Minutes or changes in the minutes for
November 15?
We see you, sir.
We'll get a motion to accept.
Yes.
Second?
Second.
I'll bring you an update on inclusionary zoning.
We're supposed to have a workshop with the council in January, at least the first meeting
and possibly the second meeting.
They wanted to give Sharon a chance to review it before they get to council workshops
When I get those dates, definite dates, I'll let y'all know if anyone wants to come in
with me and help argue the points that I know a couple of the councilmen are going to have
on what we recommended.
That would be great.
But at least that's moving forward.
Down payment assistance.
We got a
response from Sharon, which I'll pass out to you all.
set
down.
So
she's suggesting that we also include eastern utilities in the
purpose
paragraph, which may be a good idea.
Roy, get these down. I'm making
notes. Well, you got the thing there.
She's asking, and I think might be a valid
point.
We ought to put a income or such value cap on this. And the
thinking is, I doubt it would happen. But one of the big wigs
that he's been told it.
I don't think does anybody know what
they make public knowledge? Oh, is it?
It's it's it's you can
look it up. You're looking at it. It's a lot. Yeah, that was
chief of police when he comes when a new chief of police comes in town things
like that you don't think anything like that's gonna happen but we didn't think
it was gonna happen with a renovation program either until we got slammed by
a guy from Cook's Hope that we found the town homes out there that we found
justification not to do a renovation for and that's why we put a cap in that
program. What's everybody think about that? We have to follow our guidelines
that the same that we have for the other program, I think, can apply for these people, too, who
apply.
And if they make a lot of money?
I think this is more of a cap.
Our guidelines.
The truth of the matter is, people qualifying under our guidelines aren't going to be
buying a home.
That's true, too.
And we don't want to limit that.
I don't know.
I mean, money, money, what it used to be, I mean, you know, six figures is not
well to a point but if we I mean if in thinking about that if we use those
guidelines it caps out at 110 percent of median income which is 110,000
median I think our cap on that well
dependent on size of the family but for
instance on a on a single person be 65, 640 on a couple 75 family 493.
That
still puts that into that kind of workforce class. What I'm saying is
so what what are you know we're talking about town salaries so right so
somebody should have a feel what they are. I can probably get I can get the
town probably through Don Rick. When we get a sense of what the salaries are
not not for necessarily department heads but not very far below that. Yeah. Well
there are department heads that don't live in town because they can't afford to.
Let's just get the salaries and then we can, it's hard to make a decision, it seems to
me, in the abstract, you just pull a number out of the air.
You don't know how many people you're including and you don't know how many people you're
actually.
And
we're trying to help the worst people.
We're trying to get people to live in Easton.
What we're trying to do is support.
But if they have money, they can buy regular houses, right?
What we're trying to do is take people that are town employees, which can be public works
that drives the trucks and stuff that fixes the pipes and plows the snow to the girls
in the downtown office, administrative staff, police department, and volunteer firefighters
and good standing, an opportunity to live in Easton by giving them a $5,000 brand
for their closing costs. I'm agree with all of that, but you know if they are
making like you say six-digit number. Kind of like you make. Yeah, right. Being a
support staff, yeah, right, yeah. Of course. That's what I'm trying to say,
you know. Teachers and all the kind of people too, but we have the guidelines to
follow and why these people will be like different from somebody from everybody
else. What do you mean by different? I mean I'm not trying to say anything. I mean if
they are making six digits of salary they can buy another house
that you can send you know but you can sell for them like but because they
want the nicest houses with the cheaper I mean with the whatever you
know, that's what I'm trying to say. I mean, we can help people, the workforce, the people
that you mentioned before, police, I mean, police, farm...
But this program is not necessarily designed for affordable workforce. It's designed to
help...
For everyone.
It's designed to help the employees of the town be able to live in the town that
they work it. That's, that's the purpose of it. So it doesn't
have the same effect as our other purchase program in essence.
But I think Roy's got the right idea. Let me get some research
done on like what average salaries are something like that.
We wouldn't want to exclude half of the, you know, the town
work for I don't I don't have any idea where to put these
be people from
Jim's own houses. What happens if they own a house in Saladista? They can't
own one of these houses too. They could be a rental. I mean if they moved into town wouldn't
they qualify for the first time? Well this has to be their primary rent.
