3.12.2024 City Council Meetings

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public K will come to order clerk will call the Road Council kadim here Dion here here kby here Herrera here HTI here Roso here Samson here president C here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or UNP

perceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible entertain a motion to over the public hearing motion motion open second motion to open as been made in second and all in favor I any oppos motion carried item number one kilborn place LLC 425 State Road dmouth mass 02747 for the removal of curbing as follows at 379 kilborn Street existing opening is 200 feet curbing to be

removed is 16 ft there is no curb to be added combined opening proposed after alteration is 216 ft the pel is currently service by six curb openings totaling 200 feet on Kilburn Charles and trip Street the applicant proposed to create a new 16 foot opening on King Philip Street the total opening for this location will be 216 ft are there any proponents to this public hearing any proponents seeing none are

there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents seeing none we move on to the next one Capital Improvement plan for 5-year Capital Improvement plan are there any proponents to the capital Improvement plan please come on down to the table please give your name and title when you get to the table

please

Seth aen City administrator Bridget alond uh director of financial services Al Ola director of City operations do you want to give a presentation you want to give an explanation or you have a field questions what's up to you U I do have a a PowerPoint to put up okay it comes a PowerPoint

professional

one's the PowerPoint so use the one in your left hand

there it is so presented um is the city of fall Rivers's uh Capital Improvement plan for fiscal years 25 through fiscal years 29 we wanted to talk about why we build the capital plan it's so that we collaborate with all of our departments Administration Consultants we want to be able to create an enhance and preserve our spaces and infrastructure and develop by complete and maximizing all

of our funding resources to sustain public infrastructure that attracts development the purpose of our Capital Improvement plan is a multi-year planning tool used by the city to identify Capital needs that eventually become our projects the capital Improvement plan is a forecast of future needs and financial requirements five years in advance the capital projects are then vetted for

funding and timing to maximize returns to the public this is a comprehensive look at our needs financing methods costs revenues and linkage to identified goals for the city the capital budget is comprised of the projects to Beed started in the coming fiscal year some projects May span several budget years our focus on infrastructure is a means to sustain critical public systems such

as roads facilities and sewers the city invests in facilities equipment and vehicles to provide necessary service and support for our community some of our funding strategies and we know that our city will continue to face considerable Capital needs which we must address with limited resources some of our resources that we will look into to fund all of our projects are using free cash budgeting within our current

operating budget and stabilization funding those require our city council approval and we will use these for reoccurring equipment purchases and these are linked to our city Department goals we will also look to get state and federal funding we will look to chapter 90 our msba funds cdbg funds state air mark funds Community preservation funding and we will continue to use arpa through

this fiscal year loan forgiveness programs and bond authorizations so the first capital plan that's l in our packet is the police I'm not sure if there's any questions on this one um but I can continue to keep going through continue if they have questions we can come back so again then our fire developed a fiveyear capital plan plan which we've also presented and our Emergency Medical

Services presented a capital plan for the next five years as well excuse me did you say we can ask or wait either or counselor do you want to ask questions now we can do it now do you don't have do you want to ask I'm just curious um councel C to sorry that's okay under the uh Under Fire you have um replacing windows at the center station and repointing at the center

Station um Center station is where EMS has been moved to correct because you separated fire and EMS so there's both EMS and fire at the center Station okay so so I guess I would say I was under the impression that basically that we had become the EMS uh station and there were some fire apparatus in it would that be a fair statement or not cuz otherwise I'm wondering why the EMS um

upgrades would be listed under the fire department instead of EMS because on the next page you have EMS upgrades as well so um this is being used as both a a fire and EMS uh facility um there's constant um conversation going on between fire and EMS regarding improvements to different facilities um as I'm sure you know EMS also contributes to fire uh houses across the city uh including some of the highspeed

doors and other things so there is a a constant conversation uh EMS just agreed to put new lifts in the um in the maintenance shop um they're they're both using resources so uh it is a collaboration okay thank you I yield thank you Council please proceed with the presentation unless anyone else has any questions I just ask for clarification purposes a public hearing so is it I don't two respect

Michelle Dan Council Dan is it appropriate to ask questions now or wait till after it doesn't matter C while we're on the subject of the fire department if we have fire questions and it's fresh in your mind it's fine thank you thank you traffic and parking has um put a small Capital plan forward as well and engineering and planning has put forward um many of their projects that have arpa funding and CPA funding

our veterans department has also identified some needs over the next few years and our Department of Community maintenance most of these a good the majority of these um we will be able to fill with arpa funding which will alleviate some strain on the budget going forward facilities has identified a lot of projects throughout the city that you can see these will be um in many departments including the police station

the garages and the library and our director of um Community maintenance is here to answer those questions and we just wanted to identify that these on this last page these facilities these are going to be paid significantly with uh either a Enterprise fund or arpa funing funding or Community Development money and this there's a very large project on that's being identified that's ear marked with

arpa semi cemetery and trees put together looking for um replacement vehicles and backo for the tree Division and again our we listed what community preservation and CPA funding is going to assist the Departments and funding these requests our Park department has put together and identif ified some projects throughout the city and again there will be arpa funding that will help assist with some of these um equipment

below this is the the schools provided their five-year Capital plan which goes over the next two pages and they've identified in color where some of the key funding sources for this will be and that concludes my presentation counc six counc thank you um so a couple quick questions here so before I get into my comments on arpa um EMS I'm seeing that you have $1.3 million broken down all the way up until FY

2028 uh in capital needs that they need why aren't they using their own funds with the within their own Enterprise account it's a they are this is just their their fund their Capital plan that they put forward right so you mentioned so so so for clarification purposes EMS isn't necessarily using arpa to fund these specific programs correct okay so I wanted to make sure of that um how

do we know which under which departments you're going to be using arper and which ones you're not so we did identify um if you look where it says to be paid for by listed agency um

agage so the following to be paid and funded through so page 13 shows some of so page 13 shows some of these that are being paid for with ARA that that are included in the capital plan and again you can see in the bottom of page 13 that there's chapter 90 that'll be utilized IED and if you go to page 15 with facilities it does show where the building upgrades for EMS will be paid

by the Enterprise fund Leon Street upgrad excuse me none of these pages are numbered so I don't even they are bottom to the right on this one so I think you're looking at my PDF presentation and then that is the capital plan that was submitted to the council so I I hear this and I and I appreciate the clarity on that so none of EMS is going to be used for Opera is what

you're saying I just found the sheet now um at all none of the projects in that are planned going forward are going to be used for arpa I believe didn't we use some arpa funding for something so few so it looks like building in site renovation at 10 Leon Street but for some reason that isn't that's under arpa but that's nothing to do with EMS so that's DCM so that's the that's our our

our maintenance Barn um that is going to be a significant arpa investment uh in terms of EMS uh there is some uh Community preservation money that's going into the center fire station um the rest of that money is from the EMS Enterprise fund and um in fact I I think there might have even been an arper request from EMS a little while back that was denied based upon the idea that

they do generate Revenue so therefore um wouldn't be getting arpa money um in terms of capital projects it's uh EMS is using their own funds has a cost benefit analysis ever been done at all to um determine if the EMS Enterprise account is something that could be run through the general fund in terms of income and expenses would it benefit the city where where where where cash strap we're going

to need money in the foreseeable future has an analysis ever been done I know most communities utilize EMS and within an Enterprise account but some communities if you've done I've done some research clearly show that they've abolished their Enterprise account like we abolished our trash Enterprise account has that ever been done and thought of at all in terms of replacing some lost Revenue so um we do get

indirect cost returned back to the general fund EMS does reimburse the general fund for their pension and their healthare but I I personally have not done any analysis it's never been requested I know the trash Enterprise fund abolished because it could no longer be a sustaining Enterprise fund I remember yep so I I'm just I'm just asking for discussion because we're going to need money eventually and with

with all due respect a lot of money for the last couple of years has been taken away out of the operating account out of the operating budget utilizing ARA and that money is going to be going away so I guess I challenge you to to possibly answer what are we going to do in fure future years for Capital needs when we can't utilize oper money to pay it so that's that's why we're um trying to reduce

our borrowing current borrowing over the next couple years we're trying to build up our rainy day funds so that we can then generate and use our stabilization and free cash to help with capital capital okay okay I mean um that's fine and in my last question schools uh what contributions are the schools going to have uh for addressing some of the capital needs that were presented in

this presentation so we actually have a meeting coming up with the schools um if I go to there so right now in the see me go so if you go to the well it's the last it's the school capital budget so for example the window the window replacement at RPA the 8.2 million so that you have already approved the authorization a few months ago and we've already had to start borrowing on that

and the city's picking up that expense the city's picking up the 20% of that it's yeah has there been the discussions with the schools and see if they have the financial capability to assist so part of the um with schools is anything over $150,000 is not net School spending eligible so I don't I mean they'd be buying a lot of Windows and and the project would last but they also have

Capital budgets within their operations so so we will be I I have been addressing that and we have a meeting with the schools but as of right now the 20% is um going to be on the city Side okay we do have a joint meeting coming up I think uh in the next month or two with the school committee so we can possibly have a benefic uh a debate with

them when it comes to that but um I appreciate that thanks for the clarification and I Y for now thank you thank you counc Council Samson thank you council president um Le cry I'm so happy to see phase one on here that's going to be paid the 15 million will be paid through oper funding um I toward that building the conditions were so appalling I'm so happy that we were able

to get oper funding to do this I'm concerned um for phase two of that are we going to be able to use any more Opera funding in um this second phase probably not we're probably not going to be able to use the the OPA funds um past this $15 million right now the the $50 million is going to take us to a big portion of um making that building sound uh working on the envelope uh

working off a murf which is a uh a recycling process and making sure that the site is extremely uh residential friendly that's what I was going to ask you because if the after the million and we don't have funding like for whatever reason for phase two is the conditions going to be much better to in your you know in your opinion in phase one because it was scary that you know

people are working on there it was just bad it just it doesn't look like it's been touched since like 1969 I don't know was pretty bad so well it several years ago some Stacks were taken down um because of the moratorium for burning um any type of burning materials so we took that down and and the roof uh was not never put back um so there's the there's the major concern and we're going to

want to make sure that they have a good place to to rest when they want to I agree um okay with that I yell thank you than you C counc T2 see so I already asked on the EMS upgrades I believe on page

15 oops Yeah the building upgrades renovate building to the MS management staff training classroom and crew qus what location are we talking about we actually have the deputy of the chief here if you want to speak directly to that would that be okay sure great uh motion to wave the rules have to w we need it come on down

please good evening good

evening so the upgrades for the administration training classroom and crew quarters for the center station so the administrative part uh we are at currently at City Hall on the fourth floor so the training portion would be the old Maintenance Shop area uh which is the last Bay on Troy street where the alley is we're going to upgrade that area to be the classroom and training areas the crew quarters would be

upstairs and the uh back rooms uh for the dorms for male female okay um so where where is the training going on now I know you've expanded your program yeah it's at still at fire headquarters we're sharing a classroom with the fire department right now okay so once these upgrades are made um is this a long term plan or is it temporary because I know when we discussed the 2.7 million for construction and renovation of

buildings um and they wanted to change uh the plan everything was temporary yeah so this would be the long-term plan from the original plan the steel building yeah yes this is our long-term plan moving for we're going to use the current structure upgrade that old maintenance shop that's just Gathering dust and it's just beat up we'll upgrade it make it the training center move our training staff there

will be a city hall so it'll be more close combined and we'll have our crew cords upgraded we also are upgrading the fire dorm rooms also in conjunction with the EMS rooms bathrooms uh workout room Etc that's all getting upgraded at the ater station for police uh for EMS and for fire not just EMS okay cuz yeah when when the potential uh uh changed the loan order everything was referred to as

uh initially used initially used correct which left the door open for moving on yeah I I think preco the plan was to build a separate building y uh postco the cost have got times 10 just it makes no sense to build a new building so we the administration myself Deputy for we all got together and discussed it and we believe this is this is the plan moving forward no it definitely makes sense

it's more cost effective that's for sure and uh if it's going to be a new home well that's that's a good thing that's Plus benefits both the pits so right um yeah I think that's my only question in terms of EMS um yeah thank you I appreciate that you're welcome let's see you guys you don't have to stay there if you don't want to all right I do have a few more questions um

tra page 11 traffic and parking Ford F350 twodo with air compressor four-wheel drive what exactly is that vehicle and what is it used for it says drilling capabilities vehicle with compressor and now that they have now is not compatible for work being done so as you know um we've gone from the ordinary oldtime meters to the kiosks um with the uh addition of more and more kiosks across the city revenue

from parking has gone up considerably because it allowed people to pay with credit cards um and so a vehicle that's equipped with a compressor and the drilling capability allows installation and service of the kiosk as well as um all of the sort of attendant uh equipment that goes with the kiosk okay thank you then Lon Plaza um I know back in it was either 2018 or 2019 the RDA put a substantial

amount of money into renovating that Plaza Opa funding obviously another 300,000 and now we're still looking at potentially another quarter of a million down the road like what what Still Remains to be done there what I mean it just seems like an awful lot of money for that one small stretch so I think there's there's two different issues one is that yes it's a awful lot of money for a small

piece um and the problem is that um it's just sort of the nature of of Construction and building and demolition um all of the bids came back twice what was budgeted what was anticipated for that uh project and it just became basically untenable with the money that we had available um so before it got cold and before it started to freeze there was a lot of effort to uh take up

the bricks and do some other things as a starting point that was paused um uh when the ground started to get hard you couldn't really do any stone work or really any other kind of work work while the ground is Frozen uh and that should pick back up again uh in the next several weeks um so we're doing a lot of that inhouse in order to do the the site

