Redevelopment Authority 6 25 25

Hey folks, welcome to the June 25th, 2025 meeting of the Fall River Redevelopment Authority. Person went to the open meeting. Ay 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 recording and transmission are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and

permissible.

First item is roll call. John Ericson, Ron Rousen, Ben Fleberg, Yankee, and uh Joan Madiros cannot join us tonight.

Also joining us are Sarah Page, executive director, John Coff, legal council, Ken F, administrative consultant, Karen Martin, project manager. First item is the approval of the open session meeting for May 28th.

If there's no questions on those, I'll entertain a motion to approve those. A motion to approve the uh the May 28, 2025 open session meeting minutes.

Second. Second John Ericen. Yes. Ron Rousen. Yes. Fleberg. Yes. King. Yes.

Thank you. Uh you guys have the warrant.

Jones did go through it. Uh any questions on that? If not, we'll uh entertain a motion to approve that warrant. Motion to approve the June warrant in amount of 125,225.65 cents. Second. Second. John Erikson.

Yes. Ron Rousen. Yes. Final approve.

Yes. Ke. Okay. Okay, next item is election of officers, which Sarah wants to speak to.

Well, Johnny uh checked with folks and we'd like to put forward this um slate of officers to maintain the officers that we have now.

Motion to approve the following candidate officers for a one-year term for the noted board position. Chair John Ericson, Vice Chair Anne Keane, Treasurer Joe Maderas, Ex Official Secretary Sarah Peas, Executive Director. Second. Second. John Eriken.

Yes. Ron Rousen. Yes. And final bre.

Yes. And Keane. Yes. Thank you. Next item to talk about is Cathotic Protection. Congratulations.

Oh, yeah. I just thought whatever you know. Yeah. Um um so cathotic protection. So, Kavanaaugh is down currently working on um uh cathotic protection work. The anodess have been received by them. Um they're working right now off a work skiff. I don't know if anyone's been down there and seen it.

They're doing the knuckle welds at the top just underneath the concrete at the top of the piles. And they've encountered a few um things that have slowed them down a little bit. There's some concrete overspill that's gone into those gaps. So, they've had to clean that out a little bit. And then there's some of the gaps in the sheet is is uh wider than a weld. So they've been having to fill it and um and the

engineers aware of this and and they've got approval with the fill material. Um this week's been a little um tough for them just with the heat and um also they haven't done any coating this week because what's happening is when they're um opening up the um the Denzo 525 that goes over those knuckle welds, the coating is literally hardening up in like minutes. So because of the temperature. So, they're they're pretty

much they've he figures they're going to be done all the knuckle welds all around by the early part of next week. They'll go back and coat um and start coating and um but they're going to start the anodess next week. So, um so that should start next week. They've been running into some issues with um with tides, so they've been trying to work around that, too. So, they've got a cool magnet that keeps the skiff stable

in the area they're working. So, it's pretty it's pretty neat. Um, I said, "Why couldn't I have invented that?"

But, um, and but the but the height the the difference in height can sometimes make it tough to get up there and and get a steady hand. So, um, but they're making definite progress and it seems to be going pretty well actually. You know, no big big surprises. So, the diving portion, like I said, should start next week. So, okay, that's going on the Northfield point. Just as a little

preface uh to the rest of the board, um I I just I feel like we kind of dumped a lot of information on you in a short time. Well, I have more to talk about before we jump into that. What's that? I have more to talk about before we jump into that. Before we jump into Yeah, it's always stuff. Um so, um Northfield Point. So, we recently received um a

progress set probably like at 90% of the drawings and um we're going through those and making some comments. The um the invasive work that we approved at last month's meeting is going out to bid and the bid package will be on the street July 14th with a pre-bid meeting at the site July 23rd and bids are going to be due July 31st.

So um there was no way I could tighten it up so we could bring the low bidder to our July meeting just because of the requirements of you know public procurement and everything. So what I'm wondering if it's possible we can um have a few people involved with reviewing the bids with Sarah and I so we can make a decision um about awarding prior to our next July meeting. Um the

budget is only $60,000. So it's all grant money. So um I don't think it's going to be a huge I don't know how many we'll bid. I don't know um if there'll be a big range in prices or anything, but we'll review them all. So I didn't know um if you'd be amendable to putting together a little committee to do the bid review and then we can bring um then

we can proceed and then we'll let you know at July who it was awarded to and the numbers and everything. We can only have two people without meeting, correct? Yeah, we can only have two.

