City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the East Providence City Council meeting of September 15th, 2026. Starting a couple minutes late, we're getting some technology fixed, but we're in business now. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll of the council?

Councilman Fogarty? Yeah. Councilman Lawson?

Yeah.

Council Vice President Rigo? Yeah. Councilwoman Souza? Yeah. Council President Rodericks?

Here. The records show that all five members of the council are present. There's no executive session. Please rise for the salute to the flag. Thank you. Madam Clerk, if you would begin the reading of the agenda.

Consent calendar for discussion and possible vote. A, council journals, regular meeting minutes, September 1st, 2026. Cancellations and abatements.

Make a motion to accept the consent calendar.

Okay. Second.

Motion made by Councilman Lawson, seconded by Councilman Fogarty to approve the consent calendar as read. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have. Next.

Licenses for discussion and possible vote a non-public hearing but for non-public hearing special event one day entertainment license Molly Burgess housewarming piano date September 19 4 p.m. To 8 p.m. Special event one day entertainment license Steve salts cornhole competition September 16th 2 p.m. To 6 p.m. Special event one day alcohol license Brian Benedict dips and dips catering which is parade October 17th 9 a.m. To 4 p.m. Special event block party drew Shannon reading only Crescent Park September 8th 5 p.m. To 8 p.m. Rock the boat SPECIAL EVENT, ONE DAY ENTERTAINMENT LICENSE, READ ONLY, CRESCENT PARK, ROCK THE VOTE, SEPTEMBER 8, 5 PM TO 8 PM, NEW MOBILE FOOD ESTABLISHMENT, READING ONLY, PETA X, SEAMS NEW YORK SYSTEM, The event date was September 8th, 2026. New Mobile Food Establishment, reading only. Rich Guckle, FYI Food, LLC. Event date, September 8th, 2026.

Is there a motion to bundle? So moved. Motion by Councilman Lawson. Is there a second? Second by Council Vice President Rigo. All in favor of the bundle for the seven items?

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion to approve items one through seven. Motion Councilman Lawson to approve items one through seven as read. Second.

Second.

Second. Council Vice President Rigo. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have. Thank you. Next item.

Communications, Nancy Hill will not be able to attend today. Council members?

Public comment?

No one signed up for public comment.

Okay. Captain Ferreira, you had mentioned to me before the sheet wasn't out yet. Did you want to comment without... What's that? Well, I think when he was here, it wasn't out. No objection, Council President. There's no objection. Captain Ferreira, you can come up at this time. Captain, just name and address for the record. For the record, Richard Ferreira, 51 Arrowhead Avenue, Riverside, Rhode Island.

Thank you. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd just like to say, before I start, this is no aspersions against the fire department at all. You've got a great fire department. I know I've used them in a rescue, so I know what they can do. However, there is a, seems to be, a problem with the intramural assistance between cities. East Providence residents, some are very old, are getting supplementary bills from Warren and other cities that they haven't called the rescue. But because the rescue was busy, rescues had to come in from other cities to assist, like we do with Providence and vice versa. In a couple of cases, these elderly people received bills of $200. or a supplementary cardiac evaluations going to the hospital. Now, East Providence residents should not have to pay for rescue services. That's unacceptable. It happens. And when these people call me, because they know the next cop and I must know what's going on, I tell them just call. But they shouldn't have to. Some people have dementia. They have guardians that just look at it and they panic and they pay the bill. And it's not right. So the intramural agreement between cities should be finalized to a point where the residents of that community should not be given supplementary bills for emergency services. Secondly, potholes. I know it's a... PICKY THING. VERY PICKY. WELL, IF WE WERE PICKY ABOUT THE WASHINGTON BRIDGE, I WOULDN'T BE HERE TALKING ABOUT IT. I'VE BEEN WORKING DETAILS AS A POLICE OFFICER FOR 30 YEARS. CONTRACTORS ARE COMING IN, PUTTING ASPHALT DOWN, LEAVING POTHOLES AT THE DRAINS INSTEAD OF LIFTING THE DRAINS UP And when the asphalt comes, it covers them so you have a straight road. And it wasn't being done recently between the fire department and 114 Wampanoag Trail, go to Pawtucket Avenue. When I come off 114 East Shore Expressway, I hit a bump and I'm saying, what the heck? That was just done. It was a big, big pothole there. Man-made, not by the... frost heaves all the winter or mother nature that contractor should not have been paid that should have been inspected and the contractor should not have been paid until that's finished the last thing and this happens this has happened many times now it's a state road it's not a city responsibility directly But if I sent a letter to the Department of Transportation, they put it in file 13. The city clerk does it because the council is aware, not public works director. It's a different story. I'm not talking about city roads now. I'm talking about the state roads. Old Ham School. I think Rick and I will disagree. By the way, thank you, Rick, for your service for the vets in Azusa for helping us. Old Ham School. I know the city wants to put housing in there. We need urgent care this side of Washington Bridge. As a matter of fact, we need a hospital on this side. because people in Riverside, particularly, all around that area, either have to go to Warren Avenue for urgent care, and half the parking lot is full, you can't get in, And it's just not a good, convenient way to have healthcare. Oldham School should be an urgent care center. The city should use that property for that reason. And people are going to the emergency rooms, spending hours and hours when they can easily go to an urgent care, Get preliminary tested, and if hospital is necessary, go. But here's the ironic thing. I worked in a hospital for 10 years as director of security at Roger Williams Hospital. So I know the system. The emergency rooms generate about 15% of the inpatients. The hospitals will lobby behind the scenes against too many urgent cares, unless they are directly involved with it. I know Rick and I disagree on that issue, but that's it.

Thank you. Thank you, Captain. Regarding your first comment, you are correct. City residents do not have to pay for rescue service either from within East Providence or when there is mutual aid. In fact, a question had come up yesterday to me from someone else, and Fire Chief and to the Mayor's Office reiterated that. No, they don't have to worry about those bills. However, they do, any of us get a bill, we get concerned. So I will ask the mayor's office, Andre, maybe, I'm not sure if it's on the city website, but maybe there should be a little bit of a clarification for people. Not everyone goes on websites, so that won't be the be-all, end-all.

Why are we even sending a bill?

Well, we're not.

I know what the problem is. Yes, hold on. Councilman Wilson, you have the floor.

I understand it's mutual aid, and it's probably just the system, but systems can be adjusted that these folks in East Providence that have to get a fire truck from Seekonk Warren, they're not getting a bill from those communities. Maybe that bill can go to... City Hall or whatever, rather than the individual who, like you said, sees a bill.

Well, sometimes the other communities, we don't control them. They send the bill to the family. And then if the family gives it to one of us, we can give it to the fire department and they take care of it. But sending communities... should send the bill to our fire department.

I'm saying just bypass sending it.

