City Council - Government Operations Committee Hearing on Docket #0807

Today is October 15th, 2026 and the exact time is 10.06. In accordance with Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, modifying certain requirements of the Open Meeting Law and relieving public bodies of certain requirements including the requirement that public bodies conduct its meetings in a public place that is open and physically accessible to the public, the City Council will be conducting this hearing virtually via Zoom. This hearing is being recorded and it is also being livestreamed at boston.gov forward slash city dash council dash tv and broadcast on Xfinity channel 8, RCN channel 82, and Fios channel 964. Written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.go at boston.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all Councillors. Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing. Individuals will be called on an order in which they signed up and we'll have two minutes to testify. If you wish to sign up for public testimony and have not done so, please email our central staff liaison

Megan Cavanaugh at M-E-G-H-A-N dot K-A V-A N A G H at boston.gov for the zoom link and your name will be added to the list just as a heads up for central staff we do have two pre-recorded I think that would be good Okay, so today's hearing is on docket 0807 an ordinance to address private way potholes. This matter was sponsored by Councilors Brian Worrell and Erin Murphy and was referred to the committee on April 15th 2026. Today I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Councilor Flynn, Council Louijeune and Councilor Worrell. But for now before we go to the panel... All right. City Administrator, excuse me, our Superintendent of Street Operations Daniel Nee. I'll go to the lead sponsor for any opening remarks you may have. Councilor Worrell, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Thank Good to see you, Superintendent Nee. Thank you for your service to the City of Boston and all of the people who work, individuals who work alongside of you This is something that I know a lot of other counselors have brought up around how do we get more services and resources to help those residents who are living on private ways. A lot of residents buy into private ways, not knowing that they're responsible not only for the resurfacing of the streets Sidewalks but everything else underground and bringing it up to code. which can include street lights and that cost can be up to six figures for residents. So we're just trying to find ways on how to make

These roles that are used by more than the individuals that live on this street. I know that currently there's a city code We could do some patchwork. This ordinance just aims to add the word asphalt into that temporary fix that city employees can currently do But I will also be looking to see if asphalt is the most cost effective way, knowing that these potholes will come back up to be resurfaced year over year. So, love to hear everyone's thoughts. I know a conversation around the consent decree just got brought to me

So just looking forward to bringing everyone's thoughts together to see what kind of relief we can do here on a city level to residents who are being played with streets that have not been fixed. Flynn, for years. So thank you chair, thank you to everyone who's been here.

Thank you Councilor Worrell, Councilor Flynn, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to Councilor Worrell for bringing this forward. Critical issue, quality of life issue. These are the issues that we should be focusing on Especially on the City Council, it's quality of life basic city services. I'm also working with Chinatown residents on although it's somewhat unrelated but it's more of a water and soil issue in Chinatown, as it relates to for bringing this forward. and looking forward to the discussion. Thank you, everybody.

Thank You Councillor Flynn. Councillor Louijeune?

Good morning, Madam Chair and good morning to everyone. Thank you to Council Royal for this filing. We've had a lot of conversations about private ways. You've had them here in Hyde Park so just looking forward to the conversation to see what Thank you. We've been joined by Councilor Fitzgerald. Councilor

Thank you, Chair. And thank you to Councilor Worrell. A lot of alleyways and private ways on the south end, and we get this every so often. So looking forward to learn what can be done and how we can change it in the future. Appreciate it coming forward. Thank you chair

Thank you. I just want to thank the filer as well. I look forward to this conversation. Obviously, I love the idea of this. I have some questions about legality and ownership and liability. Look forward to the discussion and seeing how we can make this a reality. Charlestown in particular is just a lot of private ways that were horse carriage, Just avenues, I guess. I don't even know the right word for it. But just we're dealing with this in Charlestown and East Boston and look forward to understanding how we can make this reality. But for now, we'll go to Superintendent Nee for any opening remarks he may have and then we'll got questions. So Daniel you have the floor.

Thank you, Councilor. Happy to be here today to answer any questions regarding private ways to the best of my ability. As a private way resident since 1978, I feel a lot of the pain going on but have a ton of information in front of me. Happy to answer any questions that you guys may have.

Thank you so much. And just a quick question, are you on the pick?

I am not, no.

Okay all right i just wanted to see because i think a lot of questions that i have may involve the pick but yeah i did about four hours of prep with the pic yesterday so okay great

Well, I'm not an expert. I have newfound knowledge that I'm willing to share.

Okay, great. All right so we'll just go to the lead sponsor for questions and we'll do six minutes of questions for each when I put my hand up that's where you have one minute but for now i'll just

Thank you, Chair. Thank you Superintendent Nee. A few questions. Currently right now what type of temporary repairs or if any repairs do we currently do on private works?

So temporary repairs, it usually gets listed as a pothole. You know, I think internally we separate potholes from roadway defects. Pothole is a type of a roadway defect but as you guys know your offices reach out to us and we're able to go out We tend to use like materials. So if it's an asphalt private way, we will use asphalts Other places if it's gravel, we will use gravel or cleaned millings from when we resurface. You take the asphalt that has been removed and they screed it and check out larger chunks and we can use that You know, try to match like material, existing material.

Got it. And I know this ordinance is calling for filling the potholes I've talked to a few different employees from Public Works, and some people are saying well we'll have to refill the potholes every other year. What is your thought around Fill in the pothole versus resurfacing the street just all together.

So on city streets, resurfacing is the much better option. Typically there's an underlying problem that's causing the pothole or roadway defects As it pertains to private ways where there has been minimal maintenance throughout the years, You know, water is the number one source. The number 1 problem where there's any type of drainage or runoff lack of catch basins on private ways. You know, and whoever you spoke to was 100% right. There's the list of alleys that we hit kind of every year in the same ones, the same spots. you know, residents aren't happy with just a Band-Aid repair. But that's unfortunately there is a state law I know Councilor Zapata just referred to it but there is estate law that prohibits us from using public funds on private property

and technically uh private way is private property however in the interest of public safety um you know God forbid, we wouldn't want a ladder truck or an ambulance to not be able to get somewhere because of bad roadways. So that's how we feel comfortable potentially actually breaking a law in doing repairs. You know, I'm happy to be arrested for that at some point if need be but you know Ideally, we would want resurfacing a full recon of all these roadways haven't been touched since the 1800s. Ideally you would like to have full reconstruction but again, it's private property. So that's where the issue lies.

