Appointments & Briefings Committee — May 19, 2026

There's not a quorum yet.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

This is the Committee on Appointments and Briefings.

For May 19th, 2026.

Note, this meeting is being live streamed and recorded.

City Council and committee meetings can be viewed on the City of New Bedford's homepage under Quick Links, then Meetings.

Tonight I have several colleagues joining me.

Councilor-at-Large Ian Abreu, Ward 2 City Councilor Scott Pemberton.

We have City Council President and Ward 6 Councilor Ryan Pereira.

Councilor at Large James Roy.

Councilor at Large and First Vice President Shane Burgo.

You thought I was going to forget the First Vice President, didn't you?

And then Councilor Award 4, Derek Baptiste.

I have 3 letters to read into the record.

Um, this one is from Councilor Lopes.

I'm writing to inform you that I will be late in attending tonight's committee meeting due to a previously scheduled work commitment.

Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues and the public aware of the reason for my tardiness.

This one is from Councilor Gomes.

I am writing to inform you that I am unable to attend tonight's meeting due to a prior commitment.

Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues and the public aware of the reason for my absence.

And this one is from Councilor Carney.

I'm writing to inform you that I am unable to attend tonight's committee meeting on appointments briefings due to the birth of a new grandchild.

Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues and the public aware of the reason for my absence.

Motion received and placed on file.

Second.

Made by Councilor— no, I'm sorry, made by Councilor Burgos, seconded by Councilor Abreu.

Nope, Councilor Pemberton.

Yes, it was.

Okay, okay.

All those in favor?

Okay, the ayes have it.

Also like to, uh, state that Councilor Sean Oliver, Councilor Ward 3, has joined us.

Item number 1, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Item number 1 is a communication, Mayor Mitchell to the City Council, submitting an appointment of Cristobal Jose Escobar, New Bedford, Mass., to the Veterans Advisory Board, replacing Christopher Holkamp, who resigned Uh, this term will expire December 2026.

It was referred here on December 11th, 2025.

It was heard on February 17th, 2026, where it was tabled.

On March 17th, 2026, it was tabled.

On April 21st, 2026, it remained in committee.

Item number 1 is before you, and it remains on the table.

Councilor's pleasure.

Is Mr. Escobar here?

Mr. Escobar?

Once.

Miss— Mr. Chairman, just through you to the clerk, do we have any correspondence?

This is several times now this gentleman has not come before us.

So I don't know if we know that— is he still serious or interested?

I know the last time he was in Boston, but I don't have anything updated to explain otherwise for his not being here.

I don't know if Councilor— motion or for, uh, for no further action?

Motion made by Councilor Lobergo, seconded by Councilor Baptiste.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

You guys have it.

Item number 2 is a written motion.

Councilor President Pereira, Councilors Abreu, Carney, and Gomes requesting that the Committee on Appointments and Briefings meet with the South Coast Neighbors United to discuss the deployment of the SCNU air sensors across New Bedford and to further discuss current environmental and health issues in the South End.

It was referred here on May 12th, 2026.

2A is a related motion.

Councilors Pereira and Gomes requesting the administration in the Office of Environmental Stewardship meet with the Committee on Appointments and Briefings to discuss whether a company can be hired to conduct an odor analysis in the south end of the city, and further to report to this committee the amount spent on said analysis and provide a timeline of the study and the data once the analysis concluded.

That was referred from committee on October 15th, 2024.

On May 20th, 2025, it was tabled.

2B is communication.

Councilor Pereira.

Abram and Gomes submitting a petition from the residents of south end of New Bedford, uh, related to the sewage treatment facility located on South Rodney French Boulevard, to be referred to the Committee on Appointments and Briefings, the Department of Public Infrastructure, the administration, and the state delegation.

It was referred here on September 26, 2024.

On October 15, 2024, it was tabled.

On May 20, 2025, it was tabled 2A.

B and C are before you.

2A and 2B are on the table.

Motion, motion to remove items 2A and 2B from the table and receive and place on file item 2.

Second.

A motion, uh, by Councilor Pereira, seconded by Councilor Ebru.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Uh, chair recognizes Councilor— Council President Pereira.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

So, uh, just for a quick overview, last we discussed, Mr. Chairman, uh, to this committee that the, uh, Biolo, who operates the company who operates the sewage treatment plant, they, uh, have agreed to install odor monitoring devices.

It was also made aware to me, uh, in certain meetings that, uh, there are some ongoing, uh, reporting now from those devices.

So at this time, I think I'd like to turn it over to Jim Costa from DPI and, uh, their representative from Viola, if we could hear from them and get an update basically on where we are from the last time this motion was before us.

As you wish, Councilor.

Thank you.

Mr. Costa, please take the mic.

Please state your name and address for the record.

Oh, okay.

Uh, James Costa, 21 Emerson Street, New Bedford.

I'm the superintendent of wastewater for DPI.

Um, so since the last time that this item was tabled, we've worked with, uh, Veolia, who's also present here tonight, to install, um, 4 odor sensors, uh, 3 of which are within the Fort Tabor Park Um, one of which is at the, um, the pier, uh, adjacent to Nina Street.

Um, Veolia worked with us in lieu of doing an odor study.

Um, you know, we— they've got a pretty wide net on, uh, you know, this type of technology across the country and the world.

So we worked with them.

They came up with a recommendation of these particular devices.

They are Odosense odor monitoring systems.

And with their help, we installed 4 of them.

They track odors 24/7, 365, and have kind of become part of the city's odor control policy.

So whenever odor complaints come in, they follow a very strict protocol where they're monitoring.

They go to the house of the residents, they try to reach out, make contact, take any and all information they can at the time— tide levels, weather, wind direction, you name it, they've got a list and they're trying to keep track of it.

Aside from installing the odor sensors, they're out 4 times a day tracking odor.

They've got handheld meters that they're patrolling, not just the general wastewater plant, but the, you know, entire adjacent area to the plant.

They were able to help us.

They purchased these devices on their own, outside of our budget, just because, you know, they've been with us since the plant was built in 1996 and They value the community and, you know, want to give back to us.

So working alongside Edwin and the staff, we're just keeping track of odor and we're excited that they've helped us with these, these loggers.

I'm not sure if you have any questions related to them.

I did.

I brought Edwin.

He's the plant manager.

If there's any technical questions, you know, process-related.

But, um, that's kind of where we're at since the last time we spoke.

Um, and the loggers did go online July of 2025, so we're coming up on a full year of data.

Councilors, uh, the chair recognizes Council President Ryan Pereira.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

So, uh, Jim, thank you very much for the overview of the timeline of where we're at.

Are you able— are you able to put together a presentation to this body regarding the data that's been collected over a year?

Yes.

Okay.

At each location.

Okay, great.

So I, I'm going to ask that, uh, uh, you know, after we hear from a few other folks tonight, that, uh, the next time we bring this back up, uh, you know, I'll speak to you in the meantime, timelines, to make sure you have adequate time to put it together.

Can we— can we make sure we see some sort of, uh, data around that?

Yeah, of course.

The other thing is, I, I know— can you speak to, uh, the reporting?

Uh, because I, I've been using it myself, but the NB311 app, you're able to report certain odors and stuff and, and have that tracked.

Yes.

Um, are we able to tie or begin to tie that in to looking at days when there might be high calls high reports to what the odor monitors are picking up?

So, I mean, this is a good example.

We received an odor complaint on 311 last week, and so it's timestamped.

The caller or the person putting it on the app stated driving home at— it was 10:30 PM, there was an odor on East Rodney French Boulevard.

So as soon as I see it, I forward it to the Veolia staff, they timestamp it, they're looking before and after the time block to see was there any spikes in hydrogen sulfide, which is sewer gas.

Are there any anomalies at the plant?

There was obviously no maintenance going on at the plant at that time, so it's nothing to tie to that.

But any complaint that comes in, we look at all aspects of what's going on at the plant.

Was there any planned maintenance?

Is there any breakdowns that they had to react to?

And, you know, data tells a story.

So we, we look very hard at what the loggers and the SCADA system at the plant is telling us.

So they've got a pretty good grasp and would be happy to show you everything that we've got.

Okay.

And I jumped the gun a little bit, but the reporting that's available, can you explain they can go on the app or call 311?

Yeah, so any resident, um, or any person in general can download the NB Connected app and enter, and obviously not just for odor complaints but any other constituent services as well.

And aside from using the app on your phone, if you dial the numbers 311, you'll reach, um, you'll reach either if it's daytime our office at DPI, if it's after hours you'll reach our call center who in turn is logging these complaints into the NB Connected system.

There's an automated process that I helped create, and it creates a work order for, you know, Ryan, you're in charge of cutting trees this week, it goes to you.

It's all pre-programmed into who's responsible for it.

And so far, I think it's— we've got a pretty large volume since the wintertime.

And potholes, which are, you know, a hot topic right now.

But I think it's done a great job reaching the residents and people are using it.

So, so this is a tool that can be used to log odors in general though?

Yes, definitely.

And like I said, it's timestamped.

So it's one thing to get a message in the morning and say, hey, it smelled bad yesterday, without, you know, an actual time for us to look at, it's, it's a, it's a challenge to try to pinpoint what may have been happening, if anything.

Great, thank you.

Um, so we'll follow up though with the request, uh, my office will, uh, to see if we can't get that data presented to this body at the next time we can bring this forward.

Great, thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Uh, Mr. Chairman, at this time no further questions.

Okay.

Um, Councilor Oliver.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Costa, for being here.

Um, thank you for explaining the 311 option.

Um, and but it's— you act as the liaison for that, for the 311 to talk to the monitoring company, is that— uh, I'm the liaison of DPI to Veolia at the treatment plant.

Okay, so you're relaying that information that somebody's reported it and then they review it.

What about the opposite way?

If they have a spike and find that there was something that happened at the plant, are they— is that a report that comes later?

