Community Development Advisory Committee

MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE APRIL 23, 2009 9:00 A.M. Members Present: Vice-Chairperson Les King, John Mathieu, Red McKeon, Demo Angelopoulos, and Tamara Lanier Others Present: Jennifer Gottlieb and Linda Lee Smith Call to Order Vice-Chairperson Les King called the CDAC meeting to order at 9:06 a.m. There were a couple of comments and changes to the minutes of the April 8, 2009 meeting to be amended for the next meeting. Old Business YMCA - $269,000 The YMCA submitted a plan/application for the stimulus funding of $269,000 towards a new heating system. The boiler is currently non-operational and that is an enormous impediment to planning to have operations there. The plan the YMCA submitted for continuing essential services is to operate those services with only necessary staff. They are scheduled to close on April 30, 2009. In the last three weeks they have raised $65,000. This is only one source of money. The commitment of the City will signal to others that the YMCA has a chance to salvage essential services and that signal is hoped to spur others to invest. Certain members of the Board have given a message to the public that contributing is fruitless. Other Board Members are trying to draft a plan to go forward with essential services after making certain repairs and changes. The contingent that advocates closure and not trying to reopen was the designated public spokesperson so the other contingent believes the public has gotten an unrealistically negative picture. There are certain measures that can be taken to help the YMCA retain essential services. Those options need to be given a chance to work. They include selling the camp in Stonington, assembling an operating coalition with partners like TVCCA, Backus Hospital and the Norwich Free Academy (the high school). Declaring failure before options are explored is premature. The heating issue is very expensive and must be dealt with. When the CDAC deliberates on the PY 35 budget, they can designate backup projects to be funded if the YMCA allocation does not work out. That way, everything would be set to go with the Annual Action Plan should it be necessary and there wouldn’t need to be another meeting, RFP posting etc. The CDAC intends to give the YMCA a good faith chance to obtain the stimulus funding of $269,000 for the heating system subject to the committees’ satisfaction that the YMCA will reopen or continue to offer essential services (childcare and single rooms). If the YMCA cannot meet that condition on time, the funding will be used on other capital improvement projects from the PY 35 applicants. However, no PY 35 application offer the job retention and community benefit that the YMCA does and therefore the committee hopes very much an allocation to the YMCA can be justifiable. The stimulus monies need to be committed by August 2009 but not necessarily expended by that time. Also the PY 35 funds need to be committed by the summer as well as is usual. On review of the Sustainability Plan the YMCA would not be sustainable until they got into the intermediate term of 3-9 months (phase II) of their submitted plan. Under Intermediate Term 3-9 months it states they will partner with Backus Hospital for programs such as aquatics and cardiac rehab. The committee hopes to expend the funds in phase two after they have achieved the benchmarks in phase I. The committee stated that it is not their job to be business consultants and cannot tell the YMCA how to run their business. . Under the Implementation Schedule it is expected to take three weeks to fully analyze the mechanical system requirements and draft the RFP, three to six week out to have the project out to bid. Before any money is actually spent we are at least 6-9 weeks out from the time of decision. That gives us 2 months before any funding has been spent. The CDAC committee made a joint motion to conditionally approve the $269,000 of stimulus funds for the YMCA. The condition the YMCA must meet is to draft an acceptable sustainability plan and submit the same to the committee and demonstrate they have accomplished and achieved monstrable progress in their existing Sustainability Plan. This will be revisited in three months to review their Progress. Through discussions the committee seconded it. Motion carried unanimously. The YMCA will need to prove themselves and as long as their short and intermediate terms are done on the Sustainability Plan the money will be held for 2 months. A reminder the next CDAC Public Hearing is scheduled for Wednesday May 6, 2009 at 3:30 p.m. in Room 335. Les King made a motion to adjourn. Demo Angelopoulos seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. The meeting ended at 9:46 a.m.