City Council - Regular Meeting

My marble coming. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, Committee on Economic Development and Tourism come to order. The clerk will call the role.

Council, Council Lee here. Chair Pereira here. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledgeable and permissible. Item number one on the agenda is citizen input. We have one person who signed up and that's Tracy Babosa from Frack Collaboration. Tracy, just state your name and what

address? Sure. Anywhere you feel more comfortable. Hi, nice to see you both again. Uh Tracy Silva Barbosa, executive director of Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition. I wanted it noted that um my organization's title was incorrectly um listed in the uh meeting invitation. Just so you know, it's a central correction. Give it to the clerk. Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition Frac.

Okay. And um I just I I think this is wonderful and I thank you for inviting us and um it's great to see such a a great turnout of the arts and culture institutions in Fall River. And I just wanted to reiterate that uh I see my place here as a unifier and that um when Frack is considering Fall River, we consider the whole city together and we are collaborative organization and look forward to what we come up with here today. Thank you, Tracy. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thanks. Item number one on the agenda is a discussion uh ongoing to the redevelopment of the Flint neighborhood. Um Mr. Dion. Oh, the minutes. I'm sorry. Uh item number two of the minutes of the meeting. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? I. Item number three on the agenda is a resolution uh about the ongoing development or redevelopment of the Flint Neighborhood Association. And that was on the table. We've already discussed it. So we need a motion to lift. A motion to lift from the table. Second. All in favor?

I I Mr. Dion. Um Sarah is also here from redevelopment and Gloria Sadly Young who's doing a lot of work on this. And it should be noted that I did receive a call and I've had conversation with Bernardet Simos who's the president of the Flint Neighborhood Association that she was unable to be here today but was very happy that we were going to be discussing this and said Gloria knows it all. So, the reason that we've pulled this together is because we've talked about developing the Flint for quite a long time and people are not seeing movement and at the last council meeting a gentleman came before us and he spoke about the old National Cash Register building and for many many years there's a fence around that just like around the police station. So, you're forcing people to walk into the street, and that's not good for safety. Uh, another concern that I have, and I'm sharing it with you, is that some of the abandoned buildings, if the glass has broken and they put plywood up, how long do can they keep that plywood up? You know, it do we need to have an ordinance that you need to replace it with glass? and with all the tourism and the artist and things that we have in the city, maybe we could decorate them so it wouldn't look so blighted. Um, so those are some of the things that people have spoken about. So, Mr. Dion, if you could all state your name, too, so people at home know who you are.

My name is Michael Dion. I'm the executive director of the Fall River Community Development Agency here at Government Center. Dr. Gloria Sadler. I am from the Community Development Agency as well. Why don't you take that other microphone so that way you each have one? Okay. Hi, thanks for having me. This is Sarah Paige. I'm the executive director of the Fall River Redevelopment Authority. We just just started.

Good evening. Um, we have been working uh in tandem community development and the RDA on revitalization of Pleasant Street for probably about four years now. Um, we've made some great strides. There's uh work being done right now as you can see. Um, we looked at the um area and we looked at what was uh considered an asset because there's many assets on Pleasant Street. Stuff that we we um thought were good businesses. Um uh property some properties are really taken care of well. Other properties have been in disarray. So um Sarah and I have been working very diligently. Um, we used opera funding uh through the city of Fall River for the uh repair and revitalization of five businesses in that area. Um, I have another one, two, three, I have another seven to eight uh businesses in that area that would like that have pending storefront applications with us. Um the uh result of um the storefront program has been good for businesses in in the uh Pleasant Street area. We did uh as you can see before and after pictures. We um worked on Gilbert's Jewelers. Uh there were four four storefronts uh that we did with that. And we also worked on White Rose Bakery. Um I have AOS's Feast. I have um there is a uh organization there for dental work. There's also um uh storefront for electrolysis um and uh there's a storefront with a church involved in it. There are many storefronts that we have pending applications for. Um we're going to be working on those hopefully soon. Um we

also realize that uh on that street there is a tremendous need for rehabilitation of uh existing units that have just you know are old. Um, if you turn to page six in the booklet that I gave you, um, there are some of the properties that, um, we we're working on currently, uh, we, you brought up, uh, Councelor Pereira brought up 1616 Pleasant Street. Yes, there's a fence in front of it, but I drove by yesterday and there's actually all kinds of, uh, 2x4s, there's uh, um, uh, plywood. So, they're starting to work on that location. Um, as you can see, also the 1270 and the 1288 um location, the first floor was all redone. Um, they're working on the inside of the building. Those two projects are owned by a um private landlord um that's doing the rehab. Uh he was based in uh uh New Bedford and is now, you know, bringing his business I I believe it's Rosso Realy bringing his business to um Pleasant Street. Uh the other two there's uh other two um rehabs. There's one going on right now 1446 and 1454 Pleasant. Um that's being done by Aaron Tetrol with community development assistance in terms of our home program. That's for, I believe, 13 units. Um, six of those units or seven of those units will be uh um restricted have an income restriction on it for um uh area median income and the other ones will be market rate. Uh there's going to be parking on the side of that building. As you can see, they're starting to do some of the parking. Um if you look uh maybe about two or three months ago, there was no roof in in that building. Um he's taken it he's gutted it um and they're rebuilding it. Uh he's he's going to the next one which is the green building 1438 Pleasant as soon as he is done with

the 1446 Pleasant. So right now we have about five or six housing rehab projects uh that are going on in the Flynn. Um we've worked very closely with the owner um uh and the lease of the Night Owl. If you drive by, you'll see that the owl is gone. It's been taken down. It's being refurbished and hopefully we can get that lit very soon. So, we know that it is a landmark in the city. I lived in that area for the longest time. We always used to tell people we live near the night owl, you know, so they knew where to go. Um in in the meantime, uh what we've been doing is um we applied for a grant uh through um Senator Aenclaus's office, uh CDBG grant that was uh set aside for about $1.6 million. Um that $1.6 million is for infrastructure, uh new streets, new sidewalks, lighting, um trees, uh water water infiltration system. Um, and we are currently working with Mr. Aguar in the engineering department to start putting that out for bid, start putting out a plan. Um, I would say, um, that will be ready very soon, probably in the next couple months. Um, in the meantime, also, we have this thing going around my office, which is Love Your Block, and Mrs. Miss Sadler's here to talk about it. Um uh it is a uh very very uh I call it a great grant program. It's it's it's excellent. Um we've we've been off we've been given about $100,000 from the John Hopkins University um Bloomberg Philanthropies to go out and uh you know revitalize and help the neighborhood out uh in the uh in the Flint. Um, we've developed uh um a

really good uh um buyin from the neighborhood association, buyin from the from the people. We brought on Gloria and her sole responsibility is just working on the Flint. Um and I don't want to steal her thunder uh because she has something some things to talk about. I told her to make it brief because I want to go home for supper, but she can talk. So, I'll let her I'll let her talk. um you know and we worked with with uh um the RDA and Sarah and we've identified some properties in the Flint location that they need to be taken over. They need to be demolished and um we're talking about the old Ka Crystal building. We're talking about um the Bottle Redemption Center and then there was a Chinese chicken type of place. I don't know what you call it and there's a nice parking lot on the side there. Um, you know, my goal, and I know Sarah's goal is to take that by hopefully maybe eminent domain and take that down and, uh, you know, rebuild that site. We also talked about, um, you know, uh, taking, uh, the site of, um, the old, uh, furniture building, uh, and and, uh, down near Leonard's package store to revitalize that. And you'll see that on page uh, eight of the book of the book. We put this book together uh to let everybody know what was going on in the Flint, what our vision for the Flint is. Um you know, the impact we wanted to bring back. My main goal is to bring back pride. I mean, I lived in that area. I grew up in that area. And you know, 30 years ago, it was a hopping place. You know, you had things to do. You had, you know, um Woolworths and you had, you know, Kennedy's Market. There was a lot of different stores there. And uh um you know, it's going to take a while for for us to bring it back, but I think um in the last year, year and a half, um we've seen so much more development than we've ever seen in our in in our lifetime down on on the Pleasant Street area. Um so I'd like to turn it over to Gloria to talk about

Love Your Block and then we'll turn it over to Sarah and you know, give you a little bit more about what the RDA is doing. Thank you, Mr. Dion. You don't really keep it sharp, Mrs. Sadler. That's pretty short. Pretty short. All right. 15 minutes. It's a whole neighborhood to cover. I know. That's okay. Good job. All right. We can hear me. We can. Excellent. Make it quick.

