At the January 12, 2016 Council meeting,
paper #25-16 was introduced as a resolve regarding the hospital site:
"Resolve: That it is not feasible for the City to acquire the Malden Hospital site or a portion thereof at this time. Resolve: That it is the sense of the Malden City Council that, after several months of research and data collection, it is not feasible for the City to acquire the former Malden Hospital site or a portion thereof at this time."
This agenda item led to a 15 minute discussion, with comments from a super-majority of council members. These comments included various references to the November 2015 ballot questions. Council members acknowledged the importance of this matter to our larger community. I've included some excerpts of comments below.
We are fast-approaching a year since that meeting, and
paper #25-16 remains "in control" of the Finance Committee.
As Chair and Co-Chair of the 2016 Finance Committee, could you please provide a summary of subsequent action taken by the Finance Committee and the City Council on this matter? Ideally, this would include updated numbers and the feasibility study referred to and promised at the meeting.
If you don't have a formal "feasibility study" prepared, could you please provide me with minutes from any subsequent Finance Committee discussions (or the "Feasibility Committee" described on 1/12/16) related to
paper #25-16?
One Councillor stated their desire to "see what our options are as a community" for the hospital site. I agree. As we come to the end of 2016 and turn towards 2017, we need greater clarity on "what our options are as a community" for the hospital site.
Thank you for the work you have done for the City of Malden in 2016 and Happy New Year wishes to you for a great Malden 2017!
Sincerely,
Brian DeLacey
Excerpts of comments by councillors at the 1/12/16 Council Meeting:
- "[I'm going to work on] getting some updated and accurate numbers...and report back" (Councillor Spadafora)
- "I am hoping for maybe a 90-day table on this... we have interested developers all seeking to do good at Malden Hospital... if we work together something great will prevail" (Councillor DeMaria)
- "I would ask that you consider sending it into Finance (committee) so that we might do a feasbility study and we'll set up a "Feasbility Committee" to do that feasibility study out of Finance... it's clearly a financial issue which would need to be tackled ... " (Councillor Kinnon)
- "we just had a citywide ballot question on this very issue ...I understand that there is a lot of things we need to study including demolition costs ... I would support taking a harder look in the Finance committee .... really drilling down on these numbers and what it means to the people of Malden and giving it its fair due" (Councillor Matheson)
- "I'm in support of stepping back, taking a look at this, referring it to Finance, and looking at it the same time we look at the CPA makes all the sense in the world" (Councillor Anderson)
- "this has been on the table for 15 years now... it's a very challenging issue ... we don't even own the property...we have control over what can be zoned there ... I definitely support it going into Finance and trying to find a way to get this moving. I think we need to loop the Administration in at some point and see if they can give us some bandwidth to help with it as well" (Councillor D'Arcangelo)
- "it's clear that we have some major projects ahead of us - namely Police Station and City Hall... I'd be interested to know exactly where we are in our bonding capacity to even consider purchasing such a huge parcel of land. However, ... we can still listen, we can still investigate ... and try to move forward for resolution of that particular property ... " (Councillor Condon)
- "I want to shed a little light on the rationale .... the last meeting of the year a number came in ... while it might be a quick review, the number was staggering from a demolition cost ... we know things sometimes the average resident doesn't ...that property is in desperate need of public safety equipment...they are out of code .... it's almost in my opinion collusion ... I want to make that property safe... in the meantime we can send this to Finance and look at the numbers hard and see what our options are as a community." (Councillor Spadafora)
- "... may I ask the Chair of Finance if we could possibly put a time limit on the review ... ?" (Councillor DeMaria)
- "It is a very complex issue - financially, structurally.... I could not sit here and give you an exact time - maybe in a few weeks I could do that. I can guarantee you this, the numbers that you'll get out of Finance Committee will be accurate and give you a straight amount as to what could happen, how things could be structured, or if it's simply impossible for us to financially handle." (Councillor Kinnon)
- "I would like to move to amend the resolution by adding that we investigate the deed and title of the property .... any title restrictions on it... for the benefit of the city of Malden" (Councillor O'Malley)