Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: First Tuesday of 2026 is a great time to say good morning and happy New Year to Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch. How are you today?
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Mayor, Good morning and happy New Year to you, Joe.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Thank you very much. How are your holidays?
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Excellent. I mean, you know, getting together with family and friends and I'm probably up £8 since Thanksgiving, but, you know, we'll work on that now in the new year.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: That's what resolutions are for, right?
[00:00:25] Speaker B: That's right. Made to be broken.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: That way we can start all over again next year.
Speaking of New Year's, new hours at the skating rink were huge success over the school vacation. It was packed.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Yeah. That's awesome to see. Really is.
It gives families something to do, particularly on vacation. When you got kids, you're looking for things to do with the kids for sure.
And it's very well received and I appreciate the work of Commissioner Murphy and Director Chris Rooney and the whole team. They do a magnificent job.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: It's really well, Ron, it flows smoothly. There's skates available for free if you don't have your own. And it stays up through February, is that right?
[00:01:11] Speaker B: That's correct. I think sometime early March, we take it down.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Yeah. And the weather has been just right.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Actually.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: It's actually been a couple days.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: We're too cold right now. I know it. And then, you know, a little bit of rain in between. But for the most part it's been consistently cold, which is good.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Good for the rink, not good for the heating bill.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Well, that's. That's very true. Yes. It's unfortunately out of our control.
Right, Mayor? Of course. Big night last night at City hall for the swearing in ceremony for the new councilors and it was packed. It was wall to wall there.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah. You had a lot of new, obviously a lot of new electeds. And with that comes excited family and friends. And I remember the first time. It's a big deal, you know, so certainly congratulate each of them and look forward to working with them for the good of the city.
The auditor, Diane Dizoglio, she was with us last night. She's got a lot of energy.
I've worked with Diana in the past, so it was good to see her come into quincy.
Yeah. Congratulate Mrs. Mahoney on being the council president and look forward to working with her, setting the agendas going forward and trying to get things done for the people of the city.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Yeah. I need upcoming agenda items from your administration on the council that we should talk about.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Not quite yet. I know we're Going over the calendar for the year, fiscal year and the calendar year internally, and then we'll go from there. We're still the council president. I have to work out our schedule to have the agenda meetings, to schedule things. So I'm sure we'll be hearing from her very soon. So look forward to all the festivities, activities and deliberations and, you know, issues of projects going forward.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Any, I guess, sage advice for the incoming new counselors.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: You know, I know that sometimes they probably feel I've been in too long and don't listen.
I don't necessarily obviously agree with that.
I think they should continue to listen and focus. And it's one thing being an activist on the outside, it's another thing to govern.
We got to come together and make decisions. That doesn't mean we're always going to agree. And I certainly hope this times we able to agree.
But listen, the conversations that have been held publicly about transparency and openness, listen, I'm all for that.
Council meetings, if they want to go, you know, 10 hours, we'll be there. We'll answer every question that comes up and work with the new councilors and look forward to that. I've always been a big fan of deliberation and answering every question, vetting every issue.
And even at the end of the day, you know, you can't come to agreement on everything. People have different opinions and that's okay. That's all right.
So look forward to working with everybody and, you know, hopefully we'll continue to get things done for the city of Quincy.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Will you be delivering a State of the city address at some point?
[00:04:18] Speaker B: I will be, Joe. We haven't picked the date sometime, probably the end of the month or first of February, but in that range.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Okay, very good.
And I know that there is going to be a Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast this month.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Yes, I know. My office has been putting that together.
Yes, that's obviously an annual event and I think an important one that we should recall, you know, Martin Luther King Jr. S memory, but also his challenge and pretty remarkable individual. And he literally changed social justice issues in this country and how to go about it. I mean, he was a. Obviously, he was a faithful guy. He was a minister, Baptist minister.
So he challenged people on that side of it. But everything was done without violence, without animus. Everything was done in a peaceful way. And I think that's a message that resonates continually. Whatever the issue may be in society, we should be able to come together and talk about these things, you know.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's a January Monday, January 19, 7:30am at the Terrell Room.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Is there a guest speaker that you can talk about?
[00:05:26] Speaker B: I know they're working on that. I don't know if a couple of people they had waiting to hear from. So I'm not sure if that's been finalized.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Okay. But that is free and open to.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: The public, of course, correct? Yeah.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: Couple of local things I wanted to ask you about, Mayor. 11 because it's just. It's visible to me every single day here at the library is the property on Spear that the city purchased for affordable housing. Any update on that?
