I call to order the Monday, May 5th meeting of the Gardener City Council. The assistant clerk will now please call the role. Councelor Brooks, present. Councelor Cormier. Councelor Durlowitz, present. Councelor Hardurn, present. Councelor Heath.
Councelor Heglin, present. Councelor Kazinskis, present. Councelor Mack, present. Councelor Tone, present. Councelor Tibo Munoz, present. President Tyrus, present. Those who wish may rise for the opening prayer and pledge of
allegiance. Almighty God, we thank thee for bringing us together this evening. Inspire us to worthy 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 inspire us so we may liberate in unity and harmony. Amen. I pledge allegiance 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 to 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 a recording shall notify the chair forthwidth. All documents and exhibits used or referenced at the meeting must be submitted in duplicate to the chair as it become part of the meeting minutes pursuant to MGL chapter 30A subsection 20. Is anyone recording tonight's
meeting? No response. Reading of minutes of prior meetings. We'll begin with the reading and approval of the March 17th, 2025 regular meeting minutes. Councelor Mack. I make a motion that we wave the reading of the minutes and approve them as presented. Second. Motion made by
councelor Mack, second by councelor Tone to wave the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented. Is there discussion on the motion? All those in favor? I. I. All those opposed, no. Motion passes. There are no public hearings. There are no communications
from the mayor. Petitions, applications, communications. Item 11533, an amendment to the code of the city of Gardener, chapter 675, thereof entitled zoning to change and add
commercial overlay classification on C on certain parcels of land on Central Street. Uh we'll actually take a brief recess. Uh we'll come back into order in 5 minutes at 7:38.
Now call the meeting back to order. Petitions, applications, communications. Item 11533, an amendment to the code of the city of Gardner, chapter 675 thereof, entitled zoning to change and add commercial overlay classification on
certain parcels of land on Central Street. Council Mack. Uh I make a motion that we refer this item to the public welfare subcommittee and the planning board. Motion made by councelor Mack, second by councelor Tibo Munos. Is there
discussion? Councelor Brooks. Uh thank you, Mr. President. Uh leading up to a motion, uh the ordinance that has ch the amend the ordinance that's been submitted appears to have a typographical error in it. And
so I would like to amend the ordinance. It refers to uh parcels R27-17-3 and R27-17-8. Neither of those parcels exist. I
believe the correct parcel numbers are R2717-13 and R27-17-18. Those parcels are referenced in two different places in this ordinance. So, I would move that the references, both references in the ordinances be uh corrected so that they
read R27-17-13 and R27-17-18. Second. Motion to amend made by councelor Brooks, seconded by councelor Tibo Munz. Is there discussion? All those in favor? I I. All those
against? No. Motion passes. Is there further discussion? Councelor M. Um I would like to uh amend my motion to include um the item be sent to public welfare subcommittee and the planning board to schedule a joint public hearing at both the planning board and the city
council. Motion made by councelor Max by councelor Tmz to amend the motion to add a public hearing be joint public hearing be scheduled between the city council and the planning board. Is there discussion on the amendment?
All those in favor I. All those opposed, no. Motion P. Amendment passes. We'll now make uh take a vote on the motion as amended. Is there discussion? All those in favor? I. I.
All those opposed? No. Motion passes. Item 11534, an amendment to the zoning ordinance chapter 675 submitted by chair city church and 10 registered voters to add a new section entitled historic
preservation project. Amending the table of uses to allow or the same by special permit. Amending the article 7 off streetet parking loading and drive-thru standards subsection
675-740 to facilitate historic preservation projects. Additional amendments to the relief from parking regulations to be applied generally and additional amendments more specifically stated in the petition and attachments. Councelor Mack, I make a motion to refer
this side to the public welfare subcommittee and the planning board and schedule a joint public hearing of both the planning board and the city council. Second. Motion made by councelor Max, second by councelor Tibo Munz, uh to uh refer the item to the welfare committee
and the planning board and that a joint public hearing be scheduled between both boards. Uh sorry, between the council and planning board. Is there discussion? All those in favor? I I. All those opposed, no. Motion passes.
