Reappointment of William Butler, 102 Crescent Road, to the Beebe Estate Board of Trustees for a three-year term, said term set to expire on the last day of February 2029.

Transcript (~8 min @ 48:10)

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▶ 48:11 Ryan Williams: All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed for having me? Thank you. Okay, thank you. Um, so how about we have ID 2 0 2 6 3 1 0 and ID 2 0 2 6 3 1 1. This is Mr. William Butler and Ms. Jessica Crot McKenna, come up together since there's two of you and there's two chairs. Thank you, gentlemen for coming. Thank You. Thank you.

▶ 48:39 Ryan Williams: Uh, so we will, I think we'll just vote on them individually 'cause we're all in person. It's easy and fast, but you guys can share your experiences together and tell us a little bit about what it's been like to be on the commission or on the trustees. Sorry, the board. Go for it.

▶ 48:55 Speaker 2: Okay. Uh, so my name is Jessica. I live at five Marion Road, and I've been a Millrose residence since 2012. I've been on the board of trustees for the BD estate since 2015. I just had to look that up 'cause it's been so long. I couldn't quite remember. Um, I was invited to join by a former colleague of mine who I used to work with at the Massachusetts Historical Commission. I'm a preservation planner by profession, and so I was brought in to help guide and advise on some of the historic preservation practices with regards to maintenance of the BBB estate. Uh, the BBB estate, as you may or may not be aware, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. And one of our jobs as the board of trustees is to maintain that, uh, building to the best of our ability and to meet the Secretary of Interior standards. We've done a number of things over the past couple years. Most recently this past year, we've, um, installed a new master key system for safety. We've done some plaster work and some interior painting, some exterior painting coming up this spring. Uh, it looks like we're gonna be funding some gutter work. We do have wood gutters on the building, and also looking at replacing our back door, which is the accessible entrance to the facility, and ideally providing one of those electronic buttons to get in. That's pretty critical since it is the Office of the Council of Aging.

▶ 50:30 Speaker 1: Hmm. Yep. Great. Uh, my name's Bill Butler. I've been on the, the board of trustees since 2015, uh, as well. Uh, I'm the co-chair. I've been the co-chair for about, uh, four years, I guess, something like that. Um, and if you don't know much about the bb it's a place where we has tenants, long-term tenants, uh, friends of the Fells is there, Melrose Alliance against, uh, violence, uh, the COA as well. And then we have, uh, special private events that we, um, rent the, the facility out too for various, you know, uh, bridal showers, baby showers, weddings, things like that. Uh, on Saturdays, um, the BB Association, which is comprised of basically an artist association, they have their art shows on Saturday. Um, and we're just right now undergoing efforts on kind of a, a, uh, having a larger scale marketing effort. We're just about to kick off on social media, uh, for renting the facility, renting, uh, the building as well. Um, and, um, I think that's, yeah, pretty much wraps it up and what we do. Thanks so much. Yeah. Any questions? Uh, president Freeman,

▶ 51:40 Bradley Freeman: Um, you know, just talking about some, some event rentals and, and looking to maximize the use of the beautiful building. I saw your new website. I think the website's great. I think it's really helpful to learn more about the PB that way. And saw that you installed air conditioners to help attract additional summer rentals. Is there anything else as a city we could be doing to help make the building more accommodating to increase rental opportunities? Or do you feel like you're pretty much maximizing rental opportunities right now?

▶ 52:04 Speaker 1: Great question. So we're in the process of talking to a contact at the city of, of George. I can't remember about installing wifi. Like that's kind of a big thing as we get people inquiring, they want to do kind of multimedia events and things like that. We don't, we, we kind of say, you gotta work off a cell signal or, you know, um, a neighboring signal, uh, that you might be able to tap into. Um, but I think we we're just waiting to hear back, but we are ready to go to have wifi installs. That'd be great. Thanks for asking. That's great. Yeah.

▶ 52:42 Speaker 1: Councillor Vandiver,

▶ 52:43 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. Uh, I really appreciate the work that, that you do. Um, I, the beer gardens I think have been hugely successful. A lot. I, those are very well attended and a lot of fun. Um, I know there have been the art exhibitions and I haven't made an inside to one. Um, I wonder if there's, uh, you know, when there's something happening in the building, like other ways to, you know, exterior signage or open doors or ways to direct people in, or maybe I've just been oblivious to it, but I, you know, that's one thing that I would like to make it into and for whatever reason haven't connected with yet.

▶ 53:18 Speaker 1: Well, uh, great news. Um, and, and a and a very point, great question. Right now we are, the beer gardens are gonna be moving to Saturdays, which is, uh, pending approval from the artists. Um, but it looks like they would do it. So we can kind of, uh, it's probably the largest attended events that we have at the BB are these beer gardens. Um, and then they will be working with the artists, uh, on the same day to draw additional traffic to their shows. And, um, you know, who knows, maybe have artists actually outside on the lawn, things like that. So, um, we're excited, hopeful to, to see that come to fruition shortly, maybe by our next board meeting.

▶ 54:02 Kimberly Vandiver: That's wonderful. Yeah. Perfect. You, you already solved it. Yeah. I mean, you just

▶ 54:05 Speaker 1: Walked, right? I mean, it was ideal. It

▶ 54:09 Speaker 2: Was really, Or come by any Saturday.

▶ 54:13 Speaker 3: Yeah. Um, uh, should I make a motion to anyone else in line at your

▶ 54:17 Speaker 1: Discretion? Sure. Motion To recommend? Okay.

▶ 54:21 Speaker 4: Second. Second. Oh, sorry.

▶ 54:22 Ryan Williams: Oh, I give it to her again. Um, motion to recommend made by Councillor Vandiver, seconded by Councillor Cal. Um, on discussion, I wanted to ask you if you foresee or have had any conversations about impacts of construction next door? So, Um, I haven't told you yet.

▶ 54:44 Speaker 1: Surprise, turns out there's a thing Happening next door. I'm only The, um, It's been quite a productive evening. Yeah. And we need to get our application for, uh, yes. A sign on, on the front of the building.

▶ 54:57 Speaker 2: Um, we Realized we don't have one. Right.

▶ 55:00 Speaker 1: We just realized that, Uh, so, um, looks like parking may be impacted and the city is going to be requesting our tenants to park on Berwick Street. Other than that, I'm unaware of anything else at this point, but thanks for asking. Yeah.

▶ 55:16 Speaker 2: Well, I will say one other project we've considered is replacing the chain link fence out front. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. With a much more attractive, more historically appropriate one. But we've held off on that in part because why do it now? We'll wait until the construction's done. There's no need for a large piece of equipment to inadvertently bump into anything. Sure.

▶ 55:40 Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Okay.

▶ 55:42 Ryan Williams: Um, we have motion on the floor in a second if there's no other discussion. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Um, wait a minute. That was, let's just, that was one. Yes. So that was the order for Mr. Butler, and now we'll do the vote for Mrs. McKenna. Mm-hmm. Okay. Uh, we, we still need a motion for this, so