Board of Aldermen 03-27-2018 Page 3
going to put a line across and put pictures on it of all the people who have been lost and so on. And |
think it would be a great support. Hopefully the sun will be out this year.
Alderman Lopez
| just want to comment. At the March For Our Lives rally, the Police were very professional, they were
also very engaging and polite. | think it was very reassuring to the public, | think it’s a great example of
positive Police presence where a lot of people who might have been looking anxiously around felt very
much like the Police were there serving them, protecting them and all that. So | just want to give credit
to the Police for how they handled that in particular. | also wanted to echo sentiments about the
Awareness is Healing Walk. Mayor Donchess you might have some competition for the number of
people who were at that, because the first year, if | remember correctly there were like 800 people. So
you might see just as much of a turn out as we saw last weekend. And | think that’s the take-away that
the Alderman should be looking at.
The opioid crisis is a tragedy, people are struggling for recovery every day and we are losing people.
We can’t afford to, these are people with dreams, and they are people with families, people that could
be leaders. And one of the things that I’ve seen at the Awareness is Healing Walk and in our own
neighborhoods, more and more people who are choosing recovery and they are supporting each other
in it, are becoming leaders and they are people who may have once been identified as part of the
statistical problem are stepping forward to become part of the solution. When you go to the Awareness
is Healing Walk, it’s not just about everything that is lost it's about the resolution for what we are going
to do. Programs like Revive, GateHouse, the necessary pieces to help people re-build their lives, those
are born out of these kinds of walks. So | encourage everybody to attend so you can be part of that.
RECOGNITION PERIOD — None
READING MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS AND PUBLIC HEARING
There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the minutes of the Board of Aldermen
meetings of March 6, 2018, March 14, 2018, and the public hearing conducted by the Human
Affairs Committee on March 12, 2018, accepted, placed on file, and the readings suspended.
COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING ONLY PROCEDURAL ACTIONS AND WRITTEN REPORTS
FROM LIAISONS — None
PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED
UPON THIS EVENING - None
COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING FINAL APPROVAL
From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: Ambulance Contract Extension (Value: $0); Department: 152 Fire
MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AUTHORIZE THE ONE
YEAR EXTENSION TO THE AMBULANCE AGREEMENT WITH AMERICAN MEDICAL RESPONSE
OF MASSACHUSETTS, INC.
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Lopez
The cost is zero but the value priceless.