Are they having those discussions with you in real time that if one of their monitors picks up something, are they reciprocating basically the communication in real time?

Yeah, we communicate daily.

Anytime they're doing maintenance, I get a notification, you know, an email or a phone call in the morning.

It's— if it's a phone call, an email shortly follows just so we've got a record of something going on.

But They let us know, hey, we're doing this type of maintenance today.

The wind's blowing in this direction.

You may have something pop up.

But we were in contact daily.

And just to add on to the communication aspect of it, the Veolia staff the plant 24/7.

The plant has a phone.

And if people want to call that phone, they're talking directly to Veolia, who can, you know, log the appropriate information and reach out, make contact with the resident or residents.

And, you know, they, they want to build a rapport with everyone in the community.

So it's, it's been very important to them to want to make contact and go talk it out and, you know, see what's going on at, you know, whatever house it may be or business or what have you.

Aside from the monitoring, if there's a spike and one of the monitors picks something up, Aside from what you have described as outreach, notification of you speaking with the neighborhood or the area that's affected, what other initiatives or steps does the monitoring company take?

Do they physically go and check on the plant?

Is that something that we have to do if it's depending on what the readings are?

What, what what else comes with the monitoring that they're doing aside from communication with you and outreach to the— So, so we, Veolia, physically purchased the hardware.

So the monitoring company is hosting the data.

It's all an internal thing.

It's not You know, we're paying them to host the data, but we're proactively looking at it.

So it's a— it's an in-house operation.

And if there's something that warrants further investigation, is that us that goes down there and physically?

Yes.

Okay.

Yep.

It's all here.

This— I'm not sure.

I think this was an overseas product.

Yeah, it's an overseas product that we purchased.

So it's— they gave us training.

We're empowered to do it.

Um, you know, all of the, the Viola staff are well trained in, in what they do, so we're confident that they're, they're doing their job.

Okay.

All right, well, thank you.

That's all I have right now, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, Chair recognizes Councilor Abram.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

My question is actually for the Viola rep, so I'll yield for now if there are other questions for Mr. Costa.

And if not, if we could call him up, but I'll yield for us.

I'll wait for a second in case Okay, noted.

Chair recognizes Council President Pereira.

Just, just really quick too, uh, Tim, can you just speak to, um, the plans for DPI and the wastewater treatment facility in the future?

So as I think all of you councilors in the room know, we're working hard right now on the 5-year and 20-year plans of the plant, of the pump stations, of wastewater in general.

We've got a large number of plans coming down the pipe for rehab, for enhancements, for all types of rehab.

The plant was built in 1996, so things age, and we're actively working on upgrading things before they become a problem.

So I think you'll see some good work going on in the next few years and then way down the line.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

At this time, I yield.

Okay, thank you.

Um, your pleasure, Councillor Abreu.

Chair recognizes— Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Viola rep, okay, please.

Thank you for stepping down.

Mr. Viola, come on up.

And you don't need to— do you need to state your name?

Uh, good evening, Edwin McAuliffe.

Project manager for Veolia at the New Bedford wastewater treatment facility.

Would you spell your last name for me, please?

Sure.

M as in Michael, C-A-U-L-I, F as in Frank, F as in Frank, E. Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good evening, Edwin.

Good to see you again.

Um, obviously, as the southernmost elected official in the city.

I live a stone's throw from the plant.

I'm also involved with the business right down that way, so I know about the issues all too well, working with the ward councilor and folks in the community.

Um, at this facility, there are fans, correct, that are— that push out scents?

Is that correct?

With like a, um, I don't want like some type of, um, odor masking scent, is that correct?

So we do have counterveillance.

What was that again?

Pick up the mic if you don't mind, because— thank you.

Sorry about that.

Can you hear me now?

Better, thank you.

So what you're referring to would be a fogger, which we have on site, and that would be for counterveillance, which is used to neutralize any odors.

That's typically our last line of defense for us.

That's something that we would set up in times of doing maintenance where, you know, there's a higher potential of odors escaping from the facility.

But typically during normal operations, the facility is set up with 4 wet-packed odor scrubbers which are continuously pulling the odorous air from the process tanks and then treating them before discharging clean, non-odorous air to the atmosphere.

So how often are those fans activated, would you say, like on a percentage, maybe like of, you know, let's say within the calendar year, right?

So 100% is just when you're just normal operations, you know, what would be the percentage?

3%?

1%?

Uh, just ballpark.

I'm just curious how often, uh, do we see activation of these fans?

Sure.

So I, I just, I just need to clarify with you.

So are you asking about the, the portable foggers that we set up with the counterbalance?

Are you asking about the odor scrubbers?

The odor scrubbers themselves run 24/7, 365.

The first, yes.

Yep.

So it depends on the need and the risk of odors, right?

So middle of the summer, super hot humid days, maintenance at a treatment facility never ends.

So there are times where we may be using those daily.

What type of agent is used to mask the smell?

Do you know offhand what it is?

What type of agent is it like that?

So it's a counterbalance.

So it's neutralized, non-hazardous.

Yes.

It's non-what?

Non-hazardous.

Non-hazardous?

Yes.

And it's FDA, EPA approved and everything?

It's been— yes.

So instead of masking the odor, what the, what the, the countervalent does is it neutralizes and it actually breaks it.

Neutralizes.

So it's, it's a no scent is what you're saying?

It's not like— it has a slight scent to it.

Yes, it does.

Okay.

All right.

Um, how's your relationship been with the city so far?

Have you been clear communication with our DPI folks, with elected officials?

It's been clear, clear lines.

Everything is defined very succinctly and clear, clearly as to what your roles are, what our roles are.

And is there ever any confusion or is everything pretty shipshape in your opinion?

No, we have, we have great communication.

I speak with Jim regularly.

You know, as far as the odors go, so that the sensors that we have on site now, I'll pull a monthly report from them, a summary report, and I'll scan those along with our, you know, the the records of our daily field logs that we do with our drone meter, and I'll send those over to Jim.

But, you know, anytime we have any particular issue at the facility, it's, it's my obligation to notify Jim, and we do such as needed.

We also meet monthly on a regular basis to review, um, you know, things that are going on at the facility, any, any needs that there may be from our end or from the city's end.

So what you're saying is that we're all being transparent with each other you to him, him to you, when the clear lines are right there, always constant.

Absolutely.

Okay, um, that's all I have for now with this gentleman.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Edwin.

Uh, councilors, any further questions for this invitee?

Okay, I think you're off the hook, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, if at this time could we hear from Wendy Morrow from South Coast Neighbors United?

Yes, Wendy.

Miss Morrow, please come on up.

Tracy, can you join me please?

I didn't see Tracy.

You may approach the microphone too, Tracy.

I'm going to actually have Tracy speak first.

Thank you both.

And of course, name and address for the record, please.

Sure.

Hi, um, Tracy Wallace, 75 Stephanie Place.

Um, we were asked to be here tonight, um, so thank you.

Um, originally we were put in touch with members of the South End at the request of Councilor Abreu, Councilor Pereira, and Councilor Chiquette.

We met with some residents from the South End and they did explain some situations that they were having down there and some history behind it.

And it seems like there are 2 issues going on in the South End right now.

You have a wastewater treatment plant that has lived its life and seems to be in need of updating and has out— it's been— it's outdated.

And it's great to hear from members today that there is a 5-year, 20-year plan for that.

So there's, there's that issue, but then there also seems to be an issue of a cancer cluster that might be happening down in the South End as well.

So we're, we're really here today to kind of bring this to the attention of the city council and see what their— what things can be put in place to, to address these issues that, that are happening.

So, um, with that, I'm gonna give it over to Wendy.

Thank you.

Um, so our concerns are the 2 different issues that, that Tracy mentioned.

We're not in, in trying to insinuate in any way, shape, or form that they're related.

We don't know that.

More data needs to be collected before that can be ascertained.

But all we can do is work on them separately, and if they end up connecting dots, then they connect dots.

But that's not what we're trying to do, and so that's important that I wanted to delineate that.

I did a little research myself recently, and I— to kind of piggyback off of the previous information that was shared, a wastewater treatment plant that was built in 1974 and upgraded in 1996 could begin producing severe odors decades later for several reasons and in practice is often a combination of aging infrastructure, process imbalance, increased loading, and deferred modernization.

So to say that we're addressing it beforehand, that's not entirely accurate.

The kinds of odors that residents usually describe as noxious that are commonly associated with a wastewater treatment plant are hydrogen sulfide, mercaptans, ammonia, volatile organic compounds, and anaerobic decompose— decomposition gases.

Um, the possible health effects are headaches, nausea, eye irritation, throat irritation, dizziness, fatigue, sleep disturbance, stress, anxiety, concentration problems.

At higher concentrations, severe respiratory irritation, vomiting, neurological symptoms, pulmonary effects, loss of smell, unconsciousness, potentially fatal acute exposures in confined spaces.

I'm not going to go over every single thing because that's not an exhaustive list.

That was just for the first contaminant I mentioned.

I think it's important that one of the most misunderstood aspects of odor versus toxicity is that some compounds smell horrible at concentrations far below toxic thresholds, while others may pose health risks even when odor is weak.

So for example, hydrogen sulfide can be smelled at parts per billion levels, but serious acute toxicity usually occurs at much higher concentrations when you can't even smell it anymore.

So persistent odors can create legitimate health burdens through chronic irritation, stress responses.

I'm not going to go over the whole list again.

These are not just health concerns, but quality of life concerns, never mind public health and property values.

So across the board, you're hitting a lot of major areas of concern for residents.

Um, the other thing that's, that's important to note, and this is why, this is why I wanted to piggyback off of the last thing, is, um, we're going to be— we're doing odor monitoring, odor analysis.

What are we, what are we analyzing?

What are we looking for?

Because, um, there are contaminants that are not captured by smell.

And those are carbon monoxide, methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide at high levels, and some VOCs including benzene, formaldehyde, chlorinated solvents.

