The Fall River City Council meeting on December 28, 2021, began with public hearings on four items, including an auto body shop license for Tanya Castro and Marco Rojos at 2291 South Main Street, and three underground conduit locations for Massachusetts Electric Company on Bradford Avenue, South Main Street, Morgan Street, and Plymouth Avenue. All public hearings were opened and closed without public comment. The meeting then transitioned to a lengthy session of citations and farewells. Councilor Peckham presented several citations for heroic actions and community service, including one to James Borden for his actions during a 2019 apartment fire, a posthumous award to dispatcher Joe Torres for 29 years of service, and recognition for firefighter Kevin Machado, Rick Balo, and Mrs. Masi Yitkin for making PPE masks. Tony Abreu of Angel's Anonymous was also honored. Deputy Chief Charles J. Cullen was recognized for his 42 years of service to the Fall River Police Department upon his retirement. The council also bid farewell to outgoing Councilor Peckham and Council President Cliff Ponte, with several councilors offering heartfelt tributes to Ponte's six years of service and four years as president, presenting him with a watercolor of the original city hall. Ponte expressed his gratitude to the council, staff, and residents. During citizens' input, Daryl Gagnon proposed a resolution for the rededication of the Durfee High School bells, highlighting their historical significance as the only public high school in the U.S. with a carillon. The council then addressed financial matters, approving a $20,000 appropriation for financial services expenses. Several items related to Massachusetts Electric Company's underground conduits were referred to the Public Works and Transportation subcommittee due to concerns about street excavation and the absence of a company representative. A request for a new taxicab vehicle for Town Transportation was adopted pending police chief approval, and various license renewals were approved. The council also approved a KP Law invoice with an 8-1 vote and referred a communication regarding the Durfee High School bells to the School Committee. Finally, an item regarding a license transfer at 155 Williston Street, which had previously been tabled, was given leave to withdraw due to serious concerns raised by the Fire Chief and Police Department.
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1:53former city council public hearing will now be called to order madame clark roll call please counselors kadeem here dion here kilby libby lebeau here lee here beckham here pelletier yeah pereira present and president ponzi here pursuant to the open meeting laura any persimmon make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are
2:14therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible first item on our agenda is public hearings in our public hearing uh is an auto body shop is there a motion to open the hearing social open made by council of kadeem seconded by council kilby all those in favor pose the ice habit
2:35auto repair shop for a tonya castro and marco rojos of 355 columbia street doing business as rnc auto sales for a license to operate and run an auto repair shop at 2291 south main street on lot b05001 in the assessor's plan there are restrictions noted hours of operation will be limited to monday through saturday 8 am to 7 pm and auto repair only calling all proponents wishing to speak on this item calling all
3:01proponents harry none calling all opponents wishing to speak calling all opponents madam clerk anything written in the closest motion a closing hearing made by council of kadeem secular by councillor dion all those in favor oppose the ice habit item two massachusetts electric company public hearing motion to open motions made by councillor peckham seconded by councillor lee all those in favor i
3:22oppose the ice habit underground conduits for massachusetts electric company for an underground conduit location as follows bradford avenue national grid requests to install approximately 246 feet of 2x4 pvc conduits and p24 and a new hdh441 and install approximately 316 feet of two four pvc conduits for a new hdh441 an existing mh two existing mh44 on south main street in accordance with plan number two
4:03nine seven four six one seven six dated november eighth twenty twenty one um massachusetts electric company for underground con i'm sorry disregard that uh is there any proponents wishing to speak on this adam calling all proponents calling all opponent tuition to speak calling all opponents madame clerk we have none mr president close second has been made by council of kadeem seconded by council of peckham
4:26all those in favor i oppose the ice habit number three massachusetts electric company for an underground conduit location ocean open made by council of people secured by councilor dion all those in favor opposed the eyes have not available
4:56at morgan street in accordance with plan number 29575229 dated november 8th 2021 calling all proponents wishing to speak on this item calling all proponents calling all opponents wishing to speak calling all opponents mostly close second motion to close has been made by council of kadeem seconded by council of pekkamal those in favor oppose the ice have it number four massachusetts electric company for an
5:20underground conduit location motion open emotions oppose the ice habit massachusetts electric company for underground conduit location as follows plymouth avenue national grid requests to install a new poll p 14-2 and 2 and 2-4 conduit from p-14 slash 2 to a manhole mh-5 at plymouth avenue in accordance with plan number 29574-803 dated march 8 2020 calling all proponents wishing to speak on this item
5:54calling all proponents calling all opponents wishing to speak calling all opponents hearing down madam clerk we have none mr president of close has been made by kadeem seconded by councilor dion all those in favor opposed the ice habit motion to adjourn motion to adjourn our committee on finance has been made by council of kadeem public hearings i'm sorry public hearings has been made
6:13by council of kadeem secular by council of pereira all those in favor oppose the ice habit city council committee on finance will now be called to order madam clerk counselors kadeem here dion here kilby here libby lebeau here lee here peckham here pelletier yeah pereira yeah and president conte here pursuant to the open meeting laura any person may make an audio or video recording of this
6:37public meeting or may it transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible first item is citizens input uh actually we want to do those citations now yes let's do citations and citizens input uh counselors there's a couple counselors counselor
6:59pack can you go first yeah that's fine
7:34christ
7:53okay so the first uh citation that i would like to give out i have quite a few here and i had been meeting over the last two years to give some of these out and uh i finally was able to at this meeting um james bought him um if you don't mind can come down
