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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995-05-02 ad Hoc Haven Street Task Force Minutes3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1.3 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS TOWN OF READING 25 HAVEN STREET TASK FORCE MINUTES OF DISCUSSION Tuesday, May 2, 1995 230 Ash Street Reading, Massachusetts Commence: 8:10 p.m. Pages: 1 to 33 Reporter: Tracy D. Helms DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. Professional Shorthand Reporters 59 Temple Place Boston, Massachusetts 02111 (617) 542-0039 DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 PROCEEDINGS MR. PACING: Please let the minutes show this is a discussion since we are short of the required quorum. Go ahead. Your question to Jim was? MS. ZIEGLER: Okay. So we can set the date, the bid date due later? MR. BLOMLEY: MS. ZIEGLER: MR. BLOMLEY: and get the date. It's the set for a date, but that the next advertising. It g Tuesday. We can do that, yes. What's the date now? I have to go to my desk end of May that we have we can change that in oes in Tuesday, next MS. ZIEGLER: We have to advertise it four weeks. MR. BLOMLEY: It's been in. I mean, we had it's two and a half weeks before it even gets published. MS. ZIEGLER: Legally we have to do it how many weeks? MR. BLOMLEY: Four. We have to have the bid documents on the street for four weeks. DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 1 2 i 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 4 MS. ZIEGLER: They are on the street now? MR. BLOMLEY: No. No. We just did the advertising process. MR. HOWARD: So the first ad hasn't been published. MR. BLOMLEY: Yes. The ad has been published in the Central Register. MR. PACING: Central Register process has been started at the present time. MR. BLOMLEY: We are allowed in that process to change the dates or anything relative to that because we didn't - we weren't specific. We said, you know, the documents would be available at a certain time. MR. HOWARD: MR. BLOMLEY: it's subject to change. MR. HOWARD: MR. BLOMLEY: date. We did put an approx allowed to change that. MR. HOWARD: MR. BLOMLEY: I see. It's stated in there I see. We can have the bid imate bid date in, you're I see. What you have to do is DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 get in the advertising process so people are aware that the documents are coming out. And we were in that process, but we are at liberty to change it. MR. HOWARD: Sure. MS. ZIEGLER: The documents have to be available for a month? MR. BLOMLEY: Yes. MS. ZIEGLER: They have to have a month, the first pickup date until closing? MR. BLOMLEY: Yes. Yes. MS. ZIEGLER: Okay. MR. BLOMLEY: That's calendar days. MR. HOWARD: Could I ask a question about whathappened at town meeting? Was there any instructional motions at town meeting pertaining to this? MR. PACINO: No. The only instructional motion that came out of the town meeting was an instructional motion to the Board of Assessors to appraise the value of the building on Haven Street. That was the only instructional motion. MR. HOWARD: As Fred said earlier, there was no linkage between that instructional DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 motion. MR. PACINO: There was no linkage. They sat there and listened to the motion. I realized this would not affect anything we would be doing. MR. HOWARD: Informational. MS. ZIEGLER: They said the assessors should get on the ball and get all the tax exempt property at values. MR. PACINO: It was a more of a feel good I believe motion. MR. forgive me for not there was a lot of as to hiring a pro MR. MR. that? HOWARD: I see. Mr. Chairman, reading this completely, but discussion at your last meeting fessional broker. PACINO: Right. HOWARD: What was the outcome of MR. PACING: The outcome of that was the committee was very emphatic, we did not feel it necessary to have MR. HOWARD: MR. PACING: market the property. Mm-hmm. an outside person to DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 MR. HOWARD: I see. MR. PACINO: We felt we had the experience in-house between the department and committee itself at this point. Since then, I will report, the department has talked to a few of the larger Boston real estate firms, and the property isn't big enough for them to get involved with at the present time. MR. HOWARD: I see. MR. PACING: As I was listening, I feel their recommendation is to get more a local person, go that route, get a more local person involved in that at the present time. What we had talked about the last time we had talked about doing the brochure. MR. HOWARD: Mm-hmm. MR. PACINO: And we had talked about doing advertising at the present time. What we need to do tonight is set a budget at some point and to whether or not you've got a sheet here, advertising 25 Haven Street, whether or not we're on the right course, right track here or not. That's the other decision we need to direct the department tonight on that. Jim, do you want to go over the DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 