The Fall River City Council Committee on Economic Development & Tourism met on April 19, 2022. The meeting began with the acceptance of the December minutes. The committee then discussed a resolution regarding electrical needs at the Gates of the City, with Tammy from facilities reporting that a 400 amp three-phase electrical service and cam locks for two stages had been installed, completing the work within budget. This resolution was subsequently withdrawn. A significant portion of the meeting focused on the long-standing request for a Tourism Director and Cultural Affairs position. City Administrator Mr. Atkins stated that the administration currently does not plan to hire a director, preferring to await a plan from the South Coast Chamber, which has hired a consultant. Council members expressed frustration with this 'wait and see' approach, emphasizing the city's current lack of a cohesive tourism strategy, an outdated website, and insufficient social media presence. They highlighted various local events and attractions that lack proper promotion and suggested immediate action through social media campaigns. The discussion also touched upon issues like access to Dave's Beach and the lack of a harbormaster. This item was tabled until a meeting in the third week of May. Finally, the committee addressed a resolution to refurbish or replace the "Welcome to Fall River" sign on Route 24. Mr. Atkins reported that Sunrise Erectors, a local company, would present metal designs for a new sign on Friday, offered at no cost to the city. The administration is still awaiting a commitment from the Department of Transportation (DOT) for installation, with Representative Fiola also assisting in communications with the DOT. This item was also tabled.
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is there any citizen input the minutes item number two on the agenda the minutes of the december motion to accept second there's a motion there's a second all in favor item number three was a resolution requesting the administration along with facilities director maintenance provide information on the potential funding to provide electrical cabinets um and handle electrical needs for the gates of the city
0:32and i see that uh tammy is here some of this work has been done um tammy if you'll come down and join us i know some of the work has been done council do we did you run off the uh just the opening law speech i did good point thank you pursuant to the open meeting where any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting that may transmit the
0:55medium through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings and transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and deemed acknowledgeable and permissible tammy i know that we wanted to put uh the electrical stuff down at the gates of the city and if you want to fill us in on what's been completed there okay so we have completed everything
1:22uh what was set up there initially was only good enough to take care of the gates the lights on the arches and it was just a basic 100 amp service so what we've done is we've installed a 400 amp three phase 120 over 208 volt service with a transformer on its pad the main 400 amp service panel went to the back section of the park for set up behind the main stage we initially we installed two
2:03200 amp cam locks which enables the sound company to just plug in directly into the connectors for power they just flip the circuit breaker and they're good to go also we dropped another 200 amp panel with a set of 200 amp cam locks near the road for stage number two which also enables the sound company to just plug into connectors and flip a breaker so with all that being said we also had
2:40to work with national grid to install a larger transformer which is all set thank you good job getting a lot of stuff done yeah we finished that last spring i believe now i know that they're having their event there in june um there was loom in seating that is that something that you would supply them uh between myself and uh john perry and dcm we'll work it out and we'll get that fixed for you so does
3:11anyone have any questions my only question would be uh everything was within budget there was no needs to go outside the budget for anything as far as i know that was when mr gallagher was still here okay thank you i yelled before any other questions since it's been resolved i'll entertain a motion leave to withdraw second i'll make the motion motions yeah i'm second on that okay we have a motion and a second all
3:35in favor aye aye thank you tammy you're welcome thank you have a good night item number four is a discussion regarding the position of tourism director and cultural affair that has been in this committee the council has asked for that since back in 2019 every council has requested a tourism director and that has still not happened but i see that the city administrator mr atkins is here if you could
4:05feel free to join us
4:13thank you counselor hello sir good afternoon everybody phil is in on what administration has planned for a tourism director at this time the administration does not plan to hire a tourism director however that is not to say that the administration is against it the administration at this point feels having talked to michael sullivan at the south coast chamber that we want to see what their plan is
4:48uh prior to making a decision about whether to move forward on a tourism director or whether to support some of the efforts that are happening through the chamber in conjunction with the involved river and some of the other organizations that is i understand sort of a vague answer it's essentially wait and see but at this point the administration is actively in conversation with the chamber is
