[0:16] Going down another room sounds

[0:26] we zip through.

[0:30] Uh, >> be a long one. How many

[0:34] » city council? >> How many do we need for

[0:36] » people? We need five. You fine. >> I know. I'm just I'm on call up the

[0:42] street >> and and

[0:46] Gary's going to be late, so it'll be perfect. this slab end

[0:56] » meeting can start as long as I read it soon as we have five people but if

[1:00] somebody leaves we just can't vote on anything

[1:05] » so I should start it >> and

[1:09] well your bylaws already say that to pass something city council you need you

[1:14] have to vote well there has to be at least five votes any affirmative to move

[1:19] some of these side. >> We can tell, right?

[1:22] » Yeah, we can go. >> Six.

[1:25] » We can get >> Oh, it's six now, isn't it? Oh,

[1:28] » 59. >> Hi.

[1:30] » Hi. >> What?

[1:34] » So, who who's all meeting in there? >> City council is meeting in there.

[1:39] » Just on the bike. >> I think there's a lot of trails council

[1:43] people there because they're talking about reserve bluffs easily. Oh, that

[1:47] they're doing that. Okay. >> Okay.

[1:49] » Okay. Now, all the clocks in the room say 6:00. So, we can officially begin

[1:54] this meeting of the downtown management board on August 18th. That's 6 pm. We

[1:59] are sitting with quorum. So, we'll get rolling with our consent agenda. I'd be

[2:06] happy to entertain a motion on the consent agenda if somebody wanted to

[2:10] extend it. I would like to make a motion to pass

[2:13] the consent agenda as it reads. >> Thanks, Robin.

[2:17] » Second. >> Thanks, Joe.

[2:19] » All those in favor say I. >> I.

[2:23] » All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

[2:26] » We will move on to public comment. I don't see anybody in here. They're

[2:31] next door. So, moving on to new business. Uh, let's see. We're starting

[2:38] off with discussion and possible recommendation on the 2027 programs and

[2:43] services budget. Turn it over to Miss Tweet.

[2:52] » It

[2:55] sorry about that

[3:02] doublesided drawn off.

[3:22] Oh, guess I got Hang on. Sorry. Nope. Not

[3:55] I don't have people to help the science wants to be

[4:09] up. I don't know. >> Share your screen. Is that what you're

[4:12] doing? >> There we are.

[4:16] Should be sharing. All right. There we go.

[4:23] There we go. Okay. Uh proposed 2027 programs and services budget.

[4:30] Good evening, Noah.

[4:36] » Uh major revenue categories.

[4:44] Uh for the budget assessments, a pro proposed increase of 3.2%

[4:52] is estimated to raise $129,000. Uh sponsorships and program revenue. uh

[5:01] we have about a 34% proposed reduction shown with the removal of the trolley

[5:07] and sounds of summer sponsorship but that uh we are our proposed budget

[5:13] revenue is 27,500 and then the remainder of the major

[5:20] revenue category is programs and services

[5:24] um which we're proposing at about a 1% increase over what was budgeted for 2026

[5:30] at 39,390.

[5:37] On the expenditure side, uh total again the total budget for 2027 is proposed at

[5:44] $200,700. Uh on events, total of events is

[5:50] $64,000. The largest expenditure in that category

[5:55] are for winter weekend winter wonderland weekend at 25,000

[6:00] and sounds of summer at 13,000. Um and now that win the 25,000

[6:07] some of that it's um let's see look at the line item but we

[6:13] have a large expenditures but a lot of that is then also under revenue because

[6:19] we have um the ice sculptures. So we have

[6:25] projected 12,000 in re. So the total net expenditure actually for winter

[6:33] wonderland weekend is 13,000 which is the same as summer. So those are our two

[6:38] big uh event expenditures. Uh the budget is proposing keeping

[6:44] economic enhancement at 6,000 and then marketing and promotions at

[6:50] 108,500. Included in that category is the staff

[6:56] expense to implement which means wages and um benefits

[7:02] um and that's at 185. And then overhead

[7:07] which includes uh office operations at 22,000.

[7:16] » How much of the marketing and promotions is wages? Is it broken out again?

[7:19] » I'm sorry. >> How much of the marketing and promotions

[7:21] is wages? >> Uh that is 80. I believe

[7:27] » that's the new hire. >> Correct.

[7:31] » Including benefits. >> $80,000 plus benefits.

[7:35] 65

[7:40] 80 wages and benefits.

[7:49] So again, the total budget is 200,700 which is 14,721

[7:56] less than the current year budget primarily due to the loss of trolley

[8:02] sponsorship. Um

[8:06] so this is a breakdown uh our current year assessment so that what we are

[8:12] increasing at 3.2% is about 64% of our budget. We're using

[8:19] about 20% of our budget is coming from previous year assessments

[8:25] um which is called the fund balance. 14% is program revenue and then there the

[8:31] mis miscellaneous fees and interest and then expenditures marketing and

[8:37] promotions and again that does include the staff to carry out those marketing

[8:41] and promotions at 54% uh events which is either

[8:49] um purchasing thing for the events or it's

[8:53] primarily the expenditures or marketing of the events Um, and then overhead is

[8:58] at 32%, overhead is at 11%, and economic enhancement is at 3%.

