1.28.2025 City Council - Health and Environmental Affairs

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the city council committee on health and environmental Affairs will be call to order clerk will call the role please Council Dion here vice president Pereira chair Roso here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether

perceived or unperceived and by those present are deemed acknowledged and permissible first item on the agenda tonight is Citizens input no citizens input second item on our agenda this evening is the minutes from the October 22nd 2024 meeting motion to approve motion to approve is made by Council Deion second by myself all in favor I any oppos the eyes have it item number three tonight is the

resolution to convene with a representative of the P Board of Park Commissioners the city administrator and representative for the forward Police Department to discuss concerns regarding unauthorized use of the public parks t24 motion list from the table by Council Dion second by myself all in favor I the guys have it so we have a member of the police department here this evening sergeant if you want to come down

and we also have the city administrator here as well if you'd like to join us as well what item is this number three sir that's okay we can introduce our titles en rolls please for the committee sure my name is Sergeant John rero I am the supervisor for the neighborhood engagement and enforcement team sir you just take that microphone officer Seth aen City administrator thank you so just a real quick update I

know I had spoke to the the board um chairman of the bark board he did not have an update for me regarding this resolution I don't know if the city administrator the officer has any updates regarding um the unauthorized use of public parks I can um report that we have not um received any uh complaints um probably it's been months at this point um I mean obviously the colder weather is

attributable you know is is probably the the blame for some of that um however um ever since we uh we secured um oh my gosh I'm drawing a total blank seni your moment here thank you um ever since we secured uh the space there um I think the unauthorized and and frankly sometimes damaging use of that uh park space um has been uh has been mitigated significantly uh obviously uh as uh

things pop up at different Parks um we'll take action uh as quickly as people notify us but there really has not been notice um at least since um I would say early Fall Fair officer do you want to add anything to this yeah so nothing has been brought to my attention uh I believe the only recent incident that I'm aware of since I've come into this new rule is a tent at Maplewood Park that's

being okay anything from the committee I'll detain a motion the other thing that I would ask Council per hi sorry I'm a little bit late the only thing that I would ask is how many offices do we have going around to like the parks I know before we had Park police which we had money and we had more manpower but we don't now do sectors check the parks that they're

in occasionally uh so what we would do is call out a a a check so that is occurring um it is occurring sure uh I don't have any stats if you need stats I could probably compile them but for this for this meeting I didn't come prepared with any stats as to how many officers have called out part checks no I'm just questioning like are we doing routine

checks I know I got a call um I know that Council reposa had gotten calls on you know people drinking Etc there but I've also gotten calls like at Maplewood somebody put a trailer in the back they gutted it out and put a trailer there or in other other Parks if there's trash or something like how do we I don't want the police to have to monitor trash and that type of thing but if people are

there after hours there's an ordinance you can't be in a park after 9: correct so are we checking that I just and it's not you or the police department from my own knowledge I feel that sometimes this Council passes ordinances that then there's there's no consequence to the ordinance because there's not the manpower to enforce the ordinance and if that's the case then why do we pass

ordinances so I just wondered how many police you have doing that I know you're low on numbers I get it but it's just curiosity okay so I would say that we do that on a case-by Case basis um when I became aware of the trailer it was toad okay um when I became aware of the problem of Maplewood Park it's going to be addressed right um so I can only take

things as as they come so I assume that the officers when they are working in the streets are doing their du to to call out those those checks thank you I appreciate that thank you very much with that I yield thank you Council per anything else from the committee on this I'll entertain a motion um if there's if there's nothing significant it's can always be brought up later date I would

uh give Grant Leaf to withdraw second motion made by Council Deion second by Council per all in favor I I on post the eyes have it thank you gentlemen thank you appreciate it thank you item number four on this evening's agenda is a resolution to convene with representative from Gates of Hope Incorporated representative of the administration discuss options to help Gates of Hope Incorporated continue

