Latest / Aired Out / Steve MacKenzie - Barre's Eye Sore

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Steve MacKenzie - Barre's Eye Sore · Aired Out

• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Suttun All right, chop in the morning, and here we
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: go a brand new day. The excess of August. You
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: got the aired out podcast live from Flying the Wall
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Productions here on North Main Streets in beautiful Barrier. From out.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: We're looking at some cloudy skies today, some poor air quality.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I think most of us know buy now that there's
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: some fires burning in Canada which is making for high
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: particle content in the air that we breathe and is
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: affecting a good number of people. Not really me at
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: least I don't think it is, but anyway, could be you,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: So keep that in mind. Today wind's going to be light,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: eighty one degrees for the high today, Tonight partly cloudy
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: and fifty nine. And then Wednesday tomorrow looks like partly
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: cloudy and well at least to start out, maybe some
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: some hazy sunshine in the afternoon. It makes for a
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: beautiful unset though. Eighty degrees for the high tomorrow. I
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: don't know if you've noticed. The moon at night is
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: just it's got that orange glow all from the smoke
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: from the wildfires. Just in mezing Jared Waples yesterday again
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: back on the air with me. It was incredible for
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: me anyway, and I hope it was for you an
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: incredible experience just listening to him. Nicole Pierce from Choice
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: has been in touch with me and we are talking
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: about doing some stuff together and bringing light more light
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: to tbi's and Jared's going to be involved with that.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I'm very much looking forward to this. Things have kind
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: of taken on their own course here, which is amazing
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and I love being on the ride, I really do.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Mark Tatrow is going to be with us tonight. I
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: am going to turn a camera on and at with
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: him about the Nodes Family Benefit, which is coming up
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: and approaching rather quickly Saturday, August twenty third, two pm
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: over at the farm. It's going to be amazing with
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Heartless and Donna Thunder and Shane McGrath, Jamie Lee Thurston,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Dave Keller among the performers. Incredible food, incredible times, and
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: we're going to try to help this family rebuild their
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: barn and raise some money and put our community together forward.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: So the update on this, and this is something that's
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: been constantly evolving over the last month or so with
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Mark Tetrow and sponsors and others that are chipping in
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and getting involved. So we'll have an update for you tonight. Probably.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know exactly when I'm gonna pinpoint that later
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: when I can chat with Mark, and I'll let you.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I'll give you heads up when we're gonna be on
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the air. Uh. Sitting right next to me, Steve McKenzie. Welcome, buddy.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're you're with me.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: In the studio. Good morning, glad to be here.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Great, you look great? How's uh? How's retirement, Connor, you
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: haven't a last excellent?
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Not looking back, Uh, enjoying the the flexibility that
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: retirement brings. But it allows me to stays stay busy,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: civically and uh and as the old saying goal, spend
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: more time with the family. Yes, yes, which all the cliches.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Supply you said that last time I had you in here,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: You're like, nothing's more important, plain out, period ended discussion.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: That's that's your thing right there.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And we have four grandkids so those and who will
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: live locally, so that keeps us busy.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Now, did you go out and buy that that that
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: big Harley? What did you do? No?
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I had I bought a an anniversary edition sports Uh,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: sportster back in two thousand and one. I mean, it's
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: twenty some odd years old and I only have ten
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: thousand miles on the damn thing. I barely got it
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: out this summer. But the toy run is this Saturday.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I believe it, and I'm going to try to make
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: it a point to be there and find other excuses
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: to ride. Of course, my wife has a heart attack
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: every time I get on it. Now.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so are the knees, No, the knees are These
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: are a little bit of a you know, they're they're
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: actually they're seventy seven year old knees, so and they're
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: and they're kind of rusty.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: But I'm hoping to do something that will take care
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: of it, not not an operation, but probably get some
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: gel shots.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fun stuff.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I've tried the steroids and that they didn't
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: do a damn thing, So we're moving it up a notch.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Listen other than but really, I got no complaints, relatively
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: good health and no no major complaints.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: That's great here man. You you are so respected by
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: so many in our community, and you were the manager
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: city manager for twelve years. I was going to say
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: a billion.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: But sometimes it felt like that. Sure, I'm sure, and
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that job.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how did you get involved with the one forty
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: three Main Street initiative?
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it certainly wasn't by plan. But when I retired
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: then about I think a year after I retired, I
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: was asked if I would consider being a member of
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: the Very Area Developed Corporation Board of Directors. And I said, yeah,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: another way to stay involved civically, and so I said sure,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: And then I was on the board for about a year.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: So I think this is probably about it. A year
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: and a half ago would have been towards the first
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: I've been on about two and a half years, so
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: sort of towards the end of the first year, we
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: had gone through two floods. Uh. I attended a lot
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: of the recovery forums. B ad C had gone through
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: its strategic planning process, and in every every forum, one
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: of the most common complaints that came to the surface
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: was that damn blighted building on Main Street, the JJ
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Newberry Building.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: It's just it.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: If you ask anybody on Main Street, you get the
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: same response.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: And uh, you asked anybody anywhere near Yeah.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Uh And and people are just upset with it, and
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: and even more upset and frustrated that the owners have
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: done nothing with it, just let it continue to deteriorate,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: and they're really not responsible civically with that building. So
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: it after I just, you know, heard this repeated complaint,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: but I knew that was even when as manager. I
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: mean that was it was. It wasn't a new complaint.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: But what struck me was the the consistency, and that
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: complaint showed up every time there was a public form.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: So I just out of the clear blue.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: At one executive committee meeting of the of the board,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I said, hey, uh, and actually, as part of the
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: strategic plan, the the intent was to an objective is
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: to help, you know, help redevelop the downtown and deal
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: with blighted buildings. I forget exactly what the specific wording is,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: but it's within the vision of the strategic plan to
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: try to do something about downtown buildings and and certainly Newbery's.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: So I said, you know, I just threw something out
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: on the table. I said, I I know Jeff Jacobs,
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: who is one of the two owners, not well, we're
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: not friends, were I guess I'd say we're acquaintances. But
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: I had done a couple of transactions with him as
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: city manager to acquire property that we needed to develop
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: uh Enterprise Alley, which is the area behind the old
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Aubischons behind the flower shop now and so on. But
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: we had two we had two buildings that had to
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: be acquired. One of them was owned by Jeff and
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: there had been a deal in the works before purchase
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: and sale agreement in the works before I became manager,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: but that had gone stale and it had sort of
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: fallen off the off the radar screen. So I helped
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: to resurrect that because one of the objectives was to
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: move this depot Prizally project on. So I so I had,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: I knew Jeff had worked with him slightly, and I
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: thought I might have a basis for reaching out and saying, hey,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: would you consider selling the building. But the proposal I
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: made to the to the executive give me, I said, now,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: they have rejected or dismissed previous offers in the past.
