1.14.2026 Community Preservation Committee

Uh 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 unpersceived by those present and deemed acknowledged and permissible. We'll start with roll call to my right. BJ McDonald Chris Benvites Rick Mancini James Hornby John Brandt Kristen Canara Olivera Alexander Silva Michael Faras Joan Belly All righty. Uh no citizen input.

Nope.

Next up is approval of minutes to approve.

I was going to make a motion to actually approve all of the minutes. The minutes from September 15th, 2025, January 8th, 2026, and January 9th, 2026.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay. Roll call. Am I right?

BJ McDonald, yes.

Chris Benvites, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

James Hornsby, yes.

John Brandt, yes. Kristen Canara Oliver, yes.

Alexander Sylvia, yes.

Michael Faras, yes.

Joey Belly, yes.

Okay. Uh, tonight's meeting is deliberation of our projects for the upcoming year.

Uh,

your biggest question is probably what do we have for funding this year? Sandy did pass out a few things.

uh for us to get a little better understanding. We're probably going to have somewhere between 1.5 1.8 come back from the state this year. Uh we do have some outstanding that hasn't uh been returned to us but is on the books. We are going to meet next week with the um Emily to see if we can get those back into the right accounts. Um, so if we do somewhere along the lines, we'd end up

around 3.2 million to do funding this year. Sounds like a lot, but we got a lot of projects with uh some big tickets. Um, so we did talk about the uh maybe the ability to uh bond a few projects. Uh her recommendation was to kind of stay away from she thought we could do it within our capital layout.

Uh but since all projects are kind of shovel ready this year, I don't see how we could spread that out over the years because they're going to be done this year. Uh so that's something we could take into uh consideration too. The in the past we've got kind of been misled when it came to bonding because like our central fire station and the fire museum uh we have next year will be our last

payment on it. We have yet to start work on either project. So, uh, it's kind of a misuse of our our money. I mean, it'll be paid for, but it's not how we kind of like to work. Emily had suggested that she doesn't go out the bonding till the pro uh invoices start coming in. So, the money wouldn't go out right away like uh we have done in the past. So, uh that I

kind of liked. Um the the fire museum though, they did do some work that was on past.

Oh, okay. So, what we wanted for hasn't been done. I know energetic. So, um so with that, um I don't know if there was any questions on that, but we'll have more information before we do the voting uh the 26th.

Just one question. What it um [clears throat] does the $3 million break down roughly a million dollars for each of the categories?

Well, thank you. No, we uh uh it's I think it's 10% each category and the rest undesated 10% each category. So we don't have any housing this year. So if we have the uh whether it's 1.5 or 1.8 and say it's 1.8, we have to take 180,000 and put that into housing. Okay.

Uh every other category we're probably going to use. Uh we do have an outstanding balance in uh housing already. Uh so that would just add to it. Uh coming out uh we do have uh the bond for the fire stations which is 221,292.

Um we have the bio reserve which is 78,000 and administration uh 45,000. So that's 344,292 coming off excuse me 1.8 Could you explain the reserve 78?

That's what we bonded for um that was for land acquisition.

That's why I'm asking what that was land acquisition we did and that was a 10-year bond and I'm not quite sure that was Y it was uh year uh Y 10 year bond that's 2036.

Well no this was taken out in Y19 FY19.

So we're six years into it.

So, we got a few years left on that one.

Okay.

Our worry.

Thank you.

I think that helps the public too to see how it's broken down.

Can you also just kind of go over this table that's in here that I think Sandy put together with the I think it breaks it down by category. Is that what you mean as far as like what's remaining?

That's what's could come back to us. In the private side, we had the uh uh 672,642.

We had some incumbent. We're not quite sure if that's spent or what on that.

[clears throat] And then on the public side, we had 212,140.90.

So that brings us to the uh $96300,000.

So when you say coming back, sorry to interrupt. I just want money not used.

It didn't get used either. It was we gave them it was came in under budget.

They didn't do it. Whatever it is, I'll leave those. Yeah, you will see uh I think some of it's on this sheet uh the second sheet here like the Notre Dame um project we did the uh what was that? The uh elevator the elevator.

Y uh they turned that money back in. So that was $100,900.

Uh we didn't do a couple of things there that uh didn't come uh to fulfillment, so that came back to us. And then um so this 1.7 on here is money coming back. It isn't necessarily what we've picked up this year.

No, that that to be the this year will be somewhere around 1.8.

So that's why we put the 1.5 just to have it a little lower.

And just for like clarification, this is coming back from all years since far has had the community preservation act passed. So it's not something that we can expect, you know, every other year or something. This is like an accumulation of [clears throat] the whole time so far.

The last time we cleaned it up was probably three years ago. So this is a cleanup chart.

Yes.

Yeah.

And that's why you said 3.2 because there's 1.7 in call overspend or overbudget that could come back and then there'll be around 1.5 or so we think that we would typically get.

Yeah.

Yes. like the water street project. Uh we we took that money back when the building went up for sale. So that money's in there. There's a couple big ticket items in there that uh that happens to be. So it brings us to the 1.7.

And then forgive my ignorance too, but on the um the state match. So that would be on top of No, the state match right now uh we put in as a city we put in uh like 1.5.

The state match so far I think is like 245 280 somewhere around there off the top of my head.

Sometimes we do get another addition to that if the governor okays it but right now you can plan on the 1.5 and the two 240.

Okay.

Yeah.

So John, for our del for our purposes this evening, we should assume the 1.5 and not take into consideration this money that will come back.

Well, we can uh I would take into consideration the 1.5 and then take into consideration we could bond some of the projects. We have had mention of taking uh open space projects and doing that.

So that's something we can discuss tonight as we go on. But also tonight is a good time to uh if there's a project that you feel is a good public need uh is a good night to bring that up and highlight that project if it's uh something you feel would be very good for the community. So don't feel you know we don't want to commit on a project but do bring it to the forefront

that you think it's a good idea and a good project and and say a project that might have uh uh well we could bring up windows.

Can can Sandy just come up and explain um a little further? Yeah. Any other questions?

Yeah.

Uh say there's a project with windows, four sides. We can pick say the north side, 12 windows. So when you're deliberating tonight, if you want to mention that in any projects, what you would want to see done, maybe not the whole scope, but what you think should be done, you can put that into deliberation remarks on this potential 1.7 that might might come back. What would the timing of that be? Do we know

that we were said would be very quickly the next couple Well, we're going to meet with Emily and we'll have a better idea. I did send her an email this afternoon with all this data.

So, we're not looking at the 1.5 plus the 1.7.

No, we are.

Okay. So, let me explain.

The 1.7 is contingent on the city finance department over so it's it's at their pace, you know. just for me if if I'm am I working with 1.7 am I working with 1.5 or am I working with 3.2 two al together. That's what I'm trying to get to.

And the the simple answer is you don't know.

Okay.

We definitely know 1.5.

It is. Okay. We're we'll know by the hopefully by the time.

Yeah. So, like John said, the the state the city has 1.5, the state's match is 2.45. So, technically you can think of $1,745,000.

So that's basically what you got this year. Now, if we're lucky, if finance can work with us and get this money, this 1.71964944 in here, we can add that to 174500.

That's where I was going. But remember in here BJ to your question these are the p these are all the projects that had the amounts that are coming back. So like John said um NRAAME was a private project and they didn't do the project the money came back to us. Um then you have the third street third street school river to recovery those projects never even happened. So all

that money is coming back. So what I did is this total I just put on a cover sheet for you to make it easy kind of quickly, but this is more detailed on where every single dollar came from. So when you're looking at that 1.7964944, you need to also look at historic preservation because you can't use all of that anywhere you want. You can use 963,349.90 for historic preservation.

You can use the 65539954 for open space of recreation. And you can use but you you're not going to use housing because there are no housing projects. But when you look at it, you're looking at the fact that you have almost a million extra dollars this year for historic preservation. and you're looking at maybe 655,000 plus for open space and recreation.

Those dollars can't go anywhere else but those categories.

Okay? So, just think of it this way. If this money goes back, those are the two categories you have extra money to spend this year because like John mentioned, 1.8 has to go into housing. That's coming right off the top. Uh, if you look at the score now, I might as well go over the score sheet with you while I'm here. Hang on.

That was 180,000.

Yeah.

180,000.

So, if you take out your score sheet that I I it's a draft, so it's a working document for me. Um, so these are all the projects that are up this year. And at the bottom you're going to see deed restriction and projects. That's because these projects have been awarded in the past, but they have not received deed restrictions. So in this allocation, I'm asking that you fund those projects just for the deed

restrictions. So we can actually get them drafted and finally filed. You have a couple of projects um that you're voting on like recreation, the eagle.

you can build that into whatever you're going to give them for money this year if you fund them. If they don't get funded, then we have to think about lineiding that deed restriction for them because they have to have a deed restrictions because we funded them in the past and they still don't have one.

Um, so all that has to get added. Your two bonds have to get added. The admin has to get added before you can even start allocating projects.

Okay?

So you're looking and okay and on the bottom the last sheet I just put another little section you've got another $2,750 in reserved for open space. So that's even more money now you have this year for open space. You got another almost $3,000.

You can use that. That's already in there.

And then you have 80,000.

That's the community housing. So, you don't even have to look at that.

