The City Council’s Ways and Means Committee sent the $1,326,928 borrowing for the Chelsea Street Park renovation to the full council with no recommendation on Thursday, February 12, after Council President Stephanie Smith said she could not vote for a park nobody has shown her.
“This is my neighborhood park,” Smith said. “The reason this was paused was because we weren’t in agreement with the design for the park.” Chief Procurement Officer Kiara Freeman said she did not have the full design, that the work would be “general upgrades to the park, full renovation of it,” and that it would finish by the end of summer. Smith asked why the number had risen from $945,000 to $1.3 million. Freeman said the earlier figure was a construction-only estimate from about two years ago, and “that’s why the escalation was added to it from the designer.” Councilor Peter Pietrantonio remembered the drawings. “We didn’t like them, and we held the money,” he said. Freeman agreed to send the plans before the council’s February 23 meeting. The council approved the Fuller Street Park loan on February 26; the Chelsea Street Park loan came back to the committee in April.
Fuller Street Park
The committee recommended the $1,234,108 Fuller Street Park loan without debate. “Fuller Street is a park that has long needed renovation,” Councilor Katy Rogers said. “I’ve gotten plenty of complaints from constituents throughout the city.”
School nurses and field trips
Public health director Sabrina Firicano asked for an $85,000 transfer to cover school nurse overtime. The city now has 21 full-time school nurses, two in every elementary school and three at the high school, so it has stopped using Cataldo contract nurses, and the nurses are staffing before- and after-school and vacation programs. “We didn’t have any last year,” she said of field trips. The first elementary trip, from the Webster School to a museum, was set for the Friday after February break.
Also recommended
- A $50,000 Massachusetts Clean Energy Center grant for preliminary design at the Connolly Center, which Chief Administrative and Financial Officer Omar Boukili called “the Armory, as I learned today.” The roof, weatherization, HVAC and electrical systems would be studied. Smith asked the administration to plan the inside of the building at the same time “instead of piece mailing it together.” Pietrantonio asked about the police station; Boukili said the city expects to bid a new roof there.
- A $50,000 state Department of Fire Services grant for fire department radios.
- Repurposing $1,028,000 left over from completed school capital projects authorized in fiscal 2023 and 2024, mostly toward Whittier School bathrooms and elevators. Assistant Superintendent for Finance Chris Barrett said the district has about $11 million in authorized capital projects with roughly $2 million unspent. Smith walked the central storage line item down to the dollar (“I’m a numbers person. I have my Excel sheet here”) and asked whether bonded money sitting unused earns interest. Nobody at the table knew.
