Good evening. I call the public services committee meeting to order. The date is June 16th, 2025. The time is 6:31 p.m. We have one item on this evening's agenda, and that is order number 25-1009478.
a communication from the planning board regarding request for mayor and city council to support a home rule petition relating to unaccepted private ways in the city of Malbor. I know we have city engineer Tom Deersio here to give us a quick presentation. Um thank you for
being here Mr. Engineer. Um while you get settled I will read the letter from the planning board um dated June 3rd, 2025. Dear Mayor Dumis and members of the city council, the planning board seeks the mayor and city council's cooperation in addressing the issue of unaccepted private ways in Malbor. These
are roads which are created via the subdivision control law that were never accepted as public ways. There's a list of over 50 such roads in the city. Many of these roads were constructed decades ago and the residents who have been living on these streets may not be aware that their streets are not public ways.
As you know, the accept the acceptance process typically involves the legal conveyance of property rights from the owner and developer of the subdivision to the city immediately upon completion of construction. For many different reasons in decades old subdivisions, the
process of street acceptance was not completed. Due to the passage of time, it would be extremely difficult or impossible to assemble the parties and legal documents to complete the acceptance process today. In most of these cases, the original developers of the subdivisions are no longer available or the entities are now defunct. A home
rule petition would give the city the authority it needs to address this long-standing issue via an alternative process. This issue is not unique to Malro and other communities in Massachusetts have successfully pursued similar measures, allowing them to accept unaccepted roads that meet basic
criteria for public use and benefit. Acceptance of roadways as public ways has many implications that the city council, planning board, and department of public works will need to consider. Um, where it is appropriate and in the public interest to do so, this home rule petition will provide the city with the ability to address this long-standing
issue. We ask that the city council consider advancing the attached petition in partnership with the mayor's office, planning board, and our legislative delegation to provide a lawful path toward accepting appropriate unaccepted roads as public ways where it's appropriate to do so. Sincerely, Malber
Planning Board. Thank you, Mr. Engineer. And the floor is yours. Hi, councilors. Uh, Chair Fuchillo. Um, I thought I was going to have a couple members of the planning board here with me. Um they've the planning board
established a working group of a couple of members and they and myself have been working on this uh home rule petition for well for me it goes back to um with city solicitor Don Ryder about 8 years ago we started drafting this. Um,
I thought I should just give a quick elevator kind of background on what what this means and a little bit of background on the list that I know President O shared with you. Um, that list is a it's our street list. It is a
list of all the um public ways, but it includes all the ones that are listed as private. So, private ways, there's there's several different types of private ways on this list. Um, there's some that are just
referred to as ancient ways or there ways that maybe were created on a plan in the early 1900s or say pre-950s that um may have been constructed um but for
some unique reason that dates back to when it was constructed was never accepted by the city as a public way. Um, some of those ancient ways are referred to as paper streets. So they maybe were constructed uh as part of an old plan again
pre-1950s uh or created by plan but never constructed. Um and there's several of those in the city that um maybe there's they're partially constructed or they've got driveways that go down. Um, Clover Street is an example of that off of
Clover Hill that it's in front of the planning board now by a developer that wants to um develop some of the old lots on this paper street. Um, another type of private roads are um condominium
roads or roads that are part of the uh mobile home parks. um those were created uh by site plan and they're really we call them also named driveways. So there's really there's never been an intent for those
to become public ways, but they're on this list nevertheless. Um so those those two groups together make up about 118 or so of the um roads that
are listed as private on this list. the the last subset are the ones that really this home rule petition deals with and those are unaccepted subdivision roads. Um and there's about there's I put in my letter about 50 there's there's probably about that
number and then another 15 or so that are uh a subdivision road that's half accepted and half not accepted because maybe the subdivision was built in a couple of phases. Um, so it's again those are the ones that we're going to that this home rule
petition is intended to deal with. And so the subdivision control law was passed in the state of Massachusetts in 1953 and then all the cities and towns started adopting it after that and Malro was in uh I think in the early 60s. Um
so that the subdivision control law sets out a process for roads that get constructed as part of that um for those to get accepted. Um so the subdivision gets approved by the planning board. The road gets built in accordance with that
approved plan. Um the developer then does asbuilt plans and acceptance plans of the road. Um, and then it's the developer's responsibility to request the city accept the road when it's done and the city agrees that it was done in
accordance with the plans. Um, and then the city council would vote on that acceptance. After that vote, then there's the actual conveyance of the road. Uh, you know, the actual property gets deeded from the developer to the city. And then if
there's easements involved, the easement rights also get deeded from the developer to the city. So there's a lot of paperwork involved in that. So this list of about 50 unaccepted roads are ones that generally were all built for the most part built to
completion. Um but somewhere during that those subsequent steps, um the process never got to the finish line. Um they all each one has kind of a unique story, but it's all generally that same thing where
we the paperwork didn't get finished. The maybe the acceptance plan wasn't properly filed. Maybe the developer just never came to the committee meeting to make sure it got voted on. Maybe the the it died before it got to committee. It
died in committee. You know, there's all different reasons for it. And the issue now with trying to accept these roads um is is that there there's a lot of these are decades old. In many cases,
the developers long gone, deceased, the entity is dissolved. Um it's really there's no easy way to collect all the proper paperwork, you know, 35 years later to try to properly go through the process. So
that's what this home rule petition would do. It would set up with the state legis legislature a procedure by which the city could if the city council decides that it's in the city's interest accept one or more
of these roads. and the procedures laid out in the petition in the home rule petition and it involves a public hearing with the planning board. Um a uh certification from the planning board to the city council and then a vote by the city council and um engineering would be
involved to make sure we've got the plan proper plans in place to make reference to so that the city council knows exactly what we're accepting. Um so why do we want to go back and accept these? Well, so one reason is
that the state uh appropriates money to cities and towns each year for road construction projects and it's based on based partly on how many miles of public roads we have. So accepting these would get some
mileage onto our inventory, our mass DOT inventory for uh an increase in our appropriation. Um, so that's just a explanation of what this is and and why we're here to do
this. Um, so I can take questions now. Sounds good. Thank Thank you, Mr. Engineer. This is uh been some good information. Kind of filled some of the gaps that I have. I know I still have a few questions, but I'll open it now to members of public services. Council Ducet. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and Tom.