But we can't control Seek, Conquer, Hobart, Providence. Or we sign a mutual aid pact. They should know. That we could do. But the bottom line is people don't have to pay. Yes, Council Vice President.

That's the problem. It's not the city of East Providence sending the bill. It's when that computer, when that out-of-town rescue comes, or even our system, when they... they pick somebody up you know somebody gets sick here and they live in warwick that automatic automatically generates it so on those calls we i mean hopefully technology and uh with the different solicitors you do come up with the plan that assumes that mutual aids call that that bill goes to the east providence fire department and they negate it i mean that's it's a simple It's a simple computer process. I just don't need anybody out there right now saying that the city of East Providence is sending and that this isn't directly at you, Captain. I just don't want the public out there all of a sudden saying East Providence is sending bills out. It's the Outer Town Rescues that's doing it. I don't need to have on social media blowing up that we're sending bills. We're not sending bills. It's a glitch in the system. It happens everywhere. Because if you get in a car accident in Warren, and you're from East Providence, as soon as they pick you up and you have to go to the hospital, you're getting bills. And that's what I mean. So again, I just want to reiterate, so before it's not blasted all over the place, City of East Providence is not sending the bills. Thank you.

Okay, and regarding the pothole thing, I mean, we can certainly put together a letter. We'll talk with the city clerk. And I think what happens is if it's not inspected after, We don't know until someone like yourself drives over it, and then, you know, it's too late then. So, you know, we can pursue that. And as far as the medical service at Oldham School, you know, the East Bay would probably love something here, but I would think that's a long... A long bet away. Look, they couldn't even maintain Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket. You know, hospitals are pretty much down. I mean, the councilwoman was probably the expert on this. But even physically, I couldn't see the building being retrofitted for a hospital or an urgent care center without a lot of cost.

When the bridge went down, it came to light that there's no trauma center on this side of the bridge. So, thankfully, the whole bridge didn't go down, because if not, if you were having a heart episode or something, you're going in a Fort River or a helicopter ride.

Or a Newport Hospital or something. But good points. Do you want to add to that, Councilwoman?

Thank you. Captain, thank you for your service, and thank you for coming up here and bringing to light some of the concerns that you have about the community. Just to speak on, I know, the pothole situation. This is something that I know I've talked about many times, especially during the repaving season. in asking the city to please go out and inspect all work. We've had multiple issues throughout the last eight years with contractors and their work that they've provided for the city. Some streets come out great, other streets are left to be desired, and that goes from curbing to the threshold for driveways. There's been ongoing issues. Unfortunately, I don't personally know the process of when they get paid, if we get paid up front, if they get paid halfway through, if they get paid after inspection. But the ongoing response has been that there's like one or two people in our city building that go around and inspect the work that our contractors do. And as we know, on any given day during the contract season, we have things going on all over the place. So they're just not able to get things inspected the way I think we would appreciate them to be done. But they're doing the best that they can. So see something, report it. So that way they can go back and then hold them accountable, which I know that they are really good about doing. So thank you for bringing that to light. And certainly, hopefully, there wasn't damage done to your vehicle. And there isn't going to be damage done to other people's vehicles. because of it I agree with the the urgent care I mean there's we have our aging population that are requiring more medical services I know that Brown Health University has expanded throughout the state since merging with Rhode Island Hospital and the rest of their entities but there's obviously a lot of work still to be done the city of East Providence does have multiple URGENT CARES, UNFORTUNATELY, THEY'RE ALL HERE IN THE CENTER OF THE CITY.

THEY'RE NOT TOWARDS THE OTHER END.

AND I THINK BARRINGTON PROBABLY HAS SOMETHING OFF OF THE...

DOES MAPLE EVE STILL HAVE THIS?

YEAH. AGAIN, IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE THINGS A LITTLE BIT MORE SPREAD OUT THROUGHOUT THE COMMUNITY. Food for thought, I guess, with talking with healthcare providers or even practitioners who might be interested in opening some practice up. So thank you again for coming up and discussing that with us. We appreciate it.

Thank you all. Next item, Madam Clerk.

Councilman, sorry. It says none, but number one is the fiscal year 2027 budget dates and hearings. Council President Rodericks.

So Council, Vice President Rigo and myself started to formulate a schedule. We met at the Mayor's office yesterday and with the Finance Director also, so we don't want to delay too too long we have our budget process uh underway so we've have some suggested dates a lot of this has to coincide with a legal advertisement date so we discussed this with the solicitor and the city clerk so these are we we can change a little bit we have some flexibility but with the mandated schedule not there isn't much flexibility um madam clerk if you want to uh read the dates unless you want me to read them well they're pretty much just every tuesday going forward so i just yes we do have to make solicitor number e there is a change that's that's yes saturday it should be october 13th um okay so that we have to make that change um

After the mayor presents his budget on September 17th, 2026, the most important date after that is the public hearing on September 29th, 2026. When we devised the schedule, we kept it to a Tuesday because that's what we were indicated that we had asked, and that's the days that you council members usually reserve that date, but You could have meetings in between those weeks if you wanted to. You just have to give us notice so we can schedule it on a 48-hour notice. But these are dates on a Tuesday. So the most important date is after the public hearing on the mayor's budget, September 29th. You can meet every other day if you wanted to. You can have more hearings. And then, again, the last day to approve the budget is October 26, 2026. So that's... Those are the dates. But these are all, the Tuesday dates are basically because that's when your council usually meets. And then the deadline dates are set by the council.

Right. So I'm well published and publicized. But just quickly, there are Tuesdays in September. The 17th is 22nd. The 29th in October, it is the 6th. The 13th, the 20th. and the 26th, and that would be the last day to approve the fiscal year 27 budget. 17th council president is just the transmission of the budget to the city clerk to you okay so that's that's not actually an actual workshop okay correct right so this is just setting up the um housekeeping for the process any uh problems with this these hearings no someone oh i apologize go ahead

Thank you. So as I discussed with the council president, my schedule for my shifts are two months out. So I already have my schedule set for September and October at the hospitals. I do have Tuesdays reserved for council meetings, but other Tuesdays in the month I do work. because I'm not already scheduled for council meetings. So I do have some conflicts. I will, however, try to make some shift changes if possible. But if not, I will let the council know and maybe we can change it to a different day during the week that I'm available.

Sure, let me know and I'll work.

Right now the 22nd and the 29th, I am currently not available, so I will work on trying to get that.

Okay, so we can discuss that quickly now. Do you want to go on those two dates?

Sorry, the 29th is a set date that has to be, you have to meet that date because that's a charter-driven date. and that's the public though that's the public hearing yeah so that's when the public gets get after the mayor the mayor presents his budget has the right to uh under the charter of the public that's on that budget so the public can come and come budget And then usually what we've done in the past is that, then you use it as a workshop day after that, depending on how much public, we haven't had much public comment.

Right.

Can I, just for a quick question, so if there are any changes made to the budget, we do have to have then another public hearing, correct?

