Minutes of the City of Everett Community Meeting held at the Parlin Library are as follows:
February 20, 2020 – – 6:30pm
• Flooding at Glendale Square by residents building – DPW Director will visit area and follow up.
• Flooding and Resiliency projects in Everett:
• Rebuilding sea wall near Chelsea Creek area
• Replacing gates on Spring street
• market street culvert. Entering into agreement with Chelsea and private develops to solve the 40-year issue.
• New FEMA flood maps are coming out this year. New properties are going to be affected. Will be a meeting to discuss insurance options for new properties affected by flood maps.
• Ferry/Elm St. project. New drainage system.
• How are we going to resolve the overcrowding of the schools?
• Haven’t been able to find a location for a new school building.
• looked at Florence St. Park but doesn’t want to take any parks away
• Looked at Rec and Rink but traffic is too bad on Elm St
• Looking at renovating more classrooms at New high school
• Focused on making sure that everyone who goes to school in Everett lives in Everett
• Where will parking be with proposed Gondola ?
• Busses will alleviate car traffic
• Bikers will be able to put bikes on Gondola to get to Assembly Row T station
• Trips in the city to work and school are 50% cars, other 50% is walking, bus and bikes
• Busiest bike quarter is lower Broadway
• 130 bikes an hour in the morning during rush hour
• Goal is to have the most reliable, transportation system at no cost.
• City will look into adding ramp on Vernal Street to help with speed on street. Mayor asked to put 10 locations from CIP that has plans to add new ramps.
• Suggestion to use old stadium for new school location.
• Suggestion to not knock down old clubhouse near stadium and use it as a sports museum.
• New design of Everett City Hall with new community spaces.
• Electric Scooters? Not safe to have them on the sidewalks or highway unless used on the bus lanes.
• Homeowners who do not speak English as a first language are having problems with City Hall. Homeowners are getting citations without getting warnings first. City to work on translation to native languages.
• Plan for electric charging stations. Grants through Eversource to get charging stations. Administration is looking for locations to put stations promptly.
• Wireless call boxes at Northern Strand Community Trail for extra safety. Plan to continue bike path. Design is done and will go to bid in Spring. Construction will be completed Spring 2021.
• How can we fix traffic on Fuller St? Aggressive law enforcement and speed bumps or neck down by 2021.
• Trash on Santilli Circle, near bus stop. Plan to contact DCR.
• Commuter Rail Vision plan to have a stop in Everett. MassDot putting out FRP to extend Silver line to Everett
• How to get replacement trash container? Call 311.
• City will be ordering 100 trees to be planted throughout the city.
• (Resident looking for affordable gym to use for organization supporting young men. Mayor to follow up for use of Pope John.
• Looking to utilize Pope John as temporary Senior Center during construction of Connelly Center.
• Wehner Park renovation. Upgrading sidewalks.
• Traffic near Gateway Mall. Administration to start a conversation between Encore and Gateway Mall to create solution. Continued traffic studies going on as part of the Wynn mitigation funds.
• Working towards creating more affordable housing.
• Breaking ground for Saint Theresa will begin in June.
• Security in the schools for Super Tuesday on March 3rd. A police officer will be at every school with a ballot box.
• Resident asked to bring back a day where we can have one big trash day. Mayor is considering bringing that back. Will have hazardous removal day in the Spring.
• Basketball at Appelton Park was replaced with Pickleball game for seniors. New basketball courts are down the water near the bike water. Police officers will be on patrol there during nights.
• Need help with commercial trucks making deliveries to small businesses on Timothy Ave.
• Working on loading zone for small businesses on Broadway.
• Plans for nighttime bus lanes. Working with MassDot for a Sweetser Center bus lane for Summer 2020.
• Affordable units with building new construction is required at 15%. Mayor says he’s in favor of giving developers more floors to increase affordable housing percentage.
• Update on making the website easier to navigate. New website will be up late February/ early March. No timeline on having new website human translated into different languages but it will be done electronically. There will also be a City of Everett app.
• Awarded Grant through the state to update website. New website will be a virtual city hall so anything you can do inside city hall, you can do on the website and app.
• Schools are open on Super Tuesday. Linda of Election Commission met with interim Superintendent 6 months ago to asked that schools be closed, but school Assistant and interim Superintendent did not agree. Mayor says he’s going to ask the Chief of Police to address the issue.
• All project proposals will be in this year’s CIP plan.
• Working on making all street signs same color and same size. Dead End signs on the corner of Hatch and Winthrop street will be placed.