3.3.2026 Redevelopment Authority

Welcome to the March 3rd, 2026 meeting of the Fall River Redevelopment Authority. This meeting was scheduled for February 25th and was rescheduled due to the uh blizzard of 26, I guess we're calling it now. Um person went to the open meeting law. Any person may make an audio or video recording this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised as such recording

or transmission are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and per permissible.

Um attending remotely are Joan Maderson, Anne Keane and uh John Ericson, Ron Ren present, Ben Fidleberg also participating. Uh Joan Medeiros present.

Um Ann Keane present.

Thank you.

and uh Sarah Page, executive director, John Cofflin, legal counselor, Ken Fiola, administrative consultant, and Karen Martin, project manager.

Um we're going to take a roll call to enter um to leave executive session and return to open session. We need the motion for that. So, we're going to do we're going to we're going to take number seven out of order right?

Yep.

To go into executive session.

Go into executive. Yeah. first, but what's going to change is we are coming back to open session after this.

Okay.

Right.

So, do we have a motion for that?

A motion to enter executive session and we will return to the open session at the end of executive session for those for those items listed under item seven on the agenda.

Second.

Second.

John Ericson. Yes.

Ron Ren. Yes.

Ben Fleber. Yes.

Joan Medeiros. Yes. and Keane. Yes.

Thanks everybody. And Johnny, I just need you to read that statement.

We need a motion to approve the open session minutes from January 28th, 2026.

Motion to approve the January 28, 2026 open session minutes.

Second.

Second.

John Ericson. Yes.

Ron Rousen. Yes.

Ben Feelberg, yes.

Joan Maner, yes.

Ann Keane, yes. Thank you. Um, okay. Where are we here now? Number three.

The warrant. We're all mixed up.

Four. The warrant.

Uh, oh yeah, the warrant. You guys have the warrant uh totaling 61,09940.

Uh, I need a motion to accept the warrant. Joan has reviewed it.

Motion to approve the February warrant amount of $61,9940.

Second.

Second.

John Erikson. Yes.

Ron Rousen. Yes.

Ben Futleberg. Yes.

Medeiros. Yes.

Yes. Oh, okay.

Thank you. Um guys, I apologize because mine mine are all like a weird uh order.

Really?

Uh okay. I'm so I'm on number five now.

Okay.

Uh well, we did we did four um on mine anyway.

Yeah, you did. So five uh um oh employee reviews um we have in the package an amendment to Karen's employment agreement. Um so I need a motion to uh authorize me the chair to uh sign that amendment. A motion to approve and authorize the chair to sign amendment to Karen Martin's employment agreement which he is well deserving of.

Well, thank you.

Second.

Thank you.

Second.

John Erikson. Yes.

Ron Rousen. Yes.

Ben Fleberg. Yes.

Joan Medeiros. Yes. And Keane? Yes.

Thank you.

Who gets this?

Then next on election of officers is just to let you know that it's about the time of year we elect officers again on an annual basis. So we're proposing to do that at the next meeting.

Okay. Is anybody up for renewal? I'm assuming every year somebody renewal.

two people if every five years.

I don't think we have our next renewal.

Everyone's a little bit different. I don't think we have our next renewal till 27 or 28. I can't remember.

Okay.

Okay.

I have it upstairs. I don't want to go with me.

Um so do do you on in terms of the um the the well this the SAM deal, right?

Do we need to explain that at all? I mean I know about but I don't think these guys do.

Okay. Yeah. I want to get written. Yeah.

So we've many times talked about the fact that if we when we go to having private events at the pier and start having more and more events that we felt we would need an event planner to deal with all the details that come up with that. And so we are incredibly impressed with Samantha Barbosa who does events through the mayor's office. She works closely with us. She's worked on all the

events on city pier because most of them are um funded and hosted by the city.

And so we're in the process now of getting approval for South Coast Health to be our first private event. They're going to be out on the pier in June and um they will presumably do most of their own coordinating. They've got all kinds of staff. But we it got us thinking about the possibility of having Samantha work with us to um deal with private events. And I tal Karen talked with Sam.

she'd be willing, the mayor would be willing to have her do that and we would need to contribute toward her salary to some extent.

