City Council - Regular Meeting

If we pull it, but ask the city.

Thank you. Thank you.

September 8th, 2026, Lowell City Council meeting come to order, city prayer. Dear God, today as this session opens, we pray that your presence will be before us and everyone who serves in the decision making process of our city. We pray for direction which will lead our city to be strong and unified. May we continue the legacy of our founders. May we be granted this day the wisdom to make decisions which will be for the good of our city. We also pray for your special blessing on all those who are working to transform our city and make it a better place to live and work. Amen. I pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Councilor McDonough.

Here.

Councilor Murcia.

Here.

Councilor Noon.

Here.

Councilor Robinson.

Here.

Councilor Rourke.

Here.

Councilor Scott.

Here.

Councilor Chau.

Here.

Councilor Decoto.

Here.

Mayor Gitche.

Here.

Councilor Duran.

Here. Here.

Councillor Liang, here, level present.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. We have three councillors who are on Zoom tonight. Councillor Decoto, Councillor Duran, and Councillor Robinson. Any moment of silences? Councillor Marcia.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to offer a moment of silence and dock in chamber for Lowell artist Janet Lambert Moore. She was the proud mother of two sons, Joseph, Joey Moore, and Chauncey Moore. Janet was pre-deceased in death in 1998 by her loving husband, Richard Moore. Janet was the eldest of nine siblings. She was a Lowell High School graduate in 1956 and a Lowell High School Distinguished Alumni 2008. Janet earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Massachusetts College of Art. in 1960 and a Master's of Education from Salem State University in 1962. As an educator and historian, Janet Moore spent her entire lifetime and artistic career wholeheartedly dedicated to the arts, with special devotion for her beloved mill town of Lowell. As a young girl of nine, Janet began her first formal art lesson at Lowell Historic Whistler House Museum of Art under the guidance of art professor, the late Leo Panis. After earning her college degrees, Janet taught high school, art and art history for eight years janet leaves behind five sisters and was pre-deceased by her siblings reverend george lambert jackie st cyr and june agnew we offer our condolences to our family relatives and many friends i would also like to offer a moment of silence and docking chamber to all those who passed away since our last city council meeting may they all rest in peace amen thank you

Any more moment of silences? Please dim the lights. 2 mayors business 2.1 communication remote zoom participation most of them except in place on file by council rook seconded by council noon roll call council mcdonough yes council mercia yes council noon yes council robinson

Yes. Council Rourke.

Yes.

Council Scott. Yes. Council Chau. Yes. Council Ducotto. Yes. Council, may I get you?

Yes.

Council Duran.

Yes.

Council Liang. Yes.

That's 11.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Motion to suspend the rules to take 2.3 and 2.4 out of order by Councilor Marisi or seconded by Councilor McDonough. Roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Councilor McDonough.

Yes.

Councilor Mercier. Yes. Councilor Noon. Yes. Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke. Yes. Councilor Scott. Yes. Councilor Chau. Yes. Councilor Decoto.

Yes.

Mayor Gachia. Yes. Councilor Duran.

Yes.

Councilor Liang.

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. 2.3 citation, Kayla Rivera. Kayla, if you'd come up to the podium. Good evening, Kayla. Tonight, we are here to recognize and celebrate an extraordinary young woman, you, whose courage, quick thinking, and training helped save the life of a three-year-old child. While on a family vacation in Florida, Kayla found her young cousin, LJ, after he had fallen into a swimming pool. She immediately put her CPR training into action, remaining calm under tremendous pressure and performing CPR until he breathed again. Thanks to her actions, first responders were able to take LJ to the hospital where he made a full recovery. What makes this story especially meaningful is that Kayla received her CPR training through the Lowell Police Department Student Police Academy, a program she has participated in every summer since seventh grade. Her experience reminds us that investing in our young people and giving them the skills to respond in an emergency can truly make a life changing difference. Kayla, your actions demonstrated courage, compassion, and the very best of what it means to serve others. We are incredibly proud of you. On behalf of the City Council, congratulations on this well-deserved citation. We wish you every success as you pursue your dreams of college, military service, and perhaps one day becoming a police officer. Kayla, you are an inspiration to our entire community. Thank you for stepping up when it mattered most.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Motion to accept and place on file by Councillor Scott, seconded by Councillor Chau. Roll call.

Councillor McDonough.

Yes.

Councillor Mercier. Yes. Councillor Noon. Yes. Councillor Robinson.

Yes.

Council Rourke. Yes. Council Scott.

Yes.

Council Chow. Yes. Council Ducotto.

Yes.

Mayor Gitche. Yes. Council Duran.

Yes.

Council Leang. Yes. 11 years.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. 2.4 citation, Lowell Youth Baseball League, 8U. If your coach wants to come up, the coaches. Congratulations, Coach. If you'd like to say a few words before we present you with the plaque, that would be good. If you want to wait till after, you can wait.

No, we're good. First of all, thank you to the mayor, counselors, everyone in attendance, families, for this well-deserved recognition. These kids really worked hard all summer, all year long to make this happen for them. So I just want to say thank you to everyone. One thing about this team, they really epitomize what Lowell is all about. We don't have one star player. Every win took all 12 of our guys working together at all times to make happen, right? And it was a great summer. We won a lot of baseball games. But one thing that little youth baseball really prides itself on is preparing these boys to become young men, right? And baseball is the perfect sport for that, right? You fail a lot more than you succeed in baseball. And these kids dealt with adversity all summer long, strikeouts, errors. And they always picked each other up, held their head high, and moved on to the next play. And that's why we got to where we got to. So thank you, everyone. Thank you.

On behalf of the entire city and city council, we first would like to thank your parents. Without them, none of this would happen, and the coaches. So if we could give them, you guys can give them a round of applause. Stand up and recognize your parents. With that, we have a plaque to present to you. It says, presented with gratitude to the Lowell Youth Baseball 8U 2026 New England Regional Champions. We can cheer again. You can cheer. A remarkable season that showcased the talent, resilience, and optimism captured both Massachusetts state championship and a New England regional championship, earning a coveted berth in the Cal Ripken 8U World Series. Their commitment and achievement bring immense pride to the Lowell community and Lowell Youth Baseball program. On behalf of the entire City Council and the residents of the City of Lowell, hereby extend our deepest congratulations and we are proud to honor and recognize Lowell Youth Baseball 8U for their achievements from the entire City Council.

All right. All right. All right.

Hey.

Thank you.

When everyone takes a seat, we'll give you the mic.

Now what?

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you! Thank you!

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, if I might, Matt Lelacher, I'm the president of the league. These guys are unbelievably impressive, but I just want to take two seconds since we have the opportunity. When we started and came together in 2022 and officially pulled everything together in 2023, the goal was to get to a day like this. And I think everybody needs to understand that it starts all the way at the top with everybody in the city, from the administration to the council. Our fields are in better shape than they've ever been in. We're the envy of everybody in the area. Teams that come in to play us over the course of the summer. Lowell Baseball is the envy of everybody in eastern Massachusetts, if not further and beyond. And to speak to that, as far back in the records that I can find, Lowell is the first town to ever have two New England champions in the same season. So first time So as the boys said so well, thank you.

Thank you.

Motion to accept by Council Yang, seconded by Councilor Murcia. Roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Councilor McDonough.

Yes.

Councilor Murcia. Yes. Councilor Noon.

Yes.

Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke.

Yes.

Councilor Scott. Yes. Councilor Chau. Yes. Councilor Decoto.

Yes. Yes.

Mayor Gitche. Yes. Councilor Duran.

Yes.

Councilor Liang. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Well, we're under suspension of the rules. We'd like to take 6.2 and move it up with the 2.2 proclamation, which would be 6.2 would be an informational report, September Suicide Prevention Month. We'll take it up with the proclamation for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Motion by Councilor Rook, seconded by Councilor Scott. Roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Councilor McDonough?

Yes.

Councilor Mercier? Yes. Councilor Noon?

Yes.

Councilor Robinson?

Yes.

Councilor Rourke? Yes. Councilor Scott?

Yes.

Councilor Chau? Yes. Councilor Decoto?

Yes.

Mayor Gitche? Yes. Councilor Duran?

Yes.

Counsel Leigh Yang. Yes.

Levin Yates.

Thank you. 2.2 Proclamation Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. The City of Lowell, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by his honor, Eric R. Gitcher, Mayor at Proclamation. Whereas September is recognized as Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month, a time to raise awareness, promote understanding, and encourage communities to come together to prevent suicide and support those who may be struggling. Now, therefore, I, Eric R. Gitche, Mayor of the City of Lowell, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month in the City of Lowell. And I encourage all residents to learn the warning signs, reach out to those who may be struggling, listen without judgment, and help connect one another with care, support, and resources. And with that, I would call. Health Director Lisa Golden for the mic. 6.2 information report, September Suicide Prevention Month. Lisa.