their work for the citizens of the Flint neighborhood motion to lift from the table motion made to lift from the table second second all in favor I any oppos the eyes have it so there is no representative here U from Gates of hope this evening but I will um ask the committee to consider a motion to Grant leave to withdraw at this point um this resolution has been satisfied I would

make the motion to Grant leave to withdraw can I just say something on this motion on motion made by Council Dion Council prayer just that if Gates of Hope and I think that they do a good job they do provide food for some of our housing um buildings to the elderly and I think they do a good job but for us to try to find options for them I think

we'd really be opening up up a can of worms that we would have to provide a location for all nonprofits and that's a precedent that I don't think the council wants to get involved with so with that I yield and I second Council Deion's motion absolutely motion Grant Le to draw made by Council Deion second by Council for all in favor I any oppos the eyes have it number five on our agenda

this evening is a resolution to convene quarterly to review and discuss the water supply and Water Filtration plant table 10222 24 motion to lift from the table second motion made from the table by Council Deion second by Council of pray all in favor I any opposed the eyes have it we'll call down our representatives from the water board and our department head of water and seart gentlemen good evening if you could

identify yourselves for the committee please good evening Paul furland the administrator of community utilities good evening Jim Tero president on the Water Board does that one work Mr f it is good all right Mr furland we'll start with you if you could just give us an update um we meet portal with both of you to discuss where we are with the water supply and the plant so if you going to give us some updates and we'll

go from there yeah no definitely thank you very much for having us again so uh again I have to say that uh our water supply is in good standings right now North with tapa Pond uh Copa cut is full uh so the northw tppa pond as of uh about a half hour ago is negative 11 in uh 11.5 in below full pond uh the South wppa Pond is -25.8 8 in below full pond

um this time of the year very good places to be with h with those ponds at that place um both ponds right now uh have a full ice cap on them uh we contacted by some residents um last week uh and requested to open the gates for the South wupa Pond to allow um ice um sailboats to go out onto the pond which uh I stopped by uh the boat ramp on Saturday and there was probably

30 or 40 ice boats out there yeah yeah and they had they had a whole C set up and everything a lot of people out there ice skating uh so uh we will be leaving the gates open to the uh Dave's Beach Boat Ramp um up until uh through this weekend uh and then we'll evaluate whether we'll you know see if there's request and uh make sure that see whether uh there's any hazards out there

uh but that's when uh we'll close the gates if we decide to but we'll try to leave them open residents and people to be able to enjoy that recreational activity um again northw Tupper Pond full ice cap uh on there as well as Copa cut uh too um but uh um no major issues right now uh with the pumping station or any other uh any other uh ongoings Council prayer just a couple of

questions when you say you have the gates open there are they open day and night or are they open from a certain time to a certain time so we're going with the same policy we go with in the summer which is sunrise yes sunrise to sunset um the Filtration plant are we fully staffed there are we looking at any more turnover and are all those four filters in the back are they

all up and running or is there still one down yep no so back to your first question uh we were fully staffed uh we've had two employees that left one just as recently his last day was last week uh we have another one that's starting in about a week to fill his position uh the other person that left we have an internal transfer that's starting in a week to move down to

filtration so from maintenance down to filtration and the internal transfer has all the certificates necessary for that or is there a time frame where they need to be certified uh so they're transferring in as a Watchman attendant which doesn't require any lure um but this uh this particular employee is very interested in going through the classes uh to become licensed a licensed op opor

um so uh that's the treatment plant we're fully staffed uh within the uh within the reservation and the green crew uh we have one open spot but we have uh one candidate that's going through the pre-employment requirements and then they'll be fully staffed out there uh and then within our water distribution uh we have uh three open spots uh three Open Labor spots one uh supervisor spot and then the transfer

will open up one more spot within the distribution so so we're in a really good state right now with employees uh throughout those divisions still a couple to fill in distribution but did the employees at filtration I know that there was an issue when they were doing negotiations with the contract because they're under ask me which is the clerks here the dispatchers the filtration your

