--------- Good evening. Welcome to the zoning subcommittee of September 8th, 2025. All rise and salute the flag, please, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one
nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madame clerk, roll club, the members of the zoning subcommittee. Councelor Aenzio here, here. Councelor Gino SA here. Here. Councelor Harmo is absent.
Councelor Novaski here. Here. And chairman Zambudo here. here. A quorum is present. First item on tonight's agenda is council order 25178, an ordinance further amending the zoning ordinances relative to minor corrections to the accessory dwelling unit zoning
ordinance. I guess the director is here with a brief presentation. We know this has all been talked about. Okay, I can be extremely brief then and just say I'll take your questions if you have them. Great. I think everybody's pretty much good
with this. Is everybody good with this uh with these minor changes? This is your easiest time up here, director. Thank you very much. Yes. So, we'll vote on a favorable recommendation and noted for the public that the
planning board did give the city council a favorable recommendation for adoption of this of the minor corrections as uh proposed. Shall the zoning subcommittee offer a favorable recommendation to the full city council to adopt the ordinance as proposed? Councelor Aenzio, yes.
Yes. Councelor Gino SA. Yes. Yes. Councelor Hario is absent. Council Noveski, yes. Yes. And Chairman Zamutoo. Yes. Yes. The ordinance has received a favorable recommendation. Thank you. Next item is council order 25192,
an ordinance establishing zoning provisions for battery en energy storage systems in the city of Rier. Mr. Director, this one won't be so easy. Um, it actually might be, councelor. Um, so, uh, Tom Skowski, 281 Broadway. Um
we're actually requesting that this item be tabled um for the time being. So currently there's a little bit of ambiguity be behind the state permitting process for these projects and um we don't want to get ahead of ourselves and great and so I think that's that's what we plan to do here.
That's uh that's good because the administration's reading my mind and that's all good. We all we're all on the same page on this one too. that'll be tabled. This is turning into a quick meeting here.
And the last item on today's agenda is a special permit application for 529 Broadway LLC requesting a special permit from the River City Council to raise the existing non-conforming structure and construct a five-story mixeduse development at 529 Broadway Mass. Please
note that the applicant's attorney has submitted a request to withdraw the proposal without prejudice. Any counselors? Seeing none, hearing none, uh a motion to accept the withdrawal without prejudice.
want to call a roll on the motion to recommend that the city council approved the request to withdraw without prejudice. Councelor Aenzio, yes. Yes. Councelor Go SA. Yes. Yes. Councelor Hario is absent. Councelor Novaski. Yes.
Yes. And Chairman Zambo. Yes. Yes. The uh recommendation to the full city council would be to accept the withdrawal without prejudice. There's no further business. Well, that uh ends the zoning subcommittee for in record time,
I might add. I think we're under 10 minutes, so uh no further business. Thank you all for attending. Part: 2
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the September 8th, 2025 city council meeting. Please stand to salute the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madame clerk, roll call of the members. Councelor Jenzio here. Here. Councelor Cogleandro here. Here. Councelor Gino here. Here. Councelor Gino SA here. Here. Councelor Hass
here. Here. Councelor Jamo is absent. Councelor Kelly here. Here. Councelor McKenna here. Here. Councelor Novasellski here. Here. Councelor Zambudo here. Here. and council president Sylvester here. Here quorum is present.
Approval of the journals of the regular meetings of August 13th and August 25th. All f all in favor all oppose. The city council will present Reier Youth Baseball U10 Allstars coaching staff and players with a certificate of commendation for winning the Greater
Boston Region All-Star Tournament on July 22nd. So, it's um it's always a special moment to get to honor and celebrate uh unique situations in the city. And um back in July, we got a call from coach Zach to
come support and and watch the the kids play. I believe it was Cambridge. Was it Cambridge? Cambridge. Yeah. And um it it was it was a great game. It was it was a awesome pitched game. The kids really they took a a big lead at first. Uh the other team
closed it within two runs and and we held it out in the end and and that's to to your guys hard work and dedication and honoring the city and and and representing us in a big way. So, we wanted to bring you up and give you guys a certificate here on behalf of the city
council. So, I will read them and then I will give them by name. So, in acknowledgment of your extraordinary athletic achievement, accomplishment through perseverance, teamwork, and discipline as a member of the Re Youth Baseball U12 All-Star Team and winning
the Greater Boston Region All-Star Tournament on July 22nd, 2025 by going undefeated and beating Cambridge in the City Championship game. Special recognition is hereby awarded to John McCabe, second base. John.
Okay. Keyn Okay. Outfield. Angel Rodriguez, pitcher in third base. Great job, buddy. Albby Gor Gagorio, outfield. Gio
Austin Hayes outfield. Dax Picotti Flehive. You're welcome. No mistaking whose child that is, by the way. David Bono, shortstop. You're welcome, Mike.
Vinnie Carabino, outfield. Nathan King, pitcher and shots. Oh, you picked that light, huh? You did great. Christopher Luchia, outfield. Jackson Upton outfield. Great job.
Travis Peretti, outfield. Great job. Sean Vieri is the coach. Okay. Then we got Zack Babau outfield. Great job. Coach Zack,
thank you. Austin. No one's missing, right? No. Everyone got one. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the 2025 Mason Gomes. Oh, boy. We're going to have to print one more.
You guys get in so we can get a picture of you all. Hey guys, what do we do? We distract the mayor for a photo. Mr. Baseball himself, Mr. Mayor. [Applause]
She's the one who helps lead the charge on a lot of baseball that we do nowadays up front. Come on, good So, it looks like we have a busy meeting. I don't want to take up too much of the time, but I do want to make a short sweet and thank you. Um, thank
you to the counselors for doing this. Thank you for the counselors who are able to show up for the game. Thank you for the mayor for the support throughout both spring season and this fall ball season. But um council um Sylvester said it right. You know, passion, grit, determination. These kids showed up each
and every day. We hit a heat wave for the three weeks leading up to this tournament. They were on the practice field crying, "Coach, it's hot. Coach, it's hot." We looked at them and told these kids, "Practice during these days going to make the game days even that much better." And they showed up and they showed out. They wore that river
pride right on their chest and they played each game their hardest and they won this tournament through and through from the beginning to the end. I'm so proud of the way these kids play and the way they stuck it out each and every game, each and every practice. They are well deserving of this and I'm glad the city council could make this happen tonight. Thank you.
[Applause] Calendar item number four. The city council will present a certificate of appreciation to Linda Reading for her exceptional administrative work for the conservation commission. Council Kogleandro, would uh chairman Rudolph and Vice
Chairman Averbback please join me? Mr. Spader as well, Commissioner Spader. Anyone else here from the Concom Wilson? Anyone else that's on the Conservation Commission? Please come on up. That's you, big guy.
Uh thank you all. So I was approached by uh Chairman Rudolph and he was telling me about some of the duties that Miss Reading performs for the conservation commission and the only thing that I could equate it to is she is the Ashley Melnik of the Conservation Commission.
Um which is a very high compliment. So, um I'm not going to say too much, but thank you for all the work you do. You help a very important body in the city work, and without you, uh they might actually fall apart. Uh but I'm going to turn it over to the
conservation commission, starting with uh Chairman Rudolph. Say a few words. Thank you, Councelor Linda. Um I just want to first say thank you to the city council uh today for letting us honor Linda like this. Uh
I've had the pleasure of working with Linda for four years now and each moment is just an adventure so to speak. Uh in that time she has always gone above and beyond. Uh things run smoothly because
of you. Um but she will provide she provides invaluable support to us in in her public capacity and her attention to detail is second to none. you know, the from from her coordinating uh complex
schedules, assisting with public record requests, or answering calls when she's on vacation, this woman does it all. And I just want to say thank you very much for everything that you do for us. Thank you for your when uh Nicholas Rudolph was named to
chair and I Brian Averbach was named as vice chair of the conservation commission. We had a call soon thereafter and the first topic of conversation is how can we honor Linda? She has done so much for the many years we've been on the commission. We knew
that without question if she wasn't there, our workload, our time, the meetings would not run as smoothly. It would not be as good. And we knew that something had to be done. We didn't know what options other than maybe an ice cream party, which is still a possibility, I hope. Um, but this seems
like a good second choice. But we want to thank the council for allowing us this opportunity. Um, Linda, honestly, you can say that you go over and above, but that's a simplification in one sentence of what you actually do. So, this is just a a small amount of what we
are able to officially say, but we just want everyone to know that she really is just amazing in every way and we're so grateful that she is with us. Conservation Commission, no other commission can have her. She's ours. Linda welld deserved it and it's just
their her genuine smile every before every meeting is it's a joy to see and it kind of quiet down a little bit is that when when we have to do the work so well deserve and thank you for that smile every time. Thank you. Well deserved. Thank you. I got to be quick. Linda, thank you for
your hard work and uh we really appreciate every meeting and every schedule that you do. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Certificate of commendation in recognition of her outstanding work and dedication to the conservation
commission by consistently going above and beyond to ensure that operations run smoothly. And whereas her attention to detail, organizational skills, and positive attitude make her essential part of the conservation commission
team. And whereas coordinating complex schedules and assisting with public inquiries with the utmost professionalism, special recognition is hereby accorded to Miss Linda Reading. So, Linda does uh has nothing to say. We've left her speechless. Um so, I
invite everyone up here for a quick picture. And Brian Everbeck promised us ice cream. So, yes. Come on up here, guys. Thank you. calendar item number six. The chief of planning and community development, the owner's project manager and architect
for the McKinley school project will appear before the city council to discuss the project, specifically the construction of a proposed 145 foot radio tower. Mr. Mayor Tom, Mr. President, honorable councel,
obviously Tom Sarovski gets more airtime than all of us. Uh he's here to present, but um I just wanted to introduce everyone uh and then kick it off with a few questions or answer a few questions. Uh but just real quickly, we have uh Captain Kevin O'Hara, the president of
the Riviera Local 926, uh Deputy Chief of the Rivier Fire Department. Uh Chief Cullen was unable to be here today. his family had a medical um procedure. Um Whitney Morgan, the director of the ENRECH. Um Jay Mazola, who handles the communications for ENRECH and uh
retired, worked in the in the public safety field for I think your entire life pretty much. Um of course, myself, Tom Scarski, and the chief of police, uh Chief Levita. Just a quick history, I just uh with the regional 911 uh center and the McKinley
school project as a whole. Um, this is this is a public safety project and there's also a multi-purpose use that's going to be happening at the McKinley School that we all know is a beloved uh uh parcel in the city of River that has been defunct for well over 10 years. Uh,
this opportunity to that that arose just a few years ago wasn't uh just an opportunity to restore McKinley school. It was also the opportunity that it was much needed in finding a new home for our 911 call center. Uh if you've ever been in the 911 call center, it is uh
hunkered down in a uh less than a 4,000 square foot space in the police station. It is um vastly undized. It is stretched to the limits uh to the point where I'll just say it it it's becoming uh an issue
of matter of public safety. So, uh, we were able to kill a few birds with one stone by finding a city-owned parcel, not having to go through a rigorous process of having to go through that eminent domain parcel taking that we all know the city doesn't want to do unless
they absolutely have to. And we looked at many different parcels, not just in Revier, but also in Chelsea and Winthre. Uh, the Beachmont Fire Station was considered. There is absolutely zero parking the Beachmont Fire Station. I think we all know that. Um current one of the current issues at the the 911 call center right now is limited parking
uh for the entire staff. Uh not enough for the public of course. Uh the rea police department expansion not really an opportunity also butts a wetland. McKinley school we all know that how that's working out. Winthrop uh space in the middle of a thickly settled
neighborhood as well. Uh and also I will just say that the the area of the McKinley I'm sorry the win a site the league of special the former league of special needs where re host reair boxing was a site that was widely considered um could have hit a lot of targets but um kind of the best site for potential
other uh mixeduse areas over there to complement the recreation space over there. So that was ruled out. A bank in Winthrop on uh near the center of town and a garage site in Winthrop uh off Shirley. Those two sites were privately owned. The wreck was interested in
potentially purchasing them. Uh were not able to reach agreements uh and some possible contamination over at the sites uh maybe led them that they wouldn't be habitable. Uh there was other small sites in the area of Chelsea. Of course, as we all know, we are in a thickly
settled community in in uh a region just north just north of Boston. There aren't a lot of great sites. So there have the McKinley School. Uh the renderings that we brought at the um state of the city on March uh had this beautiful site. The
proposed tower is actually in the renderings if you see it. I'm not a public safety expert. I'm not a communications expert. And I'll just say that if someone said you needed a 60ft tower, I probably would have taken them for their word. If they said you need 150 foot tower, I probably would have taken them for their word. But like you,
I would have said, "Hey, this this tower, can we talk about the safety of it? Can we talk about the logistics? Can we talk about reducing it? And there we come to today. Uh you have requested and this is in front of the ZBA. I want to remind everyone out of with all due
respect, remember I was a counselor. Out of total just consideration for the city and the neighborhood, we went to the ZBA. We do not have to do not have to go to the ZBA. The city is exempt. Uh the partial the the the program is exempt, but we wanted to still do the due
diligence and do it the right way. uh that is something that I think that uh is the way to do things. Going back to the right way, the current site doesn't have a tower because quite frankly not done the right way and the public safety experts will tell you why the tower is
needed. Now the the large the the biggest question that you want answered is can we reduce the size? Can we change it? Can we look at another space to potentially put this tower? Yes, the answer is yes to all of that. We are going to ask for a study. It is going to cost a few dollars. 911 will be paying
for that. Um obviously the region will be paying for that. Uh and we are going to initiate that. That may in entail reducing the scope or the size of the uh communications tower. What I will say is that is going to give you the
opportunity. We're going to give you the opportunity to ask for it. We're going to do it. Um but we're we're we're doing this site. This is being this is being done for the best of public safety. That's not that really isn't up for debate. We took a look at all these locations. We we did find the best site.