The detection methods for these are electrochemical CO sensors, infrared analyzers, fixed industrial monitors or portable gas meters, catalytic bead sensors, infrared methane analyzers, combustible gas indicators, flame ionization detectors, non-dispersive infrared analyzers, fixed gas monitoring systems, portable multi-gas meters, electrochemical sensors, fixed continuous monitoring stations, handheld gas detectors, Jerome analyzers, gas chromatography.

The list goes on and on and on.

Are we doing that comprehensive of a monitoring down there?

Because my concern is Until that is— all that information is shared, do we know that?

We want to be able to know that, because until you're getting the actual accurate data and the levels, how do you even know what the problem is and how you're going to fix it?

Um, an odor analysis can identify likely emission sources, characterize nuisance intensity, detect certain hazardous compounds, document community exposure patterns, and support regulatory or legal action.

But odor analysis alone can usually not fully determine toxic exposure or health risk because, as I already pointed out, some dangerous pollutants, some dangerous pollutants have little or no odor, and some strong odors occur at concentrations below classic toxic thresholds.

What truly needs to be done here is a combined effort: an odor analysis, chemical air monitoring, meteorology, and a health exposure assessment covering at least a 3-mile radius from the facility and any other potential source of industrial pollution and emissions.

Given the health concerns that we've seen, I'm not placing this all on the wastewater treatment plant, okay?

There are other industry operations down in that area.

I'm aware of that.

How do we pinpoint where the problem is?

We need to— we can't just keep putting Band-Aids on things.

We need to get to the source and figure it out and fix it at the source.

Um, I also had one quick question before I wrap it up.

Veolia— is Veolia also Veolia Water North America?

Okay, so you are the company that was sued by Imperial Beach residents for wastewater treatment plant operations that became a problem in Imperial Beach.

I don't know where that is, but San Diego.

So I'm not throwing shade at anybody.

I'm not making accusations, but It's just giving me parallel product vibes again where we're going to let them monitor and self-report and self-assess and all of that.

I'm concerned on behalf of the residents of the South End.

So this needs to be a multi-tiered, multi-pronged approach, not just odor analysis, if we really want to get to the heart of the problem and take care of the residents.

Um, I don't know if you want to ask Barry to come up, but he has a map of the cancer.

Uh, if we could— can we just— I just have a few other questions, if that's okay.

Can you speak to the air sensors that you guys have?

So we have air quality sensors that I think are pretty on par with the ones that are be— that are working in New Bedford right now.

Um, and those, those are I have it written down, but they're only monitoring for 7 different contaminants.

Based on the list I just gave you, we're facing much, much more than that.

Your sensors are only— Our sensors would be pretty much on par with the same ones that the city has.

The only benefit that I see in deploying those, we would have citizens be part of that process.

They would get to pick the location.

They would be able to say, hey, I'm concerned about this area.

I want it here.

And then we would get data and we'd be able to compare that to the city's data to make sure that where it's checks and balances, all of the monitors are working accurately.

So I don't have a problem with doing that.

We can do that.

But it's still only going to monitor for those 7 contaminants that, that they're monitoring now.

Okay.

So this is the slew that I just listed.

Yeah.

So what I would say is I would appreciate it if, if we could— and I'll be in touch with some of the neighborhood groups down there, too.

I, I would appreciate it if we could try and launch some of those down there.

Yes, at some residents, just because, uh, while I know of 3, Gary, maybe 4, but 3 for sure, uh, city monitors down there, I'd love to maybe increase that.

We have 10.

I'm happy to put 10 wherever they need to be.

Yeah, and, and just see what the data looks like for us over the summer or something like that.

And, and so we'll be in touch on that.

And I have some ideas of some folks who would probably volunteer that up.

Yeah.

And, um, And we've been wanting to work with the City Council for a very long time to work on this program because we want to work with your constituents.

I don't want to go door knocking and talk to 10 million people.

Your constituents call you and let you know about their concerns.

So I'm figuring you all have boots on the ground in different parts of the community that have raised concerns about air quality.

That's— those are the people I want to help, and I want it to be citizen-led, really.

I want your help finding those citizens, identifying those citizens.

Okay, great.

Thank you very much.

At this time, Mr. Chairman, I have nothing further.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilperson Pereira.

Councilor Abrup.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good evening, ladies.

Wendy or Tracy, you know, I know that in the meetings with Barry and many others, we've engaged the Department of Public Health at state level.

They've come down, they've checked the place out with our state representative.

We've done all that.

Um, every time there's an issue, we're told by our state rep and his legislative aide, call DPH.

You, you have his number, right?

And we have his number, and we disseminate it.

We call DPH.

I know you don't work for DPH.

I know you don't represent DPH, uh, but you've done a lot of work with them.

Do you folks know, I mean, like, what happens when you make these phone calls?

Is it just Because I don't see any ROI from the community making those phone calls.

Our experience with that is kick the can down the road.

Good to know.

Yeah.

Oh, because that's why I'm asking you the question.

I teed it up for you because Barry's texting people about here's the number to call.

I give the number, I'm calling.

I'm sure Ryan's calling and everyone else in the South End's calling, but we don't see any follow-through.

There's no, hey, Joe Schmo, I checked into it and here are the actions we're taking.

We're asking— it's just, okay, thank you, bye, and that's literally it.

So I'll call them out.

I'll call DPH out.

Like, they have a legal and fiduciary responsibility here, and I don't see anything.

I don't see any fruit being bared from these guys.

I don't know.

Yeah, our experience with state agencies is pretty much the bare minimum, what's required of them to respond, if even that, and that's about it.

That's why with the parallel products, we brought it to the Board of Health, and we did our best with giving them as much evidence as possible to make an informed decision because we knew that the state didn't care.

And the reason why the state doesn't care is because it doesn't become their headache.

It becomes the city's headache.

And you're all seeing that now.

This is exactly why we were preemptively opposing the projects that we've, we've opposed to avoid this exact situation.

So it's just bureaucrats doing bureaucratic stuff.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, I'm glad we got that for the record.

I just want to add something.

I also think that this could open a Pandora's box as well.

I think the more we keep digging, the more problems we can find.

And I think everyone kind of knows that, so they don't want to do it.

So there's a lot of placation going on.

Well, you can't put a price on someone's life, right?

So, you know, that's who you talk to.

Well, well, thank you, ladies.

And I'll yield for now, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Abreu.

Uh, councillors, any further questions for Miss Morrill or Miss Wallace?

Can we bring up Barry Sylvia, please, briefly?

Sure.

I know you were going to open it up to a member.

Did he have a question?

My discretion.

Yeah, Mr. Sylvia, please come on up.

Barry Sylvia, 10 Seaview Terrace.

S-Y-L-V-I-A.

So some of this information, the pink dots are people that have recently died from cancer, and we're working with Dennis Farias to get the death certificates.

It's something that the city can, can track.

The green ones, my concern.

I live in the most beautiful city in the country.

I've traveled with a conference of mayors, been all over the place.

I love coming home.

And when I drive down the end of my peninsula, I see these green dots that represent people that currently have cancer.

That's what I want to help.

I think that we owe it to these people that are fighting cancer, not dead, but still alive, that we can help.

And maybe, just maybe, we can take some of this data, get it to them, and get it to their oncologists up in Boston or wherever they're receiving treatment, because it ruins the entire family.

These families have to stop— women have to stop working to take care of their parents that are suffering from cancer.

And I just think that I would like to be able to help these people.

I think we all owe it to these people to get to the bottom of it.

Thank you.

And the pink dots, where were the pink dots?

The pink dots represent the people that have passed.

In how— what timeframe?

Well, we're working with— and we didn't even fill in.

And Tim Hott, who's been there longer than myself.

We don't even know the people that have passed over here, which is closer to the plant.

But we're working with Dennis Farias and the city councilors to try to get the dates.

We know when they died, and we have to try to find the causation of what the cancer was.

But these— that's a lot of cancer in a small little area.

Thank you.

Chair recognizes Councilor Abreu.

Thank you, Mr. Chip Barry.

Don't go anywhere, I just have one quick question.

I know you've been calling DPH constantly.

Do you feel as though it's going into a wastepaper bin when you call?

So what we've tried to do is we've tried to see if we can't get blood testing for PFAS.

It's expensive.

It's about $600.

I know some of my neighbors have gotten it and we have elevated PFAS levels.

So but no, there's a huge disconnect.

We've tried Tony.

Cabrall.

We've tried working with, with a higher level than this body.

This body has been fantastic.

Well, I was going to ask you, our state representative Antonio Cabrall, has he been of service?

Has he helped?

He brought us— he did a tour of the plant, and we haven't really heard from him of late.

We were supposed to try to get a meeting, a Zoom or something, up in Boston with the Department of Public Health to see if we couldn't find some type of funding that we could find out.

Can you imagine those people that are suffering from cancer right now, if we could do a blood test that shows that they have elevated PFAS in their blood, and they don't even know this, but they could take that to their oncologist in Boston, and their oncologist might have a different treatment for them to help them.

Maybe they tell them, don't go home.

It's not good to go home after we treat you.

So we don't know, but we're looking for money.

We're looking for aid.

You know, there's a a quality of life issue where it smells like crap down there and we can't open our windows right now.

Everybody's got their windows open.

We have to run air conditioning.

So it— there's a quality of life, but then there's also what we might be able to do as a community to save these people.

Okay, thank you, Barry.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'll yield.

That's all for now.

Thank you, Councillor Abramowicz.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Silvio.

Uh, Councillor Pereira.

Please.

Just, I didn't know if anyone from the South End was here, Mr. Chairman.

Uh, I, I don't have any further questions for Wendy and Tracy, uh, but I would want to know if any members of the public are here from down there, if they wouldn't mind just stating their name and addresses for the record.

Okay, are there any members of the public here from the South End that would like to be on the record?

You just, just name it so they know you're here.

That's it.