department but some of those people need all of those certifications Etc and there was a question about um the amount of money that they get now my understanding was anou was done and they're getting more is that am I correct in that there was a letter of agreement outside of the regular negotiations that was done with a number of the water department employees which uh brought them up but the that was uh

that was roughly about a year and a half ago so um you know again still within the whole entire region probably within the whole entire United States those licensed employees are still in demand everywhere so uh everybody else has continued to climb private sector and other um you know other communities um so uh are their salaries now um in comparison to New Bedford or tarton or other places are we more apart of the

same salary or are we still we're a lot closer I would you know we're probably still a little bit behind but we're a lot closer uh a lot of the employees that we have right now we have a great group of employes uh morale throughout the ranks is very high uh the division leaders that are in place place are really in touch with their employees and I think that's one thing that helps keep

um uh keeps the PE the good people that we have keeps them there when you say they're closer if they went to another Community is the pay 10,000 more 2,000 more is it still and the reason that I ask that is because we will be talking about the budget come May and that's something if we want to keep employees we need to pay them and I know the budget's really tight but water is a key

ingredient to this community so I want to be able to Advocate if we need to um to try to get them up to par with you don't want to lose them like we've lost some because they can make more money that's why I ask is it like a 2,000 or $10,000 yeah so so for our licensed operators and some of those employees I would say that they're probably in the

uh you know in the middle of that range probably five to seven would would be my guess to another Community um if you talk about some of our non-licensed employees our laborers and things like that you know if you're comparing them to uh either a private contractor um or or some other place where they could go to get employment it's still a big gap between those um but again those those

uh employees that don't require license here thank you Mr with that I thank you Council Council yeah can you um just speak to the quality of our drinking water right now I would say that the quality of our drinking water is very high uh definitely compared to other communities I went to an event Saturday night in another community and uh you know it was a it was a a restaurant and I said this isn't Fall River

water um you know the uh IDI is are extremely low um and um you know we don't have uh a lot of pollutants or anything within our water that's why we do we are allowed you know the treatment that we do we primarily treat for uh any uh floating organic floating Organics or any uh organic pieces within it that's what we use the polyaluminum chloride to create the flock through a San anthy

filter uh and then out uh out and uh you know hit with a chlorine bleach to just to kill any of the bacteria within the water um P fos um you know that's the that's a big thing that a lot of people are talking about a lot of communities are talking about uh we've been uh non detect on majority of the pfast and well below the state limits uh for uh any of the other uh

regulated PES within uh Massachusetts um we've just had uh EPA came through and did an inspection we're waiting on their final report but on the debriefing the inspectors were uh very happy with the uh condition of our facilities uh being all of our water storage tanks our pump stations as well as our treatment plant uh as well as uh as as well as uh the operational staff

that we have in place so so kind of as a followup so recently we've heard and um about some illegal dumping and and things being put into our water supply that obviously shouldn't be there um so you don't feel that that though we don't want any of it you don't feel that that's been a big impact on anything no so you know there's there's a couple of instances that I've been

made aware of things that were on Facebook about uh things so there was uh one one uh issue it was probably was less than a year ago where somebody illegally dumped um some material which was away from the shore away from the shore um that was cleaned up a uh a um environmental clean up company was brought up soil and everything uh where it was the spot was limited to was

removed uh taken off site that was uh captured immediately uh some of the other um things uh that I've heard were were pulled out of the uh the water over by the causeway um seemed to be more of a solid steel product or things like that which didn't have wouldn't have any overall Major Impact to the water supply water quality okay thank you with that I yield do you have anything yeah the bike

frame yeah you know those are the solid pieces but if you want yeah Mr Tero do you want to add something to that um just um the woods are in good shape um it's unusual to have water supply this this high at this point uh traditionally um the North Pond would be down 20 24 in coming into the the winter and that way you know the rainy season would would then add we're in really

