##VIDEO ID:dA7SecoY-Pc## good evening welcome to the city council February 3rd 2025 city council meeting if you could all PL salute the flag I pledge alance 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 I don't know thank you madam clerk can we roll call the members roll call of the members councel agenzio here here councel cogliandro here here Council janino here here councelor greo SAA here here councelor Hass here here councelor hero here here councelor Kelly here here councelor McKenna here here councel noeli here here councilor zambuto here here and council president sylvestri here here Quorum is present approval of the Journal of the regular meeting of January 27th so move all in favor allos calendar item number three motion presented by councelor agenzio that the city council Awards certificates of commodation to the Rivier youth cheerleading u12 team and their coaching staff in recognition of their second place finish at the Nationals in Florida councilor agenzio thank you want to come up up that's all right we'll fit come on [Music] girls I don't know it's a congratulations are the coaches here coaches can come up yeah a we can start a second row side come on in okay the uh city council would like to take the opportunity to congratulate the uh y12 cheerleading squad they did a great job uh this season uh they did so well they were invited down to uh Florida to compete nationally and they did an excellent job and they got second place so we'd like to congratulate them thank you very much and I'll just read one of these and then we'll hand them out this is a certificate of commendation in acknowledgement of your commitment to developing and guiding young athletes by coaching the rever junior Patriots u12 cheerleaders and leading them to a second place finish at the 2024 American youth cheerleading championships in Naple Florida special recognition is hereby accorded to Jessica haggy we'll do the coach Emily Mullis em okay coach Isabella dampier coach Danielle Greenman here we go and this is for the uh the players in acknowledgement of your outstanding athletic accomplishments as a member of the Rivier youth Patriots u12 cheerleading team in placing second at the 2024 American youth cheerleading championships in Naples Florida special recognition is hereby accorded to Susan agula nina matau not here Mia Co Naomi Freer [Applause] Maria Lucia Roberto Leah Gomez Kaye Dolan Juliana Clemens jasine pan Isabella Callahan Brown EV Everly squil cotti Amelia tchi Ella [Applause] Dees Catalina Sanchez capria [Applause] catalo Ariana and a marado hopefully I'm doing okay with the names analie buus Alana Greenman we all set okay did everyone get one okay very good thank you very much do the coaches like to say anything or anyone want to say anything you don't have to but you can no you're good all right thank yeah oh please yes you congratulations con [Music] okay thank you have a good night e e calendar item number four Lauren Buck chief of Public Health and Mike Wells director of Municipal inspections will conduct a presentation on best practices for trash removal and storage and roading control measures thank you name and address for the record please sure uh Lauren Buck director of Public Health 281 Broadway I'm here with Mike Wells the director of inspectional services 281 Broadway our presentation tonight is on the city of Rivier rodent control um practices our trash control program as well this presentation um we had help putting together with Nick Romano from the director of 311 and Ivon Vu uh the data analyst we also have a technician from BNB pest over here Louie who can answer a lot of technical questions that you all might have as he is the expert in the field he can also speak to what happens specifically in rier um because BNB is one of the main uh contracted exterminators that we use for our programs um and we don't have the slides right okay so okay next so next slide a minute okay so um first we wanted to present you with a little bit of data um it can be a little bit hard to accurately measure how um kind of the the es and flows of the road and population um but one way we can measure what's going on is by the amount of um calls that we get through 311 so this graph shows the number of rodent related calls since 2018 uh year-over year so you can see 2018 we had 291 um hanging out in the hundreds 200s and in 2024 you can see that we did have a an increase of 468 calls related to rodents I think we know that we think there's a couple of reasons for this um in 2024 we were definitely having some problems with one of our contract exterminators that called that forced a lot of residents to call multiple times which led to a change in our contracts for 2025 um yeah and so that we just wanted to give you an example of one of the data points that we do have which is the number of calls coming in and the next slide um it's just kind of an overview about why do we have rodents at all um um so for centuries rats have thrived in cities because of human behavior we can focus on road and control not necessarily elimination um so we have the Norway rat here in in our city it's an invasive species that's typically found close to uh proximity especially in cities it's om it's omnivorous and opportunistic and there are two big factors that impact the rodent population rever human behavior and our environment human behavior so humans create lots of food for rodents rats adapt to human food sources at a rem remble rate and if food is present a single rat can give birth to up to 12 pups in a litter as often as every 6 weeks which is a very um obviously that's a very high turnover also our environment here in Rivier um rats are found in many habitats including Marshland and we are surrounded by Marsh they're nocturnal they're excellent swimmers and finally one of the things that we talk with our exterminators a lot about is that one of the things that really helps call rodent populations is if we have really good frosts uh during the winter that can kill a lot in the rodent in the ground over the last couple of winters we haven't had so many good frosts um and so all of those things can contribute to rodents and then finally I just wanted to make a point that the national news has highlighted rodents in major cities Across America recently doesn't necessarily mean that R's rodent Pro program is getting worse it just puts it in a in the Forefront of everyone's mind but these are kind of the the factors that are going on when we talk about rodents here in Riv and then next I'm going to pass it off to Mike who's going to talk about our multiple trash programs including residential and Commercial thanks Lauren good evening counselors um as you know in 2019 uh we adopted a new trash ordinance uh to help combat the rodm problem uh the ordinance has several main components uh first and foremost every house uh every property was issued um city issued blue carts if you're a single family you received one cart if you're a two family youed two cards if you're three you receive three carts um those property owners have um the ability to purchase one additional cart per dwelling so a single family can purchase one more additional card a two family can order two and there is a cost at $75 a piece um as you know we have trash inspectors that are on the streets um every morning starting at 7 o' we have two full-time code enforcement inspectors um doing residential trash and we have one full-time um code enforcement inspector that focuses directly on Commercial and dumpsters um as we know the rules of the trash um in our city when we adopted this ordinance blue carts only no non- City carts Lids have to be completely closed no trash on the ground and no trash on top of the carts okay so those are the rules of the trash um if the carts are open or the lids are open a fine is issued under the ordinance a trash fine is $25 next slide actually one more um this is our history from 2018 to um December 31st of 2024 as you can see violations issued um roughly you know we're looking at roughly 4,000 violations a year um in our city for trash that includes accumulation of litter uh trash and debris um bulky items Road uh rodent hridge and unclean unsanitary land which is uh overgrowth in vegetation which is also another um cause for rodents next uh slide these are rail pitches um of of you know some of our properties um most common issues with residential trash is overflowing um Lids not closed trash on the ground um we do not have a you know all of our trash is free to our residents uh there are no trash fees uh so we don't have a pay to throw or where some of our other surrounding cities they have to buy bags um to dispose of you know additional trash next slide uh large buildings and commercial requirements so um we also have policies in place for larger residential buildings um also dumpsters are inspected on a daily basis findes are ISS issue to those um you know finds uh that money goes toward our rodent um extermination program that we offer in the city Al commercial properties need to have an IPM which is an integrated Pest Management plan which can be reviewed and um retail and food businesses are required to provide a record of pest control measures all food establishments and Retail establishments are required to BU the sanitary code be inspected at a minimum of every 30 days um so upon inspection of those um establishments the food inspector does request um all of their monthly service reports if we notice that there is a an issue um if any business is having an issue um we do require them to increase their services we go up to we've gone to to three times a week for some establishments that have had issues in the past but we can certainly increase it beyond that uh minimum of of 30 days next slide these are dumpster violations um this year this past budget we um included a full-time dumpster inspector so that is a um new area of responsibility we've had three inspectors in the past but one of them now is just strictly on um commercial dumpsters so we have had an increase in um violations issued for overflowing um dumpsters next slide again these are real pctures um most common issues with large um large buildings are commercial lead to overflowing dumpsters dumpsters that are broken um don't have lids open holes they they rot out at the bottom they're leaking um in dumpsters that don't have lids all of our dumpsters you know anytime an establishment changes hands um we do require them to enclose their dumpsters um a lot of them were kind of grandfathered in prior to that ordinance being established so anytime um something changes with the property owner we do require them to um have their dumpsters enclosed I'm going to pass it back off to Lauren okay uh so I'm going to talk about our private property or our resident program this has been running since 2018 it's a program where residents can call 311 or go on our website and sign a waiver to have a contracted exterminator come to their house up to six times in a year so six free visits by a contracted exterminator yearly um the visits include inspections um making sure that there are bait boxes there refilling bait boxes or doing other treatments which uh I'm sure Louie could explain um kind of what type of treatments that he does but it it every visit can look somewhat different uh it's also this is a partnership between 311 and the public health department so we can also triage streets or neighborhoods with higher numbers of complaints which we have done quite regularly over the last several years um we can do this by kind of essentially making a heat map of all the calls that are coming in and seeing where uh streets are there's a lot of calls on a specific Street or neighborhood the program runs on a waiver system to ensure that homeowners are aware that the contracted exterminator will be visiting and waivers must be renewed every two years this is a change that we recently implemented just to make sure that all home owners are up to date and that they actually know what's going on so obviously this is a a program that we we put a lot of attention to but there are some kinks in the system so uh our all of our contracted exterminators have door knockers with our logos on them and door knockers are supposed to be placed on all the doors um after the service is performed sometimes they don't get placed um and so then the resident isn't exactly sure that the service was performed when that happens we we do have um they can call 311 and we have a way to check in our in our system but obviously that's not ideal for the resident uh another another thing that kind of comes up loud is this is not immediate not immediate relief so we have a lot of um waivers that come in and it's uh kind of a routine weekly system that our our contract exterminator uses and so potentially someone's calling in and they want someone to go out in the next hour you know in the next 24 hours and we have to wait until the exterminator in is in rever on specific days another kind of potential issue to this program is there are some properties that might just need a higher level of service in the city can Pro provide they might need more than six um visits they might have to hire their own extermination service on top of that and so obviously that's you know not ideal and then some properties you know experience rodents and and are calling us and saying that they're seeing rats or anything like that but the true problem is a neighboring property who potentially doesn't know about the program or potentially is maybe an absentee landlord or something like that so the real issue is coming from the neighborhood not necessarily their property and next slide so this is just um some data we pulled about the number of waivers that we've had signs since 2018 again the program was started in 26 uh sorry 2018 the program was started in 2018 and you can see we had a huge number uh of waiver sign that year just a note about these numbers uh 2018 2019 2020 21 the waivers didn't have any expiration dates so everyone that signed in 2018 was getting Services all um throughout those years and that's why the numbers are so low of new waivers in 2022 we revised our system just to make sure this is kind of a um a way to make sure that you know properties change hands um there's new landlords there's new people sell homes and all that kind of stuff and we just wanted to make sure that the current owner of the property was aware of that we were doing extermination services and so we implemented a waiver program a waiver that was good for two years and so you'll see our numbers creep up and 2024 we had 486 waivers signed um Mike and I have been talking about this data and the other thing we wanted to point out is there's you know why do we have more waivers uh 2023 2024 again I think this is because we're making people resign a every couple years but also there has been some digging um you know some more construction potentially in these two years um and I also we've really tried to advertise this program a lot more so it's just possible that people just know about the program more we have Flyers all over the city of Rivier um you know our bulle boards we talk about it on rier TV uh and so we have done in the last two years a lot more advertising of the program uh next slide I also just wanted to quickly mention some other property sets that you might be thinking about schools do have a contract that they run um for all of their school properties with BNB pest uh and then the public open spaces also get inspected and treated as needed four times a year with our contracted exterminators which are is either MD weaver or BNB Pest and then this is a slide next slide I'll quickly talk about this but this is where I'm hoping if you have more specific questions about the environmental impacts we'll bring Louie up here um but there the you know the type of rodenticide that is used is called a second generation anti coagulant um and he can explain kind of why they use that and and um the different you know effects that come from that there are other options on the market there's I'm sure you heard about birth control or boxes that kind of Zap and and do different things um and