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: And both both Jeff and his yeah yes, Steve Lewinstein,
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: and they had rejected the offer.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: In fact, I think more than rejected, they'd kind of
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: dismissed the offer that was made by the city previously
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: about the four hundred thousand dollars to buy the property,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: which the current assessment is only three hundred and twenty
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: five thousand dollars, and who knows where that will go.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: I was going to ask with the appraisal coming up,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: my expectation it would decrease, but I'm not an appraiser,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: so who knows. But anyway, so I said, now they
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: so they've rejected. They've rejected what I think any lay
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: person would consider was a reasonable offer for the property.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: So I said, we've got to go to them.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: How long ago is this again, Well, this.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Started probably when I proposed the idea, probably about two
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: years ago last spring. And I may be losing track
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: and timing here, but anyway, I made the proposal, I said,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: but it's got to be serious proposal. I said, you
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: know what they've been asking in the past. They've asked
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: one point two one point three one point four million
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: dollars for the property. That's absurd. But I said, we
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: got to make a credible offer. So I picked a
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: number out of the year. I said, you know, we've
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: got to offer them a million dollars and to go
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: have their attention, and we've got to do it in
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: a very formal way. So we so long story short,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: the Exeative Committee embraced the idea immediately. Then I wanted
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: to make sure so we needed I needed to present
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: it to the full board. The full Board got behind
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: it unanimously, and then it took some time to do
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: the leg work to get ready to make to reach out,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: and that leg work was the preparation of a formal
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: purchase option agreement, so that when I approached first Jeff
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: and then Lunstein, we had a very credible offer, and
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: we had a very formal document. It wasn't a phone call,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: it wasn't a letter, it wasn't an email. It was
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: a very formal document. So I wanted them to understand
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: this was a very serious and a credible offer. So
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: it took from I think Greg may or June through September,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: and then in September I reached out with an initial
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: phone call to Jeff, and we probably talked three or
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: four times over the course of a couple of months
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: to see that they would they would be interested in
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: pursuing like that. So long story short, around November, UH,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: they agreed UH and executed the purchase option.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: So, uh that that was his past.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: No, that was that was.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: The year before.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Just no, that was his past past November. Yes, yeah,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: so then it took then, So the first step was
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: then to go to the council to to see if
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: the council would would don't contribute the four hundred thousand
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: dollars that they had previously offered to them. I think
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: we needed I thought, as far as the campaign was concerned,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: we needed the both the public support of the council
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: and also the foundation donation of four hundred thousand dollars,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: which at the time was to try to raise a million.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: And it took three meetings with a council, a couple
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: in executive sessions, then a public public meeting for the
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: council to actually act on it, and they did and
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: that was I think towards the It might have been
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: the last meeting in December or first meeting in January,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: and they endorsed it. Then we spent about a month
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: six weeks working with a fundraising campaign consultant who helped
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: us organize you know, the campaign, which was which was
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: immensely helpful. So in February we went we really went
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: public with a formal announcement and so on. And in
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: the meantime, the board of directors had all all there's
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: a one donation from the Board of directors, fifteen directors,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: a total of seventy five thousand dollars. It's about five thousand,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: it's an average of five thousand per director, and the
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: individual contributions range in between or you know, up to
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: ten thousand dollars. So, but it was unanimous support of
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: the directors and we I felt it was important that
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: we have skin in the game, that we put money
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: where our mouth is, and and then we went public.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: We also had uh Black River Design Architects in Montier
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: very graciously offered some professional time to develop some exhibits
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: of what this could be. And I think we got
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: one that you can tee up here sometime. But uh,
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: and but the we had I had originally asked for
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: twelve months to raise the money. Steve said no, but
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: I'll give you six. So I said, okay, six months.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: So six months actually expired in early June, this past June. Yeah,
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: and at that time, we hadn't we hadn't raised the money,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: hadn't really come close. I mean, we'd raised at that time,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: I think a total of somewhere in the six fifty
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: six seventy six undred and seven thousand dollars range. So
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: I called talked to Steve made that. I said, listen,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: we were nowhere near a million, and I now conclude
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: that we won't make a million. I thought we could,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: but what we got is six hundred and seventy thousand.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Will you take that? And he said, in so many words,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: he said no. So I said, listen, I don't think
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: we can make a million dollars. I think we could
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: make eight hundred thousand. But if if, that's an acceptable
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: number to you, but we'll need another ninety days to
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: raise that amount of money. And long story short, he agreed.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: He and Jeffrey read and so that ninety days expires
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: on September ninth, So we've got about another month or
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: five weeks. And part of the reason being here was
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: is to just to give an update of where we are.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: So we got we negotiated the extension, reduced the price
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: by two hundred thousand dollars, so it reduces the campaign
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: goal from one point one million down to eight hundred
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: and fifty thousand dollars, and the eight hundred and fifty
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: comes from eight hundred thousand purchase price, plus the organization
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: needs some money in reserve to cover the cost of
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: the campaign, the costs of the associated with you know,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: the actual purchase of the transactions involved, and so on.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: So I reduced that mount from from one hundred thousand
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: to fifty thousand dollars, So eight hundred and fifty thousand
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: is our current goal. As of this week, we have
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: reached seven hundred and forty thousand, so we get another
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: one hundred and ten thousand ago. I'm actually hopeful by
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: the end of the week that we could hit seven
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: fifty or meeting tad Hire, so we're actually we crack
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: that hundred thousand dollars goal of you know, one hundred
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars remaining, and I think I still think it's
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: possible to raise a one hundred and ten thousand dollars
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: and five weeks. Some people, I think probably feel them
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: crazy or whatever or naive and probably all of the above.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: But I still have twenty five to thirty people to
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: reach out to directly, so I feel that potential is
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: still there and actually equally is important Tonight on the
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: council agenda is a memorandum of understanding that we we
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: worked with the city, the city manager and the mayor
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: to develop, which really states the understandings and obligations of
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: both parties in this transaction. And when the original four
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars was voted by the council, the mayor
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: was very clear that we need a sponsorship agreement or
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: some document that reduces to writing what the Again, the
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: understandings and the obligations are both parties, and I fully
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: supported that. I think it's best for all parties. So
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: we in the last two to three weeks we developed
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: that and it's now on the agenda for this evening.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: I think it's very clear in what the obligations are.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: The commitment from Barrier Development is is that we will
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: There are two environmental things that have to be accomplished
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: before the property can change hands. One is to enter
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: into a Brella agreement with the state, which puts the
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: new owner in a what's the word, I'm looking sort
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: of a whole harmless state in terms of the whatever
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: environmental remediation needs to be done with that site. And
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: then in order to apply for that umbrella, apply for
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: the Broller agreement. It is a five hundred dollars fee.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: And then you also have to complete an update to
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: the environmental assessment that was done a couple of years ago.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: But because it's two years ago, although nothing has happened,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: it's still out of date, so it needs to be updated.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: So that's three thousand dollars there. We've agreed. We've offered
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: that we would get that worked on. Cover the cost
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: of the application, cover the cost of the environmental site assessment.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: We would offer to cover the city's legal fees for
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: the property transaction for the closing. But what has to happen,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: which I've come to learn after we started the initiative,