work um and then the idea is to use the money that we have secured to actually bring that over you know in to completion uh but the site work right now is being done inous and on the same page page 13 I mean the same page on page 13 sorry Mr ala um there's a number of vehicles here um the kubata the forklift two f450s etc etc now I know Opa funding is um was

approved to purchase all have any of these vehicles already been purchased they have not we're we're in procurement right now we did get initial budget uh for each each vehicle and we're now in the procurement process at this point because I believe those monies were approved back in 21 or 22 the Opera funding was approved to purchase these vehicles I I know that they were approved when I was after I started

because that it was during the uh Opa advisory committee that we started approving some of these which I didn't start till after the end of like April of 22 so I believe it was 23 but so these are again we didn't have a director facility I'm inan I'm in process of doing that right now that that's what I'm doing right now I'm in I'm in a procurement stage uh in the

past if it wasn't an offer project I could just go to a state contract vendor get a quote it would be sufficient now I have to actually get other quotes to me three per vehicle no no it's it's it three is three is under the $50,000 threshold this one would be just put it out to bid and and get quotes for that so that's what I'm in the process of doing so we have to follow Federal

procurement rules when we use arpa and so that's it's not as quick as if we were just buying it with our operational budget okay I just I knew that had been approved quite some time ago so I was confused uh and let me see page 17 Parks so Parks according to this is only going to receive one vehicle a dump truck F450 there's actually some parks um equipment that's being purchased this

current year so it's not on this plan so there's Vehicles no that was the cemeteries we're we're we're we're picking up U some Cemetery that was that was what was requested um for the arpa funds I don't see ARA noted there that's why yes under under arpa there's one one vehicle under arpa I see the Hustler mower as oper a part oh crew cab all right so how many vehicles have are you purchasing this

year so right now not counting the DCM um well I'm going to count the DCM we're going to have a front loader uh say some BR machines uh back hoe um dump truck 250s uh one for the parks and one for cemeteries let's see page 18 the old Nagle Auditorium building fire suppression system a complete roof replacement um what what what's the future of that building I know it hasn't been used

since the new dery is was uh as was built So currently um so it is a city building um so we have an obligation obviously to maintain it um currently uh there is uh an entire uh uh sort of administrative processing outfit happening in there for the schools uh I believe that includes special education uh and some initial screening and some other things that happen in there takes up a pretty significant um uh part of

that there's a number of other conversations going on I don't know where they stand and I wouldn't want to comment on those because they're all preliminary uh with regard to other tenants in that building and uses for that building um uh I believe that there was some conversation about some medical use there was a conversation about some other governmental use like Federal governmental use um so there is a plan

to have that building uh almost fully occupied but of course in order to do that we need Sprinklers and a sound roof and right now the the the roof is far from sound has there been any discussion in terms of the administration building of moving the administration into the Nagle building not that I know um you could save $325,000 if you did I can't I can't comment on that just a

thought um and my last thing I want to ask about is the RPA on page 19 um I know that the elevator that's in that building is not a regular elevator it's a freight elevator correct yes that's that's what I understand I've never seen it I never have either that's what I was told um so theoretically can humans can you con can you consider that school to be um Ada approved with that elevator to move

students up and down if they had to I don't know the answer to that I'm sorry counselor because if not uh then that school doesn't even meet handicap laws yeah they have a ramp up so that's my first question um my second question is asbest removal $387,450 to how much aspes this has to be removed from that building so these would be questions um again that like Ken Pico and the superintendent they

they prepared this Capital plan and submitted that to us uh I don't have the details I don't know that the city administrator does that because what bothers me with that is how long have students been going to that school and people been working in it and this as bestus it needs to be removed well councel it the the state the federal government has already said that you can work around ASB bestas as long as it's

in safe intact condition so we've all worked around ASB bestus we've all lived it at every every school it's it's it's a it's safe when it's when it's enclosed and there is no uh puncture in any of the pipe installation so it's safe it's just that when you need to do maintenance when you need to work around it you must remove it under environmental conditions so that would be related to perhaps the upgrade in the

elevator the the the in installation of the fire suppression system Etc the plumbing probably especially anytime you have to do some work around it or proposed around it you definitely have to do that you have to meet all state and federal requirements especially for a school you follow under era regulations what I like to do is I'll relay the concerns to Mr Pico uh I know that everything he does is to a very

high standard um and he's a you know always a total professional I'm sure he has a plan uh I'll ask him to contact the council with some answers to the questions as Council perer rightly said I mean there is access there is ramps outside the school so they certainly have addressed Ada concerns to a point I don't know what the elev they can get in on the ground level I believe but their

cafeteria is underneath ground level and their classrooms are above ground level so once they're in the building they they can't climb if they can't climb the stairs then that's where the issue arises so I don't know if there's an issue or not uh at this point I think we're just speculating I haven't been in the building um but I can talk to Mr Pico and have him answer those concerns

for you okay that would be appreciated but it makes sense with the type of work they're going to be doing that that the asbest would be uh a necessity to to that's would would cause it to have to be removed at this point in time um thank you with that I yield thank you Council Council one Council thank you I just have some general questions with regard to the uh Capital Improvement

plan so the plan that's before us that obviously was put together by the department heads um all these all these Capital items or requests are not being funded is that correct for FY so when I'm going down the list for fy2 are they all being funded like are we guaranteeing we're going to fund them all no no okay so it's just a plan to have you can you just talk talk to I

guess to the process in terms of number one identifying the funding sauce so I know we keep talking about Opa but we've got free cash we've got stabilization accounts we've got the operating budget um msba for the schools we've got grants things of that nature um have we identified what our funding sources are for fy2 available funding sources that we can commit to the capital items and

have you begun to prioritize and how are you prioritizing the capital items in terms of making a request so right now we're going through um PL obviously we're building the operating budget we will need to sit down with the mayor and the administration to then prioritize like what are the absolute needs and then we will have to then start deciding how we're going to be able to fund those

whether we're going to you know I know we'll always be looking for Grants we'll always be looking for ear marks and I recognize that I guess I'm trying to figure out is as from the city council standpoint are we going to be seeing what the list of the recommendations are in terms of the capital items that are going to be presented for fy2 with the available funding sources or are we just

looking at I don't want to call it a wish list but essentially this is what this becomes right you you've passed department heads to put together Capital items and obviously there are priorities that or competing priorities from from different departments and there's only so much funding that we have um so I guess what I'm trying to figure out from our standpoint is you know if we're

talking about debt how much debt can we expect for fy2 to fund Capital items how much of it are we going to start looking for for an allocation from stabilization accounts uh things of that nature so we haven't identified how much yet what because we're still again building the the operating budget which we have to live and breathe to survive you know and as we there's certain school projects that

we're going to be required legally which you know we're doing the windows so that's already been that bond has already um we've already banned for that my goal would be to not take out additional debt at this point because we're we're kind of at that Tipping Point where we don't really see anything declining yet and we know we're going to look you know for CPA funding um we've talked about I know there's some grants

in the works I don't I can't give you a hard and fast answer right now yeah I guess I guess what I'm what I would be looking for in terms of trying to get a better understanding because we we can go through this and we can talk about the specifics but the reality of the situation is if there's no available funding everything in fy2 just gets shifted to FY 26 26 shifted

and so we're just pushing back so then what essentially happens is that you have even more competing priorities because if we're not you know maintaining or replacing items that need to be replaced that becomes a problem but I think from from the city council standpoint I think we need to understand um and work in partnership with the administration to identify like when we see you know that service uh requests

coming down how that uh relates to other requests that we're we're putting forward um and a lot of this is I know you folks know that a lot of this just adds additional costs to the operating budget so vehicle replacement so if we're not replacing the vehicles you know there's obviously um maintenance and and that can get very expensive especially when you talking about you know fire department apparatus um even

EMS apparatus Police Department things of that nature so um you know I think one of my colleagues just talked about a cost benefit analysis and I think that's and I know you folks recognize that I'm just trying to figure out uh from our standpoint from a planning standpoint when can we I guess expect to have um and I and fully recognizing that everything it's it's it's a living and breathing document right um so

issues arise things change uh funding sources might need to be reallocated and committed to other items so recognizing that is is there a time time timeline where we can say okay we've got um or we recommend taking a million dollars from stabilization account and that's that's the allocation that we have for fiscal year 25 and then it just becomes a discussion with the administration and

the City Council in terms of what that million dollars is going to be spent on right so that's going to be a conversation that we have with the mayor and as we're building this budget and prioritizing we'll have those same conversations those final decisions have not been made yeah um but I will stress that to to continue to keep adding debt when we're already at a $14 million appropriation to pay our debt is no I I

don't disagree with you I guess what I guess what I'm trying to to say and and summarize it I know I'm just going around for my standpoint a capital Improvement plan is useless unless we have a funding plan associated with right so I'm just trying to figure out here's our Capital plan what's our funding plan to ensure that the capital plan is being effective if not it's just another document so that's

being sheld right and it's and it's a nice process to go through with the department heads but I just want to understand the funding aspect of it so I think it would be a lot easier for us to understand the funding aspect but when we have like we still have a meeting with diamond um we're trying to get tighter numbers from UniBank for the financial modeling because the numbers have changed and when is when like when

are we going to start having to pay the 6.5 plus million so until we have those a tighter number wrap on that what what I get what you're looking for but we have this unknown of how we're going to pay for that so it's really hard to then say okay I know I'm going to do this in this year and this in next year and then there's a cliff yeah so that's where no

I I don't disagree with that I I think and I'm not looking for a number now right because I I think obviously you're going still going through a budget process right so the budgeting process needs to be complete so you know you have all the known inste instead of variables that are just still kicking around but from my standpoint it's just I I just like to know if it's zero monies that are going to be allocated

for fiscal 25 then at least we know Capital items are not just going to be spent on for fy2 and if that's due to a result of the debt from from Diamond then I recognize that but I just think that's a conversation that needs to be had we are having that conversation yeah okay so just so that we understand you know especially for me I I think when I'm when I'm looking at the budgeting

the budget CU I I think that's part of the discussion when we're going through the budget is saying okay what what capital items are being funded outside of the operating budget and verses what's being funded through the operating budget and do we want to see some different allocations because I know the administration of the mayor keeps come you know requests ask us for requests in terms of priorities that we

want to see in the budget things of that nature so it just becomes a little difficult to do that if we don't know the true funding uh the funds available for allocations of capital items so and we've been fortunate to be able ble to at least replace some of those vehicles that are coming online this year and next year um that have already been identified through Rober like for police

I think there's 11 Cruisers and some unmarked and so forth and EMS has been able to they've been able to keep their ambulances replaced um through the Enterprise fund funding um but again there's just we haven't committed any dollars at this point to fiscal 25 and as we're having our meetings with department heads and we're working through that and meeting with the mayor as we finalize

this budget with the mayor those those are the conversations that we'll have with him I don't have the answer for you right now though all right I I appreciate that it's the only question I have thank you Council counc C4 Council kby yes um just one thing I noticed perum through this and um so this obviously a forecast okay 27 28 29 and again it's a forecast we get this

every year right so um I don't see much going on 27 28 29 in the capital plan in the entire document yes um and this is again what our department heads put forward to us so and again you know we this again this is a living breathing document so we'll re-evaluate that as every it has nothing to do with staff here obviously this is just yeah improvements on equipment buildings

things of that nature so I think Council Pont made a point in terms of the OPA money and Diamond Coming online um so couple of things I think Council actually triggered the question when he he me he's probably he has his own questions but you know we had um Nancy down here with regard to the parks I don't I don't know if you plan on talking Paul but I don't want to take

your issue but we don't see much going on with the parks um but just perusing through the columns for 27 28 29 um which is think about it's right around the corner so I don't see any forecast and um Council and seat one many times would say that we need that we we need that long range forecast um in terms of um you know what can we expect because those those years

come really quick so so Parks did it's a long question but it's more of a comment yeah so Parks did put in um a request and they have stuff in 27 28 29 um was a splash so like in 27 there's an you know crew cab um the Abbot Court playground equipment is in 27 Maplewood Park Splash Pad is in 28 along with another Hustler mower replacement and then in 29 again another mower replacement palaski Park

tennis and pickle ball is in 29 and Turner Park pickle ball court is in 29 okay well thank you for that but I think you would hopefully you would agree that if you look through the document 27 28 29 there's just a lot of blanks there's just a lot of um because I mean there's wear and tear on things there's equipment that needs to be replaced there's roofs that need to replace there's windows that need to

repl be replaced and I just made a point just to circle the entire sheet for those three fiscal years and it just seems that and I know again I I preface these kind by saying it's just a forecast project I understand that so I'm not looking to uh to give anybody a hard time here but um so is it as a result of um the potential forecast of not only the OPA money running out but

