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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-04-13 ACE MINUTES• • • I. ALLIANCE FOR COMMERCE IN ENGLEWOOD April 13, 2006 CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Alliance for Commerce in Englewood (ACE) was called to order at 11 :40 a.m. in the City Council Conference Room of the Englewood Civic Center, Vice Chair Schalk presiding. Present: Absent: Schalk, Vasilas, McDermott, Guinther Longborg (excused) Panetta (excused) Verbeck (unexcused) Also present: Jim Woodward, City Council Representative Katie Mendel, Chamber Representative Staff present: Darren Hollingsworth, Economic Development Coordinator APPROVAL OF MINUTES March 9, 2006 Vice Chair Schalk stated that the Minutes of March 9, 2006 were to be considered for approval. Vasilas moved: McDermott seconded: The Minutes of March 9, 2006 be approved as written. The motion carried unanimously. 11. ACE BUSINESS BID UPDATE Mr. Vasilas stated the petitions have gone out. As of last Tuesday approximately 30% of the signatures needed in the BID area have been obtained. At least another 25% is needed before meeting with the City and moving forward w ith the election in November. Mr. Schalk asked if there were problems with any merchants. Mr. Vasilas stated a lot of people procrastinate. Mr. Vasilas asked that the petition not be left for an owner, rather meet with the owner and try to convince him to sign at that time. Ms. Guinther asked for clarification on who can sign the petition. Mr. Vasilas stated it is both property owners and business owners. He also stated if a business is not in the district a business can voluntarily sign up, but those signatures will .not count toward the election. Help i s needed to sign up Mr. Weigang, who ow ns the Catho li c Store and the Ouray Sportswear building and the owner 1 • • • of Funtastic Fun also needs to be contacted. Mr. Schalk said he would contact the owner of Funtastic Fun. Mr. Vasilas reminded everyone the deadline for signing the petition is May 5th. Ms. McDermott asked if doing a phone bank for a few hours would help. Mr. Vasilas stated a meeting will be held on April 25th and at that time the total count will be known. After that, a meeting between ACE and the BID Committee will occur and if more signatures are needed, the best way to obtain them will be determined. Ms. McDermott suggested the date of that meeting be set today. After discussion, it was decided the meeting will be held at 1 :00 on April 27th at Colonial Bank. Mr. Hollingsworth noted the BID Steering Committee is very active. Ms. McDermott asked if ACE could notify the Steering Committee of their upcoming meetings. Mr. Vasilas stated he would send all members of the Committee an email detailing what was discussed today and regarding the meetings on the 25th and 27th_ Mr. Hollingsworth again noted the deadline for the petition is May 5th. A total of 50% of area and 50% of value are needed for City Council to consider the BID. He stated updated BID information, including the newsletter and operating plan, will be placed on the website next week. He also noted staff has extra copies of the newsletter if ACE would like them. Mr. Vasilas asked for volunteers to meet with Mr. Weigang to discuss the BID. It was determined Beth Minnick, who is a member of the Steering Committee, Mr. Vasilas and Mr. Hollingsworth will meet with Mr. Weigang. Mr. Vasilas stated the BID has an appointment on the 19th of April with Kaiser Permanente. If several of the big properties sign, the BID will have enough signatures to proceed. OLD TOWN ENGLEWOOD MERCHANT'S EVENT (9/9/06) Ms. Mendel stated Old Town Englewood held last year's car show and planned to hold the car show again this year on September 9 111 • She stated that Laurett Barrentine, who is on the City Council, obtained approval to close down two blocks of Broadway on Saturday, September gth for the event. Mr. Vasilas said his customers will be very upset if parts of Broadway are closed down on a Saturday. Mr. Woodward stated he had not heard approval had been given. Ms. Mendel said Ms. Barrentine told her she met with Mr. Rick Kahm of Public Works. Mr. Woodward said he believes it's much bigger than just Public Works. There is Safety Services and other issues. He stated he did not believe it was approved just yet. Ms. Mendel stated there were definitely people at the meeting who were skeptical of closing Broadway, but Ms. Barrentine attended a BID meeting and stated she had approval. Discussion ensued regarding the closure. Mr. Hollingsworth noted there was a good discussion recently at a Merchant's Association meeting regarding the car show. The merchants are working with Positively Englewood to help with this year's car show. Last year's show was overwhelming financially and in terms of time for the Merchant's. The merchants needed another resource to help them. They discussed holding an event such as Englewood Days, an historic event held years ago. At that time, there was discussion about closing Broadway. A Council request came forward 2 • • • from Councilmember Tomasso to look at the use of one of the walk-throughs in the middle of the block to be used once a week for music concerts. Staff has put together a response for Council along those lines. Mr. Hollingsworth stated maybe there is a Council discussion and decision that needs to be made on how the City uses its public resources, such as Broadway and the walk -through space. There might be an opportunity to have a Study Session with Council and the Old Town Merchant's Association to see just what their ideas are. Staff cannot make a decision about closing Broadway or the use of other public resources. There needs to be Council discussion, preferably in a Study Session to hav e council members provide staff with direction on which way to go. Mr. Schalk asked if the festivities need to be attached to the Broadway/Old Town area or could it be moved to the CityCenter event area. Mr . Hollingsworth