They can have
their house out of this county and buy another house here. That's what they are trying
to tell him they can have two houses one aside that's not that's not that's not
what I just that's why it's a net question if I own a house in Dorchester
County and I work here this program is not for me exactly it's not it first
office it's about buying a house yeah you're gonna buy a house in Dorchester
County this program is not about you the house you gotta buy is within the
town limits yeah but you can't own one in Dorchester County
you. Well, you got to this is the house you're buying in Easton has got to be
your primary problem. Yes, well, I'm saying what about the other house in
campus? Well, in most cases, in almost all cases, with with who's gonna need
this assistance, they're not gonna be able to buy a house here without selling
the other house that they have. Okay, get that equity out. Correct. Listen,
Because they're not going to be able to be qualified for a mortgage without the stipulation of selling the other house.
I have me as an example. I want to buy a house in Eastern. I work in Eastern. And I come here every single day, but I have a house in Talbot County.
But you're not an employee of Eastern?
I'm an employee. I'm a teacher, you know.
Well, yeah, we do cover a teacher shift, I think.
No, because the county covers that.
So you wouldn't be able to work with a program anyway.
Now you might be able to, well, you already own a home in Toledo County,
even if, see, the county has a program too that we're calling a mirroring,
but you already own a home.
Then I cannot buy another one here, right?
Isn't this the first time?
Ours is really the first time.
That's what I thought.
Yeah, that's really the way we stipulated that.
Yeah, let me see if I can get some documentation,
at least on average salaries, so we have something to look at.
What it says here, better define what full time is.
I know on the county's program.
Well, what does the town and the utilities define full time
as?
I mean, I would think that they define as 32 hours or 40 hours or whatever the hell they
define it as is what full-time is going to be.
What the county has in their program is...
I think it's 35.
I mean, she ought to know that.
I would think.
What the county defines it as program is for employees of the county department of corrections,
emergency services, Sheriff's Office, who are full-time employees with full benefits.
That's what I mean. Whatever the town and the utilities are defined full-time as is what we ought to use.
And I'm certain she would know what that means.
I don't think I brought that. I didn't know this to bring my working file.
But we don't have full benefits in ours.
No, we don't yet.
But if we just said full time with full benefits or parentheses IE full benefit with full benefit wouldn't that
Well, let me have that conversation too. Okay, because
as I said, you know, I mean it might be 32 hours or 40
Yep
Okay. She has a note here, uh, better define eligibility standards for eastern volunteer fire department. How would we determine if they're in good standing? Well, they've got to make, make, make certain reformists be in good standing. Okay. Um,
don't we say, don't we say in our draft, a member in good standing? Yeah, that's what I mean. Isn't that leaving that up to, so we're not going to micromanage this for them and just say,
I mean if you but there are criteria to be considered in yeah, I've got to make so many points every quarter and
Something to do with how many fires you respond to
training what you write training and
fundraising and
Don't work something. There's certain things you have to do to be in good standing the longer you end the less you have to do
But but do you is there a I'm sure there is is there like a one-page?
document that describes that. I'm just thinking something I could shoot to
Sharon and say this is our service standards. That's something you can get
me. That'd be something I can kind of shoot to Sharon and say this this is
what what happened. But they ought to know because right now anybody that
lives in Easton that's in good standing, gets a property taxes, gets a deduction, so they
ought to know what she ought to know what the hell it is. They set that up. And it's the
same thing.
That's what I'm saying.
Does somebody like Carol keep track of that stuff out there?
We'll keep track of what?
Of members in good standing. Who keeps track of that?
I mean, ultimately, I get how she does, but the
Secretary does too, so I mean, I'm not
sure exactly whose responsibility it is.
But they get a break in the property taxes if they live in Easton.
If they live in Easton, that just started a couple of years ago, live in Easton, and
you meet the, you know, if you're an act of member of good standing.
Well, then again, you put a parenthesis there, Jim, and say, eligible for the property tax
deduction provided by, it's just the town taxes provided by the town of East.
I think she's looking for something objective in that they're already not collecting money
from you.
They ought to be happy with who they're not collecting.
Well, I've got three things right now that I can blow Don Richardson up on and tell him
I need information on this for this program we're working on.
