Meeting Minutes
FALMOUTH EDIC OPEN MEETING: Oct 11, 2016
Town Hall, Selectmen’s Meeting Room
Falmouth, MA
PRESENT
Michael Galasso (C), Christopher Langlais (T), Susan Moran, Jim Fox, Brooks Bartlett, Christopher Simmler
8:32am
CALL TO ORDER
Having established a quorum, the chairman called the meeting to order.
8:35am
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Christopher Land, General Counsel at WHOI, announced that he was interested in applying for the vacant position on the board. He gave a brief history of his work experience. The chairman told Chris that the procedure is to fill out an application with the town manager and he will then be scheduled for an interview with the Board of Selectmen.
Doris S. and Penny Dubee from the Falmouth League of Women Voters spoke to the board. Doris said they were there to observe. They said that their focus this year was to study the economy of Falmouth which includes three main areas: Housing, Economy, and Civic participation. In summary she said that they would like to see more full time year round jobs that would complement the part time tourist related ones.
8:40am
WORKING GROUP UPDATES
BOS 5-YR STRATIGIC PLAN EDIC Element – Moran reported on the updated plan, and there are opportunities to work with the town manager and boards. She said all the information can be found online.
HOUSING DEMAND STUDY UPDATE – The chairman reviewed that the board had authorized him to proceed with a contract with Judy Barrett’s company to update the housing demand study. He reported that it is proceeding slower than he would like and we still do not have a contract from her. He said we should have a contract to look at today. The chairman said he is also giving consideration to a UMASS Dartmouth Housing Study Group headed by Mike Goodman to give us a proposal as they do quite a bit of work on housing and economic studies. Moran said we should confirm with Judy that she is not able to do the update and our timing is such to look at another contractor. As a result we should get a clear message from her on the status of her completing the project.
8:45am
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
FALMOUTH STATION
Michael Galasso
The chairman thanked the members of the board that helped to interview the contractor. He said the low bidder out of three was A.P. Whitaker and sons from West Bridgewater. Their bid came in at $ 866,000 and in line with our budget. Our architect reported that he had done a background check and they recommend A.P. Whitaker. The chairman reviewed our architect has done a thorough job evaluating the building so there should not be any unforeseen additional costs and change orders. He said we included a new roof, replacing several joists in the ceiling, a new canopy, Cornish lines around the top part of the building as well as all of the windows that will match historically those in the building now. He said the demolition could start by November 1st once all the permits are issued.
Moran made a motion to issue the authorization to proceed and to authorize the chairman to execute the contract on the AIA form with the change order amendments. The motion was seconded by Langlais. The motion was passed with one abstention.
FALMOUTH STATION CITIZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEE UPDATE
Christopher Simmler
Simmler gave a power point presentation to update the board from the information that was given to him from previous board members. It included items the committee would like to do if the budget permitted. He updated the list to include Bike Path connection ideas to go along with some of the committee’s original ones. Noting that we had no additional monies, he then reviewed the Commonwealth Places Funding Program that the chairman spoke about at a previous meeting where it is a 50-50 match from Mass Development and Crowdfunding. Next he highlighted some of the projects that Mass Development allowed for the program that coincided with the committee list. They are:
- Public Plaza Creation
- Bike Paths and non-motorized infrastructure
- Public Wi-Fi.
Simmler then reported that he has contacted Patronicity, a consultant that works with MD and created an account. He said he would draft up an application with initial information. The title of the project is “Falmouth Bus Station Connectivity to the Bike Path”. The funding goal for the project would be 25K for a project - total of 50K. He then outlined all of the next steps to complete the application. The chairman thought that Simmler needed a motion to proceed to get everything setup and review it with the board before going active on line. Simmler agreed. The chairman thanked him for a great presentation.
LANDFILL SOLAR REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Jim Fox
Fox said nothing much has changed since last month. We are still looking for a mid-December plug in to the grid. He also reported several conversations with the town manager about power usage from the town and that he did not want to talk about now. Fox suggested that we do some marketing to other municipalities in the state that are customers of EverSource. This would still let the town jump in at any time. Moran suggested that we write a formal letter to the town from the board to explain the specifics of the deadlines for program benefits that could be lost. This letter should outline the ramifications of not proceeding now with the upcoming deadlines and requesting a quick response. The chairman asked Fox to draft the letter.
REAL ESTATE
Chris Langlais
No update.
