City Council

Methuen City Council – Regular Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 22, 2022 @ 7:00 p.m. Chair ProTemp Zeigler called the regular meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present: Clr. DiZoglio (via Zoom), Clr. Faretra, Clr. Finocchiaro, Clr. Saba (via Zoom), Clr. Saffie, Clr. Simard, and ProTemp Zeigler. Councilor McCarty and Chair Beauregard were absent. Acceptance of Agenda MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to accept the agenda. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. McCarty, Clr. Beauregard) MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra seconded by Councilor Saffie to amend the agenda to withdraw Contract C-22-50 and move TR-22-18 out of order, after Public Participation. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. McCarty, Clr. Beauregard) MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra seconded by Councilor Simard to accept as amended. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. McCarty, Clr. Beauregard) Pledge of Allegiance/Invocation Council stood for the Pledge of Allegiance and remained standing for the Invocation given by Councilor Zeigler. Acceptance of Minutes MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve January 6, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. Special Meeting minutes. MOTION BY: Councilor Finocchiaro, seconded by Councilor Faretra to change the number on page one with regards to the test kits from 800 to 8,000. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. McCarty, Clr. Beauregard) MOTION BY: Councilor to accept as amended. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. McCarty, Clr. Beauregard) January 18 @ 6:00 p.m. Special Meeting MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. McCarty, Clr. Beauregard) Proclamations/Correspondence – None Presentations/Projects/Department Updates – None Mayor’s Report Mayor Perry thanked all the constituents and Councilors who reached out to him during his recent illness. He reported COVID numbers are headed in a positive direction. He spoke about the test kit distribution throughout the city, two kits to 103 households. February 8th there was distribution at the Loop, first come first serve, 814 households and at Mann, Inc. On the 9th they did 1430 kits, and, on the 10th, they did 544 kits. There are approximately 3800 kits still available. Saturday from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m. there is a vaccination clinic at the Loop and distribution of two kits per household. He thanked Felix from the Health Department and Louis Santiago who set up a tracking system for residents who received the kit. The School Committee voted to suspend the mask mandate and make it parents’ choice which he supports. The Mayor reported the firefighters are being trained on the new fire truck which is ready to go. It will replace a fire truck pumper from 1999 which requires upgrades. 1 Methuen City Council – Regular Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 22, 2022 @ 7:00 p.m. He reported that the city is still having trouble filling jobs. Unemployment is 3.2% in the city. There are numerous jobs open, listed on the website, with good salaries and benefit. He is working with local restaurants to try to set up “restaurant week”. Councilor Simard asked if the hours have been reduced on the testing site on Pelham Street. Felix Zemel indicated they are still doing normal hours. Councilor Simard asked that the information be posted on the website. Councilor Faretra asked for an update on the packer. Pat Bower said it should be here for spring pickup. Councilor Faretra asked if HR is updating requirements as jobs are getting posted, making sure the job postings are up to date. Mayor Perry, for example, the opening in DPW is not posted yet because a great deal has changed, and the job description needs to be updated. We are adding new requirements. Typically, we look at other communities to see what they have. Councilor Faretra asked if the Mayor is going to bring the Rail Trail funds to Council so they can decide one way or another. Mayor Perry indicated he has no desire to bring a resolution forward. There were statements made the last time that he is not sure where people are getting them. Since the day he took office they knew where the money is. It was just what it was going to be used for. The funds cannot be used on a private structure. He is looking at other ways to do things on the Rail Trail. At the March 7th meeting he is committing to Council to come to them with a plan on how they want to spend the $421,000 some will go to Burnham Road, some to Veterans’ Park, because he wants to use that. That is over and above whether we decide to use ARPA for some of the parks. Councilor Saba asked if the Mayor had an update on the COVID money that was disputed. Mayor Perry explained the city received notice last week that the appeal was denied. He has asked if the city could use the revenue loss from the ARPA funds to pay and received a yes from Melanson and a no from the state. That will be on the agenda for the March 7th meeting either coming from Free Cash or the revenue loss coming from ARPA. Councilor Saba asked if the city would have to pay that back or would it get deducted from the Cherry Sheet. Mayor Perry indicated it has not been deducted. We will pay it back into the CARES