10.13.2026 City Council

The Fall River City Council and its Real Estate, Facilities and Housing and Finance committees met on October 13, 2026. Discussion focused on municipal facility projects. The Third Street parking garage repair, led by East Coast Masonry with Tyin Bond as designer and Left Field as owner’s project manager, had slipped from an expected September completion to mid-December. Officials cited concealed concrete and reinforcing deterioration; the garage is closed, and the city has had to relocate parkers and arrange replacement spaces. The council requested original and updated schedules, information on monthly revenue impacts, liquidated damages, and the cost and scope effects of value engineering, including a possible reduction in waterproofing. Officials said they expected to provide more information at a follow-up meeting in November; no final cost figure was provided. For the Bank Street Armory, officials reported $55,000 in Community Preservation funding and a $30,000 state historic-preservation grant (total $85,000) for a building assessment. The city was pursuing the assessment through a house-doctor arrangement with Stark Architects rather than a new competitive bid, and expected quotes for vegetation removal. A separate, long-delayed administration-building window project was also raised, but the committee did not receive a clear status update or purchase timeline.

The council approved tax-increment financing agreements for three housing projects—Thomas A. Edison LLC on Hartwell Street, Charlton Mills Lofts LLC at 109 House Street, and Cornell Lofts LLC at 650 Plymouth Avenue—each by a 5–3 vote. The agreements use an 80% exemption for five years followed by a 20% exemption for five years; members raised concerns about the tax impact and called for exploring alternative schedules and affordable-housing commitments. The council also approved a $375,000 transfer from EMS revenues to EMS salaries and adopted a resolution for a Finance Committee review of the city’s employer health trust fund, including an outside financial audit. It referred a request for a Pearl Street garage project presentation to Finance. No new construction contract award or final garage repair cost was approved at this meeting.