Uh and there is not a really there is no space in the city of Riviera that is not thickly settled andor around people's homes. This site happens to be more around commercial space than it is homes. Yes, I understand the quote unquote fall radius does fall uh and the
site radius does uh does hit. I live in the hills. I will look at this tower, too. It is not as big and burdensome as you may think. That's probably why you didn't see it in the pictures in March. It's it is kind of tucked away and it's
not this thick steel, you know, 70 foot in capacity is 20 ft in width and it continues to shrink as it goes up to the point of less than two feet at its top. So, it just goes up like this with very few uh uh piece pieces of fixed to it. But I just want to say it again and
Tom's going to answer a lot of the different questions all and the other big question, no radiation. This is nonionized frequency, no radiation, microwaves. I'm not an expert on that either, but some of the experts here can probably talk
about that. But the last piece, we always talk about public safety. We always talk about doing the right things. Yes, sometimes that comes at a cost. I don't think that that should be debated here. And I don't think that anyone here would disagree with me when
it comes to the the seconds that matter when it comes to communicating in public safety. We talk about it all the time. Ambulance times, fire response times, police response times. This is talking and I'm sure Captain O'Hara or deputy deputy chief will be able to say say it
or Whitney or the police department. This is talking to a first responder in a burning building. In a burning building. And if we lose communications like we have because we don't have the tower because we were we did not build it properly because we've
lost redundancy. If we lose communications for 5 seconds, for 10 seconds, for two hours, is that fair to the 130 uh fire uh personnel that we have? Is that fair to the 110 police officers that we have, never mind the
region? It's not. So, I think that we we owe it to them to do it right. And I understand there is a little burden that that falls with that. And trust me when I say I said this to you at the ZBA if we can come up with a more rational solution that is less burdensome we will
do it within means and I promise you that we're going to do that study. It is going to cost some thousands of dollars and if we can reduce the height by 20 30 40 feet or or more we will do it within within within um as long as it's
rational. That's what I have Tom. Thank you mayor. So, uh, the mayor covered most of the ground I wanted to. So, mercifully, for once, you will not have to hear me speak too long tonight. Um, but I did, um, bring along our
public safety professionals to answer some of the operational questions that you all had at the last meeting. Um, unfortunately, our consultant from Introba, who spoke at the ZBA hearing, um, is not able to make it tonight. Um, we wanted to still hold this, um, due
to, you know, this being the last city council meeting until our next ZBA meeting where we'd like to make a decision on this and move forward with this project. without making a decision in September, we will miss critical milestones that might not allow this facility to open up
in time for the school year for the ECC and to help move forward this consolidation effort between the three communities in the state-of-the-art 911 call center that as the mayor mentioned is above and beyond um and far superior to the inadequate facilities that we
have today. And again, public safety team can speak to the importance there. Um but just a few quick notes. So, um, as the mayor mentioned, we're undergoing a study right now, a microwave path analysis to see what we can do to reduce the size of the tower. What we do know is that if we're able to reduce it, it's
going to be by at most 40 ft, um, at significant cost, uh, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in a way that would reduce some redundancy in the system, um, and make the system somewhat less effective from a public safety standpoint. Nonetheless, we understand
we've got 45 45 foot tower. We're going to try to reduce it within reason. Uh we're getting that study done and our OPM at PMA consultants is also conducting a peer review amongst folks in the field to see what we can do to lower the size of the tower. Uh, one
concern I did hear from some city councilors was a um another example of a tower in Lynn, I believe the the Wayne's um alarms tower in in Lynn that is um over 345 ft um and it is double the size
in diameter. That is a massive tower that is nothing like what we're looking at here. So, just to put it into context, you could put city hall and put two of our towers on top of city hall and you would still have a little breathing room. Um, so that is not the
scale or scope that we're talking about here. Um, happy to answer any questions about specifics that you might have as the mayor mentioned with regard to safety and radiation. There is a communication from the FCC and their guide guidance on microwave and radio
radiation for towers of this nature and their findings are what we would see here is thousands of a time of uh times below what would be that threshold for um you know threshold for concern if you will. So, you know, from that
standpoint, I think we feel pretty good. And then from the fall standpoint, as the mayor mentioned, where you want to consider what the fall radius would be hypothetically were something to happen, the only U residential unit within the fall radius obviously is the one directly abuing the the tower itself.
Um, but aside from that, it's also, and this is really more important, it's designed um to withstand a um winds of a force greater than the F2 that ripped through uh Rivier 10 years ago. So, it this is a um from a public safety
standpoint, the utmost uh stage four um classification from a building code standpoint, it needs to stay upright even in those worst case scenarios. um because it's a 911 call center, it needs to continue to operate at capacity,
particularly in those emergency situations. So, the design of this tower was done with that in mind to make sure that these wind speeds and everything could withstand it. But again, to the mayor's point, uh for for the most part, we're surrounded by a lumber yard and the facility itself, not to downplay it.
Um, happy to answer any questions you might have and also if there are any operational questions as to what this means for uh the wreck and police and fire. Of course, I've got our my colleagues here to answer those. Thank you, Tom. Councelor Aenzio. Thank you, Mr. President, and and thank
you to the mayor for that uh presentation. And thank you, Tom. Now, I I had asked the OPM, the architect, and the person from Introva to be here tonight, and none of them could make it. The folks from Introva could not make it. the OPM and the architects. Um,
particularly with the architects, they're not the ones designing the tower. Um, and the OPM I I'm not sure would tell you anything differently than what I'm telling you tonight, except that we'd have to um they charge by the hour. So, I' I'd prefer to answer your question.