Got it and I mean, I've received a lot of emails and heard a lot From Residence. Because when residents, if they were to—and correct me if I'm wrong—if they were resurface the street then they have to do not only resurfacing of the street but bringing that street up to code

So bringing it up to code, that's part of the PIC betterment process. And Jaylee will be sending a link out to everybody. I'm sure you have it already. But that's if residents, and it would have to be a majority of residents. It'd have to vote because multiple meetings would have Thank you for joining us. City specs, fully accessible sidewalks, 53 feet of width which Now we're talking problems here in a lot of these alleys. Accessible sidewalks, drainage and lighting would have to be addressed. Water and sewer has their own set of betterment regulations

If the abutters got together and just wanted to resurface it, that'd be less costly for them. But we wouldn't be able to take it over as a public way unless that criteria is met.

Right. And I guess I'm of the mindset that most of these streets are leading to other main thoroughfares or coming off a major thoroughfare, like the word private For me, it doesn't mean that You can't, the public can't use the streets. So I feel like they're all public roads anyway and I am of the mindset that the city should own all streets and sidewalks. I know that the cost is something that I've always heard constant pushback from, but I'm hoping that through this conversation at least whether it's a public safety issue, whether it was pedestrian safety We have residents walking down these streets that we can try to find a way on how to make at least the surfaces even pedestrian friendly and safe.

So you mentioned the public safety aspect of it. What is that threshold? When would Public Works jump in and say, hey this needs some attention?

So typically, we'll get either a case via 311 or from city councilor's office or from the fifth floor. ONS will flag an issue that's been raised to them and we're going take a look at it. You know, if it's a rim buster or something that's really bad, we'll go fix it. Use temporary patch. We'll patch it temporarily knowing the issue is going to pop up again 99% of the time, it's water-related. Water carved out the Grand Canyon so our private ways and alleys aren't any match for it but basically how bad is the pothole? You know, I think in Council of Pepens District is that Summit Street there. That's kind of just too far gone for any type of temporary repair. It's just years and years of neglect. So throwing some asphalt into that, we wouldn't... Hey, we wouldn't be able to do it because it's just too large.

But you know, it's kind of... We send a supervisor out they'll go take a look at it and say yes this is going to cause a problem for an ambulance or something or no, this is minor and cosmetic. And the abutters really need to step up here and fix it.

Got it. My last question I see the hand raised is you mentioned the state law You know, the legality of touching the street and then liability. What negative impacts would you see in resurfacing a private way? Like what is something that we should be concerned about if Public Works was to just resurface a private way?

Well, negative impacts. I guess at this point with the state law as it is, it would be illegal

What are the consequences? Because you've gone in there, you said public safety. I haven't read the law in full. I'm aware of it. But what are the I don't know.

It's caused us to kind of look at what we do. I think there's a threshold you can only do up to 25%. No, I don't know if that's just roadway and sidewalks or if that part of... I don' t know what that 25% is. Is that the whole cost Reconning, you know the drainage and lighting and utility movement and whatever else sidewalk construction if that's all into that 25%. You know, we're still going to operate on if a fire truck or an ambulance can get there quickly and safely. That's kind of our threshold now, and that's what we're probably going to maintain as far as the highway division goes. You know, I think in order to resurface that's a larger conversation. That's probably gonna have to involve legal and engineering You know, that's but we'll still you know our goal is for access for you know public safety.

All right thank you superintendent.

Thank you, Councilor Flynn. And oh I just want to recognize you've been joined by Council Weber. Go ahead, Council Flynn.

Good morning, Dan. Morning, council. Again, I want to thank Councilor Worrell. Dan tell me what the process of filling the pothole is? And I know we're talking about private alleys, Citywide, whether it's private or let's start with public. Just tell me the process when it comes into this 311 app. Tell me the processes from then how it actually gets done filling the portals?

Sure, so a case will come in as pothole and I advocated. So we just overhauled our back office 311 system and I advocate it strongly to get it changed from potholes to roadway defect. That was overruled. But, you know, a pothole is a type of road. You know, the general public doesn't differentiate. So they'll just create a pothole case.

We went to the district yard, we'll take a look at it. Can I just head in here? Somebody has background noise. If you can mute that, I would appreciate it because I can't really hear.

It will come up in conversation, in text messages.

Councilor Flynn?

Yes, Madam Chair?

I think you have a background noise. If you wouldn't mind just muting yourself, sorry. Thank you. Okay.

I didn't hear anything coming out there. Okay.

So we'll get a case for a pothole. It will come into the district yard supervisor. If there's a picture attached, they'll be able to differentiate whether it's A, a pot hole Utility Casting Issue, Utility Cut Issue or something else where it doesn't get handled by the Highway Division. If it's deemed to be ours and we own it, added to a patch list for the next time that they're out patching. Typically this time of year, each yard goes patching maybe once or twice a week. As we're in March and April, they're patching pretty much every day. So we'll go out and patch it. If there's a picture, depending on how it looks, case is usually closed as private way abutters are responsible for repairs.

Now, it can be closed that way and if the supervisor deems that hey this is going to cause a problem if an ambulance tries to get down here or ladder truck or even if we use it to access for residential trash collection, they'll go patching. However the resident will still get the notification via the app that you know it's a private way abutters are responsible for repairs

Okay. Dan, can you just tell me... As I mentioned in my opening, I'm working with Chinatown residents on an issue as it relates to a private way with water and sewer related issues. But how does Public Works work with Boston Water & Sewer on these types of issues. Do you have to coordinate logistically When you do potholes, is there an opportunity to work with water and sewer at the same time or are they separate issues?

So if it's just a surface pothole on our roadways, we don't need to coordinate with water and sewer. Certainly in the springtime, a lot of the issues on public roadways are defects around catch basins and water shutoffs, and all the other utilities. I'm not saying they're not Water & Soar but if we get a case for that, we'll just reallocate it over to Water & SOAR as you know They're responsible for repairs within 30 inches of any of their infrastructure. So all utilities, any of them infrastructure manholes shutoffs you know pull boxes they are responsible for 30 inches around each You know, each asset.

Okay. So the cut space and are they always on public property or do you have many that are on private?

Most are on public. There are some in private ways. Some are owned by water and sewer, some are actually private drains.

Okay, okay. And if... One issue I'm always thinking about is on Beach Street, but when the road maybe it's poorly designed going back But if the water continues to be in the catch basin after a rainstorm and There needs to be improvements. How does that process work where you need to work on The infrastructure in and around the catch basin, but working with water and soil and public works as well. Is that something you see?

Yeah, so we'll get cases for puddles. I think when we started doing pedestrian bump outs for ramps, we ran into a lot of problems. That's a regrading issue that we can address via resurfacing Norman Parks and his crew over at In engineering, they can come in. I think let's say East Springfield at Harrison was one they did last year. That was a big one. If the catch basin isn't taking water, that would be a water and sewer issue. And there's multiple things they can do. They can clean the actual catch basin, check the lateral pipes to make sure they're taking water. That's really kind of the two biggest fixes for that. I mean, a simple thing would be just to create a 3-1-1 case and just kinda outline what's happening, that water is being held or the catch basin isn't taking water.