Just want— just, you're just— you can yell it out.

You don't have to go And your address?

7201 Street.

Okay, I think there was a— there's a young lady behind you.

Morella, 26 Nina Street.

Get that?

Okay.

17 Freedom.

Thank you.

Is that all?

Okay.

So, and then further, Mr.

Chair, the, the council— this council would just like to open it up to, to allow for any written testimony, uh, that these neighbors would like to share their experiences down there, uh, whether it's in regards to, uh, any environmental issues down there, whether it is, uh, odors, uh, uh, sense any, uh, uh, illness from like nausea or something like that, or anything from the factories up the street.

There's a few environmental factors.

I think that, as Wendy and, uh, Wendy pointed out, uh, that, uh, I think it's important for us to look at every factor down there so we get to the bottom of it.

So open that up to a wider area to just, uh, allow.

So those watching at home, please send us your emails regarding that, uh, to the, to the clerk's office.

Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, thank you.

Can I add one more thing?

Yes, Miss Morrill, there will be a community information meeting held, I believe, June 25th or 26th, ironically at the wastewater treatment plant community room.

It's not about the wastewater treatment plant.

It's about the health concerns in the South End and just trying to collect that data so we can try to figure out what's going on in the South End.

Period.

As far as I'm concerned, the wastewater treatment plant is the odor thing.

This is— as far as right now, we're looking at this as 2 separate things.

But that— we need to collect more data, and we encourage people to come forward and, and share their information with, with, you know, what they're comfortable with.

So, okay, thank you, Miss Morrow.

Miss Wallace, again, thank you for everything you've done for Ward 1 and everything you're doing for the rest of the city.

I, I would just like to make a related motion very quickly.

Um, I'll provide the clerk with the verbiage, but any councilor would like to co-sponsor.

But just to— in, in suing with this, just a related motion.

Councilor Pereira requests that the Board of Health and/or the Health Department appear before the Committee on Appointments and Briefings to provide the body with data regarding any chronic or concentrated illnesses in the South End, uh, and, and I would like that from, uh, the, the entirety of the peninsula, if that would be okay.

Okay, motion made by Councilor Pereira, seconded by Councilor Abreu.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed?

The ayes have it.

Mr. Chairman, though, point of order, you may want to ask who wants to co-sponsor, as the maker opened it up to anybody who wanted to co-sponsor.

Okay, would anybody like to co-sponsor?

I'll communicate that.

Yeah.

Oh sure, the right one's name.

No, that's fine.

Yeah, okay.

James.

All right, so everybody that's here, you can put me on too, and you can include me.

Yeah, but someone has to make a motion for it.

That's what he's asking.

Okay, motion to table, please.

Okay, um, motion to table by Councilor Pereira, seconded by Councilor Abreu.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All opposed?

Ayes have it.

Mr. Chairman?

Yes, Councilor Bergl?

It's come to my attention that Cristobal Jose Escobar is here now, so I'd like to make a motion to reconsider consider item 1, and I would just need a second from someone in the audience.

Thank you.

Motion by Councilor Brigo, seconded by— I believe that was Councilor Oliver.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Is the body all right with me waiving the meeting and just like allowing you to ask questions?

Thank you.

Okay.

Well, yes, Mr. Escobar.

Good evening, everybody.

My name is Cristobal Jose Escobar, United States Marine Corps veteran.

I've lived in New Bedford for about 8 years, moved here in 2018.

Beautiful city.

When I originally came here, it was a hard— oh, wait, no, sorry.

I was going off.

No, go ahead.

That's what we want.

Yes.

Oh, okay.

First of all, though, I'd like to say thank you for your service.

Thank you.

I moved here after my service was 5 years from 2012 to 2017.

I went all over the country, went to Japan, went, you know, overseas.

When I moved here, it was a hard change.

I'm from Los Angeles, California originally.

So you can tell the weather is very different.

When I came here, I kind of hated it a little bit.

But But it grew on me, and getting to know it here, we're actually a hidden gem.

We're in a perfect geographical area.

We're in between Cape, Boston, Providence, Newport, Rhode Island.

So once I learned that, and once, you know, I got more familiar with Massachusetts and New Bedford, you know, I'm here to stay.

So I've been here ever since.

Sorry.

Here are my credentials.

I just graduated this Sunday from Suffolk University for my BSBA, double majoring in business economics and finance with a concentration in investments and double minor in real estate and business analytics.

During my time, I have been treasurer for the Student Veterans of America at the Suffolk chapter and at Bristol Community College chapter.

I was vice president of fundraising.

I'm also an alumnus of Bristol Community College, and that's where I got my associate's before transferring to Suffolk University.

Right now, currently, I just finished a course called Four Block Cohort of 2026, and I am part of the Leadership South Coast Cohort of 2026 as well, which Um, I will complete that course next month.

Um, I have a lot more, but I don't want to bore you guys with, with that good stuff.

So if you guys want to ask your questions, please do so.

Thank you.

Um, Councilor Abreu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Wow, what a resume, my Lord.

Good for you, and thank you also for your service.

Um, quick question.

We've done a great job under our leadership under Mr. Gomes and through this advisory council and this board, working with the VTH and many other folks in the public and private sector to be a regional and national leader as it relates to eradicating veteran homelessness.

What are your thoughts about making sure we keep up that momentum to ensure that no one who serves or served this country goes hungry, sleeps on a park bench, is homeless, and they get the services that they need when they come back home, especially if they've been deployed and have been in combat.

Oh, I'm 1,000% behind it.

So before, I wasn't very present in my veteran community when I first got out because I had a bad transition.

But then I had a mentor, Denny Cosmo.

I don't know if you guys know of him.

He's Director of Veteran Services at Bristol Community College.

He relit the fire in me, and ever since I've been very, very, very more involved in the veteran community.

So I am very for— I believe anybody that served this country should not be homeless.

I believe they should not be struggling and suffering alone.

I feel as we have to make We have to create more engagement within the veteran community, and that will bring them out of the darkness that they fall into, and that will then help eradicate homelessness.

I feel as if the VA does a good job of giving a lot of programs, but they do a very, very— excuse my language— sloppy job of informing veterans of everything we have.

I, for one, have gone through it.

There was— all the benefits I know of now, I didn't know of when I first got out in 2017.

I figured it out.

I learned about them starting in 2022.

And then I've just dug into the rabbit hole and found so much information.

But it's very tricky to find it.

And I think I think in order for us to help veteran homelessness, we need to tackle the first issue of trying to inform our veterans and trying to help them before we try to throw more money at it.

I'm not saying we do— we just throw money and not help.

That's just what I've seen from the outer scope.

I have seen what the city's done and I want to get involved and I want to be part of that and help move forward.

And hopefully, you know, within the next— hopefully tomorrow we can end it, but you know, it's a process.

Hopefully we can build programs or try to help to where we eradicate that within our city and maybe it can— okay, copied.

Thank you, very good answer.

Thank you.

I look forward to voting for your confirmation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'll yield.

Okay, uh, if there are no other questions, I would— oh, chair recognizes Councilor Sean Oliver.

Thank you, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, thank you for your willingness to serve.

Um, it seemed like you were busy with all the things that you were rattling off, so I commend you on that.

Um, this appointment has been in front of us a couple of times.

Again, like I said, I know that sounds like you were busy.

Are you able to commit yourself to this board and the meetings and what it entails, um, to go forward?

That's just my main concern, and that's why I just want to ask you outright on the record.

No, yes, definitely.

Um, so what had happened was I moved, um, and so my— the invitation was getting sent to the wrong address.

Um, this was the first invitation I received since the very first one, and I think believe February, um, and all the other ones I never received ever since.

So yeah, I was a little busy at the time.

Um, I had classes Wednesday nights and, uh, all the 4 days a week had to go up, commute to Boston and come back.

Okay.

Um, well, thank you for clarifying that and committing yourself to this, to this board.

And, and I look forward to, uh, being one of the members that will appoint you to it.

And I hope that you'll bring, you know, uh, I think that the disconnection between some of our younger veterans, there's a big disconnect there, and I hope that you're going to be able to bridge that gap.

So thank you.

That's all.

That was my only concern, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Chair recognizes Councilor Baptiste.

Actually, I don't have to ask no questions.

Councilor of Ward 3 asked every question I was gonna ask.

I just wanted to make sure he's gonna make the meeting.

He is quite thorough.

All right, no doubt, man.

So, um, Thank you for your service.

And, you know, I hope, I hope that you can bring a lot to this board.

This board has been lacking for a long time.

And I think that they need support.

And I think that there's others out there that need support and maybe need to hear your story or need to, you know, get some, get a push from somebody that understands where they come from.

So thank you for your service and good luck with the position.

Thank you.

I yield.

Thank you.

Okay, if that's all, the chair will entertain a motion.

Motion to refer out to the full city council for approval.

Okay, motion made by Councilor Burgos, seconded by Councilor Oliver.

Well, do you want to speak on the motion?

Yes, you always say on the question first, on the question, and then thank you, then you do the vote.

So yes, on the question, I just wanted to thank you for your time, Mr. Escobar, and, uh, for your actual service to our country, and then now to your service to our city.

Uh, welcome to New Bedford.

Uh, we are an amazing gem, not just a hidden gem, I think I think everyone who comes to our city knows how amazing we are.

But also, I just wanted to let our colleagues know that the Veterans Advisory Board now, due to the work of this council, is at full capacity— well, not full capacity, correction, at a quorum, because that was the issue that we were lacking before, is that they weren't even at a membership level that allowed them to even have a meeting because they were not even making a quorum.

So they've actually able to hold meetings.

And so I'm glad that you'll be able to— this will go on to the next council agenda favorably.

You'll be able, if you appear at that time, be sworn in.

So I want to thank my colleagues, and I want to thank you for answering that call of service.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

I got Mr. Escobar again.

Thank you for your service.

And I just wanted to add, I'm glad that you're enjoying the city of New Bedford.

