##VIDEO ID:UzD7dPIFTs4## good evening everyone I'll call the city council to order at 8:00 on Monday evening January 6 2025 this meeting is being recorded please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all thank you there are 10 items on this evening's agenda and I will ask the city clerk to please read agenda item number one organization of the city council for 2025 okay councelor so each year we are required to elect a president and vice president per section 59 of the city chter so we start by first electing a city council president proem so I will now say that nominations are now in order for city council proem councilor pello thank you Mr President um I nominate councelor naven to serve as president protm of the malber city council for the year 2025 the name of council are there any other nominations for city council president proam hearing none the name of councelor naven has been presented for nomination as president president cm of the city council by councelor fillo uh since there are no other further nominations I'll ask the clerk to please read the role and I'll remind counselors the vote is the counselor's name councelor naen councelor naen councelor Irish councelor naen councelor preciado councelor naen councelor Roby councelor naen councelor duet councelor naen councelor vital councelor naen councelor pillo councelor naen Council Landers is absent councelor aing councelor naen councelor Brown councelor naen and councel Oram uh let's see councilor naen 10 Council Na and one absen Council naen has received 10 votes and is elected as president proem of the city council for 2025 congratulations coun yeah we give [Applause] nominations are now in order for the election of the city council president for 20125 councelor fillo thank you Mr President proem I move to nominate councelor aing as president of the city council for the year 2025 the name of councel aing has been presented for nomination as president of the city council by councelor fillo are there any further nominations for president of the city council okay hearing no further nominations I declare the nominations closed the clerk will now call the role for the election of the city council president councelor Landers is absent councelor fillo councelor aing councelor Roby councelor aing councelor naen councelor aing councelor Irish Council aing councelor aing councelor aing councelor ducet councelor aing councelor Brown councelor aing councelor vital councelor aing councelor Oram councelor aing and councelor Prato councelor aing 10 votes for councel aing one option councelor aing has received 10 votes and is elected as president of the city council for 2025 [Applause] you're welcome okay nominations are now in order for the election of the city council vice president for the year 2025 Council naan thank you Mr President and I nominate councelor Roby for vice president the name of council Robi has presented for nomination is vice president for the city council by councelor naven are there any other nominations for vice president hearing no further nominations I declare the nominations closed the city clerk will now call the role for the election of the city council vice president councelor duat councelor Roby councelor Oram councelor Roby councelor preciado councelor Roby councel Landers is absent councelor Roby councelor Roby councelor Irish councelor Roby councelor naan councelor Roby councelor vital councelor Roby councelor felo councel Roby councelor Brown councelor Roby councelor aing councel Roby 10 for councel Robi one absent sir councelor Robi has received 10 votes and is declared the vice president of the city council for 2025 congratulations [Applause] uh just couple housekeeping uh thank you Council naen uh for serving his proem and thank you for Council faello for uh for the nominations uh and I like to actually thank the counselors I appreciate all the support um I'm honored and humbled by the support I continue to put all my energy effort enthusiasm into running the city council as we look to move Mal forward uh it will exceed expectations and I still think it's the best place to live work and play from a housekeeping standpoint I need a motion to adopt the city council rules approved in 2024 to carry over to 2025 councilor Roy thank you council president congratulations on being reelected I move that we use 2024 rules through 2025 until they can be reviewed and any changes made motions been made in seconded two carry over our 2024 rules to 2025 any discussion on the motion hearing none all those in favor opposed the rules are carried over 10-0 our next meeting uh will be January 27th uh I will issue the meeting schedule along with committee assignments if there's anything that you'd like to see change or uh want to adjust please let me know uh just to what your appetite for looking ahead for 2025 uh we've got the open space plan we' like to see uh come before us the Richer School bond for $100 million Westside fire station around $18 million contract funding for all seven City unions the salary study for all non-union positions accessory dwelling unit zoning that's coming in February that's going to be an interesting one for the city uh Municipal aggregation the rates change at the end of November so councelor Nave and I have some work to do and then new building code uh has been adopted a year and a half ago and we're going to start looking at whether we want to adopt that uh that that will enhance some of our climate resiliency in the buildings so with that we will move on to agenda item number two minutes of the city council meeting December 16th 2024 councilor Brown thank you Mr President move to accept and place on filed am