And Dan my final question. So engineering is also part of the discussion, engineering at water and soil, engineering in public works. But also you mentioned legal so they're all part Discussions as it relates to private alleys, is that accurate?

So if you're referring to each individual 311 case, usually no. That's handled on the highway level with a supervisor. And like I said, we advise the constituent that unfortunately repairs are on the abutter. and if we deem necessary for public safety, we will go fix it while still closing the case that we're not going to fix it. I think a lot of people When they create the 311, maybe they've been misled by a real estate agent. Shocking. Or they just don't understand that they're on a private way and they see this, they see the road in front of their house. It looks like a regular street, right? Acts as a regular and they say, well this is terrible. This needs to get fixed. The city should be fixing it. I pay taxes. However there is that the state law we can't use public funds to fix private property So there is a bit of confusion on that. The betterment process, yep, engineering is fully involved.

They take the lead, they run the assessment, they do the survey. That's if we get... The correct number of people on the petition. I think we need over 50% of homeowners to agree For Betterment. And then there's a whole process there that goes on. I mean, it doesn't happen often in the past 15 years has only been four streets that have gone through the process.

Okay. Madam Chair, I was going to ask one more question but I didn't want to ask if my time is up or without permission.

Thank you. No, you can ask.

Okay, it'll be a brief question. So Dan if Public Works does fix the pothole on a private street, the residents most likely are responsible for paying for how do they get a bill? Do they just get a bill in the mail from Public Works, or does the owner of the property listed get a Bill? Just tell me the logistics of that please.

So if we fix a pothole, we do not build. We're fixing the potholes under the guise that we need to have access for ambulances, fire trucks that type of thing. I think what you're talking about is if they were to go through the betterment process where Public Works come in and just did the whole recon, right? Added public accessible sidewalks resurfaced. Then there would be an assessment calculated. They wouldn't know that before they agreed to move forward I believe. Again, it's not my... I spent some time this week learning about it. But I believe there's the vote to do... There's the petition, then there's Engineering will do a survey and say, OK, generally it's going to cost this amount. And then there's another public meeting after that. So I've never actually gone through the process. That's how it was outlined to me.

Okay, excellent. Thank you, Dan. Thank You Madam Chair for giving me an extra minute.

Um thank you I don't see Councilor Louijeune on the call anymore so we will go to Councillor Fitzgerald and then Councillor Weber

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Danny, for being here with us today. If we were to take over every street, if this were to pass and say every private way becomes owned by streets, by the city How many more people would we have to add, do you think? Maybe I probably don't have an exact amount, but a guesstimate of like how many more employees would that take and what would sort of a ballpark cost be to take that on? Because that's sort of me. I know it's a tough question, but to me, that's the crux of this, right? Like we could do this, but like at what cost does it come and are we able to fill that in the amount of employees, healthcare, pensions, et cetera, that would go along with that?

Yeah, I mean as far as employees, certainly engineering is understaffed as it are most divisions at this point. But yeah, it would be a lot. I could try to maybe talk to some folks over at engineering. The amount of work that would need to be done adding sidewalks and moving utilities, water and sewer involvement in catch basins and moving drains Some of these houses are on septic systems, oddly enough. Hundreds of millions? It would be a lot.

Yeah, and that's just to get them up to code. Let alone the ongoing maintenance as we would give any other street going forward, correct?

And that's assuming that residents want that to happen. I mean, we get challenged most times we go out and patch a pothole There are folks that don't want it. They don't us on this street because now it's a Sharon Street, right? It was voted... That was one of the ones that started to go through the process. The residents voted it down because they didn't want to be a cut-through street speeding so There's a lot of nuance here.

Is there any benefit when it is private way? I mean, are they taxed more on it? Is there more square footage to an individual property when they live on a private way

I lost you a little bit, but I think you're asking is there any benefit? So again, I've lived as Councilor Flynn knows on a private wave since 1978. It's almost like our own parking We own the property. So, you know, you get together with the folks I said let's see we have one, we have what six houses on the private way. We all kind of get together and share like ownership of it. We also have to clean it. Yeah, I get that.

Is there any tax difference? Like the amount of property if it's a private way is it split individually? Is it added square footage to somebody's tax base I just got my tax bill last week.

I don't think it's added to the tax bill. I think the benefit would be having it resurfaced every 20 years, 30 years. However we know. I think that would be the benefit in having maybe it swept and maintained during snow and ice maybe.

Gotcha. So, I mean, I think the main thing I want to drive away is that this would be a very expensive undertaking at the moment. Extremely expensive undertaking. I think that's the most important... Key that I want to take note of. That's all the time. My other colleagues have some great questions and sort of what folks need to do when they do have one and what the other advantages, disadvantages might be. So I'm all set. Chair, thank you so much for the time today. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Fitzgerald. Councillor Weber?

Yeah, thank you. Can you hear me?

We can kind of hear you, but my internet has been bad. So I'm not a good judge of this. But I think you're coming in clear now.

Okay, thank you. Yeah, I lived on a private way for a number of years in JP Adelaide Terrace and it was like a gravel... There's also a dead end. But I guess this was one issue with just paving, we had talked about paving our private way but without the Other infrastructure improvements seem like it would just function as sort of a slide for water to go into our basements and stuff, but can you talk about Like, you know what else we would need to put in when you pave at least one of these gravel privateways?

Yeah, so we've run into the problems like that up the Grove that we do use to access for trash. We've gone up there and added millings Multiple complaints about, well you've not even affected the way that the water runs off. It's coming to our basement, that type of thing so yeah Any type of change like that to the roadway, it does affect drainage. Especially if there are no catch basins or if there is no system set up to capture that water.

Okay, yeah. So just I'm in my car because I am in the Grove. I wanted to be able to talk to you from here. So the potholes in the grove range from, I don't know, like the size of a large turtle to like the sides of a Sherman tank. So can you fill the smaller potholes in the grove with asphalt? What's your recommendation?

So we wouldn't use asphalt up there. You want to use what's existing. Asphalt is a, you know, when it cures, it's a hard stationary material. Up there the gravel kind of moves and flows as it gets saturated, as it freezes, as Using asphalt would just cause a problem. I believe it was two years ago, one of the residents of The Grove actually called the EPA on us because we were using millings to fill saying that it was a hazardous material. It wasn't. It's an accepted roadway material The Grove is a tough one. Most of the folks up there don't want us up there. There is a gentleman up there that does have a little skid steer like a bobcat. I talked to Freddie last night, we did dump Some millings for him two years ago, and he would kind of upkeep up there. But it's a very difficult place to go every time we go up there people don't want us there they're calling to get us out they call the police on us

You know, again the criteria is you know can an ambulance or a fire truck make it through if needed?