So, in Trover, uh, are you going to stop paying them? I mean, aren't they obligated to respond to the city? I mean, this is a month they've had of a warning to be here, correct? So, they've supplied me with, I think, all the answers we'd need and any that I can't provide tonight. My goal
would be to put forward a memo in response to the city council and to, like I did at the ZBA hearing last week, I tried to respond to many of your concerns that came up um in coordination with them. But unfortunately, it's a one-man operation and and they're just
not here. Okay. Well, that's disappointing. But so, the first question I've had was health and safety. There's been a lot and I had hoped to hear from an expert, but I'm maybe we have experts here tonight. Um, some preschool teachers
contacted me. They're very concerned about microwaves, 3G towers, 5G towers, um, radio signals, and I had wanted someone to be able to make a presentation to ensure us that it was completely safe. I know the um fire
department had come up here very passionately about a 5G tower in their uh central fire station and it was removed and um so I think residents are focusing and are remembering that presentation and thinking something like
that is coming to uh the McKinley school site and especially where it's a mixeduse building with uh young children in it. So that was my first question to the experts, but if if you feel as though you can answer that. I would like my colleagues at River Fire
to help me out here. Good evening everyone. Uh Kevin Oera, Re Firefighters President, local 926 captain on the job. Uh, council. So, back in 2019, I um I fought the cell phone towers on top of the fire station and uh council me myself also fought the
mini cell phone towers on top of telephone poles throughout the city. Now, the big difference with that is like as Tom said earlier was ion ionizing radiation and nonionizing radiation. Those are in 5G towers. So
our biggest concern as a firefighters, we had a fire, we get the stick up to the roof, we're 35 ft, we're on a telephone pole and the radiation off there is very high levels of radiation. On a radio tower, we have microwaves. Now the difference between the radiation
on the the cell, the 5G towers, uh it it damages DNA, causes cancer, high risk of cancer. On a radio tower, very minimal, doesn't cause damage to DNA, no cancer related. Now, that's the difference. So,
you know, and and I know I know as soon as this happened, too. Now, we've been talking about doing this for a few years now. And you know, this tower, as soon as it happened, that's the first thing I did. I said, "Wait a second here. Let's find out how dangerous this is that cuz I got to protect my my job is to protect
the brothers and sisters local 926 and represent the citizens also." So we um you know we looked into it and it's all microwaves does not cause DNA damage to your DNA does not cause cancer. All right if I
would not be up here stating that we need this this is for our communications and I can give you example what we're dealing with now. We you know our dispatch center needs to be centralized. It needs to go to a separate building because it work with the police. I work on the fire department. I did the
dispatch. You can't have firefighters going into the dispatch. You can't have police officers going to the dispatch. You need to centralize them. Our dispatch needs it. We We need to improve in the dispatch. We really do. We We We have a couple of struggles here and
there, but we get through it. But communication, too, I'll give you a perfect example. 10 Franklin AB couple years ago, Deputy Rich was in command. I was on the I was right on the third floor talking to him on the radio. Couldn't get through. I had to go to a window, stick my head out, and yell to
the deputy and he says, "Do not cut the hole yet." Because if I cut the hole without without getting the water, we could all died in there. So that's what we deal with. Communication is key. And I know it's 30 feet we're talking about because if we go lower 30 ft now, the signals bounce in three different
directions. We stay at the 144. We got a direct connect. And when I talk about communication, I mean in the buildings on the lower floor in Ocean A. When we're in those parking garages, we have trouble. We can't hear sometimes. When we're in a high-rise building, the higher up, we have trouble right now. We
need the help. And we This is, you know, the union, the fire department, we all been working together on this. This has been a three or four year project now, Mr. Mayor. Since since former mayor, Mayor Regal was here. This was the talk. So, I hope um that answers a lot of the
questions we had. And uh that's it. I have quite a bit. Thank you uh uh Captain O'Hara. So I wish some of this information had come to us prior like uh my biggest problem with this was the 145 ft tower was only revealed to us a few
weeks ago in information like you just presented uh two years ago a year ago would have been very helpful in our decision. So, uh, part of my problem, or the biggest part of my problem is this just was sprung on the neighborhood just
a few weeks ago. Um, so thank you for your, uh, presentation and I believe you and you did your research and and and thank you. Um, some of the other questions I had for Introba. Uh, I understand that 95% or 99% of the communications will go through fiber
optics and this tower is kind of a backup. Um, and the worry is if fiber optics are disturbed some way uh due to an accident. I don't know if they're underground. I don't know if they follow along phone poles. Can a second fiber
optics um network following a different path? Is that an alternative? Is a smaller antenna at the McKinley school um and a larger antenna put offsite some a more appropriate location? That was a
question I had for Introva. Um, so those are some questions that I', if somebody's capable of answering those, I'd um like to hear the answer. I I don't interrupt you, council, too. I also want to mention um at 400 Broadway on the fire station, we got a tower up
there now, Jay, how big is that tower up there? 50 ft. It's been up there for a long time. So, I mean, it's on top of the building. This is starting from the ground up. So how much from the building to the 50 ft above? What are we talking 90 ft 100 feet already?
Probably 100 100 ft. So we're talking about another 44 ft. It's I and I know and I and we and we do respect the residents. We understand that you know it could be an eyesore in the neighborhood, but I didn't mean to interrupt. I just wanted to make sure No. And there's no question no one's
doubting that this is necessary. Believe me. Thank you, councelor. So I'll answer your second question and then Jay Misola from the wreck can take the first. So, in in the alternative path analysis that we're looking at, we're looking to do just what you had suggested, um look at uh whether it's up
on Reservoir A or um in the Shirley Avenue neighborhood, there's a few towers where we could basically have a a microwave signal that this could be a key hub in that system. But if you all recall what I had mentioned at the last um meeting about having kind of a hub
and spoke, the hub being um the McKinley school, the spoke being all the al alternative sites. If everything else blacks out, we've still got that hub and spoke system. it. We we are looking into doing this and we'll pursue it quite
seriously if we have an alternative repeater path but it will create at least one less um piece of redundancy in the system because then we are relying on that other system up on weather reservoir a tower or otherwise um as to
the first question Jay do you want to f yes we have a robust system now for city re that the school system runs it's a loop system and if it cuts in the middle it'll come back either way. But the problem is a lot of parts of the city they run on the same poles.
So these separate cables but if the pole goes down we lost both of them. Okay. So that's why we need the microwave to give us direct link from our radio tower at McKinley school to our radio sites and that's we've had that problem in the last two three years of different
scenarios that we lost them. We lost the fiber link and that means we lose our main communications. We do have a a backup system, but the backup system doesn't give us as half as good a coverage as we do obviously as a backup, you know, and and again, when the fiber is down, it takes days and days,
sometimes weeks to get back up online. And Jay, I have one more question for you if you mind. Uh, at the ZBA meeting, you mentioned that at the current fire uh police station, there was space for a tower and it was never built. That's correct. Do you know why that was never? I have no idea. That was that was so
have you so right now for the last quite a few years you haven't had this redundancy that you're seeking. No that's why we that's where we're losing that's where we need now again even if we put a tower at the police station that's not going to help us at McKinley school. Mhm. If we kept the if you kept the dispatch at the police station that would be fine.
Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Mr. President, if I could just also answer and councelor Aenu I understand uh you know your ward and and certainly I appreciate you bringing up the questions. I just want to remind everyone there's this kind of thought
that this was hidden. Um, everyone here, if you've seen a 911 call center get built in the last 10 years, they've all had towers. So, I think the assumption is you should you we should have all known it comes with a tower. The height is the variable. Um, so when we had found out the exact height was sometime
in June. Uh, that's when it got presented in front of the ZBA. Uh, and that's when it got uh brought to the council's attention. So, there was no attempt to, you know, hide information or wait. Um certainly we don't want to go through this this back and forth. We want to be able to answer all the questions. It's similar to questions
we've asked. Send us the questions. We'll give you answers. We don't want to debate up here. We're all on the same team. We all want what's best for the city. Um but you know, just know that if it's right at 140 or right at 200 or right at 50
two weeks ago or today, what it's the same exact right. So yes, you may have time, more time to digest it, but you still have to walk away with the same answer. We have to do what's right for the residents of Riviera and for our public safety officials and for everyone
that comes through our city, and that's that's the tough decision. That's what we're all here for. Thank you. So, Mr. president through you. U I in no way suggesting that this was hidden, but this study as I've said before should have been the first thing that
was done prior to any plans or anything. That's two years ago. This the communication study from the McKinley school should have been done and we would have known this two years ago. So I'm not suggesting that anyone hid this or is doing anything nefarious.
I'm I just in the order of operation seems to have been backwards. Understood. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I know uh Deputy Rich had a few comments he wanted to bring up as well, but uh please uh we welcome your questions. Like to get as many answered tonight as possible.
Okay. And uh Mr. Skowski, just one question I had about the ZBA. Um, I understand the butter's letters went out and only the parcel that the school was on, those butters letters went out. The parking lot next door, those people that
are but that weren't included in that. And I I think those residents kind of felt left out of the conversation. You could technically be living right directly across the street from the parking lot of the McKinley school when you can throw a rock and hit the tower, but they weren't notified. So, I I'm
sure that was an oversight, but you know, maybe by uh next ZBA meeting, we we can rectify that or I could even pass. Yeah, I can certainly um speak to the folks that do the advertisements for the ZBA meeting. I was glad to hear that they were at least aware of it
nonetheless. Hopefully, a lot of the press we've been doing um you know, and you've seen it in the journal and so forth has spread the word where everybody who's affected would know. Um but that was certainly you know the parcel the building is two parcels in one merely an oversight one we'll look to correct. Okay and thank you for
and I think this conversation that we're having is healthy because if we didn't bring this up we're now talking about maybe it can come down 20 30 40 ft maybe there is an alternative. So I think this conversation is healthy for everybody including the neighborhood. So thank you. Appreciate you bringing these issues to
our attention. Thank you councel. Thank you councel McKenna. Thank you Mr. President. Uh Tom, I was just wondering uh do you guys if this goes through, do do you have a placement for this tower? Because I know on one side there is more commercial than there is on the other side. There's some more
uh residents on one side and there's more commercial on the other. I was just wondering if you have a placement and if if you do, would you put it on the commercial side more so than the uh resident side? We do have a placement. Um it was in the ZBA packet um and in what I presented
last week. Um it's it's on the Foster Street side of of the property directly adjacent to the the rear entrance to the building. So again, to your point, a little bit more shielded from both lumber. Yes.
Okay. Thank you, Council Council Kelly. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you all for being here tonight. I appreciate you coming in and taking the time to give us some information because this is a big issue um for me. Um, and I know
for a lot of residents. So, I just want to make one thing clear. Um, the study that's being done is just going to revisit the height, correct? Nothing else. That's correct. Okay.
Okay. And there's no um I understand that we can't relocate the the hub, the the whole facility. I understand that he went the mayor was kind enough to go through those alternate locations. that didn't work out for various reasons. But
is it imperative? Is it absolutely a requirement that this tower has to be at the site? Can the tower be relocated somewhere else? And has that been looked into? So you're Jay and others can answer this better than I can, but again, if you're you're
effectively removing the hub from the system, the hub and spoke communication system. So if the fiber goes out, the microwave needs to reach its various paths and it needs to be at the most direct point, most proximate to the 911
call center. So were we to relocate the the tower elsewhere, we would find ourselves vulnerable to the exact problem we're trying to resolve because ultimately we would then have to communicate with that tower through fiber. And we're still opening ourselves up and are vulnerable to a disconnection
disrupting the system entirely. The idea here with the tower is if something happens on any of these fiber lines, you always have the alternative of a microwave communication point. Okay? But unless we were in a situation where we had extremely high winds, then
the the tower itself could also be not functioning or be prone to some disruption. So the tower again is is built to withstand winds above the this the grade that we saw in that uh tornado over a decade ago. So it's it's basically a
700year event. Um and even even that this is meant to withstand that and designed to withstand that. Okay. And um the studies that were mentioned about not having any health concerns from this type of frequency or microwave, I'm not
I'm not an expert in this. So I'm not sure, but I know that the FCC studies that were done, there are a lot of conflicting studies with those that the FCC studies say that there are no health effects or no health hazards, but yet there are other studies that contradict that. Now, I'm not sure if it's the
same, you know, one of them said that non-therrmal biological impacts weren't looked at um enough. Those FCC studies didn't look at that enough. So, I don't know if that's something that we would have to be concerned about here with microwave.
