Board of Aldermen 02-23-2021 Page 16
| do understand that as a developer you want to make sure that you’re not, that you don’t your opportunities to
other ones but | also was around when this was put out for bid. We sat on it for like 4 years at least where
nobody else offered a plan. So | don’t think the developer is going to face stiff competition for this. | think this
is something that we just want to make sure we have all of the communication on file and that everybody who
is involved in the decision making can confidently say they knew exactly what they were getting into when they
did it, just to provide accountability.
President Wilshire
All set, Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Lopez
Yes.
President Wilshire
Alderman Clemons? All set? Alderman O’Brien.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you Madam President. | just want to speak a little bit in favor of this amendment because it is moving
the project forward. For those of you who have any inkling of building and everything, the ground is starting to
thaw; spring is around the corner and this project should be starting soon. So it does have a timely manner.
But that doesn’t mean jeopardize that we don’t do our due diligence. | feel we have. Now Alderman Jette has
brought up the questions of parking and parking spaces and say some of it wasn’t really clear. Some of the
meetings | have been to that issue has been really discussed ad nauseum. In other words, you’ve got to look
at some of the stakeholders or people who live in that particular neighborhood. And | think you come to know
of a good gentleman, Mr. Jim Rafferty, who is the owner of the River Casino, the River Club. And he, in the
beginning, was extremely concerned about the parking and depletion of parking spaces. Thus, the project got
moved up with the parking spaces underneath. Much care was brought in with it, much listening and input
from people who now, like Mr. Rafferty, support this project.
At the end of the day when you go to look what’s underneath that particular building that is going to be built on
the site, and look at the current number of parking spaces, but with the re-modifications and then this is me
speaking as Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee. A lot of things are a puzzle that we are going to put
together and that’s going to be the redistricting of some of the parking that’s going to be done in the School
Street. So if we look at is there going to be a loss to any parking in the area, the answer is probably, maybe 10
spaces. That is not bad compared to what is going on at that particular facility. So therefore, a lot of due
diligence has been done. | would like to see this project, because we are in the beginning of the building
season, that it starts to go forward. | think our due diligence has been met and | think it’s time to move this
project forward. Thank you very much, Madam President.
President Wilshire
You're welcome. Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee
Thank you Madam President. | know that we have talked about this and it sat on the table for a while and so
on. | do remember asking the question about parking spaces. | do remember asking would the number of
spaces that fall under the building equal those that were being removed and the answer was “not exactly”. |
don’t recall offhand and | was trying to go through my notes really quickly if numbers were given and | believe
that they were given. But what was significant that | did write in my notes that the way that they are doing the