8:22yeah as long as you stay six feet away all right so this city citation mr borden's for uh recognition of your heroic actions as the driver of engine six during the fall wins apartment fire on january 1st 2019 your quick and professional actions while being the first apparatus on scene quite possibly saved many lives uh be it further resolved that the city of florida sorry for the city council extends best wishes
8:50for continued success in this resolution be able to direct to the city council uh the reason i bring this up is there was many awards given and for some reason there was some oversight and your truck was first on scene your crew was the first in the building um and i you guys you're all heroes to me and when i found out that you didn't get the citation or reward um i felt that it was uh
9:14i it was just and and you definitely should receive it so very much thank you so much that's okay
9:45congratulations do i have anybody from joe torres's family here or a representative of dispatcher no chief if you don't mind
10:02all right this could be a tough one we both knew joe for a very long time yes um so joe torres dispatcher that passed away from the florida police department recently um i am awarding your student sanitation posthumously awarding the city citation for his 29 plus years of service of city of fall river and dedicating his life to public safety his commitment to the citizens of fall river and the offices he watched over
10:25would match tremendously via further resolve that the forever city council hereby stands in solemn remembrance for a moment of silent prayer and that his resolution be entered into the records mr president manas for a moment of silent prayer everybody can please rise to the chamber for a moment
10:49thank you guys very much chief thank you my pleasure you good to have you to his family thank you thank you so much do you have anything to say about joe chief no i mean joe was just a valued employee and uh we can't say how much we're going to miss him and uh how much he meant to the police department yeah i agree 100 thank you just for you um just for you for your
11:15knowledge we'll uh do everything we can from the ordinance committee to make sure that that dedication you want to make at the last council meeting is followed through um the right way i appreciate that no problem thank you next one is for kevin machado is kevin it's was he able to make it um kevin machado um is also a form of a firefighter and i gave him the city citation in recognition for his heroic actions on
11:43may 18th of 2021 during a multiple shooting at a city park while off duty he placed himself in harm's way rendering and rendering aid and performing life-saving measures on injured victims be it further resolved at the city of fall river the florida city council extends its best wishes for continued success and that this resolution be entered into directors of the city council adopted december 28 2021
12:09i will make sure that i personally get this to a firefighter machado mr balo come on down
12:33how we doing sir my bad okay all right as most people know rick is a very uh he's a big asset to the city of fall river rick does a lot um he gives back a lot of his time uh does things for the city and um i noticed during the whole ppe thing we were first getting into masks that mr bala was making masks for the firefighters custom masks with the logos
12:57on him and whatnot and he was assisted by miss mrs massey yitkin i also have an award for miss hitkin as well she's unable to be here tonight they're both written in the same way um but i'll recognize them separately mr balo in recognition of your compassion and efforts to protect our forever firefighters by making and supplying each one with custom-made essential ppe masks the importance of
13:22the safety of our first responders did not go unnoticed by you you taking your personal time is greatly appreciated by the city of fall river we have further resolved that the floor of the city council extends best wishes for continued success and that this resolution be entered into the records of the city council adopted december 28 2021 thank you for everything you do rick
13:52uh
14:10all right last book definitely not least uh the counterpart to mr uh mrs masi yitkin who was unable to attend tonight um same project um another asset for the city of fall river in recognition of your compassion and efforts to protect our forever firefighters by making and supplying each one of the custom-made essential ppe masks the importance of the safety of our first responders are
14:33not going notice by you you taking your personal time is greatly appreciated by the city of fall river we have further resolved that the florida city council extends best wishes to continued success and this resolution be entered into the records of the city city council about adopted december 28 2021 uh mississippi and i know you're watching thank you for everything you've done and with that mr president
14:56thank you council councilman around
15:13if i could have mr tony abreu down here and if you want to bring your god child with you you can't
15:32you know angel's anonymous does a lot a lot of good work in the city of fall river and sometimes unsung heroes of all the work that they do and i figured if i gave mr abreu a citation maybe he'd make some casserole for us someday because he does make the best casserola they said this was for all of us i didn't know this was for me he did even your mother came um
16:00so to tonia brew as angel's anonymous vice president in recognition of being selected by the kraft family of the new england patriots foundation for the patriots difference maker of the week award come on ronan you can come with us but certainly congratulations and we certainly appreciate everything you and the president of angels anonymous as well as every single person that helps out you are truly our
16:28unsung heroes with the gifts for christmas the food for everyone um thank you no thank you thank you so much
17:03madam vice president
17:19deputy chief colin if you could come down chief gavin if you come down as well
17:33so deputy chief cullen is retiring from the fall river police department after 42 years of service and on behalf of the council we would like to recognize and honor your service here and thank you for your service to the city of fall river we have a citation be resolved at the city council hereby extend its accommodation to charles j cullen deputy police chief in recognition of an honor and recognition of 42 years of
18:00service to the fall river police department with best best wishes on your retirement
18:11i would just like to congratulate deputy cullen on his pending retirement and on behalf of the department thank him for his 42 plus years of service we started back in 1979 and we wish him nothing but a happy and healthy retirement thank you chief can i ask a question chief garvin yes to deputy chief cullen out of those 42 years always on time every single day never late once i can't remember never a sick
