WCCA NEWS and INFORMATION ROUND UP: August 13, 2015

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NOTE this blog may be updated
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Read this link if you claim to support public access / community media, if you claim to support media democracy, if you believe WE THE PEOPLE deserve our equal place in the media.
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https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/s1244/BILLS-114s1244is.pdf

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FROM the T&G:
The owner of the former Boys & Girls Club building on Ionic Avenue in Worcester has
filed for bankruptcy.
T&G Staff/Christine Hochkeppel

By Bob Kievra
Telegram & Gazette Staff

Posted Aug. 12, 2015 at 6:55 PM
WORCESTER – The development company for the old Boys & Girls Club on Ionic Avenue
has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is asking a judge to approve selling the
building to a Westwood carpentry business.
Developer James E. Levin’s Whiz Kids Development LLC sought bankruptcy protection
Tuesday, listing more than $620,000 in liabilities and assets of only $20,000 – the
valuation placed on the 40,000-square-foot property he had hoped to develop into 21
units of market-rate and affordable housing.
The city of Worcester and the state Department of Environmental Protection are among
the largest secured creditors. DEP has a $180,000 lien on the property in connection
with nonpayment for cleanup costs associated with the January 2011 leakage of more
than 100 gallons of fuel oil at the site, a DEP spokesman said.
In February 2011, the city gave Whiz Kids Development a $350,000 affordable housing
deferred loan. The property is also subject to an affordable housing restriction
which is part of the loan program. The city also holds a tax title to the property
for unpaid taxes and water bills for fiscal 2012.
In court papers, Whiz Kids took issue with the city’s assessed valuation for the
building, which was built in 1920.
“The market value of the debtor’s property is difficult to determine. It is a
derelict building that only has value as a teardown to someone seeking to develop
the block on which the property is situated. The property is assessed by the city of
Worcester at $620,000. This figure is a fantasy.”
According to online Worcester records, the property had an assessed value of
$680,300 for fiscal 2015.
Whiz Kids Development acquired the old Boys & Girls Club building in December 2010
for $250,000. In court papers Wednesday, Barry R. Levine, a lawyer for Whiz Kids,
said Peter Heaney, doing business as On-Site Carpentry of Westwood, has offered to
purchase the building for $107,000.
In 2012 Mr. Levin sought to immediately demolish the building. But the Worcester
Historical Commission rejected his request for a waiver to the one-year delay
required for the demolition of buildings listed in the Massachusetts Cultural
Resource Information System.
A meeting of creditors has been scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at the John W.
McCormack Post office and Court House in Boston.
Mr. Levin was also the businessman behind 5 May St., a failed 13-unit housing
project. The city acquired that property after it forced the sale by claiming that
Five May St. LLC failed to meet its obligation to provide 13 units of affordable
housing in 2011, as it originally contracted with the city to do.

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STAND TALL FOR THE CAP ACT TO PRESERVE PUBLIC ACCESS:
Read this link if you claim to support public access / community media, if you claim to support media democracy, if you believe WE THE PEOPLE deserve our equal place in the media.
If you agree with the above then thank you for supporting public access media in your community. Here in Worcester it’s WCCA TV “The People’s Channel”

https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/s1244/BILLS-114s1244is.pdf

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