Uh thank you for the work with this. Um you know tracking down all this um is is an arduous issue. Um but these roads are pretty old like you said decades maybe 20 30 years old. So while when we we
when we acquire these roads I'm thinking of one in particular. I'm trying to pull up the list right now but they're probably not going to be in very good condition either. So there would, you know, while we accept these, we're probably going to need to take into account that there's those ones are going to specifically
require some road work as we acquire them. Yeah. So that's that's the that's the obvious question. That's a good question. Uh and you're right, they're all old. Um and we're we're essentially we're taking on
roads that are going to need some work, you know, sooner than later, some of them. Um, so that gets back to uh, you know, what what's the what's the city council really's appetite for
telling the people that live on these roads that we're not going to fix them because of whatever happened in this process? Well, so I think I know one of these roads, okay? because I've been getting complaints about getting the road fixed for years and I've submitted
stuff in Cclick fixed plenty of times but never gets fixed because I do believe and it's one of those roads. So you if if the roads need work, they're not getting worked on because it's not accepted and you end up with very angry constituents who are very frustrated because they're paying taxes but their
roads not getting worked on. I mean that's the current condition. Yeah. And full disclosure, I we really haven't if if road needs repairs and it's, you know, it's it's a at a place where um you know, certainly if public safety
is that issue or if it's a real nuisance, we we make those repairs on those roads. That's okay. So, I don't know. If it's a at least if it's a safety issue, we'll make the repairs. Yeah. and and and really we probably this kind of has this issue hasn't
really clearly been outlined um or defined or we haven't really wrapped our heads around at least say before 10 years ago what it can we do work on these roads. So there's some of these roads on this list that we have done
work on. We've done repaving and um Okay. So Okay. Thank you for the clarification with that. I appreciate that. Uh, councelor councelor Irish. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the same note, thank you for councelor Ducet asking. That was my other question about the cost. Uh, and and thank you for doing
this. It's quite an undertaking of this uh this procedure. Um, the other question I had is some of these roads are older and that's a lot of work matching up easements as well. Is is is that going to be a problem for engineering at all if there's cuz you because you have to bring the easement
over as well with the a plot plan or any kind of a plan. So because these roads went through the subdivision process, there was at least at the time they was approved a good plan that shows all the easements. Okay. Um
and we'll be able to to confirm that whatever easements were shown on the plan, you know, are in the right place. number one, and that we do need the rights in them because there's utilities in them. That's really what we need to get uh ironed out. And then the the uh
home rule petition process, um it's sort of a when when the city makes city council makes the vote under this process, we get those rights. There's no understand it's a taking of the rights essentially. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Council Irish. Um, just real quick,
I I have, you know, kind of a couple of questions just based on some of the other counselors. You know, I I understand that we've taken care of these roads, you know, road conditions, but what about snow and ice removal? Do we at all kind of focus on those roads? Kind of what is the criteria for that where we pick and choose? So, we've been
we've been plowing these roads for the most part, you know, I would say close to 100% of them, I would guess. And that's something in the that's something that the city is uh expected or allowed to do on these kind of private ways is is snow for emergency
purposes to keep the roads clear of snow. No, good to know. I appreciate that. Um Council Vital, I saw you had your hand raised. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two questions. One is if we go through this process um on a street or a series of streets,
is it my understanding that the city would then take ownership of it of the that street? Yes. And back to what you mentioned, there's one in my mind that's real out there. Um the gentleman that had the development is no longer living.
So how has the solicitor had an opportunity to look over this thing? looked over this procedure because that I could see that being a you know a a legal nightmare there trying to get take a take a street from somebody who's no longer in existence but their siblings
might be well so that's really that's the purpose of the home rule petition is because it wouldn't be possible in a lot of cases to track down who who owns the road and fee who owns easement rights did the developer retain easement rights
or did they go to whoever bought the lot So this this kind of uh essentially gets around that by saying if you go through this process the city takes the road and fee whom would own it regardless of who may own it now and the rights to the all
the easements. So almost eminent domain which is yes basically sort of yeah yep thank you Tom thank you Mr. Yeah, thank you council. I didn't mention it at the beginning of when we talked about this list. It the the private ways that are
sort of left justified on the list is generally the ones that pertain to this uh ordinance just so you can refer back to that. They're not all they're not all correct. Some of them shouldn't be that way. So, as as we move forward with the
working group, I intend to kind of hopefully be able to get the definitive list of which ones this ordinance, this home rule petition can pertain to. And then the next part of that procedure is going to be how, you know, how how does
the planning board or the city council decide to take up a road, right? No. Thank you. I think um any other questions from councilors councelor Roby. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I certainly hope that the committee supports this petition. Um, I
know the planning board has been frustrated with dealing with some residents on their street currently. Um, the developer is still alive, but is not responding to requests to give them information. So, this is a tool that
works. Other communities have used it. It can work for us. Um, so I I certainly support it and hope that it is sent off to the general court so that they can move on it quickly.
