The Fall River Redevelopment Authority convened on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023. The meeting began with a roll call and introductions, including the new Project Coordinator and Executive Assistant, Karen Martin. The board then conducted an election of officers, unanimously appointing a Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, and Sarah Page as Ex-officio Secretary. Following this, the Open Session meeting minutes from January 25th, 2023, were unanimously approved, as was a warrant totaling $315,531.87. A corporate authority resolution was also unanimously approved, designating all five board members as signatories on the primary account held with Bay Coast Bank, a step taken after the completion of the 2020-2021 audit. Significant project updates included discussions on the City Pier dock system, where concerns were raised about a potential August delivery, deemed "totally unacceptable." The board also discussed the need for an RFP for landscaping and snow removal. A major topic was the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism Grant, which could offer up to $250,000 for capital projects or $50,000 for a feasibility study. Various proposals were considered, such as a feasibility study for pier enhancements, purchasing a large tent, or acquiring a temporary stage. However, due to uncertainties about City Pier's untested nature and upcoming Route 79 construction impacting parking, the board decided by consensus to pass on applying for the grant this year, opting to use the current year as a "pilot" and revisit the grant application in December or January next year. Further updates covered the Pleasant Street roadmap, which is nearing finalization, and the Downtown Historic District expansions, with public meetings anticipated around June. The meeting concluded with a unanimous vote to enter executive session to discuss strategy regarding potential litigation concerning the City Pier project and several potential real estate transactions, including properties on Innovation Wayne and Duval Street.
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okay I'd like to welcome everybody to the Wednesday February 22nd 2023 meeting of the Fall River Redevelopment Authority recording of the Open Session can be viewed on all Fall River government television www.frd us um excuse me um first went 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
0:29such recording of transmission are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledgeable excuse me acknowledged and permissible I'm gonna do a roll call um Johnny Erickson also participating or Sarah page our executive director John Coughlin Council Ken Viola administrative services consultant and we want to welcome Karen Martin our new project coordinator and
0:59executive assistant who I know you may not have met her have you met Karen before just tonight yeah so uh welcome thank you um the first thing we have to do is we have an election tonight and I need to entertain a motion uh for the position of chair
1:26yeah okay I want to take a bowl one at a time what do you want to do a vote either one of each position or you can do a nomination for all of them well we already got one out of three dogs yeah uh I'll entertain a motion for the position of Vice chair
2:01s Vice chair for the board of Redevelopment Authority board third I need a motion excuse me entertain a motion for the position of treasurer opportunities second okay we'll do one vote at the end yeah we'll do one vote at the end and also um we have the position of X officio secretary which do we know who that is I don't know that you need to vote I think I would just add it to the vote
2:48just add it for us okay okay yep so um so Sarah did did somebody nominate Sarah uh I'll nominate Sarah page for ex-officio secretary second so why don't we do a roll call to okay we need a roll call vote to uh make all those appointments Johnny you're saying yes good um it's too bad we don't have Ron but anyway hopefully he'll get here uh we have to do approval of the Open
3:26session meeting minutes from January 25th to 22nd are there any comments rather uh I need a motion to approve the Open Session minutes
3:47three seconds okay roll call jennyerson yes okay we need to approve the warrant which I think you all have controls 315 531.87 and you're good with that John yes signed off on it okay so I need a motion to approve this warrant second okay John Erickson yes yes and kenyas uh Finance report completion of the 20 20 21 audit uh who wants to speak to that Sarah and I met with our audit firm um
4:57audit so I think we're in great shape finally and have put this all to bed um the second order business that we have is to vote into to reflect the new cord so I would like to entertain a motion on a corporate Authority resolution designation for all five members of the board as signatures on the primary account held by the farmers first thing and the signature is required for certain Financial
5:33do we need to make a motion about it okay I I uh I move the entertain a motion to on a corporate authorization resolution to designate all five members of the board signatories on the primary account held by Foreign Authority with Bay Coast Bank and the signatures required for certain Financial transactions one second do we need a roll call for that channel yeah Johnny Erickson yes John Medeiros
5:57Yes Lewis gonzos yes and Ken yes okay uh I'm going to again introduce our new project coordinator executive assistant Karen Martin and uh we next we're going to move on to uh project updates City Pier Sarah do you want to talk to the doc the latest on the doc system sure so I was talking with Johnny about this Ken and Karen and I were on with our design firm uh yesterday and um where
