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Votes at a glance: Somerville council approves grants, appropriations, leases and confirmations July 10
Summary
The council approved multiple administrative items including grant-of-location requests, appropriations for schools and participatory budgeting projects, contracts, confirmations and development agreements; several items were approved by roll call.
At its July 10 meeting the Somerville City Council approved a series of administrative and financial items by voice vote and roll call. The actions below were recorded on the meeting record and include grant-of-location approvals for utilities, multiple appropriations, several contract and development approvals, and confirmation of police appointments.
Votes at a glance (selected items approved July 10):
- Grant-of-location and wireless facility approvals (Items 3.1–3.7): The council approved a Crown Castle small wireless facility (10 Hawthorne Street) and multiple Eversource grants of location to install conduits and manholes at Broadway, Mount Vernon Street, Houston/Gibbon/Highland, Warren Street, Moreland Street and Prospect Street to provide electrical service to new residential and mixed-use buildings. Several items included conditions: the Moreland/77/79 pickup item included a condition that Eversource meet with neighbors to confirm the exact pickup point and to address easement concerns.
- Appropriations for collective bargaining and capital projects: The council approved appropriation of $1,500,000 from the Salary and Wage Stabilization Fund to the School Department to fund collective bargaining agreements (Item 7.3); $1,045,000 from the Participatory Budgeting Stabilization Fund to implement winning participatory budgeting projects (Item 7.4); and $800,000 from the Facility Construction and Renovation Stabilization Fund for renovations to the coming school warming center project (Item 7.5).
- Police retroactive payments: The council approved an appropriation of $3,892,796 from the Salary and Wage Stabilization Fund to fund retroactive lump-sum payments required under the collective bargaining agreement with the Somerville Police Employees Association (Item 10.6).
- Grant acceptance and development items: The council approved acceptance and expenditure of a $3,000,000 MassWorks Infrastructure Program grant to fund the Inner Belt and Brick Bottom pedestrian crossing project (Item 7.6). The council also approved a maintenance and landscape management plan and a public access/maintenance easement for the 299 Broadway development (Items 7.2 and 10.5).
- Confirmations: The council confirmed four police officer appointments (Items 7.7–7.10): Daquan Goodnow, Andrew Pasqualino, Benji Antoine and Victor Souza.
- Contract and lease approvals: The council approved the fourth amendment to the Grove Street parking-lot lease (Item 25-0978) and the final Urban Center Housing TIF agreement for the 299 Broadway project (Item 20-51160). Several other committee recommendations were accepted by committee and approved by the council.
Votes and tallies: Many roll-call items recorded unanimous or large majorities. Examples: the Grove Street lease and the 299 Broadway TIF were each approved with 9 in favor, none opposed and 1 absent. The appropriations recorded 9 votes in favor and none opposed in the roll-call tallies noted on the record for those items.
The meeting record shows additional routine items approved and several items laid on the table or referred for further review (for example, the condominium-conversion amendment was tabled). For full details, including the standard agenda numbers and full roll-call transcripts, see the council clerk’s official minutes.
