6.11.2024 City Council - Public Hearings & Committee on Finance

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public will come to order the clerk will call the RO Council Kadeem here Dion here har here Kilby here Herrera here P here reposo here Samson here president canar here 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 Transmissions or recordings are being made whether perceived or

unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible motion the public hearing second motion to over the public hearing has been made and seconded all in favor any opposed motion carries item number one is a curb removal Den Diogo for1 hon Street for the removal of curbing as follows at 401 hon Street the existing opening is 30 fe5 in curb to be removed is additional 5 feet there is no

curb to be added the combined opening proposed after alteration is 35 ft 5 in this parel is currently serviced by a horse shoe driver away with two curb openings one opening is 19 ft in width and the second is 11t 5 in in width the applicant proposes to extend the 11.5 ft opening by an additional 5T the total opening for the location will be 35 feet and 5 in are there any proponents to

this public hearing any proponents we do have a proponent but I don't think she wants to come down you can come down yeah it's a highest in Street you I'm sorry I apologize I see no proponents move on to there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents hearing none we'll move on to item number two 164 Elm Street llc2 uh 2 eaten Road in quinsey Mass 02169 for the removal of curbing as

follows at 164 Elm Street the existing opening is 22 feet 9 in curb to be removed is 19 ft 2 in curb to be added is 12 feet 6 in Combined opening proposed after alteration is 29 ft 5 in the pel is currently serviced by two separate driveways a 10 foot 3 in foot opening and the 12 foot 6 in foot opening on Elm Street the applicant proposes to close 12' 6 in opening foot

opening and create a new 19 ft 2in opening the total opening for the location will be 29 ft 5 in are there any proponents for this public hearing any proponents seeing none are there any opponents for this public hearing any opponents seeing none we'll move on to item number three Tano family living trust 311 Pin Street for the removal of Cirby as follows at 311 pin stre Street SL

Purchase Street existing opening is 38 ft curb to be removed is 10 ft curb to be added is 5 feet the combined opening proposed after alteration is 43 ft the parcle is currently serviced by two separate driveways a 22t opening on Pine Street and a 16t opening on Purchase Street the applicant proposes to extend the Purchase Street opening by an additional 5 feet the total opening for

the location will be 43 ft are there any proponents to this public hearing any proponents you want to come down if you like to speak on it okay you are a proponent you are in favor okay thank you we have a proponent but she just doesn't feel comfortable com to speaking no problem I feel comfortable no no I mean I don't mean you just choose not to I choose not okay sorry I didn't mean that's an

insult are there any opponents any opponents seeing none we move on to item number four sarapen Souza 177 Doyle Street for the removal of curbing as follows the existing opening at 177 doy Street SL North Rod Cliff Street is 13t 2 in curb to be removed is 17 ft there is no curb to be added combined opening proposed after alteration is 30t 2 in the pel is currently serviced by a 13t 2

in opening on Doyle Street the applicant proposes to construct a new 17 ft opening on North Rod Cliff Street the total opening for the location will be 30 2 in are there any proponents for this public hearing any proponents seeing none are there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents seeing none we move on to item number four Street acceptance mohawk mohawk drive from Indiantown Road

looping back to Indiantown Road are there any proponents to this public hearing any proponents are there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents seeing none we move on to item number six Gate House drive from Prospect Street southernly to Maple Street are there any proponents to this public hearing seeing none we move on are there any opponents to this public he in seeing none we move on to item number

seven secondhand license Sharon Vieira doing business as J and J Diamond Jewelers 400 Foley Street subm mass 02726 for a permission to operate and maintain a secondhand article store located at 176 bordon Street jewelry to be sold are there any proponents to this public hearing any proponents seeing none I'll ask for any opponents to this public hearing any opponents seeing none motion to close the public

hearing entain a motion to close the public hearing has been made and seconded on the motion to close the public hearing Cy to no I just have one question um on number seven on number seven yeah is this a uh is she reapplying for a license she because she I know she's been in existence for years absolutely cler we clarify she uh her license she let her license laps but she

is um going to begin selling I'm sorry purchasing gold again and use uh jewelry so she is going to reapply for that license okay thank you that I Y thank you councelor motion to close public has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed public hearing is now closed

city council committee finance will come to order clerk will call the RO council's kadim here Dion here Hart here Kilby here Carrera here hty here Roso here Samson here president here 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 that such recordings

or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or un proceed by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible item number one we have citizens input time there's a one two three four five six individuals signed up first we have Michael grimo subject L Mohawk Drive want to come down please to the table everyone has three minutes to State their case and the clock will begin when you start speaking