5:22advised that the first half of the plan should be published to the administration and to the public uh sometime in the next several weeks and we think that'll give us a much better sense of what they're doing is going to be in the the best interests of fall river specifically or whether it's just going to be too regional to serve our purposes and basically trigger a conversation about
5:45uh moving forward with the tourism director and how much money will we be giving the chamber and the individuals that do tourism there that hasn't been determined yet so at this point there's been no commitment made and the reason for that is that if we understand that the plan that's going to be put in place doesn't really serve fall river specifically and the priorities that that this council and this
6:13administration have for the city then i don't know that uh that we're necessarily prepared to put any significant amount of money into that i think we'd much rather go forward and do something that serves the best interest of the city at this point interests of the city at this point though i don't think we know what their plan necessarily is and we want to at least give them the
6:34opportunity to present something and see whether it benefits the city council i kind of think this is a mistake we does the administration does the mayor do they believe that there is a value here in having a director in place for tourism in the city do they value that position do they think that that's going to potentially open up what right now i would say is a lackluster you know tourism type of program right now
7:13um i think that the mayor has valid questions about the value that a tourism director would bring to the city not because uh he doesn't see value in the position in and of itself but because i think he just has concerns over how successful that position has been in neighboring cities um i we we know that the i believe is the new bedford tourism director director recently uh left her position to go into the
7:39private sector um it doesn't necessarily mean that those positions don't work i'm not saying that at all but i think the question is you know it's sort of a card and horse type situation is it better to allow some of the things that we're talking about in terms of development in the city waterfront 79 and some of the other things that are happening soon um to start to take shape to understand
8:05the direction those are going in and then put somebody in place to lead a coherent and collaborative effort uh into making sure that the the public outside of whatever knows about them or uh put somebody in place now um who may or may not be the right person uh to uh to lead that effort in the future because i think every counselor over the past several years that we've been talking about this has
8:28had different opinions so it hasn't been a uniform opinion from the council as to what and who this should belong to i've held the position that i don't really necessarily think we need a director to do that because sometimes when you have these positions you know it gets political you know and it becomes a different thing but i do think that the mayor in the mayor's office is making a mistake in putting it
8:54in the hands of another group if the mayor takes runs for office and wins a position he should have an idea before he even sits in his chair as to what he would like to do with tourism in fall river which has been again a problem and it seems like this is how it sounds it seems like he's sitting back waiting for the chamber of commerce to come up with something and if they don't then we're
9:19going to have something we'd like to know i think we'd like to know what is going on if the chamber of commerce doesn't come through with something that's far over specific or that would benefit fall river you know at the forefront sure that's a very so what is what would the administration's plan b it does not have to be in my opinion a director but what is the plan sure
9:41very fair question uh and i'll give the floor after that um and the only thing i would say is that it's it's not sitting back and letting somebody who was equally situated come forward with a plan i think the feeling is that where the chamber has done some research into this has paid a consultant a significant amount of money to come up with a plan there seems to be value in seeing what that plan yields
10:08do we know for a fact that that plan is going to be the best plan for fall river no but at the very least somebody you know we can all sort of anecdotally say oh we think it should be this we think it should be that but it seems that the chamber has actually done some research and some work into this it seems appropriate to uh find out what what the results of that are
10:32and if it turns out the results of that are are you know don't really bring us anywhere forward than where we are now then we can certainly talk about about how to move forward on our own but at this point i think the the feeling is that let's see what they've done let's see what the results of that are there seem to be some very smart and decent people who are working on this and we
10:52want to give them the benefit of doubt for now i can't speculate at this point as to what exactly the plan would be if it turns out that that we don't feel like the the specific interests of fallover are supported enough by whatever the chamber comes out with um but i think that uh that the mayor believes it's at least worth understanding what their plan is you yields guys counselor
11:21so i think in the interim my question would be what partnerships do we have with some of the good organizations that currently work within the city do we have some sort of partnership that helps them promote what is going on because there's a lot of good events going on like i know via florida does a lot of interesting and good events for the city but do we in any way support