why some of them are not as effective as potentially you're thinking and some you know all the reasons why they do what they do and then finally I we've talked to BNB a lot about this over the last couple years um you can buy rodenticide at Home Depot or Lowe's or anything and it's it's there's no kind of regulations and inappropriate use from people who aren't trained can also lead to potential negative impacts that uh when you're using a contract exterminator aren't there and so that that is you know that is a a something that we wanted to point out when you're talking about the environmental impacts and then our last two slides you can flip so what can the public do and then finally we'll talk about what can the city do so this is where we really want to talk about education and so it's really just thinking about human behavior and the ways that we can prevent rodents from even you know coming coming around your property at all so our first um big component here is removing food and water sources so as Mike mentioned we really want residents to only use City issue trash barrels with secure Lids they keep them tightly closed clean your trash barrels don't leave food out for birds or Wildlife bird feeders are a huge attraction for rodents um and then empty any sources of standing water again trash need is needs really to be properly stored even on non-tr pickup days um and and cealing entry points uh to any food source that they might get no amount of Bait Box will stop a rodent if there is better human food close by rods will always choose that over what is in the bait boxes second um remove shelter sources so trimming outdoor plants removing trash and debris from your yard storing boxes or debris off the ground and inspecting the outside of your home regularly exterior clutter can be a huge harborage of rodents um and then finally we just again want to educate about our rodent program so you can request a rodent waiver for free extermination services like I just mentioned you can call 311 or we have a whole website dedicated to it r.org rodents to fill out a waiver and a um B&B pest will visit your your property and and treat what whatever they see and then finally last slide what can the city do so um you know 's our program our trash program a rodent program um we want to make sure we continue this and do these programs really well so we want to continue with trash inspections but just know that when we do continue continue with trash inspections fines might result and fines are hopefully mike always tells me this about Behavior change and so we don't want to anyone to continue to get fines it's it's a way to help people remind um remind them about the appropriate uh measures that you need to take with your trash obviously continue with dumpster inspections and PM checks which would result for f would result with fines as well and these would be on our commercial properties who potentially are having some changes of behavior that need to happen there obviously we'll continue with our free Road and control program for our private properties um and we will continue with that program you know and continue to refine it and make it better and finally increase education to to Residents which is what we're here about a little you know one of the reasons we're here um about the cause of rodents and the behavior changes that we need to make to help decrease with with our problem and that's the presentation if there's any questions thank you very much counselors oh sorry one last thing I just I'm going to pass around um we have uh our our flyers and our informational pamphlets that are help people like learn about preventing rosin and and the program as well and just to give you an example of what's on our website and what's downstairs thank you thank you great job both of you um Council Haro thank you Mr President uh Lauren Mike thank you so much for coming I know we've had a few conversations over the last few weeks about this issue and um I just wanted to check in I know you um went over some additional uh strategies to deal with this like birth control and all that stuff um in addition to those are there is there anything you're seeing in other cities that is working that seems to be uh tracking down this uh the rodent problems in their city and how they're implementing so maybe I'll have Lou come up and chat about what he going on in other places um a lot of cities try different things um and I I you know the effectiveness is is you know always dependent on what they're trying I know Somerville you know has tried the you know boxes that you know they zap the the so for lack of a better turn they zap the rodents and and one of the issues when you use boxes like that is that you know when they're full they they don't work until someone comes and cleans them out so there's always kind of um issues like that with other methods but also do you have anything you want to add to so from what I'm seeing most cities are taking the same kind of Route you guys are taking with kind of mixing um I don't want to call it blame but helping the situation with the trash remediation and things like that and that seems to be the most common problem when it comes to City rats um because like she said they're Norway rats and they come from underground not up on the roofs or wi lines or anything like that so they're currently always on the ground scurrying around looking for a food source and once they once they find it excuse me once they find it that's it they're not leaving that s situation so most of the time you get a point a point B and everywhere in between gets the problem as well because they're traveling those areas and in a city like River where you have a lot of hes touching each other with connecting fences and yards that run along sometimes Vines and little Gardens and things like that in those areas they have a free runway in the dark hidden away where no one can see them that they run through four or five people's yards and five four or five people are complaining about rats but might see the same four five six rats you know every other night two nights a week or whatever the deal is and it really UPS the situation to a more drastic measure drastic measures being taken when really the problem isn't in the middle it's at both ends so it targeting those both ends are really what cities are really trying to do any contracted B&B or or any other pest control company that works for a city or anywhere in the in the Massachusetts New Hampshire you know any big cities will have the same answer and it's really that it's really containing the food source and and stopping that because ba is only as effective as a hungry rat is and if you can't find Hungry rats you have really really low um really low rates of Effectiveness for the boxes that we do put out sometimes and like we said in the slide it's not as quick as people would like you know um sometimes setting out a couple of traps can help a situation temporarily um but it's always going to be back in those areas because the food source is still in those spots so other cities are doing what you guys are doing um and what they're doing with the trash and and you know imposing finds on what I like to call absentee landlords and that's usually where it starts thank you um Lauren um I noticed and although $25 uh is a lot of money uh but but $25 how long has that been the F or maybe Mike how long has it been the F for the ordinance was established in 2019 and are any surrounding cities have they increased fines and has have you when you talk to your colleagues in other cities has that changed I'm not sure what other cities and towns are finding for um everybody has a different finding system we fine under 4u which is the state sanitary code so other cities and towns F on the 21d which is city ordinances are we limited uh to how much is there like a a ceiling on the fines no that was established through the city council when the ordinance was adopted okay and uh have you seen human behavior change in other cities I guess well I guess it has it changed here well listen we we drive through other cities and towns and you know our eyes are always focused eyes you know I drive my wife and she gets aggravated because I'm always looking all over the place right so um you know again as Lauren alluded to it's human behavior you know uh we need to change those behaviors I always try to say the F it's not the point of the $25 it's the point of changing the behavior right so if you get one fine and you change that behavior great the fine worked right um but if you get a fine week after week after week after week which there are properties that do and and we go above that you know the the first f is $25 uh we go above that you know if it's more egregious then we we we do up the fines or if they are a frequent flyer you know we we up the fines as well Mr chairman last question sorry um and Mr President sorry uh are there any new technologies other for our friends at BMB or any new technologies that you're seeing emerge to deal with this and to either curb human behavior or or stop the the reproduction of of rats so yeah so there are a lot of things out there that are I guess you could say experimental still um they're still in that phase where it's only been you know the past couple of years they've been using different things like birth controls and like she was saying electric boxes that contain you know the carcasses of the animals that taken inside of it so I don't think there's too much to go on yet because of you know being a big city and not having a complete an utter you know canvas over everything it's hard to get all the the stats and everything to to make sure that those things are working I can tell you that from personal experience the birth control method doesn't seem to work um just because it's a if bait is slow then this is even slower sometimes um and it's not effective most times because you only affect the female rats that come into contact with it you're not forcing feeding by any means necessary you're kind of just hoping it works so um traps obviously are the old school method and they work but they're dirty they're dead animals in them and that's not fun for anybody so um unfortunately not really to answer your question easily there's not much that proven to work yet um at a scale as big as a city however um buildings commercial buildings private property things like that those can be helped by a pest control professional you know when a problem is starting in an area or in a certain building when we go to that building and we treat that building I can guarantee you that the rats are going to be gone from that area now if uh a building like he's saying is a continuous problem and they're not doing anything about it and they're doing the minimum with we're coming out and you know baiting the boxes on the outside but they're contributing to the food source I mean there's only so much we can do because the next step up we really need um qualified technicians you know with certain licensing and certification to put some of the P treatments down into the ground or in certain boxes and things like that so not really yet not really yet but there's a lot of stuff out there right now and we're just waiting for things to see how it works Council C Leandro thank you Mr President thank you guys for your presentation um I uh Mike I just want to thank you uh I text you frantically over the weekend first of all thank you for enduring me and secondly thank you for going out and handling an issue on a Sunday I really appreciate that and I really like the way that we're handling things I know you and I have been working on that a property since October and I understand that we do have uh you know issues with rodents but it is good to give the property owners a chance to do the right thing and to make make it uh things good uh and if it doesn't you know we we just saw first fir hands you know how we crack down on things so I just want to say great job thank you for everything you do pleasure thank you coun McKenna uh thank you Mr President thank you guys for being up here um Michael I know I talk to you all the time about this um we just had an incident where someone called me and she had multiple fines so we couldn't help her but uh I just wanted to couple of things uh Lou is it Louis Louie um I I is the city using I put two motions in to use less invasive uh rat poisoning so it wouldn't inhibit the uh Wildlife um is that happening or no um so the second generation uh rodenticides that we use are on the market the lowest dosage of the chemical that poisons and and and stops the blood and thins the blood out and makes that happen that in that situation with the non-coagulation so unfortunately um what we're using now is pretty much the lowest dosage when it comes to how much we put in the boxes at a time so the way you can regulate that is how much goes into the box at one time so if you only put enough for the amount of traffic that is coming through then you can regulate how much poison is being consumed and at this at any rate the poison to affect any kind of wildlife around isn't that big of a concern with the poison that we're using if you could just excuse my language and the way I'm putting this but a bird of prey would have to eat somewhere around 8 to 10 rats who are fully engorged with the poison that we use in order to be poisoned at all that it would show up in the bloodstream so um that's just a small example of the low dosing of the poison that we use now that's great news thank you cuz before you were using a rat poison that um the rat would eat it and they would uh dehydrate and they would uh last for three days and then a hawk would come and eat it and then he would be poisoned so this is really good news have you ever tried dry dry ice so dry ice is partially effective um you need a couple of different things and and factors to happen you need burrowing or dening down in the ground to happen because you need somewhere to put the dry ice also dry ice is very expensive and hard to procure uh for anybody for that matter they only made in two places in in Massachusetts right now so to get it um is expensive and to do the treatment it isn't as effective as an actual rat treatment would be if we were to do a powder treatment for a but den area with a lot of burrows which is what we would do um that would be far quicker and actually a lot more effective when it comes to how many rats we can uh uh properly poison with it so thank you and I just want to say uh congratulations because I think education and educating the the uh city is what we're supposed to do what we have to do and I go to other cities and their trash barrels are are are completely over the top and their Lids are not down or anything so I congratulations for what you guys are doing and uh great effort thank you thank you councel councel noski thank you Mr President uh it's a great program I'm glad we're doing it and uh you know Mike and and Louie and Lauren it's great that you came up tonight to let the public know what's going on because this has never been done before you know like this but couple of questions I have what makes someone a homeowner eligible for a waiver that they can get free Road control uh you just have to be the the homeowner the owner of the property no matter the size of the house oh um six units or or less oh sorry yeah six units or less six or less if it's more than six units it's considered commercial property right yeah thank you okay cool um and as far as the dumpsters are concerned Mike um I I I end I if I remember correctly they're supposed to be cleaned out every three 3 months if they have one in a commercial Place yeah um is there someone that checks that to see if it's really happening it it's it's difficult uh it's a difficult task um especially for the companies to empty them and have somebody there to be able to to clean them out so um you know obviously the springtime is a little bit easier for for those types of inspections um and now that we have our new dumpster inspector in place we will certainly ramp up you know the the sanitation around it's not just you know stuff that's overflowing but a lot of it is trash