I've tried to look at your thoughts there, because there are some enormous potholes in here. We just swallowed the cards.

I didn't get all of your question, but basically.

Yeah, I mean, how do you get an ambulance to the Grove? I guess that's my question.

I missed the first part of the question.

Can you get a fire truck through The Grove is my question?

Yeah, yes, I've seen it.

Okay. And so if people have So even on these mixed sort of gravel surface roads, some people can file a 311 and the city will come out and perhaps...

So Grove would be a little bit of a different, you know, it would be

You know, other places. The recommendation for just the potholes to file a 311?

Yeah, yeah. With the caveat that it is going to get closed out. almost immediately that it's a private way but is not responsible for repair. But what that does is the inspector or supervisor in the district will eventually go take a look at it and assess Is this something that we have to step in and repair for the abutters so that a fire truck can access, you know, for the ladder truck can

I guess on the improvement, making the private way into a public way. Is there anything we can do to actually make that into a real program? or is it just that no you know very few private ways want to absorb the cost uh and that the city cannot afford to Convert, pay for these things ourselves because it would be millions of dollars.

So it is a real program. Like I said, there's been four streets in the past 15 years. I think where the problem lies is not everybody living on the private way wants it to happen. Like I said, Sharon Street. Most of the people there want it the way it is. For whatever reason, maybe they fear that their taxes will go up. I don't know. What I hear... When I used to be out there on the road like that, it's going to cause folks to use the street as a cut-through. We don't want people flying through here. Our kids play here. You know, so it is a real program. I think what the problem lies in is that it's going to be very difficult to get everyone to agree on anything, really. But I mean something like that where they know that after the city comes in and does it, there's going to be an assessment associated with it so...

Okay, sorry. And just in terms of How does it work? I'm just saying to get more than four streets in 15 years to participate, not that the program isn't well run. Just obviously people aren't taking advantage of it. So what is the payment plan? If it costs a million dollars of work on that street, who's paying for it and how does it get paid out?

So it would be an assessment. That's the breadth of my knowledge on that. I don't know, I have no idea if they would allow payment plans or if it's just assessed to the property.

Okay. Yeah, get it in one tax bill because I've never really understood how that works.

Yeah.

Unfortunately neither do I. Yeah okay. Well yeah my understanding is that everyone who lives on these private ways, you do own your frontage up to halfway into the private way. And yeah I've been out there shoveling You know, during the snowstorms and we bought like a snowblower as our house. The other houses were renters There's sort of an endless struggle. So I understand the struggle on these private ways, I also get a lot of people who come to me and say, I pay taxes. Why doesn't the city fix up my private way? My thought on that is if all the rules are being followed like these houses Wouldn't exist, at least the ones on Adelaide.

Somebody just built houses behind their property and so it's almost like getting something for nothing if you just convert it. and many more. I think it's important for us to be able to do things in a public way, you know? You're sort of taking advantage of the city on one end You know, obviously I think...I have heard from people in the Grove who want to see those potholes being fixed and maybe we'll do some more organizing around that to make sure. It is very difficult to get through there. I'm hoping we can improve it. Anyway, I appreciate all the work. Thanks to my colleagues for filing this and thank you to the chair.

Thank you, Councillor Weber. Yeah, a lot of questions that I had have already been asked by my colleagues but I do want to kind of drill in More to okay, if we do want to bring this forward what it may mean just like the reality of like the state law and all of that. and just like the reality, doing a street in the city sharing the cost is a noble endeavor. Like I 100% agree that we should be Helping residents as much as we can and fixing roads to the fullest extent that we can. But there are things that we obviously have to think about, like in the longer term does that investment

Make sense if, for example, we do just resurfacing and that's up to you know, that's just assuming that that is up to 25% of what needs to happen. Like should we resurface? If ultimately that drainage, and this has happened before even just with normal work if that drainage is going to go into people's homes or if that water is gonna be corrosive and it's gonna be Thank you for joining us. I think that's been addressed, but the ADA component of this is something that hasn't really been brought up. So permanent resurfacing my understanding is that it would trigger ADA accessibility requirements that routine pothole maintenance does not. And so, that would...

Add on costs to the city, so I'm just trying to figure out how we would distinguish between routine maintenance and permitted alterations that would trigger ADA obligations. and who would bear those costs? And maybe it's not a question for you, Dan but it is a question

Well, you know if the butters wanted to resurface they certainly could. They wouldn't be held to the ADA accessibility compliance. If they just wanted to come in and get one strip of asphalt down the center, they could do that. That would certainly affect drainage. I would assume that they wouldn't pay for a survey to do that, that they would just want to kind of do it and get it done. Again, each private way is different. As far as the PIC Betterment process, You know, if the city were to come in and do it and do the assessment. Yes, the street would have to be fully public city specs ADA-compliant sidewalks, and that's 53 feet side to side. A lot of these alleys don't have that So, there's a problem there.

Then there's also that pesky state law. But, you know, yeah, there is a lot there but if the abutters wanted to come in and just resurface it they could do that without triggering the ADA compliance stuff.

Okay, and I do have... You've already gone through the equation and what it would mean in terms of Payment on their behalf. I have had residents in East Boston for Geneva and Geneva Street, I'm sure you know this. refuse to do the process because then that would mean that they would need to pay more in taxes so um yeah there's like there's a bunch of different opinions on this and perspectives, but I'm more curious about the 25% threshold. How would you all calculate that? Would it be by surface area linear footage or another metric

Maybe it's amount. It's vague, right? It's not specific so maybe its amounts the total cost I don't know I will say this as a public, as a private way resident. If the city wanted to come in and said hey we're going to take it over and fix everything and add sidewalks I wouldn't want that because that's going to affect how you know Thank you for joining us.

Yeah, and that's precisely why on Geneva Street there are a couple families who are saying they don't want Their private way to be turned into a public street. Okay, but you're saying like if I think this is just clarifying point and I apologize that this is definitely redundant at this point, but just for me If they wanted to come in through the pick process, the residence and just do a line of asphalt down the street. They are not required to go through the entire betterment process, which is ensuring that there's drainage or utility or ADA accessible rooms.

They could do that fully on their own they wouldn't even have to start the pick process you know they're basically repairing their private property however Really, however they want.

But the city wouldn't be cost-sharing in that?

No.

And if they did want the city to cost share, then they would have to go through the pick process. Okay and that would require them to go though the whole rigmarole of everything I just mentioned? Correct. Yeah, a lot to think about. I mean again this is good intentions. I just think like thinking through it operationally it's a little tough and sorry thinking about operational feasibility of one last question Do you have the number of how many private ways currently receive city-funded temporary repairs? And I guess, how would this ordinance meaningfully improve the City's ability to address reoccurring potholes?