So um the FCC studies were influenced um both by their international peers of a of a similar scope um and the National Council on Radiation Professionals and Measurements along with the Institute of Electronics and Electronics Engineers um
and and the comment that you're referencing I think specifically speaks to radio frequencies. But what what the FCC and their guidance did find with regard to microwave um pass is that it given that it is a direct beam um the the dispersion of energy beyond that
beam is quote minimal or insignificant um because essentially you think of it like a direct TV tower right that's that's like a microwave ray it is collecting and dispersing communications in a very concentrated manner and that
concent concentrated manner in this case is you know 145 ft up or maybe 110 ft up but still high enough nonetheless that there's going to be some really focused dispersion of energy that wouldn't expand beyond that. Okay. And um
is this a result of us this tower this size because right now we are coupled with Winthre. Am I correct? Correct. Okay. And we are adding Chelsea into the loop. Correct. So, is the tower
necessary, one of this size, necessary because of the fact that we're adding Chelsea in or would we need that regardless? We would need a tower nonetheless of at least 110 ft. Um, and so what we are now looking at is the potential through this
alternative pathway analysis to um bring the height down. So there is a there is a slight delta in bringing Chelsea into the fold, but um it's one we're exploring whether there are different ways to go around it. But either way, it's going to be a tall tower. I think we can all agree 110 ft is pretty tall
as well. Okay. And so I guess my last point is with all the other concerns I have and I have several and the biggest concern I do have with all due respect, I understand that the the renderings this may have been depicted in the renderings
that we saw in March. I didn't see it. Um, not only that, it was not discussed. So, I mean, maybe if it was, you know, in included in the discussion, maybe we would have seen it, you know. Um, but I'm not suggesting either, as councelor Arenzio said, that anything nefarious
was going on or if it was intentional. But I am very disappointed that I voted on that and didn't have this piece of information at that time. Um, go ahead. Just to um, Council Kelly, Mr. President, I just want to make it very clear. Uh, the council did not vote on
the tower or the building. The council voted on Emrech adding Chelsea. That was it. Um, as far as constructing the building and the approvals, it's not for council matter at some point. And I think councelor Zimbudo has mentioned not funding the site. Um, that would be
a shame. Uh, as far as it goes, this a lot of the funding is going to be coming from state 911. So, you lose a little control there, but you would be hurting the um office administrative space and the early childhood education space possibly, but I wouldn't want to do that. I would never threaten the community with with not funding
something because I didn't get my way. What I will say is you didn't vote on um the tower or the or the scope of the building. That's not in the purview uh of the discussion of joining of Emer. We could join MRE. Uh we could have Chelsea join tomorrow and bring them into the
site uh at the police station or we could go over to their site which is also about 4,000 square feet. It won't be very comfortable. So there was again not not just a lot of confusion and and I would just say that let's just stick to what's what's actually here. Uh but as
far as the discussion, we're here tonight. Let's ask the questions. We came out of consideration by the council's motion. Uh we'll answer every question you have. I'll stay here as long as you'd like. This is going in front of the ZBA, I think, later this month. Uh, and the ZBA can certainly ask more questions, but this this is a
discussion that you wanted to have. I'd rather answer the I'd rather answer as many questions tonight as you'd like to ask. Um, so if you prepare prepared them, we're here. I appreciate that and I appreciate the clarification on that. Thank you very much. Um, so my last question is my last concern, the big one of the biggest
concerns I have is absolutely property values. Um there was a 2019 National Association of Realtor study that was done that said property values are affected within um a thousand feet of the tower. Um I I just that does not sit
well with me. I mean and I I can speak from a professional from as an expert being in the field for over 20 years. Um it will definitely result in a property value decrease for those homes that are surrounding there. I understand whining lumber is behind it, but there are also
homes at the end of Foster Street out to Park A, that area of Park A, Yemen Street, Bain Street. Um, so, you know, um, I have a big problem with that. So, I think even more notice in this situation where goes back to my point
that I've been talking about for two years that that 300 foot about a notification zone is inadequate. And if you're going to affect property values of up to a thousand feet away, but only inform people within a 300 foot radius, that's kind of doesn't make any sense at all. So, if maybe we could go back and
try to get more notification to residents so that they know about this. I understand that it's in the vein of public safety and we need it. I'm not I'm not contesting that, but I know I wouldn't want it next to my house or or near I wouldn't want to be near it. So, um thank you. That's all I have. Uh thank you, councelor. Mr. President
uh I don't disagree with you as far as uh your experience and you are very experienced. I as you know uh I I'm also was active in the real estate investment uh or not investment but sales world like yourself certainly more experienced you have um what I will say is in my not
my notices uh public safety in the community was a big driving force with people buying in certain communities. This will enhance our public safety and enhance our values of our homes. um living next to empty uh blighted warehouse buildings uh is certainly something that people don't enjoy. The school is currently uh in in its shape
as an empty building is probably more of a blight on the neighborhood than than what will be a restored uh early childhood public education center uh a regional 911 call center with the training facility and administrative space with vibrant um footprint with the park. We we feel very comfortable that
this is going to enhance the value. But you did mention the neighborhood. You are correct. Uh we should but we should notify more and I know that if someone wasn't served they'll make sure they get that. But currently there's a lumber yard that brings in uh 16 18 24 foot
trailers uh three to six times an hour in the peak of their sales. There is an auto body shop. There is a massage parlor. There is an orthodontics. There is an insurance agency. There's a bank and
there is a law firm, a church, and aesthetics are the current businesses that are in the area. I would I would say that some of those businesses may enhance the area, but I don't know if I'd want to live next to a Lumbiard
either. But again, people do live there and they enjoy it and they should be able to value their homes. This is not going to be a blight on the neighborhood and this will not detract in the value of someone's home. I'm I I can I can assure them that. However, again, in the finality of the process, we have an
abatement process for taxes. If someone's concerned with their value uh and they and they want to uh bring facts, the assessor's office will abate. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councelor Zambo. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, I want to
start by thanking the mayor for listening and and uh uh taking a look at the size of the tower. Now, everybody knows I came to the city council many years ago and my goal was to build a police station.
We succeeded with that. I was a champion for the regional 911 and I took a lot of heat for that. And there's some former chiefs that still don't speak to me today because they thought it was a power struggle and it had nothing to do
with it. It was complete public safety. And that's where we are here now. Uh I said some uh I was a little hot the other night because it was thrown upon me. Uh the last thing I will ever do is hinder
uh the rec center. I I mean I don't change my goals because I've been here 25 years. Uh I know how important this is. I appreciate the fact though that the team is looking at a possible alternative or maybe reducing the size
of it and and that's a big get and I know it's expensive to do that but I think it's worth it and and I think that the neighborhood is is uh you know better off for us looking at all of this and talking about all this. This this discussion tonight gives a lot of
education to uh you know uh the the captain was up here. We had a we had a uh a Shelton match years ago about uh uh and and and we still probably disagree on the 5G stuff and and but I see his
point fully and and and and that's what this is all about is about discussing and we know that especially now that we're going to bring on Chelsea, we want the most state-of-the-art system we can possibly have. That's what I'm in favor
of. I again I appreciate the effort to uh try to appease us and and we can argue that you know it should have been discussed better and we should have been more aware but we're here now where we are and and we're we're looking at every
every piece of this and and and also the you know the property values are an issue but like you say there are a lot of uh u not great uh uses on that street anyway to start
with. So, I mean, you you you certainly did an inventory of everybody on that street and uh but I appreciate the effort and and you know, I'll I'll listen to the experts, of course. And uh but it would be nice if if we came tound
100 feet or 110 feet rather than 145 ft. Uh but whatever whatever is required without a big without a big you know we don't want to sacrifice the safety. This whole point of putting the rec center
there is to improve it. Uh and and and with with Chelsea and and all the grants you're going to get to pay for this. It's all great stuff. And uh I just remember back when we were on Pleasant Street with the police station and people used to break out by hitting the
cell with their elbow and uh so we've come a long way and now we're in we're in a final stretch of real public safety. So thank you Mr. Mayor for listening the other night even though I was a little excited and uh I appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you councelor Councel Cogandro. Thank you Mr. President. Um, so councelor Zamboa touched on it. How how much does this cost and how are we paying for it? U, thank you. I Whitney may have some more of the figures. So the the the all-in project is probably including the
school and the administrative space um is probably in the tune of 30 I think the estimates from PME uh PMA was about 30 million um and grants and uh ESR funding the there's somewhere in the tune of 20 potentially 21 to$22 million
um that is going to come to us. So, the thought process is at some point in time there'll be um uh an ask and and and south something south of $10 million to uh to round out the funding for the entire project. And I will just say that
um we've already started some of the work with some of the money we've gotten from 911 grants. Bids are all coming back less. Uh so again, we feel confident. And then the last piece is the five to7,000 in rent that we're currently paying in some of the
administrative space per month will also be an offset. And then the last piece is just by joining the regional regional uh 911 the assessment to the community will be south of uh will reduce by
approximately $250,000 a year. That in itself will cover a lot of the uh debt schedule. So the savings, the 911 cost savings per year by uh sharing the expenses with another community will be, you know, between two and $250,000 a
year. Uh so we we feel very confident that this is going to almost cost nothing ever cost nothing, but we're going to we're going to do this very very um uh safe of spending lots of cash. Thank you. Uh another question is uh
we're now we have Chelsea on board. Is are there future plans to bring more cities on board? You know, when we started this process, uh there was a big reach to uh our surrounding communities. As soon as cell Chelsea signed, I'm not going to say the other community, but we got called for
another community. We are building this so that we can grow to at least one more. uh I don't know if we would want to go that quick, but we will have the capacity to add another community. And a community, smaller community had already has already reached out because they know that uh it's it's a struggle and
it's a struggle to staff these centers. It's a struggle to equip them. It's a struggle to stay up with the technology and we're going to be able to do all of that. So communities want to jump and if that happens and we spread the cost out another way, you know, maybe 5 10 years from now, it'd be another savings to the
taxpayers of Rivier and it would just show our strength. But nothing immediate. We don't we want to walk before we can run. Thank you. Thank you, Ka Ka Denino. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First, I'm I'm not too crazy about the height of the tower
itself, be honest with you. But when I have Captain Hara speaking about the positive parts of it, I have deputy see deputy standing here and the police chief all in favor of safety on it. It's kind of hard to go against it. And I said, I've been on both sides of that
radio with the dead ends, the dead calls on it, no reception on it. When I went on the job, we had five radios back then. And some guys didn't get a radio, so I know the importance of it. But I said if if there are other options to bring it down a little bit, I'd appreciate it. If not, and the unions
are on board with it, so let it be. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Council Novaski. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, uh through you, the mayor and you actually rest of my members of the council and members of the team. Uh
I am concerned about the height. I'm glad that you're talking about possibly reducing it. Um, but I have uh three uh things that I want to address. And I didn't see any renderings back in March
on this item either, but on the tower, I understand it's a 20 foot square base that this is going on. And I was wondering, does this have guide wires that are going to support it in any way,
shape, or manner? No guy wires whatsoever. Is this a plastic pole or a metal pole? It would be metal. Metal pole. Grounded, of course. Mhm. Okay. How far down underneath? Six. Six feet. Six feet. Mhm.
Wow. Okay. Uh the second item I had was what councelor Kelly brought is uh property valuation. You know I think valuation is going to go down in these in this neighborhood. There's no question in my mind because people don't
want to have to live within 300 feet of 110 145 foot tower. And it's going to be hard to sell a house when someone sees that sticking out of ground. especially you're talking four 10 to 14 stories high. It's like re some of the buildings
on Riviera Beach. U so that's my feeling on that. The other thing is on the tower, are we going to be able to rent space to cell phones companies on it or is it just going to be for our rec
center? I I think that to answer that I would say that you probably could. That would not be our intention. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We We would not you I'm I'm just being You probably could. We will not be doing that. That's not the We
don't want to do it, especially if it's if it's going to We're We're telling you we're not going to provide uh have unsafe environments on there. Have an ordinance. Oh, so probably. Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah. So then even better. Ordinance can't says it's okay. Just just double checking because
I know people were concerned about the potential 5G coming off a cell phon. So, so I just want to want to I just want to re uh you know make people a little more comfortable you know what what could potentially happen. So with that thank you very much Mr. President.