Diamond Coming online and also uh the doom and Loom Doom and Gloom uh possibility that we're hearing from the state so I I would actually it's a it's a real complex question I would respectfully push back a little bit on characterizing this as a forecast it's not a forecast because a forecast is a suggestion of this is what's going to happen and the problem is there's so many variables in those next couple

years I think 25 I think we very soon will have a lot of a lot more information we can start really putting together some some pretty clear ideas about 25 maybe even 26 you know how we might start to meet the needs of the city in that way thankfully um you know as much as we we don't want to you know rely on onetime money to solve really anything going forward it has been

really useful to be able to pull out Capital Improvements over the last couple years and use arpa money to do that and I think we have a much newer Fleet of vehicles across departments than we ever did that said when you look at Diamond when you look at um Labor uh questions and you know two unsettled contracts this year a number expiring next year um there are so many question

marks that to talk about 27 28 29 and say it's a forecast this is really uh A needs assessment okay uh and then our job once we have the needs assessment is to figure out how many of these needs are we going to be able to fund and move forward on and if we can't what do we do and so the other conversation that's that's that we're having right now is are there places where there's

redundancy um so City operations is a great example we have separate staff for um for streets and highways for solid waste for facilities for parks for cemeteries and trees are there ways that we could reorganize those departments somehow and have more people at the right time Mowing and more people at the right time doing different functions that right now are kind of siloed um so

those are that's you know if you don't necessarily have the the money to throw at a problem or the Personnel to throw at a problem you can bring creativity to bear and that's well this doesn't speak to Personnel though at all correct but but there's a much larger thing than just the capital and I think the capital is more of a needs assessment than a forecast that's that's all okay well I I

don't as you know me most you people know me I'm I'm not a a a downer um but I I think um the good times uh sometimes the the economy changes and there uh there upward swings and there downward swings I mean in a couple of years I'll be 60 years old so I've seen it many many times throughout my life so um so how much uh how much does last year's presentation mirror this one so

did you use so we get a forecast we get a yearly forecast so this is so the we get in the yearly Capital plan and so again every department has they start out with their La their prior Capital plan and they reevaluate these needs and then they present and they submit to me up an updated one um so again these are the needs that they put forward for those

years I mean I guess we would need to ask each of them okay you know I'm not going to pretend to go out and tell like Al what he needs so okay well I I could ask you more questions later on offline but uh that just popped in my head when I I looked at the doc just saw those years so it's um and I was wondering you know yeah just why I do know that

there's been a lot of window and uh hbac projects that have been done with eser money for the schools because that was eligible and so they'll be you'll get many years later benefit of those what do we think is going to be our a a significant source of money after Aro we have the tax base proposition two and a half which which is pretty much pays our was that 2.3 million dollars a

year maybe or something like that I don't know the exact number it's around 3.2 we have new growth so I will tell you that significantly for fiscal 25 all of our prop two and a half and some of our new growth will be is all going to the school appropriation I think you just made my point for me yeah yeah okay I Y it's a discussion for the for the future thank

you Council CC C5 CC per one of the questions that I would ask is last year's Capital plan that came before us how much of that was completed I think that's important for us to know of the capital plan you know how much was completed because when I look at some of the issues here like I look at a patrol boat for 225,000 I don't know if that's a lot of money or not enough money and

we're not getting a patrol yacht getting a patrol boat um so I do know how much boats go for and I know you got to have special things on there but if we have a boat that's 17 years old and you're putting more docks on the water and trying to get more people into Fall River getting them off the water and on to the city um and I know there's nothing in here

about Personnel but quite frankly they work every weekend mostly and there's just two people there Jose and and poly Borges they need somebody else um to be there and then I look at all of the um automobiles bulldozers back Coes kabas everything that you're buying but it boggles my mind mind you're buying all this equipment park Department bought a lot of equipment too last year but you don't have it stored

anywhere the foundation on bulock street is up to put a building there that's a great project for diamond or dery it's right in the area all you'd pay for is the materials and I know they've gone up but you have a place I mean look at the water department they did a brand new building up there looks nice quite frankly I'm a little disappointed that the community has not been invited in to see

it because they paid for it but on the side there's a garage now they have a garage in their new building so we're going to knock down that garage or can we use that garage so we're not paying storage other places or put it for some of the vehicles that we have like you buy things and you don't take care of them right off the get-go and just that's how I feel I mean I'm not

opposed to buying equipment if we need it but so I do know so I'm not disagreeing with any of that but I do know that we're we're buying equipment that for example on the back backo and we were we were renting equipment so this would alleviate renting and that takes a strain out of the the cap the operating budget as well um well I think that's good I think to rent it is good

but I mean when I heard uh Mr Akin say well we want to look at something to reorganize you know how many years I've been here how many times I've seen reorganization it's a bunch of balone you know what you do when your Rog you kind of give one person the job of two people and call it a Rog and if I'm working 40 hours and he's working 40 hours if one of us leave somebody else

is still going to work 40 hours so that that's a Croc as far as I'm concerned and people that you have as directors or whatever should know what they're doing so you don't have to have layers and layers and lays of bureaucracy so I have to go to this one to ask go to that one go to that one hire people that know what they're doing and let's move

forward with it um but I do think if you want my suggestion on riog would be try stay with the depart um the equipment that you have from whatever you're buying from water Council that' be a discussion for a different day let's stay focused on this yeah I am staying focused on that I'm saying focused on all of the vehicles because all of the vehicles that they have then maybe those Vehicles should all be interchange

within departments and then maybe people have place to park them but you're spending all this money on vehicles and I don't know I don't think it's right I think you should protect them and I know I would like to see and I'm going to see what they accomplished last year on this but I get it it's just if this is is a wish list and hopefully we'll get the money to do some of those

things that's badly needed with that I yeld thank you Mr pres coun the council does bring up a great point we are buying new equipment we should maintain it indoors preferably than leaving It Outdoors especially during the winter and everything else so I mean we should look into having these buildings indoors a lot of other municipalities have garages that they store their FA their vehicles in go ahead please comment

count counc we we we are looking at the Wood Street site we do have an architect that I'm working with we're looking at doing doing something with that slab or just relocating on the bullet Street site we are we are working on that okay that's good to know because she does good to know thank you Mr alera thank you thank you are there any other further questions no council C3 Council

hot thank you Mr President um good evening I just was uh um what councelor Kilby said on about the parks and it just maybe I'm reading it incorrectly but on page 17 uh for the britland park Equipment Columbus Park and Abbot Court they're all in poor condition and it says aging play structures pose a safety concern but we're not add addressing it as far as you know repairing that and I

want to know if there the still are the structures still there and are they uh children playing on them now and if there's such concern then why aren't we addressing it like right now to fix that so when I first started here counselor um what I did is I I put an R RFP RFQ out for qualific qualifications to do uh all our inspection sections of all our playgrounds uh I also included the

school school department knowing that they had playgrounds as well so we had all that inspected and anything that was classified as a number four we needed to remove stop anyone from playing that just to make sure that uh none of our none of our children were were injured so any any issues that we have onto that report were were worked on the other component to that to that uh item was it actually tells us Ada

issues uh it tells us how to how to make sure that we can make those repairs and then we also have a consultant that we have on on site if we have any concerns or questions so so this hasn't so these have been uh taken care of at these parts if it wasn't if it was an issue that um a child was going to get injured it's been been taken care of uh we are

work we are looking at um getting a lot of other playgrounds up updated at this point okay I'm just maybe just reading it it doesn't look like it was addressed but you're saying that it it it was addressed if it was if there was any safety concerns it was addressed so it may not have been replaced yet but the the thing that that created an unsafe condition was either removed or

remediated okay okay that's all I needed to know absolutely all right thank you thank you councelor you want to add but I think in some of the playgrounds depending on what area of this city they're in some of the funding could come from Community Development correct and it is I know that okay that Mike di is working with that's what I thought just was not all of them but some with that I yeld thank

you thank you C you y Council H I do yes thank you counc seat seven counc yeah just additional comment on the parks so I noticed missing from this list is both Lafayette and North Park any any reasoning behind so this was what the park depart this is what um Miss Smith provided me I didn't take anything out of okay I'm not saying so that may have changed since she submitted this

and we submitted this to the council again it's a living breathing document yeah so miss Olivera to you then I guess my question is I'm surprised not to see either of those parks on this list and do you know any rationale reasoning or just I don't but I'll get I'll get that information please if you could that would be great I Y thank you thank you have you no further questions was Lafayette in North

Park and and if if I could Mr President just on Lafayette obviously you have the skate the skate park there as as well as the playground and then North Park has had some improvements but you're looking at the baseball field and what was removed the old concrete slab of stands correct you know those are some of the things I'm thinking about because I know if I think I'm confident this answer

that the fields at North Park the baseball fields aren't being utilized or they will by the high school for for Varsity B sub varsity baseball dur during the dery uh transition correct they were used so other than that there's not much going on in those fields this I am working off an ear Mark with uh uh uh representative Fiola for the seating in that area so I'm working off that right now with an architect

excellent thank you I yeld Mr President thank you you no further questions entertain a motion to motion to close the public hearing second motion to close the public hearing has a me in second all in favor I any osed public hearing is now

closed city council committee and finance will come to order clerk will call the role Council here Dion here park here HBY here perrera here H here here samon here president here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting May transmit this meeting through any medium ATT attendees are therefore advised that such recordings

or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible we have one individual ass signed up ass assistance input time Sher intell subject matter President Avenue construction just want to remind everyone you have three minutes good evening Mr President members of the council I come back before you again today with my uh post conru

dilemas um I don't know I think we're I'm round six of me coming here today I don't even remember but um so I come to you tonight with the latest update on the damage to my home and to my boyfriend's car um last time we had a special meeting uh that was held October 16th and I was told to get some estimates uh and present them to Corporation Council uh last week I

received a letter from Corporation Council now telling me of course that my claims were denied and that uh the first reason the damage to my boyfriend's car was because the claim was not filed within 30 days um so we've gone through meetings starting back my first letter to City Council in Corporation Council was October I'm sorry August 4th September 12th I appeared in front of the city

council was told that a special meeting would be held September 26th I had to come back because I hadn't heard about the special meeting to be held brought my issues to you again um October 16th we did have the special meeting uh where I was told to get the estimates so it took me time to find a contractor because um not everybody's you know a basement concrete crack water leaking in

your house professional right uh so I did finally secure um a company uh to do that and I have their estimate of course uh they had to take time you know to come in do the inspection look at the damage uh and then also get the the estimate of the Damage Done to my boyfriend's car so Corporation Council now is telling me to go back uh first of all they just denying the claim on the

damage to my boyfriend's car even though it clearly states here it was because of the uneven grading between the street and my driveway uh but because I didn't file a claim within 30 days it's denied so now we have $700 worth of damage that still is not going to be repaired or fixed by anyone that's just to the car the estimate that came for the dam to my home is $88,000 um that was Pioneer basement I

figured pick a local company to was uh to waterproof the basement and make sure this would never happen again um so I I come to you today that stating I'm very disappointed that in all these meetings uh that I've had and touch points with people from the city uh that nobody knew that a claim has to be filed within 30 days I'm just really confused on that um

I feel like this has been a dog and pony show that you know I keep coming like I need help somebody needs to help me every time it rains I'm stressed out there's water coming into my basement um so I'm very disappointed at this point I don't know what to do anymore in this letter The Corporation Council is telling me to go after biso which was the contractor that did the work um I

went to them originally and they told me because they were hired by the city that I had to go to the city so I feel like I'm stuck in this Quagmire of just like a carousel all the time while the water still comes into my house so so I would implore anyone here to just give me some guidance or some help how I'm going to do this and get this house fixed and get

my boyfriend's car repaired at this point C C5 C per the only issue that I have is I have a lot of issues I feel badly for you first of all but I have gotten other comp complaints from people who had damage um to vehicles on that President Avenue stretch when work was being done but I just don't know legally if the city hires someone to do a job and there was a problem with the job

that they're doing what is the recourse to then have that person I mean another individual that spoke to me um they told her to call one company she called that company they said no we didn't do that job this company did she wrote a letter it to that company I mean I I sent that all up uh to the mayor's office but and the the woman said I had to get new

tires and I had to put it on my credit card and I'm almost at Max with that and there there's got to be something are they bonded I I think that this should be a conversation with um I mean this was water department that did this work there maybe with the water department with the um City attorney how does this get resolved because it's not fair I mean I know at one point when you were here

you said that someone told you they had taken photographs of um all of the foundations around there or a video or something yep so the the superintendent of bisco uh when I had filed with Corporation councel had came out to do an assessment and he told me that they had videotaped all the foundations of all the homes on President Avenue before the work began and I asked him well why

why would you do that I mean that's just telling me you're setting yourself up right like you know there's going to be a problem right if I would have evidence and and then say Oh no there's no you know there's no damage because we have a video there was never any video showed to me no one had asked permission to videotape any of the foundations of the houses like I can't make this up like

I'm not I don't keep coming here because this is a joke right like this is my life and my home this is like try living in a house and seeing water come in every time it rains right like I just need to figure out how am I gonna fix this that's all is there h a way that we can have a letter sent to Corporation councel to the water department to

whoever the part like these people have to take out a bond something I I think I heard the word bond I'm not sure how that works construction companies are mandated to take out a bond uh when they're doing a project of that that size so a bond is a council probably knows this he's in a construction business all bonded that uh you know just in case the liability reasons that

so um I'm hesitant to you know give you advice I'm a counselor um and attorney I'm not I'm hesitant to say get an attorney because I'm hesitant to say that well I think I think the council could actually maybe find out get more facts claims Corporation Council then if we need to file a resolution have come Downes and explain it to us right okay but then and I think I mean yeah I think

that uh uh Miss valkor is here maybe we can file a resolution after the um file a resolution to put in after the agenda to have Corporation councel water department um city engineer I don't know you know to come down with situations like this when they're doing Road repair who's responsible if um people's are properties are damaged and find out what people do in this situation and then i' just like to bring

to light a point like shouldn't we have one contact person at the city like if you have a damage you know you blow a tire in a pothole legal department legal department it all goes to the legal department right but most people don't know that right well if they go to the clerk's office the clerk send it to they file with the clerk and the clerk send it to the legal department they don't go

to legal department themselves it's all filed with the clerk and there was a there was a specific letter when a municipality um is you know has possibly done done wrong on a citizen there is a certified letter there's a formality that has to be followed um certified letter there was a timeline to it um just to put the city on notice so if you just sent a and and it does require

certified mail and things like that so that's what the statute says so it's a there's a lot of issues here and so Corporation Council may be doing his job because that's what he does he defends the city so if if it if things weren in order for you the proper order his job is to deny your claim right but four meetings to here nobody knew I had to file a claim within 30 days right that's

his job but go ahead I said four meetings that I came to here nobody knew that we had to file a claim within 30 days so everybody City OFA who's watching this file a claim days you say my plate here but I'm really hesitant I can't give advice to people yeah we're good hit three minutes let her finish and then we'll try to figure out have a resolution come down and bring people to

the table let's find out you very very active I remember you as soon as you came in speaking to the the nighttime hours and things like that it's it's been living hell so it really has I feel I feel for as Council per does and we all do um but resolution will be filed and we'll see if whatever we can do to communicate with the legal department in the meantime maybe have a consultation

with someone Okay Okay C do you want to add something clarification question what when you came down in October and they was it 30 days did they first of all did they tell you you needed to file it within 30 days no and then was it 30 days prior to October or from when the vehicle was damaged so the way Corporation Council listed it he said that my incident occurred between May