and debris and all those dumpster juices all over the all over the ground that attract the rodents as well so power washing of the of the dumpster pad um absolutely and and we should remind people too that they have to clean out their trash barrels the blue ones and the brown ones recycle ones you know to make sure that's good um we you you give out six times a year is that sufficient for to cover a rodent Pro problem every two months or is there a time of year that it's should be concentrated on so us as a company when we do a road control for a private or commercial building we offer the three-month warranty that goes with it so yeah I would say you know six times is a great good amount of time to go back reassess open up everything you know see what's going on how things have been talking to the you know resident or whoever's there at the time all those things but yeah six six times is definitely enough to assess that's year round for one yeah so one year for one year pretty good yeah so as part of the waiver you can get six free treatments for one year the waiver is good for two years so the next year the the property would also get another six treatments if they needed it so they get two years of the waiver yes okay um Mike what happens and I get this a lot when people someone will come by open up the the Blue Barrel and put their own trash on top of it and that person gets fined what do we do in a case like that uh luckily everybody has a ring doorbell today um you know they they they email us our the videos they can send them to us um you know if we see that happen we we take the you know we'll we'll avoid the fine um you know if they again you know we pull up the address and they they have a laundry list and you know we'll make them go through theal process um but we don't want to put anybody through that if you know we don't want to inconvenient anybody um so a lot of times they'll they'll come in with with that evidence and we'll help them out okay my last last issue and I get a lot of this people get a fine because their cover was open one inch one in 10 in it's all the same well I get that you know just you know people are saying you know isn't there any kind of flexibility or something like that they have the ability to every violation can be appealed within 21 days of receiving it um they can do with that in in the writing process or they can come to a a hearing you know scheduled hearing um and then they can go before the the hearings officer will will um will determine the outcome of the the appeal thank you for that information great jobs thank you councelor councel greenos thank you Mr President thank you Michael thank you Lauren for coming here and thank you Louie um I want this presentation was excellent because there's a lot of residents that don't know what the pro procedure is and um now that they're watching it they they can understand it a little bit better I do have a question about the violation that you know how Ira just said Council noes just said if it's open one inch well what if they put a rock on it because I know they got it they got a ticket for putting a rock on top to hold it down that happened in W five so they had put a rock on top of it to keep it shut and I don't I don't know what happened but they did get a violation because there was a rock on top of the barrel maybe it was a boulder I'm not sure but i' have to see it and then um my other question is you know how you and I have been working together with the rats in W five and stuff when there are restaurants businesses and buildings um that are in violation is the ticket price the same as what you would give the residential neighborhood no dumpsters um depending on the severity it go up to $250 fine and what happens if they're constant abusers they keep getting fines okay and there's nothing else that we can do um um to make it stop because the goal is to to for the property owner to address the issue um you know sometimes if we have contact information I I try to reach out as much as I possibly can to to Property Owners to address the issues uh but there are just some properties we don't we don't have contact info for so uh one of the things I've been doing lately is you know since uh 40u violations are be able to be paid online now for the past year and a half or so we have contact um so I can go into that system and get the email address of the of the property owner and send them an email uh to get in touch with us to to talk about the the problem at their property and that does work thank you thank you councelor councilor H thank you Mr President guys thanks so much for being here and for that presentation um I know someone who used the program um and it seems to have had a had a good effect so far I I will say I've seen rats and my neighborhood in my yard on Fenley Street which I've never seen before and um I know Mike you and I talked a lot about the neighborhood um the we had the rooster the rooster issue there are rabbits there's a coyote behind me now I had a raccoon living in my house um so they're it's almost like they're taking over but um I wanted to talk a little bit about the the neighboring property aspect of this um I've seen neighbors you know leave a bagel on a post a half eaten sandwich or something you know feeding the birds um I know that's a huge issue in that scenario what can a neighbor who's following the rules what can they do can they call the inspections department yeah absolutely I mean we we we send letters out to Property Owners to get in touch with us you know we have a good rate of you know them getting in touch with us some we don't we have to send a second letter um but you know bird feeders are a problem you know people that like to feed the squirrels you know throw stuff out there you know those those are contributing factors as well so um we do have a bird feeded ordinance you know um that might want to be reviewed at some point again um but it's uh they are definitely contributors and I know the Outreach is I know people have seen the Flyers down the down the the wellness center and on Facebook and things like that one of the other things Lauren and I have talked about recently as well um with the Liaisons is in a new homeowner packet so when a property changes is you know they'll get some information about kind of the city and stuff and putting something in there about the rules of the trash and uh proper proper storage and stuff so perfect thank you so much guys thank you councelor Council janino thank you guys for being here I had a question um Washington Avenue last year when they were doing the sidewalks over we had a storm come in and new construction being done at the same time are we doing anything proactive in a case like that because I noticed right after that storm came in I got probably about four or five phone calls on the area are we just letting waiting on being reactive on the calls coming in and then going out with with the construction on the roads DPW handles all that stuff um so we don't we're not even included in any of that so um if there is rad construction DPW is responsible for the um outside contractors doing the baiting yeah I know when the people called up you guys went out took care of for me or for them and it was satisfactory what you guys did yeah second thing was the dumpsters I don't know who you hired but he's doing a good job at it CU I've had few phone calls on dumpsters in the area and they went way down yeah and then also with the Exterminator identifying the difference between the rodents and the rabbits and squirrels diing holes cuz other calls people calling me up saying I got rats all over the place my neighbor's rats are coming over here and it was determined to be the rabbit sticking the holes thank you councelor Council zambo thank you Mr President uh thank you for your presentation um only recently I've got calls from my neighbors one one across the street from me said we have a rodent problem I said not that I know of but uh uh evidently we do um I think everybody does but I I haven't seen any and uh and um so this presentation helps a lot because it it it tells people and and and most people are good people and they they don't make these mistakes on purpose and they just don't know any better and especially some of our new neighbors don't know any better and when I say that I'm accused of being a racist but I'm not I promise but the bottom line is that education is the key and this presentation I really think uh helped a lot of people and uh and I and I like your answer to my colleague to my right that 1 in is just as bad as 6 in if you got an opening for the M mouse or rats to get in they're going to get in if it's closed they're not going to get in it's as simple as that and and I've had occasion where the uh raccoons got in the barrel they open the barrel now I have a bungee cord so I hook it on it so that they don't so I mean they're very resourceful and U so this education is very good and I really appreciate your effort thank you thank you councelor Council cogliandro thank you for the leeway Mr President um through you to the pest control specialist a couple two three months ago we had an issue with the baiting of the rats the rats would eat the bait and then it would go up the food chain maybe a bird would swoop down and eat the rat and then a dog would eat the bird and they were all dying how do you combat something like that from happening so I would like to think that most Pest Control professionals aren't to blame for that problem I would like to point out that a lot of people do use Home Depot Lowe's brand stuff and also a lot of the stuff that we do carry and have control over you can purchase for your own residential house online all right so it's there a lot of stuff you can purchase there are some stuff obviously that's restricted and the use of it needs a special license and certifications and so on and so forth but um improper use is more to blame than the proper use of it um just like I said earlier the amount of poison that you feed to a rodent determines on how quick or you know fast the rodent will perish from it so using more does take care of the problem quicker but it also leads to you know rats who are full of it and only eating the poison and if you overp poison you are doing just that to the whole environment um however um like I said the stuff that we use is a 0.5% of the poison is in the entire product and each product is carefully determined for how many fit in each box and how many are targeted for each Road you know per per block um I I I I I like to Har back but yeah I think the professional part uh needs to be looked at a lot closer because I think we do do a good job at it um but it gets taken out of our hands a lot of times and we get the blame for it the same as a home contractor would get the blame for you know someone else's you know finish work or something like that so um yeah when we do a job we do it the right way we try to make it as as easy as possible and when we explain it to a a client or a residential place we make sure that we tell them you know this this is how we do it this is how long it's going to take it's not a quick turnover we usually give a two to 3 week period where things can slow down because of the fact that we're not trying to over poison the whole system but just rather whatever is visiting your property thank you and if I may just one more question could you just explain briefly I know years ago we used to use rodenticide it was designed to dehydrate the the rodent and make them leave the property clean down the all the water sources and the is it still the same or is something similar no we use an anti-coagulant base now so um essentially it thins the blood from inside and um bleeds from the inside I don't want to and this isn't you know it bleed it it internally bleeds without it knowing okay so um it's essentially a warin based um so the chemicals that are combined in in the in the poison is something like a blood thinner pill would be for somebody who has high blood pressure so um we're just administering a little bit more than they would normally need and in a timely manner so that it does do its job fast enough thank you very much you got it thank you lisis Council green o thank you Mr President for the leeway Lauren uh just a quick question one of the residents just messaged me they wanted to know is this new of it being a two-year waiver because it was always every year right yeah we changed it to a two-year waiver based on actually some guidance from um BNB just um it seems like a a good enough time where you can be pretty sure that the property is still in the same hands but it also you know when whenever you put um uh limits on a a waiver you run the risk of like less people signing it every year so when you have two years you at least have two good years of coverage so we change it to two years as of 2025 okay so the people who had a waiver for last year they do not need one for this year they do so everyone needs to resign a waiver 2025 and it will be until 2027 okay so the one from last year is no good and they need to resign one this year and it's good for two years correct perfect thank you mhm thank you counselor permission to speak from the chair thank you um thank you for this presentation um this started with a motion that I I put forward so I really thank you this was super educational um I I was hoping it got aimed towards the the residents more but this was was super helpful and informative so thank you very much um I think I have seen an uptick in in rodents um so that's kind of why I put the motion forward also the um the when when you when you put down the bait I think this would be for Lewis when you put down the bait in in the question with like um making it less potent or or whatnot do they adapt to that not yet okay not yet it's we have been using the same bait for quite a while and we haven't seen any slowing down as long as the feeding is happening as long as we can control the food source and there's feeding on it it works just as good as it did two years ago than it does today excellent thank you very much and that's all we got I appreciate it thank you we're going to take a fem minute recess please next calendar item number is number five Deborah Mand of four kids only was supposed to conduct a presentation relative to the grant uh four kids only has received unfortunately she had a family emergency won't be able to attend tonight she requested that um if possible the first meeting in March to to move this up to okay that works calendar item number six Brian D senior project man manager of leftfield will provide the city council with a design update for the new Rivier High School name and address for the record please uh Brian daen one High Street and we will have the slides right looks like that got solved perfect uh good evening everybody um the high school project is heading to the conclusion of the design development phase um what we're going to do tonight is present a design update a site design and building design update that's sort of a culmination of the last um seven or eight months of design work between the uh Team of Consultants staff administrators building committee public respond First Responders Etc so a lot of work has gone into this um the design update you're going to see tonight uh the package of drawings and specifications behind this went to the estimators in the last few weeks we um look to come back to the week I forget the date but the first week in March we look to be back in front of the council with a more detailed update about permitting and cost updates so we don't have cost updates for tonight the estimators are um in the process of working what we wanted to do is run through the design update that the building committee has seen um before I hand it over to the um The Architects I also wanted to mention that we're continuing going through the meepa process um we have succeeded in um getting through the first step the envir environmental notification form first of three steps uh in the meepa process we received certificates for that the end of December including a phase one site demolition wave um so provided that we get through the next