City Council

call the Monday March 3rd 2025 city council meeting to order Mr clerk please call the role Council Ash Council Campbell pres Council dine pres Council deona pres Council Harris Council leang pres Council McCarthy Council mitten president Kane pres thank you uh please stand with me if you're able for a moment of silence please use this moment as you will please turn to the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mr clerk please read the open meeting law pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledge imp permissible thank you Mr clerk first item on the agenda first item on the agenda is the FEMA Map update thank you tonight we have uh commissioner of the Department of Public Works Al grazioso to introduce this presentation good evening Mr President City councilors uh tonight we'll be presenting on the updated FEMA flood insurance maps with me this evening to give the presentation will be Joe Shay from granted City Partners the city council has adopted updated FEMA blood Maps every 5 to 6 years the last update was in 2017 however our engineering staff works on these weekly ensuring that femur is aware of quin's infrastructure improvements which is Paramount to having accurate flood maps as we learned in 2014 FEMA can easily issue very inaccurate Maps city engineer Paul Costello Contin to lead various flood inundation modeling efforts for the city and our engineer Chen sang has been the liaison to femur and the US Geological Survey on quarterly and annual reporting this has led to Accurate maps and savings for our citizens that have to pay for flood insurance the city council has funded numerous flood protection in initiatives in storm water system improvements from seaw walls to pumping stations to outfalls into tide gate repairs they all lead to benefits for our residents and when properly modeled by femur they lead to Accurate flood insurance Maps so at this time I would like to turn this over to Joe Shay from grite City parties good evening councilors thank you for having me Mr President I'm Joseph Daniel Shay with Granite City Partners it's a pleasure to see you again on a topic that uh I've worked on now for almost 20 years with the city of quinsey and uh I'm quite happy to be back with what I believe is a continuation of the good news story relative to the city's efforts on FEMA flood maps and doing their best for accurate maps and as reasonable flood insurance costs as the city can provide uh when we get involved with FEMA or any federal agency there's a lot of alphabet soup so this evening as I go through a number of programs I will do my best to to call out the long names of the programs but feel free to to flag me if I gloss over anything I realize as the commissioner had said we talk about this uh monthly if not weekly but the council gets updates annually um so bear with me and again feel free to flag me if there's any moments that uh I pass over items so quiny participates in the National flood insurance program it's a federal program that includes 23,000 communities within the United States and it is the structure that the federal government uses to establish a flood insurance policy and curriculum should be fairly obvious why we participate quin's got a lot of water bodies we're a Coastal Community we've got Brooks Rivers streams inlets marshes and all of these elements are incredibly important not only for Habitat for recreation for the things that we typically talk about when we think about a Coastal Community but they're also part of your flood Protection Systems to get the water out of the streets out of the basements out of the neighborhoods and store it in the locations where it doesn't impact our constituency the national flood insurance program was created in 1977 quinsey was one of the earlier adopters in the 80s um and quinsey has received many map updates as the commissioner had indicated uh typically every 5 to seven years FEMA will update the maps between the early 80s and 2012 those map updates were very very minor three houses in two streets out very minor however everyone realized that in 2014 FEMA changed their methodology they used new modeling and they significantly significantly expanded the flood zone adding in thousands of properties in the city of quinsey into the flood zone meaning thousands of property owners now had to pay for flood insurance that they previously didn't need to pay for we also knew at the time that these neighborhoods don't flood we know where we flood we do have flooding challenges in various locations in the city we knew the maps were incorrect so through a progression of incremental amendments incremental revisions between 2014 and 2017 we finally felt that we reached a map that was accurate the 2017 FEMA flood maps well we've now come full circle since 201 17 and new preliminary maps have been issued they will become effective on July 8th 2025 with this body's approval it's considered the new update uh there will be an advertisement round there will be a community meeting uh that quiny is going to host but new maps are coming in parallel with doing all of the mapw that was on the previous slide as many of you know the city of quinsey through your policies and your funding support have made programmatic improvements um since I've been at the podium since the rainstorms of March 2010 that many of you may remember back-to-back 100-year storms crushed us on Inland quinsey we've done a whole host of projects that the commissioner alluded to um the picture on this slide is the new and enhanced strand storm water pumping station along the Strand behind the former Beach comr um the city has continued to programmatically do seaw wall repairs drainage repairs outfall repairs tidde gate repairs Pump Station repairs uh and understanding where the commissioner wants to continue to take the program will'll continue to be as aggressive as we can be with seaw walls and storm water management some of the ite other items that get less Fanfare but really are of great assistance um as we made a lot of technological advancements with the c City's inundation modeling and the city's geographic information system program and uh I'm going to talk a little bit about that we've had some ordinance updates with respect to some of the approvals of ordinances this body put in place regarding management of construction sites which if not properly managed can clog up storm drain systems and then cause a flood we also have done a significant amount of work in intermunicipal data sharing between Milton and brry because if the brry dam lets go that impacts quiny if they don't hold water back in the reservoir that's behind the sore Plaza that impacts us significantly if we're having a problem in West quiny the town of Milton can be impacted significantly in East Milton Square so the water doesn't care where the city boundaries are so our interaction with the neighboring communities has also been tremendously helpful through those programs the quiny has had significant results as I indicated in 2017 the quote corrected Maps had eight formal map revisions where whole neighborhoods were corrected and had over 500 individual houses removed from the flood map or removed from the requirement to BU flood insurance and that's called a letter of map Amendment and we've had multi-year coordination every year since 2014 and 2017 to make sure that the maps continue to be preserved that the advancements continue to be understood by FEMA and that the methodology does not change unknowingly as happened in 2014 and I'm very proud to say that those positive results continue the new maps that we've been presented with for 2025 have no backsliding on any of our previous revisions those new maps are in my opinion properly modeled for quin's Deep Rock Tunnel this is a very important piece of infrastructure that in previous Maps we feel FEMA didn't properly qualify the flooding benefits of quin's Deep Rock Tunnel there has been proper modeling of the quinsey Center Street flood relief system it starts down uh by BJs and takes water out of the whole Brook Road neighborhood routing it directly to the Deep Rock Tunnel and the result of that is 300 more individual houses will be removed when these