Thank you, Council Roby. Councelor Ducet. Thank you very much. Um, as once it gets through the um, state house and comes back to us, this list is it is the list initiated within
the planning board. Is that the idea? So um similar to how they made this proposal, is that how the process would work? Right. So it the the it explains that the the planning board can initiate the process on a road uh upon the
request of either the mayor, the city council or upon its own initiative. So those are the three ways that uh a road or a couple of the number of roads could be put forth to start this procedure. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to
confirm that that that's the original origination. Uh I'm willing to motion to approve. Motion has been made and seconded to approve. Um I will just highlight I believe we got a communication from the planning board asking to change the
language slightly. Um just regarding the beginning of the home rule petition um giving the legislature a little bit more kind of leeway as to how this looks. Okay. As amended, sounds good. Well, so I could I should give a little background on that too, which I
neglected to do. Um, so one of the planning board members reached out to our state rep and just to kind of like understand how the home rule petition process works when it when it uh, you know, on the on the state's
end. And that was language that was relayed to him that sometimes accompanies these. And what it does, what it says essentially is that the legislature if they decide that a
minor change in language um in their opinion should be done that they can do it without coming back to the city first. Uh I will say that the city solicitor, I'm not sure, thinks that's the best way to proceed with it.
Um I'll leave it at that. He he they did ask him and he I think his the preference from legal department is that the city should really retain final look at whatever the language is even if it's a minor change. No, thank you for the
information. To my understanding um you know this will go to legal but I notice Mr. President you had your hand up. So I would make the motion should be to send it up to legal to put in proper format. You can send along the planning board's comments and if legal thinks they're worthwhile they'll incorporate them.
legal will then put it in a proper format to come back down to the council for a vote for approval. So it' be in a position that the council could approve the home rule petition and assuming the mayor approves it, we can then send it to the legislature. So the motion should be to send this up to the legal
department to get back to us to in proper format to submit uh a home rule petition to the legislature. Then so moved motion has been made and seconded. Um any further discussion? Yes, council may have been brought up.
I'm curious. What's the cost of the city of all these old subdivisions that we've been maintaining? Do you have a tally or have you? If you're not, I'd like to know what the cost is to the city at this present time. And the cost like what cost? Maintenance costs or repay? Are you
accepting roads that have old pipes that Look, we're looking at Berlin Road 2 million I believe. Um what's the cost? What do we what have we lost as the city in cost by not pursuing these streets?
So, if you don't have the answer, that's okay. But I'd like to know that trying to fully understand your question. So, so we're plowing, we're maintaining, and this owner who may have passed or doesn't want to deal with the city. I'm concerned about our cost, and if there's
a way to get that cost back from the developers, we need to do that. If if there's any streets on this list, and I'm not sure there's more than maybe a few where there's still a developer that we can get a hold of, uh I would I
would recommend to the planning board that those don't go through this process. The the developer should be the one to carry that through. But in most of these, there's no there's no e either the entity is gone, the developer's deceased or or not able to be contacted.
And there was no plowing the roads whether we own them or not. We've been plowing. That I respect and understand. But we now have a system where this will never happen again. Correct. That we won't be because you're collecting a bond. Am I not correct with that? So if the owner disappears, passes away,
whatever. We have the bond and those are appropriated according to the cost it would be to the city if that person disappears. Well, I'm trying to figure out the people that have disappeared. What's the cost of the city? I don't, like I said,
you don't have to give me the answer now, but I'm very curious of Well, so like we I talked about earlier, these these are all old roads. They're going to need they're going to need maintenance at some point. So, I would expect that's going to be part of the discussion when one or more of these
comes before the planning board and then before this this body um and what kind of condition is it in and then it's going to be a decision. You know, we can I can we can present what we think it's going to cost and when to reconstruct
it, but the the decision from the city council is going to be do we say no to that and we're never going to do it because there's no developer that's going to do it. So then what you tell that's understandable, but you have homes on those streets. Those residents have been paying taxes. So we
have to bite the bullet on that at this point. I get that. But I'm just curious if it's ever been coordinated to the cost that it sounds like it might be a case-byase basis when the time comes based on the condition of the road, what's inside underneath the road, water
pipes, sewer pipes. I didn't mean to put you on the spot, but it's concerning that, you know, a developer made money on a subdivision and disappeared or forgot about us, which will never happen again. Correct. Cuz now you require bonds. But again, most of these that
happened after the road had completed construction. So the city didn't do any of the construction work on that. It was really just the process fell apart. Understand paperwork wise at the end. Well, we need to chase them down. I respect that. And you know, the residents are living there. They deserve
our services. I just curious what the total cost was. And it's too bad previously we weren't collecting the appropriate bonds. That's my concern. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Orum. Council Ros, thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, real
council or it, it's been an issue because we didn't follow the process. We're not going to go back and chase who paid what or who did what. That's a futile because we can't collect any money. It's just the process didn't work. We've got the process in place now to make sure new streets get accepted. But to go back and say engineering, try
to figure that. Don't waste Tom's time. They got more impressing things to do. And there's no value. And so what we he says we owe him a million dollars. We're not going to go get a million dollars. There's no value to it. The the process was broken. Karen's hopped on it all the time. We finally got it back in place
again. Planning boards on board with setting bonds and not releasing it until all the paperwork's in place and council accepts the streets. So, we're good. So, now we've got this void of 50 or so unfinished development streets because once we accept them, they're now going
to go on Tom's list to go fix. And guess what? I've got a whole list of streets that I want fixed that are currently accepted public ways. These ones aren't going to necessarily bump their way up to number one. They're going to have to go through the process of saying where do they fit? Do they fit our $5 million
