Public Utilities and Public Works Committee

Good evening, everybody. This is the October 15th meeting of the Public Utility Public Works Committee of the Somerville City Council. It is now 6.02. I am Jesse Clingan, the chair of this committee. And before we do a roll call, I'm just going to read this blurb that allows us to do this meeting remotely. And so that is pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025. This meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. That said, we have Clerk Forcelese with us this evening. Clerk Forcelese, could you please call the roll to establish a call?

This is roll call. Councilor McLaughlin? Here. Councilor Scott? Present. Councilor Clingan? Present. Present. Mr. Chair, all members are present. We have a quorum.

All right. Item one on the agenda. So we have just five items. It should be a fairly quick meeting. You know, I just want to keep up on things in the box as we get close to the end of the year with different changes in, you know, the council or chairs and so on. So that said, item one is the approval of the minutes of the Public Utility Public Works Committee meeting of June 2nd. I'm just going to lay that out on the table for approval at the end of the meeting, Peter. Moving on from that item, we have been asked to take an item out of order. We have staff, we have the Commissioner of BPW, Jill Latham, here this evening to address item 5, which is Order 25-1133 by Councilor Sait that the Commissioner of Public Works increase sanitary maintenance of the streets and sidewalks in Magoon Square. So I hadn't had a chance to speak to the Councilor, but I'm assuming this means, I guess, I don't know, like spraying, you know, spraying down of the sidewalks and just general sort of upkeep. So here to speak on that is Commissioner Lathan. Commissioner, go ahead and take it away. I don't know if you had a chance to speak to the counselor. Maybe, yeah.

Good evening, Chair. Jill Latham, DPW Commissioner. Thank you for allowing me to come tonight. They did speak with the councilor. I guess this had to do with trash in the barrels, the condition of some of the barrels and the big bellies and condition of some of those big bellies. We also kind of did some walkthroughs. My team did some walkthroughs of that area. Some of the trash that we noticed were, for example, we had some significant amount of cigarette butts in some tree wells, which we've already cleaned up. We do regularly clean Magoon Square weekly, and we dump the trash daily. The big bellies, they're going to be on a maintenance kind of contract. We did take a look at those to see the condition of those bellies. Some of those may need just some minor maintenance. A lot of the stuff that Maybe seeing in McGill squares, like many of our squares, the business owners really do have to have some responsibility in cleaning up around their particular area and their sidewalks. For example, we noticed there was a significant amount of cigarette buds we picked up that were thrown in tree wells right in front of a cigarette bin by the market. So regardless of what we're going to put out there, people have to choose to actually use the receptacles that are readily available for them to dispose of. their trash and their cigarette butts. But having said that, DPW does regularly clean Magoon Square. We will be power washing those trash barrels in big bellies, and we'll be sending out our maintenance crews to work on those big bellies to see if they're having any minor issues with those. But as we drove around, we didn't see any significant amount of overflowing barrels or trash concerns besides the cigarette beds and some tree wells, mostly cleaned up. So that's kind of where we are.

Thank you, Commissioner, and I'll open up to colleagues in a minute. I know, I mean, we all have sort of, well, Council Scott has Union Square and, you know, Councilor Laughlin has the East Somerville Business District and I have some business on Winter Hill. And so I guess, and, you know, we don't have like extra hands, if you will, or So, I mean, I understand what you're saying about the business district and the business kind of everybody kind of doing their part. I don't know what the regular sort of like general maintenance protocols are like, or schedule in terms of, obviously they pick up the DBW guys are great. They pick up the trash, but certainly, you know, getting more in depth, like whether it be like, do we have a power wash, the sidewalks in any areas? Is that, is that like a every so often thing or do we not?

Mr. Chair, we really don't typically do that unless there's a, You know, we do, when we're doing the leaf stuff and our squares, we'll do some blowing of leaves and picking them, but we're not out there regularly, but we need some additional resources with that kind of equipment and power washing and water trucks and things like that. So that's not something currently in our ability. Our watering trucks currently really have to focus on our plants that we have to kind of water throughout the city with the limited water truck resource we have currently.

