3/4/25 EP City Council

e

e

e

e e

you

e

e

e e

good evening we'll call the meeting of March 4th 2025 to order Madam clerk could you call a role of the council councilman fogy councilman Lawson yeah Council vice president rioo yeah councilwoman soua council president Rodricks here record show there are are four members present at the time please rise for the

pledge States

yeah thank you we will hold the executive session until the end of the meeting and this time we will have a presentation and ask Council vice president Rigo to make that presentation thank you Mr President and fellow Council people um we're here tonight to recognize principal Jan of St Margaret's School uh as we know St Margaret's is a 70-year institution in this great community of ours and Through the Years

there's been great leadership one person who comes to mind was the is a good friend Jack rendes and what principal Cooney has done has brought back what principal rendes did and principles before him uh I'm fortunate to be an alumnist of St Margaret's and there was some great principles and pastors there and uh in the last couple of years principal Cooney has brought St migrs to back I should say and also has

elevated the school to a new dimension and I am very fortunate in my w to have St Margaret's as well as two other great elementary schools led by two great principles as well but tonight we're here to recognize principal Cooney and whereas St Margaret's School a beacon of educational Excellence nurturing the minds of Future Leaders with a strong commitment to academic achievement principal janone has

continued that Excellence by providing exceptional leadership unwavering dedication to the students faculty and community of St Marg and whereas under Jan's guidance St Margaret's school has seen significant improvements in academic performances with a focus on Innovative teaching methods individual learning and fostering a love for learning in every student and whereas principal Cooney has

consistently demonstrated her passion for Education by creating an environment where Excellence is not just encourage but expected and whereas St Margaret School recently achieved remarkable results in the star assessment a widely recognized assessment to Ed to evaluate students performances in math reading three times a year ranking about 20% above the average for math and reading

scores in the Catholic School System of rhod Island and whereas principal Cooney's commitment to the importance of literacy and Mathematics has had a transformation effect on the academic achievements of her students ensuring that they are well prepared to meet the challenges this future therefore I Frank Rego on behalf of the city council of East Providence to hereby honor and commend principal Jan Cooney for her

extraordinary contributions to the academic success of St Margaret's school and her dedication in advancing the literacy in recognition therefore the city of East Providence city council recognizes and extends our deepest appreciation for her leadership and Lasting positive impact she has made on East Providence Community but I principal Cooney come up

here you're welcome Jen and you can say a few words well I'll just say thank you education we know is such an important thing to all of us right all of us with children and all of us with grandchildren and all of us who have neighbors and it is wonderful to be able to lead and neighborhood school it's wonderful to be able to lead a Catholic school and it's even better when we get

to see success in the eyes of our students um they've risen to the challenge I have an amazing faculty I am gifted with that so um I bring them this to them as well or it takes a village and we do have a great school thank you Miss Cooney uh you mentioned grandchildren and you happen to look right at me uh you are you identifying age or something I'm good great congratulations

congratulations overall from all of us thank you for coming tonight thank you Council vice president other presentations uh nothing tonight Madam clerk if you want to pick up with maybe the consent calendar I guess consent calendar for discussion and possible vote a council journ 1 February 4th 2025 regular meeting 2 February 4th 2025 executive session I'll make a motion to accept the consent

calendar second motion made by councilman Lawson seconded by councilman fogy to accept all in favor I I any opposed the eyes have that four to zero thank you B letters notice of new property number 300 mass m we we already approved that that's part of the consent right yeah but I didn't does it have to be read the full doesn't have as anyone any interest on the council to read them

if not I'm fine Andy unless you really want to read no this basic at new property numbers and addresses so we're good you don't have to read them thank you before we uh continue we do have a council request to uh move one of the items on the agenda forward at this time so if there's no objection from anyone on the council we will move on page five number eight believe it is page five in our

agenda number eight yes H five and uh councilman Lawson if you want to give an introduction sure So This Is Us advocating for townies who I feel are being a little bit unfairly treated um the backstory is and then we'll have the folks involved come up and tell their story um grassy planes a couple years back um PJ dkey Allen yellow put together friends of grassy Plains they did awesome got the neighborhood all

excited and wanted to upgrade the park uh the city got involved which was awesome but the initial plan first had like these soccer complexes and it got very contentious these public meetings and there was a lot of back and forth and both sides kind of went at it which it's a democracy that's what we do um but what's bothering me is now after the fact the Donnie Hughes they have a pool

in their backyard and the backyard of them and their button neighbors it's rolling Lawns that goes into a line of trees and is about 4050 ft of woods between their backyards and the actual Park so some reason now the city is saying we did a survey in their pool which has been up since 1999 that aluchi our old building inspector was very aware of now the city's telling them you got to take that

pool down and it's only about three to 5 ft above their survey line there's also a fence in the back that they put up to kind of block off we weren't maintaining the brush and stuff under the woods so they figured we'll make it look nice and they put some nice plantings up the city wants them to take that down as well and they did have a well there so this has

been there for almost three decades so why it's now all of a sudden a problem that the city it's taking them to court um we've already spent about $7,500 in legal fees going after these people and now the mayor wants to put up a fence all across their backyards where you have rolling Lawns and then about 50 ft of woods but for some reason he wants to put up a fence I don't know how that's

in the best interest of the city however so that's why we're here and I was hoping there could be some kind of compromise some deal um I heard that they were over the line but that was like two years ago then a couple months ago I get a call from the Donnie Hugh's lawyer saying can you ask the city to slow down the legal action we're trying to kind of work something out

there was no appetite from the city to work out any kind of compromise so I wanted to bring this to the council to see if we can advocate for these folks and I wanted these folks to get have a chance to tell their story so Mr Donahue do you want to come up and give us the history of what's been going

on hi welcome just give your name and address for the record yep Steve Don here I live at Tanglewood Drive in Riverside I've been a river resident of riversides for 63 years now and my children are raised here I have three children my wife is also a Riverside person prior to buying my property the previous owner had stated where the property line ended there's a metal pole in the backyard and was told that's

where the property line ended and if you look where the pole is and if you go into the uh walking path into the park it lines right up with it so another neighbor that lived there he son long gone had also stated that that's where the line ended I put the pool up in 1999 the city was well aware of it Mr kuchi was out to visit the site and he was well

aware and there was nothing to be said then I also decided I was going to put up a chain link fence on the left hand side of my house that was also in '99 I had to land survey prior to installing the fence you know to make sure that it was on the line and everything was going to be right the set pole lined up up with the survey at that

time we did put up a wooden freestanding fence across the back like it was mentioned we decided after that we want to put you know beautify it and put flowers shrubs and stuff along the way and the whole reason we put the fence up was to block the shrubber you know I mean the woods from the you know that was didn't really look well in the field so it was like little privacy but it looked it

looked decent there was never an issue in the city had been down multiple times there's never been an issue fast forward to 2021 Mr dilva May DVA wanted to put multiple soccer fields in in the field behind the house meeting was held at Grassy Plains playground I know most of you people were well aware of it so I was the spokesperson for most of the people on Tanglewood Drive all the neighbors attended and and

whatnot I was the the loudest and spoke up that we really didn't want soccer fields did we want the the play ground cleaned up and enhanced absolutely well the May didn't like that after the meeting I was able to come up with the original paperwork back in the day when they came up with the grant money to put the park in order and all that which stated there was to be no organized

Sports on the on the in the playground I gave the paperwork to a friend of mine Mr Lombardi John Lombardi from Providence who also reached out to Mr marelo to explain to him that I had the paperwork after that there sometime passed Mr Mel approached Mr Lombard at a retirement party and stated we're going after your buddy so I got a letter close to Christmas that year stating that they were going

to take me to court for encroachment but the funny part is before that letter came to us it was all over Facebook from people from the city about me being on city property and they made it sound like I was out in the middle of the field with the pool and I was polluting City property which was not true I was well behind the tree line and the property line said as of

now it says I'm three feet over but if you go by where the pool the pole line is I'm not I never would have done any of this if I had known this because I had paid good money for a survey to come and do it I do not have his name because that was 26 years ago I'm sorry but I mean 26 years is a hard time to keep he of

paper can I can I just interject and ask you um so I don't forget later you had mentioned um getting a survey for the side of your house at one point no I surveyed the whole property so you you had a survey done correct where the city and your property line was correct okay you don't have that survey with no I do not because I had had plans drawn up for

my house to do work on it sure I understand I just want to it got Miss I don't know where it went between different people that I had looking at making plans for me it it got Mi mixed up somewhere yep got it so we Tred to rectify the situation with Mr Marcelo and the may they were unwilling to negotiate with us we were ested to purchase the property we requested to lease it we

also requested to pay taxes on the property after we found out that we were over the line which we never really believed in that I mean 26 years I never would have and nobody's ever said a word to me the lawyers went to court for a hearing I was never able to be present so I could State my case of why I'm in the situation that I'm

in I was told that I had till the end of March to remove the pool and the fence the shed after I had filed the the appeal I didn't F fill out the paperwork correctly so that's why I'm in the situation that I'm in I thought I did because I didn't have a lawyer at the moment when I was filling out the paperwork Mr Marcel was able to find a

glinch in the paperwork so I was in the wrong which I apologize but I'm not a lawyer and I thought I filled everything out and the lawyer that looked at it thought I had everything F filled out right but I missed it out I had multiple people reach out on my behalf a lot of people the May said he was not interested in negotiating with me or helping me out he

stated to the people that reached out to him that I'm not helping him all the Neighbors in that neighborhood hate him and I was told that by some pretty powerful people who just was just asking my behalf further through further investigation after the fact I found out that I haven't been paying taxes on that pool since 2009 we can't go back farther than 2009 but the pool was put in in 99 which Mr katuchi knew about

it there was never an

issue so after that fact I had reached out to the city council my councilman in the neighborhood is is Rick Lawson I had told him what was going on soon after that I received a letter stating that they were putting a dumpster in the field behind the house and they were coming in to remove the fence the pool all the Shrubbery which I don't understand that because it's not hurting anything and I could pay up to

three times the amount for them to do the work soon after that we were supposed to have a meeting it was supposed to be brought in here in February um the beginning of February but I guess there weren't enough people or somebody was sick and they couldn't have they couldn't bring it to Executive session well after that there were a few letters sent out to some of the neighbors that they were going to go in

and put fences up behind their house there's never never been any surveys done and not for anything you most of you people offer me Providence and know but these people if you want to get really technical encroaching on city property all over the city nothing's ever been done nobody's hurting anything and there's also been cases where people have been able to buy property and they were purchasing some

people were purchasing it for a dollar I offered to pay money for it I didn't say give give it to me for dollar I offered to pay for it and I mean not for anything they didn't even go all the way around the the property where I am and I'm not trying to throw anybody under the bus because I don't think it's right but at the same time I don't think

it's right that what I'm doing I didn't hurt anything I didn't harm anything the property's been like that since the 60s if you go over there and you look most of the houses the fields are the the yards are pushed back nobody's hurting anything so if I am over the line which they're saying I am I'm willing to pay for it I'm willing to pay up to the tree

line I'm not going to put a Taj Mahal over there or anything but I'm it's all done the way it is I don't not bothering anybody so I don't understand why I'm being well I do know why being targeted because I shot the soccer fields down I was the loudest they're going to say no but that's pretty much true there's no soccer fields back there so how how far over the City Line

the property line does the pool go is the whole pool is it a part of it no maybe maybe three feet but what I'm getting at is even with the fence back there in the well in the shed it's still not hurting anything it's not harming a thing and I'm willing to pay for it so explain the well the well it was a it was a sinkhole on the backyard so I dug a

