Mayor's Proposed '13 Budget: 8 Things To Know

Editor's note: This article was corrected on Wednesday, April 18 with Mary-Kate Mahoney's correct name and grade.

Mayor Rob Dolan plans to present his fiscal 2013 budget proposal to the Melrose Board of Aldermen on April 17, with a public hearing scheduled for Thursday, May 10. Last Friday, the mayor held a press conference to go over some of the highlights of his proposal for the coming year.

Some of the proposals have been previously covered on Melrose Patch, such as the . Here's a snapshot of eight items that standout:

1) Weekly Recycling By June 2014

New recycling coordinator Jess Schmitt will be a full-time position—funded by recycling revenues—with the goal of the city moving to weekly recycling pickup within 24 months.

Schmitt is now running a , as Deputy Superintendent John Scenna said the city needs to increase its recycling rate to make weekly recycling pickup cost neutral.

Starting in July, the city will no longer charge for recycling bins, although Dolan said requests for additional bins must be "reasonable." With one truck picking up recycling, a second city-owned truck "doesn't make sense," Dolan said, so the city would explore working with Empire—which currently has a contract with the city for recycling processing—and to find a way to make the numbers work.

Dolan also said the city would have to consider a mandatory recycling ordinance, similar to ordinances in Danvers and Reading, as part of the move to weekly recycling.

2) New Municipal Facilities Manager Replaces School Maintenance Director

The city would hire a new municipal facilities manager, a position that would replace the current school maintenance director position; Dolan's budget includes his, and negotations with those unions are ongoing.

Current School Maintenance Director Bob Ciampi will not have his contract renewed, Dolan said, and Ciampi can apply for the new position.

An Energy Savings Performance Contract audit will be completed by the end of the summer, with recommendations for improvements in municipal buildings that would result in energy savings. Dolan said the city would take on those recommendations piece by piece, with the bond for the improvements paid off by the energy savings. If those savings don't come in as projected, the company performing the audit must pay the difference.

"We're looking for a senior person to first and foremost take care of all of our buildings," Dolan said. "If we're going to embark on a multi-million dollar energy savings performance contract/audit, I need someone every day on top of those people making sure this is done correctly."

3) Melrose High School Improvements

At Monday night's meeting of the Board of Aldermen's Appropriations Committee, the to fund the design fees for a project manager and architectural firm for improvements and renovations. Dolan said the project manager would be Pat Saitta, who was project manager for the new , and the architectural firm has yet to be finalized. The overall renovations would start this year and end in the spring of 2015.

The new foreign language labs would be built over the summer, paid or by a .

On April 30, Melrose's application for funds to will undergo final review by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. If approved, Dolan said the the science labs would be built next spring and summer, as the School Building Authority would require completion by fall of 2013. That project would cost approximately $1.5 million, with the city paying half and the School Building Authority paying the other half.

4) Regionalized Veteran Services

Melrose would partner with Wakefield much in the same way the . Wakefield would make an annual payment of approximately $50,000 to Melrose, according to Patrick Dello Russo, Melrose city auditor and chief financial officer.

In return, Melrose Veteran Services Officer Ryan McLane would run the department for both communities, with Wakefield retaining a full-time staff member. There's also the possibility of Reading, which shares a Health Department with Melrose and Wakefield, joining in fiscal 2013.

The veteran services budget would also be increased by more than $145,000 over last year.

5) Recreation Department Overhaul

With a large increase in participation in Recreation Department programs—from 2,500 children in fiscal 2008 to 11,500 in fiscal 2012—Dolan said "we need to do structurally in the administration" of the department.

Multiple part-time, seasonal positions used to manage individual programs would be replaced by a single full-time assistant recreation director at a salary of approximately $35,000.

The teen center program, which the city pays $20,000 a year to the YMCA to run, would be shaken up with the new assistant rec director leading it, with alternating regular Common Ground weekends and field trip weekends that would cost a maximum of $10 each.

Also, an additional $4,000 would be budgeted for scholarships, bringing that line item to $10,000, so that each child in the free and reduced lunch program can participate in rec programs for free.

6) Public Safety Funding

The city would hire a full-time public safety IT professional to address issues within the Melrose Police and Fire Departments, a space created after the city moved to a decentralized payroll system and had a Treasurer's Department employee leave, creating a vacancy, Dello Russo said.

Dolan said the noted "we have a lot of IT issues as it pertains to police" and the current IT department is "over-extended" trying to run both the schools and the city.

The city would borrow $400,000 for a new police dispatch and radio system; t; the Fire Department's ambulance service will start ALS (advanced life support) in the coming fiscal year, .

7) Messina and Innovation Grants for Teachers

In his inaugural address in January, Dolan announced he would seek to establish two $10,000 city grants. The first would be a Melrose Innovation Grant Program that supports teachers who want to try new approaches that, if successful, could be replicated throughout the district.

The second would be a fine arts grant program that would allow artists to put on more public shows and would be named after Joe Messina, the school fine arts director who retired at the end of the 2009 school year after 45 years of teaching.

Funding for those grants will be included in his budget proposal, with boards managing those grants announced over the next month.

8) Other DPW and Park Improvements

• Recycling bins would be placed in every city park.

• All street signs will be changed over to the larger, more visible red signs.

• The city will fund the design for renovating the streetscape of the Highlands from Greenwood Street to Main Street, including the Belmont Street parking lot and the parking lot.

• Work on sidewalks, crosswalks, improved handicap accesibility, lighting and safety features along Main Street from Upham Street to Wyoming and Foster Street to Dell Avenue.

• The dog park would be constructed at Ell Pond and open in May.

• The LED streetlight program, , would be expanded to include Wyoming and Cedar Park. The city has seen over 50 percent energy savings from the streetlights, Dolan said. The volunteer Melrose Energy Commission, which drove the program, would also get its own budget for the first time to the tune of $2,500.

• Sparked by an idea from Horace Mann fourth grader Mary-Kate Mahoney, Warren Street Park will be renamed "Volunteer Park" after all the volunteers of the city. A group of neighbors fundraised to rehab the park, raising $2,000, and the city contributed an additional $10,000-$12,000. A community event will be held at the park on June 22.

• will be .

• at Pine Banks Park will open on May 1. The new track will open this fall.