I don't have that number for you. Thinking now about how we could get that. So, like I said before, if the 3-1-1 complaint comes in, we close it out as a butters are responsible. and then we could or you know, we either do I don't repair what we think is necessary. Yeah, I'm trying to think of how I could get that number. I don't think we could right now the way we currently do things.

Okay, and let me rephrase like the second part of the question. I think I'm interested in practicality here. Like is the proposed framework something that Public Works would be able to administer or thinking through if we were to push this forward? In terms of us just taking them all

It's so huge to think about. I probably need some time to think it, but it would kind of be taken out of highway's hands. It would go right through the pick in engineering It's a lot of work in small tight spaces. I imagine, I wouldn't even guess to give you enough, it'd be hundreds of millions of dollars. Multiple hundreds of million, it would be a lot.

Yeah, and I mean we are...I would love to understand in just making a formal request that we can follow up through IGR like getting any sort of...and it was you know also to Council Fitzgerald's point like whatever we can use especially like a dollar amount of what this may cost would be helpful for us as we move forward, as we consider this proposal. So just a ballpark

People much smarter than I could probably take the mileage and just add the average cost to reconstruct a public way. That would be a good start, knowing that it's going to be much more than that because of the way they're set up.

Okay, I would appreciate that. That would be helpful as we consider this proposal and what we would need in terms of staffing capacity to even get this done. But that's it for me and I apologize Councilor Whirl, I'm just seeing your hand up now. We'll go to second round of questionings or if you have any information that would be pertinent in this conversation please feel free to share.

Thank you, Chair. And just for clarity, what the ordinance is asking similar to like superintendent need has stated is that they don't currently automatically fill potholes on private ways. So this ordinance is just saying that it will automatically Fill the potholes. And currently under, I'm sure they do it in practice, but then the city code They are not allowed to use asphalt. So this just gives them, in the city ordinance, the ability to use asphalts so we're just asking them to and many more.

And we're going to continue to work with the city to make sure that all of those areas are protected by law so that we can automatically fill The whole street. It just gives the Public Works Department, the legal framework to use asphalt and instead of closing it out Once they get it automatically filled in that once to get it and then going through this assessment whether or not They should fill the pothole. It's saying that they just should

Right, I understand that just really quick if I can reply. So it also requires us for the city to provide a cost share And I think my point in which I didn't articulate well is that if we are going to bear the cost of this, How are we actually maximizing our investment into the street if it is just a band-aid to fill the pothole with asphalt? It would behoove us to... Thank you for watching! For me, I wouldn't want our tax dollars to continuously go into Band-Aids rather than thinking about more holistically how we can better the street in its entirety. So that, I mean, that's just where I'm coming from on this. Yeah, I'll stop it there.

There's definitely stuff that we should discuss in a working session. Then I guess that then goes into the whole cost, right? The whole costs and then what gets triggered Once you move from a band-aid solution to a more holistic approach. But my understanding, and definitely would love to hear from the Megs on this, And I just did like a quick research online that we have the ability to define what temporary fixes are on our streets. I've seen other towns saying the resurfacing could be or they have used that as a temporary fix, the resurfacing. as a temporary fix. And the cost share,

from the City Ordinance. It already exists in Section C, and under state law it sounds like we can address the drainage issues.

Yeah, yeah. It just that's a lot. That's a if we're moving forward to defining resurfacing as a temporary fix then we get into it. We can't just separate resurfacing from drainage or ADA compliance, or like sidewalk width and all of that unless that's something that the owners want to privately do themselves. We have to think about it as like the entirety of the PIC process. So then does that include, if we're defining resurfacing as a temporary fix

And I'm also saying that, Chair, as like we have the ability to define what a temporary fix is. Right? So I'm just saying like that is an option under state law. I'm just throwing ideas out there so that when we do dive into the working system, we know what our options are.

Okay. And like a permanent... So I don't know. I think it's getting into... The gray area here where if we're resurfacing and building sidewalks out, and then going underground and needing to make sure that utilities are up to code what that may look like. And can that still be considered temporary?

Right, right. And I'm not... What we're trying to do is just to get some real temporary fixes to these private ways knowing that You know, the cost on bringing it up to code can be a large amount for some of these private ways have. You know, four homes on it. Right? So it could be very costly I went through a process and had you know maybe 15 homes and I think it was up close to six figures per property owner But again, like we're just trying to find a way. This ordinance looks to just do a temporary fix, give the city the ability to use asphalt but I do hear the concerns around You know, temporary band-aids. But those band-aid in those places that have had minimal repairs they do go a long way.

They do go along way and then oftentimes What I've heard is it could be an overage or extra supply of asphalt in the city. So I think that it does give us the ability, and maybe that's how the assessment happens. But just trying to give us that flexibility on repairing these private ways is the type of relief that this ordinance looks to solve. My last question is around How many, and you might not know this, maybe this is a question for Todd. How many streets have gone through the pick process? And then once they realize how much the cost is, you know, they decided they no longer want to pursue. Do you do you know that?

I know of one Sharon Street.

Okay.

Um, we didn't discuss streets that didn't go through. I'm sure Todd can get you that info.

Yeah okay yeah and do you know like a range of What these costs for converting and I know I'm talking about converting this is about temporary fixes, but this is just just from my curiosity.

Are you talking like to go through the process and ADA compliant and all that stuff? Well, I'd be taking a wild guess. You know... It would depend on the street. Right, yep. Yeah, what's existing if there's water and sewer cash basins, if there is private

Right. Now, I get it.

I can give you a number but don't hold it to me. You know?

Yeah. The one private way It was actually a new development. They were all new homes, probably no less than 10 years old. Thank you for watching. up to six figures on a street that was only 10 years old. I could just imagine on older streets, but superintendent need think... Oh my last question when it comes to filling the potholes Would you need additional employees or would that be an additional cost? How would that affect Your ability to implement just the filling of the potholes.

I mean, sure there's man hours devoted to it. We're doing it now in certain cases. Um we are below staffing level um you know our staffing you know we have open positions many open positions that i would love to get filled No, I mean we're doing it now. Yeah there's a man hour cost and material costs you know which is relatively small when compared to reconstruction.

All right all right well thank you for attending You're welcome.

Sorry, I was muted. Okay, this was a great conversation. I definitely think that There's more to consider. There's a lot here, and I know it is just trying to seek a temporary fix. I think we have to have a broader conversation about maximizing city dollars What may make sense per each neighborhood or even on an individual street? And we definitely have, if we decide to move this forward just thinking through it. We'd have to set up maybe a separate track within the pick to do this where if it's not the entire betterment process and it's just resurfacing. Well, actually no I say that out loud now or if they just wanna do the temporary fix. I'd love to talk to maybe Todd Liming or oh, I forget her name.