hole it's not I didn't bring a excavator in or anything I dug the hole with the well tool we went down we found the water put the pipe in put the well in and we're pumping water you can't use it for anything you can only use it the water of the lawn I can't have a a vegetable garden because the water's contaminated I'm not doing anything wrong with it it's just most people have them in their

house in the basement well I happen to find it outside and I figured well I'll go for it it's been there since 1999 I hav't done anything wrong other than if you want to say I'm on city property but I'm willing to pay for it I've been paying for the pool since 2009 tax dollars you know I I'm just I'm just stating the facts so this the city did

take you to court and the court did say according to the survey lines you are over so they are correct in that my problem is why is this so egregious that we're taking this action on something that's been there for three decades and I got pictures here that there's a wall of woods between their backyard and the park and why would you it to me it got a little petty when I

saw they wanted to take up the Shrubbery and stuff like that it's Woods why are you trying to take up Shrubbery other than to be Petty and then they want to put a fence up what's the fence for I this is what I not understanding and why I want to bring this up I tried to work with the administration to see if we could come to some kind of thing no no

no to say that you don't want to set precedent on selling city property we Burnside and hopping we just sold city property so that's kind of nonsensical to use that so I am here just to let the council know what's going on and to see if there's any appetite to help these guys out that maybe we can ask the mayor to pull back and why is this so important that you

have to have them take down structures that been up there for three decades and why a fence has to now be erected what is the purpose of the fence against these neighbors neighbors who've been maintaining this property you know um deio you guys have been mowing all that correct this city we've been taxing you on this pool so they've known you've had a pool but now all of a sudden it's so

egregious that they have to take legal action against you this is what I'm struggling with so what we understand the city got their legal right to do what they're doing I just wanted to bring it to your attention to see if there's any appetite to help these folks I don't know um we may have to consult with somebody to see if there's any legal action we can take on their behalf

um I just I just think lifelong townies deserve better treatment from I'm going to ask the city to respond one other question um Mr donu you you said you couldn't appear in court was it that you you couldn't make it but or you were not allow I didn't understand that because you're lawyer was there right he was but I was not invited because what had happened was the first time when they went

in Mr Marcelo was the only one that did the the speaking the second time when I filed the appeal CU I didn't fill the paperwork out they were having it squashed so what was the appeal to it was to the court oh okay but your lawyer didn't bring you with him to court or her to no because the second time when they were going was not about it was about because I didn't win the

appeal because I didn't fill the paperwork out right which I didn't know because the second lawyer I hired was after the fact that I filed filled the the appeal notice out because I had to do it quick and I'm not a rocket scientist I just thought I would no that's why you hire lawyers right right but I filled the paperwork out to find this person before I found this person and he

looked at it and he thought we were all set but we weren't so there was a glitch at the paperwork so all it was about was appeal appeal was to be denied and I was to get off the property not the fact where I could go in and state the fact of what I'm stating the fact here okay which we were trying to rectify Mr Marcel thank you so um it's a

little unusual to speaking about an ongoing court case in public but councilman wanted it in public and that's what we're going to do so I think we need to be with the the facts first of all Mr Don has just indicated that he can't find the survey nothing prevents him from doing another survey today no survey has ever been presented that indicates that our survey was wrong and he's had every opportunity since

September 16th 2021 that let me can I speak because I you can but can you keep it to the well well he's indicating that he could can't find a survey and any property writer if there's a dispute over where the line is is you normally get another survey he has been promising us a survey the city right but he's not disputing that you want so let let him finish then you can

come back so anyway the first correspondence we had with Mr danu was back in September 16 20121 from my office and we indicated that we were because we're in the process of revital revitalization of the grassy Plains Park um during that process we had a concern about some of the material that we saw in the park and frankly the city wasn't sure whether it was our stuff or someone

else's stuff so a survey was done as a result of that survey which does front tangle drive we determined that there was a severe encroachment by the donus onto the city property so we wrote to him and it says based on that survey it appears that there's a significant encroachment by you on the public park this is a public park by the way obviously these structures will have to be removed which

include a pool bed and a pump house therefore upon receipt of this letter you are asked to contact my office so that the proper remediation plan can be implemented that was the first letter he got from my office then on 105 I got a response to my letter saying that they had they were in a process of relocating a survey that was done and that um they asked for more

time and I said that's fine if you have a survey please present it then on 122 2021 they said that uh they had were unable to find the original survey that he mentioned and that they were going to order a new survey no survey was ever produced by them uh and at that 122 2020 letter they asked to purchase the property for $1 no that's not true well sorry I have it in

your letter that's not true okay well I have it in your letter and you and by the way the council should have all this correspondence uh

sorry on 1166 uh 1116 2021 they asked for another 60 days to find the survey which I granted you can please find the Ser we were trying to work with him we don't we don't like to take residents to court and time and time again we asked the donus to please remove the encroachments there are many there was another case that's pending for encroachments the cities obligation spe specifically when it's a public park

is to prevent encroachments on City owned land we do that as a matter of course this is not picking on anyone we do that as a matter of course I've asked Robin from my office who's been here a lot longer than we have and she says we've done this periodically when we were aware of it uh on 1221 2021 I rejected the offer to purchase the property for $1 and I indicated that we would be

seeking legal action if they did not remove the uh encroachments that was in 2021 and December after some repeated correspondence trying again to work it out hoping we get some progress I had no choice but to file suit in November of 2022 for trespass and injunctive relief basically saying please remove your stuff what not they were served on 1208 2022 in hand the Don who filed a counter

claim against the city saying we have a right to this land by adverse possession because we occupied it for 20 years or whatever period of time I then file the motion to dismiss their counter claim again they're seeking to claim the property by adverse possession I file the motion to dismiss the counter claim on 321 excuse me 329 2023 with a hearing date of 81 2023 during this entire period no survey

was ever given to me indicating that the city was wrong no action was taken to remove any of the uh any of the encroachments which as you know if you visit the property is a well is a pool is a shed it is bricks it is yard debris dirt broken wheelbarrows broken uh lawnmowers all on city property you have the pictures I sent you the pictures as was their right again by the way Mr

Dan was represented by Council during this whole process so to suggest that we somehow being unfair or whatever this is a court I'm not I don't make the decision a judge makes the decision on March 30th 2023 they objected to the motion to dismiss and the motion to dismiss the counter claim Was Heard on August 1st 2023 from March 29th to August 1st 2023 nothing happened nothing happened the ders didn't try

to reach out they didn't say well we agree the property line is correct we'll remove our stuff on 81 2023 they granted to the court granted our motion to dismiss the counter claims basically saying that you cannot get adverse possession against a municipality a state or the government and it's a public policy reason for that the city the state the federal government does not have the resources

to monitor its property line so if if we allow people to encroach on city property and then claim adverse possession then all type of public land is up for grabs that's the public policy behind it and it is as old as the law in England that you cannot get adverse possession against the king and in this case the king is the municipality the government Court Grant our motion to dismiss the counter claim well that is

now away we still didn't win however we then filed what they consider call a motion for some judgment here are the facts here are the issues they're Undisputed Court what do you say we filed that on 513 2024 which was given a hearing date on 7:16 2024 the Don's lawyer which is their right filed a objection to our motion for summary judgement on 627 2024 on 716 2024 by the way they filed

what I what I consider a proformer objection it was an objection one line no affidavits no survey nothing on 716 2024 the court granted our motion for summary judgment for injunctive Relief and a finding of trespass against the use they were ordered to remove all property by 91 2024 except for the pool because it was in the middle of the summer end of the fall and we agreed that they would have

until 101 2024 to remove the pool he then filed Mr danu then filed an appeal on that order again I want to stress that other than a pro- former objection we object to the city's motion for sumary judgement there was no affidavit submitted no no affid no no uh competing survey nothing they had every right to present contrary evidence at that hearing they did not that's what due process

is they filed an appeal Mr D filed an appeal yes proos say absolutely 99224 that appeal was filed like not by his lawyer who was still in the case but by himself self and that same day his an original attorney filed a motion to withdraw from the case which was granted by the court and then on 1029 2024 we objected to the appeal and there was a hearing on that appeal and uh the

court granted our uh dismissal of the appeal it's not my obligation as the city's lawyer to help someone who's suing the city to figure out how to do an appeal they had lawyers they had lawyers we then filed a uh uh amended order giving them until the end of December 20124 so now the appeals dismissed judgment has not entered and by the way the triple damages under the statute if we're

forced to remove the property we have the right to ask for trouble the amount of damage it cost us to remove the encroachments we have given him since July of 2024 to remove the property they were under court order to remove it they did nothing they have a court order please remove the property they did not so we have no choice but to say yes if you don't remove the property and I

have the letters you have the letters if you don't remove the property we're to hire someone to remove the property and we will ask the court it's not automatic we will ask the court for treble damages trouble the amount of work that it needs to get you know cost to remove it uh they had it till 1231 2024 to remove it nothing has been removed a new attorney entered Robert

flarity who I happen to know because I Ser within the leg legislature he was the attorney who TR tried to resurrect the appeal he was unsuccessful he met with the mayor he met with myself and he indicated that he understood that there was an encroachment on the property and that he would do his best to try to get this removed get this resoled that's I had a meeting with him in

January I sent him a letter I think soon thereafter saying please remove your property by another deadline I think early February he said that's that's that's not enough time can you extend it for us I give another extension and eventually councilman you got involved and I said I would not do anything until the court excuse me till I was able to brief the council and that's where we are today um

the no harm argument is we have someone who's encroaching on city property for 30 years whether it's one day or 30 days 40 can I finish well you're going on you're going over something that he's already admitted hold on let's let's this I I think the Ci's established that they they were within their rights so you don't have you know we we would like to know why you don't you have to put a

fence up you have the floor and why was the letter sent to the neighbors after I got involved you asked me to I asked you to put a fence up no you asked me to say you asked me why weren't the other neighbors not notified of their encroachment I specifically said to you the reason why we didn't indicate to go after other neighbors is because their encroachments were an extension of a

lawn not not as an encroachment with a shed a but now you're putting a fence up what Chang no it says a fence or other similar structure that's what it says and today met with Mr Rio the Letter's in the file it's harassing the letter is in the file today we met with Mr Mrs dero and D dzo I'm sorry dzo I should I should get that right I'm sorry um and she indicated she

has concerns about offense and she indicated uh that maybe it's a good idea to just stake the P boundary line with some kind of granite markers or something like that and frankly the mayor was receptive to that and that's what we may consider doing but it doesn't remove the fact that we have somebody in the city who's significantly encroaching on city property including a pool luckily this pool City knew about

that you're taxing him on it mik we're not taxing him on the land that he's using right he's he are you paying taxes on a pool that's over there survey l is he paying taxes on 40,000 feet of a city park that he's using as his backyard he's offering to make 40,000 feet of the okay well I'm gonna hold on everyone anyway that's where we are in the case I wantan I'm going to determine different

people have the floor this this is unusual in that it's not a public hearing it's discussion is generally not legally allowed however I've been very liberal in allowing public to speak case is over so we case is still pending cuz he hasn't removed his encroachment I'm I'm allowing it but one at a time so that's okay so councilman you have the floor I'm just asking the council if you

feel that there should be some kind of negotiation to solve this rather than putting up fences and making them take down stuff why are you pulling up the the Shrubbery and stuff is that not petty you're in the woods what what's the purpose of pulling that up you know it's spite yeah I don't know about the Shrubbery or but I and it's in the letter from the landscapers saying we're