11:41them help advertise for them to get that message out in lieu of having a director of tourism um sadly we do not and and i don't i'm not interested in placing um you know blame on the website right because we we all sort of agree that the website is significantly and sorely lacking and there was a recent conversation with this council the whole council uh regarding having awarded finally um after significant research
12:08into a number of major uh development companies uh having awarded a contract to go forward and build the new fall river website um i don't think that is the the magic pill if you will into solving uh all fall rivers uh tourism challenges but i do think a comprehensive identity that will have um a single events calendar for the city and represent the city in an official way is sort of a starting point to then
12:38facilitate those partnerships you can have all the partnerships you want but if you have nowhere if you have no sort of pipeline to then distribute the information then what do you really do and i think we all agree that you can you know for all the the money that you might throw at a at a print campaign or a signage campaign or anything else the the biggest reach that you can have is
13:03online it's gonna it's gonna be able to uh you know capture the most people it's gonna be able to be accessible by the most people um and so we do feel like over the next several months once this site comes together um that is going to give us a platform by which to publicize a lot of the really important and great events that are happening in the city now very reasonable question that i think
13:26might come out of that which is again carton horse chicken and egg do you have a tourism director to facilitate development of the site that's fair and i think reasonable minds can disagree as to as to how to do that whether do we want something in place and then a tourism director or somebody who's a director of communications or director of information it can happen i think in a lot of different ways could
13:47then step in to shape how that site grows and where that site goes on the other hand somebody could facilitate the entire development from start to finish but i don't know that we're reinventing the wheel here we already have a site the information on the site isn't necessarily bad it's just that the site itself doesn't really work there's a lot of dead links there's a bot that doesn't go anywhere and so
14:08fixing those problems and updating the information needs to be updated using the information that is valuable and good already and there is a good amount of it and then assessing how somebody might then bring value to the site by allowing efforts around the city to sort of coalesce on a calendar on events pages on publicizing it through the site at this point i think that's where the mayor's thinking that he wants to
14:37develop the site get it to a point where it's workable because it's critically important and really can't be delayed any longer and then by that point we're also going to have a much clearer sense of where the chamber is with regard to its plan and we can decide whether or not it makes sense to to to go our own way or to support what they're doing so the community organizations that
14:58exist now when they try to publicize events is there a way they can contact the administration in which they can then send out something like social media email blasts i know we get some of them sometimes sure but usually directly from those individuals so is there is there a way or contact that an organization who's holding an event can send it to you guys then share it to us and then we can
15:22share it to everybody else in the city so i do know that our director of special projects elena pivide um is very well connected with a lot of these organizations she is is really the only social media actor in city government and i don't mean actor like playing a part but person actually uh actively engaging with social media um and actually we we had a meeting um uh at the end of last week about
15:52something as simple as using social media to put out road closures and actually i can report that we have now have a system where the police are going to be sending me all of their scheduled details on the friday for the next week and we have a way in which those are now going to go out via social media on facebook and through a dedicated instagram feed as well as to all the dispatchers to the
16:16bus companies and i know this is a little bit off topic but but it's a good example as to how one new we are to social media i know unbelievably to some people who live in social media and how sort of that tool isn't being used in the way that is that it can be and is only starting to be used in ways that will really benefit the residents um the road closure one is
16:42just one piece of that and that'll probably start next week um so that's a step forward but just not nearly as many steps as we should have already taken given the maturity of social media and how people use it in their everyday lives so i will say in answer to your question that right now there is not an easy or consistent way for somebody to submit events for social media
17:06facebook but there is a way and it's it's uh you know those folks that that know and are connected to elena um and i think she does a really nice job with it we're just dedicating ourselves to broadening that influence and making that approach more consistent thank you council lady yeah and i i wanted to just throw in and you kind of covered all the bases there but i wanted
17:30to throw in that your website and as you already kind of just described your website does not need to be dynamic or you know blow people away it just needs to be informative and user friendly which it's kind of hard on both ends to say that it's meeting those criteria alone um it does it doesn't need to be complicated or dynamic but i do think if you do want to become dynamic with