hello my name is Michael greo I live on 305 Mohawk Drive in for River um this past weekend we had a public uh we had a meeting in our neighborhood they were given some information about a proposed project that's going to be happening um if all applications go through it could happen this weekend and the project involves cutting down about 230 Acres of for out in the middle of the uh for River um watershed

area and we as neighbors are concerned about that uh with the we live in a residential area we've got children riding bicycles up and down the street grandmothers walk in baby carriages and uh that's just the personal side of things uh the other thing is based on for what we've found as an application for this process is uh there's some issues with the individual who's trying to cut the trees down and

how he's going to get to his lot the lot is somewhat landlocked in the middle of the reservation and how he gets there is very questionable he does own a corner lot in off a Mohawk Drive but there's about a th000 feet that he needs to get access to this lot which is landlock and I pass a package to everyone uh earlier uh so the question is how is he going to do that

um that that's my question that's all the neighborhood's question as well and for some reason he's applied to the state forestry division uh for this application there are various uh there were issues with the application you had to do it twice because he didn't sign it correctly the first time uh he understated the amount of wetlands that are out there uh he stated about 35 40 acres is about 65 to 75 Acres of

wetlands out there there's a contrib that starts there called uh one of the Brooks which leads all the way to Westport Harbor so some very sensitive wetlands in that area um and the main thing getting back to what we said earlier is the rights of this individual to ride trucks up and down our neighborhood as of today uh we still own that road it's a it was a uh private road was never

accessed or given rights to the city so we have citizens uh we're not be very happy when they bringing trailer trucks up and down the street uh if anybody's watched any Alaskan uh logging you see the big trucks that they run in Alaska and that's going to happen here uh our street is very vulnerable at at this point there's rocks all over the place potholes in Indian Town the problem with

Indian town is Indian Town consists of basically a binder coat in many places it's been patched up over the over the years but it's still binder coat that still exist on Town Road so putting 100 ton trucks running up and down those roads for the next four to six months is just just inappropriate there going to be a better way uh again this individual has tried to do several projects up

there um from a indult entertainment Zone back 10 15 years ago he tried that uh we fought that successfully he tried to put in uh solar panels as well and that was killed and now he's trying to do this thank you Michael we're just not very happy so if you can help us please thank you thank you very much thank you con to so you said it might start as early as this weekend that information is

coming from where this application this forestry plan that you see in front of you actually the Butter's list there a butter form that says here it says the cutting is scheduled to begin onor about the date of June 1st okay okay this was put back about two weeks because he had to resign the contract so we're assuming that two weeks beyond June 1 is actually probably this weekend so he

could legally start cutting trees this weekend and that's our problem it's there there's going to be some issues involved in this how they can do this is pretty unbelievable how they can get rights to do this uh again it's with the state forestry division and I guess they have lot of Rights I'm sorry I'll yield you yeld councelor yes thank you counc one counc no just a point of information I did have a conversation

with Mr agar today um Dan agar the engineer Dan agar the director of Planning Engineer just make sure it wasn't a resident so just in having a conversation about this particular item I I know he has uh submitted a opposition to DCR for this application because the application they submitted is is flawed according to him so I know that from the city Side there's some push back to the Department of

Conservation and Recreation uh so at least from the the city standpoint as of right now I don't I don't know too much about the particulars in regard to what is missing in the application or what what he considered or deemed flawed uh but I just want to let you know that yeah my my question again if I can still speak you can on this 30 seconds the ABD is there is no way for these abds to

contact or to have a meeting usually when B's meeting regarding residential areas people have a meeting to go to there's no meeting suggested on where they can meet to discuss this and that's I found uh inappropriate as well all right well thank you at least it's good to not that the city engineer is working on your behalf trying to stop this and following the application process okay great thank you thank

you next we have Ron be gagnan subject matter is I van actually Dana Bond you can come down as well same subject

matter my name is Ron Gagner 28 bonab Street and we uh you know good evening counselors and Friends hi uh most of you are know um I'm president of the greater for ofart Association and U we've applied for a grant to purchase a van to convert into a mobile Art Studio the idea would be if if it gets approved and we get this up and running we would reach out to Recreation to the

the population here in the city and uh give these kids a chance to pursue you know what they love uh you all know me I was a football coach for a long time and we tried to help those kids and I'm trying to carry that over into a different venue now so with that I will yield to miss bar she's the treasurer she can elaborate maybe a little more um

yes my name is Dana Barnes I am the past president of the greater fall Riv Art Association and I am presently just speaking to the mic hello BR closer to yeah CL can you hear me now yeah I can hear you U my name is Dana Barnes and I am the past president of of the greater Fall River Art Association and I am currently um serving as its Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer um one of