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: is that Barrier Area Development cannot take title to the site.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: The parties at the closing will be the owners and
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: the City of Berry, and the title to the property
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: will go directly to the City of Berry. And that's
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: part of this memory of understanding. And the reason is
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: is that we can't take title, complete all that environmental
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: stuff and then turn it over to the city. The city.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: That only works sort of in the first property transaction,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: in other words, when it goes from the current owners
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: to whoever buys it as the prospective purchase, sir. Once
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: if B A d C were to buy it, then
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: then and go to turn it over to the city.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: The city at that point isn't an eligible perspective purchaser
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: for the purposes of that bullet program. And that's huge,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: that's huge. So uh, the the m o U says
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: we will uh you know that the property, the city
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: will take title to the property at the closing. I've
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: already gotten a commitment from the owners that they're they're
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: okay with that, that they understand that the property is
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: not going to go to B A d C. It's
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: going to go to the city. And I'm cautiously optimistic
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the council will approve that m o U tonight, which
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: is a huge building block, if you will, and then
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: the rest is continued fundraising. We'll see where we go.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: So wow, you know, I I remember Nicholas uh one
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: of the last things he said when he was in
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: here on the air, and he's doing a great job.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: By oh I think so.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: I I think so is.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Is that you know, there's there's a lot of stuff
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: going on here. There's a lot of moving, moving pieces
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: here and this is a baby steps.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that's what people don't understand. First of all,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: what I really appreciate for Nicholas is when I very
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: the first time I approached him with this, with the
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: idea of approaching the council for a contribution, for the
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: contribution and and whatever, he was on board immediately. He
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: has been supportive right from the beginning. And that's huge,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: That's really huge. So I'm very appreciative of that. And uh,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: and I'd like to think he is city manager representing
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: the city and b ADC are good partners and and
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: you know, we have a mutual interest in this kind
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: of project. But going back to what you're saying about
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: baby steps, a lot of folk, you know, there's a
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of skepticism out there. There's a lot
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: of I don't want to say a lot of negativity,
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: but some negativity. And and I can accept that. And
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: I think I think one of the issues is I
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: mean completely transparent, and if you will is you know,
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: people are saying, well, how could you originally offered a
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: million dollars and now even eight hundred thousand dollars for
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: that piece of junk property? And I understand that totally,
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: and I'm following the guidance, not guidance, but the wisdom,
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: if you will, of the city manager of Saint Albans.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: It's a dominant cloud who faced a similar situation in
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Saint Albans. I don't know, ten years ago or more,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: had a calcent landowner downtown. It was a core piece
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: of property. It was key to the redevelopment of downtown
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Saint Albans. And by the way, if you go up
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: to Saint Albans, now that city has turned itself around.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: I mean it's his model of redevelopment. But they faced
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: the same obstacle, a recalcitrant landowner downtown who didn't really
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: want to give out the property, or not at a
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: reasonable price, and so on and so forth.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: And so his his his.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Advice, wisdom to all of the city managers at the time,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: because he came and made a presentation while I was
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: still city manager, said you know what, gotta hold your
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: nose and pay the price. You gotta, you gotta, you
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: just gotta. You got to get over that. And I
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: understand that some people aren't able to do that, and
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: I respect that. But for for the people who have donated,
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: they've been able to say, okay, we just got to
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: overlook that. And you know, if we want to help
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: support the initiative. And I think one of the things
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: I should have said originally is that the whole purpose
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: of this initiative, the most immediate objective of this initiative,
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: is to get the property out of the hands of
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: the current owners. If we can't do that, nothing happens.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: It's going to sit there for another five or ten
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: years or whatever and whatever. That the key, the key
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: objective of this campaign is to get a hold of
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: the property and in this case, put it in the
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: hands of the city, who will be in a better
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: better position is an understatement, but will be in a
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: position to access grants and funding that will help with
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: the remediation and you know, ultimately go through uh the
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: baby st Yeah, this and and and the The example
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: I cite is the development of the the redevelopment of
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: the old Whalens Bookstore Whalens Brooks Drug property just down
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: you know, a block down the street here to city Place.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: That started with the city of getting a grant and
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: buying the buying the property ironically from uh Jeff Jacobs
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: and Steve Lewinstein, they owned that property. Uh, but The
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: first thing the city did was a choir ownership and
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: uh then over time, UH, tear down the building, prepare
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: the site, you know, level the site, prepare it for
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: a developer to come in. It sat there for that
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: had happened before I came in as city manager. It
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: and probably a year after I became city manager, I said,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: well to you, rather than just leave that as an
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: empty site, let's just develop it into a little mini park.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: So we had a we had a mini park. In fact,
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: it was a sculpture park at the time because Sue
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Higbee from SPA donated, donated but arranged to have some
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: sculpture work put onto the site. So it was an
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: I thought it was an eage little.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Park, and it was an It was a.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Attractive asset to the downtown rather than those old dilapidated
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: buildings or a vacant site. So the same thing is gonna,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: I envision will happen here. Once it's acquired, then the
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: city can start that same process that led that was
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: done for the ultimate development of the City Place. And
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: you know, look what's sitting there now, the five story
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: City Place building, contributing what three hundred thousand dollars or
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: more to the grand list and taxes every year, maybe
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: more than that. I just actually forget the exact same number.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: But the so this is kind of like dej vu
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: all over again. It's been done, but a lot of
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: people are critical because, well, what is the plan? What
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: do you what are you going to do with this? Well,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: how can you? How can you? How can you propose
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: this without knowing exactly what you're gonna do? Well, when
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: you stop to think about it, Uh, First of all, UH,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: there's no way anybody and including B A d C,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: is going to spend any money to do to absorb
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: the cost of preparing development plans for a property we
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: don't own. You've got to own the property before you
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: begin to make that kind of strategic investment. So again,
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: if if, if we can't get the property into the
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: city's hands, nothing's going to happen. Once we do, it
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: will happen. It my expectation, it will be similar to
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: UH city Place and probably be a three to five
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: year process UH to develop UH to develop. That process
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: could be shorter, could be longer.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Who knows, with the whole hell of a lot of
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: patients that will be needed.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, but but the reality is in many respects, it's
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: no different than any other major municipal project that's that's undertaken.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: The general public understandably doesn't see all of the leg
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: work that goes into getting projects into a construction phase.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I mean the the amount of time and invested in
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: legwork and grand applications that went into the Deepot Square
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: or Enterprise Alley redevelopment. I mean that was years. It
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: was years. These things they they sort of become public
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: and the sort of the light of day when you
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: when you're ready to move ahead with the project go
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: to construction. But but they sort of like, you know,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: it's like the uh, what's the old saying, you became
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: you become a the innocent success after twenty years of
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: you know, working at it. And that's the same thing here.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: So in many respects, this is no different than any other, uh,
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: major development project. I mean the whole a lot of
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: the redevelopment. I mean look at look at the big
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: dig I mean that was you know, that was twenty
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: years in Amican and of course that had a lot
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: of hurdles or whatever. But my point is it didn't.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: None of these projects happen overnight, and this is no different.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: It's a major, major, major, major undertaking, takes a lot
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: of moving parts.
