September 22, 2008

Chandler Business Association.

Paul Colyer and I are amongst a group, who are part of the Chandler Business Association. Below is a letter that we have forwarded to the City Council, but here is my two cents first.


Private developers do not have the luxury of approaching the city and asking that their projects be subsidized by the taxpayers of Worcester and then having the city rubber stamp their repeated requests for more subsidies. WGC is already the recipient of taxpayer largese from both the federal, state, and city governments to fund their continual dense overbuilding of low income housing projects in Worcester. Additionally, their city building permit fees and their sewer and water connection fees are routinely waived upon request, per legislation passed by the council. This represents ten of thousands of dollars that Worcester taxpayers must subsidize.

How does the subcommittee justify this to taxpayers who have been on waiting lists for years to have their sidewalks (or their streets) repaired/repaved?




Chandler Business Association

9/11/08

Councilor Paul Clancy
Councilor Michael Germain
Councilor Philip Palmieri
City of Worcester/Public Works Committee
City Hall 455 Main Street
Worcester, Ma 01608

Dear Councilors,

The members of the Chandler Business Association would like to express their dissatisfaction with the recent request of Worcester Common Ground, Inc., for sidewalk repair in the vicinity of 9 May Street and 1 Silver Street, in conjunction with the restoration of the former Hammond Reed Organ Factory. The current deteriated state of the sidewalk in this area was a result of normal construction equipment traffic in the process of developing this project. Therefore, it is our belief that, the developer should be held financially responsible for any improvements they deem necessary to bring the sidewalks into an acceptable condition, and not the taxpayers of our city. Also, how is it that this project received approval ahead of many previously submitted requests for sidewalk improvement?

We would ask that you review your decision to approve this request and hold this developer accountable, as would be expected of any other private developer.

Sincerely,
Chandler Business Association – Board members

Laurel Ciprari
Arthur Mooradian
Andrew Serrato
Richard Kazarian
Bill Randall
Arthur Mooradian
Paul Colyer

cc: City council

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am as guilty as sin when it somes to rushed/hurried/ not properly proofed blog responses.......but in a letter the...subcommittee............

detererated??

Randall?

Nemeth will take you to task for incorrect spellling of your own name...........which i know u prob didnt type to begin with.........and who knows maybe Rosalie will publically whack ya too !!!!......and the Xavarian Bro's will be shamed too [g]

Bill Randell said...

Randell or Randall no big deal....

Deteriated is spelt wrong?

Anonymous said...

........aint it ........deteriorated.................agin eye am the first one to admit i have won standadrd four blogs typing and another standard for non blogging......i just dont want to read of more silly bloggers in the Tee & Gee...[g]......

Anonymous said...

Noticied an item of interest in the city council agenda tomorrow night item 10.38 transferring $108,947 airport infrastructure environmental airport security.

I'm guessing this may have to do with heating the building.

As a taxpayer looking to save a few bucks, if this is the case can the security people move into the terminal instead? Just a suggestion.

Taxpayer

Anonymous said...

no one in the CBA listens to me...give me the extra "L" I asked for it:>)

Bill Randell said...

It has been corrected


Bill

Anonymous said...

hey hey now...........i aint pickin' on anyone here

The randall vs the randell I can easily understand


I was on Park ave today ......I noticed large asphalt hauling trailer dumps & tru axles headed up to and away from what might poss. be the the airport..................maybe the 108k buys a days worth of paving?? does paving fit the airport env. infrastaurtuce category ......i am knot shure?....if so . i kneed sum Jahn Environmetla Infrastrucure work on strsst i traverse daily.....Thanx to teh DPW csub committe in advance

Anonymous said...

BTW i was on Dean St in WPI campus area where they just built that huge non profit parking garage and maybe something esle too..............couldnt help but notice Dean St had a new base coat of asphalt in place for the entire lenghth of teh constr site............maybe 250 ft....soon to be paved over with the finish layer .......sidewalks were also new concrete ......The other side of the project on boynton also looked to be all new pavement........looks nice .............

now i am wondering did WPI pay for this street & sidewalk work out of their own pocket or did they approach the councils DPW (Dept Paving Welfare) Subcommittee for a freebie just like Worc Common Grounds did.............I have a double saw buck that says WPI footed the costs themselves b/c they couldnt help but destroy the street in that area with all the heavy equipment...................if I am correct.........more double standards everywhere for CDC's and common grounds of the world..........all on my dime

Bill Randell said...

Jahn:

I highly doubt WPI would ask the City to pay for the grind and overlay or sidewalk repairs nor do I think that they should.

It just does not seem fair to have some people pay for work done to sidewalks and the road when they do work, while others have it paid for them.

Jahn, check out Hollis Street between Gardner and Kilby Street. The whole road had maybe 20 trenches, wonder who paid for the road resurface there? The City of Worcester or Main South CDC>

Bill

Anonymous said...

Mason Street was just repaved..looks nice but they also paved the sidewalks..looks like one big blob of black now..ugh!

Anonymous said...

concrete sidewalks would have gone a long way in making Mason look good with the new street asphalt..

