9 18 2023 Community Preservation Committee

uh welcome to the community preservation committee meeting uh being held at uh city council here in room one government center Fall River it's a September 18th six o'clock uh you can watch the meeting through Fall River cable TV channel 18 government television Facebook live stream um soon to the open meeting laws any person who make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this

meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised at such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present team things are being acknowledged and permissible we'll start with roll call to my left Joey Bentley present Xander Silva present John Brandt Rick Mancini president then on Zoom Chris Kristin Cantara Oliveira attending by Zoom oh and we're missing uh

a member from City Planning mayor appointee and the city council appointee um do we have any uh just an input and uh Victor Paris from the park department is not here all right I've seen no citizen input okay uh can I have a motion to um approve the minutes of uh August 21st annual meeting I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes of the meeting the annual meeting a second all in favor aye aye

okay you have to do a roll call vote John oh a broker vote okay Joanne Bentley yes Rick Mancini yes Kristin Cantara Oliver yes for approval minutes from August 21st 2020. I didn't finish them I had technical funds so I had to finish them and get them okay for the next meeting so I'll make a motion to a table of the mission the regular meeting minutes of August 21st to the next schedule alrighty a second

oh second okay Joey and Bentley yes Alexander yes job right yeah Rick Mancini yes roasting can Tower Oliver yes all right next on the agenda is uh extension for form bees uh they're approaching their two-year mark on the extension and we're just starting to get that project rolling um the planning board called me and uh he was a little under the weather so I didn't think there was a problem uh we

do if we do have any questions Rick Mancini is heading that end up so if you wanted to ask any questions we could refer to him if there's anything we want to you want to give a little rundown yeah just kind of what the project is very very quickly the project was undertaken Al Lima was going to do that along with Bill Kinney and Al passed away Bill Kenny retired and the

project was Lane Dorman and what I did is I got together with Mike labasia in the bio Reserve area because most of there's a quite a bit of these this this Form B process that needs to be done there so far we've located it on our own without utilizing the company in the bio Reserve area 97 historic sites and then in addition to that Roger Williams University the professor of styles has volunteered 11 of our

students to uh do form bees on 22 pieces of property in the Steep Brook area so so far it's been all volunteering but we now have to get into more depth and that's going to require that we run out on RFP to gather some more in-depth information and get some professional firm in here to help us but that's where we are now it's moving along very well it just needs to get extended so that we

can put an RFP out and that's where the planning board is handling the dollars here and they're going to put the RFP out within the next couple of weeks there's a meeting coming up on Wednesday to discuss that further any questions okay motion to extend for two years I'll make the motion to extend the two years I don't know that second that and might have to do that I'll make I'll second that okay

uh Joanne Bentley yes John Brent yes and Rick Mancini yes Chris Kristin Cantara Oliver yes all righty uh moving on to the next on the agenda is the historical society uh additional emergency funding

just make sure you state your name and address for the record Michael Martin's 795 Rock Street Fall River and Michael Keane Civ attacks architects all of them so the historical society is currently undergoing a major Grant funded infrastructure project which is the largest project in our history our 102 year history and this is the culmination of a three-phase project so it started with a

master preservation plan and site survey and we use that to prioritize work that needed to be done in the building infrastructure work the second phase was the MEP design for an HVAC system both of these were funded privately through a private operating Foundation we took that information and then went back to that same private operating foundation called the Manton foundation for the funding for the HVAC

installation and that Grant was slightly in excess of 1.4 million dollars with some major Grant certainly the largest in the history of the Historical Society unfortunately we've recently been alerted that the electrical system on site which is a single phase system will not support the new HVAC system we were not made aware of this at the beginning of the project so National Grid has alerted us to the

fact that we need to bring in a three-phase system which is going to be very involved under normal circumstances the historical society would see grant funding elsewhere we're currently not able to do that because we are first of all closed to the public through spring of 2024 in order to implement the HVAC system and on normal donors are all contributing to other other projects namely infrastructure projects in the

building some of which are ongoing some of which have been completed for example a new gallery that was funded by Douglas Hills Borden Jr that was a 350 000 gift and of course they're also giving us unrestricted operating support to keep the museum open because we're closed on ability to earn income in-house is of course Hanford because the facility is completely closed the collection is in storage

so we're faced with having to install this this new system and simply deny the funds to to do it so we're obviously here to to request funding emergency funding for the installation of this new system and of course we've submitted the the estimates um would be happy to answer any questions additionally of course well the fund you received what was the total amount the funds that we've

received received thus far to do all your yeah 1.4 million slightly over 1.4 million for the actual HVAC installation in addition to that we also were funded for a master plan and site survey and then also funded for the design and that total slightly over 100 000.