8 r~ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 documents here? MR. BLOMLEY: Sure. MR. PACINO: As to what's on here? MR. BLOMLEY: As you go through the document, the items that are marked with an asterisk are the way that we have advertised for the past two bid periods. And that was on a four-week basis and that cost was $1,600 per bid. That was advertising in the Reading Chronicle, the North Reading Transcript, Lynnfield Villager, Wilmington Town Crier, Suburban News, and printing of the bid documents. In investigating other sources that we could use as a media we had the Banker and Tradesman, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and an advertising pamphlet which would be one page both sides in color with a cover letter and that included the mailing, and I believe if my memory serves me correctly either 200 or 250 documents. MR. HOWARD: So you have a mailing list? MR. BLOMLEY: We would have to produce that. We would need some assistance in producing that. MR. HOWARD: Sure. DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 9 MR. BLOMLEY: We would have to talk to somebody and find out what would be the best source to put these through. MR. PACINO: Mrs. Botticelli has volunteered to help in that area to get the proper sources. MR. HOWARD: Okay. MR. BLOMLEY: I talked with the firm that handles our public relations, which is where I got the price on producing the pamphlet, and I had talked with Phil last night at the board meeting and Bobbie Botticelli could help us with the wording, how to put that brochure together as far as real estate type is concerned. Then we would take that information and have it printed and put in the document; and she would I believe I understood she would guide us in the right direction as to where MR. VAN MAGNESS: She offered she could do the desktop publishing as well. MR. BLOMLEY: That gets into a gray area. MR. PACING: From a legal standpoint. MR. BLOMLEY: If they were to bring a DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 buyer forward, there could be problems if somebody was to complain. The real help that we I mean, she would provide us very good help in the area of where to send these documents in that she would be able to get her firm would be able to get these published in the documents. If you're not in that business, apparently a lot of these, like the Eastern Middlesex Realtors book, won't publish them unless it comes from a broker in the area. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Did she understand that or MS. ZIEGLER: She told us that. MR. VAN MAGNESS: I'm talking about her involvement. MR. BLOMLEY: I was asked I believe it was Phil that asked me to call her. MR. PACINO: Yeah. MR. BLOMLEY: And I did, and I had a conversation on the phone with her; and I can't remember the day that it was, and she understood that. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Okay. MR. BLOMLEY: And I told her I would DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 11 1 be back in contact with her as far as the wording 2 was concerned, but she did thoroughly understand. 3 MR. VAN MAGNESS: One of the things I 4 just took a look at I went through this list and I'm 5 sure we all come up with different things; but I 6 took a look at each one of these advertising just 7 dealing with the advertising section, and I 8 segregated them into what I considered to be a high 9 return, high probability, medium probability, low 10 probability type advertising median with my 11 impressions of what they might be able to do for 12 us. 13 And I looked at I'll go through it. I 14 assume that the Banker and Tradesman is a high 15 market item. It's looked at very widely not only by 16 the real estate, banking financial institution 17 industry, but also by individuals. So it's a good 18 opportunity. I think the Globe reaches tremendous 19 market. I look at the Herald as being less than the 20 Globe. So I assume that's a medium risk. 21 Then I get into the community newspapers, 22 the Chronicle, the Transcript, the Villager, and the 23 Crier, and I consider those to be low. There are 24 any the Chronicle doesn't reach every household DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 in Reading. I think it only hits 1,700 out of 17,000 or some portion of the community. I assume the same thing with the Transcript and the other local communities. Whereas I look at the Suburban News and the Suburban News gets delivered to every single house free across all of the towns. MR. HOWARD: Yeah. MR. VAN MAGNESS: So in that regard I think that's a higher probability than the local papers. I would tend not to spend that $1,200 in the local papers because I'm not sure you get any return for it. MS. ZIEGLER: Don't we have to put it in the Chronicle. MR. BLOMLEY: The Chronicle is the legal paper. MR. VAN MAGNESS: If that's the legal aspect, I'm okay with that. MS. ZIEGLER: You can't use the Suburban News? MR. BLOMLEY: No. The other point, correct me on this, Phil, we had direction from the board to use the outside