going to charge you five grand to pull up the Shrubbery and the fence but I I I just heard that this this fence was maybe an option there might be mockers so I don't know that offence is definitely going the whole length of grassy plan I have a question the PO so Council vice president you have the floor um I'm here ing back and forth that being taxed what does your the Assessor's map

and the assessor we all have cods is that on the Cod that you are being taxed on the pool because it said I know on mine if you know other property um other properties or other structures is there on your on this C from the city of East Providence assessor office does it state that you have other objects or structures on your property yes it does it states there's

an oval pool on the property and I as of 99 it was at $1,000 so I don't know what it is at the present but I've been paying since 99 well that what we can find right now we can't go back to when I put it up in I mean 2009 excuse me but when I put the pool up in 99 I don't know if it's on the you know because we can't go back that

far so I've been paying taxes on it and it's not like and that's the whole thing everybody knew about it it's not like it was a Hidden Gem like oh I mean back then you could go on whatever and look up the property and they would zone right down on it I mean after this all started and whatnot they would drones being flown over my house to see what was going on sir

that's untrue no it is true there may be drones flying over your house it has nothing to do with the encroachment well there was somebody say can I follow up on your question taxes can I just finish for one second on the pool I thought and I could be totally wrong I don't have a pool but I thought people paid for inground pools taxes but not taxed on above ground pools isn't that correct I

don't know if saying it shows on your I know on I took it down because you know when I brought purchased my house so many no GE thanks all right thanks um no I I didn't take down the pool but there was a stru no I meant the comment about being on the neighbor's land okay I so um my point is it will it will show structure sheds Etc even when we so so

it is showing this oval you said oval correct on your property so correct that's the thing that I sort of wrapped up now is that this city and I'm not saying this Administration but this city has known for a long time so it's almost it's like grandfather it's counil there's no Grand father I'm just saying it's I'm just I'm just saying it's not like this just happened a year ago I mean uh I

am not saying two wrongs make a right but there's the city people before us made a mistake and now all of a sudden I I mean all the rest of the property and from the pictures I see I don't see you know 40,000 square feet I'm in 40,000 square feet buildings all day long and it's not 40,000 square feet maybe I'm wrong and I'm missing something here but I I find

this we're supposed to be a userfriendly community in over a swimming pool over a swimming pool the culture I mean if it was more if it was more if it was right in the middle of GRA the park but everything I see here I mean let's come to we're in a society and I'm hearing every politician in this city in the state saying let's work together let's get back let's be United

so I have an idea here let's come up with a compromise as long as they have this pool as long as they own the property they maintain the pool the data for SES sign goes on that lawn or it is a transfer which obviously we would know in the city records in the clerk's office and the assessor's office the pool goes away why are we fighting why am I wasting our

time where we can't get back right now to hear about a swimming pool I want people to be here and enjoy themselves and I'm not saying they're right or wrong and like I said true rights two wrongs can't make it right but we got a compromise here we're not talking about that they went out and they put you know a fivestory Sheed that wasn't you know long or inlegal and there's many of these in the

city and I've lived here my whole life and I know there's many ille leg go additions in this city onto people's property it's a pool it's enjoyment it's three months out of the Year why is this such Why are we making a a molehill out of this you've been to court this what this is what we should have this is what should have been done beforehand some sort of a compromise because you've and

rightfully so you've going to court to represent the city and I know you didn't do that out of the goodness of your heart I know you charged the city which you have the rights to so why are we here for a swimming pool for for a swimming pool it it's it's working with your Mankind and I know you're going to talk about the legal this and that and I understand I get

it I've owned property my family's owned a lot of property in the city but we're talking about right now in the 21st century on the fourth day of March 2025 and this country's in utter chaos and we can't compromise on a swimming pool that's all I got to say right could I just respond to that quickly thank you con I appreciate your comments um first of all it's more than a swimming pool as I I

indicated okay so the concern that I have from the city's perspective is we now know that this pool is on city property okay part of the pool anyway is on city property and there's could be there may maybe liability associated with that if someone God forbid would to drown on that pool or dive into that pool and break their neck we now know that that pool is on city property it is

not the city's obligation to make sure that the structure is on someone's property line it's the homeowner's responsibility to make sure that the way put up a structure that it's put up in the proper fashion so in my compromise her and I hear you and you know I'm a I own a I own two small businesses and I get the liability and I get it again this comes back to the compromise if it's there and

you're a very good lawyer and if we can come to a compromise we're saying that God forbid somebody slips in the pool somebody does this that this it's not the city's responsibility it's the Donnie who's responsibility I know we can draft something like that and and if they got to pay additional taxes for the time being on the property then let's do it I mean we're talking everything else if

it's going to go whatever everything like that but to make these people take down a swimming pool and we're supposed to be bringing we want to be bringing people into the City and we talk you we have enough issues going on that in the city right now as to why people want to come here and if I'm watching this and and again if I'm watching this on TV and I'm deciding between this and that you

know that and again I want to be user friendly I want this place to be open and nice and did they make a mistake probably from what you're saying if you go by the rules of you know if you go by the rules of you know the boundaries yeah did they was there malice I don't think so from what I heard these people are just trying to enjoy a swimming pool

in all right I'm going to let's let's move on um is does anyone want add anything new that we have not heard tonight I'd like to add something councilman please you have the floor I came into this decision making with the uh Donnie Hughes property trying to find the pictures when I went and met Connie it's Connie correct late to the party since it began in 21 nice people took some pictures of the

property walked around I didn't know the value of it as far as the Cityside goes or the responsibility of it hearing Mr Marcelo speak and fellow councilman I'm always in favor of compromise matter of fact my phone call was to the mayor the same day he didn't discard that at all he just said we're already in legal which now I find out why um all the information I've absorbed from that day I called after meeting you

until today uh it's a it's a situation that I would like to compromise and that's what I said and I don't know if Mike's aware of that because you've offered to pay I'm not sure you're paying taxes on the pool sir above ground pool you don't pay taxes on I am I have I have the I can find the cod in ground you do not up no it's above ground it's on this on the

thing I'm not going to dispute that but but I no I'm just saying I can show I don't know if the mayor said anything about you with the powerful witness you have but my first thing I was taught was to go right to the source as a young manh so have you ever asked the mayor instead of listening to a third party if he did in fact say those things you say

he said I just a question I I'm gonna answer you honestly no I did not I wish you would have because I I i' like to do that myself because a lot of things have been said about everybody including myself and I like to go right to the source that's number one so I'm working I'd like to work with you in behalf of like Mr Lawson and the families involved

but the city has a legal stance and I'm not a lawyer so my opinion is just like Mr Rigo said hopefully the compromise it's well into legal I understand Michael I understand all that and I'm not the judge but a compromise may be monetary what Mr Rigo said the paperwork establishing that we don't have any rights I mean we don't have any legal boundary to it as far as somebody getting hurt if the pool

stays uh I'm just a man of an opinion of 41 years in the city of these Province trying to help people and and that's what I said to you Connie when I met you so that's my stance whatever happens with legal and yourselves and your attorneys uh I'm I'm for I'm for the residents to get hopefully you know some satisfaction without being this disappointed in this kind of uh okay so

it's not down for any kind of a vote tonight it's it's it's not a purview to vote on on this but I think it's good that we C Lawson brought it forward and we had the discussion we've heard from everybody so it's time to move on I would give Mr Donahue the last word but before I do let me say uh what I'll do going forward without objection is we'll

have uh couple of us because we can't do it with more than two people other than an advertised legal meeting so a couple of us on the council will'll sit down with the attorney the mayor and you or your representative and just see what the next step is it is currently in court with a decision that has already been rendered so we'll have to see where that that goes but

um we'll go forward as quick as as we can uh I think things that maybe were done in the past lots of things were done in the past and none of us were here for and doesn't make them right but uh it sounds like you you put in some good effort to offer to either purchase now we supposedly have a letter where your offer was for $1 dollar that's not true okay we'll look into that we'll

look at the letter when we sit down and do you want to add anything new because we need to move this meeting along all I want to say is in closing yep in closing this is uh I'm just really hurt the whole thing you know I supported the mayor when he was running I was able to get raise some fund money for him through the political action committee with the

Union that I work with and I've also was able to establish people also to donate to his cause and when he came to my house when he was campaigning I he had asked me is there anything that you'd like to see in the city I would say yeah I would love to see this park taken care of because it's been dilapitated since the early 2000s absolutely always been ignored so he says well that's when

he said he we talked about the soccer FS I says oh absolutely not I says these these neighbors are not going to want that there's no room there's no room for parking or anything else and that was the end of our discussion so that's why I got heated because I'm like I talked to you about this I raised money for you and you're making me look like a fool you know when you work with

somebody just like if I was working with you so that's why I got I get upset but as far as all these appeals and whatnot and I never offered for a dollar I offered to pay more than a dollar a lot more than a dollar you have that in writing somewhere I don't know what the lawyer said well you did it do you have a i no I told the lawyer that I would

pay more than a I said I do not want that property for a dollar I will pay for it why would your lawyer well I'm not I wasn't in I wasn't in the meeting and whatnot and a lot of these things about all these appeals that really didn't happen there was only two appeals all right I think we've heard you want to add anything uh councilman are you willing we'll we'll I believe there's a

compromise to be had and I just ask that the administration at a minimum if they can keep the pool and take down the fence of and bring back the shed and the loose stuff beyond the property line to me that solves the issue but when you're going after them saying you're going to pull up the Shrubbery and stuff that they planted and then you're putting up a fence you know like a 100 yards behind a

wall of trees council president I just I just want to clarify the record because I think my integrity's been question as well on December 2 2022 21 I got a letter from Mr Mrs donu signed by them and I'm just going to read a portion of it we proposed that there is a simple solution to this matter which is both in both our interest as well as the interest of the city we will agree to

purchase any port portion of the yard which we currently utilize for a nominal fee of a dollar and agree to pay property taxes on such property from this time forward so they did make an offer for a dollar I just want to make excuse me excuse me didn't we sell the Odd Fellows for a dollar it's right here ma'am well I I have the letter so then someone's I I have the letter it okay no

none of this can we get a copy of that letter yeah it's in your packet it's I think we did all right that this this is going to conclude this discussion I think we've heard enough well can you do it quickly okay yeah let uh the Mr vendes uh have the floor for quick second San who could you step aside please thank you you can stay you can come back but just um I council

president thank you and good evening uh council members I I know that Mr Marcel went through everything so I'm not going to uh continue but I just wanted to uh provide a statement on behalf of the administration in that uh for the record is that the city does the the administration does take the position that the city does not give away city property that was all that I wanted to

do thank you okay so what I'll do is I'll I'll ask if you're willing uh councilman and one of us can join you and let's sit down and um okay okay also yes my closing statement not for anything I understand where you're coming from on me but the May was also able to put an Adu unit in his yard and then go and have it zoned after the fact when the whistle was

blown so I'm not okay that that that's not here or there with this but so you're coming after me n and he he's I don't know where he's coming up with these paperwork but I never signed anything like that my wife wrote that so the council's aware now gentlem we'll see if there's a compromise to be had mail to be I mean I I'm sorry I just have to say thank you I'm set council

president the letter the letter is in the packet uh we've got it December you can look at it thank it's part of the record I thank you Mr Mrs donu thank you for coming out I mean the cas is played out in public we'll we'll move on and the other residents who came uh thank you thank you so we will revert back to the agenda and one other change um I believe that uh director uh

bores which item is that um councilman we want to move that up this under the resolutions second uh director Borges if you want to forward at this time and identify which part of the agenda that you're on I was asked to provide the council with an update on um the paving program as well as I think there are a few resolutions that I can certainly so for people watching the meeting and

people here U Madam clerk can you help us what what page on the agenda is that request or the resolutions are on page no the specifically with um related related to the um it will be page five yeah page five and then there were few items under mayor communication okay so if you want to proceed that's fine sure um so the first item um was regarding the uh City Road

improvements I did Pro I did uh print some packets for the council here just to provide you with um the roads that are on our preliminary plan uh to be paved for 2025 during the season so I'll um I'll hand these out to you thank you what section is that one under mayor communic under mayor communication