and then there are several other projects ongoing although I can announce the source we recently were awarded 100 000 to do two new exhibits over at the Historical Society as well so going forward there are a lot of projects and a lot of outside funding coming into the historical society which is phenomenal I mean I honestly after covet I never thought we'd be in the position we currently are getting all of

these projects done but when we were alerted um about the electrical system it sort of took the wind out of our sails because we simply do not have the funds available to there to implement it but of course we have to do it in times of the essence because you know we're fast approaching fall and the system has to be brought in from the corner of rock and Walla Street the church is at the corner so

the volts the nearest Vault that contains three phase is on that corner so it has to be brought up Rock Street into the historical society's grounds and of course all of this has to happen fairly quickly so board have any questions but no the only thing I would ask is no one was aware that it was three phase the AC no unfortunately at the beginning on this service was going to run in from

the Maple Street area which is our current system that's single phase power there are three 10 ton condensers to power the system and we were not told the beginning that it was necessary to run in the neurological system so we have we went into this project thinking that we were fully prepared for what we needed to operate the system and then found out after the fact that we were not so

you could have included this in your previous Grant right we would have requested it yes yeah yes that's a shame but I do not have the ability to go back yeah so previously that that's a granny got for the 1.4 because you're waiting for funding that we have that's that's being held for the roof projects penetrations for the HVAC system have to be made through the roof of course it was foolish to put a new

roof on the building and then penetrate it so they're just now getting ready to to right to make those penetrations so they're getting ready to put the stacks in at the room so I don't know exactly those locations are so looking cool so so the 236 the request is 236 374.29 however that includes a contingency of fifty thousand dollars in case any anomalies are encountered for example when they

are cutting the trenches in order to have to excavate to bring that system in they may hit ledge yeah and there was also a building that was torn down on the site that we have to put this system into the pads are going to be put behind the structure that was next door to the Historical Society to the South so although the the request is for 236 374.29 50 000 of that

may not be needed it would be returned of course or not accessed but we just do not know what they may hit when they're when they're doing the installation the other three numbers National Grid in an electric and Century Paving we know are actual numbers those total 186 thousand three seventy four twenty nine and then if we add the fifty thousand to that is the full 236 dollars I have a question when would you be

ready to start this work um well this work has to start very quickly it doesn't why can't we not open the streets after a certain date exactly isn't it like November or something like that exactly it's very fast approaching so fortunately the HVAC it just will not be powered and because of the the timeline obviously as you said we cannot open the streets after a certain date this has to move really very quickly so

and everybody's lined up to start right away yeah the contractor's ready to go you know they just and this is not redoing any work this is work it just wasn't added to start with it was not added exactly it was not included in the original Grant because we were not made aware that the current system was not going to support well the current service was not going to support the system

so it's not like you're paying for something twice you haven't paid for it at all we have not paid for it at all the the other good thing about this if there's a bright side is that going forward any additional work done on site grids of course the the difficult part is securing the funding to to to get that work done and I believe me if I could go back to the original donor we would but

because of what they funded in the level they funded at we need to also show some local support so um yeah so we have a design for it it's not us it's the electrical engineer working with the contractor and utility company and also the subcontractors have been very proactive especially the contractors and the subs and they've been great working with you yeah and the whole process so um

I think we're just ready to go yeah it's a massive undertaking the entire building we have contractors working on all four levels the entire collection is packed the building is it's astounding what's going on in that in that building it's the wonderful thing about this of course is long term for collections preservation and of course the structure itself is an artifact so the preservation of the of the structure

HVAC is is integral but it's a very involved process and as I said the largest infrastructure project and the largest Grant in the historical society's history

no it's just nothing it's just it's just too bad electrical engineering firm I didn't realize 10 ton is you know those are generally not single phase items that should have been an automatic red flag one more thing one would think yeah once you get above five ton you start going into three phase equipment right what were you gonna say Alex so my understanding is this will have to be an emergency application just just

put it through the process so you'll still have to submit the standard application to us I didn't see it I don't think but but we submitted a cover letter okay and the also the um all the estimates this is my first emergency application so I looked to some of the more long-standings this is what we normally get for emergencies we haven't had many of them but for the library was it the

standard application then nope just the okay yeah okay because we already approved the project it just happened to me a little more yeah because we haven't approved this project is my point no no this is just an emergency to have the project continue so comes before us we normally don't do an application for it because we're not taking it the whole term okay I didn't know if it was like an expired processor