2023 which I never provided a date and I filed a claim on February 22nd because I did the house claim and the car estim at the same time I'm just help me understand so when they told you to file within October it was already past the 30-day mark from from them so it was it was all inv voided that the the work on President AB wasn't completed until October okay okay thank you so much

thank you thank you C to coun actually I'd like to apologize to you but I can tell you this was the first I ever heard of 30 days had no idea that that existed um and I know that you contacted the city almost immediately when you had the damage to your house at that point in time it's somebody should be telling you this is what you need to do a b c and d

and this is your time frame to do it in my world that's the way it should happen um again I don't know what can or can't be done but I can tell you I'm I'm I'm as shocked as you are like when we had that meeting it didn't even come up then um yeah I I don't even know what to say to you I that's just hopefully something can be done I

mean if they think that if I don't know um if they think the damage to the car was legitimate and that that claim would claim would have been paid had you filed it within the 30 days I don't know seems to me they should be paying the claim but I I don't know what else to say with that I yield thank you C thank you we'll we'll try to figure it out we'll

file a resolution see if we can bring it to the table and see what what happened what transpired and what the reasoning was for it okay it's the best we can do thank Youk thank youe thanks have a great night you too item number two is a resolution that the city council convey with the administration for the and the four youth initiative coordinated to discuss current and future uses of the American

Rescue plan act the oper funding as well as updates on the program overall please go hey everyone nice to see you again hello hello hello it's plenty of microphones so I'm Kahan the ARA director and I've brought with me I'm Susan kako I am the for youth initiative coordinator and Bill Kylie executive director the boys and Girls Club so I just wanted to give a very very brief um just where where we are with the for

youth initiative so um the initiative um obviously was in the works in the planning process for quite a while and I know um a lot of vendors um and youth as well families um were trying to be as patient as possible until we rolled it out but um coming up with an idea is great but really trying to implement it and do it the right way takes time um

and so we um the city outsourced um the administrative work to um the Boys and Girls Club who I will say have been fantastic um so where we're are now is that um Sue jumped on board through the Boys and Girls Club um back in July um a little before that and started onboarding vendors throughout the city so we hosted um at the Boys and Girls Club a vendor meeting sort of an informational meeting where those

vendors could learn about the program um it start in August that's when we um began we we had onboarded vendors and then um our first um youth started to sign up for the program at that time we had in August of 2023 74 youth participating in the for youth initiative put that microphone a little closer to you please oh yeah I'm sorry to this yes yes okay sorry little it closer to you oh

there in um February this month last month we had sounds so loud um 571 youth participating in the program so uh we have had a total of 663 Fall River Youth participating in this program and that's not including the recent starting to on board the Fall River softball league um we have 17 vendors um Maplewood baseball league is in the process of being approved um and we have um two we say non-active vendors those are

vendors that were approved um but haven't enrolled any students and um invoiced us that yet um so I mean the program you know we've met with vendors um you know I would say that it took a little while to become a well-oiled machine I think we're almost there um but we're I think we've been working really well um to get these vendors participating get these youth involved um as of now um we have

expended just want to make sure I get you guys the right amount of money we have expended um 467,000 eight um sure go ahead no Joe has can I just I'm taking notes other counil have their hand up just okay um I so I just if you want to add any more personal touches I think to the um yeah I know that the vendors are participating in this are so unbelievably grateful um I don't know if

anyone I I had never heard of it but 8 in1 Studios is a dance company that's here in the city um and every time I speak with Jill Richie who runs that she is almost brought to Tears by how grateful she is for this um I can't tell you that I've worked in the city the public school system and because I you know review all of this paperwork a lot

of the names that come across my desk um makes my heart smile because I know that many of these kids that are participating in these programs would have never had chance to excuse me could anyone at the table please give your name and what you're associated with just give you for the record yep sure um my name is Susan kavako I'm the for youth initiative coordinator thank you so yes many parents are just eternally

grateful and thank us all the time as do the vendors and um you know they're starting to question what's going to happen when this money runs out and what can we do to continue this program because they're finding it to be so positive for our youth Bill I know who you are can you just give your name and for the record please Bill Kylie the executive director of the

Boys and Girls Club thank you um I I just think the uh the program's in incredibly beneficial to the youth in the city and to the vendors who suffered during covid when they couldn't open their doors uh you know 660 odd kids participating in outside school time activities you know under supervised uh instruction whether it's martial arts music um exercise and Fitness Boxing um it it and it has to be the parents have

to be so grateful because it it's money that's directly impacting them uh you know the scholarship funds allow the parents to just sign the kids up and make sure the kids are participating participating in structured activities so I I think it's a real win-win for the community thank you come SE 8 cont Simpson I file this resolution because I know the amazing work that's being done

here and um what these vendors are doing to shape some of these kids' lives and you know this council did an amazing job unanimously passing this through um I know people are always saying what are we doing for our children well to date 663 kids have been helped and are continuously being helped and a ton more on boarding with this program so I a couple of things things that we

talked about let me just tell you this so I constantly constituents are coming up to me I I met a gentleman the other day his daughter Daisy Rodricks I said I was going to say her name she's at TJ music she's learning to play the ukulele she's going to be playing the guitar she loves it she's so cute it's like lifechanging for some of these kids I've been at some of the boxing gyms where

these kids their parents are in tears like my child's life has changed through learning discipline and building their self-esteem this is exactly what we were hoping that this is happening when would we be able to ever change 600 Fall River kids lives and Counting um TJ's Music how many kids are at TJ's Music right now 99 99 Fall River kids that would have not been able to learn music I mean

I think there was some you know people think oh this was just you know a martial art thing it's not we have dance music Arts it's amazing what's happening and so go initially I didn't want to start something that possibly could not be continued after the money is spent and so were collecting data how is it with the vendors getting that data so to my knowledge when a child signs up

there's information that is collected because we wanted to plan for sustainability to be able to apply for additional funding and we'll have proof that this is working are you struggling to get that information are you getting it regularly how is that happening so they have to um you know fill out the application that's required and the vendors have to fill out um a monthly form making sure that the youth are in

attendance yeah and participating as requested and should there be an attendance issue it's addressed they've given a warning we have some kids for like instance at TJ's Music there's a waiting list so if they're not compliant with the attendance then their spot is given to someone else so we're Gathering you know information that's exactly what I want to hear and compiling that data we can

look maybe in the next six months of where what we can do with that data that was imperative for me to be able to collect that to know that the vendors are continuing to do that I think there was this misconception that this was just free money these vendors in order to get this fund are having to do some work for and a lot of them are almost at capacity right they're at capacity so

yeah we do have one of the boxing gyms that's now referring kids to other boxing gyms CU he is at capacity Stay Ready boxing yep he's servicing um what boxing gym was that stay ready Stay Ready boxing y yep I believe he's at 65 and that's all that he can with his facility accommodate so he's encouraging them to go to Bernard's boxing and other boxing loves boxing I mean honestly to

think about it it's it's just amazing to me all of these young people that who would have never been it's just it gives me goosebumps to even talk about it so um it's just amazing so we're planning for sustainability you're able to collect that we have 70 17 vendors is is it cut off can more vendors that have been establ if they meet the criteria can they so call out to vendors if you

got a dance school here or a gym that you know meet the criteria to open up your doors it's just amazing uh it's it's it's it's unbelievable and then can you just briefly say you're talking about some of the little leagues I I coun kadim had mentioned I didn't even know there was a a woman's a girls softball league that was able to start up I'm so excited where is that the old

Dumont field Dumont the old Dumont field D with kennyo Ken Cabo so we have a a girls softball league starting up that's not even encounted in these numbers right no they're just starting to get their applications and get their program off the ground it's just absolutely amazing are we anticipating spending this funding um I I mean it's growing quickly and as we're getting more vendors I know that um Battleship we had

talked about getting them on board as far as doing their sale wreck program so um Maplewood Park I had spoken with Sean Travis about that so see if we can get you know those kids some of these funds as well so we tried to make sure that we got a little bit of everything so um you know I went around the city and found different things from music um on stage theatrical Productions so there's a

little bit of everything so something for everyone this to me fundamentally is what changes a community this is prevention 101 this is what keeps kids connected wanting to stay builds their self-esteem I am so proud to to be a part of this and this is life-changing for young people and their family thank you for the work that you guys are doing it's amazing I yield thank you thank you counc counc s

counc yeah I was just one of of the questions I had was the list of the current 17 vendors but I was just kind of skimming through the website here is the list that is on the flyer with the QR code up to date as of today okay it should be okay yeah because I see the I see the four of a softball league on the bottom of the

list um so that answers that I think to counselor Samson's question you anticipate so you spent $467,000 and the program has been open for about a year now no since August of 20 so less than a year yes so yeah so if even if we say in the next few seasons yeah okay so you got you still got a lot of room to play with as far as more vendors more kids and I think sorry

to interrupt I think we will have more this summer as well with summer camps and other opportunities where kids aren't in school so I think we'll on board some more vendors yeah I agree that after the summer we'd probably could answer that question more fairly okay and and do you have data you can provide as far as I know you gave a larger number of 663 is there a way you

can break down that data to show where exactly our students are going as far as where they're benefiting how they're benefiting you know maybe as we look forward to the program do we focus more on a particular activity that the youth are a interested in and B greatly benefiting from kind of dive a little more deeper into it because I think in the longer term and and I support the longer term plan that a program like

this is beneficial all the way around especially even after the arpa money expires but if we're going to make that decision down the road you really want to Target things that are successful you know you may have the one or two students here at this program but you have you know 120 here you're going to get most bang for your buck especially if you're going to allocate some money

down the road so is that possible to get as far as that breakdown really dive deep into it are you asking like which um of the vendors have how many kids yeah pretty much yeah okay that be great um just made note of that yeah thank you that would be great um the other question I had uh you know what actually I think that may be it yeah if you can get that

list that'd be great I Y thank you thank you counc Council C5 Council vice president per y the question that I have is the softball league that just started out they can come in and be vendors now so weren't they already approved as a vendor and then they're the women's softball the girls softball team I'm I'm not sure what I don't understand the question they can they are vendors now they weren't

vendors before they were vendors now and they're a new program correct um the program was somewhat there was it was it was under a different name it was already Yes and um they just renamed it rebranded it so it was already something that was in existence was it the Titan I don't remember I think it was the Titans so they disband it I think at the Titans the football we tried to get money for

them in the past um with Titans softball and football I do I I've heard they doing anything for their football the Titans through the program I don't believe that they've ever submitted an application no and I did I mean for Falcons I did reach out to them they declined okay the other question that I have is my opinion is that we're doing this for the Youth that it wasn't so

much as for vendors that might have lost money during Co but for the Youth who through isolation you know had issues um there is an Arts Studio down at the Tuscan building down on Globe street but when they called they were told that they were not eligible so there was a component in the criteria that required that there these be programs that were in existence or working to open their

doors during the time period of covid or prior to um and so the pitch and proposal by councelor Samson was to put to help these organizations that shut their doors or lost enrollment during not to so there was a there was a twofold right there was this benefit for the Youth but there was also this benefit to these vendors that were in existence or trying to get off their

feet prior to um covid and so we when we met um with the administration to really nail down sort of the criteria that was um a criteria that was put into the eligibility of vendors people can that be can that be um amended um I'm looking at it I get it it's for the businesses and for the Youth but maybe I'm more to look at the scale going this way where

my youth is going to get more um so this fall arts program that you're referring to is it down off Bay Street yes okay so they are they're in our they um one no wait a minute do you know where the Tuscan Tuscany building is I'm not sure but there's a phone between uh between uh Broadway glob Four Corners which is five corners but between there and Bay Street there was building on the left

hand side AR point of information aren't they the corner of King and Globe yeah yeah you're right so they I believe that this is the program that is approved they wanted to do a puppets program so they have been approved but they just not hav't um they're one of our nonactive they're one of our our inactive I'm going to check I'm going to check tomorrow because I think when they had called that they were told because

they were not open during Co and I guess they if this is from August they opened up shortly after that September October so they wouldn't fall in but it's you know a new business that's doing a lot of really good things with kids and I think what we used as the criteria was a similar criteria to what we used for removing from the website the applications from outside organizations okay um was the co emergency was

declared ended by the federal government on May 11th of 2023 and so I think we might have even used I I can't remember but I feel like we might have used that that time period and this money runs for how long so it was a contracted as a two-year program so I think we signed um the contract in June of 2023 with um the Boys and Girls Club so if you spent more or less five

now yeah just another five so you would have been a million and there was 2 million put in so there'd be a million that would come back wouldn't be used and that would help to supplement for something else but thank you you do a great job by the way thank you Linda I thought you were you might have been talking to that all of you I know all of

you all of you if I could just add uh the the vendors do collect uh applications filled out by the parents that I identify what schools the kids go to what their ages uh certifying their income levels so uh there is a lot of data that City work with us and I know that my colleague asked for how many children we're in all these programs we don't need all that confidential information on anybody and

