Latest / Aired Out / BREAKING NEWS IN BARRE CITY on the J.J. Newberry building with Steve Mackenzie

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BREAKING NEWS IN BARRE CITY on the J.J. Newberry building with Steve Mackenzie · Aired Out

• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Now do you do? All right? I'm hopping back on
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: this morning live hunt aired out because the great Steve
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: McKenzie has just walked into the studio and man, it's like,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: this is the kind of stuff that I'm talking about
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that I love engaging with our local community to find
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: out what the heck is going on. And Steve, you
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and I were just chatting a little bit and I
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: was like, you know what, we're going live with the
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: cameras here. You got some great news? Do you have
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: good news for us?
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Well? I think I do. So I'm here to report
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: out on the one forty three Main Street Initiative, which,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: if people have been following, understand it's the fundraising campaign
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: for the badc Very Area Development Corporation has sponsored as
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: a fundraising campaign to be able to buy the old
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: JJ Newberry's building, the blighted building on Main Street, turn
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: it over to the city, and lay the around work
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: for eventually developing that site and getting rid of that iore.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: So we've been on I've been on the podcast a
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: couple of times in the past to report on progress,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: and I'm appreciative of that opportunity. But I'm delighted to
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: be here today to report that we've reached our eight
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars goal. Come on, actually we slightly exceeded it.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: We have as of Monday, we received eight hundred thousand,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty dollars in donations and pledges. How
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: much eight hundred, eight hundred thousand, three hundred and fifty dollars,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: So we've met our goal. Now, if you've been following
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the campaign, you realize that's a reduced goal because the
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: owner has reduced the price of the property twice since
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: we started this campaign. It started out at a million
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: dollars for the property. They reduced it to a hundred
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: thousand and here probably i've lost track of time. Thirty
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: forty five days ago reduced it to seven hundred and
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: seventy five thousand dollars. The campaign goal is in excess
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: of the sale price. If people recall, we've from the
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: beginning we said we need to raise more than the
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: sale price to cover the cost of the campaign and
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: also to underwrite some of the costs that would otherwise
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: be incurred by the city if if we just turned
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: it over to them without some prior work, and that
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: work now the campaign costs have been I think relatively low.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: I think they're in about the four thousand dollars range
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: out of eight hundred thousand. There's two initiatives we're undertaking
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: right now. One is to prepare an updated or a
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: new actually environmental sight assessment that's about thirty five hundred dollars.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Will then uh, we're in the process actually preparing a
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: umbrella application for the state, which is an application to
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: provide liability protection to the city for any environmental contamination
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: that there may be on the site. And then maybe
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: or likely well there is, yeah, there is, but uh
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: uh it's it's nowhere near the same situation as what
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: was behind uh the old aubishons and the.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, the remember well yeah, drawing.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Drawing the blank of the name. But uh and then
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: the balance uh will we will uh donate to the
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: city to cover at least one year's worth of property
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: taxes that the city would otherwise lose out on because
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: once the property goes municipal, obviously it's not generating taxes.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: So we could help e he's the transition by providing
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: at least a year's worth of property taxes. So we're
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: we're excited. Now we're now we're actually in the process
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: of negotiating a purchase and sale agreement. The owner has
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: had a draft.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: We worked through with their attorney, the city attorney, City Manager,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: b A d c's attorney and I have worked with
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: the owner's attorney reached agreement on a draft to put
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: in front of the the owners. The city Council in
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: fact has a copy of the draft and they are
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: the council has on the agenda this evening the authorization
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: an action item to authorize the manager to sign the
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: purchase and sale once it's finalized and once he's satisfied
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: it's the final document is acceptable to him, the city attorney,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: and of course from our side it needs to be
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: acceptable to b ADC and and b ADC's attorney. So
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: with hopefully by the end of the week we would
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: have an executed purchase and sail agreement barring something coming
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: out of the woodwork. Now, the path after that is
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: we had one hundred and twenty days to get to closing.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I'm expecting that we deliberately picked a conservatively long time frame,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty days. Normally it shouldn't take that long,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: but we have to complete this environmental side assessment, which
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: could be four to six weeks, the Brella application a
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: week or two after that. I'm hopeful that we could
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: actually schedule a closing within you know, within seventy five days,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: which would which definitely would be before the end of
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: the year, and then move forward. In fact, the city
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: has the site on its radar screen in terms of
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: applying for potential grant money and to help move the
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: project forward. So in the short term, the goal is
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: to get to the purchase of sale agreement executed and
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: then get to closing and then have the transition to
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: the city and then after that it's uh, it's a
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: matter of finding the resources to continue with the development
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: of the site. And as I've said before, it's the
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: you know it's a city place project or or do
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: all over again. It's the same development scenario by the property,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: tear down the blighted buildings. There may be an interim
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: time to level a lot, get it ready for a developer.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: There may be a small municipal park there for a
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: year or two, maybe not, depending on how fast the
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: process gets to reaching a request for proposals.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: You and you know you're going to be asked an
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: awful lot here over U N B, A TC and
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: everyone else in the city council. What's next? What's next?
