##VIDEO ID:jBgcfWIssOw## e the Monday September 16th regular meeting of the gardener city council will come to order the clerk will please call the rooll councelor Brooks present councel Cormier present councelor heglin count present councelor dernell owitz present councelor harder present councelor Heath present councelor Mack president councelor tone pres councelor tuo Muno president councelor tyros pres president kazinski president please rise to replay the opening prayer and Pledge of Allegiance God we thank you for bringing us together this evening INSP Us toy deeds and sound decisions and direct us towards the attainment of city government pray bless and protect all people of our city and to so God and INSP us that we may delate inity andon IED Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all announcement of open meeting recordings any person may make a video or audio recording of an open session of a meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium subject to reasonable requirements of the chair as to the number placement and operation of equipment used so as not to interfere with the conduct of the meeting any person intending to make such recording shall notify the chair forth with all documents and Exhibits used or referenced at the meeting must be submitted in duplicate to the chair as they become part of the meeting minutes pursu to General Law chapter 3A subsection 20 is anyone here recording tonight's meeting okay no one is recording tonight's we will begin with the reading and approval of the September 4th 2024 regular meeting minutes is there a motion councelor General LTZ I move to wave the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented second motion made by councelor General out seconded by counselor Mack to wave the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented is there a discussion on the motion the clerk will please call the rooll councelor Brooks yes councelor Cormier yes councelor heglin yes councelor dernal owitz yes councelor harder yes councelor Heath yes councelor Mack yes councelor tone yeah councelor Tel Muno yes councelor tyros yes president kazinski yes 11 y the motion passes just want to note that uh since counc to is on the phone this evening all motions will have a roll call vote there are no public hearings Communications from the mayor Communications item 11388 a resolution to support the administration's request for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to take over custodianship of Route 140 from Green Street to the winon Town Line report from the finance committee councelor Mac thank you Madame President the finance committee me on this resolution this is for um custodianship from the from Green Street to the winchington Town Line some of it is currently overseen by the state the state is looking to take full um custodians ship um of the state to oversee it for pling salting and other maintenance um the legal department reviewed this and the DPW is in agreement um the state will be accountable for maintaining and um if there is any issues the city can um hold the state accountable the finance committee um voted to recommend passage of this resolution to the full Council second motion is that on the form of motion yes motion made by councelor Ma second by councelor tyros to pass the resolution is there a discussion on the motion the clerk will please call the rooll councelor Brooks yes councelor Cormier yes Council heglin yes councelor Dern owitz yes councel harder yes councelor Heath yes councelor Mack yes councelor tone yes councelor tibo Munoz yes councelor tyros yes president kazinski yes 11 y the motion passes item 11390 a measure authorizing a 5-year contract period for school district copier printer Services report from the finance committee Counselor General lawitz thank you madam president the finance committee just met on this we take up these uh many times says the city can only enter a three-year contract but 5year contract we can get better pricing um therefore the B committee was in favor and I move to authorize the measure allowing the city to enter a five-year contract for school district district copier or printer Services second motion made by councelor General seconded by counselor Mack to authorize the city to negotiate a 5year contract period for school district copy or printer Services is there a discussion on the motion councelor hlin I'll just be abstaining from this item this evening thank you counselor one exstension any further discussion the clerk will please call the rooll councelor Brooks yes councel Cormier yes councelor heglin obain councelor darn lawitz yes councelor harder yes councelor Heath yes councelor Mack yes councelor tassone yeah councelor Tio Munoz yes councelor tyros yes president kazinski yes 10 y the motion passes item 11391 a measure authorizing a 5-year contract period for the fire alarm and sprinkler Testing Services report from the finance committee councelor General lawitz thank you madam president same reasoning as the previous one U able to get better pricing for fire alarm and spring for testing services if you go for a 5-year uh contract finance committee was in favor and I move to authorize the measure allowing the city to enter a 5-year contract for fire alarm and sprinkler testing services second motion made by councelor General La seconded by counselor Mac to authorize the city to negotiate a 5-year contract period for five for fire alarm and sprinkler testing services is there a discussion on the motion the clerk will please call the rooll councelor Brooks yes councelor Cormier yes councelor heglin yes councelor Dern owitz yes councelor harder yes councelor Heath yes councelor Mack yes councelor tone yes councelor Tel Munoz yes councelor tyros yes president kinus yes 11 y motion passes item 11392 a communication from the mayor providing an update on the progress at Waterford Community Center councel General LTZ I make a motion to place the communication on file second motion made by councelor General out seconded by councelor Mack to place the communication on file is there a discussion on the motion Mr Mayor thank you very much Madam president I just where this has been uh something that's been going on for the last two years in the city I wanted to provide the uh council with an update on what to expect moving forward now that the programs are uh getting ready to fully launch and we're going to get ready for our first ribbon at the build in the building by the