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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-12-04 Business and Economic Development Committee Minutes � � BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE � MEETING MINUTES DECEMBER 4, 2001 � Councilors Attending: ]ohn Rohman, Joe Baldacci, Gerry Palmer, David Nealley, � Frank Farrington StafF Attending: John Hamer, Bob Farrar, Mike Dyer, Rebecca Hupp, Frank � Comeau, Sally Bates Others Attending: Jeff Tuttle, Ken Buckley, Ken Horn � � 1. Winter Lease of Parking Spaces at Cascade Park to EMMC For a number of years up to several years ago, the City has leased parking � spaces at Cascade Park to Eastern Maine Medical Center for the period from December through April. A number of spaces in the lot are not included in the lease to insure that adequate public parking remains avai{able. The lease rate is � based on the standard rates charged for City surface parking, $33 per month. Lease revenue has routinely been .subsequently appropriated to a reserve account established for the purpose of maintenance and improvements to the � Park. We have been requested to enter into a similar agreement for the coming winter, and stafF would recommend your approval. , Councilor Palmer stated to Frank Comeau that since the City would be taking in a large amount of money from the leased parking spaces that some of that be � reinvested to fix the Cascade Park sign by turning it 90 degrees and upgrading it. Councilor Farrington stated that in the reading material there was mention of a $40 downtown parking rate. Is Cascade Park not considered downtown? Why � does it cost $33 per month to park at Cascade Park and $40 per month for downtown parking. � � John Hamer stated that in terms of how the numbers came to be, he was not sure but Cascade Park is not considered downtown. � Committee Chair Rohman stated that Cascade Park would not even be used if it was not for the Medical Center. � Staff recommendation was made and seconded. � � � . � 2. Request for Designated Parking — Spring Street Lot Sally Bates stated that the City has had a request for some exclusive use of what � is often thought of as a parking area but which is, in fact, a city street that is not used as a street. The manager of an apartment building on the corner of � Somerset Street and Center Street does not have enough on-site parking and has requested that the apartment building have six spaces in the City's so called � � parking lot on Spring Street for tenant parking. If the City were to dedicate any parking at all to a private building owner then that would be a change of policy. The request was that the tenants in that apartment building have access to � those six spaces and, in return, signs would be installed and maintained in the designated area. The further complicating factor is that, because it is a street and not a parking area, the City has not maintained this as a parking area. The , street is on a very steep slope and, if the City started to represent that as a parking lot, then some changes need to be made in the manner of construction of the area. The question before the Committee is whether it is the Committee's i pleasure to stay with what has been the City's policy of not designating parking spaces. Committee Chair Rohman stated that Councilor Baldacci has 'ust arriv � � ed. Committee Chair Rohman asked Safly if the City has any designated parking � spaces on public�streets for residential folks in the downtown area. Sally replied "no". Sally stated that she does not think the City has any designated for anyone. If so, she is not aware of it. � Councilor Palmer asked how the applicant proposes to use the spaces? Will they be confined or designated? Sally replied that she was not sure how specific the � spaces would be marked. They stated that they would install signs and maintain � the designated area. � Committee Chair Rohman asked if Bruce Clark knew about the meeting? Sally replied that she did send him a letter telling him the date and time of the , meeting and what the outcome would be. Councilor Palmer made a motion to approve StafF recommendation to continue � our current policy of not designating space for private use because: 1) This will provide some downtown parking for people in Bangor, and 2) Most people tend � to work during the day so the parking spaces are empty. The spaces should be used and not be empty. The motion was seconded by Councilor Baldacci. _ � � 2 � � � 3. Airport Update � Rebecca Hupp was present to update the Council on activities at the Airport. � Rebecca stated that the Airport does have some good news although it is more � of an operational breakthrough than anything else. As everyone is aware, the Airport has had some issues with federal inspections and clearances on transit Sflights since the events of September 11"'. Rebecca said that previously she had stated that the issue had been partly resolved. She stated that the entire issue was resolved on a legislative level and on a policy level but, on an implemen- � tation level, the Airport was still having some problems with air flights from southern destinations,going back to Finland. It now seems that this issue has been resolved. This is not to say that there will never be any glitches in the i system again, but the advanced passenger information system that is supposed to be used is in place in the southern destinations and working well. The flip � side is that there are some new policies that some carriers are not aware of. Immediately following September 11�' and prior to the latest directive that allows the Airport to process flights the way the Airport is now with the advanced � passenger information system, the Airport is now required to provide advanced passenger information system on all flights. Immediately following the ilth, it was only the flights that were getting services other than fuel. Any aircraft that ' stops at BIA to get fuel and does not want to even pull up to the gate, does need to provide an advanced passenger information list to BIA and to customs. � On a positive