May yeah yes um so so I did just want to give the council um an update um as you'll see here there's a total of about 28 streets um totaling 2 point just shy of $2.4 million um 90 square yards of um asphalt uh ranging from Ward one to Ward 4 um these are streets that have been cleared by the gas company and all other utilities um this is all being done uh utilizing

the paving the paving money that was um allocated by the council at the previous uh so so barring emergency mishaps the utility companies are already cleared this then this would be your list of priorities yes the these are the roads that we intend on Paving uh this season you're not you did not put this list together because some of us came to you and requested before a constituent or a

friend I know I didn't um this is your professional priority these roads are the roads that are in most severe shape in the city that uh we are comfortable and confident that uh by Paving these we hope to have to dig into them um anytime soon so that's typically you know our our position what's the timetable uh so all these streets hopefully pending weather should be completed by the end

of this Paving season so between whenever they start and November um so so in addition it you know on top of this I'm also just going to provide the council with a brief update on the cleaning and lining project for the water M um this also is somewhat related to Paving because there are a sign significant number of streets that you probably don't see on this list that you say why aren't they on this

list well um between the roads that we have already approved and signed off on for Paving um there is also a fair amount of roads that will be paved to a certain extent as part of the cleaning and lining so um I will provide the council with um a map it is kind of small um I will provide it uh by via email as well so you can actually you know break down the the areas more

granularly but um could you describe what you mean by cleaning and lining cleaning yes sorry so um so the city is under underwent um is undergoing improvements of um around 20 some odd million dollars the council approved um to to clean and line our water main so what that means is uh the water pipe will we will cut two access points into a roadway um typically replace portion of pipe um or the the

valve in which the pipe is connected to will bring equipment in um the equipment will essentially clean the inside of the pipe um and then we'll go back through or the contractor will go back through um and put a new cement coating um on the internal line of the pipe um to bring it back to its essentially its original size and um to provide you know good quality water to the the residents

yep thank you I'll pass out uh just so you have these um first of all I want to compliment the director and his staff on the outstanding job that they've done with these many many snow storms that we've had uh I think we thanks buddy we didn't see our work last year as far as the pre-treatment but you can see that the pre-treatment has worked a lot in these little mini snow storms that we've had

so I just want to say uh hats off to the director and the entire DPW staff for this winter councilman I remember when you used to walk to school I did because I lived the street up from St Margaret I am going to reach out to you about the sidewalks on will it why they put an asphalt in between the concrete there you aware of it okay thank

you um so the asphalt on Willet Avenue is just a temporary measure throughout the winter okay um they put that there uh as they were not able to complete all the Ada ramps with uh cement um so those will be taken care of um as I'm sure you're aware part of the cleaning and lining project um one of the maps that I presented to the council does have fair amount of work being done on Willet

Avenue so that we can stay ahead of uh the paving that will occur this spring so um I'm sure you've seen um the contractor out on site replacing uh water services at the moment so we are doing all the utility repairs that we have to um thankfully the the state was willing to push the project um back a little bit to allow us to complete this work um so we will get that completed

and then uh will it a will be will be complete very cool and then I'll go after JD Mark you guys are doing so much awesome work to make that place beautiful and they got a get off the park humbling Farms I'm sorry um and then the final item that I have here is related to um all of the gas work that is being completed in Kent Heights um I'm sure that many residents

have seen uh newly paved roads being cut into um which is extremely unfortunate um and the city has met with Rhode Island energy um to discuss our expectations of what what we'd like to see there um so I have a few other Maps but just to give you a little bit a brief synopsis on this um we do have uh Maps here that sort of indicate the roads that they are cutting into um and

one of the requirements the city had when uh RH Island energy came to us after having cleared all of the roads that we had newly paved was that um if they are going to be cutting into these roads they must be paved curb to curb the entire extent of the roadway regardless of whether they're doing work in the road or not um and that's by ordinance right didn't you and Bobby

brto when you guys passed that yes okay yeah yeah so we so um we're actually we can't I'm sorry but we can't stop them if there's a break or a leak they have to fix it so I understand but once they fix it they have to pave curb to Cur and not those single line right they only have to pay I think the ordinance does read curb to curb however it's only I

think 20 feet in both directions of the um of the actual excavation so do you want me to update we'll update the ordinance if you feel the need we've uh we we feel confident in the power that uh DPW has anding um when we review the excavation permits for these utilities we're we're confident that you know we can essentially stop them from doing the work or not getting it done um but we

felt that this project was important to the reliability of gas um to the residents of Kent height so um we we felt it was necessary to allow them to do this you know obviously at at additional cost to make sure that the city is not you know we're not cutting into roads so I'll provide you these Maps as well just so you get a sense of the roads that will that have been

impacted um which includes Pucket Avenue I know that's been um that's been a big issue that PU Avenue is in very bad shape um so I did talk to our contact at RH Island energy and they did indicate that all the these Road should be completed um in ear in the early part of July um Pucket Avenue may take a little bit of extra time because they do have to remove the um extents of the

temporary patch that's there and put in the uh concrete roadway base that is below the asphalt before they can pave that permanently um so it it may take a little bit longer but that they will be Paving that curb to curb I have a question for the director and it was councilman Lawson just brought it up and he complimented council president Rodricks at the time council president bro now Senator bro um

so prior to that being worked out and prior to the change to former government my ward is the first ward in the city that had the that National Grid at the time started doing replacing the old gas lines going into people's houses there are numerous streets and we've had this discussion briefly you and myself you and myself in regards to a lot of the roads now that predate 2018 as a matter as a matter of fact

it's probably 2015 yeah we go back the Rumford section Ward one they started that probably back in 2015 2013 repl you know replacing the lines and they did the patches and there's numerous streets again that are up there that have all these patches and what's happened over time is that the patches patches have gone have gotten worn down DPW former your people before you you you go your crew goes out and tries to

fix these patches but these streets now are getting sink holes is there any way and we shouldn't be on the line to for next year to replace these streets I mean they created this mess over 10 years ago and you know we've talked about certain streets that are really bad that I mean that something's got to be done I mean especially now I mean I'm getting we all got phone calls and I know the

councilman council president has on the topic about the uh price that we're paying for gas and electric I mean it's pretty tough when PE you know the roads are a mess and it wasn't created because of w you know it wasn't created because of water it's created because of messes is there any way that we can go back and get more bang for a buck instead of us being on the hook the these streets there's going

to be sink holes in these streets yeah I mean I I can't speak to per how permits were taken out 10 years ago however um you know we do have the ordinance that um council president have voted on the pre with the previous uh Council um but there is there are some obligations that Rhode Island energy also has to the Pu so they they are regulated by the Pu um so

just because the city you know the road could be in horrible condition um and they come in and put a gas man in they're not necessarily required to replace that roadway curb to curb um because that is beyond sort of their responsibility um so it's sort of It's a caseby casee situation if it's if it's a newer road we have a little bit more um power and authority to sort of Li what they can do however

if the road is already in poor condition um we we don't have the ability to enforce them to pave curb to curb um because at the end of the day that would you know we're already seeing it but that'll ultimately impact the rate payer um far more on the gas side than it would if the city was to know conduct some of the paving efforts so it's it's sort of a case-by

case basis it's not really a great answer but um any of the new newly paved roads which you'll see here you know we're holding them accountable but some of the older roads it's um they don't necessarily have the obligation to do so how long's R been a year now since they bought National Grid two how's your experience with them same people okay different Nam same people like our Sil plant they change names same

guys thank you well set thank you very much you need any um what I'm going to suest is between uh the city clerk and maybe councilman Lawson I know you're doing work on the city council social media page and also we can ask uh uh Chief of Staff rendi now this list it may already be there but this list of 28 streets is not that cumbersome so maybe we could

put that out on the on our page just like this here are the 28 streets the cost everyone can see that councilman fogy does not have your street on here I'm sorry to say Dan Dan well just through through the yes please I am totally dissatisfied with r Allen energy miserably dissatisfied the dips everywhere and I go all over the city as you know I've seen you in many spots and other people

horrible it doesn't matter if it's curb to curb the dips and that that's occurring like you said I know it's winter so I'm patient I'm waiting I'm looking at the list I'm thankful the list is getting done thanks to you and your Crews and the dedication we have but I'm not impressed and I hope they're listening and that's why I called the mayor and Mrs vendees to get the r on

energy here and also for the taxpayers and the increase and the seniors that are paying for the the delivery charge and other fees they hide in there and slip in there that shouldn't be on us or the seniors there should be a compromise and they got $47 million profits annually on both Gas and Electric we should have somebody helping the people with the rates that's all I'm going to say thank you yeah we'll have a

little more to say about that later also and thank you director I'll defer to Patricia's expertise I'm sure the city's going to write something up so I'll just um put what they put out on our social media page yep sounds good that way people can see it I mean there's just the 28 yeah no men trying to read them off tonight yeah I'm sure her and Matt there'll be others yep we can provide

clean copies instead of you scanning them in Andy I I can I can send you electronic copy so that they're better higher resolution thank you there's anything that the council needs on the resolutions I know you had mentioned that if if that's something you want me to provide feedback on I I can certainly wait as well well no while you're here there was a resolution um if you have

any questions for the director which uh where are we Paige for me oh for the talking I think I would say it would uh be yeah Pucket hot mix uh fuss and O'Neal for the storm water hydraulic analysis um arcadis Inc for the um assessment and sewer and uh structural Rehabilitation at the water treatment wastewater treatment facility um and sort of the final step to completing the animal control page two

uh page seven number two resolution authorizing make a motion to approve you see that number two this is the hot mix motion made by councilman Lawson second by councilman fogy all in favor I I any opposed guys have that for to zero also on page seven number three make a motion to approve and just for the Public's edification this is the contract with O'Neal Engineering Services this is the

