--------- It being 6:30, I will call the Monday, August 4th informal meeting to order. First order of business is to call the order. When I call your name, please respond. Present. Council Brooks, >> present. >> Councilor Craig Cormier, >> present. >> Council Delawitz, >> present. >> Council Hardier, >> present. >> Council Heath, >> present.
>> Council Hegland, >> present. Council Kazinskus, Council of Math >> present, >> Council Tony, Council Tibo Munoz, >> present, >> and President Cyrus.
I have eight councils present. In the absence of council president Tyrros, the order of business is the election of council president prom for this evening, August 4th. At this time, nomination is now in order for for the office of council president. I now open the floor for nominations.
>> Council Hegel move to nominate councelor Dowitz. >> Second. >> Council Hegel nominates councelor general Lowitz. Seconded by councelor Heath. Councelor M. >> I make a motion to close the nomination. >> Second.
>> Nomination made by councelor Mack. It's seconded by councelor Cormier to close the nominations. There being no objections, councelor Durich is now the council president for this evening informal meeting.
Thank you everyone. I do want to make note that the open meeting recording uh notice is on the wall over there. Is anyone here other than staff recording? Hope there's none. On today's agenda for the informal meeting is item 11466, a
request from councelor Karen Harter to have an informal meeting with Monachus Regional Transit Authority, MART, to discuss rider and pedestrian safety and route utilization and ridership. Uh tonight we have three representatives here from MARK. We have the administrator CEO Bruno Fischer. We have
the assistant administrator uh Scott Rich. And we have transit planner um Michael Yboa. Um gentleman who lives up. The floor is yours. Thank you for coming. >> Good evening. >> If you could please come to the the podium. >> Thank you.
>> Uh good evening. Uh I'm Bruno Fischer. I'm the administrator uh CEO of the Monet Regional Transit Authority in Fitsburg and serving Gardner and many surrounding communities. Uh thank you for inviting us. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to give you a a good idea of
what our services are and how we operate. Uh, certainly talk about safety and and the like. Um, I brought with me tonight, as you mentioned, uh, Scott Rich, our assistant administrator, and Michael Yabboa. Uh, they'll be doing most of the presentation, but we're all available to answer whatever questions may come up. So, uh, without further
ado, Scott, >> thank you, Bruno, and we greatly appreciate you all inviting us to be here tonight. Um, that we're going to talk about some topics that are very important to us. And as as
you see in this slide, our mission statement, which is to serve people by getting them where they need to go to lead their lives. That's something that we take very, very seriously. and we work almost every day to accomplish that. And so we're going to have as our agenda tonight is to look at some topics
that um the councelor Hard uh hard harden uh asked for and uh so so we're going to talk about uh our first our fixed bus routes and uh how they're working and
and that we added a new route and we'll get into some of the the ridership issues. Then we're going to talk about a lot of the other services we have to complement the fixed buses such as our ADA services, our COA services, the services we have for subscription service, evening ride service, and our
partnership with Swift Rides. And uh then we're going to get something that's very important to me as MART's uh chief uh safety and security officer is our uh what's going on to improve the things we're doing for public safety. And that's something we've done a series of
things this year and we'll talk about that in detail, get into those. And then we want to wrap up with the most important part of this meeting is to hear from all of you. What are your constituents saying? What are the things that are important to the people in gardener and what you would like us to
do to improve our services? So with that, I'm going to be turning this over to our transit planner and you'll get to hear a little bit from me in a few minutes. So Michael. >> Okay. Thank you very much Scott and thank you for the gardener community for your interest in math and the questions
and we appreciate you and your residents on using math services. So with this presentation I'll start with going about with the roots. So for the first slide this shows our local route in gardener. Currently we have several other routes which connects gardener to winching
gardner to aham gardener to fit which connects to um leminster and also towards Worcester. So but for this presentation I'll be focusing on the three local routes in garden. So for this slide you can see we have three different routes with the north roots
focusing from the city hall to the machus community college and it comes back to the city hall and the south route focuses from the city hall goes south towards Walmart and it goes to the apartment and come back to the city hall. And we have a third route which
was introduced last year to complement the two routes which connects from the hospital down to Walmart. And from the subsequent slides you can you will see the rider shift over time. So for the various ridership at the
various um locations major stops within our fixed routes we have the city hall with the highest ridership over thousand riders for the month of April. We used a typical month to present this data to you. And for this data, we use our APC systems which is on our buses which
captures the people who gets on the bus and off the bus. So this data came from the APC system which tracks the riders on the bus and you can see from the city hall having the highest ridership followed by Walmart and you can see also the college also has some ridership. So
the subsequent slide I will show how these ridership are performing in various words and presents in gardener. So for the various words we took the boundary from the states which defines the word of the words and presence of gardener and we spose the wrership on
the ws to see how um the wrership is distributed along the various ws and we can see from the slides that w four has the highest ridership followed by what five and what four can be attributed partly because of the city hall being our main hub connecting all these
routes. We have so many riders connecting and transferring to other routes at this section of town. Then followed by Walmart. So we have a lot of riders going to Walmart which contributes to these words having high ridership. So afterwards I'll be looking at these
services which are demand response services. So when I say demand response services these are services that you need to call ahead of time before you get picked up. So I'll start with the Americans with Disability Act service. So this service goes for persons in wheelchair and accessibility issues. So
they call M ahead of time to book these trips and generally within 3/4 of mile of our fix route they get picked up. So you can see from the ridership from between 2023 to 2025 in fis here we have close to 300 271
ridership growth from between this time period. Then you would see um on our subsequent slide. This is our council on aging service um with um population um the dynamics in Ghana. You can see um the persons with the with disability
needs. We have some within the COA service that's um the COA service focuses on the aged but the ADA goes for persons with wheelchair needs and as well as the agent. So with the previous slide you could see we have a lot of riders moving towards the ADA service
because the COA group also qualifies for the ADA service and the ADA service growth um going beyond the COA is partly because our fair preervice for our demand response started with the ADA service. So we have a lot of riders shifting towards this service and you
can see towards the end of representation our riders would our ridership has increased across board. So the next service I'd like to talk about is our monthly ride service. Um and this service is for riders who book a whole
month of ride giving specific locations mostly for work trips. So they get picked up from their various homes. is kept to keep services from homes to their workplaces and back to home and wherever they need to go to lead their lives. So generally this service you can see a decline in the service because
it's deliberate on on the part of m because we are it's expensive on our operations and we are also trying to push our riders riders into our fixed route and other other free services because this is more expensive to operate on mass size. So it's
deliberate. We increase our cost on our subscription service and Scott will mention the price of the service in his presentation. And the next service I would like to talk about is the department of developmental services. And this service supports persons with
um developmental um disability and also who needs this service for their daily activities such as day programs and other um ride ride needs for their daily activities. So this service is one of the services which have increased which has come back to um its ridership before
co. So you can see between 2020 um 2023 to 2025 it increased almost 300% for our general wrership. So on this note I'll hand over to Scott to continue the presentation from the evening ride service and towards the
presentation. Thank you. Okay. So, uh, our next service we wanted to spend a little time on is our evening ride service. And this operates from 700 p.m. to midnight, seven days a week. And the great thing about this service is it only costs $2 and it takes you curb to
curb. And this is meant to uh start uh when our fixed buses stop. So, people have evening rides when we they can't get buses and use those. And what the the thing about this service, you notice there's been huge increase in use. Uh
that was for a number of reasons. Uh early on in around 2023, we didn't have a a lot of vendors. Vendors are the we don't do this. Mark doesn't do this. This is done by primarily taxi companies and we didn't have a lot of them. So we did a new request for proposal and got
several note vendors. I think we have eight now that can provide that service. So that we didn't want to market it when we didn't have vendors to meet all the demand. So we really put a major marketing effort on this service and we have the vendors to deliver on it. So that's the explanation plus word of