note, the Department of Transportation's (DOT) funding bill has been passed by both House and Senate and is heading to President Bush for his � signature. That bill includes $20 million for the small community air service development program which the Airport has been talking about for a couple of years. The funding has always been authorized but never appropriated. � In response to September 11�', the Airport is going to have some additional staffing requirements. One of the requirements is that BIA must physically � inspect vehicles accessing the air field to insure that 1) the person that is driving the vehicle has an ID badge that does in fact match the person driving the vehicle and 2) that the vehicle is allowed and has airport access. The airport � physically has to staff the vehicle access route which is something that has never been done in the past. Over the past couple of months, the airport has tried to internally stafF a vehicle access route with the staff already at the airport. But � with all of the other demands and the fact that the airport has had to increase stafF at the passenger security gate, internally there just is not enough staff. Rebecca has discussed with Bob Farrar the possibility of adding 2 temporary � positions to staff the vehicle access gate at 36 hours per week which would basicaily be 3-12 hour days and the gate would not be stafFed on Sunday. � 3 � � ' Committee Chair Rohman stated that he would not be at all surprised that when ' it comes to budget time, someone will ask what the incremental cost is due to September 11"' and they will probably ask Ed as well. Rebecca stated that this is a s ecific issue on her list that she wanted to touch � p on. The airport is reviewing the budget at this point in time. They are reviewing increased costs, decreased revenues, and the final bottom line on that end and , will probably have some recommendations at one of the near future B&ED Committee meetings. One thing that will help the budget break even will be the � new contract for electricity. That will save the airport almost $70,000 this fiscal year. There are some savings that the airport had not planned and there are some expenses that were not planned. � Committee Chair Rohman stated that when it comes to the budget issues, the City does not want to cut back something on the budget that actually has an � income. Rebecca stated that the airport does need to be promoted. It does attract � passengers. Even though a specific dollar number cannot be attached to the marketing program, it is something that the airport needs to continuaily do. , 4. Proposed Curfew Policy at Bass Park Mike Dyer stated that included in the packets was a memo and a draft curfew � policy for the various facilities at Bass Park. Most public assembly buildings have a curfew policy, whether it is written or just something that is passed on to � potential customers. In the thirteen plus years that Mike has been at Bass Park, . he has not dealt with any requests for overnight events. The only thing that he could think of in that time was the transatlantic balloon race that took ofF at 2:00 � a.m., so it would not have made curFew. Obviously, in light of the request for the Rave and another request that was received in the last couple of months, Mike thought it was appropriate at this time to look at the idea of having a ' written policy on operating hours, not only to make it easier for stafF to deal with perspective clients but also for the clients themselves. �like does not see this as being a problem or costing-any business down the line. New Year's Eve parties � are usually over by 12:30 a.m. or 1:00 a.m. Bruce Springstein is not expected to play anytime soon. If he did come to Bass Park and play for 3 or 4 hours, Bass Park would go before the Committee and make arrangements for such an event � to go past curfew. What the policy will do is set the hours of oper.ation when an event would be open to the public from 6:00 a.m: to 1:00 a.m. the following . � morning. It would not impact on the ability of promoters, organizers, or organizations to utilize the overnight time period from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. for � � 4 � � � moving, tear down, move out, or any kind of setup for their actual event. The � issue was addressea that the possibility of an event starting later than scheduled time in the evening due to circumstances beyond the control of the promoters or organizers such as travel delays, failure of electronic systems, sound systems, � lighting,etc., that made it impossible to start a show on time. It proposed that an extension of a particular event beyond the 1:00 a.m. curfew be permitted for , not more than 1 hour. Committee Chair Rohman stated that he was surprised that there have not been � a lot of requests from High Schools for all night dances, proms, or chem-free graduations. � Mike stated that he believes that it has something to do with the standard rate being relatively expensive for that kind of an event�. The basic rent for the Civic Center at $1,000 plus other expenses probably drives students to the schools � and other places as opposed to doing them at the Civic Center. Councilor Nealley stated that he would like to applaud Mike and the staff for �I bringing this about so quickly. He felt it was one of issues of concern and, had the policy been in place, it may have made it easier to avoid what the City went � through with the regard to the recent request for a Rave. Councilor Palmer stated that the City did the right thing with regard to the Rave � in particular. Based on what he has read about drugs and the testimony, he is anti-rave any time of day or night. If is bad business for the City to be involved with that type of situation. ' Councilor Farrington asked what was the last time an event closed at 1:00 a.m.? How long does it take to clear the Auditorium out? � Mike stated that concerts depend on how much sound and lights were hung, how big the stage was, how long it takes to clear the floor, and chair tear down. � Concerts normally will move out in 2 or 