good shape I went through um I did a tour of the Watershed yesterday um very good shape actually Council PR you mentioned that EPA came down and they're going to be doing a report but you don't have it do you know uh can you anticipate when that report would come in I'm not sure when they when they expect to release that when it does could you I can to coun the

council or to this committee problem and when you talk about dumping and that any thoughts on putting some more cameras in that area to catch people that are illegally dumping yeah you know I I don't want to go into details but I know the police department and other agencies are uh looking into that and providing support for that so they're going to do it not the water department the police okay one of the

benefits of the bio Reserve has been that we're having a lot of um a lot of recreational visitors and that's eyes and ears and um on various Sundays that I've been out there I tend to wrun through the woods quite a bit um we're getting a lot of passive Recreation and that helps a great deal because see something say something um a lot of the people that we do see out there hiking

uh we had a little cross country skiing on what little snow we had but um the they're very uh cognizant of of what a great recreational area it is and they're taking some passive responsibil in that and I think that's one of the pluses of that I agree I mean it's a beautiful area and it should be utilized maybe uh Mr TBO from BCC can go up and uh do a little bit of a tour around

there and put it out uh for the public to see the trails and and Etc that's up there now yeah it's we're forever encouraging that type of a thing Mr furland did the uh The Inter Lock and tour I was just telling Paul that um the green crew is out at Interlocking um this past week and they were expanding and opening up the old areas where the estate was the the stone

work in the walls out there is just just marvelous I mean it's technology you don't see anym um and that that type of a tour was very well received uh there is a local resident Aaron kareah who posts uh quite frequently on Facebook um and he and Mike uh laasia and myself are uh getting together um to start some um sort of like a ranger program kind of a thing um Mr kareah uh actually on his

own uh scheduled a trip down to dr's mil pond off B Rock Road he had uh almost 70 people join him on that hike and that was uh a snow hike uh you know it was pretty pretty cool to watch uh and they got a lot out of it uh so social media is a helpful thing we'll do more of it as we go I agree thank you thank you

thank you councelor so just to follow up on The Dumping has The Dumping ever caused any issue with the water coming out of the pond at all have you have the filters picked up anything coming out of the pond like smaller items that may have presented an issue no you know um so our intake is uh isn't it anywhere close to the deepest point it's right off from our um you know it's just off

our plant probably probably 100 feet from the shore uh and it's a large pipe with a screen on the top we've never had any issues with any you know anything that's P making it that far um to to the uh to the intake all right you know the intake we clean twice a year but it's usually some vegetation that gets up there that that causes us some issue so

got it um and just you know one thing I want to mention coming up this spring uh we'll be having a open house like we did at the other ones once we finalize on a date we'll let we'll let everybody know um but uh yeah we pl another open house for our uh water tower in the 1875 and our treatment plan something I want to try to keep going every year got it few

few short follow-up questions from the last time we discussed um lead pipe removal where do we stand so uh a year in report that we provided to uh to DP um we were at 1,0 uh removed as of December 31st uh so the contract has been moving forward with that uh we uh we need to find more lead services or verify that people don't have lead Services that's my next question so uh

you know we've done inspection uh up to date of over 7,000 properties throughout the city to verify the service material inside the house uh but we have about another 6,000 that we need to verify uh so if you're a property manager property owner again we have our interactive website online for people to be able to go on see whether we know your service material uh if not give us a call if you

don't know how to use the internet and you can't get to our site give the water department a call we'll look up your address for you and we can schedule an appointment for one of our inspectors to get out there to look yours truly got a letter so out of curiosity how many letters were sent out and how many were responded to too uh so initially in the November 15th mailing we sent out uh it

was about 7,000 mailings that went out uh our staff probably fielded um I would have to say probably six to 700 phone calls and scheduled appointments we we were extremely busy during that during that time frame um so it was a great thing because we were able to book out all of our staff a month and a half uh out to uh get inspections done um but now that that mailing is kind of resided we're we're