mouth and stuff, people using it in the community. There's a lot more frequency of people talking about it and this is a very valuable service because it takes you anywhere you want to go to lead your life. You want to go out to dinner, you want to go to the movies, you want to go to work, you want to go home from work, you want whatever it is, you can use the
service for that purpose. um a similar service that I want to thank Mayor Nicholson for suggesting this. We did a partnership with Swift Rides and uh I think you many of you are probably familiar with Swift Rides here in Gardener rides in the city for $10. Uh but this expanded it into hours they
weren't operating from 6:00 p.m. to midnight. So this was another service that helps with people later and people who are comfortable using Swift Rides can now use it and book rides through this service as well. So, uh, that, um, is another thing to help in these
evening hours. And so, we're really doing full service throughout the day now, uh, that we may have not been serving as completely in the past when we didn't have all these vendors and evening ride services. Is there any questions? By the way, you know, certainly I know we're going to have
some time after this to ask, but if as we're going through these slides, if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. Um, so next up, we're going to start moving on to some of the other amenities we have in Gardener. Uh we've been putting in our new bus shelters. Um you can see they're much more cosmetically appealing in their look and
design. Uh we have five new ones so far that we have in Gardener. We have one at the ITC where we operate ourselves. We have two uh we have one at the uh community health connections in uh South Gardener. Uh we have two at the housing
authority for senior housing in that area. That's one that's the first uh shelter you see there in the picture on the left. And then on the right that there's one at Hillside Gardens now and that's you'll see the other shelter there. And we do have uh new funding we're getting for a new uh safe spa
spaces and streets and spaces grant. So we have 15 new ones we're going to be able to put in and uh in our communities and certainly if you want to get back to us in locations that you feel you'd like uh shelters for your constituents or if there's you know if you want to contact the mayor's office um or the DPW
department, we'd be happy to work with you to get some new ones put in here. Uh we're working to we're possibly looking at ending our flag down service and going with a fixed bus stop this system. That's not anything that's going to happen soon, but we're reviewing that. And you know, if we're talking about
safety as our next subject coming up, that is something that would can really promote safety because then vehicles wouldn't have to stop. Suddenly when people put their hands up, a lot of people run into the roads and things, you know. So that would be a positive in that regard, too. and we would definitely have defined markings of bus
stops and we would publish all the things we're doing. This is a future thing. We're doing studies of this now. So, um, next up we have electrification and I would like to say that we're proud to say Gardner is going to be our first community we're going to actually have electric buses in. And we're going to
have we have three uh new BYD buses we just got from the Volkswagen uh grant that was uh funding rather that was put in the settlement. And so those will be coming and this shows, you know, how we're going to be working to be more echofriendly and working for sustainability in the community. So we
actually have the charging equipment sitting in our garage right now. So and the buses are on their way here. Uh so they it's going to take I guess they're 30 days or something to ship because they have to be to get here. So that we should be getting this equipment probably in the fallish sometime late
fall to have these things set up for us. So >> sir, yes. Are these smaller buses than the the large ones that have been going around town? >> Uh Bruno, you can answer. >> These are 29 ft electric. Okay, so probably about 6 ft shorter than the buses. >> Thank you.
>> Okay, you're welcome. >> Uh next up, now we're going to start getting into the safety conversation. And I I don't want to underestimate like how much attention we put on this. We had a a couple unfortunate uh incidents earlier this year that we've
never had before. And we've made this like job priority number one. We have to we have a moral obligation to give our public safe rides and support and what they're doing and make them feel comfortable in using our vehicles and our services. So, so we had this is the
first slide is touching on some of the things we've done at our ITC in Fitchburg. Uh first, uh we we put in ballards as you can see in the photo. So, our buses can never go out of our bus bays u into the facility. Um, we've done some things by putting additional
signage around the facility. You'll see several of the signs the back of them keeping the public out. And we've we've uh on the on the ball on the ballards themselves, you see that sign that's telling the bus drivers to immediately secure their vehicles as soon as they get into the spaces. And we have our uh
this has been a major deal. We put a traffic island in there, too, to help keep people driving their personal vehicles out of the the bus area. And one thing we've done uh internally is we hired our own security team and there's a big difference in because we had that
outsource and we have a head of security who reports to me and we have uh guards that work with him and that makes a huge difference in dealing with issues that could affect public safety. And that includes on our buses because they'll do things when the drivers call them to
react and they have great relationships with the police departments and they do a lot of things to help with in terms of making the public feel safe and doing a lot of things. So that's been a big improvement in both the Fitchburg and here police departments complemented with a how the things have improved
since we've done that. Um next up is we're going to move on to some things that are been in gardener itself. Um we first of all we uh have we had something at gardener at the at MWCCC that uh we're working to prevent from
ever happening again. Um that we've been we're working with the school to put a stop sign in so the buses can never have the momentum to do what happened when it went up on a sidewalk um that is something that is going to be worked on
to stop that and that would make a bus lose all its velocity and come to a halt. So uh that's something where if we have in process of of going on um next up we this is going to apply to all our driver situations here. Our operators
are going through extensive training. Uh they have things they have to do for um doing stuff that is dealing with defensive driving, passenger safety, passenger assistance, first aid and CPR. these these trainings there's been new new trainings put in and they also have
been repeated this year to focus on the safety of that. Uh we've sent an initial group of drivers to CMSC training school that it's working on their skills there's their their defensive driving understanding things dealing with the surrounding environment and knowing that
the challenges associated with what they do. So that's something we're doing both on a remedial basis and then some of our newer drivers. So that's helping to promote safety as well. Um, we are also working with our insurance company, the Travelers, because they have a a suite
of resources that we've been using to further increase our safety and and recognition of things people have to do to promote where so our drivers are driving safely. We are testing a driver simulator right now that's going to allow people to mimic driving in in in a
safe environment. This is particularly valuable for newer drivers as they're being trained. And it also helps detect certain behaviors a driver may be doing that, you know, we can work on in a safe environment. Um, we've also conducted town halls with our drivers that's
focused on this topic of safety number one. And we've drilled this I mean this, you know, I can't overestimate how much emphasis we put on safety uh at this this over the last year was uh and it's work. We believe it's working and taking effect. And next up on safety, we've
also looking at a number of technology uh resources to help us in this respect. So we're looking at putting OBDs or onboard diagnostic devices on our vehicles and that's going to enable us to do a host of things to avoid things like say collision avoidance systems,
dealing with lane positioning systems, blind spot detection, pedestrian detection systems, mirrorless camera systems. One thing it's going to allow us to do is also monitor the behavior of the driver. So, we'll see what's going on with the drivers. Let's say it looks like somebody is starting to fall asleep. We could send them a warning say
you better come back to base and we have to put another driver up there. If they're doing something they shouldn't be doing, like say using a cell phone, it's like they can get an immediate alert that you're that you're not doing this. Put that down and we're going to come in for disciplinary action because you're doing something you shouldn't be
doing. We were also looking at things that are going to like if the drivers are speeding, if they're doing curbing too too fast, if they're running stop signs, any of that kind of stuff that would be reported to us by the systems we have to monitor this behaviors and we can again take corrective actions
whenever we see this. So this will bring us to a whole new level of safety and security in what we're doing with our vehicles. And then we're putting our camera systems. Also, now this has already happened is we're adding audio to our video cameras. And this is making a huge difference. Like for example, we
had somebody come on a bus the other day saying they had a service dog and it was a pitbull that they were saying was a service dog and it was doing threatening things to passengers. So that immediately let us see that, you know, this person is this is not a service dog. We have to take corrective action.
