3.27.2024 Redevelopment Authority

yep okay good okay person to the open Massachusetts open meeing law mgl 38 940 CMR notice is hereby given of a meeting of the follow Redevelopment Authority Wednesday March 27 2024 we are in the city council hearing room one government cater Fall River this meeting is open to the public to attend in person at the above rest preference date and time and location recording of the Open Session can be

viewed at Fall River government television which is www.fr gv.

us um pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recording and transmission are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible we're going to go to the roll call John Erikson lisc pres Ron rusen present Joan

madas present Yan ke present also attending Sarah paage our executive director Ken fola administrative Services C consultant and Karen Martin project manager uh first item is approval of the Open Session minutes from February 28th 2024 any comments on those minutes so move second second John Erikson yes Lis consel yes Ron rusen yes Joan Medeiros yes Yan Keane yes thank you uh next item is the warrant

um which is total of 888,246

yes thank you um Karen uh conflicted interest training um I just wanted to remind everybody and I put it in the board package that not last Friday is you all should have received an email from the city clerk about um doing the um uh ethics training that has to be done every two years regarding conflict of interest training um this was in the board packet if you just follow along

here you will be able to get into it and do it and it automatically then gets ready registered back with the uh City that it's been done so you do it right online yeah you do it right online everything is done right online so we we were sent something recently um probably about I think towards the end of February you might have got it but it's in your board packet didn't get it oh we

didn't get a separate email we got what you sent okay you didn't get that separate email oh all right um so what I would do is then just follow what's in this um package and just get that done yes y so um any questions or any issues with it just let me know okay there's no real deadline but we just haveed you um next item guys is the um the lease agreement

with the city Karen's going to give us a quickie on it uh yes so um we did finally get the services agreement back from the city and that's been all signed Johnny's just got to um we are already authorized him to sign it once the city approved it and the city approved it signed it and it's ready for his signature I have it here tonight for him to sign um and then in conjunction with

that they've issued the a separate lease agreement which follows along with the same guidelines of the services agreement it's you know you know renews every year unless someone you don't we say we no longer want to be in city hall or they no longer want us in City Hall um and then um and then we just need to approve that and authorize Johnny to um execute it yes so while entertain a motion to approve that lease

agreement is this the first lease agreement we had with them yeah they never um they we were talked about a months ago and month ago it's just gotten completed and we're now ready to sign it and it's going to be um uh dated back to we'll start paying rent as of August 1st September 1 September 1 said yeah September were we paying rent before that no so all a they're going to start

charging rent now okay the Redevelopment Authority years ago had paid rent and then um it it wasn't required for a couple of years and now uh we're basically paying rent again okay we flying under the radar I think a motion to move the lease as approved second second second John Erikson yes lcon yes Ron R yes John madas yes and we need to authorize Johnny to sign it okay authorized to go forward with the

lease and have Johnny sign it second second John Ericson yes yes Ron R yes Joan Medeiros yes Dan Kee yes thank you um uh Norton City Pier Karen oh okay um just some quick updates uh on the dock so there's been a few um updates that are um good and bad um we're progressing with getting all the signs that we talked about at the last meeting so that's all moving along um I did spend

some time talking with Paul bark and the insurance company about the fire extinguishers we are losing that battle if we want insurance coverage on our city PR we need to put fire extinguishers on the dock um so I'm going to proceed with going ahead in doing that um and the other thing we talked about bringing electrical out for the Harbor Master boat on the dock um the Harbor Master did a bunch of leg

work and they're able to actually get a solar unit put on the boat that will do that so we don't need to invest in that so um they're going to go ahead and do that so that saves us um uh a decent amount of effort so um those that will um and that will um help us a lot um right now we're in the process of I'm talking with the sprinkler subcontractor about getting

him out there and doing some repair to the drip lines and getting him ready to get the system back online and um operational and I'm going to be circling back with the Harbor Master about when we're going to actually lower the gang Plank and um Gangplank gang way we're not walking the Gang playing get the gang way um lowered and um uh get um get uh moving on opening the

docks um were you just talking about the irrigation system on City per yeah a minute ago is that what you okay Y and um is that still under warranty or no no not the startup and all of that no n that's not under warranty he owned one spring um he owned last spring um the environmental close out at City Pier that's progressing it's been a little bit of a delay because it was

some issues once the um the survey um the survey finished out on the parcel with the Mets in bounds because there was some description clarification that needs to get made because there's three Deeds that have to be recorded and they have to change some of the wording because the sheet piling that was installed uh the parcel size actually increased due to that so there he's working through that with the

anticipation that by our April meeting we will have um the a with the restrictions and we'll need to authorize we'll need to approve um the wording with the um with the aul map that we've already approved and then um we'll need to get authorization for Johnny to sign that aul and then we'll be able to um finalize the document and then get that in for um recording in the deed and

he'll also hopefully have by the um the next meeting the draft um uh of the um final the final um close out which what do they call that the project permanent solution permanent solution so hopefully the draft of that will be ready to by the next meeting and then between the timeline of once we get that all signed and we record it in the deed another 30 days passes with um Mass D so hopefully

by the end of May we'll have um an environmentally closed out City Pier so fingers crossed that all works out um and then events included in the board package was the final schedule of events for a city Pierre um I think there'll be um a decent amount of activity out there um the big thing for us is the um the grand opening and The Rock the Dock um celebration so in that board packet was

the example of the invitation that we're going to send out with the rock the do um flyer and those invitations the only thing we're finalizing right now is the band and Sam Sam from the mayor's office is working through with who the the band's going to be and the logistics of that once the band's known then we can probably send the invitations out we'd like to get them out in the early part

