Melrose hires community development director, authorizes downtown street bid

MELROSE — February 15, 2018 — Melrose City Council approves community development director hire and advances downtown street project to bid. The council unanimously hired Lisa Atkinson, an AICP-certified planner and Melrose native, as the city's new community development director at Step 2 of 7 on the pay scale, with a start date of February 26, filling a position city staff called one of the most competitive hires the city had undertaken. The council also authorized 90 percent engineering plans for a downtown street reconstruction project to proceed to bid upon completion, with a roughly $12,000 upcharge to specify six-inch concrete sidewalk throughout rather than four-inch — absorbed within existing contingency funds — and a $40,000 to $60,000 optional hydrodynamic stormwater separator to be bid as an alternate with potential watershed partnership funding. Four resolutions advancing a Small Cities Community Development Block Grant application were also passed unanimously, including a pledge of $29,352 in prior CDBG grant funds as a local match intended to strengthen the application's scoring ahead of a February 22 deadline.