a year plan to fix streets and we'll address them as they come. Any emergency repairs, as Tom and the DPW do an outstanding job, they'll fix them as they come up. We're not going to let anything be unsafe. They may not like the bumps in occasion, but there's not going to be anything that's out there
that's unsafe. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, President Austin Council. And and again, if it's a tedious exercise, I don't expect that. I was just trying to bring out the reality of the cost. This is going to cost the city no matter what. And I'm glad it's
been resolved, but again, I go back in time and say, why wasn't it caught back in those times? Why weren't we prepared to ask for bonds back in those times? It's concerning. Very concerning. As I say, our financing, we got to be
tight on it. And now we're, you know, we have to accept these if we do home rule home rule petition. The cost is what concerns me. It's going to be a cost to the city. Thank you. So, just one final chair on that. So, if so, say one of
these roads is 40 years old, one of the roads on the list. if we had accepted it, if it finished the process 40 years ago, we'd still be sitting here today with a 40 year old road that needs to be reconstructed. So that's why I didn't I wanted to fully understand why you were asking about it with the cost. Um, thank
you, Mr. Andrew. Um, council Roby. Thank you. I don't want to belittle this discussion, but I I do think the points that were made by council oing and by Mr. Depersio are pretty valid. When we accept a street, we don't get money from the developer that then we sit in the
bank for 20 years so we can use that to pave it when it falls apart. The city pays for it with bonding, which we do. And and as was already stated, we all have lists. We all drive through the streets of Malboro and surrounding communities. We all know where the potholes are. We all know the streets
that need to be repaired. There's already a long list. So these will just be added to that list. If they're not done for 5 years, 10 years, they're just going to get in the queue like every other street in the city of Malboro. So hopefully the
fact that they were not accepted doesn't stop us from accepting them unless there's other mitigating circumstances, but they should have been accepted and that shouldn't impact the fact that they now need to be or will need to be paved
and paid for by the city, not the devel. They're good comments. I mean, the reality is there that they could have been 40 years old and accepted 40 years ago. The fact is that a bond would have been held over a
developer's head. And I know we didn't have it then or we were missing something back then. And you wouldn't accept that street unless it was in proper condition to accept. I'm not incorrect with that. You're going to accept a street nowadays
with a bond. My point was I guess that they were in proper condition at that time. Oh, okay. They were Okay. Yes. In most all cases they were okay. If they were in proper condition back when they were supposed to be accepted then that obviously is on our end of it. Thank
you. Thank you council. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries three to zero. Uh I will entertain a motion to a motion to adjurnn. Councelor Irish has
made a motion and is seconded by the chair. All those in favor opposed and we are adjourned at 7:00. Thank you. Good evening. I will call to order the finance committee meeting on June 16th,
2025 at 7:02 p.m. Uh we have two items on the agenda this evening. uh communication from the mayor transfer uh request in which moves funds from reserve for salaries and free cash to ratify an agreement with the MMEA.
We also have a communication from the mayor with an FY2026 capital bond request totaling $15,550,000. Um I'll begin with the first item on the agenda, which is order number 25-1009473. uh communication from the mayor with a
transfer request in the amount of $226,882.36 uh which moves funds from reserve for salaries and free cash to to various accounts to fund the recently ratified agreement with the Marro Municipal Employees Association which is the MMEA
and I'll begin by reading the letter submitted by the mayor. Honorable President Oing and councilors, I'm pleased to submit for your review and approval a transfer to fund the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the Malro Municipal Employees Association. Uh we are
requesting a transfer of $130,388.80 from the reserve for salaries line item. uh with the remaining $96,49356 to be transferred from free cash for a total transfer in the amount of $226,882.36. I would like to express my gratitude to
the human resources director and the union for their dedication and collaboration uh in reaching a fair and equitable agreement. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact my office, JC Christian Dumis Mayor. And with that, I'll open that up if anybody
has any question. Council or Well, I'm not trying to end the discussion, but I'm going to motion to approve based on review of this the hard work that our municipal employees do. I was one a at one point I was a municipal employee. I get it. Uh in trying to live in this
world today with the salaries that are offered, um I am 100% in favor of approving this, but not to stop the discussion. But I'll motion to approve and I will I will second that motion. Motion motion has been made and seconded
uh to approve order number 25-9473 uh transfer request in the amount of $226,822.36 um which removes funds from reserve for salaries and free cash to various accounts to fund the recently ratified agreement. And uh just for the record,
it is $130,388.80 from reserve for salaries and $96,49356 from the undesated fund. Further any further discussion? Council B. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I I I approve of this, but I'm just kind of a teeny bit confused and and might be me and and not
anyone else in the room, but we budgeted we anticipated that the contract was going to be negotiated and we budgeted in and with the understanding that it's going to be some money coming that we're going to have to pay for this contract. And we budgeted 130,388.80.
That's what we budgeted based on what we thought the contact was contract was going to generate. Now we found out that we're 96,000 Yeah. $96,493
off in our budgeted amount. And and I I'm thinking things can change during negotiations when they're working it out with the unions because I believe the contract was identical to three years ago except for some other amendments to the Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
So, we put money in reserve for salaries in anticipation of what the contracts are. It's not even close to what the actual settlements are. Council vital. So, we haven't we've got two contracts. We haven't even settled yet. The firefighters and the laborers. And we don't have any money left in reserve for salaries. So we we do the best we can.
The city council reduced it by $300,000 last year, right? We reduced it by 700 or some amount next year. And what we do is we move money from free cash from underspent salary line items to cover that. So it's not that we budgeted
$138,000 for this contract. That's just the balance in the reserve for salary account that was available at the time and the mayor made up the difference by taking the balance to fund the contract through um free cash. Thank you, Mr.
President. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? It carries. 1 2 3 4. Thank you. Is it Did I say five? I'm five. Five Z. It carries five to zero.
Carries five to zero. The math wasn't done. Um, next up is order number 25-1009428. Uh, communication from the mayor with an FY2026 capital bond request totaling $15,550,000
is outlined in this year's capital improvement plan. Uh the proposed uh borrowing will fund a range of facilities, utilities, and street improvement projects um undertaken by the department of public works. Um I'll read the uh letter that was submitted by the mayor.