6:38still somewhat uncertain exactly what materials to use for the docks and we got news that they were thinking that it was going to take so long to um to order all the materials once a contractor is selected that we might not get the docs in until sometime in August which is totally unacceptable given that we're trying to get it in for this year's boating season and so we're working on that to try to
7:14figure out other strategies so that we can get the docs in sooner and so I think there's some level of frustration here and we're going to try to get to the bottom of this
7:36we need do we need to put out an RFP for landscaping and snow removal yeah we have to and because the really maxed out our allowable um payments by now um you know we we need to go out to RFP at some point but we may be able to put that off for another month or two and um we're going out to RFP for numerous things soon so we might just do that in
8:11May or you know I thought we would have to do it by now given uh that we thought we were opening it earlier and so we would have had more landscape costs and then we thought we'd have snow costs which we really haven't so um so that's just letting you know we may be able to wait a little longer on that
8:38right but I guess the thing is that we hired we did um a good business practices and looked at a number of people and hired someone who we can pay up to ten thousand dollars in this contract period and we've gotten nowhere near ten thousand dollars we've spent maybe 1500 or something so that would allow us a little more time but if we were trying to put it out so that
9:11you know we rfp'd for this entire spring summer season yes we would need to you know have it out now but how much what's the ballpark do you think he gave us ranges well he gave us all these amounts for particular services snow anyway the only reason I asked that is because you you really truly only have to do a full RFP for over 50 000 for the year oh for a year well if you
9:41do a one year at a time contract right so if it's under 50 we can do three written quotes it's a quicker process than a full hour right so it just depends on the dollar amount take a look and come up with an estimate but right if we're going to be under 50 000 a year for sure so then we can do three written quotes and that's okay
9:59yeah okay it would be a lot quicker so I think all these did was the initial cleanup right the land the he did too he did a prep for winter and a big clean up before our grand opening right um but still I think it was under 2 000.
10:17okay so do you recall did we get billed for that yeah we did okay yeah all right good yeah um next item is uh the the what the do you want to talk about that sure the Massachusetts office of travel and tourism Grant and it was brought to our attention by Patty Rigo who suggested that um the new grant writer for the city Jasmine could write a proposal for uh Patrick she invited Patrick and me and
10:54Jasmine to meet and talk about opportunities and I sent her um one suggestion so we have lots of suggestions floating around and the grant is due at some point in March I believe before our next board meeting so I hope to have a real solid proposal for you but we're kind of not finding agreement on what we should do what I suggested in response to Patty's um you know email to me was maybe we should
11:33uh oh so you can ask for up to 250 000.
11:39it's a capital Grant and so you have to be um but I think you can ask up to 50 000 up to 50 000 if you want to do a study so Patty's real proposal is that we do a feasibility study for what we might want to buy to enhance City Pier to make it more um usable for events you know one of her Desires in our bathrooms and I told her
12:13I did not think we were going to want to maintain bathrooms the city itself is not wanting to maintain bathrooms even though they have them along the Waterfront so um you know she wondered if we would want to put big shade structures um which you know we had wanted shade structures originally but she was proposing that a feasibility analysis might look at big sales that would be placed across the um
12:49the lamp posts but the question there is whether in this High Velocity Zone you could do that so almost any feasibility analysis will have to look at all kinds of um uh you know constraints of this site when we all know there are many so um then I suggested we buy we asked for money to buy a tent that we could put up for all or parts of the season and she
13:22didn't like that idea because she said most vendors will bring their own tents and um she just didn't think that was a great idea and then um Ken suggested a temporary stage and we've talked with Patrick about that and Patrick feels that um The Narrows feels really comfortable with what they do which is rent them because you it comes insured it comes with a driver who'll drop it off and pick it up and
13:57um he thinks if we were going to get a stage she would want the city to own it and you know it could be driven from neighborhood to Neighborhood but um he's not really that in favor of that idea which seems surprising he did say it would save the Narrows money but that somebody has to take responsibility for driving it ensuring it and he wasn't envisioning that it just sit on
14:30um City Pier when I heard of a stage I thought they meant what Eric had originally designed which was some kind of platform that would just raise the performer up a little bit not in an elaborate open up um into a big stage so we have lots of ideas floating around we need to make a decision quickly uh I think Ken and I both feel like we have a zillion studies
15:00going on right now and Ken's view was let's get a real you know let's do things let's get a stage out there but Patrick feels that for at least for this first year he's happily going to do a few concerts and just rent a stage well Ken you said there was a deadline for March but we would we have another opportunity I don't think that I think the deadline is mid-march so I don't