Reports of standing committees. Public service committee. Item 11519. An ordinance to amend the code of the city of Gardner, chapter 675 thereof, entitled zoning to amend section 510 thereof entitled floodplane
Overlay district in order to comply with the recent amendments to the requirements set forth by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Councelor Tone. Yes, C. Mr. President, um the public service committee did meet. In full
transparency, uh the uh public works department, we did not have uh a video camera available for this particular meeting. It was recorded uh via um a recording. Um just so everybody is aware
if they were looking for that meeting. Uh but on this mo on this ordinance uh it was refu reviewed with the committee uh public service committee and the public service committee was in favor after listening to uh the city engineer
discuss uh the the rationale and reason behind uh the ordinance to amend. Um we would like to uh refer I would like to refer this make a motion to refer this to public uh welfare and uh the planning board um and also u schedule a joint
meeting between the city council and the planning board. Motion made by councelor Tony second by councelor Hardurn to refer the item to the public welfare committee and the planning board and that a joint public hearing be scheduled between the city council and the planning board. Is there
discussion councelor Kazinskus for clarification? It's a joint public hearing between city council and the um the planning board. Correct. Thank you. And council consensus also uh I just I
appreciate the counselor's acknowledgement of the transparency of the meeting not being able to be recorded and just also um it is not a requirement to record meetings. They just have to be posted as open meetings which that meeting was as usual was posted correctly and as an
open meeting. It is a courtesy that we do of the city to record meetings and to provide those recordings to um the public. I just want to specify that, but I appreciate the council's acknowledgement of it. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Kazinskus. Is there further discussion? All those in favor?
I I. All those opposed, no. Motion passes. Welfare committee item 11506. An amendment to the zoning ordinance chapter 675 submitted by chair city church and 10 registered voters to add a new section entitled historic preservation project amending the table
of uses to allow or the same by special permit amending the article 7 off streetet parking loading and drive-thru standards subsection 675-740 to facilitate historic preservation projects additional amendments to the relief from parking
regulations to be applied generally and additional amendments more specifically stated in the petition and attachments. Councelor Mack, I make a motion to remove this item from the agenda as it has been replaced by item 11534. Second. Motion made by councelor Mac, second by councelor Tibo Amunos uh
to uh remove this item from our calendar. Is there discussion? All those in favor? I. All those opposed? No. Motion passes. Finance Committee. Item 11520, a measure authorizing the
administration to enter into an intermunicipal agreement with the town of Winterton for veteran services for FY2025 through FY2027. Councelor Durawitz. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh the finance committee met on this just last week. The public
welfare committee actually also met on this a few weeks ago. Um we met with the mayor and director Hasselman. The contract will be to provide veteran services like we do for other communities um in the area. Um it's going to be consolidated here. Their veteran service agent is retiring or I
think believe is already retired. Um the board selectman in Winston has already approved it. Their town manager in Winardin has signed the contract. Um the capacity for our office here um according to state guidelines is a population of 65,000 people. We
currently with adding if we do add Winon, we'd be at 50 roughly 53,000. So still 12,000 below the threshold of the state um requirements to bring in other communities. Um the fine of the new assistant uh director also started. So
the on Monday the 28th or Tuesday the 29th. So the office is at um full staff as well at this point. Finance committee was in favor and I move to authorize the measure. Second. Motion made by councelor Dalawit, second by councelor Hegelund to authorize the measure. Is
there discussion? Councelor Mack. I just want to um again say that the public welfare committee did meet on this item. Director Hasselman um and give a thorough presentation and we voted favorably and I will be supporting this item. Thank you. Councelor Mack, is there further discussion? Councelor
Kazinskus. I'll also be supporting the item and uh during the finance committee meeting there was a lot of discussion and a lot I thought a lot of really good questions asked about the process. Um I know that we do spec we specifically do um other intermunicipal agreements with
other towns. Um but I just thought there was a lot of good questions asked about uh the the process and why we do what we do and kind of how we enter into these agreements. you know, it's a it's a like a 30-page contract and it's um it's definitely has a lot of detail in it, but I just think
it was really good to get a little bit more information um with explanation from it this time around. Thank you. Thank you, Council Kazinskus. This is a further discussion. Council in allowance. Thank you, Mr. President. To further clarify, the director also not only state requirements, he believes
he's strongly um strongly believes that his office is going to be able to handle any type of problem as well. the honorable state guidelines. His office is well prepared for this new community. Thank you. Thank you, Council General Allowance. Is there
further discussion? All those in favor? I. All those opposed, no. Motion passes. Item 11527, a communication from the mayor regarding the FY2024 single financial audit report for federal grant funds.
