2.11.2025 Fall River City Council

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city council please come to order click we call the Road Council is kadim Dion here Hart here Kilby here Perera Pony here raposo here Samson here president CRA here before we begin I just want to note that Council kadim and Council prayer won't be attending tonight's meeting they have further commitments um and one's not feeling well se's sick yes pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio

or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present not deemed acknowledged and permissible motion to open the public hearing second motion to open the public hearing has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed public hearing is now

open item um item number one is John D Costa 209 Adam Street for removal of curbing as follows at 209 Adam Street the existing opening is 20 ft curb to be removed is 8 ft there is no curb to be added combined opening proposed after alteration is 28 ft the existing parel is currently serviced by a 20ft curb opening the applicant proposes to extend the existing opening by an additional 8

ft the total opening for the location will be 28 ft it should be noted that the driveway apron within the right of way shall be concrete Pavements of any kind are not allowed within the right of way are there any proponents to this public hearing any proponents seeing no are there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents seeing none we move on to item number two ICC Investments LLC 78 Melvin

Street for the removal of curbing as follows at 146 18th Street existing opening is 24 feet 6 in on Orchard Street curb to be removed is 15 ft on 18th Street there is no curb to be added combined opening proposal after alteration is 39 ft 6 in the existing fil is coverly serviced by a 24t 6 in curve opening on Orchard Street the applicant proposes to create a new 15ot opening on 18th Street the total opening

for the location will be 20 39 feet 6 in are there any proponents to this public heing any proponents seeing none are there any opponents to this public heing seeing none we move move on to item number three elen Cino soua 371 High View Avenue sumerset Mass doing business at CNA Auto Body for a license to operate an auto body shop at 83 mberry Street on lot 1-5-6 zero on the assessence plans there

are restrictions with this public public hearing for the license are there any proponents for this public hearing any proponents at all seeing none are there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents seeing none we move on to item number four which is capital Improvement plan five-year Capital Improvement plan are there any proponents to this public

if they want to

see okay what was that please state your name and what the wi for the record uh Bridget Alman uh director of financial services Seth aen City

administrator counc to you have your hand raised you want to ask question yes um I actually have quite a list of things here um I was actually quite dismayed when I went through this Capital Improvement plan and I'll explain my comment so on what would be I guess page 10 we're looking at 1500 GPM fire engine FY 26 another one in FY 28 another one in fy3 to replace East and West windows at

centa station total is 68 Windows replace windows at the globe 44 windows and this is we had 70 million dollar in arer funding and I know there's nothing we can do about it and I know it's people might want to call it spilled milk but I can't help but the fact that it upsets me so we had wants and we had needs that we used Opera funding for we had a want that was a four

million want and completely disregarded a 3,832 $800 need the need being the three fire engines and all of the windows so instead down the road we're going to dip into the taxpayers pockets again which was completely unne necessary we're going to use CDA funding we're going to bond we're going to use CPA monies we could have paid for all of this and had money left um when when we first got Opera funding

the turnaround time if you ordered a fire engine was somewhere between 12 and 18 months at this point from what I understand the turnaround time is two to three years I have no idea what this is how old is I how old is I our newest fire engine so we can call the fire chief down to to give the most accurate information but I will say um that one of the limitations on arpa funding um

precluded us from buying fire engines which is why even when we had the arpa funding we we did go through CDA but we could buy police cars we could buy ambulances so the police cars uh would have been under um curbing uh firearm violence so everything we bought the arpa director uh coordinator had to find a category that it would fit in and then get it accepted um so unfortunately for

reasons that I don't totally understand because fire has legitimate needs um there were things that there just were no category even with the most creative way of describing it that we could fit those into fire engines was one of them I can also Jeffrey bacon just we know who you are but just name so uh one of the reasons that we this is spaced out is because we are not

in need of a fire engine today right so um we we spaced it out so that we can have a replacement plan of the fire engines moving forward so that we're not purchasing six fire engines every 20 years and running them to the point that they become um mechanical issues and repair nightmares so going forward we would like to have a spaced out program where every 5 years four years were're purchasing a fire

engine so it wouldn't have been prudent to purchase them all with oper money even if it was available because that would that's kind of what we've been doing for the last 20 years is buying them all at once when CDA money becomes available so one of one of our plans was to kind of space this out okay so it would have been over a four-year period and with the turnaround time it would

have taken years to get all the engines um yeah well here the other thing is we just replaced our Fleet in 1718 so during the the span of arpa money it wouldn't we wouldn't have been looking for three apparatus so what's the useful life of of a fire engine so traditionally we've gotten about 20 to 25 years out of a fire engine front line um from everything that uh other Fire Chiefs are telling me from other

communities um and uh apparatus mechanics are telling me the these newer fire engines aren't going to last that long just for a lot of reasons there's a lot more uh electronics in them there's a lot more just like your car there's a lot more that can go wrong in them except this is a 25 ton piece of apparatus that's driving through the city of Fall River and stopping and going it's pretty much the roughest

miles you can put on an apparatus and asking and and we do a lot of fires and a lot of you say t not to interrupt you well when you say 20 years we're talking end of life so you wait end of life to replace we're talking about 20 years front line and then five to seven years we try to get out of them uh as as ready Reserve apparatus uh before we retire them um

so I highlighted it so it shouldn't be hard to find so we could purchase electric vehicles for department heads but we couldn't purchase fire engines correct I can't wrap my head around that neither could I in fact when I first got here um within a couple six months or so did a tour of all the firehouses and one of the things that became clear is um there was this emerging question about pasas

and the gear um and so we we started to look into could we use arpa money to buy new gear for all the firefighters um and even that uh didn't fall into a category that arpa allowed uh I don't know whether it's a hole in how they created arpa or or what it was never remedied at all uh it was never changed it went through so many variations uh that one was never really

changed it was fire apparatus fire gear was never part of what ARA could really be used for um you know maybe you could slip one by them uh but it just you know with the way we did arpa we could never get anything like that qualified and they wouldn't have comeing in time and then that the other piece is the more sort of uh functional technical piece is that given the amount of time we had to

spend the arpa we wouldn't have been able to actually get what four years um don't we have till December 31st 2025 to to identify where we're spending it and December 31st 2026 to expend the money yes but if the fire trucks don't come in by then then you'd have to then just return the money to the government because you wouldn't have if you can't expend it by then and the

backlog but you couldn't use it for fire trucks anyways but the backlog of it is if you can encumber it but the cash actually has to be out the door by next December correct so correct most likely the way the fire trucks or the way they're ordered in the backlog of it you most likely wouldn't have been able to actually had the cash go out the door in time and if that happened then you'd

just be giving the money back to the feds so our first allotment came in 2020 or 2021 not until 21 I believe it came I think just before I got here so it went in 21 2021 it's not a 5year around I don't you know what there's no point in going round and round and back and forth I get it um so one of the arer items was a top mount pumper truck

forestry truck was that purchased with ARA yeah so that was purchased by EMS in arpa then yeah so that because that had a potential ambulance component uh it could be used out in the forest in the reservation I think that's how we were able to get that one qualified I'd have to look just I you're you know I'm I'm committing the cardinal sin of trying to answer a question uh you know without uh

a little preparation but um that's what I would guess that was yeah because there were four um EMS Acquisitions with arpa funding um air quality improvements met cat ambulance medical rescue vehicle silent dispatch system um so yeah that's definitely listed as the fire department well with in any event that was my dismay um and the other thing I'd like to point out we went back and forth

with this I have it right here 76,000 in change from the globe fire station that we repurposed and we're using it in the parking garages I know we've had uh that discussion on multiple occasions so now in our Capital Improvement plan we need 44 windows at the globe fire station for $224,400 well that number could have been reduced by almost $77,000 again tax payer dollars um I don't know why during discussions that