I've actually been to San Bernardino several times in California, and I think you guys over there have better weather overall.

San Bernardino is the more the desert, but I'm from, I'm from more, uh, closer to the coast, so we have better weather.

Sure.

Well, in any event, thank you.

Thank you for your service.

Okay, I will now entertain that motion.

All right, all those in favor?

Opposed?

Okay.

I think the meeting— your next meeting is the 28th, is that correct?

So it'll be formally heard on the 28th, and then after it passes there, it'll be referred downstairs to the clerk's office.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you, sir.

There's a written motion, Councilors Choquette, Abram, Roy, requesting that the airport director Scott Service and conjunction with the city's conservation agent explore all options for the location of a new hangar at the New Bedford Regional Airport, and that the special committee on airport invite the airport director and the conservation agent to meet to discuss such options.

And further, that any plans to move forward with the construction of a hangar be suspended until such time as the committee has the opportunity to consider any and all options that best serve the combined interests of the airport and the surrounding neighborhoods.

It was referred here on April 23rd, 2026, and is now before you.

And motion, uh, by Councilor Libergo, seconded by Councilor Baptiste.

All those in favor?

Mr. Chairman, if you would entertain a motion to receive and place on file the agenda.

First, I wanted to state that— can you call the vote?

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm going to call the roll.

Yeah.

Didn't I just say all those in favor?

All those in favor say aye.

Sorry.

The ayes have it.

I just wanted to recognize former Ward 1 city councilor and current school committee man Brad Markey is here.

Thank you.

All right, uh, Mr. Service, we'll have you come up first, please.

Thank you.

So thought I'd start off with just kind of how we got here and where we are.

Thank you for a little bit of background for everyone.

I'm not Beyoncé.

I just kind of want to explain where we are, what we are, and the limitations we have to try to kind of paint the picture of where we got So this is the location of the, uh, construction of a 5-aircraft hangar in yellow.

It's just northeast of the existing 32 T-hangers that we have.

This is the 32 down here.

This is the construction site that's proposed.

Bridgewater State has their new hangar there.

It does not show up on Google Earth, so I— sorry, but I'll never make it in marketing.

This was an early conceptual drawing.

That building is actually a little bit bigger than what is going to be designed, or at least longer than— it will not go all the way down to Taxiway Kilo, which is down here.

It'll stop somewhere around here.

This is the conceptual layout of the hangar and where it'll go.

Um, taxiway safety areas over here.

The taxiway that I just referenced, Kilo, would be over on this side.

This would be the hangar, be a gate over Off-street parking, parking behind the units.

They would open up on this side, come out.

Director Service, I apologize, we can hear you perfectly fine in the room.

The microphone is not for our vanity, it's for the recording on cable access, so you're— we wouldn't be able to hear it later on for anyone watching.

Understood.

So this is the, uh, layout of the units.

There'll be a gate through the fence here, off-street parking, more parking in the back.

The hangars will open towards the apron.

There'll be existing new pavement in front of it for them to pull out and do it.

They need to stay outside of the taxi lane object-free areas, which is why the building is back here.

So there's a lot going on with this map.

Of why the location was chosen by the developer.

These areas that are dotted in green are all of our wetlands, which we're not building in.

The areas in yellow through here, over here, and then also in pink are natural heritage— natural heritage endangered species for the eastern box turtle.

That is also overlaid in the blue because we have our internal map for it, and then we also have the statewide map for it.

So we've identified this area and this area for construction now.

These areas over here are open for development, but Aviation Way is an unimproved street, so the cost to bring utilities and everything down to it.

And then the areas in red here and here would be possible for future development, but that's only when we move Taxiway Bravo closer to the runway.

So we need to move this over to open those up for development.

So we're very limited on the spaces that we can build on the airport, which is why the contractor chose the location that he did.

Which is up on this end because there are utilities, power and such in the street.

We currently do have a lease for this property that was approved back on June 1st, 2025 for this development.

It was approved by the Airport Commission and by the City Council.

Signed by the mayor.

So I'm not quite sure where we go from here on that one.

And we have our legal limitations as an airport.

We have a regulatory obligation to identify all the places on an airport that we can build, current and future, and we do that Um, furthermore, we have a requirement if there are no other vacant facilities on the airport that can suit the tenant's needs, we are then mandated by the FAA to enter into an agreement to lease appropriate land.

We don't have any empty hangars.

We don't have any other place to go.

So that does not apply.

So if we can't arrange satisfactory terms for something else, then we are required by FAA to lease out property that is available.

That's basically kind of just laying out where we are on things and how we ended up at this spot.

I'm happy for any questions for it.

Chair recognizes Councillor Abreu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good evening, Scott.

I realize what you just said about being mandated by the FAA.

What would be the penalty if we were in non-compliance?

We would be in violation of our grant assurances, and they could then ask us to repay them for all the grants that we've gotten over— well, each grant has a different term on it, but for construction, 20 years, vehicles, 10 years.

So we're looking at $40, $50 million worth of grants to violate the grant assurances.

The, the way it's set up is that we're similar like a highway.

Everybody drives on the highway, and we all understood with 37 inches of snow, the state said stay off the highway.

We understood why.

But other than that, it's open for public use 24/7.

Same comes to an airport.

For the FAA, for civil aviation, we're to be open 24/7, not restrict access and not restrict future growth for things.

So that is the mandate that we have based that we are an airport and we take federal monies and we're open to the public.

So that's the agreement that we made back in 1943, I believe, when the airport was, was open.

That's correct.

And the FAA, they don't bluff.

They'll collect.

They'll litigate and they'll collect.

They will.

And, and because we have a lease with this individual, we're at a little bit of a legal liability with them if we, you know, try to, you know, change things or do too much.

I mean, it's regretful that the neighbors got involved at the planning process of this because we're further down the road, but I don't control when people recognize what's going to happen or not happen.

OK.

Thank you, Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'll yield at this time.

Any further questions for Director Service?

None?

Oh, Councillor Roy, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I was wondering, I know a lot of residents from the neighborhood are here, and I was hoping that Director Service could— we could hear some of those residents.

I know they were here to speak, and I was hoping, you know, as chair you could use your discretion and allow some of these folks to share with us and Director of Service how they feel about this project.

And, and then if Director of Service can come back and, and address any of those concerns, that would be, that would be what I would like to do.

Absolutely.

But I definitely wanted to hear from Mr.

Perks first, if that's okay.

Sure.

Would you please come on up, sir?

Thank you.

Overall map, and I'll step out of the way.

Evening.

Good evening.

Uh, can you state your name for the record, please?

Chance Perks.

I'm your conservation agent with the Department of Environmental Stewardship.

Okay.

Um, so I guess I'll be the one to ask the question.

Mr.

Perks, were you— did you have alternative site knowledge or any theoretical spots where this hangar could potentially go in the airports or on the airport's grounds where it wouldn't be as disruptive to the residents who are in attendance tonight?

And, you know, if If not, um, what is your— well, actually, I'll let you answer that first question.

So I, I'm not 100% sure if I understand the question, though I think I, I know what the intent is.

Um, if I can circle back to that question, please, by pointing out, uh, what is my role as your agent?

Um, as this, as this, uh, map shows, and thanks Mr. Service for providing it.

The area and location, uh, area in question is not within the jurisdiction of the New Bedford Conservation Commission, and thus it's not in my jurisdiction.

I was contacted by Mr. Service— I don't know the exact date, but I could get that to you— months and months and months ago, 6 months, 8 months ago, if not more, about, uh, did I concur that this area was out of our jurisdiction, at which time I said yes, it was.

So to get into, uh, the question of do I know of other locations, I don't know the airport that intimately to know where there's other planned designs.

Um, you know, from what I am aware of is a proposed hangar.

There was one built just prior to me coming on as your agent, and then there's another one that is permitted and actively holds a permit to be built down, and I believe in this area here.

Again, Scott, anytime correct me if I'm wrong.

So that is, that is the other location that I'm aware of that they could build a hangar because they have a permit through my office to do so.

And that is still active, and that could happen in the future when the developer chooses to, as long as they keep their permits active.

So that's all I'm aware of in terms of the location.

And I was aware of these plans prior off because they want to know, again, is it in Wetlands jurisdiction?

Beyond that, I can't speak to the master plan of the airport.

Did that answer your question?

Yeah, it answered— yes, it answered that primary question.

Okay, thank you.

Any of the councillors, do you have any questions for Mr.

Perks?

Councillor Roy.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

To be clear, Chance, You pointed down there, that's right behind— what is that?

Um, which cemetery is that that you pointed to right there?

Is that— oh no, this is actually an auto salvage yard on Charlotte Avenue.

This is the Airport Road, Downey Street is in this area.

This is, you know, usually people kind of park and take their lunch down in this area.

When you come around the bend, there's this tarmac here.

I don't know the exact terms Um, there's this open area here, and that's where it's proposed.

Uh, Mr. Service can speak more about that.

But as you can tell, it's right up adjacent to wetlands, so that's why we get involved.

You know, that's why, you know, we serve you by reviewing these projects and making sure that they adhere to the Wetlands Protection Act.

That's why this one was in our jurisdiction.

This one is not, um, at least as proposed.

If all of a sudden they were doing something out here or in natural heritage overlay, then absolutely we would have to get involved and it would be a different story.

Okay, thank you, Chance.

Any further questions?

Okay, none at this time.

Mr. Proventura, is there anything you'd like to come up and add?

Chairman, thank you for coming tonight, sir.

Uh, good evening.

Thank you, uh, Councilor Choquette, and thank you to the committee for amending the agenda to add me as an invitee.

I appreciate the opportunity to address the committee on this.

So just by way of process and background, I wanted to provide some context for what this process looks like.

Mr. Service described why the airport is obligated to identify and make available for potential development parcels on the airport in the event that we have a solicitation from a tenant who wants to develop an aviation-related use within the airport's boundaries and we don't have a facility that we can lease wholesale to them.