Thank you, Mayor, Assistant City Managers, and Council. September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and the colors this month are purple and teal. So on Thursday, the bridge on Bridge Street will be illuminated teal. to be for awareness of this month so the council has nice little goodie bags from haley with all suicide awareness things for you one of the things that you have is a nice little pin with 988 which is the universal number that anybody could call if they need mental health awareness or if they are having signs of suicide awareness i would um have everybody wear this this month. There's also a goodie bag outside. So anybody who's here in the chamber, if you want to have a magnet or any stickers or anything to have, there's things for you to have. The numbers are staggering for anybody who needs mental health awareness. And I'm grateful for the council to give me a chance to speak multiple times during the year to talk about this. We talk about it in January. We talk about it in September. And we talk about it quite a bit during the year. September is one of the times that we talk about it. This is the time that a lot of students go back to school. It's a change for our students going back to school. We have UMass Lowell, where students are going back to the dorms. They're away from their parents. They've never been away from their parents. And it's a big change. It's a big change for them. students being away from their houses and a big change for people within society going into the fall. We talk about it in December. People have depression during the month of December. We will start a campaign this week on social media for people talking about 988. 988 is translated into a lot of different languages. Anybody can call that, and you can get someone in your own native language. We do have signage on the bridges, starting from the Mammoth Road Bridge, University Ave Bridge, the Bridge Street Bridge. There's signage in all different languages. There's all different modes of signs to get people's attention, um, saying that we care call nine, eight, eight, um, different things for people who are looking for help. I believe counselor Liang spoke at one point that he spoke to someone in Dunkin' Donuts. Uh, just, just having a friendly face to speak to sometimes there's just all the people need. So thank you for allowing me to speak. I'll take any questions if anybody has a question.

Thank you, Ms. Golden. We are grateful for all that you and your department do.

Thank you.

Thank you. Motion to accept 2.2 and 6.2 and place it on file by Council Rourke, seconded by Council Liang. Roll call.

Council McDonough.

Yes.

Council Murcia. Yes. Council Noon.

Yes.

Council Robinson.

Yes.

Council Rourke. Yes. Council Scott. Yes. Council Chau. Yes. Council Decoto. Yes.

Yes.

i'm going to get you yes council duran yes council yang yes thank you mr clerk three city clerk 3.1 minutes of the city council regular meeting august 25th for acceptance by council yang seconded by council mcdonough roll call council mcdonough yes

Council Mercia. Yes. Council New. Yes. Council Robinson.

Yes.

Council Rourke. Yes. Council Scott. Yes. Council Chow. Yes. Council Dakota.

Yes.

Mayor Gitche.

Yes.

Council Duran. Yes.

Yes.

Counsel Leang. Yes. 11 years.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk.

Counsel Marcia. I'd like to, while we're under suspension, I'd like to take 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 out of order. There are people here registered to speak, and I don't want to burden them any further by keeping them here all night long.

Motion by Counselor Marcia to take 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 out of order. Seconded by Counselor Noon. Roll call.

Council Council McDonough, yes. Council Murcia, yes. Council Noon, yes. Council Robinson, yes. Council Rourke, yes. Council Scott, yes. Council Chau, yes. Council Ducotto, yes. Mayor Gitche, yes. Council Duran, yes. Council Leang, yes.

Motion passes. 8.1 order. Dedicate Chelsea Street near Maycomb for Harold and Barney Hovey. Wave full reading and second reading by title. Order. Designating the area of Chelsea Street near Macomb in the city of Lowell, Harold and Barney Hovey Memorial in honor of Army and Navy veterans Harold R. Hovey and Francis J. Barney Hovey. Motion to adopt by Councilor Mercy, seconded by Councilor Rook. Any discussion?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I had the honor to know Barney Hovey very, very well. I think John DeCotto, our city councilor, knows him as well. The brothers both served honorably in World War II and returned home as heroes. Due to miscommunication at the time of the original application, the Memorial Square location was incorrectly placed. The family would like to have that move closer, but these two gentlemen were unbelievable, and they served this country well. I'm very honored to support this motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Messier. Roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Councilor McDonough. Yes. Councilor Mercier. Yes. Councilor Noon. Yes. Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke. Yes. Councilor Scott. Yes. Councilor Chau. Yes. Councilor Locoto. Present. Mayor Gitche. Yes. Councilor Duran.

Yes.

Councilor Leung. Yes.

11 years motion passes 8.2 order dedicate merrimack street and worthing street intersection for christos a zagarth's uh wave full reading and second reading by title Order designate the intersection of Merrimack Street and Worthen Street in the city of Lowell for Christos A. Zagaroff's memorial in honor of Air Force veteran Christos A. Zagaroff. He did, okay. Motion to accept, wait. Motion to adopt by Councilor McDonough, seconded by Councilor Chau. Is there anyone wishing to speak?

Yes. Go ahead, Timmy. name and address for the record name and address for the record to the clerk name your name your name not my name but all right sorry thank you ma'am my name is timothy dimitropoulos i'm the commander of the greek american vets of lowell uh

I want to thank the City of Lowell and the Council, and especially Rita Mercier for all her help and being a good friend for quite a few years. I also want to thank Eric LaMarche, who's the Chairman of Veterans Services, for all the work he did on this issue. And I hope it's going through. I'm probably jumping ahead of myself. And I want to thank everybody for the honor of bestowing on Christopher Zagrafas, who was a veteran of World War II, awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. And I want to thank everybody who was involved in this thing for this honorable award. Thank you.

Thank you, Rita. Thank you. Any other discussion? Roll call.

Councilor McDonough. Yes. Councilor Mercier. Yes. Councilor Noon. Yes. Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke. Yes. Councilor Scott. Yes. Councilor Chau. Yes. Councilor Nicoto.

Yes.

Mayor Gitche. Yes. Councilor Duran.

Yes.

Councilor Leang. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Motion passes. 8.3 order. Dedicate Warnock Street and Borica Street intersection for Robert A. Johnston. Wave full reading and second reading by title. Order designate the intersection of Warnock Street and Borica Street in the city of Lowell, Robert A. Johnston Memorial in honor of Air Force veteran Robert A. Johnston. Motion to adopt by Councilor Mercy or seconded by Councilor Scott. Anyone wishing to speak?

Good evening, Mayor.

Just name an address for the record.

I'm Bob Carlson, Dracut, Mass. I grew up in Lowell on 1X Street.

You can give us your address in Dracut. It's okay.

I know. I had to follow my wife to Dracut.

I'm here on my... Your address in Dracut for the record.

66 Hilltop Road, Dracut. 66 Hilltop. Mass 1826. Dracut. Thank you. I'm here for my uncle's staff sergeant, Robert Allen Johnston. He lived in Wigginville, Salt Lowell, and was the oldest of 10 children. Robert enlisted right after graduation from Lowell High and into the US Army Air Corps. Not the Air Force, the Air Corps, because the army back then, they were together. On December 7, He and all 15 other members of the flight crew and ground crew crashed their B-29 Fortress bomber shortly after takeoff into the Atlantic Ocean by the Azores Islands. There were no survivors. Sergeant Johnson was a World War II veteran having enlisted six years prior, just as his last conflict was drawing to a close and the U.S. was entering a Korean conflict. My grandfather, Robert Johnson, Sr., and five sons probably served in the military as I did in the Vietnam War. Most have passed away. Robert's two surviving siblings would like, very proud, to see a memorial to his brave young man who gave his life for his country so many years ago.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Council Mercia.

Council Rook. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just before we vote on Mr. Johnson, let's take a moment as a council to thank all three people that are in tonight and obviously their families for their service and not only serving our country but coming back and serving the city of Lowell. Thank you all.

Thank you, Council Rook. Anyone else who should speak? Roll call.

Councilor McDonough? Yes. Councilor Mercier? Yes. Councilor Noon?

Yes.

Councilor Robinson?

Yes.

Councilor Rourke? Yes. Councilor Scott? Yes. Councilor Chau? Yes. Councilor Decoto?

Yes.

Mayor Gitche? Yes. Councilor Duran?

Yes.

Councilor Leah?

Yes.

11 years.

Thank you all for coming out tonight. Going back to the regular portion of the agenda for utility public hearing scheduled at 7 PM. 4.1 National Grid requests the installation of a new utility pole at 26 Caddell Ave. Give second reading. We're going to open up that hearing to anyone wishing to speak in favor. Yeah, we will. In favor. Please state your name and address clearly for the record.

My name is Alec Birdsong. The address is 1101 Turnpike Street, North Andover. We're looking to install a new poll there to alleviate an aerial trespass for 26 Caudill Street, Caudill Avenue.

Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor? In favor? In favor? That portion of the meeting is closed. Councilor Joann.

No.

That wasn't me.

Okay. Go ahead.

It was with Diana Cuddy, National Grid, 170 Data Drive, Baltimore, Massachusetts. And I am in favor of the gas grant location. We have to move approximately 800 feet of our gas paint to accommodate the city sewer project on Middlesex Street.

Thank you. When we get to the next one, we'll put that into the record. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor of 4.1? In favor? In favor? Seeing none, that portion of the meeting is closed. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition? Opposition? Opposition? That portion of the meeting is closed. What's the wish, Councilor Mercer?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I probably shouldn't say this, but I am compelled to say it anyway. Maybe it's just me. I don't know. But there were 15 pages. I'm sure that the gas company, because it's in electricity, too, electric, they send something to the mayor. to the manager or whatever, and then someone is designated to make copies. Now, if I could just show you this, I know all these schematic designs, I have no clue as anything to read this. And there's 15 pages here. Multiply that times 11 of us, we get 165 pages, papers. Not that the... paper skeins are expensive but this is going to be thrown in the basket and I didn't even look at it I feel guilty to tell you that like I'm not doing my job but I don't know understand any of this so someone is taking a lot of time that they don't have to if someone wants it they should tell the manager or whoever prepares this but and this is One request. There's two of them. So multiply 165 by 2. You're going to get 330 pages for the council. And I wonder if anybody read this or understands this. I don't know anything about these schematic designs to put a pole in the ground and attach a gas pipe or whatever. I don't understand that. So if you want to eliminate Mayan, please don't send me this anymore, because I'm going to throw money away. And I just, I mean, it's probably nothing, but it means a lot to me when you're trying to save every dime that you possibly can.

i don't mean to be cruel but i think if next week you put in a motion to not have it in the printed out packets for all of us but include it digitally it's okay i think that we i agree with you the same i read it but i i agree with you yeah it should just be done electronically only and if someone wants to click on it as a city councilor they can and i agree there's 11 of us and if you're getting packets delivered it's a lot of paper They must. So, Mr. Mayor.

Yes. Oh, this is.

Councilor Duran.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I agree with the amount of paper, but I do think there is some value in there. Our engineers have been working to try to provide us information that is useful to us because we do, I think, have an obligation to at least understand what is here. And I think on the new utility poll, that first page where it talks about the review done by Joseph Cady is helpful, as is the picture that he has now been providing to show where the poll will go. I think that's important for people to just see and maybe it only has to be electronic, but I think that's valuable. I do appreciate, so I think those pages are valuable and anything that sort of shows the location, I think is helpful to us, but I agree, I don't understand all of the rest of it. And we are relying on our engineers and others to do what we do. you know, to help us. Thank you.

Thank you, counsel, junior counsel, Rook.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So we're going to make a decision on this because not too long ago, many councils made a big deal about not getting all three, four pages of the application, everything from start to finish. So, you know, if there's a problem with 15 pages now, that's understood. the mayor's suggestion of putting it all online i think is a very good one uh we can you know look at it that way uh if the paper doesn't want to get wasted but i think we should let the administration know what we want because again we asked for everything a little while ago thank you would you like to put that in the form of a motion yes just to be i put anything um you know with the um

So may I help me out with the uh motion by Councillor Rook to put all the utility public hearing information in electronic form only and not included in print form in the council's packet seconded by Councillor Scott well I wouldn't mind getting the first page yeah they normally did that before so I don't yeah the first page is fine but all

15 pages don't matter to me.

Mr. Mayor, the only thing, I know you know this, the only thing we really need is the wire inspector's approval, and we should be good to go. That is all we really need.

That's it. Seconded by Council Scott, roll call. Yep.

Councilor McDonough.

Yes.

Councilor Murcia. Yes. Councilor Noon.

Yes.

Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke.

Yes.

Councilor Scott. Yes. Councilor Chau. Yes. Councilor Decoto. Yes.

Yes.

get you yes counselor joran yes counselor yes now going back to the public hearing any other questions on this i do have one question um and i don't know who can answer it but my question is is cadel ave a accepted street or not because i know the street well and it doesn't look to be accepted so i'm trying to figure out do we put Do we have to accept things going on a non-accepted road that we don't actually own? It's not accepted. So, Mr. Solicitor?

Thank you, Mr.

Solicitor. Are you from the company? Yeah, I have a question. Yeah, you can stand back up.

I will say this later, but just like her, I don't understand why. Are you from the company itself? No, I'm a resident.

Oh, then you need to sit down. It's not that portion of the meeting.

Oh, okay.

I'm sorry.

Mr. Solicitor? I don't know. Do we have to still accept them even though we're on an unaccepted road?

I wouldn't be able to answer that. I would have to do a little bit of digging. That scenario has never presented itself to me at this point, but it's something I'm happy to look into.

If you could look into that, because Caddell Ave is like an alleyway that runs off a crescent that

very very small and I don't believe it's an accepted road so if it's not accepted why do we have to accept these but roll motion to refer it to the wire inspector report in recognition mr. mayor this is a gentleman that wanted to speak because he lives on cat had Cadell Avenue it's a public hearing he didn't need to register to speak but I

MR. Counselor Marcia, the public hearing was opened and closed. So if you're suspending the rules to give them an opportunity to speak, I am very OK with that. But if we're going to follow the procedures, we need to open it in favor, in opposed. Are you in favor or opposed to it? JUSTICE GINSBERG. Are you in favor of or opposed? Okay, so let me get a suspension of the rules first. Let's do this the right way. Suspension of the rules by Council Leang, seconded by Council McDonough to allow the speaker to speak.

All right. Thank you for the opportunity. All in favor. I received a letter, but I do not understand what I'm in favor of or against. If I don't have a—even some of you don't even understand what it is, how can we say, yeah, we're in favor of it? Especially now there's a whole thing going on with grids and— Get his name.

Oh, he don't know what's going on. What's your name and address, for the record?

For the record, my name is Jerry Abelard in Niagara Avenue.

Nice.

So what they're proposing to do is put a telephone pole in the, I think it was 26 Caddell. They're going to put a telephone pole there so they don't have to run it from Houghton through the backyard to the house. They're going to run it a different route to a telephone pole and be able to tie it in that way. So they're going to put a telephone pole in that road.

And how does that benefit the whole Caddell Ave?

It's not about benefiting Caddell Ave. It's about getting it out of the other people's yards. That's what I read in it.

Oh.

So to come down the street rather than go through people's yards. So currently it comes from Houghton Street over to Cattell. And now they're saying they don't want to run it that way. They want to run it a different way because the drops are going through.

Okay. I'm in favor. That's a good thing. Thank you. All right.

Roll call, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You're welcome. Thank you.

I did read those 15 pages. Roll call. Motion to refer to the wire inspector for report and recommendation by Councilor Chow, seconded by Councilor Liang. Roll call.

Councilor McDonough. Yes. Councilor Mercier. Yes. Councilor Noon. Yes. Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke. Yes. Councilor Scott. Yes. Councilor Chow. Yes. Councilor Dakota.

Yes.

Mayor Gitche. Yes. Councilor Duran.

yes council yang yes motion passes 4.2 boston gas requests to replace old cast iron gas main with new plastic gas main on middlesex street from mod street to sanders street give second reading open the hearing anyone wishing to speak in favor we have somebody who already spoke if you want to give your name we can collect it

Hi, Diana Cuddy, National Grid, 170 Data Drive, Waltham, Massachusetts, and I am in favor of this petition. We have to relocate approximately 800 feet of our existing gas main to accommodate some city sewer work that is being proposed that will be in our corridor, so we have to move the pipe out of the way.

Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor? In favor? In favor? That portion of the meeting is closed. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition? Opposition? Opposition? That portion of the meeting is closed. What's the wish of the body? Refer to the wire inspector for report and recommendation by Councilor Noon, seconded by Councilor Scott. Roll call.

Councilor McDonough.

Yes.

Councilor Mercier. Yes. Councilor Noon.

Yes.

Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Council Rourke. Yes. Council Scott. Yes. Council Chau. Yes. Council Ducotto.

Yes.

Mayor Gitche. Yes. Council Duran.

Yes.

Council Yang. Yes.

Thank You mr. Clerk going back to the regular portion of the council agenda 5 City Council motions 5.1 council noon council mcdonough request a city manager work with the appropriate department to develop a request for proposals for a community impact study examining the various impacts of data centers including but not limited to environmental public health utility and energy and fire safety impacts which said study to be funded privately no second is needed council at noon

Mr. Mayor, the idea of it was somewhat just before the governor having an executive order just about a couple hours ago. So I didn't hear of it when I filed this motion. You know, Councillor McDonnell indicated to me about an hour before the meeting that it was a governor executive orders. A lot of those orders listed what the concern that we have. I've asked Councillor McDonnell to comment on it. If anything, I would say that this motion should be hold off or maybe have information and have that discussed at the executive session. Councillor McDonnell, do you want to add on to it?