Okay, I just thought of that because, you know, this is somewhat of a broad council order. And, you know, I know that with Davis Square and the issues down there, I know that everybody is really focused on sort of general maintenance as well, cosmetic, you know, just general upkeep. So that's all I have. And I understand completely the, you know, the limitations of what our crews can do and the amount of time they have and the resources they have. Anything from colleagues on this one?

Council Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Latham, of course, really appreciate your efforts and the efforts of the grounds crews to get out there and take care of this. That's always been my experience as well when some areas have needed a little love, just reaching out to DPW is helpful. I think I think this does speak to, like you said, a question of capacity. You know, this has been an ongoing concern of mine with all the green infrastructure and stormwater things that we're putting in right now. And for the ones that are right in front of businesses, I agree. I think it's a responsibility of first rule being a good business is being a good neighbor. And just like neighbors should clean up the streets in front of their houses and keep their tree wells neat. I think, you know, A public education campaign down here for folks in Union Square might be helpful on that front, but we do have increasing numbers of these, call them expanded tree wells, for lack of a better term, the green drainage infrastructure that are either in front of city infrastructure or are previously in what was previously the street. I'm thinking about on Summer Ave. summer street there's a giant triangular one put in there are those going on a rotation to have the city pay attention to those uh and if not if it is a you know resource allocation problem um is this a thing where a dedicated three-person crew expanding the expanding the staff with an extra three-person crew would allow the city to have capacity to take care of that infrastructure

Through the chair, you're correct. There's a significant amount of tree wells and new infrastructure kind of put in yearly. As we continue to beautify the city and continue to do phenomenal additions to our city, that will require additional resources. There's just no way around that. I mean, we do have, it is on our queue and on our schedule and almost, you know, pothole repairs and cement work and curb repairs and Trimming, tree trimming and mowing. It's a part of the federal work that my crews do every single day in the city. As we continue to grow and continue to build this phenomenal city, we are going to have to continue to look at how we're going to meet those capacity needs.

All right, well, I appreciate that. Let's just say, I hope that's a conversation that starts with our new mayor as soon as the election's over. Because I certainly hope you'll still be our DPW commissioner after that. All right, thank you very much, Mr. Chair, I'm all set.

Great, anything else from colleagues? All right, thank you, Commissioner. We're gonna work complete this item Good night, unless there's something else for you to be here. And then we will return to the regular order. Mr. Clerk, that would be item number two that the Commissioner of Public Works discussed with this council, the recent snagging of overhead wires by the semi-truck that took out the electricity in Ward 7 and what plans have been put in place to prevent a similar occurrence. So on that item, I know we did just have Commissioner Latham who this order is directed to accept that Um, there is a memo, uh, from director in front of the director of traffic and parking, uh, because this is sort of more of a traffic, uh, just, uh, it's more of a, um, traffic enforcement situation with regards to the type of vehicles that are able to go down the streets. Um, I don't know how much of a rush commissioner Latham's in, but actually I did, when I did speak to, um, liaison Hunter, you know, this, It's an interesting situation. I, you know, the memo is there for anybody to read it. It relates to, you know, using apps and like excluding trucks from going down certain streets, putting up the no truck signs, which are somewhat hard to enforce. But, you know, I had this thought, I don't know, at the regular meeting of the council, I had a unique, I don't know how unique it is, an interesting situation where, um, One of the garbage trucks from Boston Carding that, you know, or whatever the name is now, come down the street, same street, same spot, every week, week in and week out. And for some reason, one week, the top of the garbage truck snagged a wire and pulled the wire off of my landlady's house. And we didn't lose power, but it was like kind of really hanging low. Fire department came and all that. So I'm just wondering, like, You know, again, I'm not and I don't expect you to be a wire expert per se, but I just figured we could have a conversation around, you know, if the wind is able to sort of stretch wires over time, almost like a piece of dough, if you just imagine like, you know, over time, like strong winds. Like if someone's concerned, like, could we maybe put in place where lights and lines, they have like, and this may be already in place, but there's some sort of like measuring stick that, you know, there is a bare minimum to which we will allow a wire to hang across the roadway. Not necessarily. I know sometimes like some of the cable lines like Comcast can get kind of low. But those aren't necessarily in the roadway, but like if someone becomes concerned, because it just really did kind of blow my mind as to how this wire all of a sudden got snagged when the same truck has put the same guys on it. I mean, exact same truck, same crew have been driving down the same street for years. And all of a sudden it grabs the wires and I have it on, you know, video and stuff like that. So anyway. That's just kind of, this incident may be completely different, but because Councillor Strezo put it in, it made me think it may be, you know, just even worth just kind of putting a spotlight on that scenario with the garbage truck. Because the memo speaks more to, you know, 18 wheelers or whatever, like huge, you know, semi trucks coming down streets. And that's an issue absolutely in Somerville, where we don't want trucks coming down the wrong street. But I just figured I would at least throw out there this concept or idea of like, Or is there a way that we sort of address why, as I know it's the utility company, but is there something that city could do to sort of like preempt these scenarios from happening where people lose power or, you know, internet or whatever?