Councelor Hegman. Thank you, Mr. President. If there be no objection, I'd like to move to place both items 11527 and item 11528. Since they're both so similar, uh place communications on file. Second. I will now read item
11528, a communication from the mayor regarding the FY2024 final final financial audit report. Uh motion made by councelor Hegelin, second by councelor journal allowance to place item 11527 and item 11528 on file. Is
there discussion? Councelor Heglin. Thank you again, Mr. President. Uh so we had met on these items originally about a month ago at a previous meeting uh to our one last week and they are just communications from the auditor and the mayor letting us know that we had two audits take place as is a normal
procedure and luckily there were no findings. There were clean reports on both. However, at my recommendation, just for really just more information's sake, we asked to have the auditor give us a bit more of a breakdown. These are really lengthy and intense reports uh with a lot of details and a lot of
information. So, we thought it'd be nice to get a bit of a walkthrough of that and the auditor was able to do so at our next meeting, which was last week. Um, what this does is it's really a look at the procedure and procurement. It looks at the payables. It looks at three
grants. They chose three grants in particular, um, an airport runway grant, ARPA funds, and FEMA funds. Uh, and just to make sure that things are being done appropriately and following federal guidelines. And luckily, that was indeed the filing they had. Um, 11528, they
look more broadly at the city's books in general to make sure that things are in order. And again, luckily we thanks to the hard work of really a lot of our department heads, but our auditor and our city financial staff in particular uh to make sure that these things are implemented appropriately um all laws
and regulations were followed. Um so I want to thank everyone for their hard work involved in these processes and uh that is all. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Hegel. Is there further discussion? Councelor Brooks. Uh thank you, Mr. President. Uh just to uh pile
pile on to what uh councelor Hegeland said, I I do think we're fortunate to have good people uh heading up our finance departments and and doing a good job. Makes it a lot easier for all of us to do our job when the when the numbers are accurate and and uh we can get good
information. on the second item on the uh single financial audit for federal grants. And looking at the summary page, uh last fiscal year, uh the city took in just over
11,800,000 in federal grants. Of that, about three and a half million were for COVID grants. Almost four million was for airport construction grants. about 700,000 was just general federal
grants. 3.7 million were from the for education. I point that out just because there has been conversation in the news about the federal department of education and its future and federal grants. I'm not
saying that that this money is going to stop, but I also have heard enough to say that we have to be aware that things could happen. 3.7 million, some of that is for uh school lunch support, some of it is
for title one, different programs that the that goes on within our school department. And I I just bring it up to to have us be aware that um we we just need to be aware that there's 3.7 million that that is coming
from the feds. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Brooks. Is there further discussion? All those in favor? I I. All those opposed, no. Motion passes. There's no unfinished business or matters for reconsideration. There's
no new business. Councelor comments and remarks. Are there any counselor comments or remarks this evening? Councelor Kazinskus. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh just speaking from uh the leazison position that you had assigned
me to uh regarding um constituent information and making things um a little bit more uniform on the city council web page. In particular, I met with Bob O'Keefe last week, the director of IT for the city, and there is now a link on the city
council web page. So, if you go to gardener-m.govcity councsil, right on the page, you'll see a link that says click here to watch city council meetings live. And so, these city count our city council meetings are livereamed to the city's web page. So, anyone watching at home tonight, if you're
watching on channel 8, um if you can't make it home for a meeting and you want to watch it, you can access it from your phone, you can access it from a computer. Just head there, click on it, and the live stream is available at 7:30 on whatever Monday night it is for our