Yeah, I would support Councilor Noonan in withdrawing this and I guess asking, hopefully, trust that the city administration is also catching up on the breaking news out of the governor's office and to just try and understand what, if any, implications there are out of that executive order for the city as we go through our data center fund. Thank you.

thank you with motion is five point yes councillor robinson uh i just have a question with this motion who is the funding party on on this proposed motion council robinson uh the motion has been withdrawn by the two makers oh so it's completely withdrawn it's not going to go to executive yes councillor noon and councillor mcdonough withdrew the motion You all set, Councilor Robinson?

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. 5.2, Councilor Noon, Councilor Duran, request the city manager have the appropriate department report back to the city council on the reason members of the public are unable to board the Pollard Memorial Library bookmobile at community events and identify possible solutions. No second needed. Councilor Noon.

Mr. Mayor, The Bookmobile has been successful the last couple of summer. They've been set up shop across the city, a local park, community space and whatnot. And what they do is that, you know, bring the book to where, you know, children and families are. I just learned a couple months ago that a couple months ago that in the bookmobile, the insurance does not cover or the bookmobile does not allow a patron, a kid, or families going up onto the bookmobile to check and sign off on book. because of insurance issue. So every time they go into sites, say park or community space, staff would take book out and set up places outside the bookmobile, would take up time. and if it's rain or snow, they can't do it. So saying that allowing, you know, having children cover where children and family can go does not mean that all the time because when you go to spaces where there's a lot of people they are waiting to check the book out yes there's a limit of number of people can go up there but the experience itself it's good for the kid and the family so i'm asking that the city work with the library to look into way where we can address this issue thank you councillor duran um thank you mr mayor i think yeah i don't have anything additional to add thanks

Thank you, Councilor Duran. Roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Councilor McDonough. Yes. Councilor Mercier. Yes. Councilor Noon.

Yes.

Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke. Councilor Scott. Yes. Councilor Chau. Yes. Councilor Decoto. Yes. Mayor Gitche.

Yes.

Councilor Duran. Yes. Yes, constantly and yes, 10 years.

Motion passes 5.3 Council Robinson request City Council as well as a city manager sent a letter to the state delegation in the MBTA advocating for legislation requiring the MBTA to explore and implement additional safety measures on train platforms, including platform safety guards, barriers, gates or other effective safety devices designed to prevent passengers from accidentally falling into the track second. Seconded by Councilor Noon, Councilor Robinson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This came to the council by way of a resident. An unfortunate accident happened in the city of Boston, and a gentleman involved was a little resident. And the family members reached out and asked if we would support just an initiative to try to encourage MBTA and any other entity to take a hard look at this and see if we can encourage them to try to find some feasible safeguards within their means so I Think it was a good motion to put forward and I hope I can get the support of my colleagues and the administration.

Thank you Thank You councillor Robinson any discussion on the motion Seeing none roll call mr. McDonough.

Yes, I'll submersion. Yes. I'll soon. Yes. Council Robinson. Yes Council Rourke.

Yes

Council Scott. Yes. Council Chow. Yes. Council Locoto.

Yes.

Mayor Gitche. Yes. Council Duran.

Yes.

Council Leang.

Yes.

11. Motion passes. 5.4, Councilor Rourke. Councilor Robinson requests City Manager and DPD look into establishing social districts for downtown Lowell. No second and neither. Councilor Rourke.

I think it was something I spoke briefly about with Councilor Robinson. I've seen it. done in New Hampshire, a couple of places. I know Salisbury, Mass, Boston, they do it. And what it is is, you know, it's an area where you can close off for a period of time. You can do it, you know, biweekly, weekly, however you want to do so. And usually they have a sundown clause involved where, you know, if alcohol is being served in the summertime, it'd be 8 p.m. In the wintertime or fall, it could be 6 p.m. It's just something to bring more, whether it be festivals, activities, gatherings to the downtown area. There's been a lot of work done downtown, and I think what we can do is show it off and bring people to the downtown area of Lowell would be a good thing.

Councilor Robinson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you to my colleagues for bringing this up and bringing it to my attention. This council and prior councils have talked about looking at any way possible to try to create pedestrian friendly areas in our downtown. We've seen success that when we bring pedestrian foot traffic, some disposable income, small businesses, it's an injection. And so I think this is another great opportunity to look at how can we put foot traffic in front of our small businesses doorstep while celebrating everything law has to offer in our business community. So great motion and hopefully we can figure out some things with our heads together. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Robinson. Anyone else on the motion?

This is Councillor Duran.

Councillor Duran.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. So I think I understand the goal, but I did just see the recent agenda for the License Commission and a local business raise concerns about people walking around with drinks during Folk Festival, both in open and closed containers. And I appreciate that that was illegal and that was what they were complaining about, but I don't understand how this will actually benefit our existing businesses. It may benefit the bar slash restaurants that we have, but our alcohol serving businesses are not contiguous. And there are lots of other businesses, many without alcohol and some that are completely unrelated to food or beverage that would be affected. And I think, if anything, this would encourage more drinking and less purchasing and shopping at those other businesses. Having crowds outside establishments drinking, I don't think will promote the general vibe. of the streets that we have downtown and the street vibe that we want downtown and i think it could negatively affect the other businesses so i don't and and in light of many of the conversations we've had about the concerns about you know bar slash restaurants in the city and all i just don't see that this is consistent with with all that and with where we're heading especially downtown thank you

Thank you, Councilor Duran. Councilor McDowell.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I thank both my colleagues for bringing this forward. I didn't fully understand. When I read this, I was like, social district, which I wasn't sure where this was. But I think... I am interested in seeing, I guess, the report that DPD maybe gets back to us. I think it is potentially a good idea. I think I agree with my colleagues that anything we can do to drive traffic and pedestrian-friendly ease of moving between, especially when you get a number of venues offering music at different times, I think it's nice to be able to move between places. I also hear my colleagues' concern and I think a lot of my neighbors probably share that concern with what happens when right now people move between establishments with beverages and they're not really supposed to. The other concern I have that I would really like to see addressed or considered in this potential report from DPD would be about establishments that are not on-premise. They don't have an on-premise consumption license, but they sell tall cans, or they sell kind of single serving. They're a convenience store with a beer and wine license, and they're selling single cans of beer or malt beverage, whatever. And so does this also have the potential of hitting into um, some of our bar and restaurant revenue where like, well, I don't need to go pay a bar cup at the bar for the beer. I'm going to walk into the convenience store, buy a can, and I can walk around with it open. So I, and I'm not saying that's going to happen. I'm saying that's the only, that's the only thing that I just want an answer to. Otherwise, I think this is a, this is a good idea and I look forward to the report. So thank you.

Thank you. Councilor McDonough, Councilor Chau.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank my colleague for bringing up this motion. It is a good one. I am interested to see the report and maybe to see a trial period if it's agreeable with the administration and the DPD. My concern also is some areas of downtown that might be more friendly, more adaptable, this type of social district, but the downtowns include Merrimack Street, Palmer, Miller Street. I would say what about the businesses on Merrimack Street because I think some areas in downtown could be more readily available to close off versus areas in downtown that cannot be closed off. So I'd like to see like all the businesses in downtown area to benefit from this somehow, but maybe like a trial pair or some area to see how it works out. I would be in favor of that. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Chau. Councilor Scott?

Thank you Mr. Mayor. I think this is an excellent motion of potential for you know benefiting the businesses downtown and I think it's actually very well worded that it just says to look into establishing and the good part is that Cambridge, Boston, Salisbury have already done this so we're we're really able to we're not piloting it we can reach out to them and we can find out you know what works what doesn't work speak to business owners So I do think it's a good motion. If it's something that can help the downtown boroughs and it's something that they want, then I would be in support of that. Thank you.

Thank you, Counsel Scott. Counsel Robinson, did you have something to add?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. A couple points on this. Again, these are the kind of ideas that we talk about trying to help small businesses. We hear from many residents how our downtown is struggling. This situation like this pretty much comes down to for one, the execution of it. What do we carve out as as Council Scott just touched on other communities are doing it? What works? What doesn't work? So our execution of an event like this is first and foremost timing wise. To save this is not really understanding of bringing in potential revenue to small businesses into our business location that's hosting this. We're talking potentially pre and post activity. So as was explained in the introduction of the motion, we're talking a sunset clause on this. So if it goes from noon to 5, 6 PM, you have the morning rush where people could come down, browse different shops that might not be directly involved in that event, and then post. A lot of our businesses don't even open until 4 o'clock p.m. to start serving food in some instances. So as far as the challenge from that, or as we've seen in a lot of other events that happen, even with Halloween and stuff like that, people tend to, once the event wraps up, grab a bite to eat before they head home. I myself have attended events similar to this at Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, where they bring in alcohol beverages, they bring in vendors, crafts, All that, and people browse it. They shop. Not everyone drinks, but I mean, it is an option. They have live music. They have other events at these different openings to draw people in with disposable income and put foot traffic in front of the small businesses and vendors. And then, I mean, I just think to try to say... would be a negative impact to a a community that's struggling i i don't understand that logic i think we need we need to dig in and find any way possible to try to put people willing to get to shops in front of these businesses thank you thank you council robinson roll call on the motion council mcdonough yes council mercia yes council noon yes council robinson Yes.