the things I have been involved with this organization for eight years and one of the things that we've always tried to do is to find ways to bring art to kids where they're at meet them where they're at um we're not on a bus line up there on Belmont Street um so trying to get out and get to events so that kids can do art and not only kids but adults

um teenagers um any age um group could could um benefit by having this van come to them and we we have um we've thought long and hard about this and F figured out that this is probably the best way to do it um I have had friends who have done these kinds of things in other other locations and they're they're pretty popular you pull into a parking lot and

um the minute they see the the logo on the side of the van um oh they know what that is people will get familiar with that and we would go to the housing the housing projects talk with the folks there talk with Park and wck um all of those kinds of things I know that townhouse Clubhouse has already expressed an interest in having us park outside of their facility and and

literally teach art to people um we anticipated being free to the public um so that this is a um not a a large Financial contribution we would ask people to make we would put a donation jar out and if people felt like they wanted to to um toss a little coin into the um jar that would be great but we're trying really hard to meet people where they're at um like um Ron said we do

offer scholarship money to kids to come into the building but we're trying to expand that and and reach out to where kids are so thank you very much counc s counc POS thank you Mr President um just to my colleagues so the resolution I filed this evening is in support of this um you'll be seeing a Bristol County arpa application a regarding the uh purchase of an art van so we're myself

on behalf of them would be seeking your support I Yi thank you thank you thank you thank you very much thank you so much thank you thank you next good to see you R good to see you we have Lor trip subject matter to be help the homeless

you have three minutes hello I heard a lot of things about people talking about the homeless people down on Bay Street saying that we're wrecking everything and we're you know um just terrible people and um I'm here to say no we're not I've been there a year I didn't plan this I didn't want this this is what happens when things don't go right and there's a lot of people out there that need help and all

I see people complaining but they're not really there to see what goes on they're only listening to people who don't even make the effort to come down and speak to us like human beings we are human we're not trash we we're good people I'm from Far River born and raised here I love my place I love it but I can't see how anybody can sit there and say that we're bad people we're educated we just

got nowhere to go we know how to do it we've applied for housing but we can't get housing because we're on drugs who said we're on drugs just because people do drug doesn't mean everyone does it we're not all addicts and we're not all bad people even if we were go ahead no go ahead no hold on C someone else had a hand up for us good I'm just um I'm I'm sad about the whole

situation I'm 51 years old I have a lot of medical issues and I don't understand why I gave any help when I've applied for emergency housing I've applied for everything and all I get is we'll get back to you you're on the list but on list I was up here I'm down here there's too many homeless people there shouldn't be now they have build apartment buildings that have turned into luxury apartments or to

people who need subsidized housing who have an income can't afford $2,000 a month but are willing to pay what they have to to pay at some point $2,000 I know I don't have but I know everybody knows the train's coming so now everybody wants to just boost up the rent it's been going on since covid you know that's how I lost my apartment it went from 850 a month to 12 1150 a month

like what are you doing why why is that happening because the trains come and everybody thinks that they can get a lot of money so now people like me and I'm sure there's a lot of them that don't have anywhere to go and we try to be a small community you know we take care of our trash we ask the the city to give us trash bags we take care of all that we clean

everything there's a lot of people that just drive down there and dump things mattresses TVs you know we we don't know why they're driving there whether it's to make us look bad where would we get a mattress where would we get a TV we have no electricity you know and as far as like um health issue the bathrooms we actually do it the right way you know hey if we have to dig a hole and put

something there that's what we do when we're trying to make do what we have all right we have a couple of councelors that want to make some comments Council C Council Samson so I first I want to commend you for coming down here you are one of the bravest people that I that can be in this chamber I commend you for that and this is why I always say this

is such a complicated issue and I know there were comments made that were very hurtful we shouldn't be feeding people down there we shouldn't be going down here you are brave and it's a terrible situation it is more complicated than anybody could even imagine and this is to my colleagues when I say you know look our homeless shelters gone down to half we not everybody is a drug addict out there not

everybody has mental health issues it's not that simple I want to commend you from one citizen to the next of How brave you are to come down this is embarrassing it's humiliating and but you are brave and strong hum it and thank you thank you for speaking when it is not easy to do that and I I got to stop talking because it's emotional because I know how hard this is for you

and I appreciate it this is amazing that you were able to come and do this I yield count too C I thought that myself that took a lot to come here um I I want to say that I don't think everybody has said that everybody down there is a bad person I know most of the time people automatically say um um you know it's drug addiction it's alcoholism it's um mental health but I've publicly more