So that's, you know, we'll let him tell us if that's something that we can take an
application and confirm with somebody on the staff of the town.
Yeah.
I mean, it can be confirmed if they're in good standing in the light.
Yeah.
Now, that doesn't, you know, that doesn't, of course, the same thing with an employee.
That doesn't mean they're going to be good standing a year from now.
But at the time it's done, it can certainly be confirmed.
And I would think they would just like she says here about the,
how did I just read that?
Oh, the full-time employees are non-probationary, et cetera.
I mean, they need to be off, because you serve a probationary career, and you joined
the park company, they need to be off that probationary career, I think.
It's
a full time member, you know, regular member in good
standing.
Okay. Under eligible property, it says primary first primary
resident. Is that intended to mean first home owned? Or that is
it primary residents of the person? I think we kind of
wanted this to be the first home they buy in Easton. Does
not necessarily mean they're a first home buyer in the state
of Maryland, but they're a first time home buyer in the
town of Easton, is that?
Yeah, so it's really, the qualifiers are first,
primary, residents in Easton.
And I think that we're not paying for somebody that's,
I think we had a conversation where we said
we're not interested, the idea is to attract people
to live within the town if they're already living here
and they want to trade up.
Yeah, we don't want somebody.
We're not interested in financing a trade up.
Happy they're trading up.
Yeah, not we don't want somebody in Carol's addition to sell their house to buy a new one at
Ganon states again or something
That makes sense
We
should provide that the employee volunteer must earn 50% or greater the property
I'm not sure why that has to be in there. It's just it's a cell lawyers thing
So it's a single person it's a spouse
And after that, if mother-in-law is helping out and is on the deed, which when she dies
will revert to the two younger people, then that would be a disqualifier.
But I think that-
Well, the other thing too, I mean, if they ever come in town and let's say he's employed
with the town, his wife is not, maybe she's employed as a teacher in Caroline County
Ertola County and because of their finances she's the only one that can
approve get approved for a loan then she's gonna be well she could they could
put both on the deed if it's tenor by the entire these that they could put both
them on the deed even with that I think they I think they don't want to cover
anything beyond however marriage is now defined which none of us really know
Well, at least we're talking about a two and not a three.
We know that.
And this would make that clear.
Yeah. Okay.
Well, we should add that in.
Yeah, I don't, I mean,
I don't think it takes anything away from how we envisioned it.
Right.
And tighten it up.
No cash back is, you know,
definitely because I've seen that happen so many times that
We hit the seller up for $10,000 in seller credits, and the buyer walks away with a $5,000
check from buying the property, which makes no sense.
I think that's important to have that on there, too.
First come, first serve in budget year.
We probably are going to need to, and I'm going to talk about our fund that I've updated here shortly,
But we probably should do a budget each year.
By what the county gave me, the biggest year they had was five.
Everything else was two or three a year.
So if we figured five, if we budgeted 25,000 in that set-aside, 25,000 of our funds for this program each year,
if we only use 10 this year then you know we'd set aside an additional 10 the
next year to keep that well we wouldn't bump that up to 35 the next year we
just keep it at 25 yeah and 15 would have gone or 10 or 15 would have gone
unused in that year yeah we'll just we'll bring it back up to the to the
25 yeah that makes sense I
think we should require continued employment yeah
nuts. That actually in the county is in the that's on the
application, not on the first draft, the first thing that did.
And what it says is if I fail to occupy the subject property
continuously for a period of five years as my present residence
personal residence or cease to be a full time employee, I'll
notify the in this case would be the human resources, I guess at the town
within seven days of the departure from the property or termination of
employment and repay a prorated share of the county housing grant. And in this
case, it was
they also they also put a note on here in the event that I failed to
pay the prorated amount within 30 days it may accrue interest. I'm not telling
real care about it accrue an interest. But I think that is a good idea if we're
going to cap this at five years of residency, which I think there should
be a cap on that, that if for some reason they change jobs or they you
you know, whatever that we'd want to get a refund back pro rated on that money.
And I think, what Sharon's saying,
20% per year or something like that, which makes sense.
So the first year, if they moved out the first year, we'd get 80% back.
The next year we'd get 60, the next year we'd get 40.
And after the five years, it goes away.
Does that make sense?
