City Wants to Borrow for Gas Station, More for City Yard Renovations

Melrose city officials watch gas prices as much as residents do, and are hoping an upfront investment in its own gas station could insulate the city from ever-increasing prices at the pump.

The city is proposing to borrow $165,000 to build its own gas station at the —where there is already a diesel fueling station—for the purpose of fueling up city vehicles, which DPW official say could save roughly $17,000 a year in fueling costs through buying gas at wholesale prices.

Also, City Hall is asking to borrow an additional $120,000 to finish renovations at the City Yard, which has become a shared facility for DPW and school maintenance employees and , closing the department's City Hall basement office.

The Melrose Board of Aldermen approved last year and, in March, an .

On Monday night, the aldermen's Appropriations Committee, comprised of the full board, unanimously recommended borrowing for both the gas station and the City Yard renovations, sending it to the full board at its next meeting for a final vote.

Melrose City Treasurer Art Flavin, Jr. said that the total $285,000 in borrowing would stay within the city's goal of keeping debt at 5 percent or less of the city budget, although he said that he did not have specific numbers because those depend on how the borrowing is structured.

Tracking Who Is Filing Up

DPW Superintendent Bob Beshara said the station would be similar to the system already used at the Melrose Mobil station, where city vehicles currently fill up and which Beshara noted also now has a cash price and a credit price, further compounding the cost to the city.

The system requires city employees to input a four-digit code and the pump recognizes the vehicles, DPW Deputy Superintendent John Scenna said, tracking who is fueling up and when, while providing daily reports to administrators. Scenna added that Wakefield, Saugus, Stoneham and Everett are just a few of the surrounding communities that have their own gas station for municipal vehicles.

"We're in the minority here," he said.

Beshara said that an additional surveillance camera would be installed, monitored at the Melrose Police Station.

"I don’t think anybody’s stealing any gas, but you want to put a close eye on it," he said. "Whenever there’s a situation like that in municipal government, you have to watch it closely."

Only city-owned vehicles can fill up at the station, Beshara said. Currently, contractors brought in for snow removal can only use the city's diesel filling station after hours when nearby gas stations are closed, and the city tracks and deducts that fuel cost from the contractor's bill.

Online Reporting of Potholes, Out Streetlights

As far as the continuing renovations of the City Yard, Beshara likened it to a "physical representation of what the mayor is attempting to do," in creating a leaner DPW that has all of its operations based out of the City Yard.

"We’ve had some changes to go through in design over the course of the last several months," Beshara said of the renovations, which started with addressing , and with creating offices and space for the Melrose Public Schools Maintenance Department—a domino effect from the new Melrose High School athletic fields project, which required the demolition of the maintenance building behind

Additional costs to the tune of $250,000 arose this spring, .

Finally, the elimination of the city's residential trash service, which will be taken over by a private company, is the major component of a DPW reorganization that will take employees off trash trucks and re-deploy them for maintenance, cleaning and green spaces.

Beshara said a component of that service-orientated DPW approach is giving residents the ability to report problems to the DPW online, such as potholes and streetlights that are out.

"We want to move onto the Internet, start getting more online for the people who do it—and have the phone still for people who prefer to talk directly to us," he said.