18:43day i don't think i was on the department uh when i was when he actually realized the sickness oh i guess i'm a little bit older than you i've been around so uh chief deputy chief cullen that's amazing and i know i knew your father well and i know that he's looking down on you and he is very proud of his son
19:13what happens when you're older
19:46you're an iphone user now all right mr president i have two more to give okay the first is to counselor peckham you want to come up so congratulations to you for your service to the city of fall river i know you'll stay involved we also got your plaque to hang up so thank you so much for your service mr president from the
20:35for your six years of dedicated service and your four years as council president thank you very much i know you'll both stay involved i would expect no less from either one of you thank you
21:04nobody make a motion nobody's presided
21:14thank you
21:31okay now let's get back to work
21:42okay right it's like questions oh no i was gonna say it from now so we're not done yet i have notes oh boy so um on behalf of your about the council and your six years of service i wanted to personally thank you and i i'm i promised that um you're gonna keep it short right i did not promise that i would keep it short um you did say you
22:10didn't want to be emotional so i was going to just tell one little story cliff and i were elected together in the election in 2015 and we have served three terms two with u.s council president we have served two administrations um and it has been a very interesting six years what i've learned in those six years is that your work ethic is like none i've ever seen you're one of the most giving and
22:40generous people that i've ever had the pleasure to know and that you absolutely love this city i know everyone says that but you have a you were born here raised here your family's here you have a very successful business you have the ability to live anywhere you want but you still choose to make fall over your home on top of real estate you've opened two businesses here and also ran for office
23:03so unfortunately for the council this past term you made a decision to run for mayor and gave up your opportunity to run for council so we are not going to have you back in council chambers but i do believe we'll see you on a ballot again very soon i hope we'll see you on a ballot again very soon um no offense to to mayor coogan he's made very public he only wants one more term
23:29and i believe if we see you on that ballot and you are elected mayor that you will be here for a very long time and that would be just exactly what the city of florida needs whatever anybody speaks about fall river sorry i don't mean to have my back too if you show them pictures of you know 50 years ago they talk about how wonderful it is uh the downtown how it was um
23:54there was so many businesses and there were so many people and and everyone gets very nostalgic about it so what i was thinking of what a good gift would be i thought of this right here if you want to come down something that um no it's not an accordion michelle has that
24:30the home so that is the original city hall it's a water color done by the artist george stetson who was born and raised here he now lives over the bridge but he was um willing and able to to do that for us and that's it
24:57mr president can i get the floor real quick i just listen uh pam almost had you crying almost i've seen a little bit of a tear but um i just want to acknowledge um you know president ponti i i had the opportunity when i first came on on the school committee to um see a very young cliff ponte come before the school committee every single meeting advocating for whether it was something for the teachers or the
25:25students uh it was him and andrew galveo that uh the student body leaders and and they were uh a cornerstone at the uh school committee meetings and just to see his uh progression from being a student then moving on to real estate and then see him see him seeing him make the transition over to uh the public life was was um was something to be beholden and we had a conversation the first time he he
25:52decided he was going to run for uh city council i was considering running for city council um and just to see that progression and that transformation uh in the growth there was was amazing but i got to say that your best president that i've served with granted you're the only president i served under but uh still still still the best president that i've i've served with um and and just the growth
26:12that we've seen over the last uh six years has has been amazing um and you've been a pleasure to work with so i echo the sentiments of of my colleague in c4 hopefully this is not the end um i'm sure there's there's a lot to come and and i know you're going to do tremendous things um even with your downtime and i'm sure it's not going to be golf or or anything like that
26:32i'm hearing that he's going to be adding to the uh to the menu over at almax that's going to be hot cheese sandwiches during the summer so if anybody likes hot cheese sandwiches just go to lmax so with that thank you congratulations thank you concert seat too council of the m yeah i'd just like to thank you when i started two years ago um you know you you were willing to help to explain to
26:59guide all the new people through the process explain to us you know what we should expect and i just kind of like to set the record straight in terms of you know perception is one thing and reality is totally different the perception was you know we just followed you we just whatever the president wanted we did the reality of that is not the truth we were able to have discussions disagree
27:30um we far from always agreed on on many subjects but yet we always were able to maintain respect develop a friendship and it didn't matter which side you were on or which side i was on and i give you credit for that because i am who i am and people who know me know that um and you and i were able to just be ourselves and i appreciate being able
27:55to work with you for the last two years thank you thank you counselor in seat five council elite i feel i have to add to all this and i didn't i didn't anticipate that i had to say anything but now i'm feeling compelled to um we started off and i ran um in 2015 and uh i was just at the bottom and i was right there and we were we were going back and forth on several
28:18different topics you know during that whole time and um when i first when i came back and when i came when i finally got elected in 2019 we hit it off right from the right from the jump i think that you know off we put all that other stuff aside we put all the differences aside and we're able to work together as colleagues and it was a pleasure for me to