that that those didn't come up that we were going to be needing the windows um I'm going to move on to page 11 so cost versus lease I see that EMS is going to be leasing a lot of vehicles um is there that much of a cost savings with that huge cost savings um the deputy chief I believe actually she may not be here um significant cost savings uh purchase versus lease um also because

of the the operational tempo of EMS those vehicles are going you know 24/7 um so a lease purchase agreement actually and they basically begin to uh show their wear fairly quickly um the idea is that we do lease to purchase them I think we do it on a two-year sometimes a three-year lease uh and then we're able to purchase and then sell them back credit against other vehicles so it's kind of a pipeline um that they

have going and it does save EMS significant money uh to do that it's essentially just a short-term loan but long term it will it's it's going to be more cost effective it already is yeah it's much more cost effective to rather than purchasing them outright because these are 500,000 and up vehicles um and that's you know the the actual build is always a custom build uh because of how

ambulances are are built there's only a few suppliers that do what we need them to do uh there's not a ton of uh uh not a ton of Supply out there for ambulances and what's the difference between a lease and Lease F the Frontline medical rescue and uh our our leases and then they have two Frontline medical rescues lease uh no Squad yeah and a front yeah medical rescue lease and then then uh

parenthesis F why is there a designation you know I'm not positive we can ask the uh the EMS Chief and I'm sure they'd be able to I can find out I don't I don't know the answer to that okay the other two things I have with the EMS are um number 14 storage building at the center uh storage building center Station Renovations $1.1 million again that couldn't have been done with some other type of funding

rather than we're going to have to go out to bond that was what you so you approved that Bond that's part of that whole project that was approved um so the 3.2 million that's part of that yes okay so that 3.2 is going to cover this so we aren't going to go out and bond for it there's not a new Bond of 1.1 or whatever it's this the 3.2 covers that entire thing okay

um because it shows over a five year period or sixe period all right the other thing we had a lot of discussion on was initially it was a two point believe a $2.7 million Bond before it was increased to the 3.2 it was we're going to put a metal building up at the main fire uh at Central no we're not now we're going to move into the central fire station you know what I mean when

I'm saying um now on here it's showing two uh 1.5 million for an EMS metal building yeah this is the same as the conversation we had a few weeks ago where um and you remember months ago I had asked the council to approve the bond um but I I identified two locations one was the remediation Rehabilitation of the center fire station and the other was a location that I at that point

didn't have the authority to discuss um and it was the old Auditorium from dery um the idea there was to to actually create um kind of an emergency management facility and facilities for EMS up there at that point there hadn't been the appropriate discussions with other stakeholders in that building including the school department to be able to put that out publicly um so at that point

the council said no we're not going to agree and I think uh council rep pelleter you know said I was a liar or whatever um and uh well that really stuck with me I guess um and that's right it was even in the in his retirement movie but that's neither here nor there bottom line is um that changed so the the pivot was um rather than try to shoehorn what EMS needed into um the

the old Auditorium up there they could do the metal space building up behind the fire headquarters as well as the uh the refurbishments at the center station so that's consistent with what I I explained a couple weeks months ago when I asked about the bond okay so my last recollection and understanding and maybe shame on me I'm wrong and and misinterpreted the conversation was the 3.2 million was going to be re to

refurbish sent to station yes do a lot of repairs etc etc and we no longer were going to have a metal building that the metal building was off the table now I don't know what anybody else thought and I'd like to know but my understanding was the metal building was off the table so we were going to have use the 2.7 from that original plan add another 500,000 for a total 3.2 to do everything

house everything and fix Central Station accordingly that was my understanding um I apologize if if if I wasn't clear and led you to that understanding um what I had presented to the council was there's two projects in that single Bond um three Hustler MOA Replacements what page I thought that was already a done deal as well we had the discussion about that and what we heard was well we're

debating do we want gas powered or do we want battery powered because the battery powered are cheaper and that's what we're trying to figure out and that was going to be funded through oper and I also believe the park Department already paid for a lawn mow that I don't know if they've received it yet so I was a little confused and I mean it's $35,000 does that need to go on a capital Improvement

plan so this is uh just page 14 just to make sure that's okay um and this is FY 28 and FY 29 MH okay um so there were hustler mowers in the arpa probably last year I'm thinking um and this would be to replace further parts of the fleet uh because they they've got multiple Hustler and other mower so did we did we purchase and receive three hustler mowers with arpa

funding I don't think we received them but yes they were they were part of arpa they're part of the purchase I don't know where they stand in the receiving um you know mowing grass I expect they'll be in play this spring when the grass starts to grow uh but these are something different uh these are additional mowers to continue replacing and refreshing the fleet so we don't have to do it all at

once and then my last comment and I'm sure you'll be so glad um this kind of baffled me so I I understand and this is on the school side I understand that playgrounds are important um we have two schools um for playground Improvement improvements one one uh we're looking at $1.2 million but down further down this list is asbest removal at the resiliency school and installation of fire

suppressions but that's not happening until FY 2027 why would we put playgrounds before asbestos removal and fire suppression in a school that children attend every day so I think that's a question for the school department and come just want to remind my colleagues they are the proponents in this open hearing I know some of you raised your hands and want to speak on it but I at one point I'd like to hear

the proponents of why they're in favor of this this was my last question and statement Pico do you want to answer that good evening Kim Pico for public schools um so if you look up and down um if I put my glasses on I may be able to actually read the document but if if you look up and down the document you will find that there is a multitude of items such as um

what you are looking at maybe I don't have my glasses so um the fire could you please speak into the microphone the the um bares maybe see looks all right um the the first of all the RPA is undergoing quite a bit of work currently the RPA is undergoing um quite a bit of work um currently we're putting in um $8 million worth of Windows in that building um about a year and a half

ago we replaced boilers all the new roofs so it's an ongoing project and um the reason for the Staggering of this work is is a functioning building so there's some work I can't do I to inconvenience the building one right after another right after another so there the district has 18 and a half buildings um that we are trying to upgrade and playgrounds are one of the major pieces so we've spent a

little over $2 and A5 million dollars on playgrounds so far at four of our schools and that process is going to continue um other than dery High School in Morton we don't have any more new schools our schools are 20 years old 22 years old even though some of them just come off the the borrowing um they are already re going to be needing roofs things like that so the reason for the

RPA piece to answer the the ASB bestus piece and the fire suppression is that both of those are very intrusive work that can't be done over the summer um so we are spacing out the work doing Windows this year um after that we would be looking to try and get some of that other work done but it it cannot be all be done at the same time and it's it's not a point of

priority because the the list is made up of priorities that there's not a lot of things on this particular spreadsheet that isn't a priority both of those items are high priority um but they are being spaced out so that we can have an opportunity to do the work um and not put the building um and the students out of place cuz I don't have any swing space and I do understand their

priorities yes but when I look at the nature of the priorities I understand the fact that it's ASB bestus the fact that it's fire suppression um that just for me is it it was serious no I agree I agree and and it's which is why it is on here and and um there are a a bunch of other ADA Compliant pieces that the building requires um and all of those items are

are being spread out so that we can keep functioning in that building moving students up and downstairs the the fact that the building is watertight right now um with the half watertite as far as the roof goes but those windows are going to take care of the rest of the envelope and once that work is done now the building the boilers were not concerned with there's a while where we

had temporary heaters you know to keep that building alive um so as all of those things are happening um in RPA it's a it's a 55 to70 million renovation project for a 100 year old and something year old building and it it has to be placed in this in this method and some of that work obviously we're trying to get everything done that we possibly can through msba funding where the city is getting 80% of that

paid for um by the state we're trying to spread that work out um and some of it obviously isn't covered fire suppression and um the um abatement is not under msba okay thank you with that I yield thank you coun I'm sure there a safety concern with the students and the teachers as well in the building councel seat six counc P you yeah Mr President I'll allow the administration to do