Right. Right. And I'm assuming Ken would be involved too and bring his expertise.

But how much is that contract? It's budgeted at 60.

Now the other option is that we have to if we want to expedite it to have a Zoom meeting and discuss it that way. What meeting? Zoom meeting. It would be really brief. It's for the invasive species management. We got it with excess money. We get extra money for something. We have a Bible how much we can it has to come to the pretty to design it put the big package together to start the work

and chair. No, that's for the constru that's for the construction part. That's for the construction. Oh, so we couldn't do it with just two then. No. Well, I think what she's It's almost like you're creating an informal process. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, one way to do it would be to authorize the chair to execute a contract to the low bidder ahead of time if you want to, but that's

authorizing the chair to do it without really knowing what the full price is.

That's what I'm saying. So, if we have to have a if it's over $10,000, the whole board has to vote on it as a number, not as a project. Correct. No, not necessarily. the the you can you can authorize the chair to sign in advance.

You okay? Yeah. No matter how much is between 10 and 50 and 60 long the board votes to approve the contract that's really what counts. But you could say up to an amount not to exceed reasonable but I I want to be careful. If it's 10 bucks above that then you're kind of stuck because then we just have a Zoom meeting.

Do you think there's a dollar amount that's reasonable if they authorize the chair to to award the contract and sign a contract up to a certain amount? It's budgeted at 60. I can't imagine that it's going to be above that. Above that and we're using SEO council funds. So if it went above that then we need there is we do have some excess money on there.

Yeah. In that and this is just a bid.

It's not an RFP where you're evaluating.

It's an RFP, but you know, it's you know, but there's no comparative criteria. No, there's no comparative criteria. No, it's the lowest responsible bidder. Responsible. So then the issue is were they, you know, we went, but that's a technical review of are they responsible, meet the minimum requirements. Yes. So you could take a vote to authorize the chair to award to the lowest responsible bidder under

60,000. 60,000. That would be legitimate fair. And then they would review it and recommend to Johnny this is the the one to sign it because if you do that committee you get into that subcommittee and they have to meet it gets listen based upon beta's cost estimating I would give you some leeway in there actually when is this how does this bid again? Um, it actually bids July 31st.

Pick a dollar amount and if it goes above that, you stepped up.

You want to say now you sent something about the seapport? There's a seapport grant. Did I just receive an email saying we didn't get a port grant? This is a fiscal year 24 grant. The one that we've already been awarded. Okay. So, it's not the one that we were under delay for. Okay.

So that was for um the engineering and design process, but we amended it because there was extra funding. The design didn't cost as much as the grant allowed. So we were able to amend it to use it for this construction.

So, make a motion for uh chair John Ericson to be able to sign the low bidder on a contract as long it's below 70,000. I think we should say 75 just to be safe. All right. 75,000.

Lowest responsible. Yeah. Low responsible.

I think so. there. I'm glad defer to do we have a worst case scenario? You have a five minute. Yeah. Okay.

Worst case scenario, what you have it's over that you have a five minute zoom meeting. Okay. Do we have to take the lowest bid? Lowest responsible respons. So they have to meet all the criteria. Yeah. So if match all the criteria, doesn't matter if they're a bum that we know it's a bum, we have to take a low one. Well, you would you would or we could not award it. You

could not avoid it all as long as you had reason not to. Yeah. Well, similar to what we went through with the last go around where they they actually backed out on their own, which was nice. I don't think bum's an actual criteria.

I haven't seen that in but I haven't seen them all. So, I don't know. Did you get my point?

I think you are likening bone to not responsible. Yes.

So, do we have a second for that? So, did we pick 75? 75,000.