And um the and the other piece of information is that we haven't had a chapter 91 authorization to have private events.

We've only had it for public events. So, a special um special uh allowance is being made by DP for South Coast Health. We're in the process of applying for a chapter 91 license that will allow us to have private events on an ongoing basis and we've talked with you about that. So, what we wanted to do was propose that we enter into an agreement with the city to have Samantha

work on private events with us. Now, we had a good discussion with Ken about it today when we had our regular meeting.

He feels we're doing this prematurely, that um that you know we have one event we know of and that um that he thinks we could do more of them ourselves.

We've always felt that we want our energy put in other places rather than managing all the details of events. Um, well, plus and we don't want to have to reinvent all the connections that she's made within the city and all the fire and EMS and police and all the licensing people and all of that. She just knows everybody and they know that she's the main contact for all that stuff.

Okay. Can we pause for a moment here?

Yeah. Are we looking at doing this to make her a full-time staff person or just on a contract basis as events come up?

Well, it would. So, the mayor was talking about we could contribute something like5 to $10,000 toward um his, you know, toward the salary the city pays her. and she would be available to us to basically take all the applications, vet them, help us decide if we would want to do that event, bring it to the board for approval, and then manage all the pieces to make sure the event, you know, which

is mostly done by the sponsor of the event, but that all the pieces are done, it's cleaned up properly, and all of that. So, we weren't talking about a per event. We were talking about her being available to us on an ongoing basis as applications come in and we have events.

So, we so if we approve 7500 that would be good till March of next year.

Anything unlimited that we need to do.

Right.

And then we keep all the proceeds of the events themselves. Right. You said you're charging $2,000 a day for an event. Was that the price?

It's $2,000 for the day of the event and it's $5,000 $500 for the setup day and the dismantle day.

So $3,000 per event. So like the South Coast has I think three days of setup.

So be $500 each day.

Mhm.

So I mean we have two other events and we're going to cover at 7500. No problem.

Right.

I don't think 7500 is going to be enough. I I mean I think I don't think we want to make a profit on it, but we don't want to lose money either. So you might have to if you all a sudden you're having 10 events or eight events or six events, then you might have to at that point pay more than 7500.

Well, part of their thing is too, we're not actually sure how much master EP is going to allow us to to have out there.

So this was just something that, you know, to get us started and she can be fielding. I mean, I think as the summer unfolds and as Northfield Point comes online, she'll be like she can work with trustees of the reservation on the open classroom things, she can work with um uh the Ottabon Society with, you know, bringing the students out to the um to the outdoor classroom in the point and

things like that, too. So, I mean, there's there's it won't just be necessarily just private events too. It will also be the public events, too. So, I mean, I think that um just having her as the main contact for public and private events at the 600 Deval Street property um would be smart, right? The other concern that Ken raised and it's a legit, you know, it's a reasonable concern is that it can look like,

you know, if city pier and the redevelopment authority is using the same staff as a city staff person, it could start to look as though um city pier is not a redevelopment authority asset or it could diminish our uh visibility.

Mhm.

Well, we don't have any visibility on the property now to be honest. I mean, our name's nowhere down there. And it is. It's on the sign.

Yeah, it's on the sign.

Yeah.

What sign?

Under Tom Norton.

The Senator.

Oh, yeah. But I mean, but everybody in the city thinks it's city property.

Yeah.

Right. So we could be further instituting that as opposed to what we always try to do work against that or maybe just do a 1099 contract, not a employee contract.

No, we're not the 7500. How we pay the 7500 will determine how we're hiring her.

We aren't hiring her.

No, no, but I'm saying how we are contracting off her. Not we're not contracting with her. We are just asking the city to share her as their employee.

Yeah.

Okay.

But we're still paying. So we're contract in some way. There would be no We wouldn't be paying if we're not contracting.

No, we're paying the city for the right to use their staff person. We we have a service agreement with the city.

Y memoranding and it would be one of the more services that they provide under there that we're reimbursing for just like they provide personal rent to pay for your payroll. New year. Yeah.

