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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-10-09 Commission on Cultural Development Minutes � Finance Committee � Meeting Minutes � October 9, 2002 @ 5:00 PM ' Councilors Attending: Gerry Palmer, Dan Tremble, Frank Farrington, Nichi Farnham, Dave Nealley � Staff Attending: Ed Barrett, Jonathan Daniels, Dave Pellegrino, Deb Cyr, Bob Dawes, Frank Comeau, Dave Little, Bob Farrar, Ron Gastia, Peter D'Errico, Jim Ring , Others Attending: Ken Buckley, Bangor Historical Society Members � The meeting convened at 5:03 p.m. � 1. Consent Agenda ' a. Purchase of Used Vehicles b. Rededicate Golf Course Funds to Construct a Storage Garage c. Quitclaim Deed — 99 Yankee Way - McCue � Items a and c were approved by the committee. The committee discussed the details of item b, and then approved item b. ' 2. Bids/Purchasing ' a. Rubber Flooring Installation — Parks & Rec — Expert Flooring - $6,044 b. Site Lights — Riverfront — Gilman Electric - $94,718 � c. Universal & Hazardous Waste Disposal — City-Wide — Clean Harbors and Fleet Environmental d. Administration of Flexible Benefits Plan — City-Wide — Machigonne Benefit , Administrators e. Brush Grinding — Public Works — P.R. Russell - $18,139 f. Anti-Freeze/Coolant — City-Wide — Bailey Distributors - $9,660 � g. Request for Sole Source Purchasing — Relocate Alarm Monitoring — Airport — Matrix System - $5,595 h. Request to Waive Bid Requirements — Specialized Truck Body and Equipment � — Motor Pool i. Cleaning Services Kenduskeag Interceptor Stream Crossing — Engineering — � Material to be Presented at Meeting The committee approved items a through i. ' ' 3. Locai Law Enforcement Block Grant Process � Gastia presented information on the current application under the Local Law � Enforcement Block Grant program. The grant is designed to reduce crime and improve public safety. The grant amount is $29,895 with a match of $3,322 � required by the City, coming from the police department forfeiture account. He noted that the department hopes to purchase lap top computers, equipment for the RAD program, digital cameras, crime scene entry equipment, and evidence , storage containers. The committee opened the public hearing. Seeing no public input, the public � hearing was closed. The committee approved the match of funds for the grant. � 4. Request for Funding — Bangor Museum and Center for History Representatives of the Bangor Museum and Center for History presented their � request for $90,000 of funding. The funding is to be used to retrofit the 6 State , Street space into a professional museum. Beth Bohnet, President of the Board, expressed the Museum's desire to be a part of downtown, and noted that admission to the museum is free until the end of the year. Linda Jaffe, Executive ' Director, expressed her appreciation that the Ciry recognizes that culture is important to the communiry. She discussed the importance of being caretakers of the history of Bangor, and having the proper space and facilities to do so. , Farrington reviewed their completed Non-Profit Funding Request Special Projects form, and asked if the Davis Family Foundation's donation of $7,500 was a limit ' for them and would anything more be coming from them, and what about the Maine Community Foundation. Jaffe said that the Davis Family Foundation likes to alternate years, and that she has 20 other foundations on the East Coast that , she will be seeking donations. She also noted that she would be seeking federal donations as well. � Farrington noted that this was a worthwhile cause, however the City is in a tough position for budget this year. , Nealley said that this committee should not decide which organization should receive funds. He would like to see this committee view this as a rebuilding and � set forth a motion to donate some amount. Palmer noted that comments about limited funding are important, and that we ' should look at this proposal one year at a time. Tremble asked on the 3-year plan, if they were tied together or independent. ' Jaffe said that they are not mutually exclusive, however they build on each other. Tremble wanted to know where their revenue comes from. Jaffe said it , comes from a variety of areas including fundraising, grant writing, store, and ' � endowments. Tremble said that this is an exciting direction that the museum is � going in, and a great resource to the community. He is inclined to support this but not sure at what level. � Farnham wanted to know what sort of precedent did we set with other organizations that we have donated to. Barrett described the various details for the donations to the Challenger Center, the National Folk Festival, the Discovery � Museum and Bangor Art Museum. He said we do still have funds available, however the impact from the state is still an unknown for the next few years. He recommended that we look at this on a yearly basis. � Farnham asked if the owner of the building does some upkeep/upgrade. She asked if there were smaller pieces that we could support. ' Bates said that this was written as a matching funds