Yes, I can.

Okay, thank you.

Two million bucks.

Chinese currency was speaking to me.

Thank you.

We're on record.

Okay, I'm going to call the special meeting of the Board of Alderman to order on Tuesday, April 9th, 2026 at 7.01 p.m.

in the Aldermanic Chamber, which has been duly noticed in two places, including the city's website and requirements.

In accordance with the requirements of RSA 91A.

The prayer will be offered by Alderman Clee and Mike O'Brien will lead us in the pledge to the flag.

Almighty God, we have the high honor and the serious duty of managing the affairs of our beloved city.

Fellows, O God, with a spirit of unity and understanding, which enables us to face our multiple problems with the Serena with justice and charity for all, so that any and all decisions made by us will always be for the betterment and greater happiness of all our federal fellow citizens.

So help be help us God.

Amen.

I pledge obligations to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God.

Let's start the meeting by taking a roll call attendance, please.

Alderman Clemens.

Yes, I am uh participating remotely this evening.

There is no one in the room with me, and the purpose of me attending remotely is I am taking care of my wife who is ill.

And I can hear everybody.

Thank you.

Alderman Klee is here.

Alderman Chess.

Alderwoman Smith.

Alderman Thibault?

Here.

Alderman O'Brien?

Present.

Alderman Greg?

Here.

Alderman Dowd.

Present.

Alderman Sullivan?

Here.

Alderman Senate?

Here.

Alderman Johnson?

President.

Alderwoman Kelly?

Here.

Alderman Morgan?

Here.

Alderman Lopez.

And Alderman Wilshire.

Here.

You have twelve presents.

Thank you.

Also joining us this evening is Mayor Doncius.

Tonight we have a discussion on the resource center.

I am going to recognize Mayor Doncius.

Yes, thank you, Madam President.

So I'm going to give you a brief overview of the progress we've made so far, and then Director Bagley is going to talk about more of the details.

So I called Director Bagley and asked if she'd seen this building or was aware of it, and she said yes, she's been in it.

What do you think as far as it being a resource center?

And she said that she thought it would do really well.

So based upon that, we and it would meet meet the needs that uh you know she's been planning for.

So based upon that discussion, we uh went forward.

Uh Celia Leonard handled the transaction and contacted the broker.

And eventually uh within a uh I think by Saturday had negotiated a PNS for a purchase price of uh of 730,000.

Um course to approval of funding by the Board of Alderman.

Um with that in mind, uh we wanted to, and but there's a closing date of April 30, uh, which is not very far from now.

So we thought it was so we knew that given that we would need a public hearing and the like for this funding, uh, that we needed to have a meeting this week to introduce this resolution and I assume send it to a committee.

I'm not sure what you know what what you'll be what we'll be doing with it, but um uh hold a public hearing and then proceed to um decide whether the uh purchase is uh the right thing to do.

So uh I based upon that overview, I will call on Director Bagley to uh give you her perspective and anything else she would like to um tell you about this.

Good evening.

Good evening, Bobby Bagley.

Sorry, director um of Division of Public Health and Community Services, and I'm here with Latanya Musioli, our housing officer as well.

Um and so, yes, the property at 14 Mulbury Street did become available.

We have had the opportunity to go in and take a look at this property, and based on what we would like to be able to do with the resource center and transitional housing, this property does meet that need.

It's about 3,000 uh square feet from um the first, second, and the third floors.

Uh we would be able to run the resource center in this space in the according to what the needs are that we've been able to address in the community, allowing for there to be office space for some of our community partners as a resource center.

Our goal was to make sure that there were washers and dryers available for folks to be able to take care of their laundry needs as well as be able to come and meet with our staff there and be able to meet with some of our providers in the community right on site.

Um there's also the opportunity for there to be some transitional housing there as well.

We also have the opportunities to sit with an architect who's gonna look at those uh designs to see how all of those things will work for us operation wise.

Jim anything then?

I just want to add in too that there is capacity for folks to sign up to take showers as well.

Okay.

Does anyone have questions?

All the Alderman Grey's You're next, Alderman Clemens.

Alderman Greg.

Okay.

Thank you, Madam President.

So with the um transitional housing uh possibility there, would you um have a somebody staff there 24 hours or how would that how would that work in the building?

So some of those details we still have to work out.

Um a lot of the other programs that actually do this, that is what they have available because you have to have that type of oversight.

And so those are some of the other details that we're gonna be working out on.

Okay, thanks.

Alderman Clemens.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I appreciate the time this evening.

I do have a a couple of questions.

Um if you could indulge me.

My first question is I my understanding is that the and and please correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that the building is currently uh occupied by renters.

Is that is that true?

Yes.

And so my question is what is the plan to help those people find housing if we are to take this uh building for our own purposes?

So our plan is to connect these folks with our community health workers.

In fact, while we were doing the tour, we got a chance to talk with some of the uh tenants right now and have already made that connection.

Okay.

Um my second question is will when this when this building is it is it anticipated that this building will be handicapped accessible once it is ready to be open for the public for these purposes.