end of the year uh that we can cut the uh a lot of construction has been done in the building itself if you drive by now you'll see that there's a lot of plywood in front of the front doors uh the reason being for that is that the previous doors that were there for the school were not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act they were actually too narrow so you could not uh fit a wheelchair in those doors uh what's happening right now is I call them the grocery store style doors or when you walk up to those the doors will automatically open uh so that people don't have to worry about any compliance when you're going to the senior center or or any of the other entities that would be in that building uh new lighting has been installed throughout the building itself too uh this is new LED lighting and it's all motion sensored too to make sure that even if a light is forgotten gotten to be turned off uh we aren't wasting any electricity costs that are there uh prior to when the building was a school itself or excuse me prior to where we are now when the building was still operating as a school itself every classroom had their own circuit breaker and you turn the lights off in your room by flipping the circuits uh every time uh that it was there so this is something that again we're moving forward as best we can uh with the resources that we have the plumbing has all been uh completely redone uh bathrooms have been upgraded uh on the two-story Wing that used to be the classroom wing of the building there's new many split heat systems and electric heat that's been installed to help us with our uh fuel cost that we have in that building uh a lot of the plumbing has been upgraded over there as well the boiler is having some work done to it now uh so the construction on the inside is moving forward the kitchen is almost completely upgraded too and we're working on uh a new hood system for the kitchen and potentially a second Hood uh going in for a secondary kitchen as well um a lot of the funding that's been coming for uh this uh the renovations that have been done uh some of it's been grant funding there was about $150,000 of the city's arpa funds that were put into that there was the loan taken out by the city council that went towards the two-story classroom wearing Energy Efficiency upgrades uh and some painting uh and then there was a $400,000 State earmark that we received from representativ lotnik uh that went towards a lot of the Ada upgrades a lot of the um kitchen upgrades and the plumbing upgrades that have been there throughout the building and and 100% of the electrical upgrades that have been done so far was paid for out of that grant that we received uh from the representative as well um all this to say is that the building's ready for our first tenants to start moving in I did receive the first draft of the uh lease agreements from the Law Department this morning I anticipated at the next meeting we'll have the lease agreement for the community action committee the CAC before the city council uh for your review and consideration uh the reason why the CAC to be first is uh we that is done in what's called a grant agreement uh from the city so it doesn't have a regular lease a regular lease is subject to the provisions of 30b where we' have to go out for a request for proposal process just like we do when we're selling land uh but what the general laws allow is that there's a nonprofit providing certain human and Social Services in the community uh they can receive what's called a uh in kind Grant so the space of the building is the grant uh that's because several years ago uh the CAC used to receive a portion of our cdbg funds and then pay an equivalent of that back to the city in a uh re rental payment for the use of the Pleasant Street building that they're currently operating in uh and seeing that it didn't make sense to write a check to someone just to write the check back to us for the same amount we use this provision of the general laws that allows for an ink kind Grant of space instead of uh the funding to we do and that actually exempts it from the provisions of chapter 30b uh so we don't have to go out for bid for that one so long but it does hold them to the task that they need to provide a certain amount of services to the residents of the city uh that are in need that is the type of agreement that they currently have at Pleasant Street and it's basically a transfer of that agreement from Pleasant Street over to Waterford Street uh school with the uh new updated space and the new updated facilities and all this other stuff written into the lease agreement that you know what they'll be uh in charge of over there and what space they'll be occupying over there as that's being done at the same time we're going to be releasing the request for proposals uh the RP process uh for the remaining areas with the two-story classroom wing and the kitchen being the other two areas that we're going to put the RFP out for uh the senior center and the historical commission are also looking at relocating in that building we're probably going to put those in after the other entities are all settled and done with uh just to be sure that we have you know the tenants who are paying the city in first so we can have some type of Revenue to continue in the last minute uh upgrades that need to be done on a rolling basis with the funding that we're receiving coming in and uh get everything we need to do done there too so the Project's just about uh in the spot where we can have people in the building full-time uh and it'll be great but I just want to provide the council with a uh just an update where this has been a 2-year process since we started to where we are now and since you're going to start to see the lease agreements coming before you soon your consideration just what have we done in between I thought it was good to make sure the council knew about thank you thank you Mr Mayor further discussion the clerk will please call the rooll councelor Brooks yes councelor Cormier yes councelor heglin yes councelor dernal lawitz yes councelor harder yes councelor Heath yes councelor Mack yes councelor tone yes councelor tibo Muno yes councelor tyros yes president kazinski yes 11 y the motion passes item 11393 a measure naming the property located at 62 Waterford Street as the Waterford Community Center report from the finance committee councelor Mack yes um this has to be uh change from a school designation