Lots of stuff.

I think that's a confusing piece of it.

Well, what when is the South Coast event? What month?

June.

June. June.

So, we don't have to wait till May before we have I mean sometime May 1st would be a good time to start. Why?

Because there's nothing in March, nothing in April. Why are we going to do the 7500 now? Why don't we wait till May and then she'll have a month to get everything together and start getting the applications in?

Well, we could renegotiate.

You know, we threw out the 7500. The mayor was saying five to 10,000. Maybe we start very minimal and say we hardly have any events this year and we will have more next year and we would want to up it down the road.

Yeah. Maybe 5,000 for first three events. If it goes six events then it's another 2500 up to 7500. Then if it goes eight events it's up to 10,000. Give her like a sliding scale.

I don't think it has to be quite that complicated personally. But um the other thing is is that she would also be the point of contact for anyone inquiring about events at City Pier because believe me when these people call about events at City Pier, you just are on the phone for like you know they have like well if I want to do this, what about if I want to do this?

What if I want to do this? What if I want to do that? And you know, you just go down a rabbit hole of many questions and many things. And she's, believe me, she's got the whole spiel. She knows all the requirements for what all the departments would want for what she wants. I mean, she's she, you know, who either Sarah or I would have to like reabsorb all of that information to be

able to give accurate information to any callers and she's just got her finger on that pulse.

So, is Ron if we don't really have we don't have anything for April anyway, right?

No, we don't. No.

So, maybe like Ron says started May 1st.

That's when the weather opens. Things will start happening. Yeah. Yeah. So, we won't watch the March go May to May. May to April.

And then this way she'll have a month to get the project up and going, which I believe we already started on it with South Coast, right?

Oh, for sure.

Yeah, we're just waiting to hear things.

They may start cranking up millions of questions and things starting in April.

So, when snow melts, huh? When snow melts.

Yeah.

Um, so, so maybe we say 5,000 to start and then we can evaluate it through the summer. Is that reasonable or Well, we'd want to do it for a year and then we'd evaluate it.

The best time to re-evaluate it would be um pending what we get back from the chapter 91 um request.

Yeah. How long does that take to get in?

Well, right now we got a management plan that we're um that we need to look at and so that probably won't even be submitted until the end of this month.

And how long would they have to answer that month? SD doesn't abide by any particular time frame, but they are not quick at turnaround.

So, it's going to be to me anyways before we even have an answer we can do it. What? How happens if No, no, no. We have the Okay, basically for the South Coast. This is for authorization for South Coast. Yeah. But for future events, we're going to, you know, we won't know potentially until the end of June what what they decide.

What about what about other events that you do like the kite fly?

That's all, Sam. That's all the public events. All of that as part of this, too, right?

We don't She's doing that for free now, right?

Well, well, she's getting paid by the mayor's office. Yeah. And there are the mayor's events.

Yeah. He's covering all the um you know the liability and all that.

It it sounds to me like this could be a a bit premature until we get the approval from Mass D because we could have be in a position position of no private events beyond this South Coast event if they don't act on it or tell us no.

I don't think they're going to refuse private events. He's already told us he'll allow private events. They just don't know to what extent yet.

We're working with Ken's contact that the governor connected him with to try to get approvals for the marina um at the Morton Marina. So, we have a special connection and he's working with us.

So, so we're quite confident we'll get the approval whether whether anyone will you know whether there will be any other private events this year we don't know.

So well if you do a motion the only thing I'd be I would want to wait till after we have the 91 approval. Chapter was chapter 91 or title 91 whatever it is.

Chapter 91. Yeah.

Yeah.

So we would do the south coast ourselves. Well, if we can get the chapter 91, they agrees to do more things, then we can have it done before then. So, as soon as it stops.

Okay. So, we were hoping to be able to have her work on South Coast. She's already kind of connected with them and we may not know until after South Coast if we have to do, you know, what D comes back with.

So, so what happens if we So, we pay $7,500.

We agree to pay $7,500. They agreed to just do one south coast and we just spent $7,500 to do one party.