Council Rourke.

Yes.

Council Scott.

Yes.

Council Chow. Yes. Council Ducotto.

Yes.

Mayor Gitche. Yes. Council Duran. No. Council Leang.

Yes.

Ten years. Ten years. Motion passes. Motion to suspend the rules by Council Rourke, seconded by Council Scott to take 10.2 miscellaneous out of order. Anybody question on that? Roll call, Mr. Clark.

Councilor McDonough. Yes. Councilor Murcia. Yes. Councilor Noon. Yes. Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke. Yes. Councilor Scott. Yes. Councilor Chau. Yes. Councilor Dakota. Yes. Mayor Gitche. Yes. Councilor Duran. Yes. Councilor Lea. Yes.

10.2, miscellaneous, Vincent Fernandez requests permission to address the City Council regarding disability retirement. Any registered speakers?

There's the petitioner. Someone registered to speak to him.

Please just state your name and address for the record, please.

Vincent Fernandez, 121 Lowell Road in Pepperell. Sorry, I know I only have a few minutes. I don't even know where to begin. I have all these facts that I want to present to you guys. In July, you voted to take my retirement and send it to the legislature for what they call a hero's retirement. That's since been rescinded and tabled. I watched both. I saw the questions and I thought maybe if I came here and introduced myself and my wife, Amy, and we told you our story and why we have made this request and perhaps answer some of the questions that were posed. This request was made eight years ago. A little over eight years ago, this request through the chief's department, chief of police was brought to the city hall and the then city manager. That request has sat here for eight years. My wife Amy and I have called, we have emailed, and we have not received a single response until June of this year for eight years. We went to the state senators, state legislatures for assistance, and all we ever asked of anybody is just to sit and talk to us and hear our story and understand why it is we have made this request. On June 4th, 2016, as a uniformed sergeant in this police department, a fleeing suspect who had violently assaulted several women in downtown Lowell struck me with his motor vehicle on purpose. He turned the wheel, he hit the gas, and he ran me over. He dragged me 150 feet down the road where I struck my head on the curb and left me there. And in between all of that, he tried to hit another car and scrape me off the side of his car. And as my feet were being pulled under the car, I was able to pull myself up onto the hood of that car. These facts, they're indisputable. That suspect, who was a resident of this city, pled guilty in court of attempted murder of a police officer that happened not 100 yards from this building. 100 yards on Shattuck Street. I spent a year in a head injury program because I had to learn how to tie my shoes and I couldn't read. They taught me how to read again. My 10-year-old daughter, my children were 10 and 6. My 10-year-old daughter had to tie my shoes for me because I couldn't remember how to tie my shoes. In those eight years that my requester sat here, in those 10 years since this has happened, I've undergone 14 medical procedures, seven major surgeries, and my medical bills are just shy of $800,000. I have cognitive difficulties. I have, at the time, within three months of that accident, the city doctor, this city doctor, equated my symptoms to early onset Alzheimer's. I still exhibit those same things. I cannot get through a day without my wife and my two children. My 10 and 6-year-olds have been a caregiver to their father, who was a uniformed police officer in this city, for 20 years. My 10-year-old daughter, since the day she tied my shoes, has done nothing but take care of me. My son comes home from school to this day to check and see how I am doing. I am heavily medicated, seven medications every day just before I get out of bed. And that's on a good day. On a bad day, that is 10 medications. On a bad day, I am so wracked with pain and headaches that I can't get out of bed. I went to a neurologist. The neurologist said, how bad are the headaches? And I will tell you right now that they are suicide inducing. And all of that is to say, before the PTSD set in. There's a lot of people that talk about PTSD. I know that there are people that come before you and talk about all these things. I have a traumatic brain injury. I have a spine that has six rods, 16 screws, three cages, and a titanium plate. All so I can stand upright and talk to you right now. And the PTSD has been the most pervasive. It has destroyed my life. If it wasn't for the woman sitting next to me, I would be dead, and I would have killed myself. I could sit here and give you the numbers. 1948 is when this bill was enacted. In 1948, and since then, 73 police officers and a handful of firefighters have been granted this. There is no floodgate to open. It is a very narrow window for people who are eligible for this. You have to be violently attacked by a suspect with the intent to cause permanent and catastrophic injuries upon you or to kill you. I was run over because the man who was driving that car wanted to kill me. He became, I'm sorry, within a couple of inches he would have succeeded. He has spent 10 years in prison, and on the very day that this council voted to rescind their motion, he was released from prison and now resides back in the city. And in those 10 years, he's completed a sentence. And in those 10 years, my health has failed to the point that I, at 53 years old, require constant care from my family. So I ask you this. We can go to the numbers. We can go. I have the facts, the payouts, if I had died that day, the number of people, the towns that are smaller than this town that have voted these through, for people who have been injured just like me in the same incidents as with cars and baseball bats and tire irons. But at the end of the day, my wife and my two children have spent the 10 years since that incident taking care of me. Every single day. And I ask, if they're busy taking care of me, the person who is a uniformed police officer for this city, a sergeant for this city, who is going to take care of them? Because they have sacrificed and nearly lost everything. $800,000 in medical bills. We have footed that bill, 80% of it. All I ever wanted to do in these eight years that this request has been sitting here is to talk to each and every one of you. Whoever was here, the manager, the mayor, the lawyers, everybody, we have called everybody just to talk to us, just to meet us. Sit down and talk to my wife and see what it's like to be a caregiver for a 44-year-old man who did nothing but his job. I don't mean to bother you and I don't mean to take up your time. You have so much on your plates and I am appreciative of every second beyond those three minutes you have given me. But there's a face and a family behind this request. And it is important for me that you see that face and that family and why we are asking this of you. They have sacrificed and they have suffered enough. And all we've ever done is ask someone to help us. It's okay if you don't want to help me. It's okay if we want to fall back on the numbers. But it's not okay if my family and their sacrifice is forgotten. And I'm sorry if this disrupts this meeting, but it's important to me. Because at the end of the day, I am tired. I have fought every day to get up and be a good father and a good husband. And I can't do this anymore. I can't continue to tell this story. I can't continue to plead and beg with people to help us out. I can't. I just, I can't do it. And I just, I don't know how else to do it. I am tired. I am exhausted. I am broken and I am beaten down. And those are the reasons we have made this request. And this is the reason why dozens of times we've contacted the city over the years. And on three separate occasions, we have represented the city with this motion through the chief's office. I've taken enough of your time. Mr. Mayor, I appreciate it. Council members, I thank you all for everything. I am deeply grateful for your initial vote, and I understand the need to discuss these matters. We are deeply grateful for you finally taking this up and at least having this conversation. Thank you.