flood planes go into effect that means 300 more of our residents who are obligated to pay flood insurance if they have a mortgage no longer need to buy that flood insurance policy they may choose to if you do not live in the flood plane but you choose to have a flood insurance policy you certainly may buy that flood insurance policy it is significantly cheaper than if you live in the flood plane um but we often hear from people saying I can't buy flood insurance I don't live in the flood plane that is not correct some people may choose to buy flood insurance um because they wish to protect their houses it'll be significantly cheaper if they're out of the flood plane one item that I hit on which was the largest change from 2017 in all of the map revisions to now is that behind Star Market in quinsey square there's a graphic of it here uh the roadway going from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen is Bergen Parkway and School Street goes from the bottom of the screen from left to right but behind Star Market there is a very important piece of infrastructure just hidden there sometimes when we're going down Bergen Parkway as soon as you pass underneath School Street you look to your left you a small little rooftop with a hatch on it that's the location this piece of infrastructure takes overflow from water entering quiny from brry at BJs and water that has gone all the way through Brook Road and Water Street and it routes it through a deep rock tunnel under quiny Center and out right behind our skateboard park in the area between Pawn Street and bracket Street this piece of infrastructure we felt thema had never properly modeled looking at their technical data really get very down in the weeds to make them understand how this system worked but even empirically we knew it may not be correct because they were convinced neighborhoods flood they never flooded we know where we flood we know what floods so I'm proud to say that the modeling change around this Deep Rock Tunnel has now removed in this neighborhood it's about 200 houses this is mostly Ward four um but this is a sampling of some of the streets the Brook Road Water Street area as of March 8th 2025 will no longer be required to have flood insurance they will be out of the map so this is not all of the streets um but for those looking at the map uh in the AR these are the houses under the orange so it basically starts at the bottom of the screen at the quiny Adams te station and the Deco building continues up through Penn Street continues to water in Brook Street and then branches over to the left towards Brewer's Corner this water now gets routed or always has been routed through the Deep Rock Tunnel uh now it is properly modeled this is just one neighborhood that has been removed we have in almost every Ward we have some other one house two houses three houses removed um the at home viewers may be wondering how they can check uh on the city's website if you go right to the first page on the city's website and you select the business tab just to the right of the city seal underneath that tab there is a choice called the city's GIS property viewer when you click on that property viewer a technology screen again called geographical information system pops up where you can enter in your address into a screen where you'll see the whole city when you enter your address it will zoom in onto your house and you can select under the tab called themes choices you can you can actually check what Ward am I in what infrastructure is near my house what voting Precinct am I as a civil engineer I'm also happy you can check where am I in the 2017 flood maps or the 20 25 flood maps when you enter your name in and you select these themes you will get a map of very high resolution such as this map I use this map as an example this is beloo Street in West quinsey this was a topic of discussion uh in the council chambers for many years why does beloo Street flood on the left are the current maps and even if you can't see the granularity of the houses you can see how wide the flood plane is in the current maps on the right is the new and correct Maps we've narrowed the flood plane significantly so all of those houses that are under the blue on the left but not under the blue on the right will no longer required to pay flood insurance now we battled for this for a while because we know houses on senica and Wallace don't flood and we do know some houses on Baloo flood and they are now accurately mapped and we know this because when we have a major flood we go to these neighborhoods we drive them we figure it out we catalog it and all that data gets rolled into our reports back to FEMA so for those at home who pay flood insurance and are around the edges we' encourage them to go to the city's website you can selfs serve um with respect to seeing if you are in the flood plane in the new maps again if you stay in the flood plane in the new map it doesn't mean that we have failed you it means that in in our I'll say in my opinion put the commissioner on the hook in my opinion as a professional engineer you do have a risk of flooding and flood insurance is probably a good consideration for you um so that is the the update on the maps um from where we go from here um near-term actions is get the word out to constituents right this is a although I I feel like I'm explaining it simply it is a confusing matter right mon managing the tech technology understanding what the different themes mean can be challenging um but get the word out so that people can do their own homework so that before July 8th 2025 they will know if they're currently paying a couple extra hundred a month and a couple, a year in flood insurance but they know they don't flood they will be authorized to cancel that policy after June 8th 2025 our ask of this body is the way that you actually adopt the maps is that you adopt a modification to the zoning code 8.1 which is the city's flood plane overlay District ordinance the new maps will be listed in that modified flood plane overlay District ordinance um there will be a advertisement requirement associated with any ordinance change so uh we'd ask that this be uh moved for advertisement and if appropriate moved into ordinance committee so when we get to the next item on the on the agenda really is tied to this presentation and for long-term items quiny is doing great um I would say continue the programmatic approach to modif to addressing the fact that we're coastal city the fact that we have some very important key Brooks that are part of our storm water management system that we must manage construction appropriately so that we are continuing to allow storm water to flow into storm water basins and not basement and we continue to coordinate with our neighboring communities one last note um that I always want to add is separate from the flood maps quinsey participates in FEMA's Community rating system this is a separate program run by FEMA where communities that are very proactive in managing their flooding communicating with constituents about flooding implementing best management practices associated with flood management are given a score and if that score achieves a certain um rate quin's flood rate payers save money I'm very proud to say quinsey is the top ranked city in Massachusetts with respect to your score you save your constituents 15% on their flood insurance bill right off the top there's no other City greater the only two communities weham and sandwich get 20% nobody is saving more than 20% so quinsey is really Best in Class um with respect to the way we approach our flood insurance rating system what that actually means is right now you have about 3,500 flood insurance rate payers you save them $530,000 you can do that math quick that's it's real money um spread across each and every rate payer and you get that credit because you are proactive because you are well-managed I do want to give kudos to city engineer Paul Costello and to engineer Chen sang who really stay on this program so that the constituents even the ones who are at the seaw wall or in the flood plane get a benefit that the city can provide for them by being well-run well organized and well-managed