But that's that would be I think Roy. And and if you if you need it, I can
resend you the application because we ought to start working on that too.
So
we have the whole package together.
I did ask her about the taxes where the county says that the $5,000 is a
taxable grant and they'll receive a 10 99 share in common as in terms of
taxes for the IRS website. It does not appear to be taxable. Perhaps
the county's just trying to cover their basis and not make that determination. I think we
ought to not make it. I just don't think we should. If you want a car at the fire company
in Raffle, the fire company not telling you about the taxes, you're going to tell your
accountant or HR block at the end of the year, hey I won a car, I bought a five dollar
ticket and I want a $50,000 car. Do I report that? We're not in that business.
That's correct. I don't think we have the expertise and I don't think we should
take any responsibility for the consequences. I agree.
Does this give
you enough to do an edit on this.
Yeah. Yeah.
Me. Why? You, you volunteered. I understand.
I understand. Just trying to get Otis out for his walk, but that's getting pushed off.
He's got bad feet and I got headed. When you get to it. There you go. And you'll
understand that in a couple minutes too. So that pretty well covers the list of
sharing things any other thoughts on this program.
If not, we'll let Roy get to work on it and
we'll get back to us either at our next meeting or in January.
Just quickly to bring you up to date
on where we're at on renovations.
We have only
back up on that because I'm going to share
something else shortly here that's going to make better sense talking about where we're at on
expenditures on renovation. Let's talk about Mr. Pro-Powell.
Mr. Pro-Powell?
Mr. Pro-Powell.
Did you get the other papers that he dropped at the office this morning?
Yeah, looks like I did. Looks like I did.
So we do have two estimates now for Mr. Pro-Powell's creaky floors.
One
is from Allstate. It says subfloor squeaks and cracks.
We feel subfloor was not originally fastened down correctly and glued correctly.
We would propose to pull carpet in that bedroom area and re
-screw all of the subfloor in that area
followed by applying liquid nail subfloor adhesive to all joist both sides and here
it's subfloor to joist
approximately area 1100 square feet and he's got down here $2,100
and have a have one from Mr. Barrow. How much was it? I'm sorry. $2,100. Have one from
Mr. Barrow furnished all material. Okay. He's
talking about adding a
center girder hospital sister up to approximately 24 Joyce, seller
jacks and dig for peers if necessary for $2,800. Which almost looks
like that might be more secure. But what do you all think?
I think we need to know whether the problem is in the choices, because if you nail everything
above...
It sounds to me like they're doing two completely different things.
Barrow's making it so that this substrata is solid, and therefore whatever you then screw or nail or glue is going to be going into something that's not going to move, and I just worry that I can't envision this.
but if you're going to do everything that all states are going to do and not do anything
about the choices and the support, and that's at least part of the problem.
You haven't fixed the problem, I don't think.
And for $700, I think we would do the client a better service by at least a Barrow approach
or go back and tell Allstate to add in Jacks and sister choices.
Yeah, I'm awake. I just don't know why there's such a big difference in what they're going to do.
I mean, I...
I'm not going to agree with him because you are taking the sword face, but you're not doing anything.
I understand that, but I'm trying to figure out why the hell Allstate didn't come up with some of this, too.
I have to push him to go.
Did he grow under the house?
I don't know. He sent a Hispanic guy to do this estimate, you know. He didn't go
himself. I talked to him because she gave me the number. I talked to him and
pushed him to go and I said we have a meeting. He said he was busy but you know
I called again and say we need that for tomorrow. Then he sent someone like the
day before our meeting. I think they did it like fast.
It doesn't seems to
me like taking the carpet and I don't know that the
fixed the structure which
evidently Gary thinks the structure he thinks it is and I tend to think that
there's a problem there the destruction yeah I mean too I want to know what that's
what I mean I can't see if it's anything and I think I just don't
understand why Austin he wouldn't have seen well because she says he said
A guy didn't know what he was talking about.
Maybe he...
Well, and the concern is that there still could be a little bit of squeak if the subfloor is not properly screwed in glue.
We can take the two or three flies above and make them tight as a tick, and then if all of that's just like the skin of a trampoline and you're going to get sag in the middle...
Yeah, it's not going to...
Then that's not going to...
That's correct.
