City Council 02/10/2026

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Worcester City Council. If you can, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and the status of the banquet dinner.

Aye.

and so on.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed At the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars Through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming. And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, They proved through the night that our flag was still there.

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

and the home of the brave.

Roll call. Councilor Bergman? Here. Councilor Bilotta?

Here.

Councilor Economou? Here. Councilor Fresolo? Here. Councilor King?

Here.

Here. Councilor Mitra.

Here.

Councilor Ojeda. Here. Councilor Rivera. Here. Councilor Rosen. Here. Councilor Toomey.

Here.

And Mayor Petty. Here.

So we have approval of the minutes of January 27th. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Public participation. The person may not speak for more than two minutes on any item appearing on the agenda. Mr.

Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Rule 39, items of public interest at every meeting of the City Council on the public participation portion of the agenda. the chair shall recognize any person seeking such recognition for the purpose of addressing the council on any eligible items on the agenda for meeting both in person and remotely. Any person who wishes to speak on more than one agenda item shall combine their testimony on all items to one appearance at the microphone. The time for speaking shall not exceed two minutes for any one speaker. or 30 minutes for all speakers. Rule 40 petitions, on the first occasion any petition appears on the City Council agenda, the Prime Petitioner may address the City Council for no more than three minutes on the subject of their petition.

Is your name senior residents? Item number?

Can they volume up? Oh, here we go. Fred, Nathan, Worcester. Just want to remind people that it's Black History Month. 8.7 A and B. with all the problems that we have got from the storm I think there are a lot of sidewalks that still need some action and these are not necessarily private citizens. There are spaces in Worcester that are public public area that are owned by the city that still are kind of lagging behind. So I just want to remind people that you cannot be fining anybody for an unshoveled a sidewalk if the city isn't gonna do its own work. Oh, that's right.

8.30A. Just curious, what kind of more taxes, or shall I say, not taxes, but money's gonna be borrowed for the DCO. What kind of special tax district are they asking for money for now? Just curious. Thank you. The next speaker.

Name, seat of residence, item number. Abby Mortillero, she, her, Worcester resident, District 4. I'll start with 10A. Rent control is good. It's good to have some rent control here. I want it now. 10C, Office of Housing Stability, I want that too. It's good to have that for the city, you know. It would be good for the city. Okay. All right, 10F. I spent a long day in court today watching the trial of Ethel Hajij, a former member of this council. Need I remind you?

Now, Ashley got community service, someone who's already serving the community. Edel, still on trial, more to begin tomorrow. We want a citizen review board. You know, a citizen review board. I ask for it like every week. Every week I ask for accountability. Every week. I'm here, you know, speaking on the same items. Every week, I come here to speak on the same items, and I'm gonna keep coming, you know. He'll keep seeing me every week, speaking on the same items. Accountability and what side of history are you on? Let me ask that question. What side of history are you on?

What side of history are you on? Okay. Thank you.

Hello, my name's Gary Hunter. I'm in District 5. I think you probably remember that. First thing I'd like to do is thank the mayor and the city manager for making a strong statement. about ICE not wanting it in our community. I thought it was very good and I appreciate it. I want to talk about 8.7 and A and B. As you know, last week I mentioned how hard the city plow people worked, and they worked hard. Yet, it just seems like the city's having trouble handling that much snow. It could be worse. I think maybe we could look at... There's got to be a better system of more people. I know you can only put so many people out on the streets, but there's got to be a better system to get the snow so that people can pass each other on these streets.

As far as 813, I know our police chief has made many changes to how things are done in the police department. but what we still need is some accountability. You wonder why you have people leaving. I know if I was a police officer, and all these questions about what happened with the DOJ report. I wouldn't want to work in this department. No wonder why they're leaving. We need more accountability and we need a civil review board. There are people that ran for office said they would look at it and get a report. You don't need a report. I'm looking at this agenda. You're here for the people. of the City of Worcester to do their business. What here is doing the city business in this agenda? Last week the meeting was less than an hour. What are you doing?

Why aren't the more important things, like Civil Review Board, Are you afraid to make a vote on it? Thank you. Thank you very much.

Okay, we have two people on line. Do mark first, three people on line. Do Fred last because he's got a petition.

Mark Andrews, I want to meet the resident now. Please state your name, state your residence, and the item you're calling on.

Mark Andrews, Worcester, Mass. I want to speak on the agenda item 8.7. Mostly about A. Well, B actually. The snow plying operations during the most recent large snowstorm, January 23rd to 26th. I'm not criticizing. I know the Plough drivers have a very difficult job. I actually spoke to one of them as I was out shoveling. But it's regarding to fire hydrants, and I did email Council Rivera about this last week. I have a fire hydrant at the corner of my street. I live on Ledgewood Lane, so the corner of Ledgewood and Stonehouse. and it was buried quite deeply on the Monday after the storm. And so I shoveled that out. It took me about 15 minutes to find it.

And the next day it was buried again. I had to shovel it out again. So I guess I'm a little, I just have some questions about what is, does the city have a plan for what to do with fire hydrants in a storm? I noticed there were markers on some of them, some of the main streets. Is it possible to have markers so that the plow drivers can see where they are? I can imagine it would take the fire department a long time to find them. So do we have a plan for them as far as markers are clearing them? If so, what is the plan? I hope that we'd be a little proactive. I don't know what the fire department has to do in a situation like that. If they had to take as long as I did to find it, it wouldn't be a very good situation. Thank you.

Thank you.

and Natalie.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The next speaker is Natalie Gibson, chair with the resident now.

Hi, good evening. I do have to make a comment to the last person that spoke. I do recall that Councilor Toomey stated they can't put markers on the Hidrants because it was a safety issue and at the time she said that I was kind of wondering what the safety issue was because she didn't say I think that is a great idea to have those markers so we know where they are I'm speaking on I believe it was 8.7, mostly B. Actually, it doesn't matter if it was B. So I've lived here for 19 years on 4th Street. It's a hill. A lot of us are always complaining about the snow plows and having the and we can't just wait until there's one inch of snow when we are higher at a higher level then the rest of the city. I mean, there are people that are higher than I am, but you can't wait until there's that much snow on the hills to then turn around to try and plow it.

And then we are waiting hours upon hours for then a sander or a salt truck to come and put down product so that people aren't sliding up and down the hill. This brings me to Mill Street. Why didn't we remove the flex posts because now you have residents that are actually shoveling out from their driveway all the way to the street. So that includes the bike lane and sometimes even part of the parking lane. So why did we do all this to turn around and make all of these residents have to shovel out that much snow on Mill Street because we didn't remove the flex post and we didn't have the Bobcat come through and or whatever other kind of piece of equipment that you can use to to open up Mill Street better. And we need to have all of our streets widened.

We're going into three weeks of this storm, and even on my streets as part of it, that two cars can't go by. So I just have to say, we really have to do better. 19 years of this is a lot. Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, the last speaker is Fred Taylor.

There's a petition, Fred Till requests the council recognize Carter Woodson and the other black artists, musicians, educators, athletes, inventors, and artists, activists for the contributions and success stories.

Good evening, everyone. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Good evening, happy Black History Month, everyone. On the second week of Black History Month, the Worcester branch of the NAACP extends warm wishes to everyone for a meaningful and joyous Black History Month. While it's often said that black history is celebrated 365 days a year, this month holds a significance as it commemorates two significant milestones. 100th anniversary of Dr. Carter G. Woodson's founding of Black History Week. and it's also the 50th anniversary of the official recognition of Black History Month. These are pivotal moments in our history. It reminds us of the ongoing contributions and rich legacy of black community. Dr. Carter G. Woodson also envisioned a time when our history would not only be acknowledged, but also honored extending from a week into a month

of Reflection and Celebration, it's hard to imagine how he would have felt knowing that his foundational work sparked a broader recognition of Black history and Black achievements and culture. While it's important to acknowledge the struggles and challenges we face, we also must uplift the remarkable stories of triumph. This month let us focus on the incredible contributions of not only Black artists but musicians, athletes, inventors, educators, and activists who have enriched our lives and shaped our world. As we celebrate the Black History Month, Let's come together as a community not only to remember our past but it took forward to the future. I look forward to the future filled with hope and progress. Join us in honoring the legacy of those who paved the way and continue to inspire us today. Together we can uplift and celebrate these diverse narratives that make our community vibrant.

Happy Black History Month.

Thank you. Okay, I can file that. All those in favor? Opposed, so ordered. Bergman.

I just want to clarify something. One of the speakers had indicated that last week's meeting was about an hour long. That's not my recollection. I confirm with the Clerk we ended after 10. it was three and a half hours long so I just want to make sure the listening public doesn't think that every week we don't have long meetings because sometimes we do

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so going back to the agenda. Petitions, the petitioner may speak up for three minutes. First time appears on the agenda. First one is 7A, refer the Public Works Committee. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. 7B, 7H, refer the traffic and parking. All those in favor, oppose, so ordered. 7I, set a hearing date for February 24th, 2026 at 6.30 p.m. for a condo location on Kingsbury Street. Those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Over to the manager's calendar. Transmitting, Information, Communication. We have the appointment of Patrick Lowe to the Board of Health. We can place it on file. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. I just want to thank him for his service.

Next item up is 8.3a, recommended adoption of a salary ordinance with the Department of Health and Human Services, 2026 budget, motions to advertise proposed ordinance.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Councilor Rivera? Yes. Councilor Rosen? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. And Mayor Petty?

Yes. 8.4A, Transmitting Information and Communication Related to the Status of U.S. Department of Housing Urban Technology Funding. Anybody we can send that to E.D. ? That goes down every year. This issue wasn't too bad for one of them, but okay. Senate of the ED, all those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Next up is Transmitting Information and Communication relevant to the update on the fiscal year 2026 grant-making process for the Worcester Outreach Council. I'm going to send that to ED. All those in favor? Opposed? So ordered. Here we go. Okay, 8.7A and 8.7B we can take collectively. Councilor Economou. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I want to just open up some of my remarks too, and I know I've said it before on this Council floor that I'm grateful for the men and women who are out there doing the job. the members of our team who are answering emails, the 311 communications, getting word out to various other departments for the needs that we need. Is there room for improvement? Of course there is. There always is. Do we have the manpower? I don't know if we have the manpower or not. That's something that we need to discuss. But I do feel in this conversation, something that's been missing of recent conversations on this is our responsibility, our responsibility as residents and businesses of the city. I spent many hours in the storm there of late January

circumventing the city during the storm on Sunday, during the storm on Monday, then again Tuesday and Wednesday. And it's disingenuous for us to blame DPW for the misgivings of some when they're shoveling their cars out and they're throwing it over their shoulder into the street. when they're snow blowing their driveway or their sidewalks and they're throwing it into the street. So I do want to make sure that that's heard We have a parking ban. There's a declared parking ban during these storms. Are people following the parking ban? Do we have to look at the parking ban? These are questions we need to look at.

We offer our garages downtown for parking to help eliminate some of the traffic that's on the streets that are parked on the streets so we can get to curb to curb. and again, I'm not gonna say it's a perfect system. I've had many conversations with the commissioner, with the city manager, with the city manager and commissioner. But with all that, Mr. Chairman, If I could take a moment to ask some questions of the commissioner, is that allowable? Sure. Through the Chair to the Commissioner, and thank you too for doing the work that you're doing and I know you're doing the best you can with the manpower and the tools that you have available to you.

As we've gone through these storms How do you feel our manpower has been? Have we had the manpower? Do you feel there's something that needs to be changed in that system for manpower, whether it's public, our employees, or private contractors?

Through the Chair, if I could start with an overarching comment just of thanks and appreciation to the DPW team. Very proud of the work that they did and their sacrifices. They've worked tirelessly over the past two and a half weeks to address that historic storm. We've got more than 20 employees that during that storm, they worked between 70 and 100 hours during the week. Thanks to our private contractors. We had nearly 300 that showed up for that storm. Thank you to MassDOT that sent six of their large vehicles to help us out during that storm. to the Worcester Police Department for the help of enforcing the parking bans. And just as importantly, I'm grateful and thankful to our residents for their patience and understanding. So to the Councilor's question, we could always use more, right? We've got, during that big storm, we had some 300 private contractors that showed up.