We wouldn't pay. That's a lot of money for one event.

So maybe we ask the mayor if we can just pay a thousand.

Yeah. For that one event, right?

That's fine.

But what's the timetable on finding out clearance for more?

That's what I'm We probably wouldn't get that submitted until the earliest would be the end of this month by the time we review the management plan and they get the package together. So, we can adjust this as we go then if we have to, right?

I mean, yeah. Yeah, we can do anything.

So, offer to pay $1,000 to handle the South Coast. We We'll do that one right now. Get that approval right now. Would that be okay with you guys or you think that would work?

Yeah, I I'll have to talk with the mayor.

The mayor is at a place where he has to give her a raise. Somebody else is leaving. Her job is changing. So he was kind of putting this into that thinking.

Yeah.

My fear is that if we just, you know, I think we can ask, can she work on South Coast and then we negotiate this later.

Well, what about $1,000 per event?

It doesn't it that doesn't flow well because she's going to get there'll be an a certain amount of inquiries and a certain amount of those will only then be put into an application form and then depending on what that application form consists of.

Yeah.

Then it will come to us and will we approve everything? We don't know. So I mean it it'll it'll well maybe we do a 250 per application then $1,000 per event. We we do it like a cost basis so we know we're getting something from it.

I don't know. Just if we do $7,500 and we don't have no parties, I think we just do $7,500 out the way.

Yeah. I would then I at this point then I wouldn't approve anything.

Yeah. just hold off the the I mean well yeah we'd like her to do the south coast but I mean I don't I don't know what the mayor will Okay so you know aren't we assuming we're going to do more events there the idea yeah I mean he's they will approve something we just don't know what it is and what the conditions will be well 7500 they will approve three parties and that we're losing money.

Well, you're going to lose money anyway because the maintenance of dollars that we spend on city pier we're never covering that anywhere.

Well, I'm just looking at you know we have a mainten budget this month 61 next month 100,000 we're spending a lot of money and we're not going to eventually we're not going to get no money back right.

So we have to be careful at some point that we're out of money.

So all these events are going to increase our maintenance costs also. So that's the other thing that everybody has to take into consideration.

That's right.

Because but we're netting we're making 2,000. We're not netting 2,000 after all maintenance. Yeah.

No.

Was that cutting your losses?

Yeah.

Yeah. I I I I I think we really need to take a more holistic look at all of this before we decide to spend money in one place without taking in into account how we're spending it in others for private parties and events down there.

Okay. How how would you want us to approach this and bring it back at the next meeting?

I would know how we chapter 91 by then.

No, we won't.

Yeah.

So, do you can we try to negotiate something for her to do for South Coast with the mayor?

Why don't Why don't we say $1,000 to cover that one and then see what happens with the uh in in April.

We can't expect her to do all this for free.

what she making either that or we have to do it.

You know approximately what she's making per hour.

No.

50,000 a year. Is it?

I have no idea what her salary is. I have no right to know.

Say if it's $25 an hour and then then we get if we spend a,000 we get 40 hours something like that.

I mean it's not really our area of expertise to I agree do all that she does. I mean, I think we have to see this in the context of we negotiate a lot of things with the mayor. We have a lot of services they provide per you know HR, you know, all our payroll, all of that is done by the city. We do a lot of other things for the city.

Yeah. Um, so it's more part of a larger kind of collaborative agreement than I think that she's not going to want to be trying to keep track of every little event for us. I really envision that it be an agreement with the mayor's office that we have her to provide this ongoing service. Ultimately, it it makes all the events in the city of Fall River a lot more cohesive experience for John Q public when they

want to have an event somewhere, whether it's at city pier, whether it's at the parks, whether it's at the gates, you know what I mean? Like she she handles it and she knows and all the other entities like the licensing board, the police, the fire, the EMS, they know to go to her in case of really good.

Yeah. And she's really good at that.

they know how the Fourth of July like I mean that whole thing goes smoothly because of the way she organizes that.