Second John. Yes. Ron Ren. Yes. Ben Fleberg. Yes. And Ken. Yes. Let's hope it's 55. That was a yes, right? Yes. So, all right. So, now So now, so the reventment portion of the Northern Fit uh development is you guys got a little it it I I'm just to be honest with you, I'm a little hesitant because a lot of this got dumped on you in a short period

of time and I know some of you aren't real familiar with it. Joan's not here tonight and she's, you know, kind of our fiscal watchdog and I I just I'm if you guys are comfortable voting on it tonight, I'm okay. But uh on the flip side, if we need to go through it a little bit more, familiarize oursel with it and the numbers, I'm fine tableabling it till the next meeting,

I would go with table it. I don't think I've I just seen this half an hour.

Well, so can I discuss it? So then we can let me What is the impact if we table it? I guess is one of the questions. So the biggest So the biggest thing that we um so so we were going to go for a seapport grant and it was supposed to be an open cycle in June. So it would open June 1st and they were due June 30th and we would

have been notified it said in August. So what happened when I went in to check the website um it said that they have moved the SE port grants to the fall of 2025. at our award ceremony, I talked to Ellen Sabula um and I said, "Ellen, what happened? You moved the uh you moved the grants." And she's like, "Yes, we're um hoping, you know, to do it in the fall."

So, that word hoping made me very nervous. Um and she wouldn't give me any um you know, no details or anything about if it's going to be like the same parameters or anything like that. Um the only thing that that is any Seapport grant you're going to have to provide some of your own matching funds. So this work that we do would be considered matching funds um for the grant that we would eventually apply for

for the rest of the work um in whenever they open up their next round of grants, which we have no guarantee when that's going to happen. Um, and so if we wait and um either wait till July to vote to spend our own money, it just pushes the work into more of a um, you know, November, December frame. And then we have that January 15th winter flounder breeding season that goes from January

15th to May 31st. Now, if we're already doing the work and we have our turbidity curtain all installed, we may be able they they may give us permission to work beyond that date, but there's no guarantee. Um, so if we don't want to spend our money now at all and wait till the seapport grant um is seapport grant is open, we apply. We wouldn't hear until probably December if we are awarded. if we are awarded then

we likely couldn't do the work until June of next year. Um so just because of the same the winter flounder we don't want to disturb them and um we could potentially ask about a turbidity curtain and allowing us to start the work at some point during that winter flounder breeding season. But again they don't have to allow it. So, but the revetment does need to go before the improvements

on the top part. So, um that those are just the impacts of what um what pushing it does. And I don't know, I have no crystal ball as to whether the seapport's even going to do a grant this year. I do know from talking to FA engineers that they've got two projects that they're going to be proposing. I think there'll be a lot of competition.

I don't know how strong we'll be in that competition. We'd have to see. The other thing is and I'm on some other nonprofits and I know some of you guys are and like the current political climate is very uncertain and uh a lot of you know traditional grant money that's been flowing through the system is getting cut off. So we have to keep that in mind too. How is the relationship with BA? Is

this something that you've updated them on or is this kind of like a um I mean keep them in the loop as this proceeds?

I mean we they're under contract to put together a bid package for us and to do um um bid re um you know help with bid review but um and then construction management also. But I mean it doesn't matter whether it goes now or the spring really. Sure.

The other issue that we're going to face is that there's a maximum million dollar um Well, we don't know if that's even going to be No, we don't know if that's going to be the case. They may change it higher. No, they I don't think it go higher. Might go lower. Right. So, it's so as far as we know in the past, they've only been willing to go up to million dollars. this project with the

revetment and the um full landscape improvement may go over that million and we're going to need to match it anyway, right? Yes. You're saying 1.3 if the two numbers come out right 1.293. Yeah, I think I think honestly the reetment work is a little high, but um that's why we use the 500 for um the budget number, but um you know, you don't know until you bid it. And you're hoping to get the

other landscape work down further as Yeah. I can I just ask you about why why are we concerned about Beta's cost estimating here, right? because they're carrying 15% as a contingency, right?

That's extremely high. Yes. So that indicates to me that they may not know what they're doing, right? Cuz now we're we're working with numbers here and and it's nice to air on the side of caution. I get that. But on the other hand, I'm not sure how much thought that's going into cost estimating. If you're put if you're carrying a 15% contingency, we're not paying them to carry 15% contingencies.