My understanding is that that is historically less than we've had out on the streets. Some of the challenges that the private contractors are seeing, just like we're having a hard time finding drivers, they're having a hard time finding drivers Contractors who historically had six or eight plows on the street with us this year only have two or three or four so the number of qualified drivers has has gone down. And that's something that we're finding also within the DPW. Credit to the city manager and the leadership for creating a CDL training academy within the city. We can take some of our folks who don't have their CDL license. We can train them to be able to drive the bigger trucks. So to your question specifically, yes, we could always use more.

We are going to be looking at our union contract to determine how we can incentivize folks to come and help us during those storms. So we could always use more.

Thank you, Commissioner. And again, I've said it before, too. Bravo to the whole team. And I just want people to understand, too, because it all relates. if it's a day when there's sanitation pickup scheduled for that day and we have a snowstorm, through the Chair to the Commissioner, Is it not true that if people call out for their sanitation duties that men and women from operations need to be pulled off to do sanitation work?

Through the chair, you're absolutely correct. So every day we have eight trucks on the road that are collecting curbside trash. So that means we have eight drivers and eight laborers. if any of those folks call in sick, if they've got vacation time, if they're otherwise unavailable, we have to pick up the trash every day. So what that requires us to do We've got days where we are taking eight people from streets to drive those sanitation trucks. If we have eight people driving sanitation trucks, we don't have eight people to drive our plows. So on days where people are not available for that sanitation duty, we are taking folks from the streets.

and Commissioner, I know you've only been here about a full year now, right? Correct.

There will be a year next week.

There you go. So congratulations. Thank you. And I know when you came into the position, too, there were a lot of Things that weren't operating properly, and I'm going to jump on the brining system, was not operating properly, was not being dealt with in a proper manner. We have now righted the ship. We have a state of the art system. I know that, as I said before, I've been to one of the training exercises and you can see and hear the enthusiasm in our staff wanting to have A brining system that will actually work and do as specified. And I thank UMass and Amherst there for coming in and giving us the training. The guy was phenomenal. and it's important for people to understand not every situation calls for brining.

And that storm too, the big storm, historic storm, the top 10 storm, a storm that we haven't had in many, many years. And I feel as New Englanders, we've kind of lost our touch in dealing with storms like this. The asphalt was very cold, so the worst thing we probably could have done was to add brine to that system because it would create that layer of ice, quite frankly. So it's important for people to understand not every situation is a brining situation. And I know our team is in the process now of being trained. I think it's been rolled out in limited manner. And from what you have shown me, what a difference and I think as that's called for I think it will make a big difference here in our city Mr. Chairman if I may in the form of a motion I think there's a number of needs I think we need to look at here in the city

In the form of a motion, Mr. Chairman, I ask that we look at these various areas in our DPW public works. Number one, as we discussed earlier, manpower. What are our needs? Do we have the means? Do we have the need? Do we need more? Do we need less? Is it important for us to look at cross-training other employees to help fill the void? as it relates to snow and ice operations. If we are going to be working with less staff, we need to look at equipment. Do we have the proper equipment? Do we have to look at instead of having three trucks going down Gold Star Boulevard, that it's only one truck with a wing plow or one truck with a belly plow. These are some of the things we need to start looking at. So I would ask, and again, in the form of a motion,

from our commissioner to bring forward some of these needs here in our city. Do we need to further train our employees on plowing, on how to get to curb to curb, how to stack snow in a corner if that's the case? How to spread material when the time comes to be spreading material. How to calibrate our salters, our brining machines. Do we need more snow blowing equipment? are our storage sheds up to par? We have sheds down on East Central Street and Albany Street. We have a shed up off Clark Street. I know the one on Clark Street, just looking at it, it's not in good health. And I would venture to say that it probably needs to be augmented. But something like that, we need to look at.

Do we need to look at temporary Sanding and Salt Sheds around the city to cut down on sand salting equipment, spreading equipment from traversing the city to collect, to fill their trucks to get back out into the neighborhoods in a more timely fashion. and again, do we need to look at the parking ban? is the parking ban, is it working? Is it working the way it's intended to work? Are we doing all we can to notify people in a timely manner, give them the options, to move their vehicles or get their vehicles off the streets so we can plow curb to curb.

you know is it something we need to look at on how we do this remotely even in different areas of the city I know it's a difficult thing we don't have a lot of parking garages or public parking spaces on the outskirts of the city. But when you look, especially in the three-decker neighborhoods, I would venture to guess that's where a lot of our problems come from. and is there a way to augment some parking for them to get off the street? And then again, Mr. Chairman, process. I think you always have to look at process. You always have to look inwards. to see if we're holding ourselves accountable. We are coming into budget season. You know, when we're looking at equipment, it'd be great to have a list of needs from DPW and then I think we also have to look at our process.

Is our process up to par? Are we calling the crews out early enough? Are we set up ahead of time? are we out there long enough after a storm? And I know, as you said, Commissioner, the men and women were working over 30 hours during that storm. It's unreasonable for anybody to call at 8 p.m. on a Monday evening of that storm when it was still snowing out complaining about the condition of this street. I find that unreasonable. That's not a reasonable... Call. So I think we have to work together collectively to get to the root of the problem, if there is a problem, to make sure that our our crews have the tools that they need to do the job to the level that they expect themselves to be doing the job. I make that in a form of a motion, Mr. Chairman.

Okay, I'll take those collectively. Thank you, Commissioner. All those in favor or opposed self-audit. Get down. Get down to the fall by John Fasol and Mo Berger.

Mayor Petty.

Thank you, Commissioner. Congratulations on your one year anniversary. But I just want to say in general, we did a pretty good job. You put in some perspective, we haven't got two feet of snow. I think in your report, I think you might have said on the radio, the 10th largest snowstorm we've had in the city's history. and so it's gonna take a stage to come out of that. It's not a week. So I just wanted to say thank you to the DPW workers that are out there, the contractors. I wanna thank the governor and DOT for sending the extra equipment in. Carlson, doesn't mean we can't get better. I'm sure you learned a lot over the last couple of storms what you have to do better the next time. There are some streets that do get missed or they're not done properly, but that's something we can work on with the supervisor. You had another term here too, which I know you had seven supervisors and you had another group of managers out there too. Inspectors, okay. Let me ask you something.

How new are those people? Because right now we've had turnover. One time we needed well over 100 employees. I think you now maybe still need like 50 or something, 60, to make it work.

Through the chair, are you speaking directly about the inspector team? Yeah. So I would venture to say that about 40% are new employees.

So they're learning too as they go through the city and understand what they have to do for the next storm. So I just want to just tell everybody to hang in there. And I think Councilor Claremont's orders are pretty good. because when I read these reports I was like oh my lord what did we do over the last four years and we didn't staff enough we didn't buy enough equipment or let things go and and things that I noticed I didn't notice I drove around the cities and all the two storms here. I didn't notice people actually shoveling their snow into the streets. We didn't have to. I understand some of these neighborhoods are pretty tight and you have no place to put the snow. I saw you get that one, you know? And also, what I didn't notice too was some of the streets and there were reasons for it, but if we can, we should do curb to curb, right? Because a lot of streets weren't done curb to curb. Some were done, you know, four feet out or three feet out. Maybe it was too late to get the curb to curb. I'm not sure how the protocol on that is.

Through the chair, our goal is to plow curb to curb. The night of the storm that Sunday, the big storm, the city manager and I, we had the opportunity to drive around the city and we went to Main Street where there were no cars on the street. We noticed that the main street was plowed curb to curb because there were no cars in the way. There were no impediments.

So it has to be cars. So when you tow 450 cars, you have over 700 tickets. that means people are paying attention to this and to the uh snow ban on these streets the parking correct that's correct and through the chair uh mr mr mayor that

The last storm we had on February 6th, the police department wrote over 1,000 tickets, and we were only able to tow 260 cars. which meant that we had 760 cars that were violating the parking ban that slowed our progress through the city.

That was the last storm?

Correct. February 6th.

And that slows down the process. Is there a better way? I know we use our parking Department, correct, for enforcement? Any work with the Worcester Police? Are we missing something here? Should they be out there in front of the Worcester Police Department and ticketing people so the Worcester PD comes in and it's smoother?

I'm not sure the right answer is.

Commissioner.

Through the chair that's something that we're looking at is how to better better enforce better inform the residents so that they can move their cars better A better way to improve the capacity of cars that are towed that need to be towed again that left 760 cars in our way in a thousand tickets that's a thousand cars that could have been moved in accordance with the parking ban.

I think Councilor Carlin mentioned this before, the idea of extending expectations. You know, surrounding towns were setting expectations well a week after the storm. and I know our system was down so that we couldn't set expectations even though you put a lot of press releases out went to the paper maybe on Facebook but a lot of people don't have that where the phone thing we've had 50,000 I don't know how many people we had signed up but we had thousands of people signed up So this is managing expectations. Once we get that new system up and running, telling people where we are in the process, what they should be doing, moving their cars, and how we're going to go back and widen the roads, whatever we have to do to tell people. because we're still getting some complaints in trying to get rid of the snow mounds that are out on the corners of the street. People can't see pulling on the main drags. And the one thing I noticed, this is the first time I got complaints on this was, People yelling at the plow drivers. I actually got complaints on this. I've never seen that before.

So I know people are frustrated. I get it. We've got two feet of snow. But these plow drivers don't set the policy on how to plow a street. coming from the commissioner. So when they don't put the brine down or you don't put the salt down, it's not because they've been told not to do a certain thing because it doesn't work. But I just want to, again, thank you. There was a couple of questions I had. How many pieces? We have 368 pieces of equipment on the road in the major storm there. And in the heyday, we probably had well over 400. I want to say 430, 440. So we're short power drivers. We're short equipment, too. which makes a huge difference. And so people should realize that. So when you get a big stuff, and you stay here, I think, forget this, right? I learned a lot in this report. It's plan A and getting out in the salt. and Sandy wanted to do that. So it takes three hours through the whole city

If you have hazardous conditions, icy conditions, did I get that right? Through the chair, that's approximately correct. But our brine system will allow us, if the conditions are correct, Pavement temperatures above 15 degrees, wind speeds less than 50 miles an hour, no precipitation anticipated. We can go out with this brine system and we can pre-treat the roads days in advance. So that's what we're looking forward to. Otherwise, it does take several hours. Six hours if you go into plan A. Correct.

That's if you're not towing, everything is perfect. That's correct. So six hours, so you're talking eight to nine, ten hours, depending on the conditions. Correct. So people, yeah. and so there are a lot of challenges. There's no question about that. There's one question I had which I read this and I didn't understand what it meant. Salt spreaders have not been calibrated in years. The UMass Transportation Center is scheduled to teach the DPW employees how to calibrate spreaders. What does that mean? I understand on the face what it means.

through the chair. The salt trucks, they have a sluice gate on the back that opens and closes. And depending upon where their gate is set, that tells the truck how much salt to put on the roads. There is a prescribed recommendation for how many pounds of salt should be per lane mile. I think it's 250 pounds. If your sluice gate is open too high, you can be putting out more salt than is Necessary Those should be calibrated so that each truck is set to where it's putting out that 250 pounds per lane mile. That has not been done in years. So the trucks that are going out there salting, they could either be putting down not enough salt or too much salt, So we identified that and we have coordinated with the UMass Transportation Center to come out, train our folks how to be able to do that so that we're not wasting material.

I would think that would have been part of the process for years back. You don't have to comment. Under brine, when is that versus the chloride? What's the temperature in each that you can use of that? Is there a temp?

Chair, it's roughly 15 to 20 degrees pavement temperature so although it may be warmer outside it's the pavement temperature so first thing in the morning it may be 32 degrees, but that pavement temperature from overnight could be down at 15 degrees or lower.

And what do you use, which one would you use if it's below 15 degrees? Is there a difference, or the grime can be used at any time?

through the chair, if you combine the two, you can get a lower temperature where it's effective. But when we had the UMass Transportation Center come out and talk to us about liquid de-icers, What they told us was that when the pavement temperature is below 15 degrees, like it was during the heavy snowstorm that we had, The purpose of brine is to prevent snow from sticking to the pavement. So when it's below 15 degrees, it's not going to stick. So we didn't... put down a lot of pretreatment. We used it judiciously and selectively so that we weren't wasting that material.