their presentation I think you have one quickly and then I'll reserve my questions after I do have a question for the chief but I'll wait until after they give their appre fair enough CC thank you Council SE 7 do you want to wait as well just a quick question to Mr Pico if I could um on the bottom of that page it mentions a new pre- of 5 Elementary School to be named yes can you just

elaborate on that a little bit so um the district is is always cognizant of the fact that the population is is fluctuating in the city and currently we are getting concerned um that um as I just said we don't have a lot of Swing space I don't have options so with 251 being put into play and that new building it it allowed us to um take allowed us to open up a building that

used to be an elementary school which is the westall and move the stone school to that new building um by opening up the two of those buildings we have taken the edge off of last year and and this year we don't see this major population growth but what we're concerned with is size of classrooms so we're always looking to get classrooms class size reduction has always been a priority probably for the

last last eight years and as we fix few two or three buildings we have two or three buildings that start to bubble and we do have a couple of bubbles in our lower grades and we know that that they do have a tendency to work their way out by by middle school but not always so looking ahead um and and looking in in the area of class size reduction somewhere along the line um if we go

back to the report um that was generated in the late '90s um that report had all of the construction in the city we fell short by one building building one new building um in the city to complete that report everything else has been built um and there is one more building that needed to be built the ideal location would have been downtown um but um there's really not a lot of space

downtown so we do have the the globe Street property that used to be the stone stone school that's been closed for quite some time it's it's a large enough piece of property to put a 600 student Elementary School two to three stories depending on how it lays out we'd like to maintain the old building so as a centerpiece work around that build from that particular piece that building is over a 100 years old um it

is um relatively good shape considering its age uh and um the site in the South End would work for us we have two schools that that are on edges you know we have the 2501 that's on a a property Edge it doesn't have a lot of population to the South plenty of population to the north we have Henry Lord zero population more or less to the South plenty of population to the north so what this

would allow us to do is put a second Elementary um and it may have other by then we may be evolving into other things the district is always looking at different models um but for sure um class size reduction is always going to be something that we need to strive for and um building an elementary school on that site um it's a site that's not on the tax rols now so we're not looking to

take a piece of property and disrupt you know numbers it's a piece of property that is already um in the control so to speak between the city and and the school department and um with that being said it was which is why it's there uh there's a small dollar amount that that's um in fy2 7 um and and the reason for that is that's the feasibility study so what we'd be doing is um we wouldn't be

applying this year but if this is something that the school department um and and the school committee wish to um get engaged into we would be looking to do that um feasibility study or application next year and um if we're fortunate to uh get chosen then we would be moving ahead a process is about 6 years 7 years depending on on um how quickly things are and um the guesten is

based on an escalation um that we've built into it um so we think we're going to be pretty close with that number however until the feasibility study is is uh completed we really don't have that hard number that's I think you question so so then just to clarify again so that is a new build but 2501 is not on this list at all so is not 2501 is already in our 2501 is already being

occupied by us okay but there's no Capital Improvements for that building it's completed it's good okay thank you thank you counc you want to present proceed with your presentation then the council can ask questions afterwards sure okay so I think we're all um aware of why we look at building a cal Improvement plan um we work with all the departments because we want to create and and preserve all the spaces besides

building new infrastructures we also want to be able to maximize all of our resources to sustain the public infrastructure that attracts the development the purpose of a CIP is to build um to systematically address all of our Capital needs in forecasting infrastructure and public services over a 5e horizon it will play a crucial role in ensuring sustainable development and maintaining of essential City assets

such as roads public facilities and sewer systems through careful vetting of proposed capital projects we aim to optimize our funding allocations and project timelines I think we all know that there's a lot of work that needs to be done and there's limited resources and so every year even though we we do it out five years but every year we sit down and we're still focusing on that

year what we can do and what finances and funding is available um so the capital budget is derived from the capital Improvement plan outline specific projects that will commence in the upcoming fiscal year it is important to note that while some projects begin in a single year and as you know many of them will spend over multiple years the city's commitment to investing in facilities equipment and

vehicle underscores its focus on delivering highquality services and supporting the community it's a strategic approach to capital investment and it's essential not only for maintaining Current public infrastructures but also for enhancing our overall Community well-being so we have several funding strategies um free cash it can be put into the operating budget or using stabilization funding all of which

require city council approval and that is generally used for reoccurring equipment purp purposes and those are linked to usually specific City Department goals there is state and federal funding available this chapter 90 funds um hopefully the governor's budget that will come down and will have significant uh increases to chapter 90 funding the msba funding which is used for the schools which Mr Pico referenced

um we're all very aware we try to use um cdbg funds for what those can be used for the state will earmark funds for specific things generally like parks and some specific spots and the CPA Community preservation funding we do have some loan forgiveness programs that we try to work with mostly that's water and sewer and the last thing that we try to um use as the last resort is our bond authorization and we

have slowed down our we did do new we did no new money borrowing for the general fund this year the the only new borrowing was Enterprise funds so to try to give us to give the city some room so the first is the police Improvement plan um and this was done um with the police department they you know they looked at what they had requested in the prior Capital Improvement plans and they have

now um made some adjustments I don't know I think the intent is to try to put theirs in the budget again that might be difficult as we as you start to look at your 26 operating budget I don't know if any counselors have any questions on police if we want to just kind of stop and go we keep going we keep going less questions at the end and the fire department budget which we did touch on

just a little bit again every year the fire chief works with his um departments all of the fire stations and they work together to come up with what their needs are uh EMS I will note that so Em's plan all of the Em's plan is paid for by Enterprise funds so that is not hitting like your operating budget or your tax dollars and we have um the planning in the engineering department which is most

of theirs is funded through uh chapter 90 funding and then we have um the city operations Capital Improvement plan so again we noted the EMS building which that will be paid for with um the Enterprise fund funding and paying for that Bond there's a bulock street metal building that's estimated and fiscal 27 and then some other small equipment P purchases we have Capital Improvements

for City operations listed again some these are very just needs needs based with some uh equipment we have the parks department again that has been paired down to just try to keep you know needs based and keep things um moving along in their budget and then again with schools which did go two pages so at this point all of the Esra funds have been utilized and I um any remaining projects will be

either funded with the school operating budget or from City bonding for large projects so altogether there's over two and a half million in projects identified for fiscal 26 excluding identified Enterprise funding ex also excluding chapter 90 and known grants this will need to be uh kept in mind as you start building the general fund budget and that is the end of our presentation thank you counc coun yeah

thank you Mr President thank you for your presentation um so first off can can you give me a little bit of a in the public a little bit of a update in terms of how the fire department and EMS work in collaboration from a budget perspective is there any or are you working as two separate departments we work essentially as two separate departments and the fire department in no way shape or form is able to Leverage

the EMS when it comes to their Enterprise account correct correct the exception of just the EMS Department buying ambulances and whatnot right that that's all done through the Enterprise account correct so yes but then the city so there's indirect costs that are charged to Enterprise funds that comes back to the general fund right okay so here's my question I'm looking at the EMS uh projections um well before I get

into that in Prior fiscal years I know that in the fiscal year that we're in now you started Ed to add some more Capital needs into the operating budget previously you pulled a lot of that out because you had the ability to use oper money to fund a lot of the capital needs correct correct in the fiscal year that we're in now is there more Capital that was included in the budget or is 2026

going to be the year uh or future years that we're going to really start seeing 2026 2026 okay so that explains the reason why if you look at the future plans for each and every single Department that an FY 26 we're starting to see a lot more Capital needs in comparison to the Future 5 years like if I look at EMS I look at police I look at fire does that tell you that the needs

are more demanding now than they're going to be in five years no I mean so there was still Capital being purchased there was a there was the ability to use arpa funding so it was used I understand that that which allowed you know some easement on the budgets right I think it's just the cycle of how when they're they're going to need these particular needs and that's just how it's falling