[9:09] So, I am happy to answer any questions or I can pull up the

[9:14] uh year projected year end to budget if you

[9:20] like.

[9:26] I I'm not asking for any changes to the budget, but I'll just, you know, for

[9:31] discussion purposes call out and it's it's been like this for for some time,

[9:36] but it's always a bit of an irony to me that our biggest event expenditure is a

[9:41] winter event, which at least from my perspective is is uh counter to certain

[9:49] marketing fundamentals, right? that you're going to get more juice out of

[9:52] the squeeze in the summer than you do with a winter. So lead time for

[9:57] retailers and restaurants. I always value that fact that that's our biggest

[10:04] community is a little counter to how I think about timing with spend around

[10:09] marketing. Um and it's again it's been like that for a while. I just think you

[10:13] think about it long term. Um so it's you know

[10:18] » well and it again I mean it looks like a lot more but as I said it's about the

[10:22] same >> right when you bring out the revenue so

[10:26] we are spending the same amount on our biggest winter weekend

[10:32] um visitor-wise our numbers on that weekend are probably

[10:38] I trying to remember if they were higher than open house last year. It's I think

[10:43] it was I thought it was sex. >> Yeah, I don't remember. But

[10:49] » either beat >> I think it either beat open house or it

[10:52] beat um it I don't think it beat sidewalk sales. So I think it beat open

[10:56] house. >> Yeah. And sidewalk

[11:01] » Yeah, because and again because winter weekend is the whole weekend we're

[11:04] counting the people is how many people are here for the whole weekend.

[11:09] » Um >> opposed to a single day.

[11:11] Yeah. >> Yeah. And it's Well, and we get a lot of

[11:15] revenues off of the sponsorships for the ice sculptures and stuff like that. So,

[11:20] some of it just kind of is money changing hands, but um I I understand

[11:26] what you're saying. Um >> and then out of curiosity, how many of

[11:30] the movies got have gotten cancelled so far this summer?

[11:34] So far, we cancelled one and we have we've rescheduled the one to this

[11:40] Friday, but I'm watching the weather because as of right now, rain is

[11:45] projected for Friday, but and we so I haven't been really promoting that we're

[11:50] doing it Friday because I don't want to promote it on camp.

[11:54] » So, we have six weekends. Is it? I don't >> Five weekends we've six, but we didn't

[11:59] get another >> Yeah. sponsor. just,

[12:01] » you know, for what it's worth, we're canceling,

[12:04] you know, a third of the movies. I love the movies in the park. You know, sure

[12:09] it's a lot of labor and expense to do it.

[12:12] » Uhhuh. Yeah. Well, yeah. Each of the movies is $500 with shipping. Um because

[12:17] we get the DVDs. Um and yet it it's late nights,

[12:24] » but people do love it. They really >> charming. Yeah.

[12:27] » Um

[12:30] » but it it's one of the I mean it's the sounds of summer we had to cancel too.

[12:35] » Yeah. >> And it's just one of the and that's

[12:38] that's the good thing that we're going away from sponsors for that event

[12:44] because then we don't you know but for movies in the park the good thing about

[12:48] the movies in the park if we cancel a movie get a credit the following year.

[12:53] So that means if we get five sponsors next year, we actually have six weeks of

[12:58] movies. So it's not a total loss, but it is when you're dealing with the

[13:05] outdoor stuff, it's just >> the movies in the park were always just

[13:09] like, you know, ever since we lost the downtown movie theater, there was this

[13:13] desire to bring back some of that energy.

[13:17] » Yeah. >> You know, I don't know if we're still on

[13:20] track to do that. I don't know if the conversation should shift back to how we

[13:23] get a movie theater downtown again. You know,

[13:26] » we've had that discussion, >> but you know,

[13:30] » we may be running out of this point. >> Oh, yeah.

[13:34] » Well, I mean, I think too, just to play off what you're saying, like you see the

[13:37] comments on, you know, social media about, you know, festival festival by

[13:41] the Bay and like some other bigger events. Do we have an in something that

[13:45] we could, you know, figure out how to have like a big event for Paskki that

[13:50] people are excited about? You know, sidewalk is cool, but you know, that's a

[13:53] lot of work. Um, you know, we talked about closing down the street overnight

[13:56] and doing music on, you know, on Hot Street or Main Street. You know, like I

[14:01] think that would be a big draw. Um, but I do I think it's, you know, for events,

[14:06] I think it's, you know, how do we put our heads together to do something

[14:08] that's, you know, a big draw for this area,

[14:11] » right? And is it a down? Yeah. I mean, it was

[14:16] at Bayfront Park, but but and and I I almost think that's also why the

[14:22] hometown block party was so successful because people were just really wanted

[14:28] that kind of event. And it was very much a community event where non all the

[14:34] nonprofits showed up, churches showed up that I mean, everybody took a piece of

[14:38] it and brought their people with them. So

[14:41] » that was the third party.

[14:43] » What was it called? >> I remember

[14:47] that hotel block party. >> Yeah.