So, good evening, distinguished members of the city council on economic development. My name is Dr. Gloria Sadler. I've owned my home on Jinx Street in the Flint neighborhood for well over 10 years. My son is a Fall River police officer who before purchasing his home raised four daughters in the Flint at my residence. All whom attended Fansa School. Additionally, my daughter purchased her home in the Flint. Her children attend Esperos Santo school. The economic development of the Flint community is deeply personal to me. I take great pride in this community as both a resident and a municipal employee for the city of Fall River. I appreciate the opportunity to address you this evening regarding regarding excuse me the revitalization initiatives within the Flank community that I've had the honor to contribute to or lead. To begin, allow me to outline my role with the city's community development agency. I serve as the on the ground, boots on the ground representative, engaging closely with residents, local businesses, and developers to understand and address the evolving needs of the community. Through this engagement, I have successfully facilitated access to funding opportunities that support local revitalization and redevelopment efforts. A pertinent example of this work is found at the intersection of Cash and Alden Street, where a local business owner invested nearly $300,000 in renovating and updating his establishment. Despite this significant investment,

customer traffic remained inadequate due to outdated parking restrictions along Alden Street that were extending from Flint Street to just beyond Choke Street. These no parking signs discouraged patronage. Collaborating with the business owner, I drafted a formal request to the parking and traffic director and traffic board to remove these obsolete restrictions and update signage to better accommodate current businesses and resident needs. Similar improvements were made at the intersection of County Street and Quicoan Street where the addition of no parking from here to the corner signs have enhanced traffic flow and access at the Quickean and County Street turning point. Beyond parking issues, I am actively addressing safety issue concerns as well, including um an effort to remove a bus stop located directly in front of the Bank Five on Pleasant Street. The proximity of this stop to a liquor store has resulted in lording by individuals engaging in disruptive behavior which deters legitimate customers and transit users. With the approach of warmer weather, it is imperative that this issue be resolved promptly. Further, I have engaged extensively with businesses along Pleasant Street that have played an instrumental role in regulatory matters, including facilitating the probationary status of a liquor store at the corner of Jenx and Pleasant Street that became a safety concern and neighborhood Newton's

nuisance, excuse me, to residents and local businesses. Last summer, I spearheaded a comprehensive graffiti removal campaign throughout the Flint neighborhood and throughout the downtown of Fall River. While considerable progress has been accomplished, there remains work to be done this summer. Additionally, along with the Flint Neighborhood Association, I have organized and led popup cleanups within the community with community residents. particular focus on the mills along Alden Street together with Sarah Paige from the redevelopment authority whose close communications with the property manager has led to promptly addressing issues such as trash and debris that negatively affect pedestrian walkways and residents quality of life. It is imperative that no individual endures the blight of discarded tires or debris on public walkways and sidewalks. And so I have to applaud my uh colleague here, Sarah Page, for working so diligently with me on that project to ensure that these items are removed. In partnership with the John Hopkins University Center for Innovation, Love Your Block Initiative, I've worked to cultivate community pride and volunteerism. This collaboration has led to the establishment of the Flint Community Garden at Father Tarsel's Park. Last year, with the support of the Fall River Police, the Fall River Youth Marines and local residents, five wooden raised garden beds were constructed and maintained throughout the growing season. The garden has since become a vibrant nexus of community engagement with active participation from seniors

residing in the curtain loft and the knitting mills. members of the Cambodian community of Fall River, Bristol Black Collective, Tame Property Solution, the Bank Street Neighborhood, the Flint Neighborhood Association. We have all worked diligently on behalf of Flint residents. In addition to the Garden, Flint residents have benefited from two first Flint agenda items. There are now little libraries and storywalk installations at Father Tarsel's Park and Kathy Assad Park, which serve to promote literacy and foster community connections. This summer, mile markers featuring inspirational quotes will be installed along the walk-in path in the rear of Kathy in the rear, excuse me, of Father Tvaros Park. Many of these projects have been supported by Love Your Block Grants, which fund community improvements of $5,000 or less. The only stipulation with the Love Your Block grants is it is required to have volunteers complete the work and we've managed to complete that task. And my responsibilities also extend to addressing concerns on illegal dumping along Pleasant Street and its side streets as well as assisting local businesses including the night owl in navigating municipal excuse me regulations and securing funding. I'm pleased to note that Beos Bank has become a proud sponsor of the night aisle and with signage expected to be installed in the near future. Currently, I am collaborating with Bristol Black Collective to establish a welcome center on Pleasant Street. This center will serve as a critical community hub, providing space for city

hall departments, state agencies, and local colleges to offer services and classes within the heart of the Flint community. The welcome center will also be able to host our neighbor Flint neighborhood association meetings and other community meetings and strengthen neighborhood ties. This is something that the residents have been constantly asking for. Furthermore, I am actively addressing safety once again, including removing that bus stop from in front of the Pleasant Street Bank 5. Looking ahead, the Flint community is preparing its inaugural Easter egg hunt on April 4th at Father Tobars Park. On April 12th, the community garden will expand with the addition of 20 new raised garden beds, marking the official start of the growing season. That same day we will celebrate the completion of the Quick Chan Rail Trail extension into Father Teros's park and there will also be a collaboration with the Soo Arts Lab. the Creative Community Visions Incorporated and the Flint Neighborhood Association to host an artsfest on June 14th. Thank you for allowing me to speak on some of what is positively occurring within the Flint community.

I think it's important, Gloria, for people to know what work has been done there. Sarah, would you like to add anything? because councelor Peekham had a question. So I don't know is do you want to wait? Uh councelor Peekham let Sarah say. Absolutely. Okay. Go ahead Sarah.

So I want to add on to what um Gloria and Mike have said in a number of ways. Uh one is the redevelopment authority had and this is small but the garden is really meaningful. It's brought lots of people together and they struggled with water last year. So, our board um just allocated $10,000 and we're bringing a water line in from we've working with the parks department that have approved it. So, we'll be bringing a water line in so that they in the height of summer can really water their garden. So, we're excited to be partnering with that. Um, Gloria mentioned the old shirt factory on Alden Street that's

been uh it's it's under uh agreement with a realtor I stay closely in touch with and um there there's more environmental work to do. The roof came uh parts of it came off during the snowstorm. So there there's work being done and there's a lot of interest in redeveloping it and so we really hope that's going to happen and um I just call him whenever we're concerned about all this trash which is really frustrating. Um then um councelor Pereira you mentioned the boarded boarded buildings. I think you're especially talking about the one at the corner of Claflin and Pleasant right across from the uh Bay Coast Bank um branch and and Mike mentioned it too um that we would love to see um the ability to acquire and get redeveloped. So there are a few things we're doing on that front. Our urban renewal plan is finally almost almost in the final approval stage. We'll be bringing it to the city council in the next few months. Once we have that approved, that gives us much more flexibility in acquiring buildings, working with developers to acquire buildings. And um funding is always an issue and will continue to be an issue. We would love to demolish some of those buildings and get the sites ready for developers, but that's going to take millions. And so, you know, we're constantly looking for more funding. And to pick up on the Pleasant Street

redevelopment, when we got the 1.7 million allocated by um uh that was really facilitated by Congressman Oenclaus, we were thrilled, but ever since we've been trying to raise the rest of the money that will be needed to actually redevelop Pleasant Street. And there's another thing holding us up, which is that we know utilities are going into the street. So, the utilities need to go in. Uh we need to keep raising more funds. Um I know that uh Dan Aguar has allocated some funds in that will be timed properly in a year or two. And I know Chris Hathaway and the police department has um identified that all of the street lights need to be replaced on Pleasant Street. So it's not immediate, but we have a whole plan to really redo Pleasant Street. helping us with that. Serped, the regional planning agency, is working um with a number of us to really figure out some of the nuts and bolts planning that needs to be done. When we did community engagement, it's clear that and I experience it, when you're on those side streets trying to get on to Pleasant, it's really difficult because there aren't the sightelines you need. So that will be addressed. They're going to analyze if the bus stops are in the right places and that needs to be um redefined and all those kinds of small things. So they're working on community engagement. Uh Gloria and I have a meeting with them this week to talk about the best way to go about getting input from residents on these little

things about where is pedestrian safety an issue and you know how do we address those details which we then will bring to the um the the design firm and engineering firm that Mike was saying is um going out to bid. So, I'm sure I could tell you many more things, but um oh, there's one more thing that I want to mention. You know, there's been a TDI partnership and district in Fall River. It was first on South Main Street and it's now um in what we're calling the NMA district, which is the um

Purchase Street.

Yeah. Purchase Street and North Main. and it's part of the downtown historic district. And so we tried really hard to get the Flint considered a TDI district and it was incredibly competitive and we knew it would be. Usually they're able to um allocate funds for districts um at maybe 10 or 13 in a year and this year it was six. and they were looking at cities that had never had a TDI district. But the good news about that is Gloria worked with me with all of her community engagement. We pulled together lots of organizations. Frack was one. Um you know, just the Cambodian community, uh the Bristol Black Collective, uh a number of businesses on Pleasant Street. So now we have about 25 people we're considering a partnership and um Bay Coast Bank allocated uh one of their higher level um staff to be involved to help think about maybe investments in some of the properties. So, so that is really um a good outcome from having worked hard to create a plan for this TDI district. We're kind of considering it a TDI district and trying to bring in other money that and Mass Development is interested in working with us because they were very impressed with our proposal and said we'll you know keep finding ways to help.

Thank you. I just want to add real quick um we are going through a second round of mini grants right now with the love your block. Um the uh you need to get your application in by the April 10th to the community development agency. We're setting aside about $5,000 per project. We're looking probably at like five to six projects. We just got an additional $60,000 of Love Your Block funding. So, we're looking uh for a second round of that. We'll have a third round of mini grants, smaller grants, probably around 2,000, $500 to $2,000. But it really like I know the neighborhood association has applied. Um there's other organizations that have applied. Uh we're going to do a a uh beautifification um program where we go out and uh uh plant some flowers, plant and ask for landlords to take part in that to redo some of their property with mulching and stuff like that. Um, I do myself personally want to say thank you to you guys, the city councilors. Um, uh, there has been major park improvements to this area. I mean, I know I brought the annual plan to you guys. We spent about $500,000 in Kathy Assad Tot, which was unbelievable. Uh with your vote, we were able to take OPA funding and redo some of the uh important aspects of Father Travaso's Park, the play the um water park, the um uh hockey hockey park, and also uh big thing with the opera is, you know, Lafayette Park. Uh they're working on Saturdays and Sundays now as we speak. Um they're putting in a new skateboard park there and some we're going to do some uh uh sidewalks and some walkways. So, I really want to thank you guys because um you know, it really good does come down to funding and and you have been you guys have been so good to us, you know, with with making those decisions to do that. So, I'm very happy with the way Pleasant Street has been going. I think we've

been doing a lot a lot of work. Um and and it's really an all hands approach, you know? So, I think it's difficult. You know, people expect that things happen quickly, right? And when you work with government, there's a timeline for this, a time. It It just becomes frustrating like come on. It does. Let's get this done. It was good for you to be here and talk about a lot that has been accomplished um at this point. The funny thing is is it's really been happening pretty quickly. I know. I mean, it's really I mean, putting boots on the ground, having Gloria there, and actually living in the community. I mean, we have some great great plans and it's really following the plan, staying with the plan. It's building by building and um before I retire we will be successful. Council pet.