minutes motions made in second to accept and place on file the minutes any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed the minutes of file 10 0 agenda item number three now is the time for the public hearing of the petition of Massachusetts electric and Verizon New England to install one Point own pole on Farm Road beginning at a point approximately 50 ft Southwest of the centeral line of the intersection of Eldorado Drive install new pole 85-5 order number 24-100 9331 and in addition we have a communication from city engineer Thomas depersio with uh regarding recommended conditions for the petition of Massachusetts electric and Verizon New England for Farm Road a remind of the public hearing takeen up in four stages first with the public speaking in favor second questions from the public third public speaking in opposition and finally questions from the city council so we'll open the first Mr President oh I'm sorry Council duet no problem I'd like to uh make note that I'm accused from this one we'll let the record reflect the council duet will not be participating in this public hearing so with that we'll open the first part of the public hearing with the public speaking in favor starting with the applicant please come up and state your name and address please hello Michael Frasier National Grid 245 South Main Street Hopedale thanks Mike can you just give us an overview of the project for us uh yeah proposing to install uh new poll 85-5 uh to the southwest of existing pole 86 to eliminate an existing wire going over a house okay any other questions or anyone else speaking in favor of the proposal anybody else the public speaking in favor anyone else in the public speaking in favor hearing none close that portion of the public hearing questions from the public any questions from the public any questions from the public hearing none I close that portion public hearing public speaking in opposition any members of the public speaking in opposition members of the public speaking in opposition hearing none I close that portion of the public here questions from the city councilors councilor Orum thank you Mr President uh we received a communication on December 31st from our city engineer and I think it notes a very important part of the conditions to be set we always receive standard conditions I think you're familiar with those Michael uh but this condition really I would ask that it' be part of our vote as City councilors and it's about double polls we don't care for double polls I'll be very honest with you and this is asking at the double poll at number 56 near House 499 and number 59 9 near House 535 on Farm Road be removed I will be asking that this be an additional condition to the standard conditions that are being added and we really need to get rid of these double poles and this is a effective way to do it thank you Mr President thank you Council or any other comments or questions from the city councilors councilor fillo thank you Mr President just a quick question for the applicant um I do happen to agree with councelor Oram um and I will be moving in a moment to approve with the conditions um after we finish the public hearing but um is uh the new poll coming at the request of a resident or is this coming directly from National Grid is this something you folks are doing that I'm sure of it's it's more of a safety concern who addressed it first I'm not sure okay sounds good I appreciate it thank you yep thanks mik any other questions from the counselors questions from the counselors any questions from the counselors seeing none I close that portion of the public hearing and the entire public hearing Council fillo thank you Mr President I move to approve the petition of Massachusetts Electric in Verizon New England to install the joint owned poll pursuant to the two conditions outlined by the city engineer and plus the stand plus the standard condition plus the standard conditions and the the double P correct motion mid seconded to approve the Mass Electric petition with the conditions identified by the city engineer any comments or questions on the motion seeing none all those in favor oppose the petition is approved with the conditions outlined by the city engineer the vote is 90 with one abstain thanks agenda item number four now is the time for the rescheduled public hearing on the proposed zoning map Amendment from Justin mlet trustee on behalf of one Maple Terrace to include one Maple Terrace identified as map 70 partial 274 in the malbro village District order number 24-100 9305 a again this public hearing we've taken up in four stages public speaking in favor questions from the public public speaking in opposition and then questions from the city council uh we'll start with the uh applicant uh with a u public speaking in favor and then uh I will remind folks for this particular one we're going to limit speeches to comments to 3 minutes so be ready name and address for the record please Justin mlet 86 Hutchinson Drive thank you hi everyone I'm Justin Mallette I'm the owner of one Maple Terrace here in in our city of Malboro I live at 86 Hudson Drive with my wife Ariel and our two two young Sons Leo and Mac who are four and 3 years old my wife and her family have lived and operated small business in Malboro for 30 years I bought one Maple Terrace 11 years ago actually when I met my wife Maple Terrace is located to the Southwest here of City Hall just under 1,000 ft from from this building between Maple Street and cotting a adjacent to the cane storage building I'm here yeah you can go to the next slide yeah I'm here today to request his Zing map amendment to include one Maple Terrace in the Malboro Village