back into uh trying trying calling and stuff like that uh we're going to be working here coming up with EPA I think the first time they're going to be out here is the last week in February well the first week in March I forget um but they're sending out a team uh of eight people uh we'll send 8 to 12 people we'll send a water department employee with them and they're going to start

door knocking on some of these unknown Services uh so they'll knock on the door they'll be fully identified with with orange with a with a green vest uh there'll be a water department employee somewhere in the block with them uh working with them uh if somebody's home allows us to come in to do an inspection it'll be about a five minute inspection to look at the service uh if nobody

answers the door we'll be leaving door hangers uh for them to be able to call to schedule an appointment but that's the next step that we're doing uh that's a grant that's provided uh through EPA to us uh to uh provide all this Staffing to come out to do this work with us cool my last question is back in October when we last met with you you mentioned the

um application for CPC for the roof of I believe the Water Division storage facility um an update on that if you could yeah so we we submitted four applications actually to CPC for funding uh two of them were for uh identified pels uh on the the uh other side of the uh of the north wer Pond um and uh we uh those two were uh pulled prior to the they went through the eligibility round

um but we weren't uh far enough along with the property owners when we got the funding ground so we uh requested those to be um not go through the final process uh we submitted two applications one for a roof on the uh what I'm calling the cold storage garage which is uh garage across the street from my Water Maintenance building uh so that application included uh redoing that whole entire roof uh redoing the sofits

and faes surrounding the building as well as uh doors and windows uh on that building uh so that was submitted uh we did go through the uh funding hearing uh just a week or two ago with CPC uh we provided them some some supplemental information on uh how much each portion of the project would be if we want wanted to break it down so that they could partially fund uh some of that

work so uh the other one that we did apply for was for uh North South Gate house uh so anybody that drives down 195 heading west uh and takes the 24 North Exit there's a little Granite building right off to the side of the road there that's actually the control structures that uh have the gates in it that connect North and South with TOA Pond uh the internal of of the building uh was

we could talk to them in future years for other portions of the work so and any time frame on on those decisions do you know I know they were deliberating I believe last week and this week I have not heard where they are in their process you know I know they did get a uh a lot of Grant applications this year fair enough Council Pereira just a couple when you talk about the LED service

we'll go back to that and the door knocking I think uh people from City Hall have called to try to get appointments to go into someone's house I got a few calls I talk to Seth about it that I got to call this woman like who's calling me is it the city it's so unfortunate that there's so much scamming going on with phone calls especially you know older people they're

afraid so I think it's good to do that or maybe a public service announcement we're going to be doing this at this time um you know people don't buy the paper like they used to that you could put something in there but people are afraid so I I like the idea that you're going out and there's somebody from the water department and somebody that can show identification because they wanted

to go in the house so I found out you have to go inside to see where the pipe is and she was very fearful she was taking care of her husband who was ill and didn't want some man coming into the house so going around door knocking with you know a group of people I think that might be helpful and and if they talk about it more so you'll know y um when

you put in for money to do the roof and sofits Etc any thought on maybe getting Diamond to do that kind of work they're right next door they may be able to do that and then we just have to pay for the materials yeah no definitely so uh we've already Diamond's already evaluated the garage at uh you know the 1620 complex um they didn't want anything to do with the roof just because there may be U

materials in there that need to be um or something you some type of material um so they didn't want to touch the roof but the doors and the windows on that building we we're talking to them to redo actually on the towel we have one window that's rotted away they're working on rebuilding the Sills on that now oh that's good to you know get them involved with that as well now how about

solar panels you know I'm a bugger for solar panels if you do the roof can you throw some solar panels on there so we're not you know paying electric or at the new building have they put solar panels there yet we haven't put the solar panels up yet I've talked with uh two different uh companies that that do this in the co- buying and stuff like that um you know and the one of the

