Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Time to check in with Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch for our weekly city hall chad. Good morning, Mayor.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Good morning.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Coke didn't get blown away last night?
[00:00:09] Speaker B: No. Boy, certain times during the night I thought the house was gonna blow over.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: It was wild for a while. Peak wind gust atop Blue Hill, 79 miles per hour.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's hurricane force gust there, some spotty power outages, some trees, a couple of poles around the city, but nothing major, thankfully.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Indeed. And thankfully it was all rain.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: Yes. Otherwise it would have been blizzard too.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Indeed.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: We're not out of the woods yet. It's still March. Anything could happen.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Yeah, you never know.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: That's exactly right.
Is the city fully recovered from the last storm?
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the, the only snow left is probably the snow dumps.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean, we're in that point now with DPW transitions. That's taking the salt boxes off the trucks to do potholes. And the sweepers will be starting doing all the neighborhoods in the coming days and weeks too. So they shift gears and get onto the next phase.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, the parks and cemeteries will be getting spruced up, of course, leading up to springtime events. Yeah. Before you know it, we'll be talking about Flag Day again.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Absolutely. Always a good topic.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Can we talk about a community meeting happening tomorrow night, Mayor, regarding the future of the former Eastern Nazarene College property?
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Yes.
As I've indicated publicly, we're looking at the purchase of the property and we, you know, we have some thoughts.
The old saying, they ain't making more land, you know, so the question is, what's going to happen to that site? We've seen obviously developer come in with two major buildings, 1 200, 1600 units.
And that is, as we know, it's a beautiful residential neighborhood that surrounds it completely. And we certainly don't want anything of density that will disrupt or change the feel of that beautiful neighborhood. So, you know, that's one of the goals here.
There are some floodplain issues in that whole campus area. We're looking at that. How can we improve flooding issues for the other neighborhood with perhaps some of the land if we're to purchase it. But really tomorrow night is about listening to the neighborhood, both thoughts. You know, we've discussed Joe55 and over, we discussed perhaps Quincy College, taking the gym, things like that. But we do want to have a listening session here with the neighbors and have to say about their thoughts on it and then we'll take it from there.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Okay. This is 6:30 at Central Middle school and how old the meeting actually run?
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Mayor well, we'll do a quick introduction and then we're going to break out. We've got a number of stations set up with, you know, city planners and also some outside help to kind of listen to people look at, you know, look at maps and look at the site. And some people may like the housing piece, some people may have other ideas. But we, this really is a listening session to hear what people have thoughts on. So.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Okay, has the city actually made a formal offer to purchase the property?
[00:03:17] Speaker B: We're in discussions and we're, you know, we're back and forth and so that's all I can say. Okay. Yeah, they know where it just did and you know, we're waiting back from them.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Sure. As the Has a formal appraisal been done?
[00:03:35] Speaker B: We have had a formal appraisal done. I know that we had the draft of it about two weeks ago. I don't know if the final appraisals done.
Okay.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: So will that be shared at the meeting?
[00:03:48] Speaker B: We not necessarily because as long as we're in negotiations and you know, that has to stay in private.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: I see.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: So. But I mean, it will, you know, will all become public once if the EMC decides they're a willing seller and we put an offer in, then once we go to the city council, then everything becomes public.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: I see. Okay, very Good. So again, 6:30pm Central Middle School, March 18. And in the auditorium or the gym?
[00:04:19] Speaker B: We'll start in the auditorium and then we've got the gym's going to be laid out with different stations.
So again, back to that.
I don't want to call it a charrette, but certainly it's kind of a workshop listening session and we'll take it from there.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Okay, very good.
Also, Mayor, can we talk a little bit this morning about the city council finance committee meeting last night, the committee voting 5 to 4 not to move the appropriation for the new firefighter turnout gear out of committee.
Your reaction to that?
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Well, my understanding is that they're going to meet again Monday night to further discuss.
Now, I wasn't at the meeting, Joe. As you know, that's my custom. I don't, I don't watch or attend city council meetings. But from what I understand for a quick summary, I get from my chief of staff that, you know, the fire chief, president of the Local 792 and the professor they brought in did an outstanding job presenting the case, making the case.
And I would have thought, you know, it would be nine to Nothing to pass.