28:38have that um you know have that experience the past two years i don't know how it's going to go from here i don't know who you know where it's how this is going to go and i just appreciated the fact that you know we were able to work together even if we were um still on opposite ends of some of these votes and things like that uh the respect and the communication and uh you know just
28:59just everything that that came with the package was was much appreciated by me and i i hope that if as i continue to continue to be on a council if the people elect me to be um that i carry that on and then and new the new councils that come down and things like that i can also uh do the same things for them that you did for me as well so i appreciate that thank you
29:20counselor in c6 counselor peckham all right so we've known each other what roughly 15 years through the baseball uh umpiring not much has changed since then except neither one of us has hair and neither one of you savvy yeah we did at one point um and i saw a kid and you're quite a few years younger than me and when i think back to them to them you had this leadership ability about
29:44you uh on the field as an umpire to be able to take charge and run a game and we both know as umpires it's a very important part of the game is the structure and you were able to keep structural while i'm hiring and i'm going back to you maybe being what 17 or 18 at the time um also i'm gonna echo what my fellow councils have said when i was
30:06first elected uh you called me right away and soda council vice president and said uh we're gonna ease you into this um there's a lot to learn which there was uh two-year terms for a counselor i feel a lot of people want to argue that it should be too it literally takes a good whole year to learn the parliamentary procedures to learn when to uh lift something from the table whatever
30:31the case may be but you were there to help us and guide us through that and with that i'm always going to be uh appreciative um and before you do start crying i don't want to see it we're on tv i'm going to yield the floor mr president for the last time thank you councilman c7 councilor pelletier thank you i shouldn't like to take this opportunity to tank my colleague here on the right
30:54that uh didn't lose the elections and put us at the end of the oil i know you've done a lot for the fire department and the police department and everybody else in the city that you've done something for and you know you got to think you know council pilots here he come back and you can come back and i can tell you right now there'll be an open seat and there may be a couple
31:19of open seats here uh what i hear so uh i would say that uh you coming back save your sign don't be a fool like me i threw them out two times so remember that from the old man if i can respond to counselor pelletier and i do call you my favorite counselor do i not you um you have been for years for many many years and i will say the old school style with uh
31:49council pereira yourself and me growing up in politics holding signs and you were just that fall river guy and i i appreciated that i appreciated the four of her accent because i have it myself yours might be a little worse than mine but but i appreciated the uh the realness and i thank you for your kind words council i do thank you you know i think about and i says how did i
32:16do this for 30 years 32 years 35 it's about i don't know what it was my charm would chuck me but as far as the president goes uh i've worked with many as linda and uh and you know i would put you uh in the top tree uh that'd be true right you know and uh i like working with you and kind of giving you some directions and you helped me out and and many times you
32:51know so i think you've done a good job not done you've done a good job as a counselor you've done a good job as a president and i got to know you pretty good i can send you consider you a friend and maybe someday you'll be able to help me out if i run for man well whatever it takes you know don't get discouraged you come a long way since you were a kid with the business
33:21that you own and the ability to uh to open two restaurants bad enough if you open one you open two let me tell you that's a challenge i've been in it i know how hard it is and i gotta give you credit for everything that you do and i'm sure your age uh you'll maybe come back see what the water is like and put your toe it a little bit and maybe next time
33:51you could be uh the mayor of the city of fall river uh i won't be a counselor then but i certainly would support you so you got your first support here thanks so with that good luck whatever you decide to do i know you're not gonna go fishing nope and you're not going to go cruising i probably just go out there and make some money for the next election with daddy thank you concert c3 council kibby
34:15yes thank you mr president it's been an honor uh to serve unto you um i also have known you for many years uh i believe i met your father before i knew you and uh you're right down from coach and pop warner to being so active as council kadeem said at dervy the city needs people like you the city needs people like cliff pont and chris also really really do and i mean that
34:47we've all a lot we've well not all of us but some of us have lost elections i know i have i know linda has i know leo has and it's difficult it's difficult you go from work work work work work work to uh decompression where you you evaluate things but i guarantee you and i consider you a friend as well you're gonna be back and you're gonna be back strong things happen for a reason
35:13and we've had this conversation before and i just wish you well i hope this past election hasn't strained our relationship at all i don't think it has in my mind anyway i know the type of person you are and there's definitely the city of florida these people like you cliff thank you thank you i honestly think that leo and i have probably known you the longest because your grandmother was our council
35:40secretary and you're a little rugrat that used to come around and sit at desks and take pictures sitting here and then you ended up sitting right at this very desk so um i'm showing my age here but uh we do remember that claudette was always very very proud of you and i'm sure she still is and like leo said running two restaurants i've run a restaurant i owned harry's restaurant for years leo's owned a restaurant
36:05really tough to do so to do two of them god bless you and you know like i told you after the election i've lost two there's no shame in losing because it takes guts to put your name on a ballot whether you win or you lose it shows that you have guts and i would encourage anybody who's lost an election come back sometimes you don't make it the first time but
36:27at least you had the courage and the love of this city to put your name out there with that i yield and you can take over the floor and get this meeting going i just want to take a couple moments to just um to thank you all very much um you never come it's all sean's fault that's why um it's it's been an honor to preside over this council and the council from before
