Thread by @asanderford

Just to let you know your government goes on, I’m at a @mecaomaha board meeting.

And we are all practicing social distancing.

They're being strict here about how many folks can attend. If they hit 10, a staffer will be asked to leave and listen in by teleconference.

For those curious, Susie Buffett is not attending.

But she's dialing in. Here's why:

omaha.com/livewellnebras…

City waived public meeting quorum requirement so they could meet by phone, Diane Duren says.

Katie Bassett of MECA is talking about Tri-Parks: Continued progress with demolition and grading. Last meeting talked about monitoring existing buildings for vibrations. Keeping those existing buildings as they were before construction.

Bassett: In the coming weeks will begin rebuilding 13th Street. Folks will be working on A Street as well. In April, installing deep utilities, including storm and sanity sewers. Project will be ahead with some aspects.

Bassett: Demolition and grading in Heartland of America Park will begin in April. With this earlier than anticipated start date, team is working to get the fill and rest ready.

Bassett: Design team is continuing its work. (Updated drawings coming.) We regularly hold teleconference meetings so all design and construction work will continue as planned. For PR aspects, we've had minimal PR ops last month but have entered in publications.

Bassett: Continue to do our newsletter monthly. Dana Bradford: Have you heard from Kiewit yet about job site interruptions and slowdowns from care people have to take? Bassett: We've had lengthy discussions about this, and as of right now, our construction is not slowing down.

Bassett: Those out in the field are able to limit how close they are. They're limiting meetings and teleconferencing where needed.

Pretty straightforward approvals of some contracts and amendments. I'll try to get my hands on them so I can tell you more.

Pretty quick meeting. The regular MECA meeting is next, at about 1:15 p.m.

They always lead with Tri-Parks, the Gene Leahy Mall, Heartland of America Park and Lewis & Clark Landing.

Oh. They're going to go ahead and get started. MECA.

Roger Dixon leading off: Interesting times, dealing with the restrictions being placed on us with coronavirus. We have had 6 concerts that fortunately all six will be rescheduled into next fiscal year. And we continue to work with all of them. All have dates but Blake Shelton.

Dixon: That (Shelton) may move into 2021. We also have the Creighton graduation that is supposed to be in May. It might be moved. WWE has moved. We've lost the NCAA basketball tournament, the international horse show, TD Ameritrade Park has lost the Creighton baseball team.

Dixon: We've lost the CWS, the Big Ten baseball tournament. The home run derby has reached out and held dates and that's going to happen. Got some interesting news that at this moment, the Japan Olympics is still on. They're waiting on the Swim Trials.

Dixon: That means the Swim Trials will hopefully take place. A lot of the conventions, the annuals we have like Home Instead and Right at Home, CRE, have all pushed back into the year, 8 of those staying. Lost a number of other ones. Some of them substantial.

Dixon: If everything holds out the way we want it to, we hope by the end of the year we can break even. We're not yet having employees work from home. We have distance issues in play. We're not cramped in our offices. 25 in cubes, social distancing is being observed.

Dixon: We're fortunate. We don't have any intentions of laying people off. Our event staff won't get a lot of work, but we're lucky a lot of those are retirees. With our reserves, if this thing goes a month or more, we should be fine.

Dixon: We don't know what's going to happen from one minute to the next, because as soon as you say this is not going to happen, it does. We are watching what's going on and trying to do the best we can.

Dana Bradford: What are we doing with people who have a deposit? Dixon: Right now, for those that have canceled within this time window, they are getting that back. Fortunately, several of them are annuals so they're trying to push it to that timeframe.

Bradford: Anyone who was planning on doing business with us was essentially made whole from MECA? Dixon: Yes. Once the governor declared a state of emergency, that brought into effect the ability to do this.

Dixon: The eight weeks, that window, that's what we're doing. We were shutting down with the installation of the pool around the Swim Trials, so we didn't have much booked there around that.

Duren: This is becoming a timing issue, not a revenue issue.

Dixon: The equestrian event and the Globetrotters, we've lost. We won't recoup that money.

Bradford: If a concert is canceled and rescheduled, that ticket is still good? Dixon: Right.

Dixon: Ticketing groups got inundated. We got a lot of complaints. People will get their refunds if they want it. They'll just have to be patient. It's not MECA.

Bradford: It's the ticket company or the NCAA. It's not a revenue hit for us. We are waiting on a protocol for that.

Dixon: Most of this will end up a credit to your credit card, if sought.

Dixon: It's pretty much the story for anybody across the industry.

Bradford: We'll need to work on a protocol for what those refund procedures will be.

Dixon: The simplest answer is go back to your point of purchase. The secondary market is a totally different scenario.

Dixon: We can't control that.

Bradford: For folks more financially challenged than they were, the decision to get the cash back may be more important today than it's been in a long, long time.

Kristyna Engdahl, MECA spokeswoman: We're asking for patience. Once things are rescheduled or finalized, then we can go on to the process for how to seek refunds.

Bob?: Got an email from the NCAA and it provides information about either applying my payment for this year's series to next year or ask for a refund and pay again for the 2021 CWS. The NCAA is beginning to roll out a refund process.

Facilities leader, Kevin: We are deep cleaning the entire building. Estimating that will be done by the end of March. We switched our disinfectant. We located one that was in stock. Its kill list includes coronavirus.

Kevin: We'll be wiping every chair. We are treating this like a typical July or August, when it's slow. We're doing maintenance. We're painting. Looking for broken chairs.

His name is Kevin Raymond, VP of Operations

Chris VanDorn from Levy, the in-house concessionaire: We will get credit for much of what we are able to return. Many of our orders have been effectively canceled.

VanDorn: Chef Tyler will work with Saving Grace to donate all of our product we can donate to the people who need it.

VanDorn: We have suspended all services with regular charges so we don't have to be charged until we need them and we've stopped all non-essential purchases.

Kristyna Engdahl, PR: As we continue to get concert postponements and cancellations, we're working with partners. We launched a CHI Health Center updates webpage that talks about precautions we're taking and event updates for people to access at their leisure.

Tom, from internal governance: Reviewed the historical financials. Projections look abysmal. But we have the reserves to weather this storm.

Dana Bradford: It's still very busy in the neighborhood. Continue to monitor the construction under way and how those projects affect infrastructure. Some of that is a moot point now, road closures and openings, how to move trucks into and out of the area and the timing.

Bradford: Haven't heard of any projects that have hit the shelf. Things might go a little slower, but I see nothing yet that I expect to stop.

It's not Dana Bradford. Forgive me. It's Jay Noddle.

Any place above I used Dana it's Jay. If Twitter had an edit button, I'd fix.

They're going through some housekeeping approvals, new light bulbs, etc.

Fire inspection systems inspection and the like. Looks like we are wrapping up soon. Thank you for following along.

And please remember, if you read back through these, that Jay Noddle was the MECA board member speaking when I wrote Dana Bradford in those tweets. (Sigh.)

@threadreaderapp Please unroll.