Citywide stormw waterer hydraulic analysis we've talked about um motion by councilman Lawson seconded by councilman vog all in favor I eyes have it Bo is zero thank you number four yes this is also well go ahead Madam clerk if you want to read number four so with Ben and Jerry's resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract with acadis aradus us Inc to conduct an assessment in structural Rehabilitation

to the final CL clarifiers at the East Providence water pollution control facility sponsored by council president rodrix motion to approve motion councilman Lawson seconded by councilman fogy as described earlier by director U by Dan earlier all in favor I I any opposed guys have that 4 to zero there something else in or uh final upgrades to the animal control facility five okay could you read number

five please Madam clerk on page eight resolution authorizing the mayor to replace flooring and purchase Furnishings for the final upgrades to the East Providence animal control facility sponsored by Council vice president R Council vice president do you want to add to that they're doing a great job motion to approve motion councilman Lawson to approve seconded by Council vice president rioo all in favor I I any

opposed five have that four to zero the eyes have that thank you have a good night thank you very much yes if it's involved in oh the other one sure which one okay so if we go back to page we hold off on that we got folks here for that licensing you're talking about the traffic lights um okay we'll go back to the regular Madame clerk will'll resume the we may want to table that till L's

here too regular consent calendar regular order I think we did the consent calendar licensing for discussion and possible vote a motion to bundle licenses I'll make a motion to bundle a second that motion by councilman Lawson seconded by councilman fogy to bundle all in favor I I any opposed the I have it is there a motion to approve you I'll make a motion to approve unless you got I'll make a

motion to approve to start the conversation motion to approve by councilman law and seconded by coun foges a discussion on these licenses yes C1 through C9 uh don't see anything controversial Madam I can actually vote on all of them yeah no no um liquor licenses so we got a motion in a second the block parties and entertainment and you have any questions on any of them all in favor I I any opposed the I

have that for the zero next item Madam clerk good luck public comment all person wishing to make public comment shall signing you have the sheet but Tom could bring it up or

okay thank you

under the public comment and sign up for tonight can't read the first name Mr Lopes toron Avenue are you here left candy seal welcome come forward you are very welcome

thank you is name and address for the record thank you Candy seal uh South Rose Street East Providence Rhode Island welcome thank you uh good evening um for your information for the members of the public on March 13th the Waterfront commission and its subsidiaries the design Review Committee and the hearing panel will hold public hearings on the signage variance that Marshall properties is requesting for its

metacomet development as you may recall in December the commission approved Marshall's application to build out the remainder of the site the 890 residences and the 153,000 square feet of retail and commercial space Marshall had asked for three variances one on parking spaces one on fenestration the ratio between solid walls and openings such as doors and windows and one on signage the commission approved the

first two variances but denied without prejudice the one for signage Marshall's current plan calls for a monument sign at the entrance to the development from the parkway that reaches a height of 21 feet that's pretty darn tall certainly dwarfing any other sign in the Parkway and contrary to every regulatory document that says signage along the parkway should be limited in size and scale more in line with the the

commercial strip such as Route 6 or Newport Avenue we do not know what Marshall will propose as an alternative what height it will be but we do know that East Providence zoning regulations Section 19- 442 say that the maximum height for a monument sign is 8 feet 8 feet you may be thinking what does this have to do with us it's out of our hands well that's the obvious fact that you represent the residents of East

Providence and I think should be concerned that our culture and history may well be thrown to the curb and the almighty desire for economic progress aside from that though you hold the responsibility of ensuring that our city zoning ordinances are enforced again you might think this is in the Waterfront District and we have no authority over it well actually section 19- 470 which covers the

Waterfront District says that the provisions of this article quot shall not preclude an applicant developer Andor property owner from the requirement to meet other provisions of chapter 19 zoning end quote so it comes back to you the developers consultant on comprehensive plan consistency assured the commission that Marshall would be happy to discuss signage with the city have you heard from

them time is running short to make a difference hasn't the time come to prepare a document a statement or a resolution that expresses your concern that Marshall is running rough shod over our zoning ordinances that such a sign is contrary to the regulations of the 2003 Waterfront District plan which is embedded in our City's comprehensive plan from here Marshall will head to the

state regulatory agencies these agencies the scenic road race board and ryot among others will consider approval not only if the monument sign but another on the planned roundabout at Lion Avenue directing drivers to the 85,000 square foot grocery store as well as the widening of lanes in that area heat metac comic Green which I represent urges you to take a stand for East Providence by standing up the Integrity

of the iconic and historic Parkway thank you for your time thank you uh the only thing I would add is um I I thought the little I heard from The Last Watched a little bit of the last Waterfront commission meeting uh some of those members were not in favor of the height that sign so I'm hoping um they'll take that into consideration I don't know I haven't heard anything from anybody

since then so I don't know but I would support um what's on the books obviously we would have to I would think zoning and and signage and um I'll also at this time without us getting into a big discussion on it would go on record as saying I I am not very supportive of a roundabout in that area I think think the facts are that they work we know that they work it's not going to work

there it's it's they don't work well in Rhode Island for whatever reason they they seem to work elsewhere um but we've we've had the chaos at the Henderson Bridge I think eventually that's going to work out okay there's room there and they're going to cut some New Roads through that talked about doing years ago so I I think that will work the parkway is narrow I don't I don't

really see the need for it you know they may maybe they could widen I have no problem if we keep the lanes but if everything is just widened a bit and like we've they've already done a couple of spots on the parkway where they have a turn lane that's safe that's good to do for safety I know when I come up the Parkway I'm heading south and I want to

turn on Broadway I now have a little lane that I can pull over and CS can keep going by me to Point South we didn't have that way way back so that was a good change for safety and in a couple of other areas I think there's one of the streets mountain or one of those areas where you can turn so the cars can move over a little so that can

be done in front of the Met meta Comet whatever the name is going to eventually be uh so that's where I would support and we do have an opening on the waterfront commission there was a person who uh resigned or put in his time and I believe as the history shows it is would be an appointment of the ward two council member um it can come from anywhere in the city but the council

member from W I would is up now for that appointment so I've asked her to consider that and make an appointment and get someone um aboard soon CU they're almost done basically with a lot of the commission stuff so that's a little bit of where I'm at right now do the chair yes councilman fogan off subject a little bit but on the parway I would like to see a red light outside that headle

point area because it's very dangerous coming around that corner yeah I know the lights are trouble is is some kind of um Pro proh uh prohibit Pro prohibited policies that don't allow that so I will say as far as the signage I'm I'm with you guys 100% there's no need to make it look like Route Six I completely oppose they wanted a 21 foot sign um I know we don't have time

between now and the meeting to have like a formal resolution but if you guys are like mind it maybe we could craft a letter to the Waterfront commission stating that we'd like to keep the pway the pway way and not route six and I'm okay with a sign not you not that size no you know maybe set back a little but you want people to see it we otherwise it could be an accident waiting to

happen people buy too quick and don't see a sign so there needs to be something but not 21 feet high in the air and not right up on the street you know decent looking sign said back a bit that works I yes sir I Echo the sentiment of what you first said about the Parkway and about the sign if the and haven't done a lot of traveling I don't want it to be like the

run-of-the-mill shopping plaza if this is supposed to be upscale make it upscale make the sign you don't need that SI sign I mean and I don't want the city to be R you know I don't want developers coming in here and thinking that they can just do whatever they want to do and make the sign right to fit in to an upscale quote unquote property I don't want this to be turned into a home

default may I council president I'm sorry yes continue I'm I just thank you uh cicor asella I just sent down a visual of what is currently proposed we don't know what it will look like what their alternative would look like but it's it's not it's certainly not a sign that um it's anything like it's on the parkway now it'll be listing their retail tenants much like you'd find on

as I said on Route Six on Newport Avenue um as you said that the from what you knew about the Waterfront commission that some of the Commissioners had um been resistant to the sign and that's why they denied the variants without prejudice so it could go it could move on to state agency agencies um and I as an individual and as part of keep metomic green are very am very encouraged that you would all um be

willing to issue some sort of a statement uh expressing your concern thank you very much sure thank you thank you for speaking I think Mr Don who probably signed this but he didn't need to I believe he is left out for his license right Mark Vieira is here if you want to come forward just uh Mark your name and address for the record Mara 168 IV Street Providence yes welcome CC presid

this is actually uh came up already and I guess I appreciate Mr Lon for second parking on Ivy Street so I guess it's coming up uh there's only one thing need to be fixed on that as far as you have a BL from water the Bland in both sides a street so now there's no parking on on one side from Central I've already so it's not both sides it's only one side

so that's the only thing that need to be fixed on that other than that I appreciate it I want to thank thank everyone for helping out this is the second passage right Mr solicitor yeah because we've already voted yeah well I can um yes we'll talk to him but we'll we can fix it if it's no parking on one side already so this would already so that wouldn't override yeah right okay but I'll check

thank thank you Mark like to thank you thanks for coming and waiting did you sign up are you here Joanne is that you you're next this is also they could also comment during the public hearing if they wanted to Yes um the area they're talking about the assigned parking there's 11 houses and only eight spaces so there's not enough parking per household and um I have no driveway so I

count on uh Street Park parking but um so I don't know how you're going to do it right well what we did was the best we could come up with we reserved just for Resident only parking in that area now we can't do the whole street you know that's a public street but uh we did try to at least accommodate as Mr Vera has many times addressed us just that area that's the best we can

do okay thank you um I see Renee here I think yes R ignasio like to come

forward welcome just name and address for the record Renee igno 15 meline drive I'm not here to attack you guys tonight usually that's the way it goes we have a big sergeant of arms in the back there so we're we're not worried I'm just going to pass that out now I've already been in front of the school committee for this um so I'm going to now be the most hated person but I'm

actually here um on behalf of school bus cameras on our buses and our vans because our school committee our school department our councel even our mayor always preaches for the safety of our children he has put cameras at every almost every school um Zone and they're there for the safety of our children I think we now need to have school bus stop bombs on our vans and our buses they

already have them and cameras so I just wanted to read this like I did for the school committee um so our buses our buses have stop bombs but our minivans I don't know if you've seen them driving around don't have any stop bombs there is nothing to tell people to stop except for what you see on top roof so people don't stop we drive special needs kids around we do door to door um they get

off on the left side um people say that the buses take too long or we're not considered a bus they don't have to stop for us that is not true our special needs kids will run at a split of a second and they'll go across the street because they don't know some do some don't um I've been doing this for 16 years I've almost gotten hit by cars I've had to pull kids

out of the street for um people that don't stop so I'm asking that maybe our city counil can work with our school committee and our school department and make this happen so just to be clear we don't operate the school buses no no no I know that I understand that so we can't put the no I'm I'm not asking you but what I'm asking is that a the city as a whole the school department as a

whole and the school committee as a whole can all work together with everybody for the safety of our children come up with a plan and do something if the school committee needs help city-wise to do something um we we can definitely work together what you're asking specifically is for the Stop arms to be on the on the Vans I've already to the school sure but just let me let me

finish that as you probably know I mean those are all regulated by State Department of Transportation right State Department of Education if we wanted to tonight we couldn't vote to say put a stop arm on no no what I'm asking what I'm asking is that if say we wanted to do something together as a school department and the city together to promote it I'm asking that we can to promote what putting the arms

on when we if we get to the point that we can do that if we we have a company that comes and does something for us if the city can help us promote it or do whatever have you reached out to the bus company to see if that's something we're working on it okay um but I just I'm coming to you to let you know that I'm trying to get this done okay because

we're here for the safety of our kids and you got I have an idea I'd also like to I'm sorry oh I'm sorry I I'd just like to with the police department too um to get help because like I said we can't as van drivers we can't write down a license plate and it to the police department and say this person went through our Reds and give them a ticket because we

don't have FR I thought the I know the Vans don't I thought the buses had a a camera oh I don't know what the cameras All Buses not okay buses no we'll we'll definitely um get in touch with all the parties everyone involved from the school department police department State and if that can be done I'm I'm I'm one person that would support it so we'll you know it just doesn't come solely

from the council wanted to bring it together yeah is your primary concern the special need bins or my primary concern is everything the buses the V right but the bus has already got the stop sign with the aid that comes out right and so you're more concerned about the smaller Transportation Vehicles yes okay okay thank you very much everyone here supports what you're trying to achieve here y thank you appreciate it

