East Providence City Council 9/3/24

good evening I'll call this evening's meeting to order of the East Providence city council September 3rd Madame clerk would you please call the role of the council councilman FY yeah councilman Lawson here Council vice president rioo yeah councilwoman Susa yeah council president Rodricks here the record show all five members are present please rise for the pledge of the flag Captain

Ferrera would you lead us in the pledge

please thank you uh Madame clerk would you please start the agenda clation for Christine Alves 2025 Rhode Island education support professional of the Year Council vice president rioo so I'd ask uh Council vice president Rigo to please um make tonight's uh special presentation if you follow things e Providence this person is no stranger to anyone uh Council vice president please thank you Mr

President as the president just said this person is no stranger to the city of East Providence uh Christine Al is an administrative assistant at East Providence High School working primarily within the special education department in room 156 she plays a crucial role in supporting vulnerable students and families often being the first point of contact during crisis Christine is known for her

friendly welcome demeanor that puts students at ease while all Al holding them accountable for their success she coordinates meetings within the school special education department ensuring families are informed involved and support Christine's collaborative Spirit commitment to Excellence positive impact her colleagues and the overall School environment her dedication to students

families communities colleagues make her a deserving candidate but the ne a of the Year award I would also wome I'd like to bring Christine up and I'd like to also welcome her family Ron Jaylen Jaren and Jordan to come up to the podium

it's true that um Miss Alves is friendly but if you're a student in high school and you're late to class uh don't get caught we also have a presentation from the r Island State Senate from Senator brdo so here's the presentation from City of East Providence city council as well as the state senate thank you so much and we'd like you to say a couple words because I know you're not shy on words oh

wow thank you this definitely is truly an honor I don't do things for recognition I do things because it's what I love to do I love the students I love forming um relationships with the students I make sure my family does the same thing as you know I have a daughter who's been teaching in the district for five years um people say we're somewhat alike um thank you very much thank you to

Cindy for nominating me thank you to the city of East Providence for always no matter what I do Socktober dress a towy school supply drives everybody always you know stands behind me I'm just the vessel it's really East Providence that really gets me through um I appreciate it next step March 2025 Louisville Kentucky for the Nationals maybe I can bring it home for Rhode Island thank thank you very much thank

you oh oh I'd ask that uh principal of the High School Mr Bill black if you join us for a photo op in the front here please oh I didn't see the superintendent also come on up Dr fan any anybody who wants to get in the photo

than

we have some other presentations and I would ask the councilwoman from ward two councilwoman soua to make these

presentations so the first um Proclamation is all timer's awareness month um whereas alzheim Alzheimer's disease is irreversible and Progressive brain disease that slowly erodes Precious Memories thinking skills and the ability to perform simple tasks whereas Alzheimer's is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States with nearly 4 million people diagnosed worldwide annually the city of

East Providence um city council encourages everyone to get involved in the fight against this disease and express support for those who have suffered and loved ones who um need a support system so we declare the 3rd of September 2024 um alheim Awareness Month um and we know that um if we don't have someone personally in our family we have someone that we know work worth care for that is

affected by this disease so it not only affects the person who suffers from the unfortunate disease but it does also affect um the loved ones and those in the communities who try to support them also to add a couple of comments to the councilwoman's uh presentation uh Chief of Staff Patricia rendi you'd like to um to later on okay thank you I'm sorry continue um next we have um Suicide

Prevention awareness month as we know this is uh an epidemic that is really serious um every suicide situation affects four additional people um with that so that friends family co-workers and those in the community um so whereas the month of September is designated as Suicide Prevention month at a time to raise awareness about the critical issues of suicide to remember those who have lost their lives and to support

individuals who struggle with mental health challenges whereas suicide is a serious Public Health concern that affects individuals families and the community it is crucial to promote and understand the compassion and effect um prevention strategies to address these issues whereas mental health plays a significant role um in the overall well-being and is imperative to reduce the stigma encourage the open

conversations and provide resources to those who need help whereas East Providence is committed to fostering the community where every person feels valued heard supported and where individuals have the access to the resources and services to improve their Mental Health now there therefore let it be resolved that the city council of East Providence hereby declares the month of September as Suicide Prevention

month in our city we encourage all residents to participate in educational activities support of mental health groups and incentives and to reach out to those who need the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1 1800273 talk that's 1 800273 8255 and the local Island crisis assistant program Rhode Island cap is 401 272 4044 and they offer confidential support 24 hours a day 7 days a week um I I this

is something that um really does uh affect everybody personally um so we have all either known somebody that we love either a family member um a friend a colleague um a neighbor it is something that if you hear somebody talking about it even jokingly it is never really a joke right somebody is always reaching out and crying well before they decide to commit the um the act of taking their own life

which is something that is tremendously difficult to have to do but it speaks volumes to the state of mind that the person is in to have to go that far to take their lives so I would encourage again to be kind to people to help support people and guide them into resources that they can then get the support and and help that they need to improve whatever the situation is that they're facing thank you

continue and then last we have recognition of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month so whereas September is designated as child Childhood Cancer Awareness Month a time of recognition and support of the courageous children and families affected by cancer in the promote well awareness of the CR critical need for continuing research and Improvement in treatments whereas Childhood Cancer is the leading cause of

death among children and it is essential to raise this awareness about the impact of disease to honor those who have battled it and to support the families who continue to face it whereas the community of East Providence is committed to supporting all the incentives that provide the quality to life for children battling cancer as well as their families and raising awareness about the importance of

research funding and childhood treatments whereas local organizations healthc Care Professionals and volunteers tirelessly try to provide support advocacy funding for Pediatric cancer research making a significant difference in the lives of children and their families whereas by working together we can enhance public understanding support those affected and advocate for the progress in research

and treatment now hereby let it be resolved that the city council of the city of East Providence do hereby proclaim the month of September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month we encourage all residents to participate in the awareness activities support all local incentives and join us in our commitment to provide um to improving the lives of children with cancer and to support their families again

another another disease that we all have been touched have experienced know and love someone um our city is amazing in that we all come together in a time of need and support local families in our community our um Administration our police our fire have um provided countless um pleasurable moments to those who have been affected we work very closely with the Hasbro Children's Hospital and do our um our lights for

the children so it's I know we come together and help each other and it's just another um time to be acknowledging that the importance of continuing to do so thank you counc members thank you and Council appreciates the the dedication of councilwoman suar and the medical health and related fields and keeping us a breast of issues and concerns Madame clerk do you uh continue under the consent calendar we

have the regular meeting minutes of July 9th the under letters there's um notice of new property at one Pier Road 02914 uh 777 Waterfront Drive 02914 600 Waterfront Drive 02914 700 Waterfront Drive 02914 93 Main Street 02915 32 Adams Avenue 02915 and a letter from William C Maya and Associates regarding uh comp plan Amendment and zone change zero wag trail requests to move from table to unted and

tax abatements for 2024 totaling the amount of 12,398 180 so I would ask for a motion on all of those items except for number seven under letter b and we we'll just um it's a little different topic we'll just take that separately so the motion would would be to approve the consent calendar letters a letters b one through six and the tax abatements as read is is there a motion what why wouldn't we accept

seven well I it just it's different than the numbers we can we can just accept them all but um there's no action on that there's no action right where number seven is uh the request to move that item from taable to unted if that's okay we just leave it at at that sister is there a well the issue is I if you're going to do that this is just a request

you're not actually voting on it but I we need to know if you are going to untable it because it'll be on the next Council agenda to physically untable it and then then that date we will on that date we will set up if if they excuse me if you do move to untable it we'll set a hearing date to comply with the notice requirements of state law which is three

weeks so I I just I think we're just looking for a sense of whether or not you're by by virtue of us approving it all as as R it would do that no it wouldn't that's what I'm saying it needs to be put back on so by uning it it'll be up be untable right but you're not it's just a request tonight because it's not on the agenda correct but I need

unable I kind of need to know if you're willing to do that so we can put it on the agenda I've been clear if there's a a specific plan um but I'm one of five um I want to know exactly what they're looking to do for a zone change so that's what they would come back and that's why you'll have that discussion you'll have that discussion meeting has something been presented to

the planning department we're not aware of I'm not aware of but I necessarily would not be aware of it it's just this is just correspondence by doing number seven separately we're just asking if we are going to untable this and table it the next meeting discussion so if it's approved as part of the consent agenda I will ask the clerk to put it on the agenda for an official uning at the next

meeting if you vote to untable it then at that time I'll ask you to set a date for which to advertise any changes we can untable it tonight or we can untable it next meeting yeah we'd have to untable it then so if that's what they want I'm fine with that but my stance hasn't changed I'm not going to vote for it yeah no the merits of it will be

discussed okay at a later time yeah if they it sounds like they may have a plan if they're asking to untable it so I got no problem come with they better they got to come with a plan be what if so yeah I mean I think that's what you're saying so on a separate matter um under the consent calendar um I just have a question so the new property address one

Pier Road are they changing that parcel to is it been re zoned is there something that they're planning to to do with that piece of vacant do we know so the yacht club is nine pair Road oh this yeah this is across the street it's like that grassy area that I think that that they're looking to at least that's what on the map it has it's the grassy area that doesn't

Happ there's a parking lot so I'm just trying to figure out what that purpose of so the building officials sent the council a letter to acknowledge that as a new property address but no explanation is given so they subdivided the property so this is the lot of crust Street where there's a karate school right now I mean what it looks like on the map is's the kar the building there's the

parking lot and then there's the grass area so I'm I'm trying to figure out what part of that I think tawat owns that grass area no not across no right directly across from the yacht club across from the Lewis brick the brick building with the karate right there's a parking lot and then there's some grass property I I'm trying to figure out what part I just need some more clarification on so who's requesting

this property number addition normally these are associated with postal necessarily it's just a a reassignment of a number usually can be new construction just going to be a new realignment but this is done through the clerk's office after requ AB building you said a building official requested this the building official sent a letter to notify the council but I can go into my office and get the letters if you

want to review it it does have the applicant's name of the address itself on the letter it's just not standard for us to put the name on the docket right is that letter in the packet no no I can go get it well that's all right we don't want a whole if if this is the only question we could hold that one off and do the others and come back next meeting with with uh number

one yeah I just like a better clarification on what not that I'm for or against it I just some of these um new numbering of properties um are don't don't make sense you know I don't an understanding of them some of them I think one of the last ones we did was on Warren Avenue and it was because the home didn't have it was just like a numeral error so they had to do that but

some of it it just seems like it's a lot and they're looking to number so I just would like better clarification yeah it's an issue I I brought up in the past about these postal numbers uh for instance that entire neighborhood de development if you will in Riverside which has a barington zip Cod and therefore they get no bulk mail generated PR Providence zoning office subdiv build building or build a

building subdivided in that property but we don't have the owner of the property these are just assigned once there's either a subdivision or this is just administrative thing but I understand if you want more information that's fine but this is there no Z it's not it's not a zoning change they can build whatever own for it's an administrative think that so a property has a correct mailing address or

designation for for future for uh you know EMS those type of things so yes so if I just have more information on it if it's just if that's all it is then I'm looking up the map and plattin now okay so if it's just that one can we proceed with the rest of the consent calendar all in favor I I any opposed the eyes have that and we'll get clarification on

number one Pier road so just so I'm clear on the request to untable we'll put that on the next agenda from a formal vote and you can decide then okay yes Mr Meer the Mr Myers's in the audience I'm just want to inform him so that his request to untable will be put on the next agenda sure for consideration thank you if you can keep it brief it's it's not really a public hearing

but procedural question so it's un unted and the next meeting going to have it no it's not unted yet the request to untable now will be on the agenda for a formal untable they haven't they didn't vote T to untable it they just accepted your letter asking for oh okay so so at the next meeting they're going to vote to untable if they do so so the question I have procedurally is is that is there

a hearing that night or do we get to hearing date so if they decide to untable it then we will set a hearing date on your application that's what I understand okay so I don't prepare a hearing for that date it's four or six weeks whatever the heck it is four three weeks thank you thank you next item Madam clerk you have the option to bundle licenses 1 through 177

you want me to go through the 17 licenses I don't see a need to um no we've all had the agenda unless someone has a question on I'll make a motion to bundle to start the discussion but I didn't see anything onerous in here nope my only um confirmation would be the solicitor um the the solicitor license that this company is aware of our or they get a copy of our ordinance about times and

that they can and cannot be and these they already passed their police check that's why it's in front of us now okay so the first motion in order is just to bundle items 1 through 17 by councilman Lawson is there a second second second by councilman soua all in favor I any opposed the eyes have it I'll make a motion to accept uh 1 through 17 second motion to accept the bundle by

councilman Lawson seconded by Council woman Su all in favor I I any opposed the eyes have thank you next item under Public Communication we have Richard fera speaking on

signage Captain wel welcome good evening um honorable members of the council um I brought some photographs that councilwoman Suza was good enough to pass around and it's its signage coming in in my travels to different communities I happen to pick this one out because it would it does display uh the viability of that town and Kad and what what I'm suggesting is that rather than having signage coming in

saying entering East Province what does that mean uh these signs these brackets which by the way shouldn't cost more than two Carpenters to do for couple of thousand dollars piece a logos are being paid by the groups or associations not paid by the city these signs that I'm suggesting show viability for these Province shows inclusion it shows that we're an active community and not just a suburb of

Providence some of the associations that could participate would be the kwans the rotary the Masons the Fraternal Order police the American Legion Knights of Columbus and as these logos come in uh those wings on the side that you see where the U Mason sign is are just add-ons now it's a it's not a big budget item but I noticed when I was looking at these f post there was a block ad and

they you know advertising is not cheap as you know and um you know this is a not cheap science but this is an inexpensive way to advertise the viability of these Providence so I'm just suggesting to the council that you look into it I've already sent an email and a photograph to the mayor's office I haven't heard anything back but you know everybody is busy so I'm not going to take a lot of

time I I I respect the fact that you are busy so I just would like you to have just considered this because uh our budget will be coming up your discussion and uh it's not a big item but it could be very popular uh among the uh different organizations that make up these Providence in closing I just like to thank um a councilman for w 4 for the veterans committee it's on the agenda and uh he's

done a great job in chairing this uh this committee thank you thank you Mr far and i' I'd be more than happy to Champion this for you I'm a big fan of Aesthetics and I think this is awesome I do believe I mean we got the rotaries the Lions there's so many organizations that I'm pretty sure they'd be uh induced to be able to get their name out there we have money allocated for

placemaking yep we just got to put it together move thank great idea thank you thank you Captain Rene next item Renee ignatio City speaking on city

property sure thanks

hi welcome my name is Renee igno and I live at 15 meline drive and I have had issues with the city property this is my backyard this is the city property where my fences anua has had the pleasure of visiting my yard previously this is overgrowth that comes over my yard we have been there for 20 years my husband has always kept this land clean until he died 11 years ago of ALS my son has

tried we cannot do it anymore the pitches are horrific I can't keep it up my landscaper charges as an arm and a leg to cut it back we have come to the city the mayor when we had our issue in 2021 he came to our yard and he said we will get somebody back here to come and cut it down in the back of the packet you will see a letter from Mr sey we

were here over the summer with my mother who you do not want to come talk to you said that they're underst staffed and they can't get anybody here until maybe the fall this has been the excuse since 2021 I've been fighting this since 2012 when my husband passed away I can't afford my landscapers I wanted a new fence put in I don't have a picture of it the white fence with the

pool my fence company could not put the fence in until my neighbor cleaned the yard next door that's how bad they yach was I have a boat next door it was so bad that I can't get anything done the neighbor on the other side of me puts up an 8ot fence they left their chain link fence I have to clean between their fences I have to clean the neighbor fences I have

to clean the city property Fen I can't do it we have called all this time and we can't get anybody there I know this is not someplace I need to come but I don't know what else to do I shouldn't have to live like this it brings in rats it brings in snakes it brings in coyotes I have the thought I have everything that you can think of in

