Special Board of Aldermen 03-14-2018 Page 11
NEW BUSINESS — ORDINANCES
O-18-009
Endorser: Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
PROHIBITING PARKING ON A PORTION OF THE SOUTH SIDE OF PROSPECT STREET
Given its first reading; assigned to the COMMITTEE ON INFRASTRUCTURE by President McCarthy
PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT
None
REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Alderman Dowd
| just want to say that the Budget Committee announcements will be next but tomorrow night is going
to be the first Budget Committee but | wanted to relate that | had put together a description of the
budget book that you have before you tonight so that new members have an idea of what is in the
book, how it’s structured so you can get a handle on that as we go forward through the budget
process.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Goija
Yes | would just like to remind everyone that next week we have an election to fill the vacancy on the
School Board and | know people have said to me that they are not sure who is running and what their
positions are. If you go on-line on the education channel there is an interview with the candidates, if
people would like to get information. And then my second piece is just to wish a Happy New Year to
the members of our community who will be celebrating Persian New Year next week. Thank you.
Alderman Jette
Today | had the pleasure of visiting the Department of Public of Works and | encourage all my fellow
aldermen to take up Director Fauteux’s invitation to all of you to come visit the Department of Public
Works. It was very interesting especially right after the snowstorm to see and get an explanation of
how the City deals with the snowstorms and the extent of the Department of Public Works and
everything that is involved. It also included a tour of the landfill and recycling is something near and
dear to my heart but | don’t think most of us understand the full extent of the problems involved in
recycling. | didn’t know and most of us probably don’t know that when the recycling program started it
was a benefit to the City because we were able to sell the recycling material and get money for it and
now we are paying people to take this recycling material away and | was told today that the cost of
doing that is increasing and is expected to increase a lot more in the next year and the following
years. Whether or not we can continue to, | guess the City is going to have to have a discussion
about the cost of taking recycling material away and what the benefit is to the City. This is going to be
an ongoing discussion.
Coincidentally, a school that is in my Ward, The Nature of Things, a class asked me to come visit
them tomorrow to talk about that they want to sponsor an ordinance to prohibit or ban plastic bags.
Plastic bags are a problem because as I’ve looked into this thing, plastic bags do not biodegrade they
photo degrade, which means that they don’t degrade like bio material does. They degrade when they
are exposed to the sun. So when we bury them in the landfill, they don’t degrade, they stay there
forever and even when they are exposed to the sunlight, photo degrade doesn’t mean that they go
back into their natural state. They go into smaller and smaller pieces and if you look into this, you find
out that plastic bags go into these smaller and smaller pieces and end up for example in the oceans,
the fish eat these things. So those of us who think we are eating fish for our health suddenly realize