You know, in certain circumstances, the airport may take ownership of a structure on the airport and may be able to rent it out as a completed facility.

But by and large, on the airfield, most of what the airport does are ground leases.

It's a lease for a parcel of land upon which construction can be made.

At the termination of which any building that's put on that property needs to be either removed, torn down, and the area returned back to its original state, or ownership of that transferred to the airport and the city.

It's really not unlike if you've ever leased a parking space.

You're leasing the space.

You're not necessarily taking any ownership rights in any of it.

You only have it for the period of the contract under which you have the lease.

So this particular construction involves a lease that was approved sometime last year, I believe, at the commission.

And Scott, you can correct me if I'm wrong, it was something like April of 2025 before it was ultimately referred to the City Council's Finance Committee, which recommended adoption of it before it was then subject to a final vote and approval by the City Council, right?

Airport Commission approval was April 16th, 2025.

The City Council in its entirety approved the lease on June 26th of last year, and then it was executed executed on July 15th.

So what the lease does is it doesn't guarantee anyone the right to undertake construction on a particular parcel.

Any lease that we as the Airport Commission approve for referral to the full council and for execution by this body and the mayor is then subject to the normal permitting process for construction that undergoes at the local level.

So you need to make an application for a building permit, you need to receive a sign-off that the proposed construction is compliant with the city's zoning ordinances.

And then if there's any additional review, such as that might be undertaken by the Conservation Commission, if any of the proposed development impacts a wetlands resource area that's been delineated by an appropriate study, they would need to get a notice of intent and make sure that it complies with the state wetlands protection law.

In this particular case, it also involves a separate provision of land use control.

The city has a provision that's called Site Plan Review.

It's not zoning and it's not planning, but it's committed to the Planning Board in terms of its administration.

And what Site Plan Review does is that it ensures that any proposed construction over a certain threshold goes through either a staff-led administrative review project or a decision by the full Planning Board, which is what occurred in this case.

So that's the Planning Board meeting that occurred in February of this year, which I reviewed the minutes for.

And so that's the context in which all of this is happening.

So essentially, we have a series of duly noticed public meetings that were undertaken by the Airport Commission, which meets approximately once a month whenever we can, through the calendar year last year, leading to the adoption of the lease, which is finalized for the territory that was marked on the map that you saw.

And then the developer themselves went through the permitting process, making sure that they were compliant with zoning, which my understanding is the area in question is zoned as Industrial B, and this is an as-of-right use in that zone, and then made an application for site plan review.

So where they were at with site plan review is that that goes before the entire planning board when it's above a certain threshold of square footage.

That happened in this case, and the planning board unanimously approved the site plan review based on a public meeting that happened back then.

I wanted to note for the full council that I think one of the things that's relevant here, and I saw some comments to this effect in an article that ran in the New Bedford Light yesterday, that there was a feeling, a feeling that people's individual rights to a public notice that had to be sent to a certified list of abutters generated by the assessing and planning departments wasn't properly maintained.

One of the things that I think is generally unusual about site plan review is that it does not arise under Chapter 40A, which where you get your abutters list requirements of notice for special permit applications, for zoning appeals, and for variance applications.

And it similarly doesn't arise under the Subdivision Control Act under Chapter 41, Sections 81A through, I think, WW, but don't quote me on that.

There's a lot of lettered subsections in that.

So there's no notice requirement under zoning, and there's no notice requirement under subdivision control.

And so the only place a notice requirement comes from in those circumstances is the city ordinances.

Now, I took a look to familiarize myself with the city ordinance on site plan review, and it does not contain a notice requirement, and it does not appear to mandate that any abutters receive particularized notice of this.

I— my understanding is that the planning department tries to get notice out on site plan review meetings when they do arise, and I believe they made an effort to do that here, but I'm not from the planning board and I don't specifically know it.

I bring that to your attention solely because this body is the one that would be in a position to correct that potential oversight and impose a notice to abutters requirement similar that you might have in a zoning context or a planning context and make sure that people get notice of these kinds of applications when they're going to come before the planning board.

So with that said, that's all I have unless there are any questions from you, Chancellor Choquette, or any member of the committee.

Um, so, okay, have you been spending time in the mayor's office lately?

No, no, I, I don't practice anymore, but I have practiced municipal law in my career as a lawyer.

Okay.

Um, so essentially, and again, with respect to your, your statement, you're saying that the abutters have no rights to be notified on these issues?

Uh, until and unless the city council makes an ordinance requiring that they be provided notice.

Um, it enacted an ordinance requiring site plan review for projects of this size in this zone, and in fact it requires it in a number of different contexts, but particularly here.

It doesn't appear that when the city council entertained that, it made sure to include a requirement that a butter's radius be drawn and that people be provided notice.

My understanding though is that the planning board, as a matter of practice, even though they're not required to do so, their staff endeavors to send out notices to people that they can identify as abutters, as would be the case for, you know, a subdivision application or a zoning permit.

Uh, actually, Councilor Abreu first, please.

Chair recognizes Councilor Abreu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Just not for Mr. Provencher, just to you, Mr. Chairman.

Um, just point of clarification.

I know myself, you, and Councilor Roy co-sponsored, uh, this motion.

I know you had a conversation with the planning office, correct?

Correct.

And can you just divulge all of us for the record and these folks here and everybody the context of that conversation?

Because it was a— oh man, we may— at first it was the letters went out, then it was a mea culpa.

I just want to get very succinct clarity on what went down or did not happen.

Yes, because you had the conversation.

So I had the conversation with the planning department, and specifically, um, the director told me that it was, uh, her fault that they didn't go out correctly, and she was taking, you know, mea culpa, as Councilor Abrams said, on that.

Um, I asked that we have this all redone.

We have a second pass-through with site plan review since the public was not correctly notified.

I was told that that was going to happen, and then a couple days later I was then told that upon consultation with our solicitor, Attorney Jakes, that that was not required.

So someone who I would also like to bring up, if Unless— oh, actually, you're still on the queue here, um, so go ahead, Councillor Roy.

I'm sorry.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Councillor from Ricketts Street.

Ricketts Street, my bad.

Yeah, answer the questions.

Thank you.

Okay, so it would appear that we have a loophole in the law that's existed since 1848 that we need to address.

Obviously, we can't address that this evening.

Well, we'll have to file a motion, Mr. Chairman, and I'm sure through you to the chairman of ordinance this year, he'll have an expeditious hearing and we'll get it going.

Correct.

Yeah, go ahead, uh, Councilor.

My first point of information: this item was passed by the planning board site plan review?

Can you say that again?

This item was approved by the site— by the planning board on site plan review?

Yes.

Okay.

Second point of information: Did you not file a motion to address these ordinance concerns at the last meeting?

Uh, yes, I did actually.

Thank you.

Yep, so point taken.

Okay, um, I think unless the rest of the body has any questions for Mr. Proventure, uh, I'd like to bring up Attorney Jakes.

Is that possible?

Sure.

And just before I, I clear, I appreciate the time to speak.

Um, I I just want to make clear, I haven't conferred specifically with anybody in the mayor's office about how this might be taken.

I don't know what posture the city may take with respect to any potential challenge or argument against the planning board's action.

I just wanted to also make note that I think we all appreciate the work that our staff here do, Mr. Service and Mr. Burke in particular.

I understand that the nature of the motion before you asks them to suspend any work on the hangar.

I just want to note that from the perspective of the Airport Commission, we endorsed and the city adopted a valid lease that apparently, as far as I know, has passed through both the zoning and planning contexts, has received, you know, site plan review as a non-discretionary approval.

The ordinance clearly states that if it meets the subject criteria and it passes site plan review, it shall be granted.

It's not discretionary the way that a special permit or a variance application is.

And so I feel that asking either of our staffers to coordinate the suspension of any cooperation and work with the developer when they have a valid lease and valid permitting in hand is going to expose them to some potential issues.

And I would prefer, and I ask that the committee please consider, not making that kind of demand of our professional staffers who work very hard for us.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll take that into account.

Thank you.

Attorney Jakes.

It's a matter.

Okay.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair.

Good evening, Mr.

Solicitor.

Just a quick question.

Um, when site plan review is carried out, to the best of your knowledge, um, do the abutters have rights to receive these letters at the correct addresses and have the ability to come to these meetings.

So let me not avoid your question, but first apologize.

I am not an invitee this evening.

I was here as an observer.

Uh, I'm not wearing a suit or a tie.

That's not a matter of disrespect.

I did not expect to speak this evening.

The answer to your question is I understand it.

I did not do the research on this.

It was done by David Houghton.

But to the best of my knowledge, after speaking to Attorney Houghton who researched the matter, there is nothing in state law or regulations or the city ordinances that requires notification to the abutters in an instance of site plan review.

The Planning Department, as pointed out by the chair of the commission, has in fact as a courtesy in past practice notified the abutters of what was going to be on the agenda for site plan review.

The main requirement is that it be posted appropriately 48 hours before the meeting.

And one of the concerns that was voiced by the solicitor's office through Attorney Houghton was that if this decision is challenged in court by the developer, he will win because the meeting was properly noticed in terms of the law and the ordinances of the City of New Bedford.

Again, it was contrary to our past practice in this instance due to a mistake between planning and the assessor's office.

The exact details of that error I'm not privy to.

I'm not sure if it came from planning or assessors, but I know the lot was misidentified and therefore the list was not entirely accurate.

Okay, so in your opinion, it's okay for the city to throw out procedure and we just go with this?

I mean, these people were not represented.

They didn't have a chance to go to these to these meetings.

They— I, I mean, it just— you have to understand that from a landowner's standpoint, it feels like something was tried to get put through without their knowledge.

And I would respectfully disagree with your characterization, Mr. Chairman.

Okay.

When property is leased at the airport, a request is brought to the administration of the airport It's then brought to the commission.

