Willington Housing Authority
60 Old Farms Road
March 11, 2013 Meeting Minutes
Present: Chairman Robert Campbell; Vice-Chairman Wilbur Gangaway; members Don Berg, Laurel Millix; financial consultant David Berto; clerk Brenda Sullivan. Absent: Treasurer Claudia D’Agata
1. Call to order – Chairman R. Campbell called the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m.
2. Present to speak – opportunity for members of the public to speak – None.
3. Old Business – Senior Housing “Button Hill”
D. Berto reported that project Atty Jim Scaramossa has completed the following documents: land lease, easements (access and utility easement re: the main road; sanitary and sewer easement, to hook into the field and senior center; and an amendment to the existing access easement for the Senior Center – to remove a section from the easement area because one of the Button Hill structures will be constructed in that section), the tax agreement with the town – and he has two copies – one each for WHA and First Selectman. The access easement involves the Town of Willington and ASHoW (ACCESS Senior Housing of Willington/ Willington Woods) and needs approval by HUD.
D. Berto said the map also will be reissued to indicate the triangle of area removed, and this will be the map referenced in all of the documents.
Regarding the tax agreement, D. Berto said it simply implements the wording of the resolution passed at the Town Meeting.
D. Berto also said he spoke with L. Wagner and Associates regarding spending the EDI/Town infrastructure money. L. Wagner, administrator of the EDI money, said they need all of the plans and specs; and then will establish a budget, to be followed by a meeting between L. Wagner, D. Berto and the Town. Also, it will need to be established that Gardener & Peterson can be the civil engineers on this part of the project, and establish a bid package.
D. Berg asked about Gardener & Peterson’s list/schedule of tasks. D. Berto said there’s about $300,000 to spend for construction. He asked Eric Peterson to make a list and sequence of work to use the funds effectively. The first part of the sequence is to clear and grade the site, then dig up the parking lot – while trying to minimize disruption for the Senior Center – and put in the site drainage in that area so the parking lot can be rebuilt… then install site drainage in the rest of the site. So, WHA would go out to bid with these tasks and alternates, and continue until the most of the funds are spent – but stop work so that the site can be seeded and stabilized while waiting to begin construction.
D. Berg said he is concerned that the Board of Selectmen is entering the budget-planning/voting season and this could mean any meetings with the WHA, D. Berto, etc. to keep this project moving forward might be delayed.
D. Berto also reported that the DECD has been paying bills submitted by the WHA except for a $650 bill for cost estimating; he recommended this bill be paid from the WHA budget line. D. Berto said these funds can be recovered later.
W. Gangaway made a motion to approve paying the $650 bill from WHA funds; D. Berg seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously.
R. Campbell said he would sign/approve for payment the $650 bill and get it to C. D’Agata for payment.
R. Campbell talked about the Town previously moving about $4,000 into the WHA account – which was then removed from the EDI funds. He said the WHA should ask the Board of Selectmen to now move money from EDI funds into the WHA budget line, which would pay for bills such as the $650 for cost estimates.
W. Gangaway moved to approve paying the $650 bill, D. Berg seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously.
D. Berto noted the “old EDI funds” is no longer EDI, it’s just town money allocated to the project. The EDI grant that was closed out for the senior housing is the surplus.
Regarding these funds, the WHA passed the following resolution: (D. Berg moved, L. Millix seconded; motion passed unanimously.)
Resolved that the Willington Housing Authority (WHA) ask the Willington Board of Selectmen to transfer from the closed-out Town EDI grant surplus funds the amount of $3,000, to the WHA, in the same manner as the last transfer.
R. Campbell asked that a copy of the resolution be emailed to him and he would transmit the resolution to First Selectman Christina B. Mailhos.