month uh demonstrating that we're on budget we are on schedule to um bid site demolition work to remove the old foundations of the uh the dog track and the clubhouse and uh that bidding process will run in uh March in April just for site Demolition and by may we expect to be uh out there demolishing the track uh we'll continue with the construction document phase and uh begin bidding out the building proper uh later in the summer and look to mobilize um full construction on building to building site utilities foundations uh in the realm of August so schedule is holding um we are submitting the second of three meepa steps uh this month the draft environmental impact report um we can talk about any of that in a little more detail uh but again I plan on doing a a a more detailed permitting update and cost update at the 1 March meeting uh right now I wanted to turn it over to Don gello from Perkins Eastman the architect um and she's going to walk you through some uh slides about the design of the building that we can do some questions thank you Brian Mr President Don guello Perkins zman hi everyone good to see you again it's been a while but uh we're back and figured we'd give you a design update I think March 10th Brian is the placeholder we have for the uh costest uh update so uh you'll hear from others on our team that night relative to cost but in the meantime design this is what's being priced uh if you would move the slide forward I wanted to take a step back remind everyone of the project goals what how we approach design some of which is relative to the Rivier context the beach the old Wonderland um and the the amusement park and first uh public beach in the US so just context you can move forward I'm sure you're all very familiar with this city uh back to just basically laying out the building we had a concept of the anatomy of a wave uh again we went through a few different concepts relative to materials and building but essentially the pure length of the building it's longer than two football fields when you take the academic wings so in order to break some of that up um both from an interior and exterior massing standpoint uh we're looking at um bringing some faceted curves into the design the uh if you go forward I think it's a site plan and the floor plan I'll walk you through quickly what the different components of the building are I won't go through all the floor plans if you have specific questions about where things are I will come back to those uh this is the current site plan it might not be zoomed out all the way yeah um PDF a yep you might be able to up on the top uh see where the hand is like three or four over if you go and fit to width yeah so now you can see the access the campus entry yeah thank you perfect um right across from the Wonderland uh garage the MBTA Wonderland garage uh the that's one campus entry exit the other one is down across from the shopping plaza uh those are existing uh curb cuts and we will maintain those uh as you enter into the campus from the Eastern m again North is just up and to the right but um the campus entry across from the Wonderland garage you will be split by two Fields there's a multisport and a traditional um Turf uh soccer field there's some surface parking and that Loop that takes you up kind of 90° vertically to the North and then West uh takes you to the front entrance of the building the tallest part of the building is the academic Wing which is that curved uh spine that I mentioned that's four stor at the street Edge all of this is over under building parking if you remember we're in a flood plane we have to raise the first floor elevation uh approximately 16 ft so we will have underbuilding parking that uh is accessed from the West I have EMT Gregory by the way with me from mck Young Kim design he'll get into some of the details of the site plan I just want to give you like a basic here's uh what the campus will look like so we have the front entry for Car drop if you come in the campus across from Wonderland hang that first left that's the Bus drop on the South Side both entrances take you Into the Heart of the school which I will um show some renderings of in a moment but the entry point from both of those Car drop Public Access and Bus drop all take you Into the Heart of the school so that longest wave on the south is the academic Wing we've got the heart of the school and then a lot of the public spaces are off of that so the gymnasium is that large rectangle on the upper left uh we' got the auditorium on the second floor on the North and then the the other curve that welcomes you at the at the main entry is admin nurse Suite MGH Community Health and then above that is performing arts adjacent to the auditorium so you a if you're a staff member parking under the building you take that entry point you go around the back of the building that's also where're receiving is by the way dumpsters we will have control over the dumpsters do not worry um but they you enter the garage from the uh West there is two entry points and um I think there's some somewhere in the 350 spots under the building a 300ish surface so takes us plus minus 650 total parking spots um so and then if you come around you exit out the near the tennis courts there's five tennis courts so the campus as a whole M two multi- um sport fields tennis and uh EMT Gregory again will get into some of the finer details of Outdoor Learning and opportunities on campus so with that we I think it's next are the floor plans um so you can perfect may I interrupt Mr President before this slide goes yes counc that last slide uh the propos Comm station where would that sit that's a great question uh are engaged with them and are currently talking with them Brian correct me if I'm wrong we're inviting them to meetings from what I'm told it may be the backside of dun Road access like north of dun Road um yeah you might know more than I do the short answer is we don't know um we we have been coordinating with the NBTA team um through the city planner um and sharing this design with them it would have to go somewhere up along the top middle of the page uh in terms of how Vehicles would get in and out uh in parking uh I I don't know uh yet what I'm told is the station would most likely be almost entirely over the tracks but um vehicular access is something that I do think that team's going to have a bit of a challenge to work out what I well I'll what I'd add here is that dun Road connection is not a public uh vehicular connection that's intended only for First Responders maintenance vehicles um and people that are walking around bikes uh we are not there will be gates at the end of dun Road and back where that connects into the um the campus Loop so that people cannot drive cars uh up through that neighborhood okay not really the answer I was looking for but thank you Mr President um Mr President oh sorry I just have a followup to that same topic so I was wondering go ahead thank you Mr President so um I was taking a look at the um executive office of energy and environmental Affairs report that was issued on November 22nd and speaking on that uh commuter re apparently the EPA there's a mention here that in the epa's report um identifying the easn count Eastern County ditch as actually being tily influenced and that is in opposition to what the r commission um Conservation Commission was saying that it was freshwater non title resource and that because of this disagreement them you know and them believing that it is titly influenced that it says quote likely this would prevent any further consideration of interconnecting the commuter Reel with the blue line so is that something that so I'm not sure how to reconcile that thank you that is the all of the um whether or not that ditch is tily influenced has been a big topic of discussion with us um the project team deployed um what are called level trolls out into the ditch to measure it over the course of months the data shows that it's not tily influenced um it rises and falls with storm water only not the tides uh we will be responding to that memo as part of the deir um submission to meepa uh this month and we believe the findings ultimately will be uh based on the data uh it is not tily influenced will not require a chapter one 91 license um and therefore sort of alleviates some of that concern but again based on the data that um we've measured out in that ditch that ditch does not rise and fall at the tide um tide El action happens north of here up up um up towards the marsh thank you coun counc C Leandro thank you Mr President uh and before we go any further so um through you Mr President to Mr Deacon you had brought up the mea process and a couple of meetings ago the it was brought to our attention that uh you felt that the meepa process was going to be finished around August is that still the case yes okay with that said the msba came up with a new rule that they're not going to be reimbursing us correct until the meepa process is finished which could mean that we have to take millions of dollars out in a loan at 4% or whatever it might be my question is do we have any idea why they made that rule and has there been any conversation with the msba about getting rid of it because I I don't like the fact that we were doing this project with the knowledge that we would be reimbursed as we go and now the meepa process is holding us up sure so we we have um a number of our clients are dealing with this issue uh that's a a new guideline msba implemented last year um they are not going to relent on it I think we're we're really where it came from is that msba reimbursement is subject to projects um clearing State approval and um meepa themselves I think exerted political pressure on msba to say why are you continuously funding projects that aren't done with us so it's created a scenario where any project in the msba pipeline that's going to need meepa is going to stop uh have have reimbursement withheld at the end of the feasibility study um so Project's going to have to be approved mve forward and entirely uh funded now uh that has always been um even when we were back approving the project here that's always been modeled in the cash flow that the city's worked with so um the cash flow that we have right now is all of the activities that we're doing to support what you're seeing on the screen are reimbursable um so in theory there's a there's a reimburse a large reimbursement check that by uh the time we're done with meepa by my estimates around 20 to $25 million is what the msba will owe the city once we show them that certificate that'll come through but we have tried um on behalf of Riv and other clients to make the point um to MSB that this is really a hardship and um I just I I don't think it's going anywhere yeah it it really is uh it's concerning and I'm glad we're going to get the reimbursement all at once that's owed to us once the meepa process is done but it's a lot of money uh and just a quick question what's a healing Garden uh I think that's something that we'll cover with with EMT if that's all right sounds good councilors if we can all hold our questions to the end of the the slides please thank you I appreciate that you're reading it so okay so back to the floor plans I'm going to just Breeze through those but basically we have a four-story academic Wing a three-story heart of the school and then a large gymnasium uh two story volume and then the auditorium is kind of the center in the middle you can see it right there and the Performing Arts is adjacent to that so if there are specific questions I'm happy to come back and answer where things are and how they relate um to different program pieces if needed so I think you have couple more this is the third floor you go one more that's mostly the academic Wing the tallest part of the building and then there's the under building parking that I mentioned so just put it in there for reference so design exterior materials palette uh multiple uh materials palettes back in 2022 we've been here a long time working with this building committee a long time so this I went to the way back machine for these but this is just a reminder what the palette uh looks feels like um and is um relates back to the colors textures and rever and specifically the beach so if you want to move forward you'll see some actual um selections and then the photos of the physical samples uh taken at Don charma's old office in the basement down back in 2022 so the massing you can see the next Slide the four-story tallest part of the building uh on the street side their front entry is on the right uh you can see the auditorium gym there is the courtyard between the W the Western academic wing and the gymnasium EMT uh will describe in detail what um some of what's happening in that very exciting space for the students so let's move forward we'll start to look at what it actually looks like so the main entry I mentioned was um kind of that secondary curve that one of the academic Wings is off the screen to the left uh this is meant to be a a large welcoming space that the students and any visitors arrive at every day um the lowest level uh closest to the main entry that's the main office uh they visual uh um you know Vis visual connection to whoever's arriving at the school they have a uh secure vestibule people need to check in get approved and then they can enter the building so from a security standpoint this is probably the best connection ction that you could have to the main entry above it we've got some art rooms and the Freshman Academy cafeteria and then the Performing Arts sort of spays off to the right of the screen uh below that is the nurses suite and the mass um mg MGH Community Health Center and that's Rel that's related to the healing Garden so stay tuned for that with M piece uh and you can see the materials on the right we've got a Fieldstone uh field brick I'm sorry uh is most of the whish whitish um field brick we've got a base of an iron spot which is a darker brick that has like a Sheen to it when the Sun Shines on it we've got some phenolic wood panels and then some uh just neutral metals and of course window glass if you go forward we have a few exterior renderings and then some interior this is the courtyard um so this is the other side of the heart of the school so you enter through the main entry into the heart of school this is the courtyard piece the gymnasium and health uh classrooms are off on the left and that Western most academic Wing is off the screen to the right same materials palette next rendering bus entry this is on the south so the two academic wingsplay off of this here you have some of the tech spaces I think Robotics and Coast collaborative above that we've got some art rooms and then third and fourth floors are the media center those are really the areas that will get sort of views we're hoping through the buildings to the water um but Ely a focal point from the street and again the academic Wings come off of that and the bus entry is almost uh directly in the center of the screen so buses will drop here students enter into the heart of school from the south and next I think we get into all right so from the inside just some concept drivers playful um Serene uh connections to the ocean if you want to go to the next slide these are just some uh driving points for the inside oh my gosh it keeps taking you back I'm making you work tonight I'm sorry it would have been 50 meg uh so on the inside relating back to the ocean we've got the heart of the school colors um that relate to both some neutral ocean colors but also the uh school pride and school colors then as we get go through the classroom and corridors we connect it back to the marsh I have a slide on that real quick and um they're sort of colored so that when you're on any given staircase or any given floor you kind of know where you are in the building and um you can see the classrooms in media so next slide walks you through the ecosystem and the marsh so first floor subtitle mud flat it's in the blue range we've got low Marsh on the second floor the yellow range and then High Marsh and Uplands are two different tones of green so connecting it back again to the