Thank you councelor Councel H. Thank you Mr. President. Thank you Mr. Mayor Tom Captain O'Hara and everyone else that spoke on this. Um appreciate the dialogue and answering the questions and mostly the the resident's concerns. I think it's a great thing you're
looking into reducing the size of the tower, but as councelor Janino said, anytime you hear from public um emergency workers that have been in the middle of it, anything that improves communication in the event of an emergency is huge. I do have one
question and I think someone else had touched on this a bit earlier. Three community communities are involved in this center, right? Um, were there any talks about more than one tower? One tower at the site, one tower in Winthre,
another tower in Chelsea, you know, three smaller towers in total as opposed to one. So that it's essentially how the system works. So our one tower communicates with the soldiers home in Chelsea and it communicates with the water tower in
Winthre. Um, but it all revolves around one hub in the middle, which which has to be this tower. So, actually, if that those towers were to reduce in size, it would actually be harder for us to reach the towers. We might actually need to raise the height of our tower as the
hub. So, you always need the lead tower close to in proximity to the to the actual center. Correct. It's like a hub and spoke model. And in in the past these centers that have come up they require a 100 foot tower at least.
It depends on the situation and the conditions but generally yes and that's why um you know to the to the mayor's point earlier um when we spoke to 911 about this and you know the the state 911 program that distributes grants for all these programs and mentioned have
you know have any of these been built with without one recently? Could you talk about a situation where that happened and they were um at loss of words because this just is part and parcel of the business of growing a 911 call center to make sure we're meeting the needs of the public safety
standards. So it's never done without a tower in this an instance like this with this emergency center of that capacity. Certainly new construction, right? So, you know, obviously we have the one we have today that's suboptimal from a public safety standpoint and we've been
living with it, but any new towers, any new construction, you need to have something like that to reduce the redundancy, especially in in the world that we live in today. Thank you. Thank you, Council Council Goa. Thank you, Mr. President. All right. And
I'm going to start by saying two weeks ago when this first came up, I was a dead no. Absolutely not. It's going to be visually it's going to visually impact the entire neighborhood. Um I was concerned about the health risks. I was
concerned about property values. But then I went to the ZBA meeting and I listened to chief of fire and I listened to the chief of police speak. I think it's essential. I think this tower is very, very important to the
lives of our firefighters, our police officers, and our residents of the city of Rivier. I appreciate that the mayor has worked on trying to bring it down and I really hope we can get it down to at least 110 120 ft because I know it's
essential to have it that hard to have the waves go directly to it. So, we're not going around the way the way it's being done now. Um, I think residents need to realize that this is essential. If it was not something that would
protect our city, then I would have to vote against it. But this is something that we need. And with the police department, the fire department, what Captain O'Hara said today, to me, I'm for this at a lower scale if you can do it. But
if it's a if it will risk what our intent is, then I would keep it at the height that it is. Thank you and thank you for all the research you've done and thank you for letting us all know. Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, uh I do want to say again um
unequivocally if we can reduce it, we will. Uh if we can do it and do it right and it's rational, uh we will do it. Uh and then some council kandum asked a question on the last meeting um about the comparison to the Broadway towers. So compared to where we stand today,
there's about a 20 foot grade difference to where the tower will sit or the I hate the word tower. It does make it sound even bigger, but um so just think about that from where you stand on the top of Broadway to where it actually plants, it's you know 20 30 feet in difference. So that's actually 20 30
feet in reduction. Um, so it it does lose its scope of size uh when you're in where where you from where you are. Obviously, if you're right up against it and you're all 5 foot six, you know, sure, it's going to feel really big. Thank you.
Thank you. Councelor Herio is going to go first. Council, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. President. Um I I share the concerns from my colleague um councelor Arenzio around the OPM not
being here and I'm glad that they sent along some information u to help answer some of our questions. I just hope u that the OPM if they're listening would have um would have the respect for this body to show
up in person next time around. Uh I do have some questions uh around the ionization and the radiation and peace and wanted to get a sense uh for the lay man. Um because it sounds like
maybe President O'Hara has worked on some of this with the 5G with councilwoman McKenna if you could tell us a little bit about what the effects to the safety the health and safety of our public safety officials um are versus what we're seeing in this tower.
Um that would be really helpful on that front. All right, councel to answer your question. Um I don't have all the numbers exact like on on the percentages and everything, but to break it down on the 5G mini towers and the tower on top
of the fire station, it was ionizing and nonionizing. Ionizing is the higher, nonionizing is the lower. This radio tower is microwave. So, if I sit up there, if I'm fighting a fire and I'm at a telephone pole within 35 ft,
I'm it's radiation right through my body. All right. Now, on a on a microwave on a microwave tower, I mean a microwave radio um you know, the tower that's going down McKinley, you could sit down there and and have a
vacation next to it for days and it's going to be minimal. So that's how I could best explain it. I mean Tom, maybe you could break it down on on radiation levels and everything, but this is not it's not no it's it's it's microwaves
has nothing to do with radiation. It's safe. So if we have a fire in the neighborhood, God forbid and this and we have the you know we have the stick up, I have no problem going up next to that tower and finding a fire. It was the 5G towers with the radiation coming off those and we had them tested at the
station and that's why we fought that's why I came up here. We fought to have him removed and we're glad we had it removed because a lot of us were affected by it at Broadway. So I hope that best answers your question. No, it does. It does. And I I have a couple of follow-up questions too um around and maybe also Chief Levita if
she wants to chime in on this, but when we talk about mutual aid, I know we live in very dense city. Uh Chelsea is a dense city and Boston's right next door, also a very dense city. Um, and so
from a communication standpoint, how does this improve our ability to respond uh not just for our own sake, but when we're talking about mutual aid uh for when we get called into another city? Um, and and what's the like are we
cutting how many seconds off, if you will, from a call should uh and this is a red redundancy system. So should all the other things fall through, how many seconds are we cutting off or maybe minutes or hours. So to answer your question, it's more
not how many seconds off, it's more having the ability to have communications within a building to be able to call them, have them come in. Under our current system, uh let's say we have a car accident that takes out a telephone pole. If the fiber gets cut,
if we have a transformer fire, uh if the fiber gets cut, broken, we'll go into our backup system. Our backup system currently, when we're in a building, the interior of a building, we have no ability to speak to one another. We lose that ability. That affects life safety
of not only our citizens, but of our firefighters as well. So, by doing this tower, and just so you know, the the fire department believes that this tower at its fullest height is crucial. Um, with it at its full height, it has
direct line of sight to every one of the other sites so that we if we do have a backup system kick in, we don't lose communications within these buildings. This is a life safety issue and this can save lives. So, so if I'm understanding
this correctly, this is going to make sure that y'all can respond better should something fall through. That's correct. But also allow you particularly in fire and for the fire department and police as well and police to to respond more effectively on site.
Yes. Especially interior of buildings. Great. It it it's huge. It really is. Awesome. Well, thank you both for for your answers. Very good. Thank you. Looks like Chief Levita might want to add something. thing just just so you're aware. So it's not only affecting the
the Rex's ability to speak to the officers, it's the officers being able to speak to each other, too. So it's affecting uh the portable radio system which allows us to communicate inside buildings or if somebody's in a building back out. So I just want to clarify that.
That's very helpful. Thank you, Chief. I think that's uh I think vital information that you probably need on hand live not 10 minutes later once the thing has happened right seconds mean everything and just to give you an indication of you know our radio system
we've we've invested in the the best radios uh the you know for a reason. So they're more important to many police officers including myself than firearms. So you see, you know, a couple hundred for a firearm, 20 times that per
portable radio that the officers carry um on on their hip, you know, day in and day out. So the the infrastructure, they're only as good as the infrastructure, which is I think why we're all here today. Thank you again, all three of you for your answers. Thank you, councelor Councel McKenna.
Thank you, Mr. President. Um Tom, did anybody look at the license uh that Devon uh Enterprise Commission uh the criteria of that? Because it does say in in one of their uh design requirements that if a tower uh with a height of at
least 100 ft shall be designed structurally, electrically, and in all respect to accommodate three antennas, we're only going to get one, right? That's what it's saying right here. And it says the applicant and two other towers over 60 ft shall accommodate at
least one additional tower an antenna. All towers must be designed to allow the future rearrangements of antennas and antennas mounted at various heights. So there there are multiple antennas and
and microwaves installed uh and is is part of the design and the package that was submitted to the ZBA. And so the the point of of those potentially changing over time as technologies change. So I think the idea is the ways that we would
communicate would change over time. Um but there will be multiple antennas not just the one. And and the bulk of them will be 100 ft and below. And then there's the main one the the microwave tower for redundancy sake which is at 145 now but
might get brought down further. So what you're saying is it's it's it's not going to only be one. It's going to be multiple structure. One structure, but like an antenna would be this. Correct. With this with this, but a few but not hundreds.
Okay. Yeah. But one structure visual visually speaking, everything will be the building fake trees that they have of sorts. Yeah. It it won't be as obnoxious as the the cell towers which are are just much more significant and pertinent structures behind it. These
are much more sleek and designed in line with with the tower. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, councelor. Um permission to speak from the chair. Um I appreciate the time tonight, Tom, Mr. Mayor, um fire department chief. It
it's I remember the passion that Captain O'Hara came up here a few years back with the 5Gs and if for a second he thought there was going to be an issue with these this antenna we would have that same passion up here and as
councelor Janino and H said you know hearing from them and understanding the importance of this tower I would hate to be here in the future and say, "Man, if we had
50 more feet, maybe we wouldn't have lost communication. Maybe those guys would still be with us." So, I can't battle over 50 feet when it comes to life safety equipment and the men and women of our fire and police departments. Um, so, however we can get
this done that's best suitable, that's best going to suffice us, the city, and and our first responders is what we need to do. So, thank you for coming up and keeping us updated. Thank you for your time and your latitude uh to the council. And just a reminder, we'll be in front of the ZBA.
We are going to do the study to see if we can get this uh size and scope worked on and we'll also share renderings with the entire city council. Okay. I just have one one quick question. Who's going to be doing this supplementary study? Is it Introba? So, the supplementary study will be done
by Introba, but then there's going to be a peer review with our OPM. Um, okay. Where they'll be speaking to some of the designers of their other facilities, basically reviewing the review, if you will. Are you comfortable with Introba? I am. Um, and certainly our public
safety team is, and I'm even more comfortable knowing the approach that our OPM will take, essentially providing some internal peer review. Now, they'll show up. Okay. Thanks. So, thank you counselor. Thank you, Tom. This will be So, Mr. President, there might be a
couple of people that want to speak. I I know there's a public comment. It's right after it. So, you know, if maybe not. I I'm just guessing. Okay. Is anyone here to speak on this here? Name and address.