Yes.

I'm looking, I'm looking around for our partners back here.

Yes.

Okay.

And then my my third, my last question is will this building serve at all as uh our warming center?

Yes, so the plan originally what the resource center was to make sure that we could move things around in there to be able to um provide warming station capacity for a certain number of individuals.

Okay, so is that a yes?

That's a yes.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Alderman O'Brien.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Maybe my question may be more to Director Cummings or to the Mayor, but where this is going to become, and I hope it does, because I support this project, a municipal building.

Are we in the next uh resolution 2620?

Do we have enough money with that allotment?

Because I would imagine she would have to be sprinkled.

And if it's currently just a residential structure, she probably is not sprinkled.

So is that enough for the uh renovations that we're looking at?

If I may.

Yes.

Uh Tim Cummings, Director of Administrative Services.

Uh very astute question, uh, Alderman O'Brien.

Uh no, to answer your question.

There will need to be a follow-on piece of of legislation once we actually do the design to understand what the construction costs would be.

Uh, and that would be the plan.

Okay.

Yeah, I thank you, um, Madam President.

It it's just that uh I don't want anybody out there to think that 900th is a finite number, you know what I mean.

It we need one.

It just could go up a little bit for better reservations for safety reasons.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Alderman Johnson.

Thank you.

I have several questions here.

Um I guess um, if you don't mind, either to the mayor or Mr.

Cummings.

Sure.

Um I'm just kind of confused um with this purchase and sale.

Why did you waive your inspection, your home inspection?

I know you're going to do reservation renovations, but why would you waive a home inspection?

I think it was just because we wanted to make sure we secured the purpose for the purchase.

We just wanted to be a buyer that um made a an offer they couldn't refuse kind of thing.

And additionally, we thought that we would need to make reserv renovations anyway, so we're not, you know, substantial renovations.

So we're not a homeowner who's all worried about whether you know a window doesn't work here or there or something like that.

Um we're going to need uh significant renovations, which in you know would and we're gonna have an architect design, so that would take care of any, you know, minor problems with the building uh were they discovered.

May I continue?

You may.

Um being that I'm a real estate agent, and I know there's probably some other ones in here.

I would never even you have 10 days for an inspection.

And I know you're going to do renovations, but why wouldn't you want to make sure, and not unless you're going to bring in our own people to do that inspection within that 10 days, you'd want to check the furnace, you'd want to check the hot water heater.

There's other things other than like a window, which I read that new windows, the roof.

But I guess my problem is that it's all the taxpayers' money.

And a $900,000 is just a tip of the iceberg.

But I would rather have known what other issues there could be on that inspection before you even went in to renovate, because if there's a problem with the furnace, now you're gonna say, well, we've got to put a new furnace in, which you could have negotiated something on a furnace, couldn't negotiate something on a hot water heater.

I mean, so I'm really concerned with that that we waived an inspection.

That's number one.

I went through and I did have someone pull the comps for me, too.

Um it's within the price of the surrounding buildings.

But if the house went on the market on 319, there was like a nine-day gap here.

So nobody realizes property was on the market until the 28th when you went into negotiations.

Somebody answer that for me?

Because I'm kind of confused with that too.

Because it would have been a for sale sign out on that building.

So I think the answer to that is that Director Bagley was aware it was for sale, but we had another plan in the works, which would have taken longer than this.

And so I'm assuming I'll speak for her, but she can correct me.

I'm assuming that she was okay, that's a good plan.

Uh let's just proceed with that.

And it didn't really well that no one suggested to me anyway that this could be an alternative, although that did happen uh on uh Friday, the week ago Friday, and in order to make sure we could get it under agreement, uh we negotiated as we did, and which we've already discussed.

Um so um I looked at some of the information.

The house was built in 1868, and it said that it was renovated in 1959.

So I don't know what else is the renovation here.

And I guess being on this board, you know, Ms.

Bagley and you, and I believe Mr.

Cummings and everybody, you know, in the city staff have walked through this building, right?

But you're asking the board, and I have a problem with this.

You're asking me to vote on something that I didn't even get a chance to look at to walk through to make sure that this is the money that's not my money, it's the taxpayers' money to buy this property.

And I guess when you're buying something like this, it would be nice if you set it up that the board could do a walkthrough and we could see what the building looks like, because we're voting on something site on scene, other than some pictures.

Um, and I tell you something, I would never allow my clients to do that with a real estate license because the site on scene you don't know what you're walking into.

Not that I'm not bad mouthing anything, but it could be a money pit.

I mean, and so it's it's really not fair to that.

And I've had people ask me questions.

I know that we're gonna, it's a nine thousand dollar um property tax that's coming off the tax rolls now.

Um I do have a problem with if you're gonna put it into transitional housing on some of that, because I want to see the plan.

And before I even got elected, I talked about where's your business plan on this?

We're gonna be doing stuff piecemeal.