Thank you. Um so first I want to commend and thank you guys for the work you're doing over there. Um and I love the idea of the revitalization u resident that um lives within a neighborhood. I think it would be definitely worth exploring into other neighborhoods in the future. Um, I do have a comment about the bus stop and it's something that was brought to my attention probably late last year. Um, at first that's the one directly across the street from Catel, correct? No, this is the one that is on in front of bank five a little further down.

I know which one you're talking from landlord. I've heard from people in the area about having a problem with prostitution and drugs in that area. So, the police, we've contacted the police. Um, we've contacted the uh um uh traffic division. You know, we want more people out there. We want people to be driving, looking um and that's been on Gloria's uh uh list of things. Okay. We even think about maybe pulling it out and moving it.

So, that's a that was a recommendation I had. I did speak to the chief um about that location. I had gone there for a coffee hour while campaigning and they had brought it to my attention that that was one of their complaints. Um, and while there I witnessed firsthand the open air drug dealing. Um, so I had sent some video and pictures to the police chief to try to rectify it. Um, I know they are well aware of it and they are working on it. Um, I don't know if there's a way to address both if I file a resolution to address the bus stops in the area. But that's with SERA. We could also we could recommend they come to the whatever committee it's sent to. Who who serves on the SEA board from the city? Is it the mayor that serves on it? I've been working closely with Serta.

You have been working with I've been working closely with Serta. In fact, when the glass window panes were broken out of that uh Catel bus stop, I am the individual that had them replace it as quickly as possible because my concerns were for the senior citizens who may want to wait for the bus. But lo and behold, because I'm on Pleasant Street all day, sometimes every day, what I witnessed was drug dealers meeting addicts and prostitutes inside of the bus hut.

That's what I witness while I'm down there. And so I'm currently pushing for removal of the hut because now they have no place to hide or move the bus stop to a different location because my concern is always for the senior citizens for those entering into the post office especially when you have seniors who may be going to and I know the post office cashes still cashes checks. So my concern is always the safety of any resident that is walking in close proximity to that bus hut. So I can um tomorrow put that on my agenda item because there is a whole committee transportation committee right that focuses on the bus stops the bus huts and where there seems to be problem areas. So I've been heavily involved with that. Well, you know, it it does become very disheartening.

Can I just interject about that? It becomes very disheartening when you talk about the bus stop and we have an enclosure there. If you go by Walmart, there was one there. They've knocked out all of the windows there because people were sleeping there. Yeah. So now when you have a senior who is going to take the bus from there or anybody, but they go to Walmart, they have their groceries and the wind comes flying through. There's another one at Liberal Club, one of the ones at Liberal Club. So, because of bad people doing something they shouldn't be doing, the righteous person, you know, we're taking it away from them.

Yes. I've had conversations with Walmart with regards to that hut because I feel like residents within the city of Fall River are spending tens and thousands of dollars per hour in that store. And it's sad to see them stand out in the elements. They're partially protected. I understand the downside and the upside to this, but I also have to say that there is a bus hut in front of Health First. They don't seem to be experiencing any of these problems. So, as a researcher, I'm trying to better digest, and I'm actually um in a class at Harvard University trying to better digest and see how we can create changes without removing those huts from the community because again, people do need to be protected somewhat from the elements,

but how do we go about that?

Yeah, it it's tough. Yeah, there I believe there's a there's a problem with lighting too in that area at night. I've driven by a couple times at night and it's just a very dark area. Um, and that's what ends up happening. Uh, you get homeless, you get people living in there, you get drugs and stuff like that. And I know I've been up and down Pleasant Street many of times where all of a sudden I see somebody living in a in in a in a door room and, you know, at the uh the bottle redemption center. you know, we that's why you see the plywood there because they were they were living in the doorway and they had tents, they had, you know, so we we ended up moving them out of there and that's we told the landlord, you need to do something because we're not going to keep coming back here all the time every time there's a homeless person. So that's why he put up uh but something's got to be done with those buildings. That's an eyesore. So

Council Pekum, sorry. Yeah. So, if there's any way we can help you, I'm very aware of what's going on over there because I have looked at it quite a few times and some of the activity there is very aist. I don't want to get into it for obvious reasons because I don't know what the PD is working on, but there is some pretty concerning activity there. Um, if there's any way we can help you as a council, I know that you said you're you have a plan to address these things. I have no problem filing a resolution to where it goes to a committee such as public safety or this one um just to address them as a whole. So whatever we can do to help, please feel free to ask. Absolutely. I yield, madam chair.

Yeah. I'm just going to say that's definitely a public safety issue and if you can see what's going on and you can see what's going on, I'm sure the police department knows what's going on as well and they're monitoring. I'm sure they're just waiting to do something. Like council Pekkham says they're well aware of it. I don't think we should talk about it anymore and let them finish doing whatever business they're doing and take care of the problem because that's the only way to fix it. What did I yield?

You yield. Um, some of the questions that I have on the Flint is, is there a list of all the buildings that are there? Who owns I mean I can go on Patriots property, but everybody that owns a building there, a storefront that's for rent. We talked about housing down there, but storefronts that for rent, do they have handicap bathrooms? Do they have Wi-Fi? What's the means of egress or egress there? um so that if somebody wanted to start a business, they would know what the monthly rent was going to be or something like that to help start businesses there as well because I've gotten calls from people that want to start a business and one was to do eyelashes or something and somebody else was to sell uh different kind of dolls like a craft store kind of thing. And where do you direct those individuals to? We we that's how this whole thing started out. Um um about two three years ago, I put an intern that was working out of my office onto Pleasant Street to do a full inventory of all the builds, take pictures of it. So if there's a book that I have that has a listing of everything that's on Pleasant Street, what's vacant, what's not vacant, then I agree with you, the next step is to determine who owns it. We have who owns it, but it's determined, you know, what's what's the rental cost for each each place. I mean, we've done many many times, huh, Gloria? We've had businesses, contacted businesses, worked with businesses to to move them into the Flint, you know, to see what, you know, there was an insurance company just recently that started there. There's a new restaurant in the um in the uh Chinese restaurant. What was that before? Mu, which is in the Machu area. Um, you know, there there's a change now where uh the the Bank of America building on the corner is now going to be a Mexican restaurant. Popeye's

Chicken is relocating and that's going to be a from what I understand a Mexican restaurant. So, yeah, there is a heck of a lot more work that we have to do. I you know um but uh one of the main uh uh reasons is um having a problem with that area is landlords not being responsive. You know there there were businesses that wanted to move in there. There was landlords that owned taxes. They couldn't get um building building permits because they owed taxes. So it's something that we're working with with um our building department. Uh we're also thinking about a pilot program um where you know one of the most expensive parts as a business moving in is the rental cost. So we thought about um doing a pilot program where through the community development agency um with grant funding that we pay for a couple months of um rental expense. So having a new business coming into the area um you know you know they're trying to make it so why s you know then the biggest expense is probably their rent. So if we can give them that break for maybe two three months um maybe we could spur some uh uh development in that in that area. Um

and if people owe money on taxes and therefore can't the people can't get a permit to put a business there, they're going to go further in debt than taxes. That doesn't make sense to me. Correct. And when you talk about there's buildings that we need to knock down, where are we going to get the money to knock down these buildings? We haven't been able to knock down the police station. So, are we looking at grants for that stuff, too, for demolition? Definitely.

Well, thank you very much. I think that a lot of what you said, and I know, you know, people watch our council meetings or our subcommittee meetings for the general public to see a lot of what's been happening and what you're looking to do. Um, but I would like to keep this conversation go ongoing and if there's anything that we can do here as a council to submit some kind of an ordinance or draft something to help you uh in the Flint, I I don't like the wood things. I'd like to see on plywood put something on there. Yeah, I think that's a conversation we we need to have. I think there is an ordinance already, right? I remember. So, why aren't we following that?

I think it needs to be enforced to some extent. So um you know I think it's a broader conversation we have to have with the administration with with the housing with the housing department with that Mr. pathway and you know boots on the ground. But I thank you all for coming down. Uh I'll entertain a motion to table. Motion so made. Second. Second. We got a motion to table in a second. All in favor? Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

And to everyone else who's here, thank you so much for your patience. Uh item number three on the agenda is to convene with administration, events resource coordinator, for river arts and cultural commission, creative arts network, um etc. It was adopted on March 10th. So if some people could come down, let's get a flare. And ironically, well, not ironically, I think it's a really, really positive thing, but I have gotten lots of calls from people who wanted to participate in this um meeting. So, there's a lot of people that really care about the arts and the culture and the events that are going on and the sole purpose of pulling this together. I know for me, I don't know about my colleagues, but I don't know as much about what everybody's doing, where all the niches are and how we can bring it together so that we're all aware of what's going on. I mean, we do have people that work at the state level. Chris Tyrell is here. She works regionally. So, whatever you have benefits her to try to pull more funding down as well. So, if we could all go around.