We're paying them to develop cost estimates that are reflective of what the work is going to be not to have a safety net of 15%. I think they always do that though who in I mean in the p all the other ones in the past. Yeah. I mean but that's what I'm saying and it cost us been off right they so we had there's a whole different issue here. The consultant

that they had put this together came in a lot. Well, so when we got the original bid, so right here, so the embankment stabilization is 376 in the budget, GEI, who is their um marine engineer, whatever you want to call them, um their original number was 250 something. So, but Beta thought it was low. I thought it was a little low, too. Um but, um so, and it worked out to be like $16 a

square foot or something. Beta, this number that Beta has in their budget here is like at $24 a square foot and then plus his contingency on top of that. And I know like their turbidity current numbers, their their other numbers except for the temporary access road um are based on what they've seen in the jobs that they've other jobs that they've done. Um, that mobilization number can also vary because depending

on how the contractor bids, how the way the the means of construction, are they going to work off a barge and throw the stone onto the to the land? I mean, anyone's going to have to have a backhoe up on the land to help place that stone, but um, another guy may just truck everything in. I you know, it's it's going to be their means and methods and how they want to bid it. So that

mobilization number could be a little um probably change too. So I mean in my mind that the the 500 is a little high, but I mean until you bid it, you don't really know. That's that's your um truth right?

That's your truth. So does that mean that it'll be a if we waited to July it would hurt us? Is that what you're saying? I don't think it would hurt us.

It would just the only the only thing I worry about moving forward is um getting into colder weather um placing stone and stuff like that if the ground freezes or anything like that. That's my only thought. I mean, you want a nice stable you want to be able to place a nice stable um um you want to place stone on a stable surface, I guess, is what I'm trying to

say. So, if we voted this okay in July, you'd have to bid it out 30 days into at least August. Well, we'd have to finalize. It probably wouldn't be able to go out because this one would be We'd want to give them more than two weeks to bid this one. We'd probably want to give them You could Yeah, if you wanted to hold it off. There's nothing that prevents you from putting out to bid

now. Yeah. I mean, we can put it out to bid now and not award it. You could put it out to bid and not award it. This way, you know what the numbers are, right? And come July, you can take a vote. Yeah. And that's what I said in the feel more comfortable with it, right? Oh, yeah. I'm not asking you to actually award the work or anything right now. I'm just saying is to

acknowledge that we'd be spending our money really doing the work if you if you award the contract. If we award the contract. Yes. You could like Ken said, you could bid it, get a price, and then make a call and if you're not comfortable, just reject all the bids.

Yeah. And that way you don't lose any time. You just have to get beta started on the bid package now. Correct. So you'd be spending some money. But but we've already got that included in their price right now. So that's not going to be and it's grant money. And then take a vote after you get I did better.

Are you ready to vote? I don't I think I'm ready to vote on that. I I I think the numbers I don't know.

Again, we only had 20 minutes to look at it. Joan hasn't even seen it yet. Yeah.

So bid it and come back another time.

Yeah.

Want a motion for that? Everybody move for that. this time.

Second motion to table the next meeting.

Wait, no, we going to table it or where are you going to are you going to allow us to bid it and then we'll vote on I mean I it won't be at the July meeting.

It wouldn't be until probably the August meeting. What? We'd have a bid number, right? So you could just motion to authorize staff to bid the project and bring it back to the board if you want.

Perfect.

My exact motion. John just said it.

Second. John, yes. Ron Rousen. Yes. And fin. Yes. In. Yes. Thank you. So you're what you're just saying, Karen, you're thinking we could conceivably have actual numbers by August. August.

Yeah, I think so. Yes. Middle of August.

Yeah. I'll try to have it for the August board meeting. Okay. Sarah, did we um I accidentally skipped the uh this Yeah.

So, we should go back. Yeah. We No, I was going to was going to say we just go back to that. Um, do we have to acknowledge that we're saying that we would be spending our money? I think they can make that decision. Okay.

Depending on what it is, then they make a final decision. Yes or no? They're saying spending that money because once you if you're going to go ahead with the contract, you've got to commit to spending, right? Exactly. The contract is going to get paid whether you get the grant or not. Okay. I think you made that call at that point. Okay. All right. Yeah. Because the bids are only

valid for a certain amount, right? Yeah.