um with that I'd be happy to take any questions that the councilors may have thank you thank you Joe uh president recognizes councelor Campbell thank you Joe this is great Al thank you so much for this um I I just had a couple quick questions so the uh FEMA coming in um obviously it it's fluctuated and changed and um with all of the weather in the world right now um or even the East Coast you you see how it's all growing and getting it seemingly um everywhere you look is these um natural events um Can FEMA come in and challenge what what our discoveries are is that something that we're we're sure we're covered on and and this is something that we're able to really feel strongly about that Fe is not going to come in and say no you didn't meet this requirement and and there's a change that needs to be made to to the map at s um great question so these maps have now been settled with FEMA the maps as posted will not change um so they will not contest our position uh we do have significant number of meetings with them uh to get to these Maps so uh for example this body has approved and we have completed the Adam Shore seaw wall project Ward 1 2021 the benefits of that project are not on these Maps because FEMA has not authorized that yet so um the uh the technical interaction you're speaking of has happened in the past MH and we fully expect in five or six years when the atam shore seaw wall is approved by FEMA and hopefully at that point the man at AV seaw wall is either well underway or completed there'll be even additional benefits but what you see on the screens and on the city's GIS system is the negotiated map settlement for the next period would be five or six years okay so that's was my next question was it's usually five or six years when they review it or is there are events that happen or is it just when it's time it's time is um when it's time that we when FEMA starts the process which they started actually four years ago M we've worked our way to coming to this conclusion today I'm sorry I may not have answered your question con no you didn't no that that that's good um so in the unlikely event people aren't riveted by the at their TV right now watching um and you know the Outreach that the councils will do uh will all do to to reach out um will they be notified will will the houses and the in the neighborhoods and the people be notified um by mail or is it just they need to check the website and um no we have the ability through the gis system to notify the people who are out by mail by mail so that would come from the commissioner's office yes um so we have that ability uh what can be our challenge um from time to time is we may notify whether we notify tenants not owners or owners not tenants um we also are often challenged with condominium associations believe it or not if uh along SE Street uh if you're in a condominium along SE Street and you live on the top floor you still may be obligated to buy flood insurance based upon your homeowners association because the elevator and other common area entities are in the flood plane so I'm not confident we can get to everybody who pays flood insurance I'm confident we can get to the ones that are obvious uh from the mapping so we do want to make sure we get the information out there and in the the gis website right now it's it's live updated real time was live and updated real time those who've turned away from their screen at home or now on their PC looking looking it up all right perfect thank you thank you scamell president recognizes Council McCarthy thank you Mr President good evening Joseph good evening councel uh first I want to also kudos to you know yourself and Al but Paul and Chen they do have to stay on top of it I mean this these are things that you know don't get all the glory and behind the scenes uh you know you're saving over half a million dollars I think if I look at that number right in the back uh which is sign significant so uh thank you very much Joe just a couple of uh questions um I'm on the the page with the The Strand with the The Pump House MH uh I know that one's brand new did we put any other brand new ones in because I I knew we were talking about other pump houses down the road in regards to the post Island area Etc but I didn't know if that was the only one or what the plan was going forward so this is our this is not our newest Pump Station um our newest storm water pump station is on the end of Broad Street feeling a little Ward one Centric at the moment but um at the end of Broad Street there is a pump station that drains all of the excess water from Southern Artery Russell Park Windmere um it's designed to keep the water in the wetlands between the high school and Faxon field but it will drain the extra water um that could inundate those neighborhoods um the um the post Island concept for a pump station many years ago is still being truthed out with respect to the way the wall was constructed and the benefits of the manad AV seaw wall um one benefit of the way how FEMA moves so slowly is we do have time to test our completed projects right um and you know one way to look at it is we are in a testing period of associated with the Adams Shore seaw wall yeah and and I know that seaw wall has been you know dramatic changes in regards to flooding on SE Street the drainage the alall pipes uh the number of new ones we put in it it's worked very well um but I was just uh wanted to get an idea on that if that was simmering somewhere um it's great that um we end up with these positive results you usually you know I I I don't have any uh um faith in FEMA going this way usually going the other way but when you look at that blue Street example of the flood plane in Ward 4 that now is so narrow that's significant and that's great for the residents uh in in that area um the the quiny Deep Rock Tunnel you talked about um mentioned a little bit about remodeling mhm uh can you speak to that a little bit more is are we going to is that going to be a big project is that we're doing it over uh uh actually thank you for asking that question I probably was unclear when I said remodeling I meant hydraulic modeling on paper with computer software systems very exciting to me okay but not remodeling such as remodeling a building or a living room or remodeling the Great Hall um so it's it's I don't want to get technical but it's about the input put and output parameters of a hydrologic and hydraulic model and I said so what we have there physically is up to speed it is okay it is it's well-maintained um they just had the the inputs and outputs incorrect in the previous maps in in our opinion we were finally able to convince them of that and I don't know if this is a question for you or the commissioner just as we stay on that we know how you know that dictates the flow all the way under quiny and all the way down to pawn street but that Bigalow Street area is there any I I know we're we're doing some um development down there and Etc I know it came up during one of my community meetings about a new development that's going in by the nursing home is was there any talk about any redesign with the Brooke uh in regards down there because there was talk and I don't know if it was uh just a thought uh or it was U more than a thought was the land that's next to the old tile City you know when it gets to down in Bigalow Street it kind of jets out uh you know the path of the of the brook and and there was talk of possibly going straight across and and making it a little wider and a little deeper to to to capture more capacity during during a big uh a big storm uh you know or you know when we have a you know high tide everything all the elements are alined up correctly but I didn't know if if if that was out there at all that is absolutely out there um what the council is referring to is there is a a um design and some more hydraulic modeling on paper to widen Town Brook from Miller Styles road all the way to Elm Street yeah so on underneath Bigalow um effectively underneath Bagnell Auto Supply uh very sharp Bend at Elm Street and bracket where it then Daylights to the the large Marsh um behind the town Brook housee um that concept still exists to the point where DPW