Thank you. There is a registered speaker, Mr. Mayor. William DeRosiers.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of city council, assistant city managers, my name is Bill DeRosier. I live at 28 Clement Road in Dracut, but I'm here tonight as the chairman of the Lowell Retirement Board, along with one of my fellow board members, Bob Littlefield. You may remember that on July 28th council meeting, I spoke in opposition to the request of Mr. Fernandez. And although we greatly sympathize with Mr. Fernandez's situation, we want to reiterate that the Lowell Retirement Board's opposition to this request was special legislation that would increase his disability pension. Tonight, we have some additional information that we feel the council should have. As I previously stated, Mr. Fernandez submitted a request to the Lowell Retirement Board to change his accidental retirement to a violent act injury disability. The Lowell Board denied this for several reasons. First, this violent act injury disability is only available prospectively. for those new submissions after the enactment of the date which became effective in November 2025. Secondly, even if we wanted to approve this violent act injury, it would have required Mr. Fernandez to submit proof of the incident that caused the injury to be determined as a violent act and had a physician file the appropriate documentation of a violent act. We would have had to then submit this to PARARAC for approval, which I have been told by PARARAC they would have denied it because they would not approve anything that happened prior to November 2025. As the council knows, Mr. Fernandez was injured while in the performance of his duties on June 4th, 2016. and retired for an accidental disability retirement from the Lowell Retirement System in 2017, nearly 10 years ago. He has been receiving a disability pension of 72% of his salary tax-free since then, plus any cost of living allowances. A requirement of all disability retirees is that they submit annually to PARAC what is commonly referred to as Form 91A, which must include the individual's tax return for the previous year. He has had to submit this tax return to PARAC under Mass General Laws, Chapter 32, Section 91A for Earned Income. Mr. Fernandez is allowed to work a maximum number of hours and make an amount of money not to exceed an amount calculated by the difference between his current retirement benefits and the current position salary, plus $15,000, which has just recently been increased to $20,000. Not only has Mr. Fernandez been working But in 2024, he exceeded the amount allowed and had to pay back the excess earnings of over $6,000 to the Lower Retirement Board. As I have previously stated, the Lower Retirement Board is under the control of the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission, PERAC. PERAC was intimately involved with our state legislators when the Violent Act Injury Disability Act was written and passed into law. This act was partially established because the disabled individual was so catastrophically disabled that he or she wouldn't be able to work to supplement their income, as other disabled retirees would. They also determined that the new law would only go forward prospectively from the date that it passed. If not, it would cause significant financial and legal problems throughout the state. I've had several conversations with PARAC on this issue. They have educated retirement boards across the state that accidental retirement pensions cannot be recalculated without special legislation. If this special legislation, as written by the City Council, is approved at the Mass Statehouse, it will result in a significant financial burden on the Lowell Retirement System. We would be required to raise Mr. Fernandez's pension by approximately $18,000 per year, retroactive to the initial date of his retirement nearly 10 years ago, with a cost of Lowell Retirement System of approximately $180,000. This, plus refund his retirement contributions, when he was an active police officer of roughly $84,000. We would have to refund that also. With this increase, and if Mr. Fernandez lives until the mandatory retirement age of 65, would cost the Lowell Retirement System an additional $200,000. That's on top of his current pension that he receives. As I have previously stated, this process will open the door to other Lowell accidental disability retirees to submit similar requests. There are currently 170 disabled retirees in the Lowell Retirement System, of which 77 are police officers and 41 are firefighters. As has always been the case, the Lowell Retirement Board will follow all Mass General Laws and requirements of PARAC and of the City. And although we sympathize with Mr. Fernandez's current disability, The Low Retirement Board has a fiduciary responsibility to the entire system, and we feel the special legislation for Mr. Fernandez is counter to this fiscal responsibility and counter to the state legislators and PARAC's intentions when they wrote that law. Thank you. We are available if you have any other questions for us.

Thank you. Motion to accept and place on file by Councilor Noon, seconded by Councilor Liang. Council Rock.

I must ask what's the next step. I know we we asked for this is the solicitor. So it's the Williams.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I mean, the next step would be whether or not the body would like to put the special legislation back on the agenda for a vote, I think, because that was where we left it, I believe. I think Councillor Mercer had put a motion, and then in lieu of that motion, the discussion that happened, it was to table it, or it might have even been to pull it off of the agenda, whatever, the previous vote. So... At this point, we'd be on the administrative side just looking for guidance as to whether or not that should go back in front of the body or not.

So, Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to put it back in the agenda for September 22nd for a vote.

There's already a motion on to accept this and place it on file. If the two makers want to pull that, it's up to them. But there's a motion to accept this and place it on file.

We need the motion, Mr. Mayor.

Council Noon, seconded by Council Leung. You want to remove it? Huh? You want to remove your motion to?

No, no, I'm just saying that I'll put a motion on. All right.

Roll call. Council McDonough.

Yes.

Council Murcia. Yes. Council Noon.

Yes.

Council Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke? No. Councilor Scott? No. Councilor Chau? Yes. Councilor Decoto?

No.

What was it? No. No. Mayor Gitche?

Yes.

Councilor Duran?

Yes.

Councilor Liang? No. Seven years passes.

So, Mr. Mayor?

Councilor Rourke?

So the process now in order to get his friends vote back on because that was initially brought to us before the yes. And it was asked to reconsider so should we go back to the agenda for a vote.

It certainly can it would be brought from the manager's office like you did last night. Thank you if the manager wants to bring it back on as a vote he certainly can yeah.

I think Mister friends at least deserves that is that correct solicitor was.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I brought this motion back to get more understanding because, to me, we were voting blindly to send it to the legislature to review it. So I didn't know that much about it. That's why I brought the motion up to get more information. And I did get more information. But if you feel that it should go where it started out, then fine.

i don't have a problem with that i know that would be brought back on the table for in the motion for next time we meet i know mr fernandez is sitting behind you guys and you can't see but he opposes what was said by the chief he is saying that some of the things that were said are not facts He wanted to come back to the mic, but I think at this point it ends up going back and forth, and it would be in the legal system. So in order to bring it back would make sense, and then everyone would have their right to speak.

Right. That's it. That's what I'm trying to say.

Sorry, Mr. Mayor. I was just trying to – I was just worried about your speaking from the podium. But at this point, I think – I don't think there's anything more to say.

No, I agree. And that's all I was doing was just trying to recognize the procedure. we'll go back to the council motions 5.5 council liang request the city manager work with the relevant department to conduct a thorough review and a reassessment to ensure stricter more consistent enforcement of city ordinances on minimum exterior standards section 227-3 this review should focus particularly on Subsection L, M, and N, which addresses overgrowth, commercial industrial property, and vacant lots. Seconded by Councilor Chow, Councilor Liang.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is more of a reminder. And I know that all of us want a safer and cleaner city. So I think this is more of shedding a light on the ordinance already in place. And also a reminder from folks that came here during the summertime. they mentioned to me a few times while driving through our city especially the overgrowth and some sidewalk that's not really cared for in in a way so it's just a reminder I do have some streets but I'm not going to mention businesses or landlords that might need support. But this is more of a reminder for folks that has properties that needed to be taken care of, Merrimack Street, Market Street, Princeton Boulevard, Broadway, Warwick, or Moody Street. These are some of the streets that really need to take a look at and along the Merrimack and the canal also need to take a look into. And it's really important to also focusing on some of these properties that I do know that intention is basically to build affordable housing but at the same time you need to take care of these houses these uh rental properties in our neighborhoods and you can't just build the you know these houses and then um not come back and take care whether it's seasonally or regularly so this is all I'm asking for is to just take a look at it and review it especially some of these streets that I just mentioned about thank you Council Leanne Council McDonough

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I think this is a great motion. And the only thing, in addition to more consistent enforcement, I would also just ask a number of people from the Pawtucket Bill section of District 4 have recently reached out, looking for clarification on intentional non-grass Landscaping I guess I don't know how to phrase this better where they're getting they're getting finder. They're getting warnings about overgrowth and then they're saying that it's actually intentional native pollinator planting and if we could in addition to making sure we're enforcing if we could also get some guidance for home and building owners on you know if we're trying to do this wildflower planting figuring out what that needs to look like so that we're not getting fined because you know maybe you're doing poor maintenance but you think you're doing good maintenance or you're doing good maintenance in the cities not reading it correctly so thank you thank you council mcdonough any other comments on this mr mayor mr man go ahead councillor dakota thank you mr mayor

uh about a week ago counselor lan posted on facebook that he had visited 21 schools and this was something he was concerned about overgrowth in schools i do take exception though to the bailey school that he mentioned in fact uh council liang was a safe fruits coordinator at the Rogers School, and if he failed to mention that we have brand new sidewalks from the Daly to the Bailey School, make sure it's safer for the kids to go to school. And there was no overgrowth from the entrance of the Bailey School to Campbell Drive, so I just wanted to make note of that. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilor Ducotto. Any other comments on the motion? Seeing none, roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Councilor McDonough. Yes. Council Mercia. Yes. Council New. Yes. Council Robinson.

Yes.

Council Rourke.

Yes.

Council Scott. Yes. Council Chow. Yes. Council Ducotto.

Yes.

Mayor Gacchia.

Yes.

Council Duran.

Yes.

Council Lee. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Motion to suspend the rules by Councilor Marcia, seconded by Councilor Duran, to take 6.3 communication out of order. Anyone wishing to speak on that? Roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Councilor McDonough.

Yes.

Councilor Marcia. Yes. Councilor Noon. Yes. Councilor Robinson. Yes. Yes, council rule. Yes, also Scott yes, I'm constant child. Yes, constant code. Oh yes, you may get you. Yes, also during. Yes, constantly a yes.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. 6.3 communication appointment. Let me read the motion first, and then she can come up. Oh, I'm sorry. I have to suspend the rules and then go through a roll call.

We're just one step ahead.

Because we're on Zoom, we have a lot of roll calls. Well, I thought we were Zooming. That's all right. I know. It's just because of the roll calls. Sorry. 6.3 communication appoint Jalyn Ogbede to the Library Board of Trustees. Motion to adopt by Councilor Mercy is seconded by Councilor McDonough. This will be the end.