So, we get bids by August. You're saying we won't know till October, November for the grant. Yeah. You're going to you're probably you're probably going to go ahead and decide. Yeah. We'd start the work. I mean, you'll have a number and you'll know. Yeah. The Seport website says fall of 2025 for the grant window and Ellen stuck to fall of 2025. Now, fall can be September, October,

November. Yeah, but also by August sense of what they're doing, too. Yeah, hopefully we will.

So, do you want to talk? So, here's our award. Yeah. So, we wanted to update you on our award ceremony in Boston. Yeah, I can. It was fun. You don't have it on your desk? I don't have it on. No, I don't. Jeez Louise crazy. Oh, and then we get So, this little blurb that we're going to play is um what they played while um before while everyone was going up on the stage. So, Johnny never

actually saw it because he was up on the stage. Slideshow. Slideshow.

I think you're in this, huh? You're in this video. You do? Oh, yeah. Is this the interviews or is this a different Your voice is a different thing. Your voice is in this. Oh yeah, your our voices are in it from the podcast. So it's on the TV. It does not pitch. That's what I thought. We're talking about something that was ideiated in the '90s, began in 2000, I

think is the number you said. Uh and we are sitting here in 2025 talking about it being finished and opened. So I think it gives people a really good sense of how long some of these things take.

one process again working with different governors, different mayors, different congressional delegations because we needed both state and federal funding.

So the whole thing was very complex not only in terms of the cleanup but also identifying and securing the funding that was necessary to get us to the point where we are today. As soon as it was opened, people started walking and it has walking paths on the edges so that you look out over the Taton River.

It it looks best and there's an amazing sunset and behind you is the hill of houses that go up into Fall River that also has a really interesting appeal.

So, it's just a beautiful spot to be.

I didn't remember all that.

So, that looks so cold.

There we are. Wait, there was kite night. It's coming. It's like It's going really slow. It's buffering. Okay. Thank god the project came better came out better than the slideshow.

What? Listen, it's buffering.

There we go. There we go. Speedy.

Yeah, it's buffering. So, I think the video started after the audio, right? Is that what happened?

It's buffering. So, the pictures aren't keeping up with the audio.

It definitely looked different there.

But that was the kite. That was the kite night of last year. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

And then we're back. It was very quick.

It was really nice to, you know, to get that and meet all the people. And I I didn't realize it was such a, you know, prestigious thing. And Kenny was 24, I think, when he started.

High school.

Anyway, yeah, it was a fun night. Um, lots of people came up to us afterward and congratulated us.

um gave us their card because they were engineers and thought we would want to work with them. And yeah, there was a few like what three or four or five other awards in one one company was like turning um trash into energy. Another company was um had this enormous solar farm that was powering I don't know 130,000 households or something in Texas. And what was the was uh the food, the people that donated the food from

restaurants to food banks and uh some really interesting projects and we were one of the four or five that uh won the award. So it was a nationwide acknowledgement. Yes. Well, it's the New England business. It's the New England Environmental Business Council. So it was really New England groups. So, how did that the Texas projects get in there? It's a New England company that got

Yeah, because I don't know if everything was actually right. They might think the trash thing was an angle, I think.

Yeah. Right.

Let's see. So, back to uh Pleasant Street Flint Neighborhood Earth is the next item.

Right. Right. Okay.

So, I guess there are a variety of things to say about this. As I've been telling you, we're waiting to find out if MEPO will change their process and we're not proceeding with another $25,000 of work hoping that there will be a change in the MEBA process and we will not have to do the environmental impact report. So the latest on this is that I think I told you the governor's office

is really asking NEPA to think differently about the um approval of urban renewal plans because the process is so lengthy and costly that it's holding up a lot of urban renewal plans.

And so um we had as the gateway cities uh network that meets monthly, we had put together a committee to work on trying to get MEPA to change the process for urban renewal plans. And we had written letters and had a meeting and now uh another meeting occurred and Meepa has been working very hard to come up with a new process because they feel that by statute they have to use the process they've been using.