October 13th, I believe, on the regular council is October 20th. So yes, there is a regular council meeting budget is October, I think it's the 13th is the date, the last day that you need to make changes, because then we have to have a public hearing on your changes on October 20th. Okay.

Do we want to try to go to the 23rd? Councilwoman, or just leave it the way it is?

Yeah, I can find out in the next.

Okay.

Okay, so we'll leave it the way I've.

And when we get it Thursday, do we email you requesting who we'd like here for the 22nd?

Yes, let me know. And I think past practice has been to be the major department heads. We may not need.

Yeah, we may not need all of them. So make them show up to sit here.

Yes, exactly. We will let them know. Mr. Solicitor, do we need to vote on these dates? No, it's just informational only. Okay. This is not a public hearing, but do you have a question about these dates, ma'am? Yeah. Yeah. Right, you're Anna Regal, right? Yeah, did you sign up to speak tonight? He came in after the thing, okay. Let's see if we can get through this, and if we have some time, we'll have you speak. I know you and I spoke on the phone a couple days ago. Maybe it's a week now, yeah. And again, it's still in the lawyer's hands. So if you want to hang on a few minutes, but we have to go with the legally advertised docket for now. But if there's no objection later, we'll have you come up, okay. So next item, please.

Public hearings, ordinance for second and or final passes for discussion and possible vote. Number one, an ordinance and amendment of Chapter 18 of the revised ordinances of the City of East Providence, Rhode Island, 1998, as amended, entitled Vehicles and Traffic. Summary, to make Bourne Avenue westbound from Branton Avenue to Frederick Street a one-way street during the hours of 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., and 2 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. on school days, sponsored by Council Vice President Rigo.

Yes, Council Vice President.

This is the second passage. It's Point Avenue to Brayton. If you know that area there, that street gets very tight with cars, off-street parking. This way, this will eliminate any, God forbid, accidents with cars or children dashing off people or dropping off their kids. So this is a safety measure that was requested by the principal and the superintendent to me, and I move passage at this time.

second okay one second it's a public hearing so um are there other comments from council members if not open it up to the public is there anyone here that would like to speak on this item Once again, is there anyone here that would like to speak for or against this? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. And we had the motion in second. Madam Clerk, did you get that? The motion in second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Next item.

Number two, an ordinance and amendment of chapter 18 of the revised ordinance of the City of East Providence, Rhode Island, 1998, as amended entitled Vehicles and Traffic Summary to place a stop sign at Rhodes Avenue, northbound and southbound traffic at Burnside Avenue, sponsored by Council President Rogers.

Again, we discussed this at the last meeting. There was first passage. There was really no dissent. If there are no other comments, we'll open it up for a public comment. Anyone here that'd like to speak on this? Seeing none, is there a motion?

Motion to approve.

Motion by Councilwoman Souza to approve. Seconded by Councilman Lawson. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Next item.

New Business A, Mayor Communications, Director of Policy and Constituent Services, Andre Herrera.

Welcome, Andre.

Good evening, Council President, members of the City Council. Tonight, I'm going to go through these items. Appointment, reappointment requiring council confirmation. We have none. Second, appointment, reappointment not requiring council confirmation. We have none. And item three, we have a presentation on the SOAM's National Heritage Area Feasibility Study that is going to be presented by Jim Moran with help by Laura McNamara.

welcome back to your your former residence thank you and welcome wonderful laura thank you back here in the city council chambers uh joining retirement i am very much so and uh as you can tell i've been involved with a few things post retirement including the solmes heritage area so i appreciate the council uh giving uh giving us the time to present our uh proposal here we have a feasibility study that we have completed and i did a a brief powerpoint presentation but before i really get started i just wanted to give kudos to the board of members that are part of the psalms heritage area Right now, this evening, Laura, who needs no introduction, has a storied history here in East Providence, along with her efforts with the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council. But she also serves as the vice chair of the Soames Heritage Area and has been doing a great job in terms of the work we've all been doing over the past four years to bring this feasibility study to fruition. So just to give you a quick overview of where we stand, The Heritage Area basically got started back in 2022. We met as a group going back, I can't remember exactly, I think it was at Barrington Town Hall at one of the early meetings that we had and got together to discuss this whole process of moving forward. If you don't mind, I'm going to just so, I could use this, my vision's not too bad. I sometimes have to wear the glasses, but I think I could probably use this particular television. Yeah, sure, this particular television to kind of go through the presentation.

You're welcome if you want to sit in that chair and you can see better.

Sure, I could do that.

You could just turn that mic on when you sit there.

Mic almost fell off one time.

Good point, good point, thank you. SO, BASICALLY, AGAIN, THIS GOES BACK TO 2022. THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS FOR QUITE SOME TIME. AND AT THIS POINT, WE HAVE A PRESENTATION THAT WOULD BE PRESENTING THIS FEASIBILITY STUDY TO THE CITY COUNCIL AT THIS MEETING AND WE HAVE SOME overview information here on our presentation that we'd like to go through and discuss what led to where we are today. So if we could go to the next slide. The INDEP study and its findings demonstrate that the region of SOMS satisfies the criteria for federal designation by Congress as a national heritage area. And it's important to note that the current heritage area is a local heritage area, but it has not received national heritage area designation. So what this feasibility study does is it determines if we meet the criteria, if the SOMS region meets the criteria for designation as a national heritage area. Next slide. And the history of this area is very interesting. Going back more than 12,000 years, tribes have existed here for that long. The history's been rich over those years. There's been a lot of various communities that have been here over that time. And the important thing about this SOMS heritage area is that it takes a look at the entirety of the history of this area and the impact of all the cultures and peoples that have existed here over these millennia. So it really does talk about the rich history. And I think we're all very familiar with the King Philip's War, Massasoit, all the various colonial history. But there is also a prehistory here that goes back amazingly 12,000 years, it's hard to believe that that's as far back as our cultural communities go back. Really kind of an amazing thing. Next please. This is just a couple of images from the more than 460 meetings that we conducted over the period from 2022 to approximately 2025. And you're seeing a couple of meetings where we had conducted special meetings. We were getting impact from board members. We had many public meetings. Laura, I think you were a part of the places of the heart discussion. That was a lot of the work you did, so that was excellent. That particular theme brought together a lot of people and brought together a lot of great comments that came in as we were developing this feasibility study. Next. And you can take a look at the early history of the colonial history when Roger Williams and the members of the Poconoca tribe first met in 1621. They both basically were kind of unsure of each other initially, but made a pact of non-aggression. For 50 years, that non-aggression treaty held up and and each saw mutual survival in that watershed alliance. But divergent concepts of law, land ownership and personal freedom were worlds apart and would change the course of history. And of course, we all know that the history in the late 1600s into the early 1700s was quite divergent indeed.