We can have the person removed from the bus. So it adds safety. It also helps prevent driver assaults and passenger assaults that are happening on the vehicles which is a big focus by the FTA uh limiting that sort of thing. So, uh that's that's our safety slides. Um this
slide shows our total ridership in garden and I think you'll see some very interesting data here. You can see the ridership from Swift Rides. That wasn't on that previous slide, by the way, because that's only been around for one year. And that they did already those 68 uh 68 rides, which is pretty good for a
new service like that. Uh and so and so, but you can see how we've had year-over-year, we've had about a 26% increase from 23 to 24, and then we went up again and about another 40% um in
from 24 to 25. And that's uh that's very uh you know successful increase when you're weighing you know we're a mature fixed route system that's been around since 1979. So this this is showing there's progress being made in a lot of our services and you know that's a good
thing and the people of this area and gardener must be using our services and being more satisfied and so this is obviously something we want to continue. We've also done a lot of things to support this on the marketing side like we have a new website, we have a new Facebook page. Uh we do we have a new
CRM tool that we're using to send messaging out to the communities. So all that has helped. We have done over our brochures and and so on. We've added the fair free system across MART. So that's making a big deal too in our wrership. We hear that compliments about that quite often about how grateful people
are that they can use our services in a fair free basis. So um that that's our wrership. Um and uh what we'd really like to do is focus on the most important part of this meeting is to hear from all of you and what you're
hearing and seeing and things we should be doing and learn. So that's uh really the main reason you know we're here tonight and we appreciate you having us and thank you for your time and attention. So that's if we could if you have any specific things you'd like to talk about we'd certainly like to turn
this over to you good folks and uh do that. >> Council Arer. ask my own questions. >> Sure. >> I have quite a few. You answered some of them already. >> Okay. >> Um one of them in particular is um why who changes the roots and why? Because I
have constituents that um live in the H building. >> Okay. >> And they used to get picked up at the H building. Then they would be brought right to Walmart where they were going. Now it doesn't do that. It goes from Hollywood. They tell me it goes to where the post office is. they have to get off and wait again then they prefer
>> right >> um some of those are you know handicapped disabled mentally and physically and it's difficult for them so I'm just curious as to why would why would that change >> we uh about a year and a half ago um we
were looking at building efficiencies into our roots and if you remember before we had two big roots that kind of operated around the entire city that were the same roots they just operated opposite of each other And those took about an hour and 5 minutes to complete
a loop. And so we were looking at what we went we added a new route three which really goes quite fast up and down to north south of Gardner. And then we added uh what we did is we made a north loop and a south loop. And those are
going at about 37 minutes around. So um the the one the one point you made is to do sometimes you do have to connect to use the route other routes to go. Nothing is like kind of lost that you can't go to. Uh but it may require a a
connection to use the services. But in in general when you speed up routes as a you know transit kind of looking at things as if you were a hypothesis like when buses are faster they have many more loops throughout the day now. So they so there's much more opportunity
instead of having to wait an hour or more to get into your service. Now you have something like every like 30 some odd minutes or something you can get a bus and that route three really cuts stuff you know that's really like an express that goes to Walmart and goes right up to the you know the hospital
like just that quickly. So that that was how that happened and we did engage um a number of things in the community. We did a survey of residents. Uh we also had met with Mayor Nicholson's that whole team in his conference room on
several occasions and got feedback from a whole series of constituents like people from CHC and the DPW folks and the president of um the mount and you know we had uh the COAs the housing authorities you know all that there was a fairly large group of people in those
and they gave us feedback and so that that was why the roots were changed to for that purpose. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Um, you also talked about um, safety concerns. >> Yes. >> Um, cell phones. >> Yep. >> Um, I'm retired now, so I have a son
that's um, ill. He lives with me, so we I we go out every day and I kind of comb the neighborhoods. So, u, one of them is, um, I've seen a couple of your drivers with cell phones. >> Okay. >> Working on them as they're creeping up to stop, but they're still driving. So,
you're saying that if someone were to call that in, then you would reprimand them. >> We would take action and we would look at our video systems on our buses to verify uh which we have and we would certainly take your word for that they were doing it first of all, but then we
would go and look for um what is if he is if he or she is doing this and then they would be reprimanded for that because that's not something they should do. >> Okay. they can communicate with their radio is like let's say there's a a something that they see that's an accident or something or you know
something that is a um issue where they not security uh the police or something they can do that but that's not picking up their personal cell phone to make a phone call >> right >> one more thing >> sure go ahead >> um also >> we have plenty of time so feel free to ask question
>> also at price I' I've seen where the bus will be pulling up he doesn't even he doesn't even come to to stop kind of looks. There's no one out front and he rolls and goes, but there are people inside that little hallway waiting for that bus. >> Okay. >> I don't know if they realize that or not
or they're just not >> I don't know. Um >> it's just something that watch. >> I mean, I think it's one of those things the driver, you know, Bruno's making a note of this. Uh so I think uh certainly these are things we want to know if there are situations where people aren't
getting the rides are not being picked up or something should be changed because you know we're open to that. You know Michael had suggested we move change our routes slightly so they arrive at the city hall at almost the same time so then people don't have to wait if they have bags or something they
can just almost immediately transfer much or at least much faster rather than have like a five minute or seven minute wait or something. So that's something we're looking at. We really want to have a different relationship with our communities. You know, we have 25 towns and cities and we realize like we're
going to be working with uh right now are going through a big route change in Fitchburg and Lemonster and we've been meeting with the the mayor's offices and the communities and we've done outside consultant studies with a company called Nelson Nygard and the uh Monetusa regional planning commission and so on.
So, we've been doing a lot of things along those lines to get understand and you know, we've we now we want to get in like a six-month thing where we regularly meet with the the people in the cities like we could have meetings like this. We could have meetings with the mayor's office, you know, and engage and say, "Hey, here's things that are
working. Here's things we'd like you to fix and get better and better and have like a continuously improving system." Because we realize that we've left a lot of our stuff kind of in a legacy root situation. in Gardner, not so much because we do we just talked about the changes we're making and we added a lot of new services. So, we kind of want to
do this in all our communities because that's why we're here, you know, we're here to give public transportation to people, help them to best lead their lives. And so, you know, to do that, we have to change, we have to evolve and get better. So, certainly we're always open to new ideas and feedback and we
want to change and evolve and that's kind of where we're at with in that respect. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Anybody else? Yes. Is it Judy? >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Um I just have a couple things. Uh when the new community center opens eventually on Waterford Street, um I
would like to see, you know, routes two and three extend to, you know, from the highrise over to around the corner. >> Uh because you will see that will be used by the CAC, this, you know, our seniors and everything. And I think that would be >> Yeah, we've been meeting with Mike Ellis about that topic because you're actually
going to go do a presentation at this the Council on Aging on the 27th of August. Uh and uh he's already, you know, he he's he's beating its drum on this. He talked to us like a year and a half ago about it that he keeps saying, "Oh, it's it's to six more months, another eight months or whatever." But yeah, that is definitely an important
stop for us because of the types of services that are there. >> And >> you guys can come up and answer some questions too if you want. So don't don't leave. No, come on. See how they leave me alone and don't work for
>> the farmers market. >> Excellent. >> Yeah, we're ready to do that when Thank you. >> Um I I would getting back to um councelor Harder's suggestion about Haywood Wakefield in the whole apartment area. There is quite a few so people
that do take advantage of the MAR bus service. So, if we're if we can't loop a stop there on the on the green line because I'm looking at your map just from city hall, even if you went over there, at least educate the people there how they could call for the individual