[14:50] » Potl. >> Yeah, it was a great event.

[14:53] » A lot of lot of people there. >> They had a potluck and they grilled a

[14:56] bunch. >> And that was what organization do that?

[14:59] » It was the Fourth of July group who kind of spearheaded it for the 250th. Are

[15:05] they continuing as a group at all or they just

[15:08] » No, they've they've been a group for I think that was their

[15:11] » stars and stripes >> maybe it's like exploring some kind of

[15:15] long-term partnership with them to downtown

[15:18] » community pot lock. It can be pretty lowfi and kind of cool.

[15:22] » Yeah, I think those guys probably >> would want to have a conversation.

[15:28] though >> cuz they they build it as

[15:32] I talked to them a little bit and they were like, "Well, we really only want to

[15:35] do it one year, but everybody kind of liked it." So,

[15:39] » we should be a victim of their own success.

[15:42] » So, >> I think it's definitely worth the

[15:44] conversation. >> Like, I'd be curious too to see how the

[15:48] beards uh fall fest goes too, you know, see, you know, getting individual

[15:53] businesses that kind of group up together

[15:55] » to do something, how that goes. If there's a big draw, then you know, we

[15:58] know there's a draw for something like that.

[16:01] » Yeah. Emily did tell me she realized afterwards it's actually the um

[16:06] » Bo Mountain.

[16:12] It's just something to take people from there and bring them here. So, I mean,

[16:17] it's one of those things in the summer, everybody is having events, so you're

[16:20] going to be pulling people from somewhere, right?

[16:24] » Yeah. competing for attention. Yeah. Cool.

[16:30] There's some good thoughts though and definitely probably

[16:35] maybe something we should consider before we finalize the budget.

[16:39] » What's that? >> If we want to look at something like the

[16:42] block party or >> Yeah. I mean that Well, we currently

[16:46] fund them at this year. We increased them from a,000 to,500

[16:52] » for the fireworks. I know that. Well, it's just for the Fourth of July group.

[16:57] So, what they actually use it for. >> Got it.

[16:59] » I do know that group's actually meeting and they're not 100% sure they're going

[17:05] to continue doing the fireworks. So, um so I but yeah, I mean we do have

[17:14] the 1500 in. I guess we can always come back and amend.

[17:17] » Yeah. >> Okay.

[17:18] » Um unless I mean that's fine. want to put more in now, too. I'm sure they

[17:24] would love that. >> Well, I think we should

[17:28] » without anything concrete. >> Yeah.

[17:29] » Yeah. I think it'd be hard to do that, but just the appetite of having

[17:34] something in the summer makes sense. Um, but I think also this year you did a

[17:39] nice job of finding areas that we could limit spending to

[17:45] try to get ourselves a little bit more to walk ourselves towards a more

[17:50] balanced budget, if you will. So,

[17:53] » yeah, I mean, we clearly need to pump up our program revenue or find some other

[18:00] source of revenue >> contribution from the general fund

[18:04] perhaps. >> Yeah. Right. God forbid.

[18:10] » Uh any other questions? Now we are early. It's the August

[18:17] meeting. Um you know, if there's questions, there's things you want

[18:22] revisited. We can postpone this until

[18:27] next month or um if you're ready, we could move it forward to city council.

[18:38] We have to wait to find out about like the holiday parade for how what that

[18:42] turns out to be. >> We could we have that meeting Thursday.

[18:48] Um

[18:52] » because that if that and if we decide that we're

[18:57] not having it, where are we putting that? So

[19:00] » true. Let's see. So right now we have we're projecting revenue of 2500 and

[19:05] expenditure of

[19:12] » three. So we're really only projecting spending $500,

[19:18] » but we may not get that level of sponsorship either or multiple sponsors.

[19:23] Who knows? So,

[19:27] we could I mean that that's going to be the

[19:31] question is if it turns out the band is not

[19:37] interested in being in the holiday parade, do we go forward with the

[19:40] holiday parade?

[19:46] So, so that will be it's probably a good reason to postpone action or

[19:52] recommendation, I guess. Good. We will hopefully have an answer

[19:57] for on the public for next next month and then I will also likely schedule the

[20:05] DDA by annual meeting for next month as well.

[20:10] » Okay. Uh all right then.

[20:18] Perfect. Thanks everybody. Moving shifting gears a little bit to the DMB

[20:24] document amendment review and approval. >> Okay. Uh this was discussion about the

[20:32] inconsistency between the bylaws and the meeting contact policy. Uh so in your

[20:38] packet you have a red line version unless I printed it black then it's just

[20:42] black line. Uh so it's changing the conduct policy just to say provided that

[20:48] a quorum is present which has five members a majority of those members in

[20:52] attendance on a meeting shall be required to adopt a motion that has been

[20:55] made and supported except for any motion that is passed on to city council for

[20:59] its approval. Must have the affirmative vote of five members.

[21:06] » Support. >> I have support. Do I have a second?

[21:09] » I'll second. >> We have a second. Um, all those in favor

[21:14] say I. >> I.