That image, of course, is of the peace treaty that was signed between

the white settlers and the Poconoket. Next, please. What you see on this screen are the nine communities that represent the area that comprises the SOMS area. Bristol, Barrington, East Providence, Providence, Rehoboth, Seekonk, Somerset, Swansea, and Warren. And diverse members from each of these communities participated in the many meetings that we developed. And I think when you look at the cooperation that existed between all of us, it was a very productive period, putting this all together. We worked with Point Heritage Development Consulting, who did an excellent job of developing this feasibility study. Throughout the process, we spoke with them. They came to meetings. One of the principals was from Colorado, another was from Pittsburgh. So they all came together from those areas and came here on multiple occasions and worked with us virtually in multiple Zoom meetings to develop all kinds of things. We had meetings with stakeholders. It was a very productive discussion that took quite a amount of time, but it was very productive. And if you look at the map, you can kind of see the map of the area that comprises this area and some of the major areas. It's hard to see for the people attending this, but there are a number of locations within the Soames Heritage Area that are very important part of the cultural aspects of the community. And we talk about our vision. One of the things we talked about a great deal was the vision for this community study. And I'll just kind of read that off as, we envision a vibrant network of diverse communities united by a shared respect for the living history of Psalms. We aim to create a space where everyone feels a deep connection to this landscape, where the legacies of those who came before us are honored and the land and water are cherished for future generations. So that's the vision we generated as part of the study and is one of the major themes that's written within this feasibility study. And guided by the criteria for the National Heritage Area Act of 23, the planning team focused on three core questions. What nationally significant stories link the region's communities and help define the American experience? Do the region's historic, cultural, and natural resources possess the integrity and concentration needed to convey these stories? And does SOAMS have the organizational capacity and partnerships to steward these resources, enrich quality of life, share important history, and foster sustainable economic development? Those were the three core questions that the feasibility study we're looking at, and what the 313 pages within this document kind of puts together as the answers that we need to come to determine feasibility. Next slide. And if you look at the criteria, these are the criteria that are identified. I won't go through all the details, but there are these seven criteria. Nationally significant living landscape, Traditions and customs, which there certainly are when you look at the Poconokets and the rich cultural history they have. Conservation, recreation, and education. Criteria D is significant resources. Criteria E, engaged, sustainable, and supported, which this group has shown over this past four years that there's plenty of support for the National Heritage Area. partnership management entity. Along the whole process of this, we've been trying to develop partnerships and making sure that everyone has an opportunity to come to the table and talk about what is important to this national heritage area. And then a community supported boundary, which over the years that we've been putting this feasibility together, we have gotten great support from all the communities, including the City of East Providence and including the City Council, which is much appreciated. Next slide. And again, going back to consistent support and reaching our goal, we've received consistent support from the mayor. Mayor DeSilver has attended events. I believe that this particular photo is him attending our session at the Newman Church. And again, we had a large number of attendees at that meeting. It was very successful. And we got a lot of support from the mayor. But we also appreciate the strong support that we've received from the city council. I know that when we were putting this together was a resolution of support as we were proceeding through this process. And all of those resolutions and order and support were very important in our ability to keep this process moving forward. So I personally thank the council for their assistance on that. Next. The SOM's Board of Directors sincerely appreciates the East Providence City Council's support of our efforts to attain federal designation as a National Heritage Area. And this evening, the SOM Board of Directors, which Laura and I are representing here this evening, Now asked the City Council take the additional steps of accepting this completed feasibility feasibility study and initiating all actions that it seems prudent to impress upon our elect our elected federal delegation to support the findings of this study and move to see the local Soames Heritage Area designated as a federally designated National Heritage Area.

So this evening this

feasibility report is being officially transmitted to you. I guess one other thing I would say is this is obviously a large document, but it is available on the solmes.org webpage. So if anybody wanted to be able to take a look at this out in the public or if you're watching on television or YouTube or wherever you're watching this, you can go to the solmes.org and on the front page, it actually talks about the study on the top of the dropdown menu. There's a dropdown for the feasibility study. You can just select that. hit the button and it will open up as a pdf for anybody to read and it includes the full document so anybody can read it and and basically save a few trees by not having to print it you have to use the mic because it's being recorded thanks just push that button on

Thank you, Ms. Mack.

There's also an executive summary, which is the shortened version of this, which will give you the highlights of the report. But we hope that you will read it. In addition to your letter of support, we have 73 other letters of support from the nine communities. And if you want to talk about trying to get elected officials to agree on something, try herding nine communities together to make it happen. And we were able to accomplish that. We thank you for your support.

Absolutely. And the other thing, too, is that this... is basically an ongoing process. As we move forward, we are going to be working as a body, the Board of Directors will continue to meet and work diligently to see this area reach its designation as a federally designated National Heritage Area. So Laura and I, we're here to answer any questions that you might have. And we really do appreciate your time this evening to allow us to present this study and answer any questions you may have.

I'm sure we appreciate your time. And I know this goes back some years in the working. I want to thank also former Councilman Cahoon, who I know with myself has started attending some of these early sessions years ago. Legally or officially, tonight are you requesting us to approve or accept the report that you're presenting?

I guess that would make it official. That's what we're doing. Tonight we're presenting it to the council. We had talked with Andre about whether or not we wanted to discuss a resolution to support the findings of the feasibility study. That can certainly be discussed if we need to do that at a future meeting, we can do that. And then anything else that the council feels that would help us strengthen our case for a national heritage area would be greatly appreciated.

Sure, I would think after comments and questions we could, I'll entertain a motion to accept the report tonight and then we could work on a more formal resolution for the next meeting. So you can have that in hand also. But are there other comments or questions of the council? Yes, councilwoman.

So thank you both for being here and thank you so much for your years of work and dedication towards this. It's really something very important. It affects a lot of people in our community, in our state. A couple of questions. One, That executive synopsis, is it online also, or do you have, okay, is it like at the end? I'm just, you were nice enough to get the brochure, and I know we have a pile, so I'd ask the city clerk to put some at the office, at the city clerk's office, and maybe at the table outside the elevators so that the community, when they come into City Hall, if they want it, they can grab it. Additionally, the QRS code also scans and goes right to that website that has the feasibility study, which I did while you guys were talking, just to make sure. So I just wanted to, because again, 317 pages, as you correctly... is gonna be daunting to read through, so I am interested in the cliff note version, but where would that, I don't see that, is it on the last page of the feasibility study?

At the top of the page, I haven't looked at it, it might be on the desktop version, but I can check that later on.

Okay, yeah, that's fair, so yeah, I'll check it online just to make sure on the computer, because a lot of things do not translate onto mobile devices, so thank you for that. Otherwise, I think it's a great idea to put something formal from the entire council sponsoring a resolution and doing that for the next council meeting. So whatever language you guys want to provide, and then we can add some more meat and potatoes to it, and that'd be great.

