Dominic Puleo was sworn in as a member of the Common Council Monday night.
Puleo was given a hearty round of applause by his fellow Council members before leaving the room to conduct the ceremony with the City Clerk. The 96 Central Avenue resident was previously questioned with hot-button issues that the council faces on a weekly basis.
“I was impressed by the level of detail you all got to in asking questions and was impressed by those questions,” said Puleo, who has been an active volunteer in the community for over ten years. “Let’s see if I can help push us forward for the next two years,” he added.
Going forward with the meeting, the Council addressed various items on public safety, including a resolution to protect citizens introduced by Councilor Wayne Matewsky.
“There are over 100 lights out,” Matewsky said of his resolution to fix street lights in the city of Everett. “We’ve got an issue with street lights in the city. There are dark areas that need to be lighted for safety issues,” he added. There will be a meeting the first week of April where a representative from National Grid will be in attendance in order to discuss the issue.
Another resolution came from Councilor Leo McKinnon to place poles in front of a Lynn Street home in order to keep cars from sliding into it during unfavorable conditions. “When it snows, people slide right across the street into his home,” said McKinnon. The homeowner is requesting that black-painted cement poles be placed in front of his home for protection from accidents. A recommendation was made to refer the matter to City Services.
For other Everett homeowners, there was a recommendation to petition the General Court to increase the residential tax exemption from 20 percent to no more than 30 percent. City Assessor Pamela Davis was in attendance to explain the petition.
“You will have ability to vote up to 30 percent…which helps by giving people who own and occupy premises credit paid for through the tax rate so it’s not going to come out of your budget at all or be shifted to commercial,” she said. “The owners are the ones who would be benefitting as they are currently. It isn’t 20 percent of each individual value,” she clarified. “You take the total value of all residential property divided by number of residential accounts and you’re voting to give that value a percent. You have a choice to go up to 30 percent. You can do 10, 28, any number up to 30. This is a residential exemption, the only qualification is that you need to own a property and live in that property year-round. There is no other limit associated with this particular exemption,” Davis said.