and planning use it as a reference uh so in the current Redevelopment of what we think of as quinsey Nursing and Rehab which is 5 to 11 McGrath Highway the new Redevelopment is built in a way where the expansion of that Brook will is not limited they built their their design was approved factoring in that if someday the city needs to widen that Brook on the backside of their property or on Bigalow Street we are not prevented from doing that the same philosophy would would apply if somebody ever wanted to move into Bagnell Auto Supply and expand that I think that's a that's a great corner for something nice and quiny but we would make sure that they don't prevent us from widening Town Brook in that section because we know over time eventually that project will need to be done potentially a Redevelopment partner would join with us in a public private partnership uh where they widen a portion on their property and we widen other portions that would assist Miller style Road um Miller style Road um from the pocket park on Mechanic Street yeah and Bigalow um which again from time to time still do back up and flood the brook is very narrow through there no it's all it's all great news Joe uh and thanks for the hard work and um like I said I always I never have faith we're going to you know once they once they got us with these flood MPS to go the other way is is again kudos to the to Al staff To You Paul Chen so thank you very much thank you Council thank you Council McCarthy recognizes councelor Harris thank you um Joe always a pleasure I mean your hard work and um I I just have to say thank you um this is this is very encouraging um your work and the dpw's team uh especially led by uh a BOS go guy by the name of Paul Castello Don Bosco bear um class of 79 so I'm showing My Age Again um but so much great work such as this in this city gets really really overlooked because of other smoke and mirror issues that get thrown into the into the mix this really hits home with people it really makes a real difference when it costs it when it when it um helps especially the cost of flood insurance with folks that really don't need it or their rates can go down because they've been paying so much the same thing it's all all one and the same and I can't thank is all enough Al your team Joe your team top notch um but I'm going to be reaching out to you folks to assist me as you had mentioned about um getting the message out to the constituents and that has to be consistent so uh and really I'd really like to get it out as soon as we can because of course I know that I have to I you know me and my wife were you know she just texted me and I sent to something we we are we're paying uh this is just a you know personal note we're paying um a high rate of for for insurance because of you know living in squantum and I see this map and I'm I'm I'm really I'm really would love a a really better I I can look it look it up but when you see it you know you know uh Council McCarthy's area everybody's area right along the beach Council mitt um it it is it's all it's a lot blue so it's it's great to see some white there and if we can get that people to get uh a few more dollars in their pocket that they don't have to spend we need to get that message out as you just said and and my intention is to get that out at ASAP over the next few days if I could um and again uh I just got to say thank you again and uh uh it's always a pleasure thank you thank you counk thank you Council Harris president recognizes councelor Ash thank you Mr President um thank you Mr Shay for the presentation um some interesting uh points and it's seems like we're on the um it maybe ahead of the curve on some of this so that's that's great and thank you for the the debrief um on the issues I did uh councelor McCarthy hosted a community meeting on 11 McGrath Highway I know that the um 5 to1 McGrath I know that the proposal uh as planned anyway and and as we s heard from constituents all a lot of their questions were surrounding the flooding on Bigalow of Miller style and I know that most of those residents left that meeting feeling optimistic about the plans and that they thought this these plans are a step in the right direction with with the brook with any of the potential flooding and for that area um in general not withstanding you know some of the the traffic concerns so that was great um and thank you for touching on on that as a part of this I had a couple of um just just to clarify some minor questions um so we have on slide seven you uh this presentation says 300 more individual houses will be removed from the flood plane from the flood plane are there any homes being added um there are there are maybe a half a dozen homes being added as one-offs um sprinkled around the city I think they were two on furnis Brook Parkway um I can get the list okay um but that you know the addition of homes which we also feel is correct um is really di Minimus compared to the removal of the of whole neighborhoods but there are maybe um a half a dozen being added okay um and the so the onus seems to be on the property owner to contact their insurance company after the red tape is that correct um actually the way so yes the way that we normally see it happen um is mortgage companies monitor this very very closely and mortgage companies notify the people with whom they have a mortgage when they've been moved into the flood plane um many people there's a little confusion at times that people feel if if they think if they live in the flood plane therefore they must have flood insurance but that's actually a misunderstanding if it's the mortgage companies that require you to buy flood insurance if you own your property outright right good forew that that's a wonderful thing you can choose whether you want to have flood insurance or not it's your own choice but if you get a mortgage with a company and you live in the flood plane the mortgage company requires it so it's actually the mortgage companies that drive the requirement for flood insurance so mortgage companies monitor this very closely um and they'll most likely hear from their mortgage compy um almost immediately if they're being added or if they're being I think I know the answer to this one but if they're being added or if they're being removed if they're being added they certainly are going to hear immediately okay um if they're being removed we would hope they will hear relatively early in the process that this is no longer required okay but it would be suggested that of course they confirm they absolutely can be proactive great thank you thank you councelor Ash president recognizes Council Deon thank you Mr President uh Joe Al thank you for coming in with your presentation tonight good to hear the other counselors um I remember back in 2016 2017 when they did the re revised provisions of this it was mass hysteria in the city of quinsey a lot of people that had never been in the flood zone before were put into the flood zone and they were coming up to these workshops throughout the city of quinsey um here in the in here in City Hall and and all these different places talking about I've been I've never been in the flood zone I've lived in my house for 30 to 40 years how did this happen um I remember attending these and it was it was a Hot Topic back when I was first elected and uh we went to these workshops and we had to get him revised again I guess um it's good to hear some good news today and we've done a lot of flood mitigation over the years um whether it be in the form of seaw walls um chicka Tobit all the way down to the neck um or whether it be pumping stations um we've done a lot of extensive work obviously in Ward 4 um um prior to council Divine we had capoun pami that did a lot of work so we've done a lot over this term of time um you know he talked about it brought up FEMA um you know I know the hurricanes have come through you you had the Sandy you had the Harvey had prior to that you had Katrina so they they had to produce some type of funding um at some point and if you go into some untapped areas I I can understand so we we did a really good job back then and I it's good to see where we've evolved into today in 2025 um and I I thank