um it's an administrative action the final name of the uh building will come to the city council for approval but this needs to be done before the leases um Can can the leases can be done and uh to move forward to have the building occupied so I make a motion to move the de to move I make a motion to designate the property located at 62 Waterford Street as Waterford Community Center second motion made by councelor Max seconded by councelor JN lawitz to designate the property located at 6 to Waterford Street as the Waterford Community Center is there a discussion on the motion the clerk will please call the RO councelor Brooks yes councelor Cormier yes councelor heglin yes councelor DN lawitz yes councel harder yes councelor Heath yes councelor Mack yes councelor tone yeah counselor tial Muno yes councelor tyros yes president kazinski yes 11 11 y the motion passes item 11394 discussion of the new city park at the location of the former macki block councelor tyros thank you madam president leading to a motion at the last meeting I remarked on the opening of the new park at the former macki block I expressed my happiness at its completion and how I've already seen many people using it since then it's been brought to my attention that there have been that there may be serious issues with how the construction was completed specifically concerning compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act this is especially important because when the mayor brought this item before us in June of 2022 the existing lot not meeting ADA compliance due to the grade of the slope was in part a factor in the motivation to invest in the creation of the park over the weekend I looked at what the mayor submitted and what the council approved for this project and there do appear to be some discrepancies that I think warrant further investigation and explanation therefore I moved the council through the Authority Under section 25 of the city Charter initiated an investigation into if anything did indeed go wrong with the construction of the foreign park at macki block how if any errors did occur and what remedies the city may take to address the problem uh and to address any possible process Improvement in the future furthermore that the council president appointed counselor to undertake the investigation and report back to the full council at the earliest time that a thorough recounting of the facts may be made thank you madam president second motion May by counselor Tyra seconded by counselor one question when did this go onto the agenda because it's not on my copy it was the agenda was mended today and it was sent out by the clerk's office okay so it just came out today because I have not seen this at all yeah it was amended today the agenda was amended on Friday with um the previous item 11393 and then it was amended today as well with item 11394 um I would like to object please okay by section 28 of the city Charter any ordinance order or resolution may be passed through all its stages of legislation at one session provided that no member of the council objects there to but if any member of the council objects further action on the measure shall unless it is an emergency measure as defined in section 26 be postponed for the that meeting so since this item was objected on um we will not take it up anymore at this meeting and it will be taken up at the next meeting orders item 11389 an order authorizing $2,139 35 cents payment of previous fiscal year bill for public building utilities mayor's unclassified account councelor Journal Alex thank you madam president the finance committee met on this item the auditor had reached out saying they um need to compile more information to get all the invoices together um it was our recommendation at this time to remove it from the calendar and wait for a resubmission of the bills and I move to do so second motion made by councelor n seconded by counselor Mack to remove the item from the calendar is there a discussion on the motion the clerk will please call the role councelor Brooks yes councelor Cormier yes councelor heglin yes councelor dernal owitz yes councelor harder yes councelor Heath yes councelor Mack yes councelor tone yes councelor Tio Munoz yes councelor tyos yes president kazinski yes thank you 11 y the motion passes orders item 1138 I'm sorry I just did that one petitions applications Communications Etc rep uh there is none reports of standing committees finance committee item 11 1289 an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Gardner part one thereof entitled administrative legislation report from the finance committee councelor General lawitz thank you madam president the finance committee met on this um it has been with the council for some time it is a lengthy document as we as we have discussed in the past um this is the I think third iteration of it as well um the edits the mayor has made the additions are plus of trying to consolidate um and make things more uniform in the boards of commissions U but there is a lot to go through um and there were some recommendations made during um the meeting as well to have the information that was removed included as well for comparison um so we respectfully ask for more time in this item going forward if there is no objection the committee will be granted more time the committee will be granted more time item 11370 an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Garder chapter 590 thereof entitled Solid Waste to change the fee for solid waste collections this item along with item 11371 an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Gardner chapter 553 thereof entitled sewer rates in item 11372 an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Garder chapter 171 thereof entitled Personnel to amend Schedule E non-union compensation schedule these were um had insufficient time in between the first printing of the publication and this evening's meeting uh per Council rule 9 and so due to that no action can be taken at this time um between this meeting and our next regular meeting there will be sufficient time and an action will be able to be taken at that time this is similar to our previous meeting but I was assured by the clerk's office um at the last meeting that they would um be sure that the publication was submitted and it was and so uh we do need to take more time on these we've also been notified this is this is not time sensitive within that amount of time so the action can be taken um at