all right I've always had this crazy idea I've I've spoke to you about this Chief I believe when it comes to it drives me crazy that if you are to sell a single family a five family a three family or a six family you are going to have a an inspection done and you're going to charge that seller or that homeowner $100 $50 $75 however if you have a 40,000 ft

facility anywhere in the city of forever that requires to have sprinkler systems and it needs to be in compliance they get charged zero M nothing the fire department goes in looks at their sets of plans doesn't need to issue a certificate correct we actually wouldn't even be involved in the sale right you wouldn't be involved in was a change of occupancy right redesigning of a system

in that case it does generate uh plans review generates um generates a bill generates a permit understood but if but there but again if I have a 40,000 foot facility correct I don't I am not required in the city of Fall River to call a fire department we are not involved in the sale okay do you know or if you can have you spoke to other Chiefs and I'm gon to get to my point on

why I'm ask I'm going to say this uh in terms of what other cities and towns do for similar commercial transactions so I have not I'm more than happy to um and I can I could find that out it would probably be like a New Bedford T Brockton um but this this comes down to cmrs an ordinance right no and we'll work on that's our job that's our that's

our that's what we can do to help so so and I I don't care if we're the first ones to start it in the state right but so here's my thoughts every single year every year and in the next five years 10 years we're always going to be tasked with the with the daunting task as a legislative body the fire department needs more fire trucks and then we're all going to sit there depending on the

financial outcome that we have and say I don't know if we can do it maybe we can or we need to use onetime money in case there's an urgent need within your department Department why not utilize commercial real estate transactions and charge a fee and that money be put in a revolving account for the for the primary specified use to purchase and maintain fire equipment so it's interesting uh Seth and I had a

discussion today like really ground level of uh my fire prevention fees roughly $350,000 a year go to fund so Seth and I were um just spitballing today just really base level of how we could generate more funds and have that go towards apparatus replacement and repair saying that for years um so I think that there's an Avenue to do that and I I just it's obviously one a union issue right and two my fire prevention

Bureau is strapped what is the union issue uh well just because my fire prevention Bureau is trapped right so putting more of a workload on fire prevention on those inspectors um I would need to bolster the fire prevention Bureau which kind of contradicts once you stop paying salaries sure the money that you're going to bring in or I would have to have my line firefighters do some of those inspections District

Chiefs District Chiefs uh listen Frontline officers engine company officers would have to take up some of the slack from the what I'm trying to do chief is to try to find a creative Innovative way where we could stop having these every 5year discussions the fire department needs more apparatus and we don't know how we're going to pay for it our CFO clearly articulated and I believe what she's saying when she says

in her presentation that we have here the city will continue to face substantial Capital needs with limited resources available the city must be strategic in prioritizing not only do we need to be strategic in prioritizing we need to be in ative and creative to try to find different ways where we can raise funds to help offset some of the expenses that we have so if I if I may I

would like um to ask the administration to work with the chief to do some kind of a study to see what other cities and towns are doing from a commercial perspective and you can identify commercial as six plus units anything industrial anything commercial and let's have a discussion with the council about trying to find ways to increase fees because you know if you're selling a a a

industrial building for $15 million or a million charging x amount for that sale to go through to go to your fire department to make sure that your building is safe I don't think it's a crazy ask when you're asking for a homeowner who's selling their house for $250 to give a75 or $100 fee to the fire department for them to go into your dwelling check all the smokes and make

sure your cosos are done I'm not saying that that isn't something that we should stop I'm saying that it should be Universal and fair all across the board so I'd like to do that with the primary focus the primary focus is to have a reserve account set aside for fire department apparatus that needs to be where we're at because we need to stop pulling away from utilizing our our our

budgets when it comes to to these things in my opinion and and I I know we have no choice because we either have to use free cash stabilization or we have to budget I also recognize that budgeting putting Capital back in your operating budgets which has hasn't been in for the last 3 or four years is also going to be a daunting task going into next fiscal year um so if you can do that um maybe

hopefully by the next quarterly update or by budget season if you can get back to us I'd really like to see what this council could do to help the fire department um EMS um I recognize that that that Enterprise account is a revenue generator obviously um and I'm noticing that in FY 26 you're expecting to raise uh or or lease to some degree $1.4 million explain what lease is again under financial

services financial sources I'm sorry oh um so the there's a there's a lease to purchase so many times they'll do a capital lease yeah where they'll do it over two to three years and it's not just EMS I mean a lot of municipalities utilize that for they'll they'll do fleet vehicles for police and buy do them like that so they've used that as a way to get new trucks and then keep the

payments so that they can budget them it like fits in their budget so they can keep routinely replacing what they need to replace and it fits in their budget so if if you have something like Frontline medical rescue for $200,000 is that the cost of the payments for multiple vehicles or is it just one no that's that's payments on multiple Vehicles payments on multiple Vehicles so how many front line medical rescues

are you expecting an FY 26 for $200,000 leasing I think that's only one that's two so the FY 26 estimated cost for adding two Frontline medical rescues is the 193 475 um I believe that actually includes ongoing leases in 26 um in addition to that because if you look down Frontline medical rescue um and it says six of them it's a lower amount 175 471 um not all Frontline medical rescues

are the same there's some more compact vehicles uh there's fullsize rescues there's these these kind of I don't even know how to describe them but it's somewhere between kind of a contact truck with a utility body and a fullsize rescue um so those could those could be various different kinds of vehicles uh important to to note um that um starting in October of this year uh EMS um came

to an agreement with Charlton Hospital to to be the primary on all their returns um which is kind of a critical need um folks coming out of the hospital being returned to whether it's a rehab or their home um or going to another facility um our EMS um unit part of the mih is doing that work um mih is mob mobile Integrated Health just to not engage in too many acronyms um the thing

about the mobile Integrated Health is not only are they doing that but there's also a home visit program for people that can't get to the hospital they don't have transportation it's a significant number um of people living in the city um they do vaccines for school children there there's a whole bunch of non 911 services they're providing this is all part of that expansion and that's going to bring

Revenue in in approximately how much uh I don't have that number of the top of my head you're but you're expecting additional revenue for that Enterprise account I am however uh home visits are not covered um so that's something that is is being done just because it's it's really the right thing to do there's an earmark that Senator rodri's helped with in order to get that program started um

the returns which there is revenue generated from that is going to help fund uh the home visits because we we just have a need in the city and if anybody's everever tried to get a primary care physician in the last year it's almost impossible to get in to see anybody so okay on a capital needs perspective um within with our fire departments is EMS through their budget or the fire department budget allowed to

assist or have they assisted with upgrading and updating and maintaining the fire buildings that some of them stationed in so there are some things that EMS has done I think it would be disingenuous to say they've done nothing right they did contribute to I'm not saying that the high speed doors no no I but I I I think I think it's important to note that one um I urge the mayor to

pull the out of fire because I wasn't confident that we were managing the Enterprise fund correctly not to say that anything untour was going on but it did seem to me that they were being leveraged in a way that didn't allow the city to have any real transparency as to what the Enterprise fund was generating this is not under this Chief I know what the Enterprise fund was generating and

how that money was being used um it was it it was a concern to me that we had an Enterprise fund within a department and that we didn't really have transparency as to where that money was going as a result of that um EMS has continued to assist in certain ways probably not at the same level because there's certainly more um ownership that they have over what they're doing more Direction uh but at the same time

they've also been able to grow and make moves like the the Charlton uh piece that I think do does uh benefit the residents of the city M I'm just curious are the EMS individuals who are in EMS stationed in our fire departments they are and they pay a they pay an indirect to fire for that but not is it Ade is the indirect so they can pay so when you

have an Enterprise fund so they can pay for things that in the fire in the fire department that are for EMS purposes but when you have an Enterprise fund they can't you can't steal money essentially because and I'm just saying that sarcastically I know that okay so the the Commonwealth is that's why those indirect calculations have to go to do every year because they don't want you to do that like water and sewer you

can't take money from water and sewer and do and pay for other General funding so to pay for an Enterprise fund it has to be very strategic in what they pay for but H how how is it that EMS is stationed in our fire departments but their contributions to updating and upgrading the facilities that they're stationed in are not at the same level as the fire department is well I think recently it has been at

a higher level I mean they're paying for the center they're going to pay for the center Station upgrades because that because but a center station they're occupying a majority of that space But I'm just saying generally speaking in the past EMS has been positioned and stationed in the fire department buildings but their contributions have been minimum but they're generating much

more money much more money than the fire department is so we've also increased the indirect cost back to the general fund by by what what what we you have to do it you can't just say oh they're making more money and so we're just going to take more money unfortunately I mean you just can't that's just how it is I'm not saying that we should use that rationale what I'm just the point