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: The uh I remember well the City Place project and
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: the city was it was involved, but even the day
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: of the closing, I mean there were I can't remember
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: how many parties were involved in that to make it
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: financially viable. I expect the same thing will happen here.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: But it will happen if the city can get control
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: of the property, and again, if it doesn't, it will
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: sit there for who knows how long.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: So we're going about this at a grassroots levels. That's
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: trying trying to get organically our community to rally two
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: to pay these guys off and get get power. So
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: you know what I've heard a couple of things is well,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: if if we're making a donation a privately or as
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: a business or whoever, are we part owners of that property?
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Interesting question?
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I've I've heard it. I mean I I've
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: heard the questions. They've They've come to me, Hey if
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: I'm you know, if I if I donate five ten
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars, Uh, do I have some some stake in
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the property? Am I gonna? Am I going to reap
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: any rewards. You know, well, the answer is pretty tax
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: revenue wise or or anything. And I've also heard well,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: you know, my god, I mean, this is wonderful, but
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: we should have been having these these this conversation a
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: decade ago.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: What I mean, you know, uh, I get, I guess
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: that's that's the thing that always I don't know what whatever,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: but but there is so much to be done in
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: any municipality, but very included there is. There are so
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: many things out there that need to be done. You
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: can't choose, you can't bite them all of exactly exactly Well,
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: that's a whole nother story. But but it's a whole
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: nother story that goes to the how long does it
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: take to get something in place? But it's just another
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: example of that. But it's it's it's very easy for
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: the lay person to be critical of well, how come
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: this wasn't done before? How come numbers? Well, how come
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: you didn't think of it before? How come you didn't
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: how come you didn't have the idea of this campaign
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: in this case, or how come you didn't? So it's
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: always easy to sit back and be critical. And that's
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: one of the things I've learned about public services. There's
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: always going to be critics of what you do, no
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: matter how well intentioned, no matter how good, and you
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: have to be able to shrug that off.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: And oh man, you're hitting a hot button right now,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: because this is how my week last week was going,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: right there.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And you gotta you've got to be able to,
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: you know, develop some some thicker skinkelouses on your shoulders
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: and say okay and not get caught up in in
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: trying to try to convince the day sayers you never will.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: And they're not interested in being convinced. They're more interested
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: in being critical of people who are working hard for
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: the betterment of the community. And but it's a lot
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: easier to sit, you know, on Facebook or front page,
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: forum or council meetings or whatever and just be critical.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: And that's just the nature of the beast. But just
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: to go back to your question, so if you make
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: a donation, absolutely not, you're not a co owner. You've
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: made a contribution to a fundraising campaign. It's just like
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: you're not in in in. I would go out a
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: little bit of lem and say whenever you make a
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: donation to any eat five oh one, C three or
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: or campaign or whatever, you don't become a partner in
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: that campaign.
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: Uh. Uh.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: But two things again, I don't want to forget say uh,
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: to the extent that people have made donations to this
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: point in time, if the campaign is not successful, their
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: their donations will be returned in full. So in individuals
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: and including the cities. Of course, the city hasn't transferred
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: any money yet, which is fine, but their their obligation,
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: anybody's donation obligation would would go away, and we would
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: refund in total all the money that has been donated
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: to the time of making an OG decision. But that said,
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: all of the money uh that you donate is uh
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: tax deductible UH as a five oh one C three donation.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: And UH, if you're over the age of seventy two
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: and want to make a donation, you can make what's
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: called the qualified charitable distribution. Because anybody over seventy two,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: if they've got any ir iras or four one k's
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: or whatever, have to take required minimum distributions every year.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: You can allocate whatever portion of that you want, frankly
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: to any organ any five oh one C three but
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: in this case Barrier development uh, and that will qualify
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: as a uh, tax deductible donation and you can make that.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: You can.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: But the important thing about that is you can make
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: that donation out of your RMD and you don't have
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: to pay taxes on it. So you got a benefit
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: when you do it that way.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: I got uh, I got an idea that just came
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: to me. I don't mean to scare you, because I
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: know this is live, but this just came to me. Manyeah,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: It's like, we're in the granite capital of the world,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: so why not say something to the effect of, Hey,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: anybody who I mean, we've got about a month here
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: to come up with one hundred and ten k. Anyone
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: who donates more than whatever, I'm just going to throw
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: a number in the area. Anyone who donates more than
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars, there's going to be a granite plaque
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: once we get through the green space and we get
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: into construction, and your name or your business name, however
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: you want it to be said, is going to be
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: etched in granted as a as a contributor to making
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: this building possible.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: Ironic that you say that, because that actually is part
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: of the MoU with the city, is that.