problems is so they've told me straight out that the build the new building uses so little electricity you get your best bank for your do dollar when your solar panels are behind the meter offsetting the electricity that you use um they used to used to be able to sell your electricity back to the grid pretty much at the same rate that they would charge you now that's not the case now they pay

you Pennies on the dollar for the electricity that you sell them compared to what they well maybe the federal government now will change some of that because they're looking to do a lot of solar so maybe some of that will yeah will change some of those regulations may change it's definitely something that we it's still in there it's still in play I just haven't gotten an offer that I think is suitable for you know

for us to move forward with all right with that I yeld thank you thank you do you want to motion to table and again yes motion to table second motion motion to table by Council per second by Council Deion all in favor oppos the eyes have it gentlemen thank you very much see you in the next quarter not before item number six is the resolution to discuss strategy to decrease solid waste recycling costs tabled July 15

2024 motion to lift from the table second motion to made motion to lift in the table by Council Deion second by Council per all in favor I any oppos the eyes have it we'll invite Mr olera fair enough Mr olera she always want to extend the invitation Mr Ren that's all Mr oliv if you could identify yourself and your title for the public knowledge please Al ala director of City operations welcome um so the resolution

is here to discuss in in its short form here uh where we stand with cost of recycling trash contaminated Recycling and any other implementation or strategies to help reduce costs so I'll give you the floor and then I think we'll follow up with questions at this point the uh the director of U Community maintenance is not with me today um he had he was calling sick and um I'm going

to give you the best that I can at this point you'll sound much better yourself I feel your pain trust me I know go ahead uh we are working we are working with our committee to try to reduce all the costs we have uh plans that we're we're putting forth very shortly and um we'd like to present those at some point but right now we uh we're trying to work as diligent as we

can we're working at um looking at what we're spending right now and what we're um we're utilizing for the um recycling costs and uh the waste costs and um and then our uh disposal costs so we have um we are going out for an RFP very shortly and uh those those plans are all on the table at this point

um this is some of the things that we were going to talk about some efficiencies and um we are stepping up our compliance throughout the city uh we're adding we have four employees uh working very diligently to um write citations to make sure that we um get the recycling up to par at this point uh waste recycling is all something that we're we're concerned with uh we're we're enforcing that in very key areas

of the building of the city uh mon our Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays are our better recycling times we uh we those are goes of being Direct directly shipped out to our Rochester location the Tuesdays and uh Thursdays are our most difficult times we're finding contaminated recycling um what do you attribute to that probably the area is the um um non-owner occupied tenements okay so

those are the those the areas that are are concerned we're focusing heavily on how to mitigate those those areas and how how we transport from um the curb side to the uh tipping floor and then to our uh um location in Rochester uh I new Beford that one's in new Beford uh We've increased our um citations 35% from last year and we are speeding that up and adding more uh more

efficiencies to that so that's our our hope is is to start at the curb um we do have plan to hit the educational components where elementaries middle and our um high schools to train that that uh those students to bring that home to do the same thing to their parents recycling is is one of the key contributors for us to reduce our trash cost that is known fact that's proven and that's the educational component is

is very very important to us also having our compliance folks walk the street streets talk to folks and explain to them that that certain things can't go in our recycling bins that's vital as well so starting each way we're looking at that um so we do have the residential cardboard pilot program still going on so we are we still we do have that going on um that's in key areas of the

of the city we're looking to expand that uh we just don't have the areas right now that we're planning to expand but that's that's ongoing it is it is a benefit to um pulling good cardboard off the streets and uh that's our goal at this point can I can I ask a followup question on that I I know the last time we discussed it it was put in one part

of the city and it was asked that was a communication sent to those residents that the pilot program was continuing until further announced because residents in that area were concerned that we were doing it and we're not sure if we're still doing it is so it's still going on at this point it is it's still gone okay and uh we haven't heard anything uh differently from um residents if if there's concerns