2012 in 201 in one we had seven rats in our house and Mr rodri and Anna you know you saw the pictures I do not want that again I will not live through that I don't know where to go I have tried everything so let me ask you um so you you have complaints on two fronts uh city property but also neighbors as well there their property that is Believe It or Not the

neighbor that we had the issue with were kind of right mending working that out okay the other side they did clean up their property to get the fence up but it's just I can't do it I am so now it's city property it's so bad that it's like we have to duck just to go to the back wall so from your earliest Communications with the city in your first no one has appeared at all going

back a few years no okay and I know Mr Fugi like you said you know we all need to pitch in we all need to step up I I can't even I can't even cut it my son has just spent another couple hundred dollars to buy more stuff to try to cut this stuff it's so yeah I wasn't referring to you no no no no I know but

yeah no it's too much to ask of you to you shouldn't have to be this is pretty thick stuff so I'm sure I want to ask the uh Chief of Staff can you try to get this expedited so I I would say this is probably a fall project when it thins out so you can it doesn't even thin out it's really it it's so bad back there the thickers the it just so we just got

to go in with like a bobcat and clear it out or I don't even it I don't want things ripped out I just want it clean like 5et back there there I mean so if we don't tear it out though it's just going to keep growing back right but and you're going to keep having the problem right and what happened was is a long time ago people that don't have a fence

back there I have the stone wall were going back there and cleaning it was what my husband was doing and we were keeping it clean for all those years I mean I'm single I can't I agree but I think if you get it trimmed pretty well it'll you'll get a few years out of that bring it down to the nub yeah there's a lot of poison ivy poison oak

poison suac my mom and my son were back there and they were covered in it we can send Frank rioo in then I'm happy you came tonight when I I'm happy you came tonight I appreciate you coming forward and getting into the attention of the city again because that's what it takes and not to be mean or cruel it's just that you see the overgrowth comes there's only so many

workers and not to push it down the road but we will take care of it as best we can I hav't forgot my fear is if God forbid a fire from the neighbor's Grill because it or I mean and you know I have grills I have flat tops I have everything any one of those catches on fire that whole back is going to go up and you got you and Mr Rodricks live

back there I do live and I've been there and I appreciate you're coming and I know the city's working hard with what they have and I think you'll be moved up based on 21 but the Fall's coming and I believe the staff will take care of you we we will get on it I appreciate it thank you and keep us informed you know if you don't see any activity in a while

get back give us a call knock on our doors you know yeah yeah talk to Patricia and okay thank you Renee welcome yes um just Sor to interrupt I just wanted to while this was going on I did a little research with the council woman sus that's the uh the one Pier wrote that's the live a property with it putting the so you know we'll bring it up next thank you anyone else Nancy hail speaking on

solving Ripa in three minutes or less welcome Nancy okay I'm getting better at this Nancy can I just say I like your hairstyle it's very nice it's working out well it looks really really nice thank you look for votes councilwoman no she's not in my ward I don't need to give for votes he before I get started with fixing Ripa in three minutes or less hold on my notebook's upside down this is good you're going to

solve Ripa three minutes in three minutes or less and this is by riding on is going too right okay all right let's go um I just want to give a short report from the south end which is Ward for thanks to Rick Lawson and steadfast commitment to the reinstatement of a Clam Shack despite my overwhelmed concern regarding serious micro Plastics in narrog at Bay a shack is back and its wicked

good actually I think it's more than a shack it's much more like a restaurant you can even get pan seared tuna with a tomato Peach salad the lobster roll might be a little expensive but you have to consider the convenience factor so it's all right and there's less expensive things like the great clam cakes you get three big ones for about 8 and they even have clear broth clam Shou

chouder so I don't have to drive to Jamestown for that it's great the directions are go south on bulock Point Avenue parking a lot where the bloun Clam Shack used to be then I promised to recognize our Carousel manager Tracy I want to say Tracy Johnson all right I I'm I screw up on names sometimes for keeping those horses going round and round under some very demanding conditions she has developed a

great team of reliable employees who work in Harmony and create a safe and high Hospital experience and that's really really good all right now to Ripa you've got to use your imagination here and you have to stop thinking about Providence as the center of everything I suggest a hubless that means no Hub that's a lot less expensive than surveys about where to put a hub or building a hub and I

also suggest think about it looking like a spiderweb somewhat clean moving free and full of people now charging people $2 a ride and then also the whole thing with the plastic cards which were out of stock when I tried to get them it's it's just crazy you get like eight people on a bus they all pay $2 so you're getting $16 and I suggest that East Providence especially and the of Rhode Island 2

because of the 195 debacle deserve some buses and to get it up and running before the current bridge is demolished if we can put any funds that are available from anywhere and get ripto moving free and full of people we'll have less cars on the road which is better for the environment but it's also better for Ripa because then we can get feedback from more Riders and build a better system system figure out which

lines we really need which lines maybe we need to revise or omit so um I I developed this on a bus ride from uh the Honeydew Plaza which also is getting much better to try to get my car which I had left in barington which should be a 10-minute ride but it took three hours luckily had a lot of fun joking around with someone a fellow Rider about the suggestions that we've heard

to fix the the ripus situation hubless web clean moving free and full of people who can then give feedback to build a better situation and you know some places you might have what we were calling nodules but I don't think that's really a good word nodes no the word was nodes but basically they'd be bus stops that are a little bit more sophisticated with some green space and some decent snack bars

so that if you're a mother taking a kid into the city like and you have to make a switch you can at least get a healthy enough you know snack and you know in in a in a reasonably good environment but not a hub where the Hub just seems to collect problems of all sorts and I think we all know that okay um here's my diagram looks like a spider web and those those

long pieces of the web would be more like Direct Express routs and then if you need to go from for example imagine taking a boat from Bristol to Cranston like a ferry or a bigger boat and I don't see why we can't get this done if we have the Navy in Rhode Island and the Coast Guard nearby so by next summer our transportation system could look like a web and also be a little touristy

attractive with with boat rides from in certain places where it would work thank you thank you Nancy next please under Council memb request for dog bag dispensers and trash dispensers at city parks discuss councilwoman Susa thank you um so this is part of um a bigger ask um or project uh for the city so we currently have a dog park in Rumford where newly or finishing up one in the Ken height area

um we have wonderful Parks throughout the city that are getting facelifts um and that people walk their um their animals throughout the city but what I've noticed is that there aren't a lot of um dispensers of dog bags or trash reciprocals to put them in I know weeva library for instance has a couple um around their property which is great because again a large um number of people walk their animal in that area um

Hull Street is another neighborhood that um the park is currently under construction the field with the drainage system and I know that the administration had mentioned that there were uh grant money for new equipment and giving that Park a facelift so that would be an opportune time to add those um dog bag dispensers so that way we don't have them all over the grass on the sidewalks and those who actually do

use a bag have a place to drop it because what I do notice on walks is that people are just dropping their bags on corners or on people's property and bushes which just adds to the litter um around the city that could be prevented if they had a place to drop it um along the city so if we could look into that Park particularly right now at Hall Street where we're under construction

and doing some um remodeling to get those uh at least two or three around the school or the property that would be great and then future have a conversation on where maybe in the center of the city there could be a good location for a smaller size um dog park for someone in the center of the city to visit I think Crescent Park had a dispenser for the bags as well not sure

if it's still up there or if they fill it from time to time it's not there anymore no no more they took it up yeah so I think it's a good I mean I obviously don't know what the municipality cost would be for acquiring such an what I think would be an inexpensive um pole with a dispenser and a little garbage can but I think there are definitely a number of places

throughout the city on city property that we could use I mean even here at City Hall we could probably have one right outside where people are walking they could grab um their bags because I know I use the trash can here all the time every morning to drop my dog bag so I think it's a good idea I know the Kent field project when I visited that with the uh construction team they are

planning to do that so hopefully that'll get us to do it all other Parks as well um you know doesn't make sense I have a dog park without those bag and dispensers so good idea yeah but in the interim I think there are other locations yeah the other locations sure um are are are great and if people need suggestions I'm more than happy to throw an email list of locations but to be

clear it is the dog owner's responsibility to clean up after their dog I agree but if they don't have a bag they should bring a bag no they should bring no I I know I know I get it but I mean I've gone on long walks where I've run out of bags I get it but the city we can't do everything for everybody no it is a busy dog he's very uh he has a good

digestive track for sure okay thank you be before we go on with um Council um concurrence I don't know if we have to I know our police chief is here in the audience and I always as a um as as a courtesy would offer Police Chief Fire Chief um if they're on the agenda if we could move them up um so without objection um I know we have few other items to

talk about but I rather than have our chief of police and he has some Command Staff here sit here through the night and they're welcome to but I I believe you're here Chief um on the resolution for the station repairs and renovation so if there's no objection I would um make a motion to move up the resolution regarding motion by councilwoman Susan seconded by councilman fogy believe it's number four on the uh

resolutions and page 10 of the agenda for those following along and chief if you want to um go ahead and describe this

Captain Roser is going to pass out a packet that kind of goes into detail of uh why we're making the recommendation that we're making thanks cat thank you Captain did I see it was the chief's birthday this week I did see that ah happy birthday happy birthday birthday that's why we're letting him out a little early tonight right appreciate it um very good presid so we've um you know as you know um

we've been working with jcj architecture um to come up with a renovation plan for our building a much-needed re renovation plan um we also have Keith mercy here from jcj who has a um presentation ready if you would like to see the proposed um renovation but first um we are recommending ads construction as the um contractor for for the job um they were the second lowest bidder um we received

six bids um the ads was the second and tower construction was the lowest bidder um there was a very small 1% difference in their bid the roughly $3 million job um is about a $330,000 difference so after the bids um were opened um and made public we received um Captain Raposa who's here and can expand upon it further we received um an unsolicited uh you know commentary about the quality of tower

construction um and we get our due diligence to investigate that further um we um spoke to Prior um folks who had work done municipalities who had work done by Tower um and also by ads and there were we uncovered quite a few issues with tower construction um that you know gave us pause to to recommend them as the the company that we would go with um it's circled around um a couple

consistent themes first with um each of these projects consistently going over budget um several change orders with each of these projects which drove the cost up sometimes 20 25% over um you know what what the bid was the other issue we heard consistently was um the the quality of the work workmanship um which gave us great pause some of these um folks we spoke to wish not to go on on record

because of pending you know potential litigation um and you know we also did our due diligence with ads and it was quite the opposite um what we heard about this company um so that in a nutshell is why we are recommending going with ads construction um who is also happens to be located here in East Providence um but the packet that we just uh handed out goes into what I mentioned um in significant more

depth thank you Chief I I would just add that I speaking for myself I respect your recommendation um having been familiar with hundreds of similar contracts through the years the lowest bid isn't always the best um you have to look at um all of the things that you've investigated and the quality of the work and we're not talking a lot of money here so I don't want to waste a lot of time

with more presentations we've been talking about getting this police station done we okay legally I think there' be a police chief again it's a lowest qualified responsive bidder okay I think based upon the um investigation that was done by the um the the department and the recommendations and the prise they got I think we're more than Justified of again and the difference between the low and

and the next highest bid was $30,000 so we're not talking huge differentials here okay and change orders could potentially go beyond that 30,000 could yeah when you open up a wall you never know what never know so one one thing I I should add is we also met in person which each of the companies to discuss this um and one of the things um you know we asked Towers if they've

had any disciplinary action by the state um uh contractor's board um they told us no and we did locate two disciplinary issues in 2022 um so that's also in the packet here uh Captain reposer you've done a lot of work on this did you need to add anything while you're here or sir I think the chief covered everything who was the chair councilman F uh Chief start date finish date if

approved ads is in a position to start when we spoke with them um the following day um just the way things fell um and we hope to we put feu February end of February as a Target um completion date thank you and to chair councilman the is about 500,000 left over you got everything that the epd needs from this plan yeah we're very happy with the plan and we're prepared

to lay it out for you if you I I don't need to see it but if you guys think the public would like to see it it may not be bad to have it yeah I I would like to see it but you did get everything that yes we need for 2024 policing very very happy very very happy with it so guys want to run through the design I believe you gave her yeah yeah

just so the public can see what they're looking at well this young man came out of his way for his presentation so I appreciate it okay before we do that so let's vote on the resolution I'll make a motion to accept second motion by councilman fogy to approve the resolution seconded by councilman Lawson all in favor I I any opposed eyes have that 5 Z and uh proceed with the

overview great thank you very much my name is Keith Mercy from jcj architecture I've been working with the department for about six months or so um putting the plan together and getting the documents together so we Tred to maximize the space of the station without changing the footprint by reorganizing Department spaces and by maximizing unutilized space in the building so everything thing that's

shown in this red hatch is areas of the building we're touching this is the lower level right now up on the top is the defunct firing range there's a two person a two-lane firing range hasn't been used in years the cost to bring it back up to speed was way too much money and they needed to space much more so instead of that we're using that for a lot of much needed storage there's

traffic storage Honor Guard SWAT storage uh there's an office for K9 and there's a ammunition spot as well so now right now when they bring ammunition in they have to bring it in Box by box and the building now they can actually bring it up a pallet jack directly into the building we're adding a small ramp in the back it just goes up 8 in but it once again helps them bring the stuff

directly into the building um it's been revised a little bit so the K9 can now use that so the K9 it's not meant to store the Kines but if they're in the building and they need to take a meeting there's a couple cages in the K9 space where they can keep the dogs while they're in the building so it's not a kenel but it's a space to keep them in the building and they can access that

from directly outside we have some evidence package some traffic um in the center on the bottom right there is uh we took an office and a storage area and combined it and put it into a fitness room the station used to have a fitness room and it had to get taken over a few years ago to expand the woman's locker room so we were able to get was a CH that Fitness room was

downstairs yes that original Fitness room that yeah the original fitting room was used to expand the women's locker room so now on the other side of roll call we're adding a small Fitness room in there as well the men's and women's locker rooms we're changing the bathrooms a little bit just to make them up to current Ada standards so just a little refresh there and then in the detention which is on

the right side we're adding a hard interview room and a new booking desk as well as an emergency eyewash station in the sallyport eyewash is needed for accreditation they need a place able to wash prisoners off hard interview room right now they have to take detain these upstairs and bring them through the building to get them to the interview room so this really resolves a lot of the problems are revolves bringing

detainees or public into private spaces in the building so if you go to the next slide please so on the main level as you can see we're touching a lot more the whole right area is the detective Suite that's the area of the existing detective Suite but reconfiguring to make it more open give them a breakout room uh a new hard interview room directly off of that which is off the corridor and some

offices on the top we are adding a bunch of offices for the lieutenants and the sergeants the we are changing the two public bathrooms in the Lobby we're making them bigger we're making them up to current accessibility standards um we're putting the OIC which is the officer in charge directly off the lobby and we're putting report writing next to him as well the lobby we made a little

bit smaller because it was it was once again unused space so by doing that we're able to add a soft interview in a domestic violence office um right off the lobby so that way anyone from the public coming in can go directly into those interview rooms the police can exit from the private side there's no cross mingling of public vers private anymore and I point something out real quick this is where the dispatch was

right correct yes that and directly above it we're now adding two men's and women's bathrooms and we're adding a break room that's the area where the dispatch was which was kind of the Catalyst of the whole project was trying to make use of that space again and by moving things up we just kind of helped the flow quite a bit as well if you go to the next slide please so this is just the roof we're

replacing the air handling unit on the roof it's past its useful life expectancy we're also adding some supplemental steel when the building was constructed in the 80s they didn't really account for snow loads which is if you have a big a big bus-sized piece of equipment on the roof in the winter time a bunch of snow builds up on it adds a lot of weight buildings historically have failed because of that

so because we're touching this now and it's directly above the detective Suite which we're already touching we're adding some supplemental steel we're replacing that rooftop unit and the boiler as well as getting replaced in there so basically all the systems are getting a good refresh next slide please and then it's not part of this project but the department is going separately to buy

some new furniture to fit out spaces so everything in red is the new desks and the new layouts uh new chairs for roll call a couple new desks a couple desks for K9 as well and you go to the next slide and then the upper level as you can see all the offices are getting new new furniture um the two witness the two interview rooms are some seating in the interview room OIC detectives and

payroll area is all getting um it's all getting a refresh paint finishes and new furniture and that's the extent Chief you guys are good um being able to take care of your day-to-day why this is going on yes yes um just to back up a little bit um a few of the things that I feel really shine in this new design um starting with the lower level the cell block area it um it's moving some things

around which is going to lend to safety um improving safety down there putting that interview room down there is as Keith mentioned we now anytime we want to talk to a prisoner we have to bring them upstairs we walk past my office the Major's office we walk past you know civilians in prosecution into detectives it's just it's not laid out very well um also upstairs with the detective Suite right

now when we bring a detective brings a victim or a witness in there it's you know there's no privacy so this was designed to provide some privacy get out of that kind of Fishbowl um that that it is right now um also the lobby this is huge for us making that Lobby smaller and providing those two soft interview rooms right off the lobby provides some privacy right now if someone comes in

and they want to talk to us we either have to talk to them in the lobby potentially in front of other people or bring them into the secure area and we're not quite sure what the deal is with that person yet so this provides us to go to a private area but not go into the um secure area another huge thing with this is we're adding windows so you've all been

to the police station you've been by the police station the back of that building I think has maybe two existing Windows we're adding windows in the back we're adding windows on the side uh get some natural daylight in there um also we need those extra bathrooms um a lot there's a shortage in there for the amount of people so being able to add those bathrooms is is is huge for us um