[21:16] » All oppose. Same sign. That was easy. Motion carries,

[21:22] » buddy. >> Easy.

[21:24] » Um, let's see. Then we'll move on to reports by downtown management board

[21:29] committees and staff and block it. >> Block it just in case. Um, okay. So this

[21:37] month we did not get a quorum for marketing and promotions and we did not

[21:41] get a quorum for the design committee. Uh parking mobility and accessibility

[21:45] met and you do have those notes. A couple um updates from what is in the

[21:52] notes from April. Uh on the payment repree

[21:59] you had um so so they sent out 286 letters.

[22:06] Uh the tickets just the ticket amount owed is 67,820.

[22:13] Um, as of today, we have um

[22:23] much paid $2,15 and I think that's on eight or nine

[22:28] license plate numbers. Um, but it was 100 staff hours, $225 postage.

[22:36] Um, we've gotten I don't know how many more letters they've gotten returned,

[22:41] but it was 19 on the 11th and um,

[22:47] » so when how long does it last again? I'm sorry.

[22:49] » Sorry. Or expires date of August. >> No, September. It's two months.

[22:53] » Oh, September. >> Yeah.

[22:55] » So far, we've spent about as much in labor as we've received in revenue.

[22:59] » Yeah. So,

[23:03] yeah. No, we are offering two months. was the month of August and September.

[23:06] » Thought it was July. >> No, September, February.

[23:10] » Yeah. Uh so that's the update on that. And then the committee also did talk

[23:17] about April and I had met with um representative of Hong and I'll pass

[23:24] this along if anyone wants to check out the QR code. So they are a company

[23:30] similar to pay mobile but they also offer you can you can just scan the QR

[23:38] code and pay. You don't have to download the app. So you know we do know a lot of

[23:44] people just don't want to download apps. So you can pay that way. Um, so there's

[23:52] they're fairly new, but they do have contracts with several campuses. Like I

[23:58] think they just started at Penn State. Um,

[24:03] I mean, it see

[24:09] that that you would we'd have to add to wherever we're putting it. A thought we

[24:14] had of maybe trying this would be talking to Grain Train because the other

[24:19] thing that they will offer is um 15 minute

[24:26] uh 15 minutes free. So that has always been the issue of

[24:30] Grain Train is that their people are just in and out and they don't like

[24:33] standing at the pay station. So, if we could try this in the Petri lot and get

[24:39] green train to really kind of work with their owners and members on you know

[24:44] what, it's really easy. You don't have to stay in the pay station. You just

[24:48] scan this QR code. And if we could even get them to maybe pay the first 15

[24:55] minutes or I don't know, but we thought that would be a good lot to maybe do a

[25:00] test. >> Is this just this is on top of having

[25:03] park mobile? It's not >> doesn't replace it.

[25:06] » It's just another >> it's um an additional way to pay. Um and

[25:13] then yeah, there's a lot more like I guess you could call it a sponsor

[25:18] opportunity is my understanding. So exact. That's why we thought the Petri

[25:22] would make sense because um individual businesses could opt in to cover a

[25:29] portion of like a park um like one of their customers parks if you will. So

[25:35] like um yeah so and it's they can decide the duration too. But um I think what we

[25:43] kind of chatted about was not many not everybody likes to put Park

[25:49] Mobile or just an app in general on their phone. But if you can just go

[25:53] straight to a website and pay that way then or if you don't have the space on

[25:57] your phone to download another app or whatever like that's that's what this

[26:02] offers. So, it's kind of just another piece of technology to help make it more

[26:08] seamless for people to be able to pay for parking.

[26:11] » Take a picture of your license plate, too. So, you don't have to like enter in

[26:15] your license plate number. You can take a picture of it. It uploads.

[26:18] » Yeah. If you just scan that code, it takes you right to that page.

[26:21] » So, does does downtown do we have to pay for that service to have the QR codes

[26:27] put on? Is that like >> It take a percentage, I'm sure.

[26:30] » There's a station. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's like Mock Park

[26:33] Mobile over the years we've tried to get the payer to pay more and more.

[26:37] Originally, we paid all the credit card fees and we've slowly backed off of that

[26:41] because nobody else does it. >> So, um,

[26:46] so yeah, there there definitely are charges, but

[26:51] they clearly are. I mean, they're much smaller. So, Park Mobile was bought out

[26:57] by Arrive, which is this company that's buying up all of these parking related

[27:02] things. So, it could well be they become part of RI, but as of right now, is a

[27:07] Canadian company. Honk, I get it. Um,

[27:15] so yeah, >> there's a talk with the parking division

[27:19] so they know like this is going to be they're on honk. They're not going to

[27:23] get a ticket randomly because like is that something like the parking meter

[27:27] like have to know about oh they're paying a honk?

[27:31] » Yeah. The ambassadors will have to check park mobile and they'll check the honk

[27:35] to see if it's paid there. Um and then they can run the um license plates. If

[27:42] they don't have their permit then they don't have their permit. But that's

[27:45] » another lay layer of complexity for the parking attendants.

[27:48] » It is. Yeah. >> I was saying thank you.