they'll call in and we'll we'll give them that information but we are planning very very shortly to expand that and at that point we'll we'll get more additional information out to to folks and when you say shortly what does that mean uh I could I asked the last time and that was kind of the same idea shortly so we're we're meeting right now and I would say Pro we'll have more information within the next couple weeks

okay fair enough all right we'll go to counselor um Dion first so in terms of recycling um there's been a number of changes over the years Once Upon a Time you couldn't put a pizza box in a recycle bin now you can you can put paper Once Upon a Time you could put shredded now you can't uh you can't put paper towels and I'm bringing this up because I know that there are people who

have been cited for putting shreddings and putting paper towels because they weren't aware of the changes um so do we have anything um that when a change occurs that that people can are being notified that these changes have happened so I mean because for the most part those type of things are people who try to recycle properly and then then find out that they're doing it wrong so we we do send out

flyers and those flyers do pinpoint what is recyclable and what's not we can send another flyer out again to update any changes but the Flyers that we we're sending out have been updated through Mass recycling so there everything right now on the Flyers is the most recent in other words correct okay very good um with that I'll yield for now thank you Council per I've never gotten the

fire and my house is paid for so it's not like it's going to the bank but honestly I've never gotten a flyer telling me um what changes have been made with recycling I know that if I put a water bottle I can't if I don't have a cap on it I can't put the cap separately I have to put the cap in trash unless I put the cap on the bottle then I can put

it in which they get stuck in the machines or whatever I got to be honest with you um we have been talking about trash Forever at one point we had a few meetings uh councelor Dion and myself we weren't together on this committee we were on separate committees but we were on the trash committee we never got a call again about the trash committee so who is on this trash

committee well we we do have a group um who's the group The City administrator the mayor myself uh CFO um our legal advisor and um Charlie Den who the uh um DCM director and our uh um compliance officer um Joe Kennedy okay so before we had I think Patrick Norton was on it um couple of business people some business people were on it Michelle uh was on it so you got the business perspective

Etc um if you look at the fiveyear forecast that we just gotten I was looking at it and it looks like trash is going to continually go up something has to happen and this has been a few years and I don't know who's afraid to bring something down to this Council and say hey guys this is what we need to do we cannot afford to be spending the money we're spending on

trash and if all of our neighboring communities have to pay and we're getting their trash dumped here or a lot of people that have bought properties that that don't live in for River and bringing trash here when you say there's compliance how much money have we made with compliance what what's the number if they're really enforcing it where do they pay their fee if there's a fee they

pay at the city clerks so there is there is a a a penalty that um there's a 100 2300 which is an ordinance right now um we do have folks that have been fined and we do have situations that we're we're reaching out to make sure that it's it's tied into the attacks if they're not fine so those those are still happening right now um how do we know how much we've gotten this year for

example who would have that we would the clerk says we hardly have any so we can get you some numbers we can we can get you some numbers on the tickets we can get on the violation so we can get that right now and honestly I feel bad for you because when we we had Mr Pico we had other people that worked under him you're kind of working alone um and you don't have an assistant

and you're handling a whole bunch of stuff um and I do feel bad I'm not saying that you're not a hot worker I believe that you are but I think you need some help to kind of get these things done and we need the manpower to to get some of this stuff done we've been talking about doing a recycling program in the schools but we've talked about it but that hasn't

been done so what what else can be done what can we do as councilors to help initiate some of that to get those things to happen is it a meeting with the school committee so figure out so that that that just came up today we we we have a grant person that we have it's a Missy Hollenberg she is now in we're now in Q we she's been doing a the Newton or the

