9.21.2026 Community Preservation Committee

Uh, welcome to the community preservation meeting.

Uh, we're in One Government Center, uh, first floor, uh, city hearing room.

It's, uh, September 21st, 2026.

It's 6 PM.

Pursuant to the open meeting laws, any person make an audio or video recording of this public meeting 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 Deemed acknowledged and permissible.

We'll start roll call to my left.

Michael Farias.

Joanne Bentley.

Alexander Silva.

Kristen Pintera-Oliver.

John Brandt.

Rick Mancini.

John Silvia.

Okay, and we're missing tonight Christopher Benavides.

And we did have a resignation from Mr. Hornsby, who served on the board.

I've had the pleasure of serving with Mr. Hornby since 2017, conservation.

So I wish him the best health-wise and the best future.

Thank you, Jim.

Okay, next, can I have approval of the minutes for 26?

Sorry, citizen input.

Oh, citizen input.

Uh, I have Carrie Rivers.

Now, are you explaining your project?

Um, no, I'm just here in support of a project that's being presented today.

Okay, you can come up then.

Yeah, it is 3 minutes for citizens, and I know you don't get a lot of citizens' input, as this lovely woman here told me earlier.

So, um, I know this might be a little out of the ordinary, but, um, I'm here just Okay, good.

I'm just here in support of— name and address.

Terry Rivest, it's 1170 Wilson Road, Fall River.

Um, here in support of dear friends of mine, Aaron and Samantha Bernardo, current owners of Bernardo Boxing.

Um, they currently are the owners of the former CYO building, and of course we all know, we've lived in the city long enough, the CYO building has been around for a very long time.

They have brought new life to the building with their youth programs.

There's probably hundreds of kids in and out of that building on a daily basis, my own son included.

They're training.

There's, you know, a lot of young teens in there who are getting, you know, off the streets and into this program that they're, you know, in support of.

Anyway, so they're right today, I believe they're here looking for just to be able to secure some funding to repair the roof on the building.

That's, you know, quite a, quite an old building, but preserving, you know, the building and, and being able to have the funds to repair it would, you know, obviously benefit everyone, especially the youth who are really mostly in and out of that building most of the time.

So I would humbly ask for your support for this project.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We do look forward to having citizen input.

So in the future, if you want to have someone come to our meeting and promote your project, or somebody in the audience that might not like a project, this is a time when you can put your input And we do listen to citizen input.

So moving on for approval of the minutes from the annual meeting.

Do I have a motion?

I make a motion to approve.

Michael Farias.

I'll second.

Okay, all in favor?

Aye.

Okay, approval of the regular minutes from August 17th.

I'll make a motion to approve the standard minutes meeting for August 17th.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

John?

Next we have extension requests.

First we have Fall River Arts Association, so if you could come up.

Good evening.

My name is Paul Klute here at 46 Stanford Street, Fall River.

I'm Dana Barnes, 26— 28 Barnaby Road, Fall River.

All right.

So we came in tonight to address any specific questions that you may have in regards to an extension for the Greater Fall River Art Association.

For those of you who may not have had an opportunity to take a look at this project in detail, we have 2 grants that were awarded to us several years ago, and there was some significant delays.

I won't go into the whole long involved story, but there were a couple large delays with the final contract as well as the contractor.

So we've been fortunate enough last year that we found a contractor in Somerset, Chris Estrello.

Unfortunately could not make it tonight.

He's actually doing some continuing ed stuff for his contractor license, but At any rate, he did a great job.

We had sent out some pictures in regards to the porch reconstruction that he did, which came out unbelievably well.

Unfortunately, the underpinnings and the footings of the deck were just completely rotted away.

So glad that we had him take a look at that.

So he did a great job.

So at any rate, he is looking to continue to work with us.

But the struggle that we have right now is, I'm sure, like a lot of other nonprofit organizations, is that in order for us to be able to move forward, we don't have the availability of funds to give him in order to buy the supplies to have them start to work on our project.

So when we originally— when this contract was originally set in place, the grant rather, what ended up happening is that we were given a certain percent of it upfront.

So we were able to give that to the contractor to have him, you know, get the supplies that he needed on hand.

And then once that was there, then another percentage was given, so on and so forth.

So the problem that we're having now is having the availability of funds in order to get moving on the other projects.

He's willing to do them, but we just don't have the funds to do it.

Okay.

Well, we don't pass funds out without a receipt.

We need an invoice.

Invoice on supplies, we can pay that, but we don't give upfront money without an invoice.

As long as it's a bill or a list from— he doesn't have to be on site?

It doesn't have to be on site, but it has to be an invoice.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, the materials would have to be either installed or available.

Well, if he goes— so if he goes and buys the materials, the thing that can happen— I mean, he's a small guy.

He's not like a big guy.

He's a small guy.

Um, he can't be out his money, you know, the last, you know, like, um, 6, 8 weeks.

That can't happen because he can't— he has to pay his people, you know.

So this is not a man who's got deep pockets either, and we certainly don't have it either.

So if, if he gives— if he gives the association a bill for $50,000 worth of supplies to finish this project, um, that needs to get a turnaround so that I— so that he can then start working.

Because for him to be out that kind of money and then turn around and get his, his crew here to put this— we're looking at the ramp right now— to put that ramp in, it's going to be a problem because he can't be out the money for the supplies and then have the money to pay his people.

You know, he himself is willing to work with us.

What we need is some way to, like, get him paid in a timely manner.

And that's what this— The holdup for this project is as simple as that.

We can't outlay all of the money for supplies, nor can we— we just can't.

We don't, we don't have those kind of pockets.

Well, when we did give you your extension before, why didn't you come to us before?

Now your extensions ran out and it's going to be a third extension.

So because I had money, you had given me, you had given me a third of a contract and I was able to work that contract.

You gave me, you gave the association $77,000 for a third of the original project, and we were able to make that work, and we made that work.

But now, you know, I've— we've, we've submitted all the receipts.

That $77,000 is done and gone, and now we're trying to get the second part of the grant done, the second piece, which is the ramp, the toilet room, and, um, the back staircase, which is that second piece of— that's the second part of the grant.

So That's why we're— that's why we're here, is to— is to figure out how do we— I mean, like I said, we can make this happen, and he's willing to come and work and actually make it happen sooner rather than later.

But I just can't lay out— I can— I think what it really came down to is a little bit of miscommunications in regards to what the process was as to how this works.

So as the funds were being utilized, you're correct, we should have come a little bit sooner and said, okay, so now we need a supply list to be able to keep the ball rolling, so to speak.

So we kind of got caught behind the 8-ball.

Winter showed up and, you know, now spring, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, okay, now we need to get some funding.

Well, we can't get— so we kind of got, again, a little miscommunication on our part.

But I think that we have a better comprehension as to how this works to be able to move forward.

And he's obviously willing, he's waiting for us to do so.

But as I said, he can't do that.

He can't, as Dana said, can't, can't front the asset.

I understand that, but it's just been a couple of winters.

Yeah.

Oh, believe me.

Yeah, yeah, more than aware of that.

Yeah, it's been since last spring, so a year ago spring, right?

So nothing's been done at all for a year.

Okay.

I got another question for you.

It's that the, the, uh, both the commission here and the historical commission needs a drawing Of that proposed ramp?

Well, the proposal that was given to the, to the building inspector, and he approved it.

The Historic Commission has not seen any drawings.

The Historic Commission?

What is the historic— it's not a historic building.

It's a building.

It is.

It's not listed as a historic building.

That's how you got the grant.

You're going for historic preservation funds.

It has to be done.

So I went before the predecessor on the Historic Preservation to ask about the ramp and he said, we don't need— I don't care, we don't need it.

So the original— when he— when Jason— he said, we don't need— I don't need that because it is not in the historic district.

I don't care if you put a ramp.

We don't care.

The historic— his commission, the Historic Commission did not care if we had a ramp.

It's not in the— it's not in the district, but it's still a historic building and you're going for historic preservation funds.

Everything on that building has to be done according to Secretary of Interior standards.

Even putting a ramp has to be approved by the Historical Commission.

That's never changed.

That's because of the deed restriction that's going on the property.

It has to be— it has to be fit for the aesthetic of the historic nature.

Okay.

We were told differently.

We were told different.

And that's all I can tell you.

When we first changed that to a— from the lift to a ramp.

I went specifically to Jason Bouchard, and he— Jason— and he said, nope, I don't need it, and you don't need me to approve that.

So we went to the building inspector, and he said, go ahead.

I mean, it's, it's like, so now I— now, now we got to stand back and, and do some other things.

So this is, this is the problem that we, we're having, you know.

I'm getting— we're getting different Everybody's telling us something different, and I, to be blunt, I don't know nothing about what you all need.

I'm going to the people that you— we're telling you just us to go to.

I just don't know, you know, one person says this, one person says this.

What do you need from us at this point in time?

What questions do you guys have?

What do I need?

Building department, in order to issue a permit for that, is going to require a set of drawings.

The Historical Commission has to review that to make sure that it's in keeping with the Secretary of the Interior standards, which you're obligated to follow.

So there's a set of drawings that have to be done.

I did mention it to your contractor also.

He should be well aware of that.

Is— I have a question.

So the contractor that you have now, is that the same one that Rick and I met with?

Yes.

So didn't— when we met with him, didn't we say we could not give funds up front and he And he, he agreed to that.

He also can't be out his funds.

The last check I got took over 2 months to get into my hands.

It can't happen like that because he can't be out that kind of money.

It's, it's— I sent a check request in the beginning of December and I did not get the money till the end of February.

That's a problem.

That's 3 months no matter how you cut it.

And he can't be out that kind of money.

And he, and he will work with us, but he also can't be out that money.

And he understands that you're not going to give it to him up What he, what he can't be is out money for months.

So he'll give me a bill.

I can get bills till, till they come up, but I— and if I submit them, then the problem is going to have to be that they got to be paid in a timely manner.

Can the drawing be something that comes from the contractor?

It's got to be a readable set of drawings.

Yes, it does not have to be an architect.

Okay, good.

But it has to be a good detailed drawing with dimensions and material use and list and fabrication.

Okay.

Sorry, I've got a few questions.

Um, I live in that neighborhood and I walk it quite often.

Was there part of this project the railing system that's in front of the— and so is that completed yet?

It's, it's It's mostly completed, but the contractor and the painter need to finish the fitting between where the rail comes into the new column.

So all those new columns are new.

A good portion of the spindles are new because they were rotted.

So a lot of those have been redone.

The railing was in fairly decent shape.

So I'm going to defer to the individuals who are doing the review of it.

So typically, once you get something done, either it's materials or labor associated with that, then we receive our invoice and then we process it.

So we were able to process the windows for the Durfee Building project, and that was very similar to the same scenario.

They need to order them, they send in an invoice, took about a week, they got processed through.

That is a special order, and those drawings actually come through from the manufacturing with the stamp architects indicating that it meets the federal standards for interior.

And then also, in your particular case, you're talking about a ramp on this particular situation.

You're not doing a lift anymore, you're going to do a ramp on this one.

And so, you know, Rick would need to— would need to see those documents.

My question to you would be is How much in this materials are we talking about for a ramp?

I mean, typically, a ramp is not more than maybe 30%, 40% of the entire contract.

Has an invoice been submitted to the Commission yet?

For that, no.

For that, no.

Okay.

And so now you realize, too, like when we do a special order like we did with the windows, That's a lot of money and it needs to be fabricated beforehand.

We're talking about a ramp here.

It's not a fabricated thing.

It's not, it's not like the lift.

Lift you would have to pay for.

It would take months for it to come in.

Lumber and material and suchnot is a little— is a different scenario.