account. Councilor Saba, going back to the ARPA funding, Melanson came and answered questions recently and is wondering what the next step is. The Mayor indicated he is waiting on Council for the next step. He is not going to make any determination without Council. The department heads have all put together a prioritized list. They are discussing the prioritized list. He would like them to present their prioritized list to Council so that Council can decide if they want to use the revenue loss for this because there are several good projects. He said he spoke to the Chair and is waiting for him to initiate the next move. He is lining up the department heads to come to a meeting. His suggestion to the Council to have a special two-night meeting so that each department head can present his or her priorities. He told them to prioritize regardless of whether Melanson said yes or no. Councilor Saba said they need the Mayor to come to the Council. We’ve lost a lot of valuable time on this and we should put together a list and the Mayor should put together a list and say “here are the major projects” that we would like to do and you recommend we spend the money. We know that we want to do the 9.5 million of combined sewer projects. Everyone is going to support that. We haven’t done any studies or groundwork to prepare for that project. We know that is one thing we want to do. Council has been pushing for the DPW building. The School Department is looking for a school building. The Mayor needs to take the leadership role on this and say “Councilors, we’ve got 46 million 2 Methuen City Council – Regular Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 22, 2022 @ 7:00 p.m. dollars to spend and here are the major projects we want to do. Here is where the funding comes from. Talking about DPW, it could be 35 million which is a guess. We have not done a feasibility study or an engineering study to see what the level of contamination is on those grounds. We haven’t done a site visit or to see if there are other locations in town to potentially move that facility. We must reorganize at this point. Mayor Perry said this Council specifically said they wanted to weigh in on the projects. He brought the projects to the Council, given them every way he could. He indicated the best way for Council to understand is to hear from department heads who are far more intelligent to what they want, what is needed. It makes no sense for him to Council and say “he wants to do this” then come to Council. Councilor Saba noted he would gladly meet with the Mayor. They need to come up with a better system. Councilor DiZoglio said during snowstorms, DPW is doing a great job on the roads and side streets. But the sidewalks have been horrible in recent weeks. He noted there is a snow removal ordinance in the city. Mayor Perry indicated where there are sidewalks going to schools, there is a sidewalk plow we use. Pat Bower, DPW Director, said there are certain routes that the city uses the sidewalk machines for and then after the last storm we had a number of freeze, thaw events that have contributed to the conditions of the sidewalks. They have been out, having people shovel, sand and salt along the length of those sidewalks. They have been doing the best they can to keep the sidewalks clear, the ones they have worked out with the schools. It has been difficult to keep up with the freeze and thaw. But they have done a pretty good job maintaining those sidewalks. As far as the ordinance goes, in front of business and things like that he doesn’t recall the city ever enforcing that. It becomes very difficult to do. If there are certain areas that Councilors get calls on/complaints for, he can address those. But if we start singling out certain business or certain locations then he is just going to be doing the whole city. Councilor DiZoglio said Pleasant Valley street, all the way down, was horrible. He received calls from parents whose kids are walking on the roads, slipping, and sliding. He has also received a lot of calls regarding potholes. Pat Bower said the city is out on a regular basis working on potholes. They added a “hot block” which allows them to maintain the heat vs using cold patch, which is what they used years ago and would just come right out of a pothole when they were done. It has just been a matter of keeping up with it. When the moisture gets into the pothole it freezes and then the asphalt comes out when it thaws. We are battling extreme temperatures this winter. The runoff has been difficult. The overnight freezing is problematic even when you don’t have any weather event. Councilor Saffie noted the COVID test distribution was awesome. She asked if there is an updated flow chart of DPW department. Mayor Perry responded, no, not yet. The plan is to work with Director Bower because there are several items in the audit they need to address. Some are organizational related. Some are process and system related. He plans to come back to this Council shortly with a detail plan on what they intend to do. He is not going to make any large changes in the organization until we go into FY’23. Councilor Saffie said one of the biggest things in the audit was communication. She asked if the Mayor would be able to investigate maybe writing down a standard operating procedure of communication, for example, snow and ice who is giving who the messages. Mayor