council meetings. Um, and you're able to watch it there as well. So, it's not required to have local um cable access. You can also now watch it live streamed to the city's website. And I want to thank Bob for his help on that. And also of course uh GEV they've been um working
on that and had that live stream um clear and secure for um for a bit here and I just wanted to um thank them for the work that they've done on that and um to make it also accessible via
channel 8 but now it's also um available online as well and there's a clear link on where to find it on the council's web page. So, I just want to make that that um information known to the public watching this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Kazinskus. Councelor
Tone. Mr. President, yes, I had the opportunity to uh uh be at the light the town purple earlier before this uh this city council meeting um to kick off the Relay for Life. Um and um one thing um I will say
is is that each year that we do this uh the community joins together um and uh the number I believe at in 32 years is or $15 million that we've raised in the community. uh and it may be um a shorter
period than the 32 but um it's much needed research for cancer and I I thank all those involved and the names are not rolling off the top of my head uh as to um who is chairing but uh she did a
wonderful job and we had the uh Garden High School select choir um perform in front of us as well. So, I thought that was wonderful and so just wanted to and I'm sure other city councilors who were there will speak to it as well, but it was a it was a nice
event. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Tissson. Is there further council comments? Councelor Kazinskus. I also would like to add that the live stream is not to the city's YouTube channel. It is to the specific link on the city's website. Just for clarification, all of
the videos are still posted on the YouTube uh channel the day after. um most city council commissions and um I mean city councils and commissions and and meetings they that remains as it was. It's not live streamed there. It's live streamed specifically to the city's
website. I just wanted to make that clear in case there's any confusion. Thank you. Thank you councelor Kasinskus. Any further discussion? Council Hegel. I'll back up. Councelor Tosone. It was a really nice event tonight. Um we had the Cheryl Cheryl Bossi was chairing it and and did the
presentation tonight. She did a great job. We also get to hear from Carlo Roy who started the event many years ago and herself is a 30-year survivor um from her cancer diagnosis again 30 years ago uh back in 1995 and it is it's kickoff
to really weekend which is July 13th and 14th. I was astounded by that number that counselor Tone mentioned uh and I think it just goes to show how much this community rallies around this cause and event. So many of us are impacted one way or another whether personally or through family members or friends. um
like many of us like my mother you know had been diagnosed with lung cancer she passed away in 2013 when I was just out of college uh and and having that support in gardener when we do this event every year at the college is really important so I want to join him in thanking uh all those who have been
supporting this and donating and volunteering um councelor Mack was there as well as president Tyrros uh David Tibo Munoz uh and myself you see some of our purple ties as well and out front will be lit up uh for light to town purple as well. Thank you. Thank you,
Council Hegelan for their comments. And I would just like to take a moment to appreciate council and Hegeland the uh appreciate how nice of a ceremony that was this evening for light the town purple. Thank you for your comments. You summarized it perfectly. Cheryl did an amazing job. I also like to acknowledge that Mayor Nicholson was
also present and state representative John Slottnik. So Gardner was well represented uh this evening u for Light to Town Purple. And I also like to appreciate uh councelor Kazinskus the work you're doing to make uh our meetings more accessible to the gardener community and I think it's important to acknowledge our departments that make
that possible through GETV and the IT department. So we are very thankful for that. Without further comments I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn after the closing prayer move. Motion made by councelor Tony second by councelor Brooks to adjurnn after the closing prayer. All those in favor I. All those
opposed no. Motion passes. Almighty Father who ceased over all as we adjourn we thank thee for the opportunity of joint deliberation and action witnessed during the course of this meeting. Bless Lord all who are gathered here and the people whose representatives we are and do thou
attend to our common welfare until our next meeting. Amen. We stand. Thank you.