stated there have been several large-scale events held in that area. Mr. Schalk felt that is the logical place for a large-scale event as there is plenty of parking. Ms. Mendel said she believed the merchants wanted to keep it on Broadway. Ms . McDermott wanted to know why this year's event could not be held in the same location as last year's car show. Mr. Hollingsworth said based on the discussion the Merchant's had last week, there was interest in doing an outside concert not in the walk-through , but a street dance on Broadway. They wanted a big festival. The area of last year's car show is not large enough. Comparisons have been made between Littleton Boulevard and Broadway. While there may be some similarities, Broadway does not function like Main Street in Littleton from a traffic flow standpoint. Mr. Hollingsworth said it may be something that Council needs to discuss . Mr . Woodward stated that discussion has not yet come up to Council. Mr. Schalk stated he felt there is limited support for the car show this year from the merchants due to the fact last year's show did not benefit them as much as they had hoped. Ms. Mendel noted a car show is a specialized event and the people who attended w e re not there to shop. It was strictly for entertainment. Adding that to a bigger event is hopefully a way to help the merchants . Mr . Vasilas noted that the temperature during last year's car show was over 100 degrees. People were not comfortable walking around. Holding the car show in September hopefully will make a difference as it should be cooler at that time of year. Also, signs need to be made to direct people to park on the west side of Broadway. Holding the car show on the east side will force people to walk along Broadway to reach the show. Ms. McDermott suggested a feeder street be closed down. They are less critical streets to close down and it would force people onto Broadway to get to either side of the event. Mr. Vasilas agreed . He said another meeting with the merchant's is needed to clarify what it is they want. Mr . Vasilas asked for an update regarding the insurance needed for the car show. The cost of the insurance is approximately $1,000 if purchased for a one-day event. Mr. Schalk stated he has the capability to cover such an event, but wants to feel like ACE is doing something everybody wants to do. Mr. Vasilas asked if he agreed with closing Broadway for the event. He said he thinks closing Broadway without an event is not a good idea. Last year's car show was a fun event, but doesn't sound like the goal was achieved. Mr. Vasilas asked Mr. Schalk if Broadway was not closed, would he provide the insurance. He stated he would. 3 • • • MERCHANT TRAINING -WEBSITE Mr. Hollingsworth referred the Commissioners to a memo that was included in their packet. He stated staff and the Chamber have been eager to do a training event. Staff met with a company that is interested in doing a training course with Englewood merchants. The only costs involved would be for coffee and donuts, printing of materials and advertising. Total cost sho uld be no more than $300 -$500. The free seminar would consist of how to get business up on the web for the first time and for those that are on the web how to make their site more effective. Mr. Hollingsworth asked the ACE members for comments before staff proceeds further with the offer of the free seminar. Ms . McDermott stated she thought it sounded great. Mr. Hollingsworth said he tried to caution the company against se llin g their services . Ms. McDermott asked how many people attended last year's seminar. Mr. Hollingsworth said approximately twelve merchants attended the South Metro Small Business Development Seminar held in 2005. The topic at that seminar was marketing. Mr. Schalk suggested the goal of the seminar be that each merchant walk away with a template. If the merchants have the template they may entertain some of the company's other id eas. The company will make their money helping the merchants build from that small one page ad. His feelings are that having just a discussion regardin g web pages is not enough. Mr. Hollingsworth stated he has had several phone calls rec ently from merchants wanting to know how to set up a web presence . In the past, those calls have been referred to ACC for information regarding their web classes. This might give Englewood businesses that have expressed an interest in the web a free seminar in which to do so. Mr. Hollingsworth asked Ms. Mendel if the free seminar would be something the Chamber would lik e to work on with staff. She stated it wo uld be. Ms. McDermott also offered her help. Mr. Hollingsworth noted the company has worked to update several Englewood business web sites already, one being A & A Trading Post. Mr. Hollingsworth thanked the members for their input. Ill. COMMENTS & EVENTS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Ms. Mendel stated the April Coffee with the Chamber gatheri n g will be on the 25th at Mile High Coffee. Metro Community Provider Network is hostin g a breakfast at th e ir administrative office on Broadway on May 16 1 ". Tyrone Braxton will be the guest speaker. Invites will be sent out soon. The Chamber golf tournament is July 1 t" at Pinehurst Country Club. Carl Mecklenberg will be attending that event. There has be en a good response to the free advertising being offered on the Chamber w eb site. Work is currently being done on the Chamber web site in order for the Chamber to maintain it themselves. 4 • • • ACE MEMBERS Ms. McDermott congratu lat ed Katie Mendel on her promotion at the Chamber. She thanked the members for their confidence in electin g her Chairman for another year. STAFF COMMENTS There were no further comments. No further business was brought forth for conside ration . The meeting was ad journ ed at 12:35 p.m. Barbara l<recklow, Recor ing Secretary 5 • UPCOMING ITEMS • Follow-up with Chamber of Commerce on Merchant Training Program • BID Update • 2006 Action Items • • 6