After 45 minutes of rancor over process and procedure, the Chelsea City Council moved ahead a request for $25,000 to replenish the Chelsea Funeral Fund due to a surge of deaths recently.
Councilor Judith Garcia presented the measure earlier this month, and Father Edgar Duarte of St. Luke’s – who operates the Fund – appeared to speak about the heartbreaking situations that have transpired. He told the Council the Fund is about to run out of money because there have been so many deaths recently.
“The need for financial assistance is there,” Garcia told the Council Monday night.
Virtually everyone agreed to the thought behind re-seeding the Fund (which the City seeded last June), but there was some confusion as to who would benefit from the fund.
City Manager Tom Ambrosino took the podium at Monday’s first Council meeting to deliver a recap of the madness that was 2020 in Chelsea, and the hard work and hope that lies ahead in 2021 for the City.
“We have just come through an extraordinarily challenging time here in the City, perhaps the most difficult since receivership,” he said. “However, this pandemic we face is not over yet…There’s no denying the terrible, terrible toll COVID-19 exacted on this community economically, physically and emotionally.”
Ambrosino started by recapping so much of the tremendous support that was provided by the Administration and the City Council with City, state and federal funding over the past 10 months. He said the Council and the community responded to the tragedy and the needs with “some degree of effectiveness.”
Council President calls Council to fight for justice in 2021
When Council President Roy Avellaneda had his coffee shop open and thriving in Cary Square, there were a number of meaningful quotes on the ceiling from world thought leaders like John F. Kennedy, Gandhi, Bob Marley and William Faulkner.
Council President Roy Avellaneda asked his fellow councillors to fight injustice in all forms this year – perhaps making some enemies along the way. He was re-elected in an 8-0 vote of his colleagues to a second term.
He would often talk to customers about which quote stood out to them and why, but a quote from Winston Churchill always stood out to him, he said. That quote was about making enemies, and it read, ‘You have enemies, good. That means you stood up for something some time in your life.’
Councillor Leo Robinson and Council President Roy Avellaneda said they would take the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available, and they are encouraging others in Chelsea to do the same so the community is protected.
On Monday, City Manager Tom Ambrosino said he would also take the vaccine and encouraged residents to do so as well. At the Dec. 21 Council meeting, Robinson announced that he would be taking the vaccine and encouraged residents to educate themselves and, hopefully, take it as well. That came amidst some skepticism announced by Councillor Damali Vidot the two weeks ago where she said she needed much more information before she took it, and that she remains skeptical. “I am going to take the shot,” said Robinson.