The Fall River Historical Commission held a special virtual meeting on Thursday, July 6, 2023, at 6 p.m. The commission first reviewed and unanimously approved the minutes from their June 22, 2023, meeting, following a motion by Rick Mancini and a second by Elizabeth To Black. The primary item on the agenda was the review of a tabled motion from the previous meeting concerning the waiver of the six-month demolition delay for the property at 63 Water Street, known as the station of the Fall River Electric Light Company. Robert Bogan, representing the property, was present to discuss the demolition permit for the Ironworks complex power plant. Rick Mancini reported that he had reached out to Sandy Dennis and members of the Cultural District, and no negative responses or opposition to the demolition had been received from the community. Consequently, a motion was made by Rick Mancini, seconded by Joyce Roderick, to waive the six-month demolition delay for 63 Water Street. This motion passed unanimously with votes from Rick Mancini, Joyce Roderick, Elizabeth To Black, and Jason Bouchard Naraki. The chair confirmed a letter would be sent to Mr. Bogan to facilitate the demolition permit application. During open discussion, the commission addressed public confusion, particularly from social media posts, regarding their role in preventing demolition, clarifying that the building, listed only on the city's registry in 2015 and not the national register, was not eligible for federal historic tax credits and was in a state of disrepair making rehabilitation financially unviable. The meeting concluded with a unanimous vote to adjourn at 6:09 p.m.
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all right uh good evening everyone and uh thank you for joining us for the Fall River historical commission um this is a special meeting for the commission we are meeting virtually via Zoom um it is Thursday July 6 2023. it is 6 p.m um the meeting itself is being recorded uh will be available on YouTube afterwards uh it will also be put onto Fall River government TV um pursuant to the open meeting law any
0:28person may make an audio or a video recording of this public meeting or or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible may I get a roll call please okay Rick Mancini present through Zoom thank you Joyce roderick's present
0:57Elizabeth to Black present and Jason Bouchard naraki uh present via Zoom uh we do have uh Connie Seoul is absent and we do have two open seats um let's see um the first item on the agenda is to review and approve the minutes from the June 22nd 2023 meeting Elizabeth had passed those around um just after the last meeting were there any questions on it no okay I make a motion to just accept those all right
1:37all right that's like in the motion Elizabeth all right motion by Rick and a second by Elizabeth uh roll call vote to approve the mandates Rick uh yes okay uh Joyce yes Elizabeth yes and Jason Bouchard and Rocky yes thank you all right and do we have any citizen input for tonight no all right so we are the second item on the agenda we are reviewing um the item that was tabled from the
2:16June 22nd 2023 meeting um it is regarding the um the waiver of the six-month demolition delay for number 63 Water Street uh station of the Fall River Electric Light Company um we do have Bob if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself and your address and or at least who you're representing uh yeah Robert Bogan uh 63 Water Street and looking for filing a permit with the city of Fall River for a demolition
2:46permit for the uh Ironworks complex power uh Power Plant we did uh so we have tabled it because uh we were going to reach out to Rick I cannot remember the name of the only four of the Cultural District okay um and so I know that you had reached out to uh Sandy Dennis and members of that committee I did okay and if you want to cut to the chase I would uh lift
3:19that motion from the table and I would make a new motion to accept the uh demolition permit uh issuance okay we have had uh there was no one uh who had any negative response from the Cultural District and that also went out to the that whole Community out there and and no one was opposed to it so uh you know there were no negative comments and and that was my whole intent let's just get
3:50everyone that's involved in that area to just have a little input right so I I make the new motion to accept the proposal to shorten the six-month delay okay so this is the approval to uh waive the six month delay all together correct for that property okay all right so we have a motion by Rick do we have a second I'll second that motion all right so I have a motion by Rick and
4:20a second by Joyce um this is to waive the six-month demolition delay um I got a roll call vote please uh Rick I vote Yes Joyce I vote Yes Elizabeth yes okay and Jason Bouchard maraki yes um so that's that'll waive the delay um Bob I will send uh an email or sorry a letter over to you that will that you can use to apply for your demolition permit that the city will
4:52require it'll just indicate that the the board has voted to waive the demolition delay ordinance on that um so there should be that's basically all that you'll need well I appreciate that I know I appreciate everybody taking the time to do a special meeting on this on uh everybody's time personal time is precious so I appreciate everybody making the effort and uh uh thank you very much thank you very much
5:19have a good day have a good rest of the day thanks yes you too as well um so let's see the next um for correspondence we haven't had anything recently although I do expect a few things to come up um between now and the next meeting which will be in just a little a little less than two weeks um same thing with no new business and no old business um so just under open discussion just to
5:52um there was a few um there's a I think a social media post for Fall River Development news regarding the demolition of this particular property and there were some commentary regarding the there is confusion with um what our board does um in this case there's no way to really prevent demolition the the organization had acquired the property in its current state and the building has only uh was
6:22only listed on the registry significant structures in 2015 and it's not it was never listed on the national register of historic places um so that alone would have at least enabled it to have some sort of historic tax credits um from the federal level um but because it was merely just listed on the city registry um you know there's really there was an awful lot of work I did take a look at the building there's an
6:50awful lot of work that would have to get done and I think the it would be financially it wouldn't be financially viable for any type of rehab um it would be all coming out of the the pockets for Gordon Remington to rehab the building so I just wanted to clarify that with regard to you know the waiver was there any other were there any questions on that I read those same
7:17Facebook uh text also uh the book the negative and the positive and the negatives I just considered a source from which they come you know sometimes it's people maybe good good intentioned but they don't do their research they don't go over and physically look at the situation they don't research the history and then they're very quick to be judgmental so I just consider the source on which it comes and I don't get
7:46excited about that right and uh I did take a look at the building and I mean it really needed a lot and it had some really cool features with the brick with the brickwork on it but it had been it had hasn't been used in decades um I it lost its Smoke Stack already the roof is compromised um so there were more negatives against it than positives and in the grand
8:08scheme of things we have we have plenty of Mills that are waiting in the line to be rehabbed and the downtown that is just you know right for that too so there's a lot of there's more there's more more good elsewhere in the city I think um and yeah so anyways I just wanted to put that out there because there was some confusion as to what we do and um you know we're not
8:35We Can't Stop a demolition unfortunately so but that said um so we will be meeting next um this is a very quick meeting we will be meeting next on Tuesday July 18th um so I will be sending out the agenda for that uh by next week were there any other questions or comments or anything like that no no I I have none all right um so the time is 609 PM
9:07um you entertain them you entertain a motion to adjourn yes please I'll make that motion all right so Rick and uh second by Joyce all right to adjourn at 609 PM um make a roll call Rick yes Joyce yes Elizabeth yes and Jason Bouchard and Rocky yes