There's anyone else that wants to come down that is not part of these or but is involved with the arts, they're they're welcome to come down as well. Yeah. But let's we can have anybody else that wants to come down to share ideas. We'll get more cheers. Anybody? Okay. Well, if you do want to as it goes on, please just raise your hand. If we could just go around and um give everyone's name and address association. Um Samantha Barbosa, city of Fall River, event resource coordinator, Government Center. Thank you. Uh Nelson Rigo with Soo Art Labs and Creative Community Vision. Joseph Holderman with NMA.

Dave Dennis. Uh David Dennis, president of Creative Arts Network Incorporated. We're 501c3 nonprofit. Sandy Dennis, Creative Arts Network Executive Director and the Fall River Waterfront Cultural District. Tracy Silva Barbosa, executive director, Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition. Uh, no relation.

Well, Samantha does an excellent job on trying to coordinate as much as she possibly can with everything that she does. She's one person to pull this all together. And I did receive a call from Carl Pelletia who has the um carousel now the Grismill. Oh, and hi Carl. We've never met. So, and um I said one of the things that I felt we were lacking is a tourism director. And in speaking with Carl, sometimes you talk to people and your mind changes and you think about it. So, I'm going to throw it out there. Kyle suggested we do a cultural commission. Get a few people who will be on a commission and figure everything out because we don't have all the answers to what you're doing in tourism. You know, years ago we used to have kids that did plays in the park and that was a great thing. We don't have that anymore. you know, and we need to promote arts and culture um in the city because if you promote tourism, you bring in dollars and it's also the quality of life for people in the city. So, I'll open the floor to anybody's suggestions on how we can help as a council.

Can I start? Sure.

So, just so everybody who's like a lot of these people are my colleagues, they know my role here in the city. Um but for people who might be listening or watching it back, um so I've been in my role for three years. I was brought on through the ARPA funding with my position. I have started this role and my main goal was to create an events process for people who want to host things in the city that is streamlined and easy to understand and doesn't turn people away because they don't know what to do next. So when I started three years ago, I implemented an event um application process. um they submit the application to me. We go to the police department. We figure out if we have manpower to cover it. Um there's some questionnaire um questions on the application just so we can get a feel of like what's going to happen that day at their event. Um it takes a lot to put on an event. There's a lot of moving parts in an event. Um depending on the size of the event and what you're hosting and what your like audience is going to be and things like that, it can go a bunch of different ways. Um, so my main focus when I first started was to get the process down to something that was easy for the event organizer to digest and not feel like what are you talking about with all these permits? What does that mean? What does this mean? Who do I talk to now? So, we've I've gotten it down to like a really great process and I've think that the amount of events have increased because it is an easier process. Um, basically my role with the city is just to be a liazison between the city and all of these people who put on events and all of these organizations and groups uh to make the process easy and bring great things to the city. Um whether it's like small events, sometimes it's getting people to partner up and make, you know, if they're all hosting a back to school event, like let's all partner up and try to do it so we can make a bigger event with more outreach and more resources rather than,

you know, like four or five of them across the city. Let's do like two big ones, you know? So, it's it's a lot of moving pieces, but that's I just want people to understand like what my role is. I'm not strictly tourism, you know what I mean? I'm I'm really event heavy. I I organize and execute the entire city of events. I'm a one-man show. It's just me. Um I do cleanups. I do all the stuff throughout the city. So, a lot of these people I've worked with um closely. A lot of them sometimes we collab on events, we partner on events, or I'm just pro promoting what they're doing um as much as I possibly can. So, I think there's a lot of different conversations surrounding it. Like, you know, I know there's been talk of like how do we advertise for events? How do people get the word out about what they're doing? But I just wanted people to understand like what my position is and also tell, you know, so people in the community know like I am a phone call away. They can always reach me in the mayor's office. They can email me questions, concerns. I'll walk you through the entire application if that's what's needed. I'll give you as many resources as you need. I'll you know so that I just wanted everybody to understand.

I think the application process is much better because if I'm coming in to do an event and I have to go to the fire department and get the chief to sign off on this and I have to go to the police department and get them to sign off on this and I have to go to the building department of permitting. I'm running all around the city and then you go to the fire department and if chief's not there and you go to the police department if the chief's not there the chief's in a meeting you're going back three and four times. So you've streamlined that.

Yeah. So, it's a it's it's one application. Um, so there's actually essentially because I also organize the processions and parades. So, there's two applications essentially. One is a special events permit and one is a pro uh parade and procession. So, the difference is when you're hosting event, there's a lot of other things happening. Stages, music, maybe alcohol, maybe this, maybe that. When you're doing a procession, you we just need to know your route and where you're closing the road. You know what I mean? And like there's a little bit of other things cuz some of them put the flowers in the street and we have to clean it up and stuff, but they're essentially two separate applications. But when I started, everybody was putting in a parade application. So there was no gathering of are you having tents, do you have music, you know, are you going to sell food, are you going to have alcohol, are you having a DJ? So I had to create the application from scratch just so I could gather more information. So then once I get the application and it's approved, I sit down with whoever the event organizer is. And and Joe can speak to this because he's been in my office a million times for meetings for events. Um I have everybody who's on the application that is involved in that event as a resource come to a table with the event organizer and just get their logistics and get like what is happening. I want to make sure like obviously public safety is the biggest concern, crowd control, alcohol service, you know, things like that, bathrooms, making sure we have handicap accessible bathrooms, things like that. So everybody essentially gets around a a table at one point right before the event, you know, a few weeks before the event starts and we hash out everything that needs to come together from the city side and I follow that all the way through till event day and make sure like DCM's there with barrels and the street's going to get cleaned when it's done and you know like things are all ti tied up the way it's supposed to be. So I did start the event from because it is confusing. I mean if you have a tent you need a permit from the fire department. If you have a stage, you need a permit from the building department. You So there's like levels to everything that

you're going to do for an event. So that's why I took it and made it one process for events separately than a parade. Council cab. So just curious, how many can you each tell us how many events you guys all have? Like how many events do you have? How many events do you have in the course of a year? Just curious. Oh, it depends. Um does anyone have an event coming up? There's a ton. I can give you a list of them if you want them. I know that in NMA this year we have about 35 events planned. Nice. So this is just a how many events? Come on down.

This is just So this is a list that I've compiled. So here's the other thing. I don't get an event application unless it's on city property. So if it's like if Carl Pelleter is going to do an event at the carousel on the lawn, he doesn't have to put in a permit with me because I we don't own that space, right? So like these people might be doing things that they don't give me a permit for. I try to find out about them. like I'll I'll try to do the leg work. I'm just curious. I mean, so this is a list and it might not have every every single thing happening in the city, but this is events, cleanups, processions, parades, like everything. So, just for the sake real quick here, each one of you just tell us ballpark how many events you think you'll have this year coming up. Thanks. Has averaged about 10 years. Go to the microphone, please.

Um, yeah, 10. 10. 10. So, you have 10 coming up this year. Oh, yeah. Thank Uh this year less but on average Frack has had about 10 events. Okay. One for uh James. So I'm with Soo Art Labs. Um we have a artist creative community uh on the Flint on Question Street and we hold about 20 indoor events a month. So we have a lot of events from we have a bookstore in that has does a lot of events. We have the artists who do um paint nights every week. Every week we do uh digital art class for kids. Uh so we have And where is this held at inside doors? This is uh at 418 Quaker Street above um it's been marvelous from Mount Le.

Yep. Uh so we're on the corner of Quishian and Alden. We were on the south end at Tuskan building. So we decided to move to the Flint uh last year when was sold. Nice. So it's about 20 to 30 events a month. Nice. Kyle Pelletier. I'm with Reto Hospitality. Tipsy Tobogen. The fall of a carousel. Just so people know who because you got to Carl Pelier. Okay. From Red Oak Hospitality, uh the Tipsy Tobagen Canned Heat, Craft Beer, and the Fall River Carousel. Uh we have about between small book clubs and classes to large scale festivals. Um some that we're planning directly with the city. Uh about 150 events over the course of the year. It's one every other day. Almost.

Almost every other day. And um about uh we're averaging we're hoping this year about 25,000 visitors. Nice. And you're at each other's.

Yeah. out of our events, all of them except for one is outside. All of them involve different communities from inside of our city. We have the Cambodian community hosting an event, the Bristol Black Collective, other minority groups um highlighting their cultural events. We also host a farmers market every single Sunday from June through the end of October. Sorry, from uh June to the end of October. Um we will give uh about 200 different vendors an ability to sell their wares here in Fall River, contributing to our economy. And last year, Thanksm um was the highest grossing night on Purchase Street in the entire year for the restaurants, which brought in meals tax and other revenue to the city. That's great. I went to Thanksgiving next.

Sandy. Yeah, we kind of plan our events seasonally. And we went from an event organization to a more project oriented organization because during COVID when we were looking for funding it came down from the legislature that they wanted to fund more projects than events. So we kind of pivoted towards projectoriented um not events but

So currently you're not doing any events. Oh yeah, we're doing events in we're doing events uh down by the waterfront which is where our main concentration is. We're doing a flag ceremony. We donated a flag to the maritime museum. We'll be doing a ceremony there. Um a born viage event um again on the waterfront. Okay.

Um a sunset exhibit event that we'll be doing. We'll be doing a pollination and planting to kind of coordinate and tie up with the hydrangeanger program. Um, we'll be doing an open ear uh exhibits. Um, we're also going to be doing, it's not an event, but we had the fire police department and council Pekkham at our last district meeting to talk about emergency preparedness and evacuation. So, we are going to work closely with departments to reach out to all of the businesses and organizations in the district if they could at least fill out the fire department questionnaire and get some kind of plan in place for their business.