So I do support the Council of Commons orders and trying to figure out where do you want to be at next year? You've got the budget coming up. You've got to figure out what pieces of equipment, let us know what you need. You're always going to have an issue with your peers and every city and town in the state, there are no potholes. So this is gonna be a major issue coming down in the future. And one thing I did know is potholes, I know we get complaints before the winter started, but I've hit so many potholes, and you sort of explained it to me that we had six feet of, Frost, 6 feet. So now when it warms up, it's going to break the street open. And then we could freeze again, and it's going to go back and forth over the next two months like this. So my point is, we need to plan how you're going to do products, because they're everywhere. And I notice new ones popping up throughout the city. and the last two storms.

And so just ask that you look at that, how much funding you're going to need, how you're going to respond to it. because I think people's expectations is that we're going to fill the potholes. And you have to wait for certain weather conditions in order to fill those potholes, correct? So you couldn't go out tonight and do potholes or tomorrow morning.

through the chair all our forces for example this evening and through tomorrow all our forces are out clearing snow I get that but once that snow is gone we have the ability and we do send out our are they're called hot boxes they are trucks that have a heated box so that it keeps that asphalt at a at a warm temperature or an operating temperature so when we have that opportunity some were called in and brought to our attention we go out and we fill those

I just want to thank you and look forward to working with you in the future and making this a better department. You've done a great job in the one year you've been there. and trying to get some of the equipment you did get in order. Some of it came through for you, which I was surprised we got it that quickly. Some of the equipment you come in and Whatever happened to the snow melter? We had a piece of equipment one year. It melted snow. It went on the sidewalks. It went up the street, up the side. Do we still have that piece of equipment?

Through the Chair, we do. It hasn't been used in a while for the following reasons. It uses a lot of fuel to operate. they're very slow at melting snow so you could put in a bucket of snow and it could take minutes ten minutes to melt that snow and then you have to have it at a spot where you can safely discharge the melt water So what we've been doing with our snow removal operations, we have a site where we've been hauling to and we're piling that up and I suspect that snow pile will be there through June.

and I just want to thank you and thank you DBW workers and contractors and hopefully this snow abates tonight quickly.

No, I was going to say through the chair, it is currently snowing. The heaviest snowfall is expected between 8 and 10 p.m. So should the council meeting end before that, please be careful driving home. Thank you. Thank you.

Fresolo, District 3.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And through you to the administration, Commissioner, I do not stand here tonight to criticize. I am a realist. I know how hard you work. I know how hard your crew works. I've been in politics for over 25 years and I have seen the work that your crew has done whether it be snow removal or and so on and so forth and I have nothing but high accolades. Why I'm standing and the couple of examples that I'll bring to you is some of the frustration that exists. And I hope it gives the general public

were able to educate them on the process that goes on in a huge snowstorm as we had the past week. Saying that, we have, as was mentioned earlier, the plow driver, the snow inspector, and then supervisors above them. Is that correct? Through the Chair, that is correct. Okay. You know, sometimes it's frustrating. I have to admit, I've gotten dozens of calls, whether they call the council office or the called 311, or they emailed me, texted me, and there was frustration. I'll give you an example of someone that owns property here in the city for over 50 years.

And I'll just read what she texted to me. She expressed frustration over plow operators widening roads, causing snow to discharge onto sidewalks. this is after she had cleared the snow and then we got a couple more inches and we sent sent them back out and again we tried to again widen the street curb to curb so this is what she's referring to causing snow to discharge onto sidewalks abutting her property. that she already paid a contractor to clear. She also expressed concern over accumulation of snow at corners, including a property she owns that is a corner lot. When the snow is piled at a corner, it reaches several feet high, is solid, and requires more than a normal plow to move. obstructs pedestrians' access to sidewalks and curb cuts, and it appears, impairs,

Sight lines for vehicles who now cannot see around the corner. She was ticketed for her property not being plowed that second time. And that's her frustration. She always keeps up with the snow. and tries her best and so I express that scenario to you and I understand it fully. So again, I don't, tell me, After hearing that, what could we do any differently? Could we have not ticketed properties because In all honesty, she was out there the next morning to realize that that was the case. And the sidewalks were back with snow on it. and was out there to, you know, call someone to clear it up. But I'll let you answer that. Commissioner.

Through the chair. That is a city ordinance which is pretty straightforward. However, I would imagine that we can explore the ability to either postpone how long residents have to clear that snow because while we're out during a snowstorm, we're working as hard as we can to make sure that the roads are open and accessible for emergency services especially. But as people move their cars, as people shovel out, we've inevitably got to go back and widen those roads or replow roads. So it is that that snow doesn't have a lot of options where it goes right when it comes off the end of the plow it's pushed from the center of the road to the side of the road and then if we're widening it's pushed onto the sidewalk or back into Driveway opening.

So that's why if there was an instance where we went back and we widened the street several days later, we would have a chase vehicle behind clearing those driveways if it was several days after. While the snow is actively falling, while it's within 12 hours after a storm, I understand there's frustrations there with people that either shovel it themselves or they pay to have that snow removed. So that's certainly something that we can look at as we are enforcing the ordinance. Is there an ability to give extra time for residents?

I appreciate that because what was brought up to my attention too was that in the law it states 10 hours after, but it doesn't state that You have to maintain it. They did, after the 10 hours, clear the snow away. But then again, I gave this scenario. I appreciate your answer and again it allows people to hear firsthand of how the city is going about to deal with Snowstorm. I want to also, I forgot to, I want to I commend the three City Council aides that we have in our office. They are very, very good and I want to commend them and compliment them. on the response. As you know, Commissioner, they email you quite a bit. I'll go between when we call.

Call something in and they get back to you. And I have to say, Commissioner, I want to commend you and your department because every time we have reached out to you to to look into an instance that we get calls on, you have been very responsive. And I want the general public to know that. But where the frustration lies is they're calling into 311 and I'll go over that. That'll be my next example. that'll bring up but they're calling in and they get no nowhere where then now they call the district council they call the City Council at large who they know and then it gets done when we call so you know and thank God you know I appreciate that but this frustration when they keep calling and This is the example I'll bring up about 311. I have to admit, I received a lot of calls regarding 311.

I hope the administration, not you yourself, Commissioner, maybe the administration can answer this one particular instance. on Arthur Street. Arthur Street runs behind East Middle School. It's a big, largely a three-decker neighborhood, tight on parking. And in this... instance, a truck was, a truck, when I say a truck, a pickup truck was parked Right close to an intersection of Arthur and Palm Street. And was there for two weeks, never moved. and of course plowed in close to the intersection again. So it was, you know, and so on. And she was standing there, less than five feet from the intersection, wondering why it wasn't ticketed or towed away.

So she made several calls to I'll just get to the end of what her dismay was when she was doing this through her computer. And on February 2nd, 735 in the morning, the response to her inquiries was, and I'll just read what she wrote here. POS, I don't know what that means. Some do, but let's see what it means here in the city. POS will notify SPCOs on 2-2-26, 26. Okay, so that was it. And then her next response at 12-48 that same day was M-2-7-0-TIX, T-I-X. and the ticket was closed. And from that point on, the response was that

the issue was closed on that case. So there's an example of she has no idea what they mean by that, nor do I, nor do our staff that took the call. And if somebody could answer, What type of response that they think the general public could understand that? I don't know.

Through the Chair, I don't know what acronyms they use at 311 myself. We do need to do a better job with responding to the work orders that are generated by the 311 system. there are hundreds upon hundreds of work orders that are generated. So we are working diligently to work through those. We're also looking at the ability and the capacity for ticketing and towing vehicles. It sounds like that vehicle was in violation of the parking ban. So that's something that it's a collaborative effort between not only the DPW, and the Police Department and DTM, but also residents to adhere to the parking ban. It's put in there for a reason, not only for snow removal operations, but also for

I know that some of those narrow streets, there's concern over If we can't get a plow truck down there, if that's difficult for us, it'll also be difficult for the fire department to get some of their trucks down there. So that's why in my report I highlight the the need for adherence to the parking bans because they are put in place for the ability for the DPW to be able to remove that snow, for the delivery of emergency services, and I understand the frustration and the challenges with having to move your car every time it snows. It is inconvenient for residents, but it's a necessity for us to be able to do a good job and keep those roads

We have three minutes left.

I'm going to close right now, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate your answering those questions, and I hope the general public hears you loud and clear about the parking ban. One other instance I want to bring up and commend is our police department. I wasn't aware but through our council office we're able to call the police department when a I guess they handle when a sidewalk is not cleared and they have to go out and maybe cite and each time I called and and into the office and the aides called I think I believe it's office Mulvey at the Worcester Police Department within A couple hours, the instance was addressed. I'll just explain a couple. So the general public hear it. who've called in.

Within hours, properties on Providence Street and Uppsala Street where children have to walk to school. Vernon Hill School has a lot of kids who walk. to School. And those corners on both sides of Uppsala Street were not cleared. We called in, and by that next morning, the school was obviously open. Those sidewalks were cleared. at Business on Route 20, McDonald's on Route 20, and Rose Lane. Same thing. We called it in and it was it was within a couple hours it was done I appreciate the Worcester Police Department and the Chief as well we had a couple cars on I'll name the street Fairfax Road that were sitting there for months.

It had two tickets and there was plowed in and someone called in about it. We called In the incident, and Deputy Chief D'Andrea was on it, within an hour, those two cars were towed off of Fairfax Road. So I want to commend our chief. Chief Saucier and the Worcester Police Department as well. And I want the general public to know that this is what's going on. They are doing their job and I commend them highly for it.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Councilor Bergman.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I've risen before on this topic in much more minor storms. Then the last storm, last couple storms we've had. I will say that, I want to start off by saying that I fully realize that the vast majority, overwhelming majority of the men and women who work for DPW or private contractors do a tremendous job during our snowstorms i want to recognize that our commissioner has been here only a year and he's somebody that's always been very responsive to me and uh and i know that he's well respected amongst his employees. I will also say, however, that I do have concerns. And if these concerns are interpreted as criticism, I can't help that. And I'm not going to shy away from that.

This, to me, snow removal and ice treatment is not an effort like picking up leaves where if you have to come back, there's no consequence. I myself, like I'm sure many people that are here today, and those listening, and those that live in the city, when they get up to go to work in the morning or in the afternoon or in the evening, and they have to traverse down a slippery street which is either full of snow or ice. They take a deep breath themselves and family members wondering and worrying about whether or not their loved ones are gonna make it where they need to go. I look at snow removal and ice treatment as a public safety issue no more than any or no less than any other public safety issues. I've heard conversation a moment ago about managing expectations. I do think we need to manage expectations, but I differ from what I've heard. I think our expectations ought to be top. There are people in the city that pay real estate taxes, residential, commercial, that are very high.

among the highest in the state. I can't tell them that what they're getting for snow removal service consistently is top of the line, because it's not, in my opinion. I know there's been some discussion about cars, and I get it. There are cars in the way. But I don't think that's a major factor in what's happening. And I'm not faulting the commissioner. I personally think the issues here are bigger than any one person. I've been noting these issues not with Commissioner Westerling only in charge, but with one or two commissioners at least before him. We increased the budget from $4.8 million to $6 million for snow removal not that long ago, a 30% increase. and I don't think we've gotten 30% improvement. I know we haven't. I'm gonna hope that the majority of these issues go to DPW subcommittee because I think The time is going to be needed to discuss these in detail, whether that's recruitment of employees, retainment of employees, and equipment.

But let me just say, every fall, whether it's September, October, I don't remember this year, I asked the commissioner, I know I asked Commissioner Wesleyan, How are you stacked up for this coming snow season? That's the time I want to hear what we need. I respect Councilor Economou and Mayor, your suggestion that we need to ask those questions moving forward but to me those questions should have been answered in September and October not after the season is over because if we needed equipment and we needed other things the time is before the season starts My opinion, not after. I also asked Commissioner Westerling not that long ago in a much more minor storm when there was criticism from constituents, what lessons have we learned? unfortunately we did not gauge, in my opinion, in a meaningful conversation. So I want to focus on one thing and one thing only in the time I have. And that is not how many plow operators we have and not the amount of equipment we have.

in use, but the work, the quality of the work that the plow operators are doing. I have in my hand three pages, and I know more pages will exist if the parameters were changed. of seven or more complaints over the last two years. I mean, complaints seven or more times over the last two years on over 100 streets. And if the parameters were reduced to less than seven or more complaints, I'm sure we'd have more than 100 streets. I'm sure we'd have hundreds of streets. Some of these complaints are 27 times in the last two years a particular street like Boardman Street has had complaints. That's not a long street. and there are a number of streets in every district that has had more than a dozen complaints over the last two years. And one of the complaints, the same complaint, Winchester Street needs sand or salt. So through the chair, I want to ask the commissioner, we have three ways of doing this right. We have the snow plow operator, the inspector, and the supervisor.