do you know off the top of your head how much exists how much funds we have on hand so I'm not quite sure because they didn't answer back but I think we have it in there to cover Sandy Do you have a we normally have a sufficient amount left over so we would have to if we did make a vote on it it would be determined by the amount that we have in reserve sure

so I'm pretty sure we have it but communication with new staff and Industry we didn't get our financial review it shouldn't be well over it but I don't want to bite me when it defensive not you know if that was the case and we were able to fund that amount of money we funded a portion of that with that halt your project well I mean we we have to secure funding

for the entire project so we would gladly accept anything that the CPC could provide and then we would have to try to find additional funding elsewhere before the project can commence you have no money your Grant funds so so I guess what we currently have nothing available in grant funding that can cover any of this project and we do not have it in the historical society's Reserves because we're operating Bare Bones

because the museum is currently closed you know if somebody wanted to make a motion to Fund emergency requests for two what was that 236 374 for electrical work and pave and construction someone wants to make that motion well we'll make the motion but contingent I'll make that motion that we support the 236 370 429 for National Grid the electrical contract of the paving under the with the contingency that we

have that money if not then we're going to have to authorize a reduced amount well my recollection is we did have enough and at least the undesignated funds but also we have the pool for the upcoming fiscal year coming fairly soon too as well not gonna be much in there but I'm pretty sure we have but just to be on a safe side and again John if I remember right what's that

right we have stopped for funding the lab we saw it so that we had a decent amount of money left in the um in the fund just in case we did have some emergencies come up just based on people that were coming back to us for extra funding and things we had stopped with enough to give us a good cushion so I think we should have it in there

no I think we do have it I think we're somewhere probably around six hundred thousand but just uh you know being a safe side uh all right then I'm just being over cautious I guess so you made the motion to find the real number by the way is 186 that that's where we definitely need is the 50 000 is for whatever unknown that might be encountered below grade that we don't know so 186 if

we can say that you know at least that I think that's what we'll be looking for so no we we should be fine we just don't have that exact but it's well above I just you know so Rick made the motion do I we have a second I'll second that uh we'll call vote Joanne Bentley yes Alexander Silva yes John Brent Yes Rick Mancini yes Chris Kristen Cantara Oliver yes oh all righty I know thank you

on behalf of the board of directors and the slightly over 1 000 members of the Historical Society good project and hopefully so as soon as you go I'll touch base you're so good it's a good storage good historic storage facility a great job now it is coming along and as I said the amount of funding that has been coming in for projects as I said yeah it's an amazing amount of support you've

received from the community as well and so far is happy to help support its great service then next we have uh Notre Dame rectory sale um we approved last year or no this is a

2021 we approved this new owners have since taken over but nobody has contacted us on this property it'd be a new applicant so the details wouldn't uh hold them uh accountable for um CPC grants so I'd like to see a motion to rescind the grant or open for discussion no we didn't but okay no we didn't I don't remember this one at all we had it on the last one but

that's when we didn't have it on okay so yeah I I definitely would make a motion to rescind the existing Grant as it is the owners are no longer you know responsible for that building the original owner all right can I have a second a second that the roll call vote Joanne belly yes Alex okay yes jump right yes Rick Mancini yes Chris Kristin cantower Oliver yes so that's a 101 000 that we'll go back into

our funds um next I think everyone got uh fy25 eligibility packets

we had 14 projects submitted for a total of 3.9 million uh well I think we can hear these all our next upcoming meeting I don't think we have to break it down in the two meetings eligibility is kind of cut and dry whether you're falling between the four categories um this year though is going to be very challenging for us uh because we'll probably only have about 1.1 after we do our payouts for our bonding

because we're not getting any uh supplemental uh Surplus money from the state even though they put in for 30 million bucks that doesn't look like it's going to come down our way so normally we get an extra 700 000 to play with this year that's off the table so some of these projects might have to do their money if they want to receive any because we only have 1.1 out of 3.9 so

any questions on the eligibility packets um Sandy

okay I think in one meeting we're gonna see that the 14 of them can I just ask a question because I wasn't on the board at this point last year so do we just now take these review everything and then we come back with comments or do we hear what they say and then we caught like I just don't understand how it works what will happen we'll call them in and uh