services if they have a handicap and they're not able to, you know, in in transferring from one bus to the other city hall is is not convenient or >> Yeah, we we have a number of things depending on who they are, >> you know, whether it's our COA vans or
the ADA stuff you saw on the slides or these evening rides, all these different services, you know, we um that is something that when we have like travel training so people can go to these facilities and talk to the people there and talk about our services and teach
them how to use you know people can use I think this is something that we have to do a better job on like we can get to really literally like from here you can get to Wista you can get to Boston you can get you know we have shuttles if you get to the ITC in Fitsburg it really opens up our whole network to get you to
a lot of places. We have some grants you can use to go if you got to the ITC that for a relatively small amount of money you can go 20 miles to some of the the cities like dev like say you wanted to go to work in Devon if you took a bus to um our ITC and then got took one of
these grants you could get to Devons in that grant and go to work because there's significant amount of business opportunity there. Um, so there's a lot of things like that that we need to do a better job explaining to people how to use it. And you know, we did a presentation for the Fitchburg Housing Authority the other day and you clearly
could see they didn't understand all these other things that we're kind of talking about. They think with the thing they use like if it's this a lot of the older adults think oh COA mark well you know you can really if you want to understand how to use some of our other services and you're willing to do that you know you can everything's fair free
pretty much except some of our specific services like that subscription service and the evening ride service which is only $2 and and the swift rides uh you can go to these other places that you know are like okay I want to go to Wista okay well if you take you we can get you there if you want to learn how to go and
our travel trainer even like get on the bus with you and hey, we're going to go for a ride today. We're going to show you how you stop a bus with pulling a cord down. We can show you how to flag down a bus if you want to get on a bus. You know, we can show you where you can connect in your community, the connection points that you may not know
about. And that that or there's other services that could take you places. Um, and you know, there's some things we could even get a little creative if we want, like if there's a specific area that we think there's going to be wrership, we could do a feeder route. So we could go and pick like some of these
apartments we might be able to do this at if we can get if we can get the ridership or we could send a van there and drive them into the possibly or into a fixed bus situation. So that could be another option that if we know there's going to be wrership we can use this
fixed services in that way. I I was I'm retired from Gardener High School and I was on the team that was very you it was very important for us to get the stop at Gardener High because we had a lot of kids that you know we don't have late buses and and you know they need to stay
after school for a variety of reasons including athletics. So I you know you were very receptive to that and and we were you know very grateful but even the teachers there with the kids with developmental disabilities do that. They get on the bus and they show the kids how to use the bus. Um, and you know, I
just want to say the MAR is such an important service and the way you link everything to Gardener, you know, Winington Athol to the mount to the hospital and everything. It's it's it's a key service um for for this community and the surrounding communities. The last thing I just wanted to mention is um I see and hopefully the numbers will
continue to increase more and more people picking it up at Ridgewood Arms in the morning um which is off of Pearl Street. So I would just like to make a suggestion for possibly one of the shelters there. Absolutely. Because I I go there every morning and there's there's some and I just think um you
know that's an apartment place that people you know could use it and I see I know that other people from D and they now walk up to where they do the turnaround on chapel to wait for the bus there but at least I think Ridgewood would be a great place. >> Yeah that's what we want to hear. You know you're the individuals who actually will obviously live here. You know, we
are here a lot for work, but you know, this is the type of feedback if we get we can act and improve things and our the notetakers who refuse to publicly come up and answer questions are are jotting it all down. So, >> they have better handwriting. >> Yeah, that is true. I'm very sloppy in
what I do. So uh uh >> thank you >> first of all thank you the three of you for your presentation and congratulate you on your continued efforts to reach the community and >> you know >> thank you for your suggestion about the what you said automotive uh
>> oh did I oh you already knew I was going to say that >> oh but okay you you had brought that up but we're actually looking at that trying to see if we can do something to help them >> u thank you for that um so a few um just a few things um one I I I wonder if um the free service. I've noticed I'm like,
"Wow, this is great." The number of providers um that that have the number that has increased over time. Um I'm wondering how secure I I've seen that it's extended a few times the free ridership during the day. How secure is
that funding and how long-term are you all seeing that um that >> from what we've been told by the state legislature they seem to want that as an ongoing thing per maybe even a permanence. Um so
um I think for the foreseeable future I you know I can't guarantee anything in life I guess and uh but that may be something that you know we we're certainly doing it for the rest of this fiscal year and um for the future in all likelihood and you want to add anything
>> yeah uh as Scott was saying the um this really driven by the legislature but >> you can if you come to the mic there seemed to be a very uh strong um feeling that that should continue uh because you know what we've seen as uh some other uh our transit authority is seeing even
larger increases than that. Um so I I'm you know they aren't going with the T because that's in the several hundred millions of dollar range but um the rest of us it looks like that probably will continue because they are seeing a lot of benefit to that and you know they're getting a lot of feedback directly from constituents that you know a dollar
doesn't sound like you know whoever's got their fair different fairs but our dollar you know it doesn't sound like much until you start adding it up a dollar and a dollar for some people 30 40 $50 is the difference between you know getting it right and and you know potentially not eating or something. So, I'm pretty sure that's going to continue.
>> Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. I've got a few more questions. Um, so I just wanted to reiterate the the uh so you may have already heard what I would u maybe the mayor iterated what I was saying about um meeting with the auto motor folks and saying like one of
the common reasons uh that students, you know, they register for a class and then they drop the class because they don't have a ride to get there. Um and uh I just want to emphasize that that's really important for um the students in that program. Uh because if it's you know there's the the bus goes to the
other two campuses but it doesn't make its way down to align. >> Yeah. So um with that location we have two routes going by that area and we are looking into putting that on our west minister route. Currently that route
also has low ridership. So we are looking at ways to provide limited service to the campus. Maybe we will do one loop in the morning and one loop in the evening because generally the west minister um shuttle that we started we have low ridership and we are out of
money for the grants. So we are looking into providing morning and evening ride passing through the college area for that area because we went there I went there with Scott and we had a meeting with the the team there and Oh good. >> Yeah. So we did that. >> Thank you. And also I mean in that area
you also have 126 twobedroom units at Westminster Woods and you also have the Colonial which might may benefit people who work there as well. >> We went over to Matthew Mer when over there they use our subscription service
a lot but you know it you know they wouldn't have to pay for you know bus service. So there was some interest there as well. >> Amazing. Thank you for that. Uh just uh to to piggyback off of what counselor Hard was saying, I work at Mount Wuza
Community College. I worked there for 12 years with high school dual enrollment students. And the most common excuse among bus riders is what what counselor Hardurn said. I was I was in Ocean State job law and because it was colder. I was in my mom's car waiting because it was
cold and and then the bus just rolled by. And from what I what from my my understanding from what the students uh were saying is that they you know that there are understanding is that there is some kind of a policy at mart where the buses are supposed to wait for if it's
30 seconds or 1 minute or something like that where it's a common place where people take the bus but it was I mean I've heard that so many times um you know students have all kinds of excuses for why they're late why they didn't attend class and that was one of the most common
We definitely do that. We can also start on the buses. >> Or maybe even I mean something else I've seen in other towns on this is probably really expensive is like the heat that having a uh the bus shelter with the heat in it in the winter. I don't I
don't know. It sounds like a really expensive thing to do, but I've seen it in other places. Well, at least in when I was in Chicago, I live there. Chicago has Chicago has a much bigger budget, I'm sure. And >> I guess I almost here.