How can we have a dozen or two dozen complaints on a particular street over the last two years on the same street? Are they being addressed? by at least the inspector or the supervisor talking to the snowplow operator and saying, why are we getting repetitive complaints on the street? That's my question through the chair to the commissioner.

Commissioner?

Through the Chair, there are two different operations that occur during a winter storm. It's both plowing and salting We try to limit the amount of sand that goes out there. But plowing and salting. During a storm, we have up to 370 plows. however when it comes to the ability to be able to spread salt we only have 65 spreaders and that's a combination of some 40 private spreaders and some 25 city spreaders. So our ability to be able to spread salt throughout the city is limited. We have not had, the city has not had a salting schedule for roads beyond what we call plan A. That would be a Plan C. So that's something that we identified.

We are creating that ability to be able to salt beyond just Plan A to extend to additional streets. and the other thing that's going to be helpful for us is the brine system. So when we only have 65 spreaders for salt, we can put out brine in advance so that we can get to those side streets.

I'm sorry.

No. I'm not familiar with that particular street or those concerns. I will say that not every storm we have 370 plows. There are storms when we have fewer. So that particular street, I can't speak to specifically.

Well, I don't mean through the chair to make this about one street. There are 100 streets there. at least. And that's based on seven or more complaints over the last two years. So through the chair to the commissioner, if we don't have SALT operations happening on any streets other than Plan A, which I'm assuming are the main arteries, why do we need all these inspectors?

So through the chair, I just want to clarify. So our salting operations cover main roads, bus routes, and what we call special. And specials are neither a main road nor a bus route, but a side street that is either A steep hill or has an accident history so those are our top priorities during the initial phases of a storm as the storm continues and we have adequate treatment on those mains, bus routes, and specials, then we go out to what's called Plan A. And that's not every side residential street, that is additional roads that have been a historical problem for us.

So through the chair, is there an actual list of the streets with hills and or history of accidents that are available to the council?

Through the Chair, we have a listing of the roads for the bus route, the mains, and the specials. And those specials would be the ones that are more of a side street that have been historically a problem. and we can provide that information.

So the other question I have is through the chair to the commissioner is Are you saying that the number of inspectors are needed? Well, let me back up because I want to run out of time. Is there a diary or a list of any conversations between supervisors and inspectors with with snowplow operators inquiring about whether or not they've done a satisfactory job. Has anybody asked, is there a list as to whether or not I'm not talking about not having enough salt because there are There are entries in here that are not just about standard to solve. They're about streets not plowed. So my question is, is there a diary or a list of inquiries made of snowplow or operators by either inspectors or supervisors based upon complaints that the work hasn't been done correctly or properly.

Through the Chair, there is not a list or a diary per se. Those communications happen during a storm. I will say that not only do we have the city plows out there, but when we've got 300 or so private contractors, that's the focus of inspectors and supervisors because those folks don't always have radios. So that's why they're important out on the streets. What happens is that a 311 work order that's created will go through our dispatch center to the inspectors or the supervisors to be able to then guide the plows, whether they're city or private. I'll give an example. Not every time do we have a full complement of plows on a route. There was not the past two storms, A storm further back where the route was supposed to have 24 plows on it.

Due to shortages of manpower and equipment available, there were only eight plows available. So there are storms when we don't have a full complement of necessary equipment to be able to cover a route and that's when those inspectors are most important because they are prioritizing concerns and complaints and 311 calls to be able to put those limited resources where they need to be.

So through the chairman, go back to the commission. I appreciate your answer, but there is no diary or a record of any communications between supervisors and inspectors and snowplow operators critiquing their work. Is that correct?

Through the chair, that's correct.

And I think this will be my last question, but please don't hold me to it. I may have one follow-up question. I understand what the inspectors do based on what you've explained to me. What do the supervisors through the chair do differently than the inspectors do, and how many supervisors are there?

Commissioner.

Through the chair, you would have to ask me that. I believe that we have two outside coordinators, and it's their job that the city is broken up in this case into two distinct portions. below those outside supervisors there are excuse me outside coordinators there are supervisors and the supervisors the city is broken up into four quadrants so it's their responsibility to oversee the inspectors that are in those quadrants so It's not just one person who's overseeing 300 plus pieces of equipment as I'm sure you can appreciate. There's a breakdown, there is a hierarchy so that It's everything from the Assistant Commissioner of Operations all the way down through everybody to make sure that we're able to reach out to all of those 300 plus pieces of equipment.

My last question, this will be my last question. Would you agree, through the chair, would you agree or disagree with me, Commissioner, that if there were snowplow operators that were not plowing properly, curb to curb with no reason not to, and they were told to go back by an inspector and supervisor to do it right, the time they spent to correct it should not be on the taxpayer's dime. Would you agree to that?

Through the chair, I don't know that I can state that in either yes or no because there could have been vehicles in the way. There could have been snow that was redeposited from a driveway. There are multiple factors that could have been an insufficient number of plows. There's many factors that would limit the DPW's ability to be able to clear a street curb to curb.

So actually my question, I don't feel like I'm asking another. repeating something I said that I think the Commissioner might have missed. If it was not anybody's fault other than the snowplow operators for not doing a good job, none of the other factors you mentioned, Should that be on the taxpayer's dime or should that be on the snowplow operator's dime to go back and do it the right way? I think it's a simple question, Commissioner. If you can't answer it, then we're done.

I respect that. Through the Chair, we don't release our plow contractors until the job is done. We wouldn't be able to tell why a particular road wasn't cleared curb to curb, but in general, we strive with not only our city employees, but with our privates to be able to clear those roads curb to curb.

So you can't tell Why it wouldn't be done correctly. I just, I'm not going to ask you, I just, I think if there was a communication with a snow plow operator, you might be able to tell, but I respect the answer and I've taken my time. So thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Councilor Rivera for a vote. Mitra.

I'll be quick. Some clarification and also this question because Economou kind of touched base on all the issues. One is through the chair to the commissioner. You mentioned there's a 10-hour window afterwards for the sidewalks to be cleared and then you know sometimes the street needs to be wide can can it be possible where we can work on you're not doing it twice

Through the chair, that's something I've got to look at. I don't know what the legality is, but that's something that we can look at of being flexible with when those sidewalks have to be cleared. There are certain times where, for example, if school is being held that day, It's essential for public safety, but that's something that we can look at of can we be flexible with that 10-hour time frame.

The other two is clarification so the residents know what of them called in today is Can you let the residents know what the city's policy ordinance is on fire hydrants? You know who's responsible for that stuff?

Through the Chair, it's the abutter's responsibility to clear those hydrants. There's also a program where residents can adopt a hydrant. If they call 311, they can adopt a hydrant, and that's their responsibility through the winter. it's also just good practice if there's a hydrant in front of your home that's the abutter's responsibility to clear to be able to get out there because God forbid there is a fire and the hydrant is snowed in, I would hope that folks get out there and take that responsibility seriously because it could impact their own private property. Yeah, I agree.

And then through the commissioner, it's been a lot of work. It's been a year. and it's been quite a year for yourself. I remember the first storm, I think it was your first day, if I recall. Could you let the residents know how much mileage of Worcester needs to be plowed? Even if you have the six hours, even if you have fully staffed.

Through the Chair, for public roadways, we have 460 miles of public roadway and about 80 miles of private roadway. just for reference, the distance between here and Virginia Beach is about 460 miles. So it's a large undertaking and not every one of those roads is just two lanes wide. Some of them, Gold Star Boulevard, Park Avenue, Belmont Street, are multiple lanes wide. And that's why, as Councilor Economou mentioned earlier, the city doesn't have any wing plows, which was Curious to me when I first started, one wing plow, one six-wheeler with a wing plow can do the work of two or three private contractors. So that's something that we are looking at bringing online.

Thank you and congratulations again. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Councilor Mitra.

Thank you Mr. Chair. To you, to the Commissioner. Commissioner, first of all, congratulations for almost finishing a year and doing a great job for our city. Suddenly as you heard from many of us that everybody thinks that you and your crew they do a tremendous job and I'm not here to really complain, but I think what I would like to Mention here is that if you remember that first time when I met with you, I asked you that, Commissioner, are you satisfied or happy with the performance? and you gave me one answer saying that within the resources I have, I am. I also mentioned to you and you probably made a note of it that

You are not the only one in this, include me in your team, if you remember that. I want to urge to all the Councilors here that Commissioner is not only the responsible person. We are all responsible for what is happening in this city. We get calls from our residents. and it becomes our duty to let you know what we hear from them. I have been attending many neighborhood meetings. I have been getting many calls. Most of them are giving me sort of like grievances. I go to neighborhood meetings and one of the things they always say that it was not done up to the power. The cleaning wasn't done so well. Somebody called me, said that information was no one way ahead, that this storm is coming. How come we are not prepared? I think all of those are valid.

People call me saying that on Monday our trash gets picked up, but because of the storm coming, it didn't get picked up. It was delayed for Tuesday. and my recycling bin was sitting there Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I kept calling 311. Nobody came. They said they were coming, but nobody came. I personally went there to see that person who called me. So I'm saying that when residents talk to us, tell us about what they're going through, there has to be some truth. and it's our responsibility to bring it back to you. But I want to emphasize that we should not think that it's us to give it to you and figure it out. Solve this. I think we are together in it. We all have to think of what can we do. Are there something that we can do that we're missing?

You mentioned that I'm happy within the resources I have. That means probably you are not having enough resources to be more happy to do the job that needs to be done so that our residents can call us and saying we're so happy the way it is done. This is the second largest city in entire New England. We have 200,000 plus population. So many cars are driving. People are going to work. I mean, suddenly we have issues when there's a storm like this, 20 plus inches comes in. We really have to worry about it. But are we thinking out of the box? I want every councilor to think, what can we do? I mean, there are cities where we have snow more than this, 30 inches, 40 inches. How are they managing? There are countries where it's snowing more than this. How are they managing?

I've heard that some cities, they send in at night 18 wheelers to come and pick up all the snow banks and Saw the Snow Somewhere in the Field. Are we thinking of that? Can we do that? I just want to say that we all think together. We all come together and see, not just giving it to our commissioner that think of it, it's a complaint coming, I mean, do we have a standardized system? How much wide the snow the road should be clean if the road is this big? If the road is narrow, how much should we clean? If there is a walkway, how much should we do? I see sometimes the snow bank is piled up so much that I can't see, make a left turn, I can't see the cards coming. Is there a standardized thing? Bergman asked you that, do you have a communication log? We don't. You said, no, we don't. Should we have it?

I am thinking that we should probably have some kind of standardized system, that this is what will be We will say that we have done our job to the way we thought we should do. When somebody calls me and says, it's not done up to the point it should be done. What is that up to the point? Then we can say, look, our standard shows I will clean the road to the extent that it will be 18 feet wide. We have done that. If there is snow piled up over two feet or three feet, we'll have an 18-wheeler come and throw this. I'm just thinking of what can we do. We're all together in it. It's not you only. And I want to be a part of it to think. and kind of come up with the solution all of us together. So there are things that needs to be done. Apparently, when people are saying, They are not happy. There are things that needs to be done. My roads are small. My roads are narrowing. It's not clean. We just heard about the incident that we all know about the

You know, sad death of this, you know, elderly lady that even the emergency payment truck could not, or vehicles could not even go there. So I do think we have issues. And it's not only our city. I mean, these kind of issues are there, I think, many cities. But I think let us all think of what can we do to resolve it. It's not only you, but I would like to join with you to burst my brain to read up and see what is happening in those cities, in those countries where it snows more than this. They are solving it. They must be having, do we have resources to bring those? Mayor said, Mr. Mayor said that these potholes is an issue. I'm a strong proponent of getting rid of all potholes. I want to see that everybody in this city says, we live in a city with no potholes.

I want to do all those things, but if I just tell you, can you clean all the potholes, fix all the potholes? I want to see that how. Giving you a problem is not my goal. Giving you a solution along with the problem, I think that's where I stand as a city councilor. So I'm thinking, what else we can do? You give us a list of things that you think are missing. and let us all see that can we bring those ammunition, tools, things, manpower, what you need that is missing here to meet the requests from the residents of our city. So that's where I am. I want to see that each one of us work together, each one of us think together, and think that this is our city. and we need to resolve this issue so our residents call us one day saying what a great job you have done. Thank you Mr. Mayor.