Thank you. And the other thing we would ask, if you speak with any of our congressional delegation, please remind them about this. That's our next step. To go to Congress, we do need a sponsor, so we're going to the Massachusetts and Rhode Island congressional delegation to put it into effect, and hopefully we'll get moving on it for this year. There are some national heritage areas being considered right now on a bill, so we're hoping to get put into that package and then get that taken care of.

We'll do. Council Vice President. Larry, you just answered one of my questions. Obviously, this is interstate, so it's going to be delegations from Rhode Island and Massachusetts being involved. My next question is, how long is the process taking Congress to get this area recognized?

It depends on how long they want to talk about it. They could put it in now. They're going back in one more week. I think they're going back into session. It could be done as early as the end of this year, or they could table it and then put it towards next year. They're all unique and different. It depends how many National Heritage Areas are they considering. There's 62 right now that are already in existence around the country. We heard that there was at least three or four under consideration right now, and we hope to be part of that.

Right, that's what we're trying to see, if we can get that incorporated into the other national heritage areas that are being discussed. And in fact, I think our consultant actually is involved with the designation of another one that's located I think in Arkansas. So we're trying to work to see if we can't get that added to the discussion. We've got a lot of people talking to one another. We've got great members on our board who are very active and have been discussing this. And it's been a very important part of trying to make sure that our delegation is fully aware of exactly what we've accomplished and how we wanna move forward with this.

Thank you. Is there a motion to accept the report as received tonight? Motion to accept.

Second.

Motion, Councilman Lawson, seconded by Councilwoman Souza. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. Jim, would you have some time over the next several days or weeks, whatever, to work with the solicitor on wording for a resolution? And then we'll get that ready for the next meeting or two. Yeah, that's fine.

And also, I've been working occasionally with the planning department to discuss things.

Sure, we'll have a few work with them to also.

I want to talk with Patrick Hanner has kind of been, since my retirement, Patrick has kind of taken the local role of being the planning department's contact for the SOMS discussion. So I look forward to talking with him as well.

Yeah. I got one quick, I will gladly text Congressman Namo tomorrow to get this going, but Department of Interior have any say in any of this?

That's where it starts with them and they're under the National Park Service. Okay. They're the ones that sign off on it.

Okay, are we anticipating any problem?

We haven't run into any. National has reviewed it, and we met all the criteria. There are some groups that put their paperwork together with a lot missing, and ours is ready to go. So we just need the sponsorship, and then we can present it.

OK. So they put it forward in front of Congress, or any congressman can put it forward?

Any can, but we would prefer to have a Rhode Islander and or Massachusetts congressman

Right, yeah, no, my only concern is with the national political environment, if there's gonna be any pushback from the administration on stuff like this. But that's it.

We don't anticipate any, but you know.

It shouldn't, it absolutely shouldn't, but okay, thanks.

Just one follow-up question. Do we have any, have there been any other municipalities, either in Rhode Island or Massachusetts, that have already provided a resolution or supporting documents that,

We've received resolutions of support from all of the communities, the nine all together, and as we move forward with the presentation of the feasibility study, I don't know how many, I think we're one of the first to actually present the feasibility study to its council. Oh, good, okay, so we're working on getting these all to the council so they can accept them, and then we can move to the next step of really lobbying.

So there hasn't been resolutions requested in the congressional delegations yet? Because I was going to say, we just copy and paste.

Well, we can go now. We don't need the resolution now. You already approved it when you first brought it.

when you said other communities voted on it that was about the feasibility part right not the actual request the concept okay right no we've already received support on that there's 72 letters in that document yeah we we approved it like a couple of months ago you did that's correct yeah and again that was uh very helpful because as we're talking to the national park service i mean it's one of those things where too many letters of support is not a problem as many letters of support as possible are better and the more we get the more strength we have in our argument that this is a popular and very uh culturally significant effort and quite frankly you know we've said it all along too that it's certainly from a recreation standpoint from a lot of various aspects it's very important but it's also important for economic development, for receiving future federal grants. If we're applying for federal funding, all the communities that might be applying for that funding would strengthen their ability to receive funding, especially in areas that support the heritage area. So these are all positives that I think would bring a lot of great things to this region. Just like the Blackstone Valley designation.

That's right, exactly. Thank you. I will say over the years working with you two, I know everything's going to be top notch. And you got my full support. So whatever you guys need.

Thank you, Councilman. Thank you both for being here and Jim in retirement. Thank you for your civic involvement still. My pleasure. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks again. Next item.

Resolutions for discussion and possible vote. Number one, resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract with O'Sheen Inc. to support cybersecurity improvements within the city 268,450 grant funds will be used to build the fiber backbone throughout the city, and $70,670 of the grant funds will be used for the necessary hardware to support network redundancy. Introduced by Council President Rodericks and Council Vice President Rigo.

So this large amount of grant funding is to help with cybersecurity, mostly in public safety areas and related areas, and is especially important in this day and age of... ransomware and AI inevitability and abuses that we are getting, so I have asked our director of IT to present this little clearer picture for us and describe what we're going to do with this large award.

Thank you.

And just your name and title for the record.

My apologies. My name is Carlos Zambrano, the Director of Technology for the City of East Providence. So for the first project, it's basically to make our networks better. So it's going to be like an SD-WAN project. So basically, it's going to be a fiber build-out for all emergency responding buildings to include DPW, City Hall, the four fire station, the police station. In the past, there has been some issues with the network and this is going to be improving it and also making it more resilient in case it does go down via like any um land connection we're going to have like a wireless backup through either at t or any of the other carriers depending on the buildings and what uh carrier has the best um service in that area and that's the fastest service in the area so it's going to be more secure more resilient in the sense like it's going to be multiple ways into the city in each building um and overall it's just going to improve like the security in the city overall

And do you want to describe the second part of this while you're there?

The second portion of it is basically going to be the networking equipment that goes in the background that basically will support this network infrastructure. This is basically we had to replace it around every seven to eight years. So basically we were able to get federal grant funding to basically take care of this part of the project too as well, sir.

So the duration will be about seven?

For the smaller part of the equipment. Like the fiber usually, now they're kind of like warranting it for like 50 years. I can't guarantee that, but that's what it's supposed to last. So the bigger chunk should not be like needed for another at least 20 to 30 years. They do warranty it for like 50 years, sir.

So certainly seems like something we don't want to miss the boat on. Yes, Council Vice President.

I'd like to commend the director first for his work here in the last three years. Has it been two years you've been here with us so far, two and a half years?

Two and a half, sir.

I want to commend you on that, but besides all the technology upgrades you've done, you've gone beyond and getting these grants where you just didn't worry about the IT stuff, information, making sure everything flew. right in the city. Your diligence in going out and getting these grants, I commend you on saving the taxpayers of the city of East Providence a boatload of money. I thank you again.