>> Uh and what was the last I had one more um maybe that's it. So um we will look into what the concern on the bus having to especially for the college and their classes. We might look into the third route having extra service to the
college. So you know they will have frequency in terms of the bus arriving from the the city hall and also you know to the schedules while we are preparing it we would have some extra minutes. So they would have to wait because sometimes the drivers try to be on
schedule with their with all the other people also waiting at other areas on the route. So if they are late because of traffic and they get to the spot they see nobody in the bus shelter or somebody walking by. If they don't see they Yeah, they they justify that they
don't see but if they don't have anybody in the at the stop location. >> Is there a bus shelter for example at um the the uh Pearson Boulevard Plaza uh Wendy's and that might be a good place. I mean if there isn't you know a Price
Chopper um because then maybe we'll encourage people to stand there instead of inside. >> Sure. >> We're trying to get them at places though that that don't have natural shelter. I mean you know where they have like a strip malls might happen to come overhead
and whatnot that you know if they're waiting for the bus they're you know they're pretty much waiting out on the side of the road. So we're trying to do more and more of that. Um you know we we were lucky enough to get another grant this year uh same one that that um funded the last round through this um shared streets and spaces and many
things that mass funds through that but um we've gotten fairly large grant so we figured somewhere between 15 and 18 shelters again um this year we just got the paperwork so and we're now actually installing ourselves so it's like a day and a half to install so most of those should probably be in probably before
the end of the calendar year. >> Sorry I do have one more question. Thank you. Um have you So I've also seen in other larger areas where there's um sign signage that says the map. So it has like on the signage. I was just thinking that if there's no kiosk maybe if there
was a sign saying oh this bus goes here here and here. You know what I mean? It's like a kind of like what you see on the on the on the on the train, right? And and where it it shows like >> our marking the looking at putting on on
the shelters actually maps to put on decals like on on the walls of the shelters. >> So that we that is something we've been contemplating because that would be a big help. We're trying to finalize our boots, you know, like we mentioned the changes that are going to go on Fishburg and Moner. So we want to get a
consistent system things are going to connect and so that could be definitely something we can consider. >> I would I would add >> a system now. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Like on the stuff you're talking about at uh the automotive uh and we might do something like hey if you can
get your students there with our a connection to our fixed buses like a shuttle at the city hall or something and then in the evening you if you want to use something like if we could time this like the swift ride program they could have a van swift ride for 10 bucks take them to another stop in our fixed
puzzle. So, there's some creative things we might be able to do to help them along those lines. >> Thank you. >> Any further questions, Council Leg? >> Thank you. Thank you for coming, taking the time to interview us. Um, on the the
safety topic, um, sort of specific to the college in particular, um, what we're talking about the stop sign. Is it flashing? Is there any sort of speed bump or rumble strip? Because obviously human error, right? People go through stop signs unfortunately all the time. >> Any of the above. Um the stop sign was
going to be the one thing we were initially thinking about because that's the simplest thing to do. But if the university college uh suggested that we do something else, um you know that is open. You know, our goal is to be safe and get to stuff so this type of thing
never happens again. And that's whatever is the best interest of of that accomplishing that goal. That's what we'd like to do. >> Thank you. Um, and so the onboard diagnostic devices sound fantastic. You said you're just looking into those. Is there a reality yet or a timeline or is
that very early stage? >> It seemed like we're already testing them. We we're looking at a splitter device so it doesn't like we just have found something that the device hooking up was interfering with our the drivers were tending to use like for wheelchair uh lifts the same device and it was
causing an issue. So, but then the new vendor we're looking at is getting a splitter device that's going to allow it to operate the OBD stuff and the wheelchair lift. So, that would that's the kind of stuff we're starting to deal with. But I would think in the not too distant future. I mean, say like year end type stuff maybe or something. Those
things should be more of a reality. Uh, and then we could get more advanced like the stuff on the I'm really kind of excited about the driver monitoring stuff because that's really one they're going to know this is happening like the stuff I mentioned before the audio and video recording on our buses. We have
signs up saying you're under audio and video surveillance and so now it's like oh we just had a woman claim she fell out of the seat in four feet and we said well you know you were under audio and video surveillance and it's like oh I really didn't fall out of the seat you know. So there's stuff stuff like that. Uh but the same thing here if we could
the driver's going to know I better be in my best behavior so I better not run that stop sign or I better not run a light or I better not speed because the system's going to detect this and then you know they get driving the report card and it's like okay disciplinary action and what's going to happen to you
for what you've done here determination. So >> those only ways there actually the prices come down so much on those because they're just almost like progressive estate round you can plug them into the deck. So um and they do they give and actually the insurance companies uh our insurance company
travel intro most of them like those because they give a lot of telemetry uh you know hard braking you know fast takeoffs uh speeding you know the speed of vehicle whatever so there's a lot of information we can get from that as Scott said you can kind of feed that back to working with the drivers to make sure it's a safer environment.
>> That makes sense. I definitely think it's something that should be incentivized because it's beneficial for both parties like you said for the people's safety as well as your own. Um, so in the meantime, and you know, being a teacher, I'm used to being observed and audited all the time. Are there any procedures like that? Random audits,
undercover boss style ride alongs to see. >> It was funny. We were just a triangle audit. And one of the things they want us to do is do like the customer >> mystery writers. >> Yeah. Mystery writers. And so we could as passengers observe what's going on.
And you know clearly you know we have people that are passengers are frequently discuss things if they don't see something they don't like contact us. Um but is that is something that we do have people observing stuff. Um that it's more like the camera systems are
used to detect things that are going on in a regular basis. But we've just gotten approved. It was previously like with the union. So we have like only using them when there's an incident. And you know now it's like we can use them at any time. that's been opened up. So, it gives us a lot more latitude to
detect things and intervene and curb stuff. Um, and so that's that's and we, you know, we were thinking about doing some road testing stuff too. Uh, clearly like new people get extensive road testing of how to operate vehicles and what to do and not do and observing
stuff before they start. But I think that the existing drivers, there's a lot of stuff we're doing for repeat stuff and if it's a remedial thing, you know, we certainly are dealing with stuff like that. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. >> Thank you.
>> Any other questions? >> Thank you very much, Mr. President. Uh just for the benefit of the uh councils who are here, the public who's watching, um I also do want to thank um administrator Fischer who just notified the MART advisory board of his upcoming retirement later this year. So the search for a new MART administrator is
actually going to be opening within the next couple of months. Um hopefully with the goal of having some transition time where both u Bruno and the new administrator will be able to work together to talk about what the transition would look like uh before that moves forward. myself as a member
of the advisory board and um Robert Pompran who's the town administrator for the town of air are two of the three appointees so far to the search committee. We're still waiting for the third one before we can start to actually launch the search itself. But uh that is an open public uh search that's there and all of the meetings of the market advisory board are subject to
the open meeting law and for the general public to attend to for anyone who'd like to uh voice concerns in that way too or as they come up. But as always, my office is always uh happy to relay any information, questions, comments, concerns that we get from the public to uh the Martin administration so that we can get that back to you and all our
constituents. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Any other further questions from the council hearing? None. I'd just like to thank Mr. Fischer, Mr. Rich, and Mr. Yo for coming out here today and answering giving presentation, answering our questions. At this point, I will adjourn the
informal meeting. >> Thank you. Thank you. Part: 2
It being 7:30, I will call the Monday, August 4th, 2025 meeting to order. First order of business to call the order. Mind calling me, please respond. Present. >> Councelor Brooks, >> present. >> Councelor Craig Rome, >> present. >> Councilor Dowitz, >> present. >> Council Harder,
>> present. Council Heath >> present. >> Council Hegland >> present. >> Council Kazinskus >> present. >> Council Mack >> present. >> Council Tiso. >> Council Tibbo Mios >> present. >> And President Tyrros have nine councils present. In the
absence of council president Tyrros the order of business the election of council president prom for this evening August 4th. At this time, the nomination now in order for the office of council president. I now open open the floor for nominations. >> Council M.
>> I nominate councelor Alexander don't allow us to be president prom this evening. >> Second. >> Are there any other further nominations for president prom? >> Are there any other nominations? There being none, I entertain a motion
to start. Council Mac nominates council dur seconded by council he and I. Now is there a motion to close? >> Move to close nominations. >> Motion made by councel Cormier. >> Second. >> Seconded by councel Kazinskus.
>> All those in favor say I. I. >> Those opposed say nay. >> Motion carried. Nominations are now closed. I will call the role of members. Please state the name of the council of your choice for the roll call. Councel Brooks. >> Councelor Alex Dur allowance.
>> Council Craig Cormier. >> Councelor D allowance. >> Councelor Dowitz. >> Council Dawitz. >> Council Hardurn. >> Councelor Dalowitz. >> Council Heath. >> Councelor Dalowitz. >> Council Hegel.
>> Councelor Dalowitz. >> Council Kazinskus. Councelor Alexander H. D allowitz council math >> councelor Alex don't allow >> council tibo >> councel durowitz
>> okay you have nine counselors who voted for council dowitz council is elected president for this evening August 4th 2025 Please stand for the opening prayer. >> Almighty God, we thank you for bringing us together this evening. Inspire us to deeds and sound decisions and direct us
toward the attainment of good city government. We pray thee to bless and protect all the people of our city and to so guide and inspire us that we may liberate in unity and harmony. Amen. >> I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Announcement of open meeting recordings. Any person may make a video or audio recording of an open session of a
meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium subject to reasonable requirements of the chair as the number placement and operation of equipment used so as to not interfere with the conduct of the meeting. Any person intending to make such recording shall notify the chair forth with all documents and exhibits used or
referenced at the meeting must be submitted in duplicate to the city clerk as they become part of the meeting minutes pursuant to MGL chapter 38 subsection 20. Is anyone here other than staff recording recording
to section six reading of minutes of prior meetings May 19th 2025 informal meeting May 19th 2025 regular meeting. Council Cormier >> move to wave the reading of the minutes and accept them as printed. >> Second. >> Motion made by councelor Cormier.
Seconded by councelor Mack to wave the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. >> Those opposed. >> Motion carries. Uh we have no public hearings.