If I could, through the chair, just a comment. First, I appreciate this opportunity to share the challenges that the DPW has, but also to hear the frustrations and the needs of areas of improvement for the DPW. As I said, this was an historic storm. The last storm that we had that was on the list was back in 2015. So I think that the DPW has not necessarily prepared for a 22-inch storm as well as we could. Part of my report for the January 23rd through 26th storm was looking at the evaluation of the winter snow program that we had and that started when I first started last February. So there were shortcomings that we had to fix. We've made great strides towards that, but there's more to come.

and just to your point of 18 wheelers coming in, we have been out for several nights through the night clearing Green Street around Polar Park, Hamilton Street, Grafton Street and when we're out at night, we're also using our snow blower, we're using loaders, we're using city trucks, we're using private contractors to be able to remove that snow. And then finally, to your point, How do other cities, bigger cities do it or cities that get more snow? We're evaluating those city operations. We're looking at their ordinances and policies so that we can hopefully mirror some of those to improve our operations.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. I got a list here. I have a list, and you're next, Councilor Toomey.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner. First, I want to put a huge thank you to the men and women of the department who are actually doing the work. as well as our police department and fire departments that are out there doing the work is a lot. As you said it was historic snow and I think that's notable. I think especially the other aspect of this is you've got the same crew dealing with all of these water main breaks and all of that. Many of the same crew are helping each other out. for that, the men and women in your department and the police and fire departments for all of their efforts in doing that extraordinary amount of work during very difficult times and also I mean, below freezing temperatures, just very difficult.

And also our subcontractors who are with us. I know Ricciardi Brothers was out in force and all of their folks, so we are very grateful for all of them. Almost a year ago, I had filed an order to request that the city manager request Public Works and Parks review the feasibility of the city using Snowplow attachments used in Alaska called snow boots, which clear driveways as they plow. Now, it's my understanding, I know that there have been some issues. Sometimes they break down, et cetera. But there's certain types of snow that they work really well in. And so I know that technology has changed. I also know that there's also another thing sometimes called Snow Boot. It's also an underbody scraper plow. And so I think that these

I'd like to know what the possibility of adding these to our fleet would be, especially when we're talking about making sure that we're getting as much width as we possibly can on the street. So could you speak to that? I know Spokane, Washington, Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, they all use the snow boots as well.

Through the Chair, two things. Thank you very much for pointing out the fact that our resources, our DPW resources are shared amongst all of our divisions. As was mentioned earlier, every day we have to collect Sanitation at the curb. But this past weekend, we had a 16 inch water main break that had our employees working out in the worst of conditions for 20 hours straight. So they were not available when we look at how many plows do we have available? How many city plows do we have available? That's always impacted by either sanitation or water main breaks. We've got a sewer main break that we're also working on. So it does reduce the number of vehicles and plows that are available. So thank you for mentioning that. We are looking at the nomenclature that we use are wing plows. And those are plows that are mounted on the side of a truck.

The city has no wing plows. So we are looking at, we've got six large dump trucks that are going to be delivered sometime in June. And we have a quotation to be able to add wing plows to those. Those do two things. They can clear driveways as they're going by. They can clear snow. One truck can take the place of two or three trucks together. So that expands our ability to clear snow. but also they can it's called shelving where when you've got those large windrows on the side of the road if you have a wing plow that comes by it can knock those down so we are looking at those and we hope to bring those on board

Good. I'm glad to hear that. I also want to mention that the Snow Dragon that you have, the ice melter, was actually purchased after I filed an order on that as well. and I'm wondering if we possibly, I know we've had that for a little while, wondering if we could do a cost benefit analysis on maybe selling that to a smaller town and purchasing one of the newer models that actually are far more efficient. Because I can't imagine that the expense of trucking the snow is very cheap either. So if we could do a cost benefit analysis on that, taking a look at selling what we have, and then using some of those funds as well to put toward it a much more efficient and beneficial upgraded model if we could consider that through.

and then lastly in the past we've put in our tax bills the snow ordinances etc and and I would like to through a motion ask that we include that as well in our tax bills especially going into the winter so that people are minded reminded of what the and Councilor Rivera for mentioning that as something that as Chair of Public Safety from the fire department perspective, it's always on my mind. And I, on my own Facebook, put out reminders to everybody to please. Just because someone, even though that person is responsible, that butts the hydrant, my neighbor, is an elderly individual who can't do it.

And so I think it's important that we tell everybody we're all responsible for it. And not only the hydrants, but also it's the catch basins. right, making sure that they're clear so that when the snow starts to melt that it's able to go properly instead of flooding the street and freezing again. So I think that's incredibly important. I know that collaboratively with the fire department, maybe we can do some PSAs through the Mr. Chair, the manager, you know, videos on how important it is. Three feet on every side of your fire hydrant and how to shovel out your catch basin. You do it while you're shoveling, you're not dealing with the icy residue that's left over from clearing it up. So through the chair with those orders that would be helpful. Those in favor, opposed to the Lord. I just want to say thank you again to you. I know the chief is here as well, so thank you to the chief. and the fire department and all of your staff.

Appreciate it.

Through the chair, I appreciate the kind words from you and everyone around from all the counselors. So thank you very much. You did mention something about ordinances, sending those out in the tax bill. And that's one of the things on my list is to improve our website and public education. to let folks know about our new brining system when it's appropriate to be used. There are ways for folks when they're shoveling driveways instead of taking the snow and putting it out on the The street or on the what I'll call the upstream side when a plow is coming along. If you put the snow on the downstream side when the plow comes along, it's not going to put it back in your driveway. So those are the things that we're looking to improve our public education side.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Bilotta.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, like everyone else, definitely want to thank you for all the hard work. Certainly, I know all the contractors and plowers and DPW and inspectors were in yourself were doing as much as you could, and everyone was incredibly responsive to all of my concerns and concerns that residents would come to me with. I would not be doing my job as a District Councilor if I didn't express the frustrations of constituents and definitely want to acknowledge that it was a very difficult storm and we received a lot of snow and obviously in neighborhoods where there's limited off-street parking vehicles cause challenges. One thing that I think that the city, the DPW,

I think could you could you you know certainly I would like to see this do better with is is the you know the in the few days after the storm I I think there was opportunities you know for um Clearing, Snow, you mentioned Hamilton Street. I know we've been working very close on that. And I think there were plenty of opportunities during the day when folks are out of their spots on Hamilton Street. And this, I think, goes for every neighborhood. where the city could come through and clear those spots where cars were parked. But I really think there are always opportunities to do better. And again, just wanted to say thank you for all the work. You know, we received multiple complaints from folks up on Boardman Street. I know Councilor Bergman brought that up and Scrimgeour and that Indian Hill Lake neighborhood and you know your team was responsive and we got it you know fixed I just you know it does concern me though when it seems like chunks of a whole neighborhood were kind of

you know at least from what residents were reiterating to me that you know there could have been a better job done there but I know Again, the storm is challenging. I think some of these issues are never going to be fixed. It's New England. We're in a city. It's challenging to remove snow. But I always think that there's opportunities to grow. And like Councilor, Mitra said you know how can we help with that and so I think there's it's great to hear what you said about some of the plows that are going to be coming online for next winter I just have a couple questions so You mentioned in the report when fully staffed there's a certain amount of inspectors and Supervisors. How many like route inspectors and super did we have in the days after the storm or that were out there?

So through the chair, the inspector team with the outside coordinators and supervisors, that's during an active storm. the only time that we would bring in additional inspectors is if we had clean up the days after and we have had those instances where we need to go back out, we need to re-scrape roads and that's when we would send out the inspectors to be sure that the resources that we have that we're addressing those 311 work orders that are created. I will share that the I'm losing track of the storms now, but we had a number of inspectors that we put into plow trucks because we were short-handed with city plows and private plows. We're not always just putting out inspectors when we have limited resources. Sometimes we're putting those folks after all of the union folks have been offered the work.

We're putting those inspectors into plow trucks when available.

I definitely agree that the public needs to take care of their sidewalks and business owners need to take care of their sidewalks as well. But again, I always think we can do better. But as a follow up, What is the complement of DPW trucks that have been out there since the storm, like in the last week or so? Is there an average number of trucks that are out there continuing to do cleanup and snow removal? What does it look like the last week or so?

So through the chair, the Department of Streets and Sanitation has approximately 100 employees when fully staffed. Some of those folks are doing other things other than snow. They're collecting curbside trash. They're doing other things. But anyone that we have available Whether it's the normal hours or if it's after hours or through the evening doing snow removal, we're putting all the trucks out there that we can. And as I mentioned earlier, that first week and 10 days of the storm We had 20 employees who were working between 70 and 100 hours of overtime. So I don't have a specific number. We could probably develop that if that's asked for.

but I will say that whatever we've got, whoever we've got available in trucks that are not being repaired, they're out on the streets, they're pushing back, they are salting, they are brining, they are removing snow, even during the day now we've got a loader mounted snowblower the mouth of which is about the size of this table and that's deployed in areas where we don't have a concern for cars that are parked on the side of the road during regular hours and it's casting the snow into the woods. So we've got a lot of activities that are ongoing for this 22-inch storm.

I appreciate it. And again, yeah, definitely want to say thank you to everyone. I know the amount of cars that were towed definitely speaks to the challenges that we have in the neighborhoods where it's dense or where folks don't have but also folks that aren't you know paying attention and working with us on the parking ban but yeah I can appreciate everyone's work and hope we can you know work to tweak things for the future moving forward and make improvements I think there's always room for improvement so thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Bilotta. We have Council Rosen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Through the chair to the commissioner, there's a couple of areas that I guess I'm most concerned about because I get a lot of calls on these. And it's the hills. It's the hills that seem to get snow covered and the snow gets packed down and it gets icy. And I just hear about the hills constantly. One, if we have snow tonight, I'll hear about but from the residence tomorrow and that's Rydell Street, runs from the top of Brantwood Road where I grew up and it goes down to Chandler Street. It's a huge hill. I've probably talked to two of the residents on that street. There's not that many houses on it, but to every storm, I mean, five or six times we've had, you know, some two or three inch storms too. So the hills, and you talked about, I think you said 65 spreaders used for salts. That's great. They call 311. It takes forever. I'm not blaming you. I don't know whose fault it is.

I don't know much about 311. They call. We'll get a spreader up there. We'll get salt up there. and it just seems never to arrive and they start calling me a day or two later. I know one gentleman was out shoveling his walk, he fell, he got hurt, he had his phone, he called the ambulance, this is still Rydell Street, called the ambulance, the ambulance came down the hill, which means going up Brantwood Road and going down to Chandler Street. So down Rydell Street, but they went right by the man lying there and they slammed into the guardrail at the bottom. This is the ambulance. I mean, so he calls all the time. And he's right. He's right. And I'll call 311. And I don't know if they get right up there. But that's the big problem, I think, the hills. And in fact, we The tragedy we had, Mr. Chairman.

Forgive me if I pronounce her last name right, a Russian woman, Alla Sipogov, 17 Asabit Lane. on that hill, and it's really a shame that in our community someone 88 years old, a woman, I guess was probably outside shoveling her walk, or the driveway was out shoveling. because as you know, everyone here knows that she was found after, you know, frozen to death here in the city of Worcester because she's 88 and she was shoveling and somehow we, have to find ways to get agencies out there, teenagers out there. I know the kids had a couple of days off from school. We got a lot of strong teenagers, high school kids, and probably if they knew about it, and maybe we could give them some type of compensation, but there's no way that this woman should have died out in the snow, frozen to death.

I think of that and I say, oh my goodness. just how off it is, 7 Acibit Lane. And then we saw the response of the ambulance and the fire department and they had trouble making it up and down that particular hill. I bring that into my talk about the hills here. We really have to do better on the hills. And it's not just Rydell Street, it's not just Assabet Lane, at Trentham Road, and so many others. And I know you've heard that, but it seems to me that with those spreaders and our limited capacity to spread this salt, then we do only hills. I live on a flat level road that always is icy. But I don't complain because I'm saying at least it's flat. I don't have to worry about going up or down a hill. But if I lived on a hill, boy, I would expect the salt You know, you talked about sand. You don't like to spread sand.