Uh dear council president Oing and councilors and close for your review and approval are the FY2026 capital bond request totaling $15,550,000 as outlined in this year's capital improvement plan. Uh this proposed uh
borrowing will fund a range of facility utilities and street improvements projects undertaken by the department of public works. Uh the funding will support critical infrastructure efforts, including road paving and reconstruction, water and sewer main replacements, upgrades at the Lakeshore
and Birch Road pumping stations, uh repairs to the Court Street uh garage, uh the HVAC HVAC um HVAC and generator uh improvement at the elementary schools, uh among other projects. This investment reflects our continued
commitment to maintaining and enhancing Malro's infrastructure and ensure we remain on track with the central long-term improvements. Uh a deal detailed list of the itemized projects and their projected costs is included for your reference. Commissioner Ted
Scott, Comproller Brian Dany, and auditor Diane Smith. And I will be at the future finance committee meeting to answer any questions you may have. Sincerely J. Christian Dumismeir. Also, I want to uh touch base on a supplemental uh letter that the mayor
had sent over uh that also enclosed the following uh that included the spreadsheet detailing FY26 capital bond projects, associated costs and funding sources, uh letter from the DPW commissioner, uh the Scott describing the projects tied to the bond request uh
including uh associated dollar amounts, uh projected debt service scheduled for the proposed bonds with an estimated interest. Uh and the fourth one was the FY2025 to FY29 capital improvement plan spreadsheet showing both actual and projected cost.
So with that said, I will bring up Commissioner Scott [Applause] if we find this committee has any questions. And with that, I will begin with the uh the first one uh on the list
was a bond for 9,650,000. And this was broken down um with uh some road reconstruction uh Jar School emergency generator and the Wickcham school HVAC controls. With that said, I'll open it up to the committee.
[Music] Oh, Council Fell. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Commissioner, for being here. Um, just a couple quick questions. Um, I know that I had seen the parking lot reconstruction project. That's for the Williams over at Williams Street, I'm guessing, for the ball fields. Um,
could you just kind of go into some detail about that project? And, um, from my understanding, maybe things have changed, but I remember it used to be a dirt, you know, most of them are dirt um, uh, drive kind of parking lots, driveways, all that sort of stuff. So kind of what what's the project? So this isn't the William Street. This is on
William Street. So because of the boardwalk and the parking at the boardwalk. Um they're parking in the courthouse down during the week which is um the court's not too happy with that. So these are vacant lots um to the left if you're looking at the
courthouse to the left away from the boardwalk. So and the reason there's two of them is because there's wetlands in between. So, we're creating two parking lots. The one furthest to the left is right at the Whim Street parking. So, the ball field can use those. They can
be used for the boardwalk. Uh, so it's a dualpurpose uh thing. Gotcha. No, I appreciate that better. Now, I have a better understanding of what it is we're doing there. So, thank you, Mr. Chair. Hey, good council. Well, that was my first question. You and I,
but the second question I have is the code park garage rehabilitation. Yeah. So, the Court Street uh garage is in tough shape. So, there's there's structural issues. Um if they go any further, we're going to we're going to have some major issues with some of the
steel that's corroded. Uh you have some concrete issues, too. So what we've what we've done with our design is to um contract with a designer that's given us what are the what are the major things that need to be fixed structurally and
to um provide coatings and things to maintain it. And um if you notice in there um you'll have expansion joints where the concrete meets and it's probably an inch thick. There's sealant that goes in there. If the sealant um
you know falls in disrepair, it allows salt water to come down and corrode even more. So we also in that have like a preventive maintenance plan. Once we fix this, then we'll get on a preventive maintenance plan. Uh so it's that um electrical is in tough shape because of
the the water intrusion. So that will be replaced. Um there's some other work with the drainage pipes as well that are corroded. So that's kind of the um the outlook on that and that that really does need to happen soon. If you look at
one of the ramps with the steel column, it's the flange is delaminating and if it goes any further, we will we'll it will that holds up the rest of the all the levels above it. So we can't let that fall in disrepair. No. And I appreciate your How about the other
garage up the street? So So the other garage was done uh several years back. Uh still um I think when we did that we did repair some things but we didn't we I guess at the time didn't realize how
much preventive maintenance on these garage needs to be. So it wasn't kept up as much as it should be. So it there is some disrepair in that and I I believe we we we need to spend some money on that to get it back to a certain point where we can get on a prevent and maintenance schedule with that as well.