Perry said he would look at that. Captain Haggar has been testing something for him. We are trying to inform citizens more. We may ask to communicate with employees via cellphones. Not every city employee has a city phone. There is a lot more to the communication piece. There has to be regular staff meetings, discussions of what is on the agenda for the week, what we need to get done and then meet 3 Methuen City Council – Regular Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 22, 2022 @ 7:00 p.m. at the end of the week and how did we do with what we were supposed to do. Those were all in the audit and important things to put in place. Councilor Saba said Council has had several tours in small groups of the DPW building. He had a tour of the new school facility in Andover. He encouraged the school department to reach out to other Councilors. Mr. Bower is setting up tours of other school facilities as to what we need. We talk about the Central building he asked the Mayor if he supports the new school. Mayor Perry said the answer is yes. But not if you are going to do a DPW structure. If we do a DPW structure that is 29 out of 46 million. We need it. He would support it and would encourage the Council to support it. We do have alternatives that he’d like to discuss with Council as part of the process some of which are behind the wall, the old Presentation of Mary. There are other options for the school beyond the Crest building. While he is supportive of additional space for the building he doesn’t know if it should be the Crest building. Councilor Saba suggested the Mayor speak with the Superintendent. Before we get to that point, you are going to have to approve it before it gets to Council. Mayor Perry said he doesn’t have to approve it. Councilor Saba indicated the Mayor must put it before Council. The Mayor said, what you asked for, when you were Chair was that the Council be part of the decision-making process. He is trying to do what he was asked to do. If Council is asking what he wants to do with the 46 million, he will take that direction right now as to what he wants to spend it on. Councilor Saba said the idea was to work tougher with the Mayor. Now he is basically telling Council he is waiting for them. Council could have a conversation with the Mayor, but he must put it before Council for approval. As far as the school building and the DPW building, the school building can come out of the first three buckets, out of the ARPA money. The DPW building would have to come out of the fourth bucket. (The Mayor agreed) They wouldn’t compete at all anyway. Mayor Perry indicated it is not a competition. Its 29 million out of 46 million is what he is saying. At the discretion of the Council if that is what they decide to do that is what he will do. If we decide to spend 29 million, it would be more because you are not going to build a DPW building for 19 million and when you go looking he suggested going to look at the Andover building because he has and that was about 21 million to build. Councilor Saba - We can all agree that we need a new facility. The DPW building should be condemned. We will never ever get an opportunity to do this again if we don’t do it now as part of that 46 million. He asked the Mayor if the city has a full-time grant writer. The Mayor responded, the city does not. Councilor Saba said that is something that we should be looking at because we leave a lot of money on the table and we talk about the cameras that are going to come up later on, talk about the DPW building, all of these items don’t necessarily have to be done with only ARPA money. Some of them might be a combination of bonding but also grant money. Felix Zemel is doing a phenomenal job getting grants. But because we don’t have someone focused on it, we leave a lot of money on the table. Mayor Perry said if Council adds money in the budget for him, he will be happy to hire a fulltime grant writer. This administration has increased the amount of grants that come into the city by 200%. Councilor Simard said he shares Councilor Saba’s frustration and the Mayor’s. The one good thing is we haven’t spent any money yet. Going over our wish list, maybe we should go back to our department heads and then narrow it down. It would be easier for the Mayor to come to Council and say these are the priorities that we need. 4 Methuen City Council – Regular Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 22, 2022 @ 7:00 p.m. Linda Soucy, 10 Kirk Street, spoke in support of contract C-22-48 for the surveillance cameras. It would help reduce crime rate end provide evidence. It is a tool for the police solve a crime. The residents in Lawrence are very happy. This will benefit the residents of Methuen. Laura Walta submitted an email to the Council which was read into the record. (attached) Chief McNamara read a letter to the Council regard cameras (attached) TR-22-18 Resolution Authorizing Expenditure from the Edwin J. Castle Fund for the City of Methuen Veterans Services ($15,000) and Methuen Historical Society $2261) MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty) Grants: None Licenses: Special Excavation License – Gas Services Birchwood Road between Lawrence Street and Berkeley Street, Methuen, MA MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes 2 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty) Special Excavation License – 607 Prospect Street, Methuen, MA MOTION BY: Faretra, seconded by Councilor DiZoglio to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. McCarty, Clr. Beauregard) Contracts: C-22-48 LAN-TEL Communications, Inc., 3 Edgewater Road, Norwood, MA 02062 for Citywide Outdoor Wireless Video Security Public Safety System in the Amount of $288,060.63 MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 6 yes 1 present (Clr. Finocchiaro) 2 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty) C-22-49 Woodard and Curran. 