thank you and Allan and your team for this this type of work because the city of quinsey with 26 miles of Coastline we obviously have a lot of water that we we border here so um I remember before some years ago folks were um you know the policy is quite you know they never had a policy before as you said um if you own your your house outright or you own your property outright you don't have to necessarily get the flood insurance where these mortgage companies or these lenders will make you go get the flood insurance um to qualify for the for the loan I guess I could say and that's where a lot of folks were scrambling around um or paying down their mortgage to get out of that that that situation do you foresee any surprises here in 2025 when this comes out is it May May 1st 2025 is that or July July 8th July 8th do you foresee any surprises with folks that have never been in the flood zone before are in the flood zone um I don't really the again maybe the half a dozen or dozen houses which it in the normal course of correcting the maps um when we correct the maps we're not just looking to remove people if they are incorrect and a house should be in because blood insurance is probably the best choice for that house they would be put back in so yeah for for a small handful of people um the flood maps are correct that means they're now in we really do focus our attention on getting them correct for the people who are needlessly paying for flood insurance as opposed for the people who are uh are fortunate to slip past the flood insurance goalie so to speak you talked a little bit about the Adam Shore seaw wall and the man atav seaw wall M when will those go into effect because we've done an extensive amount of we've I mean how much money of millions upon millions of dollars that we've spent on mitigation and helping folks um correct the flood situation that we had in 2018 where we had uh you know flooding uh an island of in hous neck at at some point um when do those come online we we've done we've spent $18 million on the on the entire project so we have um two potential options um the longer term option is once the Manet AB seaw wall is completed I'm going to say order magnitude let's say that's four to five years away although councelor McCarthy and mayor kooch would like it faster um then the models would be updated inclusive of the two walls together because they do act as a single flood protection barrier right many of us have driven down Sea Street we've gotten to the house neck Rock and seen how the wall steps down and thought maybe this is me I'm an engineer but thought well isn't the ocean just going to flow around that edge and it will until the manad AV seaw wall is built um but in the interim a uh we were unsuccessful to councelor Campbell's point in getting them to implement the include the atom Shore seaw wall this round we could try to do a letter of map revision okay between now and the next maps to see if they would adopt the incremental benefit it won't be the full benefit of the wall because the atam shore seaw and the manad seaw wall do need to work in concert they need to work together um otherwise the water is just coming down Manet and Badcock and we're going to lose Sea Street anyways we we talked a little bit about outfall piping and all these other the mechanisms that we did in the mitigation process um do they take into consideration the start of it maybe the chickatabot side where they've already already formed that seaw wall is that is that in the in the in this and in this case they did not they did not that's we that was our position is that there's no unquestionably there are current results from the atam shore seaw wall unquestionable um but they in this specific round of maps they did not include that benefit really that's honestly what we're working on for the next round the next round when do you P when do you foresee that if if we waited until um normally they do them on again a 5 to 7e cycle um but if the manav seaw wall is completed faster that's when we would go in for an interim revision what's called a letter of map revision okay um in the interim okay okay that makes sense okay I just we've done a lot here in quiny we really have we've we've done our I think I could say we've done our part I I guess I could say you know what 2018 rolled around and March and we had a lot of flooding here U with the help of Governor Baker and um here in Queen with all our elected officials I remember being out there with the mayor with um Council mccy going down these streets especially post Island Road which was um was devastating and if a lot of people lost their houses so what we've done up to today has been an unbelievable amount so thank you thank you councelor thank you Mr President thank you councelor donon president recognizes councelor Minton Joe and wson center the CVS parking lot that seems the flood a lot and it seems to have a bearing on future building any update on that um yes there uh in the walliston urban renewal plan that this body adopted um in the last session there is a concept for a storm water pumping station to be placed in walliston so the the puddle that's been in the parking lot behind CVS and Wally wine for my entire life um we all know it we know it well um that is below high tide in many tide occurrences so it may be hard to to map as the tide comes up all the way down at the ocean that you're actually below the high tide line um so a pumping station concept was developed uh was brought forward to the state the state uh agreed that in the future a pumping station to pump the water maybe down will it probably not down Beach or any of the Elms but maybe down through the Willet neighborhood to you have to pump that water out because with the tide being up it's never going to actually flow out uh we are now in discussions that we feel that the pump station may be better suited in the MBTA parking lot put in a large chamber to store water in the MBTA parking lot um although that would free up space behind CVS uh Wally wine uh the Enterprise rent a car for the purposes of some sort of benefit icial Redevelopment um working with the MBTA is also a very slow process uh so the T parking lot in my opinion is when you balance Redevelopment with hydrology is the right location it connects us with a partner that's that is um slow and methodical in the way that they approach these things but there is a concept in place very similar to the Bigalow Street concept the planning department and I'll pick on Joe King who's here tonight the planning department is aware and we will really Endeavor to ensure that any Redevelopment that happens doesn't thwart our ability to have a pumping station and public infrastructure to benefit all of the walliston village uh regardless of where the pump station itself finally ends up right thank you you're welcome thank you Council Minon president recognizes Council McCarthy thank you Mr President a Joe just on and I know this isn't a minute sea wall meeting but uh just FYI to my colleagues especially Council Deon and councelor Campbell who lived down here um we've started borings I'll let you speak to it Joe on what we're doing right now or Al and um and where we're headed with that which is hopefully sooner than later so um we have um made a lot of progress on the manav sea wall it's probably 25% design um we hope to have the final design done in this year um we've received some um initial grant money from femur I believe it's $3 million uh this body voted some matching money for that um so we're we're moving along we have high tetratech engineering firm um so I think in the next probably six months we'll have a pretty good plan moving forward for that so we we're looking at you know obviously the the manav the lower portion of manav is a critical area but also the brinsley area down that end those people really get hit hard so we're trying to focus on the on those those areas mostly and we're looking at different options and obviously trying to come up with um what the cost may be but it is uh we're moving forward yeah and as the commissioner says brinsley orans this is an area that if you're familiar with manad AV it it elevates uh you know most of the way up