Malboro Village was established in 200 14 and this SL slide highlights the vision of Malboro Village the purpose of Malboro Village is I'm sure you guys are allw is the district is to implement smot growth principles and develop development that is compatible with the character of downtown malor The malor Village district is envis envisioned as the Hub of community gathering places that reflects and celebrates the existing historic character and enhances the traditional Village atmosphere the vision is to build value and to support our employers with a downtown that attracts visitors and helps to retain and recruit employees while creating new housing opportunities the existing three family house uh next slide please yeah the existing three family house at one map Terrace known as the William oconnell house Circa 1895 has been preserved over the years and I I I Look to continue and to continue that and have it remain a historical asset to the downtown area why allow resoning resoning one Maple Terrace into malor Village will allow my family to subdivide the lot and build three Maple tires just to the right of the of the existing house both properties will then conform to the bylaws set in the Malboro Village requirements this project will enhance the neighborhood and contribute to the vision of Malboro Village as as you all know Massachusetts is in a housing crisis the state is losing tens of thousands of working age adults every year due to the housing crisis simply because they cannot find suitable housing there's a need for all types of housing units market rate low income affordable housing housing for seniors housing for people experiencing homelessness and the shortfalls are all across the board uh which was stated by the Secretary of Housing Ed Augustus just recently Massachusetts affordable homes act which was signed by Governor Healey in August 2024 has a goal of of building 65,000 housing units over 5 years with five Bill 5.1 billion in funding there's an urgency to build now Governor hil's office says that they're doing everything they can to create new housing years ago the housing crisis was in big cities today it has affected every city in town in the Commonwealth um next slide please all right so the the this slide shows one map terce highlighted in yellow the yellow box there 7 70- 274 APLE number one Maple Terrace is the only property on Maple Terrace the majority of the street is the backside of cane storage building which is in Malboro Village uh all of the green on the map is Malboro Village um to the as you can see from the map one Maple ter is one of if not the only underz underutilized properties in the area uh with the large open area to the right side of it the neighborhood is comprised of business in multif family homes uh the cane storage building is actually industrial the neighborhood the sorry the to the South is 55 M Street cane storage to the east is 43 as place that would be just the left which is a 5 unit building to the West is 45 Maple Street zoned as business which would be just to the right uh that has a pet groomer and two housing units above that and to the north is 40 as place which is a 3unit building um just above it all of those the houses there in the RC which I'm currently included in are all multif family houses um the uh next slide please so th this here I just I I did myself I I simply threw a line down the middle of the of the lot to subdivided and you can see is that the a new three family house which I'd like to build fits seamlessly into the layout of the lot and as well as the neighborhood uh I I plan to have a combination of service and underground parking um under the house it as construction permits and uh with the minimum of one space per bedroom currently the parking is the the gray area you see here this is from the gis map so that's the actual like current driveway um so it goes in the front of what I'm proposing the new the new house would be and then down along the lot line uh next slide please so here's a picture on the left of the existing house um and with the open lot to the right of it uh you can see there's some gravel uh I put down like crust Stone where the driveway is uh that's the current parking area um what I plan to do is have Park in to each side of the new houses so to the left uh basically where that gray car is angled parking I'm going to have to uh possibly excavate the the the slope in the Hill off of the left side of the house and possibly build a little a small retaining wall um just to to make more space on that side um but I I and then have parking to the right angled parking to the right side which would be to the left of the new uh three family building I I actually would like to build what you call a Triple Decker um which is that you see a lot in in Boston um and that was kind of a rendering that that I pulled up uh next slide please so the the positive impact to the community would be the three additional housing units in the heart of downtown Malboro uh in Malboro Village steps to C the city hall restaurants and numerous small businesses um as well as employment this would provide housing to people who who work in the city DPW workers nurses teachers Etc people who work here and want to live here but cannot because they're not there's not nearly enough housing units uh additional tax revenue to Aid the city's resources and a positive aesthetic impact to the neighborhood um and possibly if if the city would allow me to add a sidewalk from one Maple Terrace to Maple Street um in order to connect to the sidewalk there currently there's no there's no sidewalk on Maple Terrace and a lot of the times when I'm there I'm cleaning up the