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: But the.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Threshold is Steep, anybody, any Anyboddy entity, family or whatever
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: who who's donated fifty thousand dollars or more. We'll get
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: their name on a plaque right now. It says similar
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: to the one that's on city Place. Whether it's bronze
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: or granted, that can be decided in the future. I mean,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: that's a high hurdle. We have a couple that will
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: reach that threast or have reached that threshold. But but yeah,
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: we're doing that.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what is the And you may not want to
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: speak much on this, and and that's fine, I understand.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: But one of the uh, one of the frustrations that
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: with all of this that I have felt, and I've
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: had others say the same thing to me, is you
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: got two guys, Jeff Jacobs and Steve Lewinstein. And I
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: don't want to ruffle any feathers here, but you got
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: two guys who are fair to say, very well off financially.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: We could talk about we could do a whole show
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: just about that. Why, you know, I understand their businessman,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: I get it, I understand, but we have a city
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: who And I kind of threw a little bit of
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: a similar question at at Nicholas We have a city
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: that has had some very very trying times. We have
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: taken two sucker punches on the same day, separated by
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: one year, two devastating floods that have really done some
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: siri damage physically and emotionally and mentally to not only
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: area businesses, but also the residents that make up our community.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: One would think maybe that these two guys would just
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: be like, can we afford an eight hundred and fifty
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars donation? Can we afford a million dollar donation
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: or whatever the hell it is. I mean, what's another
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars or whatever? Can we afford that
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: kind of donation to a city that's just my god,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: They just this city. Even if we just give them
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: this property, they're buying the old car that's got to
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: have a lot of money put into it to get
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: it up and running again. They're going to have their
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: own expenses down the road here, which is going to
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: be huge, not just environmental remediation, but just simply demolition. See.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: The answer to that is, or an answer is.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: I know we're getting really candid here, but Steve, I.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: Listen, that's half the reason for being here is to
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: try to get out what I'd like to think is
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: factual information. But those guys have no Those guys aren't
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: concerned about any of those costs because they never intend
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: to incur them. They are not going to do anything
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: with that property until somebody comes along with the right
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: price and buys it. And money money, money, money for
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: people who don't need it. Quite frankly, for people who
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: don't need it. The four hundred thousand dollars that the
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: city originally offered was more than enough. And I think
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: even that caused some pain for some people. And I
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: understand that.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I understand that.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: But you have to you have you have to come,
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: I say, you have to. I mean one has to
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: accept the reality the situation, and the reality of the situation.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: We got two rich guys who don't really care about
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: civic improvement, who own a building uh that they have
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: no intention of doing anything.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: With clearly, and.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: I'm just waiting for the right buyer to come along.
• 44:29
  Speaker 6: Now.
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: The reality is, and this is a this is the
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: point I will reinforce if and when the time comes,
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: nobody is ever going to offer any more money than
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: I don't care if we reach eight hundred thousand dollars
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: or something less. Whatever we reach, nobody else is ever
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: going to offer that kind of money me for this property.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: So this is their one and only chance to unload it,
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: get rid of it, and be done with it. Otherwise,
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: the brutal reality is their estates will be dealing with it,
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: and then and and who knows, who knows what happens.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Then you're saying the state would be doing their estates,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: their estates.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: The estate of Jacobs and Luenstein, because if, if, and
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: when they you know, everybody's going to pass away sooner
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: or later. And when that happens, I mean, I guess
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying is if they don't sell it now
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: to the best highest offer that has come along in
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: fifteen years and will never come again. If they don't
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: let it go for whatever amount of money we raise,
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: nobody else is going to come along and offer that
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: kind of money, and hum it'll go to their estates.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: And and who knows something is going to happen with
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: that property. There's no doubt about it. It's a question
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: of you know, how long and when? I mean, it
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: will happen sooner because this campaign is successful, or is
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: it going to take fifty years to do something with
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: that property. You know, probably not fifty, but is it
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: going to be five? Is it going to be ten?
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: It's going to be?
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Have you have? You know, we're not even talking about
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: how beautiful this this property used to be, and and
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: your memories there and and other memories there going to
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: the Soto Fountain and so on and so forth. But
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: have you been in that building within the last but
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: five Yeah?
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because we put up the thermometer and and what
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: was it like? It takes every fiber of my body
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: to walk more than ten feet into that building. In fact,
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: the building is off limits. The code enforcement has has
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: has prohibited any access into the building. I mean if
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: you go, if you go in, you and see the
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: floors have all swelled, and or even if you look
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: way in the back, the floors have rotted through. Uh
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: have every reason to believe there may be two or
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: three feet if not more water in the basement. I
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: mean it's mold. It's got to be mold infested.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: It uh haven for rats.
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: Well people, it's amazing. I mean betimes people have brought
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: that that that phrase up, that that word up, and
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: last year I've never I've never seen any evidence of it.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know that there's any This is a city
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: we at least I never got any complaints about rodents
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: or whatever. But it certainly could be. I don't know
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: that it is. But it's a it's a haven for
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: nothing good.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: Very true, aside from just being Berry's eye sore. I
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: mean it's, uh, it's a hazard on on many levels
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: it yeah, yeah, a fire hazard. Yeah, a fire has
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: it could be Yeah.
• 48:04
  Speaker 6: I mean the the there's nothing in there, Uh, there's
• 48:11
  Speaker 6: absolutely it's been stripped, entirely, stripped of any interior furnishings.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: I'm sure the power has been turned off.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: Uh so some of the you know, but but.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: You know, I hate the whatever. But you remember the
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: Cornerstone building the Tom owned, sure sat vacant for a
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: while and then there was a fire on the upper
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: floor the transients had set. I think they monitor this
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: pretty closely to make sure that uh, doors haven't access
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: hasn't been gained and so on. But you never know.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: There's there's gonna be a price tack with remediation. There's
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: going to be a price tack with ah raising the building, demolition,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: preparing the site, and preparing the site for maybe some
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: green space. We're going to show a graphic here in
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: just a second. But uh, and that green space, as
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: Nicholas eluded, could be could be there at least It's
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: not gonna be an Icero, but it could be there
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: potentially for several years. Yeah, before and before we take
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: the next baby.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: The park down here, I mean the the development seat place.
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: I mean I think the park was there for at
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: least a couple of years.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, so what it sold.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: My response to that, of course, is is is that
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: what do you want to look at the Newberry's building
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: or mini park?
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Exactly. I've been my god, I've been saying to Tom
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: for I don't know how long. But and you know this,
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: and I think I said this to you the last
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: time here in here, and I remember saying this to
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: to to Lucas.
• 49:55
  Speaker 5: Is is.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: You know it's and we all know this. It's a
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: large building. It's a large building. I don't know, do
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: you know how many square feet?
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna I'm gonna throw all the number
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: sixteen thousand square feet, but I'm not going to swear
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: to that. I think I should know.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: But but having this on and some of the facade
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: down there is beautiful, yeah, granite, I mean or was
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: it one time? It was one time on the lower part.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: But you know, here we are. You know, we have
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: this large, large building that's on the north end of
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: the street that's getting all of the southern light exposure
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: that's coming over over the buildings. And just shine in
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: this freaking spotlight right on this dusty, dirty eye sore.
