The week ahead: City Council celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month

City Council is planning to pass a resolution this week celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. This special month, which has been enshrined federally since 1988, started last week on Sept. 15 and will continue until Oct. 15. 

This year’s resolution is being submitted by Councilor-at-Large Carlos A. Vidal, alongside council president John McLaughlin. City Council has passed multiple resolutions celebrating the month in past years, although not always under the same name — the 2020 version, sponsored by former Ward 9 Councilor Jonathan Paz, along with Councilor-at-Large Thomas M. Stanley, Ward 6 Councilor Sean T. Durkee and then-Councilor-at-Large Patrick O’Brien, was labeled the Resolution concerning Latinx Heritage Month.

The resolution highlights the 16 percent of Waltham’s general population and 47.5 percent of Waltham Public Schools students who are Hispanic or Latino, and pledges to “acknowledge the valuable contributions of Hispanic Americans to our great city and country.”

The council will also be passing resolutions to celebrate September as Recovery Awareness Month, to honor resident Zachary Bourque for his Operation Hydrate Our Heroes initiative, and to instruct the city’s boards to put together a zoning amendment to allow people to build accessibility options such as elevators and lifts into building setbacks in the same way they’re currently allowed to build ramps.

City Council 

Additionally this week, City Council will be making a final decision on some items that appeared in front of its committees last week. Items recommended for at the last meeting include approving a special permit for an expanded MSPCA-Angell animal shelter at 62 Fourth Ave., editing an existing lab space permit at 180 Third Ave. to include emergency generators and accepting state library funding. The council also plans to discuss an early voting schedule for this November’s municipal election.

Council will also vote on funding requests from the Community Preservation Commission totalling $1,019,825 for two historic church buildings in Waltham: $77,250 to restore a steeple at the First Parish in Waltham, and $942,575 to repair windows at the St. Mary’s Parish’s St. Joseph Building.

Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy has this week submitted to City Council a request for funding for the final stages in the conversion of the buildings and land of the former Fernald State School into a recreation area. This item — which will most likely be sent directly for discussion in a committee meeting on Oct. 6 — requests a loan authorization of $6,356,860 to create new areas designated for athletics and for amphitheater/arts, in a contract the city plans to award to Green Acres Construction and Landscaping.

City Council will meet at City Hall’s Council Chambers at 7:30 p.m. on Monday.

Licence Committee

The License Commission is a board of three voting members and a police liaison, responsible for granting and reviewing permits in Waltham for serving food and alcohol, for entertainment, and for some types of gaming machines.

The commission will meet this Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the public meeting room of the Clark Government Center at 119 School St.

Its agenda will be posted online on Monday on the Licensing Department page of the city’s website.