There's a public notice that goes out with the agenda which would indicate that this individual was seeking to obtain a lease for hangars at the airport.

This individual has been involved in this process for over 4 years because I've been the solicitor for 4 years, and prior to that I was assigned to represent the airport on behalf of the administration.

And I was present when this individual began the process over 4 years ago.

And when it came to have the lease approved, it was noticed, it came to the council, the council referred it to the property committee.

There was a notice of the property committee and its agenda.

The property committee met on at least one, if not more, occasions.

It was favorably referred back to the council.

There was a second vote by the council, which was again noticed, and that was last year.

It then proceeded through the process internally in the building department and then to site plan review.

Okay.

All right, thank you, Attorney Jakes, again.

I know you weren't expecting to speak, so thank you for being forthcoming and and coming up to the microphone.

My pleasure, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, uh, councilors, any questions for Attorney Jakes?

I don't, Mr.— I don't, Mr. Chairman.

So Eric, you can take a seat if you'd like.

Thank you, Councilor Avril.

Good to see you again.

Um, I know we have residents here from the community and from the neighborhood, Mr. Chairman.

I know it's chairman's discretion.

I know you and I had a conversation, and Councilor Roy and I had a conversation.

I know Some folks, maybe not all of them, but some of them definitely at least want to be heard on the record about what their opinions or views are.

Um, to, you know, for the interest of time, I know folks want to get home and whatever, but, um, do you want to just have them come up one at a time, give their name and address, and give them maybe a minute at least?

And yes, I think that each person here— I mean, they're here, they deserve to be one minute to speak.

Of course they're here.

So How about 2?

Because I can't say much in a minute.

2?

You want to give him 2 minutes?

We'll give him 2 minutes.

2 minutes.

2 minutes.

It goes by quick.

So yeah, it's going to take you a minute to walk up to the podium.

It's just, you know what I mean?

I don't want to keep folks here all night either.

I want to resp— I want to respect their time.

So, okay, so whoever would like to speak, please come up.

Jessica Bergoli, 1415 Old Plainville Road.

Not good with public speaking, so I'm just going to read what I wrote.

Good evening, City Council.

I'll try not to take up too much of your time tonight because unlike this airport project, at least I believe in giving people proper notice before showing up.

You know, apparently only 2 people in our entire neighborhood were properly notified about the original planning committee meeting regarding the project.

I'm sure, as you saw in yesterday's article.

And that's exactly why we're standing here tonight.

Not because we are unreasonable, not because we're against progress, but because residents— because residents who pay some of the highest taxes in the city deserve transparency, respect, and the right to know what is happening in their own neighborhood.

Before decisions are already made.

Last year, our taxes went up over $1,000, and with the new mayor's budget, they're expected to rise even more.

Yet somehow, when it comes to notifying the residents that fund the city, the system suddenly falls apart.

The abutters list alone proves that.

I'll skip that.

And unfortunately, I'll skip that because we're not lawyers.

We're not developers.

We are normal everyday citizens trying to understand our rights while navigating a process that has felt almost impossible to follow.

And I actually have the petition sheets that I have with me today, but when we actually found about— found out about this first meeting— well, you don't have to see them.

And if we have actually known about what the original planning meeting was about, if residents have been properly informed and given enough time to understand our rights and how these projects unfold, we would asked for the solutions we are requesting tonight at this very meeting.

But we didn't even realize this project was essentially a done deal until we were muted during the Zoom meeting.

Sorry, I'm so nervous.

This is not an industrial zone.

This is not a commercial district.

This is our neighborhood.

People choose to live there because it's quiet.

Families walk there, kids ride bikes there, neighbors know each other there.

The neighborhood This neighborhood is here long before the airport, and now we're being told to accept increased traffic, commercial activity, bright lights pouring into our homes, noise, pollution, and a massive building that simply does not belong in a residential area.

These may be private planes, but there's still commercial activity.

People will be driving to this new parking lot to board flights there— cars, deliveries, employees, visitors— all entering a quiet dead-end neighborhood that was never meant to handle this type of activity.

And despite all of this, we are not demanding the impossible.

We're asking for reasonable solutions.

First, turn the building around so the opening does not face our homes.

Second, build a wall or a barrier to shield residents from the lights that will otherwise shine directly into our homes.

Third, plant native green trees such as juniper and white spruce to help offset pollution, reduce visual impact year-round, and provide some measure of beautification.

Location in respect to the residents living beside this project.

All these are reasonable requests, and honestly, I don't even know how much good this meeting tonight will really do for us at this point.

But since I'm just a regular person, not a lawyer, not a developer, not someone with political connections, I'm asking you, would it be reasonable for this council to help us pause the construction of this hangar long enough to make real solutions that are worked out with the airport, the developer, and the residents who actually live there, because right now it feels like the people most affected have the smallest voices in the pro— in this process.

And we are trying to compromise.

We're trying to work with the city and the airport.

Thank you.

B as in boy, R-E-G-O-L-I.

Okay, thank you, Jessica.

Mark Martins, 1418 Old Plainville Road.

Uh, as far as the abutters, I have a list here that was sent out to the abutters on the other side of the neighborhood.

So somebody got informed about this.

Not us.

The whole other side of the neighborhood got informed.

Not one of them are here.

Maybe you can build it over there in their neighborhood since they know about it.

So if you want to see it, I got it.

23 neighbors on the other side, and every property that the airport owns got a, a notice that they were building it.

Some people live as far as 3 miles away in hangars.

They got it.

We live right there.

We got nothing.

Zip.

Mr. Martins, excuse me.

Sorry, can, can we accept and place that on file for the record?

That's okay.

I don't have a lawyer, so I'll make a copy for you.

It was like out of the 100 people that are on that abutters list, 75% were city-owned or city-adjacent buildings, 25 were actual human beings, and most of them didn't even live in our neighborhood.

2 of them were actual residents of our neighborhood.

Motion received and placed on file, the abutters list.

So whoever, whoever got the abutters list I can take the planning board, or whoever sent it out was totally wrong on where they they sent it.

Mr. Chairman, through you to Jessica, do you mind if we also take a copy of your full statement and we can scan it so everyone can read the full testimony?

I'll take it.

The motion to receive in place.

The prepared statement.

My original petitions.

Motion to receive in place on file.

By Councilor Roy, seconded by Councilor Burgo.

All those in favor?

And I have also— I have signatures from all— mostly all the neighbors, over 60 of them.

Yeah, I'd also motion to receive and place on file those signatures.

Second.

Seconded by Councilor— like, well By Councillor Abreu, seconded by Councillor Roy.

Uh, James Roy.

Councillor James Roy.

So if I can say one more thing, you know, after hearing the lawyers speak, like, we're obviously not lawyers.

Half that went right over my head, definitely, probably my neighbors too.

But kind of what I took from the end of that is that we don't really have any rights as abutters, and that we don't, you know, even anybody in the city doesn't need to get an abutters notice when it comes to like massive projects or even small projects that could impact other people's neighborhoods.

Like, did I hear that right?

Apparently that, apparently that is true, and we, the council Council will be looking into that right away as it relates to the airport.

Also, they have a 40-year lease, I believe, 40-year, at $700 a month.

Was that what it was, right?

Yeah, $700 a month.

You're not allowed to ask questions.

Should know this, Mr. Barnes.

A lot of people renting in your neighborhoods, right?

Sorry, Mr. Barnes, you're not allowed to ask Questions.

I'm sorry, I forgot to shut it off.

Got to follow proper procedure, even though not everybody appears to, but we, we have to.

Does anybody else wish to speak, to be on the record, please?

This is your time, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Martins.

Thank you, Jessica.

Hi, my name is Bruce Booker.

B-O-O-K-E-R.

I Grew up in the neighborhood.

I live not too far away now on Shawmut Avenue on the other side of New Plainville Road.

But it's always— we've always lived with the airport.

We don't— we're not against the airport, we're just against what they're always trying to do.

So they're trying to push this development, and they've done it in the past, towards the residential houses of the neighborhood.

And that end towards the Jewish Cemetery, Old Plainville Road, Shawmut Avenue, where this— where the houses are.

They have plenty of land available off Downing Street where there's foreign trade zone is supposed to be located, but they don't use it.

It's empty.

There's other land just on Shawmut Avenue all the way down the end.

They, they have hangars there already on the side of the runway.

They could build more hangars there.

I don't know why they decided to put it in this spot.

It's probably the easiest to get, you know, to the street, but there should be— they should not be pushing this towards the residential area.

This house is there, that neighborhood's been there forever.

Before the airport was there, that neighborhood was there.

They knocked down a schoolhouse, they knocked down a horse racetrack, they took houses down to put that there.

But they just keep pushing in the wrong direction, in my opinion.

There's plenty of available land where they can build, and they just don't want to use it.

They're going to keep pushing against us.

Right now, those people that live along that fence barrier there, I feel sorry for them.

They should put up a wall, at least for the noise.

They— 6 o'clock in the morning, they'll wake up, they'll hear a plane winding up and down, up and down, up and down for 5 minutes, and then it takes off.

This happens to them all the time.

Now you want to put a hangar there with the plane doors facing their houses with no barrier, a fence, that's it.

That's wrong.

That's totally wrong.

You know, if they wanted to be a good neighbor, They should try to be a good neighbor and not, you know, just keep doing what they're doing.

This— the first expansion they did was like years back.

They got cut back a little bit, and it's— it worked with the neighborhood.

But it just— I just don't think that's the right area for the hangar.

And Mr. Booker, I just wanted to add for the record, your families lived in that area for a very long time.

Used to live in Jessica's house.

I was born there, right next to the Jewish cemetery.

I grew up there.

Now I live just a, you know, a half a mile away from there.

It's a beautiful neighborhood.

But so the airport doesn't play by the rules anyway.

They never honor their flight paths.

There is no flight path there.

The planes take off.

There's a center, you know, line for the runway that goes behind a property that I own in the middle of the pond.