I'm trying to make as you as you position yourselves and preparing the budget the burden on the fire stations have always been generally speaking on the fire department's budget to upgrade and maintain their facilities and EMS do does a fantastic job but they're not they're aren't saddled with the financial burden as much as the fire department is and I'm trying to find a way where it could be equal and fair so

that both the fire department and EMS could could utilize the facilities since they're both essentially occupying most of them in a way that it's fair so that the fire department isn't burdened with all these overtime and all these other Financial issues when EMS isn't burdened as much so I think equal and fair are really different things in the situation equal makes no sense at all right the number

of ambulances in paramedics in a firehouse in depending on the firehouse are not as many as the number of firefighters and apparatus but this shouldn't be a tit fortat thing but but that that does need to be called out that equal equal doesn't make sense okay um Fair that's a different thing and I would argue that we can certainly look at what um EMS pays with regard to their use of firehouses and what their offsets

are for that uh they also fund a number of firefighters um there's a number of things they do that if you sort of look at the big picture we can we can have a reasonable argument as to uh whether or not it's fair um but I think you know and I don't necessarily know what numbers you've looked at or or you know what sources you're relying on for your position but it it sounds to me like

there is somebody that has an opinion that EMS is sort of skating free uh and living in the firehouses and that's just not the case that's just not true uh there are a number of of things that that EMS does to offset the cost of that uh whether it's voluntarily or by an agreement and we can supply all that and you can take a look at it we can have a real conversation just yes summarize for

me because first off nobody's telling me anything other than just my basic understanding of what what what doesn't pass the straight face test in my opinion there's a large number of EMS individuals occupying the fire stations and I just wanted to make sure that it's equal the burden is equally shared maybe not equally maybe quarterly maybe fairly shared to your point with the fire

department and that's what I'm trying the point I'm trying to make as we go into next fiscal year with seeing the tremendous burden that EMS is going to be having for over $14 million in capital needs uh haven't even talked about the police department yet so I'm just I'm just trying to get it be creative right we all and I know you guys are you're working every day to be

creative to try to find ways to limit a possible $3 million budget deficit in FY 26 but I I just want to try to move that point along final question is there anything within um Capital needs with within any of the Departments that have been raised to your attention right now that is in dire need of repair that the council should act on any department heads that are saying I need this Mr

Aken it's impacting the ability to do my work there's there are certainly things that are that are important um and need repair you know as soon as possible there's nothing that is not being addressed so so the for instance the library comes to mind right um the library has a water incursion problem that from that roof well the roof was repaired uh and there's a possibility that it's the pointing of the brick it's

an old building um the way in which water travels through a stone balloon frame building um is is almost crazy to you know if you were to track it so the roof is is repaired right there's a legitimate question as to whether or not the repair is the issue or whether or not it's the pointing and that water is being is seeping through problems in the the spaces between the stones and

Through the Wood interior framing the building and down through ceilings so that project um is almost done with design it's going to go out to bid um there's money to to do it uh critically important um we uh I've met with the the new library head multiple times I know she's meeting with Mr Oliva um there's active activity on that if you will um and that's critically important because

that building is critically important um it's a beautiful building it's a precious building it needs to be uh you know uh saved not even saved because it's not in it's not going to fall down but it needs to be preserved at all costs um you know locen Street great example of something that uh has needed imminent help for quite some time and uh tan bond is the design build firm that's

working on that right now so those things are being addressed um but there's nothing from a day-to-day operations point of view that you need the council to assist with from transfers from stabilization or whatnot to help make sure that our department heads aren't saddled no with impac day today I think I the only the only cost that I think we're going to have to come down soon to talk to you about uh is

Municipal Solid Waste and Recycling so we'll talk about that probably at our budget quarterly update short and and so I'm I'll be prepared to talk in depth about that I didn't bring any numbers but but I think you're going to see that the cost in that industry are absolutely out of sight um we are doing everything we can to try to mitigate and keep things where they are uh and

I'm going to present that uh to you probably in the next couple weeks all right I I'm looking forward to seeing what you can come up with um when it comes to the commercial aspect of it um candidly I think you could probably find uh do it in a way that where if you add a Personnel to fire prevention that should probably pay for itself with new growth with lots of other these

commercial sales that are occurring and all the things we're doing I if building permits are public record you can see how many commercial building permits were pulled and and and if you're going to if you're going to task a homeowner to do something specific when it comes to reselling or selling property or refinancing or whatever even going into a restaurant right like you should be

able to do that on the commercial side and and I think it's only fair no especially with market rate housing like out of curiosity my final question I promise if you have a 40 unit market rate housing facility are is the fire department going in and issuing a certificate of compliance if the entire building sells no e at any point if I if I if I own a mill yes and

I go in and I make 40 Apartments yes we're a big part of that you're a big part of the design pH review and site plan review but after that's done what does the fire department do to make sure that the building is in compliance so we uh we just partnered with a a company called Bryer um so our compliance in commercial buildings as far as uh the requirements for their fire alarm and

sprinkler testing our compliance was about 40% in the city so what Bryer does is they track down and make sure that everybody is doing their uh their inspections they required inspections okay so um so that building that you're speaking of whatever it is whatever one it is is required annually to have their fire alarms inspected by a professional company sprinklers the same um so now we will have those in hand uh

electronically through the through but after I'm done building this 40 unit building that's in a mill yep is the fire department going to charge that developer or owner a fee for going to the to that building as many times as they have and making sure that everything is up to fire compliance so that's not our that's we don't make those uh we we do not go on site visits for that that is done by a professional

fire inspection company that comes in inspects the fire fire alarms inspects the sprinkler system if they find deficiencies and we have to get involved then it would generate permit fees and and review fees I just think this is an error of opportunity no I listen I agree with you and my fire uh the city fire marshal Neil Fado has mentioned that to me several times that he thinks it's

absurd that we go in for a single family and not for commercial building so it's absolutely something we are open to exploring and I'm I'm looking forward to uh reaching out to other fire chiefs of larger okay for for to lead for for for a time to to set the example on the state that this is what we're going to do within yeah I totally age within the law within the law thank you I yield Mr

