Dolan just called for a committee to explore new public safety buildings.
Not one woman is on the Committee except Denise G!
Little Robbie must be peeking at MM, which is against his city hall policy. He is either looking for something from the unions (GIC, contracts ) which is the only time he has brought up new buildings, or trying to deflect from some of the other messes in the city. Once he gets what he's looking for, the new building will go away. FYI there are two female police officers on the department.
There are 2 female police officers and 1 female firefighter employed in Melrose. There are female design professionals, archectects (instead of Joe Nevin), engineers or a female veteran (who could speak from a 1st responder point of view) who could be included. The Mayor said that Don Conn would appoint a BOA representative to the committee. It should be Lemmerman, Margolis, Infurna or Medeiros.
Hopefully Conn will appoint Ms. Medeiros.
The mayor claims unprecedented "transparency" and then calls the same old boys to the smoke-filled room.
Can I get me some Bruins tickets[:-D]
I Was Told That Lemmerman Is A Man Who Dresses As A Women Is This True ? And I Dont Want To Hear From Any Of You Political Correct Idiots....
He must be reading the boards and realizing people are saying he should have put it where Deering was. So now he's just trying to appease because he miissed the boat. Where could he possibly put it now?
He missed the boat years ago, when it should have been built where the old bowling alley was.
One possible place would be the practice field across from the High School. Neither should be located in the downtown. The Tremont St station could then be closed because it would be redundant.
I'm pretty sure that would violate some environmental codes being that close to the pond as well as deplete more of Melrose's open space. Does Melrose even still have a conservation commission?
Is this why i saw the old fire chief and robbie dolan staring up at the main st fire station recently?Does being an ex chief qualify him a structual engineer or builder? Is the city of melrose paying Mr O'brien for his services? Maybe City Auditor Dellarusso hid this line idem in the cemetery depts budget as a "dead issue" so no one would question the expendicture.We all know this project will never happen because both fire/police buildings wont bring in revenue for melrose ."With no money to commit,the project is in the sh$t". If ex chief O'brien is a consultant on this project with no engineering expierience, maybe mayor dolan could get that kid alan who use to hang around main st fire station to help with the blueprints.UNBELIEVEABLE.
Who is on the committee? I haven't seen anything
This needs to happen. Recently went to get my LTC down the police station. Oh my goddddd. It's far worse than I ever thought. I always thought people saying this were just complaining now I know they are not. The building is a complete mess inside it's probably 100 years old it looks 200. If anyone doesn't believe me go to the station and request a downstairs tour not the upstairs where the mayor made it look good for the public. And by make it look good I mean paint the walls and put some cheap tiling on the ground. As for the fire department I know a bunch of guys over there and have been inside and it too is a disaster. Did you know they can't even have a fire engine in the back part of the garage because the ground is too unstable, did anybody else besides me know that? Mayor Dolan if you are reading this it is time to act this is the only override that would pass step it up and do your job.
Any other possible sights anyone know of?
Take the drug slums of Wyoming/Berwick/Cory by eminent domain and put the new fire/police station there.
How does the police station accommodate someone who is wheelchair bound? They speak in a box out on the street. What if it is snowing or raining out? So if someone with a crutch, cane, wheelchair it stroller needs to make a report. They need to be in the elements to report it? I know a lot of turf is going on another field at pine banks so it looks pretty. Where are the priorities?
Pine Banks is run and funded thru a trust, as well as fees paid by all clubs/sports who use it, they are replacing the old turf in the back field which is I believe 15 years old. I'm not sure what Malden and Melrose pay in to the actual park. I've always been told that the trust and fee's pay for everything, once again not totally sure.
We can keep talking about locations that aren't going to happen or places we "missed the boat on" or we can discuss places left. Options are few and far between in our congested city. Obviously we'd prefer to have our first responders in a centralized location. But lets face it, probably no longer an option. The only way that could happen is if they completely remodeled the downtown fire headquarters into a Police/Fire mix used building. But because of the historical society, that also may not be an option, which is absurd by the way. Historical buildings supersede public safety?? Absolutely bonkers. So we are basically stuck with the old armory on lower Main St. Not sure if this could even happen anymore after the Mayor blew it years ago, but as we've discussed options are slim. Huge land, could easily accommodate the fire headquarters, another fire house, and police headquarters. This way we can eliminate a fire house, because we do not need three of them in Melrose, two would work just fine.
Another option is keep everything the way it is, and revamp our current buildings instead of moving them. Not a bad option except the current Police department could easily be 50 or so parking spots for that madhouse we call a down town. At the end everything comes down to money, which the Mayor would lead you to believe we do not have haha. I also believe an override would pass, but only if it were for Public Safety. No hidden school non sense within. Not only do I think it would pass, I think it would be the opposite of our last override 2/3rd's FOR as opposed to AGAINST. So whether we as a city decide new building or we decide revamp the current ones, something needs to give. These buildings are a disgrace and need work as soon as possible.