Um there are no communications from the mayor and there are no petitions, applications and communications, etc. Um next item we are going to take out of order under the uh appointments committee. Uh item 11487,
a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Steven Hirens to the position of sealer of Weights and Measures for a term expiring January 16th, 2028. Uh report from the appointments committee. Council Heath. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. President, um I'd like
to go ahead and um move this appointment to be certified. Motion made by councelor Heath, seconded by councelor Heglin to certify the appointment of uh Steven Hirens. Is there any further discussion? Council Heath. >> Thank you uh Mr. President. Um the
appointment committee met with uh the appointee recently. Um it was on his birthday. Um happy 59th birthday for the third year in a row. Um the appointment of Mr. is a reappoint as he has been with the city well he's been doing the
service for a whopping 36 years. He explained his duties which include testing scales, gas pumps and other measuring services uh uh devices annually. Um the appointments committee voted to move the appointment to the
full city council to be reertified. >> Any further discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed. Motion carries. We'll have a brief recess while we confirm the appointment. Thank you. I have you raise your right hand. Repeat
after me. I speak your name. >> I speak the parents. >> Do you solemnly swear? >> You slemly swear >> that faithfully and impartially >> I will faithfully and partially >> perform the duties of seals and ways and measures >> to perform the duties of the sealer of weights and measures >> according to the law and the best of my
abilities. >> according to the laws and the best of my abilities. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Call the meeting back to order. Back to the reports of standing
committees public safety committee. Item 11618, an application by GameStop, Inc. for a license to deal in secondhand articles at 376 Tony Boulevard. Report from the public safety committee. Council Cormier. >> Uh thank you, Mr. President. Prom. Uh the safety committee met on this item.
This is a long-standing business in Gardner. They are in good standing with the city. Uh and the uh committee was unanimously in favor and I move to approve the application. >> Second. Motion made by councelor Cormier, seconded by councelor Hardurn to approve
the application. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Item. >> Item 11619, an application by EcoATM LLC for a license deal and secondhand
articles at 677 Tiffany Boulevard. Council Cormier. >> Uh thank you, Mr. President. Prom. Uh again, this uh is the uh cell phone uh vending machine where you can uh resell your phones inside of Walmart. This device has been here for a long time. We've never had any problems with this
company. Uh they are in good standing with the city and the committee was unanimously in favor and I move to approve the application. >> Second. >> Motion made by councelor Cormier, second by councelor Hardurn to approve the application. Is there further discussion? >> None. All those in favor say I.
>> I. All those opposed. Motion carries. on to welfare committee item 11591 an ordin ordinance to amend the gardener zoning map by changing the zoning district designation for the following existing parcel lying on the eastly side
of MA 101 in eastern gardener from the commercial two zoning district to the industrial one zoning district with summer o solar overlay report from the welfare committee councelor mech >> uh thank you councelor journalowitz um at a joint public um hearing which was held on July 7th with the planning
board. There were no objections to amending the ordinance. In a letter from Jason Steven, the director of community development and planning dated on July 9th, the planning board voted to recommend the order for adoption. The public welfare committee also met on
this um item and unanimous unanimously recommended the adoption of the um amendment to the ordinance. I make a motion to send this to ordinance to first printing. Second >> motion made by councelor Mack, seconded by councelor Tibo Munes to send the
ordinance to um second sorry what to first printing. Send the ordinance to first printing. Um is there further discussion? >> This will be a roll call vote. It does require eight votes to pass. The clerk will call the role. >> Council Brooks, >> yes.
>> Councelor Pormier, >> yes. >> Council Hardurn, >> yes. >> Council Heath, >> yes. >> Council Hegel, >> yes. Yes. Council Kazinskus. >> Yes. >> Council M. >> Yes. >> Council Tomeios. >> Yes. >> And President Daw.
>> Yes. >> The uh ordinance the first the first printing passes 9 to zero. Um, next on the agenda is the finance committee item 11577, a measure creating a revolving account
for lifeline services activities under the provisions of chapter 44 section 53E1 and a half of the general laws of the Commonwealth to be managed and overseen by the Gardener Senior Center for which the balance shall not exceed $20,000.
>> Councelor Eglund. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I move to adopt the measure. >> Second. >> Motion made by councel Hegman, second by councelor Mack to adopt the measure. Is there further discussion? >> Council Kazinskus.
>> Thank you. Uh Mr. President, I want to start by acknowledging why I've asked so many questions and why I'm insisting that we get so many details on this item. When we create a revolving fund, which is somewhat rare, we are giving up much of our oversight with
those funds in that program. That's because once we authorize this fund, money will go into it and out of it without council approval. So, we have to make sure we're satisfied at the beginning of the process that things are well examined and looked over.
When it comes to the revolving fund for this program, I think we're right to be cautious. As I've said at the previous meeting, this is a good program. I've known people who have used it or other programs like it and it literally can be lifesaving. It's a good thing that this program
exists. I'm just not sure it's something that the city should be running. I realize that decision has already been made which is which the city council was not a part of that decision and is not something that the council determines. But I do think that we need to do some extra analysis when it comes to this
account. the pieces of this that make me concerned. So, the city is sending volunteers, not regular employees, into private homes on behalf of a massive international for-profit company. I've asked how much territory the city will cover and how far we could potentially
be sending people. And I was told that it presumably covers all of Haywood's service area, but that isn't really defined other than their website says north c serving north central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. As councelor Mack has also talked about before, we should be
careful about the liability here. Because of that liability, what legal review has this gone through? I have asked additional questions about the cost structure operations and since this is seeking our authorization to pay salaries out of this, who might receive
money as a result of this and how much? I'm still waiting for answers to those and some additional questions. I think the council has spent enough time on this and I'm not sure what another delay will accomplish at this point. However, because of the concerns that I
have and the questions I still have, I want to propose we amend the limit amount to $10,000 because we're not making a decision on the program. This will at least make sure that finances can be taken care of by reducing the amount and because we haven't been shown
where the $20,000 figure came from. This will allow us to proceed with caution. If that amount turns out to not be enough, the mayor and director Ellis can come back to the council to increase the limit and ask for that.
And so with that, I would like to amend the item to a measure creating a revolving account for lifeline services activities under the provisions of chapter 44, section 53E and a half of the general laws of the Commonwealth to be managed and overseen by the Gardener
Senior Center for which the balance shall not exceed $10,000. >> There's a motion on the floor. >> Second. >> Second by councelor Mack. Motion to amend the existing amount from 20,000 to $10,000. Motion made by councelor Kazinsus. Second by councelor Mack. Is there discussion on the amendment?
Councelor Brooks. >> Yes. Uh thank you, Mr. President. My understanding of what we're voting on when we're setting a limit. The the original mo uh motion was for 20,000. It's being suggested 10. is we we are
authorizing that amount to be spent in the fiscal year. It's not what the balance is in the account. It's what can be spent. It's written a little differently in different places, but but the statute says what can be spent. In the information we got from Mr.
Ellis, he said that uh we were collecting monthly fees of about $2,800. The cost for subscriptions was about $1,500 a month. $1,500 a month for 12 months is $18,000.