Mr President I would ask that we draw up a resolution saying sending it to our delegation asking them I know maybe the clock is ticking up at Smith hill to introduce legislation that all new vehicles smaller Vans be equipped with the arm I I think that's probably the way to go I think that might be step two I think Step One is are they available yeah and

is it doable put it on a low car or van and then if it is worst case scenario even if it's not the arm those bus those small Vans should be equipped with then be equipped with the c and the cameras are easy they do have the light bar on thep you can buy the cameras to you know to stop sure and you know we don't need to have you know a child get hit in this

city thank you thank you Renee yes coun we're all 100% supporting of nobody getting hit nobody getting hurt I'm in confidence with your school committee reps that they're doing all they can do to make sure this happens and that's where it's lying I definitely hope it goes forward with the well my next step is to go because it isn't a Road Island state law yet for our vans to have it so I'd like us any Providence

maybe be the first in the state to be a I'm hoping with the confidence behind the city council and our school committee that we can work together with that yeah that's the plan definitely G to happen thank you guys thank you along those lines I I would acknowledge and and thank the school committee chair uh Mr Dave Lewis who's here tonight and his assistant chair Tony Deus thank you for

attending our council meeting as noted before we are working very closely with our school committee is Joanne leford here la oh that was you you were down twice yeah okay you're all set thank you next item next item Madam

clerk appointments a reappointment of Chris ly to the East Providence Public Li B trustees board this is a three-year appointment starting April 3rd 2025 through um sorry there's a typ it should be April 4th 2028 councilman Lawson so Mr lurel this is just uh reupping he's coming up due I believe uh next month so he's been doing great work and I got a chance to hang out with Nate kahon and stuff um we got

some good people looking out for our library so I humbly ask that we reappoint him is that a motion make a motion is there a second second councilman fogy seconds all in favor I I oppos councilman Rego do you approve of that okay the mo the motion passes 4 to zero next item council members number one request for plan to reuse to use remaining arpa funds allocated to former odam building

councilman Lawson so this is just asking the administration um I think there probably close to probably a little under 200,000 if um there's a plan to utilize um we know it still needs doors roofs um HVAC I don't think we need a consultant to tell us that so just asking what the plan is for the remaining funds for this property yes do do you have a update or

um so this so and I do have a present uh the presentation that was provided to the council recently um I don't know if you have it in front of you but I can email that again this evening uh but if you recall when director bores and Glenda director uh G was here sorry when she was here last um they did go over the presentation after the treasury rule um

we had to obligate all of the funds by December 31st as you Weare um so all of the funds all arpa funds at this point have in fact been obligated through all of the different projects um so they've all been used at this point to button up the building uh no additional funds at this point you spent a million dollars in that building well it did say up to 1 million we allocated a million it's in

the presentation all of it was used and um at the very end in during that same presentation it provided the breakdown of all of those funds all Theus what the funding was used for and I'm happy to share that again if you like I can go through all of the different line items but everything that needed to be done for the building has been done um we can't expend any additional funds on the building until

the the um completion of the feasibility study so as you know we had that community meeting we got we received input from excuse me community members um and there was a presentation by our planning department as to what to do with the building so we're still in the process and as you know the feasibility study still isn't fully complete thank you I think councilman Lawson you have the next item uh we just

want to know what the tax rate is oh right so we did get a memo on that I think basic answer was that until the revaluations are completed uh the tax assessor said she has not yet set a specific rate uh I don't know if uh Mr solicit if you have any additional let let me ask it this way um so assuming that okay we have to have the revals

done until that time if if we if we're at a time period when a rate has to be unknown would we just keep the status quo until does a curtain rate stay in effect until oh no we'd have to set a new rate before the new rate would be set before the next for for next for this fiscal year so the the uh assessa gave you a memo yes without outlines the time frame

it's it is delayed this year I shouldn't say delayed it is delay I guess the word is delayed we cannot set the tax rate until the assessments are done so we're in a revalue year that pushes things back a little a lot actually because we have to wait till the appeal period runs and whatnot so people have a right to appeal so that's why it's taking so long but this is unique because we're in a

three-year revaluation period this is not unique this happens every three years so my only question here is that in October of 24 when we passed the fiscal year 25 budget we and again I don't remember the the bottom line say whatever the budget amount was we knew what it was we knew the op whatever we approved again I can't remember the number so we knew that and we knew the levy at that point

so at at from an operational standpoint and things change they're walk they're moving because of the reval but on the first day of November of that new fiscal year you take our operation our budget take the levy divide it and you get the tax rate we should have we should have something on rate on on going that process so what you're basically telling me is that the old te

so the old tax rate stays in in place I mean if for instance the assessor comes back and it happens not around here but I need six more months because you know between the appeals the company that was doing the ass the field work there's delays and we got to delay it tax bills have to go out so we should have we in theory we should know what the old rate is based on our

operating budget divide the levy and we come up with the tax rate that's I mean you can't do that what Sarah did is great here tell me the project but I mean the tax rate has to be set based I'm sorry to interrupt the tax rate has to be assessed as as excuse me this tax rate has to be set as the evaluation of 12 3124 when you pass a budget in a

November we don't have that date so we have to set a new tax rate and that will be done it will and as as she outlines it it should be done uh by May and so that that tax rate will go out and and you can't use the old tax rate because I understand it's gonna it's going to adjust but so by May they'll have it I mean yeah I'm just again

uh I know the levy is going to go up because PR real estate has continued to go up so so the tax rate should go down because the Lev's up tax goes up because the levy is Lev is up the value is higher and Lev is going up and the tax rate should should drop so set okay that thank you counil uh next item Madam clerk number three request to know if the city can

assist with a HomeTown Hero's initiative and if they can produce the banners in-house councilman Lawson so this is uh just to um let you guys know I think I mentioned that um new manav seon they have these banners of uh veterans and um Tori Jessup who's part of our veterans advisory committee brought it forward that uh she thought it'd be a great idea if we do it here in East Bren so um I

reached out to Patricia and this is just to get it into the public people start being aware um um we can do banners in house so I just want to see if we could do that and um once we know that they can be done in house and the relative cost the veterans committee we're going to meet I think in a couple weeks um we'll start fleshing out you know most

likely we'll ask families if they want to um remember when we first did the flags people would donate in the name of a veteran start that way we'll figure out the appropriate number the appro you want a high visibility Road um Riverside we already got the Memorial Day parade with the flag so someplace um somebody mentioned taav um not taav um pucky because that's kind of what goes out through the city

um so that's the overview so um Patricia if you just want to give us an update of what the city can do sure um thank you councilman Lon I know we discussed this and and how it could go about but we had a a thought in regards to um just a logistical way that we could do this and that would be um putting something on the website like a form which uh the me

uh members family members would fill out and they would provide all the information about the veteran and then you know show whatever it is the DD whatever the verification is so that way people aren't just entering a name and we're making banners for them that we could verify uh so that way that we could put a call out they could add it to that I did inquire about the cost uh

there are two different uh banners one is small and you know and not not as um visible if you will one is larger and the larger one is approximately $80 I know you talked about how it would be great for family members to come forth uh with the information and then do that purchase obviously um our DPW crew would be uh willing to just as they are now with the current Banners To hang those

it would be very helpful if they're all the same uh so that way they the brackets remain there for any banners that need to be placed and pulled and what not what do you mean by the same so for instance if so the same size the same size right oh God yeah it's all going to be uniform the look is going to be uniform yeah absolutely just because otherwise then you have Cru no now

putting them back up it's it's easier that way so I'm happy to work in with uh with the committee to create that form and what we feel would be necessary to be included and and verify and people can upload a photo a copy of their the DD is it 24 I should know this DD214 yes that form okay so the only other thing is maybe if we could ask Dan realistically how many we should um plan

on like we don't want to overwhelm um should we start with 20 and less than that I think we put the call out for um you know to see what the interest is from folks who are willing to do it and it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to put them all out at the same time I mean it could happen in phases too but I I can speak with director just just a realistic number

like we don't want to inundate them like say oh we got 200 people right right you know so okay perfect thank you and if you guys in like I said newmana they have um yeah there's a lot of nice ones around different communities do it very barington has license East Providence is Awesome with its support of veterans and this it's home to many of us many many of us and we have to thank you and

councilman fog keeping that committee alive because committees can back off and they e and flow and that's a good one thank you next item Madam clerk request Administration into replacing the dock at boldo with the floating dock councilman Lawson so this is just a statement doesn't need me answer I've had my brother's a boulder I've had many friends come up and say bold points looking good but the dock

it's a fixed dock so as The Tide Rises you lose more and more of the dock so I'll send an email request to see if this uh some Dem funding or something um you know we just replaced the one at saving point with the thing so basically it's just a floating dock as The Tide Rises the docks and there was a good review about what's going on at haes Park yep the Riverside portion of it

where that sunken boat has been removed and the City of between the Harbor Master and the mayor decided to just take charge if the state's not doing it and so we're getting there the Waterfront thank you for that councilman next item number five nansa bay commission treatment plant on Campbell Avenue oo complaints Council vice president rioo yes sir thank you Mr President I I think you received a

couple of these emails I've received numerous emails as well as uh many uh phone calls in regards to this matter um I remember when that plant first went in many many moons ago and the smell was horrendous through most of uh Rumford uh in the last 10 or 12 years uh it has not been an issue but it seems I don't know uh it seems in the last six months that

it's becoming an issue where we are getting complaints from the neighbors going out I don't know if there's uh uh different chemicals they're using or it could be even a change in management as far as implementation of uh certain programs down there but it's it's very distracting especially in the summertime with the the people who live on Campbell Avenue in Nevada and all the streets along that way as well as it

overflows onto uh uh one Moet in the area on thater street so um I would like the city to uh I would like the city to look into it to reach out to the naranza Bay commission and try to come up with this solution as to you know why all of a sudden is becoming a current current uh continuous problem at the plan thank you thank you Council vice president get

the Departments to work on that next item Madam cler rear update Council vice president Rego I defer to the city solicitor I think he might have some information on this uh situation for the people on on gin Ro and the the railroad way so thank you Council vice president um at your request I made some calls uh to try to figure out uh who actually owns the railroads uh p&w is currently a

corporation but it's owned by a holding company called Genesis in Wyoming I believe um I did have a contact with one of their um vendors believe it or not not even someone from the company um I let them know about the complaints we were getting about the railroad um the debris they said it's a very common complaint across the country um I indicated to them that it was unacceptable um and they suggested that

um I send the formal communication uh through this vendor basically who would get it into the proper hands um and I'm also looking to see if pu has any Authority though I don't think they do um so I will get as soon as I send that correspondence I'll will send copy you so you'll see it but at at least finally got a contact person because it was very difficult um because um again

p&w somewhat EX as a corporation but they're not actually operating the railroads apparently so thank you subsidiary something bigger yeah thank you uh Mr Soler thank you Council vice president next item update of fire department's rescue Mutual Aid call in 2025 to date Council vice president Rigo yes sir um yeah I just again need an update on you know Mutual Aid calls coming into the city uh it's concerning

it's you know it's been something that uh has been an issue since uh even before I got elected here and uh just trying to I know you know we we go back to the fifth day of December in 2023 and uh I just again you know we all want to make the city better and just trying to stay on top of because uh it's a tough situation when you're waiting for a rescue to take a

loved one to a hospital not again fire department does a nice job they have the equipment but an engine can't transport to Road Island Hospital the hospital thank you thank you did you want to comment on that director do you want to wait and get a full report from the chief I have it oh you have it okay so I Council council president Council vice president uh uh I'm not sure what you would like

me to do I can read each sheet or I can provide you with the copies I could read it into record or provide you with copies which would make it part of the record well I mean simple easy all I'm asking for is you know since January 1 of 2025 to you know to the end of February I'll say did we have 45 Mutual Aid calls did we have 35 what's the number I mean that's

