Borough Council - Regular Meeting

Good. Good to go. Yep. This meeting is called to order in accordance with the open public meetings law in accordance with chapter 231 public laws 1975. Adequate notice of this meeting has provided this meeting of December 15th 15th 2025 was published in the courier news and star ledger and placed on the burrow's website in Bolton board hall. A copy of this notice is available to the public and a copy of the statement shall be included in the minutes of this meeting. Mayor Brian Gallagher here. Council members Terresa Bonner here. Andrew Ki here. Glenn Deny

here. Randy Pitts is excused this evening. Gina Stravik here. Roger Ver here. Please stand for the salute to the flag. 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. Okay. Can I have a motion for approval of the minutes of December 1? So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members. Theresa Bonner. Yes. Andrew Ki. Yes. Glen Deny. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Roger Ferm. Yes.

Okay. Departmental reports and notices. Uh just one notice. We have uh our burrow reorganization meeting uh on January 1st um as per tradition at high noon. Uh and it will be at the Somerville Middle School, 51 West Cliff Street. Use the cafeteria entrance off of the high street side of uh of the middle school. Um let's go into committee reports and we'll start with Andrew. Uh historic advisory committee meets uh this Thursday. Uh we're going to be talking about uh the HVAC systems and improvements going on over at the burough hall. Um, so if you'd like to come out and join us, you're more than welcome uh for now and next year if you're interested in joining. Okay, Gina.

Uh, the Somerville Rescue Squad reports uh 115 calls for November. Uh, so far for December, 48 calls. Um, 64 um, uh, patients transported uh, among the 115 calls. Um, the other thing uh, I learned at their last meeting was that uh, their cadet program is full. So, it's encouraging. Wow. Yeah, that's fantastic.

Um, so, uh, so that's, uh, rescue squad and they have a social coming up, uh, Friday. Um, and new members other than cadets are still being accepted. So, um, uh, get your applications in. Um, the board of health met two weeks ago and, um, the, uh, the health department has sent out reminder warnings to, uh, get your flu shot, um, to be uh, um, careful about COVID and so on. So, um, have a safe holiday. um a healthy holiday. Thank you. Thank you, Glenn.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh excuse me. Environmental Commission did not meet in December, but will return in 2026 right here at the Civic Center Tuesday, January 13th, 7 p.m. And the fire department has been very busy. I you've probably seen them around town in all sorts of different capacity. They had 44 different calls in the month of November, including some outside fire calls, 24 alarms, and seven elevator rescues. And of course, when they weren't busy with those calls, they were uh delivering some holiday cheer all around town with their holiday lights parade that was bigger than better than ever and well growing. Uh I heard that the main street attendance was huge this year and throughout town. Uh the good weather helped as well as well as uh more apparatus than usual. And then uh you've also seen them recently transporting Santa on as early gift run. So we just want to thank the fire department, all the volunteers for everything that they've been doing this holiday season to make it a little bit special here in Somerville. So, it's been great.

Great. Thank you, Teresa.

Thank you. Uh, the public safety committee will be meeting this Thursday at 6 PM here at the Civic Center. Uh, we'll be wrapping up what we've accomplished this year, which has been a lot actually for a new committee, and discussing what we did not get to accomplish this year and see what we're going to be working on next year. Um, since Ry's not here, I will just give a little report on the holiday jubilee that was uh downtown Somerville's annual event with Santa lighting the tree. It was wonderful. It was a beautiful night and um we all had the pleasure of being on stage uh to welcome Santa to light the tree. That's it.

Awesome. Thank you. Roger. Uh I have an update on the uh turkey trot that that occurred on uh Thanksgiving morning. the uh total that was raised for our programs was just under 44,000 this year. Um 24 corporate sponsors and the most participants ever at 1,573. So it was really a banner year. Uh again, as I said at the last meeting, I want to thank uh the volunteers, uh the the commission, uh the sponsors, and and anybody that helped support along the way. Uh again, a tremendous event and to raise almost 44,000 and that goes back to the programs that is tremendous. That is great stuff.

Well done. Good job. Yeah. Um I have only one update and it's just a notification that the uh the bureau has um has authorized uh the administrator to hire special legal counsel for land use uh to take a look at the Cornell Boulevard issue. So, um Kevin will move forward with that. Uh at this point, I will ask for a motion to open the meeting to the public. So, moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members Theresa Bonner. Yes. Andrew Ki. Yes. Glendy. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes. Public portion is now open. Hearing none. I'll ask a motion to close.

So move. Second discussion. Roll call. Council members. Theresa Bonner. Yes. Andrew Ki. Yes. Leniny. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verum. Yes. Okay. Um, we have consent items on the consent agenda. Any to be pulled off for further discussion?

All right. Hearing none, I will go through. 330 is cancelling open capital balances. 331 authorizing change order number one in the amount of $10,98 to the contract with RGM landscape and design for grass cutting and lawn maintenance. Two. 332 is approving scorekeeper at a rate of $18 per game for the recreation department from January 9 to February 28th. 333 is authorizing closeout final payment in the amount of $12,16323 for contract with SNL contractors for the North North Auton Avenue reconstruction and drainage improvements project 334 is authorizing and and directing the planning board of the Burough of Somerville to examine whether block 69 lots lot numbers as shown on the official tax map of the burrow should be determined to be an area in need of redevelopment specifically a non-condemnation redevelopment area pursuant to the local redevelopment ment and housing law. 335 is authorizing transfer of funds to fund certain line items in the 25 budget. 336 is amending the 25 holiday schedule to change the observed holiday from December 24 to December 26. 337 is affirming board appointments to the downtown Somerville Alliance. 338 approving a performance bond release request for Avalon Bay communities for application CHA project as noted phase one and phase two. Uh do we have a motion? So move.

Second. Roll call. Council members Theresa Bonner. Yes. Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glen Deny. Yes. Gina Travoc. Yes. Roger Verum. Yes. All right. Bills and vouchers. Roger. I make a motion to pay bills and vouchers in the amount of 1,160,746.39.

Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members. Theresa Bonner. Yes. Andrew Ky. Yes. Glendiny. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Baja Ver. All right. And before I ask for a motion for adjournment, I would just like to wish all of my fellow council members a uh a very merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, and a healthy and happy new year to all. Thank you for all of your hard work over the course of this past year. We had some uh big issues and uh more on the horizon. So, thank you for your hard work. Um and uh and and with that, I will ask Teresa motion for adjournment. I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn.

Second discussion. All in favor? I opposed.