• 50:51
  Speaker 7: And if you put it, if, if it's a good
• 50:53
  Speaker 7: time to put up in that exhibit, I'm gonna put
• 50:55
  Speaker 7: it up right now because we've got the president you know,
• 50:58
  Speaker 7: into him in future there. Well, once you get it up,
• 51:02
  Speaker 7: just let me know now, okay, So what I want
• 51:04
  Speaker 7: to be clear is that the only thing that's definite
• 51:09
  Speaker 7: about that exhibit is the photo.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: Of the.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: Of the existing building that's there. That's now. That's that's
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: that's real, that's at the top. The other two parts,
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: the interim concept and the ultimate concept, are just that
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: their concepts, their visions there what could be? These are
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: not developed plans, These are architectural rendering sketches, concepts, But
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: the idea is to kind of put some flesh on
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: the bone, if you will, to say, so, what could
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: it be?
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: This is what it looks like.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: Now, what could it be ultimately and what might it
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: be in the interim, And you know, among other things
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: people have to decide is the is the interim something
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: you'd rather look at as a as a hedge against
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: the future or do you want to keep staring at
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: that blooded building.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: So we're showing right now the proposed green space, yes,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: a rough idea of what it.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: Would look like, and then there's as many concepts for
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: that as there are people. So you know, that's not
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: that's not casting concrete, that's not hid And quite honestly, uh, people,
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: One of the things, one of the the two components
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: of this memorande of understanding are that. And quite honestly,
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: if anybody wants to see that, it's in the council
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: packet that was published on Friday, So you can go
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: into the city website, go into the council agenda section
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: and you'll see this in the packet. Okay, But two
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: the foundational elements of that MoU are is that BADC
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: has the sole authority to decide whether this campaign is
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: successful or not. So that is entirely within barrier developments domain. However,
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: what is also very clear there is that the city
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: has the sole responsibility and authority to decide how this
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: property will be developed. So people who who are concerned
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: that well, the city's donating four hundred thousand dollars or
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: may even have to spend more money, the city will
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: develop a very public process that will help shape how
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: that property will be eventually developed. And eventually we'll get
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: to the point where the request for proposals uh from developers,
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: the same process that we use for city places.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: This this, this is going to take a long time.
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: Three to five three three three years would be lightning speed.
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: Five years is is is very likely? Could it take longer? Yeah,
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: but but that process won't even start until the city
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: gets ownership of the property.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: And one of the ideas that several have proposed, including Nicholas,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: is a combination of some retail and some housing.
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, the that concept Again, exactly what you're looking at
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: is a concept. It's not a hard design. There are
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: no construction documents. It's an architization, no decisions, no exactly nothing.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: Nobody's decided this is going to be it. This is
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: an example of what it could be. Is it going
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: to be five stories? Like that building? Will it be
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: two stories, will it be three, will it be four?
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: I mean that all depends on the economics or whatever
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: is proposed. I think the two things that are likely
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: is the first floor has to be commercial retail by
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: zone by zoning, by current zoning, so it's got to
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: be commercial retail, which which only indoors to the benefit
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: of the downtown. Anyways, that's what we're trying to do,
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: is stimulate more continued vitality of the downtown. The upper
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: stories are likely to be housing, uh, And I'm not
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: I'm not. I don't think it would be low income housing.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: It might be moderate, but it likely will be a
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: large market rate component as well. And what could what
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: could go in there? Maybe even on the first floor,
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: but certainly on a upper four could be a daycare,
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: So it could be housing with daycare the the I
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: won't say the possibilities are limitless, because there are certain
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: constraints that go with the site and zoning and so
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: on and so forth. But let's just say they're numerous, sure, uh,
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: And they're all a function of I think a developer
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: coming forward with some ideas, some proposals that are financially viable,
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: public input from the community during that process needs to Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: but it's not it's not like the public won't have
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: an opportunity for for input. But gotta gotta get the
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: property out of the owner's hands before that happens.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: I vote for a Rowers getting rank, Steve. I'm just
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: saying there.
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: There may be people who support that, and there may
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: be people who don't. So we'll put that on the
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: dark board and we'll see where that shakes out in
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: the in the public process.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: You know, in all seriousness, though, I have heard that
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: there needs to be I understand office space, I understand retail,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: and I understand housing, and I get it. I understand
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: all that. But I've also heard and I also kind
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: of feel and agree that there needs to be something
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: more uh inclusive of of getting families together. Whether it's
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: some kind of fun spot or kind of half joking
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: about the rollers getting rank, but but somewhere that families
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: can get out of their homes during during the winter months,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: get together and burn off some steam and and run
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: around and maybe an indoor climbing center or or or something.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Uh not another bar, not on, please not another bank
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: steph I get down, I'll get down, right, here, I'll
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: why you know, I have to get down of my
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: knees to beg But.
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: You know, that's interesting that you say. That's interesting you
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: say that because that's one of the when when I
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: originally said I and quite frankly, I still believe this community.
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of money in this community. You just
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: not don't necessarily see it. But I mean, look at
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: the number of banks on Main Street. I mean, uh,
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: and they're surviving. Uh, So there's and that was one
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: of the reasons why I said, there's absolutely no question
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: in my mind this community has the ability to raise
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: a million dollars. Fortunately, now we don't have to raise
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: that much, but even raise eight hundred thousand dollars.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: But it's it's.
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: Obviously depended on a case by case basis and where
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: people wish to donate their money and so on and
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: so forth. But the financial resources are there. I fully
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: convinced the community has the financial resources. It's just individuals
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: have to make decisions about where do they uh, you know,
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: where do they donate the money. But so, going back
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: to your question about the roller skating roller skating rink,
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: I mean I guess that that's.
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: Part of the my or just kind of some indoor
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: indoor option to get well with leis together.
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: Absolutely uh and quite honestly, if there were a daycare
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: in there, that would be supportive of that because I
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: mean it would support you know, families uh living in
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: and maybe it's not maybe it's not so much families
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: that would occupy this as opposed to uh, maybe either
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: retired couples or folks. I mean, the the hospital is
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: looking for just they can't find enough housing to meet
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: their employees. And I think there are other other companies
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: and corporations around as well, and and they're offering jobs
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: to people who take accept the jobs and then find
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: out they can't find a place to acceptable I used
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: to live. So but but in terms of in terms
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: of what could be in that building, my I would
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: envision that over time the city will undertake a process
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: that that reaches out to the public and says, what
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: would you like to see here? And I think all
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: of those ideas are going to be put forth. And
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: because the city in the last two to three years,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: even when I was a manager, we went through you know,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: I went directed some processes, you know, the refurbishment of
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: the swimming pool and so on and so forth, where
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: where we reached out and got public input and said okay,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: what are your ideas before, so that so that the
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: public doesn't hopefully develop the idea. Well, you guys had
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: this all decided first, and you never asked us what
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: we wanted. Yeah, I know, Nicholas and the mayor and
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: I'm sure and the council will work hard to make
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: sure that doesn't happen. That there's plenty of opportunity.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: To speak for public. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so well that's
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: that's what our community members want. Yeah, and they want
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: to be hurt.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 8: Forum.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: There will be forums for people to make a I
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: don't think any one person can think of all the
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: possible possibilities. So that's why having a public process where
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: we're folked and say well what about this, what about that?