all that's what I'm I'm looking for the amount of Mutual Aid calls and and again I I think I I sent this request via my off my phone uh I you know there was there were specific hours of uh that we were looking for for the mutual Aid call but uh I'll pass this up rather than so if you have that broken down by you know it's more by time wise and

thank

You2 so we do have a report from the

chief for instance on one in one section of the report and you know for the general public watching the meeting times of the day for EMS calls both dis both dispatched and received have also shown consistency in 2024 EMS Mutual Aid is most frequently provided between 9 and 5 9:00 am and 5:00 p.m okay and then to give some times but you're looking for the numbers for like the runs right the last month which is

in here there are charts he has that in there right I'm just reading it so I don't know if you picked it up yet but I mean numbers are skewed and of the cost there the the mutual Aid calls because 9 to5 we know that there's many medical facilities in the city here and that taxis that taxes the service uh uh I need to digest this a little bit

more yeah we all yeah I mean we just got this now which was great we didn't I we didn't ask for it last minute but why don't we digest it in the next meeting um let's talk specifics in a couple weeks we can hone it down rather than trying to read it now unless you have a specific observation um I mean again we know it's going to be higher during the day

because of those medical facilities so I got that and I got to look at the grid uh got to look at the grid of uh the time you know the time you know but you were talking Mutual AIDS mostly right well yeah well this is mutual a given and mutual Aid received it's broken down on his second page it right but not all runs to those centers of mutual Aid just direct runs no but I'm saying

our rescues are going to be up normally during those times anyways when people are working so it's going to in there's more call so that's going to increase your Mutual Aid during that time too if the rescues are out that's that's the point I'm trying to make is that we're we're always going to have more rescue runs during the uh during a N9 to-5 because of the uh of the buildings I mean that's that's you know

that's logical I mean with we're skewing with numbers I mean but anyways we got to digest this more I thank the I thank the administration and the fire department for this and we'll dig into this thank you thank you Council VP next item Madam clerk one sec before we proceed uh could I ask my fellow council person from uh who's handling our uh PR or website could you somehow get this

on there so that people because I get these questions all the time and if I get the phone call and they're sitting in front I can tell them to refer to our Council website to go over this information yep I'll put something together and got it I may uh Council vice president will send that um digitally so that way it's a clean copy versus taking a photo of a printed version thank you Madam clerk next item

number nine East Providence Restaurant Week June 15 through June 21st Council vice president rioo what what I'd like to do with this tonight is appoint uh Council vice president Rigo to chair a subcomittee along with uh for tonight's purposes councilman Lawson I think councilwoman Souza also wants to be and has been very active in this area so we in that membership that committee can go

back and forth so if um without objection if we want to uh approve that and then uh if you have some comments tonight Council VP but we can come back more specifically with a uh a plan we we know that uh worked well last year and businesses need some specifics again yeah if you want to add to that no I well first of all as you said it it worked well last year like to get more

involvement like to get you know everybody involved in the city uh you know to help this you cause this isn't just you know we started it but it's not a city council initiative per say I want it to be the city initiative first of all sure and Y it's to publicize I know last year we had some Monday morning quarterbacks you know we're not like Providence where we have a lot of sit down you know white

tablecloth restaurants and everything like that where they're going to have preset menus all the time this is to showcase the hard work in men and women that own predominantly you know independent restaurants in the city and if they just want to have a special of appetizers one night say we don't need that they don't need to have the criteria of say uh again restaurants where we have five

cost meal at this price and everything like that some people might run run again appetizer specials whatever this is to bring notoriety around the city I mean around the state to the fine restaurants that we have in the city of East Providence and you know we have many thank you thank you just let me go on Recine Riverside's the foodie capital of East Providence booody before this gets out of hand next item

Madam number 10 discussion relating to Citizens complaints about Rising gas and electricity rates from Rhode Island energy council president Rodricks thank you madam clerk so everyone in the state in the region knows about the rising costs of energy we as a city council here at excuse me hear it every day uh so I preemptively of course uh we have nothing to do directly with setting

rates of utilities however if there's no objection from the council I'd like to draft a letter from our city council to support some legislation that has been introduced at the State House I believe the main person is representative Megan Carter it has also been uh co- signed by our own um house uh whip representative uh Katherine Kazarian and and others and basically this would be legislation that would put

a limit in state law on the profit that can be reaped by the utilities Distributing electricity natural gas in Red Island we know that red Island energy other utilities uh seeing record profits and they we had the recent sale I won't read all of the notes that I have here but in a recent sale in National Grid went through another party and then to Red Island energy one of the CEOs involved

there was had received um a 31% raise for a salary of close to12 million in one year and maybe it's deserved but on the backs of people paying exorbitant amounts to keep their homes warm and to have electricity and and heat and I I I think there's room there to maybe live on a little less than 12 million a year and i' I'd like to try a lot less than that and and maybe help

the rate payers uh some of it has been ridiculous people are reporting getting bills of three four five six and more100 $700 or more um something has to be done and it is the Pu the Public Utilities Commission that is the agency that can and determine this now each year they seem to approve the rate increase requests and and I know it's more than just paying the you say red Island

energy as the example they are the main supplier I mean it's more than just paying their staff and others they have to report out when they are outages they have to do some research they have to do work they have to uh replace on on my street recently a whole pole had to be replaced because three Transformers blew up and they were across the street from a pump station which was critical to our

sewage plant so things happened that aren't planned for and aren't in budgets so they the energy companies need to be able to cover that and they did come out quickly and did the work but it doesn't mean that we can't control the profits a little more so in any event if you don't object um I'm not really asking for a vote unless someone is opposed but I'll draft the letter I'll

show it to everybody and we will send it to our delegation of legislators and requesting support for this legislation that will put some uh limits on the profits so hearing none no objections I'll I'll pass that along to everybody shortly so thank you next item oh I'm sorry did you want to that's okay council president thank you and thank you councilman poy uh it was just to uh notify the council that we've been in

touch with Rhode Island energy and they're working to have a team of uh Representatives here at your next council meeting but I'll confirm that once we get a little closer thank you have the guy come that's making $31 million I'll try my best c yeah his I'm kidding I'm kidding thank you for arranging that thank you thank you public hearings ordinance for second and final passes for discussion and

possible vote one in ordinance and amendment of chapter 18 of the revised ordinances of the city of East Providence forh Island 1998 as amended entitled vehicles and traffic article 10 entitled stopping standing and parking is amended by adding there true the following section 18- 317 resident parking only a the following Street shall be designated as resident parking only Ivy Street from Waterman Avenue to blending

Street you still want me say both sides both sides from 5:00 P pm to 6:00 am.

weekdays and Saturday and Sunday all day introduced by council president Bob Rodricks and councilwoman Anna Souza thank you I don't have anything to add we've talked about this quite a while we've met with the neighborhood we had that meeting with the Myrtle and place had a lot of people here uh so this was a good resolution I believe we are allowing um some residents in that immediate area to have resident only

parking front of their house um we we have got couple Logistics we've got to make up the signs we've got to make up stickers for the cars so that'll take a a little little bit of time but you know we're going to work on it so uh this is a public hearing uh any uh comments for anybody here in the public did we cover your concerns yeah Mr Vera's concerned because the parking on both streets but

that'll be handled uh I just want can you just clarify which street so I can look into that a little bit more carefully but thank you Mark yes it's uh just the Ivy Street uh but Ivy Street if like I said from Central lab all the way to to there's no parking on one side already right all the way so Ivy Street from Toton to where I'm sorry it's from like

Central LA all the way to ttav Ivy Street it's only one side of parking the street is so narrow so we only have one side the park anyway so it's not both sides it's one side okay I'll check in that we can make that change if we have to but I think it's important to um process get it yeah obviously this wouldn't override the other award anyway so we'll we'll check into that thank you for that

clarification and I um just to further because I mentioned the Myrtle I stopped by there the other day there was a local um resident having a birthday party a place was pretty well crowded parking seemed okay and the noise level was fine and uh the compliments from people who were there about the business were were good good to hear in the neighborhoods seems to be so far I'm sure Mr ver will

keep us posted if things change but so far so good thank you uh oh I shouldn't have said anything way to go Bob only one thing one thing okay uh Vice Rego I just wanted to know as far as uh the parking bin the last couple we had no parking bins yeah parking B we appreciate there was an officer that actually came up the street uh his sirines and his uh the uh born

and everything else he had actually came up and uh put the spotlight into the burle now this is the hour after and I actually sent the picture that Diana that par was already in effect so I walked up the street there's we already had our cops off the street and I appreciate the officer coming up but uh they pulled up in front of their place they went inside and they served them so

then they parked in front of our house I watched them go up there so I walked up and they served me so hour and a half later I called the police you can check with the police about it this what got me upset because the officer did a nice job I appreciate him he came up and down the street with the sirines and let everybody else know that my neighbor was

in this in the basement at the time I'm sorry my other neighbors couldn't show up tonight there babies in in problems but um he could have went to vine she Anthony she helped out the other residents and in the neighborhood he had to come back sit in front of the middle for 25 minutes and he had now he had to wait until they actually finish their drinking and then come out move their

cars so that's the only issue I have I don't know if they have a special thing where they can sh liquor when there's a parking band for because they don't have a well the parking band doesn't affect their hours of operations yeah as far as parking in the street oh yeah if there's a parking man you can't park but the business that's but they they was parking in the street and water have and then the off

you had to stay there I get you till they came out y yeah was this the Saturday night one yeah yeah that that was tough trying to determine the time because you didn't want to hurt the businesses but you still want to be safe yeah probably at that point it wasn't really snowing that's the one that took effect about like 1:00 in the morning or so oh no no not that one the one before

that one there they actually started moving earlier the one before that when it was started to store early well you can you can call the police dep they'll have it actually have but he actually had to come back the third time and actually had to sit there and wait to everybody the band the bands are not easy yeah I thought that was kind of disrespectful but y we'll keep an eye on

it I appreciate thank you so if this passes tonight this will be AFF May first so no we no comment on public on this anymore we need to move the meeting along and them we've had a lot of discussion on the Myrtle and the parcking and we've yeah I know yeah yeah you're getting the resident tag though right y talk with Mark heill heill we've worked it out and there only so much we

can do with yep yeah so y best of best that we could do with that yeah talk more with with Mark and he's he he'll help you first C if this passes so this is uh is there any other discussion in the council or close the hearing is there a motion motion to approve oh I'm sorry the hearing's closed you don't need them okay motion by councilman Lawson seconded by Council

vice president Ral to approve all in favor I any opposed the eyes have for zero thank you all thank you st viira Joanne thank you next item new business mayor Communications Chief of Staff Patricia rendi you get a bonus if you can go through this quickly m m rendi gonna say it's on record now she's TR to share his ice cream actually um I'm happy to report that almost everything on here has

already been covered by director bores um if the council so chooses to accept the three proc proclamations as as is I know that you've done that is there anything you want to read the one thing um so it's women's History Month what whatever you want to read we're going to sit and listen and Greek Independence these are annual ones so I I won't have to read them into record I'll just submit them

however I would like if the council's okay I would like to be able to point out that um we have opened our nominations for our 2025 remarkable woman and we open that and we will close it on March 22nd with uh we have a temporary date for the ceremony and the event of the celebration of remarkable woman and we've already started to receive um nominations so if you know a remarkable woman please go ahead and

submit and we would want the public to know that as well and that is all the only thing I want to add I've had a few people it's great our events but they take place during the day like we got the Irish American coming up March 17th at 11:30 a.m. I I understand why but I just needed to convey that there's some folks at can you guys do something when