You're asking for $730,000 to purchase it, and then you're making it up to $900,000 for the additional for, and then we're gonna have architects come in, and by the time we're done, and you said Mayor one time, we're bonding before we even know the price of anything.

And so now you're asking for a $900,000 bond, which maybe we should pay for this, but we don't know what the total cost is going to be as we go along with this project.

And so I have a real hard time voting on something that there was no inspection.

We don't even get to do a walk through to see what the property looks like on the inside.

So you're voting on something sight unseen, and now what's gonna happen is that we start off with a $900,000 bond, and before we're done, it can be a $2 million hundred, two hundred two million dollar bond additional.

So I I'm I'm walking, I'm taking this on the air of caution here.

Thank you.

We probably can arrange a um we can probably arrange a walkthrough.

I mean, it's only under agreement, it's subject to aldermanic approval.

So were the board to vote against this, then there's no deal.

I mean but to the earlier points, um, I think the board had made its sentiment very clear that you plural wanted us to pursue a resource center project as quickly as possible, based upon that direction.

Uh that's what we did.

And here it is.

So it's up to the board whether they wish to proceed.

Director Cummings, did you want to add something?

Yes, thank thank you, Madam President.

And the mayor uh uh touched upon this.

I mean, I just want to point out we're not voting on anything tonight, and I'd be happy to organize a tour uh for those who would like to tour the building.

That's absolutely something we can do over the next couple of weeks, and happy to happy to do that.

I would note that we'd probably have to publicly notice it.

Um so we would work through those details.

So it'd have to be a little, you know, that we have to be a little organized in how we do it, but it's absolutely something that we could could do.

I also want to just quickly comment that um some that this is not a residential play.

This is not like you're just buying a single family home.

Yes, this is a multifamily use right now.

We are gonna be converting it to a commercial use.

That is a whole different type of project, and we are being very deliberative in how we do it to ensure that we are being diligent with the taxpayers' money, and I can tell you we've already had the fire marshal's office walk through.

We've had the building inspector walk through.

We have had the various uh jurisdictions with authority looking at the building.

Um the anecdotal feedback that we've gotten is it's a good building.

It it it it's it's fundamentally strong in its bones, but there is gonna need to be work to be able to use it the way we are conceiving for it to be used, and that is a natural part of the process.

And what what we're asking for tonight is to be able to start that process.

Thank you, Madam President.

Welcome.

Hold on Morgan.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Couple, I don't know who would be able to talk a little bit about this, Mr.

Mayor or Director Bagley or even Director Cummings.

Can you speak a little bit to the congressional spending that we were that was discussed towards this project and how it would be used?

Yes, so we did write um in 2024 for the community project funding, and we did originally write for three million, and that was supposed to be for this three uh story capital buildup.

Um what we did receive was 1.2 million, and so with that um congressional funding, that some of that funding can go towards this project.

We have to be able to meet the um the project directives in here, which was for the National Resource Center and Transitional Housing.

And so with the purchase of this property, that's what we're planning to do.

Thank you.

So to clarify, um, by purchasing this building, we are then activating um the availability of 1.2 million dollars.

Yes.

I I think the key word is availability, that we're working towards it.

There's still some bureaucratic um work that we need to do to be able to access it, but that's certainly the direction we're going.

Thank you.

And then one last question.

Um, could you speak to the number of of beds that this um that are being proposed that this facility would provide?

I won't be able to speak to that until we hear back from the architect and look and um he has the opportunity to look at the complete layout from this.

Okay, thank you.

That's absolutely correct.

But there are plans for beds, overnight beds.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Alderman Klee.

Uh thank you.

Um Madam President, um, I I love the idea of being able to do a walkthrough, but I have concerns um about the and I and I'm glad that uh Director Cummings had mentioned about that.

We would have to publicly notice it, which means that the public can come into there, which if there are people that are living there and so on, I have concerns that we're opening these people's homes to this.

So um I really would like that to be completely vetted and thought out before we move forward with this.

Well, yes, I do appreciate I would love to be able to do that myself.

I have some major concerns.

Uh we went through that with um the property that was in Ward 3 when a number of people wanted to go and look at it and so on, and suddenly they went, wait a minute, there's too many people here from the public, we're not letting them in.

And we can't say how many people from the public can come.

We could end up having a hundred people show up.

Um, so I have some real concerns about us doing a walkthrough.

The minute that half of us hit it, we have quorum.

So, and considering that this is going to go to PEDC and budget, we also um any any half of the PDDC or half of the budget that show up, we've met quorum too.

So I think it truly needs to be vetted through legal before we even say that we'll um we will do something like that.

And I just want the public to hear that.

So thank you, Madam President.

Welcome.

Alderman Semit.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

I also have a number of questions.

Um I'll start by going back to um Alderman Clemens had uh sort of started on this point, but it was one of my primary concerns when I first heard of this.

Uh the fact that we have three units in this that are uh currently occupied by uh month-to-month renters.

I understand we're gonna be connecting these folks um with community health workers.

