brianna, the mayor, about this as well. Ironically, on Thursday morning, I wake up, 7.19, I get a message. Okay, here's the budget for all of a sudden, from Friday night to that morning. Increased emergency lighting, $14,000. Increased, excuse me, replaced antiquated emergency lighting, $18,922. Paid to the exterior, doors to the theater, as well as the handrails and the fire escape, $27,935. Replaced a non-functional handicapped door opener, at $8,850 and made other improvements for the accessibility to the theater at a rate of $36,579. Now, I don't believe these are accurate figures. That very next morning, Friday, I emailed Bob Dickinson because he told me that was the best way to address the situation. He gets, you know, various phone calls. I also called the mayor, all right, because I don't want to present false information to anybody, all right? This money is earmarked for the Chevalier alone. Right now, I don't know if this council knows, we've just had our third lawsuit. Okay, now I don't know if we're following the rules of indemnification or not. The woman sued because on the balcony, the lighting is very poor. So that's number one, why I'm here to ask for additional funds for the lighting in the balcony. I mean, this is ridiculous. So where did these funds come from? Where are the numbers? Can anybody explain it to me? This is within a 12 hour period.
[Anna Callahan]: Sorry, this is just, you've just been sort of rattling off some events that happened and I don't have the budget numbers right in front of me. I mean, I'm sure there is a budget for the Chevalier. Would you like us to follow up with the administration to figure out what the budget is?
[Watson]: It should be $100,000 in the arena. Sure.
[Anna Callahan]: So it sounds like $100,000. Let me just ask the $100,000. Was that for this fiscal year so that that would be from last July 1 until ending in June 30. Correct. So that would mean that was since we're three quarters of the way through that year, that maybe there would be $25,000 left. That was all he had. That's what he told me. Right. But it sounded I mean, I look, I wasn't at that conversation. I mean, I'm really just going off of what you said. It sounds like there are twenty five thousand dollars remaining in the budget and there is a quarter of the year left to go. So that doesn't sound particularly odd. But again, I don't have like I was not I did not realize if you'd asked I could have prepared and had the budget at this meeting, like with all those numbers and knowing what everything had been spent out of that budget. I did not realize that that was what you were going to be asking about today.
[Watson]: So
[Anna Callahan]: Well, my main reason for coming here was to get additional lighting for the balcony, so that great and that that was what I understood that you had some requests of things that you wanted done which, you know, we're happy to, you know, pass along but I think if you want a deeper understanding of what's going on with the budget like we can do that it just might take a little bit of time I'm going to go to Councilor Lazzaro. Oh, sorry. My bad. You're number five? I'm gonna tell. Oh, who's requesting? Did I get you?
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you, yes. So one thing is, if you have a request for funding, we would have to go through the mayor's office. The mayor's office allocates the budget. We can only, as a council, approve or not the budget as it's presented to us from the mayor's office. our meeting at six o'clock tonight is to hear from a variety of departments that are presenting their budgets that have been allocated by the mayor's finance office. So that would be Bob Dickinson and the mayor with input from those departments. Then they present them to us. We hear about why various things are changing and then When we approve the budget in June. That's what we do but we don't we don't get to have very much input we do send the mayor our suggestions in earlier in the spring, but. But it is it is useful for us to hear about what the needs are. We could have if we had done it slightly earlier we could have presented the mayor with some requests, but they're not always met, I sent a variety of requests to the mayor earlier in the spring, they weren't all even close to Matt because there isn't that much money available in the budget Um, if what you're saying is that it wasn't, it was available but it wasn't spent, I think that's my understanding.
[Watson]: He said, Are you sure you are not Bob.
[Anna Callahan]: So by the way, if I may. Today, at six o'clock, we will have the Chevrolet theater budget on the, so if you just stick around, then you will hear the presentation of the budget for the Chevrolet theater so who's going to present that. Good question. And by the way, also, I believe Paul Riggi is on Zoom and has raised his hand. So shall we go to him? Is that all right if we go to him? Fine. Great. Thank you. Can you? We're asking you to unmute.