So my question would be is, could you see where we're sitting at?

Like, if we're— if all of a sudden we give you a check for something and we don't have the material, and I understand he's a small individual in the sense of, uh, construction capability.

But the reality of it is, like, we don't want to be left out not having the funds.

Uh, it could be used and gone and, and close up shop and left, left for town.

So those are the types of scenarios.

So I would say the first and foremost thing is make sure that Rick and the Historical Commission get what they need on these drawings.

Have you guys identified an architect on this one?

Is that— I thought it was— we are not doing an architect.

Yeah, we've had a rather— I am not doing another architect experience and spent, you know, $35,000 on architectural assistance, which was not helpful.

So we were told that we didn't need to, so we're not.

But you see where we're sitting on in this particular case, like you're going for one of 3 categories: housing, historical, recreation/open space.

So you're getting money from those things and you to follow those criteria.

Now, I'm not on the Historical Commission, but if the Historical Commission needs you to have a— we had an architect for the windows sign and stamp them and approve them.

And so what happens if this doesn't meet the historical needs or criteria?

You don't have anybody who has any authority into that.

I mean, that's— I mean, I don't know.

It's up to Rick to make a decision, but I stand with him that you need to follow what that is because it's pretty spelled out pretty clear.

Not to say that it's not historical.

That's the only reason that you're getting any money on this whatsoever.

So, but with that, I yield.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Alex.

Of the 2 grants totaling about $500,000, about how much has been spent so far on these projects?

Uh, about $162,000 on the first grant and a minimal amount on the second grant, which were— was all for the architectural work and drawings.

So just briefly, in your own words, what, uh, work has been done with that money?

I heard like some architectural work.

So the architectural work, the stonework on the foundation, and the porch itself was completely redone down to, down to, you know, dirt, was completely rebuilt, and it's been completely like, it's 100% done.

So the parts of the scope of work that you've already spent money on have been completed?

Is that fair to say?

Yes.

Okay.

Yep.

And so every other portion of the scope of work hasn't been started yet at all for the reasons you've outlined?

Correct.

Correct.

Okay.

Um, and so you're asking for an extension of 2 years because you are confident that you could get this completed in that time now?

Yeah, I would think we probably don't even need 2 years, but we don't, we don't want to continue to come for an extension because just as, you know, John said, as we've continue to do this.

But again, we finally have a contractor that's willing to work with us now that we're on a better footing as far as the understanding of the process of getting funds.

Um, yeah, I would think that our contractor, basically, as long as he's got the funds available to him, will be able to get this done in a very timely manner.

Okay.

And so I know there's been quite a bit of turnover internally within your organization, so perhaps that has led to some of the miscommunication and lack of understanding of, like, the procedures of this.

Our committee is always open for questions about how to get things done.

I'm not sure exactly how much you've reached out to us regarding steps on the process or not, but we've had plenty of other applicants, you know, come to us with questions and have been able to navigate this process.

So the comments I've heard from you about your reasons for why this hasn't progressed, this being your And I know some of you probably weren't at the table when that was granted, but I believe we were very clear as a committee with all applicants at that time that this was probably the final extension for all of those multi-extended projects, for better or worse.

So, here you are again asking for another extension, and the reason for it was just like lack of understanding for the process and the invoicing and securing the materials and such.

And to me, that doesn't quite lead to sufficient reasoning for a 4th extension after everything we've been through.

I am happy that the money that's been expended has been on scope that's been completed.

And typically what we usually say to projects that have been dragged on for this long, whatever reason, you know, to whoever's fault you want to, you know, put it on, is that the scope, the prices, everything that was presented to us 4, 5, 6 years ago now is pretty much no longer relevant in today's world, whether it's given inflationary costs or whatever, change of realities on the ground.

So I'm leaning towards perhaps not renewing this and having you guys come to us with a clean application, which is what What we usually suggest, and I know we haven't done it in a couple of years, but we usually suggest resubmitting anything that has dragged on or changed for scope or for whatever reason.

That way, you are presenting estimates where you're not going to have to come and ask for more money, which you very well have to if people are citing prices that are so old.

That way, everyone can kind of get on the same page, and maybe we can, along the way, figure out, uh, what hiccups there are in the process for you and make sure everything's understandable.

That's just— I mean, my opinion.

Yeah, I understand where you're coming from, and that, that, that does make some sense.

I, I guess for me, from my standpoint, um, is that at this point we, we finally have a contractor.

Um, we've shown him what our, what our available funds are, um, and explained to him what our project budget is, and he's assured us that he's able to do that within that cost structure.

I understand.

And that's up for the Committee to decide if we're ready to give another extension.

Perhaps we can clear out— so in terms of process and for everyone here listening, how you would— how we would expect or hope to see applicants do this is we're always open to paying for supply costs upfront as presented.

It is usually a requirement for contractors to to pay for these materials.

We'll sign up— we'll sign off on that, no problem.

It's the, the work that we have to sign on, especially when it's a historic building.

Uh, it has to meet the National Park Service's Secretary for Interior standards, which is why it's a historic building by National Park standards.

So it's unfortunate to hear you say it's not a historic building.

It was.

Can I, can I clarify?

When I spoke to— like I said, when I spoke to the person who was charge.

Yes.

And what I'm saying is, I acknowledge that is the— it's the Charles Mariner Cole House, and I acknowledge that it's a historic building.

But in terms of what the information that I got from the person that— the person before Rick, who was the person in charge at the time, he said it is— it doesn't meet what he— he did not have to give permission to have that be a— to to be a ramp.

And I have— I can find those things.

So that's what I'm just saying.

I can't speak to conversations I wasn't a part of.

Perhaps— it sounds like just offhand that he might have been thinking you were inquiring about the protected historic district and whether the property was in it versus what the question should have been with their duties following the deed restriction that was going to be attached.

That's why the Historic Commission and Rick needs the drawings to sign off.

It has to comply with Secretary for Interior Standards.

And the reason that's so important for everyone to be clear is because you no longer have an architect attached to your project.

You need someone to sign off that the requirements have been met, because if that is found not to be in line with what's required, it's actually— the impetus is on the applicant to pay to restore everything and make it as it was, if it was found to be changed, nonhistoric in nature.

Okay, so hopefully that's helpful to people, um, and it's up to the, the committee, I think, to decide what's going forward.

I think, and the 40C is a protected area and it's right in the backyards of these properties, so that's entirely different than— and you are listed, by the way, historically both on the significant structures state and national register, right?

So it is a historically registered property.

And the board here is only a phone call away.

To wait a year, to rent the amount of time, a phone call would have been able to clarify any of those questions.

Well, the other thing too is in the contract that you sign when we award the money, it says right on there because it's under historic preservation, you have to do everything to Secretary of Interior's standards.

And I understand that, but like I said, I did what I was supposed to do and inquired when we were changing, and I got information and went forward with the information I had.

Whether that was incorrect or correct, I can't— I can— I'm, I'm not, I'm not versed in the Department of Interior specifications.

I'm not, I'm not that person.

But I can only tell you what I was told.

I can provide documentation from from my inquiry because I did do it via an email.

But, you know, at this point in time, we'll do whatever, you know, if you want drawings, if you want stuff like that, we'll find that.

It's just we finally got the pieces that we needed to get in place.

And yes, it took an awful long time.

We went through 18 contractors before we got the 19th person to say yes, and we waited 18 months to get drawings from the architect, which never should have taken that long.

But that's— that right there set us behind, way behind.

But anyway, it is what it is.

So maybe one pathway.

According to the schedule you present, and you say your contractor is confident with, and you say they're confident with the budget as presented, no escalation is anticipated.

So given what you've presented, it sounds like It seems like the remaining scope of work, which I think is almost close to $400,000 worth of work, can be completed within 6 months.

So— A lot of it will be inside.

So we could provide a 6-month extension, but my risk, my worry for the risk is that there will be escalation.

There will be requests for additional funds.

We are in the middle of a funding cycle.

We don't usually do that when we are in the middle of reviewing other applications.

And then there's money spent, project not finished.

Right now we have money unspent, projects finished.

So I think it's a cleaner slate to kind of move forward with updated numbers.

But I'll leave it to the committee to decide.

I think we've got enough information.

I do agree with Alex that the estimates we had are long gone and, you know, are probably doubled by now.

Whatever the board would like to do.

Do we have a motion?

I'll make a motion to have them start over like Alex recommended.

Because it's true that, you know, when you go back a couple of years later, I can only imagine how much things have cost.

I had stuff done on my house, and a year later, somebody else has it done.

It's like $3,000 or $4,000, if not more.

So just to kind of alleviate any issues.

And I think even if we were to say, keep on going, you guys have the issue with that contractor needing the money very quickly from what you were saying.

So I think that's another issue that you're going to have.

So that would be my motion to start the whole process over.

Can you put in that motion to resend the rest of the grant money?

Point of information.

I think the— so before, it's the extension, I think.

So that's what perhaps the motion should be addressed to, is the extension, yes or no.

And then it's that we can't tell them to— so we can't tell them to apply, you know, or anything.

Yeah.

So if we do go through that, just so we're on the same page, so we're applying next September.

Yeah, at this point— So, we're looking a year and a half out before— Unfortunately, yes.

And that's not saying you can't have this contractor give you an estimate for the application, you know, like, it could still be this contractor since you have found them and done the legwork in that regard.

May I ask one other question?

I have some outstanding invoices that I have paid that have not been submitted because they wouldn't be signed off on.

What do I do with those?

And we're talking $4,400.

Uh, I don't know.

It's— what do you mean they wouldn't be signed off on?

Um, they wouldn't— that, um, Rick wouldn't sign off on one of— on, on, on it.

For what reason?

Well, Rick's right here.

It was, uh, it was to get those things all— the stuff all tucked in and, and the additional columns that, uh, that we had generated when the bills were presented to you on a high in back in September of last year, the work was not completed.

It was going to be done.

So I believe that had to do with the spindles, and they wanted upfront money, which we do not do.

We paid for that already.

Well, we do not.

This commission does not.

So if we resubmit, then we can get compensated for that before— Yeah, as long as it was finished.

Yeah.

If that was finished and you— and they were installed, then the bill could have been submitted and it would have been paid.

And it still can.

But it will not get billed.

I just don't— I just don't want you to rescind all the money.

And I'm still out money.

You know, the associate— excuse me, the association is still out money that it has already paid because I've already paid for it.

No, we'll look at that.

Yeah.

So, so we're not extending it, but the money hasn't moved quite yet.

We haven't like had the finance to department and move it back to any of the buckets.

So it still provides that window for you to get, uh, invoices processed that are outstanding.

So we have a motion to— no extension to the question?

Okay.

I have a question before we— we— so I, I would caveat this that any payment needs to be verified that the work has been done.

Yeah.

And again, as I say, if, if the work hasn't been done Why are we paying on it?

And so that would be the only question I would have.

It's work on the— work done, visualized and looked at.

That's just the normal procedure too.

So yeah, I just want that to be part of the— yeah, yeah.

All right, so it's first to reject the extension?

Yes.

Okay, a motion to reject the extension, the 2-year extension.

I'll second that.

Okay, roll call.

Yes.

Resend the application or rescind the extension.

Joey Veltney, yes.

Alex Silva, yes.

Kristen Cantara-Olivera, yes.

John Bryant, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

John Sylvia, yes.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, next we have the Fall River Water Department.

And Mr. Furlan was here last month, but he was out setting up his display and didn't know we were meeting.

So, yes, thank you very much.

Uh, so we were asking for— I believe there was a letter sent to you July 10th, um, from James Smith, uh, project manager for us.

We're asking for an extension for the North Wetumpka Pond seawall project.