Mr. Chair, that's actually a great observation. And I think I know that my lights and lines to crews do work regularly and communicate regularly with every source. And it will just be a matter of how we would methodically kind of and strategically kind of figure out a plan of how that would happen in all of our streets. And, you know, sometimes, you know, whether it be a tree limb or a freak windstorm, it's going to cause some, you know, extra damage. And, you know, that's kind of how we're aware of certain conditions throughout the city. That's actually some food for thought. I'd like to kind of take that back to my lights and lines crew and kind of get their thoughts on that to see how would that be actually manageable in a realistic and sustainable way, if that makes sense.

Yeah. I mean, it's like, I just imagine it like a minimum clearance because I'm sure the utility companies already try to make sure they're up high enough, but I feel like if there's a scenario where over time they sort of somehow sag on their own, whether it's the wind, again, just citing this case of mine as evidence but anyway yeah that's all i'm really asking just just to put that out there have a conversation with lights and lines but as far as this particular incident you know we do have this memo addressing it so that's all i have um on this subject uh colleagues anything okay well the uh so the memo was attached for anybody listening and i'll let counselor Strezo know um As the de facto sort of temporary Ward seven you know counselor looking out for those folks on there, I will let her know this memo is attached and that we have this conversation, so thank you, Commissioner Latham moving on to, and we will work complete that Peter. Moving on to item number three, which is a resolution by counselor Scott that the administration, including the director mobility discussed with this counseling process for establishing municipal standards. for furnishings at bus stops and shelters. I see Intergovernmental Affairs Director Singh ready to speak. I know when I spoke to Liaison Hunter, this one is, as you would imagine, a little tricky with regards to the MBTA's equipment and so on. So we don't have a memo or we may be keeping this one in committee, but I see that the director is prepared to say something. I'll turn it over to you, Director Singh.

Through the Chair, thank you for the opportunity. Unfortunately, Mobility Director Brad Rawson could not attend, but I'm here to speak on this item. As soon as we received this request, we started having internal conversations. We also reached out to Councillor Scott as the sponsor of the item, and we agreed that we need to We need to have additional conversations to come up with some citywide standards on this. So I don't have an update for you on this item just yet, but I can outline for you some of the next steps that the city will be working on. in case that's helpful. So mobility will review and document our existing city standards for streets, parks, schoolyard furniture, of course, working with other relevant and impacted departments. We will also review and document MBTA system-wide standards for bus stop furnishings, We will also review and document MBTA bus stop asset inventory in Somerville, and then we'll take all of this information and share it with relevant city boards and commissions, including PTAC, Commission on Persons with Disabilities, Council on Aging, to seek that input and solicit their feedback on what bench standards should look like in the city. And then based on those conversations, we will either make changes to our planning and design process and come up with a sort of long-term process and standards for the city. So look forward to coming back to the Council with some updates on those next steps.