Anything with community housing, don't even look at because you don't have any community housing projects. Um, but you'll see the two bonds are in the in the dock area. Those are all your fixed courses. Your your fixed costs are your bonds, your admin. Um, basically it. And then your fixed courses this year that automatically are going to be your 180 for housing and then your 650 and I've got 1300 in for

the fisc house because it's a historic preservation and a community that uh grant that they got. So he's going to have to draft two deed restrictions on that project. That one that's why that one has more money in it.

So you can use this as your working document tonight and just kind of say okay so I like the father Kelly parking.

I want to fund it in full and put the amount there and you know so you're ready for voting so you can use this tonight as your working document.

Thank you.

Yes.

Just a question on this uh preservation restrictions for both housing and historic on the fisk house. Can we not combine that preservation restriction is a preservation restriction. It's all-encompassing.

Rather than have two separate, they usually do the housing separate and then a community development holds that restriction where the historic commission holds the historic preservation restrictions. He's always done them separate. We've always done separate housing restrictions.

I mean, it's up to a committee, I guess.

That secures both.

Yeah.

Quick.

All right. We can we can check with the attorney.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. There's on here um which form say on the the one that we were looking at with the the deed restrictions.

Oh yes.

So cathedral St. Mary's Bellator would require 650 first congregational church exterior work. Why is that one only 500?

Um the first congregational Oh, you know what?

I deleted some spaces so it went off.

That should be for the massive soy because they already got 150 when I deleted when I went. That's what I mean.

I need to um reformat this. When I went to format it, it threw my my spaces off.

Okay.

So, they're all 650 except for the um mastery master soy because you already gave them 150, but then as we moved on with the deed restrictions, the attorney required 650. So, we've had to add that extra $500 in there. Thank you.

Okay. So, I'll I will absolutely be reformatting this. I just did this really quick this afternoon, so it's it's going to need a little bit more tweaking.

Any other questions for Sandy?

Yeah, Sandy, is it possible to meet with you? I didn't see this these particular sets of papers and you didn't identify them.

Oh, yeah. That's because I did them last minute, right?

Like today and last night.

I was saying at the meeting here.

Yeah.

I can after you finished most of your presentation.

So I didn't really understand.

I can sit with you. Yep. I can meet you and I can meet and go over it.

Okay. And we can we can make arrange that after the meeting.

Friday sometime.

Yeah. Friday. Well, we can talk about it after this meeting.

So Saturday, Thursday, tomorrow, you know, not too long. We'll work it out.

You're not doing anything tonight, you know.

But all righty. All right. Moving on to the first project, which was uh the Father Kelly uh improvement project, park improvement project.

Um [clears throat] this project I kind of like because it's tying in with uh the uh what the city's doing with Globe Four Corners. So, it kind of rejuvenates that area. Uh the park with the softball league being one of the uh best softball uh leagues in the city. Does have a lot of parking.

So, they could use the uh parking there for the uh events and all that. And it would add extra uh picnic tables and stuff for the uh neighborhood there, which I think would be a nice additive.

Um, this is one that we were thinking would might be uh suitable for a bond and it is on our uh [clears throat] our uh open space recreation plan for the city. Uh, so anyone have any Yes. I had spoken uh with someone who actually lives right near there and is very much in support of this project because of the fact that she's in favor.

They are in favor. Yes, because they said that at night the park is very dark and they're really looking forward to the upgraded lighting in the park because of how dark it actually is. And they said besides put throwing light, it would it would keep it safer like it would add an element of safety in and putting extra lighting. So lighting is in like the pedestrian lighting, not the field lighting or

the lighting that we're putting in that that they want to put in. Yeah.

The the only consideration that came up when it was brought in front of the park board was um uh long-term parking and how that could be managed if people are parking there overnight if there's the potential because it's of where it's located heavily populated. So, it was kicked around. I don't think it's in any way a deterrent for approving the project or moving forward with it, but I think it's

a consideration for, you know, people leaving their cars there to plow. you know, they got to plow, they got to clean up there, and if people are parking overnight or long term, um, that's just one thing that came up with the park board as far as how to maybe potentially curb some of that so that it's used for the park for the softball leagues and that type of stuff and not necessarily um the off- streetet parking

for people that live over there.

Now, like South Park, uh, where the pavilions are, you have parking in there. How do you control that? It's a little different though because I feel like that's a little further away. This is kind of right outside, you know, there are multifamilies all up and down that street. So, and the parking is always tight.

Um, so it was just it came up in conversation with the parkboard, so I just wanted to mention it.

Can they be fined for parking there if they're not supposed to or?

I don't know. Um, they talked about like maybe just having a chain at night, but then somebody's got to do it. And so, um, again, I'm in support of the project.

The park board was in support of the project, but it was just something that came up. So, if anyone has any ideas on how to, you know, maybe help manage some of that stuff, that was Yeah, I could see like a swing gate, but then again, we only have one shift. Uh, you know, this too bad somebody couldn't spin by and close the gate at, you know, right?

Okay.

Sure.

I can make recommendations offline. We run into this all the time. One of the suggestions would be is you typically have from uh dawn to dusk in this particular case these are night games and during the seasons. So what we do is we have 45 minutes after the lights go off. So usually after a half an hour after the game the lights go off and you have to be out and what you will be what

you'll have uh transpire is that you'll get ticketing because if you don't want to have overnight parking with the neighbors on that that's one way to control that. So that's there's a bunch of different alternatives I can talk to you offline.

Thank you for all of that. But money revenue too there.

So that Mr. Chairman I Yes, I've been down there and I looked north at Kelly Park. I'm still not quite sure where the parking lot's going to go, but that's another uh meaning when I walk around it. Okay.

Right. You know where the Chinese restaurant is?

Yeah.

Right across the street. They would cut an opening right there and there'd be like 15 spots in there and then picnic tables, lighting, and all that would go in there where the airplane used to be.

Oh, okay. That's right. Yeah, the airplane's gone. I, you know, I forgot that after taking my kids.

It's going to go right there where the airplane used to be.

Um, I just have one. This seems like, if I could continue, this seems like a lot of money to spend for Did he say 17 parking places?

Well, it's parking plus park improvements, picnic tables, lighting.

Okay, I'm not objecting to the to the picnic to the lighting. I mean, I hear the neighbors on this, but and it clearly won't help the neighbors, the neighborhood parking problem because the main the main need for parking is when people are not at work.

I mean, where I live, there's no problem St. Luke's church. Oh boy. No problem at all during the daytime at night. I'm glad we have a small lot.

Oh, the same is true there. I go down that that road a lot of times. Glo Globe Street by the park.

Um I don't have an answer. I also know that the uh that the applicant doesn't have an answer either and well this is focused on parking for visiting the park so that it really won't help the neighbors.

No, it will. It will if you think about it because when they come home from work a lot of times it's at the same time when they're having games which is usually supper time or right after supper. So if you've got all those people that are trying to play the games taking up all the parking spaces on the street then the people that live there have nowhere to park their cars. Whereas

if you have a parking lot for the people that are playing the games it leaves more parking available for the neighbors on the street.

Yeah. It's a good point. It's a good point. still I don't see it as as a high as as high a priority. I'll go back and look and I've been over to Father Kelly and enough times.

Okay.

So, I just have one quick question and one comment. How much do we have for parks and open space? Because this is a huge chunk of it. It's $500,000.

Uh first of all, what what is the number that you're allocating? Do you think we have roughly?

That's like we said, we discussed uh we could uh bond a few projects.

We have what we just said uh 6 180,000 650 which goes for it.

Yeah, we have six 670 then 180. But then you can vote more out of whatever it is.

We got to do 180 in each category.

So So do do we have a ballpark number?

What what we have? I mean, just a a ballpark number is it we talking about 900,000 a million dollars uh for open space and wreck on on this 2027 including potentially the bonding and the money coming in.

Yeah, it would be the 655399 which is supposed to be what's coming back plus another 180,000 being put in that category that we're going to have besides whatever else we have in our that we're getting back.

If we took our open space and uh put it together comes to 2 million $70,000.

Okay. So, we have roughly two just say $2 million to this. That's what those That's more digestible uh projects would cost.

That's more digestible for 500,000.

No, that's what it would cost. That's the cost of all the open space projects.

That's not what we have to give.

So, what do we have roughly if you're just going to throw a ballpark number at what this is? Because if you're going to take a a a good chunk of this for one project, what I would suggest is because we did get a breakdown of cost to this and I think it's a good project and I also think the timing with the roadway work is excellent, but perhaps that some

of the ancillary stuff that you may not do right now, you might just put the the the uh the curb cuts in, the road in, and the parking in and call it a day.

and the other one and you fund that because the timing and sequencing with the roadway works and then they basically have so for instance I'd suggest that they put in the utility underwork uh so that maybe they come for funding and they do the lights later they do the benches later they do the sidewalks later just do whatever you need to do that coincides with the work on the road

and then you have some money you know you're not giving it all to them I'm just concerned that this is the first project it's a good project I like the project, but you're going to spend all your money on on that one project. And then we've got another 20 something.

Yeah, that's all down.

That's why we talked about bonding for and they also submitted this, if I'm not mistaken, as a capital improvement as a part of the capital improvement plan, too. So, there is potentially city dollars if we said, you know, we'll give a piece of it and look for the city to kick it in the ass. Yeah. This raises another issue for me and which is true through a lot of the projects that the city applies for

probably with the exception of the fire reserve and that is the city departments themselves seem got a park guy here underfunded.