My name is and I live at 29 Columbus Ave in Lowell. But for 10 years of my life, I lived at 452 Merrimack Street, which is across from the library. And for me, the library is not just a building. It's somewhere where I spent so many summers reading. I've written hundreds of stories and poems. The library is one of my favorite places. And I'm so happy and so excited to have an opportunity to help and be more involved with the library. Thank you.

We are just as excited to have you with that excitement in the building.

Roll call, Mr. Clerk. Councilor McDonough.

Yes.

Councilor Mercier. Yes. Councilor Noon.

Yes.

Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke. Yes. Councilor Scott. Yes. Councilor Chau. Yes. Councilor Decoto.

Yes.

Mayor Gitche.

Yes.

Councilor Duran.

Yes.

Council Lee Yang.

Yes.

Loving it.

Congratulations. Going back to the regular portion of the agenda, 5.6, may I get your request the city manager write a letter of support for Senate Bill number S3064, including strong support of sections 74 and 75 to the joint conference committee, seconded by Councilor Mercier. Do we have anybody ready to speak? There were no registered speakers, so basically the motion speaks for itself. Councilor Juran, then Councilor Rook.

Oh, okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I did want to understand this better because I saw that this is a 166-page bill, which I have not read fully, but it makes changes to a number of existing laws. And the goal is laudable. It says to authorize financing of improvements for climate change, adaptation, resiliency, and things along those lines. And it includes language about potentially, or about setting aside about a million dollars in Lowell for permanent soil remediation along the Merrimack River. Again, I'm paraphrasing. That's the only sort of Lowell-specific piece, but it wasn't in the sections you mentioned. And so the sections you pulled out were about basically eschars, the second generation anticoagulant rodenticides, I believe. So I was just trying to understand sort of why we might be voting to move the whole bill forward when we really haven't read this whole thing yet, or at least I haven't, and maybe that's my fault, but I would suspect I might not be the only.

counselor who hasn't done that thank you councilman council rook uh thank you mr mayor uh yeah i got no problem with the motion um the house version of the same bill does have 4.5 million dollars for laurel earmarks um with i think three million dollars doing patuckerville so if we could add um the h5518 to your motion in section two um no problem supporting it um mr mayor thank you

Motion by Councilor Rourke to amend the motion to add House Bill 5518, seconded by Councilor Mercier.

It's in conference committee right now, so they're both together and hopefully they'll work it out.

Yep. Thank you. Anybody on the motion? Roll call.

Councilor McDonough.

Yes.

Council Mercia. Yes. Council Noon. Yes. Council Robinson.

Yes.

Council Rourke.

Yes.

Council Scott. Yes. Council Chow. Yes. Council Dakota.

Yes.

Mayor Gitche.

Yes.

Council Duran.

Yes.

Council Lien. Yes. 11 years.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Motion passes 5.7. Mayor, get your request. The City Manager will provide the City Council with an update on all heating units, the conditions of the units within all low public school buildings before the end of September. Second. Seconded by Vice Mayor Noon. Vice Mayor, would you come up for the next couple?

Absolutely, sir. Are you speaking on this one?

Are you speaking on this one? Yeah, yeah, I'm going to go speak there. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor Noon. This is just something that came up at the school committee and they asked that I got a nice text from Assistant City Manager Machado outlining that most of the schools have already been checked and they should be able to finish it in the next week or two. So if you just could put that in a report so I can bring it over to the school committee who's asking for these updates, that's all. Thank you, Vice Mayor Noon.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Councilor McDonough?

Yes.

Councilor Marcia? Yes. Councilor Noon?

Yes.

Councilor Robinson?

Yes.

Councilor Rourke?

Yes.

Councilor Scott? Yes. Councilor Chau? Yes. Councilor Decoto? Yes. Mayor Gitche?

Yes.

Councilor Duran?

Yes.

Council Leang. Yes.

Levin Yates. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. The next motion is by Mayor Conchia. Request the city manager provide the city council an outline on hiring process for a fire chief position. Second by Councilor Murcia. Mayor Murcia.

We skipped one.

Second on the motion.

Did we skip one?

That's okay. Yeah, we can come back to it. Again, this is just something through you to the assistant city manager that just looking for an update on where we're going about it, what are we doing. That's all.

Thank you. Thank you. Roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Councilor McDonough.

Yes.

Councilor Marcia. Yes. Councilor Noon. Yes. Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Council Rourke.

Yes.

Council Scott. Yes. Council Chow. Yes. Council Ducotto. Yes. Mayor Gitche. Yes. Council Duran.

Sorry. Sorry. Yes.

Council Lien. Yes.

Thank you Mister clerk 5.8 may get your request the city may have the proper department update the City Council the status of the renovation to the restroom at the cemetery seconded by Council Robinson. Any comments I had.

This is Belinda Duran I had a question about which cemetery we're talking about.

The city owned one up on. Gorm Street.

okay i'm sorry up on boston road boston road it's torn apart counselor currently and it's been yeah no i was just i thought we owned several that's all but i maybe i misunderstood yep council robinson thank you mr mayor yeah this is something that it's been a work in progress for quite some time i know money was allocated there i i don't know what to hold up so i i greatly appreciate you putting this forward looking for an update because uh Especially with the cold weather coming, that place has been a tough, tough work environment for quite some time, and I thought we were going to correct it. I don't know what the holdup is, and I'm looking forward to the report. Thank you.

Councilor Marcia? No, no. And again, they're in porta-potties for the last six months, and people want to see a bathroom up there. That's all.

Roll call. I can attest to that. And I made that motion like three years ago when I used that bathroom and I thought this is a disaster.

And the employees are not very happy right now. Roll call.

Councilor McDonough.

Yes.

Councilor Mercier. Yes. Councilor Noon. Yes. Councilor Robinson. Yes.

Yes.

Council Rourke? Yes. Council Scott? Yes. Council Chau? Yes. Council Decoto? Yes. Mayor Gitche?

Yes.

Council Duran?

Yes.

Council Leigh Yang?

Yes.

Motion passes. 6.1, motion response A. Motion response parking enforcement at schools update. Council Marcia?

That's a great response to this motion. Let the enforcement and oversight begin per the outline of the monthly calendar. That would be great. Thank you. Thank you.

There is a registered speaker, Mr. Mayor. Sandra McNamara.

Good evening, everybody.

Good evening. Good evening. First, I want to start with- Name an address for the record, please.

Senator McNamara, President, Centerville Community Coalition, Williou Street. Would you like my age? No. No. First, I'd like to say I want to thank Mr. Casey, President, I'm sorry, Principal of the Green Elk School. He would have loved to be here tonight, but his son has soccer. Priority. I just want to say about this whole thing about the one way. I did speak to 90% of the residents and We had trialed this once before and it didn't work. So their concern is we do a 60-day trial to see. I think with Mr. Casey being so active and I think just so many more people are on board with the one-way, we're kind of hoping it's going to work this time. But again, trial and error, that's all we can do. So again, I would like to definitely be positively sure the 60 day trial is there just in case it don't work. But I think I want to look at the positive side that with Mr. Casey on board that this is definitely going to be a success. Thank you very much, everybody. Anybody have any other questions? Have a good night. Thanks. Thank you. Councilor McDonough.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you to the administration and the parking director. This is a much better motion response, and I really appreciate the schedule, so thank you.

Thank you, Councilor McDonough. 6.1, motion response B, TOPA. Councilor Liang.

Thank you so much for the, I guess, in-depth response, especially all the different steps and the, I guess, the findings. And what I want to find out is that, is there a way, what happened now, can we do next steps kind of things so that we can actually keep up to date in terms of what's happening and just more than a study that I just wanted to see. It's not like we know there's a problem or could be a problem in the future. Is there a way that we can do toward answering these The question inside the report that's given, just some kind of action step. Is there a plan to do some kind of action step toward the issues that brought up?

CFO Baldwin.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think, Counselor, what is best for us to do in the meantime while the legislation is pending in the House, that legislation would provide communities like Lowell with the teeth needed to really enact or put a program like this together. In the meantime, and I think what DPD is, but I'll let... I'll let Assistant Manager Baez-Rose comment further. What DPD is recommending is to put together a database first in the meantime and to try to collect and analyze the data that we have, go out and get the data that is not centrally located in our city systems first, so that if special legislation is enacted and communities are given this authority, that we'd be able to essentially hit the ground running. Ms. Baez-Rose, I don't know if you have anything to add to that.

