City Council Preview: September 22
The Worcester City Council meets Wednesday at 5pm. The agenda is here.
This week: trash, recycling, private streets.
Virtual Meeting: https://cow.webex.com/cow/onstage/g.php?MTID=ee43a2680da558953d685e3d0b9eb9734
Public and Private Streets: There’s a request to make the private Wayne St. (from Baker St. to Gates Ln.) into a public street. Councilor Russell asks, for the purposes of installing a surface drainage system, that a small chunk of the private Evergreen Ln. (near Massasoit Rd.) be made public. These requests will be sent to the Planning Board for further discussion.
Adding Resident-Only Parking: There are requests for resident permit parking near 537 Burncoat St. and also Richland St. near Vernon St. These requests will be sent to the Traffic & Parking Committee for further discussion. It’s hard to get resident-only parking approved.
Removing Resident-Only Parking: Occasionally people ask for resident-only parking to be removed! This week the Council will vote on two requests to remove resident parking, at Spurr St. and 3-5 Plum St. Both requests are endorsed by the Traffic & Parking Committee.
Pickleball: There’s a request that one or more pickleball courts be built, possibly by repurposing tennis courts.
Boards and Commissions: The Council will vote whether or not to reappoint Samantha Sendrowski to the Advisory Committee on the Status of Women, Miles Davis to the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee, and Stephen Stolberg to the Accessibility Advisory Committee.
Recycling Bins: Currently, the city asks us to put out our recycling in open-top bins, like animals. But we will soon get new bins, with lids! Pandemic shortages are delaying this, but we may get them as soon as November. There will also be a public education campaign. As a little contribution to that, I’ll excerpt part of DPW’s message at the bottom of this post.
Picking Up Trash: The Department of Public Works & Parks reports that in the first half of 2021, it cleaned up 116 tons of trash from 482 sites around the city.
Hiring a Chief of Council: The Council wants to hire an assistant, a job that will be called the “Chief of Council.” The application period has closed and city staffers are interviewing candidates. I can’t find the final job description, but here’s an early draft of the description: the Chief will be responsible for “planning, directing, organizing, and overseeing all activities and operations of the City Council, including serving as liaison between the City Council and the public.”
Construction Progress Report: If you are wondering “how close is the city to being done with digging up my street?” you can read the latest construction report.
Buying Becker Properties: The Council having set aside the money awhile back, the city is now ready to pay Becker College $4.5M for four parcels: 28 Roxbury St.; 51 & 61 Sever St.; 69 Sever St. Some of this will be open space, some will be used by the Worcester Public Schools, some by the Department of Public Health.
Zoning: The request to turn 18 Mountain St. East from residential to business has met with the approval of the Planning Board. It will now be sent to the Economic Development Committee for further discussion.
Recycling PSA: The city writes, “Most recycling contamination is not intentional but a result of confusing messaging and ‘wishful’ recycling. Contamination can lead to the loss of value of properly-recycled materials, which, combined with the monetary penalties for separating out and disposing of contaminated materials...could cost the City upwards of an additional $150,000 a year. The number one contaminant in the recycling program is plastic bags.”