The Everett City Council refused Monday, May 11 to renew Encore Boston Harbor’s innholder license on the spot, voting instead to postpone it to May 26 and summon the casino to the chamber. Councilors said the company has not answered their letters, has not produced a jobs report the host agreement requires, and has offered none of the entertainment the city was promised.
City Clerk Sergio Cornelio told the council the renewal had been delayed by confusion over back taxes and the host community agreement, that the paperwork is now in order, and that the casino will keep operating either way. “I’m not going to close them because you haven’t renewed this,” he said. Councilor Anthony DiPierro warned against changing the rules in the middle of a renewal. The rest of the council wanted a hearing.
“They treat us like they run the city,” Ward 6 Councilor Peter Pietrantonio said. “We finally got them, let’s not let them off the hook.” Councilor Wayne Matewsky said the casino never responded to his request for information about its entertainment commitments. “There’s no communication with this casino. There never has been,” he said. Council President Stephanie Smith said Encore has not met items in the host community agreement, including the jobs report. On Councilor Holly Garcia’s motion, the council postponed the license to its next meeting and asked a member of the administration to attend as well.
Four firefighters sworn in
The council confirmed Gerald Meuse, Andrew Collyer, Michael Russo and Erick Thompson as Everett firefighters on a 10-0 vote, and the clerk swore them in before families pinned their badges. The meeting opened with a moment of silence for Pat DiNapoli, a Lafayette School educator and a founder of Everett girls softball, who died over the weekend.
Borrowing sent to committee
A request to borrow $2 million for a Massachusetts School Building Authority feasibility study on a new high school went to the Ways and Means committee. A $1,326,928 loan to renovate Chelsea Street Park was sent to the planning board to wait for the city’s parks master plan. Both drew objections in public comment. Peggy Serino asked how many feasibility studies the city has paid for and said no override for a new high school would pass. Maria Malchiono of Ward 3 called it irresponsible to borrow $1.3 million for a park after approving $1.2 million for Fuller Street Park, and suggested using part of the $4 million Everett Square grant for a small park in the square instead. Lillian Gorham asked what the interest would cost. “If you have the money for this, fine, do it,” she said. “I don’t really think we need to be borrowing any more money.”
Davis Companies offers a data center cap
Mike Cantalupa and Ben Masselink of the Davis Companies, which controls about 100 acres in the Everett Docklands Innovation District, told the council the proposed data center restrictions would have “unintended negative economic consequences” and offered their own limits: a hard cap of 200,000 square feet of data center space out of 5 million square feet of planned development, data centers confined to the subdistrict along the railroad on the Chelsea side, water use of no more than 20 gallons per square foot per year, the state noise limit, and solar on up to half of each roof. Jeff Parente spoke against any data center at the former ExxonMobil site. Derek Shuster, chair of the Active Transportation Advisory Committee, defended developer-funded Bluebikes, saying more than 40,000 people rode one in Everett last year.
Other business
- National Grid won permission for conduit to 19 Paris Street, 7-1, after the company said the work touches only the sidewalk. Parente, a Paris Street resident, asked that the street be left in better shape than the “roller coaster” it is now. Matewsky agreed: “Paris Street is a minefield of potholes.”
- A second National Grid petition for 313 Elm Street, postponed last month over abutters’ objections, passed 9-1 after the company met with the neighbors and confirmed the conduit stays on the owner’s property.
- Dealer license renewals for RD Auto Repair at 88 East Elm Street and Paul Matteuccio Inc. at 366 Second Street passed unanimously. A new Class 1 dealer license for Boston Freightliner at 2 Rivergreen Drive, where another operator is subleasing, went to the Community and Business Development committee.
- Councilors wished Councilor Michael Marchese, who has served the city for close to 30 years, a happy birthday.
Previous council meeting (April 14): Everett Confirms Lamboy and Boukili 11-0 as Davis Companies Calls the Data Center Ordinance an Existential Threat and Files a Plan to Freeze the Zoning
