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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-10-07 Business and Economic Development Committee Minutes � BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE TUESDAY, October 7, 2003 Meeting Minutes Councilors Attending: John Rohman, Frank Farrington, Gerry Palmer StafF Attending: Jonathan Daniels, Ed Barrett, Sally Bates, Norm Heitmann, Rod McKay, T.J. Martzial Others Attending: D'Errico, Gratwick, Berkel, Tores The meeting convened at 5:00 p.m. 1. ConsentAgenda a. Residential rehabilitation loan: Sharon M. Ladd, 56 Elm Street. b. Residential rehabilitation loan: John T. Karnes III, 303 Essex Street. � c. Residential rehabilitation loan: ]ohn T. Karnes III, 342 Essex Street. d. Lease agreement with Beal College for use of City owned property located � on Farm Road. e. Authorization to accept and contract for ground handling services for United Parcel Service of America, Inc. (UPS). Rohman indicated that there had been a request to remove item C from the consent agenda. Palmer moved items a, b, d and e of the consent agenda, and the motion was seconded and passed. Rohman noted that in item c, the address should be 342 Union Street. TJ Martzial said that this was a change that staff wanted to make on item number 3 of the Consent Agenda. He also noted that the loan amount for item 3 listed in the attached memo should be for $20,450, not $8,450. He said that the underwriting still meets the loan criteria. Palmer moved to approve this item as amended by staff. The Committee voted to approve this item as amended. 2. Discussion on lease of City owned property to Hammond Lumber. Heitmann noted that John Hamer has been working on this lease, which is actually a series of one-year leases which can be cancelled by either party with sixty days notice. The property is to be used for access to 1087 Hammond �.. Street only. Matt Massey, operations manager for Hammond Lumber, _ ,-- - _ _ - — - commented that the negotiations with John Hamer were cordial and everything � went great, and that he was hoping for some action this evening. Rohman noted that as Councilor Palmer had previously stated at a meeting, that the City is glad to have Hammond Lumber in the City. The Committee voted to bring this item to the full Council. 3. Easement and Consent Agreement Between the City of Bangor and Bangor Parkade, Inc. — Grant Trailer Sales, Stillwater Property. (Materials to be distributed at meeting.) John Rohman noted that he had a conflict of interest with the Parkade project, . as his firm is working with First HartFord on the design end. Heitmann asked if the remaining Councilors could consider the issue and vote. Heitmann said that the easement and consent relate to a storm water easement and the consent is for the storm water to go across land that the City has authority and easements to. Bangor Parkade, Inc. would need our consent to come through our area/land. This is part of the potential development at Grant Trailer Sales. The Committee voted to refer this item to full Council. 4. Discussion on the Bangor Community Partnership Child Care Center. � Sally Bates said that we have been meeting with a number of inembers from the childcare community for over a year now. Penquis CAP, Bangor YWCA, Bangor YMCA, University of Maine at Augusta, Bangor Campus, and City of Bangor's Community and Economic Development Office met to explore the level of interest in cooperating in providing an additional child care facility in the vicinity of the Maine Business Enterprise Park. Part of the motivation would be to help the park develop high quality tenants. Bates said that part of the challenge was to bring individual providers together to collectively address this issue, which has been successful. Bates said that all involved parties are meeting at their ' respective places of business to discuss funding options. Farrington asked if there are any private organizations that provide child care in this area. Bates said that this project does have the potential to compete with anyone that is providing child care anywhere in the region. Bates said that an accredited facility will certainly be a strong competitor in this market. Farrington wanted to know what some of the funding sources might be. Bates said that Penquis CAP is a childcare provider and a clearinghouse of information on child care. Bates said that by pooling the resources and services of the . � • �:. : . . ;a:;:', ',-r.;. , �:�;; � community there is an opportunity to synergize and provide high quality services. Palmer said that this location has the opportunity to be a safe location. Bates noted that UCB is very interested in having this facility available for their students. UCB students would receive priority status for filling child care slots as well as MBEP tenants. Rohman wanted to know what the next step would be. Bates said that they have started contacting EMDC, congressional delegation and the State legislature to begin getting their support and interest and identify grant opportunities. Bates noted that they wanted the blessing of Bangor City Council before pursuing the project further. The Committee voted to give their blessing for the project to move forward. 5. Discussion on development of an arts and culture policy for the City of Bangor. Rohman said that this is a second meeting on the discussion for an art program, a comprehensive plan for the entire aspect of arts and culture in our community. Daniels said that Bates will be providing the majority of the comments and noted � that Rohman was right in that this is the melding of a few difFerent directions on policies. Daniels said that Bates went beyond the Presents for Arts aspect in developing the draft of a municipal cultural plan. Bates said that there are a lot of wonderful things that have been going on in varying degrees of collaboration and planning. In putting together an outline rather than an actual plan, it was a better use of stafF and Council time to identify the elements that staff would like to see in a plan. Bates said that we need to take a look at the public arts piece and the arts and cultural funding piece. Bates said that certain items in the outline are conceptual and an emotional commitment in how the Bangor City Council feels about arts and culture. Bates said that in putting together the draft, she looked at a lot of cities, not only Portland, Maine, but Portland, Oregon, San Jose, Boston, New York and a number of west coast places. Bates said that on the west coast the orientation is broader in terms of community arts policies to encompass funding issues for arts and culture. She said that in the local area, we certainly have issues in both of these areas. Bates said that she suggested in the draft that the City of Bangor have a Public • Art Advisory Commission to assess cultural needs, provide some administrative and framing assistance in the community to the City Council. The Commission � would be comprised of volunteers who are credentialed. The Commission would be comprised of two sub committees, Art in Public Places Committee and Programs and Grants Committee that would take a lot of the burden off from the City Council to encourage and require that groups requiring funding could do so in a cycle. Bates said that this goes beyond what Portland talked about when they were here a few weeks ago. She said that some cities deal with it as a city and others do so regionally. Bates said that right now there is not an indication that the region is supporting arts and culture the way that the city of Bangor is supporting arts and culture. Bates said that although we have the Bangor- Region Arts Council that was formed as a regional chamber committee, the other communities are not in there. Rohman said that this is an overall structure for arts and culture, but it is also part of an economic development plan. This will attract a certain type of business and clientele to the area. Rohman applauded Bates for her ambition and draft outline. This will require some public hearings with folks like Mark Torres on board. He said that he was hoping to at least get a resolve to pursue this. Palmer said that when we think of the three major sculptures that we have in the city, the most recent one being 80 years ago, I think that having a plan is � great and makes the future much richer for future generations. Farrington said that he agrees with both Rohman and Palmer's approaches. He said that we are faced with real trouble with unfunded mandates, and rising taxes that are forcing businesses out. Bates said that some of her concerns regarding funding are the same as Farrington's. She said that the foundation needs to work on grant requests that demonstrate collaboration. ' Rohman discussed the input that various arts and cultural organizations have with MDOT on the design of the new Verona bridge. He discussed the various discussions and themes regarding the design of the waterfront and how great it would be to have an extra group of people be involved. Palmer discussed how a committee may have helped to better design the Bangor Veterans Bridge. The Committee voted to move this item to full Council to consider a resolve. � .