I also understand we have a massive vacancy issue uh here in the city and in the state, and that this is a challenge that we're already facing with our unhoused community.

What is the timeline going to look like on getting these folks that currently have secure housing into uh secure housing following the potential purchase of this property if I may, Madam President, Tim Cummings, Director of Administrative Services, I don't have a crystal ball.

I can't begin to to answer how long it would take, but I can tell you we will work cooperatively with them and help them be able to find housing.

We do we're not in the business of putting people out on the street, uh, but I think we need to also be very cognizant of the fact that we wouldn't be able to start construction until we had the people moved into into new housing.

We want to get under construction as quickly as possible, but we would absolutely work with them while we're designing the project to hopefully find them uh a permanent solution and work with them so they move there and then be in a place where we can start construction, and we'll do that as fast as we can.

Um the trade-off to that would be is is just understanding that we wouldn't necessarily be able to get under construction until they vacated.

Yeah, under understood.

And the reason I ask, and I understand that we're not in the um business of putting folks out on the streets, but given the broader conversation of why we're here and why we're looking at this property to begin with, it it does strike me as a bit ironic that um people's lives are going to be upended for lack of better term, because we we would like to take this property and to utilize it for these means.

If I may, Director Cummings.

And I would respectfully submit to this body that that isn't necessarily us.

When the property owner chose to put the property up for sale, that decision was made.

And that was nothing that we did.

And in fact, we're probably going to be one of the most cooperative and sympathetic partners with them to ensure that they have some sort of stability.

But it was the current owner when they decide to sell the asset that they own that that kind of created this situation.

That I understand that one of the most frequent responses when people uh are stuck in the glut of looking for housing is that they had a landlord who sold the property.

Um nevertheless, um my next question, if I could, um compared to the uh prior plan that we'd been looking at with uh relocating the portable classrooms to uh the parking lot.

Um what is more advantageous timeline wise?

Um is this going to take longer than the outlook that would existed with that plan, or is this going to be a quicker turnaround to get something stood up?

Because ultimately that should be our target end goal.

So I'll I'll answer the oh may I archibacy so I'll answer the first part of that question and then I'll um let Director Cummings answer the second part.

The advantage the advantage of this particular property allows for us to do what we wrote in this proposal for this 1.2 million, which was to have the transitional housing.

The classrooms were going to serve as a plan A until we got to plan B, which was this broader, longer uh plan of getting to the point of having the resource center with the transitional housing.

The classrooms were only going to offer us the opportunity to have the resource center.

That was it.

It wasn't gonna have the other pieces of it, and we still were going to need to work towards finding a property, finding the land to do this other build out so that we could have so that we could take advantage of this congressional funding.

Okay.

If I may, Madam.

Director Cummings.

Uh thank you, Director Tim Cummings, Director of Administrative Services.

So what I'm gonna say is anecdotal, and just what my gut kind of tells me because the true answer is is we don't know right now.

I think we need to be very clear about that.

But I do think it's probably fair to say that the the conversion of the classrooms um into uh the resource center type use, it just initially innately seems to be it's a type of construction that we could do faster, but I don't think it's in an order of magnitudes of that much faster.

And so that's why I'm hesitant to answer the question, because um yes, I think it could be conceived in a way that that could go quickly, but I don't think it's dramatically faster than this permanent solution that we're talking about over on Mulberry Street.

Thank you.

May I continue?

Yes.

Uh thank you.

Um everybody stole my thunder.

Um I'm going to jump back to my colleague from Ward 5's um line of questioning for a um moment.

I I had similar concerns regarding the um the lack of inspections, and I understand how that plays into the current real estate market.

I understand that that's almost becoming the norm.

However, with this and just from lived experience, I do have hesitation on that.

Because, you know, as noted, we're not going into this in a residential situation where we're concerned about you know windows, um, stairwells and things like that.

But I do have concerns with some of the deeper um items that'll come up that I know I've experienced plumbing.

Um, who did that roof that was done recently?

Um, was it done full depth or was it just a shingle replacement?

You know, is wood rotted in there?

Is the electrical up to code?

Um there's a lot that's in here, and as it's been noted that the bond that's being asked for in 020 uh covering the purchase price and then some of the the design service and the architectural service.

My gut almost tells me that with $900,000 bond and 740,000 going towards the purchase of the property, it leaves 160,000 left over with the understanding that follow-on legislation is going to be coming.

Couldn't that 160,000 be put towards a um a property inspection so that before we get to the design process, we're aware of some of these uh to quote my colleague from War II unknown unknowns?

Director Cummings?

Yes, and that's exactly what we will do is we will do some level of due diligence investigative type work to understand and help inform the design to help move it, move the project forward.

I'll give you a very specific example.

And this is something that is even beyond what you do for a residential purchase, but it's something we're gonna have to do for a commercial uh project like we're doing, and that's we're gonna have to scope the sewer connection from the main road to the property to ensure we understand what that sewer connection is.