Sure. Stephanie Disto 7 Reservoir Avenue. Um, I was one of the people who did not get notified of this even though I'm in a butter to the section of the site that was not included in the application. So, I'm hoping that uh the
next time around uh everybody on the bottom of Reservoir Abutters to the people on Yaman Street get notified properly. Secondly, I want to say this. I haven't heard one mention about quality of life
and lowering the height of this by 40 ft is not a meaningful change because you're still leaving us with a 100 foot structure plunked down in the middle of our neighborhood. And I can
tell you this much, it is an absolute fact and reality. The uh real estate industry has done multiple studies on the negative impact of communication towers on property values and they will uh be negatively impacted and our
property values are going to go down. Now, it's one thing to talk about. They can go to the assessor and ask for an abatement, but that's putting the onus on the homeowner to have to go prove that their property values have been uh diminished because of this. and it does
zero. It's not beneficial when somebody's got to go put their house up for sale. They're going to have a a much more difficult time selling their property. That's that's what I want uh those are the couple of points I wanted to make. But I really want to ask that
every option is thoroughly explored to find alternative solutions to this because having this plunked down in the middle of an entirely dense, overstressed urban neighborhood where there are
multiple homes. Uh it's it's it's almost I can understand what people would say. Well, you're speaking out against public safety and early childhood education facility. That's not the case at all. It it's it's not being opposed to those
things to to say we don't want 145 foot tower plunkked down in our neighborhood. Um, and I do want to say this that I understand that there may be additional costs to do something differently here,
but you can't weigh quality of life and dimmonition of property values on multiple homes that are going to be impacted this uh with with uh uh the the costs that may be
incurred by doing something alternatively. We're talking about a lot of money here. States's coming up with $22 million. That leaves the city of Rivier coming up with 8 million. What's a little bit more to to take care of
this this situation and find an alternative site? And that's what I want to say. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, ma'am. Name and address. Barney Curran Barrett Street Ree. First of all, they deserve a thousand seat
because you need it. And um secondly is um that I believe I forget what I was going to ask, but um from what I read, the law says that they could have two more antennas. And I'm worried about cell phone antennas.
And uh that's it right now. Thank you. Thank you, Bonnie. Possibly we can do 1,000 ft and put it over by the old airport maybe. I mean, they need a,000 ft. Public comment is next, right? Okay. So,
we're there then. We're going to continue with public comment. So, if you are here to speak on anything else besides this, when you come up, please give your name, number. If you're a Reier resident or business owner, you have two minutes. Name,
address, and motion you're speaking on. Thank you. Hello, my name is Corey O'Hara, 270 Beach Street. I don't know the motion number, but I'm here to discuss um the RC4 zoning proposal near Feno Street.
Um hopefully you guys have a timer because I don't and you maybe you guys might want to strap yourselves down. So, uh sorry, just kidding. I'm going to talk as fast as I can, but I this is I don't want to have to get up and shut.
Please don't. I I I just I'm gonna be quick. Um, okay. So, good evening, council president and count uh members of the council. My name is Cory O'Hara. I'm here tonight to speak about the RC4 zoning proposal near Feno Street. According to the planning chief, Tom I I
don't want to misspeak his last name. Saroski, thank you. This new zoning district could add up to 100 100 affordable units to Rea's housing stock. If true, that's a meaningful step forward. But we will
need full transparency to ensure these units units actually qualify as affordable and legally count towards our subsidized housing inventory with the state. The city has previously imp implemented zoning tools intended to promote
affordability such as the smart growth overlay districts. Um yet time and again developers have built in these zones with little to no affordable units in no deed restrictions. That's why total transparency and documentation must be
presented upfront for any new zone like this one. No more promises, just proof. This verification is essential for two major major reasons. first that if this is not verified as a 100% affordability, there is no meaningful public benefit
and that opens the door to pre uh potential claims of spot zoning which undermines both public trust and legal standing. Second, Rivera is already under pressure from developers using chapter 40B to bypass local zoning
because of our SHI percentage continues to fall below the 10% compliance threshold. Without verified countable units, we risk falling further out of compliance and inviting more 40b threats. Additionally, since the site board is
Chelsea, Massachusetts law requires their planning board to be notified of any zoning changes and given a chance to respond. That proof of notice must be part of the public record. The um in Chelsea um their housing authority is already redeveloping that entire area um that's
abuing this proposed land and I assume that's why this is now being an effort for us to develop that sliver of land. Um, but we need more than just permission to build. We need um an enforceable agreement. Um, so who's
providing which services, who benefits from what, and who's responsible for delivering and paying for those services. Um, these are not just details to be figured out after the fact. They must be clarified and documented in advance. Um, so this have some infrastructure questions. Um, I know
that the water and sewer um is probably going to come from Chelsea because there's no feasible connections from Rivera. Um but that has to be formally agreed by with Chelsea. Um River police and fire serve if they serve this site
there's going to be likely delays. Um who will be responsible for providing emergency response and under what agreement? Um River should rea taxpayers carry the cost of schools and services for the site which operates more like
Chelsea. If that's the case, shouldn't we be exploring an intermunicipal service agreement to formally clarify these responsibilities and ensure REA isn't left to absorb the costs alone? Finally, there are concerns that this may be wetlands or marshland. Has the
conservation commission been involved? Um, if so, those documents must be published before any decision is made. If this project is truly 100% affordable, meets environmental infrastructure standards and is and actually moves REA closer to safe harbor
from 40B, I believe it would be a great step forward, but we need proof, not promises. Thank you. Thank you. Um, actually, it sounds like you were in the meeting I was at over the weekend because we talked about all those things. Um, and yes, they do have to go
before they will have to be approved by the state to move forward on affordable housing. It will go against our numbers. We are in talks with the city of Chelsea already to to have a dual um coverage on both on all options, public safety as
well as schooling. Maybe there's a person that lives they feel as though they live closer to Prattville and they want to go to Pratville. We're in discussions now. So, we're very the the building won't be completed till the end of 2028, but we are in the preliminary discussions, but all your points are very valid.
Yeah. I mean, if it's not going to be 100% affordable and go towards the inventory, then it's not worth us investing any more discussion into it because um it just we keep getting threats from
developers and attorneys that they're going to turn around and and, you know, hold us under their thumb for the 40B. And I think if we're going to have shared services with Chelsea, I think it would be a great project. Yeah. And uh yeah, thank you.
Thank you. All right. Anyone else? Okay, closing that side. That's it for public comments. Unfinished business.
Calendar item number seven, an ordinance further amending chapter 12.2 poles, wires, and cables of the Reier revised ordinances. This is on the third reading. Request a roll call for the third and final reading.
Roll call in the third reading for an ordinance relative to poles, wires, and cables. Councelor Aenzio, yes. Yes. Council Kagglandro, yes. Yes. Councelor Janino, yes. Yes. Councelor Go Slaya. Yes. Yes. Councelor Hass, yes. Yes. Councelor Harmo,
yes. Yes. Councelor Kelly, no. No. Councelor McKenna, yes. Yes. Council numbers, no. No. Council Zamutoo, yes. Yes. And Council President Sylvester, yes. Um, but with the nose, this will automatically get tabled until September
29th. Calendar item number eight, council order 25186, revocation of chapter 148, license number 651, 22 Naples Road, granted January 24th, 22 for cause council.
Mr. President, honorable members of Reier City Council, James Cipoleta, 5 Fremont Street in Winthre on behalf of uh Mario's and the property owners at 22 Naples Road. Council Kliano. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you both
for being here tonight. Um, so since the last time we've spoke, the building commissioner has actually gone out there. I thank him for that. Uh the building commissioner is yet to sign off on this property uh for the
compliance of all the conditions of the special permit for two reasons. One, the planters that they have out front are not acceptable. Uh I do want to thank them for the conditions that they have complied with. Cleaning up the rear of the building, painting the parking lines. I do appreciate the compliance
there. But also uh August 11th, there was a truck parked in the fire lane overnight. And also September, I believe it was 3rd or 4th, when the building commissioner went out,
there was another truck parked in the fire lane. So I I I have I don't know uh how much more lenient I can be about this issue. And I really just want to make sure that
we all understand that you can drive through to the back, but I'd like some sort of answer as to why you keep parking vehicles in there when you know you're not supposed to. I mean, I just I I I'm I'm at a loss
here. My Mr. President, uh through you please to uh council Kolando. Uh so my client um has given me the answers to two of the questions. The first uh being the older
uh August um 11th um incident um that truck was not authorized to be there. He doesn't know who it was. He didn't authorize it. uh and didn't know that the truck was there. The uh the more recent one uh
there was a truck parked in the uh in the lane that goes around the building. Uh the people were there in fire lane. Fire lane. Thank you. And um it was attended. It was not an unattended vehicle. And uh I've uh
reached out to uh Deputy Chief Chver. I expect I'm going to see him tomorrow at site plan review to find out what the legality is of that because it to me it's sort of a gray u gray area. Um I understand that if there's something there the fire lane that is unattended
that poses a problem. If someone is sitting in the vehicle and he stopped or more appropriately, I guess standing uh in the fire lane, uh I would have to get um um an opinion and would defer it to
uh to the deputy. So I I uh think that that can be resolved as of uh tomorrow morning when I see him. And I've also uh again, Mr. president to through to through you uh requested the uh building commissioner uh to meet. I
understand I'll see him in the morning as well. So this thing uh after um the end of the summertime and when things get back into a little um quicker tempo I think is moving along a little more swiftly than it did in the past.
Thank you. So, I'm not buying the excuse that you didn't know that the whose truck was on your property behind a locked gate. I'm sorry. I I'm not I'm not even going to ask you if it was there because I know you're going to say no, but you just admitted that it was there, but I'm not buying that you don't know who parked a truck in next to your
building behind a locked gate. I I I just I I can't at this point. I'm not buying it. Sorry. We're not We're not saying we don't know about that one. The August 11th overnight one. I was telling Miss Cipleta that when Paul Chis came down
about that complaint, I told Paul that I don't know anything about that. No, when I came in to work at 7:30 in the morning, there was no truck there and I have cones parked in that fire lane in front of my building. So that says no there. So I don't have any knowledge of
a truck being parked overnight. And if there was, I I I don't know anything about it. Okay. So one of us is lying. Okay. Um, now as far as this whole idea that it's it's attended, how long can you attend a
vehicle in a fire lane? If you do that in any fire lane, I keep using Market Basket as an example. If you sit parked in a fire lane, you can sit there as long as you want until somebody comes and tells you to move, right? So, no. Okay, that's my that's my whole point.