so and then in the back uh top of of the slide here those Captain's offices much needed right now Captain Raposa you know shares an office in what's going to be the fitness room with you know others so we we're getting that like Captain Suite up there um where they're all able to interact work together um so so it's there's a lot of very sensible solutions to issues we are having in this

design I'm thrilled thank you I'm happy for your guys as far as keeping the building open we took a lot of thought into that as far as phasing right now the plan is to have at least three phases when we meet with ads we might expand it but there's discussions about Tanis being taken to a neighboring town for a while while we do the detective area while we do the detention area

detectives we have plans to move them so they can be back at their place and the and the rooftop unit can get done so we have thought it through that's why the construction is a little longer than anticipated because we have to phase it because it's a 247 building that has to stay open is Brier and swetland still available was an internal affairs over in with Brier no they're they're here

now right but are those buildings still in case you need them for some overflow I don't believe so I know they were the use of swetland house was restricted to certain uses okay um but we we uh we have a pretty decent plan um we're going to start in detectives we're going to be moving the detectives out into temporary workspaces knock that out put them back and then you know move from there very

nice we're happy for you we're we're thrilled we got your back anything you need thank you absolutely any other questions by the council nope no thank you okay thank you it's all approved good luck Madame clerk we resume the uh regular agenda please discussion andoss vote to hire temporary legal council for ordinances and resolutions discuss and vote councilwoman Susa so I just this is

more of a discussion doesn't necessarily have to take a vote I know that we um have our law office that currently has just our city solicitor since our um assistant city solicitor um has left um the city for personal reasons and so now the workload Falls solely on one man and his team of two in the office um so I I I'd like to know from the solicitor um the workload in terms of because

there are things that I'd like to discuss with law and potentially have ordinances and work on things but I know you know being uh one person and dealing with a multitude of things besides just ordinances and resolutions there's contracts and and your day-to-day um and I know the Administration has put out for um a solicitor or assistant solicitor and I think there's been a couple of bites potentially but there

hasn't been anything formally um decided yet or come before the council and I don't know when that will happen um but I I don't want a prolong work either so I kind of wanted to get a little bit of feedback um on how the law office is doing in terms of workload and then to see if the council has is opposed to um we do have a line item for legal so it

could be on a you know a case-by case basis and it would have to come before the body anyways to expend the funds for it um but I just wanted some input from our solicitor to see where his office stands right now in terms of capacity to do or take on additional Council work thank you for the inquiry um so just to give you an update we did advertise for assistance city solicitor uh in R

lawyers weekly I think the week before the U we've gotten a couple of applications um where where we just scheduled an interview with one individual for next week um there haven't been a lot of uh applicants to be quite honest with you at least qualified applicants people we had a couple people who had not even passed the r Island Bar yet so um but as far as the workload um is I when I saw this on

the agenda I did speak with Robin because I was concerned that we were somehow behind in our resolutions or ordinances and I'm happy to say that we're not we're we're all caught up there's no nothing pending that any council member that I know of has asked and we haven't been able to get to um as you know I work for a pretty big firm so to the extent that I need extra help

I've been doing some stuff um using some people in my office uh to help me out but it really hasn't been that much um and uh Dylan's firm is still uh helping us with the prosecution so I haven't taken on that different that role yet until we find someone to do that so I know councilman Lawson um I think the other day asked for a resolution we got that out pretty quickly for you um so is

it more busy absolutely but I don't at this point I think we're okay and hopefully within the next couple weeks we'll the mayor will make a recommendation to you um for assistant city solicitor but I think right now we're okay and to the extent that you have any you know ordinances that you want to work on all you have to do is call me make an appointment you know I've been pretty good about answering

your calls so um And to clarify we provide the info for the resolution or Robin can technically write them you review what she did and then it moves forward depends how complicated it is if it's like a new issue she has a lot right right absolutely but Robin's here full time Robin does a great job with the resolutions because she's done so many of them exactly but if it's a

unique thing she'll you know ask me to give her a couple pointers but generally she has a lot of things in the in the in the hopper that she has used as forms between now and when a assistant is selected um if you feel the workloads getting there um do we have a plan to let us know that hey we'd like to go out or you already have that ability to hire

not that I I I I just use other people from my firm that help me out honestly I haven't really done that I I had some somebody cover a zoning board or planning board meeting for me from my office okay um but nothing as far as drafting that's all been done by me so if it does get heavy you can let us know hopefully hopefully we'll get someone in

soon so and and the other thing is if we wait a little bit see how the application process goes and we have the budget process to go into pretty soon and the city has always hired sometimes a on caseby casee basis if there's a lawsuit or a case in court that requires outside attorney so um I I think we're okay for the time being so let's let's keep it as an

open conversation and see how it goes and I will say and I I do support you if we do need to go out with somebody I I just wanted to get a feel because I I have been keeping things on the back burner because I know with only one person I didn't know what the workload is and that's why I wanted to have the conversation so I'm appreciative yep let

me know and I'll look happy to make an appointment whenever you need great thank you so much right good discussion thank you we can tie mine with the you know with the rord motor in on this you can't bring yeah bring that closer bud you said I was

fine I know you said I was fine before so okay so we can tie in my motion with this because I have the question I have is would I would have and the assistant solicitor and God forbid we have to go there number four it says this PR preliminary injunction shall remain in full force in effect until the litigation is resolved or until further ordered order of the court

so if things get res if things if this was the hypothetical going to happen we need to have somebody ready I'm not saying to go out and do it right now because Mike can't sit there and represent the city and put this on trial this is an issue we have I mean and and and what happens to if there's another major Outbreak The the only thing is that case has been

resolved it's if there's legally we have a restraining order but tonight there's a murder there we we we can't have a show cause hearing no right on the license on we can't on the license there might be other avenues that's I mean there's other police would do their thing but again number four you can represent both the city and Us in this matter I believe so yeah we're not doing what we did before

where he was representing the city and Dylan was representing us the judge put the kai bash on that yeah but if you read again number four he can lift that at any time you see until further order of the Court If tomorrow he lifts the order did you hear what I just read I did but I don't see him with the order let me explain hypthetically he could but you guys don't want to do it that's

fine you that's good I I'll withdraw my I'll table that motion yeah I mean the judge basically said you guys don't have any ability to talk about this license so I understand absolutely run for motor in if something egregious happens again we do have to find a mechanism to hold them accountable um so maybe we could find out for for next meeting or let us know what our ability to do it becomes a public nuisance it

becomes a you know it's a different issue but the issue before the court was whether or not we had the ability to have a showc course her on the license and the Court ruled that we do not have that ability and it's a temporary order right now uh and he will not lift it until such time as that we file uh and I read the decision that he made and I'm happy to

share the transcript with you if you need to if Dylan hasn't already done so um basically said look I'll I'll I'll hear other argument I don't think we have to have a trial on this but if you know any submit legal briefs I I've talked to Dylan and Dylan indicated to me anyway that well you know that our case was not that great because of he already made a ruling that right under

the statute we did not have the ability to issue a license so and how many cities license hotels and motels one just us so that's probably why the judge is saying this isn't a okay but uh we you know we're monitoring the situation I I I did talk to the councilman about issue that came up last week I so but I did enter an appearance of the case because Dylan with Drew I

didn't want to leave the city you know so but there's there's frustration all all around and I agree but I think legally you know the judge has made a ruling we don't have to like it but we have to listen to it and my frustration now and maybe down the line we can look at this further um I don't think the current owner has has been very forthcoming they told us they were going

to sell there was a buyer we had a meeting it looked like it was going to happen and nothing's happened but that's separate and apart from the legal case and we will be getting an assistant solicitor soon Frank and they could be uh represented I just again this a tricky situation because the judge kind of tied our hands to be able to hold them accountable yep in reality okay next

time drones are in the neighborhood I'll make sure I call you out while I'm morning could you go back to the next item please discuss second annual Harvest Fest discuss councilwoman Susa thank you so we're approaching the end of summer and entering into the fall which is is um actually one of my favorite times of the year and the temperature is crisp and um a lot of fun activities occur so last

year the council put on a really nice Harvest Fest the city has multiple um October um festivals usually every weekend um which we're always excited to be a part of um so I just wanted to put it out on out for the public and on the council's radar that um plans in getting that um uh event um to happen again um will be in the works you have a a date in mind or you

going to check with the other activities yeah we don't want to overlap yes I'm going to check the City calendar make sure all right keep us ined there was a great success last year if it's a Sunday when the Patriots are playing I'm not available it will not be on a Sunday there's a new coach this year doesn't matter but it football Budd to do while dad's a home watching the

games thank you we look forward to that next item providenc Council veterans advisory committee update discuss councilman Lawson so this is more just an announcement for you all and um uh September 21st we are going to hold a um coffee hour information session uh I don't know what the Brandon will be um it's going to be at weeva library nine o'clock we're going to start we probably go for a couple hours

um basically we're just going to Veterans come in as they want and um we're going to have some um information for them on the various benefits available to Veterans I reached out to uh ciman uh his office Greg Amari um we got some other groups that are going to be coming in and um if there's any uh businesses that offer services to Veterans um you can reach out to me at for councel at East

Provence ri.gov where you're more than welcome to come and uh you know basically we're holding these for Fellowship among veterans and to um let them know what's available out there what was the uh location we a library September 21st and we're going to start at 9:00 a.m. um we have a meeting next week we'll discuss what we want to do if it's just going to be coffee maybe we'll offer light breakfast or something who

knows we'll figure that out we do have uh money from the veterans fund to cover and um so I want to put that on the table and also um Veterans Day last year's um appreciation didn't went well so we definitely want to do that brother Frank if St Martha is available I think that worked well with the kitchen and um we'll find a date November 11th's Veterans Day so that week makes sense

November 10th is the Marine Corps birthday so we don't want to do that um but we'll find a date and um just like last year pasta dinner you know and um we'll push it more this year hopefully we get a bigger crowd though last year went well it's a Monday November 11th all right so one of the days that week or the week before yeah oh yeah maybe even the Saturday so we'll figure that out so

um that's it as far as the veterans and to go with your SU side um the proclamation um 22 veterans a day uh you're talking about people that post trumatic stress and this also goes for our First Responders too um they see the worst of the worst and they're the ones that run towards it and it's when you're military first you tend to internalize things and I know my dad suffered from

PTSD and it manifested in cigarette smoking and he died from COPD um so it hand in hand we honor an advocate for veterans and we definitely want to create a atmosphere that they know that us the people on the committee there's some way they can turn to so I thank you all for your support um my fellow uh veteran um so thank you that's the update from the VAC do a great job

thank you councilman yeah thank you it's been off to a great start in building the last event that that we had there was some great conversations with veterans and families and and we got a good group we got the people that we um appointed and we got Patricia's awesome she's at every meeting um we got toy Jessup with the I get it back blue star blue star families um veterans Inc with

the Elks they they uh have input too so it it's just not you know a few of us it is a lot of people at the table offering their insights and talents and energy and passion and I'm very grateful very grateful thank you next item requests for information each department Surplus or deficit number of unfilled positions per Department list of all city-owned vehicles dat of purchase and what city worker is

assigned to each department budget through the third quarter of FY 24 discuss councilman Lawson and Council vice president rioo so uh um this was an email I had sent because we're getting the budget later than we anticipated um I was just trying to be a little proactive so this is started coming in you guys in your email should have um some of these answers I believe um deficits and unfilled

positions we received and uh just a list of City owned Vehicles just so we get an idea of what we've purchased over the last couple years um and Frank did you ask add something yeah well we we added the city Vehicles who they're assigned to and who brings them home at night right so that's the last piece that we're waiting on yep yep okay and again this is just because we we we're getting

the budget later so we just wanted to start doing some leg work so you save some time yep the same concern through the chair on the school side too so we'll get into that as we go through the budgets thank you we did receive electronically anyway the school budget so we can start to go through that thank you next item request of report of work performed and work plann for a glen line field

discuss Council vice president Rego thank you um so let me bring it up on screen right here

okay so on the 7th of May 2024 we allocated $74,999 39 this was the city was to is requesting to enter in the contract with hodford Paving for the resurfacing of of existing asphall walking paths surrounding Glen line Park what has happened since then is this is the report I this is the email I got today from the chief of staff copy to the president and to the city clerk good morning pray your request

Highway Department finish making repairs to cracks in Walking path throughout the park we are working with the contractor for resurfacing tennis and basketball courts as well as adding a pickle ball court our DPW is working on pricing and paining the courts removal of fabric offense replacement of chain link fence around the existing tennis courts we are working to get an all-inclusive cost to

determine if the existing budget of this project we have installed the lights solar powered lights be install po solar po lights within the next few weeks so my only question is why do we pass a resolution on the 7th of May to enter into a contract to do the to do the walking path that doesn't get done and you know Mr President as well as I do you've got a a lot of phone

calls about this walking path you can't deny that no no denial there so I am a little perplexed past past councils have authorized and let me get it here we got

that so we have on the 31st of October of 2023 that was our Council we are ocated 150,000 in the capital budget for lighting for the baseball field that we the purpose of this ordinance is to REO reallocate the 150,000 of the remaining unced unallocated capital budget for General and basketball CTS improvements to Glen line so we already did 150,000 as we said towards the basketball court now all of a

sudden what we just did in May I'm is saying now it's for the basketball courts so so this was separate resolution we already H we have 150,000 for the basketball courts then on Tuesday the 4th of October 2022 obviously there are two of you here let me bring up where it is right here councilman president brdo at the time made an allocation for Glen line let me just see in my notes I'm

sorry that he didn't have it

are we right here rley has I'm sorry I thought I had this marked

off Council Vice President are these all um works that were contracted under one entity or there multiple vendors that are um participating in the overall project at Glen line well we the one we did in may we put the resolution together for hodford uh hodford paven that never happened right our city workers went up there in backfield in yeah exact and you know cut and you know cut it out and everything and they also

eliminated some of the I some of the walking path they filled it in with the loom so I guess the question in my mind is is the project being delayed because and that not to you Council vice president because obviously you're asking for the same answers is the project delayed and there was a Band-Aid put on it until hawford Paving can address the project or are we not doing is the project going south and it's not

being done well God forbid I say something so that's my question and I don't know if anybody so has that answer I cuz he again the last time any of us spoke for somebody everything becomes World War II around here so I'm just gonna I'm gonna leave it at that yeah when the same couple of people that call you and me often um one in particular and I thought things were getting better his last

phone call to me said and he he's been a a pretty serious critic of the whole area but he seemed to be and he's a tough tough win but he seemed to think that things are getting better I I haven't been out there recently um would would have you seen I mean any movement I found everything so I might as well bring two months ago I met with the DPW director at B Glen line

that was when the p in patches and I asked him about the I said is are they just filling in the blanks to have uh to have harred come in no this is what we're doing I need the money towards the basketball courts and we walked around there and I'll I'll take a detector I'll swear on two people's graves in Gat of Heavens that we had the conversation up there I

even it it was a Wednesday or a Thursday afternoon so I it it happened so Council so here here's the Crux of it so we allocated 74,000 now I found it and dodo me I did have the page folded so your the former Council on this date in 2022 it it was number eight on that meeting incre it says increase in capital Parx five you know line 5984 Z from $363,000 to $513,000 increase of

$150,000 for the purpose of installing playing field lighting at Glen line field introduced by council president brdo motion passed unanimously 5 to zero the hasn't been 500,000 $513,000 worth the work up there we just why are we going through these resolutions this is the second one that's happened in January we passed a resolution for rugs and then it came back to us again so why in the name of

