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NBEDC offers free tax tips workshop for artists
 The
New Bedford Economic Development Council offers a series
of workshops to artists, performers and creative
entrepreneurs of New Bedford in order to provide them
with the tools needed to bring their endeavors to the
next level. The workshops topics vary and include
direction on pricing, marketing, building a business or
joining a cooperative group. The workshops are held at
UMass Dartmouth College of Visual and Performing Arts in
order to engage students and emerging artist as well as
mid-career artists.
The New Bedford Economic Development Council is offering
its next workshop “Tax Tips for Artists” on March 10,
2009 at 7:30pm. This is the latest in a free series of
presentations by business professionals for artist
called Essential Business Tools for Artists.
Shelley D. Coelho, Esquire (LL.M Taxation) in
Association with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts will
conduct the workshop which will be held at the UMass
Dartmouth College for Visual and Performing Arts, 1st
Floor lecture Room, downtown New Bedford at 715 Purchase
Street.... [read more]
New Bedford wants rest of PCB settlement money
 NEW
BEDFORD — City officials are pushing for the remaining
funds in the New Bedford Harbor trust to be allocated to
city projects, arguing that the money should be spent as
close as possible to where the damage from the
long-running contamination of the harbor occurred.
"The intent of this trust was to make sure that we begin
to repair the damage that had been done," Mayor Scott W.
Lang said. "This last major funding round, I want to see
the money infused into New Bedford."
Of the $19.1 million expended from the trust to date,
about a third has gone to projects in New Bedford or the
harbor, according to Jack Terrill, a fish and wildlife
administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmosphere
Administration.
The bulk of the money has been spent on projects outside
the immediate harbor vicinity, such as $1.5 million to
restore the tern habitat on islands off Marion and
Gosnold and almost $500,000 on the restoration of a
marsh in Nonquitt in South Dartmouth... [read more]
Port's shipping business quietly taking off
 It
was just a few years ago that not a single freighter
tied up to a New Bedford pier. Today, by comparison, it
is almost a traffic jam. About 28 freighters, most of
them offloading produce from northern Africa, are
scheduled to dock in the harbor this year, and the
future is looking bright.
Each freighter that arrives in port means employment for
as many as 50 people and helps spread the word
internationally that New Bedford is open for business,
say port officials.
Cranes and booms lifting pallets and containers are a
common sight today at North Terminal and State Pier,
which has been pressed into service in a deal last year
with Maritime Terminal Inc.
The new arrangement allows
Maritime the use of State Pier to handle larger vessels
that have trouble navigating the drawbridge and North
Terminal channel in heavy weather. In lieu of rent, for
now, Maritime is making improvements to the facility... [read more]
New Bedford considers future of Aerovox site
 After
almost two years of negotiations, the company
responsible for demolishing the old Aerovox mill is on
the verge of signing settlement agreements with the city
and state and federal environmental agencies that will
clear the way for the building to be razed in 2011,
officials said.
And while the cleanup of the site at 740 Belleville Ave.
will take several years, city officials are already
looking to the future and potential development
opportunities for the 10˝-acre parcel.
"You have to know where you want to go, and (Mayor Scott
W. Lang) has been clear that he doesn't simply want an
asphalt cap," said Matthew Morrissey, executive director
of the New Bedford Economic Development Council. "The
fully publicly vetted plans will be done well in advance
of when the site is fully clean."
While the city's plans for the site are still at a
conceptual stage, certain elements are likely to be
included in the final version: a recreational facility
such as a soccer field; open space and areas for public
gatherings; parking for the people who work in the
neighborhood... [read more]
New Bedford shows off its cultural revival
 City
leaders exercised their bragging rights Friday as the
Massachusetts Cultural Council came to town along with
guests from "Gateway Cities" across the state.
They came to the former Star Store — now UMass
Dartmouth's primary arts campus — to see how New Bedford
took all of the talk about building a cultural economy
downtown and actually did it.
Sen. Mark C.W. Montigny, D-New Bedford, asserted that
the effort required a considerable investment by the
city and especially by the state, but it worked. Putting
UMass into that building, he said, cost twice as much as
a new building on the Dartmouth campus Ring Road would
have. But the downtown was flat on its back and needed a
big economic boost, and UMass promised to be it.
"We put millions of dollars into the downtown, and we
created a critical mass" for cultural economic
development, he said.
The downtown went from a blight of empty or struggling
storefronts, a place where nobody lived or wanted to
live, to a place so vibrant that "it's hard to find
parking, and sometimes it's hard to sleep at night"
because of the restaurants and clubs and AHA! nights,
Montigny said... [read more]
City Brownfield sites reviewed for economic development and
job creation opportunities
 The
City of New Bedford Office of Environmental Stewardship
and the New Bedford Economic Development Council have
formed a Brownfields Task Force of partners and
stakeholders with the goal to identify Brownfield sites
in the city that have the highest economic development
and job creation potential for targeted EPA assessment
funding.
On March 11 at 6:00PM, a meeting will be held to inform
the public of the work of the Task Force to date,
present the recommended sites based on selection
criteria, and to provide a forum for public input and
feedback. The meeting will be held at the New Bedford
Economic Development Council, Third Floor, 1213 Purchase
Street, New Bedford MA 02740.
The Task Force used the following criteria in making its
site specific recommendations:
* Feasibility/Potential for Results: sites with the
potential to be developed in a way that contributes to
the economic revitalization of the City (important for
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds), and/or to
improve quality of life, and/or to restore natural
resources
* Ownership: sites in the inventory owned or likely to
be owned as a result of tax foreclosure by the City or a
public entity or where owner will provide access
* Health/ Environmental Risk: sites where the potential
for contamination to impact health, safety or the
environment is greatest... [read more]
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