[27:50] » Yeah. >> Yeah. it. I mean, I think it's it's

[27:54] always worth considering these things, but um and then another thing we

[27:59] discussed is to your point, Becky, is it would have to be the same cost for us as

[28:04] it is for Park Mobile other than why would we want to bring that in? So, we

[28:08] were going to push back on them for that, too. So, it's, you know, why would

[28:12] we why would we need you, if you will, if you you can't even match what we're

[28:16] currently paying. So, >> um so yeah, that's

[28:20] » I mean, I like the idea. I I personally don't like the one station that is there

[28:26] and and I have a permit so that's actually where I park most of the time

[28:29] now. But I mean I can't tell you how many times when I'm walking to my car

[28:33] and stuff that I see people there and they're just like can't figure it out.

[28:37] Yeah. >> No idea what they're doing.

[28:38] » This honk is a little more I think user friendly.

[28:43] » Mobile had something that you could just do a QR code and do that. Like that

[28:47] doesn't make sense to me that they don't at this point have something that you

[28:51] But for me and for a lot of people, they have the app, but you go to so many

[28:55] other towns now and it works with just about everything else. So at least that

[29:00] part is good if you do download the app. But

[29:02] » true. >> I don't get the I don't think you want

[29:05] to pay anymore. For sure. >> The biggest issue with those stations is

[29:08] always that you have to have your license plate number. You didn't know

[29:11] you had to have your license plate number. So there's this like this you

[29:15] get there and it's like back to my car. Like people are putting their credit

[29:19] cards in and they're like trying to and it's not reading it and they're it I

[29:24] mean I watch them. They're not having fun. They're frustrated.

[29:28] » Yes. Just watch them. >> There's nothing I can do.

[29:32] » Take a ticket. >> I'm running late.

[29:35] » So honk you could go longer than 15 minutes. The idea is like you know

[29:40] » you can offer your first 15 minutes free and that goes which I it seems like

[29:44] we've talked to Park Bubble about this as well. Whether that's something we can

[29:48] do or not, I can't remember. But >> the alternative with Park Mobile is to

[29:52] number the spaces, right? And then there's some kind of

[29:56] signage that says remember, you know, >> right?

[29:59] » So then then you're clued in that when you go to the station, you already

[30:03] remembered your number, but that also means tons of signs,

[30:07] » which you could do like I think it's in Quebec or was Montreal. So they still

[30:13] had the poles for the parking meters, but then it had a number on top.

[30:17] » Yeah, that's kind of the alternative. >> So at least people get I mean I guess a

[30:21] little number could be the shape of a parking meter because people think

[30:24] they're cute. >> Well, they have that in Trevor City and

[30:26] they still have the poll, but it's got the number of your spot on.

[30:31] » It's much more user friendly >> than license pl. Yes, that is the crux

[30:37] of I think so many of the issues is like >> probably

[30:40] » some old person they can't see they got the sunlight blasting that screen saying

[30:44] enter your your your license plate number and you're like

[30:49] » there's a couple I help people it's like just flip your card around like

[30:58] » I have what are you gonna do >> we definitely we have seen record

[31:03] numbers in the last month of park rubble juice. So I think part of it is just

[31:08] takes people time to move to new technologies.

[31:13] » Well, and there's there I mean to your point Becky like so many other places

[31:17] are using it. So that's definitely a benefit to Park Mobile. So

[31:21] » um so I mean because you can go use it in Traverse City,

[31:25] you can go park on the beach in Florida. >> I've used it in Colorado.

[31:29] » Yeah. So >> we're going to Canada tomorrow. Maybe

[31:33] I'll find Honking

[31:37] B. >> 15 minutes.

[31:42] » Um, so do you

[31:47] think we should talk to Grand Train about possibly using it? No,

[31:51] » I don't. I just think it's another layer of complexity.

[31:54] » I just got one more question on that, too. So if I go park in the great train

[31:57] parking lot, get the free 15 minutes and then run over to mighty fine.

[32:02] Who? So gray trains going to pay for that?

[32:05] » Well, again, we'd have to work with them whether they where they're going to

[32:09] » Yeah. >> make anybody pay for that 15 minutes.

[32:12] » So it's kind of like our >> it was my understanding that it was kind

[32:16] of like our holiday sponsorship. So like we would partner with Honk and Honk

[32:21] somehow figures out a way that they they know how much to build grain train if

[32:27] you will. So it could be the equivalent could be like if if I if the Perry

[32:33] wanted to sponsor I don't by the way but we wanted to sponsor um the Elks lot or

[32:38] something like that like we could and then we could sponsor the first 15

[32:42] minutes. It it it's just that particular lot we've been getting that feedback

[32:47] especially because we transitioned over to the pay station. So that's why we

[32:51] were targeting that particular lot. >> But it's basically they aggregate all of

[32:56] those 15minute park instances and then build that particular

[33:02] business if they want to sponsor it. So it that's how I understood it. Maybe

[33:07] that's >> I think there was also the ability

[33:12] to somewhat like the

[33:16] store or restaurant to have a code. >> Oh, that was the other thing.