4- Shattuck Road, Andover, MA 01810 for Sewer System Infiltration/Inflow Analysis Program-Burnham Road, Wastewater Pump Station Area in the Amount of $189,000.00 MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes 2 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty) Unfinished Business - Resolutions: TR-22-9 Resolution Submitting a Home Rule Petition for the Purpose of Amending Section 2-1 and Section 7-4 of the Home Rule Charter of the City of Methuen to Reflect Additional Voting Precincts Following Decennial Census MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes 2 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty) TR-22-10 Resolution to Abandon Balance of General Government Paving Projects, and Transfer $95,561.30 of Remaining Funds to Pay Costs toward the City-wide Outdoor Wireless Video Security Public Safety System MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 5 yes, 2 no (Clr. DiZoglio, Clr. Finocchiaro), 2 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty) 5 Methuen City Council – Regular Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 22, 2022 @ 7:00 p.m. TR-22- 11 Resolution to utilize $192,500 from the Building Safety Task Force Fund to fund the City-wide Wireless Video Security Public Safety System (remove from the table) MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to remove from the table. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes 2 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty) MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 5 yes, 2 no (Clr. Finocchiaro, Clr. Saba), 2 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty) Ordinances: TO-22-10 An ordinance to establish and authorize a Department Revolving Fund under the direction and control of the Department of Veterans Services pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44, Section 53E ½ MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve: UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes 2 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty) Consideration of Appointments John Lough – Superintendent of Highway MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 5 yes, 1 abstain (Clr. Saba), 1 no (Clr. Saffie) 2 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty) Robert Bertheim – Constable (renewal) MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 6 yes, 3 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. DiZoglio, Clr. McCarty) New Business -Resolutions: TR-22-13 Transfer Free Cash of $36,375 to fund City Clerk Poll Pads/Image Cast Equipment Required due to Redistricting MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 6 yes, 3 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. DiZoglio, Clr. McCarty) TR-22-14 Resolution Accepting State DEP ARPA Earmark $250,000 MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve: UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 6 yes, 3 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. DiZoglio, Clr. McCarty) TR-22-15 Resolution Accepting State DPA Earmark $50,000 MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 6 yes, 3 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. DiZoglio, Clr. McCarty) TR-12-16 Resolution Accepting FY’22 Shannon Grant $74,810.65 MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 6 yes, 3 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. DiZoglio, Clr. McCarty) TR-12-17 Resolution Accepting National Environmental Health Association Grants for a Total of $26,600 MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 6 yes, 3 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. DiZoglio, Clr. McCarty) 6 Methuen City Council – Regular Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 22, 2022 @ 7:00 p.m. Ordinances: None Request of Councilors – None Any Other Business for the Good and Welfare of the Community Councilor Faretra announced next Tuesday, March 1st at 10:00 a.m. there will be a Memorial Ceremony at the Police Department. Methuen Youth Lacrosse is holding raffle for two Bruins tickets which will be drawn on February 28th. You can contact Mike Feeney at Methuen Youth Lacrosse. There are 100 tickets left, $25 each. Methuen Youth Soccer is having a soccer bingo at Merrimack Valley Golf Course on March 5th. The Arlington Neighborhood Golf Tournament this year will be held on May 23rd at Merrimack Valley Golf Course Mayor Perry announced there will be a St. Patrick’s Day dinner with suitable entertainment. He encouraged the Council to attend. It is Wednesday, March 16th at 6:00 p.m. at the Merrimack Valley Golf Course. Any proceeds from city employees will go to Debbie’s Treasure Chest. Adjourn MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to adjourn UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 6 yes, 3 absent (Clr. Beauregard, Clr. DiZoglio, Clr. McCarty) COUNCIL CLERK 7