yard there's there's always kids and people walking down the middle of the street um that's next slide please so that's pretty much uh the the the conclusion of my my slideshow um I would just want to thank you all uh for your time thanks Justin any other members of the public speaking in favor right up to the microphone right over there hi my name is Lauren I live on Grace Circle I am in favor of Mr mlet uh building his three story um apartment building I do think it will add to the community especially in that area you guys are doing a lot of work and making it look better than it has so I just think it'd be a great issue Lauren I didn't catch your last name Lauren wa I'm sorry orini orini thank you thank you Lauren thank you any other members of the public speaking favor any other members of the public speaking in favor any other members of the public speaking in favor hearing none I close that portion of the public hearing questions from the public hi everybody my name is aart I live at 27 Jefferson Street in marbor I have seven questions the question one were the drawings made uh available to the public prior to tonight's uh hearing you mean this PowerPoint presentation the the yes the specific uh the of the property so I'm s so I want to understand the question again Dave speak yeah speak into that microphone the drawings made available to the public prior to tonight's hearing not not that I'm aware of no sir is that a requirement that the public has the opportunity we haven't had a chance to review the drawings prior to tonight so we're coming in cold and this is our only opportunity to ask questions so we haven't uh had a chance to review the drawings and see what questions we might have we we've had you know minutes to come up with uh potential questions um and so I just wanted to ask is that per the standard procedure for a rezoning hearing like this so zoning is usually typic just the reasons for the zoning change the applicant can put whatever drawing he wants up there that doesn't necessarily mean that's what's going to get built I mean that it's a zoning change this isn't a design to approve what's going to actually ultimately be built on the facility why we reviewing the why are we looking at these drawings that the applicant can pitch whatever he'd like Mr aart okay okay do uh do we believe these drawings to be realistic that that that the that the Triple Decker presented can be fit on the property with the parking and as described or is it just a guess at this point again I'll I'll I'll answer that by saying it's an artist rendering I mean we're we're voting on a zoning CH or tonight's the public hearing on a zoning change to see what could or potentially be built on that site if they want to present whatever pictures they want they're allowed to do that so would there be the opportunity for the council to put conditions on the resoning no I I I guess I'm answering my own question the resoning wouldn't come with conditions that that's the project that needs to be built on it be because that the resoning you could build a six-story uh Hotel on the property after it's res zoned so you are correct there there are no conditions under zoning a zoning is for the property and it today it's owned by Mr Mallette tomorrow it could be owned by you so okay you so we don't we don't know that and that's one of the things the council looks at is what is the ultimate intent and not just for the current owner As Nice a guy as Justin is or whoever else may be you get some shaky developer in there don't know any of those guys but they uh you know something could potentially go up there but they would be held to the zoning that would be approved by the city council okay I I don't mean to sound argumentative in my question I just I'm trying to understand the process uh thank you you're welcome David thank you any other questions from the public any other questions from the public any other questions from the public hearing none I close that portion of the public hearing public speaking in opposition stas come on up hello my name is stas Ban I'm at 27 Jefferson Street um at the building that I built um so my developer here is many of you know and I'm speaking against this because it's a spot zoning in my in my opinion and it's also allows it opens up a huge can of worms as we all know what the malor village Zone allows uh technically speaking malor Village Zone would allow a building there with six stories high with 10 units 10 units per floor so that could be 60 units with zero parking if if you read the zoning because this building is located within 1,000 ft of the garage so somebody can pay $25,000 per parking requirement and build nobody would do it because it's expensive but it's possible under the current zoning and uh it's dangerous to do it uh because for the reasons that um Mike osing just mentioned that the property owner can change and we don't have control over what goes after so this is just a bump on the road for somebody coming in and and shoving something huge out throat basically that that lot um and so that's why I'm against it and I'm also against it because it would set a precedent because we have a very similar problem happening at Jefferson Street across the street from my building and that's the reason I'm here actually because I don't think uh we can apply these huge density zones into neighborhoods uh spot Zoning for requests of the unit of the of the property owners because it's just the dangerous thing to do so I'm just speaking against it I hope I fit into my three minutes um and you got we got two more minutes keep going two more minutes wow okay cool so one one more thing I want to say is that I I