The Melrose City Council meets Monday, November 9 at 7:45 p.m. with a $2,976,462 appropriation for a new roof on the Learning Commons at Melrose High School at the top of its unfinished business, nine new grant and earmark acceptances from Mayor Jen Grigoraitis totaling about $488,000, a five-year lease for a sewer truck and the purchase of two parcels for stormwater management. Two days later, on Wednesday, November 11, city offices, schools and the library close for Veterans Day and trash and recycling are not collected, pushing the rest of the week’s pickups back a day.
The details below come from the council’s posted agenda and from the city’s weekly notice, which also reported that 14,122 Melrose voters, about 65 percent of those registered, cast ballots in Tuesday’s state election.
Monday: the council agenda
The roof appropriation, filed as item 2026-1784, asks for $2,976,462 “for the purpose of paying costs of installing a new roofing system for the Learning Commons at Melrose High School.” The figure includes $115,000 the council already appropriated on December 1, 2025 for feasibility and schematic design. The item is listed under unfinished business, meaning it has been before the council before and is back for action.
Also under unfinished business are a $2,385.92 grant for staff time spent helping residents with SNAP applications; an order authorizing a five-year lease with All American Investment Group LLC for a new 2026 Vactor sewer truck; and an order to acquire two parcels, G7 0 111 and G7 0 112, at their assessed value for stormwater management, paid for with the city’s FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant. The agenda does not list the parcels’ addresses or assessed values.
The mayor’s new filings are all acceptances of outside money. Four are police and 911 grants: a $25,000 State 911 emergency medical dispatch grant, a $95,698.52 State 911 training grant, a $90,505 State 911 support and incentive grant and a $17,112 fiscal 2027 road safety grant. Four are state earmarks: $50,000 for exterior improvements at the Milano Senior Center, $20,000 for a traffic study of the area around the Lincoln elementary school, $30,000 for traffic safety equipment and signage, and $160,000 for maintenance and repair of transportation infrastructure. The ninth is a Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection recycling dividends grant with no amount listed on the agenda. Together the eight itemized amounts come to $488,315.52.
The council will also vote on renewing common victualler licenses and motor vehicle class I and II dealer licenses for 2027, and will approve the minutes of its October 15 special meeting and October 19 regular meeting. The meeting is in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 562 Main Street, with a Zoom webinar for remote participation, and is carried live on MMTV. The Appropriations and Oversight subcommittee meets at 7:20 p.m. just before it. The council’s roll is Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kimberly Vandiver, Ryan Williams and President Brad Freeman.
Three other boards meet Monday evening: the Human Rights Commission at 6:15 p.m. at the library, the Affordable Housing Trust at 6:30 p.m. in the Cassidy Conference Room at City Hall, and the Park Commission at 7 p.m. at the Mount Hood Clubhouse, 100 Slayton Road.
Tuesday: zoning open house and a veterans breakfast
The city is starting a project to rewrite its residential and hospital-area zoning and its subdivision regulations. The stated goals are dimensional rules that “match our existing neighborhoods” and allowances for small-scale residential buildings “in forms that are common in the City.” An open house on Tuesday, November 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Melrose Public Library, 69 West Emerson Street, will present the project and the consultants’ initial data analysis.
Earlier Tuesday, veterans are invited to a breakfast with middle school students followed by the school’s annual Veterans Day assembly.
Wednesday: closures and the ceremony
All Melrose public schools and city offices except the police and fire stations are closed Wednesday, November 11. The library is closed. Trash and recycling are not collected Wednesday, and collection for the rest of the week runs one day late. The community Veterans Day ceremony is at 11 a.m. at Memorial Hall. On Saturday, November 14, the Veterans Advisory Board collects for local food pantries outside Shaw’s from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Street sweeping and the city yard
The fall street sweeping program continues by voting precinct: Ward 4, Precinct 1 on Monday; Ward 6, Precinct 1 on Tuesday; no sweeping Wednesday; Ward 5, Precinct 1 on Thursday; and Ward 5, Precinct 2 on Friday. The city asks residents to move cars off the street on their scheduled day; the schedule can change with the weather, and the ward map is on the city’s street sweeping page.
The DPW yard at 72 Tremont Street accepted carved and uncarved pumpkins for composting Saturday, November 7 from 8 a.m. to noon. The yard is open for yard waste and recycling drop-off Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Election turnout
The city thanked the clerk’s and elections staff and the one-day poll workers for Tuesday’s election, in which 14,122 Melrose voters took part, about 65 percent of registered voters. The city’s unofficial results were posted the night of the election; our report on how Melrose voted is linked below.
The council’s agenda packet is posted on the city’s CivicClerk portal, and the full meeting can be watched on MMTV channels 3, 15 and 22 on Comcast or 37, 38 and 39 on Verizon.