That's not going to solve problem.
And I'd rather do the structure
and then maybe have to do a little something else
than to do this and then have to come back and fix the structure.
Yeah, because quite frankly,
I don't know why we'd be doing that.
You mean all asleep?
Yeah.
Yeah, what happened, it sounded like to me that the person,
if we go back to an asked all asleep,
imagine something about the structure,
somebody else like,
by listening to Cindy with more experience
gonna give us a different quote.
It doesn't sound like an all-stakes quote to me, but that kind of, that whole place is
squeaking.
Bathroom, kitchen, as you come in the front door, it's squeaking.
I will tell you, I talked to one of the gentlemen that was involved in building that little
house, and he swore him out and down, and I know him, he swore him out and down
that they nailed and screwed the subboard to the floor doors.
And if that's the case, and I don't think he would be asked to know who he is, I agree
with
I think what everybody's saying that it's better to fix the structure.
I mean, if we're going to do it, if we're going to do it, it's going to be $700.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's also going to happen again.
Yeah.
All right, so I said to Cindy, once we got these estimates,
I said we're going to need to update his follow-up a bit,
because this goes back to July.
I sent everything you sent to me to him.
So I asked for current mortgage statement.
It doesn't look like I have.
What is this?
your
Carolina Panthers advanced plus banking that's
this bank statement so I
got I got two bank statements which I asked for I
don't see anything on here
about mortgage didn't send that to me and I told him I told I told him before
coming here and say, I will call you tomorrow, whatever else we need.
Okay, so I got the two bank statements.
One is September-October, the other is October-November.
I asked if the one daughter was still working, we needed payroll stubs, I have those.
was we
need homeowner's insurance. And we need mortgage statement, most current mortgage statement
he has.
I had on here in November, but he may have his December statement by now. So one
or the other, the main thing on that mortgage statement, we want to make sure.
And it's just the last one, right? One mortgage statement.
Just one mortgage statement. Just want to make sure that mortgage is up to date.
And the homeowner's insurance.
we've got current income information. Yes. Yeah, because it's also
secure.
You need anybody's taxes or anything? We have 2021 taxes?
Oh, the taxes are both taxes.
Everything all the income is secured this bill.
I'll know in a little bit.
Do you need a ride home?
Ask him if he falls, income taxes.
If he does, I need two years of income taxes.
Well, don't you have to file if you make over $600?
I think if it's under a certain amount of social security, I don't know.
I know I have to pay taxes on my social security.
No, but I think that if...
Don't we need the taxes for the data that works?
You know, we need to whoever's got an income, I would think we need to have that family needs, we need, you know, I mean, in the family that lives in the house, we need the taxes.
Two years of tax returns on everybody that falls taxes.
Okay.
Federal taxes.
I don't care about state.
Federal taxes.
Okay.
We'll see if we can move them forward.
And I remember the ideas.
Okay.
Mr. Banks, I see that Otis has brought me. Did you bring these or did you?
No, I had contact with a sister. Somebody had put me in something else.
And I didn't have a phone number. I wouldn't have not going to do it like calling the person.
That's my fault. I'm going to do it as I was just called for it.
This is to do with the...
The harmonious response is just the deal. What is that?
The declaration page.
declaration page that basically tells us that he has homeowner's insurance and what the terms are
you know it's usually a one-year term we don't make sure it's accurate whose
estimates no this is
actually Nancy Stebbin uh i'm not sure why i have this stuff you asked me to get a sign
no i've got that oh i thought this was left here and it's actually estimates
I think that's the second, I think that's the second, I think that's the gunner.
Yeah, that's the gunner.
We've already got that.
So I'm not sure why.
I sent him a thing to get the contractor's certificate.
I was hoping that's what that was, but we'll get it from him.
I'm not worried about that.
It's, I'll tell him to go ahead and get it done.
You say federal taxes, right?
Yeah.
Federal, yes.
This is Shantae's Banks.
I already have that one. I do already have that one.
Who's that Mr. Barrow?
Mr. Barrow, so we still need at least one other estimate.
I miss you.
Give me your phone number. You got a phone number right there.
You want to give that young man a call with his name I came up with when we were having all that trouble?
It's a good idea actually.
Let me look him up and give it to him.
