The Fall River Housing Authority held its regular meeting on Monday, July 10, 2023, at 4:35 P.M. During the citizens' input, a resident raised a critical concern regarding the elevator emergency call system, reporting an incident at Cardinal Medeiros where an emergency call went to voicemail instead of 911, resulting in someone being stuck for 47 minutes. The board acknowledged the issue and committed to investigating the programming of the emergency buttons. Director updates included an overview of various summer programs for residents, such as movie nights, a lunch program at four sites, senior concerts, and youth field trips to locations like the fire station, police station, Battleship Cove, and Buttonwood Park. Community rooms will also serve as cooling centers during heat waves, with bottled water provided. The board also recognized William Primo for his 23 years of service in the facilities department upon his retirement. In new business, the board approved Change Order #2 for roof replacement and penthouse balcony repairs at George H. Caron Heights, which was a credit of $23,358.36 to the contract and extended the contract duration by 168 days. They also accepted the resignation of Kawa Escalazi, a clerk interviewer, effective June 20, 2023, and unanimously ratified the appointment of Danielle Hernandez to a maintenance custodial floor position with a 5-0 roll call vote. All other routine items, including the minutes from June 12, 2023, bills and communications, management reports, and financial reports for April and May, were approved unanimously.
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City Officials
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everyone welcome to the Fall River Housing Authority regular meeting it's Monday July 10th 2023 and it is 4 35 P.M the first item would be the roll call please here slice chairman Underhill yeah commissioner Burns here commissioner thank you attorney Souza the open meeting law please thank you madam chairwoman the language for the open meeting law is as follows the person went to the open meeting law any person
0:34any 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 thank you the first item is Citizens input good afternoon your name and address please
1:08do y'all have enough money in your budget to add and share to every elevator in the Fall River Housing Authority system I'm sorry what do you have enough money in your budget to add a chair to every elevator you operate what's your purpose that's another question I had you thinking for a minute Friday morning I received a phone call at 8 30 in the morning from someone who is stuck in an elevator with Cardinal Madera
1:37they push the emergency button in the elevator and the phone rang and it said you have reached the photo of a Housing Authority executive officers were open from nine to four please leave a message so my question is what happens after four o'clock or before nine o'clock or on the weekend can you get a chair so that anybody stuck in the elevator can have a comfortable chair until nine o'clock the next morning so when
2:03somebody gets a message that they're stuck in the elevator well we don't provide a chair if someone's stuck in an elevator if there is a protocol there must have been a a bug in the system because the call is supposed to go to the 911 apparently the elevators are programmed to dial your office here and I went to the voice I went to the uh the machine telling them closed till for 94 you
2:28opened from nine to four Monday through Friday so if the elevators are programmed that way it's a bad situation it is now when did this happen Friday morning at 8 30. I'm trying commissioner Underhill who came over and somebody had gotten figured out this for somebody were stuck in the elevator and Dave can tell you the rest of the story but she was in there 47 minutes trying to get a hold of somebody and I
2:55called a bunch of numbers and got voicemails everywhere this was another tenant this was a vendor was anybody in the site office at Cardinal I have no idea what was that you tried calling that off I called the offers I got the voicemail so I did call Commission on the hill because as you know the joint tenant office is there and he drove his wheelchair over I assume he went over I
3:20know that much and he made sure that it was being taken care of but that's a scary situation yeah I would strongly suggest that somebody double checked to make sure that those emergency call buttons are either calling 9-1-1 or calling the emergency entering service in Somerset well it's programmed for 9-1-1 it's supposed I mean Kevin apparently they're not so yeah we'll follow up on that thank
3:45you thank you okay for anybody that's watching and I don't want to outstep my uh balance here call 9-1-1 don't call an office don't look for somebody who's working it is an emergency just call 9-1-1 you know Stanley Street is across the street I understand that yeah but I mean it could be at any other building it could be any of the others I completely understand and so if anybody finds themselves in