went and spoke to some folks at the neighborhood and people don't really understand the zoning I do because I just that's what I do and uh people don't really understand what it means to change the zoning until they see a rendering of something that goes there and uh the zoning The malro Village Zone allows 80% load coverage and current Zone which is RC allows only 30% loot coverage and this lot actually currently can sustain five units uh so the RC Zone if you calculated it 10,000 squ feet for first three units plus 2,000 square ft for each additional unit with a special permit you can do five units right there so he can already do two out of the three that he wants and if he waits until February and gets through uh Massachusetts ad then he can do one more so that's six units right there so in a way he can achieve this by just going with a special permit and being careful about the design of the buildings to fit within the uh load coverage and and that would be a simple somewhat simple thing it's not so simple but it would be it would not increase the density to the density which was meant to be in the downtown so that's uh so I speak strongly in opposition thank you thank you sta any members any other members of the public speaking in opposition come on up Dave hi uh Dave aart 27 Jefferson Street again so um I just wanted to mention I think the the proposed Triple Decker seems like a nice uh development for that piece for that property but that's we're not here to talk about that at all the the applicant seems like a a good guy that doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about tonight um I would fully support building a Triple Decker on that piece of property what I am adamant against opposed to is the idea of spot zoning or blank check zoning where it wasn't a mistake that this the the zoning map that was presented is a little misleading because everything to the side of that is the zone that that that that that particular property is part of it's not like there's one piece of property it's an island within the uh within the marbor village this is where marbor Village butts up to the rest of marbor marbor Village the city of marbor has a has a beautiful plan in place for marbor Village and this this development is nice I don't think it's realistic but it's nice as a Triple Decker marbor Village isn't intended to for for triple Deckers it's intended to have a cohesive downtown with the context of buildings working with each other buildings that are close to the uh buildings that are close to each other that create a downtown buildings that uh are similar in Heights not uh uh one-offs and um you know I I so I think the problem is this is this zoning marbor Village which is has page after page after page of design guidelines which I I think Marvel did a great job in developing and adopting and is just being all that is being ignored to build a Triple Decker um in a spot that it would be a great spot for a Triple Decker but it was not that's not a great spot for a six-story structurer or some other unintended consequence as a result of resoning and so what I'm worried about is what if the applicant something happens financially to the applicant he has to sell the property developer takes it over he's all he's then allowed to build something radically different than what was presented tonight I just I know there is a different way to get to the end result which is a which is a development that makes sense for that property which is a Triple Decker and I don't think that the the rezoning is that um is that resoning to marbor Village is not that process I I I just wrap up by saying I think it sets a bad precedent for the town I I went back and looked at how often the zoning map changes this T this C and I say town I mean City I'm sorry I don't I mean city this city has done a good job of and that's how zoning is effective where you have a zoning map and you use that map to guide the development and I I think marbor has done a nice job of that there's not been a lot of oneoff blank check resoning if you go back and look at the history of the uh resoning that's been approved it's it's not very often and it's specific to um a benefit for the entire city not for one property owner thank you David thank you any other members of the public speaking opposition hi Elliot D Bruin 27 Jefferson Street I'm a firsttime homeowner moved to the city of malor in 2024 I live in a thre story Condo building that is zoned as RB so the current lot is zoned as RC which is actually less restrictive than that so I guess my angle is if there could be a row of tow houses or a small Condo building built today you know why not fit something with the current zoning if zon as MV the building would have at one Maple Terrace would have to be at least three stories high and up to as tall as seven stories tall with a special permit so the current residential zoning um of the the current uh land and the surrounding land is lock coverage of 30% or less so with MV it would go up to 80% lock coverage and could go right to the curb finally if change to MV because as was stated earlier within 1,000 ft technically just under 1,000 ft from a parking garage there would be a city requirement of zero parking spaces so you see you know with the John Bell development how they tried to do the 99 units with no parking and the Main Street development how they're trying to do that big thing with zero parking um you know as the artist rendering suggests there would not have to be any parking I believe that MV is designed for downtown and should be used downtown thank you thank you Elliot and welcome to B any other members of the public speaking in opposition any