I appreciate those words, sir, but I can't take all the credit because Chief Kerry has helped me a lot with this grant. It's all yours, not Kerry. It's a team effort, sir. No, thank you.

Well said.

Both of you, both of you for what you've done. You're saving the taxpayers money, things that go unappreciated. I commend you again, I commend the chief as well.

Other questions or comments? Councilwoman Susan?

I just wanna say that thank you. I had my questions and you answered them before the meeting, so thank you for that clarification.

You're welcome, Councilwoman.

Further questions?

Thank you, Councilwoman. Okay, is there a motion to?

Motion on the first resolution, I move passage. Second.

Motion by Council Vice President Rigo on the first resolution that was read. That's letter D and seconded by Councilwoman Souza. Further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed?

The ayes have it.

Councilwoman Souza, motion approves of the second resolution, number two, under letter D. Is there a second?

Yeah, can we just read it into the record?

Oh sure, we didn't read that yet, okay. Madam Clerk, you wanna read part two?

Number two, resolution authorizing the Mayor to enter into a contract with StarNet Solutions Inc. in the amount of $197,092 to support the cybersecurity matters introduced by Council President Rodericks and Council Vice President Regan.

I make a motion to approve, and just for the record, that is also part of grant funding.

Yes, second, is there a second? Second, Councilman Fogarty. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you, Director. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Next item.

Number 3, resolution authorizing the Mayor to enter into a contract with M.E. O'Brien and Sons for improvements to Glen Lyon Park and Lyle Bourne Park. Sponsored by Vice President Riga.

Yes, Council Vice President.

Thank you, Mr. President. This is the end of the APRA funding to improve both these playgrounds. As I spoke at the last meeting, it's been over 30 years that the parks... in the northern part of the city were touched uh great improvements again to the walkway lighting and this is the final step as far as new play equipment for both uh from newborns all the way up to teenagers. When we were up at Glenline, we even had some of the teenage kids look at the books and picked out the equipment. They stayed in budget, which was a good thing, but it's nice. We'll have more playgrounds in the city that have adaptive playgrounds. playground for children with disability. Both of these playgrounds will have that. So I move passage. Thank you.

Second.

Motion by Council Vice President Rigo, seconded by Councilwoman Souza. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it.

Point of order, Mr. President. Yes. We skipped number C for my fellow councilperson report of the school committee liaison. That got skipped over, so at this time I ask that we move to that.

Back to that. Sure, we can go to that. I don't think anything was on the agenda, but you can do some general.

The update is they passed their budget. I believe they're going to be asking 106 mil. They were supposed to trade. Did you receive the budget and the list of positions? They said that they were going to send it for you to send to us. Have you received that yet from the school department?

Got it. Glenda just received it at 1 p.m. All right.

Can you forward that to us tomorrow?

I haven't gotten it yet. It was just sent to the director.

Okay. They had mentioned they were going to send it to you to send to the council. So I'll follow up with the superintendent on that. Okay. You know, biggest drivers, transportation, special ed. You know, this is a issue that it's a wider discussion than just East Providence. Every school department in the state of Rhode Island, probably across the country, is dealing with cost and, you know, The amount of money we get from the Fed and state, we're appreciative, but the way we fund is on the backs of property owners. And I don't know who in America made that decision, but we definitely need to work with our state reps. and find a way to help. And the other secret, it's not really a secret, but the more we're building housing that's on the higher end and it's attracting wealthier people, our average median income is rising and that affects state aid formulas. Um, the bills don't go down, but the amount of aid we'd received us because of that change. So, um, I was a little disappointed a couple members, you know, they do their yearly or the council better do this and they, they got to give us the money. Well, you know, you do your job will do us. You know, I'm going to push back on them a little bit on that. We have shown over the last four years how supportive we are. We approved their budget. Bob worked to create the school building fund to help with all the repairs and stuff. So to hear a couple of them kind of criticize the council and stuff was, you know, I noticed it and I'll have words with them when I see them. But, you know, it is what it is. They're going to, they asked for, what they think is the appropriate number, and hopefully we receive it tomorrow and we can start looking at it. I'm gonna assume maybe next Tuesday, the school be one of the departments we ask for the workshop, because that's the biggest part of the city budget. 106 million's a little less than, what'd we ask it for, 209, did I say? Um, so it's about 50%. So, um, I got some questions, but overall it's not, it's not a budget of frivolous spending. It's the drivers, you know, uh, he electricity costs, the utility costs. Um, as we know, the price of fuel is going up these last few months. And because our budget is not aligned with the state, uh, When they start at this time of the year, they're running on fumes with the cash on hand that they have because they're not going to get the money until November 1 after we pass our budget. So there's a lot of systemic things that cause the school budgets to rise. And it's not any individual's. Um, there's always something in the budget. Somebody can point out that, oh, why are we spending on that? But bottom line is you got to pay teachers. You got to maintain buildings. You got to have supplies. You need to support staff, custodians and stuff. And that costs money and taxpayers. We want an educated society. So.

um just a heads up it's going to be coming so thank thank you and as you noted uh we have not yet received the school budget so i'll reserve comment until we get that and start our budget process i would only make one one statement tonight um all of us but i'll speak for myself since i've been on this council we have given the school committee every penny they've asked for plus as a matter of fact last year i think at your urging um councilman lawson we we increased the amount even though the school department was fairly satisfied with so we're there we've been providing education with the necessary funding Now, we're going to work together. This is not an us against them thing. We'll figure this out, but the budget process will be starting very shortly. So thank you for that. Before we adjourn, if there's no objection. Oh, we have another ordinance? I missed. Sorry. And it's mine. Oh, okay. We didn't forget you, Ms. Rigo, but you want to read that last ordinance?

An introduction of ordinance for discussion and possible vote. An ordinance and amendment of chapter 18 of the revised ordinances of the City of East Providence, Rhode Island, 1998, as amended, entitled Vehicles and Traffic, amending section 18-308, entitled Parking Time Limitations, 60 minutes, Summary section 18 jazz 308 the purpose of this ordinance is to place a 60-minute parking sign at Warren Avenue Southside from a point 65 feet west of South Hall Street Westerly 60 feet from 8 a.m. To 6 p.m. From Monday to Friday sponsored by council president Roger actually also that should be sponsored with councilwoman Sousa and he has done the

follow-up legwork on on this so i would defer to you at this point

All right, thank you, Council President. So, mentioned this two weeks ago, and so it's back before the Council with an amendment after speaking with the business owner and others in the area. We updated it to a 60-minute timeframe during business hours for the businesses in that direct area, and it conforms with the parking that is generally along Warren Avenue. Most of it is time-limited because of businesses and to keep the flow for residents. We don't want to inadvertently negatively affect any of the residents who live in that area because it is a lot of multifamilies in that area, and they do use that on-street parking. So I think this was a good compromise. The business owners were pleased with it. There wasn't any pushback. which is always good to do. Make sure everybody's on the same page with things. So I move passage for this first passage for this ordinance.