We will use some of the monies that are set aside now in this in this $900,000 asked to execute on that level of due diligence because we know we're gonna need to have a design that can accommodate and ultimately construct something that we're talking about.

So we will do that level of due diligence, we will execute on that level of investigation to be able to move this project forward.

But after close.

Yeah, yes.

Okay, yes.

And and then one final if I could.

I had some questions about the stringent timeline, because um during the mayor's introduction, he had indicated that upon discovery of the property being for sale, a um an offer needed to be submitted by one o'clock that day, and then we're under a really tight gun of closing by April 30th.

Um, I guess the big question on all those points is why.

And Madam Price and I'd be happy to answer.

Director Cummings.

Because we are in a multi-bid scenario where we had uh, you know, essentially a search a short window to respond.

There was multiple offers, and we were working as hard as we could to be able to position ourselves to have the best uh offer that was uh diligent uh and and also acceptable to to to the seller.

Follow up, yes.

With all that in mind, do you think the seller is going to walk away if we ask for a property inspection?

If I may if I may memorize it coming, I I don't know.

I I can't I can't begin to ask uh answer that question.

Um I can tell you this the seller will absolutely walk away if they get any sense that there's a delay here because of this process because time is of essence to them.

So I don't know if it's necessarily about a property inspection occurring or not, but I do know that they are very focused on closing on this property by the end of April, and we are working really hard to conform to that uh you know uh directive that we were given.

I'll just if I could just conclude my time with all that in mind, you know.

It is the the understanding that time is of the essence and this has to get done, and you know it it's a line we've heard a lot before in a lot of different formations, and I would just suggest to whomever may be listening and you know, forming their real estate um angle uh based on what's happening in here.

If these questions seem tough, if they seem challenging, if they seem hesitant, that's what we're supposed to be doing in here is asking these tough questions.

So if that's the if that's the levy breaking, I I don't know if we're on the right track.

Thank you.

Yeah, just a few things um to answer some of the questions.

Um properties are moving fast today.

Um I still in contact with the people that are real booster and properties are not on the market very long at all, and so the sellers are wanting to sell them and close.

Um the alternative solution was to move the trailers to the Quincy parking lot.

That was going to require finding a company that would move the trailers, arrange that date, get the trailers moved.

The foundations for those trailers are stored at the landfill and would have to be moved via trailer to set up.

Uh I'm sure that they would have to do some ground work to set the trailers on.

You can't just put them on the asphalt because they won't pass.

And you're gonna have to run all kinds all the services in from the street on Kinsley Street, whether it was water, sewerage, gas, if we don't use propane, and uh we end up with a end unit that won't meet anywhere near the same requirements as this piece of property will, as far as space and future use.

So, and that was going to be like over two million dollars.

Right now we're talking 900,000.

Uh so we've got some room.

The other thing, as far as the inspections are concerned, I'd like to believe that we have as good or better inspectors belonging to the city than you can hire on the outside.

I've dealt with a lot of inspectors, some of them good, some of them bad.

Um, but they don't usually find major things in property.

I've sold a number of multifamily homes myself, and unless there's a like a septic system or something like that, um, or or it's obvious that there's a roof issue, but I you know, we don't have a septic system here, and and we're gonna adjust the connection to the city sewerage.

And by the way, we you know, with BPW, we have a lot of capability in fixing anything that goes wrong there.

And and you know, with a fire marshal and the city inspectors uh they can go in and look at any potential problems.

Um tonight we're not voting on anything, we're not approving anything.

We get it it's going to go to uh uh budget and PEDC.

There'll be you got time between now and that meeting to answer some of the questions you may have.

Um the other thing, as far as uh visiting the site and having a quorum and all that.

When we were in school projects, uh what we did is we made sure we broke it into groups and didn't have a quorum.

Um you'd have to check with legal to be sure.

Don't answer that now.

It's gonna be legal that would have to answer that, but that's one option.

Um but anytime you sell a house, you have open houses and people go through the house.

So uh that's not out of the norm, uh, even though you may have more people than you normally do.

So I I think that it's going to the time wise and cost wise, it would probably be even more expensive to move the trail as you end up with an ineffective solution.

This is a more uh better solution, a more permanent solution.

And relatively, even if you have to spend money beyond the 900,000, that's gonna be relatively the same amount of money.

Again, when you move the trailers, you're gonna have the soft costs of there's nothing in them.

So you're gonna have to fix that up.

And there are no showers in them, only bathrooms, a single bathroom.

Anyone familiar with the trailers knows that there's nowhere near the capacity for resource center that this would provide.

So is there a risk involved?

I think it's a not a major risk.

I think the tenants would have probably said something to Director Bagley if there were any major issues in the house that we already know about them.

But if we get the fire marshal that's gone through the house, uh, you know, they pick out things pretty quickly.

Our city inspectors who when you have projects that go through the planning department and everything, they have to do the inspections and make sure everything's right.

I you know, I I feel that that more than covers our uh our issue there, Aldman Smith.

Um one of my questions was I believe um asked, may I ask a question?

