WORCESTER—Tuesday marks the first Worcester City Council meeting of 2024, and the first time District 1 Councilor Jenny Pacillo and District 4 Council Luis Ojeda sit at their desks in council chambers.
Pacillo and Ojeda were the only new faces elected to the council during the municipal elections in the fall.
Much of Tuesday night’s agenda consists of recommendations and orders from the council’s subcommittees that have already been addressed in said subcommittees.
The city council will consider purchasing a conservation preservation restriction for the nearly 113-acre Spring Ledge Farm Property in Holden. City Manager Eric Batista is recommending the council approve the purchase to protect the city’s water supply.
“This acquisition would prevent development of the land and assure it remains a natural condition in perpetuity to protect the health of the city’s drinking water supply,” Batista wrote in a letter to council.
If the council approves the conservation preservation restriction, the city and the land trust would each pay $280,000 for it.
The city has worked to protect nearly 1,463 acres of watershed land since 2005, according to Department of Public Works & Parks Commissioner Jay Fink.
New orders from city councilors include requests from Councilor At-Large Donna Colorio to consider if money from the city’s free cash could be earmarked for efforts to reduce commercial real estate property taxes and to create a report on “the situation at the Worcester Public Library regarding the homeless population.”
Orders from Councilor At-Large Moe Bergman include requests for the creation of a list of any streets or roads identified for “No Parking Bike Lanes” in 2024 and a report on the feasibility of synchronizing traffic signals on two major travel routes in each city district during commuting hours.
Other councilor orders include a request from District 2 Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson for a report on the status of 2 Gage Street, the site of a deadly fire in 2022, including any violation at the property, and a request from Councilor At-Large Kate Toomey for a report on the current statistics for drug trafficking arrests in 2023.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford, and Antigua and Barbuda. Her work has been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