FINANCE
Chris Langlais
Langlais presented the EDIC’s financial statement as of September 30, 2016. The total assets are $1.78 million to include real-estate holdings and cash. He presented a warrant for this month’s expenses of $21,850.56. Before a motion was made there was a discussion on an $800 invoice that was submitted for the past four years for the use of the chairman’s office on Palmer Ave. It was noted many of the meetings to promote and carryout the EDIC’s projects are held at this office as well as storage for all of the EDIC documents. Moran stated that she would like to delay this invoice until next month so we can develop a policy for reimbursing costs for rent and administrative support before we approve such an invoice. Once the policy is approved she has no problem making a motion to approve the expenditure. Simmler agreed that we need to make it a policy so there is no negative perception. Bartlett will put together an outline for next month’s meeting on the new policy. A motion was made and seconded to delay the invoice of $800 for office space until a policy is voted on at next month’s meeting to pay for EDIC office space and administrative costs. The motion was made, seconded and approved unanimously.
Langlais then adjusted the warrant for this month to be $21,050.56. A motion was made and seconded to accept the adjusted warrant. It passed unanimously.
TECH PARK
Chris Simmler
The chairman said we need a marketing plan to rejuvenate vacant buildings in the park. Simmler will get back to the board with a proposal for a marketing plan for the next meeting.
MUNICIPAL BROADBAND
Bartlett will update us next month on the cape wide survey that is currently going on.
EDIC WEBSITE UPDATE
Carol McLeod gave the board an update on the progress of phase 1. She gave a detailed overview and included info that was needed. Moran will approve info before McLeod enters it for now. It was noted that everyone liked the logo that McLeod had entered into the website.
Moran made a motion for the board to approve the expense of $4,250.00 for an aerial video of Falmouth and permission to enter into a contract with Brian Switzer for aerial photography (for the Website) that includes licensing.
After a brief discussion it was decided to move the executive session to next Tuesday October 18th in the Selectmen’s Meeting room.
Moran reported Barbara Weyand will no longer be involved in the website development. She stressed the need for a possible retreat to develop the EDIC strategic plan to include mission statement, how committees are formed and projects developed.
9:20am
EDIC ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS
2016 FALMOUTH ANNUAL REPORT – Langlais reported that he had updated the information given to him by previous board member Zavala and had emailed it to the chairman.
STAFFING NEEDS - The Recording Secretary reported the he was not interested in the administrative position which was being created. He will be available to the board through the end of the year. He said it wouldn’t be fair to the board to get involved with some of the website developments but would be available for any of the boards needs through December. After a brief discussion it was decided to start advertising for the position of administrative assistant for a maximum of 20 hours a week at $25.00/hr. Moran said she would formalize a written job description and get it to the chairman next week so we could start advertising the position.
- OCTOBER MEETING MINUTES – A motion was made to approve the meeting minutes from the September meeting with one minor change. It was seconded and approved unanimously.
9:35am
CORRESPONDENCE - "In the News"
Michael Galasso
The chairman reviewed the article that was in the CC Standard Times recently titled Cape Cod Aging Report. It basically says the population is going down, people are getting older, and we’re going to have a lot of issues associated with it. It continues with birth rates are down and death rates are up so the population of CC is going down and this leads to all of the ramifications related to economic development.
The chairman also noted the continuing struggle the town was having locating and building a new senior center. He reviewed that he has offered to the chairman of the BOS the EDIC’s help with the senior center issue as we have the ability to go out in the free market and find a site, buy it, build it, and rent it back to the town. He will remind Moran (who had to leave the meeting), to keep us in mind at the next Selectmen’s meeting. Fox said the town was looking to put it on town land and that was the struggle with the town.
9:40am
NEW BUSINESS
Simmler reported he had attended a Massachusetts EDIC meeting in Gardner last month. He said most of the focus was on urban renewal. He met Kathleen McCabe who was a presenter at the meeting. She helps write business plans for local EDICs. Moran suggested that we might want to invite her to our strategic planning session in January. Moran also suggested that we might want to invite Jay Cohen who works with lower cape EDICs with a 3 million dollar budget. The chairman said he would invite him to our next meeting. He will also work on a few dates and a venue for the strategic planning session.
PITCH CONTEST
Bartlett reported that he would have an update at next month's meeting.
FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
Simmler said he had planned to attend the Massachusetts Economic Development Council on October 28th, in Gardner MA. He said he will report to the committee on the meeting next month.
ANNOUCEMENTS
The chairman reiterated that we have a board vacancy.
10:55am
EXECUTIVE SESSION
The chairman stated that the Executive Session has been postponed until Next Tuesday October 18th at 8:30am in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room.
10:59am
ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting. It was passed unanimously.
NEXT MEETING
November 8, 2016 8:30am
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