[Paul Righi]: Thank you. I think I'm here. Thank you. There's several things I'd like to talk about. One, it came to our attention. Cindy had notified us that Representative Donato wanted an itemized detail of what we spent the money on. So the list that she just read is myself going through my records, and I keep everything for the Chevalier separate. And that's why I was able to produce that list so quickly. Number two is I have been working all fiscal year on the premise that we receive $100,000 earmark. So I was spending that money for the Chevalier Theatre based on that earmark. Through conversations that we've been having, we are just double checking with the state that the appropriation was properly transferred over to the city of Medford. Bob Dickinson has reached out to the state controller's office to find out the exact date that the earmark was sent over and the exact amount that was sent over. So we're working on that behind the scenes just to double check that the money that representative Donato had earmarked for the Chevalier Theater was actually received by the city of Medford.
[Watson]: OK, so as you said yourself, Paul, to quote you, We could possibly be $75,000 in the hole, because I appreciate your efforts in trying to investigate where this money is. However, the commission is the one that really prompted me to come here. I volunteered and that's how I got in touch with them.
[Paul Righi]: We wouldn't be in the hole because the state has guaranteed the city of Medford that money. So they just need to do the transfer. And that's what we're working on to ensure that the transfer came over properly and is coded properly. It could actually be in the general account for the city and just needs to be transferred over to the special account for the Chevalier Theatre. So that is something we're working on behind the scenes to ensure that it is done and completed properly.
[Watson]: OK, well, at May 20th, I would appreciate your efforts to get that money appropriated appropriately so that Paul Donato, will be satisfied.
[Paul Righi]: Well, we have two issues, Cindy. First, we need to confirm that the state actually transferred it over. And if they did, then that's how we can actually check to ensure where that money is sitting in the city's treasury.
[Watson]: One that's what I have been asking.
[Paul Righi]: Yes. And that and we're working on that. But and we're working. Bob did reach out to the controller. They've been having a conversation so that we're getting closer to the resolution of that issue.
[Watson]: Okay, because Paul Donato has raised over $5 million for the Chevalier, okay? He's on the Friends with me. Excuse me, Paul, let me finish. He's on the Friends with me. He and two others have been on the Friends for 30 years, since the inception of the Friends. He deserves to know, and he is our state rep. I'm coming here as a courtesy gesture. I think it's a little odd that it May 20th, a month away from the end of the year, we don't know. Now, I am happy for all of your efforts, and I'm grateful that at least this is being pursued, because right now the money's not there, okay? Now, just as an example, as the friends, okay, when we write up things, and I can just, okay, give you a snapshot, All right, we, under, I can't take all credit for this at all, Ken Krause is unbelievable. All right, we've, the friends have raised $1.7 million, all right? It's not just for the Chevalier, it's also for the Medford Youth Center. the YMCA. Just as an example, again, we have the documentation, which I think all parties involved should have and should know how the money is being spent. We raise the money. We don't get any state money, very little at times. Or we have people do grant writing. Committed to crafting the city's application to the Mass Gaming Commission. casino mitigation fund, resulting in grants of $300,000 to convert the Chevalier ceiling lighting to LED, it's spectacular, and to install digital billboards near the front entrances to the theater. All right? Obtained a 10-year, again, as I alluded to, grant, a sustaining grant from the Cummings Foundation to expand a literacy program to the Medford Youth Center, building on the incentives program that has been going on for years. So at least we have the documentation, we do the financial reports. The commission, unfortunately, does not have a secretary. So things are now recorded. So we don't have these figures. All right. So I'm happy, particularly to you, Anna, that you will continue to look up into this because we don't need another lawsuit. Again, when we go, I'm not an attorney. The Chevalier is owned by the city of Medford. So who's going to be sued? Okay. All right, now a second issue, and I don't know if you folks are, but something this is you can handle. I live across the street from the Heckner Center, all right? Medford secured $850,000 in federal funding to transform the Heckner Center into a vulnerability preparedness site and climate recreation. The place looks like something out of the Adams family. I have to call every year during the summer because kids are jumping the fence, going in there, doing various things. So does anybody have any idea as to when that will start?