Sure.

And that's why we're getting them.

Is that fair? That's fair. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, every department's going to ask for, you know, everything and I think you, you know, they figure it out every year, but um yeah, I mean, there's there's never enough money to go around.

Yeah, I guess.

Right. [clears throat] Okay. You've answered that one. I but I I hate to be the I hate to be an adjunct to the city city budget.

Well, just a just a thought. So, we go through all the projects and see what we do like, what we don't like, and we have a better idea of maybe where we're leaning. Then we can decide, do we want to group things together and bond for them or do we want to try and fun them outright? Because right now trying to decide that without having looked at any of the projects is kind of jumping the

without knowing what our dollar is.

And [clears throat] this when you talk about just doing like the uh the parking lot if we somehow end up with money that we don't have then that's where we bring out saying we'll do the parking lot this year and the you know infrastructure the lighting and utilities and then but like but like you said bonding on projects that are ready to go Yeah. is a better way to do it because

we we did bond for things that weren't ready. These are ready to go.

Yeah.

So, something to consider, Alex.

So, I think this is a good example of a type of project that is only kind of ever going to come into fruition with the help of CPA funds. Um, I think we who live in the city know that a lot of these kind of new capital improvement projects are often bumped down in terms of like other needs with maintenance and stuff. So, in order to have like these kinds of new projects, I think CPA is

really important for that. Um, going back even before my time on the committee, which has been pretty brief, I believe the committee has always kind of asked the city for this type of application where it's proactive. it synergizes with other projects and is just for the public good. This is the first year since I've been on the committee that we've I've seen a city application like this and as as well as

this and we've gotten a couple of them and as has been mentioned this is one of the ones that is pretty shovel ready with an aggressive timeline. It coincides with the existing project. So I think I think that is an accurate timeline. Um bonding has been mentioned and I do think bonding this year is a strong and and good possibility that we should keep in mind as we deliberate especially municipal open space and

recreation projects. Um I think those uh just naturally may come together and uh even if you are hesitant to consider the uh 1.7 million coming back from past grant applications you know whether it's a week or a year if we bond it. um that kind of builds in some protection in terms of when that comes back. So, I think that we should just keep that in mind. And I think this is a really good application.

And one other thing to keep in mind, too, um we did ask for a breakdown, a budget, so that we would have that because there were really no financials submitted other than just the the 500,000. He did get that to us right away, timely fashion, perfect, exactly what we asked for. So, as far as I'm concerned, it is a really good project.

And just to mention for like community benefit, without this project, there's already going to be a net loss of park parking because of the Globe Street project. So without it, there's a net loss of parking in the neighborhood and how that would impact residents. The park lo 13 spots like something comes to There was a net gain, I think, of 15, he said, with this. So I'm not quite sure how many that.

All right, we'll move on to the uh Columbia Canal Street uh parklet. Uh another um it's 400,000 open space. Uh this is going to tie in with redoing all of uh Columbia Street, which would be I think it's, you know, when you go to eat, you go to Columbia Street. Uh I think we miss out on a lot of uh promoting that street instead of calling a little Portuguese or something like we have

Federal Hill. We have the opportunity there to jump in with them redoing this and do that park and turn it into a first class for the uh neighborhood. I I see it as being a a good, you know, Yep.

good project for us because it puts us out there. We were part of a major project the city did and it's in the waterfront cultural district as well.

So that's that's a big deal.

So discussion I I support this project as well. I also think it's an excellent uh opportunity not only to showcase the city but show showcase the city globally. We have people from all over the world that come in for the uh different events um uh the festivals, the feast, the parades etc.

and of course the food as well. But um yeah support it. Uh again I think these are all good projects. the last two. I'm glad the city has put these in. Uh it's just a matter of looking at uh because there are other projects as well that are are um top-notch as well and uh figuring out the the finances to that.

Mr. Chairman, this is just the changing the subject just two minutes. the uh Roger Williams University students and and professor have done a pro bono uh form B form C study of the waterfront cultural district and it's it's completed and it's being presented at the historic commission meeting on January the 20th in this room at 6:00.

So if you want to they also did this this particular plet here and did a study of that so they can give you a lot of history. So, if you're interested on the 20th, that's next Tuesday.

That's next Tuesday evening at 6 in this room.

Okay.

Anything else? And that does fall under our uh open space recreation plan too.

And the other thing too is we asked for a breakdown on this one as well for financials. We did get that.

Okay. Alex, I just want to reiterate everything I said before, but also point out that there is existing public parking that public parking lot right across the street. So, it synergizes really well with that in addition to the Columbia Street renovation project. Um, and I do enjoy the the at least approach to remove the pavers in the upper level and make it more green space and possibly

save some of the older trees to kind of have a denser greenery.

Sounds good. Uh next, are we done with that? Okay. Next, moving on. We're to the uh for river waterworks complex repair shed.

This one got withdrawn last year. I mean, we just not fund it. We just not So, one thing I'll say about this, I don't consider it a complete application because we did ask for a breakdown and that was not given to us.

Okay.

move on.

Well, it depends on if everybody else feels the same way.

I don't think it's as high [clears throat] a priority as but I don't think it's a complete application. We asked for something complete.

I'd agree with that.

I don't It's not a high priority item for me.

I mean, it's hard to discuss when we didn't get information that we wanted.

So, yep.

Any discussion?

Yep.

Okay.

Then um [clears throat] next is a public repair station wash house at Anarondac Farms Bio Reserve uh discovery center. [sighs] I'll start again. I consider this an incomplete application because we did not get the breakdown that we asked for as well on this.

Okay. Anyone else to discuss?

Thanks.

I just want to say this one especially would be have been really important to have that breakdown because of the different components and possibly scaling it back scaling back the scope.

So, it's a little unfortunate we didn't get the breakdown.

Yeah, I I agree with that. I think if we had known what the diff that's an awful lot of money for I'm not exactly sure what the different parts are. If it simply needs to be a comfort station, do you need the bike repair? like what what what did the money go for for the different parts and we just don't know.

So, I'm having a hard time uh saying, you know, agreeing on this one.

Yeah, it's hard to say because they're doing it right now. So, we don't even know what they're doing at Anonda Farm.

So, how does this tie in? If we just funded some, would it help benefit?

It's always nice to have a restroom when you go someplace, but like do you need the rest? And I don't know how much is that component of the overall amount that they're asking for.

You would think they would have a restroom there doing the And farm discovery center. I mean, so what they did say in the application was that this was a temporary short-term comfort station while the main building is being rehabbed.

And that's probably true. Um, and u I as a cyclist I'm not in love with the I'm not in love with us spending money on a bicycle repair place. Okay.

Okay. I just wanted clarification because I know um when we first started funding it was stated that if the committee gets an incomplete application it is not considered for funding. So, am I to assume in my minutes and sending follow-up letters that because they're incomplete applications, they are disqualified for the funding round?

I would say yes.

We would need to do votes.

No, not totally.

All right.

That's what was mentioned at the beginning that if they weren't complete, they would be disqualified. Well, if we need to make a vote, then I'm going to make a motion for the Fall River Waterworks complex repair shed and the public repair station and wash house for Aderondac Farms Discovery Center to be taken off of our deliberations because they are incomplete projects.

Do I have a second?

Which Could you repeat the motion? Which two projects were there two projects?

The waterworks complex repair shed. The one that just this one?

No, the the one before it, the waterworks repair shed and this one and the the Aderondac farm repair station and those two.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Right.

So, my motion is consider those incomplete and take those off of our second. Okay.

So, we got motion and second by Jim. Uh, roll call.

Jim McDonald. Yes. Chris Benvites, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

James Winsby, yes. John Brent, yes.

Kristen Canara, yes.

Alexander Sylvia, yes.

Michael Farius, yes.

Joan Bentley, yes.

Okay.

Then moving on to the historic uh property survey for the bio reserve area. Uh this is again to finish up the what they started down there. um kind of short money, 33,000. I kind of like the project to finish it off.

Any uh comments, Alex?

I just would like to say and always like to say with these forb projects that the cost benefit for these types of projects is kind of immeasurable. These formbs will be used by countless people for decades for all kinds of things from you know ancestral research to like researching your home, researching the air, all kinds of research. So just the cost value to these types of projects I

I don't I really can't think they compare to many other things.

Yeah, I totally agree.

Right.

Plus the fact that um if anybody had the chance to see the presentation that was done for the first part of this project was amazing. The things that they discovered in the bio reserve and and the historic value of these things and I am so excited to find out what else they're going to find in this because it was fascinating. So, if you haven't had the chance, I do believe that the

presentation is it on the historical commission's page?

Yes, it is. It's also on YouTube.

Okay. I recommend if you're at all interested in history and especially in the B reserve, you need to watch that presentation.

This the second phase uh at this point has discovered 43 additional sites uh that have to be investigated. the the pot one was 81 site. So, we're going to be able to add and a lot of these are uh really areas that should be protected and that's the benefit of this. This then becomes gets some federal protection on the properties. So, it's it's it's worth every dime that's put into this really is.

Yep.

Okay. Any further discussion?

