Board of Aldermen Page 2
March 8, 2016
and that’s one of the reasons that | appointed her because she highly qualified to help us respond to the
problem of heroin and substance abuse in the city. We held the second meeting of the task force earlier
this week and | think we have made a good start with her help in assembling people from industry and the
people that are involved with the problem; Harbor Homes, the hospitals and many other people in terms of
prevention, treatment and recovery. We are trying to develop objective criteria as to how to measure
whether we are improving our response and also fill gaps in service where we know they exist such as in
the area of recovery services for those who have been treated but need support for a couple of years after
their treatment program. | am going to ask that you also support Bobbi Bagley for the positon of Director of
Public Health and Community Services.
| also wanted to mention that our representatives on the House Public Works Committee, the Governor’s
10-year highway plan proposes a $4 million allocation for the completion of all of the work that is necessary
to prepare for a federal application to seek a rail subsidy in order to pursue the rail to Manchester. That’s
$3.2 million of federal money which is very specifically purposed to projects like this and $800,000 of toll
credits. Those toll credits are simply credits and not real state money so this particular step does not cost
the state any money, despite that there is some opposition in the legislature. So on that committee we
have Marty Jack from Ward 9 and Carl Siedel from Ward 1 and they both did an extremely good job of that
committee where they were able to defeat an amendment to remove the $4 million from the Governor’s 10-
year plan and it now goes on to the House floor and hopefully no changes will be made by the House but
that vote is expected to take place Wednesday or Thursday.
Burke Street; our project continues. Alderman Deane and the others that are helping to make
recommendations regarding that project have interviewed and made an initial selection regarding an
architect. This will come before us later on and | think they are now discussing and negotiating with the
architect in order to try to get the best deal we can in terms of the architectural services for that big project.
Another thing | wanted to mention regarding Burke Street is that there is this 50,000 square foot office
building there and that’s one of the main purposes for which we made the decision to buy the building.
Bobbi Bagley and the other department heads from the Public Health and Community Services made a
visit over there to see if they would be interested in the extra space. The plan has been that public works
would be relocated over there and take approximately % of the space and our public health people went
over to see what they thought of the space and they were very enthusiastic about it which surprised me
because | thought the distance from the downtown would be an issue. They have talked with the transit
people and there is a bus stop nearby and that can be adjusted a little bit to make it very possible for
people who want to use their services or need their services to go by bus. Anybody who is working with
welfare or with public health can get a free bus pass. This isn’t set in stone and it would come before you
but | thought it was interesting that after we have been searching for an alternative for that division for a
long time in terms of additional space that it at least might be possible that Burke Street would work out.
RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR - None
RECOGNITION PERIOD — None
READING MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the minutes of the Board of Aldermen
meeting of February 23, 2016, accepted, placed on file and the reading suspended.