other members of the public speaking opposition any other members of the public speaking opposition hearing none I close that portion of the public hearing questions from the city councilors city coun councilor or Mr President I did look around first I don't want to always be the first to jump up um I was hoping maybe the ward council wanted to ask questions but our speakers tonight did a good job in reviewing the zoning laws and one thing that we have to be careful of as counselors is spot zoning it's very dangerous sets a precedent and could be very concerning to the neighbors around that area that was spot zoned so I can't be in favor of something that's spot zoned maybe we need to go back to the books I don't know when to look at the district M Main Street District Village and see if you know it needs to be changed but to do it for one individual lot it's very difficult and as noted you're a good applicant but we don't know what the future would be and we're talking about zoning we're not talking about what you presented although thank you gives us an idea of your ideas but that's the issue here so I'm very concerned about spot zoning thank you Mr President thank you Council councelor PR thank you Mr President that's uh thank you councelor orm um yes uh thank you for the people that showed up today I do agree with a lot of them um regarding setting a precedent um four spot zoning um I think it's unfortunate for for the applicant that his spot is in that little Nook um I know he had questions about why you know the line was drawn there I think the reason that you know we have to kind of draw lines for zoning somewhere and unfortunately it's right across the street from your house um but I I think you know as one of the residents did mention that you could um add more units going through special permits so that is still an Avenue that you can take um but um as it is I will not be able to support um this zoning change thank you thank you Council PCI any other questions from the counselors questions from the counselors Council Robi thank you Mr President um Mr Malay I know I also attended the planning board and they had a couple of questions I just have a couple of things that I would like to uh bring up first of all if the city council looks at the zoning map and looks to the west of Granger to Newton Street you will see the same issue where one side of Newton is Maro Village the other side is I believe not I can't see it without my glasses um on the presentation that you gave if you you will bear with me to go back to the current neighborhood page that shows the zoning map the zoning map it's it's coming it's just slow I know it takes a while to go backwards um the zoning map does not show um arrows for direction on this but it is pretty much North Southeast and West like the world is um so you have in your description that south of 555 Maple Street is zoned B it is actually Zone Malo Village which is why it's green on the map um you have to the east is 43 A's place that is 7252 that's actually the west and to the West you have 45 Maple Street that's East um so I'm just pointing those out so that everybody is sure that they're looking at the right properties when they're looking at this and also if you look at the maror Village zoning it does state parking to maintain a pedestrian friendly environment motor vehicle parking spaces shall be located behind or beside buildings whenever possible parking located directly between the buildings and the street alignment shall be discouraged so if this was approved for resoning and you came to us for a special permit we would probably not want to have that parking the parallel parking that you briefly described so um just keep that in mind and this is in urban Affairs I believe at the planning board meeting they indicated that they would be making their decision at their next meeting which is the 27th so as soon as we get the planning board's recommendation then I can set up a urban Affairs committee meeting assuming I am continuing as Urban Affairs chairman thank you thank you councilor Robi any other questions from the councilors questions from the counselors any questions from the counselors councelor pre thank you Mr President I just have one more question uh will you be living at the residence or no you know the residence okay all right that's all thank you thank councel preci any other questions from the counselors questions from the counselors any further questions from the counselors hearing none I close that portion of the public hearing the entire public hearing and this item is in urban Affairs Justin thank you very much thank [Applause] you agenda item number five communication from the mayor regarding a transfer request in the amount of $125,000 from free cash to it equipment for the Emergency replacement of the hva system for the it server room councilor Irish uh thank you Mr President um I've communicated with director Gibbs on the urgency of the replacement of the HVAC system um if there's no uh if there's no objection this evening I'd like to make a motion to approve uh motion to approve the transfer in the amount of $125,000 from free cash to the IT department please motion May second to approve the $125,000 trans from free cash to upgrade the HVAC system in the IT department in discussion on the motion Council orm thank you Mr President I had a chance to go look at the area of concern and I would suggest as the chairman well future hopefully chairperson of finance that we approve this tonight thank you thank you Council Council vital thank you Mr President as I read the the letter that was sent it talked about a part that needed to come back in 6 weeks and that it