[33:20] » If you wanted if someone came in was a a gas truck customer of yours and you

[33:25] wanted to >> pay for their parking, you could just

[33:28] give them a code and it would >> their their parking would just get built

[33:32] to you for that time. >> Yeah. which is a, you know, that is a

[33:36] nice hospitality thing that would making that easier for people if they wanted to

[33:40] is is a plus. But >> yeah, they stay for five hours and hit

[33:45] you with the bill. >> Yeah. I mean, but it's it's your choice

[33:47] to like do it or not. I mean, same thing. I wouldn't, you know, someone

[33:52] $5 drink. But like,

[33:56] » you know, someone does something else. You could obviously

[33:59] » Yeah. And it was that part to me was like a

[34:05] It it felt like a validating a a parking ticket, you know, like

[34:09] » Yeah. >> So, but there's it's a nice like there

[34:13] was some nice features. >> I like the idea of it. I just think that

[34:17] the timing isn't the best and to add something to one lot that people are

[34:23] already trying to get used to to >> Yeah. So, and so that we can do that

[34:27] » and not have it in all the other lots if they go to some place like it just seems

[34:31] » and every time an attendant checks a space they got to check two systems.

[34:35] » Yeah, it's a lot a lot more. Well, the other part is that we were the

[34:43] parking committee was talking about is is eventually balancing out the ability

[34:48] to get all these meters andor pay stations

[34:53] and what is going to be the easiest for all our our guests of downtown to pay at

[34:58] and do that consistently and it doesn't take thousands of dollars and hours to

[35:03] go collect and maintain. And so can we find a good medium between

[35:10] those things and having a third way to pay I don't think is necessarily the

[35:16] right way if you could pay are there and spark mobile and this but that is coming

[35:21] down the pipeline of like buying more meters and

[35:25] » not being able to get some of the meters that we you know all those types of

[35:28] things. So there will be a transition at some point that we have to be up. I

[35:33] assume we're in regular communication with Park Mobile about the most current

[35:38] » Yeah. >> solutions that they're offering.

[35:40] » Yeah. >> I think they got a pretty good gig that

[35:45] they're like, "Yeah, sure."

[35:50] » Mobile that is collecting stuff. >> All right. Well, we'll hold off on that.

[35:56] Uh then

[36:02] uh says parking, mobility, accessibility. Um so again, marketing

[36:06] and promotions committee didn't have a quorum, but we had a couple members who

[36:10] were there. So we had discussion, a little bit of sales, um sidewalk sales

[36:16] recap. Uh visitor numbers were up. Uh I tried

[36:22] surveying downtown. I got four responses. So the four responses were

[36:27] all quite posit sales were either up or constant. Um

[36:34] people enjoyed the entertainment and as the committee has talked particularly

[36:41] these years when we are don't have a nation to compete with making it more of

[36:47] an event and keeping the streets closed at night maybe having bands at night but

[36:53] maybe also having more bands and entertainment during the day. Um the

[36:59] idea this year had come up on Upper Mitchell just because it's completely

[37:03] dead. The street's dead car show. Something,

[37:07] you know, we probably want it to be kind of a cool car show, not just any old car

[37:11] show, but >> something to fill the street and draw,

[37:14] you know, people. Um so that's the marketing and promotions company's going

[37:20] to look at that some more. Um downtown day is Saturday, September

[37:27] 26th. Uh last year for that we did a

[37:33] architectural elements scavenger hunt. Um this actually is also the day that uh

[37:40] they're doing that October Fest in the alley that's spearheaded by Beards and

[37:46] Fox and Hound. So they're going to close that section of Paskki Street. Um,

[37:52] so for down, so the committee is also talking about things to do for downtown

[37:57] day. One of the surveys that came back on sidewalk sales said that they still

[38:04] get comments about why we don't do Where's Waldo anymore? And it's like

[38:09] » we had Where's Waldo for a long time if I recall. Um, so I thought maybe for

[38:15] downtown day we'd do something Paskki specific and do Where's Young Hemingway

[38:23] and do little paper cutouts of our statue of young he and hide him around

[38:29] downtown. >> I always wondered why Waldo was the

[38:31] Paskki stone >> wasn't a Paski stone.

[38:34] » We're going to do a hunt for something in downtown Paskki. It start I mean that

[38:38] I can tell you the start of the Where's Waldo was Mlan and Aken was able they

[38:42] were doing was a Where's Waldo like 50th Yeah.

[38:47] » anniversary and then everybody loved it so it just kind of kept going.

[38:51] » But other than that, yeah, it should something more local to us.

[38:54] » I mean the number I jump off the boat most days. The number of people that are

[38:58] just down there looking at Possi stones is absurd. like the fact that we don't

[39:03] if we're going to do a hunt, I just think that's something that we should be

[39:07] playing up towards. >> Yeah.

[39:11] » So, and then I also thought, you know, we don't do any

[39:17] um like 5ks. >> So, do we do maybe it's not a 5K, maybe

[39:23] we start small. We do a downtown dash and we do we've never done a run just on

[39:28] the downtown Greenway corridor. So, we just start at point A, go to point B, or

[39:34] we start there, and we go down through the tunnel, through the river valley, up

[39:38] the stair tower, down Michigan Street, and back. I don't I mean, it could be a

[39:41] 2K. I don't know. But >> could be a fun run with your kids,

[39:46] » right? >> Right.