Great. Thank you. And just a couple of quick questions sort of should just bear out sort of what, you know, these can be directed towards you, Director, or to the Council, the originator, or, you know, furnishings. See, when I see an order like this, to me, what brings to mind is like furnishings, meaning like could really mean anything from the type of seating to even lighting or whether or not it's a covered bus stop. And, you know, it would be great to sort of have a standard where like whenever we have enough, and I know these are subject to change because one time you may have enough room for a covered thing or we may, well, we may also sort of have a standard for where and why if it's a really popular bus route and, you know, there's a, and there's maybe a, a senior, you know, a senior housing thing nearby. Like we should be trying to get a covered, covered thing, stuff like that. But, but I guess the standardization would be great. Like, so I have a bus stop on Mystic Ave that, you know, has like no light, like it's on a telephone pole, actually. It's a unique situation. So, so things like that. So, so I guess the question is, is, is real quick question is just, The MBTA, so we dictate, we can affect where actual stops go. Can we affect who decides what the furnishings are? The MBTA pays for those furnishings. How much influence do we have over the furnishings? Just to set the table for a future conversation.

Um, through the chair. I don't want to misspeak. So I can definitely take this back to the mobility team. I do know that the bench that prompted this conversation with the sponsor of the item. It was paid for by participatory budgeting funds.

Okay. All right, well, that's good. All right, thank you. I'm satisfied. Anything from colleagues? Council Scott, do you have anything to add as far as just, obviously, sometimes it can be participatory budgeting. Sometimes it does come from the META?

No, I mean, these are city funds. The furnishing there are city funds. And part of this that is the reason for the order is that it's frustrating for people to see city funds used in a manner that they feel like is hostile architecture. So when I first reached out to the mayor's staff, and credit to the mayor's staff, we've been meeting weekly for months now, including on this topic. You know, it's clear here that there were guidelines that the MBTA wanted, and to streamline the purchasing process, going with those default vendors, as I understand was part of it, I'm sure Director Rawson will explain more when he gets here. But to echo some of your sentiment, I mean, this is about more than just the hospital architecture installed in these new bus shelters along Washington Street. It's also about furnishings and standards at all these bus stops. I mean, you mentioned one on Mystic. I've got one on McGrath. One of some of those crossing guards, Jose, has been asking for a bench uh, at this one particular stop for now a couple of years. Uh, it's, it's frustrating. Uh, so I think, you know, this is, uh, this is not a situation where we are or where the city is in a position to tear up these benches and put in new ones. Although I certainly, uh, think that's an option. Uh, we can replace the benches that are in there with ones that are more of the city standard design, those, uh, black wrought iron ones that everybody's familiar with. But more so, this is an opportunity and a call for departments to come together as the director described. And the wheel will turn slowly on this, I anticipate, but my hope is that it will turn and we'll end up with a uniform standard that meets our policy goals and that can then be used in the future for all of these infrastructure improvements. So I'd ask that we keep it in committee so that Director Ross can be here and hopefully we can just get more of the story on the record and help folks understand what all these dedicated city employees are doing to improve the situation in the future.

All right. That sounds good to me. Clerk forced to lease. We're going to keep this one in committee. That'll move us to our final item on the agenda, which is item number four, which is by Councilor Sait, Wilson, Burnley, that Eversource explained the reason behind repeated power outages in Magoon Square and share what they have done to address them in the near term and what is being done to prevent long-term interference. To that item, we have a really good memo from well, it's from Bill Fisher, the Director of Emergency Management. But it's, well, it's from Jason Wright, Eversource Community Relation Representative to the City of Sunwell Liaison via Mr. Fisher. And I'll just read a little bit of it because these power outages, they've been almost a yearly occurrence. And I think it has, you know, you don't have to be a genius to figure out like it, it always seems to happen in August when the load is really heavy with a lot of air conditioners and so on. But it's enough that it's really, really disruptive to people's everyday life as far as the outages and the extended outages. I mean, I can just just coming from the memo, I can tell you, in the timeframe identified, there were 26 unplanned outages in the area, two of two of the distribute distribution circuits that feed Magoon Square, have had a bulk of unplanned outages. They've been the bulk of the unplanned outages. There is one 4KV circuit that has several equipment failure issues this year in particular. Eversource System Planning has identified the 4KV station and circuits, and they will be converted to a 13.8KV in the next 10 years. And the circuit that has had outages this year is on the conversion plan. But the conversion primary and secondary cable will be replaced along with the switches and other equipment. In the meantime, before the conversion, several sections of cable have been replaced. Additionally, switches have been replaced in order to increase reliability and the ability of operations to pick up load more quickly and reach more customers. So very great work done by city staff to get that information and memo from our partners at Eversource for this meeting, for this memo. to answer the counselor's concerns and questions and hopefully residents. So I don't have anything on this. The memo kind of settles it all. I don't know if any other colleagues do. I'll open it now or if the administration wants to say anything or anybody at all before we call it a night.