So I mean I think the thing is is that um yes we lose a little bit of our identity but at the same time we are really here to make Fall River a better city have more people come to the city have more people having a positive experience here in the city and I think that um you know I don't understand why that friction exists sometimes we get all this stuff for the mayor

stuff for free from here correct So only thing we're worried about is public events.

Is the public events going to be worth it?

If we're private events, if we're spending 7500 and what we're receiving minus the maintenance is going to be how much money, I mean, how many events we have to do just to break even?

And and if we're only breaking even, why are we doing it? Well, when we developed CDPR, we were I was told in no uncertain terms that one of the roles of CDPRE was to have all kinds of events and be open to the public. And so when you know, NASA Root wanted to have an event out there. Um, you know, we ended up not being able to have them come, but you

know, there are various entities within the city that feel like this is an asset and they want to have their 25th anniversary there or various things.

They call the mayor. They start lobbying to be able to have things there. So there's that whole issue of is this an asset for the city and the companies in the city that is accessible to them and are we going to ruin it by having public events if there's going to be a lot of people at one event?

Are we going to ruin the property? I mean, how much work is it? I'm just saying. I mean, you're going to have a private event for a It's not really a city- owned property.

It's a redevelopment owned property, right?

I don't know. I'm just Did you say ruin the property?

I mean, people can be walking on the grass.

We do that already a lot of events with thousands of people there, Fourth of July and the concerts and everything.

And it's sold it up pretty well.

I don't think we have to worry about that.

Yeah.

And the private events aren't going to be any kind of demand like Fourth of July is.

Yeah. And it won't be riff raff. It'll be better. So I think the board should just think about what the role of city pier is and it never was envisioned as a money maker. It was envisioned as a resource for the city.

I agree. But we also have a budget and we have limited funds and we have to make sure that we're we're making sure we spend the funds effectively.

Yep. I agree. So is but again the this approval we're waiting for is kind of could change the complexion of the whole thing right?

No, not really. I mean, we're quite sure that he'll approve probably seven events a year.

Okay. Okay.

There's no doubt about that then.

Well, it has to be approved, but until Exactly. Until it's approved, there's always doubt.

Yeah.

You have that one event almost every week of the summer. What were you talking about? Mid end of June to beginning of August or middle of August.

We were thinking more like May through October.

Yeah.

So one every two weeks and that shuts down. It's a private event. So now the public can't use it. Correct.

No. The boardwalks will stay open.

You just around the cement. It's only inside that's not.

So they won't have boundaries around it.

Just Okay.

Got to stay open.

Yeah. That's going to be that's all spelled out in the management plan that's that's got to be reviewed.

Actually, they're allowing us they're allowing South Coast Health to for two hours four hours close some of the north pier, but people will be able to access the south pier and the middle of um city pier. And that was a special accommodation for South Coast.

So we would be voting on utilizing these the $7,500 for this person to for their ability for the for the next year or for the South Coast Health?

No, I don't think we're 7500. I think you want me to go back to the mayor and say, can we use her for South Coast Health? We don't really know how many events we can have. Um, we'd like to try out using her in this way for South Coast Health and we want to keep negotiating with you and the board is still thinking about this.

I like that.

Yeah. Because if it takes off and we start doing more and more events, we don't want to hire somebody Yeah.

some stranger to do it because we don't really have the capacity to do it.

More costly.

Yeah. You're you're being offered Yeah.

services by somebody who has that expertise. So they replace that. It's going to cost you a lot of money.

Plus insurance, plus all the benefits.

So much better. I mean, I'm not saying you do it now, but at some point, if the mayor's office is willing to allow you to use one of their employees for five or seven grand a year, and it coordinates it, that's well worth hiring somebody else.

And all you need to do is do a short amendment to the MOU we have with the city already just to incorporate this in because you already under the statute you can share services. Yeah.

121B.

Yeah.

So as we said they already share services. We we use um you know dand planning sometimes we use stuff for us.

They do our payroll retirement.

So that's cross back and forth is is already existing. This is just one piece of the puzzle.

All right. So I maybe before we without a motion just go talk to the mayor, ask him what he wants one thing, bring it to the next meeting end of this month and you'll be all set by April, May work on that.