God are we being played this way so hodford paven was supposed to have done the job and it was I mean we did this in May and it was supposed to be people were supposed to walking on a be beautiful path up been Glen line by 4th of July again just like the clamshack a year ago things come things go through the chair yeah um yes accountable Mr solicitor was an uh a

contract executed with haford Paving to provide Ash faal or a walkway at Glen line I don't know I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head I can look into it I don't know did we have a resolution asking no we got the resolution that we passed after that I mean obviously somebody authorizing the mayor I'm assuming he say authorizing the mayor again I have I

don't know any of the facts behind that there could there could be a million reasons why contract wasn't signed I I don't know maybe it was I don't know I'll get you the answer I'll find out but I don't know it authorizes the mayor to sign it obviously but if if there's a change in circumstances maybe Harford I don't know I don't want to guess I just want to right it's an

authorization for the mayor to do so so where's all the money uh well that's a good question and I'm sure it's not spent I'm sure it's in some some count but I think these are questions that you probably should be addressing either through the chief of staff or to the director of Public Works but well yeah I mean we it's five there's $513,000 other than the lights that went up that I mean the walking

lights yeah I mean I don't I don't know I don't want I don't want to speculate it could be the fact the lights went went over budget I don't know I don't these are all I think these are all answers that could be gotten and I'm sure the chief of staff and the Department of Public Works uh will'll listen to this tape and we'll get you the answers that you need so um through

the chair if we uh if the council could be um updated I would say by the end of the week as sufficient timing um given the amount of time that this money was allocated by the administration and DPW with what the breakdown of work and monies paid to vendors at that Park and what is left in the balance that would be greatly appreciated I think that's the reasonable road to go when you ask the

questions we'll get the answers some of them you started to get today right not that specific question I got that answer but that answer doesn't match up to 513,000 and it doesn't match it's not a full it doesn't the highway department finish make making repairs to the cracks in the walking path throughout the park that was you don't do that you don't fill cracks in the walking path if hotf

was going to come in and lay asphalt down I mean let's be realistic here mean let's be let's be realistic you don't do something like that if you're going to have an you're not going to patch the wall if you're going to have a plaster come in to replast to that whole wall no you're going to dig it out and put in new stuff you're not going to pave a

road if you exactly you so so I think Point has been made I see the miss ven's taking notes there and sure tomorrow morning the solicitor will pass along this request and uh so I just want to kind of uh piggyback off of this topic um because I think this is something that is a great greater um pitcher issue that we have in the city and I know because of calls and emails and texts

that I received from residents and I forwarded it to uh to the administration already some of them um a lot of work is going on in the city during the summer months with sidewalks curbs Parks streets um trees you name it everything is under construction in the city and throughout the state um but the one thing that I think we at least myself and and I'm sure the council and I definitely know the constituents who

reached out to me on a daily and weekly basis is where is the oversight somebody has to be responsible in the city to be overseeing all of these projects to ensure that they are done correctly they are done timely and that we are getting what we paid for or what we assumed we were paying for at least as the the council if it's in a a resolution or in a contract um we don't

ever find out the outcome unless we get a call we drive by and look at it um so I know a big problem is in my mind is the oversight who's responsible in the city um to be going to all of these locations for instance lionav which has been uh an area of a lot of conversation and concern with residents with the sidewalks being done and the time that it's taken and curb cuts that are added

in front of driveways that were dirt driveways and now there's a whole curb going across the driveway because the the contractor didn't realize it was a driveway all things that if there was good oversight or conversations with the neighbors would avoid additional work or delay in in work so I'd like to know that also um you know this week potentially um who in what department and how regularly are they going are we

keeping a log of the projects and who's checked it how many times they're going out I mean again I I walk around and I drive around and see a lot of the projects but I very rarely see City officials or employees in a leadership role at those sites overseeing it now they could be obviously going at different times maybe they're there just for five minute spot checking but some of the projects are are a pretty

substantial size project and if there were better or more oversight or handson on those projects even though we do trust contractors things happen mistakes get made things get overseen they did might not have gotten all the information and it just causes a chain of events that later need to be repaired um so all all good good points one thing I would mention and I I have my uh type notes that I brought

here to the me meeting because I did speak with BPW director uh Dan bores earlier today and I wanted to make a note and in case some of these topics came up and he is he could not get here tonight till about 8:00 pm um I understand he is on his way he's coming here so we can talk further I think he certainly would be a person that overseas project so uh unfortunately and

as I say I'm not just making this up I have the notes that I brought here and as you can see they're typed I didn't just write them down en large print en large print because sometimes my reading glasses are dirty no I I understand that the DPW is the head no I know but he'll have some answers maybe he's not he can't be at all the only one no right he

has to delegate that work to somebody and you know we have an engineering department who has workers yep and I think it'd be it'd be a good idea or you know maybe for the council so that we could share with the residents what do the workers do on a day-to-day right we don't because we don't do the day-to-day operations so you know we may have in our mind what we think the day-to-day

would look like or should look like residents obviously have their own view so it's helpful to know what the day-to-day looks like for say the parks Division and what their groups are broken into and you know again I don't care what anybody says they're definitely underst staffed they're you know 15 years ago it was double how many people are in that department now so obviously the uh the magnitude of work

that the city wants to do that the council approves that the Administration has vision for cannot get done with the amount of staff that we have it just it just can't it's not realistic um and then the more projects we add the lodger the pile the less that gets done so you have a little bit here a little bit there and nothing gets done anywhere and you know and I think that's what

frustrates at least myself and then the residents Stu councilman you want to add councilman councilwoman Su excuse me brings up a great point and I had this conversation back with the mayor in December of 2022 right after we got elected and before we were getting inaugurated about all the projects so in not saying that the private sector does everything right but tonight was the first

time that we had a contractor engineer site manager come in and actually walked us through the steps that you would do in the private sector about the projects so first of all hats off to him and hats off to Police Department where he talked about phase one phase two phase three if we all remember that right and that's the way things supposed to happen in the private sector and then in other cities

and other states there's requirements just like when you go out to a bid you'll hold people accountable so in in the private sector if you start a project there's a start date there's the budget and if it's multiple phases phase one is completed by a and it I mean it can be a project it can be projects on all sorts of ends as far as is sales marketing buildings Etc it is step one phase one is

completed here phase two is completed here phase three in the in the final completion date and that's the way we need to when we do these resolutions from now on we need to have a start date when it's going to and all these projects start if it's five phases it's five phases if it's 20 it's 20 but we list them out you can call you can I know there's a former governor who's not

the governor anymore but to her credit when road work started if we all remember right the signs all had phase start date phase one completed date on time we need we all got to be it we and I'm not just throwing it on the mayor's office we as a body need to be accountable too if we're allocating this money we have to have we have to follow up ourselves this isn't this isn't me

going after because right now I can hear it out there oh they're going after the mayor no I'm not going after the mayor I'm talking about making the city a better place to go from good to great and we got to do that planning department everybody we we just can't be running we can't have a 100 projects going on to the point as far is having like and there should be a a point person just

like in the project manager Point person on every project just like it is in the in the private sector that's my uh preaching for tonight on these projects and and I think those are good points um you can't argue with but to be fair we there there is a process sometimes when you do the resolution to hire a company the next the first step is you sit down with that

company and then you come up with that timetable right you're not going to do it the night of our meeting resolution I'm saying after everything's done after the vote company company AB they signed the contract this is what but we've done that with like Kent pH we even had that meeting and they gave us those dates nine months then of course it got delayed for reasons but we were told about them um

community s other places you're right there there have been there is a a process but sometimes we can take on too much stuff and you got to just be a little less energetic um but uh director you've been standing there do you want to add something uh thank you I was just mainly um wanted to tell you that uh director B just would be able to be here shortly to speak and arrived just around

that time but also just to reiterate um and answer some of the questions that were brought up or to let our residents know where the city stand so yes Council vice president the private sector does have project managers who follow you know Dan and I have are both educated in project management so there's a system in place however we're not the priv we don't have the same luxury of having a

huge staff or huge salar similar to the the private sector so we are somewhat limited we have a number of projects I know I see before this body often during these Council meetings to reiterate how hard our staff works and there are crews out and director boor just can speak more to this out on a number of projects I'm on the road with the mayor sometimes the director on the road with the mayor

our building inspector on the road with the mayor we are uh we do have Crews there are superintendents Who oversee projects there are Crews who are handling the multiple projects that some of you have been able to um to view as well but specific uh specifically Council vice president you had questions about Glen L so I don't want to go on I'll I'll have Dan come up um to provide

some of those answers I was going to provide some additional answers to uh in addition to the email that I sent but I'll have uh director board just clarify some of the paving um and the contract work that's been done inhouse and that's being contracted well one thing Mr President before I just want a clarification I'm speaking for myself but I think I can speak to the remaining four of you people up here no one is

questioning the work ethics work ethic of anybody that works for the city so that was semi that was a semi implied so I just want to put that for the record thank you y understood and uh director Borges um thank you for fitting I know you had a tough schedule tonight today but uh we appreciate you uh getting here uh specifically if you could address the concerns about uh that councilman uh

Council vice president had about Glen line can talk about other stuff as well but can you update Len line the walking path all of that I was listening excuse me I was listening from home so I did catch a little bit of it but um if there's anything that I missed please let me know um Council Maro I think you mentioned that regards to um issues with patchwor that was done with the highway

department we have a $997,000 we we allocated $997,000 in May for for hardford hardford paven to do excuse me 74,000 thousand so we have a resolution here so I I just want to know where where this went because obviously and we met up there correct we have yeah yeah we met up there all right so had the patch so and I had a conversation yeah so the Pat this hotf this hodford thing is

basically out the window right they're not it hasn't been spent yet there's Anan hord's not coming all right let let's letford answer no but and just to clarify the work that was done by the highway department regardless of whether we were overlaying these paths or not had to occur in order to pave the paths appropriately so to say that the work that was done by the highway department

was a waste was not a waste I never said it was a waste I just want to know where this money was again please don't put words in my mouth it's the second time this has happened in tonight that people are saying things I did not say I did not say that their work was wasted I'm asking where the money is you said it was unnecessary I I was listening to the meeting regardless of

which the PO there's an open PO for that money for Hartford Paving after the highway department conducted the work on the walking paths and made the patchwork we determined that the condition of the path in all the other locations was in very good shape so we are holding off on authorizing Harford Paving to move forward because we'd like to ensure that we have enough budget funds to resurface the basketball

courts and the tennis courts which are in much more dire need of resurfacing than the walking paths so out of the $513,000 that the previous console approved where are we with Glen line that was the capital this was passed so where are we as far as the money that's left for Glen line field I'm not sure you're stating that there's $500,000 it says here it what does this say here am I it was

363,000 my understanding is that there was $150,000 in capital and this is don't quote me on this because I don't have my my uh budget in front of me it was $150,000 in field lighting councilman brdo had originally allocated under the last Council that was since 50,000 of that was taken which you had sponsored capital for Bourne Park but this is saying there 300 and doesn't that say Mr President that was 350 or 3

there was an increase yeah of 363,000 to 53 which was an increase of 150 for the purpose of installing the ball field lighting but then we all decided we weren't going didn't need that as much as the other projects but the money was still money's still there that's so are we still working with this 500 I'm not aware of $500,000 I'm I'm only aware of like 200,000 for this project so that's where I'm goes back a

couple councils goes back to may have been amended I don't this is October 4th 2022 so it's you people and basically a month later it's lame duck so there's nothing that I could find when I when I po resolution please this is not the resolution it's a summary of the vote summary of the vote but there it is right there this is what on the 20 on the 4th of

October you see that you see even the line it has the line that it was allocated to

that's so I believe what this is referencing is that there's an increase in the capital fund the parks Capital fund the the to totality of the capital fund of 513,000 that's the the total balance bance and the increase is 150,000 for the playing lights not 513 513 is the balance of the entire cap from my from reading this is the balance of the entire Capital account what was

that I 50,000 was pulled out to go to um boct of maybe a year ago or so yeah so I my understanding without looking at budget numbers I don't have them in front of me there should be $250,000 allocated for Park upgrades at Glen Lion around 10,000 of that went to replacing a fence for two ab budding neighbors and some of that funding has been used to um purchase the asphalt

that was you know that we use city city staff to uh repair the ahead of what we had intended on doing for the the overlaying project of the the walking paths and then I want to say roughly 15 to $20,000 was spent on um solar powered lighting which the basis have been installed we're hoping to install those light poles in the next week or

two I just pulled this offline

um if you look at the councilman if you look at the resolution it's increase 59840 Capital Parks from 363 to to 513 an increase of 150,000 I do remember this because I was there this is council person brto for the purpose of installing field lighting at Glen line field so the capital budget for the parks was over overall for that year was $363,000 council president brto at that time requested an additional Capital

allocation I believe from unallocated capital of $150,000 increasing the total budget for the C Capital Parks budget but that that was not all allocated to Glen winefield 150,000 was allocated and then we yeah and then we moved 50 out of it to go to B so we're at a 100,000 correct so I want to know where the 100,000 is right now because obviously hotf for paven isn't happening

right now so I want to see where we are I think you're still confusing the two there there were two separate accounts for this project there was one that was the Glen Lion Park improvements right that was 100 th $100,000 either 100 or 150 I I don't have it in front of me the other 150 was allocated by councilman brdo during the last Council which you then took 50,000 of that and reallocated

it to Bourne Park so there's there's either 200 or 250 I don't quote me on the number without having it in front of me but there's either 200 or 250 for improvements at Glen Lion park around 15,000 of that has been spent on lighting 10,000 of that has been spent on replacing fencing for the two ab buding neighbors and there is currently 74,000 or whatever that total is for Hartford Paving encumbered against Hartford

Paving holding holding those funds to to potentially resurface the walking paths the intent of holding that because we determined that the paths were in good shape after being paved we felt as if we should in order to make the money move you know a little further investigate resurfacing the tennis courts and basketball courts installing new tennis court poles and netting and install fencing along the

perimeter of the the tennis court while also adding an additional pickle ball court adjacent to the tennis courts we're we're working on getting total funding or total budget numbers for that so that if we do have enough funding the intent would be to liquidate that PO and move forward with making those improvements seeing that the path is already in very good shape as it's as it stands that that was the intent so

that's the reason why the overlaying has not occurred for that reason we're trying to we're trying to make these funds move you know as far as we can and make as the most amount of improvements at this facility as as we possibly can hopefully that answers your question and I I think it's as we men mentioned earlier changes happen as as we go along so it was determined that that money

could go further doing other things at the court so I I think what threw us was you know this summary sheet this is not the resolution this is just a summary of the vote back then didn't say specifically that the 500 was the overall Capital project it made it look like it was all GL line and that's what and and the big picture too is it's two years now as the phone calls get it's it's two

years yeah people get impatient just like with Kentfield and others no it's it's two it's two years and Fall's coming and we know construction slows down a little bit in the fall so we're looking at two and a half years maybe or like that so as we sit here today how is it is frustrating frustration to get the phone from the neighbors who thought when they saw this two years ago that

there was going to be action I know it's frustrating as we sit here tonight what's the story with Glenn L going forward so I've been in contact with Pucket hotmix Who currently has the city's um Paving contract they they have the most favorable um cost per square or square yard for uh pavement so the intent is to have them provide us a price using their bid item um I'm also working on trying trying to finalize an

