October 20 Council Meeting

I'm waiting to get the video of the meeting, but in the meantime

Meeting is continued to Thursday 11/22 to possibly award bids (if any are acceptable) for Anderson Street sewers - time and place not announced - was this advertised?

There is going to be a 2nd Ward town hall meeting - tentatively scheduled for 11/23 @ Hillers

Kennedy is going to be repaved with grant money

H1N1 vaccination preparations under way

Improvements were noted by City Manager in 1st Ward

Soccer field lights should be complete by middle of next week - but no idea when power will be supplied

No parking Ordinance passed on Frederick St from Hudson to Jackson

First reading of the following - public comment @ 11/10 meeting:

Bond Ordinance $488,996 for improvements to various roads and curbs

Ordinance No Parking from Essex to Atlantic on Prospect

Ordinance amending property maintenance code to require permit and inspection process for storage containers

Payment of bills totalling about $2,340,000

Hire Gittleman, Muhlstock and Chewcaskie as Special Litigation Attorney

"Kitchen Sink" Resolutions (all voted on at once with no public input)

Award Bid to D&L Paving $103,722.35 for improvements to Arcadia Road (don't know why typed Resolution says "Plumbing")

Various Community Development Grants are being used by other agencies within the City

Club License (liquor) for St Paul's Lodge ceases to exist due to non-renewal

Tax refunds in the total amount of $55,495.78 were authorized

Refund in the amount of $250

Agreement with Board of Ed for H1N1 vaccination funding

136 Essex Street tax assessment reduced from $755,600 to $500,000

15 Warren Street tax assessment reduced from $3,925,600 to $3,462,000

275 Central Ave tax assessment reduced from $1,718,200 to $1,266,000

170 Central Ave tax assessment reduced from $1,880,600 to $1,420,000

30 Euclid Ave tax assessment reduced from $3,983,400 for 2007 & 2008 to 3,500,000 for 2007 and $3,350,000 for 2008

Toni Miello appointed to Recreation Board

Quantum Clean Energy Solutions authorized to examine various areas in order to recommend a strategy for stimulus grant funds for energy savings

Liquor License person to person transfer from Donn Pomodoro to Donn Pomodoro II

Raffle approved Parent Partnership Organization

Public Comments were varied - I hope to get the video of these

Budget issues - we're in good shape. Still to be answered what the "cap" is for self-insurance with regard to lawsuits

Still no comment from our officials regarding the state of the Police Department but citizens keep expressing their concerns

Bill Brennan addressed the Mayor & Council regarding the police department lawsuit situation (speaking from first hand experience) - as an aside the city attorney did stray from the standard "can't comment, it's in litigation" mode and referred to a motion being dismissed in federal court (RICO count I believe)

The Cultural Arts Center is not a good neighbor - the director will be spoken to

The City is going to look into the issue of handicapped parking along Prospect between Atlantic and Essex, where no parking has been proposed

There seems to be some question as to whether the council is in violation of Open Public Meeting Act (OPMA) because there is no discussion at the public meeting where an issue is advertised

And the Mayor could not help himself, he had to get in a rude remark at the end, relating to the OPMA issue. Councilman Labrosse agreed that the discussions should take place at the council meeting. The mayor stated that he would not respond to that because it didn't deserve a response. Not sure if he was talking about the councilman's remark or the citizen's - either way it was outright rude!