had the the two smaller units that are keeping the the uh the uh server cold cool right now is fine now but as soon as the weather gets hot then it would be more difficult my question is is why not just get waiting to get the part and just fix the existing unit uh request a suspension of the rules to allow Mr Gibbs to address the council all those in favor of the suspension oppose suspension carries 10 z Mr Gibbs can I speak from here you can speak from where whatever you'd like how's that hello hello okay it is um so to answer your question the air conditioner in the server room has been there for 15 years uh we have it PMD um uh maintenanced every year uh actually every 6 months they come out and service it um and throughout the years throughout the 15 years Parts have died things have been replaced so on and so forth but at this point in time the the unit is 15 years old uh when the compressor died at 3:00 in the morning I got the call to come in to check it out so obviously luckily it was cool we were able to open the windows and put a small portable air conditioner uh the following day Dan Jackson came out and put a second portable air conditioner in to cool the room while the service text came out they told me that the compressor was gone and we they had their fingers crossed saying I hope we can find one this unit is 15 years old um so the reason why um uh they found it a compressor it is going to be here actually I got an email today that it's going to be installed on the 15th of this month um but that's not the major case the major case is the unit is older now and if something another incident happens and we're in the middle of the summertime I'm not going to be able to cool that room enough to handle all the service and stuff so I need to work to get this thing replaced um in time before I like to get that done before the Sumit time so that answers your question it did thank you okay you're welcome Council V very good sir Council Dent thank you very much Mr President and this through you to Mr Gibbs uh so what I understand is effectively you're doing the repair work to get rid of the temporary air conditioners that are now being used to provide temporary Heating and get it going but the concern really is it's even after this repair it's still 15 years old correct okay and the intent is to phase out a replacement yeah in a place that's more planned and and much more sustain you know something gets scheduled planned as far as doing that type of replacement then at the same time replacing the AC units you're replacing the battery back and power backups right with lithium ion by the way oh interesting okay that's I figured you'd like that F sa anyway thank you sir thank you Council duet any other comments or questions for Mr Gibbs hearing none on the motion to approve the transfer all those in favor oppos transfer carries 10-0 thank you Mr Gibbs thank you thank you agenda item number six communication from the mayor regarding wireless communication Le lease authorizations for the Fairmont Hill water tank and the sgo hill historical water tank Council faello thank you Mr President move to approve the the uh Wireless lease authorizations motion made in second to approve the leases any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed leases are approved 10 0 agenda item number seven communication from councilors aing and naen regarding Municipal aggregation December 2024 update Council and aan thank you Mr President hard to believe another quarter has gone by and yet here we are um this quarter Maba residents um Maba residential electricity users participating in our mun a program has saved over $551,000 this accounts for the third quarter of 2024 our City's contract with first point power which began in February of this year will run through November of 2025 excuse me which started in February of last year because it is now 2025 um the rate which is um 14 cents a kilowatt hour is lower than the National Grid basic um summer service rate of 16 cents per kilowatt hour which will be in effect from August 24th through this month uh importantly this contract provides 100% renewable wind energy um and it is uh cheaper than even most of National Grids green options it's projected that this contract will save our residential electricity users that participate in the program about $2.6 million in calendar year 2024 and the munag program has saved users over $ 36.9 million since the Inception in 2007 um so this uh this program continues to save mobile residents more money on their electric bills and as you noted earlier Mr President we have some work to do um coming up the end of this month as we prepare um for the new rates coming up and um the talk of a new contract at some point in the future so with that motion to accept and place on file motions made in second to accept and place on file any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor oppose the mo uh communication is filed 10 Z agenda item number eight minutes of boards commissions and committees Council duet Mr President thank you very much uh with a change to item e of the minutes boards commissions committees I like to approve have approved for the following uh there's going to be an update because on page three and Page four uh Mr Walsh's name suddenly changes to Mr Hager because he lives on Hager Street so everyone knows it's an issue that's going to get addressed thank you sir motions made in second to accept and place on file all the communications and the traffic commission will take care of correcting their minutes any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed all the minutes are filed 10-0 claims Council Brown thank you Mr President