Project B will come in front of us and um society and he wants to redo the roof that's historic preservation that falls under the guidelines we would say yes uh and uh housing um they come in they want to have affordable housing it has to meet our 20 percent uh threshold for to meet the requirements if it's not then it wouldn't be eligible uh like elevators if your community

housing is on the third floor why do you need an elevator we don't need to fund you know so things like that open space um if you can't uh what's basically um open space we'd save for the city you can't uh build on it recreate yeah so um it's a hearing so we'll take it we'll review our the packets a couple of questions and then when they're invited

uh we made it in the new plan kind of requirement that they have to show up for their application to move forward so we can get the answers to the questions and eligible or not they move to the next phase and send the full application for review later on all right thank you

okay

yeah because I just gave her one okay that's the four categories and what they can do and can't do and what we can fund so if they follow in that we can fund so with with this time Alex what you said is they're required to come to the meeting yeah so I I think we voted on but we didn't have it out on this year's form so yeah

getting our okay so got it okay all right because some of them are self-explanatory Mark so it puts for the afternoon it's best for them to be here because in case you're asking questions so yeah you know you think you'd be here during the funding applications we were asking applicants to come in to answer questions and that was where we kind of deemed that um yeah because you know this is

from their point of view it when they come say they're missing a letter from uh the historical commission or we want uh something in their packet that uh taxes or uh right they have everything for us and I said I didn't know yeah is that when I joined the board last year we were at that point where we were reviewing that second round and people were being told you need a

letter you need this you don't have that stuff like that been that way for years but sometimes people just tend to not look at the back at this so now we're trying to make it you know give us the best packet thank you and now we're not gonna because especially now with funding being so limited they don't have all the paperwork you're not after the money you know you

give us what we need for us to make a appropriate vote it makes it you know easier so yeah I recall we usually tell them at this eligibility hearing the letters and stuff here's what you need okay yeah all right thank you um okay next was the document review I never got the last of the changes for the funding application into Sandy so I'm gonna have to make a motion to table

that one to the next meeting okay just so everyone okay so we

John do you want this back you can have it I got another one keep it thank you I'll make that motion okay uh so that's the only one we're going to be uh waiting on to change right I think

yeah I think there was just there was changes we discussed at the last meeting that weren't in those notes so I think that like application and then I think the plan the CPC plan was good actually I have to check actually to see so if we take out of a document review the eligibility everything else is updated this is the only thing that we didn't update on the documents and the funding application I believe

okay so uh can I have a motion to table the documents till next meeting I'll make a motion to table the documents review until the next meeting oh no I'll second the motion okay we'll call vote Joanne Bentley yes Alex Yes Rick Mancini yes Chris Kristin Cantara Oliver yes okay then next is the CPC plan which I think we're finishing up waiting on that I honestly have to see what I don't know

if all the changes went through because we talked about stuff at the interview so I just don't know yeah can I have a motion to move that to the next meeting I'll make a big motion about done but yeah a second on that second I'll second Joey Bentley yes so yes Rick Mancini yes Chris Chris can't Tower off very yes okay uh we did have uh two members uh put the resignation in

Richard cauldron who was the mayor appointee and Carolyn Auburn City Council appointment um I wish to thank them for their uh two years of uh two and three years of service was from the very best anyone out there we are looking for uh two new members for the CPC board so either contact the mayor or the city uh City Council Office uh put in a resume we have admin salary um

our admin is Sandy Dennis she doesn't fall under the city guidelines for um which I thought she did for pay increases things like that so Sandy's been with us nine nine years Sandy and we haven't uh bumped up our salary at all and uh I was hoping for the board for a suggestion to see if we'd be willing to wait yeah what's the motion you're looking for well I was looking for uh

since uh she's going to be taking over the duties of taking the minutes I was looking at uh just a minimum pay of 50 bucks a month so that's uh 600 for the year I'm not an issue yeah so can I have a motion for I'll definitely make that motion sure okay we'll increase the salary okay I'll second the motion Joanne Bentley yes Alex Sylvia yes John barangas Rick Mancini yes

Chris Kristen can't talk for Oliver yes all right uh any new business uh we had uh something uh uh our Coalition membership dues is uh we pay it every year that is 43 43.50 um we do need a vote on that to pass I can have a motion to the dues or annual dues I will make a motion that we pay our annual dues second vote Joanne Bentley yes Alex Silva yes yes Rick Mancini yes

Chris Kristen Cantara yes alrighty uh we do have a new note on this that uh we're sending the check elsewhere so we have to make sure our city hall has the new address and everything um we've moved into a bigger building with a bigger organization let's see uh so could I have a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion that way adjourn Joanne Bentley yes yes so yes jump right yes Rick Mancini yes

Chris Christian cantower Oliver yes all righty being adjourned wow thank you