You're not supposed to park in a fire lane ever. So, I'm sorry, but if you're the property owner, it's your responsibility to make sure that you know what's going on in your property, especially with a property that has a Chapter 148 license that allows flammables on their property. So, now you're telling us that you didn't know
about a truck that was parked there overnight. I saw it. I'm I'm sorry if you're going to stand up there and say you have no recollection or you don't know or you don't know who's about the and and let's let's talk about the fire inspector second. Secondly, when he went
out there, he knew exactly which fire lane that I wanted him to inspect. And he purposely, in my opinion, purposely inspected the wrong fire lane that was on Naples Road, not the And this has nothing to do with you. He we I sent him out there for that truck that was parked there. He looked at the prop the fire
lane that was on Naples Road, not the one at your property. Okay. So, that whole report is null and void as far as I'm concerned. I would like the other fire inspector to go out there and take a look at it. However, all I want, all I have wanted is for the building commissioner to say, "You're in
compliance." But the funniest part is that the day he went out there without telling anybody, there's a truck parked there. He got a picture of it. Okay? I don't care if it was attended or not. You're not allowed to be in a fight. If I had hair left, I'd pull it all out. I don't know what else to say. So, my I'm
I'm speaking to you and to the council. I would like to table this one more meeting. If there are any infractions of the special permit conditions between now and September 29th when we meet again, I am going to move and ask this council to vote to revoke. I this has
been going on since September 24th, 2024. It was September, whatever, the end of September last year. This has been going on. I don't want to deal with it anymore. We I have been so lenient. Councelor Cipleta, you weren't here last week. We tabled it. I didn't want to deal with this when without you guys here. I have been kind. I have been
lenient. I'm over it. Please do the right thing. That's all I ask. I would respond. Uh, Mr. President, um, the councelor is absolutely correct. We He's been um more than accommodating taking my phone calls at probably inconvenient times, but we're, you know,
we are making a a good effort to get this squared away. And uh, I hopefully am going to have the fire inspector and the building inspector hostage at that table tomorrow at site plan review. and I can have them both in the same place at the same time.
Then I will go on record stating that if they vote both write the report that says that this property is in compliance and all I care about is the city council's special permit that was awarded in 21 and then the the uh the conditions of that. If they say you're
in compliance, you have my word, you won't even have to show up at the next meeting because I'll place this whole thing on file. That's it. That's all I want. Please stop parking in the fire lane. Please, please, please. One more, please. Thank you. Thank you, council. Council Garino Sua,
I just want to state something. The end of the the fire lane must remain unobstructed at all times. No parking, stopping, standing, whether you're in the vehicle or not. You cannot be there. There is no vehicle to be in the fire
lane, whether it it has somebody in it or not. It is the state law. Thank you. Thank you, Council McKenna. Thank you, Mr. President. I was on the uh council in 21 when uh the special permit came up in front of us. And the reason why we
voted on this is because of the fact that the hazardous hazardous materials that are in this place uh they need some sort of a you know a barrier around it to uh the apparatuses, the fire apparatuses to get around it. And we
voted unanimously. Uh so um to obstruct this is not the right thing to do. So I hope you can um Mr. Cipolet, I hope you can uh talk to everybody and get this uh problem resolved. Thank you.
Thank you counselor. Counselor and if um when you're done with that meeting tomorrow, if you could please contact the ward counselor and hopefully we can get this resolved sooner than later. Mr. U actually the ward counselor is councelor Garina Sire and I'm doing all of this with her permission by the way but councelor Cipoleta has been
incredibly communicative with me with the building commissioner so there's no doubt that he's going to communicate so I just want this solved but I'm not going to let it go unless if they keep breaking the rules that's it thank you uh motion to table this will be tabled to the 29th thank
you thank you Mr. President. Thank you. Next up is the zoning subcommittee report. Council Zambo. Uh thank you, Mr. President. Uh we all know that the zoning subcommittee met uh
this evening at 5:00 with a brief meeting. Uh the first item up was uh an ordinance further amending the zoning ordinance uh relative to minor corrections to the accessory dwelling
unit zoning ordinance. Uh that was uh voted out favorably and so um I ask for a vote on that. Okay. Please on on the ordinance of zoning relative to the minor corrections
of access accessory dwelling. Audit on the second reading audit on a third and final reading. Request a roll call for engrossment and shall the city council approve an ordinance further amending the zoning
ordinances relative to minor corrections to the accessory dwelling unit regulations. Councelor Arenzio. Yes. Yes. Councelor Cogleandro. Yes. Yes. Councelor Gino. Yes. Yes. Councelor Gino SA. Yes. Yes. Councelor Hass. Yes. Yes. Councelor Jerio. Yes. Yes. Councelor Kelly.
Yes. Yes. Councelor McKenna. Yes. Yes. Councelor Noveski. Yes. Yes. Councelor Zambudo. Yes. Yes. And council president Sylvester. Yes. Yes. The ordinance has been engrossed and ordained. Uh next up was uh an ordinance establishing uh zoning provisions for
battery energy storage systems in the city of Rivier. This item was tabled. Next up uh was uh 529 Broadway uh and there was a request for um to withdraw without prejudice. The committee voted
favorably on that request. So I guess the counselor is here wants to speak I guess but uh then we'll have a roll call to uh allow it. Council Simeony m
nobody's pressing that button. So this this council was kind enough u back in September 3rd when after we had worked as as best as we could at the time to try to satisfy some of the neighbors concerns which we obviously
didn't. Um we sought u from this body a request for withdrawal without prejudice uh which we asked for in the letter. We then asked if there are any other things the council wanted and they subsequently said we'd like to have a vote of the
subcommittee on the zoning uh to also withdraw and that has been done. So I respectfully ask that uh you allow it to withdraw today and as I said to many is we'll just have to get back and try to do a better job. Thank you Mr. President.
Thank you councelor. on the uh motion. Uh madame clerk, shall the city council allow the applicant to withdraw the special permit application for 529 Broadway without prejudice? Councelor Aenzio. Yes. Yes. Council Kogandro. Yes.
Yes. Councelor Councelor Gino. Yes. Yes. Council SA. Yes. Yes. Councelor Hass. Yes. Yes. Council Hario. Yes. Yes. Councelor Kelly. Yes. Yes. Councelor McKenna. Yes. Yes. Councelor Novasellski. Yes. Yes. Councelor Zambo. Yes.
Yes. And council president Sylvester. Yes. Yes. The special permit application has been withdrawn without prejudice. Communications calendar item number 12. Communication from the mayor relative to the re reappoint of Kuru Pek to the human rights commission.
Appointments. Calendar item number 13. Communication from the mayor relative to the appointment of Chief Cullen to the human rights commission. This will be referred to appointment September 29th. Calendar item number 14, communication from the mayor relative to the appointment of Maria Levita to the human
rights commission. Referred to appointment September 29th. Calendar item number 15, communication from the mayor relative to the reappoint of Vivana Katano to the board of health. Refer to appointments. Calendar item number 16, communication
from the chief of planning and community development requesting a zoning ordinance and zoning map amendment for the purpose of establishing a new district RC4. This will be ordered to a public hearing September 29th. Calendar item number 17, communication
from the director of finance requesting a loan order for McMack and Field in the amount of $4.2 million. Ordered to a public hearing September 29th. Motions calendar item number 18. Motion
presented by councilors Garino SA and Zimudo that the city council present Irma Autoulo with a certificate of accommodation in recognition in celebration of her 90th birthday. Council Gos, I'll hold my comments for the presentation.
Council Zamuno. Uh thank you, Mr. President. I I'll hold most of my comments, but I I I have to say that this is uh just a wonderful lady and uh welld deserved. Thank you. Thank you, Council McKenna.
Thank you. Uh, Mr. President, I must say the same thing because we don't get to speak. The counselors really don't get to speak. So, uh, she's just a wonderful lady and I think this is a wonderful motion. Thank you, counselor. Thank you, councelor. And all in favor,
all opposed. So ordered. Calendar item number 19, motion presented by councelor Gino SA in the interest of public safety for our students and school faculty that the mayor request the traffic commission to hold a public hearing on the following proposed amendments relative to
overnight parking on school property. Council Gino. Thank you, Mr. President. Okay. Um to strengthen the to strengthen safety and security at our schools, I propose the overnight parking ban
to prohibit cars from parking in the parking lots. I've had complaints uh particularly from the Paul Rivier School of um certain cars parked there every single night and they're still there during the day when the teachers are coming in taking up valuable spots
that are in that front lot. Um, but after putting in this motion, Chief Maria Levita and Captain Tom Malone jumped right on to help me out to find a solution. Um, leaving the cars there unattended overnight is really a safety
concern. Um, it the the obstructed it it obstructs emergency access. And what could happen is unattended vehicles overnight raise liability concerns that, God forbid,
something is in that vehicle the following day. We don't know what could possibly happen. It interferes with snow removal and routine maintenance. In light of all the incidents that have occurred in schools across the nation, unattended or occupied vehicles pose a
potential threat as individuals could remain inside them and use them for more dangerous items. Prohibiting overnight traffic is a proactive safety measure that will help protect the children while ensuring that school parking lots remain fully accessible to staff,
students, and visitors during school hours. So, I think what the the chief is looking into is the no parking after 6 a.m., which would be or 8 a.m. as school before school begins. Um,
we're going to send this traffic if that's okay with you, and we'll discuss it in traffic, but I think they already have a safety plan ready to let this go into um fruition, come into fruition. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. All in favor? All opposed?
So what calendar item number 20 motion presented by councelor Kelly that the mayor request masdot to expand the southbound acceleration lane entrance into northgate shopping center on Squire road in order to reduce traffic and accidents on Squire Road. Council Zamutoo is
recused from this motion. Councel Kelly. Thank you, Mr. President. Motion really speaks for itself. Um this area is prone to heavy traffic congestion, accidents, backups. Um, and I think this may alleviate some of that congestion and
traffic if we we have room there for the island to be widened so that that deceleration lane can be extended and some of the traffic can get over to that um north gate entrance a little bit sooner um reducing traffic in the other
two lanes. So, I'm hoping this is something I know that this was actually discussed 10 years ago and it everybody was all for it, but unfortunately it never came to fruition. So, I'm hoping we can get it done now. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Councelor McKenna.
Thank you, Mr. President. I completely agree with my counselor uh on my right, but um I know when I was on the city council council uh two years ago uh councelor Serero and councelor Rizzo filed this and um I guess Masot did
multiple studies and uh they found that the infrastructure underneath this road was so invasive with pipes uh it would cost millions and millions of dollars to fix it. Um, so they said it was very very complicated. So that's why nothing's been done, but it was brought
up wasn't 10 years ago. It was brought up a couple of years ago by Sereno and um I know Sereno and Rizzo. So I just wanted to say that this is what's going on with Mass Dot. They've done multiple studies and they can't do anything. Thank you.