Why would we continue to put our firefighters in jeopardy? They already are in a.
In a field that has a much higher cancer rate than others. And part of that is the conditions they face. So the least we can do is provide them the gear that is safe for them, to keep them safe, not only in a fire scene, but we don't have chemicals in there that gets into their body and causes occupational cancer. So I just don't understand the mindset. But we'll go next week and if there's further questions, address those questions, take it from there.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: A couple of questions that were raised. One was, what if the new gear also eventually turns out to have dangerous chemicals in it?
[00:06:10] Speaker B: Well, you know, what if, what if, what if? The reality is we're testing everything we buy now and belts and suspenders and, you know, our whole team went down to the manufacturing facility. This is a game changer, Joe. I think that the manufacturer has been exposed.
I don't think you're going to see this happen again because you're going to see a lot of companies go out of business if that's the case, be a lot of lawsuits.
So, I mean, what if, what if, what if, you know, the frog had wings, it wouldn't bump its ass every time it jumped.
So you got to have some confidence in the process and the testing that we've done. And I understand the professor last night did an outstanding job presenting. He did all the testing on the gears, you know.
Yes.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Another question raised was, could the funding come from another source?
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Well, it's the time of year we're in.
Every fall, these same councils complain about the taxes.
So in the fall we take free cash, which is against the wishes of our financial advisors, and lower the tax rate.
So, you know, you either build up that account, the free cash account stabilization, and then you could use some of that. But we've opted to keep the taxes down from where they could be, where we continue to be way under the Prop 2 and a half levy limit. And that's been our strategy for the last several years. And I think the public appreciates that.
With the other thing that people ought to understand is as we put additional debt on, every year, there's debt coming off, Joe. Stuff gets paid off.
So, you know, it's the normal way of doing business.
I think if, if you're doing a kitchen over at home, you know, not everyone has the cash to do it. So sometimes we'll do a home equity loan to get it done. So it's, it's stuff that Lasts number of years. The estimate is 10 years.
Of course, that's an estimate. The idea of having two sets of gear, though, is to make the gear last even longer because you're alternating wear in the gear as well.
Right.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Some counselors were wondering if there was more information available about the city's efforts to recoup the costs of the current gear.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that's all in legal. We're pursuing the strategy and all, and Jim Timmons is kind of quarterbacking that. We've got some outside attorneys as well. So, you know, there'll be more to be said at some point on that. But, you know, you don't discuss your strategy in public.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: I see. Very good.
Mayor, any update on the Quincy Center T station? There've been a couple of small fires there, and it just reminded me again that there's been no real action on revamping the station.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Yes, I had another meeting with the general manager about two weeks ago, and I've had discussion with the Lieutenant governor about it.
Part of the challenge is there's so much going on across the system, so many improvements, so many issues that they're dealing with.
This hasn't gotten the attention that it would normally get. So I believe it's going to start getting a lot more attention.
And the issue right now is to get the design, a final design of what the T wants the station to be, along with all the ADA improvements, et cetera.
And of course, then out of that, okay, what can we do for development in and around the T station as this? You know, not the same scale as North Quincy, but, you know, the project that went on in the T, the T now gets over a million dollars a year, at least money, which helps the T with their revenue. So that's also part of why it makes sense for them to move on it. So I think. I think there'll be a lot more to say on this over the next couple of months.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Okay, look forward to that.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Me, too.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sure.
Finally, I notice there's now a lot of construction activity on the Spear street property right across the way here, downtown Quincy.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Yes. It ran into some complications, but now under contract, contract is doing it. So that's a very unique project because it checked a couple of boxes, Joe. You know, we're going to be able to do some affordable units, but the other day we're saving an old gem of a house that dates back to the, you know, the 17th century. So it's a great project, and I appreciate both the Community Preservation Committee as well as the Affordable Housing Committee for both supporting it for all the right reasons.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Is there a timeline now we can share with folks about that?
[00:10:51] Speaker B: Hopefully we'll be in good shape by the fall.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: Oh, very good. Okay.
Mayor, always appreciate it. Good to talk to you.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Same. Yes.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Stay well and happy St. Patrick's Day.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: You too.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Thank you very much.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Bye Bye.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: See Mayor Thomas Koch. Our weekly City hall update here on AM Quincy.