So the Salter, to get there as soon as possible, maybe that same day, maybe the next day, but I think I've heard from people it's been a couple of days. and the shoveling, sidewalk shoveling around the schools to me is just so important. When there's no school, that's fine. But eventually school starts up. And if the neighbors around that school and around the surrounding streets haven't shoveled the residential sidewalks, and a lot of them that can't because a day or two later when the kids go back to school, the mounds and the sidewalks, we've already heard it from everyone, are just so tall, there's so much snow, how do you get out there? You can have a snowblower, but if you're looking up there at the mountain, you can't get through it. So we have to, I think we have to do more of somehow we contract, we have plows plowing the street, we need contractors to shovel these sidewalks that residents homeowners refuse, maybe business owners too, refuse to shovel. They don't see the importance. I talked about it last meeting about guarded school.

They don't see the importance of shoveling the walks so the kids don't have to walk out in the street. and many of these children, you know, they're not high school, even middle school, they're elementary school. So through the chair to the commissioner, do we do much with shoveling people's sidewalks? I know we've done that in the summer, even with mowing lawns and so on. Do we do much with shoveling? private sidewalks and then fining them for not doing the job, number one. So I know we do that now, but that doesn't get the walk shovel. and do we send out some type of a crew that shovels them and we bill the owner of that property or put a lien on the house, whatever we have to do?

Through the chair, a couple of points, if I could. I think that it'd be important for the DPW to provide a list of those streets that are the mains, the bus routes, and the specials. And those specials are some of those hill areas that you're talking about. just so there's an understanding of what the priorities are currently. So it's not all the hills, though. It's certain hills. Through the Chair, the City of Seven Hills has much more than seven hills. I understand that.

So you're telling me we do as many hills as we can?

Correct. So I will provide that list. I think that'll be important. So if people look to see that their street is not on that list, then we can reprioritize. I will say that during that heavy storm, you had mentioned previously, Rydell, and Fourth Street, both off of the Mill Street area. I went up, happened to be just one instance, but fourth was plowed. In Rydell, I happened to see one of the abutters who had his own plow truck who was helping out by clearing up the street. I offered him to come and plow with the city because he's got two plows. I don't know where that stands, but I made that offer to him. So to your specific question of the sidewalks, there is a provision where if sidewalks are not cleared that the DPW can bring in a contractor to shovel the streets, or excuse me, shovel those sidewalks in those areas and charge back to the property owner. We haven't done that this year.

And I don't know what the history has been. But this year, we have not had to implement that clause. Well, we haven't implemented it.

You say we haven't had to. I think someone's got to shovel these sidewalks, especially around the schools where the children are. So it seems to be a policy that we have to have people, I don't know who, Boy Scouts, companies, whoever, to shovel these walks, we find the owner of the property, and we collect, hopefully, from the owner of the property for getting the shoveling done. We just can't say we're gonna find them, Mr. Chairman.

The manager just wants to say something quickly.

Well, that's good.

OK. Through the chair to the council, I just want to make a point here. The commissioner mentioned that DPW has not done that, but the quality of life team has. and so, for example, there's an incident that happened on the east side of the city working with Councilor Bilotta of a private entity that had that situation kind of the length of a sidewalk was not taken care of and Quality of Life addressed that pretty quickly. So the Quality of Life team is actively doing that in some areas where we are sending contractors to clean the area and we're finding the property owners for that. So there are elements of the, so again, the work that happens around snow clearing in the city and enforcement, et cetera, is not just DPW. There's a massive, whether it's police, whether it's PCOs, PCOs are part of the transportation and mobility, but also quarterly of life. So there's a bunch of teams of efforts that are working to try to kind of address some of these issues.

Okay, so Mr. Manager, you're saying we do shovel, have shoveled some of those walks and we do fine and bill the owners. I'm just suggesting we probably have to do more of that. Okay. and through the chair to the commissioner, is there ever a storm, not the 22 inch one, but the four or five or six inches that came after that, the next storm that It's not an emergency. The 22 Incher was an emergency so then we could get many of the trained DPW workers to work overtime. They had to during the emergency. But the next storm wasn't declared an emergency by the state or by the city manager. So now we have to turn to them and say, will you please work for overtime and plow for us. We have some equipment. They might turn us down, am I correct?

And we may not have enough people from the city to do the plowing with our equipment because they just for some reason maybe don't want that overtime. Is that correct?

Commissioner? The contract with Local 495 Union does state that under a declared emergency by either the governor or the city manager, Overtime is mandatory other times overtime is voluntary so that's something that we have we work with our crews to be able to bring in as many people as we can

through the chairs to the commissioner. So we might have equipment for a four, five, six, seven inch storm that's not being used because our people, our union folks from DPW don't want to work for overtime that day. through the chair, that's an accurate statement. And that's kind of a shame. I think we have to take a look at our contracts too, because we've talked about maybe not having enough equipment, not having enough employees, not having enough money, whatever it might be. But if you're telling me that during a storm, equipment is sitting unused because certain employees don't want to work overtime, I know you can't force them, but that's an issue. That certainly is an issue. If we have equipment not being used, I certainly can't accept that.

Through the Chair, if I may? Sure. Interrupt you just on that point specifically. We have identified the need to re-evaluate the overtime provisions. We are entering a period of negotiation with Local 495. and that's something that we're gonna be looking at. That's good. That's good to hear.

Councilor, you got two minutes?

Okay, two minutes, I'm gonna talk faster. Mr. Manager, the city garages, I look at June Street, June Street from Newton Square down to Channel Street. That's about a mile. And I see these cars. This is after the 22-incher. And I see the cars parked there and the plows going back and forth. and just piling the snow into these cars. And I see the people, a lot of young people, I think they go to Worcester State University, and they're out there hours later spending hours and hours shoveling out and it's a little hole they shovel out and they drive back in when they get home and it's difficult but I'm saying to myself we've got garages Why? I mean, I have a driveway. But if I didn't have a driveway, I'd bring my car down to one of these garages. I'd get a friend to bring me home, a relative. I'd call a counselor to give me a ride home. I'd do it some way. Free busing. Uber, but why would you park on June Street when there's 22 inches of snow coming and then get out there hours later?

And the back-breaking work, I just don't understand. Are these garages filling up? I hope they're filling up, are they?

Mr. Manager? Mr.

Manager?

Two tips to the council. We have a long number of residents that use them, but I think definitely more residents should take more advantage of this kind of. Do they know about it? We try to put out as much message as possible in our social media, traditional media outlets, et cetera. We can continue to expand our communication efforts on that. But again, these are things that we've tried to expand so it's not just the night of the snowstorm. The last snow storm, I think we left it open for almost a week to allow people to be able to do that. So anything that we can do to provide more access for residents to be able to do that. But there are current residents that actively use it, especially in the downtown area. You see a lot of residents using that. But we would invite more residents.

I think if everyone in that one mile stretch of June Street brought their car down there, they could do curb to curb on June Street. then you bring your car home, you don't have to shovel. You've got the space there already. Why people wouldn't do it, I don't know. I have to assume they just don't know about it. But thank you Mr. Manager, thank you Mr. Mayor, and thank you Commission.

Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Councilor O'Hara.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I'll start off the same way. You know, there was a lot of work that needed to be done. You know, I received a lot of calls, and so I probably have a lot of questions here, and I don't need to keep everybody, but So first off, I still don't know where we stand when it comes to the bus stops through the chair to the commissioner I know that's something that Councilor King had put on and we had asked to add to about the bus stops but there's you know there's still some of them that just aren't shoveled out. Where are we as a city when it comes to that, when someone's plowing? What are we doing with that?

Commissioner.

Through the Chair, according to the WRTA's website, the WRTA is responsible for clearing snow from the bus stops.

Okay, thank you. So, and if till this day they're not cleared out, what's the next step through the chair?

Commissioner.

Through the chair, it is a notification to the WRTA, maybe through the 311 process or direct calls. I don't know where the bus stops are and those that are have been cleared or haven't been cleared but if they're brought to my attention certainly happy to bring that forward to WRTA or 311 can do the same but It is the WRTA's responsibility. The website states that they routinely clean snow from the bus stops.

Okay, thank you. So leads me to another question. When it comes to the crosswalks, Rosen brought up the crosswalks. My concern is the crosswalks around the schools. What is the plan for plowing around the schools and the crosswalks around the schools? Till this day, there's still narrow crosswalks for kids to cross through. It's still too high for kids to cross the streets and I'm really concerned with that. Any snow we get is just going to continue to pile up there and as we've seen and we continue to see, no one's addressing these. and it's an issue that I see in District 4 a whole lot. It is a dense area. But I think we're at this point where, for me, they don't seem to be addressed. So where do we stand with Crosswalks? especially around the schools and in plowing around the schools.

Through the chair, during the initial days after the snowstorm, Our Assistant Commissioner of Operations was in touch with, I believe it was the Facilities Manager from the school, who provided a list of areas where he needed or she needed help with snow removal, which we addressed. I think that as we go through and remove snow for example on Grafton Street in front of the schools there we had great success with removing snow at the curb and that helps to break down those those crosswalks and those high Windrose. However, the responsibility still rests with the abutters. I understand that the challenge is greater because of the depth of snow, but that responsibility still goes back to those abutters.

OK, thank you. And to the chair, is there any communication? I know you mentioned communication with the schools. But is there communication during the snowstorms to work alongside Facilities or the custodians, I believe they're the ones that mainly do the snow plowing or using the snow plows. Sorry, snow blowers. is a communication with that. I've seen time and time again where there's times where the plow drop drivers pushing it back, custodians throwing it back, and it's just a consistent back and forth. And obviously the residents are the ones that suffer the most. so is there conversations with them to say okay this time of day or whatever it is that communication to do a better job within that area in those areas

through the chair as I stated the assistant commissioner of operations does have that number and there have been communications between the two and where we can when we're doing snow removal operations we help out in those areas

Okay, thank you. And then, we mentioned parking bans earlier, and I received several phone calls and some pictures of the streets that have parking bans. Cars were parked on one side, but it just seemed like the plow truck drivers just went right down the middle and blocked all the cars over to the right and on the left side the snow should have been over to the left and a lot of residents got really plowed in. So my question is to the chair, to the commissioner, due to not having enough plow truck drivers, How do we share information to these plow truck drivers on certain roads that should be plowed to the left? It may be a new plow truck driver, right, that's coming on. You met one the other day and you had asked him to come on. How do we make sure that they knew where they're supposed to push the snow to the side? Again, residents are getting stuck in. I had to grab some of my students to help out, myself as well, to get people out.

and you'll see the road and it's quite obvious that it all should have been pushed to the left but it was just right down the middle and any car on the right got stuck.

Commissioner. Through the Chair, a lot of our vehicles have articulating plows where they could choose to either move the snow to the left side or the right side of the road. However, a lot of the plows, especially the bigger trucks, they have fixed mounted plows that cannot be articulated left or right. they are fixed plowing to the right hand side so depends on the road if we have that ability we would potentially articulate or move the The plows so that it moves the snow to the left hand side. But in general, they're all plows that move the snow and the windrows to the right hand side.

Okay, so this particular street, the cars are on the right side. And so, and I believe it's a one-way street, so if they're going down and it's plowing to the right and the cars are parked on the right, they're gonna get plowed in. Is that correct? Correct.

Through the chair. We've seen that across the city. There are still cars that have yet to be moved since that storm. and they are snowed in to the point that was made a minute ago by Councilor Rosen. If there is a parking ban, there are other options for some to be able to use those city parking garages which are free of charge during parking bans.

So how do we address those roads though that parking is allowed on one side but the truck goes down and plows them in?

through the chair. If you've got a specific road, we can look at what street that is. We can find out what we use for vehicles and plows in that area and determine if we can instead put the snow to the left hand side.

OK, thank you. We had mentioned Adopt a Hydrant. There was a resident that needed help. She was 89 years old. She lived in the neighborhood forever. Quick story, it was pretty cool. She told me she remembered when 290 wasn't even there. And that was really interesting to me. To know that there was no highway there, and she remembered that. So she's been there that long. We have to be able to wait to identify where these fire hydrants are. Right now, there are a ton of fire hydrants. I'm driving down the streets. I'm making a list of them that are covered. that I'm wondering if they're there on the road or not, on some major roads as well, on the main roads. What are we doing right now about trying to make sure we move the snow? Because it's obvious it's not being done right now through the chair. Commissioner.