I don't have a problem with going to 10. I actually felt that at 20,000 we would be close to uh we would be too close to the 18,000 because that doesn't include another approximately 15,000 additional revenue
that would be coming in that they were going to use to pay possibly pay uh a city employee to do some of this work. So, I think the 10,000 I'm okay with with the amendment because I think it brings it back to us,
but I think we've got to figure out just how much money is actually going to be spent because what we're authorizing is what can be expended in the year. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Brooks. Further discussion, >> councelor. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, you
hearing my fellow counselors, I I think, you know, where we have so many concerns. Um, and and I intended to support this either way tonight, I think I could be comfortable with the 10,000 as well. Um, I think it's, you know, maybe will hopefully based on that math
give us 6 months of information. Um, this was signed back in February. I don't know how much data there might be already to date other than what we had um from an email. So, I I think I do like that idea. Maybe a happy medium to bridge our concerns, but making sure that this account, which I do feel needs
to be set up um for the senior center to properly run this um that this will give us a way to sort of do that, make sure information comes back to us, maybe we get some data, some reports, see some invoices and things to determine um as my my colleague here to my right said,
and really see what the costs and and spending needs for this program will be. Um, and I and I think on the matter of even revolving accounts, you know, we know in the letter that it it says hopefully used for equipment and salaries. And I was doing some research
leading up to this. And I I think I'm going to talk to our city otter about this. You know, DLS, the Department of Local Services, has some really good templates for what revolving funds should look like, and they should spell out start dates and end dates and exactly what they're going to be used for. And we've never done that practice
in Gardener. We don't have to. It's a recommendation, but I think that might also going forward help alleviate some of the concerns we have when that information is right here because currently as this is worded, there's really nothing to limit that spending. Um, and I think that's something we want
to look forward to maybe reviewing when this comes back to us, if it comes back to us. And I'd certainly urge that if there's a need to that, you know, the mayor and the director not wait. Um, if they see that that limit's getting close, don't bring it to us before we hit that limit. get it to us plenty time for us to review it and consider it.
Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Hegel. Further discussion? Seeing none, will the vote here is on the amendment, not the um original um original measure. U the clerk will
please call the role. >> This excuse me, this is to amend. >> This is a motion to amend. A mo a yes vote would be to amend it to $10,000. Um and a no vote would be to um to not amend them. End it. >> Councelor Brooks, >> yes. >> Councelor Craig Cormier,
>> yes. >> Council Hardurn, >> yes. >> Council Heath, >> yes. >> Council Heglund, >> yes. >> Council Kazinskus, >> yes. >> Council Matt, >> yes. >> Council T Munoz, >> yes. >> And President D. >> Yes.
>> Nine. The motion to amend carries. Um back to the original U motion. Is there any further discussion on the voting on the amended motion? >> Council Heath. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. President. I didn't really have a necessarily question about
the amendment. I just had an issue with like I wasn't here for the meeting. Um, our last city council meeting. This item and the next item were part of the finance meeting. I can't find it on YouTube because it's wrongly dated. So, if whoever does the YouTube, it can
change it from June 2nd to July 2nd because I was trying to go ahead and look up to see what happened during the finance meeting and I couldn't find it. It was just wrong date. That's all. I just want that noted. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Heat. Any further discussion?
>> Council Council M. >> Um, thank you. I just I just want to I I am going to support this, but um I just want to echo for the final time that um you know we my concerns with how this program came about to the city of Gardner um you know are still very
valid. I don't you know as councelor Kazinska said I don't believe gardener should be you know this is for forprofit agency. I still have questions on liability. I um appreciate director Ellis's response to the questions that
councelor Kazinskus and I put forward and I hope other counselors got to see those responses. Um but I just have to state I just don't like how this all came about and how um you know we're left now voting for a revolving account. There should have been a lot more discussion before the city got into an
agreement uh with the lifeline program. As I've said before and I'll say again, it is a very valuable program. I've had firsthand experience with it, but I just don't think this is a business the city should be in. And um and I think I hope that it's it's evaluated, reviewed um
and this is something that doesn't it doesn't happen like this this way in the future. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council M. Further discussion. Council Brooks. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Just one thing I forgot to add. If we are paying employees through the re uh revolving
fund, their benefits also have to be paid through the revolving fund. That would if it's a part-time that would include Medicare tax, unemployment tax, um um other other things related to to their being here. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Brooks. Any further discussion? Hearing none, uh the clerk will please call the role. Council Brooks, >> yes. >> Council Craig Cormier, >> yes. >> Council Harder, >> yes. >> Council Heath, >> yes.
>> Council Heglin, >> yes. >> Council Kazinskus, >> yes. >> Council Math, >> yes. >> Council Tunes, >> yes. >> President Dawitz, >> yes. >> Uh, nine. Motion carries. On to item 11611. An ordinance to amend
the code of the city of gardener chapter 8 there of entitled personnel to amend the attachment e thereof entitled non-union compensation schedule to add the position of youth center director. >> Councelor Heglin. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Move to send the ordinance to second printing. >> Second.
>> Motion made by councelor uh Hegeland, second by councelor Mack to send the ordinance to uh second and final printing. Is there further discussion? Hearing none, the clerk will please call the role. >> Council Brooks. Yes. >> Councelor Craig Cormier. >> Yes.
>> Councilor Harder. >> Yes. >> Council Heath. >> Yes. >> Council Heglin. >> Yes. >> Council Kazinsquecus. >> Yes. >> Council Matt. >> Yes. >> Council Tillos. >> Yes. >> And council president general. >> Yes.
>> Nay. The motion carries. Item 11622. an order authorizing the mayor to enter into a renewed intermunicipal agreement with the town of Ashby for veteran services expiring on June 30th, 2028. Council Mack. >> Uh, thank you, Council General. This is
to extend the inter municipal agreement for the veteran services with the town of Ashby. The one-year agreement expired on June 30th, 2025. However, services were not affected uh due to the expiration at the end of June. This renewed agreement is for three years. Both the finance and the public welfare
committees met on this item with director Hasselman. There were no concerns expressed and both committees voted in favor to recommend passage to the council to renew the agreement. So I make a motion to authorize the order. >> Second motion made by councelor Mac, seconded
by councelor Heglin to authorize the order. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Item 11623, an order transferring $10,000 from building department salary
and wages account to operating expense account professional services. Councelor Heglin. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I move to adopt the order. >> Second. >> Motion made to adopt the order by councelor Hegund, seconded by councelor Mack. Is there further discussion? Councelor Heglin.
>> Thank you again. Uh we the finance committee met on this item last week. We were unanimously in favor of this. Essentially, right now we have where we do not have a building uh department commissioner or head. Jeff Cook is serving as our interim. Uh he's doing about two days a week, eight or so
hours. Uh generally Mondays and Thursdays. This money will cover not only the work he has done so far in that role, but will hopefully if needed extend them through September. Uh he is capp at the amount of time and money he can make here with the city of Gardner. However, it's our understanding that
applicants are finally starting to come in for this position. So hopefully we will have someone soon to fill this full-time. Uh he is also only doing the work that is truly required by a building commissioner that local inspectors cannot do themselves. Um and so with that again we are in favor of
this item. Thank you. >> Thank you. Further discussion hearing none. All those need a roll call vote on this one. The clerk will please call the role. >> Councelor Brooks. >> Yes. >> Councelor Craig Comier. >> Yes. >> Councelor Harder. >> Yes. >> Councelor Heath.
>> Yes. Council Heg, >> yes. >> Council Kazinskus, >> yes. >> Council Math, >> yes. >> Council Tibbo, >> yes. >> President Dawitz, >> yes. >> N is the motion carries. Item 11487 we
took up earlier this evening. We'll move on to item 11620, a measure to elect a city treasurer and city collector of taxes effective August 4th, 2025. Report from the appointments committee. Councilor Egle. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh we met on this item last week as well as an
appointments committee. This is again to elect our city treasurer and city collector of taxes. Um this is one of the few appointees that we as a city council have control over. Um currently that's s filled by Jennifer Dimmick who we met with again last week. She gave a
very detailed report of all that she and her department does and she is interested in serving in this role once again. Um, so with that knowing we have to elect this, I would move to open nominations for this process. >> That being said, nominations are now open for the position of the office of
city treasurer and city collector of taxes. >> Councilor Eglund, >> I'd like to nominate Jennifer Demick. >> Are there any further nominations? Are there any further nominations? Hearing uh there no further nominations,
I will entertain a motion to close nominations. So >> second motion made by councelor Brooks, seconded by councelor Cormier to close the nominations. All those in favor say I. >> All those opposed. The motion passes and nominations are now closed. When the
clerk calls the role, please state the name of the nominee of your choice. >> Councelor Brooks >> Jennifer Demick. >> Councelor Craig Cormier. >> Jennifer Demick. >> Councelor Harter. >> Jennifer Demick. Council Heath,
>> Jennifer Demick, >> Council Hegel, >> Jennifer Demick, >> Council Kazinskus, >> Jennifer Demick, >> Council Matt, >> Jennifer Demick, >> Council Sonos, >> Jennifer Demick, >> President Delaw,
>> Jennifer Demick, >> nine >> for Jennifer. There are nine votes for Jennifer Demick, zero votes for other nominees. Jennifer Demick has been elected as city treasurer and city collector of taxes for a term expiring three years from August 4th, 2025.
