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East Boston - Chelsea Creek Action Group
Meeting Minutes -- January 16, 2002

Attending: Vinny Ieni, Nancei Radicchi, Ana Maria Gomez, Maddy McComiskey, Lucy Del Muto, Cristopher Blackler, Mary Ellen Welsh, Gail Miller, Stanley Buonagurio, Susan Voloshin, Roberta Marchi, Aaron Toffler and Tim Dube (Urban Ecology Institute) Jeff Drago (Mayor’s Office), Fred Smith and John Dooley (E.B. DPW Yard), Commissioner Joseph Casazza (Public Works Dept.), Stacey Chacker and Matt Henzy (NOAH), Susan Loucks (CCAG).

Meeting Minutes: December meeting minutes were approved.

Updates:

We are trying to have our meetings conflict with neither the Central Artery nor AIR, inc. meetings. We confirmed that this year we would meet on SECOND Wednesdays!

Stacey submitted a RHICO grant to try and receive funding for a project that would increase participation and diversity around one or several Chelsea Creek initiatives.

An EB-CCAG sub-committee met to look at slides from many artists to select several to interview for public art at the Urban Wild. They chose four for a general art piece (funded at $25,000); in addition, two to design an artistic guard railing (if funding is available). The artist interviews will be conducted Feb. 13^th at 6 (1/2 hour before EB-CCAG) and on Feb. 20^th at 6:30 P.M. at the Social Center in the Hyam’s room. Any member is welcome.

Department of Public Works Yard

Joe Casazza, Public Works Commissioner, attended our meeting to address resident’s issues regarding the East Boston Public Works Yard on Condor Street. Some of the issues to be discussed, per a letter that had been sent earlier, were: a) The salt pile – it’s huge, and should be covered; b) Other debris and disrepair at the yard; and c) Buffering between the yard and the neighborhood.

Salt Pile: Commissioner Casazza stated the following:

There is no question that that DPW is breaking the law by keeping the salt at the current site. In order to be in compliance, the salt needs to be stored in a permanent structure. DPW is committed to constructing a permanent structure. Several problems have been holding up this project, including: 1) Difficulties in getting community approval for a new design for the DPW Yard, many years ago; 2) Getting City ownership of the adjacent MBTA site (The City plans to build a new police station, DPW yard, ambulance bay, and park). Casazza expects that the City will receive a legal deed for the site in March 2002; and 3) Funding.

Commissioner Casazza made the following commitments regarding the salt pile:

The City will build new salt structure as soon as it officially owns the MBTA site, it is cleaned up (it’s a 21e site – meaning contaminated), and City funds are allocated. The Commissioner will (or already has) requested the Mayor and City Financial Officer to include funds for the structure in the City’s Capital Budget – and expressed that it is his number one priority for capital improvements for DPW at present. He estimates that the structure will cost between $500,000 and $1 million.

When funding is approved, he will have an architect work with the community to design a structure that fits in with the architecture of the neighborhood. At the Highland Street DPW Yard, the salt shed is designed so that much of the salt storage is below ground.

In the immediate future, DPW will keep the salt pile covered at all times, although it needs to be accessible to trucks that would be loading salt (DPW has enough tarps for this purpose). DPW will remove the salt pile within four to six weeks after the end of the winter.

EB-CCAG members brought up concerns re: the polluting and corroding effects of salt. The Commissioner said that the road salt is made from ocean water with no chemical additives. Vinny brought up that chemical additives (feracyanide – an anti-caking agent) were put into the salt, and that we should be concerned about those additives polluting the creek. EB-CCAG members congratulated DPW for their excellent snow removal work throughout the City.

General DPW Yard conditions/Discussion:

Maddy brought up concerns about having her guests have to pass by the filth and blight in her neighborhood at the DPW Yard to get to her home. She feels that this is not something that neighbors should have to accept. The Commissioner replied that there needs to be a DPW Yard in E.B, they involve ugliness and noise, nobody likes having them there – yet there is no other place in E. Boston to put the Yard. EB-CCAG members understand that there needs to be a site, but stress that DPW should:

Replace fencing around the yard (which is in deplorable condition – and often knocked down) with fencing with vinyl slats in order to: a) block the unsightly condition of the Yard; and b) to reduce amount of sand, dust, salt, etc. from blowing into neighborhood. (The Commissioner was not prepared to make a commitment to replace the fencing).