Moony Chris. Are you you think you knew the family? Well, I knew some moonies.
At the airport collecting
4437867573. Okay,
we had we had already basically think approved her
12, five. We approve it. We just need the contract. The contract is
an estimate. That's what we need. Yeah, so we can determine
how much it's actually going to be.
Okay,
so let's see. Have
you
heard any more from Mr. Barrow on this one now?
I told her if she heard anything from the button, you
Roy has a win-win-win-win project he worked on for Mrs. Winn.
Gone with the win.
Who had no heat, zero heat, she fortunately had a complete good application.
We
were able to quickly approve her and to Roy's pushing the HVAC company a little bit.
We had her up and running with heat the day before Thanksgiving.
And the contractor, after Roy called on that Monday, sent his truck to Baltimore on Tuesday
to get the equipment so he could install it on Wednesday.
it. And who did that? Herrscher. How much was that? It was the low bid by $2,500, $3,000 to
bid. It was one we got going around. And today I put our renovation sign in our front yard.
I was going out to see Miss Stebbings and getting that sign and put one in her front yard
and I called Miss Lynn and I said, with your permission, I'd like to put one of our signs
so that we can get the word out because I'm sure you're going to have neighbors with equal
need and this is how we get new clients.
And she said, for what you did for me, you can put the empire state bill in my front
yard.
I said, this would just be a little like a little realtor sign.
We'll take it down when I get Mrs. Steving's done and go out and pick that sign up.
He said, you can put the Empire State Building in her front yard.
She wrote a wonderful thank you, that same Thanksgiving afternoon that I sent to Jim and
I said, if this doesn't put you in the spirit, and she has a picture of the new unit with
her dog sitting on top of it, it would, it made my Thanksgiving.
Roy wrote up a little thing and I'm going to look at it tomorrow, hopefully. I think I've got a good time tomorrow.
And May edited a couple things in there.
It's coming from the board, so that would be for you. I don't need to see it again.
Okay, all right.
Except you might change the Thanksgiving tale to T.A. I.L. that they take the picture.
Well, that's a good idea. And you know what's funny about that way back in my...
Days in retail. Occasionally we would purposefully misspell something because everybody catches it.
And when they catch it, you find out who reads your hands.
Good. Well, that was a real win.
I talked to Don yesterday about Ms. Rowland out in Hyde Park, and Griffith Energy is doing hers.
and they got there to install it and something some part didn't work or
something that order apart so it'll be finished up next Wednesday I'm told.
The
other one Roy was working on he alluded to out there missteving everything is set
to roll on that it's just a matter of getting barrel off and moving I guess
he's got a lot of windows so well my hope is that he's not having work with
us in knowing what the lead time was that he's he's done the measurements and he knew he was the
winning bidder so my hope is that otherwise we'll whatever the whatever it takes from the fact
yeah and we did we did add gutters gutters you got two bids i'm doing the gutter yeah yeah
so that one's moving forward we've talked about banks we've talked about in the pow
And Bonnie updated on Ms. Farrington, and I was one that had to go through the Historic Commission, which they approved.
They had to approve it before he could pull his permits. He expects to have the permits by the end of the week.
So that'll be, that one's probably going to move into January to get completed for the work out there, but it's in process.
So everything is moving well on those things.
So I had, I think I talked about the last meeting, the town council has been pushing
Don Richardson for numbers of what's in the housing fund.
And he was throwing some numbers out that I just didn't agree with.
So I've read a pretty lengthy email to him explaining our position.
And we seem to be at odds as to what the fund, what was in the fund.
So we got together yesterday, had a meeting, and I was loaded and prepared,
thought I was going to have a fight on my hands.
But we actually had an excellent meeting, and we're both on the same track.
But where he is, where he's given the number to the council, he's, he's putting
together what is in our affordable housing fund that we're in charge of, and
also what's going on with the health project. If you put the two together, it
shows a low number. And he
needed to make a presentation to the town council
the last night. And basically what he came up with from our
meeting was these numbers are a little old. So I've got the fresh
numbers I'll share with you too. But bottom line for our fund was
a million three 156334. The housing on the hill because it
involves grant money and those type of things. He's actually
showing that as a negative 853,000. And he he's included in there the bid on
123 and 125 renovation, which is 462433 for both of those houses, which is a
lot less than we've spent per house on the other ones, which gives that number
462214. And he explained all that really well to the council last night. I
So I just wanted to kind of follow up on that with you.