President thank you thank you counc do you have a followup councelor yeah I have two questions so my first one is um we have four fire stations if you don't count Center Station we have six fire stations counting the fire St the sent we have Stanley Street uh we have I'll start north to south we have the North End station near me Stanley Street Center Flint candas clob okay um which we've pretty much established

that Center Street is more EMS than fire at this point you don't have nearly the equipment you used to have in that building correct correct okay so I'm asking this because we have a huge Waterfront development M Upon Us yep starting in 2026 I believe we should start seeing some movement and should start growing do we have enough equipment and apparatus to take on that much more area at the dire buildings at

the direction of uh Seth um it's actually interesting you mention that I'm meeting tomorrow with a private con consulting firm that's going to come in they take our actual call volume um and actual calls that we've had over the last five years and they will plot it on a map they can anticipate the calls that will be generated by the MBTA station coming in it's a proprietary software

that they have they will be able to anticipate when other communities have opened up a residential mixed use area like the one that we will see happening in Route 79 and they will be able to tell us based on that if our stations are adequately placed if we need to look at opening new stations if we can combine if we can need more apparatus if we need more manpower based on NFPA and

based on runtimes and uh it's a it's a very intuitive software so I look forward to being able to have that for you I believe we signed the contract last week and I believe it's uh it's three to four months we will have a number of results we're going to come up with six scenarios between the city Fire Marshall the deputy of operations myself and my chief uh staff we're going to

come up with scenarios based on uh like we said potentially moving apparatus uh increasing Manpower and how that will affect us efficient efficiency why so I will have that for you and as soon as I have it I plan to put together a PowerPoint presentation that I'll be able to bring down and and discuss with you well I would very much appreciate that because that potentially could blow

our Capital Improvement plan out of the window uh based on the projections at this point in time and this hasn't been done in a very long time we've had a ton of residential uh developments on the other side of the wapa uh in the North End between engine six and engine 12 off a Highland a so it's going to allow us to really do a deep dive on this and see

where we look yeah because this this Waterfront development um you can't even compare it to any of to any of those developments just because of the concentration of people the concentration of buildings the height of the buildings and we're talking A Whole New World here and I don't think a lot of people realize it agree and it's a huge call volume for both us and EMS and police yeah and and

obviously Public Safety is number one concern and uh we need to be on top of it and not behind the eightball on on this one so that's why I asked that question we're on it thank you uh my second my last question is Eastern Avenue reconstruction to $20 million project why is that in our Capital Improvement plan when it's a state road it's Route Six the state paid for the road outside

of South Coast marketpl because it was their Road why are we looking at $20 million for State Road that's on page 12 yep so that would be bottom half stand here I'm not sure um so that would be a question for Dan agar I mean that might be a combination because he does have I mean that's going to be I don't believe that's going to be City dollars it's going to be um oh it

says Bond Grant and chapter 90 funding I mean how many streets can we repair with $20 million using that combination of money a lot well I don't know that all that 20 million would come to you for it it there may be some specific requirements for that particular Street and I I don't know that so we'd have that would be a question for Mr agar yeah we'll get the breakdown yeah that

would be uh because that's just crazy that that I mean Eastern Avenue it's a state road so yeah I I would really be interested in the answer to that question thank you that I yield thank you councelor that being it for the proponents I'm not going to entertain are there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents motion to close the public hearing seeing none who entertain a motion to

close the public has made and seconded all in favor I any opposed City counc public hearing is now closed

I would

city council commune Finance please come to order clerk will call the RO council's kadim Dion here Hart here Kilby here Perera PTI here Rosel here Samson here president here pursu to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public hearing May transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised at such recordings or trans Transmissions are being made

whether perceived or unperceived by those present not deemed acknowledged and permissible we have one individual that sign up for put time krio subject matter

HUD three minutes Mr R thank you sure

I'd like to start off thanking the lord and savior for giving me the time to um try to see if I could set this up whatever um just thinking for the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ uh forgive me this time all right HUD there's got to be some kind of Hud reform um you have all this homelessness you have all this market rate housing that you guys were speaking about and

um something's going to be done where um how do I put this they're not sometimes the greatest place to live in because you're putting a bunch of people with with mental illness and and and certain health problems in public housing and and that in its own issue has a problem um the only thing I can say for that is like I said HUD reform and um there's going to be some kind of Hud task force

in our local area since everybody's been plagued with public housing and the crime in public housing um I don't know why this mic's turned on really loud um certain people you know what happened to the saying see something say something and then get targeted and harassed for it um I don't I know if anybody's familiar with the term gangstalking um you get attacked whe whether you're um political you know

gender anything to that affiliation you get attacked for um I'm here basically because I've been censored um on various social media platforms for trying to get talk about hard your conversation was about hard yes and this is about the the censorship of why I'm I'm

there's a lot of mental health people got a lot of mental health problems in in public housing okay and um there's not enough help and not a lot of people give a crap about the poor living in HUD you know we're talking about market rate we're talking about housing we need to talk about HUD and how we're going to reform HUD okay um why people um why is it no HUD Advocates why isn't

the for of a Housing Authority can correct me if I'm wrong um where it's not there's not advocates for people with their civil rights that get infringed upon inside of Hud Mr council president um people that are getting gangstalked inside of Hud um the elderly disabled and veterans are getting attacked inside of Hud okay um and this is not being talked about okay and I'll repeat this veterans disabled and

elderly are being attacked and and persecuted in HUD okay we got to figure out something how to help each other how to stop attacking each other okay I have no hitting agenda the only hidden agenda I have is coming with the truth and I know a lot about what goes on in housing and the dirty little tactics to provoke people and harass people and to viate people's civil rights and I will be heard and I will

not be let down or quieted down by anybody the three minutes are up thank you very much by the way we are in a Medical Health crisis our medical system is collapsing okay and can somebody explain to me why I'm 45 years old I'm losing my teeth and I got a 4-year-old family member that her teeth got pulled out there's a lot of shady and Corruption and fraud in this city and it needs to

be exposed and I'm going to do it if nobody else is going to do it your time's up your time's up sorry oh let me take my excuse me maybe that time's up too you people know what's going on some of you people excuse me please don't point to the councilors and talk to when your time is up you need to look it thank you so much thank you

C city council reconvene we have item number one fiscal year item number two fiscal year 2025 quarter 2 budget report was referred on January 28th 2025 we're going to hold discussions please come down thank you

what was that take a picture of what what's going on IDE good afternoon again it's good to see you nice to see you evening though Seth aen City administrator Bridget Alman uh director of financial services I got a question do you want to go into the questions first why you have another presentation or well I was going to talk oh yeah all right I'll yeah let them let them begin and then we'll go questions

afterwards so I mean I did so I did reach out I hope you all got um the request I asked um the city clerk to reach out to see if anybody had any questions I haven't didn't get any but I just want to say that um so right now we're if you look at it we're pretty much on target with our revenues and our expenditures the revenues are tracking at about

49% um but the large one of our largest local receipts is motor vehicle size which those just hit the street we should be they're getting those payments in um usually around now through the end of February so there'll be a better update of that in the third quarter and I just want to say that our tax taking was the lowest in over 10 years and our tax title um the new tax laws have made

it harder to collect those so we do have a slight uptick from last fiscal year last fiscal year we were at 4.8 million in a receivable now we're just at about five 3 million but I want to note that our um city that's the next closest to us that's similar New Bedford their uh tax title is $14.8 million so I just want to note that our collector's office is doing a phenomenal job

and there's um as you know we have we've seen increases in health insurance we did you approv that appropriation transfer last meeting and I just wanted to uh make a note that that's going to be watched and as I depart um the auditor and our HR Director are watching that very closely and all of our expenses right now I mean it's still kind of early I know it's halfway through the year but it is still early

um but you'll notice that all of your expenses expenditures in all of your budgets are between 40 to 50% so everything seems to be running right on Target and if anybody has any other questions we can right C6 Cy thank you um inactive capital projects we chatted about that I think the last time we had a uh quarterly update and um we're sitting on 283 $283,000 of idle money what is the

plan so again I mean we talk to the Departments where that money is and try to reallocate as we can we've done a really good job in reducing that over the last three years but you have yes so we're just I think the story is you got to just keep working at it and that's still the plan it's a little bit of a kind of 8020 thing uh I think we we were

able to to reallocate most of it and what's left is is probably going to take 80% of our time to deal with that 20% or less of what was there in the first place just because of either how it was awarded how it was appropriated what it was for any limitations on it so we are working through that uh it just that happens to be the the more difficult the biggest of

the 283,000 as you know is streets and highways at $24,000 have you spoke with the Department about reutilizing that I know it needs to be a like project with similar longevity and all that other stuff but I'm sure you can find a place to to position $24,000 for streets and highways absolutely uh you know part of it just weather um so at this point you know everything we're doing is in the

planning stage in terms of actual execution we're still a couple months away um so I have no doubt that we're going to be able to identify a project that that can either be part or all of um or you know multiple small projects uh depending uh but at this point um I can't report that there's a specific project and as soon as I have the information I'll let you know all right