Bill Randell said...

Typically they only put back what was there. If it was black top before, it is replaced with black top. It it was concrete, it is replaced with concrete.


Bill

Anonymous said...

"typically: is what we are trying to change in this city Wild Will

Anonymous said...

hay...how come Artie gets to be a Board member twice??

Anonymous said...

Bill, Holllis St between Kilby & Gardner is where those (4) three deckers are that MSCDC moved back in 02-03.

Not only did MSCDC prob not pay to re-surface the street..........but i was told by DPW that they didnt pay for any water/sewer hookups either....and each person at DPW that ask why they didn tpay.......gives you a different answer and this is back before the council enacted legislation that basically exempts non profit low income housing from water/sewer hook up fees....merely by asking and paying a miniscule "admin. fee"...something like $50?.

I am telling you DPW lets those fees be waived/eliminated/whatever and no one over there had the authority to do that back then.

I was told no hook-up fees applied for a host of diff. reasons:

a. b/c the houses were moved

b. They were "grandfathered"

c. They were low income housing

d. There were already 4 sewer/water hook-ups in the street from the previous 3 deckers that were there....

Not quite.... b/c there were only (3) 3 deckers that had been razed and then the land was re-subdivided into 4 lots.

When I told the DPW guy only 3 houses were there before...so how could there be 4 sets of up hook-ups in the street ......he balks......then calls me back and says there was alos a barn on one of the 3 old lots and it had a water and sewer hook-up......WTF ...........I was born at night but not last night!

Bill Randell said...

A brand new duplex between permits, water fees, sewer fees, grind and over-lay of payment would cost me $17,000 easy.

It would be nice to have all of these fees waived and to have the
road repaved for me.

Better how can a private developer compete againt an entity that gets tax pay monies and has all their fees waived? Answer, they can not thus they develop elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

I heard again yesterday that Diamond Chev is gone in 4 months...........kind of sounds like year end to me.......this time headed out to Rte 20 somewhere near the Hyundai dealership in Auburn???

Also again reports of a Wally World going there............this time it's Super Wal mart.......I'd like to see it.....but my gut & the land area says no to a Super Wally World..............a smaller one maybe?

Anonymous said...

I'd support this..Standard Electric across the street from me is leaving as is Subway..

Bill Randell said...

tried to stop in at True Value on Park Ave yesterday and they were closed??

I hope they did not go out of business.


Bill

Mason Dewey said...

Great letter. Spelling aside, they will get the message. Those who know the system, play the system and the system pays them back. There are ALWAYS angles. There are always wheelers and dealers- and there are always deals to be made. Forums like these make sure these deals can not hide.

Anonymous said...

Bill, I was in True Value Yesterday (tuesday) afternoon on Park Ave...............i think they close at 600 pm???

I had just heard the Diamond rumor again prior to my visit to PATV...........the gal there said she heard the same but no walmart.................stay tuned.............today the Diamond rumor was mentioned agin to me.....same guy..........and they think Diamond is leaving b/c his lease on the site there runs out...............i just kinda chuckled to myself and walked away...................Duddie or one of his real estate entities doesnt own that site...............? ..no way .....that cant be true??.....the guy owns 1/3 of Worcester!!! for gods sake...and now some folks think he leases the park ave site.........no way in hell!!!!!...........if Diamond leaves it means that Worc can no longer support even a Chevy dealership.........i can understand not being able to support say a BMW dealeship........but a Chevy dealership.......this is worse than BK and McD's closing up shop downtown

Anonymous said...

Bill today I checked out MSCDC turf foir the 1st time in a few months.............how long has that foundation been sitting at the bottom of Kilby St? WTH did eve move thsoe 3 deckers anyway.........only to replace them with new duplexes..........why not put the duplexes on Hollis where the moved 3 deckers sit........would have saved 100's of thousands to just re-hab the 3 deckers on their original sites.............talk about money to burn!!!!!.....my fed'l tax money !!!!!

Been so long since I been through there that I drove down beside the old chess king only to realize that its now a cul de sac.........which I may have already known......but forgot.........does MSCDC own the old chess king site?.........is it polluted..............any plans for it??

Bill Randell said...

Jahn:

Chess King is owned by a really nice guy outside of Boston. Met him a few times. Better yet when is the track coming for the Boys Club between the Chess King building and Chess King? Is it polluted???

The foundations on the bottom of Kilby have been there for months. It was about the same time that they asked for bigger subsidies on the houses that they had for sale that they started these.

If a private developer had tried to do what Main South CDC done on Hollis between Kilby and Gardner, they would have spent a 150K between street repairs, water hook-ups, sewer hook-ups, permits, etc.

That is not even counting all the grant monies that are given to do the actual project!! Think of this imagine if someone said:

We will waive all the fees to the city of worcester and we will give you $100,000 to build a duplex. Tell me how can a private developer build a duplex across the street shell out $15,000 in fees to the City of Worcester while not getting a free $100,000 and compete?

Very simple answer. THEY CAN NOT!!!!!!!! As a result all you have in Main South are CDC's and their ilk.

Bill