All righty. Moving on to the next one is uh property weight and parcel W15-0073 land protection. This is to put a a deed restriction documents on uh uh 34.93 acres. Again, short money, but it preserves the land and protects it. I find it to be a good project.

Discussion.

I think it's relatively short money on this one as well and it does uh solidify the uh the parcelable plan that uh are in question as well as the last historical u component of this with that I think it's a good project and what it does though is it protects the watershed more so because of the fact that it's not going to be any there's going to be no building on there

for contamination and the water the primary groundwater supply runs to our wershed. So this is valuable protection for future generations to have good clean water supply.

Yep.

All right. Uh we're moving on then I guess uh Samson parcel uh land protection. Um now normally um when they go out to buy a property they do uh seem to get other funding coming in. So this might be one to put out for bonding not knowing what it could come in at 600,000.

It could come in cheaper. Um but open space I always think we should save land as much as possible. And this is uh right next to Anderondac farm. So that uh starts creating a big parcel of protected land by the water.

It does go right down to the water.

Do we know if they signed the PNS? I know.

I think they said they did.

They signed the PNS.

Cuz I know at the last meeting they hadn't yet, but they have since then.

Well, I thought they did.

I thought he said that they did.

Oh, I thought he the attorney still had it. That was my understanding. I believe they said that it wasn't kind of like a handshake deal, but it was but we can clarify like it was it will be in the the meeting video.

And then the other note that I had from their conversation was that he said there was a 60% match from the state.

Yeah.

They're waiting to see. Yeah.

Okay.

So they may which means we could still get money coming back but it's it'll be decided in April. But it's a good bonding project if we decide to go with the timeline they had signed PNS uh December 25th uh December last this year last year it I also got the feeling from from the discussion only that they're in the process of negotiations and there uh need to move on it

the land grant application is was is due January 8th Um the land grant is awarded in May.

Oh yeah.

So I meant the acquisition.

Yeah. So that if they got any extra money that will come in in I think they'll get some money from Yeah. They normally state grant. What I'm pointing out is simply that uh this you don't want to lose this opportunity.

No, I agree. Any discussion?

[clears throat] The only thing I would I would say it's it's a large number 7 uh $20,000 $720,000.

um what maybe um it would be advantageous if they were to get that other grant money and perhaps maybe we just fund it for what the difference between the two are because if again at the end of the day we end up bonding this it's still coming out of our first if we put it in our bond schedule uh it 720 wouldn't go out if they came in and they only needed 300,000 from us

that's what we would bond for Okay so so are we on the hook for the 720,000 if we don't if they don't get the grant.

No, no. Just if they don't get the grant, then yes, that's what we would be bonding for.

Thank you. That I the bond.

Again, this particular parcel is protecting the water supply. It it's it runs very close to the water outside of that small strip of land from the utility company. It's on the water on our waterhed. And that again redundant, but the water runs in that direction to the wershed. So it's it's it's a we don't want to have homes built on there with all these septic systems.

And you could easily because it's 10 plus acres.

Yes, it is correct. This is a really good investment to protect long-term the city of four river water supply.

Yeah, I agree with Rick and I think it's a perfect example of what we should bond for.

Yeah.

Okay, we'll move on to the next one then. Uh, Abbott Court sensory playground.

Uh, I was very impressed with that and um the excitement that uh and the energy for the presentation. I would be very much in favor of this project.

Yeah, I think it's be great for the community. I wish they would have came in with a little actually asking for a little more money because from hearing what the other communities are doing.

I maybe this is phase I think we should be just as good as New Bedford and everybody else. So I think we but I think they're going to come back again next year and uh maybe expand or add more.

Yeah, this is a this is a perfect example of public private partnership here. Um I do a lot of park projects. one having a sensory uh project uh park project here in the city um is a showcase for the city within itself. Uh they are expensive but the reality of it is I love the fact that they came to the table with not just um their own funding their their resources but also the

support. Um this has actually um uh garnered a lot of attention uh in the surrounding communities and throughout the state of Massachusetts.

with that. Um again, it's a very very welld [clears throat] deserved project.

Yeah. And this does fall under our open space recreation uh upcoming which with the projects that uh come before us tonight that are on open space, a lot of times as we sat down and and looked at our open space from 2018 to 2025, a lot of things did not get covered. The little things uh we just hit on quite a few. So, if we can fund these projects, we're actually

putting a dent in a plan that normally just sits on a shelf. We're actually reacting to it. So, another good project and they're ready to go.

And they're ready to go as well.

And again, it's short money when you look at total cost project. So, they're not coming in and looking for 100% funding. They're they're raising funds and they're constantly working towards their goals. So this is just the where these monies should be spent as an adjunct to help you. Not not we're not the banking system. We're here to assist and that's perfectly [clears throat] good place.

Mhm.

Yes.

I support.

Okay. Any other comments? All right.

Next, moving on to uh Maplewood Park, Griffin Park, Highland Park, North Park, Chup Park, Rugles Park, Lafayette Park.

uh resurfacing uh uh anything from uh I guess pickle ball to basketball courts to tennis courts.

Um they're looking for 250 I think. Uh uh Darren said uh the true amount's probably somewhere around 180. Um that is on our open space recreation uh plan too. Uh again that ties in with the open space. We wanted to go that route. Uh so discussion I think just to Jim's point earlier with the um the parks in the budget and you know the the capital improvement plan that everybody's looking forward to

seeing this year um there hasn't been a ton of money in that budget for these type of maintenance projects. So um Darren is the new parks director as of this year. I think he's excited. I think that um he's going to be around for a while. I think he's hit the ground running and I think this is again it's it's shovel ready. This stuff will be done this summer. Um the contractor that

does all this stuff is, you know, ready to go. So it it will be done and it's something that the public will see and use and you know all of the things. So yeah, that's the that's the thing.

There's a big public benefit for this because think of all the people that use in the community that use the parks and it's not [clears throat] a huge lift as far as the cost associated because it's just resurfacing the existing, you know footprint.

This is actually one of the first projects the parks department has put in. Normally, it's been put in by neighborhood association. So, I do take my hat off to the new park director coming forward and and taking advantage of uh CPA money.

I also like that he gave us a breakdown for each park. Yeah, that was I I like the details like that. So, I mean, I'd be in support of this project.

I just think it's an excellent opportunity. Um this project hits many different neighborhoods. It's very um thought well thought through and again I think at once this gets done I think then you can convert this over to a maintenance issue associated with it uh in the future and so um your capital improvements could actually uh look at to doing actually uh maintenance and that type of scenario

for the upkeep but I think it's a really um welldeserved project.

Okay. Any other comments on that? Alex, I would just uh suggest that this could be one that we possibly fold into a potential open space recreation bond uh idea. Um especially since it may come in lower um when we actually at the time of when we actually bond. Um my one little concern would be, you know, maintenance.

I know that they said that there was a maintenance plan uh in place, but perhaps we could just see something um in writing and then just like have that tied to the grant funding. Um I don't think a lot of maintenance would necessarily be warranted or or anything.

It's just uh sort of making sure that they're in better shape than not at the 10-year mark. Now [clears throat] is I wonder if that's something we could uh put in the agreement where uh once a year update on CPC projects that we get updated that the maintenance schedule was fulfilled.

Is that a possible something like that? Or like we could think about it by voting um once a year might be a little frequent. I don't know how much maintenance you would do every year. I mean BJ if you had anything to weigh. I don't I don't know how often or when the last time you know these were done. I know a lot of the you know once they crack there's no you know you kind

of got to do it all. I think that's my understanding of it is you know once there's an issue and it's typically weather related. I know that you know when it comes to the tennis courts and pickle ball courts um the nets come down right around Halloween right before the frost because that can create issues.

So, as long as we're doing our part on the city side to take the nets out and make sure they're covered so that water doesn't get in and expand and cause the issues, I I don't know the shelf life of them, but I'm not sure how much actual preventative maintenance you can do on these types of things.

Yeah, I I can weigh in on this real quickly. I I did share with the city, we do this in many different other towns and communities and cities um throughout the Northeast. And so what we actually do on a CBA, we actually give them a maintenance. And so uh it has to do less with um kind of the weather and more to do with the wear and tear. So if you

have a court that is used, you know, um seven days a week, it's going to wear out quicker. But what we what we assess is that, you know, you do a seal coat um evaluate after the first year and whether you need to do a seal coat on some of them or all of them or whatever it might be. But every park has a different type of scenario to it. But I

did say I did share that with the city.

So I would make that as part of the commitment is that if you're going to get this that you uh have a maintenance plan put in place that follows what the criteria of the city would be.

Just building off of that perhaps it is getting an update like just having them send us the evaluate that once a year evaluation what steps are being taken.

It doesn't have to be an in-person appearance or anything. It could just be an email.

Yeah. Um I just wanted having I do have about 15 years of experience playing tennis on the Maplewood court and with all its and I was glad one of one of them one of the areas was resurfaced. The other area was often used by kids for street hockey which I liked and without no net and u with regard to maintenance u I don't you can't oil them uh you can

washing them the rain does that um and they just do the best you can with the resurfacing which is in fact maintenance All right.