I I'll ask again um as I'm sure you know go ahead so I do know that the parks and when last budget season when I don't know what her title is Miss Smith came down and then we she I mean I don't know that there's been a plan that's been brought from her to use up those funds but that is I know being worked on from the parks department yeah part of

part of one of the ideas is is augmenting an earmark uh to actually redevelop walkways walking paths uh because that amount of money is kind of right within that wheelhouse um that spec was just completed today uh and that will then go out uh for design bidding uh to actually figure out what the what the real cost of that is is and if we have enough money in that light

Adam to to do it I'm sure you've done this but is is our grant writer looking at any matching grants like if we put up 200 the state will put up another 200 or something like that when it comes infrastructure pretty sure she's actively looking all the time yeah okay yeah um that's something we' we've talked about uh with regard to you know not just streets and highways but Brown

fields and a number of other things um trying to figure out if there's if there's um inactive money that we could put to uh to use as a in a matching Capac to try to make more out of that okay um Street Scapes on Bedford Street um this has been in the design phase for quite a bit this was when jel ker was here authorized this project I believe what is the plan with this Bedford

Street Street Scapes there is not a plan right now um okay I respect that and um for a bunch of reasons and I can if we can sit down at some point I can kind of get into some of the other stuff a lot of it's kind of there's a lot of just intangible like what was this intended for you know how much is there here that we can actually do what we want with can

we make it part of another project as you know Street scrapes was sub subject to some litigation a number of years back um so there's just there's a lot of I don't want to say strings attached but there's a lot of issues with that money um we're trying to employ it Bedford Street being one of the biggest carers Central City where you have lots of manufacturing from marrow to EP parug G

to everything that's up in that area um I I I'd really like to see us this would be with Mr um agar Mr agar to come come down and and kind of working on a plan with this I mean we have the funding for it do we not two $2.4 million of funding for it yeah and we we've definitely talked about it and and talked about you know is there a way to leverage that as

part of a a bigger project try to minimize disruption uh when you're doing the project there's other work being done um so we've definitely had conversations especially since uh you've brought it up and I think it's an important conversation to have uh at this point it just it's we're not ready to uh to announce a resolution I'll file a resolution at the next meeting to just have Mr agar come down with you so we

can work on developing a plan uh when it comes to Street Scapes because I think we need to find something to do with this or this is just going to eventually end up in the inactive capital projects that's right um and uh you'd be looking at uh $3.6 million of inactive capital projects just for streets and highways um so I I'd really like I think it's I think it's important for us to start

having those discussions now especially as the Waterfront is getting developed so if there's a way we can connect which I believe that's what the original plan was I I think now is the time to start having those discussions certainly can uh question uh net School spending are we on track um uh to meet that school spending are you expecting any additional appropriation orders coming

from the school department so they they did um submit their year end I believe that's probably going to be about a million dollars um that'll be coming down and that comes from it's going to have to come from free cash right but what is that where is that million dollars coming from is that coming from insurance so that was um so we they didn't we didn't change the methodology of doing the health insurance until

fiscal 25 so yes it's from the health insurance okay and what do we have in stabilization right now ballpark about 17 2 million 1.2 million my goodness okay I yield thank you thank you C speed questions here we go um General government abatements it's 131% just curious on explanation for that why it's above it's good it's a good thing the revenue piece first literally first page so I believe there's still um the

actuals are great so that's a good thing a general under understanding of that so that has to do with the cherry sheet um the abatements and yeah I mean I think I I mean i' have to look at the details of that I but I we may have gotten a slight adjustment that came in so going back down to local receipts the recurring and you won't probably be able to answer this now but

maybe some information on what those recurring local receipts are which is almost double what it was originally budgeted so some information on that if

possible get your break down on that yeah and then and lastly and and something I think should be celebrated the investment income looks great so I'm just curious just looking forward you know the next six months do we anticipate that's going to continue to grow at the rate it's been growing what do you what what's your thoughts on it they're already reducing interest rates I mean we're already seeing I mean we

were at over 5% a year ago and now we're seeing they're starting to go like 4% and lower so no I don't I think that you know we did a good job we were able to you know sock it away and but no it's not I don't think that that's something that you should like count on it's kind of like one time money so really it's going to it going to hit the brakes on

it yeah you're going to probably go back to the way it was you know over the prior previous years but kudos job well done on that thank you very much I agree I yield thank you councel C to CC yeah um couple my questions were touched on so that's fine the marijuana excise um we're at 31% is that typical at this time do you think we're going to realize the full 1.4

million uh by the end of the year so the marijana so that comes from the state and we're always a quarter behind the way they they distribute it to us I do know that and we've talked about that is there's you know there's a saturation I mean there's now you have them in Dartmouth you have them in you know all over the place they're in Rhode Island now RH Island legalized it so I don't

see you don't see the influx of people traveling to Fall River to buy you know their marijuana as much anymore so I don't know I mean you might just make it I think that's going to have to be something as you budget next year's revenues um but how many facilities do we have in the city even at this point in terms of so there's there's a difference between the number that we're

given authorization and the numbers we actually have off operating right now correct I I think it's 10 or 11 that are operational there might be two or three more that have unresolved letters um and we went on a campaign starting about a year ago to revoke all the ones that had done nothing with you know five years of opportunity to do something um so I think the ones we have

are at this point are the only ones on the Horizon there's no more on the horizon that I know of yeah cuz in light of what you just said I mean we've reached a saturation point for ourselves I mean some communities and you know throughout the Commonwealth have even closed some like in you know out in the western Mass and certain areas okay that's that's all I have thank you okay thank

you thank you there be no further questions thank you for coming down and explaining that I'll a motion to ajour finance motion to adjourn Finance second motion to ajour finance second all in favor I any opposed city council committee Finance is now

attended for city council please come to CL will call the RO councilors kadim Dion here Hart here Kilby here Perera Pony here Roso here Samson here president here will everyone in the council chair please rise for a moment of Silent

prayer please remain standing for salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised such

recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible Mr President we take 15 and 16 out of order please motion to take items 15 and 16 out of order has been made in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries is order to adopt motion to adopt 15 and 16 second motion to adopt do you want to take 15 and 16 together for the adoption

pleas any a motion to take motion to take them together motion to take item 15 16 together as made in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries motion to adopt motion to adopt items 15 and 16 has ma second second second all in favor I any opposed motion carries do you want to come up and Madam clerk do you want to read the well first before I

go yes so um we have uh citations being issued to the student Veterans of America chapter of Bristol County and officers of the student Veterans of American chapter of Bristol Community College thank you if I could have the director of the veteran Center at BCC come down and join me hello sir nice to see you of course um so just a quick word for myself and then I'll let the director kind of speak more

about it um so the director from the veterans BCC Center had requested some official recognition from our city council for our student Veterans of America chapter and they're individual student veterans that have contributed greatly to its success uh they recently were in Colorado Springs for the 17th annual student Veterans of America American National Conference and there are many many members present uh over