Yeah, I think that's right. I think that if we did something like this locally, if Massachusetts passed this and it was an option for Lowell, we see that there are gaps in the data. So it's hard for us to understand how useful it would be in our community today, given the information that we actually have the ability to get our hands on right now. So I think for us, in order to make a recommendation or to bring something to the council to consider in the future, I think we'd have to do a lot more sort of background work to understand if Lowell were to adopt this, what actually would it do? You know, it's not always beneficial to adopt legislation like this if it's actually not going to, you know, there may be three units or something, three buildings in the city that would ever qualify for it. And we just don't know that because we don't have that kind of data available to us. So from our end, I think while the state is doing what they're doing, there's background work that we could do. And then ultimately, it would just allow us to have more data in-house in the city related to the different kinds of housing challenges that people are dealing with. I think we hear that things like this kind of displacement happen. But frankly, there is no data that we have to point to. It's like largely anecdotal, which isn't going to be enough to really make a difference in the future. So I think we've got to get real numbers. And that's something that we could do as a first step while the state kind of works out what they're doing.

Thank you. Thank you so much for that. And, you know, real data is really important, especially I just don't want us to keep hearing noises out there. And we don't have anything to show for. So thank you so much for that.

Thank you, Council Lee and Council Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I guess my only question on it, the data development that you're looking for, how would that be tracked, I guess? How would you know, like, when someone's evicted and it was because a home sale happened that they lost their, like, I guess I just don't see where that's tracked or how it would be.

Yeah, so I mean... it would be probably a collection of a lot of information from a lot of different people. And so I do think that this is like a pretty big undertaking for us to try to do. I think some of it is just trying to understand existing transactions. What is being sold? How many of those buildings were occupied? Working with, we have a lot of nonprofit organizations that work with tenants. There are tenants rights organizations. There are a lot of groups that work with different constituencies. And so I think, frankly, the city's data would be very limited. It would be actually having to ask other people in the community about what they're seeing and what data they have available to them. And then some of that would be sort of on the ground trying to figure out with some of the nonprofit organizations, was it just a transaction? Was it just that the rent rates escalated? Was it that people purchased a building and pushed existing tenants out? So I think there would be quite a lot of work. NMCOG is also starting a regional housing program And this is something that I was hoping to talk to them about if the council wanted us to sort of start down this process to try to figure out kind of what we're seeing at a regional level as well. So, you know, I don't want to downplay it. It's a lot of data and it's a lot of data that we absolutely do not have. So it would be a pretty substantial undertaking for us to try to get our hands around some of the information that we would need to better inform this.

And then just to add on to that, I guess, you know, I think that data would be hard to, you know, to gather or whatever. But then there's also whether or not, I'm curious how many people actually take advantage of being able to purchase property where it's still full market value. So they do have to either, you know, come up obviously with the financing to purchase it or have another, I guess they can assign their rights to another group to purchase it, but it's still the full price is my understanding. So it's just, it's an interesting concept and I look forward to seeing more on it. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Scott. So you know the other questions. We'll move on to 6.1, motion response C, LHA fines. Mayor Gitche. Vice Mayor Noon, if you could take the podium.

Yes.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor Noon. Assistant City Manager Baez-Rose, I thank you for this report. I asked for the trash one and you gave me even a better one because I was being portrayed as targeting a certain group. And you gave me related to tenants reported unsanitary conditions. And all I asked for was trash. So this is even a better report than I ever would have imagined because It clarifies I was never seeking anybody. But in the last five years this report was written, the Lowell Housing Authority was fined once after this council pushed back. And it was at 25 Temple Street, and they received a $300 fine on 12-31-2024. And the report could have simply ended there, but it didn't. It gave us 161 times that our health department had to go over, or our inspectional services department had to go to the housing authority. 161 times and never fined. 161 complaints. which that's amazing to me, that a group of people get called to the same place. In the trash thing, if a person drives down the street, how much money through you, Mr. Vice Mayor, roughly, CFO Baldwin, have we collected in this city in fines and trash? Last year, a couple million? Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, I am happy to pull this information. If I must guess, which I don't like to do, I would say tens of thousands. All right.

Tens of thousands of dollars residents have been fined. The Housing Authority, $300. And I'm picking on the Housing Authority. Can you imagine? If you drove by there one day, And I subscribe to anybody in this city. If you want to drive by and lift a barrel over at the Housing Authority, I surely will tell you that we're going to have major fines that go on, or the trash that was over there. But we have other people in this city who own buildings or own property or property owners who are fined daily by the city. Well, someone doesn't pay property tax. can throw their trash wherever they want, we'll send inspectors over there multiple, multiple times and not find them until the council comes up and says, hey, look, enough is enough. And that's the sad part is if we want a clean city, we should hold up everybody. And the ones who have not paying taxes should be the ones who are held to the highest standards. They should be the ones who are creating a path for people to live in in our city to be a better place. And I thank you again, Ms. Baez-Rose. This is an amazing report because it clarifies I wasn't seeking out anybody. But just justice for the people so everybody is treated equally in our city And we're not being treated equally if you go by you look at some of these people who would they have to live within in? Multiple calls within just small ranges of time to the same resident this isn't a total report of all housing authority properties It's just sad that we can't take care of residents, and they're in fear of calling a our city based off of payback and you hear it all the time and I just think that this report spells out everything if people just read it 36 of the calls out of these 161 that are here are just on Gorham Street that is the place that I get the most calls for and they were blaming you know this whole tent banning stuff but these issues went back way before the tent stuff And then you go over to Chelsea Street, 25% of the calls are at the Chelsea Street Housing Project out of the 161. And is there a cost to our city through you, Mr. Vice Mayor, to the Assistant City Manager Machado? Is there a cost to our city when we send inspectors to LHA property? Assistant City Manager Machado?

Yes.

So that means they can't do restaurant inspections and other stuff because they're out doing what is in another place, right? So there is a cost to this city that we just, not we, but is being swept under the rug when you look at this report. Which to me is eye opening when you start reading it. It is nothing personal with anybody. It's truly about human beings living in conditions that everybody else is held accountable for. And that's all that was asked for. And I think that they've done better in areas with their trash lately. I would kudos to them. When you drive by, everything is picked up recently. But I do not have a problem with the Low Housing Authority. I think that they should be held to the same standards as anybody who owns property within this city or any other resident. Thank you.

thank you mr vice mayor i just wanted to say that i think this this motion response and the previous one um both i i think really emphasize the the need of us as a city to make sure that we are making room and spaces available so that we can listen to to renters that something like 60 percent of the right about 60 percent of lowell residents live in rental housing of one kind or another and just making sure that those residents are equally valued with the minority, frankly, of single-family owner-occupied residences and making sure that we are, as a city, able to address their concerns and their needs and that they have the same quality of life and right to expect both stable housing and clean and sanitary housing. So thank you.

thank you council mcdonough see no other questions we'll move on to motion response d 6.1 motion response d st louis park renovation council robinson thank you very much um i'd like to thank the team at dpd i think everyone's well aware how st louis has been extremely transformative for that section of centerville and i look forward it's it's very encouraging to see that we've already secured additional funding to start ushering in not only the toddler and very little kid playground, also the sustainable component that we've all been discussing. So great report and thank you again on that project. I think it's been well received by the community and I'm looking forward to where it goes.

Thank you, Councilor Robinson. Anyone else on this motion response? Seeing no one, 6.1E, motion to respond, Ladd and Whitney. Mayor Gitche here. Thank you for the report. Do you need my staff, I guess, to help out with this? I could have Erastus try to contact people if there's a need for that, to try to help out. You're all set? Okay. Thank you. Anyone else on this one? Seeing no one, we need a motion to accept 6.1 A through E and place it on file by Councilor McDonough, seconded by Councilor Rourke. Roll call.

Councilor McDonough. Yes. Councilor Mercier. Yes. Councilor Noon.

Yes.

Councilor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilor Rourke.

Yes.

Councilor Scott. Yes. Councilor Chau. Yes. Councilor Decoto.

Yes. Yes.

Mayor Gitche? Yes. Councilor Duran?

Yes.

Councilor Leang? Yes.

11 yes.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Motion response is passed. 6.2, informational report, traffic ordinance amendments. Mr. CFO?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is an informational report summarizing the changes to the ordinance from the transportation engineer. If there's any questions, please feel free to let us know.

Councilor McDonough.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First, thank you. I'm really happy to see the change on Jackson Street coming. The only question, piece of sadness that I have is that I would have really loved, I just want to note that I would have really loved to see Chapel on Elm Street on that four-way stop. I think schedule F. It's okay. It's not there. Maybe next time. Thank you.

All set, Mr. CFO?

Yep.

Moving on to 6.0. I'm sorry. Motion to accept and place on file by Councilor Scott, seconded by Councilor Chau. Roll call.

Councilor McDonough? Yes. Councilor Marcia? Yes. Councilor Noon? Yes. Councilor Robinson?

Yes.

Council Rourke. Yes. Council Scott. Yes. Council Chau. Yes. Council Ducotto.