Beverly Council votes 7-0 for Amazon labor resolution, approves $500,000 for roads

BEVERLY -- June 7, 2021, Beverly City Council adopts Amazon labor resolution 7-0 and shifts $500,000 to road paving. The council's June 7 session opened with Teamsters Local 25 executive board member Peter Berry presenting a non-binding resolution urging Amazon to make its Beverly-area delivery drivers direct employees subject to federal DOT drug-testing and rigorous background checks, calling out the company's record of more than 14,000 serious warehouse injuries in 2019 and more than 20,000 reported COVID-19 cases in its facilities. The council also approved a $537,500 interdepartmental transfer, routing $500,000 into the road and sidewalk capital fund, bringing the city's annual paving allotment to $1.9 million, with Hancock and Jackson streets confirmed as near-term targets. In a joint session with the Beverly Planning Board, the board voted 8-0 to continue a public hearing on a proposed Industrial Research rezoning of the Cell Signaling Technology property at 3-9 Trask Lane, with Chair Ellen Hutchinson citing insufficient time to review a development agreement submitted hours before the meeting; the firm projects the expansion would more than triple city tax revenue from the site to over $900,000 annually. Richard Scanlon, a 28-year assessor veteran from Billerica, was confirmed 8-0 to the Board of Assessors, and the council gave final 8-0 passage to a strengthened snow and ice removal ordinance carrying $25-per-day fines.