move to send claims to legal department motion May second to send the claims to legal department any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed claims to go into legal 10 0 reports of committees any reports of committees hearing none agenda item number 10 ordered that the mayor shall submit to the city council an annual report from the commissioner of Public Works regarding the state of the city's public Cemetery specifically the report will provide a general update on city-owned cemeteries detailing current conditions current and future needs staffing plan and outline regular maintenance and repair priorities for the upcoming fiscal year the report shall provide a specific update on the state of good repair for all veterans gravestones in city-owned cemeteries including the number of Graves in need of repair work completed in the prior fiscal year work to be completed in the upcoming fiscal year and the plan for how the Department of Public Works will accomplish this work the report will provide critical fin cial information related to all of this work including but not limited to a review of cemetery finances amount of money spent in the previous fiscal year projected expenditures for work to be completed in the upcoming fiscal year balance of the Perpetual care trust fund and plans to use funds generated by the interest in the Perpetual care trust fund in the upcoming fiscal year the report shall be submitted annually to the city council by April 1st of each year submitted by councel NA Council naen thank you Mr President thank you Mr clerk for reading uh what probably could have been up a little quicker um when I submitted this um serving as the chair of the city council's veteran services committee um I have the opportunity to attend the monthly meeting of the mro veterans Council as do other members of the committee um it's a great chance to provide updates to the veterans in our community about the things that are happening at City Hall and to field questions and concerns um and comments about the issues that are happening across our city um one of the most frequent concerns I hear about is the state of our city cemeteries uh particularly the number of veterans gravestones that are in need of maintenance and repair our cemeteries are filled with the brave men and women um from the city of malbro that have given their lives for our country in every armed conflict throughout our throughout our country's history it's important we continue to honor that Sacrifice by maintaining their final resting place in a manner that befits that sacrifice to be cleare the Department of Public Works for our community the forestry parks and cemeteries division in particular do a phenomenal job maintaining and beautifying our community with the limited resources that we have in municipal government they go to work every day and make our city shine and much of this work is done under the radar or without much fanfare this is not a critique of the work that they do every day in any way the goal of this order is to provide an annual report outlining the state of mabra City own cemeteries and it would identify and catalog the critical needs in all of our city own cemeteries showed the work that has been completed each and every year and the work that still needs to be done importantly it would also provide a detailed list of veterans gravestones that need to be repaired Graves that have been repaired during the prior year and Graves that will be repaired in the coming year finally would include a plan to accomplish this work and lay out the funding needs to accomplish this goal My Hope Is that this report will serve as an annual reminder of the importance of focusing on this work and finding necessary resources to accomplish it not only for our veterans but for all the people who have chosen malor as their final resting place um and hopefully this goal as I said you know there's a lot of work that's being done in our city each and every day um hopefully this report will help us to be able to focus on it help us deliver the resources to DPW um and work with the administration to be able to make sure that this work is focused on and moveed forward um it's my hope that we'll have a um I make a motion to refer this to the veterans committee um I've already talked to the DPW commissioner would like um him and our veteran service agent to come in to discuss this work discuss a little bit of the history so people can understand where the responsibilities lie how this work can be accomplished and how we can all move together um to to accomplish this goal um I also want to thank the um the malbro veterans councel um for the work they've done to advocate for this because it really um it has put a little bit of a focus on there so with that I make a motion to refer to the veterans committee well done Council naan motion made in second refer to the veterans commit committee any discussion on the motion Council of idol i' also thank you Council uh i' also like to recognize um Maddie Sergeant who has put together Yan's efforts and and being able to document all the veterans gravestones that are in need of repair uh matd goes above and beyond the Call of Duty uh just because he just cares about marrow and it's veterans so I'd like to recognize um all the work that Marty Sergeant's done thanks Council vital any discussion or comments on the motion seeing none on the motion to refer this item to the veterans committee all those in favor oppos it's go to the veterans committee 10 0 councelor naan thank you Mr President move to adjourn motions made second to adjourn all those in favor opposed we are adjourned at 8:53 have a good evening everyone e