until you get to sgo uh and then uh that which is cut through street over to Babcock but then it plummets down and there's houses that are that are literally right on the seaw wall down below and that's that area that the commissioner is talking about and it really uh uh it's hard to defend but it it needs a critical area yeah thank you thanks thanks Council Mardy thank you president recognizes councelor leang thank you um just a quick question for the um information that's going to be going on to Residents so I know the website is already available to be translated so I'm not concerned about that but the notices that will be going out to Residents I always like to ask and just make sure that they will be going out in multiple languages correct um they will absolutely be translated one of the wonderful benefits of uh the great technical work of working with Chen sang from DPW is he also does our translations he meets a lot of people at the counter he's a tremendous resource great um so they will be translated as well yes okay sounds good I know that we um I know the mayor had funded now for the last five years I believe um monies and resources available specifically for translation services and so if your staff member is you know busy doing other work that he should be doing and not necessarily with the translation services I know that we have that resource available that the mayor provided so if we could tap into that please feel free to do so but great just wanted to make sure thank you thank you Mr President thank you counselor thank you very much for the presentation I know uh the majority of this work was done uh prior to actually probably all of us joining um give me okay now I've started so give me just a second um but it's great to know that good positive work continues to happen in the background uh so I appreciate the update I'm sure the public does too thank you Mr President recognizes councelor Divine and thank you very much uh thank you uh Joe Shay for coming in and uh commissioner grazioso appreciate all your efforts uh just a a light colle uh correction is uh beloo is actually in ward 3 now uh it's kind of confusing for a lot of people uh even the residents they still don't know sometimes they think they're in Ward for uh but La year ago or last August it changed that's not really that important but I just wanted to throw it out there and start letting people start figure it out we'll be sure to credit the ward 3 counselor with this success huh we'll credit the ward 3 counselor with this success yeah it'll be good for him uh so uh speaking of town Brook and the possible expansion it sounds great because um I know people don't recognize it but just because we're not on the water in Ward 4 we actually have seven of the 11 watersheds that uh quinsey has which a watershed is which the water moves to an area and it it funnels it like a ski a ski area right into Ward for I think five are going to fernis Brook and two going to town Brook uh in front of Joe's market we get some flooding uh I know that the substantial U construction going on there the part of the mitigation was that they were to repair some of those drain pipes uh I know that they started working on it have they completed uh what is it two 14in pipes or something that they put in uh I'm unaware if they've completed that but that is correct as part of the Avalon redevelop there were off-site drainage improvements yeah to be done on Center Street and Brook Road uh that's one piece of a chain of pipes that go all the way through Kincade Park to Water Street and out yeah so if we could have a developer who not only pays into the II rehab fund but but fixes one or two links in a chain that's causing flooding that certainly is a great benefit right for us as a city CU it is a tough spot right there um and and then uh the work we did on uh Furnace Brook over by um behind St Mary's Church will that future like let's say in 5 years we'll know if it helped at all will that change possibly the flood map for some of those people I believe that it will yes that's actually another great example I know we focused on seaw walls um but the long-term operation of that Spillway it's a technical term for FEMA that we created but to hold the water behind St Mary's Cemetery on furnis Brook Parkway rather than letting it zip right to Al road yeah um over time I do hope we'll be able to prove the the full benefit of that project and narrow the flood plane elsewhere because we're holding expand the flood plane in that section and narrow it elsewhere by holding the water um in that area it's a large area to hold water it uh it also seems to slow the water down I've watched I go there um during after some of major rainstorms and uh it's pretty impressive if you look proud of it the water's high and running very fast and then as soon as it goes under the little bridge at um the road into the cemetery it slows down and it starts to uh spread out which is was the idea and uh it seems to be working but I do have a bunch of neighbors and constituents that literally their house might only have like uh 4T of their property in the flood zone yet they they still have to pay so I'm hoping that uh in four or 5 years maybe uh we might be able to adjust that 4 feet you know um actually may may I may I speak to that yes please would encourage anybody who the flood plane touches your property but not your house reach out to DPW because there there is an opportunity to apply for reduction in flood insurance by using the city's technology to show that what you actually insure with flood insurance is the occupied dwelling you're not insuring a shed you're not uring an empty garage you're not ensuring a driveway so there are times where if you have a property that the flood plane touches only your land not the occupied structure some mortgage companies will relieve you of your obligation for flood insurance not all yeah generally the national flood insurance if you bought your flood insurance on the internet they're not releasing you from anything but if you worked with a flood representative a local insurer um it's worth pursuing so I'd encourage you to call the DPW number ask for Chen um or somebody on the team can help navigate that unique situation I think uh now that you said that you just uh sparked a memory when um I moved in 20 years ago we had to buy flood insurance and uh it was exorbitant and um my insurance agent to be my uncle and uh he had to call the the insurance agency and say hey are you going to replant this grass or are you going to put trees in because you're you're evaluating every inch of his property not the dwelling so um anybody out there listening or concerned with it you should definitely make sure to reach out to your agent make sure they're doing the best and that you're not um paying for something that's not going to get come back to you so it's it's a great Point uh and I believe we have people that Fe FEA actually has websites you can reach out to right is there counseling for it or something they do FEMA has a whole host of online resources yeah um what we recommend is that people blend the insurance companies like flood right um or FEMA website with the city's GIS server because the the granularity or the specificity that the city makes available to their constituents online does not exist in FEMA's databases yeah you know I describe it as FEMA makes their maps from the window of a 747 sometimes it's really hard to get the Nuance sometimes you have to actually count um seven houses down from the corner whereas if you go to the city's GIS viewer and you activate your property in the layers it's very clear where the line is relative to your house driveway your neighbors right yeah very good uh and then as far as talking about um neighboring towns uh uh I live uh on the Furnace Brook even though it's uh culet at my house but um there's a manhole that pops off there and um Milton was shedding a lot of water uh towards Bunker Hill Lane and since we requested years ago that they cease and assist uh they did and it's dramatically changed so thank you for working with the the neighboring towns because it's important because they just Chuck their water wherever they want as long