And so they're suggesting that they use a special review procedure which is how we're talking about taking the master plan and the work on some you know on the 19 acres. We're talking now about using that concept of a special review procedure which allows you to design with MEPA a process which may um avoid some of the steps that would typically be part of a MEPA review. And so they're all of a sudden suggesting

using that process for urban renewal plans, which is a whole new idea that came out of the blue a couple of weeks ago. And so we're having a meeting, we being some of the committee members that meet every month and have been working on this, um, have a meeting on Zoom with NEPA to talk about how that might work.

And what made them think this was possible is that um Meepa has been reviewing shellfish aquaculture and looking at every aquaculture project separately and deciding that instead they could take those projects and think about them as kind of a class of projects and use a special review procedure for all of them and design it for that aquaculture work. So similarly they're thinking they could design a

special review procedure for urban renewal plans and just use that for all urban renewal plans which would get around some of the problems we've been having. So, we're having a meeting with them Monday to understand how they think that might work. And a bunch of us are reading the ACU the aquaculture um concept and how that worked and preparing to talk with them about that.

What we don't know is if we go to a process like that, if it really will look back to where we are and allow our process to change or whether the fact that they've already told us the process that we would go through for our plan if we'll still have to go through that process. So, I'm hoping to get that answer on Monday because that uh would have major implications for New Bedford

urban renewal plans and ours and potentially others. So, that's where we are. our process is kind of hung up in this much larger question of will NEPA change their process and if we get a sense Monday that they won't then I think we're ready to go ahead and spend the grant money and go ahead and do this next piece of their process.

Does that make sense?

It's a long thorny road that we're on.

Can you go over it one more time?

So, we've gone nowhere in the last month. No, we've made major progress in the sense that NEPA is considering totally changing their process for urban renewal plans.

We haven't moved our urban renewal plan forward which is frustrating and um but as a process for urban renewal plans in the state we've seems to have made um major progress. So hopefully ours then follows that.

So that's where that is. Um, and you know that we have about $1.7 million to spend on infrastructure work on um on Pleasant Street. And so we're slowly developing strategies for how we want to use those funds. So we're making some progress there. And then I reported at the last meeting and you agreed to match a storefront improvement grant or a vacant storefront improvement grant process with um a

$10,000 grant that would be used to match the 50,000 in state tax credits.

And I got to the bottom of some of the questions that we had and amazingly the tax credits get allocated without any kind of strings to exactly how those funds get used on a storefront. They're just purely to incentivize people to take the risk to go into a vacant storefront on a street that probably has a lot of other vacant storefrs. And so it's really about whatever the company needs to get them to move into a

storefront, they can do and then have tax credits pay them back when they actually file their taxes.

How long do we have to expense the 1.7 million? The 1.7 million uh we have till it's like 2030. 20 2030. Okay. So, we have plenty of time. We just uh we would like to get the work done sooner rather than later.

So, that's the update on Pleasant Street.

You want to talk about Excuse me. NMA.

Well, actually, I should say though that um these um these uh brochures that you have for uh Pleasant Street were given to our delegation and um to the um Secretary and Under Secretary of Economic Development.

And um we have followed up with um a very specific uh request for the 4 million that was put in the bond bill. 7 million was put in, but we're actually requesting 4 million of that. And uh we put in a budget showing that we would use that over a number of years. And if you're curious, I can send you that budget and what we proposed. But when we um gave folks this brochure, they said, "Well,

we don't want to commit the foreign million this year if you're not going to use it right away." So, we had to show what we would use it for and in what time frame. And that would be over the next few years. and it shows how it would kind of uh intersect with the 1.7 that we'll be using. So, it showed the 1.7 and the 4 million. Would you like to see that? It

didn't occur to me to send it to you, but it you might might be interested. Yeah, if you're willing to share it. Sure.

Sure. Okay.

So um any other questions on all of that for Pleasant Street?

Should we move on to NMA? Yes. Yes.