And what's the garage about 40 years old? So maybe 4550 probably give or take. 78 in that area. Hogan era I believe. So no that it's been there for a while. I I I was sitting in the garage in my car and it's amazing sometimes it moves. I suppose
it's supposed to supposed to move. Yeah. Yeah. It was kind of scary. I didn't know it moved like that. Um the other question is how'd you come up to with the 2 million? That's so we have the design done. Oh, you have? Okay. Yes. We we appropriated that before the design
for so we've got a cost estimate and that's where we came up with the number. Again that's a engineering estimate and these rehab ones are are something that once you get into it there may be maybe some additional money
we have to um find but that's that's basically the the price of it. So presently 2 million possible cost overrun if we find something serious that but we'll we'll absorb that at the the DPW. We'll make the decision whether we go ahead with something or or will
have to wait for for um you know a few years later. Okay. Basically this covers this the 2 million covers everything that needs to be done right away. Well based on safety obviously it has to and if the bids come in lower we'll we'll do extra stuff as well. Yep. Well, thank
you. Council vital. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to elaborate a little bit on the William Street parking lot. It's the parking lot between the two fields where they're building the new um playground. No. Is that the This is William Street. So,
that's the William Street ball field parking. The the gravel in between. Oh, that's right. That's not This is new parking lots. If you're looking at William Street at the ball to the right where we'll do field y the furthest one
to the right that that vacant lot right there y that's where one of them will go and then there's a section of wetlands then there'll be the other section of parking there so there'll be totally new parking areas between the vac between the ballparks and the courthouse correct
yep for the for for the ball field or the the boardwalk or just for parking. But we're not we're not improving any of the existing parking lots. Either the one between the fields or the one behind that's drive. Right now we're we're
looking at that that complex in stages. Right now we're um we're looking at the the uh playground and doing that and then evaluating. Okay. Cuz I the one in the back that's on Lazot Drive. I'd like for if if pris if the conservation would
give us permission, I would like to expand that so that it would have a better access to the to the walkway. Mhm. Um so a developer that might help us with that uh some way down the road. So these parking lots, correct me if I'm wrong, Tom, one or both parking lots
will have access to the the trail. Oh. Oh, very good. Ones. Yep. Um and my other question is is the jar emergency generator. Do we have one now? No. Uh so this is going this is this is something
that we need to have and yes so the the jar school goes down quite a bit. It's almost like rich's school. They go down quite a bit. What we have now is um a hookup. So if if the we lose power um
school can't run obviously. Yeah. We just have the battery emergency lights to to allow people to get out of there. If it happens in the winter, we have to bring a temporary generator, hook it up, and at least run the boilers so that we don't freeze the sprinkler and all the
pipes in there. So to get this would be very important. Thank Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Det. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Um, so a little bit more time on William Street for a sec. Um, you're going to get the
two parking lots. Uh, what uh the city engineer said is each of those two parking lots are going to have individual paths to the trail. Is that the intent? Oh, I'd love you to get up there. Thank you, Tom. Uh, yeah, that's correct. at the back of
each of the new parking lots. It's not very far from there to where the loop trail that goes around the lake is. So, we'll connect it to that woods trail and that you can get from Right. And it'll be a foot path trail, right? Correct. To
get to that. Okay. Okay. Um the are the sidewalks going to be improved? What What are the conditions on the sidewalk in side? So there's sidewalks all the way from these parking lots to the boardwalk. To the boardwalk. Okay. So we there's now two options. You can either do the trails or the sidewalks.
Correct. And the the sidewalks are in great condition, right? Yes. Okay. Okay. Um the other question uh just another product to have. Um Berlin Road uh the water uh the water uh replacement that's
a very large bond. How much of the Berlin road are you going to be replacing with the water man? Yeah. From uh Pleasant Street to West Hill Road to Pleasant to what? West Hill Road. Pleasant to West. Okay. Okay. Great.
Thank you for that. Appreciate it. I just want to follow up to I know President Oing mentioned that there's still two contracts to be ratified. Uh question for the mayor. Did you consider using any free cash for uh like the emergency generator or the HVAC
considering that we're this is June 16th? I was just wondering on that as well if you could answer that, Mr. Mayor. [Music] Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. Can you repeat the question? Yeah. So, I know President Osley mentioned that there's
still two contracts to be ratified. Correct. Where's June 16th today? Still have free cash. I was just Was it considered to use the free cash for the emergency generator or the HVAC controls? Um, our free cash is about 2.6
we have remaining. So, it's up for the council to appropriate that fund. So, um, I can have Brian come up and attest to that to see what the difference is. is I know that we want to see about interest. How much was the freak? About 2.6 when everything that was more than that. So we're
free cash is running a little low. So we'd like to be around the 3 million mark and we're kind of under. So um that's just my only concern is like I don't want to push that any lower than what it is. No, I was just concerned because it's it's in the end. But I I understand that Mr. Man. Sure. If I may
jump in. Thank you. So I think pre-cash is even a little bit less than that now. We took another 100,000 out of it. 96. My concern is you want to make sure you're covering snow and ice because if you don't cover snow and ice in the next year, you're going to have to raise in the tax overlay. We are talking about
taxes where they are already. So, we know snow and ice. This past year, I think it was 1.4 million. Yep. However, that wasn't a bad year. So, you know, my thought is you need at least $2 million just to cover that snow and ice for the following year. So, I wouldn't want to go below that. Again, that gap doesn't
give us enough to do that generator. Okay. All right. Thank you. I appreciate that. Council vital. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to to uh accept the the funding of the capital bond requested in
the amount of $9,650,000. Motion's been made in uh to approve the bond request in the amount of $9,650,000. Any further discussion? Councelor Ruby. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Um, I may ask this when it comes up, but do we own the parking garages? No. No. So, why is the city bonding to repair them versus whoever does own them? It's I'm happy to answer. Thank you, Mr.
President. So, Council Ro, if you recall back when we were doing the downtown parking studies and where where things were going to go, it turns out the CDA deeded over to us in 2018. I'm looking at the stuff now. We maintain them, but we
don't own them. That would that was the issue. So, we we're we maintain them. Why did they deed them, but not give them to us? Can can we ask for them outright? I I will not take up this meeting explaining that, but I
will send you all sorts of information and then you can uh uh and go through it. My other question is um Maple Street has a portion. What portion will be paved or reconstructed? I guess it's and also
seven is just a portion which so Maple Street it's it's old Maple Street. So um from uh the intersection of the end of South Bolton to Main Street.
Okay. And this is that's the part that the city owns versus the stateowned. No, the city owns the other section as well. Okay. The Route 85 section is also city- owned. All right. Um and then Oh, and
SWIN is uh from East Maine to church. Okay. And the residents on those streets then will know they they'll get the typical letters. Yes. Um and and I guess I'm curious maybe to the mayor. I know
we were all asked to submit streets. Um I know none of the streets I submitted are on here. How how is it decided? Is it basically cost? Because I'm sure it would have some of my suggestions would have probably taken that whole 4
million. But just so residents know, I I know there we got a request from a resident who was upset that their street hadn't been paved um back at a different time when a nearby street was. So how do
you make the decision? Sure. Through the chair. Uh it's a variable of reasons why. So we actually go with a infrastructure first. see what projects are getting done with infrastructure and it's just based upon need and then cost. So it's a revolving um need based upon
we there's been a history of repairing a road and then breaking the road to fix the infrastructure. So now we're looking at the actual infrastructure first, coordinating with National Grid, our water and sewer um infrastructure and then um that's the priority first and
that's why Berlin Road is getting um the infrastructure done first and then we can hopefully fix Berlin Road. So it's just based upon the infrastructure needs and demands and then we take it to the level to actually paving. Thank you.
