City Council Meeting

The City Council meeting focused on multiple utility pole hearings, a set of mayoral orders including grant and earmark acceptances, a preservation restriction for a historic property, and a set of proposed City Council rules changes. The council heard presentations from National Grid and the Department of Public Works and approved four separate pole requests (2024-073, 2024-074, 2024-075, 2024-076); for the South Hunt/Buttonwood and related installations the council added a stipulation that poles be placed no less than three feet from the road. Public commenters raised concerns about a proposed pole encroaching near private property and requested that overhead wiring affecting a property be cleaned up; the council noted its jurisdiction is limited to poles on city property and directed residents to the utility liaison where appropriate.

The council also acted on several mayoral items: it substituted and then approved an act exempting the Deputy Police Chief position from Chapter 31 civil-service provisions (2024-057), accepted a preservation restriction for 6 Center Street (2024-058), and accepted multiple grants and earmarks, including a $150,000 economic development earmark (2024-061), a FY25–FY27 public health shared services grant (2024-062), and a $12,500 pedestrian-bridges earmark (2024-063). The council established FY25 spending limits for departmental revolving funds (2024-068). In addition, after debate and several proposed amendments, the council voted to post the proposed Session 14 City Council Rules & Procedures (2024-002) on the city website with an amended cover-sheet requirement; one amendment to change a specific phrase in Rule 6G passed, while another stylistic capitalization amendment failed. Several remaining rule-change items were continued to a later meeting.