Norton um division so she's around the Commonwealth in the south coast and she is now we're next in Q so she's going to be working with us to get that program situated at the schools so we are next at that we've been waiting we've been trying to get as much education from her to try to get that program up and running but now we're in Q right now we're ready she's ready to come back to

us what are we paying now for recycling for aend I don't have those numbers with me right now I can share that with you yeah I can share that with you but all right I just think that you know Solid Waste and Recycling when you said something about on Thursday it's a more difficult day what sections of the city do you find that you're having the most trouble with people properly recycling is it all over

the city is there some areas that are maybe a bit better than others is there a really problematic area so it's it's the N the non-owner occupied tenaments that were really finding the concerns so they're not around they're just not recycling as as much and the quality of recycling is is down so those are the focus are stay there and they're not owner occupied how does the owner get

that tag it goes to the it goes to the owner it goes to the address of the owner correct because every person is supposed to have if they don't live on the property they're supposed to have that was an ordinance that was passed many years ago by Steve CA they're supposed to have something hung up that has the name of somebody within a certain mile radius to respond so if there's a problem we have somebody to

call and if they don't have that they have to pay a certain fine I'll tell you I go in and out of Apartments before more than I do now but I don't see those anywhere so if you guys are looking for somebody to just tell a landlord hey look they can't do this there's no way to contact anybody either right I just think some something really needs to be done and I think I think the May's

afraid to come out and do something to be honest with you um but something needs to be done explain to the public what the problem is I mean what do we pay this year for trash within our budget councel I will tell you that this is not this is not just a Fall River issue right this is this is all over the place I mean we're we're and I hate we

hate doing this but we're in line with our neighbor in new Beford we're cost wise we're a little lower than them but we're right now it's because we have a decent contract with with the vendor but they have a place to dump they do new bfit we don't right we don't we have to pay to dump so correct let's put the cards on the table trash a cost cost wise we're

we're I've been around trash here a long time listening to this and when does our contract with easy end we have a few more years with them a couple more years two more years I believe it's two more and I think we're we're going to really start focusing on the RFP so we can get ahead of the curb and put um a lot of items and unit items on the on the RFB

so that we have better control of what you think with the train coming there's somewhere we can ship trash out somewhere less expensive we've had we've had conversations about that we' we've looked at everything that we could possibly we can't get a barge to move things out less expensive we've we've we have to look at everything absolutely kind of crazy but we do nothing nothing's crazy we're we're trying to

see what we can uh save some money at this point and where are they doing the cardboard where were you doing the cardboard I believe there was a uh an area down in sou I don't have the actual address but I can get that OV to it's down in the South and then I believe it's in the um North End that we have so north and south north and south two places yeah because the way people

get things delivered to the house I mean I could fill up an Amazon box with all kinds of cardboards from everything that my I order husband I've reached out to Amazon to make sure that they could take some of the cardboard from from us at this point too so they're still working on that they're still working on that they have they have a uh a means of getting that cardboard and they're

Recycling and we've we've reached out to them on several occasions to do that I like those kinds of initiatives that thinking outside of the box that's great I I applaud you for the work that you try to do I just think that you got a lot on your plate you know I know we were looking at efficiencies or whatever and you know bringing together cemeteries and trees and parks and then

I don't hear anything about that but we need to do that kind of stuff it needs to be done but I thank you for your service and I feel bad because I it feels like you have a cold I do have a cough drop I can give you it oh I have a couple in my pocket thank you but thank you for coming and I just I guess we'll table

this and see what happens after I just have one follow-up question no Noe do you yield Council I yield thank you um Mr Oliver you mentioned you're working on a presentation when do you feel that updated presentation will be prepared for a presentation to the council for a solid waste yes sir um I can get back in touch with you on that we're uh I know we're meeting in two weeks okay to um to

get some more information okay because I would I would like to then once your that presentation is right I like to schedule that meeting so we can have that happen okay counil either or you anything else councilors no just okay motion to table oh motion to table by councelor Dion second by Council per all in favor any oppos the eyes have it that is all for agenda this evening I'll

entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn motion to adjourn made by Council Deion second by Council PR all in favor the eyes have the city council committee on health and environmental Affairs is now ajour