3.5.2025 Historical Commission

all right uh good evening everyone I'd like to call tonight's uh virtual meeting of the Fall River historical commission to order um it is um Wednesday March 5th uh 2025 it is 6 PM um and this meeting is completely virtual via Zoom which will be recorded and posted onto uh fall Riv government TV's fa uh Facebook and YouTube page afterwards um pursuing to the open meeting law any person may make an audio

or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible um may I get a roll call uh Rick Mancini here I'm here uh John Lima present Joyce Rodrick present uh Jason bushard n rocki present

pres did you get I got you thank you and uh Jason Bard iraki present via Zoom okay just W to make W to make sure that got through you did thank you um and Ashley Duna and Elizabeth Dean are both uh absent this evening we do not have any open seats um and again this meeting is uh virtual via Zoom um item number one on the uh the agenda is to review

and approve the minutes from January 28th 2025 um those are not ready I will have those done for our March meeting um our regular March meeting which is scheduled for later this month um so I'll have those prepared by then um we did not uh do we have any citizens input for this evening no um there was no uh notice of intent to demol to report on the agenda um no

responden uh we do have two items of for new business um item number two and three number two is uh a request from the city of Fall River for a letter of support um for an application for Massachusetts preservation product fund uh it's a grant uh regarding a feasibility study and structural assessment for the bank Street Armory um there's some uh interference with the with the audio a little bit of

feedback there yeah Joyce do you mind turning your volume down I think it's coming from you all right I'll try that all right go down to 80 yeah it just might be some audio that there we go is that better much better thank you as long as you can hear us um so um I had met with merik hugan last week uh along with Alex Silva from the preservation Society regarding um uh the

plans for the bank Street Armory um as of now the museum organization is currently still they are still looking at uh the possibility of um potentially acquiring it to have it converted for Museum and storage purposes um however um should that plan fall um and I don't it I have no indication whether or not it will or not but um in the event that it doesn't go through this is a plan B

um to at least get um a reply for grant funding from the state of Massachusetts from the mass historical commission um to fund a feasibility study and or a structural or both a structural assessment for the Armory and these are two reports these are stud that have been requested from both our commission and the preservation Society of Fall River um and was presented to um discussed at length to city council um

it is a matching Grant um um so the uh I believe the estimate that we are applying for the full package will be for this particular one I believe is about 60,000 uh between 55 and 60,000 so um half of that is being applied or requested from the state and the match will come likely um I believe the I the source that was identified will be Community preservation act grant funding that is

set aside for this um or is available through an emergency uh request um that is the only um that is the only state level funded uh option as a match for anything from the mass historical commission um that's the only thing thing that they would allow um so the Grant application is March 14th um and jasman Pereira in the mayor's office she's the grant writer has been working very hard to get

the Grant application put together um so if it's awarded I believe the um the awards will be announced later in the spring early summer um from there goes out to bid um and the standard procedure to um hire a consultant that would uh produce a feasibility study and structural assessment for the Armory um and if if we do if the city does not need that Grant because of um say if the museum

organization uh proceeds with their development project for that then uh I believe the city can decline the award from the state um and this is also pending uh funds from the federal government to the state of Massachusetts for preservation Grant funds um which that is kind of up in the air at this point but um so that's what that is for um I don't have any other information as

uh for this I did Supply to Jasmine um they requested I believe a letter of support from any nonprofit uh preservation agency or organization so I believe the preservation Society was providing a letter of support um I did Supply also the um uh the preservation deed restriction that's on the property that the state holds on the Armory as well as the um the national register nomination um it's

part of the downtown Fall River National register District so all that information was provided to Jasmine um as well as the old feasibility study it's outdated it's uh what 8 nine 10 years old at this point um so all that was provided to her and that will go into the Grant application is there any questions on that no good job nice explanation thank you welcome um so as I said they uh they

the state requires a letter of support from the municipal preservation organization uh which is us I'll certainly make a motion that we Supply a letter of recommendation uh I think it's a wonderful idea right right in good Steed with what's going on at this point I think it's excellent okay I'll second that okay I have a okay thank you so I have a motion by Rick uh seconded by John a letter of support for um item

number two um I got a roll call vote please uh Rick manini Rick Mancini yes uh Connie SU yes John Lima yes Joyce Rodricks yes and Jason bushard and rocki yes did that get through yes thank you thank you um okay all right so item number uh three on the agenda is another uh letter of support request from the city of Fall River um this is for uh the same program it's the Massachusetts

preservation projects fund um it's a grant for this is a development Grant uh for stone repointing on the exterior of the Fall River Public Library um and so the the difference with this one um because the Armory is a pre-development study and the library falls under a development project um uh so and stone repointing exterior work does fall under that category um interestingly enough

the library also has a preservation deed restriction on it um that is held by the Massachusetts historical commission so all that information was provided over to Jasmine um as well as um it is listed in the downtown Fall River uh National register District um so I believe this came up recently in the match for this because it is a 50% match uh this will come by way of I believe funds that have

actually been set aside in Library fund um so that can go towards um that the city has set aside so that will be the match um I don't have the estimate um it didn't the application did not ask for a quote um but I want to say it's probably somewhere in the neighborhood Who Um the request will be for about 20,000 or so um but uh I don't have that solid number

in front of me but it'll be somewhere around that any questions on that is this pointing that they're looking to do yes um I believe the roof the roof was already done recently through CP through CPC grants however um I believe now that there's an uh a situation um where water is penetrating the building through the stone slabs on the side um and it's causing some interior damage

um it's a granite and brick structure so um yeah it's uh and it's over 100 years old so it's uh yeah the CP I believe the CPC has also placed rest okay um I don't know if they require that um but I believe it's just if there was a deed restriction on the on the property um uh because that one's held by the city maybe if there is I believe Alex probably Supply that information over to

Jasmine well that would have been through the CPC so I don't know if Alex would have had that one but um you might want to just touch bases with Sandy yeah okay well again I'll make a motion that we Supply a letter of recommendation for the grant I can second that motion Hy thank you um thank you and yeah I did mention to Jasmine that the um and the mayor as well because the building

architecturally um the architect who designed it um Ralph Adams cram uh from New York um also did Rising Sun over on Highland Avenue and uh notable for Designing most of the original Campus of Princeton um so that's it's good representation um so um I have a motion by Rick uh seconded by Connie to provide a letter of support for the repointing of the uh Public Library for the grant

uh roll call uh Rick Mancini Rick manini yes Connie Su yes John yes Joyce Rodricks yes thank you thank you Joyce um all right and Jason bushard nqi yes all right perfect I will send those over to Jasmine um I think actually she's leaving uh uh out of the office starting Friday so I will have these sent over to her tomorrow morning uh first thing tomorrow morning um other than that we have nothing for the

register of significant structure um and old business we will cover uh we will have updates on Old business at our March meeting um we are scheduled to meet on Tuesday March 18 2025 at 6: PM um in the council hearing room at Government Center um so with that said um this as I mentioned was a super quick meeting um may I get a motion to adjourn at 6:13 PM please motion

toj all right I got I got Rick and the second by Connie sure Connie thank you all right motion by Rick seconded by Connie to adjourn I think that motion was by Jonathan oh I'm sorry thank you John okay motion by John second in by Connie uh roll call Rick Mancini Rick Mancini yes Connie SW yes John Lima yes and Joyce Rodricks yesk you and Jason buard and rocki yes all right is that a delay that

there a little delay that a little delay thank you everyone uh for this uh short notice uh I mean we you know got within the open meeting uh uh timeline 48 hours but uh for arranging your schedules to meute tonight so I will see you all on the 18th