I think that's why miss kavako you asked that like not the names just how many children are in each I mean yeah just so that I know exactly what to provide you right right because I I don't think I don't want to know I think that that's I don't want to know the name of the child or the school maybe the school would be good to know but or somebody's income I don't want want to know

that I point of clarification it's just just the rough numbers of enrollment not anything else other than that okay yeah um I know part of this resolution was for me to also give a just a brief overview and answer questions on all of the arpa funds can I could they be excused so they don't have to sit in the H seat for that and just hold on one second is any other further questions for

the before ask someone else to speak again just a point of clarification for the counselor had asked about the Titans so the the organization that's doing the softball league is starting a wreck League it's the same people that run the Titans which is a travel league so it's same individuals different really kind of organization because the Dumont field is going to be wreck League okay and not

necessarily A travel league so rec league for the city of residents only or anyone I think it's anybody okay all right do you councelor I do thank you coun 7 proposal you have hand up yeah through you Mr President to the clerk as as I'm on the website looking at the for youth initiative um it says that there's a link to click for the vendor list there is no said link there's a q q code

yeah is it would it be possible to have it put a link I can do that I can email Our IT director tomorrow thank you I yield thank you councelor any further questions no all right thank you Mr Kylie thank you also for coming down thank you and again thank you for what you do it's a great thank you guys appreciate it thank you very much appreciate that

all you okay thank you all right um so just I want to just give a quick overview and then open the doors for you to answer ask questions um I feel like the mayor sort of stole my thunder this evening with his speech I mean he he hit every ARA project um we've probably done um we are not doing the bookmobile though I just that was CDA um uh so uh we received $69 million of

City money and 16 million of Bristol County Treasury money um so we have 5.6 million um remaining in the city money that needs to be committed um we certainly have some priority um sort of idea priority projects um marked for that um of that 5.6 million 3.1 million is the balance is revenue replacement and just as a reminder that's um a category that's um not an enumerated eligible category it's sort of this

catchall that you can use for anything so it's sort of the gold um just just point of reference point of clarification I'm sorry how much time do we have to spend the 5.6 when does it expire um I was gonna get to that but I'll skip ahead for you um Mr President um so the that is an important part is the sort of what we're coming down to now is really sort of honing in on these

dates that are coming up close so the first date um so to we have to exp to the first date we're coming on is December 31st of 2024 all of the money has to be obligated and obligated shouldn't be confused with committed so um the money can be committed and not obligated obligated requires us under the federal law to um so if it's a if if I'm if arpa is giving money to the water department

um and it's an internal Department within the city um Mr furland has to have a purchase order or a contract with a third party by that December 31st 2024 date if it is um a contract such as the for youth initiative with the boys and girls club um and they're a real they're a subrecipient the contract with the city suffices um so right now um what where we're kind of kind of

coming up to is this point in time where we have to sort of figure out is this money going to be obligated so we've committed to these projects and we'll have to check in probably by July to make sure um that these like contracts um with subre well the contracts with sub recipients are done right away but making sure the Departments have um created a contract with an outside party

or have a purchase order in the system um the expended date is the second date which is um December 31st of 2026 and so all of the monies has all the funds have to be expended which means projects have to be completed um invoices provided and payments have gone out um of the treasury so the other um date would be so there's s what what's happened since the last time I've been before you which

feels like eternity um is that we the the US Treasury has um included what's called a flex provision and that Flex provision um was sort of this awesome opportunity for us because it was all the meetings that we had that we wanted all the projects we wanted to do but we couldn't do um now so it includes now surface uh Transportation projects which are the roadways and sidewalks and

things that we had hoped to be able to do those projects actually have an end date of expended date that's 3 months in advance of the December 31st 2026 date all of those projects the monies have to be expended by September um 30th of 2026 which actually is backwards because those are the projects that actually take the longest amount of time so You' think you'd actually have more time um

and it also allows us to do um Title One projects which are basically all cdbg um pro project a Community Development block grant would typically be a able to do we can do that with um arpa funds now um so what happened when that was um allowed in the final rule by the US Treasury is it definitely helped us prioritize projects like Lewiston Street and some of these other things

and so that since I've been before you we pulled um in May um the 2023 the applications um online that allowed outside organizations to apply they had had two years of an opportunity to do so um and so we felt like now that we were honing in on the last um funds we would try to identify these priority projects that we can now do uh I would just say

that um just sort of in a summation I think when you look over the documents that I provided I you know I think that there I'm proud to say that I think there's a lot of diversity in the projects that sort of touch upon lots of different um important projects and departments within the city as far as outside organizations that have benefited from this money and I would remind you and I think I always say this

but not every municipality allowed outside organizations to apply for this money and I think that's really important and I think that was really great that the administration allowed some um Community um organizations and stakeholders to uh get some of this fund so we um through the nonprofit assistance program we helped uh eight organizations through the small business grant assistance program we helped 152

small businesses that were impacted during covid we have um helped eight we're going to help 18 um local sort of outside organizations um through the storefront Improvement program as well as um as well as just like other organizations that you see here under the uh economic negative economic impact category that uh received funds car thank you you know I just want to make everyone

aware oh so oh I'm sorry no no that's quite all right I just have I it was I'm sorry I apologize because they're tied together and it's okay you're doing a great job I just want other people to come down because there is a presentation that I think Patty R wants to make from the chamber so if um Seth could you come down and Bridget along with Michael Sullivan patrio from the

chamber and then if we can see that presentation as well and then you can continue yeah I'm sorry I read it you can stay you can stay there as well do you have a list of all the organizations with you um we didn't get one so it should all all of the organizations I was just mentioning um so I have if I had sent down um the city arpa fund overview and

a lot of the ones um I think a lot of them are here but then I'd have to break out the 152 small business like Grand ones I I mean I can get that to you um there's seven storefront Improvement um facade program uh businesses that are being yeah so I don't have like a specific yeah I would like to have I do have a non list of the nonprofit organizations car could you just give

that to the cler and then she'll give it to the councelors when we I don't think we ever received that no no but at some at some point can you just get that to the cler please so she can send it to the coun thank you counc C to counc De yeah I just want to ask um Carol one question um has all the premium pay been expended I believe because they're still working

on fire that that has not been done yet to date so that would be they would be the only ones then who haven't received their premium pay everybody else has I believe so and you do you know what the timeline is on that so we have a um an agreement with the fire department that was just reached uh it'll be once it's costed out it'll come down to you it includes the

payment of premium pay so it's imminent can you repeat that I think somehow my brain we have a one-year agreement with fire um that will get them back on track because the so the arbitration award that you just voted on done only brings them to the end of June um when we'd have to start negotiating again so we did a one-year agreement that is right now being valued by the finance department that's going to come

down to this Council and part of the terms of that one-year agreement includes provision for the premium P or for that premium pay payment so once you vote on that uh that will be the last um bargaining unit that hasn't received it and that they'll have received it that'll be done so that should be down I'm guessing the next meeting or the meeting after all right thank you with that I Y you want

to speak now you want to I'm going to reserve my question after Mr rego's presentation okay m r you're welcome to could everyone at the table please identify themselves just for the record I know we know who you are but it's important that home sure absolutely um Patty rioo executive director of Eva Fall River do you want to go to say who you are Michael Sullivan CEO One South Coast

chamber thank you all right and F and City administrator I you so okay um good evening so the presentation that I'm going to go through this evening is a version of what was presented on January 18th to the executive director of the Massachusetts office of travel and tourism and the executive director of the mass cultural Council as well as members of the public I've amended it to

make it more relevant to the request of this committee and you have copies of the presentation in front of you um Viva Fall River has always been more than than just a phrase it started out as a movement to rally the troops so to speak to come together and collaborate for the longevity and prosperity of the city of Fall River from the beginning our aim has been to showcase the businesses culture and

events in the city focusing on economic development Community initiatives and arts and culture Viva Fall River serves as a reminder that this city is not just a place on a map but a living breathing entity with a unique identity the overarching goal is to support fall River's Economic Development efforts by leveraging the potential of the creative economy and cultural tourism primarily positioning

the city as authentic accessible culturally unique welcoming and on the verge of an arts and culture Renaissance in September of 2022 Viva Fall River entered a two-year contract with the city of Fall River to implement a strategic tourism plan leveraging arpa funds we are now halfway into that second year of the second year of that contract the total amount of the award was $670,000 with

$150,000 of that set aside to fund the event services coordinator salary and benefits for two years so the amount of money that I have been in charge of is actually $520,000 and this presentation will discuss the amount that has been expended which is approximately $400,000 taking it back quickly to September 2022 when we first began one of the first steps we took was forming a tourism advisory committee

to uh monitor my activities and just you know to hold accountable um Viva Fall River for the things that we said we were going to do in The Proposal um the tourism advisory committee is made up of leaders from the community whose names are listed there they're specifically engaged in Economic Development Andor key destination management since October of 2023 we meet uh twice a month to go over the progress

of initiatives and discuss upcoming opportunities we also review my monthly benchmarks to ensure that we are on track and providing the proposed Services the notes from those meetings are provided to the administration and to the arpa director along with supporting documentation after each meeting the first task for the tour tourism advisory committee was to help vet proposals for a company to conduct

Baseline research that could inform targeted strategies tactics and advertising campaigns so nothing was done before um before we really had some some good data developing baselines of visitor influenced economic activity is crucial for tracking the performance and impact of Tourism over time the year one research Endeavor came in at a total of $49,000 we partnered with the UMass

Dartmouth Charlton College of Business and their Associates to conduct a two-part study that was officially completed in September of 2023 three primary tasks task one assesses current market conditions and consumer spending in tourism related Industries comparing Fall River to surrounding communities task two was to develop visitor profiles and market segments by analyzing visitor data from major attractions and

conducting interviews with key informance and task three was to establish baselines of visitor influenced economic activity such as rooms and meals tax to track the growth of visitor spending over time so part one of the study was released in uh last June and it focuses on the quantitative data utilizing the claritas identity graph which provides insights into consumer data specific spe Ally spending

habits and also data in provided to us by top tourism attractions in the city including Battleship Cove the narrow Center for the Arts and the Lizzie bordon house and then part two of the study um which was completed in September but released in November gathered qualitative data and consisted of four intercept surveys conducted in summer 2023 at major events in Fall River by a team assembled by UMass

Dartmouth and both reports can be found on the city's website but you know really quickly just some key takeaways just to talk about research for a second um you know where visitors are coming from the majority of the city's visitors um reside within a 60-minute drive time of downtown Fall River with the vast majority residing within 30 minutes these markets represent a more attainable and cost-effective short-term

strategy for Viva and the city for increasing visitation that's not to say that we don't do things um outside of that market but that was these were short-term goals things that we wanted to tackle right away um the second thing is is that Fall River is geographically positioned for success in enticing visitors to neighboring destinations to come and spend a portion of their stay

or a day here in the city so we're near Providence Newport Plymouth Boston and the cape and we can capitalize on this proximity and Target visitors to those destinations based on a value added approach so we developed some short-term strategies that I have used to um to basically plan out all the activities that have come since then basically leveraging catalyst attractions cross marketing collaboration between

attractions we're obviously more attractive if we package all of our offerings instead of just focusing on one or two um encouraging repeat visitation eliminating seasonality um a big one was focusing on culinary tourism which is arguably our strongest um attraction um brought in Strat um brought in the um historical and recreational outdoor Outreach um taking a more Regional approach what do we

offer in combination with other attractions and improving measurement tactics which basically means helping organizations in the city to keep a better record of who their visitors are that was one of the challenges when we started this is that a lot of the um destinations were not keeping accurate or um full records of their visitor data so uh in many cases people weren't even keeping records so we've been trying to

help with that in year two so year 1 was 49,000 year 2 um we allocated $88,000 to research and starting in January of this year we brought on a part-time research analyst who is responsible for monitoring and analyzing data related to our online presence and advertising um that's to help us gain valuable insights into user Behavior engagement and overall performance we receive bi-weekly

reports which are reviewed internally with my team so that we can make adjustments as well as delivered to the tourism advisory committee and to the administration as well while this research was being conducted and compiled um you know we didn't just wait for it to come out we were busy revamping the website to more closely mirror the new city branding which had come out in September of 2023

and present content that was focused on G visitor engagement and education we wanted it to look more like a tourism website like destination Salem OR C Plymouth and other sites that we looked to for inspiration not only aesthetically but also in terms of navigation and content the website uh was refocused on three key visitor segments to better organize the content but also appeal directly to those

visitor segments so we've got you know food and beverage culinary um attractions which include both historical and cultural attractions and Recreation specifically outdoor recreation this project costs $25,000 in year one and an additional 5,000 in content for year two thus far we also worked on literature which you have before you in the packet that I handed out um literature that we could

distribute regionally at visitor hubs we created a general brochure as well as rack cards focused on the three Target categories again culinary attractions and Recreation our general brochure has been strategically distributed within the city as well as to Visitor Center and key locations throughout Cape Cod and Plymouth County at TF Green Airport hotels in Rhode Island and Southern