But so what's the bottom line?
Well, I'm getting there because the council
been pushed on Doverbrook awarded awarded them $250,000 out of our fund
before it came to us, before they talked to us.
That's what we talked about there.
We did. We did.
We had talked about it for a while anyway and Don called me the day the council was meeting and we talked about it on the phone
And I told him I didn't see where that would be an issue for us to do that
And that's what stipulated some of the members of the council asking well how much is actually in that fund
So that's where we went on this because I thought I was gonna have a bit of a battle yesterday morning
I asked Carol to send me a current
fund because
Because the last one I had was August 5th, and I wanted current numbers.
So she sent those to me. I was able to work with Don on those.
And I just did a summation on that.
And what that has told me is that we actually have net income
of just the fund right now, $1,735,750, and change.
is that with it is that before after 250 taken out that's before okay so we've
got a million five that's before and I went ahead and and did a additional
income from Easton Village and Ashford Commons on what's left out there there's
20 lots at this point that we haven't been paid for at Easton Village and
and four at Ashwood College, which would be another $340,000 in change.
We've got a renovation exposure right now with these grants that we have outstanding.
The work hasn't been done on of 64 or five.
That'll come off of that $1,735,000.
And that's five grants at 47,000.
The actual estimates will come in, the final bill is probably going to come in under that
number because we always add a couple thousand dollars to the grant over the top of what
the estimate is.
And the two that Mr. Propowell and his banks, I figured a number of 17-5, which would
cover the $12,500 and what I think of the cost to cover propel the estimates, the $64,500.
The overbrook $250,000 and we're at a point now where we've almost eaten up our set-aside
of $250,000 for renovations.
So we need to replenish that earmark, so to speak, so that money is not touchable
for anything else, any other projects. And I'm going to recommend that we set aside 400,000
for renovations. In addition to our current balance. That's correct. And we're up above
that number. We're averaging about 7500 per renovation for the 24 we've completed.
In my mind, I think we've maybe done about a third of what we can actually do in renovations
into town so if I take 50 times 7500 375 I figure 400 was a nice round number if
you all agreeable with that and we'll put that together in a memo form along
with with this summation of the funds and I'm gonna kind of set it up to meet
with the council first of the year and present all that.
So if you guys don't get out on your walk right away, we're a
little tight on money until it do this for the renovation, though
I'm not okay, though I'm not going to deny a renovation
application.
Otis kind of looking forward to doing it in February.
I'm trying to understand something here. They gave
250,000 dollars to Doverville. Do
we get any money back?
probably not. Here's what happened on that. Doverbrook came, Doverbrook, and I don't understand the whole thing, but Doverbrook's plan, I listened to the council meeting the night Don Bibb and the developer were here to make the presentation. And what their plan is to basically raise everything that's out there. They've got to relocate all residents before they can do anything.
raise the whole thing and rebuild the whole thing and in doing that they're
going to create an additional 14 units. My understanding is anybody that's living
there now that they relocate when the project's done if they want to move
back they move back at the same rate of rent they were paying before they
were moved out. Beyond that, I think anybody knew they're going
to be in a 12 to 1300 bracket is the number I heard at that
meeting, which bothers me a little bit because I always
looked at David Rook as being an under $1,000 a month rental
for affordable housing. So I've got some misgivings. However,
that they came up, guess what money they've secured through
grants and so on, they came up $2 million shy that they
need to start. What is the what is the cost of this project?
That's $20 million for how many units? Well, I can't remember
how many are gonna be 64. If they're 50 now and they're
going to get 14 new that would be 64. I couldn't remember how
many were out there. I think it was 50. It may well be. So
and they're also they're fixing some other issues drainage
issues and that kind of stuff that need to be done in the
process.
So they they're they're claiming $2 million short. So
they came to the county and said we'd like a million dollars
from the county, a million dollars from the town. And
well, there's at least one council person that was ready to
give him a million dollars. Eventually got that got down to
half a million dollars, but the council ended up saying 250
that's what the vote is on. What it is basically. Is that R250 or is that the town going to put
any other money other than our quote our money in it? We're putting 250, the county's putting
250. Right but the town's not putting any money in but the eastern affordable housing
money. That's correct. So that's what I'm listening to you know. That's correct. And
And at this point, now, there is discussion that by the council that as the project moves
forward, that they certainly would be open to talking to them about more money.