[Paul Righi]: George, Anna, Adam?
[Watson]: Councilor Morocco?
[Paul Righi]: Cindy, I can actually give you an update on the Heckner Center if you'd like. Thank you.
[Anna Callahan]: Go ahead.
[Paul Righi]: We are working on that project. The city departments that want to use the center have actually provided a schematic design of the building. and I will be meeting with our outside house doctor to meet on site so they can come up with architectural drawings for the building because that's the next step as part of our grant process to get the architectural drawings done. And once those are done, then the city can actually bid out on the construction for that Heckner Center. So there have been a lot of things going on in the background that will support actually putting a shovel in the ground and getting that turned over to what it is now re-imagined and re-envisioned as.
[Watson]: Do you have any expectation of when this might start, because that has been sitting there in that condition for years. Right now they have old police cars in the parking lot.
[Anna Callahan]: If I may, the Hager Center is actually not on the agenda and I really am interested in understanding. I thought that you would be giving us the state of the Chevrolet, and I know you specifically wanted to talk about the facility.
[Watson]: No, I just asked if this was something that was appropriate to bring up here. I'll go to whoever receives the federal money. George, do you have any idea? No idea. Okay, so.
[George Scarpelli]: But I do have some to the chair. Representative Donato did call me about the funding. And he wanted to let us know just an update that they found $25,000. They reported to Bob Dickinson. And then there is $75,000 that they'll be reaching out tomorrow to make sure that the city of Medford receives that 75,000. So we have that 100,000. He is also asking, the state to follow back to all of the money that was required was to be sent to Medford over the last five years. So he's doing even a deeper dive and hoping that if there was something that they missed that the city missed or the state missed that we can recover and hopefully help us as we move forward. So I wanted to share that with you. That would be great, George. Thank you. And I know that with the lighting situation, quick question, if I can through the chair. Yes. Have we, has anyone on the, I know that you do a lot, Cindy, I know your team does so much, but has anybody applied for community preservation money to help assist in funding?
[Watson]: Ken has in the past. Okay, so we got money elsewhere. This can is going to be leaving a lot of things. So, yeah. So, this current year, my knowledge is that nobody applied for the CPA, because we had money, like I said the $300,000 we got money from mitigation, we get a dollar back from every single show that's done. So if there's two shows, okay, the maximum capacity is 1900 times two, that's $3,800.
[George Scarpelli]: So so I think what I would ask if we could motion that we could ask the city administration to see if someone from the city can assist us in writing a proposal or a wish to CPA for any funding. Did they have a number for the lighting? Did they get a number by any chance? Did Mr. Riggi get a number to?
[Paul Righi]: Can I respond? Sure. Thank you. What I made very clear at our last commission meeting is that the lighting situation is the next item that will be addressed. and that the new earmark that we would get would address that lighting. Now, if we get money from the state before that, based on the conversation that you had with Representative Donato, then that lighting would be fast-tracked even faster. So that lighting is something that I know about. The cost estimate was $63,000. Since then, we've also found some other areas where we need to improve this type of lighting so the cost would actually be higher. I was going after a cultural grant for that and found out two weeks ago that we got denied funding for this project.
[George Scarpelli]: Mr. Regan, I appreciate all the hard work. I know it's very difficult to do what you're doing as a one-person army. I would still recommend moving forward. It wouldn't hurt to start the process. for possibly $100,000 CPA funding to support the historical site of Chevalier, because I think it's a public safety issue right now. If we're saying that people are suing us right now, we're losing money more than we're bringing in, so.
[Paul Righi]: They're not suing us, they're suing our partner, Blumenreich Productions.