Also, within that letter, we mentioned about the project withdrawal of the Bottomless Blossom Workshop.

The seawall project has been something that we've had out there.

We've tried to work with— we've talked to a couple different architects.

We had trouble finding somebody that wanted to go into this specialized area because, A, you're dealing with the conservation of the North Watahpa Pond, as well as the historic nature of the walls, and evaluation of them, and stuff like that.

So, you know, that was one holdup that we had right in the beginning when we started going.

Some of our efforts got shifted a little bit, and with turnover within our department, this kind of fell through the cracks a little bit of being able to continue to move forward.

We'd like to extend this out so that we can, so that we can get this project going within the near future.

This probably will have to work through, you know, a couple of seasons, as some of these areas are very tough to get to.

So, they'll probably have to do, you know, fall or spring, you know, visits to those sites that are restricted to be able to get to.

Okay.

Now, the historic documents, How's that?

I know Jim Smith sent an email saying that there was another bidder, or?

Yeah, so we did have another bidder that came in.

Excuse me.

Yeah, that's the other one.

We did have another bidder that came in for that, for that project.

That project is underway right now.

They do have a number of the documents and are scanning and categorizing them.

Okay, so that'll be finished soon.

Okay.

Yeah.

Kind of the first step of that one.

But the second bidder came in a lot under, so we were hoping to be able to kind of do a second batch of historic documents with them.

Okay.

Questions?

Just a quick question on the overall pricing to get this seawall done.

What timeframe are talking about— when did we start the process?

When did we get the— I just don't want it to be the same situation where it's lagged on so long that the pricing is not relevant to— Yeah, so this is a study.

The studies, we haven't really seen much fluctuation in the pricing on studies as much as we've seen, you know, construction-wise.

You see almost 40%, 50% increase.

With a study like this, we're still comfortable that the allotted budget will cover the cost of it.

OK.

Thank you.

Alex?

And so for the seawalls, you haven't expended any funds yet?

Correct.

Correct.

OK. And you're ready to— like, when did you say you were ready to start with that?

Yes.

So we're hoping to go into contract within the next couple of months, you know, get the PO and everything in place through the city, as well as the contract with them, and have them be able to go out in the tight in the times that they need to in the seasons.

So the procurement process has already been completed?

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah, so, so this fell underneath a study.

It wasn't required to go out to RFQ or RFP.

How many sections of wall were there?

8?

Yeah, I believe there's a total of 8 around the whole— How many of those were Olmsted sections?

Do you remember?

Off the top of my head?

I think they may have all been part of Olmsted, you know, part of their design.

The son, when he picked up the business, yes.

So, it is historically associated with Olmsted also?

Yes, yes, from my understanding.

That's one thing that we want to be able to confirm through the process.

Is part of the dam, is that also— Part of the dam is part of the seawall as well.

Yep.

That's one that's going to be evaluated as well.

So, that's a tougher one, whether they took and they modeled that one directly when they did the highway and stuff, or whether they modeled it after the other ones, or whether it was original.

That's something that will be looked at.

That's fairly new, so that's probably not Homestead.

Probably modeled after.

It's an important wall because it's a dam between the highway and the Yep.

Not many people know when they're driving down 195 and Route 6, it's actually a dam in between North and South Patuxent Pond.

It's a registered dam.

Okay.

Well, I would make a motion that we extend this for a 1-year period.

Sounds like 2 years.

It's— that was the request, just to— if we ran into issues, modify that.

I'll make a motion to extend the funding for a 2-year period.

I'll second.

Roll call.

Michael Ferraris?

Yes.

Joanne Bentley?

Yes.

Alexander Silva?

Yes.

Kristen Cantara-Oliver?

Yes.

John Brandt?

Yes.

Rick Mancini?

Yes.

John Salvieri?

Yes.

Okay.

Was that vote for both projects, historic documents?

And how about we make a motion for the historic documents?

Make a motion.

Extend for 2 years.

Oh, do you need 2 years?

Or like I said, we're doing one batch now.

We're probably going to have a couple more batches going right out after it.

I think one year would suffice if it— or 2 years, whatever the committee decides.

I would probably make it equal 2 years.

So 2 years.

I'll second.

Second that motion.

Those are good drawings.

Okay.

Roll call.

Michael Farias?

Yes.

Joanne Belli?

Yes.

Alexander Silva?

Yes.

Kristen Cantara-Oliver?

Yes.

John Brandt?

Yes.

Luke Mancini?

Yes.

John Salvini?

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right.

Next up is our eligibility hearing.

We did pass out a sheet that kind of highlights everything that people kind of miss, and we do like to be a little particular.

What we look for now is shovel-ready projects.

That is a big thing because sometimes we run into problems when people aren't ready to go, and we really want to see our money used wisely.

So we do look for shovel-ready.

Another big part is any other grants that you might be able to put in.

With your project.

We look highly on that.

If you're coming for housing, we're going to look for 20% of the total units to be either affordable or workforce housing.

So the sheet's there for you to look over.

We are going to— tonight we'll call you up.

You've got 3 minutes.

Just explain your project.

Just in detail, and then we're going to either vote yes or no, no questions.

So it's kind of easy and should move pretty smoothly.

So first up— Excuse me, Mr. Chairman.

Could I just mention that any of these projects that come through with historic designation actually have to get a yay or a nay from the Historic Commission?

You get— you're required to get a letter of support.

The CPC requires that.

So I, I do know that we have not received any.

We have one here that's a letter, but the letter is dated back June of 2025.

So I don't know if a 15 or 16— that's up to the board to decide whether a 15 or 16-month letter is still valid.

The The other thing too is if it's a park project, you need to have a letter of support from the park board as well.

Okay.

Alrighty.

First up is Bernardo's Boxing roof project, Annawan Street, Fall River.

They're in recreation historic preservation.

They're looking for $84,200.

381.

So just give us a little rundown.

Okay, how we doing?

I can— yeah, uh, Aaron Bernardo.

Uh, do you need my address?

Uh, yes, it's, uh, 103 Sycamore Street, Swansea, Mass.

And then I'm Samantha Bernardo and it's 103 Sycamore Street, Swansea, Mass.

I've never really done this before, so I did prepare like a speech.

Do I just kind of go through that and like, you know, or— Yeah, just describe the project, what the building's used for, how it benefits the city of Fall River.

Great.

So my name is Aaron Bernaldez, my wife Samantha.

We've been together 17 years.

We've been business owners for the past 8 years.

We got into the Fall River CYO building originally as a lease.

We've been there for the past 3 years.

Last year we did purchase it.

Um, I kind of just divide to this a little bit.

Uh, the building has a long history, uh, dating back to the 1800s, uh, as a historical landmark here in our city.

Um, it has a rich history, uh, recreation, you know, dances for kids, uh, multiple championships through the CYO Basketball League, um, all stuff like that.

Uh, when I bought the building with my wife, my goal was to preserve it, uh, and keep it serving as a community center for kids for, you know, sports, recreation, obviously boxing.

I am a boxing coach.

I've been a boxing coach for 15 years.

Yeah, and for the past 3 years I've operated my boxing gym out of there.

Today we do a lot more than that.

You know, we offer boxing and fitness for men, women, kids, competitors, non-competitors.

We work with children.

We also work with children who have physical and mental disabilities through our Everyone Can Punch program.

We offer tutoring for teens.

We have teachers on staff and we have an after-school program for kids ages 5 to 12.

Yeah, and we also have a charitable foundation, our 501 nonprofit.

We've trained over 100 kids for free and we still do that till this day.

Not a kid between the ages of 5 and, I mean, really 18 years old, they don't come in there, they don't pay a dime.

We train them and we just try to accrue sponsorships through local businesses and stuff like that to give us something to be able to train these kids, to give them assets, gloves, hand wraps, whatever it may be.

And staffing too, assistant coaches.

A lot of the staff that I have are volunteers, but we do our best.

We probably have 80 kids every other day running through there.

Not only do we, you know, we do the boxing, but we still utilize the court.

I do events.

I've done multiple events in the city.

I've done ticketed events, but I've also done a lot of community events.

We have one in a few weeks called the Boo Bash, Boo at Bernardo's.

It's a free Halloween community event.

Yeah, I mean, I could divvy to this, but to be honest with you, like, you know, boxing is my life.

It's done wonders for me from 11 years old.

I'm 32 years old now.

Now.

It's given me confidence, relationships.

It's really given me everything that I could ask for.

And to be able to do that for the kids in my community means the most to me.

Not only— I have 4 children myself with my wife.

They train with me every day.

I have the pleasure of that.

But, you know, all the families that come through here and the text messages and the calls that I get from parents of how we help them and So we're here for the roof.

That's the main thing right now.

Yeah, um, the roof is— it's everywhere, leaking everywhere.

So we're trying to maintain the building itself.

We're hoping that'll help with preservation.

Um, I do have to get you something because I do have someone that wrote something for me for the roof, like an estimate and everything, but I didn't know I needed a letter for you.

So I need a letter for you to like— because it's historical.

So yeah, okay, so I'll have, um All right.

The next meeting for the Historical Commission is October the 21st.

Okay.

What you might want to do— well, if I give you the address, you might want to contact [email protected].

Okay.

And you can also call the Historical Commission and City Hall and speak to a director if you like to figure out exactly what— give you all the directions.

We do have things in place.

We talked to Chaffee Roofing.

They did an inspection, everything on the roof, and they looked at it and they gave us a quote.

Obviously you guys have that.

Um, no, you did a nice job explaining.

We can— we got the gist.

Did nice.

Uh, so I have a motion.

I'll make a motion that we support the request.

Could I just— I don't— I understand why you submitted under Recreation.

I just don't think we can move it forward under Recreation given the criteria.

I think it usually has to be outdoor spaces.

I don't think they let you do buildings for Recreation.

We could double-check that, but even the deed restrictions that we would normally apply for those types of projects don't apply to you because it's not like a park or something, you know.

Um, so acknowledge that it's recreation, but I, I think we just have to move it forward under historic preservation.

Okay, great.

Okay, motion.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Uh, roll call.

Michael Farias, yes.

Joanne Bentley, yes.

Alexander Silva, yes.

Kristen Cantara Oliveira, yes.

John Brandt, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

John Sullivan, yes.

To this packet, which says there Perfect.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Next up is Little Theater.

They're under historic preservation, $78,000.

If you could, uh, just state your name and address and, uh, George Sadler, um, 59 Dam Forest Street, excuse me, Rehoboth, uh, but I'm representing Little Theater as the board member and the business manager.

Little Theater is, uh, housed at 340 Prospect Street.

Number David Ferry at 36 Main Road, Tiverton.

I am the current vice president of Little Theatre and also our lighting supervisor.

Okay.

So thank you for considering the request in front of you for $78,000.

That's for or against the project cost of $93,000.

And that's for the cost to restore, replace, and seal the exterior brick of the north, south, and east side— sides of the building, and that's the historic fire barn at 340 Prospect Street.

Excuse me.

The total cost of $93,000 is based on an estimate of $65,000 to do the brickwork, the ceiling, and so forth.

And that's from Paul Choquette, who is a historical masonry restoration company, and I'm told has done quite a bit of work in the city.

$21,000 is being allocated for scaffolding, and that is based on the cost that we're currently incurring to do the repair work on the roof.

And then there's a $7,000 contingency with your help Hopefully, we'd kick this project off in the spring or summer, so there's a little wiggle room in the total cost of the project.

And then Little Theatre is proposing that we fund $15,000 out of our funds to complete the total cost of $93,000 to do the project.

We are currently proposing the north-south and east sides of the building.

Those are more accessible based on the way the building is positioned.

