During public input at the Jan. 7 meeting, several residents urged the City Council to address pressing school capital needs and to report on previously accepted safety planning grants.

Sonny Brooks, identified as a school committee representative, spoke for the record from 22 Circle Drive and asked the council and mayor to consider an appropriation to address drainage improvements at Bowie and Satella school parking lots, completion of air-conditioning projects at multiple schools and a full remediation and replacement of an asbestos gym floor in his ward. Brooks cited an estimated total of $8,300,000 for the listed projects and noted the school department's in-house maintenance work has saved about $5,000,000 on previous projects, arguing that delaying work will increase costs.

Lisa Bienvenue of Everett Street pressed the council and the mayor's office for an update on the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant work. Bienvenue said the council voted last year to accept a federal Safe Streets grant of $320,000 and that the mayor had appropriated $400,000 to a planning account, totaling $720,000. She said she had seen no public updates on an action plan and asked "what exactly has been done" with the funds.

Council response and other input: The council did not provide detailed updates on the Safe Streets plan during the meeting. Mary Beth Costello offered a public-status update on the South Fairview sewer project, telling residents the work is paused for winter and will resume when weather permits; she thanked DPW, the water department and contractors for ongoing coordination.

Nut graf: Residents called for a clearer plan and possible capital appropriation to address district school infrastructure needs and for transparency on how $720,000 in Safe Streets planning funds had been used; the council referred some items for committee follow-up but did not adopt new appropriations at the meeting.

Ending: The transcript records public requests and councilors' acknowledgments but no council appropriation or formal directive on the school capital figure or Safe Streets action-plan status was adopted during the Jan. 7 meeting.