RFP to go out to bid for city-wide fence improvements so that we have fence improvements throughout the city you know at multiple Parks so the intent would be to get a unit bid price for a contractor to do you know 100 feet at Glen Lion 100 feet at at Pierce field that way we have the ability to call a contractor say hey I need 50 feet installed you know at City Hall so I'm

working on trying to get that put out to bid hopefully within the next three weeks have some responses from contractors but the hope is that we can actually get this paved um the two the two uh the basketball and the tennis court paved this this Paving season that that is the intent right now thank you do you have a further I mean I think we cleared up some of things the timetable will never make

everybody happy you know look just look at the good old bridge you know councilman fogy thanks Dan for coming out of your way and answering that and I just want to I've been since we took office advocating that council president Council vice president have a weekly bi-weekly meeting with the administration just to be aware of what's going on so stuff like this this is something over a cup of coffee but we

have zero communication with the between us in this Administration can I just make that request again that there's a way to set up our two our president vice president find a time to meet with Patricia bi-weekly whatever I'll even pay it because I know just to hear what's going on it it it does happen it's not on a on a schedule every Monday or but it' be good that Council of VP

and myself we we've been in talking about the plan and the timetable on the community center how often what about other things going on well you know and I'm not anyone's apologist but the mayor has said his door is always open to any of us you know I I do call when I have a question he calls me or when there's a question you know in fact um he he has

said to me why don't you come in more often I said yeah I know but no we get things not Point excuse me on that point if you remember right let's see it was April it was the end of April and uh it was it was Patricia the city clerk you and myself we were up there be just having a meeting and everything and the mayor did come in and said we we should

meet like this you know before when we do when we do the planning for the docket so and we haven't done that on our end maybe we need to schedule the meeting with the chief Chief of Staff like the last the last docket planning meeting that we take an hour beforehand and we go do that yeah and generally you you and I come in we meet with the clerk the solicitor Chief of Staff others and we

go over the agenda sometimes like this meeting didn't seem to be overly honorous in terms of we were coming off a holiday weekend end of summer so we we just kind of checked it by email and said yeah let's go with the agenda as it is um so yeah communication is always a two-way street and can always be built up again but I I will say um councilman fogy and I are constantly at Kent field

looking at that project the one councilman Lawson came by one one time um we we do reach out and we we're walking a fine line of the new role of the city government which is Council not interfering with department heads and employees but this isn't interfering this is just asking questions updates yeah I mean if I'm talking about on out in the field you know I I've driven by projects too and I've observed it I'm

not going to get out of my car and run over and say to the guys hey uh this should have been done three weeks ago what's going on you know it doesn't work that way I would call Dan and maybe ask him or or the mayor directly so it's it's a frustration of everyone in the public everyone wants their little neighborhood project done yesterday and not that easy anybody's done renovation work in your home you

you come up with some again I'm not an apologist and and I agree I've said before I I don't want to vote on any more major project till we finish the bulk of what's going on in the city let's get the hul street playground area done let's get Kent field done let's get the fields and Rumford done let's get Crescent Park situation squared away let's get the Rex Center built we've got enough big things on the

plate so I'm all for we might have a great idea to come in with some new project of Park but let's put the brakes on a little bit and and give the Department of Public Works some breathing room what else can you add I was just going to offer if you'd like to take a week off and spend your vacation with me for a week and run around the

city we can certainly uh do so um but I actually I'll call you I did want to um I did want to address Council couple weeks okay I'm sorry give you a couple of weeks that will work you probably need a few weeks to really get a good sense of what's going on um but to address councilwoman su's question regarding um uh project oversight so we do obviously have a staff of five individuals in uh the

engineering department who do oversee um a large portion of our projects throughout the city while they're not on site uh full-time they're you know in between office duties which is you know answering Personnel or not Personnel but um resident you know questions when they may come to the window or they may be doing City survey be uh there's a lot of different you know everyday tasks that

they're doing on top of also overseeing a lot of these projects um you know and in in the the last six months or so I've actually started overseeing some of these projects um to try to help fill in some of the gaps where um we unfortunately don't have staff to to you know be able to oversee these on more of a full-time basis um but then there are projects that are a little more complex

that we do hire engineering firms there's a res solution before you tonight that um is for par engineering who will do construction oversight of cleaning and lining project um or we'd hope to if if it passes do we want to move it up why Dan say but it it sure cover full-time um resident inspection of those projects which are high-profile um you know very important projects that really can't afford to have something

like a part-time staff but we do we do staff all our projects throughout the city while you may not see people out there um they are actively working with the contractors they are addressing you know issues with curb cuts um for residents on Lion Avenue who you know at one point in time we grandfathered in and had two curb cuts on a property that we weren't aware of so there are issues that come across every single

construction project um and they're just you know unfortunately sometimes they're dealt with they have to be dealt with in the field they're not always you know projects don't go smoothly smoothly I'm not sure I've ever been on a single project that hasn't had some form of pickup whether it's you know do the chair and um before you go one second um I would I would add this this is

probably not the budget year to do this but I I see layers of bureaucracies in other cities and towns of comparable size I think you as single DPW director could easily have an assistant or an assistant engineer that you know can go out to these multiple projects as a project manager this is probably not the year to add jobs you know I mean I'm I'm working on some Pro on some projects you

know aside from um you know the council approved quite some time ago for uh some GIS upgrades to the the city's um GIS systems you know in my all the free time I have you know I'm working on upgrading the city's GIS but also developing like a backend uh program that you know many people even out in the community don't really understand that you know we we manage um internally but this program will

ideally help us kind of streamline some of the processes that we have um in day-to-day activities you know logging work and and doing things that people don't really know that we do so um there are some pieces of my job that I'm trying to you know find some to try to fine-tune and kind of change processes to to make things a little more efficient and you know save time so councilman fogy please no that was going

to be my point of action actually saying to Dan that that infrastructure system is going to help a lot going forward and I've seen a lot of the projects underway and you're there a lot and the staff's there but I'm looking forward to the main roads being paved finally from edge to edge the curbing uh continuing that all the way Pucket Avenue from East you know east to west north to south on that

and you're doing a good job and it takes time and I realize it and there is frustration and I'm looking forward to them you know not on the off but those those bus stops that are on the main roads that are decapitate decapitated that we need to repair or remove because this family is walking everywhere now and biking and a lot of walkers on Pucket Avenue that are in Jeopardy of

getting hurt so I know you're aware of this and we're in constant contact I mean see something say something I have no issues with the current form and I appreciate your work and we are in constant contact with ripto that that is a major concern of ours um you know it's always shattered glass somewhere broken bench um you know my staff is actually out there sometimes removing benches

that are unsafe um you know so we are reporting those to Ripa I know that they do have some plans to improve those at some point I I don't know what that timeline looks like um but just to kind of touch base on the the road comment that you made there um once this cleaning and lining project is completed we will see a significant number of more roads um paved in the very near future

um you know pending funding but um yes we should see a significant number of more roads paved now that we're getting a lot of the utility work completed so that's that's the main that's the main caveat with a lot of our Paving work is we want to ensure that the underground utilities are in a position where they do not have to be touched for another 10 15 years so

that we don't pave a road you know and two months later or a few weeks later we have a water main break or we have you know a gas gas leak or something that requires us to then cut into a road that you know unfortunately sometimes we do have to do that so we try to avoid that at all costs and it does seem like Tucket Avenue is getting some attention

from the state finally I mean from Ken Heights I know we had Red Island energy expanding gas pressure lines so that area did get paved by the high school looks all new Paving so we we need it from Riverside to Rumford we need P Tucket Avenue fixed and we we can push the state as much as we can but yeah I mean we will see vets Parkway paved um yeah you know either this year

or early next year will Willet Avenue is another road that will be paved South roadway Martin taon Avenue Taunton Avenue over here is new part Avenue all of them City Hall is getting a facelift and and this is exactly what we hear through the community wherever I go and I'll mention and they'll say B I was on Martin Street today and someone said to me what about Martin Street you know

it's a big cut through from Tucket Avenue to S Broadway and it's narrow and there's a ton of not real potholes but dips and things that I said I know everyone like the miles that we've done and lining it's cleaning and lining work that needs to be completed but that road already has funding allocated right it'll get done it will get done but while we're on this topic if there's no ction then as councilman Lawson

suggested and while director um is here on page uh 10 I believe it's number two we we are recommending a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract Amendment with Parry Corporation for construction services and contract Administration for the water main cleaning and ler lining project and water meter replacement project and again this is a topic we've all talking about the water lines and I believe the

funding is with the infrastructure bank and there is funding in place there is yes so this uh work is in conjunction with the um the two contracts this council's already approved for U meter replacement um which were the two larger contracts um as well as cleaning and lining contract which should be coming before you in the next month or so that project had to go back out to bid change

a little bit of the scope um but the services that you have in front of you are for Resident inspection services for Park our Corporation for both the meter replacement and the cleaning and lining project which will'll be going out to bid um this money is was uh budgeted as part of our Rhode Island infrastructure Bank Bond so this is all um under that umbrella so it's being funded through

that that infrastructure Bank bond that we're receiving right around $3 million in principal forgiveness um I just have one question um and it kind of goes to what you were just alluding to about a bigger project having oversight um because of the significance of it um in the contract or in the agreement there's a section that state services not provided by par um which include the design and support of

excavation recommendations of handling Hazard or non-hazardous materials construction quality testing um and then work not specifically included in this contract and the um amendment number two so who is going to be overseeing these four bullet points so though that's just kind of standard um contract language the um supportive excavation is typically put on the contractor anytime

they're doing um any excavation work so that wouldn't be the responsibility of the engineer it's probably more like blanket uh contract language what were the other ones I'm sorry um the the handling um and testing of hazardous or non-hazardous material yeah so that's that's again it's all boiler plate um so does that go on the contractor correct yeah so I mean if they encountered hazardous material on site while

Excavating something that might be unknown to us I mean regardless it's going to be a change order you know regardless of whether or not we wouldn't necessarily account for it um so if there was any testing requirements we would likely have to hire a private testing company to do um the material testing so now typically do we do that or do we just kind of keep moving forward with contaminated

materials well we don't know that they're contaminated right to report DM if we across contaminated materials the project has to stop and we have do we test everything that no they're not t they're not t that's what I'm saying that it's not normally tested um not typically unless there's some overwhelming uh reason to right right right whether they like okay this is contaminated all right that was that was

my only question on that thank you councilwoman is there a motion on this resolution motion to approve second motion by councilman Lawson seconded by councilwoman Suza all in favor I any opposed guys have that that's through the city throughout the city the project it's mainly actually within your ward old right happening yeah okay thank you we can provide you the list of streets when you know as when the time

yeah that would won't start until the spring just B on the the way the bidding schedule is is happening but um most of the work will probably occur in the spring in the spring of 25 and it's not going to be you know large two 300 foot sections of Road being ripped apart it's going to be you know small smaller holes that um so they can access two sections of

pipe line right great thank you so much and just I guess a followup question would it be the engineering um company or the contractor that would notify your Division and then subsequently um residents that the work is being done within a two week because that's another thing that's been an issue with residents is not getting enough notice yeah it's typically put on the contractor we will require the

contractor to do um you know door to door tags okay okay perfect thank you thank you director appreciate your effort and time have a good night probably good idea not to go yet no I'm just kidding no I I think I think we're can I can I just make a motion to um continue on to resolution number three so that um Tracy can enjoy the rest of her evening yep what page are we page 10

number three uh councilman Lawson so this is uh just for us to pick up the tab from the Live Nation fund is what 60 70 grand that's just sitting there um the food and wine pairing is to raise money for the carousel so if we could take on the expense of Ren in the tent and the incidentals around it that means that all the money they raise goes right to the Carousel so I respectfully

request that we pass this is that a motion that is a motion is there a second second second by cilman suer and councilman fogy all in favor I I any oppos the I have it so that event is this week this Thursday night on Thursday night at the carousel if you have a ticket you are welcome if you do not see you next year or meet me by the back and we'll crash it

oh I did not that Riv you get in behind where theand is and the tent is you you ain't keeping us Riverside folk out if there's food and wine Tracy did you need to add anything about the event uh you're welcome to okay wel good luck for all your hard work and your staff's work and the commission's work thank you thank you okay back to the agenda please number seven page eight is

it request for increased speed surveillance measures in rumper between the hours of 4 to 6 Monday through Friday discuss Council vice president rioo thank you thank you Madame clerk uh Mr President as you were with me last week at the town hall meeting in Rumford uh one of the concerns that the people ask for and don't know how POS how much possible it is but I think it can happen is

they'd like to see a little bit more police presence in the neighborhoods and as I said to them that we've done it before when first took office last February they were down down Avenue in Catlin Avenue and it it stopped people from speeding and going through stop signs so I'm I'm hoping that through the mayor's office obviously with the police apartment that there can be some presence in some of the cut for

roads as you just alluded to earlier like on Mountain Street and streets that came up were obviously Don and Don Catlin Greenwood Ferris Campbell Avenue Etc so uh that's the concern and I don't know again the police chief is if he wants to talk about it I don't know if he's ever thought about having uh plac in cars and just leaving them there that was talked about last week at the meeting that just

Park police cars at a stop near stop sign and that tends to be deterrent thank you chief that unfortunately only works for a very short amount of time until people realize what's going on there um but the the reason I'm am still here is I was just had some questions about what you were referring to um so this is helpful Don Catlin Greenwood Ferris uh at least Greenwood um I know we've done speed

studies there in the past um which I mean it gives you unbiased data and I'd be happy to share that again um I don't believe the data showed that there was a huge speed problem at least on that road but it's something that we can explore again um I like to try to have some sort of um fact-based decision- making you know so if we can do that we can

see is there a problem what time is the problem what you know is there other things we can do besides holding a radar gun um oftentimes I've worked with director bores about signage um you know are there roadway impediments that are C leading you know um maybe causing some of the the the the traffic issues so um but yeah I mean we can definitely take a look at it so unfortunately I haven't been able to

lift uh because of a stupid scenario that I was involved with a week ago Sunday but so yeser I've been doing a little bit more walking so yesterday I decided to walk from my house down to the end of Bishop and going over to Pleasant and coming in from Massachusetts there is one of the indicator signs uh not I think it's 35 miles an hour nobody was uh nobody was really obeying

it maybe a couple of people were flying through you're referring to 152 coming in 152 coming in for Mk coming in that way and I'm not a quiet person as you well know I'm not afraid so a couple of times I shouted out the car slow down and all of a sudden they hit the brakes they look over and a couple of times they told me I was in Ward one cuz I got

a number one but I knew you know I think they were trying to tell me and I knew they were saying that oh councilman Ward w but I knew they were from Massachusetts so I knew I got the salute but so they do work but they don't work and the as I said to them if if it's if it's determined like you did on Don you brought the meter out there and it

showed 300 cars a day Etc going down there and next minute you put the sign up and that tends to help and everything but you know Campbell Avenue is another issue the cut through when they take the right turn coming in from pet you know using it that way so these are concerns that were raised at the meeting last week and obviously it's myself being a representative of those people to pass them

along thank you that's why I'm here to the chair who the chair yes councilman uh I just I just wanted to mention a point of emphasis on a signage coming from Bradley where you take the left off Ban's Parkway to come towards Meritt in the high school where the split is coming from Riverside you cannot get out of Merit Road it used to be a yield sign now it's just that you merge so you

merge going to uh this way coming to the high school that is a horrible sign because they used to yield and you had a shot to get out when they come flying around from Bay View towards the East Providence High School those two lanes they don't allow us neighbor to get out and the residents on Merit there's at least 20 of them that someone's going to get hurt I think I don't know I don't

want to bring it up now for the future just because it was signage and I asked to solic if I could just mention it and there's more than on my mind but it saves me a text or an email I think if I can remember back that was changed because of to keep that flow of traffic going and to avoid rear end collisions you had cars having to stop you know to

to merge with that traffic but there's not that many I'm always walking that and I'm viewing that and I actually spent hours looking at that situation and there's not that many for my opinion that would cause that more so than getting out of Merit trying to avoid that taking that left off of just to go left or right but it's a tough spot I yeah so we're trying to keep you in we

don't want you guys Le definitely as director board said have a discussion with do they are about to save that area I want to bring it up tonight but sip to be repaved I I don't know which year I think it's like 2028 um but that is something that we could potentially petition them to turn back to that you know single Lane so that it would avoid what you're you know referring to it's

not just that it's it used to be a yield right so I'm coming from Bradley across that red and where that where they merged that used to be a yield so if we could just put it back to a yield before any Paving that would be approach or does it have to be through well I don't I don't think that would necessarily be considered a yield anymore because there are two separate parallel Lanes now uh

unless we're talking about two different we have to be I'm leave I'm at the red light where you leave Bradley's parking lot to come across Veterans Parkway going left to the high school East Providence High School right and I'm at the bend where you come around from Bay View where they merge at Merit right so they each have dedicated Lanes so there there wouldn't necessarily I mean there

may still be a yield sign there it's it's just an arrow that merges right that flows I think because they're two dedicated Lanes they're dangerous isn't a need for a um yield sign but I can certainly talk to the state and just voice your concern to them yeah hopefully they have a Sol was better when it was a yield thank you Dan uh before you leave and and chief question for both of you uh at

this meeting uh the uh Pleasant Street meeting you know a number of questions were brought up and and some of it goes throughout the city it's an item that I know both of you are against I'm kind of thinking it maybe could work because I'm seeing it now in other cities a lot and that is some form of speed bumps speed humps South Main Street now has them as you're heading down South Main I was

going toward you know heading toward the State House Direction and there were several I mean I had to go very slow and going one afternoon over toward Rhode Island College there's a big cut through stre Street here Cathedral Avenue we probably all been through that a lot and they have five or six of them um I think over by PC you know there there are a lot of areas in the state now I see them

um I'm not married to the idea I know that professionally I guess the opinion is it's they're difficult especially winter plowing I I look at our Winters now they're not as bad as they used to be um but there it's still a concern but they do have the the removable the removable ones so I don't know is it still a problem from your point of view voice my yeah and please I

um I I mean I I don't like them for multiple reasons um I think we just with other municipalities I'm familiar with and other DPW directors that I'm close with um you know there's times where they are effective and then there's other times where they're really not effective you put in a speed bump um and you have neighbors who actually complain because Vehicles will just travel at high rates of to speed over them and

create a lot more noise than what these neighbors were used to before um I think from a maintenance standpoint in the winters um they are you know definitely a headache you can't clean the roads as easily um you can actually damage equipment not knowing where the speed bumps are you know so there is that portion and then I mean I don't I don't want to speak from a public safety standpoint but um if we start putting

these throughout the city I feel like know may make Le and fire more difficult that's true and but I know one other area that I've noticed they're prominently placed now is when you come off the Henderson Bridge going into Providence right there and is that self Angel Waterman those I Believe been Angel and that that slows your right down yeah those are actually removed um as of recent yeah they've been removing

them um I think in the winter we could probably um not use them because people with the with the weather so I I did forget to mention with the removable ones we do have those you know in parks that we do pull up take in and out um the the issue you have is they're great in parks and great in low speed scenarios but the minute that you start having vehicles travel at high rates of

speed over these removable speed bumps they they rip the asphalt apart and they actually you know cause more damage to the road than than they do good yep I just question we're kind of far field from the topics yeah let's get back on topic then um so the topic was basically the speeding Rumford speeding and you know it's it's c that meeting as well before that meeting let me my eyes

have been open about speeding clarify not Rumford it's Ward one Ward one yes anyway okay I think we've set our piece um Chief do you need anything from us on that issue or I was just an y I appreciate you staying and Madam Clerk the next item request for traffic study per run for discuss Council vice president rioo at this time I'd like to have the clerk read the letter that I have

proposed to send to The Honorable mayor Roberto D

Silva looks long

dear mayor Roberto DVA following a substantial Community inquiry on July 26 2024 when large cement barriers were placed at the intersection of Pleasant Street and Pucket Avenue a runford community Forum was hosted on August 28 2024 for constituents to share their questions and concerns as a result of this forum the council is requesting the following a traffic study for sorry sorry councilman is requesting the

following a traffic study for Rumford area of East Providence and increased police surveillance and radar between the hours of 4: to 6: p.m. Monday through Friday and an update on the permanent plan for the intersection of P Avenue and Pleasant Street in listening to constituents it is clear that an unintended consequence of the placement of school safety zone cameras is a significant increase in the

use of cut through neighborhood streets to avoid penalties in addition the Washington Bridge failure has compounded the increase of traffic through Rumford by motorists heading north out of the city and increasing the use of access to the Henderson Bridge the impact on local neighborhoods has reached a point of Public Safety concern in the neighborhoods surrounding these areas we have received multiple requests for

streets to have signage for one ways increased stop signs additional speed detection signs and the like we believe due to these significant and ongoing changes that a traffic study to possibly modify the flow of traffic in this area is needed versus trying to Band-Aid the broader issue with request with individual requests of oneway and no through traffic signs a traffic stud would help Define help identify

potential Transportation infrastructure problems the stud should focus on existing traffic patterns including pedestrians bikers and motorists crash history and expected traffic growth with recommendations on ways to improve traffic flow some key areas that can constituents raised as an area areas of concern are Miller Street Newman Street Greenwood AV Pucket Avenue Pleasant Street Harmony Street Catlin Avenue and