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah, actually we've signed a contract with the company so things should be underway very soon. It became far more complicated than I thought going into always does. I should know better being around this long.
You know it's an old. Two old structures there that needed a lot of attention. So the specifications on it changed a number of times. We had to get a new architect and. But anyway it's. The contract's been signed so work should begin very soon.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: Oh, very good. Okay. Look forward to seeing that come to fruition.
Really unique property. I'm sure you do.
And also the Emilio Della Chiesa Early Learning Center, I understand is going to be reopening.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Yes.
You know, for those folks that don't know that population went to the Cristofera center which now opens up that building. The school committee has voted to use it for kindergarten. Right now we have kindergarten classes at Lincoln Hancock that are very large. We're actually using some other big hallways, the classroom space, which isn't really healthy. So the school committees voted to use delicate aza 4 in the garden at Lincoln Hancock. But also there'll be extra classrooms. So we're looking at an additional pre K for our city, which is always welcome. The issue right now is the public buildings department under Commissioner Hines. You're reviewing the whole building.
We're going to need to do some major updates, particularly in the mechanicals of the building. It's getting up there in age and a number of issues have to be addressed. So what we're doing now is putting together that specification.
Whatever improvements need to be made to bring it up to standard up is enough.
We will then go to the city council.
Probably have a lot of deliberation over that project and hopefully they'll see fit to support it for the kids.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: I see. Okay. So to alleviate some overcrowding perhaps and make things a little more easy for transportation purposes too.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Sounds like absolutely good.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Any other major projects coming online this year that you hope to get done before the end of the year.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: You know, not.
Not ready to talk about anything major.
Obviously, pretty soon we'll be discussing the annual budget.
We'll be going over updates on all the projects and where we are. I know that from time to time with the council. In the past, we've had Commissioner Hines update on projects on all our buildings. We've had Commissioner Murphy discuss an update on a number of park projects and open space and environmental projects.
For example, Sailors home pond is just about finished, and that's a beautiful reclamation project that will breathe life back into that pond.
I think sometime this spring, some 60 or 80 turtles will be returned to the pond, back to their home. So it's an exciting project for the neighborhood, but for our environment. So a lot of good things that go on every day that the average person probably isn't aware of. Joe?
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Yep, Yep. Has the move into the new public safety complex begun?
[00:08:57] Speaker B: It's begun.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: It has.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: I know that they're tweaking the systems and making sure everything is perfect, whether it's the 911 system, whether it's the full commissioning of the H Vac system for the whole building. And as you know, any particular large project, there's always a punch list, whether it's a minor thing with scratches on the wall for moving furniture or whether there's some major items that meet the spec. I mean, that's the stuff they go through. That takes several weeks, but that won't prevent them moving in. That will continue. My expectation will be in probably by the end of this month and probably do a dedication ceremony sometime when the weather gets better in the spring.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Very good. And of course, later this year, anticipating the new Squantum school to come online. Right.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: That's an exciting project.
You know, it's.
It's going well. There was a lot of public works projects around it. I know the squanning people know that because a lot of the digging up of the streets around it, but a lot of changes and needs in the power with the national grid, drainage issues around that site. We had to deal with updating the water and so, you know, all of those issues, the traffic reconfiguration, the road reconfigurations, are all part and parcel with doing the project, the building itself. So a lot of pieces to it, but it's coming together.
Lee Kennedy, who's a Quincy contractor, very professional, doing an outstanding job with the whole team. So that's, that's an exciting one for that neighborhood.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And Finally, Mayor, tomorrow night, the organizational meeting for the school committee, right?
[00:10:31] Speaker B: That's correct. We swear in, well, one returning member, Tina Cahill, and then two new members, Kate Campbell and Tom Leung, will be sworn in for their first meeting.
That is my much like the council meeting, it's an organizational meeting where we swim the new members in. We elect the vice chair, elect the secretary to the committee, which is the superintendent. Then we elect the clerk, which is Laura Owens.
So, you know, a formal night, exciting again for the newbies coming in with their families.
A lot of excitement, enthusiasm, and so look forward to that. And I congratulate our new committee members and our returning member as well.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
Appreciate your time as always, Mayor.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: My pleasure, Joe. Enjoy the day.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: Thank you. You, too.