So, all set with that one. We'll move on to uh Christ the Rock Church phase three. Uh they did say this would be their last uh request. They're looking for what was it? 300 350 350 under historic preservation.

uh comments um that I mean the church does have a benefit to the community besides just being a church. They do um they do some outreach. They have the uh the food pantry. They work with the resiliency prep school. they they have a lot of um good references from people talking about how much they do help in the community. So, that's always something I like to keep in mind, especially when it

comes to churches. Um what do they do in the community beyond just their little their little church community? And this seems to be one of the churches that does that does help. They have they've been a a comfort and warming station.

learn the cold months, things like that.

So, good point. And it would be finishing a project that we started. So, all righty. Uh, any other Alex?

Uh, so since this is, I think, their third application before us, I was just going to say that I think they've been learning from the process well and making like, you know, the necessary steps. Um regardless of what happens with this grant, uh they stabilized the structure temporarily I believe using their own funds. Um the progress uh has has you know gone a little bit better than expected. Um initially the first

ask was for the entire building. Then they reduced the scope to the tower because that's the emergency the sa that was the that's the safety needs and I believe they've committed to restoring the rest of the church themselves without CPA funds. Um they're just trying to make the place safe. Uh so yeah.

Okay.

Anyone else?

Moving on to uh Yeah, the next one is the Maritime Museum.

Where are we?

You got to go all the way to Maritime Museum.

That's where you Okay. Maritime Museum. Uh [clears throat] we've uh granted uh before uh to the Maritime Museum. Um, this might be something that is uh broken down to uh projects over the years. Uh, I I do like how uh the water is uh downtown waterfront is being developed here. I'm thinking uh just doing the front side of Water Street, the windows there would be my suggestion. Uh open to discussion.

What would that do for the budget? Well, uh I think did if you did the uh water street side, I was tough to see how the budget was. I thought I broke it out to 100,000.

Okay.

Um but that's what I came out.

I think that was your guess is better than mine.

Yeah, I would just uh I agree with you.

I think we should phase this if at all possible. We could do both the um the water and the Awan Street, the one to the north just because that's where a lot of the pedestrian circulation. You have the the uh the narrows there. You have um the brewery and some of the other facilities and that would also complement what's going on across the street as well and then wait at a

different phase to do the east side and do the south side. But if at all possible, you could do those two, the uh the west side and the north side. That'd be great. I agree. I think it should be fixed.

Alex, I uh would really like to see these windows restored and replaced. However, I'm very hesitant with this application because the museum doesn't actually have a plan uh for use of the second floor yet. Um, and I find that troubling because they've received numerous grants from us in the past years years ago before my time, starting with the elevator, which wasn't even used or

isn't used because it wasn't inspected for years after it was completed, and then the electrical upgrade, and then we just did the emergency application after the facade fell off in a storm. So, they've had three large projects. Two of them, I think, were directly to support the second floor being used, which is what we've been told. and they still don't have a plan in place or or like I

I know they have some ideas, but there's no actual plan in place for use of the second floor yet. And until there is an actual plan in place, I'm kind of hesitant to award another grant for a project that doesn't have an immediate use besides an aesthetic appeal to, you know, the waterfront, which I don't want to underestimate. it's just with such a tight year, um it just seems a little

bit premature when there isn't like, you know, a business plan for that second floor yet or like has it been cleaned up or like like what what use is actually going on there besides the cold storage that has been um you know years past. Uh so that's just my uh take on it unfortunately. I like to just on funding we've uh so far a little over $490,000 we've uh given to Marine Museum. So

keep that in mind. Jim, go ahead.

Yeah, I'm not I looked at it from a different angle.

Um I didn't see a lot of um it sounded like the plan was for attracting people was to open the door and hope they come in.

Um, and I didn't see anything about outreach, about going, you know, going out into the community.

Um, you know, I just came from the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, which for the movie dick reading and they just do so, you know, it's just and maritime the maritime m doesn't seem to do a lot of that. I couldn't I think they're trying to get to that point because they tie a lot of the tours into maritime museum and the battleship side ticket. I mean, I know that, but the battleship does some outreach

and I'm just hesitant to spend a lot of money on money on it because one of the one of the issues is community benefit.

Yep.

I agree with uh with Jim and Alex. I I think they do need a plan. And I love I love the Marine Museum. I think it's such a gem for our city, but I just don't think that they're utilizing it at this point in the way that they should.

They they really don't do much promotion. Um, and for me to say I want to give them this much money, I I really would like to see a better plan in place for what they're going to do with the building. As much as aesthetically it would look amazing, and I do like what they did when they took off the front facade and made it a thousand times better, I just feel that for putting

that much money into something, I want to see more of a public benefit. And right now, I I don't know that that's there.

Yep. Okay.

Other comments?

Not to litigate a history lesson, but what what happened over the years?

Because it used to be used for quite a lot. like do do we know there's been some change of leadership a couple times since I've been on the committee like I believe the director was new for a couple years um and I think there was a ch turnover a couple years before that.

Okay.

Um and then it was uh absorbed by the battleship fairly recently. It was its own entity until some some years ago. Yeah, continuity can certainly be a problem when it comes to projects and where funding is allocated and not actually utilized properly. So, I can understand that.

Yeah.

Has a battleship ever um received any type of funding? because I know it's it's it's amazing um asset to the city but now knowing from what you just mentioned that they are now kind of absorbed into that has the battleship ever I know it's quite expensive to maintain those vessels not from us they haven't no okay not CBC funds battleship is is much better with outreach and and getting getting the

word out there and I I think they don't promote the marine museum the maritime museum as much and I I wonder why because they're really I mean there's some great exhibits in the forward line exhibit the the stuff on the Titanic. Um but I'm not really sure why they don't I I don't even honestly I don't know even when they're open. That's I drove by the other day. It was closed like I brought my I've been

like what's Yeah. I brought my kids there a long time ago and ever since I haven't seen the doors open and so that's now understanding the the dynamics of them being absorbed from that because I think you know Battleship Cove has done an incredible job.

Agreed. So maybe there'll be a better continuity of the ownership.

The battleship might be a problem because we have preservation restrictions and that ship is owned by the government. So that might be an issue legally to put a preservation restriction on, but I I do agree with the other commissioners here in that we have we need a plan. We we see where a considerable amount of money was spent on an elevator that's unusable because this you can't traverse that second

floor. It's it's so badly dismantled.

So, a plan would then be able to let us prioritize some of the funding.

That elevator money could have been to secure the outside of the building, put windows in and secure the make the building weather type, uh, which it is not at this point. It truly is ventilated.

So, are you saying that they actually put in an elevator that's not operational right now?

That's what we pay for.

It works, but it doesn't go to anything.

Okay.

Really? It goes Yeah. But the second floor, they don't use it for anything compliance.

ADA compliance, but you have you have no business plan or no vision.

There's nothing to see up there.

Yeah.

The second floor is just used as a storage. A huge storage area. [snorts] I do think there's a library up there that people use just to their to their on the on the back end, but there's no second stairwell. They could never use the second floor for anything more than whatever unless they put in another stairwell because there's only one stair up to the second floor and just by code,

you know, you can you'd be limited to the number of people who could be on the second floor. So, um I I would I'm not in favor of granting money to the Marine Maritime Museum this year.

Okay.

Uh I'll move on to the next one. Next one is the Bristol County District Courthouse improvement project. Uh they're looking to replace 67 windows.

Uh we have uh helped these folks out in the past. Uh they went into a building that was uh in some sad shape and uh they've done a great job uh uh bringing it around. Uh this might be one where we uh do this one in phases. They're not expecting the whole 400,000. So if we decide to come in doing one side of the building, you know, this year, they'd be

more than happy and glad. Uh um they do reach out to the community uh doing a lot of things from senior dances to Halloween parties to Christmas parties to um summertime lunches. So it is a uh a group that does outreach to the community very well.

So discussion I think for this my my thought on this was um they did say the old building section was really in rough shape and my thought on this was if we did this in two sections and we could fund the the windows in the old building and then have them come back for the newer section because the newer section I believe they said was from the 1970s.

Yeah. whereas the old section they said the the wind just comes right through.

So my my thought on this and my recommendation would be to to um fund the old section possibly and but they they really do so much in the community.

They're a great great organization.

Yep.

Agreed.

Other suggest Yeah, I I'm uh I agree with everything that uh Kristen said. I just think, you know, I'd love to fund the whole thing, but I think with the amount of money we that we have to spend, we we're not able to potentially not able to fund the whole thing. Um, but I'd like to at least fund something.

Yeah, I would too.

I'm not sure quite sure which one's the old part of the building, the new part of the building. One of the things that I would think that might be advantageous is the portion that's overlooking the Rock Street because everybody drives up and down.

That's the old That's the old portion.

Yeah. If you're if you're facing the building on Rock Street and looking at it, it's the section to the left and then the one to the right that goes down to Bedford. That's the newer section.

Okay, perfect. I think that's a great approach.

Thank you, Alex.

So, uh, this project I think has a very very strong community benefit just purely based off of the number of people, the types of people who use it.

Um, this project actually makes for me made the maritime museum project more difficult. It was similar price, similar scope, window restoration. It's just this one has just such an overwhelmingly larger impact on people every day. Um, so that's the reason why I think even compared to probably any other of the historic window replacement projects, this one is the most valuable to the community. And I think that would

probably make a stronger case for fully funding this one, even if it's at the cost of, you know, perhaps one that doesn't impact as many people immediately. Um, but we can see how things play out um when we vote and with the numbers. But I I just think this one would have the a large large impact on the community. Yeah, I agree.