15:24think we'd really have another opportunity to bring it back ever oh no I mean it's due this March you could apply next year you know it's kind of a yearly Grant and it just came up after the last board meeting so um you know it's the kind of thing if there were just the perfect idea and proposal we could just crank it out and apply but the other thing is it needs to
15:50be matched and the city can't match it with arpa funds so you know they were saying with the board match and I said I bet the board might be happy to match something if it was an idea that really made sense to us well I think it's hard with City peer untested at this point we really don't know what our Capital needs are that's the big part well and Patty's
16:14view was you know we'd be having events this summer and you could have somebody out there looking at what's working and what's not working and you know then you'd be ready to install it for the next season so you know I can see the argument that in your first year of having things you could see what works what doesn't work what problems arise and that it could make sense to do a
16:40feasibility study but I think we're all focused on getting things to happen out there this summer so what do people think what kind of things can you use the money for is it a particular it has to be Capital costs or something like feasibility study that would lead to a capital um commitment I think okay okay I'm just not sure what they're going to study sorry oh well that's what to do let's study how well
17:17fairs do I don't know well you know you could study that everybody's little pop-up tent got blown away and that you know you need something more coherent to hold them all down or you're just going to kind of work itself out though for yeah right I mean we're kind of walking before we run right like John said it's you know it's almost like we have to see how it goes and then
17:43what the interest is right I mean I think I think the big tent could be a good idea because it can have like um like a it's the word only use um you know like a open-air market kind of thing on certain days and they'll drive for people down there and use it as opposed to a number of days to do it at Kennedy Park they still do it at Kennedy Park the farmer's market yeah
18:07yeah don't forget to you're going to have that Route 79 Construction control parking onto Wall Street yeah it's down there right I mean anything that you do you a big tent you just I think you know first of all you got issues of irrigation and right secondly you put a tent up there you're gonna have people congregating under a tent at night yeah oh yeah and the other thing is to have
18:32the stall in the tent right as well so yeah the idea of leaving it up all summer is unrealistic yeah I just think that um I don't see any validity in doing it study yeah this is you up here this is the Redevelopment stories here it's not the City's pier it's not anybody's peers you're up here well Patty is tourism director feels like she should be playing no no well first of all you're up here yeah
18:58the redevelopmentally dictates what they want to see occur on that Pier they could take certainly suggestions from other people at the end of the day a job here your liability you know I think you should you know think about what you want to use that Pier for in terms of events and whether or not you want a stage and that doesn't have to become the city state or maybe if you're not if you're only going
19:22to do three two or three large concerts maybe you just rent this stage yeah right as opposed to buying it right because let the vendor do it right you know because the stages are expensive you know we're looking at when there's 150 000 that's a real nice stage but it's a big expense could you get it through a grant Maybe but if you get Grant funds for it then
19:42maybe it's worth it but I would just be very cautious as to having because this is what's going to happen you're gonna have all kinds of people coming to you with various suggestions as to what shooting should occur on up here but at the end of the day you know that you're up here you gotta figure out what you want to do with it and if that's a schedule of events you do the schedule
20:04of events but you know this other stuff you know there's the pier is a wide open space it's a public space it's a high velocity Zone we know we can't dig into it very deeply so I think we just gotta be cautious of that as John said well the parking's going to be for the next few years we're working on some parking issues now but but you're right we're probably there's 87 parking spaces along
20:28the Wall Street South and most of those are going to if I think all of them are going to be eliminated so people are like between points that stretch along Point Gloria from I think from point Gloria down to The Cove yeah yeah so when are they going to be eliminated probably at the end of this month they're already doing quite a bit they won't be coming back for a while well
20:50they'll probably come back yeah they probably won't come back to the end of the project it's pretty close but they'll be they'll be you know I think people people might actually have to walk they'll walk the boardwalk you know people will have to walk have to walk you can't park you can't go okay but it's gonna limit the concert yeah who's the entertainment I think you almost treat this someone like a pilot
21:23yes like a test yeah this is untested yeah we need to understand what the demands are and what we need right right maybe what the city should be doing is going after a stage but they can't match it I guess for some reason they think I think that that the state that the Mott Grant has defined that arpa funds don't qualify as a match I would highly doubt and that would be very unusual for them