Goodness, she has glasses. Amy, yeah, Amy about what their process looks like and if there would need to be a separate track for something like this. Okay, well I don't see any other colleagues on. We'll go to public testimony while we set up folks who have signed up for public testimony maybe we can tee up the videos and and go from there. I think we have two public testimony videos that we need to play. There we go, thank you so much.

Hi, my name is Doug Woodhouse. I'm a resident of Boston. I live in Roslindale. I also live on a private way. Worrell's proposal and to thank him and also Councilor Murphy for co-sponsoring it. Our road is in horrible disrepair Several years ago, my wife and I paid a paving company to fix up the potholes in front of our house which they did and which is now back to being in horrible shape. This structure here's particularly dangerous in the winter when the snow melts and then freezes again just becomes all ice. We had several days where the post office didn't deliver mail for us because they said it was too dangerous for the mail carriers to walk down our street There are elderly people who live here, use the ride. There are children here who use BPS door-to-door bus service Buses have to come down this road.

I worry that at some point the trash trucks won't be able to come Um, the recycling or any of that. I don't want to speak to my neighbor's finances but i am considered confident i don't think our street can I would really like if the city of Boston were able to help us maintain this infrastructure here. Um. Anyhow, this whole road is just really bad. It's right now because it just rained. You can't even see how deep they are but that big one right there, that one is incredibly deep. We can try if you have a... Like an SUV or a CRV, you can get down this way but if you have a smaller car than that it scrapes the bottom.

I can't, I could tell you actually because i save all the receipts but uh we you know the amount of times i've had to replace my tires because they've gotten damaged on this road um You know, it's money that I can't be putting towards maintaining the ropes. I have to be able to keep my car rolling. So anyhow, I just wanted to give you a quick tour over my shoulder of I just hope that the city will approve Worrell's proposal and that some maintenance using asphalt can be done on our street because it really, really needs it. We really can't... I don't think we could do it without your help. Alright, thanks so much.

Hi everyone, my name is Fahim Ghulameli. My husband and I moved to Boston a year and half ago and we're residents of Dorchester living on a private way. I'm submitting this video in support of the proposed ordinance to address private-way potholes to include asphalt as one of the repair methods on privateways. While I believe that the city should be resurfacing and completely replacing these I do believe that this proposed ordinance is a step in the right direction to making sure that private ways are safe to travel on. As you'll see from the photos that I'm gonna share right now, the private way on which we live was in major disrepair until we were able to get the potholes filled on the street. It was incredibly unsafe, there were people tripping on the holes because of how deep they had become

and it looks like they were in disrepair for a number of years, even before we moved in. There was standing water in every single pothole because of how deep they were every single time it rained The vehicles on our street would be trying to dodge the number of potholes on the street because of the risk of getting the tires damaged. I support the addition of asphalt to the types of materials that can be used to repair potholes on private ways because asphalt provides durability under heavy traffic and weather conditions. I believe that the addition of asphalt to the types of materials that can be used to repair potholes will address the number of concerns that i raised at the beginning of this video which, to recap again are safety issues that i had

Public health concerns with standing water issues and the potential damage to cars because of how deep potholes have become on a number of private ways. Frankly, I never thought I would be someone who's making a video about the importance of materials to be used to repair potholes but here we are. At the end of the day though my husband and I are taxpayers just like All of the people that live on our street and we're all hoping that our taxpayer dollars can go towards the repair and maintenance of our roads because we use our streets, but so do people who don't live on our streets. And so we're hoping that this ordinance passes and we can take a step in the right direction. Thank you so much for your time and thank you for hearing me out.

Great, thank you to those residents for their videos. Next we have public testimony I think i will just take a quick minute because I would love to get these questions on the record and then make sure that we get this information moving forward so Just to Superintendent Nee, it's okay if you don't have these questions now but I would love a follow up from you or your department. Just thinking about the temporary fixes on average how long does it take for asphalt How much would it cost? with initial repairs if we were to push this forward across the city and then year over year what that annual maintenance cost is.

I'll answer the second one first. In a perfect world, if we were able to snap our fingers and magically just reconstruct all the private ways and they were compliant and had enough space We can probably get you a number based on the mileage and multiply that by what we're paying on public streets. We could probably do that. As far as the first question for how long, if asphalt was used for a pothole patch. We are using asphalt now to patch privateways if the existing condition is asphalt, just to be clear. That might be another rule that I've been breaking for years, but we do do that. But you know...

In the perfect world, if we were to patch a hole with asphalt and there were no underlying conditions. So no water running, no soil underneath degrading 20, 30 years. Asphalt has a very... That's why it's used. It's very durable when it's not negatively affected. Water, utility cuts, that type of thing. It does take a long time For asphalt to break down 20, 30 years easily.

Okay, and this is probably a dumb question. And I'm sorry, this is the follow-up question. The asphalt that you're using, is this the same material that flakes off? When like snow comes or you know, it's like the black flaky material that we see maybe on sidewalks and definitely in Eastie streets.

So it's not the same asphalt that we use to pave roadways. It's called a tennis court, our tennis court top mix. Basically, it has a smaller aggregate So it's finer. The asphalt for a roadway is built with larger aggregate, meaning You know, the petroleum products by Tuomas is added to a larger rock or stone and that binds together. And that makes it very durable roadway, right? So it's very strong. The pothole, the top mix that we use for potholes is also very strong. It's just used with sand or very small stones. It provides a better seal, if you will. So it adheres better so water isn't able to seep in cheaper which is plus easy to work with

So yeah, so it's relatively the same.

Okay, thank you. I apologize. Thank you for the folks on public testimony for indulging me. We'll go to virtual testimony. We have we'll start with Nancy, Rick and then Taraza, I apologize if I'm saying your name incorrectly. Then we have two more folks signed up but we'll start with Nancy. Nancy please unmute yourself, introduce yourself and your affiliation and you have two minutes.

Hi, I'm just going to read this. Thank you for the conversation. My name is Nancy Alio and I have lived on Stella Road a private way in Roslindale since 1988 Stella Road is between American Legion Highway and High Park Ave. Thank you, Councilor Worrell for creating this ordinance I support Docket 0807 Ordinance to address private way potholes. That said, this is only the start to addressing a long-standing problem due to antiquated laws. Over 100 years ago when this farmland area was developed, Stella Road was left as a private way common practice in the city and across the state. When I purchased my home 38 years ago, Stella road was in disrepair A private way is not a must-have on a home buying list. It comes with the property.