donation, the museum must � still raise the remaining funds. Nealley said that regardless of what the state does for funding, there would be ' some short funding. Barrett said that some capital projects might not go through if there is a budget shortfall. ' Palmer wanted to know the relationship of the museum to the property owner. Jaffe said that most of the retrofitting is portable, and that the investment is with the organization and not the property. , Farrington wanted to know the current and affected requests to the approximately $750,000 currently available. Barrett said that we had one on , Monday, and he is not aware of anything else pending. The Penobscot Theatre Company will be requesting some funds to renovate the Opera House, however � this will most likely be through block grant funds. Barrett noted that this is the undesignated fund balance, which is in effect"our � rainy day fund." We have to start setting up a reserve for employee absences, the cost of cleaning up the Penobscot River and some additional waterfront costs. The amount that is left in our budget after setting these amounts aside, � that is 7.5% above our operating budget, is roughly $750-$800,000. This will rise and fall depending on our tax rate and collection. ' Nealley said that if the Super Walmart had been completed, the City would have benefited from the revenue stream, however with no degree of certainty with these types of revenues and with the state's situation, the City could be in for its � worst budget year ever. Alex Porter, a citizen of Bangor, said it was important for the City to spend � money to preserve the history of Bangor, so as not to lose some important artifacts, and to continue to make Bangor a cultural community. ' � Deborah Thompson, Board of Directors, discussed her 25-year association with � downtown Bangor, and the reason people visit New York — the Metropolitan Art � Museum. The City should not consider this a charitable organization; they should consider this a people attraction. Marc Berlin, owner of Bookmarc's, said that downtown visitors generally have r two questions, why is the City still here? I have a coupie of hours to spare, what is there to do? He sends people to the Bangor Museum for them to learn the � history of Bangor to understand why the City is still here. He said it would be nice to have more places for people to visit and to give them a reason to come downtown. People do not come to Bangor for the mall, since most places have , malls more than twice the size of ours; they come for the culture and the history of the City. He encouraged the committee to support the museum's request. Joan Deighan, Alex's mother, said that the Bangor Historical Society has so much , "stuff"that needs to be organized and displayed for all to appreciate. � Kelly Cotiaux said that we are getting the right kind of people downtown. These are exciting times for Bangor. She gets a lot of customers in after 5 p.m. and , encourages the support of culture in the downtown area. Joyce Henckler discussed the pursuit of grants by the board. Sometimes grants , are contingent upon whether or not there is support of the community. Nealley motioned that the City contribute $25,000 in year one, and $15,000 in ' year two, $5,000 in year three to equal $45,000 total. Farrington said that as a councilor, he has to consider the needs of the people of , Bangor. He said the Museum would make it through ne� year, but was unsure what would happen in the second and third year. ' Barrett said that funds could be set aside, and we could opt out of the agreement if necessary. He said that we could tie contributions to some sort of � performance mechanism. Palmer said that he was comfortable with $25,000 in year one and $15,000 for � year two. He seconded the motion. Farnham said that she has been a supporter of the museums and arts in Bangor, , and if we can add a small piece to that, then that may be our role right now. She supports the motion. Palmer said that this was a challenge for the Bangor Museum to see what they � could combine or tighten up their budget. � Barrett said that we would set aside $25,000 this year from the undesignated fund balance, $15,000 for next year, and develop an agreement that lists budget � goals, what will be covered by the funds, performance measures, etc. � , Farrington wanted an understanding that we would look at this ne� year to see � if we could contribute more, but is comfortable with the motion as is. ' The committee recommended this to the full council. 5. Taxpayer Update � Dave Little presented staff's recommendation for a workout agreement with Sheldon Hartstone. This has been a long process to work out an agreement with � Mr. Hartstone and his attorney, and the total outstanding amount due to the City is approximately $242,000. This proposed agreement is the last and final. Should this agreement be breached, the City will begin the process of taking � possession of certain properties. The committee agreed to the staff's recommendation. � The meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m. ' ' , ' , 1 � ' , � , �