Massachusetts the Greater Boston area and Worcester and Eastern Connecticut targeting Drive markets for design print reprint and distribution to date we have spent approximately $20,000 all the while we continue to adapt and grow our social media presence and developed a quarterly tourism focused newsletter which is geared toward people who reside outside of that 30 to 60 minute drive time we have about

a thousand people on the list right now and the last bullet is we do press Outreach to Regional and National Outlets every month pitching content from the website for media placement I have a team of part-time local contractors who are the backbone of these efforts and to date have expended approximately $23,000 on these support staff members salaries as I mentioned um we created

areas of focus so that we could develop specific campaigns to appeal to each of these visitor profiles so for the culinary it's about being authentic affordable and diverse um for historical and cultural tourism it's about having a rich Heritage engaging experiences and for recreational tourism it is about um the fact that we are basically 50% uh City and 50% you know water and woods so

that's unexpected and we have a lot of hidden gems the next couple of slides are going to provide some really detailed examples so you can see some of the work that's been done and the examples of those campaigns um these are just a few of the examples of things we've done to promote fall River's culinary diversity uh there are self-guided tours like the Fall River meat pie tour and the Ice Cream Tour SL summer Bingo

promotion um at the end of last month we did debuted the Latin American food tour um which highlights 22 Latin American restaurants in bodegas in the city we also have the taste of Portugal guided food tour of Columbia Street we have a custom Foodies itinerary for the take five off 195 campaign of course we have Fall River Restaurant Week which begins on Friday and is now in its third year

with 25 participating restaurants and we also just have like fun food Focus promotions to get the word out regionally like the P danata Throwdown and this year's South Coast SN down which will'll be announcing the winner next week um historical and cultural visitor engagement we have obviously many historic sites and landmarks that are very desirable to history Buffs especially those interested in military

history likewise we also have some unique cultural experiences and that is something we need to do a better job of heralding and making them accessible to people who are not of the culture and of course our Arts establishments are and very accessible public art provide yet another opportunity to lead people around the city for for an enriching experience but again not just to see the

art to entice them to stay and spend some of their trip dollars in the city at our restaurants and small businesses these are some of the examples of ways we've worked to promote um historical and cult cultural visitor engagement so the there are four customized itineraries from the take five off 195 campaign in addition to the Foodies one I mentioned on the previous slide we have history arts and culture families

and Waterfront attractions we've also exp expanded blog content to provide visitors with detailed information on cultural destinations historical sites and landmarks of interest in addition to written content we have spent $9,000 of the year to web content budget line to create six videos about key attractions that we felt could bring more visitors to the city if adequately promoted so

those were uh the Vietnam veterans memorial wall Old Colony and Fall River Railroad Muse Museum the Children's Museum St an's church and shrip The Maritime Museum and the lafay at dery house and just recently we worked with the FL of arts and culture Coalition and the south eastern regional planning and economic development District to create an arts and culture focused brochure and public art map that

will help guide people to all of the sites it should be noted that Viva Fall River received a technical assistance grant for in-kind services up to $155,000 from serid so the concepting and the design of these items were not paid for out of this budget the production of the map and the production of the brochures will be and that will run around $3,000 in the next couple of months we'll be adding more self-guided

itineraries such as a self-guided tour of the Underground Railroad locations in the city architecturally significant or interesting houses and buildings a Lizzy Bardon themed itinerary and a guide to cultural feasts in the city all geared at making Fall River more accessible and easier to navigate a key Focus has also been placed on highlighting fall River's vast recreational assets and natural

resources outdoor enthusiasts especially those who Book Adventure travel excursions typically have a level of disposable income and we want to again as with our attractions Focus initiatives encourage and entice them to explore more than just the outdoors when they are here in year one we utilized $155,000 of the asset development video budget line to partner with explore New England to create a half-hour episode

focused on Fall River's recreational opportunities explore New England is a multimedia platform dedicated to helping people of all ages enjoy the outdoors and appreciate nature through a variety of familyfriendly easily accessible activities along with that episode we received a collection of photographs and videos that we have been using to enhance the website and create focused

blogs the Fall River episode was filmed in summer 2023 and debuted on NESN and YouTube in late December of last year on the 24th of January of this year we hosted a screening of the episode which was followed by an informal discussion and Q&A on the topic of recreational tourism opportunities in Fall River and the south coast region it was a very fruitful conversation and we have since

followed up with a public survey on outdoor recreation which we will which we will reshare on the first day of spring to Garner more responses um and other examples are we U on the right hand side you see we've uh redesigned and expanded the content on the recreation page of the site and we're also working with outdoor enthusiasts to develop self-guided experiences such as walking Trails bike tours and leveraging

some key attractions in this Urban exploration um I've mentioned this campaign a few times so I just wanted to briefly cover it this campaign um actually predates viva's contract to the city and was made possible by a grant from the Massachusetts office of travel and tourism in the Southeastern Massachusetts visitors bureau in early 2022 last summer we added the sixth itinerary focused on Recreation which

cost a little under $1,000 to complete this summer we are planning to diversify this campaign and do something called Seymour off 24 which is of course the other major highway that runs through the city this effort will include eight digital Billboards that will run from June 1st to August 30th on I9 I 495 Route 24 I95 and i93 with the placements garnering 2,400,000 impressions as a bonus we received 15 commuter rail

posters this spend is being supplemented by a grant that I received vever received uh from f for $5,000 from the Southeastern Massachusetts visitors bureau so the total cost from this budget will be approximately $8,000 another part of our work with tourism centers around events that will bring uh more visitors into the city we do host and maintain the largest and most comprehensive community calendar

that lists what's going on in the city and although we do accept Community submissions we do have a part-time associate very part-time associate who works on finding the events in putting them and helping to promote them we also work closely with the fabric Arts Festival which takes place in October and has become a high-profile Regional event and last year we collaborated on a series of events that highlighted our

developing Waterfront third Friday is at the gates which highlighted local vendors artists food trucks and picnic performances at the pier um of course the new City Pier which introduced the new space to the public we have once again collaborated with the city and the Redevelopment authority to bring programming to the pier again this summer including the very popular kite night um summer concerts and more and I

do attend region events as a representative of Fall River including the Big E in Springfield my pictures there and the upcoming discover New England conference and the governor's conference on travel and tourism in April lastly in speaking about what we've done during this tourism contract we've done a great deal of work on making Fall River more visible in a positive way via a host of advertising

in the 18 months that have passed these are some examples of the advertising placements and strategies so print we've done USA today's Northeast travel supplement both last year and this year the sou Eastern Massachusetts visitors guide the bay summertime guide National Geographic UK their us feature issue bone appetites May and June 2024 subscriber copies and Yankee Magazine in June of 2024 for digital um we have in

done in in conjunction with some of our television and radio placements in support of those efforts um we've had Google ads campaigns to retain high rank in SEO and social media ad campaigns to support some of the things that we did in summer 2023 um lead generation we did a contest with local IQ which you can see in the middle there and that's how we were able to get the majority of the thousand

people who now received the quarterly tourism focused newsletter for out of home media we've done Boston commuter rail car cards and we will do them again this year and commuter rail two sheet posters that were featured at South Station we've done a ton of radio um fun 107 Cat Country W nbh big 101.3 light 105 92 Pro FM and the Public's radio NPR and for television we've done um some

work with WPI Channel 12 and WJ Channel 10 in year one we made an amendment to the budget and re reallocated money that was budgeted for staff that we weren't going to spend to the advertising line because we realized it was so important to um to really support the efforts and we had some great creative so in year one we spent approximately $65,000 and in year two to date we have spent 54,000 what's next with visitor

engagement um I'm thrilled to say that this summer we have the pilot year for a new City Trolley that was made possible in part as the mayor said by another Grant from the Massachusetts office of travel and tourism we have developed a 12 Stop Route throughout the city and we are working on signage that will include QR codes and lead to online landing pages with self-guided audio tours and

customized online experiences that will Aid visitors in navigating the city this way finding effort is $32,000 and that includes all design the online development the audio tours and the physical signage we're working with a variety of talented locals to create engaging in informative blog content and adding photos and videos to the site to make it something really special we also submit several stories

per month as I said to press Outlets that we have identified on a curated media list segmented by geography and topic and as I mentioned earlier there will be a new summer camp and various media elements to support it thank you for listening to my presentation great job beautiful presentation Council and seat seven Council propos on just make a comment um I've had many conversations with Patty

over over time and I've had the opportunity to attend a lot of the events that your team has put together um it's nice to see the hard work that's being put done uh that's put on the amount of people that attend these events um it should go it cannot go one noticed that people are coming out for these things um you know the the events of the gates the events near down the

street right here around the corner have been fabulous um I've enjoyed them personally speaking um and I hope that we can continue the momentum so kudos to you and your team for all the work you've done so far thank you I Y hi hello thank you for um all the work you've been doing I have a couple of questions though um your strategic um tourism plan you Ed a lot of data what

has come of that what do what do you make out so you have a year left on the grant no I only have until at the end of August so you have till the end of August so have you have you decided like what do come up all that data so you know that like it's in a 60 mile radius people are coming are you thinking do we need a tourism director do we need a

tourism Drop in Center do we need like a tourism rest what does that data showing what is what are you surmising from it well from that data as I mentioned here this these are strategies we're already working on um so basically having like encouraging repeat visitation um working on culinary tourism I mean I can't really speak to what what will happen after um I think that we definitely need

to sustain some kind of effort but I mean I think with the assets that we have currently we're doing a really good job with that and and I think we have to also wait and see what happens with 79 because I think the city's going to change really like quite a lot in the next couple years and I think that's going to be a real big growth opportunity perhaps for a hotel I mean

there's um you know that is a problem is not having another hotel and being able to leverage that meals ta I mean the um the rooms tax that would really be that that right there would be able to be used as money to fund a tourism person I don't think there is money for that right now um but I think you know based on the data that like as I said the the

reports are on the city's website I those these things that I put here are all things that we've been working on that we've been able to achieve in the time that we've done which has been 18 months yeah so I'm big on data like with the youth thing I think collecting data is huge it tells a story it it plans for sustainability and then you can ask for future funding wherever you get that

from or at least support why you're asking for the future funding so I'm just curious to um just know where where that's taking you where you know what is there going to be a report from that funding I mean so that program was $2 million a lot of fund we need data from it this a lot of funds to uh 670,000 will there be some type of report to say the recommendations from the data say

look we need a tourism director we need um a hub for tourism is is something like that going to come I mean because what would hate to happen is all this work happening you know all this money spent on Research we've seen this a lot before a lot of money spent on research and then it like the it just sits on a shelf will there be some type of Report with your recommendations of how the

city should move forward from what you've gathered with the tourism so I every you know every campaign that we've done we do keep metrics and so uh and I've provided those to the tourism advisory committee and the administration I mean I can put them all together at the end I mean I think you know there's a lot of work that goes into this so I don't always have the time to provide reports like to the

level that I'd like to but certainly when this is over I will have the time to do that and provide a recommend yeah I think and I'm not even necessarily saying it to but $670,000 is a lot of money and I think that it shouldn't be wasted we should now start planning for a sustainability plan it should be built in I'm just big with that like how do we continue to make

continue with this I mean like uh Council repos was saying like there's great things being done people are coming what do we need I mean there's a lot of Arts programs in this community there's a lot of them I don't know all of them I know yah's right in dab with the youth program the youth Arts thing right in between you so what are we doing to capture all that I mean $50,000

for a research study is a lot of money I would hate to see not a report coming out of there with some recommendations to move forward to how do we keep the momentum going so whether that's you whether that's I don't want to say you cara but who you you have you said you got a bunch of part-time people working for you maybe that's a collaborative but that's a lot of money I think some type

of um report should come come out of how do we move forward with tourism that would be I would think that would be a great thing to come out of spending um $670,000 on a tourism project to help with all of that we were able to now have data where does that data guide us to our next step so that's I just want to um just a point of reference that

again I I what I've been charged with is 520,000 the $150,000 of there's been $75,000 allocated each year for the event services coordinator so that money I that is not my that is for Samantha Barbosa who is the event services coordinator so maybe it's Samantha I don't know 500,000 is a lot of money to to have is and so I mean I think all the data that from all the things I've done

and I think a lot of the things I've done which have the things that have worked are the things that should continue but certainly they'll have there'll be a wrap up but like for instance we're we're always we're constantly in order to get all this work on 18 months we're constantly rolling along so when it's done then then I can put together a report with yeah that's just I'm saying I I where my standpoint

is I when we collect data it's always it's helpful and needed to collect that data and then have a report to say this is the recommendations you're the expert here you're the one that's been hand grained in the community so you know what should happen so that's valuable information so that's just my recommendation with that a yield thank you con SE five C well I know that uh whoever was doing

the people from UMass doat that were doing uh the survey they were at the gates of the city the day of Portugal doing a survey there and um I completed one of the surveys and I talked to the group that was there and the only forms they had were in English and the majority of people that were there many people were Portuguese speaking Hispanic speaking and I said why don't you have some in other languages

and they said well we did one but they showed it to somebody who didn't think it was done right and then they said they were doing the Madera feast in New Bedford as well so if if we were paying 49,000 for that why are we bringing New Bedford into it or was New Bedford doing their own and we were just paying for this one here where else did they meet people here um because anybody

want to answer new bed we did not pay for New Bedford New Bedford UMass Dartmouth has its own Rivers did Fall Rivers and they did something completely different associated with with the Madera Feast where um the chamber Viva had nothing to do with anything that happened with any measuring or research that was done at the Madera so you do have a copy of the report that they did from here because I I didn't see it on

the website on the website yeah I didn't catch it so I'll have to look again um the other thing with um the 24 now take off or look at 24 whatever um that you just spoke about prior to that it was the uh take five on 195 do we have any of those um logos anywhere around take five is are they on the highway anywhere they were when the when the campaign was going on but I

mean billboard you pay for a certain amount of time where where was some of those Billboards located I the billboard was located in uh on 195 and in Providence so to catch people um was right before you got to East Providence so it's to catch people so that they're they just got through the Providence traffic they see that and then now it would be good to have it up there because they really take a long

time to cross they' really get to focus on it um but the other one when you said putting some digital Billboards on 24 um do you have to get permits for that because I remember we tried to get some Billboards for money and we weren't allowed to put Billboards there so you contract with a company called outfront media and they they own the Billboards and so we and where are their Billboards

so the ones I could get you specifics but the ones that I um that we will be doing are on 495 93 24 and 95 all in North so you know we've targeted with take five off 195 which we still have the content online it's going to be further away there's not going to be any pretty much around here it's it's in the it's in the parameters of what the research showed right the 30 miles and