3 hours. Patrons move out in 20 minutes to half-hour. � A recommendation was made and seconded to move to full Council. � 5. Ordinance —Amending Chapter 194, Noise, Section 194-10, Exceptions, Adding � New Subsections I. and J. � � This amendment comes forward after a number of discussions focused on the noise issues related to the flat track motorcycle event held at Bass Park over the last few years. After the noise monitoring done during this year's event, it is � � 5 , � � apparent that this event violates the City's current noise ordinance limitations. In addition, this discussion has raised the issue of events held at Bass Park which � may also violate our current ordinance, in particular the tractor pull held annually at the Bangor State Fair. As initially proposed, this amendment would have provided two exceptions to the Ordinance. The first would exempt events � hosted at Bass Park as a part of the Fair. The second would provide authority for the Chief of Police to issue a waiver for events on private property and to ' establish certain limitations on the hours of the event and the noise allowed from the event at the property line. The Committee recommended that the Ordinance amendment come forward � with only the exception for events hosted at Bass Park as a part of the Bangor State Fair. The Committee believed the second exception for private properry t was not necessary and was concerned over providing such authority to the Chief of Police. A recommendation was made and seconded to move to full Council. � 6. Contract Extension — Fiesta Shows Midway Contract. � Mike Dyer asked that the Committee note his memo enclosed in the packet for a , summary of this item. For a number of years, the carnivals have been allowed to operate games of chance such as the quarter fall and the casino games, and replied on that income stream to help pay bills. When the contract was � negotiated with Fiesta Shows in 1999, Fiesta Shows offered to pay the City a minimum of $60,000 per year for the right to rent the midway, based in part on their ability to runs the games of chance. In short, carnival operators are no � longer allowed to operate the games and are no longer allowed to share in the cash flow from them. The City, as fair operator, ran the games in 2000. Mike stated that it was not necessarily a pleasant experience and certainly was not an � economically valuable experience. The City did come to understand that, run correctly by people who knew how and who owned the games, there would be some revenue attached to them and certainly the Committee understood that � Fiesta Shows did suffer a loss in cash flow as a result of not being able to run the games of chance. � Fiesta Shows ran the 2001 Fair without access to that cash flow but maintained their contractual agreements to the Cit�r. Mike stated that after the Fair at the � August 7"' meeting, Mr. Dean appeared in front of the Committee and asked the Committee to consider a three-year extension to his current contract. Mike made the recommendation that the Committee should take that request very � seriously. Fiesta Shows runs a great show and Mr. Dean has done many things for the City and has in no rivay been a detriment to the Bangor State Fair. At the � � _ 6 - ' � � August 7�' meetir�g, the Commi�tee directed sta€f to neg4tiate a three-year � extension. Mr. Dean was asked to send the City a letter with his proposal, which is included in the packe�. The long and short of it is that Mr. Dean is praposing a simple three-year extension for the years 2Q04 through 2006 at the curren� � terms, He seeks no other campensation other than the opportunity to play Bangor for an additional three years. � Mike's recommendation is to grant Fiesta Shows the requested three year e�ens�on based an e�erience with their operations, fiheir commitment to � delivering a safe, attractive, customer friendly midway, and their ongoing efforts to improve their prodtact. � Commi�tee Chair Rohman asked if the years 2004 through 2006 wouEd go aut to bid to others? ■ Mike stated that he did not think so and that there were only a cauple of people ■ that might be interested. The business is constantly changing and it is getting a lot more difficult for peaple to put shows of that size on the road. � Committee Chair Rohman asked how Fiesta Shows would make up the lost money? � Mi n is �he ke t a' s s nd t n t have to wor ke stated that Ba gor y o his M me ea on a o o ry . � about losing Bangar for anather 3 years gives Mr. Dean an opporkunity to go out and 'rnvest in other rides and ather attractiQns. IEd Barrett stated two caveats shouid be in the contract. One is that should � � enforcemen�or the !aw change and revert to prior practice, the midway rental would be renegotiated. Secand, since we are now talking about something � running unti12Q06, tfiere should be language in the agreement that covers the City if we are in the process of constructing a new facility and tha� recognizes that construction may require changes and adjustments in the midway operation � and gives the City an out if we have to exercise it. Cauncilor Baldacci stated that he supports the e�ension of the contract and Mr. � Dean ar�d his sans have been great parCners witti the State Fair. Joe stated that the contract went out to RFP back in 1999 and there was only one other company at �hat time that did e�cpress an interest and there was absolutely no Mcompetition. Over time, that does probably change, but this gives Mr. Dean a longer time line to make investments to improve the show. Mr. Dean has been a very honest, straightforward kind of person and runs a good famiiy fair. � � 7 � � , Councilor Palmer stated he would like to move the motion and would also like to chime in that his feelings are similar to that of Councilor Baldacci's toward Fiesta � Shows and Mr. Dean. He does think that Ed's comments, particularly regarding the construction of the new auditorium, is excellent. � A recommendation was made and seconded to move to full Council. The Committee adjourned the meeting. � � � � � , . � , � . � . � ' . � � 8 