natural environment here in Riv so if you want to go to the next these are the actual um materials so on the left we've got all of the general so milw work is um uh a wood tone we've got neutral lockers a lot of neutrals in the field um the wall paint and wall tile we've got lolium floors throughout we've got accent floors that relate to that color scheme I just mentioned as well as paint and accent tiles uh to give you a view of that at the midpoint of each of the two academic Wings times four floors so there's eight of these there um these breakout spaces flexible learning spaces where students can come out they can collaborate they can work together do group projects or individual work and they're all um colored by floor uh so I think this is the third floor that we're showing rendered here you can see the visual connection to the stair that's at the midpoint of that academic Wing that's intentional um that's Sometimes some places where things are uh not always good that are happening so having connections to that is important and then just beyond where the people are sitting there's a teacher planning room with um glass out to the corridor so again like some passive supervision with adults uh in the general vicinity and then the classrooms feed off of this next we have a typical classroom you can see the exterior wall on the right we've got four teaching walls uh four areas of whiteboards throughout um each space lots of natural light controlled light either from the south or the North and you can see the classroom entry which connects directly to that flexible learning rendering that you just saw next Slide the heart of the school I mentioned that all the entry points kind of take you into this space uh this is a three-story space it connects um some major elements of the building from a community standpoint in a public use but also student use um the gym is just below the or behind the rhs uh the courtyard is off on the right so those exterior windows I mean I'm sorry left the exterior windows connect to that learning Courtyard and the main entry is on the right that Central staircase takes you up to the level that the auditorium is at to both the Freshman cafeteria this is um 10 through 12 cafeteria here at the heart of the school um and it connects up to their fresh freshman calf which is specifically uh for those students uh related to The Freshman Academy I think you heard about how the building's laid out previously and the Performing Arts Wing I think this is just another view towards the courtyard there's some built-in seating there's variety of seating um both high tops and built-in bankets and little nooks and crannies so if you know a student is uh you know has a sensory overload being in a space with a lot of people there are these smaller areas that they can sit and have either a more quiet lunch or just a a handful of students together then we've got the media center I mentioned it was two stories it kind of spays out into the heart of the school this is the main entry um from the third floor and then it connects with the staircase up to the fourth floor which again has those views out towards uh the beach and if you want to scroll to the next it's got some built-in seating um this is where it's open to above on the left is the exterior windows that have views out towards the ocean and there's uh open railing High uh open railing that students can see through but not be you know um not have a safety issue and there's stacks and tables uh on the second floor of the media center which is the fourth floor of the building we've got the gymnasium we've got three cross courts we've got one main competition Court we were just working through the bleachers today we can seeed about half the student population between um the two bleacher sets on both sides of the gymnasium uh it also has a walking Track which you can see the next uh rendering shows the view from the second floor there's students who may not want to participate in what's happening whether it's volleyball basketball badminton they can just walk and um that's kind of an extra PE space that we were able to capture because three sides of the second floor of the gym have learned in spaces off of it so we took that Corridor and turned it into a physical fitness walking Track it's not a competition track it's not a running track it's uh we did something similar at our Essex Tech uh school if anyone's been up there you've been up there yeah so same idea um and it's kind of captured space uh for the benefit of students and staff and even the community if they want to come walk on a not so nice weather day and you can see the materials on the right we've got wall pads we've got that second floor just like S6 has a netting that prevents things from going over but also from coming up um it kind of just disappears and you can see it in the next rendering if you'd like to go there all those windows are the other side of the walking Track and they're facing north so there's no direct sun on students as they're you know participating in basketball games or any sort of competition so this is a view of the walking Track you can see down to the volume of the gymnasium uh this is the auditorium so it's on the second floor off of the heart of the school about a thousand uh seats here and we actually went and toured we took some of the um arts department down to our Boston Arts Academy project and right across from Fenway Park they got to see their Auditorium give feedback ask questions and um we were able to come back with basically we have an orchestra and then a balcon a balcony level and that allows for different size uh performances you could black out um balcony level and just have a more intimate uh performance or you could open the whole thing and um see about a thousand uh audience members that SEC that second floor of this is the third floor of the building also connects to the heart of the school and there's an ability to close off the gym to have separate access from the courtyard or the under building parking this would come off of the heart of the school for Access and it's um accessible from that large stair you saw at the heart of the school so I think there's one other view of this from the side and then I think we just have a handful of other ancillary spaces the stairs you can see the color scheme uh guard rails the the levels will connect to the um the coating of the floors the first second third and fourth and the color scheme so that when you hit the landing of any stair going four stories you know which floor you're on this is the maker space this is intended to be more of an industrial space a creative space uh students can build things from scenes for the auditorium to um you know laser cutting uh project so this is kind of an allpurpose space and then here's one of the art classrooms there's I think there's four of these plus some uh uh audio and uh video text spaces related to Arts as well so with that that's the building I'll let EMT do the site and then we'll take your questions collectively if that's okay all right very much thanks Don and actually we'll keep that presentation up if you don't mind thank you sir yeah you just give your name and address for the record please sure of course uh IMC Gregory 100 massav Boston um again I'm IMC Gregory with Micky young Kim design we're the landscape architect on the project um so today we'll talk briefly about um the landscape design and and kind of where we stand today um so one of the first things we do when we talk about landscape is programming which means what are the uses of the landscape how can it complement some of the things that Dawn is doing on the interior of the building and how can we make it more than just you know aesthetically pleasing but kind of put it to use to help serve the classrooms and the students um so we've started with some ideas as to um what programming opportunities we feel like might make sense for the project and then I'll show you kind of where they've landed on the project site um so the first idea is an outdoor performance space or classroom um Don and her team are designing a really beautiful a Auditorium interior and we'd like to do something to complement that exterior so when you don't want to have a big formal event or gathering interior uh We've we've come up with the idea of some out uh outdoor performance spaces that might be you know 100 or 200 students it could hold um an orchestra event or a play or a graduation ceremony or something like that we think there might be some outdoor classrooms where on a nice day a a teacher could come out and um bring their students into the landscape and and hold class outside um but these are not spaces that are going to be really formally designed with chairs and seats that are permanent um but they're just spaces that on a normal day can be used kind of like the photos you see there on the left but then when needed you can open it up for a larger Gathering uh kind of on the opposite side of that would be study Nooks those are areas that are designed for 1 three five students to gather in kind of smaller groupings and study maybe get away from kind of the hustle and bustle um in designing the landscape we try to design both spaces that are a little bit more active and for larger groups as well as spaces that are smaller for students who might want to take a step back and kind of get away from the action for a little bit next slide again continue on this programming opportunities theme um we think that there might be some boardwalks and walking Loops that's a great opportunity for exercise the boardwalks help students kind of engage with the landscape they could get out over some of these Landscapes we're creating and could be a cool Educational Opportunity um Learning Gardens they have some really cool um programs we understand in the school around Hospitality um and we think this might be a nice tie in there so students can get their hands dirty and understand what it means to to grow a vegetable and and and harvest it and and then bring it inside as a part of their program next slide please um Fitness zones we think this might tie in nicely with some of the PE activities I'll caveat that these photos aren't necessarily exactly what we're going to end up with but just to give you guys an idea of kind of the direction we're heading um so Fitness zones areas where students could kick a ball around be a little bit more active let loose a little bit uh flexible lawn pretty self-explanatory but just open lawn that can be used for a variety of different Gatherings events Field Days um thror blanks get out there when it's nice out to study or just hang out in between classes next slide um a micro Forest this is an interesting one um we've seen them pop up around Cambridge but the idea is that you plant a bunch of different species very tightly spaced and very small and then let them grow um so it pretty much mimics a kind of a new growth forest and what you get as in in real time really quickly you get to kind of see the succession and and the um natural development of of a forest I think that could be a really cool learning opportunity to where you know your freshman year you might come out and those trees are at your knee and by the time you're graduating they're above your head um so this could be a really cool opportunity that we could bring the students out and I could see them um planting and helping with the maintenance and and learning there um restorative spaces this is kind of when we get into the healing Garden um topic uh high school can be really overwhelming and um uh Landscapes have been found to kind of have healing properties and and we think that these restorative spaces might be a good opportunity where if student's having a really tough day is feeling overwhelmed um they can come outside and and kind of catch a break and reset a little bit so we'll be designing some more quiet intimate spaces for stuff like stuff like that all right next slide um finally the site plan so this is where we stand today in terms of the design um I'll kind of walk you from right to left um but starting on the top right right there the compensatory storage area um that's where we might see some of those walking loops and boardwalks um this also serves some important storm water function but we also think could be an interesting learning opportunity and and recreate some of the natural ecosystems of the area um as Don mentioned we have both a kind of a standard field as well as a multisport field um the healing Gardens are there in that kind of triangular shape there um so that's right off some of the um Health Services areas and we feel like that could be a nice tie in it's a little quieter in that area of Camp of Campus um and again if you're having a rough day or or just need to kind of get away that's that's a spot where you might do that um moving down to the bottom right of um that educational Wing is where the the circular micr Forest there we think will end up um swinging around on the left side of the building there that's The Learning Garden it has a nice Southern Exposure that's where we might see those raay plant beds that um kind of work with some of the Interior Hospitality um uh programs going going on uh at the school and then in that uh kind of u-shaped space there would be the courtyard so that's above um the parking garage and is connected to um the cafeteria interior um so this is going to be a nice kind of extension of the cafeteria and we envision this being a really Lively Active Space um some of the Fitness Zone spaces we think will end up there as well as you can kind of see in the lighter green there an open lawn and then finishing off on the left is the five tennis courts that Don mentioned um and I think that does it for us I'm happy to answer any questions you guys have thank you very much all right great job so we'll go counselors councilor McKenna thank you um Mr President this is for Brian I know it's been a while since the last time we've met um but inflation is still really high the interest rates is really high you've kind of um maneuvered this building a little bit differently than what was uh proposed when the last time we met I'm just wondering if you know and you probably it might be a a premature uh question but uh has the building costs gone up since the last time we've told talked um that we are in the estimating process of this package couple thousand drawings um right now and uh it's a really complex question um we think we developed the prior estimates to cover the development the type of development that you see from schematic design to design development but um we are also creating what's called a value management log which is a number of ideas that if we need to uh to refine scope to make things a little more uh basic than they might otherwise be uh to hit the budget that was approved um we're going to have that ready in parallel but um it is a a difficult it's always a difficult uh time to put a a price on a building of this magnitude but there's a few things going on obviously um things like tariffs are a concern of the team however on the flip side of that it's a very competitive bid market right now and a lot of uh a lot of contractors are are putting good numbers in because because they want an anchor project like this to to hold them above water uh for the next 3 4 years so um we're seeing competitive bid results uh out there um on other projects um that make us believe that we think this estimate's going to be in the range of where we need it to be but um I'll be able to tell you with much more certainty next time we meet because uh we have two entities doing estimates right now going through every drawing and um we'll be spending the better part of the next three or four weeks um honing those estimates in so I just want to say that to me this looks like a Cadillac if we're talking about cause and uh you know I mean I don't know what the city can afford I mean we're we're all concerned about paying for this and I'm sure the residents are too um so you did say that we could if if it goes beyond what we talked about we could scale it down to a Camry LX um um yeah we we won't we will not um exceed