Regarding project funding, D. Berto said that applications for tax credits (HTCC – small tax credits up to $500,000) are due May 1. He said the applications are rated based on a point structure which is expected to be announced soon. He said it can be assumed that the point structure will be very similar to ones used in the past. He said the WHA project would score poorly, only about 70 points out of about 135 points, partly because a project needs to show it has a building permit (would lose 5 points), and it would lose 15 points because WHA doesn’t have all its funding. So it’s not worth WHA’s time to submit an application for these credits. He added that a project gets more points if it includes three-bedroom units (20 points) and if it includes “very low income” housing.
R. Campbell commented that the point structure doesn’t seem to be geared toward senior housing projects.
D. Berto also said the WHA project would be at a disadvantage because it’s in a rural area.
He added that another program, CHAMP III, is accepting applications due in May. Based on a point scale of 200 points, WHA could score between 120-135 points – however, this program also asks for proof of all funding commitments… so WHA could resubmit an application during CHAMP’s second round when more of WHA’s funding commitments are in place.
R. Campbell asked if the WHA can submit preliminary paperwork to a bank they want to work with to make sure that bank will take it on (the Federal Home Loan Bank application). D. Berto said the WHA should start preparing the approach a bank now, i.e. Eastern Federal out of Norwich, and should begin preparing the CHAMP application now.
There was discussion about banks that might be approached, including Dime Bank, the Savings Institute (Willimantic), etc. R. Campbell suggested beginning with Eastern Federal now and not waiting until September.
W. Gangaway suggested putting out feelers to more than one bank, in case there’s a problem with Eastern Federal, and thereby not lose momentum. R. Campbell said he would be concerned that if the banks are communicating with each other, issues might arise.
R. Campbell said he would arrange a meeting between D. Berto and Eastern Federal. D. Berto said WHA could give the bank the Federal Home Loan underwriting and CHAMP underwriting.
D. Berto said the Federal Home Loan application is due Sept. 13, 2013 but the application cannot be accessed until July 29. He said they won’t announce their scoring structure until April 5.
D. Berto said the WHA needs more non-taxed funding and maybe CHFA could supply a 4 percent tax credit (based on program costs) but the WHA would have to create a limited partnership in order to exchange federal tax credits with an investor. R. Campbell said he worked with Atty. Scaramossa on this kind of thing in the past.
D. Berg said the WHA needs to look for more “free” money in order to drive down the mortgage cost, which would lower rents.
D. Berto said a 4 percent tax credit could be equivalent to 20 percent of the project. WHA would also need to minimize its risk in case the project didn’t go forward. He said that if you don’t operate properly the investor would be subject to penalties from the IRS for accepting “fraudulent” money. He said the challenge is that “players” tend to be attracted to larger projects. He suggested Local Initiative Support Corp. (LISC) in Hartford, which helps small organizations develop housing and has relationships with the National Equity Fund, which will offer tax credits to small project. R. Campbell asked D. Berto to begin conversations with LISC now.
R. Campbell said that in the meantime, D. Berto should try to get things moving with L. Wagner so preliminary site work can begin.
D. Berto asked W. Gangaway to ask the First Selectmen if it would be OK for Atty Scaramossa to speak directly to the town attorney about the documents (lease, easements, tax agreement, etc.).
4. New Business
D. Berg talked about a Z-Rec solar energy program that could help pay for utilities over a 15-year period. RFPs come out in April and WHA could submit a bid. D. Berto said installing solar usually adds points to a funding application.
R. Campbell reported that there’s been discussion by the town about standardizing how and how much recording clerks/secretaries are paid.
5. Approval of minutes – The minutes were approved with the following corrections: Correct year, 2013, in heading; line 69 “how much funding”; line 104 “then will give those to the Town. W. Gangaway moved to approve the corrected minutes, L. Millix seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously.
6. Treasurer’s report – The treasurer’s report was distributed. The only recent expense was for secretarial services, $53.83 leaving a balance of $3,657.40.
7. Correspondence – None.
8. Adjourn – Meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Brenda Sullivan
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