Great.

Okay.

So we may have another a little more a better reading uh in March perhaps or not about all events but it would be about the south coast.

Yeah. But I mean in terms of inquiries and interest and they start getting calls or I don't know. I mean, you can't predict what the public's going to do when they'll call and stuff, but we are definitely concerned that the second we have South Coast Health big public event, we'll get a lot of calls.

Yeah.

Will the redevelopment authority be doing any marketing for this space or I know you mentioned one South Coast South is their event. It'll kind of build momentum that way, but how will the public know that this this space is available for use? The public's been calling us ever since we opened City Pier saying, "Can't we have this? Can't we have that?" And we've just said, "No, we're not doing private events." During

the Deval Street construction, we said, "We have construction. We're not doing events." So, there was nowhere to park.

So, we know that people will be in touch with us.

And you know, we get calls from Linda Pereira, city councelor, saying, "Why can't you have this event? These people want this event." You know, we get lobbyed a lot about having events. So, I'm not worried about, you know, we're not anxious to have events. We just know that there's interest.

Got it.

And you already voted on a policy to set the rates.

Yeah. So we I think we've already made the decision now. It's just how many you can have. But I think in that discussion, we tried to say don't go crazy with it, right? Just do a certain number a year so we don't ruin the property, but leave it open at the same time.

How do we say yes to one company and no to another company?

Well, you it's you can't do it based on the type of event, but you can certainly say we only do X number a year.

Yeah, that's it.

But you said you mentioned a company that you said no to.

Well, that's because we weren't ready yet.

Oh wow. Well, plus that was going to be a private event. We didn't have permission to have private events.

Okay, that's until you have the chapter 90. South Coast is getting a special chapter 91, just that event. Until you have the other chapter 91, you can't do any others anyway.

But you can certainly limit the number.

You don't have to say every day of the week it's available.

You can say 6 12 a year. You can do whatever you want.

All right. and we have a management plan and this complicated application and people have to commit to all kinds of things and pay and so it's going to limit how many people are actually going to do it but you need somebody to coordinate all that I agree or it's going to get sloppy I agree she seems like the person perfect person to borrow all right next all thank you

we can move on from that um Deval Street um Northfield point So, so what happened there was um they ran into um additional vetment work and correct me if I'm wrong Karen, but Beta agreed with um this um scope of the extra work. Is that correct?

Yes. Um, so it is um 94,000 additional um but it's we're still under our um our budget and I believe the next bidder was quite a bit higher. I can't remember the numbers exactly.

Yeah, even with this ad, we still weren't at within a second bidder was.

Yeah. And then there's a great likelihood that that bidder would have run into the same issue.

Yeah. Because some of this stuff was um some of the changes were actually dictated by the um existing elevations and grade and where the reventment ended especially along the north side of the spit.

So this is a total 94,000 not additional 94,000.

It's a change order adding 94,000 to the base contract. So if the contract was 150 94 be 2447.

So the total contract he he bid at 447.

You add the 94776 and it's 543 778.

And how much of this is paid by the grant money?

Um so there was 125,000 paid by the earmark and then um there was let's bring this right close so I can read it. um 29,754 from the um the previous C4 grant.

So is that covered in the whole 543 or no?

No.

No. The final uh we knew that this this um the majority of this work was coming out of our money because it was the matching funds for the final phase that of the FY26 C4 grant which we got fully funded. Yeah. So our final out-of- pocket costs are 451304 and we had talked about 500,000.

Yeah, we had talked about 500,000 just for the revetment. Um and then there was more money for the um the uh construction administration and resident engineering.

What's what's our total amount left in how much we have as a development board?

We still have 12 million more than sufficient funds. Yes, more than sufficient funds.

More than sufficient funds. What I'm saying is I'm just worried about we're not down to 2 million, 3 million, 4 million. We have Okay.

No. No.

I just We don't want to spend more than we're we're not going to get no more money.

So, we have at some point we have to determine, you know, if this is a project that's worth that 500 451,000, then we do it.

Well, this Yeah. I mean, this goes back quite a ways. I mean, we started on this a long time.