[Watson]: But my question, nobody seemed to know, and there was an attorney there, Lenny Gliana, It, he's gonna look into it, but hopefully it appears as though the city will not have to be responsible. This Bill Boomer productions will be, but nevertheless, it's a concern. We don't want it some, it was some elderly woman that fell and it fractured her ankle or something. We don't need to have these types of accidents. The other thing is I still sometimes am amazed that the Chevalier Theatre under Bloom-Bloomwright's production is the economic engine for the city of Medford. I can't tell you how many times the businesses, the restaurants, we only have four, basically five, You know, there's Tacuba the Ford, now we have Mrs. Murphy's, as well as Real Gusto, all right? They are thriving, all right? They are so happy. I mean, I get phone calls all the time. So I just feel like sometimes the city of Medford sees the Chevalier as a stepchild. So any efforts that you can do would be terrific.
[Anna Callahan]: Great. And I still do want to ask, aside from the lighting, it seems like the lighting is on people's radar. Are there other needs that you see in terms of the facilities, things that you would like to happen in the near future? Are there other needs that you see in the Chevrolet?
[Watson]: Absolutely. But I made a motion at the meeting at the commission to make this the number one priority. So I don't want to speak out of turn without getting there. I mean, we have a laundry list, Anna. So I don't want to speak without, I mean, we're a team. Sure, I apologize. I thought that was what this meeting was about. Well, it's because we're addressing the, you know, the LED lighting. So, and that's what we need the money for. So that's correct as opposed to why I'm here, correct?
[Anna Callahan]: So it sounds like there is a motion on the floor. Could you maybe repeat? Did you catch that motion? Mr. Clerk, thank you.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli moving to ask if someone from the city can assist us in writing a proposal or request to the CPA, and then you trailed off for a second. So I'm guessing it's for funding? for any emergency lighting. Hang on for a second. It used to be a lot quicker. I know. I had to go back and edit the original motion. Hang on. Let me read it back. Councilor Scarpelli moved to ask if someone from the city can assist us in writing a proposal or request for the CPA or look into free cash for funding for lighting updates for the balcony and other needs that Director Rigg brought up to be looked at immediately for public safety purposes. Do we have a second?
[Anna Callahan]: Seconded by Councilor Lazzaro. Is there any more discussion on this particular topic?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Great, let's call the roll. President Bears.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Council Lazzaro. Yes, Councilman is absent Councilors compelling. Yes. Check Helen. Yes.
[Anna Callahan]: I was just fast.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Or, or, or, or favor zero pose.
[Anna Callahan]: Is there anything further that you want to discuss about the state of LA?
[Watson]: Terrific. I think if he helped and if George, as you said, Councilor, excuse me, State Rep Paul Venato was going to do the five year, you know, I'll follow up with him in the morning as well.
[George Scarpelli]: Okay. I'll follow up with Mr. Dickinson as well, Mr. Riggi, just to make sure we're all on the same page that you have my number, don't you? I do. I'll call you. I'll let you know. And I think that if, you know, I want to be present also at the meeting, so I know I missed the last couple, but it's important that we get more involved, because we all believe that what you said, it's the engine that keeps Medford Square going right now. Without the Chevalier right now, I would hate to see where Medford Square is. So, and we should be championing it a lot more. And like I said, the refurbishing, redevelopment of Medford Square, Has anyone talked to the Chevalier about what the plans are and how they're going to incorporate the Chevalier with that process? Has the city talked to the commission at all?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Andrew Mather was on the RFP committee.
[George Scarpelli]: OK. Thank you, Council President. Who's on the RFP committee? Mr. Mather, I believe he said. Andrew Mather, yeah.
[Watson]: Yeah, Andrew does a great job and he Bill Boomer right has a great team.
[George Scarpelli]: Yep. That's perfect. I didn't, I didn't realize that so it's good to see that there's someone that's actively working to make sure that you know the Chevalier is a focal point of the redevelopment so but thank you. Thank you.
[Anna Callahan]: Thank you so much. Do we have a motion.
[George Scarpelli]: Motion to adjourn.
[Anna Callahan]: By Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Lazzaro. Clerk, please call the roll. When you're ready.
[Watson]: All right, well, thank you very much for your time. Thank you for coming. I say the time is the most precious gift that we have. So thank you. Of course.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Bears? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro? Yes. Councilor Leming is absent. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Chair Callahan? Yes.
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