the budget that has been approved we will find ways if we need to if we can't Implement a lot of the detail that you just saw um we will make adjustments to hit the budget uh the Project's never going to come back to the council and ask for more money and and just this is a funny thing but uh I was looking at um I forgot her name uh but she was uh talking about the steas I'm surprised surprised you didn't put the musical so when the kids walk down they can create music because I mean you got everything else in there you might as well just put the musical stairs in there so that's it's supposed to be it's supposed to be funny but uh I get it you know I get you all right thank you very much Brian thank you councelor Council here me Mr President thank you through the um Mr dayon um so really appreciate you coming up I just have some concerns um we've talked we've talked a little bit about or a year ago if you can believe it uh we talked about some of the energy and water efficiency features that we might want to include in this building and I didn't hear any about that anything about that now my concern is that I didn't hear anything about it maybe it's been put into your plan but um I think it'd be a be it'd be a big missed opportunity if we sent this to an estimator without those considerations and I'd love to hear hopefully you can relieve my ageta here on that respect yeah there's absolutely we did not to be fair touch upon it in this presentation but the the building is still being designed to be a lead silver building it's going to be what's called a passive house uh building that's a very interesting program that's very um environmentally conscious sustainability leaning um and is more or less going to beat or exceed all of the aggressive energy codes that have been uh rolling into um being in effect over the the number of years so I think we've got a a really um a really aggressive program for the sustainability of the school it might be um especially with the amount of detail that you used to on this maybe what we can do is bring some of those people to the next meeting and focus on that a little bit more um but the package that has gone to the estimators um is a lead silver building passive house um and is going to maximize the um the incentives that we can get back from uh various state agencies and I to mimic what you were saying which is maybe we focus on a sustainability that's not what this was this was an update to the building committee this is a replication of our last meeting which was two weeks ago um not intended to be sustainable in its description but more about what the building uh looks like so we can put something together and come on the 10th and have a quick description of the it's in it's in the drawings um but there's not a presentation per se tonight so we can bring that if you're interested yeah Mr President actually and the clerk will uh help me out here if possible um just to spare our Council meetings uh we do have a climate and sustainability subcommittee so I don't know if you'd be willing to present it that and I don't know if could entertain a motion to have a sustainability focused conversation in that subcommittee over the next few months um yeah so how would that work actually I guess okay okay but that's something we can do from here okay great so I'll I'll let you know I'll back with the DAT thank you thank you councelor councel Kelly thank you Mr President uh Mr Tak so my questions are basically surrounding that certificate that was issued on November 22nd um and I think I don't know if I should have a level of concern um I do from reading this I am concerned but maybe my concerns are unwarranted um and that's what I want to give you an opportunity to address sure tonight so and and they're even more now I'm even more concerned to think that God forbid if something were to happen with the meepa process we would not get the msba reimbursement am I understanding that correctly is that even a possibility because some of the things in here are pretty concerning so ultimately the meeper process is never going to result in the project dying okay um the meeper process the risk in the meeper process process is US achieving it getting through it in the amount of time we're always up here telling you um so we we're trying to um the import the way to do that is to analyze the documents like the one you've been analyzing and to craft our next step in the meepa process with direct responses to a lot of those concerns that Regulators had um what I will say about the specific concerns about being in the hundred-year flood plane um that's something that a lot large percentage of this city is is blessed so to speak with being in that flood plane including the existing site so um a lot of the concerns outlined in that letter revolve around um be careful when you choose to build an 100-year flood plane and um honestly communities like Riv just don't really have the option of not building in the 100-year flood plane um so we think that we are crafting the correct response to the state Regulators that we'll be submitting in this next um EPA submission the deir and um we're confident that ultimately through the process their comments will be heard and we'll be able to demonstrate that um that we're being responsible uh with the city's resources and we're designing a a resilient site that's going to be able to hold up to these um 50 hundred year storm events so I just want to run through just a few of the concerns and then my next question is going to be well let me run through the concerns first um so one of them has to do with the Chelsea Creek could become overwhelmed by overflow um and it would in as a result of that there would be a need to create um to offset the Project's water flow so that's one concern I don't know how we would create that need you know to create that offset but that's in there um there are also two hazardous materials that are still remaining open um mot has stated that we' need to do traffic monitoring plans for five years due to to approximately 475 4,754 new daily traffic trips that will be resulting um any electric vehicle charging infrastructures will need to be designed to prevent saltwater exposure which could be compromised during any flooding events um synthetic Fields should be reconsidered because they'll exacerbate flooding and I think this was a big concern that because of the podium style design with the parking underneath the building which was discussed earlier um the school will be closed have to be closed during any flood events um and then lastly in that in Dr reo's um letter from the um Massachusetts Water Resource Commission he did strongly urge that in order to protect our assets um we choose a different site we relocate it because of the 100-year flight flood plan so would any of these things be taken care of and addressed and um achieved from our contingency fund that we have or would this equal extra dollars that we would have to you know would not been built into the design so we we um we knew what we were getting into in terms of a lot of these issues um in building down there and building in the 100-year flood plane which more or less extends to and past School Street um if you look at some of the the 100-year flood plane Maps but it's essential that municipalities and private developers build in coastal areas um and there's just really the simplest way to put it is there's really nowhere else to go um trying to hit some of those concerns the podium style building with the um garage underneath in the we've modeled 100-year storms 50-year storms that there will be standing water um in that garage when that's the case you're going to have thousands of homes underwater um the school being the school's designed to obviously not be open because it's not going to be accessible in those storms roads will be flooded uh there will be evacuations so the idea is to protect the asset by bringing all the mechanical equipment up above those 100-year storm levels the building in some of those scenarios could be an island um but really it's a little bit less of a concern that the school's not going to be able to open because the National Guard would probably be deployed in these scenarios so um there's just not a lot of getting away from a lot of that we can we're designing the site drainage to be able to get water off of the site through the drainage infrastructure not into the neighborhoods um that's one of the real North stars of of a project like this is you're never going to shed water into neighboring houses um but I don't believe that anything in there really drives added cost um the engineers we have on the job have sort of known this going in and we believe we're designing it um in a way that we can meet the budget and ultimately meepa will agree that you know we've been as responsible as we can can with the design of the building to um to uh give the city a uh facility that they can they can use 50 100 years perfect thank you thank you Mr President thank you councilor J thank you uh very much thank you Mr daon so I just want to get back to this Commuter Rail station May Tom scaros is in the room maybe he can shed some light on it when we were deciding between the two locations one of the reasons I went for the Wonderland site I was assured that a if a Commuter Rail station did come that there would be accommodations to access it and what have you that but that doesn't seem the like the case now is the commuter rail station is that dead and I just don't know about it or so in in Tom you can hit me in the back of the head if you need to here but um it's right now what we're dealing with is that the high school project is full steam ahead in terms of design and permitting and the commuter rail station feasibility study is just starting to my knowledge I don't believe they've yet procured a design team um or they're in the process of En close to it um we have met with the MBTA a number of times we're sharing the plans and we'd love to get access to that team so I could sort of start getting more literal answers to your questions counselor um but I I really think it's we need that process to in a way catch up to to where the high school's at no sorry so we're moving at the speed of the MBTA on the communter rail design project and it's pertinent um so they've procured somebody to work with on this initial phase we've connected with them and we've set aside there is some land in the back that we're intending for that purpose I think where the real challenge will be is getting in and out and coordinating all the other um requirements of having a commuter worlds you can't just build the station and expect people to get there right there's got to be wide enough bur to get through parking Etc but um we're moving as quickly as we can at the pace that the state's at okay all right it just doesn't seem to be a spot for it I I don't know how you would uh after this is designed and started how you would then cut roads in and parking lots yeah we think there's going to have to the main Entry Road is something that's going to need to be shared that's sort of why we've been reaching out saying listen it's going to be a lot easier for us to resize a road sidewalks move it 10 ft here here and there if we can figure it out this year uh Because by the time we're into next summer spring all the stuff's going to be getting built um right so I complely understand anyone else the red lights on M just not being loud enough okay back on okay that sounds good usually no one accuses me of having a quiet voice but so we're we're doing um I completely understand the concern um we really just um we've got to get the the two projects working um in a little better Synergy they're just a little bit behind us and planning out details okay thank you very much thank you councelor Council greenu thank you Mr President how are we going to prevent downroad from being flooded um we're not changing any of the elevations uh to Dun Road um the way that sits on the land right now won't be changed um we are adding better flooding infastructure to the grass areas on either side of the ditch so that diagonal line that goes through is that Eastern County ditch um water will be able to get to that ditch better than it does right now um and certainly one of the main benefits of removing all the paving that's down there that that's a lot of what causes um storm water flow that sheets across those old parking lots has nowhere to infiltrate in so we're I I might get this number wrong but I I I think we're increasing the amount of non-paved areas on site by about six or seven acres and what that's going to do is just allow much more storm water to just go straight down and not run out into the neighborhood dun road is prone to flooding now MH so once the school is being built you're going to build it higher right you're going to elevate the land that it's going to flood even more so the area between um when we were talking earlier that um when we had the site plan for every area of that site that we raise we have to lower a corresponding area it's a pretty complex ratio so the storm water basin between the Eastern County ditch and dun road is going to be lower than it is right now to attract and hold the water and let it out slowly so yes we are building up the site where the school is but we're buil we're lowering the site in areas that are designed to catch water and slowly let them back out into the marsh if that Mak help it and the city's done work at the pump station recently down there so we hope all of these things in concert will better the condition of dun road going underwater less okay thank you thank you counselor any other counselors permission to speak from the chair thank you um Brian thank you and thank you to your team for coming up tonight that was um I got to be honest do I have concerns absolutely but I'm really excited about this watching this seeing this seeing the opportunities that that students from Rivier are going to have to be able to go and and have educational opportunities sitting on there like as she said SX Tech you know they they go out and they have the science class in these areas that they have around their schools and those opportunities like I would be excited to go to that high school and I I commend you for that but I do have a couple questions um so I know you said this repeatedly but as far as the cost we already set a budget that we approved correct you will not be coming to us for any more money correct okay I'll I'll sleep a lot better when we're done estimating but um correct we're not going to exceed this budget okay thank you um it for both The Dun Road area and and I guess the what the other wh if site of the old high school if we were to get a 100 or a 50-year flood do you think that just across the highway would be safe from that concerns that we have if one of these floods hit us would would just the area from where Wonderland is to across the highway where the other school was going to be built do you think the impact of the flood would be the same um the 100-year storm right now is It's a Spooky map to look at especially as a resident but um 100-year storm you're talking and standing water all the way to Broadway right um so the existing site would be under it'd be under by a bit less than than Wonderland but it's the same flood plane um the 50-year storm even breaks the MBTA train line uh that sort of um functions as a little bit of a stop for a lot of these flooding events but the 50y year and 100-year storms are already over that and once they get over that they they make it all the way um over 1A to the existing site and ultimately up to around the the fire station in in Broadway okay thank you Mr Dean have a great night thank you rule 34 public comment pursuant to chapter 402 of the acts of 1965 okay any Resident that would like to come up you have two minutes please state your name address and what motion you'd like to speak on please it's the school of course okay name and address sir uh my name is Anthony cantino people are not familiar with it and I live at 240 suffk Avenue rever Mass uh i' like to ask the gentlemen where the teachers are complaining about the students having