The Beverly City Council meets Monday, November 9 at 7 p.m. in the Beverly Middle School library, 502 Cabot Street, with a 7:30 p.m. public hearing on Order 250, a temporary moratorium on data centers that would run until November 30, 2027, a resolution honoring departing Finance Director and Treasurer Bryant Ayles, $107,614 in Community Preservation Act money to finish the design of the Lynch Park seawall, and four grants from the mayor totaling $137,922.43.
Everything below comes from the 85-page agenda packet and the committee agendas posted on the city’s AgendaCenter, which are scanned documents. Residents who want to speak during public comment must register with the City Clerk by 9:30 a.m. Monday; five speakers get three minutes each. The Budget Analyst Screening Committee meets in the same building at 6:45 p.m.
The data center moratorium
Mayor Michael P. Cahill and Planning Director Darlene Wynne sent the proposed ordinance to the council October 1, asking that it be referred to the Planning Board and set for a hearing. The order would add a new Section 300-142 to the zoning ordinance, titled “Temporary Moratorium on construction of Data Centers until November 30, 2027.” During the moratorium the city “shall not accept, process, or approve any application for a Data Center,” including building permits, special permits, site plan approval or “any other zoning or land use approvals,” in every zoning district. The moratorium ends when the council enacts a zoning ordinance that specifically addresses data centers, or on November 30, 2027, whichever comes first.
The order defines a data center as “a building or group of buildings, the primary use of which is to house computer systems, servers, data storage equipment, networking equipment, and associated infrastructure” for processing, storing and distributing data. Its purpose section says the zoning ordinance currently neither lists data centers as a permitted use nor restricts them, that regulating them “raises novel and complex legal, planning, and infrastructure issues,” and that the city needs time to study effects on public safety, the schools, electrical demand, water, sewer and roads, noise, the environment and “the overall community character,” then write regulations consistent with Chapter 40A. The order includes a severability clause.
The Planning Board held its own hearing October 27, closed it the same night and voted 7 to 0 to recommend that the council adopt Order 250 “as presented,” according to an October 29 letter from Chairperson George Gomes. The board’s listed members are Judy Ashkenaz, Sarah Bartley, Ellen Flannery, Grace C. Lee, Wayne Miller and Michael Vigorito, with one seat vacant. Gomes pointed councilors to the BevCam recording of the board’s discussion.
Bryant Ayles
Councilors Scott D. Houseman, Todd C. Rotondo and Danielle M. Spang filed Order 283, a resolution honoring Ayles “on the occasion of his service to the city.” It says Ayles has been finance director and treasurer since January 2014, twelve years, and describes him as having “the reputation of being one of the finest Municipal Finance Directors within the Commonwealth.” He was born at Beverly Hospital, attended Cove Elementary and graduated from Beverly High School in 1994, then earned an accountancy degree at Bryant University and completed Boston University’s Institute for Non-Profit Management and Leadership. Before Beverly he worked for the state as a budget supervisor at the Department of Revenue and then as director of administration and finance and deputy director of the Children’s Trust Fund. He ran for the Ward 2 council seat in 2013, lost, and joined the Cahill administration the following January.
The resolution credits him with twelve balanced budgets, steering the city through the pandemic, reworking the city’s debt management so that the Beverly Middle School, the police station, City Hall and the MacPherson Youth Center could be financed, and with two bond rating increases “which saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for the taxpayers.” It notes he coached Beverly Youth Hockey, raised three children in the city with his wife Ericka, and has recently moved to New Hampshire. The resolution does not say where he is going next.
Lynch Park: $107,614 to get the seawall shovel-ready
The Community Preservation Committee recommends an out-of-cycle appropriation of $107,614 from the Open Space Reserve for “Lynch Park Phase III Design Development and Environmental Permitting” (Order 290). The money is the city’s match for a $430,456 state grant. The project would take the design of about 2,000 linear feet of seawall and revetment at David S. Lynch Memorial Park from 50 percent to 90 percent engineering plans and secure the permits: a Wetlands Protection Act notice of intent, a Chapter 91 license, an Army Corps general permit and a Coastal Zone Management federal consistency review. The committee’s summary calls Lynch Park “one of the most flood-vulnerable places in Beverly” and says recent storms have damaged the seawall. The design is to favor low-carbon materials and planted buffers landward of the wall to reduce concrete. The council’s first step Monday is to set a public hearing.
Four grants from the mayor
- Fire safety, $9,022.43 (Order 284): a $6,444.59 Student Awareness of Fire Education grant and a $2,577.84 Senior SAFE grant from the Department of Fire Services, for school fire safety lessons and fire safety education for older adults.
- Recycling dividends, $18,900 (Order 285): a MassDEP Recycling Dividends Program grant for recycling, composting and waste reduction programs.
- Hard-to-recycle drop-off, $100,000 (Order 286): a MassDEP Waste Reduction Project Grant to turn the municipal yard waste site at 16 Standley Street into a staffed CHaRM, a Center for Hard to Recycle Materials, open at least three days a week to all residents. The grant proposal projects 100 to 200 tons diverted in the first year and 300 to 500 tons in the second, with a first phase accepting eight to twelve materials: mercury and other universal waste, textiles, corrugated cardboard, scrap metal, aluminum, bulky rigid plastics, deposit bottles and cans, books, Styrofoam, fire extinguishers, eyeglasses, ink cartridges, phones and small electronics, an annual shredding event and two monitored food scrap totes with Black Earth Compost. The Waste Reduction Committee would advise on outreach and expansion.