Next item on the agenda is 11624 July economic and community development update. Councelor Kazinskus. >> Thank you, President General. the economic and community development committee uh was un unable to meet um
just for scheduling purposes uh at the end of July. So uh I had requested from director Stevens to send a uh written update which he did to President Tyros and it is included in our packet for the public watching. It is on page 118 of
our packet. It's very detailed and director Stevens I had asked if he wanted to wait till the end of August and we do a summer update but there's so much that's happened that it would be outdated by the end of August and it would be quite a long meeting. So uh he
had um prepared his remarks and sent them along. So they are in our packet in detail and I'm going to give a summary of that as the July update. Uh the rear main street project has continued on schedule as of Wednesday, July 30th. There's a lot of details within his
explanation of um the different types of things that are going on with that project, but it has remained on schedule and they are moving forward. The nature trail, the north central pathway connector has been completed as of June 30th. The portion of the pathway was paved. Um there was native plantings
added, safety railings placed, and the length of Crystal Lake Road has been paved to connect the pathway with the existing walking/bikeke path that runs along Crystal Lake. The master plan that the department is working on um has continued on schedule.
There's been monthly meetings. I am the council's leazison on to the master plan steering committee and um you know we've made much progress and continuing to work uh with the group that is um overseeing that whole process. And I can't reiterate enough if anyone
from the city is interested please head to the city's website and look at the master plan website. um they asked for feedback and surveys and all kinds of things there and it's going to be super helpful and it's really exciting that we're doing that here in gardener. The hazard mitigation plan has continued on schedule as well. There are monthly
meetings on that with um with the group Weston and Samson that the city is working with. Um the draft of the first two chapters of the plan have been discussed and um again it's it this is another thing that is um it's necessary and really exciting for us as we saw
with like the floods and that affected Lemus so so terribly last summer as one just one example um it's great that we're getting behind that and developing that as well. uh Mackie Park. Per our last meeting um that we had met with the economic development committee um the
funding for the additional ramp was relying on a contract um with one of the contractors uh to be completed and there was a set of basically wires that Comcast was um it was responsible for
and that was from actually the Park Street Park project and that money was going to be going over to the other project Um and basically they've been in contact with them and um I had requested from the director that we get moving along
with that project. It's we're basically out of the season to use Mackie Park. We're getting really close to the end here and it's unfortunate it wasn't able to be used for this summer and um I had also requested that the city put some signage out there to just acknowledge that we know it is not accessible and that we're working on it to make it accessible because that is what has been
going into it. Um and so they are they have made contact with um the appropriate people and it looks like we're going to be able to use the funding that we had originally intended to use. Um and I can't thank Director Stevens enough for staying on on top of
that. Um and so hopefully we will see that completed sooner than later, but that has been a continued concern of the committee and also the department and I can say that they're continuing to work on it. Uh and also the administration in the department, an assistant director
has been hired. So there is another member of the department. So they're up to four staff members and the fifth staff member for the new position that the city council had um had voted on just a few meetings ago um will also begin in August. And so we will um get
an introduction there after um you know they've been hired and worked a few weeks. But it's going very well so far. Um her name is Amy. She has um she's he said she's been wonderful to work with and she has a ton of experience and he's really looking forward to seeing
everything come together as she remains in the department. Um so both of those positions have been filled the assistant director and the economic development and finance manager positions and um that's really exciting for director Stevens. And then there are multiple
CDBG project updates the from year 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Um he gave updates 2025 being the most recent there um were no updates just because it's been submitted and they are waiting to hear
back in that process. But um from 2024 and from the 2022 2023, a bunch of those have been closed out. And a lot of that was actually on our new assistant director who worked really hard since she's been here a few weeks and already got them closed out. And I know that was that was a big piece um for director
Stevens. So that is definitely, believe it or not, the short of the update. Um but there's still continues to be a lot of progress in that department and they will be fully staffed as of the end of August, which is another um exciting thing. I think even from our own city clerk's office, it's nice to be fully
staffed and have everybody um moving along what they need to be doing. So, that is the July update and we will be meeting at the end of August and get an August update. So, that's it. And um with that, I'm going to make a motion to place it on file.
>> Motion made by councelor Kazinsquez, seconded by councelor Hegland to place the update on file. Is there further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say. I >> I all those opposed. >> Motion carries. >> There is no unfinished business and
matters for reconsideration. There is no new business. Councelor comments and remarks. Councelor Brooks. Uh thank thank you, Mr. President. I was stunned to hear of attorney John Flick's passing. I first met John when
Mayor Hawk appointed him city solicitor. At the time, I had been city auditor for about eight years. So, John would come to me on occasion to better understand how city finances worked. Needless to say, I went to him with legal questions and always came away with clear and
wellthoughtout responses. The city was fortunate to have attorney Flick overseeing its legal work for the past 17 years. To his credit, he covered both civic issues and employment issues and always put the city in a favorable
position. His passing is a great loss for the city, both in terms of the institutional knowledge he possessed and in the steady way he conducted his business. He will be greatly missed. I guess at this time I would move that the city council send a letter of
condolence to the family of former city solicitor uh attorney John Flick. >> Second. Motion made by councelor Brooks, seconded by councelor Kazinscus to send a letter of condolences to the family of John Flick. Is there further discussion?
>> Councelor Kazinskus. >> Um I just wanted to um just add some remarks about attorney Flick. Uh when I was acting mayor for the city, I talked to him pretty much every single day and that was during COVID and it was at the very beginning and nobody knew anything.
But I can say that that was um definitely a situation where I was either going to, you know, I I had to get advice every single day basically on things. So I talked to John pretty much on multiple times a day and uh without
his guidance and working together with other department heads in the city, it it just would not have gone as smoothly as it did and things would not have um been explained or done in the way that they were. We moved very as quickly as we could through funding sources and getting making sure things were all
together for the city. And I have to say um I always felt better after I got off the phone with John. And that was my first memory of really working with John. Um and I you know he was a true public servant. He took great pride in this city. Um he definitely was someone
that um was proud to be connected with the city and all of the engagement that he had with it. and I just appreciate all that he did in his position there and for the city and it is a it's a true tragedy um to for the city to have such a loss. Um but you know I certainly I
certainly support sending the letter of condolence but I just you know wanted to add that piece of it um because I really learned a lot just from those days um working with John specifically related to this role working with the city. Thank you. >> Thank you councelor Kazescus. Further
discussion seeing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. Those opposed. Motion carries. There further counselor comments or remarks. Council Hegeland. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um and thanks to my colleagues for those kind words um
about the late attorney Flick. I do want to take a moment to also thank and recognize director Josh Cormier for the work he's done bringing film industry to gardener. I know we've had a few other projects done here. Castle Rock, Dexter, some other things. Um, and most
recently, uh, Bolio, the movie that they've been filming. I think a lot of us have seen the action in town. I think it's a really good boost to morale. I had a chance to go downtown when we had the little festival downtown, and it was really exciting to watch that, to see actors I recognize from other films. Um,
but not only does his initiative in bringing this to the city of Gardener do that, but it does provide a nice static boost even if it's quick for a short period of time to our local economy, whether it's rooms at the Colonial or eating at the El House or Parker House of Pizza. Um, I know people visited
Priscillaas from the the staff and they're here for months throughout the whole process. So, it is a nice thing for our city. I think it's something unique that we have and I just wanted to take a moment to thank him for all his hard work behind the scenes in doing that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Egglund. Further comments or remarks?
Hearing none, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn after the closing prayer. >> So move second. >> Motion made by councelor Heap, seconded by councelor Cormier to journ after the closing prayer. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed. Motion carries.
Father who cease over all as we adjourn we thank for the opportunity of joint deliberation and action witnessed during the course of this meeting. Bless the Lord all that we gathered here and the people represented we are and do thou attend to our common welfare until our
next meeting. Amen. Amen. >> J