Would that be a project?

Yeah, that's a project and so that people know what a shelter in place is versus an evacuation emergency. So, we're we're going to be working on them on that. We have a lot of ongoing projects that we're working on and our our main focus is and has been for quite a while uh is on um tourism. We did the historic preservation study with at Roger Williams University. um they presented at the historical commission meeting that is opening up a whole host of projects um and events for people because we're spinning that off with historic story boards, walking tours, brochures, and what we'll be doing is we will be translating them into braille uh and QR codes for the hearing impaired. So we we've made a conscious effort to offer services, events, and history, culture, art for the disabled um community. We're also working with Diamond because the district's been screaming for an interpretive board. So we're working with Diamond and they'll be installing a large board on Water Street directing people where to go for what. um at the last meeting that councelor Pekkin was at, so was Mr. Dion and we want to have meetings with him for smaller signs throughout the district. Um identifying what's in that particular area of the district. So we're working on that. That should be installed.

Just curious, who's designing the signs? Diamond the students. Who's there certain regulations like the letters have to be a certain size of people driving by? I've been to some communities where the signage is so small you this is going to be big. They'll see it and we're going to make sure the lettering is appropriate to what they have. Like there's a there's a ratio they use if you're traveling 25 miles an hour. The signs have to be inch and a half or three inches an inch and a wide. So there's just make sure they do that.

I will and and it's going to be lit up at night too so that people can see it at night. Um we're also we had Senator Rodri and Mass DOT at a previous meeting. So, we've been working with them to get our highway signs back up on the highway. Uh, you probably received the letter from us uh that we were working on that initiative. Um, because we really they can't do 24, but they can possibly do 195. So, we'll be work we'll be meeting with DOT at district 5 um to have those ongoing conversations because right now it sets waterfront attractions. So, the waterfront is becoming much busier. It's much more vibrant. It's growing. Um it's it's probably the busiest area in the city. Um and I'm would assume it's going to get be getting busier with Deval Street. Um our beautifification program is ongoing where we do the plantings of the hydrangeas plants. We did a big pot giveaway last year with plants. Um we've got an adopt a spot program all put together. We just need to launch it so that people can actually adopt a spot. We officially adopted the spot up on the highway through Mass DOT. Uh we won't use their program. We will do ours based on the former park advocates adopt a park program. Um the tourism initiatives. We we've gotten a lot of leadway with Mass Office of Travel and Tourism. They've put numerous stories and articles in their newsletter on their BLA blog for um the carousel has gotten some good stories with ma maritime museum the battleship and we've gotten some really good stories in the local newspaper too um for the district. So basically what we do is like the city does is we will promote

which is basically what we've been doing through all of our stories. We promoted the venues, we promoted the restaurants, we've promoted um the historic preservation which will open a whole host of programming and events and projects for the downtown tip of the waterfront. Um then like I said we will be having actual events but we do less events than what we do projects now. Uh in those projects we've spearheaded all kinds of um initiatives on the waterfront. We've gotten new blinking stop signs, new crosswalks. Pond Street is actually going to get repaved with brand new sidewalks. The Enowan Street is a oneway now. Uh and that's all through the advocating of the Waterfront Cultural District that we've been able to do. Um, so we'd like to really get some public art in the district, uh, some more public art because what we find is when when tourists come into the city, they like to take their pictures next to public art. So our our focus will be to try to get a little bit more public art uh, into the waterfront cultural district

and never grants available for public arts. My my next question is if everyone could briefly just tell us how do you come across like where do you get your funding from? Do you do fundraising? Do you get money from the state, the city, federal? Where do you get most of your funds from? Just each one of you could briefly just tell us where most of it comes from. Okay. Um we're funded uh through a mixture of uh community foundation support um disperate grants that are both uh local and state uh private and public as well as uh private donations. A mixture of all of those. Um and and we too we um most of our grants come from the state level. However, we

What's just curious, what's the size of these grants? Are we talking $5,000? We're talking $100,000 just ballpark. Well, yeah. Just just curious because it's it's it's important. Yeah. I would say our uh average size grant would be around $25,000 and that's coming from the state side or

uh could be. Yeah. Um private and state. So, uh the Bar Foundation is one of our uh biggest funders and uh they tend to give grants around between 25 and 50 And depending on the initiative, uh, Frack is also, um, employing a like arts consulting program where we're helping entities. I just spoke to Carl about this today, um, to, uh, support public art uh, installation and execution of a high caliber. Most of our grants come from the state level. 5,000,500 15,000 maybe very small. Um, having a sales and marketing background, we've learned that you have to go out and put the bag on. Uh, so we get, we're very fortunate. We get a lot of inind. Uh the project Roger Williams University was probably $150,000 project that was free for us.

Uh so we're very fortunate. We've built some really good relationships. Mass Coastal Rail uh poured a ton of thousands of dollars onto the waterfront with the project that we wanted to do on there. Mass DOT has worked with us and has helped with some funding for some of the projects that we've done. Breaking stop signs. So yeah, so the blinking stop signs came from the city. But what you know, hearing for

but hearing all the funding opportunities available through the city, um we would love to tap some of that money because we never have been able to get any funding from the city. So, those micro grants, the um grants through the grant writer, there's there's tons of grants out there and if if if we could get a relationship with the city grant writer, we can identify them. Okay.

But they can help support us. But I've noticed there's a lot of money floating around in the city going to the different districts. But the Waterfront Cultural District, we could we could use a little bit of that money to keep growing that district. Um, so we we do we do sponsorships, foundations, uh, donations as well. Um, but it's competitive and if you want to keep yourself self- sustained, which we have for, oh god, 11 years now, 14 years, 14 years, you have to be aggressive. You have to be very frugal. But we're very frugal how we spend money that we get. Um I'm sure all of you are. Oh yeah, that's what it's like. Yeah. How about

you have to Mr. Holderman?

Uh so NMA up until October was funded through uh TDI and Viva Fall River. Uh since October, uh NMA has been completely self-funded by the businesses and other property owners. Um everything we do is based in data. Everything has to have an ROI. if we're not getting the turnouts that we are want to see, if we're not having the returns on our investments, we simply don't do it. So, um, we're very proud of that. We're very proud that our activations and our mission is not based in woulds, coulds, and would love to, and based in actually bringing people into downtown, getting that organic traffic online, and returning funds to both the investors as well as the city. Nice. And you're not getting any state funding?

No. Wow. Good for you. Not yet. Not yet. We'll try Mr. Pelletia. We are small business in the city and we privately fund, but I will say that uh a lot of the resources and partnerships that we've created help us do what we do. Um, you know, I mean, we sell our beer at his events and and make money that way. And that helps us do other events and partner with the city through help with marketing. Um, partner with other organizations who either vendor with us or or help offer food services, anything like that. So there's a lot of teamwork that happens to make it happen in the end. So

um Soo Art Labs was privately funded by my wife, our family because it was something we wanted to do to help artists in the city. Uh we work with our artists. They got grants through Mass Cultural Council and the Fall River Cultural Council. Uh Frack has given us grants as well. And now that we have a nonprofit creative community vision, we're going out to seek sponsorships for events like the Flint Art Festival that we're doing in June at Father Dasos Park. So, we're going to be reaching out to businesses in the Flint to be sponsors and help us put that together. So, that's going to be an annual event at in the Flint. Nice.

Thank you. Last question I have for now. Advertising wise, where do you spend most of your advertising money or how much advertising you do? You do into the city, out of the city. Just curious if you could just quickly, briefly go around the table. Try to speak into the mic as much as possible so people can hear it. These remind me of the old mics at McDonald's when you when I was a kid. Remember when they'd be like cheeseburger? I use one about now,

right? Um, I think that it's uh we're leaning into social media, uh, advertising, uh, Instagram, reels, like that type of, uh, work that, um, you know, I pay an assistant to do half the work. I help, you know, it's it's that you do what you can with the money you've got. But, uh, our open studios event, uh, typically the budget for marketing is about $2,500 and that goes for anywhere between social media, radio, uh, magazine. Um, but, uh, I'm just losing my faith in all print advertising, period. So, it's more word of mouth and it's more relationship building, you know.

That's true. Yeah.

Okay. I I'll have to ditto you on the um paper part of it. We we've done marketing through publications, we've done brochures, we've done posters, and the return on investment just wasn't there. Um social media is definitely a better return on investment, word of mouth. um getting on um travel and tourism um blogs and and getting in their newsletters like we've been able to do with Ma has been excu extremely successful for us and not for us only but for the organizations like a maritime museum like the battleship like the carousel who's really it listen hundreds and thousands of people throughout the world will go on that site and see right Fall River so you can't buy that kind of advertising Um, and it's free other than us having to pay a marketing person to do it.

What's it cost you for a marketing person? I can't overall entire I couldn't even say Joe because we don't get a lot of money. So, we can only give her what we have. She's worth significantly more than what we probably pay her,

but she does it because she believes in what we're doing, you know, and the cause. Absolutely. So, um yeah, word of mouth. We just we received our nonprofit in Rhode Island, so we're working on a whole new project um to try to get the people there here because of all the traffic with the bridges, you know, and to avoid that whole Boston airport ad. So, we're going to try to work on something similar to that and get those mystic visitors, drive down that scenic route 1A and spend a week's vacation and end up in Fall River at the battleship, the Maritime Museum, the Narrows, the Carousel, you know. So, we we're in the in the and that's a project that turns into events. So, a lot of our projects help the other organizations with their events because it's making the district clean, safe, walkable, uh, and all of that. And that's basically tourism. That's why people come to a city. If it's clean, it's desirable, it's walkable.