But I'm going to, we've already done this verbally, and I'm going to do that in the
memo that I put together that says we approve 250,000. The
dover book that any additional money is from the affordable
housing form board would need to be approved by the affordable
housing board prior to the council obligating that money.
It just sounds to me like that's pretty expensive.
$20 million over $200,000 a unit $20 million for 64 living
units. And I may be wrong on that number, but I've heard that number.
That's over $300,000 a unit.
Right. Goddamn, that sounds awfully expensive to me. I have my problems with the whole project,
to be honest with you. The project never gets off the ground. Which it may not.
Yeah, they're not going to get any money. Because they've got a hell of a gap to close
before they could do it. And they've got to relocate. Well a lot of those places are empty out there. Oh is that right? I mean you ride down the road and the ones in the front there, if they're not empty, they look empty. Don't you agree with that? I rode in that one day to circle around. A lot of them that are empty. I met Bonnie one time at the Walmart, she said. And some of those have been empty for a while, it's not like it's just the last month or two, it's been a while.
And some of the people, they're all brick structures.
Yeah, partially brick.
The first thing that bothers me is why they couldn't have been cut out and renovated.
That's the first thing that bothers me.
And what would the expense be to do that,
rather than take the whole thing down?
Well, maybe you can't rectify the site.
There are 66 units.
You may not be able to do that.
If you can't rectify the site unit with the existing structure, then you've got to level it.
That may be part of what it relates to.
I just hate to see things torn down when they don't need to.
If they're falling down, that's one thing.
For God's sake, we can't put new windows in because something's historic
and they're going to level this thing and spend 20 million bucks.
It's not a historic, Mr. Cowell.
No, but I agree with all of you.
I have misgivings about the whole project.
We are obligated at this point because the council decided to spend our money without talking to us.
So we had talked about it.
I was going to say, I thought we pretty much agreed that we were going to.
We had talked about it.
We would do that.
And the number that Don was floating around was $250,000 or $300,000.
And I told him I was comfortable with that.
But no more than that.
And that's kind of the number we were talking about at our last meeting.
so we'll go ahead and do that but I don't want to spend it and I had a long
chat with Megan last night when they had the swearing into the county council
and told her don't be spending any more of my money without our approval or we're
not gonna prove you're not gonna get it so that sort of raises the rubber to
the road question of who can authorize the spending of our money.
Right. Can we answer to the town, but the answer to that question is by chapter 13, which covers what we were created under as boards, we have the authority to manage and administer that fund.
You tell them woe then. Period. Yeah, tell them woe. That was some of the conversation I was having with Don yesterday. I said, well, how about if I go meet with my board? And the board says, no, we're not giving you any more.
He said, well, it's not going to be nothing is money.
They're not going to give money and give you the money until the project starts.
We want the money back.
Yeah.
And they got lost because if they wanted $2 million, they're only getting $500,000.
They still got it.
Yeah.
And the thing that the other thing to bother me, Don Bibb is Don Bibb, but he's
out here and the council's asking questions. They all are. And his answers
are, well, I don't have that information, but I'll get you
answered. He always do. Yeah, he does. And I know the council
had some miscarriages about that. One reason they pushed that
through at the last council meeting was because the county had
agreed to match that and their county was going to vote on it.
I'm gonna have to my insulin pump is we're basically done.
This was not the last thing I had to talk about.
64 is not 64.
Were the bids released to the house down there approved?
Yes.
Because I was just reading the letter to the editor in the paper
the other day about the apparently about that.
Did you read somebody down here?
About how one of the counseling was saving the town all this money
because they were accepting out-of-town bids.
Did you read this, give us, if we're holding all of this in fact, this is what this was in reference to.
I'm not, I'm meant to, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I know by the diabetes, buddy.
Yeah.
Go ahead and take care of that.
I'm turning on Michael.
We don't want to, you can shut us down.
I don't want to find you on the way down the stairs.
Yeah, I don't want to go low.
Are we done?
Are we?