So I think I told you at the last meeting we had worked with some of our partners to put a request in to um extend the TDI program for another year and have the fellow that's been working with us continue. It was far more competitive than anyone expected and we were up against 12 other applications and they were only able to fund six of them and so we were told that we

wouldn't have ours extended. So he's going to continue working with us through the end of October and we have a monthly meeting of the north downtown group. And so at the next meeting, um I'm working with a few other uh entities that really wanted to see this extended and are really committed to this work. And um we're going to meet and bring kind of a proposal or a sense of how we might proceed which is to

create some kind of small business um association for the group to you know have kind of a committee that would work to figure out how to keep this work going. And so um bank five was one of the entities that put this application in. Three of us had to apply. So I worked with the city that applied. The chamber applied to continue to be the fiscal agent and bank five put a

proposal in which we kind of worked with them on. So um I believe that bank five will agree to be on a committee the chamber us and probably one or two ent other entities and so we'll look at without the fellow what will we need to keep our work going do we need to raise funds to um have somebody support the group 10 hours a week, a month, you know, is there something that we need to

do to keep the work going or can a committee keep it going?

So, Johnny was Johnny's been diligently attending our NOMA meetings and, you know, thinking about this with us. Do you want to speak to that? Yeah. So there mentioned it before but there's a lot of energy and a lot of interest there from Sarah mentioned bank five police athletic league um South Coast Frack Patty Rigo uh the the restaurant owners in the neighbor actually I took some pictures

you guys can pass around of the of the neighborhood. Um, so the restaurant, you tend to kind of walk, you know, go through there fast, but there's there's so many beautiful buildings there that um, you know, they're talking a lot about plantings and lightings and um, it's uh, you know, we we just want to help help in any way we can because I think that neighborhood really is kind

of a diamond in the it's getting better, more and more improvements, but seems like it really has a lot of potential.

So, I have a few other things as Johnny mentioned to report. Um there's a there's been a group working on this leads program which is a leadership kind of south coast program and um they uh the one of the groups proposed to um I guess angel investors uh through this leads group um to have a lighting the way program in Fall River that would begin to light up buildings, which is something the group has been

talking with about either uplighting them or downlighting them. And so they've raised um 5,000. They have applications in various places and the first building to be lit they're imagining would be the People's Bank building. Then um they're proposing to light that. Um People's Incorporated.

Yeah. What did I say? People's. Sorry.

Western Mass had a People's Bank. I guess that's where I went. Sorry about that. People's Inc. It's a bank building. So I was going to say it's a historic bank building. People's Inc.

owns it. They're looking at lighting that up. Part of their thinking is lighting up buildings. you see from the Braga Bridge. So you kind of go over the Braga Bridge and you see these lit up.

So the other is the um the really interesting tile mural that's on the building that was the Herald News building and is now Potter's Printing Building. And um that could get lit by that would be less expensive than some of the others because you could light it from the top looking down. And then the third is a commitment from uh the congregational church to light up their steeple and you also would see that from

the braidge. So there this group um with that kind of work within the.nma group are really focused on raising funds for this lighting and then to continue lighting other historic buildings in the neighborhood.

So that's an effort that's moving forward. There are lots of little grants that are being made available with some money that Mass Development had committed to um Viva Fall River and they're putting out these $1,500 grants.

And so some of those will be used for planters and planting.

And um in the midst of um the city's downtown uh cleanup process, I went out and worked with some folks to get new dirt in all the planters out in front of city hall. And so I'm working with Joseph Holderman to get perennials put in those so that they're planted once and for all and come up every year assuming they don't die in the winter. And so um I'm uh

if you agree going to put the cost of some of those plants on our credit card and help get plants in those as one of as kind of our contribution toward some of this beautifification. So, lots of plants have been going on um Purchase Street and uh in that little um uh Granite Street. Yeah, the Granite Street purchase street patio that is in front of Viva's uh shop and Joseph Holderman

owns it and has been doing a really good job um beautifying it. So, a lot of plants have been going in. more are going to go on North Main Street and I'm working with folks to get some in front of city hall because city hall's pots had kind of looked pretty bad last year and um it's hard to get them planted every year. So, we're trying Didn't People Inc. used to plant those?

No, I think that um Sandy Dennis did Sandy Dennis was planting them. I don't think so. I think it was People Inc.

They paid for really.

What exactly is the north downtown area?