the next council meeting item 11387 a resolution relating to the future of Coleman Street School councelor Mac yes the finance committee meeting uh finance committee meet uh met on this tonight and voted to move the resolution um to the full Council for approval so I make that in form of a motion second motion made by councelor Ma seconded by councelor Dar lowitz to pass the resolution is there a discussion on the motion the clerk will please call the rooll councelor Brooks yes councelor Cormier yes councelor heglin yes councelor Journal awit yes councelor harder yes councelor Heath yes counselor Mack yes councelor tone yeah Council T Muno yes counselor tyros yes president kazus yes 11 y the motion passes Safety Committee item 11204 an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Gardner chapter 600 entitled vehicles and traffic section 24 entitled parking prohibited on certain streets edel street from Elm Street to Lawrence Street report from the Public Safety Committee councelor Cormier uh thank you madam president uh we had a meeting on this last Friday and we also had a public hearing and there was uh several members of the public that had submitted um their concerns with this item uh therefore the uh Safety Committee voted unanimously to refer this back to the traffic commission with this additional feedback from uh the public um and I've reached out to the deputy chief to get that ball on motion with the traffic committee um but at the meantime I would ask for more time on this item if there is no objection the committee will be granted more time the committee will be granted more time item 11349 an application of echo ATM LLC for a license to deal in secondhand articles at 677 tiany Boulevard inside Walmart report from the Public Safety Committee councelor Cormier uh thank you madam president this is a uh business that has been at Walmart for a long time uh is in good standing with both police department and the uh City itself uh therefore we unanimously moved to recommend approval of the application I so move second motion made by councelor Cormier seconded by councelor Harden to approve the application is there a discussion on the motion the clerk will please call the role councelor Brooks yes councelor Cormier yes councelor heglin yes councelor Dern alowitz yes councelor harder yes counselor Heath yes counselor Mack yes counselor tone yeah councelor TBO Munoz yes councelor tyros yes president kazinski yes yes 11 y the motion passes at this time I would like to call councelor General lawitz to take up item number 11350 I I will recuse myself and step away from this matter because I have a potential conflict okay next item is item 11350 an application by Garder tenpins Incorporated for a bowling alley license at 560 West Broadway report from the Safety Committee councelor Cormier uh yes thank you uh again this is a long-standing business it is in a good standing uh regarding in uh reports from the police department as well as the city clerk uh therefore we recommend to approve the application second motion made by councelor Cormier seconded by councelor harder to approve the application by Gardener ten fins Incorporated for a bowling alley license at 560 West Broadway is there a discussion on the motion hearing none uh the cour will please call the role councelor Brooks yes councelor Cormier yes councelor heglin yes councelor DN lawitz yes councelor harder yes yes councelor Heath yes councelor Mack yes councelor tone yeah councelor t b Munoz yes councelor tyros yes and president kazinski has recused ten the motion carries I would now like to call President cinus back to the chair to take up the remainder of the agenda thank you councelor General outs I'm going to call brief recess e meeting back to order service committee item 11326 a petition by National Grid Elm Street and cross street relocate poll one solely owned poll approximately 15 ft report from public service committee councelor tyros thank you madam president I would respectfully request on behalf of the committee more time if there is no objection the committee will be granted more time the committee will be granted more time item 11385 a measure to Grant National Grid and easement to install a Transformer at 95 Pleasant Street report from the public service committee councelor t thank you madam president uh I we respectfully request more time so the committee could review if there's no objection the committee will be granted more time the committee will be granted more time there is no unfinished business in matters for reconsideration there is no new Business Council comments and remarks are there any Council comments and remarks councelor Heath thank you madam president um I just want to go ahead and give a um big shout out to our deputy chief um Nicholas uh he graduated from the procedures FBI National Academy in Quanto Virginia I think I said that right as part of a 291 first class alongside 253 other law enforcement professionals from across the US and 26 countries the National Academy is known as one of the most prestigious law enforcement executive trainings in the world where very few executives are accepted the National Academy is known for its advanced communication leadership and Fitness training preparing officers to Executive rules so I just want to say congratulations thank you thank you counselor further Council comments and remarks councelor tyros thank you madam president I respect the rules of this Council so I won't be commenting on previous business from this evening however moving forward I hope that the rules of this Council are not used to prevent debate on items properly before us thank you madam president thank you Council further Council comments and remarks okay I will entertain a motion on the floor to adjourn after the closing prayer is there a motion second motion made by councelor Cormier seconded by councelor tyros the clerk will please call roll councelor Brooks yes councelor Cormier yes councelor heglund yes councelor D lawitz yes councelor harder yes councelor Heath yes councelor yes councelor tone yeah councelor tibo Munoz yes councelor tyros yes president kazinski yes 11 the motion passes Almighty father who over all as weour we thank you for the opportunity of joint deliberation and action witness during the course of this meeting bless Lord all here and the people representes we are and do th attend to our common welfare until our next meeting amen the meeting stands adjourned thank you everyone