1.22.2025 Redevelopment Authority

welcome to the January 22nd 2025 meeting of the Fall River Redevelopment Authority person to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recording a transmission are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and

permissible first item is a roll call Johnny Erikson gonz Ron rusen Joan mad and Kean thank you also participating Sarah page executive director John coflin legal council canol administrative consult and Karen Martin project manager uh first item is a approval of our Open Session minutes from December 18th 2024 Mo accept the Open Session meetings for December's board meeting thank you

second second John yes yes Ron R yes Joan madas yes an ke yes thank you next item is the warrant which um Joan you you did this right you looked at yeah so um any questions on the warrant if not uh I need a motion to approve motion to move warrant for January for 53 3056 second second thank you John Erikson yes yes Ron R yes M yes and Keen yes okay

um Joan is going to discuss the uh fiscal year 2023 audit update do you want to do the executive session meeting minute meetings we can't do that we get to ex session was that we can't do that until we get to Executive session I just seen a four on a list I'll just no Pro Y Mo the

I that's the December 11th was surprised Jo that no um I no one had tagged me about discussing it because I know you and Karen had talk to them more than I did yeah that's what I'm wondering we I think we uh we didn't realize we didn't check that out with you I think it's it's all pretty much in this letter exp you know we we had um we did have to address um

the issue of uh 2501 South Main and they I think they did a good job of getting that all resolved uh for the audit this year um um because of us receiving the full payment from the school department on that property um but um I think we should uh a huge thanks to Sarah and Karen that we are up to date on all of our Audits and um we're looking at

getting 2024 rolling so when we first joined this board we were way behind on this whole thing so you guys have done Yan's work and I think we're in great shape with our Auditors now that's good that's probably the most substantial issue of the entire audit does does one of us need to sign this yeah we going need to take a vote and Sarah um so I'll entertain a motion to

direct um CLA the firm uh to finalize the 2023 audit and based on Jones approval will authorize executive director and Treasurer to sign the CLA representation letter accepting the 2023 audit motion to accept the 2023 audit by Clifton Lawson Allen for year 2023 second second John Arison yes yes Ron yes John M yes ke yes thank you I want to just add one thing to what you said Joan and that's that we've been

cited a couple of years that we needed to have a financial policy and procedure manual and Karen has worked really really hard on one and has it you know is getting feedback from uh both our accountant from Norman gah and de Gangi and from our accountant our auditor and uh it's really exciting that that's just about done yeah I've received all the comments back so now I'm just um merging

all into the one document and then once that's done I'm going to send out as like a final draft I'll make sure you you get a copy of it and um and it'll be something we'll have to eventually vote on and um incorporate into um like an annual review and vote so and that'll probably be done about the same time we're doing the audit just to make it consistent so it's um

great it was a bit of a job but it's done yeah or almost done yes so included in your package was this letter from January 9th which uh is basically a quote for the next uh Year's audit so um I need a motion to accept that quote which is 34,000 no the quotes the quote is actually for the audit 265 I had just asked her to give us a price now that

we've got some Federal grant money um HUD May at depending on how much Federal grant work we do on a specific fisal year could trigger an individual HUD audit and I just wanted to get an idea of the cost for that so she gave she just put in the same letter so it's 265 then it's 265 for the 2020 for audit which is $500 more than last year's audit so so I just need a motion

to approve that 265 quote and who's doing the AIT same cson in last okay and it's 26,500 yes is that all year long or is that just for the audit at the end of the year just the audit just the is that a good price I I don't know if that's a good price or not tough me to make it's the same was it 26,500 about going right that's what we

pay that's what we pay for our audit okay all right yeah and the accountant says it's reasonable she used to be an auditor so yeah and found a couple of other organizations it's not easy these are specialized audits exactly yeah who signed the treasurer or the president who signed that that who's looking to get that signed the chair the chair is going to sign up yeah the chair's what

going to sign up yeah okay motion to approve Clifton Lawson Allen doing the 2024 audit for a cost of 26,500 with given permission for the chair to sign second second Jackson yes yes M yes and ke yes thank you Karen's GNA speak to cathodic protection at the Norton pier and then the north f Point uh moing field and the moing fields yes so the cathartic Protection work is um actually we've made a lot of

progress uh since our last meeting we just yesterday got the um draft package of um all the the field um studies and recommendations and Draft plans for the Catholic Protection work and we also got a budget of um what the construction cost would be and then information on I don't know if you remember the last meeting we talked about potentially adding um coding to the exposed steel

above the mean um high water line just to give us some added protection in some areas so um we just literally got that yesterday and um we get to start reviewing it and um then we'll make some final decisions and we're going to start pulling together um the bid documents and the bid package and our um the plan that we laid out we'd like to get the um request for construction

proposals um out on the street April 3rd with an on-site pre-bid meeting April 10th and um with a bid date due of April 17th and then we'd like to bring it to the April um board meeting and hopefully be able to award the contract early May with construction to start in June and it's anticipated to be a roughly 3mon um uh project once construction starts but it shouldn't really and it shouldn't

really impact anything above the City Pier like on City Pier proper they're going to be working off of a float in the water the whole time and they'll probably they're going to probably dock their boat at the transient docks at the end of the work day and then you know just work from there um but there should not be any disturb servance above um above ground and um it looks like that

just the cathartic Protection work the design we've already figured in but it's going to be like 109 anod they figured out and their budget for that puts it well within our budgeted price that we have for the grant so that's why we're looking at potentially adding some of that um coating above the um mean high water line to add some more protection um the notice of intent um for Conservation Commission was submitted

today for their February 3rd will'll be on their February 3rd docket meeting so hopefully that should go well she they um their uh pering person had already spoke to Dan um she had some Dan agar um the city concom person um she had some questions and they spoke about it so she addressed those in the um application so hoping that that'll go through no problem and um so it looks like we're

going to be a little bit ahead of schedule on that one so yeah the only thing I would say on that is um I still want to get you that stuff yeah you got say maybe get them started on the Northern Pier first where our trans where the trans and they'll so that way we get that done early in the season as opposed to later in the season yeah and they're going to be working in

between the dock and where the the piling is yeah the steel piling is so great yeah Northfield Point um trkking along so we um right now with Northfield point we did Sarah had a conversation with the state fishery and Wildlife people um regarding that big one grant that we put in to cover the work for the um the three moing fields and the new dingy dog and he pretty much said that

we're going to get that Grant and that it's probably going to be announced within probably in February right he said like within a couple of weeks so if we get that Grant that's a huge relief off of the stress of some of the construction cost for the overall project um we have a meeting this Friday with beta um to talk about how we can potentially think about phasing the work

so we can get the construction done it looks like the only grant that um we're probably going to be able to apply for is a cport Economic Council Grant and their Grant I talked um got some email communication back and forth with Ellen Sabula their um their uh Regional person it's going to open on June 1st it'll close June 30th and then they're going to award the bid uh the Grant in um

August so it doesn't look like we'll probably see any real work on Northfield point in potentially 2025 it may have to push to 2026 depending on if we get the award if we depending on if we can get it right out to bid and back so is it a reimbursement Grant if it's a reimburse so you can get once they announce the granty you can get started they'll just reimburse you yeah then we have to put

it off a bid yeah but still so if you go you think the award's in the spring no August August oh August why I thought you said no that is so we apply for the grant June 1st it closes junee 30th and they award it in August so that's the one you think you're going to get no the one we're going to get is the big one that's right from the feds and that we're hopefully

Cecil gave us an indication that we're going to hear about that very soon and which work will that consist of that will consist of the moing fields and the dingy Dock and we should be able to do that you put that out this year yes that we confused yes so that but we won't give but we won't see any specific work at North Northfield okay yeah yeah yeah I got you

yeah so um so that's where we are over at Old City Pier it's all cold and buttoned up now there was only cameras today it was freezing up um you guys had two maps of the U 615 Innovation Way and the um revision from what I can tell it just added a few um loading docks on the I guess that would be the south side of the building is there anything else involved in that

Sarah or did I miss something else no I mean I basically said okay I know that um Dan has reviewed the site plan and is fine with it when we re when we approved the project um back when uh Hutchins was building the big front build building he showed us and we have in the um uh it's in the LDA that um can I Dr phone does I made copies if anyone wants

does anyone want a copy I made a copy that was approved in the LDA and then a site plans in so basically when the LDA thank you was completed um he knew he wanted to do and addition now he's doing this big addition on the back and so we're looking at the plan that was in the LDA compared to his site plan and the only real changes we see are um the

refrigerated loading dock and uh spaces for trucks to load it's on the side it's at the back of the site it's not you know on the front of the building so I don't think any more screening is needed but we're not trying to totally approve this because we still have to do a covenant review when he submits the full building plans to the building department so this is just kind of an

update for you to know and um um kind of give an initial okay so my question is when he puts that loading docking over there is that that path is it's going to go they're going to go around the trucks you see how it's like going straight where the trucks go he'll going through the trucks yeah he'll have to make some accommodation for that because that's um a fire department requirement that you get all

around that building so yeah you'll have to make I think that's just I don't know why it's depicted that way but that parking lot would expand yeah cuz you got to get the unless he's bringing in the trucks the opposite way it does show the parking lot not going to be to back up and lo in what's that it won't be the they won't be to come from this way and then back up and

go into a loading dock I don't think looks like it's a very tight spot there yeah it looks like it's exended yeah it looks like those pocket spots are 60 ft in I didn't realize that 60 so there another 60 in front so it's 120 ft from the loading dock to the the back line over there so that's more enough room for to turn truck to get in and turn back in

yeah but also on the front page is like a little small speckled box and all a sudden there's 18 what what's that other box in the back going to be now that the refrigeration unit Refrigeration yeah cuz you cuz you got the road in front of it and then there's another box with there's a box that was off of the front page like in dotted lines but it's gone in the next one it's

a larger refrigeration unit because you had to be 71,000 okay Ron are you talking about the thing way in the back yeah yeah behind where where the proposed freezer is right off of it there like a little do line over here it went from here it went from this to this that's a gravel that's a gravel pocket yeah it says proposed gravel overflow trailer parking area I think that's just gravel and not not paved but

from the front pad the back pad you got twice the size that's what I was just wondering yeah yeah I I agree with you and it's behind the a actual driveway that you're going to be used to all the way around this parking I thought the expanded I don't see a problem with it so we don't really need to that must be something to pull the trucks over to the

side or something you got somebody in a queue or something yeah yeah it's like an extra gravel area it says it's an overflow trailer parking area they probably I can't read over propos trailer propos gravel overflow trailer paring area Ken I think the refrigeration you're looking at is the thing next to I think so yeah yes the other one yeah uh so we don't really need to do anything right now we just for

information um 191 Commerce drivve s well the property is sold for 380,000 and um that project is behind us and that piece of land that was so difficult to sell it's finally gone and for a good purpose so that's really good Bakery 191 com is a gold medal right y it's closed it's not yes oh nice yep money's in the bank sure is um so the Pleasant Street urban renewal plan we're continuing to revise

our urban renewal plan to resubmit it to meepa as we discussed in previous meetings and I think the next issue here is Emily's proposal to extend and increase her contract I think she did a good job explaining the reasons um and I want to just give some context to that our colleagues around the state who are going through the same situation where they they're dealing with this new

meepo review that is really onor they're all looking at around 55,000 50,000 or more to um to get through this expanded environmental notification form and then this um single environmental impact report which is what we're working on now and so we we are um proposing that we spend 11,120 of that 50,000 or so cost to get through mepa and 40,000 of it is being covered by Mass housing so they pay 20,000 for the

einf that um tie and bond worked on now they're willing to put in another 20 plus th000 to get us through our final SE NEPA review so we're we're being asked to add 11,120 whereas the whole cost is over 50,000 so so I need a motion to accept the quote quote um from an it's January 14th in the total of 11,120 so that's an extra $ 11,15 it's made come from our board yes

okay yeah and it's added to a contract that we signed um back in what 21 you know this has been going on and on and uh only when we got this recent well we made a decision about how to best approach going back to Meo um with this environmental impact to report and that then required quite a bit of work on part but we think we've got the most efficient approach to deal with

mea and that's a great price I don't know so I'm asking yeah I I think it is um it's pretty much in line with um you know what other people are paying for you know paying their consult consults to do this work um and you know she's been um dealing with meepa work um you know when she signed her contract in 2021 this meepa rule was not in place and when we started getting into this we

had Tai and bond uh charging 20,000 to do the work on it and it's not as if Emily wasn't pulled in over and over for meetings and strategy so she has been since 2021 working on a project that was never understood in her contract and it's only now that we are really revising what we hired her to do um that she's saying you know I really need my staff and I to get

this amount more and I think it's totally reasonable her letter delineates also that it's like 60 man hours of work and plus she's had to up update a lot of figures and rewrite a c certain portions of the urban renewal plan so I think that the effort is there and that price is reasonable divided by the hours and everything so I agree I think for for $1,000 you're going to be able to close

at least make some serious Headway on this Meer issue that we need to do and don't forget this project has had the benefit of other the money coming into it so the Redevelopment Authority had pretty substantial savings on this overall initiative through additional cdbg and uh State funding for this project so we're in a win situ win-win situation here as it pertains to the outlay of capital for the urban renewal

plan okay motion to move the G 14th letter from NS Associates revising the contract $1,120 for the me report and authorize the chair to sign was that and authorize the chair authorize the chair to sign second John yes Ron yes M yes ande yes thank you uh see thanks dev Street order master plan yeah there isn't too much to report here we have the final draft of the master plan which we're all

reviewing and we're getting comments to stantech at the end of the week and so that's great that we're at that point and we have now met with all of the developers that were suggested to us and have really benefited from their input and a lot of them are expressing serious interest so that's really good news so we're kind of winding down that project and we'll be sending you the master plan once that's

finished any word from governor on a letter where where that's going to stat going what they decided that we're going to discuss that um later as a real estate issue in the executive okay thank you and then a report on the North downtown so you remember that at Christmas time leis and Johnny joined us for uh a gathering that we had to look at how far the TDI work in our downtown district had

gone and what our next steps were and we delineated we being kind of this TDI partnership that's been working together uh for about five years and um originally we we were focused on South Maine and now we've delineated a real targeted focus of Purchase Street North Maine over to Troy Street and um we've got a working group with our new TDI fellow and so we had a meeting January 16th

last Thursday Johnny joined us the mayor came um and there were a few really good outcomes of that meeting which I just want to share with you so we reviewed the um spring OneStop application funding opportunities that might be applicable to um that North downtown area and we're going to work on that that more in our February meeting the applications for onstop Grants are not until June but you start now

identifying what you might want to go after um I think the most interesting results of the meeting were the breakout sessions and there was a lot of consensus on um the activities that are being planned for good weather outdoor um small little concerts on the patio that is in front of the new Viva store that um Joseph Holderman put in recently and the possibility of closing the

streets sometimes and or a small part of the street and um really pulling all the restaurants together there's a lot of interest of you know Belmont Club the St James um tequila lime uh jerri's uh all or not cherries dunnies D dunnies yeah um all collaborating on um having people kind of Go restaurant to restaurant or bring their food out for these gatherings so there's a lot of interest in that and they um

they're the goal is to really make them vibrant and EXC exciting and really get people downtown in the evenings and they probably will need more money so that was you know one of the focuses how are we going to find more funding for the entertainers for beautification um so I think Johnny wants to speak to that a little bit um and then uh there's definitely concern about some of the recent

incidents that have occurred on North Main Street right across from Bank five and Bank five staff being concerned about walking around after work uh to their cars and things so um we've reached out to the police department the chief of police uh has said that it's possible through a new neighborhood engagement team that's been created to really put a walking Patrol at times on North Main Street and that's what people

were really asking for and then the other issue is that um the recent incidents have been linked to some of the people who hang around outside of the library so the group is looking at having discussions with the library local shelters and rooming houses and seeing if we can address where people might go other than right in front of the library and um another uh discussion was the linkage of

Troy Street to these two blocks of um well these number of blocks of North Maine and purchase if you're walking down Bedford Street you're walking basically by lots of uh parking lots it's not lit well at night and so we think that working with Dan and the city on maybe finding ways to make that a more inviting walking back and forth would be um a really good idea so Johnny you want to comment on

that yeah no I just think there's there's a lot of um energy there from all the different Proprietors of the different shops and restaurants and things there so so I I just um we want to like try to keep a pulse on what the progress that they're making and then you know there's some ways in the future we can support them and help them because I think that whole area is kind

of like a diamond in the rough you know it's it's kind of like has a lot of good components but it's not like all together you know you live you live there you I mean yeah I'm there every day but we want the pink bean to come back that's what we want you want what Cofe shop the pink bean to come back yeah would you have time to L some expanding yeah so yeah but it's it's

it's it's it's you know it's it's encouraging all the energy they have so it's nice to see that so what were the incidents I I must have missed something I know mean what's the incidence they wored about in front of Bank five there was a stabbing in the street was that didn't even hear that and what else it was a few months ago say we just had Matt R show up Sunday at Belmont Club

one of the top comedians Old Country oh wow just unexpectedly showed up at the Belmont Club well they had a comedy show going on they they sold it out 30 people sold out 30 people in Matt BR show I paid $300 see him and they get to hit him for free he lives in Island he lives in R Island yeah what what inspired him to come over I17 was there so I guess he

ped with 47 and they brought him over there it's it was a know a news break I just read quickly and but he's one of my favorites so it's funny that he gu young kid oh young kid 30 less than probably under 40 um if there's no further matters for the Open Session the chair makes a finding that open session would have a detrimental effect on negotiating position of the public body the purpose

of the executive sessions to approve the executive session minutes from December 18th 2024 discuss strategy with respect to a potential real estate transaction for property located at the Wall Street corer I'll entertain a motion to enter into executive session and we will not return to open session motion to go to Executive session second second John Erics yes Ron yes madas yes and thank you