Council Ducet. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. As far as the the Maple Street segment that's been under construction now for at least 6 months, various parts of Maple Street, is that uh addressing issues that have cropped up or was this part of the bigger plan? So that was and
actually so Maple Street uh and Berlin Row, the ones we mentioned now, that was through coordination with Eversource. Eversource went in and they they have a capital improvement plan themselves to replace old gas manes. Oh, okay. Um and
so part of the answer to council Roy's question about how we decide is through a lot of it has been through coordination with Eversource. They've been very aggressive in trying to replace uh a good portion of their old
and aging gas mains. Mhm. So, um, we try to coordinate with them with roads that we know are kind of in our radar, 5-year window radar, and ideally they go in first, do their work, which is what happened on Maple Street and Berlin
Road, and then we follow up after that and reconstruct the road, okay? And do whatever infrastructure work that we need to do. But if you find if there's any pipe water issues, sewer issues that may potentially crop up, you check for that as part of the process and take
care of that before. Yeah, correct. Berlin Road, we know it has an aging, there's a real water main problem there. So, between that and Eversource and the pavement condition that was really that one was, you know, rose to the top of
the list for those reasons. Okay. Am I hearing you say Bow? in this just for this water main further down in the bond cycle. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. But there was a question
about the water man. Yeah. It's a big water man replacement. But yes, million dollar discussion. No 900,000 discussion actually. But yes, thank you very much. Okay. Councilwoman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can tell you the
people on Berlin Road will be happy. I'm sure the city councilors that represent that area will be happy once all that's done cuz that road is pathetic. And there was some work done recently cuz I went down it and was that the utilities that did that work? That was the sorry
um that was the streets department of the DPW. Much like when you when you asked what do we do to try to keep uh spots safe? That's that was a a a problem area where much like Ash Street where we start doing potholes and it's
scab upon scab upon scab and you can't you can't keep the area uh safe. So we cut out a section and did it and and that was at uh towards Bigalow. We did that section. There was a couple pothole claims in there. Uh we just we just
couldn't keep the area safe. So we go in and cut out a section. So that's done with the DBW budget and magic word safety. And again, it's it's quite a rough ride going down here. It keeps the traffic going slow, but still I appreciate you getting moving on with uh
Berlin Road. Um looking at the uh city debt payment schedule, it looks good right now. You know, it's going down, but that means you're not going to be asking for any further capital improvements till 2047? I know you're not. I'm just being wise
in that respect. But obviously it goes down year by year for the final payment at 4.5%. Uh and obviously that's going to change cuz I'm sure we'll be back here next year if we're all here uh talking about capital improvements. Uh the 4.5% is
that guaranteed for so many years if someone Yes, it should be fixed in Yeah, I know it's written down for all the years till 2047, but I figured that's a guesstimate. interest rate. The interest rate is just
an estimate that's pretty much a conservative estimate based on where we have now. Um, we just did a bond. It came in, you know, closer to the 4%. Oh, good. But, um, we were projecting 5%. So, we did, we had a good year this year. Um, so we did a blend between the four and the five and did
four and a half moving forward. Okay. That that's great. It's good news. So, I was just curious and we'll see a change. These bonds can go for 10 years, give or take. We'll see it a change down the road to the bond ratings as well. The interest rates.
Exactly. I mean, I I can ban for two years. So, I kind of, you know, as we get closer to the time of bonding, do I ban for another year or do I bond it based on where we think interest rates will go? You see, if they're going to head up, then I probably would bond it sooner. If we think they're going to head down and you
take a game one more year, work with the market and what our rating is and so forth. Thank you. Hopefully that rating stays AAA. That's right. I I agree with you here. It should I put you up against that. Thank you. Thank you. Any further Thank you, Mr. No further discussion. Motion has been made and seconded to
approve the bond request in the amount of $9,650,000. All in favor? It carries. 1 2 3 4 5. Next up is a bond request for $3,500,000. And this covers uh Lakeshore Drive
Pumping, Birch Road Pumping, and Mat Drive Pumping Station uh rehabilitation for the 1 million. Any questions in regards to Council Fill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um obviously seeing Lakeshore Drive pumping station is good sign for
me in six. So very appreciative in Birch Road as well. Um, just a question about those two projects in particular, why the kind of million-doll change? Can you just go through what the two projects entail and and why there's some different price tags on each? Uh,
sorry. Uh, you're asking about the difference between the cost of the two. Yeah, Lakeshore and Birch and just kind of the scope of the project. What? Yeah. So, Lakeshore Drive pumping stations and and uh you and I have discussed this one. Uh, it's a really small pump station. It serves 10 homes and we're
evaluating what will probably be the removal of that pump station from service and replacement by individual uh pumps at the homes. Um and then Birch Road is uh much more in line with our
other larger normal size pump stations I would say. No, I I appreciate I know we've had conversations in the past kind of about this. So good to finally see it on here and happy to support it. So thank you. Thank you. Councelor Fchel, Council Orman, are those the age of those pumps, are they close to what
Cullen Drive had? You did the Cullen Drive one recently. I figured they all went in close to the same time period. They're all of the same vintage. Yeah. And there's the same type of pump station, which we're kind of getting away from that type and going with uh different more modern type of uh pump
stations and kind of standardizing them as we go. So, um they're they're big big projects these pump station replacements. Um will that help too, if I may, and thank you for your answer. Will that help with the INI inflow infiltration at all if there is any? Um no, no, it's unrelated to that. The INI
is really a function of uh the collection system that delivers the sewage to the pump station. Um so the replacement of the station doesn't really affect either way. Weaker pumps were causing you're getting inflow
infiltration, but I wasn't for sure. But it's still welcoming. We don't want one of those pumps to break down or we'll be having pump sewer trucks going through the neighborhoods until they're fixed. So, it's good to be proactive. So, I'm in support of this request. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Council. Council