36:59um i didn't have a speech planned or prepared or anything like that but i want to thank you all very much the prior council as well and the clerks as well the city council office and the clerks they make our jobs a lot easier when you sit there but when you sit up here they make your jobs even easier so i'm grateful for you all very much and for everybody that's here uh that
37:24i've had a pleasure to work with my family as well the residents of this community have been great to me um i've fared very well on city council races but not the mayor's race but that's okay but i have zero regrets this past summer running for mayor i believe i was right on the issues i believe i spoke about the issues and i'm proud of the people that i surrounded myself with
37:49my entire six years being an elected official a lot of you have made a tremendous impact on my life as well and i knew coming into tonight it would be an extremely challenging meeting for me because there's some friends here that i'm gonna really miss working with and i want you guys to know that so with that being said we're going to do citizens input now daryl three minutes yeah you're right
38:22daryl gagnon 76 for our street fall river regarding the derpy bells here we go again close friend he still calls me ghanian i did it purposely oh my goodness i am daryl ghanian and uh before i begin my brief comments and they are brief about the resolution that i proposed uh for you to consider tonight that's a durfee high school bells a resolution for their rededication i i wanted to let out the secret for leo
38:55pelletier and why he was so successful in politics in 1979 i beat him leo said daryl i gave out so many ham and bean meals if everybody that had one of my meals voted for me i would have beat you the next time he ran chow mein sandwiches and five times he was the top boat getter in the city of fall river that was the secret to leo's success so let's get that out there publicly
39:24i did chow mein too and it didn't work so
39:33i am not a durfee high school graduate but i was lucky enough that destiny had me meet and marry a high school graduate by the name of loretta deschames she changed my life forever just as many thousands of durfee graduates have changed the lives of people not only locally but in the state in the nation and yes throughout the world durfee high school graduates it all began 134 years ago
40:08the first graduation class 1887 bells began ringing back then peeling and tolling for people then and now for the past the purpose of the resolution that i'm presenting to you tonight is very simple you have copies of it so i'm not going to read it three things one to remember the history of the durfee bells two to recognize people who have been involved with the bells and three to rekindle durfee pride
40:43city-wide emotional weave of the rules go over the timeline motion away of the roses been made by council elise seconded by council of pekom all those in favor all right the eyes
40:58okay first of all for the uh the comment about remember please remember and help us promote the fact that the durfee belt began with only nine bells in the early generations but now number 23 bells giving them the rare distinction of being classified as carillon durfee high school is the only public high school united states of america with that distinct honor that is national distinction
41:34i would like to see the bells become the beacon of the new durfee the crown jewel of the new durfee like the hilltoppers have been in athletics throughout the generations recognition fred tv fred tv is producing a video about the history of the durfee bells i think that is going to be something we're all going to want to treasure and seeing my computer crashed this last week so i was not able to get input from them
42:09because i wanted to get an update on the progress of the video i apologize for the virus to hit my computer because you've been hacking a lot of your computers okay rekindling pride the bells in our belfry that's the center tower at the new durfee high school again should be a beacon we have a lot of promotion for bells edgar allen poe wrote the poem bells the poet john doan wrote for whom the bells toll
42:41and the bells told for you and i and for all of its graduates past the writer ermest hengringway wrote this book for whom the bells toll and again bell's toll for you and i if all generations passed thousands of hilltoppers athletes local state and nashville individual stars and and star uh champions the bells toll for all of them thousands of mill workers in the early generations produced products that were
43:10used worldwide military personnel men and women starting off with yes teddy roosevelt's rough riders world war one world war ii korean war vietnam war the middle east and other conflicts have served around the world as our ambassadors the final comment the colors of the durfee colors are black and red again to the hilltoppers how many of our football players basketball players baseball players wrestlers and other
43:48sports have gotten black and blue from the efforts that they gave that made them the champions that many of them have become and the red that was shed by the men and women that served our military forces around the world and remember not only did durfee high school produce privates and sergeants but also generals and admirals from the fields of fall river thousands of men and women have served
44:23in leadership positions as city councilors and school committee members thousands of durfee graduates have one went on maybe not thousands but maybe certainly hundreds we're not not from the durfee hill but to beacon hill and some even to capitol hill so i just finished by saying i i hope that you can take a look at the resolution that i wrote not for myself but for my wife and other durfee
44:51graduates that i've come to know and to love and to make a motion just to adopt it and forward it to the school committee to give them the encouragement they need to give this new high school the best dedication they possibly can and the rededication of the durfee bells thank you very much thank you very much next item on our agenda is transfers and appropriations on item one uh on full council the mayor in an
45:21order of pro appropriating twenty thousand dollars from financial service salaries to financial service expenses i don't think there's anybody from the administration here is there any questions comments thoughts concerns on this item counseling seat two counselor dion the only question that i would have is how far is twenty thousand going to take the purpose of the twenty thousand do you have any idea
45:49you want to come on down i do not i'm just here to watch oh i can certainly find out for you and get an answer to the counselor sure okay thank you for being here like constancy one if i just have to take a guess if we just say 150 an hour 225.