we can attend well there's also so we've done a lot of events in the evening um we have found that uh there isn't always uh great attendance we also with our flag raisings our flag raisings are usually brought To Us by folks in the community organizations and in this case our Irish American one is done by a staff member on a completely volunteer basis she purchases everything she does

everything on her own we try to assist but um that is what was her choice because we also honor someone in the community and um that was their availability so with that one in particular but we tried we've tried them in the evening and people have said can you have them during the day we've council president could tell you that as well so all right difficult but good point because but I will tell you the

remarkable women celebration is always an evening event and we always try to do it on a Tuesday evening before a council meeting um but in in this case it will be a Tuesday evening but unfortunately um it it won't line up with an actual council meeting but that one will be in the evening wants know when remarkable men month is well as soon as it's every month oh that was good that was good oh

man right was good wow thank you m vendi next item report of school committee liaison you guys are more than welcome to jump up if you want to add anything but um couple weeks ago um all of us except Frank because he was working were able to take a tour of the Martin Middle School building um it's impressive it's coming along great um despite all the naysay is on Facebook it's not uh sinking into the

ground it's not the contamination was dealt with it is going to be in an amazing amazing um place for Education when it's done we were able to take a tour everything is moving along on schedule on budget and um the building committee they're on top are you on the mountain one or the yes I am yeah so um things are moving along and I just want the public to know that we're invested in

investing in our school department um I think the actions of this Council have been very clear that um we absolutely support we're all products of it or some put their children through it I'm a product of it so they have our full support in this Martin Middle School which will also house our prek which once the buildings f um what's it called Oldham I keep thinking metal Crest Oldham that prek

will end up in the new building freeing up that building for classroom space for for those that are saying we don't have enough space in Riverside we will it's two two more years one more about a year year and a half and then that situation will alleviate some of the numbers at warington so um Dr fan said she'd probably get some public input to see what the preference is do they want it

like K through one2 or whatever but um she did mention some Community input on how they would like to organize the elementaries down there in Riverside and my second item is um this is just a statement um the school funding we've been doing a great job we created the school building fund there's still going to be challenges um if you're paying attention to national news there's a push by the

current Administration to end the Department of Education um we still face a lot of challenges when it comes to finance in our school um Beyond paying teachers and buying books in this case CH Chromebooks there is a special needs population which we are devoted to making sure that they get the best education that comes with added cost from your mainstream there's Transportation costs that keep Rising

every year um I believe the crash craft bill should pass this year which will alleviate some of the financial burdens that the state put on us um but there's also the unintended consequence which it could be good or bad depending your point of view that as the median income in the city of East Providence Rises the amount the state gives us decreases so we got to figure out how we're going to start filling that Gap

because if we're getting less state aid because we're attracting more affluent residents um that are raising up the media and income we have to pay attention to that so I just put this out there now so we're we a budget's a set of priorities I've been clear the school is my number one priority and um I just wanted to put that out there so people start thinking ahead and we get ready

come budget season because we're unsure of what we're going to get so and that's it yep thank you for that thank you to uh school committee uh Administration for being here tonight next item D resolutions for discussion and possible vote resolutions authorizing the mayor to enter into an extension of the agreement for the red light enforcement services and school zone speed enforcement Services

sponsored by council president Rodricks Council vice president rioo and councilman fogy is it appropriate to wait till an is here well I know it's been delayed already a couple of meetings a while but it's not up until uh December but if we go ahead and the and the vote calls for some kind of a stalemate or whatever then we could go to the next meeting I don't know if anyone has any general

discussion or um I got a couple um that I going to respectfully request there some modifications to this contract um the first being um removing the light in front uh the camera in front of Riverside Middle School the schools a quar mile off the road uh the kids that walk they come from the back neighborhoods um we know that the these you know in my opinion they're more of a money

grab um so I would humbly request that we modify it to remove the one in front of Middle School Riverside um my second request would be that we remove the one in front of Bay View Bay View has a traffic light and a traffic control officer and for some reason the laws of physics are different that we only track people speed and leav in Riverside not coming in I don't see

the need for a camera there when you already have a light and a traffic control officer there and my third request would be to modify the times 7 to 9: in the morning and 1: to 4 in the in the afternoon and my reason then for this is we're in an economic Times that people getting hit with a $50 ticket in the middle of the day while the kids are in classrooms and not in an unsafe

condition because of Roads um I think it would be helpful and it would benefit townies not getting hit with these tickets during times where speed is not an issue for the safety of these kids so let me just say that you know all all those things I think if we go forward and lock in the prices which is the intent here to of oper operating this and keeping keep keeping the the revenue as

high as it can can be without us paying more we can make the contracts allows us changes can be made through the life of it so we can sit down we can make changes I don't disagree with you about uh forb Street there are other schools where it's may be needed more and and I just want to quickly say there are only two three four we're talking about five schools in the entire

city the forb street which is back end of Riverside Middle School the front end but the students are go out the other side Bay View just Northbound only Ken Heights which is such a busy part of the middle of our city I've heard from the stores in the area they like this because the speeding is unbelievable going right by that area uh the high school but people shouldn't be getting

NAB there a lot there's already several lights from when you start at Waterman Avenue the senior center then there's the cameras pick in pick up then there's the high school light itself then you get to toron Avenue if you're speeding through that area you deserve a ticket it's such a short span St Margaret's and that that's it and each and every one of those zones you go through in about 2

minutes two or three minutes tops people just need to the speeding is getting out of control the accidents on the highway cell phone use the whole bit but that all that stuff can be discussed at at some point um so in any event that's another discussion or a motion either way well I agree with you on through the chair I AG with you on all those statements too and as a matter of fact

I've had conversations with the mayor and knowing we can change and and do different things as far as going with changes to what you just said Rick with the contract company themselves also the the camera he's talking about at Bay View is suspect but the more questions I have is taking over the sidewalks with the double po and the mayor and I have been in conversation of changing that the single not necessarily

taking over the whole sidewalks also I asked him just yesterday the monies and where the monies is going and how much for the schools and he said that a good amount of like $3 million or more gets to the school department so um I'm comfortable with the cameras still being in effect because if I was a policeman I'd be pulling over 25 cars a day myself easily the way they speed in

our city and it's probably their fortun now that the roads are a little bit disr but I would like if there's no further discussion I like can make a motion to approve so we're not gonna make the adjustments that I requested not tonight we not but so you're GNA pass the contract so just so you know councilman the I'm sorry the actual locations of the of the lights are not in the

contract that's that's a negotiation up to up between the administration and the company and obviously with input from the you so so I can have a resolution next meeting asking that they be removed I don't know if we even need that we could just have a discussion with the administration with the mayor and um administratively do do we have the power to say we want them down you have the power to say what I'm

sorry that we want to take those two locations out and adjust the times so councilman saying can can we for an in instance can EX example can we say we don't want a light on F Street anymore I mean a camera I mean I if if that's the way Administration pushed back from the administration well if if they don't want to do it you know just want to make just just clear that the actual

locations of the of the lights are not in the contract it's this only sets the price of the of and the that we collect this is to lock in the rate that correct have so we don't have to be going up so next meeting I can put forth sure you can put forth stuff I don't know the procedure going forward but tonight it's just to keep the rate and did we go RFP to see if there's

a better company to deal with we exercise our right to um renew the contract that's currently in place for a five-year option so it's a current contract so we don't know if there's a better rate out there again we I don't know that all I'm saying is we exercise our rate this contractor had a fiveyear uh ability to renew after after the first contract was over that that was part of the original contract so with

the fiveyear option that we were exercising at any point to the councilman's question at any point a year from now or two years from now or the next Council because now we're locking another potential Council you know it could be the five of us it could be whatever the number could be it could be all five new people so is there an option for them so opt out of the contract to a

new company because there's a way to end the contract by either for cause or not cause that's a provision in the current contract clause there is that cause in yeah I mean there's a penalty there's a penalty for it but there's I remember I mean we looked at it back in June of 23 um and I look at it this way when when these cameras came about and living near the big you know living

in Ward one we you know St Margaret's is the number one speed camera and the whole state of Rh Island according to channel 10 um a lot of speeding a lot of n it's a nuisance but from a fiscal standpoint and this is only my commentary here from a fiscal standpoint we become we we're re we rely on the money and then I had I basically had like three people in

my face on Election Day outside of a polling place you know helping the the school committee person Mr Queen and up there and I've come to look at this as it's like a syntax cigarette taxes go up if you don't smoke you don't do it if you live in this city now unless you're living in a bubble and you don't know where those chick it's where they are and we and we

know there's a Grace Grace time there then shame on you and it it happens every so often you know people go by you know you got things going on and you forget the speed limit but we know what they are and the last thing is I don't want what happened to that poor little girl in Waka to happen in this city and especially on my watch thank you yep and

and lastly don't forget you can go 11 miles over the speed limit and not get a ticket it's not like it says 20 and you're going to get a ticket at 21 miles hour you you've got some room here but these are all things we've we've said before to be clear I can put forth next meeting that there's a procedure I don't know that it would be by an ordinance you know we would sit down and

talk with Administration and say what because to be clear we can make changes to tonight has nothing to do with where the cameras are so so now do we do it by Ordinance do we do it by sitting down with Administration and getting Administration to agree I mean I I would agree that I don't want to see it on Forbes but I might want to see it on front of there are other schools there's

Martin Street that has tremendous I'm advocating for Riverside the way the way these people speaked through the neighborhoods in the back roads yeah is I'm in favor of even the mobile ones coming forward to through I want speed bumps I don't want that but I just the revenue is important for the speed is that speed and it's dangerous for our children in the community so we have a motion councilman fogy is there a

second second second by Council vice president Rigo all in favor nay I any opposed nay nay motion carries three to one thank you all next item please is everything up now except introduction of ordinances page eight page eight yes in ordinance and Amendment section 18-37 entitled parking prohibited at all times of article 10 entitled stopping standing and parking of chapter 18 of the revised

ordinance of the city of East Providence W Island 1998 is amended entitled vehicles and traffic is amended by the to the following Washington Avenue East Side from a point 260 ft north of bulock point a Avenue northly 30 ft introduced by councilman fog make a motion to approve second second motion by councilman fog to approve seconded by Council vice president weo all favor I I any oppos

guys have that four to First passage 4 to zero we do have to uh pause for an executive session so uh we will recess and come back to public session very shortly yes is there a motion to uh we we have to so is there a motion to recess into executive session make a motion motion by Council F there second second Council Regal seconds all to go recess and go into executive

session under claims and litigation all in favor I any opposed the eyes have it we'll return a public session very shortly

I wonder if we could use

question so

e

e

e

e

e

e

e

e

e

e

e

e

e

e e

I do want to watch the Trump thing the speeech oh Jesus it's apparently in to uh return to uh second motion yes a motion to return to a regular session motion to return and a motion to seal the minutes we did in executive session but we do it here again do it here again uh Council fogy makes motion seconded by Council vice president Ral all in favor I motion to

adjourn I to report out you want me to yes you got to report out sorry I'll try to do this fast thank you Council vice president yes Mr solicitor uh claim of Drew Tasker the amount of $2,223 of 64 was approved unanimously the claim of ban melli when the amount of 32718 was denied unanimously the claim of mck Barnes for un specifi damages was denied and the SE charge of abatement for Laura Francis

the amount of 373 excuse me $373 59 cents was approved unanimously that concludes my report thank you Mr solicitor thank you chief of staff rendi is there a motion to Jour Council vice president R moves to ajour seconded by Council M fogy all in favor I any opposed the eyes have it meeting is adjourned thank you all thank you

speci