And if you've been by the building with the current roof project, you can see the scaffolding is up and it's easier to access those 3 sides of the building.

Because of the lot line and our neighbor, the west side of of the building will be done at a later time, because we have very limited space, and we're being told that we may need to have some sort of crane and other things to access that side.

That's phase 3 of this project.

And phase 1, as you know, we're currently doing the roof.

That's going along pretty nicely.

You folks granted us $130,000.

You have 15 seconds, so just— Oh, okay.

So I'll stop there so I can answer.

Take as long as you want.

Oh, it talked about project updates.

And I should— I— your project update?

No, that's a later.

Okay.

Later.

Yeah.

So, so yeah, so that's the request in front of you was for $78,000.

Over $93,000 cost.

And it's our mission to make that 100-plus-year-old fire barn as watertight as possible.

And we're doing that with the roof.

And now, hopefully with your help, we'll continue with the exterior of the building.

Okay, thank you.

Do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion.

Considering we've already been funding them under historic preservation, we already know that it meets historic preservation So I make a motion to move it forward through eligibility.

I second.

Okay, roll call.

Michael Farias, yes.

Joanne Bentley, yes.

Alexander Silva, yes.

Kristen Cantara-Olivera, yes.

John Brandt, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

John Salvatore, yes.

I'm just wondering, in the future, is it possible to get like somebody like this group what they've been, you know, what we've given them over the last, say, 3 or 4 years, just so we know what, you know, funding they've got over the last 3 or 4 years.

Would that be something?

Yeah, this is a booklet.

We can— yeah, we have it.

And then we can also discuss that when it comes— because this is just to say whether their project meets eligibility under the categories.

We like all this to have what has been given to the organization over the last 5 years.

Yeah, we even go to that point.

That's in our annual book.

Book.

That we pass out at the annual meeting.

Yeah, but which I'll show you.

Even that, it doesn't determine how much we gave them, doesn't determine whether or not they're eligible.

It's just, does the project meet eligibility, yes or no?

Okay.

That's in the package, Rick.

So, oh, I missed that.

That's right here.

It's in the side sheet.

And that— okay, so we did— yeah.

Okay.

No, this, it tells everything they need work.

Yeah, they got a copy of that.

There's instructions in the packet that say they need to do it.

Yeah.

Alrighty, thanks.

Thank you.

Next up is, uh, Bristol County Superior Court Children's Museum historic preservation.

Tammy, if you could just say your name and address and keep it on the pre-match.

707 Grandview Avenue, Fairhaven.

So I am here tonight for the— to continue doing some restoration work to the Fall River Children's Museum building.

I did not have any estimates in my packet.

But I have the one now.

Would you like it?

No, today is just eligible yes or no, so that you can put in your final package.

Okay.

Well, they didn't fill out the request, the funding request number.

So is that the number you're asking for?

Yeah, yeah, I would like to know what that is ahead of time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

So what we're looking to do is to continue some tower work.

On the southwest corner of the building.

You have some photographs in your packet that are pretty self-explanatory.

We do have the windows on hand to restore, the original windows, and there's also some brickwork.

That would need to be done.

We're just looking to do the upper 2 levels because that gets costly enough because of the height of the building.

Um, you know, we run into some significant cost in staging, and we'd like to do the windows and the masonry while we're up there.

Because to take everything down to do just one, you know, either the masonry or the windows, take everything down and erect it all back up, it's very costly.

So it is a historic building, as you know, we've done some work, we just finished our last project, we didn't apply for funding last year.

Because we wanted to finish the project that we had on which we just completed.

Thank you.

I have a few questions.

It's not really— it's not a question, it's just eligibility.

Unless the question is— yeah, unless it's about if it's eligible or not, your question.

Okay, I'll make a motion to move it forward for eligibility because again, we've already funded them before and we know that it meets eligibility.

Eligibility under historic preservation.

I'll second that.

Okay, roll call.

Michael Parrish, yes.

Joanne Bentley, yes.

Alexander Silva, yes.

Kristen Cantara Olivera, yes.

John Brandt, yes.

Rick Manzana, yes.

John Salvia, yes.

All right, thank you, Tammy.

Next up is Lafayette Durfee House.

This is under historic preservation.

What's my 3-minute timer?

Why did we do that?

Because last time we were here forever.

It's a different reason though.

Can you just state your name and describe the project?

My name is David Jennings, 470 North Belmont Street, Fall River, and I'm the director of the Lafayette Theatre Historical Foundation.

And our project is for the— maintain the structural integrity and make repairs to the 3rd floor.

So that we can use the 3rd floor for storage space and also the 2nd floor, half of the 2nd floor, to make it a display room and exhibit hall.

We have— we are a 501.

We've come before this board before, and the board has given us significant amounts of money to fix this house.

The house was built in 1750.

It was the original Durfee family homestead, and it's been moved twice.

And we do all kinds of— we've made it a hands-on living history museum, the house.

We work with the YMCA, children's library, Girl Scouts, Different civic organizations use the building, and we don't— we ask for donations, we don't charge anybody.

That is our way of giving back to the citizens of Fall River.

We teach Fall River history there, we work with the Fall River Public School System, and also with homeschool systems that have come through and toured the building.

We put on the Battle of Fall River last year.

We brought a couple thousand people into the city, and we are hoping to do again in 2028, because it'll be the 250th anniversary of the Battle of the Fall River.

So we're going to be working on that.

But that's what we do, and we would like to restore the 3rd floor and— go ahead, Mike.

I'm Mike Keane, Civitex Architects.

So this is really going to be a continuation or extension of the last project that was done, which was the structural upgrades to the first floor and second floor and renovating or restoring the second floor space so you can use it as a classroom for students.

I think that's really— well, was always the vision for that space.

So we're going to be looking at the wall finishes, the ceiling, flooring.

There's also a proposed mechanical system that's going to be going in that space.

So it's a ductless heating and cooling system, which is really needed by Philadelphia Dirlphy House to preserve part of their collection.

And what we're proposing is— I'm sure you've seen them before in many spaces— that sort of a wall-mounted unit.

This would be a floor-mounted unit that we have in our historic office and we've used it also at the Historical Society here in the city, and we can cover that with a radiator so it doesn't detract from the aesthetics of the space.

Okay.

If you'd like to see what we've done, I would invite you all to come by the Lafayette Derby House to tour it.

In the past, we have been very efficient with the use of our money.

We've gotten things done on time and sometimes under budget.

Thank you.

I'll make a motion to move it forward as eligible under historic preservation.

I'll second that motion.

Okay, second.

Roll call.

Michael Farris?

Yes.

John Bentley?

Yes.

Alexander Silva?

Yes.

Kristen Cantara Oliver Epstein?

John Brandt?

Yes.

Rick Manzini?

Yes.

John Salvini?

Yes.

All righty, thank you guys.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, next up is Maplewood Park, uh, Recreation.

Good evening.

If you can just state your name and 3 minutes, uh, sure.

Sean Travis, 218 Arizon Way, Fall River, Mass., board director with Maplewood Independent Youth Baseball League.

Joe Sharves, 1543 Robeson Street, Fall River, Massachusetts.

I'm also on the board of directors with Sean at Maplewood Independent Youth Baseball League.

Thank you for your time this evening.

First off, I'd like to say thank you very much.

We've been before the commission, And we were awarded funds in 2021 that were used in a capacity that changed the seasons of over 150 baseball players over the last few— 5 years at this point.

It's not only elevated their experience, but it's enhanced the park tremendously.

Kind enough to award us money for the upper field, in which we put all new lights, if you remember.

And it's really transformed the place.

So we're coming before you today to extend that to not just the 150 players that play in the top field, but really enhance the experience of the younger side of our league, the 6 to 11-year-olds that play at CP Field, the Gilbert Field, which is a little bit elevated toward the back of the parking lot.

That field doesn't have lights.

We'd like to install lights at that— on that field.

It will allow us to extend play.

It will allow us to have safer play, especially in the spring when we're starting and it really gets It's not light till 8 o'clock.

And it just will allow us to play night games over the course of the spring and into summer because we also do summer ball.

So we do spring, summer, and it will allow us to go right through the fall.

So as it gets darker, we'll be able to have the lights on to have a more safe play for the younger people.

We're also looking to put dugouts in that upper field.

Right now it's chain link, there's no covering, so if there's any inclement weather, you know, you have some dads and some coaches that put some tarpaulins over to keep the kids, you know, from those passing showers that, that happen in the spring and the summer.

But we'd really like to put cement cinder block type of dugouts in.

It makes a big difference, it allows a cooling atmosphere so when they're off the field they're not overheating as they play.

And the other thing that we're looking to do is fix, rehab the walkway that basically connects the upper field.

It kind of goes around where the Patriot installation, the playground, and it goes around the playground and it comes back down to where the lower field is.

It's an older sidewalk.

It needs some TLC.

It needs to be rehabbed.

The stairs need to be adjusted because the stairs— again, we service over 600 players over the course of the season.

They don't just come alone.

They come with their grandparents.

They come with their parents.

They come with aunts and uncles.

It is truly a family vibe that we're able to perpetuate with that awesome space.

And that's what we're looking for.

We're shovel-ready.

We are on top of the project, and I know the city manages the project, but we're on top of it as well.

We're a 100% volunteer-run organization.

We're a nonprofit organization.

And, you know, we'd love for you to support this project.

I think it'll be great for the neighborhood.

When we installed the prior lights, they're LEDs.

So they actually just go right on the field.

There's no glare.

I've got compliments from the neighbors.

They're extremely happy because the top, the top field, we took old lights and replaced them with new lights.

In our opinion, help the entire neighborhood.

If you go to Maplewood, I mean, parks sometimes, you know, you can have issues in parks.

That park has done very well when it comes to that because of the lights.

And the lights, it's helping keep some of the people you don't want in the park out of there.

And I think with the CP field, which is close to the parking lot, and the city's had problems with that parking lot with people putting their car there and issues like that, that'll help alleviate some of that also.

So I think it'll be a great neighborhood project.

We added the sidewalk, so that is not just going to be for the baseball players.

That's for the people that walk in the park.

Every night there's people walking in.

When you guys added those lights on that top field, we added lights on the back of the pole.

And there's a walking path.

Darren has those lights on every night.

I think it's 7 o'clock and you see people walking around.

So it's, it's not just baseball.

It's, I think it's helping the entire neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thanks.

And the Park Board is on board with this?

Yep.

That was going to be my question.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm Dad.

I'd like to make a motion to approve this to move forward under the category of recreation.

I'll second.

Okay, roll call.

Michael Ferris?

Yes.

Joey Bentley?

Yes.

Alexander Silva?

Yes.

Kristen Cantara-Oliver?

Yes.

John Bright?

Yes.

Rick Mancini?

Yes.

John Sobieski?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We look forward to the next meeting.

Next up is the Academica Building, uh, under community housing.

Good evening.

We're here before you tonight to seek a positive determination for eligibility for the rehabilitation of the Academica Building as under community housing.

The project itself represents an overall private investment of just about $3.2 million, and the project would consist of renovating the entire building itself, which is about 12,000 square feet, and they were looking to create 11 1- and 2-bedroom apartments, offices, and a restaurant on the first floor.

Of the apartments, a minimum of 20% would be for— not deed restricted, but they would be affordable housing.

They're seeking HOME funds for the potential of the funding for those apartments themselves, but even in the event that those are not secured, they would also be restricted in accordance with the CPC AMI regulations that would be there.

The money itself, they're looking for $325,000.

It would be essentially allocated for the construction of a new elevator.