Through the Chair, our operations are focused, like right now to your specific question, our operations are focused on clearing the storm that we're currently receiving. Beyond that, we are focused on widening those streets. We're focused on snow removal. So we as the DPW, we don't have the forces to be able to go out and clear snow from hydrants at this time.

Okay, I guess through the Chair to the Council. I think one of the things that we need to do right now as Council, as administration, is continue to remind residents that is their responsibility to do this. right we can't continue to say dbw your job is to do xyz so us collectively as counselors as people email you text you communicate back to them their responsibility one of the things that we're going to do too is we're exploring to you the utilization of our current inspectors as part of the inspectional services department to help support in inspecting some of these areas as they're travesting the the streets or going about their day-to-day in inspecting properties to pay attention to these fire hydrants or even vehicles so that they could be able to communicate that to the police department so or DPW so then we can be able to rectify that. So that's something that we're currently actively exploring as part of the inspectional services team in their day-to-day inspections of properties that they can pay attention so we can be able to address some of those areas.

Okay, thank you. I think one of the major concerns is a lot of the property owners aren't living at that location or business owners aren't the people that own the property where businesses are. they're uh they're not here in Worcester or they're hard to to get in contact with I reached out to one and still haven't heard back about you know one of the properties in the district and it's really concerning um because you see young Young kids trying to climb over. You see some of the elderly literally climbing over mountains of snow. And it's really tough to see that. The last thing I want to see is someone get hurt on something that we probably could have got ahead of. Another question I have through the chair to the commissioner is a lot of 311 calls. I was actually in contact with you several times

and I wanted to make sure we do it the right way, but is there conversations in identifying some of the major calls that you received over and over again or 301 received over and over again to address, there was a gentleman here about a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, saying for over 20 years or something like that, his road was consistently an issue and it was never addressed. How are we addressing those roads that consistently have issues? Even up to last week, the snow was still there over a week. residents were getting stuck. People had to push people through. It's really tough to see over a week later that there's still a lot of snow in certain areas and residents still complaining. And they're the ones that are shoveling people out. They're the ones, you know, shoveling the sidewalks, but their roads are just struggling. Are those going to be on up at our, you know, like the resident, you know, unfortunately when I passed away, there was a issue.

The one with our, Rosen had explained, the gentleman that fell, that seemed like to be a consistent issue on these roads. We've been at this a long time. We got over just about two feet of snow, but we know there's certain roads that really need to be addressed and they just continue to come up. Where are we at with that? Commissioner. What's your focus?

Through the Chair, our focus is on making sure that all of the 540 miles of road that we have in the city, that we are doing our best to remove the snow. people had asked well why several days after the storm is there still snowpack on our streets and it's a combination of things people that are shoveling out their cars, putting the snow in the street, that requires us to go back, redeploy our plows in those neighborhoods and on those streets. It is a matter of multiple factors, but it's our job to look at those 311 complaints that are coming through, making sure that the teams that we have available are going out and addressing those on a daily basis.

Council

I think that's all I got. Thank you. And, you know, again, thank you for everyone for all the work they've been doing. Obviously, you know, we can get some better equipment. I saw the truck today. He was on Gate Street, the truck you were talking about. throwing all the snow from the sidewalk into the park at Crystal Park. So that's great to have. We have it. So if anyone hasn't seen it, I can attest to it. but yeah I think we just need to focus more on you know hopefully find a way we can get to residents and business owners to help out as well but to show them that we're there for them right I don't want them feeling as though it's your fault you need to do it well we need to understand that we need to work together to to make sure we get this done right So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Seeing none, Councilor Economou for second time.

Excuse me, thank you Mr. Chairman. Real quick, just a couple quick questions. Something to bring forward to people so they understand, too. We talk about vehicles and the parking ban. In the last 10 years, Our vehicle inventory just in the city of Worcester has grown to over 14,600 vehicles. So there are more cars. More trucks more pickups here in the city than there were before so obviously that's going to add some issues to to our Plowing operations and again enforcing the winter parking ban and having people be proactive in and following the parking ban. In my opinion, one of the things that failed us during this storm was our communication system. It's been out. I know we've been following up on it.

I know it's been in the test and contract phase. I think that would be important going into our next storm as to how we notify people of what to expect in a storm such as that, a top 10 storm. through the Chair to the City Manager. Do you know where we are with that, Mr. Manager, at this point with the new alert system, we'll call it?

Mr. Manager?

Through you, Chair, to the Council, I actually executed the contract yesterday. Excellent. So our hope is that in the next week or two, we can be able to work with the company to get this up and running and launched. So our hope is to get it as soon as possible. The Commissioner Goodwin of Emergency Communications, he knows the urgency behind this. Just today, I text him, says, to make sure that you push the vendor to get this going. They're going to work extremely hard as possible to get this activated and ready to launch as soon as possible. but the good sign is we executed it yesterday so we're ready to get to work and get this launched hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

Well, that's great news. I appreciate that, Mr. Manager. And again, thank you, Mr. Commissioner, for being in here today and handling the questions. Thank you.

Okay, is that it?

I just want to say a few words I feel like I have to and I should as the city manager to not only the commissioner Thank you for the work that you're doing in the department. You're putting in a lot of hours. You're sleeping in your office. You're bringing pasta and all types of foods for your staff. You're doing a little bit and beyond. to your team and everyone to make sure that they see you and that they feel supported. And I want to give kudos to a lot of the Councilors here who acknowledge and support the staff. This takes a lot of work. But I also want to give the council a level of certainty that this commissioner and myself, we've been working at this hard. I've given him basically the green light to come to me with what are the needs of the departments.

In this report that you have in front of you, I told them, I said, give it all, give everything to the council, to the public so they know because we need to work together to build back this department, to build the strength of the staffing, Equipment, vendors. I mean, you name it. The self-sheds, the systems, training. We have a lot of new staff in the department. from the top all the way down, from the commissioner to assistant commissioner to the director, everybody's new. Even though they've been in the department many years, they're new in those roles. So we've had a lot of change in turnover in those positions. So I want to give a kudos for all of them. They're all invested. They're all thinking creatively how to solve this because they're hearing. They're hearing for every resident. Some of them, they're hearing it from their own families at the kitchen table in terms of some of the issues. But I just want to give a kudos to the team in the department for not only working hard but also willing to say we need to figure this out.

We need to find a better way to serve our residents of our city and for listening to all the residents and all the councilors. King, and through this effort because like we've said tonight, it takes a collective effort to really be able to do this. So thank you Commissioner and the team for the great work you're doing.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll begin by thanking my colleagues for well-rounded oversight on this particular matter. I want to state that I appreciate the front face that the commissioner has put forward on this issue and I also want to acknowledge the daunting task ahead of our city employees and the folks that contract with us. I think it's just like anything else. When it's a task that's very difficult and there's a lack of resources, there's a lack of infrastructure, perhaps folks are going to just do the best they can in the time that they have. and as a consequence, we don't have a top notch snow operations in the city of Worcester at this time. That being said, Mr. Chairman, what we do know is that

a number of folks are reporting and stating that they do not feel that they're getting a fair return on their tax dollars in terms of service provision during snow operations. I'm not going to sit here and simply say people need to shovel better, shovel more often, shovel higher and harder. Park differently, perhaps. As mentioned by my colleague, we have a lot more vehicles. We waive minimum parking requirements. for housing needs and priorities. So there's a confluence of factors at place. And I can tell you this, Mr. Chairman, the one thing I will say, I've seen neighbor to neighbor helping each other, shoveling. I've seen neighbor to business. I've seen business to neighbor and business to business and stranger to stranger. in terms of shoveling and snow plowing and snow blowing and all of those things, Mr. Chairman. I think that's what makes us a very unique city that crosses neighborhoods

and intersects on many levels, Mr. Chairman. That being said, I've always prided myself on asking the questions for data. I'm not quite sure how we're measuring the efficacy of these operations. There were some questions asked earlier about the prioritization, Main Streets, bus routes, and specials. I've been calling for this prioritization to be documented, outlined, and highlighted. I'm going to make another call by way of a motion for exactly that, Mr. Chairman. I don't simply want to know where. I want to know the data and the statistics. To what degree are we getting it done? How are we going to measure this? I think that all of us appreciate the responsiveness of your crew. Quick and consistent, but that's not sustainable. It's got to be operational. It's got to be systematic, Mr. Chairman.

That being said, it brings me back to my calls for a staffing analysis in this department. I'm going to reiterate that by way of a mortar. We need that. you know, hearing as we have over the past, these are what the needs are. We need specifics, we need numbers, we need budgetary implications, Mr. Chairman. It also brings me back to the fact that we do not have a way for the city manager to evaluate his department heads. There's no performance evaluations at this time. I'm not quite sure how we quantify and qualify our department heads improving, getting better, and having the support of their direct reports, Mr. Chairman. So I wave a motion. I'd like an update on that. Mr. Chairman, question to the Charity Administration. I know Mr. McGurty is here. I know over the past few years, we've often

taking money at the request of the manager and moved it when we have not exhausted snow operations budgets. And from what I recall, those are for purchasing of equipment. Through the chair to the administration, just wanna know if that's a fact. and if so, do we have an idea over the last four to five years how much we've spent on equipment for these operations?

To the chair, to the councilor, that is a fact. Oftentimes, we ask the department head to provide us a list of equipment that they need, and this council body supports that, and they work through in terms of doing that. I know in the past couple of years there was challenges or concerns in terms of what the utilization or what the equipment they were going to purchase and items were held and it put us in a very tough position to go and get these equipments in time for the operations because some of these equipments, when we're allocating the funding, let's say today, They may not get here for next year's storm. They sometimes may take 12 to 18 months to get here. And so we got to be ahead of the game in ordering some equipment, and especially the larger equipments. But I don't know, Tim, if you have exact numbers. We can come back with a report and exact numbers. But we have been finding ways to utilize the current existing dollars

of the DPWs, snow operations, any leftovers to be able to put back into the department for, or even sometimes free cash dollars. We utilize that to also provide for additional equipment.

Through chair of the administration, how will the council and the public have an idea of the extent to which we are using and the resources that we have purchased and are available. You mentioned earlier that there's some equipment that has not been used due to lack of staffing. So how can you report out on that through the chair?

Through the Chair, the only time that equipment isn't used is if we don't have the manpower with the appropriate licenses to power that equipment. but I will share with you that every piece of equipment that we have that we have people to be able to operate is being used We are implementing the brine program, which is brand new for us, but that has already been deployed. We're crawling right now before we can walk and then run. Every piece of equipment, whether it's water equipment where the folks haven't been out doing a water main break, whether it's sewer equipment, same thing. or plowing equipment and the streets and sanitation. It's being deployed when we have the personnel with appropriate licenses to be out there.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. By way of an order, I would just like a report back on that data, uses of equipment over the last five years. Monies expended and transferred over to purchase that equipment. I think the commission hit the nail on the head when we have enough people. I want to know. when we don't have enough people? What's the percentage of equipment that's being used, Mr. Chairman? And I'd like a staff analysis to go over that as well. Mr. Chairman, through the Charity Administration, What is the overlap between MassDOT and the City in instances as it relates to snow operations, or is there any?

Through the Chair, I will again thank MassDOT for sharing their resources when they have them available. Thanks to the communications between the city manager and Commissioner Gulliver of MassDOT. The MassDOT the past two storms has reached out and any resources that they have available that they're not deploying on their state roads The first storm, the major storm, we had six pieces of equipment. And the most recent storm, Friday into Saturday, they shared four pieces of equipment. So they have their roads that they're responsible for and they deploy any resources that they need on those roads. The only overlap per se is when they share resources that they're not using that we can deploy on our city streets.

Thank you. Through the Chair, has there been any strategic exchanges as it relates to snow operations from MassDOT and the City of Worcester? And is there a potential for that through the Chair? Commissioner? Commissioner? Or to the City Manager?