the 60 miles so it it might not be right in Fall River but it's in the areas that people are coming to Fall River from to see yeah to get them to pull off now with the trolleys that we have years ago with um Bob career when he was M he had a trolley and it was great the way it ran that he had someone on there and they had tours of um the historical homes in

the highlands and the Widow watch and I know that there was a lot of writing that was done and people spoke um members of the history class at Bristol Community College I believe got credit or something for doing that um they did the Lizzie board one they did the Mills of for River um is that what this is going to be or so I just to speak to that first I have a lot of that content

a gentleman had given me actual paper mograph files that I have then um digitized so one of them was the families on the hill um there was another one that was historic houses historic Highlands tour um there was one about Lizzie bordon and there's also a church tour which um mayor has discussed and I'm hoping that I can get that going by May so EST has all of that she was

yeah I yeah I was lucky enough to get I told him to get a hold of her yeah so those are are those are definitely going to be like one-off tours that we we'll schedule as I can find availability for people to do them I have identified somebody who's interested in doing the church tour but the trolley route itself will be on Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 to 4: and it will Loop continuously

during that time they're um we're working on finalizing the like a Tracker system so people will always know where the trolley is and where they can pick it up because obviously you know need they needs to be um you know accessible we can't just have people just you know being marooned all over the city and then yes I would love at some point this is the pilot year I would love to see

like next year or maybe even in the fall to have somebody who could actually give the tour and go on it and go on that ride that would obviously make the the amount of money people have to pay would be higher um I don't want to speak because I I don't know if we've actually really decided on the amount of money it will cost um for people to ride it but

this is um that's what I was mentioning on the signs there'll be a QR code that leads to the website that's going to have audio tour so they are more self-guided now granted that there's nothing that can compare to a guided tour and having somebody there that's amazing but this is kind of just something to get us through the pilot year I don't want to just have people riding around and not have any

information so at least this audio tour will be able to kind of guide people around these these attractions and and and provide some context about why we're having you stop here and what you can see one of the stops for instance is um Lizzie boron's grave which I heard from the actually was had come across the the old um the one of the Old Trolley drivers and he said that that was one of

the best stops they ever had so Gil po has all that information and it's not only Lizzie bordon and Lizzie boarding at Oak Rove Cemetery you have lwis ladimer there an African-American man who was instrumental with Alexander grey and bell and with Edison and he really did the filament light and that man never got credit for it and they just had a dedication at the cemetery that you know um was a rainy rainy day but

the people that were there I couldn't believe and how much he's he's done yeah um you had Lou how he was a speech writer for Roosevelt Roosevelt attended his funeral here you got to know for River you got to know the history and you know doing a tour around there and then a walking tour there that's I I just find I'm going to say it and people might not like it but I'm going to say

it I find that in Four River there are silos of people and they just want to do their thing here and this one wants to do their thing here when we have so much so much Community Gail Powers knows all about that Cemetery With Friends of the the park she knows everything about that you have people up in the reservation that know that reservation inside and out to do tours up there I mean is a try

going to go up there and drop people off for a tour could be maybe not you know but there there's so many people that do things the dentists do things Frack does things and then you have a group of people in the community who want to have events and when they want to have events they don't get the support you know yourself we were at the carousel that thing was going to be lit up for

Christmas to raise money to raise money after so people saw it to raise money have a big event to fix the carousel to go in and clean the brass and do that and it was like you the city can't pay for this the city can't pay for that donations were it's like everybody needs to work together and they don't I saw both your interviews on channel 10 and 12 I

thought you did a good job on there thank you but there just needs to be more what I don't like I don't like pick your favorite Nat or pick your favorite sweet bread and then you've got for River in New Bedford pitting you want to do a pick your favorite NATA do it in FL River we got enough restaurants here that serve natas we got enough bakeries in for river that make sweet

bread I don't like I I know that we want to incorporate all these other people around but I just want to be able to push Fall River we have the um food festivals but it's somebody from Providence that comes in and sets that all up and they get the money that makes no sense to me that makes no sense to me with that being said I think you're trying I think that it's not just you

that can do all of this stuff I think you have some great ideas Patty but I think it's got to be more cooperation with other people in the city who want to do things because then people get upset and then this one doesn't want to participate with this one and it's crazy we all want the same thing we want to promote the city look at the public library they do passports there you want

to get on an Street you can go there you want to figure out to use your cell phone you can go there people don't know all of the stuff that we have in the city I mean that Dave that's at the library he's phenomenal and then you got two people who come they put on the concert at uh at the state down at Heritage State Park and they pay for it they don't even live in Massachusetts

but they care about the community so who promotes that we do you know the the mayor has two people in the office our website with events that are happening I wish our website was better so that I could go on and see Friday night this is happening at the naar this is happening this city does link to the V Fall River website which does have that but it doesn't have enough of it it doesn't

have enough I disagree because I don't know how we connect all those people to say call this number and they'll put it on you know they'll add it to the calendar for you something like that I think that that would be helpful and you can't do it alone Patty it's got to be a cooperation and I just feel bad about that I wish we could all work together a little bit better because there's so

much to offer with that IU Mr President thank you C7 c yeah I think I think to the point about the information about dates and what have you I mean I feel like I get smacked in the face with it all the time to be honest I see it all the time I share it online I I read what going on I honestly think I know more about what

goes on in the city of Fall River as far as events are concerned through these calendars so I mean I think it's it's very clear and present of what's going on and updated very much often question for you Patty when does your agreement end when does end August end of August okay so s Mr aen has the administration had discussions about their next steps going forward as far as how we're going

to continue this momentum because clearly there's a lot of momentum and the question was brought up by my colleague here about continuing that momentum what are the discussions and what if anything has been decided from the administration moving forward there are no decisions at this time okay time table there certainly have been discussions uh I can't give you a timetable uh it's an ongoing thing we're

trying to um basically understand where we go from here I know that every excuse me everything that uh Viva has done has been driven by the data that they started with uh so it's been a very very kind of thoughtful and uh sequential way of approaching this they got the data and then literally every campaign that followed was driven by the data um so you know more than than just a report we

actually have a number of efforts that sort of said okay we have this now what do we do with it and they' they've had some really successful efforts uh incredibly successful efforts um and so the question is how do we keep that going it's something we're always talking about uh I know we don't have a whole lot of time left but hopefully uh in the very near future I'll be able to

uh report back with a time table and and obviously when we're producing a budget rather shortly right the city is so in your conversations obviously funding has to be behind that if we're going to keep moving this forward has that ever been brought up or at least been discussed initially so far I think if it hadn't we're all incredibly negligent of course I mean of course it's come up yes um you

know it's certainly you know a nice narrative to imagine that we don't talk about any of this stuff but we absolutely that's why the question was asked uh including how to how to pay for it and that's a challenge because you know you want to be able to do everything right uh you want to be able to have you know all of the personnel and all the equipment and all the

tourism efforts and so right now as we're building the budget um it is uh those are the challenging conversation so yeah we're talking about those things um it's something that that we're talking about literally every day like pretty much all day I mean that's the whole thing that that uh we're uh entirely preoccupied with is how do we uh pay for um city services that meet the needs of the residents but also uh

City efforts that bring this place into uh a whole new era of what it can be rather than you know sort of the fits and starts of of the past so fair enough I I'll just Echo it again the job well done thank you I yield thank you councelor any further questions no thank you very much for coming down it's a great presentation thank you all for your point of information Mr

President if car could you please send us over I know you started speaking on the um on the funding available and intended uses and committed and then there were some questions so it would be very helpful for my edification if you can maybe prepare the council a memo uh with a very short over uh C letter that just breaks down where you're at how much funds have been expended what is

possibly committed and what's available I think that' be extremely helpful because there's like 13 different Excel sheets running around when it comes to this just so um and I absolutely will but just to make sure that this one doesn't suffice if you do you have I have the one the most recent one that mayor the mayor gave to me in a meeting that I had with them what it looks like

this um so um did you receive one from the clerk's office I I may have but some of it no CL we don't have one yeah I I don't I don't have it so I will I okay if you could just email I'm sorry because I thought you guys were following along with me I sent it down so if you could um just send that over to us um that would be great because I

would like to have an updated one yes and if and I would just encourage if you have any follow-up questions after I send it please like my door's always open you guys can call me if you send it to Lauren uh she'll be able to get it to us because she never got anything last no worries we don't need to belabor this any longer it's quarter of nine so Cara I know you've done okay listen

we got this we'll get it yeah I'm sorry yeah we'll thank you very much that's all I have just a quick question because we have something on the agenda later on what is the balance of the uh brisan AR money oh yeah as of today um 167,000 and $36 left to be um committed yes okay and I should just mention um just as an up two things real quickly um as an update

so the project for the public safety service equipment that for $ 6995 that was approved recently um I may be coming back down before you I'm trying to figure out in order to ensure that that is eligible under Title One I might have to swap it with a city project um and so you might see me soon but I'm trying to just navigate the sort of eligibility under that okay um and I

would also just um I had meeting with Bristol County Treasury uh last week and just they they commented and I think it's worth sharing that they said of all of the communities we were one of two that they've been most impressed with sort of the different types of projects particularly the ones that you know help the veterans assistance program the program you know the just the artist

recovery program the stuff that sort of really seems to be geared towards um helping the community and the residents and so they liked the disparity sort of also in our um in our you know Bristol County funds that we've expended so far and so I just wanted to share that with you thank you thank you ask them to send more funds our way we'll keep doing the right thing doing it

yeah thank you very much Carol great

job we'll move on to item number four transfer appropriation in accordance with the provisions chapter 44 section 32 of the Massachusetts general laws I recommend the following appropriat to your honorable body that the sum of 149,000 B and the same as hereby appropriated to EMS expenses from the EMS stabilization fund any questions no okay you no questions I'll entertain a motion to adjourn Finance Finance motion

to aour finance has been made in second all in favor I any oppos Finance is now adjourned want to go into the council meeting you guys need a break let's go we lost he went home he had a contract to come into his house at 8 sure that making sure he was in the bathroom we minute

City ccil come to order clck we call the road sorry I think I'm ready counc scine hereon here here kby Pereira here Pony here raposo here Samson here president CRA here will everyone in the council chair please rise for a moment of Silent

prayer please remain standing for Sal to the flag I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that

such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible Madam Clark no Mr President the first item before you counc SE to do you have a question yeah can I make a motion to take number eight and 10 out of order so that Mr ferland and EMS can you can second motion to take items eight and 10 out of order has remaining seconded all in

favor I any opposed motion carries on to item eight please apologies Mr President was the motion for items eight and 10 yes thank you that's how I understood it item eight is a request from the mayor with the proposed fiscal year 2025 Enterprise fund budgets for the water and sewer divisions and proposed ordinances for the water and sewer rates for the same fiscal year motion to refer to finance and ordinance

seconded motion to refer the committee of finance and ordinance has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion Cas can we also place it on file second motion plac on file has been made in second all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item 10 is a request from the mayor and an order transferring the sum of $149,000 from the EMS stabilization fund to the EMS expens account motion to

accept placed on file and adopt the order second motion to accept the communication placed on file and adopt the order has a Mee second it all in favor I I any opposed motion carries move on back to item number one please item one is a request from the mayor and confirmation of the reappointment of Mario luciola to the planning board mtion to confirm confirm has remain in second all in favor I I any opposed

motion carries item two is a request for the confirmation of the reappointment of William J Walker to the Council on Aging motion to confirm second second motion to confirm Mr made in seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item three is also request from the mayor and the confirmation of the appointment of Paul M Souza to the Sewer Commission motion to confirm second

motion to confirm has remain in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries the next item is a communication from the mayor and the request of the confirmation of the appointment of Nicholas L Christ to the Fall River contributor contributory Retirement Board motion to confirm second motion to confirm as May second Mo seek five Council Vice pres per um I am not going to participate in this because I am a

member of the F retirement and according to the ethics commission I shouldn't be here for your discussion on this counc so I obain counc C2 Council um yeah based on information that this Council received from the Retirement Board um this issues perhaps of uh there been a conflict of interest pending litigation related to this um that I would make a motion to table this uh appointment at this

time there's a motion to table uh I want to speak you can't speak on the table I know but that's why I'm not seconding the motion correct excuse me counc no she said correct so I would like to speak on the current motion on the floor I'm waiting to see if second so that there there no one's going to Second it okay motion to table does not pass coun seat

six cting thank you you yeld okay um so I've got a number of phone calls on this specific item uh and I was at a grocery store recently uh yesterday actually and somebody approach me on on this I personally think the appointment indiv the individual on the appointment uh would probably serve this board quite well um and this isn't a matter of this individual's capabilities or ability to

serve on this board I'm just more so uh want to get the full picture when it comes to if the um if the Retirement Board actually did what they were supposed to do in accordance with the law now it is it is pretty clear to the communication that we received that it is the board's responsibility to bring two members forward and if the board does not bring members forward then the

mayor has the ability to appoint a person if it's not done within the 30-day window what I don't know and I think a representative from the Retirement Board should be present to explain to us a why wasn't anybody brought forward and if they were why was they voted on or properly vetted by the board number two when did the 30-day clock begin are we in the 30-day clock are we outside of the 30-day clock clock

um and because it's it's pretty clear to me that the selection of the fifth member is a um is is by the Retirement Board um I had a very brief discussion with the mayor about it there's a communication from perak when it comes to this I I think it is a apprpriate to table this item in this appointment after my colleagues speak about this if they feel intended to and get somebody

from parak down here and clearly tell us what's going on here because there's too much misinformation and I want the correct facts before we approve such appointment and unless the administration or other counselors or anybody else has actual factual data to suggest that the Retirement Board was or wasn't Within their 30-day window um that I could change my mind but when did the clock stop ticking good questions

you so I yield thank you Mr President U Madam collect you want to spread some information on that and clarify some of those concerns with the council and everyone else please yes so I can speak to the 30-day timeline uh Mr Vienna's term expired on January 30th of this year and the Retirement Board had 30 days from that date to um choose a uh a fifth member they held two meetings one

in January and then another in February and at both meetings the vote was tied um the first meeting in January was for Mr Vienna and at the second meeting in February there was a Mr Spelman who was brought forward and that vote was also tied so as a result of that um they did run out of the 30-day timeline but they were working within their 30-day window to work in the best interest of the