[39:48] » I think Bay Harbor used a paint run.

[39:52] » Oh, yeah. Color run. >> That was YMCA used to do that, too.

[39:57] » My friend says they made running worse.

[40:06] So, so that's not that, but we have it on our event calendar. So, we'll come up

[40:11] with something. It's we have a month for that. Um, and then trick-or- treat

[40:15] actually falls on Halloween this year. We have for trick-or- treat and also for

[40:21] witches night, which is a grandpa shorter sponsored event. Um, the dancing

[40:26] witches are coming for both events. Um, we considered closing the 300 block of

[40:34] Lake for Witches Night, but public safety wasn't thrilled about

[40:39] it. And >> Mark, well, it wasn't the whole

[40:43] committee, but there are pros and cons again to closing the street. I mean, if

[40:48] if we only closed that block and we had the dancing witches on that block, then

[40:52] the other participating businesses on Howard and Mitchell, people may never

[40:56] make it over there. So, we aren't going to close this the streets. I don't know

[41:00] where the witches are going yet for that. But trick or treat, the streets

[41:04] are closed. So, um, Dog Days of Summer, this was also

[41:10] something last year. I don't know if she did it before last year, but last year

[41:13] we lashed on to Dog Days of Summer and we just did dogs on the trolley. This

[41:17] year we did a few more things, but I just found it interesting.

[41:24] um the Facebook reach we have gotten and of course it's like kids and dogs you

[41:28] know I mean people love this stuff but so we had over you I mean almost 40,000

[41:35] Facebook views on this um >> and the interesting is is the vast

[41:41] majority are not our followers. So um you know we we trying to do the

[41:46] scavenger hunt. I'll have I think I'll have to post the

[41:50] QR code. I was trying to be really sneaky and it would be really hard, but

[41:54] it turns out nobody's doing it, so I'll have to make it a little easier. Um,

[41:59] but so that's just we typically had nothing going on in September or nothing

[42:04] going on in August and nothing going on till the end of September. So at least

[42:09] those are um something. So So those have both gone

[42:15] pretty well. Um I've emailed you all about our staff person starting. So, she

[42:21] starts September 14th. So, she'll be here for your September 15th, baby.

[42:27] Um, let's see what else. Oh, I just wanted

[42:31] to show you

[42:39] decided to not

[42:49] ask a quick sidewalk question. >> Yeah. What are what I had one person

[42:55] complain to me and asked that I share the complaint about outside businesses

[42:59] taking up space on the sidewalks. I'm agnostic on the subject, but I just

[43:03] didn't know what barometer we're using now in terms of

[43:06] » So, we did try to get um outside vendors that was the marketing committee again

[43:14] because we have so much empty space on Mitchell and then you know the realtors

[43:18] don't do don't put anything out. So we had the nonprofit, a lot of the

[43:22] nonprofits we tried to get a few other outside vendors

[43:26] that fiat they actually reached out to be but so we charge them $100 which we

[43:34] can review what the fee is but to participate they pay us $100 and so we

[43:41] had uh the vintage clothing store and uh the Fiat which was some event company

[43:49] that reached out to me and I thought it was it add a lot of excitement to that

[43:56] section of our but um I think having outside vendors is a lot better than

[44:02] having >> empty spaces

[44:07] » and yeah >> it's always a balance I think the

[44:09] question >> just a balance and and there is a cost

[44:12] so I mean >> you know

[44:16] » $100 for two days is way more than an assessment do 500

[44:20] » and that could be a way to raise money. I mean a thousand bucks for two days at

[44:23] sidewalk sales is >> right how many how many guests you're

[44:27] how many people are you going to get to see

[44:29] » but the tension is always like are they competitive with an existing downtown

[44:32] retailer right so there there should if we're going to do it there needs to be a

[44:37] clear standard >> that was I mean that is what's been

[44:39] talked about is that if to be non-competing for the most part but

[44:44] » right >> on that day does it even

[44:47] » but it's hard to it doesn't matter I mean I was say with there

[44:51] Dan Webbers used to have a thing right around the corner from us and it only

[44:55] helped us because then more people are coming down looking at winter stuff or

[45:00] whatever >> during the so for two days it's like

[45:06] » I don't care. >> And I thought I had um

[45:12] July visitor numbers 2025 versus 2026 um but it's not in my PowerPoint. Um but

[45:23] uh definitely sidewalk sales number

[45:27] actually Saturday was higher than Sunday or Friday which

[45:32] » isn't usually happen. Um and it was about 2,000 more visitors per day than

[45:39] last year. >> It it felt packed

[45:42] » to me at least. But >> there were record days for us like both

[45:46] bar and above. >> You were very busy. was an absolute zoo

[45:50] at opening on Friday. I thought there was going to be a stampede to

[45:54] » I was like what if

[46:01] » but yeah it was both days were very busy I thought

[46:07] » we did a lot of product so that was good.