- Police software, $10,000 (Order 287): a Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association grant for Blue Voice software, described as giving officers “instant, verified answers to law, policy, and field questions from department-approved sources only.”
The mayor’s letters cite Chapter 44, Section 53A, which requires council and mayoral approval before grant money can be spent.
The Cash Point pawnbroker license
Rotondo filed Order 301, a request that the council invite Cash Point and Detective Matt Malone of the Beverly Police Department to appear under Article VII of the city ordinances, which governs pawnbrokers. His November 5 letter says “there have been allegations raised regarding Cash Point’s financing practices that I believe warrant further discussion and clarification,” adds that “these allegations have not been substantiated,” and asks for a chance for the business’s management and the detective to address the license, operations and compliance in open session. The packet contains no complaint or other record of the allegations.
The Varian site
Order 300 is a notice that the summary of the September 30 public meeting on the former Varian facility at 150 Sohier Road, a MassDEP cleanup site, was filed with the state October 28 and is available at the main library. The November progress e-mail from the site’s consultants, also in the packet, reports that thermal treatment under Building 3 has removed more than 12,000 pounds of volatile compounds since vapor extraction began in June, that bedrock chemical treatment finished stage two near Building 5 in January with stage three injections expected in early 2027, and that another round of site-wide sampling is planned for November with results due in the February 2027 status report.
Also on the agenda
- David Alden-St. Pierre of the Open Space and Recreation Committee gives a presentation.
- Reappointments to the Design Review Board through December 1, 2029: Michael Barone Jr., the Zoning Board of Appeals representative (288), and Kenneth Clawson, the planning department representative (289).
- Handicapped parking signs requested by Sergeant Dana P. Nicholson at 21 Pond Street (291) and on Charnock Street at Cabot Street for Montserrat College of Art, which rents space at 301 Cabot (292).
- Seven motor vehicle dealer license renewals from the City Clerk: Lion Gas and Auto Service, 44 Enon Street; North Shore Imports LLC, 715 Hale Street; Grand Touring Sales on Cabot LLC, 43 Cabot Street; H and H Holdings LLC, doing business as Beverly Auto Top Upholstery, 28 Cabot Street; DiBacco’s Service Center, 474 Rantoul Street; Generation 2000 Auto Sales, doing business as Marshall Motors North, 94 Cabot Street; and North Shore Motorsport, doing business as Cycles 128, 107 Brimbal Avenue (293 through 299).
In committee
Finance and Property, chaired by Kathleen M. Feldman with Council President Julie R. Flowers and Houseman, still holds Order 213, Houseman’s September request that the mayor appropriate $20,000 for the Human Rights Committee. Legal Affairs, chaired by Rotondo with Matthew J. St. Hilaire and Steven M. Crowley, holds the April request from Rotondo and Spang for a joint review of the city’s automated license plate reader contracts, including Flock Safety cameras (120); St. Hilaire’s two October 5 draft ordinances, one requiring council approval of out-of-state travel by the mayor and administration (259) and one giving the council oversight of contracts, leases and agreements longer than three years (260); a peddler’s license for Alex Mailloux (206); a secondhand dealer license for ecoATM at 71 Dodge Street (210); the Millbrook Road layout (223); Laura Meisenhelter’s reappointment to the Zoning Board of Appeals (265); a Class II license for Landmark School at 429 Hale Street (271); and a taxi and livery application from Elidon Isra (273).
Public Services, chaired by Spang with John J. Mullady and Keith A. Sonia, holds the St. Hilaire and Mullady request for a public meeting on Camp Paradise at 44 Cole Street (061), the same Flock review, the National Grid petition for Bow, Wallis, Cabot and Abbot streets continued from September 21 (219), seven GoNetSpeed petitions for underground fiber on Boyles, Colon, Balch, Virginia, Charles and New Balch streets, National Grid petitions for underground work on Rantoul and Elliott streets to serve a new building at 478 Rantoul (276 through 278) and a pole on Lothrop Street (281), and appointments of Ed Horack and Marilyn Hourican Osburn to the Commission on Disabilities, Andy Cohen and Tim Brady to the Harbor Management Authority and Nick Velonis to the Golf and Tennis Commission.
Budget analyst screening at 6:45
The council’s Budget Analyst Screening Committee meets at 6:45 p.m. to accept its October 14 minutes, then votes to enter executive session to review and approve previously withheld executive session minutes from September 28, October 5, October 6 and October 14. The agenda says the committee will adjourn directly from executive session and not return to open session.
The roster on the agenda: Council President Julie R. Flowers and John J. Mullady and Keith A. Sonia, councilors at large; Todd C. Rotondo, Ward 1; Danielle M. Spang, Ward 2; Steven M. Crowley, Ward 3; Scott D. Houseman, Ward 4; Kathleen M. Feldman, Ward 5; and Matthew J. St. Hilaire, Ward 6 and council vice president. Earlier coverage: the October 19 council meeting and the Deficit Reduction Committee’s first ideas.