The elevator would be servicing each of the floors of the building itself, with the affordable units being located up on the upper levels, and the need for the elevators, obviously, to reach all levels of the property.

You're looking at architectural services, excavation, erecting of an elevator shell, electrical installation by the Atlantic Elevator itself, for a total of $325,000.

The building currently vacant.

There's been a lot of preliminary work taking place, but now the project has reached to the point where it needs some— a little bit of help to offset some of the overall cost.

The applicant is not a nonprofit.

They are a for-profit entity, which actually, as you know, generates real estate taxes that helps fund the CPC.

So they're contributing towards the overall replanning management of the CPC funding itself.

And, you know, essentially we're looking to provide vertical access to all floors of the building and making sure that we have the necessary compliance components to create the affordable units.

Hi.

I just want to head off a potential potential problem that I think we've had in the past regarding elevators for affordable or for community housing projects.

I think you're familiar with what I might— I think you objected to the interpretation.

So perhaps asking Stuart ahead of time regarding eligibility for community housing funds for an elevator that services all units, not just the affordable, because Stuart had told us, who is a consultant that we use, for Community Preservation Act case law in the state.

He had told us that if funds were being used for an elevator in community housing, it could only service the affordable units, which I believe you disagreed with that interpretation.

I do, and I still do.

And I got the regulations here.

Yes.

I just want to head it off on both ends.

You bring your materials, we get Stuart's opinion ahead of time.

I feel comfortable with that.

Okay.

So I just want to leave that.

So that, uh, for that discussion.

And then are you doing any historic preservation work as well?

Okay.

No, thank you.

All righty.

So can I have a motion for Moody-Halston?

I'll make a motion.

I'll second it.

Roll call.

Michael Varias, yes.

Joanne Bentley, yes.

Alexander Silva, yes.

Kristen Cantara-Oliver, yes.

John Brandt, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

Great.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Next up is exterior masonry repair for the historic First Congressional Church.

They're under historic preservation.

Congregational.

My eyesight.

Correct it.

First— it's First Congregational Church.

Thank you.

Okay.

It makes a difference.

Do you— there's a chair right over there, I think, if you need one.

John, could you get that chair?

And then just state your name and quick 3-minute little— So my name is Andy Stinson.

I'm the pastor of First Congregational Church at 833 Main Road in Westport, representing 282 Rock Street and our continuing work there.

Gary Fernandes, 65 Narrows Road in Assonet, Mass.

I'm the property chair and the prudential chair at the church.

And I'm Abby McQuain.

I am from Rehoboth and I am supporting the grant application admin, helping with that.

Okay, so we are in the midst of a multi-year campaign of restoring and stabilizing the The tower, principally the tower at 282 Rock Street.

It has— the north wall is now under work and is— if you go by, you'll see that it's fully scaffolded.

We have a crew that's hammer and tongs on both stabilizing some of the issues as well as repointing and restoring finials.

Back to their historic preservation.

So our ask for this round is $363,000 for a part of $565,000 for the south wall, which is essentially doing what's been done on the north wall, is in the process of being done on the north wall, on the south wall, repointing, stabilizing, to ensure the historical and the long-term preservation of that structure.

It is— we are the longest— excuse me, the oldest continuous worshipping congregation within the City of Fall River.

We have— and that structure is a historical structure on the skyline of city, and we are proud to be a part of both restoring it and its utilization in the city.

There is a countless number of organizations that we support and that are a part of our mission to care for both within the city and the region.

So we are happy to answer any questions.

No, I don't think we have any questions.

Uh, motion put under historic preservation?

I'll make a motion to move the project forward under the historic preservation category.

And I'll second that motion.

Okay, we have a second.

Uh, roll call.

Michael Farris?

Yes.

Joey Bentley?

Yes.

Alexander Silva?

Yes.

Kristen Cantaro?

Yes.

John Brandt?

Yes.

Rick Mancini?

Yes.

John Sylvia?

Yes.

Thank you.

I do have one question.

Sure.

We submitted our Historic Commission letter from last year because it was basically— it's the same work, it's just on a different face of the bell tower.

So do we need to get a new one?

That's what I mentioned earlier.

Yeah, the session— that would be a determination by the board.

The letter is dated June of '25.

In the past, we've asked for an updated letter just because there could be new members of the Commission, the opinion could just change over time.

So we just asked to re-up that.

Okay, happy to do that.

And the letter probably addresses the south side, not the north.

You're looking for the north.

So just, just to keep it correct, yeah, like, like the 21st, and just call [email protected].

Okay.

Wonderful.

All right, thank you very much.

Thanks.

Thank you.

All right, next up is, uh, St. Luke's Church, uh, historic preservation.

I think there's another free chair over there if you need 4.

That blue one right there.

No, don't want the wheels.

Yeah, changing.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Uh, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, just to get it all straight.

Uh, we are here for eligibility on a historical basis.

Our history is established in 1897.

Immigrants from the Niagara— what is now the Niagara neighborhood gathered, and there's a bunch of history there.

I laid out Mr. Holt because He did the same thing that we have done much more recently in our projects.

He started it, he talked to his friends, to his fellow parishioners, gathered support, and then started a baseball league.

And I think that Mr. Holt was watching the meeting and he's very glad that the— there'll be some lights maybe.

With that, I pass to our architect, Mr. Michael Keane.

As James Hornsby, we should identify ourselves.

All right, I'm Asa Benjamin.

I'm a parishioner and member of the vestry at St. Luke's Church.

I'm Reverend Susan Lee, 336 Maple Street in New Bedford, and I'm the rector Mike Keane, Civitex Architects.

So, just to kind of quickly go through the scope of work, this is the restoration of the bell tower, which is anticipated to be the first of a few phases for the exterior.

So, we were approached last fall and met with Reverend Lee and Reverend Hornsby to discuss the project.

And so, what we had proposed proposed at the time is just to sort of get the ball rolling, to start something, is to look at the base of the building where they were getting significant water infiltration.

There should be some photos, I think, in your packet of what they're doing to kind of catch the water and some of the deterioration that's occurring inside the building where the plaster is.

So, they did hire a historic masonry firm.

Paul Choquette last spring, and about $15,000 worth of work was done out of the church's funds to sort of do that lower level of the tower and also where the main entrance is into the east end of the church.

Did some work at the roof level as well because there was some flashing work that was done years ago that was improper.

So, we sort of guided them through what needed to be done there.

So, the ball is starting to roll and we're looking to continue on with the rest of the bell tower restoration as part of the next phase.

Okay.

Thank you.

So, I have a quick question.

I see 3 numbers in here.

I see the application, 150 crossed out, then 185, and then I see on the spreadsheet.

I'm sorry, one of my problems is vision, and I hit the wrong— I, I read project total and then realized it should have been what we were asking for.

The $185,000?

$135,000 is what we're asking for.

$135,000?

Yeah, $135,000 is our request, and that, that currently, and it may change slight, but may change as we find more things, with $50,000 from St. Luke's Church.

In addition to our $135,000.

Someone tell us the exact total.

$185,000?

No, $135,000.

And then they are putting $50,000 of their own.

Total project cost $185,000, grant request $135,000.

Do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion to move the project forward as eligible under historic preservation.

I'll second that motion.

Michael Farish, yes.

Joanne Bentley, yes.

Alexander Silva, yes.

Kristen Cantaro-Olivera, yes.

John Brandt, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

John Sylvia, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is 101 Rock Street Family Service.

Historic Preservation.

Good evening, everybody.

Thank you.

Presentation, but I think this is probably the easiest way to go about it, so I'll just walk through the slides quickly.

My name is Joe Tomczyk.

I'm the VP of Operations for Family Service Association.

I live at 1 Rogers Ave. in Bristol, and I'm here on behalf of Family Service Association.

I'm Kelly Machado, Director of Communications at Family Service Association, and my address is 2544 County Street Somerset, Mass.

So 101 Rock Street has a unique and important history.

It was constructed in 1909 as the headquarters for the Fall River Women's Union, and it served as a place for support, education, housing, and opportunity for women in the city.

It was founded in, in 1873.

The Women's Union is recognized as the oldest continuous charitable organization in Fall River, and the building remains a symbol of that legacy and continues to serve the public through the work of Family Service Association.

FSA has served the greater Fall River community since 1888 and now operates a wide range of programs for children, families, older adults, and individuals facing behavioral health and social services challenges.

While services are delivered throughout the region, 101 Rock Street remains the central administrative and service hub supporting approximately 70 employees and provides essential access for clients.

At the center of this project is one of the oldest operating elevators in Massachusetts.

While the elevator continues to function, its age presents growing challenges related to maintenance, reliability, and safety.

Preserving accessibility is critical to ensuring that all visitors can continue to access services safely and independently.

We considered multiple options, and one was a complete replacement through Otis Elevator.

The proposal came in close to $575,000, which included just the modernization work and the associated building requirements.

However, because of the elevator size, configuration, and location within the building, a full replacement would likely require construction of a new elevator shaft, which will increase the total cost to well beyond $1 million and would significantly alter the building, increase construction costs, and impact the historic character of the building.

Our preferred solution is the approach proposed by Atlantic Elevator.

The option focuses on updating the mechanical, electrical, communication, and safety systems while preserving much of the existing elevator structure.

Although this approach requires certain variances related to the cabin size and operational elements, it allows us to maintain and restore many of the historic features unique to this building and would cost substantially less, coming in at approximately $380,000.

Most importantly, the approach aligns with our goal to modernize the elevator so that it's safe, reliable, and code compliant while maintaining the historic integrity of 101 Rock Street.

By preserving the existing system, we can minimize disruption to building operations, protect a rare piece of elevator history, and preserve a historic community asset, honoring the legacy of the Women's Union and ensuring that future generations can continue to access to the services provided from 101 Rock Street from more than the center.

Thank you.

All righty, so do I have a motion to put under historic preservation?

So I just have a slight concern, and I don't think it's enough to hold it up per se just yet, but typically elevators aren't, uh, aren't generally considered under the historic preservation category.

Historic Preservation Funds have to strictly— they usually focus on the exterior of the property and areas that are seen by the public.

Elevator obviously is kind of the opposite of that with its internal function.

I do like the details you put out about it being one of the oldest operating elevator, and I think where the grant funds could be applicable, and this is like a question of scope for your future application, is maintaining the historic features on the exterior, maybe not so much the interior.

So we could perhaps get an opinion from Stuart, because I think some case law has changed regarding interior and historic preservation.

But typically elevators are under community housing, like I just mentioned, they service the units.

Historic preservation, your options might be more limited in terms of what the funding could be used for.

So as you develop your application, I would keep that in mind and maybe try to find ways to pull out scope that you are more certain that would be applicable for, you know, historic preservation, and then we can get the opinion and kind of litigate it later.

It does fall under because of the ADA compliance As the laws change, CPA changes.

So let's just get the written change, because we were told one thing for X amount of years, then we were told the other thing.

The laws change, so that's why CPA— I would like to see it still, though.

All right.

And the key component here is that you're maintaining the historical significance of that particular elevator, so that's going to assist you.

There's also a— there is a building code that gets involved with this type of historic preservation, which can help you present or get it more compliant.

So that's a good thing.

I do have one question.

You mentioned the option you were considering going with would require a variance.

So because— Elevator Board, the Mass Elevator Board.

So the size of the current elevator shaft and the actual elevator room is not code compliant.

Have you applied for that variance yet?

We haven't.

They said in order for us to even consider the variance, it's 3 phases.

One would be we'd have to expand the elevator room, which currently holds the mechanicals of the elevator.

And it would need to be a minimum of a 10 by 10 foot room, which is currently only 7 by 7.