Don Avenue since it was reported that barriers were placed at the end of Pleasant Street due to motorists not obeying the one-way signs it is clear that increased police Pres pres is needed at The Forum we heard several Tales of people feeling unsafe walking for exercise taking their children Andor pets for walks specifically between the hours of 4 to 6 Monday through Friday constituents reported a notable increase

in out of state license plates and larger sized vehicles through their neighborhood that were never designed to handle this type of traffic for this reason I'm requesting increased police speed patrols to deter speeding lastly chief of staff hendes reported at that meeting that the barriers placed at the Pleasant Street in Pucket are a temporary measure and that the Department of Transportation has been

contacted by your Administration to come up with a more permanent resolve to this dangerous intersection we received many questions about process and protocol for addressing such matters can you please keep the city council and local delegation updated as a permanent plan becomes available the traffic study could be paid for by arpa funds from the remainder of the money that was reported

last month as being turned back from a project with barington appreciate the city's efforts to work for increased Public Safety and expedient attention to this matter sincerely vice president Frank rioo thank you madam CL you'll follow that to The Honorable Roberto DES tomorrow have you followed it yet or that's you will tomorrow or clerk will it okay okay thank you next item an ordinance and amendment of

chapter 18 of the revised ordinances of the city of East Providence Rhode Island 1998 is amended entitled vehicles and traffic summary subsection B of section 18- 269 stop sign Bishop Avenue Northbound and southbound at Pavilion Avenue sponsor Council vice president Rego um this is second passage uh thank you for your passing the first passage at the last meeting uh you move second passage I move second motion by

councilman Rigo second passage is there a second second by councilman fogy all in favor I it's a public hearing sorry public hearing public hearing there's no one here from we we tried yeah I don't see anyone but we'll ask any of the department heads we here do you want to get up there are people heing from the public hearing none I'll close the public hearing uh comments from the

council we have a motion in a second and this all ties to it's a cut through as as it was said before uh traffic and I'm not saying about the traffic uh light at St Margaret's it does deter traffic there but it is what it's done is it's for traffic onto bishop and Don and everywhere else on Weeden Catelyn Bowen so this is just a deterrent I mean Bishop is getting it worse because our

wonderful neighbors to the Commonwealth just decide to use uh 152 as secon Speedway they still think they're in seon so the only way to do it is let them keep on hitting the breaks all in favor I I any opposed guys have that 5 Z next item standing I am discuss the impact of Washington Bridge closure in the city of East Province city council anybody have anything new or interesting to want to move up I'm going

to be voting against this gift card thing do you want to do it now because it's part of the bridge bridge sure we can move it up so I think updates for the bridge closure I mean uh anybody who's watching the news listening to the radio you know that it is an ongoing saga there do is closing Lanes to inspect certain parts you know on the weekends overnight so it's just

um not getting any better so we just you know from a council and you know a city elected official perspective we know it's frustrating we all are dealing with it we all have to go over it um in One Direction or another please just be kind and patient and you know it's going to be a long road ahead of us so we just got to take it day by day and do the

best that we can as we deal with the steps that we need to take whatever they may be and however long because we really just don't know um and hopefully people are working diligently in the back rooms trying to come up with really good strategic plans um for long term not just for that bridge but other potential um avenues that you know this isn't the only ottery um connecting these two sides um of the

state what council woman Su just excuse me Susan just said was right about Lanes being closed and it's very concerning and I'm just going to say the word Mutual Aid I think you all know what I mean by that it means if the lanes are closed and we have to call the city of Cranston Providence War it's going to take them a little longer to get here I just have a question have any of the

council members been made been in contact with any of our state delegates on any updates because I know they have um a board that's overseeing an oversight commission committee have they've been contacting any of the council members is giving updates on any of those oversights CU I haven't heard from anyone there hasn't been any movement okay so again I would just you know encourage our state delegates to be you

know it's really your role and responsibility as our state um delegates to um be working hard on behalf of the city and the residents to get information to us so that we can also distribute it to the residents and to know what's going on just like we do here um in the city for for this the residents so um I'm just putting a call out for action for our state delegates

to um you know keep us informed and and put a little bit more um fire under those departments that need it you the only thing I'd add to that is I have heard you know not as much lately because we're at a standstill you know the state is suing 12 or 13 companies um obviously we have to wait and see what that outcome is is but the East Bay legislators were a meeting uh weekly and

then they turned it into monthly um with the Department of Transportation uh director alviti and his staff and and I think some of the governor's staff so they did hold weekly meetings and I know I I don't know that we got formal letters but I would run into to them and they would constantly keep the issue in the Forefront and and right now the decision has been made to remove the old bridge the bad Bridge

we're being told I guess the end of um February was it someone said or it's coming they they got fencing up now if you go down Waterfront Drive the fencing's up and they're starting to work now to bring the bridge down as far as a new bridge we we know that no one bid for it so there in the process now of asking everyone who was sent an RFQ why they didn't bid there's not much we

can do right now except wait and some days I travel through other days it looks bad and it eventually moves through it's it's not good and it's not going to be good for another four years or so have to have some patience so did you want to move that item up councilman um it's related to the yeah I I'm going to make a motion we reject this let's do the Chesapeake Bay

Tunnel underneath there I know tunnels could Ted William the tunnel and then somebody open up some boat rides across no let's work together on the bridge closure yeah it's frustrating we all know it if we don't work together and have patience and some proper planning like I I left 2 hours early for my doctor's appointment only to find out it was reopened that time it was reopened so you can do better than I did that

first time it was reopened but you know we have to have patience and who wants to stop building a bridge that's being sued so those comments are being made I just hope it gets done you know safely for everybody and as quickly as they can the stuff that goes around in the media and all the hating and negative I'm not a fan of but we're part of it and we

just have to get through it and Trust our officials are going to make the right decision that's what we have to do and again I come back to speeding and driving habits now those three lanes have been working and it says 40 miles per hour and it's only a short stretch I come through that way a few times every other week or so and those are narrow Lanes but they're working and I try to stay stay

around 40 45 M hour and cars are whizzing by me you know they're doing 70 in those narrow lanes and that's where you get the side scraping accidents and you know if people don't want to slow down and as councilman fogy says have a little patience you're only talking a fairly short stretch then it opens up and you can blast your 90 miles an hour but let's a use a little Common Sense

folks anything else on the bridge in particular if not on page nine we will without objection under resolution letter c number one yeah so number one under letter C uh councilman Lawson did did we were allocated $1.2 million to benefit local businesses that this to me is ridiculous why are we taking $600,000 for a gift card program giv 75,000 to a company to admin a gift card program we

can be doing up to $10,000 direct grants to every business affected we have a business liaison in the planning department that could put together a Grant application and so I make a motion we reject this okay there's a motion before we want to discuss it is there a second second second by councilwoman suar open for dis further discussion question so um I so my uh after reading through the

um resolution and then looking at the paperwork that we received regarding the company that um was awarded the program um takeover so that they could and it looks like an amazing company who has done amazing work in other municipalities um with this type of a program I just have lingering questions as to how this whole process would work um I don't think that the way this resolution is written or the intent

of it is actually going to benefit the the peoples that it should I mean at the end of the day every resident in the city and neighboring cities and towns have been affected so um to to say that we're going to give it to a certain population of residents um and not everybody in the city just doesn't make sense to me first and foremost secondly the understanding was always that the businesses throughout the city

have had a huge financial impact now have other have residents had Financial impact absolutely um but the businesses are also the backbone of our city they provide multiple things to the city that that keep the city running so you know doing the numbers it just didn't make sense to me the way it was going to be broken down and and how we were dispersing that monies um to the councilman's um point we could take a

list of all of our businesses in all categories across the city and I know we did something with restaurant week and helped restaurants but that was just the start of what we could do and we know that there are so many um off shooting branches of Industries in trades and services from Health Care to Beauty to trades that have been affected and that should be getting some type of

compensation and I'm for that type of a discussion and that type of resolve um with this monies that was um given to the city because of the Washington Bridge debacco other other comments from the council or do you want to hear first from Administration yeah I'm waiting I'm waiting to hear I I think it's a great program but I'll wait to hear uh thank you uh council president and um the rest

of the members of the council so I do have Maggie here from yfy who will be able to talk more about the actual process but I just wanted to and we have uh director um Brian S as well who could also uh speak about this so what I can tell you is that um there there was a TR there was the 1.2 million that was provided to the city we've been in conversations with Commerce Commerce

also has their um their funds as well as the city of Providence so we've been collaborating with the city of Providence and uh Rhode Island Commerce on this program the the 600,000 would would have been allocated to this program because the idea behind it is that I can tell you firsthand the number of people and calls we've received in our office from residents um and and just so we just to go back minute the

low and the areas that were most impacted were the this this would be on the census track of low to moderate income so this would actually be most of the residents in the city center that would be receiving these gift cards and what we found is that these gift cards and Maggie could speak more to this is they're multipliers so the residents suffered through this we all did right

um coming through the city the residents suffered as well we got we had received fall calls from folks who said that they had faced you know increased some lost income due to having to miss work we had families calling us saying that they had to call out of work because they didn't have anyone to watch their children because they had to cross the bridge so they were impacted our residents were

impacted yes absolutely our businesses have been impacted we've all done um what we can to help our businesses during a business meeting I believe at the Riviera we also discussed with businesses on this gift card program being a multiplier if I have a $50 gift card and it has to be used for a an East Prov idence business I'm going to come in I'm going to use that $50 gift card

but I'm going to spend more at all of our local restaurants all all of our local businesses and it doesn't have to just be residents excuse me restaurants this will um impact other businesses throughout the city and it has to be again be used in an East Providence business and um those who will receive these are the low to M moderate income uh folks because the reality is is they suffered through all of this bridge

impact as well that's one piece the other half of the 1.2 million is the city will receive the other 600,000 for direct grants that will be given to our local businesses so they're going to benefit from the cards and they're also going to benefit from direct grants I do have some information that is technically under embargo um that there will be a process and it's the same process I I will well technically if I

hand it to the council might is that okay to do so um so this is um this will be a process that uh the businesses will go through it's the same process that the Commerce Department that the Rhode Island Commerce will do as well as our uh uh as well as the city of Providence they will also be doing the same kind of application process so there'll be criteria in place for these businesses

to be able to receive all of these funds um I'll hand this over to this more details on this program will be announced in the very near future so just want to make you aware of that um in in addition to that businesses uh I think councilwoman I don't know if he was that mentioned you know why not give this to all the all the businesses the reality is is we have like

569 I mean at last look registered businesses so they would have to go through the process right so you know if there was a a mom and pop shop or whatnot but and Keith will be able to talk a little bit more about um the reason this will work and I'll have Maggie come up as well but if we're looking at so 600,000 gives at $50 gift cards gives $112,000 12,000 families or individuals

impacted the whole city and there's more than 12,000 households in the center of the city and they've all been impacted and people in Rumford have been impacted people in Riverside and impacted so the center of the city is no more important than any other resident throughout the entire city nor the businesses throughout the city so again I don't think this how do you quantify who gets it and

I know you're saying low to Medi medium so where is that number where is that list they'll be in they're actually in the census track and Keith will be able to speak a little bit more about that but the idea of it is if you receive that card you're going to go to a business throughout the city you know you may go to a restaurant Riverside you might go to a restaurant here in the

city center and the idea is that multiplier effect of that card what that a low a low a low medium sorry as somebody who receives it you may not that might be a great add-on but you may not be able to spend more than what you have right that's true so then is mul of $50 to our local business so business could be given to could be given to anyone right and the the idea also just

so you're aware and again Maggie and Keith can speak to this but the additional funding so if if a card isn't used all those funds come back again mag will speak to this but those come back and those funds will then be um will then be utilized and added to the 600,000 in direct spend in Grants to the businesses so I just wanted to make you aware of that so you're going here's my issue with this

program you're segregating an area you're saying center of the city unfortunately a lot of those people who are in that category of low to low income unfortunately maybe some of them are on Social Security because of medical issues mental issues anything like that and they're not working but you tell me my constituents three of them that live on North Bradway that are that are nurse and AIDS that work for a

home health care company they couldn't work cuz the buses weren't running but they live in 02916 so they don't qualify you're telling me that's right you're telling me that's right tell me that's right no the idea is that this two it's a two-part program throw it at 02915 making it a political issue on Fifth Street Fifth Avenue John Street when there's hardworking people in 02916 02914 that couldn't get around and

they don't qualify because they don't live in the census track you tell me that's fair you tell me that you tell me that's fair we're definitely you tell me that's fair Council vice president we're definitely we're definitely I I ask a question you tell me that fair and I'll move on I'm not giving my opinion to anything what I'm saying is the idea behind this isn't the the just the who receives it the idea is

that these cards will be spent back in the business the money is going back into the business so that person 02916 that nurse's AE she wasn't going to spend she won't spend the money that's what you're saying because she was a hardworking woman working for a you know working foran VI pres if we could with all respect if we could could give a car to every single person in the city and

we had uh an endless pot of of funds to do so we would do that but the idea as this Council and this body has said over and over again is we need to support our businesses this is a way for someone to go into that business yeah with direct grants not picking it out not using not using it as a political Ploy 600,000 okay we we will do this with one at a

time and a little more decorum you chair so in in just hypothetically we could then if you're trying to reach and broaden and get more people to spend in businesses and it touch more families and households you could take the the 600,000 gift card program and instead of it being $50 it could be $25 for and that would double the amount of people who would then receive instead of 12 people 12,000 you could get 24,000

people I'm going to hous I'm going to defer to um because $25 might not get you excuse me through the chair how is that fair for a business not second councilman ridiculous let's please you know I don't always require this but let's try to go through the chair right now councilman fogy has the floor well councilman fogy does not want to sit here and see these people be rated or bashed we either listen as respectful