of April so people can um plan accordingly cuz I think it's it's a busy time of year with graduations and um just people getting excited for summer um so and if there's anyone or just a quick reminder if there's anyone that you guys want a special invitation to go to just let me know and I can get the invitations out to them either mail or email whatever works out best um and

then Northfield point so we were able to finalize the RFP um for the design phase of the project that went out to public um uh bid today the opening will be on April 18th um and we've already got a few um people have requested the document so we're hoping to get a good response to that and that's for the the um kind of you know the passive Recreation Area for

the north part of the the Deval Street and the three new moing fields and um the accommodation for um dingy docking for those um uh additional Moorings so hopefully that will um will get us um a good response and hoping to have um uh a consultant to present at the next meeting so we hopefully we'll move along with that thanks Karen I think that's all I've got um let's see Sarah's gonna

give a project uh project updates on three items MH so you may have heard that yesterday there was a press conference in the Flint neighborhood and uh the great news last week was that the city um was uh awarded 1,666 279 I don't know how they got that number but but uh that's of infrastructure funding for uh Pleasant Street and so Congressman aen class was in town yesterday and um the mayor and I

think our state reps um coordinated uh with him to um do this press conference it was very well attended by a number of our media folks and um uh Mike Dion asked us to um prepare uh boards that would be on easel to be at Gilbert's Jewelers uh because Gilberts is one of the um businesses that is getting a really wonderful new facade and um sign and Lighting in front of their buildings

and so um so Karen got a couple of board made up uh of the graphics out of our urban renewal plan and we had those there and they're in the pap there in The Herald news and um I think a real article is probably coming tomorrow but right now Colin fur has a whole bunch of photographs and uh it was a really great press conference um uh representative Fiola and um representative Schmidt were there and

they both spoke and the mayor and um Congressman aen Claus and then we walked to the street for a while and stopped in at a number of uh stores and businesses and um that was really great and wonderful to have that kind of support and um highlight of the Pleasant Street area and the funding will be for uh we think a lot of the focus may be on um trees and uh crosswalks and sidewalk repairs

and um we still have to figure it out but it's specifically infrastructure and then next week we have a meeting uh scheduled at City Hall to talk about a next piece of our Pleasant Street implementation plan and I pointed out to folks that we still had $40,000 left in our grant from it's really a grant to the city but we've been coordinating a lot of the work um it funded the work of

uh in US Associates doing our master plan our urban renewal plan and our neighborhood plan and so this $40,000 can be used to implement a number of goals in the plan and so the meeting we're having next week with the mayor and uh Ken Mike Dion a number of folks is to figure out exactly how we're going to use that 40,000 and Monica our program officer from Mass housing will be here and we be

um working on a plan for that 40,000 so that's really that's really good and then other really good news for Pleasant Street is the city had applied to um the Bloomberg philanthropies and the city has gotten Bloomberg funding before and they applied for the position of the liaison that we had written into our plans saying if we're going to do all of this work we need a liaison who works

with the neighborhood and works with City Hall and helps you know put all these pieces together with us and so they applied for that and they got it funded and so they're going to be able to hire what's kind of being considered a fellow but it's reasonably well paid and um we've been told that we'll have input into the hiring process and um that person will work closely with us and the grant also includes small Grant

to be given to 10 Civic organizations to do work with us in the Flint so I am really happy that we have some funding coming and some clear next steps one question yes on the 1.66 million who's going to be in charge of doing that it's going to the city um but we'll be working I think closely with Mike on in the community development a agency to um try to push

through I imagine it will go through HUD and um staff at the congressman's office are going to work with us and we're going to do our best to get it through all the bureaucracy it has to go through and then I'm sure Mike Will um uh Mike and his team will um probably uh implement the grant but we'll be really involved to make sure that it's you know coordinated with the work of the urban

renewal plan okay and last question that Grant from the uh Bloomberg philanthropy uh is that a one-year Grant two-year Grant two-year Grant okay yep great so it's great to have this liais on for two years and they're they're looking at it as one of these fellow kind of positions where you get somebody who um wants to focus for a couple of years and then you know potentially you can find a way to hire them over the

long term if you and they want to do that okay so next um is our progress on the master plan um for the Route 79 Deval Street Corridor we had another meeting this morning with the consultants and they're making really great progress um what they were showing us today uh were a number of things but um they were showing their analysis of the utilities and the fact that the utilities that are

needed for each of the parcels Are all uh planned to be there as the mass do plans had had been worked through so uh they were thrilled to re to confirm that all the utilities would be on all of the parcels they're setting up meetings with liberty and the City Water and Sewer Department and with um National Grid and uh going to really work on the plans for the utilities and they've been working

on uh understanding all of the um design of Deval street where the stop lights are um and they had a lot of questions that we couldn't answer um on our team at the last meeting so we connected them with uh Lenny at trans systems who worked really closely with mass do through the planning process and he sent an email answering a number of their questions and so I was happy that we

could connect them because he's a really good resource to understand kind of what what is there what's planned why certain decisions were made and um they're they're just working through all the pieces and it's really encouraging and I'm really impressed with the work they're doing so I'm very pleased that they're working with us they think of a lot of things that I would never think of that's why they plan is

yeah um does anybody have any questions on any of the other items or anything uh the chair makes the finding that an open session would have a detrimental effect on the negotiating decision of the public body purpose of the executive session is to approve the executive session minutes from February 28 24 and discuss strategy with respect to potential real estate transactions for

property located at assessor map 22 lot 9 on Deval Street 191 Commerce Drive and at parcel W19 d187 on Innovation Way I'll entertain a excuse me I'll entertain a motion to enter into executive session and not to return to open session motion to enter into executive session and not come back second second John Ericson yesc yes Ron yes Joan madas yes and Keane yes thank you