Retirement Board to possibly appoint such appointment but there's a tie vote because what is there four members on this board there were four members because Mr vien excused himself from the meeting he was one of the interested candidates that came was brought forward at the January meeting so he excused himself therefore leaving four four members to vote and hence the ti vote so the the 30-day window would begin

January 30th to February 29th or 8th or however many days are in February right so actually 28 4th yeah right so the the dates of the retirement board meeting were January 31st and February 28th but don't you oh look I'm not an attorney don't pretend to be one but do we know factually for sure that within that 30day window that they did their due diligence so my opinion how it's it's possibly perceived is this if the

the Retirement Board does not act within 30 days and the mayor has the appointment but the Retirement Board board did act they just couldn't come to a consensus between the board as to whether or not the they were going to bring somebody forward so do we know factually for sure that they acted within their time period because the provision wouldn't be there if a a city administrator a select board or a mayor

would appoint such such such body I just want to make sure we're doing this right I don't think the mayor's intention I'm going to just make it clear I do not think the mayor's intention is to circumvent the Retirement Board but I want to just make sure that we are doing this within our window or they did it within their window and if they didn't I want to know why C I can tell

you is I'm not putting that on you madam clerk at all I'm just speaking out loud Rines of what happened whether the tyo is considered action that's not up to me to interpret yeah and and I'm not putting that on you yep yep so thank you I you thank you so just hearing what the uh the clerk is saying though the timeline was met so January to February the timeline's Met per the charter it then

becomes the mayor's decision so there was action taken they couldn't come to a majority agreement which makes it a no vote on whatever is put forward so now it just good bad orun different now becomes the mayor's appointment right so that's how I read it they may never come to an agreement councelor so the mayor has 30 days for them to come to an agreement if they can't do within 30 days then it's his

appointment move the question I've always seen it question do you c one C C1 uh well he moved the question so okay it's up to you do you want to wave the rules and have set come down and add something that might be helpful or not wave the rules motion wave rules has it am a second are you not taking the yeah doesn't matter second I think you got denied hold on one second hold on is

there a second to waving the rules or not because we he moved the question so we'll just sit down that's fine we'll take care of it no no it's I mean I don't know that there's a second do you want to it didn't get second okay okay so everyone to calm down now is there a second is there a motion to wave the rules I heard from counc seat seven counc seat 8 correct second seconded on

favor I any opposed motion carries that please come down thank

you very very briefly Seth Akin City administrator the only thing I wanted to add is that the language of Mass General La chapter 32 section 20 says that if a fifth me member is not chosen by the Retirement Board not if the Retirement Board fails to act which I think is a very different thing councilor Pont makes a very good point which is that if they that acting is a very different

thing than choosing the fact is they had a tie vote and therefore were unable to choose a fifth member which at that point under Section 4B suggests that it becomes the mayor's uh choice so that's all I wanted to clarify that it was the actual language of the statute is if they fail to choose a fifth member not if they fail to act but either way they acted either way they did act right

that's right they acted and didn't choose they act but they didn't choose correct play on words no it's the the important word is choose and they did not they failed to choose okay thank thank you Mr thank you con SE do you yield Conant SE six I believe you did oh yes con SE two yeah I think the only other comment that I'll make is I still feel like we need some type of clarification

um we don't even really know we don't have the answers we don't know what qualifies what doesn't if it was done properly not done properly um just the fact that there's pending litigation makes me um hesitant to go to go ahead with this and that that's my final comment I yield thank you councel councel in seat seven Council on do we do we know when the next uh retirement board meeting is scheduled well I'm sure

be next month I don't but I know it hasn't been posted but I don't know when the exact date is okay all right I Y thank you thank you counc coun C6 did you have your hand up are you good uh no I'm good okay motion to table second motion to table has remaining second roll call on the motion to table the appointment of Nicholas Christ to the Retirement Board Council kadim no Dion yes Hart no

Kilby Pereira panti yes Roso yes Samson no president CRA no motion fails Mr President is there another motion I think there already is a motion at second motion to confirm confirm yeah motion confirm has it made is there a second roll call second motion has been made in second roll call the motion would be to confirm on the motion to confirm Mr Chris to the Retirement Board councilor scad yes Dion object good plan CL

business see that Mr President if I could just a clarification coner seat seven now that it's been objected to can we get some additional clarification around this topic this way if it's going to be brought to the next city council meeting um and I think to council pont's Point could we have a representative from perak come down and just clarify this whole situation so this way we make sure that we are doing

our yeah and and yeah and the Retirement Board as well um just to clarify the situation make sure that we're doing our due diligence office if you like counc we can invite them that's fine thank you I Y you might just take at the same opinions that they've already said yeah that's fine but better be safe and sorry as I would say sure we can do that click okay item five is a notification

from the mayor of the planning board W's appointment of Michael faras as the planning board design to the community preservation committee M accept place on file motion accept to place on file has a made and second it all in favor I I and opposed motion carries item six is a communication from the mayor and the an order to accept a donation of lumber and materials from the Appalachian Mountain

Club Southeastern Massachusetts chapter for four picnic tables at the wupa reservation headquarters and the bio Reserve loop trail trail head at the blossom Brook parking area accept and place the communication on file and adopt the order motion has been made to accept Place communication on file adopt the order has a made and seconded all in favor I any oppos Mr President can we send a thank you letter absolutely we

always do councelor every time we receive the gift it's custom made that the clerk res sends a thank you letter on behalf of the council motion is made and seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item seven is a communication from the mayor and an order to accept a donation of a painting of The Fall River carousel horses from Lincoln Park by Sheila Ola to the Fall River Public Library accept Place

communication the order motion to accept and place communication to file and adopt the order has been made and seconded on the motion Council seat six just to say Sheila alera is phenomenal she did a whole bunch of paintings had them all at Heritage State Park and people went and saw them and it was the history of um people in the city she is phenomenal um so I hope people go to the

library and check out because I'm sure it'll be a great photo a great painting of hers thank you motion me seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item number nine item nine is a communication from the mayor and a proposal for Bristol County arpa funding in the amount of $10,000 to support veterans and their families motion to and approve motion to approve has been made and seconded all in favor I any

opposed motion carries item 11 is a number of traffic commission recommendations to the traffic excuse me amendments to traffic ordinances from the traffic commission ordinance legislation has it made and seconded all in favor I a motion C SE to yeah I just have one question so the F in my world and I could be wrong handicap signs are for anybody they not they don't belong to an individual

correct there's a handicap sign on the street and you have a handicap plet you can park there correct so why do we have to vote to approve something that's already been approved the polls and signs are already up from a previous tenant who cares about the previous tenant the signs are there they were approved why do you have to approve them a second time the general public can use them because well because the

sign is is a signs for an individual person and then if that person passes on or moves location we don't need handicap signs counselor so someone else if you lived in in an area you need a handicap signed we'd approve it for your request you decide to move to Westport does that sign stay there as a handicap sign because someone approved it years ago it's taken down because the that

individual no longer needs it for their use and then if someone else requests a sign then we'll put a sign back up but we all just agreed that nobody owns a handicap sign correct they're there for the general public right so someone in the general public has to request it to begin with no I've been the sword before it's just you don't put up a sign and leave it there because someone requested

it 20 years ago and the sign's still there does that make sense no I well can I clarify I think what it is a person requests the handicap in their name that doesn't mean that they the only one that can park in that handicap anybody else could correct but if that person had been the one to request it maybe somebody visits there once in a while or is parks there but the person that

requested if they pass away or they move the sign that's the only way that that the traffic department can track it but you're right anybody can park there so my assumption would be if they pass away or move away at that point you take the sign down but who you wouldn't know if you just put it up you wouldn't know who to contact like they contact these people every year to see if they've

moved or they're still there if they still need it that's it's just for the tracking basically for for Stephanie's Department all right well with that I yield thank you councelor motion made seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item 12 the committee on health and environmental Affairs at a meeting held on March 5th 2024 voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying

resolution be referred to Corporation Council motion to refer to Corporation Council resolution for the discussion of public health concerns regarding homelessness encampments motion F The Corporation Council has made and seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item 13 the Committee on Public Works and transportation at a me meeting held on March 5th 2024 voted unanimously

to recommend that the accompanying communication be granted leave to withdraw with Council Pony absent and not voting this communication is for a water bill uh review at 57 Duke Street motion of Grant leave to withdraw second motion of gr to dra has been made and seconded all in favor any opposed motion carries item 14 the Committee on Public Works and transportation at a meeting held on

March 5th 2024 voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying resolution be granted Le to withdraw with Council Pony absent and not voting this is resolution is was for the administrative Community utilities to convene with the committee to discuss solutions to flooding issues on Anderson Street motion Grant leave to withdraw second motion to Grant leave to withdraw has been made and seconded all in favor

I I any opposed motion carries item 15 the Committee on Public Works and transportation at a meeting held on March 5th 2024 voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying resolution be granted leave to withdraw with Council Ponty absent now voting this resolution was also for flooding issues at 50 Anderson Street motion Grant Le to withdraw second motion Grant Le to withdraw has been made in seconded

all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 16 is a proposed order ordance for the mattress disposal fee Amendment for second reading and enrollment motion to pass through second reading and enrollment motion to pass through second reading has been made in second it all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item 17 is a resolution for the approval of the capital Improvement plan

motion to adopt to adopt motion to adopt has made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 18 is a resolution fil by the Committee on Public Works and transportation whereas the southw pond quality restoration program is currently underway and regularly reviewed by the administrator of community utilities and whereas many neighborhoods that are located near the wetlands area

have been experiencing increased flooding due to heavy and frequent rainfall now therefore be it resolved that the administrative Community utilities and the Committee on Public Works and transportation convene quarterly to discuss the status of the South wupa Pond quality restoration program including updates regarding Project funding and cost new restoration strategies that have been integrated and

reports regarding flooding that affects residents and Property Owners motion to adopt motion to adopt has remain in seconded all in favor I on the motion Council seven yeah just to follow up the purpose of the resolution is to follow up on the conversation we had in the subcommittee regarding Anderson Street and other situations uh Mr furland at that meeting gave us a a presentation

and kind of a a short and long-term plan I would say um to address some of these issues so Council Deion and I agreed that a quarterly review of that progress would be helpful in essentially hopefully to address those issues that yield thank you motion has made in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries it 19 is an order for a curb removal granting permission to Kilburn place for the removal of 16 ft of

curbing at 379 Kilburn Street the curve opening is on King philli Street motion to adopt motion to adopt and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 20 is the chief's report on licenses motion to adopt second motion to adopt has been made in seconded all in favor I I any oppos motion carries item 21 is an order for Fall River Taxi Service Inc for two new excuse me three new taxi vehicle

applications for license numbers 1 18 and 19 motion to adopt motion to adopt as a made and second all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 22 is Mr President counc seats five cons on item number two um Mr dudo that has Tony's Towing and auto repair he doesn't own that building he rents it and the owner of the building was supposed to come down and pay off on

a tax bill that he has he couldn't get here until tomorrow um and if we hold it pending that I I you know if we're going to vote on it vote on it pending the owner of the property coming down because if not then we won't get it in time and his license will expire just to let my colleagues know that's fine thank you councilor M clerk so that orders item 22 auto repair shop license

renewals for Antonio dudo DBA Tony's Towing and auto repair located at 69 Napoleon Street and Joseph Silva DBA Supreme Auto located at 4213 Street motion to pending payment motion to adopt Joe Silva motion to adopt Tony dudo pending payment of taxes by landlord second motion to adopt pending payment on both counts as far as I'm concerned make sure they both pay well that's fine

motion to adopt pending payment has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 23 is a number of claims motion refer to Corporation Council motion refer to Corporation Council has remain remain seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 24 is a communication from the assistant Corporation coun IL response to open meeting law complaint from February 15

2024 for an alleged violation by the committee on ordinances and legislation motion accept place on file second motion accept place on file but mam CL can you say what the response was we find were we negligent or were in good standings this is the assistant Corporation council's drafted response which uh outlines the city's position that there was no violation it's good to know motion to accept and place on file

has a made in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 25 is a drain layer license for l construction motion to approve second motion to approve has made in second it all in favor I any opposed motion carries motion 26 to 28 together second motion to take items number 26 27 and 28 together has been made and seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries is there a motion on item

motion to approve can you read mam cler first please yes item 26 are minutes of the joint meeting of the committee on finance and board of Park Commissioners item 27 is for the committee on finance and item 28 minutes for the regular meeting of the city council all minutes are for uh meetings held on February 15 2024 motion to approve motion to approve that's made there second second second

on favor I I any opposed motion carries the next item item 29 a through C are U Communications from the Department of Public Utilities their notices of public hearings and requests for uh from Liberty Utilities and national grid for um various um increases and exemptions motion accept and place on file motion accept and place on file item number 29 a b and c has been made and seconded all in favor

I any opposed motion carries we have a hold a recess for signatures city council resets for 2 minutes to get

signatures

City ccil reconvene know the last item is the proposed ordinance for the mattress disposal fee Amendment for passage to be ordained so moves second passage to be ordained has remain and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries that's all we have Mr motion toj are we done mam cck we are yes motion to adjourn has been made in seconded all in favor any opposed city council meeting is now aded good night

everyone good job I am over

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