Like what is the Beford Street to like the library? Before Street on North and Beth and then to pretty much to Santanda Bank, would you say the library? You mean? Oh, it was to the Y is where we're the Y. So even a little front of the block down to Pine Street.

And then we're also including in this north downtown um up to Troy Street and the Troy Street Arts area. Yeah. And so we're calling NMA stands for North Maine. Maine NMA.

You have NAM but then it says north downtown area. H you said NAMA then it said north downtown area. So NDA I don't know where you get NMA from. Um, it's North Main. Oh, N O for North N.

Maine. No, Maine. Yeah. So, it's North Main. The N O M A and we're calling it the North Main Historic District.

So um um let's see.

There was a couple of other things to tell you.

Um oh, okay. So, events. So part of the group what the group is really focused on is having events to activate this north downtown area and um Viva Fall River is leading that effort in a lot of ways. Thursday nights are from 4 to 8 the fork and farmers market which includes vendors, food trucks and music.

music this coming week is Tandem Duo and the food truck that's supporting this is the chicken and waffles truck of Duke's Bakery and um there are various vendors selling mushrooms um uh honey and various other um things.

They tried to get a farm to bring produce, but um it's really hard to get farms to bring produce unless you can really show a lot of people are going to show up because it's not a big money maker to bring tons of farm materials and if you don't sell it, it's been a lot of work to do that. So, uh, what they do have is a sourdough bread company that I guess is very popular.

And so, there's music, food, um, vendors, and so that's happening every Thursday night into September. Where's that? Uh, at the, um, patio of Viva Fall River at the Purchase Street and Y.

Okay.

And that's looking really great with the grass growing up through the tiles. Um, and then on July 17th is pop party on purchase summer celebration. That's a big block party. They're closing the street and there are all kinds of familyfriendly activities happening that night.

Is that from Viva to like St. James?

That pot of purchase. Uh yeah, that part of purchase. So there's going to be shutdown part. That's what I understand.

And I believe that um uh Tequila Lime and the St. James are involved in doing something with that.

But if you get on the website, there's a lot more information on that.

So any thoughts or questions about that?

What's just the sustainability of that?

Well, that's um the sustainability of the activities is a real question because Viva is um winding down to some extent and the uh Patty's going to work um part-time with the community foundation. So, the community foundation may be approached to help um Viva keep going in some way. I'm not really sure about that. And um I think the North Downtown group wants to try to figure out how to keep all that going.

And certainly Joseph Holddeman is committed to having that plaza continue to be active, find another entity to go into that store space. And so there's a lot of moving parts to keep all that going. But the restaurants definitely are committed to seeing how we can keep it going. And some of them are looking at doing outdoor dining at the patio or out front of their businesses. And so

that's what we meet about every month.

Is there any anything new on the um the conference for the new urbanism? Well, I just wanted to report that um Ken and I took about 25 people around on this bus for uh most of a day. Um, and we took them to see mill buildings, went to the Flint to see some of those redone mills.

Uh, went to Portugalia and Michael Benvites gave them a really intense tour and they were really into that. Uh, we then went over to North Park and showed them that park. then took them down to Dval Street and drove around parts of the um master plan area. Then we had lunch at Barretts and showed them um the master plan on some boards and talked some about it. Then they went to the

Narrows and got a tour of the Narrows and Ken talked to them more about the whole planning process. So that was a really good day and um it's hard to know you know exactly what will come out of that but we built some relationships with um firms in Providence and uh a professor from Brown was really involved in planning it and um someone um came from the Boston Federal Re the

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is um in New Bedford and trying to figure out how to get the Boston Fed to support things in the South Coast more. And so it's great to have her along.

Ken, do you want to speak to it at all?

No, I think you covered it. Okay.

Hi. Um there's no further matters for the open session here makes finding an open session would have a detrimental effect on negotiating position of the public body. Purpose of the executive session is to approve the executive session minutes from May 28th, 2025 to discuss strategy with respect to potential real estate transactions for property located at 45 Anan Street, Fall River Street Corridor, Fall River. We'll

entertain a motion to enter into executive session and we will return to open session. A motion to enter executive session and we will return to open session. Second, yes. Ron Ren, yes.

Yes.