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: What's next? When? When? When? Yeah, well, you know.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: We've had that question since the day we announced the campaign.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Or you know, how come you don't have hird plans
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: for that?
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: What's going to go there? Sure? And well when's it
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: going to be? When is the JJ Newberry building going
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: to be demolished? I think it's the first million.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Dollars can't I can't and I can't answer that question,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: not because I'm being quiet, but it's out of it's
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: a process that no one individual controls, and quite honestly,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: it's just like it's just like any frankly development project
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: or any of the number of projects the city has undertaken. Again,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: the the City Places is an example. I mean, it
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: was one step at a time. First things, buy the property,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: then tear it down and prepare the lot, then solicit
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: UH developer proposals. One thing I can say is, and
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: one thing we made it clear in our agreement with
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: the city is that the city will have soul control
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: and authority over what goes there for development. And I
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: it's not it's not like b a. D. Says, you're saying,
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: here's a property and here's what it got to go there.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: We don't know what's got to go there.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I had a thought, it's the city will have absolutely
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Oh I know. The thought I was going to say
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: is I fully expect that the city will have public
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: information meetings too to get public input about what the
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: community thinks.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I was going to ask you that because what I've
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: heard and I know you have two, is hey, uh,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: these funds were created organically, grassroots level. Right here, We've
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: we've paid the bill. We as as city residents, we
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: would like some input as to yep, what's going to
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: happen there. Yeah.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Uh but but but just just to be tiki taki
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: technically correct, there's not one penny of public tax dollars
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: that have gone into this fundraising campaign, even or, let
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: me be very specific, city property tax dollars. The four
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars contribution which the city gave to or
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: pledged the city gave to b ADC, which is huge.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, that was the founded Without that. Without that,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: the campaign never would have gotten launched. So it's a huge,
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: huge donation in ways other than just financial but that money,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: uh is actually, for all intensive purposes, a grant money
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: from the federal government. It's our money, it's the American
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Rescue Plan UH dollars.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: UH.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: So, for all intents and purposes, they're grant dollars. The
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: same way that there were grant dollars that were used
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: to buy the old Whalenes building and tear that down,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: the same way that grant dollars are being pursued right
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: now for all of these cdb G dollars. So they're
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: ultimately they're public taxes, but they're not local property taxes.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: All right, if you're if you're just joining FS, if
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: you're just tuning in Steve McKenzie with us with the
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: breaking news and the exciting news that right here in
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: the Granite City we have raised we as a community
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: have raised enough money to officially purchase the JJ Newberry building. Ye.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: We just need to reach agreement now with the owners,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: and I'm expecting that to happen. So I'm borring something coming.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: In other words, and the interesting parties, We've got donations
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: away as far away as Florida, Missachusetts, Massachusetts.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: This whole one forty three Main Street initiative has been
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: talk of the town. Brother, I mean you know that, Well,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: there's been a lot.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: I may not see as much as you do, but
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: but but I hope so I am all the time.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Quite honestly, it's the well and quite honestly, that's what
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: that's what initiated this campaign in the in the beginning.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: And I've told this story before, but after the floods,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: you know, I went to a number of the forums.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: One of the one of the top three complaints, if
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: not the top complaint that you hear heard at those
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: forums you hear on the street is that, you know,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: that damned blighted building on Newberries. What's you know, what's
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: anybody doing about it? Well, so about eighteen months ago,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: I said, well, I'll give it a whirl. Uh, the
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: pitch the idea to uh the executive committee and then
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: the board of directors of B A d C and
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: who all supported it unanimously right from the beginning. There
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: was no hesitation. And then at this point, looking back,
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: the rest is history.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: So wow, it's uh, but it's it really is. You know,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: my will change the thermometer here in a couple of
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: days and uh, you know, and and thank the citizens, Uh,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: there the residents of Barry and residents and businesses. We
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: we were uh not everybody was able to uh make
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: a donation, and I understand that, but enough people were
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: that we we've been successful.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Big uh big exhale here I said, a big a
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: big exhale for many of us.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: And and uh, I'll really exhale when we get to
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: the closing. But yes, but but this is a this
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: is a significant milestone. If we hadn't reached this, uh,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: there would be no future. Yeah, so this is you know,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: I've always said one step at a time, and here
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: we are at a at a critical juncture and we're
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: the path is set to go forward.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: On half of everyone that's watching and listening to this,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: thank you for coming in here and saying I got
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to get on a microphone and make sure that people
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: know about this through the air and out podcast.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Well that's great, man, And the and the publicity from
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: the podcast from the Times Argus has been very very helpful.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: It helps get the word out, you know, and like
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: a lot of things, people need to hear about it
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: more than once before they begin to understand it and
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: so on. So the opportunities to come in uh and
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: and talk with you about it, talk talk to the
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: public about it. I have been very, very helpful, and
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I'm very appreciative.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Let's get you in here again.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: So yeah, okay, well we'll you know, as this moves along,
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: I'll be happy to come back anytime.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Maybe maybe you and I could have a little shot
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: of whiskey here on the at some points.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Steve, all right, I appreciate the opportunity. Thanks
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: very we're taking Thanks for the very community. They're really big.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Thanks