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: And so on and so forth, and then you know
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: you're going to eventually be the process. We'll have to
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: sort through all of the suggestions or whatever and see
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: what rises to the surface and develop a core concept
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: for a redevelopment of the site.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: Queen Sparry in New York Lake George, Burlington, Vermont. Just
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: off the top of my head, have god, I could
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: go on. Yeah, Rhode Island, Hartford, Connecticut. They have places.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: One of the ones that I'm thinking of is called
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: the fun Spot, where you know, there's a cafe, there's food,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: theirs drink. Adults can come in there, flip open their
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: their laptops, get some work done, make some phone calls, whatever.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Well the kids are climbing, running around, bouncy houses, indoor whatever.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It's just just comment, but just an idea.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: The key to all that it's got to generate revenue.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: I understand that.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it has to be any any individual business or
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: whatever that goes in there, just like any other business.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: Means it has to help. I mean a lot of
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: people say, well, why doesn't somebody start this, and why
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: doesn't somebody's got to help the city. Well, well no,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: but it's gotta. It's gotta. What when people say, well,
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: why doesn't somebody do this or open that store or
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: do this or whatever, there's a there's a hell of
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: a financial risk involved, or anybody who undertakes a adventure
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: like that, you're going to.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Have an insurance policy that's massive.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: Well well, well not of that, but I mean you gotta.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: You know, businesses come and go and and so it's
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: one thing to say, well, why don't we have the ideas?
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: Sounds great, sure, but the implementation.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: If it doesn't thrive, what what could what else? What
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: else could go there? Yeah quickly?
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: Or well what or whatever? But I mean, you know,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: why doesn't somebody do this? Well, sure, somebody's got to
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: have financial resources. They got to be willing to undertake
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: the financial risk.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: And then frankly, the blood, sweat and tears to run.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, none of these business business owners work forty
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: hours a week. Sure, uh there you know, their night
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: and day operations. And there's a lot of sweat equity
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: in any business in downtown, no doubt. And and a
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: lot of people say, well why don't somebody do this?
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: They're not prepared to put in that sweating. Sure, So
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: of course it's easy to it's easy to say why
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 2: doesn't somebody do something?
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: But you were just talking about housing a little while ago.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: I want to make sure that I don't forget. Wednesday,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: Fox around Apartments is having their ribbon cutting off. Oh yeah,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: which is huge, that's huge. That's that's thirty units out there,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: and they're beautiful. They're beautiful. So I'm looking forward to
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: to getting up there and checking that out. But yeah, man,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: I mean I get it. You know, we we need
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: we need housing badly. We need every community and it's
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: not just a very issue. I mean every community is
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: starving for housing shore and some have been.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: Further down the road. They've been more successful in getting
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: some developed. But you know, Berry is doing the seminary
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: street apartments. I figure what they call them now.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: Nicholas is going to be coming in soon, yep to
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: talk about that.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's coming along. I still think it's at least
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: another year or two away. I'm not saying that with
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: absolute authority, but I mean they still I don't think
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: they've commissioned a design yet. I don't think they've entered
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: into to construction contact contract. I could be wrong, but
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. But you've still got to have
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: the time to prepare all of the construction documents and
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: then construction.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: I'm sure B A. D c IS has hurt this
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: or if if if not, will soon, and I know
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: Nicholas has. But a lot of us in this community
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: are we're we're we're water shy, We're we're afraid, we're
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: afraid of the water, and you know, why are you
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: gonna spend all that money and then it's gonna flood.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: And you know, like Nicholas said, like you've said step one,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: let's acquire the property, green space it and we'll figure
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: out how to make sure that whatever happens there is
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: going to be able to withstand another potential.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: Quite, that's not difficult at all. If take look at
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: City Place, City Place was built, take it. Actually, if
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: you take a look at any new construction downtown in
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: the last ten years, none of those properties suffered any
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: damage in the twenty twenty three to twenty four floods.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 2: City Place, Key Bank, Community National, the Jiffy Mart, Dunkin Donuts,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: the bank at the corner of the Davis shopping center
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: there and even the shopping center. Community National, Yes, yeah,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: I think it's Community No, No, Community National is right
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: across from the old Key Bank, that's Community Bank. Or
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: there's a number of banks with the word community in it,
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: and it's hard to keep them straight.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: Are you saying we have too many banks?