Mr. Chair. Just point out that while it's good to have an explanation of some of the mechanics behind this and getting in details of a four kilovolt circuit versus a 13.8 kilovolt circuit, great. But one thing that I notice is missing from this is a date of when the work that they say, they're saying they're gonna be replacing a four kilovolt station circuit to be converted in the next 10 years. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Right, they say it's on the conversion plan so 10 years is a pretty broad window and having annual outages there for 10 years i'm pretty sure would not be something the folks in lagoon are eager about. HAB-Jacques Juilland, So I didn't know if we would want to follow up with Mr right and see if we could get a little bit more detail on where on the timeline this work is.

HAB-Jacques Juilland, So yeah I mean three so so concert, you know my thinking was. Again, we didn't see any towards the end of the summer, so I didn't know if the upgrading of the cables and the switches had addressed it, but was also welcoming the news of a replacement, as you said, within the next 10 years. Hopefully that's in two years, but I'm happy to, you know, I think it's fine to pursue this and get a more concrete answer as to where it is on their timeline, you know, So we know what to expect. Yeah, I mean, we could keep this particular one in committee and try to get the Eversource representative. Did I say Eversource? Is it Eversource? Yeah. Sorry. Because we have two, National Grid and Eversource. Yeah, so you could try to get the Eversource representative here to maybe address that, or I could just talk to the counselor and have her put in another separate order.

I think it's fair enough to just note that that information is missing. We can mark this particular item work complete. I can follow up with the counselor. And yeah, because we've got a long history of the Eversource Community Relations person coming before us. And I'm going to save that bullet. But I'll happily-

I mean, honestly, Counselor, I don't think it's out of the question that they would, but I think if just another order is put in asking, you know, maybe we can get another memo with a timeline, like just asking specifically in your last memo, you know, whatever, in the last memo they said, maybe there's just a way to get the information we need without trying to get them to committee or, you know, even keep it a secret. So I'll let you know. Tom Preston- follow up with the Council on that i'll talk to the counselors as well. Tom Preston- And definitely this is something that's on my radar because it did start to spill over into not that not that we don't obviously as Councils we don't only care about our area anyway, we care about the entire city. Tom Preston- But just for note, I did notice that I don't know if it was related to this, but there was at SEC building at 360. 357, I think it is, Broadway and a few other pockets in the Winter Hill area had some outages around the same time period. So I'm keenly interested in making sure that this gets resolved and we don't see rolling blackouts, rolling outages throughout the summer months. So more to come on this for anybody here for this particular item. But for now, we will work complete this one, Clerk Forseley. So do you have everything down in terms of we're just keeping the one item, item number 325-1425 in committee. The rest are work complete. Okay. And so we will now vote on the minutes from the June 2nd, 2025 meeting, as well as adjournment. Councilor McLaughlin moves to adjourn. Could you please call the roll on adjournment and the approval of the minutes, Mr. Clerk?

On approval of the minutes and adjournment, Councilor McLaughlin?

Yes.

Councilor Scott?

Yes.

Councilor Clingan? Yes. All members have voted to accept the minutes and to adjourn. We are adjourned.

Have a good evening, everybody. Thank you.

Take care.