There's 1,800 acres of wetlands there.

And nothing there.

The Cushion of Cedar Swamp State Reservation.

You think they fly down the center line?

No.

As soon as they leave, they go right over my house, probably 600 feet in the air, constantly back and forth.

They should not be allowed to do that.

They should be able to have to go out so far, get up so high, and then turn.

But they don't.

Helicopters, 9:30 at night, training, flying around in circles.

10, 15, 20 times.

They all know it.

They can all hear it.

What's done about it?

Nothing.

Nothing.

You call and complain, nothing happens.

Oh, you have to call the FAA.

There's nobody in the tower at night.

It's, it's ridiculous.

But, you know, all right, that's enough.

You know, all right, well, just get wound up about it.

Oh, I completely understand.

Beautiful neighborhood.

Everybody lives there.

We pay high taxes.

But we have to put up with this all the time.

You know, it's just— go put the, put the hangars down somewhere away from the houses.

That's all we ask.

Okay, thank you.

Anybody else wish to speak?

I'm Tom Welch, 1878 Charmouth Ave.

I don't think the Airport Commission cares about us.

Somebody on that commission should have said, hey, that's a residential neighborhood, why are we putting a hangar over there?

They don't care about us.

None of you people do.

He keeps saying, Scott, where are you, Scott, are the tenants' needs.

The tenant is from Rhode Island.

We're the taxpayers.

We have needs.

I think this is a, a sham and we're getting sold out by the city here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Welch.

Anyone else, please?

Okay.

Oh yeah, anyone here, you don't have to speak, but you can give your name and address for the record.

Any— anyone?

Yes, ma'am.

Dennis, I'm sorry, I was just talking to Councillor, go ahead please.

Kim Burke.

Kim Burke.

Thank you.

Okay, okay.

1480 Old Plainsboro Road.

1480?

Yep.

18.

18.

I'm sorry, Miss Martz.

Okay, okay.

Um, yep, 1431 or 8131?

31, right?

Yep.

Okay, Mr. Booker.

John Booker, 825.

Okay.

Oh, yes, sir.

Rafael Menendez.

Okay.

Oh, Tim Katz, 1415 Old Plainville Road.

Tim, what's your last name?

Katz.

Thank you.

Okay, you wanted to make— okay, I got to give you 2 minutes.

You can only recognize one.

Oh, I'm sorry, you can only be recognized.

Okay, um, you want to recognize Councillor Aber?

Councillor Aber, for what?

Motion?

I just want to speak though.

Somebody else said— Miss, well, you already spoke.

Well, I don't know if anybody else— okay, no, I just think that, uh, you know, when appropriate, I think we'll make a motion to table.

There was some great feedback by the community, by the neighborhood here.

Hopefully Mr. Service took some of that in, but there's only so much we can do legally from a legal standpoint.

Right, Mr. Chairman?

And, uh, we had the chairman of the Airport Commission speak and lay it out.

We had our solicitor speak and lay it out.

The law is the law, unfortunately, in this case.

Um, but they, but they have concerns that are valid, whether it's the flight patterns, noise.

If we can try to work in some capacity to mitigate some of these concerns, I think that would be nice.

Um, uh, And I want to continue to just make sure that the airport's going to be a good neighbor and a good corporate steward for the, for the neighborhood here that abuts.

So I don't know what more else I can say at this point.

I'll yield if anyone else wants the floor, but if not, then we'll make the motion to table.

We can bring this back, bring Scott back, bring these folks back, and we can see if we made any progress.

I also think, Mr. Chairman, maybe through your northern neighborhood meetings, maybe we could have more of an working sessions maybe with these folks and then the airport crew.

I mean, I don't know, like not so formal, like we— through your neighborhood meeting at Pulaski one month, have these folks come in and then maybe the airport individuals also can attend and we can really kind of roll up our sleeves and delve into some of these concerns and issues because this is a little more formal, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I like that idea, Councilman.

Abreu, um, because this is an issue that obviously has not been satisfied this evening, um, so there's still more to discuss.

Um, do I have— Mr.

Chair?

Oh, Chief Councillor Oliver, I apologize, you have the floor.

Thank you.

I, I compelled the makers of the motion before entertaining a table to, uh, a motion to table to maybe consider referring this out for no further action.

And not because we don't want to take any further action on it, it's just we're talking about abutters and being notified and all that other stuff.

And although these people are here to speak their mind, there are probably more abutters that still have not been notified of this meeting, as it wasn't supposed to kind of turn into this.

Um, so I would, I would suggest referring this out for no further action, and the makers of the motion maybe come back with another motion where we have a public hearing about that issue, about the airport not respecting the neighborhood and being a good neighbor and this, that, and the third.

Because the fact is, whether— and, and I'm not going to be liked here— is this hangar is being built.

The way that the law is written, the notification didn't have to be.

That sounds like the council is going to entertain steps to make sure that this doesn't happen in the future.

Um, but now the conversation is what type of neighbor is the airport and these neighbors going to— these tenants going to be going forward.

And I think that's a completely different issue, a completely different motion.

And that's what I would suggest, but I will defer to the makers of the motion as far as the action that they want to take.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Oliver.

Councillor Roy.

I think the guests tonight that are here were looking forward to hear what Director of Service had to say about some of their suggestions to mitigate, you know, the problems they may have in their neighborhood.

So they said a few things, and I was hoping to get Director of Service up to see.

I mean, he's talking— he's, he's talked about, you know, these steps that, that could be taken with them.

And, and I think they were hoping to, to hear the director, you know, in front of all of us, you know, commit to something or not commit to anything.

And I was hoping you'd give him time to come back up and address some of those concerns.

All right, excellent.

Um, Director Service, uh, please come back up to the mic and Hello again.

Hi, I'm just curious, what are your thoughts on some of the sound mitigation measures up to and including, you know, trees, bushes, walls, anything that, you know, maybe turning the actual hangar the other direction so the doors aren't facing the neighborhood?

Um, sure.

So, um, as towards turning the hangar, um, we have different safety areas.

Runway logic, free areas, transitional surface, they come out, the hangar falls just underneath that.

The doors open up on the other side and come up.

To turn this around, it would violate the airspace, which is why we orientated it that way.

Second would be we would have to build a new taxi lane that would be on this side of the hangar that would then be in the runway safety area.

So it's kind of tucked into a small area that fits in.

It is a money pit.

But once you— once you lose it forever, I don't care.

Build homes, tax rolls.

A little hard to see on this one, but runways over here.

This goes up.

These numbers here, 92, 94, are mean sea level.

That's not above ground level.

It's mean sea level.

You have to subtract 76 feet from that.

So, you know, something along over here would be 24 feet tall, 34, 44 feet tall.

Having the apron open in this direction opens it up to the existing taxi lane, not building a new taxi lane for it.

That would be an additional cost.

It was not part of the original proposal on it.

Any kind of sound mitigation that we did over there, whatever plantings we did, would need to be on the outside of the fence, so street side.

It's a very narrow band along there, but whatever trees we plant can't grow too tall because at 24 feet, 34 feet, we have to cut the tops off to maintain our runway and maintain our approaches for it.

So it's kind of a tough little area.

We used to have black spigots in the fence.

We took those out after a hurricane because the fence pulled out during the hurricane, and we had to take loaders and push it back in and hold it in place so we could fix it.

It's something we could look at.

I mean, but that is an unfunded mandate on the airport if that choice comes.

I do not know how my budget's going to turn out this year.

I'm not overly optimistic.

I understand what the city's going through, but that also does trickle down to the rest of us.

I don't know how far you want me to go with all this.

Any further questions, or you're just looking for opinions?

Does, uh, do any of the councilors here have any questions or anything they want to add?

No?

Okay.

Uh, I know Director Proventure, I know that you wanted to go back up there.

You're going to get boarded to submission again.

Hi again, uh, Matt Provencher, 130 School Street, from the Airport Commission.

Um, I just— one of the things I heard that I wanted to respond to was from the final citizen speaker, Mr. Welch.

Um, I just wanted to express that, you know, this committee had another volunteer to serve on a municipal board or commission, and that the expression of sentiments like that, that the people who serve the city for free and without remuneration on local boards and commissions do so because they do not care about the city and its residents is tremendously hurtful.

It's really unwarranted.

I think this expression is still also unwarranted as it relates to Mr. Service and our professional staff, who I think do their best to discharge their duties.

So I understand that these are really close to home issues.

They're very literally close to home for all the people here tonight, and I understand that.

And I understand that, you know, this can be a heated issue.

But I just want to express to the committee that I do think it's important that people understand that this was the product of a reasoned and careful decision-making process taken by citizens of New Bedford acting in good faith.

And so I just hope that the committee keeps that in mind as it considers the issues that have been raised this evening.

Thanks.

No, sorry, you can only speak one time.

Okay, so we got to get a motion.

Motion on the floor here.

What are we going to do?

Motion to refer out for no further action.

Second.

Okay, motion for no further action was put on the floor by Councilor Burgos, seconded by Councilor Oliver.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All opposed?

The ayes have it.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn, seconded by everybody.

Everyone Okay, motion adjourned by Councilor Abrego, seconded by Councilor Oliver.

All those in favor?

Really quickly, I just want to let the general public know again, to echo the sentiments of my colleague from Ward 3, Councilor Oliver, sending it for no further action does not mean that we're not taking action on this issue.

It just means that the motion that was written for this purpose, no, it has served its purpose for tonight.

But as has been pointed out by our council President, uh, the chairman has already sent motions to fix the ordinance in regards to the issue that took place with the abutters list and all the other issues.

I apologize that you were dragged out tonight and you might feel as though action wasn't taken the way it was, but we will continue to work on building those relationships.

I just want to make sure it's clear, when you hear the words no further action does not mean that we're not taking further action on this issue.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Bergo.

This meeting is adjourned at 8:51 PM.

Thank you, everyone.