as it's in their boot you know uh and it worked uh it's not just that also it's the the DPW uh I know when we're going to get a big rainstorm because uh my neighbor's yard gets a big DPW truck that drives in pulls the manhole cover off and clears everything out um they're religious about it so I know how hard you guys work and nobody sees it I like I think Council McCarthy or somebody said it's not glamorous it's you know nobody's sitting there looking at it but it's the the puttering stuff that needs to be done to make sure that we don't have these issues and um you're doing a great job and getting the little things done thank you thank you thank you council president recognize Council Harris I apologize for I'm coming back um Joe um you just mentioned database um and there's going to be a general uh letter that's going to go out but my my concern for instance to go on the website I you know there's we have seniors we have folks that aren't techsavvy my hands up that good um that is there a way that we can sift out folks that are um changed or gone on so there's like a half a dozen but what about the folks that are out uh are are you able to give get me that information where I can send them out individual letters to make sure that they know they have an opportunity is that something that can possibly happen absolutely the um I don't mean to speak for the commissioner but the database can be sorted by Ward very simply that that'd be great but you know any assistance you know that guy that had his hand up that is not that techsavvy so I appreciate it thank you thank you thanks Joe thanks Council haris okay thanks again thank you very much thank Mr clerk next item please item number two Mr President excuse me 202527 it's an order Amendment to The Zing code 8.1 flood plane overlay District uh motion to move to ordinance okay seconded by councelor Deana um on the motion Mr clerk please call the RO councel Ash Council Campbell yes Council Vine yes Council deona yes Council Harris Council leang Council McCarthy Council Mitten president Kane yes nine members thank you Mr Clark next item please next item on the agenda is 202528 it's an order for uh Municipal School buildings Authority statement of Interest Point webst Middle School motion to approve made by Council McCarthy uh seconded by Council dine Mr cler Council Ash yes councelor Camp yes Council dine Council deona yes councelor Harris yes Council Yang yes Council McCarthy Council Mitten yes president King yes and um I'm just point of privilege I'm going to recognize the mayor's representative to talk a little bit about what we just voted on and uh the next three that we will be voting on Mr President thank you um just briefly this body is very familiar and I assume you know that's why we're moving so quickly through this this is um statement of interest for four uh accelerated repair programs at uh various schools across the city as this body knows um the city has been very successful um through the mba's accelerated repair program over the years some of the newer building the new buildings get a lot of the attention obviously for obvious reasons but there have been um virtually every building outside of the new ones that we've built has been touched in some way by The msba Accelerated repair program which works the same way as the new school building program does we apply to get in the process which is the step these next three orders in the previous one we get into the process we're granted into the program and then we come back before the body for the appropriation request to fund said projects thank you Mr Walker and uh Commissioner of public buildings uh Paul H is here in case anyone has any questions uh otherwise Mr clerk next item please councelor uh order is uh 20229 order for Municipal School building authority statement of Interest Parker uh w i sorry Francis W Barker elementary school thank you motion to approve made by councelor Campbell seconded by Council McCarthy Mr Clark please call the RO councel Ash yes councel Campbell yes councel dine yes councel deona yes councel har yes Council leang yes Council McCarthy yes Council Mitten president King yes than MERS thank you next item please the next item is number 5 20253 an order for a municipal school buildings Authority statement of Interest Broad Meadows Middle School motion to approved made by councelor Campbell seconded by councel dine on the motion just even to note that some of these uh Replacements as itemized on each of these orders are repl placement renovation and modernization of school facility systems such as roofs Windows boilers Heating and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energy related costs in a school facility Mr cler please call the rooll councel ash Council Campbell Council Divine councel deona Council Harris Council leang Council McCarthy Council Mitten president K yes M thank you m CL next item please next item is 20231 it's an order Municipal School buildings Authority statement of Interest Atlantic Middle School uh motion to approve made by Council Campbell seconded by Council McCarthy uh Mr clerk please call the roll Council Ash yes Council Campbell yes Council dine Council deona yes Council Harris yes Council leang Council McCarthy yes Council Mitten yes president Kane yes members thank you next item Please Mr par the next item is 20232 an order for nominations for Park and Recreation board appointments okay we will be uh nominating Park and Recreation board appointments we will be nominating these individually um does any counselor want to nominate uh president recognizes Council mcgarth uh thank you Mr President I'd like to make a first a motion to open uh the nominations a motion to open nominations has been made by Council McCarthy seconded by councelor deona all those in favor I those post uh then I'd like to place the name of Paul Bolan as a uh candidate for uh the uh park and rec board but denominate the first candidate for Park and Recreation board is Paul boli uh do I have a second seconded by councelor Campbell Mr clerk please councel Ash yes Council Campbell yes Council deine yes Council deona yes councel Harris yes Council leang no council McCarthy yes Council Mitten president K yes okay uh does any other councelor have a nomination president recognize counc Divine I'd like to uh nominate Kevin esdale say again I'd like to nominate Kevin esdale uh councilor Divine has nominated Kevin ezale do I have a second second seconded by councelor McCarthy Mr clerk please call the rooll councel ash yes councel Campbell yes councel Divine yes councel deona yes councel Harris Council Yang yes Council McCarthy yes Council Mitten yes president Kane yes members um president recognizes Council Campell I'd like to nominate Thomas Lester Council Campbell has nominated Thomas Lester do have a second seconded by Council daona Mr cler please call the rooll council Ash Council Campbell yes Council Divine Council deona yes Council Harris Council leang yes Council McCarthy Council Mitten president Kane yes I thank you make a motion to close nomination motion to close nominations has been made by Council McCarthy secr by Council D all those in favor those opposed eyes have it um we are done with that thank you Mr clerk next item next item is 2025 033 it's a resolution declaring support for the preservation of the federal tax exemption of municipal bonds so uh for my colleagues and those at home um this is actually a very important uh resolution that I'd like to advance so one of the things in the federal government that uh is going through this 119th Congress is the need to re-approve the tax exempt status for municipal bonds so as people may know um tax exempt bonds are the primary mechanism by which we fund Capital work so all the FEMA work we talked about roadway work infrastructure work msba work uh most of the things that power our city so if this does not get passed in Congress we risk paying a very high cost of capital probably almost double to what we borrow at today um so I hope to have all of your support uh in this we this is just an expression of interest that we'll send to our federal delegation and the state asking them to support this in Congress um and I do want to recognize