Remove the pile of leaves that have been in the DPW Yard since the Fall. (The Commissioner said there was no reason why leaves from September should still be piled in the yard, and they should be gone very soon).

The Commissioner emphasized that he and his staff are available to talk to anyone. He gave the following contact list for complaints/concerns:

Jeff Drago, East Boston Coordinator and Frank O’Brien, Public Works Liaison – both are at the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services - 617-635-3485;

Fred Smith, E. Boston DPW Yard Supervisor at 617-635-7525; and

Commissioner Casazza at 617-635-2497 (call if you feel that the others have not responded to your concerns satisfactorily).

EB-CCAG brought up other concerns including: a) The sidewalks outside of the Urban Wild need to be repaired (the Commissioner said that Parks would repair them as part of their Urban Wild renovations); and b) There is serious flooding on Condor Street during heavy rains (The Commissioner said he would look into the flooding issue.

EB-CCAG will write a follow-up letter to DPW and copy it to the Mayor and City officials. Tim will investigate the condition of other DPW Yards in the City.

1. Hess Site:

1. Meeting with E. Boston Community Development Corp: Nancei reported that EB-CCAG representatives, NOAH and Trust for Public Land (TPL) met with EBCDC. EBCDC was interested in working with TPL on the Hess site, but recognized that TPL is invested in representing the ideas of EB-CCAG. EBCDC is still interested in a housing proposal for the site, but Al Caldarelli of EBCDC said that they would table their proposal while EB-CCAG, NOAH, and TPL work on the community development proposal. If our project does not succeed, EBCDC would want to come back to EB-CCAG to present their housing proposal again.

2. Trust for Public Land: Lucy, Matt, and Stacey met with Nancy Kafka of TPL to work on next steps and a memorandum of understanding. TPL needs a letter from NOAH’s Board to make a formal commitment to work with TPL. At that point, TPL will begin working on purchasing an option on the Hess site. This is not the same as buying the property – purchasing an option means that Hess would be unable to sell the land or negotiate with any other party during the determined time period (e.g. one year).

Master Visioning Process:

• CCAG sub-committee selected consultant team: Roberta reported that eight proposals were received from consultants. NOAH, UEI and Chelsea Green Space staff narrowed the field to four. Seven residents and staff members interviewed four candidates, all of whom were impressive for different reasons. We held a second interview with one team - BSC Group/TerraSphere and potentially the Waterfront Center (Washington, DC), and decided to work with them. This group was selected because of its demonstrated commitment to Chelsea Creek work, its background, and the different strengths of its team members.

• General idea of process: E. Boston, Chelsea and Revere will work together to hold several large "visioning" meetings (or charettes) to get feedback from residents. The consultants will also contact businesses and governmental officials, but the idea is that this is a plan that represents residents’ interests foremost. The plan will identify a vision for the entire Chelsea Creek, focusing on opportunities for open space and public access.

• "Visioning Coordinating Committee": We need residents to join this ad-hoc cross-Creek sub-committee to work with the consultants to plan the visioning process. Maddy, Nancei, Susan V, Roberta and Ana Maria are interested in being part of that; Lucy may come if she’s available.

• Outreach: When the time comes, we will need volunteers to help with outreach when time comes. Start spreading the word -- it has tremendous potential to be a very powerful tool!

• Designated Port Area (DPA)/Municipal Harbor Planning Process: Aaron announced that it would be good to write letters to Coastal Zone Management (State agency making decisions re: DPA) regarding our concerns about decisions being made about de-designating (from the DPA) other sites in E.B. EB-CCAG wrote a letter last year. Aaron will re-draft letter and e-mail to EB-CCAG members for others to write letters.

Business report card: Susan L. reported that the report cards and press release written by Roberta are completed. She will start distributing the report cards door-to-door on Falcon and Condor Streets. Susan V. volunteered to help. We will put on Feb. agenda for full report.

EB-CCAG 2002 meeting schedule is now SECOND WEDNESDAYS

Meetings will be at the Harborside Community Center, 312 Border St, unless otherwise noted.

(though some changes may be made to accommodate Visioning charettes)!

February 13

March 13

April 10

May 8

June 12

July 10

August 14

September 11

October 9

November 13

December 11^th