Yeah. We're finishing it actually. So, yeah. The final phase is all um fully funded by the uh well as long as the bids come in now um appropriately it's fully funded by the seapport economic council grant.

We got almost a million dollars from the port to do the final phase.

So this was our match piece and matched that.

So 1.5 million we're paying 500 is what you're saying something like that.

Yeah.

Okay.

We're paying four 451.

Yep. Motion approve and authorize the chair of the executive director to sign amendment number one to the seller landscape and construction LLC for the amount of 94,778.42 for the additional work associated with the stone preventment work at Northfield Point.

Second.

Second.

John Ericson. Yes.

Ron Rousen. Yes.

Ben Feelberg. Yes.

Joan Medeiros. Yes. And Keane. Yes.

Thanks everybody. Um can I ask something? Can can we get a amount what we have in account so this way we're aware of what's available what's coming out of it and if there's any interest being derived off of it.

Oh there's a lot of that's what I'm saying it is interest bearing Rod.

Okay. All right. Perfect.

You'll get that too.

Uh okay. Thank you.

So um that that number was also in the final audit reports that you got. You should be able to see the um the money there that were in the board package.

Uh the seport econom the FY26 port economic council grant. Just a quick update, we got this the fully executed contract today. So that means we are now under contract and we proceed with getting that work finalized and out to bid. Um, based on the timing of receiving that contract, which was today, it looks like we probably won't get that out to bid until May, June, and then so work probably won't be

um started till either the end of June, beginning of July, which will push completion into the fall. But that works out better because of some of the plantings and the grassing grasses that are designed um out on that that uh portion of the project are better suited to be planted at that time of the year for um for taking and and lasting. So there's some pluses and minuses. It pushes it further out, but it might end

up giving us a a better um a better um project in the long run. But um I'll keep you posted. They have a meeting tomorrow afternoon with Beta to um reook at the schedule for everything.

Um

so project updates. So we have um the uh insis land strategies um we we need to increase let me give a whole okay description here so I just want to update you you know that we took a risk and applied to be a TDI district in the Flint. We knew it was extremely competitive. We were told we put in a high quality application. They'd like to talk with us. they'd like to help us in

some ways, but we weren't accepted as a district. And the districts they accepted made total sense. Um, so the good news about that is that it really pushed us to create a whole partnership.

We got all kinds of diverse businesses and groups together. So, we're going to continue working with that partnership.

There's a lot planned for the summer through uh the love your block program through community development and we're doing a lot of collaboration with them.

Um, so one thing we wanted to tell you is that one of the really exciting projects that's happening in the Flint and bringing all kinds of people together is a community garden that was created with Love Your Block funding last year and it is going to expand. They've got money for a fence to go around it. They're got many more raised beds being built. But the challenge they have is that they

hoped water barrels would provide enough water. They don't because there are no gutters shooting water into them. So, they need to bring a water line down.

And Karen's been working with them and working with the park department on this. and it looks like we could help them get a waterline for $10,000 around that. Now, we went to Mass Housing because we have $63,000 remaining in a grant at Mass Housing to be used for the Flint neighborhood.

and they said they'd love to help us with the water line, but they're not allowed under that that project to give capital grants.

And so we want to bring a proposal to you at the next meeting if we can't find another source of these funds. We're going to talk with Mike in community development, but we think he's stretched. Um, so we'd like to bring you our proposal at the next meeting around that waterline, which we think is a very valid commitment toward the Flint neighborhood and its vitality. So the next piece of

this is the um, MEPA review process.

So, we thought that Mass Housing since they approved well, they paid for most of our urban renewal plan, they paid for the entire NEPA review to date.

We thought that they would agree to pay for whatever we need to do next. We still don't know what we need to do next and we want our consultants to help us talk with NEPA to make that decision.

And they said that they may be able to help us with the additional MEPA cost, but we now need to know what MEEPA needs and know what a scope of work is to complete that work.

So, we would we're asking that you approve up to $10,000 for us to increase the amount we're paying in land management or whatever land strategies um so that we can have Inis and Tai and Bond help us figure out what we need to do to get through NEA.