Council people or I will will walk out the door yeah that's that's all I'm asking for these folks are doing a job we will vote up or down on this but let's let's not cast aspersions well I'm just want to hand the the portion again I can't I can't speak too much on the the direct um the direct Grant funds that will be given to the through an application Pro progress

in uh process excuse me in collaboration with the state and the City of east of of Providence as well so that way there aren't you know applications um in all at the the state and the city but I can can give you this more information is to come in a very short time where it will explain everything for our local businesses which all of those meetings we have been attending with businesses

they have asked for this this is what they're getting they will be able to receive funds grants based on um those funds but I'm going to turn the mic over to director director Brian as well as Maggie who'll be able to answer some addition thank you director briyan sure just to answer the question about whether it could be spread throughout the city in theory it could but you'd be running into an issue where

people just aren't getting that much on the gift card it might also raise the uh administrative fee that the company's charging because they'd be dealing with a lot more households and a lot more gift cards so we Lo at we looked at it this way as a way to sort of make the money you know more meaningful to people we focused on the low-income census tracks because that's in general where

people have the most need um and just to be clear you know and focusing on the low-income census tracks we're not like income testing residents or anything like that they don't have to prove their income it's just all households in the low income census tract is what we would be doing here okay did you want to add something m is it I'm sorry could you give this your name it's Maggie right it's Maggie

and and you are with gifty okay company yeah just want to say hello I heard someone talking about Providence basketball tickets on the way in both my parents were PC grads I go there all the time to games so I think that's awesome um first things first that I want to talk about really quick that I heard is the math in terms of administrative fees um the breakdown of all of this is $50

each for 8,71 cards at present that was what was in the RFP that we applied for at 8,71 cards times $50 each that's $43,500 total in terms of the actual price for those cards the material cost for the cards the physical letters that would be mailed out to Residents and the postage and delivery is $6 per card including the plastic and The Mailing and Postage and delivery that comes out times $ 8,71 cards to $48,000

420 48426 excuse me then signage is about $1,000 in terms of making these stores have something posted in their window or in the stores to indicate to Residents uh that they are a member of this program and can accept these cards as a form of payment the program management fee is $25,000 I heard 75 000 um thrown out and I just want to make clear that that's not at all what yiy uh discussed

charging so the total for the payment with all those summed um would be 477 976 um there's an optional second mailing for residents who don't use the activation um who don't activate within two weeks of receiving that card so that's would be an additional $12,000 cost but that's optional and again that's not something we would have to do in terms of for the businesses why does this make sense why does this program

make sense why does yiy have so many of these programs across the us and why do we not just give out grants instead um I think I heard around 465 businesses in East Providence right now grown out roughly about 570 570 thank you so you know doing the math out 1.2 mil divided by that amount that's in the two grand range per business that they would be given um in terms of a grant which is

don't get me wrong still a check to say you know we're sorry for everything that you've been through the past 5 years and then also with this bridge impact um with with a program like this though there's a few data metrics that we often like to really point out the first being that we see 51% of card holders try a new business that they've never been to before meaning we're bringing these

businesses new member new not members excuse me new Shoppers new residents um we're bringing them long-term customers are going to repeat purchase in the long term I think we heard the word long lasting and sustaining we don't want to do something one time that doesn't have a lasting impact so that's the first point that yfd always kind of emphasizes the second is that we do see a 30%

overspent on average for these cards across programs so where we're starting with 47 7,976 you multiply that out by around Point 1.3 you're going to get a number in the upper 500 range um that's sort of the impact that You' be able to have for these businesses spr AC out across them so it's making the funds stretch as far as they can possibly go with this program for these businesses um in terms of logistically

how this program works I think you had asked that so yft we're operating in over 600 cities across the United States we have over 177,000 businesses that accept these as a form of payment uh the way that these programs work is there is an activation card for businesses that they have to run it takes about one minute for them to do so but that's how we ensure that only those businesses are

able to accept these cards not Amazon not somebody for Towns over not Target whomever you don't want to be accepting the card right we can check and approve each business that wants to participate um I'm based out of Westwood Massachusetts so part of my job would actually be helping with that process so helping to get these businesses on board making sure they understand what's going

on um you know co-ce president rioo you mentioned wanting a project manager on every single one of these projects that's my position here at this company so I work with you guys with the mayor's team I work with the businesses and I work with the residents as the point of contact for making sure that this is a program that's working well um and that they understand what's going on so activation cards are run by these

businesses in about a minute the cards are mailed out to Residents um it has an activation step that they need to fulfilled there's some requirements set forth by the city in terms of information that residents would need to fill out that information has to be filled out in order for them to then have an activated functioning card um for them to pay with so the other thing I always like to point out gifty is the

one who owns all of the risk and we are the ones who are holding all of the liability not the city so we have all of the fraud detection um implementations in place we are the ones who who hold all of that legality um which is part of what's made us a very successful program so some of our programs have done upwards of $8 million in terms of redemption for their businesses um the

multiplication effect and the long-term impact that's what makes this program so successful it's the fact that it's not a one-time thing it's long lasting so who produces the list of businesses of eligible businesses do you get that from yes I get that from the mayor's office my understanding based on the RFP is that it is supposed to be small businesses primarily that have been impacted but that definition has to

be defined by that isn't something that your company does no no who um identifies the or is it a general census track is is it everyone in that track or is it in John Doe Jane do Mary do how does that work I'm sorry in terms of the small business terms of no the individuals will get the cods so that's also the list that's provided to the city so our

understanding of it now is that the low medium income households the 8,71 of them that are it sounds like are at the center so and maybe Keith you might want to answer this so with all due respect to your company why do we need a third party to do that if the information is coming from the city if the city is identifying the businesses city is identifying the persons why do we need to take some of

this money and expend it to a third party company yeah absolutely we have a partnership with MasterCard and so our partnership with MasterCard is what allows us to pay out these merchants in an exact time um as something is purchased so for the city for you guys to run a program there would be no way for that to happen you would hold all of that legality all of that overhead you would be in charge of

all of the fraud detection making sure that somebody doesn't steal all the cards and you know whatever else may happen with that um and in terms of payout for you guys there would be no for you to do immediate forms of payout you guys would probably have something sitting on your books in terms of your businesses saying you owe me this much money for redemptions people have have brought in for this certificate um or

whichever which we see a lot with paper um chamber bucks programs it's it would be probably similar can you clear up the numbers because we I I did have an early understanding of 60 or $70,000 for your fee but what is your total fee for yiy specifically in terms of what we're charging for pro program management it's $25,000 so out of the 1.2 million just 25 600,000 600,000 is the total no but I mean to the

company yeah only 600,000 was what the RFP was for the other 600 is for the grants to be distributed out to these businesses but your company fee is 20 I don't think she's she's not involved with with the um the grant portion only right you're not you're just doing strictly the gift card portion not the grant portion with the businesses correct and and to to clarify it um it looks like it was baked in the

48426 for the material cost in terms of physical cards and the letters and everything else that was what was baked into that 74 number for you before so I wanted to break that out so you understood that yft wasn't just taking that all as profit that was the okay I get it thank you is there a limited amount of stores that they can use it at or is it anywhere in the city Stop and

Shop to Mom and Pop that's completely defined by the the city we can work anywhere got to be one of those affected stores we were what we were looking at was basically any business in the city with the exception of like erotic retailers and gun stores you know we toed with the idea of just small businesses but differentiating between small and you know what's small what's not small what

about franchise businesses seemed more straightforward to have it be any business in the city um it's within City Limits so you can't do it outside of the city can't do it online um and we sort of wrestle with the fact like what about like Stop and Shop you know people will use it at a place like Stop and Shop and came to the conclusion well maybe that's okay if it helps resen

in the city meet their meet their needs with this um so for that reason we didn't really stick with just small businesses because it might take uh you know months of debate to figure out just what qualifies as a small versus a not and that just raises the point if you're if you're in that census track and God forbid hopefully nobody ever has to be there and I wish there

was nobody in that census track but they the small business the saxs Pete's uh you know All Seasons Cafe that's not where the money is going to be spent and God bless these people they're going to have an extra $50 to go to Stop and Shop so who benefits corporate America you I will I will bet you well I just paid for my uh wine tiet so but I will bet you I'll bet you at

dinner that 90% of the people that will get the tickets will use them either I mean we use them either at Shores or stop and shop and that's great because they're putting food on their table but it's not going to benefit the small small places if you need to put food you gave me an extra $50 put food on the table I'm going to go to Aldi's or I'm going to go to Stop and

Shop or I'm go to Savers I'm going to save a lot or somewhere I'm going to put the money you're not going to use that as a you're not going to go more than likely to some of the smaller businesses council president I mean just um just yes please the um I just doing some little research about on the census track it's again it's a track and it's determined by 51% of the people in that

track qualified but there could be that's 49% who don't qualify so it's not all it's a trct because more than 31% of the People Meet the income criteria of that track but it's not uniform like obviously people are disperse throughout so there might be a high income person there so but they have to identify a track to give this ta that's how they that's I guess the easiest way they've figured to do it so

so I just want to just clarify that from the US Census and that's and that's determined by the US Census not by the city okay I'd feel more comfortable if it was actually going to benefit the small businesses here and again if you're in that income range you're going to spend the money at those four places I talked about or at Family Dollar corporate America Dollar General fam or whatever ones they are

and and I don't blame those people what they need to survive but they're not going to go and spend their money at one of the pets they're not going to go down to CBDs they're not going to go you know buy a burger they're not going to go to the local and they're not going to go to a lot of people impacted yeah they were impacted but so we're just helping them

but we're not really it's not going to go to the businesses that were impacted so similar a question similar to say oper and other things are there restrictions that come with this program because that 1.2 million at our shall be used to provide direct grants or other such forms of assistance for these businesses and we working with Commerce on this to make sure that this program fits within the language of the grant

we're getting and we do have assurances from them that we have a wide range of flexibility with how we help local businesses that's why we were looking at the direct payments to businesses and we were also looking at this as a way to help residents in the city while helping the businesses at the same time e either way is accepted accept right right okay other discussions do the chair yes I look at

that as a win-win myself is why I promoted it number one number two talking of businesses small businesses help relief that goes to the federal state our local state government to to help these businesses with their fees Their fines any late fees any penalties sales tax maybe W for a month something to put direct impact into the business like you're talking that should come from another level this program is designed

to help with criteria I think it's a great program and it moves the economy and helps people survive thank you other comments Council anyone from the administration need to add something that has not been addressed just I don't know if I mentioned this but the additional funds again uh we have assurances from yiy that those cards there's a way to track if they're not used the funds will come

back to the city and those funds will then be placed back into that additional 600,00 that are direct grants to the businesses is there an expiration date 90 days 60 days you have to use the Cod by 60 days that forces them to to utilize it and then it gives us a time to be able to uh recoup those funds and then place it back into that that um $600,000

direct Grant pile that would go to all eligible the eligible businesses through the application process yfy also sends out reminders um to Residents who hold those cards within that time period to try to get that Redemption rate higher and to remind them to use those cards before they expire as well so we're pushing for them to really utilize those before they're up last thing I just want to add again

I'm not there is a way if they're concerned about like you know the stop and shops the city could exclude you know certain criteria like you know like you know Target or something like that you could exclude those businesses if you wanted to that's all something that would have come through the the administrator um I just have a question on the um option of notifying card holders So within two

weeks if they haven't activated it um they would be notified would they be notified every two weeks until the 60 days is up or just a one-time notification to remind them you know you haven't used the card and then after the 60 days it's just null and void so my what your reference is I believe the $112,000 secondary reminder that I had talked about so that's a secondary mailing that could go out to

addresses who have not come forward as registered with their card that was delivered to their address so that would be a one-time mailing in terms of repeat reminders that would be for people who did activate in that 60 days to try to get them to redeem the card before they expire following the end of the 60 days oh all right so they've activated the card but haven't fully used the card or

haven't used it at all yes ma'am yep just to be clear we did not bid that's not part of the bid package however that that's that was an add-on that the city chose not to put on right because I believe because of the cost I mean I'd like to know more information from the city um on what the businesses are what the plan is um in terms of the listings before I would be

okay with voting to move forward with this um right now it's really still conceptual um and I would need more concrete information from our city um departments before I would be able to move forward I just I just Echo those sentiments down here because I do think it's we do need to address this um I think everybody has been you know I don't think one person more than another we've all been affected um but I

I need to see more of a concrete plan or or List um instead of just voting blindly and then just letting it happen and then never getting any idea of what where it was sent if it was sent across the city to different people in different tracks what businesses were um involved or not involved and what that process is because what happens is things get approved and then in the LA

in the latter is when businesses reach out and they're like there was red tape I wasn't aware nobody notified me what do I need to do to get on board so I rather have the full plan and scope before that I I make a vote on moving forward with this and I I Echo everything she says and I come from a family that was taught and we continue to do to help your fellow man

but so I'm torn I'm really torn this is a Humanity project to help your fellow man the thing that I'm afraid of this is not to be a political toy this is to help our fellow man there should be nothing about politics in this as councilwoman sua said more information and that these people know where they to help them and it doesn't become a political circus I might support it but until then

I'd like to table the motion to get more I mean I know there's a motion already on the on the uh floor but I don't like the some of the way things were presented and I apologize but I had people crying during that during that whole whole time and it it struck me that that poor woman waited 2 hours for three straight days to go to work to get a bus

and she couldn't she couldn't work in the person that she was supposed to be taken care of couldn't eat and go to the and couldn't eat can figure out the rest and it just struck me and this is a humanitarian project this is not political if we make it political Frank jri says no but if we make it a humanitary project Frank jri Rigo will say yes so I need to get more information thank

you so is there an appetite for us to wait a couple weeks and more my motion is to reject it this money needs to be direct rean to businesses don't say this Ci's business friendly when we have the opportunity to give them money that they lost back in December in the form of a direct Grant so my motion I'm keeping it that we reject this any other thoughts on getting more information or do we

just go ahead and vote on a motion on the floor for it so I already stood my position we should just take a roll so I be before we we do have the motion by councilman Lawson seconded by councilwoman Souza so you know I'm I also to use the word of council vice president torn I think this could help a lot of people but I'm not sure that it's going to reach out to to

enough to right to enough people I'm I'm concerned that the administrative costs are not I have a problem with the administrative costs whereas we could take and it's not staggering it it sounds like however the city is providing most of the data now I know there's the issue of getting charge cards put together gift cards put together and there's a lot of fraud involved with that so maybe we shouldn't

even deal with it and and just take a million2 200,000 the city is telling me that you can identify the businesses most affected by this and we what they've all said to us is the bottom line is they've lost money so have a lot of people but we could never pay people for all their aggravation and people who couldn't get to their jobs and there there's no way we as a city can solve that problem so

that's why I I would support the motion to um reject but any event unless there are other comments we have a motion in a second on the floor um Madame clerk to call a rooll councilman poger n councilman Lawson I'm standing with local business I Council vice president rioo Hi councilwoman Susa hi council president Rodricks all right so the motion uh passes uh 4 to one with the good

intention on all sides and we we move forward thank you all thank you if there's an amended type of different kind of plan down the road we'll look at that next item on the agenda are we going back to Mayor Communications or yes right back to where we uh the ordinance okay no let's go back to where we were appointment not requiring Council confirmation Jennifer Tierney tree commission reappointment

and Carol our tree commission reappointment uh do you want to accept is red yeah I make a motion to accept the communications is read second all in favor I I any opposed the eyes have next uh see Council discuss was that all Communications or am I going through yeah yeah follow right through items for announcement discussion yep so now we're on B we just voted to accept we accepted all also of two

school committee LS on is that next city council discuss East Province school department fy2 budget and capital needs discussion councilman R Watson all right so because we're getting the budget later than we anticipate it um I just want to put out that the school committee they had a tough year and they had to cut 16 positions out of their budget and we're talking teachers we're talking social

work you know um so the state aid this year is a decrease of $168,400 it's a problem because apparently we are making more money the city of East Providence so it affects the funding formula so the schools are going to request 57 m236 120 I am going to Advocate that we allow that to stay in the budget and not ask them to cut it um their overall budget um is 99 million so with state

aid we would be kicking in the 57 um I will be advoca K that that stays in there's a line item too we charge them $100,000 for trash removal if we can move that line item over to the city Side there there's at least one teacher that we could put back in their budget um it's just an accounting thing and I understand that you want to line things up but the um to me