And I'm not sure which one of you can ask answer this.

My question had to do with uh capacity, and I know there's no crystal ball, I wish there was regarding the number of individuals that we could address regarding the warming station, because I'm thinking about what we have now and soon to be ending unfortunately, and what we're helping to have with this new facility.

Um will it will it be efficient enough?

Well will it handle the capacity that we need it to handle based on what we're already trying to manage right now?

So at Latani Mussioli Housing Services Officer.

Um to Director Bagley's point earlier, we're still waiting for that design process.

Um unfortunately, I don't think any building that we take over will have the capacity that the Elm Street Middle School has had, uh, but we are willing to work diligently with our community partners to work on addressing any gaps that may arise if we're not able to support the same amount of individuals.

If I could just add on to that, Madam President, I I think what you need to also do in fairness is to have it to compare it against.

So let's look at what we were the alternative and the reasonable alternative with actually the uh the classrooms.

And what I can say is it's it's it's pretty much the same, right?

So you're kind of looking at almost the same type of you know uh square footage.

Alderman Tebow.

Thank you, uh Madam President.

Um I feel like we're debating it a little bit more than we probably should just because I mean I think the questions are good, but I feel like we're deciding whether we want it or not right now, um, and we probably shouldn't be doing that.

I want to commend uh everybody that's been working on getting this.

This is something we asked for in a meeting a couple weeks ago.

Uh some of us uh scolded the mayor and city officials for not having a resource center or it up and ready to go by now, and so I think it's been hard.

The market's hard out there to come up with something.

I think the classroom idea, although would have been fine, I think that was gonna cost us probably over two million with all that having to get the water in there, and it wasn't gonna give us transitional housing and some of the other pieces that we need.

This is literally right next door to you know, Director Bagley's place of work.

It's it's a it's a really good fit for what we need.

It has transitional housing, so I'm not sure um what the negativity is.

I just want to say thank you so much for working on this, and I appreciate that this is in front of us.

We can debate it over the next few weeks in our our meetings and decide if we want to vote for it or not.

And if you don't want it, you don't have to vote for it.

But so far I'm I'm all in on it.

I think it's a great idea.

Alderman McKelly.

Uh thank you.

Um I had similar uh sentiments, but I did want to ask a question because I think it has been put out that this there isn't a business plan here.

So I would like to know when did you first make a business plan for the resource center?

When was the first time you wrote something up, uh Director Bagley?

In 2024.

2024.

And how many versions of that plan have you made since then?

They well, for each one that was submitted for funding, they've all been the same, but as different things presented, um, we probably changed it maybe about four times.

We've changed it about four times.

Thank you for flexibility in that.

And in terms of this location of the four times that we've changed it, what what are the pros and cons?

Like, what is it being next to uh the public health do for you?

Okay, I'll let I'll let our housing service officer first answer and then I'll add to that.

Sure.

Um so the goal again, Latanium Seoli Housing Services Officer.

Um the goal was to have our community health workers on site so they can just walk right across the street.

Um, but it's also really helpful because the public health department provides additional services.

So if there are folks that need to be connected to our welfare office, um they can just walk right across the street as well.

So we're we're in good proximity to the additional services offered here at public health, which also include our clinic.

Um, so our community health department can help support some of those individuals.

They can be seen by our nurses and other medical staff that are there.

Um so it's extremely beneficial.

This is the perfect location.

It's walkable to other services that are available downtown.

Um, so we really couldn't have asked for a better location.

Thank you.

If I just comment, yes.

Um, so I I just appreciate the discussion, and I understand that our job is to ask questions.

I don't think I've ever seen the city move this fast on something, and I do recall people in the fall saying we need this resource center as quickly as possible because we do have an issue that needs we need to get people off the streets, and we talked about that all together as a full board multiple times.

If we are going to tell people they can't be on the streets, then we need to help them get off in the resource centers.

What you as a practitioner has told us is one of the best practices for doing that.

So it is fast, but it is perfectly located, and I I have all the faith that you guys know what you're doing with this, and that is the right thing for our community.

So thank you.

Um next I have Alderman Klee.

Uh thank you.

Um, madam, uh Madam President.

Um, I um Alderman Thibault commented exactly what I was going to say that uh we don't necessarily need to debate this here, but to ask questions.

Um and much of what was just was just said is kind of what I wanted to say as well, is that this resource center is something that's needed.

I think helping those that need help in a location that's um where they are is kind of one of the best things.

We we did the go where they are.

Um, and I I've talked to a couple of public health people, and and that's working, but I think having a a static location where they can come and get and know where they can come and get assistance rather than us trying to find people who need assistance, I think is a great thing.

So whether it was the you know, the trailers or this or the other location that we talked about, um the you know, the other place that we did not get that went to someplace else.

When that was brought up, people seemed to be very excited about that property, and we knew that property needed a lot of work.

Um, you know, maybe we would or would not have done an inspection.

Um, I'm not gonna debate that, but um homes are being bought all the time without inspections, without any kind of things like that.