Second. Motion by Councilwoman Sousa for first passage. Seconded by Councilman Lawson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Ms. Pigot, if you would like to come forward and speak. Just pull that down a little so we can hear, I mean the top part there, okay.

Hi everybody. I was here the first of this month, and I did call the president to tell him, it was on a Friday, to see what's going on, and he said he was looking into it to get a response what's going on. Again, no response, nobody called me back. So I just want to see what's going on with my property, with my belongings.

Right, and what I did mention to you is you could come back here. I hesitate to get in the middle of a legal issue. I will ask the solicitor. I did call the day you and I talked. I did talk with our solicitor that day, and he may have all the information, but I'll turn this over to the solicitor at this time.

Council President as council requested the next I think the next day or the day after I did call the adjuster in the matter unfortunately I have not heard back from him but I did I do have an email and I and I'm reluctant to get into too much of the details because Ms. Regal is represented by council she's represented by Mr. Jimmy Pritzfield who's a very qualified lawyer who I know personally and is a good lawyer apparently this seems to be the dispute between clean care and her and the return of some of the use that mic a little more sorry I'm sorry This appears to be a little bit of a dispute between Clean Care, who is the company that was hired to do some of the cleaning of the goods and services. They were the Rhode Island Interlocust Trust vendor at the time of the loss. About a week ago, on September 4th, I was told that the representative from Clean Care, Mr. Ernie Polano, had spoken to Attorney Birchfield about the contents matter. And it was the email that we got was that they are currently in the process of a negotiating terms of delivery. So she get her items and cleaning here gets paid for the things he cleaned and it's held for her during the dispute. The email goes on to the resident, however, is complicating the return of her items because now she's refusing to take many of her contents back or to sign a document authorizing authorizing the disposal of the items she doesn't want returned. And furthermore, she's refusing to pay for additional storage based upon the charges that she was incurred. That's all I know. It seems like this is now a dispute between Ms. Rigo and the Clean Care Company. I don't really want to get too much into detail because I really don't know anything else about it. But I do. She is represented by council. As you know, this council has nothing to do with this. There's nothing we can do.

It is something you can do.

Come on, ma'am.

Let him finish.

We do not control clean care. We do not control the Relative Local Trust. This seems to be a dispute between someone who suffered some property damage and the vendor. And that's all I can say at this point. I am not involved in this. And frankly, the council should be.

What can you add to that?

I was there two days ago. Is it possible I could put my photos on this TV?

Not tonight, no.

Not tonight, sir, okay. I would like to come to the second meeting.

You said you were there yesterday. Where were you yesterday?

I was there to clean care.

Okay.

Sir, they opened the bags and I said, what's the smell? They opened the bags, I video and took pictures. Some of the stuff was cleaned. You can see where the package is. He took it out of one of the pillows and was still shit in there. The blankets. Videos don't lie and that was yesterday. Moldew and everything. I even told him, what's the smell? And he says, we've been spraying every week. We come down here and spray. I'm not going to take those products. Now, you're right about that. I'm not. I'm not going to give that to my family. to use. They took all the furniture, all the baby stuff. I still in there getting burst from my personal stuff. But I do have photos where they have all the stuff what they done to me with the food. And Danny said, oh, maybe it wasn't clean. But it was in a yellow tape with all the stuff with bags closed. It was clean when he opened that bag, and I have a video. He didn't know it was video on him. And I took pictures. And I even asked him, I thought you said you were going to throw that stuff away. You got the mattress that matches the baby with marks on it.

And I says, we're not going to take that.

And he goes, oh, we want to make sure you sign it off. And I said, okay. I asked, what is the sign for me to sign it off? Never gave it to me. He goes, oh, you're going to come back. So we made an appointment to come back Saturday. Well, all the other stuff, they throw it away. They didn't talk about reversing me, nothing. So I want to know what's the best way to deal with it. I don't know what is he talking about the lawyer. This has nothing to do with the lawyer. I want my stuff back. I'm not asking for much. I'm asking what's mine. What was ruined?

Again, we're blind on this issue, but what is it you want back if you said you didn't want to take the soiled stuff? You guys threw all my furniture out. We didn't take anything.

The city, whatever they sent to my house.

See? insurance company, clean care company, right.

Whatever they sent to the house, they throw everything.

What is good that you want back?

We're supposed to go there Saturday and tell them actually what we want, what we don't want. I haven't seen this stuff. She was there yesterday or the day before. It was yesterday. And from the pictures I've seen, there's not much you can take.

Yeah, I don't doubt you. I don't even need the pictures. I believe what you're saying, that this stuff is not worth taking back. But you just, I don't know what it is you want returned back that is good.

Who's going to be responsible to refund my money for my stuff I lost?

So you're talking about just being reimbursed for loss.

Yeah, for the furniture, everything I lost.

Now, you've talked to an attorney, you said.

Yes.

What did they say?

Well, I didn't talk to him about this stuff like this because I figured this is my stuff, right, to get it.

Well, I'm not an attorney, but I'm probably saying more than I should, but I would have your attorney call the attorney for a clean care company and hammer this out.

It took him four months to get clean care to get to reach to the lawyer.

But you said your lawyer has not talked to them about this.

He did. He's the one that called me because somebody just said it. He got in touch with them for me to go check my stuff, to go pick it up, to see when can they deliver.

And you're going to do that Saturday?

Yeah, we're going to do that. I was there with my daughter and my grandson. Some of the stuff for the baby's clothes and everything still was okay. Of course, six months, the baby grow. The clothes is there. We're still marks on it. The clothes is not even going to need it for the baby right now. So what I'm trying to say is if they throw the pillows, the way they look, how do you figure the mattress would be if the pillows is on top of the bed? It just don't make sense to me why they would save that stuff. And to see what this gentleman was saying about, oh, they don't want to pay the storage. No, because I got a storage. I got proof of the storage I bought. They would say they were going to bring the stuff back, and they never did. So why should I pay them if they never bring my stuff back when I bought a storage for them to deliver the stuff?

The day that Clean Care contacted us to come and pick up the ConnexBox, they had a ConnexBox stuff there. We've been through this already. I contact Clean Care and I told them, you guys can come and pick up and drop our stuff off the same day they come and take the ConnexBox. They never responded to us. And we have proof that we contact them directly multiple times and they never responded. And now they want to charge us storage fees. which i i don't think it's right when we told them we even told them we're going to get a storage and instead of bringing the stuff here you we can meet you at the storage and drop a day because we got to go through stuff we don't know what we're going to get we're not going to get so it sounds to me like they are not releasing some stuff because they feel you you have to pay the storage first Right.

I'm not saying that's right or wrong. I'm saying that seems to be where we are.

From what we just heard, now it seems like they're holding that.