Through the Chair, again, the conversations that I've had with the District 3 Director, Barry Laurien, who has been very helpful, he is sharing with us the equipment that's available and we also had when we were looking at the brine system MassDOT was very helpful to bring us out to their Sterling Depot and show us the brine system that they're using. So they were sharing their best practices. and we ended up buying the same system that MassDOT uses. So there is collaboration there, just like the city doesn't have Extra Resources, nor does MassDOT to be able to share with us. But they have the past two storms, those resources that they're not using they've shared with us.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, again, the city folks that live here, they want accountability from us as a city, as a collective, as some of my colleagues have mentioned. But you can't have that once again. without measurables. I would like to see if there's any strategic exchange that can occur between MassDOT outside of adding resources. Is there a pool of thought or strategy, Mr. Chairman? And by way of a motion, I would like to make a motion on order that the city explore the feasibility of that, Mr. Chairman. Prioritization of the three domains there, specials, mains and buzzwords, whatever, through the Charity Administration, to what degree of executing those priorities is altered based on 311 or city council outreach.

And the reason I'm asking that is in my imagination, there's a strategy in place and then perhaps we're going all over the place for all these other reasons which are real legit and could be life-saving but through the charity administration can you qualify that for me?

Commissioner the Chair during an active storm we are following the protocols that have been established namely doing those mains and those bus routes and those specials and then when those are in the condition where we can leave those and go out to the side streets, we're going out to those side streets. The one thing that we try to avoid doing is during a storm when we have a request for a certain street is to pull resources from their prescribed routes to go to those different requests for service. The time to do that is after the storm is under control. and we've got our primary roads, which are most important for emergency services. When we've got those established and under control, then we can start chasing the request, the 311 work orders but that typically happens the next day or days after.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, It's been mentioned our three-decker neighborhoods could be problematic. Certainly the challenges of those densely populated communities are significant. That being said, you know, I've been in the Burncoat Hills. They look pretty good. You know, you go Vernon Hill, Grafton Hill, Belmont Hill, not so great. and so part of that prioritization is important and in the report that I requested I would like that outlined and how is that executed because folks want to know. There's questions being asked by two district councils and at-large councillors as to why is the snow being removed over here and not over here. And again, the response to the city councilors is great. But I'd like to see that. IMPACT ON THE BUSINESS CORRIDORS.

I KNOW I WORK WITH COUNCILOR BILOTTA AS IT RELATES TO THE CANAL DISTRICT, ET CETERA. YOUR INSPECTORS, HOW ARE THEY PRIORITIZING the places to go and review through the chair because you've heard about schools, we've heard about intersections and crosswalks. How is that even, it just seems very overwhelming, how is that actually executed? Is there a technology component that we can use? any AI projection that we can use what can we do differently there in your research what's the evidence-based solutions through the chair to the administration or the commissioner

Commissioner. Through the Chair, just for clarification, are you talking about when it comes to snow removal processes? Yes. Through the Chair, one of our priorities is to work on snow removal in those areas that are most impactful to businesses. of the City, areas that don't have vehicles parked on the side of the road. For example, shortly after the snowstorm, we took the snowblower that's the size of this table and we were removing snow on Shrewsbury Street. beyond that we went into one of the next areas was Water Street and around Polar Park Certainly the Canal District has a lot of side streets. It's a monumental effort to be able to coordinate to have both city trucks with operators.

Loaders or the Snowblower and private contractors to be able to come in when we're not fighting an additional storm to be able to coordinate those efforts. and I will share that the snow blower, when we were doing Shrewsbury Street as an example, I was taking videos, the snow blower was filling up our six wheel dump trucks in a matter of 10 seconds and only moving 10 feet. So when there's 22 inches of snow that's moved from a two-lane road to the side of the road, it's a tremendous amount of snow. So our priorities to your specific question were those business district areas where there were not cars on the street. Beyond that, what we've been doing is, for example, on Hamilton Street, we worked with 311 to be able to establish no parking on those nights that we were going to be removing snow from Hamilton Street and Grafton Street so that we could deploy those resources in a safe manner.

You have two minutes. Thank you. And through the chair to the commissioner, who do you directly report to?

directly report to the city manager.

And through the chair to the administration or the commissioner. It was mentioned before that this report had a wish list, that's my words, and a list of needs through the chair to the commissioner. Is that something that you do during budget time as well? Is this the only rendition of what's needed by your department as it relates to snow operations through the chair?

Commissioner?

through the chair, are you referring to the report about? Yeah, we confer to both of them so we don't have to go back and forth, either one. Is there an additional sort of assessment of the needs for snow operations outside of this that you have provided over the last year to the city manager.

through the chair this list on the major report identifies those areas that we identified last year and we worked to to recover those operations, those facilities, and certainly those are conversations that are ongoing with the city manager's office because A lot of these have needs that are very expensive. For example, when we made our request last year for our capital, We had a building that didn't have appropriate heat in it. It had no heat in it. What had no heat?

I couldn't hear.

Our sign shop had no heat in it. So that was something that was part of a request that we put through for capital. So we were able to put heat in that building so that those folks that are working in there can make the vinyl stick to the aluminum so they can create those signs. The lighting in the garage was another need, so that was another capital request that I worked through the city manager's office. to be able to provide appropriate lighting so those mechanics can work safely. And then there's the needs for the salt sheds. We restore the salt sheds under the direction of an engineering company. but we did that with the resources in our own DPW saving the city tens of thousands of dollars. So these are ongoing conversations. These are ongoing major needs and that those conversations happen not only in the budget process but also throughout the year.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, when you look at this, again, I'm not just focused on this past storm. The folks that have been here over the years, we know we've had this issue. Councilor Bergman's led on this for less significant storms than this, and there was A lot of concerns from the community. That being said, when you talk about salt sheds falling apart, the weather monitoring system is still being fixed. The brine system is now coming up. vehicles being retrofitted are finally ready to be deployed. Consultation with UMass, salt spreaders not being calibrated in years. It causes me to question, Mr. Chairman, what's been going on in this department. I think that we could benefit from an outside consultant as it relates to snow operations, Mr. Chairman. I'm gonna make a motion that way. And this is about

Safety. This is about good neighbors. And I want to end with that, Mr. Chairman. I'm not going to simply say once again that folks are just throwing things in the road. Snow on the Road. I've seen a community come together. I've seen the council and the residents and the city manager and the departments do the best that they can in this moment. with the resource provided, but the resources have been lacking, Mr. Chairman. And I want to see data, and I hope that the appropriate committee provides the appropriate level of oversight. So we can hold each one another accountable. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councilor Toomey.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I rise for clarification. There was a question about where Hydrants for, et cetera, right on the city web page. If you go into WorcesterMA.gov and then click on Departments and then click on Water and Sewer Operations, there is a section called Hydrants and Catch Basins. where is listed also the Adopt a Hydrant program and then Clear Catch Basin. And right there on the page is a map that you can click. You can make it larger, you can go to your own neighborhood, your own street and find out where every Hedren is and where every catch patient is so that you're aware of where they are. I think that's a great tool. And we already had the information. You just have to look for it. making sure that we have the link out there in public. Maybe do a Facebook post on that saying this is the link to get there.

will be very beneficial to everybody. So I want to thank the administration for having the foresight to have put that map out there. So thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Bilotta. You all set? Okay, so we'll send those items to Public Works. Thank you, Commissioner.

And thank you again for the opportunity to hear the frustrations of the community, which we understand and we're striving every day to improve our operations. and bringing the equipment and reevaluate what we're doing so that we can better serve the city. So thank you for the opportunity.

Okay, so those are public works. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. We're on 8.13A, Transforming Information and Communication, relevant to the retention. and turnover rate was the Police Department. Is that the Public Safety? Councilor Toomey?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Before doing that, I think it's really important that we talk about the home rule petition that we had sent to the legislature. um as actually we sent that we voted that in council march 26th of 2024 and um it's actually still in committee it was held over it should have been acted on in December, and it was held over until March 18th. So we're talking something that we sent in March 26, and it's going to be two years now until this has been extended. So I think it's really important, especially considering the fact that the information that we have in this report, we have to recognize that we have close to 60 officers will have served 32 years in the next, in the spring class and the fall class. will be eligible for retirement.

That's 60 people. We currently have in the current class, as my understanding, 27 recruits and one lateral transfer. for this current class. So I think it's really important that we as a body communicate with the delegation. Thank Senator Moore and Representative King. I'm sorry, Representative O'Day. for advocating and for putting this forward. But I think we also need to let the committee members know how important this is and how critical this is because we're not getting the numbers of people We used to get thousands of people who applied for civil service. Now we get only several hundred. And then by the time you get through everything, we don't have that many people.

and a class and we need to we should be doing classes of 40 or more to be able to try to step so if we could through a motion draft a letter from this council asking for consideration and making sure that we move forward with this and how critical it is because of these potential retirements. That would be very helpful. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I think you're sending out the Public Works.

No, Public Safety.

I'm sorry, Public Safety. And then we'll go off the motions. And also I'll go off the motions from the Public Works Committee. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Chief. Thank you. We are on 8.30A, Transformation and Communication of the Bar for the DCU Special Task Church in accordance with message of General Law 422 of the Act of 2006. Questions? We can file that. All those in favor? Opposed? So ordered. Okay, we have finance items 835A through H, 836A through C, 8.37A through B. Motions adopt on the roll call. Roll call. Councilor Bergman?

Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Solo? Yes. Councilor King? Councilor King? Mr. Chairman, which item is this, please? The finance items. Yes. Councilor Mitra.

Yes.

Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Rivera. Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. Okay, we are on Transmitting Information and Communication of the American Rescue Plan Act Funding. So that's the MLO, and thank you for the update. And there's no extra money, not yet anyways. Okay, so the MLO, all those in favor, opposed, so ordered. In terms of main information and communication, we have an update on several updates from the administration. Okay, so... First one is transmitting information and communication relevant to the plans to repair Federal Plaza Garage located at 570 Main Street. The motion is put out to traffic and parking. All those in favor, all opposed, so ordered. Next item is Transmitting Information, Communication Road with the Planning and Design Improvements on Newton Square and Highland Street. I'll send that to Traffic and Parking.

Chairman, I sort of mentioned there's a meeting tomorrow night. For those interested, that would be a board meeting for those to attend. 6 o'clock. 6 o'clock at Dougherty High School. Dougherty High School, one of the guidance rooms. I'm sure you'll find it once you get the bill. 6 o'clock tomorrow night, involves Newton Square redesign.

Thank you. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. We are transferring information and communication relevant to the City Senior Work Off Tax Abatement Program for the M.O. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Transmitting Information, Communication and Concerning Plants to Remove Invasive Plant Species in the City, referred to Urban Technology Innovation and Environmental Committee. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Next is Transmitting Information Communication relative to the number of Potholes related calls received by 311 since the beginning of the 311 program. Assured the public works. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Transmitting Information and Communication Routes Concerning the Feasibility of Installing Water Bubbles at the City's Parks Priorities of Recreation and Whistle Locations Referred to Veteran Memorials and Parks All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. We are on to be Dane on the roll call.

Amendment Chapter 13 of the Revised Ordinances of 2008 to provide handicap parking in front of 58 Providence Street. Roll call.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, and Mayor Petty.

Motion to adjourn. Those in favor?

Mr. Chairman. So awarded. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman. What? What can I do now? I'd like to do a suspension.

Okay, we'll do a suspension. We need a roll call. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Fresolo? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This will be real quick. This just came to me from our staff that there's a number of Black History Month events occurring, including on February 11th. Mr. Chairman, I'd just like an order asking the city manager, they already have it up on the website, that if they could promote that through their social media. What's the one on the 11th, what is it? Sorry? Do you have the one on the 11th, what is it? Oh, sorry. February 11th is Echoes of Hope, Anchored in Resilience, Living Church of Worcester, and Afro Beats Dance Class at the Worcester Public Library. There's a ton of them, the 11th, the 12th, the 18th, the 20th, the 21st, the 24th. The 26th and the 28th is a Celebrate Black History Month with the Worcester branch NAACP at the YW from 11 to 2. And then the last event of February 28, that evening, 5.30, Courage to Remember from Royal Route to Living Legends. at the Performing Arts Center in Holy Cross, Mr. Chairman.

And I would only ask in addition to that, If we could somehow emphasize somewhere on the city website as well in social media, city social media, Worcester Black History Trail. and the contributions of Professor Doughton. I like to see that annually, as well as the Worcester Black History Project and their associated activities. There's currently, which we went over with the and the Arts allocations. There's two items that were there that were funded by the City of Worcester. We could also emphasize those, one of which is the The Arts Celebration over at Worcester Arts. Mayor attended that event. That's there for the entire month. We could kind of highlight those and pop those out. intermittently throughout the month. We greatly appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Motion to adjourn. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered.