The Fall River Redevelopment Authority convened on December 22, 2021. The primary discussion revolved around the approval of an appraisal proposal for 45 Anawan Street, specifically concerning the inclusion of a solar component appraisal. Executive Director Sarah Page explained the difficulty in finding appraisers and the complexity of the site, which required three separate valuation scenarios. Board member Joan Medeiros expressed concerns about the high cost of the proposal, which did not initially include the solar component, and the lack of a clear timeline for obtaining necessary information from Liberty Utilities. Counsel John Coughlin advised that two appraisals of the real estate, each with a solar supplement, would likely be required by DHCD, and offered to assist in expediting information from Liberty Utilities through Peter Celino. Ann Keene also raised a point about Liberty Utilities appearing before the Historic District Commission regarding demolitions, which could introduce a six-month delay. Ultimately, the board decided to table the appraisal proposal until the January meeting, pending further information gathering on the solar component and potential alternative appraisers. In other business, the board unanimously approved the MAS Building and Bridge City Pier Construction Requisition Number Two. They also discussed, but did not formally vote on, a City Pier change order for the installation of a water meter enclosure, with an estimated additional cost of $25,000, agreeing in principle to pursue it.
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City Officials
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meeting of the fall river redevelopment authority tuesday december 22nd 2021 pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or a video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible
0:32that being said uh i'd like to take a roll call of those people in attendance starting with the board uh joe marshall here medeiros here and keene here and no other members also participating in this meeting are sarah page executive director and john coughlin counsel for the board if any of the other members do show up they can just sign in and indicate who they are but we have enough
1:05for a quorum to make some decisions joe just a reminder because we're entirely zoomed all of our votes need to be roll call today okay thank you for that john i appreciate it um approval of uh the first item is the approval of a proposal for an appraisal for 45 aniwan street um i'd like to entertain a vote to authorize me to execute the appraisal contract with the appraisal company of new england and
1:37to obtain a quote and amend the contract to include appraisal of the solar component is there a vote to have me do that actually i have a question before we vote do we have any resolution around obtaining the information for the solar component from liberty utilities well i was trying to confirm with brandon that he really didn't have everything he needed he clarified what he needs sarah can you define who
2:12brandon is oh i'm sorry yeah brandon churchy is of churchy appraisal uh is the appraiser who um has been really talking with us about the appraisal of the solar panels we got information from liberty and he said it wasn't adequate i needed to find out what he was missing and so i'm going to now ask jim sabra to try to track that down and he you know liberty sent a lot of
2:45information it just isn't all that he needs joan do you have any further questions about that or well yes because i'm somewhat under the impression that we're also looking at doing two appraisals with new england appraisal correct so why are we doing that now that we are aware of this a solar issue and why wouldn't we just hold to get a complete package and have new england appraisal do it once
3:16we know we're in a situation with churchy that we have to go back to him correct that we can't fix but i'm not understanding why we're going to move forward with the second appraiser without having the complete package well because um i didn't think that we necessarily needed to have the uh solar panels uh appraised twice by both appraisers dhcd can't actually confirm that um but the more i talked with both of them
3:57and put it together with my conversation with dhcd it seems that we need to um have the solar panels appraised by both appraisers and we have when i sent out the proposal it didn't include the solar piece neither of them that's true included it and um they um well part of it is that we're desperately trying to get this appraisal done and i want the clock to start ticking because
4:38they said that they can do it in six weeks he said that he needs a bunch of information to give me a quote for the solar piece and said that you know he can add that on both of them see it as a really separate thing from their appraisal you know you're running all this data and um it can be done completely separately so i don't want to hold up moving ahead with
5:11the appraisal company of new england waiting for in more i guess i he wants information from liberty utilities before he gives us a quote for the appraisal of the solar panels so i just don't want to hold things up i i don't agree with paying for two appraisals which is essentially what we're being asked to do and i'm not i'm not convinced that we have this urgency to get the real estate appraisal done at
5:44this point well our pns says that we're going to um make a decision about the buildings coming down um by the end of february so if we want the appraisals to help us make that decision we need it done and or we need to renegotiate the um pns the amendment that we just signed um and i don't think that either of them see it as a really separate appraisal brandon said it was two to three
6:22thousand dollars to basically appraise this you know part of the issue is it's considered personal property it's not considered actually part of the property even though it gets sold with it so i think the appraisal of it is just kind of an add-on to a serious real estate appraisal so i don't think it will cost us more if we just add it on and that's how both of them seem to see it
6:57and that's not what you just said you just said that brandon churchi told us that it'll be about another two thousand dollars yeah but you know compared to what the appraisals themselves are costing it's um you know it it's an add-on it's not it's not redoing the appraisal so so based on a prior comment am i to believe that we don't yet have a bid from new england appraisal company as to
7:31what this cost is going to be not enforced not for the solar piece but yet brandon is indicating joe marshall here brandon's indicating that to add that piece would be two to three thousand with him correct i think it's more like two thousand but still it's not giving me the number so even though we can't assume anything um the appraisal company of new england if they needed to do that piece it
8:01shouldn't be considerably more than that no i don't think so i feel like we're um you know appraisal company of new england doesn't really want to do it it's it's uh none of the appraisers seem to want to do the solar appraisal it's um complicated it's uh they're really busy he said well if you really need me to add that we can we can add that and i hoped that we could just
8:40use one appraisal and just have brandon churchy do it and we could um we could conceivably still do it that way and just get one appraisal of the um solar panels a point a point of reference though we do not need two appraisals no we need we need two appraisals of the property to meet the hcd but what maggie dhcd told me is that um that that dhcd has no regulations on how appraisals are done
9:30and that solar panels is not something she's heard about before really but she also said that you want to have your um instructions to your appraiser consistent so our instructions to both employ appraisers were consistent in our rfp to appraise the liberty property but neither of them included this issue of appraising the solar panels um to interrupt john do you have an opinion on this at all
10:14not a legal opinion but in the past well i just i think the right way to do it is to get two appraisals of the real estate and i think both appraisals should include a supplement for the solar piece okay now whether we hold everything until the solar piece is ready or we go ahead with the real estate piece first knowing we have to do that no matter what that's right i can go i can
10:35go either way on that it's just the clock keeps ticking and if it takes them two months to get it back to us if we wait another two months to start it we'll be into may before we get them back so um john is there anything we can do to expedite getting this information from liberty yeah well i talked at the last meeting and i'll follow up with sarah what i
10:56talked about was send me sarah give me a list of what they're looking for and i'll send it through peter celino and see if that see if that helps if you can just give me a one-page summary of what documents they're asking for i'll i'll forward that and he seems to be in contact with the general counsel in house so i can't imagine that we can't get this information how
11:16quickly we'll get it i i don't know i mean it's a bureaucracy over there but right um i don't see the harm in asking from as many different angles as possible so i have two two items that randon said he needs but i'm trying to confirm with him that that really that he's looked at all the other information and that that's all that he needs so that we're asking one time okay ask one question the
11:54um the appraisals i know we need that before we purchase the property we also discussed needing them so that we could decide what buildings to take down um are we in and is it more that we want to get it done first to determine what buildings to take down right is that what we're in the more immediate need for correct it is so and the solar piece is totally irrelevant to that decision right right
12:26so my my other my other question or statement or what not um uh someone that i know was at the historic district commission last night and i guess liberty appeared before them about demolishing buildings so i don't know where we are in the process if we've got a if it's got to go through historic commission before we'll have approval of being able to take any of those buildings down so i think if that's the case
13:01that's usually a six month delay before any buildings come down so i don't know if that factors into any of the appraisals here or how fast we need to give an answer on that um but i just thought i'd bring that up as as something that may factor into when we'll be able to determine what buildings are coming down well i don't think the three buildings we're considering taking down would be
13:27considered historic i don't think they are but i think because they're in a historic area that we may still have to or they have to i because they're still the owner but i do know that they appeared before him last night so i don't know anything further than that but i guess that they're starting to work on that piece of it um i know we had talked you know about that the other week um so
13:54i don't know how quickly any buildings are actually going to come down because that i believe is like a six month delay when you start to ask them about reviewing um buildings so so last night's meeting was that about this site yes i'm looking at brenda what do you think yeah yeah and it may be and i'll check with peter to follow up because that's the first i've heard of that it may be that
14:20they just they may have just filed their notice to demolish the buildings to stop oh yeah yeah i think that might have been the case to start the process but i think it's usually a six month delay then that they have before anything can even come down wow there is and then don't forget we have until the end of february essentially march to tell them which buildings right we're already three months out and then
14:44they would have three months left to kind of get their contractors in place and everything else but i'll i'll check with peter sarah and i'll show you an email as to which buildings they put on notice but they you know obviously they're the ones who have to pull the demolition permit not us right see i thought that that was in the waterfront arts district but not a historic district that's a historic district
15:11apparently it is part of that were you looking at the joan you were looking at the agenda all it is all it says is 45 anawan street liberty utilities okay i'll check with peter on that sir okay we have to have johnny announce that he's here on the yes yeah i think i've been i've been listening okay i had trouble getting on on the other route but i was listening all right well
15:41john john erickson is a member of the board has joined the meeting
15:52all right so where are we now so i don't know if that factors into how soon we need the appraisal or not i just wanted to to say that we may be further down the road with being able to take anything down so i don't know i think it's for me it's just it's the lag time of all of this you know these are appraisals we did not see them for two months and
16:17then we have to then meet and decide to give liberty notice which ones we want to take down and i'm okay if we want to hold this for until january i just think at some point we know we need two real estate appraisals no matter what with ghcd and we also need to make a decision about taking buildings down and then we're gonna have to add on the solar at some point either way so
16:40you know whether it's another month from now i don't think is gonna make or break it but i we can't go out too far because it takes so long to get this stuff done man right i get it back until february at this point you know i really think that we should approve the appraisal proposal we have and continue to see the solar appraisal as a separate entity john your thought
17:13yeah i mean i'm okay with doing a supplemental we're doing it on the first appraisal we're supplementing that original one for the solar right yeah yeah so it's actually making them consistent right and then but we have a we have at least a an estimate on the price for that one the second one we don't really have an estimate for yet right right and i guess that joan is that your
17:37concern that we don't know what that outer once we go ahead with this appraisal we don't know for a second so we don't know what the additional fee will be from them we also don't have a good handle on what the timeline is for liberty to turn over this information as well so you know so the solar appraisal piece is complicated and clearly an issue but we've been trying and trying to get
18:07an appraisal company to appraise the real estate and we finally have one to give us a second real estate appraisal and i think that you know the solar is not on any of the buildings we're thinking of taking down and it i think that we really can separate them go ahead and get a second real estate appraisal and then get two solar appraisals down the road and if we don't like the price of
18:43the appraisal company of new england um you know i was proposing to dhcd that we just get one solar appraisal and you know look at both real estate appraisals and then the solar appraisal and she wasn't clear that that was a problem yeah uh i'm just to weigh in on on that too it's been very difficult to find someone that's why it's taken so long to actually do the appraisal so to to not move forward
19:21i mean we can talk about time and delay but we nev may never get somebody to come back in the and when we need them is that fair to say sarah yeah yeah i mean i feel like there's pressure i disagree with that okay all right well i i know what sarah's been doing trying to get a uh an appraisal and it was difficult to get someone so so sarah do we have
20:02so have they given you the the bid amount yet yeah i i thought you got didn't you get the i'm sorry my dad my bad yeah so so you have the proposal it's a really good proposal um it just doesn't even contemplate the solar piece that's it yeah so are they willing to do the solar piece they are willing
20:46before making the comment uh mention who you are before making the comment that's all yes johnny erickson yeah um sarah do they are they able to do an appraisal a solar appraisal i mean are they qualified to do that did they say yes they are so sarah is there quote including the solar appraisal no it's a high quote and it doesn't include the solar appraisal there's no way i'm voting for this
21:14that that fee is outrageous it seems high but it's a very complicated site sarah we just got one done for considerably less money i agree so i'm i'm not i won't agree with this one okay i don't know that i can find another appraisal but i'll keep trying any other comments uh ann keane do we want to table this to next month are we able to hold their proposal till next month and
21:55in the meantime have sarah see if she can find anyone else that would be interested in looking at it we can do that uh another caveat to that is we know that we're going to need the solar component do we want to move forward with churchy to uh to do the uh and i'm just talking not in the form of a of a motion uh to do the solar component do we want to entertain that
22:29any discussion on that i i think that in the meantime i would like to have john talk with peter celino and let's move forward and get all of that solar information that we're going to need for any appraiser at this point please let's not waste time i mean we're going to lose next week let's face it there's not going to be much of anybody around right but in the meantime let's push forward and get all
22:53this information on the solar pot okay understood joe do you think that i can find another you know when i talked with ken about it we agree it's a really high bid but nobody else will even do it they just keep saying it's too complicated we have too much work we don't want to do it and i thought churches bid for how much work it was given that we're asking for three separate scenarios of value with
23:29one building taken down two buildings taken down three buildings taken down it makes it a complicated appraisal for an already complicated site with all this environmental contamination they have to take into account and i've gone to many companies you know companies that beta thought would do it um and i i mean i i actually do have another strategy i can pursue but i just don't know that we're gonna find another
24:03company willing to do it for much less i would i would entertain a a vote that we we tabled this discussion okay uh pending john's response from peter celino and whether or not we can get the data that we need because what i'm hearing is we're pretty far out there and based on what even ann said that just moves the timeline further down so um that's my thought process about uh tabling this for now
24:38uh giving you a very little little time to see if there is somebody else out there but in the meantime trying to work on that uh solar component is there any discussion about my my thought and uh i concur with joe's thoughts at this point yeah this is ann um yeah i mean the other thing is if we if we if we find somebody else that doesn't do
25:11the solar do we do we have the option of not just doing that solar appraisal part of the appraisal um i know john was suggesting we should for dhcd but it's also sounding like we might not have to so just trying to make sure that we've got everything that's you know apples to apples between the appraisals is but that piece i know was not part of it when uh sarah was originally looking
25:38just for and it may make it more difficult if we're trying to look for that both those pieces you know the real estate appraisal and then the solar appraisal um from another company do we want to entertain that we may not need the solar appraisal part i think to do that sarah we'd have to have and i'll join you if you want we'd have to have a follow-up call with maggie at dhcd
26:06and i'd want some written assurance from them that they'll accept it without that because if we go down this road and next summer we're submitting two appraisals to close and dhcd suddenly says these are not acceptable now we're all the way back to the beginning i want something confirmation from them and i think right i get the sense that commercial appraisers do would typically do these solar appraisals yep
26:34so i don't think that's the that's the problem so if we're going to delay sarah can you just get me a list of what yeah what the phrases need and i'll follow up with peter and then we'll take it up in january all right so uh after this discussion we'll uh we'll table and hopefully bring up again in the january meeting um the next uh item is approval of the city peer construction requisition number two
27:12everyone did receive a copy of that yep and i would entertain a vote to approve the mas building and bridge city peer construction requisition number two joan medeiros of johnny you want to mention your name yeah john here tonight i move we approve okay is there a second um uh all in favor roll call joe marshall yes medeiros yes and yes johnny erickson yes thank you so much next item is to the approval of the city
28:00peer change order for installation of a water meter enclosure so i talked yeah i talked about the uh water meter enclosure the two of them that we need at the end of the piers at a previous board meeting when i got information from mas i thought that we needed to make a decision about that as soon as possible but data said since i sent out the agenda that they still are reviewing the proposal
28:38that it looks as though it won't go in until the until later anyway maybe in the spring so there isn't a hurry to make a decision on it um the proposal we got however is 35 000 and i just want to make sure that the board um is agreeing that in principle we're going to go ahead and have these um water meter enclosures put in because of the requirement that we have uh water meter back
29:18backflow meters and um we won't actually have to an additional expense of the full 35 000 because we'll get a credit for the work that was going to be done for the simpler water solution and so we probably only are adding 25 000 to the construction contract but i just wanted to review that we're going ahead they're looking at the proposal but um and i'll bring you a final change order
29:58but i wanted to make sure that um we had agreement to go ahead and pursue this change order any uh questions or discussion i think it's reasonable especially based on the prior discussion at last month's board meeting good point any any further questions or discussion on item number four hearing none is there any other business writer or german ronnie johnny oh no i was just going to uh john
30:35erickson i was just going to say uh i'm sure that i agree with that the water meters as well okay i think it needs to get yeah okay all right we're good um i'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn so move stone medaris joan medeiros second johnny erickson second johnny erickson uh all in favor joe marshall yes joan medeiros yes and keane yes danny anderson yes okay so moved merry christmas happy holidays everybody