Mr. Holden,

uh, so up until October, Viva Fall River handled our marketing. Um, post that, we've been very lucky to partner with Fall River Reporter, the Herald News, and other social media outlets. Uh we're also partnering with the uh South Coast, sorry, Southeastern Office of Tourism for Sant Tyrell with a micro grant she provided if we can do our matching funds. We uh we actually have a very intensive plan for marketing uh that focuses on a more regional perspective to get the local day travelers into Fall River. Um and as we build that foundation, we can move on to people that are further out. Um beyond that, we're very lucky to be a grassroots collaborative organization. So, we get to benefit from people like Carl who will post NMA things on their various social medias. The Bristol Black Collective, the Cambodian community, all the restaurants that we partner with, all the vendors that we partner with. Uh, bringing more than 200 different vendors into downtown gives us access to a wide ranging um, social media presence that we've really been able to monopolize on. And that's really I think the strongest way of of marketing what we're doing is through collaboration and through social media.

Nice.

I would say as well same thing the the collaboration in social media is huge. I mean our calendar is most up to date every single day of the year on Viva Fall River's calendar website which is brilliant uh brilliantly designed and easy for me to add things to. Um, you know, again, sharing, sharing everyone. It seems like everyone shares our stuff. We share everyone's stuff, and I think that's really helpful. Our social media channels have about 50,000 followers. Um, very, very involved community uh between some of our restaurants. Um, but I also think another, you know, huge shout out is uh Sam has been operating the events for Fall River page, uh, which is on the I think it's on Facebook, and it's it's brilliant and helpful. We have book clubs and a third of the people visiting are from that page alone and that costs us nothing. So I would say that's a huge shout out is uh the page that Sam's been running there and sharing. You know, we post something and she'll take it and move it to her page and share it and that's huge. Um one of the ways that we spend money on marketing is with radio and I do think that it is helpful um for our Fall River community here.

Much more helpful than the print. more helpful than print and and their social media presence is huge as well. And one of the ways that I found it's been helpful is using the Rhode Island radio stations. Uh you know, we work very close with Cumulus and 92 Prom and Light Rock 105 and they're huge advocates for visiting Fall River. I mean, we had 105 DJs here the other day at the brewery and at the carousel and the battleship, you know, things like that that are really helpful because that's a community that's a day trip from us. you know, it's a local tourist, but it's it's still a tourist nonetheless. And I think that's really helpful.

So, we are lucky enough that we own a website and social media agency. So, three recreative does a lot of work for free for so Labs. And so, we create event pages, landing pages. We do a lot of social media um post uh to share all the events that we do and other organizations as well. And we're an example this week. Uh so this weekend we had an event and someone came in did a Tik Tok video. We had no idea where the person is and yesterday and today we got slammed with about 20 visitors a day. Most of them out of the city because there one Tik Tok video that costes nothing. That's so social media right now is one of the best ways to advertise if you don't have the budget for

Sharon. Good job with what you do helping out with all of that stuff. That's that's pretty good.

So the city um we ad like mostly everybody. We advertise a lot on social media. Um, as they mentioned, I run a Facebook page that I've created strictly for events in Fall River. Um, and I try to post whatever I come across or whatever is given to me. Um, we also use the Viva Fall River website which has a calendar. The city's website has an event calendar and then um I will send an email blast out to the four of school department for them to implement the event flyers into the um like the parent portal app that they use um just to try to reach all the kids in the schools. It's just a quicker way to get to the parents that way. And then um I always we always send it to the media like local media to cover. I mean it's up to them if they want to pick it up and write a story about it or post it for us. Um, so there's and like everybody we share like we're all we're sharing everybody's stuff.

How about the senior centers? Do they get something whatever you're posting to the Yeah. So I send a like a it's like a blanket email I try to send to everybody as many people as I possibly can. Um, same thing with when there's events in certain neighborhoods and I know it's going to disrupt like business or traffic or things like that. I try to shoot an email to them and just say, you know, like there's a food truck festival over here and the street's going to be closed just to let you know their staff know and their customers and stuff. So, we try to all it's it's a lot of word of mouth really. Just be careful with the schools. We don't want the kids showing up at the brewery. I know. But,

no, I keep it family. The school gets the family friendly stuff. Is there a way that the city website um because you said you have a Facebook page um so it's Fall River Events events in Fall River Mass. Events in Fall River Mass. So that's a Facebook page. Is there a way to put that and all the sites that that people have Kyle's got a site, Joe's got a site to put it on the city's website like events and part and people could click

Oh, I could I could put a link to our page there. Yeah, I know that there's like an actual digital calendar that if you click on the date, it will populate what's happening that day in the city. It's just going to be submitted. So once a month before the month starts, I submit all the things for like April have already been submitted that I know about. Okay. I didn't let counselor No, no, I'm not. I just made I just made I guess I yield the floor. So I yield. But thank you for answering those questions.

So this is the question that I have to the committee. Do we want to push for a tourism director? Do we want to suggest a tourism commission or council and let people here who know what they're doing come together, get group of five people, put in resumes, look over them, and that way they can come to this committee when they need something or want something or do you know what I mean? Is that the purpose of we can yeah we can try to help facilitate

councelor Pickham. So, I've had the privilege to work with all of you for the most part over the last couple of months. Um, and I think you guys are doing great things. I would like to see I was a proponent for a tourism director. Um, but I like that idea better. And the reason I like that idea is I've got to know you guys and I don't think there's anybody better to go to in the city for ideas. So, I think a joint collaboration here would be a better idea. Um, and I just wanted to go around the table, the mayor's office, I don't think anybody's ever given us a better opening as to what you're doing, what you have planned, and what you've executed. I think if every city employee came down here and gave us a synopsis like that, we'd our jobs would be a heck of a lot easier.

But I really do I really do appreciate that. Thank you so much. Um, and then with Soo Wat Labs, with Nelson, um, I've had the pleasure of knowing him personally. I had an art studio, my art business in Soo when it was on Globe Street. Um, and you guys do tremendous things for the community. I've seen some of your gatherings and um, I've actually been a part of some of them and um, they were excellent. Anything that brings the community together. Um, Carl, with your businesses, I am going to give your ice cream cream ice cream a plug because just so good. As early as last night, um, there was a group of friends in a group chat and they were dying to go to the carousel for ice cream.

Awesome. So, I am going to give you a plug there in the Kanti and the uh tipsy tobag and phenomenal facilities. Uh Joe, you're non-stop over at NOMR. I know you're passionate about that. We've had many conversations over the past couple months. Um and we have some ideas that uh I'll mention to the other councils here when the time's appropriate as I you know, things that we've thought about. uh Sandy and Dave Dennis, the waterfront cultural district. You guys are very passionate and it is the upand cominging neighborhood with Deval Street coming in and I love what what you guys do. Um so I appreciate you. I do. Um the public safety aspect obviously I really appreciate and you guys are top-notch there. Um you actually have a folder that's dedicated to to public safety. So I appreciate that dedicated to tourism.

Yeah, there's one that big just for public safety. She showed it to me at the last meeting. Um, and Tracy, you're at everything and I do greatly appreciate everything you guys do. Um, one of the questions I had here, and I hope I answered your question, Madam Chair, about whether or not I would recommend a tourism director or a joint collaboration. Um, but I would I would rather see all of you guys work together. Um, Eventbrite, Nelson, I know you used Eventbrite. Is that the common theme here to use Eventbrite to sell tickets and and promote the businesses? So the reason we use a vamprite is because they reach way more people than we could in our Facebook or website. And what we notice a lot of people buy tickets like the day before or the day of where they go to vampire and see what's going on near me today

and most of our sales happens to be like the last two days of and it's been great because the way we do it um the person buying the ticket pays the fee so the artist gets 100% of the ticket sale. So, yes, Eventbrite is a great tool to use. Eventbrite. Yeah, Eventbrite tends to be the the industry standard at this point. Um, they make it the easiest. They don't charge you the processing fees. Those are passed on to the consumer. Um, they do a little bit of advertising. It just makes the whole system a lot easier. They did recently change their platform, so you can no longer check out as a guest. You actually have to put in a lot of your contact information. Um, we we don't know how that's affected ticket sales yet. um they haven't released any data on that, but Eventbrite tends to be the industry standard at this point.

Nice. Yeah, Eventbrite has um search engine optimization, which you guys might know as SEO. And if you're just standing on a street corner and you're like, what what to do where I'm at, the first thing that will ever pop up is an Eventbrite uh a rando event near you. And then you can dive deeper into more more Fall River, more wherever you are. So it's pretty remarkable tool for um planning and you know promoting events.

Um the city we don't do a lot of events that are ticketed like charge. So obviously everybody here knows that we don't like residents of the city don't have a ton of disposable income. So a good port I would say like 98% of the events I put on are free. Um the only event that we put on that's ticketed right now is the Christmas concert at Dery High School and we use Ticket Spice. Um, and it's pretty much the same thing as Eventbrite. They pass the fees on to the ticket holder and that's pretty much you have something to add.

Yeah. I just like to say I think I think the idea of a tour like a kind of a low voice maybe um I think the idea of a tour tourism director is long overdue. Uh I can remember going back about 14 years when I when I chaired this committee and some of us sat here. We tried. Huh? We tried. Yeah, we tried, but I think it's way overdue. Uh I think the city it it's there's a compelling u need to have one. Um I'll give you one one quick example why it's so important and what we not having. People at home cannot hear you unless you're speaking to the microphone. Okay, that's what it's for. We can hear you but they can't.