1,600 chapters Nationwide on college campuses and over 2,000 members attended the recent Conference of the 1600 chapter Bristol Community College was a finalist for the 2024 SBA chapter of the Year we'd also like to recognize military connected students at Bristol for representing their college and for the city of Fall River with our honors tonight so I'm going to turn over to you director to give a little more

explanation to us uh thank you councelor thank you to city council uh the city of full River Bristol Community College is definitely a gem educating the not only the the citizens of Fall River and Bristol County but the military connected students here in the room and are leading on campus their Future Leaders of Industry they serve their time their military spouses their National Guard

members their children of veterans and they're going to be Future Leaders of Industry future elected politicians and um future entrepreneurs future lawyers and future uh uh doctors so as mentioned there's 2,000 student veterans in Colorado Springs 1600 chapters our military connected students here in Fall River are student veterans went against Baylor University with over 10 times our

size out of Texas and Cornell University which is an Ivy League institution so Bristol Community College a small two-year Community College the student veteran leaders on campus are on par with the student veterans at Ivy League institutions and that's all because of the leadership of the student veterans in this room and those that couldn't be here uh so thank you for this job well done so first we have a

group citation which I'll present to you as the Director and it states that it's official resolution from the city council be resolved that the city council s its accomodation to the student Veterans of America at Bristol Community College for their outstanding achievement of being ranked as a top five National finalist for the 20124 SVA chapter of the Year award representing Bristol Community College and the

community at large I'll present that to you sir thank you congratulations a job well done thank you very much and I don't want to butcher any names here so I'm actually going to have you read them and then present them to the individuals do you want to come the recipients can you come come down and stand down here on the floor that's perfectly fine any parents wants to take a picture you can

come up front as well and take pictures and and just so we can facilitate this um all the resolution state that be resolve the city council extend commodation to the individual for student Veterans of America chapter Bristol Community College in recognition of your dedication to the SVA chapter of Bristol Community College ranked as the top five National finalist for the 2004 2024 SVA chapter of the Year award be a

resolve of the city for city council extend best wishes for its continued success the resolution be entered in the records of the city council adopted today February 11 2025 by myself and signed by our council president thank you uh not present CJ kamacho he's our policy leaz on Mr TS

Ferris Miss Kayla Harvey Miss Sylvia Jones uh not present Mr John montiero he's our Career Services lead on Mr Joseph

shrunk uh not present Mr Jerome Harper and president Mr Maximus P thank you very much thank you appreciate it thank you very much folks appreciate your work if you just want to greet the councilors as well please thank you

AB

Madam cirk the first item before you is the mayor's request for the confirmation of the appointment of Ben felberg um it was originally received as an appointment to the zoning board of appeals but we do have an updated letter this would be an appointment to the Redevelopment Authority motion to confirm motion to confirm has made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries you have a request for the

confirmation of the reappointment of Joseph Pereira to the zoning board of appeals motion to confirm second motion to confirm as a made in seconded all in favor any opposed motion carries item three is a communication from the mayor in orders declaring the following Municipal properties as Surplus to allow for disposition the first is 112 Flint Street which is the former dval School motion to

adopt motion or refer to the committee on real estate whatever the will of the council is motion has been made to refer to committee on real estate is there a second what would your I'm sorry Mr President what was your comment he said motion refer to Comm whatever the council decides to do should we uh make a motion to um to advertise and publish or not yet adopted to to dispose on okay

second he's refering to the command real estate okay second okay motion has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries and the second property would be located at 138 Harwell Street which is the former Sylvia School motion to refer to the committee on real estate second motion refer the committee on real estate has remain second it all in favor I any oppos on a motion CC seat

for cc I understand it's going to my committee real estate which is good because it's uh really not overcrowded right now so um um should we also with that motion authorized request for proposals because that's what's going to happen in the real estate Comm meeting I don't think we can request for proposal C until we know what we're going to do with it I don't know we've done it before but not before it gets referred

to the committee if you could if you supposed to okay just um I it's usually more beneficial if we're able to do it now than it'll um you know the meeting will be once the request for postals come in because that's what's going to happen at the real estate meeting meeting as we're going to ask for request for proposals why I just follow the normal call the commit just a question okay

thank you thank you councelor motion toer commit on real estate has remain in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries item four is a communication from the mayor in an order accepting a donation in an amount not to exceed $25,000 annually from Deborah and Richard Danner to the Fall River Public Library motion to adopt second motion to adopt as made in seconded all in favor I any opposed

motion carries item number five is the mayor's communication and a proposed um proposed zoning amendments that relate to the A2 apartment District motion refer to the planning board second motion refer the planning board has been made in second all in favor any opposed motion carries item six is a communication from the mayor in an order appropriating 1,816 444 from Community preservation act

funds for the FY 26 Community Mo refer committee on finance motion refer the committee on finance has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item seven is a communication from the mayor and a request to establish ordinances creating positions of Museum security officer at the fora Public Library services in a pro processing archist of Public Library Services motion refer the committ

ordinance a second motion the Comm legislation has made second all in favor I any opposed motion carries item eight is a communication from the mayor in two orders the first is a quick claim deed conveying property from the full River Redevelopment authority to the full River school committee motion to adopt second motion to adopt has made and seconded all in favor I I any oppos motion carries and the second is an

amend Amendment to the lease agreement between the full River Redevelopment Authority and the full River School Department motion to adopt motion to adopt has been made and second all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item number nine is a communication from the deputy police chief JT in a request for revocation of the secondhand article store licens for Joey a Pico for a business located at 255 South me motion

to adopt motion to adopt has been made point of information uh I I heard correctly this is uh revocation correct correct yes okay thank you motion has been made in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 10 is the traffic commission recommending amendments to the ordinances motion committee on ordinance a second motion committee on legislation has made and seconded all in favor I any

opposed motion carries committee on health and environmental Affairs at a meeting held on January 28th voted unanimously Rec recommend that the accompanying resolution be granted leave to withdraw this relates to the gates of Hope under W Street motion so made second motion Grant Le to withdraw has remain in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries committee on health and environmental Affairs at a

meeting held on January 28th voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying resolution be granted leave to withdraw this related to a issues at city parks motion so made motion to Grant least to withdraws made in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries be it resolved that the capital Improvement plan is hereby approved by the city council motion to adopt second motion to adopt as me second it all in

favor I any opposed motion carries where is the current ordinance to implement a parking ban during a a weather related event is currently at the discretion of the administration and whereas this can cause confusion among residents as to whether or not a parking ban is in place during a weather event and where certain condition conditions should warrant an automatic parking ban based on various anticipated weather

events and public school closures now therefore be resolve that the committee on ordinances and legislation convene with City administrator director of traffic and parking director of community maintenance and a representative from the for of the police department to discuss potential amendments to the existing ordinance related to emergency parking prohibitions due to weather condition

motion to adopt second motion to adopt has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 17 is in order granting permission to John dasta for the removal of curbing at 209 Adams Street motion to adopt second motion to adopt has remain seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 18 is in order granting permission to IC Investments LLC for the removal of curbing at 146

18th Street motion to adopt second motion to adopt has remain in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries 19 is in order granting permission to aen coutino Souza doing business as CNA Auto Body for permission operate an auto body shop at 83 malberry Street motion to adopt motion to adopt has a remain in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries have the police chief's

report on licenses motion to adopt second motion to adopt has remain seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have claims refer to Corporation counsel second motion refer to Corporation coun Mee second and all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have minutes of the committee on finance motion to approve second motion to approve the committee on finance meeting has been made and seconded all in favor

I motion to any all in favor I any any opposed no motion carries we have minutes of the regular meeting of the city council held on January 28th motion to approve second motion to approve has a me in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries have the Department of Environmental Protection regarding a license application for Donald Scott and Mary L Church southw UPA pond at 10:40 Dickinson Street

motion accept place on file second second motion accepted place on file has meeting second and all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have the mass development Finance Agency um informing the Council of a public hearing that was being held this evening for the issuance of taxes exempt revenue bonds for Seven Hills foundation and affes motion accept the place on file motion accept the

place on file second all in favor I any opposed motion carries the Department of Environmental Protection regarding the issuance of draft Water waste permit within the Mount Hope Bay motion accept place on file second motion accept and place on file has second all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have motion to adjourn motion to adjourn remain seconded all in favor I any oppos

motion cash Council now J good night everybody good job

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