Private ways are heavily trafficked by the public, including emergency vehicles not simply used by the current private way residents. City initiatives such as calming streets have dramatically increased traffic on privateways. Privateways have been a giveaway from the city to developers for over 100 years. Developers should be required to build roads that meet the City-State standards and not shift this responsibility and cost onto future homeowners or blame third-party contractors for substandard roads. Current residents should not be responsible for sweet deals given to developers 5, 10, 50 years ago. Considering the conversion of privateways to public roads, current residents should not assume additional costs and increase taxes.

Privateway residents pay city and state taxes With a portion of those budgets going to repair roads. None of their tax dollars repair their private ways due to outdated laws. These residents are being asked to pay twice. Please don't let this ordinance be the end of the discussion. I just want to add two things from the conversation is that Yes, there are some residents, as the Commissioner mentioned, he likes his dead-end street the way it is. Stella Road's a cut-through. It is used as a cut through and it gets worse and worse over the last hundred years The other thing is in terms of budgeting, I think that here's a creative financial concept. Residents on a private way, all my taxes, all their taxes on that private way go into a special fund.

Not going to the whole general budget for five or ten years and then that money can be used to repair that street. Some creative solutions have to be found for these antiquated laws, Gabrielle Zapata said, we do need to change the laws. It may take time but please address Changing these laws and everything isn't a one-size fits all. As you mentioned, my street isn't wide enough. Maybe sidewalks can't be on both sides but they could be on half one side. There needs to be creative thinking to really change this. It's a problem that's just been kicked down the road for 100 years. Thank you.

Thank You, Nancy. Next up we have Rick and then Terraza, and then Shirley.

All visual. Here we go. Thank you very much for this hearing. And my counselor, Brian Worrell, I want to thank him for being involved in this and the Commissioner. It's a very informative presentation, you made the complexity of this problem. I'm a co-leader of the Mount Hope Canterbury Neighborhood Association along American Legion Highway I did a count the other day. We have 10 private roads adding up to 4,500 feet. Only two of them are dead ends, and they don't get much traffic. They'll last a while. Interestingly, your first video and the video from Nancy are both members of our community.

The first one was Brad Street Road which almost intersects Stella What you see from the video and what you hear from Nancy's presentation is a typical problem in our neighborhood. I won't repeat what everybody else has said, but it's sort of unbelievable to see roads like that in such terrible condition. Here in Boston and going on for decades. And we're in this logjam. I can see it's complicated, but it's a working class neighborhood. Many, many people having trouble just paying their mortgages to take on an expense that it'd take to do this privately is not going to happen. Yet we continue to have these terrible roadways.

I was thinking when we're talking about this, we have public roads in our neighborhood that don't have sidewalks. Canterbury Road, and Mount Calvary. And it would be very difficult now in some ways, and some parts of them that put in sidewalks because the road is so narrow. On one side there's a drop off on the other side of someone's house. You're not going to get your 53 feet, but it's a public road and it gets repaired. I mean, it's the same situation. It just happens to be public and it gets repaired. There is not going to ever be sidewalks there. So I hope, I see this proposal as a step in the right direction.

I do have a ways to go. To really be able to do the correct improvements. One question I would have is if iconos, I think it's on maybe Mount Calvary. There's no sidewalks, but the asphalt when it goes to the edges they build in a small curb basically out of the asphalt. So that keeps the water from going to people's yards, goes down the hill and at the bottom there is an intersection of Canterbury Street I don't know if that's in between. Thank you.

keeping the water out of people's yards. In other words, is it possible for a city to write an ordinance like that and not run into problems with the state law. You do a pretty good job of just resurfacing, dealing with the water runoff but you don't put in sidewalks or is that just not possible? Anyway, that's my question. Thank you.

Thank You Rick. We'll look into that with our Council. Appreciate your testimony. Next up we have Shirley and then Christopher

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. Okay great.

Thanks for the opportunity. I'm not sure exactly—I was invited here, I think because I contacted Councilman Weber about some issues I was having on my private way which are totally different than what we're speaking about today. I want to mention them only in the sense that um sitting here listening I understand that private ways are all over Boston and I'm sure that that's because we're such an old city and we used to have cow paths and carriage roads and all that and we're suffering under the Those issues right now and trying to make it a better place to live for everybody. And also being a former state employee, I know about prioritization of scarce resources and how difficult this job is. So in saying that, I live on a private web lived there for 33 years in Jamaica Plain. I live Union Ave which is kind of a unique situation because Union Ave, the main part of it is a public way.

And we have it's an L-shaped street that goes from Washington to Green and my section has four houses on it. And it's a private way. And in the private way law, my understanding is that abutters own half the street. And this is unique because my abutter on the opposite side is the city Now, potholes are there. They don't bother us because it slows people down because they come around the corner so quickly. And because there's no sidewalks, there are lots of people and lots of children because we abut the field at English High. There are lots of kids walking to and from the tennis courts, the pickleball courts, soccer field. and there are no sidewalks. And people come around the corner or up the hill, and it's very, very, dangerous. We've posted signs, no parking, and people park there all the time because they're coming to watch the game

And we're in a situation where people Don't believe that we have the right to have them towed. They fight with the tow drivers. It's a bad scene there. I think the issue that I just want to raise is that Every private way is different. Every set of residents that live on those private ways are different. I don't think we can come across with a one solution fits all and make people happy. I don't know if this is even possible, but doing some assessment and prioritization of the worst situations and the ones that people really want to have solved would be great. What I'm concerned about is the other city services that get neglected, and I've been told many times we can't do that because it's a private way. Well again, I'm a taxpaying citizen my safety

Meaning people that assault me when I tell them you can't park here, you're going to get towed. And they verbally abused me and one time physically abused me for telling him that to save them the $250 toll fee. The police say we can't do anything. The reason I'm here is because someone dumped an old Coleman pop-up tent trailer on our private way illegally And all the police were saying, we can't do anything because it's a private way. Well, wait a minute. This has been illegally dumped. We're citizens of the city. The laws still apply, right? I mean that's the part that I'm here to talk about too is Citizens of private ways deserve all the rest of city services, protection by the police, illegal dumping on the private way. I mean

So there's a myriad of problems for private way residents. And I understand potholes are big one, like I said we're not too concerned about it because we're on a hill water doesn't settle in our yards The potholes are okay because they're not that deep and it slows people down, so pothules are not my biggest issue. But it's funny that in the last... Three months, two teams have come and filled the potholes on my street. I never put in a 3-1-1 no one on my Street did either so i don't know maybe it was because of this new ordinance but um There's a myriad of problems with private ways. I think the city would do well in checking with the residents to see what are the issues they have, what did they need? And again, this may be a big job. But I think you need to prioritize people. And the other thing is that a lot of these dirt roads