Any other I I agree with Alex and everything else I was said about this u particular group and what they do. Um but I also I guess um you know different was mentioned before as far as being a an extra arm of the city um for funding for those those city projects that we were previously discussed. In my mind, these are probably the ones that I would like to see funded more um in full because

they're a community nonprofit entity that there isn't really another match.

Whereas some of the city projects um maybe we can fund a portion of it and the city can find the money to to finish them off. That's just my my thoughts on the differences between some of these private projects versus the public projects.

Good point. Good point.

Yeah. [clears throat] All righty. Uh moving on. Uh next one is a uh the waterfront cultural district uh study. Uh again this is a well needed study. Uh uh looking at short money 28,750 uh with all the stuff going on down at the waterfront. I think this would be a nice project to uh fit in this year. Uh discussion.

Agreed. Yeah, I think this is especially important right now given all the eyes that are on the waterfront and all the people that kind of want their hands in the waterfront and and having a say as to what goes on. I think this is even more so important to know what assets that we do have down there so that people are aware when um when the planning comes in and the and they're

asking for public input and things like that. We know what we have there as because right now I don't think most people are aware of what we have. I don't I'm not even fully aware of the of all the assets down there. And I think since this is the chance that we have to make an impact as to what happens in the waterfront, I very much support this.

And it's not uh it's not a lot of money for what we will get out of it.

Plus, they're getting a matching grant.

So that's Yes, that too.

And now this was uh probably Roger Williams doing the work. No, this particular portion is will not be Roger Williams. They will they will do some pro bono to assist but it it's it's not uh and the uh certified uh local government is going to be the matching funds if it's if it's offered in uh February, you know, but it's being applied for. But in conjunction with that, it would also be nice if this

funding when you go to the state for the local certified certified local government fund to say yes, we've got CPC funding. Again, one matches the other, you know, so it works hand in hand and and the study is really to best use of the property. They're going to make recommendations of what best use might be, what kind of shops, things of that nature, which I understand the city

might even be looking to do itself. But if this would be almost not proono, but at a very very small expense.

Okay. Any other Okay. Uh next is the uh Shane Landing project. Uh they're looking to restore the first floor windows, 75 of them. They're looking for 350.

Um [clears throat] you bless you.

Open to discussion on this one. I I I just want to weigh in a little bit on this. I I do like the fact that this is a another good public private partnership in which you have a private entity who's actually putting quite a bit of money into a project of this nature. Uh we've seen the work they've already done so far in the outbuilding um behind the facility. Uh what I would

say is um again I would prioritize um the phasing of it. They did a good job of explaining why they wanted to do the first fourth route. But um I would prioritize that the um Agawan Street if we're going to just only allow so much funding that that is the first thing that gets done that I agree with Michael. I think just to remind the committee as well this is a

part of a four plus million dollar project on top of what's kind of listed here as the 441600. So, the idea that it is a um partnership both private [clears throat] and public is a nice nice added benefit that is going to help uh complete the entire the entirety of the $4 million that's been invested in the project itself.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a very nice project in a lot of ways. I'm not sure how much public benefit there is, but um and I think we should get because of the public I would I'd give them some money, but I wouldn't give it to them all unless we unless we hit the jackpot with the 3.5 $3.2 $2 million and we could but this is true with a lot of the by the

way this is true for me all the way through all seven you know most of the the grants not the low ones we've got to look at the money and that's going to be very hard so I made I said two things but I we give them so I'm not enchanted with it but I think it's valuable that Yeah. Okay.

Anything else?

So, yeah. I mean, I I really I love the mill. I love what they've done. I love the project itself, the idea of historic preservation. Um, but also like like Jim said, I don't necessarily see a big public benefit for this as compared to some of the other projects that are coming in. Um, so as much as I I love the project, yeah, it it it's definitely a a lower priority

for me because some of the other um some of the other applicants really do have a much bigger public benefit for this. And I think for one of my decision, like one of the factors for me that's one of my biggest factors is how much of a public benefit do we actually get from a project for what we're giving them? And it's it's quite a bit of money that they're asking.

Yeah.

So maybe we do fund a portion. Um but again, my my priorities are going to be where where are we going to get the biggest benefit [clears throat] for the public?

Yeah, I mean because we do have the extra million going back in, but you can see that the courthouse is looking for 405, they're looking for 350. You uh you have uh yeah, Marine Museum looking for 300. You eat that up pretty quick. So, right, it's I mean, if they were doing See, I I don't know that they do things that benefit the public per se. I know they

have a lot of um they have a lot of businesses and and things like that in there, but I'm not really sure what like what kind of public it's also noted it's also noted that a restaurant would be stationed inside at some point. So I mean there are potential benefits that could happen and and I and I get that right.

It's like your opposition what could be but but benefits for so restaurants you're talking about people that would go there and be spending their money as opposed to right yeah as opposed to public parks that are free access people things that things that the church does when they're doing outreach and they're they're doing a food pantry which is free for people uh greater the Florida recreation doing

their programs for free with all these benefits as opposed to like businesses and restaurants. I understand the economic value of this. I understand the aesthetic value of this.

I think that's great, but I still feel like if I'm using taxpayer funds, I want something that's going to give a little more to um people in general. I I just want to make a quick comment. I I agree with what you're saying in the reality of of this where this building is, it's in this arts overlay district.

It's all part of the overlay of the waterfront as well. And one of the things that they're trying to do is trying to bring people in and around that area. The aesthetic value is exactly that's all it is. But the reality of it is that when we give windows out for another housing project that doesn't have any affordable housing to it and it's strictly historical that that's a detriment to your tax base.

Basically, you're paying a lot like you're creating that. You're giving money to that. And a commercial use that you have right here. you're that's where the city makes money at the end of the day. And at the end of the day, this area is supposed to be like an entertainment like you have all of the h you have all of the restaurants, the bars, the music venues there, the

museums. So the idea is that if you can if you can change the overall aesthetic value to the again the public side of this, then that's some positive attributes associated with it. And so that's kind of what I was trying to get to. if if you looked at their master plan of the waterfront and these are all online and available, that's what you're trying to do. And and a good example of

of um how this come has come to fruition in the city of Fall River, we did the arts overlay on um right behind the Eagles where you have now the St. James, you have Tequila Lime, you have the other restaurants, and you're seeing when you have money like that, businesses come in, people live in those areas. That's kind of the same scenario what they're trying to do with the waterfront. So, that's just my thought

process to it. With that, I should just also add that the there's a a note in here of the city's investment of cleaning up the the road Pond Street down there. Um, so kind of in conjunction with some of the other stuff we've talked about, it does kind of go hand inand as far as like the aesthetics of that area.

I I know uh what appeals to me is the uh our mills are going by the wayside. So, this one is a a mill that's intact. They have put a lot of money into it and they are a good tax base. Uh, so sometimes, you know, you do need a helping hand sometimes when you have an old building and you want to keep it that way. They could easily go in and change the

windows out and compromise the building.

So sometimes getting a little help maybe from us does keep it uh more accurate historic preservation. So that's my only you know thought on it.

So any other we'll move on to the forward historical society.

Uh they're looking to do a $3.5 million project here. They have raised I think he said what? 2.9 2.9.

So they've uh they are good at raising money. Um they're asking for $582 um,735.

Uh we've granted these folks in the past. Um I think it's a great organization. What they're doing is great. I'm not quite sure if they need the whole 582.

So it might be something we could uh trim down there a little bit, but I do like this project. Uh um so open for discussion.

I would just say echoing [clears throat] what you said, they have committed a lot of funds and fundraising to the overall project and this is, you know, one of the local nonprofits um and buildings that literally draws people from all over the world. Um so it has a a high value, I think, to the community in that sense. Um, and I would probably caution against partially funding this one just

because I know they have a pretty strict um, schedule that they're trying to go for and they've already I I mean I would guess they've already exhausted many of their possible funding avenues. So, if we were to short change it, it might actually impact the timeline of the project. I just I would just note that.

Could we ask them again?

I don't think we asked that. what uh you probably would be a little uh bit of a problem. Yeah, because I mean a number of the thing we asked I I did I several of us asked partial funding. I don't think I asked we asked that for this project.

I think we got caught up in how wonderful that we the the place is.

They're normally pretty good at the exact amount that they need. Uh except for one time when they uh but uh normally if they ask for that, that's what it's going to be. So I do see if we did short fund this, it might hold up the whole project, which would be a shame, you know.

Any other comments? I think these are just hard decisions, very hard decisions because it's such a large chunk and of money out of our total amount to give out and there's so many worthy projects on here.

Can can we get that clarified instead of assuming Alex that that it will slow things down? Like can we ask them that question as part of our deliberation?

I would like to know I get back to us I think before the next meeting.

That would be great. just to understand like what it's just my as the leazison for the past project just my understanding and you're probably right I would just like to get clarification on it and then what what would the impact be if a partial funding would take place just like what what exactly would happen is the the phase one that we gave them CPC gave them 389,000 that project is

I believe it's still finished. That's what was the progress that was toward by the members who went and they made progress since that tour. I think it's it's like the scaffolding's down. So, it's it's close to done, I believe.

Yeah, that one got pushed back because when they were putting in the vents, they didn't want to do that till they were done cutting holes and things like that.