17:53online and then social media instagram twitter and facebook mainly those are going to be your main that's where i think you need to have that dynamic and widespread because you can reach more people through those mediums than you are with just a simple fall river website by far um so and at that once you and we're already kind of using that where facebook is being used to um to you know record these meetings for the
18:18most part now and people have gone through those mediums in youtube as well so if you have you and it is it's me this conversation is relevant to the tourism conversation because the purpose of tourism is to bring people in from the outside and if we aren't doing those aspects to bring those people from the outside here they're not we're not doing our part you know they're not gonna know what's here
18:41they're not gonna they're not gonna be informed and they're gonna probably look and see how the fact that we're not doing these things as one of those factors say yeah maybe we'll get somewhere else to go you know so it's just to me this is the right the to me that's the right direction to go focus on your social media aspect make the website just informative and user friendly does not
19:01have to be overly dynamic you don't need to have elon musk you know run your facebook page you know i mean it doesn't have to be that crazy that would be a revelation it would be interesting yeah so uh yeah i yield thank you for that well my colleagues have been very kind i'm not going to be that kind so i just want you to know up front i'm ready we've been asking for this for years
19:24tourism brings in economic development it brings people in right now i can tell you that i have people calling me wanting to use the picnic area on specific dates there's parameters you've got to leave tables for the general public nobody knows who's using it on what day the rogue company uh the rose center wants to do something there they want to try to get vets involved in rowing whatever but there are other things
19:53going a young man derpy graduate made a film on addiction i think it's like 33 minutes long looking for a venue to show that film and if he charged a five dollar admission fee it would go towards an addiction center who does he call what does he do he went to the school department to try to get something from there i told him try the school department where else could he go what dates what's available
20:29what are the parameters of any that he needs to follow there's another gentleman that now is calling tj's music teaches music to lots of kids in the city most recently they went to tennessee and the children who could afford to go to tennessee went those that couldn't afford were unable to go he'd like to have something maybe at the gates of the city have music culture the arts to do that have somebody else who
21:00wants to do an art show can he do it on the side here of sullivan drive i don't know you know we have people that want to decorate and these are all volunteers to decorate all of lower kennedy park from thanksgiving to new year's eve or to new year's day volunteers getting people together they're not looking to get money from the city but they're looking to utilize the pavilion have entertainment there on
21:31those weekends maybe getting food trucks down there so the month of december people would have somewhere to go the housing authority used to do music at kennedy park for seniors they did that on wednesdays throughout the summer it's all about the quality of life i think that frack and viva flow river i think they're doing a great job but for years quite frankly the can group dave and
22:01dennis uh dave and sandy dennis have been doing it too how do you think they're going to feel if all of a sudden this this group has the lead over what they've been trying to put together and have been unable to do that i wish that both groups would work together i truly wish that that that would happen and a director would do that you know new bedford's tourism director was there for 13 years
22:30left for another tourism job in another community that paid her more money the tourism director that was there now that came on board she had to work through coved found it a little bit difficult etc she got a really good job in the private sector they still have assistance in that office their tourism office is still open they're just looking for a director but they they have it staffed with people you know um
22:57think about it all of the hotels that we have around here we have a hotel in fall river and airport road very nice i went to the grand opening spectacular clean well-run you have the whites of westport you have the new one that opened up in somerset when i go out of town and i stay at a restaurant there's always a channel on tv that tells me the things that are happening in that city or
23:23i mean we could you know have a loop like that that plays they're looking for things like that and you could say different things you could buy in fall river different restaurants however they do that if they have to pay a certain fee to get on that you'd have a list of different restaurants in the city you'd have matukes fine linen where you can go and buy the best quality linens and towels
23:46at wholesale prices compared to what you'd pay if you went to nordstrom's in bottom i mean there's more things like that look at cable tv you have bcc and you have durfee we have council meetings here you have school committee meetings here in the middle when the school committee especially when they're in executive session it just says executive session why aren't we putting something on there so that if
24:11i'm watching a school committee meeting and they go into executive session now i can see all the events that are happening even if you you know new bedford had a flyer the flyer went out every single season there was a flyer of all the events and all the activities happening and it really bothers me i've talked to the mayor about what i feel about a tourism director and the need because it brings people to our city