uh hot boxes well are they going to allow a lounge there so that the students can uh puff away at the lounge uh uh are you going to put a a lounge in the area for the students so they won't have to Puff in the hot boxes that that's one question please please address to the chair please uh is he is he going to provide a lounge there for the students where they're puffer away there will there will be no smoking Lounge in the school no Mr oh no okay well I'd like to save the uh the the uh City a lot of money if they're going to decide to put the uh school on top of Venice okay and have the children with condas go to school why don't they use the top of the ocean not to you know build it right on top of the ocean and they won't have to do any excavation and save millions of dollars for the city thank you great idea thank you cantino have a good night name and name and address the record pleas Mr President I did not puff before I came here today uh Ed ter 70 schols Street R via Mass it's a couple of questions and a recommendation uh the first question uh regarding oh I'm sorry about the school we just spoke about thank you thank you uh the first question is it's been alluded to and talked about a little bit is that the underground garage for the new high school is designed to flood I'd like a little B more elaboration about that will people be pocked under that while this happens and it's been talked about a little bit but I'd like to know a little bit more uh the second question it's more of a concern um we're building a $500 million new high school and will this have any positive impact on the quality of our kids education as I've spoken about before unfortunately us news and World Report has shown that at revie high school 82% of our kids graduate but 50% of them are not proficient in Reading which means they can't even read the agenda at tonight's meeting so hopefully that will be addressed uh the other question I had was about a potential Commuter Rail station at the Wonderland site now will that affect the neighborhoods nearby within a half mile because that's part of the new community housing law will there be Urban density increases across those neighborhoods I'm not entirely sure and uh finally it's a recommendation uh is there a possibility of putting a time capsule underneath the Cornerstone of the high school so that 50 years from now when this process is repeated they can learn from our mistakes and they can learn from our what we've done right and maybe do a little bit better of a job even though that we're not doing a terrible job you know thank you Mr President thank you Mr Terrell can can he respond to the he he doesn't need to right now name and address Robertson 187 charger Street I just have one question I'm very impressed and I know what it is to work in a flood plane as I have stated before I've been on the Conservation Commission for many years um my one question is once this school is built because of the timetable and all the obstacles obstacles that this they're going through at this point will this school be stateof the-art by the time it's built to accommodate our students great question Mr daon please think the um the short answer is yes um and right now as you can tell we're designing the building um we're going to be bidding the building out over the next year or two um building mechanical systems um we'll be cutting edge sustainable systems that being said there are systems that we want to be familiar with you don't always want to jump on every new wave of mechanical building system still they're out there and they're vetted um but I will say that in terms of the technology that's in the school that's not something that we will bid for a few years um that's something that happens later technology uh functions at a much quicker Pace than Building Technology uh getting updated so in terms of computers projectors devices all that stuff we'll be buying all of that in um late 2027 so that that we um we make sure we're not buying old technology as far as the the garage flooding yeah uh you mentioned that in your speech I'm not sure it was um meant as literal but it was me it was meant the garage is made to flood but it's not expected to do so correct it and any any seise event or standing water storm event above a certain depth there could the water that's when I say it's designed to flood um we're not putting any mechanical or electrical equipment down there um in the event that these storms are coming the hope is that um it really shouldn't flood based on you know a little half an hour it rains an inch or two that's not the scenarios we're talking about we're talking about a coastal inundation storm where the city should know it's coming and there shouldn't be people parked down there um but it is designed to if we have high storm water events um title influence events there can be standing water on the lower parts of the site into the garage the whole idea of that is to keep the first floor slab of the building above the worst case scenario um so really we'd have the building up where it is regardless um we just found that there was an efficiency in putting parking under there uh instead of having a foundation 15t below the first floor and then just a bunch of um of void space so to speak under there thank you Mr taken and ma'am name and address and motion you will speak on I'm speaking on the housing issue that's here next um my name is Bonnie carar and I live at Barrett stre M here um I just had a couple of questions like um that this is going to and I have a lot of questions actually but I know I only have a few minutes um they're removing a lot of zoning we we passed a plan and 2020 for 10 years we allowed five-story buildings to be built and it being being built and this plan now wants to go to seven over five and they also want to impose a fee on the residents for 3% but that fee can go from 1 to 5% to the residents because that's how the law states that they can do that so I have some issues about you guys passing this thank you thank you driv Friend by way Michael Tucker 9 Elon Street Reserve my rights to speak on seven and8 if after the presentation thank you any other public comments thank you and close that side next up is the zoning subcommittee report Council Zam buo thank you thank you Mr President um the zoning subcommittee met this evening as we all know um on two issues uh the first is uh 24- 338 communication from the chief of planning and Community Development requesting an adoption of the city's housing uh production plan the committee voted out favorably so I'd ask for a roll call okay a roll call on the um hhp to Community Development um Madame clerk shall the city council adopt the city of Rivier housing production plan as amended councel agenzio yes yes councel cogliandro yes yes councel janino no no councelor Gino SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor hero yes yes councelor Kelly no no councel McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes councilor zambuto no no and council president sylvestri yes yes the housing production plan is amended has been adopted next up uh and I I might add that uh for the first time in 25 years I'll be giving a Minority Report after these votes uh on the uh zoning subcommittee and my reasons for it I'm on the record as being against it and my reasons uh my committee chose to go against what my recommendations were and that's you know well and good but it's been 25 years since something like this has ever happened so I just wanted to point that out so the second was the request of the chief planning and Community Development relative to the adoption of the Housing Development incentive Zone and proposed activities at suffk Downs the adoption of Housing and Development incentive Zone and proposed activities at Green Street Shirley Avenue and the authorization of May of Patrick Keefe uh to execute and Implement Housing Development tax exemption agreements for Housing Development incentive projects in each respective Zone so we'll call for a r comme Mr President could I speak on this Mr President I I would like to as well councelor Kelly first coun Kelly thank you thank you Mr President so I just have a question on this um for my own edification purposes this would if if it goes through if we vote this through it would allow for negotiations to begin wein the developer at the suffect down site would be eligible for tax incentives how however there still would not be any renegotiation of the special permit wherein no affordable housing would be required so I just I just want to establish that that is in fact correct and also just voice my concerns that I do feel as though along with councelor zambuto that because this special permit was previously issued um I don't think it's something that we should be getting involved in at this point and um especially since there doesn't seem to be any kind of an incentive where we're not getting any affordable housing this is just you know and I also want to also I have a question that if this were to go through does this AFF or negatively impact the amount of Revenue that we were expected to get in um from the hya M the hym development at suffk Downs so those are my two questions thank you thank you Council so on the first question as to whether this would implicate a reopening of the special permit as was mentioned at the zoning subcommittee meeting um I think there differences of opinion as to whether or not those two are linked and we'll seek to get those assurances on Within my contacts at the state and I know councelor zambuto is going to look into his own Council to make sure we're doing things the proper way in that regard um but from our standpoint they are separate issues um and for what it's worth you know I know we just talked about the housing production plan and the importance of housing affordability this project was approved at a different time um and where as um Mr O'Brien had mentioned there were different expectations and different desires of the council um and I think it's critical particularly of a project of this scale to respect agreements that were made when they were made um and I would also say I think some of the more aggressive things we could do about affordable housing production we will be able to do precisely because of the transformative impact of this project and the development in the city in my professional opinion um and the the second question could could you ask it once again sure so I'm just wondering that if this proposal negotiation does go through these tax incentives are uh given I I I just want to know if that's going to impact the amount of Revenue that was projected that we're going to be that's going to be generated from this project to the city is is it it all going to decrease the amount of Revenue that we're expected to to to take in thank you so I will say you know if you were to authorize the mayor to negotia an agreement um after the state approves this and we began negotiations we would bring the entire cabinet into this conversation and understanding that there's been a lot of work um to make sure we can afford this high school you know as we just talked about uh we're going to make sure that we have all the right people at the table to make sure this doesn't negatively impact our fiscal Outlook the one thing I will say is something that would negatively impact our fiscal Outlook is if we can't jump start this project at this critical stage and um you know there's a few Catalyst projects within suffk Downs Portico is one of them um you know it is the high-rise construction it is a signature building that we believe and as do our um colleagues at hym that this will stimulate further development throughout the project and have that catalog just as a followup to that so if this wasn't going to happen then are we to believe that there could be some type of an issue with starting that ptical project or we believe that again Devil's in the details and we'll bring you a deal to discuss later in the year but we believe that this will have a cataly catalytic impact to move construction ahead earlier than otherwise uh it would be able to absent such an agreement thank you thank you councelor Council CL Leandro thank you Mr President um guys first and foremost this should be going to to back to subcommittee so that we can look into this further for legal purposes I agree with that 100% And if I have to vote on this tonight it's going to be a no um my question is why zoning why can't we take one project or a singular project and give a tax break on that project why do we have to create zoning because we have two bonds one's half a billion the other one's 29.5 billion oh excuse who goodness 29.5 million um and these these this is like a storm off in the distance that we're looking at right okay and we don't know if it's going to turn into an ef6 tornado or if it's going to dissipate by the time it gets to us and I feel like a lot of the decisions we make up here are based on our ability to pay for this this high school and we just had a presentation about healing Gardens and all the and all these things and 7,000 trees sorry councelor McKenna I know you love the trees but um you know I just don't understand why we can't pick and choose who we give relief to and I don't want another overlay District that people are going to build and we're going to give them a discount to build uh in all these areas so can we get can we get rid of the the incentive Zone I I I I can't get on board with that I I just we're going to lose out on revenue and also I I understand that we're going to get reimbursement from the state but if you boil it down the state reimb is taxpayer dollars okay so we're essentially taking the money from the developer giving them a break and then hitting us so if you could I know I just said a lot of stuff if you could touch on some of that thank you sure um so on the first comment about zoning this is just called a Zone um because the state asks you to bring if you're one of the six or 26 Gateway cities in the Commonwealth you can use this tool but if and only if you create zones in which it's appropriate so we could either have it used across the city or we could pick certain areas within a Zone it's it's not zoning per se is it's not a new overlay District or anything like that it's just an additional tool we have in our toolbox with with each of these zones um it's been a late night so I got to think through your other questions here um you know as to I guess the financial and fiscal impact I would recommend when a new tax deal comes forward probably zoning wouldn't be the appropriate subcommittee it it would probably be Ways and Means as it does and this is one of the reasons that you go to subcommittee is so we can analyze these things right and I think if and when we were to get a tax deal I think that would be the time in my opinion to look over the mechanics of the deal because we don't have those in front of us yet but I take your point and then as to the legality I think that is something when we when this plan is approved we could submit to the state um and that's something I'll be including with the request that they um analyze the ality of this but again in my opinion and experience in doing this before and looking at how it's been done in other communities it's often the project getting approved first and then the tax deal following it I just there's a little bit of discomfort for me putting my name on something when I don't know if it's legal 100% legal and it's not that I don't believe you or siding with Council asano I just think it's better off for the council to get all of this information before we jump into this this is taking money out of our pockets and out of the city's pocket and out of the people's pockets so I and then to the last question about the state tax credit one thing I will say is they've there's a lot of money in the H dip State program right now and if we don't take advantage of it for critical projects like suff Downs that are important to the future of Riv other Gateway cities worcester's going to take advantage of it fitchburg's going to take advantage of it um Malden among others so this is a resource we haven't been