$100,000 for trash removal we could cover that on this side and and let them put back one of these 16 positions that were cut so that that money is would come out of the Cityside budget the 100K yeah because it's it goes to the cash collection we pay collection on the city Side why not just add in the school add another 100,000 to the city's budget or to our line item you know I don't know

if it's actually 100,000 to pick up their trash we'd have to ask migga but I just add that I think again just my experience as a former council person the reason why they keep that amount on the school side is because they get reimbursement from from the state it goes part of the state aid in other words if you take that out they they lose some reimbursement in other words it helps them get a higher reimbursement

from the state that's how it was when I was on the council I don't know okay I can look into that so how does I I where did I hear that they received more money this year for Budget that the the current um General Assembly passed the our deleg gets fought for more money and they gave us our schools more money so the governor originally was going to cut over a million out of our budget they

fought that so the cut ended up only being uh 168,000 48,000 yeah the the Department of Education had recommended to the governor who forwarded it as a school apartment cut but then that the entire legislature uh rescinded that so they they got everything but the was that 168 or whatever 168,000 yeah right so they essentially got what they asked for right with well 168 that's couple

teachers you know it's it's still a cut um so they request a 57 m236 out of our overall budget I I think it's time to Priority prioritize the school they also um some of the capital repairs that they could use some help with um the top priority is the energy management systems in the building that basically monitor the heat the AC and everything um they're looking for some help with that to update that system um

those that have been in the building they could definitely use some updates like that is that is that Citywide councilman or there certain schools uh uh no I think that is I can um I can get that but I believe that's for the entire system okay yeah um Elementary School the intercom systems to be able to communicate from the administrative office that's something they could use help with um the UN events those are the

a uh the air units in the classrooms um I requested that the administration see if Opera funding could be used to cover that um but that is something that's needed and the biggest one Old Ham this is where our tiny townies uh our preschool they need a roof they've been patching the roof and I to me it's unconscionable that we would not put a roof on the building that house is uh

prek so just wanted to put this in front of and also probably not for this budget but the paving of the school playgrounds in the parking lots maybe in the next next contract with the um um road paven with the asphalt and stuff we could see if that could be included but you know our schools they need attention we've had a couple years of we've been doing great the last few years I'm not saying

that but the couple years of when the budget was flatlined um we got to kind of play catchup and I think it's very appropriate that if we really want to be familyfriendly we invest in our school so that is my pitch I will be advocating hard that they keep that 57 million request and it not be cut and um you all saw the budget that they presented there's nothing owner I didn't see

anything honorous in there um it's just the cost of public education and the 57 million is that including the cuts for the 16 positions okay no so yeah so that's the most we can give them cuz by law they can only ask for was it 4% or whatever that so they're asking for the max amount that they can MH and even with that they still had to cut out 16

positions to make it work and we know these kids they they need teachers they need the social uh support you know social work and stuff um so I just to me a budget is nothing but a set of priorities and I would really like to see if we could prioritize the schools we've been doing as you saw we just put 3 million into the police station we've been buying fire trucks DPW trucks we've

been doing a great job of funding Cityside stuff um I would just like to see if maybe this year we could give some love to the school you know every year there's things that are needed um but if we give them love next year I mean this year maybe next year the needs on is great so that is my pitch I I agree I think you know it's unfortunate that year after year um more uh

important and essential positions are caught throughout our schools um obviously this body doesn't have any say on how the budget on the school side is allocated and what they do with our their funds um but I'm trusting that you know between the school committee and the administration on the school side that they're making the best decisions for the children in the school system um

I can say that I have not seen on the city Side any positions cut if anything we're trying to fund positions that aren't being filled um that's the problem on our side we're putting money into departments that they're not hiring positions right uh filling the positions and on the school side they're having to eliminate and restructure um their schools so there's definitely an unbalance going on um in in the

city that's ni SP the budget I I think the 17th we were told so that's like right at the 45 days so we're not going to have a lot of time for like the department heads and the mayor to come forward so um in the budget process we'll have the superintendent of schools chair of the school committee can we going to have time for that answer questions if we want them to that in at

one of those meetings so we need can we talk can we get some clarification here now we originally had a schedule based off of what happened last year when we received the budget on the 20th of August and we had the dates and everything so we have the mayor has 10 days 15 days to veto to veto our budget corre so we got to work backwards that's why I'm asking these questions here now is with the

schedule and situation so he has 15 15 days or 10 days so I I take a little different position than the assistant solicitor is he wanted you to pass the budget at least 10 days before the end of the fiscal year that's why he backed it up 10 days I believe that you could as long as you pass the budget on by the end of the fiscal year and if the mayor were to veto it 10

days after that you'd still have an opportunity to override that veto that's it's it's a little we we I was hoping that something was going to clarify with the charter amendments but I take a more liberal position about what time how much time you can have to pass the budget but if you want to follow the old process that's no I I just want to follow the process that you that a judge would say we're

supposed to I could never say what a judge exactly we've been through this before so so I'm just trying to back I think the safest way to do it is the way you've done it even and and building The 10day veto period so that gives you uh 10 days from the 31st which would be the 21st have a budget has to be passed by the 21st of October again the I got off

the top of my head that's what I'm saying so now we're looking at the 21st so we're talking the first 15 20 uh I'm just looking at dates and days isn't it no it's 10 calendar 10 calend calendar days okay so then I'm looking at the advertising so if we would have passed it on the 21st no if we were to passed the budget on October 21st that's 10 days right before to go

there right we need to advertise that five days in advance you know that we have to oh before the P final because now yeah now we're talking about now we're talking about the advertising that's what I'm trying to back in the advertising and everything so right now what's it the 4 the annual calendar is not the yeah I'm sorry October 21st is a Monday depends the advertisement is it's

five days when when you get the budget again I don't have the chart in front of me when you get the budget you're supposed to schedule a public hearing on the May on the mayor's Budget on the mayor's budget after the mayor's budget is presented and a public hearing is had then you have and I believe it's a period of time to do your own changes and those have to be advertise so as

soon as you get the budget you're supposed to set a public hearing on his budget as a result of that public hearing then you're allowed to make changes and whatnot so that's my point so we advertise if we make changes they is it five days that they going to be advertised for I don't remember off the top of my head and while we're looking that up can we also agree that the capital projects

SP of the budget can come later that doesn't have to be correct that that's there's no rush to the process that can be done after the that can be done after the part of the budget right it's not part of the budget so the the the total amount of capital the total amount of capital has in the budget the allocation can come at a later date correct and that's what takes the time everybody looking at the

individual yeah so after I'm sorry this is section 5-11 so after the conclusion of the public hearing the council May in new items or may increase or decrease the items of the budget except for certain categories the council may not vary the titles descriptions uh before inserting any additional items or increasing any items of appropriation it must cause to be published a notice setting forth the nature of the pros

increases in fixing a place and time not later than 5 days after publication at which the council will hold a public hearing on that so five days so you get the mayor's budget you have a public hearing on that if you want to add anything to that budget well subtract it doesn't say subtract it says add just add but if we start moving you're moving around it's everything becomes an ad

right that's what I mean yeah so um you got you got to once you decide that what you want to add then that has to be advertised for 5 days and then you have a public hearing on those additions all right so if we were to add subtract second on the first we we get the budget now on the 17th and we we have a meeting we have a we had a

workshop scheduled for the 24 I correct something from you I just I'm I did miss speak the budget shall be finally adopted not later than seven days before the end of the current fiscal year so you need to pass a budget before seven days before the end of the fiscal year not I thought it was 10 days at seven so yeah correct so we got till the we got

till the 24th of October and I think you you build and the reason why we built in the three days is because then you get to the 10 days for the veto so that's why we get so if we were to hold the 177 24th and then we come back and we do we hold that the first public hearing on the first October oh the public hearing yeah public hearing we do chop we chop or

move however we want to call it we maneuver around we advertise it five days and we come back on the eth and and if there's any issues there again we got to re-advertise what we moved around so that would be that would put us at the 15th so we would adopt it on the F then we could adopt it on the 15th I mean the 22nd is putting us 22nd would be putting Us close to the

uh it still gives us end seven days it gives us seven days so it's calendar days it's count yeah so you're saying we can go to the 22nd the 21st I think would be the last day that we could officially vote for final passage on the budget well he just said seven days right has to be passed seven days before the end of fisal year right may but he has 10 veto days

too yeah so where does that come in we have to pass it but yeah well we can call a special meeting to vote on a veto yeah I'm not concerned because even if it's two days past November 1st you know we we could still it's not going to like the city's not going to not pay its bills right right for those two days no no but I agree we should

have it all wrapped up by November one say yeah including the opportunity to veto get you a timeline when I get these but you can obviously schedule hearings without without with 48 hours notice it doesn't have to you know you have to there certain public hearings but you can you can meet every week if you wanted to we can yeah for the workshops 48 hours but my concern is the posting

the advertising posting that's what we we have to be in right I think the week of the 13th to the 19th would be the last week that we could make any up right because it when you make an up then you have to repost if you decrease anything there's no advertisement that's necessary so if there's any increases they should be made at the beginning of the budget and not the latter so if we

receive the budget on the 17th we have seven days to hold a public hearing on that budget and then after that we can do our changes and stuff uh um but then there has to be another public hearing after that the final passage and those have to be advertised was it 48 hours no five days five days so there are changes like UPS UPS we're going to add any increases change which usually yeah right but it

wouldn't be increases for line items it would be increases to the total budget which is dictated by the line item changes so if you wanted to add money to something and it goes up as long as it didn't change the end number in that department so if you wanted to move around or Department to Department right as long as it didn't change yeah yep and remember if you get

the budget on the 17th you can set the you can I think we it's which is a Tuesday right yeah we could we could hold a a public hearing date with on the paper and just put it seven days from then like we've done in the past yeah we already have in tentatively sched for the 24 assuming that you could get it in for the 19th like an ad that would be 1

two 3 four five so we just got to see if the ad you could have your public hearing on the 24th on the mayor's budget that's what we had tentatively scheduled the workshop on that day well that's a public hearing public hearing then you can have workshops after that as much as you want I'm build the but the workshops aren't public hearings correct workshops so they don't have to be advertised correct so and but then

when we do the UPS y the UPS need five days so UPS up so you could do the up you need excuse me you could do the UPS but then you they don't become final until they're published so they saying these are the UPS we want to do they got to be advertised for five days you have a public hearing on your ups and then after that you can then

you're all set so the UPS we do the UPS on Tuesday the 8th they go into the paper on Thursday the 10th we which would mean we would have a meeting on the 15th of October uh yeah 15th would be the earliest 15th would be the I'll look at broke half so we do the final we do the final scenario there we're almost then we got to re-advertise if we

do some UPS again on the 15th now we the last so what being the 21st being the last day see we we run into the predicament now of the like councilwoman sus says Monday to 21st but the predicament we run into is that the paper record doesn't click until the Thursday well we could always solve that by going to the journal right that's the other issue it's more expensive but we have it we have done

we've done that in the past two to meet these deadlines but we shouldn't we shouldn't need these I'm saying if we do it this way so you know we got to look to wrap everything up by the 15th right worst case scenario we still have the 21st yeah so it's a good Target yeah yeah we get the budget I mean yeah I mean 17th it has to be in our hands you

could get it earlier too no I'm just saying the lat is is 17th I don't know I'm not saying I'm asking you legality I'm not asking you if you know or not I don't know I don't no about my budget about oh no I'm not asking I'm just you know I'm trying to back it back up I think the letter said whatever the letter said the 17th was the date that what I know he's I know

that they're trying to get it to you we had a little meeting today staff meeting they're trying if they can they're trying to get something to you before then but assuming that's the day can you and the CL yeah we'll give you time together a Tim table so so basically to sort of voice the sentiment of C in lawon I don't think we're going to have the the time like we did last year is to

have bring in every department is that what you were alluding to

councelor well we can just forward all the questions to yeah if we got questions we invite them but I don't think we need to go Department by Department to just have them tell us what we're reading no exactly so yeah if there are questions absolutely we'll do the ups and downs and move around I just wanted to be okay so the way we leave it is assuming this 17th we

get the budget uh we'll know in a couple of days uh solicitor and the city clerk will put together the revised schedule and we'll go forward from there right here just for notice the meeting on the 10th September was a workshop there will be no meeting so people out there listening there's no Workshop next week because we the city con do not have the budget yeah I don't know if this is this

is ital well I mean it it's posted right on it's formal po posted yeah it's posted so just the city clerk will cancel it on yeah yeah it'll be canceled on the City Secretary of State's website and all right that's pretty well I just want to make sure that we're up update the posting okay moving along want to continue on mam clerk that's I think maybe an item or two ordinance section 18-37 no parking Somerset Avenue

Arrowhead Avenue and Kingsford Avenue sponsored council president Rodricks and councilman Lawson motion to approve second all favor I any oppos the eyes have it there there's one item that I might have forgotten back and the mayor Communications I know we don't have to read all of these but if you recall earlier in the meeting I had asked the chief of staff if she wanted to comment

she said later under mayor communication oh I'm sorry that's all right that was my well you're still here did you want to announce these I am so sorry no problem I missed that I I missed I think we were trying to move through and thought I was in bathroom oh my and and no and a couple of days here that we want to publicly announced no I am so

sorry I just thought it was the not a problem I I was been thinking about it before we adjourn and I'm glad that uh absolutely you stayed here so please go ahead and um make these uh necessary announcements

um so thank you in terms of dates so we are having our annual 911 remembrance ceremony on September 11th at 10 a.m. um in at uh here at City Hall Plaza I just wanted to remind everyone um Keith bres was also going to speak about land use bills but he is now gone um I we had director Moore who always waits um to go over Finance reports but we'll skip that they've been accepted

and then we also had a proclamation for suicide prevention Awareness Month Childhood Cancer um and one of the ones that was is near and dear to my heart is the Alzheimer's Awareness Month um because I have several relatives who have passed on including my dad with that but the two that were skipped over this evening were and that are important I think to our community um because we

have a lot of residents who are of these background we have Hispanic Heritage Month and Brazilian Independence Day so if the council would allow me to read those into record please absolutely and I apologize so it's all of us really we kind of forgot I just thought you guys were so uh September excuse me whereas on September 15th 1821 the act of independence of Central America was

signed officially marking the severance of five neighboring Latin American countries from Spanish Empire and whereas in the following days month and years other Spanish colonies followed the pursuit of freedom and declare their own independence from the Spanish Empire and since then Hispanic people have been a part of and have contributed much to American history being in an integral in

our local communities bringing business culture tradition and family values and whereas Hispanic Heritage Month began as a national Hispanic heritage week which was first introduced in 1968 in California whereas in 1987 rep estabon Flores proposed expanding the week long um commemoration to its current 31 days uh the past bill was signed in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan and whereas

President George HW Bush was the first president to declare September 15 through October 15th as National Hispanic Heritage Month concluding after Columbus Day known as the day of the race to Hispanic Nations whereas the SE of East Providence is home to a growing population of Hispanic people and a as a community we embrace the diversity of our many many cultures therefore I but not myself but on behalf of Mayor

Roberto El Silva on behalf of the city of East Providence do I hereby complain excuse me Proclaim not complain September 15 24 through October 15 2024 as his Hispanic Heritage Month in the city of East Providence and we urge the entire Community to join us in celebrating the appropriate events and speaking of our diverse Community I'd be remiss if we didn't get a chance to read to record a Brazilian Independence Day

whereas September 7th marks 202 years of Independence in Brazil and in whereas in 1815 King dang the fth bestowed the authority to rule in case of death or Calamity on his own son and Heir the prince Regent Dom Pedro and in 1820 whereas in 1820 Portugal's constitutional rebellion and political revolution led by those who wanted a constitutional detailing the people's right was brewing in Portugal causing

King damjan to leave Brazil and return home leaving Prince D Pedro to rule and whereas in 1822 under Prince D Pedro's Ministry the new nation of Brazil formally issued a declaration of independence from the United Kingdom of Portugal Brazil and the alars and whereas in 1824 Brazil adopted the first constitution in the country is recognized by the United States and whereas Independence Day Celebrations

are held on a vast level across Brazil including military parades and patriotic performances during the day and fireworks in the evening and and at night whereas picnics and other outdoor activities are a tradition with thousands of Brazilians gathering on the streets to celebrate together and whereas the city of East Providence is home to a number of residents with Brazilian Heritage that have added to

the fabric of our community by sharing their Rich culture with the rest of the city therefore I mayor Roberto El de Silva on behalf of the mayor on behalf of the city of East Providence hereby proclaimed Saturday September 7th as Brazilian Independence Day in the city of East Providence thank you thank you thank you and I want to add I I want to invite those watching the meeting to try

to attend these various celebrations uh if you haven't noticed the face of East Providence as well as this nation is not like it was in 1965 anymore and we have a rich culture here and if you have been to any of these ceremonies uh the city does a nice job in in promoting the various ethnicities and cultures and what you notice the most is on the and in the faces of the people who are here

whether it's Irish day Brazilian day C Verdian day Hispanic day the various cult cult Al days that have been uh highlighted to quote uh my uh colleague councilman Rigo here politics aside these have been great celebrations and if you can make it come if you can't you know at least um know what your city is is doing as we've reached out and I I commend uh the mayor's office they

invite us many of us are working and can't always get here during the daytime activities um but uh there's a two-way street we're invited and the community is invited so hopefully uh especially that 911 ceremony which is uh such a moving day for the community so I'll get off my soap box with that thank you um M mendi sorry to make you wait uh that long we we over served under Reagan and

Bush yes we have couple here who I I know can recall those events closely was there anything else so we had adjournment is there motion to moved motion by councilman Lawson seconded by councilman Rego to adjourn all in favor I I