22:03to specify that yeah um not to say it's not true but I think you know the city would have more use for a state yeah to take different places right right and we could borrow it I suppose yeah right a Zone again especially considering if they do the summer uh concert series summer in the park again I mean that would be imperfect yeah what did they use in the past
22:26I thought the city at one time did have a stage yeah right so for some of the some of the arrow shows the white noise do so in the downtown they used to use the city stage I used to have it on Main Street right that goes back a ways probably pretty cool yeah but now the Narrows just rinse them maybe they're bigger stages maybe they're there for longer periods of time
22:55right right right yep but if it's something that's you know a hit and run in the state city stage is probably something so I don't know I think at this point I think maybe just using this as a year to figure things out especially since it's going to be impacted by construction yep seems like there's a lot of small things you could do like even I know like some of the parks in
23:19Boston they'd have like Kite Day and people would just come and do kites yeah I thought we were going to do things like food truck festivals or something maybe an art festival maybe right but I'm saying there's also like simple things that don't require a lot of infrastructure or anything yeah and I think Patty's planning on those and her view is that all the vendors that she brings for things know to bring pop-up
23:43tents that aren't going to blow away and so she didn't think yeah they just you just have to make sure everybody knows that they have to use barrels water barrels or sandbags that they can't drive Stakes right yeah I think she said they usually use sand bags yeah okay so we're gonna pass on that and I will bring it to the city you know are they looking at wanting to
24:08buy a tent I know years ago I mean I think it might have been the same Grant but years ago we tried to put in a half shell at the Heritage State Park but we couldn't get the city council approval for it but that may be but why did the city council have to approve Heritage States City match right yeah it was I think it's only 25 so it's not
24:32that big an item I thought it was 50. I think in those days okay yeah so Sarah can we put it like on the calendar for like January next year to think about going after this grant for next year for December and we can see how things went this year and yeah think about what we might want to request okay other uh Pier nope so um Sarah do you want to talk about the
25:04Pleasant Street road map much new to report I thought I might when I I first planned the agenda and basically we're just getting more comments back to Emily and going to finalize the road map and um in Emily's contract she had defined a somewhat limited number of public meetings and meetings of our citizens Advisory Group so I'm proposing that we now hold some without her because we we need
25:42her we need to keep her remaining meetings for the big public meetings so I think now we'll start holding our own citizens Advisory Group meetings because we really need to get back to them and say Here's you know here's the final draft of the road map and I've gotten a couple of calls from members of that group saying hey what's happening and I told them that we'd get everybody back together so at least the
26:13good news is the road map is getting done and we'll be moving on to the urban renewal plan and we're still trying to figure out how exactly what our strategy with meepa is to try to move that forward quickly so that's that update um just for a point of information Ron Russell is on his way okay thanks he's gonna knock or is it sexually downtown historic district expansions there yeah our consultant is working
26:50along I think that's going well he's keeping himself on schedule and we should be looking at having public meetings to make sure the communities on board with the plan sometime in the next few months probably June or so so that's is she going to be coming back in person soon do you know yeah for the public meetings but first he has to send the documents he's working on to the historic commission and they have to
27:22agree that the proposal um meets their requirements they agree that we can just expand the one historic district and that they buy our arguments and don't require that we create two downtown historic districts which is still a potential Challenge and we think we're that we're being successful to um convince them that we really just want one downtown historic district and that the history of the buildings
27:59justifies that um so that's what he's really working on right now and when we hear back when he gets all the documents to the mass historic commission and we hear back from them then we'll be ready to do public meetings so that's still a few months off but he'll definitely be coming for those okay are there any more open uh session issues you guys want to discuss okay uh the chair makes a
28:26finding that an open session would have a detrimental effect on negotiating and litigating position of the public body the purpose of the executive session too is to approve the executive excuse me executive session minutes from January 25th 2023 and discuss strategy with respect to potential litigation regarding the City Pier project and for a potential real estate transactions on the agenda including property on
28:48Innovation Wayne Duval Street and the potential purchase of a building to be leased uh need a roll call to enter into executive session and not to return to open session Johnny Erickson yes okay