The Salem City Council voted on Thursday, April 23 to make tour buses pay to park in the city for the first time, approved a 20-year contract with the solar developer BlueWave to pass energy savings to income-eligible residents, and let a proposal to start committee meetings at 5 p.m. die on the floor. Councillor-at-Large Ty Hapworth was absent.
Tour buses
Mayor Dominick Pangallo’s traffic ordinance, adopted for first passage as amended and sent to the Committee on Ordinances, Licenses and Legal Affairs, defines a tour bus as a vehicle for 15 or more passengers hired for group travel or sightseeing, requires a parking permit for each visit to a designated bus stop, raises the fine for a standing bus with its engine running from $25 to $100, and sets a $300 fine for parking a bus in a restricted area or in a designated area without a permit. School buses, trolleys and in-town shuttles are exempt. A companion order would set the permit at $50 per visit; the council later made it $50 year round and $100 in October.
Ward 1 Councillor Erin Turowski, a former Transportation Commission member, said the cost works out to about 91 cents per passenger on a 55-seat bus and that the permits would be bought through the Passport parking app. Ward 6 Councillor Katelyn Holappa said “there is no such thing as free parking” and that free bus parking costs taxpayers for paving and street sweeping. Biff Michaud, owner of the Salem Witch Museum, spoke against the ordinance during public testimony. Ward 2 Councillor Andrew Smith and Ward 5 Councillor Lydia King asked how school field trip buses would be treated; Ward 7 Councillor Andrew Varela moved first passage with a committee meeting to follow.
BlueWave
The council voted 10 to 0 to let the mayor sign 20-year contracts with Boston-based BlueWave and create a revolving fund to collect the company’s incentive payments. Neal Duffy, the city’s director of sustainability and resiliency, said anyone enrolled in Salem Power Choice, the municipal electricity aggregation, who is also on National Grid’s income-eligible rate would automatically receive an added discount on their supply rate, and that Salem could be the first municipality in the state to do it. Turowski called it a way “to pull some of our public resources back from large utility companies.”
Committee meetings stay at 6 p.m.
Varela’s order to let committees meet as early as 5 p.m., which had passed first reading 7 to 3 two weeks earlier, came back for a second reading and collapsed. Holappa’s amendment to 5:30 p.m. failed 4 to 6. Varela then withdrew the order and moved to send the question to the Committee on Government Services; that motion tied 5 to 5 and failed, and a motion to reconsider failed 3 to 7. Ward 4 Councillor Timothy Flynn called the change “a bad idea” that would burden councilors and the public. Turowski said a commuter leaving North Station at 5:05 p.m. does not reach Salem until 5:38 “assuming nothing goes wrong.” Councillor-at-Large Conrad Prosniewski said that, being retired, he could meet at 6 in the morning, “but if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
Also at the meeting
- Five-year contracts with Healey Bus of Swampscott for regular, athletic and field trip transportation and with NRT Bus of Chelmsford for special education transportation were authorized.
- Outdoor dining license agreements were approved for El Pablano Taqueria at 105 Lafayette Street (one parking space and 90 square feet of sidewalk) and Trade House at 156 Derby Street (490 square feet of sidewalk). Varela recused himself.
- A petition opposing the Annabelle exhibit and the Warren Occult Museum in Salem was received and filed.
- Sean Lunde was confirmed to the Board of Health and Leigh Chandler to the Sustainability, Energy and Resiliency Committee, and Gina Flynn was reappointed to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board, each 10 to 0.
- $80,000 was moved to the retirement buyback fund and $65,212.33 approved for buybacks for retiring police, veterans and school employees, and $48,420.40 went to Public Services.
- The home occupation ordinance stayed in committee; the Federal Street Neighborhood Association’s June 27 block party, the HAWC Walk and a Wicked Running Club road race were approved.
The minutes are here.