What about all the "tot lots" we have littered all over the City? We have more playgrounds per square foot than any other town I've ever lived in! There's a play ground on Lebanon across from the cemetery. It's a horrible place for a play ground and for games to be played. Parents have to park on both sides of Lebanon and traffic just speeds on by creating a real safety concern!
If that play ground could be repurposed to at least accommodate a police station that would be interesting. We could blast more of the back ledge to make room for parking and it would force traffic to slow down along that stretch of Lebanon. Just my two cents.
It's really a stupid place for a playground.
Why would you put a police station on the far edge of town? Police and emergency services need to be in a central location.
The Caruso's block of stores...abutting houses...parking lot....located....Main/Emerson to Lebanon/Emerson could accommodate a fire/police combo...would be near the hospital....
The Caruso block is way too small area to accommodate both - and there would be not much parking. You would need to take private housing in the area along East Emerson to make this feasible and then dislocate a bunch of businesses. Makes no sense
I would simply make some upgrades to the existing facilities to improve handicap access and more creature comforts for the staff.
Myron, you are way, way off on this one. It isn't just no handicap access at the PD. The entire cellblock is non-compliant as well. Someone hangs themselves in there and the City will be on the hook in a massive lawsuit. It makes no sense whatever to dump more money into a building that simply can't be made compliant. It was never designed as a police station. It was a telephone building. The switching panel is so old there is no one alive that knows how to fix it.
The FD building has floors that are so unstable they can't park a truck on them, and the rest of the place is falling apart.
The smart move is to stop throwing money away on temporary fixes and build a combined headquarters. That saves money in the long run. For once I am on the same page as the Mayor. These buildings need replacement right now. Actually, they needed replacement twenty years ago. I honestly can't think of another area station that hasn't been, except maybe Revere.
All I did was try to demonstrate that the Caruso is not the right site for the combined fire/police headquarters. If someone can show me how we can afford a completely new building for these facilities, I'll listen. Could you get a a 15-25 million dollar override through for such an effort- doubt it!
As I peruse the Boss Hog Dolan hand appointed committee members I reflect upon the old wise words of Chief Sitting Bull, "HEAP too many Bum Lovers....Not Enough GOOD BUMS!" MELROSE RED RAIDERS FOREVER!
The Public Safety Buildings in this city are home to many critters. Rats, squirrels and mice live with our police and fire employees. If Ruth Clay and Paul Johnson inspected these buildings, the fire and police stations in this city would be ordered to be torn down immediately!
Have you ever noticed that every city or town around us has s newer police station? Stone ham? Yup Wakefield of course. Malden is building a state of the art one and is leaving one that is more modern than ours. Saugus has a beautiful one shared with their fd. This is long overdue.
If I am not mistaken, these new stations in the surrounding towns were subsidized by state or federal grants. These grants I believe have since dried-up.
True; but do you think that would happen here, with the way the corner office views emergency services
I actually have spoken to the Mayor about this specific matter - he is interested in improving or replacing these buildings - just hasn't found a workable solution. He has noted that working with the existing buildings is too costly for the city and building new ones - the money is just not there - along with any state/federal funding. I can tell from our discussion about this, that he and his team have given this matter considerable thought. If you have sensible solutions - I suggest passing your ideas along to him.
I don't buy all the BS about "the city has no money for this." They definitely do, they just don't care about the buildings. I bet nothing happens with public safety for at least another five years. Which is pathetic because these buildings are deplorable.
Don't waste your time. He has been the mayor for over a dozen years and has had opportunities to address this issue but as another poster has said, "missed the boat." fifteen years ago Melrose was in line with Saugus, Lynn, Revere, and Chelsea as the worst police stations in the area. The first three have since built new buildings and after the Chelsea pd building was condemned, they temporarily moved out and the building was revamped. The building on W. Foster St. can't be revamped.Every time they run out of room they build another wall to make two smaller rooms out of an already tiny space. The building and garage out back need to be torn down and a new one built, maybe two or three stories high with handicap access. If there isn't enough room buy the lawyers building next door and dip into the municipal parking behind the pd if necessary. Maybe they can temporarily relocate the pd to the sixty year old Beebe School , it would still be forty years newer than the current one. I know that combined police/ fire buildings are the way communities are going now, but there's not much space left in the city. Maybe build the pd behind the Main St fire station. The Armory has been talked about as a location for the pd for over twenty years and have to agree with a prior poster that it is not a good location, plenty of room but not user friendly , especially to our seniors who often walk into the current pd. The mayor has had his chances in the past and has chosen to use bandaids to fix the buildings. Parking spaces may be lost and some businesses may need to relocate but what is his priority?