4:08that situation just call 9-1-1 hopefully they have a cell phone or if somebody you know they reached out to they can call 9-1-1 well we you know if we have the fire department respond Jason to be honest it could be a tenant who doesn't have a cell phone I agree and then we have Rock yep so thank you for your uh attention to that matter thank you appreciate it okay thank you it's import ant
4:38thank you seeing none next item on the agenda is the minutes of the regular meeting held on June 12 2023. so I have a motion to accept the minutes I'll make a motion to accept the minutes June 12 2023 thank you any questions with regard to the minutes hearing none all in favor aye item three is the bills and communication you have the vouchers in your packet do I have a motion to accept the
5:14vouchers as presented uh motion to accept exactly I'm sorry any questions with regard to the packet sharing none all in favor aye item four are the management reports you have the eight reports included in your packet a is the or one is the applications group Point number two is the occupancy reports three are the tenants accounts receivable reports four other work order reports five is the monthly Section 8
5:50voucher activity report six is the monthly Personnel count report seven is the director of modernization's monthly report and A to Z Bank investment and bond debt balance report do I have a motion to accept these reports as presented and make a motion to accept these reports as presented second any questions with regard to any of the reports in the packet hearing none all in favor
6:26item five is the financial reports you have the monthly financial report for the period ended April as well as May so April is the one month ended in May is the two months ended so I have a motion to approve these reports as presented motion to accept the reports as presented second any questions with regard to either May or April hearing none all in favor aye item six is an update from our director
7:05thank you madam chairwoman just a few things um first tonight was to be the night but it got postponed until tomorrow uh as the kickoff of the movie Nights at several of our developments in several other summer programs we're going to have movies at six sites we have the lunch program that we participate with Fall River Recreation at four of our sites senior concerts at the elderly high-rise buildings
7:42field trips for the Youth they're going to be going to the fire station the police station Battleship Cove Buttonwood Park um the summer youths program started last week so I want to acknowledge Joe Da Silva from our resident services he does a great job in coordinating all these events so if you're ever out socializing the fall of a Housing Authority does quite a quite a bit over the summer for both
8:16elderly and the Youth of our sites so I wanted to bring you up to speed on that I also wanted to make you aware as we've done in the past any time we have a significant Heat Wave or humidity wave we utilize the community rooms as cooling centers and we provide bottled waters for our residents so if we do have residents that don't have air conditioning they can always come down to the community room so
8:49this summer will be no different than previous Summers and the last thing I have I wanted to acknowledge um William Primo who recently retired from the Fall River Housing Authority he worked in the facilities department for 23 years was a great worker for us at several sites but more recently in the past that Mitchell Heights and we have an award for him and a gift certificate and I just wanted to acknowledge Bill
9:20Bill if you want to come up
9:28congratulations thank you for your service thank you very much okay congratulations
9:42and that's all I have thank you thank you next on the agenda is new business item one is modernization change order number two for roof replacement and roof Penthouse balcony repairs at the George H cartel Heights this is a change order that's a credit in the amount of 23 358.36 to the contract and it also increases the duration of the contract by 168 days do I have a motion to approve change order number two
10:24motion will approve change second any questions
10:40any questions all in favor aye aye Item B is the certificate of completion it's not actually completed at this point so we're going to table it until the next meeting do I need a motion promotional table thank you second all in favor aye item two is Personnel a is the resignation of an employee the recommended action is to accept the resignation of Kawa Escalade escalazi she's a clerk interviewer and the
11:15effective date of her resignation was June 20th 2023. motion to accept the resignation all in favor aye Item B is a maintenance custodial Floor position the recommended action is to ratify the appointment of Danielle Hernandez I'll make a motion to ratify the appointment of Daniel Hernandez second roll call please commissioner Bentley yes commissioner Burns yes commissioner Underhill yes commissioner Medeiros yes
11:51chill and Sahari yes well everyone was a short agenda this evening does anyone have anything else for tonight just give me a few minutes thank you Jason we're good nothing okay do I have a motion to adjourn emotional adjourn second all in favor aye thank you everyone thank you thank you