So, they quoted us that right?

No. it.

No, we're talking with them Thursday.

Thursday, but we know that that's we don't think it'll cost 10,000.

Okay. So, it's it's just like a number not to exceed. We don't really know yet, right?

Okay.

Yeah, it says not to exceed, right? I get and we already have a contract, so we're just ex, you know, increasing a contract, but we won't do it. We'll just have it build per hour.

Okay. Just do it back to the water thing. The water line. The water line goes up there. Yeah. Now, what is it?

It's going to be a hose everybody gets to use or how No, it's the city will look. Once you get the water line in there, once you get the water line in there, how are they going to use the water?

Yeah, they'll have a um what do you call it? A yard hydrant.

A yard hydrant.

We'll put in a box inside the fenced area that they're they're putting in.

So, it'll be just for the It'll be dedicated to the community gardeners.

Community gardeners. So, anybody can't go in and just play with the water and stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. It would just be the community gardeners, right? Okay. I'm all set with that.

And the park board has approved that.

Just so you know, they've approved the work at the park.

Okay. Motion to approve an amount not to exceed Wait, hold one second. Just one more question. Is this going to be a metered water line? And it's We would not be We would not be paying for it. The garden the community garden would We're just providing the um installation of the line.

Okay.

All right. Motion to approve an amount not to exceed 10,000 to engage you say inus in land strategies and tie and bond to determine the MEPA requirements for our URP and develop a scope of work to complete the MEEP review under the new regulations.

Second.

Second.

John Ericson. Yes.

Ron Rousen. Yes.

Ben Feelberg. Yes.

Joan Medeiros. Yes.

Dan Keen. Yes.

Thank you. Anything? Uh, no. Mr. Sarah, um, there's an event um that I gave you an invitation to at the last meeting.

I'm going to send it out to everybody.

You probably know about it. It's at the Eagle. Are you going?

I am in tomorrow.

I leave the 12th. It's the 12th, right?

No.

Isn't it a Thursday?

It's a Thursday. The 12th. I leave the Thursday the 12th.

Yeah.

Oh, yes.

Yeah. 10:30. Yeah. The Yeah, it's the 12th.

What What time is that one?

It's in the morning.

Okay.

Oh, no. No. We're talking about the wrong thing.

Our our NMA meeting is the 12. I'm talking about the event that NMA is planning at the Eagle. Okay.

Which is um I think around the 21st.

21st is a Saturday. No, I'm sorry. I meant to bring the flyer for it. Um, what is it about?

Uh, it's a it's a taste of NMA. They're getting all the NMA restaurants and some other restaurants to come. It's $25 ahead. There's going to be a pay bar and um it's to really promote the restaurants in the NMA district and let you get a taste of all of these different restaurants.

Okay. I know the uh the kill line was just sold.

A new gentleman's taking over uh Ozog Mick.

Yeah.

Yeah. I'm happy for Christina.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So um didn't you set Joseph sent the thing out right?

They changed the date.

Yeah, Joseph.

March 19th.

Yeah, that's a Thursday. Yeah, I am there for that Thursday. So, I probably would have been pretty me, my wife would go to Great. So, he he's already got 25 committed, shooting for at least 75, doing a lot more advertising, and um we're pretty confident that will work.

Okay.

And then there's a whole schedule of events coming up.

Is that an early event or a late event?

Is that an early event? I just remember I play COS on Thursday.

5:00.

That's what it said.

Did you say the 17th?

Maybe my wife in the front will know.

We're all scoot out the back.

Doesn't want to tell you more about NMA the next time. I figured we'd be almost out of time and I wouldn't bring folks in to tell you, but there's events all during the season. We have steering committee meeting Friday. We have a full uh district meeting next Thursday. and you're doing all kinds of planning.

Um, okay. So, if there's no further questions, I can entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjurnn.

Second.

Second.

John Ericson. Yes.

Ron Rousson, yes.

John Fuleberg, yes.

Joan Medeiros, yes.

Dan Keem, yes.

Thanks everybody.

Pogy.