Two meetings were held this week by City Council committees.

FINANCE COMMITTEE

The city Department of Public Works is looking to hire two additional employees to help with trimming and cutting down trees.

Carl Rossi, the DPW director, said there’s a lot of work to be done in this area.

City Councilor Michael Sullivan agreed and added that the term “tree cutter”  used by Rossi is a term from years gone by and doesn’t accurately reflect what the work entails.

“At this time, the term tree climber is just an antiquated term, you know, probably dating back 50 to 100 years ago,” said Sullivan. “There’s very few times that you actually have a tree climber anymore. Most of the work is done from a bucket.”

Councilor Kevin Jourdain

City Councilor Kevin Jourdain asked about the benefits of hiring employees vs contracting the forestry services.

“You know, when you have an employee, you’ve got to account for all the sick leave. You got to account for all the liability insurance. This is a high-risk position. These people get injured all the time. And what percentage of them end up going out on disabilities or disability retirements? How many holidays are there? How many vacation days are there?”

The Finance Committee approved the proposal as well as another from DPW. This item called for the transfer of $192,500 to cover the costs of upgrading the city’s gas station.

The full agenda is here.

The documents the councilors received are here.

ORDINANCE COMMITTEE

A proposal to create a ledger of which residents use handicap parking tags, and what happens when they no longer need it or move away, and how to keep track of all the tags, was discussed by the committee.

Lyn Horan, vice chair of the Disabilities Commission said she was all for it.

Lyn Horan, vice chair of the city’s Disabilities Commission.

“We also understand, especially in densely populated areas of the city where parking is a rare commodity and often only on street, that it’s really important to keep updated on those things. So we absolutely, among the commission members, we were all in agreement at that formal meeting that, this is necessary.”

But, she added, that registry should be handled by the City Council and not her volunteer commission.

“We are appointed by the mayor to serve disabled residents,” she said and therefore ask the councilors to include the commission when proposals are drawn in reference to people with disabilities.

“We are the largest global marginalized group in the world in this country. And actually, Hampden  County has the most disabled residents of any county in our state. So, we know what we need and what we feel, and that’s the whole idea of having commissions. So all I wanted to say is clear communication would be great.”

The full agenda is here.

The documents the councilors received are here.