So it was a Saturday morning. I got a phone call from somebody and uh was somebody who lived over in Swansea. They called up, hey Dave. Gez, there's there's a tour boat, big tour boat on the waterfront at the city pier because I was surprised. I didn't think they came up here anymore. Well, anyway, they did and it was loaded. Had about 400 people. They came from North Carolina and they were doing the uh fall tour. They come around, they go all the way up the coast and Maine and all that. So, I went down and uh there they were, 400 people. They were provisioning the boat. They weren't leaving until 4:00. This was about 11 o'clock in the morning. I found out who was in charge. I explained to him whom I was and I asked him a simple question. I said, "Gee," I said, "Uh, did did you call the city? Let them know you were coming in so they could, you know, prepare." He said, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, yeah, we called." I said, "Oh," I said, "Uh, what' they tell you?" They said, "We don't do that." Said, "We don't do what?" He said, he said, "We don't have we don't do tourism directors here. We don't have anybody in the city that does that." So my point is even going back then, you know, 400 people with nothing to do until 4:00 in the afternoon with money in their pocket. Fortunately, we were able to open up S. We opened up the Marine Museum. We got a couple of people down there and S and I were driving people up uh Columbia Street and down South Main Street and making them picking them up and dropping them off till 4:00 in the afternoon. Problem was huge opportunity missed because we don't have a a a contact in the city. We never have. And um when we did the first um uh tourism uh event on the waterfront, we have everybody down here in Betsy Betsy um Wall, who was a chair of uh um of Mott. The last thing when we had a tourism summit, the last thing she told me, she said, I said, "Betsy, what's what's the one thing that you can leave me with?"

She said, "Get a tourism director. M does not have anybody in the city as a contact. When we we want to contact the city, we have we don't have anybody down there. They said get a tourism director. That goes that's a recommendation from my going way back to 2014. Never happened. Never happened. Whatever we pay that person, more than worth it. We'll get that money back 10 times over. So do it. That's right. Can I just When was when did the vote come to City Pier? 2014. 11 years ago. Yeah. 2014. Um, so and I don't think we've had a boat since that that I know of. Anyway,

I I have no I could go either way on the topic of a tourism director or just a tourism committee. So when Viva Fall River was still being fully funded and Patty Rigo was still on board, we met every month for a tourism committee and that included somebody from the battleship, Ken Fiola, there was like a number of people who came. It wasn't a mandatory meeting like you didn't have to show up every month, but you could and it was like an open invitation to anybody who had tourism related items that they wanted to discuss. Um, so it was kind of it was like an open discussion. I think Chrisanne was on that committee. I was an advisory committee.

Yeah. So it was It was like um it was useful like you know like if Carl has something that's going on like if he wants to do something at the carousel and he's like hey I don't really know who can sponsor this or who can help me do this or do that. It was like a it was it was good as a tool for everybody to like bounce their ideas off of each other and say like we want to do this but I think we need somebody to partner with me or I need somebody to help me get it off the ground. You know what I mean? So I my opinion on tourism is that and this might be a little controversial. There's a lot of things that need to be going on in the city before we think about like hardcore tourism, right? Like we want people to come here but like the streets are full of trash and they are loaded with pothole. You know what I mean? So it's just like I think like the I think the priority for a tourism director could be there at some point, but I don't know that it's right now. Like I think getting a committee together, a group of people who care and are passionate and can bring a lot to the table and if it's, you know, it could be an open invite like people can just come if they want to and discuss what they have, but a tourism director I think is maybe down maybe in the future, but I don't know that that's a good avenue for us right now. And that's not like a it's not to like differ from opinions. I just think that like I think it's better if we come together as a group rather than just one person, right? Cuz like what do we want to do for like what's the idea for the tourism? Like what do we cuz like personally and this has never been discussed publicly. I tried to bring for celebrates America back like I wanted it here. I wanted four of I not necessarily the exact layout of for celebrates America but something in the city for the 4th of July which I do a lot on the 4th of July. I run three venues on the 4th of July by myself, but like the carnival aspect of that was like a highlight of my childhood, you know, like and you hear about it all the

time from residents of the city. Like we want that back. We want something like that back. And I jumped through a lot of hoops to try to bring here. Carl knows. Carl was there with me through meetings and meetings to try to figure out what we could do. And it just things have changed and policies have changed and like the state doesn't want carnivals and DCR property anymore. So, I was trying to find another spot to put them to bring it here for the 250th at least. And that was going to be like my pilot program for it and just see how it went. And I had police on board. I had fire on board. I had Carl on board. Like everybody was ready to go. DC, you know, Heritage State Park, everybody was ready for it. But the state won't allow you to put a carnival in their parking lot anymore. And the state pier where we used to put the rides is full and it's got, you know, it's got a different function than it had back then. And like there, where else can I put them, right? But that's something that you go to a tourism committee and you say like, "Hey, this is an idea that we want to get off the ground. Where can we put these this this group of people, they proposed, the amusement company proposed to go right on 79, right outside of of City Pier, right across on that new developed grass. It's not our property." So, it's like those types of things would be more beneficial if we had a committee to go and say like, "We want to use that." I nobody wanted that more than me. I want a ferris wheel. I would love a ferris wheel on 79 while the kids are watching fire. Like, you know what I mean? And I don't think it needs to be the same for River Celebrates America that it always was, but I think that we could do things like that in the city. Like we could definitely bring things like that here.

Well, my idea, Sam, is Four River celebrates diversity. Yeah, we have so many cultures in this city with so many different kinds of foods. The Pakistani place that opened up at the old Maronei, I love their food. Mona Lisa was very good. Um, Cornerstone Lounge was very good. I try these new places out when I find out that they're opened. Um, but I think something like that would be good. I just wanted to interject that council. Go ahead.

To to piggyback off of Sam and what we were talking about. To be honest with you, Fall River kind of already has a deacto tourism director with Chrisanne. She's regional. That regionality gives Fall River um additional power in that she's already connecting with the uh cruise ships that are coming into New Bedford. the other people that are coming in in a more regional uh way into the other communities. With the proper organization here, we can emphasize that and bring those people here as well. Um on that, I think having a committee come together and actually organize what tourism means in Fall River is really really important. A director can't do everything alone, but we as a group can connect our interd districts, bring forward events, planning, and structure that will create a day that someone can actually spend in Fall River where they are fully entertained and leave satisfied. When you go to New Bedford, it's not just a random collection of things that you walk around to. There's a full plan. People, they plan out a full day for someone. How are they going to interact with New Bedford? How are they going to interact with the districts? And we don't do that here. So, if we're really going to get to a point where we can utilize a director appropriately, we need to get to that point and we're not there yet. A collection of people that understand how people move through our city, can plan things and work directly with Chris Anne to bring in that regional tourism and then move to a more broader uh swath of people I think is probably the best path forward. We're bringing a

Thank you. event through the city from the state level and I think it gives Chrisanne more, you know, more together to go to the state and say this is all I have here. I want we want money from you. I agree. I agree. I think you know to hop off of you is how can we move through the city is a big question. How and how and where are we going to go is a big question for me. I think it's who a tourism director. I'm thinking that we're reaching people from all over the world. And I think that it's important to remember that every organization sitting here is doing events for our local community,

our local tourists, right? The family in Westport, the single mom in the south end, the family in the north end, the people who are doing day trips. And I think that's where we need to start to really define tourism for this city and decide who we're talking to. I think that it's great that the cruise line comes down. I think it's amazing that the families come down from Boston and Providence and that's a huge aspect of tourism. But I think that we need to start with a collaboration of people that can really speak to our community and then reach out to our bigger picture which is definitely I would say our regional aspect.

Yeah. Just one other question and I'll yield the floor. Um to the mayor's office, is there a uh appetite to and I don't know if you already do this. If you do, forgive me. um to reach out to what David said, these cruise lines down the, you know, the eastern coastline. Do we reach out to them or could we to market the waterfront as it is now? I'm sure we could. Yeah, that's more that's Chris, she's regional, so she has direct access to that. I just got the American I just got that in the mail today where all the cruises are. Paul River is not on Was it American Cruise Line? Yeah. American Cruise Line and it's Newport Martha's Vineyard.

We're already working with them. I'm working directly with them. Yeah. How are you, Chris? I'm good. How are you? So, I only asked a question because I think the more marketing we can do, the better. Um, so I think just reaching out to these cruise lines and already doing it. Yeah. Perfect. But we're doing it regionally and trying to bring people into I have 19 communities. Um, so whatever matches up is what we do. But we have the state pier here. We have the New Bedford pair. So, we're trying to get them to come. Ours is deep water. We have a great channel. Our waters are deeper than New Bedford. Put that plug in.

But, but I also work with New Bedford, so I have to be regional. Um, but we're also doing re with the visitors bureau. I'm going like next week to discover New England. No, two weeks. And interview tour international tour operators. I was at Cape Cod this morning in Hyannus with another regional tourism council at a tourism summit. So all the regions under the Mass Office of Travel and Tourism, 16 regions, they're all counties. I covered Bristol County coming together. We're all working together and we're all going to these trade shows and we're bringing people into our region and then we get them to the different communities

depending on what you have. So that's what happened with the FIFA event. Um, so they're doing a FIFA event in Fall River and they'll do one in New Bedford. We had a Mass 250 event scheduled on 4th of July, but it got pulled. They were going to incorporate it into and streaming to the Boston Pops in Boston, but it was logistically pulled u because they're trying to show the whole state. So, just just different areas of the state. Um, but I think we have another avenue to uh get them to come back. Yeah, you I yield. I yield. Council Chimera.

