The Beverly City Council held its regular meeting on Monday, October 20, 2025, at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers. The session included two presentations—a quarterly update from Mayor Cahill and the city administration, and an update from the Greater Beverly YMCA on the McPherson Youth Center—along with three public hearings, routine business, and subcommittee work. Key actions included approval of the CPA budget, passage of stop sign removals, and a recessed hearing on a National Grid project.
Mayor Cahill’s Quarterly Update: Mayor Cahill and Ibrahim Lopez Hernandez reported on numerous city projects:
YMCA Presentation: Tim Flaherty, former councilor, introduced staff who presented on the McPherson Youth Center and associated programs:
Council Rules Amendments: The Committee on Legal Affairs recommended several amendments to the council rules, including clarifying ordinance passage procedures (reducing from three meetings to two), removing gender-specific language, updating language on presiding officer (longest consecutively serving councilor), and allowing abstentions to be recorded as such. Approved by a 9-0 vote (two-thirds required).
Order 220 – Stop Sign Removals: The council debated removing stop signs at three intersections: Kernwood Ave at Harris Ave, and McPherson Drive and River Street at Federal Street. After a motion to bifurcate the vote:
National Grid Petition – Tall Tree Drive: A proposal to install underground facilities to replace outdated direct-burial cables was discussed. Concerns included a projected 48-hour power outage for 12–15 homes, lack of generator support for non-medical residents, and National Grid’s history of delays. The public hearing was recessed to November 10, 2025, to allow for more information on mitigation and notification.
And off and running so that our meetings are accessible for folks. We appreciate that. I'd like to just run through what's on our agenda before I officially call the meeting to order so that we can all be on the same page. This evening we have two presentations. We have one that is the uh regular quarterly update from Mayor Cahill and the city administration. This is something that uh this city council has begun inviting requesting of the mayor, and so this is a regular quarterly update. Um so we look forward to that. Then we've got Tim Flaherty, director of the Greater Beverly Y and former Beverly City Councilor. Nice to have you back, Tim here in the chamber with us. And we've got a presentation from the Y on the McPherson Youth Center and things that are happening there. So I see that you've got other members of your team, and we'll look forward to hearing from all of you. Thank you so much. We've got uh one resident speaker signed up to speak, and then we have three public hearings beginning at 8 p.m. We'll take those at the times that they are posted. We have some routine city business to take care of as well. We'll take a brief break for some subcommittee work, and we'll come back and finish it all up. So with that, I'll officially call to order this regular meeting of the Beverly City Council, Monday, October 20th, 2025, 7 o'clock PM. Ms. Kent, will you please call the roll? Bowen here. Crawley? Feldman? Here, Houseman? Yeah. Retundo? Spang. Yeah. St. Hilaire? Here. Sweeney? Here. And flowers. Here. Thank you, Ms. Kent. Counselor Bowen, will you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please? Pledge allegiance? One nation under God. With liberty and justice for our hall. Thank you very much, Councillor Bowen. We can go right to presentations at the top of the agenda. And I don't know, I think I saw the mayor in the hall. All right, we'll see if he's ready to roll. Um is Kelsey Litka here. That's our resident speaker who signed up to speak. Okay. I'll just mention Kelsey may yet be coming because might have been expecting some presentations. I'll just mention, as I usually do that, those public comment spots for residents to sign up to speak are available at all of our regular meetings of the city council. And they can be signed up for.