than once and I was on the radio last week stating it's it it there's four components to it and one of the components is the situation you're in it's not the the not proper funding to be able to afford and then it's the people also on unemployment so I don't think it's ever been anybody's intention to drag people through the mud right um and we hear all the time we're offering

all the services we're offering all the services they don't accept the services they won't accept the services can I question say something on it I haven't been asked asked at all if I wanted any help or Services except for the people through Star as they come down and South Coast she comes down Stephanie and she does amazing things for people and she helps the ones who who are you know able

to get out and are willing to leave you know but I need an income I can't work because I have COPD and I have to have a machine I have no electricity so I'm kind of suffering in that point and now I tried to while I applied for disability and um they help you with General Relief and food stamp but my identity got stolen and now I have to stop all over again so it just

seems like one thing after another so I mean it's just ridiculous but there are people who do care there are people who you know don't look at us as trash and I know and I and I and I know that not everybody is doing the wrong thing I personally went down there I personally spoke to people in the encampment I spoke with you so I have been on inside and I have spoken with people in there

yep and I know everybody there are people in there that just exactly there there are people that just the people as far as bre Avenue they're trying to come down there but we're trying to keep it clean you know people leave they leave all their stuff so we tried to get rid of it but we can't we had the uh big dumpster there the other day it was only there 3

hours and it got taken away we didn't even have a chance to go to the top of the hill to get all the trash that's up there all right it's like impossible thank you very much thank you thank you thank you thank you thanks Having the courage to come thank you next we have Gregory toy did not put a subject matter you also have three minutes what is the subject matter Gregory what do

you want to talk about homeless situation thank you excuse me I got stage right like crazy um wasn't really prepared to talk but I just got to tell you I'm Bay Street we police our own community on Bay Street we police our own Community um anybody that's bad that isn't supposed to be there we kick out of there we try to keep it clean we try to keep it quiet can't always

control everybody that comes down the street you know what I'm saying but the people that live there aren't bad people we're all just trying to make it that's all we're trying to do that's all I got thank you very much thank you feel a bravery thank you next we have David vog subject matter

homeless how you doing how you doing my name is David and uh I like to say you what have you done about like opening facilities like as far as you don't want us go to the bathroom in the woods but you don't put up ouses or shower stall or something like that that's mobile that we can shower and stuff and go to the bathroom like we're not entitled to something like that can you speak into

the microphone yes how come how come nothing's been done about like bathroom that's available down there like an out house or or shower stall or something like that that's mobile to us all down living down there they I I think they had one didn't they counc C1 counc Mr President we we did I guess I just want to remind folks that the uh city council is a legislative body so we have no Authority

whatsoever to provide that information so or that assistance so the requests come down from the administration for funding or um resources then we make the appropriation we can't do it on our own but we did have Community Development agency here along with uh some other folks and they did mention that there were trailers for um showers and bathrooms uh how often those get utilized I'm not quite sure but there

there is a facility out there um or it's been rented so uh so the city has done that in the past how often they do that I'm not quite sure but I I just want to let you know that that there is a a facility like that there is one thank you councel thank you thank you very much counc you you want to see something there there is a facility as well to be

able to wash and dry clothes that was out there as a matter of fact I saw today they were looking for towels for people to donate towels um so there are facilities like that and I had a woman that I met on Saturday um that was homeless with a son and I felt really bad and listened to you know what she had to say uh got somebody to go down and talk to her they offered her

a shelter in New Bedford she didn't want to go to New Bedford she was from another state the city had already sent her back to that state where she has family and support where she wanted to go and she was up here two weeks later she was back in for River two weeks later but you know we we had a place for her to stay Nikki Fontaine is very good

at finding um you know a shelter but the shelter might not be right here in Fall River what what section of the city did you live in did was it because your rents went high too yeah uh yes okay thank you very much my friend thank you thank you there be no one left to speak for since it's input time entertain a motion to Finance motion toour Finance um don't we M Mr President y don't we

have the municipal discussion if we have any further questions item two that was referred to the committee yesterday we referred it to the regular city council meeting so you can ask those in the regular city council meeting we can ask them a regular Council you don't want to do it now excuse me you don't want to do it now started it's no longer in finance you took we took it out of Finance

yesterday counselor okay thanks was a motion I think you made a mo I don't know who made I wasn't sure if it was there again that's yeah no no we took they was it was taken out of finance committee motion to adjourn Finance second as a aming second all in favor any opposed city council Community finances now agenda regular city council meeting will begin at 7 o' oh my God