So phase 1 would be once we got that done, we can go through variants for the other aspects of the work, which would include allowing us to continue to have the elevator shaft and size of the actual room, the elevator that it goes up and down, maintain that size.

So you potentially could do this work and then go before the variance— go before the state elevator requesting a variance and they could say no?

They're recommending that we do it all at the same time.

But he's saying that if the elevator room itself would eliminate the variance from even being permitted for the rest of the work, his recommendation was do that work.

And while getting that work done— sure, who's recommending that?

Atlantic Elevator, John Redding.

I guess by his experience, he was just saying your elevator room would prohibit you from even being able to pursue this.

So first step would be do that, make that remark.

They're a tough board.

Is that room on the top of the building on the exterior or on the interior?

It's on the top of the building.

It's essentially a room on top of the— it's on the roof.

On the roof.

Yeah.

Okay, do I have a motion?

I'll move it forward under historic preservation eligibility.

Okay, roll call.

Michael Ferraris, yes.

Joanne Bentley, yes.

Alexander Silva, yes.

Kristen Cantara-Olivera, yes.

John Brandt, yes.

Rick Nancini, yes.

John Sylvia, yes.

Thank you.

I'm going to talk to Atlantic Elevator and have them check on that code.

There is a historic code that can be used, and it, I won't say supersedes, but it makes a lot of these adjustments when you're dealing with historic structures.

And, that's listed, significant structures list, that's listed on the state and on the national register.

So, have Atlantic check that, if it's not.

Their opinion perhaps would be good to include in your application just to head off some questions from the committee.

Absolutely.

All right, thanks.

Next up is Kennedy Park, uh, walkway and placement.

Uh, this is under open space recreation, historic preservation.

I don't think it's going to fall under historic preservation.

Olmsted Park.

There's some It is, but I think you're changing it.

But we'll just— okay, we can include it and then— okay.

Good evening, Darren Medeiros, Parks Director.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come in front of you again for another parks and rec project.

The Kennedy Park sidewalk replacement is a project that it totals $26 6,300 square feet of sidewalk removal and replacement.

Um, part of that project, um, the funds I'm asking for is the $400,000.

Now, how I came to that number, uh, was it was a little bit higher than that, so I had to, you know, come up with some options, uh, to cut the number down.

So the sidewalks in that park are 13 feet wide, which the only park— one of the biggest parks in the city, Olmsted Park.

That's the design it follows.

To come to that number, part of the project was to cut the sidewalks down to 12 feet and remove some unusable sidewalks that go into the back of a baseball field that basically are not being used.

The center of that park hardly ever gets used because it's in deplorable condition.

It needs to be replaced.

Most of the people that walk around Kennedy, they walk on the outside, which has been replaced, you know, about 8, 10 years ago.

The center, not so much.

So that $400,000 number that I came up with, the savings that I'm looking at is I'm removing 4,600 square feet of sidewalk that goes into the back of a baseball field.

That's about a $70,000 savings, and there's about a $30,000 savings on the total project for reducing the sidewalk width from 13 to 12.

And now the updates include obviously keeping the aesthetics of the park, the 12-foot sidewalks.

They're 6-inch thick sidewalks, which will help Parks and Rec Department keep the sidewalks clear and use visible in snowstorms, you know, hearken back to the last winter we had, which will hold heavy equipment, trucks with plows and things like that.

And obviously, like I mentioned before, the removable— the removal of those sidewalks.

That— this project went in front of the Park Board September 7th for approval.

They approved it, so I will get you a letter for that.

I was supposed to go.

So is it, is it not historical, or is it?

Because I was gonna go in front of the historical board.

I was supposed to go the 15th.

Okay, can I, can I comment?

And you can correct me if I'm wrong.

So in the past, when I was chair of the historical commission, we had an issue with things that they wanted to do at Kennedy Park because the park board refused to do them according to Secretary of the Interior standards, which would mean that it's going back to what the original Olmsted design of the park is.

And there's so many changes that were made in that park that I'm not sure that it's— I mean, it's still listed.

No, I know it's listed, but does that mean if we were to do this under the historic preservation category, does that mean after that they have to follow Secretary of Interior standards for anything else they want to do in the park?

They— to the best of my knowledge at this point, that park still has to follow Secretary of Interior.

But they haven't.

Well, we know that, but yeah, we've been working with the Parks Department to correct those issues.

So going off that design that's currently— if I was to follow that design, is that the Secretary of Interior So as presented to us now, what you're proposing in the scope is not— we— I mean, I'll speak for myself.

I would not consider historic preservation because you're actively unpreserving the Olmsted Park.

You're actually removing Olmsted paths, which is a complete no-no.

I mean, last time this was presented to us with your predecessor, we were very, very, very about this would not be under historic preservation if you are actually not preserving the Olmsted design, which is nationally renowned, globally renowned.

It should be preserved.

We pitched, why don't you turn the baseball field versus getting rid of the Olmsted path?

But now it's behind— before us again, same thing, getting rid of the Olmsted path for a not-used baseball field.

Kind of mix of priorities, in my opinion.

And then, so removing a path is a big no-no under historic preservation.

Reducing the width of the path, if Olmsted had it as a 13-width path, that is also a big no-no.

You're not— you shouldn't be allowed to do that under the standards that Rick was citing to begin with.

So in terms of what you're looking to do, what you can do, what you should do, I'll leave that all up to you for now, and then we can litigate it at the following meeting.

Okay.

You can submit it under Historic Preservation right now because you haven't really submitted details beyond what you've told us.

You could be preserving other parts of other Olmsted Paths, you know.

Perhaps you just ignore the one you're thinking of deleting now and actually restore the other ones.

That would count as Historic Preservation.

But you can submit under Open Space Recreation regardless.

Okay.

Not saying anyone would feel strongly.

Okay.

Part of the issue in the past was with the benches.

And we had gone back and forth for quite a while with the benches not being historic— historically accurate.

And they wanted all the benches to be uniform across the parks because of cost-effectiveness and things like that.

But they were never actually approved by the Historical Commission.

Oh God, the only conversation I have had about it— I've only been here since last August— was that there wasn't made in the past, exactly what you said, to standardize the benches in every park.

And that was an agreement that was agreed upon.

That's what I was told.

I agree to that.

That's what they decided they were gonna— okay, we did not agree to that.

Okay, so perhaps coming, like, thinking about the scope, maybe adjusting it as you want to, and then we'll take it from there at the next round in terms of what would be appropriate.

Applicable or what we would fund, you know.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah, maybe keeping it at 13 instead of going down to 12.

Oh, yeah.

But can the numbers be changed that I've submitted?

Yeah.

Okay.

I just have a question regarding, say, the paths.

So I understand where the Oldest Site Park, you want to keep it that way.

But with like new standards, ADA standards, would that supersede?

Yes, the, the historical part of it, then if you're trying to make the sidewalks, you're trying to make them wider, right?

Or you're trying to shrink them to cost-wise?

Okay.

But to answer your question, there are usually like, as there are for houses, there are variances for things like ADA accessibility, like there could be a variance.

I mean, in this case, you're keeping it larger versus smaller.

I don't think a variance would be needed.

But situationally, of course.

Okay, I would say work also working with the Historical Commission on that, getting their input would be important.

I was supposed to go on the 15th, but I had a City Council meeting I had to attend same day.

So I'm gonna go for the 21st.

Yeah, you have time.

It'll just save you time with your application too, because that commission will head off like some concerns here regarding the historic nature too.

Okay.

Yeah, more historically I think you stand a better shot.

So, all right, can I have a motion for under the 3 categories?

Well, just to be clear, you still want to submit it under historic preservation at this point?

When I submitted, I was told I should.

I— that it could, because it was in Olmsted Park, I would check off all the boxes: open space, rec, and historical.

Okay.

Yeah, it's at your discretion.

For what bucket of money you're trying to pull through them because it just has different requirements for whatever funding.

Like historic would have historic deed restriction versus open space would have an open space deed restriction, which the park already has, of course.

Yes.

Okay.

I'll make a motion to move it forward under open space recreation and historic preservation categories.

Second?

I'll second.

Okay.

Roll call.

Michael Ferris, yes.

Alexander Silva, yes.

Kristen Quintero Oliveira, yes.

John Brandt, yes.

John Silva, yes.

Okay, thank you.

You've got another one, Abbott Court.

So the Abbott Court project that went in front of you last year was approved.

So at this point in time, the project is estimated at $1.1 million.

We're about $500,000 short.

So I had put in another application for funding.

We have grants that are out where— that we are waiting to hear back from, where those are not guaranteed.

So I had put this in, um, just for that reason, just so we could complete funding on this project, because all the work that's been put in with the fundraising, all the different, uh, the block grants we've pulled from, just so I could see this project to completion.

The request was put in by Representative Silva.

Sylvia, was that refused?

So he put in for $100,000.

I don't know, I think it was actually pulled.

I don't know if he got $10,000.

It was a percentage of the number.

Um, I don't know the reason why.

So wasn't there a lot of money that was donated when the whole thing was— wasn't given, that there was a lot of money that was donated.

So do you talk about the fundraising?

So the fundraising that Marcel did, the actual— the starting of this project, he has fundraised $88,000.

Is that what you're talking about?

No, I'm talking about— so after the whole thing with where Representative Sylvia went, and it was supposed to be a certain amount of money and they didn't get it, so then people were coming forward.

There's a— there was a thing in favor of a reporter And people were making big donations.

They were taking pictures.

So that was part of his fundraiser.

So up to this date and time, he's raised $88,000.

That's part of that, uh, funding.

Um, the other night I went in front of City Council.

There was some money left over from, um, Maplewood Park that's— come to find out, it's just fixed to be that capital project just for Maplewood Park, so we can't use that money.

So I'm just trying to lock in funds to bring this project to completion because they've got ADA grant, park grant is out there.

We don't know when we're going to hear back from or if we're going to— because we're competing, I think, with the park grant, 14 other communities.

Can this project be done in stages?

I think that was part of the discussion when we applied for the park grant.

We had made this just because of the total— I think initially when they went to do the project, it's this type of playground, it's quite expensive.

I think it's more so than initially thought just because like the play surface, it's all rubber.

Not many parks in the city are rubber except Travasso's.

That adds significant cost to the project.

And then the amenities in the park, which is all ADA accessible and autistic, that adds considerable cost to the project.

New Bedford spent $2 million on theirs.

Yes.

So I'll make a motion to move it forward because, I mean, we funded it under recreation before, so it obviously does fit the category.

I'll second that.

Okay.

Roll call.

Michael Farris, yes.

Alexandra Silva, yes.

Kristen Cantara Olivera, yes.

John Brandt, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

John Silver, yes.

Thank you, Darren.

Thank you very much.

Next up is Christ the Rock Church under historic preservation.

Just state your names and 3-minute mark.

Good evening, Rob Canavan.

330 Walnut Street, representing Christ the Rock Church at 414 Rock Street.

Thank you first and foremost for all the years and Alex and Michael climbing all those steps a few times over the last few years to get up to the tower.

We're in the— hopefully this will be the final time we come before you for this if it's fully funded.

It looks like it was going to be about $270,000.

We're asking for $260,000.

In between last season and this season funding, we had to spend another $35,000— our mason— to secure the corners.

So that was in addition to the grant, had nothing to do with the grant.

So that— just want to show you that we are putting in our own money.

So we're kind of on a payment plan with Paul for that.

We did raise another $10,000 to go towards this round, and we do have quite a few grants out there.

Hopefully, we'll hear back by the February deadline.

So, for the specifics, maybe Mike could share.

So, just to give you an update with the work that's happening now under the current grant, which includes the restoration of the uppermost section and parapet of the bell tower, the north elevation is done and the east elevation is just winding down.