I know in Maine and in Nova Scotia, because we go there a lot, they have dirt roads that are hard packed. And they're pretty good because the freeze-thaw issue doesn't become an issue for them It just drains away. I don't know if that's another solution to look into other forms of hard pack roads that won't produce potholes like get produced with asphalt and patch, coal patch. I just think like one of the other video, the woman in the video earlier said we have to be creative and we have Look at the outdated laws. I worked for the courts for 30 years. I know there are a lot of laws on the books that just are not in service of us today. with technology and everything else. One of the problems is ways, right? It's always telling people how to avoid the traffic that's been caused by new traffic patterns. And they're using all these private ways

All the public is using their easement to get over, to cut off the light on Washington Street or get through somewhere on American Legion Highway. We're creating problems that are creating more problems for us. I think we need to take a big sort of a global look, just some thoughts on the matter. Happy to help in any way I can but thank you for the time and those are some of the issues I've had. Thanks.

Thank you, Shirley. Next up is Christopher.

Hi, can you hear me?

We can hear you. Yep.

Wonderful. I'm Chris Arena, I'm actually camera off because i'm calling from Acadia National Park right now but this matter matters so much to me that I figured I'd take a second for my vacation and call in talk about my experience This issue dates back to conversations with former Councillor Lara, current Councillor Weber. My wife and I are both homeowners in the Grove in Boston. We've lived here for six years now. We love this neighborhood. The history of this neighborhood is hilarious and interesting and strange. It used to be a summer destination of the wealthy Back Bay elites who would take their carriages down and vacation in the city of Boston, in their own city. In their little oasis. We love the character of this neighborhood but there are two core issues that I think everyone experiences and has different reactions to The first of which is roads, and I'll talk about that in a second. And the second of which are streets. So the streets in the Grove were never considered, thought out, mapped out, intentionalized

In a way that would have helped with a lot of our issues. For example, I live on a road called Dana Road and there's three or four different parts to Dana Road where it just cuts off through what used to be a cottage Our neighborhood also has, you know, lifelong residents and generational residents and folks like my wife and I who came from Alston and many years in different Boston neighborhoods like Roslindale. A story that I want to share about my neighborhood and the road, which is really challenging, is we had a resident who passed away not more than a couple of years ago. I remember distinctly chatting with the ambulance after or people who came, the public safety folks after the resident had passed. And they had mentioned just how difficult it was to not only find the house, but to get in. To be able to try and give life-saving care They had to come down a road called Linden, which changes its names two different times and has the worst potholes in Boston.

Ramisu, you will not find a deeper pothole. I think Councilor Weber talked about a tank-sized potholes there are three of them on Linden so this ambulance couldn't get down had to drive the other way and again at this point we're talking about delaying life serving care The simple issues with the postal service, I have those same issues in the winter where they can't drive down and deliver our mail. But another really pressing current issue is a tree on Dana Road recently died, a very, very large tree And in trying to get this tree removed, we spoke to Eversource. We spoke to the city and a bunch of different partners And as a private way, the only responsibility comes to the neighbors of actually servicing this tree in the middle of a road. So again, I think the issue is not to have The Grove become a place where we have three different sidewalks and industrialization. I think some of the long-term neighbors would

Be against that, although I think it'd be lovely to have more neighbors in my neighborhood. But the reality is The Grove is probably one of the most pressing areas of street disrepair in the entire city No one's going to use this place as a cut through. I promise Washington to Grove Street is not a common route that people take, but if we can find a solution that can ensure residents who need medical care in the moment get it faster, that we can ensure that delivery drivers know which part of Dana Road they can get to. And also that future residents kind of know what they're getting into when they buy a property with a septic tank and a private road. I think collaboration in a middle ground like Perhaps just a paving or a heavy dirt pack like I believe Shirley just said as opposed to sidewalks and the deeply defined road. I'm happy to be involved. Like I said, I was having conversations with Kendra Lara and former Councilor Lara and current Councilor Weber.

I think you'll find many residents in the Grove want to be a part of the solution not just have it performed for them The difficulty is the pick process, and I'll close with this. The pick process is really challenging. I don't know half of my neighbors Not because I don't want to, but because we live in different areas. Some work very different jobs and schedules. And the Grove is a really big neighborhood. To get 50% of people even to a meeting, let alone to agree on something is going to be really challenging. So instead if we could focus on solutions that can activate certain neighbors that can also bring the road up to a standard, if not a code. That would be fantastic and I'm so grateful for the chance to speak and I'd be happy to stay involved. Thank you.

Thank You Chris That's it for public testimony. I'll now go to the lead sponsor for any closing remarks and then we'll close it out.

Thank you, Chair. All the residents who provided remarks, a lot of creative ideas and we'll definitely incorporate them and be reaching out To see how we can work on coming up with ways on how to get creative on bringing relief to the residents that are living on private waves. I guess one of my questions that i would like to find out superintendent me is if you were to fill all the potholes on private ways Thank you for watching. because those are actual complaints that have been closed out.

If we can get a dollar amount associated with that, I think it could be useful for me to understand What the cost would be for just filling the potholes.

So you're speaking of holes that have already been filled or ones that we fill? The one that you haven't filled. ones that we haven't filled. Okay, gotcha.

Right because there's 311 requests that have been closed out saying hey these are private ways we're not going to fill it out. It goes through this assessment process on whether it reaches this public safety threshold Right? So you may or may not have filled those.

Yeah, we... We can try. The only issue would be, you know again the public doesn't differentiate they see something wrong with the roadway it's a pothole. Internally we deal with them kind of as roadway defects so Let me see what we can come up with. I'm just concerned about accuracy, but let me see

Okay. And, you know, we heard from a lot of residents, their taxpayers, their taxes go into a general fund which then Goals and Fixes potholes or provide city services to other streets. And again, this is just trying to find a step forward on trying Get these residents that live on private ways and I'm not aware of any, you know different Taxes. I don't think they're getting any... They're not paying less in taxes to live on the private way, but just trying to get these residents... You know, some release. And one way is just trying to update the law to kind of fit what we're experiencing and going through now. So I think everyone who

was part of the conversation. Shout out to Matt from my team who's been working on this and he found this city ordinance that we felt should have been up, could be updated to provide the city with more flexibility on using asphalt but I know it's currently Thank you for joining us. Creating a threshold, just making sure that we are filling the potholes on these private ways. But happy to further the conversation, looking forward to a working session and looking forward Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Worrell and thank you for bringing this forward into your team and everybody that's provided testimony and Superintendent, thank you I appreciate your perspective. This hearing on docket 0807 is adjourned. Thanks everyone.