That's not my concern.

I'm glad that we did have someone fire went in and looked at it and um and some of the probably community development and so on inspectors went in looking at that.

Kind of gives me some uh good feelings.

I'm sure that none of the other locations that we looked at were gonna have these same things.

I think this is something we need to do, and while I know um Alderman Doubt said not to um to comment on it, I am going to comment on it.

I have talked to legal about what happened with this um school department, and that was in violation.

I didn't want to focus on that at this time, but the fact it was brought up, I'm going to I'm going to publicly say it we did wrong um when that happened.

So um I don't want to see us go down that road again um opening it up unless we do it legally, which could mean having lots of people there, where they you can't batch it's still violating quorum.

So thank you very much.

Well, thank you very much.

Um I just want to thank my colleague to the right talking about the business plan that Ms.

Bagley has changed to four times, but I wasn't on the board, so I didn't see plan one to plan four.

So I would be I'm gonna request that I can see your business plan, please, on this um on this whole project here because I think it's very important because if you want the new people to buy into it, then we need to see what your vision is, and that's very important.

And if we have inspectors, did they go over to the house and look at the house at all?

Because um, if they did, then did they find anything?

I'm just kind of curious.

Yeah, because I bring this up for the simple reason is that I want to make sure we're buying something.

We know what we're buying here, and it would be unworthy of me in this position, and I wouldn't be doing my due diligence if I didn't ask these questions about why did we waive a home inspection?

You had 10 days, and what we're asking is not to see if the force it is leaking, we're asking for the major things that yes, you're gonna change things, but yet how much do you have to change?

If the furnace is working, you're not gonna change out a furnace, are you?

If the hot water heater is working and it's already working throughout the apartments, you're not gonna want to change that, but if it's faulty, you're gonna want to negotiate that in a contract.

So then this way it's less that has to be replaced or done when you're going to renovate the building.

It makes sense to me, and I think it would make sense to a lot of people in the community.

Yes, a lot of people don't do home inspections, but what happens is it turns out to be a nightmare when they go and they sign on the dotted line, and then all of a sudden the furnaces are working, and they and they go back and they say, but you waived that home inspection.

Our hands are clean now.

And so when I read this in here, and I'm reading the purchase and sales, may you know, I understand the purchase and sales.

I all of us have bought homes, so I hope everybody understands what a purchase and sales means.

And so it's a legal contract.

You can't go back and undo what's in this contract now and say all of a sudden I want to go back and do a home inspection.

Yeah, the seller come walk away.

Because you've already said that you're gonna waive this.

So this is why I'm asking these questions, because we around the board who are bought homes, I would never have waived a home inspection.

And so I think these are very important questions that I'm asking here.

So if you could be kind enough, so I it to email me or to send a hard copy over to the office I can read your business plan.

I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

I'm sorry I can't see who that is.

Alderman Clemens.

Oh, Alderman Clemens.

Oh no.

Thank you, madam.

Thank you, Madam President.

There you are.

Um so I I appreciate the um comments this evening.

Um I had uh a couple of follow-up questions.

One is we did a supplemental appropriation.

I don't know if it was last to begin the end of last year, beginning of this year for the resource center.

Um much was that what was the dollar amount?

300,000.

300,000, Madam President.

Okay, so with this bond here, we're gonna have 900,000 to purchase we have 300,000 already out allocated, and then it was mentioned tonight that there's a potential for another, what is it, 1.1 million for um with congressionally uh designated funds or directed spending?

And then it was mentioned tonight that there's a potential for another, what is it, 1.1 million for um with congressionally uh designated funds or directed spending?

1.2, yes.

Okay.

So we so already we have one and a half million dollars or or or we're hoping to have one and a half million dollars, and then this would be another 900,000 in the bond.

How much do we have an idea of how much given all of that?

Do we have an idea about how much ballpark we would go above for this building between design and construction?

Do we have an idea?

Not gonna hold you to it.

If I may, madam president.

Director Cummings, Director of Administrative Services.

I know this is not going to be a popular answer, but I I would be remiss to give you any type of speculation unless we really start getting into the design and working through those details.

What I would suggest to you is if this is important enough to you that we we come back to you in May with a report.

We'll already have purchased the building.

I understand that, but we gotta make up our mind that this is what we want to do strategically, be willing to do that, and then say, well, what can we afford for a level of construction, and we make sure we tailor our design to that, and that is what how I would frame this, and we can absolutely work towards that goal.

But do we I guess my question is there must be a number in somebody's head here that that's out there.

Do we do we know what is what is the business plan say?

Well, the way that this was originally written out was a total new build, but this is already an existing structure, so it's the numbers are gonna look very, very different.

Okay.

Um I mean, I I not yeah, not exactly great answers.

I'm going to support the the project anyway, because it's something that you know I believe that is a good thing.

It's something that our community desperately needs and wants.

Um, but I would like to get a better understanding of what what it is that we're getting into.

I guess worst case scenario, we could sell the building back.