Det. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Um so the uh one of the comments you said is that uh you're taking a pump station was more supporting multiple houses and now giving each of the houses their own individual pumping units. So the I
assume the expectation of one goes down only affects one house. So it's doesn't have to worry about other houses being affected if one pump goes down. Uh, but are these pumps repable or are they the things that get replaced when it goes
bad? Um, they're they're repairable. Um, and there there's a technology that is uh well established now that wasn't available when the Lakes Shore pump station was built. Um, and based on
that, this new type of technology, very reliable pumps. um and uh low maintenance, low uh operating cost. Um so that's why we chose to go this route and kind of take this old pump station
that's really in a location where it wasn't super feasible to be able to replace that with a new station. There's and the ownership it it it was uh questionable what rights or what ownership the city
has in the land that where this existing pump station is. So for a lot of reasons it made sense to go this route and we've had meetings with the neighborhood um you know as we kind of came to this decision. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you
for the explanation. Thank you. Council council. Thank you Mr. Chair. um this bond and some of the others that we're going to be talking about. You're borrowing the money from the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust differently than borrowing from
whoever else you borrow for bonding. Does that change the interest rate? Is this like when we borrowed for the lead pipe replacement where we got zero interest? Yeah, that came from the zero interest came from MW. Yeah. Is it a pipe dream? Yeah.
So these bonds are city bonds. The clean water trust um is a separate bonding source um and those are separate bond altogether when we do those those are 0% financing which we've done but that's not the case on this pump station. Okay. Thank you. Thought I'd
thank Council Chillow. Thank you Mr. Chair. U move to approve the $3,500,000 for the sewer pumping station capital bond request. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the uh the bond
request in the amount of $3,500,000. Um any further discussion? All in favor? It carries. 1 2 3 4 5. Next up is the uh bond request from the Department of Public Works for the amount of $1,400,000
uh sewer main construction for Turner Ridge and sewer mitigation for various streets for $400,000. Council B. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um just so folks know this, this is probably the one project that I get the most amount
of calls on. This is a last phase of a multi-phase project that's been going on for over a decade, I believe, right? Since we started um I think it was two two ward one counselors ago started started this. Uh so I enthusiastically
moved to to approve this uh this this bond. Motion's been made. I will I will second that to approve the bond request in the amount of $1,400,000 for the sewer main construction and sewer mitigation for various streets. Any further discussion? Just one
question. Council, I support this council, just so you know. But the question would be on the sewer main construction on Turn Ridge and Stonehill Roads. Will they be under the same conditions that the rest of ward one mostly are under that when you go to
whatever the conditions might be sale of a home that they need to tie in or will they need to tie in before the sale of a home? No. No. They would they would uh fall into under the ordinance like any other home. They wouldn't be required to
connect until they sell the house. Until they sell. Thank you. Thank you for your answer. Thank you. Motion's been made and seconded to approve. All in favor? It carries. 1 2 3 4 5. Okay. Next up is a bond request in the
amount of $1 million uh for the water main replacement on Burlin Road portion for $1 million. Councelor Brown. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I share councelor Vital's level of excitement
for this particular project that is um for the chair and I. It's a shared street for um ward 4 and ward 5. And um I know that both the chair and I have advocated for some work to be done on
this road for quite a while. So, just thank you for um getting the getting the work started by um doing the water mane replacements. So, I would like to move to approve. Thank you,
Council Brown. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the bond request in the amount of $1 million for the water main replacement Berlin Road portion for $1 million. Any further discussion? Council, just a quick question again and it's really and I'm 100% for this too. I
I got complaints too and I'm not the ward counselors. Um when can we expect after the how many years do we expect this to occur? Months and then when can we expect uh request to pave the road. So we're getting late in the year. So,
we're going to have to have, assuming this does get approved, uh Mark and myself and Ted, we're going to have to have conversation about what makes the most sense about when to bid this. Um doing the work in the winter is
never ideal. So, um yeah, that's that's going to be the decision. We'll have to project out when when we start the bidding process, when can we award, when can we expect a contractor to be able to mobilize and start and then see what we have left in
the construction season and decide if it doesn't make sense to start that at that time or wait until the spring? Until next spring. And then do you have an idea how long it will take to replace the water line so we can get to the next step and that is to do
the paving? Um, I'll look to Mark for his input here, too. But I would say a whole construction season, safe to say. So, two years is what you're saying. One, put the water lines in the next season to do the paving, give or take. Yeah. I mean, that that
can overlap. You know, these are all kind of what what will play into the whole calculus about when we bid it. You know, some things can happen at the same time. It's a long stretch. I get it. It's hard to look into a crystal ball and give me an exact, but if I say an average of two years, if anyone asked
me, is that a fair? I would say two construction season. Two construction season. Thank you. Thank you. In case I get asked, I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, councelor Roby. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can I ask were these bonds advertised? I don't remember. They were
so we could vote on Monday. Yeah, I was thinking once I report you suspend. Okay. Thank you, Councy. Motion's been made and seconded to approve. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. And if the committee is okay after I report it
out at this meeting, Mr. President, I can uh move to advertise. All Council Fell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh move to adjourn. Motion's made and seconded to adjourn. All in favor?
Motion to adjurnn. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. We are adjourned at 7:41 p.m. Thank you.