[clears throat] It's got a lot to do with getting the original color back and the original texture because there's going to be a lot of trimming done on the building and they were able to clean enough to find the original base and the original color and texture. So, they had to complete all the other work in order to get at this particular portion so it wouldn't be affected later. So, that was the

reason for the push back. Okay.

Yeah. Okay.

Because it says 2021. So, that's why I was just curious.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I would just add that um this is I think a good re a good reason why we may want to consider bonding some of the other projects to open up a little bit more flexibility since we have so many tough decisions this year. And also just to kind of uh call back to the original discussion around funding availability and we're obviously working within like a $ 1.5 to $1.7 million available funds

projects that we say we're we're going to let's call it hold on when when would we be able to deliberate on the remaining funds that are coming back to us? Does this does that make sense? We [clears throat] could either uh we've only had funds come back once and we did have a second round of funding, but okay, I think it would be better this time around that uh we take the open space at

2 million because we figure we're almost having 2 million come back.

Yeah, we if we don't get the 2 million back, we'll bond at 2 million. That way it wouldn't affect projects that we vote on.

Understood? Okay. So we leave the 1.7, but you also got to remember we got it back to 300 for the previous bond. Yeah.

Uh the 180,000 for open I mean housing.

So you got to back that out of.

So we're going to probably end up with about 1.2 to fund.

Okay.

1.2.

Okay.

So, any other comments on historical?

All righty. Um, next is the Eagle Event Center, uh, windows restoration.

Um, I like like this building. This is probably something I would say that would be, uh, uh, tackle the, uh, North Main Street side first. Um, and then go from there. Uh they do a lot of work for the community. They do a lot of volunteering for the community. Um so I mean uh they're they're in the electrical business. It may not be at that facility, but they donate a lot of

time in that area. And they they're always open to uh fundraisers for nonprofits that they don't charge for.

So um this one I would be looking at probably splitting it up. So any suggestions on that?

My thinking is along the lines of your thinking like to split it into the funding at the front windows first.

If we do I I agree wholeheartedly. I I think uh there are some excellent examples especially the historical component of it. I think if we uh do the portion to the west side overlooking North Main Street as the number one priority and I do like the fact that they've um a good public private partnership. They've done their own private due diligence and have done a bunch of work but also have been

extremely advantageous to many uh community groups and uh doing events and such not. So with that I yield.

Okay. Anyone else?

Okay. Uh next is uh St. An's uh shrine.

Uh we've done grants with these folks before. They're very good at uh coming in as a good partner. They always uh bring a good chunk of change to to do the work and they only come in to ask us. Uh they're looking for 125,000 um for roofs, gutter repair, down spouts, and mortar repair. Um so discussion, how much are they looking for? They're looking on our end 125.

That's what I thought you said.

Yeah.

Yeah. The community is be the south end community is behind the the renovation.

They do a lot of good stuff.

Yeah. Because I think they look convent44,000 spent. You could also argue you could also argue by the way for the shrine in St. An's that it's a tourist designation because people do come from Canada for that.

Well, the beacon is a navig navigational uh on the charts. So there's a landmark.

So I'm favor discussion and they do this all with volunteers.

Yeah, all volunteers, which is pretty impressive.

And everything from what the shrine had looked like initially when the church first closed them down to what it looks like now is is night and day. It's they've done some amazing work for with these volunteers.

Okay.

All right.

Uh, next is the Faux River Deaconist Home. Um, they're looking to repair the porch, uh, woodwork painting. Uh, the porch is in sad shape. They do a lot of, uh, work for the community, too. We're looking for 100,000 in uh historic preservation.

Uh thoughts,

Alex, I almost wish that this was submitted um and like I know this hindsight's 2020, but I almost wish this was submitted under community housing given that it is supporting the residents at that property um and it probably could have qualified under community housing. I think that might have provided us with some flexibility in terms of uh where we're awarding funds from. Um has there

been any precedent of changing category?

Oh yeah, cuz I checked under community housing.

Okay. Cuz I did remember seeing that but it's just not on our spreadsheet. Right.

So if it is indeed under community housing.

Yeah.

Yeah. Historic preservation community housing. I I'm inclined to lean in that direction once we heard from the applicant about how it would be in fact supporting the community housing.

Agree with that?

Yeah, I would put that under community housing. Yeah.

Yeah.

Good.

You want me to make that change?

Make that change. Yeah.

Yeah. Just just or like just add it on the checklist because it is it was five.

Forgotten.

Yeah, it is.

Can I just Is that their administration building or do residents live there? as those questions at that I believe they said residents live there and and the reason it's not used is because of the safety issues but maybe we could get clarification or just confirmation that or like how many people live there if you want if you wanted to ask that I did I did notice on their website that

they do it is registered as housing um for but I don't know if that has changed just because of the age I don't know deteriorate as a social worker right now they the Kids are poor. There aren't any rich. There really few rich kids from rich families.

No, but do in that particular building are there kids living in that building or is that their administration building?

So in that building, yeah, they own a handful of buildings.

They do, right? All in the same area.

Yeah.

So perhaps just you know if we were to be inclined to fund it in community housing we would just need that clarification just just is it used as residential housing and if so for how many occupants?

All right point.

Anything else to add to that?

Next is uh St. John the Baptist um interior work painting uh uh plaster work uh sent us a nice presentation um what they want to do there. They're looking for 147,264 under uh historic preservation. We have done grants here in the past.

um discussion.

I I just um they're they're wonderful to work with.

They they give great applications.

Um however, and and the outside of the building, I definitely supported funding because it's a beautiful um unique property in the city. However, um I am very hesitant about funding doing the the painting work on the inside of the building. And I know that they said that the building is open to the public, but just being open to the public for me doesn't really give it a big public benefit because they're not

really doing um the kind of outreach in the community that some of the other applicants that are applying are doing.

So, for me, I am a little more hesitant, especially when it comes to interior because I really don't believe that there's going to be a whole lot of people going in there and seeing it other than their little community. Um, so that's that's just my thought.

Well, on past practices, we had the uh St. An's first time they came before us uh plaster work inside uh because of the leak. We just funded the uh outside. We figured the inside was, you know, it might be open, but to us, we didn't feel that was, you know, right, we were allowed to do it, but I guess it all just depends on how you feel about the projects, about how the

openness of it is to the public. Is it a need?

Yeah.

I just don't see a great public benefit to to justify spending almost 150,000 Okay Alex I just think when we're examining uh you know, applications for any internal work that it just falls on us to to have a higher standard of burden to prove the community benefit. Um you know, we we have to take into account, you know, how many people are going to be visiting the inside and is it worth the the

taxpayers's investment in that. And um I always like to think that it should be an easy decision when if it's presented to us. if it's if it's a community benefit, we should know kind of immediately and think it it's, you know, rises to that that uh standard. Um, this one I I agree. I remembering their presentations from last year and this year, I didn't see much changing in terms of community

outreach and community events. It seemed like there was a lot of the same things that were mentioned last time this time.

Um, so perhaps um that could just be elaborated on in any future applications.

Okay. Yeah.

All right.

Yeah, I mostly agree. If this were the English church, I'd probably vote against it, but it's the Ukrainian church.

What do you have against the right now?

Wow. Wait a minute.

We don't have our We need Half our country isn't occupied by Russia and I have a Ukrainian flag.

on my Yes, you do.

Um, and I This is where I wish there were a way that we could help the Ukrainian church find some funding that that whereas they clearly are not in our long-term long-term guidelines for funding. They're really not.

Um, and I just feel sad about it. Um, knowing what they have knowing what the folks have been through as immigrants and knowing what they're probably going through now.

Yeah. Uh, and I I'm not suggesting we fund it. I'm suggesting we think about another way. And I actually have looked because I'm looking obviously I'm looking I'm looking at grants and they might meet the sacred you know the sacred trust.

Okay.

But I will look and if anybody has any ideas we should absolutely tell them.

And I wish we had a fulltime full-time person. She's she works full-time but she's not uh paid for that.

Okay.

All right. Well, staying with uh past practices, we have uh stayed away from inside where the public can't get to on a daily basis. So, um good guidelines to stick within probably. Uh so, no further comments. We'll move on to uh the Cathedral of St. Mary's uh assumption bell tower.

Uh they're looking for 125,000.

Uh the total cost is 645. So they are coming in with uh a good amount of money for this project. Uh discussion.

I I do um like this and support this project just because of the fact that how much they've done on their own to support this project. uh funding wise, this is again I think this is just my observation of these projects is that or these funds um it's to help them get over the hump and they've done the majority of the work to get to that point financially. But with that I I

believe this was this was mentioned where the gentleman stated that this is the sort of phase two of their like three to four phase plan. the overall total costing will probably be three to four million dollars and they mentioned in future years coming back in sort of an appropriate timeline. So I agree with Michael on this. This is in partnership with that idea that they're funding in

in par on their own with with some additional help to us.

the the 125 on this too is pretty it seems to me like pretty short money and I would question that if they didn't do such a good job of pulling together the plan exactly what they were doing. It's obviously they had some professional help uh figuring out the cost of doing this work. So um again $125,000 is a lot of money but the reality of it it on a multi-million dollar project it's um it seems reasonable.

Yeah.