newspapers. MR. PACINO: The way I understand DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1.4 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 this budget the Chronicle, North Reading Transcript, the Lynnfield Villager, the Wilmington Town Crier, I'm not sure about the Suburban News. These would be just about the legal notices that you see, am I correct on that? MR. VAN MAGNESS: I don't know, do we have to put legal notices in all those communities? Reading I think is the only requirement, isn't it? MR. BLOMLEY: Yes. That is the requirement I believe our direction from the board was we would advertise in the MR. PACINO: The board has always taken the position, cover the district, if you're going to put a legal notice into the Reading paper, that there should be a legal notice in the other papers and the other towns. MR. HOWARD: Now, the legal requirement is for four notices once per week, but the legal requirement is satisfied by these local newspapers. You wouldn't have to put it in the Globe and the Herald four times, would you? MR. BLOMLEY: You don't have to put it in the Chronicle four times either. It's once. It's the Central Register that is four times. DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 . 21 22 23 24 14 MR. HOWARD: That's the four times. MR. BLOMLEY: It's stipulated. There is no charge in the Central Register. MR. HOWARD: I see. MR. BLOMLEY: That's in the Chapter 308. It spells that out as far as the Central Register is concerned. MR. HOWARD: Is the 4,800 for the Globe, is that four placements or one? MR. BLOMLEY: I don't have the specifics on that. It's a standard column that they use for that type of advertising. I forget what the MR. HOWARD: Is it four times or once? MR. BLOMLEY: would be the Sunday. MR. HOWARD: MR. BLOMLEY: Four times and that I see. Globe once per week for four weeks. MR. PACINO: But it wouldn't be, per se, the legal notice itself. You're saying it would be a different advertising package that would go in? DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 15 MR. BLOMLEY: Whatever we would select. Normally we do use the legal notice as we do with the other newspapers, but in the case of the in this particular case we could change that. We could use part of the brochure or something like that. MR. PACING: Yeah. MR. BLOMLEY: I was trying to stick with a standard size to get the pricing. MR. VAN MAGNESS: I don't think the Globe I don't think we want to fool with legal notices in the Globe. I think we should go in the real estate section, the commercial industrial section in the Sunday Globe. There is a commercial industrial section. We ought to be in there. I, frankly, wouldn't spend the money on the Herald at least initially. I would hold back on the Herald on the advertising and just hit the Globe. That's why I think it's less priority than the Globe. You know, if the board really feels the light board wants to really pop an ad in each of the four community papers or the three, the Transcript, the Villager, and the Crier, I would do it once and, you know, be done with it. I don't think you're DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 going to get a tremendous amount of market. You're going to hit more people in the Suburban News. it goes to all those communities in every household. MR. PACINO: I would agree with that in terms of the advertising to start with the Lynnfield Villager, the North Reading Transcript, Reading Chronicle, Wilmington Town Crier, again there's a pay off, low priority, low marketing with those. MR. VAN MAGNESS: As a matter of fact, I would go to the editors of those newspapers and see if you could get a free run in the paper, riot an ad but just a notice that MR. HOWARD: A story. MR. VAN MAGNESS: A little story. The Chronicle is filled up with nothing anyway. They could throw in a few articles from some other communities in there and toss one for free. MR. PACING: Do you think Chisolm would write a story that would be printed? MR. BLOMLEY: A press release. MR. PACING: A press release. MR. BLOMLEY: I'm sure he would. MR. PACINO: I know they hunger for DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 17 t' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 those things. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Like a picture of the building saying, you know, committee goes again to market to sell this property right on the front page on a slow week. I mean, it MR. HOWARD: Yeah. MR. BLOMLEY: We might get the front page. MR. VAN MAGNESS: You could probably have the whole page. MR. PACINO: That's actually not a bad idea. MR. VAN MAGNESS: I mean, you know, that's a contribution to the community. MR. PACINO: That's not a bad idea to put it out as a press release in those papers. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Right. MR. PACING: We would just run the legal notice one time in each of those papers. Do you follow that, Jim? MR. BLOMLEY: (Nods). MR. PACING: As a press release and run the legal notice in those papers one time so they can't say we're actually paying and getting DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 18 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 the press release too. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Right. MR. PACING: We'd be a paying customer. MR. VAN MAGNESS: And the Suburban News you might be able to get an ad, hit that four weeks in a row and then say you also want a front page article. MR. PACINO: The Suburban News, we could kind of run what we run in the Globe, couldn't we? MR. VAN MAGNESS: Also on the front page as an attention grabber, ask them to run a little story on it. MS. ZIEGLER: I could talk to Rose Thompson. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Rose, she would be glad to run something like that if she's getting some advertising as well. MR. PACINO: Put a little press release on that as well. MR. BLOMLEY: That would go on the press release, we would send it to those five. MR. HOWARD: Sure. DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 MS. MR. MR. MR. Suburban News just it, I know the Bos and wanted to know Herald. ZIEGLER: Oh, yeah. BLOMLEY: Anyway. PACINO: Right. BLOMLEY: The comment on the as a point you think who reads ton Herald reads it. They called why we didn't advertise in the MR. VAN MAGNESS: Tell them their rates are too high. MS. ZIEGLER: Suburban News I don't think goes to Lynnfield. MR. PACINO: Lynnfield is kind of we only have half of Lynnfield. It's kind of difficult. Lynnfield is kind of unusual the way the district was set up. MS. ZIEGLER: I wonder, Stoneham Advocate is a new publication. Cummings runs it. MR. VAN MAGNESS: We are also missing one publication I think we should hit at lease once somehow with maybe the press release then maybe as an ad is the Lawrence Eagle Tribune which gets a pretty wide coverage up in Andover. MR. BLOMLEY: We would have a real DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 estate ad not a legal ad? MR. VAN MAGNESS: Right. MR. HOWARD: Yeah. MR. BLOMLEY: For the Banker and Tradesman, the Lawrence Eagle Tribune, the Boston Globe. MR. PACINO: And the Suburban News. MR. BLOMLEY: And the Suburban News and then a one-time legal ad as we have done in the other four, in the Reading Chronicle and the other three towns that we serve. MR. VAN MAGNESS: With a press release that we want, you know, at least the Reading Chronicle--needs to get that on the front page at some point. And they are always thirsty for some information. MR. PACINO: I'm sure we could get a press The public relations people could put that together. MR. VAN MAGNESS: I was thinking Bobbie might help us in putting together what the ad might look like on these things. She is in the real estate things all the time. She could help to give us an idea so we get the most mileage out of our DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 21 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 money. You know, the Globe is expensive MR. BLOMLEY: So the press release would go in all the media that we have talked about, Banker and Tradesman, the Globe. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Banker and Tradesman I don't think will pick up the press release. You can send it to them.. If they don't get it, they'll never put it in. MR. PACINO: I think the press release should go in the local papers, North Reading Transcript, the Lynnfield Villager, the Wilmington Town Crier. MR. BLOMLEY: Suburban News. MR. PACINO: Suburban News and the Lawrence Eagle Tribune on that too. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Right. And then I would try and I would try and hit the Globe. Maybe there's a couple of different stages of advertising. Maybe there is a small insertion that we can put in one week and the next week you could put a larger one in to see rather than spend the forty-eight. It's a lot of money for one publication. Maybe there's a couple of ways to work that, I think Bobbie could help you. She is DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 22 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 knowledgeable about that. MR. BLOMLEY: I'll have I'll put Bobbie in contact with J.C. Marketing so they get the right wording for both the press release and the brochure, and the ads, the size of the ads that we so we'll know what those so we're not going beyond what pricing we have. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Yeah, I would tend to try and hold back on these numbers somewhat. So that you know, particularly in the Globe. I mean, $4,800 for four weeks, that's $1,200 a week. MS. ZIEGLER: This big. MR. HOWARD: We got the FinCom in action tonight here. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Well, you know, you want to get as much mileage out of this as you can. MR. HOWARD: Absolutely. Absolutely. MR. BLOMLEY: Bobbie Botticelli might have a better suggestion for the ad. They do it all the time. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Right. Right. MR. BLOMLEY: I took the outside price on this so that we were covered. I'm not this isn't cast in stone. I just this is not DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 23 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 beyond the normal ad, but there are smaller ads that you can get and they might recommend. They'll know what people read. MS. ZIEGLER: You know, they have articles in the real estate section on Sunday, different things going on. Maybe they'd put something in about the light department's use of a building or something. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Reuse, can't be municipal reuse, but whatever. MR. PACING: Building reuse. I don't know quite how you'd get to that. MR. HOWARD: Open house, one to three on Sunday. MS. ZIEGLER: Use it to do some demonstration of cooking. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Obviously this has to be dovetailed within the right timing of when we're going out to bid. MR. BLOMLEY: Well, that yeah, I'll have to I'll have to find out when these ads have to be in, set up a schedule; and then I'll be able to adjust the bid. MR. PACING: Now, in terms of what DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 24 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14- 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 the commission said last time, the commission gave an outaide budget of 20,000. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Right. MR. PACING: That was their kind of guidelines to us. MS. ZIEGLER: Total or just this phase? MR. PACINO: Well, looking for a total. MS. ZIEGLER: Previous expenditures too? MR. PACING: Well, no, just this phase. MS. ZIEGLER: Oh, okay. MR. BLOMLEY: Third phase. MR. PACINO: They gave us a cap and if we exceed the twenty, though, we have to go back and explain why. MR. VAN MAGNESS: My shot on it is with all these things here we ought to try to spend 10,000. I wouldn't go any more than ten. We may have to hit this another time. So let's not spend more than $10,000. By taking the Herald out of play here, okay, that moves you down to $8,000 on the DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1.5 16 17 18 19 20 . 21 22 23 24 25 bid. We're certainly within range, and with that Lawrence Eagle Tribunal, to spend ten grand. We might smash it in the Herald if you feel liberal. MR. PACING: You're cutting back the locals too? MR. VAN MAGNESS: Absolutely. MR. HOWARD: Yeah. MR. VAN MAGNESS: I think we are well under $10,000, and I say we ought to do it. I think if th-e other thing is important getting this pamphlet put together, we ought to try and use Bobbie to the maximum extent possible for that. She said she would help out on it. MR. PACING: Yeah, I agree. MS. ZIEGLER: What do we do, mail that to different real estate agents in town? MR. VAN MAGNESS: Yeah. MR. PACINO: Yes. Also get it up to the Middlesex Board of Realtors. Get it in there and get it posted. MR. VAN MAGNESS: We thought to Hunneman. Another company in Boston is Whittier Partners, they deal with commercial real estate. I have a name in there if you need to give Meredith DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 26 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Andrew, all the places we sent out for our appraisals. They also deal in real estate, sending them a brochure just to the right person might get it out in their department and they might come forward with somebody. MR. PACINO: Get somebody to the table, that's the objective. Okay. So I think we're looking to spend about 10,000. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Or less. MR. PACING: 10,000 or less. We're looking for, Jim, to get J.C. Marketing and Bobbie to work together and yourself work together on the project. MR. BLOMLEY: I want to make sure now, I'll whatever we, put together I want to make sure everybody sees it. We'll take the time to make sure everybody sees it before we put it out. MS. ZIEGLER: Give us a call and we'll just have to drop in. MR. BLOMLEY: I mean, just so you can know what it looks like. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Fax it to us. MR. PACINO: Yeah. MR. BLOMLEY: Yeah. DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 27 MS. ZIEGLER: Just call me, I'll come look at it. I don't have a fax. MR. PACINO: We can drop it off in the house, have an envelope dropped off at your house. MR. VAN MAGNESS: You want to arop down to the other stuff? MR. PACING: The other stuff is really I had Jim price out everything for the professional marketing agent if we want to go MR. VAN MAGNESS: Forget that. I want to get back up to the sign. Why can't we ask the vocational school before school is out, why don't we go to the go ahead. MR. BLOMLEY: I'm sure you could guide us on this. I have we have to go through a permit process to hang a sign. MR. VAN MAGNESS: A "for sale" sign? MS. ZIEGLER: A "for sale" sign? MR. VAN MAGNESS: I don't think so. MR. BLOMLEY: I would have to check it out. MS. ZIEGLER: Has to be one by one, right? DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 I MR. VAN MAGNESS: One by one what? MS. ZIEGLER: Feet. MR. VAN MAGNESS: What? MS. ZIEGLER: I think that's the limit. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Not in town. Every real estate agent in town is one by one. MR. HOWARD: I think it's the one by ones MS. ZIEGLER: Professional. MR. HOWARD: are the signs on the poles saying open house with the arrow, something like that. I think those are the one by one signs for real estate. MR. VAN MAGNESS: It would take about 15 minutes to call the town. MR. HOWARD: Call Jonathan Edwards. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Call Jonathan Edwards and find out how big of a sign we can put up there, a piece of plywood, you can hang on the building. Why can't we go to the sign shop at the vocational school and say we need a sign as a community service project, help us out, send down the trouble crew with a screw gun, hang it on the DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 29 building. That's $1,000 to come off this budget. MR. PACINO: I'll have a discussion with Reading representatives on the school committee. (Discussion off record) MR. VAN MAGNESS: like a reasonable way to do it? at work here, Dick. Does that sound You see the FinCom MR. HOWARD: I'm impressed. MR. PACING: We need to know what kind of sign we can put up on that building. MS. ZIEGLER: Public works has street signs they make. MR. BLOMLEY: I'll talk to Jonathan tomorrow. MR. PACINO: Find out where we can put it on the building, on the roof, does it have to go on the side or is there any restriction on where it can go. MS. ZIEGLER: Across the front door on the outside. MR. PACING: It's difficult if you look right now, there is a sign on the front door saying that we moved, that the department has DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 moved. It's very difficult to see from the street. MR. VAN MAGNESS: I was thinking about something up above the door. MS. ZIEGLER: Right across the entrance. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Yeah, a nice white sign with purple letters for Reading or something. MR. HOWARD: There you go. MR. VAN MAGNESS: X number of thousand square feet, call such and such for info. MS. ZIEGLER: Red and black, the Rocket colors. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Right, it's not going to take much. Send it over to the house, we'll paint it over the weekend. I don't know what this the second part of this is, the professional expense. MR. HOWARD: What does this note mean at the bottom of the page? MR. BLOMLEY: Oh, in the conversation that I had relative to the marketing of the property the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation markets all of the property for the federal government using the 80 percent guideline on all federal property. DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 _ 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 MR. HOWARD: I see. MR. BLOMLEY: So it's the appraised value or 80 percent, within that range. MR. HOWARD: I see. MR. BLOMLEY: Is where they can sell property. MR. HOWARD: Okay. MR. BLOMLEY: I thought it was very interesting to note that because that's exactly what we were attempting to do at town meeting. MR. VAN MAGNESS: But is the operative word in that market or is that that's synonymous with sells? MS. ZIEGLER: They put a price on it, don't they? MR. VAN MAGNESS: Yeah. MR. BLOMLEY: I didn't get that answer. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Read the Globe and if they're at 80 percent of appraised value on a lot of those properties, I would be surprised, maybe so. MR. BLOMLEY: I don't I didn't quarry them on that, on that part of it. I just thought it was an interesting point that that was DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 32 a that was a value that they arranged that they could operate in between 80 percent and the appraised value. MR. VAN MAGNESS: We all agree we're going to have a sign though. MR. PACINO: Yeah. MR. VAN MAGNESS: If we get the right assistance. MR. HOWARD: That's the sense of this informal group. MR. VAN MAGNESS: Right. MR. PACINO: That's right. MR. VAN MAGNESS: We can't make any decisions or act on anything. MR. HOWARD: And that's the direction of the light board board member. MR. PACING: Right, about a discussion with the general manager. MR. VAN MAGNESS: This has been an interesting unofficial meeting. MR. PACINO: Anything you want to discuss informally? MR. VAN MAGNESS: We are all discussing everything informally. DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC. ' 33 i 1 MR. PACINO: Do we have anything 2 further at this point? We've pretty much set the 3 budget. We haven't set the budget. We had a 4 discuss ion of the budget and a course of action to 5 go. At this point this is what the two objectives 6 that I saw for tonight were. 7 MR. HOWARD: Good. 8 MR. PACINO: So 9 MR. HOWARD: I guess it's allowable 10 to move to adjourn the informal meeting. 11 MR. PACING: We can decide to end it. 12 MR. VAN MAGNESS: I think it's a walk 13 away. 14 (Whereupon the discussion was adjourned 15 at 8:40 p.m.) 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 DORIS M. JONES & ASSOCIATES, INC.