Eric Mason the CFO the city's here who I know spends a lot of time thinking about these things and if you'd like to come up and just speak to maybe a couple of important data points that highlight the importance of reaffirming this tax exempt status with the federal government absolutely and thank you for the opportunity Mr President good evening to the entire Council just to reiterate everything council president president said is uh it is it is quite dramatic increase currently the spread or the difference between two interest rates between taxable and non-taxable debt is anywhere from 150 to 200 basis points that is exactly as the council president said anywhere from 75% to 100% increase and Eric when you basis point doesn't mean um much to a lot of people so much like you said I think both understand interest rates uh uh that's about one and a half to 2% interest rate uh so yes no it would be quite dramatic um the the other thing that's important to remember is that it would also make our debt incredibly non- maneuverable on our balance sheet because once you remove that taxability all the value of a like people are holding a quiny debt some becomes very unattractive because it's now assuming a much lower interest rate um so it wouldn't just be a higher interest like oh at 50 at one and a half 2% to it it would actually be add 3 to 4% to it because now there's less flexibility in the in the secondary Market to sell that debt and then the city would be competing against more a smaller pool of of buyers so in some case it actually inhibit our ability to quickly access the market just as a council president said it is will be quite a dramatic change I mean it would be a dramatic change for cities and towns across the country this isn't just a quiny thing this is how uh you know cities and towns grow so um this is a very important thing for uh for the continued growth of our city but also for the growth of our nation yeah uh as most of the borrowing needs come from cities and towns directly so um if anyone has any questions Eric's here now motion to approve made by Council Yang seconded by councelor Campbell not seeing anything on the motion then Mr cler please callor roll councel Ash councel Campbell councel Divine councelor deona yes councel Harris Council leang Council McCarthy Council Mitten president Kane yes members thank you Mr clerk thank you Eric uh Mr clerk next item last item is item number 9 20234 it's a gift for 1600 from various Don needes to D motion approvement by councelor McCarthy seconded by councelor deona Mr cler please call the roll councel Ash Council Campbell yes Council dine Council deona Council Harris Council leang Council McCarthy Council Mitten president Kane yes includes our regularly scheduled agenda for the meeting approval of previous meeting minutes uh we don't have any but thank you uh we'll have them at the next meeting Communications and reports from mayor other City officers and City Board seeing none unfinished business and preceding meeting seeing none reports of committees seeing none presentation of petitions memorials and remonstrance president recognizes councelor Ash thank you Mr President um I would like to uh take a moment and um speak about and extend the council's certainly certainly my own and I'm sure uh most if not I'm sure all of the council but I know a number um of my colleagues who attended the services of Edward J Teddy hartnet III um affectionately known as Uncle Teddy um and he passed at the age of 79 uh last Sunday February 23rd 2025 at tough's Medical Center in Boston um Teddy was born in Chelsea to the late Mary Louise mcclaflin and Ed I'm sorry Maiden n mlin and Edward J Mickey hartnet Jr raised and educated in Charlestown he was a graduate of Boston English High School class of 1963 he lived in quinsey for the past 50 years spending most of those years in quinsey point uh he loved the city of presidents and enjoyed attending community events and supporting veterans and First Responders Teddy proudly served in the Army National Guard of Massachusetts he was employed with the Charles Stark Draper laboratory in Cambridge for over 45 years he began his career in the mail room and worked in various capacities before becoming administrator of the rep Reprographics Department he retired in 2008 following his retirement worked as a resource officer at quiny College shuttle driver at the Adams in and a pole worker for the city of quinsey Elections Department Teddy was a longtime member of The quiny Lodge of Elks where he made many friendships he was a Boston sports fan and avid bowler and belonged to several bowling leagues over the years where he took on the roles of President and Treasurer Teddy lived Teddy enjoyed live Irish music and fun times with family and friends across many establishments in quiny um and in Boston most of all he was devoted to his family especially his grandchildren and great-grandchildren supporting all of their many activities and accomplishments uh beloved husband of the late Marie Keef hartnet devoted father of Edward J EJ hartnet I fourth um and Greg T hartnet both of quinsey police department and also Don Marie Kelly and her husband Robert of East Bridgewater um who da um was mentioned today as being the favorite of the family so I I felt uh you know after um the the the great uh words of remembrance and eulogy that uh Greg said today um I think she she would want us to know know that as well as as what Uncle Teddy so loving grandfather of Haley hartnet um Edward uh hartnet Nicole hartnet Scott O'Brien um twins Maxwell and Matthew uh Khloe Kelly and Jason Kelly Cher cherished great-grandfather of Lena Remy Gracie and Ella um it I know it's impo it would be impossible not to see Uncle Teddy and um have a smile on your face and reach out for a hug uh he was known as The Candy Man um also giving out candy to everybody that he knew and saw and um around the neighborhood and and and Beyond and I think also it made me laugh to think uh when Greg said today that everybody uh a lot of people would save a lot of money on their dentist bills because he won't be there to give out sweet treats um uh just somebody who makes you think about the good in the city and the people and the the generations uh of families that are that are here raising their families um and really become the fabric of the community so certainly uh my condolences to the Harnet family um beautiful sendoff the last two days um and all my prayers and well wishes thanks councilor as president recognizes councelor Campbell thank you Mr President uh just real quick um this uh past week we had the uh quinsey high and North quinsey High girls basketball teams advance in the state tournament and um Tom actually Wednesday um 5:30 at quinsey high school gym quinsey High takes on King Phillip I believe and North quinsey High takes on someone uh ar ar yeah no AR Williams um so uh quiny high plays at 5:30 uh hopefully you can responsibly get in a car and go over to North quiny and support both teams um but uh the girls are playing great basketball it's great to see for the city it's it's really something that uh to see the student body and the community come out and support them it's great so I just wanted to extend that uh and then finally um some great wishes we missed it I think in the last one but on February 12th we had a member of our our Council become a grandfather William James uh McCarthy was born uh to councelor Dave McCarthy congrat ulations Grandpa no papa papa all right well congratulations names my wife call that's one of the names you called wanted to extend congratulations uh to Papa McCarthy over there and and uh welcome William James thank you thanks Council Campbell me would love to be at either of those games tomorrow night except councelor Divine and I are hosting a community meeting at the Common Market at 6 p.m.

6 p.m. um about the uh proposed development across the street from the Common Market Restaurant uh letters have gone out to Residents in W four and in w three um hope to see you there motions orders and resolutions seeing none uh scheduling of committee meetings and public hearings okay our next regularly scheduled council meeting is Monday March 17th at 6:30 p.m.