46:09so 125. so there was 200 it would be 100 hours right so you're going to get a little bit more so that's roughly where you're going to be at okay that idea yeah thank you counselor and ca company i i did call because that was a question that i had and it was 125 an hour and they couldn't take it uh you know from anything they had to
46:32take the extra 20 000 out but i did ask so i know it was 125. with that i yield thank you thank you any further questions comments concerns on this item hearing none actually i do have a question counselor in seat five counselor lee um it was relayed that uh he's already began has he already begun working i i believe uh you talked about mr ikepone yes i believe he has yes so will
46:57the summoners be retro or that i don't have the answer to all right thank you i do know that he started uh at least from my understandings the day after mrs sahady left city hall okay anything else that's it constant c2 council of the year so i guess on that line he's been working with no money i mean we don't know yeah i don't i don't know i i don't know
47:25the process i don't know if they followed 30b i don't have any of the answers to any of these questions unfortunately they don't have anybody they can send either right now so certainly um you know the city council has their ability come budget season next year to reduce reject or approve if the council decides to approve this without the informations on them uh or on us uh unless they got their questions answered
47:47by the mayor that prior to the meeting um yeah i mean i would like to think we're not issuing ious with that i yield thank you counselor and see date council of pereira i did ask questions about that when i called uh the mayor's office to find out and what i did find out because i asked if this individual was going to come on board if we were going to have to play
48:08benefit package et cetera and it's not it's a 1099.
48:13so he's just under a contract so we don't pay um any health insurance or any of that it's part time for 20 hours a week for 125 an hour and i believe and i believe his duty was to prepare the budget correct help prepare the budget correct from what i'm hearing with that are you thank you counselor in c-1 council of the kadeem now i was just going to say something similar to counselor c day
48:38i guess in terms of the question as to whether or not he's being paid yet i'm assuming he is being paid it's coming out of the expense account so they're just obviously reallocating some of the expenses that have already been budgeted i don't have the budget in front of me now but i would assume that um they're looking to just kind of transfer the monies back in there so that they can support the expenses that were
48:56originally approved by the or not that were originally submitted by the uh the mayor um for the i guess the treasurer's office i'm assuming that's where it's coming from so with that i would echo the same statement as you i would just question whether or not and that's not really um our role and responsibility in terms of making sure that procurement has been followed but procurement does need to be followed
49:17under 30b anything between 10 000 and 50 000 does require a solicitation of three bids um so i know i know the services that are being provided are not exempt on the 30b so that that's all that would have to be done outside of that the transfer is pretty straightforward so i'd support it i yield anything further all right motion to adjourn our committee on finance motion to adjourn motion to adjourn has been made and
49:40executed all those in favor all right oppose the ice habit ten minutes
49:54four of a city council meeting will now be called to order madam clerk calls us kadeem here dion here kilby libby lebeau here lee here beckham here pelletier yeah ferreira here and president ponti here if everybody in the chamber can please rise for a moment of silent prayer thank you and a salute to the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the
50:23republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio a 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 by those present and are
50:43deemed acknowledged and permissible madam clark the first item before you is the mia's request and financial order that the sum of twenty thousand dollars be and the same is hereby appropriated as follows from the financial services salaries to financial services expenses motion to adopt has been made by council of kilby seconded by council ali is their discussion hearing none all those in favor all
51:09right opposed the ice habit item number two is the traffic commission recommending amendments to the ordinances should i refer to ordinances ordinance has been made by council of pereira seconded discussion hearing none all those in favor opposed the eyes can we take item three two through nine together second motion to take items three through nine together has been made by council of pereira seconded by
51:34council of kadeem discussion hearing none all those in favor opposed the ice habit items three through nine motion adopt motion adopt all citations has been made by council of kadeem secular by council vice president discussion hearing none all those in favor opposed the eyes have it item number 10 is the order uh granting permission to tanya castro and marco rojas for permission to operate an auto repair
52:01shop at 2291 main street motion to adopt has been made by council of kadeem seconded by council of peckham discussion hearing none all those in favor aye all right counselors i just have a question how's the police report on that was there any concerns um the police um approved we just have one restriction and that are the hours of operation okay um that they are limited to monday
52:26through saturday from 8 a.m to 7 00 p.m and that this is for auto repair only thank you with that i yield motion to adopt has been made and seconded harry no further discussions all those in favor aye opposed the eyes have it item number 11 is the order granting permission to mass electric for the underground conduit at bradford avenue motion to adopt motion to adopt has been made by councillor kadeem i have a