Um, you know, it it's worth the endeavor though.

And I think that our public health um where I'm sorry, where it's in proximity to the public health building already, I think is is perfect.

Um, we sometimes in government, you know, government tends to move slowly, and it's not exactly something that uh I'm a uh I'm always a fan of.

Sometimes it's way too slow.

In this particular case, it's pretty darn fast.

Um but you know, there are situations where you have to pull the trigger and you have to decide.

Look, this is something that is an opportunity that has come up, and you you take that opportunity and you do it because it's in the best interest of everyone.

It's in the best interest of the community.

And yes, it's it's going to cost taxpayers some money.

Um, but what are the what are the benefits of this?

Well, the benefits of this is that our population who are unhoused are going to have some of them will have a place to hopefully sleep, we'll be able to do the warming center in some capacity there, and we'll have a resource center for those folks to be able to connect them with other housing with jobs.

Um, you know, uh as the director said, you know, even just simple things like doing laundry, um, you know, taking a shower, that that kind of stuff, which is huge because you know these folks don't they they don't have the ability to do that now, and so you know, I think in my estimation, this is a this is an investment in that community in that we need to do this.

Um I would like to get a number, and I and I hope that in May you can come back to us with some sort of ballpark figure of where we're going, or even maybe more uh drilled down with how much this is going to cost um overall, but I I do support the purchase of this.

I think it's um it's an opportunity that if we let this go, we will regret guaranteed going forward.

If I may, madam president.

Director Cummings.

Yeah, yes, thank you.

And I want to just uh affirm what I just heard from Alderman Clemens.

I I can submit to you and to him and to this body that we will work with you in May.

We will come back with you and we want you to be part of the process here as we develop the design and we develop the construction budget.

That is, I think only fair.

What we're asking you to do is to buy into the strategic vision, and this this checks a lot of the boxes.

I don't know when this opportunity is gonna come up again.

So you know what we're looking for is to work with you to be able to bring this over the finish line and really start this project.

Thank you, Madam President.

Can I can I just ask one more question?

Um Alderman Clemens.

Thank you.

And do I have in Director Cummings?

Do I have your word that you will or you will attempt to do everything that you can to get these folks new housing before we start construction or renovations in that property?

Absolutely.

I can commit to you right now that we will absolutely do that.

I think it's not just me, but I can say to my colleagues to my left, to my right, and all the professional staff behind me, those are our values, and we will absolutely do the best we can on that front.

Okay, thank you, and I take you at your word for that.

Did you address it?

Alderman.

Oh if I may, uh Latony Museoli Housing Services Officer, um, back to Director Bagley's point earlier.

As we did the walkthrough, we were able to connect with some tenants, um, and I do have an appointment already scheduled for next week to work with one of the households there to look for additional housing.

Great.

Alderman Senate.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Just to further that point, um, as we're asking for progress updates and such, um, to the best of your ability, given the sensitive nature of the topic, can you keep us abreast of the progress being made with those tenants and finding them long-term secure housing?

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay, I think that wraps things up.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay.

New business resolutions.

R-26-019 authorizing the purchase of 14 Mowberry Street.

Give me uh additional sponsors.

Alderman Tebow, Alderman Smith, Alderman O'Brien, Alderman Gregg, Alderman Dowd, Alderman, Alderman Kelly, Alderman Morgan, Alderman Clee, and myself.

Given its first reading, I will assign and Alderman Clemens.

And Alderman Clemens, yes, yes.

Give me this first reading, I'll assign that to the planning and economic development committee and the planning board.

R-26-020 authorizing the mayor and city treasure to issue bonds not to exceed the amount of $900,000 to fund the purchase design pre-renovation work and renovations for resource center at 14 Mulberry Street.

Additional sponsors.

Alderman Smith, Alderman Tebow, Alderman O'Brien, Alderman Gregg, Alderman Dowd, Alderman Woman Kelly, Alderman Morgan, Alderman Clee, myself, and Alderman Clemens.

Given its first reading, I'll assign that to the budget review committee and schedule a special board of Alderman public hearing on Wednesday, April 15th, 2026, here in the Aldermanic chamber at 7 p.m.

Alderman Clemens.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh at this time I will uh move to adjourn.

Motion is to adjourn.

So the clerk call the roll, please.

Yes, madam Hensley.

Alderman Clemens.

Yes.

Alderman Clee says yes.

Alderman Sh I'm sorry, he's not here, sorry.

Um Alderman Smith.

Alderman Smith?

Yes.

Alderman Thibault?

Yes.

Alderman O'Brien?

Yes.

Alderman Gregg?

Yes.

Alderman Dowd?

Yes.

Alderman Sullivan?

Yes.

Alderman Senate?

Yes.

Alderman Johnson?

Yes.

Alder Woman Kelly?

Yes.

Alderman Morgan?

Yes.

And Alderman Wishan.

Yes.

You have 13.

13 IAs.

That motion carries, and we are adjourned at 8 p.m.

Good night, everyone.

Good night.