1996-01-25City of Beverly
MINUTES
ECONOMIC AND CITY DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Thursday, January 25, 1996
Members present:
Chairman Sandra Reinecke, Vice-Chairman Bill
Rodenbaugh, Joyce Golin, Nicholas Zavolas,
Debbie Rosser, Melissa Nicholson, Tina Cassidy,
Representative Michael Cahill
Reinecke welcomes Debbie Rosser as a newly-appointed member of the
ECDC. Reinecke states that there are still two vacancies on the
council, and she expects the Mayor to submit appointments for those
vacancies to the City Council shortly. Cassidy states that she hopes
to have a Community Development appointee by the middle of March;
Reinecke says this will leave one vacancy that must be a
representative of the commercial businesses.
Next, Reinecke distributes "ECDC member handbooks" to those present.
She states that the Ordinance guiding the ECDC specifies that the
council is only an advisory committee, and that currently there is no
money in the City's budget earmarked for the ECDC's use. The ECDC
has played a large role in awakening the City to the need for
economic development through its hard work and research. Overall,
she is pleased with the progress that's been made in the City to date
on the issue of economic development.
Reinecke briefly outlines the contents of the handbook. She also
says that it is customary for the ECDC to elect a Chairman and vice-
Chairman every year, and that she has served as the council's
Chairman for the past four years. Reinecke states that due to
personal time commitments and a belief that she can be most effective
as a regular member, she would prefer not to be elected Chairman this
year. She has spoken with City Councilor Joyce Golin about the
possibility of serving as the ECDC Chairman for the coming year, and
Golin has agreed to serve if elected.
Reinecke: motion to nominate Golin as Chairman of the ECDC, motion
seconded by Nicholson.
Minutes of the ECDC
January 25, 1996
page two
Rodenbaugh:
motion to close nominations for the position of Chairman, seconded by
Zavolas. All members in favor, nominations closed.
Motion to elect Golin as Chairman; all in favor, motion carried.
motion to nominate Rodenbaugh as Vice-Chairman, seconded by Reinecke.
Golin:
motion to close nominations for the position of Vice-Chairman, seconded by
Nicholson. All members in favor, nominations closed.
Motion to elect Rodenbaugh as Vice-Chairman; all in favor, motion carried.
Golin distributes a handout compiled by Rodenbaugh that summarizes the results of the business
survey conducted as a joint effort of the ECDC and the Chamber of Commerce last fail. She
asks the members to select, from the list of suggestions gamered from that survey of the
business community, one or two projects they would like to work on in the coming year. She
would hope that the monthly meetings of the ECDC would become update meetings of the
membership at which progress reports could be made on the different projects being pursued by
the members. She will not ask the ex-of~cio members (Cassidy, Zambouras, and the
Community Development Office designee) to work on specific projects; instead, she envisions
those members as resources to assist the ECDC members on all projects underway.
Reinecke states her opinion that the City does not have a good data base of information on land
and facilities available for industrial and commercial space. Nicholson agrees with Reinecke and
suggests that that information should be compiled. Nicholson adds that the once the information
is compiled, the ECDC should carefully consider who will have access to the information it
contains. Reinecke states that she would like to take this on as a project, and Nicholson states
she would like to work with Reinecke on this project. Golin asks Zavolas how this project
would mesh with the project proposed several months ago by his intern, Jeff Krukonis. Zavolas
says that as long as the project is done with Krukonis' work in mind, it should dovetail nicely.
He thinks that the information should be available for viewing by the public, since it will be
public information. It is agreed that as part of the project, Reinecke will need to ascertain
whether there is a data base available in City Hall that can handle the information that will be
collected.
Next, Zavolas states that a ~lumber of colleges have programs or a willingness to work with
communities on certain projects. He would like to bring members of academia and the business
community to facilitate discussion within the community on various issues, and would also like
to be a voice for the downtown commercial areas - particularly Cabot Street establishments - to
insure that commercial interests are not inadvertently pushed aside by the Council.
Minutes of the ECDC
January 25, 1996
page three
Golin asks if the council has ever compiled information on the downtown; Carol Fieit may have
done some work on the subject while she was on the council. Nicholson updates the members
on the work of the task force reviewing the impending project to reconstruct Rantoul Street.
Golin suggests that Zavolas receive a copy of the downtown study done in the early 1980's for
reference. Rosser states that she was surprised to read in the business survey results that nearly
30 % of the respondents mentioned problems with financing issues. Zavolas also states that he
would like to work on waterfront development-related issues, with the belief that the
development of the waterfront could serve as the engine to drive stability into the downtown
area. Zavolas asks if members think representatives of the Beverly Harbor Management
Authority should be invited to a subsequent council meeting. Nicholson suggests that if the
Harbor Authority meets monthly, perhaps one person should receive the minutes and could
report back to the council on issues of interest. On the subject of waterfront development,
Rodenbaugh states that the City needs to push the appropriate state agency to clean up the
Morton Thiokol property on Congress Street.
It is agreed that Zavolas and Rosser will work together on downtown and waterfront issues.
Rodenbaugh says that he would like to work on the issue of marketing the City and tourism
opportunities. The Chamber is doing it as part of their work program, but there is currently no
effort being made at the governmental level to further this issue. Nicholson states that tourism
needs the City's support, but that it is a business more effectively handled by the private sector.
Zavolas suggests that an inventory of tourism assets might be a good beginning for the study.
Golin states that she is interested in pursuing the community survey as either a separate ECDC
project or as part of the Master Phn process. She will walt to see what project the commercial
member of the ECDC is interested in before moving ahead with this subject.
Golin asks if there are any suggested revisions to the minutes as drafted. There are none.
Reinecke:
motion to approve the minutes of the Council's December meeting, seconded by
Rodenbaugh. All in favor, motion carries.
The next meeting of the ECDC will be held on Thursday, February 22, 1996 at 6:30 p.m.
Nicholson: motion to adjourn, seconded by Redenbaugh.
carries.
Meeting is adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
All members in favor, motion