So I understand um all all the the points are valid but my hesitation here um and I guess the difference the way the the way that I see this as different from St. man's church, the shrine for one is being run by volunteers.

Um, and they're raising that money on their own. They're they're funding themselves, whereas the Catholic Church tends to be pretty well funded, um, in general. And I don't really see, at least St. Mary's Cathedral doing a lot of outreach in the community other than people going there for masses and and things like that. Um, I understand that the the um the bell tower is historic and that's fine and I

and I can understand the points that were made, but as far as I'm concerned, there's to me there's less of a benefit to the public um on this particular project because I think while it's it's nice to look at, I don't really feel that the the church itself does a whole lot of um things out in the community itself.

No, I I agree. I mean, cuz we have this one and we have another uh tower project coming up and we have Rock Church and there's a big difference between those three churches.

I think somewhere we should finish either one or how do you break it up into two here and the towers you have two different religions, two different, you know, so denominations. So, but there's differences in what all three of those do in the community.

Yeah.

So, to me that that makes a big difference in how I vote is what are you giving back to the community.

Good point. Good point.

I'm going to respond. I hadn't thought of this. I mean, from what you It sounds like you're right, except they didn't say anything about it was all about the the application was all about the the masonry and the the building and all that. Mhm.

And they didn't, you know, and I think of um my friends in the Spanish-sp speakaking church and um I realized that they they gave a lousy application.

I mean and I hope we have not might ask them to we have another week of deliberations. Yes. Another time.

No, we vote uh 26th.

You can call and ask them for Yeah. Questions.

I can I mean any of these projects you can call them up before you cast a vote and Right.

I mean, not not for I'm not going to get information. I'll get information for my vote, but not try to share it with the committee.

Okay. Well, my customer did email everyone.

May I ask a quick question? Is this the first this is the first time they've ever applied for an application? Is that correct? You one of I I agree with what you're saying because I I know that the uh the the bishop is this is his church.

I would have I would have thought that they had a lot more of the public outreach, but I don't remember reading through any of that. And so it wasn't there. Yeah. Well, what I tell you what point that I'm trying to let me give let me give you one example. I have one example that I do know about because I sing in a chorus, okay?

And they have a long tradition of of sponsoring community music. Period. Good solid high level stuff. Was it mentioned in the application? No.

Well, that's that's the point I'm making. agreeing with your Do they do it for free or do they charge what do they do it for free or do they charge for those?

Oh, I think the I think the South Coast charges I think it was $300.

Oh, whereas we we have another project coming up where they have free music every month to the community for free.

Well, but that's a different it was that's a different level of u of music.

I go to that one, too.

Yeah. But my point is they're still probably charging for that. So, I could argue if I had their music program, I would and I were doing an application, I would certainly mention it. If I had a I would certainly mention they work with immigrants and sp immigrants, not just Spanish, but large, but but a whole congregation of Spanish-sp speakaking people. Um, and I don't know anybody else that I

can't think of anything else because I don't I've got don't have any other good friends who are involved in programs other than the two I've mentioned.

I mean that's [snorts] yeah you know we we can only go by what they put in the application and uh like I say a better application might have helped them here. Uh they can and they can wait a year.

Uh so any other comments?

Okay we'll move on to the last one. The uh first uh congregational church on Rock Street. They're looking for uh 38,500.

Yeah, they have done a lot of work to this uh church. Uh they do do a lot of uh outreach. Um um I'm constantly seeing something on the billboard there for uh the community. Uh they do open it up to the school next door to use for the gym. Um next door.

Well, cuffs.

Oh, no. The resilience the RIP. They [clears throat] work with them because they actually have um resiliency prep goes over, the students go over and they help them to prepare food because they that's Christ rock, isn't it?

No, no, no. That's this is this is First Congregational is right directly next door to Resiliency Prep.

I think they also help Christ rock church too.

Yeah, they do. But I know they would they do something with some lasagna thing and the kids go over and they help them prepare and it gets sent to the food pant.

And then the what I was mentioning is the spirit of Santa also uses the the gym and that's not next door. A school that's not next door.

Oh, that uses this gym.

Oh, okay.

This is the presentation where they don't they don't charge anyone to use a facility. Okay.

As a a parent of uh students from Antioch school, they would uh not charge for doing their Christmas shows there were all free the use of the gym during winter time, that type of scenario. But I know that's other schools as well.

Look, the the thing that I was uh most impressed is both Alex and I when we were doing uh Chrysler Rock Church, we go to our meetings here and all of a sudden you would see they were doing their facility as well. They're repointing and everything else to it.

And I was surprised to see that they had never come in front of us for funding.

Now, uh, a $38,500 is a, uh, pretty much choked me up a little bit, a little high, but the reality of it is they've, um, done a lot of fundraising, um, on their own and done a lot of this work on their own. And again, I think they're such a attribute for the community again with food and shelter and use of space. So that I yield.

Okay. Any other comments?

All righty.

I'm not going to talk a lot. I'm abstaining because I I know Mike both, but I know the music director well and the pastor.

Okay. Good.

All righty. So, uh our next step will be the uh 26th when we do our voting. Uh we're going to try and get you information next Thursday hopefully uh after we meet with the uh Emily on uh if we can get all those financings back and uh if not we'll just have to do the bonding way if we decide.

Uh so uh but during the uh voting um any ideas make sure you have written down because when we submit uh we want to make sure that everything we're putting in the agreement that we write it down. We're going to hand out to Sandy read it in. So yeah, it's so just to elaborate on that, it's very important to perhaps think about ahead of time and maybe even write down your

any restrictions or or how you want the grant agreement to read. Um like any caveats to it, just get the wording down and that's what benefits Sandy most most of all too. And then it it'll just be ready and you could read it as slow or as fast as many times as you want.

Also for the new people in scoring um the lower the number the higher it actually is. So if you're giving things a one those are the projects that you feel are the most important then the threes would actually be the projects that are the least important to you. So whoever has the lowest total score those are the highest um right that we vote on first. So So say I remember we did this last year.

Can you resend that scoring criteria for the group?

I have to reformat that.

That's fine. Yeah. Yeah, I understand.

So now I have to take two projects off it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um so yeah, you'll all get a brand new form.

What did you get a brand new form?

Okay. I think I saw it. You gave us a copy.

I'm going to get you a new one.

You get a new one. It'll be all see better.

I'm going to email you a new form. Um, is there a chance that we can disc I thought there were too many categories?

They are what they are. I can't change that.

Well, are do we do the categories or is that a statement?

No. The only category I'm going to change is I'm adding community housing to the deaconist house. That's the only category I'm going to change.

Assuming otherwise, let me just assuming it's a res.

Yes. So I'll we put the 10% in that sheet will get you won't get this sheet tomorrow believe me because I have to reformat it and get some other information. when you when you send that, is there any way that you can just do um a breakdown of this is how much we have for each category and we have the bond that way we like I would like to personally go

through and just say okay wait a minute we can't f find or we can't fund this entire project and look at what their cost breakdown is and say okay but we can fund this part of it and this will be phased out and we think that's acceptable again they're all at some point they're they're all projects, but we only have so much money. And if we can have a a realistic number, we can

start adding them up and and reducing them. At least we can go back to them and say, "Okay, we didn't fund you for 500,000. We funded you for 350 based on your breakdown of your assessment." Does that work? That that's kind of reason I I would like to see that number.

Do a cover sheet for all of you with what's on here. Great. Because on here you have your fixed costs.

You have your reserves.

There's all kinds of the 180 that you have to put in 10%.

I I'm going to give you all kinds of scenarios. I'll break it down for Okay.

So you'll know exactly what you have, what you can spend.

I won't have options about if you bond, you have this, if you don't. I'm not getting into the bonding part of it at all. You could probably figure in 1.3 since we're going to add Deacon's house to community housing. If we approve that, that would go into there.

Otherwise, I had it at 1.2. So, we're probably at 1.2 1.3 if you feel safe when you're looking at your projects and how much you think you want it. And but we potentially might know if that other money is coming back in in time.

Could be a couple days, could be a couple.

Correct.

I could go home tonight and have an email from her.

Let's hope. And if I don't, then John will call her, Alex can call her, you can call her.

We can all call and say, "Can you please go down?"

Oh, we could all just go to the John and I met with them and they said they could easily have it done in two days. So, I I don't see why it cannot get nice.

The way she sounded, I talked to her yesterday and uh that's why she mentioned that we shouldn't do the bond because we didn't get that money back.

And I did tell her that. I said, "We're we're meeting the vote on the 26th, but she couldn't meet with us till after the 26th. So, we're going to try and speed it up because we need we I'd rather rather know before we definitely, you know, then if we decide that we might only have to bond uh the land acquisition or something, maybe not all of it, you know, we we'll have a little

better clear view of what we have.

We'll have to find out.

All right. Uh any update on projects?

Nope. Okay. Uh the only new business I said earlier uh CPC just uh went over 3.5 uh billion since its uh inception into the state. So uh that's a lot of money put back into the state by taxpayers that wouldn't have been accomplished without our uh CPC. Um can I have a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion to adjurnn. I'll second. We have a second. Roll call.

Jeremy, yes. Chris, yes.

Rick Mancini, yes.

James Norby, yes. John Bray, yes.

Kristen Canary, yes. Alexander Silva, yes.

Michael Ferris, yes.

Joanne Bentley, yes.