52:50question yes consular in seat seven council pelletier thank you they're gonna put 562 feet on south main street right 562 feet underground on south main how how how deep how wide the trench how wide is this yeah here we are on main street gonna dig up almost 600 feet that we just fixed toy i think can we huh we just fixed that over there 300 and install approximately 316 feet it says 562. no it's two
53:28246 246 and then it goes 316 on south main bradford south main dude well the whole thing you know it was going on south main street and we were digging it up and uh how wide is it it says at the foot two feet all of them you know it's all the same thing find up clerk is this item two on our public hearings bradford yes so national grid is requesting to install
53:59246 feet correct yeah of 20 of two two four pvc conduits with a whole bunch of words here whatever that means and install approximately 316 feet of conduits as well on south main street um so they are all underground so yes consular would be it is all underground conduit yeah all on the ground what are you going to dig this street unless council of pereira you have any additional information i do
54:26because i called today uh or not today i called the other day uh when i got the agenda because from south main and bradford avenue it's 26 246 feet 316 feet then you have on morgan street another 79 feet then on plymouth avenue uh they're going to attach it to they're going to put up a new pole but they don't have anything in the engineering office they came down here with this
54:53uh you know for us to have at public hearing but there's no engineering form there's nothing when i call the engineering department they didn't know anything from the engineering department they said that somebody would be here from national grid to talk about this yes we got we received something uh this afternoon from national grid saying that they didn't have anyone available um but we didn't have enough time to
55:18reschedule the hearing so if the council wishes to table the matter or refer this to one of the subcommittees we could invite someone to that meeting because when i called they were going to call national grid to make sure that somebody was here national grid hasn't even given this contract out to whoever their subcontractor is that's going to dig up the streets and i think people get very frustrated as to why
55:42that we've spent money we've paved a street and then all of a sudden national grid or or some other company comes in tears up the street they do curb to curb which it still sinks there's nobody there after to look at it and i would make motion to table items item the three the three items that we have on there um i don't know how you want to do it mr president but item eleven twelve and
56:08thirteen i would end i would suggest totally up to you that you refer this to a subcommittee for discussion so that you can find out a lot of your questions i think i also have a question is it going curb to curb they're going to just do one side of the street so tabling is going to bring it back up in full council and not necessarily refer it so
56:25my suggestion would be to refer it to a subcommittee it's totally of the will of the council to have a discussion transformation does it make a difference uh refers to public works and transportation to refer the item to public works and transportation has been made by council of pelletier seconded by council ali on the motion or the referral council of pelletier you still have the flaw well i'm all set i don't
56:43want to find out because we're digging up the streets and we don't know you don't know if they're doing cryptocurrent but just whatever and then uh here down the road it's all lousy job and everything else and we don't want to see that and they should have been here tonight anyway i mean that's a lot of footage here that we're dealing with and we're going to have to deal with it
57:04after they get done we want to make sure we get it right that's all are you thank you madam clerk can you send a communication over their national grid on the concerns raised tonight by the council that they want a representative here and they also want to find out if it's going curb to curb in the process to make sure whoever's chairing that committee next year can invite them uh
57:22so that they can be here counselor and seat five council lee i was when when councilor pereira motioned the table i was hoping we would be able to do a um referral to a subcommittee because i feel um even though i believe there are some ordinance that we ordinances that are in place i believe there may be some more retooling we need to do to make sure there's a procedure in place every time we have
57:43these you know coming down the line whether it be comcast national grid or whoever that we have a at least some type of communication procedure so we know what the next steps are so that i yield thank you anything further counseling c4 council vice president yes so i'm continuing on that line madam clerk does this go to uh engineering at all yes so first off national um mass electric was
58:06invited they are they were invited to the hearing as i said and we did get a communication today and they asked that the hearing be rescheduled but unfortunately um this morning is far too late to reschedule the hearing so i told the person that we were in contact with that we could not reschedule this hearing but perhaps we could just refer this matter to a subcommittee and this was sent to um
58:34the engineering department um at the time the engineering department didn't have a city engineer but we did have a consultant who did sign off okay so that was back um we sent it on december 15th we received something back on the 26th okay on that summer so we did receive a sign off so that way if if someone else is doing work or the city has any work planned they could work on
58:57this at the same time so we don't have to have the roads open multiple times thank you thank you councilman c seven council pelletier i'm gonna send eleven twelve and thirteen right we will when we get yeah i would imagine this is all part of the same project so yeah just to make sure just they all go yep thank you thank you anything further on item eleven hearing that motion to refer to public
59:18works and transportation has been made and secured hearing no further discussions all those in favor aye opposed the ice habit item 12.