So with this, it's the remaining 2 sides of the bell tower that the mason would be doing, which would be the west elevation and the south elevation, which faces the Taunton River.

So it was a pretty brutal winter, and some of the conditions that were faced on both the north and the east elevation, east elevation in particular, were significant.

So, the tracery deterioration was very significant, not just the mortar joints, but also the tracery itself.

And I don't know if the photographs made it into this application because the, you know, we're just winding down the current phase, but they'll be included in the next, hopefully, if it moves forward for the funding round.

And you'll see that the difference between the before and the after.

So, we'll put those together as part of the next and you'll see that.

Consolidation was significant, meaning trying to recreate the tracery on the north elevation and the east elevation.

So, you'll see the before and after on that.

Certainly, Alex and Michael got a chance to see some of that too.

Yeah, and I'll also come before you in October to get a fresh letter from you, hopefully.

Okay, I would make a motion to move this forward.

And let's see this to the end.

All right, I'll second.

Okay, roll call.

Michael Farish?

Yes.

Joanne Bentley?

Yes.

Alexander Silva?

Yes.

Kristen Cantara-Oliver?

Yes.

John Brandt?

Yes.

Rick Mancini?

Yes.

John Silva?

Yes.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next up is Is Bethel African Methodist Church, Fall River, under historical preservation?

If you can just state your name and just a quick overview of what, what you're doing and, and what you do for the city.

Good evening, uh, my name is Adaronke Lipide.

I am the pastor of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Fall River.

And with me is Mr. Scott Robinson, the Vice Trustee of the Trustee Board of the church.

And if you can— and then I'm Todd Thomas with RPA Services Design Build.

So we've been assisting them with the development of the package.

And we're here tonight for consideration of the eligibility for a grant with the Community Preservation Board.

Our foremost— well, to give us historical background, Bethel African Methodist Church actually started in 1881.

It was under the name of Maple AME Church.

In 1917, the name of the church changed to Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and we, we moved into the current building at 146 Hanover Street.

The church has been active at that site since 1917, and so it is the oldest African Methodist the oldest African American congregation in the city of Fall River.

Now, we are proceeding under the historical preservation, and we have been named as a historical significant structure in the city of Fall River.

And we will be— if we're permitted to go forward, we will be submitting a letter of support.

We will request a letter of support from the historical committee.

In terms of our role in the community, we have currently— we hold legal clinics within the city.

We hold community dinners.

We— on Thanksgiving, we give out baskets to families, about 60 families within the Fall River District.

We also hold the only Martin Luther King service by a church in the city of Fall River.

We also work with Bristol Community College on their Martin Luther King service.

What— one of the reasons why we are seeking funding is to restore the structural integrity of the church, to make it safe, and to get in compliance with ADA requirements.

We need to do foundational repairs, and that means we need to do repointing.

The retaining wall needs to be repaired.

The exterior stairs near the basement need to be repaired.

The roof and gutters and downspouts need to be repaired and replaced.

We also need to repair and reset our windows.

In terms of the safety component, why we're seeking funding for electrical upgrade, we are not in compliance with code, and there's an issue about the safety with regard to the building.

And so that, that's why we're seeking funding for the electrical upgrade.

We're seeking the repair, the rebuild of the exterior side door so that it can be ADA compliant.

Compliant, and we're also seeking replacement of a wooden ramp so that it's ADA compliant.

And we're seeking an addition of an upstairs bathroom, again, so that we can be ADA compliant and to remodel our bathrooms downstairs.

One of the reasons why we are trying to upgrade the safety components of the building is that we would like to become a warming center.

In our current condition, it's simply not safe enough for the church to do that for the community.

And so we did— I have submitted a package that was completed with the assistance of our architect.

We're not seeking the entire amount, and it's just a component of the overall project.

We are seeking grants from other avenues.

We have not heard back.

And so if you have any specific questions, I'd ask that you direct them to the architect.

Also, this work also can be— some of it can be phased as well.

So, um, to attack it all at once, you know, we can— this can be split up as well.

So you're looking for $644,000?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

And that's a part of the— that's a phase, that, right?

Okay.

Yes.

And if we were successful in other grants, that we might be able to reduce that amount depending on if we're successful with other applications.

Outstanding other issues that might come up there too, which will be— Old buildings.

Yeah.

Okay.

Do I have a motion?

Question.

I'm happy to see the information you provided.

2 little red flags in terms of scope, not particularly qualifying under the historic preservation category.

The electrical work, I don't think would qualify.

It doesn't fall under any of the historic preservation criteria.

It doesn't do anything for the external appearance.

It's more of a safety upgrade.

So, that probably won't make it through either way.

And then, the creation of the new bathrooms, Historical funds can't create anything new generally.

I know there's some wiggle room with changing an existing bathroom to an ADA bathroom, which is, I think, what the Greater Fall River Art Association was doing, which not everyone agreed with, just so you know, maybe in the middle is myself.

But creating a new bathroom entirely, I think, falls outside of that.

That.

And we can determine that ahead of the next application.

Just on your end, be aware that might be pulled out of the scope one way or the other.

Okay.

So I'll make a motion to move this forward under historic preservation.

A second.

Okay.

Roll call.

Michael Ferris.

Yes.

Joanne Bentley.

Yes.

Alexander Silva.

Yes.

Kristen Quintero Olivera.

Yes.

John Brandt, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

John Sylvia, yes.

Thank you.

And, uh, thank you.

Also, in some of your questions, if you go to the CPA state site under technical, type in like your ADA compliance bathroom, and it'll give you some examples and stuff that might help you do your application a little better.

Okay, thank you.

Next up is Marion Institute Open Space.

Just state your name and quick overview.

Sure.

Liz Wiley, 3 Knolls Ave., Wareham, Massachusetts.

I'm the executive I'm the director of the Mainland Institute.

We're a nonprofit organization with over 30 years of experience and leadership in the community and the region focused on food security mainly, social justice, and environmental justice.

We do our work through 4 interconnected programs.

We run the Food Policy Council for Southeastern Mass.

We run 2 farm-to-food relief programs.

And we run our Grow Education Farm to School Program, the one that's being presented tonight.

We currently operate our Grow Education Farm to School Program in 7 districts with Fall River coming on board this past year.

We're also in all of the elementary schools, all 18 elementary schools in New Bedford.

We're in Wareham, Rochester, Mattapoisett, Marion, and Westport.

Took on Fall River this past year with enthusiasm because we're ready for another high-need, important school district with 11 elementary schools.

Our program focuses on specifically 3rd grade.

We go into the school, we build these raised garden beds at the school, we do professional development with the teachers, and then throughout the school year we do at least a minimum of 15 touch points with the students teaching them about plant life cycle and nutrition and where their food comes from.

A cool component of the programming here in Fall River is that we've partnered with Durfee High School and their CTE students.

So a little bit different here, we're not having to hire out a contractor to build our raised beds where we've had to do that in every other school district.

Here we're working with the CTE TE students and they're doing it as part of their capstone senior project.

We've already built the 3 garden beds for this past year.

We're at Tansey, Westall, and Weston.

Next year we'll be at 4 more schools and then the following year, which this is focused on, we'll be implementing this at the final 4 schools: Carleton Viveras, Frank Silva, Green, and Henry Lloyd.

Lord.

So we're looking for funding for the materials for the cost of those 4 remaining schools.

We have raised funding significantly already for the garden beds for the first 7 schools that we're doing.

We've also raised the funding in place for all the programming over these next couple of years too.

So we're looking for your support with the remaining schools, so we'll be able to tie this up in the 3rd year of the cohort.

3rd cohort.

If we did fund this, we'd have to put it under recreation.

Yeah, allowable use.

It's not for open space.

It would be under recreation.

And then it's been different in every school district we've been in.

So Marion, it was one, and Bedford, it was another.

So whatever you want to do.

I think it essentially qualifies as like a community garden, which fall under CPA.

Yeah.

That's what it's used for during the summertime.

We maintain the gardens during the summer.

Food is recovered.

It's given to the families of the school or in the community.

Yep.

Okay, I'll make a motion to move the project forward as eligible under the open space recreation category.

I'll second.

Roll call.

Uncle Ferris?

Yes.

Joey Bentley?

Yes.

Alexander Silva?

Yes.

Kristen Cantara-Olivera?

Yes.

John Brandt?

Yes.

Rich Mainse?

John Sylvia, yes.

All right, thank you all so much.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next is Woodland Park BMX pump track under recreation.

How you doing?

My name is Chris Dufresne, 114 Spencer Street, Fall River.

Yeah, so basically what I'm looking to do is there's a current dirt BMX pump track that's down there now.

It's been there for decades.

I rode there when I was a kid.

It comes seasonal, 5 years at a time.

Somebody will show some interest, put a little bit of effort into it, and then Mother Nature just washes it all away.

So it's very common now.

These are getting popped up all over the place.

Fairhaven just launched one this weekend.

I don't know if anyone's seen it.

I talked with the track builder.

I was there through the whole process.

I went there on Saturday.

There was 600, 700 people there.

It was crazy.

I went back there again yesterday just to see the follow-up on how it worked out.

There was— in the 3 hours I was there, it was over 100 kids there.

So the benefit to doing this is it's generational.

Once we put it in and we asphalt cover it, it just— it's there.

There's very low maintenance.

It's not gonna go nowhere.

We're gonna always convert a certain portion of it where it's gonna be for toddlers and ADA accessible.

So it's gonna be— there's only 2 other handicap accessible facilities like this in the whole entire country.

So I think utilizing that would be great.

That section of that park over there is just, it's just run down.

There's nothing going on over there besides homeless people keep moving in and out.

They go back and forth with them.

So I think bringing people into that area will help keep them people away from that area permanently.

Um, big picture, um, I feel like I've been working on this for like over a year now, made dozens of phone calls to the city just trying to say, what's the process?

Who should I speak to?

Um, Sandy was very helpful with getting me here, giving me a bunch of information that I didn't know about.

But as far as calling the city hall, And just talking to anybody that gave me any sort of direction up until literally last night.

I spoke to Linda Pereira.

Linda set me up.

I had a 2-hour meeting today with Mike Dion, which I'm also meeting with him, um, tomorrow.

He's coming down to Brooklyn Park to talk about it because we need to make sure that it's, um, through the parks, that, that area of land that we're trying to utilize.

I would have already taken care of all this in the past year.

When we spoke last year, I had just missed this meeting.

I'm again completely new to all of it, but for the last year I've kind of been sitting on my hands trying to have the park help me with what I've already done with the dirt park that's there.

I've revamped that whole area.

I brought in my own wood chips, picnic tables, trash barrels.

I was taking the debris and brush and trash and everything out of the park at my own cost and my own time and removing it because I put piles of debris down there and asked and called the City Hall, called the DPW, called the Parks Department.

I met with Darren down there multiple times, asked him for some assistance.

We didn't really get too much of it, but everything I've done down there has been on my own.

I would have had more information and more things already resolved with getting approval, getting the letter of recommendation all this other stuff, except every time I call, there's just no, like, direction.

No one.

Today I got more information between last night with Linda and with Mike today than I did the whole last year with dozens of phone calls.

As far as being, like, shovel-ready, this project with approval and funding is a very, very quick turnaround.

We put big piles of dirt up, they shape them, they asphalt them.

They did Fairhaven in like under 3 weeks.

So it's a, you know, there's a lot of different things with cleaning up that park and trying to get things for, you know, everyone.

So we, they call it BMX, but we like to look at it as like an all-wheels parks because you can skateboard, you can rollerblade.

We're gonna do one for ADA, so people in wheelchairs, and then toddlers right down to You know, every single wheeled device could be used there and every age group, right from infants to seniors.