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: No, that's not what it's saying. That was not my
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: point at all. My point only went to flood flood prevention.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: Don't put worries in my mouth. But my point is,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: my point is that that's absolutely a realistic concern of
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 2: anybody in the downtown. But there are ways to deal
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: with it, sure, and and it almost I mean the
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 2: concept even in that vision concept that you have there,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: you can't see it, but the architects rendering reflects the
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: fact that there would be sort of a front entrance
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: way similar to what's down at the Lenny's Walgreens.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: You have that long.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: Whatever you want to call it, aisle before you actually
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: go into the stores. And in that concept that he has,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: it's kind of the same thing, but it would ramp
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: up and the first floor elevation would be above above
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: floodwater flood elevation and in fact it's not it doesn't
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: take that much. It's only like a couple of feet
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: I think in that area. So again it's not hard
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: to deal with.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what Nicholas was saying, is that new construction
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: is it's totally different.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: Now, Yes, what where the challenge is is dealing with
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: structures that have been flooded and you want to try
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: to reuse them. I mean, femine regulations are you know,
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: you can't put more than half the value of the
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: property into repairs and construction. You've got to get everything
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: out of the basement so on. I mean, you know,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: raising buildings is an option, it's just the complications of
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: trying to resurrect a building that has been flood damage
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: are are complicated just because of the physical requirements to
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: do it as well as the regulatory requirements. So frankly,
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: dealing with a new building a lot easier than dealing
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: with trying to salvage a lot of the property in
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: the North End.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: It's gonna take a lot of fil a lot of fils, yeah,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: to get that.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but the grand seam of things, phil is cheap.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, of course, of course.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: Somebody asking about any ideas for the old soups and
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: greens belting and and of course you know anything you
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: want to say about that. And I would love to
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: have Josh Trum in here as well.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, well, I mean I think a lot of uh,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: I know, berriery development uh through our interim director Kyle
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: Rinker was working hard to try to make uh connections
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 2: and I know i'd say no, I mean, as I've
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: been told, there there have been a few parties who
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: have looked into it. Uh. I understand one or two
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: with the idea of putting a restaurant back in there,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: but I think you know, there are certain complications. The
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: all of the restaurant furnishings were stripped out and sold,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: so it's not it's not ready to go as a
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: as a restaurant. Somebody would have to make that investment.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: You have to negotiate a favorable lease with the owners,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: which sometimes can be a challenge. So I I'm not
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: worried that something won't go in there. It's just hard
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: to tell what it will be. And when does the
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 2: sp does the space get broken up into smaller you know,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: commercial operations, but a lot of people, Uh again, anybody
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 2: on the streets. You know with gus, we we need
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: soups and greens, we need you know, you know, it
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 2: was supported the support of the auditorium and all the
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: events up there and so on, and uh, you know,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: I I'd certainly like to put in a plug for
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: Tasty Bites. Tasty Bytes has come along and is a
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: is A is A is a nice venue for breakfast
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: and lunch that they at least helping fill the breakfast voyd, yes,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: which which there was nothing, Soups went out of course
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 2: the L O L and Mnner that unfortunately caught fire,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: and then there there there there been a number of
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: businesses on Main Street and Bury that have gone out
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: of business because of fires over the years, over going
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: all the way back to when I was in grade school.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: In the city market, seems like they're doing well.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I keep telling me, I tell I got
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: to go in there and take a look at it.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: My wife and granks have been in.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: There, and then they like it tally right next door.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: So bottom line, we got about a month to come
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: up with one hundred and ten thousand dollars to secure
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: this property so that we can take the next step,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: which frankly would be very exciting.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 8: I think people would love to see. I think, yeah, well,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 8: but I just that's I'm going to go there. As
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 8: I said somewhere along the way here, the fundamental objective
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 8: of this this initiative is to get the ownership transferred
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 8: out of the hands of the existing owners. That will
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 8: be a huge, huge, huge accomplishment. Plenty of other huge
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 8: accomplishments that have to occur after that. But the but
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 8: the reality is and sort of manage expectations. It's not
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 8: like the building.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: If we're successful and the property gets transferred to the city,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: it's not like, you know, the next week, the next month,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 2: something's going to start happening over there. I mean again,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: what will happen over time is all of the preliminary
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: work that you just don't see that has to be done.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 2: It's updating the the environmental side assessment. It's ultimately, you know,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: find raising the funds to do whatever remediation is required,
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: raising the funds to raise the building.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: Those take time, hard work, perseverance, and uh, I guess
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 2: I said at time. So it's not like something's going
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: to happen the next week once the building gets sold.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: And people need to they need to stay privy to
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: what's going on by connecting with city council meetings shown
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: up in person on Tuesday nights or tuning in, watching, listening,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: and pay attention to the conversations that are happening and
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: engage with these conversations. Be part of that association.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: It's not like, you know, it's not like bad's intention
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: here is to it's again certainly is to affect the
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: property transfer. But it's not like It's not as though
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: once it gets turned over to the city we don't
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: care and we're going to walk away. We will continue
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 2: to be Barrier Development. We continue to be a partner
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 2: with the city, do what we can to help advance
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: the redevelopment of that site. That's that's within the core
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: mission of Burrier Development.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: Outstanding conversation with you.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: I always enjoy coming here. I disagrees you make it easy.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: Is there anything else that you can think other than
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: the obvious of Please tune in tonight, listen, pay attention
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: to city council. Anything else you can think of it?
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: No, I mean I think, I mean an hour gives
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 2: us a lot of time to cover a lot of territory.
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've covered everything that I could think of
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: that I think just important to get out in terms
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: of factual information. I really appreciate the opportunity and enjoy
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 2: it because it's kind of fun.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: Be patient, we say to everybody here, be patient. If
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: you can make a donation, please do Yes. We also
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: don't want you to empty out your your your your
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: child's piggybank. But but if you can make a donation,
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: let me tell you, let me tell you.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 2: We have received donations from fifty dollars all the way
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 2: up to fifty thousand. And that's not an exaggeration. I mean,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: that's true. That's that's that's that's the range of donations.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 2: A lot of them are in the thousand to five
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars range. We've had twenty five thousand dollars donations.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: Yeh, you've had everyone on b A DC.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, And again the average contribution from the
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 2: fifteen directors is five thousand dollars per director. That's range,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 2: but that's seventy five thousand dollars. So we've put money
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 2: where your mouth is and you and the ways you
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: can make a donation. You can write a check to
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: Barriery Development, mail it to Post Office box two sixty five.
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 2: You can go on the website b A DC dot
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 2: com dot com yeah I think uh uh make it
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 2: through the website, or again find out information on where
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 2: to send it. You could if you know any one
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 2: of the directors, you can say, certainly, hand a check
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 2: to a director and that we'll go to the uh,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 2: you know, go to go to the office and and
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 2: get credited.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: So many people that are have already invested in this financially,
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: but there's so many all of us are invested in
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: it emotionally. Yes, so step up if you can. Yeah,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: the clock is ticket it is.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: I guess that's the boy. Yeah, okay, we're we're you know,
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: we've got us. We got a chance for a second
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: bite at the apple. Uh, it's it's it's we're either
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 2: going to be successful or not. There's no no, you know,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: no more extension of the fundraising part of the campaign.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: It's game time.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: It's game time.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for coming on here, Bro.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: The timing was great, Thank you very much.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: Please let me know. Uh, I'll be tuned in tonight,
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: but please let me know when you want to come
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: back in here. Sure, come alone, come with Nicholas, come
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: with Tom. Whatever you want to do. I'm ready for you.
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 2: If I do, I will. We need to get Josh
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 2: you rome in here. Love to be there on his own.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 2: He's perfectly capable of coming in here on his own right.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: Could come with him.
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: That's what he was doing.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got he's got an amazing skill set, which
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: is exactly what b A DC needed at this time. Yeah,
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: thanks Steve, thank you very much.
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. All of us, all of our listeners.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: We appreciate all of your time in getting this put
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: out there transparently for all of us to see in here.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah that's the facts are always helpful.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Thanks, Thanks buddy, have a great rest of your day.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: All right, we'll.
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 5: Dot Stott stop the increases Includentclucasta included increase in Platt
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 5: clos
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: Passsssssssssss.