59:24item 12 would be the order granting permission for morgan second motion to refer the item to public works and transportation has been made by council of pereira seconded by council vice president discussion discussion hearing none all those in favor aye opposed the ice habit and item thirteen would be the order for most of them for under public works position motion to take on uh motion to
59:46refer item 13 to public works and transportation has been made by council of pereira seconded by council of pelletier discussion hearing none all those in favor opposed the eyes have it have the police chief's report motion without the motion to adopt the police chief's report has been made by council of pekka second seconded by councilor dion discussion hearing none all those in favor aye opposed the ice heaven
1:00:08item number 15 is town transportation's request for a new taxicab vehicle we have yet to receive the police chief's approval on this uh we could adopt it pending the police chief's approval or you can refer it if you need motion to adopt pending police chiefs pending the police chief's approval has been made by council of kadeem seconded by councillor pereira discussion councillor c7 council of pelletier just
1:00:32one question uh they were having trouble getting someone to take care of the meters that's awesome because we had nobody in place got somebody now checking their media so they can put it there that's how long have they been on on the job um i think at least three to four weeks at least four weeks and uh the individuals got experience with that yes yeah okay yeah so all of their meters are all set
1:01:02um right now they're just waiting for the sign off from the police department so if the council grants this application pending the police chief as soon as that's signed off we're able to issue the license so there won't be anything we had a lot of concerns he was worried that he couldn't get anybody to check him out and it was costing him money so i want to make sure that that's taken care of
1:01:22and the guy can operate his business uh like he has to and not have to wait to put somebody in that position and people have got to wait you know i think there was just an issue connecting with um just connecting with the the individuals and the person who's in place but the licenses are all ready to go they're all processed in my office and they will be issued within the next couple of days
1:01:47nice job just a point of information are we talking about the sales matters yes motion to adopt and pending uh police chief's approval has been made and seconded harry no further discussions all those in favor opposed the eyes have it have auto body shop license renewals motion to adopt the the license renewals has been made by council of kilby seconded by council of peckham discussion hearing none all those in
1:02:13favor all right opposed the ice have it auto repair shop license renaults adopt the auto repair shop renewals has been made by council of kadeem seconded by council of peckham discussion hearing none all those in favor aye opposed the eyes have it item 18 is the request for the transfer of a license at uh let me say motion to adopt 155 yeah 155 williston street motion to adopt made by council of kadeem seconded by
1:02:42councilman peckham discussion hearing none all those in favor aye opposed the eyes have it item 19 our claims motion referred to corporation council or refer the item to corporation council has been made by council of peckham secured by councillor dion discussion harry none all those in favor opposed the eyes have it item 20 is the communication regarding the durfee high school business
1:03:04motion to refer motion to adopt and uh refer the item to the school committee yes well second that has been made by councillor lee seconded by council of peckham discussion hearing none all those in favor opposed the eyes have it item 21 is the kp law invoice motion to approve motion to approve the kp law invoice made by council of kadeem seconded by council of peckham discussion hearing none all those in favor roll
1:03:29call rocco didn't he say to approve motion to approve yes on approval counselors kadeem yes dion yes kilby yeah liberty libeau yes lee yes peckham yes paluteau yes pereira no and president ponti items yes and 23 yes together together motion to take items 22 and 23 together has been made by councillor pereira seconded by councillor dion discussion hearing none all those in favor aye aye aye opposed the ice habit
1:04:11motion to approve items 22 and 23 together made by consular uh pereira seconded by council of peckham discussion hearing none all those in favor a counselor in seat seven council fellow terror is and he bangla 22 and 23 a minute next one next one huh 22 and 23 on the right okay i'm sorry motion to approve items hold on motion to approve items 22 and 23 together has been made and seconded
1:04:38all those in favor all right opposed the eyes have it motion to lift 13 a second motion a lift 13 a from the table has been made by council of pereira seconded by councillor kilby discussion hearing none all those in favor aye opposed the ice habit motion to lift the item approved doing them together we didn't take the next step we did i did that secondly oh are you talking about the uh
1:05:02city council minutes yeah yeah i did that we did it backwards no we did it taking it together and then the next one was approved okay i got it i think together sorry um item 13a is lifting the item from the table that's already been lifted right is there a resolution is there a motion to adopt
1:05:29a regulations meeting um this individual had two conditions to meet um one was fire extinguishers and another had to do with the electrical switching electric to to a gas heating system or whatever it was very very strong argument given by chief lynch that this is a very serious matter um also i receive really can't get into specifics we wouldn't be appropriate i received some communication from the
1:05:56fallen police department the chief himself uh with regard to some issues uh at this location so and with the individual holds the holes are licensed so i would recommend that we give the man a leave to withdraw second i'm going to give the item leave to which euro has been made by councillor kilby seconded by councillor pereira all those in favor aye aye aye opposed the eyes have it
1:06:21that's all we have mr president motion told me motion to adjourn has been made by council of kadeem seconded by council of pereira all those in favor aye opposed the eyes have it good night it's been a pleasure
1:06:58you