I guess if I could ask, ma'am, I'm a little confused as to what you think this council could do to assist you. I guess that's my question to you. How do you think this council could assist you in this matter?

Because I do pay taxes in this province.

Okay, I understand that.

Okay? I've been living in this province for 27 years. I've been paying taxes. I'm a matter of service, so I need to come here.

No, I'm not suggesting you can't, but I don't know how this council could assist you. You have a lawyer...

I just got a lawyer four weeks ago. How many times have I been here? I understand that.

Let him finish. You have a lawyer. There seems to be a dispute between you and a cleaning company as a result of a property damage that occurred. And the way they handle that is to deal with the lawyer and their lawyer and whatnot. I am the lawyer for this council. I'm telling them there is nothing they can do. They cannot order a private company to give you your property.

property back because you don't even want the property back now i understand you yes sir yes yes sir so this this sewage company is hired by the city to provide a service right the sewage company is is is contracted to run the uh the plant for the city yes it's a contract yes they're a vendor yes so us as taxpayers we pay the city for the for the services who's contracted the company okay so the sewage company hired these clean people to come and take care of the problem.

No, well, the city's insurer, the Renown Intellectual Trust, hired this cleaning company to clean up your house.

Okay, so it's kind of a circle, it's all connected. So on the bottom, because the cleaning service is at the bottom, so if they're not doing the job, don't you think the person above that should... make sure they get the stuff done right or even if the second step.

No, I understand that you're not satisfied what the cleaning company has done and I appreciate that. I understand that you're not happy with the services that they provided and that's something that we could talk to the insurance carrier with but it seems to me now that there seems to be a dispute as you're not happy with the services that they provided and They're charging you money for storage, which you don't believe you should have. And you have hired a lawyer to either try to get yourself stuff back or to get reimbursed for the stuff that you don't want anymore. And I just don't see. We can't order the payment by the cleaning company to give you money because we don't control the cleaning company, I guess is my point. And I think you're going the right route. I think you went the right route by hiring a lawyer. But there's nothing that we can do here. Other than bringing it up, and we made the calls, and I have made the calls, but I just don't see, and I appreciate this, and I'm not trying to be dismissive of your concerns, but I just don't know how this council as a body could help solve your problems other than making the calls that we've already done and get more information. But because it does seem to be a dispute, sir and ma'am, between you the cleaning company and to try to get your... Now, it seems also to be disputable. You don't think you're getting reimbursed enough? And there's a process to go through, and that's all through with your lawyer.

I didn't say it was not reimbursed enough. You guys never offered me anything.

We're not the ones who would offer. We would not be the ones to do that, ma'am. It wouldn't be the city. It wouldn't be the city.

Okay. Whoever put these people in my house, they throw the baby's room, the crib, my living room, my son's room. Who's responsible for all that they put in the trash?

Ma'am, all I can tell you is that the cleaning company or the company that was hired by the interlocal trust removed that material, correct? They're the ones who moved it. Clean care removed that material, right? So, yes. And it seems to me that you're in a dispute as to who should reimburse you for that or what the damage was. And that's between you, your lawyer, and clean care and the town's insurer. And the process is going forward. You may not like the speed of the process, and I understand that.

because I have a baby sleeping still and a playpen. And so is my son sleeping in a mattress for six months.

But there's a dispute going on, and we cannot solve that dispute.

This is not right, you guys, the way you're treating people. Even yesterday when I went to get the stuff, you said I'm not happy with clean care? Will you accept the way they're giving me things? I got videos and pictures.

so and i appreciate that you've come here and that you can continue to come here and voice oh it seems like it's not for help he just said it himself you know what i mean yeah so having been somebody who had to deal with insurances with my own properties i understand and can relate to the frustration um it does take a lot of time they don't want to do things it's not a pleasant experience I think one of the things you want, it sounds like to me that you're looking for is maybe our insurer or somebody at the insurance. Just to get my property to use every day. With why the vendor that they hired is did what they did, or you can't resolve the issues that you've had with that vendor, the clean company. I think it's a reasonable ask. I don't know if you've spoken to the insurance company or if you've had your attorney reach out to the insurance company that,

hired the vendor not not the way you talk to me that's why i went to get a lawyer because the way you were talking to me again i know it's a very difficult situation to go through the gentleman works here i forgot his name we're on the front desk that happened to him last year so it's back up in his house Why was so fast with him? He made three claims. The city paid him so fast like this. What's going on with me?

Well, I believe that situation was different. It depends on the amount of money that's in the claim. So some things the city council can approve. But after a certain threshold or amount or cost of repairs and cleans, it then has to go through our insurance company. Similar, like if we got into a car accident and you just had a fender bend. But they never... Fixing yourself so you don't go through your insurance, but if it was a big accident and you can't afford, you know, your car's totaled, you go through your insurance. So because your situation was a big situation, it's going through our city's insurance. I think you're just bringing to light that potentially that vendor is not practicing in good business with obviously one of our citizens, and it would be nice if they could just come to an agreement and you guys could mutually figure something out. It's mindful.

Things to use every day. Something needs to be done.

We're not going to solve this tonight. My only last advice is if you don't want to do it yourself, your attorney has to keep pressuring the clean care company or the insurance company and keep pressing them. Now, I'm sure lawyers know how to do that. So your lawyer needs to call the lawyer for the insurance company. If you need that information, we can give you the contact information for the insurance company to give to your lawyer if your lawyer doesn't have it. And that's the next step here. We're not going to solve this.

Is that James Peterson? He's the trust.

I don't know the attorney. He's the adjuster.

Okay. So who am I looking for then?

Well, I would go back to him with your lawyer, to Peterson, and hammer it out. We can't solve this tonight here.

I understand. This is the guy told in front of the people from daycare, the son could still sleep down here with all this mess going on.

I don't know. I wasn't there.

You know what I'm saying?

None of this is good. We're sorry about it.

The way they treated us, it's not good. When all the people had the same problems we did, and they just got reimbursed for everything, and we're not. And I'm not asking for much. I'm asking for the stuff for everyday use at home.

We get it. We get it. All right. So let's do that.

Seeing what we're going through, that the city or the mayor's office really, like, digs into what kind of people they hire to do stuff like this.

But we didn't hire clean care.

I understand that. But, like I say, it goes from here to the sewage company and to the cleaning care and stuff like that. So... I think they should look into it more, how they're doing business, representing not just the sewage company, but also the city of East Providence.

Well, the first problem is why did we have this sewage backup to begin with? That shouldn't have happened, but it does happen. I know people in other cities, it's happened in our city. It's a very sad thing.

Like you said before, it happened 14 years ago. It didn't fix the problem. And it happened again. It was worse.

All right. Well, we'll continue. Thanks for coming out, hopefully. Thank you for taking the time. Yep. If I can think of anything else, we'll try to make some calls and move this along. Thank you. Is there a motion to adjourn?