24:39and they spend money when they're here i mean we've got people coming towards the vietnam wall and we've got rolling thunder individuals that live in other states usually they would ride their bikes down to washington now that we have the wall they're all coming here they've already booked rooms at the hotels here they're not going to have a picnic lunch i'm sure they're going to go out to eat
25:03in different places that increases economic development but i mean they had this flyer all the time espirito santos church has a feast saint stanislaus has a feast saint michaels has a feast there's always something happening in the city if you can't get a website to do it at minimum there should be a facebook page called fall river events and people don't have to even be able to post
25:31anything there just one that people can put things on have an administrator that just puts things on you're sitting here saying well you know we're going to look at this it'll be a few weeks we're in april when are we going to stop doing this in june july i'm sorry i would like you to really bring this back to the mayor and let him know my feelings i don't know about my colleagues but my
26:00feelings are to wait that many weeks we need an answer now where do i direct these people to go it's not fair and everything else that happens in the city put it on so if i want to know you know it can be an events calendar if i want to know on a friday night what's going on oh this you know there's music over here at troy city um the the narrow
26:22center for the arts is doing this lolobos is going to be there or whoever so that you know and then if there's other venues that come up and things that are happening they know about it i i just think we it's the quality of life i go to every other community and i see things that are happening and i know things are happening here but we don't get them you know holy trinity does this i mean
26:51father rob does things at his church too you know and it's not just churches it's the sca club every friday night they cook supper every every week it's different it's reasonable is that something people would be interested in you know i just think that there's a lot i i really would say that i wanna just table this but i wanna make sure that we have a meeting you know the third week of may
27:18and find out what are we going to do we need a plan and i don't see that we have one that's just my frustration because i worked work hard at trying to develop tourism i go crazy we're surrounded by water but no one in four river can put their foot in that water does that make sense does it make sense to anybody makes no sense to me i wanted to do the other side of dave's
27:44beach i've been working on that since uh oh my god 1989 and it's always a challenge and you got the people to do it you've got bulldo you got everybody to do it and if we're going to spend a little bit of money on it so spend the money on it give people something you can't even park for crying out loud when you go to to the dave's beach area i don't know
28:08why they have that corner piece locked up water department owns to unlock it i had a man call me he went with his kayak he was told he had to pay to park his car to bring in his kayak but he didn't have a uh a trailer on his car you can only park there by wildlife and fisheries if you have a trailer that's ridiculous all you have to do put the dock at the
28:32end of the picnic rounds they were supposed to put a dock there but then again we have no harbormaster we're going to wait because i don't know the rules changed on that i understand that they have to have a police uh i don't know they have to have police training to be a hobby master you know what i would say let's call our state delegation put in a home rule petition that our harbor
28:56master doesn't have to be trained have a police training so that we can hire somebody that can do the job and the other thing is i don't know who would want to do it would you want to have your whole summer being the harbour master for two thousand five hundred dollars that's crazy that's crazy i mean our poor hobby master had a boat never put his feet in his own boat all summer so
29:23anyway you hear my frustration yes ma'am thank you counselor reposa come to the rescue uh i'm just thinking about you mentioned elena in in the lieu of not having something currently can we possibly coordinate with her to do some sort of like social media campaign because obviously the summer's coming and things gonna get busy is there a way where we can put out there to the public hey if you have
29:47events you're doing this summer send them to x y and z and we're gonna get them out there you know he doesn't again not having a website and all that we can still utilize social media to put all that information out there so you know i think what i'm hearing and again being new to this process i see no tool to submit things to but we have a good social media presence that we
30:11could utilize to then spread across the city so would it be possible to do two things one run a social media campaign to get all those events that are happening over the next few months and two then utilize the social media platform the city has to then get all those that information out put up post the calendar of events use the facebook calendar option there post them all up this way people can see them share them
30:35at least something in lieu of what you're trying to work on right now is that something that we can be done i can speak to elena and other folks about that and see how feasible it is i don't want to speak for her because i i don't necessarily know her schedule and i also know that that you know there there is certain limitations to her job description i don't want to you know make promises i