Thank you, councelor. All in favor of Oh, council carro. Thank you, Mr. President. No, I I I just I was on the council when we voted that in and um there's a giant MWR line there and to what council McKenna said it
would cost millions of dollars. However, I'm not opposed to sending another another motion their way to say, "Hey, can you look at this again?" Because back then, I mean, just backing that lane up, I don't know how many cars it would, you know, I don't know how much traffic it would alleviate, but it is a
good idea. It's just if you know if they're not willing to move that pipe then but that's all if I may. Absolutely. I I would want them to revisit this issue because especially where that area is just getting more and more congested.
We're getting a car wash there. Um so anything that can be done to alleviate some of that traffic would be appreciated. So I think it should be revisited. Thank you. Thank you councelor. All in favor? All opposed? So ordered. Calendar item number 21, motion
presented by councelor Kelly, that the mayor request ch Chris Chamella, superintendent of public works, to appear before the city council to provide an update on the consent decree entered in 2010 between the city of River and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Councelor Kelly. Thank you, Mr. President. This motion
pretty much speaks for itself as well. I know there's a lot of miscommunication out there regarding the consent decree. Um, some people are under the impression that we're that it's coming to a close. Um, there's information out there that it's not coming to a close, that it's
being extended. So, I think it would be important for him to come in and just give us an update. Um, I did speak to him about this and he'd say he said that he would be happy to come in and give a presentation. So, I think it would just um be good for everyone to just discuss
the topic. Thank you. Thank you, Council Kelly. Council McKenna. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, this was discussed in June when we were doing the budget hearing. Uh, the subcommittee uh, Nick Ryum and, uh, Chris Chamela did come up and talk about
this um, in length um, and um, there was an update. So, I just wanted to say um, this was done in June. Mr. President, I did speak to him and he said he'd be happy to come in. So, okay. Thank you, counselor. All in favor? All
opposed? So, ordered. Calendar item number 22, motion presented by councelor Cogleandro, that the city council approve the following special legislation. An act permitting the city of River to establish penalties and leans for noise ordinance violations. Councelor Cogandro.
Thank you, Mr. President. So, I'm not looking to change the noise ordinance that we have on the books in any way. I'm looking to change the way that we deal with fines. Uh, I believe when we get a fine, it's under 21D right now. It goes from our police department to the
courthouse and we never see it again. Um, I I would like to make this for you so that we have control over the process of this. If they don't pay, we can lean their house. Uh, we can't do that currently the way that we have it
structured. Um, you know, for every every responsible person that has a party in their backyard and plays music loud and turns it down at a a reasonable hour, uh, we have someone else who just doesn't respect this. We had some very
big problems the other night in my ward, um, which prompted me to work with the clerk to to figure this out. Uh, we just did this for water meters. I believe we just switched it from 21D to 40U. So, I would like support on this. so that we
can give these noise violation fines actual teeth. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Council Novaski. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, you know, I agree with the the councelor and the only issue I have is enforcement
and you know, I know councelor Janino u used to deal with this stuff all the time and uh he used to have a a decibel meter they but by the time the police usually get to a location it's stopped.
So, they really can't get to find anybody at the time. And I don't even know if they still have that decibel meter or even use it if they do have it. So, if they don't, I think we should get a couple of them so a couple of the
cruisers can have them and be able to justify the ordinance and be able to issue that this particular fine. So, uh, I could do it as a separate motion that, you know, the police department order two decibel meters to put in cruisers
and, uh, unless unless you want to allow us to go attach it to, Mr. President, through you, um, councelor Novaski, I agree with your motion 100%. Um, I don't know about mixing it with this one. I'd probably
want to do it separately if that's okay. So maybe can we vote on this and then council you can put it on the floor. Happy to support it. So council has Thank you, Mr. President. From you to council Kaggleandra. I just want to make
sure and I know we talked briefly about it but um automobiles will be included in this noise ordinance. I certainly hope so because that was one of the big problems over the weekend. The the the loud mufflers. Yes, motorcycles. Councelor Garina SA. Um, I
believe noise is noise with this ordinance. Anything that's too loud, they can write a ticket for. But like I said, just to circle back, this this will give it teeth. We'll be able to find them, and if they don't want to pay, then there'll be consequences. Thank you. Thank you, Council Council Hario.
Um, Mr. President, I I appreciate the intent of this ordinance. I I would just ask uh our colleagues, all of our colleagues here, or someone can be an answer. uh how this to councelor Novaski
enforcability question how we are able to adequately document high decibel levels um and prevent for example misuse of the statute which would be would become a state law per this uh from you know
let's say neighbors that are really close to each other and just don't like each other and are calling on each other and now for repeated offenses, uh maybe are getting penalties. Um where we have an affordability crisis where
even homeowners can't afford to pay their taxes here in this com in this city. How do we ensure uh that these fines don't stack up uh just for petty differences between neighbors? Uh and then now someone who's been here for all
their whole life, bought their home here, and is just barely making ends meet, doesn't inadequately get essentially criminalized for having a dispute with a neighbor u or something like that, and then all of a sudden they're out of a home. I would just, you
know, that that feels to me like a pertinent uh question and you know I would ask I guess you know we have a former police officer on the on the city council. How is you know how would you go about
approaching this? uh how would we ensure that you know neighborly disputes aren't turning into essentially the criminalization of of someone in their home and essentially costing them their home and their livelihood. Um I guess that's just
my big big question about this. Council Janino, do you have any answer to that? Again, unfortunately, I spent a lot of time with the noise audiences in Rea over the past couple decades. And um there's different types of
noises, there's different motor vehicle noise, there's neighbor noise, different violations, different fines for it, different ways to measure the noise, different ways to go after the people making the noise. The problem that we ran into reveal was
on a household parties neighborhood noise the tenants playing radios would go and find the tenant the ticket went nowhere. Exactly. All right. There was nothing to attach it to.
If you attach the homeowners then it had had teeth to it. But the civil ticket went nowhere. noise for motor vehicles. The registry set set standards for that. We had sound meters back in the day. In
order to get a motor vehicle, it can't just be a step on the gas and go. It had to be a constant noise over a set distance set distance with an open area. Nothing behind it, no echoes when you're when you're sighting them.
I mean, it's it's it's a good idea, but there's a lot more to it than than you realize. I know. I mean, we could work it out in uh Mr. President through through you, Council Kandro.
Okay. Council Hario. Yeah. Through uh to councelor Janino. Um, as it relates to the enforcability piece, you mentioned that tying it to the homeowner or the car owner made it a little bit more enforcable. Um my my
question to you because I know that police officers often will serve uh in court providing testimony for anything that could happen is uh in related matters not we don't now we don't have a statute like this but in
related matters where a police officer is having to provide maybe verbal testimony to a court um how often was was that a definitive factor to ensure uring that the person was uh you know
convicted of said crime or violation per se. Uh and do we think that the technology exists right now to impartially impartially carry out a statute like this uh uh
yeah statute like this and that would place a police officer or a fire uh public official uh in the best position to defend such a citation.
Most of the times the noise relations fell under the health department, not the police department in the city. It's a health issue with the 40 use. And the one time we did make it to court, the court bounced it out cuz the property in violation was grandfathered
in from before the ordinance took effect. I said there's a lot there's a lot to it that you have to look into. You know, I mean, if I was going after someone picking on someone randomly and causing
them undo hardships over and over again, it's never gone that far. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Cogandro. Thank you for the leeway, Mr. President. Um, through you to the clerk. Madame Clerk, I don't know if you have a number
off the top of your head, but how many 21D violations have you seen this year? Like from all of them, maybe a couple for dog violations. Okay. And and that's my point is um on
on Elmo Modav the other night we had three police calls to the same home over two hours and there still wasn't a ticket written. What the reason is, I don't know. Maybe it's because there's no teeth in it. Uh these people were causing a ruckus down at their house, decided to play a full-on 10-on soccer
game in the middle of the road at 3:00 a.m. Um I played soccer for 10 years. I'd probably sprain my ankles now, but um you know, something like that is unacceptable. And if people are warned twice and they have to have a police
officer out there a third time, a ticket should be vi issued to them and they should go through the 4DU process where they still have an opportunity to defend themsel and speak on their behalf. Um, like I said, but if if they don't pay the ticket, you know, we can get them to pay the ticket one way or the other. Um,
you know, so again, I don't know what the reason is for the lack of 21D fines, but maybe it's because they don't have any teeth. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Novaski. Thank you, Mr. President. uh regarding the police, you know, when
they go out on a a disturbance like this, I don't know if they have the proper ticket to present to the violator because right now what they'd have to do is send a referral to
uh the inspectional services as witnesses to write up a particular ticket. But if the police had the authority to write a faru, then they could do it under this
new ordinance. Uh this special legislation just like we did with the fire lanes where the fire department can issue fire zone tickets, but only the deputies can issue actual fire zone tickets if
they find park. no parking uh if there's parking in a fire zone, a fire lane, but we have to give the authority to the police to write once this is passed or is part of it even, right, to make this
authorize the police department to issue a 40U ticket, right? Um, and and in understanding that and and hearing everyone tonight, I I really did want to give this a vote tonight, but I'm wondering if we do put this in legislative affairs so we can
hear from the police department. The, you know, I mean, I think if we're going to put more responsibilities onto the police officers of writing noise complaints and whatnot, I think there should be a a a allout legislative process hearing.
Totally fine with me, Mr. President, thank you. So, um, uh, I believe this will be referred to legislative affairs. Thank you. Calendar item number 23, motion presented by councelor Go Sua, that the mayor request the DPW and traffic
commission in coordination with Masdot to install Bids at 938 Northshore Road in an appropriate position so as to prevent vehicles from colliding with the residential structure and fire hydrant at said property. The residential structure at this uh address has been
hit multiple times. Council Garino Sua motion speaks for itself. Please send to traffic. Thank you councel. All in favor? All opposed. So ordered. And late motion presented by councilors Harmo and President Sylvestri that the
city council pull from the climate sustainability and workforce committee an ordinance further amending wage theft prevention policies in the city of River in order to a public hearing on September 29th. Council Hario. Mr. President, thank you and thank you
for the leeway. Um and I hope my our colleagues will join us um in this effort to pull the waist ordinance. Uh this is something that we've been working um with folks in uh in labor to
ensure that we're protecting the uh uh we're protecting the wages and the payment of any worker in the city of River. Um, and it's just sat in the committee for for a little bit longer than we intended it for. And um, I know
that our brothers and sisters who are workingass members here in the city are anxious to uh, have a public hearing about this and we're trying to get it out for the next public hearing. So, I hope that we can make that happen.
Thank you, councelor. And I will save my comments to the public hearing on September 29th. That closes the business for today's meeting. Thank you for being with us. Mr. President, counselor point personal information. Councelor, state your point.
Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, uh to all the folks around uh everybody knows this time of the year is the Jewish New Year and uh September 22nd is Russia Shunner, which is the actual new year of the Jewish uh faith. and it's uh
5786 is the year uh coming up and then uh following October 3rd is Yum Kipper and everybody has heard about that. It's where we do our fasting. So at this time I want to wish all my Jewish friends and
people that can hear this a happy new year and thank you. Thank you counselor. Happy new year. Thank you everyone and we'll see you September 29th.