[46:10] Yeah, >> Saturday was a slow start, but it then

[46:14] it just kept going and that was amazing, which was really cool for Saturday. I

[46:19] don't know if that was Venetian. I don't know if that people up here

[46:23] » for not having Venetian, but it's great. >> So, next year it's the 30th and 31st of

[46:30] July. >> Yeah. Whatever we did this year, again,

[46:35] » perfect weather. >> Perfect weather. Yeah. All of that. If

[46:39] we can plan for that, that'd be great. >> That'd be great.

[46:45] » Any has anyone happened to do any business?

[46:50] I know it's busy. So, >> unfortunately, I have not done my

[46:55] homework on that. Amy, not gone. And I only have two in my purchase.

[47:03] » Oh, you got my block. You're right. And then I have

[47:07] train and All right.

[47:11] » Either way, my answer still >> sitting on my desk somewhere.

[47:16] » Yep.

[47:19] » And I we might need to be uh more specific for ourselves on that and just

[47:26] say >> we don't think starting in the summer

[47:29] the right time to start. >> That's what I'm saying. It's like

[47:31] » it's if it's always just looming over we should be talking to our people on our

[47:36] block. That's a little bit different than like, hey, we're gonna we do it

[47:40] like this month >> in the fall and spring. It's like here's

[47:43] what's going on. >> It's a little easier

[47:47] often easier to give people constraints and say you got to do it within these

[47:51] than to just leave it wide open. So, and I'm saying that to myself.

[47:56] » Yeah. Well, maybe it's >> Yeah. Maybe it's a you got to hit

[47:59] everybody in April and you got to hit everybody in November type of thing, you

[48:02] know, like it's >> make sure everybody's ready to get going

[48:06] in April and make sure everybody's still alive in November. I don't know.

[48:10] » That's just me talking to myself. So, >> November is a good This is slow timeish.

[48:17] » Yeah. Then you have all this stuff going on. This was Yeah. Well, yeah,

[48:21] » but I'm certainly not a retailer, so maybe that's not the right

[48:24] » Yeah. >> right motive. So

[48:28] » certainly not. >> I think the only downside of doing it in

[48:32] those times is that critical issues will not be at top of mind for me.

[48:36] » True. >> True.

[48:37] » Like so sleepy people are like >> it's slow is people

[48:43] » at least you get to meet the people though.

[48:45] » Sure. >> You know you build on it. It's

[48:48] » still got to first make the contact and show face,

[48:50] » right? It's hard for you to have time and then be like, "Oh, I got time, too."

[48:57] » Yeah. >> I guess something's better than nothing

[49:00] in that whole program. So, >> it's a place to start and get it, like

[49:05] you said, on our calendar side. It's not going to happen for me if I don't have

[49:08] some deadlines of when and how we want to do it. And then

[49:12] » then as we get used to it, then to me, it's something that you grow that you

[49:16] can make. And if they know who you are and there's critical things, then at

[49:19] least they can then reach out to you on your own or on their own say, "Hey, this

[49:24] critical thing happened. I'd like to talk to you at some point." I can make

[49:28] time for that much easier than trying to go see everybody

[49:33] as Mr. business card says block.

[49:41] » We'll get your name. >> Yeah.

[49:44] » Anything? I think we're we don't have any city

[49:50] representatives this evening. So I think >> no action on the vacant properties and

[49:56] government street. >> I haven't heard anything more

[49:59] » negotiations but >> and actually though I got a call from an

[50:04] appraiser is it last week which is my guess is the

[50:08] appraiser that's working on it >> that project. Yeah,

[50:14] » because I think Shane had indicated he said he can't go in the buildings.

[50:19] » He can't. Oh, yeah. No, we can't. Yeah, >> we can't. What?

[50:23] » The appraiser can't go in the building.

[50:27] » Smart. >> The news building for sale. That's kind

[50:30] of >> I think we have some pictures already

[50:34] » of the inside of the building. So, >> the news building.

[50:36] » Oh, the news. >> Yeah. Oh, news. Yes.

[50:39] » Interesting. outside the district that is on the market.

[50:45] » Bring it on in. >> Is that David's building?

[50:49] » Yeah. >> You said anything somewhat.

[50:54] » That's cool. That's a cool

[50:58] » know the downtown market in Grand Rapids.

[51:02] » Yeah. >> If that was like a downtown market, that

[51:04] would be cool. Stalls. >> Oh,

[51:07] » for smaller. We need like something where there's smaller vendors that can

[51:11] like get their foot going and then take over retail spaces and then you'd

[51:16] constantly be >> incubator

[51:21] the pipeline to full store >> like the if the back

[51:27] » trucks of the retail. >> Yeah. Yeah. If the back lots doing that

[51:29] or or you guys have some too like if you're able to start off on a restaurant

[51:35] in the food truck world then like move your way up.

[51:39] » Same thing. >> Stay

[51:45] as long as you can. >> Yeah. Okay. On that note, um is there

[51:51] anything else we want to go over this evening?

[51:56] All right. Being that there's nothing else to come before this board, I'll

[52:00] call us to journ. Thank you everybody.

DMB Meeting - 08.18.26

Transcript