31:00can't keep but yeah i can certainly talk to some folks about that and i think there's a great deal of merit in that suggestion thank you for yielding you nailed constantly just to kind of reiterate the point i think all three of us here have mentioned that social media could be used today to try and at least bridge some gaps that the website's failing in and overall that we're not as a city doing well in
31:24information consolidation and dissemination um so i i really think that that's something that the mayor's office does need to jump on immediately in my opinion when it comes to this administration specifically this mayor i just simply don't believe or i haven't seen yet the vision is what he sees when it comes to tourism i don't think he's really jumped on this as well as he could have or as well as
31:52he should have in this and council prayer pointed out you know a number of different things we could be doing but i need to know what the mayor wants to do i think that's what it that's what it really comes down to is what is what are they trying to do what is what is the actual vision what is the effort the sitting back waiting for the chamber comes okay i'll try not to use the term
32:16sitting back but you know kind of waiting for the chamber of commerce to come down with something or to me that's it feels like it's passing the buck a little bit and and i know that some time and has been invested in this in some way some somehow but it still doesn't illustrate what the mayor actually wants to see when it comes to tourism and forever and i think that's something that
32:39that's as long as that is what it is we're going to struggle with this until we have an organized formulated effort as to what we're going to do an action plan what we're going to do but i do think and his counselors repose and prayer and also myself have said you can utilize social media today you can go now and at least disseminate and gather information and in that in that venue
33:02and at least get us on some footing some ground to start you know so again i yield thank you thank you is there um motion to table table yeah second all in favor aye if you could check your calendars before we leave maybe uh may 18th or 19th we'll figure it out i'm actually out of town during let me just be sure i believe 18th and 19th is when i'm out
33:3918 to the 19th year away let me be sure i just i don't want to talk out of school here okay
34:04oh it's the week before so i am here uh the 18th and 19th is the 18th working for you gentlemen it works better for me so the 18th at four o'clock 19th works better for me 19th works better yeah and and i can't do four get out of school around um we'll do 4 30 4 30 works better yep that good with you yes okay so let's put good football just we'll do that after but
34:29all right there was a motion to table a second all in favor number five is a resolution to refurbish or replace the welcome to fall river sign located um at route 24.
34:42i know that um diamond has offered to build the sign to make the sign and there's issues regarding dot because it's on state property and it's a highway and there was no intention of ever having children there however d.o.t then said we have to pay for it no we need a new sign and they're going to pay to put up a new sign but how have you made out with that
35:09so uh two pieces with regard to fabrication and then installation with regard to fabrication we have sunrise erectors a fall river metal fabrication erection company coming in on friday with a number of designs so i think before um we understood that diamond had been in conversation with uh with you council prayer i think the mayor had had a conversation with somebody else and they made some designs we're going
35:42to look at those but obviously also talk to diamond but they they do have from what i understand four or five uh really nice uh metal designs that comply with all the dot regulations for weather and for you know durability and all the different things that need to be in place for something to be roadside and have durability over a long period of time and they have done a number of projects
36:08around the city at no cost to the city really have been great friends to the administration and i believe they'll be in friday uh to meet with the mayor to show the designs and talk about a time frame with regard to dot um we don't have an answer on that there was when you and i spoke about this i think last week the week before we made inquiries to dot
36:30as seems to always be the case they send you to different folks oh you got to talk to this person after this person um but we should have an answer hopefully in the next week or so with regard to what it would actually take to get them to actually put that sign in place from what i understand prior to a commitment to do that we're going to need to show them what the design is to
36:51actually show what the materials and the size and the weight and everything else would be um so i expect that we'll have that friday we'll have a sense of what it is we're actually going to build and put in place and then be able to send it to dot and actually get a commitment to them to install it which is their responsibility anyway that's fine i you know diamond offered
37:12to make the sign but if we can have somebody that's going to make the sign that's fine i will tell you that i have spoken to rep fiola about this and she has also touched base with d.o.t so if there's an issue there's a a partner up there willing to help out with that i know the mayor did contact representative failo after you and i spoke about it so i know
37:32that she's in the loop from what i understand good any questions from anybody or is there a motion to table this motion to table second all in favor all right anything further general motion two dismissed no motion motion to adjourn second motion to adjourn all in favor aye aye thank you very much thank you very much
38:12you