able to tap into the funds are already approved um so it's a matter of whether we're going to keep them in rev send them elsewhere thank you Tom counil greos counc Green I just have a quick question Tom this is an all Union project right and you're keeping it as an all Union project okay just want to make sure thank you thank you councelor councilor her uh thank you Mr President through you to time uh in subcommittee we discussed about the process of this hdp Zone and we've talked about how this will need to get approved by the council the mayor will negotiate then it will come back to the council I'm just not entirely sure that the language from this um motion that was filed actually does that uh and I'll point to um I'll point where it says after May mayor Patrick Kee Jr to execute and Implement Housing Development tax exception agreements for Housing Development incentive projects in each respective zone so I'm actually going to do a substitute motion to the roll call uh to do two things strike the words execute and Implement and replace them with the word negotiate and add a sentence at the end the execution and implementation will follow pending approval from the city council oh M Mr president are you I'm sorry C well I didn't realize you didn't finish your report so go ahead so at this time I want to read my Minority Report councelor that the city council leave the Housing Development Zone matter in committee until a legal opinion is obtained from the city solicitor uh relative to issuing a tiff for a project which already uh which had already been approved as a special permit and finally and a financial opinion from the CFO relative to the city's ability to pay for the high school uh uh if if such a tiff is awarded so that's my Minority Report and I will call for a roll call on that yep thank you councelor and Madam clerk if we could Mr President I wasn't allowed to speak sorry councelor all right thanks I I don't know if procedurally if I can now is it okay so a couple of things what we V maybe somebody can correct me what we're voting on tonight is allowing the mayor to enter into negotiations whatever he negotiates still has to come back to this council is is that correct so the meaning of negotiations the mayor could um and I'm just being theoretical here say we have involved in uh affordable housing may be a contribution to our affordable uh Housing Trust Fund through a through the commercial aspect of it so I I think we seem to be under the understanding that if we vote on this tonight the May rent is into negotiations and then it's done it still has to come to us now as far as a financial analysis or a legal analysis financially we don't know what the mayor's going to negotiate so we don't know financially what we're talking about so then to have the that would be the time I think to have the CFO Richard VC come up here and see how much of an impact his negotiations would have on what we're discussing here so I I we I I think you know I'm in favor of this and because we still have a stop Gap we still are able to stop it and we will have more information once negotiations are done he may negotiate something that we're not even thinking of so I I don't think it's just negotiating how much money we're going to allow hm to have you know and and the legal aspect we could have Paul capy come up here as negotiations and and see about the special permit thing so I mean I but yes but after we vote but we still the decision is ultimately up to us if we okay this thank you thank you coun councelor McKenna thank you um so um what I got on my phone from um hym is um the original amount of taxes before construction began and they were paying $390,000 and then currently uh their amount of yearly taxes right now is $4 million and with the H dip uh the taxes requested is approve if it's approved tonight the amount of the yearly taxes paid will be $5 million what they're asking is they're asking for a million dollar off just one building for 20 years or and and the mayor can negotiate that but they're asking for $ million off that um forgot forgot the PCO and um not the rest of the development just that building so they can get it started um for me I've been on this Council for 10 years we've spent millions of dollars on crap really on crap we've wasted so much money in the years do getting this and getting that and getting this and getting that millions and millions of dollars so if they're negotiating $1 million to get this the largest development in this city approved I say we go for it well to to get it go get it going again so councilor you just done okay Madam clerk if you don't mind having a roll call on the m report on councilor Zano's Minority Report councelor agenzio clarification of the vote please sure so councelor zambuto had asked did do you have the language councilor zambuto I'll Su I can summarize it shall the city council refer back to committee the H dip matter until a legal opinion has been received from the city solicitor on whether or not a project that has already been permitted can receive a tiff afterwards in that the CFO render a report on the ability for the city to pay for the high school if a tiff is awarded councel agenzio no no councel cogliandro yes yes councel janino yes yes councelor greo sua no no councel h yes yes councel Haro no no coun Kelly yes yes councelor McKenna no no councel noeli no no council zambo yes yes and council president sylvestri no the The Minority Report fails the original report the original report is now on the floor Mr President I'd like to add an amendment that after the words Meer Patrick MKE Jr um two strict the words execute execute and Implement and replace them with the word negotiate and at the end of the same sentence add a sentence it says the execution and implementation will follow pending approval from the city council thank you councelor Tom if I could just speak on that for a moment I don't disagree with the sentiment um what I would say is we are um we have included the language verbatim from the state package that we're supposed to submit to them to their for their approval I I don't know what would happen if we made that Amendment um but what what I will say is if there's another when there is an agreement to negotiate it will be in front of this body irrespective of the language that's in that order we're just following what's in the state's boilerplate guidelines to get this approved so do with that what you will but I just wanted to clarify that um it doesn't sound like there'd be any harm to council haro's if if that's the way it Tom if if that's what harm would that cause well the state provided that language for us to use in the adoption of the hdp plan so my concern would be if we use different language when we bring to them for their approval they might kick it back and say you didn't use our language because they tend to be particular like that I just ask president sorry just a quick clarifying question is I coun way whether uh Mr scosi sorry um hot tiet item today man sorry um have any other communities use this exact same language and or have they evented it do you know anything like that have any of your colleagues from any other communities so I I can't speak to the amended language but the the language that the state includes is generally what and that's what's in front of you that's generally what's used to adopt an hdp plan and that tax Authority tax negotiation Authority if you will but I think both by what um The Authority HP creates and I would imagine the the rules of the council related to any tax agreement would still have to go through the ways and means and get approved by the full Council thank you Tom I think we i' like a roll call on this thank you Mr President okay are we voting on the amendment first The Substitute motion yeah okay we're going to replace the words to execute uh and Implement and exchanging for the words to negotiate and add a sentence at the end that says the execution and implementation will follow pending approval from the city council on the amendment by councelor Haro councelor agenzio yes yes councel cogliandro abstain abstain councel janino no no councel greos yes yes councelor h no no councelor herio yes yes yes councelor Kelly no no council McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes Council zambuto no no and council president sylvestri yes yes the amendment is approved now the amended is now on the floor roll call shall the city council adopt the following one Housing Development incentive Zone and proposed activities at suffect Downs two Housing Development incentive Zone and proposed activities at Green Street charlee Avenue and three authorize mayor Patrick M Keef Jr to negotiate Housing Development tax exemption agreements for Housing Development incentive projects in each respective Zone The implementation and execution will follow pending approval by the city council roll call roll call councelor agenzio yes yes Council cogliandro abstain abstain councelor janino no no councel greo SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor Haro yes yes councelor Kelly no no councelor McKenna yes yes Council noeli yes yes Council zambuto no no and council president sylvestri yes yes the uh H dip matter has been approved Mr President councelor uh request reconsideration hoping that does not Prevail we got to suspend the rules first suspension of rules motion suspend the rules all in favor all oppos so a on reconsideration and hopes that it don't Prevail Madam clerk on the on to shall the city council reconsider this matter councel agenzio no no councel calandro abstain abstain councelor janino no no councelor greo SAA no no councelor h no no counc hero no no councelor Kelly yes yes councelor McKenna no no councel noeli no no council zambuto yes yes and council president sylvestri yeah no no rec reconsideration fails back to the regular order of business Communications calendar item number nine communication from the mayor relative to the appointment of Jamie Jimenez to the cultural Council refer to appointments is it McKenna huh y we're good all right okay on I don't even I don't even have his name in front of me onto appointments calendar item number 10 communication from the mayor relative to the appointment of Deborah D filipo West to the C control Council refer to appointments motions calendar item number 11 motion presented by councelor Green OAA that the mayor direct the Department of Public Works in conjunction with the Traffic Division in Parking Department to implement various traffic and pedestrian safety measures along Rivier Street and its intersecting streets these measures aim to enhance Public Safety improve traffic flow and ensure pedestrian accessibility in high traffic areas first install clearly Define parking space markers along rier Street this will optimize parking efficiency reduce illegal or obstructive parking and improve overall traffic flow in the area second stop signs should be reinstalled signs were removed for sidewalk improvements on Oxford Street Carlton Street and Lee Street at the intersection of Rivier Street third the installation of a well-marked ADA Compliant pedestrian crosswalk and pedestrian activated walk signal at the intersection of Rivier Street and Broadway fourth a double sided speed limit sign posted between Broadway and American Legion Highway on Rivier Street and also from St Anthony's church to Northshore Road Council greenos the motion speaks for itself I'd like to um vote on this tonight if that's possible okay um councelor I just there's so there's a couple things um I I'm I'm I just want to get clear before we vote on on the ADA Compliant that that that would not have to go through traffic I think the other ones are are are easy as um slips but I'm I'm wondering if the the third installation of a well-marked ADA Compliant pedestrian crosswalk activated signals um intersection and rev Broadway um can we take these all up at once together like the council greo sa did submit everything all as one motion I there wouldn't if the it's the will of the council it can be separated if that's what you guys want to do okay and if you you can call a roll call on the motion as presented councilor agenzio yes yes councel cogliandro yes yes councelor janino yes yes councel greo SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councel hero yes yes Council Kelly yes yes Council McKenna yes yes council noeli is absent councilor zambo yes yes and council president sylvestri yes yes the motion is approved calendar item number 12 motion presented by Council greo SAA that the mayor requests the appropriate Department to adopt a policy requiring all apartment buildings within the city of Rivier to promin prominently display accurate and up-to-date contact information for property management as well as emergency contact details for the fire department this information must be clearly posted in accessible common areas of each building to ensure tenants and First Responders can quickly obtain Vital Information when needed additionally that building and fire maintain a database containing this information for all apartment buildings ensuring it is regularly reviewed and verified for accuracy this measure is intended to enhance tenant safety streamline communication and promote accountability among property owners and managers councilor greo SAA thank you Mr President I had an issue um with two separate buildings on Riva Beach uh this past year um actually about probably six months I've been fighting with them trying to get accurate information they have the wrong information posted and the residents don't know who to call and when the city goes in there to take care of an issue the number is wrong so they they can't call the contact people that are in there they can't call the superintendent that's in the building they can't call if it if it's a um uh not um what's it called if it's a building that is owned by owners then we have there's an issue that the owners can't contact anybody so I need to make sure that every one of the buildings gets a notification that states that they have to have the proper information posted thank you thank you counselor all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 13 motion presented by councelor Kelly that the city council Awards certificates of commodation to the detectives of the city of Rivier criminal investigation division special investig unit sea County Sheriff's Department Task Force officer and the North Metro Special Operations unit for their collaborative work and successfully targeting and shutting down three major drug operations in the city of Rivier Council Kelly thank you Mr President um the Rivier Police Department's criminal investigation unit special Investigation Unit aided by suffa County Sheriff's Department task force office and North Metro Special Operations unit successfully targeted and shut down three major problematic houses in the city in 202 4 these types of Investigations are extremely difficult to conduct yet they effectively culminated in the successful arrest and prosecution of several parties involved the seizure of a substantial amount of Narcotics and two illegally possessed Firearms the Special Operations unit assisted with ensuring the safe entry into all three dwellings and secured each scene to allow detectives to execute search warrants at each location this is a prime example of outstanding police work as well as the Community city government and the police department working collectively to make the city of Rivier safer for its residents and improve quality of life therefore these members of the criminal investigation division should absolutely be commended for their exceptional skills and tireless worth e ethic due to the importance of maintaining the confidentially of all the detectives involved however I have been requested by Captain levita to award the certificates in a private ceremony on behalf of the city of course city council wishing to attend would be welcome I hope that the council votes favorably on these commendations tonight thank you thank you councelor all in favor all opposed so order no further business that concludes the February 3rd 2025 city council meeting one more