Yeah. So, that's great information. I'm just going to try to wrap this up. For those of you who don't know, we used to have a tourism director. I was around when we had one. Maybe it was ahead of its time. Maybe it didn't work. Maybe things are different now. But we had one and it didn't pan out. I don't know if you remember as well. I do remember. So, you know, we tried it one time. Um, and to Sam's point, you're absolutely right. If we want tourists to come here, we need to be tourist friendly. You're not going to walk into a restaurant that has dirty place and it's nothing there and it's got, you know, same thing with the city. You need to have it

visitor friendly. You have to sell it. Correct. You have to have adequate streets, enough police and fire protection, safe city. You have to have enough events for them to come to want to spend time here. Um, and one thing that none of us has mentioned now, for the first time ever, we have commuter rail where people can come here

without a vehicle and be right down in four waterfront area. And that's going to be a big big plus because once you come here, I mean, you can you can walk the waterfront, you can go to a few places, but you're a $5 Uber ride to anywhere else in the city. You have one you want to add something bureau has been advertising in cell station for the commuter rail for New Bedford Fall River and Tom. Y um and so we're going to be doing another round soon because it's it's a whole different crowd of people trying to get around here.

Yeah. Uh Chris and I have had several conversations about this for both New Bedford and Fall River. We're terming it last mile tourism. So once people come down the train, Fall River as far as where all of our tourist destinations are, Portugalia, Lizzie Bordon House, downtown the waterfront, etc. are not always as walkable as we would like them to be fund that train station. So we're currently working with an entrepreneur out of Taton named um Herbert Day. He's um debuting rides, which is an ebike program here in Fall River. He's trying to do that for the springs summer that will allow people to go from hub to hub. So these aren't like the lime scooters that are left all over the city. This is a hub to hub transport system that will have a hub network starting at the MBTA station, Veterans Memorial Park, City Pier, hopefully a parking lot on lot on Anowan Street, the carousel, Pier 52, Lizzy Bordon House, as well as um the plaza on Purchase Street, NMA. So, we are trying to think of how do we connect our city with the train and those tourisms coming tourists coming down because even though we're a $5 Uber ride from everywhere, if someone goes to four or five spac places, that's 25 plus your return trip. That's $50 of transportation. Um, which can be erroneous. Um, but with us working this out now, people will already know before they even get here how they're going to get around. Uh we're also working with an augmented virtual reality company to do um QR codes as well as RF transmitters to so when people are riding the ebikes through the town through the city they're getting pings and u they're getting a little taste of our history what's going on etc. So yeah I know you're not allowed on the bikes Tracy but we are working on those kinds of things but we have to be able to show up and show out as a city.

Can you do me one favor? Sure. Because I'm very competitive. Can you change last mile to first mile? Sure. Start the other end. Gotcha. No one likes to be flat, but everyone wants to be first. So, let's just call it first mile. We'll call it the fall river mile. The for mile. Yeah. I don't want to hear the fine mile. But that that's that's great. That's wonderful. But I think we do have a lot of different opportunities and times have changed now. So, I am very much intrigued by the collaborative tourism instead of one person in charge of everything. But if the collaborative people feel that there's one person they should go to, then I'm I'm good with that, too. I will say the MA is the state and they have 16 regional tourism councils. They can't take care of 351 cities on so they go through the regions.

Correct. And then the regions have their communities and then we work with the different communities. Well, I I want to first of all just say thank you all for sharing what you shared. We've learned I've learned an awful lot today. Um and and I think it's good that the public gets to hear this because it's important for them to know all these are going on. I never would have imagined in my life that we have 150 events going on on the carousel. I do want to ask you one question just for people who who keep asking me what are the hours oper operation in the carousel for the summer. I love how you have to plug the carousel. It's open.

The carousel is open 7 days a week all year round. This was our first winter open. The building took a beating. The heat was very expensive, but it was fun. We had a rough winter. Should open next year. 7:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. The cafe is open and the carousel itself is open 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. So, you literally can come any day of the week and you're going to find us there. 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. That building is ready available for people to hang out. You know, for me, I I'm here because I have been uh gifted by meeting so many great people since taking over the carousel. And really like so many people who want to host an event at the carousel, who need a venue, who need a space, who need a resource, you know, and last question. Yeah,

I got two kids. I don't I got three, but let's say I got two kids. I want to go down there. What's it going to cost for them to ride the car? It's $3 a ride. Thank you. $3. Thank you. But if you have a son or perhaps that's getting married, great place for wedding photos on the car. So many people reach out. wedding photos, engagement. Some someone wants to get engaged, they're going to pop the question. It's one of my daughters took wedding photos there. It was very nice. Great. We're very lucky. So, listen, thank you all for what you do. I appreciate it. One more thing about the carousel, the Paul River will be there on the 18th writing it. If anybody's interested 11 to 2 on the 18th, April.

Yes. And there'll be a seafood festival coming to that the city's collaborating with um Red Oak Hospitality on. That will be at the Carousel and Heritage State Park. That's May 23rd. Are you going to have lanterns? One if by day, two if by night. They're going to make lanterns. Actually, there's a whole itinerary for that day. There's reenactments with Bristol County FIFA. Yeah. Just one more question. So, what are what is the next step like if we are to create some kind of We're going to do a vote right now. Oh, well, we're going to make a suggestion to our colleagues. We're not we're going to we're going to say we'd like to see doing and then what will happen is we'll probably talk about it in the regular chambers. maybe come back to this committee or maybe figure out what how it takes place.

Yeah. So, we're here to actually get your input. What would you like us to do? Right. What do you want us to recommend? We don't want to do the wrong thing. I I'm here to say uh an advisory committee would be great because we can hold each other accountable, but also that support system. Um and when a partnership grows strong enough and we have um a unified voice, we hire someone in the future. advisory committee. How many people do you think should sit on that committee? Are we talking seven people? Are we talking 12 people? What do you think should be the more the marrier or you want to keep this? I say five to seven is my guess. I'm just curious. You guys say so. Yeah. Okay. I would like to be on it for the regional aspect. Yeah.

So I can take things from the state. This just gives us food for thought and we'll sit down and say, "Okay, so we're looking to pretty much do an advisory committee between five, seven people and see how they're going to be put together and appointed and go from there. And if everyone's great with that, we'll do whatever you want. Listen, you guys are doing all the heavy lifting right now. And we're here to help assist you any way we can. If that's what you guys want us to go forward with, and if there's other people want to put in more introduction ideas, we're all for it. So if that's what you want us to do, then we'll do that in form of a motion, present it to our colleagues, and then we'll go from there. Does that work? Very easy. Yeah, I just think there's so many people doing things that it would be just better to do it as a collaboration. Yeah, I agree with you.

Exactly. Because I don't think that everybody knows how much is going on in the city. I wanted to bring this to the committee because I want people to see that there there is a lot of positive things going on in the city and we're not good at promoting ourselves. Um, the trolley they can use that. I've had people call me that they want to have the trolley. They want to have characters on the trolley and have kids things and maybe go by the carousel. Go to the children's museum to the public library. Maybe a history one. Get a kid from the BCC that's a history major. Talk about the history of Fall River. You go to Charleston and you see these houses. Oh, they've got a widow.

They don't do anything compared to the houses that we have in the islands with the widow works. So, you know, go by Dery. This is an exact replica of the city hall in Paris. You know what I mean? Gonna do

but those are the kinds of things we want to get out there. I will tell you what I am doing with a group of people and I did meet with Chris Anne to do something when people come in on the train. Let's do a maritime kind of thing. You know, you've got the museum, you got the battleship, you've got the Vietnam War, and uh every other thing there. And also we're working with Anthony Cado where Fox um studio is. There's a huge atrium there and we're building some display cases and we'll be able to put different military memorabilia and swap it out and then people can go get something to eat or um go to Dukes, go to you know we're trying to do things like that. So again, everybody's working together. I thank you all for coming and I would like to say remiss Melissa Costa was here and she waved

and I looked and she's gone but I think she wanted to talk about doing theatrical productions and things like that. Um so that would be something I'd like to see. We used to do them in the park um and do something like that. It it really helps. I mean we have kids that graduated from Dery that are in uh Hollywood. Joel will welcome them on purchase street everybody on plaza is available. We will set you up. We got you covered. I make a motion that we form an advisory committee. All the things that you just mentioned that are going on in the waterfront cultural district if you could share that information with us because

we do a lot of marketing. We get a lot of stories in the paper. We get a lot of information up to Boston and we can promote all that stuff, but if we don't know about it, we Well, we're just in the beginning stages of it and will fill you in on that. Yep. So, but Okay. So, good.

So, do you want to file make a motion to file a resolution um submitting it to the mayor? Why can't we just We can make a motion refer the full council for a conversation. Yeah, we can just send it to the mayor. Well, no, we can do both. We can we can make a recommendation that we form an advisory committee, send the full counsel also send a letter to the mayor advising them that what uh well actually depend the full council wants to do. Yeah, the full council recommendation to the council advisory committee to the full council to form an advisory committee between five and seven people. I will. Okay. Joe, I'll second that.

Okay. So, there's a motion to go to the city council. Our next meeting will be on April 14th. Um and the motion will be that we send a letter to the mayor to form an advisory council between five and seven um committee members and that'll go in front of the whole council for a vote. But I thank you all very much for coming and um thank you for you do it. Yeah. Seriously, thank you for everything. Thank you. Thank you for having us. And Sam, if you could just look at how everybody's can get on one page maybe with Tyler Taylor. I'll get it. It's all It's all there. We'll get it all there with nothing else. I'll propose a motion to adjurnn. Motion so made. And we can we get a motion to table first because they might come back.

I'm sorry. The motion made to table this item. Motion to table. There's a second. All in favor? I. Motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in favor? Adjourn. Thank you all very very much. second. I know

she's excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, hey, hey. pain. Hey, pain.