You guys want to pick up a bike and ride on the toddler one?

You absolutely could.

You know, it's not like a skatepark where the skateparks are very focused on people that are skill-driven to ride that.

This is basically just mounds of asphalt that are just put there so people can enjoy their time.

I think it's a perfect space for it.

The space is literally just dead space.

And I mean, if we go back to the '80s, from what I've been told is the furniture shop used to be a Schwinn bicycle, and apparently there used to be a BMX track right on that very land back in the late '70s, which was all news to me.

I never heard about it, but I just think it's crazy it comes full circle that I'm trying to do this now.

It's really no benefit to me.

I'm— there's no, there's no gain in this at all for me, not one single cent.

It's just something that I think would be amazing.

I travel all over the place with my kids.

These things are amazing.

The feedback, the positivity, the people that it brings in with it being next to the bike path and all this stuff we've done with the bike paths and all this other stuff.

I just feel like it's just the icing on the cake, you know.

And it's— that's the effort many, many years.

We're not going to be replacing things every 5 years.

It's there.

I just like to say, Chris, I didn't get to meet you.

I did go there on Saturday.

Oh, you were the one?

Yeah, I talked to the guy that designed the park from Allentown, PA. Yeah, I lived when I was younger on Schuylkill Connect, West Island.

There wasn't a lot to do there.

Yep.

And to see it was designed— they got it there.

There's like million-dollar houses at the end of the road there and nobody really complained about it.

But there you couldn't even park on that side street.

You had to park like blocks away.

It was really good and all the kids were smiling.

It was a great program.

And if we can get that here— yeah.

And I mean, think about it too, right?

Like we got 100,000 people in this city.

Like Fairhaven, that's kind of like just out there.

For that to be in the city with the people that are coming in anyways for different stuff, It would be insane.

And I mean, we had like, we literally had a 2-hour meeting today.

And like the fact that, you know, we spent a bunch of money on that bathroom over there.

We spent a bunch of money on making that workout area.

If we could tie all that in and find a way to open them bathrooms, even it's for Wednesday to Sunday and have somebody semi-monitor it, like let's say quote unquote like a park ranger, somebody that's down there with the police department being so close and somebody on grounds, them bathrooms can be open.

And I do tons of recreational things all over the country, and my family stays home a majority of the time because there's no bathrooms.

My girlfriend doesn't want to go somewhere where she has to use a porta-john, so she stays home because we're not gonna go somewhere for hours on end and there's no bathrooms.

So the fact that we spent the money on that bathroom and being able to try to find a way to tie in the soccer field and the tennis courts and the pickleball courts and and the workout station that we put in the bathroom and tie it all together and figure out how to open it, I think it would be just insane.

That'd be a great— and I like the whole issue with the homeless because if you have more people there, kids, that'll push that away because there's a big problem in that area.

They've been really good.

We got— I kind of got them thrown out last year.

Um, I worked with some of the people at the police department that I know.

There was another volunteer here that went there and cleaned up all that stuff that they left behind.

They've been really good considering that we're there more often, and I, you know, whatever.

But it's still a huge problem, you know.

And with more activity there, they're just gonna find their way away.

It just— yeah, it'll move the problem, but at least— yeah, it won't be— exactly.

So, but no, I, I was very impressed.

I wish I brought my bike, but I would have looked stupid with because it was mostly little kids there.

So it was cool to see because you witnessed it.

So that track is a little bit more intermediate, right?

So that track is a little bit higher skill set.

What I'm trying to incorporate into us is making it so there's more diversity.

Instead of having just one area where everyone's going, we're gonna try to separate up into areas and then having that own toddler section and having a handicap accessible.

We're gonna be able to separate people a little bit more so everybody can enjoy it at the same pace.

Because you saw it was chaos there.

There were so many people.

Well, it was organized chaos.

Everybody was having fun.

Yeah, I was very impressed.

But yeah, so, so that's my pitch.

Sounds good.

Alrighty, so can I have a motion for recreation?

So it sounds like— and I just want to make sure you, you get ahead of this, and it sounds like you're aware of it— so you need to present us with a letter from the property owner that it's okay to do this project.

It sounds like the city hasn't provided you with anything like that yet.

No.

So, um, no, I haven't got a letter.

Are you— but you're, you're going— you're— my point is you're gonna need to get this letter.

Um, so again, through all the questions I've asked along the way, I just want— it seemed like that area was park accessible.

It was the Parks Department that owned it, and it would be eligible for, for that usage.

So yeah, it's just so similar to like the, the baseball leagues doing for Maplewood.

They're submitting the grant application, but the city's gonna actually project manage that project because it's a city park similar to this one they would have to do.

Yeah, so it's just about you're gonna have to get buy-in from the city.

I know you've been trying and stuff, but we're just gonna need that brought to us in the application.

So the way that I interpreted it today with Mike's conversation— and again, we met for over 2 hours today— from what I gathered by it is that, you know, basically at some point it's gonna go out of my hands.

Now, I did get multiple bids.

I run a construction company for a living, so I don't go off one price.

I got bids from 3 different track builders.

The price was steep.

It's a big project.

So when I spoke to Darren asked about it and I kind of gave him an idea on the price.

He was like, oh, you're gonna have to figure out how to divide it up into multiple phases because you're not gonna get the funding.

So I looked into different options with doing like a 501 where the city would like take the project on, but I would open a nonprofit to organize and coordinate it as kind of like a project manager for a nonprofit because these companies are charging just ridiculous money to do things.

Things that there's no reason for it.

So I was able to cut the cost down by over half by doing that.

But speaking to Mike today, there's just certain things, certain guidelines that have to be done certain ways that they want to do it.

And I says, you know, whatever the case is, yeah, the city will have to go out to bid.

Yeah.

So, and I understand that because I've also done work for the city and I understand how it works.

I was just offering and trying to find out if there was a way that we could navigate around that to try to eliminate them gouging of prices where, you know, I could run it through my business or we could do a nonprofit or whatever to try to keep them costs down to make the project happen.

I don't want a dollar for it.

Like, that's not what the point of this is.

So, but I'm gonna meet again tomorrow with Mike.

We're gonna talk about more stuff.

He's gonna give me more guidance.

He's supposed to meet with the mayor and then You know, we're gonna go from there with it.

But yeah, I just want you to make sure you understand that if it seems like you're not gonna be able to get that letter for one reason or another, that's a deciding factor.

100%.

Yeah.

Okay.

100%.

I, I understand that.

And unfortunately, like I said, I would have already been way ahead of that.

I think we all understand.

What's that?

Presented to the park board?

So the only thing, um, the park board itself, no.

Because once again, I was never— no one ever led me down that path because believe me, I would have done it.

Um, but the only person I spoke to from Parks was Darren, and I've met with him multiple times.

I spoke to him multiple times.

We've kind of gone over it.

He's known about this.

I literally started this over a year ago.

Um, I started doing the, the renovation of what's there now, which, you know, welcome anybody to go and check check it out to see what we've done with dirt.

I mean, I've gotten— I was there yesterday.

Oh, you were?

So you've seen what I did over there?

I, I walked through there.

Okay.

Yeah, so I mean, it's so much work, and I'm doing it with just one other volunteer aside from running my business, aside from having kids that play at Maplewood Park, you know, just all over the map.

And it's just an immense amount of work.

And I don't know if you've seen the pile of brush over by where the big blue top is.

I have literally been begging them to just get rid of that.

For several months.

I asked Chris Peckham, I've left messages for Chris Hathaway, and it's like, just a little bit, that's all I'm asking for.

It's a couple piles of brush, a couple trips.

But again too, I mean, a lot of positive feedback just in what we've done over there.

A lot of people returning every weekend, more people coming out saying, you know, this is amazing what you're doing.

There's some people did some Facebook posts about it, which I'm not looking for credit for nobody.

That's not what this is for.

I just think it would be truly amazing, you know, just growing up in the city and having that.

I think it would be just phenomenal.

Okay, so I would just make one recommendation that you probably should reach out to Dan Aguiar.

Okay, he's the Director of Engineering and Planning.

He's doing a bunch of park projects for the city, and he's used grant money for this as well.

Okay, he might be an advocate to help you through this process.

Okay, yeah, and the grant writer, I just came light to me like the last few days that you have grant writers to do different things, you know, like a couple other ideas that I had long run over there was maybe doing like a playground, which then I'm like, oh, there's grants for that.

And just different things, you know, I'd like to do like an outdoor pavilion over there by the water's edge.

I would love to clean up all that brushery by the water.

I mean, there's just so much stuff down there.

It's such a great area that's just gone to shit because, yeah.

I would strongly advise you sit before the Park Board.

Yeah, well.

What do they meet, the first Wednesday of the month?

First Wednesday, yeah.

And I can, if you want to do it, we can set it up for this next agenda.

You know, we haven't set the agenda yet, so I could talk to Darren and get you on the agenda.

Yeah, I mean, like I said, I would love to.

I mean, whatever, and I've been begging people pretty much this whole time.

Like, whatever guidance you can give me in whatever direction, just point me to the right person and I'll figure something out from there to just, you know, try to make it happen.

And again, just not, not a lot of feedback from it.

I mean, Sandy was literally the most helpful person in the last year to try to point me in the right direction up until yesterday.

And Linda was great too, you know, she gave me tons of advice.

I was on the phone with her at 8:30 last night, but I just wish it was earlier, you know.

Yeah.

So, and I didn't want to not show up today because that's not how I operate.

So we'll— I'll talk to Darren.

Okay.

See if we can get you on the park board.

Okay.

But I know that I was talking to the park supervisor in Fair Haven.

Yeah.

And they dealt with a lot of it, you know, from what they had said.

So yeah.

But maybe I can reach out to him.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Perfect.

Let's get back to them.

So I'll make a motion to move, uh, this project forward as eligible under the open space recreation category.

I will second.

Okay, I have a second.

Roll call.

Michael Ferris, yes.

Joanne Bentley, yes.

Alexander Silva, yes.

Kristen Cantaro, yes.

John Bryant, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

John Sylvia, yes.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Good luck.

All righty, next, uh, any project updates?

Just the— as I mentioned, with the Children's Museum, they finished that phase of putting the roofing on and the copper gutters.

So it's done.

I recently stopped by the Historical Society.

Things are progressing at the roofline.

Everything's looking great.

They put some kind of plaster on to help with the water drainage of what, you know, they don't have gutters on the entire roofline, so it's quite interesting.

And the cupola and everything that a lot of people will never see looks amazing up there.

And then we also, Michael and I, went to Christ the Rock, and I'll share some pictures.

The work they've done there is really amazing, but The last piece that they presented on, it's a cause for concern for sure.

And it is worth noting that it's the street and sidewalk-facing sides that are left.

Okay.

The Little Theater is progressing very nicely.

That roof is looking good and it's— when they finish, it's a 100-year roof again.

Good thing.

He's doing a really good job with the city.

He is doing a nice job.

Okay, new business.

The only thing I could add under new business is the CPA State put up a new website.

So if you wanted to go on there, a lot of ideas, especially this time.

Go under technical, like if there's something there that you want to see if any other community has done it, you can put technical type out what you want to research and it'll give you every project that was done in that category.

So that's always useful sometimes to see what they did and, you know, what they asked for.

So that's the only thing I have to add.

Motion to adjourn.

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Second.

Roll call.

Michael Farris.

Yes.

Joanne Bentley.

Yes.

Alexander Silva.

Yes.

Kristen Cantara Oliver.

Yes.

Yes.

Rick Manfredini.

Yes.

John Sylvia.

Yes.

I— Alex.